Episode description

Nick van Eck is the co-founder and CEO of Agora, a US-based stablecoin issuer backed by Dragonfly, General Catalyst, Galaxy, Consensys, Wintermute, Flowdesk, Kraken Ventures and more.

Agora’s strategy is to build distribution through B2B partners via a revenue sharing model, in which all parties that contribute to Agora’s stablecoins’ success share in the upside. 

Prior to founding Agora, Nick worked at General Catalyst, a leading Venture Capital firm. 

Nick’s grandfather started VanEck Global, a US ETF and mutual fund manager, in 1955, which informed much of Nick’s thinking about markets and the economy. Today, VanEck Global manages $100 billion across a range of products, including recently launched Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs.

In this conversation, Nick and I discuss crypto as an asset class and parallels to gold and other investments, the current state of the stablecoin industry and its future trajectory, Agora’s thesis vis-à-vis incumbent stablecoin issuers like Circle and Tether, Agora’s business model and the details of its go-to-market, and much more.