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 tokenize if they could tokenize anything, and what else they're paying attention to that listeners should be watching too. Guests include Asheesh Birla (CEO, Evernorth), Phil Fogel (CEO and co-founder, Cork Protocol), Neil Chopra (head of strategy and BD, Fireblocks), Scott Dykstra (co-founder and CTO, Space and Time), David Reising (founder and CEO, Lotus Protocol), Yoshi Yokokawa (co-founder and CEO, Alpaca), Tom Murphy (head of communications, Securitize), and Jakob Palmstierna (president, GSR). Answers range from wanting to tokenize chickens and avocados to entire balance sheets, and the through line is clear: institutions are here, the infrastructure is maturing, and the people still building through a tough market are the ones who will define what comes next.
TIMESTAMPS
(00:00) Intro (00:32) Asheesh Birla, CEO of Evernorth, on active XRP treasury management and tokenizing compute (05:48) Phil Fogel, CEO and co-founder of Cork Protocol, on risk infrastructure DeFi is still missing (12:08) Neil Chopra, head of strategy and BD at Fireblocks, on convergence of crypto native and traditional markets (18:10) Scott Dykstra, co-founder and CTO of Space and Time, on its new institutional Virtual Vvaults and decentralization after exploits (21:56) David Reising, founder and CEO of Lotus Protocol, on tranched lending and DeFi insurance (24:36) Yoshi Yokokawa, co-founder and CEO of Alpaca, on tokenization infrastructure and the paradigm shift ahead (28:11) Tom Murphy, head of communications at Securitize, on its new Jump and Jupiter partnership, Computershare announcement, and tokenized stocks (34:38) Jakob Palmstierna, president of GSR, on market structure evolution and tokenized equities trading 24/7
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.
What's Overhyped, Underhyped, and Actually Happening in Crypto Right Now
Subscribe & Listen
How Crypto Is Slowly Taking Over Wall Street Territory | Kevin Beardsley
What Risk Frameworks are Needed for Institutional Adoption | Mike Silagadze & Joseph Chalom
More from Talking Tokens
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 to need stablecoin rails, how DC has done a near complete 180 on crypto, and why agentic banking is tracking almost exactly like the early crypto industry did in 2017. TIMESTAMPS: 02:00 The Current State of Institutional Adoption 03:55 Understanding Stablecoins and Digital Dollars 06:04 Global Perspective on Dollar Dominance 10:04 Future of Cross-Border Commerce and Global Payments 12:07 Building Infrastructure for Stablecoins 13:59 The Role of Policy in Stablecoin Adoption 20:50 Conversations Behind Closed Doors 23:01 Fed Master Accounts and Regulatory Clarity 27:23 The Rise of Tokenized Deposits 39:10 Building Trust in the Crypto Industry 41:49 The Future of Agentic Banking 49:34 Advice for the Future Today’s episode is sponsored by Anchorage Digital, America's first federally chartered digital asset bank and provider of regulated stablecoin issuance. To find out more, visit anchorage.com. 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.
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 long term holders are the ones who will win this decade. TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 The Evolution of Ethereum's Narrative 03:38 Ethereum’s Institutional Supercycle 05:23 Why Ethereum’s Narrative Is Changing 07:48 Building Ethereum for Institutional Adoption 09:56 The Trillion-Dollar Tokenization Opportunity 16:46 Why the Institutional Supercycle Is Already Here 23:17 From Experimentation to On-Chain Finance 30:33 Investing in Ethereum’s Long-Term Future 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.
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 walks through why the 140 company list is largely a marketing move before getting into which of the two paths to success for OUSD he actually thinks will play out. TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 Introduction to OUSD and Its Impact 02:46 The Role of Stripe in OUSD 05:33 The Consortium of 140 Companies 08:00 Market Dynamics and Competition 10:15 Investor Reactions and Market Implications 13:20 Paths to Success for OUSD Check out the associated Strata Research report for more details: https://www.token-relations.com/p/who-really-owns-ousd 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.