SmarterMarkets™

We kick off our new Global Upheaval in Energy Markets series this week with Helima Croft. Helima is Managing Director and the Head of Global Commodity Strategy and MENA Research at RBC Capital Markets.   David Greely sits down with Helima to discuss what could come next in the conflict in the Middle East; whether the energy system's shock absorbers have been exhausted; and how the geopolitical foundations of the energy markets may be changing in a way where there's no going back.

This week, we present SmarterMarkets Update: The State of AI. At SmarterMarkets, we've realized that AI, like life, moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. So we'll be bringing you periodic updates on the state of AI interspersed with our regular podcast series.   For our first update, our guest is Dr. Tricia Wang, Co-Founder and CEO of Advanced AI Society. David Greely sits down with Tricia to discuss how we can rebuild trust in the machine-to-machine age of AI; the role of open verification and proof of control; why the AI world should stop writing off what the crypto world built, and in particular, why the crypto ethos of ‘don't trust, verify’ is critical now for AI safety and adoption.

This week on Catching Up On Climate, we welcome Peter Zaman, Partner at HFW Singapore, back into the SmarterMarkets™ studio. David Greely sits down with Peter to catch up on how the energy supply disruptions emanating from the conflicts in the Middle East, Ukraine, and Russia are changing the geopolitics of the energy transition, and what it means for progress toward net-zero goals.

We present a special episode of SmarterMarkets™, bringing you exclusive interviews from the IETA North America Climate Summit 2026. SmarterMarkets™ returned to the IETA North America Climate Summit to catch up with market practitioners on the challenges and opportunities in the development of the carbon markets. This year’s conference focused on the “New Carbon Order: Innovation, Investment, and Interoperability.” In partnership with IETA, we caught up with a cross section of participants about what they and their organizations have been working on, where they see progress, and what we need to be doing next. Some common themes included the ongoing integration of compliance and voluntary markets, the role of AI and digital technology in carbon markets, and the need for standardization and harmonization across the growing network of country and regional emissions schemes. We’ve compiled a selection of those 7 interviews into this Special Episode of SmarterMarkets™. Our guests, in order of appearance, are: Guy Turner – Managing Director, MSCI Carbon Markets   Sandeep Roy Choudhury – Co-Founder & Director, VNV   Alex Saer – CEO, Cercarbono   Alexia Kelly – Managing Director of Carbon Policy and Markets Initiative, High Tide Foundation   Mandy Rambharos – CEO, Verra + Candace Vinke – Chief Program Development and Innovation Officer, Verra   Benoît Clément – VCM+ Fellow, Financial Infrastructure for Carbon Markets (FICM), Verified Carbon Market Collaborative (VCM+)   Thomas McMahon – Co-Founder, Abaxx Technologies

This week on Catching Up On Climate, we welcome Mandy Rambharos and Candace Vinke into the SmarterMarkets™ studio. Mandy is CEO at Verra and Candace is Chief Program Development and Innovation Officer at Verra. David Greely sat down with them at IETA’s North America Climate Summit 2026 this week in New York City to discuss Verra’s newest carbon standard, the Scope 3 Standard (S3S) Program – and what it means for carbon markets.

This week, we kick off Catching Up On Climate 2026 with Dirk Forrister, President & CEO of IETA. David Greely sits down with Dirk to discuss what he and IETA have been focused on this past year – and what he sees as some of the most important things happening in climate and carbon markets ahead of IETA's North America Climate Summit next week in New York City.

This week we celebrate our 300th episode with Robert Friedland, Executive Co-Chairman of Ivanhoe Mines and Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO of I-Pulse. David Greely sits down with Robert to discuss the world’s ever growing hunger for metals and what the mining and tech industries, governments, and markets are doing – and need to be doing – in a week when LME copper prices hit a new record high.

We close out our Summer Playlist this week with Ben Hunt, author of Epsilon Theory & President/Co-Founder of Perscient. David Greely sits down with Ben to discuss the insights in his recent Semantic Manifesto. They talk about how AI and LLMs have given us the tools and computing power to map and track the structures of the stories that we tell ourselves in markets – and to explore the invisible, but very real world of stories and semantics.

This week, we present SmarterMarkets™ Encore: Ideas Worth Repeating. We’re bringing back an older Summer Playlist episode from 2023 with Frances Haugen. Frances is an advocate for accountability and transparency in social media and the author of the memoir, The Power of One: How I Found the Strength to Tell the Truth and Why I Blew the Whistle on Facebook.    This past week, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, agreed to an $18 billion dollars settlement with several U.S. states and territories to resolve claims that Facebook and Instagram harm children. They agreed to make a number of changes to its platform and algorithms, including time limits and the ability to choose a feed that is not driven by an algorithm.    In this episode, David Greely sat down with Frances to discuss the algorithms designed to capture our and our children's attention, their flaws, and how we can incentivize change and build better social networks. We thought it was timely to give this another listen.

On this week’s installment of our Summer Playlist, we welcome Russell Robertson back into the SmarterMarkets™ studio. Russell is Chief Business Development Officer at Abaxx Exchange and Clearinghouse in Singapore.   David Greely sits down with Russell to discuss his perspective on India's evolving role in the gold and silver markets and its growing importance to the global commodities derivatives industry. They also talk about the developing new network of markets and trading corridors stretching from India to the Middle East, Hong Kong, Thailand, and Singapore – and the opportunities it creates.

We continue our Summer Playlist this week by welcoming Sunil Kashyap back into the SmarterMarkets™ studio. Sunil is Managing Director at FinMet Pte Ltd., Singapore.   David Greely sits down with Sunil to discuss the surge of new developments and new initiatives being announced in Asia's gold and silver markets including the growth in trading activity of Abaxx Exchange’s gold and silver futures markets in Singapore, the Hong Kong Exchange reviving its gold futures market in Hong Kong, and Singapore pursuing an OTC gold clearing initiative to create a Loco Singapore market.

This week on our Summer Playlist, we welcome Josh Qiao into the SmarterMarkets™ studio. Josh is CEO of Yongan International Financial SG. David Greely sits down with Josh to discuss how Yongan is providing access to China’s futures and options markets for international traders, why it chose to become a clearing member of Abaxx Exchange, and the opportunities this creates in the commodities futures markets.

Our Summer Playlist rolls on this week with Mark Lewis, Partner and Managing Director at Climate Finance Partners LLC. David Greely sits down with Mark to discuss the recently released European Commission's EU ETS review proposals and what they'll mean for the outlook for the EU ETS and other carbon markets.

This week on our Summer Playlist, we welcome Arjun Murti back into the SmarterMarkets™ studio. Arjun is Partner at Veriten and Publisher of “Super-Spiked” on Substack. David Greely sits down with Arjun to discuss the lessons learned from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, the risk of a super spike should the conflict continue, and the key themes he'll be following in the second half of 2026.

On the second installment of our Summer Playlist this week, we welcome Thomas McMahon, Joe Raia, and Russell Robertson into the SmarterMarkets™ studio. Thomas is Co-Founder of Abaxx Technologies; Joe and Russell are Chief Commercial Officer and Chief Business Development Officer at Abaxx Exchange and Clearinghouse.   David Greely sits down with them in Singapore to discuss their experiences in building new commodities futures markets from first trades to commercial adoption over the past five decades – and the opportunities they see ahead.

We kick off our Summer Playlist this week by welcoming Samantha Dart back into the SmarterMarkets™ studio. Samantha is Co-Head of Global Commodities Research at Goldman Sachs. David Greely sits down with Samantha to discuss the state of the energy markets given the ongoing conflict in Iran, the risks posed by the weather this summer and next winter, and how the increasing demand for electricity is shaping power markets, metals demand, and inflation.

This week, we close out our How to Raise Your Agent series with Matthew Cheung, CEO of ipushpull. David Greely sits down with Matthew to discuss how chat won the interface war in financial services, how AI is unlocking a trove of chat data for enterprise use, and why governance will be the key to who wins in a world of messaging and AI agents.

This week on How to Raise Your Agent, we welcome Tom Redman into the SmarterMarkets™ studio. Tom is "The Data Doc" and President of Data Quality Solutions. David Greely sits down with Tom to discuss how, in his view, AI is data, how much of our data is not fit for purpose, and how the solution begins with keeping the focus on the customer – and getting people and their AI agents to see themselves as part of a system in which they are both the data creators and customers.

We continue our How to Raise Your Agent series this week with Joyce Shen, Managing Partner at Together Expedition and AI Professor at UC Berkeley. SmarterMarkets™ host David Greely sits down with Joyce to discuss how AI is rewiring work, what we can learn from past tech transformations, and what's different this time from the perspective of a business practitioner, tech investor, and educator.

On this week’s installment of How to Raise Your Agent, we welcome Daniel Solove into the SmarterMarkets™ studio. Daniel is the Bernard Professor of Intellectual Property & Technology Law at George Washington University Law School. David Greely sits down with Daniel to discuss how AI isn't so much opening up new problems in privacy, but exposing and amplifying the old ones – and how we need to change our legal approach to privacy to solve these problems and take us out of the digital fishbowl we find ourselves in.

This week on How to Raise Your Agent, we welcome Alec Coughlin, Principal at BairesDev and host of AI with Alec, into the SmarterMarkets™ studio. David Greely sits down with Alec to discuss the challenges on the journey to integrating AI and AI agents into your business, offering practical advice for navigating that transformation.

We continue our series How to Raise Your Agent with Ryan Kurt, Founder & CEO of The AI Lab. David Greely sits down with Ryan to discuss how AI and AI agents are transforming our companies and our economy. They talk about the big questions that business leaders should be asking right now and what the companies that are successfully navigating this moment are doing differently.

This week, we present SmarterMarkets™ Encore: Ideas Worth Repeating. We’re bringing back an episode that we brought you last May with Michael DiRienzo, President & CEO at The Silver Institute.   During the conversation, David Greely and Michael discuss the outlook for silver, its role in the energy transition, and the role it can and should play in investor portfolios and in our financial system in the 21st century. Those topics are as relevant now as they were last year.   One update: last year, we discussed that at the time, silver appeared undervalued as it took 100 ounces of silver to buy 1 ounce of gold. Of course, silver prices have climbed over the past year. Now it only takes roughly 60 ounces of silver to buy 1 ounce of gold in the physically deliverable gold and silver futures markets now trading on Abaxx Exchange in Singapore.

On our second installment of How to Raise Your Agent, we welcome Michelle Finneran Dennedy back into the SmarterMarkets™ studio. Michelle is Chief Data Strategy Officer at Abaxx Technologies. David Greely sits down with Michelle to discuss what business leaders and managers will need to do to adapt to a world where their teams include both people and agents – and how they should be thinking about integrating agents into their teams, including how to raise and govern them.

This week, we kick off our new series, How to Raise Your Agent, with Ian Forester, Head of the recently launched Abaxx Labs at Abaxx Technologies.   David Greely sits down with Ian to discuss how AI agents are changing how humans interact with computers and the internet – and why Abaxx Labs introduced its Agents++™ open source library for using digital identity and verifiable credentials for the identity and authorization infrastructure needed for working with agents.

We present a Special Episode of SmarterMarkets™, bringing you exclusive interviews from the FT Commodities Global Summit 2026. SmarterMarkets™ returned to Lausanne, Switzerland for the 15th edition of the Financial Times Commodities Global Summit, where we caught up with summit participants on the important issues of the day. The theme for this year's summit was ‘finding the advantage in a fragmented world.’ The conversations were focused on the state of our supply chains and the increasing stakes of the ongoing conflict in Iran. We've compiled a selection of those interviews into this Special Episode of SmarterMarkets™. If you would like to listen to the full interviews, they are available on the SmarterMarkets™ Presents media portal. They’re also available on our second podcast channel, SmarterMarkets™ Presents. Our guests are: Leslie Hook – Natural Resources Editor, Financial Times Helima Croft – Managing Director and the Head of Global Commodity Strategy and MENA Research, RBC Capital Markets Robert Friedland – Executive Co-Chairman, Ivanhoe Mines & Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO, I-Pulse Brian Menell – CEO & Chairman, TechMet Gracelin Baskaran – Founding Director, Critical Minerals Security Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies Ruth Crowell – CEO, LBMA Alasdair Were – Head of Environmental Markets, Abaxx Exchange

This week on SmarterMarkets™,  we present a special episode Subterranean Supply Chain Blues with Robert Friedland, recorded this past week at the FT Commodities Global Summit 2026 in Lausanne, Switzerland. Robert is Executive Co-Chairman of Ivanhoe Mines and Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO of I-Pulse.   SmarterMarkets™ host David Greely sat down with Robert after his keynote at the FT Summit, where he shared his perspectives on the state of the world and the current role of metals, mining, and markets.

On this week’s installment of Weathering Decarbonization, we welcome Martin Malinow, CEO of Parameter Climate, into the SmarterMarkets™ studio. David Greely sits down with Martin to discuss his work building weather and climate risk transfer markets from the days of Enron to today. They talk about where these markets are now, where they're going, and what we need to be doing to get them there.

This week, we continue our Weathering Decarbonization series by welcoming Mike Prokop back into the SmarterMarkets™ studio. Mike is Executive Consultant at the Clean Hydrogen Buyers Alliance. David Greely sits down with Mike to discuss the challenges and the progress that's been made building U.S. Gulf Coast hydrogen and ammonia markets – and what comes next.

We present a Special Episode of SmarterMarkets™, bringing you exclusive interviews from S&P Global’s CERAWeek 2026. SmarterMarkets™ was in Houston last week for CERAWeek to partner with S&P Global. We sat down with participants at the energy industry's most influential annual conference. The theme for this year's conference was Convergence and Competition: Energy, Technology, and Geopolitics – and the implications of the conflict in Iran were on everyone's mind. We’ve compiled a selection of those interviews into this Special Episode of SmarterMarkets™. If you would like to listen to the full interviews, they are available on the SmarterMarkets™ Presents media portal. They’re also available on our second podcast channel, SmarterMarkets™ Presents. Our guests are: Arjun Murti – Partner at Veriten & Publisher of "Super-Spiked" on Substack Susan Sakmar – Visiting Professor at University of Houston Law Center & Board Member of Flex LNG Jeff Currie – Chief Strategy Officer of Energy Pathways, Carlyle Radhika Krishnan – Chief Product and Technology Officer, Quorum Software Michael Greenstone – Director, Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC) David Keith – Founding Faculty Director, Climate Systems Engineering Initiative, University of Chicago

We present a Special Episode recorded this past week at S&P Global’s CERAWeek 2026 in Houston, TX, where the theme was Convergence and Competition: Energy, Technology and Geopolitics.   David Greely sat down with Aldo Flores-Quiroga in the Podcast Studio in the Nexus Ballroom at CERAWeek. Aldo is Non Resident Fellow for Latin America Energy Studies at the Center for Energy Studies (CES) at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.   David and Aldo discuss the role of convergence and competition in the North American energy industry, as well as global geopolitics following the U.S. military actions in Venezuela and Iran.

We present a Special Episode of SmarterMarkets™, bringing you exclusive interviews from BOCA 2026 – the FIA Global Cleared Markets Conference. SmarterMarkets™ returned to the conference, where we partnered with the FIA for our third year, sitting down with who you need to meet to bring you what you need to know. We’ve compiled a selection of those 13 interviews into this Special Episode of SmarterMarkets™. If you would like to listen to the full interviews, they are available on the SmarterMarkets™ Presents media portal. They’re also available on our second podcast channel, SmarterMarkets™ Presents. Our guests in order of appearance are: Walt Lukken – President & CEO, FIA Yuval Rooz – Co-Founder & CEO, Digital Asset D Shahrawat – Crypto & Digital Assets Lead, Bloomberg Intelligence Stuart Connolly – CEO, CloudMargin Travis Schwab – CEO, Eventus Alun Green – EVP & Managing Director, Futures & Options, Trading Technologies Anthony Crudele – SVP, NinjaTrader Joe Raia – CCO, Abaxx Exchange Chris Tripp – GM International, NinjaTrader Adrienne Muir – CEO, Avenir Alan Guarino – Vice Chairman, Korn Ferry Keith Todd & Joe Schroeter – Chairman & Chief Business Transformation Officer, Sapphire Technology Group  Josh Crumb – CEO, Abaxx Technologies

We continue our Weathering Decarbonization series this week by welcoming Samantha Dart back into the SmarterMarkets™ studio. Samantha is Co-Head of Global Commodities Research at Goldman Sachs. David Greely sits down with Samantha to discuss how our changing energy system is weathering the conflict in Iran at the same time as its weathering decarbonization.

This week on SmarterMarkets™, we present a Special Episode Iranian Conflict: Geopolitics and Energy Markets with Helima Croft, Managing Director & Global Head of Commodity Strategy at RBC Capital Markets.   David Greely sat down with Helima yesterday to talk about the current state of play in the conflict between Iran, Israel, and the United States. They discuss its implications for global geopolitics and energy markets – and the inflection points to watch to determine how the situation may unfold.

We continue our Weathering Decarbonization series this week by welcoming Peter Fusaro back into the SmarterMarkets™ studio. Peter is Founder of the Wall Street Green Summit. David Greely sits down with Peter to discuss the state of the conversation around decarbonization and sustainability at the intersection of finance and climate technology as we head into the 25th annual Wall Street Green Summit being held at the Cornell Club in New York City on March 10 and 11.

This week on Weathering Decarbonization, we welcome Hayn Park, Portfolio Manager for Energy Commodities, into the SmarterMarkets™ studio.   David Greely sits down with Hayn to discuss how the energy transition is affecting power markets from fundamentals to their price dynamics and relationships to other markets – and what it takes to trade and manage risk in a more volatile and changing environment for power markets.

On our second installment of Weathering Decarbonization, we welcome Mark Lewis back into the SmarterMarkets™ studio. Mark is Partner and Managing Director at Climate Finance Partners LLC.   David Greely sat down with Mark to discuss where the rubber is hitting the road in the EU-ETS, the impact on market participants and pricing dynamics, and what the future may hold as we move into compliance markets 2.0. Mark re-joined us Friday night to add his key takeaways from a turbulent week in the EU-ETS to this episode, which you can also read on his blog at climatemarketnow.com.

This week, we kick off our new series Weathering Decarbonization with Robin Girmes, Founder & CEO of Enwex. David Greely sits down with Robin to discuss his work at Enwex to better measure and help companies manage the growing weather-related risks to our power supply and energy prices.

We wrap up Setting Course 2026 this week with part two of our conversation with Robert Friedland and Jeff Currie. Robert is Executive Co-Chairman of Ivanhoe Mines and Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO of I-Pulse. Jeff Currie is Chief Strategy Officer of Energy Pathways at Carlyle.   David Greely sits down with Robert and Jeff to discuss what's happening at Davos, what the revenge of the miners and the real economy means for copper and other commodity prices, and the other big themes that Jeff is seeing for 2026 and beyond.   We'll pick up with last week's conversation as Jeff discusses how the need to build out infrastructure for AI data centers is leading traditionally asset-light big tech companies to become asset-heavy.

This week on Setting Course 2026, we bring you part one of a two-part conversation with Robert Friedland and Jeff Currie. Robert is Executive Co-Chairman of Ivanhoe Mines and  Co-Founder, Chairman, and CEO of I-Pulse. Jeff Currie is Chief Strategy Officer of Energy Pathways at Carlyle. David Greely sits down with Robert and Jeff to discuss what's happening at Davos, what the revenge of the miners and the real economy means for copper and other commodity prices, and the other big themes that Jeff is seeing for 2026 and beyond.

We continue our Setting Course series this week by welcoming Arjun Murti back into the SmarterMarkets™ studio. Arjun is Partner at Veriten and Publisher of "Super-Spiked" on Substack. David Greely sits down with Arjun to discuss the big themes he sees in energy for 2026, including the electrical power super cycle.

This week, we kick off our new series Setting Course 2026 by welcoming Former Senior CIA Official Rob Dannenberg back into the SmarterMarkets™ studio. David Greely sits down with Rob to discuss the inflection point being created by the Russian war in Ukraine, the capture by the United States of Venezuelan President Maduro, and the potential implications of this widening of the range of acceptable behavior by great powers as we move into 2026.

We begin the new year on SmarterMarkets™ with Part Two of our Holiday Special 2025: The Year in Review.   This week, we’re continuing to revisit the conversations with our guests that helped us understand and articulate the themes that would come to define 2025.    It was the year in which we discovered that this was not the energy transition that we were expecting; and the year in which a new geopolitical reality emerged and old geopolitical concerns resurfaced. It was the year featuring a tale of two carbon markets and the need for new weather markets to manage the risks posed by reliance on renewable power. And 2025 was the year in which there was both a new gold rush and a rush into tokenization.   We hope you’ll sit back, relax, and enjoy Part Two of our Holiday Special 2025: The Year in Review.   Our guests in order of appearance:   Josh Crumb – Founder & CEO, Abaxx Technologies SM229 – 5.3.2025 – Gold for the 21st Century   Steve Lowe – Strategic Advisor for Precious Metals, Abaxx and Former Managing Director, Co-Head of Global Base and Precious Metals, Scotiabank  SM231 – 5.17.2025 – Gold for the 21st Century   Sunil Kashyap – Managing Director at FinMet Pte Ltd., Singapore SM224 – 3.29.2025 – Gold for the 21st Century   Wade Brennan – CEO & Co-Founder, Kilo Capital SM225 – 4.5.2025 – Gold for the 21st Century   Thom McMahon – Co-Founder, Abaxx Technologies SM235 – 6.14.2025 – Gold for the 21st Century   Albert Cheng – CEO, Singapore Bullion Market Association (SBMA) SM240 – 7.19.2025 – Summer Playlist 2025   Ian Forester – Head of Product, Abaxx Technologies SM254 – 10.25.2025 – Re-engineering Tokenization   Riley Hughes – Co-Founder & CEO, Trinsic SM258 – 11.22.2025 – Re-engineering Tokenization   Carrie Jaquith – Global Head of Digital Product, Abaxx Technologies SM257 – 11.15.2025 – Re-engineering Tokenization   Leah Wald – Digital Title Lead, Abaxx Technologies SM261 – 12.13.2025 – Re-engineering Tokenization   Walt Lukken – President & CEO, FIA SM262 – 12.20.2025 – Re-engineering Tokenization   Josh Crumb – Founder & CEO, Abaxx Technologies SM253 – 10.18.2025 – Re-engineering Tokenization

We close out the year on SmarterMarkets™ with Part One of our Holiday Special 2025: The Year in Review.   2025 has been a big year full of big months here at Abaxx and at SmarterMarkets™, and we’re closing out 2025 by revisiting the conversations with our guests that helped us understand and articulate the themes that would come to define the year.    2025 was the year in which we discovered that this was not the energy transition that we were expecting; and the year in which a new geopolitical reality emerged and old geopolitical concerns resurfaced. It was the year featuring a tale of two carbon markets and the need for new weather markets to manage the risks posed by reliance on renewable power. And 2025 was the year in which there was both a new gold rush and a rush into tokenization.   We hope you’ll sit back, relax, and enjoy Part One of our Holiday Special 2025: The Year in Review.   Our guests in order of appearance:   Andy Home – Senior Metals Columnist, Thomson Reuters SM213 – 1.18.2025 – The State of Play in Battery Metals   Andrea Hotter – Special Correspondent, Fastmarkets SM214 – 1.25.2025 – The State of Play in Battery Metals   Peter Zaman – Partner, HFW Singapore SM218 – 2.22.2025 – Carbon Frontiers 2025   Nobuo Tanaka – Executive Director Emeritus, International Energy Agency (IEA) SM246 – 8.30.2025 – Summer Playlist 2025   Helima Croft – Managing Director & Global Head of Commodity Strategy, RBC Capital Markets SM245 – 8.23.2025 – Summer Playlist 2025   Dave Ernsberger & Mark Eramo – Co-Presidents, S&P Global Commodity Insights SM251 – 10.4.2025 – Catching Up On Climate   Rene Velasquez – Managing Partner, Valitera SM219 – 3.1.2025 – Carbon Frontiers 2025   Mark Lewis – Partner & Managing Director, Climate Finance Partners LLC and Former Head of Research, Andurand Capital SM216 – 2.8.2025 – Carbon Frontiers 2025   Hannah Hauman – Global Head of Carbon Trading, Trafigura SM250 – 9.27.2025 – Catching Up On Climate   Theresa Kammel & Pierre Buisson – Originator & Senior Structurer, Weather & Agro Zurich, Munich Re SM241 – 7.26.2025 – Summer Playlist 2025

We close out our Re-engineering Tokenization series this week with Walt Lukken, President & CEO of the FIA and Former Acting Chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. David Greely sits down with Walt to discuss the state of the conversation on tokenization in the cleared derivatives industry – and what the next steps are towards bringing tokenized assets into the mainstream.

This week on Re-engineering Tokenization, we welcome Leah Wald, Digital Title Lead at Abaxx Technologies, into the SmarterMarkets™ studio. David Greely sits down with Leah to discuss her experiences and insights from a career working at the intersection of DeFi and traditional finance – and how she's working with Abaxx to re-engineer tokenization through the introduction of Abaxx Private Digital Title.

Re-engineering Tokenization continues this week with Christopher Jensen, Portfolio Manager & Director of Digital Asset Research at Franklin Templeton. SmarterMarkets™ host David Greely sits down with Christopher to discuss his experience tokenizing money market shares with their BENJI token – and the challenges and opportunities that he sees for both the builders and the investors in tokenization for real-world and digitally native assets.

This holiday weekend on our Re-engineering Tokenization series, we welcome Julian Kwan, CEO at IXS and InvestaX, into the SmarterMarkets™ studio. David Greely sits down with Julian to discuss his experience in tokenizing real-world assets, finding the business models that work, how the space has evolved, and how after eight years, it's only getting started.

We continue our Re-engineering Tokenization series this week with Riley Hughes, Co-Founder & CEO at Trinsic. David Greely sits down with Riley to discuss how digital IDs are being used today; the need for a visa-like network for identity in order to move digital IDs more into the mainstream; and the opportunities that a wallet full of digital IDs and attestations will create for a future of more secure, private, and trusted digital interactions.

Re-engineering Tokenization continues this week with Carrie Jaquith, Global Head of Digital Product at Abaxx Technologies. David Greely sits down with Carrie to discuss what makes new technology adoptable by large institutions, the importance of it being interoperable and auditable, and why we should be thinking of augmenting existing PDF-based processes rather than replacing them as we re-engineer tokenization.

This week on Re-engineering Tokenization, we welcome Peter Zaman, Partner at HFW Singapore, back into the SmarterMarkets™ studio. David Greely sits down with Peter to discuss the tokenization and fractionalization of commodities and real-world assets – and the law and customs that facilitate commodity trading by allowing for the transfer of ownership without the transfer of possession.

We continue our Re-engineering Tokenization series this week by welcoming Phil Zimmermann, Creator of Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), into the SmarterMarkets™ studio. David Greely sits down with Phil to discuss his work in cryptography and its role in establishing trust and preserving privacy online. Phil shares his thoughts on what we need to be doing to make sure our technology is helping – not hindering – us in building the type of society we want to live in.

This week on Re-engineering Tokenization, we continue our conversation with Ian Forester, Head of Product at Abaxx Technologies. David Greely sits down with Ian to pick up where we left off last week, digging in deeper on the use of cryptographically secured identity and signatures to take the next step from digitization to tokenization. David and Ian discuss Abaxx’s approach to the four pillars supporting trusted commercial transactions: secure identity, intent, assets, and data.

This week, we kick off our new series Re-engineering Tokenization with Josh Crumb and Ian Forester, CEO and Head of Product at Abaxx Technologies. SmarterMarkets™ host David Greely sits down with Josh and Ian to discuss asset tokenization and Abaxx Technologies’ approach to it – focusing on secure digital identity, privacy, and legal finality as the foundations for institutional grade commercial transactions.

We present a special episode of SmarterMarkets™, bringing you exclusive interviews from the IETA North America Climate Summit 2025. SmarterMarkets™ returned to the IETA North America Climate Summit to explore the challenges and opportunities defining the next phase of carbon market development. This year’s conference examined emerging carbon pricing systems worldwide and the “how” and “when” of driving long-term growth — from the growing role of nature- and technology-based removals to the outcomes of the voluntary market’s focus on integrity and how businesses account for carbon. In partnership with IETA, we spoke with a cross section of delegates about where they see progress, what challenges remain, and the developments they’re watching most closely as markets evolve. We’ve compiled a selection of those 10 interviews into this Special Episode of SmarterMarkets™. The full interviews for each guest are available on the SmarterMarkets™ Presents media portal. Our guests in order of appearance are: Daniel Klier, CEO, South Pole Margaret Kim, CEO, Gold Standard Mandy Rambharos, CEO, Verra Lisa DeMarco, CEO & Senior Partner, Resilient LLP Juan Duran, CEO, EcoRegistry Guy Turner, Managing Director of Carbon Markets, MSCI Ed Morse, Senior Advisor, Hartree Partners Sandeep Roy Choudhury, Co-Founder & Director, VNV Stephen Mackenzie, Managing Director, EduVOD Africa + Irungu Waggema, Business Development Sector Leader – Agriculture, Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) Steve Zwick, Host, Bionic Planet & Co-Author of The Carbon Paradox + Renat Heuberger, CEO, Terra Impact Ventures & Co-Author of The Carbon Paradox

We close out our Catching Up On Climate series this week with Dave Ernsberger & Mark Eramo, Co-Presidents of S&P Global Commodity Insights and Members of S&P Global’s Executive Leadership Team. David Greely sits down with Dave and Mark to catch up on the state of U.S. policy and the global discussion on energy, climate, and sustainability after New York City Climate Week – and where we’re heading next.

This week on Catching Up On Climate, we’re celebrating our 250th episode of SmarterMarkets™ with Hannah Hauman, Global Head of Carbon Trading at Trafigura. David Greely sat down with Hannah at the IETA North America Climate Summit in New York this week to catch up on how Article 6 and CORSIA are reshaping the global carbon markets. They discuss how countries are now framing their environmental goals, setting their climate ambitions, and building new compliance carbon emissions markets in a multipolar world.

On our third installment of Catching Up On Climate, we welcome Dirk Forrister, President & CEO of IETA, back into the SmarterMarkets™ studio. David Greely sits down with Dirk to discuss what he and IETA have been focused on this past year – and what he sees as some of the most important things happening in climate and the carbon markets ahead of IETA's North America Climate Summit 2025.

We continue Catching Up On Climate this week by welcoming Alexia Kelly back into the SmarterMarkets™ studio. Alexia is Managing Director of Carbon Policy and Markets Initiative at High Tide Foundation. David Greely sits down with Alexia to discuss what's been happening beneath the quiet surface of the voluntary carbon markets in order to get them ready for prime time and unlock the institutional capital these markets need.

This week, we kick off our new series, Catching Up On Climate, where we'll be discussing the state of the climate, the energy transition, and carbon markets going into Climate Week New York City 2025.   We begin our new series by welcoming David Shukman back into the SmarterMarkets™ studio. Shukman is a journalist and former Science Editor at the BBC. SmarterMarkets™ host David Greely sits down with Shukman to catch up on how our experience of climate change is becoming more local and immediate, how governments and corporations are responding, and how the stories we tell – and the way we tell them – must adapt to help us confront this changing reality.

We close out our Summer Playlist this week by welcoming Nobuo Tanaka, Executive Director Emeritus at the International Energy Agency, into the SmarterMarkets™ studio. David Greely sits down with Nobuo Tanaka to discuss how the energy trilemma of balancing energy security, affordability, and environmental sustainability is shaping the energy and geopolitical landscape facing Japan and Korea – and what it means for the future of LNG and nuclear power.

We continue our Summer Playlist this week by welcoming Helima Croft back into the SmarterMarkets™ studio. Helima is Managing Director & Global Head of Commodity Strategy at RBC Capital Markets. David Greely sits down with Helima to discuss the state of the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, how and why the Trump administration may be turning to tariffs and trade deals to reduce Russian energy exports, and the consequences for energy markets and prices going forward.

On this week’s installment of Summer Playlist 2025, we welcome DJ Watkins and Chanel Host, Founder and Director of the Aspen Design Conference, into the SmarterMarkets™ studio. David Greely sits down with DJ and Chanel to discuss their relaunch and reimagining of the historic International Design Conference in Aspen. Together, they explore how design thinking transforms ideas into innovations that build businesses and change our lives – and how design thinking  can be applied to help solve our biggest challenges.

This week on Summer Playlist 2025, we welcome Yassir Benjelloun-Touimi, Co-Founder & CEO of ARTEX Global Markets, into the SmarterMarkets™ studio. David Greely sits down with Yassir to discuss how ARTEX is building the market infrastructure to broaden access to trading and investing in museum quality fine art – as well as the challenges and opportunities in creating a new asset class.

We continue our Summer Playlist this week by welcoming Catherine Flax back into the SmarterMarkets™ studio. Catherine is CEO at Zefiro Methane Corp. David Greely sits down with Catherine to catch up on her work at Zefiro addressing the global methane emissions problem by cleaning up and plugging end-of-life oil and natural gas wells. David and Catherine also discuss how she's been navigating the reduction in carbon finance through the voluntary carbon markets and the volatile policy landscape in the United States to better understand what it takes to run a company in a challenging environment.

Our Summer Playlist rolls on this week with Theresa Kammel and Pierre Buisson, Originator and Senior Structurer of Weather & Agro Zurich at Munich Re. David Greely sits down with them to discuss the role of weather derivatives in managing weather-related risks — and how the market for these derivatives is growing and becoming more sophisticated with the energy transition to renewables like wind and solar.

We continue our Summer Playlist this week with Albert Cheng, CEO of the Singapore Bullion Market Association (SBMA). SmarterMarkets™ host David Greely sits down with Albert to discuss the SBMA's vision for Singapore to become a leading global center for the trading of gold and other precious metals – and the SBMA's roadmap to making that vision a reality.

On our third installment of Summer Playlist 2025, we welcome Jeff Currie back into the SmarterMarkets™ studio. Jeff is Chief Strategy Officer of Energy Pathways at Carlyle. David Greely sits down with Jeff to discuss the implications of the breakdown of the world order that has defined the post-World War II era – implications Jeff lays out in his new paper, The New Martial Plan, the sequel to The New Joule Order. Together, they discuss how the quest for security is becoming the paramount force reshaping geopolitics, energy, and investment.

This week on Summer Playlist 2025, we welcome Michael Greenstone into the SmarterMarkets™ studio. Michael is Director of the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC), Founding Director of the University’s Institute for Climate and Sustainable Growth, and Milton Friedman Distinguished Service Professor in Economics.   David Greely sits down with Michael to discuss how EPIC is translating the insights of cutting edge energy and environmental research into real world impact, including building cap-and-trade particulate emissions markets in India.

We kick off our Summer Playlist 2025 this week with Michelle Finneran Dennedy, Chief Data Strategy Officer at Abaxx Technologies. David Greely sits down with Michelle to discuss why CEOs and organizational leaders are shifting how they view data from seeing it as a risky liability to potentially seeing it as their greatest asset – and what that means for the ways we measure and manage our businesses.

We close out Gold for the 21st Century this week with a special roundtable episode with Dan McElduff (President, Abaxx Exchange), Siddiq Farid (Managing Director, Abaxx Spot), and David Gornall and Steve Lowe (Strategic Advisors for Precious Metals, Abaxx).  David Greely sits down with them to discuss their experience and insights at the 2025 Asia Pacific Precious Metals Conference in Singapore this past week, following the introduction of Abaxx’s integrated gold infrastructure – including physically-deliverable Gold Kilobar Singapore Futures on Abaxx Exchange and the launch of a new provider of spot market services, Abaxx Spot, enabling secure transfers of physically-allocated gold in Singapore through a central pool structure. Together, they mark the first instance of co-located spot and futures infrastructure for gold, aiming to reduce fragmentation in global gold markets by aligning futures and spot markets with how gold is actually traded, stored, and settled.

We continue Gold for the 21st Century this week with Thomas McMahon, Co-Founder of Abaxx Technologies. David Greely sits down with Thomas to discuss how the role that gold may play in our financial system in the near future is not that different from the one gold and silver played in the not-so-distant past. They also explore precious metals' market evolution in the latter half of the 20th century and its implications for the role of gold in the 21st century.

This week on Gold for the 21st Century, we welcome Greg Sharenow back into the SmarterMarkets™ studio. Greg is Managing Director & Portfolio Manager for Commodities and Real Assets at PIMCO. David Greely sits down with Greg to discuss how policy uncertainty and inflation are shaping the investing landscape and the role that commodities and real assets – including gold – are playing in helping investors grow and protect their wealth.

We continue Gold for the 21st Century this week with Sakhila Mirza, President of Responsible Gold. David Greely sits down with Sakhila to discuss the role of standards, data, and technology in building an ecosystem of trust for responsible and sustainable gold.

It’s a holiday weekend in the United States, and we thought it would be a good time to revisit some of the big ideas that our guests shared with us over the past year.   Meeting the new commercial realities created by the globalization of the natural gas market, the energy transition to a lower carbon economy, and the rise of artificial intelligence requires new and smarter markets in which participants are empowered with new financial technology.   And building those smarter markets will require big ideas. We hope you enjoy revisiting these moments and ideas with us.   Our guests featured on this episode are:    -Robert Friedland, Founder & Executive Chairman, Ivanhoe Mines -Brad Hitch, Director of LNG Trading, EQT Corporation -Samantha Dart, Head of Natural Gas Research, Goldman Sachs -Susan Sakmar, Visiting Professor, Univ. of Houston & Board Member, Flex LNG -Mark Lewis, Head of Research, Andurand Capital -Hannah Hauman, Global Head of Carbon Trading, Trafigura -Andy Home, Senior Metals Columnist, Thomson Reuters -Andrea Hotter, Special Correspondent, Fastmarkets -Ben Hunt, Author of Epsilon Theory & Co-Founder/CIO, Second Foundation Partners -Michelle Finneran Dennedy, Chief Data Strategy Officer, Abaxx Technologies -Dr. David Bray, Distinguished Chair of the Accelerator & CEO/Principal, Stimson Center & LDA Ventures, Inc. -Josh Crumb, Founder & CEO, Abaxx Technologies

On this week’s installment of Gold for the 21st Century, we welcome Steve Lowe into the SmarterMarkets™ studio. Steve is Former Managing Director, Co-Head of Global Base and Precious Metals at Scotiabank. David Greely sits down with Steve to talk about his experience and insights into the gold markets from his time leading the iconic Scotia metals business. They also discuss what market infrastructure and technology the gold market needs now – and what could be the opportunity for the next iconic gold business of the 21st century.

This week on Gold for the 21st Century, we welcome Michael DiRienzo, President & CEO at The Silver Institute, into the SmarterMarkets™ studio. David Greely sits down with Michael to discuss the outlook for silver, its role in the energy transition, and the role it can and should play in investor portfolios and our financial system in the 21st century.

We continue Gold for the 21st Century this week with Josh Crumb, Founder & CEO of Abaxx Technologies. SmarterMarkets™ host David Greely sits down with Josh to discuss how gold has shaped Josh’s vision and mission to build smarter markets throughout his career. They also talk about how the gold market is where the many dimensions of Abaxx come together as it launches a physically deliverable kilobar gold futures contract in Singapore through Abaxx Exchange, a gold pool through Abaxx Spot, and deploys the new financial technology that will pave the way to full digital title.

This week on Gold for the 21st Century, we welcome Gregor Gregerson, Founder of Silver Bullion Group, into the SmarterMarkets™ studio. David Greely sits down with Gregor to discuss the role of gold and precious metals in protecting wealth, the physical infrastructure and technology required, and why creating and maintaining trust remains the foundation of a functional financial system.

We continue Gold for the 21st Century this week with Don Casturo, Founding Partner and Chief Investment Officer at Quantix Commodities. David Greely sits down with Don to discuss the role of gold in protecting investors' portfolios, the drivers of recent gold market performance, and how de-dollarization is changing the way gold trades relative to other assets.

We present a Special Episode of SmarterMarkets™, bringing you exclusive interviews from the FT Commodities Global Summit 2025. SmarterMarkets™ returned to the annual Financial Times Commodities Global Summit in Lausanne, Switzerland this March, where commodity traders get together to talk about the markets and how they’re navigating them. In retrospect, this year was the calm before the storm of the wide-ranging U.S. tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump. We partnered with the FT to once again interview commodities markets participants to ask them about the big developments being discussed at the conference this year. We also discussed the ways that markets and market infrastructure need to change to keep pace with the changing commodities trading landscape and what tools and technologies they need most. We've compiled a selection of those interviews into this Special Episode of SmarterMarkets™ with an introduction by Leslie Hook, Natural Resources Editor for the Financial Times. If you would like to listen to the full interviews, they are available on the SmarterMarkets™ Presents media portal. Our guests in order of appearance in this episode are: Leslie Hook – Natural Resources Editor, FT Helima Croft – Managing Director and Global Head of Commodity Strategy, RBC Capital Markets Mark Kristoff – CEO, Traxys Fernanda Ávila – Congresswoman & Former Secretary of Mining, Ministry of Economy, Argentina JP Aubin – Co-CEO, BGC Group Sacha Lifschitz – Head of Battery Materials, Abaxx Exchange

This week on Gold for the 21st Century, we welcome Wade Brennan, CEO & Co-Founder of Kilo Capital, into the SmarterMarkets™ studio. David Greely sits down with Wade to discuss the effects of the recent tariff-related price volatility and pricing dislocations on the users of gold, as well as the role of bullion banking in the gold market of the 21st century.

We continue Gold for the 21st Century this week with Sunil Kashyap, Managing Director at FinMet Pte Ltd., Singapore. David Greely sits down with Sunil to discuss the role of gold in Asia, what the West can learn from it, and what new market infrastructure and technology can lead to smarter gold markets in Asia for the 21st century.

We present a special mid-week episode of SmarterMarkets™, bringing you exclusive interviews from FIA’s BOCA50 – the International Futures Industry Conference. SmarterMarkets™ returned to FIA Boca to be a part of BOCA50, the 50th anniversary of the International Futures Industry Conference. We partnered with the FIA to interview a wide-range of futures industry participants. We asked them how long they’ve been coming to Boca, how the conference has evolved, and what keeps them coming back. We also asked them to share with us the big topics and issues they were at Boca this year to discuss with others and what new derivatives products and financial technology they were most excited about.  We’ve compiled a selection of those 9 interviews into this Special Episode of SmarterMarkets™. If you would like to listen to the full interviews, they are available on the SmarterMarkets™ Presents media portal. Our guests in order of appearance in this episode are: Walt Lukken, President & CEO, FIA Alun Green, EVP, Managing Director, Futures & Options, Trading Technologies Stuart Connolly, CEO, CloudMargin Thomas Texier, Head of Clearing, Marex Travis Schwab, CEO, Eventus Ryan Moroney, CEO, CQG Anthony Crudele, SVP, NinjaTrader Alan Guarino, Vice Chairman, Korn Ferry Joe Raia, Chief Commercial Officer, Abaxx Exchange & Clearinghouse

This week, we kick off our new series Gold for the 21st Century with David Gornall. Gornall is Strategic Advisor for Precious Metals at Abaxx Exchange, Former Global Head of Precious Metals Trading at Natixis, and Former Chairman of the LBMA. SmarterMarkets™ host David Greely sits down with Gornall to discuss where gold market infrastructure is not keeping pace with the evolving use of gold, what it means for regional price discovery and trading, and what market infrastructure and regulatory changes are needed to allow gold to take its seat at the financial table and meet the demand for gold in the 21st century.

We wrap up Carbon Frontiers 2025 this week with Belinda Ellington, Principal at Ellington Resolution, Senior Advisor at IETA, and Former MD, Global Head of Commodities Legal at Citi. David Greely sits down with Belinda to discuss the challenges that banks face in carbon markets and sustainable finance – and why establishing the legal nature of verified carbon credits is a critical step to getting carbon finance flowing

This week on Carbon Frontiers 2025, we welcome back Peter Fusaro, Founder of the Wall Street Green Summit. David Greely sits down with Peter to discuss where we are in carbon markets and the energy transition – and the other big issues on the agenda as we head into the 24th annual Wall Street Green Summit in New York City on March 18-19.

We continue Carbon Frontiers 2025 this week with Rene Velasquez, Managing Partner at Valitera. David Greely sits down with Rene to discuss the ‘tale of two cities’ state of the carbon markets – and the challenges and opportunities in getting carbon finance flowing.

This week on Carbon Frontiers 2025, we welcome back Peter Zaman, Partner at HFW Singapore. David Greely sits down with Peter to discuss the impact of the US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement and how the rest of the world's response, whether ideological or pragmatic, will determine the path forward. They also talk about the need for a greater focus on adaptation and managing climate risk in a world where climate action is going to be slower and take longer to make meaningful change.

On our second installment of Carbon Frontiers 2025, we welcome Alasdair Were, Head of Environmental Markets at Abaxx Exchange, back into the SmarterMarkets™ studio. David Greely sits down with Alasdair to discuss how recent dramatic policy changes and hard economic realities are influencing both corporate and government approaches to the energy transition, what it means for the carbon and environmental markets, and some of the potential paths forward.

We kick off Carbon Frontiers 2025 this week with Mark Lewis, Head of Research at Andurand Capital. David Greely sits down with Mark to discuss the leading role that the EU ETS may play in moving carbon markets forward as it’s forced to balance carbon emissions reductions with keeping its industry competitive in a world where the U.S. is no longer in the Paris Agreement.

We close out The State of Play in Battery Metals this week with Brian Menell, Chairman & CEO at TechMet. David Greely sits down with Brian to discuss how short-term oversupply is distracting us from making the investments needed to meet the growing medium-term demand for battery metals and critical minerals – and why governments and sovereign wealth funds may need to take the lead on financing the investment that is needed.

We continue The State of Play in Battery Metals this week with Andrea Hotter, Special Correspondent at Fastmarkets. SmarterMarkets™ host David Greely sits down with Andrea to discuss the flurry of executive orders signed by President Trump as he returned to the White House this week – and what they may mean for the battery metals markets.

On our second installment of The State of Play in Battery Metals, we welcome back Andy Home, Senior Metals Columnist at Thomson Reuters. David Greely sits down with Andy to discuss the ways the energy transition hasn't gone the way people thought it would in battery metals; where we stand after a brutal year in the battery metals business; and the need to manage risk that's driving new exchanges and resurging trading volumes.

This week, we kick off our new series The State of Play in Battery Metals with Dan McElduff, President at Abaxx Exchange. David Greely sits down with Dan to discuss the evolving commercial needs of the battery metals markets – and how Abaxx is applying the approach Dan learned at the NYMEX to design and launch physically deliverable futures contracts for nickel sulfate and lithium carbonate.

We begin the new year with part two of our two-part Holiday Special. SmarterMarkets™ host David Greely is joined again this week by Josh Crumb, Founder & CEO of Abaxx Technologies, along with colleagues Sacha Lifschitz, David Gornall, and Steve Lowe from the Abaxx Exchange Metals Team.   In part two of our Holiday Special, they continue their discussion on metals markets – battery metals and gold – and how better market infrastructure and financial technology can be brought to bear to make these markets fit for purpose for the commercial needs of today and into the future.

We close out the year with part one of our two-part Holiday Special. SmarterMarkets™ host David Greely is joined by Josh Crumb, Founder & CEO of Abaxx Technologies, along with colleagues Sacha Lifschitz, David Gornall, and Steve Lowe from the Abaxx Exchange Metals Team.   In part one this week, they begin their discussion on metals markets – battery metals and gold – and how better market infrastructure and financial technology can be brought to bear to make these markets fit for purpose for the commercial needs of today and into the future.

We close out our Inside the Coffeehouse series this week with Steve Zwick and Renat Heuberger. Steve is Host & Producer of Bionic Planet, and Renat is CEO & Co-Founder of Terra Impact Ventures. David Greely sits down with Steve and Renat to discuss the paradoxes of the carbon markets – and what we can be doing better to bridge the gap between the complex realities and simple messages to move the conversation forward and support meaningful climate action.

We continue our Inside the Coffeehouse series this week with Dr. David Bray, Distinguished Chair of the Accelerator & CEO/Principal at the Stimson Center & LDA Ventures, Inc. David Greely sits down with Dr. Bray to discuss how technology is shaping how we relate to each other today – and how we can learn from the lessons of the past to put our technology to work to empower individuals, rebuild trust, and promote a freer and more peaceful society.