# What It Takes to Bring Institutional Finance On-Chain | Masa 'Senshi' Kikuchi at Pragma Tokyo 2026

- Channel: [ETHGlobal](https://streameth.org/ethglobal)
- Date: 2026-10-26
- Duration: 19:39
- Topics: ETHGlobal, Pragma Tokyo 2026, Pragma Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan, 2026, Masa Senshi Kikuchi, Secured Finance, JGB, Japanese government bonds, JGB repo market, onchain repo, repo market, institutional finance, onchain finance, Ethereum, tokenized bonds, tokenized money market fund, UBS, DeFi, TradFi, delivery versus payment, DVP, settlement, clearing, custody, collateral, financial infrastructure, privacy, permissioned blockchain, book entry system, smart contracts, regulatory compliance, Science & Technology
- Watch: https://streameth.org/watch/yt-LxDeFxBe2s4
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxDeFxBe2s4

## Description

Masa “Senshi” Kikuchi, Founder and CEO of Secured Finance, shares lessons from Japan’s JGB onchain repo working group. He compares the fragmented clearing, custody, execution, settlement, and reconciliation functions of traditional finance with DeFi’s integrated protocol stack. Using Secured Finance’s integration of UBS’s tokenized money market fund on Ethereum, he examines two models for Japanese government bonds: a custodial wrapper and a native book-entry asset that preserves the bond’s existing legal nature on a distributed ledger.

The talk focuses on the operational boundary between blockchains and established financial infrastructure. Execution venues, custodians, legal agreements, approvals, credit lines, balance sheets, privacy controls, and back-office workflows must all fit the shared ledger. Kikuchi argues that builders should define the legal asset, locate hidden settlement and liquidity costs, map participant responsibilities, and design permissioned visibility from the start. Code, legal rights, and institutional workflows must agree before onchain finance can scale.

00:00 Introduction and JGB Repo Working Group
01:07 Mapping TradFi Functions to DeFi
02:31 The Full Financial Protocol Lifecycle
03:08 UBS Tokenized Fund on Ethereum
04:15 What Is an Onchain Japanese Bond?
04:36 Wrapper Versus Native Book-Entry Models
06:39 Responsibilities Around a Repo Trade
07:30 Operations Approval Before Settlement
08:20 Where Blockchain Fits Institutional Markets
09:31 Connecting Existing Execution Venues
10:10 Credit, Liquidity, and Balance Sheets
11:16 Finding Hidden Settlement Costs
12:19 Delivery Versus Payment Economics
13:00 Privacy as Institutional Information Control
14:17 Permissioned Visibility for Ethereum
15:07 Reusing Legal Agreements and Data Models
17:25 Five Questions Before Building
19:10 Asset, Constraints, Boundaries, and Control

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🇯🇵 *Pragma Tokyo 2026*
Pragma Tokyo 2026 was held on September 25th at the Toranomon Hills Forum in Tokyo, Japan and was an in-person summit for builders and leaders in the web3 ecosystem. Watch the full Pragma Tokyo 2026 YouTube Playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLT7ZDw43Z98U

ETHGlobal's Pragma series takes place in cities around the world, and is designed to be a different kind of event. Pragma is a one-stage conference with founders-only on stage, bringing together a small group of curated attendees and speakers to discuss the future of web3 and reflect on the past. 

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✅ Follow Masa 'Senshi' Kikuchi
X: https://x.com/masa_web3

✅ Follow Secured Finance
X: https://x.com/Secured_Fi

✅ Follow ETHGlobal
X: https://x.com/ETHGlobal​
Warpcast: https://warpcast.com/ethglobal
Website: https://ethglobal.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@UCfF9ZO8Ug4xk_AJd4aeT5HA 

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