Podcast
On The Brink with Castle Island
Hosted by Castle Island Ventures · EN
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
34episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Weekly Roundup 05/08/26 (Consensus Miami, AI layoffs strike Coinbase, Clarity compromise, AI energy and water use) (EP.719)
1w ago00:43:19Tap to summarizeMatt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode: Will Hantavirus become another global pandemic? Kraken buys Reap for $600m Bullish buys Equiniti for $4.2b Reflections on 10 years of attending Consensus Is it acceptable to wear a backpack with a suit a16z crypto announces a $2.2b fundraise Coinbase is laying off 14% of the firm Will AI lead to massive job losses? Is VC immune from AI job displacement I bipartisan compromise is finally reached on Clarity How the AI water use debate is just like Bitcoin The AI lobby is learning from Fairshake The SEC delays prediction market ETFs
Transcribe →Weekly Roundup 05/30/26 (DeFi's worst ever month, PTJ on Bitcoin, quantum canaries) (EP.718)
2w ago00:29:52Tap to summarizeMatt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode: DeFi had its worth month of hacks ever How are people falling for the fake Zoom link hack The KelpDAO Aave bailout is happening Is Bitcoin's security degrading because miners are pivoting to AI? Litecoin suffers a 51% attack Is Bitcoin PoW at risk? Computershare partners with Securitize Meta will offer creator payouts in stablecoins via Stripe Q-day prize controversy Why quantum canaries might not provide much of a warning Paul Tudor Jones is spooked by quantum Some evidence for insider information in political prediction markets
Transcribe →Pluto (Harbor) on the fate of DeFi after KelpDAO (EP.717)
3w ago00:35:41Tap to summarizePluto is a veteran of DeFi and cross chain systems, with prior stints at Thorchain and Airswap, now building Harbor, a native asset DEX. In this episode, we talk about the KelpDAO exploit and how DeFi can regain people's trust. Nic sits down with him to discuss: What exactly happened with the KelpDAO/ Aave hack? Will new AI models make hackers more proficient? Is advanced AI a defensive or offensive technology for smart contracts? Why protocol exposures are often not on chain Why DeFi might want to segregate execution from settlement Is it possible to have instant settlement and proactive monitoring Do we have anything to learn from DeFi What could Aave have done different? Where did LayerZero go wrong? Can DeFi work if there are occasional freezes and seizures? Pluto's reflections on Thorchain What Thorchain did right Arbitrum's questionable precedent What Pluto is building with Harbor Where does DeFi go from here? Learn more about Harbor and follow Pluto on X
Transcribe →Weekly Roundup 04/24/26 (Finding Satoshi, KelpDAO retrospective, Insider weather betting, Coinbase's Quantum report) (EP.716)
3w ago00:36:48Tap to summarizeMatt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals: The Finding Satoshi documentary has a new guess Was it Hal or Len? Could Satoshi have been a team? Why Stylometry might not reveal Satoshi Why the cypherpunks were interested in resurrection What happened with KelpDAO? Is DeFi cooked? Is Arbitrum decentralized? The Paris temperature market was manipulated Coinbase releases their highly-anticipated quantum risk report Performance tradeoffs for post-quantum signature schemes SBF was a good investor The Justin Sun WLFI saga continues Did an Indian tanker fall victim to a crypto scam in the Strait of Hormuz? Content mentioned in this episode: Finding Satoshi Documentary Fidelity Digital Assets, Getting Off Zero: Evaluating Bitcoin in 2026 Coinbase, Quantum report
Transcribe →Brandon Arvanaghi (Meow) on Banking AI Agents (EP.715)
3w ago00:18:04Tap to summarizeBrandon Arvanaghi, the co-founder and CEO of Meow, joins the show. In this episode we discuss: The rise of agentic payments and the convergence of LLMs and financial services. Meow's approach to banking the agentic economy. How financial services firms and banks will need to evolve in order to service AI agents. Meow's product roadmap. Meow recently made history as the first fintech to enable AI agents to open business bank accounts and virtual cards. Meow has been building the banking and treasury infrastructure for crypto-native and VC-backed companies for several years now. This includes USDC/USDT rails, stablecoin card programs, treasury management, and FX. To learn more about Meow visit meow.com
Transcribe →Weekly Roundup 04/17/26 (BIP361 proposal, SEC's DeFi frontend policy, CSW's Bitcoin movie) (EP.714)
4w ago00:34:45Tap to summarizeMatt and Nic are back for more news and deals: Jameson Lopp's BIP361 gets an official BIP number What about an official salvage process for the quantum-vulnerable Satoshi coins What about recycling Satoshi's bitcoins into long-term tail emissions Why the Satoshi freeze war will be unlike the Blocksize war Kraken confidential files for an IPO The SEC says defi frontends might not be broker dealers even if they list tokenized securities Goldman files for a Bitcoin ETF WLFi is having a feud with Justin Sun Ether Machine, an Ethereum DAT winds down There is a new Satoshi documentary coming out There is an A-list Hollywood movie coming out about Craig Wright Leo Aschenbrenner's secret Tether invests into Drift Protocol post-hack Why is USDC refusing to freeze funds after hacks? Do we need an "on-chain" Chancery Court for blockchains Content mentioned on this episode: Nic on X, How to resolve the matter of the Satoshi coins without a freeze
Transcribe →Weekly Roundup 04/10/26 (New Satoshi candidates, Mythos' 0-days, CZ's memoir) (EP.713)
Apr 1000:35:34Tap to summarizeMatt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode: The New York Times thinks Adam Back is Satoshi The problems with the NYT's analysis The case for Len Sassaman The case for Satoshi not being alive Could Satoshi be a group? Why Satoshi might be discovered this year Morgan Stanley launches their Bitcoin ETF Scott Bessent asks for Congress to pass Clarity The White House finds that stablecoin yield would not harm the banking system Kalshi secures a key win in a NJ appeals court Anthropic's Mythos model is exposing vulnerabilities CZ is publishing a memoir Will Hormuz tolls be payable in Bitcoin?
Transcribe →Connor Dougherty (Valinor) on the Evolution of Private Credit (EP.712)
Apr 900:17:47Tap to summarizeConnor Dougherty, Co-Founder and CEO of Valinor Digital, joins the show. In this episode: Connor's background working at a large private credit shop Pioneering a new category of Open Credit and how it expands the TAM for private credit Explosion of stablecoin demand enabling new borrowing types Structuring deals to align with traditional private capital and onchain lending Building a modern credit institution by utilizing technology See more at valinordigital.com
Transcribe →Weekly Roundup 04/03/26 (Two big quantum papers, Drift protocol hack, Maritime Salvage law) (EP.711)
Apr 300:35:03Tap to summarizeMatt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode: The significance of the new Google and Oratomic papers on quantum computing and ECC256 Why short range attacks are now part of the threat model Is Nic conflicted out from discussing quantum? What will be the fate of the Satoshi coins? What maritime law and shipwreck recovery tells us about the fate of Satoshi's coins Drift protocol is hacked Gary Gensler does not like prediction markets DATs are selling BTC Content mentioned in this episode: Cain et al, Shor's algorithm is possible with as few as 10,000 reconfigurable atomic qubits Babbush et al, Securing Elliptic Curve Cryptocurrencies against Quantum Vulnerabilities: Resource Estimates and Mitigations
Transcribe →Weekly Roundup 03/27/26 (Google's Quantum Deadline, Circle's selloff, DATs are selling) (EP.710)
Mar 2700:35:38Tap to summarizeMatt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode: Circle stock sells off big on a CLARITY yield update compromise Tether is doing their first big 4 financial audit Who is the CLARITY Act Yield "compromise" good for? Why Circle might benefit from closing the yield loophole Is no bill better than a bad bill? Should Coinbase back the bill? Fannie Mae will accept crypto-backed mortgages Ethereum Foundation launches their post-quantum roadmap Google has revised their quantum transition deadline up to 2029 Why we will not have a lot of warning regarding quantum risk Where is Bitcoin on quantum preparedness? Why it's not all doom and gloom on quantum MARA sells $1b worth of BTC
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