Peter Johnson

Stablecoins & Open Finance

[Peter Johnson @TheChicagoVC]

@DavidLRipley @Bitnomial @Payward @krakenfx Congrats to two OG chicago crypto legends @DavidLRipley and @LukeHoersten

[Peter Johnson @TheChicagoVC]

Huge congratulations to @LukeHoersten and the @Bitnomial team! A decade plus of hard work and perseverance put them in the position for this. Well deserved.

[Kraken @krakenfx]

Kraken parent @Payward is acquiring @Bitnomial - the first fully CFTC-licensed derivatives company in the US built for digital assets. Built for crypto from the ground up.

Spot margin, perpetuals, and options are coming to Kraken under CFTC regulation.

https://t.co/IBLotDkqQF

[ARQ (DolarApp) @arq_finance]

Meet our new brand: DolarApp is now ARQ.

Three years ago, we launched DolarApp to serve customers across Latin America with global lives—delivering international spending and cross-border payments with simplicity, transparency, and fair rates.

As our vision expands, DolarApp no longer reflects the scope of what we are building—which is why we are unveiling our new brand: Welcome to ARQ.

Learn more at https://t.co/Bq9t5eFFS6 (link in bio).

[ARQ (DolarApp) @arq_finance]

Today is a big day for ARQ as we welcome @sequoia and @foundersfund as partners.

This milestone reflects conviction in the opportunity ahead of us — and in the exceptional team we are assembling to pursue it. We are in a quest to redefine finance in the Americas, and we feel privileged to advance this long-term effort alongside such remarkable partners.

We thank @andrew__reed and @Vanthienen_m for leading the respective investments, and are also grateful to @ycombinator (@aaron_epstein ), @KaszekVentures (@HernanK), and @BHDigitalAssets (@TheChicagoVC) for their continued support.

For the builders: we operate with long-term ambition and absolute conviction. If you are exceptional at what you do, this is a defining moment to join us. We are building one of the most important financial institutions in the world — and assembling the team to make it happen.

More details in our careers portal in the thread.

[TRM Labs @trmlabs]

TRM Labs has raised USD 70 million in Series C funding — at a USD 1 billion valuation.

This raise fuels our core blockchain intelligence platform and accelerates our investment in AI solutions to disrupt criminal networks and national security threats.

We're proud to be backed by leading investors — and to support institutions on the frontlines in 50+ countries. Read more ➡️ https://t.co/gjSLMCw47Y

[Superstate @SuperstateInc]

1/ We’re proud to announce an $82.5M Series B, led by @BainCapCrypto and Distributed Global, with participation from @HaunVentures, Brevan Howard Digital, @galaxyhq, Sentinel Global, @Bullish, @hypersphere_, and @flowdesk_co alongside our existing investors.

[Colleen Sullivan @colleenklein]

Really thoughtful essay by @cryptoscoe, who has been in the crypto "trenches" for the last 4 years & came to the industry w/ a strong TradFi background. Highly recommend!

[Robert Leshner @rleshner]

People often ask me what the difference is, between a company tokenizing their own stock, and a third-party derivative/wrapper token of a company's stock.

THIS is the answer: capital markets. A company can now use their tokenized stock to raise capital, onchain, in stablecoins.

[Peter Johnson @TheChicagoVC]

It seems the natural extension of this would be for the Treasury to issue these notes directly onchain, effectively making the notes stablecoins themselves.

Do you agree @drwconvexity?

[Peter Johnson @TheChicagoVC]

Great article by Don Wilson, founder of DRW, proposing that the Treasury issue notes that would be issued and redeemable daily at par - with the expectation that these would back stablecoins.

[Don Wilson @drwconvexity]

The only way traditional finance moves on-chain is if it can do so without introducing incremental intermediary risk. PORTS can help achieve this because they would offer US Treasury credit and daily liquidity at par, and could be placed on-chain by @BNYGlobal or by @The_DTCC as DTCC did with the US Treasury repo trades on @CantonNetwork. It was great partnering with Professor @duffiedarrell on this idea. Thanks to @BrookingsInst for publishing our PORTS white paper and @FT for publishing the OpEd.

https://t.co/yRoMAYRXLM

https://t.co/dp4yMRP4Da

[Eric Balchunas @EricBalchunas]

State of Texas joining Harvard and Abu Dhabi in recent $IBIT purchase. Pretty sure that's the only ETF to ever be owned by all three. More wild stuff for a not-yet-even-two-years-old fund.

[Peter Johnson @TheChicagoVC]

I therefore expect most demand for stablecoins to come from locales unable to access dollar-denominated saving instruments, boosting demand for dollar assets."

[Peter Johnson @TheChicagoVC]

"In short, stablecoins may become a multitrillion dollar elephant in the room for central bankers."

[Peter Johnson @TheChicagoVC]

by contrast, users in the U.S. and AFEs like the euro zone already freely access Treasurys, dollars, and other instruments that offer yield or deposit insurance.

[Arthur @arthur0x]

One of the best team in crypto expanding.

Do apply if you want to work with a S tier team.

[Simon Taylor @sytaylor]

Wow.

Governor Waller of the the Federal Reserve directs its staff “payment account” a “a skinny master account”

"beneficial for those focused primarily on payments innovations."

These accounts would not get interest paid by the Fed

[Eleanor Terrett @EleanorTerrett]

🚨BIG NEWS out of the @federalreserve Payments Innovation Conference this morning.

Governor Chris Waller announced the central bank is proposing a new type of limited-access master account (or what he calls a “skinny master account”) for ALL legally eligible institutions to receive direct access to the Fed’s payments rails so they don’t have to rely on partner banks.

With this setup, they wouldn’t access all the services of a full master account, like the ability to borrow from the Fed. Importantly, every legally eligible entity could get one, and the legal rules for eligibility wouldn’t change.

Essentially this new master account lite would allow the Fed to green light innovative banks, including fintechs, stablecoin issuers and other payments companies.

This is a big deal for companies like @custodiabank and @krakenfx, which have spent years trying to get a Fed master account, with Custodia even taking the Fed to court. It could also speed access for companies like @Ripple and @Anchorage, which applied this year.

[Ki Young Ju @ki_young_ju]

Bitcoin is still early as digital gold. Its market share vs gold has never exceeded 10%. It’s around 6% now. If it hit 10%, BTC would be $170K.