#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.”

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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