StrataMedia

A strategy-driven firm focused on providing media that moves markets. Brands: @TokenRelations, @_TalkingTokens, @TheMarketRunup & more.

[The Block @TheBlockCo]

Going live with @StrataMedia_ Founder @jacqmelinek!

Join us 👇

https://t.co/uUyQPUdnmg

[StrataMedia @StrataMedia_]

The latest @TheMarketRunup is out now!

We sat down with Fahmi Syed, the President of @MidnightNtwrk, to break down why privacy has to be core infrastructure before crypto sees real institutional adoption

[The Market Runup @TheMarketRunup]

NEW Episode of The Market Runup is live 🎙️

President of @MidnightNtwrk Fahmi Syed on Onchain Privacy and what needs to happen in the space.

We covered:

- Wall Street's Misconceptions About Blockchain

- The narrative that crypto is only used by bad actors. Fahmi pointed out that traditional banks have been fined for AML violations for years. The real question, he says, is how blockchain technology augments existing financial rails — not replaces them.

- Plus: Should Regulation Lead Innovation or Follow It?

Links below 👇

[Alexander @ahbeaudry]

This was an exciting week for us at @StrataMedia_ (@TokenRelations) as we announced the launch of Strata Research, an institutional focused research org dedicated to understanding crypto adoption and how banks, financial firms, and tech are using crypto today.

Included in the launch was the publication of our first ever report - Agentic Payments: Where We Are and Where We're Going

Key takeaways from the report:

- Bain projects agentic commerce will reach $300–500B by 2030, or 15–25% of US e-commerce.

- x402, the most adopted onchain agent payment protocol, clears ~180k transactions per day at under $10k in total daily volume.

- Three structurally distinct flows are emerging: Human → Agent → Merchant runs on cards, Agent → API runs on stablecoins, and Agent → Business runs on bank rails. Stablecoins win the machine-to-machine middle. They are not the default for consumer purchases or enterprise procurement, and shouldn't be expected to be.

- For Bain's projection to land, four conditions must hold: protocol consolidation, mature identity & trust, settlement rails that handle every transaction size, and AI model reliability.

- Recent infrastructure announcements (@arbitrum x402, Amazon Bedrock, @solana + Google's https://t.co/IC35yFqPVN, @binance on @BNBCHAIN, @circle's agentic suite) skew almost entirely toward the Agent → API flow. Consumer and enterprise volume will arrive later, and most of it will not look like x402. It will look like cards and ACH, initiated by an agent.

[Talking Tokens Podcast @_TalkingTokens]

On our first episode of @StrataMedia_ Research presented by Talking Tokens & @TokenRelations, our host @jacqmelinek sits down with Institutional Research Analyst @Ahbeaudry to breakdown agentic payments.

Alex walks through why it isn't one market but three distinct payment flows, each with completely different infrastructure requirements, and why the machine-to-machine category is where stablecoins have a real structural edge over traditional rails.

They also get into the four things that actually need to happen before this market scales, and why the narrative is still running well ahead of the transaction volumes to back it up.

TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - Introduction Strata Research
01:24 - Understanding Agentic Payments
04:54 - The Flows of Agentic Payments
07:24 - Challenges and Frameworks for Scaling
11:39 - Recent Developments and Future Outlook

[Jacquelyn Melinek @jacqmelinek]

My contrarian take as a former reporter is that most startups don't *need* to be in a big financial publication like Bloomberg, WSJ - and probably shouldn't be.

It may look nice on a pitch deck or get attention on social media for a day - but if it isn't your target audience, it won't provide real traction.

As I shared on @apyx_fi's podcast, it's so important to have the proper narrative-market fit.

The best teams balance maximum reach with relevant reach and will hunt down distribution where their target users already are.

At @StrataMedia_, we help teams shape their narratives and put them in front of the correct audiences that actually would engage with them and provide ROI.

TLDR: Don't just go for big names. Strategize around targeting the right audiences and the best distribution for that.

[Jacquelyn Melinek @jacqmelinek]

As institutions come into crypto, many teams with tokens want an investor relations strategy but struggle on where to start or if they’re doing enough.

@TokenRelations has been focusing on this for years. So our team at @StrataMedia_ built a free tool that shows teams exactly how their IR measures up.

We designed it to be a clear read on where companies stand and where gaps are.

You can check it out and get your score here: https://t.co/cyInGvpCAj

And if you ever want to talk about IR strategy - DMs are open :)

[StrataMedia @StrataMedia_]

We talk to institutional allocators every day and learned they evaluate crypto companies the same way they evaluate public equities.

So we built a free tool teams can use to see exactly how their IR maps to what allocators actually evaluate.

https://t.co/SbK9ZOx1c3

[StrataMedia @StrataMedia_]

Introducing: Strata Research

Alongside our investor updates and sector specific newsletters, we'll now be releasing pure, topical analyst insights and opinions

The first edition is out now, and stay tuned for deeper analysis on it through our new podcast series this Friday

[Token Relations @TokenRelations]

https://t.co/HezkM2LGPC

[StrataMedia @StrataMedia_]

Role reversal alert: our founder and CEO @jacqmelinek is the guest of a podcast this time, not the host. The hunter becomes the hunted and we came through with some sparknotes.

The episode opens with shared bondings of having lived in Houston. We couldn't help but revert back to being the interviewer for a second, and asked Parker how his time in the H-Town was.

Anyway, moving on, we dropped some lore for the Jacquiecurious folks out there: Bloomberg energy desk → covering oil futures during the Trump-China trade wars → S&P covering petrochemicals.

Jacquie then went on to work in crypto because energy markets are "historic and cyclical" and crypto was "zany and strange."

DAT Summer 2.0 talk begins. Jacquie's read: everyone is overfocused on NAV and underfocused on the actual businesses being built. M&A among treasury firms is heating up.

Jacquie wonders aloud whether Strategy could become "the MySpace" of Bitcoin treasuries. The first to do it, but not necessarily the one who ends the conversation. Then immediately backpedals so the "strategy army" doesn't come for her. Too late, it's already in this recap post.

RWA segment along with a spicy Jacquie take: structured proper ownership of the actual underlying issued asset is so important, and not just the promise of a wrapper. She brought receipts from a Consensus panel where a representative from the NYSE/ICE posed the same question. Five wrapped pre-IPO tokens, five different prices, one very confused market.

Counterpoint: global access to US equities is a genuinely huge unlock. Most of us forget non-Americans can't just buy whatever they want on their favorite broker account.

Prediction markets tangent: Jacquie's reflexivity warning: create a market on someone departing their job, get enough eyes and money on it, and you might create the reality you were betting on. Mildly terrifying. Noted for the next intern performance review.

The "build it and they will come" myth gets dismantled. Jacquie's verdict on technical founders who think the best tech wins automatically: "well, nobody knows."

That's where we come in, to help shape the story and narratives in a meaningful way. Best analogy of the episode: if Google's stock dropped 50% and they went silent, the world would be on fire. In crypto, teams just vanish during bear markets and promise to "come back during a bull market." Show up anyway.

The episode closes out with a call back to the beginning of the episode, Texan-to-Texan sign off.

[Apyx @apyx_fi]

Most crypto teams think good tech is enough. It’s not.

The projects that survive are the ones that understand markets, distribution, liquidity, and narrative, not just engineering.

In the latest Apyx Alpha, we sat down with @jacqmelinek of @StrataMedia_ and @_talkingtokens to discuss why digital credit, DATs, RWAs, and tokenized equities are reshaping crypto markets.

Timestamps
• 06:15 Why DAT Summer 2.0 is beginning
• 08:05 Why DATs must evolve beyond pure NAV trades
• 08:58 Preferred equity + daily dividends disrupting TradFi
• 10:23 Could Strategy eventually be disrupted?
• 11:37 Why RWAs/tokenized equities are finally working
• 12:33 The dangers of fake/tokenized pre-IPO assets
• 14:28 Coinbase IPO perps + onchain price discovery
• 15:49 Can prediction markets create reality?
• 17:16 Why more private markets are moving onchain
• 18:37 Why onchain assets still need real liquidity
• 20:53 Why most crypto teams fail at messaging
• 22:18 Why teams disappearing during bear markets is a mistake
• 23:42 The rise of independent crypto media
• 25:06 Why “build it and they will come” kills startups

One of the best conversations we’ve had yet on where crypto capital markets are heading next.

Watch here. 👇

[StrataMedia @StrataMedia_]

Every month, Token Relations dives into the biggest updates in the tokenization space, metrics, what’s going onchain and offchain, who’s integrating with whom, and more.

Some developments that caught our eye. 👇

• @OndoFinance , @JPMorgan's Kinexys, @Mastercard and @Ripple completed the first cross-border transaction of a tokenized fund between a public blockchain and interbank settlement rails
• Digital asset platform @Bullish has agreed to acquire transfer agent @Equiniti for $4.2B in an effort to build infrastructure bridging blockchains with traditional capital markets
• @BlackRock filed two SEC proposals to expand its tokenized fund lineup, adding a new Daily Reinvest Stablecoin Reserve Vehicle, and an onchain share class for its $7B Select Treasury Based Liquidity Fund
• Ondo Finance's tokenized stocks can now be bridged to @HyperliquidX HyperEVM via a bridge powered by @LayerZero_Core
• @Ostium partnered with the Nasdaq to offer perpetual futures contracts on U.S. equities using Nasdaq’s data
• @Securitize, @jumptrading and @JupiterExchange have launched secondary trading for tokenized equities
• DTCC, a post-trade market infrastructure provider, said it is targeting to launch its tokenization service in October, and aims to offer limited production trades in July 2026
• @Fidelity, in partnership with @Chainlink, launched its first tokenized fund, FILQ
• Securitize received FINRA approval to custody tokenized securities within its broker-dealer service
• @dropprwa, a digital capital markets infrastructure company, secured $12.5B in mandates to tokenize RWAs across Saudi Arabia, starting with real estate
• @grovedotfinance launched Grove Basin, a programmable credit layer that provides liquidity in stablecoin form to holders of tokenized assets when they start a liquidation transaction

[Token Relations @TokenRelations]

https://t.co/YEXBBghDU0

[StrataMedia @StrataMedia_]

The latest episode of @_TalkingTokens is out now!

We sat down with @programmer to discuss why the internet struggled without a native payment protocol and why AI agents finally made the problem urgent enough to solve

[Talking Tokens Podcast @_TalkingTokens]

Today's pod is with @programmer, head of engineering at @CoinbaseDev and creator of x402

We dive into x402 in an easy-to-understand manner, @Coinbase’s role in bringing a payment protocol to the internet, AI agents using wallets and why Visa & Mastercard joined its x402 foundation.

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 – Intro
01:25 – Why AI becoming an economic actor made the internet's missing payment layer urgent
03:21 – What x402 actually is
05:14 – How x402 works like HTTP but for money and with any client, server, or payment
06:26 – What Erik wants people to build with x402: new business models beyond ads and subscriptions
08:31 – Who is already using x402: CoinGecko, Messari, a16z, and agent native publishers
09:56 – Why the 402 status code sat empty for decades
11:15 – Where x402 stands today: 15+ chains, stablecoins first, credit cards next
12:50 – Why Visa and, Mastercard joined the x402 Foundation
15:41 – Biggest use cases right now
17:16 – Are AI agents good traders? Why wallets for payments matter more than wallets for trading
19:17 – What needs to happen for AI agents to participate more meaningfully onchain
21:44 – Do AI agents understand value? Economic reasoning and budget awareness
23:22 – Long-term vision for: x402
26:40 – Final advice: play positive sum games with positive people

Links below

[StrataMedia @StrataMedia_]

The latest episode of @TheMarketRunup is out

We sat down with @AmarOdedra to discuss how tighter liquidity is exposing which crypto business models were only sustainable in speculative environments

[The Market Runup @TheMarketRunup]

NEW Episode of The Market Runup is live 🎙️

@amarodedra from @Algorand on post-quantum security, digital assets over Web3, and sustainable models

We covered:

- Shift from Web3 speculation to digital assets and tokenization, stablecoins leading adoption past 3-4 years
- Higher rates net positive: 5% risk-free exposes magic internet money and foundation subsidies - Post-quantum security: Google AI paper referenced Algorand 32 times, first fully quantum secure blockchain
- Investment criteria: must be measurably better than off-chain with sustainable revenue model

Fundamentals over hype. Real revenue required. Security matters.

Links below 👇

[StrataMedia @StrataMedia_]

New Talking Tokenization episode just dropped

We sat down with @Jason_Barraza_ to chat why RWAs as DeFi collateral is the next big unlock and why the buy-build-or-lease question is splitting institutions into fundamentally different infrastructure strategies

[Talking Tokens Podcast @_TalkingTokens]

Today's Talking Tokenization is with @Jason_Barraza_, head of institutional BD at @redstone_defi

We talk why oracles are becoming more important in tokenized finance, RWAs as DeFi collateral, the buy-build-or-lease question for institutions, and why private credit is the talk of the town.

Links below

[StrataMedia @StrataMedia_]

The latest episode of Talking Tokens is our panel with Ben Reynolds, SVP and head of Big Business Banking at @SoFi

We spoke with him at @Solana Accelerate

Tune in 👇

[Talking Tokens Podcast @_TalkingTokens]

Today's Solana Sessions is with Ben Reynolds, SVP and head of Big Business Banking at @SoFi

While at @SolanaEvents Accelerate, we discuss launch of SoFiUSD on @Solana, why stablecoin liquidity is less mature than people think, and SoFi's vision to become the stablecoin liquidity hub.

Links below

[StrataMedia @StrataMedia_]

The latest episode of The Market Runup is live

We spoke with the President of @JupiterExchange Xiao-Xiao J. Zhu about how crypto is evolving alongside traditional finance and more

[The Market Runup @TheMarketRunup]

NEW Episode of The Market Runup is live 🎙️

@xxjzhu from @JupiterExchange on onchain finance vision and crypto-TradFi coexistence

We covered:
- Institutions entering via DeFi token investments, tokenized asset issuance, or blockchain tech adoption
- Coexistence not replacement: crypto and TradFi as parallel systems that collaborate and compete
- Jupiter Global and Jupiter Card: stablecoin payments via Visa rails, no bank account needed
- Next wave users won't know crypto exists, abstraction layer makes rails invisible

Onchain finance terminal. Universal access. Invisible infrastructure.

Links below

[Space and Time @spaceandtime]

Space and Time Ecosystem Webinar https://t.co/pvnNTv8tp9

[Token Relations @TokenRelations]

Space and Time Ecosystem Webinar https://t.co/iKSuEvxgrT

[x402 on Solana @x402]

“Agentic commerce needs a programmable layer, and that’s exactly what stablecoins provide”

“You can now think of a world where an agent has commerce activity attached to a wallet and currency that can be programmed”

“It’s the time of programmable money, making things simpler, faster and truly adopting the technology”

-- May Zabaneh, SVP and GM of Crypto, @PayPal

[StrataMedia @StrataMedia_]

Or if you prefer the written version, check out our synopsis of the interview
https://t.co/wWWBWfSby2

[Jacquelyn Melinek @jacqmelinek]

https://t.co/d1YlHy7QSS

[StrataMedia @StrataMedia_]

We sat down with @MikeSilagadze from @ether_fi and @joechalom from @Sharplink during Consensus Miami

We talked about SharpLink's $200M deployment into EtherFi and what the due diligence process actually looked like from both sides

Listen in ⤵️

[Jacquelyn Melinek @jacqmelinek]

Today's @_TalkingTokens discusses how DeFi protocols should be thinking about risk and what institutions want to deploy on chain.

I interviewed @MikeSilagadze, founder and CEO of @ether_fi, and @joechalom, CEO of @Sharplink to dive into:

- EtherFi's updated risk framework and emergency "red button"
- How Sharplink's $2 billion+ ether treasury underwrites DeFi risk
- Why it's important to consider tail risk in valuations
- Why performative decentralization makes protocols less safe
- What it takes for institutional players to deploy on DeFi protocols and more

TIMESTAMPS

00:00 – Intro
01:30 – The relationship between EtherFi and SharpLink and why they work together
01:46 – What EtherFi is building: the DeFi bank with $5-6 billion in deposits
02:24 – SharpLink's $2 billion Ethereum treasury and why they deployed $200 million into EtherFi
03:38 – Balancing speed and safety: why the DeFi risk playbook hasn't been written yet
05:28 – Why institutions move slow deploying, but go fast when monitoring problems
07:25 – How EtherFi approaches security: in-office teams, formal verification, and constant audits
08:26 – Decentralization theater: why performative decentralization makes protocols less safe
09:17 – Why EtherFi is building an emergency “red button” intervention system without compromising self-custody
10:53 – How SharpLink's team underwrites DeFi risk
13:28 – Why institutions are still in the first inning of DeFi adoption
17:28 – How tokenized securities will unlock DeFi at a scale far beyond bitcoin and ether
22:11 – Qualified custody with Anchorage and why ops alpha matters for institutional DeFi
23:09 – What's next for EtherFi: global licensing and becoming a viable alternative to banks
25:56 – Stablecoin rails as the main way crypto reaches the real economy
28:31 – Tokenization about to expand as NYSE, Nasdaq, and DTCC opening up 24/7
29:44 – Final advice: stay safe, don't chase yield, and invest in young builders

Full episode below: