Quadrillions: You’re Already Late | Mike Belshe, Justin Peterson & Eric Saraniecki

This episode reveals how traditional finance is scrambling to adopt crypto's rails, moving beyond speculation to build the 24/7, on-chain infrastructure for trillions in assets like U.S. Treasuries.

Setting the Stage: From Quadrillions to Institutional Crypto

Justin Peterson, CTO of Tradeweb, opens by contextualizing the show's title, explaining that his firm has facilitated over $3.2 quadrillion in USD trading since its 1996 launch. As a $22 billion company with record average daily volumes of $2.9 trillion, Tradeweb operates at the heart of traditional finance, serving thousands of institutional clients across government bonds, mortgages, and derivatives. This massive scale provides the backdrop for the ongoing convergence of traditional capital markets and crypto infrastructure.

The State of the Union: How Crypto "Degens" Became the Institution

• Saraniecki highlights the proven utility of stablecoins as a key catalyst for this shift.
• He predicts that the next major wave of adoption will be driven by the direct interplay between government bonds and stablecoins on-chain.
• “The one that I think is going to surprise and overwhelm the market is going to be the interplay of government bonds and stable coins.” - Eric Saraniecki

A Mad Dash: Why Traditional Finance is Scrambling

Mike Belshe, CEO of BitGo, observes that traditional financial firms were "caught a little bit off-guard with how good the regulation got this year," sparking a scramble to participate in the digital asset space. He describes digital asset treasury companies as being in a "mad dash" to accumulate assets, often taking on significant risk. This competitive pressure is particularly evident in the stablecoin market, where traditional players, realizing the immense potential of capturing Treasury yield, are rushing to launch their own offerings.

• Actionable Insight: The proliferation of new stablecoins from traditional issuers over the next 12-18 months will create both opportunities and consolidation risks. Investors should closely monitor the liquidity, issuer trustworthiness, and underlying infrastructure of these new offerings as the market fragments before it inevitably consolidates.

Beyond the Hype: Building the Backend for Stablecoins

The discussion pivots to the critical, yet often overlooked, backend infrastructure for stablecoins—the mechanisms for creation, redemption, and storage. Eric Saraniecki asserts that the key to managing risk in a fragmented stablecoin market is a robust and reliable backend. He envisions a system where stablecoins can be created and redeemed 24/7 against tokenized U.S. Treasuries, creating a safe, common vehicle that could even enable an alternative FX settlement market.

• Technical Term: An atomic transaction is an indivisible operation where multiple actions occur simultaneously. Either all parts complete successfully, or none do, guaranteeing that assets like a stablecoin and a Treasury bond are exchanged without the risk of one party failing to deliver.

Solving Real Problems: The Tradeweb and Canton Partnership

Justin Peterson clarifies that Tradeweb's entry into crypto was driven by specific client demand, not speculative FOMO. The primary pain point was the inability to conduct essential financing operations, such as repo transactions, over weekends. By enabling on-demand, 24/7 repo of U.S. Treasuries against stablecoins on the Canton Network, Tradeweb solves a critical funding problem for firms active in round-the-clock crypto markets.

• Actionable Insight: The demand for 24/7 financing highlights a tangible, high-value utility for blockchain in traditional finance. Projects that solve these specific operational bottlenecks for institutions are positioned for more immediate and sustainable adoption than purely speculative ventures.

The Privacy Imperative: Why Canton Was Chosen

A crucial factor in Tradeweb's decision to partner with Canton was its privacy-by-design architecture. Justin Peterson recalls that early experiments with other DLT platforms failed because their lack of privacy was a non-starter; institutional clients cannot tolerate having their trading activity exposed on a public ledger. Canton's network ensures that transaction data is visible only to the required parties, a fundamental requirement for institutional-grade finance.

• “There would be no way that we could really defend the use of a DLT that didn't have privacy built in.” - Justin Peterson

Upgrading Consensus: From Reconciliation to Composability

The speakers agree that blockchain technology levels the playing field, offering an alternative to traditional consortium models where a few large players often hold an advantage. Eric Saraniecki frames blockchain as a direct upgrade to the financial system's legacy "consensus mechanism": reconciliation. Instead of merely agreeing on messages about transactions, blockchain guarantees atomic settlement, which removes latency and unlocks new, high-velocity collateral strategies.

• Technical Term: Composability refers to the ability of different applications and assets on a network to interact with each other seamlessly, like financial Lego blocks. This allows for the creation of complex financial products by combining simpler, independent components.

The "Messy Middle" of Real-World Assets (RWAs)

The conversation confronts the current state of tokenization, often described as a "messy middle" where assets are "wrapped" rather than issued natively on-chain. Eric Saraniecki offers a "hotter take," suggesting that wrapped assets—which carry the frictions of real securities without the same risk profile—are "already dead man walking." He believes the winning models will exist at the extremes: either the perfected, legally sound native asset or permissionless wrappers used for novel financial structuring.

• Actionable Insight: Investors and researchers must distinguish between natively issued digital assets and wrapped synthetic versions. The latter introduces subtle but significant counterparty, liquidity, and legal risks that could limit their scalability and long-term viability in institutional markets.

Beyond Custody: Redefining Financial Services

Mike Belshe redefines BitGo's role not as a mere custodian but as a financial services company focused on providing fiduciary protection for all clients. He advocates for a clear separation of duties in crypto market structure to mitigate systemic risk by isolating exchanges from both custody and credit risk. In his view, the future qualified custodian must ensure the highest standard of care for asset storage, staking, and integration with trading venues.

• “Whether you're an institution or whether you're a retail user, you should be able to, you know, count on whoever's holding your digital assets that they're going to protect it with fiduciary care.” - Mike Belshe

Equities On-Chain: A Different Problem to Solve

The panel explores the future of tokenized equities, concluding that it presents a different set of challenges than treasuries. Mike Belshe notes that traditional equity markets are incredibly efficient due to immense volume, making them difficult to displace. Eric Saraniecki adds that the primary driver for tokenizing equities will likely be innovative structuring—such as creating ultra-low-cost ETFs or personalized Separately Managed Accounts (SMAs)—rather than simply improving access.

• Strategic Implication: The tokenization of equities will likely be driven by use cases in collateralization and bespoke financial products, not by attempts to replace existing exchange infrastructure. Opportunities lie in DeFi protocols that can leverage tokenized stock for lending or in platforms enabling novel investment structures.

Looking Ahead: What to Expect in 2026

• Justin Peterson confirms Tradeweb's commitment to building out a 24/7 over-the-counter (OTC) market for a range of client-demanded instruments.
• Mike Belshe anticipates a wave of new institutional products, but cautions that a "crypto winter" could cause traditional players to retreat.
• Eric Saraniecki counters that institutional conviction around stablecoins and blockchain rails is now strong enough to withstand market cycles, as it is driven by tangible utility rather than speculative crypto prices.

Conclusion

This conversation reveals a critical shift from speculative crypto trading to building foundational, utility-driven financial infrastructure. For investors and researchers, the key is to focus on platforms solving real institutional pain points like 24/7 financing and privacy, as these are the areas poised for sustainable, long-term growth.