Introduction - Why Steakhouse Financial?
Experience
The Steakhouse team was founded by DAO contributors, for DAO contributors. We are leaders in blockchain-based financial reporting, and created some of the first widely used blockchain-based financial statements and financial reports dating back to early 2021. We actively report on and monitor MakerDAO’s >$2.5bn RWA portfolio and protocol financials, as well as ENS’s >$100mm endowment.
Thought Leadership
Steakhouse was at the forefront of researching the proliferation of tokenized treasury bill products, authoring a report on the landscape nearly a year ago when the TVL of these products was at a fraction of today’s. We also built one of the most popular Dune dashboards to monitor and compare tokenized public securities.
Advanced Arbitrum Analytics
Our analytics team is intimately familiar with the Arbitrum data sets and have built an extensive number of dashboards and queries within the Arbitrum ecosystem, including for GMX, Radiant Capital, Dolomite, and various perpetual DEX protocols such as APX, Mux, Gains, and Vertex.
Note: Steakhouse Financial is currently acting as a member of the STEP selection committee. It is our understanding that the responsibilities of the committee members do not materially overlap with those of the Program Manager and will end prior to the start of the Program Manager role.
I. Applicant information
Name
Steakhouse Financial
Address (Headquarters)
CO-399520
P.O. Box 10008 Willow House
Cricket Square, Grand Cayman
Cayman Islands KY1-1001
City, State, Postal Code
Grand Cayman, KY1-1001
Country
Cayman Islands
Website
steakhouse.financial
Primary contact Name
Sam Paderewski
Title
Head of Credit/RWAs
Country
US
Email, Telegram, Forum, & other methods of contact
sam@steakhouse.financial
rwa@steakhouse.financial
II. Applicant Details
Please describe your company
Steakhouse Financial is a boutique advisory firm that provides financial consulting services to a variety of DAOs, Stablecoins, and other crypto projects. Steakhouse helps organizations harness the power of public blockchains by designing on-chain financial infrastructure, creating blockchain-based financial reporting, and providing strategic advisory services tailored to the needs of the client.
Please give a bio of key team members and their relevant experience. Also mention the name and bio of the point of contact that will engage with Arbitrum DAO if selected. References are encouraged
Sam Paderewski, Head of Credit/RWAs
Sam joined Steakhouse in 2022 with a focus on real-world asset strategy and analysis. Before Steakhouse, Sam was an analyst and trader at Hildene Capital, a structured credit hedge fund. He previously worked for Citigroup’s CLO Structuring & Syndicate team, bringing new issue CLOs to market. He also has experience on Citigroup’s institutional Investment Grade Credit team.
Adrian Cachinero Vasiljevic, Co-founder
Adrian has a background in corporate finance, investment banking and as an entrepreneur / operator. He studied engineering at EPFL, obtained an MBA from INSEAD, and is a CFA Charterholder.
Sebastien Derivaux, Co-founder
Sébastien created the first decentralized Core Unit at MakerDAO in early 2021 focused on Real-World Asset and financial reporting. He holds a PhD in Data Science, and before his crypto life, he worked in banking, insurance, and video games. Sébastien publishes research articles at https://cryptobanking.network/.
Mark Phillips, Co-founder
Mark started contributing to DAOs in early 2021, specializing in financial reporting and analysis. Prior to co-founding Steakhouse and working in the crypto industry, Mark was a Sr Consultant at Deloitte Consulting LLP and then a Sr Finance Manager at a large publicly listed company. Mark has over a decade in finance, consulting, and operations experience and completed all three levels of the CFA exam.
Shaun Musuka, Chief Legal Officer
Shaun serves as the CLO of Steakhouse Financial. Previously he worked as an attorney at Latham & Watkins with a dual focus on the areas of capital markets and crypto. On the capital markets side, Shaun specialized in Rule 144A / Reg S offerings by issuers from the EMEA region. On the digital assets side of things, Shaun advised several crypto projects with respect to complex transactions and U.S. securities law. Shaun holds a JD from Cornell Law School and is a registered attorney in New York State.
Please contact us for references.
Total team size
11
Number of Years in Operation
2
III. Applicant Performance
Past experience if any for performing each of the roles and responsibilities described in the appendix (Divide your answer into three sections corresponding to the 3 parts in the appendix).
Cashflow and Accrual Monitoring
Steakhouse and its team members work with a variety of DAOs including MakerDAO, Lido, and ENS to primarily support their financial reporting, planning, and analysis efforts. Most relevant to the STEP program, Steakhouse pioneered MakerDAO’s RWA program (which now totals over $2.5bn in asset value) and is responsible for monitoring and tracking the performance and cashflows of those assets.
Each month, Steakhouse provides a high level monthly report on Maker’s RWA portfolio, the most recent of which can be found here.
In addition to this summary report, Steakhouse performs in-depth reporting and analysis on each RWA deal, creating publicly available dashboards with complete cashflows wherever possible. Please reference the below examples:
Huntingdon Valley Bank - A partnership with a Pennsylvania community bank to finance commercial and consumer loans, facilitated by a Delaware statutory trust.
Clydesdale Dune Dashboard - A transaction designated for the purchase of 0-6 month treasury bills, arranged by Monetalis and facilitated by a British Virgin Islands SPV.
Additionally, Steakhouse creates a monthly economic report for the overall protocol, tracking the balance sheet, income, and other key metrics. The latest protocol economics report can be found here.
Underlying Asset Monitoring
Similar to the cashflow and economics reporting mentioned above, Steakhouse also conducts monthly covenant and portfolio reviews to ensure that the RWA transactions in question are meeting the necessary portfolio concentrations and collateral quality requirements.
Each deal requires a synthesis of off-chain and on-chain data and an active working relationship with the RWA issuer. For examples of this covenant monitoring, please see the monthly RWA report for MakerDAO, linked again for convenience here. Specifically, please see the covenants and portfolio characteristics tracked for Huntingdon Valley Bank and New Silver. In New Silver’s case, the underlying portfolio is confidential, but summary characteristics are provided in the monthly report to show compliance with the stated covenants.
Operations and Counterparty Monitoring
Steakhouse has performed a series of in-depth reviews of RWA issuers and service providers. Some of these reviews have been performed in conjunction with MakerDAO transactions and some as public goods.
Please see the below examples:
New Silver Restructuring Risk and Legal Assessment
Overview of Blackrock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund
Mountain Protocol (USDM) Economic and Legal Review
In each case, Steakhouse performed thorough due-diligence to understand each point in the operational chain of the product and identify key risks and points of failure. Steakhouse continues to advise multiple real-world asset issuers on a daily basis, which further broadens Steakhouse’s expertise and exposure in the space.
Describe any conflicts of interest your entity, its investors or key personnel may have with any potential service providers selected under the program
Steakhouse has a diverse client base and strong relationships in the RWA and DeFi space. As a result, there is some overlap between the STEP applicants and organizations with which we have an active engagement or economic interest. If selected as manager, Steakhouse is happy to publicly disclose any potential conflicts of interest in this regard.
Under what situations would you make a recommendation for Arbitrum to withdraw its assets from a selected service provider to fulfill each aspect of the outlined scope in the appendix?
The scope specifically calls for assets that are stable, liquid, and provide a yield uncorrelated with crypto markets that is at least commensurate with US Treasuries. With this framework in mind, Steakhouse would monitor the following essential investment characteristics:
- Capital Preservation: Minimizing credit risk to safeguard investment principal.
- Legal Risk: Assessing risks related to bankruptcy and regulatory changes to avoid legal entanglements.
- Liquidity and Salability: Ensuring that assets can be readily converted into cash without a significant loss in value.
- Yield and Relative Value: Striving for returns that are competitive with similar risk investments, particularly when benchmarked against U.S. Treasuries.
- Operational Processes: Valuing transparency and resilience in operational practices.
Steakhouse proposes that a material and adverse change in any of these categories—should such changes prove irreparable in a timely manner—constitutes sufficient grounds to recommend the withdrawal or reduction of the investment allocation. Ultimately, many of these factors are subjective and require a deep understanding of traditional markets, institutional processes, and the broader crypto markets. Steakhouse is uniquely equipped to undertake this analysis, backed by our team’s extensive and diverse experience in these areas.
Please list any experience your firm has in working with decentralized organizational structures
Please see the “past experience" section above. Steakhouse primarily works with DAOs and other decentralized organizations. This includes, but is not limited to, work with: MakerDAO, Lido, ENS, Angle, Morpho, Venus, and others.
What is the value of assets monitored by your entity?
$2.5bn+
Can you explain how risk management (investment and operational) is being done for assets under monitoring?
Steakhouse has a long history of employing comprehensive risk management frameworks to oversee and protect assets, focusing on both investment and operational dimensions. Similar to existing institutional processes, Steakhouse typically performs reviews annually, monthly, or more frequently as necessary, to assess changes to the asset characteristics or operational processes of each investment. A typical review cycle would be as follows:
Daily
- Monitor broad market events and changes, as well as disruptions to liquidity or general systemic function
Monthly
- Conduct a thorough review of underlying portfolio assets to assess market trends, price movements, and changes in credit risks.
- Certify covenant compliance to ensure all investment conditions are met, safeguarding against contractual breaches.
- Assess performance relative to any key benchmarks.
Annually (or more frequently as necessary)
Perform standard due diligence on each issuer through detailed questionnaires and direct calls to assess key changes, which include:
- Ownership and organizational structure changes
- Shifts in executive or senior management
- Updates in accounting, technology, and custodial or other service providers
- Status of permits and licensing
- Material litigation or legal proceedings
- Any regulatory enforcement actions
These comprehensive checks and reviews are designed to capture a holistic view of each asset, ensuring all potential risks are managed proactively.
Describe the content, format and preparation process of performance reports. This should include details of interest earned and status of total assets. Provide a sample if available.
The content of the report will be dependent on the specific product, but a standardized report should be published monthly to the Arbitrum Governance forums containing the following information:
- Market Price and Investment Notional Amount: Provides current market values and the notional amount of investments.
- Performance versus Benchmark: Analyzes the asset’s performance relative to pre-established benchmarks, highlighting deviations and their implications.
- Covenant Compliance: Assesses adherence to all covenants associated with the investment, ensuring all conditions are met or addressing any breaches.
- Interest Earned: Details the total interest generated during the reporting period.
- Liquidity Metrics: Evaluates the liquidity position to inform about the ease of converting assets into cash without affecting the market price.
- Operational Updates: Includes relevant operational developments that might impact asset management or valuation.
Examples reproduced from above showcasing various reporting formats:
Huntingdon Valley Bank - a MakerDAO private credit transaction with a Pennsylvania community bank to finance commercial and consumer loans, facilitated by a Delaware statutory trust
Clydesdale Dune Dashboard - a MakerDAO public credit transaction designated for the purchase of 0-6 month treasury bills, arranged by Monetalis and facilitated by a British Virgin Islands SPV
MakerDAO Protocol Economics Report - The overall protocol economics for MakerDAO
In addition to the monthly report containing the aforementioned information, block by block reporting of the endowment portfolio, through a live Dune dashboard, will also be provided.
IV. Applicant Pricing
Provide a copy of your standard contract, or one similar to what is being proposed here.
Steakhouse engagements are uniquely tailored to the needs of each client and vary significantly depending on the project scope. As examples of arrangements with public DAOs, please see our service description with Lido and ENS.
Comprehensive pricing breakdown inclusive of the full scope of services requested
Shared over email
Terms of fee payment such as upfront vs monthly costs
Shared over email
Approximate percentage of your annual budget that this service contract would constitute ? (eg: if annual expenses are $100 and proposed contract is $10, then 10% is the answer).
Shared over email