On The Brink with Castle Island

Matt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode: Ryan Salame pleads guilty Our thoughts on the latest turn of the Bitcoin security budget debate What are the prospects for fees to develop on Bitcoin long term? Is blockcspace a race to the bottom? Visa adds merchant settlement tools for USDC on Solana The significance of Visa's move toward merchant settlement with stablecoins CBOE files for spot Ether ETFs We reflect on El Salvador's Bitcoin law The FASB moves to fair value accounting for Bitcoin Greenpeace files a comment letter on the GlobalX Bitcoin trust Are the ESG tides turning for Bitcoin mining? Has El Salvador's Bitcoin project been a failure? Sponsor notes: Coin Metrics STATE OF THE NETWORK — Evaluating the Market Quality of DeFi collateral In Coin Metrics State of the Network Issue 223, we explore predominant collateral types in DeFi lending protocols and evaluate their liquidity & volatility characteristics to determine their desirability as collateral

We sit down with Lee Bratcher, President and Founder of the Texas Blockchain Council. Lee is one of the primary architects of Texas' Proof of Reserve bill, now in effect. In this episode: The origin of the TBC Why Lee is moving their Summit to Ft Worth Notable legislative successes by the TBC in Texas The importance of getting the UCC to recognize digital assets The importance of Bitcoin mining The origins of HB1666 Why PoR legislation benefited from the industry spontaneously adopting the standard How the TX PoR bill emerged as a compromise How Lee expects this to become model legislation in other states Comparing PoR to established financial statement audits The importance of frequency in Proof of Reserve The lack of accounting firms that are willing to supervise PoR How would PoR dealt with issues at Gox, Quadriga, FTX, or Prime Trust? How are companies operating in Texas reacting to the bill? Future legistlative directions The role of stablecoins in upholding the role of the dollar The lost authority of the states in chartering banks Further reading on PoR: Nic in Forbes, The crypto industry is embracing self regulation. It's time Washington gets on board Texas HB1666 TBC, Texas 'Proof of Reserves' Bill

Tether's interventionist actions and regulatory immunity, SEC's court loss to Grayscale and its future implications, lack of reported deals in cryptocurrency industry and SEC's ongoing litigation with Binance

Topics discussed include: Bitcoin halving, Republican Presidential debate, Coinbase and Circle relationship, challenges faced by USDC, Tornado Cash founders charged, defense strategy in the case, and Adderall debate in prison.

Darshan Vaidya, founder of Credora, discusses the crypto credit markets, risk management in tradfi versus crypto markets, and Credora's approach to protect customers from idiosyncratic risk. They also talk about the challenges and solutions in accessing credit in the crypto market, scalability and transparency in capital deployment, the need for more banks and regulatory clarity in the industry, and the profit motive for banks in the crypto market.

In this episode, Matt and Nic discuss the geographic distribution of USDC and USDT, the dollarization of blockchains, Helium's phone plan, SBF heading to jail, the fine imposed by Dubai regulators on OPNX, Argentina's Libertarian presidential candidate, the need for a new theme song for the SEC, the ongoing Prometheum saga, Better Market's situation, Coinbase's approval to offer Bitcoin and ETH futures, and the settlement between FTX and Genesis.

Matt and Nic are back with more news and deals. In this episode: Matt's op-ed in Coindesk SAB121 is still bad SEC scope creep We investigate PayPal's stablecoin Why would PayPal want to issue a stablecoin? What does PYUSD mean for Operation Choke Point for 2.0? Why PYUSD is being launched on Ethereum Crypto as a flashpoint for state versus federal banking oversight The Fed's new crypto oversight program Banks still can't issue stablecoins in the US Ryan Salame reemerges What will become of Ryan Salame's restaurant empire? SBF will indeed be prosecuted on campaign finance violations SBF's trial will not be televised LK-99 did NOT replicate Content mentioned in this episode: Matt in Coindesk, Congress, Not the SEC, Should Set U.S. Digital Asset Policy Zach Wong, A comprehensive explanation of SAB 121 and how it prevents safe crypto custody Sponsor notes: Coin Metrics STATE OF THE NETWORK: DeFi's Double Edged Sword - Unpacking the Features & Risks of DeFi Lending In our new special insights report, we utilize a balance sheet like methodology to contextualize the health of DeFi lending protocols through the lens of two recent exploits on Aave and Curve Finance

Matt and Nic are back for more deals and news. In this episode: Nic's early Do Kwon experience Reflecting back on Terra/Luna The SEC charges Richard Heart and HEX Is the SEC's case against Richard Heart flimsy? Does the SEC deserve praise for coming after HEX? Kyle Davies thinks he's immune from prosecution because he gave up his US citizenship Who's behind the BALD rugpull? Implications of the Curve hack We look at Tether's asset portfolio Kenya suspends Worldcoin operations in the country Is there an account firm choke point? Ethereum future ETFs are filed Judge Rakoff dissents from the Torres doctrine Content mentioned: CIV white paper on Cryptodollars Sponsor notes: STATE OF THE NETWORK: Decoding the Digital Dollar — Unraveling the Risks of Stablecoins In our new special insights report, CM lays out the key fragilities of stablecoins and how on-chain and market data can help monitor these risks for the future of digital dollars to materialize

Matt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode: Nic's issues editing the show Why Washington is attacking PoR Why Big 4 audit firms aren't working on PoR The Financial Innovation and Technology in the 21st Century bill (FIT) passes out of committee in the House Six Democrats defect and support the bill The Stablecoin bill reaches an impasse because the White House Why stablecoins being limited to the banks is a paradox The SEC settles with Quantstamp SBF gets a gag order because he released Caroline Ellison's diaries SBF did actually pay for his legal defense with stolen FTX customer money The UK gets embroiled in a banking scandal due to Nigel Farage We digest the room temperature ambient pressure superconductor news Nic's pickleball injury Content mentioned: Nic in Fortune, The crypto industry is embracing self regulation. It's time Washington gets on board Kathleen Breitman in Fortune, Ben McKenzie needs a hug: The 'OC' star's crypto book is an ill-informed flop Sponsor notes: Coin Metrics STATE OF THE NETWORK - From Orange Groves to Orange Gold In this special edition of State of the Network, we are excited to share a new report that translates the legal language of securities framework for digital assets into objective, measurable criteria from "on-chain" data

In this episode, we hosted Richard Meissner, CTO of Safe, to illuminate the state of adoption of smart contract wallets following the roll out of ERC-4337 (an effort to standardize account abstraction on Ethereum). Our conversation covers: The limitations of smart contract wallets in a multi-chain universe Account recovery and hybrid custody using traditional institutions Combining account abstraction with intents and AI Worldcoin's use of Safes and adoption of smart contract accounts Find additional content by Safe on account abstraction here.