Jorgen Ouaknine
Global Head of Innovation and Digital Assets, Euroclear
Jorgen Ouaknine argues that tokenised markets will still rely on trusted, neutral intermediaries such as Euroclear, and that adoption will come gradually and through partnership rather than in a big bang.
Why the room needs them.
Jorgen Ouaknine is Euroclear's Global Head of Innovation and Digital Assets and spoke in two firesides at Proof of Talk Paris 2026. He previously chaired the board of the Canton Network's governance foundation, now the Canton Foundation, and remains one of its board members.
The full account.
Jorgen Ouaknine, whose name is also written Jørgen, is Global Head of Innovation and Digital Assets at Euroclear, the financial market infrastructure group. A press release issued by Digital Asset on 15 January 2026 and a Chainlink Today report published on 5 May 2026 both give that title; earlier coverage, including a December 2023 Chainlink Today feature, rendered it as Group Head of Innovation and Digital Assets.
According to his biography on the Canton Foundation's website, he held senior roles in international retail banking before joining Euroclear, focusing on mergers and acquisitions, bank restructuring and digital innovation. He was chief executive of two BNP Paribas subsidiaries in Morocco, the mobile wallet platform DIGIFI and the digital factory DIGISERV, where the same biography says he led the development of a business-to-consumer ecosystem. France's national register of doctoral theses records his 2008 law thesis at the University of Nice, on syndicated credit.
In the December 2023 feature he described Euroclear's "safe and gradual innovation approach" and its D-FMI platform, an on-chain bond issuance platform designed to work with the group's existing systems. In January 2026 he commented for Euroclear as it joined a Canton Network working group that completed cross-border intraday repo transactions using tokenised deposits. In May 2026 he appeared on CoinDesk Live during HederaCon 2026 with Colin Cunningham of Chainlink Labs.
A Linux Foundation press release of 19 March 2025 identified him as chairperson of the Global Synchronizer Foundation, the Canton Network's governance foundation, which renamed itself the Canton Foundation in September 2025. A Fairmint announcement of 16 December 2025 quoted him as the foundation's Chair of the Board. Its board page, as captured in September 2026, lists him as a board member and names another director as chair.
At Proof of Talk Paris 2026 he spoke in two firesides on the Hecto Main Stage. On 2 June, Jacquelyn Melinek moderated "Building Canton: A Conversation with the Foundation Board"; on 3 June, Gareth Jenkinson moderated "Building DLT Infrastructure for Next Generation Capital Markets".
In a November 2025 interview he argued that people "still want intermediaries" because intermediaries such as Euroclear provide trust and neutrality, and that adoption will come without "a big bang", with old and new infrastructure running in parallel through the transition.
What Jorgen believes about the next ten years.
Years of shipping.
Lines that keep proving correct.
“People still want intermediaries with us in the middle because we provide trust and neutrality.”
“Now it's about partnerships and partnerships for a specific reason – we want to scale.”
“We innovate to bring safety, efficiency, and connection, but safety is the first word.”
What they have built, written, and backed.
Built
- DIGIFI and DIGISERVTwo BNP Paribas subsidiaries in Morocco, a mobile wallet platform and a digital factory, which Ouaknine ran as chief executive and where he led the development of a business-to-consumer ecosystem, according to his Canton Foundation biography.
- D-FMIEuroclear's on-chain bond issuance platform, designed to work with the group's existing systems, which Ouaknine presented in December 2023 as "bringing together the best of both worlds" (Chainlink Today, 21 December 2023).
The next Proof of Talk is in Abu Dhabi.
Louvre Abu Dhabi, 3–4 December 2026. Admission is by application, and the room is capped at 2,000.
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