Ex-State Street Digital Head To Lead RegTech Blockchain Startup

Former State Street Digital lead Nadine Chakar says financial services are at “a critical tipping point” when it comes to blockchain

article-image

Exclusive art by Axel Rangel modified by Blockworks

share

Former State Street head of digital finance Nadine Chakar is now set to lead blockchain startup Securrency as its CEO.  

Chakar is expected to assume the role on Jan. 9. The firm’s founder Dan Doney, who was previously working as the company’s CEO, will continue as chief technology officer.

Securrency is a blockchain-based financial and regulatory technology developer. The firm has worked with asset manager WisdomTree on its push to launch what it calls blockchain-enabled funds. Securrency says it serves as a transfer agent by maintaining a secondary record of share ownership on the Stellar or Ethereum blockchains.

WisdomTree Investments, alongside State Street, participated in Securrency’s $30 million Series B raise in Apr. 2021.

State Street Digital launched in Jun. 2021 as a way for the custody bank to expand its capabilities in the crypto, central bank digital currency, blockchain and tokenization segments. 

Before leading its crypto-related efforts, Chakar became State Street’s head of global markets in 2019 after working for several years as global head of operations and data at Manulife Investment Management.

The Securrency move comes after a State Street spokesperson told Blockworks in October that Chakar was set to leave the company at the end of 2022. 

The spokesperson added that Martine Bond — who led global markets for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and was head of GlobalLink, had assumed Chakar’s role at State Street on an interim basis and is still in that role.

“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 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.”


Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter.

Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 18 - 20, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

recent research

Research Report Templates.png

Research

An overview of the Base Ecosystem, with a focus on market leaders.

article-image

Although bitcoin hitting $120k by year’s end is looking unlikely

article-image

About 270 million HYPE has been claimed, valued around $7.6 billion

article-image

Stanford professors David Mazières and Dan Boneh will lead the lab alongside a cohort of graduate student researchers

article-image

With more companies holding BTC, bitcoin yielding strategies could become “a new corporate finance norm,” CoinShares posed

article-image

The proposal comes after Polygon governance considered a controversial use of bridged liquidity for yield

article-image

Can the community balance its decentralized ethos with the need for inclusivity and constructive debate?