Bermuda’s size may limit scale, but its clear regulatory framework gives it a competitive edge in the fast-moving world of digital finance, according to industry leaders speaking yesterday at the opening of the 2025 Digital Finance Forum.

Dante Disparte is the chief strategy officer at Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin at the forum and the first company to be licensed under Bermuda’s Digital Asset Business Act.

“We tried for many years to figure out what was the right product category that we could domicile in Bermuda that would claim Bermuda's strengths,” Mr Disparte said.

Mr Disparte praised Bermuda's hands-on regulatory approach. He pointed to how local regulators added safeguards to Circle’s institutional yield product: “Bermudian regulators said, ‘We’re going to put circuit breakers on that product such that if market conditions fail, the product would then trigger those circuit breakers so that people don’t lose money.’ Nowhere in the world would [there be] a regulator quite like that,” he said.

Carika Weldon, the founder of CariGenetics, also shared her experience navigating innovation from a small-island jurisdiction. Her company uses blockchain to give customers ownership of their genetic data through a unique “DNA bolt”.

“When anyone gets a test with us, they can opt to have that bolt, and we put your DNA data in that bolt,” Dr Weldon explained during the Beyond Finance: Decentralised Transformation in AI, Identity and Healthcare panel. She said the system ensures users can one day benefit from the value of their genetic data. “Our policy is that when we make money, we share a portion with you in that bolt.”

She added that users have expressed relief that their data will remain in Bermuda and not be sent to a company abroad, unlike other genetic testing companies.

While both leaders acknowledged that Bermuda’s small size presents infrastructure and scaling challenges, they agreed that the island’s clear regulatory structure offers a competitive edge over countries such as the US.

“The United States is alone in the whole world in not having a federal framework for this innovation,” Mr Disparte said. “Although the asset and the currency that is winning is the US dollar.”