May 11, 2021

In this discussion I moderated for Paxos, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev and Paxos CEO Charles Cascarilla discuss GameStop, the broken traditional financial infrastructure, and how blockchain technology may change the future of settlements. Show highlights:

• why Robinhood stopped trading on GameStop and AMC stock earlier this year
• what both Charles and Vlad think the feasibility of T+0 settlements versus Citadel’s and the DTCC’s aim of T+1 settlements 
• how the GameStop scenario would have been different in a T+0 environment 
• what it would look like if certain markets used T+0 settlements while others still settled on T+1
• why Robinhood decided to add crypto back in early 2018
• how Robinhood’s crypto operations work on the back end
• why Robinhood does not allow users to move crypto off-platform
• whether securities trading or crypto will be a larger portion of both Paxos’ and Robinhood’s business model
• what Paxos and Robinhood have planned for the near future

Thank you to our sponsors!

E&Y: https://ey.com/globalblockchainsummit 

Crypto.com: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/unchainedcardearnfeb2  

Kyber Network: Dmm.exchange  

Episode Links:

People:

Charles Cascarilla

Linkedin

https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlescascarilla/ 

Coindesk Profile

https://www.coindesk.com/charles-cascarilla-most-influential-2020 

Previous interview with Laura

https://unchainedpodcast.com/chad-cascarilla-on-paxoss-partnership-with-paypal/ 

Blog post on the GameStop saga 

https://www.paxos.com/what-lehman-brothers-gamestop-and-the-next-financial-crisis-have-in-common/ 

Vlad Tenev

Twitter

https://twitter.com/vladtenev 

CNN Article

https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/01/investing/robinhood-gamestop-vlad-tenev/index.html 

Tweet Thread on T+2

https://twitter.com/vladtenev/status/1356687248746455041 

Companies:

Paxos

Twitter

https://twitter.com/PaxosGlobal

Paxos Settlement Service

https://www.paxos.com/securities/

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-crypto-currencies-paxos/paxos-to-launch-settlement-of-u-s-listed-equities-after-secs-no-action-letter-idUSKBN1X727M

Wall Street Journal write-up

https://www.wsj.com/articles/blockchain-makes-inroads-into-the-stock-markets-1-trillion-plumbing-system-11573131600 

Robinhood

Twitter

https://twitter.com/RobinhoodApp

Robinhood Crypto

https://robinhood.com/us/en/about/crypto/

Public offering

https://blog.robinhood.com/news/2021/3/23/robinhood-markets-inc-confidentially-submits-draft-registration-statement 

Miscellaneous Links

Citadel on settlements

https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/95326/citadel-robinhood-shorter-settlements-congress

DTCC on settlements

https://www.dtcc.com/news/2021/february/24/dtcc-proposes-approach-to-shortening-us-settlement-cycle-to-t1-within-two-years 

Other:

Caitlin Long Unchained episode:

https://unchainedpodcast.com/caitlin-long-why-avanti-will-be-a-new-kind-of-crypto-bank/