The crypto industry is a ‘two front war’ says Blockchain.com’s strategy lead
Blockchain.com’s chief strategy officer called the crypto industry a ‘two front war’ in which traditional institutions are struggling to keep up with grassroots innovation.
Charlie McGarraugh, joined representatives from Coinbase, GSR and Enigma Securities to discuss institutional access to the crypto market at the Digital Asset Summit. Speaking in London today McGarraugh of crypto exchange Blockchain.com said that traditional financial institutions are slow to catch up with new technology in the crypto space.
“The crypto industry is like a two front war,” he said. “Front number one is the backwards integration of compatibility with traditional finance,” while the second front is led by experimental projects, such as “the stuff that the kids are making up on Twitter.”
“Its capital light, its letting a thousand flowers bloom and seeing what happens,” said McGarraugh, describing the plethora of decentralized finance (DeFi) tools and projects which have emerged in recent months.
“The street made no money on the creation of an industry with a $3tn market cap,” he continued, pointing out that many traditional investors are still missing out on financial opportunities offered by crypto and leaving the space “constrained for funding.”
Taking a more cautious approach to institutional access the lead of Coinbase’s institutional arm said that more time needs to be spent building the tech stack underpinning prime brokerage in the crypto space before traditional institutions are prepared to dive in.
“To win the prime brokerage business you need the two Ts and two Cs: trust, technology, credit and compliance,” said Guillaume Chatain.
Coinbase recently launched an updated version of Coinbase Prime, a product for institutional investors offering advanced trading, battle-tested custody, and financing in a single solution.
Read more: Exclusive: Institutional investors and wealth managers increasingly ‘test’ crypto market