Talking Tokens

In this episode of Talking Tokenization , Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Carlos Domingo , Co-Founder and CEO of Securitize , following the company’s announcement that it will go public through a SPAC merger valuing it at $1.25 billion and the launch of a tokenized fund with BNY . The conversation explores why Securitize chose to go public now, how the move fits into its broader mission of bringing...

On today’s Talking Tokens episode, Jacquelyn sits down with Joseph Chalom, CEO of SharpLink and former Head of Digital Assets at BlackRock. Joseph shares how he went from leading BlackRock’s digital asset strategy to running one of the first publicly listed digital asset treasuries on Nasdaq. He explains what inspired him to leave BlackRock after 20 years, how institutional demand for Bitcoin and...

On today’s Talking Tokens episode, Jacquelyn sits down with Diogo Mónica, general partner at Haun Ventures, executive chairman and co-founder of Anchorage Digital, and chairman of the NEAR Foundation. Diogo shares how these roles intersect from managing billions in digital assets at Anchorage to backing early-stage founders at Haun Ventures and helping NEAR drive developer adoption. They discuss t...

On this episode of Talking Tokens, host Jacquelyn Melinek sits down with Alexander Cutler, CEO of Dromos Labs and core contributor to Aerodrome, the largest decentralized exchange on Base. Alexander breaks down how Aerodrome launched with zero VC funding and no token sale, with a focus on rewarding users directly by reshaping DeFi incentives and becoming the number one DEX by volume and fees on Ba...

In this episode of Talking Tokenization, Jacquelyn Melinek interviews Maja Vujinovic, CEO and co-founder of Digital Assets FG Nexus. Maja unpacks FG Nexus’s recent partnership with Securitize to put both its common and dividend-paying preferred shares fully on Ethereum, making it the first time a Nasdaq-listed company can offer truly onchain equity with programmable features. The conversation cove...

In this episode of Talking Tokenization, Jacquelyn Melinek interviews Maja Vujinovic, CEO and co-founder of Digital Assets FG Nexus. Maja unpacks FG Nexus’s recent partnership with Securitize to put both its common and dividend-paying preferred shares fully on Ethereum, making it the first time a Nasdaq-listed company can offer truly onchain equity with programmable features. The conversation cove...

On this episode of Talking Tokens, host Jacquelyn Melinek sits down with Eddie Zhang, President of dYdX. Eddie shares his journey from product building at Meta (Facebook) and founding a Y Combinator-backed social startup to leading at dYdX, one of the world’s largest decentralized perpetuals exchanges. They break down how dYdX integrates social trading and community tools, the launch of Telegram t...

In this episode of Talking Tokens, host Jacquelyn Melinek sits down with Hong Kim, co-founder and CTO of Bitwise Asset Management, recorded live at Token2049 in Singapore. Hong shares his journey from an early interest in Ethereum and product development to building one of the first institutional crypto asset management firms. The conversation covers the evolution of crypto asset management from n...

On this episode of Talking Tokens, we’re sharing Jacquelyn Melinek's fireside chat from Korea Blockchain Week with Zak Folkman, co-founder of World Liberty Financial, a crypto project backed by members of the Trump family. Zak shares his journey from early Ethereum adoption to co-founding World Liberty Financial and launching the USD1 stablecoin and WLFI token. They discuss how USD1 wants to i...

In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek sits down with Mike Ho, Matt Prusak, and Donald Trump Jr. from American Bitcoin. They discuss Bitcoin as the ultimate scarce asset and compare it to gold, underlining Bitcoin’s fixed supply and growing institutional adoption. The team shares their business model behind American Bitcoin, blending mining and treasury operations to maximize Bitcoin...

In this episode of Talking Tokenization, Jacquelyn Melinek interviews Vivek Raman, CEO of Etherealize and former Wall Street high yield credit trader. Vivek shares his journey from top-tier banks to pioneering Ethereum-based tokenization solutions. He explains why tokenizing existing financial assets on public blockchains is crucial for the future of finance and how Etherealize is tackling the cha...

On today’s Talking Tokens episode, Jacquelyn sits down with Matthew Tabbiner, CEO of Stable, a layer-1 blockchain purpose-built for stablecoins. Stable recently received a strategic investment from PayPal Ventures and enabled use of PayPal USD (PYUSD) on its chain, aimed at expanding the stablecoin’s distribution and utility for payments, remittances, and commerce. They discuss why Stable uses USD...

Welcome to Talking Tokenization, a new podcast series unlocking how onchain assets are transforming finance, capital markets, and the way the world trades. Award-nominated journalist Jacquelyn Melinek leads conversations with the people and projects building the real world asset ecosystem, from tokenizing treasuries and private credit to launching the next wave of onchain funds and public equities...

Today’s episode was recorded at the Real World Asset Summit, where leaders from across capital markets and crypto came together to chart the future of tokenized assets. Jacquelyn moderated a candid panel with Kaushal Sheth (Head of US Sales, Blockdaemon), Neil Chopra (Head of Strategy & Business Development, Fireblocks), and Jenn Senhaji (Head of Growth & BD, Chronicle) on what institution...

In this episode, Jacquelyn sits down with Armani Ferrante, co-founder and CEO of Backpack. Armani explains how Backpack EU became one of Europe’s first fully regulated derivatives exchanges, after acquiring and refunding FTX EU’s user base. The team also launched daily proof of reserves, verified by OtterSec, to show transparency regardless of market conditions. He highlights the massive gap left...

In this episode, Vidor Gencel, Co-Founder of Solflare, shares the journey of building one of the most widely used crypto wallets in the Solana ecosystem.  This episode is a part of the Solana Sessions campaign that Token Relations and the Talking Tokens podcast are doing, diving into founders’ journeys and startups building on Solana.  Solflare has over 4 million users and manages billions in asse...

On this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn welcomes Shiv Shankar, CEO of Boundless, a protocol for verifiable compute across any chain, powered by the RISC Zero zkVM technology. From software engineering at companies like Coinbase, Lyft, Ava Labs, and Microsoft, to becoming CEO of Boundless, Shiv is pioneering blockchain research, while bringing the world of zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs to everyon...

On this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn interviews Michael Shaulov, CEO and co-founder of Fireblocks, the firm securing over $10 trillion in digital assets and now leading the way in global payments. Michael explains the launch of Fireblocks Network for Payments, a universal infrastructure standardizing stablecoin settlement, already connecting 2,400+ institutional participants across 60 curr...

On this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Farooq Malik, co-founder and CEO of Rain, a company building the payment rails powering the next wave of stablecoins, tokenized money, and digital banking worldwide. Recorded live at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium, Farooq explains why regulatory clarity unleashed a boom in institutional stablecoin adoption and how Rain enables anyone, f...

On today’s Talking Tokens episode, Jacquelyn sits down with Lorien Gabel, co-founder and CEO of Figment, a leading non-custodial staking provider supporting over a thousand institutional clients. Figment works with asset managers, custodians, exchanges, foundations, and wallets, helping institutions securely access crypto yield. Lorien shares his journey from building internet infrastructure compa...

On this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with John Darsie, CEO of SALT and managing partner at SkyBridge Capital, best known for connecting Wall Street, Washington, and the crypto industry. They unpack the evolution from the exuberant Crypto Bahamas era in 2022 to today’s Wyoming Blockchain Symposium, how institutions and policymakers are engaging crypto, why narrative and PR are mor...

On this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn welcomes Hart Lambur, co-founder of Across Protocol, back to the show to break down Across’s next big move: live, fast bridging between Solana, Ethereum, and major L2s. Hart explains why true chain interoperability matters for all users and devs, how open intents and a “two-second bridge” are setting new speed standards, and why fragmentation, not maxim...

On today’s Talking Tokens episode, Jacquelyn sits down with Joseph Onorati , CEO of DeFi Development Corp. (formerly Janover), a publicly traded digital asset treasury focused on Solana. Joseph shares his journey from gaming economies and early Bitcoin meetups to nearly a decade at Kraken, before rebranding Janover into DeFi Dev Corp. They discuss why the company chose to focus on Solana over Bitc...

On today’s Talking Tokens episode, Jacquelyn sits down with Arianna Simpson , General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) crypto , one of the most influential firms in tech and crypto. Arianna shares her journey from Facebook to founding her own venture fund, and eventually joining a16z. They discuss how the firm approaches early-stage web3 investments, what they look for in founders, and the se...

On today’s Talking Tokens episode, Jacquelyn sits down with AJ Warner , Director of Strategy at Offchain Labs , the team behind Arbitrum , one of Ethereum’s top layer-2 blockchains with over $4B in TVL. AJ shares his journey from real estate lawyer to crypto strategist, and how a college connection led him to help build Arbitrum from the ground up. They discuss the unique "barbell" strategy poweri...