Talking Tokens
Talking Tokens is a podcast and newsletter from StrataMedia, delivering two episodes per week to a global audience of crypto and finance professionals. Hosted by Jacquelyn Melinek, an award-nominated podcaster and former senior crypto reporter at TechCrunch, the show covers cryptocurrency and blockchain topics. It has been nominated for multiple awards and is one of the most-watched crypto podcasts.
Episodes
Taking Crypto Mainstream with Nostalgia & Creative Marketing | Dakota Campbell, Collector Crypt
On today's Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Dakota Campbell, Head of Marketing at Collector Crypt, the platform that generated $165 million in volume in April alone by putting trading cards and physical collectibles onchain with Solana. Dakota explains the resurgence of physical collecting is what's actually pulling people toward digital ownership, and why Solana's low fees were the thing
What the Last Decade of Fintech Got Wrong | A Look Into Crypto Neobanks
On this episode of Strata Research, presented by Talking Tokens & Token Relations, Jacquelyn sits down with Institutional Research Analyst Alex Beaudry to dig into crypto neobanks. Apps are rebuilding what Chime and Revolut did a decade ago, but on stablecoin rails and Alex explains how founders can set themselves up for success. Alex’s insights cover why the float and yield model is both the
Why Institutional FOMO Is Now the Biggest Force in Crypto | Morgan Krupetsky, Ava Labs
On today's Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Morgan Krupetsky, VP of Onchain Finance at Ava Labs, to break down where institutional adoption of blockchain actually stands right now. They discuss why Morgan thinks the industry has officially crossed the chasm from experimental pilots to in-production deployments. Morgan deep dives into the embedded finance stack she's seeing resonate
Are Tokenized Stocks the Next Big Catalyst? | Brett Redfearn
On today's Talking Tokenization, Jacquelyn sits down with Brett Redfearn, President of Securitize and former SEC Director of Trading and Markets, to trace how tokenization has evolved from floor-based trading rooms to onchain capital markets. Brett explains why he thinks we're entering the most transformative market structure shift in 20 years, why tokenized stocks might be the next major
Why Focusing on Tailored Approaches in Emerging Markets is the Move | Torab Torabi
On today's Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Torab Torabi, CEO of Move Industries, to discuss Movement’s strategic reorientation toward becoming a stablecoin settlement and yield layer for emerging markets. Torab shares what he learned from sitting down with the Ethiopian president and Ministry of Finance, why governments in these markets don’t want an unchecked flight to dollars, and w
What Wall Street Actually Wants from Crypto | Bart Smith & Laine Litman
On today's Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Bart Smith and Laine Litman, CEO and COO of AVAT, the Avalanche Treasury Company, two traditional finance veterans who both spent years watching institutions talk about crypto before finally deciding to go all in themselves. Bart and Laine get into what makes AVAT different from the pile of treasury companies trying to copy the MicroStrategy
The 4 Things That Need to Happen Before AI Agents Can Actually Spend Money | An Agentic Payments Explainer
On our first episode of Strata Research presented by Talking Tokens & Token Relations, Jacquelyn sits down with Institutional Research Analyst Alex Beaudry to breakdown agentic payments. Alex walks through why it isn't one market but three distinct payment flows, each with completely different infrastructure requirements, and why the machine-to-machine category is where stablecoins have a
USDT0's Co-Founder on Moving $90B Cross-Chain, the Agent Economy, and Tether's Untouchable Moat
On today's Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Lorenzo Romagnoli, co-founder of USDT0, a stablecoin protocol that has moved over $90 billion in USDT across 25+ blockchains since launching in January 2025. Lorenzo makes the case that stablecoins were not just built for Americans or Europeans but for people in emerging markets across Africa, Latin America, and Asia who needed a way out of c
What You Need To Know About x402 And How It Impacts Payments | Erik Reppel
In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Erik Reppel, head of engineering at Coinbase Developer Platform and creator of x402., They discuss why the internet struggled without a native payment protocol and why AI agents finally made the problem urgent enough to solve. Erik explains how x402 lets computers send money as easily as they send data, and why Visa, Mastercard, and
What goes on behind $30B in tokenized assets | Jason Barraza
In this episode of Talking Tokenization, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Jason Barraza, head of institutional business development at RedStone, about why blockchain oracles are evolving from simple price feeds into the institutional intelligence layer that tokenized finance still needs. Jason, who previously served as COO at Security Token Market where he helped track over 800 tokenized real world a
SoFi Wants to Be the Stablecoin Liquidity Hub for Banks | Ben Reynolds
In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Ben Reynolds, SVP and head of Big Business Banking at SoFi, about why the company launched its SoFi USD stablecoin on Solana and what it means for the firm’s broader vision to become a stablecoin liquidity hub. Ben, who joined Silvergate in 2016 and helped build the Silvergate Exchange Network before the bank shut down in 2023, expla
What Risk Frameworks are Needed for Institutional Adoption | Mike Silagadze & Joseph Chalom
In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Mike Silagadze, founder and CEO of EtherFi, and Joseph Chalom, CEO of SharpLink, following SharpLink’s deployment ofed $200 million of its $2 billion ether treasury into EtherFi in January and what the due diligence process actually looked like from both sides. Mike explains why EtherFi is building a ‘DeFi bank,’ an end-to-end self-c
What's Overhyped, Underhyped, and Actually Happening in Crypto Right Now
In this special episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek sits down with eight crypto leaders at an event in Miami hosted by StrataMedia alongside GSR and Alpaca for a rapid-fire mini interview series. Each guest is asked a similar set of questions: what their company is working on, how they describe the state of the crypto market, whether bearish sentiment is overhyped, what they would tokeniz
How Crypto Is Slowly Taking Over Wall Street Territory | Kevin Beardsley
In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek does an exclusive interview with Kevin Beardsley, the new head of institutional growth at Jito Foundation, in his first interview since announcing the role. Kevin, who previously held senior positions at Kraken and Ctrl Wallet, explains why institutions want Solana exposure but still struggle to actually use the technology, and how the 18-month
Tokenization Will Eat Capital Markets. Here's How. | Xin Song
In this episode of Talking Tokenization, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Xin Song, CEO of GSR, about how the firm is evolving from a crypto market maker into a full-service digital asset investment bank. Xin, who started his career at BlackRock before later running his own crypto derivatives hedge fund and joining GSR in 2019, explains why tokenization will eat the capital markets world and why the
Talking Tokenization EXCLUSIVE: BlackRock Digital Assets Director Shares Strategy for Tokenization, Bitcoin Stablecoins, and More | Max Stein
In this episode of Talking Tokenization, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Max Stein, a director on the digital assets team at BlackRock, about how the firm translates crypto and tokenization ideas into actual products, and why tokenized cash still has a long way to run. Max, who previously spent four years at ConsenSys and invested at Sino Global Capital before joining BlackRock, explains how the fir
Inside PayPal’s Bet on Stablecoins | May Zabaneh
In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with May Zabaneh, SVP and GM of Crypto at PayPal, about why today’s payment systems still suffer from hidden inefficiencies and how stablecoins are emerging as the next layer of financial infrastructure.May explains that while payments today work, they remain slow, costly, and fragmented especially across borders. She breaks down how stab
Why Crypto Token Launches Are Broken and How to Fix Them | Shane Molidor
In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Shane Molidor, founder and CEO of Forgd, about why token launches keep failing and what it would actually take to fix them. Shane, who previously led trading desks at Gemini, AscendEX, and FBG Capital before founding Forgd, explains why the structural gaps that bull markets used to hide are now fully exposed, and why founders, VCs, a
Most RWAs Are Built Wrong | Ayyan Rahman
In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Ayyan Rahman, co-founder and chief growth officer at OnRe, about why most real-world asset (RWA) projects in crypto are fundamentally misaligned with how DeFi actually works.Ayyan explains that tokenization alone isn’t enough and that many RWAs today function more like repackaged traditional finance than truly composable on-chain ass
Crypto Is Built on a Broken Internet | Tom Warner
In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Tom Warner, head of BD at DoubleZero, about why crypto is fundamentally limited by the public internet and how a new high-performance network layer could change everything.Tom explains how blockchains like Solana are hitting a performance ceiling not because of the chains themselves, but because of the infrastructure they run on. He
Why Bitcoin Really Exists | Matt Luongo and Arthur Hayes
In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Matt Luongo, co-founder of Mezo, and Arthur Hayes, CIO of Maelstrom and co-founder of BitMEX, about why they see bitcoin as the best collateral ever created and what it means to build a financial system on top of it. Matt explains how Mezo is rebuilding banking on bitcoin by letting holders borrow against their BTC rather than spend
How Sky Is Building the Future of Stablecoin Yield With USDS | Rune Christensen
In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Rune Christensen, founder of Sky (formerly MakerDAO), about how the protocol is connecting hundreds of billions in idle stablecoins to institutional-grade yield through its Sky Agent Network. Rune explains why Sky evolved from MakerDAO, how USDS offers a native 3.75% savings rate with no lock-ups or fees, and why the protocol generat
Why AI Agents Will Manage Your DeFi Portfolio Before You Do | Vik Arun
In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Vik Arun, co-founder of Superform, about why DeFi was always heading toward automation and why AI agents not humans are the natural managers of onchain portfolios. Vik, who previously co-led a $100M DeFi and yield fund at BlockTower Capital before launching Superform in 2022, explains how the protocol evolved from a yield marketplace
How RockawayX Is Building the Actively Managed DeFi Vault | Samantha Bohbot
In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Samantha Bohbot, partner and chief growth officer at RockawayX, about why DeFi vaults have evolved from simple yield products into the foundation for actively managed, institutional-grade credit strategies. Samantha, who spent nearly four years as VP of growth at DCG before joining RockawayX, explains how the firm allocates over $2 b
Why Public Markets Are About to Move Onchain | Michael Tannenbaum
In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Michael Tannenbaum, CEO of Figure, about how the company processes over $1 billion in mortgages monthly and why it went public in 2025. Michael, who was first employee at Brex and chief revenue officer at SoFi before joining Figure in 2024, explains why the company tokenized its own stock first to prove the model works before approac
Framework Ventures Is Deploying $2.5 Billion Into Institutional-Grade Yield | Parker Edwards
In this episode of Talking Tokenization, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Parker Edwards, partner at Framework Ventures, about deploying a $2.5 billion mandate to bring institutional-grade yield onchain through Obex, a Sky-focused incubator. Parker announces the first cohort where it’s deploying $1 billion across eight companies including Maple, Centrifuge, Securitize, River, and Better Home & Fi
Why Getting Money Into Blockchains Is Still Broken | Dan Mottice
In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Dan Mottice, head of stablecoins at Modern Treasury and founder of Beam, a stablecoin payment platform it acquired in October 2025. Dan, who previously led Visa's crypto products before building Beam, explains how payment infrastructure is evolving to treat stablecoins as a default rail alongside traditional fiat systems.He walks
Bitcoin to $1,000,000 by 2030? | Muneeb Ali
In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Muneeb Ali, founder of Stacks, about navigating his fourth bear market and why this one feels different as AI could potentially offer higher growth than crypto for the first time. Muneeb explains why quantum computing poses a real threat to Bitcoin even before quantum computers exist, and why some Bitcoin hardliners refuse to acknowl
Why RWAs and Tokenized Stocks Are Unlocking DeFi for Institutions | Jonathan Han
In this episode of Talking Tokenization, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Jonathan Han, CEO of Euler Finance, about building the credit layer of the internet and making DeFi lending accessible to retail and institutional users alike. Jonathan, who previously worked at Bridgewater Associates explains how Euler's lending framework is evolving from a permissionless protocol to one serving both crypt
Why Across Wants to Turn its ACX Token into Equity
In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Hart Lambur, co-founder of Across Protocol and UMA, in two segments: breaking news about Across's token-to-equity proposal and a conversation from ETH Denver. Hart first unveils the Bridge Across proposal, a first-of-its-kind "token buyout" where, if approved, ACX holders can exchange tokens for equity in a new C Corp a
Banks are Ditching Old Databases for Blockchains | Scott Dykstra
In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Scott Dykstra, co-founder and CTO of Space and Time, about how the crypto market has evolved from the 2021 NFT craze to the 2026 institutional era. Scott explains why almost every bank is now writing smart contracts, how Space and Time helps financial institutions connect offchain data to onchain markets, and why blockchains are fund
How Tokenized Money Market Funds Hit $10B | Will Peck
In this episode of Talking Tokenization, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Will Peck, head of digital assets at WisdomTree, about the firm's explosive growth in tokenized real-world assets from $30 million to $770 million and its recent SEC approval for 24/7 trading and instant settlement. Will explains how WisdomTree's tokenized money market fund serves three key use cases:, stablecoin reserv
Palmer Luckey Just Built a Bank for Crypto, AI and Defense | Diogo Mónica
In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Diogo Mónica, general partner at Haun Ventures, executive chairman and co-founder of Anchorage Digital, and board member of Erebor. Diogo explains how stablecoins, tokenized equities, and generative finance are evolving and why Haun Ventures invested in Palmer Luckey's Erebor Bank, which received the first national bank charter u
Why VC Consolidation Signals Crypto Maturation | Mason Nystrom & Daniel Marin
In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Mason Nystrom, partner at Pantera Capital who hosts the Stateful podcast, and Daniel Marin, CEO of Nexus, about the state of crypto venture capital, the consolidation phase happening across markets, and what it takes to launch a blockchain in 2026. Mason explains why 2025 saw record venture dollars deployed into fewer deals, signalin
How Stablecoins Can Export U.S. Capital Markets to the World | Nick van Eck
In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Nick van Eck, co-founder and CEO of Agora, about how the stablecoin infrastructure platform is building the financial fabric for enterprises to operate entirely onchain. Nick explains why Agora launched as a neutral horizontal player to serve enterprises beyond the USDT and USDC duopoly, and how the company's white-label model al
Why Bitcoin-Backed Lending Will Reach $200 Billion | Sid Powell
In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Sid Powell, co-founder and CEO of Maple Finance, about how its onchain asset management platform grew from $500 million to over $4 billion in AUM through disciplined risk management and institutional-grade lending infrastructure. Sid explains how Maple evolved from its original 2019 vision of tokenized bonds to becoming a direct lend
Why Price Discovery Will Move Onchain Within 3 Years | Saeed Badreg
In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Saeed Badreg, CEO of Wormhole Labs, about how the incubated Sunrise project helps asset issuers gain distribution and reach users across blockchains, with a particular focus on the Solana ecosystem. Saeed explains why the team built Sunrise as a turnkey solution for projects struggling to penetrate closed blockchain ecosystems, and h
Why Bitcoin’s Price Isn’t Affecting Institutional Interest in Tokenization | Thomas Cowan
In this episode of Talking Tokenization, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Thomas Cowan, head of tokenization at Galaxy, about how blockchain technology is upgrading decades-old financial infrastructure and why institutional commitment to tokenization remains strong, despite crypto market volatility. Thomas explains how tokenization connects information and value the way physical cash does, why the co
How Vaults Become the Next Stablecoin Narrative | Sun Raghupathi
In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Sun Raghupathi, CEO of Veda, about how DeFi evolved from speculation to a robust financial backend for users, fintechs and asset managers. Sun explains why degens were essential beta testers for early DeFi systems, how vault infrastructure bridges the gap between onchain complexity and traditional finance, and why idle balances shoul
Why Onchain Vaults Are Following Stablecoins Everywhere | Hunter Horsley
In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Hunter Horsley, co-founder and CEO of Bitwise Asset Management, about the firm’s launch of onchain vault strategies wiith Morpho and latest Q4 2025 corporate adoption report of bitcoin and ethereum as well as his outlook on digital asset treasuries. Hunter explains what vaults are, why they're following the adoption curve of stab
How ReserveOne Plans to Shake Up the Crowded DAT Market | Jaime Leverton
In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Jaime Leverton, CEO of ReserveOne, about building a publicly-traded diversified digital asset reserve inspired by the U.S. Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile. Jaime explains why she left traditional tech and her role as CEO of Hut 8 to build ReserveOne from the ground up, how the company's 80% Bitcoin and 20% alternative
Inside Securitize's $1.25B Nasdaq SPAC and Pacific Stock Transfer Acquisition | Billy Miller
In this episode of Talking Tokenization, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Billy Miller, COO of Securitize, about how transfer agents evolved from background infrastructure to critical onchain infrastructure and why blockchain technology gave this traditionally overlooked sector a chance to reemerge. Billy explains what transfer agents do, how Securitize acquired Pacific Stock Transfer in 2022, and wh
Building Payment Rails That Banks & Fintech Actually Want to Use | Marc Boiron
In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Marc Boiron, CEO of Polygon Labs, about the company's expansion into payments through its new Open Money Stack and why connecting onchain systems to real world finance is critical for keeping capital onchain. Marc explains why blockchains, stablecoins, and wallets are converging to make payments easier than traditional correspond
Why AI and Crypto Are Two Halves of the Same Coin | Nikil Viswanathan
In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Nikil Viswanathan, Co-Founder & CEO of Alchemy, the infrastructure platform powering over 70% of top crypto applications and more than $150B in annual transaction volume. Nikil explains how Alchemy abstracted away the complexity of building onchain for millions of developers to create crypto products similar to mobile apps on iOS
Why 50% of DeFi Projects Are Just TradFi Backdoors | Ben Nadareski
In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek sits down with Ben Nadareski, Co-Founder and CEO of Solstice Labs, to break down how Solstice brings institutional-grade delta-neutral trading strategies to everyday users through a permissionless, onchain structure. Ben explains how Solstice can give a $5 retail depositor access to the exact same real yield that hedge funds, trading firms, and
Making Ethereum 240x Faster: From 12 Seconds to 50ms | Kevin Lepsoe
In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Kevin Lepsoe, Founder of ETHGas, about blockspace and how a transparent blockspace futures marketplace could redefine Ethereum’s core economic engine. Kevin explains why Ethereum’s 12-second block time creates fragmentation, poor UX, failed transactions, and institutional reluctance and how slicing blocks into millisecond-resolution
Why a Team of Seasoned Finance Veterans Launched a Hyperliquid DAT | David Schamis
In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek sits down with David Schamis, CEO of Hyperliquid Strategies and Atlas Merchant Capital Founding Partner and CIO. He breaks down the rapid rise of Hyperliquid, the decentralized exchange powering billions in annual free cash flow without raising a dollar of outside capital. David explains how perps became crypto’s dominant trading product, why Hy
How Private Credit Comes Onchain | Mary Gooneratne
In this episode of Talking Tokenization, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Mary Gooneratne, Co-Founder of Loopscale, about how tokenization, credit markets and asset mobility are converging into the next major wave of onchain finance. Mary explains why only a tiny fraction of the financial system exists onchain today, why future assets will look nothing like governance tokens or digital gold, and what
How DATs Could Become The New Banks | DFDV’s Parker White
In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Parker White, Chief Investment Officer at DeFi Development Corp, about how digital asset treasuries (DATs) can evolve into onchain equivalents of banks inside the Solana economy. Parker explains why non-sovereign money is foundational to his worldview, how Austrian economics shaped his conviction in Bitcoin, and why the collapse of c
How ChooseRich Nick Masters Going Viral | Nick O’Neill
In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Nick O’Neill, Co-Founder and CEO of BoDoggos. Nick shares how years of running The Nifty, one of the largest NFT media companies, shaped his understanding of community behavior, storytelling and internet culture and how that experience ultimately led to BoDoggos.Nick reflects on the psychological cost of operating as a character, ho
Mert Explains How Solana Becomes the Internet Capital Markets Chain
In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Mert Mumtaz, Co-Founder and CEO of Helius. He shares his take on Solana evolving from earlier years with its NFT boom to the memecoin era and where it’s heading, as well as why better infrastructure, indexing and data readability were essential for scaling the network. Mert breaks down how Helius built the tools that make Solana legi
Why DeFi Needs Onchain Prime Brokerage | MacBrennan Peet
In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with MacBrennan Peet, Founder of Project 0, about why DeFi has reached a point where unified margin, solvency guarantees and onchain prime brokerage are finally possible. MacBrennan explains why risk systems and smart contract securities have matured, how Project 0 unifies margin across multiple venues, and why serious DeFi users inevitab
Talking Tokenization: Why Every Internet Company Must Tokenize in 2026 | Yat Siu
In this episode of Talking Tokenization, Jacquelyn Melinek sits down with Yat Siu, Co-Founder and Chairman of Animoca Brands, to discuss why he believes altcoins will outperform bitcoin, how tokenization will reshape global markets, and why Animoca is preparing to go public through a reverse merger.Yat explains why he thinks utility tokens are entering a new era, how regulatory clarity will unlock
How Solmate Is Merging Treasury Scale with Real Infrastructure | Marco Santori
In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Marco Santori, CEO of Solmate, about the company’s shift from a pure digital asset treasury model into an infrastructure business. Marco explains why Solmate decided to build bare metal validators in the UAE, how geography affects production, and why the region is becoming strategically important for Solana’s global footprint.They al
How Solana Becomes the Home for Kalshi | Nitesh Nath
In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Nitesh Nath, Founder and CEO of DFlow, about building trading infrastructure for Solana and enabling native access to prediction markets, starting with Kalshi, through DFlow’s new API.Nitesh explains why expanding market access matters for Solana’s trading community, how tokenizing these positions unlocks new DeFi composability, and
Why Bitcoin Collateral Is Going Mainstream | Matt Luongo & Nathan McCauley
In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Matt Luongo, Founder of Thesis and Co-Founder of Mezo, and Nathan McCauley, Co-Founder and CEO of Anchorage Digital. They discuss how Bitcoin collateral, institutional borrowing, and onchain lending are becoming core parts of modern finance.They dive into why institutions increasingly want to borrow against Bitcoin, how regulatory cl
Talking Tokenization: Why the Media Loves Stablecoins (Should We Be Worried?) | Greg Di Prisco
In this episode of Talking Tokenization, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Greg Di Prisco, Co-Founder of M0, about how stablecoins are reshaping global finance, why banks are losing their grip on deposits, and how the next monetary layer will be built directly into applications instead of traditional banking rails.Greg explains why stablecoins may ultimately fulfill parts of Satoshi’s original vision,
What Most People Get Wrong About Web3 | Amanda Cassatt
In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Amanda Cassatt, founder of Serotonin and the former CMO of Consensys, who played a foundational role in bringing Ethereum to market. Amanda shares how she entered the early Ethereum ecosystem, what it was like working alongside early builders, and how those experiences shaped her thinking on storytelling, distribution, and product-ma
How Public Are Blockchains Really? | Azeem Khan
In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Azeem Khan, Co-Founder of Miden, a new privacy-focused blockchain designed to bring configurable, institution-ready privacy to onchain activity.Azeem breaks down why public blockchains are far more open than people realize, how institutions think about visibility and copy-trading risk, and why privacy has become a prerequisite for re
Why Your Crypto Tokens Keep Dumping | David Phelps
In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with David Phelps, Co-Founder of JokeRace, an onchain platform that wants to turn governance, incentives, and community engagement into lightweight, fun, and highly participatory experiences. David breaks down why governance has failed in most crypto communities, how JokeRace simplifies participation, and why real utility often comes from
Monad’s Airdrop Strategy Explained | Eunice Giarta
In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Eunice Giarta, Co-Founder of Monad, a new blockchain that just launched on mainnet. Eunice explains Monad’s design philosophy, the team’s focus on distribution and decentralization, and why the public token sale with Coinbase represents a new approach to retail access.They also discuss Monad’s viral airdrop campaign, the team’s long-
How Avalanche Approaches Scaling, Tokenization & Institutional Growth | John Nahas
In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with John Nahas, Chief Business Officer at Ava Labs. John discusses Avalanche’s approach to scaling through purpose-built L1s, how dedicated infrastructure supports institutional and enterprise adoption, and why many organizations are shifting toward onchain-first products.The conversation explores Avalanche’s burn-based token model, the
How Harmonic Solved Solana's Biggest Problem | Ben Coverston
In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Ben Coverston, Founding Engineer at Temporal, a Solana-based R&D firm focused on blockchain performance, and cofounder of Harmonic.The conversation explores Harmonic, a new open block-building system designed to make Solana’s transaction sequencing more efficient, decentralized, and transparent. Ben discusses how the system creat
Talking Tokenization: How Robinhood Plans to Bring Stocks Onchain | Johann Kerbrat & AJ Warner
In this episode of Talking Tokenization, Jacquelyn Melinek sits down with Johann Kerbrat, SVP and GM of Crypto at Robinhood, and AJ Warner, Chief Strategy Officer at Offchain Labs, the team behind Arbitrum.The conversation explores how Robinhood is bringing U.S. equities onchain through tokenization, starting in Europe, and what that means for global investors. Johann explains how the initiative g
How Movement Plans to Move on From Market Maker Token Mishap
In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek sits down with Torab Torabi, CEO of Move Industries, the team behind Move Network, a new blockchain ecosystem built on the Move language.Torab opens up about the challenges of rebuilding after Movement Labs’ internal fallout, how the company restructured, and why the new chapter is focused on transparency, community, and global accessibility. He
Why 70% of Token Launches Fail and How Forgd Is Changing That | Shane Molidor
In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Shane Molidor, founder and CEO of Forgd, an investment banking and advisory platform that helps blockchain projects design sustainable token economies and improve market transparency.The discussion covers why crypto still struggles with low liquidity and poor disclosure standards, how market makers shape price discovery, and what it
Stablecoins, AI, and Building the Next Generation of Crypto Startups | Qiao Wang
In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek interviews Qiao Wang, founding partner at Alliance DAO, to explore the current state of crypto startups and the broader market landscape.The conversation covers how early-stage builders are approaching stablecoins, payments, and AI-driven tools, and why the next wave of development is shifting toward real-world utility. Qiao discusses its latest
Talking Tokenization: Carlos Domingo on Securitize’s $1.25B IPO & Tokenized Fund with BNY
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 real-
Ethereum ETFs, Tokenization & The Future of Digital Treasuries | Joseph Chalom
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 E
Generative Finance: AI x Crypto's Next Trillion Dollar Opportunity | Diogo Mónica
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 the
How Aerodrome Dominated DeFi on Base: The Zero VC Approach with Alexander Cutler
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
Talking Tokenization: Why Tokenizing Stock Beats Traditional Shares | Maja Vujinovic
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
Talking Tokenization: Why Tokenizing Stock Beats Traditional Shares | Maja Vujinovic
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
How dYdX’s President is Building the Future of Decentralized Trading
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
Bitcoin ETFs & The Next Decade of Crypto Investing | Hong Kim
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
Inside World Liberty Financial: USD1, Governance, and Building Trust in Crypto
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
Why Bitcoin Adoption is a Once-in-a-Generation Financial Revolution | American Bitcoin
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
Talking Tokenization: Bringing Wall Street to Ethereum | Vivek Raman
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 ch
PayPal Just Made a HUGE Crypto Move | Matt Tabbiner
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
Introducing Talking Tokenization : The Future of Finance Tokenizing Wall Street
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
