Introducing the Open Cap Table Protocol | Thibauld Favre (Fairmint) at ETHConf

Sun, Aug 2, 2026, 12:00 AM

In this talk, Thibauld Favre, CTO and co-founder of Fairmint, introduces the Open Cap Table Protocol and argues why the private market, not the public one, is where onchain equity infrastructure will win. He opens on how the new administration reshuffled the deal for crypto by opening the floodgates for asset tokenization, and Wall Street heard the message loud and clear, with the DTCC and market participants now scrambling to tokenize everything. As a 16 year crypto veteran, he asks whether all that work is being co-opted by Wall Street to build faster horses, and answers no. Everything Wall Street tokenizes today is public equity, which works because of an old, complex mainframe based infrastructure centered on the DTCC monopoly for post trade operations. That system works (you click a button on Robinhood and the trade settles despite nine intermediaries), so the low hanging fruit is simply adding another layer to sell US securities offshore, which changes nothing fundamental. Thibauld argues the real wedge is the private market, which is exploding as staying private grows more attractive: secondaries now rival IPO proceeds, there are over a thousand unicorns globally, and more than $4 trillion in private valuation. Yet the private market has almost no infrastructure, running on lawyers, PDFs, Excel sheets, and databases, with lawyers as the expensive glue. This is the opportunity, since private shares are restricted with transfer rules, ownership structures are complex and layered with SPVs, privacy is table stakes, and intermediaries are all offchain. Fairmint's seven years taught them that issuing equity tokens on chain is useless if the source of truth stays offchain, so the solution is putting the cap table itself on chain. The Open Cap Table Protocol turns cap tables into programmable smart contracts, and Fairmint became one of the first SEC registered transfer agents in 2023 to support it. Crucially it is not a new standard but an onchain extension of the existing Open Cap Table Format from the coalition of top securities law firms, making it compatible with the industry from day one while delivering self custody, programmability, instant settlement, automated compliance, borderless markets, traceability, and composability as regulated DeFi. Over $1.5 billion of equity is already on chain, and he frames the endgame as making IPOs great by letting everyone trade directly on the cap table, enabling new use cases like companies keeping direct connection with shareholders or trading equity directly on their own websites. 00:00 Introduction 00:11 The World Changed a Year Ago 00:46 Wall Street Rushing to Tokenize Everything 01:16 Was 16 Years of Crypto Co-Opted? 01:44 Why Wall Street Only Tokenizes Public Equity 02:15 Why the DTCC Infrastructure Works 02:41 The Low Hanging Fruit of Selling Offshore 02:56 Why We Need a Better, Simpler Infrastructure 03:16 The Private Market Is Exploding 03:44 Over $4 Trillion in Private Valuation 04:13 The Broken Infrastructure of Private Markets 04:42 Why Private Shares Are Harder Than Public 05:16 Why Issuing Tokens Alone Created More Complexity 05:33 Putting the Cap Table On Chain 06:06 The Open Cap Table Protocol 06:40 Not a New Standard: Building on the Existing Format 07:05 The Open Cap Table Coalition of Law Firms 07:38 Compatible With the Industry From Day One 08:04 Why It Is Regulated DeFi 08:29 Over $1.5 Billion of Equity On Chain 08:50 The Endgame: Making IPOs Great 09:33 Simplifying Trading Directly on the Cap Table 09:56 The Airbnb Shareholder Connection Anecdote 10:48 Trading on Brokerage or Directly on Your Website 11:12 How to Join and Build on the Protocol 11:31 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 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _