JPMorgan Chase Blockchain Platform Kinexys Global Co-Head Naveen Mallela
"More definitive regulatory frameworks, widespread industry collaboration, and robust public-private partnerships will be key to scaling digital assets in traditional finance. Our business is built on a foundation of innovation, evolving just as the industry we serve. By closely partnering with clients, regulators, traditional financial institutions, and emerging fintechs, we are able to explore and construct the future of finance and currency."
Mallela co-leads JPMorgan Chase's blockchain business unit Kinexys (formerly Onyx). Kinexys Digital Payments, a blockchain-based payment tool, processes over $2 billion in payments for bank clients daily.
Caroline Butler, Head of Global Digital Assets at BNY Mellon
"Blockchain and digital assets are becoming an increasingly important part of the global financial landscape, driven by an accelerating transition from proof-of-concept to real-world commercial products. Looking ahead, the single most important driver of accelerated adoption of these technologies will be the integration of an interoperable, institutional-grade infrastructure to connect the blockchain ecosystem with the traditional financial system. Over the next 12 to 36 months, we expect to see an acceleration phase where digital assets mature and become more deeply embedded in the financial ecosystem, presenting opportunities for collaboration between banks, regulated financial market participants, global regulators, and policymakers."
Butler leads all commercial and strategic planning for BNY Mellon's digital asset and tokenization initiatives, including its digital asset platform. BNY Mellon provides accounting, administration, and other services for most U.S. digital asset trading products and their issuers. In 2024, the bank also acted as a custodian, paying agent, and investor in the European Investment Bank's digital bond issuance, and became the fund manager and custodian for BlackRock's tokenized money market fund, BUIDL.
Mike O'Reilly, President of Fidelity Digital Assets
"Education, or the lack thereof, is one of the biggest drivers or impediments to crypto adoption. Across investors, companies, and regulators, digital asset education is critical to sustaining industry momentum and facilitating industry integration."
Fidelity Digital Assets provides trading execution and custody services for institutional investors in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin. As a subsidiary of Fidelity Investments, it also supports Fidelity's retail crypto and wealth management businesses, enabling investors to buy, sell, and custody crypto assets. Fidelity Digital Assets custodies the tokens behind Fidelity's crypto ETFs, including the Fidelity Bitcoin ETF (FBTC) and the Fidelity Ethereum ETF (FETH).
John O'Neill, Head of Digital Assets and Currencies at HSBC
"HSBC believes that secure, reliable forms of digital currency, such as tokenized deposits, can accelerate the adoption of digital assets."
O'Neill is responsible for HSBC Holdings' strategy on digital assets, central bank digital currencies, stablecoins, and cryptocurrencies. He led the development of HSBC's digital asset platform, HSBC Orion, which has been used to issue multiple native digital bonds, including a HK$1 billion native digital bond issued by HSBC Bank (Hong Kong) in 2024.
Robert Mitchnick, Head of Digital Assets at BlackRock
"In terms of activity and adoption, public blockchains are clearly outpacing private blockchains. We believe the time has come for banks to shift their focus from private to public blockchains. We believe this will accelerate innovation, allowing more market participants to integrate into the digital asset ecosystem with banks as key service providers."
Mitchnick is responsible for driving BlackRock's digital asset strategy, which includes two crypto-focused ETFs. The iShares Bitcoin Trust is the fastest ETF in history to reach $50 billion in assets under management. BlackRock also manages a tokenized money market fund, BUIDL, on Ethereum, with around $1 billion in assets.
Jean-Marc Stenger, CEO of FORGE, a subsidiary of Societe Generale
"The regulatory landscape in the U.S. is likely to undergo a dramatic shift that will be favorable for digital assets. Republican lawmakers view digital assets as key to the U.S.'s future economic leadership. In Europe, the Crypto-Asset Markets (MiCA) regulation, effective December 30, 2024, opens a window of opportunity to create a unified regulatory framework for primary and secondary crypto-asset markets."
Stenger leads Societe Generale's crypto-asset subsidiary, FORGE, which focuses on providing clients with digital asset issuance and management services. The subsidiary has been active in several digital bond issuances, including a €100 million bond for the European Investment Bank in 2021. In 2023, FORGE issued EURCV, the first euro-denominated stablecoin issued by a tier-one bank subsidiary.
John Whelan, Managing Director of Digital Assets at Santander Corporate & Investment Banking
"Traditional finance needs clear regulatory permissions to use public blockchains, as that is where true innovation comes from. These blockchains are the open-source, open-access operating systems for financial services, with their operating costs borne by third parties known as validators. This is the source of their disruptive potential."
Whelan joined Santander in 2016 to lead the bank's various crypto and digital asset initiatives. His work includes projects in digital securities, digital collateral mobility, and digital cash. He also serves on the boards of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance and the blockchain company Fnality International Ltd.
Laurence Arnold, Global Head of Innovation, Client Operations, Performance & Reporting at AXA Investment Managers
"We believe that the creation of digital currencies with legal tender status is the most important driver that can accelerate the process. These digital currencies can be private or public, but they need to have the same characteristics as legal tender to enable settlement and reconciliation between the parties to a financial transaction (cash and digital assets). This implies the need for a collaborative ecosystem, with market participants seeking solutions and clearly defining their roles and responsibilities, particularly in addressing the interoperability and liquidity challenges of blockchain technology. AXA Investment Managers is actively engaged in the work of the European Central Bank on central bank digital currencies, which is a positive and important step in the right direction."
Arnold leads the innovation initiatives of the investment management company, including its blockchain and digital asset projects, which involve participating in the European Central Bank's work on central bank money settlement. This includes a €3 million investment in a digital sovereign bond issued by the Republic of Slovenia on behalf of AXA France, and using blockchain technology to enable instant subscriptions to the AXA Court Terme fund by the Axa Group.
Artem Korenyuk, Head of Digital Assets at Citi
"We are encouraged by the increasing focus in the U.S. on establishing clear regulatory frameworks for digital assets. Clear, consistent rules are critical to fostering innovation, protecting investors, and enabling the safe integration of digital assets into the broader financial ecosystem. We are optimistic that this clarity will be prioritized in the near term, paving the way for a more transparent and resilient digital asset market."
Korenyuk leads Citi's enterprise digital asset team, which works across the company's business lines to develop new digital asset services and capabilities. The team collaborates closely with the bank's business units to develop Citi Token Services, a tokenized deposit application that allows some of the bank's corporate clients to make payments using blockchain technology.
Jez Mohideen, CEO of Laser Digital
"The biggest barrier to institutional adoption of digital assets is a lack of industry expertise. Many still conflate cryptocurrencies, Web3, digital assets, and tokenization. While they are interconnected within the same ecosystem, each has distinct value propositions and unique benefits. Through targeted education to deepen the understanding of the opportunities and advantages of blockchain-enabled products and services, institutions can more effectively participate, driving faster and broader adoption."
Mohideen co-founded Laser Digital, Nomura Holdings' digital asset subsidiary, with former colleague Steve Ashley in 2022. Laser Digital has 100 employees globally and provides a range of digital asset services, including trading, asset management, and fund management. It also makes equity investments, with portfolio companies including custodian Komainu and Crossover Markets.
Zodia Custody CEO Julian Sawyer
"The traditional financial system operates based on a cross-market governance framework, such as the Travel Rule. However, the digital asset industry lacks such a framework and has long focused on regulatory frameworks for specific markets rather than global governance. Traditional financial institutions will not venture into the digital asset space until they can ensure compliance with the existing complex operational requirements. This means that global governance - a broader set of standards and structures agreed upon by stakeholders, including governments, industry trade groups, and industry working groups - will ultimately drive institutional adoption of digital assets."
Sawyer is the head of Zodia Custody Ltd, a company backed by Standard Chartered Bank and supported by SBI Holdings, Emirates NBD, Northern Trust, and National Australia Bank. Its clients include Invesco and ETF issuers 21Shares and Bitwise.
Head of Innovation and Digital Assets at Euroclear Group Jorgen Ouaknine
"In a nutshell: standardization. Standardization has been a key factor in the successful scaling of almost every major technological and financial innovation throughout history. From the Industrial Revolution to the digital age, the establishment of common standards has enabled interoperability, improved efficiency, and driven widespread adoption. The same applies to the integration of digital assets and traditional finance."
Ouaknine leads the group's post-trade innovation and digital assets work, including recent efforts to leverage distributed ledger technology to improve market liquidity, such as bond issuances, and make collateral more fluid and efficient. The group has participated in blockchain initiatives across the industry, such as the Monetary Authority of Singapore's Project Guardian, and operates a platform for the issuance of traditional securities using blockchain.
Global Head of Digital Assets at The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) Nadine Chakar
"Simply put: we can no longer operate in silos and experiment individually, but must start collaborating across the industry to fully unlock the potential of blockchain in financial services. While we have clearly demonstrated the benefits of this technology, the time has come to work together to deploy real-world applications on the ledger using tokenization. In this process, we need to ensure we are all moving towards a common end goal: building efficient digital market infrastructure and standards. Collaboration is a key element in helping us realize the potential of digital assets."
Chakar joined DTCC after the company acquired blockchain startup Securrency in 2023 and has been leading the company's efforts to provide blockchain technology and services for post-trade processing of tokenized assets. In 2024, DTCC partnered with WisdomTree to offer real-world assets in token form through a mobile app called WisdomTree Prime and launched a sandbox to facilitate greater industry collaboration in developing blockchain market infrastructure.
Head of FIRST and Digital Assets & Industry Advisory Services at Franklin Templeton Sandy Kaul
"The single most important transformation is already underway: US regulators have shifted direction and are actively seeking to support the adoption of public blockchains, putting our firms at the forefront of the new capital markets. This can eliminate existing barriers to the integration of traditional and crypto ecosystems and create new solutions to old problems, including digital identity, new approaches to KYC/AML, and liquidity of markets and collateral."
Kaul oversees the industry advisory services team at Franklin Templeton, evaluating the firm's innovation initiatives. This involves gathering expertise on emerging technologies like AI and blockchain to help drive Franklin Templeton's strategic plans, such as digital asset infrastructure and the Benji token product line.
Head of Principal Investments and Strategic Investments at UBS Hyder Jaffrey
"Defining the handling and compliance standards for digital assets is key."
Since 2015, Jaffrey has been at the forefront of UBS Group's efforts to transform wholesale and institutional financial business models through digital assets and blockchain technology. He has represented UBS in various market initiatives, including digital bond issuances, the Fnality global payments system, digital repo, and digital margin trading.
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