The Local WMC - Crypto News, Trading Insights & Market Commentary

Getting the Price Shouldn’t Be This Hard

There’s no FIX, no shared structure, and no agreement on what a message should even look like.
In this episode, Tim and Marcus dig into the reality of trying to collect market data across crypto venues, and why getting a simple price feed turns into a full-blown engineering nightmare. From WebSockets and REST to custom APIs and protobuf hacks, every crypto exchange speaks its own language. Even if you can connect, you’re dealing with broken docs, random tags, strange compression, and protocols that change with zero notice. And that’s just to get the price... let alone quote or trade.
 
This is what makes building a market maker in crypto so much harder than TradFi. No standards. No consistency. Just vibes.
 
Also in this episode:
Why FIX works in TradFi (and why crypto doesn’t use it)
How venues like Coinbase and Binance structure market data
What it takes to build a proper market data adapter
Why some venues still require polling like it’s 2009
 
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https://x.com/timmeggs | Marcus (the other one)

The EthCC Cannes Special ft. Ilya, Stake Capital | Robinhood, RWAs & Future of AI | The LOCAL Ep.6

Recorded in Cannes over a bottle of rosé for a change, this is our first ever live episode of The LOCAL, recorded during EthCC last week. We sat down with Ilya from Stake Capital Group, an early-stage crypto VC, investing, building, and validating the frontier of deep tech and Web3.We unpacked what’s really going on beneath the current wave of stablecoin launches, the AI agent hype cycle, and the slow-motion collision between crypto and the real world. Stake Capital has been investing across the crypto stack for years, from DeFi infra to privacy tech and tokenised credit, and Ilya joins us to share his take on where the market’s heading, why Europe might be missing the moment, and what happens next when agents start spending on-chain.Also in this episode:
Why stablecoins might be crypto’s only true product-market fit
Gambling vs investing: is there actually a difference?
Why Robinhood might quietly win
Tokenisation, RWA, and touching the messy real world
The Copilot problem: is your trading code leaking?
AI security, AI researchers, and the productivity gap no one’s fixing
 
Subscribe for new episodes every week: ‪@TheLocalWMC‬
 
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@timmeggs | Marcus (the other one)

When the Money Printer Goes Public

Circle’s IPO isn’t just another crypto company going public — it might be the clearest sign yet that stablecoins have gone fully institutional.
 
In this episode, we unpack what happens when a company that effectively prints dollars decides to list on Nasdaq. From the tangled incentives behind USDC, to Circle’s relationship with Coinbase, and the regulatory shift away from enforcement toward soft-power alignment, we ask the question:
Is Circle becoming the new Fed — or just the world’s most boring hedge fund?
 
Also in this episode:
Why stablecoins might soon pay yield
The IPO mispricing debate: tactical or incompetent?
How embedded Circle already is in the US financial machine
Whether this is all just Lehman 2006… but tokenised

Coinbase Joins the S&P 500, and Other News

In Episode 4 of The LOCAL, your grandma accidentally buys Bitcoin.
 
Well, not directly. But with Coinbase joining the S&P 500 and BlackRock still hoovering up supply through ETFs, it’s safe to say crypto has slipped into the retirement funds of the world.
 
Tim and Marcus dig into the slow institutional creep, the kind that happens without the hype, memes, or headlines. Just flows.
 
This week:
How Coinbase made it to the S&P 500
What the GENIUS Act means for stablecoins and Treasury competition
Kraken’s quiet pivot to prime
Why this might be a stealth bull run
The problem with low volatility and short memories
 
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@timmeggs | Marcus (the other one)

Bitcoin at ATH... But Which One?

In Episode 3 of The LOCAL, we take a break from headlines and step into the weeds, where the real complexity lives. This one’s a trader’s episode.
Tim and Marcus dive deep into one of the most deceptively simple questions in crypto:
What’s the price of Bitcoin?Spoiler: it’s not so simple.
From the latency games between Bybit and Binance to the role of AWS zones, Ethereum block builders, and why decentralised liquidity turns everything upside down, this is a rare look behind the curtain at how market makers actually operate (the good ones, anyway).
 
This week:
What “co-location” means when there’s no rack to rent
AWS, latency, and why Tokyo isn’t Singapore
Spot, perps, AMMs and the dark art of price discovery
Why some market makers get unfairly slammed
👉 Subscribe for new episodes every week: ‪@TheLocalWMC‬
🎧 Also on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever else you get your fix.
 
Follow us on X: https://x.com/TheLocalWMC
@timmeggs | Marcus (the other one)

The Industry Is Moving On Without You

In Episode 2 of The LOCAL, Tim returns from Token2049 with some questions, and very few answers.Between degen rabbit suits and multi-billion-dollar acquisitions, it’s clear where the real action is (and it’s not on the conference floor). Coinbase buys Deribit. Stripe goes stablecoins. Movement Labs signed a shocker of a market-making deal, which we dig right in to.
 
This week:
Who’s still taking conferences seriously, and why the smart money isn’t
Why the biggest crypto deals now happen behind closed doors
Coinbase x Deribit: smart options play or branding headache?
Stripe’s stablecoin pivot and why it matters
Movement Labs and the market maker with a Gmail address
What price targets, fake volume, and “free tokens” say about the MM problem
 
Also:
The Dutch invented market making — we just broke it
Will crypto ever get an ISDA moment?
Plus: a toast to Warren Buffett
 
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Follow us on X:⁠https://x.com/TheLocalWMC⁠@timmeggs | Marcus (the other one)

Shoot First, Ask Questions Later

In this first full episode of The Local, Tim and Marcus dig into what’s really happening in crypto right now — from regulatory shifts to market microstructure to the culture wars of the chain.
 
They cover:
Why US regulatory clarity (or lack of it) is such a critical driver for adoption
What makes ETFs the gateway for TradFi, and why that might not be a good thing
The rise of Hyperliquid and what it tells us about community, product delivery, and market timing
Whether the crypto space has lost its ideological roots, and why financialisation has overtaken idealism
Self-regulation vs real enforcement: does the new MM code of conduct mean anything?
 
Plus: some thoughts on why early crypto ideas (NFTs, tokenised assets, on-chain land registries) didn’t take off, and whether it’s all just a generational waiting game.

Welcome to The Local

Tim and Marcus run a trading firm. Between them they’ve traversed trading desks in tradfi, designed DeFi ecosystems and helped projects launch into some of the most volatile markets in the world. In this short intro episode, they explain why The Local exists, who they are, and what the podcast is all about.
Strong views, weak beer. Welcome to the Working Members’ Commentary.