Stonks Go Moon

Rocco Strydom
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Stonks Go Moon (SGM) - is a value driven, punch in the mouth Podcast featuring exciting business, tech and finance guests

  1. #228 MacBrennan Peet | The DeFi Problem No One Talks About

    2D AGO

    #228 MacBrennan Peet | The DeFi Problem No One Talks About

    DeFi was supposed to make capital more efficient. Instead, it created a new kind of fragmentation.In this episode of the Stonks Go Moon Podcast, Rocco Strydom sits down with MacBrennan Peet, founder of Project 0, to talk about why DeFi users still get stuck with scattered collateral, disconnected venues, poor capital efficiency, and unnecessary liquidation risk. Project 0 is building a prime brokerage layer on Solana designed to unify portfolio management across venues like Kamino, Drift, and Jupiter Lend.MacBrennan’s background is unusually deep for someone still so young. He started trading biotech and pharma names as a teenager, later worked on projects with Morgan Stanley and in private equity, helped build marginfi, and has spent years inside Solana DeFi infrastructure. That background shows up in this conversation because this is not a hype-driven crypto interview. It is a practical discussion about market structure, fragmented liquidity, basis trades, unified margin, and what DeFi still gets wrong.We get into:why DeFi became more fragmented even though blockchains were supposed to unify everythinghow users lose yield and capital efficiency when assets sit across multiple venueswhy “unified margin” matters more than most retail users realizehow Project 0 is approaching Kamino, Drift, and Jupiter integrationsthe difference between DeFi-native opportunities and simply rebuilding TradFi onchainwhy Solana is becoming a serious environment for more advanced trading infrastructurewhat comes next once lending and perps are tied together more efficientlyOne of the most interesting ideas in this episode is that DeFi may not win by copying traditional finance feature for feature. It may win by leaning harder into what only onchain systems can do well: composability, speed, transparency, and new forms of capital efficiency. That is where Project 0 is aiming.

    24 min
  2. #227 Chunda McCain | Why Stablecoins Beat Everything Else in Crypto

    FEB 26

    #227 Chunda McCain | Why Stablecoins Beat Everything Else in Crypto

    Stablecoins aren't just surviving crypto winters; they're exploding into the backbone of global finance. In this episode of Stonks Go Moon Podcast, Rocco Strydom talks with Chunda McCain, Co-Founder of Paxos Labs, about how regulated stablecoins are quietly becoming the most-used digital dollars on EarthFrom powering PayPal's PYUSD (now billions in circulation) to cross-chain compliance, trust, and enterprise adoption, Chunda explains why stablecoins won over memecoins, NFTs, and much of DeFi (for now). He shares war stories from building in tough regulatory times, how Paxos navigated uncharted territory to issue branded assets, and why more branded stablecoins are coming.Key highlights:Why stablecoins are the foundational layer for all finance (faster, cheaper, better margins)Enterprise crypto is thriving while grassroots is in chaosPaxos Labs helps companies issue branded stablecoins, generate yield, borrow against assets, and go full crypto without breaking rulesChunda's journey: Bitcoin whitepaper at ~12 → DeFi epiphany inspired by his grandfather's restaurantFuture: Once companies integrate stablecoins, DeFi yields are next

    23 min
  3. #226 Marc Liew | Asia Is Quietly Winning Crypto

    FEB 16

    #226 Marc Liew | Asia Is Quietly Winning Crypto

    While U.S. headlines obsess over ETFs and enforcement, Asia is quietly building.In this episode, Rocco Strydom sits down with Marc Liew, Head of APAC at Jito, to unpack how stablecoins, staking, and Solana infrastructure are reshaping institutional crypto adoption across Asia.Marc’s background spans R3, Ripple, PayPal, and years inside cross-border payments. He has been in the room with regulators, central banks, and financial institutions as they experimented with CBDCs, stablecoins, and blockchain settlement rails.Now at Jito, he’s focused on institutional-grade staking infrastructure on Solana.What We Cover:Why stablecoins found product-market fit in Asia before the U.S.How remittances are accelerating real crypto adoptionWhy institutions are entering crypto through ETFs instead of direct on-chain tokenizationThe difference between traditional staking and Jito’s liquid staking modelMEV rewards and how they change staking economicsSolana’s infrastructure upgrades and block assembly marketplaceWhy decentralization matters for regulatorsThe growing convergence between AI agents and crypto paymentsWhy Asia leads in retail adoption, but the U.S. still leads institutionallyFrom Payments to Web3Marc shares his early “aha” moment when blockchain settlement clicked for him:If we can send a text in milliseconds, why can’t we move money the same way?That question led him from traditional payments into Web3 in 2016, deep into CBDCs, stablecoins, and now into building yield-generating infrastructure on Solana.The Big ThemeCrypto is maturing.Stablecoins are no longer theoretical. Institutions are no longer experimenting quietly. Liquid staking is evolving into a capital efficiency tool rather than just passive yield.And Asia isn’t debating whether crypto works. They’re deciding how to deploy it.

    28 min
  4. #225 Matt Ober | AI, Markets, and the Death of Signal

    FEB 3

    #225 Matt Ober | AI, Markets, and the Death of Signal

    Markets feel louder than ever, but somehow less clear.In this episode of the Stonks Go Moon Podcast, Rocco Strydom sits down with Matt Ober, Managing Partner at Social Leverage, to unpack what’s really happening beneath the surface of today’s markets.With AI-generated research flooding Twitter, Substack, and trading platforms and capital pouring into anything labeled “AI” even professional investors are struggling to separate real signal from machine-amplified noise.Matt brings a rare perspective shaped by:Building data systems inside quantitative hedge fundsBuying and operationalizing alternative data before AI was mainstreamServing as Chief Data Scientist at a major activist hedge fundNow backing early-stage founders simplifying finance instead of overcomplicating itIn this conversation, we break down:Why “alternative data” is no longer alternative, it’s just dataHow AI is changing market sentiment, research, and investor behaviorWhy email, ownership of audience, and direct distribution still matterHow consumption-based data pricing could reshape finance and AI economicsWhat founders misunderstand about AI, noise, and real leverageIt’s a grounded look at how markets, media, and investing are evolving in an AI-saturated world and what still actually matters.

    21 min
  5. #224 Amos Bar Joseph | What Happens When AI Does the Work

    JAN 17

    #224 Amos Bar Joseph | What Happens When AI Does the Work

    Most founders still believe scale means hiring faster.Amos Bar-Joseph doesn’t.In this episode of the Stonks Go Moon Podcast, we break down how Swan AI is building what may be one of the first truly AI-native companies — a business where autonomous agents handle outbound sales, lead qualification, research, and execution, while just three humans focus on strategy and creativity.We go deep into:Why the traditional startup “hire → burn → raise” loop is breakingHow AI agents can replace entire go-to-market teams without killing qualityThe idea of revenue per employee as the real metric that matters nowWhat “zone of genius” actually means in an AI-first workplaceWhy future companies may scale intelligence instead of headcountThis isn’t theory.This is a live experiment in how businesses may actually run over the next decade.If you’re a founder, operator, or investor trying to understand where AI is really going — this conversation will challenge how you think about work, teams, and scale.

    24 min
  6. #223 Chris Hallberg | This Is Why Companies Fail

    JAN 11

    #223 Chris Hallberg | This Is Why Companies Fail

    Founders love talking strategy.But strategy doesn’t break companies; people do.In this episode of the Stonks Go Moon Podcast, Rocco Strydom sits down with Chris Hallberg, a military veteran, entrepreneur, and EOS coach who has scaled and exited companies through some of the toughest economic cycles in modern history.As AI accelerates execution and pressure inside companies intensifies, Chris explains why leadership failures show up long before financial ones and how weak systems, misaligned teams, and tolerated bad behavior quietly kill growth.This is a grounded conversation about what actually breaks when companies scale.In this episode:Why the right people matter more than perfect systemsHow culture degrades when leaders avoid hard decisionsThe six core components that determine whether a business scales or stallsWhy vision without execution is hallucinationWhen remote work works and when it failsHow AI exposes leadership blind spots instead of replacing humansWhy smaller, aligned teams will outperform bloated orgs in the AI eraThis episode is for founders, operators, and leaders navigating growth without losing control of their company or themselves.

    27 min
  7. #222 Wenny Cai | $2.7T Wipeout - Why Pros Are Buying Bitcoin's Crash

    JAN 1

    #222 Wenny Cai | $2.7T Wipeout - Why Pros Are Buying Bitcoin's Crash

    $2.7 TRILLION erased from the S&P 500 as Bitcoin plunges to a 7-month low around $88K. Is this the end of the bull run... or the perfect coiled spring for a massive rebound?In this explosive episode of the Stonks Go Moon Podcast, host Rocco Strydom goes deep with Wenny Cai, COO of SynFutures – the #1 decentralized perpetuals DEX on Base and one of the fastest-growing DeFi derivatives platforms.Wenny pulls back the curtain on what REALLY happened beneath the headlines:Why derivatives amplified the drop (and cleared out excessive leverage)The key difference between retail panic and sophisticated players' calm hedgingWhy open interest and funding rates show this is an orderly deleveraging, not a full-blown crashSmart money already bidding at $70-75K – signaling a maturing marketAltcoin season? We might have missed it (AI agents peaked, now RWAs are next)SynFutures' massive upgrades coming Q1 2026: Own infrastructure, tokenized stocks/RWAs, bridging TradFi & DeFi liquidity

    21 min
  8. #221 Tamara Laine | AI Is Rewriting Money for Gig Workers

    12/22/2025

    #221 Tamara Laine | AI Is Rewriting Money for Gig Workers

    On this episode of the Stonks Go Moon Podcast, host Rocco Strydom sits down with Tamara Laine, founder and CEO of MPWR, to break down how AI and behavioral data are reshaping access to credit for gig workers, freelancers, creators, and underbanked founders.Tamara started as a freelancer, won top journalism awards, and now runs a fintech startup building AI-driven lending infrastructure for the new economy. We unpack why banks still struggle with irregular income, how agentic AI models assess real creditworthiness, and why ethical AI decisions now sit squarely with founders.In this episode:Why traditional banks fail gig workersHow AI models assess thin-file and irregular incomeThe rise of agentic systems in fintechWhy female-founded companies still face funding gapsEthical AI in finance and who is accountable

    27 min
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About

Stonks Go Moon (SGM) - is a value driven, punch in the mouth Podcast featuring exciting business, tech and finance guests

Information

  • Creator
    Rocco Strydom
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    231
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Rocco Strydom
  • Show Website
    Stonks Go Moon