I'm glad to be here with Andrew, representing the Chainlink team, as we've been working with them for many years. Andrew, you know, congratulations on your new position. Chainlink is an incredible place to work. You have worked in trading and capital markets for almost two decades, and most recently headed the US division of a Nasdaq-listed brokerage firm. So why did you leave the CEO's chair to now build infrastructure?
Thank you, Joe, and thank you to everyone who is here with me today. For me, this is a special moment. Today is my third day at Chainlink Labs. I am very excited, and the opportunity to speak here is extremely valuable to me. I have been with Ethereum since the very beginning, since 2015.
In fact, it was my father who called me one day, told me about all the YouTube videos he had watched and how fascinated he was by them. So I'll happily go and tell him I was at ETHDenver. He'll be very, very excited about this. But look, for almost 15 years I worked in regulated institutions, deep in trading, regulation, capital markets—at companies like eToro, E*TRADE, Morgan Stanley. And I think we're in a unique moment right now, which is what brought me here.
Over these 15 years, I have seen an incredible evolution: from the times when no one knew what crypto or blockchain was, through skepticism, to "we should do something", " should do something", " let's do this", and now to real hype real hype . And after 15 years of working in trading and capital markets, I was inspired by the movie about the Mario brothers— about the Mario brothers— they're plumbers, right? My four kids just love plumbing and adventure, and I thought, after 15 years of helping people navigate this " navigate this " plumbing," I want to build it myself. I want to fix it myself , and I think now is a unique moment to do just that. And why Chainlink Labs?
I strive to connect the worlds of cryptocurrency, blockchain, and traditional finance traditional finance , and Chainlink Labs is not just another crypto company. This is a place that is a connecting infrastructure between traditional finance and blockchain. When I look at the history of Chainlink Labs over the years and follow them, working with firms like DTCC, UBS, Swift, it's a story I want to be a part of. And finally, it's all about influence, right ? I have four children and I really want to build a better world for them and for all of us, and I believe that Chainlink Labs is the place where that happens, so I'm really excited to be here.
Where exactly does the use of on-chain solutions provide the most obvious advantage when considering how money actually moves in the system? Yes, in the world of blockchain, what is great is that benefits such as efficiency and speed are emerging. This will help with money transfers, but for me it is also a matter of freedom. And I think in the context of moving assets across the network, it's going to be about settlement time and how assets or dollars move faster between systems. And again , it helps people, but it also gives them more freedom.
I'm sure, Joe, like everyone in this room, you've probably had those stressful moments when you had to pay a bill, or someone had to pay you, or you transferred money to the wrong account and it didn't go as expected. I had one of those dramatic moments of epiphany about a year ago. My family and I were moving from DC to New York City, and we were in the process of buying and selling a home. We needed to make a bank transfer, which in 2025 should be simple and easy, but for some reason it took four days. I had to call a lot of people, write emails, go to branches, and even pay a $35 fee just to transfer money from one bank to another.
Luckily, there isn't always this much drama, but today it's not working as well as it could. It's hard to believe that we're now at T+1, and that's great, but it's amazing that less than 10 years ago we were at T+3. So if you wanted to send money on Thursday, the recipient might not see it until Tuesday or Wednesday. So, T+1 is much better than it used to be, but our dream is T+0. And when you can have a tokenized asset that moves instantly between platforms thanks to Chainlink verification, it's a win for firms because they reduce risk and collateral requirements, and most importantly, collateral requirements, and most importantly, investors and users win, who get their honestly earned money faster.
So, you just got a position created at Chainlink Labs. What exactly was the gap you were called to fill? It's nice to have a new role because I don't have to replace anyone or meet anyone's expectations, but my goal is simple— goal is simple— institutional implementation. And as we heard from the previous speaker previous speaker , what's exciting is that we're not starting from scratch. Large companies in recent years, notably UBS, Swift, DTCC and JP Morgan, are already working in this space.
So, the first is to help large financial companies that are already developing solutions to continue their development and dive deeper into the process. The second is other financial institutions that two or institutions that two or three years ago didn't know what to do or whether it was worth working in this area at all working in this area at all , and now they say: "We want to build." We help them through training: we explain what can be done and what this path looks like. The third is working with other community members, such as financial analysts or research report writers research report writers , who typically don’t view companies like Chainlink in the same way they would traditional stocks. We simply tell them about what we do and the impact it has.
This is very exciting for me because many years ago, in the early 2000s, when I was in college, I wanted to become a school teacher. In the end, I chose a different path, went to law school and all that school and all that , but it stayed in my soul, and my wife worked as a public school teacher for many years. So I love education and I think it's a big part of my role. So, we will be holding training events for analysts, for our partners, explaining what blockchain is, how it works, and how to use Chainlink to connect current processes with future goals. Asset managers and institutional investors constantly say that tokenization is inevitable tokenization is inevitable .
So what's stopping them from moving real funds online today? Yes, I like the word "inevitable" and I absolutely agree with it . I would highlight three main obstacles: first, regulatory clarity, second, confidence and trust, and third—education. On regulatory clarity: We’ve made a lot of progress over the past few years that has helped companies get into blockchain, but more is needed, and initiatives like the Clarity Act that you heard about today will help a lot . The issue of trust and confidence—the fact that we are already seeing real examples is of enormous importance.
Every time a company like DTCC or Swift launches a project on Chainlink, it gives confidence to other firms that yes, this is quite real. This is an area in which we need to develop need to develop , because this is where the future lies. And again , education. When I first started talking about blockchain with my colleagues at E*TRADE in 2017, people asked, 2017, people asked, “What is he even talking about?” It's like, you know, you've heard 60 know, you've heard 60 Minutes talk about it on the news, but it wasn't in mainstream discourse.
And we went from confusion to skepticism. And now companies, instead of asking: will we do this? They ask: what will we do, when and how? So, people have been talking a lot about blockchain lately, but it's not at all like just showing how it works. How an oracle works, how cross-chain interoperability works.
Chainlink Labs, we want to educate, we want to help, we want to support you on this journey. And so this educational element, I think, will be a huge breakthrough. In our industry, tens of billions of assets have moved online in the last few years, and it's impressive. But when you think that there are trillions and trillions of dollars in different asset classes that I think will eventually move online, the only thing standing in the way of that today is confidence and trust, regulatory clarity, and education. And there is significant progress on all three points.
Well, speaking of clarity, you mentioned earlier that the Clarity Act has passed committee and may be coming up for a vote soon. For the institutions you interact with, what could this open up that they can't do today? This would be extremely important. And I can speak as someone who is a regulated president of a broker- president of a broker- dealer, as well as a former lawyer who has advised companies on these issues companies on these issues . And today, if you work in a financial institution, you often plan two to three years ahead when it comes to a product roadmap or marketing strategy.
And such resources are invaluable. That 's why big banks and asset managers love certainty love certainty , because you don't want to waste time, people, money, resources, attention, and energy on something you don't know if it will actually take hold. Over the last 10 years in digital assets, if you 're in the position I used to be in as a lawyer, advising large companies on this topic, and an asset manager says, "Hey, we want to tokenize a fund. What does that look like?" As a lawyer look like?"
As a lawyer , compliance officer, or risk professional, you look at laws from the 1930s, the 1946 Supreme Court case about orange trees, and a random assortment of speeches, rules, guidelines, and letters that can change with the political winds. Plus, you have 50 states that have different views. Therefore, launching a product such as a tokenized money market fund is extremely difficult in such circumstances. So, something like the Clarity Act, right? It won't provide instant answers to all questions, and that doesn't mean that everything will be easy and cloudless from now on.
Difficult questions will still remain, but there is a big difference between a law specifically designed for this and an attempt to squeeze new technologies into 90- technologies into 90- year-old regulations. Yes. So, as we look out over the next year or two, what should we be looking at that would tell you that institutional implementation is really moving forward? Of course. This is definitely moving forward.
I think the signals I noticed that inspired me to move to Chainlink Labs over the past few months can be boiled down to three points. I'm here for the third day, so I'll limit myself to, well, three reasons. First: every time you see a large bank or investment firm go online, it's a signal that others will follow, because banks and similar firms don't make hasty decisions. It takes a lot of time, effort, dedication, and resources, and they plan to do it long-term. I believe that will happen, and others will follow.
Second: hiring staff. You know, if you are a bank or an investment company and you are planning a strategy for a year or two ahead, you are already starting to look for specialists. And I think I'm an example of that. This position, Head of Institutional Affairs Institutional Affairs , did not exist at Chainlink Labs until Monday. It's great to see on LinkedIn and Twitter that it seems like every day someone new is getting a digital asset, blockchain, or tokenization executive position at various firms.
So such stable hiring stable hiring is a signal of what this field will look like in 12–18 months. And yes, there is also the education aspect. The more events, programs, and discussions like this one where people talk about it , the more it will move the industry in the right direction. And again, it seems like we've been talking about this for a long time, but two or three years ago it was just a seed, and now there are tens of billions of dollars on the network, and it's amazing. And you think about what all this will look like in two, three, five years, and will it really change the world and help people.
I think you made a good point about how the industry hires, because it used to be very tech- oriented. On Monday, I moderated a panel discussion on network governance and security, and to me, it's a sign that the industry has entered a new phase of its maturation. And I think roles like yours are further proof that we care not only about internal processes, but also focus on user experience and jointly promoting industry standards and policies. To me, this is an encouraging signal about the next wave of maturity. Yes, definitely.
This is the foundation of everything. A large institution does not operate on the principle of " operate on the principle of " let's launch a product, hoping that it will work and regulators will have no complaints about it ." You go through a lot of thorough checks: audits, governance, compliance, and cybersecurity checks as a foundation. We continue to build this foundation today, and everything is gradually moving online; but when it is ready, especially with the passage of the Clarity Act of 2026 or whatever it is called, this foundation will be invaluable and bear fruit for decades. Yes, especially considering that companies continue to innovate even in the absence of a legislative framework, and this is encouraging.
This suggests that the industry is also taking on a self- regulatory role. Yes, definitely. It’s not easy, requiring risk tolerance, creative legal thinking, and clear risk parameters, but it’s great to see the industry growing without such legislation. Just imagine: clear legislation, confidence, and market demand—this would be a real breakthrough that would breakthrough that would truly help people. I also think you're at a crucial point crucial point , as you mentioned earlier: as billions of dollars start coming into the network, and also partnerships, for example with Swift and DTCC, where the history of that interconnectedness is perhaps not clear to everyone, as is what DTCC does, right?
About the trillions of dollars of assets flowing through this system and how Chainlink works within those boundaries. I think you're at a pivotal moment now to get this story out to the public—whether it's institutional investors, retail investors, or just the communities you serve. Yes, definitely. Chainlink is doing incredible work, we have a dedicated community, and it's amazing that this community and many people really understand this. They understand that Chainlink truly connects—whether it's different blockchains with each other, or traditional finance with blockchains.
This is the connecting link in a system that takes compliance and regulation very seriously. Our online users understand this, and it's great to see institutions starting to realize the same story. So I know there are developers and enthusiasts in the room who have been in this field for 10 years, and I'm one of them, and that's exciting. You were here before the institutions came, and I know that sometimes it's frustrating for some, but I think it's great to see developers and enthusiasts blazing a trail, and institutions realizing institutions realizing that this is a good idea and now following you. You were the first, and this is truly a landmark moment.
Okay, and finally, tomorrow is day four. Day four, let's begin. You come to the office, what next? What excites you most about the role you just took on? Yes, what I love most in life is meeting people, so I look forward to the opportunity to chat.
And whether this is the first day of your journey into the world of blockchain or your thousandth, I want to learn how Chainlink Labs can help, and simply connect these two worlds. And again , I still dream of becoming a teacher someday, and maybe this is my way of doing that—through educating and informing the industry about what we do and where it's all going. OK. Congratulations on your new position. I wish you all the best, and thank you to everyone who joined us this afternoon.
Thank you this afternoon. Thank you .
Automatic transcript — names and jargon may be misspelled.