In this insightful episode of the Crypto Trailblazers series hosted by theCUBE, Mike Cagney of Figure Markets sits down with analysts from theCUBE Research to discuss groundbreaking advancements in blockchain technology and their implications for the finance sector. This video is part of the NYSE Wired digital event, aimed at bridging the gap between Silicon Valley and Wall Street by integrating technology and finance.
Cagney, an eminent figure in fintech, shares expertise on the transformative role of blockchain in financial markets during this interview. Conducted by seasoned analysts at theCUBE, the discussion delves into Figure’s innovative contributions, including their blockchain-native loan origination and securitization process. He outlines how Figure leverages blockchain to achieve cost reductions, enhanced security and improved liquidity in financial transactions.
Key takeaways from the interview highlight insights on the evolution of the Web3 ecosystem, such as the emergence of stablecoins as pivotal to transaction processes and the rise of decentralized finance (DeFi). Oltsik states these developments signify a shift towards democratizing finance, wherein truth and transparency are foundational. The conversation concludes with a look at Figure’s pioneering efforts in creating a new financial marketplace utilizing blockchain technology.
#CryptoTrailblazers #FigureMarkets #BlockchainInnovation #Web3 #NYEWired #BlockchainFinance #DecentralizedFinance #Fintech #Stablecoins
Find more SiliconANGLE news and analysis https://siliconangle.com/.
Follow theCUBE's wall-to-wall event coverage https://siliconangle.com/events/
Learn about the latest theCUBE events https://www.thecube.net/
00:00 - Intro
00:05 - Emerging Innovations in Financial Technology and Market Dynamics
02:45 - Key Elements in Financial Ecosystem Dynamics
06:20 - Blockchain: Truth and Transformation
09:39 - Shaping the Future: Innovations in Financial Markets and Stablecoin Integration
13:15 - Enabling the Future: Navigating Disruptions in Banking and Lending
16:51 - Exploring Opportunities and Building Confidence in the Blockchain Ecosystem
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Gurpreet Oberoi, Kraken
In this insightful episode of the Crypto Trailblazers series hosted by theCUBE, Mike Cagney of Figure Markets sits down with analysts from theCUBE Research to discuss groundbreaking advancements in blockchain technology and their implications for the finance sector. This video is part of the NYSE Wired digital event, aimed at bridging the gap between Silicon Valley and Wall Street by integrating technology and finance.
Cagney, an eminent figure in fintech, shares expertise on the transformative role of blockchain in financial markets during this interview. Conducted by seasoned analysts at theCUBE, the discussion delves into Figure’s innovative contributions, including their blockchain-native loan origination and securitization process. He outlines how Figure leverages blockchain to achieve cost reductions, enhanced security and improved liquidity in financial transactions.
Key takeaways from the interview highlight insights on the evolution of the Web3 ecosystem, such as the emergence of stablecoins as pivotal to transaction processes and the rise of decentralized finance (DeFi). Oltsik states these developments signify a shift towards democratizing finance, wherein truth and transparency are foundational. The conversation concludes with a look at Figure’s pioneering efforts in creating a new financial marketplace utilizing blockchain technology.
#CryptoTrailblazers #FigureMarkets #BlockchainInnovation #Web3 #NYEWired #BlockchainFinance #DecentralizedFinance #Fintech #Stablecoins
Find more SiliconANGLE news and analysis https://siliconangle.com/.
Follow theCUBE's wall-to-wall event coverage https://siliconangle.com/events/
Learn about the latest theCUBE events https://www.thecube.net/
00:00 - Intro
00:05 - Emerging Innovations in Financial Technology and Market Dynamics
02:45 - Key Elements in Financial Ecosystem Dynamics
06:20 - Blockchain: Truth and Transformation
09:39 - Shaping the Future: Innovations in Financial Markets and Stablecoin Integration
13:15 - Enabling the Future: Navigating Disruptions in Banking and Lending
16:51 - Exploring Opportunities and Building Confidence in the Blockchain Ecosystem
>> Welcome back to theCUBE Studio here at the New York Stock Exchange. I'm Gemma Allen and this is Crypto Trailblazers, one of our programs with NYSC Wired. And joining me today is Gurpreet Oberoi, Head of Institutional at Kraken. Welcome, Gurpreet.
Gurpreet Oberoi
>> Thanks for having us.
Gemma Allen
>> So you're no stranger to Wall Street. You spent some time around here once upon a time. Talk to me a little bit about you. Fill me in on your background and what brought you to Kraken.
Gurpreet Oberoi
>> For sure. I spent 10 plus years in finance and trading, investment banking derivatives, and I ran my own investment firm for the last five years and then got sucked into the crypto bug. And through my experience delivering global macro, capital markets, and innovating trading technology, I think Kraken fit all the boxes, and the scope of where it is and where it's going is something which is a once in a lifetime opportunity.
Gemma Allen
>> And what are the symptoms of the crypto bug? Are we talking about speed, agility, just democratization? What were the things that really appealed to you about the space?
Gurpreet Oberoi
>> The product market fit of crypto, I used tokenization example, three, four years ago was a hypothesis. Now you're seeing it happening in every major institution globally. It's not purely a US initiative. It's a global initiative where the global financial rails are being changed and updated in real-time.
Gemma Allen
>> Wow. So you have come in to Head of Institutional at Kraken. I think you're in about two years now, right? And you guys just had some big news a couple of weeks ago. I know Brian Baumann here at the NYSC is very excited and was putting a lot of work in the background to make this happen. Kraken is one of the only platforms that is now going to be integrated with ICE Chat or is integrated with ICE Chat.
Gurpreet Oberoi
>> Yep.
Gemma Allen
>> Talk to me a little bit about that journey from the perspective of becoming so legitimized, I guess, within the world of institutional investment, 1,200 daily users on that platform. What's involved in that? What does that take?
Gurpreet Oberoi
>> Yeah. So taking a step back, what Kraken's core strength is, is really the financial infrastructure. Look at the reels. The Kraken infrastructure powers are Kraken exchange. It powers neobanks, wealth management banks, and traditional financial industries. And ICE is a perfect example. Our exchange or OTC desk provides one of the deepest liquidities in the digital asset space. Now, with this, ICE can basically... 150,000 ICE participants can access Kraken's OTC liquidity to the deepest in the industry, delay settlement, financing, prime execution, qualified custody in just one framework. So the financial infrastructure rails, Kraken allows it to be seamlessly integrated to track buy, and this is a perfect example of ICE integration.
Gemma Allen
>> And you guys are doing some very interesting things in the retail space. We had Mark on the show, Mark Greenberg, talking about xStocks and some of what's happening there in terms of the flick of a switch for Telegram to trade.
Gurpreet Oberoi
>> Yeah.
Gemma Allen
>> How do you see these two worlds lining up from the perspective of, I guess seamless or what seems like a very quick process on the retail side, meeting the kind of institutional roadmap?
Gurpreet Oberoi
>> I mean, institutions love high-touch service. When somebody wants to buy 20 million of, say Bitcoin, ETH, or NVIDIA, they prefer to have a human on the other side to get the market color, best price execution, different financing structures, different option structures, hedging structures. And I think just from a pure, what xStocks, for example, does is now we allow cross-margin. If somebody has Bitcoin in their portfolio and, say a war is picking up, they can borrow from their Bitcoin portfolio, invest in our xStocks on a Saturday and buy Lockheed Martin if they want defense exposure. The cross-margin, everything in one rails, one financial rails is a core innovation which Kraken has really built over the past few years.
Gemma Allen
>> And do you think that we're coming to a point in time where that mass convergence of institutional 24/7 is just going to become the norm? Do you envision that in the next five, 10 years?
Gurpreet Oberoi
>> We're working towards it. I think it'll be much sooner. I think xStocks as an example, is 24/7 equities trading globally and it allows everybody to execute under one platform. You don't have to go to your brokerage account, then your crypto account and figure out different moving money from A to B. Everything will be under one rails 24/7. And Kraken is, from a technology side, with back, with xStocks, it's just one of our products we launched, but you'll see a lot more coming up.
Gemma Allen
>> So Kraken is a company that started in Europe. UK, the US has had now very... It's a very global FinTech player, right?
Gurpreet Oberoi
>> Yeah.
Gemma Allen
>> Talk to me a little bit about what's happening broadly, like geographically around the world. You guys have an interesting M&A strategy. It's a lot of, I'm sure, aggressive plays happening in the crypto space, Tradeify space generically, right? So talk to me about what's kind of ahead for you guys specifically.
Gurpreet Oberoi
>> Yeah. And first principles, Kraken is, again, a global financial infrastructure company. We have 90 plus countries where users transact from. Where we see is everything that touches the core financial rails will touch Kraken. And from an M&A perspective, anything creative to our business, we're very excited to look at it and build in our infrastructure pipeline. But from a global perspective, we're seeing stablecoin adoption at the highest level it has been the past few years. And we see this trend continue to grow. People in emerging markets, when you have more uncertainty, parking money in stablecoins, Kraken has one of the deepest liquidity for stablecoin execution. So these rails, we provide to banks in the Middle East, banks in Europe, neobanks, wealth management. So look at us a layer that powers exchange and powers the world and anything that touches digital assets. And the trend globally is there's a flight to safety to the dollar, which is seeing a good accelerant to stablecoin adoption. And I think more geopolitical uncertainty accelerates that. And you'll see more and more participants in the stablecoin ecosystem. What that means is now they can earn yield to Kraken, they can buy xStocks through Kraken, and have their stablecoins work for them.
Gemma Allen
>> So the US had somewhat of a turnaround in the crypto space, I guess, with the arrival of the new administration 18 months ago now. Globally, what are you seeing? Globally, what markets are surprising you guys at Kraken in terms of their adoption, their acceleration, their enthusiasm? Are there places that stand out?
Gurpreet Oberoi
>> I think we were surprised. We see users from all over the world, throughout Africa, throughout Asia. I mean, Middle East is a great example. They're very fast-forward in regulations and policy, very welcoming to crypto. And we're seeing a lot of their banks constantly figure how to innovate and change their rails to stablecoins. So we're seeing the Middle East as one of the core regions where stablecoin adoption, the core financial rails on how they operate, how they land with their backend is happening in real-time. It's accelerated by uncertainty in Russia, Ukraine, now the whole Iran conflict, where the Middle East is a region where a lot of the high net worth park their money in. So you're seeing that crypto adoption accelerate from the Middle East.
Gemma Allen
>> So you're out there every day closing deals for Kraken, I'm sure.
Gurpreet Oberoi
>> Yeah.
Gemma Allen
>> From a buyer persona perspective, these are industries and institutions that are very traditional and rigid, I guess, in their thinking for quite a long space of time, right? Talk to me about the differences in OTC or custodian, or what sort of neat conversations happen or arise in separate spaces? Is there a separate buyer journey negotiation path? Break it down for me a little bit.
Gurpreet Oberoi
>> For sure. I think let's look at New York, for example. We have a lot of banks on Wall Street here, and what they're seeing is their clientele go by Bitcoin, by ETH from outside their venue. They're moving their assets outside their bank. And as you mentioned, tokenization is not a science project that's happening. It's being adopted globally. And every bank, it's in their framework to leverage blockchain technology for 24/7 settlements, which will basically replace, the T plus two for SWIFT wires will happen instantly now. So we're seeing core use cases being embedded and the banks realize that they eventually have to either build or partner with a platform like ours to power their engine so they can keep their clients on their platform versus their clients who want to access digital assets leaving their platform. So Kraken, for example, is best suited for this transition, because like at any cycle, large firms who are bureaucratic and slow will try to adopt this. Eventually they'll partner with us to work with us to, for example, buy and sell, custody, all the backend infrastructure APIs we can just white label to them. So basically they can be a full service crypto firm overnight, so...
Gemma Allen
>> It's a full stock suite, basically.
Gurpreet Oberoi
>> Correct.
Gemma Allen
>> You're an enabler as much as anything. Talk to me about blockchain and the financial industry broadly though. I mean, 10 years ago it was the buzzword, right? Everyone was talking about the mass opportunity for it to just reshape the future. How has that actually played out, do you think? Do you think it has become somewhat of a plug and play approach or do you think a lot of large banks and institutions are still trying to figure stuff out?
Gurpreet Oberoi
>> I think whoever is trying to figure stuff out will be left behind. I think it comes down to one word, speed. And speed and execution. So blockchain just enables speed, execution, frictionless for money movement throughout the world. And Kraken, since 2013 when we started, have been one of the pioneers in blockchain technology, in stablecoins as a global exchange. So what we're seeing is, every firm, if they don't adopt fast, they'll be left behind. So there's a massive push across every major institution to figure out how to leverage technology. Otherwise, their clients who want faster settlement, faster execution will hop to the next firm.
Gemma Allen
>> And it's interesting you say speed, because sometimes one conversation point you hear is that when it comes to, let's say Bitcoin, that speed is not necessarily a bug, it's a feature, right? That there are a level of pace to this industry too that's important from the perspective, legitimacy and credibility and just, I guess, reassurance, right?
Gurpreet Oberoi
>> Yeah.
Gemma Allen
>> What are your thoughts on that? How do you respond to that?
Gurpreet Oberoi
>> I mean, Bitcoin, I mean, the crypto asset class is proven, right? And the way I look at any asset class like Bitcoin, when you have large capital markets around it, a large options market around it, in terms of, you can sell it... In most scenarios, a billion dollars of Bitcoin, not impact the price, right? So capital market executions around the digital asset space has sort of been streamlined the past few years and now we're seeing it across the traditional financial space. Tokenized equities through us for backend xStocks have been released. And you'll see for bonds, for credit, across fixed income and other asset classes in traditional finance.
Gemma Allen
>> So crypto, state of play, what's your head at? Where do you think the industry is at right now and what are your predictions? How do you see the next 24 months playing out?
Gurpreet Oberoi
>> I see great accelerant tokenization, and that means, again, tokenizing every piece of the financial industry. XStocks as example, we've done over 25 billion of notional traded volume in xStocks. You'll see private credit, private markets, and everything in the traditional FinTech rails, traditional technology rails will be tokenized. And I think that trend has already kicked off and you'll see a lot of announcements, integrations go live. This is not, what I say three years ago, which is more science projects, this is more execution and global adoption.
Gemma Allen
>> And at Kraken specifically, what's on the roadmap? I mean, this ICE partnership is great. Talk to me a little bit about what's coming down the pipe from a collaboration perspective with other players. Give us the magic plan.
Gurpreet Oberoi
>> For sure. No, our partnership with ICE, again, first principle, we're enabling ICE to use Kraken's core infrastructure to power 150,000 ICE users to transact leveraging Kraken's core technology for OTC. We're doing the same with major global banks, major wealth management platforms. So our core business is global. So what we're doing with ICE, we're doing with every institutional client in the world. And you'll see that shift happening very, very... You'll see announcements and partnerships very, very soon in a global way. And I think the beauty is, it's just... When I say global, I truly mean throughout Africa, throughout Latin America, throughout the Middle East, it's not US-centric itself. So the technology of this is we can... Seamless integration of, say a bank in the Middle East wants to provide stablecoins to their users, they're going to come to Kraken as a wholesale liquidity provider and provide their clients access to xStocks. So our core infrastructure product suites will enable large banks globally to offer new innovation solutions. And which I mentioned, speed is most important. So working with Kraken, they can turn on overnight and through a full API suite can be live very quick.
Gemma Allen
>> And then lastly, I guess from a governance perspective, it's obviously a space that gets a lot of speculation, right? From time to time, the markets can be quite volatile. I mean, the markets are volatile across the board right now anyway, but I feel like crypto gets a harder chat sometimes than others. What are your thoughts in the ways of how this industry is just becoming more and more mainstream? Do you think that that narrative, in some way, all oxygen is good oxygen, right? It gets people talking about the industry, gets people learning more. Do you think we're still on that learning curve a little bit?
Gurpreet Oberoi
>> I think we're beyond that learning curve. I think if you look at the ownership of digital assets, it's pretty diverse, pretty global. And price action is very subjective, right? Again, which I mentioned, capital markets in the digital asset space for the top 10, top 20 tokens. I mean, if you look at the low liquidity tokens, it's like comparing to a penny stock, right? The volatility in penny stocks is very high, right? But if you're looking at Bitcoin, looking at ETH, looking at Solana, you'll see that there's more stabilized, you can see the large trading volume. I always say the capital markets pillar is most important to legitimize an asset class. Crypto is beyond that now. Now we're seeing different use cases to stablecoin and tokenizations, which will make this from a... The price moon of these asset classes is very different from tokenization. Tokenization is a core financial infrastructure being pinned, which all the banks will use as a new financial layer. So the price movement is noise, it's cyclical. We're very optimistic that the cycle will turn very quick, but it's just part of the cycle.
Gemma Allen
>> And Gurpreet, finish this off to us, where can people find you? What's ahead in terms of the... I guess we talked off-camera about how social the crypto space seems to be. Are you guys planning any big events for the next six months? Where you guys are going to be at? If people want to find you, where should they find you?
Gurpreet Oberoi
>> Kraken is very global. So most assault events, most of any large conferences, we have a presence from our global team. We have teams across Asia, across Europe, across the Middle East, so it won't be hard to miss a Krakenite. And I'm readily available, so anybody wants to discuss business, different ideas, strategies, you can reach out to me and my team and we'll be pretty quick.
Gemma Allen
>> I like the term Krakenite. I also like the term crack hard, because it's an Irish term too, right? So it's double usage for me. But listen, Gurpreet, thanks so much for coming on theCUBE. Great to talk to you. We'll be watching. All the best to you and the team at Kraken.
Gurpreet Oberoi
>> Thanks for having us.
Gemma Allen
>> I'm Gemma Allen coming to you from the studio here at the New York Stock Exchange. This is Crypto Trailblazers, one of our NYSC Wired programs. Thanks so much for watching.
>> Welcome back to theCUBE Studio here at the New York Stock Exchange. I'm Gemma Allen and this is Crypto Trailblazers, one of our programs with NYSC Wired. And joining me today is Gurpreet Oberoi, Head of Institutional at Kraken. Welcome, Gurpreet.
Gurpreet Oberoi
>> Thanks for having us.
Gemma Allen
>> So you're no stranger to Wall Street. You spent some time around here once upon a time. Talk to me a little bit about you. Fill me in on your background and what brought you to Kraken.
Gurpreet Oberoi
>> For sure. I spent 10 plus years in finance and trading, investment banking derivatives, and I ran my own investment firm for the last five years and then got sucked into the crypto bug. And through my experience delivering global macro, capital markets, and innovating trading technology, I think Kraken fit all the boxes, and the scope of where it is and where it's going is something which is a once in a lifetime opportunity.
Gemma Allen
>> And what are the symptoms of the crypto bug? Are we talking about speed, agility, just democratization? What were the things that really appealed to you about the space?
Gurpreet Oberoi
>> The product market fit of crypto, I used tokenization example, three, four years ago was a hypothesis. Now you're seeing it happening in every major institution globally. It's not purely a US initiative. It's a global initiative where the global financial rails are being changed and updated in real-time.
Gemma Allen
>> Wow. So you have come in to Head of Institutional at Kraken. I think you're in about two years now, right? And you guys just had some big news a couple of weeks ago. I know Brian Baumann here at the NYSC is very excited and was putting a lot of work in the background to make this happen. Kraken is one of the only platforms that is now going to be integrated with ICE Chat or is integrated with ICE Chat.
Gurpreet Oberoi
>> Yep.
Gemma Allen
>> Talk to me a little bit about that journey from the perspective of becoming so legitimized, I guess, within the world of institutional investment, 1,200 daily users on that platform. What's involved in that? What does that take?
Gurpreet Oberoi
>> Yeah. So taking a step back, what Kraken's core strength is, is really the financial infrastructure. Look at the reels. The Kraken infrastructure powers are Kraken exchange. It powers neobanks, wealth management banks, and traditional financial industries. And ICE is a perfect example. Our exchange or OTC desk provides one of the deepest liquidities in the digital asset space. Now, with this, ICE can basically... 150,000 ICE participants can access Kraken's OTC liquidity to the deepest in the industry, delay settlement, financing, prime execution, qualified custody in just one framework. So the financial infrastructure rails, Kraken allows it to be seamlessly integrated to track buy, and this is a perfect example of ICE integration.
Gemma Allen
>> And you guys are doing some very interesting things in the retail space. We had Mark on the show, Mark Greenberg, talking about xStocks and some of what's happening there in terms of the flick of a switch for Telegram to trade.
Gurpreet Oberoi
>> Yeah.
Gemma Allen
>> How do you see these two worlds lining up from the perspective of, I guess seamless or what seems like a very quick process on the retail side, meeting the kind of institutional roadmap?
Gurpreet Oberoi
>> I mean, institutions love high-touch service. When somebody wants to buy 20 million of, say Bitcoin, ETH, or NVIDIA, they prefer to have a human on the other side to get the market color, best price execution, different financing structures, different option structures, hedging structures. And I think just from a pure, what xStocks, for example, does is now we allow cross-margin. If somebody has Bitcoin in their portfolio and, say a war is picking up, they can borrow from their Bitcoin portfolio, invest in our xStocks on a Saturday and buy Lockheed Martin if they want defense exposure. The cross-margin, everything in one rails, one financial rails is a core innovation which Kraken has really built over the past few years.
Gemma Allen
>> And do you think that we're coming to a point in time where that mass convergence of institutional 24/7 is just going to become the norm? Do you envision that in the next five, 10 years?
Gurpreet Oberoi
>> We're working towards it. I think it'll be much sooner. I think xStocks as an example, is 24/7 equities trading globally and it allows everybody to execute under one platform. You don't have to go to your brokerage account, then your crypto account and figure out different moving money from A to B. Everything will be under one rails 24/7. And Kraken is, from a technology side, with back, with xStocks, it's just one of our products we launched, but you'll see a lot more coming up.
Gemma Allen
>> So Kraken is a company that started in Europe. UK, the US has had now very... It's a very global FinTech player, right?
Gurpreet Oberoi
>> Yeah.
Gemma Allen
>> Talk to me a little bit about what's happening broadly, like geographically around the world. You guys have an interesting M&A strategy. It's a lot of, I'm sure, aggressive plays happening in the crypto space, Tradeify space generically, right? So talk to me about what's kind of ahead for you guys specifically.
Gurpreet Oberoi
>> Yeah. And first principles, Kraken is, again, a global financial infrastructure company. We have 90 plus countries where users transact from. Where we see is everything that touches the core financial rails will touch Kraken. And from an M&A perspective, anything creative to our business, we're very excited to look at it and build in our infrastructure pipeline. But from a global perspective, we're seeing stablecoin adoption at the highest level it has been the past few years. And we see this trend continue to grow. People in emerging markets, when you have more uncertainty, parking money in stablecoins, Kraken has one of the deepest liquidity for stablecoin execution. So these rails, we provide to banks in the Middle East, banks in Europe, neobanks, wealth management. So look at us a layer that powers exchange and powers the world and anything that touches digital assets. And the trend globally is there's a flight to safety to the dollar, which is seeing a good accelerant to stablecoin adoption. And I think more geopolitical uncertainty accelerates that. And you'll see more and more participants in the stablecoin ecosystem. What that means is now they can earn yield to Kraken, they can buy xStocks through Kraken, and have their stablecoins work for them.
Gemma Allen
>> So the US had somewhat of a turnaround in the crypto space, I guess, with the arrival of the new administration 18 months ago now. Globally, what are you seeing? Globally, what markets are surprising you guys at Kraken in terms of their adoption, their acceleration, their enthusiasm? Are there places that stand out?
Gurpreet Oberoi
>> I think we were surprised. We see users from all over the world, throughout Africa, throughout Asia. I mean, Middle East is a great example. They're very fast-forward in regulations and policy, very welcoming to crypto. And we're seeing a lot of their banks constantly figure how to innovate and change their rails to stablecoins. So we're seeing the Middle East as one of the core regions where stablecoin adoption, the core financial rails on how they operate, how they land with their backend is happening in real-time. It's accelerated by uncertainty in Russia, Ukraine, now the whole Iran conflict, where the Middle East is a region where a lot of the high net worth park their money in. So you're seeing that crypto adoption accelerate from the Middle East.
Gemma Allen
>> So you're out there every day closing deals for Kraken, I'm sure.
Gurpreet Oberoi
>> Yeah.
Gemma Allen
>> From a buyer persona perspective, these are industries and institutions that are very traditional and rigid, I guess, in their thinking for quite a long space of time, right? Talk to me about the differences in OTC or custodian, or what sort of neat conversations happen or arise in separate spaces? Is there a separate buyer journey negotiation path? Break it down for me a little bit.
Gurpreet Oberoi
>> For sure. I think let's look at New York, for example. We have a lot of banks on Wall Street here, and what they're seeing is their clientele go by Bitcoin, by ETH from outside their venue. They're moving their assets outside their bank. And as you mentioned, tokenization is not a science project that's happening. It's being adopted globally. And every bank, it's in their framework to leverage blockchain technology for 24/7 settlements, which will basically replace, the T plus two for SWIFT wires will happen instantly now. So we're seeing core use cases being embedded and the banks realize that they eventually have to either build or partner with a platform like ours to power their engine so they can keep their clients on their platform versus their clients who want to access digital assets leaving their platform. So Kraken, for example, is best suited for this transition, because like at any cycle, large firms who are bureaucratic and slow will try to adopt this. Eventually they'll partner with us to work with us to, for example, buy and sell, custody, all the backend infrastructure APIs we can just white label to them. So basically they can be a full service crypto firm overnight, so...
Gemma Allen
>> It's a full stock suite, basically.
Gurpreet Oberoi
>> Correct.
Gemma Allen
>> You're an enabler as much as anything. Talk to me about blockchain and the financial industry broadly though. I mean, 10 years ago it was the buzzword, right? Everyone was talking about the mass opportunity for it to just reshape the future. How has that actually played out, do you think? Do you think it has become somewhat of a plug and play approach or do you think a lot of large banks and institutions are still trying to figure stuff out?
Gurpreet Oberoi
>> I think whoever is trying to figure stuff out will be left behind. I think it comes down to one word, speed. And speed and execution. So blockchain just enables speed, execution, frictionless for money movement throughout the world. And Kraken, since 2013 when we started, have been one of the pioneers in blockchain technology, in stablecoins as a global exchange. So what we're seeing is, every firm, if they don't adopt fast, they'll be left behind. So there's a massive push across every major institution to figure out how to leverage technology. Otherwise, their clients who want faster settlement, faster execution will hop to the next firm.
Gemma Allen
>> And it's interesting you say speed, because sometimes one conversation point you hear is that when it comes to, let's say Bitcoin, that speed is not necessarily a bug, it's a feature, right? That there are a level of pace to this industry too that's important from the perspective, legitimacy and credibility and just, I guess, reassurance, right?
Gurpreet Oberoi
>> Yeah.
Gemma Allen
>> What are your thoughts on that? How do you respond to that?
Gurpreet Oberoi
>> I mean, Bitcoin, I mean, the crypto asset class is proven, right? And the way I look at any asset class like Bitcoin, when you have large capital markets around it, a large options market around it, in terms of, you can sell it... In most scenarios, a billion dollars of Bitcoin, not impact the price, right? So capital market executions around the digital asset space has sort of been streamlined the past few years and now we're seeing it across the traditional financial space. Tokenized equities through us for backend xStocks have been released. And you'll see for bonds, for credit, across fixed income and other asset classes in traditional finance.
Gemma Allen
>> So crypto, state of play, what's your head at? Where do you think the industry is at right now and what are your predictions? How do you see the next 24 months playing out?
Gurpreet Oberoi
>> I see great accelerant tokenization, and that means, again, tokenizing every piece of the financial industry. XStocks as example, we've done over 25 billion of notional traded volume in xStocks. You'll see private credit, private markets, and everything in the traditional FinTech rails, traditional technology rails will be tokenized. And I think that trend has already kicked off and you'll see a lot of announcements, integrations go live. This is not, what I say three years ago, which is more science projects, this is more execution and global adoption.
Gemma Allen
>> And at Kraken specifically, what's on the roadmap? I mean, this ICE partnership is great. Talk to me a little bit about what's coming down the pipe from a collaboration perspective with other players. Give us the magic plan.
Gurpreet Oberoi
>> For sure. No, our partnership with ICE, again, first principle, we're enabling ICE to use Kraken's core infrastructure to power 150,000 ICE users to transact leveraging Kraken's core technology for OTC. We're doing the same with major global banks, major wealth management platforms. So our core business is global. So what we're doing with ICE, we're doing with every institutional client in the world. And you'll see that shift happening very, very... You'll see announcements and partnerships very, very soon in a global way. And I think the beauty is, it's just... When I say global, I truly mean throughout Africa, throughout Latin America, throughout the Middle East, it's not US-centric itself. So the technology of this is we can... Seamless integration of, say a bank in the Middle East wants to provide stablecoins to their users, they're going to come to Kraken as a wholesale liquidity provider and provide their clients access to xStocks. So our core infrastructure product suites will enable large banks globally to offer new innovation solutions. And which I mentioned, speed is most important. So working with Kraken, they can turn on overnight and through a full API suite can be live very quick.
Gemma Allen
>> And then lastly, I guess from a governance perspective, it's obviously a space that gets a lot of speculation, right? From time to time, the markets can be quite volatile. I mean, the markets are volatile across the board right now anyway, but I feel like crypto gets a harder chat sometimes than others. What are your thoughts in the ways of how this industry is just becoming more and more mainstream? Do you think that that narrative, in some way, all oxygen is good oxygen, right? It gets people talking about the industry, gets people learning more. Do you think we're still on that learning curve a little bit?
Gurpreet Oberoi
>> I think we're beyond that learning curve. I think if you look at the ownership of digital assets, it's pretty diverse, pretty global. And price action is very subjective, right? Again, which I mentioned, capital markets in the digital asset space for the top 10, top 20 tokens. I mean, if you look at the low liquidity tokens, it's like comparing to a penny stock, right? The volatility in penny stocks is very high, right? But if you're looking at Bitcoin, looking at ETH, looking at Solana, you'll see that there's more stabilized, you can see the large trading volume. I always say the capital markets pillar is most important to legitimize an asset class. Crypto is beyond that now. Now we're seeing different use cases to stablecoin and tokenizations, which will make this from a... The price moon of these asset classes is very different from tokenization. Tokenization is a core financial infrastructure being pinned, which all the banks will use as a new financial layer. So the price movement is noise, it's cyclical. We're very optimistic that the cycle will turn very quick, but it's just part of the cycle.
Gemma Allen
>> And Gurpreet, finish this off to us, where can people find you? What's ahead in terms of the... I guess we talked off-camera about how social the crypto space seems to be. Are you guys planning any big events for the next six months? Where you guys are going to be at? If people want to find you, where should they find you?
Gurpreet Oberoi
>> Kraken is very global. So most assault events, most of any large conferences, we have a presence from our global team. We have teams across Asia, across Europe, across the Middle East, so it won't be hard to miss a Krakenite. And I'm readily available, so anybody wants to discuss business, different ideas, strategies, you can reach out to me and my team and we'll be pretty quick.
Gemma Allen
>> I like the term Krakenite. I also like the term crack hard, because it's an Irish term too, right? So it's double usage for me. But listen, Gurpreet, thanks so much for coming on theCUBE. Great to talk to you. We'll be watching. All the best to you and the team at Kraken.
Gurpreet Oberoi
>> Thanks for having us.
Gemma Allen
>> I'm Gemma Allen coming to you from the studio here at the New York Stock Exchange. This is Crypto Trailblazers, one of our NYSC Wired programs. Thanks so much for watching.
Gemma Allen