High Stakes with Alex Nwaka | Blockchain, Crypto, and Web3

Most enterprises assume their current payment systems work well enough to delay adopting digital assets, but this miscalculation ignores the seismic shift already underway. Bam Azizi, who built Mesh into infrastructure for blockchain payments after selling a cybersecurity company with 2,000 integrations, explains that waiting to adopt blockchain's cost and speed advantages means missing the w...

What happens when a crypto protocol raises serious capital, builds a major ecosystem, and then treats treasury management like a back-office function? In this episode of High Stakes, host Alex Nwaka sits down with Ben Tsai, Co-Founder and President of Wave Digital Assets, to unpack why passive treasury management can destroy long-term protocol value when volatility hits. Ben shares how Wave Digita...

What are enterprises still missing about stablecoins, and why does that matter for the next phase of digital asset adoption? In this episode of High Stakes with Alex Nwaka, Alex sits down with Chunda McCain, Co-Founder at Paxos Labs, to unpack how stablecoins are moving from simple issuance into a deeper infrastructure layer for payments, credit, DeFi access, and enterprise-grade financial rails....

Why does institutional capital still hesitate on Solana, even as public blockchain infrastructure becomes more credible to banks, asset managers, and payments companies?  In this episode of High Stakes, Alex Nwaka sits down with Catherine Gu, Head of Product for Digital Assets at Solana, former leader on Visa’s crypto team, to unpack what institutions actually need before they move meaningful volu...

What does crypto have to do before it can truly compete with the legacy financial system?  In this episode of High Stakes, Alex Nwaka sits down with Aklil Ibssa, Head of Corporate Development at Coinbase, for a sharp conversation on crypto M&A, long-term strategy, regulatory clarity, integration risk, and why the biggest opportunity in digital assets is much bigger than crypto competing with i...

What would it take to move $100 trillion in assets onto blockchain rails? In this episode of High Stakes with Alex Nwaka, Dan Doney, Managing Director at DTCC Digital Assets, breaks down the real infrastructure challenges behind institutional tokenization. From clearing and settlement to liquidity depth, compliance aware token frameworks, and recoverability, this conversation explores what must be...

What’s holding back real institutional adoption of blockchain? Yuval Rooz, CEO of Digital Asset, joins High Stakes to reveal what institutions really need before moving serious volume on-chain. From tokenized treasuries to the privacy gap in DeFi, Yuval brings over a decade of experience bridging traditional finance and blockchain infrastructure. If you’re tracking where real-world assets are head...

What if Ethereum is closer to replacing Wall Street infrastructure than anyone realizes? In this episode of High Stakes, host Alex Nwaka sits down with Vivek Raman, CEO of Etherealize, to explore the deep structural gaps in traditional finance and why Ethereum is poised to fill them. With a decade of experience trading credit on Wall Street, Vivek brings unmatched clarity on blockchain’s instituti...

What if blockchain, not AI, is the biggest disruption in finance? In this episode of High Stakes , host Alex Nwaka sits down with Michael Tannenbaum, CEO of Figure, to explore how blockchain is reshaping capital markets from the ground up. With a background spanning SoFi and Brex, Michael shares how his real-world fintech experience led him to double down on real-world assets, tokenization, and th...

What if the metaverse was never dead, just misunderstood? Season 2 of High Stakes kicks off with Paul Thomas, CEO of Somnia, in a wide-ranging conversation with host Alex Nwaka about what it really takes to build Web3 infrastructure at scale. From Goldman Sachs to improbable startups, Paul unpacks his journey into gaming, blockchain, and why high-performance infrastructure - not hype - is the real...

On this episode of High Stakes, host Alex Nwaka is joined by Lex Sokolin, co-founder of Generative Ventures, for an unfiltered conversation on how AI and blockchain are reshaping economic systems. Lex brings a rare blend of Wall Street experience, startup grit, and futurist vision to explore the infrastructure, incentives, and capital flows behind the emerging machine economy. From agentic payment...

How Blockchain Lending Will Drive Stablecoin Adoption In this episode of High Stakes, host Alex Nwaka sits down with Sidney Powell, CEO of Maple Finance, to explore how blockchain lending is shaping the future of stablecoins and institutional finance. Sid unpacks Maple’s evolution, product strategy, and unique position between CeFi and DeFi, while laying out a bold vision for trillion-dollar stabl...

How Decentralization Is Reshaping the World In this episode of High Stakes , host Alex Nwaka sits down with Yinal Ozkan, Principal Solutions Architect at Amazon Web Services, to unpack how decentralized technologies, blockchain, and AI are changing the institutional landscape. From AWS’s early bets on cloud and AI to today’s breakthroughs in Web3, Yinal shares firsthand insight into adoption curve...

Behind the Rise of Ethereum’s Most Strategic Infrastructure Bet  In this episode of High Stakes , host Alex Nwaka is joined by Alon Muroch, CEO and co-founder of SSV Labs, to explore how Ethereum’s most strategic infrastructure layer is evolving. With over a decade of crypto experience, Alon shares how SSV Labs has become a leader in Ethereum staking, now operating 11% of all validators using Dist...

In this episode, Alex is joined by Eric Piscini, the CEO of Hashgraph. Eric brings decades of enterprise innovation experience, from launching Deloitte’s blockchain practice to leading AI strategy at IBM Watson Health. Today, he’s spearheading real enterprise adoption of blockchain at Hashgraph by making tokenization and decentralization usable and scalable. Eric breaks down how Hashgraph is navig...

In this episode of High Stakes, Alex sits down with Brian Mahoney, VP of Business Development at Thesis and Founding Team Member at Mezo, to explore the next evolution of Bitcoin. From Bitcoin mortgages to stablecoins like MUSD, Brian shares why the future of on-chain finance is Bitcoin-native. You will learn: • Why Bitcoin-backed stablecoins are gaining momentum • How Mezo is building a circular...

Alex Nwaka sits down with Morgan McKenney, former CEO of Provenance Blockchain Foundation, longtime Citi executive, and tech-led global operator, to discuss the convergence of blockchain and AI and what it means for the future of finance, blockchain infrastructure, and innovation. Morgan also announces her new role as advisor to Validation Cloud, bringing decades of leadership in finance, blockcha...

Alex Nwaka sits down with Noelle Acheson, crypto-macro analyst and author of Crypto is Macro Now , for a conversation on the intersection of crypto and macroeconomics. With a career spanning traditional finance, entrepreneurship, and research leadership at CoinDesk and Genesis Trading, Noelle shares her expertise on the crypto-macro environment. Together, they explore institutional adoption, the e...

Alex Nwaka sits with Dan Doney, Managing Director and CTO at DTCC Digital Assets, for a rare and in-depth conversation. With a career spanning the U.S. Navy, the Defense Intelligence Agency, founding the pioneering blockchain company Securrency, and now driving innovation at DTCC, Dan brings a uniquely far-reaching perspective to the future of digital finance. Alex and Dan dive into DTCC’s critica...

Alex sits down with Toma Heremans, CEO of Obol Association, to explore how distributed validators (DVs) are redefining staking infrastructure, the future of Ethereum resilience, and why institutional adoption is the next major unlock for proof-of-stake networks. Toma breaks down the complexities and misconceptions around DVs and shares his vision for a world where even your phone can help secure E...

Alex sits down with Charles d’Haussy, CEO of the dYdX Foundation, to discuss appchains, the power of perpetuals, decentralized versus centralized exchanges, and how AI-driven strategies are shaping the future of DeFi. Charles also shares insights from his experience in Asia’s FinTech scene, the role of governance in dYdX’s ecosystem, and his bold prediction for 2025. Learn more about Validation Cl...

Omer Goldberg, CEO of Chaos Labs, joins Alex Nwaka to discuss on-chain finance, AI-driven risk management, and institutional adoption of blockchain technology. Omer shares his journey from Facebook and Instagram to founding Chaos Labs, highlighting how data-driven decision-making and AI-powered financial modeling are reshaping DeFi security. He dives into the challenges of risk management, the lau...

Alex sits down with Denelle Dixon, the CEO of Stellar Development Foundation, to discuss her career journey, the mission of Stellar, and the future of blockchain technology. Denelle shares how she got her start as a trial lawyer and how that led her to leadership roles at Yahoo and Mozilla. She also explains how her career journey informed her approach to driving innovation and fostering financial...

Alex sits down with Nick van Eck, CEO and Co-Founder of Agora Finance, to discuss the potential of stablecoins and the future of financial services. In this episode, Nick shares his journey from venture capital at General Catalyst to launching Agora Finance. Nick and Alex explore the evolution of blockchain adoption, the competitive dynamics of the stablecoin space, and Agora’s mission to make the...

Alex Nwaka sits down with Salvador Gala, Co-Founder of Escape Velocity (EV3), to discuss Sal’s journey from traditional finance at Goldman Sachs and Ribbit Capital to building a leading Web3 venture firm focused on DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network). Sal shares insights into the potential of DePIN, the challenges and opportunities in building decentralized infrastructure, and re...