Boards & Governance
Boards & Non-Executive Directors
- Independent Web3 & AI risk perspective for risk and audit committees
- Digital asset oversight and governance for board mandates
Banker on the Blockchain
Omar Moonis
Global Head of Self Custody Risk · Top 3 Crypto Exchange · 25 Years in Institutional Finance
I help boards, regulators, and financial institutions make confident decisions about digital assets, AI, and Web3 risk.
Digital Assets
Self Custody Risk
Board Advisory
Currently Thinking About
How AI agents with on-chain wallets are about to make every compliance framework written before 2024 look like it was designed for a different planet.
25+
Years Experience
$115MM+
Programs Managed
3
Continents
400%
Regional Growth
Career background
Citibank
TRM Labs
Crypto Exchange
Columbia Business School
University of Pennsylvania
Let's Find Out If I'm the Right Partner
Three audiences. Three very different problems. One through-line: navigating digital assets and AI with confidence.
Financial Institutions
Banks, Payment Firms, & Regulators
- Stablecoins, cross-border payments, and on-chain risk frameworks
- Regulatory engagement and digital asset policy advisory
Executive Transition
Executives & Founders Entering Web3
- Career transition coaching from TradFi into Web3 & AI roles
- Leadership strategy and board readiness for digital asset conversations
How We Can Work Together
Alongside my full-time leadership role, I selectively take on board mandates, training engagements, and executive coaching clients each year. Three concrete formats — not open-ended retainers.
Board & NED Advisory
Independent Web3 & AI risk perspective for your board.
- Risk & audit committee support on digital assets
- Board-level digital literacy briefings
- Review of tokenization / stablecoin initiatives
Typically an annual mandate or quarterly retainer. 1–2 seats available per year.
Discuss a Board Mandate →Training & Education for Teams
DeFi and Web3 training for regulated institutions.
- Executive workshops on DeFi, bridges, and on-chain risk
- Custom curricula for regulators & compliance teams
- Scenario planning around AI agents in finance
Typically a 1-day workshop or 2-session programme for teams of 10–50.
Schedule Training for Your Team →Executive Coaching & Career Transition
For senior leaders moving from TradFi into Web3 & AI.
- 1:1 coaching on role transitions and portfolio careers
- Strategy for entering Web3 without blowing up your reputation
- Board readiness for AI / digital asset conversations
6–10 sessions over 3–5 months. A small cohort accepted each quarter.
Apply for Coaching →Where Traditional Finance Meets the Digital Frontier
With over 25 years at the intersection of institutional finance and emerging technology, Omar Moonis brings rare operational depth to the most complex challenges in modern financial services.
His career spans leading $115MM+ transformation programs at Citibank across Asia Pacific and Europe, driving 400% regional growth as Head of APAC Business Development at TRM Labs, co-founding a chain-agnostic DeFi investment platform, and currently serving as Global Head of Self Custody Risk at a Top 3 Global Crypto Exchange.
A Columbia Business School MBA and University of Pennsylvania engineer, Omar advises boards, institutions, and technology companies on navigating the convergence of regulated finance and decentralised innovation.
25+
Years Experience
$115MM+
Programs Managed
3
Continents
400%
Regional Growth
25+ Years at the Intersection of Banks and Blockchains
Global Head of Self Custody Risk
Developing the risk management framework for one of the world's leading self-custodial Web3 businesses, advising on new product lines as part of a global expansion strategy.
Co-Founder
Pioneered a chain-agnostic DeFi investment platform on Base and Sui, demonstrating cross-chain interoperability for digital asset yield optimisation.
Head, APAC Business Development
Built go-to-market across 8 APAC markets. Strategic partnerships with banks, digital asset firms, and government agencies drove 400% regional growth.
Director — Multiple Roles, APAC / EMEA
Directed a $115M APAC restructuring program as part of Citi's $1B global transformation. Established a 50-person Digital Banking COE generating $6M in new revenue. Earlier, Interim Retail Bank CFO in Warsaw managing a $400M P&L through the Global Financial Crisis.
Education
Columbia Business School
MBA — Marketing & Finance
New York, USA
University of Pennsylvania
BS — Electrical Engineering
Philadelphia, USA
Board Directorships
Both roles reflect the same through-line: applying risk governance and digital transformation perspective to industries navigating structural change.
X-Press Feeders Pakistan (Private) Ltd
Board Director
Shipping & LogisticsPakistan Gum and Chemicals Limited
Board Director
Specialty ChemicalsOpen to 1–2 additional board or advisory roles in financial services, infrastructure, or regulated fintech.
Discuss a Board Opportunity →Speaking & Media
Conference panels, podcast appearances, and event keynotes on Web3 risk, DeFi, and the TradFi-to-crypto transition.
Columbia Venture Community & Duke Alumni Singapore
How Will Digital Assets Shape The Future of Finance
June 2026Clueless Capitalists Podcast
Understanding the Blockchain
2024DigiJanus Podcast
Inside Crypto Scams and Market Manipulation
2024Singapore Fintech Festival
Blockchain Fundamentals & Cross-Chain Integration
2023Singapore Fintech Festival
Blockchain Analytics & Institutional Adoption
2022Thought Leadership on Web3, AI & Finance
Writing that reflects where the conversation is heading — on digital assets, institutional risk, and the future of finance.
The Chicago Boys Already Ran This Experiment on AI
Autonomous trading agents now settle millions of on-chain transactions with millisecond reflexes and lower costs, and the industry is celebrating the speed. The deeper risk is that most top-tier agents train on identical data, which means they will reach the same conclusion at the same instant. A cohort of Chilean economists trained at one school in the 1970s offers the cautionary precedent, because synchronized conviction became synchronized collapse when the 1982 debt shock hit. The lesson for agentic DeFi is that correlated behavior, not rogue behavior, is the systemic threat worth pricing now.
Self-Custody Has No Answer for Incapacity
Self-custody assumes you will be alive and lucid every day you hold the asset, and that assumption quietly fails the moment a stroke, dementia, or a lost seed phrase enters the picture. An estimated 20% of all Bitcoin, around 3.7 million coins worth well over $200Bn, sits permanently unreachable, and most of that loss traces to death and forgetting rather than theft. The crypto orthodoxy built a system that punishes the elderly, the sick, and the heirs who never asked to learn cryptography. The part of this industry actually engineered for a human lifespan turns out to be the custodian everyone was taught to distrust.
Wall Street Just Lost Its Bedtime: How Coinbase Made the Perpetual American
Coinbase Derivatives launched the first perpetual-style equity index futures on a CFTC-regulated exchange on June 8, 2026, offering four contracts on AI stocks, Chinese equities, defense firms, and the Nasdaq 100 with no expiry and 24/7 trading. The institutional angle is structural, these contracts appear likely to qualify for Section 1256's 60/40 tax treatment, potentially cutting effective rates by up to 10 percentage points at the highest bracket. TradFi perpetual volume grew 5,757% in Q1 2026 alone. The market structure that crypto built now has regulated American rails.
Let's Start a Serious Conversation
If you're a board, regulator, or senior leader wrestling with digital assets, AI, or Web3 risk, I take on a small number of high-impact engagements each year.
Whether it's a board mandate, an institutional training programme, or a leadership transition — the first step is the same.
Book a Discovery Call
A 30-minute video call. We'll clarify your context, what you're trying to solve in the next 6–12 months, and whether I'm the right partner.
I'm based in Singapore (GMT+8). The scheduler shows available times in your own local time zone.
Pick a Time →Follow My Thinking
Daily insights on financial services, digital assets, and leadership — every weekday on LinkedIn.
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