On The Brink with Castle Island

Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode:  Is Quantum FUD causing Bitcoin to sell off? Ray Dalio is worry about Quantum Scott Aaronson is worried about quantum computing Vitalik is worried about quantum Quantum upgrade scenarios Are we still suffering from the flash crash? The DATs are selling DAT spot arbitrage Will the US government end up with the Satoshi coins Should the government bail out AI? Will NFTs come back? IBIT is Harvard's largest 13F position David Frum on stablecoins Will stablecoins require a bailout?

Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode:  The Senate Ag Cmte publishes a Market Structure draft Paul Atkins' token taxonomy speech Fed Governor Stephen Miran gives a major stablecoin speech Grayscale files their S-1 Coinbase announces a tokensale platform Coinbase is leaving Delaware The Coinbase BVNK deal falls through Visa Direct adds stablecoin support The Czech republic buys Bitcoin DATs are struggling CBDC holdouts Jack Dorsey bends the knee on stablecoins  Content mentioned: Stephen Miran, A Global Stablecoin Glut: Implications for Monetary Policy  

Matt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode:  Tom Brady's clone dog We reminisce on the Nic Carter v Mike Green debate Is the government shutdown draining market liquidity? The trouble with Opendimes  Balancer hacked Stream finance's xUSD collapses DATs are selling coins Why is Zcash rallying? Are stablecoins the lightbulb of crypto Content mentioned: JW Verret, Comment Letter to Treasury GENIUS ANPR  

Keone Hon, founder of the Monad Foundation joins the show. In this episode: From the point of view of Keone's trading background, what is the promise of blockchains? Reimagining financial systems with blockchains in 2025 Why build Monad, and for anyone using a chain, why use Monad? How the importance of decentralization and chain efficiency becomes underscored during fragile market periods Auto-Deleveraging (ADL): What it is and why it is important. Where is there economic efficiency to be created? How has Keone gone about building a team to tackle this challenge? What would make Monad "successful" in 2-3 years?

Wyatt sits down with Giovanni Vignone, the founder of Octane Security, a crypto security platform focused on vetting application code pre-deployment. In this episode we discuss: What poses the greatest threat to crypto right now? How are hackers evolving? What are the important categories of crypto-facing cybersecurity? How much should startup teams be spending on security? How should teams think about counterparty risk? What do you wish early stage teams knew? Where is there room for improved security practices across the industry?

Matt and Nic are back for more news and deals. In this episode:  Mastercard buys Zerohash for around $2b Fiserv has a catastrophic day Bitwise launches a Solana staking ETF Is there another regional banking crisis? EthZilla sold some ETH to buy back shares Will there be activists with the DATs? Are prediction markets structurally doomed? Sen Tillis introduces the Ensuring Fair Access to Banking act Could you go back and time and trade effectively? Bessent's great peso trade What's going to happen with Venezuela? We review the Iran-Contra scandal Content mentioned in this episode: Sen Tillis, Fair Access to Banking press release  

Geetha Panchapakesan, the founder and CEO of Tesser, joins the show. In this episode:  Geetha's background in payments and how she arrived in stablecoins Major shifts across payments over Geetha's career Building a one-stop shop solution for financial institutions, PSPs and MSBs Where FIs are today as it relates to engaging to stablecoins Regulatory tailwinds post-GENIUS See more at tesser.xyz

Matt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode:  Old fashioned crime is back Quantum risk to Bitcoin More outcry in Washington over the Democratic edits to market structure CZ gets a presidential pardon  Federal Reserve announces a payments charter   

Matt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode:  We dissect the market structure behind the flash crash last week What happened with Binance and Ethena? Palmer Luckey's de novo bank Erebor gets an OCC charter Paxos' fat finger The US government has seized $15b in funds tied to pig butchering scams  

Wyatt sits down with Pbj, the founder of Perpl, a prominent perpetuals exchange on the imminently launching Monad blockchain. In this episode: How large are perp exchanges in the crypto market? Why perps are attractive to crypto users and traders Hyperliquid's success What assets would people trade on Perpl vs Hyperliquid? What makes Monad unique Perps for other asset classes? Reasons to be excited