Fireside Chat with Shiliang Tang and Ayesha Kiani (Monarq Asset Management) at ETHConf

Sun, Aug 2, 2026, 12:00 AM

In this fireside chat, Ayesha Kiani interviews her boss Shiliang Tang of Monarq Asset Management, after seven years working together, on all things markets and Ethereum. They open on how Ethereum has quietly become the settlement layer enabling 24/7 global markets. Shiliang draws a key distinction between trading and settlement: forex markets already trade 24/7, but settlement still depends on traditional banking, SWIFT messages, and windows that take one to two days, whereas Ethereum settlement is instant and final by definition. In practice this means trillions of dollars in stablecoin transfers annually, anyone worldwide accessing markets 24/7, and tokenized collateral becoming fungible and transferable on a Saturday, unlocking capital efficiency. On institutional interest in tokenizing real world assets, money market funds, treasuries, and private credit, Shiliang ranks the drivers as settlement first, then programmability and composability, then 24/7 trading, pending regulatory clarity from the Clarity Act. He highlights the underappreciated repo market (trillions of dollars at the foundation of capital markets, central to the 2008 crisis and the 2019 repo rate spike) as a huge opportunity, since instant movement of good collateral solves the bottleneck of collateral not reaching margin calls fast enough. He discusses CME, NYSE, and others moving to 24/7 amid a mix of public and private chains, the winners (global retail) and losers (settlement and margin-calculation industries built around market open and close), and how AI and agentic trading could level the playing field for retail. He argues traditional features like circuit breakers and FCMs are not bugs but hard-won guardrails crypto is now learning it needs after events like October 10th and leverage looping hacks, envisioning a blend where guardrails live in trading while settlement goes on-chain. On regulation, he describes perimeter enforcement: regulating the edges (stablecoin issuers as narrow banks, custodians, prime brokers, on- and off-ramps, whitelisted wallets) rather than permissionless protocols themselves. He names the repo market and non-US-dollar stablecoins as the liquid products he most wants on Ethereum, argues Ethereum should dominate settlement even as payments and trading fragment to faster chains, and closes hoping the community moves past its price fixation toward use cases, like a mature commodity that cycles up and down rather than only up. 00:00 Introduction 00:50 What 24/7 Global Markets Look Like in Practice 01:15 Trading vs Settlement: The Key Distinction 01:54 Trillions in Stablecoin Transfers 02:39 What Is Driving Institutional Interest 03:17 Why the Clarity Act Would Unlock Participation 03:37 Ranking the Drivers: Settlement First 03:55 The Underappreciated Repo Market Opportunity 04:40 How Collateral Bottlenecks Cause Crises 05:12 Composability and Instant Collateral Movement 05:41 Is TradFi Moving to 24/7 Markets 06:19 A Mix of Public and Private Blockchains 06:48 The Winners and Losers of 24/7 Markets 07:28 How AI Trading Levels the Playing Field for Retail 08:11 Liquidations at 3 AM on a Sunday 08:47 Why Traditional Guardrails Are Features, Not Bugs 09:29 What Crypto Is Learning From TradFi 10:04 Blending Guardrails With On-Chain Settlement 11:09 Educating Senators on DeFi 11:37 How Regulators Approach Permissionless Networks 12:10 Regulating the Edges: Issuers and Custodians 12:49 How to Regulate a Protocol With No Central Entity 13:13 Perimeter Enforcement Like the Internet 13:53 Regulating Whitelisted Wallets and Tokenized Assets 14:26 Will Ethereum Stay Dominant or Fragment 14:45 One Liquid Markets Product to See on Ethereum 15:11 Why the Repo Market Is the Answer 15:40 The Case for Non-Dollar Stablecoins 16:11 Why Ethereum Dominates DeFi 16:48 Why Ethereum Should Focus on Settlement 17:23 Closing Thoughts on the Next Cycle 17:52 Why the Industry Fixates Too Much on Price 18:30 Ethereum as a Mature Commodity With Cycles 19:18 Closing _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ *ETHConf 2026* ETHConf is a 3 day event for founders, industry leaders, and builders who are excited about the possibilities of building on top of Ethereum. Connect with 2,000+ top innovators in crypto, finance, technology, and policy at our inaugural three-day event packed with showcases, demos, partnerships, and conversations shaping the future of the global economy. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ✅ *Follow ETHConf* X: https://x.com/ethconf Website: https://ethconf.com _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 🎟️ Get your early bird tickets for ETHConf 2027: https://ethconf.com/2027#tickets 🎤 View the full ETHConf 2026 Speaker Schedule: https://ethconf.com/schedule _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _