Alejandro Gutierrez joins the show as guest co-host in this Money Talks segment. Alejandro is the CEO of Defactor Labs, providing all the required technological and financial tools for traditional companies to tap into alternative sources of financing using tokenized Real World Assets as collateral. Congratulations to Defactor Labs for taking home the gong at the inaugural National Fintech Awards in Ireland for ‘Best Crypto, Blockchain or Digital Asset Offering’.
In this episode, Alejandro and Pete Townsend riff on the SEC cracking down on NFTs as a fundraising tool by looking at the Mila Kunis-backed Stoner Cats project and that of LA-based media company Impact Theory. They also step through the story of Visa integrating the Solana blockchain for USDC settlements, Mark Cuban getting hacked, Citi’s new token service, and have some fun with emerging tech hype cycles and Patagonia vests.
STORIES COVERED:
NFT Takedowns
What Happens to Mila Kunis' Stoner Cats NFTs After SEC Settlement? (Decrypt, 13-Sep-23)
SEC settles first NFT enforcement case, fines LA media company $6M (TechCrunch, 29-Aug-23)
Visa+Solana+USDC
‘A Huge Deal’—Visa Reveals Crypto Payments Bombshell (Forbes, 7-Sep-23)
Long Take: Visa, Worldpay, and Nuvei settling transactions using stablecoin USDC on Solana (Fintech Blueprint by Lex Sokolin, 6-Sep-23)
Mark Cuban Hacked
Mark Cuban Loses Nearly $1M to Crypto Scam (CoinDesk, 18-Sep-23)
Billionaire Mark Cuban Loses $870,000 In Crypto Scam (Decrypt, 16-Sep-23)
Citi’s New Token Service
Citigroup Debuts Token Service in Latest Foray Into Digital Assets (Bloomberg, 18-Sep-23)
Citi Token Services will provide payments, liquidity to institutional customers (Cointelegraph, 18-Sep-23)
LINKS:
Follow our guest co-host Alejandro Gutierrez on X(Twitter) and LinkedIn
Learn more about Defactor Labs and follow them on X(Twitter)
Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify
Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@norioventures.com
Follow us on X(Twitter): Pete Townsend | MoneyNeverSleeps
Follow us on LinkedIn: Pete Townsend | MoneyNeverSleeps
Co-Host
Early-stage startup investor, MD @Techstars Web3, founder of Norio Ventures, mentor, non-executive director, podcaster and bad guitar player.
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