is finally moving on a comprehensive market structure bill following a major breakthrough on stable coin yields, but with a White House advisers saying it is time for regulation as well as the traditional asset managers diving in to defy the institutional floodgates are open, but banking groups are pushing back, saying that the latest compromise falls short of their expectations for a full.
On yield payments.
Well joining us to break down the latest moves ahead of our upcoming panel on tokenized private credit is Blue Macellari, Head of Digital Assets at T.
Rowe Price.
Blue, great to have you here.
Thank you so much for joining me.
Thank you for having me.
Well, we are looking at Bitcoin prices elevated above that 80,000 level, but there are so many moving parts right now.
So tell me what you make of this price action.
Um, so I think we've, we obviously have been in a bear market since the fall.
We saw a significant selloff, and I think what we have seen is resilience in the market and enthusiasm around the asset class both in terms of tokenization and investing on the crypto side.
This is by far the most, like the largest busiest consensus I've seen, and you wouldn't know.
You wouldn't know that we'd had a tough year in markets from looking around.
Yeah, and I think it's so befitting that this year's theme is convergence because we're looking at Tradfi, DI policymakers on the ground as well as innovators.
So there are a lot of conversations taking place.
So give us your take on the mood despite what we're seeing in the markets.
Yeah, so I think um for years, for many cycles we've always asked like, well, when are the institutions coming, when are the and I think the institutions are here and I think if you look at the line of a consensus, um, if you look at who's getting involved, there are a number of 1 trillion plus asset managers here this week.
Um, we've had a lot of exciting news out of sort of DC tech we're cautiously optimistic that that clarity is sort of on the road.
Um, or that conversations have been constructive enough we might, we might get movement there, but I think it's just the amount of institutional enthusiasm and involvement is something we've never seen before.
Yeah, and as you mentioned, we're keeping a close eye on the regulatory landscape and any progress towards legislation, especially in a midterm election year, but you are here and you're going to be speaking. on a panel about tokenized private credit.
So tell us, how does putting real world assets on a blockchain solve some of these liquidity issues?
So one of, I mean, it's not alchemy is the most important thing to say, but what tokenization does is it can significantly lower administrative costs and make asset classes that were sort of previously not like not accessible for many investors make it more accessible.
Um, and it also introduces programmability and composability, so we turn assets essentially into code represented on blockchain.
We can do a lot of different things with them and sort of turn them into building blocks for a broader portfolio, right, or have them be more suitable for different types of investment objectives, and that's a really exciting, you know, sort of new area that's just sort of starting to come into its own.
Yeah, and while I have you here, I do want to get your perspective because you have experience on being both on the trad Phi side as well as the Phi side.
So given the fact that there is this turf war going on over stablecoins and yield, what do you think is the fine balance that needs to be met right now?
So, um, I actually am getting this from a conversation I had with someone else, but I thought it was an excellent point, which was, um.
I think that there needs to be a compromise.
I think that particularly small mid-size regional banks, community banks, perform an important service, right?
And I think that we need to support them.
At the same time, I don't think that rewards are, you know, or some sort of sort of interest payments are going to cause a massive capital flight.
I think we're still in the very early days of stable coins.
Um, and so I think it's about finding a balance that helps manage that transition in a way that benefits not just crypto, right, not just banks, but also regular Americans.
Yeah.
And finally, before I let you go, I do want to get your take on what crypto sectors you find interesting right now.
You mentioned stablecoins as well as regional banks.
So what are you paying attention to and why?
So I think that the really two big sectors to watch in terms of investing in crypto this year.
Our, our payments and tokenization real world assets, internet capital markets.
I mean the growth we're seeing there, um, at the end of the day people are paying for block space to process transactions and, and that's one of the things we're super excited about is a massive adoption in terms of RWAs and what that means for chains.
Well, thank you so much, Blue, for joining us this morning as Consensus 2026 kicks off here in Miami.
Terrific.
Thank you for having me.
Thank you so much.
