Connect with Early Riders // Connect with Onramp Presented collaboratively by Early Riders & Onramp Media… Final Settlement is a weekly podcast covering capital markets, dealmaking, early-stage venture, bitcoin applications and protocol development. 00:00 – Cold open: Friday/Sunday pump banter; “the banks are here” kickoff 02:11 – JPMorgan to accept BTC/ETH as collateral by year-end 11:41 – Fortress/Prime Trust fallout: single-custodian risk and insolvency lessons 16:19 – Notable deals of the week 25:31 – FalconX to buy 21Shares: ETFs as on-ramp; options liquidity migration 26:41 – Crypto M&A surges; Q3 deal value and what 2026 might look like 32:08 – Coinbase buys Echo (and UpOnly) 38:56 – Tether roundup: AI ambitions, USAT, and the Rumble token (RUM) 46:54 – Convergence of AI and digital assets 53:53 – ETH dev flight to Tempo; centralization tradeoffs and incentive-driven pivots 58:15 – The state of the greater digital assets industry 1:08:28 – Macro week preview If you found this valuable, please subscribe to Early Riders Insights for access to the best content in the ecosystem weekly. Links discussed: https://www.theblock.co/post/376038/jpmorgan-to-let-institutional-clients-pledge-btc-eth-loan-collateral https://x.com/pmarca/status/1982524567072669929 https://www.theblock.co/post/375102/ledger-nano-device-wallet-app https://www.theblock.co/post/375791/coinbase-unveils-tool-ai-agents-claude-gemini-access-crypto-wallets https://www.theblock.co/post/375102/ledger-nano-device-wallet-app https://www.theblock.co/post/376037/tether-ai-open-dataset-local-app https://www.coindesk.com/business/2025/10/24/tether-eyes-fresh-investments-to-push-usat-stablecoin-to-100m-americans-at-december-launch https://www.theblock.co/post/376092/zelle-weighs-stablecoin-integration-expand-trillion-dollar-payments-network-abroad https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-10-23/crypto-m-a-surges-30-fold-as-niche-firms-shift-to-mainstream https://www.theblock.co/post/375652/prime-broker-falconx-to-buy-21shares-amid-crypto-ma-spree-report https://www.theblock.co/post/375689/salesforce-backed-paytech-firm-modern-treasury-acquires-beam-stablecoin-startup-40-million-all-stock-fortune https://www.theblock.co/post/375778/kalshi-fielding-investment-offers-12-billion-valuation-after-major-funding-round-bloomberg https://blog.kraken.com/news/q3-2025-financial-highlights https://investor.galaxy.com/news/news-details/2025/Galaxy-Announces-Second-Quarter-2025-Financial-Results/default.aspx https://finance.yahoo.com/news/nevada-shuts-down-fortress-trust-114729119.html https://a16zcrypto.com/posts/article/state-of-crypto-report-2025/ https://x.com/TheOneandOmsy/status/1982219947792126246 https://finance.yahoo.com/news/coinbase-signs-375-million-deal-113014849.html Keep up with Michael: https://x.com/MTanguma https://www.linkedin.com/in/mtanguma/ Keep up with Brian: https://x.com/BackslashBTC https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-cubellis-00b1a660/ Keep up with Liam: https://x.com/Lnelson_21 https://www.linkedin.com/in/liam-nelson1/
