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The Index Podcast

Index Studios

What’s indexing this week in crypto, blockchain, and open-source AI? Find out on The Index, where we feature exclusive conversations that go beyond code. Each week, host and entrepreneur Alex Kehaya talks with founders, developers, and investors who are shaping the future of Web3. From startup advice to breakthrough strategies, our guests share their stories and take a deep dive into the decentralized future.

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S2026 · E49
August 30 · 34 min
Ethan Buchman (Cosmos Co-Founder) on Cycles: The Clearing Protocol Reinventing How the World Settles Debt | The Index Podcast
What if the biggest unlock in crypto isn't moving money faster — it's not having to move it at all? Ethan Buchman, co-founder of Cosmos, CEO of Informal Systems, and founder of Cycles, sits down with Alex Kehaya to explain why 16th-century bankers may have understood finance better than we do today — and how he's bringing their playbook on-chain. From medieval merchant credit networks to a decentralized clearing protocol built for modern crypto market makers, this conversation goes deep into the history of money, why platforms are "dead" in this cycle, and what real product-market fit looks like in 2026. In this episode: 🏛️ A crash course in medieval banking — how Renaissance-era bankers cleared massive trade volumes using almost no money at all ⚖️ What "balancing the trade graph" means and why it's the missing piece of modern crypto finance 🔗 How Cycles nets out debts on-chain, automatically, without moving funds between parties 🏦 Why Cycles is migrating from Cosmos/Neutron to Arc (Circle's new chain) and what that partnership means 💸 Cycles' real-world use case: crypto market makers, OTC desks, and liquidity providers settling millions daily with zero clearinghouse 📉 Ethan's honest take on the current market, the "infrastructure hangover" in crypto, and why builders need to focus on real users now 🚀 Cycles Pay is live in the App Store today — private, on-chain payments and invoicing 🔗 Links mentioned: Cycles: https://cycles.money/ Cycles on X: https://x.com/cyclesmoney Ethan Buchman on X: https://x.com/buchmanster Ethan Buchman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ethan-buchman-10b34944/ The Index Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@theindexpodcast Show Links The Index X Channel YouTube
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S2026 · E48
August 29 · 27 min
Matt Van Horn (Lyft) on AI Psychosis & Coding Agents That Never Sleep | The Index Podcast
He almost got scammed by a fake "producer" minutes before this interview even started. Then he told us why he wakes up at 5am hearing phantom AI music. Matt Van Horn, Lyft co-founder and now Founder & CEO of Lyft, has built an army of coding agents that ship dozens of open source PRs a day, and on this episode of The Index he breaks down exactly how. What we cover: 🕵️ The wild near-scam that almost derailed this episode, plus the one phrase that reliably outs North Korean hackers on a call 🤖 "AI psychosis": why Matt wakes up in the middle of the night just to check if his agents succeeded overnight ⛷️ How he built the viral "Last 30 Days" skill in a single 8 hour session, on a ski mountain, using Claude Code 📈 Going from zero coding background to a top 10 human contributor on major open source repos 🚫 Getting banned from open source projects for shipping too many AI generated PRs 🧠 "Compound engineering," and why Matt calls it the best designed AI skill he's ever seen 🔮 His take on open vs. closed models, and why every company needs to think about owning its own intelligence stack 🥷 The private, self-learning system behind his autonomous open source engine (the one he refuses to release) The Index is part of the builder ecosystem spanning Solana, Web3, and AI, spotlighting the founders shaping what's next. If you care about where crypto, AI agents, and startups collide, this is your show. Connect with Matt Van Horn: X: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattvanhorn/ Lyft: Website: https://www.lyft.com/ X: https://x.com/Lyft The Index Podcast: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theindexpodcast Show Links The Index X Channel YouTube
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S2026 · E47
August 28 · 37 min
The Stablecoin Router Everyone Will Use: Ryne Saxe (Eco) on Solana, Visa & the Future of Money
Stablecoins on Solana just hit $15B, and Eco Co-Founder & CEO Ryne Saxe says that number is going to look laughably small in five years. On this episode of The Index Podcast, Ryne breaks down why Solana pulled ahead in the stablecoin race, why Visa and Mastercard are quietly rebuilding their entire plumbing around digital dollars, and how Eco is building the routing layer that ties every chain and every stablecoin together. If you've ever had USDC, USDT, USDG, and a few more scattered across five wallets and had no idea how to move them, this one's for you. In this episode: ⚡ Why Solana is winning the stablecoin race: chain performance, a laser-focused ecosystem strategy, and the RWA/tokenization wave building on top of it 📈 Ryne's bold call: Solana's on-chain stablecoin supply could 10x, maybe 100x, over the next 3-5 years 💳 Why Visa and Mastercard adopting stablecoin settlement is a bigger signal than most people realize 🔧 Inside Eco: how stablecoin routing and orchestration solves the "which wallet, which chain, which coin" mess for good 🎯 The founder story: from a consumer stablecoin banking app, through the post-FTX regulatory squeeze, to building infrastructure that scales 🤝 Ryne calls his shot: why a platform like Fireblocks is a perfect next partner for Eco 🔮 Eco's 12-month goal: becoming the stablecoin layer you route through without even thinking about it More from The Index Podcast: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theindexpodcast Follow Ryne Saxe: X (Twitter): https://x.com/rynesaxe LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rtsaxe/ Follow Eco: Website: https://eco.com/ X (Twitter): https://x.com/eco Unleash the Stables: https://www.unleashthestables.com/ Show Links The Index X Channel YouTube
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S2026 · E46
August 27 · 42 min
He Got Into Crypto to Save his Cat. Now He's Building Solana's Biggest Trading Card Game. | Natsuki x Rosentica
He bought her sick cat's medicine with USDT because no bank or pharmacy would touch it. That same "get it done, on-chain" energy is now powering Rosentica, an original multimedia IP turning old, retired trading cards into a full battle economy on Solana. In this episode, Natsuki, Founder & Executive Producer of Rosentica, breaks down how their game One Arena pulled in $3.3M in volume and $1.8M in revenue in just six weeks by turning pack ripping itself into the game. 🎮 What we cover: 🃏 How One Arena turns "ripping packs" into a real PvP game: penalty shootouts, battle royales, and 1v1 duels 💥 Giving retired, "dead" trading cards a second life as playable, tokenized RWAs 💰 2% cashback on every gacha pull via Arena Silver, arguably the best EV on the market right now 📈 The numbers behind 6 weeks of One Arena: $3.3M in volume, $1.8M in revenue 🌍 Building Rosentica from scratch: manga, music, visual novels, and games as one connected universe ✍️ Getting published on Shonen Jump next to One Piece, Naruto, and Dragon Ball ⚡ Why Solana (and only Solana) made sense: Colosseum, Superteam, and an ecosystem that actually shows up for builders 🐱 The full story of how a sick cat led Natsuki straight into crypto 🚀 Rosentica's 2 to 3 year vision: becoming the Genshin Impact of trading card games 🔮 Why RWAs and on-chain collectibles are enjoyment first, not just speculation 🔗 Links: Watch more episodes of The Index: https://www.youtube.com/@theindexpodcast Rosentica website: https://rosentica.jp/ Rosentica on X: https://x.com/Rosentica Natsuki on X: https://x.com/TabinekoKIKI All Rosentica content (manga, music, visual novels): https://bio.to/rosentica Show Links The Index X Channel YouTube
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S2026 · E45
August 26 · 1 hr 1 min
Bernardo Brites (Trace Finance) on Building the $10B Stablecoin Rails Connecting Brazil to the World
Brazil banned crypto players from moving big money, so this founder got a bank license instead. Now Trace Finance processes over $10B in cross-border volume and powers the top 4 global payment companies in Latin America. On this episode of The Index Podcast, Bernardo Brites, Co-Founder & CEO of Trace Finance, breaks down how stablecoins plus real bank infrastructure (not stablecoins alone) are quietly becoming the backbone of global money movement, and why the US dollar's dominance might depend on it. 🎯 What we cover: 💰 Trace Finance's $32M Series A led by CoinFund, with Coinbase Ventures, Haun Ventures and Chainlink in the mix, and what it signals about institutional conviction in stablecoin infrastructure 🏦 Why "stablecoins alone don't solve cross-border payments" and what regulated bank rails add that pure crypto rails can't 🇧🇷 How Brazil's PIX system works, why it's free and instant 24/7, and why it still stops dead at the border 📜 Brazil's new rule classifying cross-border virtual asset flows as FX operations, and why that's a massive tailwind for licensed players like Trace 🇺🇸 The GENIUS Act, the CLARITY Act, and Bernardo's thesis that USD stablecoins are the reason the dollar's global dominance isn't fading 🌎 Why Brazil was "brutality mode" for building payment rails, and why the US, Hong Kong and Singapore are next 📉 The biggest fumble: building a Silicon Valley Bank competitor weeks before SVB actually collapsed 🔮 Where Trace Finance is headed in the next 2 years, and why enterprises like Amazon and global PSPs are choosing bank-grade stablecoin infrastructure over building it themselves 🔗 Links: The Index Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@theindexpodcast Trace Finance website: https://tracefinance.com/ Trace Finance on X: https://x.com/tracefinance Trace Finance on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/tracefinance/ Bernardo Brites on X: https://x.com/bebrites Bernardo Brites on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bebrites/ Show Links The Index X Channel YouTube
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S2026 · E44
August 25 · 38 min
Bootstrapped to 320K Users, ZERO Funding: Agnese Jaunošāne (COO & Co-Founder, Ajelix) on Open-Source AI's Power Move
She turned "everyone hates spreadsheets" into a 320,000-user, 150-country AI company, without taking a single dollar of outside funding. Agnese Jaunošāne, COO & Co-Founder of Ajelix, sits down to break down why she and her co-founder said no to VC money, bet big on open-source AI, and are now building their own hardware to own their entire intelligence stack. If you care about who actually controls AI, and why that question matters as much as any Web3 debate, this one's for you. What we get into: 🚀 How Ajelix went viral before ChatGPT even launched, and built a 320K-user business from Latvia with zero outside capital 🔓 Why open-source AI models are becoming a matter of data sovereignty, not just cost, especially for enterprises and governments in the EU 🖥️ The real reason Ajelix invested in their own GPU hardware instead of renting compute forever 💣 Is the "AI bubble" about to pop? Where the real risk actually sits (hint: it's not the apps) 👻 Shadow AI: why ~79% of enterprise employees are already using AI your company can't see or audit 🛡️ Building guardrails, audit trails, and permissions so AI agents can't quietly delete your production data 🌍 What's next for Ajelix: model training, enterprise infrastructure, and the fight for European tech sovereignty 🔗 Links: Ajelix website: https://ajelix.com/ Ajelix on X: https://x.com/Ajelix_AI Agnese on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/agnese-ajelix/ The Index Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theindexpodcast Show Links The Index X Channel YouTube
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S2026 · E43
August 24 · 32 min
Tokenizing Silver on Solana: Mark Tormey (Founder, Dominion) on Bringing Real World Silver On-Chain
Silver is the one commodity everyone forgot to tokenize. Mark Tormey, founder of Dominion, is fixing that: real, vaulted, audited silver, one token per ounce, live on Solana and built to plug straight into DeFi. This episode is a masterclass in what it actually takes to bring a physical asset on-chain without cutting corners on trust. What we cover 🥈 What Dominion actually is: one token = one ounce of real silver, tracking spot price and fully DeFi composable on Solana 🏦 Custody and proof of reserves: how NDV vaults, insures, and audits every bar in Fort Worth, Texas, with daily attestations and monthly physical audits 📦 How physical redemption works: KYC/KYB, minimum redemption sizes, and shipping real silver to your door 🔒 Why Dominion is over-collateralized, and how that math actually works 🚀 Go-to-market: a 4x oversubscribed whitelist, lending and borrowing demand, and a covered call yield strategy in the works 🕵️ The uncomfortable truth about RWA transparency: why some "proof of reserves" are just a jeweler's letter, and how Dominion is trying to set a higher bar 🏆 Who's actually winning in RWAs right now (shoutout Backpack Securities and Paxos) and what Dominion can learn from them 🌐 Why Solana, and it's not just about speed and fees: the community, the institutional push, and House of Sol in the UK 💼 The team behind Dominion: 30 years of UK banking expertise, real mining and vault operators, and how Dominion is funding growth without a VC round (yet) Links 🎙️ The Index Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@theindexpodcast 🌐 Dominion website: https://dominionsilver.com/ 🐦 Dominion on X: https://x.com/Dominion_Market 🐦 Mark Tormey on X: https://x.com/scotsmancrypto 💼 Mark Tormey on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mark-tormey-19800395/ Show Links The Index X Channel YouTube
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S2026 · E42
August 23 · 37 min
Solana's Prediction Market Play: Nass Diba (Founder & CEO, Worm) on Building the Future of Media On-Chain
Prediction markets called the 2024 election before the media did. Now Nass Diba, ex-CPO of Rarible and alum of Aave and Dharma, is betting that permissionless, AI-powered prediction markets on Solana are the next big media format. On this episode of The Index Podcast, we get into why Worm just raised $4.5M, why leverage belongs in prediction markets, and how half a million users learned to trade with zero risk through the Worm Cup. What we cover: Why prediction markets are the "next era of media," and why the timing (AI plus info chaos) makes this the moment Why Solana and stablecoins are the only real infrastructure for fast, low-fee, signal-over-noise prediction markets The "invisible hand" approach to curation, letting liquidity decide which markets matter instead of an algorithm Why Worm built a 3-person design team from day one, bigger than most crypto startups, to make prediction markets feel like Instagram instead of a betting slip Leverage in prediction markets, and Nass's actual number for where it stops helping price discovery and starts becoming pure gambling The 3 ways Worm uses AI: market creation, automated resolution, and AI-driven market making Trustless resolution for untrustable events, and why letting market creators resolve their own markets works better than you'd think Inside the Worm Cup: how a free, points-based World Cup prediction game onboarded 500K+ users in 5 weeks Competing with Polymarket and Kalshi's massive war chests without spending a dollar on marketing How Worm is deploying its $4.5M pre-seed and what's next over the following 12 months Guest: Nass Diba, Founder & CEO of Worm Worm: https://worm.wtf/ Worm on X: https://x.com/wormwtf Nass on X: https://x.com/NassDiba Show Links The Index X Channel YouTube
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S2026 · E41
August 22 · 48 min
🚀 Sports Cards Meet Solana: Hadi (Founder of Gacha Sports) on Turning a $15B Collectibles Market On-Chain
Sports cards just found their liquidity engine and it's built on Solana. This week on The Index, Alex sits down with Hadi, founder of Gacha Sports, the platform letting fans rip digital packs and pull real, graded sports cards live on-chain. From a childhood card-shop addiction to a fully bootstrapped platform built in 13 days, this is the RWA story crypto Twitter hasn't caught onto yet. In this episode: 🃏 Why sports cards are the OG real-world asset and why Hadi bets they outgrow Pokémon 🎰 What a "gacha machine" actually is, and why ripping packs is more addictive than you'd think 💰 The 90% instant buyback model that crushes eBay's brutal fees 🏗️ Building Gacha Sports from idea to launch in just 13 days, fully bootstrapped, revenue from day one 🤝 The Collector Crypt partnership — how custody, vaulting, and trust work behind every pull 📈 Why Solana sought THEM out, and what that says about where RWAs are headed 🏦 What's next: a peer-to-peer marketplace and a first-of-its-kind card lending platform ⚽ How the World Cup and player narratives move card prices in real time 🚀 Hadi's thesis: a $15B market that could hit $100B+ as liquidity comes on-chain 🔗 Links The Index Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@theindexpodcast Gacha Sports (website): https://www.gachasports.com/ Gacha Sports on X: https://x.com/gachasports Show Links The Index X Channel YouTube
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S2026 · E40
August 21 · 34 min
Brian Huang (Co-Founder and CEO, Glider) on Stocks On-Chain, Copyable Portfolios and AI Advisors
Most of the world cannot buy a single share of Nvidia. Brian Huang, co-founder and CEO of Glider, returns to The Index to explain how tokenized stocks change that, and why capital is quietly rotating out of crypto and into equities. Glider is a non-custodial platform for managing wealth on-chain. Brian breaks down the messy new landscape of on-chain stocks, who actually has the best execution, and whether AI can manage your money better than a human advisor. Links: Glider: https://glider.fi/ Glider on X: https://x.com/glider__ Brian Huang on X: https://x.com/BrianInCrypto Brian Huang on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-h-279a9ba1/ Show Links The Index X Channel YouTube
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S2026 · E39
August 20 · 28 min
🔥 Solana Insider Turned Founder: How Shimon Newman Is Rethinking Private Banking with Moto
Ever tried explaining to your private banker why your money is spread across three countries, two exchanges, and a crypto wallet? Shimon Newman, former Director of Research at Squads and now Founder & CEO of Moto, is building the card that makes that whole headache disappear. This one's for globally mobile customers who are tired of slow settlement times, FX fees, and banks that only pay attention once you've already made it. In this episode of The Index Podcast, Shimon breaks down why he left one of crypto's best companies to build a "secured credit card" that actually behaves like one, how Moto turns stablecoin deposits into real yield-funded cashback, and why he's betting the next $124 trillion wealth transfer won't go to Amex or JPMorgan. What we cover: 🏍️ The Genesis story: why Shimon left Squads to build Moto, and the "$10 vs $10M" customer support insight that sparked the idea 💳 Real credit vs. fake crypto cards: why most "crypto credit cards" are functionally debit cards, and how Moto's actually different 🔁 The economic engine: how Moto borrows from credit facilities, earns interest on deposits, and funnels it straight into cashback 🌐 Killing the private banking model: why global wealth no longer fits in one country, one bank, or one relationship ⚡ Stablecoins, DeFi & on-chain infrastructure as invisible plumbing: how it powers Moto without ever feeling "crypto" to the end user ✈️ The perks: Visa Infinite benefits, airport lounges, near-instant access to dedicated human support, and an invite-only waitlist by design 🔮 The 5-year vision: Moto as the "Soho House of finance" and a real challenger to Amex and JPMorgan for the next generation of wealth Links: 🔗 The Index Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@theindexpodcast 🔗 Moto: https://www.moto-card.com/ 🔗 Moto on X: https://x.com/usemotocard 🔗 Shimon Newman on X: https://x.com/ShimonNewman 🔗 Shimon Newman on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shimon-newman-671928153 Show Links The Index X Channel YouTube
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S2026 · E38
August 19 · 29 min
Tokenizing the $360B Domain Industry on Solana 🌐 w/ Inder Singh (VP Product/Tech, D3 / Doma Protocol)
Domains are the most entrenched, least liquid asset class on the internet, and it's about to change forever. Inder Singh, VP of Product & Tech at D3 (the team behind Doma Protocol), joins The Index Podcast to break down how a $360B+ industry still run like it's 1999 is finally getting an on-chain upgrade, built natively on Solana. From spot-trading domains like stocks, to fractional ownership of premium names, to AI agents that manage your domain on autopilot, this episode is your crash course in the next big RWA narrative. 🔑 What we cover: 🌐 Why domains are a $360B (and growing) asset class most people have never heard of 💸 How legacy domain sales work today, and why 25% fees and slow settlement are about to disappear ⚡ Bringing Solana Record Service (SNS) on-chain for instant, NFT-based domain settlement 🧩 Fractionalizing premium domains (like software.ai) so anyone can own a piece 📦 DABs (Domain Asset Vehicles), tokenized baskets of thousands of domains, launching Q3 💰 How token holders earn real cash flow when domains in a basket sell 🤖 Why AI agents need domain-based identity, and what that means for the future of the internet 🏆 Why Solana is the only chain built for this kind of institutional-grade RWA liquidity 📈 The case for domains as a diversification play alongside stocks, real estate, and other RWAs 🔗 Links: 🎙️ The Index Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@theindexpodcast 👤 Inder Singh — LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/inderpreetsingh/ 🐦 Inder Singh — X: https://x.com/InderpreetSingh 🏢 D3: https://d3.com/ 🌐 Doma Protocol: https://doma.xyz/ Show Links The Index X Channel YouTube
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S2026 · E37
August 18 · 39 min
Aptos CEO Avery Ching: Open Intelligence, Data Ownership & Why AI Needs Crypto
Alex Kehaya sits down with Avery Ching, co-founder and CEO of Aptos Labs and former lead engineer on Meta's Libra project, for a wide-ranging conversation on what happens when AI absorbs all of our data, and who ends up owning the intelligence that comes out of it. From Shelby's plan to put your data on encrypted, decentralized rails to Decibel's on-chain trading engine, this episode digs into where crypto and AI actually intersect, and why Avery thinks we have less time than we realize to get it right. In this episode: 🧠 Open Intelligence: Avery makes the case that access to AI should be a human right, and warns that a handful of gated, closed models could create a deeply unequal world within just a few years. 🔐 Data Ownership: that concern leads straight into Shelby, Aptos Labs' answer to the problem: a decentralized, quantum-resistant storage layer built so your data can power training and inference without ever being exposed, giving individuals and enterprises real control over their own intelligence stack. 🏢 Real-World Use Cases: Avery walks through who's actually testing Shelby today, from data-labeling companies like Scale AI to ad-transparency platforms and next-gen prediction markets built on richer, on-chain datasets. ⚡ Enterprise-Grade Decentralization: the conversation turns to how Aptos hit sub-second P99 latency, and why that reliability is what lets Shelby promise hyperscaler-level performance without the egress fees. 💱 Decibel & Agentic Trading: Avery breaks down Decibel, Aptos' fully on-chain exchange doing 25ms block times and $4B+ in volume, and why he thinks agentic trading (not just agentic payments) is the next frontier. 📉 AI Bubble Talk: Alex and Avery get candid about whether crypto has decoupled from traditional markets, and whether AI is repeating the dot-com cycle at an even bigger scale. 🔮 AI vs. Crypto: a frank take on which technology actually matters more right now, and why Avery believes the two need each other to keep intelligence open and ownership fair. 🔗 Links 📺 More from The Index Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@theindexpodcast 👤 Avery Ching on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/averyching/ 🌐 Aptos Labs: https://aptoslabs.com/ Show Links The Index X Channel YouTube
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S2026 · E36
August 17 · 32 min
The Family Office Model That Could Save Crypto Investors From Losing It All | Jake Claver
Most crypto investors are chasing a lottery ticket. Jake Claver is building the system that keeps you from losing it all when you finally win. Jake Claver is the CEO and Principal of Digital Ascension Group. a firm helping high-net-worth individuals and institutions navigate wealth, sovereignty, and the seismic shift happening in global finance. With a community of 17,000+ members and a mission to help 1 million people reach financial freedom, Jake brings a rare mix of street-level hustle and institutional-grade thinking to every conversation. In this episode, Jake and Alex go deep on: 💰 Why most crypto investors aren't ready for real wealth and the mindset shift from "my money" to "my family's money" 🏦 What a Digital Family Office actually looks like governance, ethics, multi-generational wealth planning, and how it applies to crypto holders 🤖 AI agents inside wealth management how DAG is building super-agents across legal, tax, insurance, and estate planning verticals 🔗 On-chain family governance zero-knowledge proof voting, investment committee guardrails, and blockchain-based transparency ⚠️ CBDCs, UBI & the coming technocracy a frank conversation on where the macro financial system is actually heading 📉 The deflationary collapse thesis why AI + blockchain could trigger it, and how central banks may respond with digital money 🧠 Open-source AI vs. frontier labs why the absence of a viable open-source alternative to GPT-4 / Opus is a genuine civilizational risk 🚀 Building a personal brand & community in the AI era, Jake's framework for starting from zero in 2025: health, finance, or relationships ⚡ The SaaS disruption wave, why subscription software is about to get obliterated and what to build instead 📑 Paper Search MCP & the Last 30 Days skill, the AI tools Jake is actually using to stay ahead of the curve 🔗 Connect with Jake Claver: 🌐 Digital Ascension Group: http://www.digitalfamilyoffice.io 📧 Substack (600K+ subs): https://jakeclaver.substack.com/ 🐦 Twitter/X: https://x.com/beyond_broke 📘 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JakeClaverQFOP 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jakeclaverqfop/ 💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacobclaver/ ▶️ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@jakeclaver 🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@jakeclaverqfop Show Links The Index X Channel YouTube
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S2026 · E34
August 15 · 49 min
Community Money Is The Future of Crypto — Ted Livingston (Flipcash) on Solana, Meme Coins & Reinventing Liquidity
What if every community, your baseball team, your college campus, your favorite creator's fanbase, had its own currency that worked like real money from day one? Ted Livingston, the founder who built Kik into one of the world's largest messaging apps and launched the first token on Solana, is back with his boldest bet yet: Flipcash. In this episode, Ted breaks down why Bitcoin, Kin, and stablecoins each got it partially right and how Flipcash is designed to capture the best of all three. This one is a must-watch for anyone serious about where crypto payments are actually headed. Topics covered: 💬 Ted's full backstory — from Blackberry intern to Kik, Kin, Code, and now Flipcash 🪙 What "community money" actually means — and why it's not a meme coin or a stablecoin 📈 How Flipcash's bonding curve works — more stable, more gradual, USD-backed from day one 🔒 Why nobody gets coins for free — the key design decision that avoids Kin's fatal flaw 💧 Reinventing liquidity in crypto — no market makers, no manipulation, just an on-chain reserve ⚡ Why Solana is the only home for Flipcash — and what Alpenglow will unlock next 🏀 Should the Knicks create a Flipcash currency? — Ted's take might surprise you 💸 Spending vs. selling — why this distinction is the whole point of making crypto into real money 🔗 Links: 📺 The Index Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@theindexpodcast 👤 Ted Livingston on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tedlivingston/ 🐦 Follow Ted on X: @ted_livingston 🌐 Flipcash website: https://www.flipcash.com/ 📱 Download Flipcash: Search "Flipcash" on the App Store or Google Play Show Links The Index X Channel YouTube
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S2026 · E33
June 29 · 30 min
🎙️ The Global Economy on Chain — Xen Baynham-Herd (Base)
From trading desks at UBS to leading global growth at one of the fastest-growing blockchains in the world — Xen Baynham-Herd's journey through crypto is as wild as the industry itself. In this episode, Alex sits down with Xen, Head of Marketing & Global Growth at Base, to unpack what it really takes to bring the world on-chain. If you're building in Web3 or just trying to understand where this is all going, this one's for you. Topics covered: 🏦 How Xen went from UBS fixed income trader to crypto OG — and why he's been in the space for 10+ years and can't look away 🔵 What Base actually is — and how it's positioning itself as the go-to blockchain for global finance (not just another Solana competitor) 📈 Base's focus areas: trading, payments & AI agents — including Base NPC, X402 agentic commerce, and what millions in on-chain volume actually looks like 🤖 Will AI agents cross the chasm into mainstream? — why being able to transact directly inside ChatGPT or Claude could be the unlock crypto has been waiting for 🥃 Real-world asset tokenization done right — the whiskey barrel lending story that perfectly explains DeFi's killer advantage over TradFi 🌍 Emerging markets as crypto's first movers — Latin America, Africa, India, and Asia are already running on stablecoins, and Base is doubling down on that 🚀 The Base Ecosystem Fund & Base Batches accelerator — what kinds of teams they're backing and what founders should be building right now 💡 When does crypto stop being crypto? — Xen and Alex agree: the real win is when nobody's talking about blockchain anymore because they're just using it 🔗 Connect with Xen Baynham-Herd: https://www.linkedin.com/in/xen-baynham-herd-01685775/ 🌐 Explore Base: https://www.linkedin.com/company/coinbase/ Show Links The Index X Channel YouTube
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S2026 · E32
June 28 · 41 min
🎙️ Solana's Liquidity Layer Goes Institutional: Michael Hwang (CEO, Orca) on the Future of DeFi | The Index Podcast
The man behind one of Solana's most foundational DeFi protocols finally sits down with us. Michael Hwang, CEO of Orca, breaks down how a protocol that's been quietly powering Solana's liquidity for 5+ years is now stepping into the spotlight — and building infrastructure for the next era of on-chain finance. What we cover: 🏦 From BlackRock to Solana — Michael's backstory and why he believes blockchain is building the financial rails of the future 🌊 Orca's evolution — How the protocol went from a retail-friendly DEX to the back-end liquidity engine for institutions, RWAs, and hybrid assets 🔐 Regulated Asset Infrastructure — Orca's brand-new product that lets asset issuers toggle KYC/compliance controls directly into on-chain liquidity pools 🪙 Tokenized Gold, Stocks & RWAs — Why permissioned DeFi isn't a contradiction, and how Orca is building rails for a full spectrum of asset types 🤖 Prop AMM research — The internal market-making engine Orca has been quietly running in production (and what it might become) 📈 Institutions on Solana — Why "institution" is a spectrum, who's actually ready to step on-chain, and what friction remains 🌍 The democratization thesis — Michael's core belief: your grandma LPing alongside a Wall Street quant in the same pool is what makes DeFi worth building 🔗 Links: 📺 The Index Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@theindexpodcast 🐦 Michael Hwang (Twitter): https://x.com/tmoClabs 💼 Michael on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mqhwang/ 🌊 Orca: https://www.orca.so/ 🐦 Orca on Twitter: https://x.com/orca_so 💼 Orca on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/orca-so/ Show Links The Index X Channel YouTube
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S2026 · E31
June 27 · 39 min
The Trade Is the New Tweet — Jason Rodrigues of Cesto on Revolutionizing Investing on Solana
What if every hot take you had could instantly become a trade? Jason Rodrigues, Founder of Cesto, is building exactly that on Solana — and it might be the most exciting DeFi product you haven't heard of yet. Cesto lets anyone invest in curated baskets of assets built around ideas, narratives, and trends — from semiconductors and AI to sports teams and geopolitical headlines. In this episode, host Nicki Scans sits down with Jason to explore how Cesto is turning finance into something you actually feel — and how Solana makes it all possible. 🔑 Topics Covered: 🧠 Finance is editorializing — why more and more money is moving based on vibes, views, and conviction 🪣 What is a Cesto basket? — curated bundles of tokens, stocks, and prediction market positions in one click ⚡ Speed of execution — how Cesto can launch a basket within 1–5 minutes of a breaking news story 📊 Short-term vs. long-term holds — how users are trading narratives, not just assets 🤖 The Anthropic Anti-Portfolio — a real-world basket that 3–4x'd by shorting companies Anthropic disrupted 🏗️ Why Solana? — speed, culture, community liquidity, and developer ecosystem all in one 👥 How Cesto curates experts — from niche Substack writers to Reddit mods, building the next generation of fund managers 🌍 What's coming — World Cup baskets, mobile retail, wallet integrations, and institutional-grade liquidity 🔗 Links: 🎙️ The Index Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@theindexpodcast 🌐 Cesto: https://cesto.co/ 🐦 Cesto on X: https://x.com/cesto_co 🐦 Jason on X: https://x.com/jasonrodrigues 💼 Jason on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonrrodrigues/ Show Links The Index X Channel YouTube
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S2026 · E30
June 26 · 33 min
Solana’s Next-Gen Order Book? | Dhrumil of Archer Exchange on Fully On-Chain Markets
What does it take to build a truly decentralized exchange that can compete with traditional financial markets? In this episode of The Index Podcast, Dhrumil, Co-Founder of Archer Exchange, joins us to discuss why Solana is uniquely positioned to power the next generation of on-chain trading and how Archer is building a fully on-chain order book designed for transparency, efficiency, and deep liquidity. From democratizing market making to creating infrastructure for tokenized real-world assets, Dhrumil shares the vision behind Archer and what it takes to build an exchange that stays true to DeFi principles. Key Topics Covered 🚀 Why Dhrumil chose Solana to build Archer 📈 How Archer combines the efficiency of modern AMMs with the familiarity of an order book 💡 Why market making should be accessible to everyone—not just large institutions 🔓 The importance of fully on-chain trading infrastructure 🌐 How composability enables developers to build new products on top of Archer 🏦 The future of tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) and on-chain markets 🔒 Why security and transparency are critical for the next generation of DeFi exchanges 📊 Lessons learned from Archer's beta launch and early user growth ⚡ Building liquidity, tighter spreads, and better trading experiences on Solana Links 🔗 The Index Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@theindexpodcast 🔗 Dhrumil (X): https://x.com/mmdhrumil 🔗 Archer Exchange: https://archer.exchange/ 🔗 Archer Exchange (X): https://x.com/ArcherExchange_ Show Links The Index X Channel YouTube
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S2026 · E28
June 24 · 41 min
🎙️ Solana, Whiskey RWAs & Tokenized Collectibles with Tzvi Wiesel, CEO of Baxus
What happens when you combine rare whiskey, real-world assets, and Solana? In this episode of The Index Podcast, Alex Kehaya sits down with Tzvi Wiesel, Founder & CEO of Baxus, to explore how one of the most unique RWA platforms in crypto is bringing rare spirits, collectibles, lending, and liquidity fully onchain. From tokenized whiskey bottles and decentralized financing to physical asset authentication and viral whiskey vending machines, Todd shares how Baxus is building the future of collectibles on Solana. What You'll Learn: 🥃 How Baxus is transforming the global whiskey and spirits market with Solana 📈 Why rare whiskey behaves like NFTs—but with real-world value 🏦 How Baxus is tokenizing whiskey barrels and unlocking DeFi lending opportunities 💰 The path to adding $500M+ in new TVL through tokenized barrel infrastructure 🔍 How Baxus uses real-world data, sensors, and provenance tracking for asset verification 🎰 Inside the new Baxus whiskey vending machine and collectible marketplace experience 🌎 Why stablecoins could become a major payment rail for the global alcohol industry 🚀 The future of RWAs, collectibles, and tokenized ownership on Solana 🔗 Links 🎙️ The Index Podcast https://www.youtube.com/@theindexpodcast 🥃 Baxus Website https://www.baxus.co/ 🐦 Baxus on X https://x.com/BAXUSco 👤 Tzvi Wiesel (LinkedIn) https://www.linkedin.com/in/todd-wiesel/ 🐦 Tzvi Wiesel on X https://x.com/web4O Show Links The Index X Channel YouTube
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