On The Brink with Castle Island

Ray Hindi and Jake Lynch of L1 Digital join the show. In this episode we discuss: L1 Digital’s origin story and early path into the crypto ecosystem. The firm’s approach to investing in managers and making direct investment. The evolution of crypto funds including views on structure, strategy, focus. The fundraising landscape – how pensions/larger pools of capital think about crypto investing. Views on the impact of FTX. Thoughts on the current regulatory landscape. Real World Assets (RWAs) and how L1D is exploring this thematic area. DAOs and how this framework is evolving. To learn more about L1 Digital visit L1.Digital.

Matt and Nic return for another week of news and deals. In this episode:  Is peak FUD in? Is this the ‘custody rule rally’? OTB is keeping the deals of the week House is probing the connections between FTX and the SEC SBF is banned from using a VPN Is SBF a secret sports fan? SBF’s bail cosigners are unmasked SBF VC investors are hit with a class action lawsuit SEC sends Paxos a Wells notice Circle dispells Wells notice rumors Is the SEC going after all stablecoins or just BUSD? What does Reves say about stablecoins being securities? Tether is the beneficiary of the crackdowns in the US Can US regulators really go after Tether? How Paypal deposits are like stablecoins What’s in the SEC’s custody rules? Changes to market structure if the SEC’s custody rules go through Binance suggests that they are ready to settle up with US regulators

Matt and Nic return for another week of news and deals. In this episode:  Kraken winds down their staking as a service product The SEC asks all staking as a service providers to register Does 3rd party staking pass all of the prongs of Howey? The FT’s article on the final days of FTX Did the FTX executives leave the labradoodles in the Bahamas? Ordinals are bringing NFT enthusiasts to Bitcoin Matt has had a tough week Kyle and Su launch OPNX So what’s the deal with the crypto-focused Chokepoint 2.0? Major crypto-facing banks are cutting back their crypto practice What will be the fate of the Wyoming SPDIs? The boys review Bad Boys We discuss Colombia’s hippo problem DCG reaches a provisional agreement with creditors Our Storybook Brawl conspiracy Content mentioned:  Nic in Pirate Wires, Operation Choke Point 2.0 Is Underway, And Crypto Is In Its Crosshairs Sponsor notes: Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newsletter

In this episode, we were joined by Josh Benaron, founder of Bundlr, a scaling protocol built on top of Arweave. Josh shares his views on: Censorship resistant and permanent storage The importance of provenance in attributing and distributing value Why Arweave's approach to decentralized storage is elegant How Bundlr addresses trade offs in Arweave and makes it more usable Follow Josh Benaron here. Learn more about Bundlr here.

Matt and Nic return for another week of news and deals. In this episode:  Nic’s Proof of Reserves for Policymakers Charlie Munger attacks crypto The academic Tether truthers are back We unveil a new bad boy New allegations about Celsius surface The problem with exchange tokens How do you retire a token? The paradox of issuing tokens via an offshore foundation SBF is allegedly tampering with witnesses Did Sam really believe in EA? We review Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto Were the Maya really that bad? What on earth is going on with Ordinals? Are Bitcoin NFTs a DOS attack?  A conflict of visions in Bitcoin reemerges  Matt keeps tearing his shirts VC dress codes  Content mentioned in this episode: Ark Invest Big Ideas 2023 Report Coin Metrics’ report on MEV Dennis Porteaux, Illegitimate Bitcoin Transactions Nic Carter, Proof of Reserves for Policymakers

We host Julien Niset, co-founder of Argent in this episode on account abstract and smart contract wallets. We cover: Building the first smart contract wallet on Ethereum Why smart contract wallets improve the non-custodial experience Standardizing contract wallet implementations on L1s retroactively and on L2s natively Comparing and contrasting contract wallets and MPC (multi-party computation) wallets Capabilities (social recovery, gas abstraction, transaction batching) unlocked by smart contract wallets Follow Julien Niset here. Learn more about Argent here.

Matt and Nic return for another week of news and deals. In this episode:  Is there a socially optimal level of vigilantism  What's the deal with Modulo Capital?  SBF's mother and brothers are now in the crosshairs Matt and Nic hash our VR vs AR Ted Cruz asks cafeterias in the Capitol to accept bitcoin  Texas introduces Proof of Reserve legislation  What's North Korea's endgame with all their hacked crypto? Tucker Carlson's theory that the airline outage was due to Bitcoin randomware  Matt's Bell's Palsy story Roger Ver owes Genesis $20m  Tungsten cubes are making a comeback Our Super Bowl picks Content mentioned in this episode:  Fidelity Digital Assets, "2023 Look Ahead: Refocusing and Building on Digital Assets’ Core Principles." Galaxy Digital mining, "Surviving the Perfect Storm – 2022 End of Year Mining Report" Former Senator Phil Gramm and current SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce in the WSJ, "The SEC Seeks to Supplant the Market. Its mandate doesn’t include telling CEOs how to run their companies and investors how to invest" Texas Bill HB-1666 NYDFS new virtual currency guidance for custodial institutions

Maneesh Gandhi and Michael Liddy of Evanston Capital join the show. In this episode we discuss: Evanston Capital’s history and thoughts on the blockchain ecosystem Their views on the current market environment and how this crypto cycle compares to others The evolution of the crypto venture landscape and how Evanston Capital thinks about crypto venture structures Thoughts on the FTX collapse and its impact on the market How institutional limited partners are thinking about the crypto/blockchain ecosystem Potential areas of opportunity in the current market environment To learn more about Evanston Capital visit www.evanstoncap.com

Arch cofounders Dhruv Patel and Himanshu Sahay  Arch coming out of stealth Key lessons learned from the crypto lending crisis Arch’s differentiated offering within crypto and other alternative assets Leveraging crypto rails to build a lender of the future Using experience at top technology companies to build a superior consumer product Learn more at Archlending.com and on Twitter

Matt and Nic return for another week of news and deals. In this episode:  What’s going on with our merch? Nic’s pitch for pickleball What’s the deal with the leaked GTX pitch deck? What happened at CoinFLEX? Our conspiracy about GTX What’s the latest with the FTX crime family Will FTX or FTX.US be relaunched? SBF says FTX.US is still solvent DOJ takes down Bizlato Genesis is exploring a bankruptcy process Coinbase is pulling out of Japan What was the deal with NEM? What happened with Veritaseum Corporate loyalty programs are getting debased Peter Thiel liquidates his BTC Sponsor notes: Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newsletter