Why Tokenization Could Transform Global Finance

Bitcoin has spent the summer navigating a choppy bear market as retail investors increasingly rotate their risk capital into the AI boom.

Now institutional building and regulatory maneuvering in Washington are also in overdrive with the clarity currently stalled in the Senate over stable coin rewards as well as ethics disputes.

The White House is signaling that he scheduled September 15th cloture vote will be a critical make or break.

And in the meantime, the SEC is stepping in to fill the legislative void proposing regulation crypto assets a tailored new framework featuring startup capital exemptions as well as safe harbors that are designed to let entrepreneurs build without immediately running afoul of securities laws while joining us to discuss the evolving regulatory landscape this morning and also the future of digital assets is William Quigley, co-founder of Wax and tether.

William, great to have you.

Back.

Thank you so much for joining me.

So we all know that there has been a lot of volatility across all asset classes and in the markets in 2026, but there's also been a migration of risk capital, especially on the retail side, out of digital assets into AI.

And with all of this happening, what do you expect to see and how is what we're seeing in the market different from previous boom and bust cycles that you've navigated?

So I'd say a few things.

First, the, uh, it is true that, uh, the emphasis, I think, among the retail community right now has been much more on AI or even prediction markets than it has been on crypto.

That being said, the, um, Institutional investors have done a pretty good job of maintaining a lot of liquidity in the crypto space.

There's a lot more points of access now, including Robinhood, and of course, a lot of people are investing in both Bitcoin and Ethereum via ETFs.

So it's easier to acquire, but I think this cycle, this most recent cycle that ended sometime in late 2025, um, The retail investors did not nearly participate as much as they had in 2020 and 2021.

And you know, there's another shinier object, and that has been AI.

Yeah, and uh before we get to AI, I do want to get your perspective on the regulatory landscape here in the US.

The SEC proposed regulation crypto assets, but as someone who has been entrenched in the digital asset space in the US as well as outside of the country, what does this proposal actually mean for entrepreneurs and what's needed when it comes to the runway for innovation?

Yeah, I would say this is a stopgap.

I think the SEC decided that since the Clarity Act, which was going to provide this omnibus regulatory umbrella for how crypto is both created and financed in the United States, the SEC said, OK, in the meantime, we have to give some guidance.

So they borrowed some ideas from the Clarity Act.

I don't see this as being a, a significant uh uh.

Body of, of regulation at the moment, I would expect that, uh, no one's gonna probably do anything material in the crypto space because of the SEC's pronouncements, and uh what would happen, of course, if the Clarity Act didn't pass, then the SEC would have to create a massive amount of new regulations, um, uh, which would probably mimic some of the Clarity Act, but wouldn't go as far.

So, um, I think this is not terribly important.

Uh, even things like allowing ICOs to raise as much as $5 million that's a very small amount.

It almost feels more like the, uh, the Jobs Act and, uh, the little bit of benefit that provided to people raising under $100,000.

Uh, so, I'm not gonna get too focused on this for now because I'm waiting to see if the Clarity Act passes.

Yeah, and that does lead me to my next question, William.

So how do you think stable coin yields should be regulated?

I mean, they, they are regulated today in many jurisdictions, so I think the, the, the controversial point is, should companies that issue stablecoins be allowed to give people holding them some kind of yield.

And uh I would like to see that.

I think it's a, it's a benefit to consumers.

Uh, for many, many decades, consumers got nothing when they invested or deposited money into a checking account, and that policy ended, but, uh, even though the policy ended, banks still give very little to depositors.

I think stablecoins would push banks to offer more favorable terms to depositors if they want to keep that money.

So, uh, that's the main thing I'd like to see.

I would like, and this is, of course, was a huge, uh, issue with trying to get the Clarity Act passed, was, should stablecoins be allowed to offer people yield.

Um, I think the, the end result will be they will offer yields, and the banks will just have to deal with that and be more competitive if they want to keep deposits.

Yeah, and finally, before I let you go, we have about 60 seconds here.

You have been focused on consumer adoption as well as purpose-built blockchain.

So what specific use cases or tokenization models are you most excited about?

Well, I think in the short-term, tokenizing already traded assets has proven to be extremely valuable.

The Robin Hood team, when they started tokenizing stocks and allowing, 24/7, 5 days a week trading, they got a huge increase in the amount of trading volume.

It's in, in a fully connected world where blockchain crypto assets always trade 24/7, 365 days a year.

Stocks have been at a disadvantage.

So now that we can do that, I think we should.

I suspect virtually all traded assets globally, within the next 10 years will be tokenized.

They'll be uh allowing 24/7 trading and allowing people to do more with what they have, including using it as collateral.

So, uh, uh, tokenization of real-world assets is the main theme, at least through 2020, 2020, 2030 or 2035.

Uh, that to me seems like the most appropriate technological benefit you can get from a blockchain to bring to the financial services industry.

Well, well, we will have to leave it there for today, but I appreciate your time as always, thank you so much for joining us and thank you so much for sharing all of your insights.

Thank you, bye bye.