Morgan Creek Blockchain Exec: Regulators Will Mandate Tokenized Equity
*By Jacqueline Corba*
The hedge fund Morgan Creek is betting on the power of blockchain to digitize company equity.
The fund's blockchain group is focused on converting traditional paper equity into tokens. This can create a more open free market for investors, and can help regulators, said Anthony Pompliano, a partner at Morgan Creek Blockchain Capital.
"The blockchain actually manages not only the equity or the capital stack but also all transactions with that equity," he said in an interview with Cheddar.
Morgan Creek Capital Management will invest $500 million in blockchain technology. The hedge fund [acquired Pompliano's Full Tilt Capital](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-03-27/morgan-creek-acquires-full-tilt-capital-for-blockchain-push) in March, two months after Full Tilt went all in on cryptocurrency.
"In the digital world what ends up happening is the protocol in which these transactions are happening has the rules written into them, so the rules are written in software and would not let me make a non compliant trade," Pompliano said. "We actually think that the regulators, at some point in the future, are going to mandate that every company in the world tokenizes their equity."
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/why-hedge-funds-are-betting-big-on-blockchain).
Ride share competitors Uber and Lyft both posted their fourth quarter earnings days apart from each other. Both companies have been trying to get back on their feet after taking some pandemic-related hits, but the Omicron variant had other ideas as the year came to a close, with each company taking a hit in ridership in December. Lance Ippolito, head trader at The Future of Wealth explains how Uber and Lyft measured up this earnings period and why Uber may still have an edge over the competition.
Parallel Systems has been selected to receive $4.5 million from the Department of Energy for an advanced testing program of its autonomous, battery-electric rail vehicles. The startup, which has raised more than $53 million to date, was founded by former SpaceX engineers to reimagine the rail system by creating a more efficient, decarbonized freight network. Matt Soule, Co-founder & CEO of Parallel Systems, joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss what the company hopes to achieve.