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-custody alternative to traditional banking with hundreds of thousands of users and over $5 billion in deposits.Joseph, who spent two decades at BlackRock before joining SharpLink, walks through how his team hired people from Bridgewater and FalconX specifically to underwrite DeFi risk, why tail risk is still risk, and how its permanent capital gives SharpLink an advantage most crypto allocators don't have. The conversation covers why the recent wave of DeFi exploits could have been stopped with basic intervention tools, why stablecoin rails will be the main way crypto reaches the real economy, and tokenization growing as NYSE and Nasdaq opens for 24/7 trading.
TIMESTAMPS (00:00) Intro (01:30) The relationship between EtherFi and SharpLink and why they work together (01:46) What EtherFi is building: the DeFi bank with $5-6 billion in deposits (02:24) SharpLink's $2 billion Ethereum treasury and why they deployed $200 million into EtherFi (03:38) Balancing speed and safety: why the DeFi risk playbook hasn't been written yet (05:28) Why institutions move slow deploying, but go fast when monitoring problems (07:25) How EtherFi approaches security: in-office teams, formal verification, and constant audits (08:26) Decentralization theater: why performative decentralization makes protocols less safe (09:17) Why EtherFi is building an emergency “red button” intervention system without compromising self-custody (10:53) How SharpLink's team underwrites DeFi risk (13:28) Why institutions are still in the first inning of DeFi adoption (17:28) How tokenized securities will unlock DeFi at a scale far beyond bitcoin and ether (22:11) Qualified custody with Anchorage and why ops alpha matters for institutional DeFi (23:09) What's next for EtherFi: global licensing and becoming a viable alternative to banks (25:56) Stablecoin rails as the main way crypto reaches the real economy (28:31) Tokenization about to expand as NYSE, Nasdaq, and DTCC opening up 24/7 (29:44) Final advice: stay safe, don't chase yield, and invest in young builders
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 Risk Frameworks are Needed for Institutional Adoption | Mike Silagadze & Joseph Chalom
Subscribe & Listen
What's Overhyped, Underhyped, and Actually Happening in Crypto Right Now
SoFi Wants to Be the Stablecoin Liquidity Hub for Banks | Ben Reynolds
More from Talking Tokens
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 sees domestic payments in Latin America and Africa as the real unlock for the next wave of adoption, why crypto and fiat are becoming indistinguishable in Binance's super app vision, and why his ultimate benchmark for success is the day isn’t what you’d think it is. TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 Introduction to Binance's Payments Vision 03:46 Lessons from Fintech Disruptors 06:52 Consumer Acceptance of Crypto Payments 10:26 Hyper-Localization in Payment Solutions 12:19 Metrics for Binance’s Payment Success and Regional Focus 13:35 Binance Card: Flexibility and Usage 17:00 The Future of Crypto as a Payment Medium 26:57 Industry Milestones and Investor Demand 36:55 Addressing Local Currency Preferences and Education 39:10 The Road Ahead for Payments and User Adoption 42:14 Parting Advice 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.
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 stands today. The consensus is pretty clear: institutions are adopting this first, not consumers, and the reason has less to do with the technology and more to do with the fact that most people still don't want an AI agent touching their money, which Alex points out is basically the perfect combination of the two things the general public fears most. TIMESTAMPS: 0:01 Introduction to Strata Surveys 1:22 Why Revisit Agentic Payments Now 3:42 Institutional vs. Consumer Adoption 7:22 What the Survey Responses Agreed vs Disagreed On 9:59 Trust, Risk, and the Path to Adoption Research Link: https://www.token-relations.com/p/stratamedia-survey-agentic-payments 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 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.