Stephen Richardson, Chief Strategy Officer and Head of Banking at Fireblocks and MFTA Corporate Member, joins FinTech TV’s Raghda Ibraheem on Wall Street to MENA to unpack a widening gap in the global banking industry’s relationship with digital assets: 88% of banks have committed budget to digital asset infrastructure, yet only 16% have reached production.
Richardson’s account of the UAE market is concrete. Fireblocks now supports more than 160 live accounts in the UAE, with net new client additions more than doubling over the past three years. The composition of that client base has shifted, from a heavy dependency on crypto-native trading firms two years ago toward banks, payment service providers and corporates today, a shift he ties to the regulatory clarity established by the UAE Central Bank, VARA, DFSA and ADGM.
On the production gap, his explanation is procedural rather than critical. Regulated institutions must validate use cases, assess commercial impact and build risk, compliance and security operating models before deploying blockchain infrastructure at scale.
On stablecoins as the first bridge into digital assets, he points to infrastructure built by Tether and Circle as proof of the model, leaving banks to weigh tokenized deposits against stablecoin issuance based on where their customers already transact.
On neobank competition, his read is measured: not yet a threat, but a window that narrows as ERP providers and payment platforms build models for moving money outside the banking system.
Guest: Stephen Richardson, Chief Strategy Officer and Head of Banking, Fireblocks; MFTA Corporate Member
Interviewer: Raghda Ibraheem, FinTech TV, Wall Street to MENA