"Cashless: China's Digital Currency Revolution" and "Innovation Lab Excellence"

Cashless is the first and only book that dives deep into the design and use of China’s new central bank digital currency. This represents a roadmap for our shared digital currency future and a long-term threat to US dollar dominance. 

China is changing the very nature of money and borrowing heavily from cryptocurrency to cement its role as the world’s financial technology leader.

Cashless is written by the best-selling author of Innovation Lab Excellence, an award-winning expert in fintech innovation, career banker, and technology expert who has experienced China’s cashless revolution firsthand as a former US resident living in China. It reveals how:

●	China’s digital currency can help you better predict and navigate the cashless future coming to the US and the world
●	Your company may be tempted to use China’s digital currency to make cross-border payments
●	The EU, UK, Japan and India are developing digital currencies
●	Digital payment will change our relationship with money and promote financial inclusion

Cashless shows you the future. It offers a comprehensive analysis of China’s digital payment systems so that you can better prepare for the rise of digital currencies. 

It is a must-read for all business leaders and professionals looking for a decided competitive advantage.

Innovation Lab Excellence is a must read if you manage an innovation lab, work in one, or are a business manager engaged with one.  Available globally on Amazon, Innovation Lab Excellence is getting 5 star reviews from readers.

Best Selling Author

FinTech, AI and Innovation Consultant

Consultant to start-ups and established players in insurance and asset management.  I help them navigate the uncharted waters associated with the latest cognitive, AI, blockchain and analytic technologies.  Great at cutting through the hype to establish valid use cases with calculable ROI and long term business impact.  As an long-term China and Asia expert am also happy to help you explore how to bring your business to the East.  

Always looking for new clients and opportunities where I can make a difference.  If you have any recommendations, feel free to drop me a message on LinkedIn or email me at: richard_turrin@yahoo.com

Fintech, AI and Innovation Consultant

IBM’s Cognitive Studios Singapore is the regional hub that hosts more than 150 designers and digital experts   that provides next-generation services dedicated to digital reinvention and transformational outcomes. 
 
My role is to bring paradigm-shifting FinTech to the banking industry in Asia.  From Blockchain to AI Robo-Advisors, I applied the latest IBM technologies to real world problems faced by our banking clients. I also use the same vision to provide strategic direction to our sales teams throughout APAC so that they can better understand their banking client’s needs. I am a tireless evangelist for using technology to democratize access to financial markets. 
 
I served as the banking industry head at IBM Studios to reimagine banking, create a FinTech ecosystem, managed a team of 8 data scientists, and sell analytic financial solutions bringing in $50million in related sales.

APAC, Fintech Executive, IBM Watson, Design, Cognitive Studios

IBM risk analytics solutions enable the world’s most successful companies to make risk-aware decisions through smarter enterprise risk management programs and methodologies—driving business performance and better outcomes.
 
I was a Senior Executive responsible for IBM’s risk management and FinTech business and specifically staffing, strategies, product development, legal and marketing. I revolutionized the risk business by originating and structuring a partnership with Shanghai Wind Information to use IBM risk FinTech on Wind Info trading terminals throughout China. 
 
I was also the winner of the “Risk Technology Product of the Year” in the 2015 Risk Awards based on the unique hybrid cloud based system deployed at Wind that fully complies with China’s stringent data security laws. I also organized and spoke (in Mandarin) at multiple conferences including IBM’s first ever risk conference at Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance.

Risk Solutions Executive

Hult International Business School

Hult International Business School is a global business school with campus locations in San Francisco, Boston, London, Dubai, Shanghai, Hertfordshire, and New York City.
 
I served as a professor bringing math and business analytics to life by using real world examples.  At Hult, I taught MBA Mathematics and Applied Finance to 115 students and delivered a special lecture series in applied finance.   I really enjoyed mentoring students and matching them up for jobs.

Professor / Lecturer

Changshu Lu Advisors

•	Advisor on outbound private equity transactions and capital markets consultant.    
•	Sit on the advisory board of a China based Series-B smarter cities thought leader

Private Equity Advisor, Financial Consultant

Derivative Fitch, Fitch Ratings,  New York

•	Performed “damage control” with 50 major issuers during the worst of the global financial crisis in a newly formed team.  
•	Sold synthetic CDO pricing software, participated in beta testing and worked with the coding team.

Structured Credit Sales

Commonwealth Bank of Australia

•	Founded team of 5 and originated $16 million in new credit risk management transactions.  
•	Developed new credit intermediation products for banks and insurers to monetize CBA’s AA rating.  
•	Evaluated new deals, managed legal team, and assisted in the quantification of the bank’s risk 
        exposures.

Structured Credit Sales and Origination

IntesaBci

•	Founded a team of 5 to bring new risk management products and technology to the bank.  
•	Designed and built a Bermuda based reinsurer that generated $5 million in annual reduced capital 
        charges.  
•	Introduced weather derivative and tax efficiency trades to modernize the bank and bolster trading 
        revenue. 
•	Responsible for development and testing of proprietary trading computer codes.

New Products Marketing and Advisory

Paribas Capital Markets

•	Started new team of 7 while generating profitability of $2.5 million annually on new transactions.  
•	Formed a joint venture company with strategic partner AXA, to bring insurance linked securities to 
        market.  
•	Originated a $3 mil. risk management consulting IT project with PEMEX and supervised coding teams.  
•	Responsible for the negotiation and sale of $80 mil. in insurance linked securities.

Risk Advisory and Structured Product Marketing

American International Group

•	Lead new international team of 12 professionals generating $10 mil in sales and the first ever sold in Japan.
•	Represented AIG in special testimony at the House of Lords.

Director International Environmental Liability Risk Management

Best selling author of "Cashless" and "Innovation Lab Excellence" | Consultant | Speaker | Top media source on China's digital yuan and mobile payments | China AI and tech regs | FOLLOW ONLY NO CONNECTIONS LEFT

As a best-selling author and consultant, I combine my passion for fintech, AI, and innovation with my extensive experience in the banking industry and the Asian market. I wrote two No. 1 international bestsellers, "Cashless: China's Digital Currency Revolution" and "Innovation Lab Excellence," that provide insights, strategies, and practical solutions for the digital transformation of the financial sector. I have also been a top media source and speaker on China's digital yuan and mobile payments, sharing my firsthand knowledge and analysis of the world's most advanced cashless society.

With over 25 years of experience in risk management, structured credit, and debt financing, I deeply understand fintech and AI's challenges and opportunities for the banking industry. I have worked with start-ups and established insurance and asset management players, helping them navigate the uncharted waters of the latest cognitive, AI, blockchain, and analytic technologies. I have also led and contributed to multiple innovation labs and projects across Asia, applying the latest IBM technologies to real-world problems our banking clients face. I am a tireless evangelist for using technology to democratize access to financial markets and to enhance customer experience and value.

Richard Turrin

Weekend Read: Global Digital Assets Report: The Breakout Year for Stablecoins and Tokenization

This GFTN Report is a great read and is filled with charts that show how this is a breakout year for digital assets, particularly stablecoins and tokenization. 

This report is beautifully laid out and is all about maximum return for readers with the minimum of effort, a perfect weekend companion!

Everyone's weekend reading list should include Chapters 1 and 2, covering stablecoin and tokenization.   

I can't recommend them enough!  

This report is all about the easy-to-follow charts and summaries that will give you a global overview of just how fast these markets are changing. 

I'm making this post extra short today, but I want to leave you with a fun chart on page 147, chart 6.1.  

It shows how, despite crypto's claims that it is ready to go mainstream, a stunning 70% of virtual asset service providers are only partially or non-compliant with FATF recommendations! 

Really?  Is that the best we can expect?  How will this impact stablecoins?

Enjoy this report, it is a fabulous "weekend read" and worthy of your time! 

♻️Repost to share this SUPERB resource on digital assets with others.   They will thank you! 

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The Breakout Year for Stablecoins and Tokenization

Helping you make sense of going Cashless | Best-selling author of "Cashless" and "Innovation Lab Excellence" | Consultant | Speaker | Top media source on China's CBDC, the digital yuan | China AI and tech

McKinsey: State of AI 2025—Bottom-Line Gains from AI Remain Elusive

McKinsey looks at AI and puts the most important sentence on page 13: “Meaningful enterprise-wide bottom-line impact from the use of AI continues to be rare.”

McKinsey reports that only 39% of respondents attributed –any– level of EBIT impact to AI.

Even more surprising is that 62% of those surveyed are only experimenting or piloting phase of AI implementation.

So if you’re like me and wondering where the AI-driven ROI is hiding, we’ll have to wait a while longer to find it. 

As AI is a new technology, this wouldn’t normally be a problem. AI, like any new tech, takes time to adopt and make a financial impact.  

The problem is that McKinsey and big tech have been promising AI gains for a few years now, and that they haven’t yet materialized shows they were engaging in hype. 

It’s not that AI won’t make a lasting contribution to ROI; it most certainly will. But how long will it take? 

McKinsey surveyed 1,993 participants in 105 nations and does a fine job of distinguishing between “high performing” AI users and those I call laggards.

The gap is stunningly large, and only 6% of respondents qualify as “high performers!” 

McKinsey defines high performers as: “respondents who attribute EBIT impact of 5 percent or more to AI use and say their organization has seen “significant” value from AI use.” 

McKinsey’s observations on what makes an AI “high performer” are superb and on target, including:

- management attention, 
-AI spend, 
-avoiding using AI for cost-cutting,
-willingness to redesign individual workflows. 

The problem McKinsey doesn’t address is why, for years now, they’ve been selling AI as though it were an easy money maker. 

None of us should doubt that AI is transformational tech.  

The harsh truth: AI implementation is brutally hard, and the road to real ROI is a minefield.

McKinsey or big tech telling us otherwise is and has always been hype. 


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👉SINGAPORE FINTECH FESTIVAL STARTS WEDNESDAY! 🇸🇬

Hey, I’d love to see you in Singapore! If you’re going, leave a comment or drop me a PM, and we can meet at the Tencent booth.

♻️Repost to share these important articles on banks and AI with others

State of AI 2025: Bottom-Line Gains from AI Remain Elusive

✦Weekend Read✦ World Bank: Developing Nations to Rely on Open Source AI, Handing China the Win.

The World Bank shows that AI is gaining momentum in developing countries and driving growth opportunities. 

This is great news and tracks with surveys showing high levels of enthusiasm for AI throughout the developing world. 

The problem for Silicon Valley is that the developing world isn't planning on paying for ChatGPT, Anthropic, or Google LLM subscriptions. 

Instead, they are looking to open source, which plays directly into China's hands as the world leader in open source AI.

Just this week, a Hugging Face-MIT report claimed a "rebalancing of power," in AI markets. 

Chinese open source models reached 17.1% of global downloads, higher than the US's 15.7% share. 

China not only has more open source models available, but their quality is second to none. 

Another attraction is that China's models require far less computing power.

Chat GPT and others in Silicon Valley, who were assuming that their closed models would capture global revenue streams, should be worried. 

The market is slipping away from them quickly, and with it, Washington's goal of US AI dominance. 

Open-source technologies are helping democratize AI participation—and that's fundamentally good for the developing world. 

Whose open-source AI is used is up to the market, but the balance is tipping in China's favor. 

👉How to read this report: my recommendation is to go straight to the section on AI models, Chapter 4, page 57. 

👉The World Bank on Open Source AI:

🔹 Open-source Al is proliferating and allows developing countries to adapt global solutions to their local needs.

🔹 Developing countries could face challenges in adopting Al because models are misaligned with local needs. Open-source Al models can lower the barrier to entry for developing countries, enabling them to adapt and customize Al solutions to local needs without incurring high licensing costs.

🔹 Open-source models are growing rapidly and narrowing the performance gaps with proprietary models. Open-source models are also increasingly challenging proprietary models in terms of performance.

♻️Repost to share this great World Bank report on AI with others

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Developing nations open-source AI use, hands China the win

Tencent's Bold Move Bringing "Cashless" China Overseas

Tencent announced a batch of new products at the Singapore Fintech Fest that are designed to allow greater access and more convenient cross-border payments.

Famed for its Weixin Pay (aka WeChat Pay), the company was instrumental in China's going cashless and now is building a future where payments are efficient and effortless.

Tencent continues to innovate, ensuring that Weixin Pay users abroad and foreign payment users in China get the cashless experience they deserve.

Let’s look at today’s reveals:

1️⃣ Easy Pay with Weixin Pay: pay anywhere 

Easy Pay is allowing Weixin to connect more payment providers than ever before.

Built on the central bank’s newly launched Cross-border Payment Gateway (CPG), it makes connecting two payment systems a breeze.

When Weixin is connected with a foreign payment system like Singapore’s SGQR+, Malaysia’s DuitNow, or Thailand’s PromptPay, Chinese Weixin users can make payments abroad through the connected system.

International users using these connected networks will not need to download Weixin to pay.   They can continue to use your trusted wallet like PayPal or even Venmo by scanning a Wexin QR code! 

2️⃣ Tencent Palm: more than payments, infrastructure

Palm payments are growing up! 

Now they are doing more than just payments, but are becoming part of our digital infrastructure.

Besides providing full pass-through digital wallet capabilities, Tencent Palm will open doors and control access to companies or universities.

Tencent palm payments work not just with WeChat Pay but with other payment providers.

Tencent is onto something, combining world-leading AI biometrics used for payments with other secure activities that benefit from the combination with payments.

Using a palm for payment is magical, and the best feature for many is that, unlike facial scans, you control when you use your palm.

3️⃣ Tenpay checkout: miniprograms go international 

Any WeChat user knows that mini programs are what put the super into Weixin’s super app.

Now miniprograms are going international with the ability to take payments in local currencies.

This means a merchant in Singapore or Macau can build a miniprogram for Weixin and take payments using local payment networks.

This is big because WeChat mini programs are already at work in some 92 countries, most tailored for Chinese tourists with payments made through Weixin.
.
Tencent paid for me to attend the Singapore Fintech Festival, making this a “sponsored” post. 

Sponsored or not, Tencent’s vision of “technology for good” and a "Cashless" future shines through. 

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Hey, if you're in Singapore, leave a comment or drop me a PM, and we can meet at the Tencent booth.  Would love to meet you in person! 

♻️Repost to share these important news from the fintech festival with others

Tencent's Bold Move Bringing "Cashless" China Overseas

The workforce of the future will be a partnership of people, agents, and robots, but being "relevant" won't help you keep your job  — only being “essential” will.

McKinsey suggests that the partnerships you’ll form with agents and robots on the job will be enhanced by humans being relevant.  

👉My suggestion: don’t strive for relevance, strive for being essential!

McKinsey is correct, learning to partner with agents and robots is an important skill for every employee to learn, but only essential employees will get to use it. 

Being “relevant” is simply too low a bar to ensure future employment.  

Let that sink in if you’ve got more than five years left working.

McKinsey is totally unconvincing in trying to paint a bright picture of a future where we sing “Kumbaya” as skilled partners with agents and robots. 

Their own statistics sing a far more sober tune. 

McKinsey finds that currently demonstrated technologies could, in theory, automate activities accounting for about 57% of US work hours today.

While McKinsey is quick to point out that the 57% is not a forecast of job losses, it is absurd to think that this figure does not reflect the scale of the downsizing ahead. 

For many employees, within this 57%, their ability to form partnerships will be irrelevant. 

McKinsey tries to paint a bright picture for employment, focusing on the 70% of human skills that will remain relevant.  

McKinsey has no answer for what will happen when a single partnered human can do the work of four or five due to efficiency gains.  

This is where being essential, at whatever job you do, will be more critical than ever.

Learn AI, agents, and robots, learn how to partner, but most of all, be essential!  

McKinsey estimates that by 2030, AI-powered agents and robots could generate about $2.9 trillion in US economic value per year.

Relying on being “relevant” during a period of such tremendous disruption is a very poor workplace survival strategy.

♻️Repost to share this advice about being "essential" when the AI disruption hits with others

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Partnering is good — being "essential" is much better!

Tokenization: Stalled by an Adoption Gap

Token issuers are giving the sell side a product that doesn’t fit on their systems, and they don’t really want, while their buy-side clients haven’t yet seen any real advantages to buying them.  

That's the problem in a nutshell, and the MAS and the UK's FCA look at the reality, not the hype of tokenization.  

“The tokenised asset market currently suffers from a fundamental disconnect between what issuers build, how sell-side intermediaries operate, and what investors – mainly institutional – need."

"This misalignment has created an “adoption gap” where promising technology fails to achieve meaningful adoption, limiting the transformative potential of tokenisation.”

Let's look at the three key players:  

↳Issuers: 

Issuers, primarily from the crypto world, want to get the tokens out fast and make the tech sexy. 

This creates what the paper terms an “innovation trap,” where technological sophistication doesn’t work with institutional investors.  

Sure, you can sell to crypto natives with this formula, but not traditional sell-side institutions. 

↳Sell-side

Tokenization is like throwing a grenade in the sell-side business model and expecting them to say thank you. 

It blows up years of predictable regulations, SOPs, and tech infrastructure.

Then, as though that wasn’t enough, tokenized assets compress their margins!   

Is it any wonder the sell-side is in no rush?  


↳Buy-side

The buy-side is more sympathetic to tokenization if they can see the aforementioned margin compression, and or other clear advantages.  

The problem is that, for now, that isn’t happening. 

In these early days, the fees to purchase a tokenized asset can be more expensive than on traditional networks.

This is before buyers deal with regulatory compliance and risk management!

This leads many to take a “wait and see” approach.  

See the adoption gap between the three?  

Thanks to Alan Lim for recommending this paper and a great chat at SFF! 

♻️Repost to share this great read on tokenization with others

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Director, Financial Infrastructure & AI Office, MAS

Tokenization: Stalled by an Adoption Gap

Tokenization Is Here – But 85% of Institutions Predict a Slow Rollout 

Tokenization is here, and it works with 91% of custodians citing improvements in efficiency and transparency, and most early adopters are realizing substantial benefits. 

The bigger question is how long we will have to wait, when 81% of early adopter individual investors and 85% of institutional investors say adoption will be slow.

The Broadridge Tokenization Survey is refreshingly hype-free and covers 300 financial institutions and reveals that early adopters like Hamilton Lane, Apollo Global Management, and KKR love it and are seeing real benefits. 

With names like this participating, it’s clear that tokenization has broken through to the big time. 

The most significant revelation in the survey is that tokenization’s benefits are real, and early adopters’ top three benefits are transparency 76%, reduced operational costs 74%, and increased efficiencies 65%.

These are impressive results, but what we still do not know is how quickly the supertankers that are global financial markets make a turn toward tokenization.  

Regulatory risk is by far the biggest hindrance to tokenization. 

Even among early adopters, 65% fear regulatory risk, and among future adopters rises to a lofty 78%. 

The biggest issues remain classifying tokenized instruments as securities, investor protection, and standardized protocols for transactions.  

To date, only small gains have been made, and that should concern us all. 

This means that even the most well-intentioned early adopters of tokenization are out on a limb without regulatory clarity and standardization. 

This leaves many FinServs in a state of limbo, and that is unfortunate for all of us.


♻️Repost to share this hype-free report on tokenization with others

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Tokenization Is Here – But 85% Predict a Slow Rollout 

IMF Reveals Stablecoins' Dark Side: Fueling Illicit Flows, Volatility Risks & Oversight Failures in Fragile Economies

The IMF's latest report pulls no punches on stablecoins – and the crypto backlash is already fierce.

Critics dismiss it as outdated thinking, but the IMF's warnings on monetary stability deserve attention.

Will anyone actually listen to the IMF?

Or are we so blinded by our desire for stablecoin miracles that we lose track of the risks? 

One stablecoin expert pushes back on the report:

“The benefits far outweigh the concerns. The report fails to acknowledge most people live in highly unstable fiat economies.”

Fair point on fiat instability — but does that justify replacing it with private, under-regulated money that may fragment payments? 

Who gave him greater expertise than the IMF on stablecoin risks vs. benefits?

While the IMF isn't perfect, it does understand money better than most stablecoin evangelists. 

IMF's Key Stablecoin Risks

↳ Stablecoins can fluctuate in value due to market and liquidity risks in their reserve assets, triggering sharp drops if confidence erodes.

↳ Limited redemption rights increase the likelihood of runs, potentially causing fire sales that impair market functioning.

↳ Widespread adoption could lead to currency substitution, undermining monetary sovereignty and weakening domestic monetary policy.

↳ Stablecoins can increase capital flow volatility by bypassing controls, especially in countries with weaker institutions.

↳ They may fragment payment systems without ensured interoperability, reducing efficiency and creating silos!!!!

↳ Risks are amplified in countries with high inflation, weak institutions, or low confidence in local currency, threatening macrofinancial stability.

↳ Operational, financial integrity (including money laundering), and legal certainty risks rise without adequate regulations, supervision, and backstops.

↳ Cross-border nature complicates regulation, data compilation, and international cooperation, potentially leading to policy conflicts.

↳ Fragmented global regulations create arbitrage opportunities, weakening overall effectiveness.

↳ Unhosted wallets and a lack of holder visibility limit enforcement and data-driven decision-making.

👉Which risk worries you most – or do you think the IMF is wrong? 
✍️Comment below.

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IMF Reveals Stablecoins' Dark Side

SE Asia's QR Code Revolution Fuels Double-Digit Digital Finance Growth Beyond Payments

Google, TEMASEK, and Bain & Co look at Southeast Asia’s (SEA’s) digital economy and see sustained double-digit growth in everything from e-commerce to digital finance. 

Behind this growth are QR code-based payments, which serve as the foundation behind SEA’s digital boom and are paving the way for its AI surge.  

Like China, whose model for success SEA copied, QR payments are the bedrock on which many other digital advances are built. 

Everything from online travel, transport, food, gaming, and digital wealth relies on QR payments for low-friction transfers.

That said, the Digital Finance Market in SEA is far more than just QR code payments. (See pages 30-38)

Digital wealth scored an incredible 24% YoY growth, while payments (19%), lending (18%), and insurance (16%) all scored impressive growth.  

Unsurprisingly, credit card volumes remained flat YoY. 

Part of this growth in digital financial services can be attributed to embedding financial services on digital platforms, which is much further advanced when compared to the West.

SEA’s digitally engaged population is now looking at AI, and consumers are 3X more interested in AI than in the rest of the world and 1.6X more positive. (See pages 52-68).

Unsurprisingly, AI is in part being driven by superapps that make huge use of it across their platforms (WeChat has around 20 uses in its app). The other key factor is that employees do not see AI replacing their jobs.  

So while SEA nations may have a host of other problems, going digital isn’t one of them.  

SEA continues to be a model for digitization that other nations could learn from. 

And all of this growth started with the humble QR code! 

♻️Repost to share this great news on digital SE Asia with others

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🔺Onalytica No.4 Global Fintech Influencer with two best-sellers.

SE Asia's QR Codes Fuel Digital Finance Growth

S&P Global Ratings downgraded Tether, the world’s largest stablecoin, to its lowest rating, “Weak,” showing a harsh verdict and little faith in the world’s largest stablecoin to hold its peg. 

We are all being asked to “trust” in stablecoins, but here we have Tether, which underpins the entire crypto ecosystem, shown to be anything but trustworthy.

Tether commands a roughly 65% market share on $53T in stablecoin transactions in the past 12 months, with $184B in outstanding coins. (Visa Onchain Analytics)

For objective readers, the ability of Tether to hold its dollar peg depends on its asset quality.

↳Tether now has 24% of its total reserves in corporate bonds, precious metals, bitcoin, and secured loans, which are subject to price volatility and not always liquid. 

↳Tether claims to be over collateralized at 103.9% but with Bitcoin making up 5.6% of its reserves and its recent price drops, that number is likely already lower.

↳Tether's home?  El Salvador, where local regulations only require 70% of its reserves to be held in an asset that can be liquidated within 30 days!   How’s that for building trust? 

This is why Tether fought against the GENIUS Act tooth-and-nail!   

Now it will issue a GENIUS Act-compliant stablecoin, USA₮, which will mean that you can pick which Tether coin to use.   

The US will allow Tether to run a non-GENIUS Act-compliant coin in El Salvador that is favored by money launderers while it runs a compliant, clean coin in the US.  

Does that sound odd to you? 

Tether shows just how bad unregulated stablecoins can be and that size ≠ safety.


🦃 Happy Thanksgiving! 🦃 

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S&P Downgrades Tether to its LOWEST Rating

IBM’s 5 Trends for 2026: Owning AI Mistakes & Sovereign AI Are The Biggest Risks

IBM looks at the macro view of 2026 and identifies five trends that it considers “fleeting opportunities,” but I see most of them as risks waiting to blow.  

Two in particular will be big in 2026:

↳Trend 3 has customers holding corporate AI’s accountable, and in 2026, we will see the first big blow-up and lawsuits surrounding the AI system owned by a large multinational coming off the rails.  

Yes, customers will hold AI accountable, and when it makes a mistake, they will sue the responsible owner in a heartbeat. 

We’ve been spared any front-page lawsuits so far, but don’t think it’s because AI governance is good.  

Review any of the reports on AI governance, and they reveal how it is inadequate and bolted on as an afterthought. 

So far, most companies have had dumb luck, but the clock is ticking. 

↳Trend 4 on sovereign AI is another big risk. 

As data becomes ever more localized, it’s just a matter of time before companies will need to build local AI or run afoul of data localization problems.  

The days when data zipped across national borders to Silicon Valley are long gone. 

Nations, large and small, are asking the question they should have asked with the launch of Google in 1998: “Where is the data going?”  

The problem is that companies will likely get hit with localization requests after they’re up and running, which will throw a monkey wrench into very expensive AIs.  

Wait for fines, penalties, and bad press.   Remember TikTok? 
 
I enjoyed the other five as well, but sometimes some of the survey results stretch credulity.  

Does anyone believe that “48% of employees say they’d be comfortable being managed by an AI agent?”   

Really?  Let me know if you’re ready for an AI agent manager!  

The Five Trends:

1️⃣ Uncertainty will be your greatest asset—if you embrace it.

2️⃣ Employees will want more AI—not less.

3️⃣ Customers will hold your AI accountable.

4️⃣ Global AI resilience will require a local safety net.

5️⃣ Quantum advantage will demand strength in numbers.


♻️Repost to share these Big Insights for 2026 with others

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Owning AI Mistakes & Sovereign AI Are The Biggest Risks

Tencent's "Tech for Good" Reimagines Remittances

Remittances are an important part of financial inclusion, and no one feels the burn of high transfer costs more than China’s foreign workers sending hard-earned money home to support families.

Along with yesterday’s new product announcements, Tencent launched Tenpay Global Cross-Border Remittance Service, which is in keeping with its motto “tech for good.”

What makes this service unique is how Weixin (WeChat) uses its mini-programs to give those sending remittances a choice in who will send their remittances back to China.  

Instead of promoting a single provider, it gives each remittance provider a miniprogram and lets users select the one with the best rates or service.  

This approach reinforces Weixin’s long-standing belief that its platform is open to all, not just a selected few. 

Remittance providers include Panda Remit, Remitly, Western Union, Ria, Moneygram, Wise, and over 60 + remittance partners in over 100 countries. 

Users sending money back to China can compare the rates of providers and even see the amount received by loved ones on many of the mini-programs.

Surprisingly, many Chinese use Western Union brick-and-mortar stores for remittances.   

Partnering with Tencent, they built a mini-program to allow users to digitally fill out transfer forms in Mandarin, breaking language barriers.

Yesterday, I mentioned “Tencent Palm,” which is a way of using palm biometrics not just for payment but for infrastructure. 

Tencent took me on a tour today to see “Tencent Palm” in action, and it was worth the trip.  

We made stops at the Singapore Institute of Technology and Adventure Cove water park, which is part of the “Casino and Resorts World Sentosa,” a large theme park operator and “anywheel” bike ride share company.  

What do a Tech School, bike sharing, and a water park have in common?  

All are using palm readers to control access and make payments on site.

Students and water park goers can gain access to the facilities and pay for dinner at the school cafeteria or water park, all with a swipe of their palm.

Bicycle sharing company “AnyWheel” will soon have prototype shared bikes with pay by palm enabled for hassle-free riding. 

Seeing these products at work showed how access and payment by palm go beyond convenience. 

It is digital infrastructure that transforms how we interact with our environment.  

This is a sponsored article. Tencent paid for me to travel to Singapore.  

Despite being sponsored, it’s hard for an objective reader to see how Tencent’s work in remittances and improving access by going cashless is anything but “tech for good.” 

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Hey, if you're in Singapore for the final day of SFF leave a comment or drop me a PM, and we can meet at the Tencent booth. Would love to meet you in person! 

♻️Repost to share this news on remittances with others

Tencent's "Tech for Good" Reimagines Remittances

UNDP’s “Great AI Divide”: APAC Rich Nations Leap Ahead, Poor Nations Left Behind

A sobering new UNDP report warns that unmanaged AI risks widening inequality between nations — not just within them.

Key takeaways from “The Next Great Divergence: Why AI May Widen Inequality Between Countries”:

1️⃣  Starting lines are wildly uneven

-Asia-Pacific (55% of world population) now hosts >50% of global AI users
-China alone files ~70% of worldwide AI patents
-ASEAN economies could unlock ~$1 trillion in extra GDP over the next decade

2️⃣ Massive upside — if countries are ready

-Potential +2 ppt annual GDP growth
-Up to 5% productivity gains in health, finance, and public services
-Real-world wins are already evident: Bangkok’s Traffy Fondue (600k citizen reports resolved), Singapore’s Moments of Life (paperwork slashed from 120 → 15 mins)

3️⃣ Serious downside without deliberate action

-Women’s jobs are nearly 2× more exposed to automation
-Women in South Asia are 40% less likely to own smartphones  
-Youth employment is already declining in high-exposure roles
-Rural & indigenous communities invisible in training data → algorithmic exclusion
-No AI regulation, accountability, or bias control.

The big problem is capability — skills, computing power, and governance.  In some cases, connectivity is still precarious.

Affordability is another major issue. 

A recent survey showed 72% of emerging market corporate IT respondents can't afford Silicon Valley AI subscriptions.

This is why, for many, the only option will be to run China's open-source AI.  

What choice do they have? 

Countries that invest now will accelerate.

Those who don’t risk falling irreversibly behind.  

The Great AI Divide isn't coming.  

It's already here. 

What’s one policy or investment you believe is non-negotiable for emerging nations to make use of AI?


♻️Repost to share this AI inequality problem with others

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APAC Rich Nations Leap Ahead, Poor Left Behind

Tokenization, Stablecoins & AI: Here, But Stuck in 2nd Gear

This week’s theme: Speed

(Yes, today’s artwork is a nod to my childhood hero, Speed Racer and his Mach 5 car — or Mahha GōGōGō for the purists.)

Three transformative technologies — tokenization, stablecoins, and AI — were all sold to us as “Mach 5” revolutions.

Reality? Most are still warming up in second gear.

Here’s the honest speed check:

1️⃣ Tokenization
Large institutions are genuinely interested, but adoption is moving slower than expected.

Missing global standards + fragmented cross-border regulation remain the biggest roadblocks.

Securities markets don’t move until the rules are crystal clear.

2️⃣ Stablecoins
Headlines scream “Klarna launches its own stablecoin!” and make it feel like we’re lapping the field.

Truth: Minting a coin is the easy part.
Winning trust, liquidity, merchant acceptance, and solving real problems (Tether’s recent downgrade is Exhibit A) is the long race.

Anyone can start in pole position — finishing is another story.

3️⃣ AI in the workplace
Executives believe their teams are eager and ready for rapid AI deployment.

Employees? Mostly anxious about job security and feel left in the dark.

This “enthusiasm gap” is the single largest brake on enterprise AI adoption today.

Bonus Read: The World Bank just highlighted how developing nations are turning to open-source AI to avoid sky-high licensing costs.

That trend is handing China — now the global leader in open-source model downloads — a strategic advantage.

👉Bottom line:
In tokenization, stablecoins, and AI, speed is governed by trust, standards, and people — not just technology.

The winners won’t be the fastest to announce.

They’ll be the ones who bring everyone along at the right pace and focus on the details that will bring these technologies into mainstream finance, not hype their potential.

What’s the biggest speed limiter you’re seeing in your world right now?

Regulation? Trust? People? Drop it below 👇

♻️Repost to share this great newsletter with others, they'll thank you! 

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🔺 Follow for #Fintech, #AI and #Tech at the speed of #Asia and #China.

Thanks for reading the “Cashless” newsletter, an insider’s view on Asia’s fintech, CBDC, and AI for anyone striving to understand “the Asia Century.” 

Tokenization and Stablecoins are Here – But Stuck in 2nd Gear

Mobile Money in Asia Never Ceases to Amaze: Even when UPI and WeChat are Excluded.

QR Code payments for mobile money in Asia now make up 76% of merchant payments for “mobile money” compared to 46% globally.

Remember, mobile money is defined as a "non-bank digital wallet," so India’s UPI and China’s WeChat and Alipay aren’t included in this report.  

Mobile money is a key component of financial inclusion, and that’s why the “Mobile Money Report” from the GSMA is one of my favorite reads. 

The report tracks the growth, adoption, and impact of mobile money services, with a focus on emerging markets and their impact on inclusion. 

Tonight I just wanted to look at Asia because, frankly, the numbers are incredible. 

To be fair, Sub-Saharan Africa is actually the world leader in mobile money, but Asia, with its QR networks, is still the one to watch.

Why?  Because these figures tell only half of Asia’s story. 

To understand the full impact of mobile payments, not just mobile money, imagine adding UPI’s 491 million users and WeChat’s 1.2 billion users to these figures!  

Each statistic below shows that more people across Asia are gaining financial access, which is why this report is always inspiring! 

(Note: Asia comprises “South Asia:” India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and “East Asia and Pacific:” Indonesia, Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Fiji.

👉Read through these stats slowly for impact:

🔹 QR codes remain the preferred channel for merchant payments in Asia and are accepted in 76% compared to 46% globally.

🔹 862 million registered users for a 41% global share. (Note this is mobile money and excludes WeChat’s 1.2 billion and UPI’s 491 billion users!) 

🔹 One in three new registered accounts globally originates from Asia

🔹 Asia’s proportion of digital transactions reaches 80% in East Asia! 🔥

🔹 Asia transacts about $500 billion annually. [China’s mobile payments alone $48T. ]

🔹 P2P payments represent roughly 70% of all payment types. 

🔹 Remittance transfers using mobile money grew by nearly 50% last year. 

🔹 Banks connecting to mobile money platforms increased by 20% 

🔹 Many mobile money systems use Agents to receive and disburse payments. Asia’s agent numbers are low in part because of QR codes and the greater use of smartphones, not feature phones.  

♻️Repost to share Asia focused mobile money insights with others

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🔺Onalytica No.4 Global Fintech Influencer with two best-sellers.

Mobile Money in Asia Never Ceases to Amaze

✦Weekend Read✦   Deloitte:  High Impact AI Use Cases Across Six Industries

Deloitte with a great read that shows "high impact" use cases across six industries. 

While I, of course, loved the section on financial services (pg 65), the uses in other industries I don't keep up with were even more fascinating to me.  

Who would have guessed AI is being used to for "Autonomous drone-based infrastructure inspection" (pg 43) as power line inspection isn't quite in my daily reading section.  

Or how about as a "co-writer for appeals" when a medical insurance claim is denied.  60% of claims are recoverable and AI can help compile the appeal from medical records.    Who'd have guessed?    

So this is a weekend read because at 190 pages, it is fun to just curl up and flick through some of the astounding use cases! 

Enjoy your weekend! 

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👉SINGAPORE FINTECH FESTIVAL NEXT WEEK! 🇸🇬

Hey, I’d love to see you in Singapore! If you’re going, leave a comment or drop me a PM, and we can meet at the Tencent booth.

♻️Repost to share these important thoughts on AI empathy with others

High Impact AI Use Cases in Six Industries

🔥Special Edition🔥: Banks and AI – 77% See No Change in GenAI ROI Year on Year

This week, I’ve got a special for you focusing on banks and AI, and every story is a winner!

I lead with Google’s report on GenAI use in financial services that shows how for 77% of finservs ROI has gone sideways since last year, with few appreciable gains. 

This is a shocker and doesn’t live up to Google’s consistent narrative that GenAI will be a big money maker for banks. 

The way Google buries this story in its report is yet another glaring example of how it sells hype more than reality. 

I do need to give Google some credit. The report does show how, while many finservs are lagging with AI adoption, those who are adopting AI are seeing some reasonable gains. 

BCG looks at AI in banking and sees $370B in profits in play, with the warning that if banks don’t adopt AI, they will become irrelevant. 

BCG is correct. Banks that remain AI laggards, like those shown in Google’s report above, will have a hard time being relevant next to banks that offer extensive AI services.  

The problem is that, from Google’s report and many others we’ve seen, more banks are AI laggards than AI adopters.

Banks appear to be as slow to adapt to AI as they were to fintech. This means that a big piece of the banking sector is doomed to irrelevance and eventual buyouts or takeovers.

So what do banks need to do to make breakthrough AI that users trust?  

It turns out that they need to build empathy into AI and that this is not as impossible as it may at first sound.

Empathy allows humans to warm up and feel that the AI is relating to their problem, not just fulfilling a specified use case. 

I confess this paper on empathy was my favorite read this week. It really is fun, and I urge you to read it to see how banks can win with AI. 

So big international banks just need to build one AI solution and can roll it out to other regions to capture AI profits, right?   

Not so fast!  With increasing demands for “sovereign AI,” banks should be thinking about building AIs that are used in one specific country to conform with data privacy and other local AI laws. 

Our final story is about APAC winning the AI race with more users than any other region in the world!  

Interestingly, not only are there more users in APAC, but those who are using AI are more enthusiastic than in any other region!  

This article speaks to how important the human factor is in AI adoption. Asia’s high adoption rate is fueled by human enthusiasm and the desire to use AI. 


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👉SINGAPORE FINTECH FESTIVAL NEXT WEEK! 🇸🇬

Hey, I’d love to see you in Singapore! If you’re going, leave a comment or drop me a PM, and we can meet at the Tencent booth.

♻️Repost to share these important articles on banks and AI with others

Special Edition: Banks and AI – 77% See No Change in GenAI ROI Year on Year.

Deepfakes 2025: The $10.5T Trust No-One Economy Is Officially Here

Citi Institute published a report on deepfakes that I am sharing as a public service announcement, with the recommendation to all readers of “Trust No-One.”

This is personal, with hundreds of hours of video and voice available, and living in AI-rich Asia, I am a prime target for fraud.

As a result, I instructed all family members NEVER to respond to a call or message asking for money, claiming I am in the hospital, or asking for personal details, even if they are sure it’s me. 

While it may sound simple, I told my brothers a secret two-way password that I would use when discussing any financial or medical transactions over the phone.  

Am I paranoid? 

I don’t think so, and while it is a ridiculously simple solution, I recommend it to others for at least some minimal amount of protection.

We now live in an era of “Zero-Trust Communication” where trust can no longer be assumed.  

Trust has to be continuously verified, and while my secret code may be far too simple, it changes the odds at least slightly in my favor.  

I also vet every social media interaction through friends for identity validation.  

As Citi says: “never trust, always verify”.

I received a message on LinkedIn for a consulting project a month ago.  

My first response was not to write back, but to reach out to a trusted shared contact to verify that the person existed and was real.  

This is a sad state of affairs, but it is the “new normal” in the age of AI, and why financial crimes are skyrocketing. 

Financial crimes, particularly on real-time payments, are not network hacks, but real people willingly transferring money to deepfakes.

There is no AI in the world that can stop real people willingly sending money.   

Fighting AI with AI?  

That’s the mantra I hear repeated daily, but the sad reality is that criminal use of AI is far more innovative and evolves faster than anything at a bank or payment system. 

Criminals innovate by doing and live testing, banks can at best respond to the threat after it succeeds, rarely head them off. 

The good guys are losing, and that’s the sad truth. 

Kudos to Ronit Ghose and the entire team for this important read

♻️Repost to share this important read on Deepfakes with others

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🔺Onalytica No.4 Global Fintech Influencer with two best-sellers.

Onboard A380 | Future Money author | Future of Finance think-tank | Fintech | Digital Assets | Advisory | Investing

Deepfakes 2025: The $10.5T Trust No-One Economy

Klarna launching a stablecoin is today’s breaking news, but the reality is that with hundreds of new stablecoins launching, it doesn’t really matter, and I have to ask why anyone should care.  

Some will look at me incredulously and say, Of course, it matters!

Klarna’s big! It has 114 million customers and $112 billion in annual gross merchandise volume.  

And what does it want to do with these stablecoins?  

The same thing as everyone else: reduce costs associated with cross-border payments.

So forgive me if I yawn. 

We’ll still have Wise, Revolut, Circle, and Tether for low-cost retail money transfers among dozens of others, and a host of wholesale bank tokenized deposits.  

While it certainly may be convenient for some customers, how much is Klarna really going to make on it?  

The whole idea of stablecoin transfers is that they're cheap, so good luck turning these transfers into money makers.

The more interesting use case for Klarna is internal wholesale transfers like Ant Group, which, at least for now, is using deposit tokens!

Add to the problem, competitors racing to zero-cost transfers to capture market share, and we have to ask if Klarna has the stamina to hold out.

This is no joke, given its 30% drop in stock price since listing, bringing it to new lows. 

🔹Pick a stablecoin, any stablecoin.  

The larger problem is that with hundreds of new stablecoins announced, it will be a bloody battle to attract users.  

What exactly is the difference between a Klarna stablecoin, Wise’s, or Circlecoin?  

The obvious answer is that some will be embedded on the platform to make them easy to use.  

Great! Klarna coin embeds to make it effortless, but what about Tether or anyone else’s coin?  

Embedding will serve what 1% of the theoretical stablecoin use cases? And the other 99%? 

It’s not enough to simply mint a stablecoin. That part is easy, which is why we are seeing so many announcements.  

The problem is getting anyone to use it and to achieve broad-based acceptance.   

🔹Fragmenting your wallet? 

What we are already seeing is the fragmentation of the monetary system, and this has profound consequences. 

We are used to Visa and Mastercard networks that transfer fiat, where you take your card out at a merchant and pay.

Stablecoins can make no such guarantee, and whether your bank or your local merchant accepts Klarna Coin or any other will be up in the air.  

Some may argue that solutions like Ubyx Inc., which will operate a clearing system for stablecoins, will make stablecoins ubiquitous. 

Yes, but with hundreds of stablecoin providers, many will be on their own. 

So will your bank accept a Klarna coin?  

Who knows? 

I wish Klarna success, but no, I’m not excited in the least.  

♻️Reposters, you rock!  Please share with others

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Ubyx Inc.

Why Klarna’s Stablecoin Matters Less Than You Think

Asia Special ☯︎: QR Code Revolution Fuels Double-Digit Digital Finance Growth

This week, I’ve got a special for you focusing on Asia and the impact of real-time QR payments in the region.

That’s why today’s art has a decidedly Asian feel to it, with my use of Tintin, a beloved cartoon character from my childhood.

The first three articles below all show how instant QR-code payments have fundamentally changed Southeast Asia (SEA) and APAC.

The first two show clearly that QR code payments are the foundation on which Asia’s digital growth is based. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone!

SEA and APAC are copying China’s tremendous success with WeChat Pay and Alipay, and who can blame them?

This leaves credit card companies in the unenviable position of having flat growth in the region.

In the third article produced by Visa, we can see how bad it is for cards.

Visa’s research shows that in SEA, 46% use RTP and mobile payments versus 21% for cards! This is why Visa is mounting a “Trojan Horse” attack on RTPs!

Do you have a family password for financial and medical discussions with family members?

I know this may sound like an odd question. But after you read Citi’s take on “deep fake” frauds, you’ll see it’s simple protection in a world of digital frauds.

That’s why I call this article a “public service announcement” because this is such an important read for you and your families.

So today I put up what will undoubtedly be a controversial article declaring that China will win the “AI war.”

I believe China will win not because of chips but because of trust. I’ve put this article behind a paywall but left enough showing to give non-subscribers the general idea.

This comes hot on a similar announcement that China is winning from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, which most definitely turned heads.

Finally, I have a fantastic “Bonus Read” showing Asia’s love affair with all digital assets, including crypto.

I’m not a crypto fan, but it is simply too big in Asia to be ignored.

If you love crypto, please read this article. It’s a good one.

If you hate crypto, read the selected chapter (pg 74) to see why it is useful in Asia!

♻️Repost to share this Asia focused newsletter with others

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🔺 Follow for #Fintech, #AI and #Tech at the speed of #Asia and #China.

Asia Special: QR Code Revolution Fuels Double-Digit Digital Finance Growth

Aram Mughalyan

Flipside

Helping blockchains and protocols scale and grow using data science.

Director of Strategic Partnerships and Business Development

Antler

Antler is a global early-stage venture capital firm that invests in the defining technology companies of tomorrow.

Entrepreneur

Solidate

A user-owned web3 DAO. Working with the best web3 companies to help them hire top crypto talent.

Co-Founder

DigiAlly

• Worked with a top bank develop a new customer acquisition strategy and funnel by partnering with an SME networking platform; identified the key bottlenecks, leading to higher conversion ratio for SME loan sales
• Helped a top bank grow its SME loan book while saving on customer acquisition and onboarding costs and cutting the lending decision-making time

Strategy and Digital Consultant

Siemens Advanta Consulting

• Planned a new setup of Siemens Energy (Renewables, Gas & Power businesses of Siemens) and developed a corporate strategy for its carveout and public listing in 2020
• Analyzed the market and competitive landscape, forecasted future trends, defined market scenarios, and streamlined the portfolio of Siemens Energy to be in line with the projected corporate growth strategy
• Drove the transformation of O&G business: Identified cost-saving opportunities to reduce operating expenses and developed an implementation plan, employing JIRA online Kanban tool to manage the process

Strategy Consultant

Speed Marine Qatar

The distributor of BRP (Bombardier Recreational Products) and Gulf Craft luxury yachts and motorsport vehicles in Qatar/UAE
• Devised sales and marketing strategies based on the analysis of the competition and historical sales; implemented the strategies to acquire new customers, delivering an annual sales increase
• Identified strategic growth opportunities by conducting a comprehensive market research in the UAE, Qatar, and Bahrain, convinced the board to enter the UAE market and led the expansion process
• Designed new operational and logistics processes aimed at customer service improvement at branches and service centers, resulting in operating expenses reduction

Sales and Marketing Director

Vitesse LLC

The distributor of BRP (Bombardier Recreational Products) motorsport vehicles and personal watercraft
• Examined the company’s past performance and enacted new marketing and sales strategies to adapt to the fast-changing internal and external business conditions, acquiring additional market share

Commercial Director

Shen Holding CJSC

• Negotiated with suppliers and introduced new products, growing the product range and sales
• Orchestrated logistics processes improvements in the warehouses and stores, cutting delivery time of goods

Director of Retail Stores

iVending

• Built from scratch and led it to become the largest vending machine operator in the region, with 100+ locations
• Initiated market penetration strategies, achieving profitability in the first year

Simplifying web3 for the 99% | Helping you build a Personal Brand on LinkedIn | Crypto Native and Web3 KOL | Shirtless Ultramarathoner

--- My DMs are open, so anyone can drop me a message here on LinkedIn. ---

𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐫𝐞 3 𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐈 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐲𝐨𝐮:

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DM me here for more details.

𝐌𝐲 𝐁𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐠𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝:

On LinkedIn, I'm a crypto degen, web3 Content Creator & KOL/Influencer.

Outside of LinkedIn, I'm an entrepreneur who likes taking things from 0 to 1, with a keen interest in web3, crypto, and AI. 

I run Solidate, a web3 talent DAO and also serve as an Advisor/Fractional Head of BD/Growth/Chief of Staff for a number of web3 startups.

As a former consulting and strategy professional, I have 10+ years of experience across Strategy, BD/Growth, and Marketing roles at firms of all sizes ranging from startups to large multinationals.

My career journey has taken me across Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, so I've lived, worked, and studied in 13 countries and traveled to 50+ ones. 

Finally, I'm an athlete and after work, I run shirtless Ultramarathons - Something that keeps me sane and in top physical shape. 

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LinkedIn presents the biggest opportunity for professionals to generate business & connections.

Yet 99% of people never posted on LinkedIn and don't have any Personal Brand visibility.

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See your posts consistently → Check your profile → Become an inbound lead / connection

There's a clear path for you to:

- Position yourself as an industry leader
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- Turn connections into leads

But if you've never posted, getting started can be daunting. 

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But since then I have:

→ Gained 43k followers
→ Has been recognized LinkedIn Top Voice
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→ Helped others build Personal Brand and get inbound leads

So if you want to build a Personal Brand to generate more sales, DM me and let's talk.

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ZK is one of the key technologies in crypto but 99% don't understand it. 

Here's the best explainer I've seen (MUST WATCH): 👇 

Zooko, the founder of ZCash (Bitcoin on ZK rails) does a great job here.

He doesn't go into the tech gibberish but explains the underlying concepts in a simple way that even a 5-year old can understand.

So why is a ZK (zero knowledge) a big deal?

Because of its key properties:

• Anonymity: Anonymous transactions, safeguarding user privacy 
• Scalability: Compressing of data into succinct cryptographic proofs 
• Verification: Verifying data integrity while maintaining user anonymity 
• Privacy-preserving use cases: Applications in finance, identity, voting, etc. 

ZK was a bit of a latecomer to the crypto scene.

But it’s gaining serious momentum, especially among L2 rollups.

Even the price ZEC, the native coin of ZCash, increased by 10x in the last month alone.

 And this is just the beginning.

The next wave of privacy-first applications will be built on ZK rails.

P.S.
Which ZK-powered chain do you think will be the next to blow up?

♻️ Repost this to help others in your network.
📌 And follow Aram Mughalyan for more content like this.

Helping web3 B2B businesses turn LinkedIn into a lead-gen and growth engine | Building personal brands for crypto leaders | Startup & GTM Advisor | Pioneering ‘Crypto LinkedIn’ | Shirtless Ultramarathoner

JPMorgan just linked its $10 TRILLION per day payments engine to Base.

But almost nobody understands how BIG this really is. 

Let’s break it down.

JPMorgan’s payments business moves around $10T every single day.

That is more than 100x the combined daily volume of Ethereum and Bitcoin.

Even if just 1% of that ever touches onchain rails, it completely rewrites Base’s scale.

Because every transaction on Base pays fees in the network’s native asset.

So, more institutional volume on Base means more demand for ETH.

Now here’s what people keep misunderstanding.

JPM Coin is not a retail stablecoin.

It is a tokenized deposit called JPMD.

It is strictly for institutions.

And unlike stablecoins , which the GENIUS Act prohibits from offering yield, JPMD can be interest-bearing because it represents actual deposits inside JPMorgan.

This lets institutions hold dollar balances onchain without losing the yield they earn in the banking system.

Completely different category from USDC or USDT.

So what actually happens on Base?

1. An institution starts with fiat in their JPMorgan account.
   
2. JPMorgan tokenizes deposits into JPMD inside its system.
   
3. Upon client's request, JPMorgan mints JPMD directly on Base.
   
4. It still represents a claim on real US dollars sitting inside the bank.
   
5. Now it can be moved, settled, automated, or pledged as collateral instantly.

And importantly, institutions can swap JPMD into USDC on Base using approved liquidity venues.

That is the on and off ramp linking bank money to crypto-native rails.

JPMD → USDC → back to deposits at JPMorgan.

This is institutional only.

This is permissioned.

But it still uses Base as the execution layer with ETH as gas.

And JPMorgan isn’t stopping there. 

Over time, they plan to:

• Extend JPM Coin to other public chains beyond Base.
• Expand JPMD into multiple currencies.
• Give clients’ clients access JPM Coin.
  
But the biggest kicker?

JPMD will be accepted as collateral on Coinbase.

That is a global bank’s deposit token sitting inside a major crypto exchange’s collateral system.

This is why all of this matters.

Because this is the first time:

• JPMD can be swapped into USDC directly onchain
• Biggest US bank puts institutional deposits on a public L2
• Institutions get programmable settlement & treasury automation 24/7
• A bank deposit token is accepted as collateral inside the crypto markets

Not all of JPMorgan’s flow is going onchain.

But its pipe is huge.

So even a small slice of that is enough to turn Base into one of the most important financial rails in crypto.

The real adoption wave won’t be retail.

It will be trillions of institutional dollars quietly moving into programmable money.

P.S. 
Do you think any major bank can afford to ignore public chains after this?

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The biggest threat to Bitcoin is NOT regulation.

Neither it is a 51% attack by miners.

It’s a quantum computer that breaks math.

Every blockchain today relies on cryptography that assumes no computer can solve certain problems fast enough.

Quantum computing breaks that assumption.

Unlike classical machines that process 1s and 0s in sequence, quantum computers use qubits that can exist as 1 and 0 at the same time.

This lets them explore countless possibilities in parallel.

And that changes everything for crypto.

Two quantum algorithms are the real threat:

→ Shor’s algorithm, which can crack public-key cryptography used by Bitcoin and Ethereum.

→ Grover’s algorithm, which can accelerate brute-force attacks and distort mining incentives.

Shor’s is the real killer.

It can reconstruct private keys from public keys, meaning exposed wallets could be drained instantly.

Grover’s doesn’t fully break cryptography but halves the security of Bitcoin hash functions.

That means things like mining difficulty, block rewards, and even wallet password brute-forcing could be dramatically skewed.

Researchers estimate it would take around 2,300 logical qubits to break Bitcoin’s cryptography.

IBM’s most advanced chips have about 1,000 physical qubits today, but we’re likely 2 to 10 years away from real danger.

That’s within one or two Bitcoin halvings.

Here’s the catch.

About 25–30% of all Bitcoin, roughly 4 million coins, already sit in addresses with exposed public keys.

They can be copied today and decrypted later once quantum hardware catches up.

This is the “Harvest Now, Decrypt Later” scenario.

Bitcoin can defend itself, but the fix won’t be easy.

Post-quantum signature schemes already exist, but implementing them across the Bitcoin network is a nightmare.

→ Any hard fork risks splitting the chain. 
→ Billions in dormant coins will never migrate. 
→ A soft fork would take years to coordinate globally.

And there’s a philosophical war underneath it all.

Do you protect the network at the cost of changing its sacred “immutability”?

Or keep the rules pure and risk a quantum computer one day rewriting them?

Ethereum, meanwhile, is far better positioned.

Less than 1% of its supply is exposed since it hides public keys by default.

Also, its account abstraction allows users to switch to quantum-resistant signatures without a hard fork.

And after the Merge, Ethereum proved it can handle radical change without losing trust.

--

Bitcoin was designed to resist change.

Ethereum was designed to survive it.

Quantum computing isn’t a myth anymore.

And we have roughly 2 to 10 years to solve this. 

So the real question is:

Do you think Bitcoin can evolve in time, or will Ethereum end up being the only truly quantum-resistant chain standing in the future?

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Solana DeFi is undergoing a major shift.

Yet there’s NOBODY talking about it.

Over the past few months, a new category has quietly taken over Solana DEX volumes.

Private DEXs.

They now account for roughly one-third of Solana’s total trading volume.

And it’s growing every week.

So what are Private DEXs and why do they matter?

Let's dive in.

→ Public DEXs like Raydium use open liquidity pools.

Anyone can join, provide liquidity, or trade.

The problem? They leak alpha.

Every trade is visible. Every route predictable.

→ Private DEXs fix that.

They create isolated liquidity environments for large traders and market makers.

• No MEV.
• No front-running.
• No copy-trade bots eating slippage.

They’re built on Solana’s low-latency rails where private order flow can be matched instantly without broadcasting it to everyone else.

The top players in this space are:

• HumidiFi is leading with ~60% market share.
• Tessera follows with ~15%.
• SolFi sits at ~10%.

Even Jupiter, the main Solana aggregator, now routes more volume through Private AMMs than public ones.

As a result, Raydium’s market share dropped from 57% last year to just 25% today. 

Oops.

But let's be clear - This isn’t a decline in Solana DeFi.

It’s a re-architecture of it.

DeFi on Solana is splitting into two layers:

→ Public DEXs for retail flow.
→ Private DEXs for high-frequency, institutional, and sophisticated traders.

Think of it as DeFi’s version of dark pools.

Same transparency at settlement.

But better execution along the way.

And here’s where it gets interesting.

Private DEXs bring speed, privacy, and efficiency but also more centralization.

• The good → they attract institutional liquidity, improve execution, and reduce MEV.
• The bad → they risk creating “premium lanes” for insiders while the public AMMs get sidelined.

If managed well, this evolution matures Solana’s DeFi stack and builds real trading infrastructure.

If not, it could fracture the ecosystem into two classes of users — the privileged ones and the rest.

Either way, one thing’s clear:

The quiet rise of private DEXs is the biggest shift happening on Solana right now.

P.S. 
Do you see this trend as a healthy evolution or a step toward centralization that DeFi was meant to avoid?

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Forget Bitcoin – Its price is down 1% year to date.

There's a chain with better tech that just 10X in 1 month.

Zcash has exploded back into relevance after almost a decade in the shadows.

Not because of hype.

Because the market is waking up to something we’ve ignored for years — real privacy built directly into the chain.

Zcash looks and feels like Bitcoin on the surface.

Same fixed 21M supply.

Same Proof-of-Work foundation.

Same “hard money” ethos.

But underneath it runs something Bitcoin doesn’t have:

Native zk-SNARKs that make transactions fully shielded when users choose to.

That means sender, receiver, and amount are hidden on chain.

And this matters now more than ever.

• Europe is tightening surveillance.
• US regulators are circling privacy tech.
• Users are increasingly shifting toward tools that protect their data.

That’s why shielded transactions have been climbing.

That’s why Zcash integrations across mobile wallets and cross-chain bridges have suddenly accelerated.

And that’s why investors like Arthur Hayes publicly call it “encrypted Bitcoin.”

But here’s the uncomfortable truth.

Better tech does NOT automatically win.

Zcash still faces real structural weaknesses:

→ It’s not listed on many major CEXs.
→ On-ramps and off-ramps are limited.
→ Wall Street doesn’t treat it as digital gold.
→ There are no ETFs, no DATs, no institutional distribution rails.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin dominates all of these.

Not surprisingly, Zcash’s $8.5B market cap is tiny next to Bitcoin’s $1.9T.

A large gap that exists largely because distribution, access, and recognition still work against Zcash.

Yet people forget that Bitcoin once had the exact same limitations.

In its early, it wasn’t listed anywhere.

No liquidity, no custody, no regulatory recognition.

Yet it still broke through.

If this cycle proves anything, it’s that ZK-powered chains are entering their moment.

Privacy isn’t the enemy of regulation.

It’s the next chapter of crypto.

And Zcash is suddenly back in the conversation as the first real test case.

P.S. 
Do you think Zcash will eventually gain mainstream prominence like Bitcoin?
__________________________________________________________________________________________

👋 I’m Aram, helping businesses dominate 𝗖𝗿𝘆𝗽𝘁𝗼 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗲𝗱𝗜𝗻 and unlock real growth.

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I recently talked to a 21 year old web3 Founder who made $100M last year.

Here are his 5 keys to success:

1. Wake up at 7 am everyday
2. Read one new book per week
3. Work out at least one time a day
4. Eat healthy food and drink plenty of water
5. Turn 21 and get a $100M Bitcoin trust fund from dad

I know. 

This was more like winning a lottery.

For most people who achieve success, the reality is more like this:

1. Doing many sleepless nights to keep the lights on
2. Working their ass off, failing and trying again and again
3. Eating junk food, sleeping in and working from a basement
4. Having to go through dark periods and doubting themselves
5. Having no rich family, network or connections to back them up

The path to success is not easy.

It takes lots of hard work, resilience and sacrifices to get to the top.

But those who keep going, even when no one believes in them, are the ones who make it.

Not because of luck.

But because they refuse to quit when others do.

Remember this next time things get tough.

P.S. 
What’s one thing that kept you going when everything seemed against you?

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Helping crypto startups scale and grow | Building personal brands for web3 leaders on LinkedIn | Shirtless Ultramarathoner

Stop comparing yourself to others.

There will always be someone bigger, smarter, richer, faster.

That’s true in life. 

And it’s especially true in web3.

• Someone will raise $50M while you’re still bootstrapping. 
• Someone will pull 100K followers while you are stuck at 1K. 
• Someone will launch an new chain before you even ship an MVP.

If you compare yourself to them, you’ll lose every time.

Because you’re playing their scoreboard, not yours.

The only comparison that matters is the version of you from yesterday.

• Did you ship something today?
• Did you learn something new?
• Did you improve even 1%?

This industry rewards consistency more than luck.

People who play long-term games win.

So all you have to do is:

• Keep showing up.
• Keep improving.
• Keep building.

That’s the real advantage.

In a space where everything moves fast, the real flex is being better than who you were 24 hours ago.

That’s how you win in web3.

Happy Sunday.
_______________________________________________________________

👋 I’m Aram Mughalyan, helping businesses dominate 𝗖𝗿𝘆𝗽𝘁𝗼 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗲𝗱𝗜𝗻 and unlock real growth.

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Crypto was born on X (Twitter).

But LinkedIn is where it's going to scale.

That is the shift nobody is talking about.

𝗖𝗿𝘆𝗽𝘁𝗼 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗲𝗱𝗜𝗻 is not a gimmick.

It is becoming the new center of gravity for the entire industry.

Why?

Because the space is finally moving from chaos to maturity.

From experiments to revenue.
From anon devs to real operators.
From memes to measurable business.

And that shift changes everything.

Crypto LinkedIn also brings a level of legitimacy the industry has never had before:

• No toxic environment
• No rugpull schemes running openly 
• No anonymous degens pumping memecoins

People show up with their real names, real titles and real reputations.

And maintain civil discourse.

Making it possible to build authority and trust.

At the same time, crypto is being adopted by enterprises, institutions and TradFi.

And the people driving those decisions operate on LinkedIn, not X.

Which is why if you are building in web3, especially in B2B, this is the platform you need to be on.

It is where the next wave of web3 leaders start serious conversations, shape their reputation and close real deals.

P.S.
If you are a web3 leader/business and want to scale your business or build a personal brand, DM me GROWTH.

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Crypto and banks are locked in a fierce battle.

Because banks are TERRIFIED of what can happen to them.

And for once, they have a reason to be.

Coinbase, on behalf of the crypto industry, just declared war on them — not for profit, but for consumers.

At the heart of it is one simple question:

Who should control the yield on your digital dollars?

The Treasury is drafting how to implement the new GENIUS Act, a law passed earlier this year meant to regulate stablecoin yields.

Coinbase argues that only issuers (like Circle or Tether) should be restricted.

Meaning exchanges and non-issuers should still be allowed to pay yield on stablecoins.

In other words, your USDC on Coinbase should earn you interest, just like your dollars earn banks billions every year.

But the Bank Policy Institute and other banking groups are losing their minds over this.

They want a full ban on all yield-earning stablecoins.

Their argument?

If platforms can offer yield, banks could lose up to $6.6 TRILLION in deposits.

Translation:

Banks not trying to “protect consumers.”

They’re trying to protect their monopoly over dollar liquidity.

Coinbase is firing back saying Treasury “has no authority to second-guess Congress.”

They’re framing this fight exactly as it is:

• Freedom vs control.
• Builders vs bankers.
• Innovation vs regulatory capture.

A full ban would cement bank dominance for another generation.

A narrower rule would finally let crypto platforms compete on a level playing field to deliver yield directly to users.

This isn’t just a policy dispute.

It’s a battle for the future of the USD yield.

Because if stablecoin yields get killed, the message is clear:

• Banks win.
• Consumers lose.
• Innovation dies before it even begins.

But if Coinbase and crypto industry wins, the whole financial system flips:

Power shifts from the few to the many.

• From vaults to wallets.
• From middlemen to markets.
• From permissioned to permissionless.

The GENIUS Act comes into full effect in 2026–2027.

That’s when we’ll find out which side truly owns the future of digital money.

P.S.
How do you feel about banks earning billions on your deposits while you get nothing in return?

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There are 100+ Layer 2 (L2) chains on Ethereum. 

But most of them are concentrated around 4 Superchains:

• Polygon
• Arbitrum Orbit
• ZKSync Elastic Chain
• Optimism Superchain

Each Superchain is offering interoperability to end users of its member chains.

And they are fiercely competing to attract new projects to build on their frameworks.

Their ultimate success will depend on:

↳ How developer-friendly their stack is
↳ The adoption of their interoperability tools
↳ The strength of their incentives for new chains

But why do Superchains matter?

Because they:

↳ Simplify the fragmented L2 landscape
↳ Ensure seamless interactions between chains
↳ Empower developers with modular tools and scalability

--

The rise of Superchains signals a shift in the Ethereum ecosystem.

The question isn’t whether Superchains will dominate - It’s who will emerge as the leader.

So it’s no longer just about building an L2 — It’s about joining a collective with network effect.

The bigger the Superchain, the greater its gravity to pull in projects.

P.S.
Which Superchain are you most bullish on?
________________________________________________________

👋 I’m Aram, helping businesses dominate 𝗖𝗿𝘆𝗽𝘁𝗼 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗲𝗱𝗜𝗻 to unlock growth.

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Michael Saylor’s Strategy is now under the threat of being DELISTED.
 
And that alone could unleash up to $11.6B in forced liquidations.

Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) is the world largest Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) company.

• Trades at 0.9× mNAV
• Holds 649,870 BTC worth ~$54B
• Its stock is already down -43% year-to-date

So how did the strongest BTC balance sheet in the world end up in this position?

It all started with Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI).

One of the most influential index providers on the planet.
 
Their classifications dictate how trillions in passive capital move.

And MSCI is now questioning whether Strategy should be treated as a Digital Asset Treasury vehicle instead of a normal operating business.

If that sounds technical, here’s the simple truth:

↳ If MSCI reclassifies Strategy, it gets kicked out of multiple MSCI indices.
↳ And every passive fund tracking those indices is forced to sell.

JPMorgan analysts estimate $2.8B in immediate outflows if MSCI removes it.

And if Nasdaq, S&P, and Russell follow the same logic, another $8.8B of selling could hit.

Pushing the total potential sell pressure to $11.6B.

This is why the entire industry is paying attention.

Because this isn’t about Strategy alone.

It’s about whether companies holding BTC at scale will continue to be allowed inside mainstream financial benchmarks.

So what's Strategy's response?

Saylor pushed back instantly:

• Strategy is not a trust, fund, or holding company
• It’s an operating firm with $500M revenue software business
• Bitcoin is only a form of “productive capital” as a part of its treasury strategy

But index providers don’t move on belief systems.

They move on categorization.

And right now, Strategy no longer fits neatly in theirs.

This moment will decide something far bigger than one ticker:

→ Will corporate BTC treasuries be recognized as legitimate business strategy?
→ Or will they be pushed out of major indices and treated like investment vehicles?

The next MSCI update will shape that answer.

And billions of BTC flows depend on it.

P.S. 
Do you think Strategy and other DAT companies will be delisted?
________________________________________________________

👋 I’m Aram, helping businesses dominate 𝗖𝗿𝘆𝗽𝘁𝗼 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗲𝗱𝗜𝗻 to unlock growth.

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Every web3 brand wants to grow on X (Twitter).

But nobody wants to waste $30K a month on vanity KOL posts.

The biggest lie in web3 distribution is that “more is better.”

More followers.
More impressions.
More “viral” KOL boosts.

But you already know the truth.

It’s easy to buy bots, get fake engagement, and rack up meaningless impressions.

But none of that gives you mindshare, conversions, or a real audience.

Tunnl fixes this with quality, not quantity.

It's a creator-led distribution network and works in 4 simple steps:

1/ Post on X
2/ Drop your post into Tunnl
3/ Pick a USDC budget tier for the post
4/ Let verified creators with real audiences amplify it

It’s predictable, scalable, and finally puts your content in front of real humans.

I know this because I’ve been testing it myself lately.

My X presence is small, just a few hundred followers. 

But since I started using Tunnl, I've been getting genuinely smart followers on X who actually read, think, and engage.

But here’s the most interesting part:

Tunnl isn’t just for brands that want to grow on X.

It’s also for X users and creators who want to earn rewards while growing themselves.

Anyone can join for free and instantly start earning “Tickets” (Tunnl’s loyalty points) just by participating and engaging.

And those tickets are powerful.

You can use them to compete for the $25,000 Season 1 prize pool.

If you’re joining for the first time, use my link so you start with extra tickets from day one.

Link is in the comments.

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We all talk about stablecoins as the next big meta in crypto.

But there’s another 100x opportunity still dormant.

Stablecoins already proved their point.

They surpassed $300B in market cap.

They settle more volume annually than VISA.

They have clear product-market fit across CEXs, DeFi, payments, remittances, on/off ramps, etc.

But tokenized equities?

They’re still sitting under $1B onchain.

That’s nothing.

The US equities market alone is worth well over $60 TRILLION.

So even a tiny slice migrating onchain — 0.5%, 1%, 2% — would mean hundreds of billions flowing into tokenized assets.

And the early signs are already here.

Many companies like Ondo Finance or xStocks are already offering tokenized stocks.

Even Nasdaq has recently filed a rule change to allow trading of tokenized stocks and ETFs on its order book using DTC’s blockchain infrastructure.

That's because traditional rails are slow, restricted by trading hours, clogged with intermediaries, and settle days after execution.

But tokenized stocks flip this on its head:

• 24/7 trading
• Global access
• Instant settlement
• Direct self-custody
• Full composability with DeFi

This unlock is massive.

When equities live natively onchain, they’re no longer trapped inside siloed brokerage accounts.

They become liquid, portable, programmable assets that can move freely across networks.

→ You can LP them.
→ You can borrow against them.
→ You can fractionalize or bundle them.
→ You can plug them into automated strategies and routing systems.

It also transforms market structure itself.

Capital becomes far more efficient because it no longer sits frozen in multi-day settlement cycles.

And liquidity becomes deeper because assets consolidate on shared onchain rails instead of being fragmented across dozens of brokers and venues.

Equities going onchain one day will be bigger than stablecoins.

Stablecoins were the proof of concept.

Tokenized equities will be the industrial revolution.

This is the meta nobody is paying attention to.

Yet it’s the one with the highest upside.

P.S.
Do you own any tokenized stocks onchain?
_________________________________________________________________________________

👋 I’m Aram, helping businesses dominate 𝗖𝗿𝘆𝗽𝘁𝗼 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗲𝗱𝗜𝗻 and unlock real growth.

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Digital Asset Treasuries poured $42B+ into crypto, fueling new all-time highs.

But are they running out of steam now?

DATs are public companies that turned their balance sheets into crypto treasuries.

They function like options on crypto.

• When BTC or ETH rise, their equity multiples expand.
• When prices stall, those premiums collapse.

Every new raise meant more BTC and ETH purchases.

Every purchase pushed prices higher.

And higher prices made it easier to raise again.

It was the perfect reflexive loop.

But that flywheel is slowing down.

mNAV, the premium investors pay for DAT stocks above their crypto value, has been compressing toward 1.

That means markets no longer reward the model.

No premium → no cheap equity → no new BTC buys.

According to CoinGecko, DATs spent more than $42.7B acquiring crypto in 2025, most of it during the first three quarters.

But the pace has dropped sharply since October.

→ SharpLink and BitMine have seen their mNAV tank below 1x

→ Strategy’s mNAV, once over 6x at peak mania, is now just 1.21x.

→ ETHZilla even sold part of its ETH holdings to fund a buyback after trading below NAV, a first for the sector.

Some DATs are now issuing preference shares or convertible notes instead of common equity because dilution became too costly.

Others, such as Semler Scientific, merged with peers to survive.

It is a clear sign that the loop of raise, buy, and pump is breaking.

And that is showing up in prices.

→ Strategy’s stock is down about -20% year to date.

→ While BTC is still up around 7%.

In previous cycles, Strategy would have outperformed BTC several times over.

When DATs were net buyers, they added huge buy pressure to BTC and ETH.

Now that inflows have slowed and the steady buy pressure is gone, the easy phase of the trade is over.

DATs are not dead, but the trade that made them unstoppable is.

They were built for bull markets, where rising prices masked every flaw.

Now they have to prove they can deliver returns beyond simply holding BTC or ETH.

Some will fade, trapped by dilution and weak premiums. 

A few will evolve, turning their treasuries into productive balance sheets that actually earn yield.

This is the phase where hype ends and fundamentals begin.

The bull market made them symbols of conviction. 

The next one will decide which of them actually earned it.

P.S.
Are you bullish that DATs will have another big comeback in the future?

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No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No.

YES.

Throughout my life, I've stacked more rejections than I can remember.

Every “no” felt heavy.

Every setback felt personal.

Did I feel like giving up? You bet I did.

Did I feel like a failure? Oh yeah.

Did I actually give up? Never.

The truth is simple: perseverance beats perfection.

The people who break through aren’t the ones with shortcuts or talent hacks.

They’re the ones who show up on the days it’s boring, painful, or thankless.

↳ They take one more step.
↳ Ship one more thing.
↳ Try one more time.

Over and over again.

For an extraordinary amount of time.

And in web3, this matters even more.

Because this industry moves at 10X speed.

So only the ones who keep moving forward survive the volatility, the noise, and the uncertainty.

So the next time you feel stuck or ready to drop the ball…

Remember that every “No” is part of the process.

Keep going.

Your “YES” is coming.
________________________________________________________

👋 I’m Aram, helping businesses dominate 𝗖𝗿𝘆𝗽𝘁𝗼 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗲𝗱𝗜𝗻 to unlock growth.

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FX (Foreign Exchange) is the world’s largest yet least modernized market.

Circle is now taking a direct shot at this outdated system.

For decades, FX has been trapped in a slow, fragmented, capital-heavy infrastructure.

Circle is breaking that.

StableFX by Circle is a new on-chain FX engine built for regulated institutions.

It combines institutional quote-based pricing with smart-contract settlement.

This allows approved parties to trade and settle currency pairs inside a controlled, compliance-first environment:

→ Instant settlement instead of T+1.
→ Atomic delivery instead of counterparty risk.
→ 24/7 execution instead of banking-hour windows.

And it all runs on Arc, Circle’s new Layer 1 designed exclusively for institutional finance.

Arc already has over 100 institutional participants on its testnet.

Circle is also integrating regulated non-USD stablecoins into the network such as:

• BRLA (Brazilian Real)
• AUDF (Australian Dollar)
• KRW1 (South Korean Won)

This creates a global liquidity layer where regional currencies can move digitally with precision, speed, and compliance.

And Circle is going straight after the $7.5T per day FX market.

If Arc becomes the settlement layer for stablecoin FX flows, it rewrites how institutional money moves around the world.

FX has been stuck for decades.

So Circle is trying to reset the entire system.

This isn’t a small upgrade.

It’s a fundamental rewrite of how value moves between countries, institutions, and currencies.

With stablecoins sitting at the center of this shift.

P.S. 
When FX finally goes on-chain, which currency benefits the most?
________________________________________________________

👋 I’m Aram, helping businesses dominate 𝗖𝗿𝘆𝗽𝘁𝗼 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸𝗲𝗱𝗜𝗻 to unlock growth.

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📌 And follow Aram for daily crypto insights and LinkedIn growth tactics.

If you think you’re too smart to be scammed?

You just became the ideal target.

Scams today don’t start with obvious red flags.

They start with everyday moments that feel routine and harmless.

• A $1 delivery fee that slowly drains your account.
• A crypto course that quietly funnels people into traps.
• Fake profiles, deepfake videos, and copycat apps so polished they fool anyone.

This is why 2 out of 3 adults in the US have been scammed.

And most never tell anyone.

Modern fraud has professionalized.

Scammers are building scam funnels the same way startups build growth funnels.

They pick a niche.

They spin up landing pages, fake apps, Tinder profiles, deepfake videos.

They test scripts, study emotions, and engineer experiences that disarm people step-by-step.

That's why even smart and tech-savvy pros still get pulled in.

Real protection has to start long before money moves:

• Spot risky patterns early
• Add friction only where it matters
• Help people pause before reacting
• Connect intelligence across apps and platforms

To understand how these scams take shape, check out the What The Fraud podcast by Sumsub.

It reveals the tactics fraudsters rely on and breaks down the psychology behind modern scams.

Helping  you spot the patterns before they hit you or your users.

If you work in crypto, fintech, compliance, or fraud prevention, it’s a podcast worth subscribing to.

P.S.
The Sumsub What the Fraud Summit (WTF) Summit is happening on Nov 20.

A few extra tickets just opened up.

If you’re serious about understanding fraud, grab one before they’re gone.

Links in the comments.

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📌 And follow Aram Mughalyan for more content like this.

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The Battle

Richard Turrin

Aram Mughalyan

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taplio

The Battle

Richard Turrin

Aram Mughalyan

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Richard Turrin's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreAram Mughalyan's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreRichard Turrin's LinkedIn Performance