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. 

Check out this episode!

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

Check out this episode!

 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.

Check out this episode!

(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

Check out this episode!

Matt and Nic return for the news and deals in another tumultuous week. 

• Matt is snubbed by Coin Metrics
• Nic gets sort of cancelled on Twitter by the Bitcoin hardliners
• Nic is not a Bitcoin Maximalist
• Is there a positive, non-maximalist vision of Bitcoin?
• BlockFi update
• Our case for wallet-based passwordless authentication
• CIV’s 3AC takes from last week start to be independently confirmed
• What trade kicked off 3AC’s issues?
• We reminisce over the stolen bike saga
• BVI and Singapore regulators act on 3AC
• Coinflex loses money on Roger Ver’s BCH trades
• Matt’s Roger Ver story
• Matt’s prior Up In the Air career
• Grayscale’s GBTC ETF application is denied
• Grayscale sues the SEC
• Compass mining leadership departs
• Solana launches a phone
• North Korean hackers allegedly hack the Harmony bridge for $100m
• Razzlekhan may have actually hacked Bitfinex
• The Crypto Queen is on the FBI most wanted

Content mentioned: 

• Nic on Medium, Setting the Record Straight

Sponsor notes:

• Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newsletter

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Blake King, power markets engineer at Galaxy, formerly of Oak Ridge national lab and ERCOT, joins us to talk about how changing grids are accommodating an influx of load from Bitcoin miners. In this episode: 

• Why the grid is undergoing a radical transformation today
• Blake’s background in electrical engineering, power system modeling, and renewable development
• The origin of Blake’s papers on bitcoin mining and the grid
• Bitcoiner misconceptions about mining?
• Why Bitcoin is not a battery
• Why you can’t just arbitrarily add load to the grid
• Why Bitcoin mining does not generally increase energy prices during scarcity or peak load
• Why rational actors curtail or sell power during scarcity events
• Are grid planning models correctly estimating the risk of furloughing thermal generation?
• Is it possible to make the green energy transition as currently envisioned?
• Why renewable generation requires more transmission
• How renewable generation costs are increasingly upfront as compared to thermal generation
• Are bitcoiners overrating the importance of controllable load?
• Why Bitcoin miners may be over ambitious in terms of modeling ancillary service payments
• Are ancillary markets going to increase in size with more renewable generation?
• Economic demand response versus formal ancillary services
• Different types of ancillary services products
• Why load resources are able to bid out thermal generation in ancillary services markets
• How exactly Bitcoin miners get signals to curtail their load during scarcity events
• Does being a load resource imply ‘voluntary’ curtailment?
• Why miners owe it to the grid operator to be transparent in their breakeven price and operating plans
• How weather in Texas could affect block arrival times in Bitcoin
• Why the commodification of ASICs would increase the integration of the renewable energy sector and bitcoin mining
• Why ERCOT hit the pause button on the addition of new mining loads
• ERCOTs level of sophistication around Bitcoin mining
• Will miners toggle between Bitcoin, green hydrogen, and other location-agnostic uses of power?
• Do the economics of green hydrogen make sense relative to BTC mining?

Content mentioned in this episode: 

• Bitcoin Mining and the Grid, Part I and Part II

Intro and outro used with permission: Ocarina #968

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Matt Walsh sits down with BlockFi CEO Zac Prince to cover turmoil in the crypto lending markets and how BlockFi is handling the crisis. In this episode:  

• Is the contagion among lenders over? 
• Was Three Arrows excessive risk taking or fraudulent? 
• BlockFi’s relationship with Three Arrows
• Does BlockFi still have 3AC exposure?  
• BlockFi’s plan to maintain all of their products and keep them operational
• What differentiates BlockFi’s risk management from Celsius 
  • Asset liability matching
  • Duration management 
• The duration of BlockFi’s loans 
• The structure of the interest account product and why withdrawal periods are up to 7 days 
• Did regulation work to stem any of the risk in the crypto markets? 
• Shift from a borrower’s market to a lender’s market 
• The effect of capital destruction on interest rates in crypto 
• Why crypto interest rates are going up
• BlockFi’s deal with FTX 
• How the crypto lending market will change 
• Zac’s message to BlockFi clients and to the industry

Content mentioned in this episode

• BlockFi’s risk management disclosures
• BlockFi fee schedule
• FT: Crypto hedge fund Three Arrows fails to meet lender margin calls

Check out this episode!

Matt and Nic return for a fiery episode of deals and news. In this episode: 

• Is miner selling backed up by the on-chain data? 
• Is Massachusetts open to pro-crypto legislation? 
• FTX provides credit support to embattled crypto lenders 
• Why private market transactions do not constitute bailouts in the pejorative sense
• Was 3 Arrows just a case of too much leverage and bad trades, or was it fraud? 
• Does the 3AC situation stray into criminal territory? 
• There were significant harms stemming from the 3AC scheme
• Kyle’s infamous On The Brink appearance and his special request 
• Did GBTC bring down 3AC? 
• Are we entering the PvP era of crypto twitter? 
• The story behind 3AC’s yacht 
• Solend requisitions user funds 
• Wartime versus peacetime governance in DeFi
• South Korea puts a travel ban on Terraform labs employees
• DYDX is leaving Ethereum and moving to their own chain 
• The relationship between lender balance sheets and GBTC 
• Is there a case to be made for winding down GBTC?
• How to think about the GBTC trade today
• How the 3AC GBTC trade is like LTCM 
• How to think about the “macro” 
• Is the ‘crypto hedge fund that also does VC’ obsolete? 

Sponsor notes:

• Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newsletter

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In this episode, host Ria sits down with the co-founders of Starkware, Eli Ben-Sasson and Uri Kolodny to discuss how the team is leveraging STARKs, or validity proofs, to unlock a magnitude increase in scalability. We discuss:

Check out this episode!