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 encryption. Gordon believes that Arc being quantum-ready from day one isn't just a nice-to-have but a decision that could define whether the network and its users survives the next decade of security threats. Gordon also breaks down the three things he thinks the market is underestimating right now and how 99.5% of x402 payment protocol volume is already running through Circle’s USDC.
TIMESTAMPS 00:00 Introduction to Gordon and His Background 02:45 The Future of Onchain Finance 05:56 USDC and Its Market Position 08:54 Agentic Commerce and AI Integration 11:57 The Launch of Arc and Its Vision 15:00 Challenges in Blockchain Adoption 17:55 Privacy and Security in Blockchain 20:57 Quantum Computing and Its Implications 24:10 Market Perspectives and Economic Insights 30:02 Final Thoughts and Advice 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.
From the Federal Reserve to Circle: What Most People Are Getting Wrong About Onchain Finance | Gordon Liao
Subscribe & Listen
Taking Crypto Mainstream with Nostalgia & Creative Marketing | Dakota Campbell, Collector Crypt
Why Every Institution Should Be Staking ETH | Kean Gilbert, Lido
More from Talking Tokens
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 structure and market maker performance can provide more context around a token. They also explore what institutional investors expect from crypto projects, why ratings need to evolve in real time, and whether better transparency could create a new standard for the industry. Timestamps 00:00 Intro 00:26 Why Crypto Needed a Market Maker Leaderboard 02:04 Bringing Forgd Data to DeFiLlama 03:51 What Makes a Good Market Maker? 05:25 Why Market Makers Overpromise 07:37 How Market Makers Perform Across Market Cycles 11:58 Building More Transparency Into Crypto 13:23 Introducing Universal Token Ratings 14:22 Are TVL and Volume Enough? 17:37 Building a “Moody’s for Crypto” 20:58 Performance vs. Transparency 23:29 Is Crypto Returning to Fundamentals? 25:33 Why Token Ratings Need to Change in Real Time 28:23 What Happens When Projects Don’t Disclose Enough? 31:12 What Makes a Crypto Asset Investable? 33:17 How Investors Can Use UTR 35:28 Could Ratings Change How Token Projects Behave? 37:09 What UTR Means for Institutional Investors 39:12 What Institutions Expect From Crypto Projects 41:40 Expanding Beyond 170 Rated Tokens 43:06 Could UTR Become a New Crypto Standard? 44:55 Can Token Ratings Reveal Alpha? New episodes every week https://open.spotify.com/show/0LOgWxIQ0NnNUD5eXsSuoZ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/talking-tokens/id1743669141 Follow Jacquelyn Melinek https://x.com/jacqmelinek?lang=en https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacquelynmelinek Follow Shane & Ryan https://x.com/MolidorShane?lang=en https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-celaj This episode is sponsored by Forgd, visit its Market Maker Leaderboard on Token Relations here: www.stratamedia.co/token-relations/leaderboard Check out the Universal Token Rating platform on DeFiLlama: https://defillama.com/universal-token-rating 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 This episode is sponsored by Binance, the world’s number-one crypto exchange, trusted by over 300 million people. Discover more at: https://binance.onelink.me/y874/talkingtokens . NOTE: Binance is not available in certain countries, including the U.S.; check its Terms for more information: https://www.binance.com/en/terms #DeFiLlama #Crypto #TokenRatings #CryptoResearch #TalkingTokens
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, and what it will take to bring significantly more institutional capital onchain. They also discuss Grove's work across the Sky ecosystem, relationships with institutions such as BlackRock, the role of Morpho and Coinbase in expanding access to borrowing, and why new credit markets like AI compute financing could become a major opportunity. Timestamps 00:00 Intro 01:32 Why Grove Was Built 03:30 What Financial Institutions Actually Want 05:29 How Grove Grew From $50M to $2.5B 06:55 The Sky Ecosystem Flywheel 08:10 The Opportunity in Onchain Credit 10:08 How Credit Markets Could Change 11:57 Why Credit Adoption Takes Time 12:21 Building Trust Through Transparency 14:16 What It Takes to Bring Trillions in Credit Onchain 17:01 Where Blockchain Can Expand Access to Credit 20:25 Bringing Onchain Credit to Retail 22:26 Making Credit More Accessible 24:38 Why AI Compute Financing Could Be Next 27:07 What Will Bring Institutions Onchain 28:39 Will Onchain Credit Compete With Banks? 30:36 What Will Separate the Winning Credit Protocols 33:05 Kevin's Advice for Builders This episode is sponsored by Forgd, visit its Market Maker Leaderboard on Token Relations here: www.stratamedia.co/token-relations/leaderboard 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 New episodes every week https://open.spotify.com/show/0LOgWxIQ0NnNUD5eXsSuoZ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/talking-tokens/id1743669141 Follow Jacquelyn Melinek https://x.com/jacqmelinek?lang=en https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacquelynmelinek https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/talking-tokens-crypto-onchain-finance-investing/id1743669141 https://open.spotify.com/show/0LOgWxIQ0NnNUD5eXsSuoZ Follow Kevin Chan https://x.com/kevinlichan https://www.linkedin.com/in/kevinchan1207
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 stocks and securities, and how moving assets onchain can unlock greater mobility, programmability and new forms of collateral. They explore real-world assets, enterprise adoption, supply chains, tokenized real estate, digital identity, interoperability and the infrastructure required to support global financial markets. Also explains why institutional adoption takes longer than retail adoption, how regulatory clarity is changing the risk calculus for enterprises, the role of HBAR within the Hedera ecosystem, and why actual network usage not hype is ultimately the measure of success. Timestamps: 00:10 Gregg Bell's journey into crypto 01:06 From Bitcoin lending to onchain assets 01:53 How blockchain's user base is changing 03:06 How enterprises and governments use blockchain 04:58 Tokenizing assets beyond securities 06:28 When will more assets move onchain? 08:01 What institutional adoption actually looks like 10:19 Enterprise blockchain happening behind the scenes 12:57 Why the first wave of enterprise adoption struggled 16:09 Public, private and hybrid blockchain infrastructure 17:49 Are institutions finally comfortable with blockchain? 18:56 The role of HBAR in Hedera's ecosystem 21:11 What financial-grade blockchain infrastructure requires 23:05 Who captures the value from tokenization? 23:47 Are we entering a new era of financial access? 24:28 What success looks like for Hedera This episode is sponsored by Forgd, visit its Market Maker Leaderboard on Token Relations here: www.stratamedia.co/token-relations/leaderboard 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 New episodes every week https://open.spotify.com/show/0LOgWxIQ0NnNUD5eXsSuoZ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/talking-tokens/id1743669141 Follow us Jacquelyn on X: /jacqmelinek Talking Tokens on X: /_talkingtokens Talking Tokens on Instagram: /_talkingtokens Follow Gregg Bell https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregg-bell-38b5389