Commerzbank, Credit Suisse and UBS carried out the first transactions on Deutsche Boerse and HQLAX’s distributed ledger technology-enabled (DLT) security lending platform. According to a Deutsche Boerse press release on Dec. 3, the company jointly developed the platform with fintech firm HQLAX, which was launched by R3 and uses Corda DLT technology to provide liquidity and collateral management products. The platform was able to swap ownership of a basket of German government bonds and a basket of corporate bonds between UBS and Commerzbank while employing Clearstream Banking as a custodian. It also conducted a cross-custodian swap between UBS and Credit …

Mike Novogratz's crypto investment bank Galaxy Digital hired a former exec at crypto trading giant Cumberland as head of global sales. According to an internal notice to Galaxy Digital’s counterparties, Wall Street veteran David Gross joined the company, crypto media outlet The Block reports Aug. 6. In his new position, Gross will be working on boosting sales in three units of Galaxy’s business, and will be reporting to president Chris Ferraro, per the report. 15 years at Credit Suisse and Lehman Brothers Before joining Galaxy Digital, David Gross served as global head of relationship management at Cumberland, the Chicago-based cryptocurrency …

Head of digital market assets at Credit Suisse, Emmanuel Aidoo, said that the desire among financiers to maintain the status quo is holding back the adoption of blockchain technology, Business Insider reported on April 23. In an interview with Business Insider, Aidoo said that banks’ unwillingness to adopt blockchain lies in culture within banks, and has nothing to do with the technology’s immaturity or a lack of potential use cases within financial organizations. Aidoo said: "What is preventing the banking industry from rushing into it? I think it's mostly culture. I think the tipping point is about having an entrepreneurial …

Global investment bank Credit Suisse and Portuguese Banco Best have completed end-to-end fund transactions on blockchain, according to a press release published Feb. 7. The financial institutions have reportedly processed every part of the fund trade process by implementing a blockchain-based decentralized platform, FundsDLT. Designed to improve the efficiency of fund transaction processing with the use of blockchain and smart contracts, FundsDLT would purportedly reduce the time between request and the settlement from delivery of the order to trade processing. Within the initiative, Lisbon-based Banco Best — specializing in banking, asset management and trading — was responsible for the Application …

Crypto markets have taken a vertiginous plunge today, August 4, with Bitcoin (BTC) losing almost $500 in the six hours before press time to dip below $7,000, and all of the top ten cryptocurrencies by market cap in the red, as data from Coin360 shows. Market visualization from Coin360 Bitcoin (BTC) is trading around $7,028 to press time, having lost almost $500 on the day to plummet to a price point not seen since July 17. The leading cryptocurrency has seen an intra-day low of $6980, with some crypto analysts today noting that $6,800 has become its short-term critical support …

August 1: Crypto assets have seen a second day of losses, with Bitcoin (BTC) now well below the $8,000 psychological price point and most of the major crypto assets in the red, according to data from Coin360. Market visualization from Coin360 Bitcoin (BTC) is trading around $7,490 to press time, having lost almost 3 percent on the day. Since the coin’s July 25 peak at $8,431, the leading cryptocurrency dipped down below $8,000 yesterday for the third time this week. The coin saw another sharp drop this morning, before trading sideways. Bitcoin’s 7-day price chart. Source: Cointelegraph Bitcoin Price Index …

Multinational investment bank Morgan Stanley has hired a self-described crypto trading expert and 12-year veteran of Credit Suisse as its new head of digital asset markets, eFinancialCareers reported July 31. The new appointment, Andrew Peel, spent his last three years at Credit Suisse as vice president of sales and trading innovation, in which role he acted as “trading subject matter expert for Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies” according to his LinkedIn profile. His page also includes an independent position as “advocate of crypto markets” as of June 2013. Nabbing a crypto enthusiast for its team aligns with Morgan Stanley’s evolving stance towards …