Zodia Custody Appoints Crypto Exchange Bitstamp’s Julian Sawyer as Chief Executive Officer

Cryptocurrency asset service provider Zodia Custody appointed Julian Sawyer as new CEO, the company said in a statement Tuesday. He replaces Maxime de Guillebon, who has been in post since the company was founded in December 2020.

Sawyer joins from cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp, where he was also CEO. He also co-founded U.K. lender Starling Bank in 2015 and acted as its chief operating officer for four years.

“I am excited to begin working with Zodia Custody,” Sawyer said, and “look forward to taking the business to the next level and scaling Zodia Custody to become the default choice for institutions.”

Having developed its "proof-of-ownership" technology and becoming one of the first crypto asset custodians to be registered in Ireland, Zodia is now looking to scale up its operations in 2023. The custodian sees continued and sustainable long-term interest from institutional investors from the digital assets sector. The company is a joint venture between Standard Chartered and Northern Trust and is also registered with the U.K. regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority.

Following the collapse of FTX, Zodia announced in December a new service to protect clients’ digital assets in case an exchange becomes insolvent. The custodian will allow clients to keep assets on its platform while their holdings are mirrored and available on an exchange for trading.

Read more: Zodia Custody Introduces Service to Protect Against Crypto-Exchange Insolvency