Over the last five years, Frederik Gregaard has found himself wearing more hats than ever.

Since joining the Cardano Foundation as CEO in 2020, Gregaard says he’s engaged with crypto exchanges to manage various Cardano integrations, assist with the rollout of a new node for the $18 billion blockchain, and even speak with other fund issuers to get Cardano’s native token, ADA ($0.51), wrapped in a spot exchange-traded fund.

But has there been any meaningful movement on the ETF front? Is the foundation looking to launch an ETF in the next year?

“Yes,” Gregaard told DL News on the sidelines of the Cardano Summit in Berlin on Thursday.

“Some of the announcements around ETFs in the US are actually exchange-traded products that are managed as an ETF. But, yes, we are looking at that and working on that.”

What is the Cardano Foundation?

When Gregaard took over the Cardano Foundation, the non-profit organisation that stewards the eponymous blockchain, he said there was very little in place to steer the entity.

“There was no ten-year strategy or even one-year strategy,” he said. “There were 30 people, and those 30 people were doing a good job, but if they’re not running in the same direction, they don’t make a massive impact.”

That’s changed.

Over 100 individuals now work at the foundation, says Gregaard, under an official mandate written by the Cardano founders, including Charles Hoskinson.

He also noted that a laundry list of corporate clients are experimenting with the blockchain in one form or another, including German car manufacturer BMW and the media outlet Saturn.

The foundation had over $5.6 billion in ADA tokens at launch to continue boosting the use of the blockchain.

Last year, that included some eclectic spending, such as roughly $15 million spent on blockchain-based ballistic identification systems and tracking solutions for NASA.

Gregaard also boasted about various microfinance platforms built on Cardano that are cropping up in Africa.

It’s a scattershot approach.

But the Danish ex-banker assured that there’s a method to the madness.

‘Killing machines’

All emerging technologies, says Gregaard, are quickly weaponised.

“There’s going to be massive use cases for drones in the future,” he said. “Right now, it’s mainly a killing machine. The same goes for artificial intelligence, DNA cutting, and blockchain. You name it.”

And so the task of the Cardano Foundation, the ecosystem’s enterprise advocate Emurgo and the development firm IOHK, is to try and limit the downsides as much as possible.

“What can we do to ensure that Cardano is seen as a force of good for people and institutions all around the world,” he said. “Not just in the developed countries, for the next 10 years and the 10 years to come.”

And that includes landing an ETF in the near future.

“It ticks some boxes which we need to tick.”

Liam Kelly is DL News’ Berlin-based DeFi correspondent. Have a tip? Get in touch at liam@dlnews.com.