Arredondo argues that the industry has spent years building separate blockchain networks, stablecoins and digital money projects, but has spent less time ensuring these systems can work together.
“We need to move the market from everyone doing their own really cool stuff to actually thinking about standard setting across the board.”
The issue has become more important as governments, banks and private companies increasingly experiment with tokenized deposits, stablecoins and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
Arredondo pointed to the European Union (EU) as an example of a jurisdiction seeking to accommodate multiple forms of digital money simultaneously.
The EU’s approach allows stablecoins, tokenized bank deposits and central bank money to coexist under the same broad framework, she said.
Wall Street’s crypto role
The growing role of banks, asset managers and large financial institutions in crypto has divided the industry. Some early crypto proponents argue that the sector is moving away from its original goals of decentralization and disintermediation.
Arredondo sees it differently. “The early crypto vision raised fundamental economic questions and brought them to the mainstream,” she said.
For Arredondo, the rise of institutional crypto doesn’t mean the industry’s early ideas failed.
Instead, she sees it as evidence that ideas first developed in the cryptosphere are increasingly being adopted by mainstream finance. “It should not be disappointing that we maintain the pillars that have long anchored confidence in money.”
