{
  "id": 15710720,
  "title": "Global Salon: Building the Rails for a $3.5 Trillion Empire",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/20/global-salon-building-the-rails-for-a-3-5-trillion-empire",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-10-20T06:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Global Finance",
    "slug": "global-finance",
    "url": "https://gfmag.com/capital-raising-corporate-finance/global-salon-peter-hughes-apex-group/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Peter Hughes founded Apex Group Ltd. in Bermuda in 2003, and today manages over $3.5 trillion in assets across 52 countries. The company has grown through 50 acquisitions over eight years and holds 90 regulatory licenses. Hughes, who previously worked at KPMG and Hemisphere Management, made a bet that traditional finance and decentralized finance (DeFi) would converge rather than collide. This vision was solidified when BlackRock added Bitcoin to its balance sheet, confirming the mainstream acceptance of cryptocurrency. Apex now enables the development of compliance-focused Layer 2 blockchain initiatives like T-Rex, which facilitates the settlement of digital securities across 50 countries and 35 regulators. Hughes anticipates that blockchain technology will become increasingly integral to the financial industry, as digital assets backed by clean AML become more widely accessible. He does not foresee a significant relaxation of crypto regulations in China, but believes that stablecoins will eventually replace fiat currencies on corporate balance sheets. Apex has not pursued any new acquisitions in recent years, opting instead to build its own technology stack and distribution channels to better serve its clients and stay ahead in the rapidly evolving tech landscape.",
  "summary": "Apex Group's Peter Hughes discusses building distribution rails for digital assets, tokenizing funds, AI in finance, and private credit. The post Global Salon: Building the Rails for a $3.5 Trillion Empire appeared first on Global Finance Magazine .",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}