Cardano Foundation CEO Envisions Blockchain Revolution in Financial Markets

• Cardano Executive sees the inevitable overhaul of financial markets using blockchain.
• Cardano might play a very significant role in driving this overhaul.

Frederik Gregaard, CEO of the Cardano Foundation envisions a future where blockchain technology will be used in transforming financial markets. In an X post, Gregaard paints a picture of a financial ecosystem with solid products, built with the customer in mind and free from the constraints of the traditional infrastructures.

Cardano Exec on Evolution of Financial Markets

The CEO described the evolution of financial markets over the past 50 years. Gregaard highlights that technological advancements in financial markets began right from the days of  Instinet and NASDAQ revolutionizing electronic orders to Bloomberg’s iconic Terminals.

Imagine a financial ecosystem where products are built, sold, and used with consumer-centric innovation at the core, free from the cumbersome constraint of traditional infrastructures.

What you are imagining here is blockchain.

The evolution of financial markets over the past…

— Frederik Gregaard (@F_Gregaard) May 27, 2024

He, however, noted that the high costs sunk into maintaining massive structures as a major challenge plaguing large capital market vendors. Nonetheless, the CEO believes blockchain with its inherent ability to provide fair competition with no special rules for any one counterparty can be used to get rid of the fragmented infrastructures that increase costs.

Gregaard believes the integration of innovations like blockchain technology into traditional business is rather a necessity than a choice. He cites an example using UBS vs Crédit Suisse as a case of adapt or die. Gregaard describes USB as a leading innovator in Switzerland’s financial markets, working with entrepreneurs to further creative initiatives.

On the other hand, he highlighted that Crédit Suisse approached fintech integration quite differently. He stated that the bank refused to offer assistance with digitization and technical upskilling. Gregaard cites instances of former workers who mentioned the bank’s dislike of innovation and hesitation to try new things.

It is noteworthy that former CEO of Credit Suisse, Tidjane Thiam disclosed that Bitcoin was a bubble back in 2017. Thiam said the only motivation for purchasing or selling Bitcoin was to make money, per Crypto News Flash’s earlier announcement.

Thiam’s anti-Bitcoin statements came before UBS was forced to acquire Credit Suisse under the direction of the Swiss government. The government provided a loss guarantee of 9 billion Swiss francs, while USB offered liquidity injections worth billions of francs.

Blockchain’s Promise to Financial Markets

Moving forward, Gregaard believes that innovation could accelerate and costs decrease if blockchain could be the common infrastructure for all market players. According to him, this could redefine value creation in the entire financial sector.

Although legacy systems may not disappear overnight, Gregaard claims their transformation could be inevitable. “As market dynamics shift towards more transparent and equitable systems, those adapting to empower consumers and leverage new tech like blockchain will lead,” he concluded.

Gregaard’s ambition for blockchain to transform the global financial system comes shortly after the Cardano development team concluded new updates on the network. As Crypto News Flash had earlier detailed, the Cardano Plus team finalized guardrail scripts for Conway governance actions and optimized the PlutusV3 cost model.

At the time of this writing, ADA, the native asset of the Cardano ecosystem is trading at $0.4622, demonstrating a 0.24% increase in the last 24 hours. The trading volume is pegged at $353 million, while the market cap is $16.4 billion.