Bringing Banks Into Crypto (Ft. Arnab Sen, GFO-X)

Welcome to another episode of Total Value Unlocked Podcast!

Emmanuel Vallod, Partner and Head of Ventures at Hivemind, steps in for Matt Zhang to host a discussion with Arnab Sen, Co-founder and CEO of GFO-X.

As the UK's first regulated centrally cleared trading venue for digital asset derivatives, GFO-X is at the cutting edge of financial market infrastructure. Arnab shares his insights on the relevance of derivatives, institutional needs, and the evolution of digital assets in traditional finance. Tune in to understand what's required for banks and large institutions to participate fully in this emerging asset class, backed by cutting-edge derivative structures and stringent regulatory compliance.

Timestamps:

02:12 – What makes a market “mature” and why crypto isn’t yet

05:38 – Arnab’s journey from Goldman to founding GFO-X

09:00 – How GFO-X is designing infrastructure for banks

11:22 – Spot, futures, and the missing leg: options

14:40 – Why central clearing is the unlock no one talks about

18:15 – “Institutional-grade” isn’t marketing, it’s hard engineering

21:08 – What banks actually need to take on crypto risk

24:42 – The biggest gaps in today’s crypto market structure

28:36 – Why options drive institutional liquidity

32:45 – Collateral is broken, here’s how to fix it

37:20 – Tokenization is useless without credit and portability

42:30 – How to get from bilateral risk to scalable markets

50:18 – What success looks like