Stonks Go Moon

Banks are finally taking stablecoins seriously. In this episode of the Stonks Go Moon Podcast, Rocco Strydom sits down with Ran Grushkowsky, CEO of MassPay, to discuss why the future of payments isn't about crypto speculation, it's about faster, cheaper, and fairer global money movement. They explore why cross-border payments remain slow by design, how stablecoins are disrupting decades-ol...

Stablecoins are no longer about speculation; they're becoming real payment infrastructure. In this episode of the Stonks Go Moon Podcast, Rocco Strydom sits down with Wesley Rios from Morph to discuss why stablecoins could transform global payments, cross-border transactions, and financial infrastructure. From instant settlement and 24/7 availability to reducing banking friction, Wesley explai...

Is AI actually in a bubble… or are we looking in the wrong place? In this episode of the Stonks Go Moon Podcast, Rocco Strydom sits down with Itamar Novick, Founder and General Partner at Recursive Ventures, operator, investor, and one of the early minds behind scaling companies from startup to IPO. The discussion dives deep into the current AI landscape, separating hype from reality and asking wh...

What if Bitcoin wasn’t just something you hold… but something you actually use every day? In this episode of the Stonks Go Moon Podcast, Rocco Strydom sits down with Ben Blaine from MoneyBadger to unpack a quiet shift happening in South Africa right now:You can walk into a store, scan a QR code, and pay with Bitcoin - instantly. No banks. No selling. No friction. We break down:How Bitcoin payments...

Quantum computing just went from “sci-fi” to “this might break things sooner than we thought.” In this episode of the Stonks Go Moon Podcast, Rocco Strydom sits down with Ian Smith (Quantum EVM) to unpack Google’s latest research and why it’s not just a crypto problem, but a global systems problem. Google’s findings suggest modern encryption could be broken within the next decade, potentially as e...

Cars sit parked about 95% of the time, while people struggle with rising mobility costs. EV prices are volatile, and cities are trying to reduce emissions without building more infrastructure. So a new question is emerging: What if mobility isn't about owning bigger fleets, but unlocking the ones that already exist? In this episode, Rei Vardi, founder of Eon, shares how he built a national vir...

DeFi was supposed to make capital more efficient. Instead, it created a new kind of fragmentation. In this episode of the Stonks Go Moon Podcast, Rocco Strydom sits down with MacBrennan Peet, founder of Project 0, to talk about why DeFi users still get stuck with scattered collateral, disconnected venues, poor capital efficiency, and unnecessary liquidation risk. Project 0 is building a prime brok...

Stablecoins aren't just surviving crypto winters; they're exploding into the backbone of global finance. In this episode of Stonks Go Moon Podcast, Rocco Strydom talks with Chunda McCain, Co-Founder of Paxos Labs, about how regulated stablecoins are quietly becoming the most-used digital dollars on EarthFrom powering PayPal's PYUSD (now billions in circulation) to cross-chain complianc...

While U.S. headlines obsess over ETFs and enforcement, Asia is quietly building. In this episode, Rocco Strydom sits down with Marc Liew, Head of APAC at Jito, to unpack how stablecoins, staking, and Solana infrastructure are reshaping institutional crypto adoption across Asia. Marc’s background spans R3, Ripple, PayPal, and years inside cross-border payments. He has been in the room with regulato...

Markets feel louder than ever, but somehow less clear. In this episode of the Stonks Go Moon Podcast, Rocco Strydom sits down with Matt Ober, Managing Partner at Social Leverage, to unpack what’s really happening beneath the surface of today’s markets. With AI-generated research flooding Twitter, Substack, and trading platforms and capital pouring into anything labeled “AI” even professional inves...

Most founders still believe scale means hiring faster. Amos Bar-Joseph doesn’t. In this episode of the Stonks Go Moon Podcast, we break down how Swan AI is building what may be one of the first truly AI-native companies — a business where autonomous agents handle outbound sales, lead qualification, research, and execution, while just three humans focus on strategy and creativity. We go deep into:W...

Founders love talking strategy. But strategy doesn’t break companies; people do. In this episode of the Stonks Go Moon Podcast, Rocco Strydom sits down with Chris Hallberg, a military veteran, entrepreneur, and EOS coach who has scaled and exited companies through some of the toughest economic cycles in modern history. As AI accelerates execution and pressure inside companies intensifies, Chris ex...

$2.7 TRILLION erased from the S&P 500 as Bitcoin plunges to a 7-month low around $88K. Is this the end of the bull run... or the perfect coiled spring for a massive rebound? In this explosive episode of the Stonks Go Moon Podcast, host Rocco Strydom goes deep with Wenny Cai, COO of SynFutures – the #1 decentralized perpetuals DEX on Base and one of the fastest-growing DeFi derivatives platform...

On this episode of the Stonks Go Moon Podcast, host Rocco Strydom sits down with Tamara Laine, founder and CEO of MPWR, to break down how AI and behavioral data are reshaping access to credit for gig workers, freelancers, creators, and underbanked founders. Tamara started as a freelancer, won top journalism awards, and now runs a fintech startup building AI-driven lending infrastructure for the ne...

Most people still think AI is just a chatbot on a screen. That era is already over. AI is now signing transactions, executing smart contracts, interacting with DAOs, and moving assets onchain without a human clicking a single button. This is not AI for Web3. This is AI becoming an onchain actor. In this episode, Dana Love , founder of Poohbah AI , joins the show to unpack what happens when autonom...

In this episode, Daniel Martin, COO of JobJack, breaks down how the platform is automating frontline recruitment across South Africa. JobJack replaces travel, paper, and manual screening with mobile-first hiring, psychometric assessments built for the local market, and fast matching that connects employers with job seekers in hours instead of weeks. We unpack:Why traditional entry-level hiring fai...

Retail investing is having a moment. Markets are volatile, AI is everywhere, and busy professionals are trying to build wealth using tools designed two decades ago. Tradesk, led by Eric Chu, wants to change that. It is a mobile-first brokerage built for real people with real jobs. Clear design. Calm decision-making. And an AI co-pilot that supports investors instead of overwhelming them. In this e...

Screens are everywhere, but AR is finally breaking out of the frame. Michael Guerin, CEO of Imvizar, is building reality-layered storytelling, from European museums to immersive trails in Ireland and now a major rollout in Hollywood. In this episode, we unpack how AR is moving from gimmick to global storytelling infrastructure, why VR stumbled, and what true spatial computing means for brands, cre...

Everyone’s talking about AI, automation, and the next big tool. But Barbara Wittmann, founder of the Digital Wisdom Collective, says the real upgrade isn’t in the tech - it’s in us. Her framework has helped over 100 tech leaders build a mindset that evolves as fast as the machines around it. In this episode, Rocco Strydom and Barbara explore:Why Accenture, Amazon, and other giants are struggling t...

What happens when intimacy becomes a transaction? When validation feels like a drug and “love” turns into labor? Author Justin Bridges (pen name) joins Rocco Strydom to unpack his explosive new novel, Service, a thinly veiled fiction about a tennis pro who spirals through sex/love addiction, hits bottom, and finds recovery. We dig into:Masculinity myths, dopamine loops, and why “rescue” isn’t love...

While global ride-hailing giants take up to 25% from every trip, Bro Cabs takes zero. Founded by Persy and Msizi, this Johannesburg-based startup is flipping the power dynamic in mobility by putting drivers first — a radical move in an industry dominated by global platforms like Uber and Bolt. From challenging e-hailing laws in Parliament to running grassroots activations across Joburg, Bro is bui...

Startups love to talk about product, markets, and money. But when hypergrowth hits, people ops is where things break, hiring goes sideways, culture frays, and compliance gets ignored until it’s too late. In this episode, Dr. Michelle Griffin, founder of Griffin Resources, joins Rocco Strydom to unpack how companies can stay human while scaling fast. The conversation kicks off with Accenture’s rece...

Algorithmic trading is finally getting democratized. Robert Grzesik, founder of Botspot and LumiWealth, has built a platform where anyone can turn plain English prompts into live trading bots — no coding required. In this episode, we dive into how AI is reshaping the trading landscape, why execution is becoming instant, and how the line between idea and deployment is shrinking fast. What You’ll Le...

Half-built businesses often collapse under their own success. Without governance, compliance, and succession planning, big wins become fragile legacies. My guest today, Remco Coerman, has spent more than 25 years advising entrepreneurs, investors, and family offices across Africa and the Middle East. He helps build the scaffolding behind businesses, ensuring wealth and impact survive beyond the fi...

AI at work is more than chatbots. Ravenna is rebuilding internal support systems with modern helpdesk and automation tools designed for Slack, Teams, and everyday workflows. After raising $15 million from top investors like Madrona and Khosla, co-founder and CEO Taylor Halliday (ex-Zapier Engineering / AI lead) joins to talk product, market fit, and what AI really means for operations. In this epi...