In this episode of Talking Tokenization, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Xin Song, CEO of GSR, about how the firm is evolving from a crypto market maker into a full-service digital asset investment bank. Xin, who started his career at BlackRock before later running his own crypto derivatives hedge fund and joining GSR in 2019, explains why tokenization will eat the capital markets world and why the firm acquired Architech and Autonomous to build end-to-end advisory, origination, and distribution capabilities.

He walks through how GSR got its start as a market maker for Ripple, how options and prediction markets are converging to unlock new liquidity, and why the real tokenization opportunity is distributing fund products to crypto-native foundations rather than trying to bring traditional institutions onchain. The conversation covers the Standard Chartered Ventures investment and what banking rails unlock for crypto, why the wrapped equity model is winning over issuer-led approaches, and how he sees the current altcoin drawdown as worse than post-FTX - by some measures. This episode is sponsored by Securitize, the proven leader in tokenized funds, equities, and private markets. Discover more at securitize.io.

TIMESTAMPS

(00:00) Intro
(00:33) How Xin defines tokenization
(02:46) GSR's origin story as a market maker for Ripple's XRP in 2013
(06:00) How options evolved from a backwater to a core crypto market
(09:12) The crypto gap GSR is trying to fill: building a full-service investment bank
(14:29) Acquisitions of Architech and Autonomous and his bear market M&A thesis
(17:27) Why the infrastructure bridge between traditional finance and onchain markets still needs work
(21:24) Who tokenization actually serves: the underbanked, 24/7 traders, and AI agents
(24:28) Will tokenized assets steal market share from bitcoin over time?
(27:57) Stablecoin proliferation post-Genius Act and the yield pass-through debate
(30:13) How GSR's role evolves as more real world assets get tokenized
(33:49) Tokenized equities: wrapped vs issuer-led approaches and what's winning
(41:17) Standard Chartered Ventures investment and what banking rails unlock for crypto
(49:46) What Xin is watching: AI and blockchain intersection
(52:07) Final advice: grit, patience, and keep building through the lows

ESSENTIALS

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Note: This podcast is for informational purposes only. Views shared are opinions, not financial advice. The host or guests may have financial interests in discussed content.