Europe’s Post-Trade Problem: A conversation with Matthias Voelkel [EN]

In the first episode of Inside Digital Assets, host Lidia Kurt (CEO of BX Digital and Seturion) speaks with Dr Matthias Voelkel, CEO of Boerse Stuttgart Group, about the future of European capital market infrastructure. They start by discussing a key issue: Europe’s capital markets are highly fragmented, shaped by national silos and complex post-trade structures. Matthias explains how this fragmentation drives higher costs, slower settlement cycles, and barriers to cross-border activity, which ultimately affecting investors. They discuss why DLT opens a real window of opportunity for change, and what it would take to move toward a more open, pan-European settlement layer. A key point: trading can remain off-chain and largely unchanged, while post-trade settlement (delivery-versus-payment) becomes more efficient using either traditional central-bank payment rails or digital cash options such as stablecoins. In this episode: - Why Europe’s capital markets are fragmented and what that means in practice. - Post-trade and settlement today, including the role of national CSD structures. - DLT as an enabler for a more integrated European market infrastructure. - Seturion’s operating model: settlement layer, cash options, trading off-chain, optional issuance. - A realistic view of how capital markets could evolve over the next 5-10 years. Inside Digital Assets is a joint project by BX Digital and Seturion. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe and share it with others.