In this episode of the Full Throttle Leaders podcast, host Michael Falato interviews Mark Fidelman, co‑founder of SmartBlocks.xyz. The conversation begins with a brief overview of AI tools used by Falato’s lead‑generation firm, then shifts to Fidelman’s core business: tokenizing commercial real‑estate assets and real‑estate‑backed loans into blockchain‑based securities. SmartBlocks creates 1‑to‑1 securitized tokens that represent ownership or debt on properties typically valued above $5 million, allowing these assets to be traded globally like NASDAQ shares. The discussion covers the benefits of liquidity, access to international capital (e.g., Japanese investors), the ability to borrow against token holdings in DeFi markets, and the distinction between these security tokens and traditional crypto tokens. Regulatory considerations are highlighted, noting oversight by the SEC and FINRA, and the emerging acceptance by major exchanges such as Nasdaq and NYSE. Fidelman explains the target customers—real‑estate developers/owners and high‑net‑worth or institutional investors—and outlines SmartBlocks’ revenue model (transaction fees and small equity stakes). He also mentions a current $20 million raise and the minimum asset size for tokenization. The episode concludes with contact information for SmartBlocks and Falato’s lead‑generation services.
Chapters
All right. Welcome to another program element episode of Full Throttle Leaders. This is Michael Falato. I'm the CEO, founder of Full Throttle Fulfillment Leads. I have Mark Fidelman.
Fidelman. Yes, very close. Okay.
Tell us a little bit about your AI approach in what your company does and would love to kind of get deeper once you do that.
Yeah. So, um, if we're talking about lead development, uh, we use a couple of different services. We've turned, uh, ClawBot or OpenClaw as it's now called. It was just bought by OpenAI and we use that for, uh, content production. Uh, we use it for ads and it's all run automatically. We try to check, you know, there's a human element to it as well. AI is not solved. The quality problem yet, but it does A/B testing. It's basically a team of people that you used to have to hire that's running by itself. There's a famous case study with Claude. Claude's run by one marketer, so they're eating their own dog food, so to speak, or drinking their own champagne.
Yeah.
So, and then we also— my son created a program called Meridian, and that is an AI outreach email outreach system. Uh, and, um, it's really, really good. These kids that are, you know, using AI to code, it's unbelievable what they can create. So he just designed it specifically for my— our own specs. And then, uh, now he's going to go out and sell it, uh, here pretty soon.
I was more referring to the blockchain, the email stuff, and masterminds and roundtables or even that type of stuff. I don't actually highlight other people that do what I do, so I just wanted to start over there because I want to talk about just what you do, not on the Legion side, but—
yeah, got it. I thought you're talking about the Legion side.
No, no. So let's, let's start over because I'm not actually— do that.
All right, let's do it.
Okay. All right, welcome to Full Throttle, Full Auto Leaders. I'm Michael Falato. I'm the CEO and founder of the lead company, Full Throttle Florida Leads. And I got Mark. Mark, how are you doing, Mark? What do you tell us a little bit about your company, what you do?
Yeah. So company's called SmartBlocks.xyz is the website. And what we do is we tokenize real estate and real estate loans. And what that allows you to do is provide liquidity for commercial real estate, industrial real estate. Any kind of real estate typically above $5 million, and you turn it into tokens, which is essentially the same thing as NASDAQ and NYSE shares, and they're tradable all around the world. A lot of advantages to that.
And so these are commercial loans from commercial banks, or is this kind of a back way to get money to, to buy commercial property?
Yeah, these are, these are investors that are investing in loans because, you know, the banks are very difficult to deal with, especially on the commercial side. So there's groups of investors that will earn about 10% or higher depending on, you know, what the loan is. And, you know, rather than go to a bank who will charge, you know, take really 6 months, charge you a bunch of points, you know, people are coming to us turning it into a security and then raising money that way.
So if I had— because I'm really ignorant in this space— is it kind of like almost like a GoFundMe commercialized blockchain? Everybody pulls their money together in your, in your power? I mean, it's for something that doesn't know, and I want to buy it. Piece of commercial property, how would I even understand what you're doing here?
I just think of it as taking a piece of real estate public on the NASDAQ.
Okay.
In fact, you'll be able to trade it on the NASDAQ in the next year. They're putting that together with a company called Kraken. So that's all it is. It's bringing it public. Now it's tradable shares like a REIT, but for one specific property. And you bring liquidity to real estate all around the world. You also on the loan side, you know, you can get people in Japan which have much lower interest rates than we do here to invest your property at a lower interest rate, lower than, than you could get here by far. So depending on what your goal is, you have access to a global market and the investors that are investing in it know that they can get out of it if they want to. They don't have to wait until you sell or liquidate the property. And you can also, if you don't want to sell because you're making good dividends from your investment, you can borrow against that in the DeFi markets. And I don't know how far down that rabbit hole you want me to go.
So I'm getting these loans. Is it crypto or is it real cash or just plain like a—
Yeah, yeah. No, it's not crypto. It's real cash. But What you're doing is converting it to tokens that exist on the blockchain. Now, these aren't crypto tokens. These are securitized tokens. There's a big difference. It's backed by a security, and that security is real estate. And it's a 1-to-1 relationship. You know, one, just like you would if you bought a REIT for every share in the REIT that you bought, you'd own a piece of their portfolio. But this, you own a direct piece of that real estate that's been tokenized.
Yeah, I worked for a REIT called Arden Realty out of LA, and they had like 18 big, big, big, um, buildings. And I got— sold it to GE Capital back in the day. So I— that's the first time I heard REIT, but I was basically at that type of thing doing energy consulting because they do energy consulting for their, for their portfolio. So But that's the first time I heard REIT, and that's interesting. So is it REIT that mostly engage in this, or could be just someone that just wants to buy like a multifamily property?
Well, I mean, at this point it's high net worth individuals, it's family offices. Institutions are starting to tiptoe into it because it's becoming mainstream, as well as the SEC has now issued some guidelines around it. So No one's going to lose their license by doing it at the institutional level. And then you have some crypto people that want to diversify into more of a securitized offering instead of a utility token. This is really a security backed by real, real, real estate, but it's not tied to like FDIC or any of that stuff, right? No, it wouldn't be tied to FDIC. They might govern some of it. But for the most part, it's governed by FINRA and the SEC.
What is FINRA?
It seems like a financial institution that manages certain types of securities and certain types of security licenses. So they and the SEC are kind of fighting for control over this new blockchain security world that we're going to be in here in about 2 years.
And do you— when you meet people and they ask you what you do, do you think they understand? Your friends, what you're like, what do you mean?
I think everyone tends to overcomplicate these things. It's just bringing a company public or I'm sorry, a piece of a project public, but it's on the— instead of it being on NASDAQ or the NYSE, you're bringing it public on a blockchain. So almost any exchange crypto exchange or security exchange can pick it up. Uh, in fact, NASDAQ and the NYSE has seen the light and saying, hey, we don't want to lose this business. So now they're starting their own tokenized— so instead of shares, it's tokens. Uh, they're creating their own marketplace for that.
Yeah, it's tough. I'm an intelligent man, but it's still It's still, you still gotta wrap your head around it.
Yeah, it's just a different way of thinking about it, but it's a much better, it's all gonna go that direction because of the global nature of it. You know how difficult it is for somebody in another country just to buy a share of Apple? You know?
Really? Can't buy a share of Apple from another country?
No, very, very difficult. I mean, you can if you go through the process, but yeah, you can't just sign up for an account on, Uh, in the United States, yeah, it's very different.
Schwab's really only for Americans then?
I mean, yeah, I mean, you could go through the process as an international, uh, entity or individual. I'm just saying it's very difficult.
Huh, I'm learning a lot today. I just feel really stupid. Um, so who's the best person, like, if you're— someone's watching this this podcast, who do you want to reach out to, to you, and how do they get a hold of you?
Yeah, there's two different types of people. One is a developer, a real estate developer, real estate owner that wants to put either one property or portfolio properties on the blockchain, bring them public essentially, or investors that want to invest in these things because they're very lucrative. There's no middleman. It's— we're not a REIT that's taking, you know, 20, 25% of the profits. It directly goes back to you. So one of those two types of people, buy side or sell side.
And how do they, how do they find you on like, what's your— you want to give out your email, your web address?
Yeah. So if you go to smartblocks.xyz and hit the contact us, or if you're a developer, there's a whole application process that's all on the site.
And what's the— what's the— is there a particular monetary, monetarily, um, fund that you shoot for? Like, like $2 million to $5 million, or is it—
oh no, anything above $5 million.
Okay.
Yeah, we're just closing on a $20 million deal now where we've raised all the money.
And you guys make money off the transaction, your company, or public money?
Yes, off some of the transactions if it's outside the United States, but we also take a percent, a small, very small percent of the deal in terms of equity.
Well, I hope you guys reach out to Mark, and if anything, he could educate you how you can make more money on your money and get into some of these REITs, right?
That's right.
All right. I'm Michael Falato. If you want to reach out to me about lead generation, top of funnel, Uh, you can reach me at 512-639-3375. Thanks again for watching Full Throttle Leaders.
