Global investment manager BlackRock Inc.’s head of strategic partnerships Joseph Chalom reportedly said on Thursday at the State of Crypto Summit in New York that the adoption of decentralized finance (DeFi) by major institutional investors is ‘many years away.’ Chalom reportedthat the institutional adoption of DeFi is “many, many, many years away” adding that he is not “pessimistic”, but live in a highly regulated space and so do our clients”.
While discussing DeFi implications and the regulatory bottlenecks with clients, Chalom asserted that DeFi is a vital component of the crypto industry involving computer codes executing automatic trades on blockchain. Chalom further proclaimed that entities like the crypto exchange Coinbase, having institutional-grade wallets, would have a role to play in bridging the DeFi and traditional investors gap.
The State of Crypto Summit was held in partnership with Coinbase Global Inc. and the Financial Times. As per BlackRock’s statement, tokenization, stablecoins, and DeFi are interesting areas. BlackRock’s crypto chronicles reportedly date back to its partnership with Coinbase intended to simplify Bitcoin management and trading for institutional investors.
BlackRock has been discussing with clients how stablecoins could promote institutional money movement. Chalom stated that identifying counterparties is crucial when it comes to large regulated institutional entities, such as the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock. But in crypto, counterparty identification would nullify the innate spirit of DeFi’s privacy ethos.
Notably, BlackRock made a surprise filing for a spot Bitcoin ETF (exchange-traded fund) last week, as per a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust move brought optimism for Bitcoin (BTC) price. Upon getting approved, the BTC ETF would enable investors to access BTC’s performance even if they don’t directly acquire, hold, or trade the digital asset.
