In this episode, I had the chance to chat with Edward Woodford, the founder and CEO of crypto, stablecoin, and tokenization infrastructure platform zerohash. Edward and I had the chance to talk about: * Why zerohash is applying for a national trust bank charter * How the CLARITY Act (crypto market structure legislation) may impact the U.S. crypto industry * What Edward is hearing from non-financial industry execs about crypto, stablecoins, tokenization, and blockchain * Thinking about crypto as an “asset class” vs. crypto as “software” * The potential synergies between crypto/stablecoins and AI agents * What keeps Edward up at night and what he’s most excited about * And much more! Get full access to Fintech Business Weekly at fintechbusinessweekly.substack.com/subscribe

Interview: zerohash's Founder & CEO Edward Woodford

Fintech Business Podcast

# Full Transcript

**Podcast:** Fintech Business Weekly

## Participants

- **Jason Mikula** (Fintech Business Weekly)
- **Edward Woodford** (ZeroHash)
- **Edward Woodford** (ZeroHash)

## Transcript

Welcome back to Fintech Business Weekly. Today I'm joined by Edward Woodford. Edward is the founder and CEO of crypto, stablecoin, and tokenization infrastructure platform, ZeroHash. Edward, you're actually in Chicago, my hometown, and I'm in Europe, at least directionally, I assume, closer to your hometown. Thank you for joining me.

You founded ZeroHash in 2017. So you have seen the crypto industry go through quite an evolution since then. What about crypto and stablecoins and tokenization now, in 2026, would be the biggest shock if you could go back in time and tell yourself in 2017?

Yeah, I mean, look, I'd love to have said we had all the foresight in the world. We certainly didn't. I think, I would say it's the breadth of just how broad this technology has gone. We certainly viewed this as a technology play, as opposed to pure play and asset class.

I think that has manifested itself in obviously these different buckets and kind of we gave you a bit of a tongue twister describing our business, because the way that this technology has been applied has been applied so broadly now. So for example, it's been applied to stocks, it's been applied to tokenized dollars, tokenized deposits. So when we talk about stablecoins, I think actually we're going to go up a stack and start talking about on-chain money. So for me, I think it's just the fundamental breadth of where this technology being applied.

And I think, look, some of it has certainly been good. And some of it has been less valuable, right, that we went through the NFT phase. So probably one of the things that surprised me is just what I would call the magpie effect in this space. People love shiny. And so maybe I'm kind of more in tune with human dynamics now, that people like the shining. And as a firm, I think we've done a pretty good job of avoiding the shining.

If it's too good to be true, it often is. But that's sometimes really, really hard. So fundamentally, I think what surprised me is actually learning more about myself and just saying no to things. And that's been incredibly important, whether that be the magpie effects that are not pernicious, but certainly can be very threatening to a business if that's all you focus on, but also just kind of pernicious people, dangerous people that we've seen over the years. And I've been surprised by the characters and frankly, the ease of which these characters were able to buy credibility.

So that's probably it. I've learned more about myself than anything. I mean, I guess I've always considered myself somewhat of a, let's say, either outsider or to be a little bit more critical, like skeptic of what I'll call like crypto industry classic.

So I mean, like the heyday of Bitcoin and Ethereum and you mentioned NFTs, which always felt a bit, I...

Interview: zerohash's Founder & CEO Edward Woodford

Transcript

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Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
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Interview: zerohash's Founder & CEO Edward Woodford

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are findingedge in conversations you're not hearing.

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.