GTR, Ready — AIM — Inspire
Written by John C.
The Alternative Investment Management Summit (AIM) was held for the second time at 10 Trinity Square in London. 10 Trinity Square has been a strategic location for trade and economic activity going back as far as the Roman trade routes, and solidified its place as a hub of economic activity in modern times with the building of the Port of London headquarters in 1922. Currently, the building is used as a hotel which overlooks Tower bridge and the Tower of London, making it a prime location for the meeting of like minded academics, investors and business leaders alike.
Day one of AIM was heavily focused on the global Macro economic situation that has been grabbing the headlines and has potential repercussions for us all. The first topic centred around the Economic Decoupling of the US and China, where Stephen Roach (Senior Fellow Paul Tsai China Centre of the Yale Law School) argued that with the previous US administration effectively inciting a trade war with China, the stance of the current administration has followed suit. This stance is fundamentally based around political reasons and not sound economics and has driven China to seek and accelerate different economic relationships globally, which weakens the global economic strength of the US. An example of this has played out with the strengthening of Russian and Chinese relations, which seek to avoid US economic sanctions.
This position has also lead to the strengthening of the BRICS nations relationships and the beginnings of a secondary option to sell oil away from the US dollar. As a result, this has left the US government in a weaker global position as its use of economic sanctions to impose its influence on the world, has become less effective.
Dr Lawrence H Summers (Former US secretary of the treasury), then discussed how hard the economic landing could be. The Fed has to work towards bringing down inflation but at what cost? The balance between the job markets, productivity, risk of recession along with the demands of the political establishment is no enviable task.
The aim is always for a soft landing. However, until the levers are pulled and work their way through the system, no amount of modelling can accurately predict the final outcome.
Day two was centred and focused more around blockchain technology and the future of cryptocurrencies. The focus of the first discussion was around emergence from the crypto winter. When David Mercer (CEO of LMAX Group) was asked directly by a Bloomberg reporter if he regretted entering Crypto, his response was undeniably no.
LMAX has seen consistent and significant growth from offering a platform that allows funds to diversify into crypto markets. No other area of LMAX grew at the same rate as their cryptocurrency platform, meaning that this is the next market to offer significant upside. Interestingly, with the fall of FTX, LMAX was rigorously tested by depositors who withdrew all of their funds, waited and then later re-deposited to test the integrity of the platform. This was a significant and necessary test that David was pleased the platform passed.
The question still remained as to whether we had now emerged from the crypto winter. David believes that with the testing of the market and with the fall of bad players, we are now beginning to see the first signs of spring emerging. Summer, nevertheless, is still some time away.
Another interesting subject revolves around the tokenisation of real world assets. High value assets are currently only available through private investment firms or by being purchased by high net worth individuals. The tokenisation of this system has the potential to democratise the purchase of these assets by holding a token on the blockchain. Such a scenario would serve to provide immutable proof that the asset is held by the investor and can then be used as collateral for a loan, with the token being the security collected by the lender if a default occurs.
Bitcoin mining and energy usage then took the conversation towards a more sustainable approach to blockchain technology. Bitcoin has been demonised in the past for the energy it requires for mining and maintaining the network. The focus from the mining community (especially in the US) has been getting their sites to net zero carbon emissions, which has been done through the use of green technologies that have in turn resulted in demand and innovation from green energy manufacturers, driving the green economy in the US. The question also arose as to efficiency of servers and their use case after the last Bitcoin is mined. With Data storage and low latency being the future of modern networks, Bitcoin mining sites can easily be adapted in the future to provide the infrastructure needed for an ever more digital world.
Regulatory structures and trust was the next topic, where discussions centred around how blockchain technology was built to be trustless. Unfortunately, the human element of many companies has created a narrative that crypto is inherently a scam, and with the headlines constantly driving the story of the bad actors and losses, rather than the fundamental benefits of the technology itself. Crypto requires more upstanding businesses that are ethical and accountable to drive mass adoption. This was best summed up with the statement “more suits and less hoodies.”
With regards to regulations, it became clear that frameworks are beginning to emerge in most countries. Ijeoma Okoli (Director, Digital Economy Initiative) explained that the technology is here to stay and the leaders of the industry should help regulator’s understand the tech, while building appropriate frameworks. This will help create more trust in the system and drive mass adoption in the future.
During the two days, the team also sought out and engaged with other delegates for potential partnerships and networking opportunities. There were a wide variety of academic’s, VC investors, private investors, business owners and other company representatives, all willing to share their experiences and listen to ours. We came across Index fund managers, liquidity providers, CEO’s of exchanges, software / security providers and individuals, who were at the forefront of integration of blockchain technology into traditional financial systems. All were willing to listen to what GTR had to offer and we reciprocated in listening to them.
One insight from a conversation we had was how far along the traditional system was in its implementation of blockchain technology. Every institution is actively pursuing blockchain integration, they just aren’t publicly disclosing their intentions. This is a huge step towards transparency of financial markets and mass adoption of the technology.
So what does this all mean for GTR?
The founding principles of GTR were focused around two main core beliefs. To allow individuals to take control of their financial futures and offer every individual access to an elite financial tool that allow’s them to prosper.
It became very apparent that GTR offers a unique and bespoke experience in the market by providing the best of the traditional market, and combining it with the very best of blockchain technology. Very much like Tower Bridge, which was built to connect commerce and trade across the Thames, GTR Bridges the Divide between the modern and traditional finance markets. AIM provides a wealth of insight and knowledge, on both the traditional and crypto financial markets. This is especially useful to GTR as we bridge both worlds.
Although GTR is still a growing fund, we should be incredibly proud as a community of the progress we have made since the company’s inception.
We were offering a bespoke tool in a room filled with experts in the field. As our fund increases and our longevity is proven, the AIM Summit will have given us access to knowledge, tools and contacts to further GTR’s reach into the future.
When we return, our fund could very well have grown from $2.2M to $10M, further increasing our ability to stand up and be counted among the other established companies in the room.
Like Blockchain technology itself, GTR is here to stay and prides itself on its commitment to its contributors. Thank you to each and every one of you for your continued support.
If you would like to join us or research our unique project then please visit the links below
Ghost Trader website, or join us either on Telegram or Discord, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn, and be sure to check out the podcast found here.
GTR — Bridging the Divide
