Raoul Pal: The Journey Man

The title of Tuesday's U.S. Senate hearing on crypto regulation tells you all you need to know about Washington’s current stance on digital assets: “Crypto Crash: Why Financial System Safeguards are Needed for Digital Assets.” Our guest host Santiago Velez, co-founder and R&D division lead at Block Digital, is joined by Jones Day partner Abradat Kamalpour to discuss its recent report on crypto regulation and the unique state, federal, and international challenges. Plus, BUSD recovers its peg, Ethereum shuns OFAC-compliance, and Bitcoin NFTs surpass 100,000. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Crypto brokerage Paxos has been ordered to halt issuing BUSD, and a massive $16 billion stablecoin market cap is now up for grabs. As it turns out, Circle, the issuer of USDC, might be behind the sudden regulatory interest. Brian Estes, CEO and CIO of Off the Chain Capital, joins Ash Bennington to break it all down. Brian and Ash also dig into some more optimistic stories including good news about the NFT market and DeFi performance in 2022. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Crypto firm Paxos is under fire as the New York State Department of Financial Services orders the firm to stop minting new Binance USD (BUSD) stablecoins. The regulator posted a statement saying this was the result “of several unresolved issues related to Paxos’ oversight of its relationship with Binance in regard to Paxos-issued BUSD.” Ash Bennington is joined by Marshall Hayner, CEO and founder of Metallicus, to discuss how this will impact the broader industry. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Sopnendu Mohanty, Chief FinTech Officer of MAS and Chairman of Elevandi Board, is a huge proponent of blockchain technology at both a nation-state level and for consumers. He regularly liaises with key leaders across the world about the rollout of CBDCs and other major Fintech initiatives. Indeed, he is Raoul’s go-to person to understand the really big picture. Sopnendu remains excited about many of the big opportunities in the space (especially what is happening in India), but he believes that the fallout in the crypto market has been a huge setback and government support of non-utility/monetary tokens such as bitcoin has evaporated. If you want to understand what is happening in the crypto market at a global policy-maker level, then this interview is both fascinating and vital. Recorded on January 23, 2023. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Andrew Yang is an American businessman, attorney, and co-creator of the Forward Party. He joins Real Vision's Maggie Lake at the Texas Blockchain summit 2022 in Austin to speak about how to move beyond political parties in America, how to stop having a polarized country, and how blockchain can change the system.The Texas Blockchain Summit is North America's Premier Policy Conference for the Bitcoin, Crypto, and Blockchain Ecosystem.The Texas Blockchain Summit is presented by the Texas Blockchain Council. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has charged crypto exchange Kraken with “failing to register” its staking-as-a-service program. As part of the settlement, Kraken will stop offering crypto staking in the U.S. and pay a fine. Ash Bennington discusses the impact with David Nage, portfolio manager at Arca. Plus, CoinDesk reports a U.S. brokerage and issuer of stablecoins such as Binance’s BUSD, is under investigation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When BlockFi went bankrupt, it left a lot of a lot of people with questions about their funds, how much and when they might possibly recover, and how the process would influence other crypto bankruptcy proceedings. So, when a Pro Crypto member gave us a list of detailed questions, we looked for an expert to answer them live on the show. Ash Bennington and Marco Olivera are joined by Thomas Braziel, the managing partner at 507 Capital, to make it happen. Plus, we’ll discuss Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong flagging rumors of a potential retail crypto-staking ban in the U.S., bitcoin blockchain activity surging to a 2-year high thanks to... NFTs, and a Satoshi-era wallet moving bitcoin that has gained 1,200,000% in 11 years (…!). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Evin McMullen, the co-founder and CEO of Disco.xyz, joins Nico Brugge and Elaine Ly to discuss the importance of controlling your identity in the metaverse, the process of moving it from Web2 to Web3 and why this is becoming a new capitalist battleground. In the news, millions of dollars of crypto donations are pouring in for victims of the Turkey-Syria earthquake, 2 NFTs sold for more than a million dollars this week, and an old school mobile phone maker is going all in on Web3. Plus, you can now own the famous doge couch. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The two battling companies have agreed on a way forward that could open a path for Gemini Earn users to retrieve some of their funds. Marco Olivera and Ash Bennington discuss this significant development, including the broader implications for Genesis’ parent company Digital Currency Group. Later, Piers Ridyard joins to discuss Radix’s mission to build a “radically different DeFi.” Plus, Binance suspends USD bank transfers, the U.K. takes an important step towards launching a digital pound, and we take stock of the DeFi market performance. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A gathering in Tel Aviv is exploring the way to scale Ethereum through Layer 2 blockchains. Ash Bennington and Marco Olivera are joined live by StarkWare co-founder and president Eli Ben-Sasson and Argent CEO and co-founder Itamar Lesuisse to discuss an announcement that StarkWare will make its STARK Prover software open source. In other news: FTX wants the money Sam Bankman-Fried donated to politicians back, Binance launched a crypto tax tool in France and Canada, South Korea is moving ahead with regulating security tokens, and a mysterious image is popping up on the Twitter accounts of multiple DeFi platforms. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices