Markets Media spoke with Deborah Algeo, Global Head of Enterprise, Zodia Custody, who won Best in Digital Assets at the 2025 Women in Finance Asia Awards.

What does this award represent for you and the broader Zodia Custody team at this stage in the company’s growth?

Winning this award is both a personal honour and a powerful reflection of how far the digital asset industry has come — and where it’s headed. For Zodia Custody, it recognises the intentional work we’ve done to bring institutional-grade digital asset solutions to market, and it validates our belief that digital assets are no longer a fringe innovation — they’re becoming a fundamental part of the financial ecosystem.

What made this moment even more meaningful was standing in a room full of incredibly accomplished women from across finance, regulation, fintech, and beyond. Personally, as a mother to a young daughter, it was inspiring to witness women being celebrated so visibly — because it signals to the next generation that they belong in these rooms too. There are now so many women in this space for her to look up to.

At Zodia Custody, we take our role in supporting women seriously. We have internal women’s networks, mentorship programs, and educational initiatives. We’re active members of the Association for Women in Cryptocurrency, and our Global Head of Marketing, Louisa Schepers, was recently appointed as a Regional Ambassador in London. We also proudly support the “Unmanel the Panel” movement to improve gender representation at industry events and conversations. 

We know that inclusion and innovation go hand in hand, and this award motivates us to keep building a more diverse and forward-looking industry.

Digital asset custody is rapidly evolving. What differentiates Zodia Custody’s approach from other players in the space, particularly when it comes to enterprise-grade solutions?

Zodia Custody is built from the ground up for institutions — that’s not just our positioning, it’s our foundation. We emerged from Standard Chartered Ventures specifically to address the gap in institutional-grade digital asset infrastructure, and today we count five major financial institutions – Standard Chartered Ventures, Emirates NBD, Northern Trust, SBI Holdings, and National Australia Bank Ventures – as strategic investors and partners. This deeply informs both our operations and our technology stack.

What sets us apart is that we’re not just a digital asset custodian — we also provide the underlying custody technology and white-label platform for institutions looking to launch digital asset services under their own brand. We bring the first-hand experience of operating in highly regulated, complex environments and wrap that into a best-in-class solution that others can deploy quickly and confidently.

Beyond core custody solutions, we also integrate value-added services such as compliance tooling, risk monitoring, and reporting because we know that clients don’t just need a vault, they need a platform that can evolve and scale with their business. Our infrastructure is designed to mould around changing institutional requirements, allowing enterprises to start with secure custody and grow into tokenisation, stablecoins, and other digital asset offerings as their strategy matures.

That flexibility, combined with deeply embedded risk and compliance standards, is what makes Zodia Custody unique. Our clients aren’t left to stitch together a patchwork of providers; they can build on a foundation that’s proven, secure, and institutionally aligned from day one.

You lead enterprise strategy and solutions — how do you balance the need for innovation with the institutional requirement for regulatory compliance and risk management?

With over a decade of experience in strategy and innovation across financial services, I’ve learned that the best innovation in this industry happens when regulation isn’t seen as a barrier but as a design principle. This belief led me to join the RegTech Association advisory board and encourage continued collaboration between the industry and regulators. 

At Zodia Custody, we don’t treat compliance as something to retrofit after innovation; it’s embedded from the outset. It’s what we call compliance by design. We work closely with regulators across the ecosystem. We’re not just responding to existing frameworks, but also actively contributing to what the future of regulation will look like. From participating in sandboxes to shaping industry standards, we view regulatory engagement as a strategic advantage. 

We’ve found that by involving compliance, legal, and risk functions early in the product design, we can move faster and more confidently. And that’s because we’re not course-correcting downstream, we’re building the right path from the start.

Our institutional clients expect the highest standards of security and regulatory alignment, and we see our ability to deliver that — while still being agile and innovative — as a key differentiator. The balance comes from recognising that regulation is not in conflict with innovation; it’s part of building trust, which is essential to scaling in this space.

Zodia Custody operates at the intersection of traditional finance and crypto. What are the biggest challenges and opportunities you’re seeing in bridging those worlds?

One of the biggest challenges is the cultural and operational gap between traditional finance and the crypto-native ecosystem. Risk frameworks, compliance standards, and customer expectations are vastly different, and building bridges takes more than technology. That said, the opportunity is enormous. We’re seeing growing interest from banks, asset managers, and superannuation funds in using tokenisation for efficiency and access. Our role is to help institutions navigate this shift confidently, offering the tools and support to experiment, scale, and lead. We’re not just enabling participation, we’re shaping the rules of engagement.

Your role involves shaping big-picture strategy. What’s one decision or pivot you’ve made recently that you feel proud of — and what impact did it have?

One strategic decision I’m particularly proud of is our investment in a modular enterprise solution that allows clients to build digital asset services under their own brand while relying on Zodia Custody’s regulated infrastructure. This white-label approach, called Solutions by Zodia Custody, gives financial institutions a faster, safer, and more cost-effective way to launch in this space. It has opened up conversations with banks and regional leaders who previously saw digital assets as too complex or risky to touch. We’re now seeing proof-of-concepts turn into pilot programs and production products.

These are tangible signs of the industry moving forward.

What advice would you give to professionals — particularly women — looking to make a meaningful impact in fintech, blockchain, or institutional crypto services?

Don’t wait to be an expert before stepping in. The space is still being defined, and diverse perspectives are needed now more than ever. My advice is to stay curious, build your own network, and trust that your skills are transferable. The intersection of finance and blockchain is one of the most exciting frontiers, and women bring a much-needed lens to its development, especially when it comes to risk awareness, collaboration, and long-term thinking. There’s a real opportunity to shape not just products, but principles. If you want to lead, this is the time.