Europe drives institutional crypto adoption: Blockchain Expo Amsterdam
Europe remains fertile ground for the cryptocurrency ecosystem to flourish compared with harsher regulatory environments, according to prominent speakers at Blockchain Expo Europe 2023 in Amsterdam.
Cointelegraph attended the event held at the RAI Amsterdam convention center for the second year running, with the Blockchain Expo forming part of a larger Tech Expo event being hosted in the Netherlands.
The event has typically attracted prominent mainstream industry players from the financial world to showcase how blockchain technology is being leveraged to power innovative new products and solutions across a myriad of industries.
From finance, logistics, healthcare and marketing, blockchain technology and Web3 functionality continues to be a key growth area for different industry players.
MiCA bodes well for institutional adoption
Regulatory matters remain front and center, as was evident in a fireside chat featuring Coinbase institutional sales co-head James Morek and Zodia Markets co-founder Nick Philpott.
Philpott described the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulations as a progressive regulatory measure to guide the growth of the sector while protecting users.
“Institutions feel more comfortable knowing that there is a framework within which they can operate, which is at odds with what is happening in countries like America.”
Philpott’s reference to the United States’ regulatory landscape centered on a cloud of uncertainty over the cryptocurrency ecosystem. This has been primarily driven by the Securities and Exchange Commission’s separate enforcement actions against key industry players, including Coinbase, Ripple and Binance.US, for alleged securities violations.
Morek, who heads up Coinbase’s institutional sales in the EMEA and APAC regions, also highlighted the establishment of clear regulatory parameters across the EU and in the United Kingdom, which have helped crypto-related firms continue to do business.
Off-the-record conversations also suggest that major players like Coinbase continue attracting interest from institutional clients looking to gain exposure or custody of certain cryptocurrencies outside the United States.
Related: EU’s new crypto law: How MiCA can make Europe a digital asset hub
This includes many potential clients, ranging from traditional fund managers, large corporations, private banks and a variety of businesses. Morek told Cointelegraph that Coinbase currently serves over 1,300 institutional customers globally.
Legal frameworks that have long allowed companies to have both onshore and offshore entities continue to be an important element in allowing cryptocurrency exchanges and companies to offer services in different jurisdictions.
Philpott also highlighted the United Arab Emirates as a fast-growing crypto and Web3 hub actively looking to attract the biggest firms in the industry. Binance has already established a foothold in the UAE, while Coinbase was reportedly exploring setting up a base of operations in the jurisdiction earlier in 2023.
A tokenized future
Tokenization remains a drawcard for various institutions, including mainstream banks and financial firms looking to issue and manage debt and investments.
Cointelegraph also spoke to Martijn Siebrand, digital assets ecosystem manager of Dutch bank ABN AMRO. He shared insights into ABN AMRO’s recent issuance of a digital green bond using Polygon’s layer-2 Ethereum scaling technology to raise 5 million euros ($5.3 million).
Siebrand said that blockchain technology is proving to be a useful tool for banks to better serve capital markets:
“It’s funny, if we have now talks within the bank, people say capital markets have been there for a long time already yet we haven’t seen many innovations. This could be one major change where a lot of banks are investing in.“
Siebrand added that ABN AMRO is already showcasing its blockchain-based digital bond exploits at conferences and exhibitions to both capital market players like mainstream banks, as well as private companies looking to raise funds:
“We see two tracks. We have the institutional one serving traditional capital markets. But we also have the chance to help clients that are too big for crowdfunding but too small for capital markets.”
Siebrand added that tokenized debt offerings can be useful for companies that want to avoid selling equity. However, jurisdictional regulatory frameworks need to be further developed before ABN AMRO can create a working roadmap to further its blockchain tokenization offerings:
“We think that private markets involving private issuances, which are one-on-one or with two or three investors, that will be easier to to scale than the institutional one.”
NFTs remain valuable for institutions
Mia Van, EMEA lead for blockchain and digital assets at Mastercard, delved into the value of nonfungible tokens (NFTs) for institutional users. The sector has produced $1.9 billion in sales volumes over the past year, according to Van, with the average number of Web3 wallets increasing despite sellers dominating NFT marketplaces in recent months.
According to Van, luxury brands such as Breitling and Louis Vuitton actively use NFTs to provide digital twins of items that prove their provenance. Meanwhile, mainstream brands like Adidas and Nike continue to explore NFTs and metaverse activations that give users ownership of objects in both the physical world and metaverse environments.
Related: NFT-styled debit cards the future of Web3 — Animoca founder on $30M Hi investment
Mastercard is also becoming part and parcel of the Web3 ecosystem. Earlier this year, Animoca Brands announced a $30 million investment in neobank platform Hi. A unique offering of the platform is a customizable NFT-styled crypto debit card. Users can stylize their Mastercard with NFTs they digitally own, allowing them to show off that prized Bored Ape in the physical world.
Van would not be drawn to comment on Mastercard’s blockchain and digital asset strategy and partnerships.
Magazine: Blockchain detectives: Mt. Gox collapse saw birth of Chainalysis
Politics
Badenoch pulls off first conference speech as leader, but it is less clear if this will be her last
There’s no question that Kemi Badenoch’s on the ropes after a low-energy first year as leader that has seen the Conservative Party slide backwards by pretty much every metric.
But on Wednesday, the embattled leader came out swinging with a show-stopping pledge to scrap stamp duty, which left the hall delirious. “I thought you’d like that one,” she said with a laugh as party members cheered her on.
A genuine surprise announcement – many in the shadow cabinet weren’t even told – it gave the Conservatives and their leader a much-needed lift after what many have dubbed the lost year.
Politics latest: Stamp duty to be axed under Tories
Ms Badenoch with her husband, Hamish. Pic: PA
Ms Badenoch tried to answer that criticism this week with a policy blitz, headlined by her promise on stamp duty.
This is a leader giving her party some red meat to try to help her party at least get a hearing from the public, with pledges on welfare, immigration, tax cuts and policing.
In all of it, a tacit admission from Ms Badenoch and her team that as politics speeds up, they have not kept pace, letting Reform UK and Nigel Farage run ahead of them and grab the microphone by getting ahead of the Conservatives on scrapping net zero targets or leaving the ECHR in order to deport illegal migrants more easily.
Ms Badenoch is now trying to answer those criticisms and act.
At the heart of her offer is £47bn of spending cuts in order to pay down the nation’s debt pile and fund tax cuts such as stamp duty.
All of it is designed to try to restore the party’s reputation for economic competence, against a Labour Party of tax rises and a growing debt burden and a Reform party peddling “fantasy economics”.
She needs to do something, and fast. A YouGov poll released on the eve of her speech put the Conservatives joint third in the polls with the Lib Dems on 17%.
That’s 10 percentage points lower than when Ms Badenoch took power just under a year ago. The crisis, mutter her colleagues, is existential. One shadow cabinet minister lamented to me this week that they thought it was “50-50” as to whether the party can survive.
Read more from Sky News:
Starmer blames Tories for China spy trial being dropped
UK won’t give more visas to Indian workers, says PM
(L-R) Shadow business secretary Andrew Griffith, shadow environment secretary Victoria Atkins and shadow housing secretary Sir James Cleverly. Pic: PA
Ms Badenoch had to do two things in her speech on Wednesday: the first was to try to reassert her authority over her party. The second was to get a bit of attention from the public with a set of policies that might encourage disaffected Tories to look at her party again.
On the first point, even her critics would have to agree that she had a successful conference and has given herself a bit of space from the constant chatter about her leadership with a headline-grabbing policy that could give her party some much-needed momentum.
On the second, the promise of spending control coupled with a retail offer of tax cuts does carve out a space against the Labour government and Reform.
But the memory of Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-Budget, the chaos of Boris Johnson’s premiership, and the failure of Sunak to cut NHS waiting lists or tackle immigration still weigh on the Conservative brand.
Ms Badenoch might have revived the room with her speech, but whether that translates into a wider revival around the country is very hard to read.
Ms Badenoch leaves Manchester knowing she pulled off her first conference speech as party leader: what she will be less sure about is whether it will be her last.
I thought she tacitly admitted that to me when she pointedly avoided answering the question of whether she would resign if the party goes backwards further in the English council, Scottish parliament and Welsh Senedd elections next year.
“Let’s see what the election result is about,” was her reply.
That is what many in her party are saying too, because if Ms Badenoch cannot show progress after 18 months in office, she might see her party turn to someone else.
The UK has lifted its four-year ban on crypto exchange-traded notes, with analysts predicting the move could grow the UK crypto market by 20%.
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