Bloomberg Crypto

Jump Crypto burst onto the scene less than a year ago, with the appointment of a former intern named Kanav Kariya as its founding president. Within just a few months, Jump Crypto has found itself spending hundreds of millions bailing market participants out because of a major DeFi hack, and having to navigate the collapse of the TerraUSD stablecoin. Undeterred by critics, Kanav Kariya believes that the market’s current volatility is the perfect time to double down. In this episode you’ll hear from Bloomberg reporters Katherine Doherty and Yueqi Yang, who went to Chicago to visit Jump’s headquarters and hear about what’s next for the firm. 

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It feels like every country in the world is figuring out how they want to regulate crypto - or if they’ll even allow it to exist at all.  India is seen as one of the fastest-growing markets for crypto trading, something which its government isn’t too keen about. Bloomberg reporter Sidhartha Shukla joins me today to discuss India’s complicated history of crypto regulation, why they’re turning to taxes to curb speculation on the asset classes, and the potential lessons for other countries.

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Sorare is one of several companies attempting to take the idea of collectibles like baseball cards and bring them into the digital context. In May, Sorare announced a partnership with Major League Baseball in the US. And Serena Williams is a member of their advisory board. Why is Sorare betting big on sports? Do collectibles really need to be on a blockchain? Will baseball players benefit from that Major League deal? On this episode, we’ll talk to Bloomberg reporter Hannah Miller and to Sorare’s CEO Nicola Julia.

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Experimenting with who you are online, especially if those identities are really different from who you present to the analogue world, is not a new concept. Neal Stephenson famously coined the phrase “metaverse” back in 1992. So it’s no surprise that folks are using newish technologies like crypto and the blockchain to play with their self-expression. Some are even using blockchain-enabled structures to monetize their experiments with identity, including their gender presentation.

In this episode, you'll hear from Bloomberg reporter Emily Nicolle and Florence Smith Nicholls, a doctoral student who researches games, ethics and artificial intelligence.

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In June, Senators Kirsten Gillibrand and Cynthia Lummis introduced a sweeping Senate bill that would regulate crypto assets. Influential crypto insiders have hailed the proposal as a great starting point - a reception which suggests it might be perceived as relatively friendly to the digital asset community. Hilary Allen, a law professor at American University, is among those who think the proposed legislation doesn’t go far enough, especially when it comes to consumer protection. She joins this episode for a critical look at the proposed legislation.

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One of the most closely-watched fights in crypto might sound a little obscure, but it’s really important. It pits a company called Grayscale Investments against the US Securities and Exchange Commission, a crucial regulator. And it involves so-called exchange traded funds, an extremely popular type of investment vehicle, and Bitcoin, the largest and most liquid cryptocurrency.  Grayscale had been lobbying regulators to allow it to convert one of its existing crypto products into an exchange traded fund, or ETF. This week, the SEC rejected their petition. Grayscale has been very clear that they’re preparing for a fight and intend to take the fight to court, and they’ve geared up accordingly. They hired Donald Verrilli, a top White House lawyer during the Obama administration. Bloomberg reporter Katie Greifeld joins me to examine why this fight is so important to crypto. 

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It might feel like there’s always some kind of election happening in the US - and that’s because there is. State and local elections can happen every year, while ​​Congressional mIdterms occur every other year, allowing US voters to decide who will represent them. These elections really matter, and crypto executives are spending significant amounts of money to influence them. In 2022, for the very first time, political spending by major figures in the crypto industry has eclipsed the dollars being spent by traditional donors in big tech and pharma. Today, Bloomberg reporter Allyson Versprille joins this episode to share her reporting on why crypto is emerging as a significant financial force in US politics. 

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Rishi Sunak, one of the most senior people in the UK government, this year announced he wanted to establish the country as a global hub for crypto . He’s got some catching up to do: the competition between countries trying to attract crypto talent is only getting more intense. But this environment, in which politicians seem to be willing to make major concessions to the crypto industry, gives rise to an important question: who’s standing up for consumer protections? Bloomberg reporter Will Shaw joins this episode to share more about the regulatory landscape for consumer protection in the UK.

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One of the features that early crypto investors would talk about is something called correlation - specifically, the lack of it. Correlation refers to the relationship between different financial assets - if the gold price goes up, and the price of oil also goes up, you could say those prices are positively correlated. For investors looking to diversify their portfolios, correlation isn’t always a good thing. What they want is something that doesn’t move in the same direction as everything else. And for a while, it looked like cryptoassets might fit the bill. 

Over the past year, as inflation rates have begun to rise- the price of crypto has fallen in line with stocks. What does this mean for crypto’s supposed independence from other markets? Bloomberg reporter Vildana Hajric joins this episode to explore these questions.

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California’s Silicon Valley is both a place and a philosophy. It’s hailed as *the* place for US tech startups to get funding and attract talent. VCs, or venture capitalists, are integral to this mythology.  These are the people who provide the private capital - billions of dollars worth - so tech startups can chase the next big thing. Despite the volatile crypto market, some of those VCs are still betting big on the potential of the blockchain. Bloomberg reporter Hannah Miller joins this episode for a look at how crypto is influencing VC—and vice versa.

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