On today’s Talking Tokens episode, Jacquelyn sits down with AJ Warner, Director of Strategy at Offchain Labs, the team behind Arbitrum, one of Ethereum’s top layer-2 blockchains with over $4B in TVL.

AJ shares his journey from real estate lawyer to crypto strategist, and how a college connection led him to help build Arbitrum from the ground up. They discuss the unique "barbell" strategy powering both Arbitrum One and Arbitrum Orbit, why liquidity and composability are critical for growth, and how Arbitrum balances being a top public chain with enabling enterprises to launch custom blockchains.

He also dives into the recent Robinhood partnership - from launching tokenized stocks on Arbitrum One to designing a dedicated Robinhood chain - and why powering fintech products with crypto rails might be the fastest path to mass adoption. Plus, AJ breaks down why some projects shouldn’t launch their own chain, how Arbitrum’s governance gives token holders real control over upgrades and revenue, and where L2 innovation is headed next.

Timestamps

(01:12) - From law to crypto via a college connection

(04:04) - Building Arbitrum’s "barbell" product strategy

(07:40) - Liquidity, composability & Arbitrum’s public chain advantage

(10:19) - Stablecoin liquidity leadership: USDC, USDT, PayPal USD

(12:48) - Arbitrum Orbit: Launching custom L3 chains

(16:21) - Why Uber-style incentive models fail in crypto

(20:59) - Who should (and shouldn’t) launch their own chain

(24:44) - MEV, operating costs & economics of L2 ownership

(28:50) - Opinionated blockspace: making the chain part of the product

(33:09) - Governance, token holder control & the Arbitrum treasury

(37:31) - Designing Robinhood’s on-chain strategy

(39:16) - Why fintech products powered by crypto rails matter

(42:52) - Making blockchain invisible (in a good way)

(44:52) - Final advice: No shortcuts, just hard work

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ICE, ICE Baby