Menai shares its moniker with an iconic suspension bridge completed in 1826. Forged from wrought-iron and stone in Wales, the Menai Suspension Bridge has carried explorers and new-world architects for more than 200 years.
At Menai, we connect worlds. We enable our clients to participate in the emerging digital assets space via products and services that are more sophisticated, reliable and scalable than existing offerings – underpinned by the same world-class operational practices, risk and compliance mechanisms, security measures and infrastructure they have come to expect from today’s leading investment banks.
We are deeply committed to driving the industry toward excellence by playing a leading role in unlocking the full potential of digital assets as an asset class
We use our team’s decades of diverse experience in well-regulated institutions, as well as significant experience in the emerging digital finance industry, to achieve our goals
We are dedicated to doing business and driving innovation in a data-driven, honest manner, deepening trust in the industry and doing right by our clients, partners and the digital finance community
By building more reliable infrastructure and driving more investment in the digital assets space, Menai hopes to help accelerate the democratization of finance and create a financial system that is more accessible to all
We have an unwavering focus on building the future of finance through institutional-grade products, services and infrastructure
We will bridge emerging digital markets with established markets, and cultivate partnerships with leading entities in both established and digital finance
We are committed to always being there when our clients need us, and helping make digital assets more credible, accessible and efficient
Through its investment products – which currently span a diversified index fund and an actively managed opportunities fund – Menai seeks to enable its clients to access the significant upside of digital assets while reducing their exposure to the operational, economic risks, and lack of portfolio diversity currently associated with investing in the space.
By investing in a broad mix of assets that span a wide range of potential use cases and regularly rebalancing its funds, Menai enables its clients to buy into a more objective, holistic, and adaptive vision for the digital asset space – with the goal of creating an enduring portfolio with greater upside.
With respect to market-making, we believe Menai’s differentiated experience in the financial markets enables us to provide liquidity with a level of reliability, speed, professionalism, and security that is typically only found in more traditional markets, at a scale that others simply can’t match—with the ability to process flows on the magnitude of hundreds of millions of dollars. Menai seeks to provide the same standard of liquidity during challenging markets as during periods of market strength, thanks to its extensive experience across global markets and its deep knowledge of how money moves, how much money is available at any given time, and how it can be accessed.
Menai Asset Management (UK) Ltd is a private limited company formed in England on the 19 January 2021 with company number 13145196. Menai Asset Management (UK) Ltd is part of the Menai Financial Group LLC.
Menai Asset Management (UK) Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) in the United Kingdom with FRN: 955107 to provide investment advisory services to its clients on institutional-grade investment products that allow investors to invest in Crypto assets.
Menai Markets (UK) Ltd. is a private limited company formed in England on the 20 January 2021 with the company number 13146344. Menai Markets (UK) Ltd engages in proprietary trading and liquidity arrangements entered with certain cryptocurrency issuers. Menai Markets (UK) Ltd is not authorised or regulated by the FCA.
The Menai-MVIS Diversified Digital Asset Index provides an opportunity to optimize risk-adjusted returns for global investors and alternative asset portfolios.
The Index is built on the belief that investors in the space should be diversifying investment among the distinct use cases of digital assets.
Digital assets, together with blockchain technology, are transforming financial services globally by decentralizing the three core pillars of financial services: the storage, transfer and processing of value. Each of these use cases represents a tremendous disruption opportunity and each major cryptocurrency is designed to optimize for that use case.
The three use cases form a strong basis of diversification to construct a resilient portfolio of digital assets. Menai has created a customized index based on the principles of diversification through these use cases. Investing in digital assets on the basis of this index provides a holistic exposure to the transformation, while mitigating the idiosyncratic risks of individual digital assets.
Laya Khadjavi is the Global Head of Business Development & Client Relations for Menai Financial Group. Laya is a seasoned finance executive with more than 30 years of sell side and buy side experience, with a focus on solution-driven and innovative capital markets and investment products. Before joining Menai, Laya was an independent consultant, providing advisory services to institutions including FinTech companies. Prior to that, Laya was the COO, Head of Strategy and Business Development at ICE Canyon, a global investment management firm specializing in Emerging Markets. Before ICE Canyon, Laya was a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley where, during her 23-year tenure, she held a succession of senior management positions, including the Global Head of Markets in Global Wealth Management and the Global Head of various structured products platforms within the Fixed Income Division in Institutional Securities. Laya began her career as a Financial Analyst at Salomon Brothers.
Laya is a non-executive board member of GoldenTree ABS Management LLC. She also serves on a number of non-profit boards, councils and visiting committees, including the Institute of International Education, Brown University and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Laya holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Mathematics-Economics from Brown University and a Master of Business Administration degree from Columbia University.
Adam Schuman is the General Counsel of Menai Financial Group. Adam previously was a Partner in the white collar and investigations practice of Perkins Coie, where he led the litigation department in New York. Adam earlier served as Special Counsel for Public Integrity in the New York State Governor’s Office and as General Counsel for New York State’s Homes and Community Renewal. Prior to that, Adam spent 12 years at The McGraw-Hill Companies/Standard & Poor’s becoming Executive Managing Director and Chief Legal Officer for S&P Ratings. Adam also served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of New York, Brooklyn and received the Director’s Award for Superior Performance, and earlier in his career was a law clerk to Hon. Loretta A. Preska in the United States District Court in Manhattan.
Adam holds a B.A. from Swarthmore College and a J.D. from the New York University School of Law.
Member Bio
Bruce Hemphill, an Advisor for Menai Financial Group, is a United Kingdom qualified lawyer with 28 years of C-suite experience in the financial services industry. Bruce currently serves as an operating partner at Apollo Investment Consulting Europe Ltd.
From 2015 to 2019, Bruce was Group Chief Executive of Old Mutual Plc., where he was Chairman of Old Mutual Wealth and Old Mutual Emerging Markets, and sat on the boards of Old Mutual Plc. and Nedbank. Prior to that, Bruce held executive positions, including Co-Head of Investment Banking at Standard Corporate and Merchant Bank, Deputy Chief Executive at Standard Commercial Bank, Chief Executive at Stanlib Asset Management, Chief Executive at Liberty Holdings Ltd. and Chief Executive at Standard Bank Group Wealth, Insurance and Non-Bank Financial Services.
Stefan Thomas is an Advisor for Menai Financial Group. Stefan has more than 15 years of experience as an open-source developer, a distributed systems advocate and an active angel investor. He is the co-inventor of Interledger Protocol, an open payments technology designed for payments between different stores of value, such as banks, mobile money schemes and blockchains. He is currently the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Coil, a content platform powered by open-source web monetization technology that can stream micropayments. Prior to Coil, Stefan was the Chief Technology Officer of Ripple and one of the architects behind Codius, a universal smart contracts platform. Before that, he developed vast experience in digital currencies as both the founder of WeUseCoins.com, the largest website for novice Bitcoin users, and as the creator of BitcoinJS, a software package used by a wide range of Bitcoin businesses all over the world. Stefan was one of the earliest developers in the Bitcoin ecosystem and played a big part in introducing Bitcoin to the masses in 2011 when he created an animated video “What is Bitcoin?”
Stefan is a Board Member of Imgur, an image sharing platform. He previously served on the boards of Omni, an on-demand storage and delivery solution, and OpenJS Foundation, an entity to help the development and adoption of JavaScript technology.
Member Bio
In this Menai Quarterly Research Brief, we aim to put perspective around recent turmoil in the digital ecosystem by shifting focus back on use cases of crypto-blockchain technology and the fundamental thesis for long-term investors in this “Liquid VC” asset class.
Menai to provide advice to MSCI in connection with its development of digital asset solutions for institutional investors.
Menai Financial Group (“Menai”), as leading provider of institutional grade digital asset investment and trading services, today announced that Adam H. Schuman is joining the Company to serve as General Counsel.
Menai Financial Group
520 Madison Avenue, 21st Floor
New York, NY 10022
Menai UK
100 Liverpool St., Storey Club
Broadgate, London EC2M 2AU
Menai Tokyo
Toranomon Hills Business Tower 15F
1-17-1 Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-6415
Careers
Join our team by sending your CV and cover letter to careers@menai.io.
General Inquiries:
info@menai.io
Media Inquiries:
press@menai.io