CoinDesk Podcast Network

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The ABA's Case That Crypto Could Drain Community Banks Aug 14, 2026

Show notes

CoinDesk's The Policy Protocol hosts Rebecca Rettig and Renato Mariotti open on the stalled CLARITY Act and how crypto's newness in DC stacks up against TradFi's decades-old relationships. They also dig into two hot topics: Erebor raising $1.5 billion at a valuation near $9.5 billion, and FlightAware's short-lived trademark lawsuit against prediction market Kalshi. Then they sit down with Brooke Ybarra, Head of Innovation at the American Bankers Association, who breaks down the yield compromise on payment stablecoins, makes the ABA's case that stablecoin growth could pull deposits away from community banks and shrink local lending, and explains how banks of all sizes are already experimenting with tokenized money and tokenized deposits. Plus, Rebecca and Renato debrief on the bipartisan holdouts and name SEC Chair Paul Atkins as their Person of the Week.

NOTE (Aug. 14, 09:00 ET): this episode was recorded before the SEC canceled the open meeting originally scheduled for Friday.
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This episode is brought to you by RealFi, a smarter stablecoin, backed by real-world assets. Find out more at realfi.co.
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To view the ABA's recommended changes to legislative text of the Clarity Act, please see their Joint State Association Letter to the Senate: https://www.aba.com/advocacy/policy-analysis/Joint-Letter-to-the-Senate-on-the-Clarity-Act

Chapters/Timecodes:
00:00 Welcome to The Policy Protocol
01:12 CLARITY Stalls Before the August Recess
03:03 Crypto vs. TradFi: A New Entrant in DC
05:18 Why Clarity Levels the Playing Field
06:20 Hot Topic: Erebor's $1.5B Bank Raise
08:38 Hot Topic: FlightAware Sues Kalshi
12:06 Brooke Ybarra of the ABA Joins the Show
12:38 The Yield Compromise and Interest-Like Payments
14:59 The Deposit Flight Debate
17:22 How Banks Are Innovating with Tokenized Money
19:49 What Happens If CLARITY Doesn't Pass
22:45 Person of the Week: SEC Chair Paul Atkins

Wall Street Infrastructure Comes to Prediction Markets | Markets Outlook Aug 13, 2026

Show notes

DoubleZero Edge is partnering with Kalshi to deliver Wall Street-grade market data to the world's largest CFTC-regulated prediction market. Co-Founder Austin Federa joins Jennifer Sanasie on Markets Outlook to unpack why professional infrastructure took so long to reach crypto, what the 10/10 flash crash revealed about new finance's weaknesses, and why faster data could level the playing field for every trader, not just the big firms. Plus, in today's Brand New Rails, we meet the ship captain working to bring the $2 trillion commercial shipping industry on-chain.

Timecodes:

00:00 - Austin Federa Joins Markets Outlook

00:43 - DoubleZero x Kalshi: Inside the Announcement

02:30 - Why Wall Street Infrastructure Took So Long to Reach Crypto

04:36 - Brand New Rails: Tokenizing the $2 Trillion Shipping Industry

07:13 - Does Faster Data Hurt Retail Traders?

08:16 - Prediction Markets: More Than a Narrative

10:31 - Access, Disruption, and Federa's 2017 Thesis

12:13 - The Catalyst to Watch

13:11 - New Finance's Biggest Challenge

This episode is brought to you by RealFi, a smarter stablecoin, backed by real-world assets. RealFi is launching August 2026. Join the Testnet now at realfi.co.

This episode was hosted by Jennifer Sanasie.

Want to Invest in YC Startups? Robinhood Has a New Fund for That Aug 13, 2026

Show notes

Robinhood CFO and Robinhood Ventures President Shiv Verma joins CoinDesk’s Jennifer Sanasie from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on the day Robinhood Ventures Fund II began trading. Verma breaks down how the fund gives everyday investors access to early-stage Y Combinator companies at the ground floor.

Timecodes:

00:00 Robinhood Ventures Fund II Begins Trading on NYSE

00:42 Partnering With Y Combinator for Startup Access

01:11 How Robinhood Values Private Companies Using SAFEs

02:25 Fee Structure, Daily Liquidity, and No Accreditation Required

04:16 Why the Best Companies Are Staying Private Longer

06:13 Robinhood Chain, Tokenization, and the Next Bull Cycle

Kalshi Targets $40B Valuation as Revenue Hits $4B | CoinDesk Daily Aug 13, 2026

Show notes

Kalshi in talks to raise $750M at a $40B valuation.

Prediction market Kalshi is in talks to raise $750 million at a $40 billion valuation, with Sequoia and Wellington eyeing the round. The company's annualized revenue hit $4 billion in July, nearly four times rival Polymarket. CoinDesk's Jennifer Sanasie hosts "CoinDesk Daily."

This episode is brought to you by RealFi, a smarter stablecoin, backed by real-world assets. Find out more at⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ realfi.co⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

This episode was hosted by Jennifer Sanasie. “CoinDesk Daily” is produced by Jennifer Sanasie and edited by Victor Chen.

XRP Falls Below $1 for First Time Since Trump's Election | CoinDesk Daily Aug 12, 2026

Show notes

XRP's slip below $1.

XRP briefly fell below a dollar for the first time since November 2024, stalling just above $1 as an attacker drained nearly 200,000 XRP from a cross-chain bridge. CoinDesk's Jennifer Sanasie hosts "CoinDesk Daily."

This episode is brought to you by RealFi, a smarter stablecoin, backed by real-world assets. Find out more at⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ realfi.co⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

This episode was hosted by Jennifer Sanasie. “CoinDesk Daily” is produced by Jennifer Sanasie and edited by Victor Chen.

The $200 Trillion Credit Market Is Moving Onchain. Morpho Is Building the Rails. Aug 12, 2026

Show notes

Paul Frambot, co-founder and CEO of Morpho, has spent years making the case that crypto was never supposed to be a product, it was always supposed to be the pipes. In this episode of Spotlight, he breaks down how Morpho's open credit network connects borrowers with tens of thousands of lenders globally to deliver better terms, deeper liquidity, and access to credit for people the traditional system has long ignored. - Timecodes: 0:00 - "The infrastructure is the blockchain" 1:20 - What is Morpho's "open credit network"? 2:41 - How Morpho differs from Aave and Compound 4:24 - Building infrastructure vs. speculation 7:23 - Morpho Blue vs. Morpho Midnight explained 10:03 - Tokenization and expanding borrowing assets 13:26 - Apollo's 9% stake in Morpho's governance token 15:29 - What's still keeping banks off-chain 17:02 - Vision for success 18 months from now - From our sponsors: This episode is brought to you by RealFi, a smarter stablecoin, backed by real-world assets. RealFi is launching August 2026. Join the Testnet now at realfi.co. - Check out CoinDesk Research's report on Anvil's on-chain collateral layer and what it means for the future of secured credit at: https://www.coindesk.com/research/anvil-the-missing-collateral-layer

Bitcoin Miner Riot Lands $9.1B AI Deal With Anthropic | CoinDesk Daily Aug 11, 2026

Show notes

Riot Platforms' $9B AI deal.

Riot Platforms surged more than 20% after signing a $9.1 billion deal, reportedly with Anthropic, to lease AI computing capacity at its Texas campus. The move shows how bitcoin miners are reinventing themselves as AI infrastructure landlords. CoinDesk's Uyen Truong hosts "CoinDesk Daily."

This episode is brought to you by RealFi, a smarter stablecoin, backed by real-world assets. Find out more at⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ realfi.co⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

This episode was hosted by Uyen Truong. “CoinDesk Daily” is produced by Jennifer Sanasie and edited by Victor Chen.

Strategy CEO: 'We Are the Central Bank of Bitcoin' Aug 10, 2026

Show notes

On this episode of CoinDesk's Public Keys from the New York Stock Exchange, host Jennifer Sanasie is joined by co-host Tim Grant, CEO of Deus X Capital, to start off the conversation with Strategy President and CEO Phong Le. He explains why he expects Strategy to outperform Bitcoin in the next bull cycle, how its STRC product and "digital credit" framework aim to make Strategy the "JP Morgan of digital finance." Bitwise Asset Management Head of Research Ryan Rasmussen breaks down Q2 earnings from Circle, Galaxy, and American Bitcoin, arguing the market is mis-pricing Circle ahead of a multi-trillion-dollar stablecoin era. Plus, Jennifer and Tim unpack Bitcoin ETF flows, the best week since April at $853 million in net inflows, and Tim lays out his thesis on sovereign AI, data privacy, and where decentralization fits into the next wave of compute.

Learn more at bullish.com.

To get market moving news delivered daily, download CoinDesk’s mobile app: linktr.ee/coindeskapp.

Chapters/Timecodes:

00:00 Welcome to Public Keys

00:21 Sleepy Markets and 'Groundhog Week' With Tim Grant

02:08 The Coldcard Hack and the Self-Custody Debate

03:15 Strategy's Phong Le Joins Public Keys

03:46 Why Strategy Expects to Beat Bitcoin

04:20 Inside 'STRC' and the Digital Credit Play

09:38 $4.75B in Cash and the Preferred Stock Lesson

11:47 Strategy: 'The Central Bank of Bitcoin'

12:19 Where Strategy's Software Business Fits

14:55 Circle, Galaxy and American Bitcoin Earnings

15:12 Why Bitwise Says Circle Is Mispriced

19:37 Circle's Arc Mainnet and the GENIUS Act

21:07 Galaxy's Pivot From Crypto to AI

24:05 American Bitcoin and the Miner Shakeout

27:41 Trump Ties and CLARITY Act Ethics Risk

30:14 ETF Flows: Bitcoin's Best Week Since April

32:52 Tim Grant on Sovereign AI and Data Privacy

U.S. Senate Opened First Stage of Clarity Act Voting | CoinDesk Daily Aug 10, 2026

Show notes

The Senate opened the first stage of CLARITY voting.

The U.S. Senate finally took a first step into the procedural votes on the Clarity Act, after the leadership moved early Saturday to start official floor action on the crypto market structure bill. CoinDesk's Sam Ewen hosts "CoinDesk Daily."

This episode is brought to you by RealFi, a smarter stablecoin, backed by real-world assets. Find out more at⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ realfi.co⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

This episode was hosted by Sam Ewen. “CoinDesk Daily” is produced by Jennifer Sanasie and edited by Victor Chen.

ElizaOS Founder Shaw Walters on Closing the Foundation, the Burwick Lawsuit, and Why Crypto Is Failing Builders | Markets Outlook Aug 08, 2026

Show notes

In his first interview since declaring the ElizaOS token dead, Eliza Labs Founder Shaw Walters sits down with CoinDesk's Jennifer Sanasie to lay out what he says actually happened. He also makes a broader case for why crypto's casino culture is actively driving out the builders who could make the space matter and why he's still coding Eliza every day regardless.

Timecodes:

00:00 - Shaw Walters Joins CoinDesk 02:23 - “Why Do People Think I Owe Them Anything?" 06:35 - How AI16Z Started: A $75K Joke That Hit $2.6 Billion 10:49 - Does He Regret Launching the Token? 11:43 - Crypto “Needs to Die And…Be Restarted" 15:34 - On the Burwick Lawsuit: "It Was a Total Scam"18:36 - "The Casino Is Not the Industry" 20:40 - Why He’s Still Building Eliza 24:00 - "Stay Away From All of This and Invest In Yourself"

This episode was hosted by Jennifer Sanasie. This interview has been edited for clarity and focus.

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