Zodia Markets’ Nick Philpott on How New Trading Models Unlock African Cross-Border Commerce

In this episode of Chief Digital Heroes, Nick Philpott, Co-founder & Head of Partnerships at Zodia Markets, tells Matthew about his evolution from trading floors in Lagos and Singapore to Standard Chartered Bank's electronic trading and market structure operations and pioneering institutional crypto trading infrastructure. 

Having led critical initiatives including MiFID 2 implementation and Facebook's Libra integration at Standard Chartered, Nick provides detailed insights into how Zodia Markets is solving complex cross-border settlement challenges by combining traditional FX infrastructure with crypto rails. Nick also shares his insight on why completely new regulations are likely not necessary, as much of the same guardrails currently in place for tradition finance can often be applied. 

Topics discussed:

• A detailed examination of payment versus payment (PvP) settlement implementation in crypto markets compared to traditional CLS mechanisms, including how blockchain technology enables atomic settlement without the traditional infrastructure constraints.
• The operational complexities of delivering true T0 settlement for institutional-scale trades, particularly around capital allocation, liquidity management across multiple fiat currencies, and the limitations of traditional netting approaches.
• How Zodia Markets modified Standard Chartered's policy hierarchy for crypto-specific requirements, including novel approaches to asset due diligence, custodian evaluation, and cross-border controls.
• Technical analysis of stablecoin crosses as a solution for challenging payment corridors, with specific focus on implementing proxy liquidity pools using regulated stablecoins to facilitate 24/7 trading in time-zone restricted currencies.
• The distinction between moving settlement versus execution on-chain, and why many DeFi protocols struggle to properly implement sophisticated trading concepts like IOIs, axes, and market-making in less liquid instruments.
• Risk management innovations for crypto market making, focusing on how traditional concepts of best execution must be adapted for instant settlement environments while maintaining institutional-grade controls.
• Practical approach to cross-border regulatory compliance without regulatory certainty, detailing how to leverage existing frameworks while building new standards for crypto-specific challenges like blockchain analysis and custodian evaluation.
• Examination of emerging stablecoin use cases in commodity trading and shipping, highlighting how T0 settlement capabilities are transforming traditional trade finance and cross-border payment flows in restricted corridors.

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