Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest in crypto. This week, we’re joined by Farooq Malik, co-founder and CEO of Rain, as two parallel wars erupt across crypto: the Perp DEX war between Hyperliquid and the CZ-backed Aster, and the deepening battle for stablecoin dominance. As Aster rockets to $30B in daily volume, we debate whether it’s real adoption or points-fueled froth — and what it means for Hyperliquid’s lead. Then we dive into Tether’s shocking $500B valuation play, Circle’s shrinking moat, and how Rain is building real-world rails for stablecoin payments. If crypto has two new battlegrounds — trading venues and money itself — this is where the future is getting drawn.

Show highlights
🔹 DEX Wars: Aster vs. Hyperliquid – Aster hits $30B daily volume; is it real demand or a points-fueled surge? Hyperliquid’s dominance faces its first real threat.
🔹 CZ’s Return to Form – Aster’s Binance links, aggressive fee model, and possible “James Wynn” conspiracy theory raise the stakes in the perp DEX arena.
🔹 Wash Trading & Open Interest Gaps – Aster’s $2B TVL contrasts with $1.25B open interest vs. Hyperliquid’s $10B, sparking questions about organic traction.
🔹 Incentive Wars – Aster rewards takers 2x over makers; Hyperliquid and Blur praised for long-game design that built sticky liquidity instead of short-term volume.
🔹 The Execution Advantage – Haseeb: “Asia executes better than it innovates”; Aster may stumble now but could out-iterate and outscale its rivals.
🔹 Stablecoin Shockwave: Tether’s $500B Valuation Leak – Tether quietly seeks $15–20B in private funding, aiming for a $500B valuation—matching OpenAI and SpaceX.
🔹 Circle vs. Tether – Circle trades at 0.5x supply, Tether seeks 3x; the panel debates margins, moat, and whether USDC can survive the “reverse momentum.”
🔹 Rain’s Real-World Stablecoin Rails – Farooq Malik shares how Rain powers payroll, P2P, cards, and merchant payments on stablecoins—without touching fiat.
🔹 New Use Cases: Stablecoins in the Wild – On-chain credit cards, just-in-time lending, cross-border Facebook ad funding, and more—all enabled by 24/7 money.
🔹 Global Adoption: LatAm, MENA, Asia – Rain’s data shows stablecoin usage exploding outside the U.S., especially in regions with FX controls and unstable banks.