For crypto venture investors, 2021 was a landmark year. The flood of capital that poured more than $28.65 billion into crypto firms last year was propped up by new billion-dollar fund launches, a ramp-up in venture investing among crypto firms, and investor appetite for a general risk-on environment, giving way to a new class of angel investors in the market. But 2022 has been more risk-off, with the crypto market shedding billions of market cap on news that inflation could lead to a hike in int...
Feb 28, 2022•52 min•Season 4Ep. 14
Jump Trading is one of the deepest-pocketed firms operating in the crypto market. Jump put its full scale on display earlier this month when the firm stepped up to cover hundreds of millions of dollars in losses after Wormhole—a DeFi project to which Jump contributes code— was hacked . In this episode of The Scoop, Jump president and CIO Dave Olsen explained how the firm reacted to the hack and market-bought more than $300 million in ETH t o cover the losses . "This was not a syndicate or a grou...
Feb 25, 2022•47 min•Season 4Ep. 13
The United States Congress turned its attention to stablecoins this month, with senior Treasury official Nellie Liang fielding a range of questions during twin hearings in the House of Representatives and the Senate. The hearings centered on a recent report on stablecoins penned by members of the President's Working Group, which Liang oversaw. That report urged Congress to create "rules of the road" for stablecoin issuers, mainly by restricting stablecoin issuance to insured depository instituti...
Feb 23, 2022•16 min•Season 4Ep. 12
After a year of exponential growth, North American Bitcoin mining companies have raised billions of dollars in 2021 through equity and debt instruments to invest in both new top-of-the-line equipment and additional power capacities. The latest special episode of The Scoop – the Mining Report – features The Block Research's mining analyst Wolfie Zhao and host Frank Chaparro as they discuss the state of mining in North America, which is steadily growing its market dominance with the state of Texas...
Feb 18, 2022•25 min•Season 4Ep. 11
Wealth and financial advisors oversee trillions of dollars in assets. While a wide range of financial services, from trading firms to exchanges to hedge funds, have warmed up to the crypto market, wealth and financial advisors have largely remained on the sidelines. During the latest episode of The Scoop, Michael Batnick, director of research at Ritholtz Wealth Management, and Jeremy Schwartz, EVP and global chief investment officer at Wisdom Tree Asset Management, walked listeners through the R...
Feb 17, 2022•50 min•Season 4Ep. 10
Avi Felman's eyes are glued to his trading screen, waiting for market-moving headlines that could be prime opportunities to put on a multi-million crypto trade. These past few weeks have been especially active for the portfolio manager, who joined crypto investment firm BlockTower in November 2019. Felman, who co-leads the firm's flagship fund, navigated price gyrations stemming from macro and industry news, ranging from headlines that government officials recovered funds from Bitfinex's 2016 ha...
Feb 14, 2022•50 min•Season 4Ep. 9
2021 was a landmark year for Genesis Global. The trading firm — which operates a wide-range of businesses spanning lending and prime services — clocked in more than $100 billion in spot crypto volumes in 2021. On the lending side of the house, cumulative loan originations stood at more than $130 billion. On this episode of The Scoop, head of derivatives at Genesis Joshua Lim helped unpack the dynamics shaping the market behind its headline Q4 numbers. In addition to a compression in the popular,...
Feb 11, 2022•52 min•Season 4Ep. 8
For some, a landscape of colorful NFTs and crypto anons can be daunting — yet for traditional investors, it can present an array of new challenges that require near-constant adjustment or reinvention. But as novel use cases evolve under the twin banners of "Web3" and "the metaverse," business interests such as VC firm Standard Crypto are eyeing the opportunity to leap into such a world. During this episode of The Scoop, Alok Vasudev, co-founder at Standard Crypto, joined The Block's Frank Chapar...
Feb 09, 2022•46 min•Season 4Ep. 7
Tucked away in Signal’s app is a new “Beta” feature that allows users to send payments between each-other seamlessly. It’s powered by a crypto project called MobileCoin. On this episode of The Scoop, MobileCoin founder and CEO Josh Goldbard joined Frank Chaparro to explain how MobileCoin is trying to blend encrypted messaging and payments to make global money transfers easy. Goldbard and Chaparro explore the increasingly dynamic environment for payments, which has diverse firms from Walmart to F...
Feb 04, 2022•40 min•Season 4Ep. 6
Since volumes skyrocketed in 2021 across marketplaces, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have seemed to become a focal point of the art and gaming world. Love them or hate them, NFT enthusiasts argue that the medium is in the infancy of its evolution. Adopters are beginning to appreciate not only the aesthetics of NFTs, but their potential usefulness. On this episode of The Scoop, Head of Growth at Parallel NFT Franklin Fitch and artist Dave Krugman joined host Frank Chaparro to discuss how NFTs are ra...
Jan 28, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Season 4Ep. 5
At the onset of the pandemic in 2020, the daily lives of virtually everyone around the world radically changed. Commutes to the office ceased. Concerts and dining outings were canceled. For some, punting stocks and cryptocurrencies on online brokerages filled the void. That fundamental shift reshaped US equity markets, ushering in an era dominated by Wall Street Bets, meme stocks, and cryptocurrency. Indeed, retail trading has yet to subside even as economies reopen. Monthly net purchases of US ...
Jan 26, 2022•48 min•Season 4Ep. 4
ADA — the native cryptocurrency of the Cardano network — is among the myriad of cryptocurrencies that saw their price soar in 2021. On this episode of The Scoop, The Block's Frank Chaparro sat down with Charles Hoskinson, founder of Cardano and CEO of Input-Output Global, to unpack the ecosystem underpinning the price headlines. While Cardano's ADA has surged over the course of 2021, the blockchain that underpins the token is yet to play host to a large decentralized exchange, of the kind that h...
Jan 21, 2022•1 hr 23 min•Season 4Ep. 3
Last year, cryptocurrency concerns took center stage in an ongoing debate over the US government's trillion-dollar infrastructure bill. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act proposed a variety of ways to pay for its intended projects, including a heightened focus on crypto tax reporting. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has long teased unified broker reporting for exchanges, meaning entities that fall under the broker definition will be required to report information and send tax forms to...
Jan 19, 2022•24 min•Season 4Ep. 2
2021 was a watershed year for crypto exchange Coinbase. In addition to becoming the biggest cryptocurrency company to tap the public markets via a direct listing, the firm grew its total assets-on-platform to more than $255 billion, hired more than 3,000 people, and clocked in quarterly revenues above $1 billion during both the second and third quarters. Still, the company’s stock price has slid since its market debut in April, down by more than 31% since its first day of trading. The bearish se...
Jan 17, 2022•57 min•Season 4Ep. 1
Sam Bankman-Fried, the billionaire founder of crypto exchange FTX, joins The Scoop to close out 2021 in a two-part episode that explores the origin story of the increasingly ubiquitous trading venue, Bankman-Fried's worldview, and what he expects for the digital asset market in the year to come. In Part 2 of this episode, Bankman-Fried and Chaparro also explore: Whether a crackdown on stablecoins is a possible concern for FTX’s business The ramifications of the government’s “really extreme fisca...
Dec 22, 2021•40 min•Season 3Ep. 86
Sam Bankman-Fried, the billionaire founder of crypto exchange FTX, joins The Scoop to close out 2021 in a two-part episode that explores the origin story of the increasingly ubiquitous trading venue, Bankman-Fried's worldview, and what he expects for the digital asset market in the year to come. We begin with Part 1, during which the former Jane Street trader and Stanford graduate harkens back to the precious beginnings of FTX, spun out of Alameda Research, a trading firm he also founded. Bankma...
Dec 20, 2021•41 min•Season 3Ep. 85
On this episode of The Scoop, The Block's VP of Research Larry Cermak joined host Frank Chaparro for a discussion in which he broke down his predictions for the top crypto trends to come in 2022. For the year ahead, Cermak expects that market appetite for established projects will continue, and that exchanges and data businesses in particular stand to benefit most. “If there is already an established exchange or established data business and it just needs a little bit of cash to raise, they're n...
Dec 17, 2021•39 min•Season 3Ep. 84
As 2021 comes to a close, Copper's head of research Fadi Aboualfa joined The Block's VP of Research Larry Cermak and host Frank Chaparro to unpack the trends that shaped the crypto market this year as well as the future dynamics that might be on the horizon for 2022. Aboualfa highlighted the ascent of so-called meme cryptocurrencies like dogecoin and shiba inu, which surged in value this year. Aboualfa said their rise is tied to strong social and community elements. "There's a social aspect to t...
Dec 16, 2021•44 min•Season 3Ep. 83
A lot has changed since the sluggish days of the crypto bear market in 2019, according to infamous Twitter personality “Loomdart.” The investor at Egirl Capital—an anonymous group of crypto traders—joined host Frank Chaparro for a discussion about how the market has matured since 2019's doldrums and why he believes it will only continue to mature in the years ahead. In Loomdart's view, cryptocurrencies are no longer as correlated with one other as they once were. However, he also acknowledged th...
Dec 10, 2021•33 min•Season 3Ep. 82
“The evolution is inevitable.” On this episode of The Scoop, Partner at Lightspeed Ventures Amy Wu joined host Frank Chaparro to discuss Lighstpeed's investments in the intersection of crypto and gaming as well as the problems participants in that corner of the market face. Specifically, Wu says that game developers in crypto have to worry about not only building a good game but creating financial incentives to support a robust in-game economy. "Opening up a game economy and allowing a lot of re...
Dec 08, 2021•42 min•Season 3Ep. 81
On this episode of The Scoop, Adam Carson, Operating Partner & Crypto Investment Lead at Point72 Ventures, joined host Frank Chaparro for the company's first public interview to discuss its investment strategy as well as Carson’s perspectives on the convergence of fintech, Web3 and the metaverse. Point72 Ventures, an offshoot of billionaire investor Steven Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management Group, was launched in 2016 to initially focus on fintech investing but is increasingly ramping up its f...
Dec 03, 2021•50 min•Season 3Ep. 80
“We’ll be back." This November, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rejected a proposal to list a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) from VanEck, only to approve VanEck's bitcoin futures-based fund a few days later. While VanEck may not have been able to launch a spot ETF at the time, the firm sees a silver lining in the reaction from policymakers in Congress. “For the SEC to have gotten a letter from both a Republican and a Democrat in favor of approval of the Bitcoin ETF was, to m...
Dec 01, 2021•37 min•Season 3Ep. 79
"It seems very much like the mania is just absolutely peaking right now." That's Pierce Crosby, general manager at TradingView. During this episode of The Scoop, Crosby joined host Frank Chaparro to discuss the state of the retail market in crypto and stocks, the data firm's institutional ambitions and its bid to take trading charts global. “Deployment of TradingView not just across the US, but globally is really the next mission for us.” Crosby explained that to date TradingView currently has a...
Nov 24, 2021•44 min•Season 3Ep. 78
“It makes a lot of sense for us to be a crypto first firm.” That’s Jess Turner, Executive Vice President of New Digital Infrastructure and Fintech at Mastercard. On this episode of the Scoop, Turner joined host Frank Chaparro to discuss how Mastercard is continuing to lean into crypto. More than ever, Mastercard and other traditional financial institutions are finding themselves involved with crypto, Turner said. “Whether traditional banks issue crypto in the way it's defined today or not, they'...
Nov 19, 2021•30 min•Season 3Ep. 77
The crypto world has only just begun digesting the finalized crypto reporting requirements from the Financial Action Task Force, or FATF. The years-long process began in the summer of 2019 when the FATF made public its initial version that called for what it dubbed virtual asset service providers, or VASPs, to undertake an unprecedented degree of information-sharing about their customers and the transactions they conduct. Since then, the guidance has gone through numerous iterations and accounte...
Nov 17, 2021•22 min•Season 3Ep. 76
"It's really a matter of moving at the pace of the decisions of institutional players." That's Shaun Martinak, research and portfolio manager at One River Digital, the newly-launched arm of One River Asset Management that's working with clients to add crypto exposure to their portfolios. In an interview during the latest episode of The Scoop podcast, Martinak observed that while institutional players have made headlines entering crypto, some of the largest investors--including pensions and endow...
Nov 12, 2021•41 min•Season 3Ep. 75
GSR is building out a space for itself at the intersection of traditional and decentralized finance worlds, according to its newly-minted head of DeFi, Jake Dwyer. During the latest episode of The Scoop podcast, Dwyer explained that the firm is building out the capacity to both create new trading products as well as provide liquidity to DeFi protocols in a way that's more familiar to the traditional finance players who want to become more closely involved. With these plans in hand, GSR expects t...
Nov 10, 2021•37 min•Season 3Ep. 74
“We're not art investors. We're investing in things that have communities” On this episode of The Scoop, Adam Goldberg co-founder of Standard Crypto joined host Frank Chaparro to discuss his work as a crypto VC and how his company is looking at the DeFi market in an unconventional way. Standard Crypto is $1 billion in size, according to a source familiar with the fund. Today, their investment team is primarily focused on projects in three areas: infrastructure, networks and apps. Thus far, Stand...
Nov 05, 2021•39 min•Season 3Ep. 73
“When I started to read about smart contracts… my mind exploded.” That's Stani Kulechov, founder and CEO of Aave, who joined host Frank Chaparro for the latest episode of The Scoop podcast to discuss his entry into the world of decentralized finance (DeFi) and offer a deep dive into Aave's ecosystem. Among the topics: Aave Arc, the project's institutional product. During the conversation, Kulechov said that he believes smaller banks and private firms will be among the institutional world's early...
Nov 03, 2021•39 min•Season 3Ep. 72
"I noticed it has a big connection to electronic music and that is my biggest passion." On this episode of The Scoop, multi-platinum and Grammy-nominated DJ Alesso and Lin Dai CEO of OneOf joined host Frank Chaparro to discuss why prominent artists are getting into NFTs and how this is signaling a cultural shift for how tastemakers are engaging with their fans today. Alesso explained that electronic artists in particular have taken notice of recent advancements in technology like NFTs and the me...
Nov 01, 2021•40 min•Season 3Ep. 71
