Wyatt sits down with Justin Garland and Hannah JoJo of Asymmetry Finance. In this episode, we cover: 

• The evolution of yield in DeFi
• Primitives users want
• Crypto risk assessment

Learn more about Asymmetry

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Matt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode: 

• Will stablecoins disrupt credit cards?
• The US Treasury Advisory Committee drops a report on stablecoins
• Mastercard and Visa launch stablecoin integrations
• Movement labs has more scandals
• Are quantum timelines accelerating?
• The real risk of quantum to Bitcoin
• Could a quantum break fix Bitcoin’s security budget?
• Are any Bitcoin purists left?
• Circle turns down Ripple’s acquisition offer
• Machinsky is facing a 20-year sentence
• Arizona passes an SBR bill 
• Cambridge releases a new report on bitcoin mining
• Bitcoiners are fighting about OP_RETURN again 
• What is Bittensor 

Content mentioned:

• US Treasury, Report on Digital Money
• Coindesk, Inside Movement’s Token-Dump Scandal: Secret Contracts, Shadow Advisers and Hidden Middlemen
• Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance, Cambridge Digital Mining Industry Report: Global Operations, Sentiment, and Energy Use
   

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Wyatt sits down with Kedian Sun, the founder of Level Money. In this episode: 

• Stablecoin usage in DeFi today
• Fiat-backed stablecoins vs other “stable” assets
• Ethereum vs other blockchains for stablecoins

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Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode: 

• Is Bitcoin decoupling?
• The Fed rescinds anti-crypto letters from 2022 and 2023
• Upexi raises $100m PIPE to invest in Solana
• Cantor, Tether, Softbank and Bitfinex inject $3.6b into 21 Capital, a Bitcoin acquisition vehicle
• Bitcoin ETFs versus bitcoin acquisition companies
• Trump is hosting a dinner for $TRUMP holders
• Charles Schwab wants to launch crypto trading
• Citi thinks stablecoins could reach $3.7T in supply by 2030

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Matt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode:

• We recap Nic’s article on why Signature collapsed
• Crypto exchange OKX announced their plans to expand to the US
• Kraken announced that US equities are now supported on the exchange
• MANTRA, a layer 1 network focused on RWAs, saw the price of its native token crash 90% in a matter of hours
• Global Payments agreed to acquire Worldpay, a payments processor, for $24 billion from FIS and private equity firm GTCR
• The US Department of Homeland Security has launched a probe into Anchorage, the digital asset custodian, related to the company’s AML polices
• Jerome Powell reiterates his support for stablecoin legislation
• Strategy (and others) buy more Bitcoin

Content mentioned in this episode:

• Galaxy Digital,  The State of Crypto Lending
• Nic Carter in Piratewires, Signature Didn’t Have to Die, Either

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Wyatt sits down with Fred Hsu and Michael Ho of D3 to talk domain markets. In this episode: 

• The existing domain name industry and legacy systems
• An interoperable marketplace for domains
• New financial promitives around domains and RWAs

More about D3

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Yuval Rooz and Eric Saraniecki, co-founders of Digital Asset join the show. In this episode we discuss:

• The origins of Digital Asset and the path to starting the firm.
• Views on privacy in the context of public blockchains.
• How enterprises and financial institutions are approaching tokenizing assets and leveraging blockchain technology.
• Examples of how on-chain privacy enables use cases in collateral management and stablecoin payments.  
• The role of the Canton Network public blockchain for enabling institutional use cases.
• How Canton Network works from a design perspective.

To learn more:

• Digital Asset Website
• Canton Network

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Matt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode: 

• Is dedollarization happening?
• The SEC’s Division of Corporate Finance released a “Statement on Stablecoins“
• The US Justice Department has disbanded its National Cryptocurrency Enforcement team
• The SEC releases new guidance on securities offerings in crypto markets
• FDIC Chair relaxes rules on crypto activities at banks
• Paul Atkins is confirmed
• The SEC has approved options trading for spot ETH ETFs
• Tether is exploring a US stablecoin
• Janover is doing a Microstrategy for SOL strategy
• Michelle Bowman is launching a review of the Fed’s failures in 2023 around the banking crisis
• What happened to Signature? 
• Matt’s critter situation

Content mentioned:

SEC, Offerings and Registrations of Securities in the Crypto Asset Markets

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Wyatt Lonergan and Juan Lopez of Vaneck Ventures join the show to talk stablecoins and institutionalization. In this episode, we cover: 

• The landscape of stablecoin growth and activity
• A world with many stablecoins vs few stablecoins
• Winning/losing companies in the new stablecoin era
• Impact on the longer tail of altcoins

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Hoolie Tejwani, the head of Coinbase Ventures joins the show. In this episode we discuss:

• The history and rationale behind the launch of Coinbase Ventures.
• The evolution of the crypto venture category.
• Areas of focus for Coinbase Ventures.
• Stablecoins, Crypto/AI and consumer startup category.
• The regulatory landscape in the United States.
• Operation Chokepoint 2.0 and the impact on startups.
• The rise of the Coinbase Mafia.

To learn more visit coinbase.com/ventures

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Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode: 

• What’s the deal with the tariffs?
• Are the tariffs 4D chess?
• STABLE Act advances from committee
• Galaxy settles with the NYAG for touting Luna
• Trump pardons the BitMEX founders
• Coinlist returns to the US
• FDUSD has a depeg amidst Justin Sun drama
• Fidelity launches a no-fee crypto IRA product
• Larry Fink is bullish bitcoin

Content mentioned:

• AI 2027, by Daniel Kokotajlo, Scott Alexander, Thomas Larsen, Eli Lifland, Romeo Dean

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Alexei Zamyatin, the cofounder of Build on Bitcoin (BOB), joins the show to talk about the state of the art in Bitcoin Rollups. In this episode: 

• Can Bitcoin achieve parity with Ethereum rollups?
• How BitVM and BitVMv2 changed the game for Bitcoin rollups
• When will Bitcoin rollups be considered “Stage 1”
• Ethereum’s existential crisis
• Bitcoin fees in a rollup world
• The risk of L2s cannibalizing Bitcoin
• Will Bitcoin DeFi look different from Ethereum DeFi?
• Why Bitcoin deserves Rollups
• What soft forks is Alexei looking forward to?
• Does institutionalization ossify Bitcoin?
• BOB’s progress and roadmap for 2025

Learn more about Build on Bitcoin 

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Matt and Nic return for another week of news and deals. In this episode: 

• We reflect on our podcast with Paolo Ardoino
• The EU’s MiCA rules make launching a stablecoin virtually impossible
• We explain the Ghiblification crazy
• OCC removes Reputation risk from bank supervision
• World Liberty Fi launches a stablecoin
• Hyperliquid suffers an exploit – are they decentralized?
• Fidelity is exploring the launch of a stablecoin
• ICE is looking to use USDC
• Coinbase is reportedly looking to acquire Deribit
• US Treasury lifts sanctions on Tornado Cash
• Sei is looking to buy 23andme

Check out this episode!

Paolo Ardoino, the CEO of Tether, rejoins the show for a timely discussion. In this episode:

• How is Paolo feeling about political trends in the US today?
• Tether is the 7th-largest buyer of USTs at the sovereign level
• Paolo’s decision to spend more time in the US
• What does Paolo make of the stablecoin bills in Congress?
• Does Tether want to eventually come onshore to the US?
• Tether is pursuing a Big 4 Audit
• The effect of Operation Choke Point 2.0 on Tether
• Tether is moving their HQ to El Salvador
• Paolo’s thoughts on stablecoins in MiCA
• How does Tether get to the figure of 400m global users of the stablecoin?
• Tether’s efforts to better understand their userbase and usage modes
• Tether’s methodology around balance sheet investing
• Is Paolo concerned about crypto-dollarization?
• Tether’s relationship with Cantor now that Lutnick is Commerce Secretary
• Is Paolo concerned about the emergence of interest-bearing stablecoins?

See also:

• On The Brink ep.87: Paolo Ardoino (Bitfinex/Tether) – Managing the growth of Tether (June 2020)

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Brian Foster, the Global Head of Wholesale at Coinbase joins the show for his second appearance. In this episode we discuss:

• A catch-up on the Wholesale business at Coinbase and the types of customers that are active in this market
• How banks and broker-dealers are accelerating their efforts post-election
• Perspectives on build vs. buy vs. partner decisions that are happening at banks after the repeal of SEC Staff Accounting Bulletin 121
• Views on how banks will approach M&A
• Coinbase’s role in the digital asset ETF market
• How Coinbase engages with government customers
• Views on the Bitcoin strategic reserve

To learn more about Coinbase visit coinbase.com. Also follow Brian on X.

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Nic and Matt are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode: 

• Trump speaks at DAS
• Is anyone in Washington talking about abolishing capital gains tax for crypto?
• Trump denounces OCP2.0
• TON raises a huge round
• Remember IOTA?
• We reminisce about Slock it and the DAO
• What happened to Ethereum Classic?
• Can you redeem PAXG for physical gold?
• Kraken acquires NinjaTrader for $1.5b
• The SEC says PoW mining is not a security
• Tim Scott’s debanking FIRM act advances from the Senate Banking Committee
• We review Bessent’s appearance on All In 
• What was the deal with the ‘vibecession’

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Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode: 

• The Strategic Bitcoin Reserve exists
• Will the government buy additional Bitcoin?
• What does “cost neutral” mean?
• What’s the deal with our cheese reserve
• Have Bitcoiners lost their libertarian origins?
• The OCC reverses their anti-crypto guidance
• Sentiment in crypto is at all time lows
• Is CZ seeking a pardon deal in exchange for a sale of Binance equity?
• Senate Banking votes to advance the Hagerty Stablecoin bill
• The banks are against interest-bearing stablecoins
• We recap the White House Crypto Summit
• Banks want to do crypto 

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Jeff Park, the Head of Alpha Strategies at Bitwise Asset Management joins the show. In this episode we discuss:

• The latest developments at Bitwise, including the firm’s Alpha Strategy division.
• Yield strategies in the digital asset ecosystem.
• Stablecoins and how the idiosyncratic opportunities that active managers are pursuing.
• MicroStrategy
• Thoughts on market structure and digital asset policy.

To learn more about Bitwise visit their website.  You can also follow Jeff on X.

Check out this episode!

Brandon Mulvihill, the co-founder and CEO of Crossover Markets joins the show. In this episode we discuss:

• The shifting regulatory landscape in the USA and the impact that it is having on traditional financial institutions.
• How banks and broker-dealers are responding to regulatory progress.
• The battle for “Primary Market” in the United States.
• The future of market structure and the bifurcation of exchanges vs. brokerages.
• How Crossover is positioned in 2025.

To learn more about Crossover Markets visit their website.

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Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode:

• We debate the prudence of a BTC reserve
• A Strategic Reserve of just BTC or altcoins?
• How would a crypto reserve be “strategic”
• Should the US Government just seize BTC to build the reserve?
• Is there a “strategic” purpose to owning a gas token?
• SEC task force for crypto is starting roundtables
• SEC drops lawsuits against Kraken, Cumberland, and Yuga labs
• Tim Scott’s bill to eliminate reputational risk from bank regulation
• CME launches SOL futures
• An Argentine prosecutor is looking to seize $110m in the Libra case
• Tether and Circle are fighting in Washington
• SBF makes an appearance on Tucker 

Check out this episode!