Web3 with Sam Kamani

EPISODE DESCRIPTION
I sat down with Rohit, Richard, and Carlos from CAAN , three veterans with decades of experience across Goldman Sachs, Bear Stearns, BlackRock, and Deutsche Bank , to break down what is really happening in markets right now. We get into why Bitcoin has gone quiet, where all the volatility has migrated to, and what the bond market breaking down could mean for everyone. More importantly, we dig into what CAAN is building: liquid alternative strategies that give everyday investors access to the kind of sophisticated, uncorrelated returns that were previously locked behind institutional walls. Richard also shares a raw and refreshingly honest take on wealth, happiness, and why borrowing money to impress people is a trap. This one covers a lot of ground , macro, crypto, derivatives, and life advice , and I think you will find it genuinely useful. 
DISCLAIMER
Nothing mentioned in this podcast is investment advice and please do your own research. It would mean a lot if you can leave a review of this podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and share this podcast with a friend. 
Be a guest on the podcast or contact us - https://www.web3pod.xyz/
CONNECT
CAAN Website: https://caanam.com/
CAAN LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/caan-alternative-asset-management/
Rohit LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rohit-gadkar-070172/
Carlos LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlos-flores-otero-083280/
KEY POINTS WITH TIMESTAMPS
• [00:00] Rohit, Richard, and Carlos share their backgrounds
• [02:13] Richard explains how he moved from building trading systems at investment banks to crypto options in 2017
• [03:04] Carlos describes how CAAN was born from a career in liquid alternative strategies and a gap he saw in the market
• [05:10] Rohit shares his journey from early BlackRock employee to co-founding CAAN
• [08:00] The team explains why they focus on liquid alternatives over the saturated private equity and private credit space
• [10:26] Carlos makes the case for decorrelatio
• [15:18] CAAN's gold-standard approach to regulatory compliance and institutional-grade infrastructure
• [16:01] How CAAN structures products to lower minimum entry tickets and democratize access
• [18:52] Richard breaks down the three types of Bitcoin holders
• [23:22] Why Bitcoin volatility has compressed and where that volatility has gone , meme stocks, AI names, and prediction markets
• [25:39] Richard on why periods of low Bitcoin volatility have always preceded explosive moves
• [28:04] Richard's blunt take on hyperfinancialization, inequality, and why markets are structurally inefficient
• [30:27] Carlos draws parallels between today's market psychology and the run-up to the 1929 crash
• [31:40] Richard on the dot-com bubble, infinite money printing, and why the next crash might be the real one
• [33:22] Rohit explains why the bond market is the only real check on government spending , and what happens if it breaks
• [35:11] The Bitcoin bull case: hyperinflation, a monetary reset, and growing mistrust of the dollar
• [39:12] Richard explains why he sees volatility as a more reliable asset class than any other
• [40:54] How CAAN's Digital Assets Absolute Return strategy trades volatility rather than direction to generate smoother returns
• [43:34] Carlos breaks down how combining a volatility sub-strategy with a momentum sub-strategy creates resilience
• [46:57] Richard on the biggest misconception retail investors have about digital assets
• [48:43] Richard's single most important chart or metric for understanding Bitcoin over time
• [50:09] Final advice from all three: start early, diversify, stay invested, do not time the market, and find uncorrelated strategies
• [54:39] Richard's unconventional life advice , stop borrowing, stop chasing status, become happy first and then figure out money
• [56:40] CAAN's current ask: raising capital, scaling distribution, and building partnerships across jurisdictions

EPISODE DESCRIPTION 
I sat down with John O'Connor from RealFi to dig into one of the most overlooked problems in crypto , the fact that the $350 billion sitting in stablecoins is doing almost nothing for the people who hold it. Tether and Circle pocket the yield while you hold a digital dollar that just sits there. John walks me through exactly how RealFi flips that model, channeling your stable coins directly into real world credit markets and passing the returns back to you. We talk about USDR and sUSDR, how they manage liquidity risk and redemptions, why DeFi security is an existential threat right now, and why John actually wants RealFi to be called boring. We also get into the future of decentralised neo-banking in emerging markets, what lessons he carried over from his time as the first hire at Cardano, and why product market fit today matters more than a promised roadmap. 
DISCLAIMER
Nothing mentioned in this podcast is investment advice and please do your own research. It would mean a lot if you can leave a review of this podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and share this podcast with a friend. 
Be a guest on the podcast or contact us - https://www.web3pod.xyz/
 CONNECT 
Website: https://realfi.co
RealFi LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/real-fi/
Twitter/X: https://x.com/realfi_co
RealFi Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Real_Fi
John O'Connor LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jjtoconnor/
John O'Connor Twitter/X: https://x.com/jjtoconnor?lang=en
Web3 with Sam Kamani: https://www.web3pod.xyz/
 KEY POINTS WITH TIMESTAMPS 
• [00:00] Sam introduces John O'Connor from RealFi and the topic of productive stablecoins
• [01:02] John shares his origin story , from Eve Online in-game currencies to Bitcoin to Cardano as its first hire
• [02:54] The core problem: $350 billion in stablecoins sitting idle while Tether and Circle keep all the yield
• [04:21] Who the primary users are , institutional allocators, trading collateral, and protocol treasuries
• [07:05] Explaining USDR and sUSDR , the base stablecoin versus the staked, yield-accruing version
• [08:28] How RealFi manages liquidity risk and redemption mismatches across two separate books
• [11:27] Why RealFi is not competing with Tether and USDC but playing in a different and faster-growing lane
• [13:24] The hardest challenge , bridging TradFi asset management with the crypto world and navigating global regulation
• [15:32] Why DeFi security is an existential question right now and how AI is changing the exploit landscape
• [17:40] Exploring smart contract insurance and the challenge of underwriting in a fast-moving risk environment
• [21:59] North Star metrics , TVL growth, stickiness of capital, and being proud to be called boring
• [25:54] Lessons from Cardano applied to RealFi , focus on product market fit today, not five years from now
• [28:05] Companies John admires , Athena for tokenising the funding rate trade and neo-banking startups going after idle corporate balances
• [31:37] What needs to happen for productive stablecoins to go mainstream , regulation, decentralised account recovery, and a full neo-banking stack
• [35:59] The ask , RealFi is launching on Cardano and EVM Mainnet imminently and wants partners, users, and testers

EPISODE DESCRIPTION 
In this episode, I sit down with Evgeny from Disence, one of the leading KOL and Web3 marketing firms in the space. Evgeny has worked with over 500 campaigns and 1,200+ KOLs, and he pulls back the curtain on what projects are getting badly wrong when it comes to influencer marketing. We get into why impressions are a vanity metric, why macro KOLs are largely a waste of budget, how to actually vet a KOL in today's market, and why the best micro KOLs are paradoxically the hardest ones to reach. Evgeny also shares how his team helped one client close nearly $800,000 in B2B sales, and why building credibility before launching any campaign is non-negotiable. If you run a Web3 project or are thinking about KOL marketing, this one will save you a lot of money. 
DISCLAIMER
Nothing mentioned in this podcast is investment advice and please do your own research. It would mean a lot if you can leave a review of this podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and share this podcast with a friend. 
Be a guest on the podcast or contact us - https://www.web3pod.xyz/
 CONNECT 
Disence Website: https://disence.com/
Disence Twitter/X: https://x.com/DisenceOfficial
Evgeny on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evgenii-gorbunov/
Web3 with Sam Kamani: https://www.web3pod.xyz/
 KEY POINTS WITH TIMESTAMPS 
• [00:00] Sam introduces Evgeny from Disence and the focus on KOL marketing and Web3 branding
• [01:36] Evgeny shares his background , from receiving ETH at $400 in 2017 to writing a published academic thesis on crypto perception
• [04:30] How a spreadsheet of 500 KOL performance metrics led to the founding of Disence
• [07:35] Overview of Disence and C-Leads: from B2C KOL campaigns to closing $800K in B2B sales in three months
• [10:26] The story of a KOL who publicly trashed a client's project , and what it reveals about relationships over incentives
• [13:13] Why commission-only KOL deals don't work and how referral mechanics should be used as leverage, not payment
• [14:45] The full campaign process: auditing a project's foundation, building credibility, selecting KOLs, writing briefs, and tracking results
• [18:38] Why impressions are the most misleading metric in crypto and why 95% of channels have botted engagement
• [20:25] Clipping and podcast distribution explained , why it's a conversion amplifier, not a user acquisition tool
• [22:02] How to vet a real audience from a botted one and why recent results (last two months) are the only data that matters
• [25:20] Why the crypto narrative shifts every six to eight months and what that means for KOL longevity
• [27:31] What campaigns are dominating right now , the battle for trading volume across CEXs and perp DEXes
• [31:49] Why AI has removed the technical moat and made marketing the real differentiator for Web3 projects
• [33:12] Contrarian take: why micro KOLs outperform macro ones but are paradoxically harder to reach and convert
• [40:51] Evgeny's ask , hiring across marketing, sales, and content, and a call for micro KOLs to reach out

EPISODE DESCRIPTION 
I sat down with Reid, co-founder of Ground, to explore what it actually takes to bring on-chain finance to institutions. Ground is building a non-custodial API platform, think Stripe, but for DeFi, so that banks, neobanks, and financial companies can access yield, lending, liquid staking, and real-world assets without rebuilding their entire stack. Reid shares his journey from Square to Stripe to Chime to founding Superstate and ultimately Ground. We dig into why large institutions move slowly, why the "just build it with AI" objection misses the point, and what the future looks like when blockchains are quietly powering the back end of your Robin Hood or JPMorgan account. 
DISCLAIMER
Nothing mentioned in this podcast is investment advice and please do your own research. It would mean a lot if you can leave a review of this podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and share this podcast with a friend. 
Be a guest on the podcast or contact us - https://www.web3pod.xyz/
 CONNECT 
Ground Website: https://www.groundtech.co/
Ground LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ground-global/
Ground Twitter/X: https://x.com/ground_onchain
Reid Twitter/X: https://x.com/rmcuming
Web3 with Sam Kamani: https://www.web3pod.xyz/
 KEY POINTS WITH TIMESTAMPS 
• [00:00] Sam introduces Reid and Ground, a platform helping institutions access on-chain finance
• [01:20] Reid's nonlinear path from consulting to Silicon Valley to fintech at Square, Stripe, and Chime
• [02:00] How Reid joined Compound Labs, built Compound Treasury, then co-founded Superstate before incubating Ground
• [03:04] The core problem Ground solves: abstracting blockchain complexity into a Stripe-like API experience
• [04:26] What on-chain finance functions look like: stablecoins, lending protocols, LP pools, liquid staking, and RWAs
• [05:34] Why institutions are eager but slow, regulatory uncertainty, internal change management, and calcified tech stacks
• [08:08] How Reid navigates complex enterprise sales cycles versus faster-moving startup clients
• [10:40] Building during a market downturn: why Reid sees it as the best time to build with high signal
• [14:15] Ground as a non-custodial API: clients retain full control while Ground handles orchestration and security
• [17:26] Addressing the "we'll just build it ourselves with AI" objection, and why real clients never actually say this
• [21:30] Current institutional client conversations: time savings, security, compliance, and avoiding cannibalization of existing business
• [23:31] The Innovator's Dilemma in crypto: why incumbents like Stripe struggle to self-disrupt on fees
• [25:32] Key challenges bridging TradFi and DeFi: compliance, on/off ramps, RWA liquidity, and security insurance
• [27:33] The hardest role to hire for: go-to-market talent that bridges crypto-native and institutional worlds
• [30:54] What's next in crypto: tokenization plus DeFi becoming invisible infrastructure powering mainstream finance apps
• [33:26] Reid's advice for founders and investors: keep turning the crank, stay curious, never get complacent
• [34:56] Ground's asks: hiring engineers and a BD lead, onboarding corporate treasury clients, and building yield or investment products

EPISODE DESCRIPTION 
I sat down with Ilies, CEO of Ouinex, a crypto exchange that launched earlier this year with one clear mission: stop retail traders from getting crushed by institutions on unfair playing fields. Ilies breaks down exactly how traditional crypto exchanges are structured in a way that lets market makers and financial institutions exploit everyday traders, and explains the specific model Ouinex uses to fix that. We also dig into why TradeFi instruments on most crypto exchanges cost retail traders five to seven times more than they should, how AI copilots could change the way traders manage positions, and where the market is headed as institutional money continues flowing into digital assets. If you have ever wondered why your trades seem to always go against you, this episode will open your eyes.
DISCLAIMER
Nothing mentioned in this podcast is investment advice and please do your own research. It would mean a lot if you can leave a review of this podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and share this podcast with a friend. 
Be a guest on the podcast or contact us - https://www.web3pod.xyz/
 CONNECT 
Ouinex Website: https://ouinex.com/en
Twitter/X: https://x.com/Ouinex
Telegram: https://t.me/+g8twTjE3_wUxY2E0
Web3 with Sam Kamani: https://www.web3pod.xyz/
 KEY POINTS WITH TIMESTAMPS 
• [00:54] Ilies shares his background, starting at FXCM 25 years ago and building his way into crypto and founding Ouinex in 2022
• [03:24] He explains the central limit order book problem: retail traders are competing in the same order book as well-funded institutions with co-location and full trading teams
• [07:26] Ouinex introduces the no-taker execution model, where market makers can only make markets, not take orders, and have no visibility into retail client orders
• [08:19] TradeFi instruments on Ouinex tap into decades-old bank liquidity from Goldman, Citi, and Deutsche, making Ouinex around 20x more liquid than competitors on those instruments
• [10:23] Ilies compares spreads: a normal TradeFi broker offers around one point on gold, while major crypto exchanges charge around seven points for the same product
• [15:37] He describes how thin crypto liquidity lets institutions move markets with small capital, keeping retail as what he calls exit liquidity
• [20:00] Ouinex is a multi-asset platform, so when crypto is flat, users can access oil, gold, Nasdaq, and equity markets all from one interface
• [21:28] On regulation, Ouinex is actively working with a local partner to obtain a MiCA-aligned license in Europe
• [26:24] Discussion on AI in trading: Ilies is skeptical of predictive AI signals but excited about an AI copilot feature that would call traders when their positions hit key levels
• [30:30] Ilies and Sam discuss the growing wave of institutional interest in digital assets, with family offices and hedge funds expanding into crypto
• [34:30] North Star metrics for Ouinex are trade volume and retention, and currently almost no users are leaving once they join
• [37:48] Ouinex is preparing for a seed or Series A round, targeting documentation ready by end of August, and is inviting traders to try the platform