Danielle Gilbert

Danielle Gilbert is the co-founder and CEO of Panagram, a digital asset investment firm. Before launching Panagram, she spent about eight years at JP Morgan covering hedge funds and other alternative investment managers on the capital introductions desk, where she got a front-row seat to how institutional investors evaluate and allocate to new strategies. That experience shaped how she approaches building investment products in the crypto space, and the firm now manages the Panagram BBB Score ETF (BBBR) alongside other crypto-linked strategies.

On this episode, Danielle talks with Brad about how she went from traditional finance at JP Morgan to founding a crypto asset manager, the logic behind Panagram's blockchain scoring model, and what it takes to build a regulated crypto investment product that traditional financial advisors can actually use.

From JP Morgan's Capital Intro Desk to Crypto

Gilbert's path into crypto started at JP Morgan, where she spent years sitting between institutional allocators and hedge fund managers, learning what makes investors commit capital to new and unfamiliar strategies. She left JP Morgan and initially joined a blockchain startup before founding Panagram with her business partner. The firm launched during a period when institutional interest in crypto was growing but the infrastructure for regulated, advisor-friendly products barely existed. Panagram positioned itself to fill that gap by applying institutional rigor to digital asset investing.

What sets Gilbert apart from many crypto fund managers is her focus on the advisory channel. She's not trying to sell crypto to crypto-native traders. She's building products for RIAs and wealth managers who need a compliant, transparent vehicle they can allocate to within existing portfolio construction frameworks. That JP Morgan background shows up clearly in how she thinks about product design, client communication, and the importance of meeting advisors where they are rather than asking them to learn an entirely new investment vocabulary.

The BBB Score and How BBBR Works

The Panagram BBB Score ETF (BBBR) is built around a proprietary scoring model that evaluates blockchain networks based on fundamental metrics. Rather than simply buying Bitcoin or weighting by market cap, the model looks at factors like network activity, developer engagement, transaction volumes, and security characteristics to identify which blockchain ecosystems are genuinely growing and building real user adoption. The score is designed to cut through the noise and hype that dominates crypto markets and focus on protocols with tangible adoption curves and growing utility.

The fund doesn't hold crypto directly. Instead, it uses publicly traded equities and other instruments linked to blockchain ecosystems to gain exposure. This structure makes it accessible to advisors who can't or won't hold digital assets directly but want their clients to participate in blockchain ecosystem growth. Rebalancing happens on a systematic basis driven by changes in the underlying scores, and the portfolio typically holds a focused set of positions rather than trying to capture the entire crypto universe. Gilbert emphasizes that the scoring model is entirely quantitative, removing the emotional decision-making and FOMO-driven trading that plague most crypto investors.

Building Crypto Products for Traditional Advisors

One of the more interesting parts of the conversation centers on the challenge of selling crypto exposure to traditional wealth managers. Gilbert notes that most advisors understand they should have some allocation to digital assets but struggle with implementation. Many are constrained by compliance departments, platform restrictions, or simply a lack of technical knowledge about the space. Panagram's approach is to make the product look and feel as close to a traditional ETF as possible, with the same transparency, daily holdings disclosure, and institutional custody infrastructure that advisors expect from any other fund in their lineup.

Gilbert also talks about education as a core part of the sales process. Her team spends significant time explaining not just what BBBR does but why blockchain fundamentals matter and how they differ from simply speculating on token prices. She draws a parallel to the early days of any new asset class: the first movers who build the education layer and develop trust with the advisory community end up capturing a disproportionate share of assets when adoption accelerates. The firms doing the unglamorous work of advisor education today are planting seeds that will pay off as crypto allocations become standard practice across wealth management.

Key Takeaways

• Gilbert spent about eight years on JP Morgan's capital introductions desk covering hedge funds before founding Panagram, bringing institutional product design thinking to digital assets.
• BBBR uses a proprietary scoring model evaluating blockchain networks on fundamental metrics like network activity, developer engagement, and transaction volumes rather than simple market cap weighting.
• The fund uses publicly traded equities and blockchain-linked instruments rather than holding crypto directly, making it accessible to advisors with compliance restrictions on direct digital asset custody.
• Panagram's go-to-market strategy focuses heavily on advisor education, positioning BBBR as a fundamentals-driven alternative to speculative crypto exposure.
• Gilbert views the advisory channel as the key growth vector for crypto products, noting that most RIAs recognize the need for digital asset exposure but lack compliant, transparent vehicles to implement it.

Listen to the full conversation on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube.