Crypto Biz: A Futurist take on crypto
You might not know it, but Canada is quietly becoming a major player in the blockchain and crypto scene: Ethereum has strong Canadian roots, Toronto-based 3iQ launched North America’s first physically-settled Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) and the percentage of active crypto holders in the country has increased steadily over the past two years.
Against this backdrop, I had the pleasure of attending this year’s Blockchain Futurist Conference in Toronto, where I got to moderate two panels on rebuilding the financial system through Web3 and onboarding the next wave of crypto users. The event served as another reminder that the industry’s brightest minds are still building amazing products despite current market conditions. Not to sound overly cliche, but it’s hard to be bearish on digital assets if you adopt a low-time preference.
You can’t have a proper conversation about the future of digital assets without talking about decentralized finance (DeFi). One of the most stimulating panels at Futurist, titled “The Future of Decentralized Finance,” featured the head of DeFi markets at Ripple Labs, the founder of Teller Finance and executives from Aventus Ventures and FLUIDEFI. According to Ripple Labs’ Boris Alergant, the institutional adoption of DeFi is coming next — but not before the industry creates the next “killer app” to really pique interest.
The crypto bear market has instilled a lot of fear in retail investors. But, for institutions and venture funds, adoption has been ramping up. At Futurist, I had the opportunity to interview two executives from asset management firm Wave Financial, who explained that high-net-worth individuals and institutional investors are increasing their exposure to digital assets.
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