Bloomberg Crypto

If you’ve ever found yourself on Crypto Twitter, you’ll be familiar with the hype machine that keeps the industry’s thousands of projects going. Rallying cries of “WAGMI” — an acronym for We Are All Going To Make It — and “To the Moon!” abound, found in tweets from accounts with colorful, graphic profile pictures and usually a hashtag or two. But there are always two sides to a coin, and if you’ve come across a Twitter display name featuring the Tulip emoji, you might find a crypto skeptic instead. A reference to the Dutch tulip mania of the 1600s, these figures – technologists, academics and writers among them – are working to counteract crypto’s steady rise to the top with a dose of reality. Stephen Diehl is a software engineer by trade, a leading crypto skeptic and now co-founder of the recently established Center for Emerging Technology Policy. He joins this episode to break down crypto’s promises of a brighter tomorrow, and when he thinks it might actually be closer to myth.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You may have heard of cryptocurrency exchange FTX and you may have heard of its CEO and Founder, Sam Bankman-Fried. But have you heard of Alameda Research?  It’s not a Silicon Valley robotics lab but it is one of the largest and most influential cryptocurrency trading firms in the world. Founded by Sam Bankman-Fried and operating with a modest team of 30 employees, Alameda pocketed over $1 billion dollars in profit last year. The firm and its employees have, for the most part, preferred not to draw too much attention. In recent months though, it’s gotten harder for Alameda to fly under the radar, as the collapse of crypto has revealed a tangle of connections between Alameda, FTX and the broader virtual currency markets.   But as Alameda’s influence spreads and connections emerge, so have concerns over potential conflicts of interests.  Bloomberg reporter Hannah Miller joins guest host and Bloomberg crypto senior editor Anna Irrera in this episode to untangle these connections.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For investors trying to get exposure to crypto, there are many different options available these days. Products like crypto ETFs, or exchange traded funds, are one of the most popular alternatives to owning tokens directly.  What are crypto ETFs and how do they work? And what does it mean that many of the products pitched as ways to diversify your crypto portfolio are actually pretty similar to each other? Katie Greifeld joins this episode to tackle these questions.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This September marks the one-year anniversary of China declaring that crypto transactions were effectively illegal. The decision wasn't entirely unexpected: China has been trying to crack down on crypto in one form or another since at least 2013.  The 2021 declaration prompted some pretty swift and significant changes, including the uprooting of a Chinese Bitcoin mining community.   This episode features Bloomberg reporters Yueqi Yang and David Pan, as well as Winston Ma, a Managing Partner & Co-Founder at CloudTree Ventures, who’s also an NYU Adjunct Professor in the global digital economy.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

So, ‘The Merge’ happened. After years of anticipation, multiple false starts and delays, the biggest ever software upgrade to the Ethereum blockchain is complete. And now the question is: what’s next?  What are the other major milestones for the future of Ethereum’s ecosystem and the Ether token itself? In this episode, you’ll hear from Bloomberg reporter Olga Kharif and from Dave Liedtka, senior editor for crypto.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Losses from this year's crypto winter have affected the entire cryptocurrency ecosystem, from hedge funds, to lenders, to countless individual retail investors. By most calculations, $2 trillion worth of value has been wiped out.  Before the big chill, the estimated total market value of crypto assets worldwide stood around $3 trillion in November 2021. But how is market value calculated? And how representative is it of crypto’s actual economic value? Did the digital asset boom ever even happen? Is there an element of groupthink when it comes to crypto’s overall valuation? Do we need to rethink market value? Bloomberg reporter Vildana Hajric joins this episode to weigh in on this increasingly disputed metric.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Miners are on the move again, forever chasing that combination of abundant electricity for relatively low prices. This time, they’re heading north of the Arctic Circle. Sweden and Norway are home to some of the most abundant energy sources in the world: geothermal, wind, and hydro electricity.  These countries have increasingly become attractive to Bitcoin miners. But the combination of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with rising inflation and environmental factors like drought, are curbing the availability of cheap electricity in these Nordic regions. Miners in some of these areas could even be regulated out of the market.  Bloomberg Editor Lars Paulsson joins this episode to discuss what’s happening in the region.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This episode explores a sector of the crypto universe that’s actually booming.  Companies that specialize in finding vulnerabilities in crypto’s software infrastructure are flourishing. Why? Because crypto hacks and frauds are booming, with some estimates as high as $2bn in losses stemming from these attacks.  Bloomberg reporter Olga Kharif and senior editor Anna Irrera join me now for more about these crypto sleuths.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

By now you’ve probably heard that El Salvador became the first country in the world to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender in September of 2021.  Did you know the Central African Republic made a similar move in April, becoming the first country in Africa to welcome a cryptocurrency to its sovereign ranks? Cue almost immediate expressions of skepticism and concern from organizations like the International Monetary Fund, and the World Bank, to say nothing of internal disagreement and confusion within the country itself.  Why would a country with very low levels of access to electricity or the internet follow the path of a digital token? Who stands to benefit, and who stands to lose? Joining this episode is Bloomberg reporter Katarina Höije.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You might not have heard of Twitch, but it’s one of the most popular places on the internet. Millions of people every day use the app to watch their favorite live streams do everything from play videogames to solving math problems in real-time. Videogames are still the biggest category of live streams people tune into on Twitch, and the biggest games - like Grand Theft Auto and Fortnite - still dominate time spent on the platform. Recently however, there’s been a new addition to the top ten: gambling.  Gambling, is the seventh most popular content category on Twitch. And it’s not just any gambling. It’s Crypto Gambling. Many streamers are paid handsomely by casinos to take part in this activity. But what about those who actually pay to play? And where is all this coming from? Bloomberg video game reporter Cecilia D’Anstasio joins this episode to talk about the toll of this growing trend. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.