Bloomberg Crypto

It’s October 2021. Crypto prices are rocketing. Celebrities can’t stop talking about NFTs. There’s packed conferences in glitzy venues attended by people wearing t-shirts with cartoon monkeys on them. If you’re an executive at a big gaming studio, you might be forgiven - maybe - for sending one of those emails with the subject line: NFT strategy question mark. And several executives at these gamin...

Our colleagues on QuickTake, Tim Stenovec and Katie Greifeld, host a weekly video series called QuickTake IRL. Just for listeners of the Bloomberg Crypto podcast, we’ve got an audio version of their latest episode. For the full video experience, find them on the web at https://www.bloomberg.com/qt/series/crypto-irl , on Bloomberg TV or over on YouTube. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy infor...

It’s been (another) busy week for digital assets. And now that we’re well into October, we have a better idea of whether the month will deliver a boost to crypto value as it has in years past.  Guest-host and senior crypto editor Anna Irrera reviews some regulatory actions that took place this week and considers what smoke signals it may be sending to investors and to companies. Plus, a look at ho...

It seems that the Securities and Exchange Commission has finally found a way to keep up with the Kardashians. The US Markets regulator announced last week that Kim Kardashian had agreed to pay $1.26 million to settle allegations that she broke US rules by touting a crypto token. The SEC alleges Kardashian did not disclose that she was paid $250,000 to post on her Instagram account about EMAX token...

What do Michael Saylor, Jesse Powell, Michael Moro, Sam Trabucco, Brett Harrison and Alex Mashinsky have in common? If you said they’re dudes who used to be crypto CEOs and suddenly weren’t anymore, you’d also be correct.  This crypto winter has seen a string of high-profile exits from the C-suite. But what’s driving all this activity? Is it Bitcoin prices falling more than 50%? Is it the bankrupt...

Back in March, President Biden issued an Executive Order that directed every relevant federal agency to work on guidance related to crypto - and then to report back. We’re now into that “time to report back” window, and the White House, along with other agencies, have started providing updates on their findings. On the White House end, the policy recommendations included better suggestions focused...

The cooling crypto atmosphere and the subsequent downturn in trading has had a domino effect for people who work in the sector. In the wake of plummeting prices, a flurry of crypto firms reduced their numbers with significant layoffs. Coinbase announced an  18% reduction of it’s workforce, BlockFi cut their headcount by 20% and Crypto.com by 5% . So, what happens to these former crypto employees? ...

Our colleagues on QuickTake, Tim Stenovec and Katie Greifeld, host a weekly video series called QuickTake IRL. Just for listeners of the Bloomberg Crypto podcast, we’ve got an audio version of their latest episode. For the full video experience, find them on the web at https://www.bloomberg.com/qt/series/crypto-irl , on Bloomberg TV or over on YouTube. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy infor...

It’s been (another) busy week in digital assets. What’s the latest in the markets? Are there any crypto CEOs left? Regulation: will it ever happen? Unclear! Bloomberg crypto editor Beth Williams and Bloomberg reporter Allyson Versprille join this episode to help break down this weeks’ news. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

How do you go from video game studio to major crypto VC in the space of a few short years? That’s exactly the path that Animoca Brands has been on. Since its founding in 2014, Animoca has expanded well beyond making games to come to own and operate a portfolio of investments and acquisitions that includes more than 300 different finance, gaming, and social media companies. Yat Siu, Animoca’s co-fo...

Do you remember Adam Neumann? The WeWork co-founder and former CEO who stepped down in 2019 in a cloud of accusations about eccentric behavior, sky-high expenses, and general extravagance? The one with an Apple TV miniseries about his rise and fall starring Jared Leto? Well, Adam Neumann is back.  Now, with bonus crypto , and an exceptionally large $350 million dollar check from the venture capita...

For many of us, the pandemic has meant getting to know what it’s like to work remotely and in most cases from home  But in crypto, remote working had already been the norm for some time, with many workers roaming the world all year round and logging in from dreamy locations like the sandy beaches of the Caribbean or the palm-lined promenades of Miami Beach When crypto prices were high, these rovin...

Perhaps you’ve heard of Molly White. The software engineer and crypto skeptic has been profiled in numerous publications.  She has more than 80,000 followers on her personal Twitter, and more than 100,000 on an account called ‘web3 is going just great’. It is, as you might guess, a chronicle of all the ways that Web 3 is not going so great. Molly White joins this episode to talk through her skepti...

This special bonus episode features Bloomberg QuickTake’s Katie Griefeld and Tim Stenovec. The pair have created a new video series called Crypto IRL. It takes us behind the scenes of this current crypto winter, and features interesting perspectives from special guests. You can catch the new series on a range of platforms including Bloomberg TV and YouTube. For more information, go to Bloomberg.co...

With apologies to TS Eliot - in finance, September is commonly held to be the cruelest month of the trading calendar. This extends to the crypto markets, too: Almost every year since 2013, Bitcoin prices struggle come September. And market conditions have been especially unforgiving this year. So what’s the outlook for crypto asset prices as we leave September behind? Joining this episode from Syd...

On Tuesday September 27th, Bloomberg reporters Allyson Versprille and David Pan participated in a Twitter Spaces with Costa Samaras . Samaras is the White House’s chief advisor for energy policy in the Office of Science and Technology Policy. They spoke about the office’s crypto climate report and what’s next for US efforts. This episode features highlights from that conversation. Read more here S...

If you’ve ever found yourself on Crypto Twitter, you’ll be familiar with the hype machine that keeps the industry’s thousands of projects going. Rallying cries of “WAGMI” — an acronym for We Are All Going To Make It — and “To the Moon!” abound, found in tweets from accounts with colorful, graphic profile pictures and usually a hashtag or two. But there are always two sides to a coin, and if you’ve...

You may have heard of cryptocurrency exchange FTX and you may have heard of its CEO and Founder, Sam Bankman-Fried. But have you heard of Alameda Research?  It’s not a Silicon Valley robotics lab but it is one of the largest and most influential cryptocurrency trading firms in the world. Founded by Sam Bankman-Fried and operating with a modest team of 30 employees, Alameda pocketed over $1 billion...

For investors trying to get exposure to crypto, there are many different options available these days. Products like crypto ETFs, or exchange traded funds, are one of the most popular alternatives to owning tokens directly.  What are crypto ETFs and how do they work? And what does it mean that many of the products pitched as ways to diversify your crypto portfolio are actually pretty similar to ea...

This September marks the one-year anniversary of China declaring that crypto transactions were effectively illegal. The decision wasn't entirely unexpected: China has been trying to crack down on crypto in one form or another since at least 2013.  The 2021 declaration prompted some pretty swift and significant changes, including the uprooting of a Chinese Bitcoin mining community.   This episode f...

So, ‘The Merge’ happened. After years of anticipation, multiple false starts and delays, the biggest ever software upgrade to the Ethereum blockchain is complete.  And now the question is: what’s next?  What are the other major milestones for the future of Ethereum’s ecosystem and the Ether token itself? In this episode, you’ll hear from Bloomberg reporter Olga Kharif and from Dave Liedtka , senio...

Losses from this year's crypto winter have affected the entire cryptocurrency ecosystem, from hedge funds, to lenders, to countless individual retail investors. By most calculations, $2 trillion worth of value has been wiped out.  Before the big chill, the estimated total market value of crypto assets worldwide stood around $3 trillion in November 2021. But how is market value calculated? And how...

Miners are on the move again , forever chasing that combination of abundant electricity for relatively low prices. This time, they’re heading north of the Arctic Circle. Sweden and Norway are home to some of the most abundant energy sources in the world: geothermal, wind, and hydro electricity.  These countries have increasingly become attractive to Bitcoin miners. But the combination of Russia’s...

This episode explores a sector of the crypto universe that’s actually booming.  Companies that specialize in finding vulnerabilities in crypto’s software infrastructure are flourishing. Why? Because crypto hacks and frauds are booming, with some estimates as high as $2bn in losses stemming from these attacks.  Bloomberg reporter Olga Kharif and senior editor Anna Irrera join me now for more about...

By now you’ve probably heard that El Salvador became the first country in the world to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender in September of 2021.  Did you know the Central African Republic made a similar move in April, becoming the first country in Africa to welcome a cryptocurrency to its sovereign ranks? Cue almost immediate expressions of skepticism and concern from organizations like the Internationa...