Max Sherwood
Featured content, CV, and testimonials
Featured content, CV, and testimonials
✍️ Featured reports
🗣️ Featured talks
🎙️ Featured podcast appearances
👋 About Me
Working toward a decentralized future
Studying engineering developed my analytical and problem-solving skills, but in my free time I've immersed myself in business, entrepreneurship, finance, and markets.
Since 2013 I’ve followed the growth of blockchain and cryptocurrencies, and my own experiences investing and trading showed me crypto’s unique freedoms and limitations.
What's always motivated me is the power that blockchain has given to the individual: the ability to take your financial life on-chain, off of legacy fiat-banking rails or the cash economy. I now work with Unstoppable Finance to bring decentralized finance (DeFi) to the masses, with a streamlined and well-curated mobile wallet app called Ultimate, built by Germany's most accomplished fintech entrepreneurs. On the side, I run an infrastructure company called H2O Nodes.
Studying engineering developed my analytical and problem-solving skills, but in my free time I've immersed myself in business, entrepreneurship, finance, and markets.
Since 2013 I’ve followed the growth of blockchain and cryptocurrencies, and my own experiences investing and trading showed me crypto’s unique freedoms and limitations.
What's always motivated me is the power that blockchain has given to the individual: the ability to take your financial life on-chain, off of legacy fiat-banking rails or the cash economy. I now work with Unstoppable Finance to bring decentralized finance (DeFi) to the masses, with a streamlined and well-curated mobile wallet app called Ultimate, built by Germany's most accomplished fintech entrepreneurs. On the side, I run an infrastructure company called H2O Nodes.
📁Archive
✍️ On staking and PoS
- "A guide to liquid staking" - October 2022
- "Proof of stake blockchains are part of a green future" - August 2022
- "Crypto ETP investors waive a yearly $64.9M in staking rewards" - May 2022
- "Without staking, institutional crypto investors cannot escape inflation" - December 2021
- "Proof of Stake yield uniquely offers certainty, longevity, and scalability" - Nov 2021
- "Finoa's approach to institutional staking" - May 2021
- "Why Ethereum is still the home of DeFi" - June 2023
- "Wallet wars: who will win, and should they?" - May 2023
- "The role of MEV in DEX arbitrage" - March 2023
- "Solana on its own two legs" - December 2022
- "Voyager: The danger of indirect crypto exposure" - July 2022
- "Celsius in hot water" - June 2022
- "The UST fiasco and European stablecoins" - May 2022
- "HSM and MPC — it’s not one “versus” the other" - November 2021
- "The importance of custody diversification" - June 2021
- "Crypto adoption among retail and institutional investors in 2022" - December 2022
- "What protocols are crypto funds and VCs investing in?" - November 2022
- "The state of institutional DeFi" - August 2022
- "Finoa's 2022 Family Office Report" - April 2022
- "Bitcoin for Corporates: De-risking cash in a negative real-yield environment" - September 2021
- "Crypto ETPs’ Fees Cost Up to 6 Times More Than Third-Party Custodians’" - August 2021
- "How family offices can achieve yield in 2021" - July 2021
- "How traditional and crypto-native hedge funds invest in digital assets" - June 2021
- "The evolution of institutional crypto investing" - May 2021
- "Cryptocurrencies and the Digital Euro" - March 2021
- "Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency Investment: is it for me?" - February 2021
- "Wisdom & Wealth: Are Bitcoin Newcomers Doomed?" (Also featured in CoinDesk) - February 2020
⌨️ Work Experience
Co-founder, managing director (part time)
H2O Nodes GmbH | Vienna, Austria | May 2022 -
Diversifying liquid staking pools by running bare metal infrastructure in underrepresented data centers.
• Researching protocols and liquid staking pools to determine where we can best offer our services
• Applying and onboarding to liquid staking pools
• Business operations tasks
H2O Nodes GmbH | Vienna, Austria | May 2022 -
Diversifying liquid staking pools by running bare metal infrastructure in underrepresented data centers.
• Researching protocols and liquid staking pools to determine where we can best offer our services
• Applying and onboarding to liquid staking pools
• Business operations tasks
Content & Communications Manager
Obol Labs | Remote | November 2023 -
Spreading the good word about Obol's Distributed Validator Technology (DVT).
• Developing the narrative with blog articles and data-driven reports.
• Technical documentation restructuring and evolution.
• Representing Obol on Twitter Spaces, meetups, etc.
Obol Labs | Remote | November 2023 -
Spreading the good word about Obol's Distributed Validator Technology (DVT).
• Developing the narrative with blog articles and data-driven reports.
• Technical documentation restructuring and evolution.
• Representing Obol on Twitter Spaces, meetups, etc.
Growth & Research Manager
Unstoppable Finance | Berlin, Germany | April 2022 -
Helping to grow the presence of the Ultimate DeFi wallet.
• Creation of content for blog, twitter, webinars, etc
• Research to inform product roadmap (Ethereum L2, insurance solutions, etc)
• Active participation in the community incl. organizing meetups.
Unstoppable Finance | Berlin, Germany | April 2022 -
Helping to grow the presence of the Ultimate DeFi wallet.
• Creation of content for blog, twitter, webinars, etc
• Research to inform product roadmap (Ethereum L2, insurance solutions, etc)
• Active participation in the community incl. organizing meetups.
Partnerships & Ecosystem Analyst
Finoa | Berlin, Germany | April 2021 - April 2022
Leveraged my crypto knowledge and experience in a business development role at Finoa, Europe's leading digital asset custodian.
• Competitor analysis that informed Finoa’s current fee schedule
• Wrote content for publication on the blog and in reports
• Established partnerships
Finoa | Berlin, Germany | April 2021 - April 2022
Leveraged my crypto knowledge and experience in a business development role at Finoa, Europe's leading digital asset custodian.
• Competitor analysis that informed Finoa’s current fee schedule
• Wrote content for publication on the blog and in reports
• Established partnerships
Junior Technical & Business Consultant
Avaloq | Edinburgh, UK | July 2020 - April 2021
Customized core banking software for UK private banking clients as part of a new global delivery team.
• Added features and fixed issues for software releases for a large private banking client
• Worked within a focus group on internal communications.
• Completed four-week training on core software customization.
Avaloq | Edinburgh, UK | July 2020 - April 2021
Customized core banking software for UK private banking clients as part of a new global delivery team.
• Added features and fixed issues for software releases for a large private banking client
• Worked within a focus group on internal communications.
• Completed four-week training on core software customization.
Founder/creator
Wholegrain Crypto | wholegraincrypto.com | Summer 2019 -
Started an online course for cryptocurrency newcomers, teaching traditional long-term investing lessons in the context of bitcoin’s rise and 4-year cycle.
• Broke down fundamental investment ideas into a 16-video curriculum
• Launched website, sales funnel, and lead generation automation
Wholegrain Crypto | wholegraincrypto.com | Summer 2019 -
Started an online course for cryptocurrency newcomers, teaching traditional long-term investing lessons in the context of bitcoin’s rise and 4-year cycle.
• Broke down fundamental investment ideas into a 16-video curriculum
• Launched website, sales funnel, and lead generation automation
📷 Photos
