On The Brink with Castle Island

Matt and Nic from Castle Island Ventures review the top stories of the week in the cryptoasset industry. This week's topics include:  - Deals - ICO Scammers and DOJ arrests - Charles Schwab Study - Jack Dorsey (Square and Twitter) - Poloniex cold wallets

Alex Pack, Co-Founder and General Partner at Dragonfly Capital joins the show. Alex has been investing in the cryptoasset/blockchain space since 2014, and prior to founding Dragonfly, led cryptoasset focused investments for Bain Capital Partners. In this episode we discuss:  - The blockchain landscape in China - Dragonfly's investment thesis - Regulatory implications of starting a protocol - Stablecoins - The evolving nature of venture investing

Matt and Nic from Castle Island Ventures review the top stories of the week in the cryptoasset industry. This week's topics include:  - Deals - North Korea Case - War Gaming Event at Harvard Kennedy School - Personnel Moves - Huobi PlusToken Dumping

Dan Matuszewski, Principal and Co-Founder of CMS Holdings joins the pod this week to discuss a range of topics. Dan was previously the Head of Circle Trade, one of the largest OTC desks in the cryptoasset industry. In this episode we discuss:  - The secretive origins of Circle - Why banking was a big hindrance for early crypto companies - The genesis of Circle Trade and their relationship with Poloniex - Whether there is a market for 'virgin' coins - The nature of Tether and how it is used - The emergence of crypto volatility products

Investor and Entrepreneur John Pfeffer joined the pod this week to discuss his views on a range of topics, including: - Why he doesn't consider crypto to be an asset class - How he thinks about position sizing for Bitcoin  - Why he doesn't believe in diversification within crypto - Why he thinks forks might be a virtuous feature of Bitcoin ... and much more.  For those of you who have not read it yet, John's "An Institutional Investor's Take on Cryptoassets" is a must read. 

Matt and Nic from Castle Island Ventures review the top stories of the week in the cryptoasset industry. This week's topics include:  - Deals - Fidelity NYDFS approval - impact on ETF applications? - Binance - Ethereum Block Times

Ash Egan, a Partner at Accomplice joins the show to discuss cryptoasset investing approaches, DeFi, smart contract platforms, and the categories that he is the most excited about in 2020. 

Matt and Nic from Castle Island Ventures review the top stories of the week in the cryptoasset industry. This week's topics include:  - Deals - SIM Swaps - China Blockchain News - New Front Doors to Financial Services - Gods Unchained

Christian Langalis and Logan Allen from Tlon join the show to discuss Urbit, the ambitious and somewhat mysterious computing project that they work on. We discuss how Bitcoin and Urbit could be mutually beneficial, how Urbit might free us from the tyrannical tech oligopolies, and why a from-scratch rewrite of Unix and the computing stack is necessary.

Matt and Nic from Castle Island Ventures review the top stories of the week in the cryptoasset industry. This week's topics include:  - Deals - News of the week - Tether Fud - Stablecoins

Nick Grossman is a Partner at Union Square Ventures, a firm that has been at the forefront of the public blockchain industry.  We discuss Nick's thesis on public blockchains, the state of the regulatory landscape, the evolving competitive landscape in the smart contract platform category (i.e., Ethereum Killers), and much more.  Learn more about Union Square Ventures at https://www.usv.com/, Follow Nick on Twitter @NickGrossman and his blog https://www.nickgrossman.is/  

Matt and Nic from Castle Island Ventures review the top stories of the week in the cryptoasset industry. This week's topics include:  - Deals - Bakkt - R3 - Paxos no action letter - Derebit and Bitmex issues this week - SEC actions  - Nic's Talk at Blockchain Week - Coin Metrics Nonce Analysis

Tom Lee, the Managing Partner and the Head of Research at Fundstrat Global Advisors joins the podcast. He is an accomplished Wall Street strategist with over 25 years of experience in equity research, and has been top ranked by Institutional Investor every year since 1998. Prior to co-founding Fundstrat, he served most recently as J.P. Morgan’s Chief Equity Strategist from 2007 to 2014, and previously as Managing Director at Salomon Smith Barney.  We discuss the state of institutional readiness for cryptoassets, the state of the market, Facebook's efforts and much more.    Learn more about Fundstrat at https://www.fundstrat.com/   For more information please visit our website at www.castleisland.vc and follow us on Twitter @CastleIslandVC.

Tom Chippas, the CEO of ErisX and Matt Trudeau, the Head of Strategy of ErisX join the show to discuss the evolving market structure for the trading and settlement of digital assets. We discuss the evolution of this market, the regulatory landscape, and what Tom and Matt are most excited about in the cryptoasset industry.    Learn more about ErisX at https://www.erisx.com/   For more information please visit our website at www.castleisland.vc and follow us on Twitter @CastleIslandVC.

Matt and Nic from Castle Island Ventures review the top stories of the week in the cryptoasset industry. This week's topics include:  - Deals - Facebook Testimony - Circle spins out Poloniex - Grayscale trade - Regulatory Talk

Zac Prince, the co-founder and CEO of BlockFi, a cryptoasset financial services firm joins the show.  BlockFi provides wealth management solutions for cryptoasset investors, including interest bearing accounts, loans, and more.  Learn more about BlockFi at www.blockfi.com   For more information please visit our website at www.castleisland.vc and follow us on Twitter @CastleIslandVC.

Matt and Nic from Castle Island Ventures review the top stories of the week in the cryptoasset industry. This week's topics include:  - Deals - Telegram SEC action - Libra defections - Grayscale product - CFTC Op-Ed  

John Beccia, the co-founder and CEO of FS Vector, a regulatory compliance, public policy, and business strategy advisory firm helping fintech, regtech, financial institutions and cryptoasset startups, joins the show.  Prior to FS Vector, John was the General Counsel and Head of Regulatory Compliance at Circle.  Learn more about FS Vector at https://www.fsvector.com/ For more information please visit our website at www.castleisland.vc and follow us on Twitter @CastleIslandVC.

Matt and Nic from Castle Island Ventures review the top stories of the week in the cryptoasset industry. This week's topics include:  - Deals - Bitwise ETF Ruling - IRS Tax Guidance - Ripple - Xapo hire - Flipside Crypto and Placeholder VC - State Street

Hunter Horsley, the co-founder and CEO of Bitwise Asset Management joins the show to discuss the crypto-asset-management landscape, the macro thesis for cryptoassets, and the state of play for the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF proposal.  Learn more about Bitwise Asset Management at: https://www.bitwiseinvestments.com/ For more information please visit our website at www.castleisland.vc and follow us on Twitter @CastleIslandVC.