255: SBF Gets 25 Years | BlackRock’s Tokenized Fund | Copper’s Sushi Party | Fintech Funding vs. Crypto Bulls

255: SBF Gets 25 Years | BlackRock’s Tokenized Fund | Copper’s Sushi Party | Fintech Funding vs. Crypto Bulls | Guest Co-Host Paul Smyth

Paul Smyth and I look at Sam Bankman-Fried’s 25-year sentence before jumping to the brighter side of things with BlackRock’s new tokenized money market fund. We then time travel back to 2017 with Copper’s sushi party (or so we thought), and close things out by questioning the correlation between fintech funding and the crypto bull run.

Paul Smyth is a specialist executive recruiter and executive coach within the fintech industry. As a founder of two startups, Paul also has a unique view of the startup ecosystem.

Paul and I met back in 2017 shortly before I photo-bombed his stand at a fintech event in Dublin, and we’ve collaborated quite a bit since then. He and his business partner and life partner Laura Smyth from Top Tier Recruitment were the original sponsors of MoneyNeverSleeps back in 2018.

Since then, Paul has also launched the Possible.ie executive coaching business that counts me as one of their proud customers. I was so happy with the outcome of Paul’s coaching of me that I asked him to coach the founders that we bring through the Techstars Web3 accelerator. As one of the many hats he wears, Paul is a fantastic Coach-in-Residence for Techstars, helping startup founders find their way to positive outcomes.

STORIES COVERED:

SBF Sentenced

Sam Bankman-Fried’s fate sealed by his own words (FT, 28-Mar-24)

Where Is Sam Bankman-Fried Likely to Serve His Prison Term? (Unchained, 27-Apr-24)

Sam Bankman-Fried’s Final Trip to Court (New York Magazine, 28-Mar-24)

BlackRock Tokenized Fund

BlackRock Unveils ‘BUIDL’ Tokenized Asset Fund on Ethereum—With $5 Million Buy-In (21-Mar-24)

BlackRock's Tokenized Fund Quickly Rakes in $245M, Right Behind Franklin Templeton's Older Offering (CoinDesk, 27-Mar-24)

BUIDL: Blackrock's $10T Bet on Ethereum | Carlos Domingo (Bankless, 2-Apr-24)

Etherscan: BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL)

Copper’s Sushi Party

Crypto group Copper launches review after ‘embarrassing’ sushi party (FT, 28-Mar-24)