📢 Bits + Bips has its own channel now — full episodes here: https://www.youtube.com/@Bitsandbips
Meta and Microsoft reported earnings on the same night, and investors sent their stocks in opposite directions.
Chris Galipeau of the Franklin Templeton Institute walks Steven Ehrlich through why Meta got punished for raising its CapEx guidance while Microsoft's Azure growth held steady, then makes the case that the broader AI CapEx boom is still only in its second inning, not a bubble about to pop.
Host:
Steven Ehrlich - Host, Head of Research at Sharplink - https://x.com/Steven_Ehrlich
Guest:
Chris Galipeau - Head Market Strategist at the Franklin Templeton Institute
This clip is from a longer conversation on Fed policy, Iran, AI earnings, and prediction markets. Full episode here:https://youtu.be/BXWq7OPcm24
We go live every Thursday - subscribe to catch it live.
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Chapters
🎙️ 00:00 Kicking off the Meta vs Microsoft earnings comparison
📉 00:26 Why Meta landed in the 'penalty box' on CapEx guidance
☁️ 01:25 Microsoft's Azure growth number was 'super strong'
💰 02:41 The FAANG-era CapEx inversion nobody saw coming
📊 03:41 How to actually evaluate a company's balance sheet health
🔄 04:52 The circular financing risk, and Steve's 'incestuous' tech giants question
⚾ 07:24 The baseball analogy: still early innings, and why this isn't a bubble
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This week on Bits + Bips, hosts Steve Ehrlich and Ram Ahluwalia speak with Blockchain.com’s Nic Cary and Franklin Templeton’s Max Gokhman.
We talk about how the potential Base token would alter the L2 landscape, and who should capture the value if Coinbase becomes the backbone for DeFi. Also, whether Web2 and TradFi giants will buy their way onchain, why privacy infrastructure is overdue, and how TON’s superapp strategy could pressure social platforms to follow suit.
Plus: how Franklin Templeton is valuing L2s and other tokens, why the FOMC’s decision matters for crypto risk, and how tariff talk could spill into digital assets.
Thank you to our sponsor, Xapo!
Hosts:
Steve Ehrlich, Executive Editor at Unchained
Ram Ahluwalia, CFA, CEO and Founder of Lumida
Guests:
Nic Cary, Co-Founder and Vice Chairman at Blockchain.com
Max Gokhman, Deputy Chief Investment Officer for Franklin Templeton Investment Solutions
Links:
Unchained:
Base Will Likely Have a Token: Why Now, Who Wins, and How Big It Gets
Base Starts to Explore a Native Token
Timestamps:
🎬 0:00 Intro
🪙 5:13 The reason for Coinbase’s flip flop on a Base token
🌉 18:33 Should Blockchain.com launch its own L2?
🏗️ 22:05 Is Coinbase becoming the infrastructure layer for DeFi?
📊 25:13 How $1.5 trillion Franklin Templeton builds valuation frameworks for L2s and tokens
📱 30:33 Nic’s case for TON and its superapp strategy
🏦 34:00 Whether Web2 and TradFi giants will buy their way onchain
🕵️ 40:21 Why privacy infrastructure is overdue for crypto but never seems to work
📉 51:03 Surprising predictions regarding the next Fed rate cut
🇺🇸 57:45 Why Trump has a tariff backup plan, and what it means for crypto
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What happens when traditional finance and decentralized finance collide? Join us in this insightful interview with Sandy Kaul, Head of Innovation at Franklin Templeton, as we explore the firm’s groundbreaking crypto experiments, DeFi-enabled opportunities, and the future of tokenized money market funds.
Key Topics Covered
Franklin Templeton’s onchain money market fund
How evolving crypto infrastructure is reshaping TradFi
New TradFi products enabled by crypto
Tokenization vs. stablecoins
Supply chain and enterprise resource management powered by DeFi
Regulation, obstacles, and the merging of TradFi and DeFi
Get a front-row seat to how one of the world’s leading financial institutions is driving innovation in the space.
Chapters:
00:00 Defiant Intro
01:04 Introduction to Sandy Kaul, Head of Innovation at Franklin Templeton
06:56 Franklin Templeton experimenting with crypto to save costs
08:11 Franklin Templeton’s onchain money market fund
09:26 Evolving crypto infrastructure from 2019 to today
11:42 What do institutions look for when planning to launch a product onchain?
13:41 Choosing blockchains based on use cases
16:15 Three new TradFi offerings enabled by crypto
19:56 Additional applications for DeFi: supply chain management
21:56 Additional applications for DeFi: enterprise resource management systems
22:49 Tokenized money market funds vs. stablecoins
25:11 Product bundles and asset classes
28:31 Obstacles to offering more crypto products
31:26 What clarity are you looking to regulation for?
34:16 Complex DeFi products being accepted in TradFi
35:13 DeFi and TradFi need to support one another
37:04 Regulation will open up new pools of assets and value
38:56 What will the merging of TradFi and crypto look like?
41:10 Will the back of house for these firms move onchain?
42:55 Consumer demand for crypto products
47:15 Payments outside of fiat
48:34 Incorporating crypto into Franklin Templeton model portfolios
50:35 What is the demand for current crypto offerings?
54:30 What does success look like for Franklin Templeton?
55:30 Closing Remarks
✨ DEBRIEF | Ryan and David unpacking the episode: https://bankless.com/debrief-franklin-templeton
Franklin Templeton Has Entered the Chat. More broadly TradFi has entered the chat. Franklin Templeton is a TradFi company with $1.5 trillion in assets. We brought on their SVP Sandy Kaul, who is a turbo crypto bull.
What’s Franklin Templeton? It’s an investment management company (think mutual funds, ETFs) that manages over $1.5 Trillion in assets. This is what we in crypto affectionately refer to as TradFi and they recently came out with a BTC ETF and have big plans for future tokenization. They also seem to be incredibly bullish on crypto and this new intersection between crypto and TradFi. This is exactly what we wanted to explore with Sandy today.
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------ TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Intro 7:18 Explaining Crypto to TradFi 13:45 Why TradFi Waited 21:58 Explaining Tokens & Franklin Templeton’s Future Use 31:55 The Chameleon Asset 39:30 What’s Preventing Franklin Templeton? 46:27 Advice For Founders 48:37 Regulation Vibe Check 54:30 Countering Crypto Critiques 1:00:00 BTC & ETH ETF 1:12:16 Under or Over-Rated 1:15:00 Sandy’s Crypto Story 1:17:30 Franklin Templeton’s Twitter 1:19:20 Closing & Disclosures
------ RESOURCES
Franklin Templeton’s Twitter https://twitter.com/FTI_US
Sandy Kaul https://www.linkedin.com/in/sandy-kaul-8571877/
------ Not financial or tax advice. This channel is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. This video is not tax advice. Talk to your accountant. Do your own research.
Disclosure. From time-to-time I may add links in this newsletter to products I use. I may receive commission if you make a purchase through one of these links. Additionally, the Bankless writers hold crypto assets. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures
My guest today is Jenny Johnson, President and CEO of one of the world’s largest asset managers, Franklin Templeton. Jenny joined the business in 1988 and has worked in the organization ever since. In early 2020 she became CEO of Franklin, which now manages some $1.5 trillion. I should, of course, note that I met Jenny as our two firms explored a partnership, which we cemented 3 months ago when we announced that Franklin Templeton would be acquiring O'Shaughnessy Asset Management.
During our conversation, we discuss Jenny’s thoughts on leadership, how she manages the needle-moving problem that afflicts many large companies, and the ways in which she sees private markets becoming more accessible to retail investors in the future. Please enjoy this great conversation with Jenny Johnson.
For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here.
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Invest Like the Best is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Invest Like the Best, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.
Past guests include Tobi Lutke, Kevin Systrom, Mike Krieger, John Collison, Kat Cole, Marc Andreessen, Matthew Ball, Bill Gurley, Anu Hariharan, Ben Thompson, and many more.
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Follow us on Twitter: @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus
Show Notes
[00:03:19] - [First question] - The four P’s of leadership and what she thinks are the most important roles of a CEO
[00:06:00] - The difficulty of finding and recruiting great people and keeping them invested
[00:07:18] - Things she looks for in her senior leadership team
[00:07:59] - Knowing when to be more or less involved as a leader
[00:09:30] - Her takeaways from working in a family-owned business
[00:11:20] - Advice she’d give to families who are building businesses together
[00:12:06] - Thoughts on the role technology will play in the asset management industry
[00:16:13] - Costs and frictions that blockchains could alleviate
[00:18:17] - General views on disruption and considering ones position when thinking about the future
[00:20:09] - Knowing when to start a project internally or acquire an existing project
[00:23:10] - The hardest things about effective M&A decisions
[00:23:42] - Overseeing a hybrid model of singular focus between multiple investment groups
[00:28:26] - The pros and cons of active management against passive adoption
[00:31:15] - Costs and fees in the industry and how they might change in the future
[00:33:04] - Talking to clients when they don’t have one specific view on strategy
[00:36:10] - Formative experiences in her career that has shaped her worldview
[00:38:34] - Managing emotions through seemingly chaotic situations
[00:39:13] - The impacts on psychology when being a top performer and an average one
[00:41:15] - Managing and adapting strategy when faced with highs and lows
[00:42:55] - Acquiring alternative managers and defining what alternative assets are
[00:46:26] - Relevant trends on how capital is pooled and their client base over time
[00:47:52] - What is under-discussed in the world of asset management today writ large
[00:49:01] - Other leaders she’s met or knows that have had her in awe
[00:50:30] - What about Cathie Wood has made her story and approach so successful
[00:51:38] - How she runs a great board meeting and ways to improve meetings themselves
[00:53:34] - Lessons learned about time management as the leader of a public company
[00:54:52] - What purpose means to her
[00:56:18] - Ways we can incentivize young and new people to start investing
[00:59:10] - Her favorite things that her dad has taught her and how she’d describe him
[01:00:57] - What has her most excited about the future
[01:01:34] - The kindest thing that anyone has ever done for her
T. Scott Clendaniel joins to discuss advanced topics in data science and his forecasts for the future in this field. He also talks about the importance of soft skills for data scientists.
In this episode you will learn:
Who is Scott Clendaniel? [6:57]
Scott’s role at Franklin Templeton [10:24]
LinkedIn advanced Q&A [13:29]
Tools that Scott uses the most [26:57]
Target mean encoding technique [30:35]
LinkedIn Q&A on models [33:11]
LinkedIn Q&A on soft skills [54:04]
LinkedIn Q&A on forecasts for the future [01:00:19]
Hub and spoke model in Data Science Management [01:08:32]
Scott’s advice for advanced data scientists [01:10:12]
Additional materials: www.superdatascience.com/385