Description

Connect with Early Riders — https://www.earlyriders.com/contact

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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.

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: https://www.earlyriders.com/research

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/