How Crypto Neobanks Work: Frax, Cards, and Visa’s Role | Sam Kazemian
Neobanks might be the quiet coordination hack that makes Visa optional. David sits down with Frax’s Sam Kazemian to map the new payment stack: why cards today settle over Visa yet still onboard users into stablecoins, how Frax USD (payments) pairs with sFRAX USD (savings), and why Ethereum remains the “savings/issuance” base while specialized payment chains battle for flows. Sam unpacks Frax’s white-label issuance strategy and RWA plumbing, shares an institutional DD story that highlights reliability over hype, and lays out the metrics that actually matter—card acceptance, bank deposits, chain coverage, and real-world spend. If you’re tracking how stablecoins, neobanks, and RWAs converge into an on-chain economy, this one connects the pipes.
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💠BIT DIGITAL ($BTBT) | ETH TREASURY
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We’re being compensated by Bit Digital (NASDAQ BTBT) for this segment promoting their company and BTBT. The compensation is paid in cash as a one time payment. You can find additional information about Bit Digital and BTBT on their Investor page at https://bit-digital.com/investors
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TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Intro
0:54 What Is a Neobank
2:45 Crypto Neobanks & Frax’s Two-Coin Model
5:28 Strategy: Be the Pipes, Not the Card
14:48 Design: RWAs On-Chain & Compliance Surface
18:16 Cards Today, Native Pay Tomorrow
28:52 The Standards Fight
33:30 Institutional Proof Point & Growth Curve
40:28 Closed-Loop On-Chain Economy
55:36 What to Track Next
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RESOURCES
Sam Kazemian
https://x.com/samkazemian
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Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:
https://www.bankless.com/disclosures
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Why Pro Athletes Are Betting on Bitcoin, Crypto & Prediction Markets | Tristan Thompson & Paul Grewal
NBA Star Tristan Thompson and Coinbase CLO Paul Grewal break down why pro athletes are moving into Bitcoin, crypto, and onchain prediction markets.
We cover stablecoin rewards after the Genius Act, Coinbase’s fight to preserve consumer yield and staking, the CFTC vs. state path for prediction markets, and Tristan’s new onchain app, basketball.fun.
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🛞MANTLE | MODULAR L2 NETWORK
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💠BIT DIGITAL ($BTBT) | ETH TREASURY
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We’re being compensated by Bit Digital (NASDAQ BTBT) for this segment promoting their company and BTBT. The compensation is paid in cash as a one time payment. You can find additional information about Bit Digital and BTBT on their Investor page at https://bit-digital.com/investors
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TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Intro
0:54 An Athlete & a Lawyer?
2:47 Athletes Love Crypto
8:19 Bitcoin & Trust
15:16 Stablecoin Yields
18:41 Crypto vs Banks
21:34 Tristan’s Crypto Interests
26:58 Crypto’s UX
35:48 Prediction Markets
43:58 Prediction Market Regulation
48:41 Anti-Crypto Democrats
51:00 Basketball.fun
56:00 Gary Gensler’s Deleted Texts
1:00:25 Closing & Disclaimers
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RESOURCES
Tristan Paul
https://x.com/RealTristan13
Paul Grewal
https://x.com/iampaulgrewal
Basketball.fun
https://www.basketball.fun/
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Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:
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Downtober drags on… but not all is bearish. On this week’s Weekly Rollup, Ryan and David break down why sentiment feels cold despite strong BTC, and the three ways this cycle could play out. Plus, gold is ripping! Can crypto catch up?
We also cover Dankrad’s jump to Tempo, Coinbase’s Echo deal, Polymarket’s NHL play, the Fed’s potential FedWire opening, and the AI trading showdown.
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🛞MANTLE | MODULAR L2 NETWORK
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🌳KGEN | REQUEST A DEMO
https://bankless.cc/KGEN-podcast
💠BIT DIGITAL ($BTBT) | ETH TREASURY
https://bankless.cc/bit-digital
We’re being compensated by Bit Digital (NASDAQ BTBT) for this segment promoting their company and BTBT. The compensation is paid in cash as a one time payment. You can find additional information about Bit Digital and BTBT on their Investor page at https://bit-digital.com/investors
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TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES
0:00 Intro
4:00 Markets
https://x.com/QuintenFrancois/status/1980893883161882974
https://x.com/VentureCoinist/status/1979622508732276761
https://x.com/QuintenFrancois/status/1980935843763150926
https://x.com/cryptogucci/status/1981367758278578590
https://x.com/qthomp/status/1981040936890081390
https://x.com/qthomp/status/1981044811894550678
https://x.com/FinFreedom414/status/1980614441315033342
https://x.com/VentureCoinist/status/1979622508732276761
https://x.com/JasonYanowitz/status/1980620067315282091
https://x.com/Barchart/status/1979149096700031112
https://x.com/Barchart/status/1981195191110574116
https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/1980994433849135340
https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/1980994455328149603
https://x.com/elerianm/status/1976244432317096373
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/central-banks-now-hold-more-gold-than-u-s-treasuries/
https://x.com/charliebilello/status/1979553653393383654
https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/1979563634805133590
https://x.com/charliebilello/status/1979542689977667913
https://x.com/BTC_Archive/status/1980614921357283448
25:04 Trump Pardons CZ
https://x.com/WSJ/status/1981377689270231336
https://www.wsj.com/finance/currencies/trump-pardons-convicted-binance-founder-7509bd63?mod=hp_lead_pos2
https://x.com/cz_binance/status/1981404850832494666
30:19 Dankrad is moving to Tempo
https://x.com/dankrad/status/1979133618254405775
https://x.com/AggrNews/status/1979220336680833433
https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/1979900912903586286
https://x.com/EffortCapital/status/1979158689605882109
https://x.com/ethereumJoseph/status/1980279130638672175
39:04 The Fight for Bitcoin’s Soul - Neutral blockspace or Bitcoin only
https://x.com/BitMEXResearch/status/1978545931600511157
https://www.bankless.com/read/bitcoins-nft-schism-is-intensifying
https://x.com/VitalikButerin/status/1978643578328137883
https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/1979188770747408728
48:25 Coinbase bought Cobie’s Echo
https://x.com/cobie/status/1980579379244855384
https://x.com/A_Leutenegger/status/1980589269891837972
https://x.com/TheEylon/status/1981405829010956687
https://x.com/CryptoKaleo/status/1980385803630227570
https://x.com/brian_armstrong/status/1981410026746261971
53:41 Polymarket announces they’re the Official Prediction Market for the NHL
https://x.com/shayne_coplan/status/1981016949309239616
https://x.com/Kalshi/status/1980976183241240858
https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/1981024439887151337
https://x.com/zoomerfied/status/1981010074093969831
56:57 OpenSea wants to become “trade everything” app
https://x.com/dfinzer/status/1979200646763929835
58:45 FED is going to give crypto companies direct access to its Fedwire
https://www.theblock.co/post/375513/waller-signals-feds-shift-toward-embracing-crypto-proposes-skinny-master-account-for-payment-innovators
https://x.com/CoinDesk/status/1980728462022529203
https://polymarket.com/event/who-will-trump-nominate-as-fed-chair?tid=1761236821603
https://www.therage.co/us-btc-forfeiture/
https://x.com/francispouliot_/status/1978129578754191580
1:04:04 AI models entered a trading competition
https://x.com/jay_azhang/status/1979312946154033227
https://nof1.ai/
https://nof1.ai/leaderboard
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fijrhqJ88Sc&t=457s
1:06:30 RSA excited about AI - give your AI a wallet to spend with x402
https://x.com/CoinbaseDev/status/1981064709555310825
https://nexus.thirdweb.com/
https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/1980985187484758401
1:08:33 Closing & Disclaimers
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Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:
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State Of Crypto 2025 | a16z Crypto — Eddy Lazzarin & Daren Matsuoka
a16z crypto’s CTO Eddy Lazzarin and partner Daren Matsuoka return for our annual State of Crypto to map where 2025 really is on the curve: a price–innovation cycle poised to hand the baton back to builders, Bitcoin holding ~50% share, and 70M people now using crypto on-chain out of 716M owners. We dig into why institutions are actually shipping (not just PR), how stablecoins now rival Visa-scale volumes and sit among top U.S. Treasury holders, why DEX spot share near 20% changes price discovery, and how perps, infra throughput, and fee-switch economics are reshaping revenue across chains. Plus: prediction markets’ second act, the AI×crypto handshake (agents, proof-of-humanity, IP), and Bitcoin’s long-dated quantum dilemma.
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💠BIT DIGITAL ($BTBT) | ETH TREASURY
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We’re being compensated by Bit Digital (NASDAQ BTBT) for this segment promoting their company and BTBT. The compensation is paid in cash as a one time payment. You can find additional information about Bit Digital and BTBT on their Investor page at https://bit-digital.com/investors
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TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Price–Innovation Cycle: Where We Are Now
3:46 Bitcoin Dominance & Market Correlations
12:09 User Geography & Adoption: MAUs vs Owners
20:15 Institutions & TradFi: Motives, Stablecoins, Integration
27:40 Stablecoin Scale: Volumes, Treasuries & Dollar Power
39:03 Stablecoin Decoupling & DeFi Growth
42:33 Perps, Protocol Revenue & Prediction Markets
47:55 Infrastructure: TPS, Scalability & Bottlenecks
49:51 Token Valuation & Chain Revenue
59:24 Bitcoin’s Quantum Risk: Paths & Responses
1:02:48 AI × Crypto: Use Cases & Decentralization
1:04:00 Outlook & Closing: Predictions & Cycle Top?
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RESOURCES
Eddy Lazzarin
https://x.com/eddylazzarin
Daren Matsuoka
https://x.com/DarenMatsuoka
a16z’s Quantum Computing Podcast
https://a16zcrypto.com/posts/podcast/quantum-computing-what-when-where-how-fact-vs-fiction/
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Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:
https://www.bankless.com/disclosures
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Why This Crypto Cycle is Over | Michael Nadeau's DeFi Report #7
Is the crypto cycle already over, or is this just a reset before one last push? Michael Nadeau from The DeFi Report joins Ryan to break down why he went 70% cash ahead of the flash crash, what late-cycle data he’s watching, and the signals that would flip him back risk on. We dig into Bitcoin’s 50-week moving average, ETH’s $8–10K scenarios, slowing ETF flows, rising leverage, and whether global liquidity and AI could still drive a melt-up. Michael explains why this cycle has felt muted, what would confirm a top, and how he’s positioning into year-end.
Michael Nadeau & The DeFi Report:
https://x.com/JustDeauIt
https://thedefireport.io/
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📣BIT DIGITAL ($BTBT) | ETH-FIRST PUBLIC COMPAN
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We’re being compensated by Bit Digital (NASDAQ BTBT) for this segment promoting their company and BTBT. The compensation is paid in cash as a one time payment. You can find
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🛞MANTLE | MODULAR L2 NETWORK
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💠BIT DIGITAL ($BTBT) | ETH TREASURY
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We’re being compensated by Bit Digital (NASDAQ BTBT) for this segment promoting their company and BTBT. The compensation is paid in cash as a one time payment. You can find additional information about Bit Digital and BTBT on their Investor page at https://bit-digital.com/investors
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TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES
0:00 Intro
0:48 Crypto Cycle: Is It Over? Mike's Risk-Off Strategy
https://thedefireport.io/research/portfolio-update
2:15 Flash Crash Insights
3:14 Crypto Investor Profiles
https://thedefireport.io/
5:40 Understanding Market Cycles https://thedefireport.io/research/cycle-awareness-update#fear-greed-index
7:34 Late Cycle Analysis https://thedefireport.io/research/cycle-awareness-update#fear-greed-index
12:41 Shifting to Risk Off
https://thedefireport.io/research/portfolio-update
18:54 On-Chain Data Insights https://thedefireport.io/research/where-might-eth-top#scenario-analysis-for-eth
21:47 Stages of the Cycle
https://thedefireport.io/research/cycle-awareness-update#fear-greed-index
26:12 Wealth Distribution Phase
https://thedefireport.io/research/cycle-awareness-update#fear-greed-index
28:15 Realized Profits Comparison https://thedefireport.io/research/cycle-awareness-update#fear-greed-index
32:00 Global Liquidity Discussion
https://x.com/RaoulGMI/status/1977140156386660654 https://x.com/RaoulGMI/status/1977498706510487748
33:52 Gold vs. Bitcoin
https://x.com/merlijntrader/status/1978793051062509966
1:01:52 The Shittiest Bull Market Ever
https://x.com/cryptorbion/status/1979614717707489461
1:08:31 What Would Change Mike's Mind?
https://www.coinglass.com/bull-market-peak-signals
1:17:14 Future of the DeFi Report
https://thedefireport.io/research/portfolio-update
https://thedefireport.io/
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Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:
https://www.bankless.com/disclosures
New Zealand