Investment Team at Theia
NYC
Joined October 2013
- Tweets751
- Following544
- Followers1.9K
- Likes16.8K
Toe retweeted
Today, I’m sharing my first letter to the KMNO community as CEO
Since joining @kamino , I’ve been asked a version of the same question by longtime KMNO holders and people getting to know us for the first time. As Kamino grows, where does the value we create go?
It’s a fair question, particularly as we work to bring Kamino into banks, brokerages and wallets, through which our goal is to allow millions of people to earn on their capital or borrow against assets they already own.
The answer starts with how Kamino was built. The Kamino Foundation owns the intellectual property and receives all revenue, including revenue from institutional partnerships. KMNO is the only token. The founders, our investors, the team and I have our upside tied to the same token our community holds. None of us has a separate equity allocation.
What we do with the revenue matters, too. We’re committing at least $20 million over the next two years to expand the assets people can use on Kamino, and bring Kamino's credit and liquidity infrastructure to more of the platforms consumers already use today.
I wrote my first letter to KMNO holders to put those decisions on the record. I also share why I chose to make most of my own KMNO allocation vest only when it reaches and sustains a series of valuation milestones.
One Kamino. One KMNO.
A month later, Credible's volume is up 50% MoM, good for $3.3B in annualized TPV. At 20bps take rate, Credible is making $6.6m in gross revenue, trading at 2.5x sales, and have been cash-flow positive since May.
In comparison, payment and cross-border infra trades at 5-10x EV / Revenue. Credible is significantly cheaper relative to comps, thus the market is clearly skeptical of its sustainability and quality of revenues. Perhaps then, a natural complement to this hockey-stick chart is a description of the business and how it operates today.
Credible provides T+0 fiat <> stablecoin settlement for internet businesses that traditional PSPs underserve: prediction markets, fintechs and remittance apps, creator platforms, and gaming apps. Notably, Credible is live across India, Nigeria, and 40+ markets worldwide.
How a payment flows:
- Customers (e.g OTC desks, remittance apps, neobanks) pay with a local method.
- Credible routes to the best PSP or acquirer per transaction, for approval rate and cost.
- Credible underwrites the risk and fronts the float from a stablecoin liquidity pool.
- The merchant settles instantly in USDC, USDT, USD, EUR or GBP.
- Credible earns a take rate on the flow. Additionally, stablecoin trade a 2-3% premium in many emerging markets (e.g India, Nigeria, etc) because of capital controls and high take rates, so Credible earns the entire 2% in these hard to reach corridors.
Lastly, the business is still capacity constrained. This recent uptick in TPV was unlocked from a mere $500k increase in stablecoin float last month - metadao.fi/decisions/cred-00… - and the team is expecting to grow this significantly with credit partners soon.
The natural question is why is this available to Credible? Regulatory access. Only 2 other providers in India have all 3 licenses: banking, payment aggregator, and stablecoin processing. This offers them incredible access and flow relative to competitors. All in, the team has a coveted cornered resource, sticky customers, and an excellent management team.
Higher
Couldn't be more excited for Michael and Kamino's future. In fact, I encourage you to scroll through Kamino's twitter to see their incredible shipping speed since Michael's arrival.
RWA borrow / lend is the largest TAM in crypto, and it's clear that tokenized assets are finally center stage. Kamino is as well-positioned as any to connect Wall St onchain.
We are thrilled to announce Michael Weisz (@WeiszM) as the new CEO of Kamino
After more than a two decades in fintech & private markets, Michael joins Kamino to lead us into our next chapter of institutional growth, and expand Kamino to the US market
A letter from Michael below
Toe retweeted
We are thrilled to announce Michael Weisz (@WeiszM) as the new CEO of Kamino
After more than a two decades in fintech & private markets, Michael joins Kamino to lead us into our next chapter of institutional growth, and expand Kamino to the US market
A letter from Michael below
Toe retweeted
Laso Finance is now above $10M annualized volume. 25.9% mo/mo growth.
Split of human vs agentic volume is coming soon.
laso.finance/stats
Another >$150m in monthly TPV for Credible, up 12% MoM and 6x YoY. There are few better expressions of emerging market stablecoin growth than solana:CREDBHvVqREBCAxMihzr8D1nepHMr2gmQoZWpmgGmeta
August was a heads down build month at Credible. Not much noise, a lot of cooking. Here's what happened:
Infra: Migrated our banking partners in a key emerging market so we can scale and operate more efficiently. Integrated our first card processor, going live soon. Also gearing up for our SOC 2 Type 2 certification audit.
Compliance: Updated our onboarding frameworks to meet the regulatory requirements in two of our key emerging markets, keeping pace with a changing landscape.
Design: Contracted a UI/UX agency that previously worked with a MetaDAO listed project. Sneak peek of the new look coming in September.
Transparency: We're evaluating external auditors to work alongside us so we can start publishing financial statements. One of them already works in the MetaDAO ecosystem.
$CRED rewards: We're preparing to add profits to treasury and finalizing our strategy to reward $CRED holders, our stakeholders.
Lots built. Lots left. Exciting times.
Couple thoughts on @galaxyhq's Q2 lending report:
— Tether's loan book has shrunk ~$5B since the start of the year. Likely idiosyncratic de-risking, which marginally benefits $SYRUP / Coinbase / BitGo.
— My bias is that onchain borrow demand has bottomed, particularly now that the Kelp DAO / Mythos concerns have been addressed, and now visible in TVL / net borrow returning. The launches of Aave V4, Morpho Midnight, and Kamino's RWA vaults also open up the design space for curators and asset selection, amid a constructive backdrop for majors.
Green shoots are sprouting, but it's still unclear who's willing to lend onchain at 25–40bps above SOFR. I imagine that this only changes if prices move materially from here - which is exactly what happened in 2023.
Enjoyed talking markets and MetaDAO with the Galaxy crew!
DeFi multiples hit record lows while social trading wars drive zero-minute hold times. Meanwhile, Ethereum's EIP-8363 sparks massive pushback over L1 inflation.
@_ThePinkyToe from Theia Investments joins the crew to break down crypto fundamentals, token design, and where smart money deploys in a sideways market.
New Galaxy Grid is live⤵️
Since Omnipair’s OTC raise, the team has grown 30-day annualized volume from $6M to $17M. Their execution through this bear market continues to impress, and we expect greater milestones soon.
Omnipair has crossed $5M in trading volume.
Thank you to every one of our LPs, borrowers, traders, community members and ecosystem partners who made this possible.
The mission continues: AMM-native margin for every asset on @solana.
Toe retweeted
> $3.5M run rate, growing 29% MoM business
> raise $4M from internet capital markets - half institutional, half retail at a $9M valuation
> now anyone with an internet connection can participate at ~the same price on @solana
THIS IS WHAT INTERNET CAPITAL MARKETS LOOKS LIKE
Thesis on @crediblefin:
- Exited founders who have a right to win this market
- 29% MoM growth for last 6 months, if they do it again in the next 6 they'll be at ~$17M run rate
- $9M max valuation
Toe retweeted
re each point
1. On adverse selection, I think the strongest counterpoint is that the current pipeline already shows the opposite
The founders launching through MetaDAO are not just “crypto teams that couldn’t raise elsewhere.” Some are already doing 7 figures of revenue, growing quickly, and choosing this route because the structure is better aligned for internet-native capital formation.
The Laso Finance ICO ingested $25M of capital, which defies the common 'adverse selection' argument. This is becoming a lazy argument for funds imo, esp after speaking with many this year
The key distinction is not weak teams vs strong teams. It’s teams that want:
• better price discovery that commences at attractive entries
• broader distribution
• transparent terms
• a more aligned holder base
• investor protections baked into the launch
• less dependence on private round gatekeepers
High-caliber founders are rational. If MetaDAO gives them a cleaner way to raise, build an aligned community, and avoid the usual insider-heavy launch structure, then the adverse selection argument weakens over time
There may be adverse selection at the beginning of any new market. But if the mechanism attracts even a few real companies with revenue, growth, and credible founders, the market starts to re-rate the venue itself
That’s the unlock. MetaDAO does not need every single launch to be great. It needs enough high-quality teams to prove that decision market-native capital formation can compete with the private round plus CEX listing path
2. I agree futarchy should not be forced everywhere. The right use case is narrower: discrete, high-stakes decisions where the outcome can be measured and the market can price the tradeoff before capital moves. Launches, treasury allocation, acquisitions, mergers, buybacks, listings, strategic pivots. Not vague social preferences. The point is not “govern everything with futarchy.” It’s “price major decisions before committing capital”
3. On public goods, I think sequencing matters. Long term, ownership coins probably should become more open and standardized. But early on, the market needs a coordinated actor with economics to bootstrap issuer quality, liquidity, distribution, investor trust, and post-launch accountability. A purely public-good standard may not have enough incentive to do that underwriting and market-building work. Protocol economics can fund the coordination early, then the standard can open up once the primitive is proven
Toe retweeted
"The entire token space lives and dies off @MetaDAOProject"
Felipe from Theia Research on whether MetaDAO can bring capital back to the token market:
"Capital comes back quickly when there are good returns. If returns were really high for funds investing in MetaDAO tokens, capital would be back in 12 to 18 months. There's never a situation where returns are really high for some segment of funds, and then capital decides to abstain indefinitely"
"We are seeing people really leave the token space. The last few years have really been a testament to how good people are at following their incentives, and how broken incentives are in the local token space without MetaDAO"
"This is my most histrionic opinion that I like to recite, but I think the entire token space lives and dies off MetaDAO" - @TheiaResearch
Congrats to the @UmbraPrivacy team on a major partnership. In 6 months, Umbra has:
- Raised $3M primarily from retail anons
- Leveraged their initial hype to compete with institutional players despite being pre-product
- Continued to build despite token price depreciation, creating proposals to bring institutional capital onboard during the lows
- Announced a major partnership that unlocks billions of privacy-preserving volume
Umbra exemplifies complete validation of MetaDAO's ownership model. While the job is not finished, Umbra crowdsourced fundraising capital from the internet, bootstrapped this community as its initial users, and leveraged that to ink a key partnership set to significantly improve their bottom line. The Internet Financial System is alive and well, to those willing to look.
Massive kudos to the Umbra team. We are incredibly excited to continue working with one of the best teams in the space.
MetaDAO just completed its largest permissionless fundraise in less than 3 hours. Internet capital markets are alive and well @JurassicFi
Toe retweeted
This is what internet capital markets look like:
- Single, unified unit of value
- Transparent & aligned process for issuing more to fund the business
- Great entrepreneurs can execute & signal trustworthiness to the markets
We've closed our first set of OTC Sales as part of the UMBRA-003 Proposal.
Excited to welcome Theia as our anchor investor & @Cryptopathic as our first angel!
Toe retweeted
If you're a liquid fund or individual that's a $META (MetaDAO) holder, like this & shoot me a DM please
Toe retweeted
With deference to the decision markets, we propose a $300K OTC add to Umbra at $0.45/token (33.5% premium to 14D TWAP, 10% to spot). We will work hard as a firm to ensure that this is an EV+ proposal.
UMBRA-003 is live. The @umbraprivacy team has proposed the reclamation of tokens from its Meteora single-sided liquidity pool plus additional limited mint authority to facilitate bringing strategic investors into Umbra.
Read the full proposal and trade it below.
