Proactive recently hosted an insightful discussion with Brian J. Esposito, CEO of Diamond Lake Minerals Inc (OTC:DLMI), and Brian Collins, CEO of Horizon Fintex. The conversation centered around Diamond Lake Minerals' latest share exchange agreement with Horizon Fintex, highlighting the strategic importance of this partnership.
Both executives shared their perspectives on the evolving landscape of digital assets, tokenization, and the future of public companies.
Esposito highlighted how the partnership aligns with the company's vision for the future of digital assets and public companies.
Collins explained the role of their tokenization platform, Upstream, in enhancing liquidity and price discovery for common stock. He noted the global reach of Diamond Lake Minerals and the potential for improved investor access through their platform.
Esposito also discussed the volatility of traditional markets and the potential of hybrid solutions combining security tokens and traditional exchanges. He expressed optimism about the future model for public companies and the importance of easing access to tokenized securities for global investors.
Read on for the full Q&A with Esposito and Collins.
Proactive: Welcome back inside our proactive newsroom. Joining me now is Brian J. Esposito. He is the CEO of Diamond Lake Minerals. And Brian, welcome back. Good to see you again.
Brian J. Esposito: You too, Steve. Thanks for having us today.
Proactive: Also joining us is the CEO of Horizon Fintex, Brian Collins. And Brian, it's nice to meet you as well.
Brian Collins: My pleasure, Steve. Thank you.
Proactive: We'll talk to you in just a second, Brian. But first, Brian J. Esposito, I thought I'd get an opportunity here to talk through this announcement of a share exchange agreement with Fintex. Can you put this into perspective for DLMI?
Brian J. Esposito: We immediately align with Mr. Collins and his team on our integrity, ethics, and vision for the future of digital assets within a public company. If you've been following our story and the carefully calculated partnerships and moves we've been making, you'll know we've been building what we believe is one of the best technology stacks, backends, and global partnerships. This allows us to bring companies under our umbrella, providing them with substantial strength, capital support, and an international audience. This has been crucial for partnering with Upstream and their licensed regulatory technology to attract the international interest we've built through DMI.
We have an incredible future ahead of us, but this wouldn't be possible without great partnerships like Upstream and Horizon Fintex. We are well aligned and ready to anticipate our direction in the market, activating the companies and projects we've identified to create significant shareholder value, enhancing our balance sheet, and benefiting our shareholders.
Proactive: Brian, what will they be doing for you?
Brian J. Esposito: Utilizing their app and technology provides a very user-friendly experience for international investors who want to participate in tokenizing DL securities and real-world assets under our umbrella. These are the companies we've been discussing that we will be building under DLMI.
These projects are very strong, particularly in commercial real estate. In the US alone, there is $7 trillion of commercial paper maturing over the next few years. This presents a tremendous opportunity for a great company to enter the market, provide liquidity, and leverage our extensive reach, experience, incredible advisors, and extensive partners.
We have the potential to build tremendous demand and interest in our companies. However, as I've experienced in moving products globally, if products aren't available in stores or on distribution sites, there's no point in raising awareness since people can't buy or experience them. The same principle applies to securities and tokenization. If we want to promote something remarkable and invite people to participate, we need technologies like Upstream to facilitate this. Without such technologies, the impact of our story and efforts is significantly diminished.
Proactive: Brian Collins, tell me a bit about Horizon Fintex and more importantly, Upstream and the work that you do.
Brian Collins: We're a technology firm. We license software to a stock exchange, MERJ Exchange Limited, which is a regulated stock exchange comparable to those in London, Frankfurt, and New York. So, we are fully regulated by the Securities Exchange. On the other side, we are a tokenization platform, meaning we tokenize common stock.
The real-world assets people often refer to when discussing tokenization actually come from normal common stock. Today, if you're trading, you can withdraw from your brokerage, deposit at the time of trading, and deposit due to security, allowing us to get more liquidity into the stock and achieve better price discovery. When you have general listings, there are also arbitrage opportunities. These are fully regulated and fully custodial solutions, using blockchain technology under the hood. I'm always clear about using the term blockchain to avoid confusion with cryptocurrency.
What we're looking to do is open up the LME to a broader investor base. People in Southeast Asia, Latin America, Europe, etc., often find it difficult to buy shares in micro-cap or mid-cap companies due to the restrictions of larger banks. We allow people to simply download an app, bypass stockbrokers, and connect directly to the exchange, thereby opening more opportunities for investment.
Proactive: Was there something about Diamond Lake Minerals that you thought was perfect for your platform?
Brian Collins: A key point we often discuss is that we frequently invest in the CEO. With Brian, there's an instant understanding of what each company can offer the other. DLMI, for us, has a CEO in Brian that understands tokenization. We are regulated and compliant in tokenizing assets, and we can see that Brian and his portfolio companies are ideal candidates for tokenization, liquidity improvement, and opening up an investor base because their story is truly global. So for us, having a CEO that understands tokenization and recognizes the need for regulation is a win-win.
Proactive: Brian J. Esposito, with the volatility we've seen in the North American stock markets, it seems like this approach, which you've discussed in the past, could lead to some significant successes for the company. Could you elaborate on that?
Brian J. Esposito: I think it's the hybrid approach that I've been talking about. When FTX collapsed, I assumed security tokens were going to go through the roof. That hasn't happened yet, but we're getting there. Upstream provides that hybrid solution along with traditional markets and exchanges that we're all used to, building what I believe is the future model for all public companies.
When you have an investor who wants to buy into something—whether they believe in the leadership, the project, the company, or the vision—but past limitations have prohibited them, it changes the game. I also believe it changes the game on volatility for your company.
When you have a strong support system of investors globally who understand what DLMI is, the structure, and the vision we have here, and they believe this is the future of everything, it makes a difference. BlackRock has announced plans to tokenize everything, and that's fantastic. We've been talking about this for a decade. Now that players like BlackRock are bringing a lot of credibility to tokenization, there's still the issue of how people get involved.
The friction points are enormous for those who don't understand digital wallets or the various terms, but they know how to buy stock. With Upstream, they make it very easy to tokenize a security and go through the same process as if they were buying traditional securities through their brokerage firm.
Proactive: It sounds like it's exciting and we look forward to hearing more about it as the months and years roll on.
Brian Collins: My pleasure. Thank you.
Brian J. Esposito: Thank you as well.
Quotes have been edited for style and clarity