Blockcast

Becoming a yearly tradition, Blockhead caught up with Yat Siu once again in Bali at Coinfest 2024. Since our last catch-up with the Animoca Brands founder, the crypto industry has experienced floods of TradFi money flowing into the market, bolstered by the likes of Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs. But how does this renewed interest from old-school money fair for old-school Web3 projects like the metaver...

Ready to bask in the SOL, it's that time of the year for the Blockhead team to put on their shades, sunscreen, and slides. Returning to Bali for the third year in a row, the Blockhead team headed down to Coinfest to see what the industry's most exciting/chill conference had to offer this year. With a swathe of institutional money flooding into crypto in 2024, the Blockhead team feared th...

In this episode, we explore the world of crypto trading with Kelvin See, the Head of Trading at CoinHako. Kelvin brings a unique perspective, having transitioned from traditional finance to the Web3 space. We discuss the key differences between trading in TradFi and crypto, CoinHako's approach to trading and risk management, including their use of derivatives, hedging strategies, and technica...

From practising M&A law in Beijing and Singapore for various law firms to serving as the director of legal and corporate development at Coinhako, Collin Cheong is no stranger to navigating the legal minefield of deploying capital. After more than three years of immersing himself in crypto legal intricacies with Coinhako, Cheong has now launched his own stablecoin initiative, Trillion Network....

In this episode of Blockcast, we take a deep DeFi dive into the murky waters of liquid staking with former Product Lead of Persistence Labs and co-founder of pSTAKE Finance, Mikhil Pandey. Developed by the Persistence Labs team, which founded Persistence One, a Layer 1 blockchain; pSTAKE Finance offers Bitcoin liquid staking solutions built atop Babylon’s protocol. As tokenization becomes an incre...

In this episode of Blockcast, we reconnect with Jaye Foo, a familiar face in the Web3 scene. We delve into his journey as a musician, entrepreneur, and Web3 advocate. We explore the challenges of bridging Web2 and Web3 in Southeast Asia, and Jaye's unwavering belief in the potential of the space. Jaye also spills the beans on what he’s been building at Wush, a Web3 onboarding platform he co-f...

This episode of Blockcast dives into the world of stablecoins with stablecoin guru Raagulan Pathy, the former Asia Pacific lead for Circle. We'll explore his journey from traditional tech to crypto, including his role as CIO of JaffCap, a crypto investment fund. We'll unpack the current state of stablecoins, including the competition between USDC and USDT, and Tether's dominance. Ra...

Quickly becoming a household name for crypto supporters, as well as an equally recognisable brand for sports fans, Crypto.com has already established a global footprint. But what are the challenges facing a global crypto exchange? In this week's Blockcast, we sit down with Crypto.com 's GM for APAC & MEA and Global Head of Banking Partnerships, Karl Mohan to learn more about regulato...

In this episode of Blockcast, we welcome regular guest Going OnChain/Huat Kueh and BRN analyst Valentin Fournier to discuss the latest market movements, including the impact of Jerome Powell's comments on inflation and rate cuts and the bullish outlook for Ethereum ETFs despite launch delays. We compare Ethereum ETF pre-launch expectations with Bitcoin ETF experiences and consider whether Eth...

This episode of Blockcast dives into the convergence of traditional finance (TradFi) and blockchain technology. We explore Nikhil Joshi's journey from Barclays to EMURGO, and how his experience bridges the gap between these two worlds. We discuss: The rise of blockchain: Nikhil shares his insights on the evolution of the blockchain industry and the inspiration behind his career shift. Cardano...

This week, we're coming to you from from SuperAI - Asia's premier and largest artificial intelligence (AI) conference. Held in Singapore at Marina Bay Sands over two days, SuperAI covered key topics for the AI industry including large language models, generative AI, robotics, decentralized AI, regulation, ethics, and AI's role in fintech, education, healthcare, and cybersecurity. Cr...

Julian Hosp has spent the last decade establishing a formidable name for himself in the crypto space. As a Cake Group co-founder, Hosp left his TenX days behind him, building a renewed reputation as a crypto industry leader in Singapore. Overnight, his efforts crumbled before his eyes as his company and reputation were publicly dragged through the mud by his very own co-founder, U-Zyn Chua. In an...

This week, we take a closer look at the crypto media space and the exciting opportunities for Web3 adoption in Southeast Asia. Our guest, Steven Suhadi, co-founder of Indonesia Crypto Network (ICN) and Coinfest Asia , and board member of the Indonesian Blockchain Association shares his insights on building a successful Web3 media business, navigating the current market trends, and the potential of...

You've heard of digital money, you may have heard of digital identities, but have you heard of a digital country? Draper Startup House Global Founder, Vikram Bharati, is leading Draper's initiative to build a digital country with help from the blockchain. Known as Draper Nation, the abstract concept feeds rather seamlessly into the Web3 narrative of decentralisation and community buildin...

From Diablo to FIFA to Final Fantasy to Pokemon, here at Blockhead, we're big fans of gaming. But despite our love for gaming and our ardent passion for Web3, blockchain gaming has yet to convince us to abandon our Articunos for Axies. Join us as Jeremy Foo, who serves as the Global Head of Gaming for TrilliTech and Tezos, tells us how blockchain gaming is restoring its reputation from deafen...

Here at Blockhead, we love working in Web3. But what are the challenges in securing a job in crypto? With markets wildly fluctuating from bull to bear overnight, is job security in Web3 one of the most unstable among all industries? With over 8 years in Web3 recruitment, Randstad Associate Director, Rumi Mohd, has seen it all. From ruthless mass layoffs to ambitious mass hirings, Mohd has helped c...

Greetings from the heart of Southeast Asia! This week, we're coming to you live from Bangkok, Thailand, where the buzz of Money 20/20 Asia and Southeast Asia Blockchain Week filled the air with discussions about the future of finance. In this episode, we delve into the world of decentralized finance (DeFi) and the powerful tools that empower investors and institutions to navigate this dynamic...

Credited with being one of the world's first bitcoin exchanges – accounting for up to 80% of trading volume during its peak – Mt Gox first launched in the summer of 2010 but suspended operations in February 2014 amid heightened speculation about potential untoward activity. The fall of the Japanese exchange in 2014 was prompted by 750,000 bitcoin – at the time worth around $500 million, and n...

Katherine Ng might be leaving her Tezos days behind her, but the former TZ APAC MD is taking her experience and channeling her Web3 wisdom into a new project: Katashe. Focusing on Venture Building, Katashe has just signed its first partner, Filliquid (the premier decentralized liquidity pool on Filecoin), through which Katherine serves as the Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer. Join us as we sit...

The world of blockchain is booming, but traditional cloud providers just don't cut it for these specialized workloads. In this episode of Blockcast, we're joined by Dan Burke , CEO of Nirvana Labs , a cloud computing platform built specifically for blockchain applications. We explore the growing need for blockchain-centric cloud solutions, the unique challenges they present, and how Nirv...

Welcome to Blockcast! Today, we're venturing into the bleeding edge of blockchain technology with Vince Yang, CEO of zkLink . They're building solutions to tackle some of the biggest hurdles facing the crypto space, specifically scalability and fragmentation.  In this episode, Vince discusses zkLink's Journey to Layer 3, and will unpack the complexities of zkLink Nova , explaining w...

Welcome to the latest episode of Blockcast, where dreams of crypto riches ride the meme wave until they wipe out on the shores of reality. In the world of memecoins, the motto is "get rich or meme trying." The stakes are high, with the entire memecoin sector now worth over $44 billion, but these digital assets are the wild west of the investment world. Today, we're dissecting the fr...

As part of the pioneering team for MAS’s Payment Services Act, Angela delves into her experience from within Singapore's regulator, reminding us that "regulators are people too." Now serving as a Senior Policy Advisor at TRM Labs, Angela reflects on her policy experience and how she is applying it to strengthen security in the crypto market. Today's unstoppable bull market cont...

Dive into the heart of digital asset management and the evolving landscape of crypto marketing in this episode of Blockcast, featuring Kimberly Jin, chief marketing officer at Darwinbit. Kimberly takes us on a journey through the innovative world of Darwinbit, a firm that's setting new standards in offering structured products, staking, and fixed income services to meet the diverse financial...

Dive into the future of cryptocurrency in this episode of the Blockcast, where we explore the 2024 outlook for the blockchain and crypto industry. With us, we have a guest at the forefront of the crypto VC world: Looi Qin En, partner at Saison Capital, who takes us behind the scenes of the Singapore-based firm – the venture arm of Credit Saison, one of Japan's largest consumer credit companie...