Guggenheim Founder Morley Is Backing a New York Blockchain Tower

(Bloomberg) -- Todd Morley, a co-founder and former executive of finance behemoth Guggenheim Partners, is turning his attention to blockchain.

The financier is backing a new blockchain tower in midtown Manhattan, he said Monday in a Bloomberg Television interview. The skyscraper will incorporate a wireless network that improves access to digital ledgers, a set of technologies that underpin digital currencies like Bitcoin, he said. The building at 111 West 57th Street will include a museum for NFTs, the digital assets linked to art, music files or other assets.

“This one building will be able to connect -- sort of like a hand radio operator -- connect everyone in New York City to a crypto trading wireless communication,” Morley said.

Morley is the chairman of Overline, a network that seeks to link users to blockchains while also allowing them to trade its own digital coins including Emblems. Bitcoin users can already access blockchains through other means, such as via a network of satellites.

Overline is run by Chief Executive Officer Patrick McConlogue, a former data scientist at hedge fund firm Citadel. The company is working on the venture with JDS Development Group and is planning to make the wireless network available on more skyscrapers, including some outside Manhattan, McConlogue said in an interview. The goal is to allow anyone within a defined radius to have wireless access to blockchains, regardless of cellular plans or Internet connection.

Blockchain is “a part of financial services already and so communicating is a big part of that,” Morley said. Overline “has developed a new way to decentralize communication-- wireless communication -- that could be used at the speed that would even allow crypto mining.”

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