Lance Glinn:
From Lake Las Vegas here in Nevada, welcome to another episode of The Inside the ICE House podcast. Today's guest is Dr. Vin Menon. He is the CEO of NYSE American listed MindWave Innovations. Dr. Vin, how you doing? Thanks so much for joining us here in Nevada.
Vin Menon:
Yeah, thank you so much for inviting us here and we are excited to work with you on this project.
Lance Glinn:
So MindWave sits at a real critical moment, I think, in digital asset adoption. Institutions want and are increasingly focused on exposure to Bitcoin. We see it from big institutions to small institutions, they want exposure to Bitcoin, but traditional systems aren't always built for what they need. So what signs in the industry really told you that institutions needed a governance driven platform and that MindWave had the right structure to build it?
Vin Menon:
So typically if you look at digital asset treasury strategies, mostly the treasury yields are generated up to 2% or less than 2% return. And if you move into a digital asset space over the last couple of years, we have seen that it is generating 15, 20% year-on-year. That itself is a good revenue for the treasury aspect.
Lance Glinn:
Sure.
Vin Menon:
Then second, we are focusing on yield generation on the treasury. So unlike other DAT or digital asset treasury businesses, what we are doing is we are helping companies to set up the digital asset treasury. Then we run yield generation on these assets.
Lance Glinn:
So as institutions really begin thinking about digital assets in a more serious and more long-term way, how do you explain just digital asset treasury in a way that really resonates with these leaders who may have spent most of their careers inside really traditional capital market structures?
Vin Menon:
So for the last couple of years, we have seen that Bitcoin and other digital assets are becoming mainstream and it's always better to have a basket of currencies or a diversified portfolio in the treasury. So that is the trend which we are seeing right now.
Lance Glinn:
And I want to really just dive further a little bit into how custody, how risk controls and compliance interlock inside MindWave's platform. What distinguishes a system really that's engineered for institutions from one that is built for more retail crypto users? How do you find that distinction?
Vin Menon:
Okay. So for the B2C or the retail product, they're captured towards the average ticket size of 5,000, 10,000, 20,000 wallet size. And institutions are talking about multimillion. And at the same time, we have a seven layer security system in our self-custody and we are also having Lloyd's of London syndicates ensuring, reinsuring our assets.
Lance Glinn:
And then so you're in the boardroom, right? Let's play a hypothetical. You're in the room with a institution, a leader of said institution. How do you get them comfortable with doing something that again, some of these leaders may have been working one way for decades and you have to get them comfortable with maybe a new way of doing thing, a sort of new digital asset. How do you really get them comfortable with something that may be new to them?
Vin Menon:
Yeah. So change is always a challenge. So we had to go through a change process and what we have seen is the entire industry or more than 300, 400 public companies are now using digital asset treasury strategies. So we have seen that these companies are performing very well, especially when the digital adapt strategies have been implemented. So it's very easy for any other traditional CEOs to get into that.
Lance Glinn:
And how do you ensure that MindWave really stays adaptable? Because you said change happens, people need to evolve, companies need to evolve. How do you make sure that MindWave evolves because crypto is evolving too?
Vin Menon:
Yeah. So what we have been in this industry for in a collectively our management team. We have been in the industry for probably since 2015, 16. So we have enough experience. So what we do is we are doing a typical outsourcing of digital asset treasure. So any company, let's say traditional businesses like pharmaceuticals or manufacturing, they don't really have to worry about how the treasury has been set up, how it is managed and how the yields are generated. So the whole total outsourcing of these activities are what we are doing for the companies.
Lance Glinn:
And so I want to talk a little bit about your career and tie that to everything that's going on at MindWave. Your career spans, FinTech, blockchain, blockchain infrastructure, sustainable finance, among other things as well, pharmaceuticals too. Obviously you've worked across different parts of the world, your business is set up across different parts of the world. How has this global and diverse perspective that you've experienced influenced really the governance frameworks that you're building at MindWave? How has it really impacted what you and your team are building?
Vin Menon:
So basically since 2025, January 21st, when the inauguration day of President Trump, we have seen influx of a lot of crypto digital asset companies moving into US and his strategy or his vision of US being the crypto capital of the world. So since US is taking the lead and making that as a mainstream coming with regulations like CLOUD Act, GENIUS Act, so a lot of things are coming into the picture, so that is making the life easier. And most of the countries are following US right now.
Lance Glinn:
And so it was in, you mentioned obviously January 2025, the inauguration of President Trump, but I'm going to go to December of 2025 and in December of 2025, MindWave Innovations merged with NYSE American listed Apimeds Pharmaceuticals, another company that you lead. What was the strategic rationale for bringing a biotech company and the digital asset treasury platform together under one structure?
Vin Menon:
Okay. So basically we were focusing on setting up digital asset treasuries for public companies. So first we thought that we will set up for ourselves and that's a good precedence to start with.
Lance Glinn:
And that's why the merger happened?
Vin Menon:
Exactly.
Lance Glinn:
Got it. Got it. Got it.
Vin Menon:
So we have actually capitalized with 1000 Bitcoins on the balance sheet of Apimeds.
Lance Glinn:
And so you do that as a starting point to show other companies, look at what can work-
Vin Menon:
We have already done and it's working well. So we are still ongoing the process of completing the merger.
Lance Glinn:
And so you use that again more as a use case to show companies, this is how it's going to work, this is the potential for what it could be. How have companies that you've spoken to, maybe some you're working with now, maybe some you're not working with yet, but how have companies reacted to that? How have they seen what you have done merging MindWave and Apimeds? What does it make them say?
Vin Menon:
So basically they all want to see that how we are processing or how is the situation with our digital asset treasury and the yield generation. So over the next couple of months, they will be able to see that. And so most of the traditional businesses, they're just waiting for us to kickstart then follow.
Lance Glinn:
And so biotech companies, one like Apimeds, for example, they often navigate long R&D timelines and complex clinical pathways, uneven capital cycles. You obviously know the drill of all the things that these biotech companies have to go through, but how can a digital treasury model create stability, maybe create yield generation or efficiencies that can support biotech companies and help them grow efficiently?
Vin Menon:
So just to give you a background about the yield generation, we are talking about roughly 1 to 1.5 percentage per month in Bitcoin and considering that Bitcoin is a liquid asset so we can actually... It's as good as revenue generating for the company. So once this merger completes and the yield generation starts, we are going to see that kind of a revenue coming in.
Lance Glinn:
And operationally, how do you integrate, and you talked about using it as a use case to show other companies this is what it can do, but how do you integrate two very different ecosystems, biotech development on one side, digital asset treasury on the other, how do you really integrate them and bring them together? Because they're two very different businesses.
Vin Menon:
So structurally and legally we have two subsidiaries. So the experts from the biomed team is running the subsidiary of biomed and the blockchain and crypto part of the experts running the blockchain business.
Lance Glinn:
And when you look at just the broader innovation curve as a whole, where and how do you see these two sectors converging over the next five to seven years? Because I feel like this could be the start, but what does the future look like when you take, it doesn't necessarily even need to be a biotech, take company X, Y, and Z, but when you merge it with a digital asset treasury, what do you see that convergence being like in the years to come?
Vin Menon:
Yeah, so there are many strategies for these kind of companies to implement. For example, AI, any AI project, for example, let's talk about biomed. In our case we are deploying AI into the whole ecosystem and when there is an agentic AI is system running, you really need virtual currencies or digital assets to support that. So that's the kind of a roadmap we have.
Lance Glinn:
And so you bring up AI and obviously it's something that's disrupting tons of industries. We talked before and we've had CEOs of plenty of our listed companies on the podcast of all sizes of all different industries and they all tell me how much, whether it's on the backend that customers don't necessarily see or it's front facing that customers do see. AI is impacting what they do. How is AI impacting what you do?
Vin Menon:
Okay. So in the traditional business, our biomed business, a lot of research goes into AI. Most of our projects right now is migrating to agentic AI and AI-based businesses.
Lance Glinn:
Is there more of a... And again, I get different types of answers for this kind of question, but there are people who are optimistic, right? There are people who think that, not that there are no concerns, but that the pros certainly outweigh the cons of what the future of AI will bring. And then there are people on the opposite end that are really concerned and are concerned for a number of different reasons. What's yours just general outlook on AI implementation, how it impacts your company, but also just how it impacts the broader business landscape?
Vin Menon:
So based on whatever the data which we can see right now, agentic AI projects, for example, let's talk about EasyClaw. So if we move that into blockchain, the biggest challenge right now EasyClaw has and facing is the data security and the privacy because you are giving your credit card to the LLMs and we don't know whether where it is saved and where it is going to happen. But if you have a blockchain layer below that, then your data is your data and only we'll call the LLMs to get the data out so that way you can protect the current situation of security and privacy.
Lance Glinn:
Yeah. No, I think among talking to different leaders, that is the biggest concern, but it's the biggest concerns their customers get-
Vin Menon:
And blockchain is the best solution for that. And MindWaveDAO, our layer two, together with Deloitte's reinsurance plan, we are actually solving that.
Lance Glinn:
You're solving these security issues.
Vin Menon:
Yes.
Lance Glinn:
And yeah, as I was saying, that seems to be the biggest concern. I mean, there are others, depending on the industry that you're in. Obviously different industries have different concerns, but that privacy concern seems to be one that resonates across industries regardless of what you do. Can you just dive a little bit further into exactly how MindWave is focusing in on that, how you are? Because you just mentioned you're working to solve the problem, right? How are you doing that?
Vin Menon:
So basically MindWaveDAO is ensured layer to blockchain and we onboard ecosystems within that to run the validator nodes. So that means, for example, we have a climate tech project, which is working very closely with UN initiatives, et cetera. And that climate tech project is one of the ecosystems in MindWaveDAO, Mindchain, our layer to blockchain, and which is also fully reinsured by Lloyd's market. So the same way now A will be moving in as one of AGI, let's call it EasyClaw, any other AGI solutions, it will be moving into blockchain and it'll be a separate ecosystem which we create. So the users on that particular ecosystem will be able to protect their data while communicating with the LLMs and other AI platforms.
Lance Glinn:
So as we begin to wrap up our conversation, what does success look like for you in the more short term, not necessarily looking five to seven years out, but in the more short term, right? Because we're in March, I think the separate is going to come out in April or May in 2026, so we still have more than half the year to go. What does the short-term outlook for the rest of 2026 look like for you?
Vin Menon:
So basically our focus is digital asset treasury as one of the pillar, core pillar for our revenue. Yield generation on digital assets is our second pillar and validated nodes and running layer to blockchain is our third revenue stream. So on a short to midterm scenario, we are expanding our digital asset treasury business and the yield generation business. So it's only like 200, 300 public companies are right now using digital asset treasuries and we have a huge opportunity of 10,000 of public companies available. So that's a focus we have for next 12 to 24 months.
Lance Glinn:
And now looking even further long term, right? I'm looking five, 10 years down the line. What's the next chapter for MindWave? What does success look like if we were to talk again in 2030 or 2035?
Vin Menon:
So that will be our validator notes and MindWaveDAO and MindChain, our blockchain. So each and every ecosystem when we migrate that will itself create a lot of transactions. And the more ecosystems are growing, the more transactions comes in and blockchain's a real use case is that.
Lance Glinn:
Well, Dr. Vin Menon, I appreciate you joining me here in Lake Las Vegas, Nevada. Thanks so much for joining us on the Inside. Thank you.
Vin Menon:
Thank you so much for your time.
Narrator:
That's our conversation for this week. Remember to rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen and follow us on X at ICEHousePodcast. From the New York Stock Exchange, we'll talk to you again next week Inside the ICE House. Information contained in this podcast was obtained in part from publicly available sources and not independently verified. Neither ICE nor its affiliates make any representations or warranties expressed or implied as to the accuracy or completeness of the information and do not sponsor, approve, or endorse any of the content herein, all of which is presented solely for informational and educational purposes. Nothing herein constitutes an offer to sell, a solicitation of an offer to buy any security or a recommendation of any security or trading practice. Some portions of the proceeding conversation may have been edited for the purpose of length or clarity.