Rubix Unlocked

The Translation Layer - Renée Berman, Industry Partner, Motive PartnersRenée Berman has spent her career inside the machinery of US capital markets and now works on moving it on-chain. She was COO for equity derivatives at Credit Suisse, ran Capital Market Strategy at Broadridge, and was a Managing Director in digital asset strategy at DTCC, which clears and settles almost every trade in America. She is now an Industry Partner at Motive Partners, working with the portfolio on digital asset strategy and with the VC arm on where to deploy.Renée sets out the three routes the SEC has approved for tokenising an equity and why she thinks all three survive: the derivative model built by Robinhood, Kraken and Ondo for investors overseas who cannot easily get exposure to US stocks; native issuance through a digital transfer agent, advocated by Superstate and Securitize with Computershare now entering; and the entitlement model DTC is building, where the security moves into a control account and a token is minted into the participant's wallet.On digital money, her read is that stablecoins have found genuine product-market fit in remittances and cross-border payments, and that the GENIUS Act rules being written now open the door to issuer-led stablecoins from large corporates paying suppliers overseas.We also cover why collateral mobility is the use case institutions actually care about, where a firm starts when it cannot rip out fifty years of technology, and the risk frameworks that have to exist before a regulator or a risk committee signs anything off.Renée is writing Motive Partners' white paper on blockchain and agentic AI. She sets out what that looks like applied to collateral: an optimisation tool instructing an agent, securities moving instantly by smart contract because the underlying assets are already tokenised, no human in the loop.The second half covers her career from Bain and Bridgespan through Credit Suisse, Broadridge and DTCC, what each side of the TradFi and Web3 divide gets wrong about the other, what earns a yes from Motive, and a quickfire round that includes the best hire she ever made, who was not on the shortlist she was handed.CHAPTERS00:00 Introduction00:38 Tokenisation as rails. Crypto, stablecoins and tokenised RWAs, and where each stands04:22 The three routes the SEC has approved for tokenising an equity08:17 DTC's tokenisation service, the chains, and collateral mobility10:35 Where an institution starts, and the risk frameworks behind it13:42 Blockchain and agentic AI: the Motive Partners white paper16:07 Career: Bain, Bridgespan, the foundations, Credit Suisse, Broadridge, DTCC18:40 The seat between TradFi and Web320:14 What Motive looks for before backing a founder21:02 Quickfire round24:00 Where to find RenéeRESOURCESBuilding the Digital Asset Securities Ecosystem - DTCC, Clearstream and Euroclear with BCG, introducing the Digital Asset Securities Control Principles: https://www.dtcc.com/-/media/DASCPWhitePaper.pdfRisk Mitigation Framework - GBBC and Oliver Wyman: https://www.gbbc.io/news/risk-mitigation-frameworkRenée Berman on LinkedInABOUT THE GUESTRenée Berman is an Industry Partner at Motive Partners. Previously Managing Director in digital asset strategy at DTCC, Capital Market Strategy at Broadridge, and COO for equity derivatives at Credit Suisse. Earlier at Bain, Goldman Sachs Foundation and JP Morgan.

For the latest Rubix Unlocked I sat down with Jean-Baptiste Graftieaux, who runs Coinbase's European business from Luxembourg. He ran EMEA compliance at PayPal, then in 2014 left to help build Bitstamp into Europe's first regulated crypto company.MiCA's transition period ended this month, and any firm still operating in Europe without a licence now has to stop.His take on regulation is one I'd push most founders on. He doesn't see a licence as a cost or a constraint. It's what lets you sell to institutional clients in the first place, and the firms that treated compliance as something imposed on them are getting caught out now. There are still 200-plus MiCA applications sitting in the queue across Europe. He doesn't think most of them get through, and expects real consolidation on the back of it.On hiring, when JB brings people in now, on top of the usual experience he wants two things: people who genuinely follow the crypto market, and people already using AI in how they work day to day. He was clear that second one is increasingly what separates candidates.Worth a listen if you're building out a digital assets leadership team this year.

Most people assume the Chief of Staff role belongs to someone from strategy or consulting. Rachel Ramsay came from People and HR — and it turned out to be exactly the right preparation.In this episode of Rubix Unlocked, Sachin Doshi sits down with Rachel Ramsay, Chief of Staff at BCB Group, to unpack what the CoS role actually demands, how influence works without formal authority, and why the people lens belongs at the centre of every strategic decision — not the edge of it.They also get into what BCB Group are building: a regulated payments infrastructure business that moved over $250 billion through their BLINC instant settlements network in 2025, serving 400+ clients across the UK, Europe, South Africa and beyond.This episode covers: — The unconventional path from HR and People to Chief of Staff — Driving accountability without formal authority — Why OKRs fail — and what actually works instead — The talent profile BCB looks for at the intersection of TradFi and digital assets — What it signals when a business decides it needs a CoS — Scaling culture across multiple geographies simultaneouslyThis isn't a crypto story. It's a leadership and payments infrastructure story.The Operator Behind the Operator — with Rachel Ramsay, Chief of Staff, BCB Group.

In this episode, Jürgen Blumberg, COO at Centrifuge and CIO at Anemoy, discusses his transition from traditional finance to DeFi, the potential of tokenization, and the convergence of DeFi and TradFi. He also shares insights on leadership, technology, and the challenges of being an early mover in the industry.TakeawaysTokenization's potential to reshape financeThe importance of hiring people who are better than oneselfOn-chain capital currently represents roughly 2% of traditional finance — which means the growth story is almost entirely still aheadThe regulatory journey in tokenisation is moving from exploration to implementation — and the jurisdictions that move first will attract the assets.Chapters00:00 Transition from Traditional Finance to DeFi07:09 Comparing ETF Landscape and Tokenization18:14 On-Chain Index Fund vs. Traditional ETF31:04 Building a Diverse Team39:02 Leadership and Early Stage Challenges44:14 Quick Fire Round