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
How Mantle Plans to Compete in the Tokenized Asset Market
In today's episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Josh Cheong, Head of Product and Growth at Mantle, to discuss the next phase of real-world asset (RWA) tokenization and why distribution is becoming as important as the technology behind it.Drawing on his experience at Citi and Parity Technologies, Joshua explains why tokenized equities are attracting attention, what banks and asse
Why Canton Is Focused on Bringing 1% of Capital Markets Onchain
In today's episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Yuval Rooz, co-founder and CEO of Digital Asset, the team building the Canton blockchain, to discuss what it will actually take to bring global capital markets onchain and why institutional blockchain infrastructure requires a fundamentally different approach. Yuval explains why privacy is non-negotiable for institutional financ
Why Fomo Thinks Social Trading Is the Next Big Investing Shift
In today's episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Se Yong Park , co-founder of Fomo, a social-first trading app with about 3 million users, to discuss how social media, blockchain and changing consumer behavior are reshaping how people discover and invest in financial markets.Se breaks down why Fomo abstracts away wallets, gas, bridges and chains, how the platform is reaching user
What Could Take For Ethereum to Hit $10,000
In today's episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Kevin Lepsoe, founder of ETHGas, to discuss how Ethereum could evolve into faster, more efficient financial infrastructure and what that could mean for institutions, DeFi and AI agents.Kevin Lepsoe breaks down ETHGas's vision for real-time Ethereum, why faster blockspace could bring liquidity back to the network, and the practi
How Injective Is Building Financial Markets Onchain
In today's episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Eric Chen, co-founder and CEO of Injective Labs, the team behind the Injectivea blockchain built for financial applications, to discuss what comes next for tokenization, onchain finance and institutional adoption.Eric explains why simply tokenizing assets isn't enough, where he sees the biggest opportunities for bringing financ
Why Banks Risk More by Ignoring Stablecoins
In today's episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Sergio Mello, Global Head of Digital Asset Infrastructure, and Kevin Wysocki, Head of Policy at Anchorage Digital, to discuss why stablecoins are moving deeper into the institutional financial system and what banks need to build for the next phase of adoption.They explore why institutions are shifting from asking if they should par
Talking Tokens | Inside the Future of Onchain Finance
Talking Tokens goes beyond the headlines to explore the people, ideas, and infrastructure shaping the onchain economy.Hosted by Jacquelyn Melinek, founder and CEO of StrataMedia and former senior crypto reporter at TechCrunch, Talking Tokens brings you twice-weekly conversations with founders, investors, market makers, institutional leaders, and experts across digital assets and traditional financ
What Actually Makes a Crypto Token Investable?
In today's episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Shane Molidor, founder and CEO of Forgd, and Ryan Celaj, head of research at DeFiLlama, to discuss how better data and transparency could change the way crypto assets are evaluated.They break down the Universal Token Ratings (UTR), why TVL and volume alone don't tell the full story, and how disclosures, liquidity, market struct
Why Grove Is Betting Billions on Onchain Credit | Kevin Chan
In today's episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Kevin Chan, co-founder and CTO of Grove Labs, the team behind Grove Protocol, to discuss how Grove is building infrastructure for institutional credit and modern capital markets.Kevin breaks down how Grove has scaled its credit platform, how the protocol connects stablecoin liquidity with traditional and emerging forms of credit, a
What Happens When the World’s Assets Move Onchain?
In today's episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Gregg Bell, Chief Investment Officer at Hashgraph, to discuss what institutional blockchain adoption of Hedera actually looks like and why some of the most important enterprise use cases may be happening outside the crypto headlines.Gregg breaks down how Hedera is being used across industries, why tokenization extends far beyond st
Why Stellar Thinks Its $4B Tokenization Milestone Is Just the Beginning
In today's episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Raja Chakravorti, Chief Business Officer at the Stellar Development Foundation, to discuss why the next phase of tokenization is about more than simply bringing assets onchain and how Stellar is building infrastructure for a more connected global financial system.Raja breaks down Stellar's growth from roughly $1 billion to $4 b
What Hyperliquid Could Change About Traditional Markets | Jake Chervinsky
In today's episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Jake Chervinsky, founder and CEO of Hyperliquid Policy Center, to discuss how perpetual futures could move beyond crypto and what it would take to bring regulated onchain markets to the U.SJake breaks down why 24/7 price discovery matters, how perpetual futures could complement traditional derivatives markets, and why oil could be
Convergence Episode 1: How WisdomTree Went From $30M to $1 Billion in Onchain AUM
Today we are announcing Convergence, our new institutional product for sophisticated investors, in a joint venture between StrataMedia's Token Relations product & Talking Tokens podcast alongside The Rollup, and is presented by WisdomTree. For our debut launch, WisdomTree's Head of Digital Asset's Will Peck joins us for Episode #1 of Convergence.WisdomTree's onchain assets went
From Pokémon Cards to Birkins: Inside Beezie’s $200M+ Volume | Andrea Miele
In today's episode of Solana Sessions, Jacquelyn sits down with Andrea Miele, CEO and founder of Beezie, to explore how gamification, tokenization and onchain infrastructure are changing the way consumers discover and buy collectibles.Andrea breaks down how Beezie grew from tokenized trading cards into a broader gamified commerce platform, recently crossing $200 million in volume and $100 mill
How Stock Tokens Fueled Robinhood Chain's Explosive Growth
Robinhood Chain has quickly emerged as one of the fastest-growing blockchains, with roughly 620,000 average daily active users, $1.3 million in daily fees, and $4.26 billion in TVL, at the time of recording. But Alexander, from our institutional research team, explores in his latest report that some of the most interesting activity isn’t coming from stock tokens alone but also from what happens w
Why Robinhood Is Betting on Tokenized Assets | Nicola White
In today's episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Nicola White, VP of Institutional at Robinhood, to discuss how Robinhood is expanding its institutional crypto business and why tokenized assets could reshape the way traditional financial markets operate.Nicola breaks down how Robinhood's acquisition of Bitstamp plays a role in expansion, the evolution of institutional demand
How Stablecoins Could Double Margins for Businesses
In today's episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Sam Broner, CEO of The Better Money Company, to unpack what stablecoins need to become everyday payment infrastructure and why interoperability could matter more than which stablecoin ultimately wins. Drawing on his experience across Microsoft, the Federal Reserve, a16z and now building stablecoin infrastructure, Sam explains why t
Crypto Grew Despite Bad UX | What Happens When We Fix It?
In today's episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Edward Woodford, founder and CEO of zerohash, to explore how crypto infrastructure is becoming embedded inside some of the world’s largest banks, brokers, fintechs and payment companies. Zerohash powers digital asset and stablecoin capabilities for companies including Morgan Stanley, Interactive Brokers, Stripe and Visa, helping tr
How Banks Went From Avoiding Crypto to Building Onchain
On today's Talking Tokenization, Jacquelyn sits down with Andrew McCormick, Head of Institutional and Market Development at Chainlink Labs, to explore how banks, retail brokers and traditional financial institutions are moving deeper into tokenization and why simply putting assets onchain is no longer enough. Andrew explains why institutional conversations have shifted from “what is a blockcha
DeFi Vaults Just Hit $15B | What’s Driving the Boom?
DeFi vaults are having a breakout year, with roughly $15 billion in value now sitting across the sector. But as Alexander Beaudry from our institutional research team found in his latest survey, rapid growth doesn’t necessarily mean institutional adoption has arrived. In this episode, we break down StrataMedia’s survey of seven industry leaders from Aave, Veda, Sky, Loopscale, Gauntlet, RockawayX,
What Happens When 2% of the $100 Trillion Stock Market Moves Onchain?
On today's episode of Talking Tokenization, Jacquelyn sits down with Carlos Domingo, co-founder and CEO of Securitize, to explore what's next for tokenized assets as institutional adoption grows and Wall Street moves more financial products onchain.Carlos breaks down why tokenization is still in its early innings despite Securitize reaching $5 billion in tokenized AUM, and why just 2% of t
Bitcoin Is Back, Scaramucci Says the Real $500K Rally Is Still Ahead
Anthony Scaramucci still believes Bitcoin can reach $500,000. In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek sits down with the SkyBridge Capital founder and SALT chairman to discuss Bitcoin’s path to $500K, institutional crypto adoption and what could drive the next phase of the market.Scaramucci breaks down why banks and major institutions haven’t fully embraced Bitcoin, how blockchain cou
Why Morpho’s CEO Thinks $200 Trillion of Credit Will Move Onchain
Is it possible for $200 trillion in global credit to move onchain, or is DeFi still trapped in speculation? Today’s guest is Paul Frambot, Co-Founder and CEO of Morpho. We explore the evolution of onchain credit, how decentralized finance is becoming a core technology stack for traditional finance, and what it takes to build a truly global, open credit network.Paul breaks down Morpho's shift f
Your Next Portfolio Manager Could Be an AI Agent
In today's episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Rishin Sharma, Head of AI Growth at the Solana Foundation, to explore how AI agents could reshape payments, commerce, and financial markets and why Solana is positioning itself as financial infrastructure for the emerging agentic economy.Rishin breaks down how agentic payments work today, how pay.sh enables AI systems like ChatGPT and
Equity Perps Explained | Can DeFi Really Handle Traditional Stocks?
Trading Wall Street stocks 24/7 in DeFi sounds like the ultimate financial unlock, but as Alexander Beaudry from our institutional research team points out, the reality is far more complex. In this episode, we dive into Alex's latest report, "Equity Perps Are Nothing Without Equity Spot," to explore why the infrastructure behind tokenized equities is still catching up to the hype. Al
Why DeFi Works Best When it Does the Least
In today's episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Adrian, who breaks down his journey from Goldman Sachs to building in DeFi. He reveals why traditional banks are secretly terrified of stablecoins, the brutal reality of why tokenizing real-world assets (RWAs) actually takes months, and why the safest smart contracts are often the "dumbest" ones. Timestamps: 00:10 Stablec
What Wall Street Really Thinks About Tokenization
On today's episode of Talking Tokenization, Jacquelyn sits down with John D’Agostino (Head of Strategy at Coinbase Institutional) and Rebecca Rettig (COO & CLO at Jito Labs) for a masterclass on the real state of institutional crypto adoption. They discuss what it actually takes to bridge the gap between TradFi and Crypto, ranging from why Wall Street is actively resisting tokenization, to
Stablecoins, RWAs & DeFi: What Institutions Actually Want
On today's Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Jillian Friedman, Chief Operating Officer at Symbiotic, to talk about what it actually takes to make tokenization work at scale, ranging from why 94% of tokenized real-world assets are still bought directly from the issuer, to how Symbiotic's LiquidLane gives investors an instant exit from illiquid RWAs, to why she doesn't see CeFi an
Why Binance Wants to Replace Banks for Everyday Payments | Thomas Gregory, Binance
On today's Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Thomas Gregory, VP of Payments at Binance, to talk about what it actually looks like to build a global payment infrastructure from the inside, ranging from QR code rollouts in Argentina to the Binance Card hitting the market across 20 countries and B-Stocks hitting $2 billion in trading volume in a single weekend. Thomas breaks down why he se
Strata Research Survey: What Five Industry Leaders Have to Say About Agentic Payments
On this edition of Strata Research's Analyst Insights, Jacquelyn sits down with Institutional Research Analyst Alex Beaudry to break down the results of Strata's first industry survey where they asked five leaders across the agentic payments space, including the CEOs of Alchemy and Anchorage and Circle's Chief Product and Technology Officer, who all weighed in on where it actually stan
Why Crypto Has a Brain Drain Problem | Dom & Phil Kwok
On today's Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Dom & Phil Kwok, co-founders of EasyA, a platform that teaches developers and consumers how to actually build and use blockchain technology. The brothers also run some of the biggest hackathons in the space at events like Consensus Miami and Consensus Hong Kong. Dom & Phil explain why so much of crypto's top talent drifted to AI o
Why Tokenized Equities Need Another BlackRock Moment and Who Could Trigger It | Suzy Singh, Securitize
On today's Talking Tokenization, Jacquelyn sits down with Suzy Singh, Deputy Chief Operating Officer at Securitize, to pull back the curtain on what institutional tokenization interest looks like day to day.Suzy outlines why everything you're seeing announced publicly has been in the works for six to twenty-four months behind the scenes, then breaks down why Securitize tokenized its own eq
How Anchorage Is Becoming the Infrastructure Layer for All of TradFi | Nathan McCauley & Kevin Wysocki
On today's Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Anchorage Digital’s CEO and Co-founder Nathan McCauley and Head of Policy Kevin Wysocki to talk about what the post-GENIUS Act world of stablecoins looks like from the inside.They think most of the market isn't paying enough attention to the banks racing to tokenize their deposits and explain why all 5,000+ US banks are eventually going t
Why Ethereum’s Institutional Supercycle Is Already Here | Joseph Chalom, Sharplink
On today's Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Joseph Chalom, CEO of Sharplink to talk about why he and a group of Ethereum stewards including Joe Lubin and Tom Lee decided now was the moment to go back on offense for the Ethereum ecosystem.Joseph breaks down why he thinks the Ethereum institutional supercycle is already here, how Ethereum will win even amid bad price action and why the l
Is OUSD Really Just Stripe's Stablecoin? | Alex Beaudry, Strata Research
On this edition of Strata Research, Jacquelyn sits down with our Institutional Research Analyst Alex Beaudry to dig into the OUSD announcement that resulted in Circle's stock dropping and had the crypto world convinced a new stablecoin competitor had arrived.After looking into the details, Alex argues this is just Stripe's stablecoin wrapped in a consortium for competitive cover, then he w
Binance Founder CZ on what it took to build the world's largest crypto exchange and stay #1
On today's Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with CZ, founder and former CEO of Binance, on the exchange's ninth anniversary to talk about what he got right, what he missed, and why he thinks AI handling payments in crypto is coming within months, not years. CZ breaks down why he once thought stablecoins were a temporary patch job, how he sees blockchain technology as one of three founda
Why Franklin Templeton Has Been Eyeing Tokenization for a Decade and What Comes After Money Funds | Roger Bayston
On today's Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Roger Bayston, Head of Digital Assets at Franklin Templeton, to discuss his 35-year journey at the firm and how tokenization became the focal point to his career there today.Roger breaks down how he sees blockchain less as a new financial system and more as a long overdue infrastructure replacement, why BENJI’s ability to transfer and accrue
A 117-Year-Old Asset Manager Goes “Fully Native,” Seeing Tokenization as OS upgrade | Theo Golden
On today's Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Theo Golden, Head of Digital Assets at Baillie Gifford, to talk about BAGEY — the firm's newly launched tokenized bond fund on Solana and Ethereum that yields around 7% and settles in USDC. Theo breaks down why he sees tokenization as an operating system upgrade rather than a reinvention of finance, how pension funds and private banks are
Why Plasma Bet Everything on USDT When Nobody Believed in Stablecoin Chains | Zaheer Evtakar, Plasma
On today's Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Zaheer Ebtikar, Chief Strategy Officer at Plasma, to talk about why the recent wave of DeFi exploits is forcing a necessary reset and Plasma’s decision behind building a stablecoin-optimized chain around USDT. Zaheer also dives into the recent OpenUSD launch and how it can fit into an institutional stablecoin infrastructure world,, and why he
Tapping a Credit Card to Buy Coffee With Bitcoin Is…Kinda Wrong | Strata Research
On this edition of Strata Research, Jacquelyn sits down with institutional research analyst Alex Beaudry to dig into crypto cards, which many assumed were built for consumers but are actually seeing most traction from institutions. Alex breaks down why the developed market consumer card is basically a feature in search of a need, what Visa is building that could change the equation, and why onchai
Evernorth Has 473 Million XRP And An Argument to Why Idle Capital Should Not Exist | Asheesh Birla
On today's Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Asheesh Birla, CEO of Evernorth, the Ripple-backed digital asset treasury firm holding roughly 473 million XRP tokens, to talk about why he thinks we've finally hit the inflection point that blockchain has been building toward for over a decade. Asheesh breaks down why most digital assets sit idle the same way cash sits in a bank account, how Eve
Why Aave V4 Is Built Like a Central Bank for DeFi | Stani Kulechov
On today's Talking Tokens, we're sharing Jacquelyn’s Proof of Talk chat with Stani Kulechov, founder and CEO of Aave Labs, to break down why Aave V4 moved away from a single monolithic protocol toward a hub and spoke model that works more like a central bank. Stani gets into why a lot of centralized lenders didn't hold up through both the FTX collapse and last October's market unwi
Why MoneyGram Built Its Own Stablecoin Instead of Using Someone Else's | Anthony Soohoo, MoneyGram
On today's Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with MoneyGram CEO Anthony Soohoo to talk about MGUSD, the company's new dollar-backed stablecoin built on Stellar with help from Bridge, Fireblocks, and M0.Anthony explores why launching MoneyGram decided to have its own stablecoin and breaks down how its 60 million active customers and nearly 500,000 retail locations across 200 countries pla
Why Every Institution Should Be Staking ETH | Kean Gilbert, Lido
On today's Talking Tokenization, Jacquelyn sits down with Kean Gilbert, Head of Institutional Relations at the Lido Ecosystem Foundation, to talk about how liquid staking is finally breaking into traditional finance. From the WisdomTree staked ETH ETP in Europe to VanEck's recently filed S-1 for a Lido staked ETF in the US, Kean breaks down why institutions are asking sharper questions tha
From the Federal Reserve to Circle: What Most People Are Getting Wrong About Onchain Finance | Gordon Liao
On today's Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Gordon Liao, Chief Economist and Head of Research at Circle, to talk about why traditional financial plumbing is still the biggest bottleneck in money movement globally. We discuss Arc, Circle's new institutional blockchain, which is being built from the ground up to handle everything from agentic nano payments to quantum-resistant encryp
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
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