Institutions Need Liquidity, Risk Controls to Move Into Digital Assets, Panel Says at EastPoint: Seoul 2026

Convergence of Traditional Finance and Digital Assets Set to Accelerate

Global digital-asset industry executives said deeper liquidity and a structured risk-management infrastructure are essential to broaden institutional participation in the market. They said the industry also needs execution systems that can link liquidity fragmented across multiple venues and process large orders reliably.

A panel discussion titled "Institutional Trading Stack: Liquidity, Execution, and Prime Brokerage" was held on Sept. 28 at EastPoint: Seoul 2026, a global Web3 private conference at the Westin Josun Seoul Parnas in Seoul's Samseong-dong.

The session featured Samar Sen, head of international markets at Talos; Benjamin Stani, head of institutional sales for Asia-Pacific at FalconX; Jean-David Péquignot, head of institutional markets for Asia-Pacific at Deribit by Coinbase; and CJ Hetherington, co-founder and chief executive officer of Limitless.

Sen called liquidity one of the most underestimated factors in bringing institutional investors into digital assets. Institutions executing large trades need efficient access to liquidity spread across multiple markets, he said.

He also argued that trading systems used by traditional financial firms are not sufficient to handle the complexity of digital-asset market structure. What is needed, he said, are algorithmic execution systems that can integrate trading routes across centralized exchanges, over-the-counter markets and decentralized exchanges, while splitting orders based on market conditions.

Panelists also said the market needs a broader range of financial products to help institutional investors manage portfolio risk. Hetherington said traditional finance uses tools such as interest-rate swaps and credit-default swaps, yet many areas still lack suitable hedging products.

He cited the fast-growing private credit market as an example. Default risk tied to loans to private companies is rising, but there are still too few products that allow that risk to be transferred to or shared with other investors. Digital-asset-based contracts could become a tool for managing risks that have been difficult to address with traditional financial products, he added.

The convergence of traditional finance and digital assets was another major theme of the discussion. Panelists said more financial firms are investing in digital-asset companies or building their own trading and custody infrastructure. The licenses, customer bases and trust with regulators that incumbent financial firms already possess could become an advantage as the two markets converge.

Changes in the US regulatory environment were also cited as a factor that could accelerate that convergence. Panelists added, however, that other countries will need to move faster on regulatory frameworks if the trend is not to remain concentrated in the US.

Oh Yoo-rim / Lee Soo-hyun, Bloomingbit reporter