Agentic Payments - the Builder’s Perspective Pantera Capital 2026-04-14 | Mason Nystrom sits down with Cuy Sheffield (Visa Crypto) and Jay Yu (Pantera Capital) to explore the future of agentic payments at the intersection of AI, crypto, and cards.Stablecoin supply grew 40% in 2025. Adjusted transaction volume grew 90%. X402 and the Machine Payment Protocol are live. Visa CLI is in beta. Agentic commerce is no longer a concept. It is happening right now.Key Topics:- Stablecoin growth in 2025: 40% supply expansion, 90% growth in adjusted transaction volume- Stablecoin-linked cards: why wallets need card credentials to reach 150 million merchants on day one- Vibe coders as the most exciting customer segment on the planet and why headless merchants serve them best- The three generations of small business: brick and mortar, e-commerce, and the headless merchant endpoint you can build in an hour from bed- One human companies: why the barrier to starting a business has never been lower- Killing the API key: why wallet-based identity over X402 and MPP is a 10x better developer experience- Visa CLI: how Visa built a card-based agent payment tool for vibe coders, starting by solving their own problems- Why the value of software is trending to zero and trust plus distribution is the only remaining moat01:08 How Stablecoins Grew 40% in 202502:42 Why Stablecoins Work Like Cards04:16 Visa's Payment Infrastructure Play05:14 Permissionless vs Vertical Stablecoin Networks07:32 Agentic Payments: Real vs Hype09:04 x402: The Agenctic Inflection Point09:30 Killing API Keys With Wallets13:00 Building for the Vibe Coder14:54 Cards vs Crypto: The Real Debate16:50 What Actually Works for Builders18:49 Cross-Chain Payment Infrastructure21:36 Keys, Wallets & User Experience24:36 Future of Autonomous Payments29:13 What Gets Builders Most Excited34:31 Agentic Payment Holy GrailsThe views expressed in the podcast are those of the individual personnel quoted and are not the views of Pantera Capital Partners LP or its affiliates ("Pantera"). The podcast is provided for informational purposes only to provide market commentary and for general educational purposes, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. The podcast is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest. Please see additional important disclosures related to the content discussed in the podcast here.
Latest On the CLARITY Act: Heres Whats Next for Digital Asset Regulation Pantera Capital 2026-09-16 | The CLARITY Act did not advance in the Senate. Prediction markets now put 2026 passage in the single digits. Mason Nystrom sits down with Katrina Paglia, Chief Legal Officer at Pantera Capital, to break down what the path forward looks like for digital asset regulation in the US.Key Topics:- Why CLARITY failed: the conflicts of interest provisions around what federal employees can hold and invest in became the sticking point, not the bank and exchange yield fight that was already compromised months ago- The three scenarios from here: restart negotiations before midterms, wait for the next Congress, or let the agencies fill the gap. Only one of those is realistic right now.- Reg CA explained: two capital raising exemptions at $5M and $75M, disclosure requirements built for tokenomics and governance rather than IPO-style filings, and a self-certification off-ramp into commodity status- Why the SEC and CFTC collaboration matters more than people realize, and what institutions should take from it as they move into tokenized assets beyond treasuries and money markets- What Katrina is watching next: prediction market regulation, split decisions in the Ninth and Third Circuits, and a case that may be headed to the Supreme Court01:44 Why the Ethics Provisions Killed the Bill03:37 How the SEC and CFTC Are Filling the Gap04:16 Reg CA: The Capital Raising Unlock for Early-Stage Projects07:21 What This Means for Tokenization and Institutional Adoption08:58 The Pendulum Risk of Agency-Led Rulemaking10:18 Will a Future CLARITY Act Pass?11:14 Prediction Markets: The Next Regulatory Battle to WatchThe views expressed in the podcast are those of the individual personnel quoted and are not the views of Pantera Capital Partners LP or its affiliates ("Pantera"). The podcast is provided for informational purposes only to provide market commentary and for general educational purposes, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. The podcast is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest.
Stop Renting GPUs: Why Owning Your AI Hardware is Cheaper #shorts Pantera Capital 2026-08-12 | We are entering a new era where having an "LLM in your pocket" is the standard, and direct control over your AI infrastructure is everything.
Why AI Builders Need to Own Their Compute with B3 Pantera Capital 2026-08-11 | Franklin Bi sits down with Daryl Xu and Viktoriya Hying, co-founders of B3, and Yorke Rhodes (NYU) to announce the launch of B3IQ and explore why owning your own compute is becoming essential for anyone running open source AI.Open source models are catching up fast, but the hardware to run them is gatekept. Frontier labs have locked up hyperscaler capacity years in advance. Researchers get their accounts banned for studying human trafficking. Startups get put in line for last-generation chips. B3IQ is a rent-to-own platform that lets anyone own NVIDIA hardware, run private AI on it, and monetize idle capacity so the machine pays for itself.Key Topics:Why the long tail is locked out: frontier labs reserve hyperscaler capacity two to five years in advance, leaving researchers, startups, and prosumers with no place in line or only older-generation hardwareThe content filter problem: NYU students researching evacuations in war zones and human trafficking get flagged and account-banned by closed models, and running open weights locally is the only workable pathThe iPhone moment for compute: B3IQ's rent-to-own model drops the upfront cost of a 400K H200 cluster to roughly 120K, with ownership in about two years, hosted and managed in a secure Oregon facilityOwning beats renting on the math: two years of renting an eight-GPU H200 node costs roughly the same as buying it outright, and idle capacity can be matched with offtake so the machine pays for itselfOpen source is closing the gap: Kimi K3 matches frontier performance on some agentic coding tasks, but running it takes two H200 nodes, which is exactly why hardware access is the bottleneck, not model quality01:23 From Coinbase to Gaming to AI: The B3 Journey05:28 The Research Wall: Content Filters and Token Limits at NYU11:02 The Hyperscaler Long Tail Problem16:16 The Economics: Why Frontier Labs Locked In Their Model Gains18:19 Rent-to-Own: How the B3IQ Financing Model Works20:10 The iPhone Moment for Compute29:27 Why Own the Box When Neo Clouds Exist?40:24 The Five-Year Vision: A 50-Megawatt Facility and Price TransparencyThe views expressed in the podcast are those of the individual personnel quoted and are not the views of Pantera Capital Partners LP or its affiliates ("Pantera"). The podcast is provided for informational purposes only to provide market commentary and for general educational purposes, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. The podcast is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest.
Why AI Agents Need Infrastructure Before Intelligence with Orthogonal Pantera Capital 2026-07-29 | Mason Nystrom sits down with Christian Pickett and Bera Sogut, co-founders of Orthogonal, to explore why the agent economy needs infrastructure before it needs more intelligence, and how Orthogonal is building the missing layer that lets AI agents discover, call, and pay for services on their own.The problem: an agent can decide what to do but cannot do it. Using a new service requires another integration, another API key, another contract, and another bill, each set up by a human. Orthogonal connects dozens of verified providers through one API an agent can access autonomously, paying per call in cents rather than per seat or subscription.Key Topics:- The missing layer: agents can reason and decide but cannot act autonomously because every new service requires a human to set up accounts, manage API keys, and handle billing across multiple providers- Why micropayments finally make sense in an agentic world: agents follow policies, track spend automatically, and can transact at sub-cent levels that humans never would, collapsing the per-seat subscription model- The agentic payments standards war: X402, MPP, Nano Payments, ACP, and UCP are all competing, and Orthogonal is taking a protocol-agnostic stance, supporting all of them so providers get discovered regardless of which wins- The human internet vs the agent internet: agents will not browse websites, compare pricing pages, or fill out forms. A parallel agent-native internet with its own discovery layer, GEO over SEO, is forming right now- Full autonomy is not the end state: human preferences need to be baked into every long-horizon task, and the agent that lives with you proactively, monitoring your calendar and deals and acting before you ask, is the next frontier01:40 The Workflows Agents Need Most: GTM, Lead Gen, and Data Enrichment03:30 One MCP to Access All Providers: How Orthogonal Works07:05 Agentic Payments in the Wild: What Orthogonal Is Seeing Today11:42 Credit Cards vs Stablecoins: How Agent Payments Will Evolve17:06 What Most People in AI Get Wrong About Agents18:48 The Human Internet vs the Agent Internet20:28 Quick Fire: Personal AI Stacks, Credit Cards vs Blockchain, and What They Changed Their Mind On25:11 What to Expect from Orthogonal in the Next Six to Twelve MonthsThe views expressed in the podcast are those of the individual personnel quoted and are not the views of Pantera Capital Partners LP or its affiliates ("Pantera"). The podcast is provided for informational purposes only to provide market commentary and for general educational purposes, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. The podcast is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest.
The State of U.S. Blockchain Regulation with Hyperliquid Policy Center Pantera Capital 2026-07-15 | Mason Nystrom sits down with Jake Chervinsky, CEO of the Hyperliquid Policy Center and former chief policy officer at the Blockchain Association, to break down the three policy battles that will define crypto's next era: perps, prediction markets, and the CLARITY Act.Hyperliquid is the most exciting thing built in crypto. Perps are a better derivative than futures, options, or swaps. Prediction markets are a better product than sportsbooks. And yet Americans can't access any of it. That is the problem Jake is in Washington to fix.Key Topics:- The CLARITY Act: 90-95% of the details are sorted, the two remaining sticking points are ethics provisions around Trump's crypto activity and developer protections for DeFi builders, and the do-or-die timeline before August recess- Why Jake joined the Hyperliquid Policy Center: perps are a better product than anything traditional finance has built, they settle instantly on a public blockchain, and Americans can't access them- The path to regulated onchain perps in the US: the CFTC's crawl-walk-run approach, why perps are futures not swaps, and what equity perps require from both the CFTC and SEC working together- CME vs the CFTC: why the Chicago Mercantile Exchange sued to block perps from trading on registered exchanges, why Jake thinks the CFTC has both the stronger legal and policy argument, and why CME is competing in court instead of in the market- Prediction markets vs Vegas: why the CFTC has jurisdiction over event contracts as swaps, why 50-state regulation is unworkable, and why Vegas is lobbying hard to protect its sportsbook model from a better product00:00 Why Jake Joined the Hyperliquid Policy Center04:57 The Path to Regulated On-Chain Perps in the US17:03 CME Sues the CFTC to Block Perp Trading21:02 Prediction Markets vs Vegas: The CFTC Battle26:29 The CLARITY Act: Status, Sticking Points, and the August Deadline The views expressed in the podcast are those of the individual personnel quoted and are not the views of Pantera Capital Partners LP or its affiliates ("Pantera"). The podcast is provided for informational purposes only to provide market commentary and for general educational purposes, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. The podcast is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest.
TurboFlow is Building the Trading Platform Asia Has Been Missing Pantera Capital 2026-07-07 | Mason Nystrom sits down with Tony He, founder and CEO of TurboFlow, to explore why Asia has been underserved by existing perp DEXs and prediction markets, and how TurboFlow is building a new type of trading experience purpose-built for the Eastern retail trader.Hyperliquid and Polymarket dominate in the West. But in Asia, there is no equivalent. Asian traders operate in communities, expect customer support, prefer familiar centralized exchange UX, and trade completely different assets. TurboFlow is building the platform that bridges those two worlds.Key Topics:Why Asia has no Hyperliquid or Polymarket: cultural differences in trading behavior, community-driven trading, preference for CEX-style UX, and completely different asset interests like e-sports and cricketWhy prediction markets are winning with retail: click yes or no on anything you have an opinion on, no knowledge of crypto or margin trading required, lower barrier than perps, higher conversion and retentionBuilding a trading platform that lasts: safety, liquidity, asset differentiation, customer service, and intuitive UX are all table stakes. You need a minimum viable level of all of them.Lessons from co-founding Amber Group: bear markets are for building, retail and institutional are completely different businesses, and focus on process over outcomesTurboFlow's 18-month roadmap: dominate Asian prediction markets, expand from crypto-only to 50 assets including commodities, RWAs, and FX, and win short-term binary outcome products00:00 Why Asia Has No Hyperliquid or Polymarket01:56 The Perps Market Today: $9 Trillion, Only 200K Daily Traders06:07 Why Prediction Markets Beat Perps for Retail11:18 What Actually Matters When Building a Trading Platform14:45 Lessons from Co-Founding Amber Group18:46 Quick Fire: Bear Market Timing, 18-Month Roadmap,The views expressed in the podcast are those of the individual personnel quoted and are not the views of Pantera Capital Partners LP or its affiliates ("Pantera"). The podcast is provided for informational purposes only to provide market commentary and for general educational purposes, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. The podcast is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest.
MoneyGram Is Bringing Stablecoins to 60 Million Users with M0 Pantera Capital 2026-06-24 | Mason Nystrom sits down with Anthony Soohoo (MoneyGram) and Luca Prosperi (M0) to explore the future of money creation and movement, why stablecoins are not the product but the foundation, and how MoneyGram's 60 million customers are about to get access to financial services they have never had before.Having a stablecoin is not the differentiator. What you need to do is build kickass products and services on top of it. That is what unlocks adoption. MoneyGram and M0 are building those products together with MGUSD, a stablecoin purpose-built for MoneyGram's global network of 60 million active customers.Key Topics:- Why MoneyGram built its own stablecoin MGUSD instead of integrating USDC or USDT: control over economics, features, and the ability to verticalize like Apple did with its chips- M0's infrastructure play: building the smart contract layer that powers, connects, and enables hundreds of different tokenized dollar platforms, from MoneyGram to PayPal and Visa- Just having a stablecoin is not the differentiator: distribution wins, and why the App Store analogy explains why stablecoin adoption is really about what you build on top- The moats that survive AI and stablecoins: distribution at scale, regulatory relationships, trust, and the personal connections that no AI can replicateStablecoin supply forecast: $500B by 2027, $1 trillion by 2030, and why the real inflection point is large-scale platforms like MoneyGram integrating stablecoins into their payment infrastructure, migrating their entire network onto stablecoins03:30 Why MoneyGram Launched MGUSD06:00 How M0 Powers Stablecoin Infrastructure08:00 Why MoneyGram Built Its Own Stablecoin Instead of Using USDC11:30 Distribution Wins: The Real Stablecoin Differentiator17:00 Having a Stablecoin Is Not Enough: Build on Top of It18:00 How AI and Stablecoins Are Compressing Revenue Moats24:00 MoneyGram Becoming an Open Network: The Kraken Partnership27:30 Quick Fire: Stablecoin Supply Predictions for 2027 and 2030The views expressed in the podcast are those of the individual personnel quoted and are not the views of Pantera Capital Partners LP or its affiliates ("Pantera"). The podcast is provided for informational purposes only to provide market commentary and for general educational purposes, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. The podcast is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest.
Tokenization Is the Next ETF with WisdomTree Pantera Capital 2026-06-04 | Franklin Bi (Pantera Capital) sits down with Jeremy Schwartz, Global CIO, and Maredith Hannon, Head of Business Development for Digital Assets at WisdomTree, to explore why tokenization is doing to ETFs what ETFs did to mutual funds, and how WisdomTree is building the infrastructure to make that happen.WisdomTree has been at the frontier of every major wrapper evolution in asset management. From alternatively-weighted indexes to ETFs, and now to tokenized real world assets on eight public chains. With over $700M in AUM growing 6x year over year, their tokenized money market fund WTGXX is already being used for corporate treasury sweeps, cross-border payroll, and stablecoin reserve management.Key Topics:- The ETF analogy: tokenization is to ETFs what ETFs were to mutual funds, democratizing access from brokerage accounts to smartphones, and WisdomTree has been building for this moment for years-Why public chains over permissioned chains: permissioning belongs at the token level, not the chain level, and the real users are already on public chains- WTGXX in practice: $700M AUM growing 6x year over year, used for corporate treasury sweeps via StableC, cross-border vendor payments, and payroll via Toku and Plume with block-by-block yield accrual- The product roadmap: from money markets and treasuries to equity betas, derivatives, and option income strategies, and why WisdomTree rebalanced 3,000 model portfolios with JP Morgan and Apollo using smart contracts- Rookie mistake and pleasant surprise: trust matters more in crypto than anyone expects, and Europe led the US on crypto ETPs by five years00:00 WisdomTree's History and the ETF Revolution03:00 Why Public Chains Beat Permissioned Chains05:55 Deploying onto Five EVM Chains in One Day09:20 Introducing WTGXX: The Tokenized Money Market Fund13:00 Corporate Treasury, Payroll, and Real-World Use Cases20:10 Moving Up the Risk Curve: Derivatives and Equity Betas25:30 On-Chain Rebalancing with JP Morgan and Apollo29:30 WisdomTree's Two-Year Vision: $15B and Beyond32:45 Rookie Mistakes: Trust in Crypto Is Everything35:00 Pleasant Surprise: Europe Led the US on Crypto ETPsThe views expressed in the podcast are those of the individual personnel quoted and are not the views of Pantera Capital Partners LP or its affiliates ("Pantera"). The podcast is provided for informational purposes only to provide market commentary and for general educational purposes, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. The podcast is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest.
Why Blockchain VCs are Betting On Korea Pantera Capital 2026-06-01 | Franklin Bi and Jonathan Gieg (Pantera Capital) sit down with Steve Kim and Heechang Kang from Four Pillars Research to discuss why Korea is one of the most important and most misunderstood crypto markets in the world, and why Pantera just led their Series A.Korea has the highest ChatGPT and Claude subscription rate per capita in the world. Kakao Pay just joined the X402 Foundation. Korean pension funds are considering Bitcoin as a portfolio diversification asset. And a new STO legislation passed in January is expected to become a major bridge between crypto and traditional finance. The institutional wave is coming.Key Topics:- Why the West misunderstands Korea: trading volumes overwhelm the narrative, but Korea is actually the world's most aggressive early adopter of new technology, from 5G and open banking to ChatGPT and Claude Code- Agentic commerce in Korea: Kakao and Toss are already building payment rails for the agent era, KakaoPay joined X402, and pay-as-you-go AI payments are on the verge of exploding the same way subscriptions did- The Terra shadow and the builder economy: Terra's collapse devastated Korea's crypto builder culture, but institutional adoption from firms like Mirae Asset is slowly rebuilding credibility and drawing developers back in- Four Pillars' APAC expansion: from Korea to Japan, Hong Kong, and Southeast Asia via the Asia Stablecoin Alliance, and why blockchain is the distribution rail that lets Korean fintech companies like Toss finally compete globally00:00 Pantera Invests in Four Pillars from Seoul01:00 Why the West Misreads Korea04:30 AI Adoption and Agentic Commerce in Korea 8:30 Korean Crypto Regulation Before and After12:10 STO Legislation and the Institutional Wave 16:20 Top Crypto Verticals in the Korean Market 32:00 What Western Companies Should Know Before Coming to Korea 36:40 The Terra Collapse and the Builder Economy The views expressed in the podcast are those of the individual personnel quoted and are not the views of Pantera Capital Partners LP or its affiliates ("Pantera"). The podcast is provided for informational purposes only to provide market commentary and for general educational purposes, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. The podcast is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest. Please see additional important disclosures related to the content discussed in the podcast here.
How World ID Is Redefining Internet Identity Pantera Capital 2026-05-28 | Mason Nystrom sits down with three leaders from Tools for Humanity and World ID to explore how proof of human is redefining identity on the internet in the age of AI agents.We are moving from a majority of humans with a few bots to a majority of bots with a few humans. That is not necessarily bad. But it makes knowing who the real humans are more important than ever. World ID is the identity layer built to answer that question at scale, privately, and without collecting your data.Key Topics:- Why proof of human is the foundational layer the agentic internet needs: from public discourse manipulation and catfishing to deepfake wire fraud, the cost of not knowing who is human is rising fast- World ID as a credential stack: Orb verification as the gold standard, Selfie Check as the entry point, and school, work, and national IDs layered on top, all privacy-preserving and held on your own device- Agent delegation and human continuity: how World ID lets your agent book flights, make purchases, and act on your behalf while keeping a verified human accountable for every action via Agent Kit- Why blocking all bots is the wrong answer: how World ID enables good agents to access platforms frictionlessly while bad actors are penalized, and why this unlocks the next wave of consumer agentic use cases- World ID vs Face ID: why uniqueness is the missing piece, how one person with 1,000 phones can fool Face ID but not World ID, and why anonymous verification protects users and partners alike01:00 Tiago Sada on Proof of Human in the Agent Age05:40 Scaling to 40 Million Verified Humans07:07 What Tiago Is Most Excited About Next08:50 Andy Wang on World as the Identity Layer10:00 Good Bots vs Bad Bots: Why Blocking All Traffic Is Wrong13:02 Restaurant Reservations, Scalpers, and Proof of Human17:00 Tawanda Mahere on What Partners Are Looking For22:08 The Consumer Value of World ID23:15 Agent Kit and Human-in-the-Loop Commerce25:21 World ID vs Face ID: Why Uniqueness Changes Everything29:00 Orb On Demand and How to Get Verified TodayThe views expressed in the podcast are those of the individual personnel quoted and are not the views of Pantera Capital Partners LP or its affiliates ("Pantera"). The podcast is provided for informational purposes only to provide market commentary and for general educational purposes, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. The podcast is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest. Please see additional important disclosures related to the content discussed in the podcast here.
How Tinder Uses World ID to Fight AI Catfishing & Bots Pantera Capital 2026-05-21 | Mason Nystrom sits down with Mark Kantor, Chief Product Officer at Tinder, to discuss how Tinder is partnering with World to bring proof of human verification to 190 countries and combat AI catfishing.The problem: the rise of bots and synthetic content is making it harder and harder to tell who is real online. On a platform built entirely on human to human connection, that is an existential challenge. Tinder's answer is World ID, already live in Japan and now expanding to the US.Key Topics:- Tinder's World ID integration: how a pilot in Japan cut age verification from 30 minutes to under 2 minutes, and seconds for already-verified users- No more catfishing: how World ID moves toward ensuring the person behind a profile matches their photos- Orders of magnitude improvement: why the 30-minute to 2-minute reduction was far beyond what the team expected- Expanding to 190 countries: Tinder announcing the US rollout and what global scale looks like for World ID- Proof of human plus uniqueness: why Tinder needs to know not just that you are human, but that you only have one account- The long-term vision: World building out capabilities so fewer tools are needed to check more boxes00:23 Introduction00:45 The World ID Partnership & Japan Pilot02:30 Why Japan Was the Right Market to Start03:27 Scaling to 190 Countries & the US Expansion04:02 How Tinder Uses AI Without Replacing Humans06:22 Verifying Humanity in the Age of AIThe views expressed in the podcast are those of the individual personnel quoted and are not the views of Pantera Capital Partners LP or its affiliates ("Pantera"). The podcast is provided for informational purposes only to provide market commentary and for general educational purposes, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. The podcast is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest. Please see additional important disclosures related to the content discussed in the podcast here.
Okta Is Creating the Trust Layer for the Agent Economy Pantera Capital 2026-05-19 | Mason Nystrom sits down with Gareth Davies, Chief Product Officer at Okta, to explore how identity is becoming the most critical primitive in the agentic economy and why Okta's partnership with World ID is the foundation that makes trusted agent commerce possible.Without a trust layer that binds agents to verified humans, commerce breaks down, fraud proliferates, and the full potential of the agentic economy cannot be unlocked.Key Topics:- The agentic landscape today: real scaled applications and agentic experiences are being built, but identity and security are foundational blockers- Binding agents to humans: why trust is lost the moment you cannot verify that an agent is working on behalf of a real, verified individualThe proliferation of agents: there are now more agents than humans, and the - World ID as the trust credential: how a verified human identity can be transacted and bound to an agent so downstream service providers can trust who is calling their APIs- Why trust unlocks commerce: when you can trust, new product experiences and B2B commerce models become possible that simply cannot exist without it- Auth0 for AI agents: a suite of tools to help developers manage the full agent life cycle- The economic value of verified identity: as agents take over more aspects of labor, knowing a human is behind them becomes increasingly valuable0:20 Introduction0:45 The state of agentic innovation & why identity is foundational 1:40 Okta x World ID partnership3:25 Economics of trust & verification 4:35 AI Agents as first-class principals The views expressed in the podcast are those of the individual personnel quoted and are not the views of Pantera Capital Partners LP or its affiliates ("Pantera"). The podcast is provided for informational purposes only to provide market commentary and for general educational purposes, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. The podcast is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest. Please see additional important disclosures related to the content discussed in the podcast here.
Vercel Is Building the Infrastructure Layer for Human Verified Agents Pantera Capital 2026-05-12 | Mason Nystrom sits down with Tom Occhino, Chief Product Officer at Vercel, to explore how Vercel is evolving from the front-end cloud into agentic infrastructure, and why their partnership with World ID is giving humans a way to be first-class citizens of the internet again.The insight: proof of human is not just bot protection. It inverts the entire model. Instead of asking whether something is a bot, developers can now build software that is human-only by default and then decide what access to grant to agents operating on a human's behalf.Key Topics:- Vercel as agentic infrastructure: three parts, deploy software with agents, build and run agents, and a self-improving platform that sends pull requests to fix its own errors- From framework-defined infrastructure to agentic infrastructure: the evolution of Vercel's core product philosophy- Why proof of human is the perfect poster child for Workflows: a multi-step async process that becomes one line of code- CAPTCHAs are archaic: why the entire model of bot detection is broken and needs to be inverted- Human-only by default: the new model where software starts as human-only and then grants access to agents that have a verified human backing them- Trust scores and Uber-style ratings for agents: how proof of human enables differentiated experiences for humans versus bots- Getting started: one NPM package, one line of code, and the Workflow SDK makes World ID integration dead simple- Concert tickets, sneaker drops, and high-cost actions: the real-world use cases where human verification is non-negotiable00:00 Vercel's Agentic Infrastructure01:45 From Front-End Cloud to v0 03:15 Workflows and React for Backends 05:30 World ID in One Line of Code 07:00 Beyond CAPTCHAs: Humans First The views expressed in the podcast are those of the individual personnel quoted and are not the views of Pantera Capital Partners LP or its affiliates ("Pantera"). The podcast is provided for informational purposes only to provide market commentary and for general educational purposes, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. The podcast is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest. Please see additional important disclosures related to the content discussed in the podcast here.
How AI Agents Can Launch New Businesses in Minutes with Visas Head of Crypto Pantera Capital 2026-04-28 | Visa’s Head of Crypto, Cuy Sheffield, discusses why we are entering the "Third Generation" of small businesses. Cuy explains how vibe coding and AI agents are lowering the barrier to entry to zero.Imagine running hundreds of businesses from your phone with no employees, no website, and no co-founder.In this video, we cover:-The 3 Generations of Business: From physical shops to "Agent-Native" endpoints.- The Tech Stack: How Stablecoins and APIs are replacing traditional storefronts.- The One-Human Company: Why the next millionaires won't hire staff.The flywheel is turning. As AI agents start shopping for humans, the demand for "Headless Merchants" will explode. #AI #Visa #Crypto #VibeCoding #AIAgents
Sam Altman: I Couldnt Tell Who Was Real Anymore 🤖🌐 #shorts Pantera Capital 2026-04-22 | Sam Altman is at the center of the AI revolution, but even he is noticing a "weird" shift.While scrolling platforms like Reddit, the OpenAI CEO admitted he could no longer distinguish between human insights and AI-generated comments. His takeaway is a major signal for the future of the web: If you can't verify the human, the content loses its value.This is the core mission behind World. By solving the "Proof of Personhood" problem, Sam is building the infrastructure required to keep the internet human. At Pantera, we believe the "Identity Layer" is the most critical investment theme of 2026. If the internet is going to survive the AI surge, it needs a way to prove who is real.#SamAltman #World #OpenAI #PanteraCapital #ProofOfPersonhood #AI #Identity #Web3 #Worldcoin #TechTrends2026
Sam Altman: Proof of Human in the Age of AI Pantera Capital 2026-04-21 | Sam Altman (World/OpenAI) joins Cosmo Jiang (Pantera Capital) to discuss why proof of human is the necessary complement to powerful AI. Then Mason Nystrom turns the mic on Cosmo to break down the investment case for World.The problem: we are rapidly entering a world of infinite AI-generated content and infinite AI identities. In that world, knowing what is truly human becomes one of the most valuable primitives on the internet. World is building the cryptographically secure, verifiable proof of human layer to make that possible.Key Topics:- Why Sam Altman believes World is especially urgent now: AI is advancing faster than expected and proof of human has never been more necessary- AI as technology of abundance, World as technology of scarcity: why the two are complementary not competitive- Pantera's investment thesis: blockchain as the right infrastructure for cryptographically secure, sybil-resistant proof of human- Agents need to move money: why agentic payments are one of the things Sam is most personally excited about- Proof of human as a substrate for layered credentials: driver's licenses, education, employment, all appended to a verified human identity- Advertising as the first massive use case: a half trillion dollar industry that will pay a significant premium for verified human impressions- Dating apps, government services, and enterprise partnerships: Tinder, DocuSign, Zoom, Okta, and Versa all announcing how they will work with World ID- Human-directed agents: why proof of human accelerates agentic commerce rather than blocking it- A potential $50 billion free cash flow protocol if verified humanness generates even $5 to $10 per person per year01:27 Sam Altman Keynote at World’s Lift-Off Event02:12 Why World Was Built03:48 Blockchain x AI04:08 World ID Use Cases04:47 World's Founding Vision05:10 World ID Trajectory05:50 Why Pantera Invested in World06:45 Sam Altman Saw This Coming07:10 Proof of Human at Scale10:12 The Value of Digital Identity11:11 Agents Need a Human in the Loop11:42 Scaling to Billions of Users12:53 Enterprise PartnershipsThe views expressed in the podcast are those of the individual personnel quoted and are not the views of Pantera Capital Partners LP or its affiliates ("Pantera"). The podcast is provided for informational purposes only to provide market commentary and for general educational purposes, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. The podcast is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest. Please see additional important disclosures related to the content discussed in the podcast here.
Why AI Agents Are About to Send Trillions Into Crypto with Franklin Templeton & Ondo Finance Pantera Capital 2026-04-20 | What happens when a $1.68 trillion Wall Street powerhouse joins forces with the undisputed leader of on-chain finance?In this episode, we go deep with the architects of the new digital economy. With AI agents projected to drive over $183 trillion in transaction volume within the next five years, the financial world is facing a massive bottleneck. Traditional rails like Mastercard and Visa simply weren't built for the speed and scale of machine-to-machine commerce.We are joined by Franklin Bi (General Partner at Pantera Capital), Sandy Kaul (Head of Innovation at Franklin Templeton), and Ian De Bode (President of Ondo Finance).panteracapital.comIn this episode, we discuss:The Massive Partnership: Why Franklin Templeton is tokenizing its flagship ETFs on Ondo’s permissionless rails.The $183T Opportunity: Why "Agentive AI" requires decentralized blockchain settlements to function.Institutional Grade DeFi: How Ondo (commanding 60% of the tokenized market with $3B+ TVL) is bridging the gap between TradFi and Web3.The Death of Batch Processing: Why 24/7, instantaneous on-chain markets are the only way to support the future of commerce.About the Guests:Sandy Kaul: Head of Innovation at Franklin Templeton, overseeing $1.68T in assets and co-chair of the CFTC's Digital Asset Subcommittee.Ian De Bode: President of Ondo Finance, formerly of McKinsey & Co., leading the charge in RWA tokenization.Franklin Bi: General Partner at Pantera Capital, focused on early-stage venture and the evolution of the DeFi stack.Chapters:0:00 The $183 Trillion AI Agent Thesis1:15 Why Mastercard & Visa can’t scale for AI2:30 Tokens vs. Equity: Capturing Network Growth3:45 Bringing $1.68 Trillion in AUM On-Chain4:50 Why Permissionless Wrappers are the future for Agents#RWA #Tokenization #AIAgents #FranklinTempleton #OndoFinance #PanteraCapital #DeFi #InstitutionalCrypto #Crypto2026 #Web3Finance
The $200 Trillion Market: Agentic Payments and Cross Border FX Pantera Capital 2026-04-08 | Mason Nystrom sits down with Prabhakar Reddy, founder and CEO of OpenFX, one of Pantera's most recent portfolio companies, to explore why cross-border FX is still broken and how OpenFX is rebuilding money movement from the ground up.The problem: $4 trillion is trapped in transit at any given moment due to pre-funding, SWIFT delays, and opaque FX spreads. OpenFX bypasses this entirely using stablecoins and real-time market-making, moving money across borders in single-digit minutes, 24/7.Key Topics:- Why cross-border FX is broken: opaque spreads, pre-funding requirements, and a stack built to keep money, not move it- How OpenFX works: stablecoins replace SWIFT, real-time market-making on both sides, settlement in under 60 minutes- $4 trillion trapped in transit at any given moment and how eliminating pre-funding unlocks it- From zero to $40B+ annualized TPV in 18 months: the three factors behind OpenFX's growth- 99.99% automation: three trade ops staff processing nearly $50B in volume- Compressing FX spreads by 90-95% in every market OpenFX enters, including UAE from 50bps to single digits- The postbox to SMS analogy: why spot FX could grow from $2 trillion to $200 trillion a day- Agentic payments: why the timeline just collapsed from 7-10 years to 24-36 months- Moats in the AI era: why licensing, compliance, distribution, and brand only matter together- Lessons from co-founding FalconX: compliance first, culture by design, and why fiat still rules cross-border- Culture at OpenFX: respect, velocity, and full ownership as non-negotiables- Founder advice from a five-time founder: how you get there matters as much as where you are going00:49 Why Cross-Border FX Is Still Broken in 202503:35 GBP to MXN in Minutes: How Open FX Works07:14 $4 Trillion Stuck in Transit Right Now07:44 Zero to $40B TPV in 18 Months09:07 The 3 Factors Behind Open FX's Explosion12:08 Payments Is Going Through a Complete Upheaval14:55 AI Agents Won't Wait 3 Days for Money to Move16:42 Open FX Is Building the AWS of Money17:10 Do Fintech Moats Still Exist?18:40 Moving $100B in Crypto vs. 5 Days for Dollar Wires19:40 Why Crypto Companies Die Without Compliance20:14 Culture Is Just the Founder's Personality Scaled22:08 The World Order Is Changing: Prabhakar's Hot Take23:22 Agent Payments: From 10 Years Away to 24 Months24:35 Where a Payments Insider Would Bet Today25:47 Why There's No Universal Founder AdviceThe views expressed in the podcast are those of the individual personnel quoted and are not the views of Pantera Capital Partners LP or its affiliates ("Pantera"). The podcast is provided for informational purposes only to provide market commentary and for general educational purposes, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. The podcast is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest. Please see additional important disclosures related to the content discussed in the podcast here.
Capital Markets Are Moving Onchain with Franklin Templeton & Ondo Finance Pantera Capital 2026-04-06 | Franklin Bi (Pantera Capital) sits down with Sandy Kaul (Franklin Templeton) and Ian De Bode (Ondo Finance) to explore why tokenization is no longer a back-office experiment and how it is quietly rewiring global capital markets.The partnership: Franklin Templeton and Ondo Finance have joined forces to tokenize Franklin ETFs and bring US capital markets to hundreds of millions of people globally who have never had access via the crypto wallets and exchanges they already use.Key Topics:- Franklin Templeton's 5-year journey: launching a tokenized money market fund in 2021 and proving blockchain rails to the SEC- Ondo's model: tokenizing treasuries, stocks, and ETFs as permissionless wrappers like stablecoins, but for equities- Global access: hundreds of millions of offshore investors can now hold tokenized US assets in the same wallets they use for crypto-24/7 markets: why real-time settlement, intraday collateral, and always-on rails change everything-AI agents and tokenization: why machine-to-machine transactions at scale require blockchain rails and why this is the bridge for institutional crypto allocation-Smart wrappers vs. dumb wrappers: programming stops, rewards, and collateral directly into the asset itself-Back office to front office: 100% of Franklin Templeton's digital asset AUM comes from net new crypto-native customers-The $700M Ondo Global Markets platform: 70% market share, 5% week-over-week growth, and a whale who bought $50M of Google stock-What's next: perpetual swaps on equities, on-chain portfolio construction, Franklin Crypto multi-manager platform-Rookie mistakes: smart contract edge cases, lost private keys, and the horror of checking lifetime gas fees when ETH is at all-time highs01:57 Franklin Templeton Tokenizing in 201903:37 Proving Blockchain Efficiency to the SEC 04:30 The Transfer Agent Advantage05:55 How Ondo Tokenizes Stocks and ETFs08:15 How Ondo’s Tokenization Relate 09:05 Why Permissionless Wrappers Unlock Global Capital Markets10:48 The Real Reason Crypto Wants 24/7 Trading Access12:02 Stablecoins vs Web2 Fintech: Why Blockchain Wins13:05 Real-Time Settlement: The Death of T+214:22 Smart Contracts That Program Investor Protections16:29 24/7 Markets Create More Demand17:02 Why AI Agents Need Tokenization18:04 $183 Trillion in AI Agent Transactions by 203019:01 Legacy Systems Can't Handle Machine-to-Machine Commerce20:17 Tokenization: The Bridge to Institutional Crypto Allocations21:04 Why TradFi Needs Crypto's Innovation Stack22:02 Permissionless Wrappers: Why KYC Doesn't Scale for Agents23:37 The Moment Franklin Templeton Decided to Partner with Ondo25:14 Why Permissionless Tokens Scare Traditional Firms27:29 100% of Franklin's Digital Assets Come From Crypto Natives30:01 Opening Net New Distribution Channels, Not Just Products33:20 Success Metrics: Assets, Thought Partnership, and Experimentation35:07 Educating Crypto Natives on Diversification and ETFs36:53 When $200M Bitcoin Holders Discover Traditional Assets38:14 The Generational Shift: Crypto Natives Meet TradFiThe views expressed in the podcast are those of the individual personnel quoted and are not the views of Pantera Capital Partners LP or its affiliates ("Pantera"). The podcast is provided for informational purposes only to provide market commentary and for general educational purposes, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. The podcast is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest.
Why Blockchain is Replacing 1950s Banking #shorts Pantera Capital 2026-04-01 | Today, our banking infrastructure, credit cards, and settlement layers are still running on models designed in 1958. While the rest of the world moved to the speed of fiber optics, finance stayed in the era of paper and slow-moving intermediaries.Blockchain is finally doing to finance what the rest of the internet did to every other industry. It is the missing piece of the digital revolution. #PanteraCapital #FinTech #Blockchain #BankingReform #Web3 #Investing #FutureOfMoney #DigitalAssets #Finance2026
They bought 30,000 Bitcoin for $65 EACH 🤯 #shorts #bitcoin #btc Pantera Capital 2026-03-31 | FrIn 2013, Pantera Capital made one of the most legendary moves in crypto history: buying 30,000 Bitcoin when the price was just $65.At the time, it was called the "most asymmetric trade in history." But here is the part most people miss: The asymmetry hasn't disappeared.Despite Bitcoin's growth, the majority of institutional investors still have 0.0% exposure to digital assets and blockchain venture. We are still in the early stages of a multi-decade disruption. When trillions of dollars in institutional capital are still on the sidelines, the "early" window is still open.Go watch the full podcast with Wilfred Frost:youtu.be/0q8yJ_JszNA?si=wQbOrA8OlDAnbj-P#PanteraCapital #Bitcoin #Investing #AsymmetricTrade #WealthManagement #Finance2026 #BitcoinHistory #InstitutionalInvesting #Web3 #btc
Data Behind Bitcoin’s Multi-year View 📊⏳#shorts Pantera Capital 2026-03-30 | Bitcoin volatility often masks the underlying reality of the asset class.When you look at the historical data, a striking pattern emerges: Every investor who has held Bitcoin for a four-year period has seen a positive return. While past performance is never a guarantee of future results, this 100% historical success rate is a data point that is hard to ignore.#PanteraCapital #Bitcoin #MarketData #Investing #WealthManagement #Finance2026 #LongTermInvesting #Alpha #Institutional #danmorehead
How Crypto is Entering the S&P 500 #shorts Pantera Capital 2026-03-27 | As crypto-native companies join the S&P 500, the nature of index investing is changing.With trillions of dollars benchmarking against the index, institutional managers are now finding that having a position on the crypto economy is no longer a choice, but a structural necessity.#PanteraCapital #Investing #SP500 #Finance #InstitutionalInvesting #Blockchain #MarketTrends #WealthManagement #danmorehead
Sports Betting is Changing Rapidly #shorts Pantera Capital 2026-03-26 | We are witnessing the "Financialization of Sports."Consumer behavior is shifting rapidly. The modern bettor is no longer a "gambler" playing against a rigged house; they are a price-sensitive participant looking for an edge.They want order books, they want transparency, and they want to trade sports just like they trade equities or crypto.#PanteraCapital #Novig #SportsBetting #FinTech #Investing #PredictionMarkets #Web3 #OrderBook #Finance2026
Why 98% of Crypto Tokens Fail #shorts Pantera Capital 2026-03-25 | The harsh reality of crypto venture: 98% of projects are ultimately worth nothing.A token launch or a price pump isn't a driver of long-term value. In fact, by default, most of these assets should go straight to zero.The real challenge for investors and founders isn't just launching.It’s proving why their project belongs in the elite 2% that actually creates value.#PanteraCapital #CryptoInvesting #VentureCapital #Tokenomics #Web3 #Bitcoin #Altcoins #investing
The $20 Billion Blockchain Use Case 🏠⛓️#shorts Pantera Capital 2026-03-24 | Blockchain isn't just for digital assets.It’s rebuilding the $13 trillion mortgage market.While the world watches the charts, the real impact is happening in the infrastructure of our daily lives. Companies like Figure ($FIGR) have already moved over $20 billion of mortgages onto the blockchain, proving the technology works at scale.#PanteraCapital #Figure #RWA #Blockchain #Mortgage #FinTech #Investing #RealEstate #Finance2026
The two biggest growth areas in tech #shorts Pantera Capital 2026-03-23 | We are on the precipice of a massive technological shift.Just as ChatGPT changed the way we interact with information, we are approaching a "ChatGPT moment" for blockchain. Where thousands of AI agents begin interacting on-chain autonomously.At Pantera Capital, we believe AI and Blockchain are the two most disruptive, highest-growth areas of technology moving forward.That’s why we are focusing our efforts at this intersection, supporting the entrepreneurs who are building the infrastructure for the agentic economy.#PanteraCapital #AI #Blockchain #ChatGPT #Web3 #Investing #FutureOfTech #CryptoAI
Sports Betting is Broken (Here’s the fix) #shorts Pantera Capital 2026-03-19 | Traditional sports betting has a major flaw: if you’re actually good at it, they kick you out.They take 10% of your winnings, and if you become part of the profitable 1%, you get banned.There’s a fix:Check out our latest podcast episode with the Co-Founder and CEO of Novig: Jacob Fortinsky.#PanteraCapital #SportsBetting #FinTech #Investing #PeerToPeer #BettingStrategy #Web3 #Disruption
Prediction Markets and the Disruption of Sports Betting Pantera Capital 2026-03-19 | Mason Nystrom sits down with Jacob Fortinsky (Novig) to explore why sports betting is broken, how prediction markets are replacing the casino model, and why the $2T global sports market is ripe for disruption.Website: novig.comCareers: novig.com/careersNovig X: https://x.com/NovigThe problem: sports books take ~10% of every bet, ban profitable users, and offer no price competition. Novig introduces peer-to-peer sports markets. A free-market exchange where users get 5% better odds on average and even the chance to be the house.Key Topics:- Why sports books are broken: 10% vig, banning winners, zero price competition- Prediction markets vs. sportsbooks: introducing a peer-to-peer bid/ask model to sports- The CFTC regulatory shift: sports event contracts as financial products, nationwide liquidity- Commission-free for retail: Novig charges only institutional/algorithmic market makers- Being your own house: market makers, order books, and collecting the spread on sports- Consumer behavior shift: sports bettors now think like traders (crypto, options, meme coins)- The BetFair lesson: why European exchanges failed and why the US is different- North Star: building the most liquid, efficient global sports exchange- Founder advice: stay alive, don't chase what's hot, invest in slope over intercept- Hiring: cultural fit, team mentality, and why Novig requires NYC in-personThe views expressed in the podcast are those of the individual personnel quoted and are not the views of Pantera Capital Partners LP or its affiliates ("Pantera"). The podcast is provided for informational purposes only to provide market commentary and for general educational purposes, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. The podcast is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest. Please see additional important disclosures related to the content discussed in the podcast here.00:17 The $75M Bet on Sports Prediction Markets01:08 From StubHub Algorithms to Prediction Markets02:21 Replacing the House: Peer-to-Peer Sports Betting03:59 Do Sportsbooks Survive?06:14 Be Your Own House: The Market Maker Model08:35 How Novig Makes Money Without a Vig10:23 Why Now? The Regulatory Shift Changing Everything11:51 The Modern Sports Bettor: More Trader Than Fan14:58 Prediction Market Regulation: Lawsuits, CFTC & Congress17:45 Novig vs. DraftKings, Polymarket & Robinhood20:18 Where Prediction Markets Go From Here22:48 Quickfire: Favorite Sport to Bet On24:37 Founder Advice: Stay Alive & Don't Chase What's Hot26:22 Hiring for Culture Over Raw Talent
The Global Bitcoin Arms Race is Here #shorts Pantera Capital 2026-03-18 | We are entering a new era of sovereign finance.The United States has already signaled the start of a global arms race by establishing a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.But the real shift happens when "antagonistic" nations realize the danger of the current system.Storing a thousand years of national savings in an asset that a U.S. Treasury Secretary can "cancel" is a massive geopolitical risk.Bitcoin is the only neutral, un-cancellable alternative.In the next 3 years, the race to accumulate will become a matter of national survival.#Bitcoin #PanteraCapital #Geopolitics #ScottBessent #BitcoinReserve #Macro #Finance2026
AI Agents Won’t Need Banks #shorts Pantera Capital 2026-03-17 | AI agents are becoming the world’s newest economic participants.But they won’t be walking into a marble bank to open an account or transacting in paper money.As AI agents become more impactful, they will naturally default to blockchain assets.Crypto provides the only programmable, 24/7, and permissionless rails these agents need to exchange value.The more AI grows, the more blockchain demand follows.#AI #Crypto #Blockchain #PanteraCapital #FutureOfFinance #AIagents #Web3 #Investing #bitcoin
Death of Paper Money #shorts Pantera Capital 2026-03-16 | Paper money is losing its grip.Fiat currency is hitting local lows, and we expect that downward trend to continue for the next two decades.Investors are searching for a store of value, cycling between "old school" gold and "digital gold."Interestingly, ETF inflows for both have been neck-and-neck over the last few years.As the market rotates, we believe the cycle will swing back toward Bitcoin as it catches up to gold's market dominance.#PanteraCapital #Bitcoin #Gold #DigitalGold #Investing
The Future of Onchain Capital Markets Pantera Capital 2026-03-13 | Mason Nystrom sits down with Austin Adams (Doppler Protocol) to explore why token launches are broken, how traditional IPOs died, and what onchain capital markets can fix.The problem: 20% of all token launches in 2025 traded below their issue price. Traditional IPOs now happen at terminal valuations. OpenAI and SpaceX go public where they used to peak. Amazon IPO'd under $1B and went up 1000x in public markets. Apple went public in their second year. That doesn't happen anymore.Key Topics:• Why token launches fail: extractive pricing, poor liquidity, delayed price discovery• The death of the IPO: companies now go public at $1T+ instead of early-stage• How Circle's IPO popped 40%+ due to 3-month-old pricing (Genius Act repriced everything)• One size fits none: why custom capital markets beat cookie-cutter token launchers• Bundling price discovery with liquidity: the only way to prevent chart disasters• Why coding stops being the moat (AI can write Solidity/Rust, but can't generate novel ideas)• Ethereum vs Solana: go where the users are, the chain doesn't matter• The future: solo unicorns and micro-companies with tokenized equity01:42 Custom Capital Markets Onchain 04:18 One Size Fits None: Why Token Launches Fail07:26 Best Practices for TGEs08:34 Deep Liquidity Pools vs. ICO Fundraising10:23 Price Discovery: The Circle IPO Case Study13:21 IPOs in the 70s vs. Today: What Changed?16:57 On Chain Capital Formation: The Future of IPOs20:29 Ethereum vs. Solana: Go Where Users Are24:25 Context Is the New Moat: AI & Coding27:59 What Asset Do You Wish Was Tokenized?29:45 Founder Advice: One Good Thought a Month31:21 Rethinking L2s & the Revenue DebateThe views expressed in the podcast are those of the individual personnel quoted and are not the views of Pantera Capital Partners LP or its affiliates ("Pantera"). The podcast is provided for informational purposes only to provide market commentary and for general educational purposes, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. The podcast is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest. Please see additional important disclosures related to the content discussed in the podcast here.
The Convergence of AI and Crypto Pantera Capital 2026-01-30 | Mason Nystrom sits down with Sam Lehman (Pantera Capital) and Rishin Sharma (Solana Foundation) to explore the convergence of AI and crypto—where $211B in AI funding meets blockchain innovation.AI attracted $211 billion in VC funding in 2025 while crypto AI got just 1-3%. But the intersection is heating up. Key Topics:• Text-to-trade: AI replacing traditional crypto UX ("talk to your phone instead of navigating menus")• AI-powered wallets as the first $5B+ crypto AI consumer app• Smart contract auditing and formal verification with AI• Private AI: FHE, TEEs, and ZK proofs for enterprise• Agentic payments and X.402 enabling micropayments at scale• Why we're in an LLM bubble, not an AI bubble• Agent-to-agent commerce and the new internet economy00:57 AI and Crypto: The $211B Gap01:42 Crypto Improving AI & AI Improving Crypto03:15 UX Transformed With AI05:03 AI Co-Pilots: Trading Screens Dead?09:16 How Solana Foundation Uses AI09:47 Smart Contract Engineering with AI: Code & Audits13:51 Private AI with ZK16:47 Onboarding Consumers with AI UX18:15 Stablecoins vs Web2 Fintech19:51 x402 Unlocking Micropayments31:39 AI Winner: OpenAI, Google, AlphaGo & AlphaZero?33:07 Is Continual Learning Important In AI Age?35:03 LLM Bubble vs AI Bubble36:43 AI Valuations Pricing In Novelty38:47 Converging Crypto and AI43:37 OpenAI or Anthropic IPO in 2026?43:57 First AI x Crypto App at $5B Valuation?The views expressed in the podcast are those of the individual personnel quoted and are not the views of Pantera Capital Partners LP or its affiliates ("Pantera"). The podcast is provided for informational purposes only to provide market commentary and for general educational purposes, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. The podcast is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest. Please see additional important disclosures related to the content discussed in the podcast here.-crypto, artificial intelligence, AI crypto, blockchain, pantera capital, solana foundation, sam lehman, rishin sharma, mason nystrom, LLM bubble, OpenAI, Anthropic, crypto AI investing, private AI, AI wallets, text to trade, crypto UX, smart contracts, AI agents, agentic payments, X.402, micropayments, ZK proofs, FHE, formal verification, AI auditing, tokenization, crypto venture capital, web3, digital assets, solana, blockchain payments, agent commerce, consumer crypto, crypto 2026, AI predictions, ChatGPT, Claude, frontier models, continual learning, transformers, reinforcement learning, crypto analysis, venture investing, pantera podcast, stateful podcast
Annabelle Huang, CEO of Altius Labs | Pantera Portfolio Spotlight Pantera Capital 2026-01-15 | Join us for a 4-minute deep dive with Annabelle Huang, CEO of Altius Labs, where she breaks down her journey, vision, and the role Altius plays in the future of crypto infrastructure.🌐 Learn more about Altius Labs: https://altiuslabs.xyz/🔗 About Pantera Capital: panteracapital.comAbout this video series:Pantera Portfolio Spotlights highlight founders and teams from across the Pantera ecosystem. In each short interview, we explore what drives these builders, the problems they’re solving, and how they’re shaping the next wave of crypto innovation. Subscribe for future spotlights, insights, and founder stories from across our global portfolio.
B3 Founders | Pantera Portfolio Spotlight Pantera Capital 2026-01-15 | Join us for a 5-minute deep dive with Daryl Xu, Viktoriya Hying, and Sean Geng from B3 as they share their journey, vision, and the role B3 plays in the future of consumer crypto.🌐Learn more about B3: https://www.b3.fun🔗About Pantera Capital: panteracapital.comAbout this video series:Pantera Portfolio Spotlights highlight founders and teams from across the Pantera ecosystem. In each short interview, we explore what drives these builders, the problems they’re solving, and how they’re shaping the next wave of crypto innovation. Subscribe for future spotlights, insights, and founder stories from across our global portfolio.
Harry Kalodner, CTO of Offchain Labs | Pantera Portfolio Spotlight Pantera Capital 2026-01-15 | Join us for a 4-minute deep dive with Harry Kalodner, CTO at Offchain Labs, where he shares his journey building the leading L2 on Ethereum.🌐 Learn more about Offchain Labs and Arbitrum: offchainlabs.com🔗 About Pantera Capital: panteracapital.comAbout this video series:Pantera Portfolio Spotlights highlight founders and teams from across the Pantera ecosystem. In each short interview, we explore what drives these builders, the problems they’re solving, and how they’re shaping the next wave of crypto innovation. Subscribe for future spotlights, insights, and founder stories from across our global portfolio.
Bitcoin vs Gold: What 2026 Holds for Investors Pantera Capital 2026-01-14 | Welcome to Stateful, the Pantera Podcast. Mason Nystrom sits down with Mike Kremer (Tulip King, CounterpartyTV) and Brian Breslow (No Limit Holdings) to break down Bitcoin's 2025 underperformance vs gold and what's next for crypto. 2025 Reality Check: Bitcoin went negative while gold rallied 60%. De-dollarization happened—but nations chose gold over Bitcoin. Why? Bitcoin's $2T market cap wasn't ready to absorb central bank-scale flows. Gold's $20T was.Key Topics:- Bitcoin's bottoms-up adoption: Nations will be last, not first- Crypto's "Amazon bottom" moment and finding winners- Tether flipping Ethereum at $500B valuation (and why it's bullish)- DEXs vs CEXs: Hyperliquid's path to taking down Binance- Equity perps: 20-30% of perp volume by year-endBold Take: Losing L1 monetary premium destroys $500B of "fake" market cap but creates $50B in real businesses.0:20 Stateful Overview01:05 Bitcoin vs. Gold: 2025 Store of Value03:57 Why Bitcoin Wasn’t Ready for BRICS06:05 2026 Outlook: Catch-Up Trade or Continued Divergence?09:19 Is the Four-Year Bitcoin Cycle Dead?13:30 Bag Check: Bitcoin, Zcash, and Uranium14:43 Uranium Thesis: AI Power Gaps & 2026 Contract Rollovers17:27 Finding the “Amazon Bottom” in Altcoins19:35 Private Money Power Law22:30 Bearish or Bullish: Altcoins Are Dead Until Token Equity Is Resolved31:01 Bearish or Bullish: Quantum Threatens Bitcoin37:23 @brezshares 2026 Trends and Predictions41:24 @tulipking 2026 Trends and Predictions44:03 A Fascist Economy in 2026?48:14 Tether Flipping Ethereum51:33 Resurgence of Hyperliquid & Equity PerpsThe views expressed in the podcast are those of the individual personnel quoted and are not the views of Pantera Capital Partners LP or its affiliates (“Pantera”). The podcast is provided for informational purposes only to provide market commentary and for general educational purposes, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. The podcast is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest. Please see additional important disclosures related to the content discussed in the podcast here.-crypto, venture capital, crypto vc, blockchain investing, pantera capital, counterparty tv, no limit holdings, tulipking, mike kremer, brian breslow, mason nystrom, bitcoin vs gold, store of value, 2025 bitcoin performance, de-dollarization, brics, tether, ethereum, hyperliquid, dex vs cex, equity perps, bitcoin adoption, monetary premium, l1 tokens, solana, gold rally, stablecoins, crypto markets, amazon bottom, binance, perps trading, on-chain trading, crypto predictions 2026, digital assets, hard assets, bitcoin dominance, altcoins, crypto analysis, crypto podcast#Crypto #Bitcoin #VentureCapital #Gold #StoreOfValue #Tether #Ethereum #Hyperliquid #DeFi #DEX #Stablecoins #CryptoTrading #PanteraCapital #CryptoPodcast #2026Predictions #BitcoinAdoption #DeDollarization #EquityPerps #CryptoInvesting #BlockchainTechnology #CryptoMarkets #DigitalAssets #L1Tokens
Crypto Is Getting Tough Again Who Wins & Loses In 2026 Pantera Capital 2025-12-23 | Welcome to Stateful, the Pantera Podcast.Mason Nystrom sits down with Hootie Rashidifard (Hash3) and Alana Levin (Variant) to break down 2025's winners and losers—plus bold predictions for 2026.2025 Winners: Stablecoins ($30M→$1T volume), prediction markets, Robinhood, Stripe, Base2025 Losers: Gaming (down 96%), MetaMask, Biden-era SEC, restaking, DePIN2026 Predictions: • Crypto gets hard again (capital constrained, mission-driven founders emerge) • More crypto IPOs and M&A• Gemini likely gets acquired • Bitcoin dominance increasesTopics: Coinbase expansion, distribution moats, will incumbents win everything, prediction market volume doubling.00:20 Stateful Overview01:04 Coinbase System Update Review03:22 Distribution Wins Super Apps vs Crypto Native06:36 2025 Crypto Venture Trends11:50 Do Incumbents Capture All the Value15:25 Crypto’s Silver Lining: M&A16:32 2025 Crypto Winners26:08 2025 Crypto Losers32:38 Bearish or Bullish: Coinbase L2 Token34:29 Bearish or Bullish: BTC Dominance in 202639:37 Bearish or Bullish: 2x Market Volume in 202644:50 Bearish or Bullish: Avatar Fire and Ash Opening Week Box Office46:48 Hootie Rashidifard 2026 Predictions51:52 Alana Levin 2026 Predictions54:11 @masonnystrom 2026 Predictions-The views expressed in the podcast are those of the individual personnel quoted and are not the views of Pantera Capital Partners LP or its affiliates (“Pantera”). The podcast is provided for informational purposes only to provide market commentary and for general educational purposes, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. The podcast is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest. Please see additional important disclosures related to the content discussed in the podcast here.
State of Crypto VC: $34B Raised, 50% Fewer Deals Pantera Capital 2025-12-16 | Welcome to Stateful, the Pantera Podcast.In our inaugural episode, host Mason Nystrom sits down with two of crypto's most experienced investors: Paul Veradittakit, Managing Partner at Pantera Capital with 11 years investing in the space, and Franklin Bi, General Partner who founded JP Morgan's blockchain team before joining Pantera seven years ago.What We Cover:The venture landscape has transformed dramatically since the metaverse mania of 2021-22. While total fundraising hit an all-time high of $34 billion this year, deal count has dropped nearly 50%. We break down what this flight to quality means for the industry and why later-stage rounds are dominating the market.Paul and Franklin discuss the catalysts reshaping crypto venture – from Circle's IPO finally completing the exit story for VCs, to Bitcoin ETFs opening institutional floodgates, to the explosive rise (and recent cooling) of Digital Asset Treasuries. We explore why DATs represent a fundamental shift in how markets capture value from digital assets, and where this new vehicle class goes from here.Investment Themes for the Next Cycle:Tokenization: Why this multi-decade play is still in its first inning, and how it compares to newspapers going online in the early internet eraZK-TLS and Web Proofs: The non-custodial data revolution that solves blockchain's "trash in, trash out" problemStablecoins and Payments: How regulatory clarity is unlocking the original "money over IP" visionPrediction Markets: From Polymarket's $2B raise to the democratization of information marketsBullish or Bearish:The team weighs in on:Robinhood vs. Coinbase stock (3-year time horizon)Stablecoin payment chains and the distribution advantagePrivacy as venture category vs. privacy as featureThe future of the L1 trade and application-specific chainsPlus: Real talk on token vesting schedules, the timeline discourse, and why 98% of crypto ventures are worth nothing (and why that's actually normal).This is crypto venture investing without the hype – data-driven insights from investors who've been through three -85% drawdowns and four market cycles.00:20 Stateful Introduction00:57 State of Crypto Venture – The Data01:38 Why Deal Count Dropped 50%03:53 Circle IPO & The Exit Story07:10 Digital Asset Treasuries – What’s Next?11:51 Investment Themes & Trends12:43 Tokenization Multi-Decade Play14:15 ZK-TLS and Non-Custodial Data16:28 Stablecoin Payment Rails18:10 Prediction Market Unlock21:58 Bullish or Bearish: $HOOD vs. $COIN27:54 Bullish or Bearish: Stablecoin Payment Chains34:18 Privacy as Feature vs. Product38:28 The Timeline: Vesting Schedules44:34 Is the L1 Trade Dead?www.panteracapital.com#Crypto #VentureCapital #CryptoVC #Blockchain #Bitcoin #Ethereum #Web3 #DigitalAssets #PanteraCapital #Investing #Tokenization #Stablecoins #CryptoETF #DATs #CryptoPodcast #CryptoNews #InstitutionalCrypto #DeFi #CryptoMarkets #BlockchainTechnology #StartupFunding #CryptoInvesting #Web3Investing
