theCUBE + NYSE Wired: Crypto Trailblazers | Trabue Bland, ICE Futures

Trabue Bland, ICE Futures

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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More from theCUBE + NYSE Wired: Crypto Trailblazers

Trabue Bland

SVP

ICE Futures

play_circle_outline Navigating Cryptocurrency's Evolution: Lessons from Early Adoption and ICE's Technological Transformation in Trading Markets

play_circle_outline ICE's commitment to enhancing institutional-grade custodial infrastructure for cryptocurrencies.

play_circle_outline ICE's extensive global trading network and its impact on various asset classes.

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Trabue Bland, ICE Futures

Trabue Bland

SVP ICE Futures

search

>> ... CUBE here at our NYSE studio. I'm John Furrier, host of theCUBE. We're here in New York City. As you know, we have our Palo Alto connecting Wall Street to Silicon Valley together with the NYSE Wired network founder, Brian Baumann. Really an open community that brings leaders together and creates opportunities and creates conversations. Of course, Trabue Bland is here, SVP of ICE Futures, International Continental Exchange, the parent company of the NYSE. Thanks for joining us today. Good to see you.

>> It's great to be here. Thank you.

>> We're in the Buttonwood Room, podium room. This is the famous, the Buttonwood Agreement. I read, it's in the papers there, the first agreement ever, how exchanges started, so it's super relevant to what we're going to talk about.

>> A hundred percent, and thanks for having me on. It's such an honor to be here. I'm glad that we both survived the heat to come here.

>> Even with the AC, it's a little bit hot. I want to get into what you're working on at ICE, at the parent company. You guys have a big business.

>> Sure.

>> It's publicly traded. The numbers are great. Business performance has been phenomenal, been watching that growth. You run the futures piece of the business. You guys built the first institutional-grade on-prem custodial infrastructure service.

>> We did, yes. So not many people realize this, and we got into crypto early. If you think about ICE, we're a technology company first and foremost. And so we noticed, and this is probably around 2013, a lot of our employees were playing around with Bitcoin, and we had people setting up miners, not inside the company, but personally. And we started looking at this market and saying, this is really interesting. So as background, ICE is, the way we really got started was we offered electronic trading. And we first started in the energy markets, which were all pretty opaque, a lot of over-the-counter trading, and we offered clearing and electronic trading. And so we're really good about bringing markets from analog to digital. And we came to other exchanges, we took out the floor, offered electronic trading, a lot more democratic, much more you can trade from Houston, Texas, just as well as you could from New York. So that's ICE's background. And so when we start looking at the crypto market, we saw the same problems we had seen in the energy market and in the agricultural market, all the other markets we had gotten into. And what we said is we know this market is going to end up being regulated. We know that in every other market that there's one futures contract that's usually physically delivered. And so what we did is we built a custodian to make it the safest custodian out there, and we built a futures contract around that so you could deliver a Bitcoin and we would keep it... I think we might've been the first insured custodian. So it was, our problem is-

>> A little early. Sometimes you get-

>> We were a little early. We were a little bit early.

>> What did you learn on that? Because obviously having the vision, I mean first of all, ICE is just a phenomenal business model. If people don't know it, check it out. It's the parent company to the NYSE. There's so much data, so much going on that's evolved. Digital assets onchain is coming, stablecoins, huge news hitting around that. Just you're seeing that impact, trillions of dollars coming into the market. Talk about the impact of all that's happening because you got in early, but now you got a mulligan.

>> Exactly.

>> So what are you going to do?

>> That's a fantastic question. So we've been looking at the GENIUS Act and what's going on with stablecoins. We've been working with a partner, with Circle. This has been announced. We've been looking at different ways we can unlock the value of stablecoins using our platforms. So one of the things we've been thinking about is maybe currency pairs that are backed by a stablecoin, by the USDC. That's the most regulated stablecoin out there, and so a lot of really interesting things. And the way I feel about this market now, and about crypto, it's coming back to where we were in 2018. Sometimes you can be very innovative, sometimes you can be too early. The market's now wants to move this way. There's a lot of legislation out there, and now we're ready to build infrastructure around that.

>> It's awesome. And I think I wanted to ask the question because you mentioned 2018. So 2013, super early. Again, a pioneering moment. 2018, you saw the market react, a lot of activity, regime change in the US in terms of that followed, culture changed a bit with that. So domiciling outside the United States, blah, blah, blah. All that's happening. Now you have a good climate politically, okay, and you now have the mainstreaming of crypto and now you've got AI in there. So it is a market now. So markets function the way they function. So what are you seeing on the market dynamics? Some stability. Obviously stablecoins, it's stable, but some say getting there, almost there. You've got zero latency SLAs around settlements in conversations I'm hearing. I had that last night a dinner. So all this is new forces.

>> Sure. One of the things that I've seen looking at the crypto market is that the pricing seems a little bit off. So when you look at it, there's a lot of different exchanges out there, lots of different prices of every crypto, but no real central price discovery. The other thing is it's pretty expensive. So I went out and looked, and I was just curious to see what it cost to get a Bitcoin recently, and the fees were extremely high. So on ICE you can go and buy a thousand barrels of oil for roughly about 80 cents. Now in crypto, that same notional amount is, without a doubt, going to be more expensive for you. So I think at some point you're going to see a flat rate per contract, not as a percentage of notional, and you're going to see a market that's probably coalescing into one central place for price discovery.

>> A lot of people are watching the NYSE. We're actually here on the floor with theCUBE now and actually Wired is growing. ICE has had a lot of experience, the parent company, at doing a lot of this stuff real time. As the SVP in managing the ICE futures, what's your vision and how are you framing the market opportunity for you and to provide a service? What levels of service, what kinds of service? I mean it's a moving train right now, but it's definitely going in the right direction. What is your thinking? What's your vision?

>> So here's where ICE can help out. So we have the largest network of traders out there. I mean, we have an exchange in the United States. We have an exchange in London, an exchange in Amsterdam, in Abu Dhabi, and one in Singapore. We cover every asset class in those futures exchanges. And our network can't be beaten. So what I look for are places where I think that price discovery can be a lot better, a lot more electronic, and I can use my huge network in order to supersize that product. And that's one of the things that excites me about crypto or other assets. I'm always looking for those type of opportunities.

>> It's funny because you got the physical world and AI merging, the big topic and the nerd shows like NVIDIA and Dells of the world is AI factories, and that is basically bringing a digital twin to business, not just manufacturing. So AI meets a physical world, so physical and digital coming together as first-party relationships blending together, there's assets. And as that happens, there's a digital twin of the NYSE. I mean, this is a marquee location like a museum almost. And it's still active trading here.

>> Exactly.

>> So you've got electronic and physical coming together. Just what's your reaction to that as a leader? It's an opportunity, but it's also a disruptive enabler. If you're not enabling something, you could be disrupted.

>> Of course. I mean, it's one of the things that we go through all of these new platforms, everything, all this innovation and AI or in crypto, and we try to figure out, hey, how could this disrupt us? And in addition, how could we do our business better? We stay really close to AI, and people don't realize this because we run the global energy markets, and right now the constraints, actually in crypto too, is energy. So we're seeing the formation of a different energy market driven by AI right now, which is super fascinating to me.

>> Hey, not a bad call to get that energy action going early on for ICE-

>> Exactly....

>> the formation, the opportunities that was picked up. Crypto is energy-bounded, so is AI.

>> Right.

>> The success of that is bounded by energy.

>> Exactly. It's a formation of energy. If you look at a GPU, I mean of course there's the price of the GPU, but I mean when you really look at the price of AI, it's the price of that GPU, a price of the model design, and the price of energy all factored in there.

>> So I was watching some great AI videos. Will we have digital traders that look like humans?

>> I don't think so. I think we've passed that point. As someone who runs exchanges, the number one thing I hear now is bring back a floor, and they're like, can you do it virtually? Can we have... And it just doesn't work out. This is so much more efficient when we trade electronically.

>> Great to have you on. We've got about a minute left, talk about what you're working on, put a plug in for ICE.

>> Sure.

>> Explain what ICE is, what you do, put a plug in, what you're looking to optimize for, what's your focus?

>> Sure. So for us and our main goals right now, definitely continue to build out the energy market. That is going to be the story of the next 10 years is how we respond to all these demands in energy. Just like I said earlier, we are looking for places where we can offer a digital transformation. So I'm focused a lot on that. I've noticed issues in crypto. I think those can be solved by a big network and rock-solid electronic trading.

>> Institutional-grade, on-prem, custodial infrastructure and other coming.

>> Exactly, fantastic.

>> You need another mulligan.

>> That's great.

>> Thanks for coming on, Trabue. I appreciate you, and grateful for it. And congratulations on ICE's success, been following the momentum. It's been phenomenal.

>> It's an honor to be here. Thank you very much.

>> All right. I'm John Furrier here at theCUBE for the NYSE and theCUBE Wired community. We're bringing all the crypto trailblazers and leaders who have pioneered and continue to do the work as they usher in this next generation, this next wave of innovation and market value and wealth creations, a huge market opportunity. We'll be covering it, of course. Check out theCUBE at siliconangle.com. Thanks for watching.

Trabue Bland, ICE Futures

search

>> ... CUBE here at our NYSE studio. I'm John Furrier, host of theCUBE. We're here in New York City. As you know, we have our Palo Alto connecting Wall Street to Silicon Valley together with the NYSE Wired network founder, Brian Baumann. Really an open community that brings leaders together and creates opportunities and creates conversations. Of course, Trabue Bland is here, SVP of ICE Futures, International Continental Exchange, the parent company of the NYSE. Thanks for joining us today. Good to see you.

>> It's great to be here. Thank you.

>> We're in the Buttonwood Room, podium room. This is the famous, the Buttonwood Agreement. I read, it's in the papers there, the first agreement ever, how exchanges started, so it's super relevant to what we're going to talk about.

>> A hundred percent, and thanks for having me on. It's such an honor to be here. I'm glad that we both survived the heat to come here.

>> Even with the AC, it's a little bit hot. I want to get into what you're working on at ICE, at the parent company. You guys have a big business.

>> Sure.

>> It's publicly traded. The numbers are great. Business performance has been phenomenal, been watching that growth. You run the futures piece of the business. You guys built the first institutional-grade on-prem custodial infrastructure service.

>> We did, yes. So not many people realize this, and we got into crypto early. If you think about ICE, we're a technology company first and foremost. And so we noticed, and this is probably around 2013, a lot of our employees were playing around with Bitcoin, and we had people setting up miners, not inside the company, but personally. And we started looking at this market and saying, this is really interesting. So as background, ICE is, the way we really got started was we offered electronic trading. And we first started in the energy markets, which were all pretty opaque, a lot of over-the-counter trading, and we offered clearing and electronic trading. And so we're really good about bringing markets from analog to digital. And we came to other exchanges, we took out the floor, offered electronic trading, a lot more democratic, much more you can trade from Houston, Texas, just as well as you could from New York. So that's ICE's background. And so when we start looking at the crypto market, we saw the same problems we had seen in the energy market and in the agricultural market, all the other markets we had gotten into. And what we said is we know this market is going to end up being regulated. We know that in every other market that there's one futures contract that's usually physically delivered. And so what we did is we built a custodian to make it the safest custodian out there, and we built a futures contract around that so you could deliver a Bitcoin and we would keep it... I think we might've been the first insured custodian. So it was, our problem is-

>> A little early. Sometimes you get-

>> We were a little early. We were a little bit early.

>> What did you learn on that? Because obviously having the vision, I mean first of all, ICE is just a phenomenal business model. If people don't know it, check it out. It's the parent company to the NYSE. There's so much data, so much going on that's evolved. Digital assets onchain is coming, stablecoins, huge news hitting around that. Just you're seeing that impact, trillions of dollars coming into the market. Talk about the impact of all that's happening because you got in early, but now you got a mulligan.

>> Exactly.

>> So what are you going to do?

>> That's a fantastic question. So we've been looking at the GENIUS Act and what's going on with stablecoins. We've been working with a partner, with Circle. This has been announced. We've been looking at different ways we can unlock the value of stablecoins using our platforms. So one of the things we've been thinking about is maybe currency pairs that are backed by a stablecoin, by the USDC. That's the most regulated stablecoin out there, and so a lot of really interesting things. And the way I feel about this market now, and about crypto, it's coming back to where we were in 2018. Sometimes you can be very innovative, sometimes you can be too early. The market's now wants to move this way. There's a lot of legislation out there, and now we're ready to build infrastructure around that.

>> It's awesome. And I think I wanted to ask the question because you mentioned 2018. So 2013, super early. Again, a pioneering moment. 2018, you saw the market react, a lot of activity, regime change in the US in terms of that followed, culture changed a bit with that. So domiciling outside the United States, blah, blah, blah. All that's happening. Now you have a good climate politically, okay, and you now have the mainstreaming of crypto and now you've got AI in there. So it is a market now. So markets function the way they function. So what are you seeing on the market dynamics? Some stability. Obviously stablecoins, it's stable, but some say getting there, almost there. You've got zero latency SLAs around settlements in conversations I'm hearing. I had that last night a dinner. So all this is new forces.

>> Sure. One of the things that I've seen looking at the crypto market is that the pricing seems a little bit off. So when you look at it, there's a lot of different exchanges out there, lots of different prices of every crypto, but no real central price discovery. The other thing is it's pretty expensive. So I went out and looked, and I was just curious to see what it cost to get a Bitcoin recently, and the fees were extremely high. So on ICE you can go and buy a thousand barrels of oil for roughly about 80 cents. Now in crypto, that same notional amount is, without a doubt, going to be more expensive for you. So I think at some point you're going to see a flat rate per contract, not as a percentage of notional, and you're going to see a market that's probably coalescing into one central place for price discovery.

>> A lot of people are watching the NYSE. We're actually here on the floor with theCUBE now and actually Wired is growing. ICE has had a lot of experience, the parent company, at doing a lot of this stuff real time. As the SVP in managing the ICE futures, what's your vision and how are you framing the market opportunity for you and to provide a service? What levels of service, what kinds of service? I mean it's a moving train right now, but it's definitely going in the right direction. What is your thinking? What's your vision?

>> So here's where ICE can help out. So we have the largest network of traders out there. I mean, we have an exchange in the United States. We have an exchange in London, an exchange in Amsterdam, in Abu Dhabi, and one in Singapore. We cover every asset class in those futures exchanges. And our network can't be beaten. So what I look for are places where I think that price discovery can be a lot better, a lot more electronic, and I can use my huge network in order to supersize that product. And that's one of the things that excites me about crypto or other assets. I'm always looking for those type of opportunities.

>> It's funny because you got the physical world and AI merging, the big topic and the nerd shows like NVIDIA and Dells of the world is AI factories, and that is basically bringing a digital twin to business, not just manufacturing. So AI meets a physical world, so physical and digital coming together as first-party relationships blending together, there's assets. And as that happens, there's a digital twin of the NYSE. I mean, this is a marquee location like a museum almost. And it's still active trading here.

>> Exactly.

>> So you've got electronic and physical coming together. Just what's your reaction to that as a leader? It's an opportunity, but it's also a disruptive enabler. If you're not enabling something, you could be disrupted.

>> Of course. I mean, it's one of the things that we go through all of these new platforms, everything, all this innovation and AI or in crypto, and we try to figure out, hey, how could this disrupt us? And in addition, how could we do our business better? We stay really close to AI, and people don't realize this because we run the global energy markets, and right now the constraints, actually in crypto too, is energy. So we're seeing the formation of a different energy market driven by AI right now, which is super fascinating to me.

>> Hey, not a bad call to get that energy action going early on for ICE-

>> Exactly....

>> the formation, the opportunities that was picked up. Crypto is energy-bounded, so is AI.

>> Right.

>> The success of that is bounded by energy.

>> Exactly. It's a formation of energy. If you look at a GPU, I mean of course there's the price of the GPU, but I mean when you really look at the price of AI, it's the price of that GPU, a price of the model design, and the price of energy all factored in there.

>> So I was watching some great AI videos. Will we have digital traders that look like humans?

>> I don't think so. I think we've passed that point. As someone who runs exchanges, the number one thing I hear now is bring back a floor, and they're like, can you do it virtually? Can we have... And it just doesn't work out. This is so much more efficient when we trade electronically.

>> Great to have you on. We've got about a minute left, talk about what you're working on, put a plug in for ICE.

>> Sure.

>> Explain what ICE is, what you do, put a plug in, what you're looking to optimize for, what's your focus?

>> Sure. So for us and our main goals right now, definitely continue to build out the energy market. That is going to be the story of the next 10 years is how we respond to all these demands in energy. Just like I said earlier, we are looking for places where we can offer a digital transformation. So I'm focused a lot on that. I've noticed issues in crypto. I think those can be solved by a big network and rock-solid electronic trading.

>> Institutional-grade, on-prem, custodial infrastructure and other coming.

>> Exactly, fantastic.

>> You need another mulligan.

>> That's great.

>> Thanks for coming on, Trabue. I appreciate you, and grateful for it. And congratulations on ICE's success, been following the momentum. It's been phenomenal.

>> It's an honor to be here. Thank you very much.

>> All right. I'm John Furrier here at theCUBE for the NYSE and theCUBE Wired community. We're bringing all the crypto trailblazers and leaders who have pioneered and continue to do the work as they usher in this next generation, this next wave of innovation and market value and wealth creations, a huge market opportunity. We'll be covering it, of course. Check out theCUBE at siliconangle.com. Thanks for watching.