Networking breakfast: #CeFi and #DeFi : Risks and Opportunities in 2023

We were pleased to organize a networking breakfast event and a panel around the theme #CeFi and #DeFi: Risks and Opportunities in 2023, co-hosted with Valk. Our amazing panelists, Salama Belghali, Global head of Business Development & partnership at BitMex; Yves Choueifaty, President & Founder of TOBAM; Nic Basson, COO at Old Street Digital and Florent Jouanneau, Principal at White Star Capital, gave us insights about the perceived risks in the industry and how they’ve been able to navigate through them.

The event was a fantastic success, with over 150 attendees! It was moderated by Stéphane Reverre, CEO of SUN ZU Lab and Antoine Loth, CEO of Valk.

Click here to have a sneak peek of the event. We hope to see you at our next one!

 

SUN ZU Lab at the BPI’s Learn and Pick Mission Internationale

We had the pleasure to participate to the Learn and Pick Mission Internationale with Bpifrance and Team France during the Singapore Fintech Festival in November 2022.

Watch Stéphane Reverre’s interview here!

During this major event dedicated to Fintech, we were hosted by BPI on the Pavillon France booth.

Want to learn more about SUN ZU Lab and its unique offering, or want to meet us? Just contact us!

SUN ZU Lab, Best Digital Asset Initiative in 2022!

SUN ZU Lab awarded as best digital asset initiative by AM Tech Day

We had the pleasure of participating in the AM Tech Day event, hosted by l’Agefi at the French iconic Palais Brongniart.

During this major event dedicated to Asset Management that brings together both buy side and sell-side, we had the honor of being name the Best Digital Asset Initiative.

This award recognizes our effort to bring more transparency into the crypto-sphere, thus helping crypto institutions better understand the market movements.

Want to learn more about SUN ZU Lab and its unique offering, or want to meet us? Just contact us!

SUN ZU Lab 2022: Towards greater transparency in the world of digital assets

Stéphane Reverre, CEO and co-founder of SUN ZU Lab, shares his hope for a more regulated crypto world with FinMag.fr.

This article has been written by Sarah Kirton, financial writter at Finmag.


What is the mission and wish of SUN ZU Lab?

Our mission is to bring transparency to the digital asset market. This means allowing, or even forcing, each of the market participants (investors or intermediaries) to disseminate information in order to make the investment mechanisms more fluid, to ensure that the end investor can make investment decisions with all the information available.

We want to shed light on the system, to ensure that the prices traded, that the commissions are made public, so that the price that emerges from supply and demand is a price that better reflects the macro-economic balance. As a consequence, the market functions better, the allocation of resources is done better, and we therefore we have a more efficient market.

This is the economic theory that is used in traditional markets that we decided to apply to digital asset finance.

We also hope that participants’ mindsets will change, and that they will realize how much they have to gain by adopting a more transparent approach, as this will greatly expand their market.

What difficulties has SUN ZU Lab encountered since its creation?

The difficulties we encounter are essentially difficulties of conviction linked to an asset class perceived as too opaque and complex.

We are evolving in an unregulated world, with the contradiction between the desire to regulate it which comes up against the constraints that this entails.

Trying to convince clients that crypto will only emerge from its maturation phase by being adopted by the greatest number, and that this can only be done through greater transparency, is not accepted by all.

Customers are tempted to continue innovating without constraints, without reporting, without pressure, and they don’t like the idea of a framework.


What is the definition of transparency in the crypto world?

Market transparency is first and foremost data on transactions that take place in the capital markets. It is a question of publishing a certain amount of information on what they do, on the price and the volumes of the operations they do.

The actors that are the Stock Exchanges, that are the investors, whatever their nature (individuals or institutions), the brokers, or the investment funds,

ask themselves the question every day of how to sell, what is the best price, and they need someone to compile data and publish it, without conflict of interest so that the information is reliable, and let it serve as a guide.

What is the definition of transparency in the crypto world?

Market transparency is first of all data about transactions that take place in the capital markets. It is about publishing a certain amount of information about what they do, about the price and volumes of the transactions they do.

The different actors – stock exchanges, investors, whatever their nature (individuals or institutions), brokers, or investment funds – ask themselves every day how to sell, what is the best price, and they need someone to compile data and publish it, without any conflict of interest, so that the information is reliable, and that it serves as a reference.

Which market is SUN ZU Lab mainly aimed at?

It’s a BtoB market / institutional market, that is to say all the market players who carry out transactions.

Those who buy because they invest, those who speculate, those who take orders (RTO: order routing and transmission) like the real estate agent for example, the exchanges, which allow liquidity to be expressed and concentrated in the orders, and then the liquidity providers, which are entities capable of providing liquidity to clients: a client who would like to carry out a transaction for a large size, needs someone who can provide a price.

How do you analyze liquidity in crypto markets and what impact does it have on market efficiency?

It’s all about data. We record everything that happens, as much as we can.

We say on average, for this type of asset and for this size, this is the market price you should pay.

The price of the digital asset, if it’s different from the market price, may have some tradeoffs, so it’s “a priori” standardized.

We make the data talk by compiling prices, which are real time prices (best execution prices), that allow an investor to know what he should buy, the price he should pay, to allow him to discuss, or negotiate with his intermediary if it is different.

This gives all market participants the ability to assess the margin, or the quality of the price given to them, or even to trade with confidence, with informed players.

How do you see the future of SUN ZU Lab?

We are tied to the future of crypto. We are a service provider operating on the basis of available data, serving a set of customers.

We are not so much tied to the price of bitcoin, but rather to the evolution of the crypto ecosystem: will it mature, will it accept some regulation, whether self-inflicted or imposed by the regulator?

If we want to access the retirement savings of the French, we cannot extract ourselves from a financial system that works in a certain way.

At the moment, crypto represents only 1% of the total addressable savings, there is a place and a colossal opportunity for growth and adoption for digital assets, if and only if the ecosystem and the people who compose it accept a certain form of convergence in practices and in regulation.

And, in these practices and in this regulation, our core focus is on transparency.

So if the market evolves and matures in the direction of more transparency, we have a bright future ahead of us, otherwise… we will have tried!

You can retrieve the full article on Finmag!


Why SUN ZU Lab decided to assess crypto Liquidity?

In this podcast hosted by Les Samourais du business, Stéphane Reverre, CEO of SUN ZU Lab, explains why SUN ZU Lab decided to assess the liquidity of crypto markets. Liquidity is a key criteria to consider when investing in the crypto markets. Therefore, it’s important to assess the amount of crypto assets ready to be bought by natural buyers, the amount of crypto assets ready to be sold by natural sellers and the amount of crypto assets between, traded by speculators who buy and sell at the same time without carrying risk for a long time.

SUN ZU Lab has developed independent quantitative analytics to better understand crypto liquidity. Stéphane also gives us his point of view on the crypto markets and how they are structured. Then he

Listen to the podcast here!

The question of Liquidity, at the origin of SUN ZU Lab

In this interview, Stéphane Reverre, CEO of SUN ZU Lab, details how he got the idea to create his company with Vincent Madrenas. Liquidity is a crucial topic, which needed to be better considered with institutional standards and a quantitative perspective. SUN ZU Lab has developed independent quantitative analytics to better understand crypto liquidity. Stéphane also details the challenges a start up like his faces!

Watch the video!

How crypto data can be leveraged?

In this interview, Lionel Riebeiro shares his experience on crypto data with Stéphane Reverre, CEO of SUN ZU Lab

Lionel Ribeiro, CEO of TrakX alongside Stéphane Reverre, CEO of SUN ZU Lab

In this video, Lionel emphasises the importance of augmented data for Trakx‘ activities and highlights how SUNZU Lab’s unprecedented crypto quantitative analytics have been particularly helpful.

“The reality is that without proper quality and independent data, it’s difficult to scale” said Lionel.
This is why SUN ZU Lab attaches paramount importance to providing high quality data, in line with its mission to bring transparency to the cryptosphere.

TrakX is one of SUN ZU Lab’s historic clients.

Watch the interview!

About TrakX: Trakx is a global fintech company creating new standards for digital asset investments. Through their trading platform, they offer thematic Crypto Tradable Indices (CTIs) and customised solutions, providing sophisticated investors a high degree of compliance, custody and liquidity. Trakx is registered with the French regulator (AMF). For more information, please: www.trakx.io.

Inside SUN ZU Lab

Timothée Fabre, Quant Researcher at SUN ZU Lab with Sylvie Chevillon, CMO at SUN ZU Lab

Find out what a Quant Analyst does at SUN ZU Lab!

In this interview, Timothée Fabre, one of our Quantitative analysts and Doctoral Student at Centrale-Supelec, gives us details about his missions at SUN ZU Lab and also shares tips on how to best start one’s career as a quantitative researcher.

Watch the interview!

Throwback on the biggest blockchain event in Europe

PBWS with SUN ZU Lab

The very much anticipated biggest blockchain conference in Europe, the Paris Blockchain Week Summit #PBWS22 was held at Palais Brongniart from the 13th to the 14th of April 2022. The event hosted a broad mix of experts, game changers, creators, regulators, and insiders, as well as business professionals and VCs within the blockchain industry. Over the course of two days, there were more than 6000 attendees comprising over 200 sponsors, 250 speakers, and 100 media partners.

Renowned speakers from the world’s leading blockchain and digital asset firms discussed their personal experiences in their respective fields of which SUN ZU Lab had the privilege to be a part of. On the 14th of April, SUN ZU Lab’s CEO, Stéphane Reverre together with Andreas Glarner, Partner at MME Legal, Sophia Shluger, managing director at Amber Group and Ilya Volkov, CEO of YouHodler intervened on the subject matter “the rise of decentralized finance” where Stéphane shared his thoughts on ways to develop CeFi  and DeFi: 

“The lacking element is maturity, the fact that you can still put some of your money inside the CeFi & DeFi space without knowing anything about blockchain is disrupting regulation. We need coordination; professional groups should strive to arrange some sort of standardization that does not cripple innovation, and this would be a terrific signal to regulate us to work together, such as Industrial convergence”, said Stéphane.

In other words, regulation is one of the key elements to accelerate the adoption and institutionalization of crypto-currencies. He then pointed out the role played by stable coins and their potential in centralized and decentralized Finance:

 “ Today, we need a channel in CeFi and DeFi that encourages a fair and secure settlement, and stable coin is a component of that. CBDC, or Central Bank Digital Currency, will most likely be welcomed in that arena to promote this cause in the sense that, at the very least, while taking market risk, you are not taking the chance of not receiving anything you purchased.”

Watch the full panel!

At SUN ZU Lab, we help coordinate and structure the crypto market by providing transparency through quantitative analysis, enabling investors to better understand market moves.

Do you want to see more about the event? Watch our video!

SUN ZU Lab raises €1.5 M

21st April 2022 – Press release
 

SUN ZU Lab, French Fintech that produces liquidity analytics to enable cryptocurrency investors to optimize their transactions, raises its first funding round of €1.5 million, led by Elaia and joined by  Kima Ventures and active business angels in the cryptocurrencies ecosystem. This funding will enable SUN ZU Lab to double its teamby 2023 through the recruitment of developers, quantitative analysts and a sales team, i.e. over 15 new employees.

The world of cryptocurrencies is under the eye of regulators, more now than ever, particularly through the European Market in Crypto Assets (MiCA) bill passed on March 14 that aims at “defining global standards”, according to the parliamentarian Stefen Berger (source: “cryptonews”). The mission of SUN ZU Lab is to bring more transparency to the market. By providing investors with independent, reliable and robust quantitative information, SUN ZU Lab enables them to execute their transactions under the best possible conditions.

“Our will is to bridge the gap between the digital assets market and the traditional finance market by providing the tools and expertise required by professional investors, which they have great difficulty in finding. Today, it is clear that the digital assets market needs transparency, without conflict of interest” says Stéphane Reverre, CEO of SUN ZU Lab. “This is what we strive to produce, through our quantitative analytics and our research work.”

 

“The cryptocurrency market, although estimated at 2 trillion dollars (source: CoinmarketCap) still lacks transparency today. By providing independent and qualitative analysis, SUN ZU Lab is a catalyst that will allow all professional investors to position themselves in this market. At Elaia, we are proud to support founding teams as complementary as that of SUN ZU Lab with the ambition and desire to revolutionize the market”, explains Alexis Frentz, Investment Manager at Elaia.

 

The research developed by SUN ZU Lab makes it possible to assess the liquidity of a cryptographic currency or token, and to follow its evolution over time between different platforms in order to optimize an execution strategy, to reduce transaction costs or to identify arbitrage opportunities.

 

“I was seduced by the unique combination of a native crypto vision and traditional finance experience of a high-level team. The technology developed by SUN ZU Lab enables unprecedented decision-making models”, says Olivier Chevillon, CEO of digital asset management company DFi Labs and Business Angel and client of SUN ZU Lab.

 

This need for the institutionalization of the cryptocurrency market which is being built as we speak has motivated the founding team which has more than 75 years of cumulated  experience in financial markets.Stéphane Reverre, veteran CEO of capital markets and Vincent Madrenas, COO and cryptocurrency specialist embarked on the SUN ZU adventure mid-2020.

 

Today, the team has more than 15 employees who share the same desire to revolutionize this market by accelerating the development of innovative solutions.

 

About SUN ZU Lab

 

SUN ZU Lab is a French Fintech that aims to become the leading independent provider of quantitative analysis tools and services in the cryptocurrency market.

Benefiting from the founding team’s 75+years of cumulated experience in international capital markets and in tech, SUN ZU Lab provides crypto professionals with unprecedented liquidity analytics in the form of quant reports, dashboards fed in real time or bespoke studies.

For more information: https://sunzulab.com

  

About Elaia

Elaia is a European top-tier VC firm with a strong tech DNA with €700 millions AUM. We back tech disruptors with global ambition from early stage to growth development. For almost 20 years, our commitment has been to deliver high performance with values. We are proud to have been an active partner in over 100 startups including success stories such as Criteo (Nasdaq), Orchestra Networks (acquired by Tibco), Volterra (acquired by F5), Mirakl (valued $3.5B in Series E) and Shift Technology (valued $1B+ in Series D).

Learn more: www.elaia.com • @Elaia_Partners