Bitcoin, Tesla, and Financial Systems

In this episode of Unchained, Charles Cascarilla, CEO and cofounder of Paxos, explains how the 2008 financial crisis led him to crypto, what financial plumbing has to do with GameStop, and how Paxos is leveraging blockchain technology to change financial services. In this episode Charles discusses:

• his work experience prior to Paxos and how the financial crisis in 2008 opened his eyes to Bitcoin and blockchain (01:07)
• what it was like to work in Bitcoin during the early days compared to now (4:02a)
• why Paxos decided to focus on building solutions for institutions rather than targeting the retail market like Coinbase (11:38)
• the relationship between Paxos and PayPal + why PayPal customers can’t send crypto directly to their wallets or crypto addresses yet (19:37)
• how Microstrategy and Tesla are bringing Bitcoin mainstream (25:31)
• what really happened with GameStop and Robinhood and why financial plumbing matters (30:34)
• how the Paxos Settlement Service is bringing greater transparency to financial markets by using blockchain technology (39:02)
• what other assets he thinks will be tokenized (50:32)
• stablecoin regulation and why this might be as good as it gets for Tether (58:36)
• why Paxos chose to pursue a New York State trust company charter instead of a BitLicense (1:06:15)
• what changes he would make to crypto regulation for 2021 and beyond (1:09:28)
• what’s next for Paxos (1:15:12)

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Episode links: 

Charles Cascarilla

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlescascarilla/ 

Coindesk Profile: https://www.coindesk.com/charles-cascarilla-most-influential-2020

Previous interview with Laura: https://unchainedpodcast.com/chad-cascarilla-on-paxoss-partnership-with-paypal/

Presentation at Microstrategy’s Bitcoin for Corporation’s conference: https://www.microstrategy.com/en/bitcoin/videos/paxos

Blog post on the GameStop saga: https://www.paxos.com/what-lehman-brothers-gamestop-and-the-next-financial-crisis-have-in-common/

Interview with Frank Chaparro: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/61823/the-scoop-paxos-cascarilla-coronavirus 

Paxos

Twitter: https://twitter.com/PaxosGlobal + https://twitter.com/PaxosStandard 

Paxos Settlement Service: https://www.paxos.com/securities/ + https://www.reuters.com/article/us-crypto-currencies-paxos/paxos-to-launch-settlement-of-u-s-listed-equities-after-secs-no-action-letter-idUSKBN1X727M

Series C Fundraising: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/88133/142-million-series-c-paxos-crypto-stablecoins 

Wall Street Journal write-up: https://www.wsj.com/articles/blockchain-makes-inroads-into-the-stock-markets-1-trillion-plumbing-system-11573131600

Plans to tokenize precious metals: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/15413/paxos-plans-to-put-precious-metals-on-the-blockchain

Other Links

Paypal’s crypto-focused business unit: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/93668/paypal-crypto-business-unit-earnings-2021

Paypal’s Q4 earnings: https://www.coindesk.com/paypal-2020-results-outstanding-finish-to-a-record-year 

Stablecoin rankings: https://stablecoinstats.com/

Tether whitepaper: https://tether.to/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/TetherWhitePaper.pdf

BitLicense: https://www.dfs.ny.gov/apps_and_licensing/virtual_currency_businesses/regulation_history

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