Shaping the Next Phase of Digital Asset Markets - TOKEN2049 Singapore 2025

next phase of digital assets . I was accompanied by Darius Sit (QCP Darius Sit (QCP ), and Amani Ferrante ( Ferrante ( Backpack Exchange) . We also have Wen from DBS Digital Exchange with us . Now, maybe you could quickly introduce yourself to the audience in 30 seconds . Maybe let's start with Darius, please.

Of course . Thank you. I am Darius. I am the founder of QCP . We are Asia's leading digital asset trading partner.

We assist clients with investment and hedging solutions in the digital assets sector . Hello everyone, my name is Amani Ferrante, the founder and CEO of Backpack. We are a self- We are a self- custodial wallet. We are a global derivatives exchange and a community of 10,000 MADS people around the world. Thank you for inviting me.

Hi, I'm Weekend. I am the CEO of DBS Digital Exchange. We launched in 2021 and we are the first bank-backed exchange in the world , DBS is behind DBS Exchange . Awesome. Here we have a combination of traditional finance (TradFi) and crypto-native exchanges.

First question, what was that 'aha' moment that inspired you to build something in the crypto space? I started in the crypto sector in 2016-17 with just arbitrage trading . My background is similar to Weekend , I am a currency trader, especially in Asian currencies, who see liquidity disruptions and create arbitrage opportunities. It was an 'aha' moment for me when I realized that it was very similar to other asset classes in terms of liquidity and market structure. That's why I saw this as a frontier asset class and the changing market structure seemed to me to be a great opportunity, which is what we are now capturing.

When we started it was just spot trading and fragmented liquidity , but it has gone from a frontier asset class to an emerging asset class, to now a more mainstream asset class, and I think it will continue to evolve think it will continue to evolve , the opportunities are there . Awesome, Amani. Yes, that ' Yes, that ' aha' moment for me was very simple. I sat at Phil's Coffee on Market Street in San Francisco , read the Ethereum white paper, and haven't looked back since . The concept of a world computer was the most interesting and ambitious thing for a young engineer to work on in early 2017.

Yes, that's the real moment. That is precisely the promise of Ethereum and this global distributed system, managed by everyone, and indeed by no one. Awesome. Affected by Ethereum . Yes.

And the weekend. Like Darius, I used to trade FX , and since cryptocurrency has the word currency, I thought it would fall under my purview, and I wanted to know how to trade in it . That's why we formed a project group and studied what was happening. The blockchain technology behind this and the way it powers it really intrigued me. With this, I strongly believe that this blockchain technology will become the future backbone of our financial markets .

The benefits that blockchain offers, such as 24/7 atomic settlement, programmability, transparency, and immutable data, are all crucial to the future of our financial assets, which has me very excited excited . Yes. And when it comes to DBS , you are a traditional financial institution . This is a bank, you have a custody department, and now you also operate an exchange department operate an exchange department . From the perspective of institutional clients , what is the most surprising attitude you have seen among them towards crypto?

That means that according to the way we look at clients, we have set up not just the exchange but also custody and a customer-facing group . This includes Fixed Income, Financial Institution Group, and Private Banking Group. And there are also institutional groups. Collectively, all of this together forms our digital asset ecosystem, where we serve all of our clients . Currently, our institutional and private banking clients are on our exchange .

If you look at institutional clients, that includes crypto companies, exchanges exchanges , OTC traders, miners, and sovereign wealth funds . So we're good at this . Moreover, there are also brokers who use our platform. So we have a wide range of client base currently using our platform. Yes.

And with the private banking distribution system you have, I think you're definitely in a good position think you're definitely in a good position . This is a diverse customer base who may not be able to use crypto-native exchanges like Backpack . The exchange sector is very competitive right now , so how is Backpack different from the rest and what unique features do you offer offer ? Yes, that's a very good question. It's 2025, and who would have thought that a new exchange would emerge in this most competitive and crowded market in the world .

To give a little context , I would like to say that we have already achieved ...70 billion in volume in the last two years say that we have already achieved ...70 billion in volume in the last two years . Today we are doing approximately two to two and a half billion in 24-hour trading volume across spot and derivatives . When we started in '24 and '25 and set out to build the exchange in '23 , what we really wanted to build was that amazing cross collateral cross margin experience, which I think a lot of people at FTX saw and loved .

So, of all the new exchanges that have launched in the world after FTX exchanges that have launched in the world after FTX , we were the first exchange to make it live . We've taken it a step further, not only do we have spot margin, lending, perpetual futures all cross-margined and cross-collateralized in a single portfolio, but that portfolio is backed by a real-time transparent money market . So your entire portfolio is generating income, while also serving as collateral for your derivatives portfolio . So, for those who are really concerned about capital efficiency and cross- margining , we have been well received among pro-traders . So I think it's about that cross- margining experience , combined with the wallet: it's a very compelling all-in-one, Apple-style experience, where we don't see the wallet as any different than the exchange.

This is a single app. This is a single login. You can access any asset, any app, or any blockchain protocol , whether you're a trader looking for a capital-efficient margin system or want to tap into the on-chain DeFi (DeFi) economy . That's what we offer, and that's partly what our product is about . Yes, we are trying to make it easier and provide a better user experience .

QCP is a major partner in Darius, Options and Structured Markets . What are you more interested in, hedging or speculation ? What does this tell us about where the market is going? Yes, that's a good question. I now realize that I am the only person on this panel who is not from the Exchange .

Yes. It has evolved and gone through many cycles over the past eight years that I have been in this field. would say we have some visible things that reflect the evolution of the market. The first is Bitcoin 's volatility. So, if you look at Bitcoin, for example in 2018, it was about 200 to 300% to 300% implied volatility .

Implied volatility was much higher than realized volatility . This means that the options market was very new , and transactions were largely speculative. In my opinion, they may not be professional traders. True. So, people who are looking to express their opinions.

Therefore, that 200-300% Therefore, that 200-300% volatility gradually decreased to 40%. This is a testament to the maturity of this asset class . This is the result of changing behaviors, right? Investors and market participants have turned to yield from speculative gains . They also started hedging and looking at the risk-reward ratio rather than just convexity .

So I think this is a testament to the different types of people who have come into the market . As you said said , there are now more institutional investors and fewer speculative traders . With the arrival of sovereign wealth funds and miners, it has become a key part of market structure. Another interesting aspect of market structure is the forward curve. Before 2020, the forward curve was in backwardation, meaning that the future price of Bitcoin was lower than the spot price.

This is because miners are selling Bitcoin to hedge their positions. But the situation is different now, right? It seems like it has a cost of carry, like gold which is why this is happening. I think the market will continue to develop think the market will continue to develop . I think the key factor that will make this even bigger is proper credit market growth .

Exchanges and banks have a big role to play in this. I believe that a proper credit market consisting of bond trading and credit trading will emerge in the future believe that a proper credit market consisting of bond trading and credit trading will emerge in the future . Yes, that's a really interesting topic. When talking about macroeconomics , I think that with rate cuts, the money supply or M0 increases . We saw this after Covid and it encouraged risk assets .

With the yield curve rising, there has been a huge increase in interest in risk-taking . Do you think DeFi Summer will come again and who do you think will benefit if it does think will benefit if it does ? Let's start with Uha. I think crypto assets are similar to traditional assets . You have to watch the bull and bear market cycles .

In my view, it is important to have proper market liquidity, the right tools for risk management , and most importantly, a reliable and secure platform for investing . So every investor should navigate crypto assets with bull and bear market cycles just like traditional assets . Yes, we learned a lot in securing assets after FTX . Amani, what is your opinion on whether or not DeFi Summer will perhaps come again? Yes, that's a very good question.

That being said, I think this is impossible think this is impossible . From what it was in the summer of 2020 , the industry has undergone massive changes overnight . I think we have now moved on from strict and burdensome controls in America to another dimension . And there is a lot of progress being made in various regulatory systems around the world , for example, in Japan, taxes are likely to be reduced from 55 to 20 percent . Crypto will be classified into a new regulatory system .

The Prime Minister is now going to crypto conferences, and what we saw in America is starting to happen there too . If you didn't notice the things Monty said, this is a hint for the audience. Do your own research. This is all just a guess , but there is hope. There has been a lot of progress in policy matters in America.

Stablecoins are making their impact, the Genius Act is coming into effect, and now there is a debate about market structure, which includes one question: What is DeFi? What is a centralized exchange or a decentralized exchange? What does it mean to issue assets, tokens, and build protocols on all these blockchains that have sprung up around the world over the past decade? This is the time when Dex's are asserting their importance. We need to call this crazy situation we are currently witnessing as it is .

I would argue that we are now in the DeFi summer of 2020. However, it may not seem like that already . There are so many strange things out there that we can point to and think, "Wow, this really doesn't make sense." They make you scratch your head. The world seems to be on pause right now until we get answers to some policy questions , we know that we have leaned too much to one side and that has been detrimental to the industry and the world .

We are now on this journey as nations, as a collective race, and the deeper you think, the more collective consciousness we have. We are understanding what the impact of crypto, blockchain, and the internet on capital markets means . Because, at the beginning of the 20th century, the world needed to understand every new technology, whether it was financial markets, the internet, crypto, or AI, and learn how to use it to achieve the results we wanted. And right now we are definitely in the process of understanding that . Once certain policies are in place , new laws come in, and certain things are clearly defined , entrepreneurs entrepreneurs , regulators, and those in the field will know what the rules are.

They understand the limitations within which they must operate. Ultimately that is what inspires creativity and growth . That's why, strange as it may seem to me , we are all at a loss . Everyone is running as fast as they can and innovating , but I believe that when the right constraints are imposed imposed , we will see more productive growth in the direction we want . So this is a very special time.

I think this is a very precious moment for everyone in this industry . While this isn't exactly the summer of DeFi , it's heading in roughly the same direction in different ways . Yes, it doesn't feel like the DeFi summer we saw in 2020 and 2021 , but history doesn't repeat itself. Maybe it's the same . Darius, the second thing Amani said, DeFi Summer is here, but maybe it will be in a different way, less speculation, less hype .

But if you look at the perps volume, if you look at the DeFi credit volume , it's bigger than it's ever been before, a few times higher, right? So $30 billion in TVL is much bigger than the previous DeFi summer. I think the definition of DeFi is starting to change , as you said the distinction between DeFi and SeaFi is blurring. What do I mean? You are going to see DeFi expanding beyond just crypto assets, but also to traditional assets .

As equities become tokenized and more assets come on-chain, you will see DeFi margining methods, settlement methods, and trading methods applied to all assets. So, it means the same thing, the definition changes from DeFi to on-chain settlement RWAs , but DeFi expands to all asset classes . So DeFi is no longer limited to just crypto, it becomes a concept that also applies to traditional finance ( finance ( TradFi) . Yes, we tokenized a lot of things that happened at Tradfi, concepts like money market funds and tokenization are now popular terms. So, what is your opinion on this and is there any support for it?

There are things like tokenized bonds and real estate. But are institutional investors embracing this ? Well, the important question we need to ask is, what is the problem we need to solve? So in my view, if an asset is already trading in a way that is convenient for consumers , we do n't need to tokenize it. So, when we look at a product, we always ask ourselves what our clients need ask ourselves what our clients need .

So do they want an immediate settlement or is the product in the real world causing them any difficulties? So in my view, when we are meeting client needs and when there is client demand, we think tokenization makes a lot of sense think tokenization makes a lot of sense . That's why we're working on a tokenized money market fund , because if this tokenized money market fund is in a stable coin , it will allow digital asset players to buy the tokenized money market fund with those coins when they don't need their stable coin ; Also, there is no return on the stablecoin , so they can earn some return before selling the money market fund token for the stablecoin . So, I think that's where the demand is, and we're working hard to push that product forward . At the same time, money market fund tokens are being viewed as a collateral ecosystem.

So funds and institutions are using money market fund tokens as part of the collateral basis . So in my view, this is an area of ​​demand and structurally it solves a lot of problems , because collateral has to be submitted even on Saturdays and Sundays and you have to submit collateral on a 24x7 basis . So this solves a real world problem . At the same time, we are also looking at private shares, tokenized private shares . For that, I think for many of our AI clients, investments like private, illiquid private shares, i.

e. unlisted private shares, are not available . In the past, such investments were mostly available only to institutional investors. So, we are bringing these into the exchange and distributing them to our clients . It is divided into small parts and clients can trade and sell their investment in small amounts.

Thereby, market risk can be better managed managed . Yes, it's definitely about capital efficiency and the possibility of getting a loan using your assets as collateral . You 've also seen this with tokenized GPUs, which means there are also private credit markets in the GPU space . It's growing, I'm changing a little bit from a regulatory arbitrage perspective. I am Australian.

I moved to Hong Kong for tax reasons and over the past few years I have seen various crypto companies move from the US to Singapore, Hong Kong, Abu Dhabi, Dubai for regulatory arbitrage . That regulatory arbitrage, does it still exist? And what do you think is the most attractive location for those establishing crypto companies think is the most attractive location for those establishing crypto companies ? When we decided to go the regulatory route in the early days of the company , we asked ourselves this question , right? Where is the best place for rules?

What is that journey going to be like Our view is that eventually the regulations will come into effect in every jurisdiction. So the decision on where to get regulations depends on which regulatory body is more progressive or best suited to the business , but ultimately our theory is that everyone will be regulated the same way. So the approach we took was to first get regulations in Singapore, because that's where I live and I want to continue here ; Also, Singapore has clear regulations about payments and spot trading, which are difficult but clear . It took us five years to get regulations here , but in the end it became a foundation for our business unit . Another place we decided to get regulations from was Abu Dhabi, ADGM, because they saw crypto as part of the broader capital market, meaning they didn't see it as something exclusive.

So, it was a license to do everything together, like Bitcoin, FX rates, equities, which matched the way we looked at crypto . And these are two main bases for us. We opened an office in New York and as the climate there changes and some clarity comes, we will look at the regulations there as well . So this is more a matter of regulation than arbitrage . Sure, Amani, you 're in Tokyo, Japan, right?

Are there any positive developments you're seeing there? Yes, it's a funny question, because we moved to Japan for a reason that is completely opposite to regulatory arbitrage. We moved there with the intention of being closer to the regulatory body to obtain a license. That is, I think there are different ways to think about regulatory arbitrage think there are different ways to think about regulatory arbitrage . Here's how you can build a good relationship with a truly progressive regulatory body, wherever you live, to move the space forward and do the right thing.

Moreover, regulatory arbitrage exists even when you are at the forefront of technology or when the world is trying to understand something, even when the rules for it have not yet been determined. And I think think , as crypto grows , as the on-chain economy grows, and as traditional regulated institutions come into this space , at this point where these worlds meet, in a sense it's a kind of regulatory arbitrage arbitrage , where we're understanding what all this is about . What happens when you add real-time settlement, cross- cross- collateral, and securities, not just crypto assets ? If I deposit my Apple stock and withdraw dollars, how about open borrowing with real-time settlement that anyone in the world can use ? These are truly very attractive technologies and great advances for the modern economy.

Regulatory arbitrage can be seen in a negative light, and certainly it has some negative aspects as well . But it also has many positive aspects , which can be seen simply from an innovation perspective. I think things like Uber replacing taxis or crypto taking over all of finance can be viewed in the same light think things like Uber replacing taxis or crypto taking over all of finance can be viewed in the same light . There are so many new and exciting things being built in different parts of the world being built in different parts of the world , and I hope all of this will eventually change in a positive way . That's my way of thinking about this.

Yes. And I think I would like to add one more point to what Darius said . In my view, this is a matter of company strategy . If QCP recognizes the value and wants to serve institutional customers, they will recognize the value in obtaining and applying for a license in a respected jurisdiction like Singapore. And they put in the hard work, time, and resources required to get licensed.

However, some companies are unable or unwilling to spend that time and money and look for a jurisdiction that suits their strategy. So I think it's a matter of strategy think it's a matter of strategy . Yes. It may be difficult to get regulations in countries like Singapore and Japan, but you all chose these difficult areas for a reason , and it's not just for arbitrage, but to benefit your customers through a properly regulated method . Since time is short, can you quickly tell me in one sentence what the biggest misconception people around you have about crypto is, Darius?

Um, I think people are misconstruing crypto as a speculative asset class . I think the real revolution of crypto lies in the settlement and margin layers . Awesome, Amani. I completely agree . I think many people think of crypto as a solution looking for a problem , but in my view, crypto is a technology specifically built to improve economies around the world.

As a result, we are going to see crypto applied to not just crypto assets, but to the entire financial sector in every corner of the world to see crypto applied to not just crypto assets, but to the entire financial sector in every corner of the world . And the industry as a whole is clearly heading in that direction . Sure. And as far as I'm concerned , I think it's wrong to assume that market prices are related to technological progress or ecosystem adoption . So you need to understand that market prices depend on the market's narrative, liquidity, and market flows.

This may not have anything to do with the underlying blockchain and technological advancements , and it may take several market cycles for it to be reflected in the price . Awesome. And that's it. Last panel discussion today. Thank you to our panelists.

Thank you. Thank you.