Talking Tokens

On today’s Talking Tokens episode, Jacquelyn sits down with Emmett Hollyer , General Manager at Solana Mobile — the team behind Saga and now Seeker, crypto’s most ambitious attempt at a mobile-native device and ecosystem. They discuss how Solana Mobile went from 20K Saga phones to 150K Seeker phones sold, why web3 apps need a crypto-friendly App Store, and how mobile can fix broken user onboarding...

On today’s Talking Tokens episode, Jacquelyn sits down with Gracy Chen , CEO of Bitget , one of the world’s top crypto exchanges. Under her leadership, Bitget has grown to 100M+ users across 150+ countries, with over $3 billion in daily trading volume and a thriving token ecosystem built around BGB. Gracy opens up about her journey from broadcast journalism to fintech and eventually crypto. She br...

On today’s Talking Tokens episode, Jacquelyn sat down with Hong Sun, head of institutions at Core. Core is a bitcoin-secured, EVM-compatible L1 powering a new wave of BTCFi apps, stablecoin adoption, and yield primitives without requiring bitcoin to leave holders’ wallets. Hong walks through how Core uses bitcoin time locks to enable staking and yield generation, what "dual staking" mean...

On this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Simon Davis, co-founder and CEO of Mighty Bear Games, and Martin Masser, head of growth at TON Foundation. The two combined forces to shape the future of gaming and digital collectibles inside Telegram. Simon breaks down the story behind Mighty Action Heroes and why his studio pivoted to build on TON. Martin shares how TON-powered Telegra...

On this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Henri Stern, co-founder and CEO of Privy, the wallet infrastructure powering over 75 million accounts across major platforms like Hyperliquid, Blackbird, and Farcaster. Recently acquired by Stripe in June 2025, Privy continues to operate independently while scaling its innovative wallet solutions. Henri shares the vision behind simplifyin...

On today’s Talking Tokens episode, Jacquelyn sat down with Chris Yin , Co-founder and CEO of Plume Network — a blockchain built for real-world assets (RWAs). Backed by Brevan Howard, Haun Ventures and others, Plume launched mainnet in June 2025 and already accounts for over half of all RWA holders in crypto. Chris shares how Plume went from a structured product app to a full L2 chain, why most tok...

On today’s Talking Tokens episode, Jacquelyn sits down with Stephen Hess , founder of Metaplex and director of the Metaplex Foundation — the protocol that powers 99% of tokens and NFTs created on Solana. What ERC-20 is to Ethereum, Metaplex is to Solana — but it’s also much more than that. They discuss how Metaplex helped define the NFT era, what the new Genesis platform brings to onchain token la...

In this episode of Talking Tokens, we’re joined by Tzvi Wiesel , co-founder and CEO of BAXUS — a Solana-powered marketplace for high-end wine and spirits. We dive deep into how BAXUS is tackling inefficiencies in the alcohol market, from price mismatches and shady gray markets to turning whiskey collections into onchain collateral. Tzvi shares the journey from running whiskey festivals to running...

In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Annelise Osborne, Chief Business Officer at Kadena — a proof-of-work Layer 1 built by former JP Morgan blockchain leads. Kadena isn’t just another chain; it’s an ambitious bet that regulation, decentralization, and enterprise-grade tooling can live in the same ecosystem. They dive into Annelise’s Wall Street background, her work on the SE...

On today’s Talking Tokens episode, Jacquelyn sits down live at the Finance Leaders Collective with Jonas Kristensen , Head of Wintermute Ventures — the investment arm of one of crypto’s most prolific trading firms. With over 100 startup investments since 2019, Wintermute has become a force in early-stage crypto VC. Jonas shares how they spot high-conviction founders, why stablecoins are the hottes...

On today’s Talking Tokens episode, Jacquelyn sat down with Misha Putiatin , co-founder of Symbiotic — the cross-chain staking protocol that quietly raised $29M in April from Pantera, Coinbase Ventures, and 100+ angels. Rather than announce with a whitepaper, Symbiotic launched with product in hand — already live across 16 networks. Misha dives deep into why staking infrastructure today is broken,...

On today’s Talking Tokens episode, Jacquelyn sat down with Jack O’Holleran , co-founder of SKALE Network and CEO of SKALE Labs . Jack shares why MEV is a hidden tax on users, how FAIR — SKALE’s new Layer- 1 — aims to eliminate it at the consensus level, and how crypto infrastructure must evolve for an AI-driven future. They discuss the difference between SKALE and FAIR, why stablecoins and AI will...

On today’s Talking Tokens episode, Jacquelyn sat down with Abubakar Nur Khalil, CEO of Recursive Capital and board member and CEO of Btrust — the Bitcoin development organization backed by Jack Dorsey and Jay-Z. Abubakar has been at the center of Bitcoin’s growth across Africa, from launching a venture fund to distributing over $1.7 million in grants to open-source developers. They discuss why Btr...

On today’s Talking Tokens episode, Jacquelyn sat down with Kevin Boon, President of Mysten Labs, the core team behind the Sui blockchain. From fine arts and law to building crypto infrastructure, Kevin shares his unconventional journey and what’s next for the Sui ecosystem. They discuss how Kevin balances legal and leadership roles, how the community responded to the recent Cetus exploit, and why...

On today’s Talking Tokens episode, Jacquelyn sat down with Mary-Catherine “MC” Lader, President and COO of Uniswap Labs. Uniswap is behind the world’s largest decentralized exchange and recently launched Unichain, a new layer-2 blockchain built to optimize trading and liquidity. They discuss Mary’s journey from Goldman Sachs to BlackRock, where she founded the digital assets division in 2015 and l...

On today’s Talking Tokens episode, Jacquelyn sat down with Mary Gooneratne, co-founder of Loopscale. Loopscale is a lending protocol on Solana designed to give sophisticated users more control over capital, collateral, and credit risk. They discuss how Mary went from building on Ethereum during DeFi summer to pivoting toward Solana, why the protocol shifted from pool-based lending to order-book-st...

On today’s Talking Tokens episode, Jacquelyn sat down with Amir Haleem, CEO and co-founder of Helium. Helium has a decentralized wireless network powered by community-run hotspots that supports IoT devices and mobile coverage. Today, its WiFi network boasts over 93,500 hotspots across the U.S. and Mexico, and the network serves around 1 million daily users. Helium has also secured major partnershi...

On today’s Talking Tokens episode, Jacquelyn sat down with Muneeb Ali, the founder of Stacks. Stacks is a Bitcoin layer-2 blockchain that turns BTC into programmable money — unlocking smart contracts, lending markets, and yield without changing Bitcoin’s base layer. The network has already surpassed $500 million in total value locked and is pushing toward self-custodial infrastructure that removes...

On today’s Talking Tokens episode, Jacquelyn sat down with Chris Maurice, the co-founder and CEO of Yellow Card. Yellow Card powers on-and-off ramp payments for over 30,000 businesses across Africa. It was Africa’s most funded crypto exchange after raising $88 million. It has since pivoted from retail crypto access to becoming the stablecoin backbone for businesses in high-friction markets. They d...

On today’s Talking Tokens episode, Jacquelyn sat down with Tomer Weller, Chief Product Officer at the Stellar Development Foundation. Stellar is a blockchain network focused on real-world financial use cases — from cross-border payments to tokenized treasuries — and has quietly built one of the strongest infrastructures in emerging markets like Latin America and Africa, including a major partnersh...

On today’s Talking Tokens episode, Jacquelyn sat down with Gabe Otte, CEO and Co-Founder of Dinari. They discuss why Gabe decided to focus on tokenized securities back in 2021, its expansion into LatAm and South East Asia and United Arab Emirates as well as how the sector has gained traction in recent months and the biggest opportunities to come. =============== You can subscribe to the podcast on...

Today’s episode is a fireside chat Jacquelyn recorded with Stani Kulechov, founder of Aave Labs, while at the Avalanche Summit in London last week. They discuss Aave V4, the latest architectural upgrade, for the largest DeFi protocol. Stani also explains how this new model can unlock more for lending protocols, his insights on the changing DeFi landscape and more.

Today we’re sharing Jacquelyn’s fireside chat with Chris Pavlovski, founder and CEO of Rumble, at Consensus 2025. Rumble is a video, streaming and cloud-based tech company that closed a $775M strategic investment from Tether in February. We discuss Rumble’s journey fighting censorship to protect free speech globally, how it’s pushing into the crypto space and bringing the asset class to creators,...

On today’s Talking Tokens episode, Jacquelyn sat down with Chris Osborn, CEO of Dialect. About a year ago, Dialect co-launched blockchain links, or blinks, with Solana and has since powered over 600 integrations since then. =============== They discuss how Dialect is on a mission to improve crypto integrations, the current user experience, creating more trust and security alongside developers and...

On today’s Talking Tokens episode, Jacquelyn sat down with Pranav Kanade, portfolio manager for digital assets at VanEck, and Wyatt Lonergan the GP of VanEck Ventures VanEck is an asset management firm that has been around since 1955 – and has made strides in the crypto space in recent years with its spot bitcoin ETF HODL, as well as its $40M venture fund that also invests in crypto startups, amon...