FRANKFURT, 18 May 2026: 21X, the first fully regulated blockchain-enabled trading venue for digital securities in the European Union (EU), today announced the appointment of Mark David Bakacs as Managing Director, Group Strategy. With a career spanning two decades across magic circle and white shoe law, blockchain infrastructure and institutional capital markets, Bakacs joins 21X as it moves from establishing its regulatory foundation to executing its institutional and international growth agenda.
Bakacs began his legal career in 2005, working across Linklaters, Sidley Austin, and Maples Group – gaining an unusually complete view of how institutional capital moves globally through English law, US law and offshore structuring. The financial crisis of 2008 proved formative: Acting for clients including AIG and a major Gulf sovereign wealth fund during the Credit Suisse bailout, he developed a precise understanding of where the infrastructure of capital markets breaks under stress – settlement, clearing, and counterparty exposure chief among them.
In 2017, Bakacs joined ConsenSys, where he co-created the Ethereal Summit – one of the first major public-facing events to translate blockchain and decentralised finance to a mainstream institutional audience. He has since operated across the digital assets space as builder, investor, and strategic catalyst.
At 21X, Bakacs will focus on building the commercial and regulatory frameworks that connect traditional market participants to on-chain infrastructure, leading the company’s institutional positioning and international expansion – including into the US market.
Mark David Bakacs said:
“21X is building the infrastructure that capital markets have needed for decades – faster, cheaper, more transparent and accessible to everyone. The regulatory foundation is in place, the technology works, and the team assembled here are genuine triple-A-grade players. I have been waiting for this moment for twenty years and there is nowhere else I would rather be building it.”
He added:
“What has changed is that the infrastructure itself is now moving. 21X is not layering tokens on top of the old system – it is replacing the settlement layer entirely. That is the shift that makes this moment different from everything that came before it. The regulatory and institutional conditions have never all existed simultaneously before, and 21X holds the only BaFin authorisation for a DLT trading and settlement system in Europe. The question now is who builds the rails. That is what we are here to do.”
Max J. Heinzle, CEO of 21X, welcomed the appointment, stating:
“Mark brings something rare – fluency across the legal, regulatory, technical, and strategic dimensions of what we are building, combined with deep personal conviction about why it matters. He has seen the old system from the inside, he has been part of building the new one since its earliest days, and he understands precisely what 21X represents at this moment in the evolution of capital markets. We are delighted to have him as part of the leadership team.”
The appointment of Bakacs follows 21X’s recent expansion of its senior leadership team and reflects the company’s accelerating momentum as it moves into its next phase of institutional and international growth. With its regulatory foundation established and its platform live, 21X is now focused on building the partnerships and frameworks that will define the future of on-chain capital markets.
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About 21X
21X is a regulated financial institution providing market infrastructure for tokenized financial instruments. Its platform enables eligible participants to trade tokenized equities, bonds, funds, and other tokenized financial instruments via smart contract-based execution and atomic on-chain settlement.
For more information on 21X, contact:
Richie MacTaggart, head of PR & marketing
Mail: press@21X.eu
Mob: +44 7828173419
Web: https://www.21x.eu/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/21x/
