Raoul Pal: The Journey Man

Chris Perkins is now a managing partner at CoinFund, but he was once an active-duty U.S. Marine. Chris joins Ash Bennington for this week’s episode of Building Blocks to talk about how his experience in the Corps informs his investing career. He also describes the “a-ha!” moment during his early crypto research and shares his thoughts on fintech’s rapid evolution. Learn more about your ad choices....

James Zhang grew up in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and lived through two civil wars. His appreciation for cryptocurrency is based on his experience of that kind of instability. Zhang is now the co-founder and CEO of Jambo, a Congo-based start-up that recently closed a $30 million Series A funding round. And he’s deploying an app designed to help the 80% of the population on the African th...

Bitcoin and Ethereum are teetering at levels not seen since early 2021, as several high-profile cryptocurrency companies have taken drastic measures to cut headcounts ahead of what could be a prolonged industry downturn. Moritz Seibert, co-head of digital innovation strategy at Real Vision and CIO at Exponential Age Asset Management, and Leslie Lamb, CMO at CoinFlex and the host of the the Crypto...

How does Bitcoin provide value to investors? According to Andy Edstrom, the "clearest case is digital gold." Edstrom, CFA®, CFP®, managing director of Swan Advisor Services, and a financial advisor at Wescap Group, went down the Bitcoin rabbit hole in 2017 – when a bear market happened to be right around the corner and Bitcoin dropped from $20,000 to $3,000. Questioning his conviction, Andy put pe...

So much happens so fast in the rapidly emerging cryptocurrency market that on-the-ground observations by leading investors in the space are just about indispensable. With that said, Marissa Kim, general partner at Abra Capital Management, joins Wendy Diamond, the founder and CEO of LDP Ventures and head of the Women's Entrepreneurship Day Organization, to share details of her investing philosophy...

 DAOs are capturing the imagination of creators and entrepreneurs the world over. Jess Sloss, instigator at Seed Club, joins Kevin Kelly, co-founder of Delphi Digital, to discuss how they guide and invest in startup communities as well as explain how social tokens can play an important role delivering value to those communities' members. In this deep dive, Sloss explains who DAOs will work for and...

Anders Brownworth and his team of researchers are working on a potentially ground-breaking project, a central bank digital currency. Brownworth, the principal software architect at The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, joins Real Vision’s Ash Bennington to discuss the high-speed transaction processor he and his team are developing and the benefits of open-source software. Learn more about your ad ch...

With the Federal Reserve shrinking its balance sheet and hiking interest rates, investors in all markets – including crypto – must deal with the reality of reduced liquidity. Dean Carr, founder of C The Light Trading, sees “no reason to be long anything weak,” but he’s looking for volume to bounce back and prices to recover some ground before jumping back in. Carr joins Real Vision’s Ash Benningto...

What’s going to make crypto go mainstream? Slava Rubin is the founder of alternative investment platform Vincent. He believes alternative investment wrappers are the way to make crypto investing accessible to everyone. He joins Real Vision's Ash Bennington to talk about Vincent's new product, which exposes investors to a range of alternatives – real estate, venture capital, art, crypto, and crypto...

The U.S. Congress is getting closer to passing long-promised and highly anticipated legislation to regulate cryptocurrency, a step many industry insiders see as critical to the goal of widespread adoption. Senator Cynthia Lummis, a Republican from Wyoming, and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat from New York, have introduced a bill that would establish a regulatory framework for most digital a...

Bitcoin-native DeFi apps are emerging with the aim to provide next-generation financial services built on the world’s best-known blockchain. Dr. Chiente Hsu, an expert in the field of quantitative investments, is using Stacks to build ALEX (that’s short for “Automated Liquidity Exchange”), the first full-service DeFi platform on Bitcoin. A one-stop shop, ALEX enables the launch of tokens, fixed-ra...

Jake Udell’s decades-long career in music, marketing, and activation is built on bringing together community and culture. Now, the founder and CEO of Metalink is building a hub for NFT communities to communicate effectively, a comprehensive space for NFT owners to connect, view their collection and get access to Alpha via a real-time transaction feed. Channels are token-gated, so proof of ownershi...

Bitcoin has recovered a bit, and altcoin prices have stabilized. Is the status quo sustainable, or is there more downside ahead? Option Insight's Imran Lakha joins Real Vision's Ash Bennington to discuss Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the trajectory of the cryptocurrency market. Under one scenario defined by Elliott Wave theory, Lakha has identified potential downside targets of $20,000 and $1,000 for Bit...

Transparency. Efficiency. Innovation. These are just a few of the many reasons why Chris Sullivan believes crypto has so much promise. He joins Ash Bennington to talk about everything he’s building at Hyperion Decimus, and he also shares his thoughts on the industry’s long-term trajectory. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What happened at a New York party when traditional art gallerist Adam Lindemann, the founder of Venus Over Manhattan, met Erick Calderon, the founder of Art Blocks and the creator of the Chromie Squiggles NFT collection? Adam and Erick come to it from different places, but they both recognize the potential of blockchain technology to open the world of art to “an entire new universe of collectors.”...

As Andrew Steinwold sees it, we can't expect people to change the way they transact based on arguments built around "blockchain transactions per second, staking, [and] down with the Fed." That’s not how to get them to understand and appreciate the value of crypto. On the other hand, fun things like "art, video games, and collectibles" will attract the masses and will pique their interest in this n...

It looks like Bitcoin is recovering from its recent steep sell-off, but many investors fear this could be a short-lived bounce. That reflects a broader market still assessing the damage done by the epic failure of the so-called algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD and its sister token Luna. As Terra’s founders try to revive the project, questions about lessons learned and security abound. Leslie Lamb,...

Ethereum gas fees are high. Unless costs of using the network can be controlled, the dream of an open and user-owned internet is a fantasy. Are layer 2 scaling solutions the answer? Andrew Cahill and Saurabh Deshpande of The Block join Real Vision's Ash Bennington to discuss their recent research report on what could be the key to widespread adoption. Ethereum has made major strides in the past fe...

Two complementary industries, music and crypto, are becoming more intermingled by the day. Jack Spallone, head of crypto at HIFI Labs, joins Kevin Kelly, co-founder of Delphi Digital, to provide an insider look. Hailing from the recording industry, Spallone has thought a lot about this intersection we see today with crypto. There are countless ways in which the transition to a more decentralized i...

The future of investing is decentralized, democratized, and community-driven. The co-founders of Syndicate, Ian Lee and Will Papper, sit down with Kevin Kelly, co-founder of Delphi Digital, to provide a behind-the-scenes look into the brand-new "social network of investing" they are building on Web 3.0. Lee and Papper foresee DAOs outcompeting corporations and potentially replacing governments. Th...

It's the regular Saturday hang, where Real Vision's Elaine Ly talks to the people who make the NFT world go round. Today she chats with Zoë Davis, who was once a co-worker but has become a bestie because of near-daily conversations about NFT projects. Elaine and Zoë compare notes on navigating a fast-moving market, with new projects dotting the calendar, and how to discern good projects from bad o...

It’s "rudimentary" to have a digital wallet, according to engineer and founder of BEASY (“Blockchain Made Easy”) Bob Kramich. In conversation with COSIMO co-founder and managing partner Rob Frasca, Kramich breaks down the NFT ecosystem and describes how to build a business model and a brand within it. In five years’ time, says Kramich, “We're gonna forget what an NFT is. We're just gonna say, here...

Has Bitcoin bottomed? What about altcoins? If not, where lie the lows? Ben Cowen, CEO of Into The Cryptoverse, joins Real Vision's Ash Bennington to talk about the state of the crypto market. Technical indicators suggest Bitcoin is in a bear market, but it remains the most resilient cryptocurrency. As Ben sees it, “Confidence in the altcoin market has shattered." And he expects "valuations to blee...

In normal times, Bitcoin's recent sideways action wouldn’t be newsworthy. But we're far from normal right now. Volatility is rampant across financial asset classes, while crypto continues to roil in the aftermath of the Terra/Luna meltdown. At the same time, the stability of the world’s No. 1 crypto bears a closer look. CoinFlex Chief Marketing Officer Leslie Lamb joins Real Vision’s Paul Guerra a...

Blockchain startups and TradFi companies face many challenges when they choose to enter the cryptoverse. To build an ecosystem capable of supporting mass adoption requires companies with the proper fintech tools and the knowledge to use them properly. One of those companies is Prime Trust, which offers an all-in-one financial infrastructure service to solve issues like custody, compliance, payment...