ARKHON by GSG empowers institutions to enter the digital asset ecosystem

• Amidst a boom in cryptocurrencies, GSG saw an opportunity to help traditional institutions plug into digital assets and unlock new revenue streams 
• Zühlke collaborated with GSG to build and validate a SaaS solution to manage digital assets, called ARKHON
• ARKHON provides a full-stack capability which allows traditional institutions to provide digital asset brokerage services to their customers in as little as 1 week
   

Solving the infrastructure gap between traditional institutions and the digital asset ecosystem

Digital assets have evolved beyond cryptocurrencies and speculation, offering a wide range of transformative use cases. Traditional players like banks, wealth advisors, family offices, and inter-dealer brokers are looking to enter the digital asset space, but often lack the digital infrastructure to do so. 

GSG - a digital asset investment solutions and advisory company that operates across Asia – experienced first-hand the lack of available infrastructure for its own institutional grade digital asset brokerage which has been in operation since 2019 and primarily services family offices, funds and high-net-worths.

In 2021, GSG decided to take head on the challenge of filling this technology gap in the market by building infrastructure from the ground up, developing a SaaS technology branded as ARKHON.

End-to-end product development with Zühlke

After getting ARKHON off the ground, GSG sought to take the platform to the next level by working with Zühlke. Zühlke brings decades of experience building financial technology for some of the world’s largest financial institutions. Also, Zühlke's holistic approach brings together top-tier engineering as well as strategic advisory capabilities under one roof.

To kick off the project, Zühlke's digital consulting team performed product validation and ran a series of market and competitor analyses. 

The analyses provided valuable insights into the market dynamics, user preferences, and emerging trends within the region's digital asset space. Based on this research, Zühlke provided recommendations to enhance ARKHON’s functionality and make it more commercially viable in the market. 

By the end of the consultation phase, two main components of the platform had taken shape. Firstly, an internal Admin Portal web application that would streamline client account management and operations. Secondly, on the client’s customer's end, a beautifully designed self-service app enabling customers to conduct trades themselves from among a number of cryptocurrencies and see their portfolio in real-time 24/7 year round. 

With this vision in mind, the collaboration with Zühlke evolved across three key areas of engagement.

From demo tool to working backend

Prior to engaging Zühlke, the GSG team had developed a demo prototype for ARKHON, essential for pitching to potential clients. The next step for Zühlke was to provide a foundation for the platform by designing and developing a more robust backend architecture. From demo cloud functions that returned dummy data, Zühlke's backend engineers refactored these into working data storage and server components. 

Redesigning a future-proof frontend

The successful completion of the backend enabled the team to drive a crucial shift in the evolution of the platform - from building a demo tool for short-term purposes to scaling up the prototype into a comprehensive, future-proof application that would be ready for GSG’s larger ambitions for ARKHON.

From this point, GSG entrusted Zühlke with the next step in this journey: an upgrade of the front-end. Zühlke tackled this by creating a consistent, modular structure, greatly simplifying state management workflows. This overhaul was instrumental in ensuring smooth data flows of financial information.

The integration of this newly revamped front-end with the robust back-end also resulted in a more seamless user experience, marking a significant leap in the platform's capabilities and client satisfaction.

Setting up a testing strategy

To ensure that development remained agile and efficient, Zühlke implemented CI/CD pipelines and a comprehensive test automation strategy to keep code high-quality and bug-free. 

As the project evolved, Zühlke took the flexible approach of bringing various specialists on board to meet GSG's needs. Recognising the need for mobile ecosystem expertise, Zühlke brought in mobile development capabilities to automate the build process of the self-service app. This multidisciplinary approach ensured that the best outcomes for each project component were delivered, providing the client with end-to-end support. 

By the end of the project, Zühlke had laid the groundwork for ARKHON to be a commercially viable and future-proof platform, supported by reliable software delivery processes to bring it to life. 

With this foundation in place, GSG was able to carry on its vision of bringing its SaaS solution, ARKHON, to market which now services clients across Asia. To learn more about GSG and ARKHON, please visit gsgasset.com and arkhon.io.

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