Empire

00:00 Icebergy's Crypto Story

4:23 Finding Narratives from On-Chain Activity

11:17 Trading Tokens in Solana's Eco

14:24 Why Trade in Crypto vs Traditional Markets?

18:12 DeFi’s Underperformance

22:19 Evolving Investment Styles and Frameworks

40:39 Thales Ad

41:35 Carbon Ad

43:14 Inter-Rollup Competition

48:53 The Most Understood Thing in Crypto

50:26 What Could Revitalize DeFi?

58:12 Web3 Social Media and Social tokens

01:07:17 Why We Crypto

In today’s episode, the team debates the launch of Uniswap v4! We explore the details of Uniswap v4, what this means for the future of Curve and other AMMs, as well as looking at the fee switch debate and how the industry could look to implement an interoperability standard.

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Timestamps:

(00:00) Introduction

(04:13) Uniswap’s Origin Story and Product Journey

(12:19) “Valora Ad”

(13:14) Uniswap v4: The Design and Opportunity

(32:58) How Will This Impact Curve and Other AMMs?

(36:15) Should Uniswap Launch an AppChain?

(41:00) The Fee Switch Debate

(44:05) Did Uniswap Copy-Pasta?

(47:15) Crypto Needs an Interoperability Standard

(55:04) Liquidity Migration from v3 to v4

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Follow Jason: https://twitter.com/JasonYanowitz

Follow Santi: https://twitter.com/santiagoroel

Follow Ren: https://twitter.com/RebeccaRettig1

Follow EffortCapital: https://twitter.com/EffortCapital

Follow Purplepill: https://twitter.com/purplepill3m

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Get top market insights and the latest in crypto news. Subscribe to Blockworks Daily Newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/

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This episode is brought to you by Valora. Valora is a self-custody, mobile-first wallet... and the easiest way to send, swap, collect and purchase digital goods on the Celo blockchain. Download the app and start exploring today at valoraapp.com/empire.

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Resources:

Article on Uniswap’s history:

https://blog.uniswap.org/uniswap-history

Hyperstructure article:

https://jacob.energy/hyperstructures.html

Cosmos episode:

https://spoti.fi/3NbI0Ax

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Disclaimer: Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Santiago, Jason, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

Today we are joined by Rebecca Rettig and Jake Chervinsky to discuss the SEC's attack on crypto and how the industry needs to respond. Rebecca and Jake explore the SEC lawsuits, the McHenry-Thompson Bill, their expected US regulation timeline, DC's sentiment and more! Regulation and policy are becoming must-know topics for crypto participants, and this is your go-to source for everything you need to know. This is the second episode in an ongoing regulatory and policy series with Jake and Rebecca!

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Timestamps:

(00:00) Introduction

(00:53) The SEC Lawsuits: What’s Next?

(10:53) “Chainalysis Ad”

(11:57) The SEC Lawsuits: What’s Next?

(16:02) We Need a Use Case to Show Regulators

(21:06) The McHenry-Thompson Bill

(38:23) Unprecedented Action by the SEC

(45:47) MiCA, Global Legislation and the US’s Timeline

(54:10) Non-Custodial Tax Reporting

(56:18) DC's Sentiment: FTX Still Lingers

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Follow Rebecca: https://twitter.com/RebeccaRettig1

Follow Jake: https://twitter.com/jchervinsky

Follow Jason: https://twitter.com/JasonYanowitz

Follow Santi: https://twitter.com/santiagoroel

Follow Empire: https://twitter.com/theempirepod

Subscribe on YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/4fdhhb2j

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Get top market insights and the latest in crypto news. Subscribe to Blockworks Daily Newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/

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This episode is brought to you by Chainalysis. Chainalysis is the blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services, and research to government agencies, web3 companies, financial institutions, and insurance and cybersecurity companies. Our data powers investigation, compliance, and business intelligence software that has been used to solve some of the world’s most high-profile criminal cases. For more information, visit www.Chainalysis.com/empire.

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Resources:

The Blockchain Association

https://theblockchainassociation.org/

https://twitter.com/BlockchainAssn

Polygon

https://polygon.technology/

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Disclaimer: Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Santiago, Jason, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

Today we are joined by Avichal Garg and Haseeb Qureshi to explain their investment frameworks and why their crypto thesis hasn't changed. We talk about the US crypto exodus, mental models for investing, why TAM (total addressable market) is useless, investing in private vs public markets, what crypto got wrong and more!

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Timestamps:

(00:00) The SEC, Binance and Coinbase: We Ripped the Bandaid Off

(09:38) How Does This Affect Your Investment Decisions?

(17:00) Mental Models for Investing

(20:44) Value Creation vs Value Capture

(23:33) Why TAM is Meaningless

(28:19) Crypto’s Most Important Applications

(31:06) How to Evaluate a Projects Potential

(35:15) Bullish Decentralized vs Centralized Projects?

(43:48) Thales ad

(44:44) Carbon Ad

(46:26) The Investment Environment, Layoffs and Shrinking Runways

(01:06:01) Startups vs Liquid Tokens

(01:11:38) What Crypto Got Wrong

(01:16:53) Value Accrual: Should Protocols Flip the Fee Switch?

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Follow Avichal: https://twitter.com/avichal

Follow Haseeb: https://twitter.com/hosseeb

Follow Jason: https://twitter.com/JasonYanowitz

Follow Santi: https://twitter.com/santiagoroel

Follow Empire: https://twitter.com/theempirepod

Subscribe on YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/4fdhhb2j

Subscribe on Apple: https://tinyurl.com/mv4frfv7

Subscribe on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/wbaypprw

Get top market insights and the latest in crypto news. Subscribe to Blockworks Daily Newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ 

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This episode is brought to you by Carbon. Carbon is a new DEX on Ethereum that makes concentrated liquidity easy. LPs can automate their liquidity strategy with custom on-chain limit and range orders: all from a beautiful UI. 

Don't miss out on Carbon's "ROI Trading Competition" that's live until July 11! Here’s how to play:

Click this Carbon link: https://bit.ly/43Vo2AB

Create a new Carbon strategy 

Boom. You're eligible to win USDC rewards based on the performance of your strategy

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This episode is brought to you by Thales. 

Thales is an innovative digital options platform on Arbitrum and Optimism that gets you exposure to crypto assets in the simplest way possible. As simple as choosing UP or DOWN! Experience the simplicity and power of Thales by visiting https://thalesmarket.io/?mtm_campaign=blockworks today!

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Resources

Electric Capital

https://www.electriccapital.com/

https://twitter.com/ElectricCapital

Dragonfly

https://www.dragonfly.xyz/

https://twitter.com/dragonfly_xyz

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Disclaimer: Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Santiago, Jason, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

In today's episode, Jason and Santiago discuss the SEC's attack on crypto. We discuss the differences between the Coinbase and Binance lawsuits, tokens as securities, how regulation will impact US crypto innovation and more. We also discuss Louis Vuitton's new NFTs, Arbitrum FUD and the Apple Vision Pro!

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Timestamps:

(00:00) Introduction

(02:12) The SEC Oversteps: Binance and Coinbase

(42:41) “Valora Ad”

(43:35) Louis Vuitton Launches Soul Bound NFTs

(52:25) Arbitrum Bug, Apple Vision Pro & Recommendations

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Follow Santi: https://twitter.com/santiagoroel

Follow Jason: https://twitter.com/JasonYanowitz

Follow Empire: https://twitter.com/theempirepod

Subscribe on YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/4fdhhb2j

Subscribe on Apple: https://tinyurl.com/mv4frfv7

Subscribe on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/wbaypprw

Get top market insights and the latest in crypto news. Subscribe to Blockworks Daily Newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/

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This episode is brought to you by Valora. Valora is a self-custody, mobile-first wallet... and the easiest way to send, swap, collect and purchase digital goods on the Celo blockchain. Download the app and start exploring today at valoraapp.com/empire.

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Resources

Binance employee chatlogs

https://twitter.com/adamscochran/status/1666473028610408450?s=20

Fundamental Difference’ Between SEC’s Binance, Coinbase Suits

https://blockworks.co/news/coinbase-binance-suits-different

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Disclaimer: Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Santiago, Jason, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

In today's episode of 1000x, we are joined by Mike Novogratz, legendary trader and founder of Galaxy Digital. We talk about how Mike built an intuition for markets, how to synthesize trades, crypto's outlook, macro policy expectations, Mike's favorite trade and more!

We'll drop a new 1000x episode on Empire's RSS feed and the 1000x YouTube channel every two weeks. Hit the links below and give us a follow!

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Timestamps:

(00:00) Introduction

(00:55) Developing an Intuition for Markets

(03:25) How to Synthesize Trading Opportunities

(07:17) Trading Crypto vs Macro: Similarities and Differences

(11:42) Maintaining Conviction in Crypto

(18:27) Crypto’s Most Interesting Opportunities

(20:51) The Relationship Between BTC and Monetary/Fiscal Policy

(30:41) Retail Adoption: Crypto Needs More Storytellers

(37:19) Why Mike Started Galaxy

(39:40) Favorite Trade of All Time

(42:37) When to Sell vs Hold

(48:22) Investing in Your Community and Making an Impact

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Follow Mike: https://twitter.com/novogratz

Follow Jonah: https://twitter.com/jvb_xyz

Follow 1000x: https://twitter.com/1000xPod

Subscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3FuSarX

Subscribe on Apple: https://tinyurl.com/mv4frfv7

Subscribe on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/wbaypprw

Get top market insights and the latest in crypto news. Subscribe to Blockworks Daily Newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/

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Resources:

Golden Tree

https://www.goldentree.com/

Cumberland

https://cumberland.io/

https://twitter.com/CumberlandSays

DRW

https://drw.com/

https://twitter.com/DRWTrading

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Disclaimer: Nothing said on 1000x is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Avi, Jonah and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

Today we are joined by Preston Evans and Mustafa Al-Bassam to discuss the sovereign rollup thesis. We discuss social vs technical sovereignty, the Sovereign SDK, why light clients are critical to scale, limitations of optimistic rollups, value accrual in a modular world and more!

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Timestamps:

(00:00) Rollup Designs

(05:40) Social Sovereignty vs Technical Sovereignty

(09:58) Why Does the Rollup Debate Matter?

(18:09) Limitations of the EVM

(20:39) A Blockchains 3 Core Tasks

(24:21) Thales

(25:18) Security Guarantees & the Benefit for Users

(32:21) Modular Inevitability & Breaking the Layer One Loop

(42:34) Why Preston is Bearish on Optimistic Rollups

(46:00) Value Accrual and Moats

(53:40) Sovereign’s Alpha Release & Celestia’s Mainnet Incoming

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Follow Preston: https://twitter.com/prestonevans__

Follow Mustafa: https://twitter.com/musalbas

Follow Jason: https://twitter.com/JasonYanowitz

Follow Santi: https://twitter.com/santiagoroel

Follow Empire: https://twitter.com/theempirepod

Subscribe on YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/4fdhhb2j

Subscribe on Apple: https://tinyurl.com/mv4frfv7

Subscribe on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/wbaypprw

Get top market insights and the latest in crypto news. Subscribe to Blockworks Daily Newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ 

- -

This episode is brought to you by Thales. Thales is an innovative digital options platform on Arbitrum and Optimism that gets you exposure to crypto assets in the simplest way possible. As simple as choosing UP or DOWN! Experience the simplicity and power of Thales by visiting https://thalesmarket.io/?mtm_campaign=blockworks today!

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Resources

Celestia

https://celestia.org/

https://twitter.com/CelestiaOrg

Sovereign

https://www.sovereign.xyz/

https://twitter.com/sovereign_labs

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Disclaimer: Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Santiago, Jason, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

In today's episode, Jason and Santiago discuss their outlook on the bear market, why Lido FUD is overblown, Animoca's red flags to watch, the SEC's show of weakness and Santi's big announcement (he's building a new crypto bank!).

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Timestamps:

(00:00) Introduction

(02:38) Why This Bear Market Seems So Dark

(13:47) Santi Announces He's Building a Crypto Bank

(24:54) “Valora Ad”

(25:49) Lido FUD

(33:34) Animoca's Red Flags

(43:16) The SEC Shows Weakness

(47:53) Book/Show Recommendations

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Follow Santi: https://twitter.com/santiagoroel

Follow Jason: https://twitter.com/JasonYanowitz

Follow Empire: https://twitter.com/theempirepod

Subscribe on YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/4fdhhb2j

Subscribe on Apple: https://tinyurl.com/mv4frfv7

Subscribe on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/wbaypprw

Get top market insights and the latest in crypto news. Subscribe to Blockworks Daily Newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/

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This episode is brought to you by Valora. Valora is a self-custody, mobile-first wallet... and the easiest way to send, swap, collect and purchase digital goods on the Celo blockchain. Download the app and start exploring today at valoraapp.com/empire.

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Resources:

Animoca

https://www.animocabrands.com/

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Disclaimer: Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Santiago, Jason, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

Today we are joined by Rune Christensen to discuss MakerDAO's Endgame. The Endgame is MakerDAO's roadmap to create the world's most widely used stablecoin. We discuss how Maker has evolved since 2015, MKR's underperformance, the 5 phases of the Endgame, what could go wrong and more!

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Timestamps:

00:00 MakerDAO's History: From Creation to Today

08:51 Codifying Rules to Scale

19:36 MKR’s Underperformance vs DAI’s Growth

24:36 Quicknode

26:25 Phase 1: Rebranding, New Tokens, Farming

37:37 Phase 2: SubDAOs, RWA Collateral & Tokenomics

55:59 Phase 3: Implementing AI

01:01:20 Phase 4 & 5: Voting Rewards and a Special Purpose Blockchain

01:05:40 The Bear Case

01:10:10 Allocator DAOs and Internalizing Value

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Follow Rune: https://twitter.com/RuneKek

Follow Jason: https://twitter.com/JasonYanowitz

Follow Santi: https://twitter.com/santiagoroel

Follow Empire: https://twitter.com/theempirepod

Subscribe on YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/4fdhhb2j

Subscribe on Apple: https://tinyurl.com/mv4frfv7

Subscribe on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/wbaypprw

Get top market insights and the latest in crypto news. Subscribe to Blockworks Daily Newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/ 

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This episode is brought to you by Quicknode. QuickNode is an end-to-end blockchain developer platform that makes building Web3 apps easy. Go to QuickNode.com and use code Empire for a free month on their feature-packed Build Plan!

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Resources

The Endgame Plan parts 1&2 (May 2022)

https://forum.makerdao.com/t/the-endgame-plan-parts-1-2/15456

The 5 phases of Endgame (May 2023)

https://forum.makerdao.com/t/the-5-phases-of-endgame/20830

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Disclaimer: Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Santiago, Jason, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

In today's episode, we discuss how Metaplex, Solana's leading NFT infrastructure provider, surprised the community by announcing usage fees, causing a heated debate on public goods funding and protocol business models. We also explore the intersection of AI and crypto, the dangers of restaking, if crypto has PMF and Ledger's PR nightmare!

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Timestamps:

(00:00) Introduction

(00:57) Nvidia and AI Take Center Stage

(14:20) Metaplex: Public Goods and Protocol Funding

(31:26) “Valora Ad”

(32:24) Should ETH Embrace Restaking?

(38:28) Ledger’s PR Nightmare

(49:32) Does Crypto Have PMF?

(58:01) Fred Wilson: “When They Want to Shut Down, Double Down”

(1:04:41) What We’re Watching and Blockworks’ New Podcast

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Follow Santi: https://twitter.com/santiagoroel

Follow Jason: https://twitter.com/JasonYanowitz

Follow Garrett: https://twitter.com/GarrettHarper_

Follow Empire: https://twitter.com/theempirepod

Subscribe on YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/4fdhhb2j

Subscribe on Apple: https://tinyurl.com/mv4frfv7

Subscribe on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/wbaypprw

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This episode is brought to you by Valora. Valora is a self-custody, mobile-first wallet and the easiest way to send, swap, collect and purchase digital goods on the Celo blockchain.

Try out Masa Prosperity Passport in Valora to claim your free 5+ character .celo domain and get additional rewards from Celo ecosystem partners. Download the app and start exploring today at valoraapp.com/empire."

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Resources:

EigenLayer episode (Empire)

https://spoti.fi/45yUdr6

Shared Sequencer episode (Empire)

https://spoti.fi/3MSIw7n

Vitalik's new article on restaking

https://vitalik.ca/general/2023/05/21/dont_overload.html

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Disclaimer: Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Mike, Jason, Michael, Vance and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.