#514: Bhau Kotecha, Co-Founder of Paxos Labs, on Stablecoin Adoption, USDG, Omnichain Architecture, and Privacy Focused Stablecoins

Chris Yin is CEO/Co-Founder of Plume Network, the first permissionless, full-stack blockchain built for real-world asset finance (RWAfi). He spearheads the team shaping the infrastructure and policy standards to accelerate the development of onchain capital markets. Chris has an accomplished track record as a founder and investor in the enterprise software space, with tenures at Scale Venture Partners, Rainforest QA, and Xpenser (acquired by Coupa, IPO 2016). In this conversation, we discuss:- Current price action is just short term pain - What to expect from RWAs in 2026 - DeFi opportunities in RWAs - Plume's differentiator - Regulatory developments in RWAs - Optimizing Looping - Onchain asset management - This history of technology - Nest vaults on Solana - Building Key TradFi partnerships - User experience is everything Plume NetworkX: @plumenetworkWebsite: www.plume.orgTelegram: t.me/plumenetwork_communityChris YinX: @chriseyinLinkedIn: Chris Yin---------------------------------------------------------------------------------This episode is brought to you by PrimeXBT.PrimeXBT offers a robust trading system for both beginners and professional traders that demand highly reliable market data and performance. Traders of all experience levels can easily design and customize layouts and widgets to best fit their trading style. PrimeXBT is always offering innovative products and professional trading conditions to all customers.  PrimeXBT is running an exclusive promotion for listeners of the podcast. After making your first deposit, 50% of that first deposit will be credited to your account as a bonus that can be used as additional collateral to open positions. Code: CRYPTONEWS50 This promotion is available for a month after activation. Click the link below: PrimeXBT x CRYPTONEWS50FollowApple PodcastsSpotifyAmazon MusicRSS FeedSee All

Kirill Avery is the Founder and CEO of Alien. Serial founder, self-taught coder since age 11, built Europe's largest consumer social app at 16 (15M users). Youngest engineer at [VK.com](http://vk.com/) and youngest solo founder accepted into Y Combinator. Expertise in high-load systems (100M+ users), consumer UX, and mobile viral distribution. In this conversation, we discuss:- Privacy-first decentralized identity network - Social graph APIs - “Proving humanness” - Continuous Human Verification Protocol (CHVP) - The role of secure hardware (TEEs) - Tradeoffs between transparency and confidentiality in identity systems - The future of AI, Identity and Crypto - Trust systems are needed for the future AlienX: @alienorgWebsite: www.alien.orgTelegram: t.me/aliendotorgKirill AveryX: @kirillzzyLinkedIn: Kirill Avery---------------------------------------------------------------------------------This episode is brought to you by PrimeXBT.PrimeXBT offers a robust trading system for both beginners and professional traders that demand highly reliable market data and performance. Traders of all experience levels can easily design and customize layouts and widgets to best fit their trading style. PrimeXBT is always offering innovative products and professional trading conditions to all customers.  PrimeXBT is running an exclusive promotion for listeners of the podcast. After making your first deposit, 50% of that first deposit will be credited to your account as a bonus that can be used as additional collateral to open positions. Code: CRYPTONEWS50 This promotion is available for a month after activation. Click the link below: PrimeXBT x CRYPTONEWS50FollowApple PodcastsSpotifyAmazon MusicRSS Feed

Xenia Soborova is a Web3 business development leader and Head of BD at Tramplin.io, a Solana-native premium staking app that redistributes network’s inflationary rewards among users to make staking profitable even with a small amount of SOL. Previously, she worked at the Avalanche Foundation on ecosystem growth and founder success and has also held roles across major Web3 teams, including Binance, RARI Foundation, and SQD.ai. She has co-founded BD in Web3, the largest Telegram community for Web3 founders, BDs, and growth hackers. In this conversation, we discuss:- Working with different crypto ecosystems - Solana is the people’s chain - Staking innovation - Community-oriented reward redistribution - Solana staking - Solana’s native economics - Long-term DeFi engagement - Keeping SOL Secure - BD in crypto - Solana staking Tramplin.ioX: @Tramplin_ioWebsite: www.tramplin.ioTelegram: t.me/Tramplin_ioXenia SoborovaX: @cryptophilienneLinkedIn: Xenia Soborova---------------------------------------------------------------------------------This episode is brought to you by PrimeXBT.PrimeXBT offers a robust trading system for both beginners and professional traders that demand highly reliable market data and performance. Traders of all experience levels can easily design and customize layouts and widgets to best fit their trading style. PrimeXBT is always offering innovative products and professional trading conditions to all customers.  PrimeXBT is running an exclusive promotion for listeners of the podcast. After making your first deposit, 50% of that first deposit will be credited to your account as a bonus that can be used as additional collateral to open positions. Code: CRYPTONEWS50 This promotion is available for a month after activation. Click the link below: PrimeXBT x CRYPTONEWS50FollowApple PodcastsSpotifyAmazon MusicRSS Feed

Matt Ober is a Managing Partner at Social Leverage, an early stage venture capital firm focused on investing in fintech and enterprise SaaS. The firm is best well know for being early investors in Robinhood, Etoro, Alpaca, & Kustomer which was acquired by Meta. Mat was most recently the Chief Data Scientist at Third Point. Prior to joining Third Point, Matt was the Head of Data Strategy at WorldQuant and part of the WorldQuant Ventures founding team focused on private investments in fintech, data, and technology companies. Matt is the founder of InitialDataOffering.com which is the largest community of data buyers and data vendors. Matt holds a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA) designation and sits on the board of governors for his alma mater, California State University Chico. In this conversation, we discuss:- Identifying trends - Prediction Markets allowing people to monetize their niche - The degenerate economy & financial nihilism - Never been a better time to build a business - Tokenization of all assets - Stablecoins - Consumption-based data models - Early-stage investing - How wealth management technology is changing - How AI is influencing all startups Social LeverageX: @SocialLeverageWebsite: www.socialleverage.comLinkedIn: Social LeverageMatt OberX: @obermattjLinkedIn: Matt Ober---------------------------------------------------------------------------------This episode is brought to you by PrimeXBT.PrimeXBT offers a robust trading system for both beginners and professional traders that demand highly reliable market data and performance. Traders of all experience levels can easily design and customize layouts and widgets to best fit their trading style. PrimeXBT is always offering innovative products and professional trading conditions to all customers.  PrimeXBT is running an exclusive promotion for listeners of the podcast. After making your first deposit, 50% of that first deposit will be credited to your account as a bonus that can be used as additional collateral to open positions. Code: CRYPTONEWS50 This promotion is available for a month after activation. Click the link below: PrimeXBT x CRYPTONEWS50FollowApple PodcastsSpotifyAmazon MusicRSS Feed

Bhaumik (“Bhau”) Kotecha is the Co-Founder and Head of Paxos Labs, a startup spun out from Paxos in 2025 to empower institutions and developers with enterprise-grade infrastructure for on-chain financial products. At Paxos Labs, he leads the mission to remove the complexity of decentralized finance so partners can seamlessly embed trusted products—such as custom stablecoins, DeFi yield strategies, and tokenized assets—into their platforms. His vision blends the regulatory rigor and infrastructure expertise of Paxos with the agility and innovation of Web3, making it easier for financial services and fintech firms to adopt blockchain-based solutions at scale.Before launching Paxos Labs, Kotecha built his career at the intersection of product strategy and go-to-market execution. At Paxos, he led product strategy for the Tokenization team after driving growth, analytics, and operations for the firm. He previously spent nearly six years at Block (formerly Square), where he directed go-to-market efforts for Cash App and Square. Beyond his leadership at Paxos Labs, Kotecha is an active angel investor and advisor in the fintech and Web3 ecosystem, and he has recently spoken on the importance of open, developer-friendly stablecoin infrastructure—highlighting proposals like Paxos Labs’ work on Hyperliquid’s USDH stablecoin, which prioritizes accessibility, liquidity, and sustainable token economics.In this conversation, we discuss:- Difference between Paxos and Paxos Labs - Stablecoin adoption & liquidity - Infrastructure for custom-branded stablecoins - Tools for tokenized yield strategies & structured digital assets - The economics and interoperability of stablecoins - USDG and USDG0 - Off-platform dollar economics - Integrating yield, stablecoins, payments directly into existing apps - Enterprise grade security - Privacy-preserving stablecoins - PAXG - Paxos tokenized gold Paxos LabsX: @paxoslabsWebsite: www.paxoslabs.comLinkedIn: Paxos LabsBhaumik (“Bhau”) KotechaX: @bhau___LinkedIn: Bhaumik Kotecha---------------------------------------------------------------------------------This episode is brought to you by PrimeXBT.PrimeXBT offers a robust trading system for both beginners and professional traders that demand highly reliable market data and performance. Traders of all experience levels can easily design and customize layouts and widgets to best fit their trading style. PrimeXBT is always offering innovative products and professional trading conditions to all customers.  PrimeXBT is running an exclusive promotion for listeners of the podcast. After making your first deposit, 50% of that first deposit will be credited to your account as a bonus that can be used as additional collateral to open positions. Code: CRYPTONEWS50 This promotion is available for a month after activation. Click the link below: PrimeXBT x CRYPTONEWS50FollowApple PodcastsSpotifyAmazon MusicRSS Feed

Sun Raghupathi is the CEO of Veda, the leading DeFi vault platform, enabling crypto applications, asset issuers, and protocols to build consumer-grade cross-chain yield products. Veda's technology already powers many of DeFi's largest vault products and power more than $4B in deposits. Sun is also the co-founder of Seven Seas Capital, a premier quantitative DeFi investment strategist, offering institutional-grade funds and non-custodial yield vaults through proven market making and risk-mitigated strategies. Prior to founding Veda and Seven Seas, Sun was the Head of Research and Development at Sommelier, a protocol for decentralized asset management specializing in actively managed vaults. In this conversation, we discuss:- Vaults 101 - Onchain yield is a killer use-case in crypto - DeFi infrastructure and yield products - The Problem With DeFi Yield Today - Veda’s Architecture & Design Philosophy - Consumer-Grade DeFi - Why yield opportunities are increasingly cross-chain - The future of RWAs - The Law of Collateral Inheritance - How Veda approaches audits and security - How incentives are aligned across users, builders, and protocols VedaX: @veda_labsWebsite: www.veda.techTelegram: t.me/+GfI_iZQ6wsZlZWNhSun RaghupathiX: @sunandr_LinkedIn: Sunand Raghupathi---------------------------------------------------------------------------------This episode is brought to you by PrimeXBT.PrimeXBT offers a robust trading system for both beginners and professional traders that demand highly reliable market data and performance. Traders of all experience levels can easily design and customize layouts and widgets to best fit their trading style. PrimeXBT is always offering innovative products and professional trading conditions to all customers.  PrimeXBT is running an exclusive promotion for listeners of the podcast. After making your first deposit, 50% of that first deposit will be credited to your account as a bonus that can be used as additional collateral to open positions. Code: CRYPTONEWS50 This promotion is available for a month after activation. Click the link below: PrimeXBT x CRYPTONEWS50FollowApple PodcastsSpotifyAmazon MusicRSS FeedSee All

Austin Campbell is a finance and risk management professional with two decades of experience spanning trading, portfolio management, executive leadership, and academia. He is the Managing Partner and Founder of Zero Knowledge Consulting and serves as an Acting CFO at Glueti, having recently held the role of Acting CEO at WSPN Ltd. He has taught as an adjunct professor at both NYU Stern and Columbia Business School, specializing in finance and markets. Previously, Austin was Chief Risk Officer and Head of Portfolio Management at Paxos, following senior trading and portfolio management roles at Citi, Stone Ridge, and JP Morgan Chase, where he advanced to Executive Director in Rates Trading. He began his career as a catastrophe risk analyst at Benfield and John B Collins Associates, with early research experience in mathematics at California State University Chico. In this conversation, we discuss:- Open Frontier - Stablecoins - Tokenization of assets - Traditional payment systems vs crypto - Decoupling lending incentives from user incentives - The importance of the Genius Act - Economic realignment that returns power to mainstream - The fragmentation of the financial systems - Composability of blockchains - “smart regulation” - Zero Knowledge Consulting Zero Knowledge Consulting X: @ZKZeroKnowledgeWebsite: www.zero-knowledge.comNewsletter: www.zero-in.beehiiv.comAustin CampbellX: @austincampbellLinkedIn: Austin Campbell---------------------------------------------------------------------------------This episode is brought to you by PrimeXBT.PrimeXBT offers a robust trading system for both beginners and professional traders that demand highly reliable market data and performance. Traders of all experience levels can easily design and customize layouts and widgets to best fit their trading style. PrimeXBT is always offering innovative products and professional trading conditions to all customers.  PrimeXBT is running an exclusive promotion for listeners of the podcast. After making your first deposit, 50% of that first deposit will be credited to your account as a bonus that can be used as additional collateral to open positions. Code: CRYPTONEWS50 This promotion is available for a month after activation. Click the link below: PrimeXBT x CRYPTONEWS50FollowApple PodcastsSpotifyAmazon MusicRSS FeedSee All

Jesse Knutson is Head of Operations at Bitfinex Securities, a regulated security token platform offering issuers and traders access to capital and tokenized securities. Jesse started his career in traditional finance having worked at global investment banks including Barclays and Macquarie. In addition to his role as Taiwan Head of Equity Capital Solutions, Jesse was also a founding member of Macquarie’s digital asset working group, and deal lead on the firm’s first equity investment into the Bitcoin mining space. Prior to joining Bitfinex Securities, Jesse was VP of Financial Products at Blockstream where he worked on developing and distributing financial products built on Bitcoin and backed by Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining. In this conversation, we discuss:- Tokenized securities - Tokenization is in a position to challenge traditional payment rails - NYSE going 24/7 trading - How tokenized stocks work - The convergence of tradfi <> crypto - Freedom is the killer feature of stablecoins - Will RWAs be the next boom for tokenization? - El Salvador Plan B conference - 4 year crypto cycles will have less impact than before - Bitfinex Securities - Capital rotation and fund flows - The relationship between gold <> bitcoin - Building on Bitcoin Bitfinex SecuritiesX: @BFXSecuritiesWebsite: www.bitfinex.com/securitiesLinkedIn: Bitfinex SecuritiesJesse KnutsonX: @KnutsonJesseLinkedIn: Jesse Knutson---------------------------------------------------------------------------------This episode is brought to you by PrimeXBT.PrimeXBT offers a robust trading system for both beginners and professional traders that demand highly reliable market data and performance. Traders of all experience levels can easily design and customize layouts and widgets to best fit their trading style. PrimeXBT is always offering innovative products and professional trading conditions to all customers.  PrimeXBT is running an exclusive promotion for listeners of the podcast. After making your first deposit, 50% of that first deposit will be credited to your account as a bonus that can be used as additional collateral to open positions. Code: CRYPTONEWS50 This promotion is available for a month after activation. Click the link below: PrimeXBT x CRYPTONEWS50FollowApple PodcastsSpotifyAmazon MusicRSS FeedSee All

Matt O’Connor is the Co-founder of Legion, a platform for compliant and merit-based public token offering that enables teams to select investors based on criteria such as onchain history, social clout, and developer contributions. He is the former lead algorithmic engineer for Bridgewater Associates; tokenomics researcher for the Stacks Foundation (SEC qualified 2019 ICO); and token economics lead for Status (2017 ICO). His open source book, Tokenomics for Builders, has been positively reviewed by founders and VCs from Monad, Placeholder, Tensor, AllianceDAO, Galaxy Digital, and more. In this conversation, we discuss:- ICOs, IDOs, launchpads, private SAFT rounds - Merit-based, compliant token offerings - Why IPO access has deteriorated for retail investors - How Legion differs from AngelList, Carta, Republic, or SeedInvest - The convergence of IPOs <> ICOs - Companies with equity holders and token holders - Tokenomics 101 - Common mistakes when designing tokenomics - KPI based vesting for founders LegionX: @legiondotccWebsite: legion.ccLinkedIn: Legion | Merit-based FundraisingMatt O’ConnorX: @matty_LinkedIn: Matt O’Connor---------------------------------------------------------------------------------This episode is brought to you by PrimeXBT.PrimeXBT offers a robust trading system for both beginners and professional traders that demand highly reliable market data and performance. Traders of all experience levels can easily design and customize layouts and widgets to best fit their trading style. PrimeXBT is always offering innovative products and professional trading conditions to all customers.  PrimeXBT is running an exclusive promotion for listeners of the podcast. After making your first deposit, 50% of that first deposit will be credited to your account as a bonus that can be used as additional collateral to open positions. Code: CRYPTONEWS50 This promotion is available for a month after activation. Click the link below: PrimeXBT x CRYPTONEWS50FollowApple PodcastsSpotifyAmazon MusicRSS FeedSee All

Nic Roberts-Huntley is the CEO and Co-Founder of Blueprint Finance, leveraging his unique background spanning medicine, economics, and finance. A former surgeon who practiced at prestigious institutions, including Oxford University Hospitals and The Royal Marsden, Nic pivoted to finance after completing his MBA and Master's in Evidence-Based Policy Evaluation & Economics at Oxford University. His career trajectory includes roles as Vice President at Point72, Venture Architect at Virtual Ventures, and various surgical fellowships.At Blueprint Finance, Nic oversees two innovative protocols: Concrete, which provides institutional-grade financial services through its Earn, Borrow, and Protect products that optimize yields and offer liquidation protection; and Glow, a Solana-based protocol offering advanced trading, lending, and liquid restaking solutions. His multidisciplinary expertise and quantitative approach position him as a distinctive voice at the intersection of traditional finance and DeFi innovation.In this conversation, we discuss:- Institutional yield generation becomes crypto’s next major unlock - Nic’s career path: surgeon to trad-fi to crypto - M&A in digital asset markets accelerates - DeFi grows up from speculation to infrastructure - Crypto vaults - Delta-neutral trading strategies in vaults - Nic’s critique of “chasing headline APY” - DeFi’s Next Frontier: Credit, Tokenization & New Markets - Insurance will unlock the next frontier of crypto - On-chain credit markets - Composability across DeFi Blueprint FinanceX: @Blueprint_DeFiWebsite: blueprintfinance.comGlow FinanceX: @GlowFinanceXYZWebsite: glowfinance.xyzDiscord: discord.gg/glowfinanceConcreteX: @ConcreteXYZWebsite: concrete.xyzDiscord: discord.gg/concretexyzNic Roberts-HuntleyX: @nic_buildsLinkedIn: Nic Roberts-Huntley---------------------------------------------------------------------------------This episode is brought to you by PrimeXBT.PrimeXBT offers a robust trading system for both beginners and professional traders that demand highly reliable market data and performance. Traders of all experience levels can easily design and customize layouts and widgets to best fit their trading style. PrimeXBT is always offering innovative products and professional trading conditions to all customers.  PrimeXBT is running an exclusive promotion for listeners of the podcast. After making your first deposit, 50% of that first deposit will be credited to your account as a bonus that can be used as additional collateral to open positions. Code: CRYPTONEWS50 This promotion is available for a month after activation. Click the link below: PrimeXBT x CRYPTONEWS50FollowApple PodcastsSpotifyAmazon Music