PerpTools – How DEXTools Is Building the Full DeFi Trading Stack
The Crypto Conversation
Wael Rajab is the CMO of PerpTools and co-founder and director of DEXT Ventures, the capital arm of DEXTools — one of DeFi's original and most widely used on-chain trading and analytics platforms. With nearly a decade in crypto and a portfolio spanning over 100 investments across 150+ integrated blockchains, Wael has been at the centre of decentralised finance's growth from data dashboard to full trading stack. Why you should listen DEXTools built its reputation as the go-to platform for on-chain token analytics — the place traders head when they want to understand what's happening across...
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Abundant – What If the Most Radical Act Is Giving?
The Crypto Conversation
Andy sits down with Donald Griswold, director of the new indie documentary feature Abundant, and Sheila Dohmann, Chief Marketing Officer at Stuff.io, the decentralized media platform bringing the film to audiences worldwide. Abundant examines generosity, scarcity and what drives the rarest altruists among us — non-directed kidney donors who give a kidney to a complete stranger — and it's being distributed exclusively via blockchain streaming starting March 26th. Why you should listen This conversation cuts to the heart of what's broken in independent film distribution. Donald explains how...
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Themelia – Custom Crypto Indexes
The Crypto Conversation
Jessica Ellerm and Kent Grogan are the co-founders of Themelia, a platform building the next infrastructure layer for crypto investment through custom indexing technology. Jessica comes from a fintech background — including a stint at ASX-listed payments platform Tyro and a superannuation startup she founded and sold — while Kent ran a hedge fund for years before moving into portfolio management and FinTech. Together, they're tackling one of the most underserved problems in digital assets: how do you get sensible, risk-adjusted exposure to a market of 52 million tokens without getting...
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Stormrake – Old School Brokerage for the Digital Asset Era
The Crypto Conversation
Bisher Khudeira is the COO of , a Melbourne-based digital asset brokerage offering best execution trading, institutional custody, and asset management across Bitcoin, digital assets, and tokenized real-world assets. Bisher joins Andy to explain why the brokerage model beats the exchange model for serious investors, what it takes to build a crypto business in one of the most hostile banking environments in the developed world, and why Stormrake is about to plant its flag in Dallas. Why you should listen Bisher has spent a decade in financial services, starting in foreign exchange brokering...
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Solayer – Hardware Accelerated Finance at the Speed of Metal
The Crypto Conversation
Joshua Sum is the Chief Product Officer at Solayer, a hardware accelerated network built to move money at the speed of metal. Joshua joins Andy Pickering to explain how dedicated chip-level infrastructure is pushing blockchain throughput into territory no software-only chain can reach — and why that matters as payments, AI agents, and real-world asset tokenization all converge on the same rails. Why you should listen Joshua's path to crypto ran through direct-to-consumer e-commerce, a founding quant role at Treehouse, and building CollegeDow into the largest university blockchain network in...
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UTEXO – Native USDT Comes Home to Bitcoin
The Crypto Conversation
Viktor Ihnatiuk is the co-founder and CEO of UTEXO, a Tether-backed global settlement network for native USDT and Bitcoin payments, powered by the Lightning Network and the RGB protocol. Viktor joins Andy Pickering to walk through a decade-long journey from Ukrainian fintech to the frontline of Bitcoin infrastructure — and to explain why the world's biggest stablecoin is finally coming back to the chain where it was born. Why you should listen Viktor traces his path from launching Ukraine's first peer-to-peer lending platform and first fintech conference — where he discovered Bitcoin in...
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Open Frontier - The Coalition for Fair Crypto
The Crypto Conversation
Open Frontier Executive Director Erik Balsbaugh and board member Amanda Wick join Andy Pickering for a wide-ranging conversation on crypto, politics, and the future of digital finance. The discussion explores why digital assets are too important to be left to partisan trench warfare, and why the real promise of crypto has less to do with speculation and more to do with reducing fees, expanding access, and breaking the grip of extractive financial intermediaries. Erik and Amanda make the case that this is ultimately a fight about fairness, affordability, and who the financial system is built to...
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Transak - The Crypto On-Ramp
The Crypto Conversation
Andy Werner is VP of Partnerships and Strategy at Transak, one of the world’s leading fiat-to-crypto on-ramp providers. Werner shares his journey through fintech — from big banks to startups — and explains how Transak is building the compliance and payments infrastructure that quietly powers hundreds of crypto platforms globally. While the company operates in what he jokingly calls the “boring” side of crypto, Werner argues that boring is exactly what payments infrastructure should be: seamless, reliable, and invisible to the end user. Why you should listen The conversation dives...
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Veera - The OnChain Neobank
The Crypto Conversation
Andy sits down with SB, CEO and co-founder of Veera, to unpack a bold attempt at one of crypto’s oldest and most stubborn problems: making it usable for normal people. From launching BlackBerrys and building early mobile ad tech, to challenging Netflix with an Asian streaming platform and exiting a travel startup, SB’s winding entrepreneurial path now lands squarely in on-chain finance. The conversation traces how Veera is positioning itself as a true crypto neobank — not just a wallet with a card — and why user experience, not yield or hype, will decide whether crypto ever really...
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New Book - The Intelligent Crypto Investor
The Crypto Conversation
John Hargrave, CEO of Media Shower and author of The Intelligent Crypto Investor, joins the show to unpack a radically calm, Buffett-inspired approach to crypto investing. From wiring money to Belarus to buy Bitcoin in 2013 to nearly losing his business in the 2018 crypto winter, John shares how hard-earned wisdom led him to a disciplined, diversified strategy that blends traditional assets with a carefully sized slice of high-quality crypto — and why this model has quietly outperformed traditional portfolios over the past several years. Why you should listen John traces his origin story...
info_outlineAndy Werner is VP of Partnerships and Strategy at Transak, one of the world’s leading fiat-to-crypto on-ramp providers. Werner shares his journey through fintech — from big banks to startups — and explains how Transak is building the compliance and payments infrastructure that quietly powers hundreds of crypto platforms globally. While the company operates in what he jokingly calls the “boring” side of crypto, Werner argues that boring is exactly what payments infrastructure should be: seamless, reliable, and invisible to the end user.
Why you should listen
The conversation dives deep into the evolving role of stablecoins, which Werner frames not as ideological crypto instruments but as practical tools for builders. For developers and businesses, stablecoins function like programmable payment rails — enabling instant settlement, global reach, and lower costs through a single integration. He points to the past 18–24 months as a turning point, driven by clearer regulation in the U.S. and frameworks like MiCA in Europe. This regulatory momentum, combined with improving UX abstraction around wallets and compliance, is accelerating enterprise adoption and opening new product categories.
Werner also reflects on stablecoin usage through the lens of his Argentine roots, where inflation and currency instability make the value proposition immediately obvious. In markets across Latin America, Africa, and parts of Asia, dollar-backed stablecoins act as a digital escape hatch — giving consumers access to dollar savings, payments, and yield via nothing more than a smartphone. From remittances to trade finance and cross-border payroll, these real-world use cases are driving rapid growth. Transak is already seeing 30–40% of its volume in stablecoins, a figure Werner expects to exceed 50% — possibly 75% — within a year as adoption shifts from speculative crypto assets to everyday financial flows.
The discussion closes on regulation and the future of financial services. Werner is strongly in favor of pending U.S. stablecoin legislation, particularly provisions that would allow issuers to pass yield to users — arguing competition with banks ultimately benefits consumers. Looking ahead, his conviction is clear: all financial services will migrate on-chain. His hot takes? He’s 90% Bitcoin maximalist, believes everything will eventually run on blockchain rails, and expects AI — still under-adopted today — to unleash massive productivity gains. His sci-fi pick to wrap it all up: Foundation by Isaac Asimov — a fitting nod to long-range technological inevitability.
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