In this episode, Brooke Pollack interviews Ben Forman, founder of ParaFi Capital. Ben shares his journey from traditional finance to founding ParaFi, an early leader in decentralized finance (DeFi). They discuss the evolution and future of DeFi, the tokenization of real-world assets, and the importance of regulatory clarity in crypto. Ben also highlights ParaFi's strategies, proprietary tools, and how they support portfolio companies.
Key Points From This Episode:
Overview of Ben Forman’s background, including pitching bitcoin at KKR early on, and why he started ParaFi (+ what was the firm's original name)
Overview of ParaFi, its strategies, team, and focus areas
ParaFi’s proprietary tools: Trask and Alexandria
Overview of tokenization of real world assets, why it is interesting, and what Ben is seeing from large asset managers interested in this space
Why Ben is excited about stablecoins
Importance of regulatory clarity for DeFi and building systems that institutions can interact with
How DeFi landscape has evolved over the past several years
Fundamental investing - does the market care about fundamentals?
How ParaFi supports portfolio companies and measures its impact
Links
Ben Forman on LinkedIn
ParaFi Capital
Brooke Pollack on Twitter
Brooke Pollack on LinkedIn
Hutt Capital