Crypto anon Loomdart makes the case for FTX 2.0 to go ahead
Loomdart, a veteran member of the crypto community and the co-founder of eGirl Capital, is advocating for an FTX reboot.
In this episode, Loomdart explains why 'FTX 2.0' could represent an opportunity for over a million FTX creditors to be made whole in a unique way.
As Loomdart explains,
"My quickest pitch for FTX 2.0 is you effectively get to 'airdrop' an exchange to over a million people who have a big vested interest in using this exchange."Last month, a potential reboot plan for FTX reportedly caught the attention of venture capital firm Tribe Capital.
During this episode, Chaparro and Loomdart also discuss:
The 'institutionalization' of $PEPE
Making sense of memecoin mania
Alameda's billion-dollar tax bill
This episode is brought to you by our sponsor CleanSpark.
About CleanSpark
CleanSpark (NASDAQ: CLSK) is America’s Bitcoin Miner™. Visit cleanspark.com/theblock to learn more about the CleanSpark way.
How To Decentralize a Fortune 500 Company
This week on The Defiant podcast, Tegan Kline hosts Jesse Pollak, senior director of Engineering at Coinbase, Eva Beylin, the director of the Graph Foundation, and Ben Jones, the director of the Optimism Foundation, to give us a deep dive into the launch of Base, Coinbase's recently-launched Layer 2 blockchain.
Base is an Ethereum Layer two that offers a secure, low-cost, developer-friendly way for anyone anywhere to build decentralized applications.
In this episode, we talk about the evolution of Base from inside a Fortune 500 company, the importance of decentralized tools like the Graph and Optimism, and the importance of thinking positive sum, not zero-sum.
Jesse discusses decentralization inside a centralized company and how Coinbase plans to onboard millions of dapps and a billion users.
Thanking our podcast sponsors:
web3 with a16z is a chart-topping podcast about the next generation of the internet, from a16z crypto. Click here to listen now.
This episode is brought to you by Orbs Layer-3. Trade DeFi like a pro using decentralized TWAP order type on SpookySwap, SpiritSwap, and Pangolin. Learn more: https://www.orbs.com/dtwap/
Resurgence of 'degenerate behavior' is behind 2023's crypto rally
Since the start of 2023, the total crypto market cap has risen over 20%, and daily exchange volume has nearly tripled, according to data from The Block Research.
In this Market Pulse edition of The Scoop, The Block's VP of Research Larry Cermak and eGirl Capital's Hedgedhog discuss the dynamics shaping the crypto market's current rally, and explain why they aren't holding out hope for a sustained uptrend.
According to Cermak, crypto is lacking a strong enough narrative to be able to break free from broader macro uncertainty.
"I think the biggest difference is that right now we don't really have anything to kind of drive the rally to have legs under it, and I think there's still a lot of uncertainty in the macro markets," he said.
Hedgedhog shares Cermak's doubts about the current trend, noting how quickly retail market participants have begun displaying risk-on behavior:
"We're seeing a lot of degenerate behavior coming back really quickly — Canto and all these new NFTs, and there are new Ohm forks … people haven't really learned anything, and they're really risk-on already."
During this episode, Chaparro, Cermak, and Hedgedhog also discuss:
How traders are positioning for Ethereum's Shanghai upgrade
Why the NFT market is set to decorrelate from crypto
A look inside the centralized exchange turf war
This episode is brought to you by our sponsors Circle, Railgun, Flare Network, NordVPN
About Circle
Circle is a global financial technology company helping money move at internet speed. Our mission is to raise global economic prosperity through the frictionless exchange of value. Visit Circle.com to learn more.
About Railgun
RAILGUN is a private DeFi solution on Ethereum, BSC, Arbitrum, and Polygon. Shield any ERC-20 token and any NFT into a Private Balance and let RAILGUN’s Zero-Knowledge cryptography encrypt your address, balance, and transaction history. You can also bring privacy to your project with RAILGUN SDK and be sure to check out RAILGUN with partner project Railway Wallet, also available on iOS and Android. Visit Railgun.org to find out more.
About Flare
Flare is an EVM-based Layer 1 blockchain designed to allow developers to build applications that can use data from other blockchains and the internet. By providing decentralized access to a wide variety of high-integrity data from other blockchains and the internet, Flare enables new use cases and monetization models. Build better and connect everything at Flare.Network
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NordVPN is essential for keeping crypto transactions secure, hiding your IP address, and protecting your devices from hackers and data theft. Get premium cyber-security on up to 6 devices for the price of a cup of coffee a month. Get your exclusive NordVPN Deal and try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee: Visit https://nordvpn.com/thescoop
Crypto market has experienced an 'education by fire,' says Loomdart
In this month's 'Market Pulse' episode of The Scoop, The Block Vice President of Research Larry Cermak and Loomdart, a founding member of crypto-native venture firm eGirl Capital, reflect on FTX’s collapse and speculate on what comes next for the crypto industry.
According to Cermak, former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) is remaining in the Bahamas to stay engaged with local regulators:
“Sam still has connections in the Bahamas and the government is still standing by him … He just made them look terrible, so they kind of have to go in this direction”
During a recent interview, SBF confirmed he is still living in the Bahamas, although he is not communicating with FTX’s new CEO John Ray.
While FTX's collapse pushed crypto prices to new yearly lows, Loomdart says it is ultimately better for the long-term health of the industry:
“Crypto is such an open and free ecosystem to where if we don't have this type of education by fire it just keeps getting worse … If FTX didn't blow up now and they managed to keep going — I don’t think that hole was going to shrink.”
Episode 122 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block's Frank Chaparro and Larry Cermak, and Loomdart, co-founder of eGirl Capital.
Listen below, and subscribe to The Scoop on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you listen to podcasts. Or click here to watch the full interview on YouTube. Email feedback and revision requests can be sent to podcast@theblockcrypto.com.
This episode is brought to you by our sponsors Tron, Ledn
About Tron
Founded in 2013, Huobi Global is one of the largest virtual asset exchanges in the world. Huobi Global serves millions of users across international markets. Since its establishment, Huobi Global has committed to providing first class virtual asset investment services. Huobi Global's robust infrastructure, product innovation and capital strength provides a truly customer-centric and secure trading environment to help our international users to achieve their investment objectives. Please refer to Huobi's official website for more information: huobi.com.
About Ledn
Ledn was founded on the unshakeable conviction that digital assets have the power to democratize access to the global economy. We help you to experience the real life benefits of your Bitcoin without having to sell it. Start a savings account, take out a loan, or double your Bitcoin. For more information visit Ledn.io
eGirl Capital and Larry Cermak on the dynamics shaping the crypto bear market
Crypto-native venture firm eGirl Capital is a syndicate of pseudonymous individuals who invest in early-stage web3 projects, and provide colorful market commentary on Twitter.
In this special segment of The Scoop, Frank Chaparro is joined by The Block’s VP of Research, Larry Cermak, and eGirl Capital’s Co-Founder, Hedgehog, to discuss how this crypto bear market compares to previous cycles, and to explain how investors can spend this drawdown building an edge for the next bull market.
According to Hedgehog, who is primarily a directional trader, crypto market conditions are suffering because there is less credit in the system. “Less credit leads to less liquidity and less volume,” says Hedgehog, “It's really a wasteland out there for us at the moment.”
As data from The Block shows, daily crypto exchange volume is close to half of what it was at the start of the year–although have ticked up in recent days.
During this period of reduced market activity, Cermak says it is important not only to be patient, but also to stay engaged:
“A lot of people stay patient, but actually stop paying attention day-to-day. Those people that actually stay engaged… are in the best position for the next cycle, and they're also the ones that will be able to the most accurately predict when activity starts picking up again.”
Episode 108 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded live with The Block's Frank Chaparro and Larry Cermak and eGirl Capital Co-Founder, Hedgehog.
Listen below, and subscribe to The Scoop on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you listen to podcasts. Email feedback and revision requests can be sent to podcast@theblockcrypto.com.
This episode is brought to you by our sponsors Tron, Ledn, Athletic Greens
About Tron
TRON is dedicated to accelerating the decentralization of the internet via blockchain technology and decentralized applications (dApps). Founded in September 2017 by H.E. Justin Sun, the TRON network has continued to deliver impressive achievements since MainNet launch in May 2018. July 2018 also marked the ecosystem integration of BitTorrent, a pioneer in decentralized web3 services boasting over 100 million monthly active users. The TRON network completed full decentralization in December 2021 and is now a community-governed DAO. | TRONDAO | Twitter | Discord |
About Ledn
Ledn was founded on the unshakeable conviction that digital assets have the power to democratize access to the global economy. We help you to experience the real life benefits of your Bitcoin without having to sell it. Start a savings account, take out a loan, or double your Bitcoin. For more information visit Ledn.io
About Athletic Greens
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The crypto-native advantage, according to CL from eGirl Capital
For those unfamiliar with the term “anon”, it refers to the prolific but anonymous identities that many veteran crypto investors use to discuss projects and express views on the market without revealing details of their personal lives.
Out of the legion of such popular anon accounts on Twitter, the members of a syndicate known as “eGirl Capital” have established large followings due to their commentary, research and investment in cryptocurrency.
In this episode of The Scoop, CL, an anon from eGirl Capital joins host Frank Chaparro to discuss how the group formed and why they are able to operate so cohesively.What started out in 2020 as a simple group chat between friends became reality when one of the group’s members registered eGirl Capital as a legal entity.
While not a VC firm in the traditional sense, the establishment of a legal entity paved the way for eGirl Capital to participate in deals together. At a time when established firms such as Bain Capital are entering the crypto space, CL believes the crypto native anons of eGirl Capital have an edge in terms of spotting quality projects.
While being crypto-native gives the group much more experience and knowledge than the traditional financial institutions who are trying to enter the space, eGirl Capital also benefits from their lack of traditional corporate structure.
“There is no founder, no head trader...and none of us are getting paid, except for a few interns,” CL said.
In regards to potential deals, the decision must be unanimous: “If one person is very firmly ‘no’ then it’s a no.”/
This episode is brought to you by our sponsors Fireblocks, Coinbase Prime & Chainalysis
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 Chainalysis
Chainalysis is the blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services, and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, and insurance and cybersecurity companies in over 60 countries. Our data powers investigation, compliance, and market intelligence software that has been used to solve some of the world’s most high-profile criminal cases and grow consumer access to cryptocurrency safely. Backed by Accel, Addition, Benchmark, Coatue, Paradigm, Ribbit, and other leading firms in venture capital, Chainalysis builds trust in blockchains to promote more financial freedom with less risk. For more information, visit www.chainalysis.com.
Eva Beylin on eGirl Capital, The Graph, and Building Web3
Obviously, there's been a tremendous amount of volatility in crypto lately. But what has been the effect on people who are deeply involved in the space? On this episode, we speak with Eva Beylin, who knows crypto as both an investor and a builder. As an investor, she's part of the amorphous investment collective known as eGirl Capital, which features numerous crypto anons who only know each other by their avatars. On the building side, she's the director of The Graph Foundation, which is aiming to be the Google of the blockchain. She talks to us about both projects and what things look like in this current moment.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
'This isn't 2017:' Loomdart explains why crypto markets won't see a big bear market
A lot has changed since the sluggish days of the crypto bear market in 2019, according to infamous Twitter personality “Loomdart.”
The investor at Egirl Capital—an anonymous group of crypto traders—joined host Frank Chaparro for a discussion about how the market has matured since 2019's doldrums and why he believes it will only continue to mature in the years ahead. In Loomdart's view, cryptocurrencies are no longer as correlated with one other as they once were. However, he also acknowledged that today the recent Metaverse and NFT headlines have temporarily “hijacked” momentum in the $2 trillion market.
“Ever since this kind of metaverse narrative started and Facebook did the whole 'Meta' brand takeover, there has been this gigantic influx of capital,” he said.
To be sure, Loomdart is also talking about his own book as the founder of MetaDrop, which recently helped Alien-themed shooting game VAIL raise money through an NFT drop. But the anonymous UK-native has data to back up his investment thesis. Over the past month, NFT gaming firm Sandbox raised $93 million, while Solana Ventures, FTX, and Lightspeed Venture Partners has raised $100 million for a blockchain gaming fund.
Loomdart told Chaparro that this VC interest in the metaverse and NFTs will ultimately feed back into the broader crypto market, thereby making it more dynamic.
“This isn't 2017, 2018's crypto anymore,” Said Loomdart. “Everything was just one market, but like crypto has evolved so far beyond that.”
In this episode, Chaparro and Loomdart discuss:
How Ether's "flippening" of bitcoin could open up a Pandora’s box
Why Loomdart believes crypto prices will likely “slowly go up forever”
The impact of the macro backdrop on crypto prices
Why the metaverse will only take off if crypto is in the background
Episode 82 of Season 3 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block’s Frank Chaparro and Loomdart, Co-Founder of MetaDrop.
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 Kava
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About Kava
For over four years, Kava Labs has contributed to building a portfolio of decentralized products and services that allow users to gain access to all of the benefits of DeFi. Kava connects the world's largest cryptocurrencies, ecosystems, and financial applications on one of DeFi’s most trusted, scalable, and secure earning platforms. Kava lets you mint stablecoins, lend, borrow, earn and swap safely and efficiently across the world’s biggest crypto assets with a simple and intuitive user experience and the full confidence of institutional-grade security and quality. With a proven track record of delivering successful projects safely, the Kava Platform is DeFi's most trusted, scalable, and secure institutional-grade cross-chain engine.