Goldman Sachs Digital Assets Conference Summary: What Topics Are Institutions Watching?

Author: Tom Wan, 21.co Researcher Source: X, @tomwanhh Translation: Shan Ouba, Golden Finance

Goldman Sachs held the Goldman Sachs Digital Asset Conference in its London office on June 27, discussing topics such as institutional focus areas, tokenization, crypto markets, and investor perspectives. 21.co Researcher Tom Wan summarized the highlights of the conference roundtable discussion.

Terms often heard at the Goldman Sachs Digital Asset Conference include:

• TON

• Tokenization

• ETF

• User Experience (UX)

• Regulation

Here is a brief summary of some interesting panel discussions:

1. The Next Wave of Digital Asset Investing

• Dan Pantera (@dan_pantera) - Pantera Capital

• Rich Galvin (@richwgalvin) - Digital Asset Capital Management Joseph Naggar - Republic Digital Rview from HK (@rviewfromhk) - Animoca 1.1 How to market crypto to traditional financial investors: Similar to other asset classes, but don’t focus on the philosophical level The main challenge right now is high volatility Analogy to the maturation of emerging markets and correlation with the internet boom 1.2 Has venture capital returned to its heyday?

  • Investment speed is similar to before, price decline is an excellent opportunity to invest at reasonable valuations

  • Liquidity investment is also a good area

  1.3 Why altcoins perform poorly:

  • A large number of new token generation events (TGEs) have led to some capital rotation

  • Regulation will determine long-term winners and losers

  • The valuation of the entire crypto market is similar to that of the S&P 500, and top assets occupy most of the market share

  1.4 Predictions and exciting areas: Every speaker mentioned TON

  left;">Dan:

  • The combination of blockchain and AI in the fields of traceability and decentralization of AI models/computing

  • TON has a huge existing user base

  Ricard: AI and consumer-facing interfaces

  What we need is to attract more users by abstracting complexity. Telegram is a great example
  Joseph: TON/Near/Bittensor/Bitcoin smart contracts
  Robby: ZKPs for decentralized ID and powerful distributed blockchains like TON

  2. The technologies that underpin digital assets

  • Constantine (@konstantin11) - BlockdaemonHQ

  • Yuval Rooz (@YuvalRooz) - Digital Asset Holdings

  • Aaron Schnarch - Anchorage

  • Tim Rice (@TimRiceCM) - Coinmetrics

  2.1 Where blockchain is demonstrating its power in the real world: Tokenization: Lower fees, greater efficiency and 24/7 markets. Example: Securitize’s BUIDL Bitcoin ETF 2.2 What are the key challenges for the industry right now? Compliance: Staking is still complex in terms of reporting and tax calculations Complexity: Staking can still be confusing for investors User experience: ETFs are a great example that simplifies investing by abstracting away the custody part 2.3 Is Staking the Next Trend for Institutional Adoption?

  • Institutions will start to participate in decentralized networks, such as running nodes or validating networks. However, regulations are still not entirely certain

  • Staking remains complex, abstraction is key

  3. After ETFs: Where does the future of cryptocurrencies lie?

  • Gautam (@Gautam_iit) - Brevan Howard Digital

  • Naeem (@0xUNaeem) - Coinbase

  • Chris Zuehlke (@Chris_Zuehlke) - Cumberland

  • Hunter Horsley (@HHorsley) - Bitwise

  3.1 Will there be more cryptocurrency ETFs besides Bitcoin and Ethereum?

  • Solana and TON blockchains do have different products from Bitcoin and Ethereum, so it's not just Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs

  • Index funds may be a lasting long-term solution for the next wave of cryptocurrency ETFs

  3.2 Looking back, what are the surprises of Bitcoin ETFs? What secondary effects will there be?

  • Coinbase survey expected US BTC ETF AUM to reach $10B in the year before launch, but results exceeded expectations

  • Speed ​​of adoption among investors and advisors compared to GLD has been surprising

  • Surprising influx of retail and HNWI investors as institutions haven’t fully entered yet

  • Next wave may be pensions and endowments

  • Second order effect may be speed of adoption among tokenized investors and

  3.3 How do market dynamics change after ETFs?

  • Liquidity is deeper during US trading hours

  • Volume during US trading hours increased 3-4 times, accounting for 50% of total trading volume

  • Derivatives trading began to dominate price trends

  3.4 In addition to ETFs, what are other catalysts for Bitcoin price movements?

  • Regulatory changes

  • Interest rates

  • Ordinals/BRC-20s show innovation at the base layer

  • BitVM and other Bitcoin scaling solutions

  • Reputation/counterparty risk has passed

  3.5 Which cycle are we in

  • Technology is ready for prime time. L2 and other L1s like Solana reduce transaction costs

  • Institutions will adopt some blue-chip DeFi protocols to build their own solutions

  3.6 How the US election affects cryptocurrencies

  • The crypto agenda is clearer than before

  • We need a clear regulatory framework

  • A clear regulatory framework can promote innovation and enhance U.S. competitiveness

  3.7 Best and worst case scenarios at the end of the year:

  Best case scenario:

  • left;">The birth of a super application will attract millions of people to use

  • Institutions on the chain

  Worst case:

  • Lack of motivation and bad reputation

  • Talent flows to the AI ​​field

  4. Ownership network: How a billion people can change capitalism and financial markets through Web3

  A photo of Yat showing @Moca_Network in the Goldman Sachs office

  

  4.1 Cryptocurrency is not much different from real world structures, just more advanced

  • DeFi is now one of the largest central banks with $100 billion in total locked value (TVL)

  • DAO may be the organizational structure of the future

  4.2 How Cryptocurrency Helps the Gaming Industry

  • NFTs Enable Users to Own a Piece of the Internet

  • In-Game Currency = Tokens

  • • Tony Ashraf - BlackRock

    • Geoff Kendrick - Standard Chartered Bank

    • Russell Barlow - Abrdn

    5.1 Why are tokenized money market funds important for cryptocurrencies?

    • Income-generating assets are high-quality collateral

    • Stablecoins have no income and may have potential counterparty risks

    • It is a more efficient asset compared to non-yielding cash

    5.2 Why did BlackRock choose to work with Securitize to tokenize money market funds?

    • Creates a new distribution channel

    • It is an efficient asset

    • Provides a way for the crypto industry to obtain risk-free returns without leaving the blockchain

    5.3 What strategic investments has your company made?

    Russell (Abrdn):

    • Providing infrastructure for 24/7 trading

    • Working closely with Hedera, running a node and participating in the governance committee

    Geoff (Standard Chartered):

    • Zodia Custody

    Tony (BlackRock):

    • BlackRock invests in companies that can work together

    • securitization to help distribute tokenized funds

  • JPM/Coinbase/BNY etc. 5.4 What is the biggest opportunity? Cryptocurrency, custody, collateral management or tokenization? Cryptocurrency will dominate. Tokenization will too, but we need to move away from proofs of concept (PoC) Super apps in crypto Collateral management will be a surprise