Koine, an institutional custody and settlement service for both fiat and digital assets, has appointed Hugh Hughes as Chairman and CEO.
Hughes was previously CEO of Societe Generale Securities in London. Prior to that, Hughes built stockbroking businesses in London, according to a release from the firm.
In 2005, he co-founded Fixnetix, a Fintech that launched a low-latency network connected globally to trading venues.
As Chairman and CEO at Finetix, Hughes secured institutional and HNWI investors to fund the growth of the company, grew the company to 140 employees, with offices in UK, USA, and Japan and gained patent protection for its on-chip technology innovation.
In 2016, Fixnetix was sold for approximately USD $100 million.
Hughes issued a statement saying he is highly impressed with Koine’s vision of a segregated, institutional custodian of digital assets.
“I look forward to engaging with clients, investors, commercial partners and regulators. Together we will build a superb client offering, with significant purpose and value.”
Koine is expected to officially launch in Q2 2019. Koine says it will be offering support for both securities and initial coin offerings. Koine is an EMD Agent (a firm that can act on behalf of another firm) of PayrNet, an Electronic Money Institution authorised by the FCA.