The Scoop

As the crypto market struggles to gain its footing in the wake of FTX’s demise , sweeping layoffs have thinned the ranks of many companies. In this episode of The Scoop, Rob Paone, founder and CEO of crypto recruiting firm Proof of Talent, shares his perspective on how the crypto hiring landscape has changed during the bear market. According to Paone, the current dynamic between job seekers and pr...

In the fourth installment of The Scoop’s continued coverage of FTX's demise, host Frank Chaparro examines the legal underpinnings of FTX’s bankruptcy and restructuring process with Dan Besikof, a partner at the law firm Loeb & Loeb, and Mark Shapiro, Chair of the Financial Restructuring Group and a partner at the law firm of Shearman & Sterling. In 2008, Shapiro served as the Head of Restr...

Web3 investment firm CoinFund recently launched a $300 million fund targeting early-stage crypto and web3 startups. In this episode of The Scoop, CoinFund Managing Partner David Pakman shares how this fund fits into CoinFund’s broader investment thesis for crypto and web3, including why the fund is specifically targeting early-stage startups. The new fund is intended for new crypto startups alread...

Aptos, a new Layer 1 blockchain originating from the Facebook blockchain initiative Libra (later renamed 'Diem'), recently launched its mainnet. The architecture behind Aptos was designed to serve millions of people at scale and uses the Move programming language originally intended for Libra. In this episode of The Scoop, Aptos Co-Founders Mohammed Shaikh and Avery Ching explain why they believe...

In this venture capital-focused segment of The Scoop, CoinShare Chief Strategy Officer Meltem Demirors and Aglaé Ventures Managing Partner Vanessa Grellet explain which crypto verticals are oversaturated, and examine how market dynamics have changed since last year. Although the crypto industry has experienced many boom-and-bust cycles before, Demirors says “2021 will be one of the worst years for...

Part one of this two-part special on Nouriel Roubini’s new book, Megathreats , examines how the economy is facing a combination of interconnected phenomena that Roubini believes will result in a severe economic crisis. Roubini discusses some alternative assets that could gain prominence in the event of a global financial meltdown and explains why he prefers gold over bitcoin in such a situation, a...

Nouriel Roubini, the economist and professor who forecasted the housing collapse of 2008, is back with a new prediction for the global economy. In his new book, Megathreats: Ten Dangerous Trends That Imperil Our Future, And How to Survive Them , Roubini examines a series of interconnected phenomena that he believes could lead to disaster if left unchecked. In the first part of this two-part macro...

In this breaking news episode of The Scoop, we continue our coverage of FTX’s demise with Jim Greco, a general partner at F9 Research, and Douglas Colkitt, founder of Crocodile Labs. According to Greco, many market participants knew about the relationship between Alameda and FTX. Still, few thought former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried would risk jeopardizing the success of his exchange: “Most professi...

Cosmos contributors recently released a new whitepaper that proposes major upgrades to the Cosmos Hub, the central blockchain of the Cosmos ecosystem. A community vote to determine whether or not the proposed changes are integrated into the Hub concludes on Monday, Nov. 14th. In this episode of The Scoop, Cosmos Co-Founder and Interchain Foundation President Ethan Buchman explains what will change...

In part one of The Scoop’s coverage of the on-going controversy surrounding FTX and Alameda, Framework Venture co-founder Vance Spence suggested that FTX must have a very large hole in their balance sheet to be forced to turn to their biggest competitor for a buyout. We now know that FTX likely has upwards of an $8 billion hole in its balance sheet, which CEO Sam Bankman-Fried is attempting to fil...

In response to the unexpected collapse of FTX, billions of dollars in crypto have been flowing out of exchanges over the past 24 hours as market participants rush to self-custody their funds. In this breaking news edition of The Scoop, Frank Chaparro and Framework Ventures Co-Founder Vance Spencer analyze the factors that contributed to FTX’s rapid downfall, as well as speculate on the comingled r...

Crypto-native venture firm eGirl Capital is a syndicate of pseudonymous individuals who invest in early-stage web3 projects, and provide colorful market commentary on Twitter. In this special segment of The Scoop, Frank Chaparro is joined by The Block’s VP of Research, Larry Cermak, and eGirl Capital’s Co-Founder, Hedgehog, to discuss how this crypto bear market compares to previous cycles, and to...

Full-service crypto platform Abra announced plans in September to establish the first fully regulated bank for digital assets in the U.S. Abra Bank is expected to go live in early 2023 and it will enable U.S. citizens to deposit their digital assets in a U.S.-regulated manner similar to traditional banking. In this episode of The Scoop, Abra Co-Founder and CEO Bill Barhydt explains the advantage c...

Earlier this year, Binance. US became the first U.S.-based exchange to cut bitcoin trading fees to zero. Since the announcement, Binance. US has consistently ranked in the top three of North America-based exchanges by volume, according to data from The Block. In this episode of The Scoop, Binance. US CEO Brian Shroder examines how Binance. US is attempting to distinguish itself from the competitio...

A project called ‘HomeCoin’ is tapping into the trillion dollar real estate industry with a mortgage-backed stablecoin called $HOME. In this episode of The Scoop, HomeCoin Founder Karl Jacob unpacks the mechanics behind HomeCoin’s mortgage-backed stablecoin, and shares why he believes the best way to move the real estate industry on-chain is incrementally over time. According to Jacobs, $HOME is o...

Volt Capital announced in May the launch of its second fund — with backing from the likes of Andreessen Howoritz's Chris Dixon and Marc Andreessen — and despite the ongoing bear market for digital assets, founder Soona Amhaz says there's an opportunity to invest in a new wave of entrepreneurs.  Following the launch of a wide range of marketplaces tied to non-fungible tokens and decentralized finan...

In a market known for mantras such as "irresponsibly long," Joe McCann has been taking a more prudent approach to crypto venture capital investing.  The former head of systematic and algorithmic trading at Passport Capital launched his latest venture, Asymmetric, in the spring of last year and started deploying capital this past summer in the wake of the Three Arrows Capital meltdown.  On this epi...

In September, North Island Ventures launched a new $125 million fund to invest in emerging crypto and Web3 companies. In this episode of The Scoop, North Island Ventures Managing Partner Travis Scher unpacks the thesis behind the new fund and explains his firm’s vision for how the crypto industry will evolve over the next couple of decades. According to Scher, the tribalism that currently pits ent...

Back in July, controversy broke out amongst Bitcoiners when Nic Carter — a long-time bitcoin proponent and Founding Partner of Castle Island Ventures — announced that his firm invested in a Web3 authentication company. Even though Castle Island recently launched a $250 million fund explicitly for Web3 investments, Carter’s announcement was met with staunch criticism from some members of the Bitcoi...

After a tumultuous first half of the year, the crypto lending market is maturing, according to Ledn Co-Founder and CSO Mauricio Di Bartolomeo. In this episode of The Scoop, Bartolomeo shares his insider perspective on the state of crypto lending, including what types of lending he believes involves the least amount of risk. According to Bartolomeo, the liquidity crisis following the collapse of Th...

BlockTower yesterday unveiled a new $150 million fund, which has been operating in stealth since December of last year. BlockTower also announced a new venture arm, which complements the firm’s long-biased flagship fund, market-neutral fund and credit strategies. In this episode of The Scoop, Thomas Klocanas, BlockTower general partner and the new head of ventures, explains how BlockTower’s new ve...

In August, it was reported that asset management firm Brevan Howard raised over $1 billion to invest in the crypto industry. In this episode of The Scoop, Bevan Howard’s Co-Heads of Ventures Peter Johnson and Colleen Sullivan break down their investment thesis and explain what segments of the crypto market they believe are seeing the most interest from existing brands. While traditional financial...

The cameras have been rolling over at Coinbase, CEO Brian Armstrong revealed last Friday, when he announced the release of Coin: A Founder’s Story — a feature-length film over three years in the making. In this episode of The Scoop, Brian Armstrong sits down with host Frank Chaparro to share his thoughts on Coinbase’s new film, including his take on how some of the thornier moments of Coinbase’s h...

In July, Bored Ape Yacht Club creator Yuga Labs partnered with Improbable — a British company building a network of virtual worlds — to bring to life Yuga’s metaverse project known as ‘Otherside.’ In this episode of The Scoop, Improbable’s Founders CEO Herman Narula and Chief Product Officer Rob Whitehead explain how they believe the metaverse creates value, and why developing entirely new experie...

TBD, the crypto focused arm of Jack Dorsey’s Block, is partnering with Circle, the company behind the USDC stablecoin, to unleash the power of stablecoin payments onto the next billion crypto users.  In this episode of The Scoop, Circle’s Chief Revenue Officer Kash Razzaghi and TBD’s Chief Operating Officer Emily Chiu discuss their new partnership, and explain how their companies’ synergy is going...