RULEMATCH Spot On

RULEMATCH Spot On - Winter Edition 2025: From the UK to Switzerland and all around, Ellipitic CEO Simone Maini shared her thoughts on where the institutional crypto market is going, what role compliance and regulation has to play - and why the industry cannot "mess up" its big moment.

RULEMATCH Spot On Winter Edition 2025 - “Transformational and fundamental” - David Newns of SIX Digital Exchange talks with Ian Simpson about how important custody and collateral management are for digital asset markets - especially for trading.

And why RULEMATCH and SDX are a perfect match to combine trading and custody services of the highest order.

RULEMATH Spot On - Winter Edition 2025: Digital Asset Co-founder and Head of Network Strategy Eric Saraniecki sat down with Ian Simpson in St Moritz to discuss the current state of institutional adoption in crypto, the (continued) rise of stablecoins, the need for privacy in crypto finance and where tokenization will go...eventually.

RULEMATCH Spot On Winter Edition 2025 - B2C2 Global CEO Thomas Restout sat down with Ian Simpson in St Moritz to talk about global liquidity in crypto markets, developments in 2025 and the activities of global hedge funds and trading firms in the digital asset space.

RULEMATCH Spot On Winter Edition 2025 - “TradFi experience and rules matter” - In St Moritz, Amar Kuchinad, Global CEO of Copper spoke to Ian Simpson and shared his experience in crossing over from traditional finance to crypto finance - including what unique experience he is bringing to one of the industry’s leading crypto custody and collateral management providers.

Offering innovative financial products based on crypto assets may sound exciting - but it isn’t easy. Especially for banks.

What kind of structuring is needed? How is trading executed? What kind of risks are involved - and how can you control those risks?

These are the kinds of questions that faced Vontobel, one of Switzerland’s earliest banks to offer crypto structured products.

In the final 2024 episode of RULEMATCH Spot On, Vontobel Head Blockchain Solutions Florian Marty shares a “behind-the-scenes look at how the bank dealt with these topics in the past.

He also shares a first-hand look at how Vontobel is evolving its offering to grow and expand in the future…

(00:55) Intro

(2:03) The backstory of Vontobel's entry into crypto

(3:39) Built "in-house" tech

(5:23) What was "under the hood" of the first crypto tracker certificate?

(7:25) Why plugging into "exchanges" was tough...

(8:30) Vontobel's expertise in structured products

(9:56) The complexities of offering structured products

(11:45) The tough thing about sketchy counterparties...

(12:40) The "complexity" of pre-funded crypto trading

(13:05) Vontobel's joint-venture for future crypto products

(14:15) The evolution of crypto products at Vontobel

(16:00) Changing investor appetite for crypto products

(17:31) The effect of other (new) crypto products

(19:16) Two minds and two profiles of crypto investors

(21:40) Balancing the needs/wants of private banking and investment banking

(22:50) Looking at Europe and MiCAR

(24:39) The challenge of a fragmented regulatory landscape

(26:00) Is the financialization of crypto good or bad?

(27:21) The prospects for a borrowing/lending market for crypto

(31:37) Will there be "regulated DeFi?"

(34:10) Learnings from a first attempt at a tokenized structured product

(36:49) Why a lack of proper exchanges is a problem

(37:32) Does it take a "big boy" like BlackRock to push adoption?

(39:02) What are clients asking for?

(41:33) Looking into the crystal ball

For financial institutions, there is only one way to do crypto - by the rules. Whether it is custody of crypto assets, asset management, wealth management - or simple trading, banks and securities firms have to follow the 'narrow path' to provide the highest level of certainty and security for their clients.

As one of the few banks in the world - if not the only one - Julius Baer offers its clients the opportunity to invest in crypto assets with the support of a full-fledged research department and CIO House View. That positions one of Switzerland’s largest banks as a global leader in the institutional digital assets industry.

Across the wide, global landscape of crypto markets, financial institutions often face challenges in connecting to venues, managing liquidity and coordinating order flows. To tackle this challenge they often to turn to order management systems providers like Talos. But as the industry gets more sophisticated and complex, the scope of services offered has to keep up as well.

As it develops to keep up with demand, Talos and its Co-founder/CEO Anton Katz have collected unique insights on needs and preferences of financial institutions who are expanding their operations.

In this episode of RULEMATCH Spot On, host Ian Simpson discussed the state of liquidity in crypto, the developing institutional crypto space as well as Talos’s expanding feature set with a view towards new business opportunities and the coming world of tokenization.

Episode show notes:

(1:16) Intro

(2:16) A Talos perspective on crypto liquidity fragmentation

(4:26) Anton’s view on the future of fragmentation

(4:55) The incentive to split off liquidity

(6:09) Where Talos stands at the entrance to a fragmented market

(6:56) The most common question from Talos clients

(7:46) How smaller (and bigger) players are trying to take advantage

(9:19) Fragmentation of the stablecoin space

(10:58) The urge to use stablecoins for settlement and other use cases

(13:38) The main trend among stablecoins

(14:03) “Old-fashioned” stablecoins for the risk-averse

(14:38) Top considerations for choosing a venue

(16:45) Order types as a key point

(17:09) KYC or KYV for venues

(18:18) The consideration of post-trade options for choosing a venue

(19:16) Risk as a sizing function

(19:54) Why people forget about counterparty risk

(20:51) Comparing market models in crypto

(23:04) Possibilities for M&A among trading venues

(24:22) How Talos’s focus is changing over time

(25:34) Connectivity moving towards “plug and play”

(27:15) How latency is changing the game

(28:31) Differences in alpha

(29:15) Why TCA is becoming so important

(29:51) Evaluating market needs over time

(31:13) Why liquidity providers also need TCA

(31:52) Progression in TCA tooling and wash trading detection

(35:10) Fragmentation among settlement models

(36:56) How prime brokers are helping out

(37:28) “One-click settlement”

(39:43) Demand for various settlement models

(40:59) Tools to handle the flood after ETF approvals

(41:20) Talos’s tools with traditional asset classes

(43:13) Diving into PBs

(44:49) Rivalry between PBs and exchanges

(47:12) An opportunity for banks as prime brokers

(49:10) Will regulation change the venue landscape?

(52:40) The shadow of MiCAR

(55:19) Working with clients on compliance regulation

(55:45) Remembering the advantages of regulation

(56:20) Peering into the future with tokenization

(58:29) Fireblocks and Talos with broad network “distribution”

(1:00:24) Looking into the crystal ball with stablecoins and lending/borrowing

ABOUT THE HOST: Ian Simpson is Director of Marketing and Communication at RULEMATCH as well as host of the RULEMATCH Spot On podcast, focused exclusively on the institutional crypto and digital assets industry. Previously he was Head of Marketing at Bitcoin Suisse and Head of Communications at the Crypto Valley Association. Ian is a veteran of the Swiss crypto and digital assets industry since 2017. His insights on the Swiss crypto and blockchain ecosystem have been featured in CoinDesk, the leader in blockchain news.

------Disclaimer:

The information contained in this podcast about RULEMATCH AG (“RULEMATCH”) and any guest company is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered exhaustive. They do not imply any elements of a contractual relationship nor any offering.

Episode show notes:

(1:02) Intro to Adam and Fireblocks

(2:15) Is Fireblocks still "just a tech provider"?

(4:01) How tech and Fireblocks is developing as the market remains fragmented

(6:12) The "layer on top" that institutions demand from crypto market infrastructure

(9:00) A difference of attitude and approach between US and European banks

(10:36) Why American banks are the least advanced

(10:53) The good thing about Europe

(12:45) Outsourcing vs "build-your-own" for crypto custody among banks

(14:50) Why there is a greater opportunity for banks in Europe to compete

(15:10) SDX Web3 custody as a prime example of Fireblocks tech in Switzerland

(15:35) What happens when companies "play at being a bank" with custody?

(16:55) Why vertical integrated offerings will disappear

(18:15) How off-venue custody is evolving

(19:20) Why MPC tech supports sophisticated custody setups

(20:57) The legal considerations to new custody setups

(22:05) Adam's history at CLS and the "unsexy" topic of settlement

(24:05) Why Fireblock's off-exchange solution is exciting

(25:02) How DvP or PvP mitigates settlement risk

(26:02) Will regulation and settlement considerations "localize" crypto markets?

(27:34) What could force the creation of a "crypto CLS"

(29:16) The progressivism of the UAE

(30:05) Top-down vs bottom-up drivers (like BlackRock)

(30:33) More technical feature requirements that institutions are looking for

(31:49) How soon will "pre-funded" trading go away?

(33:18) Is there FOMO among financial institutions?

(34:35) A closer look at Fireblocks's work in tokenization

(37:58) The details on tokenization possibilities

(39:12) Global impilcations of token templates

(40:47) Trading for new tokens created through Fireblocks

(42:20) Advising on tokens

(43:02) More about the Fireblocks Trust Company

(43:41) Who to count on in the "tokenization race"

(44:32) What to look out for in the collateral management space

ABOUT THE HOST: Ian Simpson is Director of Marketing and Communication at RULEMATCH as well as host of the RULEMATCH Spot On podcast, focused exclusively on the institutional crypto and digital assets industry. Previously he was Head of Marketing at Bitcoin Suisse and Head of Communications at the Crypto Valley Association. Ian is a veteran of the Swiss crypto and digital assets industry since 2017. His insights on the Swiss crypto and blockchain ecosystem have been featured in CoinDesk, the leader in blockchain news.

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Disclaimer:The information contained in this podcast about RULEMATCH AG (“RULEMATCH”) and any guest company is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered exhaustive. They do not imply any elements of a contractual relationship nor any offering.