Financial markets expert Patrick Young has co-founded a crypto start-up, UTU Holdings, set to bridge crypto trading community with traditional investors.

Young is chairman of the Malta-based firm, bringing over three decades experience in financial markets.

UTU is a virtual token which will provide a verified community of traders a way to subscribe and pay for EU-regulated investment products and services – focusing initially on gold.  

It caters to institutional investors who have been seeking verifiable and credible counterparties to trade with in a safe, secure and compliant manner.

The token works as a membership card into the new precious metals trading community and those members will allow users to subscribe to BlocGold – a tool for all parties involved in the gold industry expected to launch in 2019.

The leadership team comprises industry experts including Mike Greenacre, chief information officer, Craig Vallis, chief technology officer and chief marketing officer Beata Traczykowska.

The firm’s chief executive officer is ex-Goldman Sachs investment banker Jamie Khurshid, who also co-founded the first regulatory transparency vehicle for Mifid.

Malta, the so-called ‘blockchain island’, has been one of the jurisdictions at the forefront of regulating new technology associated with virtual currencies. 

Since July this year, Young has also chaired the Blockchain Malta Association, which represents stakeholders in the crypto and distributed ledger technology sectors, and he is executive director at global advisory firm DV Advisors.

Among several highlights of his career Young has been publishing markets newsletter Exchange Invest since 2013 and at the turn of the century wrote a fintech bestseller called Capital Market Revolution!, followed by New Capital Market Revolution!

This news comes during the same week as SIX Swiss Exchange said it plans to digitalise existing securities and cash to link its existing infrastructure with a new digital asset exchange. 

Financial services giant Fidelity Investments also launched a specialist firm, Fidelity Digital Assets Services, to provide custody and trade execution for digital assets.