Neha Narula, Anders Brownworth, and Daniel Aronoff on Understanding Stablecoins in the GENIUS Era

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Neha Narula is the director of the Digital Currency Initiative which is based out of the Media Lab at MIT. Anders Brownworth is veteran software engineer in the crypto space and is a Senior Research Advisor at DCI. Daniel Aronoff is Research Affiliate in the MIT Department of Economics and a Collaborator at DCI. Neha, Anders, and Daniel join the show to discuss their work at DCI, the current state of stablecoins, their paper on the hidden plumbing of stablecoins, the basic mechanics of stablecoins, the technical and operational risks of stablecoins, the implications for the treasury market, interoperability between blockchains, and much more.

Check out the transcript for this week's episode, now with links.

Recorded on February 27th, 2026

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Timestamps

00:00:00 - Intro

00:01:41 - Background of the Group

00:03:11 - Digital Currency Initiative

00:05:36 - State of Stablecoins

00:10:42 - Hidden Plumbing of Stablecoins

00:15:42 - Basic Mechanics of Stablecoins

00:26:07 - Technical and Operational Risks of Stablecoins

00:39:09 - Implications for the Treasury Market

00:48:18 - Business Model of Stablecoins

00:49:24 - Interoperability Between Blockchains

00:52:53 - What's the Deal with Tether?

00:56:23 - Outro