Weekly Roundup 08/11/23 (PayPal's stablecoin, the Fed's oversight program, Ryan Salame emerges) (EP.443)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Release Date: 08/11/2023
Isha Varshney (Celo) on Stablecoin Adoption Across Markets (EP.631)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Wyatt sits down with from the to talk stablecoins. Covered in this episode: Payments in Kenya and Sub-Saharan Africa Stablecoin usage and USDT The future of non-stable tokens
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Weekly Roundup 05/30/25 (Bitcoin Access Vehicles, GME buys BTC, Pangea Fund) (EP.630)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Matt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode: Warning signs for the Bitcoin access vehicles? Has Bitcoin lost the MoE battle? Is OCP 2.0 over? The Dept of Labor rescinds their anti-crypto 401k guidance Cantor Fitzgerald is launching a bitcoin/gold fund Is it mathematically possible to give Bitcoin upside and gold downside? Content mentioned:
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Anthony Yim (Artemis) on Stablecoin Payments from the Ground Up (EP.629)
On The Brink with Castle Island
We sit down with Anthony Yim, cofounder, to talk about the from Artemis, CIV, and Dragonfly, providing brand new estimates of stablecoin payments volume. In this episode: Why we decided to work on the new report How we obtained the estimates Why we decided to put together a bottom-up estimate Stablecoin b2b volumes compared to traditional b2b How do you measure stablecoin transactions? Download the report at
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Markus Franke and Denney Kwok (Mento Labs) on Stablecoins for FX (EP.628)
On The Brink with Castle Island
and from join the show. In this episode: Non-USD stablecoins On-chain FX Microlending and financing for emerging markets
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Weekly Roundup 05/23/25 (Genius Cloture, Sui hack, $Trump dinner) (EP.627)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode: Trump’s crypto dinner reviewed Bitcoin access vehicles NYT stablecoin coverage Sui is hacked and censors the blockchain Kraken is launching tokenized stocks Circle in acquisition talks The GENIUS Act passes Cloture in the Senate Hong Kong passes stablecoin legislation
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Andrew MacKenzie (Agant) on British Pound Stablecoins (EP.626)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Wyatt sits down with , founder of the issuer of GBPA, a pound sterling stablecoin. In this episode: The potential emergence of non-USD stablecoins The prospect of a GBP-backed stablecoin The British crypto regulatory environment How global financial institutions are positioning around stablecoins
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Weekly Roundup 05/16/25 (GENIUS is back, Coinbase data breach, Big Tech stables) (EP.625)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Matt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode: Why is Boston such a good sports city? Price inflation in dinosaur skeletons Cryptopunks IP is sold Machinsky is sentenced Nakamoto Holdings launches Meta wants to add stablecoins to its platforms Exchanges are honeypots for KYC data Coinbase suffers a data breach The GENIUS act is going to a vote next week GENIUS act new provisions More Movement shenanigans Thailand is launching a $150m crypto token Content mentioned in this episode: Tuongvy Le and Austin Campbell published a paper, "", which...
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Alex Cutler (Aerodrome) on DeFi’s Next Steps (EP.624)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Wyatt sits down with Alex Cutler, founder of for another episode in our stablefi series. In this episode: DEX trading advantages Building on-chain FX DeFi as a backbone
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TN (Pendle) on Stable Yield (EP.623)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Wyatt sits down with TN, cofounder of . Covered in this episode: How Pendle works The evolution from alt yield to stable yield DeFi's future core assets
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Weekly Roundup 05/09/25 (GENIUS stalls, Coinbase buys Deribit, Bessent on stables) (EP.622)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Matt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode: We have a new Pope The etymology of ampersand The GENIUS act collapses spectacularly Coinbase consummates its acquisition of Deribit Did World Liberty Financial’s USD1 torpedo the GENIUS act? Did “pro crypto” democrats snake on the industry Scott Bessent thinks stablecoins could reach $2T The OCC says banks can provide crypto custody and execution Stripe is launching stablecoin financial accounts The SEC explores a sandbox for tokenized securities Tariff the L2s
info_outlineMatt and Nic are back with more news and deals. In this episode:
- Matt's op-ed in Coindesk
- SAB121 is still bad
- SEC scope creep
- We investigate PayPal's stablecoin
- Why would PayPal want to issue a stablecoin?
- What does PYUSD mean for Operation Choke Point for 2.0?
- Why PYUSD is being launched on Ethereum
- Crypto as a flashpoint for state versus federal banking oversight
- The Fed's new crypto oversight program
- Banks still can't issue stablecoins in the US
- Ryan Salame reemerges
- What will become of Ryan Salame's restaurant empire?
- SBF will indeed be prosecuted on campaign finance violations
- SBF's trial will not be televised
- LK-99 did NOT replicate
Content mentioned in this episode:
- Matt in Coindesk, Congress, Not the SEC, Should Set U.S. Digital Asset Policy
- Zach Wong, A comprehensive explanation of SAB 121 and how it prevents safe crypto custody
- Coin Metrics STATE OF THE NETWORK: DeFi’s Double Edged Sword - Unpacking the Features & Risks of DeFi Lending
- In our new special insights report, we utilize a balance sheet like methodology to contextualize the health of DeFi lending protocols through the lens of two recent exploits on Aave and Curve Finance