The first Bitcoin futures exchange-traded fund made its debut on Wall Street just a little over a fortnight ago. Six days later, Mastercard partnered with digital asset management company Bakkt to bring cryptocurrencies into its network. As increasing numbers of mainstream finance sector businesses enter the crypto space, digital assets are reaching a level of maturity that’s defying the predictions of their critics.
“Blockchain, Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are no longer some young, innovative technology,” Blockdata co-founder and managing director Jonathon Knegtel said in a video interview with Forkast.News. “It’s almost a teenager.”
Watch Knegtel’s full interview with Forkast.News Editor-in-Chief Angie Lau to learn more about crypto banks’ disruptive effects on the banking system, how regulation can propel the crypto space into maturity, how DeFi may challenge centralized crypto banks, and the risks behind the burgeoning market for non-fungible tokens.
00:00 Introduction
01:44 Understanding blockchain data
02:54 How the space has changed
10:17 Crypto challenges the challengers
16:53 Expectations of new generations
18:38 Blockchain funding records in Q3
25:16 DeFi: friend or foe?
34:39 NFT's Cinderella story
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HIGHLIGHTS
“Perpetual” growth in the crypto space:
“When you take Bakkt, or you take any of these other … crypto services, it's making it a lot easier for people to actually enter the ecosystem and partake … And so that's just where the whole space then starts to become perpetual. ‘Perpetual’ is a word that I’ve started to use more and more when describing the ecosystem, because more users are coming in, and then the value goes up, and then the value kind of gets circulated inside and people start funding each other, and then that's the stage we're at now.”
Regulation and maturity:
“Traditionally in this space, it's always been like, ‘No, regulation is bad. We don't want regulation.’ And I think the conversation is now turning a little bit to saying, ‘It's not that we don't want regulation. Specifically, we don't want bad regulation. Good regulation can be positive for the ecosystem, allows new opportunities, allows companies to mature and service more and more customers’.”
Crypto growth and the macro environment:
“Inflation is now becoming a thing … A few years ago, everyone was like, ‘No, we want our current system, and it needs to stay the same, and we don't want anything new.’ And now it's starting to look like … investors are starting to educate themselves again. We've had a long period of education. Now they're realizing, ‘Hey, cryptocurrencies might not be the revolution, but they might be the evolution of the financial system.’ And if we're not placing a bet there, then we're actually betting against the system staying the same as it is now, which is pretty obviously not working very well in 2021.”
Why financial services businesses are entering the crypto space:
“They realize … that this is becoming an evolution. It's just not going away ... But also … when we look at what's happening… institutional DeFi... and we look at a lot of the centralized providers, they provide institutional services that appease not only the front office ... but now the service level has gone up so much that the back office — traditionally the compliance guys who have said, ‘No, we cannot do this, this is not OK’ — they're now starting to be like, ‘Actually, if they're saying that and they have this and ... We can actually get involved in a regulated, compliant and — quote — risk-free environment’ — I put that in quotes because crypto still has inherent risks — ‘we can actually start to deploy capital.’”
Risks behind the NFT surge:
“Just as quickly as people make money, people can also lose money. Or people get excited about NFTs, and then they put (them) on OpenSea, and then nothing happens. And then people can also lose interest in the technology or the idea that it represents because, hey, nothing happened. And so I think this circles a little bit around to regulation. For example, there's nowhere where you can register yourself as an NFT creator and you can get a stamp or maybe another NFT that proves your authenticity as an artist or what you're going to create — an audit of the code.”
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#Crypto #Blockchain #BlockchainTechnology #DigitalAssets #Cryptocurrency #DeFi #Mastercard #Bakkt #NFT #Inflation #Finance #InstitutionalDeFi #Blockdata #Regulation
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MORE WORD ON THE BLOCK INTERVIEWS: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...
“Blockchain, Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are no longer some young, innovative technology,” Blockdata co-founder and managing director Jonathon Knegtel said in a video interview with Forkast.News. “It’s almost a teenager.”
Watch Knegtel’s full interview with Forkast.News Editor-in-Chief Angie Lau to learn more about crypto banks’ disruptive effects on the banking system, how regulation can propel the crypto space into maturity, how DeFi may challenge centralized crypto banks, and the risks behind the burgeoning market for non-fungible tokens.
00:00 Introduction
01:44 Understanding blockchain data
02:54 How the space has changed
10:17 Crypto challenges the challengers
16:53 Expectations of new generations
18:38 Blockchain funding records in Q3
25:16 DeFi: friend or foe?
34:39 NFT's Cinderella story
---
HIGHLIGHTS
“Perpetual” growth in the crypto space:
“When you take Bakkt, or you take any of these other … crypto services, it's making it a lot easier for people to actually enter the ecosystem and partake … And so that's just where the whole space then starts to become perpetual. ‘Perpetual’ is a word that I’ve started to use more and more when describing the ecosystem, because more users are coming in, and then the value goes up, and then the value kind of gets circulated inside and people start funding each other, and then that's the stage we're at now.”
Regulation and maturity:
“Traditionally in this space, it's always been like, ‘No, regulation is bad. We don't want regulation.’ And I think the conversation is now turning a little bit to saying, ‘It's not that we don't want regulation. Specifically, we don't want bad regulation. Good regulation can be positive for the ecosystem, allows new opportunities, allows companies to mature and service more and more customers’.”
Crypto growth and the macro environment:
“Inflation is now becoming a thing … A few years ago, everyone was like, ‘No, we want our current system, and it needs to stay the same, and we don't want anything new.’ And now it's starting to look like … investors are starting to educate themselves again. We've had a long period of education. Now they're realizing, ‘Hey, cryptocurrencies might not be the revolution, but they might be the evolution of the financial system.’ And if we're not placing a bet there, then we're actually betting against the system staying the same as it is now, which is pretty obviously not working very well in 2021.”
Why financial services businesses are entering the crypto space:
“They realize … that this is becoming an evolution. It's just not going away ... But also … when we look at what's happening… institutional DeFi... and we look at a lot of the centralized providers, they provide institutional services that appease not only the front office ... but now the service level has gone up so much that the back office — traditionally the compliance guys who have said, ‘No, we cannot do this, this is not OK’ — they're now starting to be like, ‘Actually, if they're saying that and they have this and ... We can actually get involved in a regulated, compliant and — quote — risk-free environment’ — I put that in quotes because crypto still has inherent risks — ‘we can actually start to deploy capital.’”
Risks behind the NFT surge:
“Just as quickly as people make money, people can also lose money. Or people get excited about NFTs, and then they put (them) on OpenSea, and then nothing happens. And then people can also lose interest in the technology or the idea that it represents because, hey, nothing happened. And so I think this circles a little bit around to regulation. For example, there's nowhere where you can register yourself as an NFT creator and you can get a stamp or maybe another NFT that proves your authenticity as an artist or what you're going to create — an audit of the code.”
---
#Crypto #Blockchain #BlockchainTechnology #DigitalAssets #Cryptocurrency #DeFi #Mastercard #Bakkt #NFT #Inflation #Finance #InstitutionalDeFi #Blockdata #Regulation
---
MORE WORD ON THE BLOCK INTERVIEWS: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...
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Francisco Gimeno - BC Analyst Crypto and DeFi market is just a fraction of the global financial market. But it's growing month by month. Moreover, it's becoming already an "interesting" place to be or to approach for the tradicional financial actors, such as banks or institutions. Those who just two years ago swore the dangers of it are now experimenting with offering themselves crypto and DeFi solutions to their customers. This is a huge leap. Not surprising as regulations are coming which can make both tradicional and digital finance shake their virtual hands to enter into the 4th IR. There is a financial revolution, and also a financial evolution here. What do you think?