The Crypto Tape

Kristin Smith, President of the Solana Policy Institute, joins Frank Chaparro on The Crypto Tape for a clear-eyed read on the crypto policy journey. 

Kristin explains why she thinks the CLARITY Act is far from dead, with a bipartisan Senate vote still live for September, and why the SEC and CFTC are building a parallel track using token-offering exemptions to a potential innovation exemption for trading tokenized securities. She walks through the political knot around ethics and the banking lobby's opposition that stalled Clarity, and describes what the Solana Policy Institute adds by putting the protocol layer in the lobbying room. She also closes on the single regulatory move she's most excited about and why it could bring a slice of a $100 trillion global market onchain.

An insider's map of the fight over crypto's rules, from one of the most experienced policy voices in the industry.

Carlos Domingo, CEO of Securitize, joins Frank Chaparro on The Crypto Tape for a grounded look at where tokenization currently stands.

Carlos argues that tokenization only needs a sliver of the equities market to be transformational, pointing out that even 2% of a roughly $100 trillion market moving onchain would equal the size of all of crypto today. He explains the sleeper bet Securitize made registering a transfer agent in 2019, why those firms are now the gatekeepers to tokenizing the biggest names, and how the SpaceX IPO-access mess showed the industry the right way to distribute shares. Along the way, he covers Securitize's product spectrum from treasuries to private credit, the reality of taking the company public, and why international demand and 24/7 retail trading will decide which stocks move onto blockchain rails.

A realistic, builder's-eye view of tokenization from one of the people assembling the market structure underneath it. 

Laura Vidiella of VanEck joins Frank Chaparro to share what she's hearing from institutional allocators, and why their read on this market looks nothing like the panic in retail.

Laura leads investor relations across VanEck's family of crypto funds, from early-stage venture to the liquid side, which puts her between founders and the largest allocators in the world. She explains why institutions increasingly see Bitcoin as a discounted asset, why 2021 is better understood as research-and-development money than venture capital, and why the biggest lesson of the October 10 crash was about nomenclature, not leverage. She also walks through the fintech, AI, and stablecoins convergence thesis, the multi-billion-dollar question of whether value accrues to tokens, VanEck's tokenization roadmap, and the case for programmable equity. 

Ian de Bode, CEO and President of Ondo Finance, joins Frank Chaparro to explain what tokenization unlocks and where the space needs to improve.

Ondo puts traditional financial assets on crypto rails, with roughly $4 billion in total value locked across tokenized treasuries, stocks, and ETFs. Ian believes that tokenized stocks are fundamentally about giving a global audience access to US capital markets, the same way stablecoins gave the world access to the dollar. He argues that the fear that tokenized equities fragment liquidity is overblown, and walks through the collateral problem that still keeps perps from winning over institutions.

A clear-eyed view on tokenization from one of the industry leaders building the infrastructure supporting it.

Nick van Eck, co-founder and CEO of Agora, joins Frank Chaparro and Slater Santer for the inaugural episode of The Desk to unpack how stablecoins are quietly overhauling global finance and disrupting traditional banking. Nick makes the case that traditional banks have shortchanged depositors for decades by offering near-zero checking rates while capturing the Fed funds rate overnight—causing static checking accounts to lose 40% of their purchasing power over twenty years. He breaks down how Agora's AUSD and stablecoin APIs allow embedded finance platforms and enterprise corporates to earn yield backed directly by short-dated U.S. T-bills and overnight reverse repos, details their push for a federal banking charter, and explains why he expects total stablecoin market cap to jump from $300 billion to $1 trillion as institutional cross-border settlement takes off. A conversation about regulatory arbitrage, deposit friction, and the multi-decade transformation of enterprise finance, from a founder building the next generation of dollar infrastructure.

Nick van Eck, co-founder and CEO of Agora, joins Frank Chaparro and Slater Santer for the inaugural episode of The Desk to unpack how stablecoins are quietly overhauling global finance and disrupting traditional banking. Nick makes the case that traditional banks have shortchanged depositors for decades by offering near-zero checking rates while capturing the Fed funds rate overnight—causing static checking accounts to lose 40% of their purchasing power over twenty years. He breaks down how Agora's AUSD and stablecoin APIs allow embedded finance platforms and enterprise corporates to earn yield backed directly by short-dated U.S. T-bills and overnight reverse repos, details their push for a federal banking charter, and explains why he expects total stablecoin market cap to jump from $300 billion to $1 trillion as institutional cross-border settlement takes off. A conversation about regulatory arbitrage, deposit friction, and the multi-decade transformation of enterprise finance, from a founder building the next generation of dollar infrastructure.

Scott Melker, host of The Wolf of All Streets, joins Frank Chaparro for a conversation about where the crypto market currently stands.

Scott breaks down the CLARITY Act at the finish line at what he calls coin-flip odds, why the fight has quietly narrowed to ethics and whether the president can participate in the crypto industry, and how Trump's meme coin reshaped the debate. Scott also discusses why price conversations have gone quiet at the institutional events and that "institutional adoption" so far has meant firms building products for retail rather than buying tokens for their own books. 

He also reflects on his own path from trading all day in public to building a more measured voice that bridges crypto and traditional finance.

A candid read on the cycle, the narratives, and the gap between what's being built and what the market is paying for.

Scott Melker, host of The Wolf of All Streets, joins Frank Chaparro for a conversation about where the crypto market currently stands.

Scott breaks down the CLARITY Act at the finish line at what he calls coin-flip odds, why the fight has quietly narrowed to ethics and whether the president can participate in the crypto industry, and how Trump's meme coin reshaped the debate. Scott also discusses why price conversations have gone quiet at the institutional events and that "institutional adoption" so far has meant firms building products for retail rather than buying tokens for their own books. 

He also reflects on his own path from trading all day in public to building a more measured voice that bridges crypto and traditional finance.

A candid read on the cycle, the narratives, and the gap between what's being built and what the market is paying for.

Joseph Chalom, co-CEO of SharpLink and a 20-year BlackRock veteran, joins Frank Chaparro to explain what separates a digital asset treasury that survives from one that blows up.

Joseph makes the case that a productive, yield-bearing asset like ETH changes the entire treasury model, so the goal becomes growing ETH per share rather than accumulating at shareholders' expense. He argues the market has pigeonholed Ethereum, walks through the "scoreboard" of settlement, tokenization, and DeFi activity he says shows it winning, and details the newly announced ETH Labs, a stakeholder-funded home for Ethereum's institutional roadmap that its backers intentionally do not control. 

A conversation about market structure, treasuries, and Ethereum's long game, from someone who spent two decades inside the world's largest asset manager.

Paul Erlanger, co-founder of FOMO, joins Frank Chaparro to talk about building a social trading app where every position, win or loss, is public. 

Fresh off a $75 million Series B, Paul makes the case that retail now sits in the driver's seat of markets, that transparency changes what it means to follow the smart money, and that giving people access to everything onchain from day one beats the old model of listing assets one at a time. 

A conversation about the interface for the next financial system, from a founder building it.