How Crypto Is Reshaping Global Market Infrastructure: Insights From Edward Woodford

Welcome to FinTech TV.

I'm Emmy Blair.

Well, the integration of digital assets into Trad has moved well beyond the experimental phase.

We're now watching a fundamental restructuring of global market infrastructure from instant brokerage settlements to AI-driven capital allocation.

The plumbing of is being upgraded for real-time efficiency.

Now 0 hash is powering crypto for giants like.

Black Rock as well as Morgan Stanley, and now they are making a massive regulatory move.

The infrastructure provider did file for a National Trust Bank charter with the OCC.

Well, joining us live from Consensus 2026 in Miami is Edward Woodford, CEO of Zerohash.

Great to have you here.

Thank you so much for joining me.

Yeah, thank you.

Well, you will be taking the stage here at Consensus 2026.

With Morgan Stanley.

So tell our viewing audience about this partnership.

Yeah, so tomorrow I'm going to be on stage interviewing Jed Flynn, who's the global head of wealth and Morgan Stanley.

They are the largest wealth manager in the world, actually, with over $7 trillion in assets.

And so it's a really meaningful step to have a group of that size entering and now live in the crypto space with their partnership with Xerohash.

And very simply, we see this as a convergence.

Between traditional finance and crypto, one and the same, and ultimately, you know what's particularly exciting about that partnership with Morgan Stanley is that it's the first step into a much broader relationship and you know, more to come soon on that.

And I do want to get your perspective, Edward, when it comes to round the clock settlements.

So how does that fundamentally change the brokerage business model?

Yes, so Xerohash has a product called stablecoin Account funding, and really we're seeing a large macro shift in terms of the way that trading is done globally, both with, for example, 24/7 trading, as well as tokenization, as well as the rise of prediction markets, and those three factors are really converging with the need for the velocity of money to move more quickly within capital markets.

And so as you think about capital markets and the evolution, the money velocity really matters increasingly in this space.

And so Xero Hash partners with groups like Koshi, Interactive Brokers, and several other large traditional financial institutions to allow for funds to be received 24/7, 365 from anywhere at any time.

And that really unlocks a much, much bigger market and TA.

Capital market providers.

Yeah, and speaking of that, I do want you to expand on tokenization.

This is something that we'll be hearing a lot about on the ground here at Consensus, but when we're talking about how critical stablecoins are to making tokenization work at a scalable institutional level, break this down for us.

Yeah, so.

Zerohash was some of the largest tokenization providers out there.

Our customers include groups like BlackRock, Securitize, Republic, Franklin Templeton, and really the commonality with all of these groups is one of the promises of one of the promises of tokenization is effectively the ability to move value instantly, globally and fractionalize that across the world and effectively 0 hash.

And stablecoins are a critical part of that unlock.

So you have assets that can move instantly and globally, but freer rails cannot.

And so stablecoins really allow for that interoperability between a tokenized instrument as well as a tokenized dollar, and that is the unlock.

And that's why, for example, in H2 of last year, 35% of all tokenized money market funds actually flow through zero hash funding rails.

And while we're here, we all know that artificial intelligence as a technology as well investment theme are front and center in 2026.

So when it comes to Agente finance, tell us where we're at.

Yes, so in terms of gentec finance, I think broadly in terms of how does this intersect with stablecoins and cryptography more generally.

And so what we really think about deeply is just the way that Agentec is more generally is changing the way that the economy of the internet is evolving and adjusting.

And so very simply, if you see something online now through an agent, the, the, the way that the internet economic model works today is effectively that the website creator gets rewards for effectively Ads or for referrals that is fundamentally shifting in an ergentic world where if I type something into chat GBT, I'm not being routed to the website.

And so stablecoins can act as a mechanism to effectively allow for instant real-time settlement in a decentralized world, and that is what the agentic finance world is going to look like.

You're going to have content creators such as FinTech TV, right, and agents, and effectively the creators need to be paid.

And how do you do that with billions of agents and billions of creators?

We really believe that stablecoins are a huge Unlock for that, I think.

Secondly, when you think about agentic finance, you can look at what people like Public.com have been doing, where effectively you're deploying agents to make investment decisions with the right controls, and actually their rollout actually includes the ability to apply agents to buying crypto as part of your portfolio with Xero hash.

And so those are the two drivers I see.

It's more around agentic to agentic finance as well as just more generally agents making decisions or recommendations for for clients.

And Edward, finally, before I let you go, I do want to get your take on what we're seeing in terms of institutional adoption, but what major shifts do you actually expect to see when we're talking not just about 2026, but also beyond into 2027, and we're talking about 12 to 24 months from now?

Yeah, look, so fundamentally we were talking about how cryptos.

Technology as opposed to an asset class, and this is I've been coming to a consensus in 2017 and just the atmosphere has fundamentally shifted and you're already starting to see this convergence between traditional finance and cryptography as a technology, whether that be through stablecoins or whether that be through, for example, tokenized deposits such as JPM's Kinexis products, and we're very, very confident that all US GSIBS will be interacting with technology within the next 24 months, not in POCs, but in real production activities.

And obviously our hope is that Zero has is at the core of that, and we're already starting to see that with groups like Morgan Stanley and other GSIBs that will be announcing over the coming months.

A lot to keep our eyes on as we head not just into the end of 2026, but also beyond.

So I appreciate your time, Edred.

Thank you so much for joining us here at Consensus.