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
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