The Forex Person of the year 2016 is Richard Olsen, founder and CEO of Lykke and co-founder of Oanda.

Olsen developed a blockchain-based P2P zero-commission trading platform at Lykke, a Swiss fintech startup founded in 2014. In words of its founder, “I wanted to turn Lykke into a model marketplace that should be inspirational for everyone.”

Startups, like the one that Olsen created, are transforming the conventional model of banks. We are facing a transition where banks are going to have less relevance in terms of establishing commissions.

This year, Richard Olsen launched at Lykke the cryptocurrency Wallet for iOS Devices. Some of its remarkable features are tracking asset prices in real time, BTC and colored coins, transaction history and blockchain details at a glimpse and depositing bitcoins via QR code with no fees commission.

His reaction when we told him that he won the Forex Person of the Year 2016 was: “This is great news. I am thrilled; you endorse my commitment to turn financial markets into a level playing field with equal access for everyone. Individual traders, financial institutions and economy as a whole flourish from rapidly growing transaction volumes and increased liquidity thanks to improved technology and transparency Thank you for selecting me as the Forex Person of the year 2016”.

Richard Olsen is a precedent to award, as he contributed to innovation, transparency and quality in Forex markets and that’s why we have chosen him as the Forex Person of the Year.

Also, he has sent us a short video about the award and the future of Forex industry. Click play to watch it:

FXStreet’s Forex Person of the Year is a title that pays tribute to a person or a team of people behind a product or service that positively contributed to make the Forex world better, more respected and more transparent during the previous year. The focus is innovation, transparency and quality. The award exists since 2011.

2015: Martin Armstrong

2014: Adam Button from ForexLive

2013: Laith Marmarchi and Nicole Elliott from ForexTradingTV

2012: Andrey Pavlov and Ilya Holeu from Spotware Systems

2011: Michael Greenberg from ForexMagnates