Claim OwnershipOn The Brink with Castle Island
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Hosts Matt Walsh and Nic Carter of Castle Island Ventures explore news and deals in the public blockchain space and talk to some of the leading experts in the industry. Learn more and stay up to date at CastleIsland.vc and follow on twitter @CastleIslandVC
693 Episodes
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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
Dave Balter, the co-founder and CEO of Flipside Crypto joins the show. In this episode we discuss: How Flipside has shifted its product to fully harness the power of LLMs for analyzing public blockchain networks. Building a product organization in the age of A.I. Perspectives on the evolving landscape of layer one and layer two blockchains. How the role of a data analyst will evolve in the coming years. Where Flipside is focusing its efforts within the blockchain data/analytics segment. To learn more about Flipside visit flipsidecrypto.xyz and follow the company on X.
Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode: Will stablecoins drive deposit flight from the banks? Is FDIC insurance obsolete? Can CBDCs provide real privacy? ICE invests in Polymarket North Dakota is looking to issue their own "rough rider" stablecoin, joining Wyoming Luxembourg buys bitcoin out of their sovereign wealth fund Is the quantum bubble creating risks for Bitcoin? The "Salomon brothers" OP_RETURN dusting attack on old Bitcoins Reg NMS for blockchains? Katie Porter has a new drama Congress is still working on the market structure bill Shutdown update Content mentioned in this episode: Nic on Substack, Yes, we really do want to trust crypto interests with the future of money Galaxy Research, The Great Bitcoin Dusting: A 'Salomon Brothers' Client Tries to Claim Dormant Wallets
Pelle Braendgaard, the co-founder and CEO of Notabene joins the show. In this episode we discuss: Pelle's background and path to co-founding Notabene. The travel rule and how institutions achieve compliance for blockchain transactions. The launch of Notabene Flow, the first open stablecoin payments platform enabling pull payments for businesses. Views on the evolving market structure for stablecoin payments The state of digital identity. To learn more about Notabene visit notabene.id and follow the company on X.
Mike Cagney, the founder of Figure joins the show. In this episode we discuss: The process of taking Figure public in September 2025. The market structure for tokenized securities. Perspectives on the key issues being debated in the context of The Clarity Act. Reg NMS considerations for blockchain assets. The impact of stablecoins on the banking sector. The original thesis of Figure and the attractiveness of the HELOC market. The Provenance Blockchain Competition versus legacy financial services firms. To learn more about Figure visit figure.com. Follow Mike on X. Follow Figure on X.
Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode: AI bailed out the mining companies AI people deal with the same energy use claims We reflect on the life of Jane Goodall DoubleZero gets a no-action letter from the SEC Will Tether and Circle lose market share? Who could challenge the Big Two stablecoins? Do optimists always win? Some DATs are troubled Is Kalshi starting to take over? Stripe announces Open Issuance The US Government is shut down Content mentioned: Nic on Substack, The Stablecoin Duopoly is Ending
Wyatt sits down with Ben Ward and Steven Pack of RockSolid. In this episode: What are DeFi vaults? What is RockSolid? Lido vs Rocket Pool Creating effective unified efforts in decentralized communities A look at the wider landscape of DeFi yield How do you measure protocol success? Strengthening the broader Ethereum ecosystem
Mark Coe, the Founder and CIO of Intrinsic Edge Capital Management joins the show. In this episode we discuss: Mark's background and path that led him to founding Intrinsic Edge Capital Management. The Intrinsic Edge Digital Infrastructure Fund, a fund that was launched four years ago to focus on companies in the digital asset ecosystem. Perspectives on the mining industry and the impact of AI/LLMs on this sector of the industry. Views on the types of businesses that will enter the public markets in the coming years. The future of prime brokerage and how service providers will evolve. To learn more about Intrinsic Edge visit intrinsicedge.com or email them at info@intrinsicedge.com
Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode: We review the Coin Center dinner Tether is going out to raise at $500b Cloudflare wants to launch a stablecoin for agentic payments and launches the 402 protocol Circle is thinking about reversible transactions BitGo files for an S1 Strive acquires Semler Scientific The SEC is looking into 200 DATs for insider trading 9 major European banks are looking to launch a MiCA stablecoin The Bank Policy Institute thinks stablecoins threaten banks Senate Finance Cmte is looking at crypto taxes Naver is looking to acquire Upbit
Wyatt sits down with Felipe Montealegre and Noah Goldberg of Theia Capital, a fund investing actively in liquid crypto tokens with strong fundamentals. In this episode: What drives crypto market valuations? Fundamentals or supply of capital? The imbalance between venture vs hedge fund activity in crypto markets Navigating a market where assets become liquid early in their lifecycle Talent in the crypto industry What makes exceptional founders and team members? Using LLMs in investing and general workflow Future themes Theia is excited about
Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode: The SEC approves generic listing standards for cryptoassets Gensler loses a year's worth of text messages BoE wants to limit stablecoin exposure to £20k Tether launches USAT Coinbase is exploring a Base token Binance nears the end of DoJ compliance monitoring Galaxy is launching a tokenized money market fund PayPal launches PayPal links
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