Ripple Joins Point Zero Forum: Addressing DeFi Regulation, Digital Payments, and Blockchain Interoperability

• Ripple partnered with TRM Labs and Circle at this year’s Point Zero Forum to discuss DeFi governance and regulation, and how regulators can balance innovation and regulation.
• Point Zero Forum convenes global regulators, central banks, policymakers and industry leaders to discuss the latest in the world of finance, investment and technology.

Crypto and blockchain technology are no longer on the fringes, nor are they anti-establishment tools being used to evade compliance and enable crime. Today, crypto is mainstream and blockchain is powering global applications. This makes it critical for crypto to engage meaningfully with regulators, and at the Point Zero Forum, Ripple led the discussion on the best way to regulate DeFi.

Point Zero is an annual gathering of the world’s regulators, central banks, legislators and policymakers, industry leaders and innovators to discuss advancements in the global financial systems. This year’s event was in July, with some of the speakers including CFTC‘s Caroline Pham, Bank of Italy Deputy Governor Alessandra Perrazzeli,  European Central Bank’s Daniela Schakis and Goldman’s Managing Director Matthew McDermott.

Ripple was highly involved as well. The company’s head of public policy Lauren Belive was among the speakers, participating in a roundtable discussion on permissionless blockchain in financial services. More broadly, the company hosted roundtables with industry leaders to discuss crypto, as it has recently revealed.

Public-private partnerships are key to unlocking digital innovation. At the @pointzeroforum, Ripple joined global leaders to tackle DeFi regulation, digital payments, and blockchain interoperability.

Learn how we’re addressing security, scalability, and compliance to drive…

— Ripple (@Ripple) September 16, 2024

In its blog post, the company revealed that it had partnered with TRM Labs and Circle to host two public-private roundtables to talk about DeFi and digital payments. TRM is a leader in blockchain intelligence and its products are used by dozens of world governments to crack down on crypto crime, while Circle is the issuer of USDC, the world’s second-largest stablecoin at $35.5 billion.

Ripple Leads DeFi Talks at Point Zero

The first roundtable on DeFi governance included representatives from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the Banque De France, the Bank of Lithuania, the Bank for International Settlements and others. Crypto was represented by Uniswap, the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance and others.

The regulators acknowledged that they had failed to offer guidance to the DeFi ecosystem, leading to inconsistency in regulatory approaches and confusion. They pledged to offer a more flexible and nuanced global framework.

They also agreed on the need for international cooperation to prevent regulatory arbitrage by some crypto companies while calling for the crypto sector to be more willing to work with authorities to ensure compliance.

One theme that was prevalent throughout the discussion was the need to balance innovation and regulation. Regulators have hindered innovations in some countries like the US where crypto companies fear an SEC crackdown for offering tokens whose security status remains unclear.

In the second roundtable, the Bank of Canada, Bank of Thailand, UBS, JPMorgan and others discussed digital payments, acknowledging that any participant who fails to keep up with digital payment innovations will be phased out.

However, this revolution is greatly hindered by a lack of interoperability, with bilateral banking relationships preventing the explosion of instant and cheap cross-border payments.

Ripple concluded:

As the digital asset landscape continues to evolve, the collaboration between public and private entities will be key to unlocking its full potential, driving financial inclusion, and shaping the future of global finance. Ripple looks forward to continuing these discussions with key stakeholders so that we can continue to create the building blocks for global regulatory frameworks.

Meanwhile, XRP trades at $0.5859, gaining 2.5%, the highest among the top ten coins and far outpacing the broader market, which dipped 0.62% in the past day.