#18 — You Shouldn’t Need A Bank To Buy A Bond: Blockchain, Tokenisation & Banking | Aaron Gwak: “We Don’t Need More Middlemen!” “Finance Should Be A Birthright — Not A Privilege.”
- Author
- Nicole Lee
- Published
- Sun 11 May 2025
- Episode Link
- None
You shouldn’t need a bank — or 4x your country’s GDP per capita — just to buy a government bond. But in many parts of the world, that’s still the reality. And for Aaron Gwak, it was a problem worth solving.
Born in Korea, raised in Ghana, and shaped by two decades in investment banking, Aaron spent years helping governments and financial institutions raise capital through bonds. From UBS to Standard Chartered, he saw how the system worked — and who it left behind.
Today, he’s the founder of Libeara, a platform using blockchain and tokenization to create greater access to government bonds and funds — making finance more inclusive, transparent, and human.
In this episode, I speak with Aaron Gwak about:
· What life in Ghana taught him about inequality, possibilities, and purpose
· The unexpectedness of entrepreneurship and a career in banking
· Why investor eligibility ≠ accessibility
· The deeper truth behind blockchain and tokenization
· Money, mindset & reclaiming ownership in investing
This isn’t just a conversation about finance or tech. It’s about ownership, financial access, and daring to build a new path. I hope this episode reaches you exactly when you need it.
Chapters:
00:00 – Intro
01:38 – Growing up in Ghana as a Korean kid
06:14 – Learning about income disparity, possibility & belief
09:47 – Culture shock returning to Korea
13:25 – The accidental e-sports pioneer
17:43 – Entering finance by fluke: UBS & Standard Chartered
20:27 – Behind the scenes of investment banking
23:56 – What led him to found Libeara
27:19 – Why buying government bonds is so difficult
31:47 – Living abroad but shut out from investing at home
33:21 – The role of blockchain in increasing trust and access
36:36 – Building “proper” tokens vs synthetic wrappers
42:47 – How tokenization changes the way we interact with wealth
44:32 – Regulated Web3 and taking the long road
46:08 – Money, mindset & reclaiming ownership in investing
47:06 – DJ Aaron, music moods & fatherhood
48:06 – Advice to his daughters
49:32 – What he’d do a TED talk on (hint: not finance)
❤️
Nicole
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👉🏼 Follow Aaron Gwak on:
LinkedIn: https://sg.linkedin.com/in/aaron-gwak-008a1524
Website: https://libeara.com/
👉🏼 Follow Nicole Lee on:
LinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/nicoleethisisme
Website: http://www.youneverknow.co/
Instagram: http://instagram.com/nicoleleethisisme
TikTok: http://tiktok.com/@nicoleleethisisme
🎬 Filmed at: Poddster Singapore
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