The Scoop

Kristin Smith is the CEO of Blockchain Association and Anthony Scaramucci is the founder and managing partner of SkyBridge Capital. In this episode, Smith and Scaramucci discuss the impact of crypto policy and politics on recent events, including the ETH ETF win, bipartisan support, and the influence of Trump and Biden. The discussion highlights the significance of the crypto voter, the evolving s...

Kain Warwick is the co-founder of the DeFi protocol Synthetix, and a partner at the crypto VC firm Bodhi Ventures. In this episode, Warwick discusses the brokenness of the traditional venture capital model and how it has led to the emergence of new fundraising mechanisms in the crypto space. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 00:41 Warwick's Crypto Journey 02:37 Synthetix History 04:47 RWA Trends 11:42 To...

Paolo Ardoino is the CEO of Tether. In this episode, Ardoino discusses the strategic vision of Tether and its expansion into new business units, including AI and education. The current market cap of Tether's primary product USDT is hovering around $110 billion. OUTLINE 00:00 Tether & Disintermediation 08:12 Tether’s New Strategies 17:44 Macroeconomics & USDT Growth 21:07 Tether’s Reserves...

Jake Brukhman is the founder and CEO of CoinFund. In this episode, Brukhman explores the intersection of AI and blockchain technologies and their impact on consumers, and shares his thoughts on the saturation of the early-stage crypto VC market. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 01:33 CoinFund's Structure & Strategy 05:56 Early vs. Late Stage Crypto Venture 16:37 Crypto AI & DePIN 28:35 Crypto De...

Denelle Dixon is the CEO and Executive Director of the Stellar Development Foundation — the primary development team supporting the Stellar blockchain. In this episode, Dixon emphasizes the potential of blockchain technology to transform financial services in low- to medium-income countries, particularly in Africa and South America. She also addresses the need for policymakers to create a supporti...

Luke Hoersten is the founder and CEO of Bitnomial — a derivatives exchange that aims to replace the underlying rails of the global commodities trading market with crypto. Bitnomial has obtained regulatory approval for an exchange license, a clearinghouse license and a brokerage license, making them the first business to have all three licenses under one roof. In this episode, Hoersten discusses th...

Zaheer Ebtikar is the founder and CIO of Split Capital. In this episode, Ebtikar discusses the opportunity of liquid crypto investment strategies and the challenges faced by crypto venture firms, including crowded markets and longer lock-up periods. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 05:14 Evolution of Crypto Venture 08:12 Nuances of Liquid Crypto Funds 10:58 Liquid Fund Capital Allocators 13:59 Crypto Ma...

Max Boonen is the founder of PV01 — a platform that allows issuers to access capital and for investors to purchase debt using blockchain. In this episode, Boonen discusses the challenges of accessing debt capital markets and the potential of tokenization in the crypto space, including the paradigm shift from provider-based markets to token-based markets in DeFi. PV01 uses a special purpose vehicle...

Mike Cagney is the co-founder and CEO of Figure Markets. In this episode, Cagney discusses the need for a 'marketplace of everything,' the potential for equity trading on the blockchain, and more. OUTLINE 00:00 Intro 07:21 The 'Everything' Platform 12:16 Onchain Equities Trading 17:50 Institutionalization of Crypto 27:12 DeFi Lending 29:59 Rebuilding Crypto's Credit Markets 33:51 Wall Street Appet...

Soona Amhaz is the managing parter at Volt Capital. In this episode, Amhaz delves into the evolving crypto venture landscape including: challenges for capital allocators, the rise of meme coins, and controversies in token distributions. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 03:40 New Venture Verticals 10:30 Last Cycle's Winners 14:29 Mainstream Crypto Adoption 21:26 Macro Impact on Crypto VC 25:44 The 'Memec...

Michael Bentley is the co-founder and CEO of Euler Labs. In this episode, Bentley reflects on last year's $200 million Euler hack and the recovery process and walks through the steps taken to enhance security in Euler V2. Euler V2 is a modular and composable lending platform that allows users to create flexible and secure lending pools.

Roshun Patel is a partner at the Web3 venture capital firm HackVC. In this episode, Chaparro and Patel discuss the recent crypto market volatility and the trends shaping crypto's venture capital landscape. OUTLINE 00:00 Intro 08:11 Market Volatility 25:57 Caution in the Funding Market 32:18 The Intersection of AI and Crypto 43:05 The Future of Tokenomics

Li Jin is a co-founder and general partner at the crypto VC firm, Variant. In this episode, Li analyzes the memecoin phenomenon that has recently swept over the crypto market, and explores how different types of memecoins capture and monetize attention. OUTLINE 00:35 Memecoin Zeitgeist 04:04 The Attention Economy 10:58 Classifying Memecoins 17:40 Trading Memecoins 21:05 Are Memecoins Productive? 2...

Professor J.W. Verret teaches corporate and securities law and financial accounting at George Mason Law School. In this episode of The Scoop,  Verret discusses the potential legal challenges that Uniswap may face from the Securities and Exchange Commission and highlights the similarities between the Coinbase case and the possible claims against Uniswap. Verret says the charges the SEC is likely to...

Brandon Mulvihill is the co-founder and CEO of Crossover Markets. In this episode of The Scoop, Mulvihill discusses crypto's changing market structure and the role of Crossover as an execution-only trading venue. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction and Background 01:07 The Role of Crossover in the Market 04:04 FX & Crypto Trading Similarities 08:22 ECN vs. CLOB Differences 18:30 The Importance of Fee C...

Austin Reid is the global head of revenue and business at FalconX. In this episode of The Scoop, Reid discusses why we are still at the 'early stages' of institutional adoption of crypto, and the role retail traders have played in the market's current rally. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 04:12 Market Overview 08:06 FalconX Volume 12:03 Crypto Derivatives 15:55 Interest Rates 19:19 Institutional Adopt...

Haseeb Qureshi is a managing partner at the crypto VC firm Dragonfly. In this episode of The Scoop, Qureshi explains how the crypto VC landscape has changed during his five years at Dragonfly and why he believes 'points' are a more useful mechanism than airdrops for incentivizing user behavior. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 05:41 Dragonfly Early Days 09:45 Early Crypto VC 13:14 Competing in Layer-1s...

Craig Burel is a partner at Reciprocal Ventures. In this episode of The Scoop, Burel explains how the recent market rally caused sidelined venture capitalists to return to the crypto industry in earnest. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 07:38 Nuances of Crypto VC 10:05 Crypto Venture Maturation 13:12 Valuations in the Bull 19:15 Solana Conviction 23:15 Navigating Market Cycles 28:17 Consumer Crypto Apps...

Mike Belshe is the co-founder and CEO of BitGo. In this episode of The Scoop, Belshe discusses the growth and challenges of the custody market in the crypto industry, and explains what it will take to make crypto's market structure more robust. OUTLINE 00:00 BitGo Background 05:15 Institutional Crypto Custodians 10:41 New Market Participants 14:36 Market Structure 24:09 Bullish Catalysts 32:08 Cry...

Muneeb Ali is the CEO of Trust Machines and the co-creators of Stacks — a layer-2 that enables smart contracts and decentralized applications to utilize bitcoin for base-layer security. In this episode of The Scoop, Ali discusses the growth and importance of Bitcoin Layer 2 solutions. He emphasizes the need for BTC capital to be deployed in L2s and the potential for Bitcoin L2s to become a signifi...

This episode of The Scoop explores the technical headwinds and security challenges faced by the crypto industry. Blockaid co-founder Raz Niv discusses common scams and phishing attacks in the crypto space, and emphasizes the importance of good on-chain hygiene and best practices for engaging with different protocols. Just last month, Metamask integrated Blockaid-powered security alerts by default...

In this episode of The Scoop, Anatoly Yakovenko, the co-founder of Solana, explains how a Bonk airdrop caused the Solana Saga mobile phone to sell out and discusses the importance of community and meme culture for bootstrapping crypto networks. OUTLINE 00:00 Disrupting App Store Duopoly 06:10 Bonk Saga Airdrop 09:19 Memes & Community 14:51 Solana Saga 22:29 Saga Developer Experience 24:19 Sola...

Brian Rudick is a senior strategist at GSR. In this episode of The Scoop, GSR senior strategist Brian Rudick examines the differences between the forces driving the crypto markets and those affecting stocks. He also offers insights into the market dynamics supporting the current rally in the crypto market. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 04:47 Crypto vs. Equities 06:56 Memetics in Crypto 11:26 Macro Fa...

Reed Werbitt is the CEO of the crypto market-making firm Flowdesk, and Greg Guttas is Flowdesk's Head of OTC. In this episode, Werbitt and Guttas share their insider perspectives on how the new spot bitcoin ETFs are altering market structures across different facets of the global bitcoin market, and why they believe these products will continue to see inflows for many years to come.  Earlier this...

Luuk Strijers is the Chief Commercial Officer at Deribit. In this episode, Chaparro and Strijers delve into the technological edge and institutional focus as helped position Deribit as the dominant player in the crypto options space, as well as the surge in options trading volumes driven by ETF excitement and macroeconomic factors. Deribit recently reached a record $4 billion in client assets on e...