Money20/20: Crypto-time spirit dominated by stable coins, regulations and trust

The concept was more of a curiosity than a concrete financial sector-with managers of crypto-native companies such as Z Ripple and octopuses defends digital assets.

The compliance and anti-money laundering units Chainalysis and Elliptic had prominent parking spaces, directly opposite at the entrance, such as rivals that fight for potential tradfi customers. Start-ups that are geared towards helping the institutional mass with access to crypto exposure, such as Fireblocks and Copper, were hidden a little further back.

Mainstage panels, which focused specifically on digital assets, were generally commissioned to analyze the problems of regulation-such as the trust in Defi, which is accompanied by jokes over the Terra debacle.

"There is no question that crypto has an enormous development potential," said Simonas Krėpšta, board member of the Lithuanian Central Bank, during one of the first meetings on Tuesday with the title "How far can you go with Crypto Fomo?". Lithuania is home to around 400 crypto exchanges, said Krėpšta, but there is no formal license program.

KrėPšta added: "If the cryptoscut wants to be accepted more widely, there must be more confidence between the community and industry - stable coins should be stable. We need regulatory authorities to better understand the sector, but crypto must be quite brave and sometimes even voluntarily stand up for stricter regulation than traditional finance."

stablecoins, stablecoins, stable coins

In the case of an off-stage panel, Sendi Young, rippling manager for Great Britain and Europe, cross-border payments were the most important application for digital assets (no surprise if you consider that companies are transferred to the primary sales feed).

Cyril Mathew, head of the global crypto partnerships of Stripe, explained the company's most recent payout tests for the creators of Twitter content. Last month, Stripe passed to allow companies to pay customers in crypto via the polygon blockchain, starting with circle-coupled stablecoin USDC.

"Our first trip to crypto technology was in 2014 when we started to accept Bitcoin payments," said Mathew. "The market was not quite ready yet - people don't try to pay for goods and services in Bitcoin, these are actually the obstacles to mass payments."

mathew added, stripe that "serve the growth of the GDP of the Internet and want to stimulate it", consider mass payments to be quite willing to be disturbed by digital assets, but payments in stable coins "make a lot of sense today".

At an event about the future of money, Bitcoin, ether and other non-stable cryptocurrencies were mentioned very little, apart from a fireplace discussion "How to decarate crypto", hidden in a "Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll Bar" on the last day.

However, there were discussions about NFTs and the potential of Web3 to change behaviors. Perhaps more suitable, they merge physical behaviors that have existed for thousands of years (collecting shiny objects), with the meta person.

VLAD PANCHENKO and ORI Levi, each CEO of DRARKET and NFTRADE, as well as Julia Morrongiello, head of European growth at Zero Hash, ultimately did not agree whether gaming, ticketing or fractionation of exotic and illiquid investments were NFT's killer app.

"The potential for NFTS that are bound to play objects is what I am most happy about," said Levi behind a sunglasses, which was wearing a bright shirt that was a bit out of place in the extensive Rai conference center.

Levi continued: "People invest so much of their lives in games, and with NFTs they finally have property." He predicted that traveling between metavers with NFT objects will take place in the game "very soon".

On the main stage, Helen Hai, head of NFTS and fan token at Binance, used a large part of her 20-minute spots to describe the philanthropy, which is promoted by the charity of the stock exchange. She also addressed the potential role of blockchain and NFTs in the "fourth industrial revolution" - a process that is geared to merge physical and digital constructs in the next century.

crypto "curation" could help close the gap

For the Berlin startup finoa, the institutional interest has grown quickly - and not just in stable coins. A year ago, Finoa finished a series-A round worth $ 22 million, which was led by the great British risk fund Balderton Capital. At that time she counted more than 250 customers, including the German stock specialist Bankhaus Scheich - today there are over 300.

The company served mainly as a trustworthy (and regulated) third party and digital assets for various cryptoma market participants, such as: B. VC companies, securely kept.

Marius Lunding Smith, Head of Strategy at Finoa, told Blockworks that the company now moved to a "full -fledged crypto bank by curating access to everything and giving institutions to participate in a way that is understandable to them". In other words: under strict regulatory and safety -relevant parameters.

Smith said that stable coins are not a focus for customers, although there is a demand for crypto-native interest accounts that are generally on US-coupled stable coins.

Nevertheless, Finoa found that Bitcoin and Ether claimed most of the demand. Now crypto-seven investors-for example cryptofonds who have just invested in a new token-want custody and staking services for the newer layer 1 tokens such as Near, Polkadot, Tezos, Flow and Mina.

On the question of whether established financial institutions will leave their obvious obsession with the dollar -bound stable coins, Smith expressed a holistic view:

"There will always be those who chase the highest returns that go with a high risk. We have to be there and those who have this appetite, participation and access. For others, it is about ensuring that you can interact with most mainstream tokens-conservative, good returns that are more sustainable, more sustainable and more are. “

Therefore, curation is necessary if institutional types of digital assets are offered, said Smith. There are platforms that enable participation in practically every cryptocurrency, which works if you are a pure technology provider, but operation within regulatory limits is a different story.

The crypto industry has to ensure that the ecosystem can be understood by traditional systems.

"Otherwise we will never really get a mass adoption," said Smith.

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The contribution Money20/20: Crypto time spirit dominates by stablecoins, regulations and trust is not a financial advice.