Misha Putiatin on Wall Street Adding Blockchain Exposure, Headwinds Ahead

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
I do want to turn our attention here to the increasing institutional adoption of crypto and the blockchain. Welcome in our next guest. Joining us here, Misha Putiatin, the co-founder of Symbiotic and Statemind. Misha, thank you for joining us from the NYSEE floor today. Now, we're seeing a tokenized real-world asset shift. I mean, they have grown from roughly $21 billion to more than $38 billion in just a year's time. I mean, incredible growth. Is this finally the beginning of Wall Street, moving on chain rather than just experimenting with blockchain?

**Misha Putiatin** (0:34)
Yeah, I would say so. I think the regulatory clarity in general and the recent improvements in blockchain technology, they all came together to provide a significant value to the classical finance.

**SPEAKER_1** (0:52)
What has changed then the most over the last year that's making institutions feel more comfortable putting traditional financial assets on chain?

**Misha Putiatin** (1:03)
Well, first of all, we had the headline projects from the biggest institutions like Goldman Sachs, DTCC, and Black Robin Hood, and NYSEA as well, and NYSEA. Generally, I think that was a long road that we were on. And since the new administration and the clarity, I think a lot of it was already in place just to be implemented this year and the next year.

**SPEAKER_1** (1:34)
And how important has regulation been to this increased adoption that we've seen? And how much farther do we have to go from a regulatory standpoint before we see more broad adoption?

**Misha Putiatin** (1:48)
Yeah, clarity would be nice, but I think the first steps already have already been made. And I think the most important part happened already. We now know the blueprint on how this is going to happen. We have a few options and few paths forward that we can take, but the general direction is already known.
People want 24-7 trading, and people want flexibility and collateral in their business activities. And blockchain is really well suited for that.

**SPEAKER_1** (2:25)
And as we see more assets move on chain, Misha, what's the biggest piece of infrastructure that Wall Street still needs to build?

**Misha Putiatin** (2:37)
Well, as I told you, the first step is already done. So we have a receipt, basically a receipt token that represents the share in the money market fund, private credit, stocks, commodities, and different asset classes.
The second step and the most fruitful activity that I see happening soon is that we will see some operational aspects of traditional finance coming on chain. So if like their debt is overdue, if the margin is not sufficient, blockchains and programmable nature of blockchains, it's easy for them just to liquidate something or to create a provision on something. So the next step and the most interested one is going to be to actually add programmability to traditional markets through blockchains.

**SPEAKER_1** (3:30)
And how do you solve the liquidity problem then? I mean, you can tokenize an asset, but it doesn't necessarily create a market for it.

**Misha Putiatin** (3:38)
Yes, exactly.
That's what we are trying to help with. That's symbiotic. Yeah, definitely. You're not inventing new people that are trading, like your distribution might increase. But if you had like a low liquidity in traditional markets, you probably will not have like the best ones, the best liquidity in crypto markets as well. But in terms of what crypto can do for that, we have options and like we have like auctions, and we have the risk management in asset allocator vehicles that can help create an immediate liquidity for people. Like LiquidLane is already supporting from Symbiotic, is already supporting Janis Henderson and New York Life, and Apollo Credit Funds that are notoriously like liquid sometimes, and they provide immediate redemption for those things. Not available in traditional finance or at least like not available in seconds.

**SPEAKER_1** (4:35)
And if tokenized assets can move 24-7, then what happens to the traditional market structure that's built around trading hours and clearing windows, and I know we already have instant settlements, so then what happens to the settlement cycle?

**Misha Putiatin** (4:52)
Yeah, we kind of already have the 24-7 trading in some parts. It's not widespread, but like you can have OTC desks performed on the weekend. You have CFD and you have options and perpetual, and like a lot of markets that never close. So like after our trading on some platforms. So we already have that. We know how to manage this.
It's just like it's going to take an operational adjustment from the side of traditional finance just to cater towards somebody like watching it over it and making sure that everything works when the traditional markets open.