Raoul Pal: The Journey Man

Binance auditor Mazars has reportedly paused all crypto-related work, going as far as scraping off its recent Binance proof-of-reserves report from the website. This is adding fuel to concerns around the state of finances at Binance, but some blockchain analysts are pointing out the company is not going through what FTX did. Maple Finance CEO and co-founder Sidney Powell and COSIMO Ventures managi...

U.S Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Roger Marshall (R-Kan.) have introduced a bipartisan bill aimed at hindering criminal transactions in the cryptocurrency industry. If the Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act becomes law, it will apply know-your-customer (KYC) rules to wallet providers and increase compliance with the current financial system. But what’s it mean for the average invest...

Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried appeared in court in the Bahamas for the first time where his lawyers argued for a bail. Meanwhile, his arch-enemy, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ), is trying to reassure its users that there's nothing to worry about as the exchange sees elevated levels of fund withdrawals. Dylan LeClair, a Bitcoin analyst known for his work at the Bitcoin Magazine Pro, joins Jerem...

By now you probably know that Sam Bankman-Fried has been arrested in the Bahamas. He’s been denied bail, pending extradition to the U.S., and faces up to 115 years in prison. So what's the next chapter in this story? And what does the industry outlook look like heading into 2023? Real Vision senior host Ash Bennington breaks it all down with Simon Dixon and Tommy Thornton on another jam-packed edi...

Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), co-founder and former CEO of the bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, has been arrested in the Bahamas after U.S. federal prosecutors and regulators filed criminal and civil charges respectively against him. The charges were unsealed on the same day SBF was expected to testify in Congress as hearings about FTX's collapse begin. Ram Ahluwalia, the CEO and co-founder of Lumida Weal...

A report prepared for Binance by French accounting firm Mazars was meant to reassure investors that the crypto exchange’s reserves are what it claims they are. But now it’s raising some red flags, including at the Wall Street Journal. At the top of this Real Vision Crypto Daily Briefing, Jeremy Varlow and Ash Bennington discuss the glaring holes in the report. They also talk about the bombshell th...

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is urging publicly traded companies to come clean about any sort of exposure or vulnerability they may have to the current crypto market turmoil. At the top of this Real Vision Crypto Daily Briefing, Nico Brugge and Ash Bennington analyze the new guidelines. Later, they're joined by Ethereum investor and community member Ryan Berckmans to talk about Shan...

A U.S. bankruptcy judge has authorized the return of funds to some users of bankrupt crypto lender Celsius Network - but there are big caveats. At the top of this Real Vision Crypto Daily Briefing, Jeremy Varlow and Ash Bennington analyze who would be getting their money back and how much. They also discuss a couple of stories around the chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Gary...

Hedge fund Fir Tree Capital Management is suing Grayscale Investments, the operator of the world's largest Bitcoin fund, for "potential mismanagement and conflicts of interest," according to a complaint filed Tuesday in Delaware Chancery Court. Separately, a federal judge authorized the issuance of subpoenas to former leadership of bankrupt crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital covering any "reco...

USDC issuer Circle has abandoned its plan to go public via a “special purpose acquisition company” merger with Concorde Acquisition Corp, which is led by former Barclays CEO Bob Diamond. At the top of today’s Real Vision Crypto Daily Briefing, Elaine Ly and Ash Bennington talk about why Circle and Concorde are walking away from a deal that valued the stablecoin group at up to $9 billion. Later, Di...

Prominent among the casualties of FTX’s collapse is Genesis Global Capital, a lending arm of crypto empire Digital Currency Group. And, when Genesis halted redemptions in November, one of its victims was Gemini's Earn program. Recent reports by the Financial Times and CoinDesk reveal how much money Gemini other customers are trying to recover from Genesis. At the top of today’s Real Vision Crypto...

Tether is discovering that, once asked, questions about its financial position will persist. Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal reported that the largest stablecoin by market capitalization is “lending its own coins to customers rather than selling them for hard currency upfront.” Tether denies this characterization of its lending practices. At the top of today’s Real Vision Crypto Daily Briefing,...

It was a long-booked interview barely anyone believed would actually happen. But Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced founder and former CEO of bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, did show up via remote video for The New York Times’ DealBook Summit. And he did sit for questioning by Andrew Ross Sorkin. Elaine Ly and Santiago Velez, a co-founder and the R&D Division Lead at Block Digital, talk about what did...

After an abundance of bankruptcies, multiple market crashes, proliferating scams, and a lot of plain old bad news, you’d be forgiven for feeling a little despondent about crypto right now. So we're happy to share some good stuff at the top of today’s Real Vision Crypto Daily Briefing: Paul Guerra and Elaine Ly talk about Brazil legalizing crypto payments, Binance entering Japan, and Animoca Brands...

Just hours after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, crypto lender BlockFi fired off another court motion, this time aimed at Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of collapsed crypto exchange FTX. BlockFi alleges SBF pledged shares of trading company Robinhood as collateral on BlockFi and now wants to seize the stock. On this edition of Real Vision Crypto Daily Briefing, Nico Brugge and Elai...

Crypto lender BlockFi has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S., becoming the latest company to collapse due to an FTX shockwave that shows little sign of abating. Digital financial services company BitGo has been chosen by FTX as the custodian of the bankrupt crypto exchange's remaining assets. And BitGo CEO Mike Belshe joins Jeremy Varlow and Moritz Seibert for today’s Crypto Da...

Revealing that a “substantial amount” of the collapsed crypto exchange’s assets are either missing or stolen, attorney for new management James Bromley also described FTX as the “personal fiefdom” of co-founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried during the first U.S. bankruptcy court hearing on the matter on Tuesday. Marco Olivera and Ash Bennington welcome Mike Alfred, a value investor and the mana...

Bitcoin fell to $15,600 on Monday evening as mainstream media outlets honed in on Genesis, the digital-assets brokerage arm of the Digital Currency Group conglomerate. Bloomberg is reporting that Genesis has been seeking $1 billion in emergency funding following the collapse of crypto exchange FTX. Wall Street Journal sources say the brokerage approached Binance and private equity giant Apollo Glo...

That $600 million or so stolen shortly after collapsed crypto exchange FTX filed for bankruptcy just over a week ago has since been converted into enough Ether to make the exploiter one of the largest holders of that coin. Now, those funds are on the move again, their conversion into other coins raising fresh questions about the perpetrator(s). We address them at the top of today’s Real Vision Cry...

"Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here," writes John Ray, the new CEO of bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, in a court filing. With 40 years of experience cleaning up bankrupt companies, including Enron, Ray knows what he’s talking about. Jeremy Varlow and Ash Bennington take up the...

Alpha Centauri Kid (ACK) is one of the most respected artists in the NFT world. In this special episode, ACK reveals to guest host Sergio Silva the muse for his upcoming show at Christie’s auction house. He also explains his move from digital to physical art for this collection, noting its parallels to Andy Warhol’s work. ACK and Sergio also explore the past and future of NFTs, identify the artist...

The Block is reporting that U.S. federal lawmakers want to question Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of FTX, about the bankrupt crypto exchange’s collapse. They’d also like to hear from Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao about his company’s role in FTX’s demise. Also, Binance is said to be preparing to acquire the assets of bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital that FTX had won a...

At the top of today’s Web3 Wednesday, we’re joined by Zeneca, the founder and CEO of Zen Academy and a seed investor in Blur Marketplace. We talk about NFT education for beginners and best practices for navigating Web3. Later, former San Antonio Spurs star Tony Parker and the Club dVIN team drop in to discuss the tokenization of wine. Follow @realvision on Twitter and come learn with us every Wedn...

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that BlockFi is preparing for a potential bankruptcy filing after the crypto lender halted withdrawals from its platform last week because of significant exposure to FTX. Jeremy Varlow and Ash Bennington welcome Laura Shin, host of the Unchained podcast, and Chris Sullivan, the CEO of Hyperion Decimus, to talk about the still-spreading contagion from the collap...

It’s been a wild week or so for crypto and macro investors alike. The FTX fiasco has clouded the future of DeFi and NFTs, the broader economic landscape continues to shift, and the Federal Reserve’s monetary path colors everything. It’s all on the table for another Ask Me Anything session with Real Vision co-founder and CEO Raoul Pal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adch...