Talking Tokens: Crypto, Onchain Finance, Investing

On today's episode of Talking Tokenization, Jacquelyn sits down with Carlos Domingo, co-founder and CEO of Securitize, to explore what's next for tokenized assets as institutional adoption grows and Wall Street moves more financial products onchain.

Carlos breaks down why tokenization is still in its early innings despite Securitize reaching $5 billion in tokenized AUM, and why just 2% of the more than $100 trillion equities and ETF market moving onchain could have an enormous impact on crypto. They discuss tokenized stocks, BlackRock's BUIDL fund, real-world assets as collateral, the convergence of DeFi and institutional finance, and how Securitize is working with firms including BlackRock, Apollo, Hamilton Lane, Neuberger Berman and Cantor Fitzgerald.

They also explore why simply putting assets onchain isn't enough, how tokenization could change IPO access and shareholder ownership, and what needs to happen before tokenized finance reaches mainstream investors.

Timestamps:

00:10 Introduction

03:32 Securitize's IPO milestone

04:13 The journey to becoming a public company

06:48 Securitize's Q2 results and $5B tokenized AUM

08:12 What Carlos learned from its first earnings 

09:55 Building the tokenized asset market

11:15 How much of the stock market could move onchain?

14:24 Retail vs. institutional tokenization

15:11 Bringing fixed income onchain

17:21 Why investors are chasing yield

17:57 Why tokenized assets stayed resilient during the crypto downturn

18:57 Building the full tokenization stack

20:49 What's still missing from onchain finance?

21:32 What institutions are asking about tokenization now

22:51 How BlackRock and other asset managers are expanding onchain

24:07 Tokenized assets as collateral

26:47 Can RWAs make DeFi safer?

27:37 Where institutional finance meets DeFi

29:44 Why Securitize brought on Brett Redfearn

32:28 Bringing IPO access onchain with Cantor Fitzgerald

35:51 Could IPOs become programmable?

36:17 What will take tokenization mainstream?

38:12 What's coming in 2027?

38:57 Three models for tokenized stocks

41:21 The risks of synthetic tokenized equities

42:31 What Carlos is watching next

43:44 Carlos's advice for investors and builders

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This episode is sponsored by Securitize, the proven leader in tokenized funds, equities, and private markets. Discover more at securitize.io 

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.

Anthony Scaramucci still believes Bitcoin can reach $500,000. In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek sits down with the SkyBridge Capital founder and SALT chairman to discuss Bitcoin’s path to $500K, institutional crypto adoption and what could drive the next phase of the market.

Scaramucci breaks down why banks and major institutions haven’t fully embraced Bitcoin, how blockchain could transform traditional finance and enable 24/7 markets, and why stablecoins could eventually become a larger market than Bitcoin.

Plus, he shares which digital assets he believes have lasting utility, how he knows when an investment thesis has broken, and what selling Microsoft, Apple and Google too early taught him about patience and conviction.

Timestamps:

03:32 Scaramucci’s $500K Bitcoin Prediction

05:13 Bitcoin vs. Gold: The Path to $500K

10:06 Could Bitcoin Hit $500K in Five Years?

11:16 Which Altcoins Could Survive?

12:47 Why Crypto Resembles the Early Internet

16:58 How Blockchain Could Transform Banking

18:27 Are Financial Markets Going 24/7?

27:42 Could Stablecoins Become Bigger Than Bitcoin?

30:27 Scaramucci’s $50K Investing Mistake

33:17 Has the Bitcoin Thesis Broken?

36:23 Why Selling Apple, Microsoft & Google Was a Mistake

41:00 Scaramucci on Self-Honesty

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Sponsors

Sponsored by Forgd and Anchorage Digital. Learn more at stratamedia.co/token-relations/leaderboard and anchorage.com.

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.

Is it possible for $200 trillion in global credit to move onchain, or is DeFi still trapped in speculation? Today’s guest is Paul Frambot, Co-Founder and CEO of Morpho. We explore the evolution of onchain credit, how decentralized finance is becoming a core technology stack for traditional finance, and what it takes to build a truly global, open credit network.

Paul breaks down Morpho's shift from financial origination to pure technological infrastructure, connecting borrowers directly with tens of thousands of lenders at scale. From distribution partnerships with giants like Robinhood Earn and Coinbase to high-stakes institutional deals with Wall Street heavyweights like Apollo Asset Management, regulatory meetings with the SEC in Washington, and defending against North Korea's Lazarus Group with immutable code, Paul paints a compelling, pragmatic picture of how crypto will power the future of global finance

Timestamps

00:00 - Intro 

00:47 - The Evolution of OnChain DeFi Lending

02:15 - Building Morpho: Challenges and Philosophy

04:07 - Early DeFi Traction and Growth Strategies

05:59 - Morpho: Positioning as an Open Credit Network

07:46 - Vetting Ecosystem Builders and Developers

09:47 - Robinhood Earn Partnership & Mainstream Adoption

15:07 - Institutional vs. Retail Strategies

16:40 - The Apollo Asset Management Partnership

17:35 - How Institutions Evaluate DeFi Risks

19:48 - Navigating SEC Regulation and Compliance

27:02 - Security Strategies: Addressing Lazarus Group Threats

31:56 - Morpho’s Future Roadmap & 5-Year Vision

37:01 - Core Principles for Thriving in the Crypto Industry

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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 

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

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.

In today's episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Rishin Sharma, Head of AI Growth at the Solana Foundation, to explore how AI agents could reshape payments, commerce, and financial markets and why Solana is positioning itself as financial infrastructure for the emerging agentic economy.

Rishin breaks down how agentic payments work today, how pay.sh enables AI systems like ChatGPT and Claude to pay for services using stablecoins, and why checkout could eventually disappear into AI interfaces. They also explore the next frontier of agentic trading, from AI-assisted investing and personalized financial coaching to the possibility of having a portfolio manager in your pocket. Plus, Rishin discusses Solana's role in open, permissionless finance, the future of open-source AI, and what could emerge as AI, stablecoins, and blockchains converge.

Timestamps

00:00 Introduction

00:36 What is overhyped in AI? 

02:28 Solana's role in the Agentic Economy

06:26 Getting started with Agentic Payments 

07:48 Strategic collaboration with Google Cloud

11:08 Merchant adoption on the platform

14:50 The future vision of the agentic economy

17:17 The future of commerce: Checkouts without human intervention?

23:54 Agentic Trading: AI as a financial advisor and strategist

29:39 The open-source AI dilemma: Capitalism vs. Geopolitics

34:24 Integration of stablecoins in AI: Expectations for the next 12 months

39:18 Final advice and vision for builders in the sector

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This episode is a part of the Solana Sessions campaign between Token Relations and the Talking Tokens podcast, diving into founders' journeys and startups building on Solana. Check out the accompanying newsletter on www.stratamedia.co/token-relations/solana  

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

Note: This podcast is for informational purposes only. Views shared are opinions, not financial advice. The host or guests may have financial interests in the discussed content.

Trading Wall Street stocks 24/7 in DeFi sounds like the ultimate financial unlock, but as Alexander Beaudry from our institutional research team points out, the reality is far more complex. In this episode, we dive into Alex's latest report, "Equity Perps Are Nothing Without Equity Spot," to explore why the infrastructure behind tokenized equities is still catching up to the hype. Alex breaks down the staggering 265% YTD growth in the tokenized spot equity market and explains why Equity Perpetual Futures (Perps) have become the most debated trend in DeFi.

 While crypto markets can predict TradFi pricing with 85% accuracy over weekends, Alex identifies the critical bottlenecks from centralized Oracle vulnerabilities to the $24M Ostiam exploit that continue to keep institutional capital on the sidelines. We discuss the market consensus on risk and what it will take for tokenized equities to move from a frontier trading tool to a cornerstone of global finance.

Timestamps

00:00 The Rise of Equity Perps

01:15 What Are Equity Perpetual Futures?

02:57 Where Equity Perps Work and Where They Fail

04:40 The Biggest Risk With Equity Perps

05:46 How Oracles Determine Equity Prices

07:03 The Risk of Oracle Manipulation

07:40 Why Arbitrageurs Matter for Healthy Markets

09:22 The Problem With Tokenized Equities

10:31 Can Tokenized Equities Become Truly 24/7?

11:44 Why Equity Perps Could Expand Global Market Access

12:26 Final Thoughts

Check out the full report:

Web: https://stratamedia.co/token-relations/article?slug=stratamedia-research-equity-perps-are-nothing-without-equity-spot-3faff8781eab4cf2X:

https://x.com/TokenRelations/status/2088337441979539709?s=20

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In today's episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Adrian, who breaks down his journey from Goldman Sachs to building in DeFi. He reveals why traditional banks are secretly terrified of stablecoins, the brutal reality of why tokenizing real-world assets (RWAs) actually takes months, and why the safest smart contracts are often the "dumbest" ones. 

Timestamps: 

00:10 Stablecoins, DeFi Risk & the Future of Finance

00:47 Meet Adrian, Co-Founder of Steakhouse Financial

01:16 From Goldman Sachs to DeFi

02:15 Building a Better Financial System with MakerDAO

03:41 How Mature Is DeFi Today?

05:15 When Will Institutional Finance Move OnChain?

06:15 Bringing Tokenized Assets OnChain with Grove

07:25 What Does an OnChain Asset Manager Actually Do?

08:50 Will Stablecoins Become the Future of Payments?

10:47 Are Traditional Banks Ready for Stablecoins?

13:23 Why Banks See Stablecoins as a Threat

15:28 How Coinbase & Robinhood Evaluate DeFi Products

17:40 Bringing Non-Crypto Companies OnChain

19:06 Why DeFi Still Misunderstands Risk

21:43 Why Simpler DeFi Is Safer

23:57 Why DeFi Vaults Are Exploding

27:16 Will the DeFi Vault Market Keep Expanding?

28:42 How Big Can OnChain Credit Become?

31:30 Could DeFi Vaults Replace Traditional Lending?

32:55 Building DeFi Products for Institutions vs. Retail

34:44 Grove, RWAs & the Future of OnChain Finance

37:33 Why Crypto Needs Real-World Assets

39:06 Building an OnChain Risk-Free Rate

40:24 What the Next Generation Will Expect From Money

42:16 Adrian 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 also brought to you by Forgd. Visit its Market Maker Leaderboard on Token Relations here: www.stratamedia.co/token-relations/leaderboard

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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.

On today's episode of Talking Tokenization, Jacquelyn sits down with John D’Agostino (Head of Strategy at Coinbase Institutional) and Rebecca Rettig (COO & CLO at Jito Labs) for a masterclass on the real state of institutional crypto adoption. They discuss what it actually takes to bridge the gap between TradFi and Crypto, ranging from why Wall Street is actively resisting tokenization, to how perpetual contracts (perps) are secretly solving the pre-IPO liquidity crisis for companies like SpaceX, to why the crypto user experience desperately needs a "Venmo" moment.

John and Rebecca also break down the surprising parallels between the current AI boom and crypto's early days, explaining why Artificial Intelligence ultimately needs blockchain to survive its hallucination problem. Finally, they share a contrarian take on how stablecoins might actually be the ultimate secret weapon for preserving U.S. dollar dominance globally.

Timestamps:

00:10 The Future of Tokenization

00:40 What Is Tokenization?

03:19 Why Traditional Finance Is Resisting Tokenization

07:37 Perpetual Futures and the Crypto Advantage

11:06 The Rise of Pre-IPO Perpetual Markets

16:18 Who Is the Future Investor?

19:47 Crypto vs. Blockchain: The Reputation Problem

24:34 Why Are Crypto Products Still So Complicated?

29:25 What Happens If the Clarity Act Passes?

31:20 Can Crypto Grow Without Regulatory Clarity?

35:24 AI and Crypto: Competitors or Partners?

39:23 Can Blockchain Solve AI’s Trust Problem?

41:55 Why Blockchain Adoption Is Inevitable

45:05 Stablecoins, Cross-Border Payments & Global Markets

47:20 What Will Crypto Look Like a Year From Now?

49:52 Final Advice: Build Useful Things

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This episode is sponsored by Securitize, the proven leader in tokenized funds, equities, and private markets. Discover more at securitize.io. 

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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.

On today's Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Jillian Friedman, Chief Operating Officer at Symbiotic, to talk about what it actually takes to make tokenization work at scale, ranging from why 94% of tokenized real-world assets are still bought directly from the issuer, to how Symbiotic's LiquidLane gives investors an instant exit from illiquid RWAs, to why she doesn't see CeFi and DeFi as opposing camps.

Jillian Friedman breaks down why she thinks institutions are tokenizing the easiest assets first instead of the most useful ones, what actually makes an asset "digitally native," and her honest answer for what it really takes to get a risk committee to say yes.

Timestamps: 

00:00 Introduction to Jill Friedman and her background

02:50 Why Jill transitioned from law to crypto and her early interest in Bitcoin

03:32 The appeal of DeFi and Symbiotic's focus on both C-Fi and DeFi

05:30 The future integration of centralized and decentralized finance

06:56 How digital native assets differ from off-chain assets

08:35 The spectrum of digital nativeness and tokenization challenges

11:25 Market readiness and infrastructure needs for tokenized assets

14:33 Long-term outlook: the inflection point for tokenization and DeFi

17:42 Regulatory and risk considerations for institutional adoption

21:24 LiquidLane: solving liquidity and exit challenges for RWAs

27:34 Future of tokenized assets and market evolution

28:40 Jill's advice for navigating the crypto space

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/id1743669141YouTube: 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.

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. 

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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. 

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. 

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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.