Latest / The Paul Barron Crypto Show / Solana Staked ETF Launched!!!🚨XRP Next?🔥Grayscale INTERVIEW

Transcript

Solana Staked ETF Launched!!!🚨XRP Next?🔥Grayscale INTERVIEW · The Paul Barron Crypto Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Big week for Solana as GSOL launches. This is an
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: ETF that has been highly anticipated. We'll break it all
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: down for you. Let's just get started. I do want
• 0:07
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• 0:30
  Speaker 1: let's get into it today. I want to bring back
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Zach Pandel, who is the head of research over at
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Greyscale Investments. Great to have you back to Zach.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: How are you hey, Paul, Great to see you virtually
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: doing great, excellent.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: So a couple of points we got to talk about,
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: of course, is the big news and that is g SOL.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: It's on the ground and running. You guys have a
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: lot going on here with it. When you look at
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: the Solana ETF as it is launched. Now, explain to
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: our viewers and our listeners what this really means for Grayscale.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: Well, first off, we are excited to have this ETF
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: product in market today. We've been running this investment vehicle
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: since twenty twenty one. So Greyscale starts these products out
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: for accredited investors as a private funds. This is sort
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: of their caterpillar stage, if you will, and today is
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: when it reaches its final mature butterfly stage as an ETF.
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: So what it means for investors, We've been able to
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: offer investors access to Solana for a number of years already,
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: but we're able to offer them in this most efficient
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: product structure, the ETF product structure that has the broadest
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: investor access and generally is preferred by our clients. And
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: so that's what it really means is, you know, we've
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: been able to offer Solana and been excited about this
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: ecosystem for a long time now because of the regulatory
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: clarity that we've been getting that we've talked about on
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: your show, we're able to bring it to market as
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: an ETF.
• 1:59
  Speaker 3: It's a great outcome for investors out there.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: One thing, of course, that is even bigger was the
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: institutional staking rewards. We were showing that on screen. You
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: guys are going to deliver exposure to Saul. This is
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: the native soaken over on Solana. But what you're talking
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: about is staking rewards that have historically averaged between six
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: and eight percent per year. This is a creative to
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: the g soul's total return potential. How does this work?
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: How are you staking? What providers are you using? Can
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: you go into that detail?
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely so.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: Bitcoin, as people know, doesn't have this yield or this
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: reward from staking from the product itself that is sort
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: of earned by external providers called the minors. But in
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: the proof of steak category, which includes Ethereum, which includes
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: a Solana token, holders can earn an extra reward on
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: top of their token by providing a service to the blockchain.
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: So you're doing something active.
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: You are staking your tokens, putting your economic capital at
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: risk and validating transactions on the blockchain, helping service the blockchain,
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: and earning a kind of reward income in exchange for
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: that service. So it's both something that's good for the
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: blockchain and good for the investors because it provides an
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: additional reward on top of your tokens. And if you're
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: not staking, essentially you're leaving return on the table, so
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: very important that we're able to offer these stake and
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: rewards in our g sol product for Solana as well
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: as in our Ethereum ETFs today.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: Zach, how has this particular ETF performed versus what we've
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: seen with the bitcoin and the ETFs for you guys.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: Well just day one, so I think too early to
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: say in terms of things like flows and volume and
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: investor uptake. But the Salona product has been one of
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: our most popular private trusts while it's and I think
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: it will again be very successful in this ETF format
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: in general. Although it's not a kind of perfect comparison,
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: I do think that market cap is a rough guide
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: for how much investor interest there will be in these
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: different types of products.
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: So it won't be as much as bitcoin.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: Bitcoin is a more than two trillion dollar asset, so
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: we should expect a bit more scaled down demand compared
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: to that. But Solana a really critical piece of the
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: blockchain ecosystem or the crypto economy however you want to
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: refer to it, and I think it will see high
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: investor interest as well.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: I know you guys have a lot of other ets.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: We'll talk about the xrp ETF in a second, but
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: before we go there, in terms of the staking unlock,
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: what are we talking about here, what could be an
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: exposure for especially around the potential here for earnings.
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: Well, so Solana has a native staking reward rate that
• 4:46
  Speaker 2: is around seven percent if we just look at the
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: last several months. Of course, it fluctuates up and down
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: with network demand. When the network is acquieter, you know,
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: when there's fewer transactions, fewer users, that can be a
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: little bit lower than that, and when the demand is
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: running high, the stake and war rate can be even
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: higher than seven percent. So today we're staking about three
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: quarters of the fund, and there's a potential to stake
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: one hundred percent of the fund at some point. So
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: today earning around a six percent reward rate in this product,
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: so enhancing the returns. If the price of Soul doesn't
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: move at all, the underlying investor can expect to receive
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: that roughly six percent return. So that that's why it's
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: so important. Even if your token's not moving in price,
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: you're earning on your position.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and this has been a big deal that a
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: lot of people have been anticipating would be coming to
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: these ETFs now it's here, So kudos to you and
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: your team for getting this don in a time when
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: we've had a government shutdown. So I don't know what
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: kind of magic you guys pulled off there.
• 5:56
  Speaker 4: But.
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: Very good attorneys I think is the key to keep
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: these things moving even while parts of the government are
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: not in motion. But yeah, credit credit to greyscale legal
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: team for pulling these feats off.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: So on the staking side, is this a plan to
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: just kind of feather this out through different staking services
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: like a Geto, Soul, et cetera. Or will this be
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: something that you guys are building out a staking product?
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: What does that look like for Greyscale?
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: Well, I think you know both and is typically the
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: answer with these things, And I think you know feathering
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: it out and that's not a bad way to describe it.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: So today we are staking in the Ethereum and Solana products.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: Greyscale offers you know, more than three dozen different types
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: of crypto investment products, most of which have some type
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: of staking feature, and we are working closely with regulators
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: to make sure that we can stake in those products
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: effectively for investors and safely as well. So I think
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: you will see much more of this throughout our whole
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: product a suite, both in the private fund side of
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: our business as well as ETFs as we launch more
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: of those, which I think will be relatively soon.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: All right, So other news that happened this week, of course,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: was Western Union was big news for Solana. I want
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: to go to a clip and then I want to
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: get your opinion on how this might affect maybe investors
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: looking at Solana going forward.
• 7:21
  Speaker 5: Let's go to some one if your Western Union and
• 7:24
  Speaker 5: you're already moving one hundred.
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: Billion dollars a year across border.
• 7:28
  Speaker 5: Kicking a partner that does exactly that fast, efficient, stable
• 7:34
  Speaker 5: and secure is really really important. And so we went
• 7:37
  Speaker 5: and looked at most of the other alternatives and came
• 7:40
  Speaker 5: to the conclusion for an institutional use case like ours,
• 7:45
  Speaker 5: the Salona blockchain was the right choice for us.
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: So you see Western Union they're talking about this. They've
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: been testing a variety of things over the years. They
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: were even on an early test in twenty eighteen with
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: XRP that got dumped. But I guess at that time
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: Solana wasn't really in the picture, but that now they are.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: How does this change the narrative for Solana for this
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: particular partnership.
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: Well, first off, let me say a no brainer from
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: Western Union's standpoint. You know, you have stable coins are
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: the future of digital payments, digital dollars on blockchains, and
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: stable coin use in some sense will lift all boats
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: in the crypto ecosystem to almost almost all boats, let's say,
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: so all the smart contract platforms and different to blockchains,
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: whether it's Ethereum, Solana, XRP, and many others will benefit
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: from stable coin. A great sign for Western Union and
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: in my view, kind of a no brainer to be honest,
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: given where the industry is going, the payments industry is
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: going over time, looks it's a big win for Solona
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: to have this brand name that already owns a lot
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: of the relevant relationship. You know, this is about using
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: new technology to manage their existing processes and their existing
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: relationships with customers that need to make cross border payments,
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: that need to send remittances, that sort of thing. So
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: it's a great win for Solana. I think you will
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: see more of this for Solona. It is a good
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: blockchain for this use case and many other excellent use cases.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: And this is you know why it's so important to
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: bring these ETFs to market, and I think you will
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: see other blockchains also participate in the success of stable coins,
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: including the sum that you've mentioned. So I think of
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: it as a win for Solona, but also a lift
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: all boats sort of trend for the crypto industry.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: As you guys know, and I think everybody watching our show,
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: the banking industry is pretty much held hostage the off ramp,
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: you know, for anybody out there. So that's been a
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: big problem with being able to get crypto to critical
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: mask and escape velocity. Maybe now we're going to get there.
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: Do you think these kinds of businesses, especially on Western Union,
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: which has been a legacy business, now starting to transact
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: in stable coins. But if in reality everybody's got a
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: global digital wallet that can transact in stable coins anyway,
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: does that make that kind of business kind of obsolete
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: in the future.
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: I do think it's reasonable to say that, you know,
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: Western Union is sort of guarding their flank here a
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: little bit. You know, they have an existing cross border
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: payments business and they're seeing competition from stable coins. So
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: if you can't beat them, join them. Kind of philosophy
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: seems to be what they're doing, and that makes a
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: lot of sense to me. But I do think it's
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: reasonable to ask that question, you know, to what extent
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: do you need these same sort of in person services
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: when you have other types of on ramps, other types
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: of wallets. I think that there will be a lasting
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: use case to some degree because of the cash economy,
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: which may require in person presence in all of these
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: different countries, and maybe that's where Western Union has an edge.
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: But absolutely seeing competition from stable coins and so I
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: think wisely deciding why not join in.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: That of course, has created a huge backlash between two
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: major I will call them cults when it comes to
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: the crypto because there's these factions. I feel like we're
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: in hunger games sometimes, and that is between the XRP
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: army and the Solana soldiers. I want to play a
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: clip real quick for you. This is on TikTok. Take
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: a look.
• 11:30
  Speaker 6: Dak Rector says that x RP ETFs live this week,
• 11:32
  Speaker 6: maybe even tomorrow.
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: Live this week. You heard it here first part out
• 11:36
  Speaker 3: of nowhere.
• 11:37
  Speaker 6: Those three get approved, but then XRP still delayed and the.
• 11:41
  Speaker 4: Gigs sorry XRP holders. The delusion with XRP is is crazy.
• 11:49
  Speaker 6: It is so over for XRP.
• 11:51
  Speaker 4: Guys.
• 11:51
  Speaker 6: Western Union build exclusively on Solana, not with Ripple, not
• 11:56
  Speaker 6: with XRP. This is a basic fact. That's just a fact.
• 12:00
  Speaker 6: That's not my opinion.
• 12:01
  Speaker 4: Western Union isn't going quietly into the night.
• 12:05
  Speaker 6: There is no bridge currency. There are stable coins on Solana.
• 12:11
  Speaker 6: You guys know XRP. That's its main mission is to
• 12:14
  Speaker 6: be the bridge currency. Now, is this going to be
• 12:17
  Speaker 6: like the Drake and Kendrick beef.
• 12:20
  Speaker 3: At dump on October tenth? Fucking wiped everybody and they.
• 12:23
  Speaker 4: Are consistently dumping nine figures a year of it on you.
• 12:26
  Speaker 3: It's actually embarrassing.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: But that's the kind of crypto scenarios that play out
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: in this world, and we have to cover it. You
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: look at all the narratives that have been pushed out there.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: Swift didn't pick up XRP. They went to the ethereum route.
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: Western Union did't pick up XRP because they're old and outdated.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: I'm talking about Western Union. Visa didn't pick up XRP
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: because they want to control the world. You know, the
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: way I look at it, Why have we not seen
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: the XRP ETF launch. What was the reason that Soul
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: went first and xrp's ETF did not.
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, it's a relatively simple answer to that question, and
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: it's just that issuers like Grayscale were a bit further
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: along with regulators on Solana than on several of the
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: other potential crypto ETF products at the time of the
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: government shutdown, and as soon as the government reopens, we
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: expect to be moving quite quickly on the rest of
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: these tokens. Crypto definitely has all blockchains have passionate communities
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: of supporters, and it's one of the things that I
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: love about the industry is just how enthusiastic people are
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: about the possibilities of each of these distinct pieces of technology.
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: I come at this industry and this asset class from
• 13:47
  Speaker 2: the standpoint of just investment markets in general, and I
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: believe that it is quite reasonable to have many crypto
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: assets in your portfolio and hold a diversified basket of
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: these ass that's we are proud to bring a Solana
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: et P ETF to market. We're going to be proud
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: to bring several other of these to market, including XRP,
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: and we're happy to give investors our own views on
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: things like valuation and fundamental trends over time, but it
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: doesn't need to be necessarily one or the other. And certainly,
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: you know, we are you know, we are working with
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: all of these different projects over over time. So we're
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: happy to kind of support the ecosystem and give investors
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: some sensible guidance about portfolio construction and leave some of
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: the tribalism to other community members.
• 14:37
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: Well, the tribalism is out there for sure, Okay, Zach,
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: I want to go to this tweet right here. This
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: was one that I put out. It was in reference
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: to JP Morgan's estimates around all coin ETFs, and they're forecast.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: They were estimating on XRP eight billion in inflow, Solona
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: around six billion inflow. There's some big opportunities here between
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: these two specifically, First of all, do you think that
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: is in order what JP Morgan is saying.
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: I think those are the right ballpark.
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: You know, we're going to find out, of course, these
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: are new products and we're going to see what market
• 15:09
  Speaker 2: demand is. I do think that they will be very popular,
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: but we can absolutely scale to some rough sense to
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: the bitcoin and ethereum ETFs which we have here in
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: the US. Market as well as to the old coin
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: ETPs that exist in Europe. So you know, this is
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: about US regulatory clarity and change in US products, but
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: we do have these types of products in other areas
• 15:33
  Speaker 2: and we can kind of roughly benchmark these estimates. I
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: think that those are potentially the right ballpark.
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: You know. I don't want to say for sure.
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: It's day one for our product here today, so we're
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: going to see after the first few days of trading.
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: But I think these numbers are approximately scaled to the
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: experience of the bitcoin and ethereum ETF and seem maybe
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: in the right ballpark to my eye.
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: Well, I was just kind of curious because I'm trying
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: to get more analysts to say, is this way out
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: of line or is this in line? You know, so
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: without giving expectations, but you know, because I.
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: Think sometimes broadly in line, broadly.
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: Okay, So inline is the key, because I hear crazy
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: things from Tom Lee all the time, where we're going
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: to get to a twenty thousand dollars eighth and I'm
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: still kind of trying to digest that some because I
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: have a hard time getting there, but I always love
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: to hear it. But you know, just like I'm interested
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: to hear in JP Morgan say hey, we've got eight
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: billionaire and six billion there, you know, which is great.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: Now, to be clear, brought broadly in line in terms
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: of potential inflows scaled to the Bitcoin and Ethereum experience
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: on price, you know that remains to be seen. I
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: am optimistic, certainly about the whole asset class.
• 16:43
  Speaker 6: All right.
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: So I've got a couple of other things here I
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: want to hit on. One is if you look at
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: the amount of allocation, and I'm you know, we've looked
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: at your platform here in terms of your holdings g
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: d LC, but this is the breakdown here. So it's
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: a five ETF holding basket. So you've got Coin leading
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: the weight at seventy five almost seventy five percent, and
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: then right behind that Ethereum, then you're coming in with
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: XRP and Salana these somewhat weight according to market cap.
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: Is this what you are proposing to investors when they
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: come into gray Scale and say I want to package
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: up some investments here. Is this kind of the model
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: you're proposing to them.
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: Well, we speak to every different type of investor that
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: you could imagine from individual retail investors to the world's
• 17:29
  Speaker 2: most sophisticated institutions, and they have a wide range of needs.
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: But one of our key messages is that crypto is
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: an emerging asset class, an important part of virtually every
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: diversified portfolio, and you don't want to miss the opportunity
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: in some bigger set. So there are lots of particulars,
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: as your viewers know, in getting up to speed on
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: blockchain technology and all these different assets, but you don't
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: want to miss the broader opportunity. So an index based
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: approach has been a very successful way to allocate to
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: different asset classes equities, bonds, and many other things, and
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: has also been a successful way to allocate to crypto.
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: We've been running this particular product since twenty eighteen and
• 18:13
  Speaker 2: it has an excellent track record. I think for investors
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: that don't want an overwhelming amount of complexity, want or
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: makes sure that they capture the crypto opportunity, capture the
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: beta in their portfolio, that the grayscale COINDESK Crypto five
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: ETF or the ticker GDLC that you mentioned can be
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: a great fit. But there's so many different types of investors.
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: That's why we have a broad product a suite, do
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: we customize it to investors needs.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: I'm looking at the coin market cap here and there
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: it is. You've got Solana setting at number six, XRP
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: at number four XRP holding a current market cap at
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty seven bill versus Solana holding in
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: at one oh seven. Do you think Solana can move
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: up the chart here again because at one time they
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: were above XRP in terms of marketcap? What's your opinion?
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: It is a neck and neck race.
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: I guess for that slot on the leader board, I
• 19:08
  Speaker 2: would just maybe highlight a couple of other things in there.
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: I mean, what that kind of leaderboard shows me is
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: first that the market perceives that the single most valuable
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: attribute of blockchain technologies today is the store of value
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: or digital gold use case provided by bitcoin. That that
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: jumps off the page with looking at this and all.
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: The other thing that jumps off the page is stable coins,
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: you know, Tether being very high on that list. Now,
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: between the rest of them, there's intense competition. I don't
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: want to kind of say that one will take take
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: the lead over the other necessarily. I do think that
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: Salona is a strong project and has a very diverse
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: and rich on chain economy, lots of applications, lots of developers,
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: lots of users, and that's why you can expect it
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: to sustain its value and grow over time. So I'm
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: thrilled to be able to offer that, to be able
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: to talk about our ETF product here today. And I
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: think Solana is a is a very strong project. But
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: of course it's a very diverse range of things happening
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: in that list of top tokens, from stable points to
• 20:15
  Speaker 2: digital gold.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: No doubt. I want to talk a touch on one
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: more point, and that is the narrative between AI and
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: stable coins. All Right, You've got Nvidia really kind of
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: cruising through a five trillion dollar model right now. You
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: got Solana jumping into the XO, the X four oh two.
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: We had the coin based team on yesterday breaking this down,
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: which is a huge opportunity in terms of agentic payments,
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: especially in micro transactions. When you look at that, what's
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: bigger right now? The AI narrative, I mean in video
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: is untouchable, it feels like, or the stable coin narrative,
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: which is just getting started.
• 20:53
  Speaker 2: What do you think, Well, that's a tough question. I
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: think certainly in broader markets. It's hard to say that
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: anything but the AI trade is the biggest thing happening
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: in global finance today. In the crypto ecosystem, definitely, stable
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: coins are the biggest story, and these things do intersect
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: very clearly. In the future, we're going to have agents
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: acting on our behalf artificial intelligence agents, and they can't
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: have a bank account, they can't have a credit card,
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: but they can have an address on a blockchain and
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: use stable coins to make payments. So we absolutely think
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: that AI related payments will be one of the biggest
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: use cases of stable coins and a huge use case
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: of blockchain technology in general.
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: No doubt. I'm going to end it today with Papa
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: Fink Larry Fink coming in. He was at the Mega
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: Finance summit talking about how the world isn't prepared and
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: I want to get your opinion on this. Take a look.
• 21:55
  Speaker 7: You talked to central bankers regularly. What are the biggest
• 21:58
  Speaker 7: concerns today of central bankers about what's going on in
• 22:01
  Speaker 7: the global economy. I would say the biggest question from
• 22:04
  Speaker 7: central banks is what is the role of tokenization and digitization?
• 22:09
  Speaker 7: How quickly should they think about digitizing their own currency.
• 22:12
  Speaker 7: What does that mean for bank payments payment companies like
• 22:15
  Speaker 7: MasterCard and Visa. We're not spending enough time talking about
• 22:19
  Speaker 7: how quickly we're going to tokenize every financial asset a
• 22:22
  Speaker 7: digital wallet and moving you know, ETF and other things
• 22:26
  Speaker 7: through a digital wallet. And I think that's going to
• 22:29
  Speaker 7: happen worldwide very rapidly. Most countries are ill prepared for that,
• 22:34
  Speaker 7: and I underappreciate how technology is changing that, not unlike
• 22:38
  Speaker 7: how technology is changing AI.
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: All right, so ill prepared countries are going to be
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: ill prepared for this. Zach, would you agree right now
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: that are people that far behind the eight ball here
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: or are we just drinking the kool aid in this industry?
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: Well, you know, the US economy is incredibly dynamic, and
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: I know will adapt to all these changes. But I
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: agree with with Larry Fink here that people will be
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: astonished on how big these numbers get relatively quick, and
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: it's partly just how small.
• 23:07
  Speaker 3: They are today.
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: There are thirty billion dollars of tokenized assets today, which
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: sounds like a big number, but it is tiny compared
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: to the three hundred trillion dollars plus of tokenizable assets,
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: So it is a very, very small thing at its
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: very very beginning and will be a huge part of
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: our industry. So absolutely, you know, we are not prepared
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: for how big these numbers will look over the next
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: couple of years. Maybe your listeners are prepared, you know.
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: I think broader investors and regulator as still catching up.
• 23:38
  Speaker 4: It is.
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: It is kind of a situation right now because the
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: more we talk to traditional finance as this market grows,
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: it's drawing in trad fi not only money managers, investors, businesses,
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: technology companies, et cetera. And once they start opening up
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: to really what's happening in crypto, the light bulb moment
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: seems to come on. So it's intriguing that this is
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: happening now. Zach Pandal, great having you on the show.
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much for attending today.
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: We appreciate it, my pleasure. Paul, thank you.
• 24:07
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• 24:08
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• 24:11
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• 24:14
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• 24:15
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• 24:17
  Speaker 1: on x at Paul Baron. We'll catch you next time
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: right here on the Paul Baron Show, thank you,