Rebank: Fintech Analysis

Steven Venino is a Partner at Strobe, an early-stage, crypto-native venture firm focused on backing founders building long-term, sustainable businesses on blockchain rails. Formerly BlockTower Venture Capital, Strobe was spun out by Steven and his partners in 2024, bringing with it the same fund, portfolio, and investor base — and a renewed focus on disciplined venture investing in digital assets. Steven began his career in traditional finance, with experience across hedge funds and public markets, before moving into crypto during its early institutionalization. At BlockTower, he helped build and deploy a multi-year venture strategy spanning DeFi, real-world assets, consumer crypto, and on-chain financial infrastructure, with an emphasis on ownership, thoughtful token design, and long-term value creation. At Strobe, Steven focuses on leading and co-leading seed investments in companies that often look more like Web2 startups on the surface, but use blockchain infrastructure to unlock new capabilities under the hood. His work centers on applying proven venture frameworks — from portfolio construction to founder support — to a market that has historically been driven by short time horizons and speculative incentives. Operating at the intersection of traditional venture discipline and crypto-native innovation, Steven brings a pragmatic, long-term perspective on token design, capital formation, and what it will take for crypto businesses to mature beyond hype into enduring companies. Please enjoy the following insights from Steven Venino of Strobe.

Nick Cherney is Head of Innovation at Janus Henderson Investors, a global asset manager overseeing more than $400 billion in assets. With over two decades of experience in ETFs and investment product development, Nick has been deeply involved in some of the most important structural shifts in modern asset management. Nick began his career in the early days of ETFs at iShares, where he helped build the category inside what would later become BlackRock. He later founded VelocityShares in 2010, developing specialized exchange-traded products for institutional traders and hedge funds across volatility, commodities, and structured strategies. Today at Janus Henderson, Nick focuses on how blockchain and tokenization intersect with traditional asset management. His work centers on practical adoption — identifying where on-chain infrastructure can deliver real, incremental value, both through tokenized funds serving DeFi-native demand and blockchain-based efficiencies embedded within traditional investment products. Operating at the intersection of ETFs, institutional finance, and on-chain markets, Nick brings a pragmatic perspective on how tokenization can scale — and what it will take for on-chain finance to move beyond experimentation into meaningful adoption. Please enjoy the following insights from Nick Cherney of Janus Henderson.

Niklas Kunkel is the Founder and CEO of Chronicle Labs, a leading oracle infrastructure provider securing both decentralized finance and the rapidly growing market for tokenized real-world assets. Formerly a core contributor at MakerDAO, Niklas helped architect the original DAI stablecoin system — designing the first generation of Ethereum oracles and building foundational infrastructure long before DeFi existed as an industry. Today at Chronicle, Niklas focuses on the critical problem of connecting off-chain financial data to on-chain markets with the reliability, security, and transparency required by institutions. His team provides oracle infrastructure for tokenized money market funds, private credit, stablecoins, and next-generation financial products issued by firms like BlackRock, Apollo, Janus Henderson, and Superstate. Operating at the intersection of blockchain, data security, and institutional asset management, Niklas brings a rare perspective across both crypto-native and traditional financial systems. His work is helping define how tokenized assets are priced, monitored, and integrated into automated on-chain markets — and why robust oracle infrastructure is becoming core to the future of tokenized finance. Please enjoy the following insights from Niklas Kunkel of Chronicle Labs.

Thomas Cowan is the Head of Tokenization at Galaxy, a crypto-focused merchant bank bridging traditional finance and on-chain markets. Based in New York, he leads tokenization within Galaxy's investment banking arm, where his team focuses on structuring and placing tokenized products — from money market funds to on-chain debt and securitized credit. At Galaxy, Thomas works at the intersection of institutional capital and blockchain infrastructure, helping traditional financial institutions explore how blockchain can deliver faster settlement, greater transparency, and more efficient secondary markets for complex products like CLOs and other structured debt. His perspective spans both TradFi and crypto-native markets, giving him a front-row seat to how tokenization is evolving from technology experiment to core market infrastructure. Please enjoy the following insights from Thomas Cowan of Galaxy.

Tanner Taddeo is the Co-Founder and CEO of Stable Sea, a company building the infrastructure layer for stablecoin-powered cross-border payments. Stable Sea connects U.S. and emerging market businesses through stablecoin rails, enabling faster, cheaper, and more transparent international transactions. Before founding Stable Sea, Tanner led product and strategy initiatives at Plaid and Block, where he helped build core financial infrastructure powering next-generation fintech applications. His experience spans financial inclusion, enterprise payments, and Web3 infrastructure — positioning him at the intersection of traditional finance and on-chain innovation. Please enjoy the following insights from Tanner Taddeo.

Nikhil Raghuveera is the Co-Founder and CEO of Predicate, a company building on-chain policy infrastructure that enables organizations to set programmable, enforceable rules for transactions within blockchain-based financial systems. Predicate's technology underpins compliance and policy enforcement for next-generation stablecoins, privacy protocols, and real-world asset tokenization platforms. Before founding Predicate, Nikhil was Head of Strategy and Innovation at Celo, where he led many of the blockchain's early Web3 deployments and helped shape its evolution from a Layer 1 to Layer 2 network. He has also been a Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council, focused on digital asset policy and the future of global financial systems. Earlier in his career, Nikhil worked in economic and management consulting, including at BCG, advising on securities, antitrust, and financial innovation. Bridging deep technical expertise with a sophisticated understanding of regulation and markets, Nikhil is helping define how institutions and fintechs operate on-chain as blockchain becomes a global financial settlement layer. Please enjoy the following insights from Nikhil Raghuveera.

Matt Homer is the Founder and General Partner of The Venture Dept., a venture capital firm investing at the intersection of fintech, digital assets, and regulation, with a particular focus on stablecoins and stablecoin infrastructure. Before founding The Venture Dept., Matt was a regulator at the FDIC and then the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), where he helped design and oversee some of the earliest digital asset frameworks in the U.S. He later joined Nyca Partners, a leading fintech venture firm, where he developed its digital asset investment strategy. Matt also serves on the boards of Gemini and Standard Custody (acquired by Ripple), bringing a unique blend of regulatory insight, fintech experience, and early-stage investing to one of the most rapidly evolving sectors in finance. Please enjoy the following insights from Matt Homer.

Will Peck is the Head of Digital Assets at WisdomTree, a $130 billion asset manager and ETF sponsor and a pioneer in tokenized assets. Over his 11-year tenure at WisdomTree, Will has helped the firm navigate the evolution from ETFs to tokenized assets, stablecoins, and on-chain investment infrastructure. WisdomTree is at the forefront of innovation, applying lessons from ETFs—transparency, liquidity, tax efficiency, and standardization—to build scalable, accessible tokenized products for both institutional and retail investors. With ongoing regulatory developments and growing adoption of digital assets, WisdomTree is well positioned to expand its tokenized ecosystem.

Raghu Yarlagadda is the Co-founder and CEO of FalconX, the leading institutional digital asset prime brokerage. In the last year, FalconX has done $1 trillion in trading volume across spot and derivatives. FalconX is an incredible success story, starting early and growing alongside broader institutional adoption of crypto and digital assets. With current regulatory tailwinds, the company is extremely well positioned to accelerate growth even further. FalconX has raised nearly $500m, most recently at an $8 billion valuation, from investors including Accel, GIC, B Capital, Altimeter, Thoma Bravo, Tiger Global, Lightspeed, Wellington and many more. Please enjoy today's conversation with Raghu Yarlagadda.

Today we're joined by Bhaji Illuminati and Jürgen Blumberg. Bhaji is CEO of Centrifuge, one of the original players in the RWA space. Jürgen is a former Goldman ETF exec and, as of recently, COO of Centrifuge and CIO of Anemoy, it's asset management arm. In this conversation, Bhaji, Jürgen and Will Beeson dive into the evolution of investment management toward an on-chain markets future. We discuss the early growth of the tokenized financial asset market, similarities with the early days of ETFs, current on-chain investment capital pools and investor demands, the interplay between stablecoin growth and tokenized assets, use cases and distribution strategies for assets across the risk curve, the relationship between DeFi and TradFi, future market expectations, and much more.

Chris Yin is the co-founder and CEO of Plume, a crypto-native RWA blockchain. Real-world assets, RWAs for short, are financial assets implemented in token form. Alongside stablecoins, these assets are at the heart of the transition of financial markets onto upgraded settlement rails in the form of blockchains. Chris brings an interesting perspective to the RWA conversation. Whereas some firms, including BlackRock and Franklin Templeton, are focused on building institutional-grade offerings that mirror traditional financial products, Plume takes a different approach. Pointing to the success of crypto-native markets, Plume's ecosystem bridges speculative retail users and experiences with yield from traditional financial assets, on the premise that crypto energy is the source of the demand that will pull finance on-chain. In this conversation, Chris and Will Beeson discuss the state of the RWA market, what's real and what's hype, the importance of crypto-native users, why there are multiple successful approaches to bringing finance on-chain, and what it takes to build and scale a thriving RWA ecosystem.

Sandy Kaul is the Executive Vice President and Head of Innovation at Franklin Templeton, the OG global asset manager when it comes to tokenization and digital assets. In this conversation, we dive into the newly passed GENIUS Act and what it means for stablecoins, banks, and the future of cash. We explore Franklin Templeton's journey launching BENJI, their tokenized money market fund, way back in 2019, long before most firms were paying attention to digital assets. We also dig into Sandy's views on consumer accounts, payments, and investments in an on-chain world.

Kirill Gertman is the founder and CEO of Conduit, a leading B2B cross-border payments platform powered by stablecoins. Conduit leverages stablecoins to allow businesses to move money faster, cheaper and more transparently than legacy platforms such as SWIFT. In 2024, Conduit grew transaction volumes 16x year-on-year, surpassing $10 billion in total volume. In May 2025, Conduit raised a $36 million Series A, co-led by Dragonfly and Altos. In this conversation, Kirill and Will Beeson discuss the true economics of stablecoin versus traditional payments, when stablecoin payments make sense, and when they don't, how corporates use stablecoin payments alongside traditional payments in practice, what needs to change for stablecoin payments companies to win more use cases, how the stablecoin issuance market will evolve post GENIUS, and much more.

In this episode, we're joined by Luke Voiles, the CEO of Pipe — an embedded finance platform offering credit, cards, and other financial products to a range of B2B2B partners. Founded as a revenue-based financing business, Pipe pivoted into a platform business under Luke's directly when he took the reigns in 2023. Prior to joining Pipe, Luke was the GM of Banking at Square and previously head of QuickBooks Capital, Intuit's SMB lending offering. Luke has nearly 10 years of embedded finance experience, especially in lending, and has shaped Pipe's offering based on his extensive learnings. In this conversation, Luke and I discuss what makes a good embedded finance offering, the opportunities and challenges in credit, including the economics, cyclicality and risk management considerations, Pipe's distribution strategy, scaling a fintech platform business internationally and much more.

Mark Garabedian is the Director of Digital Assets and Tokenization at Wellington, a leading US-based, global asset manager with approximately $1.3 trillion in AUM. Mark has wide ranging experience in trading and financial markets and brings a highly informed perspective to the topic of financial market innovation through digital assets and blockchain. I find Mark's views to be particularly valuable, because they skew heavily toward the practical, as opposed to the theoretical, informed by decades of hands-on markets experience. In this conversation, Mark and Will Beeson discuss the transformational benefits of digital assets and tokenization in investments and markets, step function improvements DeFi has delivered and the implications for traditional finance, the specific projects Mark and Wellington are working on today, the path that Wellington, a nearly 100-year-old asset manager, has taken so far on its digital asset journey, and much more.

Alex Gluchowski is the co-inventor of ZKsync and co-founder and CEO of Matter Labs. ZKsync is an advanced Ethereum Layer 2 blockchain network offering privacy and scalability using zk proofs. In this conversation, Alex and Will Beeson discuss the benefits of zk technology for financial use cases, architectural considerations in building blockchain networks for complex industries like finance, optimal infrastructure for tokenized financial assets and workflows, ZKsync's trustless network + shared liquidity vision and more.

Kevin Miao is one of the most insightful practitioners at the intersection of traditional and on-chain finance. Until recently, Kevin was General Partner of BlockTower Credit, a $1.9 billion AUM private credit fund that leveraged public blockchains, stablecoins, and tokenization to maximize capital efficiency. Prior to BlockTower, Kevin managed a Structured Credit trading desk at Citigroup, focusing on consumer credit, esoterics, and distressed crisis-era securitizations. Currently, Kevin leads growth at Steakhouse Financial, a DeFi-native advisory and technology business that helps manage the biggest DAOs in web3. In this conversation, Kevin and I explore the theory and practice of running an on-chain credit fund, the benefits and challenges versus the traditional model, current limitations in on-chain investment management, and potential paths to upgrading finance with blockchain rails.

Steven Goldfeder is the Co-Founder and CEO of Offchain Labs, the company behind Arbitrum, one of the leading blockchains.  Arbitrum's flagship blockchain, Arbitrum One, is a leading Ethereum L2 in terms of TVL and liquidity and supports applications across DeFi, DePIN, AI, gaming, RWAs and other verticals.  In this conversation, Steven and I discuss Arbitrum's origins, the use cases that have driven its success so far, and expectations for Arbitrum's role in the transition of regulated financial activity onto blockchain rails.

Laszlo Szabo is the CEO and Co-Founder of Kiln, a staking infrastructure provider backed by 1kx, Crypto.com, Wintermute, GSR, Kraken Ventures, Consensys and others. Diana Biggs is a partner at 1kx, a crypto VC that has led rounds in companies including Arweave, Pudgy Penguins, Rarible, Wallet Connect and many more. In this conversation, Laszlo, Diana and Will Beeson break down the staking opportunity and Kiln's view of the space and also use it as a jumping off point to explore 1kx's investment strategy. Specifically, we discuss staking as a crypto primitive, its potential to supercharge consumer and institutional crypto use cases, the investment thesis behind staking infrastructure, technical considerations and more.

Luca Prosperi is the founder and CEO of M^0, a stablecoin issuance protocol reimagining how money is created. We first connected with Luca in May 2023, shortly after M^0's seed round. Fast forward a year, and the company has now raised $60 million, launched on mainnet and facilitated the issuance of over $40 million in stablecoins with its initial network participant. In this conversation, Luca and Will Beeson discuss his vision for a new money creation paradigm, institutional product/market fit in stablecoins, why crypto finance is different from blockchain for banks, overcoming the cold start problem in stablecoin distribution and network creation, the direct parallels between traditional finance and the use cases M^0 is building and more.