Making Markets

This is Eric Golden and my guest today is Nick Cannon . Nick is the Head of Growth at Gauntlet, a simulation and financial modeling platform for DeFi protocols. In our conversation, we breakdown the financial attack on Mango, how better DeFi governance mitigates risk, and why governance is a bottleneck in most protocols. Please enjoy this conversation with Nick Cannon.   For the full show notes, t...

This is Eric Golden and my guest today is EG Galano , co-founder of Infura. EG launched Infura out of ConsenSys in 2016 to meet a growing need for blockchain infrastructure providers. Our discussion covers the challenges of running an Ethereum node, how Infura convinced developers to trust a centralized service provider, and why Infura plans to decentralize in the near future. Please enjoy this co...

This is Eric Golden and my guest today is Jai Ramaswamy. Jai is the Chief Legal Officer at Andreessen Horowitz and we recorded this interview at the Money20/20 conference in Las Vegas. In our discussion, we cover the regulatory agencies involved in crypto, the balance between privacy and compliance, and how a16z thinks about responsible regulation. Please enjoy this conversation with Jai Ramaswamy...

This is Eric Golden and my guest today is 0xfoobar . Foobar is a developer and investor who writes a must-read newsletter called The Variable. We discuss the tradeoff between privacy and compliance, how culture and law shape each other, and his views on crypto regulation. Please enjoy this conversation with 0xfoobar.   For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn mor...

This is Eric Golden and my guest today is Jared Grey . Jared was recently elected Head Chef of SushiSwap, one of the most recognized decentralized exchanges in crypto. We discuss the pros and cons of a community-led governance structure, how and why Jared decided to campaign for this CEO-type role, and the opportunities to improve SushiSwap's structure over the long-term. Please enjoy this convers...

This is Eric Golden and my guest today is Matthew Graham . Matt is the co-founder and CEO of Sino Global Capital, a venture firm that made early investments in FTX, Solana, Wintermute, and other notable crypto projects. We discuss the origin story of Sino Global and delve into investing in China and emerging markets, including India, the Middle East, and Africa. Matt discusses his views on reinven...

This is Matt Reustle and it's that time again - our 3Q 2022 quarterly recap. If you listened to our second quarter episode, that was a recap of carnage. A "what the hell just happened" episode. For this go-around, Eric helps assess the damage and signs of light in the market. The tide came up, we know who was swimming naked; but who was an emerging winner in Eric's mind? Spoiler alert - it's not j...

This is Eric Golden, and my guest today is Michael Safai . Michael is the managing partner at Dexterity Capital, a high-frequency trading firm that trades billions in crypto every day. We discuss market neutral trading strategies, the challenges of high-frequency trading in crypto compared to tradfi, and the pros and cons of trading on DEXs versus centralized exchanges. Please enjoy this conversat...

This is Eric Golden and my guest today is Tom McLeod . Tom is the founder and executive director of Arkive, the first ever decentralized museum. We discuss Tom’s early career in music and technology, the inspiration to start a museum, and the inner workings of the Arkive community - including voting, incentives, and ownership. Please enjoy my conversation with Tom.   For the full show notes, trans...

This is Eric Golden and my guest today is Lex Sokolin . Lex is the Head Economist at ConsenSys, a major Ethereum development company that built MetaMask. Our conversation breaks down the Ethereum merge and its implications on the network and ecosystem. We discuss how the switch affects centralization, the crypto economics of inflation and deflation, and popular market narratives around the event....

My guest today is Gabe Leydon , who’s episode last year was one of our most popular ever. Gabe has spent the last 20 years designing video games and is one of the most original thinkers I know. He was the co-founder of Machine Zone, which pioneered free-to-play hits like Mobile Strike and Game of War. Over the past year, he has been in stealth mode building a web2 meets web3 video game company cal...

This is Eric Golden and my guest today is Alex Taub . Alex is the co-founder and CEO of Upstream, a no-code DAO platform, as well as the co-founder of Truth Labs, the team behind NFT projects Illuminati and Goblintown. Alex is an expert on forming communities, especially around NFTs and DAOs. In this episode, we discuss the best use cases for DAOs, the challenges of announcing NFT roadmaps, and wh...

This is Eric Golden and my guest today is Avi Felman . Avi is young but he has already had a successful career as a crypto investor. Earlier this year, he left BlockTower Capital to join GoldenTree as their Head of Digital Assets Trading. His ambition is to put crypto on TradFi's map by bringing this large well-known, credit-focused asset manager to the forefront of our industry. We dive into his...

This is Eric Golden and my guest today is Andrew Steinwold . Andrew is the managing partner at Sfermion, an NFT-focused investment firm where he makes venture-style bets and directly invests in NFTs. He is a pioneer in this space. We discuss the challenges of starting up a Web3 fund, how NFTs make the metaverse possible, and what drives value in various NFT categories. Please enjoy this conversati...

This is Eric Golden and my guest today is Yanni Giannaros . Yanni is the co-founder and CEO of Wyre, which provides payment infrastructure for Web3 companies. Wyre started off enabling merchants to accept bitcoin in 2013 and eventually pivoted from B2C to B2B to serve developers. We discuss Wyre’s major pivots over the past decade, the inefficiencies of traditional cross-border money transfer, and...

This is Eric Golden and my guest today is Algod . Algod is a popular crypto investor, who is probably best known for predicting Luna’s demise ahead of time on Twitter and betting with the founder, Do Kwon, that it would happen. He’s self-taught, operates largely alone, and does few interviews so I was very excited to sit down with him and talk about his philosophy, analytical process, and current...

This is Eric Golden and my guest today is Fonz . Fonz is the founder of Tokenproof, which lets NFT owners prove their ownership online and at events without exposing their wallets or tokens. I used the service at ApeFest last month and was blown away by how seamless it was. If you haven’t already listened to it, I recommend pairing this episode with our conversation on tokengating with Alex Danco...

This is Matt Reustle and I'm back with Eric for our second quarterly recap. As you can imagine, the tone is slightly different to our first one of these, just three months ago. There’s a lot to digest but we tried our best. Jump in and enjoy.   For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here .   -----   Web3 Breakdowns is a property...

This is Eric Golden and my guest today is Jarrod Dicker . Jarrod is a Partner at The Chernin Group, a consumer-focused investment firm, where he invests in Web3, blockchain, and other tech that connects fans with creators. Before TCG, Jarrod was the CEO of Po.et, a decentralized media start-up, and Commercial Chief at the Washington Post. He has spent his career at the intersection of media, techn...

My guest today is Alex Danco from Shopify. Alex is our first triple crown guest, having first appeared on Invest Like the Best in 2019, Business Breakdowns on Shopify in 2021, and now Web3 Breakdowns. Our conversation today focuses on a new concept, tokengated commerce, and how Shopify is building around this theme. Given the market turmoil in crypto assets, we talk about true use cases of tokenga...

This is Eric Golden and my guest today is Ovie Faruq , or as I know him, OSF. Ovie spent the best part of 9 years at Barclays as a distressed credit trader before moving into Web3 as a builder, investor, and artist. Given his wide range of experiences, both in TradFi and Crypto, we cover a lot of ground. We discuss the commonalities between fixed income and NFT trading, how to revive a failing PFP...

This is Eric Golden and my guest today is Bored Elon . Bored began as a parody account of Elon Musk on Twitter and has turned into a widely followed pseudonymous personality. We discuss the evolution of parody accounts and how Bored combined his massive following with years of experience in game design and mechanics to create his new blockchain based company, BoredBox. Please enjoy this conversati...

This is Eric Golden and my guest today is SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce . Commissioner Peirce was sworn into the SEC in 2018. During her tenure, she has been a vocal advocate of free markets and a supporter of the crypto industry, to the point where she is often referred to as “Crypto Mom”. Regulation is a huge issue for our industry and I hope you’ll walk away from this discussion with a better...

This is Eric Golden and my guest today is Laura Shin . Laura is a crypto journalist, host of the Unchained podcast, and author of the book The Cryptopians. While writing her book, Laura uncovered one of the biggest mysteries in crypto - who was behind the 2016 DAO hack on Ethereum. We cover that episode in detail, her methods for gathering information in crypto more broadly, and what she learned f...

This is Eric Golden and my guest today is Dan Matuszewski , co-founder of CMS Holdings. If you follow Dan on Twitter, you’ll recognize him as one of the wittiest and most fun voices in crypto. In this episode, we cover a wide variety of topics including Dan’s successful trading career that led to the launch of CMS - a proprietary trading firm, why he is so attracted to this space, and how from his...