Navigating Decentralized Finance: From Blockchain to Crypto Assets and Tokenization

Navigating Decentralized Finance – From Blockchain to Crypto Assets and Tokenization provides a comprehensive, structured approach to understanding how blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT) are reshaping the financial ecosystem. Combining foundational knowledge with advanced analysis, this textbook bridges complex concepts with clarity, offering an indispensable resource for students, scholars, and industry professionals.

Beginning with the technological underpinnings of DLT, the text examines critical milestones and innovations driving decentralization in finance. It systematically explores prominent crypto assets, smart contracts, tokenization, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), stablecoins, nonfubigle tokens (NFTs), and some of the underlying regulatory frameworks. Readers gain a nuanced understanding of the decentralizede Finance (DeFi) landscape, supported by practical case studies and balanced insights into how traditional financial institutions are adapting to these disruptive technologies - and how regulators are responding across different jurisdictions.

• Connects blockchain technology with financial applications, highlighting its financing and investment opportunities.
• Contains more than 120 unique illustrations and examples to contextualize concepts and deepen understanding.
• Adopts a global, interdisciplinary perspective, incorporating technical, business, finance, IT, legal, regulation, and strategy aspects.
• Includes an instructor website with a complete set of lecture slides supporting undergraduate, graduate, certificate and professional course faculty.

Pascal Egloff is a professor at the University of Applied Sciences of Eastern Switzerland (OST) in St.Gallen and heads the university’s Banking and Finance Competence Center. His work focuses on applied research and consulting projects, and he teaches in bachelor’s and master’s programs. He is also a regular speaker and panelist. His areas of expertise include blockchain, digital assets, impact finance, and banking innovations. He is co-author of the textbooks «Blockchain für die Praxis» and «Blockchain in der Finanzwelt», and he has published widely on topics related to blockchain and finance. Additionally, he is a member of the board of directors of a Swiss wealth management firm.

Ernesto Turnes has been a lecturer since 2006 and professor of Banking and Finance since 2012 at the University of Applied Sciences of Eastern Switzerland (OST) in St.Gallen, where he headed the Centre of Competence for Banking and Finance from 2012 to 2022. He has been head of the new Institute for Finance and Law (IFL) since 2023. In addition to teaching in the area of education and training, as well as numerous lectures and external seminars, he leads research and service projects at banks and asset managers. He is co-author of the textbooks «Unternehmensbewertung und Aktienanalyse», «Blockchain für die Praxis» and «Blockchain in der Finanzwelt». His areas of expertise include asset management, valuation of financial instruments and crypto/digital assets. Ernesto Turnes was Chairman of the Board of Directors of a Swiss asset management boutique for ten years and is a member of the Investment Committee of the Board of Trustees of a large Swiss pension fund.

Stefan Neumann is a lecturer in the Competence Center Banking and Finance at the Institute for Finance and Law. He specializes in digital assets and compliance issues. He has over 20 years of experience in banking, where he has held senior management positions and worked on various strategic projects in Switzerland and abroad. His focus was on compliance, anti-money laundering and most recently compliance risk & controls. Prior to this, he worked for global Big-5 consulting firms in Germany and Switzerland. Stefan holds a Master degree in Industrial Engineering and a PhD from the Technical University of Karlsruhe, Germany.