On The Brink with Castle Island

Dan Matuszewski, Principal and Co-Founder of CMS Holdings joins the pod this week to discuss a range of topics. Dan was previously the Head of Circle Trade, one of the largest OTC desks in the cryptoasset industry. In this episode we discuss:  - The secretive origins of Circle - Why banking was a big hindrance for early crypto companies - The genesis of Circle Trade and their relationship with Poloniex - Whether there is a market for 'virgin' coins - The nature of Tether and how it is used - The emergence of crypto volatility products

Investor and Entrepreneur John Pfeffer joined the pod this week to discuss his views on a range of topics, including: - Why he doesn't consider crypto to be an asset class - How he thinks about position sizing for Bitcoin  - Why he doesn't believe in diversification within crypto - Why he thinks forks might be a virtuous feature of Bitcoin ... and much more.  For those of you who have not read it yet, John's "An Institutional Investor's Take on Cryptoassets" is a must read. 

Matt and Nic from Castle Island Ventures review the top stories of the week in the cryptoasset industry. This week's topics include:  - Deals - Fidelity NYDFS approval - impact on ETF applications? - Binance - Ethereum Block Times

Ash Egan, a Partner at Accomplice joins the show to discuss cryptoasset investing approaches, DeFi, smart contract platforms, and the categories that he is the most excited about in 2020. 

Matt and Nic from Castle Island Ventures review the top stories of the week in the cryptoasset industry. This week's topics include:  - Deals - SIM Swaps - China Blockchain News - New Front Doors to Financial Services - Gods Unchained

Christian Langalis and Logan Allen from Tlon join the show to discuss Urbit, a project aiming to restore sovereignty on the internet. They explore Urbit's relationship with Bitcoin, the need for a new computing substrate, and the concept of digital sovereignty. They also discuss the marketing strategy of targeting functional programmers and the potential of Urbit and Bitcoin in abolishing internet oligopolies.

Matt and Nic from Castle Island Ventures review the top stories of the week in the cryptoasset industry. This week's topics include:  - Deals - News of the week - Tether Fud - Stablecoins

Nick Grossman is a Partner at Union Square Ventures, a firm that has been at the forefront of the public blockchain industry.  We discuss Nick's thesis on public blockchains, the state of the regulatory landscape, the evolving competitive landscape in the smart contract platform category (i.e., Ethereum Killers), and much more.  Learn more about Union Square Ventures at https://www.usv.com/, Follow Nick on Twitter @NickGrossman and his blog https://www.nickgrossman.is/  

Matt and Nic from Castle Island Ventures review the top stories of the week in the cryptoasset industry. This week's topics include:  - Deals - Bakkt - R3 - Paxos no action letter - Derebit and Bitmex issues this week - SEC actions  - Nic's Talk at Blockchain Week - Coin Metrics Nonce Analysis

Tom Lee, the Managing Partner and the Head of Research at Fundstrat Global Advisors joins the podcast. He is an accomplished Wall Street strategist with over 25 years of experience in equity research, and has been top ranked by Institutional Investor every year since 1998. Prior to co-founding Fundstrat, he served most recently as J.P. Morgan’s Chief Equity Strategist from 2007 to 2014, and previously as Managing Director at Salomon Smith Barney.  We discuss the state of institutional readiness for cryptoassets, the state of the market, Facebook's efforts and much more.    Learn more about Fundstrat at https://www.fundstrat.com/   For more information please visit our website at www.castleisland.vc and follow us on Twitter @CastleIslandVC.