Bridging Wall Street and Blockchain: The Inaugural Heartland Digital Asset Exchange

Welcome to FinTech TV.

I'm Remy Blair.

On September 9th, Kansas City will host the inaugural Heartland Digital Asset Exchange, or HDAX, a first of its kind summit connecting global leaders in blockchain finance with investors from across the heartland built around trust, compliance and strategy.

HDAX features top voices from Coinbase Fidelity and the former Kansas.

Fed President Esther George.

It's a high impact gathering designed to demystify digital assets and also put Kansas City at the center of the future of finance.

And joining me here at the New York Stock Exchange is Heidi Lehmann, founder of Heartland Digital Asset Exchange and also Tiger 21 Chair in Kansas City.

Heidi, great to have you here.

Thank you so much for joining me.

To be here.

Thank you very much.

Well, we know that HDEX is coming up and you and your team have been working hard at it.

So tell us about this event and what makes it unique compared to other digital asset events out there.

Yeah, well, I think first of all it's probably the inaugural time when we've had Wall Street and blockchain convening in the heartland, so we're excited about that.

I think like many places education is wanted now that there's a bit more regulation clarity, so family offices and capital allocators in the Midwest are certainly interested about that, but I think also there's some strategic durable opportunities that exist in the Midwest, so kind of the real economy, trucking.

Energy, agriculture, and a lot of these industries are going on chain for better efficiency, faster payments, even capital raising.

So the hope is to educate family offices and capital allocators in the region and beyond, not just on compliance and regulation for their portfolio, but also how they might fund some of these core opportunities that are key for American dynamism.

Yeah, and Heidi, you've been involved in tech for many, many years.

So tell us why Kansas City.

Well, I'm a 5 time tech entrepreneur, and I would say I'm a founder that's very Boston and New York City based and probably like most of you, certainly myself, Kansas City and the rest of the Midwest was flyover country for a long time, but I moved a company there in 2020.

We shifted from healthcare to industrial workforce safety, so I was working with large oil and gas mining and utility companies, and there was a funding ecosystem there to support it.

So I raised capital for that company, transitioned out of the CEO role, and then started working with family offices in the region.

And when I saw some of the strategic opportunities that were there, very timely around critical materials, AI data centers, and I saw how family offices were backing them, I decided that this was the seat of innovation and I wanted to be a part of it.

Yeah, and Heidi, you're touching upon industries that we pay attention to here on Wall Street at the New York Stock Exchange on a regular basis.

And when we take a step back and look at the United States of America, it is a big country, isn't it?

So whether we're talking about the South, the North, the east, or the West Coast, there are a lot of differences, but at the same time so much opportunity.

So what does this mean for blockchain finance?

I mean, I think if you're looking at blockchain and what it's really good at, it is an efficiency, it's an immutable record.

So let's take trucking, for example.

Truckers typically they'll drive a load for even a large company like a Walmart or an Amazon.

It might take them 90 days to get paid.

So with.

Chain this payment can happen immediately and for less of a percentage gone than if the trucker was factoring.

So that's certainly an advantage.

You might look at carbon credits or farm credits.

These can be traded immediately if you're doing them on chain with blockchain, so you have a token.

It's a tradable asset.

And then even looking at large project finance, so critical materials, you might have a $30 million data center that you might build in conjunction with it, and it might have a large price tag.

So building on blockchain and fundraising on blockchain, you can raise capital in weeks instead of years for these large scale opportunities and projects.

Yeah, and Heidi, I know that you're looking forward to this HA event coming up, but you also wear many hats as well as the Kansas City chair of Tiger 21.

So give us an idea of what's going on there.

Well, Tiger 21 was actually the spark for HDAXS aside just seeing what blockchain was doing in the region.

So Tiger 21 is an exclusive peer advisory group.

There's about 1600 members across five continents, and we meet in local regions.

So I'm a chair in the Kansas City area and so I'll have a venture.

The 12 members in my group and we'll meet monthly to talk about things like investments certainly family and legacy, and the common thread with all Tiger members is that they need to have $20 million of investable net worth with $100 million being the average.

So it's a good indication of where wealth is flowing.

And Tiger members have invested $6 billion in digital assets, so they've got a fairly good fluency.

I wasn't sure that that necessarily tracked in the heartland, but I saw all the opportunity with the industries that were moving on chains.

So that was a big part of the reason for HDAX was bringing the education and compliance education in.

So a lot of these opportunities can get backed by the family offices that understand the industries.

And Heidi, finally, before I let you go, a lot of major household names in the world of digital assets will be convening in Kansas City for this event, but this also gives you a unique perspective having lived in different parts of this country.

So what do you think is the future of digital assets in America?

I mean, I think that's a multifaceted question, but I think where we are right now and with what we're focused on, which is the onshoring of industrial manufacturing and supply chain logistics, I think that's an amazing opportunity as finance.

Goes unchained to back things quickly and shore up America with the resources we need in the fastest way possible, the most efficient way possible, using digital assets.

It's clear that finance is going digital like everything else has an enormous opportunity in front of us.

Well, thank you so much for joining me, Heidi, here at the New York Stock Exchange, and best of luck with the event.

It's great to be here.

Thank you.