In April 2023, the Arbitrum DAO approved the diversification of 35 million ARB into stable, liquid and yield bearing assets. https://www.tally.xyz/gov/arbitrum/proposal/38070839538623347085766954167338451189998347523518753197890888828931691912919

We are now electing a program manager to oversee selected providers and take responsibility for the program. Details of applicants (Particula, Bluechip, Steakhouse and Avant Garde) are below

1. Applicant: particula.io

History: Founded in January 2023, Particula offers in-depth analytics, technical due diligence, up to date regulatory information, risk management and data monitoring of tokenized real-world assets. They worked with a diverse clientele, including the Liechtenstein Bankers Association and their member banks, leading data providers like WM Data, blue-chip companies like BASF and a partnership with one of the top three global credit rating agencies.

Particula’s team of 15 monitors tokens across 20 asset classes, worth USD 7.7 billion by total market cap.

Team:

Timm Reinsdorf, Managing Director and Point of Contact: Former Big 4 auditor and management consultant for digital asset adoption with 6+ years of experience in finance, specializing in digital asset regulation.

Peter Golder, Executive Chairman: Former head of group digital assets at LSEG and CCO at Six Digital Exchange, co-founder & CEO of Euroclear Information Solutions and 776 Capital, with 25+ years of experience in capital markets.

Raveena Perera, Research Analyst: Former Moody’s credit risk analyst with 5+ years of experience in conducting in-depth research across various business units specialized in financial services and blockchain technology.

Carsten Hermann, Chief Technology Officer: Serial entrepreneur with 15+ years of leadership experience in tech companies, in the blockchain space since 2017.

Axel Jester, SVP BD & Commercialization: Former managing director of Thomson Reuters DACH and Europe East, executive director at IBM, head of sales Europe at WM Group and vice president at JP Morgan Securities, with 35+ years of experience in tech and capital markets.

Nadine Wilke, Chief Growth Officer: Former scale-up executive with 4+ years of experience in product innovation, product marketing and communication strategies.

Roman Werner, Product Owner AI & Data: Former head of AI and data science at IBM, with 17+ years of experience in digital strategy and AI-powered operations, IT asset management and process automation.

Peter Kleinschmidt, Internal Auditor: Former partner, accountant and tax advisor in PwC’s Financial Services Assurance department, with 30+ years of experience in audits of banks and securities trading organizations with a focus on IT and process assessments.

Pricing

Total: $85-$125k per year

Breakup: $10,000 per provider + 2 bps of AuM per provider per year ( eg: 35M x 0.0002 x 5 providers = USD 85,000 )

% of annual budget this contract constitutes: 7.5%

Proof of Work: https://particula.io/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Digital-Asset-Risk-Rating-Report-Ondo-OUSG-April-2024.pdf

2. Applicant: bluechip.org

History: Bluechip was founded in Aug 2022 in the aftermath of the Luna crash. As a stablecoin rating agency, their mission is providing unbiased evaluations to make stable assets safer

They monitor 22 stablecoins and their ratings API is used by crypto products such as rwa.xyz (Analytics), Reserve (protocol to create stable assets), 3cities.xyz (Payment protocol) and Mt Pelerin (Fiat on/off-ramp).

Team

Vaidya Pallasena (primary contact) is the Ratings Director of Bluechip and formulated the SMIDGE framework for evaluating stablecoin risk. He is a Chartered Accountant and former EY auditor. He has a background of 10 years in finance (M&A, venture/private equity investing and auditing).

Garett Jones is the Chief Economist of Bluechip and a Professor of Economics at George Mason University. His scholarly research covers monetary policy, corporate finance, and institutional economics

Benjamin Levit is the CEO of Bluechip and a former professional poker player. He discovered crypto in 2016 and begun applying his risk management skills to digital currencies. Before Bluechip, Benjamin founded a successful e-commerce business and led operation, finance, and brand building

Pricing:

$70,000 fixed + $10,000 per provider per year

% of budget this contract constitutes: 15-30%

Proof of Work: USDC, PYUSD and USDM comparison - https://bluechip.org/compare?coins=pyusd,usdm,usdc

Newsletters - https://us21.campaign-archive.com/home/?u=84fe1ea8f3d34d5736ad192c1&id=3c66d12c31

Methodology - https://x.com/GarettJones/status/1740088391172333960

3. Applicant: steakhouse.financial

History

Steakhouse Financial have created some of the first widely used blockchain-based financial statements and reports dating back to early 2021. They actively report on and monitor MakerDAO’s >$2.5bn RWA portfolio and portfolio financials and ENS’s >$100mm endowment. They have built dashboards and queries in the arbitrum ecosystem for GMX, Radiant Capital, Dolomite, APX, MUX, Gains, and Vertex.

Team

Sam Paderewski, Head of Credit/RWAs

Sam joined Steakhouse in 2022 with a focus on real-world asset strategy and analysis. Sam used to be an analyst and trader at Hildene Capital, a structured credit hedge fund. He has worked for Citigroup’s CLO Structuring & Syndicate team, bringing new issue CLOs to market. He also has experience on Citigroup’s institutional Investment Grade Credit team.

Adrian Cachinero Vasiljevic, Co-founder

Adrian has a background in corporate finance, investment banking and as an entrepreneur / operator. He studied engineering at EPFL, obtained an MBA from INSEAD, and is a CFA Charterholder.

Sebastien Derivaux, Co-founder

Sébastien created the first decentralized Core Unit at MakerDAO in early 2021 focused on Real-World Asset and financial reporting. He holds a PhD in Data Science, and before his crypto life, worked in banking, insurance, and video games. Sébastien publishes research at https://cryptobanking.network/.

Mark Phillips, Co-founder

Mark began contributing to DAOs in early 2021, specializing in financial reporting and analysis. Prior to co-founding Steakhouse, Mark was a Sr Consultant at Deloitte Consulting LLP and then a Sr Finance Manager at a large publicly listed company. Mark has over a decade in finance, consulting, and operations experience and completed all three levels of the CFA exam.

Shaun Musuka, Chief Legal Officer

Shaun serves as the CLO of Steakhouse Financial. Previously he worked as an attorney at Latham & Watkins with a dual focus on capital markets and crypto. Shaun specialized in Rule 144A / Reg S offerings by issuers from the EMEA region and also advised several crypto projects on complex transactions and U.S. securities law. Shaun is a registered attorney in New York State and completed a JD from Cornell Law School

Pricing

Fixed $174,000 per year

% of budget this contract constitutes: Less than 5%

Proof of Work

Dashboard - https://dune.com/steakhouse/tokenized-securities

Tokenized t-bills - https://aqua-hollow-alpaca-520.mypinata.cloud/ipfs/QmbydxnBkHJq5EcVcDwbQcpYa99GriKRdSpT7eUBjc84Wr

4. Applicant: avantgarde.finance

History

Avantgarde is a crypto native asset management and advisory firm, with over 5 years of working with leading protocols like Uniswap, The Graph, Nexus Mutual, Paraswap, and others. DAOs leverage Avantgarde’s expertise to improve treasury sustainability, with more than $3 billion under monitoring through their native product Enzyme.

Team

Mona El Isa is Founder and CEO at Avantgarde. She also founded Enzyme, the first on-chain asset management protocol on Ethereum in 2016. Mona is a Board Member to KR1 Plc and was on the Board at Near Foundation for five years before stepping down last year. As a former star-trader at Goldman Sachs, Mona was promoted to Vice President by the age of 26 and made the “Top 30 under 30” list in Trader Magazine in 2008 and Forbes Magazine in 2011 after profitably trading the 2008 and 2011 crashes. She moved to Geneva-based macro fund Jabre Capital in 2011, before deciding in 2014 that the future of finance lay in blockchain technology.

Ainsley To (PhD, CFA) is Head of Asset Management. His background includes roles at investment consultant Stamford Associates and over a decade as Head of Multi-Asset at Credo, where he was featured in Citywire’s Wealth Manager Top 100 in 2019 for overseeing selection & monitoring of third party funds. Ainsley has also held crypto research roles at Messari and digital asset prime broker Genesis. Ainsley is a CFA charterholder, and holds a PhD in Finance from EDHEC Business School, where he published research on crypto asset pricing.

Gabriel Rocheleau leads DeFi R&D at Avantgarde. With a solid foundation in Actuarial Sciences, he excels in his roles as a smart contracts developer, a full-stack developer and an Ethereum Core Developer.

Spike Watanabe graduated from University College London with a degree in Economics. He has worked in investment and commercial banks, valuation consultancies and private equity to oversee private mergers and acquisition deals with total value in excess of 2bn USD. He was actively involved within blockchain markets since 2016, conducting research and running his own investments.

Pricing

$75,000/ year + $10,000 per service provider

% of budget this contract constitutes: Less than 10%, if affiliates are included less than 3%

Proof of Work

Arbitrum Treasury & Sustainability research https://forum.arbitrum.foundation/t/arbitrum-treasury-and-sustainability-research-risk-reduction-in-dao-treasuries/20662

Apecoin DAO Treasury & Sustainability Planning https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lZxt48D-7gBAN01qOB_DA6ECn5Tvp4yP/view

Nexus Dashboard https://app.enzyme.finance/vault/0x27f23c710dd3d878fe9393d93465fed1302f2ebd

Diva staking dashboard, rewards, deposits https://diva.enzyme.finance/