Live at Digital Asset Summit: London

This live episode from the Digital Asset Summit in London unpacks the strategic collision of traditional finance and crypto, revealing how stablecoin regulation, RWA infrastructure, and institutional playbooks are shaping the future of on-chain markets.

The Future of Stablecoins and Regulation with Beth Haddock

• Haddock highlights the positive momentum from US leadership, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessen's multi-trillion dollar projections for the stablecoin market. She notes that this shift towards "responsible innovation" aligns the US with progress already made in Asia and Europe.
• The conversation centers on the Genius Act, a proposed US legislative framework for stablecoins. Haddock explains that while the act provides much-needed clarity, its implementation will be messy due to hyper-competition between traditional banks and crypto innovators.
• She emphasizes that the act's goal is to create a balanced framework, stating, "Let's figure out a way to do it in which all of the different users can be protected."

• A key point of contention is a provision in the Genius Act that restricts passing interest on to stablecoin users, a rule that traditional banks are lobbying to enforce strictly. Haddock views the exceptions and exclusions not as loopholes but as standard components of legislative compromise, similar to exemptions for hedge funds.
• She argues this debate presents a major opportunity for community banks to innovate rather than protect the status quo. The current banking model, where depositors earn near-zero interest on checking accounts while banks profit from their capital, is increasingly questioned by younger generations.
• Strategic Implication: The push for interest-bearing stablecoins could fundamentally disrupt the net interest margins of traditional banks. Investors should monitor how community banks respond—either by adopting new technology to compete or by being squeezed out by larger institutions.

• Haddock expresses significant concern over the erosion of financial privacy, arguing that the current system is antiquated. Instead of focusing on individuals, surveillance should target transactions and wallets.
• She believes institutional adoption will be a catalyst for better privacy solutions. Businesses will not conduct all their transactions on transparent public ledgers, creating a strong economic incentive for privacy-preserving technologies.
• Actionable Insight: Haddock urges the crypto community to keep the conversation on financial privacy alive. For researchers, this highlights the growing demand for privacy tech like zkML (Zero-Knowledge Machine Learning), which enables private verification of on-chain activities.

Panel: Unpacking the Challenges of Real-World Asset (RWA) Adoption

This panel dives into the practical hurdles preventing the mass adoption of Real-World Assets (RWAs)—physical or traditional financial assets represented as tokens on a blockchain. The speakers analyze why the RWA market, despite its massive potential, remains nascent.

• The panel explains that tokenization is just the first step. A fully functional RWA requires a complex stack of services, including transfer agents, regulatory wrappers, token mechanics viable for DeFi, price feeds, and proof of reserves.
• Building liquidity is the final, critical challenge. This involves incentivizing initial investors, lenders who accept the RWA as collateral, and liquidity providers for decentralized exchanges (DEXs).
• Strategic Implication: The "RWA stack" represents a significant investment opportunity. Projects building out these essential infrastructure components—from legal compliance to on-chain liquidity solutions—are critical enablers for the entire sector.

• Victor, a panelist, argues that engineers often fail to create a simple, compelling narrative for end-users. He states, "When I use Apple Pay, I don't give a [care] about what's the seven steps behind. Is it cheaper, better, faster? Then I'll pay for it."
• He also points to complacency within traditional finance. With private markets delivering strong returns, there is little incentive for established players to overhaul operations and adopt blockchain technology.
• Randy adds that the opacity of traditional markets, particularly in derivatives and fixed income, is highly profitable for banks. The transparency offered by blockchain is a direct threat to this business model, causing them to "drag their feet."

• The panel agrees that DeFi will likely become the "back office" for traditional finance, handling activities like borrowing, lending, and settlement more efficiently.
• Randy predicts that most retail users will interact with DeFi through familiar interfaces like their JP Morgan app, without ever knowing the underlying technology is a protocol like Kamino.
• A major cultural shift is underway, driven by a new generation that expects instant, transparent, and self-directed financial services. This generational wealth transfer will force traditional institutions to adapt or become obsolete.

• Randy introduces the concept of an agentic economy, where AI agents act on behalf of individuals to manage assets on-chain. This requires a foundation of tokenized RWAs, stablecoins, and instant settlement.
• He foresees AI automating and optimizing financial advice and risk management, stating, "There's a lot that could be automated, risk-managed probably much more optimally than is done today."
• Actionable Insight for AI Researchers: The intersection of AI and RWAs is a key emerging trend. Developing secure, autonomous AI agents that can manage on-chain portfolios and interact with DeFi protocols represents a significant research and investment frontier.

Inside the Goldman Sachs Digital Asset Playbook with Matthew McDermott

Matthew McDermott, who has led Goldman Sachs' digital asset business for over five years, provides a detailed overview of the firm's strategy. He outlines a multi-pronged approach focused on capturing value across the entire digital asset ecosystem, from crypto trading to institutional tokenization.

• McDermott dissects Goldman's strategy into four core areas:
  1. Crypto Trading: Actively trading all permissible cash-settled crypto products globally.
  2. Tokenization and DLT: Developing their own Digital Asset Platform (DAP) and using Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT)—a decentralized database system—for collateral mobility.
  3. Classic Banking: Making strategic investments in crypto companies and advising on M&A and capital markets activity.
  4. Digital Money: Focusing on stablecoins and exploring wholesale Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), which are digital forms of a country's fiat currency.

• McDermott clarifies Goldman's focus is on a wholesale CBDC solution designed for capital markets, not a retail version for the general public.
• In this model, cash is deposited at the central bank and then tokenized for use in financial settlements. He sees this as complementary to stablecoins, with CBDCs providing a base settlement layer (M0) and stablecoins operating as a transactional layer (M1).

• Goldman Sachs developed its own Digital Asset Platform (DAP) but plans to divest it to create a more market-neutral entity that can achieve broader institutional adoption.
• The platform is designed to be interoperable and is built in partnership with Digital Asset, leveraging the Canton network. McDermott emphasizes the importance of privacy as a core feature.
• He states, "The ability to be able to transact and not have the whole network see who you're trading with I think naturally is how we kind of transact today." This perspective validates crypto's long-standing focus on privacy, reframing it as an institutional requirement rather than a niche concern.

• McDermott notes a significant increase in M&A activity across the crypto ecosystem, particularly in sectors like exchanges, market data, and custody.
• He observes that traditional players like BNY Mellon and Citi are entering the custody space with large balance sheets and risk appetites, which will naturally drive consolidation among existing digital asset custodians.
• Strategic Implication: The crypto market is maturing, and consolidation is a natural phase. Investors should anticipate further M&A, especially in infrastructure sectors where scale and regulatory trust are paramount.

Oiler's Comeback and the Launch of a Synthetic Dollar

Michael Bentley of Oiler joins the podcast to discuss the protocol's remarkable recovery and to announce a major new product: Oiler USD, a synthetic dollar. He details how Oiler's integrated architecture of lending, swapping, and now a stablecoin creates powerful synergies and positions the protocol for future growth.

• Bentley reveals the upcoming launch of Oiler USD, a synthetic dollar that completes Oiler's "holy trinity" of a DEX, credit markets, and a native synthetic asset.
• A key feature is fixed-rate borrowing against a variety of collateral, including crypto-native assets, RWAs, and yield-bearing tokens. Each collateral type will have a unique borrow rate to prevent the peg instability seen in other models.
• Bentley explains the strategic advantage: "Oiler is uniquely placed to launch products like this because we don't... it's all internal. So there's there's no there's no value leakage outside of the system."

• Oiler USD will use the protocol's highly efficient liquidation mechanism, which functions like a Dutch auction. The liquidation bonus paid by an unhealthy account rises slowly over time, ensuring liquidators are paid the minimum required to make the transaction profitable.
• This system is particularly well-suited for RWAs, which often lack deep on-chain liquidity. It allows specialized market makers to take on distressed RWA positions at a price point that reflects the risk of holding them over time.
• Actionable Insight: Oiler's modular design and advanced liquidation engine make it a compelling platform for RWA issuers. Researchers should study how dynamic liquidation models can solve the illiquidity challenges associated with bringing traditional assets on-chain.

• Oiler plans to leverage its native DEX, Oiler Swap, for deep, day-one liquidity for Oiler USD. This avoids the need to pay external LPs and market makers, a major cost for other stablecoin issuers that restricts growth.
• Bentley also reflects on Oiler's journey of rebuilding trust after a major exploit. He explains the team's decision to keep the name was a commitment to owning their history and demonstrating the resilience and quality of their product.

Conclusion

This episode reveals that institutional adoption hinges on solving regulatory clarity and infrastructure gaps. Investors and researchers should prioritize projects building robust, compliant on-chain financial plumbing—from stablecoins to RWA frameworks—as these will capture the next wave of capital and define the future of decentralized finance.