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Girl Gone Crypto: How These Wildly Entertaining Crypto Videos Get Made - Ep.165

Lea Thompson, aka Girl Gone Crypto, talks about what goes into producing her popular “The Crypto Minute” vlog, what initially got her into crypto, and her recent decision to quit her day job and go full time crypto. In this episode we discuss: what “The Crypto Minute” is all about, and all the crypto video content she produces (2:37) how Lea comes up with creative content such as wearing a whale costume to portray Microstrategy CEO Michael Saylor (5:04) how long it actually takes to create “The ...

Michael Moro on Tesla's BTC Buy and the New Genesis Treasury - Ep.164

Michael Moro, CEO of Genesis Global, discusses Tesla’s purchase of $1.5 billion in bitcoin and Genesis’s new unit: Genesis Treasury. He also talks about how demand has shaped Genesis’ bitcoin and crypto offerings over the years, which events have acted as catalysts for institutional demand, and what Genesis is expecting in 2021. In this episode Michael covers: The significance of Tesla allocating $1.5 billion to BTC (1:08) How Tesla’s purchase is a result of the evolution of the asset class and ...

Why Asia Is So Important to Crypto - Ep.163

Mira Christanto, research analyst at Messari, recently wrote a comprehensive report on the crypto scene in Asia. In this episode, she covers cultural differences in crypto trading between East and West, plus gives us the latest on the diverse regulatory landscape within this large region. Some topics covered in this show include: why Asia is an important geography in crypto why Asia dominates the crypto futures trading markets why DeFi fits better with Western culture, and centralized services a...

Why the GameStop Insanity Is So Similar to Crypto - Ep.162

Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO and founder of FTX, describes what happened between the Subreddit Wall Street Bets and hedge funds around the stock of GameStop this week. In this episode, he covers: what happened with the stock of video game retailer GameStop this week what that says about how to value a stock how the traditional financial establishment reacted how the events in GameStop this week are similar to the way crypto markets operate how a crypto financial system could affect the ability of inve...

Is Tether a Fraud? Its Bank Says It's Not - Ep.161

Gregory Pepin, deputy CEO of Deltec Bank and Trust, responds to allegations in a blog post by the pseudonymous Crypto Anonymous, that Tether is a "highly probably fraud." In this episode, he covers: how Deltec accounts for its reserves, and why they didn't show up on Crypto Anonymous's blog post where the dollars backing Tethers are held how Tethers get created where Tether Ltd. keeps its cash equivalents why there's more demand for trading with USDT than with USD partially because of the arbitr...

What You Need to Know About Bitcoin Layer 2s - Ep.160

Meltem Demirors, chief strategy officer at Coinshares, and Nic Carter, general partner at Castle Island Ventures, join me at the Stacks conference to discuss Bitcoin layer 2s. In this episode, they cover: why layers 2s exist how layer 2s, such as payment channels like Lightning, work what kind of throughput layer 2s have how moving Bitcoin to layer 2 affects the price why people having moved $5 billion worth of Bitcoin to Ethereum how Bitcoin moving to Ethereum affects the price the most popular...

2021 in Crypto: What to Expect in the Year Ahead - Ep.159

Frank Chaparro, director of news at The Block, gives his predictions for what will happen in crypto in 2021. In this episode, we discuss: the big stories in crypto in 2020 how the market has changed in 2020 how the market differs from the 2017-2018 bubble what big traditional financial services firms and investment banks will do in crypto in 2021 how crypto exchanges will experiment with their fee structures how regulatory actions, such as the lawsuit against Ripple, will affect exchanges what m...

Laura's New Year's 2021 AMA: Your Questions About Privacy, the STABLE Act, Diem and More - Ep.158

For the holidays, I'm doing two AMAs. In the second of two, I cover: privacy blockchains my thoughts on the STABLE Act whether or not Facebook's Diem will have a positive or negative impact on crypto what I miss from pre-COVID about the crypto community how we can use blockchain and crypto to weed our propaganda and fake news the best pick and shovel plays in crypto what distinguishes a journalist from an entertainer my thoughts on the state of media and journalism in the US Thank you to our spo...

Laura's Christmas 2020 AMA: Your Questions About Crypto Media and More - Ep.157

For the holidays, I'm doing two AMAs. In this first of two, I cover: how my book is going tips for aspiring podcasters what it's like being an independent journalist how I spent my time outside crypto if I send bitcoin to North Korea whether I own any crypto if I expect bitcoin will lose its weirdness as it becomes more widely adopted how much blockchain technology can disintermediate banks what black swans I see on the horizon for 2021 what trends I see for 2021 Thank you to our sponsors! Block...

Beeple on How and Why He Raked In $3.5 Million - Ep.156

Mike Winkelmann, the digital artist also known as Beeple who has made an artwork every day for over 13 years, talks about the NFT auctions he held last weekend, after learning about crypto two months ago. In the show, he discusses: how he got into crypto two months ago, and made $3.5 million in NFT auctions last weekend how the objects on sale were more than just jpegs and what physical objects came with the NFTs what types of auctions he had, and why some pieces were available for $1 apiece how...

Why Rohan Grey Believes Stablecoin Issuers Need to Be Banks - Ep.155

Rohan Grey, assistant professor at Willamette Law, talks about the STABLE Act, which would require stable coin issuers to obtain a banking charter, require approval from the Federal Reserve and require issuers to have FDIC insurance. In this episode, Grey, an advisor to the bill, discusses: how the past history of financial innovation and events that have posed systemic risks necessitates the STABLE Act how he, not being a staff member of Congress, became involved in the bill how the bill would ...

How to Get Your ETH2 Yield and Take Out a Loan on It - Ep.154

James Slazas, founder and CEO of LiquidStake and DARMA Capital, describes their retail and institutional offerings for customers who want to stake on Ethereum 2.0 but still access the locked-up capital. In this episode, we discuss: what problem LiquidStake solves and how what happens if the dollar value of someone’s stake drops below the amount that they’ve borrowed who keeps the ETH in a liquidation how LiquidStake makes money how they determine the price of ETH to make the loan and what it doe...

Crypto on Every Corner: Driving Adoption With Jeremy Allaire and Meltem Demirors - Ep.153

This episode is a discussion from Stellar's Meridian conference, in which I moderated the panel, Crypto on Every Corner: Driving Adoption, featuring Jeremy Allaire, cofounder, chairman and CEO of Circle, and Meltem Demirors, chief strategy officer at CoinShares. In this discussion, we cover: what adoption means and looks like why cryptocurrency is at a particularly interesting inflection point how central bank digital currencies could affect that how blockchains will recede into the background h...

9 Ways Bitcoin Is at an All-Time High - Ep.152

Nic Carter, general partner at Castle Island Ventures, and cofounder and chairman of Coin Metrics, explains why the Bitcoin price has been rising without the retail bubble seen in 2017-2018. In this episode he covers: how this Bitcoin rally differs from the ones in 2017-2018 and why the market is much more mature how much the pandemic and other macro forces this year have helped propel Bitcoin what it says that the number of Bitcoin addresses with $10 or more worth of bitcoin are is at 18 millio...

Chad Cascarilla on Paxos's Partnership With PayPal - Ep.151

Paxos CEO and cofounder Chad Cascarilla discusses his company's partnership with PayPal, which just opened up its crypto purchase and selling product to all its US customers. In this episode, he covers: how Paxos enables PayPal's crypto product the regulatory steps Paxos took to make this happen why $200 billion company like PayPal would partner with a small company like Paxos how Paxos Crypto Brokerage works how Paxos provides the regulatory cover that PayPal needs for this offering, along with...

What the Crypto Industry Could See Under a Biden Administration - Ep.150

Kristin Smith, executive director of the Blockchain Association and a board member of HODLpac, discusses how advocating for crypto will change under what is likely to be a new presidential administration. In this episode she talks about: what crypto advocacy typically entails how the approach will change under a Biden administration compared to what it was under Trump what appointments by Biden could most affect the crypto industry which issues are at the top of the agendas for both the Blockcha...

The 2 Types of Investors Driving Interest in Crypto - Ep.149

Matt Hougan, chief investment officer of Bitwise Asset Management, discusses a milestone Bitwise reached this week -- hitting $100 million in assets under management. He also covered what has been driving interest in Bitwise products the two types of customers who have been especially interested in purchasing crypto assets this year and why what this says about the maturation of the industry compared to during the 2017 bubble how conversations with Bitwise customers have changed since then what ...

Willy Woo on Why It's 'an Extremely Great Time to Buy Bitcoin' - Ep.148

Willy Woo, on-chain Bitcoin analyst and writer of “The Bitcoin Forecast,” a market intelligence newsletter, discusses how the Bitcoin markets have been changing amidst what may be a forthcoming ebbing of derivatives exchanges and a revival of the importance of spot exchanges. In this episode, he covers: what the PayPal news means when there are currently only 23.4 million holders on chain, and only 101 million active unique accounts at centralized exchanges why "old hands" in Bitcoin have been c...

What You Need to Know About the DOJ's Cryptocurrency Enforcement Framework - Ep.147

Jessie Liu, partner at Skadden and the former US attorney for the District of Columbia, headed up the team that has prosecuted what some believe is the greatest number of cryptocurrency crimes worldwide — Welcome to Video, Dark Scandals, Helix, North Korea, Hamas/Al Qaeda and ISIS. In this episode, she discusses: how she came to create a Threat Finance Unit that focuses on the intersection of cybercrime that threatened national security what the DOJ's new cryptocurrency enforcement framework mea...

Abuse and Ethical Lapses: What Happened When Justin Sun Acquired BitTorrent - Ep.146

Freelance reporter and audio producer Chris Harland-Dunaway speaks about his long investigative story on Tron founder Justin Sun after his acquisition of BitTorrent. In this episode, Harland-Dunaway describes: how after his acquisition of peer-to-peer file sharing protocol BitTorrent Justin Sun straddled the China-West divide Sun's background, his early success and how he got into cryptocurrency how he treated the US-based employees differently from those based in China how Sun made a threat to ...

Coinbase in Turmoil: Why Employees Walked Out - Ep.145

Frank Chaparro, director of news at The Block, discusses a controversial blog post by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong about how the company intends to take an apolitical stance, the pushback it received afterward, and the company's offer of generous exit packages for employees who disagree: why CEO Brian Armstrong wrote the blog post stating it would be taking an apolitical stance during these socially and politically tumultuous times why the company then offered a generous exit package to employee...

Why NFTs Are Attracting Everyday People to Crypto - Ep.144

Jake Brukhman, cofounder and CEO of CoinFund, explains why people are excited about non-fungible tokens, how they can be used, and what new behaviors and businesses they might enable. He discusses: what a NFT or non-fungible token is how they can be "liquid intellectual property" what kinds of digital assets can be turned into NFTs what new types of behaviors and new products and services can be created based off NFTs why consumers would prefer to use an NFT photo or song vs. one from Shuttersto...

The First Crypto Bank: What Kraken Financial Will Do and How - Ep.143

David Kinitsky, CEO of Kraken Financial, talks about Kraken's news that it is launching a bank, after receiving approval to form a special purpose depository institution (SPDI) from the state of Wyoming. He discusses: why Kraken decided to become a crypto bank, and what it will be able to do with this status how this status will affect the consumer experience for crypto users what kinds of crypto assets it will be able to deal with how quickly it will list coins, such as those DeFi coins that qu...

How SushiSwap Proved That Liquidity Is Not a Moat - Ep.142

0xMaki, a cofounder of SushiSwap explains how and why he got involved in this project forked from SushiSwap, why he thinks his view of decentralization differs from that of many centralized teams that being such projects, and what the benefits of the SushiSwap vampire mining scheme have been. He discusses: how and why he got involved in SushiSwap why he feels his view of decentralization differs from that of teams such as Uniswap who he believes the other cofounders are, demographically why cofo...

SushiSwap Takes On Uniswap: Which Should Win and Why? - Ep.141

Nadav Hollander, cofounder and CEO of Dharma, discusses the war currently being waged between Uniswap and SushiSwap, how this is driving up fees on Ethereum, and how Dharma's product can get around them. In this episode we discuss: why he conceptually supports SushiSwap and fair launch coins whether or not fair launch coins really are fair why SushiSwap makes him nervous why the battle between SushiSwap and Uniswap is a so-called "vampire attack," which is actually driving up the total value loc...

Joseph Lubin on How JPMorgan's Quorum Will Fit In at ConsenSys - Ep.140

Joseph Lubin, founder of ConsenSys and cofounder of Ethereum, discusses ConsenSys's acquisition this week of JPMorgan's blockchain solution, Quorum. In this episode, he talks about: why JPMorgan sold Quorum to ConsenSys, and how that fits into ConsenSys's larger enterprise offerings who Quorum's clients are and what it is used for whether or not ConsenSys is also acquiring the Quorum team how the acquisition fits in with the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance and its standards-based approach to blockc...

AMA With Laura: The Greatest Innovation in the Industry Right Now - Ep.139

In this episode, I answer some questions submitted to me via Twitter. I take the audience behind the scenes at Unconfirmed and Unchained to discuss: how I started learning about crypto my pre-interview ritual and how I prepare for interviews the toughest interview I have done so far what I dislike about being a crypto journalist my interests outside of crypto what my recording setup and environment are like the storyline to my upcoming book who I consider to be the top five leaders in crypto wha...

Andreas Antonopoulos on Why the ETH Supply Debate Is 'Silly' - Ep.138

Andreas Antonopoulos, speaker, educator and author of "Mastering Bitcoin" and "Mastering Ethereum," dives into the ETH supply debate that raged over the last week. In this episode, he talks about: why the question about the ETH supply is a "silly gotcha" what technical features of the Ethereum blockchain make it less straightforward to calculate the supply of ether how the shift to Ethereum 2.0 and a proof of stake system will affect the value of ETH as money why Bitcoin and Ethereum are not nat...

$5 Billion in AUM: Why Growth at Grayscale Exploded in the Last Quarter - Ep.137

Michael Sonnenshein, managing director of Grayscale Investments, talks about the strong growth in investment in its products, with inflows in Q2 totaling more than $900 million, bringing assets under management to over $5 billion. He discusses how Grayscale: saw more than $900 million in investment in Q2, up from $500 million in Q1 why the macro environment is causing investors to focus on crypto why investors are expressing growing interest in the Grayscale Ethereum Trust how 80% of Grayscale i...