Zachary Townsend is the co-founder and CEO of Meanwhile, a life insurance company for the crypto economy. In this episode, Townsend and The Block's Frank Chaparro discuss Meanwhile's model of Bitcoin-denominated life insurance and the advantages of this approach vs. traditional dollar-denominated insurance policies, such as protection against inflation and the ability to borrow against the policy's value tax-free. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 04:48 How Meanwhile works 10:33 Role of insurance in th...
Dec 19, 2024•32 min•Season 6Ep. 77
Himanshu Sahay is the Co-Founder and CTO of Arch. In this episode recorded live at Emergence in Prague, Sahay and The Block's Frank Chaparro discuss the evolution of crypto lending after the 2022 market turmoil and Arch's approach to expansion and collateral. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 01:16 Intro to Arch 03:15 Shifting collateral standards 07:33 The state of crypto credit 12:48 New administration, new regulation 14:35 Debanking and Barron Trump 17:41 Arch’s global expansion 19:29 Encounters wit...
Dec 13, 2024•22 min•Season 6Ep. 76
Samantha Bohbot is the Chief Growth Officer & Partner of RockawayX, a blockchain-focused venture capital fund. In this episode recorded live at Emergence in Prague, Bohbot and The Block's Frank Chaparro discuss discuss challenges facing European firms compared to their American counterparts, and RockawayX's credit fund and developing opportunities in DeFi. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 00:36 RockawayX 03:38 Tech and investment in Europe 07:11 Post-election investment 09:19 DeFi rally 11:58 Cryp...
Dec 12, 2024•29 min•Season 6Ep. 75
David Wells is the founder and CEO of Enclave Markets, an institutional-grade digital asset trading platform that bills itself as the first Fully Encrypted Exchange (FEX). In this episode recorded live at Emergence in Prague, Wells and Chaparro discuss Enclave's model, the maturing crypto market and the potential for more sophisticated trading strategies and liquidity. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 01:21 Enclave Markets 04:12 The Enclave experience 05:53 Crypto capital markets 06:57 The maturing cr...
Dec 11, 2024•15 min•Season 6Ep. 74
Bill Barhydt is the founder and CEO of Abra, a global platform for digital asset prime services and wealth management. In this episode recorded live at Emergence, Barhydt and Chaparro discuss how building a successful crypto businesses requires careful navigation of complex legal and regulatory hurdles, and how this process might change under the upcoming Trump administration. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 01:57 Building in Crypto 05:38 Abra's Pivots 09:48 Surviving FTX 14:18 Abra's Future Strategy...
Dec 10, 2024•26 min•Season 6Ep. 73
Jon Kol is the co-founder of Hyperlane, an interoperability protocol. In this episode, Kol and Chaparro discuss the challenges and progress of blockchain interoperability, and how the industry may now be turning a corner. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 04:24 A year away 08:50 Interchange singularity 10:30 Bridge opportunities 13:32 Balancing speed and security 18:35 Poor UX, Poor DevX 20:11 Who’s the buyer? 26:52 Conclusion This episode is brought to you by our sponsor Polkadot Polkadot is the block...
Dec 02, 2024•29 min•Season 6Ep. 72
Joshua Lim is the co-founder of Arbelos Markets. In this episode, Lim and Chaparro discuss the crypto market surge sparked by Donald Trump's election as U.S. President. Lim sheds light on how the Trump administration's regulatory stance could pave the way for institutional investors to dive deeper ino the crypto space, potentially driving higher trading volumes and boosting liquidity across the ecosystem. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 01:01 Macro Tailwinds 03:17 Flows & Volume 08:14 Market Oppo...
Nov 29, 2024•36 min•Season 6Ep. 71
Anthony Scaramucci is the founder and Managing Partner of Skybridge. In this episode, Scaramucci and Chaparro discuss the recent U.S. Presidential election and its implications for the crypto industry. Scaramucci analyzes the factors that led to Kamala Harris's loss, naming crypto as a key factor. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 00:36 2024 Presidential Election Retrospective 04:16 Trump's Cabinet 07:37 The Future of the Democrats 11:29 Market's Response to Trump Victory 14:23 New SEC Chair 19:17 D.O....
Nov 25, 2024•26 min•Season 6Ep. 70
dYdX founder Antonio Juliano discusses the evolution of dYdX and the broader DeFi landscape, highlighting the need for DeFi to move beyond copying tradfi products and build truly innovative applications made possible by decentralization. OUTLINE 00:00 Intro 01:33 DeFi's Development 04:24 dYdX Mega Vault AMM 05:32 dYdX Prediction Markets 08:47 High-Performance Blockchain Development 10:35 Appchain Drawbacks 12:47 dYdX vs. Hyperliquid 14:36 New dYdX Markets 17:11 Onchain RWA Derivatives 18:39 DEX ...
Nov 21, 2024•27 min•Season 6Ep. 69
Syncracy Capital co-founder Ryan Watkins sheds light on Ethereum, Solana and finding the next "generational winners" in the crypto market. OUTLINE 00:00 Intro 01:47 Watkins' Crypto Journey 05:22 Syncracy's Liquid Strategy 06:51 Crypto Market Analysis 08:52 Ethereum's Underperformance 13:14 Long-Only 15:34 Picking Winners 20:38 SOL Trade 28:27 Bitcoin vs. Crypto 34:16 Market Cycle Analysis This episode is brought to you by our sponsor Polkadot Polkadot is the blockspace ecosystem for boundless in...
Nov 15, 2024•44 min•Season 6Ep. 67
Ripple Head of Product Jasmine Cooper and Axelar Co-Founder Sergey Gorbunov discuss advancements in Real World Assets (RWAs), tokenization, and interoperability. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 01:12 Interoperable RWAs 04:18 Regulatory Clarity 08:09 RWA Tech Stack 11:37 White Labeling RWAs 13:05 Choosing a Chain 14:43 XRP Ledger RWA Experience 20:35 Asset Issuance 101 22:49 Global Accessibility of RWAs 26:05 Corporate Admin Crypto Adoption 27:26 Advancements in Interoperability 30:26 Axelar's Develop...
Nov 13, 2024•40 min•Season 6Ep. 67
Justin Slaughter is the vice president of regulatory affairs at Paradigm. In this episode, Slaughter and Chaparro discuss the Democratic Party's performance leading up to and during the recent election, particularly in relation to the crypto industry. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 03:19 2024 Election Recap 04:47 Harris Campaign 07:50 Single-Issue Crypto Voters 11:13 Democratic Party Policy 22:48 Policy Flip-Flopping 26:49 Split Ticket Voters 36:37 New SEC Regime 43:01 Pro-Crypto Democrats 45:06 Pre...
Nov 11, 2024•55 min•Season 6Ep. 66
Alex Gluchowski is the Co-Founder CEO of Matter Labs, a company focused on scaling Ethereum using zero-knowledge proofs, and Matthias Broner is their Head of Growth for Latin America. In this episode, Gluchowski and Broner discuss the QuarkID project in Buenos Aires, which uses zero-knowledge proofs to give citizens control over their digital identity and serve as a model for decentralized digital identity systems. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 04:25 Blockchain Scaling 07:19 Buenos Ares ZK-Powered ...
Nov 06, 2024•42 min•Season 6Ep. 65
Robert Leshner is the CEO of Superstate, an asset management firm that tokenizes traditional financial assets like U.S. Treasuries and brings them onchain. In this episode, Leshner explains the advantages of tokenized assets, such as the ability to operate 24/7 and the increased composability with DeFi protocols. He also discusses the regulatory and macroeconomic tailwinds that have made this an opportune time to launch tokenized products. OUTLINE 00:00 Health & Routines 07:03 Superstate Ove...
Oct 31, 2024•1 hr 4 min•Season 6Ep. 64
Erik Voorhees and Teana Baker-Taylor are co-founders of Venice, an open-source and uncensored AI chatbot and content generation platform. In this episode, the Venice co-founders discuss the vision and approach of their product in contrast to more restrictive and centralized AI models like ChatGPT. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 00:43 Origin of Venice AI 02:37 'AI is like Bitcoin but scarier' 07:29 Proprietary AI Models 09:12 Regulatory Inefficiencies 11:16 Global AI Regulatory Regimes 16:46 AI Censo...
Oct 14, 2024•56 min•Season 6Ep. 63
Michael Shaulov is the Co-Founder & CEO of Fireblocks. In this episode, Shaulov discusses how Fireblocks' core business has evolved over the past few years, particularly in the area of stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 00:56 Business at Fireblocks 06:15 Fireblocks & Stablecoins 09:59 RWA TVL Growth 15:36 Institutional Stablecoin Adoption 25:22 TradFi's Adoption of Crypto Infrastructure 29:27 Onchain Identity Systems 38:10 Closing Thoughts This episod...
Oct 10, 2024•40 min•Season 6Ep. 62
Sam Hallene and Aryan Sheikhalian are analysts at CMT Digital, a subsidiary of the CMT Group. In this episode, Hallene and Sheikhalian unpack the key trends they are observing in crypto's VC market, including the intersection of blockchain and AI and its implication for improving user data ownership, verified inference, and the use of blockchain to govern non-deterministic models. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 05:31 Current VC Landscape 07:02 VC Market Decoupling 12:11 PMF in Crypto 15:58 Non-Finan...
Oct 01, 2024•37 min•Season 6Ep. 61
Sandy Peng is the co-founder of Scroll. In this episode, Peng discusses scaling Ethereum and particularly emphasizes the importance of business insight and experience outside of crypto in driving application-level innovation. OUTLINE 00:00 Intro 01:07 Peng's Journey to Scroll 04:27 Peng's Regulatory Background 07:52 Industry Headwinds 10:31 Ethereum Scaling Competition 15:00 Consumer Crypto Apps 16:49 Improving Crypto UX 23:06 Stepn's Success 26:11 ZK Advantages 29:45 Scroll's Roadmap 34:14 Clos...
Sep 30, 2024•36 min•Season 6Ep. 60
This episode of The Scoop features Bitget Wallet COO Alvin Kan, and two builders from the TON ecosystem — Catizen co-founder Ricky Wong and Miles, a core team member of Tomarket. The conversation explores how Telegram's large user base is enabling rapid adoption and growth of Telegram 'Mini Apps' on top of the TON blockchain. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 01:29 TON Overview 03:06 TON's Advantages 06:21 TON's Future 08:29 Catizen's Hyper Adoption 10:30 Tomarket Overview 12:34 Ton Ecosystem Collabora...
Sep 25, 2024•32 min•Season 6Ep. 59
Vishal Gupta is the co-founder and CEO of TrueX — a new stablecoin-native trading platform. In this episode, Gupta unpacks how TrueX aims to provide a "stablecoin-native" trading experience with segregated custody, primarily targeted at institutional clients in the United States. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 04:50 TrueX Overview 11:13 Exchange Innovation 14:42 Institutional Client Trading Needs 17:52 Stablecoin Collateral 19:21 TrueX Matching Engine 23:11 Segregated Service Offerings 25:52 TrueX F...
Sep 19, 2024•37 min•Season 6Ep. 58
Steve Kurz is the Global Digital Head of Asset Management at Galaxy Digital. In this episode, Kurz and Chaparro discuss the current state and future of crypto asset management, including the challenges and opportunities in the industry. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 01:53 Refining Market Structure 03:36 Galaxy Strategy 06:31 TradFi Capital Allocators 09:17 Future Products 13:26 Galaxy PMF 15:05 Crypto Lending 17:11 Regulatory Climate 19:40 Closing Thoughts This episode is brought to you by our spon...
Sep 17, 2024•22 min•Season 6Ep. 57
David Ripley is the CEO of Kraken. In this episode, Ripley discusses Kraken's strategic expansion into institutional services, including custody and lending. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 03:57 Institutional Crypto Services 07:22 FTX Fallout 11:02 Institutional Adoption 15:25 Crypto Credit Crisis 17:10 Crypto Banking 19:14 Regulatory Environment 22:39 Closing Thoughts This episode is brought to you by our sponsor Polkadot Polkadot is the blockspace ecosystem for boundless innovation. To discover mo...
Sep 12, 2024•24 min•Season 6Ep. 56
This episode of The Scoop was recorded with former chairperson of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Jay Clayton. Chaparro and Clayton discuss how the crypto industry has evolved since Clayton's tenure as head of the SEC. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 00:54 Crypto's Evolution 03:42 Crypto Securities & Crypto Commodities 07:02 Token Fundraising 09:57 US Crypto Exchanges 11:12 2022 Crypto Credit Crisis 12:47 The Future of Finance 15:05 Short Selling 16:08 Closing Thoughts This episode i...
Sep 06, 2024•18 min•Season 6Ep. 55
This episode of The Scoop was recorded with US Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) and Falcon X Global's Head of Revenue and Business Austin Reid live at the SALT Conference in Jackson Hole. Senator Scott and Reid discuss the growing political interest in crypto and digital assets in the United States, and the need for better education that clearly conveys the value proposition of this new form of technology. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 00:40 Crypto's Political 03:05 Trump's Crypto Shift 04:23 US Regulatory...
Sep 02, 2024•23 min•Season 6Ep. 54
Carlos Domingo is the founder and CEO at Securitize. Earlier this year, Securitize partnered with BlackRock to launch the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL). In this episode recorded live at last week's SALT Conference, Domingo discusses the successful launch of BUIDL and highlights the growing institutional adoption of tokenized treasuries over stablecoins. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 01:03 Blackrock & BUIDL 02:13 Strengthening Crypto Collateral 05:50 Tokenization Evo...
Aug 30, 2024•24 min•Season 6Ep. 53
Anthony Scaramucci serves as both the founder and managing partner of Skybridge Capital, as well as the founder and chairman of SALT Conferences. In this episode recorded live at last week's SALT Conference in Jackson Hole, Chaparro and Scaramucci discuss the upcoming 2024 U.S. presidential election and the rising importance of the 'crypto vote.' OUTLINE 00:00 Intro 04:16 2024 Election 14:19 Presidential Crypto Policy 15:58 Donald Trump 19:59 China Policy 25:05 Closing Thoughts This episode is b...
Aug 27, 2024•31 min•Season 6Ep. 52
Caitlin Cook is the director of growth at the onchain fitness platform Moonwalk Fitness. In this episode, Cook shares how Moonwalk is attempting to build a consumer crypto app that helps people hit their health goals through daily step competitions. Moonwalk plans to tap into fitness communities, influencers, and corporate wellness programs to attract a broader non-crypto audience. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 02:12 Moonwalk Overview 02:56 Consumer Crypto Apps 21:44 Moonwalk's GTM Strategy 23:32 M...
Aug 19, 2024•33 min•Season 6Ep. 51
Diogo Mónica is the founder and executive chairman of Anchorage Digital, and a general partner at Haun Ventures. In this episode, Chaparro and Diogo discuss how culture and intensity are crucial in building successful teams and companies in the crypto industry. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 03:44 Macro & Geopolitical Risks 04:39 Buying the Dip 06:20 VC Conviction 09:20 Mónica's Background 18:19 Startup Culture 23:58 Building Crypto Companies 26:13 Advice for Founders 33:44 2024 VC Landscape 38:...
Aug 16, 2024•50 min•Season 6Ep. 50
Smokey the Bera is the pseudonymous co-founder of Berachain — a Layer 1 network that raised $100 million in a Series B back in April. In this episode, Chaparro and Smokey discuss how memetics influences community building, and unpack Berachain's innovative 'proof of liquidity' consensus, where users earn governance tokens by contributing liquidity to the ecosystem. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 04:42 Berachain Conception 14:08 Ecosystem 'Politics' 15:58 The Power of Memetics 20:31 Tri-Token Model 2...
Aug 08, 2024•46 min•Season 6Ep. 49
Nick van Eck is the co-founder and CEO of Agora — a stablecoin issuer that raised a $12 million seed round led by Dragonfly in April. In this episode, Van Eck explains how Agora's AUSD is attempting to innovate the centralized stablecoin using a neutral, customer-first perspective. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 02:29 Bootstrapping a Stablecoin 06:09 Stablecoin Issuers 09:24 Agora's Strategy 10:43 Market Structure Changes 16:10 'Tokenization' Taxonomy 20:12 Stablecoins & Instant Settlement 21:49...
Aug 01, 2024•28 min•Season 6Ep. 48
