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? 23:14 Memetic Analysis 29:10 Memecoins & Marketing Strategies 34:42 Closing Thoughts

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 bring against Uniswap could include operating as an unlicensed broker dealer, operating an...

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 Compression 22:33 Crypto Flash Crashes 26:15 Crypto Market Structure Maturity 29:27 Institutional...

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 Adoption 22:10 ETF Flows 26:49 Retail Flows 32:51 Market Maturation 35:06 Exchange Improvements 39:25...

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 26:11 Old Blockchains 29:26 Points 31:47 Airdrop Mechanism Design 37:38 Closing Thoughts

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 32:22 Improving Tokenomics 38:00 Closing Thoughts

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 Crypto Robustness 41:58 Closing Thoughts

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 significant category in the crypto industry. According to Ali, creating more on-chain uses for bitcoin...

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 across multiple chains.

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 Solana Ecosystem Entrepreneurs 28:48 Solana's Roadmap 34:31 Real Wold Adoption

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 Factors 14:11 Retail Participation 17:02 Crypto Tailwinds 22:03 Bitcoin Halving 26:03 Closing...

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 year, Flowdesk raised a $50 million Series B round at a valuation of $250 million.

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 exchange, as well as a new all-time high for the exchange’s 24-hour trading volume of $12.4 billion.

In this episode of The Scoop, Frank Chaparro and former Deutsche Bank payment analyst Ryan Todd delve into Coinbase's financial performance for the fourth quarter. Todd, a former payments analyst at Deutsche Bank, offers an in-depth analysis of why Wall Street regularly underestimates Coinbase's earnings. He sheds light on the structural factors leading to consistent earnings outperformance, not only by Coinbase but also by major tech companies overall.

Colosseum is an online platform that runs hackathons, accelerates founders, and invests in breakout startups on Solana. In this episode, Colosseum co-founders Matty Taylor and Clay Robbins discuss how they are establishing Colosseum as an entry point into crypto, and their personal journeys in building Colosseum. According to Robbins, maintaining a supportive culture around developer activity is vital for any crypto ecosystem's success: "The lifeblood of growth in the ecosystem is a function...

Matthew Hougan is the Chief Investment Officer for Bitwise — one of several asset managers to recently launch a spot Bitcoin ETF. In this episode, Hougan shares his inside perspective on how market participants are reacting to the new spot Bitcoin ETFs, and why he believes we're not yet at the "sweet spot of demand" for the new products. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 05:46 Crypto & Wall Street 09:55 BTC ETF Launch Analysis 13:26 ETF Provider Competition 19:51 ETF Trading Mechanics 23:55 RIA...

Dr. Friederike Ernst is the co-founder of Gnosis and Gnosis Pay. In this episode, Dr. Ernst shares how Gnosis Pay is working to bridge the gap between on-chain and off-chain payments, and how the upcoming Gnosis Card will allow users to spend their crypto at over 80 million VISA merchants worldwide. Although crypto payments for everyday transactions have yet to penetrate the consumer market, Dr. Ernst says it's only a matter of time before traditional financial services move onchain: "In 5 to...

Chris Dixon is a managing partner at a16z and the founder of a16z crypto. In this episode, Dixon gives an overview of his new book, Read Write Own: Building the Next Generation of the Internet, and explains how blockchains have the potential to create more equatable online experiences. OUTLINE 00:00 Background 08:04 New Book 11:13 Crypto Skeptics 14:56 Tech Centralization 19:53 Web2 vs Web3 24:11 Networks vs Tokens 31:12 Platform Ownership 33:49 Platform Take Rates 37:49 Consumer Crypto 40:49...

Jelena Djuric is the co-founder of Noble and Sam Hart is the co-founder of Timewave Labs and the Head of Strategy at Skip Protocol. In this episode, Djuric and Hart — both seasoned Cosmos veterans — breakdown the recent advancements that have helped the Cosmos ecosystem enter into a new era of innovation and expansion. Djuric also announces Noble's partnership with Hashnote to bring the USYC token to the Cosmos, making USYC the first cross chain real-world asset (RWA) in the Cosmos ecosystem...

Scott Fletcher co-founded Intersection Growth Partners — one of the crypto industry's leading executive search firms. In this episode, Fletcher overviews how the crypto job market has changed since the market bottom in 2022 and explains what it takes to land an executive position at a top crypto company. According to Fletcher, CEO hires have more than doubled as a percentage of overall executive hires since the collapse of FTX, the number of new executive hires amongst centralized exchanges...

Dan Tapiero is the founder and managing partner of 10T Holdings and 1RoundTable Partners — two growth equity funds operating across the digital asset ecosystem. In this episode, Tapiero gives an overview of how the recent market rally has impacted deal flow on the secondary market, and explains why he remains strongly bullish on the future growth trajectory of the industry. According to Tapiero, valuations in crypto's secondary market have yet to see a marked uptick in Q4 partially due to the...

George Calle is the VP of Research at The Block. In this episode, Calle gives an overview of the key themes from The Block's 2024 Digital Assets Outlook Report. The full report can be downloaded here. OUTLINE 0:00 - Introduction 04:36 - 2023 Overview 08:08 - Blockchain Scaling 14:02 - DeFi Usage Trends 17:43 - 2023 Macro Impact 20:41 - Regulatory Landscape 27:39 - Binance 36:09 - 2023 Winners 40:26 - 2023 Losers

Tzvi Wiesel is the founder and CEO of Baxus, a startup in the wine and spirits industry attempting to revolutionize the way these products are traded, authenticated and valued globally. In this episode, Wiesel explains how his company leverages blockchain technology for ownership proof, authentication and secure storage — and how Baxus aims to address challenges like opaque pricing and legal complexities in the alcoholic beverage market.