The Scoop

James Seyffart, ETF Research Analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence, discusses the potential approval of a spot bitcoin ETF by the SEC. He highlights the impact of Grayscale Investments' win against the SEC in August. Seyffart believes the SEC has been 'backed into a corner' and is forced to consider approving the ETF. Other topics include the odds of a spot ethereum ETF, nuances of crypto ETFs, and institutional BTC demand.

This is the opening installment of the miniseries 'Web3 will fail unless...', sponsored by Axelar and featuring co-host Sergey Gorbunov, co-founder of Axelar.In this episode, EigenLayer founder Sreeram Kannan lays out the vision for EigenLayer and explains how the increasing modularization of blockchain infrastructure and services will enable the next wave of crypto innovation.OUTLINE:00:00 Introduction03:54 Web3 Adoption Curve12:37 Monolithic vs. Modularity20:20 Developer Complexity25:38 Celestia DA vs. EigenLayer31:27 Real World AssetsThis episode is brought to you by our sponsor, Axelar.Axelar is scaling interoperability to connect hundreds of new blockchains anticipated in the Ethereum L2 ecosystem. Find out more at axelar.network/layer2

Charles d'Haussy, CEO of the dYdX Foundation, talks about the launch of dYdX v4 and the potential growth of decentralized derivative products. He discusses their decision to launch as a standalone appchain in the Cosmos ecosystem. They also explore topics like onchain perpetual swaps, dYdX trading experience, DeFi adoption rate, regulatory head/tailwinds, and institutional interest in DeFi.

In this episode of 'The Scoop', Alex Felix, Chief Investment Officer at CoinFund, discusses the market potential of web3 and institutional interest in early-stage crypto investing. CoinFund raised $158 million for a new crypto startup investment fund. Topics include challenges in fundraising, governance in crypto, exploring new distribution channels in the blockchain space, and the importance of flexibility in Ethereum Virtual Machines.

Anthony Scaramucci, founder of SkyBridge Capital, discusses the potential bullish impact of a spot Bitcoin ETF and reflects on lessons learned from last year's bear market. Other topics include Warren & Gensler's views on crypto, market tailwinds, and the need for regulatory leadership in the US cryptocurrency industry.

Justin Slaughter, Policy Director at Paradigm, discusses why US crypto regulation is at a standstill until after the 2024 election. He explains how policymakers are recognizing the technological innovation behind crypto and touches on bipartisan support and global regulation. Slaughter also mentions the impact of BlackRock and Paradigm's policy priorities for 2024.

Superphiz is a long-time Ethereum community member and a became a vocal advocate for staking decentralization following the Ethereum 'Merge' to a proof-of-stake consensus mechanism last year.In this episode of The Scoop, Superphiz unpacks how Ethereum's merge to proof-of-stake has caused liquid staking derivatives to pose a potential threat to Ethereum's credible neutrality, as well as the best pathways to mitigate the potential for staking centralization.OUTLINE:00:00 - Introduction2:55 - Success of ‘The Merge’5:28 - Ethereum Centralization Concerns13:34 - Lido’s LSD Dominance20:54 - Scaling Ethereum25:33 - New Use Cases27:37 - Closing ThoughtsThis episode is brought to you by our sponsor PayPal.Make your crypto move with PayPal. Get started today at PayPal.com/crypto

Kavita Gupta is the founder and CEO of Delta Blockchain Fund.Gupta — a former executive at ConsenSys — launched the fund in September 2021 and it currently sits at $125 million AUM.In this episode of The Scoop, Gupta discusses how the recent surge in crypto prices has impacted the venture landscape, and shares what sectors of the market she is paying the most attention to.According to Gupta, most early-stage crypto valuations are still fairly reasonable — which is leading to a steady stream of activity amongst veteran VCs in the space."Smarter, seasoned VCs have actually been more active in this market because it's the right valuation — it's also told you which founders are here to stay."This episode is brought to you by our sponsors PayPal.Make your crypto move with PayPal. Get started today at PayPal.com/crypto

Leo Mizuhara, Founder and CEO of Hashnote, discusses the hype around tokenized real-world assets and the risks involved. He highlights that tokenized T-Bills are not providing direct exposure as many other assets are being tokenized instead. The podcast also explores topics such as the evolution of crypto funds, advantages of crypto transactions, stablecoins, utilizing assets through blockchain, and the prospects for institutional adoption of cryptocurrencies.

Austin Federa is Head of Strategy at the Solana Foundation.In this episode of The Scoop recorded live at Solana Breakpoint 2023, Federa unpacks some of Breakpoint's biggest announcements and explains how Solana builders persevered through the depths of the bear market to continue enhancing Solana's tech.According to Federa, Solana's recent performance enhancements have rectified many of the problems that plagued Solana's performance throughout the 2021 bull run. "I think you saw a lot of 'thinkfluencers' tweeting 18 months ago that Solana's architecture was somehow fundamentally flawed and they could never get this thing stable because of 'original sins' in the code base — and like most most radical statements on Twitter, it turns out to really not be substantively true."This episode is brought to you by our sponsors PayPal.Make your crypto move with PayPal. Get started today at PayPal.com/crypto