Bitcoin.com News Interviews

Hugo Philion, Co-founder of Flare and CEO of Flare Labs, shares the developments underway at the EVM-based Layer 1 blockchain. Philion, who brings a strong background from finance and machine learning, details Flare’s mission to build an end-to-end decentralized finance ecosystem around the vast, yet underutilized, XRP asset. He shares his vision that a superior technology, like decentralized finance, is an inevitable progression that will eventually supplant existing, intermediary-heavy financial systems.

Flare operates as a unique Layer 1, leveraging embedded data protocols to power its bridges and DeFi ecosystem. It has built a full suite of on-chain functionalities for XRP holders, allowing users to engage in borrow/lend, trade on decentralized exchanges (DEXes), create decentralized stablecoins, and open collateralized options strategies—all directly with XRP. The immediate focus for the platform is to expand these markets, build substantial liquidity, and prepare for the next critical phase: pairing XRP with a variety of real-world assets on-chain.

To make this ecosystem accessible to all XRP holders, Flare recently rolled out its game-changing Flare Smart Accounts. This innovative abstraction eliminates the need for retail users to acquire the native Flare token or download a new wallet, allowing them to control Flare transactions—such as minting FXRP and depositing into a vault—directly from the XRP Ledger. This user-friendly mechanism has driven significant adoption, with FXRP, the bridged version of XRP on Flare, growing by 31% in just 10 days since the Smart Accounts launch, reaching approximately 133 million units.

While committed to being retail-friendly, Philion emphasizes that a major market unlock lies in enabling institutional products, given that an estimated 60-70% of XRP is held on exchanges. Looking to the future, he asserts that the migration of all traditional real-world assets—including stocks, bonds, and derivatives—to blockchains is inevitable. The current plan is to maximize the usage and liquidity of XRP, which will then serve as a driver for integrating other major tokens like Bitcoin into the Flare DeFi ecosystem.

A critical barrier to institutional adoption of real-world assets on-chain is the need for privacy in trading and complex applications. To address this, Flare is preparing for its highly anticipated Flare 2.0 update, which will introduce a new compute layer. This layer is designed to enable applications to sit off-chain with full privacy while settling securely on-chain. This powerful and flexible, privacy-preserving compute layer will position Flare as a vital hub for RWA, allowing for the creation of complex applications like DEXes and lending protocols for assets issued on Flare or connected chains like the XRP Ledger.

To learn more about the technology visit flare.network, and follow the team on X.

SVP of Business Development at Bullish and Chairman of Consensus, Michael Lau, joins David Sencil at Consensus Hong Kong to discuss why Hong Kong is becoming the world's most important city for the convergence of TradFi and crypto.Topics covered:• Why HK ranked #1 globally for IPOs in 2025 — and what that means for crypto• The developer talent gap: "Nobody stays here"• Live events in the age of AI: physical presence as the new scarcity• How HK compares to Singapore, Dubai & Korea as a crypto hub• The institutional adoption thesis for Hong KongRecorded at Consensus Hong Kong.

00:00 Michael Lau's Journey into Finance and Technology03:00 The Role of Consensus in the Crypto Ecosystem06:12 Conferences as Catalysts for the Crypto Industry08:55 Hong Kong: A Rising Crypto Hub12:00 Comparing Asian Crypto Hubs14:58 Challenges and Opportunities for Hong Kong18:01 The Future of Crypto in Hong Kong

Animoca Brands Chairman Yat Siu makes a bold prediction: within the next few years, there will be 30 to 50 billion AI agents operating online. And they won't live on Facebook or Google — they'll live on the blockchain.In this wide-ranging conversation, Yat breaks down why crypto infrastructure was built for this moment, why Europe faces "technology colonization," and what Apple's 30% Patreon fee reveals about platform power.In this conversation:• Bitcoin acting as a safe haven vs. risk asset• Hong Kong's position as Asia's financial hub• The real state of NFTs and gaming• Animoca Combines: AI agents for everyone• His prediction: 30-50 billion agents on-chain• Why digital identity matters more for agents than humans• Agent swarm security experiments at AnimocaAbout the Guest:Yat Siu is the Chairman and Co-founder of Animoca Brands, one of the world's leading blockchain gaming and investment companies. Animoca Brands has made over 400 investments in Web3 projects.📍 Bitcoin.com News✅ Subscribe for more interviews with the biggest names in crypto and Web3.🔗 Links:Bitcoin.com News: https://news.bitcoin.comAnimoca Brands: https://www.animocabrands.comYat Siu on X: @ysiu

A veteran of the global crypto industry, Colin Goltra has been an early adopter and advocate for digital assets throughout his career.

Colin Goltra is the Chief Executive Officer of Morph, a blockchain platform building universal infrastructure for borderless payments and financial services. He recently joined the Bitcoin.com News Podcast to talk about the market.

In this episode Colin identifies the previous year as the critical "stablecoin moment," driven by a perfect storm of regulatory clarity (like the Genius Act and MiCA) and technological advancements on smart-contracting ecosystems that have finally solved the performance and scalability issues that plagued earlier attempts with Bitcoin. Morph's mission has pivoted to stablecoin-based global payment settlement, adopting a "ruthlessly pragmatic" strategy to prepare for a market that could be dominated by either one or two fiat-backed stablecoins (USD-linked like USDC and USDT) or by a rise in relevant regional stablecoins.

He highlights the profound impact of stablecoins in emerging economies, where access to the dollar provides a crucial hedge against high local fiat inflation, citing the Philippine Peso as a prime example. Looking at the current landscape, Colin pinpoints four key active verticals in crypto: institutional stablecoin-based payments, the significant growth of Real-World Assets (RWAs), prediction markets for valuable information, and the emerging space of Agentic AI, which will require crypto layers for payment and transacting.

The long-term vision for crypto, according to Colin, anticipates a transition from a purely "cryptonative" era to a more institutional and pragmatic phase over the next decade. He predicts that for the average person, the underlying blockchain infrastructure will "melt away at the UX level," becoming an invisible rail for better, faster payment solutions. A major challenge remains a knowledge gap for small and mid-sized businesses. To address this, Morph is funding a $150 million payment accelerator to incentivize traditional payment businesses to migrate their transaction volume onto the Morph chain.

Robinhood’s General Manager of Crypto, Johann Kerbrat, joins David Sencil at Consensus Hong Kong to discuss the launch of Robinhood Chain, the company’s public testnet, and its $1M global hackathon.

They cover:

• Moving traditional financial assets fully on-chain
• 24/7 trading and instant settlement
• Perpetuals and global expansion
• Robinhood’s Layer 2 strategy
• Prediction markets as one of its fastest-growing business lines
• AI integration through Cortex
• The future of on-chain financial infrastructure

Recorded at Consensus Hong Kong 2026.

Terminal 3 CEO Gary Liu breaks down the four unsolved problems threatening agentic commerce — including the OpenClaw breach that proved your private data is never safe once it touches an agent's memory. Plus: why Singapore stepped back from retail crypto, and why Hong Kong leads Asia.

00:00 The Importance of Data Privacy and Security04:07 Gary Liew's Journey to Terminal 308:10 Real-World Applications of ID Verification and Financial Credentials12:11 AI Credentials and the Future of Autonomous Agents15:48 Regulatory Challenges and Global Perspectives on Blockchain19:58 Hong Kong's Position as a Crypto Hub23:51 Talent Retention and the Future of Innovation in Hong Kong

Mahad Mohamed is a senior crypto tax and accounting specialist with over 25 years of experience in public accounting and tax advisory. His background includes work with Big Four firms and government tax authorities, giving him deep insight into regulatory review and enforcement.

Mahad Mohamed is the CEO of Block3 Finance, a firm dedicated exclusively to cryptocurrency taxation, accounting, and advisory. He recently joined the Bitcoin.com News Podcast to talk how cryptocurrency is taxed, primarily in Canada and the U.S., and what traders, investors, and builders need to understand to stay compliant:

Mahad advises crypto traders, investors, and builders on reporting, audits, and long-term tax structure, with deep expertise across Bitcoin, high- volume trading, DeFi, staking, NFTs, mining, and cross-border crypto activity. His work is focused on audit-ready reporting, clean records, and defensible tax positions that stand up under real regulatory scrutiny.

Block3 Finance works with clients operating across centralized exchanges and on-chain protocols, delivering accurate reporting, audit support, and tax structures aligned with current regulatory expectations. The firm places strong emphasis on clean records, defensible positions, and practical decision-making that holds up under real scrutiny.

Mahad Mohamed is a senior crypto tax and accounting specialist with over 25 years of experience in public accounting and tax advisory. His background includes work with Big Four firms and government tax authorities, giving him deep insight into regulatory review and enforcement.

Mahad Mohamed is the CEO of Block3 Finance, a firm dedicated exclusively to cryptocurrency taxation, accounting, and advisory. He recently joined the Bitcoin.com News Podcast to talk how cryptocurrency is taxed, primarily in Canada and the U.S., and what traders, investors, and builders need to understand to stay compliant.

Mahad advises crypto traders, investors, and builders on reporting, audits, and long-term tax structure, with deep expertise across Bitcoin, high-volume trading, DeFi, staking, NFTs, mining, and cross-border crypto activity. His work is focused on audit-ready reporting, clean records, and defensible tax positions that stand up under real regulatory scrutiny.

Block3 Finance works with clients operating across centralized exchanges and on-chain protocols, delivering accurate reporting, audit support, and tax structures aligned with current regulatory expectations. The firm places strong emphasis on clean records, defensible positions, and practical decision-making that holds up under real scrutiny.

You can book a free 30-minute consultation at calendly.com/mahadblock3finance, tailored to your unique crypto activity, to understand your exposure, reporting obligations, and next steps before issues become costly.

A major topic of discussion this episode was the misunderstanding that taxes only apply when cashing out to fiat; in reality, every crypto transaction, including selling, swapping, and spending, is a taxable event, with no minimum threshold for reporting gains. Tax authorities like the CRA, Revenue Quebec, and the IRS inquire about crypto use on tax returns, and the CRA recently sent 440,000 audit letters to inquire if recipients are crypto users. Tax agencies look closely at whether a user is an investor or a day trader, often using an eight-page questionnaire with about 30 questions to assess the user's involvement. A key distinction involves the volume of transactions; having more than 10 to 15 transactions a year, or more than 15 staking/reward transactions, can flag a user as a day trader. Automated trading is also a strong indicator of being a day trader.

If classified as a day trader, income is taxed as business income at high personal marginal tax rates, versus a capital gain. Mahad strongly recommends that day traders incorporate, as a corporation's tax rate in Canada is only 12.2% on gains up to half a million, and personal assets can be transferred to the corporation using a Section 85 Rollover. Specific crypto activities are also addressed: staking rewards and airdrops are taxable at their fair market value upon receipt, and the daily nature of these payments can increase the risk of being classified as a day trader. Winnings from prediction markets are taxable, unlike lottery winnings in Canada, because they involve crypto as the medium of prediction. Losses from hacks or exchange failures are not automatic write-offs; they require proper documentation, such as filing a police report and obtaining a federal file number, which Block3 Finance uses to defend the loss claims if audited.

Looking ahead, Mahad predicts an increase in audits, on-chain analysis, and less tolerance for errors from governments as education and awareness become more widespread. Global data sharing is also imminent, with the Common Reporting Standard on Crypto-Assets (CARF) set to begin in 2027, meaning tax authorities will have access to international wallet information. Finally, he emphasizes the importance of estate planning, urging crypto users to have an up-to-date will and proper documentation to ensure that beneficiaries and executives can access their crypto, wallets, and seed phrases, noting that "death and taxes are both guaranteed".

At Consensus Hong Kong 2026, David Sencil hosts a forward-looking discussion on how artificial intelligence is transforming finance and digital systems.Featuring:- Bryan Benson (CEO, Aurum)- Tobias Bauer (Co-Founder & GP, TBV)- Yat Siu (Chairman & Co-Founder, Animoca Brands)Topics include:- AI-native financial markets- The emergence of the agentic web- Stablecoins and global financial access- Digital identity and accountability- Centralization vs decentralization- Regulation and innovationAI is no longer optional for founders or financial institutions. It is becoming foundational infrastructure.Watch the full conversation to understand where finance is heading next.00:00 Introduction to AI and Finance02:50 The Underestimation of AI's Potential05:55 AI in Retail and Institutional Finance08:53 The Future of AI Finance12:02 Democratizing Financial Literacy through AI14:55 The Role of Blockchain in AI Finance18:13 The Evolution of the Internet of Value20:53 The Agentic Web and Its Implications23:47 Challenges and Concerns in AI and Finance28:43 Navigating AI Regulation and Its Challenges34:38 The Importance of Digital Identity in AI39:04 The Intersection of AI, Politics, and Regulation44:34 Integrating AI into Business Strategies51:57 The Future of AI: Opportunities and Challenges#Bitcoin #Crypto #ai