State Street Digital head to lead crypto infrastructure firm as CEO

The crypto infrastructure startup Securrency has tapped Nadine Chakar as CEO, effective Jan. 9.

Chakar will join the institutional blockchain-based technology company from the asset management titan State Street, where she built and led the firm's digital assets business. The 30-year wealth management veteran will pilot Washington, D.C.-based Securrency's next stage of growth, as it aims to scale its compliant crypto infrastructure for global financial institutions, the startup announced Thursday.

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"The financial services industry is at a critical tipping point as it tokenizes regulated real-world assets and automates legacy financial processes using the power of blockchain technology," Chakar said in a prepared statement. "As the new CEO, my priority is to accelerate the commercialization of what is in essence the digital asset intelligence and interoperability foundation for major financial institutions and the global ecosystem."

The C-suite shift will move current CEO Dan Doney to Securrency's chief technology officer role, leading technology delivery, commercialization and innovation. Chakar, who has also served on Securrency's board of directors since 2021, said in the statement that Doney is a "visionary" and she looks forward to working closely with him.

Securrency offers tokenization, account management and blockchain-based decentralized finance technology, like its Compliance Aware Token Framework. The patented framework connects traditional financial platforms and blockchain networks. Securrency's current clients and investors include WisdomTree, State Street, U.S. Bank, Abu Dhabi Catalyst Partners. 

Despite the "crypto winter" of 2022, with the collapse of major crypto companies, like FTX and Celsius, steep drop in digital currency values and increased regulation, many traditional financial institutions are still leaning in on crypto. PricewaterhouseCooper's recent Global Crypto Regulation Report for 2023 predicts that public interest in digital assets will remain high, and traditional financial institutions need to continue adopting crypto-compatible policies and technology to avoid falling behind.

Chakar has experience managing digital assets, developing technology and working with regulators from previous roles. State Street Digital, a 400-member team, was designed to help institutional investors, regulators and State Street generate technology for a digital economy across centralized and decentralized finance. The business line handles digital assets and collaborates with partners to develop policies and solutions. Chakar said a year and a half ago that the industry needed traders who could code and coders who could trade.

"This space is moving very, very quickly and we've also seen an increase in client assets and interest just skyrocketing as well," Chakar told American Banker in June 2021. "We needed to pull together all of our resources and dedicate them in a way where we can make a bigger impact."

Before being tapped to lead State Street Digital, she was at the helm of the firm's global markets team and still oversaw digital asset offerings. Chakar has also been listed as one of American Banker's most powerful women in finance for the last three years.