Joining me is Hayk Yeganyan, CEO of the Armenia Stock Exchange. Thank you so much for joining us on Fintech TV.
Thank you, Lucy, for the invitation. It is a great pleasure.
The Armenia Stock Exchange is putting technology first and being very innovative. Can you talk to us about the technology roadmap for the exchange?
We are trying to build the technology first, make the integrations, and launch the market then. We have built the stock exchange — it is state of the art. We have built the CSD. Now on the road we have the CCP. We are trying to build the CCP institution in Armenia using technologies that are quite well known globally. At the same time, we are right now considering launching a crypto exchange and crypto trading on AMX. These are the two major projects in our pipeline.
Let us talk about the crypto piece specifically. Armenia has come out with comprehensive crypto regulations and now you are ready to embrace this asset class. How exactly is this going to look?
We want to cover all aspects of the crypto space that would be possible. We will definitely start with the institutional level — custody on the CSD level and B2B trading on the exchange, most probably of an Armenian stablecoin to be issued by, hopefully, our partner Armenian payment institution. That will be on the AMX side. And we are looking down the road to establish a company that will service retail and global institutional traders — most probably an Armenian version of a Casc-style platform and a PSP firm for making payments through crypto assets.
It is a very comprehensive approach — stablecoins, blockchain, AI. Can you tell us about what being part of Tabadul has meant for the exchange?
First of all, it was a great learning and development curve for us because we learned a lot from our counterparties, especially ADX. It started on the level of intelligence exchange — how clearing and settlement can happen. And we were one of the fastest to go live. Now it has become more of an awareness project for us. Because we are a traditional fixed income market rather than equities, and Tabadul is for equities. But being part of Tabadul has actually forced us to consider putting equities first — because it will enable the inflow of institutional money from the region into our economy. That is now a major priority project for us — to enable institutional investors to access our economy through equities.
What are you most excited about at this part of the world and among all the participants here?
The most exciting part of this event is the willingness of ADX to bring everyone together, connect everyone, and become the hub. It is fascinating to see the energy that ADX has in trying to build this connectivity network.
Thank you so much for sharing all the exciting developments with the Armenia Stock Exchange. Thank you very much for joining us today.
This is great for us to be part of this big network. Thank you, Lucy, for this opportunity.
