eXponential Finance

eXponential Finance

The eXponential Finance Podcast is produced in co-operation with Tokyo FinTech (https://tokyofintech.com/), covering Finance & FinTech themes in Japan and beyond. Tokyo FinTech looks to inform, inspire and innovate in the financial services sector in Japan. Our community of more than 3,300 individual members attends regular fintech, insurtech, regtech, payments, blockchain & crypto events. We also have an established Medium Publication (https://medium.com/tokyo-fintech) and a number of international community partnerships with like-minded FinTech associations around the globe.

Episodes

October 19, 2025 31 mins

 While the main stage at WebX Tokyo buzzes with talk of billion-dollar ETFs and institutional adoption, there’s another, shadow economy at play—one that operates on the very same rails we’re trying to build.


Hacks. Scams. Sanctions. It’s a multi-billion dollar problem. Just last year, over forty-one billion dollars in on-chain value was transferred to illicit addresses.


So how do we build a transparent, trustworthy financial ...

Mark as Played

Live from WebX 2025 in Tokyo, we bring you this panel featuring:

Betty Sun-Lucas, Stellar Development Foundation, Regional Director, APAC

Qin En Looi, Saison Capital, Partner

Matt Harrop, Figment, Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder


👉 Subscribe to our weekly newsletter, the "Japan FinTech Observer", here: https://www.fintechobserver.com

Mark as Played

​Michinori Kanokogi, CFA, is Head of Solution Research at Nissay Asset Management. He leads the research and development of digital investment solutions for investors.

​Previously, he led the launch of AQR Capital Management’s Japan business as head of investment management. He also has experience in multi-manager investment at Russell Investments, equity portfolio management at UBS, and management consulting at PwC and Deloitte.

​He...

Mark as Played

Drew Robbins is the author of the book “When No One's Keeping Score: The Meaningful Moves That Build a Fulfilling Career”, a practical, story-rich guide to finding meaning, building resilience, and making real progress at work—without burning out or waiting for permission.

Drew is a seasoned leader and mentor with over 20 years of experience guiding professionals through the real-world challenges of building meaningful careers....

Mark as Played

Akio Tanaka is a Co-Founder and Partner at Headline Asia. Akio has driven impactful investments in FinTech, E-commerce, and Blockchain, leading to Japan’s No.1 & No.2 FinTech unicorns, freee, and WealthNavi. His expertise spans cross-border digital payment platforms, democratizing private equity access, and nurturing Web3. 

We have recorded this podcast episode to celebrate Headline Asia's USD 145 million Fund V, supporting ...

Mark as Played

In this episode of the eXponential Finance Podcast, we explore avenues to create legal entities for Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), with a particular focus on the structure set up in the Marshall Islands.

Adam Miller is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of MIDAO. Adam is a passionate member of several DAOs such as Purple, Builder DAO, CryptoMondays, and Beaver DAO to name a few. Previously, Adam conducted res...

Mark as Played

For this podcast episode, we have picked one of the insightful sessions from the recent TEAMZ Summit in Tokyo, a place where Web3 developers, investors, entrepreneurs, and enthusiasts can gather, explore the latest trends, connect with global leaders, and discover business opportunities. This panel of industry leaders discussed “The Future of Bitcoin: Its Role as Digital Gold and Integration into the Financial System.”


Speakers:

...

Mark as Played

In this episode of the eXponential Finance Podcast, we explore the challenges foreign residents face when opening bank accounts in Japan.

Declan Somers, Chief Executive Officer of Mobal Communications, the owner of MobalPay, shares his unique journey to & from Japan to Ireland, working in telecoms, and their impactful work in Malawi.

The discussion dives into the features and impact of their mobile pay product, how it aids th...

Mark as Played
October 13, 2024 27 mins

This panel at the WebX conference held on August 28 & 29 in.Tokyo focuses on the intersection of Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) and digital assets, exploring the evolving landscape of cryptocurrency investment products.

The speakers, representing a diverse range of financial and blockchain companies, discuss the implications of crypto ETFs, the regulatory environment surrounding these products, and the broader impact on both tra...

Mark as Played

Join us as we dive deep with Chino-san from Binance, exploring the transformation of Japan's financial market through digitalization and cutting-edge technologies.

From his career journey at traditional exchanges to pivotal roles at Kraken and Binance, discover why Binance stands out in revolutionizing the Japanese crypto industry.

Understand the challenges and opportunities within Japan's financial and crypto sectors, in...

Mark as Played

Habitto is Japan's first connected money experience, helping people save, grow and protect their money.

​Habitto has become the first company to register as a deposit-taking and electronic financial services intermediary in Japan, using a license type that the FSA made available towards the end of 2021.

Samantha Ghiotti, Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, brings over 20 years of unique vantage points and global experienc...

Mark as Played

Jitendra Singh Jaitawat is a Partner & the Founding CTO at Helicap, as well as Co-Founder and CEO at Helix.

Helicap is a Singapore-based FinTech firm providing curated and exclusive private co-investments to a wide network of accredited investors. Through their institutional-grade credit analytics technology, Helicap extracts meaningful credit insights for their risk management framework. This is complemented by Helicap's f...

Mark as Played

Stephen Nagy's latest edited volume (jointly with Indu Saxena) focuses on the changing regional security dynamics of Southeast Asia within the context of the U.S.-China strategic competition in the Indo-Pacific.


On the one hand, China’s growing influence and assertive behavior in the South China Sea and the Archipelago region are the main concerns of these countries.


On the other hand, Southeast Asian countries are skep...

Mark as Played

Kay is the Founder of MVL (Mass Vehicle Ledger), TADA (ride hailing) and ONiON (electric tricycles).

Earlier in his founder journey, Mothership, a Singaporean online magazine, portrayed Kay as the “Korean guy who made a ride hailing app for the Singapore market after meeting driver who called himself a ‘dog’”.

But then, the sequencing evolved quite naturally. The blockchain needed a use case to prove its utility, so the zero-commi...

Mark as Played

The eXponential Finance Podcast welcomes Bruno Diniz back to explore the evolution of financial technology in Brazil, highlighting the success of PIX in transforming the financial landscape and the upcoming launch of a Central Bank Digital Currency named DREX. We also discuss open finance, tokenizing the economy, and the global impact of Brazil's fintech innovations.

Bruno Diniz is the Managing Partner at Spiralem Innovation C...

Mark as Played

Jed is the Founder of AngelSchool.vc. As a Tech Operator, he built the world’s largest API Marketplace with an a16z-backed startup.

Jed began investing in startups in 2016. Like most angels, he staked his own capital. Despite having never worked in VC, he got his first exit in 2018. Jed has also backed 2 seed-stage startups that became Unicorns ($1BN+ valuation).

People started asking “what are you investing in next?”, so he began ...

Mark as Played

Rakkar Digital is a Singapore-based company that provides digital asset custodian services to institutional clients in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong. The company is backed by SCB 10X, the investment arm of Siam Commercial Bank, and powered by Fireblocks. Leveraging cutting-edge multi-party computation (MPC)-CMP custody infrastructure as their underlying technology, Rakkar Digital provides the highest level of security for assets alo...

Mark as Played

CrediLinq is a technology infrastructure company that is enabling B2B platforms to offer embedded finance to their customers.

B2B PayLater for buyers and GMV Financing for sellers is a huge opportunity to both improve conversion, increase average order volumes and dramatically reduce operational burden. The future of B2B payments and purchasing will very much look like the current consumer level experience – we at CrediLinq.Ai are ...

Mark as Played

Oliver Hall is the Head of Tech Investments for Europe and Japan at Copenhagen Capacity, and a Co-Founder & Investment Director for Japanese Investments at the Nordic Asian Venture Alliance.


Our discussion covers topics such as sustainability, digitalization, foreign direct investment, Japanese capital, and the new Nordics.

Oliver shares his background and how he ended up in the Nordics. We also talk about the advantages...

Mark as Played

bloXroute created the first high-performance blockchain distribution network (BDN) with the fastest relay solution for Ethereum, BNB Chain, Polygon, and Solana. The bloXroute BDN and DeFi trading tools allow its users to win at crypto trading.

The BDN utilizes a global network of servers optimized for network performance. Nodes access this network through open-source gateways and users can access it through the bloXroute public-API...

Mark as Played

Popular Podcasts

    I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!

    The Joe Rogan Experience

    The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.

    Stuff You Should Know

    If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.

    The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

    The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.

    Dateline NBC

    Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com

Advertise With Us
Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.