Matt Hougan, Bitwise | Tokenisation, Bitcoin and the Future of Asset Management

Matt Hougan, Bitwise | Tokenisation, Bitcoin and the Future of Asset Management

What will drive crypto’s next major cycle: Bitcoin, stablecoins, tokenisation, or something much bigger? Matt Hougan, Chief Investment Officer at Bitwise, joins Lloyd Wahed to break down how institutional investors are really approaching crypto, why adoption often takes years, and what finally gets capital off the sidelines. He explains why Bitcoin should be understood as a service, makes the long-term case for a $1 million price, and argues that investors spend too much time trying to call the bottom instead of thinking about where the top could be. The conversation also explores why advisers and family offices are increasingly focused on stablecoins and tokenisation, who could become the “NVIDIA of tokenisation”, and why crypto-native firms may continue to thrive even as giants such as BlackRock enter the market. Matt also sets out his conviction that on-chain vaults could become one of the most important innovations in asset management since the ETF. Beyond the markets, he reflects on his unconventional path into finance, the principles that shaped his career, and the skill at the heart of his success: taking complex ideas, reducing them to first principles, and making them easy to understand. A wide-ranging conversation on Bitcoin, institutional capital, tokenisation and the future architecture of finance. FOLLOW on X! Matt Hougan: @matt_hougan Bitwise: @bitwise Lloyd: @lloydwahed

SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce: 'I Expect CLARITY to Pass This Summer'

SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce has spent years arguing that regulators should create clear rules, not make policy through enforcement. Now, with the CLARITY Act advancing, a more supportive administration in Washington and institutions finally entering digital assets, she believes the industry has a genuine opportunity. But she also has a warning. Regulatory clarity alone won’t determine what happens next. Builders will. In this episode of Searching for Mana, Lloyd Wahed sits down with SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce to discuss why markets work better than central planning, how tokenisation could reshape capital markets, why the SEC should remain a referee, not a participant and what the crypto industry must do to avoid wasting this moment. They discuss: * Why the CLARITY Act could reshape US digital asset regulation * Whether regulation by enforcement cost America years of innovation * How tokenisation changes collateral, securities and capital markets * Why markets, not bureaucrats, allocate capital best * The future of AI regulation * The decline of public markets and how to reverse it * The importance of financial education * Why Hester is leaving the SEC to teach the next generation of lawyers A conversation about regulation, innovation and the philosophy that underpins free markets. Subscribe to Searching for Mana for conversations with the builders, investors and policymakers shaping the future of finance.     Follow on X: Commissioner Peirce: @HesterPeirce Lloyd Wahed: @lloydwahed

Rani Jabban, 'The Punk Banker' | Crypto, Digital Art and the Long Game

Recorded live at Art Basel 2026, in front of the Zero10 sector at the world's most significant contemporary art fair. In this conversation, Rani and Lloyd discuss the bank's digital art collection and prize, the question of scarcity and artist career management, what it takes to build lending infrastructure for NFTs, and why the institutions that will matter in this space are the ones that arrived before the market did. Leander Herzog's Infinite Garden is presented by Nguyen Wahed Gallery at Art Basel 2026, where it wraps the facade of the hall itself. Last year, Leander was a finalist in the Arab Bank Switzerland digital art prize. Rani Jabban is Deputy CEO of Arab Bank Switzerland - one of the first private banks in the world to offer institutional-grade cryptocurrency custody to clients. In 2019, when the consensus across major financial institutions was blockchain yes, crypto no, Arab Bank moved the other way. What followed was a years-long bet on digital assets, digital art, and the infrastructure needed to treat both with the seriousness of any other asset class.   Follow on X: Lloyd Wahed: @LloydWahed Rani: @RaniJabban Arab Bank Switzerland: @arabbankCH Nguyen Wahed: @nguyenwahed Art Basel: @ArtBasel Leander Herzog: @lennyjpg

The Intersection: AI, Crypto and the Institutional Moment

Four conversations from this season of Searching for Mana, woven into one. Chris Perkins on why Franklin Templeton bet on him to run their crypto platform, and why institutions now have more risk if they're not in the space. Sidney Powell on Maple's reverse innovator's dilemma against the JP Morgans and Blackstones now circling the Bitcoin backed loan market. Alex Buelau on what banks actually need from a blockchain, and why instant finality and stablecoin gas fees changed how he built Rails. Boris Revsin from Tribe Capital on the centralising force of AI meeting the decentralising force of crypto, and why the 57th L1 probably isn't capturing much value anymore.  Three themes run through it: the institutional moment, the AI and blockchain intersection, and the macro backdrop pushing both.  If you've been following along, this is the through-line. If you're new, it's four reasons to come back next week. Follow on X! Lloyd Wahed: @lloydwahed Alex Buelau: @x10xalex Sidney Powell: @syrupsid Chris Perkins: @perkinscr97 Boris Revsin: @brevsin Please Like & Subscribe!

Alex Buelau, Rayls | AI, Banks and the Invisible Future of Finance

> "Getting banks to use blockchain has never been about the technology. If you cannot answer why a bank makes more money by going blockchain, there is no reason for them to adopt it." In this episode of Searching for Mana, Lloyd Wahed is joined by Alex Buelau, founder of Rayls, the Layer 1 blockchain purpose-built for institutional finance. After more than a decade building infrastructure for banks and financial institutions, Alex believes the next evolution of blockchain will not be driven by speculation, but by the convergence of traditional finance, tokenised assets, and artificial intelligence. Rayls was built around a simple premise: existing blockchain infrastructure was never designed for the operational requirements of institutions. The conversation explores why Rayls chose to build a Layer 1 rather than another Layer 2, the importance of instant finality and stablecoin-based gas fees for banks, and why Alex believes the future of crypto increasingly resembles foundational internet infrastructure rather than an alternative financial system. Alex also shares how Parfin became embedded across major Brazilian financial institutions, why Brazil has emerged as one of the most advanced environments for tokenised finance experimentation, and what it actually takes to bridge institutional liquidity with decentralised infrastructure. Along the way, the discussion moves into AI agents, the future architecture of financial systems, founder resilience, and Alex’s long-standing fascination with technology trends before they become obvious to the market. This episode covers why the next generation of blockchain infrastructure will need to balance public liquidity with institutional privacy, how AI could fundamentally change the way value moves across financial systems, and why the biggest opportunities in crypto may ultimately come from making the technology disappear entirely. Follow on X: Alex Buelau: @x10xalex Rayls: @RaylsLabs Lloyd Wahed: @lloydwahed   Please follow and subscribe!