Gone Crypto: Following the Data to Digital Assets

Lukka head of data and analytics Dan Huscher wants to see the numbers. 

“I’ve always liked working with data,” he said. “Data in of itself is one thing, but what makes it really powerful are the insights that it can provide, ultimately to lead to more informed decision making.” 

Three months ago, Huscher left the company where he started his career to tackle an entirely new challenge. 

“When looking at what the next steps in my career would look like, I started to think about what the future would look like,” said Huscher. “Technology, finance and crypto, it’s clearly going to be such a large part of the future. That’s really what started to pique my interest.” 

Huscher got his start in financial data at information provider IHS Markit, where he spent 16 years after serving in the US Army. He was the managing director within the financial services division and the head of data strategy for the global markets group, among other roles. 

“I’ve spent my entire career within FinTech,” Huscher said. “I’ve worked side by side with technologists in every agreement that I’ve ever had, so the interaction of technology and finance is something that’s quite native to me.”

Huscher first heard about cryptocurrencies about years ago. It was a field he knew peripherally but not well until more recently. 

“I first started to pay attention to it several years ago, I think probably along the same time as the rest of the universe,” he said. “I didn’t pay too close attention to it at first, but given what’s happening in the marketplace, and in the crypto space, it’s virtually impossible to ignore or even be unaware of today.” 

Over the past year, Huscher has started to learn more about the asset class as institutional adoption and retail interest have grown. 

“And looking toward the future of the intersection between technology and finance, crypto is clearly a large part of that,” Huscher said. “It’s rapidly evolving, it’s dynamic, there’s a ton of innovation happening.” 

The more Huscher learned, the more he came to understand that traditional finance and cryptocurrencies go hand in hand. 

“People may think it’s a brand new asset class, and while I think it certainly brings certain idiosyncratic issues to solve for, there is actually quite a bit of overlap between the digital asset space and what I would refer to as the more traditional or classical finance space,” Huscher said. “As traditional institutions adapt, they’re going to be required to fit crypto into their existing frameworks, and there’s more overlap than one would think.” 

As Huscher thought more about how digital assets and blockchain technology would change the existing financial landscape, he realized it was time for a career shift. The more he thought about it, the easier the decision became. 

“I had discussions with many people around me, the people that worked for me, my managers, the leadership and other people outside of my professional life,” Huscher said. “As I walked them through my thought process on why I was making the change, it was quite evident that this was going to be the next chapter of my career and something that’s going to be very exciting.” 

When he heard about digital asset data provider Lukka, he was impressed with their mission and it seemed like the perfect fit for his FinTech background. It was clear to Huscher that as digital assets continue to grow, businesses are going to need access to reliable data.  

“In my short time here, it’s clear that the opportunities ahead of us for data analytics are enormous,” Huscher said. “And I look forward to the challenge.” 

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