Multicoin Capital’s Kyle Samani on Internet Capital Markets

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• The current 100-year-old capital market structure, built on intermediaries and regulatory layers since the 1930s, is inefficient, bloated, and ripe for replacement by a global, 24/7, cryptographically secured system powered by modern software and blockchains like Solana.  Copied to clipboard!
• The convergence of technological readiness (faster, cheaper blockchains) and regulatory alignment (President Trump's executive orders, the Genius Act, and the SEC Chair Paul Atkins' 'regulation super app' vision) positions 2025 as the critical inflection point for the 'digital finance revolution' and the birth of internet capital markets.  Copied to clipboard!
• Internet capital markets will fundamentally change media and finance by embedding trading, prediction markets, and asset ownership directly into everyday software experiences, from group chats and sports broadcasts to podcasts, making finance an internet-native primitive.  Copied to clipboard!

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Introduction and Market Problem

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(00:00:02)

• Key Takeaway: Legacy financial rails prevent global access to U.S. dollars, necessitating a real-time, global financial market built on open protocols.
• Summary: Cryptocurrency is showing signs of becoming part of the financial future, but existing systems restrict global access to U.S. dollars. The ideal future market requires real-time global synchronization using the same open protocol at the speed of light. Kyle Samani of Multicoin Capital is introduced to discuss internet capital markets.

History of Capital Markets

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• Key Takeaway: Modern U.S. capital markets were founded on three key pieces of legislation passed after the 1929 crash to restore investor confidence.
• Summary: The modern financial system roots trace back to the 1929 stock market crash, which saw a 90% value loss over three years. In response, Congress passed the Securities Act of ‘33, the Exchange Act of ‘34 (creating the SEC), and the Investment Company Act of 1940. These laws established the foundation of trust and disclosure that current markets are built upon.

Inefficiency of Intermediaries

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(00:02:13)

• Key Takeaway: Layers of intermediaries—exchanges, clearinghouses, custodians—add complexity, fees, delays, and inertia to the existing capital market structure.
• Summary: Over 90 years, rules added by the administrative state have created bloat, making markets inefficient; for example, stock trades still take two days to settle. These intermediaries extract fees and create resistance to change, resulting in markets that close early and maintain high fees.

Redesigning Capital Markets

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(00:03:20)

• Key Takeaway: A modern redesign of capital markets from first principles would utilize global, 24/7, programmable, and cryptographically secured software built on a single global ledger.
• Summary: Engineers redesigning markets today would not recreate legacy intermediaries but would build on modern software principles. This new infrastructure requires global scale, 24/7 operation, and permissionless access, secured by cryptography. Blockchains, which previously couldn’t scale, now offer the necessary performance, citing Solana’s ability to process over a billion transactions daily cheaply.

Regulatory Alignment in 2025

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(00:04:19)

• Key Takeaway: Regulatory frameworks are aligning in 2025, driven by executive orders and legislation like the Genius Act, paving the way for on-chain securities markets.
• Summary: President Trump signed executive orders to make the U.S. the crypto capital, with David Sacks credited for his role in achieving this. Congress passed the Genius Act to create a stablecoin framework, and the upcoming Clarity Act will address market structure regulation. SEC Chair Paul Atkins is directing staff to update rules to unleash on-chain software systems.

Regulation Super App Vision

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(00:06:05)

• Key Takeaway: The SEC’s ‘regulation super app’ vision allows a single user interface to trade non-security crypto assets, tokenized securities, and traditional securities seamlessly.
• Summary: Chair Atkins’ vision enables regulated financial super apps (like Coinbase or Robinhood) to offer staking, lending, and DeFi access without requiring numerous state or federal licenses. This framework converges regulated finance with permissionless crypto protocols, promising a boom in on-chain DeFi activity and expanded global access.

Internet Capital Markets Definition

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(00:07:48)

• Key Takeaway: Internet capital markets represent one global market where anyone with a phone can trade any asset using any software modality, powered by blockchain infrastructure.
• Summary: The alignment of technology and regulation creates the substrate for internet capital markets, which fundamentally means finance becomes an internet-native primitive. This system allows anyone, anywhere, to trade assets globally via software, absorbing all functions of capital formation, trading, and settlement.

Examples of Embedded Finance

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(00:08:21)

• Key Takeaway: Future capital markets will be embedded directly into media consumption, enabling betting on interest rates within financial news and integrating wagers into sports viewing.
• Summary: Users will be able to bet on interest rates directly within financial media like the Wall Street Journal via prediction markets like Caliche, changing the nature of media itself. The second screen experience on TV will shift from social content to financial betting, making sports more engaging. Trading will become embedded everywhere, from bathroom breaks (‘swipe to bet’) to group chats (’text-to-trade’).

Social Finance and Conclusion

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(00:11:04)

• Key Takeaway: Entertainment Finance 2.0, exemplified by streamers like Roaring Kitty, will allow thousands of users to trade the same asset simultaneously from a single live stream.
• Summary: The future of social finance involves streamers trading assets with their audience in real-time, a practice already occurring daily on Solana. Podcasts will also integrate trading capabilities, allowing listeners to buy stocks or crypto while consuming content. This shift means markets will become the media, and the legacy system will be consumed by this new paradigm, which runs parallel to the AI transformation.