This episode of The Scoop explores the technical headwinds and security challenges faced by the crypto industry.

Blockaid co-founder Raz Niv discusses common scams and phishing attacks in the crypto space, and emphasizes the importance of good on-chain hygiene and best practices for engaging with different protocols.

Just last month, Metamask integrated Blockaid-powered security alerts by default across multiple chains.

In this episode of The Scoop, Anatoly Yakovenko, the co-founder of Solana, explains how a Bonk airdrop caused the Solana Saga mobile phone to sell out and discusses the importance of community and meme culture for bootstrapping crypto networks.

OUTLINE

00:00 Disrupting App Store Duopoly

06:10 Bonk Saga Airdrop

09:19 Memes & Community

14:51 Solana Saga

22:29 Saga Developer Experience

24:19 Solana Ecosystem Entrepreneurs

28:48 Solana's Roadmap

34:31 Real Wold Adoption

Brian Rudick is a senior strategist at GSR.

In this episode of The Scoop, GSR senior strategist Brian Rudick examines the differences between the forces driving the crypto markets and those affecting stocks. He also offers insights into the market dynamics supporting the current rally in the crypto market.

OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

04:47 Crypto vs. Equities

06:56 Memetics in Crypto

11:26 Macro Factors

14:11 Retail Participation

17:02 Crypto Tailwinds

22:03 Bitcoin Halving

26:03 Closing Thoughts

Reed Werbitt is the CEO of the crypto market-making firm Flowdesk, and Greg Guttas is Flowdesk's Head of OTC.

In this episode, Werbitt and Guttas share their insider perspectives on how the new spot bitcoin ETFs are altering market structures across different facets of the global bitcoin market, and why they believe these products will continue to see inflows for many years to come. 

Earlier this year, Flowdesk raised a $50 million Series B round at a valuation of $250 million.

Luuk Strijers is the Chief Commercial Officer at Deribit.

In this episode, Chaparro and Strijers delve into the technological edge and institutional focus as helped position Deribit as the dominant player in the crypto options space, as well as the surge in options trading volumes driven by ETF excitement and macroeconomic factors.

Deribit recently reached a record $4 billion in client assets on exchange, as well as a new all-time high for the exchange’s 24-hour trading volume of $12.4 billion.

In this episode of The Scoop, Frank Chaparro and former Deutsche Bank payment analyst Ryan Todd delve into Coinbase's financial performance for the fourth quarter.

Todd, a former payments analyst at Deutsche Bank, offers an in-depth analysis of why Wall Street regularly underestimates Coinbase's earnings. He sheds light on the structural factors leading to consistent earnings outperformance, not only by Coinbase but also by major tech companies overall.

Colosseum is an online platform that runs hackathons, accelerates founders, and invests in breakout startups on Solana.

In this episode, Colosseum co-founders Matty Taylor and Clay Robbins discuss how they are establishing Colosseum as an entry point into crypto, and their personal journeys in building Colosseum.

According to Robbins, maintaining a supportive culture around developer activity is vital for any crypto ecosystem's success:

Matthew Hougan is the Chief Investment Officer for Bitwise — one of several asset managers to recently launch a spot Bitcoin ETF.

In this episode, Hougan shares his inside perspective on how market participants are reacting to the new spot Bitcoin ETFs, and why he believes we're not yet at the "sweet spot of demand" for the new products.

OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

05:46 Crypto & Wall Street

09:55 BTC ETF Launch Analysis

13:26 ETF Provider Competition

19:51 ETF Trading Mechanics

23:55 RIA BTC Sales Pitch

28:18 Portfolio Construction

30:15 Looking Forward

32:32 Exotic Crypto ETFs

Dr. Friederike Ernst is the co-founder of Gnosis and Gnosis Pay.

In this episode, Dr. Ernst shares how Gnosis Pay is working to bridge the gap between on-chain and off-chain payments, and how the upcoming Gnosis Card will allow users to spend their crypto at over 80 million VISA merchants worldwide.

Although crypto payments for everyday transactions have yet to penetrate the consumer market, Dr. Ernst says it's only a matter of time before traditional financial services move onchain:

Chris Dixon is a managing partner at a16z and the founder of a16z crypto.

In this episode, Dixon gives an overview of his new book, Read Write Own: Building the Next Generation of the Internet, and explains how blockchains have the potential to create more equatable online experiences.

OUTLINE

00:00 Background

08:04 New Book

11:13 Crypto Skeptics

14:56 Tech Centralization

19:53 Web2 vs Web3

24:11 Networks vs Tokens

31:12 Platform Ownership

33:49 Platform Take Rates

37:49 Consumer Crypto

40:49 Regulatory Uncertainty

47:29 Venture Landscape