Endgame with Amanda Cassatt

TPS Is a Lie! What Actually Makes a Blockchain Worth Building On | Eunice Giarta

Everyone in crypto is chasing TPS. Eunice Giarta thinks that's the wrong race entirely.  As co-founder of Monad Foundation, she spent four years building what she calls the Ethereum of high-performance blockchains, a chain with validators on six continents that doesn't sacrifice decentralization for speed.  In this episode of Endgame, Amanda Cassatt sits down with Eunice to break down what actually makes a blockchain worth building on in 2026, what the real killer use case for Monad looks like, and why bear markets build better products than bull markets. But the most unexpected part isn't the tech, it's the path. Eunice went from Merrill Lynch to Shutterstock to a pastry kitchen at Jean-Georges in New York. A Pi Day pandemic layoff sent her down the crypto rabbit hole.  Four years later, she co-founded one of the most talked-about L1s in the space.  What you'll take away:  - Why TPS is a misleading and gameable metric  - How Monad achieves real decentralization across 6 continents - The use case that truly requires Monad's architecture - How to measure genuine product market fit in crypto  - Why bear markets produce better products than bull runs  - What AI agents actually need from blockchain infrastructure  - The most unexpected founder story in crypto right now

Crypto Doesn’t Need to Replace Banks. It Needs to Replace Wallets. | Binance CEO Richard Teng

“A lot of users don’t need a bank. What they need is a wallet.” In this episode of Endgame, Amanda Cassatt sits down with Richard Teng, CEO of Binance, for a conversation about what crypto actually became and whether that’s the right thing. Richard spent three decades in traditional finance, including the Central Bank of Singapore, before joining Binance in 2021. He doesn’t argue like a convert. He argues like someone who watched the old system fail for thirty years and decided the new one had to work differently. They start at the founding question: is crypto self-sovereign freedom tech or licensed infrastructure run by a handful of platforms? Richard’s answer is that the frame is wrong. Centralized exchanges aren’t a betrayal of the movement. They’re the interface the movement needs to reach the 1.4 billion people the financial system never bothered to serve. From there they move through Binance’s regulatory strategy in markets like Dubai, why the Genius Act sent stablecoin volume past Visa in under a year, and why regulatory clarity is the unlock for institutional capital, not just compliance overhead. Amanda pushes on financialization risk, tokenization of ownership, and whether crypto has run out of native narrative. Richard’s case for the SAFU fund, recovering assets sent to wrong chains, and what a financial super app means in frontier markets is the clearest argument for why centralization isn’t just commercially convenient but structurally necessary for the thing to work at all. Timestamps: 00:00 - Is crypto still freedom tech or licensed infra? 00:55 - 1.4 billion unbanked: why the system fails them 03:00 - Why 65% quit after their first onchain transaction 05:04 - What a bank actually does  and what replaces it 07:30 - Binance as a financial super app for the excluded 09:30 - Binance does more for inclusion than governments 11:02 - China, protectionism and why countries need Binance 13:52 - The Dubai story: building a crypto hub from scratch 17:09 - Regulation as a moat vs regulation as a product 19:32 - The Genius Act and the stablecoin explosion 21:37 - Is compliance becoming incumbent protection? 24:39 - Binance's approach to the US market 26:29 - AI + Blockchain will rebuild every industry 28:42 - Will AI suck all trading value to the biggest firm? 33:11 - Binance AI Pro: what it actually does 36:46 - Crypto out of ideas? RWAs and the next narrative 39:14 - Why 24/7 trading changes everything 41:38 - Invisible crypto and the abstraction risk 45:58 - Hyperliquid vs Binance: who wins? 48:47 - Where does Binance's growth actually come from? 50:00 - The future: wallets replace banks 52:16 - The SAFU fund: $1B to protect users 54:23 - Crypto's real legacy: financial education 56:00 - Do banks really create money from a spreadsheet? Stay Connected Subscribe to Endgame: https://www.youtube.com/@endgamepodcast  Amanda on X:  https://x.com/amandacassatt   Serotonin on X: https://x.com/serotonin_hq  Links to Follow: Endgame on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/45B9szUxVXEwfCDA6uRxwq?si=HT9XXqF9Q2CcM9hfLbmkVg    Endgame on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/endgame-with-amanda-cassatt/id1801809440   Follow Richard  https://www.instagram.com/tengrich/ https://x.com/_RichardTeng

Does Your Blockchain Stand for Anything? | DoubleZero's Austin Federa

“The block explorer is your x-ray machine. Open it up, and you find rooms full of people.” In this episode of Endgame, Amanda Cassatt sits down with Austin Federa, former Head of Strategy at Solana and co-founder of DoubleZero, for a rare, candid conversation shaped by shared history on opposite sides of the Ethereum–Solana divide. They unpack the real meaning of decentralization: is it a philosophy, a design choice, or just branding? The discussion moves from the Drift hack—revealing how a months-long social engineering attack exposed crypto’s underlying security culture—to broader questions about trust, control, and the human systems beneath supposedly autonomous technology. Along the way, they explore financial nihilism, the psychological impact of the internet on risk-taking, and whether blockchains should stand for anything beyond speed and efficiency. What happens to values like openness and censorship resistance once real money enters the system? And who carries the ideology when institutions drift from it? Timestamps: 00:00 Crypto values and philosophy 03:07 Speed and the evolution of blockchain design 06:05 Decentralization vs. centralization 08:58 Solana’s practical approach 11:48 FTX and Solana’s resilience 15:03 The role of decentralization in finance 17:58 Meme coins and perceived value 20:58 Financial nihilism and Gen Z 30:15 The psychology of comparison online 34:34 Roots of financial nihilism 37:41 What money actually is 41:21 The Drift hack and crypto security culture 53:00 Building the future: DoubleZero Stay Connected: Subscribe to Endgame: https://www.youtube.com/@endgamepodcast  Amanda on X:  https://x.com/amandacassatt   Serotonin on X: https://x.com/serotonin_hq  Austin on X: http://x.com/Austin_Federa DoubleZero on X: https://x.com/doublezero Links to Follow: Endgame on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/45B9szUxVXEwfCDA6uRxwq?si=HT9XXqF9Q2CcM9hfLbmkVg    Endgame on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/endgame-with-amanda-cassatt/id1801809440

Curation Is the Last Skill AI Can’t Replace | Amanda Cassatt

In this episode of Endgame, Amanda Cassatt cuts through the AI hype to explore what happens when creation becomes free. The result isn’t less competition—it’s more noise. She unpacks a web flooded with AI content, misaligned platforms, and the rising value of curation, taste, and real skill. From the future of digital work to the surprising role of crypto—where AI agents, stablecoins, and frictionless UX may finally unlock DeFi—this conversation dives into the paradox of abundance and why judgment matters more than ever. Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction  02:21 What People Get Wrong About AI Right Now 04:36 Running to Stand Still: Skills and AI 08:27 AI's Sybil Attack on Content and Platforms 12:29 The Water Line Rising: Content Overload and Curation 21:08 Finding Nutritious Content in a Sea of AI-Generated Material 25:48 New Opportunities in Content Curation and Skill Sets 26:36 AI and Crypto: Future Intersections 33:14 Quantum Computing Risks and Opportunities 36:07 The Fintechization of Crypto and Narrative Shifts 38:01 Inextricable Values in Technology Stay Connected: Subscribe to Endgame: https://www.youtube.com/@endgamepodcast  Amanda on X:  https://x.com/amandacassatt   Serotonin on X: https://x.com/serotonin_hq  Links to Follow: Endgame on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/45B9szUxVXEwfCDA6uRxwq?si=HT9XXqF9Q2CcM9hfLbmkVg    Endgame on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/endgame-with-amanda-cassatt/id1801809440

AI Agents Are the New Economy | Animoca's Yat Siu

“The scammy elements of crypto are turning people off—and that’s something we need to fix.” In this episode of Endgame, Amanda Cassatt sits down with Yat Siu, co-founder of Animoca Brands, to unpack crypto’s evolution—from idealism to hype cycles—and what comes next. They explore AI agents, the open metaverse, and who actually benefits as technology scales. Yat argues blockchain was built for a future of billions of AI agents—and we’re closer than we think. The conversation also dives into creativity, education, and what it means to stay human in an increasingly automated world. At its core, this episode asks: who owns the system—and is the future being built one worth living in? Stay Connected: Yat Siu on X: https://x.com/ysiu Subscribe to Endgame: https://www.youtube.com/@endgamepodcast  Amanda on X:  https://x.com/amandacassatt   Serotonin on X: https://x.com/serotonin_hq  Links to Follow: Endgame on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/45B9szUxVXEwfCDA6uRxwq?si=HT9XXqF9Q2CcM9hfLbmkVg    Endgame on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/endgame-with-amanda-cassatt/id1801809440   Substack: https://substack.com/@UCInZsV3L1nDGoFjxoNUnPQQ