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This year has been a tumultuous year for cryptocurrency markets, but here on Wall Street, blockchain technology and the development of a regulatory compliant, digital asset ecosystem is moving full steam ahead. Over the past several months, the London Stock Exchange, New York Stock Exchange, NASDAQ, and Fidelity have all announced plans to launch digital asset platforms and services intended to usher a new era global finance.

But if crypto markets are down, why are the world’s leading financial institutions rushing into the industry? The answer centers around the evolution of digital securities (also known as security tokens) and the ability to create more efficiency and liquidity in our capital markets.

There are roughly £550 trillion of illiquid assets in the world and the ownership of these assets are transacted and verified with paper documents. Even the world’s most liquid assets, such as public stocks and bonds, are transacted with technical infrastructure from the 1980s designed to benefit brokerage houses, clearing cooperations and depositories collecting fees and creating inefficiencies on every trade made across global markets. By moving toward secure digital automation and transparency, and away from paper certificates and intermediaries, new exchanges can open for previously illiquid assets, private marketplaces can grow on a global scale and more efficient financial products can be created for institutional and retail investors alike.

The key driver of this technological revolution are smart contracts (also known as smart securities) which use software code and blockchain technology to settle trades instantly, eliminate intermediaries and reduce fraud. At CityBlock Capital, our mission is to expand the global digital economy through equity investments in early-stage blockchain infrastructure startups that are facilitating this once in a generation technological upgrade. In order to build the best early-stage venture firm in this space, CityBlock has assembled an all-star capital deployment team compromised of former leaders from Goldman Sachs, Softbank, Wells Fargo and Google, to identify and source top-tier deals that sit at the intersection of blockchain technology and Wall Street. We also practice what we preach: in addition to decades of expertise evaluating start-ups, CityBlock is one of the earliest issuers of a digital security so we can utilize blockchain technology to provide diversified access and increase liquidity for our limited partners. Our unique combination of domain expertise, long-term time horizon, and laser focus on unlocking value in real-world assets is the why we’re looking beyond the ups and downs of the cryptocurrency market, and we hope you will too.

To learn more, go to www.cityblockcapital.com.