First Digital Trust (FDT), based in Hong Kong, announced that it had received an investment of $3 million from Taiwanese venture studio company Nogle. The funding will support FDT’s offering to launch in May, including the Rapid Settlement and Clearing Network (RSCN), an institutionally oriented trading platform for the Asia region.

“A lot of the funding will be deployed to building out the First Digital Trust tech stack,” First Digital Chief Operating Officer Gunnar Jaerv said. “We are also deploying capital into compliance building for financial services that, not only meet our global clientele requirements but also worldwide regulatory standards.”

FDT began as a digital asset subsidiary for Legacy Trust, a major Asian trust and custody firm, but spun out in September 2018.

When it unveiled plans for the RSCN in February, FDT said its settlement layer would provide the Silvergate Exchange Network (SEN) with an alternative regional solution, which forces cryptofirms to make settlements under tough U.S. regulations by virtue of the state-side location of Silvergate Bank. According to Jaerv, RSCN would also back local currencies alongside the U.S. dollar.

Nogle was established in 2014 and has been supporting projects that it believes will help develop the future digital payment landscape. Its portfolio includes payment gateways, digital ID providers and BTSE, a proprietary exchange of cryptocurrencies.

Nogle founder Jonathan Leong said the company saw the value as both a custodian solution and a layer of institutional settlement in First Digital. Leong said that beyond just funding, Nogle will assist with tech development and collaborations with third parties.

“Based on their current platform, we’re looking to build up their settlement layer and put up more formal partnerships,” Leong said. “Basically to have more businesses plug into the settlement layer.”

Nogle also invested $2.5 million in the first round of Telegram’s (now troubled) initial coin offering, which in January 2018 brought up a total of $850 million.

0 0 vote Article Rating