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Alex Zerden

Alex Zerden

Founder & Principal, Capitol Peak Strategies

Alex Zerden is the founder and principal of Capitol Peak Strategies, a risk advisory firm based in Washington, DC. Capitol Peak works with leading financial institutions, companies and organizations to navigate emerging technologies, financial regulation, and geoeconomics.

As a regulatory lawyer, economic policymaker, and financial diplomat, Alex brings a depth of public and private sector experience at the intersection of financial services, economics, and public policy covering anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT), economic sanctions, investment security, financial regulation, economic crisis response, anti-corruption, financial enforcement and oversight investigations, and public-private partnerships.

Previously, Alex worked across the U.S. government, including at the White House National Economic Council, the Treasury Department’s Office of International Affairs, Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, and Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), and Congress. Alex deployed to Afghanistan to lead the Treasury Department office at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul as the Financial Attaché and senior-most representative.

Speaking At

GFTN Insights

Roundtable Room 1 (Level 2)

Open

Wed, 7 May   |   04:00PM - 05:30PM

Navigating global headwinds: Digital money in tokenized markets

Legislators and regulators are currently considering how to support and oversee financial market infrastructure that leverages DLT technology. This requires changes to the trading and post-trading infrastructure as well as targeted regulatory changes.

One of the key questions is what form of digital money will be used to settle transactions, i.e., what tokenized instruments will be allowed and fit for purpose? EU regulators seem to prefer wholesale CBDC over stablecoins. This coincides with the additional momentum for wholesale CBDC in the EU and synthetic CBDCs in the UK. However, CBDCs are not the only option – stablecoins and even tokenized money market funds (MMFs) may have a role to play. The emerging US approach will also shape market preferences and is likely to spill over into European policy discussion.

In this regard, this roundtable will bring together policymakers, technologists and financial sector experts to tackle the following main questions:

  • What are the lessons learned from recent tokenization trials when it comes to the digital money used for settlement? What are the next steps in Europe and in the UK on developing the payment and settlement layer for tokenization?
  • Can stablecoins play a role? What about other versions, like synthetic stablecoins, or tokenized MMFs?
  • Are there fragmentation or liquidity risks if the UK or EU are out of step with other jurisdictions?
  • How should regulators approach this?

Adeline Bachellerie

Adeline BachellerieDeputy Director of Innovation and Financial Market Infrastructures, Banque de France
Alex Zerden

Alex ZerdenFounder & Principal, Capitol Peak Strategies
Daniel Lee

Daniel LeeHead of Web3, Banking Circle
Daniel Nagy

Daniel NagySenior Business Analyst Digital Currencies, Giesecke+Devrient (G+D)
Lesley Chavkin

Lesley ChavkinGlobal Head of Public Policy, Paxos
Martin Etheridge

Martin EtheridgeSenior Vice President Product Management, Digital Assets & Blockchain, Mastercard
Rahul Advani

Rahul AdvaniGlobal Co-Head of Policy, Ripple
Rainer Olt

Rainer OltHead of Payment and Settlement Systems Department, Eesti Pank (National Central Bank of Estonia)
Stefan Grasmann

Stefan GrasmannChief of Blockchain, Zühlke
Gergely Polner

Gergely PolnerManaging Director, Forefront Advisers
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