Bridging Generations: How Family Offices Are Embracing Blockchain

Welcome to FinTech TV.

I'm Remy Blur.

Kansas City is making moves as a Midwest blockchain hub, and it is also hosting a new summit to put that momentum on the map.

Now the Heartland Digital Asset Exchange, or HTA will bring together global leaders in blockchain and digital finance, connecting them with investors from across the heartland.

Now the inaugural event takes place on September 9th at the Magnolia venue.

In downtown KC, produced by KC Digital Drive and KC Futures Dell with support from the investor network Tiger 21.

Joining me here at the New York Stock Exchange is Joe Kessinger, CEO of HCI Energy, and also the executive VP of DuBruce Companies and chair of Tiger 21 Kansas City.

Well, thank you so much for joining me, Remy, my pleasure.

Well, you're here at the New York Stock Exchange.

And the focus is on HDTAX.

So why did you choose the location for this global digital event?

Well, the heartland area is really starting to grow, and I think like a lot of financial type of investments, things start on the East Coast and West Coast and start migrating into the Midwest.

You know, we're historically considered more conservative, Missouri being the show me state, but I think it's starting to pick up some momentum.

The now and there's a lot of utilities that can be using blockchain and digital asset currencies to facilitate their traditional businesses.

Yeah, and Joe, tell us how Heartland Industries are actually starting to adopt blockchain and on chain infrastructure.

Well, I've been seeing it a lot in transportation, for instance, in my Tiger 21 group.

I have a CEO, former CEO of a transportation company, and he had a lot of issues with cross-border currency exchanges with doing titles with various for his trucks in various states, and blockchain has enabled him to facilitate that much more efficiently.

And for our viewers out there, give us an idea of what regional investors as well as family offices, what role they actually play.

Yeah, I've been involved with family offices for most of my career and primarily in alternative investment um and right now I think historically, at least for the last several years, there's been a hesitancy to get into blockchain.

Within my Tiger 21 group it is very interesting.

There's a bifurcation, and Tiger 21 members is a peer to peer learning group.

Tiger 21 members go from their late 20s up to some of our members worldwide or in their 70s or 80s.

My group, my youngest member is 35, my oldest member is 65, and there seems to be a bifurcation of those under 50 and those over 50, and Um, as in a peer to peer network, you know, older generation is teaching younger generation, but in this case, the younger generation is teaching the older generation.

So I've seen a lot of hesitancy from family offices and getting into the whole blockchain digital.

Asset stuff, but the younger members are starting to educate the older members on the functionality of blockchain and the like, and now they're starting to grasp it, you know, when before it was data mining for an algorithm, a little bit abstract, hard to understand, hard to be able to.

Understand that there's a functionality to it, but now they're starting to understand that functionality and I'm seeing the older family offices, the older patriarchs starting to allocate part of their alternative asset portfolio to blockchain.

Yeah, and it's interesting you mentioned that, Joe, because here on Wall Street, we talk about generational wealth transfer and we know that people are living longer, right?

It's not just 2 generations now, it might be 3 or even 4 generations, so I think it's so valuable to have that diversity of knowledge.

As well as experience as well, isn't it?

Yeah, well, it is, and you know you have that bifurcation even within the family, you know, generation one the wealth creator kind of wants to hold on to his or her money and invest it the traditional way, but G2 G3 is starting to come up.

How are they?

Allocating their portfolios and of course I think they see blockchain and digital assets and currencies as being a great opportunity for diversification.

And some wealth creation.

So you know there's can be some conflicts even within the family.

Yeah, I think that's such an important point because we often overlook that when we're having these types of discussions.

But when we're talking about utility of digital assets, for example, earlier during the summer here at the New York Stock Exchange, we saw Circle go public and the conversation around inflation.

As well as stablecoins became part of our regular lexicon in addition to dialogue.

But as we look ahead and we continue to see digital asset growth, what do you envision for the heartland?

Well, I see some of the things you mentioned. stablecoin is now starting to be much more adopted in the heartland.

Again, there's, there's an underlying value to it.

Um, I think like I said that the utilities before, I think with the new administration, kind of the regulatory boundaries on it and the acceptance of it has made it much more credible.

So again, you know, Missouri being the show me state, you know, we're starting to see that maybe this is a legitimate asset form and it's starting to make its way into the heartland.

Yeah, and Joe, finally, before I let you go, HDAX is coming up.

So what are you most excited about?

Well, I think, you know, again, I think it's going to be great to see that split in generations.

I have several of my Tiger 21 members who are older coming to it because now they want to start learning about it and.

I think that's probably true with any conference people goes to.

It's all about education, learning something you don't know.

There's also going to be some very astute people in digital assets who will be sharing that knowledge as well as learning more and making connections, so.

You know, anything where we can get out and educate people on new investment platforms and introduce people to new contacts, that's what I'm looking forward to.

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

Well, thank you.

Thank you.