Around The Coin

How Stablecoins Move Money Across Borders - Wei Zhou | ATC #630

Host Stephen Sargeant welcomes Wei Zhou, CEO at Coins.ph, to discuss grassroots crypto and stablecoin adoption in the Philippines, why the country consistently ranks in Chainalysis’ global top 10, and how regulation since 2016–2017 enabled licensed exchanges and bank connectivity. Zhou explains Coins.ph’s dual licensing (VASP and EMI), its focus on remittances and payments, and how stablecoins can cut remittance costs from 5–10% to 10–20 bps when used properly, emphasizing the importance of deep USDT/USDC-to-peso liquidity and 24/7 rails. He recounts his entry into crypto via ICO-era token distributions, his “Google moment” using Binance, and his time as Binance CFO. The conversation also covers Coins’ PHPC peso-backed stablecoin sandbox, multi-chain stablecoin support, AI-driven productivity inside the company, post-FTX trust, and transparency initiatives like putting government budgets on-chain. We are also available via: Around The Coin — Official Website Buzzsprout Apple Podcast Spotify Player FM Quora Medium X Facebook LinkedIn Tiktok Soundcloud

From Trading Floors to Onchain Markets - Bart Smith | ATC #629

In this episode of Around The Coin, Stephen Sargeant speaks with Bart Smith, CEO of Avalanche Treasury Co., to discuss building a regulated digital asset treasury focused on the Avalanche ecosystem. Bart explains why a public treasury vehicle can give investors brokerage-account access to AVAX exposure, staking (over 90% staked), and potential upside from investing in Avalanche-native businesses. They cover U.S. regulatory developments including the CLARITY and GENIUS Acts, shifting SEC/CFTC attitudes, and why institutional adoption may accelerate despite lagging prices. Bart shares his background in quant trading and early Bitcoin involvement, why he chose Avalanche for privacy, permissioning, customization, and EVM-compatible high throughput, and highlights use cases like FIFA ticketing and Wyoming’s stablecoin. They also discuss payments, tokenization of real-world assets, DeFi growth, buybacks, and long-term infrastructure for 24/7 markets. We are also available via: Around The Coin — Official Website Buzzsprout Apple Podcast Spotify Player FM Quora Medium X Facebook LinkedIn Tiktok Soundcloud

What Crypto Investors Look for in Founders - George Christopher | ATC #628

Host Stephen Sargeant welcomes George Christopher, Principal Investor at CoinFund (founded 2015), discussing how CoinFund invests from pre-seed through Series C+ across seed and venture funds in blockchain-focused companies. George shares his background in SaaS growth investing, argues the “SaaSpocalypse” mainly threatens horizontal workflow tools, and outlines defensible moats like proprietary data, security, licenses, and liquidity. He explains early-stage investing centers on founder/team vision and market size, while later-stage focuses on product-market fit and scaling. They cover crypto VC dynamics, stablecoins as long-term infrastructure, regulation as both risk and moat (including stablecoins and prediction markets), AI’s impact on venture workflows, compute and specialized data as AI “picks and shovels,” and why agentic payments will take longer due to trust and guardrails. George also details CoinFund’s LatAm stablecoin payments bet on Trace Finance in Brazil, and shares where to find him and CoinFund for pitches. We are also available via: Around The Coin — Official Website Buzzsprout Apple Podcast Spotify Player FM Quora Medium X Facebook LinkedIn Tiktok Soundcloud

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Why KYC Isn’t Enough for Crypto Compliance - Charlene Cieslik | ATC #627

Live from Futurist, host Stephen Sargeant interviews Charlene Cieslik, an independent financial crime compliance consultant with 26 years in compliance (including early FINTRAC) and 10 years in crypto, about Canada’s crypto compliance landscape. Cieslik argues repeated misconduct by industry players has driven regulatory stagnation and poor laws, and says stablecoins should be treated as payments, not securities, while warning Canada is lagging in innovation. She highlights data sovereignty and national security risks from foreign-controlled payments infrastructure, calls for stronger public-private collaboration, and is skeptical FINTRAC’s enforcement push will deliver. Discussing Bitcoin ATMs, she supports data-driven decisions over bans, and stresses many firms mistake AML for KYC, neglecting risk assessments. She also covers “three MSBs in a trench coat” risks, the importance of human communication amid AI governance, and challenges women face in crypto, emphasizing visibility and speaking openly as her legacy. We are also available via: Around The Coin — Official Website Buzzsprout Apple Podcast Spotify Player FM Quora Medium X Facebook LinkedIn Tiktok Soundcloud

Why Banks Are Getting Into Crypto Lending - Andrei Poliakov | ATC #626

Live from Futurist, host Stephen Sargeant interviews Andrei Poliakov, founder and CEO of APX Lending. Poliakov explains why he built a highly regulated, compliant crypto-backed lending business after failures like Celsius, BlockFi, Voyager and FTX, offering loans in Canada and the US against Bitcoin and Ethereum up to 60% LTV with no rehypothecation, segregated insured cold-storage custody and on-chain collateral visibility. He details APX’s second vertical—lending-as-a-service—providing a plug-and-play stack for exchanges, banks, credit unions and fintechs to launch crypto lending in under 60 days while APX handles credit, compliance, underwriting and servicing. They discuss Canadian regulatory realities, adoption, banking interest, borrower use cases, entrepreneurship, and how APX uses AI behind the scenes while keeping human support. We are also available via: Around The Coin — Official Website Buzzsprout Apple Podcast Spotify Player FM Quora Medium X Facebook LinkedIn Tiktok Soundcloud

Rethinking Public Relations in the Age of AI - Nikita Sachdev | ATC #625

Live from Futurist, host Stephen Sargeant interviews Nikita Sachdev, owner of Luna PR, about how AI is reshaping public relations in crypto, Web3, and AI. Nikita explains that while AI makes content creation easy, distribution and winning attention are harder, making PR and credible placements more valuable, especially as search shifts from SEO to “GEO” (generative engine optimization) driven by AI recommendations. They discuss balancing digital PR with in-real-life relationship building through conferences, private dinners, and Luna PR events like Crypto Polo Cup and DAT Summit. Nikita shares takeaways from interviewing CZ, outlines common client pitfalls like weak product-market fit and unrealistic fundraising expectations, notes the industry’s institutional shift, and describes staff reductions and efficiency gains from AI. She also previews an AI media-intelligence tool to improve pitch relevance and journalist matching. We are also available via: Around The Coin — Official Website Buzzsprout Apple Podcast Spotify Player FM Quora Medium X Facebook LinkedIn Tiktok Soundcloud

The Next Era of Blockchain Finance - Patrick O'Kain | ATC #624

Host Stephen Sargeant welcomes Patrick O’Kain, partner at Borderless Capital, to discuss cybersecurity, crypto investigations, blockchain analytics, and how AI-driven agentic commerce and stablecoins will reshape payments and finance. O’Kane explains Borderless Capital’s infrastructure-focused investing, his background in counter-terrorism finance and DOJ crypto investigations, and why blockchain security is increasingly treated as a national security priority as institutions move markets onto blockchain rails. They cover dual-use investing and navigating government procurement, the shift from retail “mass adoption” to institutional and autonomous transaction flows, and why trust, data, and real operational maturity create moats as AI lowers barriers to building products. O’Kane highlights Cloudburst Technologies’ threat intelligence approach combining off-chain and on-chain data, discusses stablecoin growth and tokenization composability, and flags post-quantum security and “harvest now, decrypt later” risks. We are also available via: Around The Coin — Official Website Buzzsprout Apple Podcast Spotify Player FM Quora Medium X Facebook LinkedIn Tiktok Soundcloud

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Investing in AI and Blockchain Startups - Samiz Bayan | ATC #623

Host Stephen Sargeant interviews Samiz Bayan, partner at Draper Dragon, on the state of venture capital and the convergence of AI, blockchain, and tokenization. Bayan outlines Draper Dragon’s early-stage focus on infrastructure, its bridge between Silicon Valley and Asia via the Draper Network, and how that cross-border network supports founders with exchanges, liquidity, and distribution. He shares his path from traditional finance into crypto (via Cardano), lessons from building NFT authentication and peer-to-peer commerce, and what he looks for in founders—receptiveness, execution, recruiting, and distribution moats. The conversation covers a bifurcated VC market dominated by AI (about 65% of venture deals), longer fund timelines, valuation discipline, regulation’s growing importance, and why tokenization must be legally usable and composable to matter. They discuss accelerators, institutional DeFi, agentic payments with stablecoins, AI as an interface, diligence improvements from AI, and emerging interests in health tech like GLP-1s. We are also available via: Around The Coin — Official Website Buzzsprout Apple Podcast Spotify Player FM Quora Medium X Facebook LinkedIn Tiktok Soundcloud

Programmable Compliance for Onchain Finance - Nikhil Raghuveera | ATC #622

Host Stephen Sargeant interviews Nikhil Raghuveera, CEO and co-founder of Predicate, about building real-time, smart-contract-level policy enforcement for onchain finance. Nikhil explains his background in payments and policy, why data from blockchain analytics providers isn’t enough, and how Predicate provides sub-second, non-bypassable “notary”-style approvals for transactions and automated freeze capabilities for assets like stablecoins. They discuss compliance bottlenecks in payments and emerging markets, CBDCs versus stablecoins, secondary-market monitoring debates, safe-harbor needs for issuer discretion, and how Predicate integrates off-chain risk data to enforce AML/CFT, sanctions, and exploit protections. Use cases include M0-powered stablecoins (including MoneyGram), Aleo bridge controls, and KYC/KYB for token sales via Uniswap Labs. They also cover privacy, intents/agentic commerce, regulator engagement with Treasury/FinCEN/OFAC, and how crypto firms are evolving into fintech-like product companies. We are also available via: Around The Coin — Official Website Buzzsprout Apple Podcast Spotify Player FM Quora Medium X Facebook LinkedIn Tiktok Soundcloud

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From Banking to Stablecoin Payments - Wesley Rios | ATC #621

On Around The Coin, host Stephen Sargeant interviews Wesley Rios, US & LATAM Partnerships Lead at Morph Network, about the current state of stablecoin infrastructure and merchant payment rails. Rios shares his career path from Citi, JPMorgan, and 13 years at Mastercard into crypto, arguing stablecoins are shifting the conversation from technology to concrete cost and reach benefits. He cites stablecoin market metrics, the impact of regulatory frameworks, and operational adoption by firms like MoneyGram, while highlighting US-to-emerging-market corridors and SMB pain points such as USD access, reconciliation, and on/off-ramps. Rios explains Morph’s differentiator as owning both settlement and orchestration layers, with partners for compliance, KYC, custody, and local stablecoin issuers. They discuss fragmentation, trust, and why stablecoin rails may fit agentic and physical AI commerce, plus Morph’s merchant dashboard launch (Aug 4) and a design-partner beta. We are also available via: Around The Coin — Official Website Buzzsprout Apple Podcast Spotify Player FM Quora Medium X Facebook LinkedIn Tiktok Soundcloud

How Blockchain Fixes Ticketing Infrastructure - David Barrick | ATC #620

Host Stephen Sargeant welcomes David Barrick, CTO and co-founder of TIX & KYD Labs, to discuss why ticketing is fundamentally a banking business and how blockchain can fix fees, fraud, and resale chaos. Barrick explains primary vs. secondary ticketing, how venues rely on ticketing companies for underwriting and advances, and why service fees function like “interest” paid by fans. They cover open distribution, speculative ticket listings, and why NFT ticketing failed by ignoring venue financing realities. Barrick introduces TIX, a Solana-based protocol plus a developer platform that lets secondary marketplaces verify ticket ownership, enforce resale rules, and automate royalty settlement without venues managing private keys. KYD Labs currently serves mid-cap New York venues and aims to scale toward larger markets, with a long-term goal of major issuers adopting TIX. We are also available via: Around The Coin — Official Website Buzzsprout Apple Podcast Spotify Player FM Quora Medium X Facebook LinkedIn Tiktok Soundcloud

The Hidden Problem With Prediction Markets - Seni Thomas | ATC #619

Join our host, Stephen Sargeant, as he welcomes Seni Thomas, CEO and founder of EDGE Markets, to discuss prediction markets and EDGE’s role in compliant, high-velocity fund movement across regulated venues. Thomas covers EDGE’s $29.2M Series A led by CoinFund, the partnership with Kalshi, and why fragmentation into multiple liquidity pools could drive far higher volumes than current projections. He explains EDGE’s origins in gaming money movement, the pivot from leverage to solving banking constraints, and the launch of a limited-use checking account with a $1M debit limit that blocks non-allowlisted transactions to reduce AML risk. The episode also explores EDGE Boost, EDGE Connect, and EDGE Pro, real-time payments via RTP/FedNow, crypto-to-fiat rails via Zero Hash, plans for an FCM license to reduce dead capital, views on evolving state/federal regulation, and responsible gaming tools like universal limits, Copilot social accountability, and a planned disposable-income-based limit feature. We are also available via: Around The Coin — Official Website Buzzsprout Apple Podcast Spotify Player FM Quora Medium X Facebook LinkedIn Tiktok Soundcloud

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How Crypto Onboarding Finally Gets Easier - Aditi Sriram | ATC #618

On Around The Coin, host Stephen Sargeant welcomes Aditi Shriram, COO of Para, to discuss her path into crypto from seeing Vitalik speak and starting at ConsenSys, plus her experience as a venture scout for Bain Capital Crypto. Aditi explains Para’s focus on wallet infrastructure for companies building on-chain financial products, highlighting stablecoin-driven use cases like remittances, embedded finance, payouts, treasury, and early agentic commerce. She details Para’s differentiation through a security-first distributed MPC model, stack neutrality, and modular integrations, and shares Para 3.0 updates driven by global customer needs. The conversation covers reusable KYC and permissioned identity sharing, the challenges of autonomous transaction authorization, views on super wallets, X402’s strengths and gaps, and what it’s like operating launches and roadmap priorities as a product-minded COO. We are also available via: Around The Coin — Official Website Buzzsprout Apple Podcast Spotify Player FM Quora Medium X Facebook LinkedIn Tiktok Soundcloud

How AI Agents Use Stablecoins - Xen Baynham-Herd | ATC #617

Join our host Stephen Sargeant with Xen Baynham-Herd, Head of Growth and Marketing at Base, on the Around The Coin podcast to discuss Base’s newest launches. Base Ledgers for enterprise-grade private transactions (shielded from the public but visible to regulators/auditors) and Base MCP, which connects chat interfaces like ChatGPT/Claude to a wallet and Base apps so agents can execute DeFi actions with user approval. Xen shares his path from TradFi and five years at Blockchain.com to working with Balaji Srinivasan on The Network State, and explains how Base is growing across trading, lending, payments (including major USDC transfer volume and local-currency stablecoins), and agents. They cover institutional adoption, X402 as an internet payments protocol enabling agentic commerce, Agentic market, and Xen’s approach to global expansion and building founder-driven communities. We are also available via: Around The Coin — Official Website Buzzsprout Apple Podcast Spotify Player FM Quora Medium X Facebook LinkedIn Tiktok Soundcloud

ATC - Itai Turbahn, Co-Founder & CEO of Dynamic and Tal Zackon, Co-Founder & CEO of TRES Finance

Join our host Stephen Sargeant with Itai Turbahn from Dynamic and Tal Zackon from TRES Finance, both now under Fireblocks, for a deep dive into agentic AI and what it means for payments, compliance, cybersecurity, and stablecoins. They explain why today’s human-in-the-loop rails like cards and ACH don’t scale for agent-to-agent microtransactions, and why crypto rails and stablecoins can enable instant, low-cost, high-volume programmable payments that should remain invisible to end users. Tal shares how TRES is using AI tools like Vara and MCP to automate repetitive back-office reconciliation and help compliance teams operate with an “army of agents” while maintaining audit trails. They also discuss agent identity, emerging standards like x402 and MPP, fraud and chargebacks, enterprise treasury efficiencies with stablecoins, and how to stay relevant by learning and building hands-on. We are also available via: Around The Coin — Official Website Buzzsprout Apple Podcast Spotify Player FM Quora Medium X Facebook LinkedIn Tiktok Soundcloud

How Stablecoins Fix Cross-Border Payments - Chris Mason | ATC #615

Host Stephen Sargeant interviews Chris Mason, founder and CEO of Orbital, about building stablecoin infrastructure and how it can improve cross-border payments compared with traditional correspondent banking and SWIFT. Mason explains Orbital’s background processing stablecoins for seven years, its focus on corporate clients, and why transaction controls, authorizations, segregation of client funds, and compliance (including travel rule and blockchain analytics tools) matter as much as speed. They discuss common use cases like pay-ins, payouts, auto-conversions for firms that want stablecoin speed without holding stablecoins on balance sheet, and growing demand for emerging-market on/off-ramps. The conversation covers licensing burdens, regulatory arbitrage, crypto’s potential for better financial crime detection due to on-chain visibility, stablecoins in crisis or sanctioned-region trade for non-sanctioned goods, and how industry M&A and AI may shape Orbital’s next phase. We are also available via: Around The Coin — Official Website Buzzsprout Apple Podcast Spotify Player FM Quora Medium X Facebook LinkedIn Tiktok Soundcloud

Why Enterprises Need Their Own Blockchain - Kyle Jenke | ATC #614

Recorded live at EthCC in Cannes, Around The Coin with host Stephen Sargeant sits down with Kyle Jenke, Chief Business Officer at Optimism, about how Optimism’s OP Stack and OP Enterprise help large enterprises build and own their own blockchains for customization, revenue economics, and stronger compliance, privacy, and security. Jenke cites over 50 OP Stack chains and major brands building on Optimism, and highlights Bitpanda’s MiCA-compliant Vision Chain as a European example of regulated adoption. He discusses key customer verticals (fintechs, exchanges, payments, and large financial institutions), rising gas-fee costs and urgency to launch owned infrastructure, and how enterprises use blockchains for product differentiation amid converging financial services. The conversation also covers Security Overwatch SLAs, a menu of compliance/security vendors, AI use across Optimism, and compliance needs like OFAC screening amid geopolitics. We are also available via: Around The Coin — Official Website Buzzsprout Apple Podcast Spotify Player FM Quora Medium X Facebook LinkedIn Tiktok Soundcloud

Why Institutions Need Confidential Blockchain Transactions - Jeremy Jeremy | ATC #613

Live at EthCC on the Around The Coin podcast, Stephen Sargeant heads to the Zama Villa to speak with Zama COO Jeremy Bradley about fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) and why financial institutions need a confidentiality layer to balance blockchain transparency with selective access for regulators and compliance. Jeremy explains “programmable confidentiality,” Europe’s GDPR-driven focus on data sovereignty, and how Zama enables end-to-end encrypted on-chain transactions while allowing authorized decryption when needed. He cites a partnership with T. Rowe Price/Apex Group, use cases like payroll, supplier payments, and influencer payments, and notes other projects (e.g., Inco, Phoenix) use Zama’s technology. They discuss lessons from Zama’s token launch, KYC/KYB support at scale, hiring in a niche FHE talent pool, internal AI for operations efficiency, and quantum computing risks, noting FHE’s quantum-resistant properties. We are also available via: Around The Coin — Official Website Buzzsprout Apple Podcast Spotify Player FM Quora Medium X Facebook LinkedIn Tiktok Soundcloud

Will AI Agents Dominate DeFi Trading? - Sergej Kunz | ATC #612

Join host Stephen Sargeant reports live from ECC, where discussions center on wallets, tokenization, real-world assets, regulation, and compliance, and introduces a live Around The Coin episode featuring 1inch co-founder and CEO Sergej Kunz. Kunz recounts 1inch’s start at the 2019 ETHGlobal New York hackathon after conversations with Vitalik Buterin, his early hackathon circuit, and how 1inch grew into a leading DEX aggregator. He explains aggregation, intent-based swaps, limit orders, and a cross-chain atomic swap protocol using hash time lock contracts with KYB/compliance-checked participants, positioning 1inch as infrastructure for institutions. They cover institutional adoption via rebranding, tokenized assets, business model (subscriptions, API, rev share), regulatory direction including wallet screening and potential KYC, and how AI agents and 1inch’s MCP tools may drive Web3 usage. We are also available via: Around The Coin — Official Website Buzzsprout Apple Podcast Spotify Player FM Quora Medium X Facebook LinkedIn Tiktok Soundcloud

How Crypto Companies Get Media Coverage? - Otto Jacobsson | ATC #611

Join host Stephen Sargeant live from EthCC in Cannes for a special episode of the Around The Coin podcast featuring Otto Jacobson, CEO of YAP Global. Otto shares his journey from investment banking and CFO to leading one of the top PR firms in crypto, blockchain, fintech, and AI. Together, they discuss the evolving media landscape in Web3, the rise of niche content creators, and how crypto companies can effectively communicate their stories in an increasingly crowded market. The conversation also explores major industry trends including stablecoins, tokenization, FX trading on-chain, institutional adoption, and why traditional finance giants are moving deeper into blockchain infrastructure. Recorded live at EthCC, this episode is packed with insights for founders, investors, marketers, and anyone interested in the future of crypto and fintech. We are also available via: Around The Coin — Official Website Buzzsprout Apple Podcast Spotify Player FM Quora Medium X Facebook LinkedIn Tiktok Soundcloud