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 fundamentally better transactional databases than traditional systems like Oracle.He walks through the shift from early crypto startups to mature DeFi protocols to enterprise clients, how banks are building pilots for stablecoins and tokenizing real-world assets, and why the Wells Fargo data manipulation case proves the need for verifiable compute. The conversation covers Space and Time's Proof of SQL technology, how the company enables stablecoin yields institutions' need for offchain data, and why AI agents buying their own services with stablecoins may be the next frontier for crypto adoption.TIMESTAMPS (00:00) Intro (01:31) How WisdomTree defines tokenization as recordkeeping technology (04:16) Growth from $30M to $770M in tokenized assets within one year (06:13) Three use cases: stablecoin reserves, treasury management, and DeFi collateral (08:01) Talking to Aave and Morpho about integrating tokenized funds as collateral (09:17) Why its tokenized money market fund could become WisdomTree's largest fund overall (10:17) SEC approval for 24/7 trading and instant settlement: the big unlock (13:11) Why 24/7 trading only works with tokenized funds, not traditional infrastructure (16:02) DeFi and TradFi convergence: partnership not competition (18:28) Customer journey: wallet-first users, not brokerage account holders (27:42) Why liquid assets benefit more from tokenization than illiquid real estateESSENTIALS You can subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, Apple or YouTube. If you enjoy the show, please leave a review — it really helps. Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0LOgWxIQ0NnNUD5eXsSuoZ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/talking-tokens/id1743669141 Follow us on X Jacquelyn: https://twitter.com/jacqmelinek Talking Tokens: https://twitter.com/_TalkingTokens Follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/_talkingtokens/ Note: This podcast is for informational purposes only. Views shared are opinions, not financial advice. The host or guests may have financial interests in discussed content.
Banks are Ditching Old Databases for Blockchains | Scott Dykstra
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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 real structural edge over traditional rails. They also get into the four things that actually need to happen before this market scales, and why the narrative is still running well ahead of the transaction volumes to back it up. Check out the associated newsletter for more details: https://www.token-relations.com/p/agentic-payments-where-we-are-and-where-we-re-going TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Introduction Strata Research 01:24 Understanding Agentic Payments 04:54 The Flows of Agentic Payments 07:24 Challenges and Frameworks for Scaling 11:39 Recent Developments and Future Outlook You can subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, Apple or YouTube. If you enjoy the show, please leave a review — it really helps. Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0LOgWxIQ0NnNUD5eXsSuoZ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/talking-tokens/id1743669141 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TalkingTokens Follow us on X Jacquelyn: / jacqmelinek Talking Tokens: / _talkingtokens Follow us on Instagram / _talkingtokens Note: This podcast is for informational purposes only. Views shared are opinions, not financial advice. The host or guests may have financial interests in discussed content.
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 crushing inflation, and explains why that's the core reason Tether's dominance is so hard to compete with. They also get into what it will actually take for AI agents to transact onchain at scale, and why Lorenzo believes the teams still building with true decentralization in mind are the ones worth watching. TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Introduction to USDT Zero and Its Founders 02:31 The Evolution of USDT and Decentralized Finance 05:36 Understanding the Mechanics of USDT Zero 08:33 User Behavior and Volume Trends 11:34 Tether's Role in the Global Financial Ecosystem 15:38 Targeting Emerging Markets with Stablecoins 18:45 The Competitive Landscape of Stablecoins 21:12 The Future of Stablecoins 24:05 Global Adoption and Use Cases 27:32 The Rise of USDT and Market Dynamics 30:11 Innovation and Staying Ahead 34:23 The Role of Decentralization in Finance 39:45 Advice for Future Innovators You can subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, Apple or YouTube. If you enjoy the show, please leave a review — it really helps. Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0LOgWxIQ0NnNUD5eXsSuoZ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/talking-tokens/id1743669141 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TalkingTokens Follow us on X Jacquelyn: / jacqmelinek Talking Tokens: / _talkingtokens Follow us on Instagram / _talkingtokens Note: This podcast is for informational purposes only. Views shared are opinions, not financial advice. The host or guests may have financial interests in discussed content.
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 others are all founding members of its x402 Foundation. He walks through why the 402 HTTP status code was reserved for "payment required" but left empty for decades, how publishers can now charge AI agents with micropayments instead of losing traffic to scraping, and why agents with wallets are fundamentally more useful than agents without them. The conversation covers why stablecoins are uniquely suited for low-dollar transactions, how Coinbase uses AI internally to make every engineer 3x more productive, and why the best infrastructure eventually becomes invisible. TIMESTAMPS (00:00) Intro (01:25) Why AI becoming an economic actor made the internet's missing payment layer urgent (03:21) What x402 actually is (05:14) How x402 works like HTTP but for money and with any client, server, or payment (06:26) What Erik wants people to build with x402: new business models beyond ads and subscriptions (08:31) Who is already using x402: CoinGecko, Messari, a16z, and agent native publishers (09:56) Why the 402 status code sat empty for decades (11:15) Where x402 stands today: 15+ chains, stablecoins first, credit cards next (12:50) Why Visa and Mastercard joined the x402 Foundation (15:41) Biggest use cases right now (17:16) Are AI agents good traders? Why wallets for payments matter more than wallets for trading (19:17) What needs to happen for AI agents to participate more meaningfully onchain (21:44) Do AI agents understand value? Economic reasoning and budget awareness (23:22) Long-term vision for x402 (26:40) Final advice: play positive sum games with positive people ESSENTIALS You can subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, Apple or YouTube. If you enjoy the show, please leave a review — it really helps. Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0LOgWxIQ0NnNUD5eXsSuoZ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/talking-tokens/id1743669141 Follow us on X Jacquelyn: https://twitter.com/jacqmelinek Talking Tokens: https://twitter.com/_TalkingTokens Follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/_talkingtokens/ Note: This podcast is for informational purposes only. Views shared are opinions, not financial advice. The host or guests may have financial interests in discussed content.