Crypto, Explained by the National Cryptocurrency Association

Most conversations about crypto are really conversations about price. What it did this week, what it might do next, who got in early. There is a whole category that works the other way around, where the entire design goal is that nothing happens at all. A dollar today, and the same dollar tomorrow. In this episode, Ali Tager sits down with Stephanie Chan, enterprise project manager and deputy director at the Wyoming Stable Token Commission, the team behind the first stable token ever issued by a public entity in the United States. Stephanie read the Bitcoin white paper in 2014 while she was working at Bank of America, moved to Cheyenne five years later, and became the commission's first hire based in the state. The category is not small. Ali notes that stablecoins and stable tokens moved roughly $33 trillion last year, close to double what Visa processed, and Stephanie adds that as of February they passed ACH, the rails behind every direct deposit, for the first time. The GENIUS Act put uniform rules around all of it in 2025, which is a large part of why the last year has looked the way it has. What makes Wyoming different is who is doing the issuing. Stephanie walks through the structure: every token in circulation has a dollar sitting in a segregated trust account that never moves, the state publishes a daily attestation page that anyone can open and check, and the interest those reserves earn does not go to holders. It goes back to the state, and from there into the school foundation program. Her point about other issuers is the sharpest part of the conversation. Some back their tokens with a mixed basket, dollars and gold and whatever else. Wyoming went plain and one to one, she says, because that way there is nothing to hide. If you want to keep learning about all of this in plain English, head to nca.org, where you will find the Crypto 101 courses built for people taking a first step. Remember, crypto was always meant for everyone, including you. What We Discuss: 00:00 What Is a Stablecoin and Why Did Wyoming Launch a State-Issued Stable Token? 03:34 What Is a Stablecoin (Stable Token) in Plain English? Digital Dollars Explained 07:35 What's the Difference Between a Stablecoin and a Stable Token? 08:45 How Big Is the Stablecoin Market? $33 Trillion in Transactions vs. ACH 11:25 What Does the GENIUS Act Unlock for Everyday People and Businesses? 13:43 How Does Wyoming's State-Backed Stable Token Work? 1:1 Reserves Explained 15:50 How Does a Stable Token Fund Schools? 102% Collateral and Wyoming's School Foundation Program 27:05 Why Does Full Reserve Transparency Matter? State Stable Token vs. Private Issuers 31:38 What Is Stand With Crypto and How Can You Get Involved in Crypto Advocacy? 36:39 What Will Stablecoins Look Like in Five Years? Cross-Border Payments and Digital Car Titles Learn more about the National Cryptocurrency Association (NCA):Website: https://nca.org X: @natcryptoassoc Instagram: @natcryptoassoc TikTok: @natcryptoassoc LinkedIn: National Cryptocurrency Association Facebook: National Cryptocurrency Association Disclaimer: This content is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, or tax advice.

Before anyone gets confused by crypto, a lot of people have already decided it isn't for them. Not because they tried and struggled, but because nothing about it ever looked like it was built with them in mind. That decision gets made quietly, usually long before anyone opens an app, and almost nobody goes back and checks it. In this episode, Ali Tager sits down with Jouell Wright, a crypto mentor and educator who has spent years walking people from the outside of all this into actually participating, one person at a time. Jouell got there the long way around, through the stock market, through Investopedia, through an accelerator where everyone was talking about a technology she had already written off once. What she kept running into afterward was not confusion. It was a set of assumptions about who gets to participate at all. The one she hears most is that you have to buy a whole coin, that the entry price is the headline price. She also hears that people cannot tell which apps are safe, and that they are afraid of pressing the wrong button and losing everything. Her approach is the same shape every time: open a wallet, start small, and make it safe to ask the question you are embarrassed to ask. Ali adds what NCA research shows about who actually holds crypto in America, and the picture is older and more ordinary than the stereotype suggests. The best stretch is about her grandmother, who came along to ETHDenver in her late eighties, watched a room full of people building things, and went home wanting to follow it herself. Jouell's line, and the one Ali keeps coming back to, is that we all deserve a chance at learning. Not only the people who already have the accounts and the background and the confidence. If you want to keep learning in plain English at your own pace, head to nca.org, where you will find the 101 courses, the risk-free simulator, and more of Jouell's story. Remember, crypto was always meant for everyone, including you. What We Discuss: 0:00 Fear of Crypto & Barriers to Entry 2:09 How Joelle Discovered Crypto 5:18 ETHDenver & the Crypto Gold Rush 7:32 FOMO vs. Real Financial Access 10:00 Crypto for Older Generations 11:37 Underserved Communities & the Knowledge Gap 15:17 Beginner Strategy: Dollar-Cost Averaging 19:49 Joelle's Crypto Mentorship Strategy 25:39 Teaching Grandma About Crypto 32:54 The Future of Crypto & AI Learn more about the National Cryptocurrency Association (NCA):Website: https://nca.org X: @natcryptoassoc Instagram: @natcryptoassoc TikTok: @natcryptoassoc LinkedIn: National Cryptocurrency Association Facebook: National Cryptocurrency Association Disclaimer: This content is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, or tax advice.

Most people can name the moment they decided something was not for them. Someone explained it badly, the room seemed to already understand, and asking felt worse than not knowing. That decision gets filed away as a preference and then sits there for years, never reopened. In this episode, Ali Tager sits down with Lauren Weymouth, who leads the University Blockchain Research Initiative, Ripple's academic partnership program, which funds research at 63 universities around the world. Ali brings new NCA research showing that what keeps Americans out is not cost or distrust but knowledge, with roughly three-quarters saying they would be more likely to use crypto if it were better explained. Lauren pushes back on how we talk about it. She calls it a dignity gap rather than an information gap. People are not afraid of the technology, she argues. They are afraid of being the person in the room who asks the obvious question. The back half is practical. Lauren makes the case that good education opens with a problem the person already has, that it has to be hands-on because nobody learns to swim from a book, that anything teaching only the upside is a sales pitch, and that it has to let people walk away. Then she says something against her own interests. She does not think the shift is primarily about education at all. She thinks it is about usefulness, and that the education follows. What she keeps returning to is that not understanding something yet is not a verdict on it, and it is not a verdict on you. Start plain and start small at nca.org, where you can find the research behind this conversation and free Crypto 101 material. Remember, crypto was always meant for everyone, including you. What We Discuss: 0:00 - Why People Avoid Crypto 1:20 - Who Leads UBRI at Ripple 2:08 - Ripple's $50M Education Bet 5:40 - University Blockchain Research 9:33 - How the Crypto Conversation Shifted 12:24 - Top Crypto Misconceptions 15:00 - 33M Americans Eyeing Crypto 17:29 - The Dignity Gap in Crypto 18:49 - What Good Crypto Education Looks Like 28:51 - What Shifts Public Perception Learn more about the National Cryptocurrency Association (NCA):Website: https://nca.org X: @natcryptoassoc Instagram: @natcryptoassoc TikTok: @natcryptoassoc LinkedIn: National Cryptocurrency Association Facebook: National Cryptocurrency Association Disclaimer: This content is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, or tax advice.

Picture someone who owns crypto. For most of us the same face shows up: a young guy, a wall of screens, a lot of jargon, and maybe a little too much confidence. That picture is doing real damage, because it tells everyone who does not see themselves in it that this was never meant for them. In this episode, Ali Tager sits down with Kristina Sherk, a headshot photographer and Photoshop educator based outside Washington, D.C. Kristina has spent a decade helping people look and sound their best on camera and teaching other creatives to do the same. She did not arrive at crypto through a hot tip or a price chart. She arrived through a very ordinary pressure a lot of Americans will recognize, which was a business that stopped when the world did. Nobody needed a headshot in a mask. Her husband raised the idea, and she found herself with an unfamiliar amount of free time and a question she was not willing to answer casually. What she did next is the actual story. She refused to put money into an asset class she could not explain, so she watched what she describes as every documentary known to man, and kept going until something clicked. The thing that finally landed was a problem she already understood better than most people, because she lives it: anything digital can be copied. She watermarks her photographs and people crop the watermark out. Napster and Limewire did the same thing to music and film. So how do you build something digital that cannot simply be duplicated, and why does the answer make a shared, public list of receipts the most interesting invention of her lifetime? Kristina also talks about growing up in the Philippines and Ivory Coast while her father worked as an economist for development banks, and what it did to her sense of how differently money works depending on where you happen to be standing. The conversation ends where a lot of people actually need it to end, which is on proportion. Ali is candid that she is not all in, and walks through what sits alongside the crypto in her own financial life. Kristina talks about verification, and why a system anyone can audit changes what is possible when something goes wrong. Neither of them tells you what to do. That is the point. Read Kristina's story and find free Crypto 101 courses at nca.org, built for people who are curious but nervous about a first step. Remember, crypto was always meant for everyone, including you. What We Discuss: 0:00 Crypto in Pop Culture 1:10 Meet Kelvin Sparks Jr. from The Block 3:18 How Media Misrepresents Crypto 5:14 Women in Crypto 8:14 Mainstream vs Crypto Media 9:54 Explaining Crypto Simply 12:08 Finding Crypto Story Ideas 18:44 Navigating Crypto Twitter 29:39 Red Flags in Crypto Media 30:49 Why Crypto Changes Lives Learn more about the National Cryptocurrency Association (NCA): Website: https://nca.org X: @natcryptoassoc Instagram: @natcryptoassoc TikTok: @natcryptoassoc LinkedIn: National Cryptocurrency Association Facebook: National Cryptocurrency Association Disclaimer: This content is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, or tax advice.

Picture someone who owns crypto. For most of us the same face shows up: a young guy, a wall of screens, a lot of jargon, and maybe a little too much confidence. That picture is doing real damage, because it tells everyone who does not see themselves in it that this was never meant for them. In this episode, Ali Tager sits down with Kristina Sherk, a headshot photographer and Photoshop educator based outside Washington, D.C. Kristina has spent a decade helping people look and sound their best on camera and teaching other creatives to do the same. She did not arrive at crypto through a hot tip or a price chart. She arrived through a very ordinary pressure a lot of Americans will recognize, which was a business that stopped when the world did. Nobody needed a headshot in a mask. Her husband raised the idea, and she found herself with an unfamiliar amount of free time and a question she was not willing to answer casually. What she did next is the actual story. She refused to put money into an asset class she could not explain, so she watched what she describes as every documentary known to man, and kept going until something clicked. The thing that finally landed was a problem she already understood better than most people, because she lives it: anything digital can be copied. She watermarks her photographs and people crop the watermark out. Napster and Limewire did the same thing to music and film. So how do you build something digital that cannot simply be duplicated, and why does the answer make a shared, public list of receipts the most interesting invention of her lifetime? Kristina also talks about growing up in the Philippines and Ivory Coast while her father worked as an economist for development banks, and what it did to her sense of how differently money works depending on where you happen to be standing. The conversation ends where a lot of people actually need it to end, which is on proportion. Ali is candid that she is not all in, and walks through what sits alongside the crypto in her own financial life. Kristina talks about verification, and why a system anyone can audit changes what is possible when something goes wrong. Neither of them tells you what to do. That is the point. Read Kristina's story and find free Crypto 101 courses at nca.org, built for people who are curious but nervous about a first step. Remember, crypto was always meant for everyone, including you. What We Discuss: 0:00 AI & Crypto Headlines Explained 0:49 Why AI Agents Need Crypto 1:57 Stripe's $7B OpenRouter Deal 2:35 Stripe's Stablecoin Strategy 3:15 Coinbase AI Fi Explained 3:26 Robinhood & Binance AI Agent Trading 4:57 AI Agent Safety: The Off Switch 5:35 What Is X402? HTTP 402 Explained 6:35 Ramp AI Payments & Audit Trails 9:19 How to Spot Real AI Crypto News Learn more about the National Cryptocurrency Association (NCA): Website: https://nca.org X: @natcryptoassoc Instagram: @natcryptoassoc TikTok: @natcryptoassoc LinkedIn: National Cryptocurrency Association Facebook: National Cryptocurrency Association Disclaimer: This content is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, or tax advice.