“The future will be hybrid,” explains Guido Rocco, COO of RIV Capital. “Algorithms, tokens, and blockchain are rewriting the rules of trust in markets.”
Translation of an article published in BeBeez Magazine no. 36 of November 1st, 2025
by Stefania Peveraro
Decentralized finance is destined to coexist increasingly closely with traditional finance, in a convergence that until a few years ago seemed unthinkable. This is the vision of Guido Rocco, chief operating officer of RIV Capital, for whom “DeFi and CeFi are no longer two opposing worlds, but two sides of the same evolution: technology is simply rewriting the way trust is managed in financial markets.”
“Decentralized finance,” explains Rocco in the first episode of the Digital Finance Files by RIV series produced by BeBeez TV in collaboration with RIV Capital, “is based on protocols that eliminate intermediaries and use blockchain to validate transactions without the need for a third party. Essentially, what has been done so far in the world of centralized finance can be replicated with technology, only in a more transparent and automatic manner.” While in the traditional model, every transaction passes through banks and central banks, which supervise the flows, in DeFi “this control function is replaced by a network of nodes located around the world that collaborate to validate transactions according to a shared algorithm. The algorithms run on servers, and trust is no longer provided by an authority, but by the code itself.”
Rocco recalls that DeFi was born in open opposition to centralized finance: Bitcoin was born precisely to combat that world”. But today we’re witnessing a phase of convergence. “More and more traditional institutions are embracing cryptocurrencies and digital assets. The system is finding a new balance where decentralization and supervision can coexist.”
According to the RIV manager, blockchain has followed the typical “hype cycle” described by Gartner. “There was a phase of enthusiasm where people thought everything could be decentralized, then came disillusionment, and finally maturity. Today we know that blockchain is useful, but for specific use cases, especially in finance.” Among these, Rocco cites the development of ETFs on cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, “products that bridge the traditional and decentralized worlds and demonstrate the main advantage of DeFi: the possibility of achieving higher average returns than traditional finance.”
RIV Capital has built its strategy on this convergence. “We believe in the integration of DeFi and CeFi and are working to become the leading player,” says Rocco. “We do this on three levels: investment, infrastructure, and product.” On the investment front, RIV develops crypto-based trading algorithms; on the infrastructure front, “we are building RIVChain, a quantum-resistant blockchain, immune to quantum computers, the latest generation of processors capable of breaking current cryptographic systems.”
Finally, there’s the product dimension, with RIVCoin, “an innovative token backed by reserves invested partly in traditional financial assets, bonds and equities, and partly in cryptocurrencies.”
But RIVCoin, Rocco emphasizes, “is just one example of what we can build: our technology allows us to tokenize any financial instrument or real asset, from real estate to a work of art or a luxury watch. It means transforming illiquid assets into tokens, splitting them up, and making them accessible even to those who cannot invest in large amounts.”
Among the most immediate advantages of blockchain, Rocco cites the speed of transfers. “We’re used to settlements taking three business days; on blockchain, settlement is almost immediate. This radically changes the way liquidity moves.”
Looking to the future, Rocco identifies three main use cases in the short term (ETFs, tokenization, and payment speed), but leaves open the prospect of a much broader evolution. “In the long term, everything will depend on how the technology evolves, how players interact, and how much end users adopt blockchain-based applications. Our ambition,” he concludes, “is to offer comprehensive tools: infrastructure, tokens, investments. Currently, there are no players capable of doing all this. This is where RIV Capital wants to position itself.”
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