Alexandre Kech is a finance and digital asset executive best known for co-founding Onchain Custodian (ONC), sometimes written as Onechain Custodian, a Singapore-based digital asset custody and prime brokerage provider. His career spans traditional custody operations, financial market infrastructure, and digital asset standards work, areas that have become increasingly important as institutions adopt crypto and tokenized instruments.
Overview
Kech is associated with efforts to bring institutional controls to cryptoasset safekeeping, including governance, auditability, and operational risk management. He has also held leadership roles connected to digital securities and organizational identity, reflecting the convergence of custody, tokenization, and regulated market infrastructure.
History and Background
Kech began his career in custody and asset servicing, where reconciliations, access controls, and process discipline are central to protecting client assets. He later moved into financial messaging and market infrastructure work, including roles linked to securities and foreign exchange workflows at institutions such as BNY Mellon and SWIFT. This mix of post-trade experience and infrastructure exposure shaped his view that custody is a core market function, not simply secure storage.
Onchain Custodian
In 2018, Kech co-founded Onchain Custodian and served as CEO during the firm’s early growth. ONC positioned itself as an institutional custody provider for assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, aiming to offer a custody operating model closer to traditional financial services while supporting the technical realities of blockchain-based assets. Public reporting around the company described venture backing from investors including Sequoia, Fosun, and DHVC.
ONC’s platform was branded as SAFE and described as a flexible custody architecture intended to support different custody models as market practices and regulation evolved. Early disclosures highlighted onboarding activity with funds and token organizations and partnerships that supported compliance workflows and security token ecosystems. Under Kech’s leadership, the firm emphasized independent third-party custody and standardized controls as prerequisites for broader institutional participation.
- Institutional controls: Policy-driven approvals, segregation of duties, and auditable operating procedures.
- Operational tooling: Reporting and workflow features intended to support fund and treasury processes.
- Prime brokerage orientation: A custody core connected to trading, settlement, and counterparty needs.
In August 2021, Kech stepped down as CEO and was replaced by ONC co-founder Raymond Cheong. The change came as institutional attention to custody accelerated, a trend reflected in CryptoSlate’s coverage of banks moving deeper into tokenization and custody.
Standards and Market Structure Work
Kech has been active in standards and industry coordination, with involvement in initiatives intended to improve interoperability and reference data for token markets. He has been described as the convenor of the ISO working group that produced ISO 24165, the Digital Token Identifier (DTI) standard, and as participating in DTI Foundation and Global Digital Finance custody-focused working groups. This work aligns with the need for consistent identifiers and shared terminology as tokenized securities and regulated digital asset venues mature.
Roles Beyond Onchain Custodian
After ONC, Kech expanded into broader market infrastructure roles. He has been described as building and leading a blockchain and digital asset team at Citi Ventures in Europe and later joining SIX Digital Exchange (SDX) in November 2022 as Head of Digital Securities, with executive responsibility for that business vertical. CryptoSlate has covered SIX Digital Exchange in the context of bringing regulated trading, settlement, and custody for digital assets and tokenized instruments into a single venue.
In June 2024, Kech became CEO of the Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF). While GLEIF focuses on organizational identity, the role intersects with digital asset markets where verified entity identity and standardized reference data support compliance, permissions, and risk controls.
Risks and Considerations
Custody providers operate in a high-stakes environment where cyber incidents, key compromise, and operational failures can lead to permanent losses. Institutional clients also face shifting regulatory expectations around segregation, disclosures, and the definition of a “qualified custodian”. CryptoSlate’s coverage of U.S. staff guidance on qualified custodians highlights how definitions and supervisory expectations can affect permissible custody models, counterparties, and compliance costs.
Kech’s work, from building institutional custody capabilities at ONC to contributing to standards and market-structure initiatives, reflects the broader shift toward more formalized controls in digital asset markets.
