Theta Capital announces hiring of Jeroen Tielman as Head of Institutional Relations
Jeroen has had a distinguished and extensive career with over 35 years of experience in alternative asset management, including having been Founder and CEO of IMQubator and Founder and CEO of FundPartners, as well as 14 years with ABN AMRO in multiple roles including Global Head of Product Development.
Jeroen's role with Theta will be to build relations with institutional investors globally. Theta manages over $1bn in blockchain venture capital through its Theta Blockchain Ventures funds of funds program. By partnering with top-tier specialized VC firms, Theta has supported many leading companies and protocols from their earliest stages.
Jeroen Tielman, Head of Institutional Relations, Theta Capital, said, 'I have known Ruud Smets, Theta's CIO, since I hired him with FundPartners in 2001 and am delighted to be able to work together with him in one of the most dynamic and innovative areas of alternative asset management today. I have been an investor in Theta's BlockChain Ventures for some time and so I am very familiar with the extremely exciting investment opportunities that this space offers investors. I look forward to working with institutions around the world to help them better understand these opportunities and how to access them.'
Ruud Smets, CIO, Theta Capital, said, 'It is a real pleasure to be re-united with Jeroen and to be able to work together with him again. He is joining us at a key inflection point for the space. We firmly believe that the 2024 U.S. election will be remembered as a pivotal moment for blockchain technology—a clear divide between the world before and after. For years, the industry faced significant challenges: regulatory ambiguity, the targeted harassment of U.S.-based blockchain entrepreneurs, enforcement-led regulation, and initiatives aimed at debanking the industry. These hurdles stifled innovation and growth. This election marks a dramatic shift, reversing the trajectory and clearing the way for blockchain to realize its transformative potential.'
About Theta Capital
Founded in 2001, Theta Capital Management has been among the earliest and largest institutional investors globally to invest in blockchain technology, having deployed capital in the space since January 2018. Theta Capital works with over 45 deeply specialized VC partners leading to more than 1,000 venture style investments in the technology. Deep domain expertise has led to a leading position in the universe of crypto-native venture capital.
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The Hill
an hour ago
- The Hill
Trump give Russia ultimatum
Thank you for signing up! Subscribe to more newsletters here It's Monday. A year ago today, the Republican National Convention began in Milwaukee. This was right after President Trump's first assassination attempt, and we were all on high alert. If you want a refresher, check out my reporting from that day. In today's issue: President Trump is upping the ante with Russia to end its war with Ukraine. He has been growing increasingly frustrated with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and to that end, he just made two major announcements: 1) Secondary tariffs: Trump will impose 100 percent secondary tariffs on any country that trades with Russia unless Moscow agrees to a ceasefire with Ukraine in the next 50 days. 'We're very, very unhappy with them, and we're going to be doing very severe tariffs if we don't have a deal in about 50 days,' Trump told reporters. He noted Congress wants 500 percent tariffs, so his 100 percent threat is far lower. 2) Sending weapons paid for by Europe: European countries will buy U.S.-made weapons to help Ukraine. 'In a nutshell, we're going to make top-of-the-line weapons, and they'll be sent to NATO,' Trump said alongside NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. Yes, Rutte, the person who infamously referred to the president as 'daddy' a few weeks ago. 😅 (FWIW, he later tried to clarify it.) 📸 Photo from the room Did we see these announcements coming?: Washington had been bracing for the 'major statement' Trump had teased regarding Russia. 💬 Follow today's live blog 💻 Watch Trump's remarks ➤ WHAT ELSE TRUMP SAID DURING HIS ANNOUNCEMENT: Trump said he spoke with Melania Trump about Russia: 'I [got] home and told the first lady, 'I spoke with Vladimir today. We had a wonderful conversation.' She said, 'oh really? Another city was just hit,'' Trump 📹 explained. Trump's intention: 'I think this is a chance at getting peace,' Trump 📹 said in his announcement. ➤ TIDBIT — WANT TO SEE HOW THE ROSE GARDEN REMODEL IS COMING?: Construction crews began work in June to complete the Rose Garden renovation Trump ordered. It includes replacing the grass with gravel. Well, The Hill's Alex Gangitano is at the White House today and 📸posted a photo of the construction. Republicans are trying to take back billions of dollars in federal funding this week — and it could make for a potentially ugly week in the Senate. I'll explain: The Senate is expected to take up the bill, known as the rescissions package, this week before Friday's deadline. The House has already approved it. The dynamics are tricky. Some Republicans are concerned about the bill's cuts to public broadcasting and global public health programs. But President Trump threatened to withhold support for any Republican who votes 'no.' A prominent senator has concerns: Senate Appropriations Committee Chair Susan Collins (R-Maine) and other members of the committee are not thrilled with cutting programs that have already been funded through bipartisan bills. A broader concern: The Hill's Alexander Bolton reports that 'a handful of senior Republican senators are worried about ceding even more power to the Trump administration, as Congress has already done by allowing President Trump to shutter or overhaul agencies such as the U.S. Agency for International Development or impose steep tariffs on many of the nation's trading partners without much pushback.' Read Bolton's reporting: 'GOP leader faces showdown with Republicans on Trump-backed funding cuts' What else is happening on Capitol Hill this week, via The Hill's Mychael Schnell We're learning more about what happened in the early morning of July 4 when a flash flood seemingly caught parts of Central Texas, including Camp Mystic, off guard. The Washington Post published a new report today on the circumstances that made this flood so deadly. A leader at Camp Mystic, which is located in a flood zone, got a flood alert warning of 'life threatening' conditions at 1:14 a.m. However, Dick Eastland, the camp's director, didn't begin evacuations until 2:30 a.m. The Post notes the National Weather Service's (NWS) alert didn't include an evacuation order and interviews with families indicate there was spotty cell service. Other camps also delayed their evacuations, but Camp Mystic had a higher risk. The camp had a speaker system, but it wouldn't have worked without electricity. The Washington Post also spoke with a camp counselor who recounted what happened that night. It is hard to read. Excerpt: 'A native Texan, [camp counselor Ainslie Bashara had] seen hundreds of summer squalls, but this one felt heavier. The thunder cracked like fireworks inside the cabin. … The lightning lit the room like flashbulbs, and at each strike, she scanned faces around the room. Then she noticed a car pass by, a bizarre sight at that hour. She glanced at her watch: 1:58 a.m. She soon heard another noise that, at first, felt out of place. Two nearby cabins housed Mystic's youngest campers, and the 8-year-olds had started shrieking.' Read: 'In the dark, amid screams, a Camp Mystic counselor had 16 girls and one headlamp' The New York Times reports the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) did not respond to nearly two-thirds of calls from flood survivors to the disaster assistance line. Why?: 'The lack of responsiveness happened because the agency had fired hundreds of contractors at call centers, according to a person briefed on the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss internal matters.' Timing: Contractors were laid off on July 5 once their contracts expired. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who introduced a new rule that any expense exceeding $100,000 must be personally approved by her, didn't renew those contracts for five days. The percentage of FEMA calls that were answered, per the Times: Noem defended her response this weekend: Noem denied reports of resources being delayed in Texas due to her new $100,000 sign-off rule as 'absolutely false.' She told NBC's 'Meet the Press' on Sunday that 'call centers were fully staffed and responsive.' President Trump is desperately trying to move on from the controversy surrounding convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, but his attempts to put to rest the conspiracy theories have backfired. His administration concluded Epstein had no client list of powerful people and that he was not murdered in jail, both theories that have long fueled conspiracies. But the reported memo debunking these questions has only sparked more intense scrutiny. A reporter asked Attorney General Pam Bondi about the Department of Justice's (DOJ) conclusions last week — and before Bondi could respond, Trump snapped at the journalist. This didn't end the discussion, so this past weekend, Trump tried another approach. He praised Bondi on Truth Social, called into Charlie Kirk's radio show to express support for his attorney general and 📸invited her to his box at the FIFA Club World Cup. But the questions are only intensifying. Far-right activist Laura Loomer, who is a strong ally of Trump, called for a special counsel to investigate the handling of the Epstein files. She told Politico late last night that she doesn't think Bondi 'has been transparent or done a good job handling this issue.' Tomorrow: In The Movement newsletter, The Hill's Emily Brooks will take a look at how the Epstein saga could affect Republicans in the midterms. Click here to sign up & get it in your inbox. Related, via The Wall Street Journal's Editorial Board: 'Now Trump Says Forget Jeffrey Epstein: He urges MAGA to give up a conspiracy tale that he and his allies promoted.' ➤ DEMOCRATS ARE ALSO TRYING TO FORCE THE FILES TO BE RELEASED: Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) called on House Republicans to demand the Trump administration release the 'FULL Epstein files.' And Rep. Marc Veasey (D-Texas) says he will introduce a resolution to demand the file release. There is speculation swirling that President Trump could replace Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell with Treasury Department Secretary Scott Bessent. The Hill's Tobias Burns reports this possibility 'is spinning heads from Washington to Wall Street.' Could this happen?: Burns published a helpful explainer on whether it is actually possible to have a dual Fed-Treasury chief. Basically, there's no law prohibiting it, but losing the Federal Reserve's independence could have serious ramifications for the economy, particularly inflation. Read Burns's reporting: 'Will Bessent serve as Fed chair, Treasury secretary at the same time?' The House and Senate are in. President Trump is in Washington. (All times EST) Noon: Trump participates in the White House Faith Office luncheon in the State Dining Room. 💻Livestream 2 p.m.: Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) will be the first guest on GOP strategist Scott Jennings's new radio show, per The Hill's Emily Brooks. 5:30 p.m.: Two Senate votes, one judicial confirmation and the other to end debate on another nominee. 📆Today's agenda 6:30 p.m.: First and last House votes. 📆Today's agenda Wednesday: The Hill and NewsNation are hosting an inaugural Hill Nation Summit to interview Washington's top leaders. Speakers include: Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, White House senior counselor for trade and manufacturing Peter Navarro, House Democratic Vice Chair Ted Lieu (Calif.), former DNC co-Vice Chair David Hogg and more. 🎤Full speaker list📝Request to attend 🧀 Celebrate: Today is National Mac and Cheese Day! 🧑💻 Elmo, I sure hope your password wasn't Elmo!ABC123: Elmo's X account was hacked over the weekend. The hacker posted racist and antisemitic messages, per USA Today. To leave you smiling, watch this dog process the news of a new baby entering the family.
Miami Herald
2 hours ago
- Miami Herald
Trump reluctantly comes around to backing Ukraine. Will he stick with it?
(News Analysis) Nearly six months after his inauguration, when President Donald Trump pledged he would measure his success by 'the wars we end' and 'the wars we never get into,' he is adopting an approach toward Russia that on the surface looks much like his predecessor's: arming the Ukrainians to fight off an invasion. Trump came to this point in a circular fashion, and if these past few months are any indication, there is reason to doubt he will stick with it. A first test may come Monday and Tuesday, when Trump meets at the White House with the secretary-general of NATO, Mark Rutte, and is expected to formally announce new plans to route U.S. arms to Ukraine through European allies. He also appears to be moving to embrace new sanctions European leaders are pushing to put more pressure on President Vladimir Putin of Russia. The president is a late and very reluctant convert to the approach of trying to confront and isolate Putin. During last year's presidential campaign, Trump vowed a quick resolution of the war because he said he alone had the stature to deal with the Russian leader. Once he took office, he blamed the Ukrainians themselves for Russia's invasion of their own country. Then he clashed with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in an extraordinary Oval Office display, telling him, 'You don't have the cards.' He gave Russia a pass on tariffs and praised Putin for his strength, and provided assurance that Ukraine would never join NATO. Much of that is seemingly reversed, at least for now. The president said last week he was 'very strongly' considering backing a bipartisan Senate bill that would impose a new sanctions bill that would allow -- but not require -- Trump to impose 500% tariffs on any country purchasing Russian oil or gas. Trump also lifted a brief U.S. pause on delivering weapons to Ukraine. A plan hatched at the NATO summit in June to arm the Ukrainians by selling American weapons to the Europeans, who in turn would pass them on to Ukraine's beleaguered forces, is beginning to take shape. Speaking to reporters Sunday, the president said he planned to provide more Patriot missiles to Ukraine, stressing that the weaponry would be paid for, and that the nation was in 'desperate need' of it. 'Because Putin really surprised a lot of people,' Trump said. 'He talks nice and then he bombs everybody in the evening, but there's a little bit of a problem there. I don't like it.' The president, who has also complained privately to several associates that he believes Putin has strung him along, declared the other day that 'we get a lot of (obscenity) thrown at us by Putin.' That was a point that the foreign policy advisers around former President Joe Biden say they made, repeatedly, to Trump's incoming team. 'It's a welcome change in rhetoric,' Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in an interview Saturday. 'He seems, at least in his recent comments, to recognize that he's finally getting this -- Vladimir Putin is playing him.' 'Whether that lasts very long,' she added, 'is not clear.' Anna Kelly, a White House spokesperson, declined to respond to the idea that Trump's position now more closely mirrors Biden's, or address Trump's frustrations with an inability to sway Putin so far. In a statement, she blamed Biden for not being able to halt Russia's invasion. 'Unlike Biden, President Trump is focused on stopping the killing, and thanks to his leadership, Russia and Ukraine are having direct talks for the first time in years,' she said. Biden's approach to Ukraine came from a conviction that the invasion was both illegal and morally offensive, and that in the 21st century, nations do not violate others' borders. He declared, repeatedly, that stopping Russia from taking Ukraine was crucial if the West wanted to deter a Russian march deeper into Europe. To Biden, halting the aggression that has led to Europe's largest war since the defeat of Nazi Germany was essential to preserving the post-World War II order. Trump has never had much use for those alliances, or the order they created for the past 80 years. Nor has he ever in the past decade condemned Putin with the same ferocity that Biden did. When television host Bill O'Reilly bluntly called Putin a 'killer' on Fox News while interviewing Trump in 2017, the newly elected president replied with moral relativism: 'There are a lot of killers,' he said. 'You think our country's so innocent?' Trump never called the 2022 invasion illegal -- when it first began, he praised Putin for a 'smart,' if violent, land grab. He has approached the few, sporadic negotiations over a ceasefire and possible peace accord as a real estate transaction. The one he has envisioned would acknowledge that Putin will hold whatever lands he now controls in the south and east, and perhaps more. At the Justice and State departments, Trump has largely dismantled the offices gathering evidence for possible war crimes prosecutions against Russian officials. But now, the president seems to be acting out of a sense of personal pique, and perhaps the discovery that his relationship with the Russian leader isn't what he once might have imagined. Trump has admired Putin's toughness, part of a pattern of praise by the U.S. president for authoritarian leaders. But he appeared to believe the sentiment was mutual. In the past, Trump expressed skepticism about continuing to support Ukraine with military aid, a reversal of American strategy and a position that resonated not just with the president's fiercest supporters but some in the broader electorate who had come to see defending Ukraine as yet another lengthy foreign entanglement. And Trump has talked with Putin a half-dozen times since taking office, though by his account with diminishing results. He sent his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, to visit Putin at the Kremlin, but he emerged with little to show for the discussions, which usually took place with no other U.S. officials, save for a translator. Although Trump has said there would be no progress on Ukraine without a direct meeting between him and Putin, none has been scheduled. (Biden had only one face-to-face meeting with the Russian leader, in Geneva in June 2021, largely prompted by a major Russian ransomware attack on an American oil and gas pipeline provider.) A phone conversation between Trump and Putin earlier this month was followed, within hours, by a massive Russian missile and drone attack on Kyiv and other major Ukrainian cities, a volley in one of the most extensive assaults on Ukraine since the war began. That has left Trump in the position he most hates: being embarrassed and, worse, appearing like a paper tiger. When he claimed to have discovered after the fact that the Pentagon has paused the transfer of some defensive weapons to Ukraine, he told reporters he was ordering the shipments resumed. That sent Washington abuzz with speculation that the president may have finally gotten in sync with the strategy from which his NATO allies never wavered: to isolate Russia and arm Ukraine. Still, little has substantively changed when it comes to U.S. support for Ukraine. 'The problem is that lifting the pause, while an important first step, only releases aid that was authorized during the Biden administration,' said David Shimer, who served as the director of Eastern Europe and Ukraine policy on Biden's National Security Council. 'But it will only restore the status quo of a week ago,' he said, 'which was of dwindling security assistance flows, authorized under the prior administration.' He added that 'now is the time for this administration to go further and adopt a sustained strategy to increase military aid for Ukraine, increase economic pressure on Russia, and push Putin to engage in meaningful negotiations to end this war.' The approach Trump is taking seems designed to keep him at least one arm's length away from the conflict. By having the Europeans pay for and funnel the arms, Trump may hope that he is not regarded as a direct participant in the war. Of course, the United States is directly participating: It even hosts the intelligence center in Germany where British, U.S. and Ukrainian military officials sort through targets each day. But Trump has not backed a new security assistance package from Congress, which he knows would inflame his base and run contrary to its demands -- often voiced by Vice President JD Vance -- to end the cycle of direct American support. He has not pressed Europe to seize the $300 billion in Russian assets that Moscow had in Western financial institutions when it mounted the invasion in 2022. And while he appears to be vaguely supporting the bill now in the Senate -- backed by 85 senators by latest count -- that would call for sanctions against countries that are buying Russian energy products, including China and India, he has not said whether he would actually impose those sanctions. Marshall Billingslea, who served in Trump's first term as arms control negotiator and in other diplomatic roles, noted recently in a social media post that Trump 'already has all the legal authority needed to do everything in that bill.' But Trump appears to want the cover of having Congress act first. This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Copyright 2025
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Can Investors Keep Counting on the TACO Trade?
Concerns about tariffs have had a relatively modest impact on stocks recently, as investors bet that President Trump will ease up on trade policies the market views negatively. The economic headwinds that tariffs are expected to create have yet to materialize. Investors will be looking for signs of stress in upcoming economic data releases and corporate earnings reports. Uncertainty around trade policy is likely to continue being an important factor driving market have climbed well off their post-Liberation Day lows, a sign that investors have moved past the trade-related concerns that led to those lows in the first place. They could be right—but some investors say that waving aside trade matters is a risky bet. The European Union and Mexico are among the latest trade partners to face renewed pressure from President Donald Trump as he continues to push countries to accede to his demands regarding a range of policies–including, in Brazil's case, domestic affairs. His latest actions have weighed on shares somewhat in recent sessions, but not dramatically so. (Read Investopedia's full coverage of Monday's trading here.) 'The market has not treated the recent tariff escalation as a negative catalyst at all, as it was very predictable, with the expectation that a relent will come eventually,' Deutsche Bank analysts wrote Friday. That commentary alludes to the so-called TACO Trade, which posits that Trump will ultimately ease up on trade policies the market views negatively. While companies, economists and investors all believe that the tariffs as announced at any given moment could prove a substantial headwind to the economy, those winds have yet to pick up. Tomorrow's CPI report for June could offer a fresh view of those effects, as could second-quarter earnings and U.S. retail sales data. And some market watchers believe those effects will surely arrive eventually. 'We believe tariffs remain the key risk to corporate profits in the second half of the year and are less concerned about geopolitical events or the outlook for fiscal and monetary policy,' ClearBridge Investments CIO Scott Glasser wrote last week. ClearBridge expects the average effective U.S. tariff rate to land in the range of 14% to 15% as deals with large trade partners take a while to crystallize and levies on smaller ones remain in the meantime. 'To date, the impact on both growth and inflation has been muted by existing inventory and a fear of backlash for raising prices," Glasser wrote. "However, conversations with corporate management teams tell us that while they are willing to absorb some cost, prices are likely to rise in the coming months as pre-tariff inventory is absorbed.' Bank of America analysts, who slashed their full-year earnings per share estimate for the S&P 500 after Liberation Day, have since brought that estimate some of the way back, in part citing 'tariff de-escalation' along with what it considered strong first-quarter earnings. But 'uncertainty around tariff deals remains a swing factor,' they wrote Sunday. If trade news can't slow down stocks much, it may be something else—perhaps earnings or interest-rate policy—that does. 'The lack of an equity selloff means other forms of negative feedback might have to be relied upon for a relent,' Deutsche Bank wrote. Read the original article on Investopedia Sign in to access your portfolio
