ARK Invest director of research Lorenzo Valente has pushed back against a16z crypto’s argument that traditional finance will favor permissioned blockchain infrastructure over decentralized finance. The disagreement centers on how tokenized markets will be built as banks, asset managers and crypto-native firms compete for control of future settlement rails.
Valente argued on X that public blockchains have already produced stronger results than private blockchain experiments. He pointed to tokenized assets on Ethereum and other open networks as evidence that open infrastructure is gaining traction in areas once expected to be dominated by closed institutional systems.
I think @a16zcrypto is top notch out there but this is overly bearish and simplistic imo. Let me strawman the counterargument here.
Let's start with the historical analogies. The article invokes enterprise firewalls, private intranets, private cloud, FedRAMP etc to argue… https://t.co/dYB6STJsr1
— Lorenzo Valente (@LorenzoARK) July 15, 2026
Public Rails Challenge Institutional Gatekeeping
The debate goes beyond whether financial institutions adopt blockchain technology. The deeper question is whether adoption will preserve familiar gatekeepers or shift activity toward networks where access, settlement and asset movement are less dependent on private infrastructure.
a16z crypto has argued that banks and asset managers are more likely to adopt systems that fit existing compliance and governance models. In that view, institutions will use tokenization, atomic settlement and programmable workflows while keeping activity inside permissioned environments.
Valente’s response points to a more open version of financial infrastructure. He suggested that crypto-native firms such as Circle and Coinbase may be better positioned than incumbent institutions to build the next layer of market rails.
Tokenized Finance Splits Around Control
The disagreement highlights a structural divide in crypto’s institutional phase. Support for blockchain adoption does not automatically mean support for decentralization, especially when custody, compliance and governance requirements enter the discussion.
Permissioned systems can offer clearer institutional controls, but they also risk recreating closed financial networks with new technical architecture. Public blockchains offer broader access and composability, but institutions may still demand stronger oversight before moving critical workflows on-chain.
That tension makes “on-chain finance” a contested category. Tokenized assets can exist on public networks, private ledgers or hybrid systems, with each model distributing control differently between issuers, users and infrastructure operators.
Valente’s pushback reinforces the case for public blockchains as serious financial infrastructure, not just speculative trading venues. The next test will be whether tokenized assets, stablecoin settlement and institutional applications continue migrating toward open networks or remain concentrated inside permissioned stacks.
Emma Lawson writes about the pressure points where crypto meets the outside world: regulation, exchanges, macro policy, tokenized assets and geopolitical risk. From the US, she follows the decisions and events that can change how capital moves, how platforms operate and how digital assets are treated by institutions.
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