The Scoop

Mike Cagney is the co-founder and CEO of Figure Markets. In this episode, Cagney discusses the need for a 'marketplace of everything,' the potential for equity trading on the blockchain, and more. OUTLINE 00:00 Intro 07:21 The 'Everything' Platform 12:16 Onchain Equities Trading 17:50 Institutionalization of Crypto 27:12 DeFi Lending 29:59 Rebuilding Crypto's Credit Markets 33:51 Wall Street Appetite for ATS 36:28 Regulatory Considerations 38:09 Closing Thoughts

Soona Amhaz is the managing parter at Volt Capital. In this episode, Amhaz delves into the evolving crypto venture landscape including: challenges for capital allocators, the rise of meme coins, and controversies in token distributions. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 03:40 New Venture Verticals 10:30 Last Cycle's Winners 14:29 Mainstream Crypto Adoption 21:26 Macro Impact on Crypto VC 25:44 The 'Memecoin Meta' 30:21 Points vs. Tokens 38:09 Tokenomics Best Practices 42:19 Closing Thoughts

Michael Bentley is the co-founder and CEO of Euler Labs. In this episode, Bentley reflects on last year's $200 million Euler hack and the recovery process and walks through the steps taken to enhance security in Euler V2. Euler V2 is a modular and composable lending platform that allows users to create flexible and secure lending pools.

Roshun Patel is a partner at the Web3 venture capital firm HackVC. In this episode, Chaparro and Patel discuss the recent crypto market volatility and the trends shaping crypto's venture capital landscape. OUTLINE 00:00 Intro 08:11 Market Volatility 25:57 Caution in the Funding Market 32:18 The Intersection of AI and Crypto 43:05 The Future of Tokenomics

Li Jin is a co-founder and general partner at the crypto VC firm, Variant. In this episode, Li analyzes the memecoin phenomenon that has recently swept over the crypto market, and explores how different types of memecoins capture and monetize attention. OUTLINE 00:35 Memecoin Zeitgeist 04:04 The Attention Economy 10:58 Classifying Memecoins 17:40 Trading Memecoins 21:05 Are Memecoins Productive? 23:14 Memetic Analysis 29:10 Memecoins & Marketing Strategies 34:42 Closing Thoughts

Professor J.W. Verret teaches corporate and securities law and financial accounting at George Mason Law School. In this episode of The Scoop, Verret discusses the potential legal challenges that Uniswap may face from the Securities and Exchange Commission and highlights the similarities between the Coinbase case and the possible claims against Uniswap. Verret says the charges the SEC is likely to bring against Uniswap could include operating as an unlicensed broker dealer, operating an unregistered exchange, and/or selling unregistered securities.

Brandon Mulvihill is the co-founder and CEO of Crossover Markets. In this episode of The Scoop, Mulvihill discusses crypto's changing market structure and the role of Crossover as an execution-only trading venue. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction and Background 01:07 The Role of Crossover in the Market 04:04 FX & Crypto Trading Similarities 08:22 ECN vs. CLOB Differences 18:30 The Importance of Fee Compression 22:33 Crypto Flash Crashes 26:15 Crypto Market Structure Maturity 29:27 Institutional Credit 34:02 Closing Thoughts

Austin Reid is the global head of revenue and business at FalconX. In this episode of The Scoop, Reid discusses why we are still at the 'early stages' of institutional adoption of crypto, and the role retail traders have played in the market's current rally. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 04:12 Market Overview 08:06 FalconX Volume 12:03 Crypto Derivatives 15:55 Interest Rates 19:19 Institutional Adoption 22:10 ETF Flows 26:49 Retail Flows 32:51 Market Maturation 35:06 Exchange Improvements 39:25 Closing Thoughts

Haseeb Qureshi is a managing partner at the crypto VC firm Dragonfly. In this episode of The Scoop, Qureshi explains how the crypto VC landscape has changed during his five years at Dragonfly and why he believes 'points' are a more useful mechanism than airdrops for incentivizing user behavior. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 05:41 Dragonfly Early Days 09:45 Early Crypto VC 13:14 Competing in Layer-1s 26:11 Old Blockchains 29:26 Points 31:47 Airdrop Mechanism Design 37:38 Closing Thoughts

Craig Burel is a partner at Reciprocal Ventures. In this episode of The Scoop, Burel explains how the recent market rally caused sidelined venture capitalists to return to the crypto industry in earnest. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 07:38 Nuances of Crypto VC 10:05 Crypto Venture Maturation 13:12 Valuations in the Bull 19:15 Solana Conviction 23:15 Navigating Market Cycles 28:17 Consumer Crypto Apps 32:22 Improving Tokenomics 38:00 Closing Thoughts

Mike Belshe is the co-founder and CEO of BitGo. In this episode of The Scoop, Belshe discusses the growth and challenges of the custody market in the crypto industry, and explains what it will take to make crypto's market structure more robust. OUTLINE 00:00 BitGo Background 05:15 Institutional Crypto Custodians 10:41 New Market Participants 14:36 Market Structure 24:09 Bullish Catalysts 32:08 Crypto Robustness 41:58 Closing Thoughts

Muneeb Ali is the CEO of Trust Machines and the co-creators of Stacks — a layer-2 that enables smart contracts and decentralized applications to utilize bitcoin for base-layer security. In this episode of The Scoop, Ali discusses the growth and importance of Bitcoin Layer 2 solutions. He emphasizes the need for BTC capital to be deployed in L2s and the potential for Bitcoin L2s to become a significant category in the crypto industry. According to Ali, creating more on-chain uses for bitcoin will ultimately make the asset more valuable: “Bitcoin rails can be upgraded through layer-2s... There can be all sorts of use cases that that are deployed there and BTC the capital can be more productive — it will make bitcoin more valuable.”

This episode of The Scoop explores the technical headwinds and security challenges faced by the crypto industry. Blockaid co-founder Raz Niv discusses common scams and phishing attacks in the crypto space, and emphasizes the importance of good on-chain hygiene and best practices for engaging with different protocols. Just last month, Metamask integrated Blockaid-powered security alerts by default across multiple chains.

In this episode of The Scoop, Anatoly Yakovenko, the co-founder of Solana, explains how a Bonk airdrop caused the Solana Saga mobile phone to sell out and discusses the importance of community and meme culture for bootstrapping crypto networks. OUTLINE 00:00 Disrupting App Store Duopoly 06:10 Bonk Saga Airdrop 09:19 Memes & Community 14:51 Solana Saga 22:29 Saga Developer Experience 24:19 Solana Ecosystem Entrepreneurs 28:48 Solana's Roadmap 34:31 Real Wold Adoption

Brian Rudick is a senior strategist at GSR. In this episode of The Scoop, GSR senior strategist Brian Rudick examines the differences between the forces driving the crypto markets and those affecting stocks. He also offers insights into the market dynamics supporting the current rally in the crypto market. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 04:47 Crypto vs. Equities 06:56 Memetics in Crypto 11:26 Macro Factors 14:11 Retail Participation 17:02 Crypto Tailwinds 22:03 Bitcoin Halving 26:03 Closing Thoughts

Reed Werbitt is the CEO of the crypto market-making firm Flowdesk, and Greg Guttas is Flowdesk's Head of OTC. In this episode, Werbitt and Guttas share their insider perspectives on how the new spot bitcoin ETFs are altering market structures across different facets of the global bitcoin market, and why they believe these products will continue to see inflows for many years to come. Earlier this year, Flowdesk raised a $50 million Series B round at a valuation of $250 million.

Luuk Strijers is the Chief Commercial Officer at Deribit. In this episode, Chaparro and Strijers delve into the technological edge and institutional focus as helped position Deribit as the dominant player in the crypto options space, as well as the surge in options trading volumes driven by ETF excitement and macroeconomic factors. Deribit recently reached a record $4 billion in client assets on exchange, as well as a new all-time high for the exchange’s 24-hour trading volume of $12.4 billion.

In this episode of The Scoop, Frank Chaparro and former Deutsche Bank payment analyst Ryan Todd delve into Coinbase's financial performance for the fourth quarter. Todd, a former payments analyst at Deutsche Bank, offers an in-depth analysis of why Wall Street regularly underestimates Coinbase's earnings. He sheds light on the structural factors leading to consistent earnings outperformance, not only by Coinbase but also by major tech companies overall.

Colosseum is an online platform that runs hackathons, accelerates founders, and invests in breakout startups on Solana. In this episode, Colosseum co-founders Matty Taylor and Clay Robbins discuss how they are establishing Colosseum as an entry point into crypto, and their personal journeys in building Colosseum. According to Robbins, maintaining a supportive culture around developer activity is vital for any crypto ecosystem's success: "The lifeblood of growth in the ecosystem is a function of the independent developer ecosystem's health. And so we want to make sure that's our primary remit and service that we're providing. And candidly, that's what we want the Colosseum brand associated with first and foremost."

Matthew Hougan is the Chief Investment Officer for Bitwise — one of several asset managers to recently launch a spot Bitcoin ETF. In this episode, Hougan shares his inside perspective on how market participants are reacting to the new spot Bitcoin ETFs, and why he believes we're not yet at the "sweet spot of demand" for the new products. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 05:46 Crypto & Wall Street 09:55 BTC ETF Launch Analysis 13:26 ETF Provider Competition 19:51 ETF Trading Mechanics 23:55 RIA BTC Sales Pitch 28:18 Portfolio Construction 30:15 Looking Forward 32:32 Exotic Crypto ETFs