Blockchain Infrastructure

In this episode of When Shift Happens, I sit down with Raagulan Pathy, founder and CEO of KAST, to discuss the crypto opportunity he left Circle to pursue, why building a stablecoin neobank is far harder than launching a card, and why KAST replaced its planned token with tokenized equity. We also confront a question every fintech customer should ask: what happens to your money if the company holding it collapses? The Opportunity Beyond Crypto Speculation Raags’s thesis begins

In this episode of When Shift Happens, I sit down with Mert Mumtaz, co-founder and CEO of Helius, to discuss why he believes Solana and Zcash remain deeply misunderstood, what separates lasting blockchain ecosystems from temporary narratives, and why artificial intelligence will force crypto to adopt a higher standard of security. We also explore the responsibility of building critical infrastructure and why NEAR may be one of the market’s dark horses in 2026. Building Convic

In this episode of When Shift Happens, I sit down with Raoul Pal, co-founder of Real Vision, to discuss what he believes is the biggest capital event in human history. While the conversation touches on Bitcoin, Ethereum, NFTs, and crypto markets, the deeper discussion is about something much larger: the accelerating race for artificial intelligence and the profound economic transformation it could trigger. Raoul argues that we are entering an era where intelligence itself bec

In this episode of When Shift Happens, I sit down with Eddy Travia to discuss the convergence of AI agents, prediction markets, crypto infrastructure, and the future of capital allocation. As the co-founder and CEO of Coinsilium Group, one of the earliest publicly listed blockchain investment firms, Eddy has spent more than a decade watching the digital asset industry move through waves of euphoria, collapse, reinvention, and adoption. And now, Eddy believes the next phase is

In this episode of When Shift Happens, I sit down with Joseph Lubin to discuss the future of decentralized systems, the growing danger of centralized AI, the collapse of trust in institutions, and why he believes blockchain technology represents a fundamental reorganization of society itself. Over the course of the conversation, Lubin reflects on his journey from software engineer and finance observer to Ethereum co-founder, explains how events like 9/11 reshaped his worldvie

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 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 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 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

In this episode of When Shift Happens , I sit down with Matej Zak to discuss why self-custody matters, how Czech history shaped his worldview, and what it really takes to build Trezor, the world’s most trusted hardware wallet. From a brutal 1953 monetary reform in Czechoslovakia to today’s billion-dollar exchange hacks, Matej explains why most people in crypto still do not truly own their money, and what would need to change for that to become the norm. A Czech History Lesson

In this episode of When Shift Happens , I sit down with Anand Gomes to discuss why decentralised exchanges are becoming the new systemically important financial centres, how Paradex can offer zero fees without breaking, and what it really takes, mentally and structurally, to build the rails of a new on-chain economy. Built Different: The Reality Behind “Eating Glass” Anand is very clear: running a crypto exchange is not glamorous. When Paradex processed $5.4 billion in 24 hou

In this episode of When Shift Happens , I sit down with Mert Mumtaz, CEO and co-founder of Helius, to discuss why he’s betting hard on privacy, Solana infrastructure, and long-term conviction plays like Zcash, SOL, Bitcoin, and Hyperliquid. The conversation goes deep on first-principles investing, how internet connectivity reshapes price action, and the discipline it takes to build and capture value over a 3–5 year horizon. Mert’s worldview starts with time. “Every investment

In this episode of When Shift Happens , I sit down with Seung Yoon Lee to discuss the $80 trillion creative asset class, why creators are shut out of the value they generate, and how Story Protocol aims to tokenise and “programme” intellectual property so anyone can legally remix it while paying royalties automatically. Fixing Creator Economics Seung’s path to this problem began with a long apprenticeship in media economics. Fresh out of Oxford, he tried to fix journalism’s b