Making sense of the digital economy—through the people building it. Where builders talk freedom, not price. The Crypto Hipster Podcast features conversations with founders, entrepreneurs, and independent creators shaping what comes next. This is not a traditional interview show. These are perspective-driven conversations focused on insight, conviction, and the realities of building in a rapidly changing world. We go beyond headlines, beyond hype, and beyond price—to explore ownership, freedom, and opportunity in the digital economy. Some episodes are conversations. Some are reflections. All are designed to help you understand what’s being built—and why it matters.
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October 26, 202645 min
Who Controls the Future of Finance? | Weekend Wrap-Up — October 26, 2026
Episode Description: Five stories. Six articles. One fundamental question: Who controls the financial systems of tomorrow? In this Monday Morning Weekend Wrap-Up, Jamil Hasan connects five major financial and cryptocurrency developments through his Emotional Assets and STEWARD governance frameworks. From Wall Street's tokenization ambitions and Pentagon restrictions on prediction markets to Argentina's LIBRA controversy, Israel's exploration of blockchain, and Europe's proposed digital euro, this episode examines how technological innovation challenges institutional responsibility. The discussion explores the relationship between trust, accountability, resilience, financial sovereignty, and the evolving architecture of global finance. Rather than treating these developments as isolated headlines, The X Factor reveals the deeper connections between them. Technology changes what institutions can do. Stewardship determines what they should do. The X Factor is presented by CHP Media.
October 23, 2026Episode 11 hr 13 min
The X-Factor Returns: The Institutional Sheep — Wall Street Joins the Herd | Episode 1
The X-Factor with Jamil Hasan returns with ten global cryptocurrency stories examined through four principles of governance: Trust, Protection, Consensus, and Stewardship. In this revival episode, Jamil examines the digital euro, World ID's human verification technology, DeepSeek restrictions, Bitget's expansion, cryptocurrency project shutdowns, prediction-market regulation, tokenized bonds in Malaysia, and the evolving regulatory approaches to decentralized finance in Europe and the United Kingdom. The episode concludes with a provocative examination of Bitcoin ETF flows and institutional herd behavior. Are Wall Street investors leading the cryptocurrency market, or simply following price movements like everyone else? Drawing on decades of institutional experience, hundreds of founder conversations, and the governance philosophy developed in The Lambs Lie Down , Jamil looks beyond the headlines to examine authority, accountability, and the human decisions shaping technological transformation. Ten stories. Four governance principles. One X-Factor. New episodes every Friday, with short-form commentary throughout the week. Produced by CHP Media.
October 16, 202636 min
Beyond the Algorithm: Trust, Truth, and the Future of Decentralized Information | Billy Luedtke, Intuition
Who decides what information we can trust in an increasingly AI-driven world? In this episode of Crypto Hipster, host Jamil Hasan welcomes back Billy Luedtke, founder of Intuition, for a thought-provoking conversation about decentralized identity, information ownership, reputation, accountability, and the future of the internet. Billy's journey began in distributed seismic networks at Caltech before taking him into financial technology consulting, early cryptocurrency adoption, Ethereum, and Consensys. His experiences ultimately led him to establish Intuition, a project dedicated to rethinking how people discover information and determine whom to trust. Together, Jamil and Billy explore why today's internet prioritizes attention over truth, how centralized algorithms influence what people see, and whether decentralized networks can restore individual control over information. Their conversation moves beyond technology into fundamental questions about human behavior, economic incentives, and responsibility. Can information be popular without being true? Can financial incentives improve trustworthiness? And can decentralized accountability help solve some of the greatest challenges facing artificial intelligence? Billy also speaks candidly about the difficulties of entrepreneurship, the importance of building sustainable applications, and the moment a founder transitions from creator to steward. The episode concludes with a look twenty years into the future, when today's attention-driven relationship with technology may seem almost unimaginable. Topics include: Billy's journey from Caltech to Intuition Self-sovereign identity and ownership of personal information Centralized algorithms and information discovery Popularity versus truth versus trustworthiness Financial incentives and information quality Decentralized accountability AI agents, identity, reputation, and alignment Building a sustainable business around an ambitious vision Founder resilience and the transition to stewardship Rethinking humanity's relationship with technology Learn more about Intuition: https://intuition.systems #CryptoHipster #BillyLuedtke #Intuition #DecentralizedIdentity #Blockchain #ArtificialIntelligence #DigitalTrust #Web3
October 11, 202636 min
From Infrastructure to Investment Edge: Cycles, Conviction, and the Next Era of Digital Assets | Courtney Olujobi, Moon Pursuit Capital
What separates believing in a revolutionary technology from knowing whether it's a good investment? In this episode of Crypto Hipster, host Jamil Hasan welcomes Courtney Olujobi, Principal of Portfolio and Investment Strategy at Moon Pursuit Capital, for a conversation about investment discipline, market cycles, institutional adoption, and the evolving digital asset landscape. Courtney's journey into cryptocurrency began in enterprise technology and data center infrastructure. An encounter with Bitcoin mining in 2016 sparked his curiosity, leading him into digital assets in 2017 and eventually into institutional portfolio management and venture investing. Together, Jamil and Courtney explore the difference between conviction and stubbornness, why successful investing requires more than identifying promising technologies, and how institutional capital is reshaping the cryptocurrency industry. The conversation moves through market-neutral strategies, artificial intelligence, quantum security, investment psychology, and the importance of recognizing opportunities before they become mainstream narratives. One question sits at the center of the discussion: Is patience itself a form of investment alpha? Courtney explains why understanding technological cycles, maintaining discipline, and allowing time for adoption can matter as much as identifying the right opportunity. The conversation ultimately moves beyond financial markets to a larger question: Will technological progress help humanity become more connected, equitable, and resilient? Topics include: From enterprise infrastructure to digital asset investing Technology adoption versus investment opportunity Conviction, stubbornness, and investment psychology Market-neutral strategies and institutional capital Finding investment edge in an information-rich world Patience as alpha Quantum security and AI The future of crypto culture Technology's responsibility to humanity A conversation about capital, judgment, uncertainty, and the discipline to think beyond the next market cycle. #CryptoHipster #CourtneyOlujobi #MoonPursuitCapital #DigitalAssets #Blockchain #InvestmentStrategy #Crypto
October 9, 202632 min
Beyond Tokenization: Building Systems That Outlive Their Founders | Yassir Haouati, Brickken
What does it take to build infrastructure that no longer depends on its creator? In this episode of Crypto Hipster, host Jamil Hasan welcomes Yassir Haouati, Co-Founder and COO of Brickken, for a conversation about real-world asset tokenization, institutional adoption, governance, and the evolution of a founder's responsibilities. Yassir's entrepreneurial journey began in Morocco, where he started learning programming at seven years old and landed his first paying client at ten. Years later, that curiosity led him through engineering, entrepreneurship, and ultimately the founding of Brickken in 2020. But this conversation goes well beyond putting assets on a blockchain. Jamil and Yassir explore why tokenization is about more than liquidity, how institutions are changing the requirements for blockchain infrastructure, and why compliance and risk management must be designed into systems from the beginning. The conversation ultimately arrives at a deeper question: When does a founder stop being an owner and become a steward? For Yassir, the strongest ecosystems are those capable of surviving their founders. And the ultimate success of infrastructure may be the moment it becomes invisible. Topics include: From childhood programmer to blockchain entrepreneur The evolution of real-world asset tokenization Institutional adoption and operational infrastructure Governance, compliance, and trust Building organizations that survive their founders Ownership versus stewardship Why invisible infrastructure may represent the greatest success A conversation about building technology—and knowing when to let the system stand on its own. Crypto Hipster — Conversations with the builders shaping the decentralized future. #CryptoHipster #Brickken #Tokenization #RWA #Blockchain #Governance #Entrepreneurship
September 29, 202644 min
The Most Valuable Thing in a Trustless World: A Founder's Journey with Jason Carpenter
What is the most valuable thing in a trustless world? Jason Carpenter, founder of EtherBridge, joins Jamil Hasan on the Crypto Hipster Podcast for a conversation that begins with his family’s experience in Zimbabwe and ultimately reaches the future of open financial infrastructure. Jason traces his journey from studying accounting in South Africa and initially dismissing Bitcoin to discovering a much deeper question: what is money, and how does it actually move through the financial system? They explore property rights, institutional trust, crypto’s 2022 reckoning, why EtherBridge chose to educate investors before accepting their capital, and the strange paradox Jason discovered in crypto: in an industry built around trustlessness, trustworthy people became incredibly valuable. The conversation moves into DeFi, why the word “cryptocurrency” may obscure more than it explains, the difficulty of valuing assets that combine characteristics of commodities, currencies and capital assets, token-holder rights, AI agents, and Jason’s vision for financial infrastructure increasingly built on-chain. No price predictions. No hype. A conversation about money, trust, institutions—and what we may build next.
September 25, 202633 min
Who Owns Risk? Pricing the Risk in DeFi with Marko Zelman
Who owns risk in DeFi? Jamil Hasan sits down with Marko Zelman, co-founder of Tapir Protocol, to trace a founder journey that began in finance and e-commerce before moving through crypto hackathons, liquid staking, protocol design, Marinade, SSV Network, and ultimately Tapir. The conversation explores why risk doesn’t disappear in decentralized systems—it simply moves—and how markets can allow participants to decide which risks they are willing to own. Marko and Jamil discuss pricing risk in DeFi, the relationship between yield and risk, lessons from previous crypto market failures, accountability, and why Marko’s views on decentralization have changed after years of actually building protocols. They also explore Tapir’s larger ambition: creating a market in which risk itself becomes visible, transferable, and priced. A conversation about DeFi, risk, responsibility, and what happens when ideology meets the realities of building financial systems.
September 21, 202635 min
Fixing the Broken Pipelines: Ryan Kirkley on How Money Moves
What actually happens after you hit “send”? Ryan Kirkley, founder and CEO of Global Settlement Network, joins Jamil Hasan to explore the infrastructure underneath the movement of money—and why much of the world still relies on systems that are slow, expensive, fragmented, and difficult to connect. The conversation moves from cross-border settlement and stablecoins into interoperability, CBDCs, monetary sovereignty, tokenization, institutional adoption, privacy, and the future of blockchain. Ryan explains why stablecoins are only part of the answer, why institutional adoption requires solving problems banks actually have, and why the future may not be about choosing one blockchain at all. The bigger question: Can we improve how money moves without fundamentally changing what money is?
September 18, 202647 min
Who Stewards Bitcoin? Paul Sztorc on Governance, Drivechain, and the Cost of Complacency
Paul Sztorc, co-founder and CEO of LayerTwo Labs, inventor of Drivechain, and author of BIP 300 and BIP 301, joins Jamil Hasan for a wide-ranging conversation about Bitcoin’s future. They explore Drivechain, scaling, sidechains, miner incentives, Lightning, Ethereum, and the tension between preserving Bitcoin and allowing experimentation around it. But the conversation ultimately reaches a deeper question: Who actually stewards Bitcoin? Paul discusses the unusual governance dynamics of a decentralized system, the risks of complacency around Bitcoin’s success, and why he believes expanding what people can build with Bitcoin matters for its long-term future. The episode closes on a more personal question: If Drivechain were never adopted, would all the years Paul spent building it still have been worth it?
September 16, 202638 min
Building Global Payments: Trust, Complexity and What Really Matters with Leone Parise, Trace Finance
Leone Parise, Co-Founder and CTO of Trace Finance, joins Jamil Hasan to explore the journey from engineer to fintech founder. Leone discusses his early work in crypto and Trust Wallet, the realities of building global payment infrastructure, and why regulation, banking relationships, compliance, and trust can be harder problems than the technology itself. The conversation moves from blockchain and cross-border payments to leadership, company culture, AI agents, personal growth, and the challenge of building something increasingly complex at global scale. This isn't a conversation about price or predictions. It's about the builder: what shaped him, what changed him, and what he has learned along the way.
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