Messari's Unqualified Opinions

Catherine Coley is the CEO of Binance US and former Head of XRP Institutional Liquidity at Ripple. In this conversation, Coley details her early days working for Morgan Stanley on the Forex trading floor in Hong Kong where she got a first hand look at how money really moves around the globe. She recounts her time at Ripple and her path to Binance.US, where she sheds light on the relationship between her company and the world’s largest crypto exchange.   --- Special thanks to our sponsors Nexo: Borrow, lend and grow your crypto. Lukka: Crypto taxes made simple. Use the code messaritax and get $5 off the normal price of $19.95  Crypto.com - The best place to Buy, Earn, Pay with Crypto. If you enjoyed this conversation, share it with your colleagues & friends, rate, review, and subscribe.This podcast is presented by BlockWorks Group. For exclusive content and events that provide insights into the crypto and blockchain space, visit them at: https://www.blockworksgroup.io

Christopher Giancarlo earned the moniker “Crypto Dad” by advocating for sensible crypto regulation during his time as CFTC Commissioner. He’s since joined the advisory board to the Chamber of Digital Commerce to advocate for the Digital Dollar Project. In this conversation, Christopher recounts his experiences regulating Bitcoin futures and details why he thinks the US is at its Sputnik moment with respect to issuing a digital currency. On the heels of a House stimulus bill proposing a digital dollar, this conversation sheds light on how the US could actually pull it off. --- Special thanks to our sponsors Nexo: Borrow, lend and grow your crypto. Lukka: Crypto taxes made simple. Use the code messaritax and get $5 off the normal price of $19.95  Crypto.com - The best place to Buy, Earn, Pay with Crypto. If you enjoyed this conversation, share it with your colleagues & friends, rate, review, and subscribe.This podcast is presented by BlockWorks Group. For exclusive content and events that provide insights into the crypto and blockchain space, visit them at: https://www.blockworksgroup.io

Meltem Demirors is the Chief Strategy Officer at Coinshares and goes way back with Ryan from their time together at Digital Currency Group. In this conversation, Ryan and Meltem discuss her pathway through the industry, the ridiculousness of 2017’s ICO mania, her Potato Fund, and her current focus at Coinshares. Meltem provides insight into how she approaches investing with respect to power laws, searching for category winners and using her network to gain an edge.    --- Special thanks to our sponsors Nexo: Borrow, lend and grow your crypto. Lukka: Crypto taxes made simple. Use the code messaritax and get $5 off the normal price of $19.95  Crypto.com - The best place to Buy, Earn, Pay with Crypto. If you enjoyed this conversation, share it with your colleagues & friends, rate, review, and subscribe.This podcast is presented by BlockWorks Group. For exclusive content and events that provide insights into the crypto and blockchain space, visit them at: https://www.blockworksgroup.io

Alex Gladstein is the Chief Strategy Officer for Human Rights Foundation and a long time proponent of Bitcoin and its potential to bring freedom to those living under authoritarian regimes. In this conversation, Alex revisits some of his experiences and lessons learned working with dissidents from Cuba, Hong Kong and North Korea. The conversation inevitably lands on the spread of Coronavirus and how the suppression of information from China and Iran had a hand in the severity of the outbreak.    --- Special thanks to our sponsors Nexo: Borrow, lend and grow your crypto. Lukka: Crypto taxes made simple. Use the code messaritax and get $5 off the normal price of $19.95  Crypto.com - The best place to Buy, Earn, Pay with Crypto. If you enjoyed this conversation, share it with your colleagues & friends, rate, review, and subscribe.This podcast is presented by BlockWorks Group. For exclusive content and events that provide insights into the crypto and blockchain space, visit them at: https://www.blockworksgroup.io

The mainstream media and the crypto industry have long been at odds, with crypto proponents often accusing the media of unbalanced or inaccurate coverage. Bloomberg’s Joe Weisenthal has been covering financial markets since 2008 and bitcoin longer than many of its supporters. Over the years, Joe has consistently been one of the most informed members of the MSM who never shies away from taking a skeptical eye to the industry.  In the conversation, Joe and Ryan discuss how narratives are formed in the media and how journalists go about deciding when to initiate coverage. Joe discusses the challenge the media faces when covering complex and nuanced subject matter, where narratives are constantly changing. He also breaks down his protocol for occasionally trolling crypto evangelists. --- Special thanks to our sponsors Nexo: Borrow, lend and grow your crypto. Lukka: Crypto taxes made simple. Use the code messaritax and get $5 off the normal price of $19.95  Crypto.com - The best place to Buy, Earn, Pay with Crypto.  If you enjoyed this conversation, share it with your colleagues & friends, rate, review, and subscribe.This podcast is presented by BlockWorks Group. For exclusive content and events that provide insights into the crypto and blockchain space, visit them at: https://www.blockworksgroup.io

Coinbase sits atop a short list of the largest and most critically important companies in crypto - a status they’ve achieved through a mix of product innovation and legal and regulatory compliance. As Chief Legal Officer, Brian Brooks is tasked with allowing Coinbase to continue to innovate while remaining within the good graces of governments and regulators, both domestic and abroad. In this conversation, you will get a glimpse into how one of crypto’s biggest firms continues to operate compliantly in a space fraught with legal grey areas. Brian and Ryan discuss the formation of the Crypto Ratings Council and how Coinbase engages with regulators from the SEC to FATF. Brian also reveals that you might be seeing security tokens listed on Coinbase sooner than you think. --- Special thanks to our sponsors Nexo: Borrow, lend and grow your crypto. Lukka: Calculate your capital gains for free with LukkaTax! Only pay if you save - use the code "messaritax" and get $5 off the normal price of $39.95. Crypto.com - The best place to Buy, Earn, Pay with Crypto.  If you enjoyed this conversation, share it with your colleagues & friends, rate, review, and subscribe.This podcast is presented by BlockWorks Group. For exclusive content and events that provide insights into the crypto and blockchain space, visit them at: https://www.blockworksgroup.io

There are very few people who have created a top 20 cryptocurrency. Charles Hoskinson is one of them. In this conversation, Charles details his path through a failed project with Dan Larimer, an unsanctimonious departure from the founding team of Ethereum to ultimately creating Cardano. Charles details how he structured Cardano "like a DARPA project" with a deep focus on R&D and why they're concentrating heavily on development in Africa. He lays out his philosophy and strategy for building a network that will one day no longer be reliant on its founders and how he views the overall competitive landscape. He also clears the air on an infamous tweet. --- Special thanks to our sponsors Nexo: Borrow, lend and grow your crypto. Lukka: Crypto taxes made simple. Use the code messaritax and get $5 off the normal price of $19.95  If you enjoyed this conversation, share it with your colleagues & friends, rate, review, and subscribe.This podcast is presented by BlockWorks Group. For exclusive content and events that provide insights into the crypto and blockchain space, visit them at: https://www.blockworksgroup.io

Jameson Lopp has been involved with Bitcoin in one form another for 9 of Bitcoin’s 11 year history. In that time, Lopp has contributed volumes of free educational resources while remaining a vocal proponent of Bitcoin’s core ethos of individual empowerment and self-sovereignty. In 2016, he co-founded Casa, which develops self-custody solutions for bitcoin owners.   In this conversation, Ryan and Lopp discuss the challenges that Bitcoin has overcome in the past as well the hurdles to come. The two discuss how the next wave of community controversy will likely form around enhancing Bitcoin’s privacy and scalability via Schnorr signatures and how there’s still no consensus around the fundamental question of, “what is Bitcoin?” Lastly, Lopp recounts how the time he got SWATTED led him to change his approach to security entirely. --- Special thanks to our sponsors Nexo: Borrow, lend and grow your crypto. Lukka: Crypto taxes made simple. Use the code messaritax and get $5 off the normal price of $19.95  If you enjoyed this conversation, share it with your colleagues & friends, rate, review, and subscribe.This podcast is presented by BlockWorks Group. For exclusive content and events that provide insights into the crypto and blockchain space, visit them at: https://www.blockworksgroup.io

In 2019, centralized crypto exchanges were hacked to the collective tune of $300M. The ever present threat of exchange hacks has led to the rise of DEXs, which allow for trade without handing over custody to a third party. While DEXs have seen impressive growth, the liquidity available at their centralized counterparts remains orders of magnitude greater. Arwen protocol’s aim is to achieve the holy grail of giving prospective traders access to centralized exchange liquidity without having to give up custody of their assets.  In this conversation, Arwen CEO Sharon Goldberg details her path from academia to cryptography to Bitcoin. Sharon gets into the inner workings of crypto exchange, custody, settlement, cross-chain atomic swaps while providing a digestible overview of how it all works. Her and Ryan also lament over the difficulties of fundraising without a token sale. --- Special thanks to our sponsors Nexo: Borrow, lend and grow your crypto. Lukka: Crypto taxes made simple. Use the code messaritax and get $5 off the normal price of $19.95  If you enjoyed this conversation, share it with your colleagues & friends, rate, review, and subscribe.This podcast is presented by BlockWorks Group. For exclusive content and events that provide insights into the crypto and blockchain space, visit them at: https://www.blockworksgroup.io

Founded in 2018, The Block has grown into one of the leading crypto news outlets using a combination of thorough research and reporting and brash, in your face twitter theatrics. In this conversation, The Block Founder and CEO Mike Dudas details his journey from traditional fintech to crypto as well as the evolution of the company. Mike sheds light on how he views the role of media in 2020 and on how he's evolved his stance towards tribalism within the industry. Lastly, Ryan gets into Mike's practice of deleting his tweets every 48 hours. --- Special thanks to our sponsors Nexo: Borrow, lend and grow your crypto. Lukka: Crypto taxes made simple. Use the code messaritax and get $5 off the normal price of $19.95  If you enjoyed this conversation, share it with your colleagues & friends, rate, review, and subscribe.This podcast is presented by BlockWorks Group. For exclusive content and events that provide insights into the crypto and blockchain space, visit them at: https://www.blockworksgroup.io