On this episode of CoinGeek Backstage, Patrick Thompson grabbed a chat with Roger Wurzel, CEO of DLT Finance Group, backstage at the CoinGeek Conference in Zurich. He began by asking Wurzel about DLT Finance Group and the services they provide.
Wurzel explained that DLT Finance Group is a prime broker service to connect banks and asset managers with the new asset class of digital assets. While not an exchange themselves, DLT allows large banks to trade on digital currency exchanges, crucially with the protective cover of regulation.
The company is regulated in Germany for digital currency custody under regulator BaFin, allowing them to store digital currency in a safe and regulated way on behalf of institutional clients.
Wurzel recalled his 22 years at Deutsche Bank as a trader, and the early conversations around his new business when starting DLT Finance Group three years ago. He initially approached the bank and his former clients and asked about digital currency assets, only to be laughed at. He was told that by the following year, the whole crypto sector would be dead. Now, banks feel increasing demand from their clients for digital assets, and the situation has roundly changed. The conversation now is about how banks can do it in a regulated way.
He noted that banks cannot trade on an unregulated exchange. The whole environment has changed, and for the better in Wurzel’s view, for firms like DLT Finance Group.
On tokenized assets, Wurzel said there won’t be the need for as many manual processes in the future. More will be done on the blockchain and transactions will settle near real time. The advent of a 24/7 trading environment is working quite well—but fiat access always depends on existing systems, tied to business days for settlements, which is far too sluggish and now feels very out of date.
According to Wurzel, this is why stablecoins will be the new future, and why NFTs will become so big—if the banks don’t get on board now, they will kick themselves later.
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