00:00 Julie
Well, despite a pullback today, cryptocurrencies and crypto-related stocks have had a bull run, notching record highs and receiving increased institutional adoption over the past year. And according to a new study from the DeFi Education Foundation, a growing share of Americans are interested in exploring crypto, with 22% saying they would like to learn more about the blockchain and crypto more broadly. Here with more on the landscape for crypto is Kristen Smith, President of the Solana Institute. Kristen, good to see you.
00:37 Kristen Smith
Good morning, Julie. Nice to see you as well.
00:41 Julie
So, what kind of sort of changing views did you see in this survey work that really stood out to you?
00:52 Kristen Smith
Yeah, well, I think the big takeaway for me from this study is that Americans are increasingly frustrated and concerned about the financial services industry. We have less than half of Americans, 49% who believe that the financial system meets their needs. That’s that’s pretty low in my mind. But uh shockingly, less than one in 10 Americans completely trusts the bank. So these are these are pretty low numbers for the banks and I think one of the things that crypto and DeFi in particular have to offer is an alternative or even potentially an improvement to the current system because they’re able to hold their own assets, then they can trade, borrow and lend using those assets. And so, I was really excited to see the opportunity that we have for the crypto industry uh to either completely replace or perhaps uh converge with traditional finance to make this a more trustworthy system for everyone.
02:00 Julie
Well, I’m curious Kristen, when people are say they’re not happy with their banks, what are they not happy about, right? And and does crypto solve for those things that they’re not happy about?
02:14 Kristen Smith
Yeah, well, a lot of what we see are fees that are misunderstood, perhaps they’re disclosed, but there’s so many disclosures that they don’t know what they’re getting into. And if you look at DeFi, the cost is a lot lower. Um and then they also feel frustrated about access to certain products. And so, you know, with DeFi, it’s it’s different and again, this isn’t a world that’s for everyone, but I think what’s really exciting is that whether it be through stable coins for payments or on the market side, uh upgrading the infrastructure that we use for trading markets. There’s a real opportunity here and um what we do with Sona Policy Institute is we focus on a lot of the policy work going on in Washington and as Congress is passing laws and putting new regulations in place, it really provides a foundation for this technology to be integrated within these systems so that we can lower costs and provide consumers more access to better services.
03:07 Julie
Well, and I guess on that point as well, I mean, certainly some of the large financial institutions are looking at DeFi and looking at blockchain as well and integrating that in some cases into their businesses. So, what do you think the landscape going forward is going to look like in terms of the services being offered and who’s offering them?
03:31 Kristen Smith
Yeah, well, I think we’re going to see a lot of innovation across the board. I think one really interesting idea and and this is something that actually that the chairman of the SEC, chairman Atkins has focused on is this sort of concept of a super app where you can have your crypto portfolio, your securities portfolio, uh your stable coins, your, you know, your mortgage, you can have all of your financial assets in one place. And so if you need a short-term loan and you don’t want to, you know, you have some Apple stock, you can leverage that Apple stock to get that loan in DeFi without having to, you know, sell that underlying um asset. And so there’s a lot that you can do with collateral in DeFi across different types of assets that is un, you know, is not available to consumers today. And so we think, you know, these are the types of innovations that we’re going to see. But, you know, I think the key is like it’s a very American principle to want to own your own property. And, you know, when you’re dealing with the banks today, you’re really handing over your assets, uh, and then it enters the fractional Reserve banking system. This this provides an alternative for that percentage of the population that that does want to have more control uh and to be able to interact directly uh with counterparties whether it be through in payments or or trading or or borrowing.
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