Matt and Nic are back for another volatile week. In this episode: 

• Nic’s 72h fast
• Nic explains the Moscow time joke on Bloomberg
• Coinbase sells off
• Our explanations for the selloff
• Tax selling or Fed discussion of tapering?
• Taproot edges towards activation
• Eth monetary hardening – improving or impairing its monetary credibility?
• IRS demands cash transaction reports for transactions over $10k
• FinCEN doesn’t inflation-index their reporting thresholds
• OCC reviews Brian Brooks’ rules
• Will the new OCC be hostile to Bitcoin?
• Tom Emmer asks accounting regulators to revisit their accounting treatment of digital assets
• Elon suggests miners disclose their energy mix
• Should miners buy carbon offsets? 

Content mentioned in this episode: 

• Nic’s appearance on Bloomberg
• NyMag, Jack Dorsey Says Bitcoin Can Make the World Greener

This episode supported by: 

• Sovryn, DeFi on Bitcoin
• Eventus, global leader in trade surveillance, market risk and transaction monitoring solutions

Check out this episode!

Alex Thorn, the head of research at Galaxy Digital joins the show. In this episode we discuss:

• Alex’s career path and the insights that led him to diving into the crypto space
• Perspectives on Dogecoin and whether this is an enduring phenomenon
• Considerations for Doge market infrastructure and the status of the network from a technical standpoint
• The state of the crypto venture market and how Alex sees this evolving

To learn more about Galaxy Digital visit their website. Follow Alex on Twitter @Intangiblecoins

Sponsor notes:

Copper is transforming how institutional investors engage with digital assets by developing award-winning custody and next-gen trading infrastructure. Headquartered in London, the firm is scaling rapidly across Asia and North America to bring its suite of products to a wider pool of institutional investors. To learn more visit copper.co or reach out on Twitter, @CopperHQ

Aave is a decentralized, open source, and non-custodial protocol where users can deposits and borrow digital assets, and earn interest on those assets. Head over to aave.com to experience and learn more about DeFi.

Check out this episode!

Katie Chase, the Chief Operating Officer of Coin Metrics joins the show. In this episode we discuss:

• Katie’s time leading blockchain initiatives at Fidelity and how the firm approached early R&D efforts
• Her point of view on the historical barriers to institutional adoption of cryptoassets and how that is changing
• How Coin Metrics is addressing the data needs of large financial institutions
• Why risk management is an overlooked area and how CM’s Farum product addresses the needs of exchanges and brokerages

To learn more about Coin Metrics visit coinmetrics.io

Sponsor notes:

Copper is transforming how institutional investors engage with digital assets by developing award-winning custody and next-gen trading infrastructure. Headquartered in London, the firm is scaling rapidly across Asia and North America to bring its suite of products to a wider pool of institutional investors. To learn more visit copper.co or reach out on Twitter, @CopperHQ

Aave is a decentralized, open source, and non-custodial protocol where users can deposits and borrow digital assets, and earn interest on those assets. Head over to aave.com to experience and learn more about DeFi.

Check out this episode!

Nic and Matt are back for an insane week. In this episode: 

• Tom Brady is a Bitcoiner
• Elon betrays us
• Do virgin coins exist?
• Binance under investigation by the DOJ
• Bitwise launches the BITQ ETF
• Palantir thinks about buying Bitcoin
• Diem partners with Silvergate
• We break down Tether’s questionable reserves
• 46 million Americans own BTC
• Elon’s bad tweet
• New FUD dice just dropped
• The changing Bitcoin energy mix landscape

Content mentioned in this episode: 

• Nic Carter in Coindesk, The Virgin Bitcoin Fallacy
• Nic on Bloomberg/What’d You Miss

This episode supported by: 

• Sovryn, DeFi on Bitcoin
• Eventus, global leader in trade surveillance, market risk and transaction monitoring solutions

Check out this episode!

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

• The Chamber of Digital Commerce publishes a Proof of Reserve whitepaper
• Why Proof of Reserves matter
• Popular critiques of PoR
• Coin Metrics raises a Series B from Goldman Sachs
• Galaxy acquires BitGo
• How do you pronounce 3LAU?
• NYDIG brings Bitcoin to banks through FIS global
• NYDIG continues their ascent
• Paypal considers a stablecoin
• DCG commits to another GBTC repurchase
• NY state explores a Bitcoin mining moratorium
• Why a ban in NY would be counterproductive
• Could Ripple actually win their case against the SEC?
• New FUD dice are in

Content mentioned in the episode: 

• The Chamber’s PoR whitepaper
• Nic in the Harvard Business Review, How Much Energy does Bitcoin Actually Consume?

This episode supported by: 

• Sovryn, DeFi on Bitcoin
• Eventus, global leader in trade surveillance, market risk and transaction monitoring solutions

Check out this episode!

Noah Buxton and Jeremy Nau from accounting firm Armanino LLP join the show once again to discuss the launch of the Chamber of Digital Commerce’s new whitepaper on Proof of Reserves, which they contributed to. In this episode: 

• What was the purpose of the paper by the Chamber? What problems does it solve?
• History of PoR and Armanino
• When did Armanino first get into it? why?
• What’s involved in a PoR? Why include an audit firm?
• Why exchanges are so reluctant to do PoR
• How trustless and fraud-proof is the process? what are the pitfalls?
• What are the prospects for protecting privacy in PoR?
• Other related engagements that Armanino is undertakin
• How do you expect the industry to respond to it?
• Different procedures that PoR refers to
• The semantic drift of PoR
• Armanino’s PoR Taxonomy
• Why accounting firms have an important role in PoR

Check out this episode!

Nicholas Gregory, CEO of CommerceBlock, joins the show to talk about their new statechain implementation, Mercury. In this episode: 

• Origins of CommerceBlock
• Nicholas’ prior career in martial arts
• Nicholas’ underground MMA club in NY
• Did Roger Ver take the most expensive BJJ lesson ever?
• The purpose of CommerceBlock’s Mainstay system
• The difference between OpenTimestamps and Mainstay
• How sidechains evolved from the original vision and where they are today
• What can Bitcoin learn from Ethereum?
• Nic’s rundown of privacy-enhancing technologies
• Centralized mixers versus coinjoin versus statechains for privacy
• How statechains allows you to send a UTXO without an on-chain transaction
• Trust drawbacks and caveats in using statechains
• CommerceBlock’s Mercury statechain implementation
• Statechains as virtual opendimes
• Synergies between statechains and Lightning
• Nicholas’ thoughts on Bitcoin scalability
• Statechain timelines

Sponsor notes:

Copper is transforming how institutional investors engage with digital assets by developing award-winning custody and next-gen trading infrastructure. Headquartered in London, the firm is scaling rapidly across Asia and North America to bring its suite of products to a wider pool of institutional investors. To learn more visit copper.co or reach out on Twitter, @CopperHQ

Aave is a decentralized, open source, and non-custodial protocol where users can deposits and borrow digital assets, and earn interest on those assets. Head over to aave.com to experience and learn more about DeFi.

Check out this episode!

Matt and Nic return for deals of the week, joined for the first time by new member of CIV Ria Bhutoria. In this episode: 

• An update on Matt’s Turkey problem
• Will Matt create OTB Turkey Jerky?
• Will Matt tase the Turkeys?
• Is monetizing stranded natural gas good for the environment?
• Elon ‘proves Bitcoin’s liquidity’
• Elon admits to having a personal Bitcoin position
• Nexon announces a $100m Bitcoin buy
• Is US Bank getting into Bitcoin custody?
• German regulators warn about Binance’s equity tokens
• Do NFTs make sense for collectible card trading game studios?
• Genesis originates $20b worth of new loans

Content mentioned in this episode

• Square and Ark Invest, Bitcoin is Key to an Abundant, Clean Energy Future [pdf]
• Fidelity and BBH, Applying Subcustody to Digital Assets

This episode supported by: 

• Sovryn, DeFi on Bitcoin
• Eventus, global leader in trade surveillance, market risk and transaction monitoring solutions

Check out this episode!

Andrew Steinwold, the founder of Sfermion, an investment fund focused on investing in themes surrounding the metaverse joins the show. In this episode we discuss:

• Andrew’s journey in the cryptoasset industry and how we came to see the Metaverse as an investable theme
• How NFTs are a critical infrastructure component for the metaverse
• Views on the evolution of digital property rights
• How Andrew views investing in cryptocurrencies vs. NFTs vs. equity
• The companies that are best positioned to build the infrastructure for the metaverse

To learn more about Andrew follow him on Twitter @AndrewSteinwold and subscribe to his newsletter, Zima Red.  

Today’s episode is brought to you by:

Aave: Aave is a decentralised, open source, and non-custodial protocol where users can deposits and borrow digital assets, and earn interest on those assets. Head over to aave.com to experience and learn more about DeFi.

Copper: Copper is the global provider of blockchain infrastructure solutions for institutional investors who are actively trading digital assets. Head over to www.copper.co/clear-loop to learn more.

Check out this episode!

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

• Nic’s feud with the NYT
• How Lysenkoism fits in
• Issues with the contemporary press
• Coinbase does the biggest direct listing of all time
• Is COIN a trojan horse for Bitcoin?
• Coinbase mafia?
• The best thing about Coinbase being public
• Gary Gensler finally confirmed as SEC chairman
• Our thoughts on Hester Pierce’s token safe harbor 2.0
• How do you do disclosures in token land?
• The former CIA director points out that Bitcoin has less illicit usage then believed

Content mentioned: 

• SEC Commissioner Hester Pierce’s Safe Harbor 2.0
• Nic Carter, On Bitcoin, the Gray Lady Embraces Climate Lysenkoism

This episode is brought to you by Sovryn, DeFi on Bitcoin.

Check out this episode!

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

• 43% capital gains taxes?
• Are decentralized storage networks reaching fruition
• Binance US hires ex-Comptroller Brian Brooks
• Matt’s Turkey problem
• A Turkish exchange apparently exit scams
• Scott Minerd has a new target for Bitcoin
• Bernstein isn’t worried about Bitcoin’s energy consumption
• Ark Invest thinks Bitcoin is an incentive for renewables
• How much did Bitcoin hashrate really collapse?
• What did we learn from the Xinjiang shutdown?
• Why hashrate is hard to estimate
• Xinjiang is more renewable than you think

Content mentioned in this episode: 

• Alliance Bernstein, Is Bitcoin ESG Friendly for Equity Investors?
• Square and Ark Invest, Bitcoin is Key to an Abundant, Clean Energy Future [pdf]

This episode supported by: 

• Sovryn, DeFi on Bitcoin
• Eventus, global leader in trade surveillance, market risk and transaction monitoring solutions

Check out this episode!

Dmitry Tokarev, the cofounder and CEO of Copper joins the show. In this episode we discuss:

• Dmitry’s path to crypto and the pain points that led him to starting Copper
• How Dmitry sees the competitive landscape and how legacy financial firms are reacting
• How MPC enables Copper to quickly add support for new blockchain platforms
• Views on what it’s like to hire in a rapidly growing startup
• Outlook for settlement and custody services in the years to come

To learn more about Copper and Clearloop visit: www.copper.co

Check out this episode!

The Block’s Director of Research Larry Cermak and Research Analyst Mike Rogers join the show to talk through their latest report on stablecoins. In this episode: 

• Why the Block chose to focus on stablecoins for this report
• Larry and Mike’s opinion on why stablecoins are so disproportionately dollar-based
• China’s influence in the Tether market
• The history of Tether and why it attained so much traction initially
• How you can determine the location of stablecoin users
• The Tetherification for offshore exchanges – and how it displaced Bitcoin as the reserve asset
• The influence of USDC in DeFi and whether it represents a systemic risk to the sector
• Dai’s transition to non-native collateral types
• Mike and Larry’s view of algorithmic stablecoins
• Why stablecoins are so divisive between economists and crypto entrepreneurs
• Why Tether’s dominance is declining
• Where the NYAG settlement leaves Tether now
• What Larry makes of USDT on TRON stealing some market share from Ethereum
• Why investors are settling deals in stablecoin terms
• The prospects for Libra/Diem
• Mike and Larry’s expectations for the next decade in stablecoins

Related content: 

• The Block’s report on Stablecoins 
• The OTB Crypto-dollarization series

Sponsor notes:

Copper is transforming how institutional investors engage with digital assets by developing award-winning custody and next-gen trading infrastructure. Headquartered in London, the firm is scaling rapidly across Asia and North America to bring its suite of products to a wider pool of institutional investors. To learn more visit copper.co or reach out on Twitter, @CopperHQ

Aave is a decentralized, open source, and non-custodial protocol where users can deposits and borrow digital assets, and earn interest on those assets. Head over to aave.com to experience and learn more about DeFi.

Check out this episode!

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

• Nic ‘debates’ Steve Hanke
• Update on the FUD Dice
• Nic attempts to send a wire to Poland
• NYDIG raises more capital and adds more insurance companies to their roster
• Coinbase Q1 earnings are out
• Grayscale wants to roll GBTC into an ETF
• Tom Brady is launching an NFT platform
• Peter Thiel’s comments on Bitcoin
• The DC/EP may come with expiration dates

Content mentioned in the episode:

• Nic vs Steve Hanke debate

This episode is brought to you by Sovryn, DeFi on Bitcoin.

Check out this episode!

Matthew Mežinskis, creator of the Crypto Voices Global Monetary Base project joins the show to discuss how Bitcoin stacks up against sovereign currencies. In this episode: 

• The difference between base money and broad money
• Why Bitcoin should be compared to base money and not the broad money supply
• How exchanges are serving as proto free banks – and why they might end up becoming transparent fractional reserve institutions
• How free banking actually worked
• Why unrestricted banking activity tends to equilibrate with single digit reserve ratios
• How the Scottish free banking system was stable despite fractional reserve
• How Bitcoin improves upon gold in a free banking system
• The role of Proof of Reserve in a neo free banking system
• The bankruptcy of the Ayr Bank and what it tells us about the Scottish banking system
• Why ‘free banking’ in the US wasn’t really free
• Bitcoin passes the Swiss Franc
• Where Bitcoin stacks up relative to all the major sovereign base monies

Follow Matthew on Twitter and check out the Monetary Base project. 

Sponsor notes:

Copper is transforming how institutional investors engage with digital assets by developing award-winning custody and next-gen trading infrastructure. Headquartered in London, the firm is scaling rapidly across Asia and North America to bring its suite of products to a wider pool of institutional investors. To learn more visit copper.co or reach out on Twitter, @CopperHQ

Aave is a decentralized, open source, and non-custodial protocol where users can deposits and borrow digital assets, and earn interest on those assets. Head over to aave.com to experience and learn more about DeFi.

Check out this episode!

Jeth Soetoyo, the founder and CEO of Pintu, a cryptoasset brokerage based on Indonesia joins the show. In this episode we discuss:

• Jeth’s path to the cryptoasset industry and his journey from Consensys to business school to founding Pintu
• Views on stablecoin adoption and how Jeth and team are approaching this with their Rupiah Token project
• The Indonesian market and how Pintu is approaching this market opportunity
• View on DeFi and how centralized infrastructure companies are positioned

To learn more about Pintu visit www.pintu.co.id and follow Jeth @Jeth_Soetoyo

This episode is brought to you by:

Aave is a decentralized, open source, and non-custodial protocol where users can deposits and borrow digital assets, and earn interest on those assets. Head over to aave.com to experience and learn more about DeFi.

Copper is transforming how institutional investors engage with digital assets by developing award-winning custody and next-gen trading infrastructure. Headquartered in London, the firm is scaling rapidly across Asia and North America to bring its suite of products to a wider pool of institutional investors. To learn more visit copper.co or reach out on Twitter, @CopperHQ

Check out this episode!

Michael Greenwald is a former U.S. Treasury official with expertise in sanctions programs and using USD infrastructure to promote policy objectives. In this episode: 

• What the weaponization of the dollar really means
• How sanctions mechanically work
• How Treasury and the State Dept carry out sanctions
• The risk of sanctions wearing blunt as a tool 
• The growth of sanctions post 9/11
• How sanctions against Russia represented a sea change in policy
• How the US deputizes SWIFT for sanctions
• How and why Europeans tried to route around US sanctions on Iran
• Is the US led international order fraying?
• China’s attempt to build a parallel financial infrastructure to challenge the dollar
• The objectives of the Belt and Road Initiative
• The purpose of the digital yuan
• Can the yuan challenge the primacy of the dollar in the international system?
• How China uses the belt and road initiative to advance the yuan
• How the US should react to China’s aggressive move into closer economic relationships with the third world
• What a digital US dollar or CBDC might look like
• How the US can reassert dominance in the international sphere
• Michael’s thoughts on stablecoins and Bitcoin

Read Michael’s paper, The Future of the US Dollar

Sponsor notes: Copper is transforming how institutional investors engage with digital assets by developing award-winning custody and next-gen trading infrastructure. Headquartered in London, the firm is scaling rapidly across Asia and North America to bring its suite of products to a wider pool of institutional investors. To learn more visit copper.co or reach out on Twitter, @CopperHQ

Check out this episode!

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

• A crisis with our dice manufacturers
• Visa will enable USDC settlements on their payment network
• Paypal turns on Bitcoin payments for 29m merchants
• Are Paypal transactions actual Bitcoin expenditures?
• Sillvergate working with Fidelity to provide Bitcoin-backed loans
• SEC charges LBRY with securities law violations
• Are founders taking the wrong lessons from SEC inaction?
• Jay Clayton is now advising OneRiver on their digital asset strategy
• Tether publishes a new attestation
• The merit of real time attestations for stablecoins
• The CME launches a Bitcoin microfutures
• The Boston Fed will be open sourcing some of their CBDC code
• Will we ever get a retail CBDC in the USA?
• NFTs make it to SNL
• A new pasta shape just dropped
• Nic syncs his Umbel node

Content mentioned in this episode:

• Nic on Medium, Noahbjectivity on Bitcoin Mining
• Nic on the Lex Fridman podcast
• NFT skit on SNL

This episode is brought to you by Sovryn, DeFi on Bitcoin.

Check out this episode!

Rafael Cosman, cofounder and CEO of TrustToken, joins the show to talk stablecoins and TrueFi, their non-fully collateralized lending protocol. In this episode: 

• TrustToken’s various stablecoins that they administer
• The real-time stablecoin attestations TrustToken has done with Armanino
• How a real time attestation works
• Why the USD is so disproportionate in market share among stablecoins
• Why DeFi is potentially the killer app for stablecoins today
• Why Trust Token built a global fx currency basket
• Why overcollateralized lending doesn’t necessarily constitute lending in the traditional sense
• How TrueFi introduces uncollateralized lending into DeFi
• How underwriting and credit creation works in a public blockchain context
• How legal contracts are introduced into DeFi
• Howo the TrueFi system incorporates revisions in creditworthiness
• How on-chain credit scores could proliferate and be used on a cross-platform basis
• How privacy is compatible with on-chain credit scoring
• Rafael’s explanation for structurally high interest rates in DeFi
• The contrast between crypto yields and legacy yields

Check out this episode!

James Davolos, VP and portfolio manager at Horizon Kinetics, joins the show to make the case for inflation and to explain their Inflation Beneficiaries ETF, ticker $INFL. In this episode: 

• How Horizon and Murray Stahl were one of the earliest asset managers to put client assets in GBTC
• How Horizon’s value approach landed them at a Bitcoin allocation
  James’ reaction when Horizon first made the Bitcoin allocation
• Whether Bitcoin is a growth or a value asset, and how to reason about it from either perspective
• James’ reaction to Jerome Powell’s announcement on rates
• The genesis of the idea to create an inflation beneficiaries ETF
• James’ case for inflation
• Should the disinflationists be taking victory laps?
• Why the Fed is calling inflation ‘transitory’
• Why we didn’t get inflation from 2010-20
• What crystallized the case for inflation for Horizon Kinetics?
• The importance of the ‘taper tantrum’
• Why historical parallels are so hard to find – and why we have no historical precedent for our current moment
• How the dollar is the ‘least rotten apple’
• The prospects for a non-dollar monetary system
• The effect of ESG on commodity cycles
• How fiscal spending and the political anti-capital movement represents a structural shift
• The constant battle between capital and labor
• Why equities may suffer from higher labor costs
• Why Horizon focuses on asset light companies
• James’ answer to the equity-inflation return puzzle
• Horizon’s specific allocations to benefit from inflation
• The early success of the Inflation Beneficiaries ETF
• Why the inflation beneficiaries ETF does not contain Bitcoin
• How this ETF sets itself apart from other ways to play inflation – and why TIPS aren’t the best bet
• Is the thesis playing out so far?
• Why the Fed has to remain subtle with their debasement
• James’ pitch to Bitcoiners 

Check out this episode!