Kevin Zhou is the founder of crypto quant fund, Galois Capital and former head of trading at Kraken. Last week, Terra, one of the most prominent ecosystems in crypto, effectively disintegrated in days. Its native token Luna had over $40 B in market cap at its peak, and nearly all of it was wiped out while UST, which was supposed to be a stablecoin worth $1 crashed. It was a historical moment in crypto as never before had a project that big, crashed so hard, so quickly. Kevin was one of the few who saw it coming and predicted the fall just a couple of months ago. In this interview, he talks about the red flags that helped him get to that conclusion. We also talk about whether there’s any hope for algorithmic stablecoins and explore potential alternatives for this type of asset.  Kevin discusses the ripple effects we’re already seeing in crypto and more broadly, what to expect for the coming bear market. 🙏 Thanking our podcast sponsors: dYdX, the decentralized exchange, launched a Grants program with funding allocated to open-source builders, contributors and ecosystem integrations to help build its V4. Apply now! Oasis is the leading, scalable, and privacy-enabled, layer-1 blockchain, ideal for DeFi.  Learn More and experience the benefits of the network. 1inch finds the best rates across multiple networks. Why use a single DEX when you can use them all? Find your best deal at 1inch. Tracer DAO’s Perpetual Pools - Liquidation-free, long-term leveraged tokens allowing you to long or short anything - commodities, cryptocurrencies, equities; even NFTs.

This week we speak to Diego Fernandez, the secretary of innovation and digital transformation for the city of Buenos Aires. Recently, news broke that Buenos Aires will be taking tax payments via crypto, an initiative that Diego helped shape. We talk about what this means for residents of the city and how it works in practice. Diego also addressed critics’ response to the measure, who questioned why Argentines would spend crypto instead of holding it as a store of value. Diego dives into the city’s broader plans with crypto, including how it wants to leverage the tools and data at its disposal to build a blockchain-based identity system. Thanking our podcast sponsors: dYdX, the decentralized exchange, launched a Grants program with funding allocated to open-source builders, contributors and ecosystem integrations to help build its V4. Apply now! Oasis is the leading, scalable, and privacy-enabled, layer-1 blockchain, ideal for DeFi.  Learn More and experience the benefits of the network. 1inch finds the best rates across multiple networks. Why use a single DEX when you can use them all? Find your best deal at 1inch. Tracer DAO’s Perpetual Pools - Liquidation-free, long-term leveraged tokens allowing you to long or short anything - commodities, cryptocurrencies, equities; even NFTs.

BoredElonMusk is one of the most prominent Twitter personalities in the crypto space with over 1.7M followers at the time of recording. With decades of online gaming experience, he is now taking his skills offline with his new venture, Bored Box, a curation platform for blockchain games. BoredElon grew his Twitter profile by consistently tweeting wacky but relatable inventions. We talk about how he built out his brand on Twitter, at what point he was able to leverage and monetize his audience, and also his take on the OG Elon’s move to try to buy the social media platform. We also get into how he was able to transition to crypto, first through NFT artist collabs, next by investing in startups and now building his own project. Thanking our podcast sponsors: 0x/Matcha makes sure you’re getting the best possible price by routing trades over various DEXs, without taking commissions. Head over to matcha.xyz/defiant. Eden Network is a next-generation private transaction service for Ethereum, providing traders with MEV protection by submitting transactions directly to miners and away from the prying eyes of harmful bots. 1inch finds the best rates across multiple networks. Why use a single DEX when you can use them all? Find your best deal at 1inch. Sperax has created $USDs, the stablecoin that generates passive income for holders.  Thanks to the Auto-Yield feature, it pays to hold $USDs.  Try it yourself here!

Fabian Schär is one of the most prominent academics focusing on blockchains and specifically DeFi. He has a great deal of experience speaking with regulators and studying different laws and frameworks being applied to crypto. He argues regulators should not be using old laws to regulate new tech. He also says regulation should happen at the off and on-ramp level, and at individual businesses, but not in the non-custodial world of on-chain transactions. Fabian has the somewhat controversial opinion that regultaros should ditch consumer protection as a goal all together, and trust that each individual should be free to decide what to do with their money, and take responsibility for their decisions. Thanking our podcast sponsors: 0x/Matcha makes sure you’re getting the best possible price by routing trades over various DEXs, without taking commissions. Head over to matcha.xyz/defiant. Eden Network is a next-generation private transaction service for Ethereum, providing traders with MEV protection by submitting transactions directly to miners and away from the prying eyes of harmful bots. 1inch finds the best rates across multiple networks. Why use a single DEX when you can use them all? Find your best deal at 1inch. Sperax has created $USDs, the stablecoin that generates passive income for holders.  Thanks to the Auto-Yield feature, it pays to hold $USDs.  Try it yourself here!

Jill Gunter is the co-founder and chief strategy officer at scaling solution Espresso Systems and a venture partner at Slow Ventures. She became interested in Bitcoin via her experience with Latin American markets — which is somewhat of a pattern in the space. She was a debt trader at Goldman Sachs, focusing on Argentina and Venezuelan bonds, and saw crypto’s potential to help those in corrupt or repressive regimes. She continued exploring how crypto can help skirt currency controls and enable more global and efficient markets, and we discuss how those themes are playing out right now in the war in Ukraine. We talk about how Jill went from Wall Street to crypto, and from VC to founder. Her latest venture is Espresso Systems, which aims to bring scalability and privacy to web3. Thanking our podcast sponsors: 0x/Matcha makes sure you’re getting the best possible price by routing trades over various DEXs, without taking commissions. Head over to matcha.xyz/defiant. Eden Network is a next-generation private transaction service for Ethereum, providing traders with MEV protection by submitting transactions directly to miners and away from the prying eyes of harmful bots. 1inch finds the best rates across multiple networks. Why use a single DEX when you can use them all? Find your best deal at 1inch. Sperax has created $USDs, the stablecoin that generates passive income for holders.  Thanks to the Auto-Yield feature, it pays to hold $USDs.  Try it yourself here!

We have a special podcast episode this week — a live conversation between Defiant founder Camila, our head of video Robin, and our editor Alp, recorded directly from The Defiant’s video studio in the Netherlands. Robin and Alp were one of the very first team members working with Camila in making the best DeFi and web3 content out there. In this episode we hear their story, how they came to work together and what moves them. We also go behind the scenes on their intense production process and schedule. Together with Camila, they also try to make sense of the latest drivers behind the crypto market, including the war in Ukraine, last year’s massive bull run and the recent volatility. Thanking our podcast sponsors: 0x/Matcha makes sure you’re getting the best possible price by routing trades over various DEXs, without taking commissions. Head over to matcha.xyz/defiant. Eden Network is a next-generation private transaction service for Ethereum, providing traders with MEV protection by submitting transactions directly to miners and away from the prying eyes of harmful bots. 1inch finds the best rates across multiple networks. Why use a single DEX when you can use them all? Find your best deal at 1inch. Sperax has created $USDs, the stablecoin that generates passive income for holders.  Thanks to the Auto-Yield feature, it pays to hold $USDs.  Try it yourself here!

Ethan Buchman is the co-founder of Cosmos, an ecosystem of interoperable blockchains which includes Terra, Osmosis and Crypto.org, and has the most value locked after Ethereum. It's a complex network with many moving parts, and in the past year it has exploded with activity. Cosmos was born out of Ethan’s research into a switch from proof of work to proof of stake, and his idea to enable each project and community to be able to build and secure their own blockchain. It was Ethan’s goal to bring about a community computer revolution, stemming from the personal computer revolution. Thanking our podcast sponsors: Zerion is Mission Control for Web3: an intuitive DeFi portfolio manager, multichain tracking & trading and the best place to show off your NFT collection Unstoppable Domains is The #1 provider of NFT domains. Get YourName dot crypto, dot x, dot nft or a range of other endings for as low as $5 Nexo: Invest in crypto, earn interest of up to 20%, paid out daily, and use crypto as collateral to receive a credit line at premium rates. Step Finance's portfolio management dashboard enables Solana users to visualize, analyze, execute and aggregate transactions across all Solana contracts at the click of a button.

Ken Seiff is the managing partner of Blockchange Ventures, one of the longest-standing venture funds focusing on early-stage blockchain startups. One of his very first forays into crypto was as one of the investors in Ethereum’s token sale, as I describe in my book, The Infinite Machine. He went on to focus on various other Layer 1s at Blockchange, investing in Polkadot, Solana, Near and Flow, among others. Ken’s investments look to capture not just the potential value of the venture itself, but the overall growth of a space that is still in its infancy, and his bet is that taking exposure at the base protocol layer is the best way to do that. Thanking our podcast sponsors: Zerion is Mission Control for Web3: an intuitive DeFi portfolio manager, multichain tracking & trading and the best place to show off your NFT collection Unstoppable Domains is The #1 provider of NFT domains. Get YourName dot crypto, dot x, dot nft or a range of other endings for as low as $5 Nexo: Invest in crypto, earn interest of up to 20%, paid out daily, and use crypto as collateral to receive a credit line at premium rates. Step Finance's portfolio management dashboard enables Solana users to visualize, analyze, execute and aggregate transactions across all Solana contracts at the click of a button.

Kevin Owocki is the founder of Gitcoin, which helps coordinate crowdfunding for projects and software developments on the Ethereum blockchain.  With 300,000 builders and over 25,000 funders, Gitcoin has become a key pillar of the Ethereum nation, making sure public goods can thrive. We talk about how Gitcoin was born as a reaction to the ICO era, after Kevin realized many of the business models and funding mechanisms on Ethereum were broken. Open-source software is carrying a huge weight, while its builders are not being properly compensated or incentivized, and Gitcoin wants to change that. Thanking our podcast sponsors: Zerion is Mission Control for Web3: an intuitive DeFi portfolio manager, multichain tracking & trading and the best place to show off your NFT collection Unstoppable Domains is The #1 provider of NFT domains. Get YourName dot crypto, dot x, dot nft or a range of other endings for as low as $5 Nexo: Invest in crypto, earn interest of up to 20%, paid out daily, and use crypto as collateral to receive a credit line at premium rates. Step Finance's portfolio management dashboard enables Solana users to visualize, analyze, execute and aggregate transactions across all Solana contracts at the click of a button.

Fabian Vogelsteller is a Blockchain veteran who was part of the Ethereum community in its very early days. He helped shape the Ethereum space, building an ETH Wallet and a web3 Browser, which were one of the first of their kind. Fabian is the co-founder of the Lukso blockchain and together with Vitalik Buterin, created the ERC-20 standard, a foundational building block for Ethereum. The next standard Fabian is excited about is ERC725, which he says will help introduce blockchain-based profiles as opposed to accounts. Fabian believes this approach would be a seismic shift, improving usability and protecting users’ assets. Thanking our podcast sponsors: Zerion is Mission Control for Web3: an intuitive DeFi portfolio manager, multichain tracking & trading and the best place to show off your NFT collection Unstoppable Domains is The #1 provider of NFT domains. Get YourName dot crypto, dot x, dot nft or a range of other endings for as low as $5 Nexo: Invest in crypto, earn interest of up to 20%, paid out daily, and use crypto as collateral to receive a credit line at premium rates. Step Finance's portfolio management dashboard enables Solana users to visualize, analyze, execute and aggregate transactions across all Solana contracts at the click of a button.