Standard Chartered CEO expects nearly all transactions to move to blockchain

Bill Winters, CEO Standard RentedHe envisions a future in which nearly all global transactions are conducted on a digital blockchain ledger, he told a crowd in Hong Kong on Monday as crypto adoption grows among mainstream banking and financial institutions.

“Our belief, which I think the Hong Kong leadership shares, is that almost all transactions will eventually be done on blockchain and all money will be digital,” the CEO of the UK-based multinational bank said during a panel at Hong Kong FinTech Week.

“Think about what this means: a complete reorganization of the financial system,” he said, adding that experimentation would be needed to determine what that reorganization looks like.

Standard Rented The company, which is listed in both London and Hong Kong, has been increasing its exposure to digital assets, including digital asset custody services, in recent years. trading platformsand tokenized products.

Winters made the comments while discussing Hong Kong’s role in the global digital assets space, crediting the city’s leadership in experimentation and regulation, along with Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan.

Hong Kong is trying to establish itself as a regional crypto hub through its digital asset licensing regime. tokenization pilots in which Standard Chartered is a participant.

A tokenized asset is a digital representation of a real-world asset, such as stocks, bonds, or commodities, that can be recorded and traded on a blockchain or distributed ledger. Stablecoins pegged to a currency are often cited as early examples of tokenized assets that can be bought and sold.

Standard Chartered, in partnership with blockchain venture capital firm Animoca Brands and telecommunications company HKT, planning Launching a Hong Kong dollar-backed stablecoin under a new regulatory framework the city launched in August.

Winters said on Monday that he believes Hong Kong dollar stablecoins could be an interesting new medium of exchange for digital international trade.

Other global fintech leaders have also made bullish predictions for tokenized assets in recent months.

Robinhood Markets CEO Vlad Tenev said last month that tokenization is a “freight train” coming to most major markets in the next five years.

Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, the world’s largest money manager in question In April, it was announced that every asset, from stocks to bonds to real estate, could be tokenized, representing a “revolution” for investing.