The digital asset management revolution is coming to Asia and fund managers along with regulators are gearing up quite rapidly to meet it, according to Pascal St. Jean, president and chief executive officer of Canada’s 3iQ Digital Asset Management.
He downplays concerns that artificial intelligence and the digital revolution could endanger financial stability rather than simply provoke disruption.
“Right now, in Japan, this feels like North America – the way that regulation is evolving in a positive way,” the pioneering financier cum techno-entrepreneur says in an interview with Asia Asset Management in Tokyo.
He concedes there will be greater volatility in financial markets in future, but argues that the greater transparency that AI and crypto products will bring means that market corrections will occur faster and more efficiently.
“What I’m seeing now is very similar to what I’ve witnessed in my career of disruptive technology,” he says. “AI is what’s happening now but it’s not taking over the world anytime soon. It’s going to take time.”
A pioneer
Toronto, Ontario-based 3iQ is a pioneer in institutional grade digital asset investments, and the first digital asset fund manager in Canada. It was the first firm to launch a bitcoin exchange-traded fund on a major stock exchange.
Founded in 2012, the firm specialises in introducing crypto products to asset management and other financial firms, and integrating these products with traditional activities to cater to a rapidly changing financial environment.
It has launched the Global Cryptoasset Fund, one of the first funds offering a diversified portfolio of multiple crypto assets, and QMAP, the first digital assets managed account platform.
It also introduced the world’s first ethereum staking ETF, and launched one of the first solana staking ETFs.
Cryptos in Japan
According to St. Jean, Japanese institutions are showing strong interest in crypto assets. “All the trust banks and major asset managers have digital teams and are talking to us,” he says.
He observes that demand for crypto products is spreading beyond such institutions.
“You have people who are more on the traditional side – advisers and brokers and banks who want access to crypto. Banks are saying that crypto exchanges can’t do some services that we do, and the crypto exchanges are saying it should be a level playing field. If we have customers and we get a proper banking licence, why can’t we offer these services?”
St. Jean says 3iQ has grown and metamorphosed since its founding.
“Today everything runs on digital. People look at the current snapshot and make a future judgement call on what it does today instead of extrapolating what it’s going to do tomorrow.”
In January, Netherlands-based Coincheck Group, the holding company of Coincheck, Inc, one of Japan’s leading crypto asset exchanges, announced a stock purchase agreement with its majority shareholder, Tokyo-headquartered Monex Group Inc, to acquire about 97% of 3iQ.
