The Scoop

Professor J.W. Verret teaches corporate and securities law and financial accounting at George Mason Law School. In this episode, Verret analyzes the recent verdict on Ripple's XRP token which concludes that "Ripple’s Programmatic Sales of XRP did not constitute the offer and sale of investment contracts."In addition to providing a degree of regulatory clarity for crypto assets, Verret also argues that the court's decision in the XRP case will greatly improve Coinbase's chances in their court case against the SEC.Outline:1:05 - XRP Court Verdict6:00 - Coinbase Re-listing XRP7:15 - Coinbase vs. SEC9:55 - Will the SEC Settle?12:08 - Appellate Court13:04 - New SEC Chair14:06 - Unregistered Securities15:00 - Major Questions Doctrine16:22 - Crypto Legislation17:00 - Partisan Politics20:40 - Spot Bitcoin ETF22:05 - Closing Thoughts

Carlos Domingo is the founder and CEO of Securitize — a compliance platform for trading security tokens or digital securities on the blockchain used by the likes of KKR and Hamilton Lane.In this episode, Domingo explains how blockchain technology can be used to unlock broader access to alternative investments and how regulatory clarity in the U.S. could help trillions of dollars of real world assets be tokenized on-chain.Outline:1:17 - About Securitize2:32 - Market Evolution7:22 - Tokenization8:07 - Transfer Agent License9:58 - Broker Dealers12:00 - Prometheum13:04 - Special Purpose Broker Dealer16:38 - Alternative Trading Systems19:05 - Second Order Effects of Regulation21:30 - Tokenization of Real World Assets28:02 - What’s Next for Securitize31:32 - Closing Thoughts

Mike Belshe is the co-founder and CEO of BitGo — a leading digital asset custody and security platform.In this episode, Belshe shares his thoughts on last year's collapse of the crypto credit market and explains what it will take to restore confidence in the sector.Outline:0:52 - Market musings3:12 - Crypto conspiracies5:54 - Business at BitGo8:39 - Crypto prime brokerage14:24 - Lending market cooldown15:55 - Crypto’s opaque transparency21:22 - Crypto market recovery32:47 - BitGo x Galaxy Digital

Michael Saylor is the Executive Chairman of MicroStrategy.Since 2020, MicroStrategy has amassed an eye-catching bitcoin reserve, making it one of the largest corporate holders of bitcoin in the world. Critics have been vocal, but Saylor and his company have stood firm in their belief and commitment.In this episode, Saylor explains why bitcoin's performance over the last two years relative to other asset classes is indicative of relative strength, and gives his opinion on recent bitcoin developments including the flurry of ETF applications as well as the Ordinals/BRC-20 debate. Outline:1:59 - Inflation & Bitcoin8:29 - MicroStrategy's leverage9:12 - Bitcoin's volatility regime13:48 - Technocrats15:19 - Bitcoin legitimization19:34 - Bitcoin Maximalism25:31 - Saylor on Ordinals28:39 - Unregistered securities30:20 - Crypto crackdown conspiracies34:38 - Spot Bitcoin ETF39:54 - Bitcoin dominance51:50 - Work/life balance53:30 - MicroStrategy's miscalculation55:09 - Thermodynamically sound economic energyThis episode is brought to you by our sponsors PayPal and CleanSpark.About PayPalMake your crypto move with PayPal. Get started today at PayPal.com/cryptoAbout CleanSparkCleanSpark (NASDAQ: CLSK) is America’s Bitcoin Miner™. Visit cleanspark.com/theblock to learn more about the CleanSpark way.

David Marcus is a renowned entrepreneur and executive in the tech industry known for his leadership roles at PayPal and Meta.In this episode, Marcus unpacks how his latest venture, Lightspark, is helping transform Bitcoin's Lightning Network into a real-time global settlement layer for the internet.Lightspark raised about $173 million last year at a valuation of almost $1 billion at the time, as reported by The Block.Outline:2:33 - David Marcus' Bitcoin journey5:29 - Lightspark & Bitcoin9:50 - Lightspark adoption12:37 - Regulatory tailwinds for bitcoin16:33 - Merchant payment innovation23:25 - Lightspark’s partnerships26:26 - SEN/SIGNET replacement28:47 - Lessons learned from libra40:21 - What’s next for Lightspark43:43 - Closing thoughtsThis episode is brought to you by our sponsors PayPal and CleanSpark.About PayPalMake your crypto move with PayPal. Get started today at PayPal.com/cryptoAbout CleanSparkCleanSpark (NASDAQ: CLSK) is America’s Bitcoin Miner™. Visit cleanspark.com/theblock to learn more about the CleanSpark way.

James Seyffart is an ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.In this episode, Seyffart analyzes BlackRock's recently announced spot bitcoin ETF application and the impact it would have on the crypto market if approved.While bitcoin futures ETFs exist, Seyffart says that BlackRock's spot bitcoin ETF application is the "holy grail of bitcoin exposure in the TradFi markets."In the wake of BlackRock's filling, Wisdom Tree, Invesco, and Valkyrie also put their hats back in the race for a spot bitcoin ETF.This episode is brought to you by our sponsors PayPal and CleanSpark.About PayPalMake your crypto move with PayPal. Get started today at PayPal.com/cryptoAbout CleanSparkCleanSpark (NASDAQ: CLSK) is America’s Bitcoin Miner™. Visit cleanspark.com/theblock to learn more about the CleanSpark way.

Previously on The Scoop, Professor J.W. Verret explained how the ‘major questions doctrine’ could put an end to SEC Chair Gensler’s regulation by enforcement.In this episode, Verret continues his analysis of the SEC's recent enforcement actions against Coinbase and Binance, and examines the ways in which U.S. regulation of the crypto industry might be able to strike a balance between innovation and consumer protection.This episode is brought to you by our sponsors PayPal and CleanSpark.About PayPalMake your crypto move with PayPal. Get started today at PayPal.com/cryptoAbout CleanSparkCleanSpark (NASDAQ: CLSK) is America’s Bitcoin Miner™. Visit cleanspark.com/theblock to learn more about the CleanSpark way.

Professor J.W. Verret teaches corporate and securities law and financial accounting at George Mason Law School.From May 2018 to March 2022, Professor Verret served as an Advisory Committee Member to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission where he represented the interests of investors in making recommendations to SEC Chair Gensler and other Commissioners.In part one of this two part interview, Verret explains how a principle of administrative law in the United States known as the 'major questions doctrine' could challenge the SEC's use of the Howey Test to determine if an asset is a security under federal law.According to Verret, the major questions doctrine is a way for the court to check the power of independent agencies:"If Congress has not given you specific authority to regulate a thing as an agency and you're seeking to regulate it, if it involves a major question of national, economic or political importance, then you need to get authorization from Congress before you do anything."The major questions doctrine will likely not be discussed until the SEC's lawsuits against Coinbase and Binance.US reach the appellate courts, says Verret, "but it's one of the things that looms over these cases, without a doubt."This episode is brought to you by our sponsors PayPal and CleanSpark.About PayPalMake your crypto move with PayPal. Get started today at PayPal.com/cryptoAbout CleanSparkCleanSpark (NASDAQ: CLSK) is America’s Bitcoin Miner™. Visit cleanspark.com/theblock to learn more about the CleanSpark way.

Robert Alcorn is the CEO of decentralized credit marketplace, Clearpool.In this episode, Alcorn examines the state of the crypto credit market in the wake of a tumultuous 2022 for crypto lenders, and explains what is needed for the sector to mature.This episode is brought to you by our sponsors PayPal and CleanSpark.About PayPalMake your crypto move with PayPal. Get started today at PayPal.com/cryptoAbout CleanSparkCleanSpark (NASDAQ: CLSK) is America’s Bitcoin Miner™. Visit cleanspark.com/theblock to learn more about the CleanSpark way.

Adam Cochran has over a decade of experience in the crypto industry and is the Managing Partner of Cinneamhain Ventures.In this episode, Cochran examines how recent enforcement actions by the US Securities and Exchange Commission is driving crypto innovation outside of the United States."This is an absolute fumble for the U.S. government and U.S. industry at large," he told The Block's Frank ChaparroOutline of the discussion:2:12 - Crypto and Congress4:30 - SEC Enforcement Actions7:16 - Coinbase & Binance9:17 - Impact on DeFi11:08 - Innovation Outside the U.S.15:57 - Impact on Venture Landscape17:10 - Decentralization & DAOs19:52 - Is Solana a Security?23:36 - Market Update27:55 - Hidden Binance Risk?This episode is brought to you by our sponsors PayPal and CleanSpark.About PayPalMake your crypto move with PayPal. Get started today at PayPal.com/cryptoAbout CleanSparkCleanSpark (NASDAQ: CLSK) is America’s Bitcoin Miner™. Visit cleanspark.com/theblock to learn more about the CleanSpark way.