Australian Securities Exchange
ASX is not a neutral referee — it is the pitch, the umpire, and the ticket office, all owned by shareholders.
Blockchain
A database with a cost structure looking for a problem.
- 6
- in business
- 10:47
- average
- 65 min
- in total
- 12
- across the network
All briefs
Bankruptcy of FTX
A crypto exchange built on interlocking debt, not deposits — and bankrupt within nine days of its first public red flag.
Intercontinental Exchange
Jeffrey Sprecher · 2000
ICE is a financial infrastructure consolidator — not a technology innovator or market creator. It turned energy trading into a global clearing and exchange empire by acquiring failing or exposed rivals, shutting down physical floors, and layering data and mortgage tech atop core exchange revenue. Its business model depends on regulatory moats, scale-driven pricing, and vertical integration — not speed, intelligence, or user experience.
SIX Swiss Exchange
A national exchange built on merger, not markets — and still running the same core code that made it first in line.
PayPal
Peter Thiel & Max Levchin · 1998
PayPal is a case study in opportunistic infrastructure: built on a dead-end tech idea, it succeeded only after latching onto a specific, messy, high-volume use case — eBay auctions — and charging for reliability in a trust vacuum.
Adam Neumann
Adam Neumann didn’t pivot — he rebranded failure as infrastructure.