On The Brink with Castle Island

Mark Coe, the Founder and CIO of Intrinsic Edge Capital Management joins the show. In this episode we discuss: Mark's background and path that led him to founding Intrinsic Edge Capital Management. The Intrinsic Edge Digital Infrastructure Fund, a fund that was launched four years ago to focus on companies in the digital asset ecosystem. Perspectives on the mining industry and the impact of AI/LLMs on this sector of the industry. Views on the types of businesses that will enter the public markets in the coming years. The future of prime brokerage and how service providers will evolve. To learn more about Intrinsic Edge visit intrinsicedge.com or email them at [email protected]

Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode: We review the Coin Center dinner Tether is going out to raise at $500b Cloudflare wants to launch a stablecoin for agentic payments and launches the 402 protocol Circle is thinking about reversible transactions BitGo files for an S1 Strive acquires Semler Scientific The SEC is looking into 200 DATs for insider trading 9 major European banks are looking to launch a MiCA stablecoin The Bank Policy Institute thinks stablecoins threaten banks Senate Finance Cmte is looking at crypto taxes Naver is looking to acquire Upbit

Wyatt sits down with Felipe Montealegre and Noah Goldberg of Theia Capital, a fund investing actively in liquid crypto tokens with strong fundamentals. In this episode: What drives crypto market valuations? Fundamentals or supply of capital? The imbalance between venture vs hedge fund activity in crypto markets Navigating a market where assets become liquid early in their lifecycle Talent in the crypto industry What makes exceptional founders and team members? Using LLMs in investing and general workflow Future themes Theia is excited about

Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode: The SEC approves generic listing standards for cryptoassets Gensler loses a year's worth of text messages BoE wants to limit stablecoin exposure to £20k Tether launches USAT Coinbase is exploring a Base token Binance nears the end of DoJ compliance monitoring Galaxy is launching a tokenized money market fund PayPal launches PayPal links

Walt joins the podcast to discuss the current state of Bitcoin and what is investable in and around the Bitcoin ecosystem. In this episode: Austrian economics and Bitcoin Bitcoin's strengths and limitations when it comes to innovation and durability The modern role of decentralization and trust Whether nation-states will fully adopt BTC The role of Bitcoin in network states Owning BTC and other cryptoassets directly vs in equity wrappers Assessing the monetary value of cryptoassets BTC for payments?

Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode: We reminisce about the fork wars Figure goes public Gemini is slated to list The Winklevoss Quintenz drama rumbles on DAT updates CLARITY updates The fight over stablecoins paying interest continues Prediction markets and sports betting SwissBorg is hacked The CBOE is launching BTC and ETH "continuous futures" Harberger taxes

Wyatt sits down with Austin Federa, the founder of DoubleZero to discuss the hardware systems that underlie blockchains and the internet. In this episode: Building a newer, better fiber network How and why much of internet hardware infrastructure is antiquated Why software innovation has taken precedent over hardware innovation Vertical integration and who has access to the best hardware systems Why hardware innovation requires startups and new entrants Why blockchains demand faster, reliable bandwidth Why a token framework offers a better incentive mechanism

Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode: We review the US Open The Clippers scandal Fantasy football and the efficient market hypothesis Tax treatment of sports betting on Poly versus sports betting apps Are prediction markets more efficient than bookies? Galaxy launches a tokenized version of their stock NASDAQ is adding supervision rules for DATs Is it over for the DATs? World Liberty Fi launches and gets into a fight with Justin Sun Gemini files to go public Stripe releases details around their Tempo L1 Some academics have an explanation for why MSTR might trade at a persistent premium Content mentioned in this episode: Nic on Substack, Situating Stablecoins in the Payments Landscape Valuing Microstrategy

Wyatt sits down with Daniel Lev, the founder of Coinflow, to discuss the evolution of payments amidst a wave of stablecoin-enabled innovation. In this episode: Lurking legacy issues of payment networks How our current payment networks benefit end users but not merchants Types of merchant profiles and who stands to benefit Creating faster settlement Marketplace models and better rails How blockchain can reduce fraud and help businesses know their customers

Nic and Matt return for another week of news and deals. In this episode: Nic reviews the stablecoin conference in Mexico City Will the banks obsolete stablecoins? Some DATs are having trouble The government is putting GDP on the blockchain The CFTC opens the door to US customers trading on non-US exchanges Trump fires Lisa Cook Can the Fed be considered "independent" Google is developing a blockchain A BNB DAT gets delisted Tether is building on Bitcoin via RGB How does insider trading work in prediction markets?

Wyatt sits down with Sandy Kaul, head of digital assets at Franklin Templeton, to cover Sandy's work with the CFTC and DTCC and creating sandboxes for onchain financial markets. In this episode: How wallets stand to become the hub of asset management Lasting policy for crypto Protecting consumers in an open financial system

Matt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode: Wyoming releases a stabletoken "FRNT" Matt's bear encounter Bowman and Waller's speeches at Jackson Hole Eric Trump's Bitcoin prediction Is there an example of a DAT that makes sense? Should DATs trade at a persistent premium? Figure is going public Bullish goes public Is Saylor cornered? Quintenz' nomination The DoJ decriminalizes writing open source code Is Polymarket cooked? Does a trial by a jury of your peers make sense? Content mentioned: Reducible Errors, Predicting our own demise

Wyatt sits down with the founders of Groom Lake. In this episode: How social engineering attacks are being used to exploit companies in crypto and beyond How companies can better protect themselves and be vigilant of these exploit attempts The future of cybersecurity software for crypto

Wyatt sits down with Luke Xie, cofounder of SatLayer for a conversation about Bitcoin yield. In this episode: What makes financial markets for BTC unique How BTC DeFi will evolve, in the backdrop of the broader macro environment DeFi vs CeFi financial systems for BTC

Matt and Nic return for another week of news and deals. In this episode: We review the DAT fine print Why being in power is sometimes the hardest part Stripe and Circle announce their own L1s We make the case for stablecoin L1s The irony in Stripe's L1 What about a DAT of DATs? Bullish goes public Breakfast cereals Do Kwon pleads guilty BPI sends a letter to Congress complaining about stablecoin interest Can you prohibit stablecoin yield? Bo Hines steps down Bessent says the USG will not be buying Bitcoin Is monero being 51% attacked? Content mentioned: BitMEX Research, Treasury Company Advisory Agreements Julie Hill, Governmental Debanking

We sit down with Huf Haus, founder of Pear Protocol. In this episode: What pair trading is, the benefits of Pear trading, and different strategies How to approach different market regimes from a trader's perspective Applying trading strategies to other asset classes

Nathan McCauley, the founder and CEO of Anchorage joins the show. In this episode we discuss: The passage of The Genius Act and the impact it will have on the digital asset industry. The launch of Anchorage's white label stablecoin issuance platform. Anchorage Digital Prime and how the company is working with its customers on trade execution, lending and custody. The status of the market structure bill. The Roman Storm case. To learn more about Anchorage visit their website. Follow Nathan on X. See also: OTB 595: Nathan McCauley on the evolving banking and custody landscape

Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode: What's wrong with NYC? China bans Bitcoin for the 15th time Is China really lauching an RMB stablecoin? We dissect the Trump debanking EO OpenAI releases GPT5 SEC: Liquid staking tokens are not securities Roman Storm is found guilty on one of three counts Hester Peirce's speech on financial privacy How should we solve debanking? Will stablecoins replace bank wires? Is AI going to reveal the identity of Satoshi Further reading: Hester Peirce, Peanut Butter & Watermelon: Financial Privacy in the Digital Age Nic on Substack, The Last Word on Stablecoins and Free Banking

Maple Finance CEO and cofounder Sid Powell joins the show to talk about Maple's huge year so far. In this episode: Syrup and Maple's evolution into an on-chain asset manager Traditional credit players servicing on-chain finance DeFi's strengths and weaknesses relative to traditional markets

Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode: The White House publishes their highly awaited crypto report SEC Chair Paul Atkins makes a landmark speech Stablecoin-focused L1s DAT mNAV premia are converging to 1 Figma IPO The SEC embraces tokenized securities, airdrops, token issuance, and DeFi In-kind create and redeem has been authorized for Bitcoin ETFs JPM deepens their partnership with Coinbase Roman Storm verdict is imminent Further reading: Blockworks' DAT Dashboard Omid Malekan and Zach Pandl, Stablecoins and the Singleness of Money White House, Strengthening American Leadership in Digital Financial Technology Paul Atkins, American Leadership in the Digital Finance Revolution Nic Carter, The Last Word on Stablecoins and Free Banking

Wyatt sits down with Michael Bentley, the founder of Euler. In this episode: Euler's founding story, infamous security incident, and comeback story How the team and protocol stayed together in the face of immense challenges The value of personal relationships in crypto despite a pseudonymous culture

Matt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode: Defending "Free Banking" from the critics – and why stablecoins are unlike free banks The American Bankers Association doesn't like new crypto charters Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino announces the company's plan to launch a new US-based stablecoin this year Strategy announced the plans for the fourth preferred stock offering this week, STRC, or "Stretch." Anchorage Digital, which does hold an OCC banking charter, is launching a new stablecoin issuance platform. The first stablecoin product will be USDtb in partnership with Ethena Labs The Senate Banking Committee released their discussion draft for crypto market structure legislation this week, designed to build off the House's passage of the CLARITY Act last week Citadel Securities has expressed concern around the rise of tokenized securities Bhutan's Bitcoin trade BitGo, a crypto custody provider, and Bullish, a crypto exchange, both announced that they had confidentially filed an S-1 Further reading: Wired, The Great Crypto Re-Banking Has Begun Galaxy Digital, Crypto Policy Under Trump: H1 2025 Report

Cyrus Shirazi, CEO of Haven joins the show. In this episode: R&D tax credits and offering an attractive tax product to early stage companies What on-chain finance needs to fulfill becoming a better ledger for accounting What startups should look for in a tax & accounting partner

Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode: The Coldplay concert incident It's Crypto Week in Washington Talos acquires Coin Metrics Do you need an MTL to run a fantasy football league? GENIUS Act is law pending Trump's signature Clarity Act passes the House Pump.fun ICO Fairshake raises $141m Grayscale is preparing for an IPO Adam Back's Bitcoin access vehicle Polymarket beats the allegations Is GENIUS creating a narrow bank system? Governor Waller's comments on stablecoins and banks

Wyatt sits down with Nikhil Raghuveera of Predicate to talk policy for blockchain applications. In this episode: How Predicate's "rules for blockchain transactions" are making on-chain finance more scalable and secure Creating more compliant stablecoin transfer systems suitable to mass financial use cases The future of secure money movement How leading software and financial firms can integrate transaction policies in their workflows

Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode: Bitcoin hits a new ATH and no one is talking about it Grok goes haywire The White House posts chudjak Core Weave looks to buy Core Scientific Stablecoins are going to pay yield anyway Did Zelenskyy wear a suit? How should prediction markets be settled? Pump.fun ICO is coming up Hester Peirce issues a warning on tokenized securities Crypto Week in Congress is coming up Jonathan Gould has been confirmed as Comptroller of the Currency There are new public access vehicles Andreessen wants you to leave Delaware A fundamental valuation model for L1s? GMX is hacked for $42m Tim Massad's exchange with Bernie Moreno Content mentioned in this episode: Hester Peirce, Enchanting, but Not Magical: A Statement on the Tokenization of Securities Fidelity, Blockchains as emerging economies Bridge, How Meow and Bridge Make USDC Payments as Seamless as Cash

Zac Townsend, the founder and CEO of Meanwhile, joins the show. In this episode we discuss: Zac's background and the path that led him to start Meanwhile. The mechanics of Bitcoin denominated life insurance. How Meanwhile generates Bitcoin yield. Zac's views on the evolution of Bitcoin treasury companies. To learn more about Meanwhile visit meanwhile.bm

Charles Hamel, Product Director at Opera's MiniPay, joins the show. In this episode: Stablecoin habits in emerging markets Prospects for local stablecoins What's next on the stablecoin horizon

Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode: EthCC troubles Robinhood has been shipping Figma owns BTC The House GOP has declared "crypto week" in July Circle and Ripple are applying for bank charters AI companies are buying Bitcoin miners Sharia finance The BBB passes America teeters towards default The Sohan Parekh fiasco How do tokenized stocks work? Another architect of OCP2.0 bites the dust Is AI going to usher in a socialist revolution? Ric Edelman wants you to buy crypto Franklin Templeton is worried about bitcoin treasury companies No crypto language was included in the BBB

Chris Maurice, founder of Yellow Card, a pan-Africa stablecoin business and exchange, rejoins the show. In this episode: How Chris feels about the crypto space in 2025 as compared to when he started a decade ago How Yellow Card evolved from being a retail BTC exchange to being an enterprise payment platform for stablecoins How Chris realized that stablecoins were all about b2b transfers How businesses in EM use stablecoins, and what the alternatives are Regional differences within Africa in terms of stablecoin adoption Shifting regulatory attitudes in Africa Does Chris worry about crypto-dollarization in Africa? Is dollarization happening on the ground right now Tether and TRON market share developments Where we are in stablecoin infra and tooling and what needs to be built Why we need a stablecoin clearinghouse The future of Yellow Card a few years ahead How banks will engage with stablecoins

Wyatt sits down with Bernando Bilotta, founder of Stables.money. In this episode: Stablecoin usage in APAC, for saving, spending, and beyond Retail adoption that bleeds into institutional adoption The forward-looking path for stablecoin finance

Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode: Golden age of prediction markets NYC mayor's election What's happening with Canton? The FHFA says crypto can be a qualifying asset for mortages Our thoughts on the market structure bill The significance of the Fiserv stablecoin pilot $500m public access vehicle for BNB The Fed drops reputational risk in bank supervision EO for debanking is rumored Kraken HQ is moving to Wyoming Texas buys Bitcoin Will banking hours be obsolete?

Josh Frank, the founder and CEO of The Tie joins the show. In this episode we discuss: The origin story behind The Tie and how Josh approached founding the business. The digital asset data market. How sentiment data has evolved in the digital asset industry. The buy-side landscape for digital assets and how Josh sees that evolving in the coming years. The Canton Network and how The Tie is working with this new protocol. To learn more about The Tie visit their website.

Ria sits down with Luca Prosperi, CEO and Co-Founder of M0, a universal stablecoin platform that enables customization while preserving interoperability across assets. In this episode, we cover: Lessons from MakerDAO Drawing inspiration from the dual banking system Building a base asset that is decentralized, permissionless and ossified Issuing opinionated assets via wrapping and extensions while maintaining interoperability

Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode: The GENIUS Act passes the Senate Should GENIUS be stapled to market structure? Bessent thinks stablecoins could be $3.7T by 2030 Stablecoin FUD Will stablecoins destabilize the US Treasury market JPM's stablecoin FUDs JPMD's deposit token will launch on Base The future of stablecoin yield in the US Circle hits a $50b market cap Yellowcard partners with Visa in Africa Kraken will launch a token for their Ink L2 Are Walmart and Amazon looking at their own stablecoins? An Iranian crypto exchange is hacked at the coins are lost We review old Bitcoin FUDs on the FUD Dice Content mention in this episode: Yesha Yadav and Brendan Malone, Stablecoins and the US Treasury Market

Sean is joined by Santi Alvarado, CEO/Co-Founder of XFX, to cover their seed raise and how money moves cross border. In this episode: Background of Santi and how he made his way into crypto How legacy FX settlement operates today How XFX enables more liquidity for cross border payment companies

Wyatt is joined by Greg Genega, Digital Asset and Blockchain leader at KPMG, for a conversation on the state of crypto auditing. In this episode: How KPMG works with crypto companies and protocols Relevant new innovations in the crypto space What to look out for as a new founder

Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode: Stripe acquires wallet infrastructure company Privy for an undisclosed sum Fireblocks' stablecoin data Stablecoin FUD Were mnemonic phrases a local maxima? Bullish and Gemini have filed preliminary paperwork for IPOs Soc Gen is launching a USD stablecoin We look at some infamous rogue traders Gamestop's bitcoin strategy is a flop DTCC is looking at issuing a stablecoin

Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode: Circle goes public and has an explosive first day The IPO window is open Circle's vision for CPN Pump.fun is launching a token Will pump.fun cannibalize Solana? JPM will let clients use Bitcoin ETFs as collateral Strategy introduces new offerings Magic Eden's strange Trump wallet app announcement Truth Social Bitcoin ETF A K Pop Bitcoin access vehicle Korea's cultural renaissance Singapore's abrupt change in posture

Wyatt sits down with Isha Varshney from the Celo Foundation to talk stablecoins. Covered in this episode: Payments in Kenya and Sub-Saharan Africa Stablecoin usage and USDT The future of non-stable tokens

Matt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode: Warning signs for the Bitcoin access vehicles? Has Bitcoin lost the MoE battle? Is OCP 2.0 over? The Dept of Labor rescinds their anti-crypto 401k guidance Cantor Fitzgerald is launching a bitcoin/gold fund Is it mathematically possible to give Bitcoin upside and gold downside? Content mentioned: Stablecoin.fyi

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 transactions? Download the report at stablecoin.fyi

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 provisions More Movement shenanigans Thailand is launching a $150m crypto token Content mentioned in this episode: Tuongvy Le and Austin Campbell published a paper, "Crypto and The Evolution of Capital Markets", which dissects the current market structure for securities trading and settlement and discusses how blockchain networks can improve this architecture.

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 crypto custody and execution Stripe is launching stablecoin financial accounts The SEC explores a sandbox for tokenized securities Tariff the L2s

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 a joint webinar to showcase this product collaboration. You can register here. Learn more about Station 70 Learn more about Fordefi