Frederik Gregaard, CEO of the Cardano Foundation, joins in from the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange to discuss how blockchain is transforming trust, verification, and the future of global finance. He explains how blockchain technology can be used for cryptographic verification of earnings, enabling real-time transparency and helping investors confidently trust company data especially in an era increasingly shaped by AI-driven misinformation and deepfakes. Frederik also compares the evolving regulatory landscape between the European Union and the United States, highlighting frameworks like MiCA and emerging U.S. legislation that could accelerate blockchain adoption at scale. The conversation dives into how decentralized ledgers can combat misinformation through verifiable data and multi-party validation, as well as how Cardano is supporting enterprise use cases, including AI-driven systems that rely on blockchain for identity, security, and collaboration. Looking ahead, Frederik outlines a bold vision for the future where blockchain unlocks access for billions of people without formal identity, dramatically expanding participation in global financial systems and redefining the reach of markets worldwide.
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Frederick Gregaard joins us now down here on the trading floor.
He is the CEO of Cardano Foundation.
Welcome to the exchange and welcome to the show.
Thank you very much.
It's nice to have you here.
Explain the use of blockchain technology for cryptographic verification of earnings.
What does that actually mean?
Well, it means everything, right, if you think about it, right, it should nearly be like a treasure that everybody requires that you can trust the numbers from all the companies.
What we see is an unprecedented time of volatility right now with a lot of it is actually coming from deep fakes, right?
So when you have the ability to verify whether it's real or not real and even verify the numbers in close to real time, you can actually trust the companies, right, and that means that you can trust to go in retirement.
Talk to me about some of the key differences you see in overall crypto infrastructure between the EU and the United States.
Yes, so we got MICA, which basically is the stable coin regime, right?
And now you have the Genius Act, right?
So basically the US in a very short amount of time basically parted the European Union and went one step further.
And what we're going to see now is when the Clarity Act comes into force, the US is going to 10x the usage of blockchain for non-TR file use cases that's going to lead the show where the US has been behind before.
They're going to take the leader.
And it's going to really be amazing for blockchain adoption.
I want to get your take on where we stand in the ongoing fight against AI misinformation.
Anyone with a social media account knows the proliferation of it already, especially during times of intense geopolitics.
How does a decentralized ledger like Cardano protect against that type of new age, newly emerging misinformation?
It's all about verification.
You need to be able to verify the numbers.
You need to have provenance over the numbers, and you need to have as many third parties as possible going in and saying this is correct.
Secondly, we have about 300 companies in Germany right now running Agenda AI, and Kedao is the collaboration layer, the identity.
Layer and the cybersecurity layer for these companies, so they are agentic AI doing amazing use cases.
They don't even feel the blockchain.
They just get the security and the collaboration from that, and that's going to be the future.
And speaking of the future, talk to me about the utility of the infrastructure you're building, not just for the rest of 2026, but beyond.
Well, think about it.
We're standing here now at the New York Stock Exchange, right, which went through a tremendous digital transformation.
What would happen if I could add 2 billion users tomorrow to the distribution of the New York Stock Exchange?
That is the promise of blockchain today.
There's 2 billion people who don't have a national identity.
When they get one through the blockchain, you have distribution.
It's going to be massive change.
That'll be a lot more people watching the show too every day, I hope.
Frederick Gregaard, thank you for being here, CEO of Cardano Foundation.
Best of luck with everything.
Please come back anytime.
It's nice to have you here.