Institutions are seen the next to see the need to invest in a new asset class, specifically cryptocurrency, offered by the digital finance and assets era as countries in ASEAN are building their own competitive and progressive digital economy.
A panel discussion was held to explore the current and future crypto market, in conjunction with the “Invest ASEAN 2022: Framing A Future” online conference organised by Maybank.
The said discussion was moderated by Mark Lange from Maybank with speakers Dato’ Fadzli Shah, CEO of MX Global Sdn Bhd; Samar Sen, Head of Asia-Pacific at Talos; and Johnson Chen, Founder & CEO of CapBridge.
Dato’ Fadzli started off the session by expressing that the fundamental shift to the digital space will be based on proactive measures by companies and accelerated through reactive measures in the whole financial ecosystem.
“Some companies see the value of adopting blockchain for internal processes. Global spend on blockchain solutions which ranges from less than a billion in 2017 to 6 billion dollars this year, to an estimated 19 billion dollars in the future is evident that there is a strong uptake,” the CEO with 18 years of working experience in the tech, startup, venture capital and national development sector said.
“Banks adapting to the crypto space is an important policy signal moving forward as it clearly portrays how corporations will partake in the new world of decentralised finance. He also highlighted the United States and China, for example, on their approach to Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) in terms of digitalisation of the economy,” he added.
Coming from a highly accessible and secure cryptocurrency trading platform, Dato’ Fadzli said that there is no specific set of SOPs or a broker to explain the steps when asked about the path to understanding the crypto space.
“The best way to understand is to get hands-on and experience different coins and exchanges to get the gist of it. Once you get into it, you’ll have a new appreciation along with the self-custody steps you do for yourself,” he explained. Platforms like MX Global, especially, is user-friendly for neophytes to begin trading in Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Dato’ Fadzli then indicated that as technology evolves, challenges will also increase and regulatory clarity is vital to create a limitless plus mainstream crypto space. As far as MX Global is concerned, it is well-organised with the support from prominent professional advisory and legal companies in terms of legal, compliance, business operations and risk management regarding crypto.
Speaking of that, all three speakers jointly agreed that in the future, there will be wealth managers or brokers to provide the needed exposure and introduce more choices, in order to make things clearer to the user.
The fast-approaching digital transformation of ASEAN economies should be an indicator for not just institutions, but also nation states and financial institutions to embrace crypto to remain relevant to current and upcoming generations of consumers born into the digital revolution.
