By Rashad Kurbanov, CEO & Co-Founder, Corastone
Last week, I had the privilege of joining more than 500 leaders from across the private markets ecosystem – wealth managers, general partners, administrators and more – at IPAVision 2025, one of the alternatives industry’s leading events.
It was an energizing gathering centered on one of the issues we at Corastone care most about: building a smarter infrastructure for private markets. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to contribute to a panel on digital assets and blockchain – titled “Digital Assets in Alternative Investments: Exploring Bitcoin, Stablecoins, and Blockchain Technology.”
While the conversation was mostly crypto-focused, a broader theme came through loud and clear: before the industry can embrace new products and innovations, we must first fix the plumbing. Connectivity, transparency and efficiency are prerequisites to growth. By turning private investment vehicles into digital securities, Corastone is helping to facilitate this transformation in one of the fastest-growing arenas of the wealth management channel.
Beyond my own panel, the rest of the program was highly educational – a unique opportunity to hear how today’s most innovative firms are pursuing opportunities in the private markets. A few takeaways that stood out to me:
- Connectivity and transparency are table stakes. Many speakers emphasized that we can’t layer innovation on top of fragile infrastructure. Without seamless connections between GPs, wealth managers and administrators, and without visibility into the investment lifecycle, operational bottlenecks will continue to hold the market back.
- Model portfolios may transform distribution. The idea that private funds should be “bought, not sold” resonated throughout the event. Packaging alternatives into models could normalize their use in portfolios and create more systematic demand – if the operational foundation exists to support it.
- Rebalances take far too long. Today, rebalancing can take as long as two months. That lag creates information gaps and undermines confidence. Solving for faster, standardized data flows is essential if private markets are to feel as seamless as public markets.
- Margin pressures are real. GPs are working to offer more funds at lower minimums, while expanding distribution teams. Without modern infrastructure, these pressures will only intensify, forcing tradeoffs that could limit access.
- Data and reporting remain a major pain point. The bespoke information flows between GPs and wealth managers create unnecessary administrative burden on both sides. Streamlining these processes with shared data standards would free capacity and reduce costs across the value chain.
To me, the encouraging sign is that blockchain and DLT are now being discussed less as speculative tools and more as practical solutions for infrastructure. The industry seems ready to move past the crypto headlines and focus on what really matters: fixing the foundation so the private markets can scale with confidence.
That is exactly the problem Corastone was built to solve. By replacing manual workflows with straight-through processing, and by enabling participants to connect once and access all, we help firms eliminate friction and prepare for the hyperscale future of alternatives. We look forward to tracking the evolution of these topics at future industry events.