Raoul Pal: The Journey Man

In its mid-year update, popular blockchain data company Chainalysis reported that $1.9 billion was lost to hacks and theft through the first six months of 2022, up from $1.2 billion through the same point in 2021. But other illicit activity – scams and darknet markets – declined compared to last year. How much fear does “crypto crime” create around the digital asset economy? Is it enough to impede widespread adoption? Also, the Securities and Exchange Commission is coming after the initial coin offering from a blockchain project in 2017; so, why now? And there finally may be a solution to the recurring outages on the Solana network. In today's main segment, Marco and Ash talk about Mark Yusko’s declaration that crypto winter is over and crypto spring is here, the highlight of Ash’s recent conversation with the CEO and CIO of Morgan Creek Capital Management. Please drop your questions in the chat – we want to hear from you! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Galaxy Digital announced early Monday morning the termination of its $1.2 billion acquisition of BitGo. But BitGo is not walking away without a fight, countering later Monday with its own plans to sue Galaxy for $100 million in damages. At the top of today's Real Vision Crypto Daily Briefing, Nico Brugge and Ash Bennington break down the many moving parts of this developing story. Nico and Ash also cover Acala's "not-so-stable" stablecoin losing its peg and Terraform Labs CEO Do Kwon breaking his silence for the first time since his project collapsed in May. In today's main segment, Nico and Ash dig into Ash's recent conversation with Lyn Alden, the founder of Lyn Alden Investment Strategy, on the macro environment’s effects on Bitcoin and the U.S. dollar’s relationship to stablecoins. Please drop your questions in the chat – we want to hear from you! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Here's a full-length episode from Real Vision's original series, Raoul Pal: Real Vision - be sure to subscribe. Jurrien Timmer, the Global Director of Macro for Fidelity Investments, joins Raoul to talk about why crypto investors need to be aware of the prevailing macro environment and the factors that influence it – things like interest rates, inflation, and the money supply. Jurrien and Raoul sketch an essential macro framework as useful and valuable in the crypto market as it is in traditional markets. Sit back and enjoy this jam-packed conversation between two deeply seasoned analysts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The third and final testnet before Ethereum's highly anticipated move from an energy-intensive proof-of-work mechanism to a proof-of-stake mechanism has been completed. Anticipation of a successful Merge, stoked by better-than-expected U.S. inflation data, is lifting cryptocurrency prices up and down the market cap scale. At the top of today’s Real Vision Crypto Daily Briefing, Marco Olivera and Ash Bennington talk about what the Merge means for the second-largest cryptocurrency as well as for the industry as a whole. Marco and Ash also discuss developments concerning bankrupt crypto lender Celsius and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission sending investigative subpoenas to Coinbase. In today’s feature segment, Marco and Ash break down and analyze an interview with Jay Janer, the head of quantitative investing at KPTL, a crypto hedge fund that managed to profit from Terra’s crash. And we want to hear from you – please drop your questions in the chat! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Coinbase lost $1.1 billion during the three months ended June 30, more hard evidence that the broader turn away from risk assets has taken a major toll on the emerging crypto industry. At the top of today’s Real Vision Crypto Daily Briefing, Nico Brugge and Ash Bennington break down what Coinbase’s second-quarter financial and operating numbers mean for the company and for the crypto industry as a whole. Nico and Ash also talk about a deal between FTX and Reddit to simplify crypto use for the social network’s community and the good news of one of the top DeFi platforms repelling an attack that used a domain exploit. In today’s main segment, Nico and Ash discuss highlights from an interview with Robert Sharratt, the founder and CEO of Fluid Finance, including the observation that many of so-called DeFi platforms were actually TradFi "wolves in the sheep skin." Send us your questions in the chat! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The U.S. Treasury Department “blacklisted” Tornado Cash, making it illegal for Americans to transact on the crypto platform, as the government continues to make its hands more visible in the still-emerging industry. What does the crackdown on an entity widely suspected of facilitating illegal activity mean for the bigger ecosystem? Will fallout contaminate the entire crypto space? Ash Bennington and Moritz Seibert track Tornado Cash’s path and also touch on the collapse of Holdnaut, Singapore's leading crypto lender, as well as Galaxy Digital's quarterly loss and Iran’s entry into the crypto game. In today’s main segment, Ash and Moritz break down Moritz's interview with Seth Ginns, the managing partner and head of liquid investments at CoinFund. Ginns explains CoinFund's investment philosophy, describes how it finds alpha, and forecasts what the ETH merge could mean for crypto. Send us your questions in the chat! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Here's a full-length episode from Real Vision's original series, Raoul Pal: Real Vision - be sure to subscribe. Ivan Soto-Wright, the co-founder and CEO of MoonPay, joins Raoul to talk about his fascinating professional journey, MoonPay’s cutting-edge technology that makes trading crypto seamless, real-life crypto use-cases and applications that will make a real difference, and much more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Solana developers reported late yesterday afternoon that software used by the closed-source wallet Slope, not their code, is responsible for the ongoing exploit that’s seen at least $6 million drained from 9,000 wallets by hackers. Indeed, developers are adamant that the Solana protocol itself, including the underlying cryptography, was at no point compromised. At the top of today’s Crypto Daily Briefing, Marco Olivera and Ash Bennington analyze the Solana situation in light of recent developments. Marco and Ash also break down the latest ChainAnalysis report on cross-chain bridge hacks and assess the broader impact of Michael Saylor’s announcement that he’ll transition from CEO to executive chairman of MicroStrategy. And, in today’s main segment, Marco welcomes technical analyst Rekt Capital for a breakdown of recent price action. Marco poses to Rekt the question of all questions these days: Is the bottom in? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Thousands of wallets holding Solana, one of the world’s top 10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, have been targeted by hackers in an ongoing attack. Initial reports suggested $580 million was stolen, but this estimate has been revised much lower. Still, that security firms still can’t put a figure on how much is at issue is itself a not-good sign. Nico Brugge and Ash Bennington lead today’s Real Vision Crypto Daily Briefing with an update on this developing story. Nico and Ash also talk about the $200 million Nomad cross-chain bridge hack, a change in roles for one of the biggest crypto proponents in the TradFi world, and the lingering impediments to institutional adoption of crypto. Nico and Ash break down a conversation on the latter topic between Ben Whitby, the chief compliance officer at Qredo, and Anatoly Crachilov, the CEO of Nickel Digital Asset Management. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

U.S. regulators are tightening the screw on crypto scams, with the Securities and Exchange Commission filing civil charges against 11 people involved in a scheme called Forsage. The regulators allege the primary way retail investors in the scheme, worth some $300M, made money was through attracting new people on board. Real Vision's Ash Bennington and Moritz Seibert also look at a new global crypto regulation index (guess what country came out on top?) and the jewelry maker Tiffany tying the knot with CryptoPunks in an NFT collaboration. Plus, Ash asks Moritz to do a deep dive into his interview with Kai Wu, all about value investing in the crypto space, with key takeaways at the end. Send us your questions in the chat! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices