LexSokolin

The parallels are undeniable

Social media: started as connection, became manipulation
AI Finance: starts as assistance, becomes control

We're building the rails of our own financial automation

Every smart contract
Every trading algo
Every robo-advisor

Pieces of the puzzle
Fitting together
One automated decision at a time

The best way to get rich in the next 10 years:

Bet on a few of these:

- AI
- Fintech
- DeFi

You might not make money. You might lose all your money. But you will be rich in PTSD

Look closer

Your attention = algorithmic puppet strings
Your wallet = next target

AI doesn't just want your eyeballs
It wants your bank account

We're building the infrastructure for our own financial automation

And calling it progress

As excited as I am by @Coinbase and @stripe facing off in the agentic AI and stablecoin world, I am equally disappointed by @Square deciding not to participate after its Bitcoin misadventures.

Block got Web2 correctly by building out @CashApp but they are missing the next leg.

The real question isn't if bank accounts become obsolete

It's what replaces them

My bet:
• Smart wallets
• Programmable accounts
• Self-custody options
• Multi-asset support

The future of money is already being built
Just not by banks

Hot take:

Bitcoin is boring

And that's exactly why it works

Look at the pattern

2008: Manual driving
2018: Assisted driving
2025: Autonomous driving

Same with money:

2008: Manual trading
2018: Algo trading
2025: Autonomous finance

What's next?

Hyperliquid

2016: JPM builds on Ethereum with Quorum
2025: JPM launches a deposit stablecoin on Base

That's a 9-year gap between knowing and showing

Banking moves at the speed of regulatory courage, not technological capability

The only way $CRCL makes sense at $50B is if USDC supply goes to $500B

The way USDC goes to $500B is if a major bank, asset manager, or government mints $400B

I have massive FOMO and have to suspect there’s an expectation of a sovereign crowning for the company

How $ETH is flat this whole year while the fruits of its labor are mooning is beyond me

Look

When JPM built Quorum on Ethereum in 2016
They knew

When they launched JPM Coin
They knew

When they criticized crypto
They knew

Now announcing a stablecoin for 2025?

They always knew

The question is:
Why pretend otherwise?

Let's talk about JPM's blockchain timeline

2016: Built Quorum with Consensys
2020: Onyx launch for internal fintech use cases
2021: Interbank payments
2025: Public stablecoin

If you just woke up thinking the banks have come, then you missed that they have already been here

Here was the problem.

JPM wanted to own the blockchain, so they started by building out a private financial enterprise chain. This doesn't work from a cost and scalability perspective -- an expensive lesson for all involved. Quorum was sold back to Consensys to maintain. Consensys pivoted to MetaMask and public chains shortly after.

Then JPM wanted to own all the financial venues on top of the chain. So Onyx/Kinexys was born to build software on top of Quorum to own flows. That's fine, but it doesn't connect to Web3 and therefore is just the same as what JPM was doing on databases. They are already trusted internally, blockchains are best where you want no trust assumptions.

Now, they are doing a deposit token on Base. Is Base better than Ethereum? Is it better than Quorum?

No.

Just go direct. Stop flirting and either deploy and own your L2 with your own apps and clients, like Coinbase, or deploy to Ethereum and let people build on you.

Chime's problem isn't execution.

It's imagination

While global neobanks are building financial superpowers, Chime is optimizing for American subscriptions

The next decade belongs to borderless banking built on stablecoins

I want Chime to win and think even bigger

Remember:

Banks aren't your friends
They're businesses
And you're leaving money on their table

Money market yields > Bank yields

Also stablecoins literally made from money market funds

Remember when people debated if the internet was useful?

No?

That's exactly how we'll remember web3 skeptics in 10 years

Breaking: Your bank account is a donation to bank shareholders

Meanwhile money market funds are yielding 4%+

Be smarter with your cash
Move it to brokers
Stop subsidizing banks

Also, stablecoins are money markets.

The US should have just let all these retailers become Industrial Loan Companies

Commerce doesn't want to pay banks net interest and interchange

Stablecoins disintermediate both payments and deposits by letting retailers use tokenized money market funds, ie stables, for commerce

Circle IPO enthusiasm hits different

But so did:
Robinhood
Affirm
Marqeta
Block

Hope Circle breaks the curse

What I like about Web3

- DeFi
- Stables
- DePIN
- DeGPU and DeAI
- Capital markets for Digital Art
- The people making new systems

What I don’t like about Web3

- CrimeFi
- InfoFi
- SocialFi
- GameFi
- Memes
- inflation tokenomic games
- bridges
- The people abusing systems

Great time today at @proofoftalk with @StakeCapital @coinfund_io and @swissborg

People still interested in the realities of DeFi. These days I mostly recommend @aave @SkyEcosystem and @ethena_labs

The real attention though was on the @bittensor_ event before us. Super hot.