Wall Street may not be crazy about bitcoin, but it is intrigued by its use of blockchain technology.
Today, private equity transactions that use leveraged buyouts financed with debt can take 20 to 30 days to close and settle, said James Disney, Credit Suisse's global head of software investment banking. With blockchain technology, he said, that could take only a matter of minutes.
"If you add up all of our volume over the quarter, that's hundreds of billions of dollars we're able to free up and take out of the system to use for other purposes," he told CNBC's "Fast Money" on Tuesday.
Disney likened bitcoin to email. Bitcoin is the first "killer" blockchain technology app, just like email was the first "killer" internet app. He only expects innovation to continue.
Credit Suisse has run experiments using blockchain technology in other parts of the business, he said.
"I think the sky's the limit, really," he said. "We're in the very, very early stages here."