In this episode of Tokenize, I sit down with two Blockchain OGs. Efi Pylarinou and Anton Golub, who have been involved in the Crypto space for a good part of a decade.

We structured this discussion such that each of us would bring our favourite three trends and one risk we are keeping a close eye on for this space.

Interestingly enough, all three of us had the same first hot trend we are excited about. And Efi stole the show with explaining why the first hot trend - BUIDL - tokenizing money markets is so significant.

Anton and I ended up playing catch up with Efi's brilliance throughout the episode! Hope you enjoy listening as much as we enjoy recording this.

Yes, the approvals of the Bitcoin ETF was a major milestone for the crypto industry. But when we say Bitcoin ETF in this context, we mean the US based ETFs being approved by the SEC.

But, the crypto ETF industry has had regional leaders for years now. 3iQ are pioneers within the crypto ETF industry and have been based out of Canada.

In this episode of Tokenize, we have Greg Benhaim - Head of Funds at 3iQ talking to me about ETFs. Greg has the right mix of experience across traditional finance and cryptos and is quite close to the Bitcoin and Ethereum ecosystem.

We talk about Ethereum ETFs and all the innovation that is happening within traditional finance to get closer to the crypto ecosystem.

I recently joined Marinade Finance, leading their institutional growth capability. When I mentioned about it to my mom, I had to explain what Marinade did - and what crypto staking was.

I had to go back to retail banking. A retail bank is healthier with more depositors and deposits, and the bank offers an interest on these deposits. It is a cringeworthy comparison if you are a native crypto person though.

To celebrate my new job, and to explain to my own friends and family, what I was doing there, I had to do this episode with Michael Repetny. Michael, Marinade's core contributor calls crypto staking as exercising your right in a democratic set up - on a blockchain.

Did you know that if you bought a longstanding crypto like Solana or Ethereum, you could stake it and earn returns in the tokens, while also making returns as the token appreciates in value (if it does)?

Michael and I get into the details of how Proof of stake works on Solana, what staking is, different variations of staking, its relevance to traditional financial services, ETFs, restaking and MEVs (towards the end).