USA Agenda 25

• Digitalization is here to stay, and will shape the evolution of credit markets: Recognising this, Moody’s has undertaken extensive research to analyze and explain how the structure and behavior of digital markets will affect specific asset classes, credit processes and the ordinal rank ordering of risk.
• For example, we are analyzing how the nuances of digital custody models, collateral dynamics and asset tokenization structures can affect liquidity and counterparty risks.
• In addition to technology and innovation, we closely monitor regulation as a key driver of the direction of change. Our purpose is to ensure our credit risk methodologies and assessments remain appropriate and relevant as digitalization moves forward.

This session will explore the key drivers for institutional adoption, the remaining hurdles, and the innovative solutions that are making tokenized assets more accessible and attractive to larger players.

Institutions face growing pressure to deliver real value from digital asset investments while staying compliant. This session will examine how organizations are innovating within regulatory frameworks and using compliance as a competitive advantage.

Key Points:

• Strategies for navigating and leveraging evolving regulatory landscapes.
• Real-world examples of innovation through regulatory sandboxes.
• Preparing for potential changes in U.S. administration and global regulatory shifts.
• Migrating from pilot programs to production and delivering profitability.

Exclusive to DAW, these sessions offer a first-look at a pioneering blockchain project that achieves real commercial success. Hear firsthand from Joanie and Ripple’s client as they unveil a breakthrough for digital assets, for the first time.

As institutions look to harness the potential of private markets through tokenization, those on the ground face practical obstacles in implementation, adoption, and scaling. This session will focus on the experience of those tokenizing private markets to drive adoption.

Key Points:

• Improving Liquidity Access: Addressing the challenges of building and maintaining secondary markets for private market assets to provide real liquidity.
• Investor Onboarding: Simplifying processes for investor access, from compliance checks to reporting and distribution automation.
• What’s Still Missing: Identifying the tools, partnerships, and infrastructure gaps needed to fully realize tokenized private markets.

Institutional custody must be secure—it must also seamlessly integrate with trading infrastructure to enhance liquidity, reduce capital inefficiencies, and enable frictionless execution. This panel will dive into how custodians, prime brokers, and trading firms are evolving custody solutions to unlock new efficiencies for institutional digital asset markets.

Key Points:

• Custody as a Trading Enabler: How custodians are moving beyond safekeeping to support real-time settlement, fund mobility, and capital efficiency.
• Liquidity & Execution Challenges: The friction points in existing models, from rehypothecation limits to the impact of fragmented liquidity pools.
• Risk vs. Access Trade-offs: How institutions are balancing security with the need for trading speed, instant settlement, and counterparty risk mitigation.
• Interoperability & Market Structure – The role of custodians in bridging on-chain and off-chain liquidity, integrating with prime brokers, and supporting cross-market trading strategies.

As blockchain technologies move beyond experimentation into real-world application, how do leading organizations ensure innovation is both responsible and purposeful? Join leaders from PwC, U.S. Bank, and the Stellar Development Foundation for a candid conversation on how they’re navigating this evolution and how enterprises are successfully driving towards production

In this fireside chat, senior leaders from BlackRock and Chainlink explore the next evolution of the capital markets on blockchains, how various regulatory, operational and technical challenges are now being overcome to create the highest quality digital assets.

These sessions foster candid dialogue and collaboration among the institutional leaders, investors, and innovators in their respective specialisms, who will discuss their subject areas in minute detail under Chatham House Rule.

Following an introduction in the main conference room, the roundtables will commence in the networking area with an open audience. Focusing on strategic, commercial and impactful outcomes for one hour, a spokesperson from each roundtable will then return to the main conference room to present a summary and measurable action points to the full audience.

Hosted by: Malik Faizullah, Head of Blockchain Technology, Moody’s Ratings**

AI is increasingly intersecting with digital assets, offering new tools for compliance, efficiency, and investment strategies. This session looks at how AI, digital assets and other technologies can help institutions transition digital asset technologies into business-as-usual operations. It also emphasizes the importance of developing robust risk management strategies while scaling digital asset technologies in high-risk environments.

Proposed Questions:

• What are the key technology risks that arise at each stage of the digital asset lifecycle?
• How can institutions assess and mitigate the risks associated with AI-driven decision-making, compliance, and risk management in tokenized ecosystems?
• How is the changing regulatory environment impacting cross-industry collaborations, and how can these collaborations help in developing standardized risk frameworks for the digital economy?
• How should institutions prepare for a future where AI and tokenized ecosystems converge?
• What steps can organizations take to transition from pilots to operational systems that deliver real value, while ensuring resilience against cyber risks and smart contract vulnerabilities?

Hosted by: Abradat Kamalpour, Partner, Jones Day**

Proposed Questions:

• Stablecoins: What will be the impact of proposed US stablecoin legislation on institutional adoption? Understanding the recent SEC statement on stablecoin.
• FIT 21 – a step in the right direction? Should the SEC or CFTC regulate digital assets?
• Recent US bank regulator announcements – what’s the practical significance and the impact on banks and non-banks?
• AML, KYC and criminal activities: How will they be approached under the new administration?
• Regulation by enforcement and general policy direction: What’s the likely approach under the new administration?

Questions:

• Tokenising the intraday Repo market - Where have we got to and what is the scale of the opportunity?
• What will be the benefits of Tokenised Money Market Funds becoming accepted as eligible collateral?
• What will it take for any asset to be used as collateral? e.g. Real Estate and Private Equity?
• What will it take to deliver market-wide collateral mobility for all participants?

This roundtable discussion will explore the tokenization of private funds and fund interests, aiming to provide a comprehensive understanding of how tokenization could reshape the private funds industry. Experts will examine the benefits and challenges of tokenization, including enhanced liquidity, greater accessibility for investors, and the potential for fractional ownership. As well as the opportunities, the discussion will focus on the barriers to adoption from the perspective of each stakeholder in the fund value chain, and look at the solutions to enabling greater adoption. Participants will discuss concerns such as regulatory compliance, the security and scalability of tokenization platforms, and the implications for governance

• How do you see tokenization impacting the liquidity and accessibility of private funds?
• What are the barriers to adoption, including the regulatory challenges, potential legal risks associated with tokenizing private funds, and commercial considerations? How can these be addressed while maintaining the benefits of tokenization?
  1. How do we address distribution scalability, and investor appetite or familiarity?
  2. What are the technology risks; how do we deal with interoperability challenges?
  3. Where tokenization can be transformative, what legal and regulatory challenges are hindering adoption?
• What are the opportunities for tokenized private funds to transform the relationships between stakeholders and business models for fund managers and administrators?

Join industry leaders to explore the ROI potential of investing in companies transforming tradfi with tokenization and the gains possible from this seismic shift. When will the big returns come, and who’s leading the charge?

Explore where the biggest opportunities lie outside of pure crypto. Will traditional finance adopt tokenized assets, or is the next frontier in blockchain innovation?

As infrastructure around digital assets evolves, will it stay strategic or reach a tipping point toward mass adoption? These experts share their visions on the future of blockchain infrastructure.