Bits and Borders

Lucas Nuzzi is a Brazilian-born blockchain analytics expert and data scientist. In November 2022, his on-chain analytical sleuthing gave the world, for the first time, a complete picture of the fraud that had been occurring between FTX and Alameda Research - entities that were both controlled by Sam Bankman-Fried. Lucas and host Aaron Stanley go behind the scenes of his groundbreaking research tha...

Sebastian Serrano is the CEO of Ripio, which is one of Latin America's largest crypto platforms with 20 million plus users. We discuss the region's crypto evolution over his 12 years in the market. We dive into the growth of stablecoin usage across Latin America, with 80% of Ripio's volume coming from these assets. We also discuss new developments in Argentina, such as a tokenization sandbox and g...

This podcast, originally recorded as an X Space, dives into the Brazilian Central Bank's controversial proposed restrictions on stablecoin usage and custody. During this space we hear from executives from Binance, OKX, Bluegreen, ABToken, Solana Foundation, Nonco, Bitso and more to discuss how these proposed rules would impact crypto users in Brazil and the country's nascent digital asset...

Niklas Anzinger, CEO of Infinita City, discusses how new governance models can unlock technological innovation through regulatory flexibility. Operating within Prospera's special economic zone in Honduras, Infinita is building a biotech-focused district that demonstrates how competitive governance can foster development. Key takeaways: Regulatory flexibility allows businesses to select from proven...

Is tighter oversight cutting off illicit crypto flows? Or are the bad guys just getting smarter? In 2023, addresses linked to criminal activity sent $22.2B in cryptocurrency—down from $31.5B in 2022, a steeper 29.5% drop compared to the 14.9% fall in overall transactions. This session explores the impact of regulation and compliance in making crypto markets safer and thwarting money laundering at...

In this episode, host Aaron Stanley is joined by Tatiana Guazzelli of Pinheiro Neto Advogados and Marcos Rocha of Veirano Advogados to discuss updates to crypto regulation in Brazil. Key Takeaways: Brazil's Central Bank is finalizing crypto regulations with potential restrictions on self-hosted wallets and stablecoins, aiming to publish final rules by end of 2025 Companies must establish activ...

Frederik Gregaard, CEO of the Cardano Foundation, joins host Aaron Stanley to discuss the organization's expanding influence in Latin America. Gregaard discusses Cardano's partnerships with Brazilian powerhouses Petrobras and SERPRO, alongside significant developments in Argentina with UTN Buenos Aires. We also explore Cardano's unique approach to blockchain development - which feature...

In this panel from Merge Buenos Aires hosted by BCR's Aaron Stanley, industry leaders from Banco Santander, GK8 by Galaxy, Manteca, and BlockDaemon discuss the accelerating institutional adoption of digital assets and blockchain technology. - Coty de Monteverde , Global Blockchain CTO at Banco Santander - Kaushal Sheth , Head of US Sales at BlockDaemon - Federico Goldberg , CEO at Manteca - Ma...

Lucas Danicek is the founder of Nexa Finance and has over 15 years of experience managing portfolios for some of Brazil’s wealthiest individuals and families. Throughout that journey, he identified a critical pain point in traditional investment models: the lack of personalization and accessibility for alternative investments. Nexa Finance's solution uses blockchain and AI to create personaliz...

In this special episode from Merge Buenos Aires, Bruno Grossi, Head of Emerging Technologies and Digital Assets at Banco Inter, discusses how Brazil's first digital bank is leveraging blockchain technology and participating in the groundbreaking Drex CBDC project. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Binance is the largest platform for trading of digital assets. W...

Arnold Lee is the co-founder and CEO of Sphere Labs, which is one of the most exciting stablecoin infrastructure plays at the moment. We talk about how Sphere has found product market fit for cross-border stablecoin payments in emerging markets, with billions of dollars being transacted annually on its rails. You can connect with Arnold on Linkedin -------------------------------------------------...

Today's episode is a crossover with João Pedro Malar, host of Exame's Future of Money podcast - which is one of the leading crypto podcasts in Brazil In this Portuguese language discussion, João and I discuss my perspectives on the Brazil and Latam crypto market having covered it for three years via my Brazil Crypto Report newsletter and podcast. You can find the Future of Money version of...

Andre Portilho is Head of Digital Assets at BTG Pactual, Latin America's largest investment bank. He joins host Aaron Stanley to dissect crypto's wild 2025 ride, from bitcoin's both Trump-slowdown to Ethereum's identity crisis to Solana's memecoin stress test. While crypto markets recalibrate after Trump-era euphoria, Portilho reveals why Brazil is a global leader when it comes to integrating cryp...

Paula Pascual is CEO and founder of Merge Madrid and Merge Buenos Aires and a former banker at Santander. She joins host Aaron Stanley to share her vision for uniting Europe and Latin America through Web3 events and media. The Merge Buenos Aires conference will take place March 25-26 in the Argentine capital at a time when crypto adoption is escalating in the region. By bringing regulators, tradit...

Phase 1 of Brazil's ambitious Drex CBDC pilot is in the books. The project has proven successful thus far, but privacy and scalability challenges remain - prompting the Central Bank to conclude that a "major adaptation" is required for Drex to become a core piece of Brazil's financial infrastructure. In this episode, Marcos Viriato of Parfin, Leandro Pereira of Nuclea, Ricardo Pa...

Rachel Conlan is Global Chief Marketing Officer at Binance. She joins host Aaron Stanley to discuss the crypto's exchange's ambitions to reach one billion users worldwide. Rachel reveals how Latin America has become Binance's fastest-growing region, with 63% user growth last year, well outpacing their global average. She also explains how Brazil and Latam have become a testing ground for new crypt...

Jean Hansen and and Victor Cioffi are core team members of Ipê City, which is a month-long Pop-Up city experiment coming to Florianopolis from April 22 - May 22. We discuss their vision for bringing together 150-200 techno-optimists, builders, and innovators in Brazil's Silicon Valley to prototype solutions to real world problems facing Brazil and Latin America. Ipê City is modeled after the "netw...

Danielle Teixeira is a program manager at Fenasbac, which is linked to the Central Bank of Brazil and runs several startup acceleration programs critical to promoting financial innovation in Brazil. She joins host Aaron Stanley to discuss Fenasbac's current NEXT Accelerator program, which features prominent sponsors including Banco do Brasil, Ripple, and Mercado Bitcoin , focusing on challenge...

This episode is the soft-launch of a special mini-series called Bits & Borders that will take us on a country-by-country tour exploring crypto adoption across Latin America. Each episode will spotlight a different country and map out the various adoption trends, entrepreneurial energy and regulatory environment in that specific nation. 🔥The first stop on our tour is: Guyana! As Guyana emerges...

This episode is a panel discussion hosted at Brazil House during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The panel was hosted by BCR founder Aaron Stanley and featured Andre Portilho, head of digital assets at BTG Pactual; Caroline Malcolm of Oxford University; Dante Disparte, chief strategy officer at Circle and Alan Cohn, partner at Steptoe, LLC in Washington, DC We discuss institutional...

Antonio Neto is the founder of Vega Crypto and the CEO of Ethereum Brasil. Previously, he was the Head of Brazil and Latin America at cryptocurrency exchange FTX. In Part Two of this two part conversation, he sits down with host Aaron Stanley to share for the first time his front-row seat view of the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX 0:46 - Personal impact of FTX collapse 3:07 - Handling NFTs...

Antonio Neto is the founder of Vega Crypto and the CEO of Ethereum Brasil. Previously, he was the Head of Brazil and Latin America at cryptocurrency exchange FTX. In part one of this two part conversation, he sits down with host Aaron Stanley to share for the first time his front-row seat view of the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX 02:38 - Antonio's Role at FTX 08:13 - FTX's Meteoric...

Marcelo Brogliato and Yan Martins are co-founders of Hathor, a network that deploys a unique hybrid DAG-blockchain framework. They join host Aaron Stanley to discuss exciting new features and community initiatives for 2025 as the project celebrates its fifth anniversary. These include "nanocontracts" written in Python, anti-MEV mechanisms and new developments on the real-world asset tokenization f...

David Lawant is Head of Research at FalconX, a leading institutional crypto prime brokerage in the US. He joins host Aaron Stanley to talk about crypto market structure heading into 2025, notably the incredible liquidity surge seen after the US elections in November. Lawant argues that these liquidity trends, combined with an improving regulatory environment and clearer investment thesis, could ma...

Guilherme Nazar is Regional VP for Latam at Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange. He joins host Aaron Stanley to discuss his previous experience building out Uber's operations in Brazil, Binance's growth in Brazil and the Latam region, the company's regulatory positioning under new CEO Richard Teng and the exchange's roadmap for Latam in 2025 00:30 Introduction 01:46 Guilherme's ba...