Gerry Brady, Independent Non-Executive Director & Consultant: In addition to the continued success of Bitcoin (for the time being) and its successful use of blockchain technology, there have also been positive developments with the fast-tracking of the Genius Act in the US and plans for similar legislation in Europe. However, the seismic changes some forecast for Crypto and Blockchain tokenisation have not materialised to-date in the regulated investment world.

Undoubtedly progress has been made but there remains a number of obstacles yet to be overcome – operational, regulatory, legacy. For example, I am an INED for a new fund which will be introducing a tokenised share class along with the more traditional share classes. As a result, investors with Stablecoins in their wallet will be able to invest in the tokenised share class and have their wallet details updated with their new investment. So far so good. The reality, however, is that if the investor uses Stablecoins (without conversion to a fiat currency) for direct subscription, the administrator/TA agent will levy a conversion charge and, in any case, will also continue to maintain the traditional investor register (in addition to updating the digitalised investor wallet), clearly requiring reconciliation (so much for blockchain…).

The theory is great, but the current state of the industry is not fully ready and this new tokenised share class will be more expensive for the reasons outlined above, with legacy operating practices and charging structures being maintained by the traditional administrators. I would acknowledge that Securitize in the US (with whom Blackrock have partnered) are able to offer a truly DLT service, with free conversion of Stablecoins, but, to the best of my knowledge, this truly digitalised, tokenised, cost-efficient experience is still some time into the future.