Rani Jabban, 'The Punk Banker' | Crypto, Digital Art and the Long Game

I mean, our business in crypto is being a private bank and all converged for us to start this

whole thing.

And I can only imagine if you're somebody who's looking to manage their wealth in you love and are passionate about these contemporary themes or want to be, and you want some curation around it, you know, that's what you're there for.

But nonetheless, you know, you hinted at, and I think too humble to really say, it doesn't really feel like many other participants have put the commitment into that theme.

So have you found... you know, the starts of this identity attracting that type of individual to Arab Bank where they hold crypto, they are in NFTs or digital art, and they wouldn't want to do it with anyone else because you're at some of the events that they're at and giving the award for And the type of stuff that they're passionate about culturally, or again, not massively.

It's something that you think in the future will happen.

Well,

I think there was attraction, and it continues.

It's not something spectacular if you're looking at Dow.

But it changed completely the perception of the bank.

So it goes.

Well, with the idea of being one of the first movers in terms of cryptocurrency in the private bank, it goes with the idea that we are completely attached to digital art.

So they go hand in hand in a way, even though I don't think cryptos and digital art are completely linked.

But it is the perception and technically we can do anything on on-chain art and custody it, buy it, KYC, whatever you need to do in the more traditional environment.

So we adapted all our processes for that because we did it for ourselves, for our collection first, not for a client.

Because, and moving forward, I think what we're trying to do today is to build a culturally relevant collection for the years to come.

And it's not about commercial or any profit idea.

It's just building a credibility and build something that is culturally relevant for the future.

So that's what we're trying to do.

And that's why every time we do an event, whether educational or more art event, we try to push the idea that people are privileged to be witnessing what's happening today.

And this is... profoundly convinced about it, that we are watching something that is incredible and people will talk about it in the future.

And we're really privileged to be here, to be with all these artists that you can see the names here behind you.

And it's important for us as an institution because it positions you completely differently from the others.

After all, private banks are all the same.

So you are trying to create a brand uh and and so you push whatever makes you unique and here in if you combine what we do in digital assets in general and digital art in particular makes us completely different