On The Brink with Castle Island

Matt and Nic return for news and deals of the week. In this episode: What caused the Pound Sterling to sell off? Deglobalization picks up Stirrings of a sovereign debt crisis emerge Explaining Deribit's insider-led down round Can the market recover before Do Kwon, Machinsky, and 3AC are dealt with? Celcius' Machinsky steps down Brett Harrison leaves FTX US 7 states issue C&Ds against Nexo The CFTC...

Sergey Gorbunov , co-founder of Axelar joins the show. In this episode we discuss: Sergey's path to founding Axelar His views on blockchain interoperability and the design decisions of Axelar The different approaches to interoperability that are being attempted in the industry Views on DeFi composability and the role of privacy on public blockchains The L1/L2 landscape and how Axelar is positioned...

In this episode, Christine Kim from Galaxy Research joins us to discuss the Ethereum Merge and prospects for future protocol development:  Reactions to the merge and network changes that flew under the radar Finding a focus area in core protocol development on Ethereum EIPs (Ethereum Improvement Proposals) on the near-term horizon Threats to decentralization and censorship resistance and potential...

Nic and Matt sit down for a special live recording of OTB in front of an audience at the Boston Blockchain Week. In this episode:  Ian Balina is dinged by the SEC for Sparkster The SEC's weird argument for standing over all of Ethereum Is XRP a prediction market on Ripple's case against the SEC Wintermute is hacked for $160m via a bad vanity generator Several Senators file an amicus brief to suppo...

Steven Goldfeder is Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer at Offchain Labs , the team building Arbitrum. In this episode we discuss:  Steven's academic background, and his work at Princeton University.  BlockSci, an early blockchain forensics/search product that Steven co-founded.  The evolution of MPC custody and the exciting developments in that category.  The Flash Boys 2.0 paper and the curre...

Matt and Nic return for another week of news and deals. In this episode:  The Merge takes place without incident Will the Merge silence Ethereum critics on the left? Will the ESG narrative around crypto get louder? FTX takes a stake in Skybridge Castle Island is not an island If you make an NFT of a diamond and destroy the diamond, do you still have a diamond? CME launches Ether options Starbucks...

Dan Mottice , CEO and Co-Founder of Ansible Labs , joins the show to talk about a new payment gateway for web3. Dan's personal background and how he ended up in financial services The Visa Network, Visa Direct Payouts and Visa Crypto Ansible Labs' raise and what's ahead Off-ramps and why they matter North stars in fintech The consumer experience in a b2b sales cycle Navigating turbulent markets an...

Bankless' David Hoffman joins Matt and Nic for a special episode to cover Ethereum's highly-anticipated Merge. In this episode:  How David came to Ethereum and the Bankless origin story The story behind the Bankless DAO Whether David would ever consider focusing on other blockchains What could cause David to abandon Ethereum The Coinbase OFAC filtering debate Why proposer-builder separation might...

Matt and Nic return for news and deals of the week. In this episode:  Nic's shoe problem Web3 merch for OTB? The White House releases a report on crypto asset energy usage Why the US should encourage mining within its borders  Coinbase is funding a lawsuit against OFAC  Binance is converting USDC into BUSD on their platform  Poolin is having liquidity problems Russia considers crypto for cross bor...

Ria and Nic from Castle Island sit down with Stephanie Howard and Bennett Collen , cofounders of Endstate , a web3 footwear and fashion brand. We cover the merits of the redeem-and-retain NFT model and the vision for Endstate. Bennett's prior crypto startup and how he decided to unite his passion for sneakers with web3 How Bennett and Stephanie met and cofounded Endstate Stephanie's career in snea...

Matt and Nic return for another week of news and deals. In this episode:  What happens to the GPUs post merge? Will the gamers finally get cheap GPUs back? Is the merge like superbowl sunday or Y2K? Does the success of the merge undo a long-term Bitcoin talking point? Are NFTs going to cc0 screwing over their users? DC sues Michael Saylor and Microstrategy for allegedly skipping taxes in DC The SE...

Obi Nwosu, CEO and Founder of Fedi joins the show to cover a new model for shared Bitcoin custody in Fedimint . In this episode:  Obi's experience with Coinfloor and how that informed his views on custody Why third party custody with Proof of Reserves isn't sufficient Why 'credible centralized' custody shouldn't be the default Why state level attacks on custodians are ramping up Obi's early predic...

Matt and Nic return for news and deals of the week. In this episode:  Matt's prior radio career The boys consider reinvesting in the podcast How to avoid audience capture We puzzle over metaverse advertising How do you value metaverse real estate? Rep. Tom Emmer writes a letter to OFAC questioning their sanctioning of Tornado Cash Tether and BUSD (Paxos) don't blacklist Tornado Cash addresses The...

Brooke Pollack , the founder of Hutt Capital joins the show. In this episode we discuss:  Brooke 's career journey and path to founding Hutt Capital The events that led him to seeing that crypto/blockchain was going to be an industry with dedicated venture managers The institutional limited partner landscape The narratives that have captured the most institutional mindshare Views on the optimal fu...

Matt and Nic return for another week of news and deals. In this episode:  NYMag writes a long piece on 3AC Is OTB a 'crypto fanboy podcast'? Are we up against the nation state 'final boss'? 3AC boat name reveal The Toyota Century rumors are true Revelations about 3ACs FX days Did 3AC actually owe the Mafia money? The 3AC Deribit deal A new 3AC supporter dials in to the show Machinsky was trading C...

In this episode, Uddhav Marwaha , co-founder and CEO of Friktion Labs , joins us to discuss Friktion 's approach to a full stack portfolio management platform in defi. We cover a plethora of topics, including: The opacity surrounding defi yields and distinguishing fleeting opportunities from sustainable sources of income Using options overwriting and basis strategies to generate more durable retur...

 Matt and Nic return for another week of deals and news. In this episode:  Underwhelming Taproot adoption Tornado Cash gets sanctioned by OFAC Is Tornado a better mixer than coinjoin Why the Tornado Cash sanctioning is the first of its kind How much of the liquidity in Tornado Cash was illicit? Are we at a turning point in financial privacy? Why was Tornado Cash specifically targeted and not other...

Matt and Nic return for another week of deals and news. In this episode:  Is there any hope for ETH PoW forks? Is Ethereum unforkeable? More 3AC shenanigans of the week The 3AC Toyota Century situation The 3AC boys have some unexpected supporters  A bipartisan bill proposes giving the CFTC oversight over the spot market What's up with the croissant diet NYDFS fines Robinhood Crypto Michael Saylor...

Matt and Nic return for news and deals of the week. In this episode:  Damien Hirst's physical NFT project  Why you need a bridge between the physical and the digital world for certain NFTs  Why physical NFTs provide advantages to collectors and brands Libra/Diem spawns Aptos and Sui Coinbase is under SEC investigation  Pat Toomey criticizes the SEC What is in the bipartisan stablecoin bill?  Squab...

Itai Turbahn and Yoni Goldberg , the founders of Dynamic join the show. In this episode we discuss: Itai and Yoni's professional journey to starting Dynamic How Dynamic is addressing wallet based authentication Views on how standards will evolve in the blockchain ID category The evolution of decentralized identifiers The types of businesses that are early adopters for wallet-based logins To learn...

(Reuploaded, fixed audio) Matt and Nic return for news and deals of the week. In this episode: Inert ETH from the crowdsale? Why the credit crunch is like the European panic of 1772 Should we bring back full-liability banks? Are Bitcoiners wrong to reject fractional reserve banking? 1000 pages of 3AC intrigue  Genesis had 2.6b gross exposure to 3ac The 3AC blockchain .com transcripts More 3AC shen...

Matt and Nic return for another week of news and deals. In this episode:  Stablecoin actives outpace blue chip crypto Why is Tether on Tron so popular? Is H E Justin Sun willing to deploy $5b in acquisitions Celsius files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection KeyFi is suing Celsius Are DeFi business models going to have to change? Where do tokenholders fall in the capital stack? Three Arrows are no...

Matt and Nic return for another week of news and deals. In this episode:  USDC gains ground on USDT Stable liquidity is sticky Why fiat-backed stables are still more censor resistant than bank deposits Do stablecoins make L1s unforkable Will the emergence of crypto prime brokers pressure crypto yields? Voyager files for Chapter 11 Should investors also be clients of lending firms they invest in? C...

Dave Balter and Jim Myers , the founders of Flipside Crypto join the show. In this episode we discuss: The early insights that led to the launch of Flipside Crypto Current market conditions and how Dave compares that to the dot com era The proliferation of NFTs and how the SaaS market will change as a result of this technology How Flipside prioritizes new blockchains ShroomDK , Flipside's latest p...

Matt and Nic return for the news and deals in another tumultuous week.  Matt is snubbed by Coin Metrics Nic gets sort of cancelled on Twitter by the Bitcoin hardliners Nic is not a Bitcoin Maximalist Is there a positive, non-maximalist vision of Bitcoin? BlockFi update Our case for wallet-based passwordless authentication CIV's 3AC takes from last week start to be independently confirmed What trad...