In this episode, I sit down with Davi Strazza, Chief Business Officer at Lightspark and former President of North America at Adyen, to discuss why traditional payment infrastructure remains broken despite decades of innovation—and how Lightspark is using Bitcoin, Lightning, stablecoins, and AI to build a new financial network.

We cover:

Why 15% of online transactions still fail

The limitations of SWIFT and traditional payment rails

How Lightspark connects RTP, FedNow, PIX, UPI, and SEPA Instant

Why Bitcoin is becoming a transport layer for money movement

The role of stablecoins in global finance

Lightspark's new Grid Global Accounts product

How AI agents will make payments and manage money autonomously

The future of machine-to-machine commerce

If you're interested in payments, fintech, stablecoins, digital banking, or agentic commerce, this conversation is packed with insights.

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In this episode of the WRAP UP Podcast, I sit down with Coinbase UK CEO Keith Grose to discuss why stablecoins, tokenized assets, and blockchain infrastructure are starting to move from the edge of finance into the core of the global financial system.

We discuss why the UK is becoming one of Coinbase’s most important markets, how stablecoins could reshape cross-border payments and treasury operations, and why banks, PSPs, and fintechs are suddenly taking on-chain finance seriously.

Keith also breaks down:

• Why the US is currently ahead in stablecoins

• Why the UK may have a regulatory advantage over Europe

• How Coinbase Borrow works

• Why tokenized stocks and bonds are coming faster than people expect

• Why AI agents could eventually manage portfolios and move money autonomously

• How Coinbase plans to expand beyond crypto trading into a much broader financial platform

One of the most interesting parts of the conversation was Keith explaining that the future customer experience may look exactly the same on the surface, while the entire backend of finance quietly moves on-chain.

If stablecoins, tokenization, AI finance, and the future of banking interest you, this episode is packed with insights.

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In this episode of the WRAP UP Podcast, I speak with Tyler Allen, CEO of Unit21, about why AI agents may become one of the most important tools in the fight against financial crime.

Tyler explains why traditional rules-based systems and machine learning models are no longer enough as fraud becomes faster, more automated, and more sophisticated. He also breaks down how AI agents can help compliance and fraud teams review alerts, investigate suspicious activity, reduce false positives, and respond to financial crime in real time.

The conversation also explores the future of “Know Your Agent,” AI-powered fraud decisioning, agent registries, regulatory readiness, and whether financial institutions are ready to trust AI with high-stakes compliance work.

In this episode, we discuss:

- Why financial crime is becoming harder to fight

- How AI is changing fraud and AML operations

- Why traditional machine learning is not enough

- The role of human-in-the-loop reviews

- How AI agents can reduce investigation time

- The future of Know Your Agent

- Whether regulators are ready for AI decision-making

- Why compliance teams may become AI-native faster than expected

Watch the full episode to understand how AI agents could reshape fraud prevention, AML, and financial crime compliance.

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What happens when every bank, fintech, and enterprise launches its own stablecoin?

In this episode of the WRAP UP Podcast, I sit down with Sam Broner, the CEO of The Better Money Company, a former investor at Andreessen Horowitz, and a former engineer at Microsoft, to discuss why he left venture capital to build a stablecoin company.

Sam is building what he calls a stablecoin clearinghouse infrastructure that allows banks, fintechs, and payment companies to swap between stablecoins at guaranteed 1:1 pricing, without relying on thin market liquidity or costly trading venues.

We discuss:

- Why stablecoin infrastructure has been built primarily for trading, not payments

- How a stablecoin clearinghouse works

- Why large companies are launching custom branded stablecoins

- The economics behind stablecoin issuance

- Stablecoins vs CBDCs

- Why stablecoins may become the default payment rail for AI agents

- What Sam learned moving from investor to founder

One of the most important takeaways from this conversation is that the future of money may look less like a handful of dominant stablecoins and more like thousands of interoperable digital dollars issued by banks, fintechs, and enterprises. Better Money Company is building the infrastructure to make that possible.

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In this episode of the WRAP UP Podcast, I sit down with David Messenger, CEO of Global Businesses at Pingpong Payments, to unpack what really happens behind cross-border payments and why moving money globally is still far more complex than most businesses realize.

We explore how global payments infrastructure is evolving beyond simple money movement into a full-stack ecosystem of compliance, FX, treasury, local rails, and embedded financial workflows. David shares how PingPong Payments quietly built one of the world’s largest cross-border payment networks with 70+ licenses, 200+ banking partnerships, and operations across more than 40 offices globally.

We also discuss:

• Why compliance and risk are the real foundation of cross-border payments • How AI is reshaping onboarding, transaction monitoring, routing, and product development • Why fintechs and banks are moving toward collaboration instead of competition • The hidden complexity behind FX, treasury, and multi-currency collections • Where stablecoins actually fit into enterprise payments today • Why geographic coverage and banking relationships are harder to replicate than product features • How embedded finance is evolving from “invisible payments” into industry-specific infrastructure

One of the most interesting parts of the conversation was David’s perspective on how enterprise customers increasingly want hybrid solutions that combine the balance sheet strength of banks with the agility and customization of fintech infrastructure.

If you work in payments, fintech, marketplaces, global commerce, or treasury, this episode offers a practical look into how cross-border financial infrastructure is actually being built behind the scenes.

In this episode of the WRAP UP Podcast, I sit down with Noah Levine, Partner at @a16z , to unpack one of the biggest emerging shifts in commerce: agentic commerce.

We explore why agent-led transactions are not just about AI buying shoes or booking flights on behalf of consumers, but about a much deeper change in how commerce infrastructure may work. Noah explains why the near-term opportunity may be less about traditional shopping and more about developers, AI tools, APIs, data providers, and a new class of “headless merchants” built for agents rather than humans.

We also discuss how checkout could change when agents become buyers, why storefronts may slowly give way to endpoints, how merchants will compete when agents care more about APIs, documentation, price, and reliability than brand experience, and what this means for customer acquisition, loyalty, and discovery.

The conversation goes deeper into the role of card networks, stablecoins, payment tokenization, liability, fraud, and settlement. Noah shares why he believes card networks are well positioned in an agentic world, how stablecoins could modernize backend settlement, and why new payment models may emerge for merchants that are too small, too new, or too fragmented for traditional underwriting.

We close by looking at the broader impact of AI on financial services, including more accessible investing, AI-powered financial products, and the possibility that change in finance may happen slower than many expect because trust, habits, and money are hard to disrupt.

A thoughtful conversation on what happens when commerce becomes less visible, more programmable, and increasingly shaped by agents rather than humans.