Today's guest is Nik “The Carny” Lentz. It's not every day you talk to a UFC fighter-turned-trader, and this conversation is both intense and insightful. We start by talking about Nik's journey from a difficult childhood to a UFC career and his philosophy on fighting, parenting, and life. We then cover his move to trading derivatives full-time and his approach to position sizing, risk management, and more. Please enjoy this unique kind of episode with Nik Lentz. For the full show notes,...

This is Eric Golden and my guest this week is by Corey Hoffstein, the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Newfound Research. Corey offers a fascinating and distinctive take on investing, which we delve into during our discussion. We cover topics like portfolio allocation, diversification and the innovative approach known as Return Stacking. We wrap up with lessons learned from 15 years of running an Asset Management firm. Please enjoy this conversation with Corey Hoffstein For the full...

I'm thrilled to welcome you all to the first episode after the rebranding to Making Markets. This is a wide-ranging discussion on the economy with Samuel Rines - economist, author and managing director of Corbu LLC. We cover where we are in the economic cycle, 'excuseflation', the state of the consumer and the different sectors of the American economy. I hope you enjoy the kick off of "Making Markets" with Sam Rines. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn...

In place of our usual quarterly market recap, we have a special announcement to make. The scope of this show, Web3 Breakdowns, will expand and rebrand to Making Markets. Eric and Matt discuss what is changing, why, and, importantly, what will stay the same.  For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here. ----- Web3 Breakdowns is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Web3 Breakdowns, visit...

This is Eric Golden. Today we're replaying my conversation with William Quigley. He co-founded one of the earliest consumer VC funds, wrote the first institutional check for PayPal, and helped build the first major stablecoin, Tether. This is a favorite episode of the year, as William combined his lessons from his decades in technology with a strong first-principle understanding of blockchains. I hope you enjoy my conversation with William Quigley. We will be releasing new episodes along with...

This is Eric Golden and today we’re going to break down the mechanics behind three major blockchains: Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana. Blockchain is a term you hear a lot, both in this show and in Web3 more generally. But what do they actually mean and how do they work? That is the subject we’re going to cover today and something I’ve wanted to do for sometime. My guest for this episode is Keone Hon. Keone is a Math Prodigy who spent close to a decade building systems for high-frequency trading....

This is Eric Golden, and today we’re replaying one of my favorite conversations with 0xFoobar. Foobar is a developer and investor who writes a must-read newsletter called The Variable. We discuss the tradeoff between privacy and compliance, how culture and law shape each other, and his views on crypto regulation. When I interviewed 0xfoobar 11 months ago, the crypto world couldn’t have been more different. Today, as the industry moves toward court cases and regulation, the issues raised in...

Today, we're continuing our series of replays this week with the first episode we ever published. Almost two years ago to the day, I sat down with Patrick to talk about the Bored Ape Yacht Club. I hope you enjoy listening back to this episode as much as I did recently and I'll be back with new episodes, including our Q3 recap, very soon. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here. ----- Web3 Breakdowns is a property of...

Today we are revisiting my conversation with Austin Campbell. After my interview with Mike Dudas, I had asked, who is the smartest person I can talk to about Stablecoins? He instantly responded, you need to speak with Austin, and as you'll hear, I think he's right. Austin spent 15 years in traditional finance before managing $22bn of Stablecoin reserves for Paxos. Today, he's an Adjunct professor at Columbia Business School and the managing partner at Zero Knowledge Consulting. In this...

Hello Web3 listeners, this is a special episode drop. Earlier this year, Eric joined Matt Reustle and Dom Cooke on their Making Media podcast to talk about his experience hosting Web3 Breakdowns. In this episode, you'll hear about the art of interviewing, how long it takes to get better, and a behind-the-scenes look at hosting this show. Making Media is another podcast in the Colossus network. So, if you enjoy it, check out that feed, and Eric will be back as your host in the coming...

This is Eric Golden and my guest today is Nick Neuman, the CEO of Casa. Casa offers crypto users a secure and straightforward way to self-custody their assets, and today, we dive into this critical topic. We talk about the problems of self-custody, Casa’s solution, the recent addition of Ethereum to their platform, and the trade-off between security and usability. This is Nick’s second time on a Colossus Podcast after first appearing on an Invest Like the Best episode called “Becoming your...

This is Eric Golden and my guest today is Jack Neureuter. Jack is a Senior Research Analyst at Fidelity Digital Assets where he helps institutions make sense of the crypto ecosystem. Our conversation centers on three main themes - Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the institutional view on Crypto. We start by talking about where we are in the Bitcoin Cycle. We then cover the Taproot upgrade, the XRP court case, and how institutions think about allocating to crypto. Please enjoy my conversation with Jack...

This is Eric Golden and my guests today are Adam Zarazinski and Cameron Smith of Inca Digital. Inca is a Crypto Data and Analytics company that serves clients ranging from DARPA to banks to crypto exchanges, making Adam and Cameron well versed on a wide variety of topics. Our conversation covers how Inca built a business model on top of open-source data, the government’s view on Crypto and their work together, BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF, and much, much more. Please enjoy my conversation with...

This is Eric Golden, and my guest today is Luca Netz. Luca grew up with nothing but made millions before his 25th birthday by building and selling multiple businesses. Two years ago, he spent $2.5M to buy the Pudgy Penguins NFT project and has since turned it into one of the best-run NFT projects in the world. In the episode, Luca explains why the $2.5M purchase price was a bargain and why he believes Pudgy Penguins could be the face of NFTs in the future. We also talk about the overall NFT...

This is Eric Golden, and my guest this week is Alex Thorn. Alex was an early Bitcoin evangelist and former Director of Blockchain Research and Crypto VC at Fidelity. Today, he is the head of research at Galaxy Digital where he consistently publishes some of the most insightful work in the space. Alex starts by telling us how he went from working at a children’s summer camp to becoming the head blockchain researcher at Fidelity. We then talk about the Blackrock Blockchain ETF, why the time was...

This is Matt Reustle and we are back with another quarterly review. I joined Eric to talk about everything that happened in the second quarter of 2023—most of this quarter seemed to focus on regulatory headlines, scrutiny from the SEC, and unexpected rulings in the Ripple case. So we dive into what those mean and what it looks like on the horizon. Then we cover some interesting developments like the BlackRock ETF, Eric shares a few applications that get him most excited about blockchain in...

This is Eric Golden and my guest today is Gary Coover. Gary spent 8 years building Samsung’s innovation arm, Samsung Next, before he was drawn into the Web3 world. Today, he is the Chief Operating Officer of Superlayer, a venture studio focused on building Crypto startups. We start this conversation by analyzing what went wrong in the industry over the past 2 years, and why Gary advocates “Burying the Rails”. We then talk about Superlayer’s attempt to build an economically sustainable and...

This is Eric Golden and my guest today is William Quigley. William has had a fascinating career working on the frontier of technology. He co-founded one of the earliest consumer VC funds, wrote the first institutional check for PayPal, and helped build the first major stablecoin, Tether. We start with a quick tour of his career and then dive into the history of Tether, the design choices that made it the most traded cryptocurrency in the world, and how digital assets have been around a lot...

This is Eric Golden and my guest today is CL207, also known as CL or Cat, one of the most popular anonymous accounts on crypto Twitter. I have followed him since I got into crypto and, like many, have always wanted to learn more about the person behind the account. CL is academically trained in chemistry and had no finance background before he began trading crypto. He made no money for 2 years but over time has evolved into an extremely thoughtful and intelligent trader. We start this...

This is Eric Golden and my guest this week is Lubo Smid, the CEO and co-founder of STRV, a successful design and engineering agency. Lubo has lots of experience in the Web3 space, building both client and in-house projects. In our conversation, we talk about the balancing act of building a Web3 game, why he’s excited about ticketing as a mainstream use-case for blockchains, and why it is not Web3 technology but applications that should get all the hype. Please enjoy my conversation with Lubo...

This is Eric Golden and my guest this week is Dan Matuszewski, the co-founder of CMS Holdings. It’s been a busy few weeks in Crypto and Dan joins us today for a quick check-in on the view from his seat as a trader. This episode is shorter than usual but it’s action packed as we discuss how the markets have digested the cases against Binance and Coinbase. This is the second time I've spoken to Dan on the show, who I think is one of the wittiest and smartest voices in the industry. Please enjoy...

This is Eric Golden and my guest today is Scott Johnsson. Last week, the SEC declared war on Crypto by formally filing charges against Coinbase and Binance. Scott’s background as a finance lawyer and investor make him the ideal guest to unpack this. We go deep into the weeds on this one, talking about the SEC’s complaint against Binance and Coinbase and why Scott thinks most tokens are not a security. We also talk about how this might play out, the limits of the SEC’s powers, and why the...

This is Eric Golden and my guests today are Jason Yanowitz and Michael Ippolito, the co-founders of Blockworks. While starting Blockworks, Jason and Michael were sharing a single room in NYC to save money. Today, they are leading a profitable Crypto Media company worth $135 Million. In this episode, they take us behind the scenes on their journey. We cover the struggle of the early days, get their views on the crypto ecosystem, and dive into each of the three segments of their business -...

Today, we are replaying one of my favorite episodes of the show from the last couple of years. This conversation is with gmoney, who is an influential builder, collector, and investor in the NFT community. Have a great weekend and we’ll be back with more next week. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here. ----- This episode is brought to you by OKX. You may have seen OKX on McLaren’s Formula 1 race car or Manchester...

This is Eric Golden and my guest today is Stevie Cline. Guests on this show usually have unique backgrounds, but having gone from dairy farming to earning multiple law degrees to founding a biotech startup to a partner at Vol 1. Ventures today, I think Stevie beats most of them. We start this episode with her unique backstory and the problems she saw in the VC world. We then talk about why the banner at Vol. 1 Ventures says ‘Let’s keep you out of Jail’, the regulatory and political landscape,...