Bitcoin, Fiat & Rock'n'Roll

Tristan Thoma discusses the role of blockchain and national digital currencies in driving financial inclusion, economic resilience, and innovation. Drawing on real-world insights from El Salvador and Bolivia, he explains how tokenization and smart regulation can empower countries and their people.

Manuel and Rod Garratt explore CBDCs, stablecoins, and tokenized deposits—covering privacy, politics, and the future of payments from Rod’s journey at the NY Fed to global digital money innovation.

September was full of news around stablecoins and blockchain and payments infrastructure – new collaborations and ecosystems emerge around Tether, Circle, Stripe and Coinbase with a focus on payments use cases.

Rhys Bidder is a prominent academic voice on stablecoins. We discuss what sets stablecoins apart from other forms of money and why he thinks they could play a key role in the future of money and payments.

Myles Harrison, CPO at AMINA Bank, reveals the three-layer architecture powering Switzerland's fastest-growing crypto bank and their proven approach to bridging traditional finance with 24/7 crypto operations.

We dive into Juan Guse’s fascinating book profiling four ordinary men who became crypto millionaires. A sociological look at sudden wealth, class mobility, and the human side of digital money.

New players entering the stablecoin space, but does it really need further stablecoins? And: US (again) with massive news on crypto adoption – and privacy

Alex Höptner, CEO at AllUnity, about his past as CEO at traditional- and crypto exchanges and the plans of AllUnity, the first German BaFin regulated Euro Stablecoin

21bitcoin CEO Daniel Winkelhammer reveals shocking fraud cases, protective measures, and why Bitcoin-only businesses have security advantages in today’s evolving threat landscape.

Another half a year of security token issuances in Germany has passed. Marion, Benjamin and Manuel discuss latest developments and market dynamics that are described in the Digital Asset Monitor.

Not only the crypto prices show a positive momentum, also regulators and crypto companies are making significant progess. All relevant developments of the last month in today’s news episode!

Via the Genius Act, the USA has created a regulatory framework for stablecoins. We take a close look at the differences between Genius and MiCAR and analyze the implications for Europe.

Industry leaders reveal how traditional banks are integrating DLT, why stablecoins are disrupting trillion-dollar markets, and which regions are winning the digital asset race.

John Kiff, former IMF expert and global CBDC thought leader, discusses wholesale and retail CBDCs, implementation challenges, and why some projects fail. He envisions a future where well-regulated stablecoins backed by central bank money drive innovation.

Ulrich Bindseil, Former Director General for Market Infrastructures and Payments of the European Central Bank (ECB), discusses the Digital Euro project and his perspective on euro stablecoins

The US Senate passes landmark GENIUS Act for stablecoins while Circle’s IPO surges 400% and JP Morgan launches JPMD tokens. We debate stablecoin policy divides between US expansion and EU containment.

Explore how stablecoins enable 24/7 settlement, digital fiat on public blockchains, and new payment rails. Manuel breaks down what they are, regulation, use cases, and hurdles for adoption

Joachim Schwerin, principal economist at the European Commission, discusses the Digital Freedom Declaration and the need to protect developer rights in blockchain innovation. He shares insights on privacy, regulation, and digital freedom.

We explore AI-enabled DeFi with Obligate CEO Matthias Wyss, covering why sophisticated yields are now accessible to smaller investors and how AI bridges TradFi gaps.

Visa, Mastercard, and Stripe go all in on stablecoins – what does this mean for the market and global stablecoin adoption? And: novel tokenization marketplace launched.

In this episode, Manuel and Stefan talk to Tony McLaughlin who spent his career in Payments at Citi Bank, developed the concept of the regulated liability Network and who shifted his focus to Stablecoins in 2025

In this episode, Jonas and Alex discuss with Co-Pierre Georg, Director of the Frankfurt School Blockchain Center, the role that academia should play in crypto – and how theory and practice can be aligned

Jón Egilsson explains how Trump's embrace of stablecoins as tools for dollar dominance contrasts with Europe's defensive MiCA framework, creating a regulatory divergence with global implications for financial sovereignty.

Circle’s IPO reveals stablecoin economics while PayPal offers 3.7% on PYUSD and European authorities clash over dollar stablecoin dominance. The digital currency race accelerates globally.

In this episode, Jonas and Alex thoroughly assess the advantages and disadvantages of a national Bitcoin reserve and share our recommendation.

Brief description of episode (2-3 sentences, max 205 characters inkl. Space!) In this episode, we speak with Prof. Fabian Schär, a leading expert in blockchain technology and decentralized finance. We explore the usability of permissionless blockchains for financial services.

In this episode, Stefan and Manuel talk to Daniel Liebau who combines a practitioners view with academic research in DeFi applications and about Decentralized Autonomous Organisations (DAOs).

Join Michael Blaschke in conversation with Lidia Kurt, CEO of newly FINMA-approved BX Digital. Discover how this groundbreaking DLT trading facility aims to innovate Europe’s digital asset landscape, and explore the future of blockchain-based financial infrastructure in Europe.

This episode dives deep into the race between institutional DeFi building on public permissionless blockchains and TradFi developing permissioned ecosystems.

Legal expert Hagen Weiß (Dentons) analyzes how recent US regulatory shifts on stablecoins and digital assets are reshaping the global crypto landscape. We explore the geopolitical implications, compare with Europe’s MiCA framework, and examine what these changes mean for financial institutions and DeFi projects across both continents.

SAP’s Digital Currency Hub represents a breakthrough in enterprise payment technology, enabling companies to process stablecoin transactions directly through their ERP systems. This episode features SAP’s Bernhard Schweizer and EY’s Rebecca Carvatt discussing the successful implementation of stablecoin payments between PayPal and EY, demonstrating how stablecoins are becoming part of standard business processes.

Following a previous episode that examined the pro-perspective, in this episode, we discuss counterarguments against a Bitcoin Reserve with Dr. Jürgen Schaaf from the European Central Bank (ECB)

This episode dives into the biggest crypto hack in history, the LIBRA token and its ties to the Argentinian President Milei, positive crypto company earnings, and the response of Europe to USD stablecoins.

Co-host Stefan Grasmann moderated a panel on crypto and digital asset at the Frankfurt Digital Finance Conference 2025. Together with experts from the crypto and traditional financial ecosystem, such as Bitpanda and Union Investment, Stefan discussed business opportunities for 2025.

In this episode, co-host Michael Blaschke discusses his latest quantum study, focusing on the most significant security threat to crypto. He analyzes the implications of quantum computing for the future of digital assets and currencies based on his recent findings.

The idea of a "strategic Bitcoin reserve" is currently stirring up the crypto world like few other topics. In the podcast, FDP member of the German Parliament Frank Schäffler explains the perspectives and opportunities that Bitcoin investments could offer for nations and central banks.

Julian Liniger's vision is to make Bitcoin accessible to everyone. To achieve this, the young Swiss entrepreneur founded Relai, an app designed to simplify buying Bitcoin. Julian shares insights into his journey, the rapid growth of Relai, and their recent $12 million funding round.

Join Alex Bechtel (DWS), Michael Blaschke (SAP), Stefan Grasmann (Zühlke), and Max Vargas (Blockstories) as they analyze Bitcoin’s new ATH, strategic Bitcoin reserves, and political memecoins.

In this episode, Heiko Nix from Siemens explains how Siemens uses Blockchain technology in Cash Management and Payments and which blockchain projects Siemens aims to do in the future

In recent years, privacy-enhancing technologies emerged that can transform how we think about digital privacy today. In this episode, we will discuss one such technology – so-called zero-knowledge proofs – in detail and discuss its potential, applications, challenges as well as their role around the privacy of the future.

What will the co-hosts focus on in the podcast in 2025 and what are their predictions for market events and the bitcoin price? Hear again a short intro into the CVs of the hosts and their predictions.

Das BFRR-Team analysiert die wichtigsten Blockchain-Ereignisse 2024: Bitcoin-ETFs, Preisentwicklung, Stablecoin-Wachstum und Regulatorik. Plus: Ausblick auf den englischsprachigen Relaunch in 2025.

Wie sicher ist Bitcoin in einer Welt mit Quantencomputern? Und: Diskussion um Bitcoin-Reserve erreicht führende Industrienationen – auch Deutschland.

Martin Quensel from Centrifuge and Anemoy explains how centrifuge tokenizes treasuries and creates funds out of these treasuries, and how Anemoy aims to revolutionize the funds management industry.

Bitcoin steigt über 100.000 USD, daher ist es Zeit über den Preis zu sprechen: Woher kommen wir? Wo geht die Reise hin? Lohnt es sich noch einzusteigen?

Was sind mögliche Gründe für den massiven Anstieg des Bitcoin-Kurses? Und welche Entwicklungen gibt es im Bereich tokenisiertem Fiat-Geld? Das sind die zwei Fokusthemen in der November-News Episode.

Co-Hosts Michael Blaschke und Jonas Groß diskutieren das Forschungspapier zweier Ökonomen der Europäischen Zentralbank zu Bitcoin. Kann Bitcoin wirklich Gesellschaften destabilisieren?

Co-Hosts Manuel Klein und Stefan Grasmann (Partner beim Beratungshaus Zühlke) sprechen zu ihren Erlebnissen und Eindrücken auf dem Elevandi Insights Forum und dem Fintech Festival in Singapur

Co-Host Michael Blaschke spricht mit Christian Forma (Head of Treasury, WIBank) und Jens Hermann Paulsen (Director, Deloitte) über die Emission einer tokenisierten Namensschuldverschreibung.

Co-Host Jonas analysiert mit den Identitätsexperten Marcus Nasarek und Johannes Sedlmeir die wichtigsten Fragen rund um Technologie und Datenschutz zur kommenden European Digital Identity Wallet