Bits + Bips: Could a Base Token Be Coinbase's Key to a Super App? - Ep. 905
This week on Bits + Bips, hosts Steve Ehrlich and Ram Ahluwalia speak with Blockchain.com’s Nic Cary and Franklin Templeton’s Max Gokhman.
We talk about how the potential Base token would alter the L2 landscape, and who should capture the value if Coinbase becomes the backbone for DeFi. Also, whether Web2 and TradFi giants will buy their way onchain, why privacy infrastructure is overdue, and how TON’s superapp strategy could pressure social platforms to follow suit.
Plus: how Franklin Templeton is valuing L2s and other tokens, why the FOMC’s decision matters for crypto risk, and how tariff talk could spill into digital assets.
Thank you to our sponsor, Xapo!
Hosts:
Steve Ehrlich, Executive Editor at Unchained
Ram Ahluwalia, CFA, CEO and Founder of Lumida
Guests:
Nic Cary, Co-Founder and Vice Chairman at Blockchain.com
Max Gokhman, Deputy Chief Investment Officer for Franklin Templeton Investment Solutions
Links:
Unchained:
Base Will Likely Have a Token: Why Now, Who Wins, and How Big It Gets
Base Starts to Explore a Native Token
Timestamps:
🎬 0:00 Intro
🪙 5:13 The reason for Coinbase’s flip flop on a Base token
🌉 18:33 Should Blockchain.com launch its own L2?
🏗️ 22:05 Is Coinbase becoming the infrastructure layer for DeFi?
📊 25:13 How $1.5 trillion Franklin Templeton builds valuation frameworks for L2s and tokens
📱 30:33 Nic’s case for TON and its superapp strategy
🏦 34:00 Whether Web2 and TradFi giants will buy their way onchain
🕵️ 40:21 Why privacy infrastructure is overdue for crypto but never seems to work
📉 51:03 Surprising predictions regarding the next Fed rate cut
🇺🇸 57:45 Why Trump has a tariff backup plan, and what it means for crypto
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Blockchain.com CEO Peter Smith talks Dallas Cowboys sponsorship, IPO rumors
Founded back in 2011, Blockchain.com recently closed a Series D funding round in March at a valuation of $14 billion, making the crypto company both one of the longest-operating exchanges as well as one of the highest valued in the industry.
After spending effectively “zero” on marketing for over a decade, Blockchain.com recently announced a sponsorship deal with the Dallas Cowboys, becoming the first crypto company to ink a deal with an NFL team approved by the league.
In this episode of The Scoop, Peter Smith, CEO of Blockchain.com, discusses his company’s upcoming strategy, including IPO rumors and the rationale behind their Cowboys partnership.
As he explains during the interview, Smith wants “to work with the biggest and the best,” making the Cowboys the ideal choice for Blockchain.com’s first sports partnership:
“When you really study these marketing deals, you're basically looking for who has the biggest fan base, the demographics of the fan base, and then the TV side of it,” Smith said. “We really wanted to work with them because of the fan base and the TV exposure.”
Blockchain.com was also in the news in April, when a Bloomberg report circulated suggesting the company is planning an IPO for some time this year. However, when asked about the report, Smith commented that it must have been “a slow news day at Bloomberg.”
While Smith believes Blockchain.com “will be a public company someday – and probably sooner than later,” he clarified: “We haven't done anything in the last 60 days that's different than what we've been doing for the last nine months preparing to someday be a public company.”
Episode 39 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block’s Frank Chaparro and Peter Smith, CEO of Blockchain.com
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 Fireblocks, Coinbase Prime & Cross River
Fireblocks is an enterprise-grade platform delivering a secure infrastructure for moving, storing, and issuing digital assets. Fireblocks enables exchanges, lending desks, custodians, banks, trading desks, and hedge funds to securely scale digital asset operations through the Fireblocks Network and MPC-based Wallet Infrastructure. Fireblocks serves over 725 financial institutions, has secured the transfer of over $1.5 trillion in digital assets, and has a unique insurance policy that covers assets in storage & transit. For more information, please visit www.fireblocks.com.
About Coinbase Prime
Coinbase Prime is an integrated solution that provides institutional investors with an advanced trading platform, secure custody, and prime services to manage all their crypto assets in one place. Coinbase Prime fully integrates crypto trading and custody on a single platform, and gives clients the best all-in pricing in their network using their proprietary Smart Order Router and algorithmic execution. For more information, visit www.coinbase.com/prime.
About Cross River
Cross River is powering today’s most innovative crypto companies, with banking and payments solutions you can rely on, including fiat on/off ramp solutions. Whether you are a crypto exchange, NFT marketplace, or wallet, Cross River’s API-based, all-in-one platform enables banking as a service, ACH & wire transfers, push-to-card disbursements, real-time payments, and virtual accounts and subledgers. Request your fiat on/off ramp solution now at crossriver.com/crypto.
Blockchain.com's Peter Smith sees innovation but thinks some will be unprepared for a ‘Crypto Winter’
"The market filled your sail with wind and now you're doing a good job of sailing. But are you ready to survive the next time the wind drops?"
Blockchain.com, one of the longest operating firms in the crypto space, has been successful at taking the long road. Now the U.K.-based company is building out its stockpile of cash reserves to prepare for a possible ‘Crypto Winter’ on the horizon -- that is, a prolonged downturn in the market.
"I think when I look out over the space right now, there's going to be a lot of folks who are unprepared for that," CEO and co-founder Peter Smith told The Scoop host Frank Chaparro.
Blockchain.com recently obtained a $5.2 billion valuation following several rounds of funding in 2021, including a $300 million round of funding most recently in March.
Chaparro and Smith also discussed some of the on-chain innovations that Smith is looking out for in the immediate future. One such example that Smith believes could invigorate public interest in the space is the launch of on-chain consumer apps, which Smith predicts could begin as soon as later this year.
“It's going to lead to an explosion of innovation, probably something like when Apple created the App Store“. He likened the advent of such on-chain crypto apps to the rise of Web apps most are familiar with on their phones or tablets. “You’re on the phone 24hrs a day, the same thing will happen in crypto.” Smith noted that he hopes Blockchain.com could one day become one of the builders of such apps.
Smith also highlighted the public interest in whether Blockchain.com may follow other industry companies in going public. He affirmed the company's appetite to one day tap public markets but cautioned that the team is waiting for the right time to take that step. Smith said that the company is currently focused on M&A, with four deals in progress as Blockchain.com looks to step up its market share.
Episode 52 of Season 3 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block’s Frank Chaparro and Peter Smith, Co-founder & CEO at Blockchain.com
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 Eventus, Kraken, and Exodus
Eventus is the leading global provider of multi-asset class trade surveillance, transaction monitoring and market risk solutions. Eventus offers a powerful, award-winning trade surveillance platform that is easy to deploy, customize and operate. Eventus is proven in the most complex, high-volume and real-time environments and supports many of the industry’s leading crypto exchanges including Coinbase, Gemini, ErisX and OSL. The company’s rapidly growing client base relies on Eventus’ responsive support and product development teams to overcome its most pressing regulatory challenges.
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Blockchain.com CEO says Bitcoin Maxis are wrong about BitClout and DeFi
Peter Smith has been in the crypto space for a long time — and he's learned a thing or two about how the market ebbs and flows. He's come to the conclusion that Bitcoin's success — as well as the success of his own company — doesn't depend on other project's failures.
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LUKKA
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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!
Crypto hype cycles and the future of Blockchain.com with CEO Peter Smith
Blockchain.com is one of the oldest companies in the crypto world. Best known for its consumer wallet business, the firm has expanded into new verticals over the past year, launching an exchange, institutional lending, and over-the-counter trading businesses.
On this episode of The Scoop, Blockchain.com CEO Peter Smith joined The Block's Frank Chaparro to discuss:
how the firm has leveraged its 40 million wallet accounts to break into new segments
the size of the non-custodial market versus the custodial market
The crowded crypto exchange space
Facebook Libra
Episode 5 of Season 2 of The Scoop was recorded at Blockchain.com's New York office with Frank Chaparro and Peter Smith, Founder and CEO at Blockchain.com. Listen below, and subscribe to The Scoop on Apple, Spotify, Google Play, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Email feedback and revision requests to podcast@theblockcrypto.com
Peter Smith, CEO of Blockchain, on Its Dark Pool, Crypto Lending Operation and Intention to Go Public - Ep.122
Peter Smith, the CEO of Blockchain, discusses how the company got started, why the company is focused on users owning their own private keys and how that is what enables all the most interesting applications of blockchain technology. He talks about the full range of customers and markets they serve, their lending business and their dark pool. We also discuss regulation, SegWit, nation-states getting involved in crypto and why Blockchain plans to go public.
Read more on Forbes.com: http://www.forbes.com/sites/laurashin/2019/06/04/everything-interesting-in-crypto-relies-on-having-a-private-key/
Thank you to our sponsors!
Kraken: https://www.kraken.com
CipherTrace: http://ciphertrace.com/unchained
Episode links:
Peter Smith: https://twitter.com/OneMorePeter
Blockchain: https://www.blockchain.com
Wired article on the short period when cofounder Ben Reeves worked with Brian Armstrong: https://www.wired.com/2014/03/what-is-bitcoin/
Dovey Wan tweet on manipulative trade on Bitstamp/Bitmex: https://twitter.com/DoveyWan/status/1129246233917382656
Fortune article on Blockchain launching an exchange: http://fortune.com/2018/02/15/blockchain-google-coinbase/
SEC guidance mentioning airdrops: https://www.sec.gov/files/dlt-framework.pdf
FinCen guidance mentioning hosted vs. unheated wallets: https://www.fincen.gov/sites/default/files/2019-05/FinCEN%20Guidance%20CVC%20FINAL%20508.pdf
Blockchain's Airdrop of XLM: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/2018/11/06/stellar-is-airdropping-125-million-to-blockchain-wallet-users/
The Wall Street exodus from crypto: https://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2019/01/143834-is-the-exodus-from-wall-street-to-crypto-reversing-jamie-selway-leaves-blockchain/
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