The Breakdown

BTC dominance is over 70%, and the gap between its performance and everything else may be accounting for the strange dissonance between 3x BTC price growth in 2019 and the serious gloomy pallor on display on crypto Twitter. We look at that divergence in the context of Fred Wilson's state of crypto post yesterday, as well as the continued growth of bitcoin-focused derivative products and comments f...

To celebrate the official end of summer and beginning of fall, I asked 15 top crypto VCs, entrepreneurs and content creators including Jill Carlson, Ari Paul, Kyle Samani, Marty Bent and more 4 questions: What did we learn this Summer? What are your predictions for the Fall?  What is one thing we're not talking about?  What is the price of BTC at the end of the year? (Up/Down/Sideways) These are t...

In the game of coins, you [replace the USD as the world's reserve currency or at least shore up your sovereign currency's position in the new global mix] or you die.  Over the last few months, we've seen China accelerate work on its digital currency; Binance launch Venus, a regional alternative to Libra; Tether (reportedly) working on a China yuan pegged stablecoin; and now, one of the world's bes...

Libra Association on the verge of losing members? That's the report from FT as members get spooked by EU antitrust proceedings. Over in the trade war, Trump ratchets up the rhetoric against China, and we explore both how it might drive Chinese innovation and what it means for the BTC safe haven narrative. Finally, we do a quick recap of Berlin Blockchain Week so far, including the anti-surveillanc...

What do Palestinian bitcoin brokers, bitcoin rewards via hangover deliveries and a Russian spy scandal have to do with one another? It's all on today's 3@3. First, we look at the return of the crypto crime FUD narrative, with the specter of terrorism and US OFAC action against Chinese opioid kingpins. Then, we look at whether reports of legitimate use by Palestinians, legitimate use by US consumer...

Well that didn't take long. The European Union has already started looking into antitrust action on Facebook around Libra. In other regulatory news, US Sec of State Mike Pompeo says crypto should be regulated like SWIFT, India central bank fights for crypto ban, and the SEC announced a settlement with an ICO rating site that was paid by projects. It's all about the incentives, ultimately. Finally,...

Binance is pursuing a strategy that is a bottoms-up "belt and road" alternative to Facebook's top down global cryptocurrency Libra. VC Dovey Wan explores that strategy, and why their Chinese announcement was more aggressive than their English. We also look at the anti-surveillance sentiment at Web3 Summit (best expressed by keynote Edward Snowden); the $130m regulated token IPO from new exchange I...

Binance blew open the doors on the global battle for stablecoin supremacy today when they announced Venus - a project that seems to combine some aspects of permissioned corporate chains with central bank digital currencies (aka convenient surveillance money). What does it mean for consumers? What does it mean for governments? What does it mean for Libra? Would you chose CZ or Zuck to make your dig...

Bitcoin and Crypto Twitter are wild, weird places. On this special "sorry I'm traveling, can't give you the news" edition of 3@3, I provide a guide to 11 key types of people that you should be following for your well-rounded Twitter experience.  The evangelist  The skeptic The maximalist  The builder  The buyer  The creator  The curator  The outsider The philosopher  The researcher The independent...

Why number go down? That's all anyone was asking as BTC plunged below $10k, a line that, according to Hodlonaut, we'd never cross again. Was it Ponzi scam selling in China or something less sinister? Either way, there was a bit of snark about a safe haven narrative so quickly extinguished. Additionally, we discuss a new move from Ripple to pay creators to come to their content ecosystem and the st...

What is dead may yet still die. At least, that seems to be the case as the SEC goes one by one through its list of unregistered securities offerings and outright scams. This week it was one unregistered SAFT settlement and one emergency lawsuit involving frozen assets and lifetime bans, oh my my. We also look at China's forthcoming convenient surveillance money..err..central bank digital currency....

After surprise election results, the Argentine economy tumbled. The stock market fell 48%, and the peso fell some 25-30% against USD. What is the role of crypto in this type of economic black swan event, if any? I asked MakerDAO's Mariano Conti, an Argentinian based in Buenos Aires, for his thoughts. We also look at the latest Bitcoin ETF delay and some phenomenal research on crypto developer tren...

Bonds. Dollars. Bitcoin. Gold. That's what some are saying pay attention to at the beginning of a global currency crisis? On this week's LRS Top 5, we also look at: news from Binance US about its listing criteria and prospective token listings; KIK's aggressive response to the SEC lawsuit; Trump Administration proposals to police social media for censorship, and more. Produced in partnership with...

Travis Kling joins for today's 3@3 to explore how bitcoin might move from a risk asset to a safe haven. This isn't just about narrative, it's about how bets from one group trigger another group, which confirms models, and so on, creating a self fulfilling prophecy. You don't want to miss this. Also today, we look at Binance US's new asset listing framework and 30 prospects. And we ask that all imp...

You've heard of the PayPal Mafia, but what about the Magic the Gathering Mafia? Both SkyWeaver and Gods Unchained have serious ex-Wizards of the Coast talent in their ranks. Does this mean blockchain gaming can succeed? Also in the realm of mass adoption, Robinhood was just approved to bring its stock and crypto-buying experience to the UK. Finally, Messari takes a critical look at the FUD from ea...

Katherine Wu joins us as a guest to discuss her full annotation of the 117 page clap back from KIK against the SEC. What's bluster? What's business as usual for lawsuits like this? What are the actual implications for the rest of the industry? We also discuss the Binance KYC hack - what's real, what's FUD, and what we still don't know. Finally, we look at Ryan Zurrer (ex-Polychain, Web3) and his n...

First Trump threatened tariffs. Then China devalued the Yuan. Then Trump declared China to be currency manipulators. Then stonks went down while orange coin went up. Then everyone asked: "is Bitcoin the new safe haven asset?" For the last two days, this has been the conversation. It is a culmination of months of convergence between the Bitcoin hedge narrative and the global macro paradigm shift na...

A key theme from last week's Senate Banking Committee hearing was the sense that, like it or not, cryptocurrency was an inevitable force. On this top 5 summary of Long Reads Sunday, we look at that plus how the global macro narrative is converging with Bitcoin, why the internet hasn't evolved in a way that is free and open (and how that could change) and why digital privacy is the political issue...

The Q2 crypto data reports are in, so on this special edition we’re breaking down the most interesting trends. We cover: asset performance; network activity in Bitcoin and Ethereum; the “non-correlated” narrative in Bitcoin and BTC’s relative narrative strength; the state of dapps and DeFi; IEO and exchange token performance; the impact of regulatory action; the decline of VC activity; the rise of...

It was the two year anniversary of UASF (and the BCH chain split from BTC), which marked a significant moment in the history of Bitcoin. In short, the culmination of the block size war demonstrated the relative power of the distributed network of individuals running nodes over huge mining and exchange interests. In this 3@3, we look at that, as well as a new struggle around dev funding in Zcash as...

The Fed cut interest rates today for the first time in Bitcoin's life. This move is interesting directly because lower rates lead to more money in the markets. It's interesting symbolically as it represents a major narrative evolution where financial markets are actively discussing Bitcoin and not the other way around. We also look at IEO performance a few months into the phenomenon and do a quick...

In their second hearing in 2 weeks, the Senate Banking Committee invited 3 panelists to discuss the current state of and recommendations for crypto and digital asset regulation. In this recap, I look at three key points: 1) the shadow of Libra and Big Tech; 2) calling BS on "bank the unbanked"; 3) the sense of inevitability.  Watch the video version: https://www.youtube.com/nathanielwhittemorecryp...

Weekly countdown of the 5 most important essays and threads from the week before on Long Reads Sunday. This week featuring Lightning Network vs the encroaching surveillance state; a US Congressman's response to Circle leaving the US; a hot take on the Trump Administration's interest in backdoor encryption and more.  Video produced by BlockTV Watch the full episode: https://www.youtube.com/nathanie...

The US Attorney General has reignited a debate about encryption backdoors for law enforcement. Libra has a long way to go, with a recent poll finding it significantly less trustworthy to Americans than Bitcoin. And finally, a regulatory roundup including a new New York State crypto taskforce and upcoming hearings in the Senate.  Watch the video version: https://www.youtube.com/nathanielwhittemorec...

Justin Sun canceled his lunch with Warren Buffett this week, claiming kidney stones. Reports today, however, suggested that he was compelled not to leave China by border authorities due to investigations. But then he showed up in SF? So basically, wth. Also an interesting conversation about developer funding and block rewards comes to Ethereum, while members of the Indian crypto community react to...