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