2021 in Review — From the Founder’s Desk
See the full 2021 in Review here: https://bit.ly/3EXfgFq
From the Founder’s Desk
2021 was another bullish year for the digital assets industry. Many coins and tokens reached their all-time highs on the back of sophisticated Layer 1 protocols supporting an explosion of innovative DeFi applications attracting sizable investments from financial institutions, VC funds, corporations, HNWIs, and the broader digital assets ecosystem. It was also the year of the NFT revolution with markets generating over $23 billion in trading volume, fuelled by high-profile releases such as BAYC and its mutant offspring, Beeple’s Everydays: The First 5000 Days, NBA Top Shots, the revival of the OG CryptoPunks on the secondary market, and mainstream brands and celebrities like Sotheby’s, Nike, Adidas, Atari, Shaquille O’Neal and Snoop Dogg stepping into the metaverse.
At Hex Trust, the past 12 months have been an exciting and wild ride. We closed two fundraising rounds, welcoming a broad range of top-notch global investors as some of our closest partners. Our client base now totals more than 170 customers who all count on Hex Trust to safekeep over $5 billion in assets under custody. And the team that made it all happen increased with 70 new staff across our Hong Kong, Singapore, and Vietnam offices.
As large traditional VCs get more comfortable with investing in digital assets, 2022 could be the year that more investors with even deeper-pockets fill up their bags. Regulations will come into effect that limit the industry, while other jurisdictions will provide increased clarity and support in a bid to attract digital asset companies and emerge as the next global financial centre. Any moves by additional countries to adopt cryptocurrency as legal tender will only gain the momentum of traditional finance integrating with the digital assets ecosystem. Lastly, the utility for NFTs will extend further across GameFi projects launched in the metaverse and DeFi applications as, for example, representations of financial positions in smart contracts which then become transferable and available for trading on NFT marketplaces.
All in all, 2021 was a pivotal year made possible by our friends, partners, and clients, and I look forward to making 2022 even bigger, together. Not just for Hex Trust, but the entire digital assets ecosystem as a whole. It truly is a collective effort and it’s a privilege to be part of this revolution.
Alessio Quaglini, CEO & Co-founder
