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Deus X CEO Tim Grant: We aren't replacing finance; we're integrating it

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Deus X CEO Tim Grant: We aren't replacing finance; we're integrating it

The Deus X CEO discussed his journey into digital assets, the company's infrastructure-led growth strategy, and why his Consensus Hong Kong panel promises "real talk only."

By Will Canny|Edited by Nikhilesh De
Updated Jan 26, 2026, 8:00 p.m. Published Jan 26, 2026, 7:00 p.m.
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Deus X CEO Tim Grant. (Deus X, modified by CoinDesk)

What to know:

  • Tim Grant entered crypto in 2015 after early exposure to Ripple and Coinbase, drawn by blockchain’s ability to improve traditional finance rather than replace it.
  • Deus X combines investing and operating to build regulated digital finance infrastructure across payments, prime services, and institutional DeFi.
  • Grant will be speaking at Consensus Hong Kong in February.

Deus X Capital's Tim Grant wants real talk only when he's speaking to others in the crypto industry.

Deus X is a family office-backed investment and operating company that focuses on unlocking value across capital markets, fintech and digital assets to help build a fairer, more accessible financial system.

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Led by CEO Grant, Deus X began with roughly $1 billion in assets and operates globally with offices in London, Malta and the UAE. Grant will be speaking at CoinDesk's Consensus Hong Kong conference in February 2026.

The firm deploys capital through private equity, venture capital, venture building and fund allocation, backing and building innovative companies that span everything from trading infrastructure and broker-as-a-service platforms to digital asset ventures.

"What I saw was a powerful new toolset and the opportunity to address those inefficiencies in a practical way, faster settlement, lower costs, greater transparency, not by replacing traditional finance, but by integrating with it," Grant said about his entry into crypto.

Early on in his career, and with no prior knowledge of bitcoin BTC$87,765.92 or blockchain, he said he was lucky enough to meet with the executive teams of both Ripple and Coinbase (COIN) in San Francisco, and that’s where everything changed for him. By the end of 2015 he was in the digital asset space and has been there ever since.

"Our growth strategy at Deus X is deliberately hands-on and infrastructure-led," he said. "We believe⁠ ⁠that the combination of both investing and operating is a powerful combination when it⁠ ⁠comes to executing on growth and generating strong risk-adjusted returns."

Grant said that means building, backing and operating companies across multiple layers of the digital finance stack, from payments and treasury to institutional DeFi, prime services, market infrastructure and execution tooling.

Through businesses like Deus X Pay, Cor Prime and Solstice, Deus X's venture portfolio is expanding, he said, with each company targeting specific problems but largely working together to compound growth and share infrastructure.

For Grant, Consensus is about substance rather than spectacle, he said, and given his broad portfolio of investments and companies, he said the companies are always operating across the entire spectrum, both as a provider of capital and as investors in their own ventures.

"We’re looking to engage with institutions, regulators and builders who are focused on deploying digital finance in production, particularly around regulated payments, treasury, tokeni⁠z⁠ation, prime services and institutional DeFi," he said.

Consensus Hong Kong 2026Tim GrantDeFi

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