MoneyNeverSleeps

Bring the Funders to the Founders | Derek O'Doherty | West x West [EP. 326]

Pete Townsend is joined by Derek O'Doherty, founder of West x West, the two-day tech, venture and culture festival in Castlebar, Mayo that brings Irish founders together with global investors. Derek spent thirty years in capital markets across London, Sydney and New York, and until last week a year inside Enterprise Ireland building international VC relationships for scaling companies. They get into why the Irish economy isn't big enough to carry a founder from pre-seed to Series B on home capital alone, the VC pecking order that sends founders abroad to raise, why Irish founders outside the US are second only to Israel in the share who raise capital, and why Derek left a state agency to build a festival that brings the funders to the founders instead. Plus the Nik Milanović super-connector path, why he's rooting it all in the West rather than Dublin, and what's on at WXW this October. Connect with Derek: https://www.linkedin.com/in/derek-o-doherty-91669530/ More on West x West: https://westxwest.ie/ https://www.instagram.com/westxwest.ie/ Listen and subscribe: https://open.spotify.com/show/4F8uOLxiscYVWVGEfNxTnd Chapters 0:00 Cold open 0:11 Intro and welcome 0:47 Why Irish founders hit a wall on home capital 1:22 The VC pecking order 3:11 The pre-seed funding reality 5:06 Bringing the capital to the market 6:13 Why leave Enterprise Ireland now 7:57 Why a festival, not a fund 9:16 Community and the super connector 10:18 Event details and lineup 11:42 Close Sharp riffs, big ideas and real insights from smart people, all in under 15 minutes. Hosted by early-stage investor Pete Townsend with the people rebuilding money, markets, and the internet from the ground up. Web: https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petetownsendnv/ X: https://x.com/PeteTownsendNV Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/petetownsend353/ Email: info@norioventures.com

The Love-Hate of Tokenization: A Trader's Reckoning | Steve Whyman | [EP. 325]

Steve Whyman spent 20 years trading fixed income at Bear Stearns, ABN AMRO, and BlackRock, then ran digital assets and tokenization inside Fidelity International, before leaving in 2025 to build onchain-native. In this episode he makes the case for tokenization from the one seat almost nobody tells it from: the trading desk. What pulled him out was seeing blockchain put every instrument on the same settlement rail. The frustration is what came next, five issuers wrapping the same stock five different ways, none of them netting against each other, and issuers walking away when the wrapper carries no legal recourse. Also in this one: why a desk never actually buys technology, whether AI agents can settle 24/7 when a smart contract can't own a security, and Steve's "wings of finance" case that the real prize is financing and collateral, not the shiny tokenized equity everyone's chasing. Connect with Steve: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-whyman-210a6273/ Referenced in this episode: Semi Liquid: https://pcp.co/ Solana Breakpoint, London, November 2026: https://solana.com/breakpoint Chapters 0:00 Cold open 0:24 Intro: Steve Whyman, from fixed income to onchain 1:10 What made a 20-year trader jump: the rails are the same 3:42 What a desk actually needs before it touches a tokenized instrument 5:42 The F1 pit crew: why adoption is operational, not technical 6:52 The fragmentation problem: five wrappers, one stock, no netting 9:53 Same but better, or just adding layers? 10:35 The wings of finance: financing and collateral, not the shiny equity 11:28 Can AI agents legally settle 24/7 when a smart contract can't own a security? 12:09 The love-hate: going native, and what stuck 14:08 Where to find Steve, and Solana Breakpoint MoneyNeverSleeps: sharp riffs, big ideas, and real insights from smart people, in under 15 minutes. Hosted by early-stage investor Pete Townsend, GP at Norio Ventures. moneyneversleeps.ie LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petetownsendnv/ X: https://x.com/PeteTownsendNV Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/petetownsend353/ Email: info@norioventures.com

Containerized: How Tokenization Restacks Finance | Justin Swart | BITKRAFT Ventures [EP. 324]

Justin Swart, Partner at BITKRAFT Ventures, joins Pete Townsend to make the case that tokenization is doing to finance what the shipping container did to global trade (standardizing the box, not the cargo - h/t Aleks Larsen, Blockchain Capital), whether that's real containerization or just the same fragmentation problem moved onchain, how BITKRAFT's early bet on Roundhill's record-breaking Memory ETF fits a broader thesis on personalized finance, and why trading itself is becoming the new competitor to gaming for consumer attention. Chapters 0:00 Cold open 0:24 Intro: Justin Swart and BITKRAFT 1:00 The container analogy, retold 3:58 Robinhood's own chain, and stablecoins at Visa scale 6:09 BUIDL, BENJI, and Robinhood Chain by the numbers 7:15 Is this containerization, or fragmentation onchain? 8:18 The consumer thesis: trading as entertainment 10:37 Gamification, streamers, and trading as esports 12:33 How founders should think about BITKRAFT 14:02 Where to find BITKRAFT Connect with Justin: LinkedIn: https://za.linkedin.com/in/justinswart1 Email: Justin@bitkraft.vc More on BITKRAFT: Website: https://www.bitkraft.vc/ References: Episode 240, What's Next with Web3: https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/alex-tapscott/ Aleks Larsen's tweet on tokenization and containers: https://x.com/alekslarsen/status/2092302780379574675 The Box by Marc Levinson: https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691170817/the-box Roundhill Memory ETF (DRAM): https://www.roundhillinvestments.com/etf/dram/ Matthew Ball, State of Video Gaming 2026: https://www.matthewball.co/all/presentation-the-state-of-video-gaming-in-2026 MoneyNeverSleeps: sharp riffs, big ideas, and real insights from smart people, in under 15 minutes. Hosted by early-stage investor Pete Townsend, GP at Norio Ventures. moneyneversleeps.ie LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petetownsendnv/ X: https://x.com/PeteTownsendNV Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/petetownsend353/ Email: info@norioventures.com Hashtags: #Tokenization #Crypto #VentureCapital #fintech #gaming

Grit Don't Quit: How Beezie Got to Yes | Andrea Miele [EP. 323]

Andrea Miele is co-founder and CEO of Beezie, a gamified commerce platform Pete Townsend backed through Techstars in 2024, joins Pete to talk about why the "TCG" label never captured what Beezie actually is, what it took to raise a second round after some of the best-known funds in the space passed on her more than once, and what's next now that Beezie has expanded to Base and Solana. Connect with Andrea:X: https://x.com/AndreaMYellie LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/agriffin717/ Learn more about Beezie:Website: https://beezie.com/ X: https://x.com/Beezie Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beeziedotcom/ Chapters 0:00 Cold open 0:32 Intro: Andrea Miele and Beezie 1:22 What Beezie is, in plain English 2:07 The Claw and the cold-start problem 3:21 Why the TCG bucket undersells the vision 5:26 The pack rip smell, and trading it for liquidity 7:15 Building trust before asking for money 8:17 Fundraising through thirty no's 10:13 The lead investor who changed everything 12:26 Base, Solana, and what's next 13:41 Where to find Beezie MoneyNeverSleeps: sharp riffs, big ideas, and real insights from smart people, in under 15 minutes. Hosted by early-stage investor Pete Townsend, GP at Norio Ventures. moneyneversleeps.ie LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petetownsendnv/ X: https://x.com/PeteTownsendNV Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/petetownsend353/ Email: info@norioventures.com #Tokenization #Collectibles #Crypto #Startups

Agentic AI's Least Obvious Takeover Yet | James McCann | Everhaze [EP. 322]

James McCann, CEO and founder of Everhaze, joins Pete Townsend to talk about the 80/20 problem breaking PR agency economics, how an agentic layer turns hundreds of daily regulatory mentions into a 10-minute digest for a fintech client, where the human side of PR (the trust, the intros, the relationships) still does the heavy lifting, and why VC skepticism about AI-wrapped software didn't stop him from closing his round. Connect with James: X: https://x.com/JimmyMcCann01 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesmccann862/ Learn more about Everhaze: https://everhaze.com/ X: https://x.com/everhaze LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/everhaze/ Email: info@everhaze.com MoneyNeverSleeps: sharp riffs, big ideas, and real insights from smart people, in under 15 minutes. Hosted by early-stage investor Pete Townsend, GP at Norio Ventures. moneyneversleeps.ie LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petetownsendnv/ X: https://x.com/PeteTownsendNV Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/petetownsend353/ Email: info@norioventures.com #AgenticAI #AI #PRTech #Startups

Making Monzo Irish: The Playbook for a More Human Digital Bank | Monzo Bank Europe | Elaine Deehan [EP. 321]

Elaine Deehan is back on MoneyNeverSleeps for her third appearance, and this one has been a long time coming. As Ireland Country Manager of Monzo Bank Europe, Elaine is doing what she's always done: building something that makes banking feel genuinely human, and genuinely Irish. Download the Monzo app and open your account at: https://monzo.com/ie Monzo went fully live in Ireland on April 14th with 100,000 people on the waitlist. But getting there wasn't a lift-and-shift from the UK. It meant walking the streets, talking to customers, and solving for the things that frustrate Irish people most about their banks. Elaine also talks about what the Irish playbook means for every market Monzo enters next. Connect with Elaine:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elainedeehan/Monzo Ireland: https://monzo.com/ie Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@moneyneversleeps1814Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/moneyneversleeps/id1455819294 Connect with Pete:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petetownsendnv/X: https://x.com/PeteTownsendNVInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/petetownsend353/MoneyNeverSleeps: https://moneyneversleeps.ieEmail: info@norioventures.com

You Can't Code Your Way Out of Risk | Amor Sexton | Blockdaemon [EP. 314]

You Can't Code Your Way Out | Amor Sexton, Blockdaemon In the last few weeks, Drift and Kelp lost $577 million between them. Neither one was a code exploit. Both were operational and governance failures. Amor Sexton, Chief Operating Officer at Blockdaemon, was last on MoneyNeverSleeps in October 2022 (EP 193) talking about how institutional client expectations of resilient processes would drive blockchain adoption. Three and a half years later, the industry just got an extremely expensive lesson in exactly that thesis. In this episode, Pete and Amor get into: - Why "this isn't a hack, it's a governance failure" is the conversation the industry isn't having - How compliance is a subset of risk — and why DeFi keeps confusing the two - The Web2/human layer compromise that exploits a legitimate Web3 feature - Pluto on Castle Island: "Everything that TradFi has built in terms of circuit breakers, we're just speed running relearning those things in crypto" - The Kelp configuration was a known vulnerability — and 47% of operators chose it anyway - The two or three governance questions every DeFi protocol and LP should be asking right now - Why it always comes back to people, not code Chapters: 00:00 Cold open 00:24 Welcome back to MoneyNeverSleeps 00:55 $577M, 18 days, no code exploit 02:00 Compliance is a subset of risk 03:15 Guardrails and governance 04:30 The Web2 layer compromise 05:45 Speedrunning what TradFi already built 07:30 Why 47% chose the risky configuration 09:00 Three governance questions every protocol should answer 12:30 It always comes back to people 13:30 Sign off Connect with Amor: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amor-sexton/ Blockdaemon: https://www.blockdaemon.com/ About MoneyNeverSleeps: MoneyNeverSleeps is hosted by Pete Townsend, GP at Norio Ventures. Sharp riffs, big ideas, and real insights from smart people in crypto, fintech, AI, and onchain finance. Connect with Pete: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petetownsendnv/ X: @petetownsendnv Norio Ventures: https://www.norioventures.com Subscribe to MoneyNeverSleeps wherever you get your podcasts: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@moneyneversleeps1814 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4F8uOLxiscYVWVGEfNxTnd Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/moneyneversleeps/id1455819294 #MoneyNeverSleeps #Blockdaemon #DeFi #Crypto #AmorSexton #Governance #RiskManagement

Founder Blind Spots: Hard Legal Lessons From the Edge | Sheila Lynch [EP. 320]

Sheila Lynch has been in the room for three of the biggest financial shocks of the last five years — COVID at CQS, the Russian invasion of Ukraine at BlackRock with live Eastern European assets in the funds, and the SVB collapse. When systems go under stress, what's actually there gets revealed. Culture, training, processes — either they hold or they don't. This episode is about what founders consistently get wrong before those moments arrive. Treasury after a raise, legal as a checkbox, wind-down plans that sit on a shelf and are never tested, equity structures that aren't optimised until it's too late. Sheila shares the story of a GC who called a law firm partner the day after closing a $50 million round to ask where to put the money. The room went silent. It's that kind of episode. Sheila Lynch: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheila-lynch-27264726/ Partners for Growth: https://www.pfgrowth.com/ Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4F8uOLxiscYVWVGEfNxTnd Chapters 00:00 Cold open 00:21 Intro 01:02 Three systemic shocks, one pattern 04:13 The $50 million question 07:26 Legal as a checkbox, and what it actually costs 09:45 Building the right governance from day one 12:51 What every founder should know before signing a term sheet 13:37 Where to find Sheila MoneyNeverSleeps. Sharp riffs, big ideas, and real insights from smart people. Hosted by early-stage investor Pete Townsend. moneyneversleeps.ie Pete on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petetownsendnv/ Pete on X: https://x.com/PeteTownsendNV Pete on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/petetownsend353/ Email: info@norioventures.com

What Crypto Already Solved for Enterprise AI | Rami Akeela | Nera Systems

How can you use the world's most powerful AI models without ever exposing your sensitive data? Rami Akeela has spent twenty years building privacy and cryptographic infrastructure that most people didn't know they needed yet, and now, as founder of Nera Systems, he's solving the conundrum that's about to define enterprise AI — the more valuable your data, the less you can use it. We dig into what zero-knowledge proofs taught him about the wall enterprise AI is hitting today, the use cases hiding in plain sight across banking, healthcare, accounting and private equity, and what's kept him building through the grind underneath it all. Rami Akeela: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ramiakeela/ Nera Systems: https://nera.systems/ Chapters 00:00 Cold open 00:42 What zero-knowledge proofs taught Rami about AI 02:05 Why it doesn't have to be a paradox 02:50 The biggest use cases: banking, healthcare, accounting, PE 06:40 Training for this problem his whole career 07:53 What's kept him building through the grind 10:13 Where to find Rami and Nera Systems MoneyNeverSleeps. Sharp riffs, big ideas, and real insights from smart people. moneyneversleeps.ie LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petetownsendnv/ X/Twitter: https://x.com/PeteTownsendNV Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/petetownsend353/ Email: info@norioventures.com

The Drive to Five: Unpacking Citi's $5.5T Tokenization Forecast [EP. 318]

Citi Institute's "Tokenization 2030: Wall Street OnChain" puts a number on it: $5.5 trillion in tokenized assets by 2030. Alejandro Gutierrez, who leads Solana Superteam Ireland and returns for another appearance on the show, joins me to stress-test that forecast — what Citi gets right with DTCC, NYSE and Nasdaq embedding tokenization into core infrastructure, and what we think it misses, including the stablecoin-treasury flywheel, the pressure native issuers like Ondo and Superstate are putting on incumbents, Ireland and Luxembourg's combined funds industry as an underrated jurisdictional play, and why 24/7 markets are really built for AI agents, not retail traders. Read the full report, "Tokenization 2030: Wall Street Onchain," Citi Institute, June 2026: https://www.citigroup.com/global/insights/tokenization-2030 Castle DAO, the Solana builder residency at Slane Castle: https://tally.so/r/ODJv1k Follow Alejandro on X and LinkedIn: https://x.com/A_gutierrohttps://www.linkedin.com/in/alejandro-gutierrez-98979b43/Follow Superteam Ireland on X: https://x.com/SuperteamIEhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/superteam-ireland/ CHAPTERS 00:00 Cold open — for the agents 00:37 Introduction 01:18 Citi's stated case: three drivers behind $5.5 trillion 02:19 Is public equities at $3.6 trillion an aggressive number? 03:25 Public permissionless vs. private permissioned chains 04:30 The flywheel Citi missed: stablecoins, treasuries and collateral 06:28 24/7 isn't for retail — it's for the agents 08:50 Ondo, Superstate and the pressure on incumbents 10:53 Ireland, Luxembourg and the €12.5 trillion opportunity 12:02 The wrapper problem: tokenized funds without tokenized holdings 12:41 Castle DAO at Slane Castle MoneyNeverSleeps — sharp riffs, big ideas, and real insights from smart people, in under 15 minutes. Hosted by early-stage investor Pete Townsend, GP at Norio Ventures, sitting at the intersection of crypto, fintech, AI and onchain finance. Website: moneyneversleeps.ie LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petetownsendnv/ X/Twitter: https://x.com/PeteTownsendNV Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/petetownsend353/ Email: info@norioventures.com

The Onramp Bringing TradFi Onchain | Martin Watkins | Montis [EP. 317]

Martin Watkins is CEO of Montis Group, which is building a blockchain-native central securities depository — the settlement and issuance layer that makes tokenized assets work as real financial products. With 30 years inside Euroclear, AtosEuronext and EY, Martin chose to build the infrastructure the market was missing rather than keep advising on the existing system. We get into what a digital CSD unlocks for collateral mobility, why the ECB's DLT eligibility confirmation matters, and what Luxembourg's Blockchain Law IV could mean for Ireland's €5 trillion funds industry. Find Martin at info@montis.digital or visit montis.digital Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4F8uOLxiscYVWVGEfNxTnd CHAPTERS 00:00 The doom loop that tokenization solves 00:27 Introduction 01:13 Martin Watkins welcome 01:18 30 years inside the plumbing of capital markets 03:50 What a blockchain-native CSD does differently 05:48 The Friday afternoon collateral problem 06:22 The 24/7 problem in tokenized funds 07:46 The Irish question: settlement finality and €5 trillion in fund assets 09:27 Legal certainty, portfolio managers and the velocity of capital 10:39 Why the market infrastructure isn't there yet — but nearly is 11:20 How to reach Martin and Montis MoneyNeverSleeps: Sharp riffs, big ideas and real insights from smart people — all in under 15 minutes. Hosted by early-stage investor Pete Townsend with the people rebuilding money, markets, and the internet from the ground up. moneyneversleeps.ie LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petetownsendnv/ X/Twitter: https://x.com/PeteTownsendNV Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/petetownsend353/ Email: info@norioventures.com

From Lean Startup to Incorruptible | Eric Ries [EP. 316]

Pete Townsend is joined by Eric Ries, author of the New York Times bestseller The Lean Startup and founder of the Long-Term Stock Exchange, for a conversation about the invisible structural forces that corrupt even the most mission-driven companies, and what founders can do about it before it's too late. Eric's new book, Incorruptible: Why Good Companies Go Bad and How Great Companies Stay Great, is out now. Get it here: https://www.amazon.com/Incorruptible-Good-Companies-Great-Stay/dp/B0FWZZBPZB Eric spent 15 years teaching a generation how to build fast and learn faster. Incorruptible asks the harder question: how do you protect what you built from the forces that will eventually try to take it from you? In this special double-length episode, he walks through the concept of financial gravity, the structural tools that the world's most durable companies have used for over a century, and why good intentions are never enough. Topics covered:– Why corporate corruption is a structural failure, not an ethical one – What financial gravity is and why it's invisible until it's too late – The Anthropic Long-Term Benefit Trust and what it was designed to protect against – How Novo Nordisk built a structure 100 years ago that protected $500 billion in shareholder value – Why Silicon Valley Bank's mission statement was worthless – The one two-page filing most founders never make CHAPTERS 00:00 The More Golden the Goose 00:23 Welcome Eric Ries 01:06 The Founder's Wake 05:08 What Did The Lean Startup Miss? 08:09 What is Financial Gravity? 12:50 The Right Architecture 13:11 Anthropic and the Long-Term Benefit Trust 14:59 The Novo Nordisk Story 18:18 Are You Smarter Than a Nobel Laureate? 19:28 The Vatican Panel 20:46 The Public Benefit Corporation 22:41 Is LTSE Incorruptible? 23:39 The Guardian of the Company's Soul Connect with Eric:X: https://x.com/ericries LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eries/ Incorruptible (book): https://incorruptible.co Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ericriesactual/ Newsletter: https://news.theleanstartup.com/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theericriesshow Podcast: https://www.ericriesshow.co Buy on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Incorruptible-Good-Companies-Great-Stay/dp/B0FWZZBPZB Connect with Pete:X: @PeteTownsendNV LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petetownsendnv/ Norio Ventures: https://norioventures.com MoneyNeverSleeps: https://moneyneversleeps.ie#incorruptible #leanstartup #founders #startups

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Product Before Token | Sal Ternullo | SVRN + A100x Ventures [EP. 315]

Pete Townsend is joined by Sal Ternullo, CEO of SVRN and Managing Partner at A100x Ventures, for a conversation about how to tell the difference between a token that represents ownership of the value-creating thing and one that's an accelerant bolted onto something else.Sal has been underwriting these decisions at A100x at the pre-seed and seed stage. He walks through what's actually changed in the market, what a defensible answer on value accrual sounds like in a pitch meeting, and why the race-to-TGE game that defined the last cycle is largely over. Topics covered: – Why the era of tolerating tokens with no claim on cash flows is ending – How to tell whether a founder has real conviction on decentralization or is bolting a token onto an equity business – The cap-table tensions between SAFEs, token warrants, and Series A investors who can't touch tokens – Why building the product before designing the token is the new discipline – The question Sal wishes more founders walked in with an answer to CHAPTERS: 00:00 Bad Tokens Ruin Good Projects 00:30 Welcome Sal Ternullo 01:10 What Changed in Token Value Accrual 03:00 Equity vs. Token: Where Does Value Accrue 04:55 Signs a Founder Has Real Conviction 06:15 Ownership or Loyalty Points 08:30 Tokens After 18 Months: Pump.fun and the Lag 10:00 The Race to TGE Game is Over 11:30 The Cap Table Reality 13:00 The Question Founders Should Ask Connect with Sal:X: @sal_ternulloEmail: sal@svrn.net SVRN: https://svrn.net A100x Ventures: https://a100x.vc Connect with Pete:X: @PeteTownsendNV LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petetownsendnv/ Norio Ventures: https://norioventures.com MoneyNeverSleeps: https://moneyneversleeps.ie#crypto #venturecapital #tokens

Making Crypto Tax Efficient | Dan Gold | Stratiphy [EP. 313]

Dan Gold is founder and CEO of Stratiphy, and as far as anyone knows, the only platform offering tax-efficient crypto exposure to UK retail investors right now. The path got narrow fast. The FCA lifted the retail crypto ETN ban in October 2025. HMRC then closed the stocks-and-shares ISA route at the start of this tax year, leaving crypto ETNs eligible only for Innovative Finance ISAs, which no mainstream platform offered. Stratiphy re-opened the door, partnering with 21Shares to offer bitcoin, ether, and the new BOLD bitcoin/gold hybrid inside an ISA wrapper. We get into the regulatory maze, whether Bitcoin is a lottery ticket or a real line item, and what launching into a 35% drawdown tells you about who your customers actually are. Plus: why the IFAs will come around whether they like it or not. Follow Dan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-gold-5186091b2/ Learn more about Stratiphy: https://www.stratiphy.io CHAPTERS: 00:00 Tax-Efficient Crypto in the UK: The Short Story 00:25 The Regulatory Sequence 03:00 IFAs and the Education Gap 04:00 Portfolio Construction or a Punt? 05:30 Bitcoin: Lottery Ticket or Asset Allocation? 08:00 Launching Into a Down Market 09:30 Where Stratiphy Goes Nex t11:30 Sign-Off 🌐 https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ #MoneyNeverSleeps #Crypto #Bitcoin #ISA #UKInvesting #ETN #Fintech #21Shares #Stratiphy

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Sell More or Don't Bother - The Hard Truth of Tokenization | Alejandro Gutierrez | Solana Superteam Ireland [EP. 312]

Tokenization has a perception problem. The industry keeps selling it as an efficiency play — less friction, more transparency, better infrastructure. But if tokenization doesn't help you sell more of whatever you've tokenized, it's irrelevant. Alejandro Gutierrez leads Solana Superteam Ireland and has been building in this space since before most people knew what tokenization meant. Co-founder of the Defactor DeFi protocol. Creator of a blockchain-based supply chain financing application with Consol Freight. And the only builder on a KPMG panel last week alongside the Central Bank of Ireland, Invesco, and Dillon Eustace — in a room of over a hundred people from the heart of Irish financial services. The POC phase is long gone. Ireland has all the ingredients. Now it's time to move product — or get left behind. Also: Castle DAO is coming to Slane Castle. The TradFi Band is yet to be confirmed. Follow Alejandro on X and LinkedIn: https://x.com/A_gutierro https://www.linkedin.com/in/alejandro-gutierrez-98979b43/ Follow Superteam Ireland on X and LinkedIn https://x.com/superteamIE linkedin.com/company/superteam-ireland/ CHAPTERS: 00:00 Sell More or Don't Bother 01:00 Is Crypto Getting Boring? 02:00 Guardrails, Governance and the Drift and Kelp Hacks 03:00 The KPMG Panel — The Builder in the Room 05:00 The Commercial Reality of Tokenization 06:00 What Defactor and Consol Freight Unlocked 08:00 The Colombian SME and Global Capital Formation 09:00 Does Ireland Have What It Takes? 11:00 The POC Phase Is Long Gone 12:00 Before We Go — Buildstation, Colosseum and Castle DAO 🌐 https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ #MoneyNeverSleeps #Tokenization #Tokenisation #Solana #Ireland #DeFi #Web3 #Crypto #Fintech #Blockchain #IrishFintech #OnchainFinance

VC 3.0: Venture Capital Reimagined | Brian McNulty | Lingfeng Capital [EP. 311]

Brian McNulty has been building toward this moment for a decade. When he co-founded the Post Trade Distributed Ledger Group with the London Stock Exchange back in 2015, he was helping the industry imagine what tokenized funds might one day look like. On April 21st 2026, he rings the bell at that same exchange to launch DVF — Lingfeng Capital's Digital Venture Fund — and the circle closes.In this episode, Brian and Pete trace the journey from FAC to the Apex exit to DVF, and dig into what VC 3.0 actually means: a venture fund first, a tokenized structure second, built to fix the distribution problems that have kept private markets broken for decades.They cover why the underlying investment case always has to come first, how Archax and LSEG's Digital Markets Infrastructure underpin the model, what structured transferability actually looks like in practice, who DVF is really for, and the real hurdles the industry still has to clear.DVF is Lingfeng Capital's $100 million regulated tokenized venture fund investing in Series B through pre-IPO fintech, AI, blockchain, and digital infrastructure companies across global markets.Find Brian on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianmcnulty/EP 116 — the original FAC episode from 2020: https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/116-all-these-funds-brian-mcnulty-and-fac/CHAPTERS:00:00 Introduction00:45 From PTDL to Lingfeng — The Journey02:00 What FAC Got Right and Wrong03:15 Why Tokenization Alone Is Never Enough04:00 Private Markets Distribution Is Broken05:00 Venture Fund First, Token Second07:00 How DVF Works — LSEG, Archax and VC 3.009:00 Structured Transferability vs True Liquidity09:30 Who DVF Is For — Four Investor Buckets11:30 The Real Hurdles Left to Clear13:15 Ringing the Bell at the London Stock Exchange🌐 https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/#MoneyNeverSleeps #VentureCapital #Tokenization #PrivateMarkets #DVF #VC30 #Fintech #Blockchain #DigitalAssets #LingfengCapital #Archax #LSEG

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Who's Watching the Agent? | Rob Viglione | Horizen Labs [EP. 310]

Who's watching the agent? That's the question at the heart of this episode — and it's one that's going to define the next decade of finance. Rob Viglione spent his career figuring out how machines make decisions in high-stakes environments. From the US Air Force to Afghanistan, and now as Co-founder and CEO of Horizen Labs, he's building the cryptographic trust infrastructure for the agentic economy. Every asset class will be tokenized. Agents will be trading 24/7 across all of them. Your data will be completely public. All the time. The guardrails don't exist yet — and the answer is Zero Knowledge Cryptography. The technology that lets agents prove they did what they were supposed to, without revealing how they did it. Find Rob at horizenlabs.io and follow him on X at @robviglione MoneyNeverSleeps is on YouTube: www.youtube.com/@moneyneversleeps1814And on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/moneyneversleeps/id1455819294 CHAPTERS: 00:00 Who's Watching the Agent?01:30 The Stakes of Agentic Commerce03:00 What Breaks When Agents Hit Financial Rails05:00 Is TradFi Infiltrating or Integrating with DeFi?07:30 Zero Knowledge Cryptography and Privacy on Public Rails09:30 Baking Privacy into the Protocol11:00 Is This ZK's Moment? #MoneyNeverSleeps #ZeroKnowledge #AgenticEconomy #HorizenLabs #Crypto #Fintech #Web3 #Privacy #Tokenization #AI #Blockchain #ZKProofs

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Talent is Equally Distributed, Opportunity is Not | John Hill | Whop [EP. 309]

Talent is equally distributed. Opportunity is not. John Hill, VP of Story at Whop, has spent his career watching founders in Cape Town, Lagos, and Medellín build something real — and then hit a wall the moment they try to get paid. Whop is an AI-backed platform where anyone can build a digital business in minutes, and in February 2026 it closed a $200 million investment from Tether to embed stablecoin payments across 144 countries. The shift from finding a job to being the job is already happening. This is what the infrastructure behind it looks like. We cover What the wall actually looks like for a founder in Lagos, Cape Town, or Medellín Why talent is equally distributed but opportunity is not How Whop has removed the barriers that once kept entrepreneurship out of reach What Tether's $200M investment means for creators and builders outside the western financial system The shift from finding a job to being the job Why the Boston Irish diaspora is the original first dollar entrepreneur story How two students turned one skill into $140,000 a year — while still in school For full show notes and guest links visit moneyneversleeps.ie 🌐 https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ MoneyNeverSleeps explores one big idea each week in under 15 minutes with founders, operators, and investors shaping crypto, fintech, AI, and onchain finance. Subscribe and join the conversation. #Entrepreneurship #FutureOfWork #Tether

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Markets Never Close: The Case for Tokenized ETPs | Alex Pollak | 21Shares [EP. 308]

Markets don't close when the exchange does. They just move somewhere else. In this episode of MoneyNeverSleeps, Pete Townsend speaks with Alex Pollak of 21Shares about why crypto ETPs are not just surviving the rise of onchain finance — they're about to become part of it. Alex Pollak is Managing Director and Head of UK and New Markets at 21Shares, which provides the largest suite of cryptocurrency exchange-traded products in the world. Drawing on over 20 years in the ETF and ETP industry, Alex explains why the wrapper that made crypto accessible to institutions is now evolving into something programmable, tokenized, and potentially tradeable around the clock. Across crypto, fintech, and traditional finance, the conversation around tokenized assets and 24/7 markets is moving from theory toward product reality. Exchanges, brokers, and issuers are beginning to ask what happens when the underlying assets never sleep but the fund structure still does. Rather than being displaced by direct crypto ownership or onchain alternatives, ETPs may be about to get smarter — evolving from simple access vehicles into programmable baskets that operate inside a financial system that no longer has opening hours. This isn't a crypto-versus-TradFi conversation. It's a discussion about financial infrastructure, total cost of ownership, and how one of the most successful product innovations in market history is quietly reinventing itself. We cover Why buying crypto directly isn't always cheaper than using an ETP How total cost of ownership changes the calculation for institutional investors Why basket products are the next frontier — and what's holding them back How regulators in the US, UK, and Europe are shaping the pace of innovation Why 21Shares wants to tokenize its own ETPs What a 24/7 tradeable ETP actually looks like in practice Why the long runway for crypto ETPs is just beginning Alex brings a perspective shaped by two decades of watching skepticism turn into a multi-trillion dollar industry — and sees the same pattern emerging in crypto ETPs today. If you're a founder, operator, or investor trying to understand how traditional financial products and onchain systems are beginning to converge, this episode offers a clear-eyed view of where things are heading. 00:00 Markets never close: the cold open 00:30 Intro and guest welcome 01:00 How investors access crypto today 02:30 ETPs vs direct ownership: who uses what 03:30 Total cost of ownership and the spread argument 04:30 How ETP spreads have tightened over time 05:00 From single asset to basket products 06:00 What regulators in the UK, US and Europe are allowing 07:00 The dream: funds as smart contracts 08:00 Tokenizing ETPs and the 24/7 market problem 09:30 Technology ahead of regulation 10:30 The long runway for crypto ETPs 11:00 Closing thoughts and where to find 21Shares For full show notes and guest links, see below. MoneyNeverSleeps explores one big idea each week in under 15 minutes with founders, operators, and investors shaping crypto, fintech, AI, and onchain finance. If you're interested in where financial infrastructure is heading — from tokenized assets and crypto ETPs to programmable markets and onchain settlement — subscribe and join the conversation. 🌐 https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ #CryptoETPs #TokenizedAssets #OnchainFinance

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Transparency Equals Liability: Why DeFi Strategies Get Copied | Matteo Manzi | Orion Finance (EP. 307)

DeFi transparency means every onchain trade is visible. Which means the moment a strategy works, the market can copy it. In this episode of MoneyNeverSleeps, Pete Townsend speaks with Matteo Manzi, co-founder and CEO of Orion Finance, about a structural challenge emerging in onchain asset management: the same transparency that makes blockchain markets verifiable can also expose the intellectual property behind trading strategies. Matteo describes this tension with a simple phrase: “transparency equals liability.” If every transaction is visible in real time, sophisticated traders — or automated smart contracts — can monitor strategies and replicate trades almost instantly. Orion Finance is building infrastructure designed to address this problem. The idea draws inspiration from the multi-pod hedge fund model used by firms like Millennium, where multiple trading teams run independent strategies while sharing capital, infrastructure, and execution efficiency. Matteo calls this concept “Millennium onchain.” Instead of isolated vaults competing in the open, Orion’s architecture allows strategies to operate within a shared system where trades can be netted internally, capital can be allocated across strategies, and execution costs can be reduced — all while preserving the confidentiality of the underlying trading logic. Across crypto and traditional finance, the conversation around onchain asset management is beginning to shift from simple tokenized products toward actively managed strategies, capital aggregation platforms, and composable financial infrastructure. If transparency allows markets to verify what is happening, privacy may be required to make those markets investable. We cover • Why transparency can become a liability for trading strategies • How onchain vault strategies can be copied in real time • What Matteo means by “Millennium onchain” • How multi-strategy capital platforms could emerge in DeFi • Why internal trade crossing and netting improve capital efficiency • How composable vaults could reshape investment products Matteo brings a builder’s perspective shaped by designing infrastructure for onchain portfolio management, explaining how privacy, verifiability, and capital efficiency can coexist in the next generation of financial markets. If you’re a founder, operator, or investor trying to understand how professional asset management may evolve onchain, this episode explores one possible path forward. ⏱️ Chapters 00:00 — Cold open: strategies get copied 00:28 — “Transparency equals liability” 02:40 — Why DeFi strategies leak alpha 04:05 — Orion’s multi-pod architecture 07:05 — “Millennium onchain” explained 10:30 — Composable vault strategies 12:45 — The future of DeFi asset management For full show notes and guest links, see below. MoneyNeverSleeps explores one big idea each week in under 15 minutes with founders, operators, and investors shaping crypto, fintech, AI, and onchain finance. If you're interested in where financial infrastructure is heading — from stablecoins and tokenised assets to AI-driven markets — subscribe and join the conversation. 🌐 https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/ #DeFi #OnchainFinance #CryptoMarkets

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