Valérie Noël, Head of Trading at Syz Group, is the winner of Excellence in Crypto and Digital Assets at Markets Media’s 2025 European Women in Finance Awards. We caught up with Valérie to learn more.

Valérie, congratulations on winning the Excellence in Crypto and Digital Assets award. What does this recognition mean to you?

Thank you so much. This recognition truly means a lot,  not just for me, but for everyone who believed in the project from the start. It reflects how far we’ve come in building a bridge between traditional banking and digital assets, step by step, with care and conviction.

What key decisions or moments of innovation brought you to this point?

The initial impulse came from the children of our clients, who were increasingly asking their parents to invest in crypto assets. I could sense this growing curiosity and enthusiasm early on, which encouraged me to explore the topic further and think about how we could bring it into the bank responsibly. It wasn’t about being first,  it was about doing it right!

What guidance would you offer to women interested in pursuing a career in digital assets and trading?

Be curious and stay open. The world of digital assets evolves incredibly fast, but it’s still a field where integrity, judgment, and collaboration are just as important as technical knowledge.

Don’t hesitate to step in.  There’s so much room for women to shape this space with their perspective and leadership.

My advice: step in early, learn continuously, and don’t be afraid to lead.

Who would you like to thank for their encouragement or collaboration?

I would like to thank my trading team and the project team who invested so much time and energy to ensure everything was built properly, securely, and with our clients’ trust at the core. And of course, I’m deeply grateful to Banque Syz for giving me the opportunity to take this leap. For context, at that time Bitcoin was not even worth USD 20,000. which shows just how early and uncertain the project felt back then.

What qualities or skills have been most instrumental to your success in this emerging field?

Being able to bridge two worlds  “traditional finance and decentralised finance”  has been essential. It takes curiosity, humility, and perseverance to understand both sides and find common ground. Around that time, I also completed an MIT program on From Decentralised Finance to Web 3, which helped me gain a deeper perspective on how technology, governance, and innovation can coexist responsibly. Above all, the focus has always been on building trust while embracing innovation.