Carlos Francisco

Commodities and blockchain

[Paul McGinnes @PaulMcG1992]

The sound of V10-powered Formula One cars through the tunnel at the Circuit de Monaco. #F1

[Carlos Francisco @CFciscoF]

@FinkaMetals adds Daniela Ceballos as Commercial Lead.

A decade at Trafigura and Nyrstar — concentrates in Montevideo, refined metals in Canada, commercial ops in the Netherlands.

A trader, leading the trading side.

[Carlos Francisco @CFciscoF]

Two engineering partners are building the FinkaMetals platform.

CoreLedger on the blockchain layer — Johannes Schweifer, who also co-founded Bitcoin Suisse in 2013.

S-PRO on the application and platform layers — Michael Barskyi, Head of S-PRO Switzerland, 250+ engineers behind him.

Swiss financial-infrastructure standards from day one.

[Carlos Francisco @CFciscoF]

Two weeks ago: a new mark.

This week: the platform is fully funded to launch.

Next week: the people behind both.

@FinkaMetals

https://t.co/7tt7WBSsaL

[Carlos Francisco @CFciscoF]

USD 2M committed to FinkaMetals. Strategic investors, by their preference private.

The platform is now funded all the way to Q4 2026 launch.

From here it is about what we ship, not what we raised.

@FinkaMetals

[Carlos Francisco @CFciscoF]

Tuesday morning. 09:30 CET.

A milestone that changes what we can ship between now and launch.

@FinkaMetals

[Carlos Francisco @CFciscoF]

The peak inside the icon is also the A inside FINKA and METALS.

The icon and the wordmarks are one shape, repeated.

Small detail. It holds the whole thing together.

@FinkaMetals

[Carlos Francisco @CFciscoF]

The first place a metal enters the global economy is a mountain.

Worth remembering on the day a digital infrastructure platform for the trade gets a new mark.

The shape of the icon is not abstract.

@FinkaMetals

[Carlos Francisco @CFciscoF]

Eight years after Finka was set up in Zug, the brand finally looks like the work.

Same destination. New mark.

@FinkaMetals

[Carlos Francisco @CFciscoF]

Two weeks of quiet explainers on a market most people don't see.

Thank you to everyone who read and messaged.

Next week is different.

@FinkaMetals

[Carlos Francisco @CFciscoF]

The trade closes in minutes. Reconciling it can take weeks.

Not because the people are slow. Because the records live in different inboxes across different countries, with no shared point of reference.

Coordination problem. Not a trading problem.

@FinkaMetals

[Carlos Francisco @CFciscoF]

The cost of missing infrastructure in commodity trade is not abstract. It is specific. It is measurable. And every senior trader reading this can match the description to a real example without effort.

We can do better. Not by replacing anyone. By giving everyone the same record to point to.

@FinkaMetals

[Carlos Francisco @CFciscoF]

The friction in commodity markets is not about competence.

It's about coordination.

Different problem. Different solution. Different respect owed to the people who have kept the trade running on that old infrastructure for decades.

@FinkaMetals

[Carlos Francisco @CFciscoF]

The number to check before the LME opens: the latest spot TC/RC.

Everything else is a lagging indicator.

One of the quiet tells of the commodities industry.

@FinkaMetals

[Carlos Francisco @CFciscoF]

A quiet market worth half a trillion a year.

Most finance professionals couldn't name the main price benchmark. That's not a criticism — it's a description.

Some observations this week on the market I've spent 20 years in.

@FinkaMetals