BlockTalks: Crypto Analytics in the Age of AI, with Thomas Probst

Well, traditional finance still, as we know, still largely relies on market sessions, opening hours, closing prices, and fairly defined settlement cycles.

And I contrast, as we said, crypto markets operate 24-7 with no closing time, no weekend, and no universal closing price tag.

tokenization really sits precisely at the intersection of these two worlds.

What is interesting is that this need for continuity is not entirely new.

For example, futures have long played that role in traditional markets by allowing price discovery to continue outside cash market hours.

But the digital assets industry pushes this logic much further in an on-chain environment, Assets can move continuously.

Trading, transfers, collateral, and interactions with protocols do not simply stop because the local market is closed.

And this is particularly important with the rise of tokenized real-world assets.

You mentioned you don't like the world, but we understand what you're saying here.

And in June 2026, the value of tokenized assets exceeded $30 billion, with assets such as U.S. sovereign debt, commodities, and equities leaning in the way.

And this shows that we have moved beyond the purely experimental phase.

And these assets are starting to exist within blockchain infrastructure, but their valuation cannot simply remain frozen at a closing price when the underlying traditional market is closed.

If a tokenized asset circulates 24-7, it needs to be evaluated consistently 24-7.

And tokenized asset is not just about creating a digital representation on a blockchain, but the The truly difficult part is the infrastructure around it.

You need robust reference prices, clear methodologies, governance, liquidity, compliance, and mechanisms capable of connecting traditional markets with on-chain environments.

And without that, I would say that the token may technically exist, but it's not necessarily usable by institutional participants.

And I think this is also what justified the development of more robust reference rates for equity markets and more broadly for tokenized traditional assets.

And if exchanges, DeFi protocols or tokenization platforms want to enable continuous trading, collateralization or valuation of real assets, they need reliable data for this.

And this is not a secondary element, but it's an operational requirement, I would say.

That's interesting.

Now, how do we solve for that in a world where now you can click and come up with a new blockchain? Like the assortment of layer twos or super chains or app chains, you can go to any of these layer ones and they have a toolkit that you can click, click, click.

And all of a sudden you're spinning up a new chain, which is a new chain per se.

It's a new ledger, new validators, smart contract engines.

How do we keep up with the proliferation of, layer ones and layer twos now that the technology itself is being commoditized.

I mean, we've seen Uniswap come up with the chain, ENS come up with the chain, Lens come up with the chain, Arc, Tempo, all these like layer two type things or the permission ones.