Tokenize

Private credit has seen a resurgence in the past few years. Bring that together with digital assets and tokenization, we have a multi-trillion dollar market.In this episode of the Tokenize podcast, I speak with David Vatchev, head of tokenization at Fasanara Capital. We discuss David's journey into digital assets, the significance of private credit as an asset class, the tokenization process, and the evolving landscape of public and private blockchains. The conversation also touches on the role of intermediaries in tokenization and the future trends in real world assets and interoperability.

The digital assets world is entering an era where the largest economy in the world is looking to embrace this innovation.Yet, when Washington DC leads the narrative for the paradigm of a generation, it is critical that teams engage. Legal and compliance experts are no longer back office. In this episode of Tokenize, I had a fan-boy moment - with Rebecca Rettig from the Jito Foundation joining me. I have been following Rebecca's journey from a distance for years, through the Polygon/Ethereum ecosystem. I was excited when I learned that she was joining the Solana juggernaut.In this episode Rebecca and I discuss her role at Jito - the largest staking provider on Solana, her engagement with Washington DC, focus areas for the regulators within staking and beyond.Rebecca also shares how it is critical for legal and compliance experts to lead from the front in this space - 'legal are the front office'. However, all of us within digital assets look forward to times when legal can be uneventful again.Not sure that will be the case for Rebecca though! Enjoy the listen.

Mainstream adoption and institutional engagement of digital assets can only happen if these assets have certain standards that they follow on-chain.Privacy, KYC, AML and other institutional asks need to be built in at the token level to ensure issuers, investors and on-chain users can collaborate at scale. This is precisely where bodies such as the ERC 3643 Association come in.In this episode of the Tokenize podcast, I host Dennis O'Connell from the ERC 3643 Association. We discuss token standards and evangelizing standardisation across chains that are looking to support RWAs. We discuss opportunities and challenges for issuers that are looking to launch products across chains, and how standardisation could help. Dennis shares his experiences working with institutions tokenizing multi-billion dollar assets.I also ask Dennis to name 3 Blockchains that are best to launch tokenized assets - check his response.As institutions scale their on-chain presence, we need more standardization, not less.

Yes, the world is going from B2B (Business to Business) to A2A (Agent to Agent). And this was envisioned 10 years ago by Jamie Burke - the founder and Chairman of Outlier Ventures.Jamie has been a visionary within crypto and AI for several years and has led a team to create Outlier ventures, the most versatile crypto investors around. Jamie has launched a series of research efforts focused on the convergence of AI and Blockchain.The series that began in 2016 as Convergence, evolved into Convergence stack in 2018 and has become a lot more futuristic with a 2025 Avtar called Postweb.In this episode of the Tokenize podcast, Jamie and I discuss this journey, and how Postweb will bring together AI and Blockchain, to create intent economies - not just attention grabbing economies. 

Can onchain lending scale? that too when it is institution focused?With $6 Billion in total borrowing and over $700 Million in TVL (Transaction Value Locked), Maple Finance have shown it is possible to scale lending to institutions onchain.And they have managed to do it with 5% of the workforce that a credit fund of a similar size would typically need.In this episode of Tokenize, I discuss Maple's journey with Ryan O'Shea, COO at Maple Finance. We discuss everything from how Maple's journey has evolved from even before FTX happend.Maple offer products with competitive yields, and more interestingly offering fixed yields. Ryan also walks us through the risk machinery at Maple and the efficiencies they have been able to achieve through using Blockchain infrastructure.Ryan is also bullish about how retail users have embraced Maple and is keen to see how RWAs will help that journey. We would be amiss not to discuss the regulatory environment in the US and how that could potentially help with onchain lending and borrowing.Listen in for this and more from Ryan.

Real estate is the largest asset class that would benefit from tokenization. This market onchain is expected to get to $3 Trillion by 2030.In this episode of the Tokenize podcast, I talk to Dhivyan Kandaiah, Director @ Kodelab, building an FCA regulated real estate tokenization marketplace. In this episode we discuss how the RWA market has gained momentum over the last couple of years. Dhivyan gets into the details of how a property can be packaged as an NFT - yes you read it right - an NFT and users can transaction on their platform seamlessly.The platform is expected to drive liquidity, transparency and operational efficiencies to the real estate market - while being able to increase the investor base.Dhivyan double clicks into the mechanics and his learnings from the journey. Listen in.

What does it take to be one of the top 5 Crypto ETF issuers across the world? Bitwise have managed to do that for years. In a market often dominated by the likes of Blackrock and Fidelity, Bitwise have created a niche for themselves.In this episode of Tokenize podcast, Hadley Stern and I speak to Chanchal Samaddar - Head of Products and Capital Markets at Bitwise Europe.From the history of ETFs, Gold ETFs, Bitcoin ETFs and more, Chan walks us through the ups and downs of the industry and what it takes to stand tall amongst the giants. Organisations that find themselves at the convergence of crypto have a balancing act between the keeping up with the breakneck speed of innovation, while staying on the right side of regulations. Product innovation within this world comes with the same set of challenges and Chan walks us through how he strikes the balance.Listen in to hear from the pros of digital assets. 

📢 Tokenization is no longer theoretical—it’s here, and it’s transforming finance!In the latest #Tokenize Podcast, Hadley Stern and I spoke with Maredith Hannon, Head of Business Development for Digital Assets at WisdomTree. 🧠 We discussed about how tokenization unlocks liquidity, transparency, and accessibility for real-world assets like money market funds.🧠 Maredith shared how WisdomTree is bridging TradFi and DeFi through innovation. With products like WisdomTree Prime (a retail app offering tokenized assets for everyday use) and WisdomTree Connect (an institutional platform enabling T+0 settlement), they’re reimagining finance.🧠 The results? Faster settlements, yield optimization, and democratized tools that empower both retail and institutional investors to manage their assets seamlessly.🧠 WisdomTree are pioneering Tokenization with 12 tokenized funds under management.🧠 As Maredith highlighted: "Tokenization is a practical solution delivering new benefits today."🚀 Exciting times for finance—bridging technology and tradition to shape the future! Check out the episode for more insights - links in the comments

Who issued the first crypto ETF ever? Read on..When it comes to the crypto asset class, one part of the world often blindsides the entire world in the way it embraces cryptos - Latin America. Brazil being the largest economy in the region, has had several successful milestones achieved in the crypto space, because of retail demand, institutional adoption and innovation friendly policies. In this episode of Tokenize, I speak to Pedro Lapenta, Head of Research at Hashdex - the first crypto ETF issuer in the world and the largest crypto ETF issuers in Latin America.Their crypto products are accessible across 7 countries (Brazil, US, Chile, Switzerland, Germany, France and Netherlands).In this episode, Pedro also walks us through the regions pioneering efforts in making crypto more mainstream than in most other parts of the world. We also discuss the ETF products that Hashdex are working on.The only question left to be answered is 'Wen SEC approved SOL ETF?'

Coco sold from Nigeria - is that something that could benefit from going onchain? What are the benefits? Why do we need a blockchain? And why Solana?These were the questions I had for Henry Duckworth, Co-Founder of Agridex. Agridex are taking a refreshing approach to address the inefficiencies in the food supply chain. So what is the secret sauce?They are starting with facilitating quick payments for farmers. They are not trying to get everyone on the incumbent supply chain onto their platform on day 1. That is a path many have tried and failed. Instant settlements, getting robust financial services (finance, parametric insurance) for farmers as the next step, and then slowly opening the door for more supply chain participants to come onboard. Solving farmers problems has been something very close to my heart for a long time, and I truly believe Blockchain based solutions can actually do that.It was fascinating to hear Henry breakdown the problem statement and how he is approaching it. Enjoy the listen.

This is an age old question, Ethereum or Solana - which chain is better, who's got their product and ecosystem strategy right?Back in 2021, the Ethereum DeFi summer was on, and Solana was hailed as one of the contenders for the Ethereum killer narrative - not sure why one chain needs to get killed for another to shine, but hey, this is crypto.In this episode of the Tokenize podcast, I sit down with Christin Kim, VP of Research at Galaxy Digital, to discuss the topic of Ethereum vs Solana - and who's got it right. Forgive me if I come across as a Solana Maxi - I just can't help it.Post FTX, Solana did a rise from the grave and since then has clearly been the Consensus chain of this cycle - definitely with regards to price action. However, are Solana's fundamentals robust? Will it be able to scale as a monolithic chain vs Ethereum's modular approach? Will Solana's innovation hubs start decentralizing away from a few founding members? So many questions to be answered. 

To many, Crypto and Blockchain are still solutions looking for a problem. The number of Traditional Finance (TradFi) leaders moving into DeFi, however, indicates that there are global financial services challenges that Blockchain can solve.Welcome to season 2 of the Tokenize podcast, sponsored by Marinade. In this episode of Tokenize, I am joined by Hadley Stern, my co-host and the Chief Commercial Officer at Marinade. Together, we talk to Mark Richardson from Zodia Markets. Mark is the CEO of Ireland and Chief Commercial Officer at Zodia Markets.Zodia Markets are an institution-ready brokerage and trading platform for digital assets. In this episode, Mark shares his views of the digital assets market, the initiatives he is laser focused on, and how he is able to see real world opportunities even when Digital Asset capabilities are delivered on regulatory rails.

Tired of overpriced whiskey? You’re not alone. The liquor market is a murky world of information asymmetry, where prices fluctuate wildly without rhyme or reason. Enter Baxus, a revolutionary platform leveraging Solana blockchain to bring transparency and efficiency to the spirits industry. In this episode of Tokenize, I sit down with the Tzvi (Todd) Wiesel, the CEO of Baxus to uncover how tokenizing whiskey can level the playing field, making this beloved drink more accessible and affordable for everyone. Get ready to raise a glass to the future of liquor!

Many see DeFi as the future of finance, and the regulated financial industry we are in today is called as 'TradFi' by the crypto world. There are very few fortunate practitioners who play a role in bridging these two industries. In this episode of Tokenize, we speak to Sophie Bowler, Chief Compliance Officer at Zodia Custody. Sophie is certainly someone, who brings her years of experience as a compliance expert to bridge TradFi and DeFi.Zodia are backed by Standard Chartered and bring the TradFi rigour while still staying nimble and innovative like DeFi.In this episode, we discuss the key areas that DeFi needs to focus on, engaging with regulators and working collaboratively and the role of institutional custodians in bridging the gap between the two worlds.

In this episode of Tokenize, I sit down with two Blockchain OGs. Efi Pylarinou and Anton Golub, who have been involved in the Crypto space for a good part of a decade.We structured this discussion such that each of us would bring our favourite three trends and one risk we are keeping a close eye on for this space.Interestingly enough, all three of us had the same first hot trend we are excited about. And Efi stole the show with explaining why the first hot trend - BUIDL - tokenizing money markets is so significant. Anton and I ended up playing catch up with Efi's brilliance throughout the episode! Hope you enjoy listening as much as we enjoy recording this.

Yes, the approvals of the Bitcoin ETF was a major milestone for the crypto industry. But when we say Bitcoin ETF in this context, we mean the US based ETFs being approved by the SEC.But, the crypto ETF industry has had regional leaders for years now. 3iQ are pioneers within the crypto ETF industry and have been based out of Canada. In this episode of Tokenize, we have Greg Benhaim - Head of Funds at 3iQ talking to me about ETFs. Greg has the right mix of experience across traditional finance and cryptos and is quite close to the Bitcoin and Ethereum ecosystem.We talk about Ethereum ETFs and all the innovation that is happening within traditional finance to get closer to the crypto ecosystem.

I recently joined Marinade Finance, leading their institutional growth capability. When I mentioned about it to my mom, I had to explain what Marinade did - and what crypto staking was.I had to go back to retail banking. A retail bank is healthier with more depositors and deposits, and the bank offers an interest on these deposits. It is a cringeworthy comparison if you are a native crypto person though.To celebrate my new job, and to explain to my own friends and family, what I was doing there, I had to do this episode with Michael Repetny. Michael, Marinade's core contributor calls crypto staking as exercising your right in a democratic set up - on a blockchain.Did you know that if you bought a longstanding crypto like Solana or Ethereum, you could stake it and earn returns in the tokens, while also making returns as the token appreciates in value (if it does)?Michael and I get into the details of how Proof of stake works on Solana, what staking is, different variations of staking, its relevance to traditional financial services, ETFs, restaking and MEVs (towards the end).

For years the Crypto industry has suffered from reputational issues. Despite several institutions trying to get the thumbs up from the US regulators for their Bitcoin ETFs, it was only in Jan 2024 that milestone happened.Yet, there have been several European and Canadian ETFs that have had their regulators' approvals for years now. They have managed several million dollars of cryptos through their ETPs all these years.I am glad to bring James Butterfill, Head of Research at Coinshares for a discussion on ETFs on Tokenize this week. This will be the first of many ETF discussions where we expand on what ETFs are, who the key stakeholders are, how the BTC ETFs have done and what lies ahead for TradFi firms that are looking to innovate around digital assets.

It was not long ago that I was involved in the play2earn web3 gaming spacePlay2Earn founders were trying to solve a difficult problem - in fact a number of them. Onboarding gamers in millions and staying sustainable in a Play to Earn game economy. It was a struggle for startups with limited resources to take on that task. Unlike DeFi projects, gaming projects needed a number of skills from graphic designers, level designers, game strategists, economic modellers, smart contract engineers and the growth guys. There was a point in time in 2022 when I felt this was a problem for the well funded large organisations to solve.Until I met the Honeyland team I didn't have much conviction in the space. Honeyland have not only created a gaming ecosystem in the Play2Earn style, they have also launched it to a web2 audience. For a normal web2 gamer, the web3 infrastructure is hardly noticeable. In this episode of Tokenize, we move away from the TradFi world, into the world of gaming. We have Corey Wright from Honeyland. We discuss everything from building a sustainable gaming ecosystem, what went wrong in 2021 and what the learnings have been. We are just getting started, again, and this time with more hope!

What are Layer 2 Blockchains? 🎯I recently read an article describing Layer 1 and Layer 2 Blockchains. If Layer1 Blockchain was a city, L2 chains are skyscrapers. Basically, L2s offer scale where L1s are starting to max out.Despite being L2 chains, sometimes these Blockchains punch harder than the L1 they sat on.Polygon developed by Polygon Labs is certainly one of them. They have been a lot more mainstream user focused than most other Blockchains.That is demonstrated by their commitment to working with mainstream brands.By the end of 2023 they had the following brands working with them - Nike, Starbucks, Reddit, Mastercard, Adobe, Disney, Meta, Adidas, Mercedes, and Google Cloud.In this episode of Tokenize, I talk to Polygon's Global head of institutional Capital - Colin ButlerWe talk about his efforts to bring in institutional capital into the crypto space, but don't miss the part where he expands on how Polygon is thinking of tapping into cross chain liquidity.

We live in a world of tech jargons.  AI has captured the imagination of all tech geeks and futurists since the rise of ChatGPT, generative AI, LLMs, you name it.I now use ChatGPT and Bard more than Google. In this episode of Tokenize, I had the opportunity to talk to a very likeminded Digital assets guru - Nitin Gaur, the former head of digital assets at State Street.Nitin is a published author and a very modest AI expert as well. We explore the world of digital assets, tokenization, and how AI is going to add to the fun ride we are on.

I began my content journey about 8 years ago when I started blogging. In the initial days of content creation, I published over 150 articles over 3 years. However, recently I noticed that the blog site was no longer online and I lost access to all those articles. This was because a single party owned and ran the site.Content creation must be decentralized. The internet of tomorrow must not have content creators relying on centralized decision makers. Be it Twitter or LinkedIn algorithms, or Substack blogs, decentralization is the future. In this episode of Tokenize, I discuss this precise topic with Andreas Nicolos at the Access Protocol. Access is a platform that I have been using for my content recently which instigated me to reach out to Andreas on the future of decentralized content platforms.Listen into the future!

How do you stay grounded in a space filled with degens, KOLs and hype? Stablecoins is the answer.Stablecoin has been easily the most useful, yet vastly underrated innovation within the digital assets space. And in this episode of Tokenize, I am delighted to discuss the Stablecoin ecosystem with Caroline Hill, Senior Director of Global Policy and Regulatory Strategy at Circle.Circle are pioneers in the stablecoin industry and are backed by none other than Blackrock as investors.In this episode we discuss the need for regulations and controls (KYC and AML). With Caroline's international experience specialising in Financial crime, she expands on why digital assets can be better suited to address AML, Sanctions and Fin crime than the current fiat system.Listen in!

This time we get lucky to hear from a hands-on CBDC expert Conrad Kraft. Conrad is a Strategic Advisor at the Digital Euro Association, and is able to talk about Central Bank Digital Currencies from both an emerging markets and a developed world perspective.Conrad is based out of South Africa and is close to several CBDC initiatives in Africa, and by virtue of his involvement in Digital Euro and Digital Pound initiatives, can also talk about the developed part of the world.In this episode we talk about financial inclusion, CBDC initiatives across the world, and also quietly discuss about programmable money, Listen in!

Outlier ventures has been an organisation that a native web3 person can't help admiring. They have been at the heart of the development around this space through ups and downs and thrived.In this episode of Tokenize, Jasper De Maera - Head of Research at Outlier Ventures joins me to discuss digital assets in large financial service firms vs an entreprenial set up at OV, opportunities around tokenization. We couldnt also help ourselves and wandered into the wild west of Bitcoin Ordinals.. Listen in, share and subscribe..

In this episode of Tokenize, I speak to one of my favourite teams in the land of tokenized real world assets. Kellan Grenier and Trevor Bacon formerly part of the hedge fund industry in New York, talk about their journey with Parcl, their startup. I am perhaps misleading you when I say Parcl are 'Tokenizing' real estate. Technically they are not. They have spent the last two years to gather real estate data sources to fuel the Parcl real estate trading platform. Users can now long London and short New York City on Parcl.Their data engine is superior to anything else out there even in mainstream financial services. Imagine being the data hub for a $300 Trillion residential real estate market that the world can trade on - that's the vision!And the best thing - they are on the Solana Blockchain. Listen in to the episode to hear it from the experts.

In this episode of Tokenize, I am joined by Nick Ducoff, the Head of Institutional growth at the Solana foundation. If you have been following the crypto/web3 market you would know that Solana was one of the hardest hit ecosystems by the FTX collapse.Yet, the blockchain was built on sound architectural principles, had a strong culture and a rallying community. Therefore, the Solana ecosystem recovered from the abyss in some style.But, what does that have to do with institutions? Solana have recently launched Solana Permissioned Environments (SPE) focused on institutions looking to tap the technology in a private setup. In this episode, Nick elaborates the benefits of the SPE in some detail.Listen in!

In this episode of the Tokenize podcast, I had the opportunity to talk to Oi Yee Choo, the CEO of Addx. Oi Yee is a former banker, and has been pioneering efforts at Addx in tokenizing private equity and other capital market instruments.In this episode Oi Yee talks about how the process of tokenizing asset classes like private equity can drive financial inclusion, better pricing and more liquidity. We also discuss what mainstream banks and the regulators are focusing on within this space.

In this episode of Tokenize, I talk to Ari Redbord, the Global head of Policy at TRM labs. TRM labs are an Onchain analytics firm funded by Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Visa, Citi, PayPal, Block, Initialized Capital, Tiger Global, Bessemer, and Y Combinator.Previous to joining TRM labs, Ari was a prosecutor. In this episode, he shares his legal expertise with us in relevance to the digital assets space. We do a quick tour of the regulatory landscape across the world and particularly in the US. We also discuss the infamous SBF/FTX trials - so listen in! 

In this (first) episode of the Tokenize podcast, I speak to my dear friend Richard Turrin, whom I have followed and learnt from over the years.Richard has been an authority in Fintech, particularly within emerging markets and has seen the rise of China's cashless revolution by virtue of living and providing live coverage of the leapfrog moment. He has published two books, 'Cashless' and 'Innovation Lab Excellence'.In this episode of Tokenize, Richard simplifies Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) and the implications for the developed and developing world. We touch upon regulations, and more importantly, Richard makes an exciting announcement. Enjoy the listen!