Regulation Clarity Will Bring on More Consumer Web3 Users, PepsiCo’s Executive Says

AUSTIN, Texas — Regulatory clarity is badly needed to help onboard the next generation of Web3 consumers, according to PepsiCo Head of Next Gen DTC Connections and Innovation Kate Brady.

Reddit, Starbucks, Nike, Adidas, PepsiCo and hundreds of brands have tapped into Web3 and non-fungible tokens (NFT) ecosystem in the last year as a way to deepen their relationship with their audiences and customers. But with a flurry of U.S. regulatory enforcement activity, the status quo of regulatory unclarity has been “our biggest challenge to date” to roll out Web 3 strategies, Brady said on stage at CoinDesk’s Consensus 2023 conference in Austin, Texas.

“We have to structure ourselves to comply with the current regulations, and unfortunately they are very limited or antiquated based on the 1940s written securities laws,” Brady said. “Until we can figure out a lot of that, we're still limited in what we're doing.”

Read full coverage of Consensus 2023 here.

Amanda Cassatt, CEO at Serotonin, agreed, adding that “regulatory clarity brings growth.” Cassatt pointed out that the long-awaited Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) legislation passed by the European Parliament last week, makes a distinction between centralized and decentralized projects in the space.

“I think we're gonna see some of the best, highest-quality regulation that comes out make that distinction, which is super cool and going to push people in the direction of true decentralized blockchain,” Cassatt said.

Brands are making efforts to shift the language from crypto-native terms to more general terminology to reach a broader array of customers, said Shiva Rajaraman, chief business officer at NFT platform OpenSea. He said that it's critical for brands to find their own language and easy crutches to onboard new audiences.

"Maybe it's about the intersection between a brand's language, what they want their community to say and do," Rajaraman said. "Start with that, and then try to map Web 3 principles or artifacts onto that."

“It’s about weaving a kind of poetry between the DNA of what your brand is, what makes it successful in Web 2, understanding what the substrate of Web 3 is, and how those things can intertwine to create something new,” Serotonin’s Cassatt said.