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Fintech + crypto, a new Bitcoin bill, war tensions, and more!
Don't miss this week's content!
Juan Aranovich
June 28, 2025
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Good Saturday! Here’s what we unpacked on the pod this week:
🤠 Texas passes Bitcoin law – Lee Bratcher explains how Texas got bipartisan support to create a $10 million Bitcoin reserve and why more states may follow suit.
🌍 Bits + Bips: War, Rates, and Meme IPOs – The panel breaks down Bitcoin’s resilience amid global tensions, whether Powell will pivot, and what Scaramucci says about crypto surveillance.
🌍 Fintech meets crypto in Africa – AZA Finance founder Elizabeth Rossiello shares how stablecoins are transforming emerging markets and what her company’s acquisition signals about the future of cross-border finance.
⚔️ The Chopping Block: CLOBs, zk-Fairness, and the token transparency wars – Vlad from Lighter joins to break down zero-knowledge DEX mechanics, self-regulation struggles, and whether crypto’s chaos is maturing.
Catch up on anything you missed 👇
How Texas Got Bipartisan Support to Buy $10 Million Worth of Bitcoin
Lee Bratcher, president of the Texas Blockchain Council, on the Lone Star state’s journey to establishing a strategic bitcoin reserve.
The state of Texas just passed a law that creates a $10 million strategic Bitcoin reserve.
Laura talks to Lee Bratcher, president of the Texas Blockchain Council, who helped drive this new law. He explains how bipartisan support made it possible, why this might be the start of a broader trend, and what’s next for public Bitcoin ownership in the U.S.
We get into:
The logic behind the $10 million number
Why custody and compliance are key
Whether California or Illinois could ever do something similar
And how other states are reacting
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.
Bits + Bips: Bitcoin Brushes Off Another War & Will Powell Relent on Rates?
Global tensions are rising. Rates may fall. Is crypto prepared for what comes next?
As tensions flare between Iran and Israel, investors are watching oil, gold, and, of course, crypto. In this episode of Bits + Bips, the panel digs into the market response to war risk, the chances the Fed will actually cut rates, and how Circle’s IPO is being treated more like a meme stock than a fintech play.
Plus:
Why Scaramucci says we’re all living in a surveillance state
Whether stablecoins are being kneecapped by U.S. regulation
When altcoin ETFs are coming
And what BlackRock’s Larry Fink secretly told Scaramucci about Bitcoin in 2021 👀
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.
Crypto and Fintech Are Colliding. Who Wins, and How?
AZA Finance was built on Bitcoin before most people could spell blockchain. Now it’s being acquired.
Cross-border payments. Mobile money. Stablecoins. Crypto.
Elizabeth Rossiello has lived through every cycle, not from a trading desk, but the front lines of African markets.
Now, the founder of AZA Finance is selling her company to global fintech giant dLocal, a signal that the line between crypto and traditional finance is blurring fast.
In this episode, she talks about:
How stablecoins are powering 24/7 commerce in emerging markets
Why new entrants keep failing to gain traction
And how liquidity, not tech, will determine who wins this new game
All that, plus the inside story of AZA’s journey from a Nairobi-based Bitcoin exchange to one of the most important fintech players in Africa.
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.
What CLOBs Are Solving & What Token Transparency Still Can’t – The Chopping Block
CLOB Wars, Token Transparency, and the Future of Decentralized Exchanges: How Crypto Projects Are Navigating Disclosure, Fair Trading, and Regulatory Pressure – The Chopping Block
Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest in crypto. This week, we’re joined by Vlad, the leverage legend behind Lighter, a zk-powered DEX taking aim at Hyperliquid in the rising CLOB wars. We unpack the new Token Transparency Framework from Blockworks and whether self-regulation can fix crypto’s disclosure problem. Should VC wallets be public? Are market-making deals legally risky? And why do most projects still say nothing?
Plus: Vlad explains how Lighter uses zero-knowledge proofs to enforce fairness and fight toxic flow—without harming retail. And Circle’s stock goes full meme mode, TikTok retail piles in, and Robert reveals he’s short. Is crypto finally growing up—or just evolving its chaos?
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.
In Case You Missed It 👀
Tokens such as TAO and FET are supposed to be crypto’s answer to centralized behemoths like OpenAI. But as AI stocks recover from a turbulent spring, crypto tokens are falling.
Hyperliquid, driven by rising demand for its perpetual futures, is increasingly taking share from behemoths like Binance. But perps have been an afterthought in America. That is about to change.
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