The Digital Sovereignty Alliance (DSA), a nonprofit focused on emerging technology policy, concluded its participation in The Digital Chamber's Convergence Forum on September 14, 2026, in New York City. The event brought together stakeholders from traditional finance, digital assets, technology, and policy to examine infrastructure and market structure considerations as traditional and digital financial markets converge.
Adrian Wall, Managing Director of DSA, moderated a panel titled The Infrastructure Layer, which featured Stephen Gardner of Zerohash, Edward Nasti of Alpaca, and Austin Reid of FalconX. The discussion focused on the infrastructure required to support growing institutional participation in digital assets, including compliance, access to global liquidity, stablecoins, tokenization, and regulatory requirements across jurisdictions.
Panel participants highlighted how specialization across trading, custody, liquidity, settlement, and compliance is increasing the importance of interoperability, operational resilience, and capital efficiency for institutional adoption. The conversation underscored growing emphasis on asset segregation, proof of reserves, counterparty resilience, and regulatory coverage in institutional due diligence, alongside the integration of compliance requirements directly into digital asset infrastructure.
Participants also addressed the expanding role of banks in stablecoins and tokenized assets, the potential for market consolidation, and the need for clearer regulatory coordination from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), as well as guidance related to the CLARITY Act.
Digital asset infrastructure is entering an institutional phase, where scale depends on more than technology alone, Wall said. Compliance, interoperability, and regulatory coordination will determine whether stablecoins, tokenized assets, and global liquidity can develop into trusted financial infrastructure supported by clear, workable policy frameworks.
