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(Kitco News) - The changing face of the cryptocurrency ecosystem is on full display at the annual Consensus conference in Austin, Texas, as projects focused on facilitating institutional adoption and providing professional services to crypto investors now populate the booths on display.
While there are still plenty of presenters focused on launching protocols on-chain or supporting other facets of the ecosystem – such as digital wallet providers and crypto ATM companies – it's hard to miss the shifting focus to things like crypto tax audits and institutional custody services.
Speaking with some of the representatives for companies like Franklin Templeton, an American multinational holding company, and Aaro Capital, a firm that provides crypto trading services to accredited investors, it became clear that the crypto world is slowly shifting from a focus on retail traders to large institutions.
Franklin Templeton, which recently made headlines when it announced the launch of the first U.S. registered fund hosted on a public blockchain network, revealed that it has integrated its fund with the Polygon network to go along with its integration on Stellar.
According to Travis Fishstein, a corporate communications consultant with Franklin Templeton, the firm sees a lot of promise in the blockchain industry and wanted to be one of the first to offer regulated digital asset products and actually utilize blockchain technology.
And it's not just institutions in the U.S. showing interest as multiple companies present at the conference are focused on increasing adoption among the international institutional investing crowd.
One example is Parfin, a leading Web3, institutional-grade infrastructure provider in the Latam region. As opposed to the U.S., which has adopted an oppositional stance towards the crypto industry as of late, countries in Latin America, and Brazil in particular, have adopted an open stance and are eagerly integrating blockchain technology into their financial systems.
According to a representative from Parfin the company has already partnered with the Brazilian Stock Exchange, which has also invested in Parfin, Santander Bank, the XP trading platform, and is in discussions with the Central Bank of Brazil to assist in the rollout of a Brazilian central bank digital currency (CBDC).
Brazil is looking to become the next major country to roll out its CBDC, and Parfin has been tapped to help the bank manage the creation of 220 million digital asset wallets for the country's citizens.
Another firm that reported seeing an uptick in interest from institutional players is Infstones, a blockchain infrastructure provider that specializes in helping individuals and companies set up nodes, stake proof-of-stake tokens, and connect Web3 applications to more than 80 blockchain networks.
The recent Shapella upgrade on the Ethereum network, which enabled the withdrawal of staked Ether for the first time, has led to an increase in interest from institutional investors in staking services, a representative from Infstones said.
Crypto tax service providers were also a prevalent sight at Consensus as the slowly increasing adoption of cryptocurrencies in the U.S. has created a niche accounting market that is full of confusion and unclear securities laws.
Overall, the booths on display at Consens signal the increasing legitimacy of the cryptocurrency industry in the U.S. and around the world and suggest that institutions are beginning to show a higher level of interest in engaging with the ecosystem.
