Talking Tokens
Talking Tokens
May 12, 2026·39:48

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.

JM
Jacquelyn Melinek

What's Overhyped, Underhyped, and Actually Happening in Crypto Right Now

0:000:00

Share this episode

More from Talking Tokens

Why Crypto Has a Brain Drain Problem | Dom & Phil Kwok
48:49
July 30, 2026

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 over the past few years, why they think the sentiment around crypto is starting to shift, and how their new Kickstart product is trying to do for funding what AI did for building.  TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 Sibling Entrepreneurs: The Journey Begins 02:31 Identifying Market Gaps in Blockchain Education 05:22 Trends in Consumer and Developer Interest 09:24 The Shift from AI to Crypto: A New Era 12:40 AI's Impact on the Workforce and Startups 15:50 Long-Term Vision: Balancing Roadmaps and Market Cycles 18:09 The Importance of Founder-Led Marketing 23:25 Getting Started on Social Media 24:38 Overcoming Fear of Posting 26:47 The Impact of AI on Content Creation 28:07 The Evolution of Startup Development 31:55 The Role of AI in Lowering Barriers to Entry 33:09 Bridging the Gap Between Wall Street and Crypto 35:45 The Growing Interest in Crypto on Wall Street 39:08 The Future of Tokenization and On-Chain Finance 43:11 Advice for Navigating the Crypto Landscape 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 Tokenized Equities Need Another BlackRock Moment and Who Could Trigger It | Suzy Singh, Securitize
29:23
July 28, 2026

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 equity on day one of going public.  Then Suzy gets into what its recent Cantor Fitzgerald partnership is really trying to unlock for blockchain-based IPOs, and why she thinks the next major wave of adoption in this space isn't going to come from institutions.  TIMESTAMPS: 0:01 What tokenization means and why it matters 01:03 Why more institutions are talking about tokenization 03:25 Where demand is coming from across financial firms 05:28 The long timeline from first conversation to launch 09:11 How going public changed Securitize’s credibility 14:20 Why issuer-sponsored tokenized equities matter 19:56 IPOs, retail adoption, and the future of onchain markets You can subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, Apple or YouTube. If you enjoy the show, please leave a review — it really helps.  This episode is sponsored by Securitize, the proven leader in tokenized funds, equities, and private markets. Discover more at securitize.io.  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.

How Anchorage Is Becoming the Infrastructure Layer for All of TradFi | Nathan McCauley & Kevin Wysocki
51:43
July 23, 2026

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.