Stablecoins and Regulatory Challenges

This chapter explores the competitive dynamics of stablecoins, focusing on Tether's controversial regulatory status and backing. It emphasizes the critical role of regulatory oversight and the implications of unregulated issuers on mainstream adoption. The discussion also highlights the need for clearer regulatory frameworks in the U.S. to foster innovation while addressing compliance challenges in the financial services sector.

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Episode notes

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)