Wintermute

Crypto policy in Washington has gone from punchline to power center. David sits down with Ron Hammond, Head of Policy and Advocacy at Wintermute, for a rare inside look at how crypto actually moves through DC: the SBF era, Elizabeth Warren’s anti-crypto army, Gary Gensler’s SEC, bank lobby pressure, Trump’s crypto conflicts, the Clarity Act fight, and why privacy and self-custody may be the next major battleground. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast 🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY to OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDE https://app.okx.com/join/USBANKLESS 🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOW https://go.metamask.io/BL-Pod-Download 🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD https://bankless.cc/brix 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Becoming “Captain Crypto” in DC 4:03 From Joke to Serious Political Force 6:19 Why Crypto Punches Above Its Weight 10:28 How SBF Captured Washington 13:26 The FTX Fallout in Capitol Hill 16:25 Elizabeth Warren and Crypto’s Proxy Wars 19:04 How DC Letters Actually Get Written 25:33 How Powerful Is the Crypto Lobby? 27:28 Who Is Playing on Crypto’s Side? 31:01 Democrats, Gensler, and the 2024 Lesson 35:07 The Gensler Era and Prometheum 41:21 Will Warren Ever Pivot? 43:20 Trump, the Crypto Ball, and World Liberty 49:30 Will the Clarity Act Pass? 53:30 Privacy, Self-Custody, and the Next Front 56:23 The Social Side of Crypto in DC --- RESOURCES Ron Hammond https://x.com/RonwHammond --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Ron Hammond

Head of Policy and Advocacy

Wintermute

The Chopping Block crew and Wintermute’s Evgeny Gaevoy debate whether Canton is truly permissionless, if Ethereum Foundation should double down on cypherpunk ideals or embrace institutions, and how AI-driven attacks are forcing everyone in crypto and open source to rethink security models. Welcome to The Chopping Block — where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest in crypto. This week we’ve got Evgeny Gaevoy, Founder of Wintermute, known for sharp takes and sharper trades. First up, the group unpacks the Twitter war over enterprise chain Canton—does it deserve to be called “permissionless”, or is it just TradFi with extra steps? Cue the Solana–Ethereum truce, and a rare moment where every old-school degenerate finds a common enemy. Evgeny makes a strong case for why, despite years of jokes at the Ethereum Foundation’s expense, he thinks they’re finally ahead of the curve by doubling down on cypherpunk roots—even if it makes ETH a little more Linux and a little less Nasdaq. But does decentralization matter if stablecoins and institutions now control the fork-choice? Haseeb and Evgeny spar over whether Ethereum’s “world computer” vision means inviting in the corporate crowd or keeping the punk sanctuary alive. The mood shifts as the hosts dig into crypto’s unfolding security meltdown: AI-written hacks, NPM supply chain fiascos, and what that means for the future of open source in crypto. Plus, a fresh new hack (RIP Drift), and predictions on how defensive tech (or lack thereof) will shape the next cycle. Barstool banter, spicy takes, and zero investment advice as always—let’s get into it. Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights 🔹 The Chopping Block crew and Evgeny Gaevoy debate whether Canton is a permissionless blockchain or just TradFi LARPing as crypto   🔹 Does Ethereum need to double down on cypherpunk “sanctuary” values—or let BlackRock and Circle join the party?   🔹 Haseeb dismantles the idea that all “tokenized RWAs” on “permissioned” blockchains are equivalent to Ethereum   🔹 Solana and Ethereum align—briefly!—with both camps skeptical of enterprise “default no” blockchains   🔹 Circle and Tether’s growing influence: can fork-choice governance still exist if stables dictate the canonical chain?   🔹 Linux, the open internet, and how crypto’s utopian dreams get co-opted by institutions   🔹 Drift’s $270M hack highlights the AI-enabled acceleration of exploits and the mounting risks for open-source software   🔹 AI in security: From North Korean supply chain attacks to open source’s existential crisis   🔹 Is the future of crypto code closed or open? Zero knowledge proofs vs. code visibility in the LLM era   🔹 Are we headed for a world where only org-backed, audit-heavy open source survives? Hosts ⭐️Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly ⭐️Tarun Chitra, Managing Partner at Robot Ventures ⭐️Tom Schmidt, General Partner at Dragonfly  Guest ⭐️ Evgeny Gaevoy, Founder and CEO at Wintermute Disclosures Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Evgeny Gaevoy

Founder

Wintermute

Crypto has stalled, but markets haven’t. As volatility migrates and narratives shift, retail traders are moving fast into exciting, but risky frontiers. We break down where attention is going next, how professionals are adapting, and why this cycle feels different from the last. Host: Steven Ehrlich, Host: Bits + Bips: The Interview Guest: Evgeny Gaevoy, Founder and CEO, Wintermute Links: Adams’ NYC Memecoin Crashes After Debut, Sparking Outcry Memecoins Were Hot a Year Ago. Many Have Crashed Over 90% Crypto Traders Flee to Prediction Bets After Crash Prediction Markets to Get New Federal Rules, CFTC Chair Says Three Reasons for the Record Rise in Gold Prices, and One Why They Are Falling Gold Falls as Investors Take Profits After Record High Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Evgeny Gaevoy

Founder

Wintermute

What’s fueling crypto’s market surge?  This week on Bits + Bips, Ethereum’s rally has reignited market energy, triggering fresh questions about the return of alt season, and whether Bitcoin’s dominance will continue to fall. With special guests Katalin Tischhauser from Sygnum Bank and Wintermute’s Jake Ostrovskis, we dive deep into how corporate treasuries, tokenized assets, and shifting ETF flows are reshaping crypto’s microstructure.  Plus, we dissect the macro impact of rising tariffs, the Fed’s delicate dance with Trump, and whether tokenization could breathe new life into the US dollar. Check out the sponsors who make this show possible! Bitwise Mantle Hosts: Steve Ehrlich, Executive Editor at Unchained Ram Ahluwalia, CFA, CEO and Founder of Lumida Guests: Katalin Tischhauser, Head of Research at Sygnum Bank Jake Ostrovskis, Head of Sales Trading (OTC) at Wintermute Links Markets:  Unchained: Spot Ether ETFs Extend 16-Day Inflow Streak With $453 Million DATs: Cointelegraph: Tron Inc. seeks $1B to grow TRX holdings as stock rallies CoinDesk: Crypto Treasury Fever Spreads to Ethena as $360M SPAC Deal Targets ENA Accumulation CEA Industries Inc. Press Release: CEA Industries and 10X Capital, with the support of YZi Labs, announce $500 Million Private Placement to Establish Largest Publicly-Listed $BNB Treasury Company in the World The Block: Specialty finance company Mill City announces $450 million offering to establish corporate Sui treasury Barron's: MicroStrategy to Offer Preferred Stock With a Twist That Could Yield 10% Trump and Powell Fortune: Jerome Powell had a surprise visit from Trump. He's poised to leave interest rates unchanged anyway CNBC: Trump spars with Powell over renovation costs during Fed visit, but backs off firing threats Timestamps: 🎬0:00 Intro 🔥 6:03 Why ETH’s comeback is reigniting crypto markets 🧠 11:23 Why Ram says “animal spirits are back” 💸 15:06 When tariffs could finally start pushing prices higher 📉 18:06 Whether BTC dominance is fading—and if alt season is finally here 🏭 22:27 How tariffs are already hurting some businesses ⚖️ 27:49 Whether Strategy’s new preferred share class adds risky complexity 🏚️ 32:32 Why many new treasury-backed projects might not survive 📊 38:29 Whether these digital asset treasuries (DATs) are trading at unsustainable premiums 🔮 51:28 What the real endgame is for all these DATs ⚔️ 59:00 How the Powell-Trump tension could shake up markets 🔗 1:12:44 Why tokenization is gaining momentum across finance 📈 1:18:55 Whether stablecoins could revive global demand for the US dollar Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Katalin Tischhauser

Sygnum Bank

Jake Ostrovskis

Wintermute

Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Robert Leshner, and special guest Evgeny Gaevoy of Wintermute break down the biggest stories in crypto. This week: the $38M Move token dump exposes the shady side of market making, with shocking incentives that blurred the line between liquidity support and pure exit liquidity. We dig into what really happened, why major VCs looked the other way, and how the entire token launch playbook might be broken. Evgeny joins to give the market maker’s perspective — and to answer the question: how many more of these sh*t shows are still lurking beneath the surface? Show highlights 🔹 $38M Token Dump Exposed – How Movement Labs’ shady deal with Web3Port revealed the dark side of crypto market making. 🔹 Market Makers or Exit Liquidity? – Inside the incentive structure that let a market maker dump tokens and split profits with the foundation. 🔹 VCs Looked the Other Way – Why top investors backed Movement Labs despite red flags — and what it says about crypto due diligence. 🔹 Rushi Gets Fired – The Movement Labs CEO is out after weeks of denial. But was the rest of the team complicit too? 🔹 Wintermute’s Evgeny Speaks Out – The biggest market maker in crypto weighs in on shady deals, dump mechanics, and transparency failures. 🔹 Airdrops, Float Games, and Retail Rugging – We dissect how token launches get manipulated behind the scenes — and who really pays. 🔹 The Case for Disclosure – Why Haseeb argues crypto needs mandatory public disclosures for market making agreements — before regulators step in. 🔹 Self-Regulation or SEC Crackdown? – Can the industry grow up on its own… or are we begging for another wave of securities enforcement? 🔹 Crypto’s Trust Crisis – Without transparency, the entire token model risks collapse. This episode lays out how to fix it. ⭐️Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly ⭐️Robert Leshner, CEO & Co-founder of Superstate⭐️Tom Schmidt, General Partner at Dragonfly  Guest ⭐️ Evgeny Gaevoy, Founder and CEO at Wintermute Inside Movement’s Token-Dump Scandal: Secret Contracts, Shadow Advisers and Hidden Middlemen by Sam Kessler  🔗https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2025/04/30/inside-movement-s-token-dump-scandal-secret-contracts-shadow-advisors-and-hidden-middlemen  Timestamps 00:00 Intro 01:19 Movement Labs Scandal: Inside the Market Maker Mess 06:26 How Crypto Market Making Really Works 10:54 Rigged from the Start? 17:25 Who Knew What? Movement Labs and the Industry Fallout 25:57 Why Crypto Needs a Market Maker Disclosure 34:45 Transparency vs. Manipulation 38:02 Do Market Makers Control Token Prices? 51:51 The Crypto Market Structure Bill: What’s at Stake 59:18 Can We Fix Crypto Before It Breaks? Hosts DisclosuresLinks Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Evgeny Gaevoy

Founder

Wintermute

In this episode, Santi and Jason sit down with Omar and Nick from SecondLane and Evgeny from Wintermute to dive deep into the underbelly of crypto token markets. They explore the lifecycle of a token from seed rounds to secondary markets to public trading, discussing the critical role of market makers, the impact of token unlocks, and the evolving sophistication of crypto funds. The group also examines the current state of the market, retail and institutional dynamics, and the importance of treasury management and team communication for token projects. - - 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 Omar: https://x.com/omar_shakeeb Follow Evgeny: https://x.com/EvgenyGaevoy Follow Nick: https://x.com/mBTCPiz Follow Jason: https://twitter.com/JasonYanowitz Follow Santiago: https://twitter.com/santiagoroel Follow Empire: https://twitter.com/theempirepod Subscribe on YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/4fdhhb2j Subscribe on Apple: https://tinyurl.com/mv4frfv7 Subscribe on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/wbaypprw Get top market insights and the latest in crypto news. Subscribe to Blockworks Daily Newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ - - Arbitrum is a game-changer for daily Ethereum's users and developers, offering top applications and lower fees. As the leading scaling solution with 600+ apps, explore Arbitrum’s Portal to find your perfect fit. Interact with the home of DeFi, a flourishing NFT and creator ecosystem, and a rapidly growing Web3 gaming hub – Arbitrum has it all.  Get started at: portal.arbitrum.io  - - This episode is brought to you by Aura, the AI-powered digital security protection app that keeps your personal information, passwords, online activity, and tech safe from digital threats. It’s all-in-one protection from identity theft, financial fraud, malware, scams, and more. For a limited time, Aura is offering our listeners a 14-day FREE trial plus up to 55% off an Aura subscription. Visit aura.com/blockworks to sign up for your free trial. - - SKALE is a modular, AppChain network that offers zero gas fee transactions and instant finality. Tailored for ease of development and onboarding, SKALE's configurable EVM chains enable next-gen use cases in gaming, AI, DePin, and others. With over 20,000,000 users having saved over $6 Billion on gas fees, SKALE is the blockchain for mass adoption. Bridge to SKALE at portal.skale.space and stay up to date with the gasless blockchain at @skalenetwork - - Timestamps: (00:00) How Tokens Trade (05:16) Role of Market Makers (09:23) What's Wrong with Tokens? (18:59) Importance of Token Unlocks (22:51) Token Auctions (31:58) Picking a Market Maker (36:05) Aura Ad (36:40) Skale Ad (38:11) Where are we this cycle? (58:50) Crypto Fund Sophistication - - 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.

Omar

Co-Founder

SecondLaneSpotify

Nick

Co-Founder

SecondLaneCribl

Evgeny Gaevoy

Founder

Wintermute

Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest news. This week, Wintermute CEO Evgeny Gaevoy joins the show to discuss market making when the crypto markets are quiet. Plus, an analysis of Base’s prospects following a surge of early interest. Also: Do you think bank fraud is going to run rampant in the AI era? Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights:  how prop shops like Wintermute view the current state of the crypto market how an organization like WIntermute interacts with DeFi platforms Tarun and Evgeny attempt to squash some past beef why Evgeny believes that some exchanges are “zombies” whether this is a good time to build an exchange and how Evgeny would do it  how Base accomplished a big surge in its TVL and daily volumes whether it’s possible for Coinbase to balance the decentralized nature of building a blockchain with a desire to minimize scams how L2 sequencers have the power to censor transactions and the analogy to proof-of-authority chains how friend.tech, the social app built on Base, works and why it got so much attention why the crypto cognoscenti seemed to like friend.tech but hated BitClout, which is basically the same thing what is the role of biometrics in securing crypto wallets and assets whether bank fraud will increase or decrease because of advances in AI Hosts Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly  Robert Leshner, founder of Compound Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures Guest: Evgeny Gaevoy, CEO of Wintermute Trading Previous appearance on Unchained: How Traders Are Thinking About the Merge — and a Potential ETHPoW Chain Disclosures Links Unchained: Coinbase Layer 2 Base Sees 80% Rise in Total Value Locked CoinDesk: Is Friend.tech a Friend or Foe? A Dive Into the New Social App Driving Millions in Trading Volume Halborn: Explained: The Wintermute Hack (September 2022) Forbes: Layer 2 Wars Heat Up As Coinbase Launches Base Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Evgeny Gaevoy

Founder

Wintermute

In this episode, Wintermute Founder and CEO Evegeny Gaevoy and The Block VP of Research Larry Cermak examine how the recent regulatory crackdowns and bank failures have impacted crypto's market structure. During this episode, Chaparro, Cermak, and Gaevoy also discuss: Balaji's Bitcoin bet The CFTC's suit again Binance How Wintermute played the USDC de-peg This episode is brought to you by our sponsors Circle, Railgun, Flare Network 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/Scoop 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.

Evgeny Gaevoy

Founder

Wintermute

The collapse of the Sam Bankman-Fried empire is gigantic, sprawling and fast moving. While details are still coming out, it already ranks among the most prominent corporate disasters of all time and has left the entire crypto community reeling. To better understand the role that FTX played in the industry and how the exchange started to unravel, we speak with two guests on this episode. First, we have Evgeny Gaevoy, the founder and CEO of the crypto market-making firm Wintermute, to explain how he used the FTX platform and how he understood its relationship with SBF's trading firm, Alameda Research. Then we speak with independent researcher James Block, author of the Dirty Bubble Media newsletter, and one of the first observers to blow the whistle on the FTX disaster. Stay tuned. On Friday, we'll have a special follow-up interview with Bloomberg Opinion's Matt Levine, who also appeared with Sam Bankman-Fried on the now-infamous “yield farming” episode of Odd Lots in April 2022. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Evgeny Gaevoy

Founder

Wintermute

James Block

Author and Researcher

Dirty Bubble Media

In part one of The Scoop’s coverage of the on-going controversy surrounding FTX and Alameda, Framework Venture co-founder Vance Spence suggested that FTX must have a very large hole in their balance sheet to be forced to turn to their biggest competitor for a buyout. We now know that FTX likely has upwards of an $8 billion hole in its balance sheet, which CEO Sam Bankman-Fried is attempting to fill through fundraising efforts. In part two of this breaking news episode of The Scoop, Evgeny Gaevoy, Founder and CEO of crypto market-making firm Wintermute, and Ki Jung Ju, Co-Founder and CEO of crypto data provider CryptoQuant, examine FTX's demise with Framework Ventures Co-founder Vance Spencer. They discuss the relationship between FTX and Alameda, as well as what comes next for the crypto industry when the dust finally settles. According to Ju, whose company CryptoQuant specializes in analyzing on-chain data, there have been many substantial transfers between FTX and Alameda: “Digging into their wallets, FTX and Alameda's wallets, and there are many significant flows between those entities… I think there are many untransparent or shady deals between FTX and Alameda…” While the full extent of the relationship between FTX and Alameda remains unknown for now, Gaevoy also says that the connection between the two companies was improper: “It turned out that there was this massive moral hazard — there were way more connection points than should have been morally possible, and it ended with a spectacular, spectacular blowup.” Episode 110 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded live with The Block's Frank Chaparro, Wintermute Founder and CEO Evgeny Gaevoy, and CryptoQuant Co-founder and CEO Ki Jung Ju. 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 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

Evgeny Gaevoy

Founder

Wintermute

Ki Young Ju

Co-Founder and CEO

CryptoQuant

Vance Spencer

Co-founder

Framework Ventures

This week on The Defiant Podcast we speak with David Micley, the business development director at Wintermute, one of the largest digital asset market makers in the world. With all the macro headwinds pummeling markets, from the energy crisis in Europe, global inflation, and war in Ukraine, to the recent turmoil with Credit Suisse, we can’t help but feel a sense of deja vu about the 2008 financial crisis. David believes we’re just in the first inning of what could be a multi-year crypto winter. But he’s seeing that institutional investors are still signing up to trade with Wintermute’s OTC desk, which indicates that large players are still committed to the space this time around. David also shares his views on the venture side of crypto. He believes some of the biggest bets right now are blockchain infrastructure plays. With funding getting harder to come by for crypto startups, he provides insights on where he sees the space evolving. Finally, we discuss the $160M hack that Wintermute suffered recently and the lessons learned. 🙏 Thanking our podcast sponsors: 1inch is a DEX aggregator that finds the best rates across multiple networks. Why use a single DEX when you can use them all? Find your best deal at 1inch. ZenGo is a crypto wallet that uses biometric encryption, 3FA authentication and MPC wallet cryptography instead of private keys. Aleo is enabling developers to build their own private and scalable apps. Currently in their third incentivized testnet phase, you can find more information at https://leo-lang.org/ Oasis.app aims to be the most trusted entry point to the Maker Protocol and to DeFi. You can borrow DAI, multiply your exposure and earn. Try it Now!

David Micley

Business Development Director

Wintermute

Kevin Zhou, co-founder of Galois Capital, and Evgeny Gaevoy, founder and CEO of Wintermute, discuss how to trade the Ethereum Proof of Work fork, what the market is telling about the Merge, and whether the Merge affects Bitcoin.    Show highlights: what will happen at the time of the Merge according to Kevin and whether there’s uncertainty when the ETH Proof of Work chain will emerge and how that affects trading opportunities the mistakes of the ETHPoW team, like repealing EIP-1559 what percentage of ETH market cap ETHPoW will accrue what the first few blocks of ETHPoW will be like what the strategies are to earn the ETHPoW airdrop and what the on-chain activity looks like whether there is an “up-only” monoculture in Ethereum what stETH is, how it should be priced and what the futures market indicates where the value of a chain comes from and the likelihood of ETHPoW failing catastrophically how to protect from replay attacks the price action of ETH after the Merge how ETH becoming deflationary affects Bitcoin’s narrative as digital gold how the ESG-friendly image of Proof of Stake could affect the narratives of ETH and BTC   Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com Ava Labs a16z Kevin: Twitter Evgeny: Twitter   Episode Links   Previous Coverage of Unchained on the Merge: Preston Van Loon on Ethereum's Merge and His Lawsuit Against Treasury Arthur Hayes, Former Ethereum Skeptic, on Why the Merge Makes Him Bullish on ETH  With the Merge, Will Ethereum Take Over Bitcoin’s Title as Digital Gold? Why Kevin Zhou Believes Ethereum Will Have 3 Forks After the Merge Post-Merge, If Lido Becomes Dominant, What Does That Mean for Ethereum? ETH Proof of Work: ChainID missing; and the request from Coinbase Kevin’s analogy CoinDesk article ETHPow Token  Summary of Kevin’s thoughts ETHPoW team’s promise to abolish EIP-1559 ETHPoW first blocks Tether supports PoS Circle (USDC) supports PoS   ETH Trade Ether’s backwardation Eth-Flexive by Arthur Hayes Whether Ethereum’s Merge is priced in Gauntlet’s view on the Merge BTC correlation with stocks   ETH Post-Merge Dynamics: Onchain Wizard post Cumberland on the Ethereum dynamics after the merge  Miles Suter on the implications of the Merge Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kevin Zhou

Co-Founder

Galois Capital

Evgeny Gaevoy

Founder

Wintermute

Earlier this week, the apparent insolvency of Three Arrows Capital (or '3AC' for short) caught many in the crypto world by surprise, including Wintermute CEO Evgeny Gaevoy who commented: “Everyone kind of assumed those guys just made billions over the years… but now it seems like we were just all horribly wrong.” In this episode of The Scoop, Evgeny Gaevoy joins The Block’s Frank Chaparro and guest co-host Larry Cermak to analyze the fallout from the 3AC situation, and to explain the wide-scale deleveraging that is occurring in the crypto markets. According to Cermak, not only was 3AC liquidated by top-tier exchanges, but the firm has outstanding debts with multiple counterparties, “The impact isn't completely clear when it comes to size… the number I've heard is roughly around $1.5 to $2.5 billion in terms of actual debt that 3AC has — and in terms of the firms affected, it’s almost everyone.” While the extent of 3AC’s obligations is unclear, Voyager Digital has publicly announced its intent to pursue legal action against 3AC, if the firm defaults on a loan worth over $650 million.  Given the widespread uncertainty regarding balance sheets in the wake of 3AC’s insolvency, crypto lenders have begun recalling loans to large counterparties, including Gaevoy’s Wintermute. “[Wintermute] basically got recalled pretty much on all open loans that we had with all the lenders,” Gaevoy said, “our balance sheet decreased more than half basically.” As Gaevoy explains, recalling loans allows crypto lenders to check counterparties for solvency: “The reason is everyone just wants to see who is solvent in this market. That’s basically the best way to check it, because once you recall all the loans and you give all the firms like one or two weeks… you probably will see some of them fail and collapse and that's it.” Episode 57 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block’s Frank Chaparro and Larry Cermak, and Evgeny Gaevoy, CEO of Wintermute. 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.

Evgeny Gaevoy

Founder

Wintermute

The demise of the Terra blockchain sent a ripple effect throughout the crypto ecosystem last week, as the market absorbed over 80,000 BTC deployed in a failed attempt to keep the UST "stablecoin" pegged 1:1 with the US dollar. “If you’re a market maker and you don’t make money in those kinds of days, then yeah — you’re doing something wrong,” said Evgeny Gaevoy, CEO of Wintermute — an algorithmic crypto market maker with nearly $2 trillion in cumulative volume, according to the firm’s website. In this episode of The Scoop, Evgeny Gaevoy recounts the Terra meltdown from a market maker’s perspective, and explains how future decentralized yield-bearing stablecoins can innovate where Terra's UST failed. According to Gaevoy, the 20% annualized yield promised to users who deposited UST into Terra’s Anchor Protocol was more debt than could be paid by the protocol’s revenue: “What was really wrong about LUNA is they had that 20% yield which was coming out of nowhere,” he said. “It was backed by future growth of the protocol, which could have happened, but didn’t.” Although UST has proven to be a failure, Gaevoy thinks an interest-bearing stablecoin is possible, as long as the promised yield is equivalent to the issuing protocol’s revenue.  To illustrate, Gaevoy proposed a hypothetical protocol that brings in $500,000 a year in revenue and seeks to raise $5 million through offering interest-bearing stablecoins: “Let's say they have cash flows of $500,000 per year — they can issue $5 million worth of stablecoins with 10% yield, and then suddenly they have $5 million and they can pay this yield because they actually generate this income. So they can offset these interest payments with what they generate from their own protocol — that model can work, and that model I think is really interesting to explore for a lot of protocols.” Wintermute is in the process of launching its own stablecoin, according to Gaevoy, who said the firm “just needs to iron out the regulatory details.” Episode 43 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block’s Frank Chaparro and Evgeny Gaevoy, CEO of Wintermute. 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.

Evgeny Gaevoy

Founder

Wintermute