CryptoNews Podcast
#494: Santiago Roel Santos, CEO of Inversion, on Crypto’s Valuation Problem, Mental Models, and the Current State of Crypto
CryptoNews Podcast
•November 24, 2025•47 min
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CryptoNews Podcast•Nov 24, 2025
Why It Matters
Understanding crypto’s valuation distortion helps investors target real economic upside in blockchain‑enabled businesses, reshaping capital allocation across the digital asset ecosystem.
Key Takeaways
- •Crypto valuations exceed traditional revenue multiples.
- •Inversion acquires businesses to embed blockchain infrastructure.
- •Overvalued blockchains shift value to crypto-enabled enterprises.
- •Systemic friction creates opportunities for new crypto services.
- •Prediction markets outperform traditional media narratives.
Pulse Analysis
The current crypto market suffers from a persistent valuation problem, where token prices are often driven by speculative casino‑like dynamics rather than the steady cash flows typical of software-as-a-service models. Santiago Roel Santos highlighted that this mispricing inflates blockchain valuations, creating a disconnect between market caps and underlying economic fundamentals. By treating token flows as gambling revenue, investors overlook the potential for sustainable, recurring income streams that can be generated when blockchain technology is applied to real‑world businesses.
Inversion’s strategy directly addresses this gap by acquiring traditional companies and retrofitting them with blockchain infrastructure. This approach transforms legacy operations into crypto‑enabled enterprises, allowing value to flow from overvalued protocols to tangible assets that generate measurable returns. Santos emphasized that systemic friction—inefficiencies in existing financial and operational systems—represents a massive opportunity for new services, from decentralized finance solutions to tokenized supply chains, positioning Inversion at the forefront of this emerging value chain.
Beyond valuation, the discussion explored broader market shifts, including the rise of prediction markets as more reliable information aggregators than conventional media. Santos argued that techno‑optimism is at an all‑time high, driving innovators to adopt mental models that prioritize network effects and decentralized governance. As investors recalibrate their expectations, the focus is likely to move from speculative token bets toward businesses that embed crypto rails, promising more durable growth and clearer pathways to profitability.
Episode Description
Santiago Roel Santos is the founder and CEO of Inversion a crypto-native holding company that acquires and transforms traditional businesses using blockchain technology. He is among the most active investors in crypto, having backed over 150 startups and many industry leaders over the past decade. Previously, Santiago was a Partner at ParaFi Capital, an institutional blockchain investor managing over $1 billion. He also held investment roles at Sageview Capital, a $2 billion growth equity firm focused on software and tech-enabled businesses, and at JP Morgan’s Investment Banking Financial Sponsors Group.
In this conversation, we discuss:
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Recent substack post
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You don’t value casino flow like recurring software revenue
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Infrastructure vs application value
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Crypto’s valuation problem
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Why most blockchains today are overvalued and how value will flow to the businesses built on crypto rails
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Mental models
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Systemic friction is a huge business opp
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Techno-optimism is at an all-time high
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Prediction markets are a better version of the media
Inversion
X: @inversion_cap
Website: inversioncap.com
LinkedIn: Inversion
Santiago Roel Santos
X: @santiagoroel
LinkedIn: Santiago R.
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