Brian Foster, the Global Head of Wholesale at Coinbase joins the show for his second appearance. In this episode we discuss:

• A catch-up on the Wholesale business at Coinbase and the types of customers that are active in this market
• How banks and broker-dealers are accelerating their efforts post-election
• Perspectives on build vs. buy vs. partner decisions that are happening at banks after the repeal of SEC Staff Accounting Bulletin 121
• Views on how banks will approach M&A
• Coinbase’s role in the digital asset ETF market
• How Coinbase engages with government customers
• Views on the Bitcoin strategic reserve

To learn more about Coinbase visit coinbase.com. Also follow Brian on X.

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Nic and Matt are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode: 

• Trump speaks at DAS
• Is anyone in Washington talking about abolishing capital gains tax for crypto?
• Trump denounces OCP2.0
• TON raises a huge round
• Remember IOTA?
• We reminisce about Slock it and the DAO
• What happened to Ethereum Classic?
• Can you redeem PAXG for physical gold?
• Kraken acquires NinjaTrader for $1.5b
• The SEC says PoW mining is not a security
• Tim Scott’s debanking FIRM act advances from the Senate Banking Committee
• We review Bessent’s appearance on All In 
• What was the deal with the ‘vibecession’

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Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode: 

• The Strategic Bitcoin Reserve exists
• Will the government buy additional Bitcoin?
• What does “cost neutral” mean?
• What’s the deal with our cheese reserve
• Have Bitcoiners lost their libertarian origins?
• The OCC reverses their anti-crypto guidance
• Sentiment in crypto is at all time lows
• Is CZ seeking a pardon deal in exchange for a sale of Binance equity?
• Senate Banking votes to advance the Hagerty Stablecoin bill
• The banks are against interest-bearing stablecoins
• We recap the White House Crypto Summit
• Banks want to do crypto 

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Jeff Park, the Head of Alpha Strategies at Bitwise Asset Management joins the show. In this episode we discuss:

• The latest developments at Bitwise, including the firm’s Alpha Strategy division.
• Yield strategies in the digital asset ecosystem.
• Stablecoins and how the idiosyncratic opportunities that active managers are pursuing.
• MicroStrategy
• Thoughts on market structure and digital asset policy.

To learn more about Bitwise visit their website.  You can also follow Jeff on X.

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Brandon Mulvihill, the co-founder and CEO of Crossover Markets joins the show. In this episode we discuss:

• The shifting regulatory landscape in the USA and the impact that it is having on traditional financial institutions.
• How banks and broker-dealers are responding to regulatory progress.
• The battle for “Primary Market” in the United States.
• The future of market structure and the bifurcation of exchanges vs. brokerages.
• How Crossover is positioned in 2025.

To learn more about Crossover Markets visit their website.

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Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode:

• We debate the prudence of a BTC reserve
• A Strategic Reserve of just BTC or altcoins?
• How would a crypto reserve be “strategic”
• Should the US Government just seize BTC to build the reserve?
• Is there a “strategic” purpose to owning a gas token?
• SEC task force for crypto is starting roundtables
• SEC drops lawsuits against Kraken, Cumberland, and Yuga labs
• Tim Scott’s bill to eliminate reputational risk from bank regulation
• CME launches SOL futures
• An Argentine prosecutor is looking to seize $110m in the Libra case
• Tether and Circle are fighting in Washington
• SBF makes an appearance on Tucker 

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Matt and Nic return for another week of news and deals. In this episode: 

• Figure Markets announced the launch of their YLDS stablecoin, which is the first yield-bearing stablecoin to be approved by and registered with the SEC
• Crypto exchange Bybit was hacked on Friday for an estimated $1.48 billion worth of ETH in the largest hack in the industry’s history
• n the past week, the SEC dropped lawsuits and investigations related to Coinbase, Robinhood, OpenSea, Uniswap, Gemini, and MetaMask
• Microstrategy purchased an additional 20,356 BTC last week
• Crypto exchange OKX pled guilty and agreed to pay $504 million in penalties for anti-money laundering law violations
• U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has appointed Tyler Williams as an advisor on digital asset and blockchain policy
• During an interview with Bloomberg, Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan stated that in light of the expected upcoming stablecoin legislation, he expects that Bank of America will “get into that business,” and may even launch their own stablecoin

Content mentioned in this episode:

• Jameson Lopp, Jack Dorsey is not Satoshi Nakamoto
• DeFi Education Fund, Examining the burdens, costs, and failures of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), and the potentially disastrous implications of applying the BSA to DeFi.

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Matt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode: 

• Milei launches and immediately abandons the Libra memecoin
• Is the memecoin sector dead?
• What is the future of Solana post memecoin fallout?
• Hagerty’s GENIUS act gains bipartisan support
• Why securities laws exist
• What laws apply to memecoins?
• What’s going on with physical gold?

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Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode:

• Our episode with SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce
• The SEC and Binance are pausing their litigation
• Brian Quintenz nominated for CFTC
• Jonathan Gould nominated for OCC
• Central African Republic launches a memecoin
• Is Vitalik crashing out?
• CBOE wants to add staking to their ETH ETF
• We reflect on the Tigran Gambaryan story
• Rep Waters rolls out a draft stablecoin bill
• Is there a run on gold vaults underway?
• Tungsten is rallying

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SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce joins the show. In this episode we discuss:

• The past several years of digital asset policy at the SEC
• Different ways that regulators have the potential to stymie technical innovation through policy
• SAB 121
• The impact on the SEC’s policies on capital formation in the digital asset industry
• The role of Congress, specifically with regards to market structure
• The future of token disclosures
• Tokenization and how a regulatory framework could emerge in this category
• Advice to founders

You can follow Commissioner Peirce on X.

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Nathan McCauley, the co-founder and CEO of Anchorage joins the show. In this episode we discuss:

• The history of Anchorage and the evolution of the company from a product and regulatory perspective.
• Operation Chokepoint 2.0 and the debanking of digital asset startups.
• How banks are approaching the digital asset custody ecosystem and the sub-custody market.
• The evolution of stablecoins, the prospects of a stablecoin bill and the Global Dollar Network stablecoin consortium.
• Anchorage’s Porto Wallet and Atlas products and the role they are playing with institutional customers.

To learn more about Anchorage visit www.anchorage.com

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Matt and Nic are back for more news and deals. In this episode: 

• Matt and Nic’s ski adventure
• Berachain launches
• Mike Lempres of Silvergate finally speaks
• What we learned in the Senate debanking hearing
• The FDIC releases 790 pages of new documents related to the pause letters
• The FDIC is reprimanded by a judge in the Coinbase case
• Senator Lummis reveals a Fed memo that may be proof of OCP2.0
• The SEC releases their list of priorities for the Crypto Task Force
• Hagerty releases the GENIUS Act on Stablecoins
• Czech Republic waives capital gains on Bitcoins held for 3 years
• Microstrategy is now just Strategy
• Truth.fi is releasing a Bitcoin product
• Ethereum’s existential crisis

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Former Chairman of Silvergate Bank Mike Lempres joins us for a discussion of Silvergate, the crypto-focused bank that was forced into liquidation in early 2023 following a bank run. This are the first on the record comments from any Silvergate executive following the voluntary liquidation announced in March 2023. In this episode:

• Mike’s background at the DoJ, at Coinbase, and how he came to be chairman of the board at Silvergate
• How Silvergate grew to become the premier crypto-focused bank with $14b in deposits
• Why the Silvergate Exchange Network (SEN) was so useful to the crypto space
• How Silvergate suffered a bank run and ultimate liquidation following the FTX collapse
• How Silvergate survived a 70% bank run
• Regulatory shifts in 2023
• What led the decision to voluntarily liquidate
• What has happened at Silvergate since the announcement of the liquidation?
• The effect of Elizabeth Warren’s letters and short seller behavior on the collapse
• Could Silvergate have survived and thrived?
• Should bank regulators be allowed to ringfence entire industries?
• Silvergate’s relationship with Alameda/FTX – and could they have detected the fraud?
• Was Silvergate a victim of FTX
• How the Signature case adds to the suspicion – were regulators sending a message?
• What was the issue with SEN monitoring?
• Silvergate’s settlements with the Fed, the SEC, and the CA DFP
• How Silvergate was rugpulled by the government with regards to Diem
• The Fed’s recent evolution on the topic of banks serving crypto
• Mike’s outlook on crypto banking and the domestic crypto industry
• Why Signature and Silvergate executives are limited in what they can say publicly
• The problem with “confidential supervisory information”
• Why we may not get a “smoking gun memo” from the regulators on Choke Point 2.0
• What changes would Mike make to bank regulation in the US?
• Lingering misconceptions about Silvergate
• Do Silvergate shareholders have a legal case against the government?

Further reading:

• Nic Carter in Piratewires, Operation Choke Point 2.0 Is Underway, And Crypto Is In Its Crosshairs 
• Nic Carter in Piratewires, Did The Government Start A Global Financial Crisis In An Attempt To Destroy Crypto?
• Nic Carter in Piratewires,  Inside the Biden Admin’s Plot to Destroy Silvergate and Debank Crypto for Good 

Check out this episode!

Matt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode: 

• Should we revisit Basel rules on Bitcoin? 
• Jay Powell evolves on banks serving crypto 
• Are banks going to offer crypto custody post SAB121? 
• Gensler joins MIT Sloan
• Should crypto firms boycott MIT? 
• The Senate will hold a hearing on debanking next week 
• Choke Point 2.0 is getting caught up in conservative debanking 
• Where are we on DeSci? 
• Is tokenization finally going to happen? 
• X is adding payments to the platform with Visa 
• Truth Social is launching Truth.Fi
• Christine Lagarde says the ECB will not buy Bitcoin 
• Is the Czech Republic buying bitcoin? 
• Kraken turns back on staking
• Apollo is launching a tokenized credit fund on Ethereum and Solana
• Fairshake raises another $116m for the midterms 
• SBF is asking Trump for a pardon
• Elliott says crypto is in a bubble

Content mentioned: 

• Blockchain Association Unveils Digital Asset Market Structure Principles

Check out this episode!

The episode where we logged on and won forever. Probably the biggest week in crypto history… 

In this episode: 

• Ross Ulbricht is granted a full pardon 
• Did Ross Ulbricht deserve a life sentence?
• SAB121 is finally gone 
• Why SAB121 was bad
• Crypto ball review
• Trump launches a memecoin
• Trump is inaugurated
• OCP2.0 is over 
• CBDCs are banned
• We review Trump’s Executive Order
• No Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, but a stockpile instead
• Larry Fink calls for 600-700k BTC
• Mark Uyeda, announces the formation of a new task force: SEC Crypto 2.0
• Senator Cynthia Lummis announces the formation of the Senate Banking Committee on Digital Assets
• A US court in Texas overturnes the sanctions placed on Tornado Cash

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Matt and Nic are back for more news and deals. In this episode:

• Lummis instructs FDIC staff to not destroy evidence of Chokepoint
• Did the FDIC call Nic poor?
• Coinbase wins a partial victory against the SEC
• Canary Capital files for a Litecoin ETF
• Tether is moving to El Salvador and building an HQ there
• Atlanta Fed gets stablecoins
• The case for non-USD stablecoins
• Is there a case for other assets in a Strategic Reserve? 

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Matt and Nic are back after a week off. In this episode:

• Southern District of New York grants Coinbase’s appeal in their case against the SEC
• The Governor of the Czech national bank is considering Bitcoin in their reserves
• Do Kwon is extradited to the US
• E-trade is launching crypto trading
• The FDIC is forced by a court to further un-redact documents Coinbase asked for in a FOIA request
• We cover the FDIC’s Pause Letters

Content mentioned in this episode: 

• Fidelity Digital Assets, 2025 Look Ahead
• Bitwise, Benchmark Survey of Financial Advisor Attitudes Toward Crypto Assets
• Nick Anthony, Fair Access to Banking

Check out this episode!

Dana Syracuse and Josh Boehm of Paul Hastings LLP join the show. In this episode we discuss:

• The common legal and regulatory considerations that are encountered by companies in the digital asset industry.
• Common pitfalls that entrepreneurs in this ecosystem should avoid.
• The state of the stablecoin industry and the regulatory considerations in this category.
• Potential changes ahead in 2025 on how digital assets are regulated in the United States.

To learn more about Paul Hastings and their fintech and digital asset practices visit www.paulhastings.com

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Matt and Nic are back for an end of year episode. In this episode: 

• Tether invests $775m in Rumble 
• Who are the Rumble shareholders in Trump’s admin? 
• Microstrategy seeks approval for more Bitcoin buying
• We review the quantum risk to Bitcoin
• Matt and Nic’s predictions for 2025 

Sponsor notes: 

• Coin Metrics, State of the Network’s 2024 Year in Review
• In Coin Metrics State of the Network Issue 291, we revisit major stories that shaped the digital asset industry in 2024 with a data-driven lens

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Janusz and Red from Bitcoin Layers join the show. In this episode: 

• Innovation on Bitcoin, previously and now
• Technology vs consumer adoption
• The future of BTC use cases

More about Bitcoin Layers

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