Will 2024 herald the rise of institutional digital assets?

Ollie Cadman, CEO, The Realization Group

A recent Era of Convergence panel debate between TradFi and DeFi industry specialists to debate on whether 2024 would be the year that institutional digital assets would really take off was a timely reminder of how the financial industry narrative has evolved since the early days of the crypto ‘Wild West’, to a more measured approach to the opportunities presented by new digital assets and technologies within traditional financial markets ecosystems. Traditional assets are being expressed increasingly in digital form - for example, in the form of tokenised assets such as stablecoins; and an estimated $7 trillion in traditional assets is estimated to be targeted for transformation over the next five to seven years. This might be as a result of cash instruments being presented as stablecoins, bonds being presented as registered tokens, or a myriad of other digital forms.

It is clear that the conversation around the convergence of traditional and decentralised finance has moved on, from h…