Episode 4: Around the Block with VanEck’s Gabor Gurbacs. Creation, regulation, adoption & growth of DeFi
03/11/2022
Welcome to another recap from Around the Block. In episode 4, host Dave Uhryniak, Director of Blockchain Strategy at TRON DAO, has a conversation with Gabor Gurbacs, Founder and Director of Digital Assets Strategy at VanEck, about the creation, regulation, adoption, and growth of DeFi.
Gabor is a pioneer in the digital assets space. He is a leading voice in digital asset investing and market structure discussions with the U.S. and global regulators vital to the evolution of the first industry-standard digital assets indices.
In this episode streamed on March 11, 2022, Dave kicked off the discussion about how Gabor’s role as a Digital Asset Strategist is relatively new in the industry. Dave also asked Gabor about how VanEck is starting a gold mining and crypto mining fund. An interesting concept about putting the two together. Gabor explained that VanEck manages the most significant gold mining funds globally, and when investing in technologies, one should invest in the “picks and shovels.” He said in the gold space, it was miners and producers, and in the crypto and blockchain space, it’s the crypto mining companies that are building new technologies in the industry. So, he combined those two ideas to expose the pervasive clientele interested in investing in what they call “new digital gold” in the crypto space.
“We believe that crypto mining is one of those industry funds that gives you specific access to a growing industry,” Gabor said. “The crypto mining industry and, in general, the crypto industry itself will grow.”
Dave then asked Gabor how TRON became an investor in VanEck. Gabor stated how he remembers meeting H.E. Justin Sun when TRON first launched and how enthusiastic Justin was to focus on Asia and South America and solve issues around blockchain scaling. So, Gabor structured a fund around it because it was an exciting protocol.
TRON has had amazing growth in the APAC region overall, and now it aims to become more known in the U.S. Gabor feels there’s a lot of growth that could come in a regulated way for TRON.
Speaking of regulation, Dave mentioned how President Joe Biden came out with an executive order regarding DeFi and crypto regulations. Dave asked how Gabor aims to approach a more regulated environment. Gabor believes that it can be a positive action for the industry because there are already a lot of rules in place. He said it brings more focus to the crypto space, allowing people to focus on the right things. Gabor said governments and regulators increasingly realize that we all need to align in order to build in the space strategically.
Gabor also added that’s where he believes Justin has done a great job working with the work-trade organizations, some of the largest decision-makers in the world, to push adoption in a way that many others can’t. Gabor is interested to see the next set of countries adopting blockchains, TRON, BitTorrent, digital assets, and Bitcoin, to push their strategic needs.
Gabor concluded by adding he would not be surprised if, in the next five to 10 years, central banks will increasingly start using cryptocurrency and crypto-assets on their balance sheet. He said smaller countries might drive this at first, but Gabor thinks G20 countries will also consider adoption in time.
Thank you for reading this short recap of another great episode of Around the Block. We look forward to bringing you another episode soon with our team, engaging experts, and conversations.