Mustafa Yilham (Bixin) on the industrial Bitcoin miner perspective (EP.155)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Release Date: 12/07/2020
Daniel Lev (Coinflow) on Stablecoin Payments (EP.662)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Wyatt sits down with , the founder of , to discuss the evolution of payments amidst a wave of stablecoin-enabled innovation. In this episode: Lurking legacy issues of payment networks How our current payment networks benefit end users but not merchants Types of merchant profiles and who stands to benefit Creating faster settlement Marketplace models and better rails How blockchain can reduce fraud and help businesses know their customers
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Weekly Roundup 08/29/25 (Stablecoins in CDMX, DAT issues, GDP on the blockchain) (EP.661)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Nic and Matt return for another week of news and deals. In this episode: Nic reviews the stablecoin conference in Mexico City Will the banks obsolete stablecoins? Some DATs are having trouble The government is putting GDP on the blockchain The CFTC opens the door to US customers trading on non-US exchanges Trump fires Lisa Cook Can the Fed be considered “independent” Google is developing a blockchain A BNB DAT gets delisted Tether is building on Bitcoin via RGB How does insider trading work in prediction markets?
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Sandy Kaul (Franklin Templeton) on Onchain Asset Management (EP.660)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Wyatt sits down with , head of digital assets at Franklin Templeton, to cover Sandy's work with the CFTC and DTCC and creating sandboxes for onchain financial markets. In this episode: How wallets stand to become the hub of asset management Lasting policy for crypto Protecting consumers in an open financial system
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Weekly Roundup 08/22/25 (SALT Jackson Hole, Wyoming Stable Token, Fed drama) (EP.659)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Matt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode: Wyoming releases a stabletoken “FRNT” Matt’s bear encounter Bowman and Waller’s speeches at Jackson Hole Eric Trump’s Bitcoin prediction Is there an example of a DAT that makes sense? Should DATs trade at a persistent premium? Figure is going public Bullish goes public Is Saylor cornered? Quintenz’ nomination The DoJ decriminalizes writing open source code Is Polymarket cooked? Does a trial by a jury of your peers make sense? Content mentioned: Reducible Errors,
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Cupid & Hercules (Groom Lake) on Preventing and Responding to Cybercrime (EP.658)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Wyatt sits down with the founders of In this episode: How social engineering attacks are being used to exploit companies in crypto and beyond How companies can better protect themselves and be vigilant of these exploit attempts The future of cybersecurity software for crypto
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Luke Xie (SatLayer) on The Next Generation of Bitcoin Yield (EP.657)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Wyatt sits down with , cofounder of for a conversation about Bitcoin yield. In this episode: What makes financial markets for BTC unique How BTC DeFi will evolve, in the backdrop of the broader macro environment DeFi vs CeFi financial systems for BTC
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Weekly Roundup 08/15/25 (DAT fine print, stablecoin L1s, banks vs stables) (EP.656)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Matt and Nic return for another week of news and deals. In this episode: We review the DAT fine print Why being in power is sometimes the hardest part Stripe and Circle announce their own L1s We make the case for stablecoin L1s The irony in Stripe's L1 What about a DAT of DATs? Bullish goes public Breakfast cereals Do Kwon pleads guilty BPI sends a letter to Congress complaining about stablecoin interest Can you prohibit stablecoin yield? Bo Hines steps down Bessent says the USG will not be buying Bitcoin Is monero being 51% attacked? Content mentioned: BitMEX...
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Huf Haus (Pear Protocol) on Trading Strategies Across Crypto Cycles (EP.655)
On The Brink with Castle Island
We sit down with , founder of . In this episode: What pair trading is, the benefits of Pear trading, and different strategies How to approach different market regimes from a trader's perspective Applying trading strategies to other asset classes
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Nathan McCauley on Anchorage Digital Prime and Stablecoin White-Label (EP.654)
On The Brink with Castle Island
, the founder and CEO of joins the show. In this episode we discuss: The passage of The Genius Act and the impact it will have on the digital asset industry. The launch of Anchorage’s white label stablecoin issuance platform. Anchorage Digital Prime and how the company is working with its customers on trade execution, lending and custody. The status of the market structure bill. The Roman Storm case. To learn more about visit their . Follow Nathan on . See also:
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Weekly Roundup 08/08/25 (Debanking EO, Storm Verdict, RMB stables) (EP.653)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode: What’s wrong with NYC? China bans Bitcoin for the 15th time Is China really lauching an RMB stablecoin? We dissect the Trump debanking EO OpenAI releases GPT5 SEC: Liquid staking tokens are not securities Roman Storm is found guilty on one of three counts Hester Peirce’s speech on financial privacy How should we solve debanking? Will stablecoins replace bank wires? Is AI going to reveal the identity of Satoshi Further reading: Hester Peirce, Nic on Substack,
info_outlineMustafa Yilham, VP of global business development at Bixin, joins the show. Bixin is an early Asia-based Bitcoin miner; they operate a popular wallet app, and they run a Bitcoin-denominated quant fund of funds. We cover prevailing myths around industrial Bitcoin mining and the reality of sourcing energy at competitive prices for mining. In this episode:
- The story behind Bixin's Bitcoin-denominated quant fund
- How Bixin's fund of fund employs a Bitcoin benchmark
- Why Bixin as a firm is not market neutral and does not hedge their mining operation
- Whether miners have a procyclical or countercyclical effect on the price of Bitcoin
- Whether or not miners are fundamentally long Bitcoin
- The key considerations for finding a good source of electricity for mining
- Why Central Asia, Russia, and North America are promising locations for mining
- Why Mustafa expects more hashpower to end up in North America in the near term
- The factors leading Mustafa to expect less hashrate concentration in China in the future
- Whether the CBECI mining map is a reliable guide to where mining is located
- Miner attitudes to Iran and OFAC
- Current electricity prices required to competitively mine
- What sold out hardware means for the price of Bitcoin
- Was the hashrate drop earlier this year was due to the seasonal migration of hashpower in China?
- Bixin's approach to seasonal electricity costs
- Whether the withdrawal issues at Okex and Huobi prevented miners from selling and 'caused' the recent Bitcoin rally
- Mustafa's take on the "China controls Bitcoin" narrative
- Why Bitcoin mining is getting progressively more decentralized
- Why Bitcoin miners are positively disposed towards Bitcoin
- Whether Bixin plans to support Taproot
- Mustafa's view on who controls Bitcoin
- Mustafa's experiences in Turkey and why it is so popular there
- Why central asian and post-Soviet households like gold
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