Check out the Paris Blockchain Week 2025 Summary

Day 2 at Paris Blockchain Week 2025

These sessions explored Europe's regulatory momentum, institutional adoption, and the infrastructure gaps slowing real-world use. Speakers emphasized the urgency of programmable payments, stablecoin utility beyond DeFi, and the role of compliance-first infrastructure in unlocking institutional capital.

‍

CHARLES HOSKINSON, INPUT OUTPUT – CEO & Founder: "The crypto space won’t survive Web2’s entry without abandoning its zero-sum mindset."  [Find the session on Day 2 🕒 41:41]

Hoskinson warned that the biggest threat to crypto isn't regulation — it’s competition from tech giants once the U.S. legal dust settles. “Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon... they own the platforms. They have 3 billion users.” His solution? End tribal tokenomics and build protocols that cooperate across networks. The fourth generation of crypto, he says, must bake in privacy, identity, and interoperability — not by replacing chains, but by bridging them. It’s less about moon math, more about surviving market consolidation.

• • • “Within 60 to 90 days, the U.S. is probably gonna pass a stablecoin bill... by August, a market structure bill.”
    • Crypto can’t out-build trillion-dollar firms on home turf — coordination is the only edge.
    • Today’s public ledger obsession ignores real-world demands: businesses need privacy and selective disclosure.
    • Zero-sum tokenomics is unsustainable; success depends on shared infrastructure, not platform lock-in.

ERIC DEMUTH, BITPANDA – CO-FOUNDER: "Yield Wars, Not Trade Wars, Will Define the Next Crypto Cycle"
[Find the session on Day 2 🕒 1:06:06]

Rising U.S. refinancing pressure is turning geopolitics into yield engineering — and crypto’s correlation to tech is only getting tighter.Demuth dropped a bold macro thesis: The U.S. is “engineering a recession” to drive down yields ahead of a $9 trillion refinancing cliff in 2026. Tariffs? Just a side effect. “It’s not a trade war — it’s a yield war.” Crypto, meanwhile, remains tightly coupled to institutional money and macro volatility. Anyone hoping for a Bitcoin safe-haven decoupling is missing the point: “You cannot expect to have your own fun economic system... Wall Street will come.”

• • • U.S. must refinance $9T at 4%+ yields by 2026 — every basis point costs $10B+ in interest.
    • Demuth believes U.S. is using policy tools to “intentionally” depress yields before that deadline.
    • Bitcoin's correlation with tech stocks is high and will stay that way as ETFs and institutional flows grow.
    • Europe may be forced to unite due to U.S. policy hostility — “Trump is the best thing that could have happened for Europe.”

CHARLES ADKINS, HEDERA – CHIEF BUSINESS OFFICER: "Without predictable settlement, tokenized finance won’t scale beyond the demo phase." [Find the session on Day 2 🕒 1:42:18]

Adkins argued that institutional adoption depends less on what’s being tokenized and more on how. “You need a legally binding contract at the time a trade settles”—and most blockchains can’t deliver that. Chains with probabilistic finality and fluctuating gas fees are a no-go for real financial flows. Hedera’s pitch is deterministic 2-second settlement and fixed-fee cost modeling that doesn’t explode if a meme coin goes viral halfway around the world.

• • • Finality = legal enforceability; most chains can't guarantee this on every transaction.
    • Variable gas fees kill business models with daily yield payouts or micro-dividends.
    • Real-world tokenization requires cost-predictability, low latency, and front-running resistance.
    • Institutions want hybrid models: private rails for ops, public anchoring for compliance.

SHY DATIKA, INX – CEO & Chair, Israel’s Largest Pension Fund: Regulation, Not Tech, Is the Real Bottleneck. Tokenization won’t go mainstream until compliance is plug-and-play for pensions and retail.
[Find the session on Day 2 🕒 1:47:20]

Datika offered a hard-nosed reality check from both sides of the table—as a tokenization platform CEO and as the investment chair of a $50B pension fund. The tech is ready, but regulators aren’t. “We bought $100M in Bitcoin, made money—and it still wasn’t worth the regulatory blowback.” He called current frameworks like MiCA “only partial solutions” and stressed that cross-border compliance, investor protection, and trust infrastructure must come first.

• • • Institutions can’t touch tokenization without clear compliance regimes—especially for swaps, custody, redemptions.
    • MiCA ≠ sufficient — it covers crypto, not real-world assets.
    • Retail access is key to unlocking 10–20% YoY growth, but that requires strong guardrails.
    • New U.S. regulatory posture is promising: SEC told INX “go ahead” on tokenized securities just weeks ago.

ALESSIO QUAGLINI, HEX TRUST – CEO: Institutions Will Demand Control. Crypto won’t go mainstream until it accepts that decentralization without accountability is a dead end.
[Find the session on Day 2 🕒 2:05:35]

Quaglini delivered a blunt assessment of decentralization’s limits: institutions won’t build on platforms they can’t govern, can’t audit, or can be front-run on. “Even today, 90% of volume runs through centralized exchanges — and when things break, everyone runs to the regulators.” He called for a redesign: blockchains must offer stable fees, KYC-by-design, transaction reversibility, and MEV protection to be compatible with TradFi rails. Until then, tokenization at scale is wishful thinking.

• • • Most blockchains today cannot legally support financial markets due to front-running and lack of audit trails.
    • Financial institutions will only adopt chains where they can participate in governance and ensure reversibility.
    • Crypto must shift from "trustless" ideals to hybrid models where infrastructure is decentralized but access is compliant.
    • Global financial integration needs interoperable, borderless regulation—not siloed, jurisdiction-bound systems.

DAVID RIPLEY, KRAKEN – CO-CEO: There’s a Compliance Ceiling Exchanges Can’t Fake Their Way Through.
[Find the session on Day 2 🕒 2:25:10]

Crypto exchanges that skipped compliance and audit-readiness are now hitting their limit. Ripley didn’t mince words: exchanges built without regulatory infrastructure can only scale so far before collapsing under scrutiny. “There’s a threshold you can’t pass unless you’ve built the foundations — security, audits, compliance.” This matters as new entrants scramble for U.S. licenses and MiCA ramps in Europe. Exchanges aiming to serve institutional clients or go public must be able to withstand full financial audits, reconcile hundreds of asset types, and account for blockchain-native transaction models, with no industry standard to follow.

• • • Exchanges like BitMEX, Poloniex, Bittrex “peaked and faded” after hitting compliance bottlenecks.
    • Crypto financials are complex: hundreds of assets, unclear accounting rules, cross-chain reconciliation.
    • Full auditability requires clear data structures, not just good intent.
    • MiCA and U.S. state-by-state licensing are forcing a reset: compliance-first design is no longer optional.

ANDREW VRANJES, BLOCKDAEMON – VP Revenue & GM APAC: Staking is the Yield Engine ETFs Need to Unlock.
[Find the session on Day 2 🕒 2:49:10]

Andrew emphasized that Ethereum ETF adoption is directly tied to staking — but institutions won’t touch it without “high security, most compliant staking offerings.” He stressed that the infrastructure behind yield must meet enterprise standards, including custody integration, auditability, and certifications like ISO and SOC2. For ETF issuers and fund controllers, that means selecting tech partners that deliver validator performance and regulatory compatibility.

• • • Blockdaemon supports ETP issuers like Bitwise and 21Shares with institutional staking infrastructure.
    • NORs is the new industry certification for staking — “critical for a traditional institution to actually participate.”
    • Compliant staking infrastructure must partner with qualified custodians and pass security standards.
    • “Partnering with our qualified custodial partners… delivers a superior return” for ETH ETFs.

KARIMA LACHGAR, OKIPAY – CEO: Tokenization Needs Asset Servicing, Not Just Hype.
[Find the session on Day 2 🕒 2:49:10]

Karima outlined the other side of institutional adoption — not ETFs, but tokenized funds and debt instruments. While tokenization is often seen as a tech problem, Karima argued it’s actually a banking infrastructure issue: “The asset servicing industry is mainly represented by banks not willing at this stage to be clearly exposed to DLT technologies.” Until that changes, fintechs like hers are filling the gap by helping issuers tokenize assets and handle on-chain operations end-to-end.

• • • Luxembourg is pushing to be a global hub for tokenized debt via Clearstream.
    • Karima’s platform supports both crypto payments and traditional fund tokenization.
    • Europe needs harmonized treatment of UCITS rules for crypto assets.
    • She called for stronger lobbying to push tokenization priorities into the EU Innovation Act.

CEM ARCAN, NEXTGEN – Ecosystem Partner: Stablecoins Will Power Institutional Payments, Not Just Crypto
[Find the session on Day 2 🕒 3:20:51]

Cem Arcan laid out a bold case: stablecoins are no longer just DeFi infrastructure — they’re becoming the back-end of institutional finance. With €11 trillion processed by stablecoins in 2023 alone, he urged finance professionals to rethink global money movement: “Money still waits in lines... the rest of the world runs on APIs.” He called out the inefficiencies (up to 6% losses in B2B cross-border payments) and presented a roadmap where euro-denominated stablecoins solve real treasury and reconciliation pain points for global businesses.

• • • Stablecoins processed $11T in volume in 2023 — on par with Visa and Mastercard.
    • Estimated to grow to $35–40T by 2030 if euro adoption catches up.
    • 70% of institutional treasurers lack real-time liquidity visibility today.
    • Euro stablecoins still underused despite regulatory clarity via MiCA.

JOHN PATRICK MULLIN, MANTRA - CEO & Co-Founder. Regulating DeFi Requires Seeing Code as Compliance
[Find the session on Day 2 🕒 3:37:36]

Mullin offered a rare look into what it takes to get a DeFi license from a regulator — specifically, from VARA in Dubai. “Everything we do is governed by smart contracts… fully on-chain, fully transparent,” he explained, emphasizing that properly coded systems are often safer than centralized compliance. Mantra’s DeFi platform now holds a regulatory license for exchange, brokerage, and RWA activities — a first of its kind. For institutions, this could represent a model for future on-chain financial infrastructure.

• • • Mantra’s license enables fully on-chain DeFi operations including brokerage and exchange under VARA.
    • Their smart contracts include permissioning, control, and auditability — “done in a fully compliant way.”
    • The RWA focus is already in motion, with real estate tokenization live in UAE through a DLD partnership.
    • Mantra’s strategy: build compliance-first infra that bridges DeFi with institutional workflows.
      
      

MATTHEW WHITE, VIRTUAL ASSET REGULATORY AUTHORITY - CEO. Stop Debating Who Regulates—Focus on How.
[Find the session on Day 2 🕒 4:35:08]

White, head of Dubai’s crypto-specific regulator VARA, urged regulators to move past turf wars. “We've spent too long arguing about who should regulate… and not enough time on what the rules should be.” VARA’s framework is activity-based and principles-led, prioritizing innovation alongside investor protection. White warns that fragmented stablecoin rules — especially around reserves and custody — could hamper cross-border use unless global regulators align more closely.

• • • VARA built a full-scope regime from scratch in under two years, launching full regs in 2023.
    • Stablecoin divergence (e.g., reserve rules, issuer eligibility) may block cross-border use.
    • Dubai’s regulation is technology-agnostic and product-agnostic, built for flexibility.
    • VARA now collaborates globally to help newer regulators avoid fragmentation.

COTY DE MONTEVERDE, SANTANDER – Head of Crypto & Blockchain. Without Clear Rules, Banks Can’t Play the Game.
[Find the session on Day 2 🕒 7:37:00]

Coty de Monteverde made it plain: banks like Santander aren’t waiting on the sidelines due to lack of interest — they’re waiting on regulatory clarity. “It’s not that regulation is a barrier — it’s the lack of regulation that’s the barrier,” she said. Santander is already live with tokenized bonds, digital cash pilots (including CBDCs), and crypto for private banking clients in Switzerland. But without harmonized global frameworks, particularly around stablecoins and custody, full-scale institutional rollout remains stalled.

• • • Santander is live with crypto trading in Switzerland and involved in multiple CBDC pilots (including Brazil’s Real Digital).
    • Participates in initiatives like Finality and AGORA for wholesale tokenized settlement.
    • Warned that “every bank issuing its own stablecoin” could worsen fragmentation and liquidity.
    • Believes future financial rails will be “digital and programmable” — but only if they’re compliant by design.

MARTINS BENKITIS, GRAVITY TEAM – Co-Founder. Emerging Markets Will Force Crypto to Grow Up.
[Find the session on Day 2 🕒 7:37:00]

Martins Benkitis argued that the next wave of institutional adoption won’t be led by Wall Street — it’ll come from places like LATAM and Southeast Asia, where crypto solves real payment and FX problems. “They don’t trust their currency, their banks, or their governments,” he said. Gravity Team is seeing strong institutional OTC demand in these regions, and building algo trading infrastructure to meet it. Regulation matters, but urgency is coming from the ground up — especially where cost and inefficiency are highest.

• • • Trading volumes are rising in LATAM and Southeast Asia, where stablecoins are replacing fiat in OTC flows.
    • Gravity Team focuses on algorithmic trading to meet institutional expectations (tight spreads, 24/7 uptime).
    • Predicts major progress if governments begin settling payments or taxes on-chain.
    • Believes blockchain rails can solve real inefficiencies — especially in cross-border payments and remittances.

Sessions from Paris Blockchain Week 2025 - Day 3

These sessions revealed how stablecoins, tokenization, and legal clarity are driving real adoption. From cross-border payments to AI agents and court-enforced RWAs, the focus is shifting from hype to infrastructure that scales and complies.

SHERAZ SHERE, SOLANA FOUNDATION – HEAD OF PAYMENTS: “10% of all remittances from the U.S. to Mexico are on stablecoins…there’s no turning back.”
[Find the session on Day 3 🕒 43:10]

Sheraz sees unstoppable momentum for stablecoins in cross-border payments, with real-time settlement as the new normal. He notes that during “meme mania,” Solana’s local fee markets proved the chain’s readiness for massive transaction loads. Low-latency finality is driving real adoption for enterprise payment flows, especially as stablecoin usage outperforms old rails in speed and cost. Controllers should track how transparent, scalable on-chain infrastructure is rapidly becoming the backbone for global remittances and B2B payouts.

• • • Real economic value surged to $200M in weekly fees at peak
    • Local fee markets isolate fee spikes, keeping P2P costs near $0.0001
    • 6M first-time USDC holders emerged post-meme cycle, boosting stablecoin usage
    • ‍
    • ‍
      
      

PIERRE SAMATIES, DFINITY – CHIEF BUSINESS OFFICER: “We have created an infrastructure that allows AI to build and orchestrate applications, which we call the self-writing internet.”
[Find the session on Day 3 🕒 1:06:10]

Samaties champions fully on-chain hosting for large language models to ensure data sovereignty, privacy, and guaranteed uptime. Bridging Web2 with decentralized infrastructure is key to AI’s next wave, where open-source frameworks trump closed solutions for speed and accountability. By empowering AI to deploy code autonomously, the Internet Computer aims to reshape how businesses and developers harness automated, verifiable software at scale.

• • • 25% of new code is already generated by AI
    • On-chain LLMs allow sovereign, tamper-proof AI solutions
    • Full-stack Web3 can eliminate reliance on legacy IT layers
    • Bridging Web2 and Web3 paves the way for truly open AI
      
      

FREDERIK GREGAARD, CARDANO FOUNDATION – CEO: Decentralization Will Reshuffle the Largest Companies on Earth**  
[Find the session on Day 3 🕒 1:49:12]

Gregaard challenged the audience with, “Are we going to wear the pants, or is AI going to wear the pants…deciding the fate of humanity?” He argues that the real promise of blockchains—trustless computing and immutable data—has finally arrived. Going fully on-chain ensures that data for AI and global commerce is genuine, secure, and no longer controlled by gatekeepers. In this new paradigm, trillion-dollar entities may emerge with minimal staff, backed by the unstoppable code that underpins public blockchains.

• • • Immutable ledgers beat hacked databases, preserving historical truth.
    • AI needs accurate, verified data to deliver real insights  
    • LEI-based wallets help unify enterprise identities across blockchains  
    • Europe’s MiCA could jumpstart broader, enterprise-grade adoption
      
      
      

TOMASZ STANCZAK, NETHERMIND – FOUNDER: Ethereum’s Next 10x Scaling Leap to accommodate tokenization and institutions.
[Find the session on Day 3 🕒 2:16:11]

Stanczak outlined Ethereum’s roadmap of upcoming forks (Pectra, Fusakam, Glamsterdam) and a vision for massive L1 scalability—targeting up to a 10x increase to accommodate real-world asset tokenization and institutional adoption. He emphasized the network’s core values of open-source collaboration, censorship resistance, and secure settlement. L2 projects like Arbitrum, Base, and Starknet also support this vision, pushing Ethereum toward a truly global financial backbone.

• • • L1 capacity aims for 3x–10x throughput over the next year  
    • L2 ecosystems (Arbitrum, Starknet, Base) expand Ethereum’s reach  
    • Real-world assets on-chain exceed \$5B, signaling growth  
    • DevCon and DevConnect events anchor global collaboration in 2023-24  
      
      
      
      

ROBBY YUNG (ANIMOCA BRANDS), ALEX (DOGS/TELEGRAM), BENJAMIN CHARBIT (DELOS ENTERTAINMENT): Building Engagement in Web3 Gamin through Seamless Onboarding
[Find the session on Day 3 🕒 2:36:39]

The panel stressed that Web3 gaming remains active and innovative despite volatile markets. **Robby Yung** called attention to relentless dev activity: “Developers keep building, no matter the weather.” **Alex** highlighted **TON** as a chain natively integrated into Telegram, creating frictionless wallet flows and paving a clear path for mass adoption. **Benjamin Charbit** underscored how user-owned assets boost engagement, with marketplaces and token economies driving replay value. The group agreed infrastructure maturity—like telegram-based wallets, fluid L2s, and composable NFTs—sets the stage for deeper player retention rather than mere hype-fueled bursts.  

• • • TON in Telegram** streamlines user onboarding  
    • Integrated token marketplaces expand earning potential  
    • Developers push onward, unfazed by market cycles  
    • Player ownership and open economies fuel sustained engagement
      
      

NICOLAS CARY, BLOCKCHAIN.COM – CO-FOUNDER & VICE CHAIRMAN: “When AI Agents Pay, They’ll Use Crypto Wallets.”
[Find the session on Day 3 🕒 5:25:24]

Cary envisions near-future “agentic” AIs—performing personal CFO duties or machine-to-machine commerce—requiring crypto wallets to transact. Traditional banks won’t issue accounts to software; digital asset infrastructure bridges that gap. He highlighted how regulators struggle to handle even current crypto custody laws, let alone automated AI-run treasuries. Hence, innovators must design user-centric protections early, given the looming scale of machine-led transactions and treasury management.

• • • Machine-to-machine payments hinge on crypto rails rather than bank APIs.
    • AI-driven wallets can manage personal spending, subscriptions, inventory restocking
    • Entrepreneurs should embed user safeguards before policy catches up
    • Blockchain.com leverages AI to enhance in-house efficiency and client offerings

MARION LABOURE, DEUTSCHE BANK – SENIOR ECONOMIST: Geopolitics and Market Forces Will Shape AI’s Rise
[Find the session on Day 3 🕒 5:42:09]

Laboure explained that AI speed and scale rely heavily on the “brains” (semiconductors) and “vitamins” (rare earth metals), heightening U.S.-China tensions over tech exports. Europe’s strong regulatory stance contrasts with the U.S. push for rapid innovation—yet consumers often choose convenience over data privacy. She advised watching macro trends and trade disputes closely, as new regulation and political frictions directly impact how AI and Web3 evolve globally.

• • • Tariff battles and semiconductor access determine AI progress
    • Europe’s emphasis on privacy and consumer protection vs. U.S. agility
    • “Privacy vs. Convenience” sees most users picking easy-to-use platforms
    • Real-time monitoring of macro environment is crucial for AI/blockchain strategies

JOHN PATRICK MULLIN, MANTRA – FOUNDER & CEO: “The Hard Part Isn’t Tech—It’s the Law”
[Find the session on Day 3 🕒 6:25:10]

Mullin noted that while blockchains are more than capable of handling real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, “the real breakthroughs come when governments rewrite the rulebook.” Dubai Land Department’s direct on-chain property deeds exemplify how “native legal enforceability” beats the old SPV model. He argued legal clarity and global frameworks are the missing keys: “We need regulated pathways that let you redeem or enforce tokens in a court of law,” ensuring that tokenized titles, bonds, and contracts stand on solid legal ground.

• • • Dubai is pioneering direct title tokenization that’s recognized in court.
    • “Faux” STOs failed because they lacked genuine on-chain enforceability
    • Effective licensing must bridge compliance with permissionless innovation
    • Mantra’s approach: a permissionless blockchain plus robust identity & governance

RITA MARTINS, LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE GROUP – HEAD OF PRODUCT ECOSYSTEM DIGITAL ASSETS: Stablecoins & Interoperability Drive Real Scalability
[Find the session on Day 3 🕒 6:25:10]

Martins emphasized that meaningful tokenization depends on “plugging into existing infrastructure and stable on-chain settlement rails”—like bank-issued digital deposits or widely accepted stablecoins. She sees interoperability as a top priority, both across private blockchains and legacy systems, so tokenized assets aren’t trapped in walled gardens. Without robust digital money frameworks, cross-border compliance, and a common set of standards, tokenized markets lack the liquidity and investor confidence to truly take off.

• • • Tokenization is “just another layer” that must integrate with legacy finance
    • Investors need the option to settle transactions seamlessly in tokenized fiat
    • Compatibility among private ledger solutions—and with public chains—remains a challenge
    • Global alignment on digital asset regulation is crucial for scale and secondary market depth

‍