Robinhood’s Nicola White said that the conversation with banks has shifted dramatically over the past two years. “We’re not having conversations anymore about what blockchain is,” she said. “Now it’s about, how do we help them build?”
The panelists emphasized that crypto infrastructure already improves on traditional finance in terms of settlement speed and market accessibility. De Bode noted Ondo’s tokenized treasury products allow investors to mint and redeem positions over weekends while earning a daily yield, capabilities still largely unavailable in traditional money markets.
“That in and of itself as a value prop is mind-blowing to many in TradFi,” he said.
Still, the speakers acknowledged institutional adoption remains constrained by legacy financial infrastructure and regulation. White said banks continue to build crypto products cautiously while waiting for clearer regulatory guidance.
“There’s not a traditional finance Wall Street company we’ve talked to that has said this isn’t something they're thinking about,” she said.
Babylon Labs’ Boris Alergant argued institutions are increasingly focused on capital efficiency rather than simply bitcoin price appreciation. He said Babylon’s bitcoin-backed lending products are designed to let investors borrow against native bitcoin holdings without relinquishing custody through wrapped assets or centralized intermediaries.
The panel also highlighted a growing divide between regulated U.S. markets and offshore crypto ecosystems. De Bode said permissionless innovation in decentralized finance will likely continue to flourish outside the United States, even as banks adopt more controlled blockchain-based systems domestically.
“I don’t see a world in which everything that happens offshore finds a home in the U.S.,” he said.
Despite the bifurcation, panelists broadly agreed that the two systems will eventually converge as institutional capital and crypto-native liquidity deepen.
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