DECENTRALIZED FUTURES Implications for Financial InstitutionsTABLE OF CONTENTS OUR DECENTRALIZED FUTURES TAXONOMY CENTRAL BANK DIGITAL CURRENCY DIGITAL ASSETS AND TOKENS CRYPTOCURRENCIES AND PAYMENTS DECENTRALIZED FINANCE (D eFi) NON-FUNGIBLE TOKENS (NFT s) AND THE METAVERSE WEB 3.0 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 21 22 NAVIGATING DECENTRALIZED FUTURES IN CONCLUSION OUR EXPERTS 2 Navigating Decentralized FuturesOVERVIEW OUR DECENTRALIZED FUTURES TAXONOMY Blockchain, also commonly known as distributed ledger technology (DLT), has been around since 2009, creating market buzz and inciting widely divergent opinions since the inception of bitcoin. In its early years, adoption of DLT in ?nancial services was low due to regulatory and privacy concerns, technology nascency, and complex consortia economic models. During the past 12 months or more, however, the ?nancial industry has embraced blockchain for various use cases, including most notably central bank digital currencies, digital assets and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and the beginnings of Web 3.0: ? Central Banking Digital Currencies (CBDC): Nine out of 10 central banks are experimenting with digital versions of ?at cu