Kevin Beardsley

"It's always been a misperception in our industry that these large banks are going to come in and take over. What we're seeing and will continue to see is our native companies going out and taking territory from them." @kbeards on @_TalkingTokens

Today's @_TalkingTokens is an exclusive first interview with @jito_sol's new head of institutional growth @KevinBeardsley breaks down what institutions actually care about, the value behind liquid staking tokens and where he sees the TradFi x DeFi lines blurring. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 – Intro 01:13 – Kevin's career path to Jito 02:20 – What Jito does and what institutional growth looks like on Solana 04:02 – How institutions are moving beyond price exposure to using blockchain technology 04:29 – Why the fireworks moment never came for institutional adoption 05:12 – DeFi exploits, perception damage, and why hesitancy is understandable 06:40 – The blurring line between crypto-native and traditional institutions 07:57 – Why crypto companies will take territory from banks, not the other way around 10:20 – Liquid staking tokens: what they solve and how to explain them in a boardroom 13:06 – The branding problem: meme coins, perception, and why it still matters 16:18 – What Kevin wants the next phase of Jito to look like 19:32 – AI-enabled wallets and agents transacting onchain 20:58 – Final advice: work with people who care deeply about what they're building Full episode below

@goitbykojiro Thank you!

@kbeards congrats Kevin, it's been a pleasure to work with you all these years. wishing you the best at Jito!

I am thrilled to join the Jito Foundation! Jito is already core infrastructure for Solana, and the team is exceptional, mission driven, and tackling some of the hardest problems in the ecosystem. I am looking forward to helping grow institutional adoption of Jito’s products and Solana more broadly.

@Grantblocmates @jito_sol Thank you!

@jito_sol @kbeards Congrats @kbeards 👏

We’re excited to welcome @kbeards as Head of Institutional Growth at the Jito Foundation! Kevin brings 10+ years of experience across Kraken, B2C2, Elwood, and Ctrl, spanning product, partnerships, and M&A. He’ll lead our efforts to expand institutional adoption across JitoSOL, BAM, and exchange-traded products. As institutional interest in Solana accelerates, we’re doubling down on building the infrastructure and relationships that matter by working with partners like Anchorage, FalconX, and Hex Trust to make Jito the preferred source of SOL yield. We believe the next phase of growth comes from bridging high-performance blockchain infrastructure with sophisticated capital. Kevin joins at a pivotal moment to help us do exactly that.

@Coinsmash_ thank you!

@kbeards Congrats Kevin!

@0xHaley_ @jito_sol Thank you for the kind response Haley! We already have partnerships live with Anchorage, FalconX, Hex Trust and others, with more in progress.

@jito_sol @kbeards Big hire. Institutional growth usually lives or dies on compliance and custody partnerships, not just demand. What’s Jito’s first beachhead vertical and timeline to turn interest into signed volume?

Thank you so much @jacqmelinek and @_TalkingTokens for having me on this week. I really enjoyed the conversation!

I’m glad to share that the future of Ctrl Wallet and the $CTRL token is secure. We’ve signed a long-term services agreement with a major fintech institution. This will allow Ctrl Wallet to continue growing in the years ahead and unlock new revenue streams. > Ctrl Wallet remains independant > Our team stays in place, focused entirely on the wallet > The $CTRL token stays live, with token economics unchanged For our community, this is an important win; It means we can shift our full focus back to what matters most: the products. Over the past five years, we’ve built Ctrl Wallet into one of the most trusted wallets in the space: > Support for more chains than any other wallet > Best-in-class UX with top ratings > Billions in assets safeguarded for hundreds of thousands of users With this new chapter, we’re focused on unlocking the next phase of growth, with a clear plan to revalue $CTRL around the new revenue streams we’re building. Thanks to everyone in the community for your patience and support throughout this process. More soon.

mining @tari on mainnet. a huge congratulations to the team! Tari Universe is by far the slickest mining UX i have ever used.

Wallets tier list : S - @phantom, @Ctrl_Wallet, @solflare_wallet A - @rainbowdotme, @0xFrame, @Rabby_io, @1inchWallet, @zerion B - @CoinbaseWallet, @argentHQ, @wallet, @myBraavos, @tonkeeper C - @TrustWallet, @wallet_tg, @spell_club D - @MetaMask Which wallet did I miss?

My new fav wallet

.@echodotxyz is the best new product i have tried in a long time. super slick interface, incentives are really well thought out and executed. been using it a lot and having fun with it. also the TG chats are great.

After nearly 5 years of building @ctrl_wallet, we’ve made the decision to explore opportunities for the company through an acquisition. As a founder, this has been one of the toughest choices I've ever had to make. Last year, we rebranded to Ctrl Wallet and launched a new extension along with mobile apps for iOS and Android, which have received incredible feedback. Today, Ctrl Wallet is the highest-rated multi-chain wallet in the Chrome Store. We’ve grown to over 650k users and support more chains than any other wallet. Our wallet remains the only product offering full gas abstraction with USDC payments, social logins, and a portfolio tracker across such a wide range of chains. While we are confident that Ctrl Wallet is the best multi-chain wallet, we believe that scaling to compete with the largest players requires serious backing and support from the right partner who can unlock new distribution channels for us. To my contacts, the community and friends in the industry: if you know of any companies or leaders who are aligned with Ctrl’s mission, we would appreciate introductions. To everyone who has supported Ctrl Wallet so far, thank you. Whether as a user, an investor, or an advocate, your trust and belief means everything.

SCOOP: Multi-chain self-custody wallet @Ctrl_Wallet is up for sale after the company received a number of M&A approaches last year. Bids for the firm are due by the end of the month. @willcanny99 and @IanAllison123 report trib.al/2soRuQV

If you’re wondering why $LEO has been the best performing token in crypto history (from a risk / reward perspective — sharpe ratio). x.com/jdorman81/stat…

@Degenblock Ledger works with Ctrl extension. it is one of the next features up for the mobile apps. will be here soon.

@kbeards Cannot link to Ledger?

big day for us. we have been working on these apps for more than a year. migrated my old MM, Phantom, Keplr wallets. finally have a single portfolio view of all of my assets from every wallet & chain. really proud of what the team accomplished.

Take Ctrl from anywhere with the Ctrl Mobile Wallet. Available now on Android.

people are literally finding hundreds of dollars just by loading old seed phrases into Ctrl. you have no idea how happy this makes us.