Remember back in 2023 when I wrote that AI is a trend that would literally take over everything... Back when chatbots like @TonChatAIbot were just emerging. Now the AI industry generates equally high revenue — many times more than the VPN vertical.
Surprisingly, three years later there are still folks just getting acquainted with AI who don't understand how to integrate "this" into their lives and businesses. On December 2nd, when I was at a conference hosted by an investment fund (where the entire top brass of Telegram, TON and the people who fund the development of the whole industry and products we all use were gathered), I talked about all this — repeatedly, actually.
🧢 When you're an innovator, investing in AI startups as a crypto-evangelist, and then you look at your average project in any industry, you can't help but feel like you're from the future...
У моей страны ДР, ей 250 лет.
День независимости США 🇺🇸
Я не буду писать длинные речи, всё, что я хотел сказать — уже сказано. Но хочу прикрепить видео одного из своих любимых актёров, Мэттью Макконахи. В этом поздравлении он буквально передаёт все мои мысли.
И отдельная благодарность администрации Трампа за то, что сделали Америку снова великой. Я действительно испытываю гордость, что стал частью США.
С праздником
с Днём независимости 🇺🇸
I never do business with unmarried girls or with guys who cheat on their women.
In the business world, I've met a huge number of people while building our ad agency, neo-bank, and the rest of our products. I've seen all kinds: poor, rich, super-rich, smart, dumb. Different partners — some experiences great, some not so much.
From all this experience, here's my takeaway. If a girl or a guy can't control their animal instincts and, the moment they make a little bit of money, launch a business or become a blogger — they go off the rails and cheat on their partner. Especially when there are kids in the family. That way a person betrays not only their partner, they betray themselves and family values. And these are the most precious things in life: family, love, kids, relationships. You can't be friends with, or build a business with, someone who lies to the face of the person they sleep with under the same roof.
A sneaky thought can cross anyone's mind. But someone who gives in to that impulse for a fleeting pleasure is a very weak person.
Currently in Switzerland, on a business trip. Also decided to meet up in Zurich with my friend and partner 🇨🇭
Switzerland is famous for its banking ecosystem, and for good reason: here they understand that you can't endlessly pile up liabilities around a single volatile asset. Such a construction breaks at the very first liquidity outflow — I wrote about this when I was breaking down the deleverage.
Right now the market is running a live stress test. The largest corporate bitcoin holder is funding purchases through a synthetic instrument with a coupon around 11.5% and a target near par. The mechanism is supposed to stabilize itself: price drops, they raise the coupon, new liquidity comes in. They raised the coupon — the price didn't come back. The stabilizer didn't work.
🥹 From here, two outcomes: burn cash on payouts or cut purchase volumes. The model has no third option.
I own two companies and hold three licenses across two continents in total.
🇪🇺 As of July 1st, MiCA is in full force, and operating in the EU without a license is no longer possible. The regulatory framework has moved from a grey zone of formality to a full-blown bureaucratic filter.
The number of licensed crypto companies in the EU has grown to 280. ESMA has updated the MiCA registry, adding 37 new providers at once, including Standard Chartered and market maker FalconX.
I recently discussed this topic with my personal manager Alexander from Binance and with Mark from Bybit: both exchanges have already restricted access for European users and rerouted them to alternative solutions. The forecast: up to 80% of crypto platforms won't be able to handle the new requirements. Which in turn will affect more than 10 million users.
AFSA in Astana has issued Central Asia's first license for tokenizing real-world assets. First case — grain in elevators. A farmer pledges a token for short-term financing, sells in spring, and the smart contract pays off the loan itself.
📁 This is exactly the RWA mechanism I've been talking about for months: an asset with no cash flow gets cash flow and turns into working collateral in literally one transaction. Not token speculation, but direct monetization of goods that were just sitting in a warehouse as dead weight.