The CMC Crypto Fear and Greed Index has shifted to neutral, only 10 days removed from its latest extreme fear reading.
And as we look across the globe, the evolution of the Saudi Arabian capital markets remains a central focus for global investors.
Now the abolition of the qualified Foreign Investor QFI framework in January has removed the previous $500 million asset under management requirement.
Now this policy shift has facilitated broader access to the.
For a wider array of global financial institutions, joining me live at the New York Stock Exchange to weigh in is Christopher Kelly, President & Co-founder of Dropp Group.
Chris, great to have you here.
Thank you so much for joining me.
Thanks, Ray.
Nice to be here again.
So for our viewers out there who may not be as familiar with capital markets in Saudi Arabia, tell us why the removal of QFI is so important.
It's fantastically important and it's really an indication.
Of the way that markets are opening up and the transformation digitally in the region, specifically in Saudi as being one of the key vision states.
What it means for the billions of dollars on the sidelines is that there is a direct line into capital assets in Saudi which there hasn't been previously, and that I think is going to encourage an enormous amount of FDI into the country.
And speaking of which, how does this fit into Vision 2030?
I think that's a great point because Vision 2030 gets the headlines around these national infrastructure projects, a lot of real estate, but what it really means is also just allowing those assets that have value at a sovereign level to be accessible for a wider market, which up until now hasn't always been the case.
Yeah and here stateside, even at the New York Stock Exchange and at the NASDAQ as well there's a lot of focus on tokenization, so we're talking about traditional finance and blockchain.
So at the same time, what do you expect to see when it comes to the kingdom.
In terms of the visionary states that they're in right now, they are really looking to sort of leapfrog the traditional Western model and go into a tokenized infrastructure, a financial infrastructure that really supports tokenization and allows that foreign direct investment to flow with the degree of certainty on a legal and regulatory level that perhaps hasn't been there up until now.
And you were in Saudi until very recently.
So you are familiar with the changes that are actually taking place on the ground.
So can you walk us through the differences when it comes to both the financial side as well as the regulatory side compared to the US?
Well, I think that the first thing to say is, as all good regulators should, the regulator is moving slowly and thoughtfully, and we are working very closely at Drop to build what is a regulator first financial.
Infrastructure that is the way that we see the future of the space.
We see that bringing in regulator, government, and the legal system within the token itself is the only way in which these sovereign grade assets can actually be transferred, traded, bought and sold in the right way.
If you think of us as a sort of infrastructural plumbing for this new tokenized ecosystem that that's kind of rolling out globally, and Chris, can you expand on this and tell us also about market structure.
Yeah, absolutely.
So we've taken a great deal of care to provide that market infrastructure in a way that doesn't exist, certainly in the G20 vision states.
So Saudi is right there as one of the preeminent states in the G20 right now.
Our role really has been building a regulator native blockchain.
Which is an infrastructure that allows for all of the assets that one would like to see globally investable to be investable.
What does that mean?
It means, well, right up until now markets have had a difficult time getting certainty of law, certainty of regulation.
Tokenization through our mechanism allows that to be resolved very quickly.
And finally, before I let you go, 2026 has been very eventful, and it's hard to believe we're only still in Q1.
But given your expectations for changes in Saudi, what are you doing in terms of drop and what is the vision moving forward?
Yes, so our goal is very, very simple in terms of rolling.
Out that infrastructure in Saudi.
We're trying to help Saudi drive foreign direct investment, and that comes in multiple different ways.
One of them is effectively taking complex assets and allowing those to be tokenized and making them investable for the international market.
And I think that's a key differentiator there is the difference between complex assets and simple assets in the tokenization world is very.
Tokenizing a treasury bond or an equity, something that's already fairly liquid, is a benefit.
Tokenizing a real world asset such as energy or commodities or real estate, that's a solution.
And so we're delivering a solution to a kingdom like Saudi that has an awful lot of sovereign assets in the complex area and fewer.
Yes, and finally, Chris, before I let you go, when we're looking at all asset classes, there has been plenty of volatility, but when it comes to the digital asset space, we know that there has also been a lot of volatility with the crypto majors.
But given that you speak to many stakeholders, not just in the US but also overseas, give us an idea of what's happening on the ground around the globe.
Well again I think that when we look at some of the leaders in finance, Larry Fink over at BlackRock, Bill Winters over at Standard Chartered, I think what there is is this kind of tokenization of the global asset base, and that is continuing to happen.
We are, I believe. $12 billion of transactions processing through this year at the forefront of that and what I think we're at pains to do is to differentiate where the crypto market might live in the speculatory world.
We are the settlement, the plumbing, the infrastructure that really connects real world assets to the financial markets.
Well, a lot to keep our eyes on as we head into the rest of this year.
So thank you so much for joining us here at the New York Stock Exchange.
Pleasure.
Thank you.
