Bitcoin, Fiat & Rock'n'Roll

BFRR hits 400 episodes. The team reflects on seven years covering institutional DLT, then shares hot takes from 15 guests at PZF 2026 on governance, stablecoins, and monetary sovereignty.

June was brutal for crypto, yet the real story sits underneath: Saylor selling, Vitalik's privacy pivot, Stablecoin projects continue, and a sharpening transatlantic split over who anchors tokenized money.

Libra architect Christian Catalini discusses stablecoins, AI agents, the role of Bitcoin and why the future of money may be built on open networks, leveraging programmability and open standards.

GFTN’s Pat Patel on building Point Zero Forum, the future of stablecoins and agentic AI, and why coexistence beats winner-takes-all in the next wave of digital money.

Why would PayPal's former Head of Crypto join Stellar? José Fernández da Ponte explains why stablecoins, tokenization and open blockchain infrastructure are reaching a tipping point.

Stablecoins took over May. We unpack Kivalis’ 25-bank expansion, AllUnity’s agentic payments, Lagarde’s bearish take, the MiCA review, and the Clarity Act’s path through the Senate.

Clearstream’s Thilo Derenbach explains how Deutsche Börse is building hybrid market infrastructure for tokenised securities, digital assets and collateral mobility.

Circle’s Dante Disparte on regulatory wins, its own Arc blockchain, agentic payments and tokenized money's place in the global financial system.

Anika Patz, Partner at lawfirm YPOG, provides an overview of Europe’s Market Integration and Supervision Package (MISP) that will significantly change European financial market regulation and embed DLT.

Who is Satoshi Nakamoto? The New York Times suggests a new candidate—but does it matter? Plus: stablecoins gain traction in Europe, and Bhutan sells most of its Bitcoin.

Thomas Langbein, Chief Commercial Officer at Trever, explains why digital asset adoption in banking is shifting from experimentation to operationalisation—and why infrastructure is becoming the real bottleneck. He shares how Trever’s “digital asset operating system” helps banks integrate trading, custody, settlement, and compliance into one coherent setup across crypto, stablecoins, and tokenised...

Michael unpacks his new FERI study on stablecoins: the two-pillar model, dollar dominance by design, MiCAR vs. GENIUS Act, reserve risks, and why agentic AI changes everything for institutions.

Maha El Dimachki provides an overview of the BIS innovation hub projects she has worked on as the leader of the Singapore Hub: Nexus, Mandala, Rialto. The Episode continues to explore GFTN Solution’s mission.

SAP’s Stefan Arnold and Michael Blaschke on why IT architecture is stablecoin adoption’s missing link. ERP integration, custody, and compliance — how enterprises cross the chasm of digital payments.

Listen to a recap and an interpretation of the most relevant news of March 2026 in worldwide stablecoin and DLT adoption in capital markets and the recent partnerships and acquisition of Börse Stuttgart.

Tokenforge is rethinking tokenisation by shifting it from bespoke, complex financial engineering to a scalable, product-driven experience — more akin to e-commerce than traditional capital markets. In this episode, we explore how this approach changes issuance, distribution, and cost, and why launching the TKFG token may signal a new, more crypto-native path to scale.

Explore Europe's financial system transformation through TARGET2 and T2S, revealing central banks' roles in harmonizing payments and securities and hear why DLT can be the next evolution in financial infrastructure.

Cross-border payments remain slow and opaque. Milind Sanghavi, CEO and Co-Founder of XWeave explains how stablecoins and “Web2.5” infrastructure enable faster, cheaper, regulation-first global money movement.

February highlights traditional finance going on-chain: ECB accepts tokenized securities, BlackRock’s BUIDL trades via Uniswap, and stablecoins gain momentum - alongside tokenized deposits. Plus crypto earnings and the digital euro debate.

AllUnity’s Simon Seiter unpacks the full stack behind institutional stablecoins—from STP minting to reserve management. His message to banks: without wallet infrastructure, you’re already years behind.

The IMF asks: what is the TCP/IP of digital assets? We unpack why architecture beats technology, open beats closed, and standards beat platforms in the race to rebuild global finance.

Stablecoins are moving from crypto hype to payment backbone. Geetha Panchapakesan (ex- PayPal, -Visa, -Moneygram, -Circle) explains why banks, payment service providers, and regulators now see them as the future rail for cross-border money movement.

January marked a turning point for tokenization platforms, with three major launches in a single week. At the same time, the industry pushed back against the Clarity Act, while global CBDC strategies diverge further.

In this episode of BFRR, Stefan Grasmann speaks with Max von Wallenberg (IRON by MoonPay) about what it really takes to run stablecoins at scale — from hidden banking infrastructure and operational complexity to where power and responsibility accumulate in digital money.

We discuss the Blockstories report, which presents 25 expert outlooks for 2026, offering insights into tokenization, digital money, and infrastructure from prominent representatives across the digital asset sector.