Share this article
BlackRock Executive: Knowing Who Counterparties Are Is Key to Engaging Institutions in DeFi
BlackRock's views could carry extra weight in the ongoing battle over regulation in the industry.
Updated Jun 22, 2023, 7:39 p.m. Published Jun 22, 2023, 7:33 p.m.
NEW YORK - Developing digital identity infrastructure such that counterparties know who they are trading with is critical to getting large institutions involved in decentralized finance (DeFi), said Joseph Chalom, head of strategic partnerships at BlackRock, at the State of Crypto Summit held by Coinbase and the Financial Times in New York on Thursday.
Identifying counterparties may be important for large regulated institutional players like BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, but it might contradict the privacy ethos of crypto natives. However BlackRock has recently emerged as a potentially priority-setting player in the industry by applying this month to list a bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF). Given its size, its desires might have a greater shot at becoming industry rules than the often-anonymous folks who have long steered crypto.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
"The first issue is, who am I trading with?...We go to jail, if we don't know who we're trading with," Chalom said of institutions such as BlackRock, adding that he is not optimistic that the digital identity issue will be solved in the short term.
Issues such as the automated market making in DeFi instead of central order limits books are just fig leaves, said Chalom. "We need clear understanding of who is in a pool," Chalom noted.
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
French Banking Giant BPCE to Roll Out Crypto Trading for 2M Retail Clients
The service will allow customers to buy and sell BTC, ETH, SOL, and USDC through a separate digital asset account managed by Hexarq.
What to know:
- French banking group BPCE will start offering crypto trading services to 2 million retail customers through its Banque Populaire and Caisse d’Épargne apps, with plans to expand to 12 million customers by 2026.
- The service will allow customers to buy and sell BTC, ETH, SOL, and USDC through a separate digital asset account managed by Hexarq, with a €2.99 monthly fee and 1.5% transaction commission.
- The move follows similar initiatives by other European banks, such as BBVA, Santander, and Raiffeisen Bank, which have already started offering crypto trading services to their customers.
Top Stories
