Ross Shemeliak

Standing

Who is writing

One of the people who were already here when this industry was still called STO. Co-founder of Stobox, a top-five global tokenization provider, and a tokenization expert at Cointelegraph, the number one media outlet in finance and blockchain.

Nine years in crypto. Seven of them leading real-world assets, which means he was building this market through the STO wave, through the years when nobody wanted to hear the word tokenization, and into the moment institutions started calling it RWA.

Frequent publisher on tokenization and blockchain for Cointelegraph, contributing author alongside tZERO, Maple, RWA.xyz and DefiLlama, plus features across nine further outlets.

Speaker at Web Summit and ten other conferences. Closed twenty-plus Tier 1 partnerships and clients for Stobox. Participant in a closed SEC event on tokenization with industry leaders including BlackRock and NASDAQ.

Expertise

4 areas

Not an observer of this industry. One of the people who built it, from the STO years to the institutional RWA market.

Ross Shemeliak is a C-level operator and a board member. He co-founded Stobox in 2019, ran it to a top-5 global position, and moved $300M of real-world assets on chain for 100+ clients across 4 continents. He sits on the board today and works with founders, funds and institutions entering this market.

01 / Tokenization

100+ clients. 4 continents. $300M on chain.

Jurisdiction, legal wrapper, regulator, issuance, custody. Ross has run that sequence more than 100 times, in markets from Qatar to the United States. He can tell you in the first meeting which structures clear review and which ones die in it. That judgement is not theoretical. It cost 7 years of filings, rejections and closings to acquire.

02 / Operations

70 people at peak. Product, legal, sales, delivery.

He has run the company, not represented it. Hired, restructured, and rebuilt the operating model every time the market turned under it. Founders bring him the part nobody posts about: who owns which number, how decisions actually get made, and where the process is bleeding money.

03 / Business development

20+ Tier 1 partnerships closed.

Qatar Financial Centre. Arbitrum. Canton Network. Chainlink. Fireblocks. tZERO. Every one started the same way: find the person who can sign, learn what they are measured on, give them a reason to move this quarter. The method does not change when the counterparty is a regulator holding a licence or an investor holding a cheque.

04 / Public representation

17 features in leading media. 10+ stages, including Web Summit.

Ross is a tokenization expert at Cointelegraph, the #1 media outlet in finance and blockchain. The SEC invited him to its Crypto Force Round Table. The Qatar Financial Centre admitted him to its Digital Assets Lab. The U.S. Embassy placed him on the SelectUSA delegation. In a market where credibility is the product, he is the one you put in front of the room.

Where he fits

C-level and board

Chief Operating Officer, Chief Strategy Officer, Chief Business Officer, Head of RWA, Head of Digital Assets, board and advisory seats

Senior operator roles

General Manager, Country Manager, Regional Director, Head of Tokenization, Head of Partnerships, market entry lead

Selective advisory

Tokenization strategy and structuring, licensing and regulatory readiness across the EU, MENA and the US, RWA market entry, partnership architecture, capital raising, diligence on RWA companies

Counterparties: asset managers, investment funds, blockchains, Web3 companies and regulators.

The record

Verifiable

Real-world assets moved on-chain: Tokenized by Stobox under his operating leadership.
Clients brought into the company: Won and onboarded across four continents.
Tier 1 partnerships closed: From the Qatar Financial Centre to Chainlink.
Conference stages: Web Summit, Paris, Amsterdam, Istanbul, Madrid.
Years in crypto: Seven of them leading RWA and tokenization.
Features in leading media: Cointelegraph, Tech.eu, Cryptopolitan and more.

Credentials

Selected, invited, appointed by others

The institutions that chose him, and the years behind it.

Ross Shemeliak inside the SEC hearing room during the Crypto Force Round Table — Inside the room, badge on

Washington D.C. · 2025

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

Selected to join the Crypto Force Round Table

A closed session on moving assets on-chain, with industry leaders including BlackRock and NASDAQ.

Doha

Qatar Financial Centre

Member of the QFC Digital Assets Lab, among Hacken and Polygon

One of the few firms selected into the Qatar Financial Centre programme for digital assets.

United States

The U.S. Embassy

Selected for the official delegation to the SelectUSA Summit

The largest governmental investment event of the year. The delegation was chosen by the U.S. Embassy.

Barcelona

European Blockchain Convention

Invited as one of the key opinion leaders in RWA

By one of the largest blockchain events in the European Union.

Global

Cointelegraph

Tokenization expert at Cointelegraph

The number one media outlet in finance and blockchain. Published alongside tZERO, Maple, RWA.xyz, Bernstein Research and DefiLlama.

2017 to date

Track record

Nine years in crypto, seven leading RWA and tokenization

In the market before the term STO settled, and years before the industry renamed itself RWA.

Profile

The operator behind a top-five tokenization provider.

Ross Shemeliak entered crypto in 2017, when the closest thing this market had to a name was the security token offering. He co-founded Stobox in 2019, years before anyone relabelled the category as real-world assets. Seven years later it was one of the five largest turn-key tokenization providers in the world: $300 million of assets moved on-chain, more than a hundred clients across four continents, and twenty-plus Tier 1 partnerships with the institutions that decide how this market actually works.

He is a tokenization expert at Cointelegraph, the largest finance and blockchain outlet in the world, where his analysis has run alongside tZERO, Maple, RWA.xyz, Bernstein Research and DefiLlama, and twice held a place among the publication’s top five editors’ choices.

The institutional record is the part he did not write himself. The SEC selected him for its Crypto Force Round Table in Washington, a closed session that included BlackRock and NASDAQ. The U.S. Embassy placed him on the official delegation to the SelectUSA Summit. The Qatar Financial Centre admitted him to its Digital Assets Lab. The European Blockchain Convention invited him as a key opinion leader on RWA.

He has spoken from more than ten conference stages, among them Web Summit, Paris Blockchain Week, Amsterdam Blockchain Week and Blockchain Economy Istanbul. He now sits on the Stobox board, and is usually in the water before the first call of the day.