On The Brink with Castle Island

Matt and Nic return for news and deals of the week. In this episode: Why USDC is suffering redemptions but not USDT Some new 3AC shenanigans are unearthed The SEC and CFTC are investigating 3AC Details from the Voyager bankruptcy filing Avraham Eisenburg is crypto's hottest new villain Is the Mango exploit against the law? Is there a vigilante group out to get Do Kwon? SBF is criticized for his regulatory draft proposal The Texas securities regulators are investigating FTX FTX shareholders at odds with FTT holders? Aptos' controversial launch Have we forgotten how to do a fair launch? How Ethereum's merge put pressure on Bitcoin miners Reuters' Binance investigation Unstoppable domains deprecates over 100k .coin domains Is Bitcoin finally decorrelating from risk assets? Sponsor notes: Talos powers institutional access to the entire digital assets ecosystem via a single-point of entry. Connect directly to your preferred prime brokers, lenders, investors, custodians, exchanges, OTC desks and more, or meet them on Talos. Get started at Talos.com Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newsletter

For another episode of the mining miniseries, Nic sits down with Blake King, power markets engineer at Galaxy Digital, for his second OTB appearance. In this episode: Blake reacts to the White House OSTP report on crypto mining Does mining actually reduce the incentive for utilities to build additional transmission? How transmission building decisions get made How are ERCOT planners taking the price of Bitcoin into account? The merits of proactive transmission construction Why the existence of strong property rights makes transmission much harder to build Can Bitcoin be understood as the electrification of gold? Is there really 17-25 GW worth of Bitcoin miners in the process of connecting to the Texas grid? How should we think about interconnection and load queues Why would ERCOT exaggerate the planned scale of Bitcoin mining in Texas? Do miners using renewables "not count" because they displace other consumers of renewable energy? Why Blake expects the $/MWh revenue for Bitcoin to continue to trend down over time Are Bitcoin miners forcing grids into grid scarcity events? Economic curtailment versus formal demand response Are Bitcoiners overestimating the importance of demand response for miners? Content mentioned in this episode: Bitcoin Mining and the Grid, Part I and Part II Part I of Blake King on the show: OTB 330 White House OSTP report on Bitcoin Mining Intro and outro: Daniel Allan's Collage #344

Matt and Nic are back for another week of deals and news. In this episode: What is XEN and why is it driving up ETH fees? Bittrex settles with OFAC SEC is investigating Yuga labs Mango and Binance Smart Chain are hacked The FASB settles on fair value accounting for cryptoassets Warren writes a letter to Texas about mining Coin Center is suing OFAC Sponsor notes: Talos powers institutional access to the entire digital assets ecosystem via a single-point of entry. Connect directly to your preferred prime brokers, lenders, investors, custodians, exchanges, OTC desks and more, or meet them on Talos. Get started at Talos.com Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newsletter

Rob Behnke, co-founder and CEO of Halborn joins the show. In this episode we discuss: Rob's career journey in the cryptocurrency industry and the insights that led him to founding Halborn. The 2017 ICO era and the security issues that plagued many projects. How Halborn approaches engagements with DeFi ecosystem participants. How centralized financial services companies are engaging with DeFi and how these firms think about cybersecurity. How Rob and his co-founder Steven Walbroehl approached their Series A fundraising process. Halborn's new suite of software products. To learn more about Halborn visit halborn.com and follow Rob on Twitter

In this episode, Ria sits down with Jon Charbonneau from Delphi Digital to discuss layers of potential censorship on Ethereum post merge and proposed solutions. We dive into: The supply chain of block production The importance of proposer builder separation Options for avoiding de facto censorship by builders The road to scaling Ethereum via danksharding Comparing approaches to data availability Further reading: Jon on Substack, Censorship, What Do? Follow Jon on Substack and on Twitter Cover image meme credit: Jon on Twitter

Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode: Kim Kardashian settles with the SEC Gensler's promotional campaign ruffles feathers at the SEC Was the SEC indirectly throwing shade at Jake Paul with their video? Is Gensler cracking down on crypto as part of a bid for Treasury secretary? Can the industry outlast the SEC? CBOE signs on to Pyth Hamilton Lane is tokenizing three funds GoldenTree invests in Sushi Should DAOs pursue an LLC wrapper? Maker is buying Treasuries and IG debt Should stablecoins pass along interest from treasuries to tokenholders? Celsius executives cashed out prior to bankruptcy Starry Night NFTs are on the move Ark Invest partners to put their active strategies on the Eaglebrook platform Sponsor notes: Talos powers institutional access to the entire digital assets ecosystem via a single-point of entry. Connect directly to your preferred prime brokers, lenders, investors, custodians, exchanges, OTC desks and more, or meet them on Talos. Get started at Talos.com Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newsletter

Vivek Raman, Head of Proof of Stake at BitOoda joins the show. In this episode we discuss: Vivek's career journey from traditional financial services to the world of public blockchains. Views on the impact of Ethereum's transition to proof of stake, including his perspective on the new financial products on the horizon. The path of CeFi as it relates to DeFi and where Vivek sees overlap. How BitOoda is working with bitcoin miners to manage risk. The smart contract platform category and how Vivek stays current on the latest developments in the industry. To learn more about BitOoda visit their website. Follow Vivek on Twitter.

Alexandra DaCosta (CEO) and David Yi (Chief Commercial Officer) join the show to talk about Aspen Creek Digital Corp.'s fundraise and their model for additive renewable mining. In this episode: What was it like raising for a mining firm in this environment David and Alexandra's backgrounds and how the came to cofound ACDC Why ACDC is pursuing a 'power first' model and what that means ACDC's wind, solar, and battery approach to energy Why ACDC focuses on additional, new renewable generation How mining behind the meter with renewable sources actually works Why intermittency of wind and solar is not a dealbreaker for Bitcoin miners The merits of going behind the meter for a Bitcoin miner The importance of the Inflation Reduction Act for renewables Industries are becoming more location agnostic overall Are Bitcoin miners doing a sufficiently good job of disclosures around their energy mix? What is the feasibility of batteries at grid scale? Are Bitcoin miners interfering with the market signal indicating where transmission should be built? How Aspen Creek pairs demand response with renewable incentivization How Aspen Creek affects power prices paid by households Read more: Aspen Creek's fundraise announcement ACDigitalCorp website Intro and outro music: Daniel Allan's Collage #344

Matt and Nic return for news and deals of the week. In this episode: What caused the Pound Sterling to sell off? Deglobalization picks up Stirrings of a sovereign debt crisis emerge Explaining Deribit's insider-led down round Can the market recover before Do Kwon, Machinsky, and 3AC are dealt with? Celcius' Machinsky steps down Brett Harrison leaves FTX US 7 states issue C&Ds against Nexo The CFTC goes after Ooki DAO and DAO members The CFTC serves Ooki through a chatbox and a forum post How voting in a DAO can cause you to incur personal liability Why putting a DAO in a 'legal wrapper' might make sense The Fed will not pursue a digital dollar (for now) The 'convenience yield' of holding a CFTC OTB Bingo Would it be good for Bitcoin to be flippened? Sponsor notes: Talos powers institutional access to the entire digital assets ecosystem via a single-point of entry. Connect directly to your preferred prime brokers, lenders, investors, custodians, exchanges, OTC desks and more, or meet them on Talos. Get started at Talos.com Subscribe to the Coin Metrics State of the Network newsletter

Sergey Gorbunov, co-founder of Axelar joins the show. In this episode we discuss: Sergey's path to founding Axelar His views on blockchain interoperability and the design decisions of Axelar The different approaches to interoperability that are being attempted in the industry Views on DeFi composability and the role of privacy on public blockchains The L1/L2 landscape and how Axelar is positioned To learn more about Axelar visit axelar.network/