Exclusive Interview with LEDGERPRIME CIO Shiliang Tang | KBW2023

as a bit of a background Ledger Prime was a multi strategy hedge fund we were actually acquired by FTX Alam um and so we're actually no longer active but my new firm is AR Bellos markets we're a principal trading firm focused on bilateral like OTC derivatives uh servic institutions I think one thing that we will set ourselves apart from competitors is uh in a FTX world all of counter parties demand a new form of doing business especially around trading that involves transparency and so we're we're going to um offer a new kind of product that will offer unlimited um transparency to our counterparties to build a trust um to service this new age of institutional uh [Music] counterparties for us it's more about providing liquidity to the market well we're not a venture firm it's not about you know just pure price going up I think as the space becomes more institutionalized if you look at traditional asset classes it's not just about um Shilling or pumping token prices right it's about offering kind of Structured Products um and servicing like the bespoke needs of Institutions which could involve hedging which could involve yield so institutions aren't just they don't just care about the price right they care about a lot of things that they um need for their businesses and so I think as an Institutional liquidity provider those are like the things that we're focused on you know people generalize the space a lot right I think that's the wrong approach right I think yes there's a lot of tokens and projects that are absolutely too risky for Pension funds or traditional Capital but I think as Bitcoin or ethereum and other layer ones over time have demonstrated they're very stable and safe over the longer term um I mean Bitcoin has been around now for you know more than 14 15 years almost right it's demonstrated a bit of the grow over time more users know Network ethereum as well so I think people generalize the host space overall but if you look at what's what's stood at the time test of time there are a lot of assets that I would deem as very very institutional um and there will be many more assets like that over time in this space we're definitely not you know marketing very very publicly to retail I think like traditional Finance right um it's more about like relationships um working like together with a client from like an educational perspective to understand their needs structural products that CER to what they need like to miners they need perhaps credit or or Hedges or yield to foundations they need to generate consistent cash flow to macro funds you know maybe they want more upside exposure um so understanding what the institutional players of the space needs allows us to basically working hand inand with them to provide the products um across you know the the counter parties in the states yeah I think uh that's a good question I think um one is just transparency right I think given that's happened in the past year and a half in this space and the lack of transparency a lot of trust uh has to be broken right uh and so when you talk to institutions about the next iteration of infrastructure uh or funds or platforms what they really focus on is is trust right so we're getting asked a lot more about like Tri party repo uh about like sub managed accounts they want to control partially uh where the funds are sitting and how like settlement um um and more importantly just transparency of the assets um so I think one is it's definitely just a lot more transparency for the counterparties and I think crypto and blockchain in general that's kind of like the value that we can provide versus traditional like settlement and clearing like uh rules right and and rails so I think we should lean into that you know as industry um and build these tools to offer the next generation of institutional products and firms I think a lot of it is is just education right I think there's been a heavy heavy focus on just you know retail Etc in the space uh we're focused on the price action we're focused on just a lot of like short-term um Euphoria in the space whereas that's not how pensions or you know long-term funds necessarily think and I think as a space grows and it starts to attract that type of capital um with more regulatory Clarity with ETF being approved that will change and I think as institutional Traders uh investors you know it's kind of our duty um to bridge that Gap and and fill that Gap and push the industry forward towards that direction um as the space matures