We discuss how decentralised finance is evolving from a crypto-native experiment into an infrastructure layer for institutional finance—and why the convergence between DeFi and traditional finance is accelerating.

- Why investors see DeFi as an uncorrelated portfolio strategy

- The massive liquidity opportunity created by thousands of new DeFi protocols

- Why liquidity providers are becoming the "banks" of the DeFi ecosystem

- The biggest challenge for new protocols: distribution and market access

- How institutions evaluate DeFi risk similarly to credit risk in traditional finance

- Why tokenized funds, real-world assets, and blockchain settlement are accelerating institutional adoption

- How traditional asset managers and banks are entering DeFi

- Why the future may involve two parallel systems: regulated blockchain finance and open DeFi innovation

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We explore how institutional-grade MPC technology is finally migrating to retail, why seed phrases are a massive vulnerability, and whether self-custody can evolve to meet the realities of security, privacy, and regulation.

- Why institutional custody standards never reached retail — until now

- The real risks of seed phrases, wrench attacks, and physical crime

- How MPC (multi-party computation) changes self-custody forever

- Inheritance, recoverability, and protecting users from themselves

- Privacy in crypto: is blockchain too transparent?

- Full homomorphic encryption and the future of on-chain privacy

- Should self-custody wallets face regulatory oversight?

- How AI + blockchain could reshape compliance frameworks

In this Consensus Hong Kong 2026 panel, we dive into the next chapter of on-chain finance: the convergence of DeFi and CeFi — and why crypto prime brokerage may become the infrastructure layer for institutional trading.

From portfolio margin across venues and capital efficiency, to stablecoin balance sheets, oracle risk, and the one threat everyone keeps coming back to… counterparty risk. We break down how prime brokers are bridging siloed liquidity pools, enabling cross-collateral, and rethinking risk management for a world of 24/7 markets.

- DeFi vs CeFi: why convergence is accelerating now

- Prime brokerage in crypto: the "missing layer" for hedge funds

- Portfolio margin across exchanges + on-chain venues (cross-venue risk engines)

- Capital efficiency: moving beyond over-collateralization in DeFi

- Counterparty risk vs smart contract risk — what institutions actually fear

- Off-exchange settlement & custody: what works, what doesn't

- Interest rate models & "dynamic spread": sharing upside with lenders

- Oracles, pricing, liquidation: the two hard problems in DeFi risk management

- The crypto "risk-free rate": SOFR, Treasuries, staking — where does it converge?

- Tokenized markets (RWA): why crypto-native prime brokers may have an edge

As TradFi and DeFi collide, the winners will be the platforms that deliver capital efficiency + transparency + accountability — without blowing up.

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🎙 Featuring:

• Sam MacPherson - CEO and co-founder at Spark

• Serhii Tyshchenko - CEO and co-founder of Arkis

• Oleksandr Proskurin - Co-founder/CPO at Arkis

• Moderated by Henri Arslanian