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

• The Merge takes place without incident
• Will the Merge silence Ethereum critics on the left?
• Will the ESG narrative around crypto get louder?
• FTX takes a stake in Skybridge
• Castle Island is not an island
• If you make an NFT of a diamond and destroy the diamond, do you still have a diamond?
• CME launches Ether options
• Starbucks launches an NFT loyalty platform
• Tungsten cubes are selling off
• South Korea issues an arrest warrant for Do Kwon
• The thin line between visionary and scammer
• What Terra teaches us about why disclosures matter in capital markets
• Huobi delists privacy coins
• Can you take delivery of Tornado Cash-dusted Ether?
• Coinbase launches their Crypto Action Network
• Matt and Nic evaluate the ratings members of Congress are getting from Coinbase
• Chainalysis releases their 2022 global crypto adoption index
• Hodlnaut’s CSW case begins
• The NSA Bitcoin lab leak hypothesis
• OTB goes live!

Mentioned in this episode:

• Jake Chervinsky’s thread on Tornado Cash
• Chainalysis 2022 Global Crypto Adoption Report

Sponsor notes:

• Talos powers institutional access to the entire digital assets ecosystem via a single-point of entry. Connect directly to your preferred prime brokers, lenders, investors, custodians, exchanges, OTC desks and more, or meet them on Talos. Get started at Talos.com

• Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newsletter and read their Mapping out the Merge report

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• Steven’s academic background, and his work at Princeton University. 
• BlockSci, an early blockchain forensics/search product that Steven co-founded. 
• The evolution of MPC custody and the exciting developments in that category. 
• The Flash Boys 2.0 paper and the current state of MEV. 
• Steven’s views on the evolution of L1 smart contract platforms and how L2 scaling is shaping up. 
• The design choices and considerations that went into the choice of optimistic vs. zero-knowledge rollups on Arbitrum. 
• The future of ZK systems on blockchains. 

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Bankless’ David Hoffman joins Matt and Nic for a special episode to cover Ethereum’s highly-anticipated Merge. In this episode: 

• How David came to Ethereum and the Bankless origin story
• The story behind the Bankless DAO
• Whether David would ever consider focusing on other blockchains
• What could cause David to abandon Ethereum
• The Coinbase OFAC filtering debate
• Why proposer-builder separation might make validator-driven censorship harder
• Filtering transactions at the pool layer versus undertaking a ‘Treasury Activated Soft Fork’
• Under what conditions would social slashing of major validators make sense?
• How embedded is the social slashing consensus into Ethereum’s social fabric?
• The significance of the new supply dynamics stemming from the Merge
• Is the unlock something to worry about?
• Is there a ‘crowding out’ effect from staked Ether becoming a risk free rate?
• Does MEV pose a concentration risk post Merge?
• Are MEV-driven yields for stakers perverse?
• Is MEV an inescapable feature of richly stateful blockchains
• Why the notion of Certified-Toxic-MEV-free blocks might emerge
• How is Ethereum’s roadmap determined?
• What’s the deal with the Surge, the Verge, the Purge, and the Splurge?
• What are the strongest narratives coming out of the Merge?
• Probabilities of the Merge success
• Why the Merge may not be fully priced in

Follow David on Twitter and learn more about Bankless.

Intro and outro music: Daniel Allan’s Collage #344 

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Dan Mottice, CEO and Co-Founder of Ansible Labs, joins the show to talk about a new payment gateway for web3.

• Dan’s personal background and how he ended up in financial services
• The Visa Network, Visa Direct Payouts and Visa Crypto
• Ansible Labs’ raise and what’s ahead
• Off-ramps and why they matter
• North stars in fintech
• The consumer experience in a b2b sales cycle
• Navigating turbulent markets and how to build to win

Learn more about Ansible here. 

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

• Nic’s shoe problem
• Web3 merch for OTB?
• The White House releases a report on crypto asset energy usage
• Why the US should encourage mining within its borders 
• Coinbase is funding a lawsuit against OFAC 
• Binance is converting USDC into BUSD on their platform 
• Poolin is having liquidity problems
• Russia considers crypto for cross border payments 
• The US Government recovers $30m from the Axie hack
• Gensler keeps firing barbs
• Nic doesn’t buy the supply shock thesis around the Merge
• Will ETH have another high fee era? 
• What could an ETH carry trade look like? 

Content mentioned: 

• The White House, Climate and Energy Implications of Crypto-Assets in the United States
• Gary Gensler speech at the SEC, Kennedy and Crypto

Sponsor notes:

• Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newsletter and read their Mapping out the Merge report

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

• What happens to the GPUs post merge?
• Will the gamers finally get cheap GPUs back?
• Is the merge like superbowl sunday or Y2K?
• Does the success of the merge undo a long-term Bitcoin talking point?
• Are NFTs going to cc0 screwing over their users?
• DC sues Michael Saylor and Microstrategy for allegedly skipping taxes in DC
• The SEC questions whether the certain assets in Grayscale trusts are securities
• What’s going on with the Roche Freedman/ Ava Labs/ Cryptoleaks situation?
• Is Roche just David Boies 2.0?
• The Biden executive order reports are due next week
• Rune of Maker muses about turning Dai into a free floating unit of account
• Will Maker be able to survive real world assets as collateral?
• Did Moonbirds rugpull their buyers with IP issues?
• Kyle Waters from Coin Metrics joins to talk about the Merge
• Is the distribution of stakers on Ethereum something to be worried about?
• What’s going to happen to ETH issuance post merge?
• How to forecast post-merge staking returns
• Is the merge priced in?
• Did Ethereum install a pro-cyclical monetary policy?

Content mentioned: 

• Coin Metrics, Mapping out the Merge

Sponsor notes:

• Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newsletter

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Ria and Nic from Castle Island sit down with Stephanie Howard and Bennett Collen, cofounders of Endstate, a web3 footwear and fashion brand. We cover the merits of the redeem-and-retain NFT model and the vision for Endstate.

• Bennett’s prior crypto startup and how he decided to unite his passion for sneakers with web3
• How Bennett and Stephanie met and cofounded Endstate
• Stephanie’s career in sneaker design to date 
• Why creators and athletes are jumping at the opportunity to issue merchandise-linked NFTs
• Why Bennett and Stephanie chose to launch a web3 native brand
• How redeem-and-retain NFTs allow manufacturers to reduce inventory risk
• Why fashion is getting more targeted and niche
• Why Endstate is able to release new iterations of their sneakers so quickly
• Endstate’s rationale for manufacturing in the US
• Endstate drops to date
• Endstate’s new drop with Eagles wide receiver DeVonta Smith
• How web3 brands should think about which metaverse to build for
• Endstate’s thinking around Solana vs Ethereum and the impact of gas fees
• How to link physical products with NFTs – from NFCs to QRs to visual scans
• What should we call physical NFTs?
• Aside from shoes, what merch is amenable to the Endstate model?
• What product sectors will be NFTed?
• How developed are authenticated third party marketplaces for physically linked NFTs?
• Physical-linked NFTs as a trojan horse to onboard mass markets into web3
• The future state of Endstate
• Other web3 drops Bennett and Stephanie enjoyed
• The future of entangled NFTs 

Read more: 

• Nic Carter on Medium: Redeem and Retain NFTs are the future of Luxury Goods
• Vogue Business: How the crypto bear market is resetting fashion’s Web3 strategy

Drops and more at endstate.io

Intro and outro music: Daniel Allan’s Collage #344 

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Obi Nwosu, CEO and Founder of Fedi joins the show to cover a new model for shared Bitcoin custody in Fedimint. In this episode: 

• Obi’s experience with Coinfloor and how that informed his views on custody
• Why third party custody with Proof of Reserves isn’t sufficient
• Why ‘credible centralized’ custody shouldn’t be the default
• Why state level attacks on custodians are ramping up
• Obi’s early prediction that Nigeria would be the heartland of Bitcoin adoption
• Why messaging apps are actually the most popular p2p exchanges worldwide
• The history and origins of Chaumian Mints
• How the enabling pieces of Fedimint all came together over time
• The relationship between federated custody and microfinance
• How Fedimint is analogous to Free Banking
• Does Fedimint satisfy Hal Finney’s vision for Bitcoin banks?
• How Fedimint compares to first party custody
• How Obi expects regulators to react to Fedimint

Learn more about Fedi and Fedimint.

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

• Is there any hope for ETH PoW forks?
• Is Ethereum unforkeable?
• More 3AC shenanigans of the week
• The 3AC Toyota Century situation
• The 3AC boys have some unexpected supporters 
• A bipartisan bill proposes giving the CFTC oversight over the spot market
• What’s up with the croissant diet
• NYDFS fines Robinhood Crypto
• Michael Saylor steps down from this CEO role at Microstrategy
• The SEC charges 11 individuals involved in the Forsage ponzi
• The other Nick Carter is in trouble for endorsing Safemoon
• Another cross chain bridge is hacked
• What happened with this Solana wallet hack?
• Matt loses the tip of his finger
• Coinbase partners up with Blackrock

Sponsor notes:

• Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newsletter

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

• Matt’s prior radio career
• The boys consider reinvesting in the podcast
• How to avoid audience capture
• We puzzle over metaverse advertising
• How do you value metaverse real estate?
• Rep. Tom Emmer writes a letter to OFAC questioning their sanctioning of Tornado Cash
• Tether and BUSD (Paxos) don’t blacklist Tornado Cash addresses
• The FDIC reprimands crypto companies
• Web3 hoodies
• Best podcast listening speeds
• Are security tokens and real world assets back?
• No new 3ac shenanigans
• Tadge Dryja leaves MIT DCI for David Marcus’ Lightspark
• New findings on OFAC censoring Bitcoin Mining pools
• Tether has a new auditor
• Can a firm with outstanding tokens be acquired or go public?
• Gensler’s weird op-ed

Sponsor notes:

• Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newsletter

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• Brooke‘s career journey and path to founding Hutt Capital
• The events that led him to seeing that crypto/blockchain was going to be an industry with dedicated venture managers
• The institutional limited partner landscape
• The narratives that have captured the most institutional mindshare
• Views on the optimal fund structure for crypto/blockchain managers
• The DeFi landscape
• Views on NFTs as a foundational building block for future businesses. 

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

• NYMag writes a long piece on 3AC
• Is OTB a ‘crypto fanboy podcast’?
• Are we up against the nation state ‘final boss’?
• 3AC boat name reveal
• The Toyota Century rumors are true
• Revelations about 3ACs FX days
• Did 3AC actually owe the Mafia money?
• The 3AC Deribit deal
• A new 3AC supporter dials in to the show
• Machinsky was trading Celsius customer deposits
• The Galaxy BitGo acquisition falls through
• Dragonchain settles with the SEC
• Hodlnaut files for creditor protection
• Genesis reorganization
• Tornado cash developer arrested in Amsterdam
• Are Bitcoin miners filtering transactions for OFAC?
• Will Coinbase censor Ethereum at the protocol level?
• Vitalik suggests slashing Ethereum if they comply with OFAC at the protocol level
• Would Coinbase ever abandon their staking business?
• The effect of MEV on the centralization of PoS vs PoW
• End of the merge rally?

Content mentioned in this episode: 

• NYMag, Inside the Crash of Three Arrows Capital

Sponsor notes:

• Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newsletter

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In this episode, Uddhav Marwaha, co-founder and CEO of Friktion Labs, joins us to discuss Friktion‘s approach to a full stack portfolio management platform in defi. We cover a plethora of topics, including:

• The opacity surrounding defi yields and distinguishing fleeting opportunities from sustainable sources of income
• Using options overwriting and basis strategies to generate more durable returns and provide portfolio protection across market conditions
• In-housing core tooling such as Friktion‘s RFQ system (Channel RFQ) and an exotic options DEX (Entropy) to unlock time and cost efficiencies

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

• Underwhelming Taproot adoption
• Tornado Cash gets sanctioned by OFAC
• Is Tornado a better mixer than coinjoin
• Why the Tornado Cash sanctioning is the first of its kind
• How much of the liquidity in Tornado Cash was illicit?
• Are we at a turning point in financial privacy?
• Why was Tornado Cash specifically targeted and not other mixers
• Account-based versus UTXO systems and their effect on your ability to segregate funds
• Can you really sanction a blockchain or smart contract?
• The crypto wars of the 90s continue
• Is Ethereum the biggest crypto platform for privacy today?
• Is Dai at risk from USDC?
• The Merge finally gets a launch date
• BlackRock launches a Bitcoin spot trust

Sponsor notes:

• Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newsletter

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

• Damien Hirst’s physical NFT project 
• Why you need a bridge between the physical and the digital world for certain NFTs 
• Why physical NFTs provide advantages to collectors and brands
• Libra/Diem spawns Aptos and Sui
• Coinbase is under SEC investigation 
• Pat Toomey criticizes the SEC
• What is in the bipartisan stablecoin bill? 
• Squabbles over Voyager’s Chapter 11 plan 
• The UK inches towards recognizing cryptocurrency as property
• More 3AC shenanigans 
• How 3AC was and wasn’t like LTCM 
• 3AC liquidators will try to force cooperation 
• Tether reduces their commercial paper holdings 
• Matt starts a Tether conspiracy 
• Harmony mulls a post-hack bailout

Content mentioned in this episode: 

• Coin Metrics state of the network 165
• Nic on Medium, Redeem-and-retain NFTs are the future of luxury goods
• FS Vector, Stablecoin Legislation Update 
• UK Law Commission: Digital Assets Consultation Paper

Check out this episode!

Itai Turbahn and Yoni Goldberg, the founders of Dynamic join the show. In this episode we discuss:

• Itai and Yoni’s professional journey to starting Dynamic
• How Dynamic is addressing wallet based authentication
• Views on how standards will evolve in the blockchain ID category
• The evolution of decentralized identifiers
• The types of businesses that are early adopters for wallet-based logins

To learn more about Dynamic visit their website and follow them on Twitter.

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(Reuploaded, fixed audio)

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

• Inert ETH from the crowdsale?
• Why the credit crunch is like the European panic of 1772
• Should we bring back full-liability banks?
• Are Bitcoiners wrong to reject fractional reserve banking?
• 1000 pages of 3AC intrigue 
• Genesis had 2.6b gross exposure to 3ac
• The 3AC blockchain .com transcripts
• More 3AC shenanigans are revealed
• Secret exchange insolvencies
• Coinbase insider trading scandal
• The SEC regulates by enforcement
• Gensler is getting a lot of heat
• Is the bottom in?
• What is MVRV telling us right now?
• What is the issue with ETH yield being related to MEV?
• Can MEV be addressed?
• Paul Krugman admits he was wrong about inflation
• Christie’s launches a venture arm

Content mentioned:

• Nic in Coindesk, The Credit Crunch is not the End of Crypto Lending
• SEC insider trading complaint
• Coinbase blog post on the SEC
• Paul Krugman, I was wrong about inflation

Sponsor notes:

• Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newsletter

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

• Stablecoin actives outpace blue chip crypto
• Why is Tether on Tron so popular?
• Is H E Justin Sun willing to deploy $5b in acquisitions
• Celsius files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection
• KeyFi is suing Celsius
• Are DeFi business models going to have to change?
• Where do tokenholders fall in the capital stack?
• Three Arrows are not cooperating with liquidation
• 3AC liquidators reportedly fail to exercise the Starkware token warrant
• Blockchain.com report a loss from 3AC
• New lenders admit losses from 3AC
• Circle further clarifies their reserve assets
• Was Taibbi’s USDC FUD legit?

Sponsor notes:

• Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newsletter

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

• USDC gains ground on USDT
• Stable liquidity is sticky
• Why fiat-backed stables are still more censor resistant than bank deposits
• Do stablecoins make L1s unforkable
• Will the emergence of crypto prime brokers pressure crypto yields?
• Voyager files for Chapter 11
• Should investors also be clients of lending firms they invest in?
• Circle’s origins as a spot crypto broker
• 3AC files for Chapter 15
• Genesis confirms they had 3AC exposure and DCG absorbed the losses
• EU agrees on tentative MiCA regulation
• MiCA avoids the PoW ban
• Did the EU write model stablecoin regulation?
• The WSJ pushes back at Gary Gensler on the spot BTC ETF
• The SEC’s double standard in metal ETFs versus a BTC ETF

Sponsor notes:

• Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newsletter

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Dave Balter and Jim Myers, the founders of Flipside Crypto join the show. In this episode we discuss:

• The early insights that led to the launch of Flipside Crypto
• Current market conditions and how Dave compares that to the dot com era
• The proliferation of NFTs and how the SaaS market will change as a result of this technology
• How Flipside prioritizes new blockchains
• ShroomDK, Flipside’s latest product release

To learn more visit www.flipsidecrypto.xyz

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