Trustless by Design
Ben Putley is CEO and Co-Founder of Alkimi Exchange, the blockchain-based programmatic exchange built to solve two of the industry’s most persistent problems: high fees and lack of transparency. With partners including Publicis, Coca-Cola, and Kraken, and an immutable ledger that allows buyers and sellers to query transaction data down to log level, the proof is in four years of delivery.
“There is nothing better for transparency than an immutable transaction record. Lower fees, full transparency, and your marketing budget earning yield while it sits idle.”
Ben Putley is CEO and Co-Founder of Alkimi Exchange, the London and Bangalore-based blockchain programmatic exchange he co-founded in May 2021. Alkimi operates with 60 staff and has built partnerships with Publicis, Coca-Cola, Kraken/Media Hub, and a growing community of crypto publishers.
Ben came to blockchain via ad tech. After product roles at CanGenerate and Vega Information and a publishing partnerships background at Mozoo Group, he spent four and a half years at Sharethrough as Strategic Partner Director, then led new business at THE FIFTH. He describes himself and his co-founders as born vampires: they understood ad tech from the inside and figured out how to apply blockchain to its most persistent structural problems.
Alkimi’s most commercially novel propositions are its 100% share-of-screen product, which leverages competitive net bids to win all ad units on a page for portfolio brands or luxury advertisers, and the AdFi concept: the idea that marketing budgets held in stablecoins can earn yield while sitting idle before deployment. The regulation environment for blockchain in the US shifted significantly in 2024 and 2025, removing what Ben describes as one of the most persistent blockers to institutional adoption.
“We have to put off the first no for as long as we possibly can. Once they say no, the deal is dead.”
“If you buy ads, you get more media for your money. If you sell ads, you get paid more.”
The structural case for blockchain in programmatic is not theoretical for Alkimi. It is four years of live campaigns with major agency groups and brands. The ledger means every fee, every transaction, every data point is independently verifiable at log level. The lower fee structure means net bids are higher than traditional exchanges. Ben’s argument is that the only reason this model did not replace traditional exchanges sooner was education and regulatory uncertainty. Both of those are now changing.
“Working with us should feel familiar. IAB formats, the same planning process. The difference is what happens on the backend.”
Ben’s onboarding philosophy is to meet buyers where they are and remove friction at every step. Alkimi uses the ad formats buyers are already buying. The campaign reporting arrives on the schedule they expect. The service levels match what they would get from any established exchange. The blockchain infrastructure runs in the background without requiring anyone to understand it to benefit from it.
“The formula is timing, simplicity, and doing the boring things right. Now the adoption has arrived.”
Ben is unsentimental about what makes a startup work. The idea is only part of it. Alkimi’s 100% share-of-screen product did not sell because it was brilliant. It sold because it solved a specific problem, it was packaged in IAB formats planners already understood, and the team delivered the reports on time. The regulatory change in the US in 2024 and 2025 created the broader environmental shift. Alkimi’s four years of operational credibility created the company-specific position to capitalise on it.
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