Ex-Wall Street banker named CEO of new bitcoin trade settlement firm

Veteran trader Blythe Masters, the original creator of credit default swaps, is to take the reins at fledgling company Digital Assets.

Masters, a well respected Wall Street figure, is known as an experienced financial innovator and previously held an executive position at JPMorgan. Her appointment gives an aura of credibility to an emerging industry that has struggled with issues relating to trust, transparency and connectedness with the wider financial system.

Digital Assets aims to bridge this gap by handing the settlements for digitally created financial assets and digital currencies using a sophisticated settlement platform that is reassuringly familiar to conventional traders. While bitcoin can’t be traded directly as a digital asset, once the price negotiations and trade execution have been arranged by the client, Digital Assets can legally compete the settlement according to the agreed terms.

As Masters puts it, the blockchain technology that underpins bitcoin will be used to breathe new life into the old centralised finance model, “but it would also retain the audit trails, credit limits and other checks and balances that help secure that traditional system.”

Masters also believes that digital currencies will eventually enter the mainstream, to be used for financial assets such as private equities and business loans.

Digital Assets launches today in New York.

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