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

• Is AI going to cause unemployment for IB associates?
• Blockchain based sneakers
• Tungsten business cards
• What’s happening with OTB merch?
• Nic’s Vespa catastrophe
• Gensler’s HSFC hearing
• How Gensler is the Tonya Harding of crypto
• Made up airlines
• What’s going on with Huobi?
• FTX trial starts next week

Content mentioned in this episode:

• Merch: onthebrink.shop
• Eric Hess, Bridging Policy and Practice: A Pragmatic Approach to Decentralized Finance, Risk, and Regulation
• Nic's Token 2049 talk

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

• We recap the conferences 
• Nic's Columbia lecture snafu
• The Bitcoin security budget debate 
• One theory for what might provide Bitcoin with long term security
• FTX sues Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried
• Tether has resumed their lending operations
• Did SBF's parents make him do it?  
• HK is creating stablecoin legislation
• USA vs Singapore

Content mentioned: 

• David Morris tweetstorm on SBF parents
• Evanston Capital, Investor Participation Trends in Blockchain VC
• Anatoly Yakovenko, Solana co-founder: ‘To keep the next great American founder in America, Congress must regulate crypto. But first lawmakers should learn how it works’

Sponsor notes: 

• Coin Metrics STATE OF THE NETWORK — A Glimpse into Coinbase through Coin Metrics’ Data
• In Coin Metrics State of the Network Issue 225, we highlight pivotal data underscoring Coinbase's current market position

• The contradictory functions that wallets serve
• Offering in-app non-custodial embedded wallets

• Balancing the trade offs of security versus convenient recovery
• How customers are customizing their embedded wallet experience
• The decision to build third party wallet connectors and embedded wallets

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

• We review Singapore and Token 2049
• Singapore food reviews
• Is crypto pivoting to Asia?
• Singapore bans the 3ac boys from the Securities industry for 9 years
• The offshoring of dollar stablecoins
• Stablecoins are becoming interest bearing
• Fortress is hacked and acquired by Ripple
• SEC versus Stoner Cats
• Sentiment is turning against John Ray III
• We review Arthur Hayes’ party in Singapore
• How involved was Joe Bankman in FTX?
• Genesis is ceasing trading operations
• 19 hour flights

Content mentioned in this episode:

Nic’s Token 2049 Keynote (slides)

Bloomberg, How Sam Bankman-Fried’s Elite Parents Enabled His Crypto Empire

Peter Johnson, co-head of Venture at Brevan Howard Digital, returns to the show to talk about his latest theses on stablecoins. In this episode: 

• The origins of Peter's interest in stables 
• We review Peter's prior stablecoin predictions 
• USDC versus USDT market share trends 
• Peter's main takeaways from the Relentless Rise paper
• Stablecoin usage on BSC and TRON 
• Peter's views on PYUSD
• The emergence of interest-bearing stablecoins 
• How synthetic USD stablecoins might work
• Stablecoin comparisons to the Eurodollar market
• We make some predictions 

Further reading: 

• BH Digital, The Relentless Rise of Stablecoins

Martin Carrica, cofounder of Mountain Protocol, joins us to discuss their launch of their USDM, permissionless interest-bearing stablecoin. In this episode: 

• Martin’s story and origins of his desire to create a stablecoin
• Obtaining a registered digital assets company in Bermuda
• Martin’s review of regulatory options worldwide and how they ended up in Bermuda
• How Bermuda has distinguished itself from other financial hubs in the Atlantic
• How reinsurance is like stablecoins
• What it takes to get licensed as a digital asset business in Bermuda
• How Mountain Protocol’s USDM stablecoin works
• How rebasing stablecoins work – and how they integrate in DeFi
• How USDM differs from on-chain T bills and other interest bearing stable products
• How USDM was able to achieve a permissionless structure
• How Mountain avoids US clients
• Why the market for stablecoins is mostly ex-US
• Stablecoins as a backend for emerging market fintechs
• Different exchange rates in Argentina
• How Argentine firms use Argentine ADR stocks to manage their corporate cash
• How street moneychangers on the street in Argentina work
• Milei and the prospects for dollarization in Argentina
• The importance of a stablecoin being issued out of a bankruptcy remote structure

Disclaimer:

• USDM and other Mountain Protocol products and services are not available for U.S. persons as well as other restrictied jurisctions. 
• For more information and disclosures on Mountain Protocol, please refer to the Terms and Conditions.

Matt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode: 

• Ryan Salame pleads guilty
• Our thoughts on the latest turn of the Bitcoin security budget debate
• What are the prospects for fees to develop on Bitcoin long term?
• Is blockcspace a race to the bottom?
• Visa adds merchant settlement tools for USDC on Solana
• The significance of Visa’s move toward merchant settlement with stablecoins
• CBOE files for spot Ether ETFs
• We reflect on El Salvador’s Bitcoin law
• The FASB moves to fair value accounting for Bitcoin
• Greenpeace files a comment letter on the GlobalX Bitcoin trust
• Are the ESG tides turning for Bitcoin mining?
• Has El Salvador's Bitcoin project been a failure? 

Sponsor notes: 

• Coin Metrics STATE OF THE NETWORK — Evaluating the Market Quality of DeFi collateral
• In Coin Metrics State of the Network Issue 223, we explore predominant collateral types in DeFi lending protocols and evaluate their liquidity & volatility characteristics to determine their desirability as collateral

We sit down with Lee Bratcher, President and Founder of the Texas Blockchain Council. Lee is one of the primary architects of Texas' Proof of Reserve bill, now in effect. In this episode: 

• The origin of the TBC
• Why Lee is moving their Summit to Ft Worth
• Notable legislative successes by the TBC in Texas
• The importance of getting the UCC to recognize digital assets
• The importance of Bitcoin mining
• The origins of HB1666
• Why PoR legislation benefited from the industry spontaneously adopting the standard
• How the TX PoR bill emerged as a compromise
• How Lee expects this to become model legislation in other states
• Comparing PoR to established financial statement audits
• The importance of frequency in Proof of Reserve
• The lack of accounting firms that are willing to supervise PoR
• How would PoR dealt with issues at Gox, Quadriga, FTX, or Prime Trust?
• How are companies operating in Texas reacting to the bill?
• Future legistlative directions
• The role of stablecoins in upholding the role of the dollar
• The lost authority of the states in chartering banks

Further reading on PoR: 

• Nic in Forbes, The crypto industry is embracing self regulation. It’s time Washington gets on board
• Texas HB1666
• TBC, Texas 'Proof of Reserves' Bill

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

• Tether is actually the most interventionist stablecoin when it comes to freezing
• Should we be bullish on PYUSD? 
• Why stablecoin data shows meaningful utility for public blockchains 
• Is the idea of a 'crypto generalist' dead? 
• The meaning of the SEC's loss in court to Grayscale
• Why the SEC was 'arbitrary and capricious'
• The SEC's blunder over their approval of Futs ETFs
• The SEC's possible options 
• Our guesses for how the SEC reacts to their loss
• The SEC delays other pending spot ETFs
• The SEC wins against Impact Theory
•  Why the case against Impact Theory could implicate a lot of other NFT projects 
• Uniswap wins a class action case 
• What does the SEC's case against Binance being under seal mean? 

Content mentioned: 

• BH Digital, The Relentless Rise of Stablecoins
• WSJ, The SEC Strikes Out Again on Crypto With Grayscale

Sponsor notes:

• Coin Metrics STATE OF THE NETWORK — Coin Convergence: Piecing Together Common Ownership Patterns Across Major Stablecoins
• In Coin Metrics State of the Network Issue 222, we highlight trends in user behavior & common ownership across major stablecoins on Ethereum

Matt and Nic are back for more news and deals. In this episode: 

• The Bitcoin halving is coming up
• We review the Republican Presidential debate
• We review the state of New Jersey
• Coinbase takes a stake in Circle
• Hidden tensions between Coinbase and Circle
• BH Digital releases a stablecoin report
• USDC is challenged due to their inability to pay interest
• The DoJ charges the founders of Tornado Cash with AML and sanctions violations
• Did the Tornado Cash token hurt the founders’ case?
• The problem with chat apps creating their own tokens
• FTX is working with Galaxy to liquidate some crypto
• SBF isn’t happy with his prison meals
• Prime Trust was up to some shenanigans

Content mentioned: 

• BH Digital, The Relentless Rise of Stablecoins

Sponsor notes: 

• Coin Metrics STATE OF THE NETWORK — From East to West: the Global Pulse of Stablecoin Transactions
• In Coin Metrics State of the Network Issue 221, we provide a data-driven overview of halvings and their implications in anticipation for Bitcoin’s upcoming 4th halving