Financial giants are bullish on digital assets, but they seek stability and reliability through compliance before they actually commit to mass adoption | Credit: nyker/Shutterstock
For all the talk of mass adoption in digital assets, institutions have yet to arrive in any meaningful way, according to a statement by an expert and crypto OG in an exclusive interview with Euro Weekly News.
In the final parts of our conversation, Artur Gulinski, COO of Zekret, who also spoke to us about layer three and how it’s used for regulatory compliance, said the issue is not interest in crypto, it is infrastructure.
“Everyone since 2020 has been talking about mass adoption,” he says. “Another 50 million retail users does not equal mass adoption. If institutions come in, they bring people with them. But they can’t come unless they can report.”
Gulinski believes institutions want to use blockchain technology but are blocked by regulatory uncertainty and operational risk. “They don’t want to be caught holding illicit funds. They don’t want to be part of a system that can’t be audited.”
This is where Zekret positions itself. As a Layer 3 compliance plugin, it enables clean entry into any Layer 1 or Layer 2 blockchain by filtering users and funds before they ever touch the chain.
Screening, KYC, KYB and ZK ID are built in. “From day one, we track, screen, and trace,” he says. “If your funds are dirty, they don’t come in.”
Gulinski points to a range of challenges that traditional institutions face when approaching blockchain. First among them is the lack of reversibility.
“In traditional finance, if a bank makes a mistake, it can reverse the transfer. In blockchain, once it’s done, it’s done. That alone prevents banks from fully committing.”
He sees payroll as another critical use case. “Global companies spend millions on bank fees just to move money around. One firm I looked at pays three and a half million dollars a year just in transaction costs. Blockchain can reduce that to a few hundred.”
But again, reporting is the bottleneck. “They can’t move to blockchain because they can’t track where the money goes. They don’t know what’s coming in or out, and regulators will not accept that.”
Stablecoins and OTC buys are not enough. “People say institutions are already here. They’re not. Buying Bitcoin OTC or launching a stablecoin is not adoption. That’s toe-dipping. Real adoption is building infrastructure. They’re not doing that yet.”
Gulinski says clean capital is non-negotiable for institutions. They must be able to show that every wallet and token they interact with has passed through verified checks.
“The legacy chains are full of illicit money. You can’t erase that. Zekret starts clean. That’s why institutions are interested.”
He describes conversations with banks and regulators who want to engage but lack technical pathways.
“They don’t want to build compliance from scratch. They want someone else to do it and offer them a tool. Zekret is that tool. It’s not about hype. It’s about trust.”
Even expectations around returns are changing.
“VCs used to want a 10x in six months. That’s not how institutions think. They want stability. They want to be part of something sustainable. If we offer that, they’ll come.”
This is where Zekret apparently can help. It positions itself as something else entirely, a Layer 3 compliance layer designed to plug into existing Layer 1 and Layer 2 ecosystems.
“Everyone was calling it Layer Zero at the start,” he says. “Chain-agnostic, above the rest. But that didn’t fit. It’s not below or above. It’s something different.”
Layer 1 refers to base blockchains such as Ethereum or Avalanche. Layer 2 solutions sit on top of those chains, offering faster or cheaper transactions. Layer 3, as Gulinski defines it, is a protocol-level plugin focused specifically on regulatory compliance.
“It’s not a chain. It’s not a validator. It’s a filter,” he says. “You plug us in, and everything going through that chain gets scanned, screened, and verified.”
Once connected, Zekret acts as a compliance gatekeeper. Every new user and every inflow of capital is filtered through its system. KYC and KYB processes are triggered. ZK IDs are issued. Funds are screened for illicit origins. Only clean, verified interactions pass through.
“From that point onwards, they are compliant,” says Gulinski. “We don’t replace the chain. We enable it.”
The idea came from the complexity of global regulation. Most projects aim to scale, to go international. But doing so means complying with a patchwork of rules across dozens of jurisdictions.
“How is a startup supposed to understand regulations in the US, the EU, Dubai, Hong Kong, all at once?” he says. “You’d need a hundred-thousand-dollar compliance department. Or you use a plugin.” That plugin is Zekret’s Layer 3.
For developers, this means faster market access. For institutions, it means a clear line of sight into who and what is interacting with the chain.
“It creates clean rails,” says Gulinski. “No need to worry about who’s on the other side of the transaction. If they made it through the filter, they’re legitimate.”
The Layer 3 model is still new. Most attention remains on Layer 2 solutions like rollups or sidechains. But Gulinski believes that scalability alone is no longer enough.
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