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PODCAST

Talking Tokens

Jacquelyn Melinek, Token Relations

Talking Tokens is a podcast focused on interviewing the best crypto leaders, startups, market players and up-and-coming founders that are changing the industry. Join Jacquelyn Melinek, an award-nominated host and seasoned crypto journalist-turned-entrepreneur, to dive into the best talks in crypto in an easy-to-understand way. The episodes will air every Tuesday and Thursday on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, X and more. For more updates, subscribe to the Talking Tokens newsletter here:

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All Episodes

00:46:55

Solana Genius Behind Mad Lads & Backpack | Armani...

Talking Tokens ·

2025/09/16

In this episode, Jacquelyn sits down with Armani Ferrante, co-founder and CEO of Backpack. Armani explains how Backpack EU became one of Europe’s first fully regulated derivatives exchanges, after acquiring and refunding FTX EU’s user base. The team also launched daily proof of reserves, verified by OtterSec, to show transparency regardless of market conditions. He highlights the massive gap left by other exchanges exiting Europe, the unique compliance culture across regions (EU, Asia, US), and what

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00:34:51

Why Solflare Thinks the Bear Market Is an Advantage |...

Talking Tokens ·

2025/09/11

In this episode, Vidor Gencel, Co-Founder of Solflare, shares the journey of building one of the most widely used crypto wallets in the Solana ecosystem. This episode is a part of the Solana Sessions campaign that Token Relations and the Talking Tokens podcast are doing, diving into founders’ journeys and startups building on Solana. Solflare has over 4 million users and manages billions in assets. He discusses how crypto’s cyclical nature shaped Solflare’s growth approach, emphasizing the

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00:52:27

Why Your Data Gets Hacked Every Week (And How ZK...

Talking Tokens ·

2025/09/09

On this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn welcomes Shiv Shankar, CEO of Boundless, a protocol for verifiable compute across any chain, powered by the RISC Zero zkVM technology. From software engineering at companies like Coinbase, Lyft, Ava Labs, and Microsoft, to becoming CEO of Boundless, Shiv is pioneering blockchain research, while bringing the world of zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs to everyone. He explains how ZK unlocks privacy, app scaling, and true interoperability. Tune in to learn why

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00:48:54

Fireblocks Network for Payments is Building the...

Talking Tokens ·

2025/09/04

On this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn interviews Michael Shaulov, CEO and co-founder of Fireblocks, the firm securing over $10 trillion in digital assets and now leading the way in global payments. Michael explains the launch of Fireblocks Network for Payments, a universal infrastructure standardizing stablecoin settlement, already connecting 2,400+ institutional participants across 60 currencies and all major stablecoins. He unpacks why “Swift for stablecoins” isn’t just about creating

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00:38:13

What’s Next for Stablecoins, Banks, and Instant...

Talking Tokens ·

2025/09/02

On this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Farooq Malik, co-founder and CEO of Rain, a company building the payment rails powering the next wave of stablecoins, tokenized money, and digital banking worldwide. Recorded live at the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium, Farooq explains why regulatory clarity unleashed a boom in institutional stablecoin adoption and how Rain enables anyone, from fintechs to governments, to instantly spend and settle with digital dollars. The conversation covers

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00:30:40

Why Staking Is Becoming the “Savings Account” for...

Talking Tokens ·

2025/08/28

On today’s Talking Tokens episode, Jacquelyn sits down with Lorien Gabel, co-founder and CEO of Figment, a leading non-custodial staking provider supporting over a thousand institutional clients. Figment works with asset managers, custodians, exchanges, foundations, and wallets, helping institutions securely access crypto yield.Lorien shares his journey from building internet infrastructure companies to founding Figment in 2018. They discuss how staking has evolved, why distribution is Figment’s

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00:42:15

Inside the Wyoming Conference Where Fed Officials Met...

Talking Tokens ·

2025/08/26

On this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with John Darsie, CEO of SALT and managing partner at SkyBridge Capital, best known for connecting Wall Street, Washington, and the crypto industry. They unpack the evolution from the exuberant Crypto Bahamas era in 2022 to today’s Wyoming Blockchain Symposium, how institutions and policymakers are engaging crypto, why narrative and PR are more important than ever, and the secret behind attracting actual capital allocators (not just the crypto

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00:38:36

Hart Lambur on Solana Expansion, Open Intents and...

Talking Tokens ·

2025/08/21

On this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn welcomes Hart Lambur, co-founder of Across Protocol, back to the show to break down Across’s next big move: live, fast bridging between Solana, Ethereum, and major L2s. Hart explains why true chain interoperability matters for all users and devs, how open intents and a “two-second bridge” are setting new speed standards, and why fragmentation, not maximalism, is the challenge stopping web3’s next phase of growth. You’ll get the inside story on why Across

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00:39:35

How Digital Asset Treasuries Outperform: DeFi Dev...

Talking Tokens ·

2025/08/19

On today’s Talking Tokens episode, Jacquelyn sits down with Joseph Onorati, CEO of DeFi Development Corp. (formerly Janover), a publicly traded digital asset treasury focused on Solana.Joseph shares his journey from gaming economies and early Bitcoin meetups to nearly a decade at Kraken, before rebranding Janover into DeFi Dev Corp. They discuss why the company chose to focus on Solana over Bitcoin or Ethereum, how it’s aiming to drive Sol-per-share growth, and what makes its strategy different from

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00:48:42

Arianna Simpson on web3, Stablecoins & Global Adoption

Talking Tokens ·

2025/08/14

On today’s Talking Tokens episode, Jacquelyn sits down with Arianna Simpson, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) crypto, one of the most influential firms in tech and crypto.Arianna shares her journey from Facebook to founding her own venture fund, and eventually joining a16z. They discuss how the firm approaches early-stage web3 investments, what they look for in founders, and the sectors she’s most excited about, including stablecoins and decentralized AI infrastructure. She also talks

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00:45:52

Why Is Robinhood Building on Arbitrum | AJ Warner

Talking Tokens ·

2025/08/12

On today’s Talking Tokens episode, Jacquelyn sits down with AJ Warner, Director of Strategy at Offchain Labs, the team behind Arbitrum, one of Ethereum’s top layer-2 blockchains with over $4B in TVL.AJ shares his journey from real estate lawyer to crypto strategist, and how a college connection led him to help build Arbitrum from the ground up. They discuss the unique "barbell" strategy powering both Arbitrum One and Arbitrum Orbit, why liquidity and composability are critical for growth, and how

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00:45:29

SKR to Airdrops: Everything You Need To Know About...

Talking Tokens ·

2025/08/06

On today’s Talking Tokens episode, Jacquelyn sits down with Emmett Hollyer, General Manager at Solana Mobile — the team behind Saga and now Seeker, crypto’s most ambitious attempt at a mobile-native device and ecosystem.They discuss how Solana Mobile went from 20K Saga phones to 150K Seeker phones sold, why web3 apps need a crypto-friendly App Store, and how mobile can fix broken user onboarding through tools like Seed Vault, Seeker ID, and in-phone token rewards. Emmett also explains how they’re

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00:45:18

Gracy Chen on BGB Token, Wallets & AI Agent for Bitget

Talking Tokens ·

2025/08/05

On today’s Talking Tokens episode, Jacquelyn sits down with Gracy Chen, CEO of Bitget, one of the world’s top crypto exchanges. Under her leadership, Bitget has grown to 100M+ users across 150+ countries, with over $3 billion in daily trading volume and a thriving token ecosystem built around BGB.Gracy opens up about her journey from broadcast journalism to fintech and eventually crypto. She breaks down Bitget’s strategy for global growth, how BGB could be more than just an exchange token, and what

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00:47:24

Can Bitcoin Earn You Yield Without Leaving Your...

Talking Tokens ·

2025/07/31

On today’s Talking Tokens episode, Jacquelyn sat down with Hong Sun, head of institutions at Core. Core is a bitcoin-secured, EVM-compatible L1 powering a new wave of BTCFi apps, stablecoin adoption, and yield primitives without requiring bitcoin to leave holders’ wallets.Hong walks through how Core uses bitcoin time locks to enable staking and yield generation, what "dual staking" means for institutional safety and returns, and how Core partners with firms like Maple Finance, Copper, and

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00:46:21

Inside Telegram's Gaming Revolution | TON Foundation...

Talking Tokens ·

2025/07/29

On this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Simon Davis, co-founder and CEO of Mighty Bear Games, and Martin Masser, head of growth at TON Foundation. The two combined forces to shape the future of gaming and digital collectibles inside Telegram. Simon breaks down the story behind Mighty Action Heroes and why his studio pivoted to build on TON. Martin shares how TON-powered Telegram apps are quietly onboarding millions, often without users realizing they’re even interacting with

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00:37:57

What Stripe’s Crypto Play & Acquiring Privy Really...

Talking Tokens ·

2025/07/24

On this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Henri Stern, co-founder and CEO of Privy, the wallet infrastructure powering over 75 million accounts across major platforms like Hyperliquid, Blackbird, and Farcaster.Recently acquired by Stripe in June 2025, Privy continues to operate independently while scaling its innovative wallet solutions. Henri shares the vision behind simplifying crypto onboarding for developers and users alike, bridging the gap between onchain and offchain worlds

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00:51:44

Real World Assets Are the Big Crypto Narrative —...

Talking Tokens ·

2025/07/22

On today’s Talking Tokens episode, Jacquelyn sat down with Chris Yin, Co-founder and CEO of Plume Network — a blockchain built for real-world assets (RWAs). Backed by Brevan Howard, Haun Ventures and others, Plume launched mainnet in June 2025 and already accounts for over half of all RWA holders in crypto.Chris shares how Plume went from a structured product app to a full L2 chain, why most tokenized assets fail, and what it takes to make RWAs actually usable. From community-led DeFi to bottoms-up

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00:37:52

Why Token Standardization Will Power the Next Crypto...

Talking Tokens ·

2025/07/17

On today’s Talking Tokens episode, Jacquelyn sits down with Stephen Hess, founder of Metaplex and director of the Metaplex Foundation — the protocol that powers 99% of tokens and NFTs created on Solana. What ERC-20 is to Ethereum, Metaplex is to Solana — but it’s also much more than that.They discuss how Metaplex helped define the NFT era, what the new Genesis platform brings to onchain token launches, and why memecoins, stablecoins, and real-world assets are converging into a single unstoppable

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01:04:25

Tokenized Whiskey Is Real — And You Can Borrow...

Talking Tokens ·

2025/07/15

In this episode of Talking Tokens, we’re joined by Tzvi Wiesel, co-founder and CEO of BAXUS — a Solana-powered marketplace for high-end wine and spirits.We dive deep into how BAXUS is tackling inefficiencies in the alcohol market, from price mismatches and shady gray markets to turning whiskey collections into onchain collateral. Tzvi shares the journey from running whiskey festivals to running his own vaults, why Solana was the right chain, and how he’s unlocking global liquidity in a $2T+

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00:43:45

TradFi, Tokenization & DeFi Are Finally Converging —...

Talking Tokens ·

2025/07/10

In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn sits down with Annelise Osborne, Chief Business Officer at Kadena — a proof-of-work Layer 1 built by former JP Morgan blockchain leads. Kadena isn’t just another chain; it’s an ambitious bet that regulation, decentralization, and enterprise-grade tooling can live in the same ecosystem.They dive into Annelise’s Wall Street background, her work on the SEC’s ICO task force, and why she sees tokenization, smart contracts, and privacy as the keys to bridging

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162 results

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