Fideum Group Limited CEO Anastasija Plotnikova talked with Proactive about the company’s strategic partnership and investment agreement with Valereum PLC (AQSE:VLRM).
Plotnikova explained how the deal positions Fideum to target larger clients and accelerates its international expansion, particularly into Latin American markets.
She highlighted that Valereum’s status as a regulated entity in El Salvador provides immediate access to a high-level Digital Asset Service Provider (DASP) license, allowing both companies to jointly offer services without the need for Fideum to pursue separate local licensing. “We can combine our efforts and both of our technologies and offerings, put them under one very cohesive umbrella, and go to market much faster,” she said.
Discussing tokenisation, Plotnikova noted that favourable regulation in El Salvador and Dubai has opened up practical pathways for real-world asset tokenisation. Fideum’s role will focus on the seamless processing of crypto-to-fiat transactions for large tokenised asset deals.
She emphasised the importance of deep, regulated liquidity for institutional clients and said the partnership enables access to high-value OTC transactions in a compliant manner. With Valereum’s backing, Fideum aims to scale up from tier-two to tier-one banks and public sector clients.
Proactive: Anastasija, very good to meet you. Could you start by telling us how this investment aligns with Fideum’s growth strategy and long-term vision?
Anastasija Plotnikova: 100%. And first of all, thank you so much for having me here. For us Valereum’s trust and investment into Fideum Group means a lot. And also it means a lot on the very practical level. Fideum would position ourselves as a regulatory-first company, and Valereum being regulated in El Salvador. They already have the strategic positioning and marketplace and market share in that region. So for us, it was a very natural fit that we can work together. And we're actually working on deploying our solutions together to a B2B client base. We're very excited about that.
Proactive: How will access to Valereum’s Digital Asset Service Provider (DASP) license in El Salvador enhance your regulatory capabilities?
Anastasija Plotnikova: So, on our side, on Fideum’s side, we're licensed and authorised mostly in absolutely different sides of the world—Europe, Australia, Canada. We have a mix of payment licenses and so-called crypto licenses. What Valereum has—and not many people know this—the DASP license in El Salvador is very hard to get because regulatory requirements and supervision are on the highest level. That license will allow us to enter Latin markets and start supporting not only Valereum’s offering, but our joint offering to an ever-expanding client base. On our side, the very clear benefit is that we don't need to go through licensing ourselves, and we can combine our efforts and both of our technologies and offerings, put them under one very cohesive umbrella, and go to market much faster.
Proactive: How do you see this investment accelerating tokenisation of real-world assets?
Anastasija Plotnikova: Tokenisation—it's such an interesting topic. We have been talking about tokenisation since 2017. But finally, with the appropriate regulatory requirements coming out of El Salvador and Dubai, and with the licensing and technology Valereum has built, now is the time to actually capture those clients. The market is primed for that. There is a legal requirement, and there are technical capabilities to actually start offering those services. At Fideum, our job will be to empower all the payment sides of this offering. Imagine if you are selling real estate or stocks or bonds that are tokenised—the inflow of crypto to fiat and vice versa. This will be our job to empower that for very smooth client acquisition and processing for the largest deals.
Proactive: What impact will institutional trading and OTC liquidity have on your platform’s appeal?
Anastasija Plotnikova: For large institutions—and to be fair for any institutions—liquidity is of the utmost importance. If you're a large client, you need to have partners with very deep liquidity in order to process those transactions. Imagine we have clients, and Valereum has a client list of very large multimillion-dollar transactions. That liquidity has to come from somewhere. But mind you, it has to come from regulated environments. You can't source that liquidity from nilly-willy providers that are based in some weird offshore jurisdictions. So this is the core component of this cooperation.
Proactive: Where does this position Fideum relative to major competitors in the crypto infrastructure space?
Anastasija Plotnikova: Having partnered with Valereum plc and having them as one of our strategic investors, this elevates us to new heights. We can start offering our combined services and Fideum services to larger clients. And for us, this is such a great benefit. Having their backing, we can target much larger customers. So let's say from tier-three or tier-two banks, we can approach tier-one banks as well as other public entities. So on our side, we're beyond excited.