Why Banks Are Stuck in the Past While Crypto Zooms Ahead

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Oh, bless their little hearts! Traditional banks are about as likely to rule the crypto market as a cat is to win a dog show. Stijn Vander Straeten, the CEO of Deutsche Börse’s crypto brainchild, spills the tea on how those crypto-native platforms are racing ahead while banks are still figuring out which way is up.

This is rich coming from Vander Straeten, who’s at the helm of a firm owned by one of the biggest traditional exchange operators on the planet. It’s like hearing a sloth criticize a cheetah for being too fast. His company is all fancy with its FINMA regulations in Switzerland and was practically first in line to snag that MiCA licensing in Europe. Must be nice!

Banks Lag, Crypto Leads

During a chat with BeInCrypto at MERGE São Paulo (where the coffee is strong and the insights are stronger), Vander Straeten laid it out: big banks are stuck waiting for regulators to hold their hands before they leap into new territory. So, while the rest of us are living our best lives in DeFi, banks might take another 5 to 10 years to figure out how to join the party.

Meanwhile, those sprightly crypto-native platforms are not just knocking on traditional finance’s door; they’re breaking it down! They’re offering weekend stock trading and instant settlements-because who has time to wait two days for a stock trade to settle? Not the young, hip investors Vander Straeten’s talking about.

“Honestly, the new generation is just confused. They’re probably thinking, ‘Wait, I sold my stock yesterday, why am I still waiting for my money?’ They want instant gratification at their fingertips-like ordering a pizza, but, you know, with more financial implications,” he quipped.

This pressure cooker situation is forcing banks to step up their game, but let’s be real: they’re still going to lag behind. Those big institutions will never risk wandering into the wild without a safety net of clear regulatory frameworks.

But hold your horses! The regulatory landscape is shifting faster than you can say “crypto.” Just recently, on March 17, the SEC and CFTC decided that 16 crypto assets are now classified as digital commodities. Who knew they could move so quickly when they wanted to?

Vander Straeten did admit that banks are viewed as trustworthy because they stick to the rules-something that those cheeky crypto-native platforms sometimes forget about. Professional investors are all about that governance life.

“Challenger platforms are like the speedy rabbits of innovation,” he mused. “But large institutions? They’re more like tortoises. They won’t stick a toe in unless the rules are crystal clear.”

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2026-03-24 11:40