GDF Today

GDF is an association of member firms who convene to deliver an annual programme of advocacy and standards in crypto and digital assets across global industry. The association is funded annually by member firms’ fees (subscribers) and annual programme priorities are established through member and community surveys, and calibrated with the GDF Advisory Council, the member-led advising body in the association.

GDF’s mission is: “To promote and underpin the greater adoption of market standards for the use of crypto and digital assets, through the development of best practices and governance standards in a shared engagement forum with industry, policymakers and regulators.”

Many of the GDF forums and working groups are open to non-members, especially those on digital innovation, thought leadership and industry standards. This is to help ensure that the best firms in the world can contribute to the quality of the outcomes and outputs of these initiatives. In addition, GDF provides a network with other industry associations by forging strategic partnerships with them and thus provides more of an open innovation community for digital finance.

Policy and regulatory working groups are member-only working groups. However, GDF often collaborates with other industry associations on consultation responses. These working groups cover the world’s major jurisdictions with technical work and regulatory outreach and roundtables. Jurisdictional working groups include: the US, the UK, Europe, the Middle East, and APAC.

The GDF Regulator-Only Forum is a quarterly forum that convenes major jurisdictional agencies and central banks with a discretionary invite going out to over 60 global and jurisdictional agencies. The agenda includes an agency presentation and is followed by a tour de table where regulators update on public work. GDF aligns industry priorities with agency priorities in presentations and updates seeking greater alignment between industry and agencies.