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
46episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Weekly Roundup 02/13/26 (SBF wants a retrial, taking stock of Web3, Clarity deadlocked) (EP.701)
Feb 1300:42:37Tap to summarizeMatt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode: Matt reflects on the Patriots season We review the Superbowl Ads Looking forward to the OpenAI wearable Is "something big happening" in AI? Does crypto accelerate the rise of malicious AI? Are all communications networks going to break down in 90 days? SBF wants a new trial Blackrock adds BUIDL to Uniswap Blockfills suspends withdrawals Robinhood is internalizing their prediction market product The stablecoin yield issue in Clarity is still a problem Fairshake is getting active in the midterms Is Chris Dixon right about Web3? We review winter olympic sports Content mentioned: Chris Dixon, The long game for crypto
Transcribe →Bhavin Vaid (Birch Hill) on Better Markets for Tokenized Assets (EP.700)
Feb 1100:36:52Tap to summarizeWyatt sits down with Bhavin, co-founder of Birch Hill to chat about the tokenized asset and DeFi market broadly. In this episode: Who is assessing whether cryptoassets are safe in DeFi today? Who is assessing risk and ensuring assets are solvent and not fraudulent? How have these standards been set and how are they evolving? What is a risk curator, how do risk curators make money, and what is their role? Is it the responsibility of protocols, curators, wallets, or someone else to protect users from buying bad assets? How do you expect non-DeFi-native market participants will start to enter this market? Will users eventually buy, hold, and sell assets on protocol interfaces, brokerages / exchanges, or risk curator interfaces? Does the Fat Protocol Thesis hold true? Where does value accrue today?
Transcribe →Weekly Roundup 02/06/26 (Bitcoin bloodbath, Digesting Epstein's Emails, Ethereum rethinks L2s) (EP.699)
Feb 600:41:38Tap to summarizeMatt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode: Bitcoin grapples with the fallout of the Epstein Emails Did Jeffrey Epstein influence Bitcoin development? Is Bhutan selling their Bitcoin? Do Bitcoin devs care about quantum? Is Bitcoin Core under the influence with sophons Kyle Samani steps back from Multicoin What Samani's departure means for crypto Is web3 dead forever? Vitalik starts second-guessing the L2-centric roadmap Tether is trading at a slight discount Content mentioned in this episode: Nic on Substack, Bitcoin developers are mostly not concerned about quantum risk
Transcribe →Weekly Roundup 01/30/26 (Fidelity's FIDD, Gold rally, Worldcoin and AI bots, digital alibis) (EP. 698)
Jan 3000:38:34Tap to summarizeMatt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode: Matt is heated about the Belichick HoF vote Fidelity launches a stablecoin FIDD on Ethereum Market structure passes Senate Ag Cmte The White House crypto council is being revived to find a compromise on stablecoin yield Fairshake has another war chest for the midterms Do stablecoins cause bank deposit contraction? Tether has 140 tons of gold now Why is Bitcoin not participating in the "debasement" trade? Is gold at risk from alchemy? People are still worried about quantum Will Worldcoin save us from AI bots? What's the solution to the AI slop apocalypse? Digital alibis with blockchains Content mentioned in this episode: Niall Ferguson and Manny Rincon-Cruz, Stablecoins Are the Future but Banks will Survive McKinsey and Artemis, Stablecoins in payments: What the raw transaction numbers miss
Transcribe →Weekly Roundup 05/30/25 (Bitcoin Access Vehicles, GME buys BTC, Pangea Fund) (EP.630)
May 30, 202500:22:24Tap to summarizeMatt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode: Warning signs for the Bitcoin access vehicles? Has Bitcoin lost the MoE battle? Is OCP 2.0 over? The Dept of Labor rescinds their anti-crypto 401k guidance Cantor Fitzgerald is launching a bitcoin/gold fund Is it mathematically possible to give Bitcoin upside and gold downside? Content mentioned: Stablecoin.fyi
Transcribe →Anthony Yim (Artemis) on Stablecoin Payments from the Ground Up (EP.629)
May 29, 202500:25:44Tap to summarizeWe sit down with Anthony Yim, Artemis cofounder, to talk about the latest report from Artemis, CIV, and Dragonfly, providing brand new estimates of stablecoin payments volume. In this episode: Why we decided to work on the new report How we obtained the estimates Why we decided to put together a bottom-up estimate Stablecoin b2b volumes compared to traditional b2b How do you measure stablecoin transactions? Download the report at stablecoin.fyi
Transcribe →Markus Franke and Denney Kwok (Mento Labs) on Stablecoins for FX (EP.628)
May 26, 202500:38:49Tap to summarizeMarkus Franke and Denney Kwok from Mento Labs join the show. In this episode: Non-USD stablecoins On-chain FX Microlending and financing for emerging markets
Transcribe →Weekly Roundup 05/23/25 (Genius Cloture, Sui hack, $Trump dinner) (EP.627)
May 23, 202500:33:31Tap to summarizeMatt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode: Trump’s crypto dinner reviewed Bitcoin access vehicles NYT stablecoin coverage Sui is hacked and censors the blockchain Kraken is launching tokenized stocks Circle in acquisition talks The GENIUS Act passes Cloture in the Senate Hong Kong passes stablecoin legislation
Transcribe →Andrew MacKenzie (Agant) on British Pound Stablecoins (EP.626)
May 21, 202500:30:50Tap to summarizeWyatt sits down with Andrew MacKenzie, founder of Agant, the issuer of GBPA, a pound sterling stablecoin. In this episode: The potential emergence of non-USD stablecoins The prospect of a GBP-backed stablecoin The British crypto regulatory environment How global financial institutions are positioning around stablecoins
Transcribe →Weekly Roundup 05/16/25 (GENIUS is back, Coinbase data breach, Big Tech stables) (EP.625)
May 16, 202500:40:53Tap to summarizeMatt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode: Why is Boston such a good sports city? Price inflation in dinosaur skeletons Cryptopunks IP is sold Machinsky is sentenced Nakamoto Holdings launches Meta wants to add stablecoins to its platforms Exchanges are honeypots for KYC data Coinbase suffers a data breach The GENIUS act is going to a vote next week GENIUS act new provisions More Movement shenanigans Thailand is launching a $150m crypto token Content mentioned in this episode: Tuongvy Le and Austin Campbell published a paper, "Crypto and The Evolution of Capital Markets", which dissects the current market structure for securities trading and settlement and discusses how blockchain networks can improve this architecture.
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