More institutions are looking to invest in crypto, says NEAR Foundation CEO

Cointelegraph’s Joseph Hall interviewed Marieke Flament, the CEO of NEAR Foundation at the Paris Blockchain Week Sumit (PWBS) last week, discussing a range of topics such as the struggle by institutional investors to understand how they can participate in the crypto space.

Hall and Flament talked about how institutional investors are trying to learn about crypto to understand how they can enter the market. According to Flament, as more Web2 companies get into Web3, other institutional players are forced to think about what these events mean for their businesses.

“We are seeing a very strong appetite from institutional investors to understand the space, to understand where they can participate.”

Flament also noted that regulation will play a very significant role in the decision-making of institutional investors. Because of this, the NEAR Foundation CEO highlighted that one of the firm’s priorities is how they can help spearhead regulation for the crypto ecosystem. Flament explained that:

“We need to be more coordinated in having a voice for the industry and ultimately coming together with regulators.”

The NEAR executive believes that the intent of regulators to protect consumers and businesses is a very valid point, and she notes that the intentions of those in the crypto space are similar.

When asked what she is most excited about in the industry, Flament expressed that she is very inspired by decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). Flament mentioned that as the “way we live our lives is just completely shifting,” DAOs will “reinvent how we participate into projects that matter to us.”

Sharing DAO use cases, Flament explained how SailGP, a sailing competition, partnered with NEAR to let fans own a team through a DAO. Apart from this, the NEAR executive also shared how their Unchained Fund DAO helped raised funds for Ukraine.