On The Brink with Castle Island

We sit down with Anthony Yim, Artemis cofounder, to talk about the latest report from Artemis, CIV, and Dragonfly, providing brand new estimates of stablecoin payments volume. In this episode: Why we decided to work on the new report How we obtained the estimates Why we decided to put together a bottom-up estimate Stablecoin b2b volumes compared to traditional b2b How do you measure stablecoin tra...

Markus Franke and Denney Kwok from Mento Labs join the show. In this episode:  Non-USD stablecoins On-chain FX Microlending and financing for emerging markets

Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode:  Trump's crypto dinner reviewed Bitcoin access vehicles NYT stablecoin coverage Sui is hacked and censors the blockchain Kraken is launching tokenized stocks Circle in acquisition talks The GENIUS Act passes Cloture in the Senate Hong Kong passes stablecoin legislation

Wyatt sits down with Andrew MacKenzie , founder of  Agant, the issuer of GBPA, a pound sterling stablecoin. In this episode:  The potential emergence of non-USD stablecoins The prospect of a GBP-backed stablecoin The British crypto regulatory environment How global financial institutions are positioning around stablecoins

Matt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode: Why is Boston such a good sports city? Price inflation in dinosaur skeletons Cryptopunks IP is sold Machinsky is sentenced Nakamoto Holdings launches Meta wants to add stablecoins to its platforms Exchanges are honeypots for KYC data Coinbase suffers a data breach The GENIUS act is going to a vote next week GENIUS act new...

Wyatt sits down with Alex Cutler, founder of Aerodrome for another episode in our stablefi series. In this episode:  DEX trading advantages Building on-chain FX DeFi as a backbone

Wyatt sits down with TN, cofounder of Pendle . Covered in this episode:  How Pendle works The evolution from alt yield to stable yield DeFi's future core assets

Matt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode: We have a new Pope The etymology of ampersand The GENIUS act collapses spectacularly Coinbase consummates its acquisition of Deribit Did World Liberty Financial's USD1 torpedo the GENIUS act? Did "pro crypto" democrats snake on the industry Scott Bessent thinks stablecoins could reach $2T The OCC says banks can provide cry...

Adam Healy, co-founder of Station 70 and Josh Schwartz, co-founder of Fordefi join the show. In this episode we discuss: The collaboration between Station 70 and Fordefi on failover MPC wallets. Announcement here . The state of the wallet category Best practices for blockchain cybersecurity The future of bank custody for digital assets Station 70's Bunker product Station 70 and Fordefi are holding...

Wyatt sits down with David Taylor of Etherfuse . In this episode:  MXN stablecoins and other currencies Shaping regulatory frameworks Who wins out: innovators vs financial incumbents

Wyatt sits down with Justin and Hannah of Asymmetry Finance. In this episode, we cover:  The evolution of yield in DeFi Primitives users want Crypto risk assessment Learn more about Asymmetry

Matt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode:  Will stablecoins disrupt credit cards? The US Treasury Advisory Committee drops a report on stablecoins Mastercard and Visa launch stablecoin integrations Movement labs has more scandals Are quantum timelines accelerating? The real risk of quantum to Bitcoin Could a quantum break fix Bitcoin's security budget? Are any Bit...

Wyatt sits down with Kedian Sun , the founder of Level Money. In this episode:  Stablecoin usage in DeFi today Fiat-backed stablecoins vs other "stable" assets Ethereum vs other blockchains for stablecoins

Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode:  Is Bitcoin decoupling? The Fed rescinds anti-crypto letters from 2022 and 2023 Upexi raises $100m PIPE to invest in Solana Cantor, Tether, Softbank and Bitfinex inject $3.6b into 21 Capital, a Bitcoin acquisition vehicle Bitcoin ETFs versus bitcoin acquisition companies Trump is hosting a dinner for $TRUMP holders Charles...

Matt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode: We recap Nic's article on why Signature collapsed Crypto exchange  OKX   announced  their plans to expand to the US Kraken   announced  that US equities are now supported on the exchange MANTRA , a layer 1 network focused on RWAs, saw the price of its native token  crash  90% in a matter of hours Global Payments  agreed to...

Wyatt sits down with Fred Hsu and Michael Ho of D3 to talk domain markets. In this episode:  The existing domain name industry and legacy systems An interoperable marketplace for domains New financial promitives around domains and RWAs More about D3

Yuval Rooz and Eric Saraniecki, co-founders of Digital Asset join the show. In this episode we discuss: The origins of Digital Asset and the path to starting the firm. Views on privacy in the context of public blockchains. How enterprises and financial institutions are approaching tokenizing assets and leveraging blockchain technology. Examples of how on-chain privacy enables use cases in collater...

Matt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode:  Is dedollarization happening? The  SEC's Division of Corporate Financ e released a " Statement on Stablecoins " The  US Justice Department  has  disbanded  its National Cryptocurrency Enforcement team The SEC releases new guidance on securities offerings in crypto markets FDIC Chair relaxes rules on crypto activities at b...

Wyatt Lonergan and Juan Lopez of Vaneck Ventures join the show to talk stablecoins and institutionalization. In this episode, we cover:  The landscape of stablecoin growth and activity A world with many stablecoins vs few stablecoins Winning/losing companies in the new stablecoin era Impact on the longer tail of altcoins

Hoolie Tejwani , the head of Coinbase Ventures joins the show. In this episode we discuss: The history and rationale behind the launch of Coinbase Ventures. The evolution of the crypto venture category. Areas of focus for Coinbase Ventures. Stablecoins, Crypto/AI and consumer startup category. The regulatory landscape in the United States. Operation Chokepoint 2.0 and the impact on startups. The r...

Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode:  What's the deal with the tariffs? Are the tariffs 4D chess? STABLE Act advances from committee Galaxy settles with the NYAG for touting Luna Trump pardons the BitMEX founders Coinlist returns to the US FDUSD has a depeg amidst Justin Sun drama Fidelity launches a no-fee crypto IRA product Larry Fink is bullish bitcoin Cont...

Alexei Zamyatin , the cofounder of Build on Bitcoin (BOB), joins the show to talk about the state of the art in Bitcoin Rollups. In this episode:  Can Bitcoin achieve parity with Ethereum rollups? How BitVM and BitVMv2 changed the game for Bitcoin rollups When will Bitcoin rollups be considered "Stage 1" Ethereum's existential crisis Bitcoin fees in a rollup world The risk of L2s cannibalizing Bit...

Matt and Nic return for another week of news and deals. In this episode:  We reflect on our podcast with Paolo Ardoino The EU's MiCA rules make launching a stablecoin virtually impossible We explain the Ghiblification crazy OCC removes Reputation risk from bank supervision World Liberty Fi launches a stablecoin Hyperliquid suffers an exploit - are they decentralized? Fidelity is exploring the laun...

Paolo Ardoino , the CEO of Tether, rejoins the show for a timely discussion. In this episode: How is Paolo feeling about political trends in the US today? Tether is the 7th-largest buyer of USTs at the sovereign level Paolo's decision to spend more time in the US What does Paolo make of the stablecoin bills in Congress? Does Tether want to eventually come onshore to the US? Tether is pursuing a Bi...

Brian  Foster , the Global Head of Wholesale at Coinbase joins the show for his second appearance. In this episode we discuss: A catch-up on the Wholesale business at Coinbase and the types of customers that are active in this market How banks and broker-dealers are accelerating their efforts post-election Perspectives on build vs. buy vs. partner decisions that are happening at banks after the re...