Talking Tokens: Crypto, Onchain Finance, Investing

By Jacquelyn Melinek, StrataMediaBusiness

Talking Tokens: Crypto, Onchain Finance, Investing episodes

October 14 Why Fomo Thinks Social Trading Is the Next Big Investing Shift
In today's episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Se Yong Park , co-founder of Fomo, a social-first trading app with about 3 million users, to discuss how social media, blockchain and changing consumer behavior are reshaping how people discover and invest in financial markets.
Se breaks down why Fomo abstracts away wallets, gas, bridges and chains, how the platform is reaching users outside traditional crypto channels, and why social trading could become a much bigger part of investing. They also discuss bringing more assets onchain, tokenized equities, transparent trading activity, creator-driven market discovery and how younger investors are approaching financial markets differently.

Timestamps
00:00 Intro
01:33 How Fomo Reached Millions of Users
02:03 Why Se Yong Park Built Fomo
03:11 Making Investing Easier to Understand
03:48 Making Trades Public
05:03 What 3 Million Users Reveal About New Investors
05:48 Reaching People Outside Crypto
06:45 Why Fomo Targets Instagram and Social Audiences
07:06 Making Crypto Infrastructure Invisible
08:33 What Fomo Got Wrong About Consumer Behavior
09:28 Is Social Trading the Future?
11:35 What's Next for Fomo
12:30 How Social Media Is Changing Market Discovery
13:51 What Fomo Has Learned From Trader Behavior
14:38 Educating and Rewarding Users
16:03 Lessons From Building in Crypto
17:02 Competition and Growing the Onchain Market
17:40 Why Fomo Uses Blockchain
18:03 What Users Are Trading
19:47 How Much Are Users Trading With?
20:40 Security and Risk
21:31 Bringing More Assets Onchain
22:00 The Next Generation of Investors
22:48 Will AI Change Social Trading?
23:43 Se’s Advice for Crypto Founders

🔔 New episodes every week
https://open.spotify.com/show/0LOgWxIQ0NnNUD5eXsSuoZ
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/talking-tokens/id1743669141

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#Fomo #SocialTrading #Crypto #OnchainFinance #Investing
27 min
October 13 What Could Take For Ethereum to Hit $10,000
In today's episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Kevin Lepsoe, founder of ETHGas, to discuss how Ethereum could evolve into faster, more efficient financial infrastructure and what that could mean for institutions, DeFi and AI agents.

Kevin Lepsoe breaks down ETHGas's vision for real-time Ethereum, why faster blockspace could bring liquidity back to the network, and the practical barriers institutions face when moving large amounts of capital onchain. They also discuss Ethereum's institutional comeback, why traditional credit relies on so many intermediaries, how smart contracts could reshape banking, and why AI agents may naturally gravitate toward DeFi as they begin transacting at machine speed.

Timestamps
00:00 Intro
01:24 Ethereum's Institutional Shift
03:21 What's Still Missing From DeFi
05:43 Building Real-Time Ethereum
06:15 Why Blockspace Matters
07:21 What If Ethereum Were 100x Faster?
09:02 ETH as Strategic Infrastructure
11:51 Is Ethereum Having a Comeback?
13:19 ETHGas as Ethereum's “Supercharger”
14:40 Kevin's $10,000K ETH Thesis
16:43 Ethereum Treasury Companies
18:09 What Ethereum Needs Next
18:41 Bringing Institutional Capital Onchain
20:26 Why Institutions Want to Move Onchain
21:50 Can DeFi Cut Out Banking Middlemen?
23:54 What Institutions Want From Ethereum
25:40 AI Meets Onchain Finance
25:53 Why AI Agents Could Choose DeFi
27:15 Building Through Ethereum's Market Cycles
28:31 Ethereum's Decentralization Advantage
29:46 Where Ethereum Could Be in One Year

🔔 New episodes every week
https://open.spotify.com/show/0LOgWxIQ0NnNUD5eXsSuoZ
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/talking-tokens/id1743669141

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This episode is sponsored by Forgd, visit its Market Maker Leaderboard on Token Relations here: www.stratamedia.co/token-relations/leaderboard

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

This episode is sponsored by Binance, the world’s number-one crypto exchange, trusted by over 300 million people. Discover more at: https://binance.onelink.me/y874/talkingtokens . NOTE: Binance is not available in certain countries, including the U.S.; check its Terms for more information: https://www.binance.com/en/terms

#Ethereum #ETHGas #DeFi #OnchainFinance #ETH
34 min
October 13 How ETHGas Is Making Ethereum 100x Faster
In today's episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Kevin Lepsoe, founder of ETHGas, to discuss how Ethereum could evolve into faster, more efficient financial infrastructure and what that could mean for institutions, DeFi and AI agents.
Kevin Lepsoe breaks down ETHGas's vision for real-time Ethereum, why faster blockspace could bring liquidity back to the network, and the practical barriers institutions face when moving large amounts of capital onchain. They also discuss Ethereum's institutional comeback, why traditional credit relies on so many intermediaries, how smart contracts could reshape banking, and why AI agents may naturally gravitate toward DeFi as they begin transacting at machine speed.

Timestamps
00:00 Intro
01:24 Ethereum's Institutional Shift
03:21 What's Still Missing From DeFi
05:43 Building Real-Time Ethereum
06:15 Why Blockspace Matters
07:21 What If Ethereum Were 100x Faster?
09:02 ETH as Strategic Infrastructure
11:51 Is Ethereum Having a Comeback?
13:19 ETHGas as Ethereum's “Supercharger”
14:40 Kevin's $10,000K ETH Thesis
16:43 Ethereum Treasury Companies
18:09 What Ethereum Needs Next
18:41 Bringing Institutional Capital Onchain
20:26 Why Institutions Want to Move Onchain
21:50 Can DeFi Cut Out Banking Middlemen?
23:54 What Institutions Want From Ethereum
25:40 AI Meets Onchain Finance
25:53 Why AI Agents Could Choose DeFi
27:15 Building Through Ethereum's Market Cycles
28:31 Ethereum's Decentralization Advantage
29:46 Where Ethereum Could Be in One Year

🔔 New episodes every week
https://open.spotify.com/show/0LOgWxIQ0NnNUD5eXsSuoZ
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/talking-tokens/id1743669141

🌐 Follow Jacquelyn Melinek
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➡️ Follow Kevin Lepsoe
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This episode is sponsored by Forgd, visit its Market Maker Leaderboard on Token Relations here: www.stratamedia.co/token-relations/leaderboard

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

This episode is sponsored by Binance, the world’s number-one crypto exchange, trusted by over 300 million people. Discover more at: https://binance.onelink.me/y874/talkingtokens . NOTE: Binance is not available in certain countries, including the U.S.; check its Terms for more information: https://www.binance.com/en/terms

#Ethereum #ETHGas #DeFi #OnchainFinance #ETH
34 min
October 08 How Injective Is Building Financial Markets Onchain
In today's episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Eric Chen, co-founder and CEO of Injective Labs, the team behind the Injectivea blockchain built for financial applications, to discuss what comes next for tokenization, onchain finance and institutional adoption.
Eric explains why simply tokenizing assets isn't enough, where he sees the biggest opportunities for bringing financial markets onchain, and how Injective is building infrastructure for advanced financial products. They also discuss RWA perpetual markets, tokenized stocks, capital formation, institutional adoption, AI agents and the future of blockchain & powered financial infrastructure.

Timestamps
00:00 Intro
00:58 How Eric Chen Started Injective
03:07 Should Founders Still Drop Out of College?
05:27 Why AI Reminds Eric of Early Crypto
07:24 The Security Problem AI Can't Solve
09:27 Injective's Vision for Onchain Finance
11:21 Why Tokenization Is Accelerating
12:31 What Injective's Transfer Agent Registration Enables
14:32 $215M in RWA Perpetual Volume
16:33 Are Perpetual Markets the Future of RWAs?
17:52 Why Tokenizing Assets Isn't Enough
20:16 What's Moving Onchain Faster Than Expected
21:45 What Institutions Are Building on Injective
24:25 What Makes an Asset Useful Onchain?
27:21 Will Onchain Finance Compete With Banks?
27:52 Why Institutional Tokenization Is Accelerating
29:08 What Should Actually Move Onchain?
31:14 What Enterprises Want From Blockchain
33:48 Will Blockchain Become Invisible Infrastructure?
35:37 What Onchain Finance Could Look Like in 5–10 Years
37:26 What Injective Got Wrong
38:29 What Eric Is Watching Next
39:00 AI Agents Move From Analysis to Execution (timestamp needs verification)
41:27 What Eric Won't Trust AI With
41:40 Eric's Advice for Builders

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

This episode is sponsored by Forgd, visit its Market Maker Leaderboard on Token Relations here: www.stratamedia.co/token-relations/leaderboard

New episodes every week
https://open.spotify.com/show/0LOgWxIQ0NnNUD5eXsSuoZ
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/talking-tokens/id1743669141

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45 min
October 06 Why Banks Risk More by Ignoring Stablecoins
In today's episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Sergio Mello, Global Head of Digital Asset Infrastructure, and Kevin Wysocki, Head of Policy at Anchorage Digital, to discuss why stablecoins are moving deeper into the institutional financial system and what banks need to build for the next phase of adoption.
They explore why institutions are shifting from asking if they should participate to how and when, whether stablecoins could become a global settlement layer, why every bank could eventually become a digital asset bank, and how tokenization, stablecoins, and AI banking could converge into a fundamentally different financial system.

Timestamps
00:00 Intro
00:34 What Changed for Institutional Crypto?
02:34 Why Banks Need to Start Building Now
05:16 The Second Era of Stablecoins
07:42 The Risk of Ignoring Stablecoins
08:56 TradFi and Crypto Are Converging
10:02 Stablecoins vs. Tokenization
13:02 The Trillion-Dollar Tokenized Money Opportunity
13:38 What GENIUS Could Unlock for Banks
16:10 Stablecoins and Dollar Dominance
18:28 Could Other Currencies Move Onchain?
20:06 When Stablecoins Become Normal Financial Infrastructure
21:37 Are Stablecoins Inevitable?
23:13 Anchorage Digital's Role in Stablecoin Infrastructure
26:57 Will Every Bank Become a Digital Asset Bank?
30:29 Why “Tomorrow Is Late”
30:59 What's Slowing Institutional Adoption?
34:07 When Stablecoins Become Invisible
35:45 Stablecoins Meet AI Banking
36:45 What Happens When Everything Connects?
38:17 What Comes Next for Crypto Regulation?
39:59 The Invisible Future of Onchain Finance

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

This episode is sponsored by Binance, the world’s number-one crypto exchange, trusted by over 300 million people. Discover more at: https://binance.onelink.me/y874/talkingtokens . NOTE: Binance is not available in certain countries, including the U.S.; check its Terms for more information: https://www.binance.com/en/terms

New episodes every week
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#Stablecoins #AnchorageDigital #Tokenization #DigitalAssets #TalkingTokens
46 min
October 05 Talking Tokens | Inside the Future of Onchain Finance
Talking Tokens goes beyond the headlines to explore the people, ideas, and infrastructure shaping the onchain economy.
Hosted by Jacquelyn Melinek, founder and CEO of StrataMedia and former senior crypto reporter at TechCrunch, Talking Tokens brings you twice-weekly conversations with founders, investors, market makers, institutional leaders, and experts across digital assets and traditional finance. From crypto and DeFi to stablecoins, tokenization, institutional adoption, and the convergence of TradFi and onchain finance, we break down where money is moving, what’s gaining real traction, what’s mostly hype, and what could reshape the future of finance.

New episodes every week
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https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/talking-tokens/id1743669141

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#TalkingTokens #OnchainFinance #Crypto #DigitalAssets #DeFi
2 min
October 01 What Actually Makes a Crypto Token Investable?
In today's episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Shane Molidor, founder and CEO of Forgd, and Ryan Celaj, head of research at DeFiLlama, to discuss how better data and transparency could change the way crypto assets are evaluated.
They break down the Universal Token Ratings (UTR), why TVL and volume alone don't tell the full story, and how disclosures, liquidity, market structure and market maker performance can provide more context around a token. They also explore what institutional investors expect from crypto projects, why ratings need to evolve in real time, and whether better transparency could create a new standard for the industry.

Timestamps
00:00 Intro
00:26 Why Crypto Needed a Market Maker Leaderboard
02:04 Bringing Forgd Data to DeFiLlama
03:51 What Makes a Good Market Maker?
05:25 Why Market Makers Overpromise
07:37 How Market Makers Perform Across Market Cycles
11:58 Building More Transparency Into Crypto
13:23 Introducing Universal Token Ratings
14:22 Are TVL and Volume Enough?
17:37 Building a “Moody’s for Crypto”
20:58 Performance vs. Transparency
23:29 Is Crypto Returning to Fundamentals?
25:33 Why Token Ratings Need to Change in Real Time
28:23 What Happens When Projects Don’t Disclose Enough?
31:12 What Makes a Crypto Asset Investable?
33:17 How Investors Can Use UTR
35:28 Could Ratings Change How Token Projects Behave?
37:09 What UTR Means for Institutional Investors
39:12 What Institutions Expect From Crypto Projects
41:40 Expanding Beyond 170 Rated Tokens
43:06 Could UTR Become a New Crypto Standard?
44:55 Can Token Ratings Reveal Alpha?

New episodes every week
https://open.spotify.com/show/0LOgWxIQ0NnNUD5eXsSuoZ
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/talking-tokens/id1743669141

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This episode is sponsored by Forgd, visit its Market Maker Leaderboard on Token Relations here: www.stratamedia.co/token-relations/leaderboard

Check out the Universal Token Rating platform on DeFiLlama: https://defillama.com/universal-token-rating

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

This episode is sponsored by Binance, the world’s number-one crypto exchange, trusted by over 300 million people. Discover more at: https://binance.onelink.me/y874/talkingtokens . NOTE: Binance is not available in certain countries, including the U.S.; check its Terms for more information: https://www.binance.com/en/terms

#DeFiLlama #Crypto #TokenRatings #CryptoResearch #TalkingTokens
50 min
September 29 Why Grove Is Betting Billions on Onchain Credit | Kevin Chan
In today's episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Kevin Chan, co-founder and CTO of Grove Labs, the team behind Grove Protocol, to discuss how Grove is building infrastructure for institutional credit and modern capital markets.
Kevin breaks down how Grove has scaled its credit platform, how the protocol connects stablecoin liquidity with traditional and emerging forms of credit, and what it will take to bring significantly more institutional capital onchain. They also discuss Grove's work across the Sky ecosystem, relationships with institutions such as BlackRock, the role of Morpho and Coinbase in expanding access to borrowing, and why new credit markets like AI compute financing could become a major opportunity.

Timestamps
00:00 Intro
01:32 Why Grove Was Built
03:30 What Financial Institutions Actually Want
05:29 How Grove Grew From $50M to $2.5B
06:55 The Sky Ecosystem Flywheel
08:10 The Opportunity in Onchain Credit
10:08 How Credit Markets Could Change
11:57 Why Credit Adoption Takes Time
12:21 Building Trust Through Transparency
14:16 What It Takes to Bring Trillions in Credit Onchain
17:01 Where Blockchain Can Expand Access to Credit
20:25 Bringing Onchain Credit to Retail
22:26 Making Credit More Accessible
24:38 Why AI Compute Financing Could Be Next
27:07 What Will Bring Institutions Onchain
28:39 Will Onchain Credit Compete With Banks?
30:36 What Will Separate the Winning Credit Protocols
33:05 Kevin's Advice for Builders

This episode is sponsored by Forgd, visit its Market Maker Leaderboard on Token Relations here: www.stratamedia.co/token-relations/leaderboard

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

New episodes every week
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36 min
September 24 What Happens When the World’s Assets Move Onchain?
In today's episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Gregg Bell, Chief Investment Officer at Hashgraph, to discuss what institutional blockchain adoption of Hedera actually looks like and why some of the most important enterprise use cases may be happening outside the crypto headlines.
Gregg breaks down how Hedera is being used across industries, why tokenization extends far beyond stocks and securities, and how moving assets onchain can unlock greater mobility, programmability and new forms of collateral. They explore real-world assets, enterprise adoption, supply chains, tokenized real estate, digital identity, interoperability and the infrastructure required to support global financial markets.
Also explains why institutional adoption takes longer than retail adoption, how regulatory clarity is changing the risk calculus for enterprises, the role of HBAR within the Hedera ecosystem, and why actual network usage not hype is ultimately the measure of success.

Timestamps:
00:10 Gregg Bell's journey into crypto
01:06 From Bitcoin lending to onchain assets
01:53 How blockchain's user base is changing
03:06 How enterprises and governments use blockchain
04:58 Tokenizing assets beyond securities
06:28 When will more assets move onchain?
08:01 What institutional adoption actually looks like
10:19 Enterprise blockchain happening behind the scenes
12:57 Why the first wave of enterprise adoption struggled
16:09 Public, private and hybrid blockchain infrastructure
17:49 Are institutions finally comfortable with blockchain?
18:56 The role of HBAR in Hedera's ecosystem
21:11 What financial-grade blockchain infrastructure requires
23:05 Who captures the value from tokenization?
23:47 Are we entering a new era of financial access?
24:28 What success looks like for Hedera

This episode is sponsored by Forgd, visit its Market Maker Leaderboard on Token Relations here: www.stratamedia.co/token-relations/leaderboard

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

New episodes every week
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26 min
September 22 Why Stellar Thinks Its $4B Tokenization Milestone Is Just the Beginning
In today's episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Raja Chakravorti, Chief Business Officer at the Stellar Development Foundation, to discuss why the next phase of tokenization is about more than simply bringing assets onchain and how Stellar is building infrastructure for a more connected global financial system.

Raja breaks down Stellar's growth from roughly $1 billion to $4 billion in tokenized real-world assets since January, why capital efficiency is one of blockchain's biggest potential unlocks, and what needs to happen after an asset is tokenized for it to become genuinely useful. They discuss Stellar's work with DTCC, Franklin Templeton, WisdomTree and MoneyGram, the arrival of Tether's USD₮0 on Stellar, and why stablecoins have found product-market fit for global money movement. Raja also explains why distribution and circulation could define the next wave of tokenization, how financial institutions are moving assets onchain, and why better access to financial services remains central to Stellar's mission.

Timestamps
00:00 Raja Chakravorti's journey from banking to blockchain
05:17 Why access to financial services matters
08:04 What working at PayPal and Plaid taught Raja about financial infrastructure
10:31 The promise of moving financial assets onchain
11:23 What blockchain can solve for financial markets
13:19 Stellar crossing $4B in tokenized real-world assets
16:43 How big can tokenization get?
18:04 Should everything be tokenized?
18:49 Why DTCC is bringing assets to Stellar
21:54 Why financial institutions are choosing Stellar
24:32 Tether and USD₮0 come to Stellar
25:57 Why stablecoins matter for Stellar
27:49 The next frontier for tokenization
30:14 Building global financial access
32:30 What success looks like for Stellar

New episodes every week
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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
31 min

About Talking Tokens: Crypto, Onchain Finance, Investing

From the publisher's feed

Talking Tokens is StrataMedia’s flagship podcast and newsletter, delivering two episodes a week to a growing global audience of crypto-native and traditional finance professionals. The award-nominated show features conversations with the founders, investors, market makers, and leaders shaping the onchain economy. Hosted by Jacquelyn Melinek, founder & CEO of StrataMedia and former senior crypto reporter at TechCrunch.