High Stakes with Alex Nwaka | Blockchain, Crypto, and Web3

Alex Nwaka
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  • TECHNOLOGY

Welcome to High Stakes, the podcast for institutional investors, Web3 founders, SaaS leaders, and anyone serious about the future of technology. Hosted by Validation Cloud CSO Alex Nwaka, we go beyond the hype to explore the real-world adoption of blockchain and AI in enterprise environments. Each episode features unfiltered conversations with operators, investors, and technologists driving change at the frontier. Get direct insight into what’s working (and what’s not) in blockchain infrastructure, from Layer-2 rollups and blockchain interoperability to AI-powered SaaS and zero-knowledge proofs. Discover how legacy systems are adapting to decentralized tech, where asset tokenization is creating new markets, and how autonomous AI agents are reshaping workflows. If you’re tired of trend-chasing and want strategic clarity around risk, regulation, and returns in Web3 and AI, this is your edge. 🎙 Smart, practical, and always human.🎧 Listen in and stay ahead of the mainstream noise. New episodes every Tuesday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.Learn more here: https://sholink.to/validationcloudio 

  1. 3D AGO

    Blockchain's BIGGEST Bottleneck (What The Market Is Getting Wrong) | High Stakes Ep. 25

    What would it take to move $100 trillion in assets onto blockchain rails? In this episode of High Stakes with Alex Nwaka, Dan Doney, Managing Director at DTCC Digital Assets, breaks down the real infrastructure challenges behind institutional tokenization. From clearing and settlement to liquidity depth, compliance aware token frameworks, and recoverability, this conversation explores what must be true for blockchain to support global capital markets at scale. If you are an institutional investor, Web3 founder, or infrastructure operator navigating blockchain adoption, this episode delivers practitioner level insight into how legacy systems are adapting and where the next inflection point lies. KEY TAKEAWAYS: • “Blockchain cannot handle the transaction volume of all capital markets transactions.” • “We record keep more than $100 trillion worth of assets and service $4 quadrillion worth of transactions, more or less on a yearly basis.” • “Specifically, it's the use of a distributed ledger to track the ownership of an asset.” • “Instead of the asset being in the system, the system is in the asset.” • “Blockchain networks do not have deep liquidity.” • “It must be possible to trace all the way from the issuer to the ultimate beneficial owner, exactly who the by name owner is.” • “The second component that we insist on is recoverability.” • “It is a digital twin of the cash that's in an account.” • “This will be the first time this is a crossover where real market making, real institutional activity will now can park together in the same place that speculative activity is taking place.” 🎧 New episodes every Tuesday. Tune in weekly for sharp, no-hype conversations on blockchain, AI, and enterprise innovation. 📢 Follow Validation Cloud for more insights: • Website: https://sholink.to/validationcloudio • LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/validationcloud • X (Twitter): x.com/HighStakesWeb3 • YouTube: youtube.com/@ValidationCloud 👤 Hosted by Alex Nwaka, CSO at Validation Cloud. Cut through the noise. Stay ahead of the market. This podcast has been brought to you by APodcastGeek. https://www.apodcastgeek.com

    47 min

  2. JAN 13

    Building Blockchain for Global Finance | High Stakes Ep. 24

    What’s holding back real institutional adoption of blockchain? Yuval Rooz, CEO of Digital Asset, joins High Stakes to reveal what institutions really need before moving serious volume on-chain. From tokenized treasuries to the privacy gap in DeFi, Yuval brings over a decade of experience bridging traditional finance and blockchain infrastructure. If you’re tracking where real-world assets are headed or building for regulated markets, this episode is a must-listen. HOST: Alex Nwaka, Co-Founder of Validation Cloud GUEST: Yuval Rooz, CEO of Digital Asset KEY TAKEAWAYS • Institutional adoption hinges on native asset tokenization, not IOUs or wrappers • Privacy is critical - institutions need selective transparency, not full public visibility • Scalability is not the main barrier to adoption - trust and sovereignty are • Real-world examples of $400B daily repo volumes running on-chain with Broadridge • Why US Treasuries can now be held natively on-chain through canton • Interoperability must have real commercial value for institutions to matter • The importance of regulatory posture over regulatory change • Tokenization enables new financial products that aren’t viable today • US market remains the global center of gravity for blockchain adoption • AI enhances blockchain by verifying data before it hits the chain 🎧 New episodes every Tuesday. Tune in weekly for sharp, no-hype conversations on blockchain, AI, and enterprise innovation. 📢 Follow Validation Cloud for more insights: • Website: https://sholink.to/validationcloudio • LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/validationcloud • X (Twitter): x.com/HighStakesWeb3 • YouTube: youtube.com/@ValidationCloud 👤 Hosted by Alex Nwaka, CSO at Validation Cloud. Cut through the noise. Stay ahead of the market. This podcast has been brought to you by APodcastGeek. https://www.apodcastgeek.com

    36 min

  3. 12/16/2025

    Ethereum: The Future of Financial Infrastructure | High Stakes Ep. 23

    What if Ethereum is closer to replacing Wall Street infrastructure than anyone realizes? In this episode of High Stakes, host Alex Nwaka sits down with Vivek Raman, CEO of Etherealize, to explore the deep structural gaps in traditional finance and why Ethereum is poised to fill them. With a decade of experience trading credit on Wall Street, Vivek brings unmatched clarity on blockchain’s institutional adoption curve, from skepticism to inevitability. Whether you’re a portfolio manager, policy maker, or protocol builder, this episode breaks down the why, how, and when of Ethereum’s shift into institutional finance. KEY TAKEAWAYS • Ethereum is transitioning from retail hype to institutional infrastructure • Vivek’s Wall Street background revealed outdated settlement rails and reconciliation pain points • ETH is a productive, yield-generating asset, Ethereum is “digital oil” • Ethereum Layer 2s let institutions build custom blockchains that plug into global liquidity • Stablecoins are the “ChatGPT moment” for crypto and tokenization • Privacy is essential for institutional adoption, Ethereum needs future-facing primitives • The value of decentralization is clearest to Wall Street, not retail • Ethereum’s core strength is being globally accessible but owned by no one • Tokenized dollars, credit, treasuries, stocks, and commodities are all accelerating on-chain • AI agents will need Ethereum to transact and coordinate autonomously BEST MOMENTS 00:01:34. “I approach the space from a Wall Street and traditional finance background.” 00:02:30. “Despite trillions of dollars, the technology backing Wall Street hadn't been upgraded since the '80s or '90s.” 00:04:02. “The way to digitize the financial system is to use what the Ethereum blockchain allows.” 00:05:34. “That was the birth of Etherealize, almost exactly a year ago.” 00:07:46. “The whole financial system can be upgraded if we adopt Ethereum technology.” 00:11:01. “They keep Excel spreadsheets on local computers of their positions and their risk.” 00:16:05. “We've checked all the boxes. Now it's time to accelerate and bring the whole world on.” 00:19:44. “Ethereum is actually a much better store of value than oil.” 00:28:52. “Stablecoins are the canary in the coal mine for all of tokenization.” 00:36:33. “The world where AI and public blockchains intersect is going to be a really cool one.” 00:41:01. “We’re going to see Ethereum flip Bitcoin in the next 1 or 2 years.” 🎧 New episodes every Tuesday. Tune in weekly for sharp, no-hype conversations on blockchain, AI, and enterprise innovation. 📢 Follow Validation Cloud for more insights: • Website: https://sholink.to/validationcloudio • LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/validationcloud • X (Twitter): x.com/HighStakesWeb3 • YouTube: youtube.com/@ValidationCloud 👤 Hosted by Alex Nwaka, CSO at Validation Cloud. Cut through the noise. Stay ahead of the market. This podcast has been brought to you by APodcastGeek. https://www.apodcastgeek.com

    42 min

  4. 12/02/2025

    AI Underwriting Meets Blockchain: The Compliance Challenge | High Stakes Ep. 22

    What if blockchain, not AI, is the biggest disruption in finance? In this episode of High Stakes, host Alex Nwaka sits down with Michael Tannenbaum, CEO of Figure, to explore how blockchain is reshaping capital markets from the ground up. With a background spanning SoFi and Brex, Michael shares how his real-world fintech experience led him to double down on real-world assets, tokenization, and the massive opportunity behind blockchain-powered infrastructure. From regulatory clarity to capital markets modernization, this conversation is a masterclass for anyone thinking seriously about institutional blockchain adoption. Tune in to hear why the next wave of fintech won't be AI-first, it'll be blockchain-native. KEY TAKEAWAYS • Capital markets innovation depends on mastering tech, finance, and regulation • Figure embeds origination and blockchain into one seamless ecosystem • Blockchain enables faster, cheaper, and more transparent mortgage processes • Standardization reduces third-party risk and accelerates capital deployment • Trust in blockchain doesn’t eliminate the need for institutional trust • Tokenization ≠ Liquidity, distribution infrastructure still matters • Real-world assets are blockchain’s most valuable use case • Figure has traded over $60B in tokenized private credit assets • AI and blockchain together can make compliance auditable and immutable • Future infrastructure must scale for billions of autonomous AI agents BEST MOMENTS 00:02:04. “I worked my way up through SoFi and ultimately ran the mortgage business.” 00:03:01. “If I'm doing this... there's probably a better way.” 00:05:24. “We took a 45-day, $12,000 process and reduced it to five days and $1,000.” 00:07:12. “Trust is something that is earned in drips and lost by the bucketful.” 00:10:51. “If something like Figure existed for Brex at the time, we would have been very interested.” 00:13:17. “Those loans could have existed in a database… but that database was wrong.” 00:21:00. “Tokenization doesn’t necessarily mean liquidity.” 00:33:04. “I didn’t appreciate the scale of the opportunity for blockchain beyond payments.” 🎧 New episodes every Tuesday. Tune in weekly for sharp, no-hype conversations on blockchain, AI, and enterprise innovation. 📢 Follow Validation Cloud for more insights: • Website: https://sholink.to/validationcloudio • LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/validationcloud • X (Twitter): x.com/HighStakesWeb3 • YouTube: youtube.com/@ValidationCloud 👤 Hosted by Alex Nwaka, CSO at Validation Cloud. Cut through the noise. Stay ahead of the market. This podcast has been brought to you by APodcastGeek. https://www.apodcastgeek.com

    38 min

  5. 11/18/2025

    Ex-Goldman Engineer Built a $1B Startup | High Stakes Ep. 21

    What if the metaverse was never dead, just misunderstood? Season 2 of High Stakes kicks off with Paul Thomas, CEO of Somnia, in a wide-ranging conversation with host Alex Nwaka about what it really takes to build Web3 infrastructure at scale. From Goldman Sachs to improbable startups, Paul unpacks his journey into gaming, blockchain, and why high-performance infrastructure - not hype - is the real unlock for immersive digital experiences. For institutional investors, AI founders, and Web3 operators, this episode offers a sharp look into what’s changing in infrastructure, valuations, and the future of on-chain content creation. Tune into High Stakes for insights on the regulatory and infrastructure realities reshaping enterprise blockchain. KEY TAKEAWAYS • Why “the metaverse is dead” was a bad bet • How Somnia pivoted from hype to fully on-chain experiences • The underrated role of infrastructure partners in Web3 success • Why scalability remains the bottleneck for consumer experiences • What institutional investors should watch as valuation models shift • The key mistakes founders make when onboarding Web2 devs • How AI-generated tooling will unlock the next wave of creators • The real traction metrics Paul cares about post-mainnet • Why composability is Web3’s most powerful unlock • How content, not tech, makes or breaks digital platforms BEST MOMENTS 00:03:17. “The metaverse is a concept. It can’t really die.” 00:04:06. “Web3 has this incredible ability to attract a lot of users very quickly.” 00:06:39. “Without infrastructure partners, Somnia wouldn't exist.” 00:10:08. “People are valuing projects more like traditional finance now.” 00:13:20. “The blockchain was never the problem. It was boring content on top.” 00:17:08. “Consumers can now attend digital baseball matches in real-time, on-chain.” 00:21:32. “One token, one vote? That creates plutocracies and apathy.” 00:26:08. “The thing that keeps me up is enabling developers to build what we haven’t imagined yet.” 00:29:03. “The net inflow of Web2 to Web3 devs is increasing because regulation is getting clearer.” 🎧 New episodes every Tuesday. Tune in weekly for sharp, no-hype conversations on blockchain, AI, and enterprise innovation. 📢 Follow Validation Cloud for more insights: • Website: https://sholink.to/validationcloudio • LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/validationcloud • X (Twitter): x.com/HighStakesWeb3 • YouTube: youtube.com/@ValidationCloud 👤 Hosted by Alex Nwaka, CSO at Validation Cloud. Cut through the noise. Stay ahead of the market. This podcast has been brought to you by APodcastGeek. https://www.apodcastgeek.com

    45 min
  6. What Happens When Fintech Meets AI? | High Stakes Ep. 20

    08/26/2025

    What Happens When Fintech Meets AI? | High Stakes Ep. 20

    On this episode of High Stakes, host Alex Nwaka is joined by Lex Sokolin, co-founder of Generative Ventures, for an unfiltered conversation on how AI and blockchain are reshaping economic systems. Lex brings a rare blend of Wall Street experience, startup grit, and futurist vision to explore the infrastructure, incentives, and capital flows behind the emerging machine economy. From agentic payments to self-incorporating robots, this episode unpacks what’s hype, what’s investable, and what’s already here. Key Takeaways: • Generative Ventures is built on the thesis that robots will create future GDP and crypto is their native financial system • There are three core fintech business models: money in motion, money at rest, and money at risk • AI labor will increasingly generate digital outputs that require blockchain-based ownership and transaction layers • DeFi marks a fundamental shift from digital storefronts to on-chain financial manufacturing • AI agents will eventually perform labor, custody assets, and manage economic activity on behalf of users • Web3 is best positioned to enable financial systems for autonomous machines • Crypto's strength lies in building new native systems, not replacing legacy infrastructure • Institutions adopt blockchain when there’s revenue, not just cost efficiency • Productivity gains are being realized today in AI, especially around software and content creation • Lex predicts a future where chains host intelligent bots transacting value with minimal human input Best Moments: 00:04:02. “I’ve just chased the frontier. I’ve chased novelty and curiosity on this topic.” 00:10:00. “Robo-advisors brought web2 experience to finance, digitized distribution of finance.” 00:16:38. “DeFi was the first sign you can manufacture financial products on architecture that isn’t just the old bank stuff.” 00:20:06. “Robots will create all of the GDP in the future and crypto is robot money.” 00:29:04. “If I tell MidJourney to do something on my behalf, that’s giving away some of my utility function.” 00:35:46. “The real productivity gains are happening at Web2. Crypto is not there yet.” 00:41:40. “We can go from a couple hundred AI agents to millions of agents with commercial capability.” 00:44:05. “The reason institutions are coming in now is because they’re making money.” 00:45:35. “What I’m looking forward to the most is crypto figuring out how to get involved in the humanoid robot wave.” 🎧 New episodes every Tuesday. Tune in weekly for sharp, no-hype conversations on blockchain, AI, and enterprise innovation. 📢 Follow Validation Cloud for more insights: • Website: https://sholink.to/validationcloudio • LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/validationcloud • X (Twitter): x.com/HighStakesWeb3 • YouTube: youtube.com/@ValidationCloud 👤 Hosted by Alex Nwaka, CSO at Validation Cloud. Cut through the noise. Stay ahead of the market. This podcast has been brought to you by APodcastGeek. https://www.apodcastgeek.com

    47 min
  7. How Blockchain Lending Will Drive Stablecoin Adoption | High Stakes Ep. 19

    08/19/2025

    How Blockchain Lending Will Drive Stablecoin Adoption | High Stakes Ep. 19

    How Blockchain Lending Will Drive Stablecoin Adoption In this episode of High Stakes, host Alex Nwaka sits down with Sidney Powell, CEO of Maple Finance, to explore how blockchain lending is shaping the future of stablecoins and institutional finance. Sid unpacks Maple’s evolution, product strategy, and unique position between CeFi and DeFi, while laying out a bold vision for trillion-dollar stablecoin markets. With deep insights into risk management, global expansion, and AI's emerging role, this conversation delivers a comprehensive look at the future of on-chain finance. KEY TAKEAWAYS • Maple Finance operates as an institutional lender and on-chain asset manager • All loans are issued via smart contracts, ensuring full transparency • Borrowers are institutional and include exchanges, funds, and high net worth individuals • Loans use crypto as collateral, primarily BTC and other top 50 assets • Maple's model blends CeFi and DeFi advantages for strategic differentiation • Credit risk, not capital, is the primary threat to lending businesses • Net interest margin (NIM) is a critical metric for platform revenue • DeFi partnerships and the syrup token have boosted AUM and reach • Custodial integrations enable large-scale borrowing from regulated players • AI is being piloted to enhance risk analysis and operational efficiency BEST MOMENTS 00:01:35. “We call ourselves an institutional lender or an on chain asset manager.” 00:03:51. “That's where I one met my co-founder, Joe. And then two, we had the original idea for Maple.” 00:05:09. “Maple acts as an intermediary. We borrow from certain people... and lend to institutional borrowers.” 00:07:07. “Every 30 years or so, you get a new technology that allows someone to run away with the prize.” 00:09:27. “We're able to access more kinds of funding or DeFi funding specifically, and have transparency.” 00:12:12. “The way that every lending company goes bust is they don't run out of money, they incur too many credit losses.” 00:15:18. “Our loan book is growing so fast that we need to be looking at assets where we can do 50 or 100 million loans.” 00:20:52. “It's now much more open to innovation and is very much set on making the US a leader in digital assets.” 00:37:07. “I don't see why all of that business can't be done on a blockchain using stablecoins over time.” 🎧 New episodes every Tuesday. Tune in weekly for sharp, no-hype conversations on blockchain, AI, and enterprise innovation. 📢 Follow Validation Cloud for more insights: • Website: https://sholink.to/validationcloudio • LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/validationcloud • X (Twitter): x.com/HighStakesWeb3 • YouTube: youtube.com/@ValidationCloud 👤 Hosted by Alex Nwaka, CSO at Validation Cloud. Cut through the noise. Stay ahead of the market. This podcast has been brought to you by APodcastGeek. https://www.apodcastgeek.com

    40 min
  8. How Decentralization Is Reshaping The World | High Stakes Ep. 18

    08/12/2025

    How Decentralization Is Reshaping The World | High Stakes Ep. 18

    How Decentralization Is Reshaping the World In this episode of High Stakes, host Alex Nwaka sits down with Yinal Ozkan, Principal Solutions Architect at Amazon Web Services, to unpack how decentralized technologies, blockchain, and AI are changing the institutional landscape. From AWS’s early bets on cloud and AI to today’s breakthroughs in Web3, Yinal shares firsthand insight into adoption curves, enterprise readiness, and the future of autonomous agents. KEY TAKEAWAYS • Early cloud skepticism mirrors today’s AI adoption hurdles • AWS growth from $1B to $100B reflects deep infrastructure scaling lessons • Startups excel through pragmatism and clear, short-term goals • Web3 realization phase is driving rapid decentralized application adoption • Public chains dominate institutional Web3 activity over private chains • AWS balances emerging tech with core infrastructure via customer-led innovation • Trading and exchange activity are fueling wider Web3 ecosystem growth • Security, scalability, and integrated data management are core to AWS AI offerings • AI adoption journeys typically move from off-the-shelf tools to fine-tuned models • Web3 and AI converge in decentralized autonomous agents and on-chain transactions BEST MOMENTS 00:02:21. “I was building data centers, infrastructure, main security consulting, and one of my friends said, have you ever heard of AWS?” 00:04:25. “When I started building online banks in 1995, everyone told me this will never happen.” 00:05:59. “Same thing with AI, nobody assumed it was happening until now.” 00:08:16. “In my past life, I built low latency, high frequency trading infrastructure, a lot of it on premise.” 00:12:20. “Now we are in the actual realization phase where decentralized applications are changing the world.” 00:17:18. “We came up with a service and solution set providing the most comprehensive infrastructure for our customers.” 00:20:32. “Today, retail users can directly interact with the largest centralized and decentralized exchanges, 24/7.” 00:48:45. “My agent says I can spend $0.50 today, instant transaction, and the remote agent tells my agent it’s sunny.” 🎧 New episodes every Tuesday. Tune in weekly for sharp, no-hype conversations on blockchain, AI, and enterprise innovation. 📢 Follow Validation Cloud for more insights: • Website: https://sholink.to/validationcloudio • LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/validationcloud • X (Twitter): x.com/HighStakesWeb3 • YouTube: youtube.com/@ValidationCloud 👤 Hosted by Alex Nwaka, CSO at Validation Cloud. Cut through the noise. Stay ahead of the market. This podcast has been brought to you by APodcastGeek. https://www.apodcastgeek.com

    51 min
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About

Welcome to High Stakes, the podcast for institutional investors, Web3 founders, SaaS leaders, and anyone serious about the future of technology. Hosted by Validation Cloud CSO Alex Nwaka, we go beyond the hype to explore the real-world adoption of blockchain and AI in enterprise environments. Each episode features unfiltered conversations with operators, investors, and technologists driving change at the frontier. Get direct insight into what’s working (and what’s not) in blockchain infrastructure, from Layer-2 rollups and blockchain interoperability to AI-powered SaaS and zero-knowledge proofs. Discover how legacy systems are adapting to decentralized tech, where asset tokenization is creating new markets, and how autonomous AI agents are reshaping workflows. If you’re tired of trend-chasing and want strategic clarity around risk, regulation, and returns in Web3 and AI, this is your edge. 🎙 Smart, practical, and always human.🎧 Listen in and stay ahead of the mainstream noise. New episodes every Tuesday on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.Learn more here: https://sholink.to/validationcloudio 

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