What Stripe’s Crypto Play & Acquiring Privy Really Means

Welcome back to Talking Tokens.

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The latest Talking Tokens podcast 🎙️

For the Thursday Talking Tokens episode, I sat down with Henri Stern, co-founder and CEO of Privy, the wallet infrastructure powering over 75 million accounts across major platforms like Hyperliquid, Blackbird, and Farcaster.

Recently acquired by Stripe in June 2025, Privy continues to operate independently while scaling its innovative wallet solutions. Henri shares the vision behind simplifying crypto onboarding for developers and users alike, bridging the gap between onchain and offchain worlds. Discover how Privy’s embedded wallet technology and focus on user experience are accelerating new financial product innovations, and why seamless integration across chains like Ethereum, Solana, and Base is key to mass adoption.

⏱️ Timestamps

0:00 – Intro

0:50 – Who is Henri Stern?

2:40 – Henri’s crypto journey and founding Privy

3:37 – Solving the onchain/offchain gap with embedded wallets

4:44 – The Stripe acquisition: alignment and fast process

7:45 – Benefits of operating within Stripe’s ecosystem while remaining independent

10:30 – Developer tooling focus vs. consumer crypto products

14:00 – Growth ambitions and courting larger customers

18:20 – Accelerating adoption by non-crypto fintechs and enterprises

22:00 – Wallets as social and financial super apps

27:00 – The future of wallets as digital identity and ubiquitous infrastructure

36:00 – Founder advice: focus, simplicity, and building what users understand

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Money and people moves

The biggest updates regarding new hires or teams that raised capital, moved money or did a little bit of both.

1. Gaia raised $20M in across a seed and Series A round to scale decentralized AI infrastructure

2. Goldman Sachs and BNY Mellon Team Up for Tokenized Money Market Funds (CoinDesk)

3. Trump-linked World Liberty partners with Vaulta, formerly EOS, with $6 million token buy (The Block)

4. Story-backed Poseidon raises $15M to build AI’s data layer (Blockworks)

Talking points for the road

Crypto-focused headlines or research that caught my eye…and should catch yours, too.

1. XRP Now Larger Than PepsiCo, Uber, Blackrock—And Is Closing in on McDonald’s (Decrypt)

2. Coinbase Brings Leverage to the Masses With Perpetual Futures (Bloomberg)

3. New $2 billion Bitcoin buy shows crypto replacing real estate at core of Trump business empire (Fortune)

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Please note that this content is for informational and entertainment purposes only. Any views shared should not be considered financial advice, nor should it be used to make investment decisions. Cryptocurrencies are high risk and you should consult a financial professional before making any financial decisions. Make sure you do your own research. We may have a direct or indirect financial interest in content mentioned in this newsletter.