Regulatory clarity is the most important element for the digital future, according to the co-CEO of Coinbase Institutional, Brett Tejpaul. Elements such as the GENIUS Act and SEC regulations will allow companies such as Coinbase to build trading systems around digital tokens, which will be the basis of the new financial system.
Transcription:
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Paul Vigna (00:11):
Hello, I'm Paul Vignia, managing editor at American Banker. I am here today with Bret Tejpaul, who is co - CEO of Coinbase Institutional. We are on the sidelines of the On-Chain Executive Summit here in Midtown Manhattan, and I have five questions for Brett.
Brett Tejpaul (00:27):
Five?
Paul Vigna (00:28):
Three questions. All right. Three questions.
Brett Tejpaul (00:30):
I got it. Monty Python.
Paul Vigna (00:31):
Monty Python reference. All right. The first question, pretty simple. What are you most bullish about when you think about the evolution of on - chain finance and the digital asset economy?
Brett Tejpaul (00:42):
That's easy. It's regulatory clarity. So we've already had the Genius Act and then 48 hours ago we got this super important clarity from the SEC that major network tokens are commodities. And the reason why that's super important is because we can now build all the trading systems around it. And secondly, we can build the new financial system on these protocols.
Paul Vigna (01:05):
So that will probably bring in a new rush of activity. Next two to three years, what would you think is one obstacle that is going to crop up during all that?
Brett Tejpaul (01:15):
It's really just the awakening, the realization that the new financial system is actually now empowered. It's within the regulatory umbrella. And so what we call TradFi firms, traditional finance, all the financial services incumbents are now scrambling to figure out how to do things safely and correctly. And the great part about that is we are now exposing the infrastructure we have to empower all of those things. So they're going to need things like wallets and validators and we've got all that infrastructure to empower all those new client journeys.
Paul Vigna (01:51):
And what is one prediction you would make about what is going to happen in this evolution?
Brett Tejpaul (01:58):
Again, easy. So if the industry and if Coinbase does it correctly, I see a world where financial apps of all kind are going to be using on chain. And so I think the litmus test to see if we're successful is if the client experiences fantastic. And in fact, if it's fantastic, the clients may not even actually know that it's actually on chain behind it. They just have what they want in the moment, twenty four seven trading and access to a whole range of assets.
Paul Vigna (02:26):
All right. Brett, thanks for being with us today.
Brett Tejpaul (02:28):
Thank you.