The Scoop

The Blockchain Association recently launched a new political action committee (PAC) designed to build relationships with pro-crypto Congressional candidates.In this episode of The Scoop, the Blockchain Association’s Executive Director Kristin Smith shares the objectives of the new Blockchain Association PAC, and why she believes Congress is the appropriate authority to design a regulatory framework for the crypto industry.As Smith explains, the Blockchain Association PAC is intended to promote pro-crypto candidates:“For us, this PAC is really about building relationships… This isn't the type of PAC where we go and buy a bunch of airtime or print out a bunch of mailers and spend a few hundred thousand dollars or $1,000,000 in a single race.”While SEC Chair Gary Gensler recently remarked that multiple crypto regulators could undermine the SEC’s efforts, Smith believes the Congress is in the best position to effectuate change:“We need Congress to step in and help sort through these issues because they are the ones that can grant new authority and they're the ones that have the flexibility to design a regulatory system that matches the risks that we see in crypto.”Episode 94 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded at SALT New York 2022 on September 13 with The Block's Frank Chaparro, and Blockchain Association's Executive Director Kristin Smith.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 [email protected] episode is brought to you by our sponsor TronAbout TronTRON 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 |

For the final installment of this three-part Ethereum Merge special edition of The Scoop, we take a closer look at zero-knowledge (ZK) rollups — technology that could enable Ethereum to scale to millions of transactions per second.There are four main teams working on ZK-rollups: Polygon, Scroll, Starkware, and Matter Labs.In this episode of The Scoop, Matter Labs Chief Product Officer Steve Newcomb shares what he believes to be the key ingredients of a good ZK-rollup, and why he believes scaling solutions will herald a new wave of innovation.According to Newcomb, a paradigm shift will occur once Ethereum successfully scales:“Once Ethereum can scale — and truly scale — it's kind of like coming out of Plato's cave and seeing the rest of the world, and seeing these use cases we could have never even predicted.”Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has stated he believes ZK-rollups will be the main layer-2 scaling solution in the future, largely because of the speed at which users can move funds between mainnet and the layer-2.Newcomb also believes that ZK-rollups are “going to be the end game for scaling,” although he also stipulates that a good ZK-rollup should meet the following requirements:“These five ingredients — having a generalized ZK-rollup, being EVM compatible, working with solidity, being truly open sourced, being correctly decentralized, and having good tokenomics — these are the key ingredients of what makes a good ZK-rollup a ZK-rollup.”Episode 93 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block's Tim Copeland, VP of Research Larry Cermak and Matter Labs' Chief Product Officer Steve Newcomb.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 [email protected] episode is brought to you by our sponsors Tron, Chainalysis & IWC SchaffhausenAbout TronTRON 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 ChainalysisChainalysis is the leading blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services, and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, and insurance and cybersecurity companies in over 60 countries. Backed by Accel, Addition, Benchmark, Coatue, Paradigm, Ribbit, and other leading firms in venture capital, Chainalysis builds trust in blockchains to promote more financial freedom with less risk. For more information, visit www.chainalysis.com.About IWC SchaffhausenIWC Schaffhausen is a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Known for its unique engineering approach to watchmaking, IWC combines the best of human craftsmanship and creativity with cutting-edge technology and processes. With collections like the Portugieser and the Pilot’s Watches, the brand covers the whole spectrum from elegant timepieces to sports watches. For more information, visit IWC.com.

Last year, Sky Mavis’ Axie Infinity inspired an entire genre of ‘play-to-earn’ crypto games.In recent months however, the volume of in-game NFT sales has been in decline as data from The Block shows: In this episode of The Scoop, Sky Mavis Co-Founder and Growth Lead Jeff Zirlin explains why he believes the core Axie community is stronger than ever, and how Axie Infinity’s in-game economy will become less reliant on speculative activity.According to Zirlin, the key to developing Axie’s in-game economy “away from play-to-earn to something that's more play-and-own,” is to give people reasons to invest in the game for purposes other than pure speculation:“We need to have emotional spending within these digital economies — people need to be spending for emotions that can be linked to the seven sins like wrath and greed, sloth… it can't it can't be everyone just coming in and expecting to get a free lunch.”Although Axie’s NFT trading volume is down from last year’s highs, Zirlin points out that the current levels are still significantly higher than they were before the bull market mania of last year:“People poured into Axie because it was the main thing that was working and the best product on the market. Now we're seeing a return to reality, but we're still at a much higher zone of adoption than we were prior to all the madness.”Episode 92 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block's Frank Chaparro and Sky Mavis Co-Founder and Growth Lead Jeff Zirlin.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 [email protected] episode is brought to you by our sponsors Tron, Chainalysis & IWC SchaffhausenAbout TronTRON 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 ChainalysisChainalysis is the leading blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services, and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, and insurance and cybersecurity companies in over 60 countries. Backed by Accel, Addition, Benchmark, Coatue, Paradigm, Ribbit, and other leading firms in venture capital, Chainalysis builds trust in blockchains to promote more financial freedom with less risk. For more information, visit www.chainalysis.com.About IWC SchaffhausenIWC Schaffhausen is a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Known for its unique engineering approach to watchmaking, IWC combines the best of human craftsmanship and creativity with cutting-edge technology and processes. With collections like the Portugieser and the Pilot’s Watches, the brand covers the whole spectrum from elegant timepieces to sports watches. For more information, visit IWC.com.

In the crypto world, MEV (‘Maximal Extractable Value’) refers to block producers’ ability to reorganize the sequence of transactions in any given block to extract a premium.While MEV can be used nefariously in instances such as front-running large transactions, it can also be used for arbitrage opportunities that do not directly impact other market participants.In this episode of The Scoop, we take a closer look at the world of MEV with Viktor Bunin, a protocol specialist at Coinbase, and Stephane Gosselin, the founder of Flashbots — a research project that provides MEV solutions to Ethereum validators.According to Gosselin, the purpose of Flashbots is to make markets more efficient:“We look at market structures, we research them and we develop products to try to improve them, and make sure that they're aligned with the intent of the chains that they're operating on top of.”How Flashbots works in practice is essentially by creating a separate layer where users can bid against each other to have their transactions included on the blockchain. As Bunin explains,“It essentially creates a private mempool or a ‘fastlane’ where it says, ‘Hey, you're welcome to compete all you'd like, but you should do it at this layer,’ and then there will be a standardized way by which whoever is a winning bid — essentially the winning transaction — that will be the one that gets included on the blockchain and no others.”Episode 91 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block's Frank Chaparro and Viktor Bunin, protocol specialist at Coinbase and Stephane Gosselin, MEV boost architect & co-founder of Flashbots.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 [email protected] episode is brought to you by our sponsors Tron, Chainalysis & IWC SchaffhausenAbout TronTRON 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 ChainalysisChainalysis is the leading blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services, and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, and insurance and cybersecurity companies in over 60 countries. Backed by Accel, Addition, Benchmark, Coatue, Paradigm, Ribbit, and other leading firms in venture capital, Chainalysis builds trust in blockchains to promote more financial freedom with less risk. For more information, visit www.chainalysis.com.About IWC SchaffhausenIWC Schaffhausen is a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Known for its unique engineering approach to watchmaking, IWC combines the best of human craftsmanship and creativity with cutting-edge technology and processes. With collections like the Portugieser and the Pilot’s Watches, the brand covers the whole spectrum from elegant timepieces to sports watches. For more information, visit IWC.com.

In the last episode of The Scoop, we explored why some venture capitalists are becoming reluctant to invest in token models.However, not all VCs in the crypto space share this sentiment. Multicoin Capital — a VC whose combined crypto funds total nearly $550 million — is “primarily token investors,” according to managing partner Kyle Samani.In this episode of The Scoop, Kyle Samani talks through some of Multicoin’s recent investments and lays out when the token model can be an effective value capture mechanism for up-and-coming crypto projects.As Samani explains, token incentives are ideal for projects that require a large initial investment in exchange for prolonged rewards:“If you can identify use cases where the token is incentivizing one upfront action that has long lasting or perpetual value creation elsewhere, that is a super, super compelling way to use token incentives.”Episode 90 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded live at SALT New York 2022 with The Block's Frank Chaparro and Research Director George Calle with Multicoin Capital Managing Partner Kyle Samani.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 [email protected] episode is brought to you by our sponsors Tron, Chainalysis & IWC SchaffhausenAbout TronTRON 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 ChainalysisChainalysis is the leading blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services, and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, and insurance and cybersecurity companies in over 60 countries. Backed by Accel, Addition, Benchmark, Coatue, Paradigm, Ribbit, and other leading firms in venture capital, Chainalysis builds trust in blockchains to promote more financial freedom with less risk. For more information, visit www.chainalysis.com.About IWC SchaffhausenIWC Schaffhausen is a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Known for its unique engineering approach to watchmaking, IWC combines the best of human craftsmanship and creativity with cutting-edge technology and processes. With collections like the Portugieser and the Pilot’s Watches, the brand covers the whole spectrum from elegant timepieces to sports watches. For more information, visit IWC.com.

Last year’s bull market exuberance is a distant memory, as are the wildly inflated crypto funding rounds that attracted an unprecedented amount of venture capital to the space.In this episode of The Scoop, CoinShare’s Chief Strategy Officer Meltem Demirors and Aglaé Ventures Managing Partner Vanessa Grellet unpack how the crypto VC landscape has changed since last year’s bull market, and particularly why venture capitalists are becoming more reluctant to invest in early token rounds.As Demirors explains, savvy investors are realizing the token model is not always the best way to capture value:“There's now consideration of the fact that tokens, in particular governance tokens, are not necessarily the best way to capture value creation… an investor who's willing to write really large checks is going to have some fundamental questions around monetization that doesn't just rely on ‘number-go-up’ tokenomics.”According to Grellet, regulatory concerns — particularly regarding some token models’ similarity to unregistered securities — are another reason tokens are not as attractive to investors these days.While hesitancy regarding seed-stage token rounds is becoming more widespread, Grellet believes there is still interest in tokens if they make sense as part of larger equity investments:“We see a lot of investors being comfortable with both the equity and a token option so that if the main company has one project, but also has several other projects that warrant tokens, then you can have upside in the ongoing life of the company.”Episode 89 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded live with The Block's Frank Chaparro, CoinShares CSO Meltem Demirors, and Aglaé Ventures' Managing Partner Vanessa Grellet.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 [email protected] episode is brought to you by our sponsors Tron, Chainalysis & IWC SchaffhausenAbout TronTRON 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 ChainalysisChainalysis is the leading blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services, and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, and insurance and cybersecurity companies in over 60 countries. Backed by Accel, Addition, Benchmark, Coatue, Paradigm, Ribbit, and other leading firms in venture capital, Chainalysis builds trust in blockchains to promote more financial freedom with less risk. For more information, visit www.chainalysis.com.About IWC SchaffhausenIWC Schaffhausen is a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Known for its unique engineering approach to watchmaking, IWC combines the best of human craftsmanship and creativity with cutting-edge technology and processes. With collections like the Portugieser and the Pilot’s Watches, the brand covers the whole spectrum from elegant timepieces to sports watches. For more information, visit IWC.com.

Unstoppable Domains allows users to register domain names via non-fungible tokens (NFTs) which can then be used to receive crypto payments, and as digital identity markers around Web3.In July, the company raised $65 million in a Series A, successfully clinching ‘unicorn’ status at a $1 billion valuation.In this episode of The Scoop, Unstoppable Domains’ Founder and CEO Matt Gould explains why NFT domain names are likely the future identity system for Web3, and how persistent digital identities will redefine the importance of online reputation. As Gould explains, once people start using an NFT domain as part of their online identity, additional interactions with Web3 applications will link more information to that NFT domain name, and a digital identity begins to emerge: “We think this is a big deal because there really isn't an identity system for the Internet yet, and a lot of people in the space think this is probably one of the big unlocks for crypto and blockchain over the next several years.”If this new NFT-based identity system develops the way Gould anticipates, then it will also be significantly harder for people to create fake reputations on Web3 platforms.Given bots and scammers are notorious problems on existing Web2 platforms, Gould thinks the implications could fundamentally change how we view online interactions:“Reputation that comes from having persistent digital identities is another huge benefit — not only owning your data, but being able to create your reputation will make online interactions hopefully more pleasant.”Episode 88 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded live withhe Block's Frank Chaparro and Unstoppable Domains Founder and CEO Matt Gould.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 [email protected] episode is brought to you by our sponsors Tron, Chainalysis & IWC SchaffhausenAbout TronTRON 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 ChainalysisChainalysis is the leading blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services, and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, and insurance and cybersecurity companies in over 60 countries. Backed by Accel, Addition, Benchmark, Coatue, Paradigm, Ribbit, and other leading firms in venture capital, Chainalysis builds trust in blockchains to promote more financial freedom with less risk. For more information, visit www.chainalysis.com.About IWC SchaffhausenIWC Schaffhausen is a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Known for its unique engineering approach to watchmaking, IWC combines the best of human craftsmanship and creativity with cutting-edge technology and processes. With collections like the Portugieser and the Pilot’s Watches, the brand covers the whole spectrum from elegant timepieces to sports watches. For more information, visit IWC.com.

Back in July, the SEC launched an investigation into Coinbase for allegedly listing several tokens that should have been listed as securities. Yesterday, SEC Chair Gary Gensler made comments that indicate he believes more crypto exchanges and broker-dealers are still in violation of guidelines put in place under former SEC Chair Clayton in 2017.In this episode of The Scoop, FTX President Brett Harrison shares how FTX US is striving to avoid regulatory issues, and why regulatory clarity in the digital asset space will lead to more domestic innovation in the US. According to Harrison, the onus of “deciding what to list is on the exchange.. but that doesn't necessarily prevent future enforcement if the regulatory agency in this case disagrees.”Given this dynamic, FTX US lists a limited number of tokens out of an abundance of caution. As Harrison explains:“We have fewer than 30 tokens on our exchange, and we think that's fortunately or unfortunately the long term play that will work for us until there is better clarity in terms of what registration is going to be required.”Although FTX US is not currently listing a broader selection of tokens, Harrison does believe many crypto projects would gladly register with the SEC if a clear framework existed:“I think a lot of token projects would register and quite happily do so if there was a clear process for it, because they want to get listed on US exchanges, they want to be able to operate their company in the US without worrying about enforcement action down the road — they would like for their tokens to have security like properties.”Disclaimer: Beginning in 2021, Michael McCaffrey, the former CEO and majority owner of The Block, took a series of loans from founder and former FTX and Alameda CEO Sam Bankman-Fried. McCaffrey resigned from the company in December 2022 after failing to disclose those transactions.Episode 87 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded live with The Block's Frank Chaparro and FTX President Brett Harrison.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 [email protected] episode is brought to you by our sponsors Tron, Chainalysis & IWC SchaffhausenAbout TronOn August 1st, 2022, Poloniex launched a faster and more stable trading system along with a brand new user interface. Poloniex was founded in January 2014 as a global cryptocurrency trading platform. With its world-class service and security, it received funding in 2019 from renowned investors, including H.E. Justin Sun, Founder of TRON. Poloniex supports spot and margin trading as well as leveraged tokens. Its services are available to users in nearly 100 countries and regions with various languages available. For more information visit Poloniex.com.About ChainalysisChainalysis is the leading blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services, and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, and insurance and cybersecurity companies in over 60 countries. Backed by Accel, Addition, Benchmark, Coatue, Paradigm, Ribbit, and other leading firms in venture capital, Chainalysis builds trust in blockchains to promote more financial freedom with less risk. For more information, visit www.chainalysis.com.About IWC SchaffhausenIWC Schaffhausen is a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Known for its unique engineering approach to watchmaking, IWC combines the best of human craftsmanship and creativity with cutting-edge technology and processes. With collections like the Portugieser and the Pilot’s Watches, the brand covers the whole spectrum from elegant timepieces to sports watches. For more information, visit IWC.com.

Since going public last October, the digital asset management platform Bakkt has been working towards enabling more businesses to provide crypto services to their customers.For example, in April of this year, Bakkt closed a deal with American Bank which allows the bank’s customers to buy and sell both bitcoin and ether.In this episode of The Scoop, Bakkt’s Chief Product Officer Dan O'Prey lays out Bakkt’s ambitions for the future and breaks down his company’s strategy to help banks grow their client-facing crypto offerings.According to O'Prey, Bakkt hopes to position itself as the underlying infrastructure layer that enables access to a variety of crypto services:“Bakkt is aiming to be that infrastructure platform — those services under the hood — that can enable non-crypto companies to offer crypto to their consumers in a variety of different fashions.”Episode 86 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded live with The Block's Frank Chaparro and Bakkt Chief Product Officer Dan O'Prey.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 [email protected] episode is brought to you by our sponsors Tron, Chainalysis & IWC SchaffhausenAbout TronOn August 1st, 2022, Poloniex launched a faster and more stable trading system along with a brand new user interface. Poloniex was founded in January 2014 as a global cryptocurrency trading platform. With its world-class service and security, it received funding in 2019 from renowned investors, including H.E. Justin Sun, Founder of TRON. Poloniex supports spot and margin trading as well as leveraged tokens. Its services are available to users in nearly 100 countries and regions with various languages available. For more information visit Poloniex.com.About ChainalysisChainalysis is the leading blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services, and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, and insurance and cybersecurity companies in over 60 countries. Backed by Accel, Addition, Benchmark, Coatue, Paradigm, Ribbit, and other leading firms in venture capital, Chainalysis builds trust in blockchains to promote more financial freedom with less risk. For more information, visit www.chainalysis.com.About IWC SchaffhausenIWC Schaffhausen is a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Known for its unique engineering approach to watchmaking, IWC combines the best of human craftsmanship and creativity with cutting-edge technology and processes. With collections like the Portugieser and the Pilot’s Watches, the brand covers the whole spectrum from elegant timepieces to sports watches. For more information, visit IWC.com.

In part one of this three-part Ethereum Merge special edition of The Scoop, Lex Sokolin — head economist at Consensys — examined how The Merge will improve web3’s reputation outside of the crypto space.In this episode of The Scoop, Ethereum Foundation researcher Danny Ryan provides a technical overview of The Merge, and explains why it took longer than expected to prepare the network for its transition to proof of stake.According to Ryan, changing the consensus mechanism of an active blockchain is no small feat:“It's like we built this better plane and started flying it next to the existing proof-of-work plane, and we're actually taking the payload, we're taking all the contents out of the proof-of-work plane, and we're putting in this other plane in flight.”Although The Merge was initially supposed to happen years ago, translating the mathematical concepts that underpin the proof-of-stake consensus mechanism into production took longer than expected.As Ryan explains,“You have these beautiful mathematical algorithms and proofs and design goals, and then when it comes time to actually turn that into something concrete and actionable, there's a lot of work to do.”Episode 85 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block's Tim Copeland and Ethereum Foundation researcher Danny Ryan.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 [email protected] episode is brought to you by our sponsors Tron, Chainalysis & IWC SchaffhausenAbout TronOn August 1st, 2022, Poloniex launched a faster and more stable trading system along with a brand new user interface. Poloniex was founded in January 2014 as a global cryptocurrency trading platform. With its world-class service and security, it received funding in 2019 from renowned investors, including H.E. Justin Sun, Founder of TRON. Poloniex supports spot and margin trading as well as leveraged tokens. Its services are available to users in nearly 100 countries and regions with various languages available. For more information visit Poloniex.com.About ChainalysisChainalysis is the leading blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services, and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, and insurance and cybersecurity companies in over 60 countries. Backed by Accel, Addition, Benchmark, Coatue, Paradigm, Ribbit, and other leading firms in venture capital, Chainalysis builds trust in blockchains to promote more financial freedom with less risk. For more information, visit www.chainalysis.com.About IWC SchaffhausenIWC Schaffhausen is a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Known for its unique engineering approach to watchmaking, IWC combines the best of human craftsmanship and creativity with cutting-edge technology and processes. With collections like the Portugieser and the Pilot’s Watches, the brand covers the whole spectrum from elegant timepieces to sports watches. For more information, visit IWC.com.

After years of anticipation and development, the Ethereum blockchain is finally on the verge of transitioning its consensus mechanism from proof-of-work to a more energy-efficient mechanism known as proof-of-stake.According to a blog post from The Ethereum Foundation, switching the consensus mechanism of the blockchain is like changing the engine of a spaceship, and in just a few days, it will be “time to hot-swap the new engine for the old mid-flight.”In this special Ethereum Merge edition of The Scoop, Lex Sokolin, head economist at leading Ethereum development company ConsenSys, examines the implications of Ethereum’s Merge for the future of the network. During the discussion, Sokolin explains why the switch will help improve the reputation of web3 outside of the crypto space — particularly with those who prefer ESG investments.A long-standing criticism of cryptocurrency technology singles out the amount of energy required to power the underlying blockchains. According to Sokolin, the fact that Ethereum is set to reduce its energy consumption by roughly 99.95% will help alleviate this concern:“I think removing the objection around ESG is very meaningful because it does change culturally some of the value proposition of Ethereum to those communities who take really seriously these issues around electricity consumption and impact.”By removing ESG concerns, Sokolin hopes more people in the world will be able to see the potential for web3 technology, without having to worry about negative externalities.As Sokolin explains,“A lot of how people align with web3 and crypto is through idealistic storytelling about what the world could be, and it's really important to be open minded and have a kind of hope for what new platforms can create.”Episode 84 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block's Tim Copeland and ConsenSys Head Economist Lex Sokolin.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 [email protected] episode is brought to you by our sponsors Tron, Chainalysis & IWC SchaffhausenAbout TronOn August 1st, 2022, Poloniex launched a faster and more stable trading system along with a brand new user interface. Poloniex was founded in January 2014 as a global cryptocurrency trading platform. With its world-class service and security, it received funding in 2019 from renowned investors, including H.E. Justin Sun, Founder of TRON. Poloniex supports spot and margin trading as well as leveraged tokens. Its services are available to users in nearly 100 countries and regions with various languages available. For more information visit Poloniex.com.About ChainalysisChainalysis is the leading blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services, and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, and insurance and cybersecurity companies in over 60 countries. Backed by Accel, Addition, Benchmark, Coatue, Paradigm, Ribbit, and other leading firms in venture capital, Chainalysis builds trust in blockchains to promote more financial freedom with less risk. For more information, visit www.chainalysis.com.About IWC SchaffhausenIWC Schaffhausen is a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Known for its unique engineering approach to watchmaking, IWC combines the best of human craftsmanship and creativity with cutting-edge technology and processes. With collections like the Portugieser and the Pilot’s Watches, the brand covers the whole spectrum from elegant timepieces to sports watches. For more information, visit IWC.com.

Hxro Network (pronounced “hero”) raised $34 million in a token round in November to help advance the platform’s vision of building a decentralized derivative platform on Solana.Now, Hxro is on the cusp of launching USDC collateralized markets, which will mark the first time users are able to trade derivatives products using collateral with real value.In this episode of The Scoop, Hxro co-founder and CEO Dan Gunsberg joins host Frank Chaparro to unpack the idea behind the Hxro protocol and to explain how Hxro hopes to solve liquidity problems that currently exist in the decentralized derivative space.According to Gunsberg, the technology underlying Hxro Network allows anyone to create a decentralized derivative product:“Effectively anybody will be able to come and create any type of derivative product on Hxro Network’s protocol… the core protocol is something called ‘Dexterity,’ and the idea of it is that it’s really just the generalized architecture for the payoff function and the accounting mechanisms of a derivative.”Not only does Hxro allow users to build any type of derivative product, “the beauty” of the platform is the way in which it will unify liquidity to create more efficient markets, Gunsberg believes.Gunsberg explains,“Once those markets are created, they all exist in the base layer protocol and then any application can tap those markets… so what you end up with is this unification of liquidity across many applications and many users, that all bottoms out into the same marketplace depending on the product.”Episode 83 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block's Frank Chaparro and Hxro Co-Founder & CEO Dan Gunsberg.Listen and subscribe to The Scoop on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you listen to podcasts. Email feedback and revision requests to [email protected] episode is brought to you by our sponsors Tron, Chainalysis & IWC SchaffhausenAbout TronOn August 1st, 2022, Poloniex launched a faster and more stable trading system along with a brand new user interface. Poloniex was founded in January 2014 as a global cryptocurrency trading platform. With its world-class service and security, it received funding in 2019 from renowned investors, including H.E. Justin Sun, Founder of TRON. Poloniex supports spot and margin trading as well as leveraged tokens. Its services are available to users in nearly 100 countries and regions with various languages available. For more information visit Poloniex.com.About ChainalysisChainalysis is the leading blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services, and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, and insurance and cybersecurity companies in over 60 countries. Backed by Accel, Addition, Benchmark, Coatue, Paradigm, Ribbit, and other leading firms in venture capital, Chainalysis builds trust in blockchains to promote more financial freedom with less risk. For more information, visit www.chainalysis.com.About IWC SchaffhausenIWC Schaffhausen is a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Known for its unique engineering approach to watchmaking, IWC combines the best of human craftsmanship and creativity with cutting-edge technology and processes. With collections like the Portugieser and the Pilot’s Watches, the brand covers the whole spectrum from elegant timepieces to sports watches. For more information, visit IWC.com.

Last time Paolo Ardoino came on The Scoop podcast back in 2019, the USDT stablecoin had a market cap of less than $5 billion.Today, that number has risen to more than $66 billion, according to data from The Block's Data Dashboard.While Ardoino serves as both the CTO of Tether (the issuing company behind USDT), as well as CTO of the crypto exchange Bitfinex, recently he has been focusing much of his attention on developing Holepunch — a fully encrypted platform for peer-to-peer applications.In this episode of The Scoop, Paolo Ardoino shares his vision for the future of peer-to-peer technology, which he believes is in line with "the original ethos of the World Wide Web."According to Ardoino, we already possess the hardware necessary to facilitate peer-to-peer data transfer in a more efficient way than existing centralized platforms allow:"The biggest lie ever is that our hardware, our devices, our iPods, phones don't have the capacity to do great things — actually, they are much more powerful than what we think."While our devices may be powerful, Ardoino suggests that having to route data through centralized servers creates unnecessary latency which limits performance:"I'm talking to you, I'm calling you, and there is no reason why my signal — all my data — should pass through a centralized server. There is today, in 2022, no need for that."The first app to be deployed on the Holepunch peer-to-peer technology is a video calling service named Keet. Whereas centralized video streaming platforms are forced to compress data to facilitate global demand, the direct peer-to-peer connection provided by Holepunch allows Keet to facilitate much higher quality video connections.According to Ardoino,"You have to take a shower before using Keet because we get 4K video from you, and it's not compressed."Episode 82 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block's Frank Chaparro and Bitfinex CTO and Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino.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 [email protected] episode is brought to you by our sponsors Tron, Chainalysis & IWC SchaffhausenAbout TronOn August 1st, 2022, Poloniex launched a faster and more stable trading system along with a brand new user interface. Poloniex was founded in January 2014 as a global cryptocurrency trading platform. With its world-class service and security, it received funding in 2019 from renowned investors, including H.E. Justin Sun, Founder of TRON. Poloniex supports spot and margin trading as well as leveraged tokens. Its services are available to users in nearly 100 countries and regions with various languages available. For more information visit Poloniex.com.About ChainalysisChainalysis is the leading blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services, and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, and insurance and cybersecurity companies in over 60 countries. Backed by Accel, Addition, Benchmark, Coatue, Paradigm, Ribbit, and other leading firms in venture capital, Chainalysis builds trust in blockchains to promote more financial freedom with less risk. For more information, visit www.chainalysis.com.About IWC SchaffhausenIWC Schaffhausen is a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Known for its unique engineering approach to watchmaking, IWC combines the best of human craftsmanship and creativity with cutting-edge technology and processes. With collections like the Portugieser and the Pilot’s Watches, the brand covers the whole spectrum from elegant timepieces to sports watches. For more information, visit IWC.com.

Earlier this summer, the collapse of Three Arrows Capital (3AC) sent the crypto lending world into chaos. Many lenders suffered heavy losses due to 3AC exposure and some were forced into bankruptcy.BlockFi — a prominent crypto lender that was valued at nearly $5 billion during the height of the bull market — was one of the firms that took a big hit when 3AC collapsed, prompting the company's shareholders to approve a $680 million deal with FTX US that outlines a path to a potential acquisition later next year. In this episode of The Scoop, BlockFi CEO Zac Prince candidly recounted the events surrounding his firm's liquidation of Three Arrows Capital. He also explained his personal philosophy regarding the relationship that a crypto lender should have with its customers. Prince expressed during the interview that he firmly believes that BlockFi's clients should be given priority consideration:"I have a very fundamental belief that in the type of business that Blockfi is, you can't screw over your clients and still have a business, period. That's not an option and that's not something that Blockfi is ever going to do on my watch."When asked directly about Three Arrows Capital, Prince responded,"I also respect that these are still people and I hope that they're doing okay, but there's a whole mountain of legal and potentially civil and criminal things that they'll be dealing with in the foreseeable future."Episode 81 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block's Frank Chaparro and BlockFi Founder & CEO Zac Prince.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 [email protected] episode is brought to you by our sponsors Tron, Chainalysis & IWC SchaffhausenAbout TronOn August 1st, 2022, Poloniex launched a faster and more stable trading system along with a brand new user interface. Poloniex was founded in January 2014 as a global cryptocurrency trading platform. With its world-class service and security, it received funding in 2019 from renowned investors, including H.E. Justin Sun, Founder of TRON. Poloniex supports spot and margin trading as well as leveraged tokens. Its services are available to users in nearly 100 countries and regions with various languages available. For more information visit Poloniex.com.About ChainalysisChainalysis is the leading blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services, and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, and insurance and cybersecurity companies in over 60 countries. Backed by Accel, Addition, Benchmark, Coatue, Paradigm, Ribbit, and other leading firms in venture capital, Chainalysis builds trust in blockchains to promote more financial freedom with less risk. For more information, visit www.chainalysis.com.About IWC SchaffhausenIWC Schaffhausen is a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Known for its unique engineering approach to watchmaking, IWC combines the best of human craftsmanship and creativity with cutting-edge technology and processes. With collections like the Portugieser and the Pilot’s Watches, the brand covers the whole spectrum from elegant timepieces to sports watches. For more information, visit IWC.com.

While NFT projects grew in popularity, so too did brand recognition — and the interest of talent representatives to sign them on.United Talent Agency (UTA) was among the first in August of 2021, when it signed CryptoPunks and Meebits creators Larva Labs, followed by Deadfellaz in April of this year. Other talent representatives got into web3 as well, such as Creative Artists Agency (CAA) signing on the NFT collector 0xb1 in October 2021 and even hiring a Chief Metaverse Officer in August of this year. But why did talent representatives like UTA sign on these NFT brands at all? Why do NFT brands need talent representation? To get to the heart of these questions, MK sat down with UTA's head of web3, Lesley Silverman. Silverman has been at UTA for the past seven years, educating artists on the utility of web3 and helping interested artists launch their web3 brand. Before joining UTA, Silverman worked as a fine arts lawyer, and she says this experience shaped how she lead UTA through the NFT space. Episode 80 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block's MK Manoylov and Lesley Silverman, Head of Web3 at United Talent Agency.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 [email protected] episode is brought to you by our sponsors Tron, Chainalysis & IWC SchaffhausenAbout TronOn August 1st, 2022, Poloniex launched a faster and more stable trading system along with a brand new user interface. Poloniex was founded in January 2014 as a global cryptocurrency trading platform. With its world-class service and security, it received funding in 2019 from renowned investors, including H.E. Justin Sun, Founder of TRON. Poloniex supports spot and margin trading as well as leveraged tokens. Its services are available to users in nearly 100 countries and regions with various languages available. For more information visit Poloniex.comAbout ChainalysisChainalysis is the leading blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services, and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, and insurance and cybersecurity companies in over 60 countries. Backed by Accel, Addition, Benchmark, Coatue, Paradigm, Ribbit, and other leading firms in venture capital, Chainalysis builds trust in blockchains to promote more financial freedom with less risk. For more information, visit www.chainalysis.com.About IWC SchaffhausenIWC Schaffhausen is a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Known for its unique engineering approach to watchmaking, IWC combines the best of human craftsmanship and creativity with cutting-edge technology and processes. With collections like the Portugieser and the Pilot’s Watches, the brand covers the whole spectrum from elegant timepieces to sports watches. For more information, visit IWC.com

Plaid, a fintech infrastructure and payments provider aiming to simplify the digital financial ecosystem through a single API, recently announced big crypto players such as Gemini and Binance.US are joining its network of financial institutions.The move is part of Plaid's broader effort to integrate both legacy institutions and crypto service providers into its platform, which was valued at more than $13 billion last year after a $425 million fundraise.In this episode of The Scoop, Plaid's head of UK, Keith Grose, joins host Frank Chaparro to discuss how its integration with crypto platforms is helping bring new users into the ecosystem, and to break down what the future of digital finance will look like.According to Grose, users' digital financial interactions will increasingly be controlled by a single wallet that is able to move seamlessly between different platforms:"You are essentially, as a user, going to have this back end wallet, whether it's your bank account or your crypto wallet, that you control the keys to and you can take wherever you want to use it around the digital world. That's where we're headed."While Plaid is built to cater to a range of digital financial platforms, Grose points out that all financial transactions ultimately come down to trust:"What we're really talking about when you're talking about payments is trust… and I think we're more and more moving to a place where trust is becoming digital, and proving trust online in the digital world is very different than proving trust in a physical, community based system that most of humanity has been in for most of history."Episode 79 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block's Frank Chaparro and Plaid head of UK/EU Keith Grose.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 [email protected] episode is brought to you by our sponsors Tron, Chainalysis & IWC SchaffhausenAbout TronOn August 1st, 2022, Poloniex launched a faster and more stable trading system along with a brand new user interface. Poloniex was founded in January 2014 as a global cryptocurrency trading platform. With its world-class service and security, it received funding in 2019 from renowned investors, including H.E. Justin Sun, Founder of TRON. Poloniex supports spot and margin trading as well as leveraged tokens. Its services are available to users in nearly 100 countries and regions with various languages available. For more information visit Poloniex.com.About ChainalysisChainalysis is the leading blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services, and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, and insurance and cybersecurity companies in over 60 countries. Backed by Accel, Addition, Benchmark, Coatue, Paradigm, Ribbit, and other leading firms in venture capital, Chainalysis builds trust in blockchains to promote more financial freedom with less risk. For more information, visit www.chainalysis.com.About IWC SchaffhausenIWC Schaffhausen is a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Known for its unique engineering approach to watchmaking, IWC combines the best of human craftsmanship and creativity with cutting-edge technology and processes. With collections like the Portugieser and the Pilot’s Watches, the brand covers the whole spectrum from elegant timepieces to sports watches. For more information, visit IWC.com.

The US has yet to see a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) reach the market, but when a futures-based product got the green light from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) last year, issuers were hopeful.Some thought it signified the regulator becoming more comfortable with crypto products and a spot ETF could be on the horizon. But since then, the SEC continued to shoot down application after application on the basis that there aren't sufficient mechanisms to prevent price manipulation in the spot market.Grayscale, which has long desired to convert its flagship GBTC product into an ETF, took issue with this. During the SEC's continued extensions on its application, and after a series of rejections of other similar applications, the firm sent a letter saying the regulator could be violating its own procedures by approving a futures product but refusing to allow a spot-based product. The firm argued that futures are priced based on the underlying spot market, meaning any price manipulation in the spot market would affect futures products.The idea is if the regulator is comfortable with futures, it should be comfortable with a spot-based product.But Grayscale, too, received a rejection weeks later, spurring it to mount a legal challenge in the DC Court of Appeals. Now, it's gearing up to submit its first brief in the case, detailing its qualms with the SEC's rejection of its application.In this week's episode of Policy Scoop, Aislinn Keely sat down with Grayscale's Chief Legal Officer, Craig Salm, to take an in-depth look at the firm's argument."It wasn't a decision that we made lightly, and during the course of that comment letter period, we had a couple of meetings with the Commission to try to work through their questions and the issues presented, lay out the arguments and reasoning why we felt that if they were okay with futures, they should now be okay with spot," said Salm.Episode 78 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block's Aislinn Keely and Craig Salm, Chief Legal Officer at Grayscale.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 [email protected] episode is brought to you by our sponsors Tron, Chainalysis & IWC SchaffhausenAbout TronOn August 1st, 2022, Poloniex launched a faster and more stable trading system along with a brand new user interface. Poloniex was founded in January 2014 as a global cryptocurrency trading platform. With its world-class service and security, it received funding in 2019 from renowned investors, including H.E. Justin Sun, Founder of TRON. Poloniex supports spot and margin trading as well as leveraged tokens. Its services are available to users in nearly 100 countries and regions with various languages available. For more information visit Poloniex.comAbout ChainalysisChainalysis is the leading blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services, and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, and insurance and cybersecurity companies in over 60 countries. Backed by Accel, Addition, Benchmark, Coatue, Paradigm, Ribbit, and other leading firms in venture capital, Chainalysis builds trust in blockchains to promote more financial freedom with less risk. For more information, visit www.chainalysis.com.About IWC SchaffhausenIWC Schaffhausen is a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Known for its unique engineering approach to watchmaking, IWC combines the best of human craftsmanship and creativity with cutting-edge technology and processes. With collections like the Portugieser and the Pilot’s Watches, the brand covers the whole spectrum from elegant timepieces to sports watches. For more information, visit IWC.com

Fractional — a crypto startup whose tech allows individual non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to be locked in a smart contract, and then 'fractionalized' into fungible digital pieces — is changing its name to 'Tessera.' In addition to the name change, Tessera announced they closed a $20 million Series A earlier this summer in a funding round led by Paradigm.In this episode of The Scoop, Tessera co-founder and CEO Andy Chorlian explains how fractionalized NFTs foster new digital communities, and why 'Tessera' is a more suitable name for the direction of the platform.According to Chorlian, Tessera is helping new communities form by taking 'blue-chip' NFTs that could cost tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars, and making them more accessible to the average collector:"It's really just reshaping what it is that's exciting about a particular NFT or owning that NFT — generally more so in like the collecting things that you love and meeting other like minded people and being in interesting communities."The team decided to move away from 'Fractional' — a name that "sounds like a DeFi protocol," according to Chorlian — in favor of 'Tessera' because of the word's dual meaning and resonance with the vision for the platform:"It is the name of a tile used to create mosaic artwork, and the other use… is the idea of a membership pass or an identity card, and that really hit two of the main things that we think our product and NFTs in general are cool and exciting for."Episode 77 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block's Frank Chaparro and Tessera co-founder and CEO Andy Chorlian.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 [email protected] episode is brought to you by our sponsors Tron, Chainalysis & IWC SchaffhausenAbout TronOn August 1st, 2022, Poloniex launched a faster and more stable trading system along with a brand new user interface. Poloniex was founded in January 2014 as a global cryptocurrency trading platform. With its world-class service and security, it received funding in 2019 from renowned investors, including H.E. Justin Sun, Founder of TRON. Poloniex supports spot and margin trading as well as leveraged tokens. Its services are available to users in nearly 100 countries and regions with various languages available. For more information visit Poloniex.comAbout ChainalysisChainalysis is the leading blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services, and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, and insurance and cybersecurity companies in over 60 countries. Backed by Accel, Addition, Benchmark, Coatue, Paradigm, Ribbit, and other leading firms in venture capital, Chainalysis builds trust in blockchains to promote more financial freedom with less risk. For more information, visit www.chainalysis.com.About IWC SchaffhausenIWC Schaffhausen is a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Known for its unique engineering approach to watchmaking, IWC combines the best of human craftsmanship and creativity with cutting-edge technology and processes. With collections like the Portugieser and the Pilot’s Watches, the brand covers the whole spectrum from elegant timepieces to sports watches. For more information, visit IWC.com

Over the course of the past two decades, Grammy Award-winning DJ, André Allen Anjos (also known as RAC) has noticed a growing trend."There's been a trend since 2005 in the MySpace era, and all of that has been a trend towards sovereignty of an artist, of putting the artists on top," he says.RAC is an advisor to Audius — a decentralized music streaming platform that raised $5 million last September from big names including Coinbase Ventures and Pantera Capital, along with popular artists such as Jason Derulo and Katy Perry.In this episode of The Scoop, RAC and Audius Co-Founder and CEO Roneil Rumburg examine the limitations of centralized music streaming platforms and explain how data ownership in web3 allows artists to redefine their relationship to their fans. Rumburg argues that centralized streaming platforms prevent artists from establishing a direct connection with their fanbase."There shouldn't be this sense of 'platform lock-in' that we have today on Spotify or places like that where, as a creator, you don't really know who your fans are, and you don't have the ability to port that fan base between experiences."RAC has first-hand experience with this problem: while the DJ has 5.5 million followers on SoundCloud, his fanbase is "locked" into the platform. Artists "don't own that connection in any way," he says.Audius is designed to avoid that, according to Rumburg."Our company could go away tomorrow, and all of this would keep working… From the artist's perspective, there's no lock in here. You can take your following and your data that you have here and use it anywhere else."Episode 76 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block's Frank Chaparro, Audius Co-Founder Roneil Rumburg and Grammy award winning DJ and Audius Advisor, RAC.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 [email protected] episode is brought to you by our sponsors Chainalysis & IWC SchaffhausenAbout ChainalysisChainalysis is the leading blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services, and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, and insurance and cybersecurity companies in over 60 countries. Backed by Accel, Addition, Benchmark, Coatue, Paradigm, Ribbit, and other leading firms in venture capital, Chainalysis builds trust in blockchains to promote more financial freedom with less risk. For more information, visit www.chainalysis.com.About IWC SchaffhausenIWC Schaffhausen is a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Known for its unique engineering approach to watchmaking, IWC combines the best of human craftsmanship and creativity with cutting-edge technology and processes. With collections like the Portugieser and the Pilot’s Watches, the brand covers the whole spectrum from elegant timepieces to sports watches. For more information, visit IWC.com

CoinShares — a London-based crypto firm whose operations include asset management, venture capital, and proprietary trading — had exposure to Terra's "algorithmic" stablecoin UST, the collapse of which resulted in a loss of $21 million for the firm's trading unit of the business.In this episode of The Scoop, CoinShares CEO Jean-Marie Mognetti provides an inside look at how CoinShares navigated Terra's collapse, and why crypto's "private company environment" leads to marketplace uncertainty.According to Mognetti, a lack of standardized disclosure requirements for crypto firms makes it difficult to verify balance sheet details."The opacity despite all the progress we're doing is quite intense, so you don't have as much information as you want."While Mognetti points to Voyager Digital as an example of a crypto company that has fully disclosed the state of its book, he acknowledges this is likely due to Voyager's status as a publicly traded company — for private companies, the disclosure requirements aren't nearly as robust and largely vary by jurisdiction.This leads to uncertainty, Mognetti argued."Even if they tell you they're good, you don't know what they have in the book and against whom they are exposed."Episode 75 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block's Frank Chaparro and CoinShares Co-Founder and CEO Jean-Marie Mognetti.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 [email protected] episode is brought to you by our sponsors Chainalysis & IWC SchaffhausenAbout ChainalysisChainalysis is the leading blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services, and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, and insurance and cybersecurity companies in over 60 countries. Backed by Accel, Addition, Benchmark, Coatue, Paradigm, Ribbit, and other leading firms in venture capital, Chainalysis builds trust in blockchains to promote more financial freedom with less risk. For more information, visit www.chainalysis.com.About IWC SchaffhausenIWC Schaffhausen is a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Known for its unique engineering approach to watchmaking, IWC combines the best of human craftsmanship and creativity with cutting-edge technology and processes. With collections like the Portugieser and the Pilot’s Watches, the brand covers the whole spectrum from elegant timepieces to sports watches. For more information, visit IWC.com

Block CEO Jack Dorsey has called 'Web5,' a decentralized identity platform under development by TBD, the Block's blockchain arm, "likely our most important contribution to the internet."In this episode of The Scoop, TBD lead Mike Brock explains how Web5, whose name is a play on the idea of connecting Web2 and Web3, aims to reimagine the way trust is established and maintained, and how digital identity can connect the emerging decentralized financial system to the existing real-world economy.Hardcore crypto proponents dream of creating a fully decentralized, trustless system. But Brock says there are some practical problems with transacting in such a world:"Are you going to go and buy a gold watch from an anonymous online merchant and then send them a non-reversible payment for $10,000 and just hope that it gets drop-shipped to you?... We can't build an economy around that. We have to have a way to authenticate with the real world."That's where the Web5 platform comes in. Brock describes it as a "messaging layer that ultimately allows you to establish secure transactions, with negotiated social trust."Users of Web5 are in control of both their identities and their data — something Brock believes will facilitate a new way for the developing decentralized economy to connect with known, verifiable actors in the real world:"We're trying to build on-ramps and off-ramps from the real world — fundamentally, that's what digital identity ultimately gets you."Episode 74 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded live at The Block headquarters with The Block's Frank Chaparro and TBD Lead at Block, Mike Brock.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 [email protected] episode is brought to you by our sponsors Chainalysis & IWC SchaffhausenAbout ChainalysisChainalysis is the leading blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services, and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, and insurance and cybersecurity companies in over 60 countries. Backed by Accel, Addition, Benchmark, Coatue, Paradigm, Ribbit, and other leading firms in venture capital, Chainalysis builds trust in blockchains to promote more financial freedom with less risk. For more information, visit www.chainalysis.com.About IWC SchaffhausenIWC Schaffhausen is a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Known for its unique engineering approach to watchmaking, IWC combines the best of human craftsmanship and creativity with cutting-edge technology and processes. With collections like the Portugieser and the Pilot’s Watches, the brand covers the whole spectrum from elegant timepieces to sports watches. For more information, visit IWC.com

In this episode of The Scoop, Solana Labs co-founder and COO Raj Gokal discusses his early impression of Solana Spaces, as well as the innovation and experimentation that is occurring across the Solana ecosystem at a "breakneck pace."As Gokal explains, some people who visit Solana Spaces' first location in Manhattan are discovering that web3 might not be as daunting as it seems:"There's hundreds of people coming through — just starting their first Phantom wallet, sending their first USDC, and learning, 'okay, using crypto is like not that complicated.'"In addition to the inroads Solana is making in the physical world, Solana is currently hosting a virtual hackathon called 'Summer Camp' — the largest Solana hackathon to date, according to Gokal: "The hackathon that's going right now has almost 14,000 developers. This is the most participation from a hackathon that we've ever seen… and it's now — in the depths of the bear market."Although the price of SOL has fallen approximately 85% since last November's highs, the Solana Network has seen accelerated adoption over the same period, as data from The Block shows.Episode 72 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block's Frank Chaparro and Solana Labs Co-Founder and COO, Raj Gokal.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 [email protected] episode is brought to you by our sponsors Chainalysis & IWC SchaffhausenAbout ChainalysisChainalysis is the leading blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services, and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, and insurance and cybersecurity companies in over 60 countries. Backed by Accel, Addition, Benchmark, Coatue, Paradigm, Ribbit, and other leading firms in venture capital, Chainalysis builds trust in blockchains to promote more financial freedom with less risk. For more information, visit www.chainalysis.com.About IWC SchaffhausenIWC Schaffhausen is a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Known for its unique engineering approach to watchmaking, IWC combines the best of human craftsmanship and creativity with cutting-edge technology and processes. With collections like the Portugieser and the Pilot’s Watches, the brand covers the whole spectrum from elegant timepieces to sports watches. For more information, visit IWC.com

Circle's USDC stablecoin is the second largest by market capitalization, and has steadily grown in dominance over the last couple of years.In this episode of The Scoop, Chief Strategy Officer and Head of Global Policy at Circle, Dante Disparte, joins host Frank Chaparro to share his take on what a responsible approach to stablecoin regulation might look like and why he believes central bank digital currencies are "anti-democratic."According to Disparte, the separation between the central banks and citizens' pockets is important to maintain:"The gap between the central bank, the banking system, your wallet and how you spend money is a powerful feature and not a bug."Furthermore, Dante believes that central bank digital currencies ignore the fundamental peer-to-peer potential of digital assets:"A central bank digital currency would be the equivalent of building a high speed train engine, but not caring about the rail network, nor the station stops. And the real powerful breakthrough of blockchain based finance is that the infrastructure has networked peer to peer station stops."During this episode, Chaparro and Disparte also discuss: The difference between 'risk' and 'uncertainty' Stablecoin standards Non-USD denominated stablecoins Episode 72 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block's Frank Chaparro, and Chief Strategy Officer and Head of Global Policy at Circle, Dante Disparte.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 [email protected] episode is brought to you by our sponsors Chainalysis & IWC SchaffhausenAbout ChainalysisChainalysis is the leading blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services, and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, and insurance and cybersecurity companies in over 60 countries. Backed by Accel, Addition, Benchmark, Coatue, Paradigm, Ribbit, and other leading firms in venture capital, Chainalysis builds trust in blockchains to promote more financial freedom with less risk. For more information, visit www.chainalysis.com.About IWC SchaffhausenIWC Schaffhausen is a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Known for its unique engineering approach to watchmaking, IWC combines the best of human craftsmanship and creativity with cutting-edge technology and processes. With collections like the Portugieser and the Pilot’s Watches, the brand covers the whole spectrum from elegant timepieces to sports watches. For more information, visit IWC.com

Earlier this year, crypto infrastructure provider Talos closed a $105 million Series B for a valuation of $1.25 billion.In this episode of The Scoop, Talos cofounders Ethan Feldman and Anton Katz provide insider perspectives on how institutions have been positioning themselves during the crypto market’s recent upheaval, and why they believe the industry will rebound stronger than ever before.As Katz points out during the interview, the more market participants think about risk, the more stable the industry will become:“I think a lot of people are revising how they're thinking about risk… So overall, I think what we're going to see is actually we're going to see a much more robust, much safer credit market emerge as a result of this.”In addition to firms beefing up internal risk management, the Talos co-founders also believe regulation will also play a major role in helping the crypto ecosystem grow.According to Feldman:“Regulation is an enabler to some extent, right? This is what's going to enable the bigger institutions in the world to actually trade spot crypto.”Episode 71 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block's Frank Chaparro, and Talos Co-Founders Ethan Feldman and Anton Katz.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 [email protected] episode is brought to you by our sponsors Chainalysis & IWC SchaffhausenAbout ChainalysisChainalysis is the leading blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services, and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, and insurance and cybersecurity companies in over 60 countries. Backed by Accel, Addition, Benchmark, Coatue, Paradigm, Ribbit, and other leading firms in venture capital, Chainalysis builds trust in blockchains to promote more financial freedom with less risk. For more information, visit www.chainalysis.com.About IWC SchaffhausenIWC Schaffhausen is a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Known for its unique engineering approach to watchmaking, IWC combines the best of human craftsmanship and creativity with cutting-edge technology and processes. With collections like the Portugieser and the Pilot’s Watches, the brand covers the whole spectrum from elegant timepieces to sports watches. For more information, visit IWC.com

Variant — a venture capital firm founded on the idea that the next iteration of the internet is going to be defined by decentralized, user-owned networks — has raised $450 million to be deployed across two new funds.In this episode of The Scoop, Variant co-founders Jesse Walden and Spencer Noon reveal how they plan on allocating the capital — and why Variant remains bullish on the long-term future of web3.According to Walden, the technology powering the emerging web3 industry will only improve from here:“In the history of technology, technology doesn't get worse and disappear — it gets better and more pervasive. And that's happening at an exponential rate in Web3, because this is all software, it's all open source, and there's just tons of talent jumping in... So the tech is working, and again, I think that means it's only going to be more pervasive.”Although web3 is still in its infancy, the Variant co-founders believe elements of it are already disrupting their centralized equivalents. For example, Walden describes how certain distressed lenders recently prioritized paying back loans to DeFi protocols over other counterparties:“DeFi protocols were the only protocols that got paid back by some of these institutions that blew up … the transparency and sort of enforcement of these smart contracts can actually have better outcomes than the alternative, which is opacity and sort of trust in the wrong parties.”Episode 70 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block's Frank Chaparro, and Variant Co-Founders Jesse Walden and Spencer Noon.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 [email protected] episode is brought to you by our sponsors Chainalysis & IWC SchaffhausenAbout ChainalysisChainalysis is the leading blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services, and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, and insurance and cybersecurity companies in over 60 countries. Backed by Accel, Addition, Benchmark, Coatue, Paradigm, Ribbit, and other leading firms in venture capital, Chainalysis builds trust in blockchains to promote more financial freedom with less risk. For more information, visit www.chainalysis.com.About IWC SchaffhausenIWC Schaffhausen is a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Known for its unique engineering approach to watchmaking, IWC combines the best of human craftsmanship and creativity with cutting-edge technology and processes. With collections like the Portugieser and the Pilot’s Watches, the brand covers the whole spectrum from elegant timepieces to sports watches. For more information, visit IWC.com

Following the crypto market crash in May and June, several institutional bitcoin mining companies have liquidated large portions of their bitcoin reserves, adding more fuel to the selling pressure.In this episode, we discussed the impact of the shrinking hash price and the profitability of bitcoin mining at the moment. The network's hash price has reached the lowest point since late 2020 due to bitcoin's price decline and only moderate difficulty correction. Even though the network has had three difficulty declines in a row over the past month, the competition level is still up by about 10% year-to-date.Meanwhile, the global energy price surge and inflation are pushing mining firms' production costs even higher – not to mention that a lot of them also have growing interest expenses on outstanding loans they took since last year. If bitcoin's price drops below the critical $15,000 level, we may start to see miner capitulation. Listen to more of our discussions below.In this episode of The Scoop Mining Report, The Block Research's mining analyst Wolfie Zhao and host Frank Chaparro take a further look at the pressures facing miners in today's market environment and how recent heatwaves have affected mining operations today.Episode 69 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block's Frank Chaparro and The Block Research Analyst Wolfie Zhao.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 [email protected] episode is brought to you by our sponsors Chainalysis & IWC SchaffhausenAbout ChainalysisChainalysis is the leading blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services, and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, and insurance and cybersecurity companies in over 60 countries. Backed by Accel, Addition, Benchmark, Coatue, Paradigm, Ribbit, and other leading firms in venture capital, Chainalysis builds trust in blockchains to promote more financial freedom with less risk. For more information, visit www.chainalysis.com.About IWC SchaffhausenIWC Schaffhausen is a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Known for its unique engineering approach to watchmaking, IWC combines the best of human craftsmanship and creativity with cutting-edge technology and processes. With collections like the Portugieser and the Pilot’s Watches, the brand covers the whole spectrum from elegant timepieces to sports watches. For more information, visit IWC.com

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs), the blockchain-based method to verify and transfer ownership of a digital asset, exploded in popularity in 2021. Though some collections such as NBA Top Shot and CryptoPunks had existed before last year’s climb in popularity, NFTs largely did not enter mainstream consciousness until the arrival of Bored Ape Yacht Club, a collection of 10,000 algorithmically assembled images of languid monkeys. The success of Bored Ape Yacht Club in the spring of 2021 sparked an influx of large-scale NFT collections such as Mutant Ape Yacht Club, Meebits, Doodles, Cool Cats and Azuki. What followed was the scramble in the crypto community to buy in early to the next popular project, and the rush for non-crypto natives to understand what these types of tokens even are. Around the same time as so-called profile-picture projects emerged, NFTs also expanded into the gaming sector through play-to-earn (P2E) mechanics. The P2E game Axie Infinity particularly emerged as a giant in the blockchain-based gaming space in the late summer and early fall of 2021 before losing traction. In all, NFTs surpassed $13 billion in trading volume in 2021. NFT trading volume cooled in concert with the broader crypto bear market in 2022. With high-profile parties like Coinbase and GameStop entering the space, this technology doesn’t seem to be going away. And with them, so too are pertinent questions around copyright and ownership.In this debut episode of The Block's NFT Scoop, reporter MK Manoylov speaks with The Block Research's Thomas Bialek about the history of NFTs, where they came from, and what lead to their explosion in popularity in 2021.Episode 68 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block's MK Manoylov and The Block Research's Thomas Bialek.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 [email protected] episode is brought to you by our sponsors Chainalysis & IWC SchaffhausenAbout ChainalysisChainalysis is the leading blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services, and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, and insurance and cybersecurity companies in over 60 countries. Backed by Accel, Addition, Benchmark, Coatue, Paradigm, Ribbit, and other leading firms in venture capital, Chainalysis builds trust in blockchains to promote more financial freedom with less risk. For more information, visit www.chainalysis.com.About IWC SchaffhausenIWC Schaffhausen is a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Known for its unique engineering approach to watchmaking, IWC combines the best of human craftsmanship and creativity with cutting-edge technology and processes. With collections like the Portugieser and the Pilot’s Watches, the brand covers the whole spectrum from elegant timepieces to sports watches. For more information, visit IWC.com

As head of a retail crypto platform with lending exposure to Three Arrows Capital (‘3AC’), Abra CEO Bill Barhydt has personal insight into what led similar platforms to go bust in the wake of 3AC defaulting on $3.5 billion in loans across 27 different counterparties.In this episode of The Scoop, Barhydt reveals how Abra has been able to remain operational despite 3AC exposure, and where other lenders who incurred severe losses from 3AC went wrong.Adequately accounting for ‘concentration risk’ for example, which Barhydt describes simply as not putting “all your eggs in one basket,” has been key to Abra’s survival. This meant Abra was able to write-off a relatively small loss resulting from the collapse of 3AC without it having an impact on their broader operations.Yet, while Barhydt believes concentration risk is “by far the easiest thing to manage for in lending,” firms like Voyager have been forced into bankruptcy from over-exposure to 3AC, with court documents suggesting Voyager has claims of over $650 million against 3AC compared to the $1.3 billion in crypto assets the broker currently has on its platform.When lenders take a hit from failing to adequately account for concentration risk, Barhydt believes it is usually out of complacency:“Usually it’s a function of laziness because: hey, the rates are good, nobody’s asking any questions, markets going up and to the right… It is pure laziness. And unfortunately, there were a couple of firms that were in that situation for different reasons.”Episode 67 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block's Frank Chaparro and Bill Barhydt, CEO of Abra.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 [email protected] episode is brought to you by our sponsors Chainalysis & IWC SchaffhausenAbout ChainalysisChainalysis is the leading blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services, and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, and insurance and cybersecurity companies in over 60 countries. Backed by Accel, Addition, Benchmark, Coatue, Paradigm, Ribbit, and other leading firms in venture capital, Chainalysis builds trust in blockchains to promote more financial freedom with less risk. For more information, visit www.chainalysis.com.About IWC SchaffhausenIWC Schaffhausen is a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Known for its unique engineering approach to watchmaking, IWC combines the best of human craftsmanship and creativity with cutting-edge technology and processes. With collections like the Portugieser and the Pilot’s Watches, the brand covers the whole spectrum from elegant timepieces to sports watches. For more information, visit IWC.com

Last time Real Vision CEO Raoul Pal came on The Scoop podcast back in 2020, the investment strategist cautioned that the Federal Reserve's monetary policy was simply “papering up the cracks” in the economic crunch caused by Covid-19.Over two years later, Pal’s predictions seem to have come true, as the global economy struggles to keep pace with rampant inflation, which reached a 40-year high of 9.1% in the US in June.Although the crypto markets have been hit especially hard in recent months, Pal feels “that the forced selling participants are out of the market,” adding that “we’re definitely close to the low.”In this episode of The Scoop, Pal forecasts where he believes the economy is headed in the coming months, and shares why Ethereum’s upcoming merge could represent a defining moment for the web3 industry.After Ethereum’s merge to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, users who "stake" ether to secure the network will earn yield in ether — something Pal thinks will have a standardizing effect on the inflation rate of protocols around the industry:“We are going to end up creating a benchmark web3 interest rate of which we can assess other risks against, so that makes risk management slightly more transparent.”For example, Pal hypothesizes that if Ethereum offered 4.8% yield after its upcoming merge, then 4.8% would become the benchmark yield for other crypto projects as well. Furthermore, the risk from investing in protocols offering yields higher than Ethereum’s could be assessed relative to Ethereum's hypothetical risk-free 4.8% yield.In addition to creating a benchmark yield for the industry, Pal thinks the decrease in the Ethereum blockchain’s energy consumption after the merge could result in it becoming an institutional favorite compared to the more energy-intensive, proof-of-work consensus mechanism used by the Bitcoin blockchain. As Pal explains:“To have a benchmark yield in the second largest cryptocurrency, when everybody wants to allocate over time to web3 as a theme, that is not counter to the 'FUD' of the ESG narrative that Bitcoin has to battle with — it becomes incredibly attractive for institutions to allocate.”Additionally, Pal claims he has personally been adding the most crypto to his portfolio since November of 2020, stating “the risk-reward is now becoming super ludicrous, so it dwarfs anything else.”Episode 66 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block's Frank Chaparro and Raoul Pal, Co-Founder and CEO of Real Vision.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 [email protected] episode is brought to you by our sponsors Chainalysis & IWC SchaffhausenAbout ChainalysisChainalysis is the leading blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services, and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, and insurance and cybersecurity companies in over 60 countries. Backed by Accel, Addition, Benchmark, Coatue, Paradigm, Ribbit, and other leading firms in venture capital, Chainalysis builds trust in blockchains to promote more financial freedom with less risk. For more information, visit www.chainalysis.com.About IWC SchaffhausenIWC Schaffhausen is a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Known for its unique engineering approach to watchmaking, IWC combines the best of human craftsmanship and creativity with cutting-edge technology and processes. With collections like the Portugieser and the Pilot’s Watches, the brand covers the whole spectrum from elegant timepieces to sports watches. For more information, visit IWC.com

Although Algorand may not be the most popular blockchain ecosystem, its underlying technology is arguably among the most cutting edge.Founded in 2017 by Silvio Micali, MIT professor and Turing Award recipient for his pioneering work in the fields of cryptography and computer science, Algorand uses a highly efficient consensus mechanism it calls pure proof of stake, and is one of the most energy-efficient blockchains in the industry.While Silvio Micali oversees the research and development of Algorand's technology, the Algorand Foundation is responsible for helping the surrounding community flourish.In this episode of The Scoop, Algorand Foundation CEO Staci Warden detailed recent developments in the Algorand ecosystem that she hopes will harness the power of Algorand's technology for global good. "We have the best tech in crypto, and I think a lot of people would acknowledge that," Warden says. She cites Algorand's roughly 1,000 transactions per second and 4.5 second settlement time — which the development team hopes to increase to 10,000 transactions per second and 2.5 second settlement time by the end of the year.Given these performance indicators, Warden believes Algorand is equipped to handle problems at scale. As she explains,"When you've got a machine like that, of course you start thinking big — and so we think in terms of very big global problems."One of these problems is financial inclusion, which the Algorand Foundation is looking to address through an upcoming partnership with an organization that is planning to make 4G mobile phones preloaded with Algorand's tech available to people in Africa who might otherwise be unable to access traditional financial services.Algorand also has a growing decentralized finance ecosystem, largely due to an ecosystem fund launched last September that today is worth approximately $50 million.Episode 65 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block's Frank Chaparro and Staci Warden, CEO of the Algorand Foundation.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 [email protected] episode is brought to you by our sponsors Chainalysis & IWC SchaffhausenAbout ChainalysisChainalysis is the leading blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services, and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, and insurance and cybersecurity companies in over 60 countries. Backed by Accel, Addition, Benchmark, Coatue, Paradigm, Ribbit, and other leading firms in venture capital, Chainalysis builds trust in blockchains to promote more financial freedom with less risk. For more information, visit www.chainalysis.com.About IWC SchaffhausenIWC Schaffhausen is a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Known for its unique engineering approach to watchmaking, IWC combines the best of human craftsmanship and creativity with cutting-edge technology and processes. With collections like the Portugieser and the Pilot’s Watches, the brand covers the whole spectrum from elegant timepieces to sports watches. For more information, visit IWC.com

As the industry continues to cope with fallout from the implosion of Three Arrows Capital, July has been a brutal month for crypto lenders, with both Voyager Digital and Celsius declaring bankruptcy, and other prominent lenders including Genesis, BlockFi and Blockchain.com incurring severe losses.In the case of Celsius — which is now reporting a $1.2 billion hole in its balance sheet — retail investors have a long road to recovering any of the crypto they deposited in the platform.In this episode of The Scoop, Domain Money founder and CEO Adam Dell walks through some of the fatal mistakes made by the recently collapsed crypto lenders and explains what a responsible approach to portfolio management looks like in the digital asset space.In contrast to the way Celsius allegedly deployed users' funds into levered strategies, Dell says it is important that Domain Money remains market neutral:"We don't take balance sheet risk. And so many of the entities you mentioned were using their clients' funds to basically take levered positions in the market."Domain Money is also looking to differentiate itself through quality portfolio managers. Dell has brought in teams from Goldman Sachs and Bridgewater to help construct and manage portfolios in the hope that veterans from traditional finance will be able to use their experience to manage the volatility of the crypto market.While the contagion stemming from Three Arrows Capital and rampant global inflation have caused crypto prices to plummet, Dell says this is healthy in the long-run: "I'm a little bit conflicted in that I certainly want all of our investors to have positive returns in any timeframe, but I also think this is, in the long-term, a very good thing for this industry to go through to weed out the bad actors, to weed out the momentum and meme-focused investors, and have a set of investments thrive and grow over time that are solving real world problems."Episode 64 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block's Frank Chaparro and Adam Dell, founder and CEO of Domain Money.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 [email protected] episode is brought to you by our sponsors Chainalysis & IWC SchaffhausenAbout ChainalysisChainalysis is the leading blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services, and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, and insurance and cybersecurity companies in over 60 countries. Backed by Accel, Addition, Benchmark, Coatue, Paradigm, Ribbit, and other leading firms in venture capital, Chainalysis builds trust in blockchains to promote more financial freedom with less risk. For more information, visit www.chainalysis.com.About IWC SchaffhausenIWC Schaffhausen is a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Known for its unique engineering approach to watchmaking, IWC combines the best of human craftsmanship and creativity with cutting-edge technology and processes. With collections like the Portugieser and the Pilot’s Watches, the brand covers the whole spectrum from elegant timepieces to sports watches. For more information, visit IWC.com

No matter the blockchain, individual blocks are limited in the amount of information they can hold; so when blockspace becomes limited, transaction fees increase.As Ava Labs COO Kevin Sekniqi puts it: “Chains are only cheap as long as the blockspace has not been filled up completely — once blockspace gets filled up completely, it becomes expensive.”In this episode of the Scoop, Sekniqi explains how Avalanche — the proof-of-stake blockchain Ava Labs launched back in September 2020 — utilizes ‘subnets’ to tackle the problem of blockchain scalability, and how subnets compare to other scaling solutions.As Sekniqi explains, existing validators of the Avalanche blockchain are able to deploy new subnets, and choose the rules of how they operate:“The simplest way to describe subnets… is a subset of the Avalanche validators coming together and agreeing to do something.”For example, the validators of a new subnet could choose to optimize the specifications of the new chain for a specific application, or validators could choose to require users to undergo KYC before interacting with the new subnet.Whereas an Avalanche subnet could theoretically be run with just a single validator, popular scaling solutions on Ethereum rely on the entire validator set of the base chain to process transactions.Sekniqi argues that this approach is likely unnecessary, and creates “extreme overhead that you don’t really want.”Instead, Sekniqi believes the number of validators securing a chain should scale organically alongside its value:“​​If there's a lot of activity and it truly is a very valuable chain, more and more people will start validating that chain because there are incentives… and so [security] scales up as the value is built upon it.”Episode 63 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded live at The Block headquarters in New York with The Block's Frank Chaparro and Kevin Seqniki, COO of Ava Labs.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 [email protected] episode is brought to you by our sponsors Chainalysis & IWC SchaffhausenAbout ChainalysisChainalysis is the leading blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services, and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, and insurance and cybersecurity companies in over 60 countries. Backed by Accel, Addition, Benchmark, Coatue, Paradigm, Ribbit, and other leading firms in venture capital, Chainalysis builds trust in blockchains to promote more financial freedom with less risk. For more information, visit www.chainalysis.com.About IWC SchaffhausenIWC Schaffhausen is a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Known for its unique engineering approach to watchmaking, IWC combines the best of human craftsmanship and creativity with cutting-edge technology and processes. With collections like the Portugieser and the Pilot’s Watches, the brand covers the whole spectrum from elegant timepieces to sports watches. For more information, visit IWC.com

Last month, a grand jury indicted OpenSea's former head of product in what amounts to the first insider trading enforcement in crypto. Nathaniel Chastain allegedly purchased and sold non-fungible tokens (NFTs) he knew would be listed on OpenSea's homepage at a considerable profit. This alleged activity looks a lot like front running or insider trading, in which someone profits off of non-public information.But insider trading is a securities violation, and NFTs are not currently classified as securities. For that reason, the Department of Justice is arguing a creative case theory that doesn't include securities violations. Instead, the DOJ is seeking to stick Chastain with wire fraud and money laundering charges. In this month's episode of Policy Scoop, Aislinn Keely sits down with Ian McGinley, former co-chief of the complex frauds and cybercrime unit in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) and current partner at Akin Gump’s white-collar defense and government investigations practice, to take a closer look at the case. McGinley breaks down: Implications for the enforcement of insider trading in crypto What wire fraud means in this context and how it's been used in the past How the DOJ's case theory could be used in future enforcements Episode 62 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block’s Frank Chaparro and Aislinn Keely, Policy Reporter.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 [email protected] episode is brought to you by our sponsors Chainalysis & IWC SchaffhausenAbout ChainalysisChainalysis is the leading blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services, and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, and insurance and cybersecurity companies in over 60 countries. Backed by Accel, Addition, Benchmark, Coatue, Paradigm, Ribbit, and other leading firms in venture capital, Chainalysis builds trust in blockchains to promote more financial freedom with less risk. For more information, visit www.chainalysis.com.About IWC SchaffhausenIWC Schaffhausen is a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Known for its unique engineering approach to watchmaking, IWC combines the best of human craftsmanship and creativity with cutting-edge technology and processes. With collections like the Portugieser and the Pilot’s Watches, the brand covers the whole spectrum from elegant timepieces to sports watches. For more information, visit IWC.com

With bitcoin’s market cap hovering around $380 billion — down from over $1.25 trillion last November — lately much attention has been paid to bitcoin’s price action in the mainstream media.Although headlines often focus on bitcoin’s economic component, they are missing the most important aspect of the technology, according to Darin Feinstein, founder of bitcoin mining company Core Scientific. According to Feinstein, “The root of what this technology is, it's a new accounting technology — that's the base.”In a new episode of The Scoop, Feinstein explains the significance of the technology underlying the bitcoin blockchain, and why he thinks it represents the first innovation in the field of accounting in over 700 years.Feinstein says his background in accounting helped him see bitcoin’s potential back in 2011,“I read somewhere about the immutability of the ledger, and as an accountant, it caught my eye. Then I said, ‘That's impossible, there's no such thing as an immutable ledger,' — that's the holy grail of accounting.”The ledger is the technology responsible for fundamentally organizing society, he says.“There's nothing more important to your life, in terms of how you function every day, then all of the ledgers that exist that people rely on to know where you are, and what you're doing, and what you own.”After spending months researching bitcoin, Feinstein concluded that not only is it an immutable ledger, but one that removes human risk from the equation:“It disrupts the world because you now have a permanent accounting ledger that nobody can manipulate, you can't commit fraud on it, you can't alter it, you can't claim human error — the records are the records. It's the first time in human history you have truth on-chain ever.”Episode 61 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block’s Frank Chaparro and Darin Feinstein, founder of Core Scientific.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 [email protected] episode is brought to you by our sponsors Chainalysis & IWC SchaffhausenAbout ChainalysisChainalysis is the leading blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services, and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, and insurance and cybersecurity companies in over 60 countries. Backed by Accel, Addition, Benchmark, Coatue, Paradigm, Ribbit, and other leading firms in venture capital, Chainalysis builds trust in blockchains to promote more financial freedom with less risk. For more information, visit www.chainalysis.com.About IWC SchaffhausenIWC Schaffhausen is a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Known for its unique engineering approach to watchmaking, IWC combines the best of human craftsmanship and creativity with cutting-edge technology and processes. With collections like the Portugieser and the Pilot’s Watches, the brand covers the whole spectrum from elegant timepieces to sports watches. For more information, visit IWC.com

Many Web3 platforms require users to connect their crypto wallets before engaging with the platform in any meaningful way.Consequently, the Web3 experience on mobile devices is tedious at best, given current devices are not designed with such functionalities in mind.Solana Mobile — a subsidiary of the development team behind Solana — hopes to address the difficulties that surround the Web3 mobile user experience with its new Android phone called ‘Saga,’ which is slated for release in early 2023. Last week, Solana Labs co-founder and CEO Anatoly Yakovenko announced the new mobile device, which will run a ‘Solana Mobile Stack’ (SMS) operating system and will feature a marketplace for decentralized Web3 applications.In this episode of The Scoop, Anatoly Yakovenko said he believes Saga’s early success will be linked to its ability to significantly enhance the mobile crypto user experience:“The theory is that crypto users might be crazy enough to switch from iOS to Android because of crypto. It might be so important to have that experience, that they're willing to change their habits.”If Solana Mobile is successfully able to prove there is consumer demand for crypto-forward mobile products, Yakovenko believes it will inspire major tech companies to integrate crypto infrastructure into their own mobile devices moving forward:“You need Google and Apple to do it, but they're not going to do it until there is proven demand that people need it — and so somebody has to kind of make that leap…”Episode 60 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded live at The Block headquarters in New York with The Block’s Frank Chaparro and Anatoly Yakovenko, co-founder and CEO of Solana Labs.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 [email protected] episode is brought to you by our sponsors Chainalysis & IWC SchaffhausenAbout ChainalysisChainalysis is the leading blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services, and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, and insurance and cybersecurity companies in over 60 countries. Backed by Accel, Addition, Benchmark, Coatue, Paradigm, Ribbit, and other leading firms in venture capital, Chainalysis builds trust in blockchains to promote more financial freedom with less risk. For more information, visit www.chainalysis.com.About IWC SchaffhausenIWC Schaffhausen is a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Known for its unique engineering approach to watchmaking, IWC combines the best of human craftsmanship and creativity with cutting-edge technology and processes. With collections like the Portugieser and the Pilot’s Watches, the brand covers the whole spectrum from elegant timepieces to sports watches. For more information, visit IWC.com

Web3 can be daunting for new users and brands looking to enter the space.But MoonPay — the crypto payment infrastructure company that raised $555 million at a valuation of $3.4 billion just last year — has spent the last few months building out a suite of NFT related products in an attempt to simplify the process of introducing new users to Web3.So far this year, MoonPay has enabled NFT purchases via credit cards, built out its white-glove NFT concierge service for celebrities, and launched an NFT minting service aimed at brands and content creators.In this episode of The Scoop recorded live at the NFT.NYC conference, MoonPay co-founder and CEO Ivan Soto-Wright sits down with host Frank Chaparro to discuss the inroads MoonPay has made into the burgeoning NFT industry, and to explain some of the ways he envisions the space evolving over the coming months.One potential use case for NFTs that Soto-Wright is excited about is their potential to act as redeemable tokens for real-world items. According to Soto-Wright:“‘Phygital’ — or ‘digital twinning’ — is the idea that you can take something that exists physically and create a digital pair of that as an NFT, and then you can hold on to that and redeem it for the physical…”In addition to helping brands combat counterfeiting, Soto-Wright explains how brands could use ‘phygital’ items to pitch products directly to consumers:“Let's say Gucci has a special line of shoes that they want to sell on their website, and maybe the shoes haven't actually been released yet — they could release them digitally and they could actually start to engage with the audience and see whether there's actually demand for that asset before it actually is created.”Big brands are part of the audience MoonPay hopes to attract with its new HyperMint NFT utility service, announced at the start of NFT.NYC last week, which allows brands and creators to mint millions of NFTs at a time.Episode 59 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded live at NFT.NYC with The Block’s Frank Chaparro and Ivan Soto-Wright, co-founder and CEO of MoonPay.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 [email protected] episode is brought to you by our sponsors Fireblocks, Coinbase Prime & Cross RiverFireblocks 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 PrimeCoinbase 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 RiverCross 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.

One biotech startup is trying to use blockchain technology to revolutionize the way potential treatments for rare diseases are identified for funding and development.According to Vibe Bio CEO Alok Tayi:“Vibe is a community of patients, scientists and partners that help identify promising treatments for rare diseases and other overlooked diseases, and fund them in innovative ways.”In this episode of The Scoop, Tayi shares his vision for how Vibe Bio aims to disrupt the centralized control of big pharma, and explains why a decentralized autonomous organization (or ‘DAO’) is the optimal solution for organizing the members of the Vibe community.According to Tayi, the biology of rare diseases is often understood, but biotech companies do not have enough incentive to fund research given the limited financial upside. As Tayi notes:“There actually ends up being a myriad of different candidate medicines with promise that are sitting on shelves today, but simply lack the capital and the focus to be able to develop them.”This is the problem Tayi hopes to address through Vibe Bio. By using a DAO structure, Vibe Bio is able to put forward governance proposals to identify promising treatment options. $VIBE token holders can then vote on which treatments will get funded via the proceeds of the DAO's token sale.As Tayi explains, this decentralized approach empowers patients who would otherwise be unable to get assistance from centralized biotech companies:“When you start to move away from a traditional sort of financing model to one that's community led, patients can now be in the driver's seat of deciding what medicines to pursue, what disease areas we should try to treat, not profit or politics.”Earlier this week, Vibe announced it received $12 million in a funding round led by Initialized Capital, which also included participation from prominent angel investors Naval Ravikant and Balaji Srinivasan, as well as 6th Man Ventures — the venture firm helmed by The Block Co-Founder Mike Dudas — amongst others.Episode 58 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block’s Frank Chaparro and Alok Tayi, Co-Founder & CEO of Vibe Bio.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 [email protected] episode is brought to you by our sponsors Fireblocks, Coinbase Prime & Cross RiverFireblocks 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 PrimeCoinbase 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 RiverCross 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.

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 [email protected] episode is brought to you by our sponsors Fireblocks, Coinbase Prime & Cross RiverFireblocks 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 PrimeCoinbase 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 RiverCross 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.

Magic Eden, Solana’s largest NFT marketplace, is eyeing an ambitious growth plan after raising a $130 million funding round co-led by Greylock and Electric Capital.While the broader crypto market struggles to find its footing, Magic Eden is coming off its best month ever, with just over 5 million SOL in volume transacted during May.In this episode of The Scoop, Magic Eden co-founder and COO Zhuoxun 'Zedd' Yin, talks through the project’s funding efforts and unpacks some of the reasons why he believes Magic Eden has room to grow into more than just an NFT marketplace.As Zedd explains during the interview, both Magic Eden’s founders and its investors share a broad time horizon for the future:“I think despite the ridiculous and amazing traction that I think we've had in the first nine months, it's still very early days for us and we have a lot more we want to build — and I think hopefully that plan and that outlook resonated with a lot of investors. And for us, we were lucky to be able to bring on the partners that we were really excited about.”Instead of limiting itself to running a marketplace, Magic Eden hopes to establish itself as a hub for all NFT-related activity.According to Zedd:“We would love to be the place where there's actually many layers on top of the marketplace — so not only is this the place where you perform the execution of the transaction, but really all of the discovery, all of the community based interaction, all the fun social elements that come with NFTs is also happened on Magic Eden.”Magic Eden also plans to branch out beyond the Solana blockchain"As, you know... very intentional decision to start on Solana. But I really do think that if developers and users are going to be in other ecosystems, it's almost like if you're a traditional company starting in Australia. But then there's a lot of users in New Zealand or like whatever, like Singapore. You want to be there too. Right?"Episode 56 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded in-person with The Block’s Frank Chaparro and Magic Eden Co-Founder & COO, Zedd.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 [email protected] episode is brought to you by our sponsors Fireblocks, Coinbase Prime & Cross RiverFireblocks 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 PrimeCoinbase 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 RiverCross 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.

This week approximately 15,000 non-fungible token (NFT) enthusiasts from around the world descend on New York City for the fourth annual NFT.NYC conference, which features more than 1,500 speakers over four days.In this episode of The Scoop, NFT.NYC conference founders Jodee Rich and Cameron Bale sit down with host Frank Chaparro to share details of the upcoming conference and its origins — and to analyze the boom and cultural adoption that NFTs have witnessed over the last few years.As Jodee Rich explains during the show, although he has worked with multiple forms of emerging technologies over the years, he has never seen a new technology embraced as readily as NFTs have been:“I was very early in the social media boom, very early in telephony, mobile telephony, very, very early in microcomputers… I've never seen a particular technology being adopted so quickly — and it's way beyond trading, which is the very interesting thing.”As data from The Block shows, NFT sales have grown exponentially over the last two years.For this year’s NFT.NYC, the organizers specially partnered with NFT intelligence platform Mnemonic to analyze the crypto wallet addresses provided by attendees. As Cameron Bale explains, Mnemonic’s findings showed that most attendees acquired their first NFT within the last two years:“Something super interesting is that 68% of our attendees got their first NFT in 2021 and 22% of them got their first NFT in 2022, and that's from a survey of 15,000 attendees.”Episode 55 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block’s Frank Chaparro and NFT.NYC Founders Jodee Rich and Cameron Bale.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 [email protected] episode is brought to you by our sponsors Fireblocks, Coinbase Prime & Cross RiverFireblocks 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 PrimeCoinbase 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 RiverCross 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.

Back in April, digital asset infrastructure provider PolySign acquired top fund administration firm MG Stover as reported by CoinDesk. At the time of acquisition, MG Stover had more than $40 billion in digital assets under administration. This move coincided with PolySign completing its Series C fundraise, which included new powerhouse investors such as Soros Fund Management, Brevan Howard and GSR, along with former investors including Cowen Digital, who led PolySign’s $54 million Series B last year.In this episode of The Scoop, Jack McDonald, chair and CEO of Polysign, and Matt Stover, CEO of MG Stover, sit down with host Frank Chaparro to record their first-ever podcast together, and to discuss the unwavering demand for digital asset-related products they are seeing from their clients.As Stover explained, while crypto prices may be down, there is still plenty of private funding flowing toward building out digital asset infrastructure:“We get to see both the liquid and illiquid on the investment side and there's so much capital still flowing into the private companies building infrastructure around this new asset class.”Although the recent market downturn has many market participants on edge, McDonald says the long-term view institutions from traditional finance have when it comes to digital assets make short-term market movements irrelevant.As McDonald said during the interview:“The long-term view that these traditional asset managers make in investing in this sort of way is really unaffected by the recent market downturns. They're taking a long-term view and they've done the work to make these decisions.”Episode 54 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block’s Frank Chaparro, Jack McDonald, Chair & CEO of PolySign, and Matt Stover, CEO of MG Stover.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 [email protected] episode is brought to you by our sponsors Fireblocks, Coinbase Prime & Cross RiverFireblocks 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 PrimeCoinbase 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 RiverCross 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.

Panic and fear gripped the crypto market this week as falling prices and market pressure caused two industry titans — hedge fund Three Arrows Capital and lending platform Celsius Network — to face potential insolvency.While the extended crypto market downturn has caught many market participants offside, one high-frequency trading firm managed to not only survive recent conditions but concluded trading for the month of May up 3.7%.In this episode of The Scoop, Martin Green, Co-CIO & CEO of Cambrian Asset Management, explains why proper risk management is key to his firm’s success, and why he believes there is still a bright future ahead for the crypto industry.According to Green, Cambrian’s risk management systems are designed to take the human element out of the equation:“Humans aren't designed to make great analytical judgments when their brains are filled with cortisol, serotonin or dopamine. They're just not. So our systems are designed to take risk off, like sell along, or buy to cover a short if the market goes against us. So if we're long, the market goes against us to some pre-programed amount… the systems will take risk off so that if the market becomes more extreme, we've protected our investors capital.”Although nearly $500 billion dollars has been wiped from the total crypto market cap so far in June, Green believes the severity of this correction has likely been exacerbated by crypto’s reflexive nature.While crypto’s volatility often draws the ire of critics who do not believe it to be a viable alternative to the current financial system, Green thinks it is important to remember is still a new technology:“I think we have to remember — and we all do in the industry — but people outside the industry have to remember that [crypto] fundamentally… is an early stage technology. Early stage in an eventual possible adoption curve.”Episode 53 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block’s Frank Chaparro and Martin Green, Co-CIO & CEO at Cambrian Asset Management.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 [email protected] episode is brought to you by our sponsors Fireblocks, Coinbase Prime & Cross RiverFireblocks 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 PrimeCoinbase 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 RiverCross 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.

As persistent inflation strikes fear in the market ahead of Wednesday’s FOMC meeting, the total crypto market cap has plunged below $1 trillion dollars for the first time since January 2021, as data from The Block shows:In this special episode of The Scoop, financial veteran Jim Greco — a general partner at crypto high-frequency trading firm F9 Research — examines some of the causes of the recent market meltdown, and explains why only the strongest crypto companies will survive.According to Greco, this sell off was driven primarily by macro concerns regarding persistent inflation:“On the actual market structure component of what the sell off has been about, I think it's largely a macroeconomic story — and really ever since the end of last year, we've been dealing with a huge inflation story.”Last Friday, the US Labor Department reported May’s consumer price index to be up 8.6% compared to May of 2021, signaling the highest levels of inflation since the 1980s. In addition to cratering crypto prices, Greco also believes the bear market will help bring last year’s inflated crypto valuations back to reality:“Were these companies ever worth $10 billion or whatever the valuation was? Probably not. I think this was just investors looking at the direction of volumes and volatility last year, projecting out as if that wouldn’t stop into 2025, but now we've had a huge correction and it's pretty clear what those projections into 2025 look like now, and they're not anywhere close.”Indeed, crypto financial services firm BlockFi, which reportedly raised funds at over a $5 billion valuation just last year, announced recently that it was in the process of finalizing a down round that would bring BlockFi’s valuation to just $1 billion. Episode 52 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block’s Frank Chaparro and Jim Greco general partner at F9 Research.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 [email protected] episode is brought to you by our sponsors Fireblocks, Coinbase Prime & Cross RiverFireblocks 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 PrimeCoinbase 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 RiverCross 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.

Elwood Technologies — an Alan Howard backed digital asset platform that is building trading infrastructure for institutional investors — closed a $70 million Series A last month co-led by Goldman Sachs and Dawn Capital.In this episode of The Scoop, Elwood CEO James Stickland sits down with host Frank Chaparro to discuss Elwood’s recent fundraise, and to provide a closer look at the institutional activity that is occurring in the crypto market.According to Stickland, institutional exposure to crypto “is more on the derivatives end of the market,” largely because of the lucrative spreads:“Crypto derivative specialists are still able to make spreads they can drive buses through. Which is fantastic for them, which is obviously therefore creating FOMO, and with the synthetic nature and capability of it, is driving that real appetite.”While derivatives are, for now, the extent of many institutions’ crypto exposure, Stickland claims that regulatory clarity regarding digital assets will “really allow engagement on spot and holding on balance sheet.”Stickland views the combination of coming regulatory clarity along with more robust market infrastructure as having a powerful impact on the market in the long run:“Getting great prime, getting great credit approved facilities, and the regulator making a call — that plus having some real stable infrastructure, that lights this thing up beyond all belief.”Episode 51 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block’s Frank Chaparro and James Stickland, CEO of Elwood Technologies.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 [email protected] episode is brought to you by our sponsors Fireblocks, Coinbase Prime & Cross RiverFireblocks 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 PrimeCoinbase 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 RiverCross 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.

Marathon Digital produced a “record” 1,259 bitcoins during the first three months of 2022. Yet the US-based bitcoin mining firm reported a Q1 net loss of $13 million, largely due to the decline in bitcoin’s price since last year’s highs.Despite falling short on revenue estimates, Marathon CEO Fred Thiel claims that the current cost for his company to produce one bitcoin via mining is “about $6,250,” giving the firm plenty of margin before they would need to consider scaling down their operation.In this episode of The Scoop, Fred Thiel sits down with host Frank Chaparro to discuss the intricacies of effectively managing a bitcoin mining company, along with Marathon’s growth over the years.As Thiel explains during the interview, there are three main considerations when it comes to operating a bitcoin mining company:“There are really three things we worry about: the price of Bitcoin, the cost of power, and our ability to deploy and then access hardware. Capital is important, too, but those are the three KPIs we look at all day long.”While the price of bitcoin will always be prone to fluctuation, the energy cost for bitcoin miners is typically predictable since it is purchased on long-term contracts. As Thiel explains:“Just like the airline industry will hedge their fuel purchases by buying futures on fuel, when we write a hosting agreement, we are locking in a fixed price for five years. So our cost of hosting, which is energy hosting, services, etc., is locked in a little over $0.04 a kilowatt hour for five years. And our energy provider has to take out the hedges to make sure that they're not upside down on the energy cost.”The third consideration — the ability to deploy and access hardware — is often a bottleneck for Marathon, because the company has to wait on government bodies to approve operational permits.Episode 50 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block’s Frank Chaparro and Fred Thiel, Chair and CEO at Marathon Digital.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 [email protected] episode is brought to you by our sponsors Fireblocks, Coinbase Prime & Cross RiverFireblocks 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 PrimeCoinbase 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 RiverCross 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.

Coinbase shares are down over 70% on the year, a state of affairs compounded by a rough Q1, but one leading Wall Street analyst believes Coinbase may be undervalued. In this episode of The Scoop, Mark Palmer — managing director and fintech analyst at global financial services firm BTIG — shares why his firm is bullish on a narrative shift on Wall Street regarding Coinbase stock in the coming months.As Palmer contended during the show:“Coinbase has developed itself over the last ten years, largely via acquisition… and over time, this is going to become much less of a retail trading story and much more about a sort of crypto supermarket that's going to have an awful lot of different revenue drivers.”Palmer points to the 2021 acquisition of Bison Trails as an example of Coinbase’s horizontal expansion. As Coinbase CPO Surojit Chatterjee and Bison Trails founder Joe Lallouz argued during an episode of The Scoop, the deal enhanced Coinbase’s crypto infrastructure services products, including institutional staking support.Although Coinbase offers a wide range of crypto services, Palmer believes many Wall Street analysts tend to view Coinbase first and foremost through the lens of an exchange:“There are a lot of folks who are covering some of the crypto exchanges and platforms that really aren't as focused on crypto — maybe they're focused on exchanges at large — and some of those distinctions and nuances, which are crucially important, get missed.” Editor's Note: While Coinbase is a sponsor of The Scoop podcast, this episode is not an endorsement of Coinbase stock or products, nor was it produced with involvement from Coinbase. All opinions expressed by host and podcast guest are solely their own opinions and not necessarily those of The Block. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.Episode 48 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block’s Frank Chaparro and Mark Palmer, Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at BTIG.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 [email protected] episode is brought to you by our sponsors Fireblocks, Coinbase Prime & Cross RiverFireblocks 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 PrimeCoinbase 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 RiverCross 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.

In his last appearance on The Scoop, Antonio Juliano — founder and CEO of decentralized derivatives platform dYdX — was preparing to integrate StarkWare’s layer-2 scaling technology into the third iteration of the dYdX protocol. Just over a year later, dYdX has grown to dominate the decentralized derivatives space, with the majority of decentralized perpetual swap trading volume occurring on the platform, according to data from The Block.In this episode of The Scoop, Antonio Juliano explains why his team remains undeterred by the global market drawdown as they work towards the upcoming dYdX v4 release, which will fully decentralize governance of the protocol.As Juliano said on the show, his long-term vision extends past market cyclicality:“It's really important for us to maintain that mentality of: the markets may go down, people may write us off to some level, but really what we're building for is five years from now.”While most “blue chip” DeFi tokens have fallen significantly from last year’s all-time highs, Juliano believes the recent trend of centralized exchanges like Coinbase and Robinhood providing users with streamlined access to Web3 platforms will provide an influx of new market participants to DeFi protocols.As Juliano explained during the interview,“It's just going to be a huge magnifier and multiplier in terms of the types of people and the number of people that can interact with DeFi. I'm really excited about this — I've been excited about this narrative playing out for a while now. I thought it would probably take a little bit longer, to be honest than it did... but it's something that that I'm really excited about and I think will be a huge multiplier for DeFi." Episode 48 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block’s Frank Chaparro and Antonio Juliano, Founder & CEO of dYdX.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 [email protected] episode is brought to you by our sponsors Fireblocks, Coinbase Prime & Cross RiverFireblocks 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 PrimeCoinbase 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 RiverCross 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.

As Anthony Scaramucci explained during his last appearance on The Scoop, his firm SkyBridge Capital began investing in bitcoin near the end of 2020. Just under two years later, Scaramucci is positioned near the center of the burgeoning crypto industry, largely due to his role as Chair of finance conference business SALT, which partnered with FTX to host the first annual Crypto Bahamas conference in April of this year.In this episode of The Scoop, Scaramucci tells the story of how he first met FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried, and explains why upcoming regulatory clarity could signify “a floodgate opening” for bitcoin.Out of the multiple structural tailwinds Scaramucci covers during the interview, he believes his prediction that a “cash bitcoin ETF will happen sometime this year” would likely have the biggest impact on the market, if it turns out to be true.As Scaramucci hinted at during the show, “Buddies of mine have very large institutions, that unfortunately for right now have to remain nameless due to confidentiality, that are gearing up and ready to pounce on the Bitcoin cash ETF.”According to a Nasdaq survey conducted in April, 72% of financial advisors polled indicated they would be more likely to invest client assets into crypto if there was spot ETF product available. Although the SEC has either rejected or delayed bitcoin spot ETF applications for years, Scaramucci believes that could all change soon, “given the saturation and the maturity of the market.”In addition to a potential bitcoin spot ETF approval, Scaramucci also points to Fidelity’s recent announcement that it will allow clients to gain bitcoin exposure through their 401k accounts as another structural tailwind for bitcoin in the long run.“Fidelity is about to do for bitcoin what it did for the mutual fund and the U.S. equity markets when the 401k programs came into existence in the 1980s."Episode 47 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block’s Frank Chaparro and Anthony Scaramucci, Founder of SkyBridge Capital and Chair of SALT.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 [email protected]. This episode is brought to you by our sponsors Fireblocks, Coinbase Prime & Cross RiverFireblocks 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 PrimeCoinbase 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 RiverCross 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.

Fresh off the heels of a $50M Series C round last November, StarkWare Industries closed a $100M Series D round on Wednesday, giving the Israeli-based startup a valuation of $8 billion. The fundraise was led by Greenoaks Capital and Coatue, and included Tiger Global amongst others.StarkWare aims to bring efficient, affordable blockchain transactions to the masses through its ZK-rollup technology, which addresses blockchain congestion by compressing multiple transactions into ‘STARK proofs’ that are then passed on to the underlying blockchain.In this episode of The Scoop, StarkWare co-founders Eli Ben-Sasson and Uri Kolodny sit down with host Frank Chaparro to discuss what their firm has been building, and how their technology will allow blockchains to scale.According to Kolodny, the trustless computational integrity enabled by StarkWare technology will be very useful to society:“It delivers something that is dearly missing and dearly needed in modern societies and the way they’re doing their computation. That is something very simple: it is integrity — the ability to know that something was done the right way, even when you weren’t watching.”Despite bearish sentiment across markets, StarkWare’s recent fundraise shows VCs are excited about the opportunities unlocked through StarkWare’s scaling technology, and are willing to continue providing the developer with capital.StarkWare’s two products, StarkEx and StarkNet, both serve as Ethereum scaling solutions, with the former being "scaling as a service," while the latter is permissionless. StarkNet completed its launch earlier this year, allowing any developer to integrate the platform into their application.... For more visit theblockcrypto.com/podcastsEpisode 46 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block’s Frank Chaparro and StarkWare Co-Founders Uri Kolodny and Eli Ben-Sasson.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 [email protected] episode is brought to you by our sponsors Fireblocks, Coinbase Prime & Cross RiverFireblocks 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 PrimeCoinbase 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 RiverCross 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.

Much of the policy conversation surrounding crypto is concerned with Wall Street-minded issues that mostly take place in the digital world – investor protection, cybersecurity, licensure to provide online financial services. But the policy conversation surrounding proof-of-work mining is asking crypto to contend with real-world issues. Mining firms are answering to environmental narratives, concerns of noise pollution and questions as to how a data center can better a community.This episode of Policy Scoop takes a deep dive into the policy dialogues around mining, from the federal level down to local communities. Host Aislinn Keely sits down with Taras Kulyk, Senior VP of Growth at mining firm Core Scientific, to talk about regulators' and lawmakers' views on proof-of-work mining and how the industry is meeting those concerns. "It all boils down to the executive order from the Biden administration that's dealing with a wide swath of things. But the environmental impact kind of became the key rallying mark for digital asset miners in the United States," said Kulyk. "The good thing is, is it seems like there's a lot of misinformation that can be very easily quelled and dealt with within Washington, specifically that for some reason, legislators think that digital miners produce CO2."New York Assembly Member Clyde Vanel also joins the show to talk about the proposed mining moratorium in the state, and why he thinks it's not the answer to environmental concerns. Vanel shares how he's seen mining firms positively shape some of New York's communities, and why he's hopeful for its role in the state.Episode 45 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block’s Aislinn Keely and Core Scientific SVP of Growth Taras Kulyk & NYS Assemblyman Clyde Vanel.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 [email protected] episode is brought to you by our sponsors Fireblocks, Coinbase Prime & Cross RiverFireblocks 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 PrimeCoinbase 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 RiverCross 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.