A recent episode of Chainlink’s “The Future Is On” spotlight series features the CEO of SBI Digital Markets (SBI DM), Winston Quek, who explained why becoming a blockchain-agnostic hub is central to SBI DM’s capital markets strategy and how blockchain can unite international liquidity silos into a more efficient global financial system.
SBI DM is a Singapore-based broker-dealer that is fully licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), as well as a sponsor of Chainlink’s upcoming SmartCon 2024, which will highlight the convergence of TradFi and DeFi and feature a dedicated capital markets stage, where global finance leaders including Quek will showcase how they’re bringing the world’s value onchain.
“SBI DM’s vision is to position itself as a blockchain-agnostic hub to connect exchanges, security platforms, and brokerages into SBI so that we can facilitate the distribution and origination of products,” Quek explained.
Having traveled across various jurisdictions with different views and legislation regarding security tokens, he emphasized the importance of interoperability.
“Cross-border treatment and regulations are not consistent. But at the same time, we cannot expect one common template or format for the entire industry. I think we’re still learning each other’s positioning in the game, and that’s where bridging into different tokens, different legislative regimes is important.”
SBI DM is currently focused on connecting exchanges in regions such as Switzerland, Thailand, and Singapore to launch digital asset market solutions with the goal of including more exchanges in regions such as Japan, Korea, Hong Kong, and Germany in the near future.
“A lot of times in the industry people build individual silos and they are unable to scale their business because they’re restricted to their blockchain technology,” Quek explained. “We are trying to connect different pockets of liquidity so the sum of the parts is larger than the whole.”
From his perspective, blockchain has already solidified its role in the future of finance.
“Blockchain is beyond the buzzword phase; it is reality. I think it’s important for everyone to band together as one unit and put our differences aside to build this together.”
He underscored blockchain as a tool to achieve the ultimate goal of a better, more efficient global financial system.
“What we’re trying to achieve here is to be the internet of finance rather than our own individual intranet,” he explained. “Blockchain brings about a new dimension to the whole process. It smoothens, it makes it more seamless, frictionless – so that’s what we’re trying to achieve. At the end of the day, blockchain just helps facilitate that whole process.”
Watch the full episode of “The Future Is On” featuring SBI Digital Markets’ Winston Quek.