Background & Biography
Batlin held technology and innovation roles at UBS and BNY Mellon before building Trustology. ESMA’s December 2015 Financial Innovation Day agenda identifies him as head of UBS Lab and lists him on a panel about distributed ledgers and the trade lifecycle. The event record places his work in the early institutional discussion of blockchain infrastructure.
Trustology’s transaction adviser, Architect Partners, records that the London-based business was founded in 2017 by Batlin, Mark Hornsby and Paul Yardley. Its account identifies Batlin as the former BNY Mellon head of emerging technology. This company history should be distinguished from the later incorporation dates of particular legal entities.
Notable Contributions
Trustology addressed an operational problem in digital assets: how organisations can safeguard cryptographic keys while retaining the ability to approve and execute transactions. Architect Partners describes its use of hardware security modules in a custody service intended for institutional users. The relevant contribution is a business and infrastructure system, not a new cryptocurrency or a claim that all custody risks disappear.
Bitpanda’s acquisition of Trustology was announced in February 2022. Architect Partners identifies itself as Trustology’s financial adviser for the transaction, providing an original source for the acquisition history. The deal forms part of Batlin’s record of building a specialised crypto business and bringing it into a larger financial-technology group.
The FCA’s contemporaneous statement supplies an important qualification. Trustology had been registered under the UK Money Laundering Regulations in October 2021. The regulator explained that this regime did not provide for its prior assessment of a change in beneficial ownership. Registration should therefore not be described as blanket approval of the acquisition, every product or the safety of client assets.
Why Katharos.ai Follows Alex Batlin
Institutional use of blockchain depends on systems for deciding who can move assets, protecting keys and reconciling technical controls with business responsibilities. Batlin’s experience offers a perspective on that infrastructure layer, which can be less visible than exchanges or consumer applications but remains central to how digital assets are used.
Katharos.ai follows his attributable work on custody and financial-services technology. The useful questions concern implementation, governance and the limits of controls. A custody product’s design or a firm’s registration does not by itself establish that it is appropriate for every customer or available under the same conditions in every jurisdiction.
Areas to Follow
Noda’s own published post identifies Batlin as an executive advisor and links to his December 2025 interview about payments. Sumsub’s current company page lists him on its advisory board. These roles connect his earlier custody experience with payment infrastructure and identity-verification businesses. They should not be confused with ownership or day-to-day control of those companies.
In the payments interview, he discusses the complexity behind transfers, including the networks and financial relationships required to move money reliably. That operational perspective is relevant when assessing claims that blockchain or stablecoins can replace existing arrangements. Future coverage should distinguish proposed improvements from evidence about deployed services and actual customer outcomes.
Reporting Scope
Current responsibilities require particular care because older biographies continue to present Batlin as a serving Trustology CEO or Bitpanda director. Companies House records the end of his appointment as a director of Bitpanda Custody Ltd on December 31, 2025. This profile does not carry that directorship forward.
The record concerns that specific legal entity and should not be used to infer every possible relationship with the wider group. Historical company roles, current advisory appointments and independent commentary are treated separately. Coverage avoids unsupported statements about personal holdings, client assets, investment returns or continuing regulatory permissions.
Areas of Influence Category
Exchanges & Infrastructure is the primary category, reflecting Batlin’s work on crypto custody and the systems supporting institutional digital-asset activity. His founder experience is relevant context, but the main subjects are operational security, payment infrastructure and the boundary between technical capabilities and financial responsibilities.
Current Position
Batlin is an executive advisor to Noda and a member of Sumsub’s advisory board. His Trustology CEO role is historical, and his directorship of Bitpanda Custody Ltd ended on December 31, 2025. United Kingdom denotes professional association, not nationality.
Photo Credit
Archival photograph: Alex Batlin at MoneyConf, June 12, 2018. Photo: Diarmuid Greene / MoneyConf / Sportsfile, CC BY 2.0; cropped to 16:9.
Source notice: Information and images are attributed to the external sources listed. Katharos.ai does not endorse the subjects or claims described and does not independently certify the authenticity of every source statement or image.