Raghav Chawla

Tokenization is signaling a transformative shift in capital markets. Especially when we see changes in market practices. By enhancing trading efficiency, transparency, and asset liquidity, the question is no longer if blockchain will change the game, but when. https://lnkd.in/gxpES8RA

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📊 Favorable conditions for gaming startups. What's with the numbers? After several slow quarters, gaming funding has picked up slightly this year, driven by a resurgence in early-stage dealmaking and optimism about the ability of smaller studios to produce hits. In the first quarter of this year, investors worldwide poured $265 million into early-stage gaming startups, according to Crunchbase. That's up 65% from the fourth quarter of 2023 and about four times the third quarter, when investment hit a multi-year low. For comparison, below are quarterly early-stage gaming-related investments over the past few quarters. Josh Chapman, managing partner of gaming-focused startup investor Konvoy Ventures, isn't surprised to see the numbers rise. “I think the industry has hit rock bottom in terms of funding, and now we're going back to pre-COVID norms,” he told Crunchbase News. Chapman noted that unlike other sectors that saw a pandemic-induced boom and subsequent decline, such as takeout and fitness, gaming has not declined in popularity. Of course, revenues are trending upward. Global video game industry revenues hit a record high of more than $400 billion in 2023 and are projected to top $450 billion this year, according to Statista. Meanwhile, the global population of mobile gamers is estimated at nearly 2 billion. The push for startup investment also received a boost in April when venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz announced it had raised $600 million for a gaming-focused fund. The fund was part of a total fundraising of $7.2 billion

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What are private chains good for? Four things: 1. POCs - when you’re testing something, you reduce external exposure and limit gas and other costs. GREATfor this. 2. Simple transactions between authorized and trusted parties - this is a requirement of private chains as the networks they travel on are by design by-appointment 3. Data Management - Private chains can be a great database solution where auditability and role based transparency is critical, and where data can’t be shared. This is perhaps the best use. 4. Job Security - Private Chain POCs and projects are the ultimate ‘built it here’ defense strategy. But that is pretty much it. Private chains are distinctly different from public chains, and do not provide the resiliency and scale that is inherent in public/open chains. While they are easy to do limited things with, they are harder (near impossible) to build an ecosystem on. If you want broad adoption across competing institutions, your private chain and the smart contracts written by your employees is a potential risk factor. Trust between counterparties will always be an issue. Scale and cost will be an issue after the POC. The closed ecosystems formed using Private Chains will struggle to grow What problem do you prefer? The Tower of Babel or the Byzantine Generals? I think ultimately the Generals will defeat the Tower.

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$AXON Axon Enterprises, part of #UPTICKS , broke out of a well-defined bullish range yesterday on highest volume in over a year. This Tech/Weapons co reported Q2 non-GAAP earnings of 1.20 vs. 0.98 exptd & raised guidance. Technically, this formation is often referred to as a Reverse Head & Shoulders pattern, & was confirmed on the breakout above 326. @IBDinvestors @marketsurge

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Daily Hot Take 🔥 Crypto.com Joins the Fight, Arguing Cryptos Aren’t Securities 🔥 ➡ Crypto.com filed a lawsuit against the SEC after receiving a Wells Notice last night, indicating the regulator's intent to sue them for operating as an unregistered securities exchange. ➡ Crypto.com joins the likes of Coinbase and ConsenSys in suing the U.S. regulator for overreach, arguing that crypto assets are not securities and therefore fall outside the SEC’s jurisdiction. ➡ Is there any validity to these lawsuits? The precedents summarized below may help readers determine whether or not their claims have any legal standing. Source: DLx Law, Presto Research

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𝗗𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗩𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗲𝗱 𝗟𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀, For 𝗘𝗽𝗶𝘀𝗼𝗱𝗲 𝟯𝟱 of the ''𝗔𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗔𝗹𝗽𝗵𝗮 𝗣𝗼𝗱𝗰𝗮𝘀𝘁'', Host, 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻 𝗕𝘂𝗱𝗴𝗲𝗻 interviewed Mike Cagney who is the 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗖𝗘𝗢 𝗼𝗳 Figure Markets, a Crypto Exchange where he leads corporate strategy and development. Mike brings decades of experience in the financial industry to his leadership of the company. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗯𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 ''𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗖𝗿𝘆𝗽𝘁𝗼 𝗘𝘅𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴''. Before founding Figure, he was the 𝗙𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿, 𝗖𝗘𝗢 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗶𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗦𝗼𝗙𝗶, a global digital Fintech firm before he stepped down in 2017. They discuss an intro into how Mike Cagney founded SoFi, why he started Figure, his discovery of the powers of the blockchain, how Figure differentiates from competitors, tokenisation of real world assets, decentralized exchanges, Scaling Crypto Businesses, Importance of the right investors (funding), US Crypto Regulations, the everything exchange road map, Bitcoin Strategic Reserve & Balance Sheets, AI Experimentation. With references to his background, recent work, and insightful anecdotes, this is a must-watch for anyone interested in Crypto, Entrepreneurship and Technology. 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀: https://lnkd.in/g6PGTP_G 00:00 - Teaser 00:55 - Introduction to Mike Cagney, Sofi & Figure. 12:07 - Differentiating from Competition. 18:42 - Tokenization of Real World Assets 22:50 - Learning Lessons from FTX & Celsius. 26:52 - Decentralized Exchanges. 29:07 - Scaling Crypto Businesses. 34:10 - Importance of the right Investors (Funding) 40:20 - US Crypto Regulations 42:35 - Exchange of Everything Road Map. 44:30 - Bitcoin Strategic Reserve & Balance Sheet. 49:25 - AI Experimentation in the Business. 52:56 - How to Find Out more about Mike Cagney & Figure. Find out more about Mike Cagney on X: https://x.com/mcagney Find out more about Mike Cagney on Linkedin:    https://lnkd.in/gs2RbbvM   Website: https://lnkd.in/gjhDVJZy This episode was recorded on Wednesday 13th November 2024. Find out more about the host, Steven Budgen at: https://lnkd.in/ddva7THi www.stevenbudgen.com X: @ProofofSteve @AchievingalphaP Linkedin: https://lnkd.in/gZdRFZyx This material does not amount to investment advice and should not be taken as a recommendation to buy or sell any financial instruments. #crypto #bitcoin #blockchain #podcast #investing #fintech

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Fintech done right! Atomic combines engineering AND compliance investments to offer high impact innovation.

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Completely agree with Dante A. Disparte 's take on mainstream stablecoin payments, but a critical component for mainstream adoption is speed and ease of use. Arculus technology allows for digital asset payments directly from self custody (including secure cold storage) with a simple and familiar tap-to-pay over Visa or MasterCard rails or as a direct web3 payment. https://lnkd.in/eQhgkZDF

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📈 **Tokenized US Treasury Market Surpasses $1.9 Billion!** Data from RWA.xyz reveals that the tokenized US Treasury market has grown to over $1.9 billion. Franklin Templeton's On-Chain US Government Money Fund (FOBXX) leads with a market cap of $843 million, surpassing BlackRock's BUIDL Fund at $517 million. Ethereum dominates the market with $1.4 billion in US Treasury tokens, followed by the Stellar blockchain at $430 million. 🚀💰 #BitcoinWorld #Tokenization

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📊 FxPro Senior Market Analyst Alex Kupczikevich suggests that if BTC breaks $61,800, it could quickly rally to $67,000, where the 50-day and 200-day SMAs intersect. However, failure to surpass $61,800 may lead to a retracement to the July/August lows of $55,500. #BitcoinWorld 📈📉

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The FDIC proposal for Brokered Deposits is outdated, will damage Fintech, the consumer and make community banks less stable. I read this fantastic overview on American Banker by Ebrima Santos Sanneh featuring Jonah Crane here's the TL;DR and my take 👇 TL;DR The industry is reacting poorly to the FDIC's proposal to widen the definition of "brokered deposits." This would mean that banks can only hold 10% of brokered deposits vs. 25% today, and it would remove the ability of nonbanks to apply for exceptions. This would place more work on the banks desperately seeking liquidity as smaller and regional banks continue to be squeezed. 🧠 Community banks need a broader pool of deposits. The communities they once relied on are smaller; they must go digital to survive. Some nonbanks are a great source of sticky, reliable deposits. 🧠 There's a real issue with bank safety and soundness. The banking crisis of 2023 and Silvergate and Signature's collapse show deposit concentration is bad. This is the FDIC's patch, and they should be doing something. 🧠 But defining everything as brokered deposits is not the solution. It makes it harder for community banks to compete and will push more of them out of the market, making smaller banks LESS stable. They can't access liquidity if they're bottlenecked trying to accept deposits. If they run out of liquidity, they quickly become insolvent. 🧠 Regulators are fighting the last war and the wrong war. Brokered deposit rules were a reaction to the savings and loans crisis; that's not what we have today. Synapse is a third-party oversight issue. There are many of these, and any bank operating in nonbank deposits has to get this right. Novel activities need novel rules, not rules from the 1980s. 🧠 These rules don't fix the banking crisis issues. Deposits at Silicon Valley Bank were highly concentrated in venture-backed start-ups who parked their VC checks at SVB. SVB deposits had market and concentration risks on deposits and poor treasury management. These brokered deposit rules don't fix that high-risk scenario because SVB directly sourced those deposits. 🧠 Most Fintech deposits are sticky. A user of a Fintech app offering high-yield savings is unlikely to quickly flee. Deposits held with giant services like CashApp, Robinhood, or Coinbase from consumers are incredibly stable compared to the banking crisis scenario. #fintech #banking #deposits

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Despite #bitcoin looking to retest its all-time-high again, "we're still early". The latest survey from BNY Mellon (https://lnkd.in/gmApFB7a) reveals that up to 39% of family offices are either investing or looking to invest into #cryptocurrencies. Unlike the previous cycles, strength of the market has been coming from institutional flows and the approval of #etf opens up the interests from old money. As an investment, bitcoin continues to be the best performing asset class of the decade, outperforming the NASDAQ100 by a mile.

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DAILY HOT TAKE 🔥 State Street Positions To Drive Institutional Crypto Custody 🔥 ➡ A key missing piece in the crypto adoption into mainstream finance has been custody. The success of spot BTC ETFs has driven the market size to $60 billion, but it is currently dominated by Coinbase Custody. The hopes of TradFi custody banks to enter the market were dashed in June when the Biden White House vetoed the repeal of SAB 121, an SEC guideline that effectively blocks such a move. ➡ Last night, industry giant State Street, with $38 trillion in custody assets, announced a tie-up with Taurus, a Swiss crypto firm, to offer "tokenization solutions." Custody is a key component in the tokenization process, leading many to speculate that this move is positioning early for a more crypto-friendly White House after November. State Street certainly seems to knows asymmetric payoff when it sees one. #bitcoin #bit #crypto #blockchain #custody #statestreet #etf #sab121 #election #whitehouse

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