Let’s democratize capital gains

Decentralized finance, powered by blockchain, should make the financial world more efficient. Can it democratize, simplify and secure ways to plan yields on any digital asset? This is why we sit down with James Harris, Tesseract’s CEO, who joined the company a couple of months ago.

Tesseract Group, headquartered in Helsinki, provides institutional clients — including cryptocurrency trading platforms, fintech companies, and custodians — with access to yield-generating solutions across digital asset lending and professionally managed investment strategies. The group is supervised by the Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority (FIN-FSA) and will soon be compliant with the EU MiCA regulation.

Tell us a bit about yourself. 

I studied Management & Economics and moved to London around 2001 to join the traditional finance world – as one did in those days. I started as a trader, worked at Citigroup and several other TradFi institutions, essentially maximizing returns for clients who were already wealthy.

After 15 years in the city, I began questioning whether my work was making a meaningful difference. The encounter with blockchain-enabled finance opened entirely new perspectives. Flows of money in TradFi, across the globe, are fundamentally outdated, dominated by rent-seeking intermediaries that prevent markets from operating as efficiently as they should.

I became particularly interested in Bitcoin as a monetary innovation, and it quickly became clear that we were witnessing the emergence of a genuine alternative to the existing system.  This sparked a new passion for decentralized finance (DeFi). I transitioned to working with digital assets funds and then a custodian.

When Tesseract approached me, the timing was perfect.  It represented an opportunity to step into a CEO role and help drive the digital assets revolution from the front seat, rather than simply observing from the sidelines.

Tell us about Tesseract.

At its core, Tesseract generates yield for our clients by deploying capital – digital assets – across decentralized opportunities. We operate through two distinct channels.

First, our B2B2C business powers entire yield programs for enterprise clients through plug-and-play, API-backed products that integrate seamlessly with their existing systems and infrastructure. This allows our partners to offer sophisticated yield generation without building the capabilities in-house.

Secondly, we function as a specialized asset manager for institutional clients, actively deploying their digital assets across various strategies. This might involve lending to emerging DeFi protocols, participating in rewards programs, or deploying capital in other yield-generating opportunities – all tailored to match the specific protocol preferences and risk profiles our clients require. As you can imagine, the past five years have also been turbulent, but Tesseract has not only survived but strengthened its position. We’ve maintained our focus on regulated asset management products with strong risk management throughout these cycles.

The digital asset space offers multiple avenues for yield generation. Proof-of-stake protocols, like Solana, provide staking rewards of approximately 8-9%. Lending strategies and strategic capital deployment can often generate higher returns, either through Bitcoin-based products or stablecoin opportunities, depending on market conditions and client objectives.

What’s the role of tech in what you do?

We do use AI, and of course a solid API library, to automate the onboarding of clients and the everyday management of their needs. There is still a human element in what we do, which will remain. AI-enabled models can achieve optimization of any DeFi protocol, of course. When it comes to true yield optimization, risk management and customer care, humans are critical, and human touch will be there, at least for now, especially while protocols are still nascent.

Currently, we have approximately 25 employees, and we are planning to nearly double our workforce as we scale in the next two years. Our hiring strategy prioritizes candidates with crypto-native experience and AI expertise, reflecting the evolving nature of our industry.

I can see Tesseract as operating two parallel organizations: our current structure built around proven products and human expertise, and an emerging AI-enhanced organization that leverages autonomous agents and advanced AI tools to continuously improve our efficiency and capabilities. I am very optimistic about AI’s potential to amplify human capabilities and unlock new levels of creativity and strategic thinking.

What’s the future of finance and DeFi?

Digital assets will be central to the future of finance, with blockchain acting as the plumbing of financial systems. The direction is clear. This shift will make earning yields accessible to anyone. Currently, this often requires significant capital or institutional access. In the near future, it will be as simple as a few clicks.

Tesseract wants to be the backbone enabling this yield generation globally – the infrastructure that makes it all possible.

Looking at the US Genius Act, are you optimistic about crypto and the future?

I am encouraged by the direction the US is taking on digital assets. The US remains a regulatory leader, and the EU’s MiCA framework is progressive too. The UK is lagging, but there are clear signals of change coming. Full financial freedom and inclusion is essential. The GENIUS Act is a great first step, but there’s more work ahead in decentralizing the financial world and ensuring fair access to the benefits of digital asset yields. It will come.

“No pain, no gain”, says the famous adage. When it comes to digital assets, what we learn from Tesseract’s mission is that the pain of inefficiencies and rents can be mitigated, if not removed, while access to gains can be made easy, secure and smooth, for any player, current and future, wanting to join a future fluid and more decentralized world, where digital assets will replace traditional methods of value exchange and storage. The challenge is on.

Have you read?
The Citizenship by Investment (CBI) Index evaluates the performance of the 11 nations currently offering operational Citizenship By Investment (CBI) programs: St Kitts and Nevis (Saint Kitts and Nevis), Dominica, Grenada, Saint Lucia (St. Lucia), Antigua & Barbuda, Nauru, Vanuatu, Türkiye (Turkey), São Tomé and Príncipe, Jordan, and Egypt.