Mike Lempres on Silvergate’s Collapse, Bank Regulation, and Debanking (EP.593)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Release Date: 02/05/2025
Charles Hamel (Opera MiniPay) on Globalizing Dollar Access (EP.643)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Charles Hamel, Product Director at joins the show. In this episode: Stablecoin habits in emerging markets Prospects for local stablecoins What’s next on the stablecoin horizon
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Weekly Roundup 07/04/25 (Tokenized stocks, Crypto Week, BBB passes) (EP.642)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode: EthCC troubles Robinhood has been shipping Figma owns BTC The House GOP has declared "crypto week" in July Circle and Ripple are applying for bank charters AI companies are buying Bitcoin miners Sharia finance The BBB passes America teeters towards default The Sohan Parekh fiasco How do tokenized stocks work? Another architect of OCP2.0 bites the dust Is AI going to usher in a socialist revolution? Ric Edelman wants you to buy crypto Franklin Templeton is worried about...
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Chris Maurice (Yellow Card) on Stablecoin Adoption in Africa (EP.641)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Chris Maurice, founder of , a pan-Africa stablecoin business and exchange, rejoins the show. In this episode: How Chris feels about the crypto space in 2025 as compared to when he started a decade ago How Yellow Card evolved from being a retail BTC exchange to being an enterprise payment platform for stablecoins How Chris realized that stablecoins were all about b2b transfers How businesses in EM use stablecoins, and what the alternatives are Regional differences within Africa in terms of stablecoin adoption Shifting regulatory attitudes in Africa Does Chris worry about crypto-dollarization...
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Bernardo Bilotta (Stables Money) on Stablecoin Fintech in APAC (EP.640)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Wyatt sits down with , founder of In this episode: Stablecoin usage in APAC, for saving, spending, and beyond Retail adoption that bleeds into institutional adoption The forward-looking path for stablecoin finance
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Weekly Roundup 06/27/25 (Bitcoin for mortages, Fiserv adopts stables, Fed drops reputation risk) (EP.639)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode: Golden age of prediction markets NYC mayor’s election What’s happening with Canton? The FHFA says crypto can be a qualifying asset for mortages Our thoughts on the market structure bill The significance of the Fiserv stablecoin pilot $500m public access vehicle for BNB The Fed drops reputational risk in bank supervision EO for debanking is rumored Kraken HQ is moving to Wyoming Texas buys Bitcoin Will banking hours be obsolete?
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Josh Frank (The Tie) on Crypto Market Intelligence (EP.638)
On The Brink with Castle Island
, the founder and CEO of joins the show. In this episode we discuss: The origin story behind The Tie and how Josh approached founding the business. The digital asset data market. How sentiment data has evolved in the digital asset industry. The buy-side landscape for digital assets and how Josh sees that evolving in the coming years. The Canton Network and how The Tie is working with this new protocol. To learn more about The Tie visit their .
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Luca Prosperi (M0) on a Universal Stablecoin Platform (EP.637)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Ria sits down with , CEO and Co-Founder of , a universal stablecoin platform that enables customization while preserving interoperability across assets. In this episode, we cover: Lessons from MakerDAO Drawing inspiration from the dual banking system Building a base asset that is decentralized, permissionless and ossified Issuing opinionated assets via wrapping and extensions while maintaining interoperability
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Weekly Roundup 06/20/25 (GENIUS passes, Nobitex Hack, FUD dice retrospective) (EP.636)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode: The GENIUS Act passes the Senate Should GENIUS be stapled to market structure? Bessent thinks stablecoins could be $3.7T by 2030 Stablecoin FUD Will stablecoins destabilize the US Treasury market JPM's stablecoin FUDs JPMD's deposit token will launch on Base The future of stablecoin yield in the US Circle hits a $50b market cap Yellowcard partners with Visa in Africa Kraken will launch a token for their Ink L2 Are Walmart and Amazon looking at their own stablecoins? An Iranian crypto exchange is...
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Santi Alvarado (XFX) on Improving FX for Stablecoins (EP.635)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Sean is joined by Santi Alvarado, CEO/Co-Founder of , to cover their seed raise and how money moves cross border. In this episode: Background of Santi and how he made his way into crypto How legacy FX settlement operates today How XFX enables more liquidity for cross border payment companies
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Greg Genega (KPMG) on Crypto Auditing (EP.634)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Wyatt is joined by , Digital Asset and Blockchain leader at KPMG, for a conversation on the state of crypto auditing. In this episode: How KPMG works with crypto companies and protocols Relevant new innovations in the crypto space What to look out for as a new founder
info_outlineFormer Chairman of Silvergate Bank Mike Lempres joins us for a discussion of Silvergate, the crypto-focused bank that was forced into liquidation in early 2023 following a bank run. This are the first on the record comments from any Silvergate executive following the voluntary liquidation announced in March 2023. In this episode:
- Mike’s background at the DoJ, at Coinbase, and how he came to be chairman of the board at Silvergate
- How Silvergate grew to become the premier crypto-focused bank with $14b in deposits
- Why the Silvergate Exchange Network (SEN) was so useful to the crypto space
- How Silvergate suffered a bank run and ultimate liquidation following the FTX collapse
- How Silvergate survived a 70% bank run
- Regulatory shifts in 2023
- What led the decision to voluntarily liquidate
- What has happened at Silvergate since the announcement of the liquidation?
- The effect of Elizabeth Warren’s letters and short seller behavior on the collapse
- Could Silvergate have survived and thrived?
- Should bank regulators be allowed to ringfence entire industries?
- Silvergate’s relationship with Alameda/FTX - and could they have detected the fraud?
- Was Silvergate a victim of FTX
- How the Signature case adds to the suspicion - were regulators sending a message?
- What was the issue with SEN monitoring?
- Silvergate’s settlements with the Fed, the SEC, and the CA DFP
- How Silvergate was rugpulled by the government with regards to Diem
- The Fed’s recent evolution on the topic of banks serving crypto
- Mike’s outlook on crypto banking and the domestic crypto industry
- Why Signature and Silvergate executives are limited in what they can say publicly
- The problem with “confidential supervisory information”
- Why we may not get a “smoking gun memo” from the regulators on Choke Point 2.0
- What changes would Mike make to bank regulation in the US?
- Lingering misconceptions about Silvergate
- Do Silvergate shareholders have a legal case against the government?
Further reading:
- Nic Carter in Piratewires, Operation Choke Point 2.0 Is Underway, And Crypto Is In Its Crosshairs
- Nic Carter in Piratewires, Did The Government Start A Global Financial Crisis In An Attempt To Destroy Crypto?
- Nic Carter in Piratewires, Inside the Biden Admin’s Plot to Destroy Silvergate and Debank Crypto for Good