The Rollup

Jess Houlgrave breaks down why 2026 is the year of non-USD stablecoins with USDC losing Mica compliance, 30 European banks now issuing a euro stablecoin, and HKD, JPY, SEK and CHF versions all coming to market. She covers WalletConnect's $6B per week in stablecoin volume, why broad asset support is the key to reducing merchant and much more. Jess Houlgrave is CEO of WalletConnect, the leading...

Bernardo Brites breaks down why the Brazilian real is uniquely positioned for a stablecoin, why being pro-banking rather than anti-banking is the only path to the next hundreds of millions of stablecoin users, and how Trace processed $10B of payment volume on just $4M in seed capital before closing a $32M Series A.Bernardo Brites is Co-Founder of Trace Finance, a cross-border payments and stableco...

SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce breaks down the state of digital asset regulation in the USA. She joins us to talk through the Rule 611 trade-through proposal that's been 20 years in the making, why the innovation exemption is deliberately narrow, her views on synthetic tokenized securities, and why self-custody and financial privacy are non-negotiable principles she wants embedded into every r...

Sam Boboev breaks down why stablecoins are the native currency of AI agents, why Mastercard's $1.8B blockchain acquisition and Visa's OpenAI partnership signal the payment giants have accepted their stablecoin future, and why the real killer use case for stablecoins isn't consumer payments. Sam Boboev is Founder of Fintech Wrap Up, a media and analytics platform covering AI, stablecoin...

Alexander Cutler breaks down the state of investing in tokens, why Aerodrome is already the number one onchain exchange for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and FX volume, why 100% value redistribution is the only sustainable moat in onchain finance just like Hyperliquid proved in derivatives, and why predictive allocation is an entirely new primitive that lets capital allocators bet on where liquidity needs to...

From pioneering the Transformer architecture now used in every AI stack to building the rails for the agent economy, NEAR Co-Founder Illia Polosukhin connects the full arc in this inaugural episode of “Inside NEAR,” a new quarterly series on The Rollup. Illia breaks down NEAR’s early architectural bets that are now paying off, why privacy had to be a base-layer choice, and how it all culminates in...

Vladimir Novakovski sits down with Andy & Robbie to break down the Lighter bull thesis from The Tokenization Tower in NYC. We discuss Lighter's escape hatch design that lets every participant exit through Ethereum even if the protocol fails, why the RFQ model is the key to bootstrapping liquidity for pre-IPO and RWA perps, and why getting Citadel and US institutional capital on chain is th...

David Schamis breaks down why PERE now holds over 10% of HYPE's circulating supply, why the Coinbase and Circle deal added $200M in annual buybacks that the market didn't price in for a full day, and why Hyperliquid's price discovery on Cerebus and SpaceX may make investment bankers irrelevant to the IPO process. David Schamis is CEO of Hyperliquid Strategies, a publicly traded company...

Jake Brukman breaks down why a swarm of decentralized agents beat Google's quantum circuit research in a week, why decentralized training on consumer hardware is now provably cheaper than data centers, and why winning just 10% of AI training automatically locks in revenue from a $1 trillion inference market. He published this thesis in September 2022, before ChatGPT existed. Jake Brukman is Fo...

Sam Kazemian breaks down why the Genius Act's 120-day default acceptance is the most bullish structural change for compliant stablecoins, why you can't vibe code liquidity or DeFi integrations regardless of AI, and why the stablecoin supply step function could arrive in 6 to 8 months. Sam Kazemian is Founder of Frax Finance, the protocol behind FRAX USD, a Genius-compliant decentralized st...

DeFi Dad breaks down why lighter's ETH escape hatch makes it the most underrated security feature versus HyperLiquid, why RWA tokenization will eventually eclipse all native crypto tokens by market cap, and why ETH staking yield is effectively the native T-bills rate of the entire DeFi economy. The most convicted ETH bull case you'll hear right now. DeFi Dad is one of the most prominent lo...

Dragonfly's Haseeb Qureshi breaks down why Bitcoin is not an honest macro asset, why domestic perps will disappoint compared to offshore, and why BNB has been outearning Hyperliquid for years yet nobody wants to talk about it. The most contrarian read on digital assets you'll hear this week. Haseeb Qureshi is Managing Partner at Dragonfly, a leading digital assets venture capital firm. The...

Illia and Mert break down why the Zcash situation is a known ZK circuit trade-off and not the infinite mint catastrophe the market priced in, why Project Tachyon's formal verification is the most bullish upgrade in Zcash history, and why NEAR Intents generated $150K in a single volatile day, buying back NEAR while everyone else was selling. Illia Polosukhin is Co-Founder of NEAR Protocol, and...

Sal Ternullo joins this episode of AI Supercycle and breaks down why NEAR is a very unique asset in digital assets right now, how intents are building toward a real-economy TAM that dwarfs crypto-to-crypto swaps, and why the path to NEAR going deflationary is closer than the market thinks. The institutional inbound is at record levels, and the market is finally catching up, or so he says. Sal Tern...

Capital Flows and Jaymes Rosenthal join The Rollup to discuss how the PUR gamma squeeze is already happening. Capital Flows and Jaymes Rosenthal are macro traders and HyperLiquid analysts. The Rollup is where the leaders of digital assets and finance converge. Live from the financial capital of the world. Timestamps 00:00 Intro And Disclosures 01:04 Capital Flows Macro Background 04:37 Jaymes Poke...

Joseph Chalom explains why ETH is not dead. Joseph Chalom is CEO of SharpLink, the second largest corporate ETH holder. The Rollup is where the leaders of digital assets and finance converge. Live from the financial capital of the world. Timestamps 00:00 ETH Is Not Dead 01:16 Second Largest ETH Holder 02:33 Ethereum Wins The Scoreboard 04:20 Step Function Moment Coming 04:45 The Jeff Bezos Analogy...

Ryan Rasmussen joins us to explain how HYPE is the most obvious buy. Ryan Rasmussen is Head of Research at Bitwise, a digital assets manager. The Rollup is where the leaders of digital assets and finance converge. Live from the financial capital of the world. Timestamps 00:00 Largest HYPE ETF Launched 01:14 Why Only Two Issuers 02:37 200 Eyes On Crypto 03:52 Dollar In Dollar Out 04:38 In-House Sta...

Stephen Sikes joins us on this episode of AI Supercyle and explains how the agentic brokerage is live. Stephen Sikes is COO at Public, an investing platform for serious investors. The Rollup is where the leaders of digital assets and finance converge. Live from the financial capital of the world. Timestamps 00:00 Intro And Background 01:18 Platform For Serious Investors 02:26 Alpha AI Research Ass...

Alex Fine joins this episode of Stabled Up and explains how fintechs are going on chain. Alex Fine is Founder of Fun, the highest-converting on-chain payments platform. The Rollup is where the leaders of digital assets and finance converge. Live from the financial capital of the world. Timestamps 00:00 Intro And Recent Raise 00:38 Fintechs Going On Chain 01:27 Fun: Highest Converting On-Ramp 03:55...

Arthur and Illia join The Rollup to cover how privacy is massively mispriced. Arthur Hayes is the Maelstrom CIO; Illia Polosukhin is the co-founder of NEAR Protocol. The Rollup is where the leaders of digital assets and finance converge. Live from the financial capital of the world. Timestamps 00:51 Arthur's Macro Thesis 01:32 AI Is National Defense 04:10 Full Port NEAR Zcash Hype 05:23 L1 Con...

Scott Shay joins this episode of Stabled Up to tell us how Stablecoins are just receipts and more. Scott Shay is Founder of N3xt, a full reserve digital bank. The Rollup is where the leaders of digital assets and finance converge. Live from the financial capital of the world. Timestamps 00:39 Four Banks Founded 01:09 First Native Digital Bank 02:54 Stablecoin Is A Receipt 03:45 Stapling Paper To C...

Evan Szu joins us on The Rollup to explains how a recession is coming before inflation. Evan Szu is CEO of Gamma Prime, a curated alternative investment platform. The Rollup is where the leaders of digital assets and finance converge. Timestamps 00:00 Intro And Evan's Background 00:33 Thirty Years In Commodities 01:06 Why Gamma Prime Was Built 01:52 Client Spectrum Explained 03:09 Exotic Alts...

Austin Barack joins us for this episode of AI Supercycle to cover how exactly the AI privacy stack is undervalued. Austin Barack is Founder of Relayer Capital, an AI-focused digital assets fund. The Rollup is where the leaders of digital assets and finance converge. Live from the financial capital of the world. Timestamps 00:00 Venice Grass NEAR AI Thesis Intro 01:30 Venice Privacy Overview 02:03...

Simon Taylor explains how Stablecoins are the WhatsApp for money. Simon Taylor is Founder of Fintech Brainfood, a leading digital finance newsletter. The Rollup is where the leaders of digital assets and finance converge. Live from the financial capital of the world. Timestamps 00:00 Intro And Simon's Background 01:08 Ten Years In Banking 01:37 Head Of Crypto At Barclays 2015 03:10 Western Uni...

Lucas Schuermann joins The Rollup to cover how Variational raised $50M to build the on-chain brokerage. Lucas Schuermann is Founder and CEO of Variational, a zero-fee on-chain brokerage. The Rollup is where the leaders of digital assets and finance converge. Live from the financial capital of the world. Timestamps 00:00 $50M Raised 00:54 Ten Years In Quant And HFT 01:29 Q Capital Dorm Room Story 0...