Daniel Lee MBA

Daniel Lee is a financial services and digital asset executive whose career has focused on electronic trading, capital markets, banking, and Web3 infrastructure. He is CEO of Cactus Custody and previously served as Head of Web3 at Banking Circle and Executive Director and Head of Business and Listing at DBS Digital Exchange. ^[1]

Education

Lee graduated from Queen’s University Belfast with a BSc in Psychology in 1993. He attended the University of Cambridge, where he conducted postgraduate research in Psychology in 1996. Lee later earned his LL.M in Commercial Law from Northumbria University and an MBA from California State University. ^[2]

Career

Lee began his career in financial markets at WI Carr Securities, where he worked in sales trading, sales, and analysis from 1996 to 1999. He then spent more than two decades at DBS Vickers Securities, progressing through roles in electronic trading and ultimately serving as Head of Electronic Trading, Exchange Traded Funds, and Securities Lending and Borrowing. He also held executive positions at DBS Bank and became Executive Director and Head of Business and Listing at DBS Digital Exchange in December 2020, where he worked on the development of a digital-asset trading and custody platform for institutional and accredited investors. In 2022, Lee moved into a broader range of Web3 and digital-asset roles, including advisory and board positions with companies in cryptocurrency, payments, stablecoins, and digital media. He joined Banking Circle as Head of Web3 in September 2022 and later became a Senior Web3 Advisor in January 2026. He has also served as a non-executive director of Coinut and held advisory or board positions with Calvin Cheng Web3, Damoon Technology, Anchored Coins, and TechStorm TV. Lee became CEO of Cactus Custody in January 2026. In this role, he leads the institutional digital-asset custody business, which provides custody and related infrastructure for clients including miners, exchanges, funds, payment platforms, and tokenized-asset businesses. ^[5]

Interviews

Digital Assets & Tokenization

In a December 2025 interview with CryptoNews, Lee discussed his transition from traditional finance into digital assets and the increasing institutional adoption of cryptocurrencies, custody, and tokenized financial instruments. He described observing clients adopt digital assets before many banks and argued that banks and custodians could serve as intermediaries between traditional financial systems and emerging digital-asset infrastructure. Lee also reflected on his work at DBS Digital Exchange, including his efforts beginning in 2018 to develop a bank-backed digital asset exchange and the regulatory and institutional challenges involved in securing support for the initiative. He discussed the role of stablecoins and tokenized deposits in financial infrastructure, including potential applications in private-market ownership, trade settlement, and programmable compliance, and noted growing interest from private banks, trading firms, treasury desks, and family offices. Lee also argued that institutional custody was evolving beyond asset storage toward transaction coordination, compliance, and connectivity with tokenized financial markets, while traditional and digital-asset custodians increasingly converge around institutional requirements. ^[3]

Niche to Global

In a November 2025 interview with Moomoo SG at TOKEN2049, Lee discussed Banking Circle's work integrating Web3 infrastructure with traditional banking and payments. As Head of Web3, he described initiatives involving stablecoins and tokenized deposits, including the development of a euro-denominated tokenized deposit, and discussed the role of tokenized money in enabling atomic settlement for blockchain-based assets. Lee examined potential applications for tokenized real-world assets beyond fractional ownership, including their use as collateral in decentralized finance, while noting that regulatory clarity and industry education remained challenges to broader adoption. He also discussed Banking Circle's issuance of a MiCA-compliant, fiat-backed e-money stablecoin in Europe and the safeguards surrounding its reserves. Lee concluded by describing the increasingly blurred distinction between traditional finance and Web3, with financial institutions and crypto companies adopting features and products associated with the other sector. ^[4]