New Trends With Friends Episode: Internet Capital Markets with Kyle Samani

Good afternoon everyone,

We are back with another edition of Trends With Friends. For this episode, Michael Parekh and I sit down with Multicoin’s Kyle Samani for a fast, no-BS tour of where the crypto markets are going next. We rewind the Multicoin origin story (including my early Multicoin IRA investment and happy ending adventure), then dive into why the 2022–23 drawdown was emotionally tougher than the 2018–19 crypto winter.

From there, Kyle lays out his “Internet Capital Markets” thesis—finance embedded everywhere—why trading inside chats, media, and sports apps is inevitable, and how prediction markets become the new front page of news. We get into the $SOL.X ( ▼ 2.49% ) lead, stablecoins as rails, prime brokerage natively on-chain, and why the biggest market makers are already active on Kalshi a leading prediction market startup. Kyle also breaks down Forward Industries (ticker $FORD ( ▼ 9.09% ) ): the $1.65B PIPE, turning it into a Solana treasury company, and deploying SOL/USD into DeFi yield. Plus: AI x crypto as the only barbell that matters, perps vs. options (in plain English), and what Kyle is funding next—new modalities for issuance and trading.

As finance bro and geeky as this may all sound, you will not find it hard to follow and a lot of alpha is there for those that listen closely.

You can watch the episode here below…

JUMP TO THE GOOD STUFF:

• (0:00) Cold Open: Howard, Michael & Kyle (freshly married, freshly groomed)

• (1:46) Howard’s Multicoin IRA story & the 2019 doldrums

• (5:01) 2018–19 vs 2022–23: why the second bear hurt more

• (8:03) Solana 101 & “Internet Capital Markets” explained

• (11:49) Breaking “isolated finance”; embedding trading across the web

• (12:26) Telegram bots → trading where conversations happen

• (15:14) Prediction markets in media & sports (buy/sell on the article)

• (17:21) Stocktwits x Polymarket, swipe-to-trade, and peer-to-peer bets

• (22:01) Institutional plumbing: discovery, silos, and cross-venue UIs

• (25:19) On-chain prime brokerage (Zero on Solana) & collateral efficiency

• (31:54) Why $SOL.X ( ▼ 2.49% ) leads; the case for $1T+

• (34:02) Stablecoins as the settlement layer for everything

• (36:15) SIG, Citadel, Jane Street, Jump already active on Kalshi

• (37:40) Sportsbooks vs real markets; letting market makers set prices

• (39:34) Crypto is retail-first: sovereignty, keys, and open participation

• (45:05) Inside $FORD ( ▼ 9.09% ) : $1.65B PIPE, Solana treasury strategy

• (46:43) Not trading SOL price—deploying SOL/USD into DeFi yield

• (48:30) AI x Crypto barbell: what won’t be disrupted

• (53:41) Perps vs options in plain English; leverage (without the Greeks)

• (57:15) Lessons from 2022: correlation, fraud, and risk controls

• (58:40) What Kyle’s funding next: new modalities for issuance & trading