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While working at JPMorgan within a range of activities, including the London interbank offered rate, investment banking and decentralised finance (DeFi), Ijeoma Okoli learned aboutthree AfricanAmerican mathematicians Katherine Goble Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson and their previously unknown contribution to the US space programme in the 1950s and 1960s.

This discovery prompted Ms Okoli to embark on a mission of self-study. This research resulted in an exhibition,Stories of Black Leadership, which is now part of the UKs Black Cultural Archives a collection of black history in the country.She calls this her proudest moment.

The tendency to dedicate time to self-study led Ms Okoli, a financial services lawyer in the traditional finance space, to the non-traditional world of cryptocurrencies and DeFi. That self-study was promoted by the rise of initial coin offerings (ICOs) in 2017.

2022 The Digital Economy Initiative, co-founder, director

2019 Impact X Capital Partners, founding member andlimited partner

2017 Women in Law EmpowermentForum, global advisory board

2015 JPMorgan, executive director

Having spent much of her career as a securities lawyer with extensive experience in structuring deals, Ms Okoli became intrigued by ICOs, which seemed to her to be securities. The ICOs being offered to the public did not seem to qualify with any of the exemptions to registration that exist in the US framework, and were not being registered with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

In order to understand this, Ms Okoli went about learning the language of crypto.

I had to educate myself on the lingo, the technology, the products, and actually do that legal analysis, she adds. I do this with things that interest me. I just go off and think about them and try to figure them out this is one thing that set me on that journey.

While Ms Okoli did eventually conclude that the ICOs she was seeing were not strictly securities offerings, she was still puzzled as to why the SEC was allowing them to flourish and why participants were either intentionally or unintentionally not complying with US securities laws.

As a securities lawyer, she knew (and accurately predicted) when the SEC would start to crack down on the rise of ICOs. Three months after Ms Okoli started her research, in July 2017, the SEC published what is known as the DAO Report.

The report found that tokens or coins offered and sold by a virtualorganisation known as The DAO (digital asset organisation)were securities and therefore subject to the federal securities laws.It confirms that issuers of distributed ledger or blockchain technology-based securities must register offers and sales of such securities unless a valid exemption applies.Those participating in unregistered offerings also may be liable for violations of the securities laws.

During this time, Ms Okoli was asked to co-design the risk and governance framework for cryptocurrencies at JPMorgan.

After leaving the bank in 2022, Ms Okoli founded the Digital Economy Initiative along with Toby Norfolk-Thompson, who serves as a director and chair of the advisory council and is the chief investment officer of Matrixport, a global digital asset manager.

The Digital Economy Initiative is an independent think tank focused on crypto asset policy in the US and UK. It is founded on the understanding that there is a lack of comprehensive legal and regulatory frameworks in both jurisdictions. The initiative finds ways to encourage common sense regulatory frameworks that will take into consideration investor and consumer protection, as well as market integrity and financial stability. It is also dedicated to encouraging and not stifling innovation, adds Ms Okoli.

I wanted to make sure that just because its crypto doesnt mean its bad

I wanted to make sure that just because its crypto doesnt mean its bad, she says.

Her experience underpins the work of the Digital Economy Initiative, having worked as a financial regulatory lawyer within several banking groups including asset management, corporate treasury, investment banking and with financial stability issues in the aftermath of the financial crisis.

All of that led to the time we currently exist in now, and can help folks understand the products and understand how things from the traditional financial sector would help in terms of minimising the risks, she adds.

After all, the crypto sector is only around 15 years old (starting with the publishing of the Satoshi Nakamoto white paper laying out the creation of bitcoin in 2009), remarks Ms Okoli.

We must think about everything because its a brand-new sector, she adds.

One element that is yet to exist is the proposed development of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). Their development is controversial.

CBDCs are issued by governments, she says. To the extent they are actually issued, they would enjoy the full faith and credit of the relevant governments, but you have some folks who are concerned about the governments ability to see their activities in intimate detail in ways we currently dont envisage.

In the US, the constitution protects citizens from government abuses, says Ms Okoli, but privacy and security concerns are valid. These are things that must be considered and worked through, before any decision to issue CBDCs are made, she adds.

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Crypto is a song of youth and experience - - The Banker