The Crypto Conversation

Toby Gilbert is a Co-Founder at PACT Swap, a cross-chain DEX built on Coinweb. Pact Swap enables trading of native Bitcoin, TRON, and other assets across incompatible chains - without bridges, wrapped tokens, or external validators. Why you should listen PactSwap is a decentralized exchange (DEX) built on the Coinweb PACT framework that enables cross-chain swaps of digital assets without using traditional bridges or wrapped tokens. It's designed to let users trade native assets directly across multiple blockchains in a decentralized, non-custodial environment. The platform supports trading between major chains including Bitcoin, Ethereum, BNB Chain, Litecoin, TRON, Dogecoin, and Polygon. Its system uses collateralized reactive smart contracts to coordinate trades across otherwise incompatible blockchains. This approach allows PactSwap to execute bridgeless cross-chain swaps efficiently, aiming for high capital efficiency and lower transaction fees than conventional cross-chain bridges. The goal of PactSwap is to combine the liquidity and trading depth of centralized exchanges with the transparency and security of decentralized finance. By removing the need for wrapped tokens and third-party bridges, PactSwap aims to reduce costs and risks for users, offering faster and more secure asset swaps with up to 95% lower fees compared to older cross-chain solutions. Supporting links Fidelity Crypto Careers Pact Swap Andy on Twitter Brave New Coin on Twitter Brave New Coin If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.

Xin Yan is the Co-founder and CEO of Sign, a blockchain technology company leading the industry in token distribution and verifiable credentials, now focused on building blockchain infrastructure for nations and enterprises. He began his career as a hardware engineer before becoming a crypto venture capitalist, and now leads Sign's vision to build national-scale blockchain infrastructure. Why you should listen The core offering of Sign Global is built around the Sign Protocol — a multi-chain attestation framework that allows users to submit, verify and manage on-chain attestations of real-world or digital claims. This is an infrastructure layer for trust, identity and verification across "Web 3" ecosystems, designed to reduce reliance on centralised authorities by making attestations transparent and accessible. In addition to the protocol itself, Sign Global offers tools and services built atop that infrastructure. For example, they highlight developer-friendly integrations that span multiple blockchain networks (Solana, Aptos, TON, others), and features including "TokenTable" and "EthSign" (contract signing tools) as components of their stack. Finally, from a business reach perspective, Sign served over 50 million users and facilitated more than US$2 billion in digital-asset transactions via its platform. Supporting links Fidelity Crypto Careers Sign Andy on Twitter Brave New Coin on Twitter Brave New Coin If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.

Tony Pham is the CMO at Kava, a decentralized blockchain that combines the speed and interoperability of Cosmos with the developer power of Ethereum. Tony Pham lives in New York City and is a fractional CMO for various crypto and AI startups, including Kava and Superlayer portfolio companies. Why you should listen The Kava Network is the first Layer-1 blockchain to combine the speed and scalability of the Cosmos SDK with the developer support of Ethereum. The Kava Network will empower developers to build for Web3 and next-gen blockchain technologies through its unique co-chain architecture. KAVA is the native governance and staking token of the Kava Network, enabling its decentralization and security. The Ethereum and Cosmos Co-Chains interoperate seamlessly with each other, empowering developers to build in whichever environment they want without sacrificing access to the users and assets of the other. The Kava Rise program will reward the top projects on Kava with the $750M developer incentive program, awarded transparently on-chain based on usage. Supporting links Fidelity Crypto Careers Kava Andy on Twitter Brave New Coin on Twitter Brave New Coin If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.

Cole Chapman is the Co-Founder of Global Gold. Cole is leading the tokenization of gold, creating a global liquidity layer that enables fractional ownership, on-chain liquidity, and collateralized lending. Why you should listen Global Gold is a blockchain-based financial protocol focused on bridging traditional gold markets with decentralized finance (DeFi). It enables the creation of digital tokens that are fully backed by physical gold, offering users the ability to own, trade, and utilize gold-backed digital assets on-chain. The platform issues "Global Gold Bars" — tokenized representations of specific weights of physical gold — that can be used similarly to stablecoins, providing a digital alternative to gold ownership with on-chain transparency and liquidity. Each token is designed to represent a verifiable and redeemable claim on real, audited gold stored in secure vaults. Global Gold's infrastructure also includes a decentralized exchange for trading gold-backed assets and an integrated vault management system that tracks provenance, audits, and insurance in real time. The company's vaulting and custody operations are centered in a 70,000-square-foot, Class 3 facility located in Casper, Wyoming, which it describes as an institutional-grade site for high-value asset storage. Global Gold emphasizes compliance, transparency, and security by working with third-party auditors — Alfred H. Knight and FORVIS — to conduct regular, independent verification of its gold reserves. These audits are complemented by full insurance coverage to protect stored assets, and all reserves are claimed to be 100% physically backed and legally segregated from corporate holdings. The platform positions its tokenized gold as a bridge between traditional asset stability and blockchain liquidity, providing users with the ability to move, trade, or collateralize gold holdings instantly while maintaining full physical backing and regulatory oversight. Supporting links Fidelity Crypto Careers Global Gold Andy on Twitter Brave New Coin on Twitter Brave New Coin If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.

Mitchell Nicholson is the founder of Sierra Labs. The SIERRA Liquid Yield Token (LYT) is built to deliver the best user experience across DeFi, CeFi, and TradFi. Why you should listen Sierra Protocol is the issuer of SIERRA, a liquid yield token (LYT) that offers the best risk-adjusted yield in a freely tradeable ERC20 token on Ethereum and Avalanche. SIERRA enables holders to earn passively accrue 6-12% APY compounded daily and does not require staking or claiming, holding periods or lockups, paying hidden fees or providing KYC. Its reserves are managed by OpenTrade, an institutional-grade market leader offering stablecoin yield products and is backed by a16z, Circle, Mercury, Notion and other leading VC firms. Supporting links Fidelity Crypto Careers Sierra Andy on Twitter Brave New Coin on Twitter Brave New Coin If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.

Oliver Feldmeier is the founder of Griffin AI, the first no-code platform for building autonomous AI agents tailored to DeFi and crypto finance. Why you should listen Griffin AI is the first no-code platform for building autonomous AI agents tailored to DeFi and crypto finance. Their toolkit enables users to spin up agents in minutes, feed them real-time price, liquidity, and news data, and deploy them across multiple blockchains and wallets — all without writing code. They're leaning heavily into multi-agent workflows, letting creators chain together analytics, execution, and risk modules under one "agent network." Their flagship modules include a Transaction Execution Agent (TEA) — which translates natural language into trades, swaps, and wallet operations — plus Alpha Hunter, which continuously scans 950+ decentralized exchanges to surface new listings and momentum. Griffin also embeds supplementary agents like news summarizers, price analyzers, and research bots, giving users a full "agent playground" within the ecosystem Supporting links Fidelity Crypto Careers Griffin AI Andy on Twitter Brave New Coin on Twitter Brave New Coin If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.

Alexander Zahnd is the Interim CEO and Chief Financial Officer of Zilliqa, a leading Layer 1 blockchain platform. Why you should listen Zilliqa is a high-performance Layer 1 blockchain platform built to power scalable, secure, and interoperable decentralized applications. As the first public blockchain to implement sharding, Zilliqa has consistently pushed the boundaries of blockchain infrastructure. With the launch of Zilliqa 2.0, the platform is evolving to meet the needs of institutions, enterprises, and developers seeking high-throughput infrastructure with the trust, transparency, and flexibility required for real-world adoption. Supporting links Fidelity Crypto Careers Zilliqa Andy on Twitter Brave New Coin on Twitter Brave New Coin If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.

Alessandro De Carli the founder at Acurast, a scalable, secure, decentralized compute network powered by the massive global base of modern smartphones. Why you should listen Acurast is a decentralized, serverless cloud platform that transforms everyday smartphones into secure computing nodes, removing the need for centralized data centers. By tapping into the massive global base of modern smartphones—devices that already come equipped with advanced security features—Acurast creates a scalable, confidential, and verifiable compute network. Its mission is to democratize access to computing power, enabling anyone with a smartphone to contribute to, and benefit from, a decentralized cloud. The platform is built on a modular architecture that spans three layers. At the Consensus Layer, Acurast employs a Nominated Proof-of-Stake (NPoS) mechanism enhanced with an orchestrator, reputation engine, and attestation service. This ensures the network runs reliably and securely, with strong incentives for honest behavior. The Execution Layer harnesses Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) inside smartphones to carry out tasks in a secure and confidential manner, guaranteeing data privacy and computational integrity. Sitting at the top, the Application Layer hosts decentralized applications that can seamlessly offload computations to the network. This layered design allows developers to deploy applications requiring verifiable, secure computations—without relying on traditional servers. This architecture opens up a range of compelling use cases. Acurast can support confidential AI processing, enabling decentralized execution of sensitive AI models. It can function as a decentralized oracle, securely feeding off-chain data to smart contracts. It also powers cross-chain asset management, allowing operations to flow securely across multiple blockchain networks. Additionally, Acurast offers a framework for ethical web scraping, providing a compliant and decentralized way to collect data without centralized gatekeepers. The ecosystem is underpinned by its native token, $ACU, which plays a vital role in the platform's economy. Tokens are used to pay for transaction fees, staked to secure the network and earn rewards, and wielded for governance—giving holders a say in the platform's future direction. The total supply of $ACU is capped at 1 billion tokens, ensuring scarcity and long-term value alignment. Community engagement is a central pillar of Acurast's strategy. Through initiatives like the "Cloud Rebellion," users can contribute their devices, refer others, and complete various tasks to earn rewards. This community-driven model accelerates the network's growth while reinforcing its decentralization ethos. Under this approach, Acurast has already onboarded over 100,000 devices and executed more than 300 million transactions, setting a new benchmark for what decentralized computing networks can achieve. Supporting links Fidelity Crypto Careers Acurast Andy on Twitter Brave New Coin on Twitter Brave New Coin If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.

Gordan Kljajic is the co-founder of GEM DiCom - The first digital commodity backed by investment-grade gemstones with a real-time proof of reserve and minimal drawdown. Why you should listen DiCom, short for Digital Commodity, is the term coined to describe what GEM actually represents. The word "token" has been diluted by years of speculative hype and vaporware, so GEM intentionally steps away from that language. This isn't a marketing promise dressed up in blockchain buzzwords — it's a verifiable claim. Each GEM is backed by a reserve of audited, securely stored, investment-grade gemstones and cash equivalents. That reserve anchors GEM's value in the real world, while making it transparent and tradable on-chain. Unlike stablecoins, GEM isn't pegged to fiat, doesn't fix its price, and doesn't grant redemption rights. Its market price floats freely, shaped by supply and demand. But beneath that floating price is a solid foundation: independently appraised, tangible assets that provide a real floor. Each GEM exists only because there's a corresponding value behind it, continuously visible through real-time proof of reserves. It behaves like a traditional commodity — its price can fluctuate, but the intrinsic backing gives it substance, similar to gold or oil. Calling GEM a Digital Commodity isn't just semantics. It's a deliberate legal and structural choice. By positioning GEM as a commodity rather than a security or stablecoin, it avoids the regulatory straightjacket that binds many financial instruments and fiat-linked tokens. This opens the door to a freer, more flexible model — while simultaneously offering exposure to an asset class that's rare, historically uncorrelated to mainstream markets, and inherently resistant to inflation. GEM bridges the gap between the physical and digital worlds. It lets anyone store value in one of humanity's oldest and most enduring forms of wealth — gemstones — without needing vaults, specialized knowledge, or accepting illiquidity. It's preservation meets participation: timeless assets, brought natively into the digital realm. That is the essence of DiCom. That is what GEM stands for. Supporting links Fidelity Crypto Careers GEM DiCom Andy on Twitter Brave New Coin on Twitter Brave New Coin If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.

Shahaf Bar-Geffen is the CEO for COTI, working on On-chain privacy for every user, everywhere. Why you should listen Privacy isn't a luxury — it's the backbone of real freedom. It gives users the confidence to transact and explore without fear, and empowers builders to innovate without trade-offs. COTI is a high-performance, EVM-compatible privacy layer built on Garbled Circuits, a powerful cryptographic primitive. It delivers scalable, privacy-on-demand across blockchains — unlocking the full potential of Web3 for businesses, individuals, and autonomous AI agents. COTI is laying the cryptographic foundation for a new era of on-chain confidentiality. By combining cutting-edge privacy tech with fast, scalable infrastructure, we enable businesses and their users to interact securely — without friction and without compromise. COTI is building a future where data and interactions remain protected by default, allowing everyone — companies, creators, users, and machines — to confidently participate and push the boundaries of what's possible online. Supporting links Fidelity Crypto Careers COTI Andy on Twitter Brave New Coin on Twitter Brave New Coin If you enjoyed the show please subscribe to the Crypto Conversation and give us a 5-star rating and a positive review in whatever podcast app you are using.