Jan van Eck stands out at the Bitcoin 2022 conference – surrounded by throngs of uber-bullish bitcoin faithful in Miami, the chief executive of the VanEck fund firm strikes a more cautious tone.

“This whole separate ecosystem is developing,” he says of crypto in an interview with Financial News on the sidelines of the conference. “And it is not allowed to be ported into the traditional financial system – your brokerage account and the stock exchanges and stuff like that. So in a way, the old world would just get left behind if digital assets continue to develop.”