Why BitGo Went Public | Mike Belshe
This week, we’re joined by CEO and Co-founder of BitGo, Mike Belshe, to discuss BitGo’s IPO, their motivations for going public, and the IPO process. We dive into allocation decisions, key product growth areas, and views on regulation, crypto market structure, and future industry evolution. Enjoy!
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Follow Mike: https://x.com/mikebelshe
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Timestamps:
(01:50) BitGos IPO & Early Supporters
(07:22) Why go public
(09:45) The IPO Process
(30:39) Determining Allocations
(37:49) Ads (Coinbase)
(38:41) BitGos Role as an infrastructure company
(46:15) BitGo's Fastest Growing Products
(58:20) BitGo going forward
(01:02:37) Web2 vs web3
(01:06:41) BitGo's Journey & Lessons Learned
(01:14:39) Replacing the Incumbents
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Disclaimer: Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Santiago, Jason, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.
Quadrillions: You’re Already Late | Mike Belshe, Justin Peterson & Eric Saraniecki
In this episode, we cover institutional crypto adoption, stablecoins’ interplay with treasuries and 24/7 repo financing on Canton, the risks associated with wrapped assets and stablecoin fragmentation, and 2026 expectations for broader, client-driven OTC and onchain activity.
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Quadrillions brings together the voices defining the next era of finance. From institutional rails to stablecoins and privacy, the series dives into how traditional markets, crypto innovation, and regulatory frameworks are converging to bring the full force of capital markets onchain.
Join hosts Jason Yanowitz, Yuval Rooz, and Eric Saraniecki for deep dives with special guests Shaul Kfir, Don Wilson, Mike Belshe, Justin Peterson, Acting Chair Caroline Pham, Eli Ben-Sasson, and more.
Produced by Blockworks and Canton Network. For more information, check out https://quadrillionspod.com/
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Follow Canton: https://x.com/CantonNetwork
Follow Tradeweb: https://x.com/Tradeweb
Follow Mike: https://x.com/mikebelshe
Follow Eric: https://x.com/wesarn_real
Follow Empire: https://twitter.com/theempirepod
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Timestamps:
(0:00) Introduction
(1:38) Tradeweb's Origin Story
(3:58) The State of Institutional Crypto Adoption
(8:23) Where is the Most Growth Right Now?
(10:26) Consolidating Stablecoins
(15:23) Tradeweb's Crypto Strategy
(18:32) What Does Crypto Solve Today?
(23:37) The Next 100x Growth Opportunity
(27:56) Bringing RWAs Onchain
(31:25) The Role of Custodians
(35:03) Canton's Go-to-market Strategy
(38:31) Tokenized Equities
(44:02) The Need For Privacy
(49:23) Crypto Adoption Going Forward
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Disclaimer: “Quadrillions” is a mini-series produced by Blockworks, and is sponsored by Canton Network. Nothing on this show is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. It’s for informational purposes only, and the views expressed by anyone on the show are solely their opinions, not financial advice or necessarily the views of Blockworks.
Our hosts, guests, and the Blockworks team may hold positions in companies, funds, or projects discussed, including those related to Canton Network.
White House Crypto Summit: Two Attendees Share Why It Matters - Ep. 797
The election of Donald Trump marked a sea change for U.S. crypto policy.
The symbolism of that transformation was on full display at the White House’s first-ever Crypto Summit, at which President Trump met with several crypto business leaders. But what was actually said behind closed doors? And does this mark the beginning of a truly pro-crypto shift—or just another short-lived political move?
In this episode, BitGo CEO Mike Belshe and former CFTC Chairman Chris Giancarlo break down what really happened at the summit, whether the proposed Bitcoin reserve is a smart idea or a political gimmick, and why some believe the U.S. dollar could one day be backed by BTC.
Visit our website for breaking news, analysis, op-eds, articles to learn about crypto, and much more: unchainedcrypto.com
Thank you to our sponsors!
Bitwise
Guests:
Mike Belshe, CEO at BitGo
Chris Giancarlo, Senior counsel at Willkie Farr & Gallagher and former CFTC chairman
Links
Recent coverage of Unchained on the Bitcoin Reserve and the White House Crypto Summit :
Trump Says He Is Ending Operation Choke Point 2.0
Trump Establishes Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Digital Asset Stockpile
Trump's Surprise Crypto Reserve Announcement Iced Out D.C. Insiders
How Did Ripple Sell Trump on XRP in a Crypto Reserve? By Pushing for Solana
Why Trump May Have Chosen This Week to Announce a Strategic Crypto Reserve
Which Crypto Assets Belong in a Reserve? This VC Says Not XRP and ADA
Chris’s article: Crypto neo-privateers could be the solution to hacks
Nic Carter’s tweet on Trump’s crypto endeavours
Omid Malekan’s analogy of the SBR with buying a shirt
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Crypto’s market structure is still too fragile, says BitGo's Mike Belshe
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
How crypto's lending market can overcome its confidence crisis
Mike Belshe is the co-founder and CEO of BitGo — a leading digital asset custody and security platform.
In this episode, Belshe shares his thoughts on last year's collapse of the crypto credit market and explains what it will take to restore confidence in the sector.
Outline:
0:52 - Market musings
3:12 - Crypto conspiracies
5:54 - Business at BitGo
8:39 - Crypto prime brokerage
14:24 - Lending market cooldown
15:55 - Crypto’s opaque transparency
21:22 - Crypto market recovery
32:47 - BitGo x Galaxy Digital
BitGo's Mike Belshe on What's Next for WBTC & Crypto Custodians
This week on The Defiant Podcast, we speak with Mike Belshe, the CEO of BitGo, a digital asset custodian, wallet, and issuer of wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC).
We start our conversation with an overview of BitGo and Mike's crypto journey.
Wrapped Bitcoin is the most successful representation of Bitcoin on Ethereum. There’s about 200K Bitcoin in BitGo's custody, which is the equivalent of $3.4B. WBTC is an important piece of the ecosystem as it enables Bitcoin holders to interact with DeFi. We dive into the recent selloff that saw WBTC lose its peg to Bitcoin.
In the final part of our conversation, we discuss the role of custodians in the crypto space. Especially after what happened this year with FTX and various other centralized entities, crypto has been given a wake-up call to bring transparency and disclosures to CeFi. We explore the biggest lessons we can take away from this year.
Thanking our podcast sponsors:
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BitGo's Mike Belshe explains why regulators should embrace the openness of the blockchain
Mike Belshe founded BitGo—the crypto financial services and custody firm—in 2013 with the original intention to help solve a pinpoint he identified when entering the bitcoin market early on: how to store crypto holdings safely.
"We forget about how easy loss is", said Belshe.
Today BitGo is more wide-spanning than just storage and custody, also covering lending, trading, and prime-related financial services. The firm is expected to complete its acquisition by Mike Novogratz's Galaxy Digital by end of 2021, creating an operation the two Mikes hope will bridge the crypto world with Wall Street.
On this episode of The Scoop, Mike Belshe CEO of BitGo joined host Frank Chaparro to talk about that deal between BitGo and Galaxy, BitGo's origin story, and why regulators should embrace the openness of the blockchain.
In Belshe's view, regulators—including Gary Gensler of the Securities and Exchange Commission—should actually lean into using blockchain to identify nefarious behavior, and say "wait a minute we have this huge tool, let's use that."
In the event that the agency deems most cryptocurrencies as securities—a scenario Belshe said was unlikely—Belshe noted that regulators would lock out the US from the market's innovation.
Episode 57 of Season 3 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block’s Frank Chaparro and Mike Belshe, CEO at BitGo.
Listen below, and subscribe to The Scoop on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you listen to podcasts. Email feedback and revision requests to podcast@theblockcrypto.com.
This episode is brought to you by our sponsors Bakkt, Kraken, and Exodus
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BitGo on Why the Travel Rule Should Not Apply to Digital Assets - Ep.266
BitGo CEO Mike Belshe and COO Jeff Horowitz talk about one of the hottest topics facing the crypto industry today: regulation. They discuss...
what BitGo does
why Jeff left his successful TradFi career to go crypto
how crypto compliance and custody differs from the traditional finance world
the state of crypto education amongst regulators
why Jeff and Mike think the infrastructure bill is a win for the crypto industry
what FinCEN is doing to regulate crypto
why they think the infrastructure bill’s goal of raising billions in crypto taxes could only bring in millions
what FATF guidance regarding VASPs requires of crypto companies
why the travel rule could lead to US customer data being shared overseas
how digital assets change the implications of the travel rule
how regulators are attempting to deal with DeFi
what the FATF guidance means for FATF countries, like the US
why DeFi is not ready for strict regulations
Jeff’s views on Brian Brooks’s departure from BinanceUS
the Galaxy Digital acquisition of BitGo
what security issues a trillion-dollar wallet presents
why BitGo refused to put a “freeze” function in its WBTC contract
why Tesla and MicroStrategy purchased BTC and why other companies have been slow to follow suit
whether BitGo will offer NFT solutions going forward
Thank you to our sponsors!
Crypto.com: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/unchainedcardearnfeb2
Polymarket: https://polymarket.com/
Episode links
Mike Belshe -- CEO BitGo
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikebelshe/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mikebelshe
Previous Unchained appearance: https://unchainedpodcast.com/mike-belshe-on-what-bitgos-kingdom-trust-acquisition-means-for-crypto-and-how-security-will-develop-in-the-future/
Jeff Horowitz -- CCO BitGo
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-horowitz-3381977
BitGo
Website: https://www.bitgo.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BitGo
Blog: https://blog.bitgo.com/
Galaxy Digital purchase: https://www.coindesk.com/galaxy-digital-to-buy-bitgo-for-about-1-2-billion-in-stock-cash
FATF solution: https://www.coindesk.com/us-crypto-giants-build-first-version-of-fatf-compliant-travel-rule-tool
New York Trust Charter: https://decrypt.co/60110/bitgo-new-york-trust-charter-crypto-wall-street
Infrastructure bill and its implications for crypto
https://twitter.com/mikebelshe/status/1424163820726009861
https://www.wsj.com/articles/bitcoin-fans-are-suddenly-a-political-force-11629115380
https://www.coindesk.com/infrastructure-bill-house-politics
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/16/tax-foundation-infrastructure-bill-crypto-tax-provision-is-unworkable.html
https://decrypt.co/78198/senate-passes-infrastructure-bill-crypto-tax-house
https://www.taxnotes.com/featured-analysis/proposal-regulate-digital-asset-transactions-should-be-struck/2021/08/13/775gf#.YRfX9GEX2GI.twitter
https://twitter.com/vtg2/status/1426264859071627266
https://twitter.com/BlockchainAssn/status/1427276559052910599
Unchained coverage:
https://unchainedpodcast.com/how-congress-might-pass-laws-bad-for-proof-of-stake-and-defi/
https://unchainedpodcast.com/crypto-got-screwed-what-happens-next-in-the-senate/
https://unchainedpodcast.com/this-bill-looks-very-bad-for-crypto/
FATF and the travel rule
https://sumsub.com/blog/what-is-the-fatf-travel-rule/
Unchained coverage:
https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-the-travel-rule-is-one-of-the-most-significant-regulations-in-crypto/
https://unchainedpodcast.com/why-proposed-fatf-rules-could-be-a-shock-for-defi/
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Mike Belshe, from $20M Bitcoin under a couch to $20B+ in custody: the BitGo story
My guest today is Mike Belshe, Founder and CEO of BitGo. But before that, he used what he learned at Netscape to help Google develop Chrome. Like many of us, Belshe stored his first Bitcoin on an old laptop. But after his investor friends started sending their digital assets his way, that "old laptop" was suddenly worth millions. Here's how his quest to secure those assets eventually became BitGo.
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Empire is brought to you by Blockworks, a financial media brand delivering breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors. For more content like Empire, visit http://blockworks.co/podcasts.
Follow me on Twitter @JasonYanowitz and let me know what you thought of the show!
Mike Belshe on What BitGo's Kingdom Trust Acquisition Means for Crypto and How Security Will Develop in the Future
Mike Belshe, the founder and CEO of BitGo, talks about one of the biggest problems facing crypto today: security. We discuss some of the ways BitGo has resolved this issue, whether that still leads to single points of failure, and what the company's recent acquisition of Kingdom Trust (a "qualified custodian" as defined by the 1940 Investment Company Act) means for the space -- hint, it may have to do with ETFs. We also discuss the recent violent crimes against people in crypto and how everyday people should go about protecting their funds.
Mike Belshe: https://twitter.com/mikebelshe
BitGo: https://www.bitgo.com/
A Wired article on the BitGo acquisition of Kingdom Trust: https://www.wired.com/story/why-a-tiny-kentucky-firm-rules-a-corner-of-the-crypto-market/
New York Times article on crimes against crypto holders: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/18/technology/virtual-currency-extortion.html
Thank you to our sponsors:
Preciate: https://preciate.org/, which is taking suggestion for new people to recognize at https://preciate.org/recognize/
Bitwise: https://www.bitwiseinvestments.com/unchained
StartEngine:https://www.startenginesummit.com/
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What Will Happen At The Time Of The Bitcoin Hard Fork?
As Bitcoin faces the biggest test in its nine-year history, two players on opposing sides -- Mike Belshe of BitGo and Bitcoin protocol developer Matt Corallo -- debate how the community got here and what the definition of Bitcoin is -- whether the white paper or price determines it. We also look at how the upcoming hard fork could affect Bitcoin Cash, and debate whether or not censorship on the Bitcoin subreddits has influenced people’s views on the block size debate. Plus, they give their best post-hard fork predictions.
For reference: Will This Battle For the Soul of Bitcoin Destroy It? https://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2017/10/23/will-this-battle-for-the-soul-of-bitcoin-destroy-it/
Show notes: http://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2017/10/31/what-will-happen-at-the-time-of-the-bitcoin-hard-fork/
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