Santiago Roel Santos is a crypto investor and entrepreneur with a background in investment banking and private equity. He is the founder and CEO of Inversion, a private equity firm that acquires traditional businesses and integrates blockchain-based financial infrastructure into their operations. ^{[1] [2]}​

Education

Santos attended Boston University, where he graduated in 2012 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics. ^[3]​

Career

Santos began his career in traditional finance. From June 2012 to June 2014, he worked in investment banking at J.P. Morgan within the Financial Sponsor Group in New York. In this role, he advised private equity clients on transactions, leveraged finance, and capital markets activities. Following J.P. Morgan, he moved to Palo Alto, California, to join Sageview Capital as an Associate from August 2014 to 2016. At Sageview, a growth equity firm, he focused on investments in the technology and business services sectors. He later transitioned to an operational role at Elysium Health in New York, serving as Director of Research and Growth from October 2016 to January 2019. There, he was involved with research initiatives and strategic growth in the consumer health and longevity industry. Santos then moved fully into the digital asset space, joining ParaFi Capital as a Partner in February 2020. During his time at ParaFi, which concluded in July 2021, he concentrated on blockchain and crypto-related investments across both venture and liquid markets. In October 2024, Santos founded Inversion, where he serves as Founder and Chief Executive Officer. The firm represents the culmination of his experience in both traditional finance and crypto, focusing on a private equity model to merge the two sectors. ^{[2] [4]}

Inversion

Founded by Santos in October 2024, Inversion is a crypto-focused private equity firm. The company's strategy deviates from typical venture capital investment in the crypto space. Instead of funding new crypto-native startups, Inversion acquires established, traditional businesses, particularly those in lower-margin sectors like telecommunications and financial services. The core of Inversion's thesis is to integrate blockchain-based infrastructure, primarily utilizing stablecoins, into the operations of its portfolio companies. This approach aims to reduce operational costs, streamline processes, and improve coordination, thereby enhancing margins and overall business value. By acquiring companies with existing customer bases, the firm seeks to "invert" the traditional crypto adoption model, which it sees as flawed. In 2025, Inversion announced it had raised $26.5 million in a seed funding round. The round was led by Dragonfly, with participation from other notable firms including HashKey Capital, VanEck, ParaFi Capital, and Wintermute. To support its strategy, Inversion also announced plans to launch a dedicated Layer 1 blockchain on the Avalanche network. This chain is intended to provide the underlying infrastructure for its portfolio of companies, facilitating their integration with on-chain systems. ^{[2] [5]}

Interviews

Crypto Investing Playbook

On The Rollup podcast in February 2026, Santos shared his insights on the cryptocurrency market, highlighting the disconnect between valuations and actual value capture within crypto assets. He noted that while traditional investments like equities could compound value through profitable reinvestment, many cryptocurrencies, including Layer 1s, failed to do so due to regulatory challenges and poor design. He argued that tokens generally act more like fixed-income instruments than equities, leading to issues such as constant selling pressure and value leakage. Santos expressed belief that as crypto matured, particularly with the growing adoption of stablecoins, it could transform industries, but he emphasized the importance of aligning investments with projects that demonstrated real business models and efficient value capture. Overall, he acknowledged the potential for growth in the crypto sector while cautioning about the competitive nature of the space and the necessity for innovative tokenomic designs that resembled equity structures to ensure long-term value for investors. ^[7]

Navigating Risk and Stablecoins

In theCUBE’s "Crypto Trailblazer Series” in October 2025, host John Furrier interviewed Santos, the founder and CEO of Inversion, highlighting his innovative approach to integrating traditional businesses into the crypto infrastructure. Santos, who had been involved in crypto since 2012, emphasized the need for the industry to focus on practicality and scalability rather than ideology alone. He explained that Inversion used a private equity strategy to acquire underperforming legacy companies, implementing technology to enhance efficiency and open avenues for the use of stablecoins as financial solutions. During the discussion, Santos noted the vast potential for businesses to adopt these technologies, likening the current state of crypto to the early days of software-as-a-service (SaaS), and emphasized the importance of creating user-friendly, invisible infrastructure that makes stablecoins accessible to consumers. Overall, the conversation underscored the transformative potential of stablecoins for traditional businesses, paving the way for broader financial adoption across the global economy. ^[6]

Inversion Thesis

At the Legends4Legends 2025 conference in November, Catrina Wang and Santos discussed the Inversion Capital Thesis, which focused on using blockchain infrastructure to revitalize traditional businesses. Santos aimed to leverage Avalanche technology to create a unique on-chain private equity strategy, likening it to Berkshire Hathaway but on the blockchain. His vision was to address the low adoption of stablecoins by acquiring conventional businesses that would benefit from blockchain technology, thereby transforming them and enhancing real-world economic activity. Throughout the dialogue, Wang emphasized Portal Ventures' venture fund's commitment to early-stage investments. At the same time, Santos explained the importance of addressing existing friction points across industries, such as consumer finance and telecommunications, to unlock significant value. He expressed enthusiasm for the potential of his strategy to improve access to financial products, particularly in emerging markets, and highlighted the transformative power of technology to enhance business efficiency and consumer experiences. ^[5]

Valuation Problem

On the CryptoNews podcast in November 2025, Santos discussed valuation challenges in the cryptocurrency market, emphasizing the difficulty of determining coherent valuations for networks like Ethereum and Solana, which he felt were overpriced relative to their revenue generation. He shared insights from his experience as an active investor in the crypto space, highlighting the need for businesses across traditional sectors like payments and remittances to adopt blockchain technology to improve efficiency and reduce costs. Santos also expressed concerns about the industry's focus on speculative activities over practical applications, arguing that the future potential of cryptocurrencies lies in their integration into existing businesses and the creation of more stable, user-friendly financial products. As he reflected on the need for the industry to grow beyond its current speculative use cases to achieve significant asset valuations, he revealed his commitment to building infrastructure that connects crypto with mainstream business needs and enhancing user engagement in the sector. ^[4]

Rethinking Crypto Adoption

On the Proof of Talk podcast in May 2025, Santos discussed the challenges of crypto adoption stemming from a broken customer acquisition funnel, which he attributed to most new users entering through exchanges, much like walking into a casino. He suggested that technology, while transformative, must become more relatable to everyday life, echoing the internet's historical development. Santos emphasized the need to invert traditional approaches to attract a billion users on-chain by acquiring existing businesses with established customer bases. His focus was on mobile carriers, proposing that integrating crypto into such businesses could lower costs and enhance services. He anticipated significant advancements in stablecoin legislation and highlighted the importance of demonstrating how crypto can effectively cut operational costs and streamline business processes. Further, he believed that building a user-friendly system and avoiding speculative narratives would be vital in achieving mainstream adoption and establishing a profitable fintech ecosystem. ^[3]