Matt Blumenfeld

Matt Blumenfeld

Global and U.S. Digital Assets Leader

PwC

Matt Blumenfeld leads PwC's digital asset efforts globally where he sits at the intersection of traditional finance and the onchain world helping institutions translate the promise of digital assets into real-world strategy and execution. Matt is a sought-after thought leader on everything from stablecoins and tokenization to crypto regulation, institutional adoption, and the future architecture of global financial markets.

Prior to joining PwC, Matt managed a team at the National Futures Association, where he was responsible for bringing the swaps market into the regulated world in the aftermath of Dodd-Frank. In that role, he designed and built a first-of-its-kind swaps surveillance system to monitor and enforce compliance across one of the largest and most complex derivatives markets in the world. Matt started his career at Morgan Stanley where he held a variety of roles across operations.

Matt graduated from the University of Wisconsin Madison and earned an MBA from University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Featured Sessions

Thursday, March 19, 2026
4:05 pm

While TradFi and crypto leaders seek regulatory “clarity,” that alone isn’t enough, particularly for financial institutions. As tokenization, on-chain settlement, and programmable finance move from pilots to production, the crucial factor for TradFi leaders will be their execution capability: operating models, talent authority, cultural readiness, and strategic clarity that allow them to establish durable, profitable positions in the native conditions of on-chain finance over the next three years.

The panel discussion will focus on what must change inside traditional financial firms to compete with native on-chain players and fast-moving incumbents, including:

  • What changes once regulatory “permission” is no longer the bottleneck?
  • Which firms are still hiding behind regulatory uncertainty as an excuse for inaction?
  • How much regulatory clarity is enough to move real capital on-chain?
  • Why quarterly roadmaps fail in 24/7, real-time markets.
  • What has to break (processes, controls, approvals) to ship on-chain products.
  • Can TradFi genuinely iterate in public — and should it?
  • Why crypto expertise without decision-making power doesn’t execute.
  • Where TradFi org charts quietly kill on-chain momentum.
  • What governance models actually work for on-chain business lines.
  • Why “digital asset divisions” often become organizational dead ends.
  • How treasury, risk, compliance, and ops must change for atomic settlement.
  • When permissioned chains help — and when they slow you down.
  • How on-chain transparency changes risk management and reputation.
  • Why do you exist on-chain? Issuer, liquidity provider, infrastructure, risk wrapper—pick one.
  • Why “tokenization strategy” is not a business model.
  • How native players are defining the rules faster than incumbents.
  • What will be considered a failed digital asset strategy in hindsight?