Defi VS Cefi: Charting New Landscape?

Teana Baker-Taylor (Circle): As VP of Policy and regulatory Strategy for Circle, I’m excited to share more about how payment stablecoins, fully backed by cash and high-quality liquid asset reserves, are today providing a bridge into both traditional finance and emerging DeFi use cases, increasing payments and remittance optionality, enabling efficiencies in humanitarian aid, and opening doors to new types of decentralised financial services.

Lex Sokolin (ConsenSys): Newly decentralised models are more important than ever, and this panel will help the audience understand how different industry trends are merging together to create successful business strategies.

Alex Royle (Galaxy): Defi is a paradigm shift not only for market participants but regulators. For users, DeFi offers cheaper, more efficient opportunities to reach familiar outcomes; for regulators it’s a subversion of their orthodoxy. How can regulators keep up with these innovations and could technology innovations ever replace the need for external regulatory intervention?

Lawrence Deju-Wiseman (PwC): There is more focus now than ever on the touchpoints between DeFi and CeFi. The opportunities and risks are in the headlines every day – our panel will consider how these systems might interact, integrate or differentiate, and what this will mean for investors, capital-seekers, and service providers.

What are you looking forward to the most at FMLS?

Lex Sokolin (ConsenSys): Bringing together industry and innovation to define the financial future of Web3.

Alex Royle (Galaxy): My favourite events are those that actively bring together the traditional and digital financial sectors. As with all things the truth is found between the extremes and the best outcomes materialise when both camps row in the same direction.

Tell us a bit about what you do/your company/who you are looking to network with?

Lex Sokolin (ConsenSys): Lex is a futurist and entrepreneur working on the next generation of financial services. He is the Global Fintech Co-Head at ConsenSys, a blockchain technology company building the infrastructure, applications, and practices that enable a decentralized world. Lex focuses on emerging digital assets, public and private enterprise blockchain solutions, and decentralized finance and autonomous organizations.

Previously, Lex was the Global Director of Fintech Strategy at Autonomous Research (acquired by AllianceBernstein), an equity research firm serving institutional investors, where he covered artificial intelligence, blockchain, neobanks, digital lenders, roboadvisors, payments, insurtech, and mixed reality.

Before Autonomous, Lex was COO at AdvisorEngine, a digital wealth management technology platform, and CEO of NestEgg Wealth, a roboadvisor that partnered with financial advisors.

Prior to NestEgg, Lex held roles in investment management and banking at Barclays, Lehman Brothers and Deutsche Bank. He earned a JD/MBA from Columbia University and a B.A. in Economics and Law from Amherst College. Lex is a contributor of thought leadership to the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, Bloomberg, FT, Reuters, American Banker, ThinkAdvisor, and Investment News, among others.

He is a regular speaker at industry conferences such as Money2020, LendIt, Schwab Impact, In|Vest, T3 Enterprise Edition, and Consensus.

Alex Royle (Galaxy): Having started my career in front office derivative sales and trading I realised that regulation and its interpretation was going to be the biggest driver of the future of finance. Having experienced multiple regulatory regime changes from the legislative side it was the rise of crypto and digital assets in 2019 that excited me to deal with facing the regulatory headwinds from the commercial side.

Galaxy is a digital asset and blockchain leader helping institutions, startups, and qualified individuals shape a changing economy, providing platform solutions custom-made for a digitally native ecosystem.

I’m keen to speak to anyone with any level of interest in the space, but especially those that believe regulation is a hindrance to the successful adoption of the new digital paradigm.

Lawrence Deju-Wiseman (PwC): Lawrence Deju-Wiseman is a Director in Market Abuse and Financial Services Conduct at PwC UK, where he specialises in complex markets, derivatives, digital assets and DeFi. His experiences draw on his time as an FX options trader with BP, and more recently as the Global Head of Surveillance at HSBC for FX, commodities, benchmarks, retail markets and multi-asset derivatives.

Additionally, he holds dual qualifications as a New York attorney and a UK chartered accountant. Lawrence frequently writes and speaks at conferences on emerging conduct issues, currently serves as Professor in the Field at the University of Connecticut School of Business, and previously served on the MBA Board of Advisors at the Olin School of Business.

Outside of work, Lawrence is a keen gardener and enthusiastic (if unskilled) trail runner.

Check out the full agenda today and join the conversation surrounding FMLS22!