Around The Coin

Host Stephen Sargeant interviews Lincoln Murr , Head of AI Product at Coinbase , about Coinbase’s agentic finance (AI-Fi) strategy, covering agentic payments and trading, and why he sees Coinbase as infrastructure for a post-AGI economy. Murr recounts early crypto onboarding via LocalBitcoins and argues for permissionless, decentralized value transfer. He explains x402—an open “payment required” H...

On the Around The Coin podcast, host Stephen Sargeant interviews fintech leader Michelle Beyo , CEO and Founder of Finavator , about why open banking, open finance, and open data have advanced globally while North America, particularly Canada, continues to lag behind due to a lack of consumer data rights, clear timelines, and mandated implementation. Beyo explains how consent-driven data sharing c...

Host Stephen Sargeant introduces an in-person September 2025 Around The Coin podcast episode with Emma Todd , CEO/co-founder of MMH Technology and CEO of MMH Data Systems , an early Toronto crypto organizer who moved from traditional banking into crypto full time in 2016. Todd recounts her start at a Bitcoin conference, building events, learning pricing without mentors, and why early companies fol...

In this episode of Around The Coin, host Stephen Sargeant sits down with Amanda Wick , author of The Catalyst and Founder & CEO of the Association for Women in Cryptocurrency , for a wide-ranging conversation about the forces reshaping institutions, technology, and society. Amanda shares insights from her experience in financial crime, crypto, and public service, including her work on the Janu...

Host Stephen Sargeant welcomes Wei Zhou , CEO at Coins.ph , to discuss grassroots crypto and stablecoin adoption in the Philippines, why the country consistently ranks in Chainalysis’ global top 10, and how regulation since 2016–2017 enabled licensed exchanges and bank connectivity. Zhou explains Coins.ph’s dual licensing (VASP and EMI), its focus on remittances and payments, and how stablecoins c...

In this episode of Around The Coin, Stephen Sargeant speaks with Bart Smith , CEO of Avalanche Treasury Co ., to discuss building a regulated digital asset treasury focused on the Avalanche ecosystem. Bart explains why a public treasury vehicle can give investors brokerage-account access to AVAX exposure, staking (over 90% staked), and potential upside from investing in Avalanche-native businesses...

Host Stephen Sargeant welcomes George Christopher , Principal Investor at CoinFund (founded 2015), discussing how CoinFund invests from pre-seed through Series C+ across seed and venture funds in blockchain-focused companies. George shares his background in SaaS growth investing, argues the “SaaSpocalypse” mainly threatens horizontal workflow tools, and outlines defensible moats like proprietary d...

Live from Futurist, host Stephen Sargeant interviews Charlene Cieslik , an independent financial crime compliance consultant with 26 years in compliance (including early FINTRAC) and 10 years in crypto, about Canada’s crypto compliance landscape. Cieslik argues repeated misconduct by industry players has driven regulatory stagnation and poor laws, and says stablecoins should be treated as payments...

Live from Futurist, host Stephen Sargeant interviews Andrei Poliakov , founder and CEO of APX Lending . Poliakov explains why he built a highly regulated, compliant crypto-backed lending business after failures like Celsius, BlockFi, Voyager and FTX, offering loans in Canada and the US against Bitcoin and Ethereum up to 60% LTV with no rehypothecation, segregated insured cold-storage custody and o...

Live from Futurist, host Stephen Sargeant interviews Nikita Sachdev , owner of Luna PR , about how AI is reshaping public relations in crypto, Web3, and AI. Nikita explains that while AI makes content creation easy, distribution and winning attention are harder, making PR and credible placements more valuable, especially as search shifts from SEO to “GEO” (generative engine optimization) driven by...

Host Stephen Sargeant welcomes Patrick O’Kain , partner at Borderless Capital , to discuss cybersecurity, crypto investigations, blockchain analytics, and how AI-driven agentic commerce and stablecoins will reshape payments and finance. O’Kane explains Borderless Capital’s infrastructure-focused investing, his background in counter-terrorism finance and DOJ crypto investigations, and why blockchai...

Host Stephen Sargeant interviews Samiz Bayan , partner at Draper Dragon , on the state of venture capital and the convergence of AI, blockchain, and tokenization. Bayan outlines Draper Dragon’s early-stage focus on infrastructure, its bridge between Silicon Valley and Asia via the Draper Network, and how that cross-border network supports founders with exchanges, liquidity, and distribution. He sh...

Host Stephen Sargeant interviews Nikhil Raghuveera , CEO and co-founder of Predicate , about building real-time, smart-contract-level policy enforcement for onchain finance. Nikhil explains his background in payments and policy, why data from blockchain analytics providers isn’t enough, and how Predicate provides sub-second, non-bypassable “notary”-style approvals for transactions and automated fr...

On Around The Coin, host Stephen Sargeant interviews Wesley Rios , US & LATAM Partnerships Lead at Morph Network, about the current state of stablecoin infrastructure and merchant payment rails. Rios shares his career path from Citi, JPMorgan, and 13 years at Mastercard into crypto, arguing stablecoins are shifting the conversation from technology to concrete cost and reach benefits. He cites...

Host Stephen Sargeant welcomes David Barrick , CTO and co-founder of TIX & KYD Labs , to discuss why ticketing is fundamentally a banking business and how blockchain can fix fees, fraud, and resale chaos. Barrick explains primary vs. secondary ticketing, how venues rely on ticketing companies for underwriting and advances, and why service fees function like “interest” paid by fans. They cover...

Join our host, Stephen Sargeant , as he welcomes Seni Thomas , CEO and founder of EDGE Markets , to discuss prediction markets and EDGE’s role in compliant, high-velocity fund movement across regulated venues. Thomas covers EDGE’s $29.2M Series A led by CoinFund, the partnership with Kalshi, and why fragmentation into multiple liquidity pools could drive far higher volumes than current projections...

On Around The Coin, host Stephen Sargeant welcomes Aditi Shriram , COO of Para , to discuss her path into crypto from seeing Vitalik speak and starting at ConsenSys, plus her experience as a venture scout for Bain Capital Crypto. Aditi explains Para’s focus on wallet infrastructure for companies building on-chain financial products, highlighting stablecoin-driven use cases like remittances, embedd...

Join our host Stephen Sargeant with Xen Baynham-Herd , Head of Growth and Marketing at Base , on the Around The Coin podcast to discuss Base’s newest launches. Base Ledgers for enterprise-grade private transactions (shielded from the public but visible to regulators/auditors) and Base MCP, which connects chat interfaces like ChatGPT/Claude to a wallet and Base apps so agents can execute DeFi actio...

Join our host Stephen Sargeant with Itai Turbahn from Dynamic and Tal Zackon from TRES Finance , both now under Fireblocks , for a deep dive into agentic AI and what it means for payments, compliance, cybersecurity, and stablecoins. They explain why today’s human-in-the-loop rails like cards and ACH don’t scale for agent-to-agent microtransactions, and why crypto rails and stablecoins can enable i...

Host Stephen Sargeant interviews Chris Mason , founder and CEO of Orbital , about building stablecoin infrastructure and how it can improve cross-border payments compared with traditional correspondent banking and SWIFT. Mason explains Orbital’s background processing stablecoins for seven years, its focus on corporate clients, and why transaction controls, authorizations, segregation of client fun...

Recorded live at EthCC in Cannes, Around The Coin with host Stephen Sargeant sits down with Kyle Jenke , Chief Business Officer at Optimism , about how Optimism’s OP Stack and OP Enterprise help large enterprises build and own their own blockchains for customization, revenue economics, and stronger compliance, privacy, and security. Jenke cites over 50 OP Stack chains and major brands building on...

Live at EthCC on the Around The Coin podcast, Stephen Sargeant heads to the Zama Villa to speak with Zama COO Jeremy Bradley about fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) and why financial institutions need a confidentiality layer to balance blockchain transparency with selective access for regulators and compliance. Jeremy explains “programmable confidentiality,” Europe’s GDPR-driven focus on data sov...

Join host Stephen Sargeant reports live from ECC, where discussions center on wallets, tokenization, real-world assets, regulation, and compliance, and introduces a live Around The Coin episode featuring 1inch co-founder and CEO Sergej Kunz . Kunz recounts 1inch’s start at the 2019 ETHGlobal New York hackathon after conversations with Vitalik Buterin, his early hackathon circuit, and how 1inch gre...

Join host Stephen Sargeant live from EthCC in Cannes for a special episode of the Around The Coin podcast featuring Otto Jacobson , CEO of YAP Global . Otto shares his journey from investment banking and CFO to leading one of the top PR firms in crypto, blockchain, fintech, and AI. Together, they discuss the evolving media landscape in Web3, the rise of niche content creators, and how crypto compa...

Host Stephen Sargeant interviews Yat Siu , co-founder and executive chairman of Animoca Brands , covering his background (German mother tongue, education work) and views on how AI is changing the purpose of school and future jobs, emphasizing creativity, humanities, and entrepreneurship. Siu connects cycles from the dot-com era to crypto, arguing technologies that are better for society ultimately...