SmarterMarkets™

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.