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.