Empire

Rebecca Rettig, a Washington policy and regulatory expert on crypto and DeFi. She breaks down the Clarity Act and rulemaking risks. They tackle prediction markets, who’s opposing crypto now, the state of crypto VC, and LayerZero’s Zero announcement. Short, sharp takes on policy battles and industry strategy.

Charles Yoo-Naut, Co-founder and CTO of Rain, built Visa-backed stablecoin payment rails and scaled Rain to a multibillion-dollar company. He tells the startup origin, why cards and Visa membership mattered, the shift from fundraising tools to spendable stablecoins, building settlement and compliance, global expansion, and the new products unlocked by tokenized money.

Josh Lim, Co-head of Markets at FalconX, a crypto prime broker with deep institutional flow and liquidity insight. He breaks down the recent market sell-off and who’s buying at the margin. They cover Ethereum L2 roadmaps, why risk-taking is muted this year, shifts in institutional interest, and reactions to Kyle Samani leaving Multicoin.

A market deep-dive covering the sell-off from crypto to software and where risk appetite stands. Debate over whether Layer 1 networks remain overvalued and why some chains like Solana still attract interest. A long look at Hyperliquid’s product-led strategy and its possible endgame. Discussion of Bitcoin’s quantum risk and the implications of Vitalik’s critique of Layer 2 roadmaps.

Eric Cerenicki, co-founder of Canton Network, builds permissioned, privacy-focused blockchain rails for institutional stablecoin payments. Mohamed Afifi, co-founder of HiFi, builds programmable money infrastructure for payments and tokenized treasuries. They dive into stablecoins moving into TradFi, cross-border payment use cases, privacy and permissioned networks, fragmentation versus consolidation, and the infrastructure stacks reshaping corporate flows.

Mike Belshe, CEO and co-founder of BitGo and longtime Silicon Valley technologist who led BitGo into regulated financial services and an IPO. He walks through ringing the NYSE bell and the IPO process. He explains why going public was strategic, discusses allocation choices and retail/on-chain distribution, and reframes BitGo as crypto infrastructure, covering staking, trading, settlement, and replacing bank rails.

Sal (Salvador), venture investor and EV3 co-founder focused on Deep Infrastructure, discusses the rising DePIN thesis and why some networks are finally compounding. He breaks down InfraFi and bringing real money onchain. Conversation also covers the Hyperliquid RWA boom, metals-driven volumes, fintechs moving onchain, and which projects might scale to IPOs.

Sun Raghupathi, co-founder of Veda, builds multi-protocol vault infrastructure. John Zettler, Director of Product at Kraken, leads on-chain vault integrations. They discuss vault mechanics, how vaults package DeFi lending and yield, risk management and curator roles. They cover business models, differences from CeFi yield products, and the path to bringing vaults to mainstream users.

This week, the hosts dive into the rapid acceleration of AI and its transformative influence on venture capital and SaaS. They unpack the implications of the CLARITY Bill, while BitGo's controversial IPO valuation raises eyebrows. Polygon's strategic acquisitions aim to enhance their payment capabilities, and the challenges facing decentralized social platforms spark an engaging debate. Additionally, Larry Fink emphasizes the importance of tokenization as a national priority, rounding out a fascinating discussion.

Dive into the rollercoaster ride of Bitcoin’s recent price shifts! The team dissects the macro influences affecting markets and shares insights on Solana's potential. Discover why Lighter's declining price could still represent an attractive investment. The contrasting views on privacy coins Monero and Zcash spark intriguing debates. Lastly, explore the cyclical nature of market phases and strategies for navigating the crypto landscape. Don't miss these thought-provoking perspectives!