Is the Nordic capital market ready – and what happens if Europe gets its own stablecoin?

Financial markets are facing an infrastructural transformation. Blockchain, stablecoins and tokenization are no longer future scenarios – and the question is no longer whether they will affect financial markets, but when and how. What do instant payments and account-to-account payments mean for the dominant card-based model? And what happens to settlement, custody and payment infrastructure when transactions are settled in real time on a distributed ledger?

At this seminar, we take the topic from building blocks to real-world application – combining market-driven cases, a broader research-based perspective and an independent central bank perspective.

Jan Damsgaard, CBS opens with a research-based introduction to the three building blocks and how they interact. What are blockchain, stablecoins and tokenization, and how do they complement each other in a new AI-driven world? He will also address a key geopolitical question around digital sovereignty: the vast majority of existing stablecoins are denominated in USD. What does this mean for the dominance of the US dollar and Europe’s position in the digital financial system?

Mohamad Zaraket, BNY explores how financial market infrastructure is evolving to support a digital and increasingly “always-on” financial system. He will look at emerging institutional use cases for digital assets, tokenization and digital money, as well as the role established financial institutions can play in developing secure, connected and interoperable market infrastructure for the future.

Michael Boel, Banking Circle provides a market perspective on developments in instant payments, interoperability and stablecoins. He will explore how these solutions are being implemented in practice, which use cases are driving adoption, and how competition between new and established payment solutions is shaping the market. What will it take to achieve interoperability across payment infrastructures – and what role could stablecoins play in a market where payments are increasingly instant and move seamlessly across systems?

Samuel Eddie Mogensen, Danmarks Nationalbank concludes with a central bank perspective. What will the future forms of money and assets look like? Will the growing adoption of stablecoins and tokenized assets, combined with central banks’ work on central bank digital currencies, lead to a new ecosystem? And what considerations will be critical when it comes to the infrastructure and solutions of the future?

You will gain insights into:

• How blockchain, stablecoins and tokenization are interconnected
• How instant payments and stablecoins are challenging existing payment infrastructure
• How interoperability, new use cases and competition are shaping the financial infrastructure of the future
• What a European stablecoin could mean for capital markets and Europe’s digital sovereignty

The seminar brings together research-based insights, industry perspectives and a central bank perspective in one programme – providing the overview needed to navigate a rapidly evolving market.