Anatoly Knyazev is found of the founders and Managing Partners of EXANTE, a Malta-based investment company that has clients from over 100 countries around the world. The broker currently has $2 billion in assets under management (AUM) and it operates across continents. As of the time of writing, EXANTE has offices in London, Hong Kong, Cyprus, and Malta.
Early years and background
Anatoly Knyazev gained his master’s degree in mathematics and computer science, in addition to having a strong background in computation and statistics. His expertise in these fields helped to lay the foundation for his future career in the financial sector, as he became an expert in investment and trading software, in addition to what he would later go on to do at EXANTE.
Career work before EXANTE
Not long after graduation, Knyazev began working as a software developer in the Netcracker Technology Corporation – a multinational provider of business support system (BSS), software-defined networking (SDN), operations support systems (OSS), and network functions virtualisation (NFV) solutions.
Knyazev’s early career experience, therefore, allowed him to further develop his practical and professional skills, which were already based on his extensive academic knowledge. This later became a key reason as to EXANTE’s technological supremacy in the investment broker landscape.
It was also during this time period that Knyazev began to apply his knowledge of mathematics to trading. As he specialised in cybernetics and computational mathematics, Knyazev quickly dove into arbitrage trading regarding derivative products. He also found varied applications in practice with algorithmic trading, allowing him to meet a community of like-minded individuals and investors. Additionally, Knyazev further created a counterparty network that allowed him to meet EXANTE’s other co-founder Alexey Kirienko.
Knyazev and Kirienko both have comprehensive knowledge of statistics and probability theory, so they tried to find patterns in the behaviour of financial markets. They also experimented with creating their own trading software in 2007. Over time, the two gained an understanding of how they could create proprietary software for the wider investing community. This then launched the idea of establishing their own brokerage firm, which the duo then did with EXANTE in 2011, alongside a third co-founder – GatisEglitis.
Working an EXANTE
Knyazev, Eglitis and Kirienko founded EXANTE with the aim that it would help to provide a sophisticated yet accessible way for investors to participate in global financial markets. One of the major differences between EXANTE and other brokers – in the eyes of its founders – is that EXANTE focuses on providing lasting investment infrastructure that can help make a difference in the field. This means that EXANTE has its own trading solutions, and a bespoke trading platform for its clients to use.
The EXANTE trading platform was developed in-house, and it provides clients with direct access to over 600,000 financial instruments in more than 50 markets worldwide – all from a single multi-currency account. The trading platform can be used on both desktop and mobile devices, and traders can switch between them in no time at all. Some of the products the brokerage firm offers include stocks, ETFs, currencies, futures, metals, options, and bonds. The trading platform also has a large network of more than 1,100 servers around the world, which helps to ensure the lowest latencies and the safe transfer of data.
Staying true to its mission of making sure that financial products are accessible to all, the broker caters to all retail traders regardless of skill level. It offers transparent pricing models on trade execution with competitive spreads and no hidden fees. EXANTE further works with professional investors, wealth managers, family offices, banks, and other financial institutions. It is further a partner to some of the biggest names in the field such as the ING Group, Santander, Bank of China, and HSBC.
EXANTE is regulated globally, in all the regions that it operates in. This includes the MFSA in Malta, the CySEC in Cyprus, the SFC in Hong Kong, and the FCA in the UK. It also undergoes regular audits by a Big Four company in order to ensure the protection of client funds and data.
Other interests and achievements
Aside from establishing EXANTE, Knyazev is a passionate ambassador of cryptocurrencies. He has a keen interest in unifying and homogenising the global financial system. In addition to EXANTE, he has also founded the world’s first cryptocurrency hedge fund called Bitcoin Fund, which has tied its shares to the market price of Bitcoin, as well as an altcoin index fund called XAI Fund. According to Bloomberg, Bitcoin Fund became the world’s most profitable hedge fund in 2013 and had a cumulative growth rate of 10,000% by 2017.
Knyazev has even published several journal articles and participated in many conferences worldwide. These conferences have discussed the benefits, potential, and relevance of cryptocurrencies. He has also been invited to comment on other topics such as Bitcoin dynamics and adoption, in established and well-respected newspapers such as The Independent and the Financial Times.