Will 2024 herald the rise of institutional digital assets?

Ollie Cadman, CEO, The Realization Group

A recent Era of Convergence panel debate between TradFi and DeFi industry specialists to debate on whether 2024 would be the year that institutional digital assets would really take off was a timely reminder of how the financial industry narrative has evolved since the early days of the crypto ‘Wild West’, to a more measured approach to the opportunities presented by new digital assets and technologies within traditional financial markets ecosystems. Traditional assets are being expressed increasingly in digital form — for example, in the form of tokenised assets such as stablecoins; and an estimated $7 trillion in traditional assets is estimated to be targeted for transformation over the next five to seven years. This might be as a result of cash instruments being presented as stablecoins, bonds being presented as registered tokens, or a myriad of other digital forms.

It is clear that the conversation around the convergence of traditional and decentralised finance has moved on, from how traditional finance firms might look to adopt and embrace digital assets, to how this trend is affecting real transformational change. There are, however, steps that still need to be taken to improve institutional investor understanding of this market.. One of these is greater public-private sector cooperation; this is particularly important since public sector organisations cannot compete with FinTech’s when it comes to hiring people with a track record of success with respect to new digital…