MoneyNeverSleeps

Dr Ian Hunt spent around 40 years on the buy side and was the design authority behind FundAdminChain, the first distributed ledger-based funds platform to go live in the UK.
His new paper with Steve Whyman argues that tokenizing an existing asset changes how you own it and very little else: the same intermediaries, the same servicing, the same regulation.
As Ian puts it, “by changing the way you own something, you don’t change the thing.” The missing half is what you’re owed. Ian makes the case for building finance from two primitive tokens, title and entitlement, so products can execute themselves and blockchains only have to agree on two things.
Also in this one: why we built our own private stablecoin at FAC, why atomic settlement doesn’t have to mean instant, why most of the companies on the OKX and ICE tokenized stock list objected, and the composable investment specification Ian is now writing with Steve Whyman, Charlie Kerrigan, Rich Fox and Professor Sarah Green.

Connect with Ian:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-ian-hunt-228880/

Read the paper:
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?
abstract_id=6758022

Subscribe on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/4F8uOLxiscYVWVGEfNxTnd

Chapters
0:00 Cold open
0:17 Intro: Ian Hunt and FundAdminChain
1:07 Cash on chain: the FAC private stablecoin
3:25 What stablecoins open up: atomic doesn’t mean instant
4:44 Stablecoins, tokenized deposits and the digital cash layer cake
5:55 OKX, ICE and why issuers are objecting
8:28 Apple is solvent, the token issuer goes bust
10:37 The paper with Steve Whyman: own vs owed
13:50 Title and entitlement, the two primitive tokens
15:01 Interoperability: agreeing on two things instead of many
16:24 Innovating without adding complexity
17:08 The composable spec, and who’s writing it
18:52 Wrap

MoneyNeverSleeps: sharp riffs, big ideas, and real insights from smart people. Hosted by early-stage investor Pete Townsend, GP at Norio Ventures.
moneyneversleeps.ie
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petetownsendnv/
X: https://x.com/PeteTownsendNV
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/petetownsend353/
Email: info@norioventures.com

This week nearly half the companies on the OKX-ICE tokenized stock list opted out, and in the same week DTCC went live on Canton with JPMorgan signed up.
That had me questioning my long-held view that TradFi would eventually fold into DeFi, so I asked Benedetto Biondi, co-founder and CEO of crosschain lending protocol Folks Finance and one of our Techstars Web3 mentors.
He thinks DeFi’s early cyberpunk vision was naive, and that TradFi is adapting to onchain finance rather than to pure DeFi. It wants DeFi’s liquidity and reach but will only interact with it as a layer.
We also get into why Folks won’t list securities directly, RWAs as collateral, Wield, their new regulated app, and why a $10 portfolio and a $10 million one should look the same to a protocol.

Connect with Ben:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benedettobio/
X: https://x.com/benedettobio
Folks Finance: https://folks.finance

Subscribe on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4F8uOLxiscYVWVGEfNxTnd

Chapters
0:00 Cold open
0:31 Intro
1:06 Does the DeFi crowd care about TradFi coming onchain
3:14 DeFi vs onchain finance
5:36 OKX-ICE opt-outs and DTCC on Canton
8:09 Three lanes: where does Folks sit?
10:49 Wield and the regulated app
12:17 Practical openness and the $10 portfolio
13:34 Where to find Ben

Sharp riffs, big ideas and real insights from smart people, all in under 15 minutes. Hosted by early-stage investor Pete Townsend with the people rebuilding money, markets, and the internet from the ground up.
moneyneversleeps.ie

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petetownsendnv/
X: https://x.com/PeteTownsendNV
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/petetownsend353/
Email: info@norioventures.com

Alejandro Gutierrez of Superteam Ireland is back to take on Matt Walsh's challenge: are tokenized funds a new kind of asset, or the same fund on new rails? Off the back of BlackRock and Ondo putting model portfolios onchain, we get into the six ways people are tokenizing a share, whether a Terra moment or a regulator forces them to consolidate, and what happens to a fund's operating model when you redraw the org chart as AI agents and ask which processes become code and which stay human anchored. Plus why more than 60% of tokenized stock trading on Solana happens outside US market hours, and Alejandro's read from Solana Suits in London.Connect with Alejandro:https://www.linkedin.com/in/alejandro-gutierrez-98979b43/https://x.com/A_gutierroFollow MoneyNeverSleeps on Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/4F8uOLxiscYVWVGEfNxTndChapters0:00 Cold open0:25 Intro1:03 Two parallel universes1:27 New asset or same fund on new rails?2:46 Making assets machine-readable3:26 BlackRock, Ondo and onchain model portfolios4:14 Tokenized equities' stablecoin moment5:06 Six ways to tokenize a share6:49 What becomes code, what stays human8:02 Collateral and the agentic fund9:43 Composability and distribution10:45 After hours belongs to agents12:05 Solana Suits: institutions are in13:40 Breakpoint 2026 in London14:24 Wrap upSharp riffs, big ideas and real insights from smart people, all in under 15 minutes. Hosted by early-stage investor Pete Townsend with the people rebuilding money, markets, and the internet from the ground up.moneyneversleeps.iehttps://www.linkedin.com/in/petetownsendnv/https://x.com/PeteTownsendNVhttps://www.instagram.com/petetownsend353/info@norioventures.com

Pete Townsend is joined by Eoghan Powell, who runs WorkIQ, a new innovation centre for founders and early-stage companies in Tallaght, on the edge of Dublin.
This is Part 2 of a pair on the Irish startup scene, after Derek O'Doherty of West x West on the capital side.
Where Derek covered how founders find the money, Eoghan goes underneath that, to where founders come from in the first place. They start with Ireland's reliance on a handful of multinationals for its tax base, and the thin middle in the economy between company formation and homegrown giants like Ryanair and Kerry Group.

Pete pushes back on how exposed the country really is, given how embedded Apple, Google and Meta have become, and they land on the point that whether or not the multinationals pull back, the founder pipeline needs building either way. Then the heart of it: Eoghan's case that this isn't a money problem, it's an ambition one. A kid in Dublin 4 grows up seeing founders at the dinner table; a kid in Tallaght or Kerry or Mayo often doesn't, and ends up believing people like them don't get that. His fix is honest role models, a visible front door, and the warm intro done at scale.

Connect with Eoghan:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eoghanpowell1983/
Website: https://workiq.ie/

Chapters
0:00 Cold open
0:36 Intro and welcome
1:14 Ireland's reliance on the multinationals
2:47 The gap in the middle, and where founders come from
3:17 Why the next Google needs a homegrown base
5:02 The hard question: are the MNCs too embedded to leave?
6:09 Why wait for them? The case for building our own
7:47 Ambition, role models, and seeing the struggle
8:33 The Collison brothers myth
9:55 Does the kid in Tallaght believe they have access?
11:15 Building the base: the front door
12:20 The two-email warm intro, and how it scales
14:04 Where to find Eoghan and WorkIQ

Sharp riffs, big ideas and real insights from smart people, all in under 15 minutes. Hosted by early-stage investor Pete Townsend with the people rebuilding money, markets, and the internet from the ground up.

Website: https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petetownsendnv/
X: https://x.com/PeteTownsendNV
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/petetownsend353/
Email: info@norioventures.com

Pete Townsend is joined by Derek O'Doherty, founder of West x West, the two-day tech, venture and culture festival in Castlebar, Mayo that brings Irish founders together with global investors.
Derek spent thirty years in capital markets across London, Sydney and New York, and until last week a year inside Enterprise Ireland building international VC relationships for scaling companies.
They get into why the Irish economy isn't big enough to carry a founder from pre-seed to Series B on home capital alone, the VC pecking order that sends founders abroad to raise, why Irish founders outside the US are second only to Israel in the share who raise capital, and why Derek left a state agency to build a festival that brings the funders to the founders instead. Plus the Nik Milanović super-connector path, why he's rooting it all in the West rather than Dublin, and what's on at WXW this October.
Connect with Derek:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/derek-o-doherty-91669530/
More on West x West:
https://westxwest.ie/
https://www.instagram.com/westxwest.ie/
Listen and subscribe:
https://open.spotify.com/show/4F8uOLxiscYVWVGEfNxTnd
Chapters
0:00 Cold open
0:11 Intro and welcome
0:47 Why Irish founders hit a wall on home capital
1:22 The VC pecking order
3:11 The pre-seed funding reality
5:06 Bringing the capital to the market
6:13 Why leave Enterprise Ireland now
7:57 Why a festival, not a fund
9:16 Community and the super connector
10:18 Event details and lineup
11:42 Close
Sharp riffs, big ideas and real insights from smart people, all in under 15 minutes. Hosted by early-stage investor Pete Townsend with the people rebuilding money, markets, and the internet from the ground up.
Web: https://www.moneyneversleeps.ie/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petetownsendnv/
X: https://x.com/PeteTownsendNV
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/petetownsend353/
Email: info@norioventures.com