Crypto? AI? Future? 🤯 You Won't BELIEVE This!

As the crypto market galumphs along at the speed of a caffeinated cheetah 🏃‍♂️, the conundrum of marrying decentralized finance (DeFi) with the sort of finance your Great Aunt Mildred understands (TradFi) has become quite the pickle—albeit a rather lucrative one. Sheraz Ahmed, a chap who’s a Managing Partner at Storm Partners, has had a ringside seat to this jolly transformation.

In a recent chinwag with BeInCrypto, Ahmed reminisced about his near-decade in the space, noting a rather seismic shift in how things are perceived. What was once pooh-poohed as an abstract experiment is now being taken seriously by the sort of institutions that wear pinstripes and carry briefcases. According to Ahmed, the growing digitalization of daily life and increasing concerns about who’s fiddling with our digital whatsits have driven trust towards these blockchain solutions. 🤔

Sheraz Ahmed on the Ever-So-Curious Relationship Between DeFi and TradFi

The journey, you see, has been rather extensive. Having been knee-deep in this industry for nigh on a decade now, I can tell you that there’s been a profound shift. Initially, people dismissed crypto as an abstract concept—some “digital gold” without so much as a biscuit tin to back it up. Traditional financial institutions believed that to gain trust, you needed a banking license with oodles of capital. The notion that a purely digital solution could work seemed as likely as finding a sober parrot at a pirate convention. 🦜 But over time, this perception has changed.

Why, you ask? The answer, my dear fellow, lies in the growing digitalization of our world. Today, more people spend hours online every day, which directly correlates with the trust and value they place on digital systems. This digital evolution has led to greater acceptance of digital payments, as they’re now seen as natural. Services like Revolut have shown that instant money transfers are not only possible but widely trusted. Jolly good show! 👏

The Rise of Blockchain Solutions (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Ledger)

The Next Frontier (Or, When Robots and Ledgers Collide)

AI is a central component, especially now that large organizations are heavily investing in it. It’s becoming like the internet—something so embedded in every project that it’s no longer necessary to highlight it. Blockchain and AI are complementary. While blockchain manages the data, AI generates it.

And when you combine these two technologies, you can create powerful decentralized systems. The best projects today are those that leverage AI from day one to generate value and move quickly to market. One might even suggest it’s the bee’s knees! 🐝

Challenges for Traditional Institutions Adopting Crypto (Or, Why Banks Have the Jitters)

The biggest hurdles are regulatory concerns and cybersecurity risks. After the 2008 financial crisis, regulatory frameworks became stricter, and these regulations have only intensified in the digital age. Many institutions are hesitant to adopt crypto for fear of regulatory fines.

Furthermore, cybersecurity remains a concern. Recent hacks, such as the Bybit hack, highlighted vulnerabilities in third-party providers. Banks, in particular, are reluctant to custody crypto because they fear the risks and liabilities involved.

It’s a tough situation for banks. They want to offer crypto services, but the risk management, custody, and regulatory issues make it complicated. The reality is, crypto was never designed to be custodied by banks. People have the option to hold crypto directly and use it for cross-border transactions, while keeping their fiat in more traditional banking systems for safety. A bit like keeping your best china safe in the cupboard, eh? 🫖

The Future of Blockchain and Finance (A Glimpse into Tomorrow, Maybe)

The future of crypto is about striking that balance. It doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing approach. By integrating crypto with traditional finance in a hybrid model, we can achieve a system that combines the strengths of both worlds.

So, how can Storm Partners help bridge this gap and support institutions and new companies? Well, we’ve developed a new corporate innovation sandbox called LightningBox, which essentially aggregates Web3 tools and providers into three distinct layers. The first layer is service providers, such as cybersecurity companies like Hacker or legal firms like Valdives. This layer focuses on writing services.

The second layer consists of infrastructure providers—companies that offer tools like custody solutions, payment solutions, and compliance tools such as Chainalysis that provide Know-Your-Transaction (KYT) services.

The third layer is the actual blockchain technology itself—the backbone of the system. These three components work together to create a Web3 application. By combining them, we’ve built a sandbox environment where we welcome luxury, finance, and impact organizations to come in and interact with the full composability stack in one place.

In the real world, a bank or institution would struggle to connect with all these providers separately—it would take too much time, and many organizations simply don’t have the resources. Plus, the costs involved are high and there’s no economy of scale. But by aggregating all of them in one place, we’ve made it easier to create proof of concepts and minimum viable products (MVPs) quickly.

With minimal resources, companies can market-test these concepts, determine if they’re valuable, and present them to their board. If the board approves, the next step is to secure funding—whether it’s $1 million or $10 million—to develop the product for mass adoption. LightningBox is designed to make that process faster, easier, and more cost-effective. A veritable boon, what? 👍

What to Expect From Storm Partners in the Near Future? (Excitement Abounds!)

There are always exciting things ahead. In the second quarter, we’re expecting major M&A announcements from clients we’ve been working with. Additionally, we’re looking at potential acquisitions ourselves, which is a very interesting development.

We’re also planning an exciting expansion into new regions, particularly into the GCC area, focusing on a country that’s not widely known today but has a growing reputation for its crypto regulation. This expansion will be a strong entry point into the Arab world, and we’re really excited to announce it in Q2.

Beyond that, we have more exciting projects coming from our clients, though some details are confidential. I strongly believe that 2025 will be a great year for the industry. A lot of organizations are bullish on 2025, and they’ve been setting aside budgets for that year. There’s a lot of potential for growth, and I’m eager to see what initiatives will come forward as companies start deploying their funds.

We also anticipate some fantastic projects emerging from LightningBox, and we’ll be announcing some of them at our Corporate Innovation Day in Decentral House in Daytime. It’s going to be an exciting event, with some incredible enterprise-level announcements. I hope to see you there! It will be a great opportunity to learn more about the work we’re doing and see firsthand what’s coming next. Tally-ho! 🥳

2025-04-10 17:57

Crypto? AI? Future? 🤯 You Won’t BELIEVE This!

Sheraz Ahmed on the Ever-So-Curious Relationship Between DeFi and TradFi

The Rise of Blockchain Solutions (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Ledger)

Challenges for Traditional Institutions Adopting Crypto (Or, Why Banks Have the Jitters)

The Future of Blockchain and Finance (A Glimpse into Tomorrow, Maybe)

What to Expect From Storm Partners in the Near Future? (Excitement Abounds!)

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