Mm.
The global stablecoin market has topped $280 billion and with the US taking a commanding lead through new legislation, namely the Genius Act, more than 30 major crypto companies, including coin-based Kracken and Fireblox, now pressing the UK to catch up.
Well, the company is calling for a national stable coin strategy that embraces digital currencies as financial infrastructure, not just risks to be contained.
While a UK Treasury spokesperson says the government plans.
To finalize rules for digital assets by the end of the year.
Well joining me live here at the New York Stock Exchange this morning is Yuval Ruz, the CEO and co-founder of Digital Asset.
Yuval, welcome back.
Thank you so much for joining me.
Thank you for having me.
Well, first and foremost, when it comes to the US and what we've seen this year in terms of regulation, the Genius Act signed into law, but give us your perspective when it comes to the implications not here in the US but also overseas.
Yeah, so I think first of all it's extremely encouraging to have this new legislation, but to me what's even more encouraging is the administration and the regulators' engagement with the industry.
So I think that although a lot of things like the Genius Act were needed for stablecoin adoption, Generally speaking, there's so much more to be done with the technology and what you're saying is that a lot of our clients that historically were very careful to move forward with using the technology now feel that there is a backwind and support from the administration and regulators.
So that's very exciting.
What that also creates abroad is that because the US economy is so important, if they're seeing some of their peers or their businesses in the US that are moving forward as a result of regulation and administration.
We're seeing now, you know, historically the US was catching up, now suddenly the world is catching up on how fast the US is moving.
Yeah, and speaking of the US, we're here at the New York Stock Exchange and earlier this summer, Circle went public and Americans added the term stablecoin to their dictionary and familiarized themselves with that term.
But when it comes to central banks and the Bank of England, give us an understanding of what's going on there when it comes to stable coins strategy and the implications for the United Kingdom.
Yeah, I think that I think that stablecoin have proven to be a very successful on chain use case.
It's probably the most used real world asset and now in crypto, and now with the Genius Act, the listing of Circle.
A lot of other activity that is happening in the US you're seeing again, like I said earlier, that the world is trying to catch up.
I think that the future is going to be crypto networks or on chain activity and as a result of that, I think governments are starting to realize that they need to start legislate this in order to be part of the next generation of financial infrastructure.
The UK is one of them.
Korea is very advanced, also now thinking about stable coins and I think we're going to see more and more countries follow.
Yeah, and of course we can't have a conversation about this without talking about institutional adoption because this summer we've been hearing from a lot of major publicly traded companies, not just financial.
Services institutions, but say retailers out there and other organizations saying they're going to be launching their own stablecoin as well.
But when it comes to institutions and the role that privacy plays here, give us your take.
Yeah, so we just talked about the regulation and the law, why it's important.
I still think that at the end of the day, although it's really encouraging to use the technology, I don't think that large scale institutional players would give on the way that they conduct their business, which they expect privacy.
They have fiduciary duty duty to their clients, so their clients expect privacy, and we believe that the next version of adoption will happen to those that can offer configurable privacy.
So it's not just privacy for the sake of privacy.
You still need to comply with.
Having a regulator be able to validate that there's no bad activity, so it's more of this configurable privacy, who can see information on a need to know basis that will drive the next wave of adoption in our opinion. and Yuval tokenization that has been something that has been a topic of focus.
Especially when it comes to the space.
So as we move forward, there's going to be a lot of opinions about this.
So can you explain for the layperson out there who is watching the difference when it comes to tokenized assets versus just on chain securities?
Yeah, so I think that, you know, for a long time, although I'm excited about the wave of tokenization, I don't necessarily like the the the word itself because by by saying we're tokenizing an asset, are we creating something new?
Are we creating a derivative?
Are we creating an ETF-like product?
Like what is it that we're doing?
It's just a single word and so many different people do tokenization differently.
So now suddenly you have assets that are not fungible with one another, which to me will take us backwards.
I think that what we should try to strive for is not tokenizing an asset but actually making sure that the legal tender is actually represented unchanged.
So if I hold the token, it's equivalent for me holding the asset.
And not a claim against some broker dealer that has tokenized it for me.
Yeah, and finally, before I let you go, of course we're entering the final months of 2025.
A lot of anticipation on both sides of the Atlantic here in the US, the UK, Europe, about all the implications of legislation and what this could possibly mean.
So for retail investors who are watching and wondering how all of this is going to shake out, what do you expect to see?
Yeah, listen, at the end of the day, what, what I think we're already seeing, and you mentioned a lot of institutions creating their own stable coins, now some are creating their own chains.
I think that what the retailer expects is better, cheaper, faster product.
I mean, that's what the retailer, so I don't, I don't see necessarily that most of the adoption of this technology will happen with the retailers, you know, installing nodes and doing those kind of things, but actually their service providers will be able to offer them products that today they couldn't even dream of.
And finally, before I let you go, you speak to many stakeholders, not just in the US, but obviously in other regions of the world.
So what's your focus right now and what should we be focusing on?
I think that we have an opening here with this administration and regulatory framework to actually show value, so drive real utility on chain.
Because I think that kind of similar to other disruptive phenomena in the past.
The second that consumers start using this on a regular basis, it's very hard to unwind it.
So I think for us as an industry, it's just really important.
To drive some of these real world utilities to the end consumer using the technology because we have this great window right now.
Yeah, and of course you're joining me the day after Nvidia earnings and there is a lot of focus, a lot of noise out there when it comes to technology, but when it comes to technology and digital assets, what do you think is most important and why?
Yeah, listen, I think you mentioned privacy, and I think that again if we want the institutional adoption, we would have to solve privacy.
A lot of times people talk about scale and what concerns me a bit in the industry is that the way that people do scale is by bifurcating a lot of these ecosystems and then we lose interoperability, which was the whole point of this technology.
So I think really understanding like how these technological component of a crypto network interoperate with one another is so important for us to focus on.
And very quickly for the layperson out there or viewers who are wondering what does interoperability actually mean, can you explain it in a nutshell?
Yeah, so you mentioned a lot of stablecoins.
I want to know that at the end of the day if I have a stablecoin in one network.
I will be able to use it everywhere else and I'm not just again recreating all of these silos that exist today, which is why making sending money or moving assets becomes so expensive and complicated.
So we don't want to lose that seamless connectivity across the networks.
Well, Yuval, I appreciate your time.
Thank you so much for joining me again here at the New York Stock Exchange, and thank you for your insight.
I appreciate.
Thank you.
