On this episode of Cross-Chain Examination, we’re joined by our good friends and supporters, Anton and Ethan from Talos! Talos is an institutional trading platform for digital assets that was built to support the entire trade lifecycle. 

With backgrounds in the institutional finance space, and a very robust crypto platform under their belts, Anton and Ethan are the perfect guests to help us sort out all of the craziness going on right now in the wake of the FTX collapse. We kick off our discussion with a breakdown of crypto as an asset class and the importance of institutional adoption. We then dive into Vitalik’s tweet where he suggested crypto is rushing into institutional and mainstream adoption too quickly. 

Turning to mainstream adoption more broadly, we discuss the reliance on centralized businesses to more easily onboard new users. Anton touches on the friction between cefi and defi tools and, instead of picking a side, explains that there is a time and place for both. He then reflects on the inception of Talos, from digital asset fund to a fully integrated crypto platform made from scratch. 

Later in our talk we get into the details of crypto as a unique asset class, the advantages of building financial systems on blockchains, the evolution of Talos, and effects of the FTX collapse.