Layer One

Ethena Pay, the internet-money neobank from Ethena Labs, is live exclusively on Avalanche. Founder Guy Young sits down with Ava Labs’ John Nahas to walk through a consumer app built around three jobs — save, send, spend — on stablecoin rails, and why a dollar issuer at Ethena’s scale is launching the neobank itself rather than wrapping someone else’s card program.“I want to save money, I want to send money, and I want to spend money.”Young traces Ethena from on-chain DeFi distribution (Binance, Coinbase, Robinhood, BlackRock Aladdin) to a mobile app that owns the last mile. Nahas’s pitch for the chain underneath is invisible adoption: technology built for businesses, with a path from the C-Chain to an application-specific L1 if a partner outgrows shared blockspace. The tape also covers Avalanche Summit (September 16–17 in New York), RWA perps after TradeXYZ, credit receivables via Black Opal, and a public labs-to-foundation IP shift so equity cannot accrue value going forward.OUTLINE00:00 Open02:10 EthenaPay Overview03:10 Save, Send, Spend06:25 Why Avalanche09:04 Direct to Consumer13:20 Invisible Adoption18:00 No Ethena chain21:02 C-chain today24:54 EthenaPay versus other crypto neobanks27:46 Embedded finance36:06 RWA perps39:18 Black Opal42:00 Buybacks, Labs IP43:33 CloseGuests:Guy Young - Founder, Ethena LabsCo-host:John Nahas - Chief Business Officer, Ava LabsHost links:Kelvin Sparks - x.com/imyoungsparksThe Block - x.com/TheBlockCoLayer One is a podcast focused on the intersection of crypto and the real world, brought to you in collaboration with Avalanche. Nothing on this podcast is investment or financial advice. Always do your own research.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------Subscribe to The Block's Newsletters!🚨 Breaking News👨‍🔬 Expert Analysis📈 Market InsightsSubscribe now 👉 https://www.theblock.co/newsletters--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Matias Antonio (Avalanche Foundation Chief Investment Officer, ex-World Bank, ex-IMF) and Eric Lu (Avalanche Foundation Lead Economist, PhD) have built GCP and GCI — blockchain analogues of GDP and GNI — because nobody could say what value actually runs on a chain, only what volume does.The harder half is capture: on every general-purpose L1, the value the chain makes possible does not flow through its token, and the fat-protocol thesis never explained why it should. Their answer is not taxation but a co-op — an incentive-compatible cut applications accept because protocol value is what secures them.OUTLINE00:00 - Cold open00:51 - Welcome: Avalanche's economists on the show01:50 - From the World Bank, the IMF, and a fund that blew up05:54 - GCP and GCI: measuring what a chain actually produces08:31 - Capture: why the value never reaches the token09:24 - Distribute: paying validators without inflation11:09 - The plain-English version: GDP, GNI and a very low tax rate12:37 - Output vs income, and what each costs to tax17:42 - Beyond transaction fees: dormant capital and the gas floor24:39 - The Ethereum staking-ratio fight, and who pays validators31:05 - A Laffer curve for a blockchain? Not a state — a co-op35:26 - Why economists, and why now46:16 - Twelve months out, and the network of networksGuests:Matias Antonio - Chief Investment Officer, Avalanche FoundationEric Lu - Lead Economist, Avalanche FoundationCo-host:John Wu - Senior Advisor, Ava LabsHost links:Kelvin Sparks - x.com/imyoungsparksThe Block - x.com/TheBlockCoLayer One is a podcast focused on the intersection of crypto and the real world, brought to you in collaboration with Avalanche. Nothing on this podcast is investment or financial advice. Always do your own research.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------Subscribe to The Block's Newsletters!🚨 Breaking News👨‍🔬 Expert Analysis📈 Market InsightsSubscribe now 👉 https://www.theblock.co/newsletters--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Hiring in crypto?🧠 Find top talent fast with Campus, powered by The Block!✅ Challenge candidates with our Crypto Assessment Test⚡ Hire faster, build stronger teamsStart your free trial today 👉 https://theblock.co/campus

In Episode 17 of Layer One, The Block’s Kelvin Sparks and Ava Labs President John Wu were joined by Aave Labs Founder Stani Kulechov, who explained how the protocol that processed over $3 trillion in deposits is pointing its infrastructure at tokenized real-world assets — starting with Aave V4's first non-Ethereum deployment on Avalanche and the Horizon securities market. He also breaks down GHO, the forthcoming consumer Aave App, and why he thinks RWAs will double to $100 billion by the end of 2026. OUTLINE00:00 - Introductions03:15 - Aave by the Numbers04:50 - V4 and Horizon06:26 - The Great Convergence11:11 - Why Avalanche18:19 - Killing the Prime Broker24:39 - Walled Gardens32:33 - The GHO Engine37:18 - The Aave App44:23 - $100B by 2026Guest links:Stani Kulechov - x.com/StaniKulechovAave - x.com/AaveHost links:Kelvin Sparks - https://x.com/imyoungsparks⁠⁠⁠John Wu - ⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/John1wuThe Block - https://x.com/TheBlockCoAva Labs - https://x.com/avalabs---------------------------------------------------------------------------------Subscribe to The Block's Newsletters!🚨 Breaking News👨‍🔬 Expert Analysis📈 Market InsightsSubscribe now 👉 ⁠⁠⁠https://www.theblock.co/newsletters⁠⁠⁠--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Hiring in crypto?🧠 Find top talent fast with Campus, powered by The Block!✅ Challenge candidates with our Crypto Assessment Test⚡ Hire faster, build stronger teamsStart your free trial today 👉 ⁠⁠⁠https://theblock.co/campus

In Episode 16 of Layer One, The Block’s Kelvin Sparks is joined by Avalanche Treasury Company CEO Bart Smith. Bart explained the thesis behind treasury companies as a way to get regulated, permanent-capital exposure to AVAX and the Avalanche ecosystem. He also covers his Wall Street/ETF background, why real-world-asset tokenization needs "productive" assets to matter, and why he thinks crypto's investment thesis is stronger than ever. OUTLINE00:00 - Introduction01:22 - What Is AVAT?03:59 - Wall Street Roots & Crypto's Rise06:19 - The Bitcoin ETF Bet08:58 - Hiring a COO11:13 - Why Own AVAT?15:56 - Scaling Avalanche & RWAs22:54 - DeFi, TradFi & AI Fears33:03 - Policy Risks & RWA Forecast40:08 - Closing ThoughtsGuest links:Bart Smith - https://twitter.com/gbartsmithAVAT - https://twitter.com/avat_coHost links:Kelvin Sparks - https://x.com/imyoungsparks⁠⁠⁠John Wu - ⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/John1wuThe Block - https://x.com/TheBlockCoAva Labs - https://x.com/avalabs---------------------------------------------------------------------------------Subscribe to The Block's Newsletters!🚨 Breaking News👨‍🔬 Expert Analysis📈 Market InsightsSubscribe now 👉 ⁠⁠⁠https://www.theblock.co/newsletters⁠⁠⁠--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Hiring in crypto?🧠 Find top talent fast with Campus, powered by The Block!✅ Challenge candidates with our Crypto Assessment Test⚡ Hire faster, build stronger teamsStart your free trial today 👉 ⁠⁠⁠https://theblock.co/campus

In Episode 15 of Layer One, The Block’s Kelvin Sparks and co-host Ava Labs President John Wu are joined by Blockchain Capital General Partner Spencer Bogart. The conversation explores stablecoins, prediction markets, token value accrual, privacy, public versus private blockchains and why the most valuable crypto applications of the future may not even exist today.OUTLINE00:00 - Introduction02:01 - Things That Don't Exist05:25 - Token Buybacks09:11 - Privacy Challenge11:06 - Regulation vs Privacy12:17 - Value Accrual Debate13:59 - Public vs Private Chains17:43 - The Great Repricing20:42 - Stablecoin Adoption28:06 - Prediction Markets45:18 - Crypto's Next OpportunityGuest links:Spencer Bogart - https://x.com/CremeDeLaCryptoBlockchain Capital - https://x.com/bcapHost links:Kelvin Sparks - https://x.com/imyoungsparks⁠⁠⁠John Wu - ⁠⁠⁠https://x.com/John1wuThe Block - https://x.com/TheBlockCoAva Labs - https://x.com/avalabs---------------------------------------------------------------------------------Subscribe to The Block's Newsletters!🚨 Breaking News👨‍🔬 Expert Analysis📈 Market InsightsSubscribe now 👉 ⁠⁠⁠https://www.theblock.co/newsletters⁠⁠⁠--------------------------------------------------------------------------------Hiring in crypto?🧠 Find top talent fast with Campus, powered by The Block!✅ Challenge candidates with our Crypto Assessment Test⚡ Hire faster, build stronger teamsStart your free trial today 👉 ⁠⁠⁠https://theblock.co/campus