Bits + Bips: The Interview — The $16 Trillion Repo Market Is TradFi’s Central Nervous System. Its Finally Coming Onchain

The repo market is $16 trillion globally and most people have never heard of it — until the plumbing breaks. Craig Birchall of FalconX and Matteo Pandolfi of Pareto explain how it works and why bringing it on-chain is the next big unlock for DeFi. --- Heads up! If you haven’t yet, be sure to subscribe to Bits + Bips, since the show will migrate there in a few weeks. Follow us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠X⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Unchained⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and wherever you get your podcasts. ---- The repo market is $16 trillion globally and it is, as Craig Birchall puts it, the oil that makes everything go. It is also almost entirely absent from on-chain finance — and that gap is creating real problems for RWA liquidity, stablecoin swap desks, and DeFi protocols trying to manage redemption queues. Steve Ehrlich sits down with Craig Birchall, head of lending at FalconX, and Matteo Pandolfi, CEO of on-chain credit infrastructure provider Pareto, to map exactly how repo works, what broke in 2019, why it translates extremely well into onchain finance. Matteo puts a $1 trillion figure on where on-chain repo gets in five years. Craig gives you one reason it gets there and one very honest reason it might not. Host: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Steve Ehrlich, Head of Research at SharpLink and Host of Bits + Bips: The Interview - https://x.com/Steven_Ehrlich Guest: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Craig Birchall — Head of Lending, FalconX; previously Head of Lending at Membrane Finance. @_CraigBirchall ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Matteo Pandolfi — CEO & Co-Founder, Pareto (on-chain credit infrastructure). @pan_teo_ Timestamps 📋 2:35 Repo, explained: what repurchase agreements actually are and why they matter 💥 5:31 The 2019 repo crisis: rates spiked from 2% to 20% in a single day 🔧 7:55 The real lesson of 2019: cash was there, the plumbing couldn't move it ⚖️ 23:13 Why repo breaks smart contracts: bankruptcy remoteness and the legal problem nobody solved 💧 28:00 The hard question: does on-chain finance need a lender of last resort? 🚨 36:43 The Aave crisis reframed: how a mature repo market would have changed everything 📈 41:28 The call: on-chain repo hits $1 trillion within five years 🚧 42:32 The bear case: standardization is the gargantuan challenge in the way Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices