FinTech Entrepreneur
Researcher & Speaker

Welcome to the age of 
Software & Technology

“I align your audience to the age of Software & Technology with focus on FinTech, Blockchain and Digital Assets by providing highly customized speaker engagements delivered in a pragmatic, provoking and thrilling style.”
– Robert Henker –

>50 Conferences in EU, US,APAC

About

Robert Henker is Entrepreneur, Researcher, Guest Lecturer and Speaker with a track record of more than 50 conferences in Europe, Asia and US. 

Mr Henker is a well-known Researcher, Fintech Entrepreneur, Guest Lecturer and Speaker with a track record of more than 50+ international conferences & corporate events including:

Current roles: Researcher, CEO & Founder and Guest Lecturer

Robert Henker is Founder & CEO of German Deep Tech Quantum GmbH, a Deep Tech Startup based in Potsdam, near Berlin (Germany). GDTQ was founded 2018 as spin-off from research. The company is part of German Deep Tech Group and German Deep Tech Foundation. German Quantums proprietary SaaS platform for Digital Asset Analytics leverages the latest insights from Digital Ledger Technology, Artificial Intelligence and Visual Analytics. In particular, the team in Germany and India applies latest research in Evolutionary & Genetic Algorithms for multiobjective optimization of quantitative digital asset models. In 2023 GDTQ's software platform enabled SaaS clients with the algorithmic execution of more than 600.000 transactions with a GMV of 2.3bn Euro (Linkedin Post with KPI).
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Robert Henker is Affiliated Fellow Researcher at XU Exponential University where he is responsible for research and scientific contribution of the joint research project ImmoToken on the technical, regulatory and economical framework for the Tokenization of real world assets. He focus his research on illiquid assets such as real estate and art. For more information visit the research project website ImmoToken or the section Publications.
 
2017 to 2022 Mr Henker was Research Manager and built up a Digital Asset Analytics research team at the prestigious Hasso Plattner Institute for Digital Engineering (HPI) at the University of Potsdam, near Berlin Germany. HPI was named after its founder and donator Hasso Plattner co-founder of software company SAP and comprises of 20 professors and more than 200 researchers.​ Mr Henkers research is   focused on financial market aspects of digital assets and crypto currencies such as crypto asset management, algorithmic crypto currency trading, asset tokenization, security tokens, DeFi, CEX & DEX as well as visual data analytics and quantitative models for descriptive and predictive market analysis.

Furthermore since 2009 Mr Henker teaches as Guest Lecturer in the fields of Blockchain, Digital Assets, IT Strategy & Management, Innovation and Entrepreneurship at various universities.
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Past Roles: FinTech Founder, Education, Awards
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FinTech Founder
In 2010 Mr Henker founded the FinTech company CASHBOARD and as CEO scaled it to German market leader and European top-10 wealth tech company with 10k+ clients until 2017. Initially bootstrapped  the company was awarded two times Europe's fastest crowdfunded startup after it raised €100k in 51 minutes 2012 and 350k€ in 9 hours 2013. In 2015 it raised €5m from top-tier VC’s including Earlybird, Pro7Sat.1 and 500Startups and the crowd was paid out with a return of 148%.
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Education
Robert Henker holds a Diploma in Business Informatics, is Certified Portfolio Manager Deutsche Börse CME and received his MBA from top 10 world business school ESCP Europe Paris. Since 2009 Mr Henker teaches as Guest Lecturer in the fields of   IT Strategy & Management, Innovation and Entrepreneurship at various universities.

Awards
Mr Henker won several awards, most notably Europe’s highest endowed startup prize and one of the worlds most important startup awards (Forbes) - the SevenVentures Pitch Day at NOAH Leaders Conference London - worth a €4m TV media budget.

Publications

Chapter 2: Is Real Estate Tokenization the Killer App?

This chapter shows how tokenization digitally depicts real assets such as real estate and makes them flexibly tradable. Security tokens in particular offer investors security and could establish themselves as a standard in the real estate industry. Tokenization makes real estate more mobile, liquid and accessible, lowers entry barriers for small investors and enables automated transactions with smart contracts.

Book Release: Blockchain, tokenization and metaverse in the construction and real estate world Contribution – Chapter 2: 
Is real estate tokenization the killer application?
First 4 Pages

A. Göke, C. Jacob, A. Jedelsky, S. Kukovec
(2024)

In 2016, BitMEX introduced a novel type of crypto derivates – Perpetual Swaps, i.e., futures with an infinite term. Perpetual swaps provide a new strategic risk management tool for cryptocurrencies due to their custody-free nature, high leverage, and funding mechanism, but there has been little quantitative analysis on the their benefits. In this paper, we introduce a trading strategy that combines a Quanto Perpetual Swap with a spot position to benefit from the funding mechanism.

A Low-Volatility Strategy based on Hedging a Quanto Perpetual Swap

R. Henker, D. Atzberger, T. Matsui, W. Knottenbelt,
W. Scheibel, J. Döllner
(2024)



Most cryptocurrency spot trading occurs on centralized crypto exchanges, where offers for buying and selling are organized via an order book. In liquid markets, the price achieved for buying and selling deviates only slightly from the assumed reference price, that is, trading is associated with low implicit costs. This paper describes the design and implementation of Athena, a system that automatically splits orders across multiple exchanges to minimize implicit costs. For this purpose, order books are collected from several centralized crypto exchanges and merged into an internal unified order book.

Athena: Smart order routing on centralized crypto exchanges using a unified order book

R. Henker, D. Atzberger, R. Henker, J. Vollmer,
W. Scheibel, J. Döllner, M. Bick
(2024)



The paper introduces Hephaistos, a system designed to collect, process, and unify order book data from 22 centralized crypto exchanges and 55 currency pairs. Unlike tick data, which only shows the last transaction, order books provide a more accurate view of market prices and available volume. Hephaistos aggregates this data into a Unified Order Book, enabling a Smart Order Routing algorithm that splits orders across multiple exchanges to achieve better execution prices. The system captures around 32% of global daily spot trading volume, and tests show that the algorithm reduces slippage, making it effective for high-frequency trading.

Hephaistos: A Management System for Massive Order Book Data from Multiple Centralized Crypto Exchanges with an Internal Unified Order Book

R. Henker, D. Atzberger, J. Vollmer, W. Scheibel,
J. Döllner, M. Bick
(2023)

Real estate is the largest asset class and is popular with both professional and retail investors. However, it suffers from illiquidity and high equity entry barriers. The 2021 adoption of the Electronic Securities Act by the German Bundestag established a legal framework for tokenizing real estate assets and their management via digital ledger technology in Germany. This paper outlines a business concept for managing ownership and transactions in German real estate using blockchain. It also includes a market analysis of existing approaches and discusses legal limitations specific to Germany.

Real Estate Tokenization in Germany: Market Analysis and Concept of a Regulatory and Technical Solution

R. Henker, D. Atzberger, W. Scheibel, J. Döllner
(2023)



Trading for a currency pair on centralized crypto exchanges is organized via an order book that collects all open buy and sell orders and serves as the basis for price formation. While basic 2D visualizations are typically provided, they do not support comparing different order book snapshots. This work introduces OrderBookVis, a 2.5D visualization that displays multiple order book snapshots in sequence on a 2D reference plane. Use cases include analyzing the temporal evolution of an order book for a specific market and comparing different order books across multiple markets.

OrderBookVis: A Visualization Approach for Camparing Order Books from Centralized Crypto Exchanges

A. Jobst, D. Atzberger, R. Henker, W. Scheibel, J. Döllner
(2023)



Most cryptocurrencies are traded on centralized exchanges using order books. Liquidity, alongside trading fees, is a key factor in exchange choice. This study analyzes liquidity across nine order books (three pairs on three exchanges) over 2022, showing that higher market cap and trading volume lead to greater liquidity. Liquidity correlations between exchanges are moderate. External events like the FTX and Terra Luna crashes significantly impacted liquidity, with recovery time depending on exchange size and market cap.

Examining Liquidity of Exchanges and Assets and the Impact of External Events in Centralized Crypto Markets: A 2022 Study

A. Jobst, D. Atzberger, R. Henker, J. Vollmer,
W. Scheibel, J. Döllner
(2023)

On Stage

Mr Henker was moderator and speaker at major conferences in Europe, US & Asia

Contact

References