Nik Bhatia
Author of the bestseller Layered Money: From Gold and Dollars to Bitcoin and Central Bank Digital Currencies
Nik is a a financial researcher and Adjunct Professor of Finance and Business Economics at the USC Marshall School of Business; he currently writes The Bitcoin Layer, a research publication on Substack.
Nik Bhatia
TOPICS
ECONOMICS & FINANCE
Nik Bhatia is a financial researcher and Adjunct Professor of Finance and Business Economics at the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business, where he teaches Applied Finance in Fixed Income Securities. He is author of the #1 bestseller Layered Money: From Gold and Dollars to Bitcoin and Central Bank Digital Currencies. He currently writes The Bitcoin Layer, a research publication on Substack. Previously, Nik worked on the US Treasuries trading desk for a large institutional asset manager and has extensive trading experience in money markets and interest rate futures. He has a BA in Social Sciences from University of Southern California, a Master in Finance from IE Business School in Madrid, Spain, and is both a CFA and CMT charterholder. Nik lives in Los Angeles with his wife and daughter.
Speech topics
Layered Money
Using gold as an example of this term, Nik traces the layers of this ancient currency from raw mined material, to gold coins, and finally to bank-issued gold certificates. In a groundbreaking manner, Bhatia offers a similar paradigm for the evolution of digital currencies. Bhatia’s analysis begins in Renaissance Florence with the gold Florin coin and a burgeoning banking culture, continues with the evolution of central banking, and concludes with a vision for the future of our international monetary system. As central banks around the world prepare to launch their own crypto-competitors, Bhatia illustrates how the invention of Bitcoin created a seismic shift in money and merged the monetary and cryptography sciences. His unique analysis of “layered money” illuminates money markets for the general reader and shows how Bitcoin is becoming a trusted global currency. Readers will come away with an understanding of the mechanics of our financial system, why the dollar is deeply entrenched despite its state of disrepair, and how Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) and cryptocurrencies will interact in our new monetary future.