Nick Philpott, the Co-founder of Zodia Markets, a digital asset trading firm backed by significant financial institutions like Standard Chartered, has expressed a provocative viewpoint on regulatory clarity. At the Nordic Blockchain Association event on June 17, 2025, he remarked, “Most regulations can be summarized as simply don’t lie, don’t cheat, and don’t steal.”

“Saying that you need to wait for the regulator to say ‘yes, you can do this or that’ means you’ll have no innovation at all,” emphasized Philpott.

While discussing stablecoins, he asserted, “Stablecoins are definitionally cross-border.” He also articulated concerns regarding Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA), indicating, “One of my biggest concerns around MiCA is that there are definitely traces of protectionism in there, trying to put the walls up.” He noted that such barriers could hinder potential opportunities in a globalizing economy.

Philpott provided an analogy for his view on stablecoins:

“The way I think about things like USDC or Tether particularly, is that they’re Eurodollars… Tether is issued by an El Salvadorian company. It’s not issued out of the US. So, it is international by design.”

The EU’s “Victim of Its Own Success”

He mentioned that Zodia Markets primarily deals with stablecoins tied to the US dollar rather than Euro stablecoins, highlighting how the Turkish Lira stablecoin sees significantly more volume due to the challenges in settling currency exchanges.

Cash Operations and Interoperability

Philpott criticized cash operations, calling them “slow, unpredictable and expensive” and proposing the necessity for greater interoperability in payment systems, particularly for cross-border trade.

“If we ran email the same way we run cross-border payments, you wouldn’t be able to send an email after 5 PM,” he noted, arguing for modernization in financial infrastructure.

Stablecoins Aid in Reducing Trade Friction

He also pointed out that stablecoins alleviate many pain points in transactions, especially highlighting their utility in remittance operations and cross-border shipping logistics.

Philpott believes that technological advancements will catalyze the digitization of payments, urging the industry to move forward without being stifled by regulatory delays.