Darren Kleine

Is there a better way to gauge public sentiment these days than by Twitter poll? It seems to work pretty well for Elon Musk, anyway.



In a recent <a href="https://twitter.com/santiagoroel/status/1663620846185766914?s=20">tweet</a>, seed investor Santiago R. Santos pitched investment possibilities to followers, asking what he should build in order to “have the most impact” in the <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/crypto">crypto</a> industry. The preferred choice won by a landslide.



The large majority — 77% of the more than 2,000 votes — were in support of building a new “crypto-friendly bank.”&nbsp;



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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">I have a growing desire to build something in crypto beyond investing my own capital and education thru the Empire podcast. I have a few ideas and thought it would be good to open source the process of what I do next by gathering external input. This is the commencement of that…&mdash; Santiago R Santos | #9159 (@santiagoroel) <a href="https://twitter.com/santiagoroel/status/1663620846185766914?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 30, 2023</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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The recent collapses of <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/signature-silicon-valley-bank-made-whole">Silicon Valley Bank</a>, <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/signature">Signature</a> and <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/silvergate">Silvergate</a>, the most prominent crypto-friendly banks in America, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/operation-choke-point-2-0">left a vacuum in the space</a> for industry clients. Santos spoke to Blockworks on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MHwnbLSxAs">the Empire podcast</a> about his plans to fill the void.



Santos prefaces the conversation by confiding he’s not “a good builder,” but is a “better investor.” He chuckles as he says this is “probably the worst time” to start up a crypto-friendly bank, “given everything that&#8217;s going on.”



“Every small bank is collapsing.”&nbsp;



“It’s really hard,” he says, “specifically if you want to do crypto stuff — Signature’s down, Silvergate’s down,” along with a number of traditional banks.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Rebuilding something that actually works</h2>



But Santos says when he looks at the current precarious situation, he is inspired to build.



The investor admits that he has no interest in directly running a bank. “There are smarter, more competent people to do that,” he says. His role would be to assemble a team and guide it with everything that he’s lived through “over the years in crypto” and from his experiences in traditional finance.



“Someone&#8217;s gonna pick up the ashes and rebuild something that actually works.”



Asked whether he’s envisioning a business or consumer-focused banking service, Santos replies that he imagines building “an everything bank,” servicing individuals who are on and off-boarding from crypto, as well as businesses and institutions.



“This is a huge, Herculean effort,” he says. “It might not work.”



Santos says he would likely start the venture in Europe. He understands “how banks operate” on the continent, “whether it&#8217;s in the UK, France, or Switzerland.” The <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/european-parliament-mica-doesnt-touch">recently established MiCA framework</a> opens up more possibilities, he says.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">JP Morgan quality</h2>



Podcast host Jason Yanowitz pauses and asks Santos, “How serious are you about this?”



He replies, “Pretty serious. I&#8217;ve been in ongoing discussions for the last three months.”



Santos says he would hire executives from both crypto and traditional capital markets to run the show. “If Jamie Dimon doesn&#8217;t run for President of the United States,” Yanowitz smiles, “maybe go talk to him.”&nbsp;



Santos laughs, replying “someone like that, plus also someone in the <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/regulation">regulatory policy</a> side that really understands crypto.”



<iframe loading="lazy" frameborder="0" height="200" scrolling="no" src="https://playlist.megaphone.fm/?e=BWG5929329742" width="100%"></iframe>







The key to moving forward, Santos says, is to get a banking license, “and part of getting the license is having a good team.”



Yanowitz suggests buying a license from a distressed business as a shortcut, but Santos promptly shuts down the idea. “I want a clean slate and to make this splash because I&#8217;ve hired the top executives and a serious team.”



“I want <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/jpmorgan">JP Morgan</a> quality,” he says, adding that he wants to build with “high quality, talented individuals” to dominate the market, starting in Europe and building out from there.



“Crypto deserves a good bank and a serious team.”



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Banks

‘Crypto Deserves a Good Bank’ — Investor Santos Says He’s Building It

Morgan Chittum

<div id="highlights-block_61bbbe2fe4678" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Santos additionally bought the Strawberry iMAC Wikipedia co-founder used while developing the website</li>
 <li>PleasrDAO’s NFT collection consists of the popular Doge meme, Edward Snowden court documents and more</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



An NFT of Jimmy Wales saying “Hello world” on Wikipedia sold for $750,000 at <a href="https://www.christies.com/features/First-Wikipedia-edit-to-be-sold-as-NFT-11983-1.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Christie’s</a> auction house on Wednesday. Prominent Web3 investor Santiago Santos purchased the NFT for PleasrDAO, a decentralized autonomous organization most commonly known for buying the one-of-kind <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/20/arts/music/wu-tang-clan-once-upon-a-time-in-shaolin.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">WuTang album</a>, Blockworks has exclusively learned. 



“I bought it because I think it&#8217;s priceless,” Santos said.



The bidder, who was initially anonymous, told Blockworks that he spent almost $1 million on the collectible because it was “emblematic of Web3.”



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“Wikipedia also open-sourced knowledge,” Santos said, adding that the website has also gone through similar stages as cryptocurrency. “There&#8217;s a lot of parallels. We&#8217;ve [also] gone through this phase of [people seeing] crypto as a scam.”</blockquote>



The non-fungible token (NFT), which displays co-founder Wales’ first-ever edit in 2002, was auctioned off alongside the Strawberry iMAC Wales used while developing the website. Santos purchased this at auction as well on Wednesday.&nbsp;



“What you see displayed is what Wikipedia looked like at the moment that I set up the software,” Wales previously told “<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2021/12/3/22808679/jimmy-wales-nft-first-wikipedia-edit-imac-christies-auction" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">The Verge</a>,” adding that proceeds from the auction will go toward charities like WT.Social, a donation-backed social network that he founded three years ago.



The ultimate buyer of the NFT will now be able to edit the post — and change it back to its original appearance — whenever they want, according to a statement from Christie&#8217;s.&nbsp;



Santos said that he was “shocked” at paying just $750,000 for the NFT and “thought it was going to go for way more.” He said that he was prepared to bid a maximum of “$2.5 million or more.”



“I think a lot of times when you&#8217;re collecting, you have to ask yourself, ‘Does this endure the test of time?’” Santos said. “There&#8217;s already so much emotional and historical attachment attached to Wikipedia.”



The NFT will be placed in PleasrDAO’s collection, which consists of tokenized <a href="https://foundation.app/@Snowden/~/24437" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Edward Snowden</a> court documents, the popular <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/original-4m-doge-nft-meme-auctioned-off-in-17-billion-pieces" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Doge meme</a> and more, according to Santos, who was a founding member of the organization.



This is not the first time a prominent auction house has associated itself with a DAO.



The winning bid for the Wikipedia NFT follows the explosive efforts around <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/constitutiondao-shutting-down-after-raising-49m/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ConstitutionDAO</a>, a group of more than 17,000 crypto investors who raised roughly $48.9 million to buy a copy of the US Constitution at Sotheby&#8217;s in November.&nbsp;



“It’s really exciting to see these auction houses get so embedded in NFTs,” Santos said. “It speaks to where the space is going and how mainstream NFTs have become.”



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