Mm.
Well, Michael Saler may be seeing orange, but strategy stock has been seeing red recently.
Strategy shares, which hold the world's biggest Bitcoin treasury, is down double digits over the last month.
At the same time, all coin treasuries are gaining traction, and Ethereum is building momentum with institutions.
While crypto majors remain range bound, ET is playing a growing role in asset issuance, D, and corporate balance sheets.
Well, Bulls say it's more than a token.
They see Ethereum as the foundation.
Of a new financial system.
Joining me this morning to weigh in is Maya Vunovic, who is CEO of digital assets at FG Nexus.
Maya, great to have you here.
Thank you so much for joining me.
Thanks.
It's great to be here.
This is an exciting place to be.
We just rang the opening bell and we have an IPO here at the New York Stock Exchange.
But of course we're paying attention to what's happening in crypto.
So tell us about what you're doing at FG Nexus and the focus on Eth from hedge funds.
Yeah, absolutely.
First of all, you're going to start to see more and more crypto companies here ringing the bell.
I think that's kind of a trend ongoing.
And we have recently raised our pipe of 200 million for Ethereum, and we have deployed all of that.
We're staking it and we're staking it, and yes, you are correct, we've had Citadel and 0.72 invest in us, and I think it's quite straightforward.
I think hedge funds see a huge opportunity.
They've also worked with us in the past and they have a great confidence in our team.
Yeah, and Maya, I understand that you've been in crypto for a long time since the early years 2010, so I do want to, of course, know how much Bitcoin was when you first got in.
But of course we're seeing this dominance, right?
Bitcoin versus Eth and a lot of folks in terms of data.
So tell us why you think we're seeing this.
Yeah, absolutely.
I think yes, in 2010, I think when I got in or around that time, you know, Bitcoin was all it was nothing.
It was a bit of a play, right?
For me it was quite interesting.
I was living in Africa and Latin America where I did mobile payments and I kind of understood when I read the Bitcoin white paper about peer to peer, but I was curious about the functionality. versus the price.
I never understood that this price would be where it's at.
I think Ethereum now, where you're seeing that huge interest is really nothing to compete with Bitcoin, right?
It's, as you said earlier, it's a new financial rails, and I think that's absolutely correct.
We are seeing a huge evolution of whole Wall Street at the moment.
Yeah, and speaking of which, when we're thinking about IPOs this year at the New York Stock Exchange, we had Circle with stablecoins taking center stage and of course bullish going public as well.
But you mentioned your focus and you've been in emerging markets.
So when you're thinking about use cases when it comes to crypto, what do you think we'll see in the near term and why?
Yeah, I think clear use cases are really simple in emerging markets, and they have been for many years now.
Stable points are, as I say, God's work.
They're doing God's work in emerging markets, right, and particularly places where you where everything is devalued and you know, inflation is super high, right?
So that's that's that already exists, you know, faster transaction as well.
Most people in the world would rather hold USBT or, you know, tokenized.
You know, stable coin of some sort that's backed by $1 than they would their local currency.
So I think in terms of the Western world or here you're absolutely seeing tokenized bonds, right, a variety of stable coins and proliferation.
I think you're going to start to see corporates holding a lot of these assets on their balance sheet because they are yield bearing assets, right?
So they're productive assets.
They're kind of earning yield as you're holding them.
So why not?
Yeah, and also today we got inflation figures out here in the US and when we're talking about inflation here in the US and seeing an increase, it's quite different from other economies, especially say South America, for example, or Argentina.
So when we're talking about use cases moving forward, what do you expect to see on the regulatory landscape here in the US and what are the implications for organizations such as yours?
Yeah, I think one of the things you'll see about two years ago I talked about how the next kind of 2026, 207, and on you're going to start to see more clarity on tokenized assets.
I mean this administration has already, you know, put forward, as you know, REI Clarity Act, Cheneyus Act.
They've gotten us a lot more than what we've had previously in that administration.
And so I think in the next year you're definitely going to see tokenization proliferate and defy I think.
Announcement on Nasdaq yesterday, right, on trading security tokens, it's quite clear that that is a bit of a signal to the market that this is coming.
So this is to me tokenized bonds and equities and treasuries and I think hedge funds are thirsty for something like that.
So I think it's coming next year.
Yeah, Maya, about 60 seconds here.
So I do want to get your take on what this focus on Ethereum means for financial institutions.
Yeah, hedge funds.
A very clear asset that bears, you know, stake, re stake and has a clear yield and now going into DI that you can be going up to 12% if you want to.
Corporates see an opportunity to hold an asset on their balance sheet, and that's a productive yield again, it's a productive asset and I think for everybody else it's a fast programmable money, Remy.
We are entering the world of fast programmable money where you'll be able to transact within seconds and I think this is what Wall Street wants.
OK, Maya, well, great having you on the show today.
Thank you so much for joining me. we'll definitely keep our eyes on.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
