On The Brink with Castle Island

Matt and Nic are back with another week of news. In this episode: Marathon Fusion says it has turned mercury into stable gold What would commercially viable alchemy mean for Bitcoin's scarcity argument? AI tools uncover a major vulnerability in PHP A certificate authority's private keys turn out to be trivially guessable Railway warns developers to revoke their secrets after a cyberattack Banks are finding third-party AI agents inside customer accounts Who's responsible when your AI agent acts without instructions? The OCC finalizes its GENIUS Act rules Stablecoin issuers can't pay yield directly, but where does that leave third-party rewards? a16z reportedly plans to drop "crypto" from its flagship fund's name Ali Yahya is leaving to start a company Microsoft, Alphabet, and Goldman Sachs object to tokenized versions of their shares Should public companies have a veto over tokenizing their stock? Polymarket faces growing pains as Kalshi gains ground Are perpetual preferred shares a new source of Bitcoin demand? Can compute derivatives give investors a way to short the AI boom? Content mentioned in this episode: Marathon Fusion, Alchemy OCC, Final Rule to Implement the GENIUS Act Fidelity Digital Assets, Perpetual Preferred Stock: The Newest Demand Catalyst in Bitcoin Bitwise, Q4 2026 Staking Report Wired, The DEA's Premier Crypto Detective: Clues Led Straight to Her Own Family Bloomberg, Polymarket Investors Push CEO Coplan for Change as Kalshi Gains Ground The Wall Street Journal, Want to Short the AI Boom? She Wants to Give You a Way to Bet on Compute Prices

Matt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode: The OCC publishes its debanking findings on America's largest banks Will the banks' fixes satisfy regulators? Google makes another advance in quantum error correction Coinbase lays out its requirements for Bitcoin's post-quantum migration Can Bitcoin's quantum transition accommodate institutional MPC wallets? OpenAI is reportedly in talks to buy Trail of Bits Patrick Witt leaves the White House — where does that leave Clarity? DWF Labs subsidiaries sue BitGo for $141m over allegedly premature token sales Spy chips in reseller-supplied Ledger devices steal recovery phrases Ledger announces an Android device with Solana Mobile Cboe gets approval for binary options on public company metrics The CFTC draws the line between prediction markets and sportsbooks Richard Heart is reportedly detained in Istanbul What's NYC Mayer Zohran Mamdani doing with a quantum computer? Content mentioned in this episode: OCC, Guaranteeing Fair Banking for all Americans Nic on Convergence: quantum risk and AI-driven advances in math Google Quantum AI on magic state cultivation Coinbase, Working Together on BTC Post-Quantum Readiness Jeff Yan on Bloomberg's Odd Lots

Matt and Nic are back with more deals and news. In this episode:  Is it appropriate to have AI manage your fantasy league? Quant firms are hiring "quals" Justin Drake scares everyone in crypto Did AI destroy math? Why a classical ECDSA break would be worse than a quantum one Why we lean forward hash-based signatures for post-quantum Why rotating your address doesn't help now Is Bitcoin the "least of our concerns" if ECC breaks? Nic makes a new scientific discovery with Astra The NFL thinks that gambling should be state regulated What's driving interest in Pokemon cards? Content mentioned in our episode: Coin Metrics, The Death and Life of the Average Memecoin  

Esther Wong, founder and CEO of Cashi joins the show. Cashi is a stablecoin spending app and cashback card with a global footprint. In this episode we discuss: Customer personas and use cases for stablecoin payments The future of tokenized equities on chain The landscape of layer one and two blockchains and how these platforms converge with global stablecoin applications Cashi's roadmap and plans for the coming year To learn more about Cashi, visit their website and follow Esther Wong on X.

Matt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode:  Are OpenAI and Anthropic reenacting the Fat Protocol Hypothesis Will AI agents cause bank runs optimizing bank balances for yield? If the AI complex bursts does it take down VC? Our tribute to Hester Peirce as she retires from the SEC The SEC and CFTC publish crypto FAQs Vitalik lays out his vision for Ethereum in 2030 Quantum progress is accelerating Illinois delays their crypto transaction tax  Is San Francisco better than it was?