He backed PayPal and built Tether but will not invest in AI | William Quigley

Today's guest is William Quigley, one of the few venture investors who has operated at the centre of multiple technological inflection points. William was one of the first institutional investors in PayPal, co-founded Tether, the world's first and largest fiat-backed stablecoin, and founded WAX, one of the most active NFT blockchains globally.He saw the consumer internet emerge, watched payments transform, helped shape crypto infrastructure, and now sits at the edge of the AI wave. This is our third conversation with William, and a lot has changed since we last spoke 18 months ago. This time we go beyond the cycles and into the structural future: who owns the rails, how capital actually flows, and where the durable infrastructure is forming beneath the hype.In the full episode, we cover:- Why AI is the opposite of the early internet and early crypto, and why that should worry you- Why the economics of today's AI companies are inverted, and how long they can really last- Why he backed PayPal and built Tether but will not invest a dollar in AI- How VCs boycotting semiconductors for 25 years accidentally created NVIDIA- Why OpenAI and Anthropic may go public and still struggle as public companies- The trillion-dollar currency conversion tax that tokenised money could erase- Why NFTs are not dead, just rebranded, and where the real use cases are growing- The one trait William looks for in every founder and CEO, and why he thinks you are born with it- How young people should position themselves while it is still earlyIf you are a fintech founder, an investor trying to read the AI cycle, or anyone working out where the durable opportunities are forming beneath the hype, this one is worth your time.Check out our website and subscribe to our mailing list to hear more about opportunities in fintech and web3.Follow our socials Linkedin, Twitter, Youtubehttps://workinfintech.com/https://www.linkedin.com/company/work-in-fintech-globalhttps://www.twitter.com/workinfintechhttps://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdS4bYoCXaHVgfVm6syUrDw