Antonio Juliano

a16z crypto CSX is coming to San Francisco this spring, and starting today we’re accepting applications to join the cohort! If you’re a passionate and visionary crypto startup founder, we want to hear from you. a16z crypto CSX is an intensive, in-person program for early-stage startups building with blockchain technologies. It focuses on the expertise, mentorship, and support startups need to build ambitious products across industries. Participating founders are connected with capital, a network of industry experts, and a cohort of leading web3 teams. Each week of CSX is focused on a different pillar of company-building, such as research and engineering, marketing and social strategy, go to market, and people best practices. Founders can go as deep as they need to on the components that matter most for their project, through workshops and 1:1 discussions with specialists from a16z crypto and other experienced operators. We invest a minimum of $500,000 in each company accepted to CSX. The CSX 04 program will start in April and end in June with a Demo Day event, where each company gets the opportunity to pitch their project to an audience of prominent investors, thought leaders, and executives from many of the top crypto companies. The last day to apply is February 7th, so submit your application today, and I hope to see you in SF! Here's the link to apply: https://lnkd.in/guAUM2ZZ

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I previously helped build Anchorage's high-value, low-volume institutional custody infrastructure (100 / transactions a day at $100m each). Now at Bastion, we’re building institutional infrastructure to enable 100m transactions a day at minimal cost. What I've observed is that most enterprises underestimate the significance of their custody choice today, on future features and default to an “insurance mindset”. Here’s what I mean: some companies pick custody like insurance, like a tick box exercise. The issue is that different custody architectures have different pros and cons. The three custody architectures: - Segregated custody delivers individual control and transparent on-chain tracking but sacrifices cost efficiency at scale. - Omnibus custody enables cost-efficient operations and simple reconciliation but prevents individual asset control, transparency, and DeFi integrations - Hybrid models offer "default omnibus with segregated capabilities on demand" higher complexity but maximum product optionality. In this sense, pure omnibus can't handle complex treasury flows and modern retail flows. Pure segregated won't scale to internet-scale consumer volume economics outside of very few ecosystems, and expose too much information publicly until better compliant privacy-enabling solutions come to market. That's why hybrid capabilities matter. Enterprises need default omnibus efficiency with segregated options on demand. We wrote about this in more detail, in our latest blog post below ⬇️

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Kadena has launched a $25M grant for #tokenized #RWA to encourage builders and fintechs to develop. A similar token standard to #ERC3643 with permissioning and privacy is now available on Kadena's #blockchain. All RWA projects are welcome including DPP supply chain, debt, funds, equity, alternative assets, private credit, and other #tokenization projects. Thanks American Banker for the article. So much more to come in 2025!! https://lnkd.in/eVW6MnwF

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M0 just built what we proposed to Paxos - and raised $40M doing it. Here's why programmable yield is the future of stablecoins. The backstory: We were building our payments protocol with yield-generating escrows and needed programmable yield infrastructure to integrate with. When we approached existing stablecoin issuers, they offered to "cut us monthly checks" based on our balances. Monthly checks. In 2025. For blockchain-based payments. So we pitched Paxos on building onchain yield distribution for USDG - real-time, programmable infrastructure that could turn their token from a "hold for yield" asset into a utility platform that developers could actually build on. They passed. Fast forward to today: M0 just raised $40M building exactly this infrastructure, with $300M+ in stablecoin supply and partnerships with MetaMask, Noble, and others. The fundamental difference: Paxos Global Dollar Network: Custodial-driven growth. Partners hold large balances, get monthly yield distributions. Works for exchanges sitting on big piles of tokens. Doesn't work for builders who need programmable integration. M0 Network: Utility-driven growth. Developers integrate $M directly through APIs, earn yield through onchain mechanisms while building applications. Permissionless, immediate, programmable. The scalability difference is obvious. Paxos onboards partners one-by-one with custom agreements. M0 enables any developer to start building today with native yield capabilities. One approach treats stablecoins as assets to custody. The other treats them as infrastructure to build on. For builders creating the next generation of financial applications, the choice is clear. We need programmable building blocks, not monthly statements. The irony? We're supposed to be reinventing finance, yet some approaches still rely on cutting checks while others have fully automated, onchain yield distribution through smart contracts. Network effects compound differently too - each new developer on M0 creates value for the entire ecosystem, while each new custodial partner primarily benefits from their own holdings. Both models serve different segments, but for the future of programmable money, utility-driven networks have the structural advantage.

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In my last post, I spoke about ERC-4626, the vault standard that’s reshaping how we bring yield-bearing RWAs on-chain. But when it comes to compliance-first tokenisation, there’s one more standard every RWA founder and developer needs to know: ERC-3643 (T-REX) Because: RWAs aren’t just about token mechanics. They’re about who can hold, trade, and transfer — and under what legal conditions. ERC-3643 (T-REX) fills that critical compliance gap by making KYC, jurisdiction checks, and transfer restrictions programmable and modular. In this carousel, I break down: – What ERC-3643 (T-REX)enables that ERC-20 can’t. – The 4-contract architecture behind T-REX. – How compliance is enforced before every transfer. – Use cases like tokenised real estate, funds, and KYC-enabled stablecoins. Built for builders. Auditable for institutions. Secure by default. Swipe through the post to dive into ERC-3643 (T-REX) and discover why it’s becoming the backbone of compliant RWAs.

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"DPI CAPITAL today announced the launch of its flagship crypto-focused venture fund on Chintai's tokenization platform. The $30 million fund leverages Chintai's white-label infrastructure to provide enhanced liquidity options and secondary trading capabilities for limited partners."

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Non-USD denominated stablecoins are still in their infancy, but the use cases are clear, argues Omid Scheybani, VP of Partnerships at Conduit The core challenge currently is a lack of liquidity, which is downstream from a lack of guidance on the regulatory side. Within 2-3 years' time these issues should be resolved, with local stablecoins in places Brazil and Mexico being the likely trailblazers followed by African markets like Nigeria and Kenya Catch my full interview with Omid at the Bitso Business Stablecoin Conference 2025 in Mexico City last month https://lnkd.in/dc3T3UsZ

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If we're serious about making crypto accessible to everyone... then corporate crypto treasuries are a great place to start. Now every investor in these 152 publicly traded companies is closer to crypto than they were before. This exposure is great, as is the increased reliance on trusted custodians for these treasuries (like our partner BitGo, who gets a great mention in this piece on crypto treasuries by Julie Goldenberg). No one benefits from more stories about private keys lost in dumpsters. Still, in 10-15 years, I think we'll see a generational shift. People who have been using crypto for a decade+ will be more comfortable holding their own keys, being custodians of their own assets... but there will always be a market for supportive infrastructure because these institutions aren't going anywhere. This is only the beginning of more institutional crypto adoption, more products, more treasuries, etc. https://lnkd.in/g8jJ8GnZ

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