In this episode of When Shift Happens, I sit down with Hunter Horsley, co-founder and CEO of Bitwise Asset Management, to discuss why he believes we are entering the most structurally bullish phase in crypto’s history, what institutional adoption actually looks like behind closed doors, and how crypto is reshaping capital markets, investor behaviour, and even global power structures. Horsley’s core argument is simple, but difficult to fully grasp: everything is aligning at on

In this episode of When Shift Happens, I sit down with Ben Zhou, co-founder and CEO of Bybit, to discuss how he led the company through the largest security breach in Web3 history, and why he believes the next generation of crypto exchanges will be full financial platforms for the internet age. From Crypto Exchange to Financial Infrastructure Ben’s story goes beyond Bybit surviving a crisis. It is also about how much the role of a crypto exchange has changed. In the early day

In this episode of When Shift Happens , I sit down with Jeff Park to discuss why so many young people feel locked out of the modern economy, why the old paths to wealth creation no longer work the way they used to, and why he believes Bitcoin may become the clearest escape hatch in an era shaped by currency debasement, unaffordable housing, and AI-driven labour disruption. What emerges is not just a conversation about markets, but a broader thesis about social frustration, ge

In this episode of When Shift Happens , I sit down with Gracy Chen, CEO of Bitget, to discuss what it truly takes to lead at the highest level, the future of crypto as financial infrastructure, and the personal cost of building a global company while raising a child. Gracy’s story is not a linear climb. It’s shaped by early adversity, unconventional career moves, and a deep conviction about where the world is heading. Today, she leads one of the largest crypto exchanges globa

In this episode of When Shift Happens , I sit down with Armani Ferrante to discuss what it really means to build in crypto when everything falls apart. From losing nearly his company’s entire balance sheet in the collapse of FTX, to rebuilding Backpack into a regulated global exchange, Armani explores identity under pressure, the philosophical foundations of crypto, and the structural shift happening as blockchain technology begins to merge with traditional finance. The Quest

In this episode of When Shift Happens , I sit down with Xin Song, Group CEO of GSR Markets, to discuss why crypto’s market structure is fundamentally broken, how misaligned incentives are holding the industry back, and what it would take to rebuild it into something closer to a real financial system. From his early days navigating illiquid crypto markets to his vision of turning GSR into the Goldman Sachs of Web3, Xin offers a perspective that is both deeply operational and u

In this episode of When Shift Happens , I sit down with Xiao-Xiao, President of Jupiter and former digital assets lead at KKR, to discuss his unlikely journey from concert pianist to private equity operator to one of the most prominent builders in DeFi. It is a conversation about timing, conviction, product velocity, and the deeper shift from crypto as narrative to onchain finance as real infrastructure. At the centre of it all is a simple question: if stablecoins were only t

In this episode of When Shift Happens , I sit down with Bobby Ong, co-founder and CEO of CoinGecko, to discuss how he bootstrapped one of crypto’s most trusted data platforms with just $200 and no venture capital. Over the course of the conversation, Bobby reflects on discovering Bitcoin in 2013, building CoinGecko through multiple brutal market cycles, resisting the many shortcuts that exist in crypto, and why playing long-term games with long-term people may be the only way

In this episode of When Shift Happens , I sit down with Evan Cheng to discuss why he believes the architecture behind most major blockchains is fundamentally insufficient, what Sui was built to solve instead, and how the next wave of adoption may come. What makes the conversation especially interesting is that Evan is not simply arguing that Sui is faster or cheaper. He is making a deeper claim: that much of crypto is still built on a mental model of assets and ledgers that w

In this episode of When Shift Happens , I sit down with Anand Gomes, CEO of Paradex, to discuss what it really takes to survive crypto cycles, how most token launches misalign incentives, why Paradex locked 80% of its team tokens to public performance milestones, and why he believes perpetual exchanges are becoming the financial supercenters of the internet economy. Health as a Founder’s First System The episode opens in an unexpected place, with Anand’s health. Over the pas

In this episode of When Shift Happens , I sit down with Jeff Yan, Founder of Hyperliquid Labs, to reflect on one of crypto’s most extraordinary moments: a $1 billion community airdrop that grew into $10 billion in value. But this conversation goes beyond wealth to focus on responsibility, decentralisation, integrity, and what it really means to “house all of finance” on chain. The $10 Billion Moment, and What It Meant When the HYPE token launched, roughly $1 billion was distr

In this episode of When Shift Happens , I sit down with Avichal Garg to discuss why most people lose in crypto, what it really takes to survive long enough to win, and the investing frameworks behind backing more than 25 unicorns. As co-founder and general partner at Electric Capital, and an early backer of companies like Figma, Solana, Kraken, Notion, and Bitwise, Avichal brings a long-term Silicon Valley lens to a simple but uncomfortable question: Are you here because you

In this episode of When Shift Happens , I sit down with Anthony Pompliano to discuss what real conviction looks like: why he once put 95% of his net worth into Bitcoin, how deep research separates concentration from gambling, and why he would rather risk going to zero than win at what he calls “insider games” that create no real impact. “Relentless” as a way of operating Pompliano describes himself simply: investor, entrepreneur, someone who likes to have fun, but at the same

In this episode of When Shift Happens , I sit down with Matt Hougan, Chief Investment Officer at Bitwise, to discuss why Bitcoin may be worth millions per coin, why Solana has one of the strongest setups he has ever seen, and why the most reliable path to wealth in crypto is also the least exciting one. Hougan is not a chain maximalist. He comes from traditional finance, spent more than a decade in ETFs, and now sits at the intersection of institutional capital and digital as

In this episode of When Shift Happens , I sit down with Kostas Chalkias to discuss why the next decade of blockchain won’t be defined by faster transactions, but by quantum-safe cryptography, AI-native infrastructure, and systems designed for machines and humans. Chalkias is the co-founder and chief cryptographer at Mysten Labs, best known for building the Sui Network after leaving Facebook’s Libra project. With over 15 years in cryptographic research and security, he brings

In this episode of When Shift Happens , I sit down with Andrej Majcen, co-founder and Group CEO of Bitcoin Suisse, to unpack one central idea: we are living through a narrow, five-year window that may define who preserves and compounds wealth, and who doesn’t. As pension systems strain, trust in institutions erodes, and inflation quietly eats away at savings, Andrej argues that Bitcoin is no longer a speculative trade but a structural response to a broken financial system. Th

In this episode of When Shift Happens , I sit down with Raagulan Pathy, founder of KAST and the “stablecoin guy”, to discuss what happens when a $100M company goes to zero, what eight years of debt repayment does to a founder’s mindset, and why he now believes stablecoins can power a global bank serving 150+ countries, and possibly a billion people. Raags is direct about the scale of what he’s trying to build. He says, on record, that KAST is a “trillion dollar plus” outcome

In this episode of When Shift Happens , I sit down with Raoul Pal for the 2nd time this year to discuss how to survive and succeed in crypto in 2026 without relying on luck, perfect timing, or constant trading. At the centre of the conversation is a deceptively simple framework: hold the right assets, understand your risk tolerance, and do absolutely nothing. Beneath that simplicity, however, lies a demanding discipline shaped by time horizons, liquidity cycles, and a thoroug

In this episode of When Shift Happens , I sit down with Sandeep Nailwal, founder of Polygon, to discuss what it takes to build through chaos, why he refused to “walk off” when crypto turned ugly in 2022, and what Polygon is really trying to become: not just another blockchain, but a global payments layer powered by stablecoins. Along the way, Sandeep reflects on his childhood, his obsession with individual sovereignty, and the philanthropic moment that turned crypto into a cu

In this episode of When Shift Happens , I sit down with Meow, founder of Jupiter, to unpack how a decision made in a ramen shop turned into one of crypto’s most important DeFi platforms, why he thinks crypto desperately needs an “iPhone moment,” and what he really means by Web4 and “social money.” From ramen shop to Jupiter Meow’s “cat” persona comes across as a meme, but it’s actually a metaphor for adaptability. Cats survive in any environment, and he wants to be “whatever