The first day of the Digital Asset Summit in the British capital brought a heated debate about the future of cryptocurrencies, just after a historic weekend of liquidation on the market. However, experts agree – this is not the end of the boom.
In the shadow of Tower Bridge, the most important players in the cryptocurrency industry gathered on Monday to discuss the intersection of traditional finance with blockchain technology. These conversations were particularly timely in the context of Friday’s market turmoil, which triggered a record level of liquidation of positions in the leveraged market.
The boom continues despite turbulence
Christopher Holmes of the House of Lords began Monday’s panel provocatively: “How’s your blood pressure?” The reference to the weekend meltdown was obvious. Matt Hougan, Bitwise’s chief investment officer, however, answered firmly when asked whether Friday’s events harmed the current cycle:
Not at all
Hougan argued that his company’s main clients are professional investors such as financial advisors and institutions, who are driving this cycle by increasing their allocations to cryptocurrencies from zero to about 3 percent. Bitcoin remains up about 23 percent year-to-date and is six times higher than it was three years ago.
The people driving the market can’t pronounce ‘solana’
– Hougan added wryly, pointing to bitcoin’s dominance among institutional players.
Stablecoins as a foundation for growth
Stablecoins, with a market value of close to $300 billion, were one of the main topics of the summit. Santiago Roel Santos, founder of Inversion, criticized exchanges increasing the maximum leverage offered to traders. He cautioned that the industry should not rely too heavily on centralized exchanges to acquire users.
Stablecoins themselves, as a product of tokenization, are enough of an innovation for this industry to grow tenfold and transform business
Santos argued.
Christian Angermayer of Apeiron Investment Group went even further, suggesting that the United States may, over the next three years, persuade some countries to completely abandon their own currencies in favor of full dollarization through stablecoins.
Regulations are still a big unknown
Legal issues remain crucial. Nigel Farage, a member of the British Parliament aspiring to become Prime Minister, stated that the vast majority of his colleagues from the House of Commons cannot conduct a conversation about cryptocurrencies.
You might as well speak to them in Swahili
– he said in an interview with Blockworks’ Michael Ippolito.
Rebecca Rettig, chief legal officer of Jito Labs, was more specific in her predictions. It does not expect U.S. market structure legislation to be passed this year, but rather looks at 2026.
In her opinion, the biggest mystery remains DeFi.
It’s almost like explaining robots to people or showing the future
– Rettig noticed.
It is very difficult for financial regulators to believe that things so similar to what they know from centralization can work without any human intervention
Ironically, during the latest market “stress test”, it was DeFi platforms like Aave that performed more smoothly than centralized players.
One system of the future
Joseph Onorati, CEO of DeFi Development Corp., summed up the summit’s sentiment by saying that his move to manage the Nasdaq-listed company with a treasury in Solana was not a jump from DeFi to TradFi, but a “natural progression” resulting from regulatory changes.
In 20 years… let’s hope finance will be more decentralized than centralized. But in the long run there will be only one system
– Onorati concluded.
The second day of the cryptocurrency summit in London is currently underway, and this year’s edition of the Digital Asset Summit near Tower Bridge will end tomorrow, i.e. on Wednesday, October 15.
