

Empire
Blockworks
Empire features interviews with top crypto founders to get the real stories that aren’t shared elsewhere. Empire is your look behind the curtain of the crypto industry. We release two episodes per week: guest interviews on Monday and a weekly roundup on Friday.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Nov 24, 2023 • 1h 24min
CZ Steps Down from Binance and a Blast L2 Debate | Roundup
Binance pleading guilty and paying $4 billion in fines for money laundering violations, implications for Coinbase and DeFi, controversial launch of L2 platform Blast and its native yield offerings, importance of more L2s and valuing scaling solutions, upcoming institutional conference 'Block Works' in London, Blast's deployment strategy and importance of liquidity, government's involvement in the economy and Paradigm's expertise, importance of unbiased and independent media in crypto.

23 snips
Nov 23, 2023 • 1h 12min
Trading Crypto Cycles With Ansem | 1000x
Ansem, a trading crypto expert, joins the podcast to discuss topics like trading crypto cycles, the Solana thesis, altcoin trends, sentiment in crypto, NFTs, and predicting market trends. They also discuss the potential impact of regulatory announcements, Coinbase's potential outcomes, and the advantages of crypto in providing individual financial management.

Nov 21, 2023 • 1h 23min
The Evolution of Synthetix and Onchain Perps | Kain Warwick
Kane Warwick, Co-founder of Synthetix, discusses Synthetix V3, the challenges of decentralized governance, and bringing DeFi trading to parity with centralized exchanges. They explore funding rates, arbitrage opportunities, and the societal benefits of open source crypto. They also touch on streamlining access to dApps with Infinix accounts, decentralization and governance challenges, the medium-term outlook for Infinax, and casual conversations on open source code and learning from mistakes.

17 snips
Nov 17, 2023 • 1h 28min
How We're Positioning for The Next Crypto Cycle | Roundup
The podcast discusses the current crypto market conditions and indicators to assess its health. They share portfolio strategies, relative value investing, and managing risk. They also talk about marathon experiences, timing entries in crypto, event-driven investments, concerns with Bitcoin, and personal investments in crypto.

7 snips
Nov 15, 2023 • 1h 26min
How to Trade This Solana Rally | Joe McCann
Joe McCann, founder of Asymmetric, discusses why Solana offers unique technical architecture for web3 applications. He compares Solana's scalability to Ethereum L2s. McCann analyzes market flows, evaluates risks to his Solana thesis, and talks about the mass minting of NFTs on Solana. He also discusses the development of DeFi on Solana compared to Ethereum and mentions the upcoming digital asset summit in London.

Nov 10, 2023 • 59min
Institutionalizing Crypto & The Return of the Bull Market | Roundup
Evgeny Gaevoy, CEO of Wintermute, discusses the rally in the crypto market, the controversy surrounding Wintermute's CEO, the potential approval of Ethereum ETFs, and future developments in the crypto industry such as the rise of alternative L1s and newer narratives.

25 snips
Nov 9, 2023 • 42min
Return Of The Bull Market | 1000x
In this podcast, the hosts discuss the return of the crypto bull market and the massive rally in Solana. They also talk about finding the best opportunities as a trader, navigating technical trades vs a fundamental investment thesis, and the impact of efficiency in the market. They explore strategies and opportunities in the current market environment, and emphasize the importance of expressing opinions and engaging in discussions.

Nov 7, 2023 • 56min
Why Resy Founder is Building in Crypto | Ben Leventhal & Li Jin
Ben Leventhal, co-founder of Resy and Blackbird, and Li Jin from Variant Fund discuss the intersection of the consumer market and crypto. They explore the potential of crypto as a new computing platform and its impact on ownership. Other topics include passive CRM for restaurants, global token compensation, loyalty as a use case for crypto, emotional attachment to restaurants, and creating a marketplace for restaurant reservations.

Nov 3, 2023 • 1h 1min
Why DCG is Crypto's Enron Moment | Ram Ahluwalia
Special guest Ram Ahluwalia discusses the controversies surrounding DCG (Digital Currency Group) including the 'Widow Maker' trade. They explore the interconnectedness of capital markets and crypto, Genesis' financial troubles, Gemini's involvement, legal consequences, and the rise of decentralized and classic prime brokerage in the crypto space.

Nov 2, 2023 • 1h
Empire Debates: The Solana Comeback and BlackRock ETF Playbook
The podcast discusses the anticipated approval of a Bitcoin ETF and its potential impact on institutional money in crypto. They also explore Solana's ability to attract developers and whether it will be an ETH killer. The conversation delves into the entry of institutional players in the crypto space and examines the unique distribution strategy of Telegram and Tron.