ကူးယူချက် 🔗
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And ETF is not good or bad. It is just
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a wrapper, right, It just it's a function of what
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you put in it. And the same way ah, just
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US treasury is not good or bad. It's just a
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function of like what is in it and what do
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you do with that capital. ETFs are like one of
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the most democratizing you know, structures that have been financial
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services has ever created.
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Would you look to explore investing in assets that are
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tokenized on the Avalanche blockchain? Potentially?
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Yeah, again, tokenization is inevitable.
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visit the link in the description. Hey, folks, welcome into
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the Thinking Crypto Podcast. I'm your host Tony Edward and
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joining me today is Bart Smith, who is the CEO
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and chairman of the Avalanche Treasury Co.
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Bart. Great to have you, Thanks, Johnny. Looking forward to it.
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Yeah, Bart, excited to talk about what you're doing in
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building an Avax treasury strategy. I'm an Avax token holders.
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I'm excited to get into the details. Well, let's kick
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it off with your background. Tell us about where you're
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from and your professional background.
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So I've been in you know, in finance for whatever
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twenty five or thirty years almost at this point, worked
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in in asset management and I worked you know, at
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ubs for a while, I was one of the original
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founders of an ETF firm that was eventually sold to
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Columbia Funds. And then and then from there I went
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to work at Susquehanna. I was at Susquehanna for thirteen
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years collectively. Most of the time there I was responding.
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I ran the ETF group. I was also responsible at
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times for so in some international sales and trading stuff.
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I ran our credit trading business. And then since twenty fourteen,
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I was responsible for anything that was digital asset related.
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And then kind of in twenty twenty two, kind of
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giving the regulatory environment, we made the decision to create
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Susquehanna Crypto, which was not part of the Susquehanna group
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of companies. It was a separate entity outside of the
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Susquhenda group. It was based in Bahamas and with offices
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in London Hong Kong, which you know, we were a
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derivative trading shop, proprietary shop, market maker, and we did
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a fair amount of investing into the ecosystem and a
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lot of DeFi so a pretty well rounded business there.
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And then departed in it's late August after thirteen great
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years there to lead this new digitalised treasury. That's incredible.
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You got a pretty strong pedigree. You mentioned twenty fourteen
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you were looking at digital assets. What was your first
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encounter with bitcoin and crypto and when did they click
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for you?
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Well, yeah, it was only one right, twenty fourteen. So
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effectively we were just interested in the concept of bitcoin,
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and you know, we were just you know, we were
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basically just like investing in bitcoin long there wasn't really
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much more to do there, you know, as in the
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ICO boom in the twenty on the teen timeframe, we
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became very active in a limited number of tokens where
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we were quite sure that the SEC was going to
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name you know, certain commodities as commodities and not name
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them as securities, and so we kind of limit our
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approach mostly to those names like cooin, bitcoin, bitcoin cash, ethereum,
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and theorem classic, stuff like that. And then kind of
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as there was that ICO correction in twenty eighteen, you know,
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we went to try to kind of expand and kind
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of set up like a proper OTC desk, and you know,
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we just really couldn't get terribly comfortable with kind of
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the legal and regulatory advice that we were getting and
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others were getting, and so, you know, we kind of
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were very interested in the space. We made a lot
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of direct investments over that time, but kind of there
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was a period there for a while where we weren't
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as active as maybe some of the other kind of
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bigger US market making firms, and then kind of near
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the twenty twenty one kind of run up, and that's
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when we kind of made the decision that if if
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we want to do this, and Susquehanna and my person
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all kind of view of the world is taking a
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very conservative approach towards legal and reguatory compliance, and that
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just meant, you know, doing it offshore. And we knew
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that people were doing it in the US and they
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were using VPNs and you know they which really just
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means they're they're you know, they are you know, they're
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they're not abiding by they're terms of service. But it's
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you know, just in a broader sense, if we were
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going to do this, we wanted to do it in
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the most compliant and effective manner, which
meant, unfortunately, in
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that timeframe, you know, going offshore, and that's what we did.
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You know, we set up a global business that was
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in three time zones but just not you know, in
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the US.
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BART things have changed so much drastically since twenty fourteen.
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We went from being taboo and the stigma of this
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being used by criminals to this full blown asset class
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that now Wall Street firms are jumping all in. They're
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going neck deep adopting, launching, crypto trading, custody, tokenizing stable coins,
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and much more. Plus we have some legislation like the
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Genius Act. What is it like looking back and seeing the.
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Growth it, you know it it felt really bleak for
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a while there. And while there has been a tremendous
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amount of progress in the last twelve months, uh you
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clarity Genius Act, you know, and we're not We're not
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through the woods on that. I not to take a
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somewhat more parish view than many people, but like, there's
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still a lot of work that needs to be done,
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and we need to codify clarity, right because you know,
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if you don't create laws that you know that and
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rules to follow that are very clear, well then you're
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just subject to the same kind of you know, regulatory
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arbitrage that has existed historically. So that's something that you know,
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in twenty twenty five, we need to kind of close out.
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It's kind of difficult right now with the government being
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shut down. So those are things that i'm i'm i'm
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looking at. And then what you're going to need to
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have some sort of harmonization of regulatory rule making around
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the globe, right, and you've seen a little bit of
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like kind of things to be excited about. The US
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is working with the FC in London, which has always
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been like a fairly difficult and slow moving regulator, to
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maybe harmonize some of their rulemaking. But then you have
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all these other money centers you're going
to have. You know,
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you have mic ou to for for broad EU, you
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have you know, a lot of people going to UAE,
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and then you have all the money centers you know
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in in in the far East, right, so you have
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like Singapore, Hong Kong, Soul, Tokyo. So there's a lot
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of things for global firms, particularly global banks, to make
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sure that they, you know, that they are harmonizing the
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rules so that they can run businesses globally and they
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don't have to have a different set of rules and
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a different set of groups and and and groups that
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can't really function, you know, globally, because there's different rules
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and reanks in each locale. So I think we've made
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a lot of progress. I think institutions are very interested.
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What we haven't solved for is kind of this, you know,
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banks being able to be kind of prime brokers for
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are for liquidity providers and market makers in the space.
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I think, you know, the events from a couple of
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weeks ago, that was the function of that. Like there's
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just there isn't enough capital that's fungible and and where
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you can arbitraze price differences and different platforms and in
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different in different areas, so that stuff it still needs
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to happen. But like from where we were twelve months ago, yeah,
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it's you know, we're white years, so that that part's good,
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but we still have a lot of work to do.
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Yeah, it's a great point because I've been hearing some
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folks are, for example, not happy with the EU and
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the MECA regulations there and there's some departures. But then
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you know, you have the United States getting ready to
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pass the Clarity Act once the government opens up. But
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to your point, how does this all mesh together? And
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with these big jurisdictions. So, like you said, this is work.
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To be done here. Correct, Yes, I agree.
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All right, let's talk about Avalanche treasury. Cope, give us
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the full rundown, the history, the mission, and much more so.
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So in my previous firm, you know, we were we
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were looking a lot of these digitalistic treasuries, and you
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know there's there's some are good, some are you know,
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we're less attractive to us. We were very interested in
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like different structures. Right, there's a lot of firms that
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are just taking kind of an existing OpCo and they
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just do a pipe into it. And you know, oftentimes
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that company that's pivoting from a you know, a failed strategy,
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whether it's you know, gaming or betting or like it's
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like a hemp manufacturer. There's like, you know, there there
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are you know, the different like medical failed companies, and
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so in my opinion, those are more problematic, right, they
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have they have historical problems you have to address. They're
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operating companies, they're registered, they're regulated, so you have to
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kind of continue to run these often failed businesses while
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the primary business is completely unrelated. And like to me,
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that was always kind of difficult. And so when the
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concept of an Avalanche digitized of treasury came along. You know,
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people reach out to us because in the last round
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of Avalanche raised money, we were one of the largest
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participants in that race. So there, you know, people knew
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that that we were constructive on Avalanche, and I was
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personally constructive. And then as you know, it was kind
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of in the early stage of thinking about what that
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might look like. You know, I had some very strong
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opinions about you know, what would lead to success and
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what you know, the next generation of these debts are
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going to look like. And the more that I was
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thinking about it, the more I thought, you know, this
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might be a unique opportunity to do something different. And
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you know, there's going to be a lot of these
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digitalass of treasuries, and I think, just like in every
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other part of the capital
markets, you're going to have
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winners and losers. And you know, if you built one
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that was you know, purpose built to do uh to
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provide you know, exposure to the avalanche ecosystem, but you
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could go beyond, you know, what you might be able
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to get by just owning the underlying spot commodity or
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an ETF. Like I think there's a unique opportunities that
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this type of structure provides. And so the more you know,
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I thought about it, the more excited I got, and
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you know, ultimately I ended up here.
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And there's going to be the question that folks have is, well,
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why not Bitcoin, why not eat? Why not Salona? Why
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avax or Avalanche?
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So I do think that one of the benefits of
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the regulatory clarity that we've had and the excitement they
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have around it is that like, finally, institutions, governments, you know,
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are going to be able to implement blockchain technology to
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make their businesses better, right, and so at its core,
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you know, blockchain technology is is software and so so
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now if you say, okay, well how are businesses going
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to implement blockchain technology? I do feel like Avalanche has
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a very strategic advantage in like a kind of government
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and business vertical that it's you know, it's not the
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mag one, right, the mag seven. So like throughout the
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last couple of decades, there have been many winners in
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technology put through software. They had different approaches and so
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you know, you had you know, telecom, you have Internet,
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you have SaaS, you had all these different areas. You
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could have a winner or multiple winners. I think as
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people look to implement blockchain technology into businesses, one of
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the difficulties they have is that businesses don't want to
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take their private information, all the customers private information, and
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put it in a public blockchain. It's just like it's
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not it's not it's not starter, right, So you know
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what a lot of people have done is is maybe
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looked at like ethereum and building you know, kind of
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an L two. Like the unique structure of the Avalanche
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chain is if they have this kind of three chain
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approach and and one of them, the C chain, allows
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people to build their own l ones kind of out
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of the box in a way that's supported by this
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broader network. And you know, you don't need to have
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like an army of software developers to develop that. So
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you see in companies like Robinhood or uh you know that,
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you know Google, they're gonna build their own They're gonna
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build their own change, which makes total sense because they
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want to implement k y C and a m L.
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They don't want to put their their customers you know,
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private information on public lock chain. But most importantly, like
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they want to own the entire financial stack, right like
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they want to be able to customize it and so
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but then at the end they want this kind of
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base layer, you know security, and that's where you've seen
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Ethereum have success. Right There's all these L two's that
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are building on top of the Ethereum and they're basically
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just paying for THEEUM level one, you know security. And
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so for me just looking at all of the companies
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that have already been building on Avalanche because they have
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the capacity to customize an L one, but then you know,
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into a the security of the Avalanche, which is also
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EVM capatible, so you can you can connect out for
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the rest of the world like KKR, Polo, Toyota, FIFA,
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like big brand names are utilizing Avalanche today to build
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for a myriad of reasons. Avalanche team has really built
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in Japan and in Korea and other parts, Like they're
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kind of market leaders in a lot of these spaces,
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and you know, I just don't think people really understand
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how differentiated AVAX and Avalanche is. So like when I'm
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looking at kind of an opportunity, you know, it's it's
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you have all of this stuff here and really you
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just need to be able to package it and market it.
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In a way that people can understand the opportunity, and like,
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what a better way to do that than to create
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a regulated public company that's audited that you can go
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out and basically reboot, you know, the marketing, you know,
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in in partnership with all of people from the ecosystem
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to kind of make people aware of like what's going
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on in Avalanche and why they might want to own
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a little bit of exposure to the ecosystem in their
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investment portfolio.
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Yeah, that absolutely makes sense. And uh, obviously I'm an
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AVAC tookenholders. I'm very much aware of all the adults.
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But I don't mind the bias. I don't mind the bias.
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It's okay.
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Yeah, but I wanted to make sure that question was
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answered for people who don't hold avacs already, having they
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don't know much about Avalanche. So I think it's important
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to outline now which you did. So you know, you
293
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mentioned that this this is not only about holding AVAX
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but also participating in the ecosystem. Let's double click a
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bit into that, like, how what are some of the
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initiatives you'll be doing as far as supporting the ecosystem?
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Right, so you know we're going to take a lot
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of keys from the regulators. Right, So there's there's been
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a wave of these dead Lasha treasuries and so we
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you know, we're as we're going through our own s
301
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four and we're our goal is in the first quarter
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of twenty twenty six to successfully merge with Mountain Lake
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Acquisition Corp. Will be a listed company. We are going
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to There's a lot of things that we can do
305
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and that I believe we're going to be able to do,
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but we have to also just kind of go through
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this process and make sure that that everything that we're
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doing is aligned with the
you know, the SEC and
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other regulators. So I think that's an important point that
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you know that we are going to continually evaluate that.
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So let's putting that aside. There's a lot of things
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that happen in an ecosystem that have value that doesn't
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fully or a majority kind of a crewe down to
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the token. So like so if you think about Ethereum, right,
315
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which is you know, the largest non bitcoin blockchain, and
316
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I always have kind of thought, like, you know, bitcoin
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is digital gold, right, it's over here, and there's a
318
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world where people might build applications on bitcoin but it
319
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feels like pretty far away from that. So excluding that
320
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in Ethereum you've had, you know, it's the largest blockchain,
321
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it's the oldest, and there are a lot of applications
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that have built on top of Avalanche right Ave Right,
323
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it's worth four billion dollars, it's seen one of the largest.
324
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It's not the largest lending protocol you have like Uni
325
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swap right, which is a trading platform decks that it's
326
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on top of the built primarily on top of Ethereum.
327
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That's worth a four million dollars. You know. A lot
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of the value of those companies doesn't go down to
329
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the Ethereum network. Some does, but like it wasn't as
330
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if if you owned you know, Uni swap, or if
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you owned ave, you know, you've got a different kind
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of return than would trickle down to Ethereum. You know,
333
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the the value of you know, fully diluted value of Ethereum,
334
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you know, give or take, you know, rounding broadly, it
335
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is probably like five hundred billion dollars. Right. A lot
336
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of the excitement around Ethereum is stable coin usage, right,
337
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and Tether's the bigges stable coin in the world. Teather's
338
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worth five hundred billion dollars, right, So like teather being
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you know, and and some of that crews down to
340
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Tron because you know, there's a lot of tether on TRON,
341
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So like some value accrue down to ethereum from tether,
342
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--> 00:17:30.000
but like how much you know, and like how much
343
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accrued from AVE and how much accrued from uh, you know,
344
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all of these other platforms out for the unisops of
345
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the world. So like there's definitely a network effect that
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will happen that will creue more value. So if you're
347
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looking to get exposure to implementation and growth of the
348
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avalanche ecosystem, you can own AVAX and like that should
349
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work to some degree. But all of these l ones
350
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that are being built on top of avalanche, where you
351
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have these kind of private companies or governments or different
352
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you know, uh kind of news, like builders that are
353
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building applications on top of avalanche, some of that will
354
00:18:06.839 --> 00:18:08.440
crew down because there will be a network effect. But
355
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if you could get a little piece or you could
356
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invest in, you know, some of those companies, that probably
357
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gives you a much better exposure to the growth of
358
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the ecosystem. So you know, we're going to own evacs,
359
00:18:20.559 --> 00:18:22.880
We're going to stake it. You know historically, you know,
360
00:18:23.119 --> 00:18:26.240
very conservatively, you know that's gotten you know, mid single
361
00:18:26.319 --> 00:18:29.680
digits to like high single digit kind of yield returns
362
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from from you know, taking the AVAX and using it
363
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to secure the blockchain. So we can do that. There's
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other things that we would love to be able to do.
365
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Can we you know, buy a validator and run our
366
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own notes and you know, could we lend our avax
367
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to builders and applications and l ones that are building
368
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on avalanche right, and can we work with them to
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help them kind of with their staking, you know, with
370
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their their the avax they need. Can we work with
371
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them to make their businesses better? Can we do you know,
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DeFi activities in the space. Can we there are derivatives obviously,
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you know, coming from Susquehanna, like, there's a lot of
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driven activity that you do with options and future strategies
375
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that can generate diversified and maybe in some cases higher
376
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levels of income. So what you end up getting is,
377
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you know, this this diversified pool of of exposures that
378
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should do better. If the ecosystem does really well, then
379
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if you just owned the token seuth so like you
380
00:19:31.000 --> 00:19:34.240
know that that that is the thesis that we're going after, sure,
381
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is that we can provide a much better kind of
382
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holistic exposure for value accrual for uh for individuals in
383
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a way that is the access they want, right Like
384
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many you know, many high net worth individuals and institutions
385
00:19:50.039 --> 00:19:53.680
like they just they're either can't or do not want
386
00:19:53.759 --> 00:19:58.720
to buy you know, spot commodities, digitaliztic commodities on unregulated exchanges.
387
00:19:58.759 --> 00:20:00.880
That's it's not how they want to interact. So if
388
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I can create you know, a public company where people
389
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can invest through convertible bonds or through preferreds or through
390
00:20:08.440 --> 00:20:11.200
straight equity, and they can hold it in the brokerage
391
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account and they can they can invest in it just
392
00:20:13.079 --> 00:20:14.599
like they invest in everything else. And then you have
393
00:20:14.720 --> 00:20:18.039
this exposure where we can take you know, that capital
394
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and then we can put that into the enterprise that
395
00:20:21.400 --> 00:20:24.160
is avalanche and you know, you would imagine that that
396
00:20:24.440 --> 00:20:29.000
that capital coming in should provide you know more you know, uh,
397
00:20:29.680 --> 00:20:31.559
you know, gas for the fire, so to speak. Right,
398
00:20:31.599 --> 00:20:34.119
You're gonna you're gonna help to like to to implement
399
00:20:34.400 --> 00:20:38.119
more capital into the ecosystem, which should you know, you
400
00:20:38.160 --> 00:20:40.359
would hope help the ecosystem grow. So that's kind of
401
00:20:40.400 --> 00:20:42.880
like the dual nature, right, So like you you allow
402
00:20:43.039 --> 00:20:45.640
regulated exposure for people in the way that they want
403
00:20:45.720 --> 00:20:47.799
to invest, and then you take that capital and you
404
00:20:47.920 --> 00:20:50.640
invest it into the ecosystem, which you would hope benefits
405
00:20:50.680 --> 00:20:53.599
the growth and is mutually beneficial for for for the whole,
406
00:20:53.920 --> 00:20:56.559
you know, for both parties. So that that's the concept
407
00:20:57.440 --> 00:20:58.240
as I think about it.
408
00:20:58.920 --> 00:21:01.759
And then for this thinking rewards and the DeFi yield
409
00:21:01.759 --> 00:21:04.400
and so forth, will that be
potentially paid out in
410
00:21:04.480 --> 00:21:06.480
dividends or reinvested.
411
00:21:07.119 --> 00:21:09.079
Again we you know, we haven't gotten that far in
412
00:21:09.160 --> 00:21:11.079
the strategy. And mean I would think I think that
413
00:21:11.279 --> 00:21:14.880
you know, dividends and paying out dividends is something that
414
00:21:15.039 --> 00:21:17.599
you know companies do when they're kind of in a
415
00:21:17.720 --> 00:21:20.279
later stage of growth. Right. So like typically when you
416
00:21:20.359 --> 00:21:23.079
have kind of you know, growth companies, particularly like you
417
00:21:23.160 --> 00:21:25.480
know high growth companies, like, the best use of that
418
00:21:25.599 --> 00:21:28.759
capital is to continue to reinvest it because your kind
419
00:21:28.759 --> 00:21:30.799
of expected rate of returns are going to be higher.
420
00:21:31.200 --> 00:21:34.599
So I would my guess is that the best use
421
00:21:34.759 --> 00:21:37.880
of you know, whatever capital we have would be to
422
00:21:37.960 --> 00:21:40.680
continue to try to find the best returns. But like, sure,
423
00:21:40.759 --> 00:21:43.359
if it you know, if there are certain situations where
424
00:21:43.720 --> 00:21:45.400
you know, it would make sense to pay a dividend
425
00:21:45.519 --> 00:21:47.880
or a special dividend. But yeah, I think you know,
426
00:21:48.039 --> 00:21:50.680
right now, we're, like I said before, we're going to
427
00:21:50.759 --> 00:21:52.920
kind of take the cues from the SEC and make
428
00:21:52.960 --> 00:21:55.759
sure that we you know, we're disclosing risks and we're
429
00:21:55.839 --> 00:21:58.000
and we're setting this up in a way that is compliant.
430
00:21:58.839 --> 00:22:02.839
And then yeah, well as a lot of just Trypto
431
00:22:03.160 --> 00:22:07.160
in general is like not being overly prescriptive and and
432
00:22:07.319 --> 00:22:09.039
just kind of taking what the market gives you. And
433
00:22:09.160 --> 00:22:12.240
so you know, we're gonna we're you know, Lane Littman
434
00:22:12.400 --> 00:22:14.559
is my CEO, who he was the president Hidden Road
435
00:22:14.680 --> 00:22:17.519
and and spent many years you know, working at ad
436
00:22:17.599 --> 00:22:20.200
Vertue and and and you know Coleman and but banks,
437
00:22:20.319 --> 00:22:22.720
like we've seen a lot of iterations of this, and
438
00:22:22.839 --> 00:22:24.799
so you know what we're gonna do is we have
439
00:22:24.880 --> 00:22:27.799
a strategy. We're going to communicate, you know, owning and
440
00:22:27.880 --> 00:22:30.240
staking Avax is going to be a very large portion
441
00:22:30.359 --> 00:22:32.240
of it. And then to the extent that we can
442
00:22:32.359 --> 00:22:36.759
have other additive sleeves of our strategy that are smaller,
443
00:22:36.920 --> 00:22:40.799
but we we believe would offer a diversified, better exposure
444
00:22:40.880 --> 00:22:45.039
and you know, hopefully provide kind of risk adjusted you know,
445
00:22:45.400 --> 00:22:48.920
good rates of returns for investors. Like that's that's the plan,
446
00:22:49.759 --> 00:22:50.359
oh for sure.
447
00:22:50.680 --> 00:22:52.720
And as far as your au M, I read that,
448
00:22:53.000 --> 00:22:56.480
uh looking to buy a billion dollars of AVAX tokens,
449
00:22:56.559 --> 00:22:56.920
Is that right?
450
00:22:57.759 --> 00:23:01.680
I mean yeah, Ultimately, you know, we have we close
451
00:23:01.759 --> 00:23:04.519
a private placement and then we have this you know,
452
00:23:04.680 --> 00:23:08.799
pending business combination with Mountain Lake ac Position Corp. You know,
453
00:23:09.759 --> 00:23:12.200
at that point, depending what the market does, that that's
454
00:23:12.240 --> 00:23:15.200
going to be somewhere in the mid hundreds of millions,
455
00:23:15.240 --> 00:23:19.680
if not higher. But yes, the idea is to as
456
00:23:19.920 --> 00:23:25.240
the as avalanche continues to grow, is to continue to
457
00:23:25.400 --> 00:23:28.440
try to seek out capital again in ways that people
458
00:23:28.519 --> 00:23:31.799
want to invest in the market, to help inject more
459
00:23:31.839 --> 00:23:34.720
capital into the space. The thing that's interesting to me
460
00:23:35.720 --> 00:23:38.599
is that and you know if over time, you know,
461
00:23:38.759 --> 00:23:40.880
sometimes you'll hear me save this over and over like
462
00:23:41.000 --> 00:23:43.960
every other industry was allowed to grow this way, you know,
463
00:23:44.160 --> 00:23:49.559
software SaaS, you know, telecom, the Internet, and that you
464
00:23:49.640 --> 00:23:52.680
created a public company and you wrote you raised money
465
00:23:52.799 --> 00:23:55.599
through debt or through converts or through equity, and you
466
00:23:55.680 --> 00:23:58.000
took that money and invest in the enterprise. The enterprise
467
00:23:58.079 --> 00:24:01.440
did well, bondholders and equi holders did well, and this
468
00:24:01.599 --> 00:24:04.480
industry was specifically not allowed to do that. And so
469
00:24:05.640 --> 00:24:10.359
this digitalized a treasury structure allows for that to happen. Right,
470
00:24:10.440 --> 00:24:12.160
you can go, you have a public company and you
471
00:24:12.200 --> 00:24:14.960
can raise money in you know, in the public markets
472
00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:17.240
in a variety of ways, and that could be issuing equities,
473
00:24:17.559 --> 00:24:19.519
but that you know, there's other things that you can
474
00:24:19.599 --> 00:24:22.759
do that might be attractive to both a different type
475
00:24:22.799 --> 00:24:25.799
of investor and we might be more attractive in trying
476
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to generate more AVAX per share for our shareholders. And
477
00:24:29.799 --> 00:24:32.759
so that to me is what I find most exciting
478
00:24:32.799 --> 00:24:37.279
about this structure. And then obviously because you know it's
479
00:24:37.359 -->
00:24:39.880
not a mutual fund or an ETF, like, you don't
480
00:24:39.960 --> 00:24:44.039
have to prepare yourself for the possibility of deploying money
481
00:24:44.440 --> 00:24:46.480
on any given day that you weren't prepared for or
482
00:24:46.519 --> 00:24:48.880
having to redeem money. Right, so if you if you're
483
00:24:49.000 --> 00:24:51.599
open to a mutual fund redemption or an ETF redemption
484
00:24:51.880 --> 00:24:55.559
and having get any given day, that's very limiting in
485
00:24:55.680 --> 00:24:59.000
what you can do to provide exposure to you know,
486
00:24:59.160 --> 00:25:02.480
your yes, because in theory, you know you hope this
487
00:25:02.519 --> 00:25:05.880
doesn't happen, but on some given day, everybody could come
488
00:25:06.240 --> 00:25:09.079
and rush to want a redeem and so you need
489
00:25:09.160 --> 00:25:12.440
to be able to meet those redemptions. And that is
490
00:25:12.640 --> 00:25:16.240
very limiting in what you can do to try to
491
00:25:16.359 --> 00:25:20.480
maximize a longer term strategy. So yeah, I think I
492
00:25:20.559 --> 00:25:23.480
think that's the I think that in the evolution of
493
00:25:23.839 --> 00:25:26.440
kind of these digitous of treasuries, I think that's the
494
00:25:26.519 --> 00:25:30.039
most compelling argument that people will come to realize with like,
495
00:25:30.359 --> 00:25:32.880
this is just a better structure to invest in an
496
00:25:33.160 --> 00:25:35.359
early what is still, in my opinion, a very early
497
00:25:35.759 --> 00:25:36.880
emerging technology.
498
00:25:37.440 --> 00:25:41.200
So on that note of being an early emerging technology,
499
00:25:41.720 --> 00:25:44.440
I wanted to get your take on this trend and
500
00:25:44.599 --> 00:25:47.480
how long you think it lasts. You know, where this
501
00:25:47.640 --> 00:25:50.640
asset class grows and there's maybe less volatility, but there
502
00:25:50.720 --> 00:25:53.480
is this staking and the you know, DeFi component where
503
00:25:53.480 --> 00:25:55.240
you can do a lot more with the asset right.
504
00:25:56.839 --> 00:25:58.799
But you know, let's say a bear market or a
505
00:25:58.839 --> 00:26:02.359
market downturn rolls around. How are you preparing for that?
506
00:26:03.000 --> 00:26:05.680
And do you see other dats failing you know, maybe
507
00:26:05.759 --> 00:26:07.200
some consolidation and things like that.
508
00:26:07.920 --> 00:26:09.640
Yeah, I mean, I can't speak to how other people
509
00:26:09.680 --> 00:26:12.119
are thinking about it. But like the thing that I
510
00:26:12.200 --> 00:26:15.400
found most surprising about that, you know, that sell off
511
00:26:15.559 --> 00:26:17.039
you know whatever at this point, it was like three
512
00:26:17.079 --> 00:26:20.680
Fridays ago. Was how surprised that people were right? Like,
513
00:26:20.759 --> 00:26:25.160
it's like these asset classes are very volatile because their
514
00:26:25.160 --> 00:26:29.079
early stage, all good new ideas are volatile, right, and
515
00:26:29.279 --> 00:26:32.279
so you know, you have to have the expectation that
516
00:26:32.839 --> 00:26:37.759
that you know, when volatility or when you know, a
517
00:26:38.279 --> 00:26:40.440
sell off happens, like you need to be prepared that
518
00:26:41.079 --> 00:26:43.480
that could be, you know, a pretty meaningful sell off
519
00:26:43.559 --> 00:26:46.680
and it could last for a long time. My first
520
00:26:46.799 --> 00:26:51.039
job out of college, I worked at Payne Weberg, which
521
00:26:51.039 --> 00:26:53.920
was later acquired by UBS. And you know, the market
522
00:26:54.079 --> 00:26:56.200
was at the very end of the like the internet
523
00:26:56.440 --> 00:26:58.839
dot com bubble, and so for the first like four
524
00:26:58.920 --> 00:27:00.960
or five six months i work there, the market just
525
00:27:01.000 --> 00:27:03.880
went up, right, and then it went down for three years,
526
00:27:04.279 --> 00:27:06.559
so you know, two thousand and two thousand and one,
527
00:27:06.640 --> 00:27:08.599
two thousand and two, all negative years de s and P.
528
00:27:08.599 --> 00:27:11.599
Five hundred. So that was like a very formulative experience
529
00:27:11.680 --> 00:27:13.880
for me. So like you have to you know, we're
530
00:27:13.920 --> 00:27:17.000
thinking about these this vehicle as a long term vehicle,
531
00:27:17.359 --> 00:27:20.039
but like it's the idea here is not to try
532
00:27:20.119 --> 00:27:23.519
to take incremental risk that is unwarranted. The idea is
533
00:27:23.599 --> 00:27:26.640
to take a long term approach that is prudent, that
534
00:27:26.759 --> 00:27:29.799
provides kind of the best exposure you can for your shareholders.
535
00:27:30.039 --> 00:27:32.920
And so as we're thinking about in this, you know,
536
00:27:33.119 --> 00:27:36.000
this strategy going forward, you always in the back of
537
00:27:36.039 --> 00:27:38.799
your mind have to keep thinking like, well, you know,
538
00:27:39.440 --> 00:27:42.440
like if you have this massive people are coming into
539
00:27:42.440 --> 00:27:44.839
the space because they think they have a one, two, three,
540
00:27:45.039 --> 00:27:47.240
five X. You know, I don't have any forecasts of
541
00:27:47.880 --> 00:27:50.200
of you know, where the market capitalization is going to go.
542
00:27:50.319 --> 00:27:52.160
But it's like it's you know, if you're buying this
543
00:27:52.279 --> 00:27:53.839
is because you think that there's an opportunity for to
544
00:27:53.920 --> 00:27:56.799
go meaningfully higher like that. There's no free lunch, right
545
00:27:56.960 --> 00:27:59.640
like that that's going to come with periods of doubt
546
00:28:00.119 --> 00:28:02.759
and periods of fear, and that's when you're gonna have
547
00:28:03.000 --> 00:28:04.839
you know, market selloffs and the and the best thing
548
00:28:04.880 --> 00:28:07.680
that you can do is to position yourself
to benefit
549
00:28:07.759 --> 00:28:10.759
from those moments and not to be the person who's
550
00:28:10.799 --> 00:28:13.880
being harmed by those moments. So, you know, I think
551
00:28:14.000 --> 00:28:17.400
that that will be a key component of of how
552
00:28:17.440 --> 00:28:19.240
we think about it. And then yeah, you have like
553
00:28:19.319 --> 00:28:21.279
you said, there's there's all of these digitals of treasuries
554
00:28:21.319 --> 00:28:23.880
out there. They're gonna have to distinguish themselves, right, They're
555
00:28:23.880 --> 00:28:26.200
gonna have to. They're gonna have to you know, they're
556
00:28:26.200 --> 00:28:28.880
gonna have to capture mind share from people, and they're
557
00:28:28.920 --> 00:28:32.160
gonna have to be able to communicate like an effective
558
00:28:32.160 --> 00:28:35.119
strategy and and then deliver on that. So like the
559
00:28:35.400 --> 00:28:38.920
capital markets, if nothing, are very efficient and so over time,
560
00:28:39.440 --> 00:28:41.799
I think you will see kind of winners and losers
561
00:28:41.920 --> 00:28:46.240
that that that kind of show up, you know, over time.
562
00:28:46.319 --> 00:28:49.160
And you know, I think that that we're excited about
563
00:28:49.519 --> 00:28:51.599
our ability to to to navigate that.
564
00:28:52.319 --> 00:28:55.000
Yeah for sure. And uh, I'm just curious to see
565
00:28:55.079 --> 00:28:57.519
how things play out. And and uh I believe in
566
00:28:57.599 --> 00:29:00.160
the digital asterid treasuries of course, and I think it's
567
00:29:01.000 --> 00:29:04.799
a great approach, great a hybrid approach of crypto and
568
00:29:05.200 --> 00:29:07.920
the trad fire world and you know, allowing folks to
569
00:29:07.960 --> 00:29:10.599
get exposure. But you know, I guess, as with all
570
00:29:10.680 --> 00:29:12.759
things in the free market, you're going to have companies
571
00:29:12.839 --> 00:29:14.880
that are well run and some that are poorly run.
572
00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:17.400
And uh, you know, the tips are going to fall
573
00:29:17.519 --> 00:29:19.519
with a fall in the volatility hits or at the
574
00:29:19.559 --> 00:29:21.680
bear market, so we'll have to wait and see.
575
00:29:22.400 --> 00:29:23.839
Yeah, I mean, I think that was part of the
576
00:29:23.920 --> 00:29:26.160
reason why we went the route we did, which is
577
00:29:26.240 --> 00:29:29.920
to kind of set up a purpose built company from scratch.
578
00:29:30.359 --> 00:29:32.920
Right so you know, when when you when you you know,
579
00:29:33.000 --> 00:29:35.359
when you look at the company, it's called the Avalanche
580
00:29:35.400 --> 00:29:38.319
Treasury Company, right, Like, there is no doubt in kind
581
00:29:38.319 --> 00:29:41.519
of what we're doing. Our sole focus is going to
582
00:29:41.599 --> 00:29:45.240
be on delivering kind of value to customers and in
583
00:29:45.359 --> 00:29:47.880
shareholders in a in a in a way that that
584
00:29:49.160 --> 00:29:52.720
you know, we feel like can better represent the growth
585
00:29:52.759 --> 00:29:55.720
of the ecosystem. And and yeah, and I think that
586
00:29:55.839 --> 00:29:58.880
you know, we we like there's gonna It's not like
587
00:29:59.079 --> 00:30:02.920
I'm not worried about well, you know, an alternative investment
588
00:30:03.319 --> 00:30:06.119
per se. It's just like there's a whole world of investments.
589
00:30:06.160 --> 00:30:08.680
Like they don't need to own crypto at all, right,
590
00:30:08.799 --> 00:30:12.400
they don't need to own blockchain technology. So can we
591
00:30:12.680 --> 00:30:17.680
effectively communicate a value proposition of owning you know, this
592
00:30:17.880 --> 00:30:20.720
asset versus any other asset? And now, and I think
593
00:30:20.920 --> 00:30:24.359
if you're listed, you know, on a public stock exchange
594
00:30:24.400 --> 00:30:27.759
in the US, you are now competing against basically every
595
00:30:28.079 --> 00:30:30.799
asset in the world. And so I think that that's
596
00:30:30.799 --> 00:30:33.640
what we're focused on, is providing you know, a structure
597
00:30:33.839 --> 00:30:38.079
and a company and an exposure that people are interested in,
598
00:30:38.240 --> 00:30:40.960
and then being able to communicate that effectively. Yeah.
599
00:30:41.039 --> 00:30:45.359
Absolutely, And then on the communication of communicating that effectively.
600
00:30:45.680 --> 00:30:47.519
You know, you have ETFs out there, right, there's going
601
00:30:47.559 --> 00:30:50.400
to be a vx boty tfs and so forth. So
602
00:30:50.440 --> 00:30:53.920
I'm curious, you know, how would you'll be what would
603
00:30:53.960 --> 00:30:57.000
be your elevator pitch to say, hey, this data is
604
00:30:57.079 --> 00:30:59.160
better than just buying an ETF.
605
00:30:59.799 --> 00:31:02.599
Well, you know what's funny is that, you know, treasuries
606
00:31:03.079 --> 00:31:06.240
as like every kind of uh, you know, anytime there's
607
00:31:06.279 --> 00:31:09.160
like a new vehicle or something that's in favor, you know,
608
00:31:09.200 --> 00:31:11.839
there's a lot of criticism that comes with that. Back
609
00:31:11.920 --> 00:31:13.640
in like the two thousand and eight time frame, two
610
00:31:13.640 --> 00:31:15.279
thousand and seven, two thousand and eight, there was a
611
00:31:15.319 --> 00:31:18.720
ton of criticism about ETFs. The ETFs provided like a
612
00:31:18.799 --> 00:31:22.480
systematic risk and that the creation redemption, uh, you know,
613
00:31:22.599 --> 00:31:27.759
mechanism was going to fail under a massive amount of
614
00:31:27.880 --> 00:31:31.759
like market drests, and that you know that that ETFs
615
00:31:31.799 --> 00:31:36.200
were creating it impossible for small and mid capitalization companies
616
00:31:36.279 --> 00:31:39.200
to seek capital that can differentiate because people were just
617
00:31:39.240 --> 00:31:40.920
buying the index. And there's just like there was a
618
00:31:40.960 --> 00:31:43.880
lot of fun around ETFs and how was it was
619
00:31:43.960 --> 00:31:47.559
a you know, this like this really risky, dangerous, unproven
620
00:31:47.640 --> 00:31:51.480
structure and then here we are, you know, fast forward
621
00:31:51.480 --> 00:31:53.279
to twenty twenty five and people are saying, oh, these
622
00:31:53.319 --> 00:31:56.720
digitalts of treasuries, you know, have all of these shortcomings.
623
00:31:56.839 --> 00:31:58.920
You should have been putting it into a ETF, right,
624
00:31:59.000 --> 00:32:01.160
And so it's just funny how like things evolve over
625
00:32:01.240 --> 00:32:05.400
time as people become familiar with structures. And ETF is
626
00:32:05.440 --> 00:32:07.880
not good or bad. It is just a rapper, right,
627
00:32:08.200 --> 00:32:10.000
It just it's a function of what you put in it,
628
00:32:10.519 --> 00:32:12.839
and the same way a dies US treasury is not
629
00:32:12.880 --> 00:32:14.559
good or bad. It's just a function of like what
630
00:32:14.720 --> 00:32:17.400
is in it and what do you do with that capital.
631
00:32:18.319 --> 00:32:22.640
ETFs are like one of the most democratizing you know
632
00:32:22.720 --> 00:32:25.759
structures that have in financial services has ever created. Right,
633
00:32:25.839 --> 00:32:28.000
It Like it allowed people to get exposure to gold
634
00:32:28.920 --> 00:32:31.720
and to a whole host of things that in average
635
00:32:32.119 --> 00:32:35.279
small you know, institution or high not worth investor didn't
636
00:32:35.279 --> 00:32:37.559
have access to and so if people want to use
637
00:32:38.200 --> 00:32:41.680
ETF to get exposure to avax or any other crypto like,
638
00:32:41.960 --> 00:32:44.480
that is net positive and I'm very supportive of that.
639
00:32:45.640 --> 00:32:47.799
I would argue to the points I made earlier that
640
00:32:48.079 --> 00:32:51.839
just owning the avax token itself and then staking that
641
00:32:52.039 --> 00:32:54.160
for whatever amount that they're going to be able to stake,
642
00:32:54.279 --> 00:32:55.920
given the fact that they're going to have to respond
643
00:32:56.000 --> 00:33:01.160
to to you know, daily creation redemn requests, and then
644
00:33:01.200 --> 00:33:03.640
the ability to trade that asset and keep that in
645
00:33:03.799 --> 00:33:07.400
line you every day in the marketplace, like it could
646
00:33:07.440 --> 00:33:10.119
be an expensive proposition. I think by and large, market
647
00:33:10.200 --> 00:33:13.440
makers in the competitive marketplace will figure it out. But
648
00:33:13.519 --> 00:33:16.799
it's not totally clear to me how efficient a vehicle
649
00:33:17.240 --> 00:33:20.680
you're going to have for uh, you know, avax or
650
00:33:21.039 --> 00:33:23.839
some of the other tokens that aren't Bitcoin and aren't
651
00:33:24.119 --> 00:33:27.640
ethereum right, And so to me, I think that there's
652
00:33:27.839 --> 00:33:31.559
you know, we've seen these digitalish treasury structures over you know,
653
00:33:31.640 --> 00:33:33.640
the last couple of years, and so there's like I
654
00:33:33.720 --> 00:33:37.279
think in my mind, there's probably more certainty in my
655
00:33:37.680 --> 00:33:39.960
in my from my position of of what, you know,
656
00:33:40.079 --> 00:33:42.440
what that looks like day to day, and less so
657
00:33:43.039 --> 00:33:44.960
in all of these new ETFs that are coming out,
658
00:33:45.039 --> 00:33:47.759
like managing that asset day to day and having market
659
00:33:47.799 --> 00:33:50.480
makers keep that price in line with Spot like could
660
00:33:50.519 --> 00:33:52.759
be problematic. And and then again you're just kind of
661
00:33:53.200 --> 00:33:56.599
because you have to have daily redemption and creation requests, like,
662
00:33:56.720 --> 00:33:58.759
you're just going to be very limited as owning the
663
00:33:58.799 --> 00:34:02.400
spot market. And so our hope is that for people
664
00:34:02.440 --> 00:34:04.480
who would like to get you know, a differ, a
665
00:34:04.559 --> 00:34:08.719
different exposure and maybe something that I would think would
666
00:34:08.719 --> 00:34:12.239
be hopefully more of a true exposure of the growth
667
00:34:12.280 --> 00:34:14.480
of the ecosystem. I think you put those two things
668
00:34:14.599 --> 00:34:17.119
side by side, and I feel very good about the
669
00:34:17.199 --> 00:34:20.519
value proposition that that we put forth. And and for
670
00:34:20.679 --> 00:34:24.599
a lot of people that might just seem too complicated
671
00:34:24.679 --> 00:34:26.760
and that can buy the ETF and that's fine, right,
672
00:34:26.920 --> 00:34:29.440
you know. I I don't know over time if that
673
00:34:29.480 --> 00:34:32.119
will get them what they're looking for, but I certainly
674
00:34:32.199 --> 00:34:33.960
understand why people would want to own it, and people
675
00:34:34.079 --> 00:34:36.960
in general buying a BAX is good for the ecosystem,
676
00:34:37.039 --> 00:34:39.199
and you know, we're obviously very supportive of it. So
677
00:34:39.639 --> 00:34:41.440
you know, like I'm you know, I spend a lot
678
00:34:41.480 --> 00:34:44.400
of time in that industry, you know, and I like
679
00:34:44.519 --> 00:34:47.639
you know, a lot of my friends are still working
680
00:34:47.880 --> 00:34:50.280
at you know, all of these firms. Bit Wise are
681
00:34:50.360 --> 00:34:53.599
three guys that I've known for you know, over a decade,
682
00:34:53.679 --> 00:34:55.840
if not longer, And so they're gonna bit Wise is
683
00:34:55.920 --> 00:34:58.039
going to launch an avax ETF And if you want
684
00:34:58.079 --> 00:35:00.239
to buy an a bax ETF, you should the bit
685
00:35:00.280 --> 00:35:02.280
wise etah for any of these other companies that are
686
00:35:02.360 --> 00:35:05.880
listing them. So yeah, I think I think we're We're
focused,
687
00:35:06.079 --> 00:35:09.639
like I said, on putting our strategy together and putting
688
00:35:09.719 --> 00:35:11.880
forth the best strategy we can and then making sure
689
00:35:11.920 --> 00:35:13.960
we're doing it in a prudent way gives people the
690
00:35:14.000 --> 00:35:16.719
best exposure. And you know, there's gonna be a lot
691
00:35:16.800 --> 00:35:20.840
of other investment opportunities beyond crypto that we're also competing
692
00:35:20.840 --> 00:35:23.639
for mind share. And so I'm in reality, I'm probably
693
00:35:23.760 --> 00:35:27.480
more thoughtful about how do we distinguish the opportunity versus
694
00:35:27.599 --> 00:35:32.000
like the field versus you know, a comparable passive exposure
695
00:35:32.400 --> 00:35:35.360
or you know, owning spot on you know, coinbase or
696
00:35:35.440 --> 00:35:36.519
robin Hood or something like that.
697
00:35:37.119 --> 00:35:39.880
Yeah, yeah, that definitely makes sense. I'm curious. You probably
698
00:35:39.880 --> 00:35:43.599
can't talk about it. You mentioned go other investments. I'm
699
00:35:43.719 --> 00:35:45.679
assuming that's under wraps right now.
700
00:35:46.360 --> 00:35:49.800
Right yeah. I mean again, we're like we're still going
701
00:35:49.840 --> 00:35:53.039
through kind of the registration process, and so you know,
702
00:35:53.159 --> 00:35:57.719
we will be in communication with with the regulators about
703
00:35:57.800 --> 00:36:02.159
you know what what we'd be interested to do. You know.
704
00:36:02.360 --> 00:36:05.079
The the the wonderful thing about the SEC and EDGAR
705
00:36:05.280 --> 00:36:07.920
is all these filings are public, so you know, we
706
00:36:08.039 --> 00:36:10.360
also get the benefit of people who started before us,
707
00:36:10.800 --> 00:36:14.000
and so you know, every time you know there's another filing,
708
00:36:14.360 --> 00:36:18.719
you know, an updated regulatory uh kind of response to
709
00:36:19.119 --> 00:36:20.840
another one of the digitalist of treasuries, it's just an
710
00:36:20.840 --> 00:36:23.079
opportunity for us to kind of clean you know, what
711
00:36:23.360 --> 00:36:26.280
is you know, what is in the gray area and
712
00:36:26.400 --> 00:36:28.519
what is not and then you know, like I said,
713
00:36:28.639 --> 00:36:31.199
like we're going to take a very conservative approach towards
714
00:36:31.239 --> 00:36:33.280
regulatory and legal compliance and we're not gonna go anywhere
715
00:36:33.280 --> 00:36:38.199
near gray areas. I feel pretty confident that the the
716
00:36:38.400 --> 00:36:40.800
from from what I'm seeing in the market to date,
717
00:36:41.199 --> 00:36:46.000
like the these structures will be won't be very limited.
718
00:36:46.119 --> 00:36:47.840
You know that they that that you know, as long
719
00:36:47.880 --> 00:36:51.079
as you're disclosing and you are doing all the things
720
00:36:51.079 --> 00:36:53.239
that you're supposed to be doing, you know, from from
721
00:36:53.280 --> 00:36:56.559
that perspective that you should have a you know, the
722
00:36:56.679 --> 00:37:00.480
ability to do whatevery other corporate treasury in America has
723
00:37:00.480 --> 00:37:02.719
been able to do. And I think sometimes people act
724
00:37:02.800 --> 00:37:06.440
like these are new vehicles, right Like Berkshire Hathaway and
725
00:37:06.599 --> 00:37:10.079
Apple and Microsoft are like the largest corporate treasuries in
726
00:37:10.119 --> 00:37:13.599
the world. They just have this massive operating business alongside
727
00:37:13.599 --> 00:37:16.000
of it. But Berkshire Hathway doesn't. Berksure Hathaway just buys
728
00:37:16.079 --> 00:37:18.639
companies and they invest in other companies and then they
729
00:37:18.679 --> 00:37:20.519
have this huge pile of cast they use. So like
730
00:37:20.599 --> 00:37:25.519
the concept of a corporate treasury and corporate treasury management
731
00:37:25.960 --> 00:37:29.480
is not new, It's just it was taken and kind
732
00:37:29.519 --> 00:37:33.159
of implemented by Michael Sailor and micro strategies, and the
733
00:37:33.519 --> 00:37:37.400
benefits from being able to use that capital structure to
734
00:37:37.880 --> 00:37:41.000
invest with a whole slew of people who today have
735
00:37:41.119 --> 00:37:44.280
not been able to access you know, this asset class
736
00:37:44.559 --> 00:37:47.480
the way that they wanted to. And I think everyone said, wow,
737
00:37:47.559 --> 00:37:50.800
that's that's actually that's a great evolution of something that
738
00:37:50.880 --> 00:37:53.639
already existed. I would like to apply that to this
739
00:37:53.719 --> 00:37:56.119
ecosystem and see if I can provide, you know, a
740
00:37:56.199 --> 00:37:59.599
better you know return or a better exposure for investors,
741
00:37:59.639 --> 00:38:01.440
and so that's that's kind of how you know, we
742
00:38:01.599 --> 00:38:02.400
ended up here today.
743
00:38:03.039 --> 00:38:06.400
Byway, that's a great example that you gave with Berkshire,
744
00:38:06.480 --> 00:38:10.079
Hathaway and Apple because of to your point of their
745
00:38:10.199 --> 00:38:13.360
corporate treasury, right, it's loads of cash they're sitting on.
746
00:38:13.760 --> 00:38:18.119
So's that's a great, great example in regards to your
747
00:38:18.199 --> 00:38:22.199
timeline and roadmap, what are you expecting for the remainder
748
00:38:22.239 --> 00:38:24.440
at the end of this year excuse me, and going
749
00:38:24.480 --> 00:38:25.400
into twenty twenty six.
750
00:38:25.880 --> 00:38:30.000
So the next step for us is obviously to you know,
751
00:38:30.079 --> 00:38:34.880
our registration in this business combination with with m LAC
752
00:38:35.199 --> 00:38:38.639
that we are you know, we're working through and the
753
00:38:38.719 --> 00:38:42.360
hope is that that would be you know effective or
754
00:38:42.440 --> 00:38:45.719
closed in the first
quarter of twenty twenty six. We
755
00:38:45.800 --> 00:38:48.320
absously need the government to open for that to happen,
756
00:38:48.800 --> 00:38:51.800
and so you know, I don't expect at this point
757
00:38:51.880 --> 00:38:55.639
in time to have to adjust that that timeline. But
758
00:38:55.719 --> 00:38:58.039
we're you know, we are subject to you know, the
759
00:38:59.199 --> 00:39:02.800
things that are out of our control. And so once
760
00:39:02.960 --> 00:39:06.320
that that, you know, once that business combination, uh, you know,
761
00:39:06.440 --> 00:39:09.760
hopefully gets approved and closes, and then you know, then
762
00:39:09.960 --> 00:39:13.360
it's it's you know, the strategy will go from there.
763
00:39:13.880 --> 00:39:15.440
And at that point we had, like I said, this
764
00:39:15.519 --> 00:39:20.199
permanent capital vehicle where you know, our investment timeframe is
765
00:39:20.719 --> 00:39:24.239
just way longer, right, and so you know we're looking
766
00:39:24.760 --> 00:39:27.440
at you know, the opportunities that are in there that
767
00:39:27.559 --> 00:39:31.000
could supplement just owning AVAX and staking it, which again
768
00:39:31.199 --> 00:39:34.159
is going to be you know, a large portion of
769
00:39:34.199 --> 00:39:35.519
what we're doing. I just want to you know, I
770
00:39:35.559 --> 00:39:37.000
don't want to think that this is going to be
771
00:39:37.159 --> 00:39:39.760
like you know, a venture funt right. You know that
772
00:39:39.920 --> 00:39:41.880
this the idea is to have that at its core,
773
00:39:42.360 --> 00:39:45.159
you know, is trying to return more avacx per share
774
00:39:46.159 --> 00:39:48.760
for you know, our shareholders. And then if we could
775
00:39:48.800 --> 00:39:53.599
have sleeves that are diversifying or a creative or provide
776
00:39:53.599 --> 00:39:56.639
different exposures, you know that I think that is going
777
00:39:56.719 --> 00:39:59.480
to be the differentiator. So you know, I would I
778
00:39:59.559 --> 00:40:01.280
look at it kind of in a two step process,
779
00:40:01.360 --> 00:40:04.320
like we need to meet the obligations of of our
780
00:40:04.400 --> 00:40:07.119
regulator and and and hopefully have this close you know,
781
00:40:07.320 --> 00:40:10.679
that requires the government to reopen and then and then
782
00:40:10.760 --> 00:40:13.159
beyond that, I think then you know, then we're taking
783
00:40:13.239 --> 00:40:15.159
this kind of longer view, Okay, Okay, how do we
784
00:40:15.559 --> 00:40:19.880
how do we represent the opportunity set? Uh, you know
785
00:40:20.039 --> 00:40:23.119
that that this ecosystem provives, you know, in this vehicle.
786
00:40:23.519 --> 00:40:26.639
Something came to mind as you were talking about you're
787
00:40:26.679 --> 00:40:31.559
making those statements. We've seen a massive race kicking off
788
00:40:31.639 --> 00:40:34.000
with the tokenization market where a lot of firm looking
789
00:40:34.079 --> 00:40:36.519
to put stocks and different assets, money market funds and
790
00:40:36.559 --> 00:40:39.880
so forth on the blockchain. Would you look to explore
791
00:40:40.519 --> 00:40:44.880
investing in assets that are tokenized on the Avalanche blockchain potentially?
792
00:40:45.559 --> 00:40:49.360
Yeah. Again, that's that's something that's been you know, a
793
00:40:49.480 --> 00:40:53.599
big point of discussion over recent weeks and months, particularly
794
00:40:53.800 --> 00:40:55.559
as you know in the digital ass of treasury world.
795
00:40:56.760 --> 00:40:59.159
You know, I think that there is a lot of
796
00:40:59.320 --> 00:41:01.719
discussions about like, you know, what is security and what
797
00:41:01.800 --> 00:41:03.559
is not a security? And so if you do it
798
00:41:03.639 --> 00:41:05.599
on an L two is it is it actually security
799
00:41:05.639 --> 00:41:08.079
because it's not really decentralized Versus if you do it,
800
00:41:08.400 --> 00:41:10.880
you know, in a broader ecosystem, you can you can
801
00:41:11.000 --> 00:41:15.199
demonstrate sufficient you know, decentralization and that would meet different
802
00:41:15.320 --> 00:41:18.760
rules for the SEC Like I think, I think tokenization
803
00:41:19.519 --> 00:41:23.280
is inevitable and so you know, having worked in traditional
804
00:41:23.320 --> 00:41:25.400
finance for all you know the bulk of my career,
805
00:41:26.320 --> 00:41:30.519
Like even today it is it is insane to me
806
00:41:30.719 --> 00:41:34.360
how manual stock trading is right. And so, you know,
807
00:41:34.480 --> 00:41:39.440
I think that there are certain parts about you know, blockchain,
808
00:41:39.679 --> 00:41:44.039
moving things on blockchains that requires like a very specific
809
00:41:44.719 --> 00:41:47.639
set of skills and make sure like you're very you're
810
00:41:47.639 --> 00:41:50.280
being very diligent at how you how you manage things
811
00:41:50.360 --> 00:41:53.679
on chain, you know, because in in in you know,
812
00:41:53.719 --> 00:41:56.039
the trictional finance world, if you send Google to the
813
00:41:56.079 --> 00:41:59.760
wrong you know, broker dealer, like you're getting that, you're
814
00:42:00.199 --> 00:42:02.360
that back, right, you know, like they will they will
815
00:42:02.440 --> 00:42:06.440
reverse that back. And so the thing to me that
816
00:42:06.920 --> 00:42:11.519
is shocking is that how dated the infrastructure is in
817
00:42:11.800 --> 00:42:14.880
in traditional equities, you know, globally, and like just how
818
00:42:15.039 --> 00:42:18.800
much inefficiency there is there. And so I think just
819
00:42:18.840 --> 00:42:23.320
from like a basic like just modernization of the underlying
820
00:42:23.760 --> 00:42:28.440
structure and plumbing of of traditional finance like bond trading
821
00:42:28.559 --> 00:42:31.440
and equities, it's like it's really just like this cobble
822
00:42:31.519 -->
00:42:34.320
together kind of plumbing. That's that it's existed for over
823
00:42:34.360 --> 00:42:37.079
one hundred years. And like you have this opportunity to
824
00:42:37.280 --> 00:42:40.360
like start clean and like start you know, if you're
825
00:42:40.400 --> 00:42:43.239
going to build the best way for people to exchange value,
826
00:42:43.559 --> 00:42:45.239
you know, over a blockchain, Like, I think that is
827
00:42:45.320 --> 00:42:49.559
a tremendous opportunity and an avalanche. The community has been
828
00:42:49.559 --> 00:42:52.880
focused on toganization, you know, you know from from the outset,
829
00:42:53.000 --> 00:42:55.440
that was kind of the the like the core motivation
830
00:42:55.599 --> 00:42:58.960
of launching of this chain. So yeah, I think I
831
00:42:59.039 --> 00:43:04.480
think that kind of antiquated plumbing mixed with like people
832
00:43:04.519 --> 00:43:07.280
want twenty four to seven everything, and so you know,
833
00:43:07.679 --> 00:43:10.519
in many cases we are limited to the trading hours
834
00:43:10.559 --> 00:43:12.480
that we have in all of these different old money
835
00:43:12.519 --> 00:43:16.039
centers because of this plumbing, right, and so you know,
836
00:43:16.360 --> 00:43:19.400
the as people are going to demand a higher layer
837
00:43:19.679 --> 00:43:24.119
level of access and liquidity, it just seems inevitable that
838
00:43:24.199 --> 00:43:25.079
it goes to tokenization.
839
00:43:26.199 --> 00:43:28.760
Absolutely. You know something I forgot to ask you earlier
840
00:43:29.719 --> 00:43:32.920
as far as the purchasing of these tokens and the
841
00:43:33.000 --> 00:43:35.880
custody of them, which institution or platform are you going
842
00:43:35.960 --> 00:43:36.320
to be using?
843
00:43:37.119 --> 00:43:39.440
So we're going to be using a myriad of different
844
00:43:40.519 --> 00:43:43.559
of different solutions. At this point, everything we're using is
845
00:43:43.800 --> 00:43:47.639
a qualified custodian. You know, in crypto, you know, we
846
00:43:47.719 --> 00:43:51.719
don't talk too much about custody. So what I would say,
847
00:43:51.840 --> 00:43:56.119
is like, we are expecting that the the regulators in
848
00:43:56.159 --> 00:43:59.920
the US are going to demand, you know, a very
849
00:44:00.920 --> 00:44:05.679
regulated solution, and so our strategy has been to utilize
850
00:44:05.760 --> 00:44:09.239
that as such. So everything we're using now are you know,
851
00:44:09.360 --> 00:44:12.719
qualified custodians. And I would imagine over time, you know,
852
00:44:12.920 --> 00:44:16.199
if we were to deviate from that, it would come
853
00:44:16.400 --> 00:44:20.320
after you know, a pretty exhaustive, uh set of conversations
854
00:44:20.400 --> 00:44:21.960
with you know, our regulators.
855
00:44:22.599 --> 00:44:26.119
Oh for sure, Bart, great stuff. Looking forward to the
856
00:44:26.159 --> 00:44:28.920
future updates around the Avalanche Treasury co. But thank you
857
00:44:29.000 --> 00:44:31.000
so much for joining me. I got some wrap up
858
00:44:31.079 --> 00:44:34.400
questions here for you. First, if you get great Drown metaverse,
859
00:44:34.440 --> 00:44:35.199
would the theme.
860
00:44:35.079 --> 00:44:39.679
Be, Oh boy, you know, I'm a big sports fan,
861
00:44:39.960 --> 00:44:42.360
and so I have like a college sports team, and
862
00:44:42.880 --> 00:44:45.199
I have you know, professional sports teams in the US.
863
00:44:45.480 --> 00:44:48.280
My my my son is a is a a big
864
00:44:48.360 --> 00:44:52.079
Liverpool fan, and so you know what you're seeing and
865
00:44:52.159 --> 00:44:54.599
particularly on Avalanche right now, one of the areas of
866
00:44:54.960 --> 00:44:58.920
growth in Avalanche has been uh, you know, the FIFA
867
00:44:59.000 --> 00:45:01.480
World Cup in twenty two twenty six. They're they're they're
868
00:45:01.519 --> 00:45:04.119
trying to build ticketing solutions and fan engagement on top
869
00:45:04.159 --> 00:45:06.159
of Avalanche right now. So that so that you have
870
00:45:06.320 --> 00:45:08.880
this situation where you know, you go to sell a
871
00:45:08.920 --> 00:45:11.880
ticket and some bot buys it up and it's a broker,
872
00:45:12.280 --> 00:45:14.320
and they post out two hundred and three hundred percent
873
00:45:14.440 --> 00:45:17.000
you know, above the price they paid with consumers paying
874
00:45:17.039 --> 00:45:20.559
this excess price right And so you know, blockchain technology
875
00:45:20.599 --> 00:45:24.599
where you can obscure private, you know, customer information, but
876
00:45:24.719 --> 00:45:27.400
you can still verify that person is like a verified
877
00:45:27.760 --> 00:45:32.239
purchaser and user of the ticket. That that's one technology
878
00:45:32.400 --> 00:45:36.719
you know that that Avalanches is implementing with with with FIFA.
879
00:45:37.119 --> 00:45:40.719
And then fan engagement tokenizing you know, your rewards or
880
00:45:40.840 --> 00:45:43.360
you know right now they have a there's a partnership
881
00:45:43.840 --> 00:45:47.840
they have with the LSU football team, and so if
882
00:45:47.880 --> 00:45:50.000
you go and you're using your card and you can
883
00:45:50.119 --> 00:45:52.519
like get you know points that a crew for like
884
00:45:52.679 --> 00:45:56.519
a Tiger token, they call it a go token. You know,
885
00:45:56.599 --> 00:46:01.800
you can spend that on you know, memorabilia or like
886
00:46:01.920 --> 00:46:04.079
you know, a team T shirt or something like that. So,
887
00:46:04.239 --> 00:46:06.559
like if you could go into a metaverse where you
888
00:46:06.719 --> 00:46:09.800
combine the ability to purchase ticketing right in a safe
889
00:46:09.840 --> 00:46:13.400
place where you know you're buying you know, the actual
890
00:46:13.760 --> 00:46:17.400
ticket from someone that's verified, and then you're also you know,
891
00:46:17.559 --> 00:46:19.719
crewing all of these other tokens that you can use
892
00:46:20.000 --> 00:46:24.320
kind of in a metaverse to to purchase memorabilia or
893
00:46:24.440 --> 00:46:27.519
other kind of you know, fan things, and you have
894
00:46:27.599 --> 00:46:29.159
this like world where I could go from like one
895
00:46:29.199 --> 00:46:31.559
team to another in a different sport, in a different league.
896
00:46:32.000 --> 00:46:34.880
That to me would be like a pretty cool start.
897
00:46:35.039 --> 00:46:37.519
So there's probably people out there who could come up
898
00:46:37.519 --> 00:46:39.920
with something a little bit more imaginative than that, but
899
00:46:40.079 --> 00:46:42.079
just being able to kind of go into one kind
900
00:46:42.119 --> 00:46:44.960
of metaverse where I'm surrounded by, you know, all the
901
00:46:45.039 --> 00:46:47.199
sports teams and I can engage in them in a
902
00:46:47.440 --> 00:46:49.960
in a different way. I can purchase tickets, I can
903
00:46:50.000 --> 00:46:53.119
purchase memorabilia in a safe way. That to me would
904
00:46:53.119 --> 00:46:54.079
be would be pretty cool.
905
00:46:54.559 --> 00:46:57.039
Yeah, as a sportsman myself, I would love that. So
906
00:46:57.599 --> 00:47:02.320
I'm all for that. Rapid fire questions, favorite food, steak,
907
00:47:03.039 --> 00:47:04.360
favorite musician or band.
908
00:47:04.519 --> 00:47:07.599
Over time, I'm I'm I'm a little i' a little
909
00:47:07.599 --> 00:47:09.280
older than a lot of people in crypto. I'm still
910
00:47:09.360 --> 00:47:13.440
a pretty big youtwo fan. Oh yeah, favorite movie, favorite movie,
911
00:47:15.239 --> 00:47:17.400
Shawshank or Goodwill Hunting. I'll go Shaw Shank.
912
00:47:17.960 --> 00:47:20.079
Yeah, Shawshank's great favorite book.
913
00:47:21.760 --> 00:47:26.360
Oh there's a great book that I was given when
914
00:47:26.400 --> 00:47:30.599
I first came into working in finance, and it was
915
00:47:30.599 --> 00:47:33.119
a book that was called Never Eat Alone. And it's
916
00:47:33.119 --> 00:47:35.960
a lesson that I've learned over the years of like
917
00:47:36.559 --> 00:47:38.400
when you know, people come in and they work really
918
00:47:38.440 --> 00:47:39.960
hard and they kind of like wake up, you know,
919
00:47:40.000 --> 00:47:41.920
thirty years later and they've wasted all this time. And
920
00:47:42.039 --> 00:47:45.519
so you know that nothing is replaced by by you know,
921
00:47:45.639 --> 00:47:49.280
interpersonal kind of relationships. And so it's it's it's taught
922
00:47:49.320 --> 00:47:52.199
me like a lesson over time to like the interactions
923
00:47:52.239 --> 00:47:54.800
you get from just having sitting down and having a
924
00:47:54.880 --> 00:47:57.719
meal with someone just kind of provides like a you
925
00:47:57.800 --> 00:48:01.480
know a wealth of different benefits. And so that was
926
00:48:01.519 --> 00:48:03.719
a book that I learned on, you know that that
927
00:48:03.800 --> 00:48:05.679
I learned from very early on in my career.
928
00:48:06.519 --> 00:48:08.239
And when you're not working, what are you doing for fun?
929
00:48:10.360 --> 00:48:13.400
I don't I'm working a lot. I spend time with
930
00:48:13.480 --> 00:48:16.199
my kids, you know, I have my kids sports and
931
00:48:16.599 --> 00:48:18.800
that takes up, you know a lot of my time.
932
00:48:19.519 --> 00:48:21.239
If I'm going to get out and do a little leisure,
933
00:48:21.400 --> 00:48:23.559
like I'd like to be on the water, So like
934
00:48:23.679 --> 00:48:25.800
being out on a boat is great, or you know,
935
00:48:26.000 --> 00:48:28.079
the you know, the few times where I can get
936
00:48:28.480 --> 00:48:30.119
you know, a four or five hour window, maybe I
937
00:48:30.159 --> 00:48:34.039
can squeeze in around the golf, but in general, you know,
938
00:48:34.079 --> 00:48:35.519
when I have some free time, I just kind of
939
00:48:35.559 --> 00:48:37.119
want to be out in a in a nice kind
940
00:48:37.119 --> 00:48:39.000
of stream place. So a lot of times that's kind
941
00:48:39.000 --> 00:48:39.519
of on the boat.
942
00:48:40.280 --> 00:48:43.159
Awesome, Bart, pleasure chatting with you. Looking forward to the
943
00:48:43.239 --> 00:48:45.159
future updates. Thank you so much for joining me.
944
00:48:45.320 --> 00:48:47.599
All right, Tony, congrats on being an AVAX holder.
945
00:48:48.199 --> 00:48:48.840
Yeah for sure.
946
00:48:49.239 --> 00:48:49.559
All right,