Memecoins were supposed to be a dead end, but Mike Dudas believes their deeper idea is only beginning to spread. The 6MV investor joins David to unpack Bonk’s role in reviving Solana, Ansem’s latest experiment, Robinhood’s push into the trenches, and how games, collectibles, prediction markets, and compute could power consumer crypto’s next chapter. Mike also answers the $1 million ETH versus SOL question, lays out Ethereum’s best strategic response, and explains why crypto’s slower progress may be setting up a more durable cycle. Subscribe for more conversations from the frontier of crypto.
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TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Bonk at Solana’s Bottom
7:07 What Gives Memecoins Value?
13:45 The Ansem Experiment
20:53 Are Memecoins Built to Die?
26:19 Culture Goes Onchain
29:45 Robinhood, Base, and the Trenches
32:59 Better Assets, Better Cycles
36:20 What 6MV Is Betting On
38:21 The Consumer Crypto Comeback
43:37 Compute Becomes a Market
47:57 Crypto’s AI Diaspora
50:53 SOL Versus ETH
57:02 Cycles, Equity, and Tokens
1:01:34 Why Crypto Takes Longer
---
RESOURCES
Mike Dudas
https://x.com/mdudas
---
Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:
https://www.bankless.com/disclosures
Mike Dudas holds zero ETH and sees Hyperliquid as crypto's Tether moment. He also has a clear framework for what makes a token worth buying.
========================================================
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Fidelity: Explore crypto careers and make the decision that could change your future at https://crypto.fidelitycareers.com
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Strategy sold 32 Bitcoin, worth just $2.5 million, and the market didn't miss it. For Mike Dudas, Managing Partner at 6th Man Ventures, the sale broke the "never sell" promise that sustained the company's premium. He doesn't see how the narrative gets rebuilt.
Dudas applies the same unsentimental read to the rest of the L1 landscape. His firm holds zero ETH — five years of contradictory narratives have left the market unable to value it. In his view, Solana's decline is simpler: memecoin activity peaked and hasn't recovered. Hyperliquid, in his view, is closer to Tether than a competing L1: the no-KYC international market is enormous, and asset quality is the moat.
His framework for tokens worth owning: programmatic buybacks and consistent communication from leadership. On AI, he argues agentic trading will far outpace agentic payments — Visa, Mastercard, and Stripe are moving too fast for new entrants to displace them.
Host:
Laura Shin, Host / Unchained
Guests:
Mike Dudas - Managing Partner of 6th Man Ventures -
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What began as an internal developer tool atBlockhas evolved into a broader open-source initiative with industry backing. Goose, Block’s AI coding agent, followed a path similar to Amazon’s transformation of internal infrastructure intoAmazon Web Services. After deploying Goose companywide, Block open-sourced the tool under a permissive license, leading to rapid adoption across the developer community.
But according to Manik Surtani, Office of the CTO, Block and Co Founder of Agentic AI Foundation, early momentum exposed governance challenges. Although Goose was technically open source, Block retained trademark ownership, creating concerns for enterprises seeking truly independent governance. To address this, the team partnered with the creators ofAnthropicand the Model Context Protocol community to establish theAgentic AI Foundationunder the umbrella of theLinux Foundation.
Goose, MCP, and Agents.MD became the foundation’s initial projects, chosen largely to accelerate the launch of the new organization and create a collaborative ecosystem around agentic AI development.
Learn more from The New Stack around the latest in open-source AI:
Anthropic extends MCP with a UI framework
Why the Linux Foundation adopted MCP, with Jim Zemlin and Mazin Gilbert
Join our community of newsletter subscribers to stay on top of the news and at the top of your game.
David Haber speaks with Owen Jennings, executive officer and business lead at Block, about how the company rebuilt itself around AI agents, small squads, and internal tools like Goose and Builder Bot after restructuring more than 40% of its workforce. They discuss what it took to execute a major restructuring, how teams of three are now doing what teams of 14 used to, and how Block is shipping AI-native products like Money Bot and Manager Bot that generate custom interfaces on the fly for tens of millions of users.
Resources:
Follow Owen Jennings on X: https://twitter.com/owenbjennings
Follow David Haber on X: https://twitter.com/dhaber
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Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.
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Matt Corallo says “the community that exists at the time” will make decisions on how Bitcoin deals with the threat of quantum computing.
Thank you to our sponsors!
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Fuse: The Energy Network
When it comes to the quantum computing threat to crypto, the focus is
often on Bitcoin and for good reason. The blockchain lacks a defined
governance structure and the vulnerability around Satoshi's and other
abandoned and lost coins is far greater than on any other chain.
Furthermore, influential figures like Nic Carter have accused developers of sleeping at the wheel.
Bitcoin Core contributor Matt Corallo argues that it won't take much to
make the network quantum-resistant and, contrary to popular narrative,
says work is already underway.
Find out why Corallo says quantum-proofing Bitcoin requires only two
steps ”you burn old lost coins, you burn anyone who hasn't migrated.”
Guest:
Matt Corallo, Open Source Engineer at Block/Spiral
Links:
Unchained:
Why Bitcoin Developers Are Not Incentivized to Talk About the Quantum Threat
Q-Day Is Imminent. Can Bitcoin Survive the Quantum Threat?
Solana Deploys Post-Quantum Signatures on Testnet
Cracking Bitcoin Encryption Is Getting Much Easier, Google Says
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One year ago, Anthropic launched the Model Context Protocol (MCP)—a simple, open standard to connect AI applications to the data and tools they need. Today, MCP has exploded from a local-only experiment into the de facto protocol for agentic systems, adopted by OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, Block, and hundreds of enterprises building internal agents at scale. And now, MCP is joining the newly formed Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF) under the Linux Foundation, alongside Block’s Goose coding agent, with founding members spanning the biggest names in AI and cloud infrastructure.
We sat down with David Soria Parra (MCP lead, Anthropic), Nick Cooper (OpenAI), Brad Howes (Block / Goose), and Jim Zemlin (Linux Foundation CEO) to dig into the one-year journey of MCP—from Thanksgiving hacking sessions and the first remote authentication spec to long-running tasks, MCP Apps, and the rise of agent-to-agent communication—and the behind-the-scenes story of how three competitive AI labs came together to donate their protocols and agents to a neutral foundation, why enterprises are deploying MCP servers faster than anyone expected (most of it invisible, internal, and at massive scale), what it takes to design a protocol that works for both simple tool calls and complex multi-agent orchestration, how the foundation will balance taste-making (curating meaningful projects) with openness (avoiding vendor lock-in), and the 2025 vision: MCP as the communication layer for asynchronous, long-running agents that work while you sleep, discover and install their own tools, and unlock the next order of magnitude in AI productivity.
We discuss:
* The one-year MCP journey: from local stdio servers to remote HTTP streaming, OAuth 2.1 authentication (and the enterprise lessons learned), long-running tasks, and MCP Apps (iframes for richer UI)
* Why MCP adoption is exploding internally at enterprises: invisible, internal servers connecting agents to Slack, Linear, proprietary data, and compliance-heavy workflows (financial services, healthcare)
* The authentication evolution: separating resource servers from identity providers, dynamic client registration, and why the March spec wasn’t enterprise-ready (and how June fixed it)
* How Anthropic dogfoods MCP: internal gateway, custom servers for Slack summaries and employee surveys, and why MCP was born from “how do I scale dev tooling faster than the company grows?”
* Tasks: the new primitive for long-running, asynchronous agent operations—why tools aren’t enough, how tasks enable deep research and agent-to-agent handoffs, and the design choice to make tasks a “container” (not just async tools)
* MCP Apps: why iframes, how to handle styles and branding, seat selection and shopping UIs as the killer use case, and the collaboration with OpenAI to build a common standard
* The registry problem: official registry vs. curated sub-registries (Smithery, GitHub), trust levels, model-driven discovery, and why MCP needs “npm for agents” (but with signatures and HIPAA/financial compliance)
* The founding story of AAIF: how Anthropic, OpenAI, and Block came together (spoiler: they didn’t know each other were talking to Linux Foundation), why neutrality matters, and how Jim Zemlin has never seen this much day-one inbound interest in 22 years
—
David Soria Parra (Anthropic / MCP)
* MCP: https://modelcontextprotocol.io
* https://uk.linkedin.com/in/david-soria-parra-4a78b3a
* https://x.com/dsp_
Nick Cooper (OpenAI)
* X: https://x.com/nicoaicopr
Brad Howes (Block / Goose)
* Goose: https://github.com/block/goose
Jim Zemlin (Linux Foundation)
* LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zemlin/
Agentic AI Foundation
* https://agenticai.foundation
Full Video Episode
Timestamps
00:00:00 Introduction: MCP's First Year and Foundation Launch00:01:17 MCP's Journey: From Launch to Industry Standard00:02:06 Protocol Evolution: Remote Servers and Authentication00:08:52 Enterprise Authentication and Financial Services00:11:42 Transport Layer Challenges: HTTP Streaming and Scalability00:15:37 Standards Development: Collaboration with Tech Giants00:34:27 Long-Running Tasks: The Future of Async Agents00:30:41 Discovery and Registries: Building the MCP Ecosystem00:30:54 MCP Apps and UI: Beyond Text Interfaces00:26:55 Internal Adoption: How Anthropic Uses MCP00:23:15 Skills vs MCP: Complementary Not Competing00:36:16 Community Events and Enterprise Learnings01:03:31 Foundation Formation: Why Now and Why Together01:07:38 Linux Foundation Partnership: Structure and Governance01:11:13 Goose as Reference Implementation01:17:28 Principles Over Roadmaps: Composability and Quality01:21:02 Foundation Value Proposition: Why Contribute01:27:49 Practical Investments: Events, Tools, and Community01:34:58 Looking Ahead: Async Agents and Real Impact
This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.latent.space/subscribe
Dhanji R. Prasanna is the chief technology officer at Block (formerly Square), where he’s managed more than 4,000 engineers over the past two years. Under his leadership, Block has become one of the most AI-native large companies in the world. Before becoming CTO, Dhanji wrote an “AI manifesto” to CEO Jack Dorsey that sparked a company-wide transformation (and his promotion to CTO).
We discuss:
1. How Block’s internal open-source agent, called Goose, is saving employees 8 to 10 hours weekly
2. How the company measures AI productivity gains across technical and non-technical teams
3. Which teams are benefiting most from AI (it’s not engineering)
4. The boring organizational change that boosted productivity even more than AI tools
5. Why code quality has almost nothing to do with product success
6. How to drive AI adoption throughout an organization (hint: leadership needs to use the tools daily)
7. Lessons from building Google Wave, Google+, and other failed products
—
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—
Where to find Dhanji R. Prasanna:
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dhanji/
—
Where to find Lenny:
• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com
• X: https://twitter.com/lennysan
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/
—
In this episode, we cover:
(00:00) Introduction to Dhanji
(05:26) The AI manifesto: convincing Jack Dorsey
(07:33) Transforming into a more AI-native company
(12:05) How engineering teams work differently today
(15:24) Goose: Block’s open-source AI agent
(20:18) Measuring AI productivity gains across teams
(21:38) What Goose is and how it works
(32:15) The future of AI in engineering and productivity
(37:42) The importance of human taste
(40:10) Building vs. buying software
(44:08) How AI is changing hiring and team structure
(53:45) The importance of using AI tools yourself before deploying them
(55:13) How Goose helped solve a personal problem with receipts
(58:01) What makes Goose unique
(59:57) What Dhanji wishes he knew before becoming CTO
(01:01:49) Counterintuitive lessons in product development
(01:04:56) Why controlled chaos can be good for engineering teams
(01:08:07) Core leadership lessons
(01:13:36) Failure corner
(01:15:50) Lightning round and final thoughts
—
Referenced:
• Jack Dorsey on X: https://x.com/jack
• Block: https://block.xyz/
• Square: https://squareup.com/
• Cash App: https://cash.app/
• What is Conway’s Law?: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365-life-hacks/organization/what-is-conways-law#
• Goose: https://github.com/block/goose
• Gosling: https://github.com/block/goose-mobile
• Salesforce: https://www.salesforce.com/
• Snowflake: https://www.snowflake.com/
• Claude: https://claude.ai/
• Anthropic co-founder on quitting OpenAI, AGI predictions, $100M talent wars, 20% unemployment, and the nightmare scenarios keeping him up at night | Ben Mann: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/anthropic-co-founder-benjamin-mann
• OpenAI: https://openai.com/
• OpenAI’s CPO on how AI changes must-have skills, moats, coding, startup playbooks, more | Kevin Weil (CPO at OpenAI, ex-Instagram, Twitter): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/kevin-weil-open-ai
• Llama: https://www.llama.com/
• Cursor: https://cursor.com/
• The rise of Cursor: The $300M ARR AI tool that engineers can’t stop using | Michael Truell (co-founder and CEO): https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/the-rise-of-cursor-michael-truell
• Top Gun: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092099/
• Lenny’s vibe-coded Lovable app: https://gdoc-images-grab.lovable.app/
• Afterpay: https://github.com/afterpay
• Bitkey: https://bitkey.world/
• Proto: https://github.com/proto-at-block
• Brad Axen on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bradleyaxen/
• Databricks: https://www.databricks.com/
• Carl Sagan’s quote: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/32952-if-you-wish-to-make-an-apple-pie-from-scratch
• Google Wave: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Wave
• Google Video: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Video
• Secret: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secret_(app)
• Alien Earth on FX: https://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/alien-earth
• Slow Horses on AppleTV+: https://tv.apple.com/us/show/slow-horses/umc.cmc.2szz3fdt71tl1ulnbp8utgq5o
• Fargo TV series on Prime Video: https://www.amazon.com/Fargo-Season-1/dp/B09QGRGH6M
• Steam Deck OLED display: https://www.steamdeck.com/en/oled
• Doc Brown: https://backtothefuture.fandom.com/wiki/Emmett_Brown
—
Recommended books:
• The Master and Margarita: https://www.amazon.com/Master-Margarita-Mikhail-Bulgakov/dp/0802130119
• Tennyson Poems: https://www.amazon.com/Tennyson-Poems-Everymans-Library-Pocket/dp/1400041872/
—
Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.
—
Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed.
To hear more, visit www.lennysnewsletter.com
This week Mike Dudas joins the show to discuss why he thinks this cycle is still just getting started. We deep dive into Mike's thesis when it comes to investing in crypto, his biggest winners this cycle, Flying Tulip's new model for raising capital, stablecoins, NFTs & more. Enjoy!
--
Follow Mike: https://x.com/mdudas
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Follow Jason: https://x.com/JasonYanowitz
Follow Empire: https://twitter.com/theempirepod
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Start your day with crypto news, analysis and data from David Canellis.
Subscribe to the Empire newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire?utm_source=podcasts
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Crypto’s premiere institutional conference returns to London in October 2025. Use code EMPIRE200 for £200 off at checkout: https://blockworks.co/event/digital-asset-summit-2025-london
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peaq, the Machine Economy Computer, proudly sponsors the Empire podcast.
peaq is home to 60+ apps across 20+ industries and millions of devices, machines, and onchain robots.
It powers the world’s first tokenized robo-farm, launching soon in Hong Kong, and has launched the Machine Economy Free Zone in Dubai as a Web3 x Robotics x AI innovation hub.
For more about peaq, check out www.peaq.xyz
--
Timestamps:
(00:00) Intro
(03:39) 6MV's Investment Thesis
(07:15) Pump Fun
(15:18) Finding Big Winners This Cycle
(23:27) Ads (Blockdaemon, Peaq)
(24:36) Why We Haven’t Topped
(29:03) How Will Crypto Returns Look Over The Next 5 Years?
(36:02) Prediction Markets
(39:23) What Did Solana Get Wrong?
(45:50) Ads (Blockdaemon, Peaq)
(46:58) Are Crypto TGEs Broken?
(50:30) Flying Tulip Raises $200m: A New Vehicle For Fundraising?
(57:46) Does Every Project Need A Token?
(01:00:05) Why Mike Is Still Bullish NFTs
(01:02:47) Stablecoins
(01:06:23) Content Of The Week
--
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.
As CTO of Block, Dhanji Prasanna has overseen a dramatic enterprise AI transformation, with engineers saving 8-10 hours a week through AI automation. Block’s open-source agent goose connects to existing enterprise tools through MCP, enabling everyone from engineers to sales teams to build custom applications without coding. Dhanji shares how Block reorganized from business unit silos to functional teams to accelerate AI adoption, why they chose to open-source their most valuable AI tool and why he believes swarms of smaller AI models will outperform monolithic LLMs.
Hosted by: Sonya Huang and Roelof Botha, Sequoia Capital
Mentioned in the episode:
goose: Block’s open-source, general-purpose AI agent used across the company to orchestrate workflows via tools and APIs.
Model Context Protocol (MCP): Open protocol (spearheaded by Anthropic) for connecting AI agents to tools; goose was an early adopter and helped shape.
bitchat: Decentralized chat app written by Jack Dorsey
Swarm intelligence: Research direction Dhanji highlights for AI’s future where many agents (geese) collaborate to build complex software beyond a single-agent copilot.
Travelling Salesman Problem: Classic optimization problem cited by Dhanji in the context of a non-technical user of goose solving a practical optimization task.
Amara’s Law: The idea, originated by futurist Roy Amara in 1978, that we overestimate tech impact short term and underestimate long term.
00:00 Introduction
01:48 AI: Friend or Foe?
03:13 Block's Journey with AI and Technology
04:47 Block's Diverse Product Range
07:04 Driving AI at Block
14:28 The Evolution of Goose
27:45 Integrating Goose with Existing Systems
28:23 Goose's Learning and Recipe Feature
29:41 Tool Use and LLM Providers
31:40 Impact of AI on Developer Productivity
34:37 Block's Commitment to Open Source
39:09 Future of AI and Swarm Intelligence
43:05 Remote Work at Block
45:15 Vibe Coding and AI in Development
48:43 Making Goose More Accessible
51:28 Generative AI in Customer-Facing Products
54:09 Design and Engineering at Block
55:38 Predictions for the Future of AI
Mike Dudas is the Managing Partner of 6MV and former CEO of The Block.
The Scoop's host, Frank Chaparro, was joined live by Mike Dudas for Frank's final episode of the program. Frank and Mike discuss The Block's history, the evolution of the crypto space over the years, and how payments and stablecoins have emerged as one of crypto's killer use cases.
OUTLINE
00:00 - Introduction
02:11 – Early Days of The Block
03:24 – The Tether Revelation
05:24 – Stablecoin Success
07:44 – Adoption Curve in Payments
11:33 – Global Stablecoin Impact
14:47 – Investment Opportunities
19:48 – Crypto vs. Fintech
25:27 – Meme Coins Debate
31:52 – Bonk and Pump Strategies
35:27 – Breaking Into the Mainstream
40:54 – Conviction in Solana
44:18 – Crypto Culture and Sentiment
47:51 – Conclusion
GUEST LINKS
Mike Dudas on X: https://x.com/mdudashttps://x.com/mdudas
Are you hiring in crypto?
Use Campus to quickly find your best candidates with our challenging Crypto Assessment Test.
Faster hiring, stronger teams.
Sign up for a trial today: theblock.co/campus
The Scoop's host Frank Chaparro was joined by The Block's CEO Larry Cermak, Editor-in-Chief Tim Copeland, and Foresight Centures Co-Founder Forest Bai for a year-end special.
In this episode, Chaparro, Copeland, Bai and Cermak covered a myriad of pertinent topics in the crypto market, including the factors that lead to a successful ecosystem, underexposure to bitcoin relative to memecoins, AI, and what they both expect and hope to see in the year ahead.
OUTLINE
00:00 End-of-Year drawdown
5:56 Memes vs fundamentals
08:25 Importance of community
11:47 Shifting investment landscapes
14:34 AI x Blockchain
18:54 Newsroom expectations for 2025
23:48 Telegram games and improving UX
26:37 Standing out in the market
34:19 2025 expectations
41:50 Microstrategy’s Bitcoin bet
47:30 AGI & Quantum attacks on encryption
48:29 Conclusion
GUEST LINKS
Forest Bai - https://x.com/ForestBai1
Larry Cermak - https://x.com/lawmaster
Tim Copeland - https://x.com/Timccopeland
This episode is brought to you by our sponsor: Polkadot
Polkadot is the blockspace ecosystem for boundless innovation. To discover more, head to polkadot.network
In today's episode Mike Dudas and Carl Vogel of 6th Man Ventures join Jason to unpack their fund's strategy heading into 2025. They dive deep into their investment thesis across various sectors including DePin, AI, and consumer applications. The discussion explores the evolving landscape of token economies, the future of crypto venture capital, and their controversial takes on industry giants like Coinbase. They close out by highlighting the growing intersection of social media with financial applications. Thanks for tuning in!
- -
Start your day with crypto news, analysis and data from Katherine Ross and David Canellis.
Subscribe to the Empire newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire?utm_source=podcasts
Follow Mike: https://x.com/mdudas
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Get top market insights and the latest in crypto news. Subscribe to Blockworks Daily Newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/
- -
Explore the SKALE Ecosystem at skale.space/ecosystem and stay up to date with the gas-free blockchain on X at @skalenetwork
- -
Magic Eden is getting into token trading and their vision is to become onchain Binance and then much more as the entire world ends up moving on chain
- -
Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
01:37 Are VCs Founders
06:37 Evolution of Fund Raising
12:07 Origins of 6th Man Ventures
18:24 Finding Top Founders & Companies
23:18 2025 Investing Landscape
38:03 Skale Ad
38:42 Magic Eden Ad
39:26 DePin Opportunity
50:44 Crypto & AI Venture
54:22 Explosion of Tokens
58:25 L1s vs L2s
01:02:55 Coinbase Hot Takes
- -
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.
Crypto networks are meant to be decentralized, community owned systems. But they’re turned out to be dominated by whales and to have more mercenaries who are just interested in getting free tokens to dump them, rather than having long-term believers who want to build the ecosystem. How can tokens be launched in a way that gets token holders aligned with long-term success?
Today’s guests, Mike Dudas, founding partner of 6th Man Ventures, and Matt O’Connor, co-founder of Legion, believe there’s room for improvement. In this episode, they share how Legion aims to reshape the process, focusing on fair distribution, incentivizing organic user growth, and building loyal communities. They explore Legion’s approach to token sales, its compatibility with regulatory frameworks, and why it might be the key to bringing new people into crypto.
Show highlights:
How Legion was born and what its main goal is
The problems with how token launches currently work
Why projects don’t want to return to the ICO model
Whether the criteria to earn a better reputation on Legion is gameable
How Legion actually works and what the role of KYC is
What type of regulatory framework Legion is leveraging
How MiCA’s rules for token offerings allowed for this type of project to emerge
Whether the U.S. should follow Europe in establishing a crypto framework like MiCA
What the business model of Legion is
What the difference is between Legion and other similar platforms such as Cobie’s Echo
Whether token sales is a better distribution mechanism than airdrops
Visit our website for breaking news, analysis, op-eds, articles to learn about crypto, and much more: unchainedcrypto.com
Thank you to our sponsors!
Polkadot
Mantle
Robinhood & Arbitrum
Guests:
Mike Dudas, Founding partner of 6th Man Ventures
Matt O’Connor, Co-Founder of Legion
Matt’s open source publication: Tokenomics for Builders
Links
Unchained: Legion Launches New Tool to Identify Best Contributors in Crypto Fundraises
Legion Whitepaper
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
01:49 How Legion was born and its main goal
05:33 What’s wrong with current token launches?
11:13 Why projects avoid the ICO model
13:37 Can Legion’s reputation system be gamed?
26:18 How Legion works and the role of KYC
35:23 The regulatory framework behind Legion
39:06 How MiCA enabled this type of project
44:09 Should the U.S. adopt a framework like MiCA?
46:32 What is Legion’s business model?
50:28 How Legion differs from Cobie’s Echo
53:18 Are token sales better than airdrops for distribution?
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
George Calle is the VP of Research at The Block.
In this episode, Calle gives an overview of the key themes from The Block's 2024 Digital Assets Outlook Report.
The full report can be downloaded here.
OUTLINE
0:00 - Introduction
04:36 - 2023 Overview
08:08 - Blockchain Scaling
14:02 - DeFi Usage Trends
17:43 - 2023 Macro Impact
20:41 - Regulatory Landscape
27:39 - Binance
36:09 - 2023 Winners
40:26 - 2023 Losers
The Block's Weekend Editor Zack Abrams has been covering Sam Bankman-Fried's criminal trial live from the courtroom in New York.
In this episode, Abrams provides a first hand account of what he has witnessed and explains why he thinks SBF's case is more complicated than the general public seems to believe.
Zack's ongoing coverage of the trial can be found here.
OUTLINE:
00:00 Introduction
04:32 Fraud or Failure?
10:23 SBF’s Defense
11:39 Crux of the Case
16:27 Alameda’s Backdoor
19:24 Campaign Funding Violations
20:47 Caroline Ellison
26:56 Collateral Risk
28:34 Total Fraud?
32:54 Effective Altruism
Mike Dudas has over a decade of experience investing in the crypto industry and is the managing partner at the VC firm 6th Man Ventures.
In this episode, Dudas examines the state of the crypto venture market, which he claims is currently stuck in "the slowest pace of dealmaking" he has ever seen.
According to Dudas, two of the main contributors to slowing crypto VC activity are the dwindling number of real users for blockchain based products, plus founder expectations that are still anchored to unrealistic bull market valuations from days past.
However, despite slowing user growth and lackluster price action, Dudas points to the uptick in developer activity as a beacon of hope that promises better experiences and products to the next wave of new crypto users.
Mika Honkasalo is a DeFi researcher and the creator of Access Protocol.
In this episode, Honkasalo provides analysis on whether or not the $BALD memecoin saga could have ties to Alameda Research, and how a handshake deal prevented a near on-chain catastrophe in the DeFi lending market.
Outline:
01:16 - $BALD debacle on Base
04:51 - $BALD deployer's ties to Alameda
08:14 - What's next for Coinbase's Base
09:16 - Crypto rugpulls
10:39 - Leetswap exploit
11:37 - Curve DeFi leverage
14:38 - Viper exploit
15:44 - OTC Curve buyers
17:37 - What's next for Curve?
19:06 - What's next for DeFi?
21:35 - Closing thoughts
Lucas Nuzzi, head of R&D at CoinMetrics, and Larry Cermak, VP of research at The Block, discuss the current state of the crypto market, including the potential for contagion effects and the challenges faced by VC companies. They also delve into the mining industry and the issues surrounding MEV and Ethereum. The conversation also touches on stablecoins, DeFi activity and NFT trading, and the potential dangers of Binance's dominance in the industry.
Show highlights:
how the collapse in 2022 of FTX and other behemoths will affect the industry in 2023
why there's been a lot of forced selling in the markets recently
why the industry could still be headed to more contagion effects
the characteristics of the current bear market, how it differs from previous ones, and the role of the macroeconomic environment
why it's very hard to predict how prices will behave in 2023
why VC firms will have to focus on long-term projects rather than speculation
what's going to happen in the Bitcoin mining industry in 2023 considering the current tough situation
why Lucas thinks that Bitcoin "drastically overpays for security"
why MEV is a concerning issue and how it represents a single point of failure for Ethereum
how the narrative of alternative layer 1s has changed and why the focus will shift to layer 2s
whether there is a need to develop better blockchain monitoring tools
why stablecoin issuers have a very good business model given the interest rate environment
what are the problems of stablecoins and how they will be regulated
why DeFi activity and NFT trading were down so heavily in 2022 and whether the downtrend will change
how Binance's dominance is "terrifying" and whether it could hurt the industry
Lucas' concerns about the lack of transparency around Binance's BNB token
Thank you to our sponsors!
Crypto.com
Chainalysis
Minima
DeFi Saver
Links
Guests:
Lucas :
Twitter
CoinMetrics
Larry:
Twitter
The Block Research
Previous appearances on Unchained:
Larry Cermak of The Block on What 90% of Bitcoin Trading Is For
The year in crypto:
FTX
Previous coverage of Unchained on Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX:
Why Martin Shkreli Thinks SBF’s New Judge Could Still Be Lenient – Ep. 438
The Chopping Block: Was FTX a Scam From the Very Beginning?
How Much Prison Time Is FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried Facing?
Why the Legal Process for FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried Could Take Years
The Chopping Block: SBF Wants to Win in the Court of Public Opinion. Will He?
Jesse Powell and Kevin Zhou on How FTX and Alameda Lost $10 Billion
Is the Collapse of Crypto Lending Over, or Is It Just Starting?
Did the Bahamian Government Direct SBF and Gary Wang to Hack FTX?
The Chopping Block: Why Lenders Didn’t Liquidate Alameda When It Was Underwater
Erik Voorhees and Cobie on Why FTX Loaned Out Customers’ Assets
The Chopping Block: FTX: The Biggest Collapse in the History of Crypto?
Sam Bankman-Fried on How to Prevent the Next Terra and 3AC
NFTs:
The Block: From CryptoPunks to Redditors — and a Trump card: The year in NFT charts
CoinDesk: Over $30B of NFT Trading Volume on Ethereum Is Wash Trading, Research Suggests
NFT Market Overview
MEV:
MEV Watch
Flashbots dashboard
Unchained: Why Is Ethereum Trying to Maximize Value From Users? Two Sides Debate
BTC Mining:
The Block: Bitcoin mining companies close out year $4 billion in debt: Report
Unchained: Bitcoin Miners Going Bankrupt? Here's How Crypto Winter Is Impacting the Industry
Contagion:
Genesis/DCG:
Unchained:
Genesis May Be Facing Bankruptcy. Could It Take DCG Down With It?
Genesis Owes Creditors At Least $1.8B: Report
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This week we’re re-broadcasting a very special episode of Founders Talk. Adam was invited by our friends at Square to host a fireside chat with Jack Dorsey as the featured finale of their annual developer conference called Square Unboxed. Jack is one of the most prolific CEOs out there. He’s a hacker turned CEO, often working at the very edge of what’s to come. He’s focused on what the future has to offer and an innovator at scale. He’s also a Bitcoin maximalist and has positioned himself and Block long on Bitcoin.
Join the discussion
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Sponsors:
Fly.io – Deploy your apps and databases close to your users. In minutes you can run your Ruby, Go, Node, Deno, Python, or Elixir app (and databases!) all over the world. No ops required. Learn more at fly.io/changelog and check out the speedrun in their docs.
FireHydrant – The reliability platform for every developer. Incidents impact everyone, not just SREs. FireHydrant gives teams the tools to maintain service catalogs, respond to incidents, communicate through status pages, and learn with retrospectives. Small teams up to 10 people can get started for free with all FireHydrant features included. No credit card required to sign up. Learn more at firehydrant.io
Sourcegraph – Transform your code into a queryable database to create customizable visual dashboards in seconds. Sourcegraph recently launched Code Insights — now you can track what really matters to you and your team in your codebase. See how other teams are using this awesome feature at about.sourcegraph.com/code-insights
InfluxData – InfluxData’s Edge Data Replication feature allows developers to replicate data from local instances into InfluxDB Cloud, enables users to aggregate and store data for long-term management and analysis, and to satisfy regulations. It brings the horsepower closer to the sensor and gives developers and solution builders the ability to leverage their own elastic compute resources deployed at the edge. Learn more at influxdata.com/changelog
Featuring:
Jack Dorsey – Website, GitHub, X
Adam Stacoviak – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X
Show Notes:
Block.xyz
Square Unboxed 2022
Square Unboxed 2022’s replay on YouTube
Square Unboxed 2022’s recap blog post
Jack Dorsey on Lex Fridman (#91)
Something missing or broken? PRs welcome!
Mika Honkasalo, independent crypto researcher, discusses what is happening with Celsius and Three Arrows Capital, the importance of having proper risk management, and the contagion effects on the industry.
Show highlights:
why is it so significant that Celsius paused withdrawals
what is stETH and why is it important to understand the Celsius situation
how the Luna/UST debacle started a contagion effect in the crypto space
why Celsius’s investors won’t bail the company out
what will happen to Celsius’s retail customers
what Three Arrows Capital (3AC) is and whether they have a solvency problem
how 3AC was levered long and whether they had poor risk management
who will be hurt if 3AC goes under
what would be the effect of 3AC and Celsius collapsing
which types of funds that Mika will be eyeing to see if they also end up in a similar situation to 3AC and Celsius
why Mika would counsel anyone who keeps their money with centralized crypto lenders to scrutinize their practices
Thank you to our sponsors!
Crypto.com: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/unconfirmedcardearnfeb2021
Ava Labs: https://avax.network
EPISODE LINKS
Mika Honkasalo
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mhonkasalo
Substack: https://mhonkasalo.substack.com/
Mika’s writings on The Block: https://www.theblockcrypto.com/author/mika-honkasalo
Mika’s blog post on the stETH-ETH peg: https://mhonkasalo.substack.com/p/stetheth-peg-not-a-peg-presents-a?s=r
Celsius announcement that they would be withholding assets: https://twitter.com/CelsiusNetwork/status/1536169010877739009?s=20&t=hL-ZsBSKZOLF-whTwNmjgw
Nexo’s offer to buy Celsius assets:
https://twitter.com/Nexo/status/1536256598993211393?s=20&t=vKmJCZGNToaOqZU-TEjcDg
Celsisus’s investors unlikely to bail out company:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/celsius-networks-investors-unlikely-to-provide-more-funds-to-bail-out-crypto-lender-11655395113
Celsius hires restructuring lawyers:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/crypto-lender-celsius-hires-restructuring-lawyers-after-account-freeze-11655250575?tpl=br
Why staked ETH is part of Celsius’s and 3AC’s woes:
https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2022/06/14/staked-ether-becomes-focus-of-crypto-stress-from-celsius-to-three-arrows/
Conor Ryder on the stETH liquidity problem
https://twitter.com/ConorRyder/status/1537130483007508480?s=20&t=pZGZf17ed_DyOS18CHExmQ
The DeFi Edge on the 3AC situation: https://twitter.com/thedefiedge/status/1537465349976694786?s=20&t=Q29mo3EKSASasTenHVEm4Q
Who else has exposure to 3AC:
https://fortune.com/2022/06/16/crypto-crash-hedge-fund-three-arrows-capital-insolvency-rumors-novogratz/
3AC withholding $1M in assets from 8 Blocks Capital:
https://twitter.com/Danny8BC/status/1537224378554806272?s=20&t=Q29mo3EKSASasTenHVEm4Q
Meltem Demirors explains the problem from the balance sheet perspective:
https://twitter.com/Melt_Dem/status/1537155214897201153?s=20&t=Q29mo3EKSASasTenHVEm4Q
Adam Levitin on Celsius bankruptcy
https://twitter.com/AdamLevitin/status/1536932912674836481?s=20&t=Q29mo3EKSASasTenHVEm4Q
degentrading on Why Celsius and 3AC going under should cause you to worry
https://twitter.com/hodlKRYPTONITE/status/1536902115540742144?s=20&t=Q29mo3EKSASasTenHVEm4Q
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
(01:14) Introducing Zach Weinberg and Mike Dudas
(06:06) Mike’s background
(19:02) Exciting about crypto
(24:18) Zach vs crypto
(32:04) Inflation hedge
(38:25) Does Zach own Crypto
(41:00) Banking in foreign countries
(53:59) Stablecoin vs wire transfer
(59:00) KYC
(1:03:57) Crypto insurance
(1:09:24) Eric Glyman: Welcome
(1:11:32) Eric Glyman: Background
(1:16:57) Eric Glyman: Mandarin Debate video
(1:20:28) Eric Glyman: Starting Paribus
(1:24:51) Eric Glyman: Selling to Capital One
(1:28:57) Eric Glyman: Fintech’s success
(1:33:49) Eric Glyman: What is Ramp?
(1:43:10) Eric Glyman: Learnings as a 2-time founder
(1:48:13) Eric Glyman: Being purposeful
(1:52:55) Eric Glyman: Delegating as a CEO
(1:58:53) Eric Glyman: Building the inevitability of success
(2:02:43) Eric Glyman: Thinking through your investor base
(2:08:29) Eric Glyman: How do you determine your valuation?
(2:13:15) Eric Glyman: Advice for executives
(2:18:03) Eric Glyman: Craziest investor stories
(2:20:40) Eric Glyman: The origin of Cartoon Avatars
(2:21:54) Eric Glyman: Relationship between companies and media
(2:28:58) Outro
Links:
Eric Glyman debate video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxB5bb8xEDg
Mixed and edited: Justin Hrabovsky
Produced: Andrew Nadeau and Rashad Assir
Executive Producer: Josh Machiz
Music: Griff Lawson
🎙 Listen to the show
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cartoon-avatars/id1606770839
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Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS9zb0hJZkhWbg
Follow on Socials
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🐦 Twitter - https://twitter.com/cartoonavatars
🎬 Clips on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@cartoonavatars
About the Show
A Saturday morning podcast hosted by Logan Bartlett (Partner and Managing Director at Redpoint Ventures) covering the tech news with his friends and other people with industry expertise.
Executive Producer: Rashad Assir
Producer: Leah Clapper
Mixing and editing: Justin Hrabovsky
Check out Unsupervised Learning, Redpoint's AI Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@UCUl-s_Vp-Kkk_XVyDylNwLA
🎥 Subscribe on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCugS0jD5IAdoqzjaNYzns7w?sub_confirmation=1
Follow on Socials
📸 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/theloganbartlettshow
📱 X - https://twitter.com/loganbartshow
🎬 Clips on TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/@theloganbartlettshow
About the Show
Logan Bartlett is a Software Investor at Redpoint Ventures - a Silicon Valley-based VC with $6B AUM and investments in Snowflake, DraftKings, Twilio, and Netflix. In each episode of The Logan Bartlett Show, we sit down with the people behind today’s most important startups and extract the tactics, lessons, and frameworks they’ve learned the hard way. Conversations span hiring to GTM, product, growth, fundraising and everything in between - collectively forming the ultimate playbook to make you a better CEO, investor or board member.
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Jordi Alexander and Mika Honkasalo join Jason and Santiago on today’s episode of “Empire" to discuss the meltdown of UST, Terra's stablecoin. The match was lit Sunday with UST de-pegging from one dollar, and it's now become the single biggest wealth destruction event in crypto.
Jordi and Mika explain what led to UST's demise, how this could have been prevented, and what's in store for the future of UST and Terra. Is this the end of decentralized stablecoins? Can the market recover? Tune in to find out.
- -
Follow Jason: https://twitter.com/JasonYanowitz
Follow Santi: https://twitter.com/santiagoroel
Follow Jordi: https://twitter.com/gametheorizing
Subscribe To Our YouTube Channel: https://tinyurl.com/4fdhhb2j
Subscribe To Our Podcast: apple.co/3srZf7M or sptfy.com/8bQc
--
(00:00) Introduction
(01:07) What Happened to UST?
(04:32) Utility vs Ponzi Mechanics
(12:13) BTC Reserve
(15:26) The Attack
(20:32) How Did Institutions Play This?
(24:31) Macro's Impact
(26:52) Future of Decentralized Stablecoins
(35:46) How Could UST Be Designed Differently?
(43:21) The Multiplier Effect
(44:44) The Soros Test
(46:57) What's Next for UST?
(56:16) The Arbitrage
(59:12) The Systemic Effects
(1:05:40) The Investment Outlook
--
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.
Bitcoin traded below $30,000 on Monday, amid market uncertainty brought about by the ‘depegging' of UST—an algorithmic stablecoin whose value is supposed to remain equivalent to $1.
At publication, UST is trading at $0.92, although the ‘stablecoin’ saw lows of $0.6050 on the Binance UST/USDT trading pair.
In this breaking episode of The Scoop, host Frank Chaparro spoke with crypto researcher Mika Honkasalo, who appeared on the podcast to provide a detailed look at how the UST drama is unfolding.
As Honkasalo explained, while UST has experienced depegging before, this time around is structurally different:
“I think people at first didn't really realize that it would be a real thing, because they had seen something similar before and they didn't realize that the structure of the market had become a lot more averse to UST than it previously had. And I think what you're seeing today is sort of that just escalating or going further.”
Although the Luna Foundation Guard announced plans yesterday to support the UST peg with $1.5 billion worth of assets, whether or not UST returns to its peg will likely come down to whether the buyers or sellers win out.
As Honkasalo noted during the interview,
“Whether or not it maintains the peg today is very much a question of: if the sellers sort of run out of tokens and the buyers have more, the buyers will live to fight another day here in the mid-term.”
As for the future fate of Luna and UST, Honkasalo thinks much of its success will rest on macro forces outside of its control.
“I think that if the market turns positive, it will be much easier to keep the whole Luna ecosystem going. But if it continues to be more negative than this, the next wave of sells could be even much worse.”
Episode 41 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block’s Frank Chaparro and Mika Honkasalo, Crypto Researcher.
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.
About Scott
Cloud security historian.
Developed flaws.cloud, CloudMapper, and Parliament.
Founding team for fwd:cloudsec
Links:
Block: https://block.xyz/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/0xdabbad00
LinksDAO, a decentralized autonomous organization aspiring to reimagine the idea of the golf country club through global membership, illustrates the complexity that can underpin the red-hot acronym.
While holding a LinksDAO NFT gives users membership rights, there has been some confusion amongst holders as to the extent of what those rights entail. Mike Dudas, co-founder of LinksDAO and 6th Man Ventures, recently discussed the current landscape in an interview on The Scoop.
As Dudas explained during the interview:
“Today we're in this in-between world where many things that call themselves DAOs are really corporations but have a participatory governance mechanism. So it looks different than a corporation, but it's not truly decentralized and autonomous in the spirit of what I believe these organizations can become over the coming decade.”
In the case of LinksDAO, a corporation named LinksDAO Inc. is responsible for fundraising and business development.
While owners of LinksDAO NFTs are given membership rights to LinksDAO, they do not receive ownership rights to LinksDAO Inc.
“The community is more of an advisory board, so we wouldn't be definitionally a DAO. We would be like a group of members who act as an advisory board to a C-corp.” This division is a necessary reality because, as Dudas puts it, “in America in 2022 you can't sell an NFT to the public using Ethereum self-custody wallets without KYC that gives somebody ownership of an asset.”
Still, regardless of the structure of a DAO, projects are cropping up to serve them with tools, Dudas noted.
“Right now there are a number of what are called ‘point solutions.’ Early on in the evolution of any ecosystem, what happens is you have solutions that service the most important and critical functions for a DAO.”
Funds like Bain Capital Crypto are eyeing this opportunity, with DAO service providers being one of the focus points of their recently announced $560 million fund.
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.
Larry Cermak, VP of research at The Block, and Igor Igamberdiev, director of research and data at The Block, recap the most significant trends of 2021 (BTC mining, L1s, NFTs, DeFi, venture funding) and discuss what might happen in 2022. Show topics:
why 2021 was so significant for the crypto industry
why the crypto markets didn’t see a blow-off top at the end of the calendar year the way they typically do about a year after a Bitcoin halving
what Larry thinks about whether the crypto market is in a supercycle
how the state of BTC and ETH mining changed in the past year
why Igor thinks multichain technology was key to a record-breaking year for venture capital entering the crypto space in 2021
how the layer 1 (L1) ecosystem wars played out in 2021 and what it could look like in 2022
what Larry and Igor think of Ethereum layer 2s (L2s)
how Ethereum’s shift to 2.0 could affect the L1 race
what Larry thinks about DeFi tokens going into 2022
how DeFi trends, like decentralized exchange volume and lending, played out in 2021
why Igor thinks KYC-DeFi (know-your-customer decentralized finance) is inevitable
what Larry thinks about NFTs going in 2022 and why he thinks PFPs are dead
Larry and Igor’s outlook on the metaverse going into the new year
Thank you to our sponsors!
Crypto.com: https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/unconfirmedcardearnfeb2021
Episode Links
Guests
Larry Cermak: https://twitter.com/lawmaster
Igor Igamberdiev: https://twitter.com/FrankResearcher
The Block’s 2022 Digital Asset Outlook Report
https://www.theblockcrypto.com/post/127723/the-block-research-2021-digital-asset-outlook-report
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Larry Cermak, director of research at The Block, discusses the upcoming Coinbase direct listing in light of the exchange’s recently released Q1 revenue hitting an impressive $1.8 billion. In this episode, Larry talks about:
significant takeaways from Coinbase’s Q1 results (1:04)
how Coinbase was able to increase its non-transaction revenue in Q1 and why he thinks the exchange gets away with charging higher fees than its competitors (4:14)
why retail consumers are investing in crypto at such a high clip (8:36)
how Coinbase compares to its competition -- and why competition will drive transaction fees down (11:23)
whether it matters that Coinbase has so little Bitcoin on its balance sheet (14:52)
what he still wants to know about Coinbase after its S-1 filing and Q1 results 15:36)
products and services that Coinbase should acquire to round out its crypto offering (17:10)
his expectations for Coinbase’s stock performance (17:50)
why investors may not be interested in NFTs (19:37)
how the crypto markets will perform in 2021 and how that might affect the COIN price (20:43)
Crypto New Recap (22:40)
Thank you to our sponsors!
Download the Crypto.com app and get $25 with the code “Laura”:
https://crypto.onelink.me/J9Lg/unchainedcardearnfeb2021
Check out InterPop, a superteam redefining the future of NFTs and fandom!
https://hellointerpop.io/?utm_source=Unchained&utm_medium=episode-sponsorship&utm_campaign=interpop-launch&utm_content=interpop
Episode links:
Larry Cermak
https://twitter.com/lawmaster
Coinbase Q1 Results
Coinbase Details
https://investor.coinbase.com/news/news-details/2021/Coinbase-Announces-First-Quarter-2021-Estimated-Results-and-Full-Year-2021-Outlook/default.aspx
Larry Cermak Analysis
https://twitter.com/lawmaster/status/1379527265021743110
The Block
https://www.theblockcrypto.com/genesis/100749/final-notes-ahead-of-the-coinbase-direct-listing?utm_source=research&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2021-04-08
John Street Capital
https://twitter.com/JohnStCapital/status/1379526362692788227
Direct Listing Information
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/01/coinbase-direct-listing-set-for-april-14-after-sec-approval.html
https://www.coindesk.com/coinbase-sec-form-s-1
Related Podcasts
Gil Luria
https://unchainedpodcast.com/is-coinbase-stock-a-good-buy-this-analyst-says-yes/
Jeff Roberts
https://unchainedpodcast.com/coinbases-s-1-the-number-that-may-make-the-exchange-nervous/
Link to the Crypto News Recap:
https://unchainedpodcast.com/happy-birthday-satoshi1/
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After much anticipation, Uniswap v3 — the latest upgrade to the Ethereum-based decentralized exchange — was announced Tuesday.
On this episode of The Scoop, The Block Research's Mika Honkasalo walked through the designed upgrade, explaining the significance of Uniswap's adoption of "concentrated liquidity" which aims to make trading on the platform more capital efficient.
In Honkasalo's view, this move will help with the adoption of Uniswap among traders and perhaps serve as a tailwind for the broader DeFi market.
"I think this is why Uniswap really had nowhere to go in their design except move towards this sort of active liquidity provision because that’s something that works with traditional markets,” he said, adding:
"I think what this unlocks next is the possibility to support just more volumes, especially in combination with the L2 launch, which hopefully comes very quickly after the L1 launch is to really start competing against centralized exchanges."
Uniswap v3 — set to be implemented in May — will also include Uniswap's adoption of scaling solution Optimism, which aims to reduce gas fees.
This episode is brought to you by our sponsors Bakkt and Kraken
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About Scott Piper
Scott is an independent consultant helping companies secure their AWS environments through private trainings. He created the free training sites flaws.cloud and flaws2.cloud, along with the open-source projects CloudMapper, Parliament, and more.
Links Referenced:
Connect with Scott Piper on... LinkedIn
Twitter: @0xdabbad00
Company website: Summit Route
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