KuCoin EU's Sabina Liu: A TradFi Veteran's Reality Check on Tokenization

In this episode of Bitcoin.com News Interviews, Alex Richardson sits down with Sabina Liu, Managing Director at KuCoin EU, at Paris Blockchain Week 2026. Liu, a former 14-year veteran of the London Stock Exchange, shares her transition from traditional finance to crypto, emphasizing blockchain’s transformative infrastructure and the intellectual and commercial promise of digital assets. She discusses MICA (Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation) as a pivotal European framework enabling compliant, cross-border operations across 30 EEA countries. Liu explains how KuCoin EU operates as a broker under MICA—connecting clients to multiple exchanges and issuers—rather than running a traditional order book exchange. She highlights Europe’s growing role in real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, particularly in stablecoins and U.S. Treasuries, while cautioning that tokenization alone doesn’t guarantee liquidity or demand. The conversation explores the need to identify real pain points in traditional finance that tokenization can solve, with potential future growth in areas like tokenized stocks, commodities, and fixed income. Liu also previews KuCoin’s expansion into real-world use cases through products like the KuCard and partnerships with events like Tomorrowland, aiming to embed crypto into daily life through seamless fiat-crypto payments. Despite regulatory and infrastructural hurdles, she envisions a future where digital assets become part of everyday transactions. Key takeaways include: tokenization must solve real inefficiencies in traditional finance, not just be a novelty; MICA provides a critical compliance foundation for European expansion; KuCoin EU’s broker model enables broader access to global markets; real-world adoption hinges on solving distribution, demand, and regulatory alignment; and the next major tokenized asset class remains uncertain but likely to follow stablecoins and Treasuries. The episode underscores a pragmatic, long-term vision for crypto integration into mainstream finance, grounded in regulation, customer needs, and infrastructure.