Bitcoin Startup Adds Former Barclays Chief Antony Jenkins

By Telis Demos

One of Europe’s most prominent former bankers is joining a bitcoin startup.

Antony Jenkins, the ex-chief executive of Barclays PLC, said he has joined the board of directors of Blockchain, a London-based startup that provides services related to bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. The company, named after the basic technology that creates the shared network used to move and track bitcoin, raised $30 million in an initial fundraising in 2014.

The startup offers software that has been used by other bitcoin firms, such as Coinbase Inc., as well as its own app and website service for consumers to buy and sell digital currency. It is also developing tools for using bitcoin’s underlying technology for things like tracking identity information or trading other assets.

On the board, Mr. Jenkins joins the firm’s co-founders, Chief Executive Peter Smith and President Nick Cary, along with venture capitalist Jeremy Liew of Lightspeed Venture Partners—one of the earliest backers of Snap Inc.—and Michael Jackson, the former operating chief of Skype.

The move to add a former banker is notable for Blockchain, which says it remains committed to bitcoin and digital currency for their own sake as potential alternatives to traditional services. Mr. Smith said Blockchain is on pace to do some $50 billion worth of transactions this year, with about a third of it coming from institutions.

Meanwhile, early digital currency rivals such as Circle Internet Financial Ltd. and TradeBlock, which launched Axoni, have shifted toward applications that use digital currency in the background, to facilitate things like traditional currency transfers or to take costs out of banking activities such as trading and settlement.

Mr. Jenkins joins other ex-bank heads on boards of fintech firms, including ex- Morgan Stanley head John Mack at LendingClub Corp, and former Deutsche Bank AG CEO Anshu Jain, who is set to join online lending firm Social Finance Inc.

Mr. Jenkins has famously said banking will be facing a disruptive “Uber moment.” He recently started a financial-technology firm, 10X Future Technologies, that is working on ways for nonbank firms to offer digital financial services. He is also chairman of Currencies Direct Ltd., which competes with traditional players in foreign-exchange trading.

“You’ll see more economic pressure building up in the [banking] industry,” Mr. Jenkins said. “There is going to be massive transformation, and it is going to be unpredictable.”

Via;http://www.wsj.com/articles/bitcoin-startup-adds-former-barclays-chief-antony-jenkins-1481581285

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