Stonks Go Moon

DeFi was supposed to make capital more efficient. Instead, it created a new kind of fragmentation.In this episode of the Stonks Go Moon Podcast, Rocco Strydom sits down with MacBrennan Peet, founder of Project 0, to talk about why DeFi users still get stuck with scattered collateral, disconnected venues, poor capital efficiency, and unnecessary liquidation risk. Project 0 is building a prime brokerage layer on Solana designed to unify portfolio management across venues like Kamino, Drift, and Jupiter Lend.MacBrennan’s background is unusually deep for someone still so young. He started trading biotech and pharma names as a teenager, later worked on projects with Morgan Stanley and in private equity, helped build marginfi, and has spent years inside Solana DeFi infrastructure. That background shows up in this conversation because this is not a hype-driven crypto interview. It is a practical discussion about market structure, fragmented liquidity, basis trades, unified margin, and what DeFi still gets wrong.We get into:why DeFi became more fragmented even though blockchains were supposed to unify everythinghow users lose yield and capital efficiency when assets sit across multiple venueswhy “unified margin” matters more than most retail users realizehow Project 0 is approaching Kamino, Drift, and Jupiter integrationsthe difference between DeFi-native opportunities and simply rebuilding TradFi onchainwhy Solana is becoming a serious environment for more advanced trading infrastructurewhat comes next once lending and perps are tied together more efficientlyOne of the most interesting ideas in this episode is that DeFi may not win by copying traditional finance feature for feature. It may win by leaning harder into what only onchain systems can do well: composability, speed, transparency, and new forms of capital efficiency. That is where Project 0 is aiming.

Stablecoins aren't just surviving crypto winters; they're exploding into the backbone of global finance. In this episode of Stonks Go Moon Podcast, Rocco Strydom talks with Chunda McCain, Co-Founder of Paxos Labs, about how regulated stablecoins are quietly becoming the most-used digital dollars on EarthFrom powering PayPal's PYUSD (now billions in circulation) to cross-chain compliance, trust, and enterprise adoption, Chunda explains why stablecoins won over memecoins, NFTs, and much of DeFi (for now). He shares war stories from building in tough regulatory times, how Paxos navigated uncharted territory to issue branded assets, and why more branded stablecoins are coming.Key highlights:Why stablecoins are the foundational layer for all finance (faster, cheaper, better margins)Enterprise crypto is thriving while grassroots is in chaosPaxos Labs helps companies issue branded stablecoins, generate yield, borrow against assets, and go full crypto without breaking rulesChunda's journey: Bitcoin whitepaper at ~12 → DeFi epiphany inspired by his grandfather's restaurantFuture: Once companies integrate stablecoins, DeFi yields are next

While U.S. headlines obsess over ETFs and enforcement, Asia is quietly building.In this episode, Rocco Strydom sits down with Marc Liew, Head of APAC at Jito, to unpack how stablecoins, staking, and Solana infrastructure are reshaping institutional crypto adoption across Asia.Marc’s background spans R3, Ripple, PayPal, and years inside cross-border payments. He has been in the room with regulators, central banks, and financial institutions as they experimented with CBDCs, stablecoins, and blockchain settlement rails.Now at Jito, he’s focused on institutional-grade staking infrastructure on Solana.What We Cover:Why stablecoins found product-market fit in Asia before the U.S.How remittances are accelerating real crypto adoptionWhy institutions are entering crypto through ETFs instead of direct on-chain tokenizationThe difference between traditional staking and Jito’s liquid staking modelMEV rewards and how they change staking economicsSolana’s infrastructure upgrades and block assembly marketplaceWhy decentralization matters for regulatorsThe growing convergence between AI agents and crypto paymentsWhy Asia leads in retail adoption, but the U.S. still leads institutionallyFrom Payments to Web3Marc shares his early “aha” moment when blockchain settlement clicked for him:If we can send a text in milliseconds, why can’t we move money the same way?That question led him from traditional payments into Web3 in 2016, deep into CBDCs, stablecoins, and now into building yield-generating infrastructure on Solana.The Big ThemeCrypto is maturing.Stablecoins are no longer theoretical. Institutions are no longer experimenting quietly. Liquid staking is evolving into a capital efficiency tool rather than just passive yield.And Asia isn’t debating whether crypto works. They’re deciding how to deploy it.

Markets feel louder than ever, but somehow less clear.In this episode of the Stonks Go Moon Podcast, Rocco Strydom sits down with Matt Ober, Managing Partner at Social Leverage, to unpack what’s really happening beneath the surface of today’s markets.With AI-generated research flooding Twitter, Substack, and trading platforms and capital pouring into anything labeled “AI” even professional investors are struggling to separate real signal from machine-amplified noise.Matt brings a rare perspective shaped by:Building data systems inside quantitative hedge fundsBuying and operationalizing alternative data before AI was mainstreamServing as Chief Data Scientist at a major activist hedge fundNow backing early-stage founders simplifying finance instead of overcomplicating itIn this conversation, we break down:Why “alternative data” is no longer alternative, it’s just dataHow AI is changing market sentiment, research, and investor behaviorWhy email, ownership of audience, and direct distribution still matterHow consumption-based data pricing could reshape finance and AI economicsWhat founders misunderstand about AI, noise, and real leverageIt’s a grounded look at how markets, media, and investing are evolving in an AI-saturated world and what still actually matters.

Most founders still believe scale means hiring faster.Amos Bar-Joseph doesn’t.In this episode of the Stonks Go Moon Podcast, we break down how Swan AI is building what may be one of the first truly AI-native companies — a business where autonomous agents handle outbound sales, lead qualification, research, and execution, while just three humans focus on strategy and creativity.We go deep into:Why the traditional startup “hire → burn → raise” loop is breakingHow AI agents can replace entire go-to-market teams without killing qualityThe idea of revenue per employee as the real metric that matters nowWhat “zone of genius” actually means in an AI-first workplaceWhy future companies may scale intelligence instead of headcountThis isn’t theory.This is a live experiment in how businesses may actually run over the next decade.If you’re a founder, operator, or investor trying to understand where AI is really going — this conversation will challenge how you think about work, teams, and scale.