Digital assets were a central topic at Sibos Frankfurt 2025, following Swift’s announcement of a shared digital ledger project with 30 member institutions. Stephen Richardson, chief strategy officer and head of banking at Fireblocks described it as a “digital asset infrastructure company” providing the “core banking for digital assets” so that financial institutions can integrate blockchain capabilities without having to build teams and technology from scratch. Enabling banks to move money on-chain Fireblocks focuses on payments use cases across the value chain, helping banks explore tokenised deposits and stablecoins for cross-border settlement. Richardson noted that while large cash-clearing banks such as JP Morgan and Citibank have already deployed tokenised deposits internally, “a majority of banks are still working out their strategy” and need technology partners. He said Fireblocks’ wallet and orchestration infrastructure allows banks to experiment safely with on-chain transfers and atomic settlement while maintaining regulatory standards. Stablecoins, tokenised deposits and corporate banking Fireblocks sees corporate and transactional banking as the first scalable use case for stablecoins: banks can convert local fiat into a stablecoin, transfer it, then have another bank perform last-mile foreign exchange (FX) and payouts. Tokenised deposits, by contrast, offer regulated bank money with programmability. Fireblocks provides the wallet infrastructure to orchestrate both models. Richardson emphasised that programmability — conditional or “smart” payments — will drive adoption beyond simple value transfer. “It is when you can attach conditions to the payment that entirely new workflows become possible,” he said. Managing operational and compliance risk He highlighted key barriers for banks: know-your-customer (KYC) and anti-money-laundering (AML) risk when interacting with wallets, operational risk from unfamiliar technology, and the lack of custodial expertise. Fireblocks addresses these by offering an out-of-the-box platform with secure wallet infrastructure and compliance features, reframing “custody” as “secure access” to the blockchain. This is particularly relevant as regulators tighten oversight of critical service providers. Banks want partners who can demonstrate robust security and auditable controls. Interoperability and open ecosystems Fireblocks supports more than 120 blockchains and partners with networks such as Circle Payment Network (CPN) and its own Fireblocks Payments Network to integrate messaging and application programming interface (API) layers. Richardson said open ecosystems — like those that made USDC and USDT successful — are critical: the question for new shared ledgers, such as Swift’s shared digital ledger initiative, is “how open will they be?” He argued that openness encourages innovation and network effects, whereas closed systems risk fragmentation. User experience as the next frontier For blockchain payments to scale, Richardson argued, banks must deliver a user experience comparable to web-based services today. Corporate clients should see seamless integration into their enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems; retail users should not need to know whether money is fiat or digital as long as it moves quickly and transparently. Bridging traditional finance and blockchain Richardson’s comments show Fireblocks positioning itself as the technology bridge for banks entering digital assets. By offering wallet, tokenisation and payments orchestration across multiple chains, it lowers operational and compliance hurdles while supporting both tokenised deposits and stablecoins. He also stressed that the long-term goal is for money — physical or digital — to move without users noticing the difference, with banks and fintechs leveraging open, interoperable infrastructure. For Richardson, Sibos confirmed that the industry is moving beyond speculation to practical, scalable blockchain payments, and Fireblocks wants to be the core infrastructure enabling that shift.
