Bitcoin, Fiat & Rock'n'Roll

What keeps a financial system standing, and what changes when it moves on-chain? Stefan sits down with Chuck Mounts, who has seen finance from more chairs than most. He started as an international bank examiner at the New York Fed, spent almost two decades as a top-ranked sell-side analyst covering global banks at Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs and UBS, where he was global co-head of FICC research, and most recently served as Chief DeFi Officer at S&P Global. The two met in early September at the RWA Summit in Brooklyn and quickly found that they read the market the same way. Chuck speaks for himself in this episode.

Chuck tells how he went from complete skeptic to convert: ten minutes into the Bitcoin white paper, which he read for a project on debt capital market structure, he knew that this technology could transform how markets work. He learned by doing, with his own wallet and real swaps and trades on DeFi protocols, and by upskilling a whole organization, executives included. From there the conversation turns to trust.

Financial systems rest on leverage and opacity, and that is why finance works so differently from manufacturing. Blockchain can reduce opacity and counterparty risk through atomic settlement, while the leverage stays in the system. Chuck explains why he favors principles-based policy, why big shifts in policy usually need an external catalyst, and why he expects public blockchains to be where the momentum lands.

The second half looks ahead. Chuck sees the meeting of agentic AI and on-chain execution as the most exciting development in markets: bespoke portfolios for individuals and companies, built, risk-managed and executed by agents, with the question of fiduciary responsibility to be answered first.

Stefan adds his view that programmable money has switched sides, from the issuer to the user. They discuss stablecoins as a systemic risk, from Treasury holdings and yield curves to ripple effects across on-chain credit markets, and how tokenized deposits and CBDCs fit in. Along the way Chuck develops a new thought live on air: could a world of agents drawing on a thousand data sources change the nature of financial panics? The episode closes with his message to European regulators: keep enough room for entrepreneurs so that financial innovation happens in Europe. Enjoy the episode.

Public permissionless blockchains offer open, interoperable infrastructure—but create compliance and operational challenges for regulated financial institutions. Wee Kee Toh of Kinexys at J.P. Morgan and Michael Maurer of the MIT Digital Currency Initiative explore four key roadblocks: front-running, transaction censorship, unsolicited tokens and gas fees reaching sanctioned entities. They discuss potential safeguards, their limitations and why broader adoption requires collaboration between banks, blockchain developers and regulators.

Why do stablecoins matter most where traditional banking works least? Nick Philpott explains how stablecoins are reshaping cross-border payments, FX and access to global money.

Why have stablecoins not transformed payments yet? Jai Massari explains what Libra got right, how stablecoins differ from tokenized deposits and what still needs to change for mainstream adoption.

September’s digital money briefing: Pontes launches, banks build tokenized deposit networks, stablecoins expand into banking, and tokenized equities bring crypto, exchanges and Wall Street closer together.