Where Markets Meet: Sellside Perspectives on Turning Opportunity into Action

At Talos's Institutional Day 2025 during Token2049 in Singapore, we convened a panel of leading sellside voices to examine what it takes to build and scale digital asset platforms in Asia. Moderated by Pamela Lee, Head of Sales APAC at Talos, the discussion brought together:

• Nichel Gaba, Founder & CEO, PDAX (Philippines)
• Atthakrit Chimplapibul (Khun K), Co-Founder & CEO, Bitkub (Thailand)
• Charmaine Tam, Head of OTC, Hex Trust (Hong Kong)

The conversation focused on demand trends, regulatory environments, and the infrastructure required to support institutional-grade platforms across Asia.

View the discussion

Where market demand is emerging

Retail and consumer-driven demand (Philippines):

• Strong interest in stablecoins driven by remittances and offshore earnings
• Need for access to tokenized financial products, such as treasuries

Mainstream adoption (Thailand):

• Growth of RWAs including tokenized government bonds and carbon credits
• Rising focus on regulated stablecoins

Institutional demand (Hong Kong and global):

• ETFs becoming the cleanest entry point for asset managers
• Stablecoin frameworks pulling more institutions into the market
• Tokenization expected to expand liquidity for traditionally illiquid assets

How regulation shapes what institutions can build

• Regulation reacts to market demand, not the other way around; tokenized treasuries emerged after industry-driven lobbying.
• Clarity enables innovation ‒ in Thailand it has unlocked OTC, payments and even a pathway to IPO for Bitkub.
• Uneven enforcement remains an issue ‒ licensed players bear heavier obligations than unlicensed competitors.
• Institutional adoption depends on structural certainty ‒ unclear custody or settlement regimes remain roadblocks.

What matters most

Scalability

• Growing user bases require scalable KYC, monitoring tools and standardized APIs.

Security & custody

• Exchanges are shifting to institutional-grade cold storage and third-party custodians.

Liquidity access

• Liquidity is fragmented; aggregation and smart order routing (via Talos) help platforms tap deeper, executable liquidity.
• Regional platforms must balance local currency flows with global USD liquidity.

Post-trade expectations

• Institutions want near–TradFi standards: robust reporting, reconciliation, best execution and market surveillance.

What will power the next wave

• Tokenized real assets
• Regulatory momentum and national-level initiatives
• Global political catalysts combined with tokenization

Across the panel, the message was consistent: digital assets are moving quickly from niche offerings to regulated, scalable financial infrastructure across Asia.