A strategic crypto reserve for the U.S. economy? That’s Trump’s latest proposal (or directive?)—and the reaction from the industry has been… let’s just say, mixed. Would it even work? And does it create more problems than it solves?
Meanwhile, the White House is hosting a crypto roundtable—but not everyone is convinced it’s going to be productive. Who will be in the room, what will actually be discussed, and will it help or hurt the industry?
On this episode of Bits + Bips, hosts James Seyffart and Noelle Acheson together with guests Steve Hou and Steven Ehrlich break it all down. Will tariffs and macro factors keep weighing on crypto? What’s driving the explosion in new ETFs? And what happens if banks start issuing their own stablecoins?
Plus: What could be the real next catalyst for the crypto market.
Show highlights:
6:13 - Whether a strategic crypto reserve makes sense for the U.S.
14:50 - How this reserve could actually give people outside of crypto second thoughts
24:37 - What the Crypto Roundtable will be about and whether it’s what the industry wanted
27:32 - Whether David Sacks is directing the reserve allocations so as to personally benefit
32:07 - Why Noelle was surprised after the SEC stated memecoins are not securities
42:22 - James’ insights into the avalanche of altcoin ETFs
47:10 - The significance of BlackRock adding IBIT to its model portfolio
54:02 - How macro news drove risk assets to such a selloff on Monday
58:12 - Why the 10YT is such a significant chart to watch
1:10:21 - Whether the war in Ukraine is coming to an end
1:16:20 - What the next catalyst for crypto is
1:19:07 - Whether stablecoins are a good business for banks
Thank you to our sponsors!
RockWallet
Bitwise
Hosts:
James Seyffart, Research Analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence
Noelle Acheson, Author of the “Crypto Is Macro Now” Newsletter
Guests:
Steve Hou, Quantitative Researcher at Bloomberg LP
Steven Ehrlich, Executive Editor at Unchained
Links
Crypto reserve:
Unchained: Why Trump May Have Chosen This Week to Announce a Strategic Crypto Reserve
Bloomberg: Bitcoin Reserve Is Likely to Come First From States, Senator Lummis Says
Crypto roundtable:
CoinDesk: Trump to Host First Crypto Roundtable at White House Next Week
Crypto Czar David Sacks says he sold crypto holdings before administration began
Memecoins:
SEC: Staff Statement on Meme Coins
ETFs:
SOL: CME Group to launch Solana futures on March 17 as ETF momentum builds
BlackRock Adds Its Bitcoin ETF to Model Portfolio for First Time
Macro:
Trump’s tariff post on Truth Social
Atlanta’s negative 2.8% GDP projection
CNBC: 10-year Treasury yield falls to lowest since December on latest signs of slowing economy
Reuters:
Inflation, growth may be in conflict but Fed seen restarting cuts in June
US weekly jobless claims post largest gain in five months; weather blamed
Stablecoins:
CoinDesk: Bank of America CEO Says Bank Will Likely Launch Its Own Stablecoin
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Here is how it all went down with the Sam Altman saga, day by day, hour by hour. With @alexkonrad of Forbes.
This is the story we talk about toward the end:
A Secretive $10 Billion Firm Backed By WhatsApp Billionaire Jan Koum Is Quietly Building A Startup Portfolio (Forbes)
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In the wake of FTX’s collapse, Binance – already the biggest exchange in the world by a large margin – has continued to grow. But a series of challenges, including billions of dollars worth of customer outflows, the winding down of its stablecoin BUSD and the SEC and CFTC lawsuits related to its U.S. operations have challenged its market dominance. Steven Ehrlich, director of research at Forbes Crypto, joins the show to discuss how Binance has been dealing with a deluge of bad news and how it plans to forge a path forward.
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.
Show highlights:
how the collapse of FTX impacted Binance and its market dominance
how Binance has been losing market share over the past few months
why Steven believes that Binance.US is in a "very tenuous situation"
whether Binance is feeling stronger now that the SEC experienced a partial loss in the Ripple case
the consequences of consumers losing trust in Binance, according to Steven
the speculation around the recently filed sealed motion filed by the SEC
whether the theory that Binance is the next FTX has some merits
how Binance.US needs to recuperate some market volume to increase its revenue
Thank you to our sponsors!
Crypto.com
Arbitrum Foundation
Thales DAO
Toku
Guest
Steven Ehrlich, director of research at Forbes Crypto
Links
WSJ:
Binance, the Biggest Player in Crypto, Is Facing Legal Risks Over Russia
More Binance Executives Leave, Including Some Overseeing Russia
How the Binance CEO Operates: Weigh the Risk, Calculate the Reward
What Is Happening With Binance?
Binance Lays Off Over 1,000 Employees
Some Binance.US Crypto Trading Was a Mirage, the SEC Alleges
Binance.US Legal, Risk Executives Leave the Crypto Exchange
Reuters:
Crypto exchange Binance hit by executive exodus
Paxos receives U.S. SEC notice over Binance's stablecoin 'BUSD'
Binance CEO's trading firm received $11 billion via client deposit company, SEC says
The Block:
Binance.US can't grow until CZ sells stake, fixes regulatory issues: sources
Binance to end support for BUSD, encourages conversion to FDUSD
Mastercard, Binance end crypto card partnership in four countries
Binance withdraws crypto license application in Germany
CoinDesk: SEC's Secret Binance Court Filing Has Observers Bracing for Bad News
John Reed Stark’s post on X
CFTC: CFTC Charges Binance and Its Founder, Changpeng Zhao, with Willful Evasion of Federal Law and Operating an Illegal Digital Asset Derivatives Exchange
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Short sellers come to Jack Dorsey's Block, Apple's employees don't like what they're seeing in the company's AR device, and there's peace in the Silicon Valley Bank tonight. Also, NPR cancels four podcasts, the SEC gets serious about crypto, and Twitter Blue's latest feature is... pretending you don't pay for Twitter Blue? Journalist Emily Baker-White joins Kara and Scott to discuss her work on TikTok, and the stories that led ByteDance employees to spy on her.
Find Emily Baker-White on Twitter at @ebakerwhite.
Send us your questions! Call 855-51-PIVOT or go to nymag.com/pivot.
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Calls to ban TikTok or force its sell-off from its parent company ByteDance are gaining momentum, especially after reports of ByteDance’s surveillance of several U.S. journalists. And could Microsoft’s investment in OpenAI mark the end of Google’s search monopoly?
Plus: New Year's resolutions, including locking up your phone.
On today’s episode:
Emily Baker-White, a technology reporter at Forbes who reports on TikTok.
Additional reading:
An inside view into Project Texas, TikTok’s plan to limit access to sensitive U.S. user data.
ByteDance used TikTok to track the location of journalists including Emily Baker-White.
On TikTok, Chinese state media outlets pushed divisive videos about U.S. politicians.
Shou Zi Chew, TikTok’s chief executive, is navigating the limits of his power.
The federal government and several states have banned TikTok on government-issued devices.
ChatGPT is a “code red” for Google Search.
Microsoft and OpenAI are working on a ChatGPT-powered version of Bing.
Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.
Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Techpocalypse Now! W/ @EricNewcomer @loganbartlett & @alexrkonrad
How bad is it? How bad can it get? How do we get out of this?
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Zack O'Malley Greenburg is a music journalist who's spent time with everyone from Katy Perry to Kanye West. He joins Big Technology Podcast to discuss how the music industry seems to go through every major technology-driven shift before everyone else, including the decline of brick-and-mortar retail (see: Tower Records), to the rise of streaming content (Spotify), and even NFTs (WuTang's Once Upon a Time in Shaolin). Greenburg also discusses how he's applied lessons from some of the world's most successful musicians in his own career.
You can follow Zack's book, We Are All Musicians Now, on Substack here: https://zogblog.substack.com/
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Steven Ehrlich, director of research for digital assets at Forbes, discusses the FTX.US-LedgerX merger, what to expect from FTX going forward, DeFi regulation, and more. Show highlights:
why the FTX.US acquisition of derivatives platform LedgerX is significant
how FTX.US stacks up against other US cryptocurrency exchanges
who should use crypto derivative products
how regulators might handle FTX.US and crypto derivative ETFs
what to expect from FTX going forward
how long FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried spends talking to regulators every day
why Steven thinks crypto mergers and acquisitions will be a trend going forward
what Steven learned from his conversations with Polygon and Hermez
how Fereshteh Forough, a woman living in Afghanistan, is using crypto to help teach women to build dapps, smart contracts, and use crypto
Thank you to our sponsors!
Crypto.com: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/unconfirmedcardearnfeb2021
Polymarket: https://polymarket.com
Sorare: https://sorare.com
Episode Links
Steven Ehrlich
https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenehrlich/?sh=fb976542ce44
https://twitter.com/Steven_Ehrlich
https://www.forbes.com/newsletters/forbescryptoassetadvisor/?sh=55678b72dec8
FTX.US Merger
https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenehrlich/2021/08/31/us-bitcoin-exchange-backed-by-billionaire-sam-bankman-fried-moves-into-crypto-derivatives/
M&A Trend
https://www.forbes.com/newsletters/forbescryptoassetadvisor/2021/08/31/exploring-voyagers-900-million-token-merger/?sh=29f4f16851b4
Interview with Sam Bankman-Fried
https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenehrlich/2021/08/30/billionaire-sam-bankman-fried-pushes-back-against-critics-of-crypto-derivatives/?sh=6428141b5cbd
Polygon-Hermez Deal
https://www.coindesk.com/polygon-merges-with-hermez-network-in-250m-deal
Fereshteh Forough Coverage
https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenehrlich/2021/08/17/taliban-resurgence-could-threaten-afghan-school-teaching-women-to-code-and-build-ethereum-apps
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Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.
For this week’s deep dive, Alex and Natasha and Danny decided it was time to chat about funding rounds. Yep, everyone's favorite topic, just in time for the return of our wonderful producer Chris.
To help us navigate these particular waters, we had our friend and friendly competitor Alex Konrad on the show. Konrad is a senior editor over at Forbes, and part of the founding duo behind the Midas Touch newsletter. We like him - and his puppy!
With four of us around the Zoom table, here's what we got into:
An overview of the venture capital market in Q2. You can read TechCrunch's coverage of the global numbers here, and our further exploration of the US market here. TechCrunch has more coming on the matter, so stay tuned.
While the show includes the staggering statistics on the current funding frenzy, we soon broadened the conversation to why it all matters.
Consider this a peek into the reporter's notebook! We spoke about the supply and demand for covering funding rounds, the imbalance in who receives what money, and how an overall reader ad writer numbness to that $2 million pre-seed impacts the headlines.
Which landed us into our final section: how to stand out in the overall deluge of funding rounds. Here we all had a take, because all reporters find different things interesting. Here we answer questions about what metrics to pay attention to, how to be more than a number in your pitch, and the value of talking about topics other than your startup's success.
Thanks again to Alex K. for joining the show! Find him on Twitter,https://twitter.com/alexrkonrad and check out his work at Forbes.
Chat with everyone on Friday, a show that is already coming together to be a scorcher. A bit like the weather. Except in San Francisco. Natasha is cold!
Credits: Equity is produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.
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On this episode Abadesi talks to Alex Konrad, Senior Associate Editor at Forbes. He’s one of today’s top tech journalists and has interviewed some of the biggest tech titans around. He also plays a pivotal role in the lists that Forbes publishes, including The Midas List, The Cloud 100, and 30 Under 30.
In this episode they discuss...
Why The Financial Crisis Was a Flourishing Moment In Tech
“If you look back, that post-2009 period was a really good one for new companies. Out of the chaos came all these great startups. People weren’t sure if the traditional industries were welcoming to them and they looked to do their own thing or join great tech companies.”
Alex says that the current crop of companies going public can seem like overnight successes, but really they are “overnight successes ten years in the making.” He points out that many of them were started in the aftermath of the financial crisis, and explains what that was a “flourishing moment” in tech.
“Emotionally, it was a hard time for all of us, but I do think that that uncertainty did create a lot of interesting ideas and risk-taking.“
How To Handle a Crisis as a Founder or CEO
“The instinct can be to turtle and batten down the hatches and take an us-versus-the-world mentality when something goes wrong. You have to resist that inclination. CEOs and any founder who owns an issue and engages in conversation… I can’t think of a situation where that blew up in their face or it made the problem worse.“
Alex has covered plenty of scandals, breaches, and crises in his day. He explains how a founder or a CEO can make sure they handle a crisis in the best way they possibly can. He says that part of doing so means being human and approachable, instead of retreating into your company and denying responsibility.
The Best Ways To Establish Rapport With Someone Important
“I can connect really quickly or build a rapport with someone when I connect with them first as humans. Whether it’s small talk before or after a meeting or just asking a questions about hobbies or things unrelated to their company, its really important to see how people see the world and what they’re thinking about.”
He talks about what it’s like to interview some of the biggest names in tech, including Satya Nadella, Marc Benioff and Eric Yuan. He explains how he builds a rapport with them in order to get the best interview possible, and gives us some tips on how to build rapport with anyone, as well as how you can communicate more effectively.
“Hustle-Porn Culture” and How He Stays Productive
“We idolize people who seem to be making crazy sacrifices and doing something outlandish in pursuit of their goal. We fall into the trap of thinking that just because that’s working for them it’s somehow better than what others are doing or something that we should all be doing.”
Alex points out that the tech titans that he’s interviewed have drastically differing personal styles. Some are bookish while some are bombastic, yet they are all very successful. He points out that given the disparities, it’s hard to draw conclusions about the “best” way of doing something. He talks about the trend that’s currently in fashion to point to particular personal quirks and habits as the “key to success” and why we should be cautious about saying everyone should be waking at 4am or working seven days a week.
And of course, we also talk about some of his favorite products.
We’ll be back next week so be sure to subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Breaker, Overcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. Big thanks to Copper for their support. 😸
Companies and Products Mentioned In This Episode
Bear — A beautiful, flexible, writing app for your notes and prose.
Canva — Amazingly simple graphic design.
Duolingo — Learn languages completely free.
Kanga — Find streams fast. Get alerts for your favorite streamers.
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