The Scoop

On this episode of The Scoop, Bittrex Global CEO Stephen Stonberg joined host Frank Chaparro for a discussion on Bittrex’s US and global businesses, his outlook on security tokens, and how the company is tackling regulatory tightening in an effort to safely enter markets across the world. In its global business, Stonberg said that Bittrex is testing out lending and staking products as well as dipping its toes into STOs or Security Token Offerings, such as in real estate, stocks, cars, etc. Bittrex test-launched a limited number of what Stonberg termed ‘unsolicited ETFs’ like "Google tokenized and Tesla tokenized" which they are currently only selling to a small subset of clients via their Bermuda license. As the market matures and investors eventually look for yield in alternative products outside of utility tokens, Bittrex is positioning itself to capture that market share. “I would expect that as utility tokens become a more mature market, that you won't see those types of returns," said Stonberg. Stonberg views real estate on the blockchain as one of the use cases that will reshape the industry. In fact, Bittrex is exploring the potential of STO-based tokens, such as in real estate as well as possibly art and IPOs, as Stonberg suggested. “I really think that you're going to see everything being tokenized. Why should we not have real estate tokenized? Like, why should if you're IPOing a company, why does it have to be an IPO? Why can't it be in the venture stage?” As for where competitors are in the adoption cycle, Stonberg added: "Right now, we're in the fund build phase where the regulators haven't caught on yet." However, he did not comment on whether Bittrex has plans at this time to fundraise or enter public markets. Episode 56 of Season 3 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block’s Frank Chaparro and Stephen Stonberg, CEO at Bittrex Global. Listen below, and subscribe to The Scoop on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you listen to podcasts. Email feedback and revision requests to podcast@theblockcrypto.com. This episode is brought to you by our sponsors Bakkt, Kraken, and Exodus Bakkt® unlocks the $1.2+ trillion of digital assets that is currently held in cryptocurrencies, rewards and loyalty points, gaming assets and merchant stored value. We began in 2018 with the vision to bring trust and transparency to digital assets. Through the Bakkt Warehouse and Bakkt Bitcoin Futures and Options contracts, we serve institutional clients in an end-to-end regulated market with true price transparency. For consumers, Bakkt aggregates digital assets to enable instant liquidity and to empower users to trade, transfer and pay however they want. Visit Bakkt.com for more information About Kraken Whether you’re an experienced crypto trader or just starting out, Kraken has the tools to help you achieve financial freedom. With 50+ cryptocurrencies to choose from, industry-leading security and a wide variety of features to suit any investing strategy, Kraken puts the power in your hands to buy, sell and trade digital assets. Visit Kraken.com to get started today. About Exodus Exodus is leading the world out of traditional finance by building beautiful and user-friendly crypto products. Forget having to learn the nuances of different cryptocurrencies. Exodus is designed for everyone and hides the complex details behind a beautiful and intuitive interface.   Buy and sell one cryptocurrency for another from the comfort of your wallet, in seconds. Funds remain under your full control.   Secure, manage, stake, and exchange all of your favorite cryptocurrencies from one wallet. No account registration is required. Download Exodus at Exodus.com or directly from Google Play and the iOS App Store and you’re ready to go.

Just as the internet revolutionized the taxi industry through the advent of apps like Uber and Lyft, it is only a matter of time before money gets brought into the digital age, according to the pseudo-anonymous crypto personality Punk6529. "Eventually cash is also going to end up being a centralized database," said Punk6529, and "the person who has the master password to the database can decide what rights you have in society." In this episode, Punk64529 lays out two possible futures for our society: one in which a handful of centralized corporations control the details of our daily lives, and one in which decentralized communities come to a consensus on the best path forward. This episode is brought to you by our sponsors Circle, Railgun, Flare Network, NordVPN About Circle Circle is a global financial technology company helping money move at internet speed. Our mission is to raise global economic prosperity through the frictionless exchange of value. Visit Circle.com to learn more. About Railgun RAILGUN is a private DeFi solution on Ethereum, BSC, Arbitrum, and Polygon. Shield any ERC-20 token and any NFT into a Private Balance and let RAILGUN’s Zero-Knowledge cryptography encrypt your address, balance, and transaction history. You can also bring privacy to your project with RAILGUN SDK and be sure to check out RAILGUN with partner project Railway Wallet, also available on iOS and Android. Visit Railgun.org to find out more. About Flare Flare is an EVM-based Layer 1 blockchain designed to allow developers to build applications that can use data from other blockchains and the internet. By providing decentralized access to a wide variety of high-integrity data from other blockchains and the internet, Flare enables new use cases and monetization models. Build better and connect everything at Flare.Network About NordVPN NordVPN is essential for keeping crypto transactions secure, hiding your IP address, and protecting your devices from hackers and data theft. Get premium cyber-security on up to 6 devices for the price of a cup of coffee a month. Get your exclusive NordVPN Deal and try it risk-free now with a 30-day money-back guarantee: Visit https://nordvpn.com/thescoop

Li Jin is a co-founder and general partner at the crypto VC firm, Variant. In this episode, Li analyzes the memecoin phenomenon that has recently swept over the crypto market, and explores how different types of memecoins capture and monetize attention. OUTLINE 00:35 Memecoin Zeitgeist 04:04 The Attention Economy 10:58 Classifying Memecoins 17:40 Trading Memecoins 21:05 Are Memecoins Productive? 23:14 Memetic Analysis 29:10 Memecoins & Marketing Strategies 34:42 Closing Thoughts

Professor J.W. Verret teaches corporate and securities law and financial accounting at George Mason Law School. In this episode of The Scoop,  Verret discusses the potential legal challenges that Uniswap may face from the Securities and Exchange Commission and highlights the similarities between the Coinbase case and the possible claims against Uniswap. Verret says the charges the SEC is likely to bring against Uniswap could include operating as an unlicensed broker dealer, operating an unregistered exchange, and/or selling unregistered securities.

Brandon Mulvihill is the co-founder and CEO of Crossover Markets. In this episode of The Scoop, Mulvihill discusses crypto's changing market structure and the role of Crossover as an execution-only trading venue. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction and Background 01:07 The Role of Crossover in the Market 04:04 FX & Crypto Trading Similarities 08:22 ECN vs. CLOB Differences 18:30 The Importance of Fee Compression 22:33 Crypto Flash Crashes 26:15 Crypto Market Structure Maturity 29:27 Institutional Credit 34:02 Closing Thoughts

Austin Reid is the global head of revenue and business at FalconX. In this episode of The Scoop, Reid discusses why we are still at the 'early stages' of institutional adoption of crypto, and the role retail traders have played in the market's current rally. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 04:12 Market Overview 08:06 FalconX Volume 12:03 Crypto Derivatives 15:55 Interest Rates 19:19 Institutional Adoption 22:10 ETF Flows 26:49 Retail Flows 32:51 Market Maturation 35:06 Exchange Improvements 39:25 Closing Thoughts

Haseeb Qureshi is a managing partner at the crypto VC firm Dragonfly. In this episode of The Scoop, Qureshi explains how the crypto VC landscape has changed during his five years at Dragonfly and why he believes 'points' are a more useful mechanism than airdrops for incentivizing user behavior. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 05:41 Dragonfly Early Days 09:45 Early Crypto VC 13:14 Competing in Layer-1s 26:11 Old Blockchains 29:26 Points 31:47 Airdrop Mechanism Design 37:38 Closing Thoughts

Craig Burel is a partner at Reciprocal Ventures. In this episode of The Scoop, Burel explains how the recent market rally caused sidelined venture capitalists to return to the crypto industry in earnest. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 07:38 Nuances of Crypto VC 10:05 Crypto Venture Maturation 13:12 Valuations in the Bull 19:15 Solana Conviction 23:15 Navigating Market Cycles 28:17 Consumer Crypto Apps 32:22 Improving Tokenomics 38:00 Closing Thoughts

Mike Belshe is the co-founder and CEO of BitGo. In this episode of The Scoop, Belshe discusses the growth and challenges of the custody market in the crypto industry, and explains what it will take to make crypto's market structure more robust. OUTLINE 00:00 BitGo Background 05:15 Institutional Crypto Custodians 10:41 New Market Participants 14:36 Market Structure 24:09 Bullish Catalysts 32:08 Crypto Robustness 41:58 Closing Thoughts

Muneeb Ali is the CEO of Trust Machines and the co-creators of Stacks — a layer-2 that enables smart contracts and decentralized applications to utilize bitcoin for base-layer security. In this episode of The Scoop, Ali discusses the growth and importance of Bitcoin Layer 2 solutions. He emphasizes the need for BTC capital to be deployed in L2s and the potential for Bitcoin L2s to become a significant category in the crypto industry. According to Ali, creating more on-chain uses for bitcoin will ultimately make the asset more valuable: “Bitcoin rails can be upgraded through layer-2s... There can be all sorts of use cases that that are deployed there and BTC the capital can be more productive — it will make bitcoin more valuable.”

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: "The lifeblood of growth in the ecosystem is a function of the independent developer ecosystem's health. And so we want to make sure that's our primary remit and service that we're providing. And candidly, that's what we want the Colosseum brand associated with first and foremost."

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: "In 5 to 10 years, I am pretty certain that most financial rails were run on blockchain technology just because it's much, much more efficient than the current stack."

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