Open Interest

Open Interest

Open Interest is a show of conversations with founders and funds in AI and crypto, the people taking the risk and the people pricing it. Recorded live at conferences around the world, before the story settles.

Episodes

  1. 14h ago

    From Investment Banking to Mercuryo: Arthur on the Plumbing Behind Crypto Payments

    Arthur Firstov, Chief Business Officer at Mercuryo, joins Kinsa Durst for Open Interest. Arthur left investment banking in 2019 to help build what Mercuryo's founders pitched as Stripe for crypto. Mercuryo started with on- and off-ramps for exchanges and wallets and now works with payment companies and fintechs on stablecoin and self-custodial payment infrastructure. We get into why the best infrastructure is invisible, wallets turning into neobanks, Western Union and PayPal moving into stablecoin cards, Samsung putting stablecoins on the phone, the plumbing still missing behind the headlines, and why agentic payments should eventually settle on crypto rails. Recorded in Singapore during TOKEN2049, October 2026. Figures and announcements are as stated at the time of recording. Nothing in this episode is financial advice. Open Interest: conversations with the people taking the risk and the people pricing it. https://openinteresthq.com/episodes/arthur-mercuryo/ Open Interest Season 1 · Singapore — co-sponsored by Kraken and Codex. Kraken: https://www.kraken.com/ Codex: https://www.codex.io/ Mercuryo: https://mercuryo.io/ Full conversation: 00:00 Intro: Arthur, Mercuryo 00:27 From investment banking to "Stripe for crypto" 01:31 What Mercuryo does 01:57 On- and off-ramps for crypto natives 03:13 Partnering with Visa, Mastercard and Revolut 04:33 Infrastructure you never see 06:16 From speculation to payments 07:07 Wallets turning into neobanks 08:12 PayPal, Western Union and stablecoin cards 10:01 Samsung, Solana and stablecoins on your phone 11:01 The plumbing behind the headlines 13:08 Agentic payments: cards first, crypto next 16:29 How agents make money: payments 16:55 Microtransactions and streaming payments 19:37 How Arthur pays: travel and a hectic life 22:34 Apple Pay, QR codes and Singapore 24:38 Where to find Mercuryo

    From Investment Banking to Mercuryo: Arthur on the Plumbing Behind Crypto Payments

  2. 18h ago

    From CyberConnect to Surf: Shiyu Zhang on AI That Can't Hallucinate With Money

    Shiyu Zhang, co-founder of Surf AI, joins Kinsa Durst for Open Interest. Shiyu has been building in crypto since 2017, from the decentralized live-streaming platform DLive to CyberConnect, before co-founding Surf, a crypto-native AI company. Surf runs Ask Surf for traders and researchers, and powers the AI inside Bithumb's app, with over a million users at the time of recording. We get into post-training a model under a regulated exchange's rules, why a trained model beats a wrapper on cost and accuracy, where AI belongs in a trade (the decision, not the execution), and what's next for Surf. Recorded in Singapore during TOKEN2049, October 2026. Figures are as stated at the time of recording. Nothing in this episode is financial advice. Open Interest: conversations with the people taking the risk and the people pricing it.https://openinteresthq.com/episodes/shiyu-zhang-surf-ai/ Open Interest Season 1 · Singapore — co-sponsored by Kraken and Codex.Kraken: https://www.kraken.com/Codex: https://www.codex.io/ Surf: https://asksurf.ai/ Full conversation:00:00 Intro: Shiyu Zhang, Surf AI00:18 From DLive and CyberConnect to Surf01:13 Two products: Ask Surf and enterprise AI01:51 The Bithumb partnership02:36 Proprietary data and post-training03:52 Regulation, localization and cost04:38 Bithumb, Surf's first centralized exchange05:08 Enterprise demand in Korea06:06 Execution vs decisions: where AI belongs07:43 AI and crypto in five to ten years09:20 What's next: campaigns and NFTs10:27 Where to find Surf

    From CyberConnect to Surf: Shiyu Zhang on AI That Can't Hallucinate With Money

  3. 4d ago

    From Private Chains to Public Ethereum: Matthew Dawson on Institutional Adoption

    Matthew Dawson, co-founder of Ethereum Institutional, joins Kinsa Durst for Open Interest. We discuss what institutions need from a chain—security, uptime and liquidity—the move from private chains to public Ethereum, compliant privacy, permissioned assets in DeFi, Ethereum’s ZK scaling roadmap, agentic payments, and whether institutions should build on L2s. Recorded in Singapore during TOKEN2049. Open Interest: https://openinteresthq.com Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/9FGPqwQUBJk Ethereum Institutional: https://www.ethereuminstitutional.org/ Open Interest Season 1 · Singapore — co-sponsored by Kraken and Codex. Kraken: https://www.kraken.com/ Codex: https://www.codex.io/ Full conversation: 00:00 Intro: Matthew Dawson, Ethereum Institutional 00:34 From finance consulting to the Ethereum Foundation 02:23 Spinning out Ethereum Institutional 03:26 What institutions need: security, uptime, liquidity 04:39 From private chains to public Ethereum 06:47 Privacy that stays compliant 07:23 Permissioned assets meet DeFi 08:10 ZK-EVM and Ethereum’s scaling roadmap 09:53 Why institutions choose Ethereum 10:46 AI and agentic finance 14:24 TOKEN2049 and a global industry 15:24 Announcements since the spin-out 16:40 L1 or L2 for institutions? 18:10 Why the largest institutions lead 19:06 How to reach Ethereum Institutional

    From Private Chains to Public Ethereum: Matthew Dawson on Institutional Adoption

  4. 4d ago

    From PayPal to Ethena Pay: Lito Coen on the Crypto Neobank

    Lito Coen, GTM lead at Ethena Pay, joins Josh Han for Open Interest to discuss building a crypto neobank: saving, spending and sending from one account, KYC across 50 countries, localisation, and what Ethena Pay means for USDe and ENA. Recorded in Singapore during TOKEN2049. Figures and plans are as stated at the time of recording. Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/lED8yTSeqqM Open Interest: https://openinteresthq.com/ Open Interest Season 1 · Singapore — co-sponsored by Kraken and Codex. Kraken: https://www.kraken.com/ Codex: https://www.codex.io/ Ethena Pay: https://pay.ethena.fi/ Lito Coen: https://x.com/litocoen Full conversation: 00:00 Intro: Lito Coen, Ethena Pay 00:14 From PayPal and the ICO era to crypto onboarding 01:22 Why a crypto neobank 04:02 What makes it a neobank 05:54 One month live: 1,000 users and a 12,000 waitlist 06:46 Saving, spending and sending 08:57 What surprised him: KYC across 50 countries 11:03 Why localisation matters 11:45 Where the growth is 12:52 VIP perks versus real utility 15:37 What Ethena Pay means for USDe and ENA 17:28 Distributing new products to users 18:52 Ethena and the equity basis trade 21:30 What's next and where to follow

    From PayPal to Ethena Pay: Lito Coen on the Crypto Neobank

  5. 5d ago

    From Physics PhD to Curve: Michael Egorov on Real Yield for Bitcoin

    Michael Egorov, founder of Curve and co-founder of YieldBasis, joins Kinsa Durst for Open Interest. A physics PhD, a stake token at NuCypher, and a problem swapping DAI without selling ETH led to the StableSwap algorithm and Curve. Now YieldBasis takes the same idea to Bitcoin: liquidity that earns from volatility while staying delta-neutral in the asset itself. We cover why Bitcoin before Ethereum, what "capacity" means when liquidity starts suppressing volatility, why real yield is seasonal, the MS-DOS UI and the five-minute Klein-bottle logo, Hyperliquid versus GMX, and whether AI or quantum computers threaten the keys. Open Interest: conversations with the people taking the risk and the people pricing it. https://openinteresthq.com Open Interest Season 1 · Singapore — co-sponsored by Kraken and Codex. Kraken: https://www.kraken.com/ Codex: https://www.codex.io/ YieldBasis: https://yieldbasis.com/ Watch the full video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/X0g0eL74rc4 Chapters: 00:00 Intro: Michael Egorov, Curve and YieldBasis 00:36 Physics PhD, NuCypher and the liquid-staking problem 02:11 Why Curve started with stablecoin swaps 03:37 The idea for YieldBasis, on a flight to Token2049 05:41 The MS-DOS UI and a logo made in five minutes 09:16 What YieldBasis is for: real yield on Bitcoin 11:22 Capacity, liquidity and suppressing volatility 12:36 Why Bitcoin is less volatile than stocks 14:25 Bitcoin L2s and the branded-L2 question 15:57 Stocks, gold and where the yield comes from 17:54 Valueless governance tokens 18:47 The next holy grail: Hyperliquid, GMX and why DeFi at all 21:04 AI, quantum computers and whether keys are safe 26:37 How to reach YieldBasis

    From Physics PhD to Curve: Michael Egorov on Real Yield for Bitcoin

  6. 6d ago

    From Nine Days of Runway to the Data Behind Crypto | Codex

    Mike Rowe, CEO and co-founder of Codex and Defined, joins Josh Han for the first full episode of Open Interest. They discuss the trading tools that became a data business, the B2B pivot that helped the company survive, and building with a team of longtime friends. Also: token discovery, Defined’s research tools and how its consumer product connects to the Codex API. Open Interest: conversations with the people taking the risk and the people pricing it. https://openinteresthq.com Open Interest Season 1 · Singapore — co-sponsored by Kraken and Codex. Kraken: https://www.kraken.com/ Codex: https://www.codex.io/ Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/_BiwNgSp5uU Defined: https://www.defined.fi/

    From Nine Days of Runway to the Data Behind Crypto | Codex

  7. Trailer

    Open Interest — The First Telling | Season 1 Trailer

    Every story in this industry gets told twice. Open Interest is the first telling. Our first season was recorded in Singapore during TOKEN2049: conversations with founders, builders and allocators, before the outcome was known. Full conversations and short clips over the coming weeks. Follow the show and get the next conversation by email at https://openinteresthq.com/ Recorded in the Panoramic Content Suite, Singapore. Co-sponsored by Kraken and Codex. Trailer narration generated with AI.

  • 1 Trailer
    6 Episodes

Trailer

About

Open Interest is a show of conversations with founders and funds in AI and crypto, the people taking the risk and the people pricing it. Recorded live at conferences around the world, before the story settles.

Information

  • Creator
    Open Interest
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    7
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Open Interest
  • Show Website
    Open Interest