About Richard Astle

Richard is Head of Switzerland & Middle East at Fireblocks, industry leader for digital asset custody, settlement, and transfers.

Since 2018, Richard has been advising hedge funds, banks, and corporate clients implementing trading and custody of digital assets. For 10 years prior, he was a banker at Citi Bank & Lombard Odier covering UHNW clients from the Middle East.

He joined Covario at ground level and built a fully operational trade desk. Leveraging his global network of institutional clients in the digital asset space the desk was soon trading volume in excess of $100m per month with high revenue generation.

Alongside achieving regulatory approval, Richard advanced the front office business through custody, securities lending, as the wider prime services offering was coordinated with the technology team.

Prior to Covario, Richard was Head of Client Relations and part of the start-up team launching Swiss Crypto Vault, a provider of digital asset custody which in 18 months grew a sizeable market share exceeding AuM of $1bn safekeeping digital assets on behalf of clients. In parallel, Richard became a founding member of the Bitcoin Suisse Institutional Services and Products division responsible for client acquisition and advice on digital asset trading, custody, and products to Institutional Client Groups.

Richard established his career within top tier banks covering predominantly UHNW clients based in the Middle East where the private office management style covered relationship and investment management across asset classes, as well as complex estate and wealth planning structures.