News & Updates

This weekend’s crypto crash, triggered by President Trump’s surprise announcement of 100% tariffs on Chinese imports, was one of the most violent in the industry’s history. Between Friday night and Saturday morning (10th–11th October), over $19 billion in leveraged positions were liquidated, wiping out $560 billion in market value across Bitcoin, Ethereum, and countless altcoins. Bitcoin plunged from its recent all-time high of $126,000 to under $105,000 before recovering slightly. Ethereum, Solana, XRP, and Dogecoin saw similar or worse declines, with some altcoins briefly losing over 90% of their value.

This flash crash was not just a financial event—it was a stark reminder of how fragile and exclusionary our systems can be when they prioritize speculation over substance. Millions of traders were caught off guard, and many retail participants, especially those using high leverage—were left exposed. The speed and scale of the collapse revealed deep vulnerabilities in centralized exchanges, price oracles, and synthetic token markets.

In moments like these, I’m reminded why I work in this space, not to chase volatility, but to build technology that serves people.

At banxlocal.uk and through my broader ventures, I focus on human-centric blockchain solutions. That means designing systems that are inclusive, accessible, and grounded in real-world utility. Too often, financial and tech platforms are built for the few—those with capital, technical fluency, or physical ability to navigate complex interfaces. The rest are left behind.

I believe innovation must be empathetic. Whether it’s ensuring our platforms are usable by those with visual impairments or making tokenised equity offerings understandable to non-technical investors, the goal is always the same: build for everyone.

This weekend’s crash also underscores the importance of resilience. While markets may recover, the human cost, lost savings, shattered trust, and emotional stress, is harder to quantify. That’s why I advocate for transparent governance, education-first onboarding, and community-driven design in every blockchain product I touch.

Technology should empower, not intimidate. Finance should include, not exclude.

As we move forward from this turbulent moment, let’s not just rebuild the market. Let’s rebuild it better—with people at the centre.

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Last week marked the inaugural Digital Assets Conference (https://digitalconferenceguernsey.gg/), bringing together visionary speakers, dynamic panel discussions (including one which I had the pleasure of joining), and the event was capped off a spectacular Red Arrows display which we had the pleasure of viewing from the rooftop offices of Artemis Fiduciaries at Admiral Plaza. The energy and ambition in the conference were palpable – a clear signal that Guernsey is stepping confidently into the future of finance.

This week, the focus shifted further. I was part of a highly constructive session at the Guernsey Financial Services Commission, where the commitment and appetite to embracing blockchain and evolving our legacy financial services infrastructure was evident. The GFSC is making bold strides to ensure Guernsey remains relevant and competitive in the global financial landscape.

Looking ahead, we’re excited for Tekex#33 (https://www.tekex.co) on Thursday evening, which promises to be a great convergence of minds judging from recent events, with some excellent businesses being showcased.

The upcoming Chamber of Commerce (https://guernseychamber.com/) lunch on October 1st. Where I, alongside the other members of the Guernsey Innovation Board (https://innovateguernsey.com) will be sharing the roadmap for fostering an innovative ecosystem — and more importantly, to listen to feedback from the wider business community on where our collective focus should be. There’s still time to grab a ticket for this – available on the chamber website!

Guernsey is building momentum. It’s a privilege to be part of the journey.

Summer arrives and everyone starts talking about taking time off and going away. In my line of work though holidays often mean just working from somewhere else! The fast pace of the technology sector means it never sleeps, and whilst the attraction of ‘switching off’ is appealing, the reality is that I don’t do this.

Since my last post I have gathered a couple of new clients, all of whom have their specific requirements from me. I’m looking forward to working in a few new areas.

Additionally I’m getting my teeth into my roles on the Guernsey Innovation Board, and the Guernsey Chamber of Commerce. A first step I’ve taken is to start to put together a series of breakfast meetings – initially titled ‘Blockchain Decoded’ which will essentially be a ‘myth busting’ and soft introduction for people to learn and share experiences.

I attended a great session hosted by Locate Guernsey this month, where the Innovation Board heard from new settlers to the island and their observations on innovation needed.

Some exciting months ahead for 2025, which has been a tough year, but increasingly I think the hard work put in will pay off as we start the journey towards 2026!

Not going to lie, June has been hard work!

Lots of things that were meant to be easy, turned out to be time consuming, expensive or both!

My hectic travel schedule of the first part of 2025 has now abated somewhat; however, June started with some key meetings meaning a couple of trips to London.

The Guernsey Innovation Board work is developing, and I’ll share more about the work streams and my role in the coming months, in addition to this I was elected as a board member of the Guernsey Chamber of Commerce, which is an accolade I’m very proud of too…

The last week I then had some respite to the hard work the month threw at me as my son had his speech day and leavers day ball at school in the UK. He’s finished his A-Levels and now heads out into the big bad world!

I’m not going to write much more for this update besides reinforcing my eternal optimism remains and that the world works in ways that none of us will ever understand but we must live here and make our worlds as perfect as possible.

As a resident of Guernsey these days I try to connect on every level. I sadly didn’t get back to the island for Liberation Day on 9th May, but did arrive in time to celebrate my 60th Birthday on the island I now call home.

I was delighted earlier in the month to announce my appointment to the Guernsey Innovation Board. The composition of the board is truly excellent, with industry leaders, education figureheads and people like me!

The remit of the board is to stimulate innovation (no surprise) but the big question is ‘What is Innovation?’

For me, as a digital and future thinker, this is everything from a state operated (or decentralised) stable coin (not fiat backed), to digital ID and medical records arein scope, however the more people I speak to, the more I understand how broad innovation is – whether its education, energy, transport or agriculture all topics are ‘on the agenda’.

Guernsey is a small (well tiny) jurisdiction, that needs to care about itself, nobody else will! It needs energy, food and connectivity controls putting in place. We see regularly shop shelves being empty simply because the weather was too bad for the boat/plane to arrive. Imagine if there was a world crisis – where would Guernsey be on the list of those needing assistance?

I’m up for the challenges, and there will be many. I have written before that I didn’t see me being politically involved in my chosen community again – 12 years as a councillor in UK was a long and often hard slog. However, Guernsey can be agile and nimble and has much of the framework in place already to drive things forward. So given a shove here and a push there perhaps we can make Guernsey a shining light of innovative thinking…

In other news, BallsApp has filled my days, flying back and forth to Dubai, Paris etc has taken so much time plus energy and effort. It’s a massive project and the only way to tell you how great it’s going to be is to speak one-to-one. So call me if you want more info.

Banxlocal is developing as planned.

The new branch due to open in September is shaping up. We need further investment, but the roadmap is set and we are now on track to deliver the most disruptive, yet most needed, fintech innovation in a generation!

Please contact me for any questions. I have reverted to WhatsApp and Telegram in the main these days +447839194950 or @NicholasCollinson respectively.

The roll out and planning of the launch of BallsApp has been intensive and has meant a lot of travel and even more focus and attention to ensure a successful launch of the app, token and ecosystem.

Having the right partners for this is essential, and the team I’m working with are both fully engaged (like me) and capable to deliver.

You can find out more about BallsApp at https://ballsapp.io or drop me a note to arrange a call and I’ll be happy to explain how we are using sport to redefine the utility of crypto!

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Last month, I hinted at an exciting and challenging new business project that would test my resilience and involve extensive travel over the coming months. So far this year, I’ve already visited Spain, France, the UK, and the UAE. In March, I’ll be returning to the UK and UAE, with a potential trip to India as well. I’m thrilled to finally announce the details: I’ve accepted the role of CEO at TSG Tech Ltd, the owner of BallsApp LLC (BallsApp.io).

As many of you know, blockchain has a wide range of use cases, with some fantastic implementations and others that are more questionable. BallsApp stands out as a prime example of how blockchain and a token economy can create a truly unique user experience. Players can challenge themselves in real-time, see their results instantly, and win prizes through gamification.

At the end of 2024, I reviewed my commitments and made the necessary adjustments to dedicate the time and effort required to realise BallsApp‘s potential. This meant rethinking my workload to accommodate such a significant project.

For 2025, my primary focus is securing funding for banxlocal.uk, a project two years in the making, with the first branch opening date soon to be announced. I’ll also be dedicating substantial time to delivering BallsApp, which I find incredibly rewarding. I’ve determined that I can continue my advisory roles with Technical Specialist Partners and Co-Efficient effectively.

As I navigated my roles and responsibilities, I realized how fortunate I am to work with so many wonderful people. The sporting legends involved in BallsApp, such as Sir Ian Botham and others yet to be announced, are truly inspiring. Equally, the dedicated founders and teams of the other ventures I’m blessed to work with continue to motivate me and I will support everyone in any way I can.

I continue to meet inspirational founders through the mentoring programs I’m involved in. Although I’ve had to limit my time on these activities, they remain very dear to me, and I intend to continue participating.

Starting the new year off right is critical, I considered that I had done this by closing off several projects that had taken u a lot of my time during 2024.

This ‘clear out’ allowed me time to take on a bigger and more complex project – details of which will come in my next update. The innovative and revolutionary nature of the business model is something I can be proud to have worked on since being introduced to the team towards the end of 2024.

January therefore was a whirlwind of meetings, in Guernsey, UK, Spain, France and UAE. Being introduced to many household names who are behind the ambitious, yet infinitely deliverable concept. I can’t wait to take the wraps off this!

What I like about this new role is that I see the direct impact it will have on its target audience, whilst still delivering the technology and sophisticated monetisation strategies I love to work on.

Aside from this, I continue to work on the banxlocal project. This is my labour of love and continues to gather pace despite some setbacks. Notably, having thought some investment had been secured from a particular route, this has now taken a change of direction, and we must dust ourselves off and restart the process of finding a suitable investor.

February will be a month of change, and potentially one where I spend more time away from home. This may impact on the timing of the next update I write depending on where in the world I am!

2024 has been a challenging year on so many levels, yet these challenges have largely been instrumental in laying the foundations for 2025 and what promises to be a fun filled, productive and busy year ahead.

The challenges in the crypto markets that have caused significant issues with delayed project launches, the continued problematic financial landscape (fuelled by fears around elections in the UK, USA and further political unrest elsewhere), and the seemingly increasing occurrences of scams, fraudulent and deceitful behaviour across the industry sectors I’m involved in all conspire to slow down, if not stop, real progress.

This said, there were some real steps forward and it’s important to remember the ‘wins’!

Often a barometer of success is how much travel I have done, as for me to need to get on a plane to meet in person usually means a firm opportunity to do business. My overseas destinations this year have included Singapore, Portugal and Italy.

The highlight destination this year being Lisbon, Portugal where I proudly represented banxlocal.uk at the European Banking Association ‘EBADay’ Awards in the Fintech Zone where the company was shortlisted in the last 16 to present at the prestigious annual event. As a disruptive business model, having the opportunity to explain our mission has led to many new connections and partnerships being formed.

I’ve mentioned before that a couple of long running legal disputes have taken a huge amount of my energy and effort trying to find justice. Sadly, there has not been the full closure of these I had hoped for (despite promises being made!) Therefore unfortunately, I am still carrying some baggage into 2025 on these fronts. I will continue to ensure that these weights I’m carrying don’t interfere with my work.

Many new opportunities continue to cross my desk, and as ever I have to be selective about the ones that either interest me most, or I will be most effective in.

Looking forward to 2025 I already have several engagements in my diary, including trips to Dubai and Spain in January, and then in February I’ll be on mainland UK and potentially India also. This is a really encouraging ‘fast start’ to 2025.

I’ll be announcing more of my work detail in the coming months, as things unfold, especially with the anticipated confirmations of the banxlocal branches opening, several crypto/blockchain projects going fully ahead once funding is achieved.

So, on this last day of 2024, I wish anyone reading this all the best for 2025, the fulfilment of their ambitions, hopes and desires.

I’m no maths genius, nor am I massively into numerology, however some dates seem to have a resonance and become noticeable to me.

Today, is 12/12/24 and this just seems to have struck enough of a chord with me to take 5 minutes out of what has been an extremely busy week so far to mark the day. I had several messages congratulating me on 6/12/24 (which again is a noticeable date), because it is my ‘Name Day‘ – so perhaps something in these numbers really does mean something.

Anyhow, following a busy week in Wales and England last week attending the Fintech Wales Investor Event and then a couple of interesting meetings with potential partners for banxlocal.uk, I sat at my desk on Monday catching up on a backlog of emails and messages. Suddenly the phone just started to ring, and WhatsApp started blowing up and before I knew it my day (in fact my week) was full!

Usually by this time in December I’m simply looking forward to a few days off across Christmas and New Year, this year I’m juggling things to see how best I can fit everything in! It’s looking like I’ll need to travel to Dubai ahead of Christmas, which is super exciting. The project this trip is for isn’t yet in the public domain, but I can say it fits my specific skill set and interest range combining technology, finance with real life. Once some meetings and handshakes are done, I’ll be updating more on this.

What has occurred to me and my parting thought for this post, is that again I realise I must focus on what I want to do, and how important it is for me to feel fulfilled in my work. I’m blessed to be connected to so many inspiring people in the various businesses I’m involved in, so as we head towards 2025 I will spend some time saying thank you to all those people. (They know who they are!)