"My general thesis is that exchanges probably shouldn't be holding assets." @vishalkgupta has been building exchanges since 2002, from Goldman Sachs' electronic trading desk to launching USDC at Circle and running three exchanges at Coinbase. @truemarketsco is his fifth crypto exchange. True Markets is a non-custodial exchange, built to never holds customer assets. It separates execution from custody, the way brokers, custodians, and exchanges have always been separate in traditional finance. The exchange lists 150 assets, charges roughly a third of what the largest US platforms charge, and settles to any GENIUS Act-compliant stablecoin, so a bank launching its own can settle directly through True Markets. Vishal wants True Markets to become the back-end infrastructure for every fintech and bank that needs to offer trading, the way AWS became the back end for the internet. Vishal's conversation with @drewrogers 2:33 - Goldman Sachs' electronic trading desk in 2002 4:11 - Stealing Fidelity from Goldman 5:48 - 15 options exchanges and why crypto is simpler 9:36 - Circle, USDC, and the front door for DeFi 11:08 - Why exchanges should never hold customer assets 12:49 - Growing Coinbase from 20 assets to 235 16:09 - The USDC white paper at Circle 21:30 - FTX's first wedge: USDC as perp collateral 22:43 - The stablecoin superpower most CFOs miss 24:09 - Utility vs risk and what should be tokenized 27:56 - Settling to any GENIUS Act-compliant stablecoin 31:32 - Trading 150 assets at a third of the cost 37:02 - Markets and liquidity as a service 41:06 - How @naval inspired the name True Markets 45:44 - Why agents care about APIs, not apps 48:42 - 17 years with one co-founder 53:21 - What a successful True Markets looks like Episode 0055. Presented to you by @altitude