Privacy Infrastructure and Institutional Crypto Adoption

Institutions have spent years pointing to privacy as the main reason they cannot move size onchain. This situation raises the question of whether privacy is the actual blocker or a convenient explanation for other challenges, such as legal uncertainty, fragmented liquidity, and operational complexity. Heidi Pickett, Chief Business Officer at The Tie, moderated a panel on September 11 addressing these topics with industry builders. The panel featured Omar Azhar, Vice President and Head of Business Development at Matter Labs working on ZKsync, and Alex Shevchenko, General Manager at NEAR Intents. Discussion topics included the boundary between confidentiality and transparency in digital asset markets. The speakers explored what an institution can verify independently versus what it must still trust when utilizing onchain infrastructure. Panelists also examined whether confidential execution fragments liquidity or if it can coexist with existing liquidity pools. Additional focus was placed on how a financial firm can prove compliance with identity, sanctions, and access-control rules without revealing the underlying parties involved in the transaction.