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/breakpointChapters0:00 Cold open0:24 Intro: Steve Whyman, from fixed income to onchain1:10 What made a 20-year trader jump: the rails are the same3:42 What a desk actually needs before it touches a tokenized instrument5:42 The F1 pit crew: why adoption is operational, not technical6:52 The fragmentation problem: five wrappers, one stock, no netting9:53 Same but better, or just adding layers?10:35 The wings of finance: financing and collateral, not the shiny equity11:28 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 stuck14:08 Where to find Steve, and Solana BreakpointMoneyNeverSleeps: 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.ieLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petetownsendnv/X: https://x.com/PeteTownsendNVInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/petetownsend353/Email: [email protected]

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.Chapters0:00 Cold open0:24 Intro: Justin Swart and BITKRAFT1:00 The container analogy, retold3:58 Robinhood's own chain, and stablecoins at Visa scale6:09 BUIDL, BENJI, and Robinhood Chain by the numbers7:15 Is this containerization, or fragmentation onchain?8:18 The consumer thesis: trading as entertainment10:37 Gamification, streamers, and trading as esports12:33 How founders should think about BITKRAFT14:02 Where to find BITKRAFTConnect with Justin:LinkedIn: https://za.linkedin.com/in/justinswart1Email: [email protected] 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/2092302780379574675The Box by Marc Levinson: https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691170817/the-boxRoundhill 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-2026MoneyNeverSleeps: 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.ieLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petetownsendnv/X: https://x.com/PeteTownsendNVInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/petetownsend353/Email: [email protected]: #Tokenization #Crypto #VentureCapital #fintech #gaming

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/AndreaMYellieLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/agriffin717/Learn more about Beezie:Website: https://beezie.com/X: https://x.com/BeezieInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/beeziedotcom/Chapters0:00 Cold open0:32 Intro: Andrea Miele and Beezie1:22 What Beezie is, in plain English2:07 The Claw and the cold-start problem3:21 Why the TCG bucket undersells the vision5:26 The pack rip smell, and trading it for liquidity7:15 Building trust before asking for money8:17 Fundraising through thirty no's10:13 The lead investor who changed everything12:26 Base, Solana, and what's next13:41 Where to find BeezieMoneyNeverSleeps: 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.ieLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petetownsendnv/X: https://x.com/PeteTownsendNVInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/petetownsend353/Email: [email protected]#Tokenization #Collectibles #Crypto #Startups

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/JimmyMcCann01LinkedIn: 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: [email protected]: 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/PeteTownsendNVInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/petetownsend353/Email: [email protected] #AgenticAI #AI #PRTech #Startups

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/ieMonzo 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/ieSubscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@moneyneversleeps1814Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/moneyneversleeps/id1455819294Connect with Pete:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petetownsendnv/X: https://x.com/PeteTownsendNVInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/petetownsend353/MoneyNeverSleeps: https://moneyneversleeps.ieEmail: [email protected]

You Can't Code Your Way Out | Amor Sexton, BlockdaemonIn 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 codeChapters:00:00 Cold open00:24 Welcome back to MoneyNeverSleeps00:55 $577M, 18 days, no code exploit02:00 Compliance is a subset of risk03:15 Guardrails and governance04:30 The Web2 layer compromise05:45 Speedrunning what TradFi already built07:30 Why 47% chose the risky configuration09:00 Three governance questions every protocol should answer12:30 It always comes back to people13:30 Sign offConnect 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: @petetownsendnvNorio Ventures: https://www.norioventures.comSubscribe to MoneyNeverSleeps wherever you get your podcasts:YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@moneyneversleeps1814Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4F8uOLxiscYVWVGEfNxTndApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/moneyneversleeps/id1455819294#MoneyNeverSleeps #Blockdaemon #DeFi #Crypto #AmorSexton #Governance #RiskManagement

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/4F8uOLxiscYVWVGEfNxTndChapters00:00 Cold open00:21 Intro01:02 Three systemic shocks, one pattern04:13 The $50 million question07:26 Legal as a checkbox, and what it actually costs09:45 Building the right governance from day one12:51 What every founder should know before signing a term sheet13:37 Where to find SheilaMoneyNeverSleeps. Sharp riffs, big ideas, and real insights from smart people. Hosted by early-stage investor Pete Townsend. moneyneversleeps.iePete on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petetownsendnv/Pete on X: https://x.com/PeteTownsendNVPete on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/petetownsend353/Email: [email protected]

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/Chapters00:00 Cold open00:42 What zero-knowledge proofs taught Rami about AI02:05 Why it doesn't have to be a paradox02:50 The biggest use cases: banking, healthcare, accounting, PE06:40 Training for this problem his whole career07:53 What's kept him building through the grind10:13 Where to find Rami and Nera SystemsMoneyNeverSleeps. Sharp riffs, big ideas, and real insights from smart people.moneyneversleeps.ieLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petetownsendnv/X/Twitter: https://x.com/PeteTownsendNVInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/petetownsend353/Email: [email protected]

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-2030Castle DAO, the Solana builder residency at Slane Castle: https://tally.so/r/ODJv1kFollow 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/CHAPTERS00:00 Cold open — for the agents00:37 Introduction01:18 Citi's stated case: three drivers behind $5.5 trillion02:19 Is public equities at $3.6 trillion an aggressive number?03:25 Public permissionless vs. private permissioned chains04:30 The flywheel Citi missed: stablecoins, treasuries and collateral06:28 24/7 isn't for retail — it's for the agents08:50 Ondo, Superstate and the pressure on incumbents10:53 Ireland, Luxembourg and the €12.5 trillion opportunity12:02 The wrapper problem: tokenized funds without tokenized holdings12:41 Castle DAO at Slane CastleMoneyNeverSleeps — 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.ieLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petetownsendnv/X/Twitter: https://x.com/PeteTownsendNVInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/petetownsend353/Email: [email protected]

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 [email protected] or visit montis.digitalSubscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4F8uOLxiscYVWVGEfNxTndCHAPTERS00:00 The doom loop that tokenization solves00:27 Introduction01:13 Martin Watkins welcome01:18 30 years inside the plumbing of capital markets03:50 What a blockchain-native CSD does differently05:48 The Friday afternoon collateral problem06:22 The 24/7 problem in tokenized funds07:46 The Irish question: settlement finality and €5 trillion in fund assets09:27 Legal certainty, portfolio managers and the velocity of capital10:39 Why the market infrastructure isn't there yet — but nearly is11:20 How to reach Martin and MontisMoneyNeverSleeps: 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.ieLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petetownsendnv/X/Twitter: https://x.com/PeteTownsendNVInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/petetownsend353/Email: [email protected]