Swiss blockchain startup Lykke is applying for a UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) license for a multilateral trading facility (MTF), and to assist with its FCA application it has opened an office in the City of London. It has selected Demetrios Zamboglou as its Chief Business Development Officer to head the new office and lead ongoing development of its crypto-marketplace business model.

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Mr. Zamboglou is a FX and CFD veteran with over a decade’s experience in trading, risk management and operations, having worked at senior positions at Alpari (UK), ForexClub, ForexTime and setting up his own FX brokerage zebraFX in 2012, and then selling the business in 2015.

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He is also completing his PhD in Behavioural Finance (the study of mass behaviour on markets) at King’s College London – studying the relative behavioural differences of different market participants as part of a broader trading population.

Demetrios Zamboglou said: “Joining Lykke more like joining a movement rather than a business. We want to change the world — and it all starts with establishing genuine independence and autonomy for our users. Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) is the way forward and I can’t wait to get started. After spending several years in the financial sector, I am now keen implement my expertise in developing a sophisticated way of digitising assets, exchanging goods or services and preserving the value of people’s money” he added.

Dual licenses

Lykke MTFUK expects to see its FCA MTF status confirmed in the near future, while Lykke’s Zug-based parent company Lykke AG is conducting a parallel application with the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC).

If Lykke’s dual applications are successful, it will offer trading services for a range of instruments executed through its proprietary marketplace, in both London and Cyprus.

Lykke’s explains its major selling-point and differentiator is better security and a higher level of accountability, made capable by cryptography, DLT and an open-source approach to the typically closed-loop systems that dominate financial services transactions today.