Podcasts about blocktower capital

Low float and high fully diluted valuation (FDV) coins have been a hot topic in crypto this year. Yet, understanding these coins' unrealized gains is critical for truly grasping their pricing. In this episode, Jose Macedo of Delphi Digital and Ari Paul of BlockTower Capital dive deep into metrics that help assess a coin's true value. They discuss why upcoming token unlocks may put downward pressure on the market, how token unlocks could be better structured for long-term success, and whether VCs are extracting more value than they contribute. Show highlights: Why upcoming token unlock events are creating anxiety in the crypto market The role unrealized gains play in token price volatility How certain projects manipulate circulating supply metrics to influence perceptions Tips for everyday investors to uncover accurate token information The impact of secondary market trading on anticipated token unlock events Why short-term token strategies often prevail over those focused on sustained success Jose's insights into why simple, time-based unlock models may outperform complex systems Ari's thoughts on the SEC's investigations into VCs and their parallels to pump-and-dump schemes Why many crypto projects face a bearish outlook due to pending token unlocks How the intersection of memecoins and VC involvement could shape the next market cycle Visit our website for breaking news, analysis, op-eds, articles to learn about crypto, and much more: unchainedcrypto.com Thank you to our sponsors! Polkadot Guests: Jose Macedo, founder at Delphi Labs Ari Paul, CIO of BlockTower Capital Previous appearances on Unchained: Ari Paul on Why Bitcoin Is a Good Value Buy Ari Paul of BlockTower Capital on the Crypto Downturn and Why It Could Change Direction Links High FDV and unlocks: Unchained: How ‘Fully Diluted Valuation' Can Be a Very Dangerous Metric for Crypto Markets to Rely On Who's to Blame for the Underperformance of Low Float, High FDV Tokens? 80% of Tokens on Binance Are Down Since Listing Date: SwissBorg Researcher Cobie newsletter: New launches (part 1) - private capture, phantom pricing Rocknblock: Token vesting explainer CoinDesk: 'Liquid Vesting' Is Oxymoronic Blockchain Feature That Lets Early Investors Sell Without Waiting Jose's thread that inspired the episode Ari's post responding to Jose's thread Token.unlocks.app: Token vesting tracker Solutions: Hack VC: Potential Solutions to Crypto's Unlock Problem Colony Lab: Early-Stage Program & Liquid Vesting Imran Khan's tweet on Blast https://x.com/lmrankhan/status/1806040646433522149  Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 02:46 Token unlocks creating market concerns 11:06 Unrealized gains to market cap ratio impact 13:06 Token supply manipulation tactics 21:11 How investors can verify token projects 24:21 Secondary market trading and unlock impacts 35:36 Current token launch strategy persistence 41:46 Short-term vs long-term project decisions 47:21 Time-based vs metric-based token unlocks 53:51 SEC investigations into VC practices 59:56 Bearish outlook for upcoming token unlocks 1:06:36 Investor risks in current cycle 1:13:11 Future of VCs in crypto and memecoins Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Low float and high fully diluted valuation (FDV) coins have been a hot topic in crypto this year. Yet, understanding these coins' unrealized gains is critical for truly grasping their pricing. In this episode, Jose Macedo of Delphi Digital and Ari Paul of BlockTower Capital dive deep into metrics that help assess a coin's true value. They discuss why upcoming token unlocks may put downward pressure on the market, how token unlocks could be better structured for long-term success, and whether VCs are extracting more value than they contribute. Show highlights: Why upcoming token unlock events are creating anxiety in the crypto market The role unrealized gains play in token price volatility How certain projects manipulate circulating supply metrics to influence perceptions Tips for everyday investors to uncover accurate token information The impact of secondary market trading on anticipated token unlock events Why short-term token strategies often prevail over those focused on sustained success Jose's insights into why simple, time-based unlock models may outperform complex systems Ari's thoughts on the SEC's investigations into VCs and their parallels to pump-and-dump schemes Why many crypto projects face a bearish outlook due to pending token unlocks How the intersection of memecoins and VC involvement could shape the next market cycle Visit our website for breaking news, analysis, op-eds, articles to learn about crypto, and much more: unchainedcrypto.com Thank you to our sponsors! Polkadot Guests: Jose Macedo, founder at Delphi Labs Ari Paul, CIO of BlockTower Capital Previous appearances on Unchained: Ari Paul on Why Bitcoin Is a Good Value Buy Ari Paul of BlockTower Capital on the Crypto Downturn and Why It Could Change Direction Links High FDV and unlocks: Unchained: How ‘Fully Diluted Valuation' Can Be a Very Dangerous Metric for Crypto Markets to Rely On Who's to Blame for the Underperformance of Low Float, High FDV Tokens? 80% of Tokens on Binance Are Down Since Listing Date: SwissBorg Researcher Cobie newsletter: New launches (part 1) - private capture, phantom pricing Rocknblock: Token vesting explainer CoinDesk: 'Liquid Vesting' Is Oxymoronic Blockchain Feature That Lets Early Investors Sell Without Waiting Jose's thread that inspired the episode Ari's post responding to Jose's thread Token.unlocks.app: Token vesting tracker Solutions: Hack VC: Potential Solutions to Crypto's Unlock Problem Colony Lab: Early-Stage Program & Liquid Vesting Imran Khan's tweet on Blast https://x.com/lmrankhan/status/1806040646433522149  Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 02:46 Token unlocks creating market concerns 11:06 Unrealized gains to market cap ratio impact 13:06 Token supply manipulation tactics 21:11 How investors can verify token projects 24:21 Secondary market trading and unlock impacts 35:36 Current token launch strategy persistence 41:46 Short-term vs long-term project decisions 47:21 Time-based vs metric-based token unlocks 53:51 SEC investigations into VC practices 59:56 Bearish outlook for upcoming token unlocks 1:06:36 Investor risks in current cycle 1:13:11 Future of VCs in crypto and memecoins Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bitcoin is down slightly at $91,323 Eth is down slightly at $3,185 Solana, up slightly at $216 NongHyup Bank partners with Fireblocks. FBI seizes polymarket CEO's phone in probe Coinbase acquires Utopia Labs Body of crypto influencer identified. Arca and BlockTower Capital to merge Folks Finance raise Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jose Macedo of Delphi Digital and Ari Paul of BlockTower Capital talk about why a crypto asset can have wildly different prices in the public and private markets, and how they try to figure out what it's really worth.Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.The problem of low float, high fully diluted valuation (FDV) coins is one that is frequently discussed in crypto. But there's another wrinkle: investors need to understand the unrealized gains of these coins to really understand the price. In this episode, Jose Macedo of Delphi Digital and Ari Paul of BlockTower Capital explain the various metrics that reveal what a coin is really worth, why a wave of token unlocks that will be hitting the crypto markets in the next few years are not bullish, and whether there is a better way to design token unlocks for teams and insiders. Plus, they cover whether venture capitalists are extractive to crypto, whether these games with circulating supply and FDV have caused investors to turn to memecoins, and why they believe the ICO era was better for retail investors. Show highlights:Why upcoming token unlocks are creating market jittersHow the ratio of unrealized gains to market cap influences token price movements How some token projects manipulate their reported circulating supplyWhether and how everyday investors can uncover the truth about token projectsWhat secondary market trading says about the potential impact of upcoming token unlocksWhy Jose believes that the current token launch strategy, despite its flaws, is still favored by insiders and unlikely to change soonWhy some projects favor decisions that are more likely to result in short-term gains over long-term successWhy Jose believes that simple time-based token unlocks often work better than complex metrics, and how projects can balance funding with realistic success metricsWhy Ari believes the SEC's investigations into VCs for acting as securities dealers might be justified, and how these practices resemble pump-and-dump schemesWith numerous token unlocks looming, why the outlook is bearish for many projects, and what challenges they face in mitigating potential sell-offsWhy many crypto investors might end up holding the bag in the current cycle, despite plans to sell early and avoid lossesWhat the future role of VCs is in crypto, and how the influx of token unlocks and the rise of memecoins could shape the bull cycleVisit our website for breaking news, analysis, op-eds, articles to learn about crypto, and much more: unchainedcrypto.comThank you to our sponsors!PolkadotGuests:Jose Macedo, founder at Delphi LabsAri Paul, CIO of BlockTower CapitalPrevious appearances on Unchained:Ari Paul on Why Bitcoin Is a Good Value BuyAri Paul of BlockTower Capital on the Crypto Downturn and Why It Could Change DirectionLinks : High FDV and unlocks:Unchained:How ‘Fully Diluted Valuation' Can Be a Very Dangerous Metric for Crypto Markets to Rely OnWho's to Blame for the Underperformance of Low Float, High FDV Tokens?80% of Tokens on Binance Are Down Since Listing Date: SwissBorg ResearcherCobie newsletter: New launches (part 1) - private capture, phantom pricingRocknblock: Token vesting explainerCoinDesk: 'Liquid Vesting' Is Oxymoronic Blockchain Feature That Lets Early Investors Sell Without WaitingJose's thread that inspired the episodeAri's post responding to Jose's threadToken.unlocks.app: Token vesting trackerSolutions:Hack VC: Potential Solutions to Crypto's Unlock ProblemColony Lab: Early-Stage Program & Liquid VestingImran Khan's tweet on Blast https://x.com/lmrankhan/status/1806040646433522149 -Unchained Podcast is Produced by Laura Shin Media, LLC. Distributed by CoinDesk. Senior Producer is Michele Musso and Executive Producer is Jared Schwartz. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The problem of low float, high fully diluted valuation (FDV) coins is one that is frequently discussed in crypto. But there's another wrinkle: investors need to understand the unrealized gains of these coins to really understand the price.  In this episode, Jose Macedo of Delphi Digital and Ari Paul of Blocktower Capital explain the various metrics that reveal what a coin is really worth, why a wave of token unlocks that will be hitting the crypto markets in the next few years are not bullish, and whether there is a better way to design token unlocks for teams and insiders.  Plus, they cover whether venture capitalists are extractive to crypto, whether these games with circulating supply and FDV have caused investors to turn to memecoins, and why they believe the ICO era was better for retail investors.  Show highlights: 00:00 Intro 01:58 Why upcoming token unlocks are creating market jitters 10:22 How the ratio of unrealized gains to market cap influences token price movements  12:22 How some token projects manipulate their reported circulating supply 20:24 Whether and how everyday investors can uncover the truth about token projects 23:37 What secondary market trading says about the potential impact of upcoming token unlocks 34:50 Why Jose believes that the current token launch strategy, despite its flaws, is still favored by insiders and unlikely to change soon 41:02 Why some projects favor decisions that are more likely to result in short-term gains over long-term success 46:36 Why Jose believes that simple time-based token unlocks often work better than complex metrics, and how projects can balance funding with realistic success metrics 53:04 Why Ari believes the SEC's investigations into VCs for acting as securities dealers might be justified, and how these practices resemble pump-and-dump schemes 59:11 With numerous token unlocks looming, why the outlook is bearish for many projects, and what challenges they face in mitigating potential sell-offs 1:05:52 Why many crypto investors might end up holding the bag in the current cycle, despite plans to sell early and avoid losses 1:12:27 What the future role of VCs is in crypto, and how the influx of token unlocks and the rise of memecoins could shape the bull cycle Visit our website for breaking news, analysis, op-eds, articles to learn about crypto, and much more: unchainedcrypto.com Thank you to our sponsors! Polkadot Guests: Jose Macedo, founder at Delphi Labs Ari Paul, CIO of Blocktower Capital Previous appearances on Unchained: Ari Paul on Why Bitcoin Is a Good Value Buy Ari Paul of BlockTower Capital on the Crypto Downturn and Why It Could Change Direction Links High FDV and unlocks: Unchained: How ‘Fully Diluted Valuation' Can Be a Very Dangerous Metric for Crypto Markets to Rely On Who's to Blame for the Underperformance of Low Float, High FDV Tokens? 80% of Tokens on Binance Are Down Since Listing Date: SwissBorg Researcher Cobie newsletter: New launches (part 1) - private capture, phantom pricing Rocknblock: Token vesting explainer CoinDesk: 'Liquid Vesting' Is Oxymoronic Blockchain Feature That Lets Early Investors Sell Without Waiting Jose's thread that inspired the episode Ari's post responding to Jose's thread Token.unlocks.app: Token vesting tracker Solutions: Hack VC: Potential Solutions to Crypto's Unlock Problem Colony Lab: Early-Stage Program & Liquid Vesting Imran Khan's tweet on Blast https://x.com/lmrankhan/status/1806040646433522149  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The problem of low float, high fully diluted valuation (FDV) coins is one that is frequently discussed in crypto. But there's another wrinkle: investors need to understand the unrealized gains of these coins to really understand the price.  In this episode, Jose Macedo of Delphi Digital and Ari Paul of Blocktower Capital explain the various metrics that reveal what a coin is really worth, why a wave of token unlocks that will be hitting the crypto markets in the next few years are not bullish, and whether there is a better way to design token unlocks for teams and insiders.  Plus, they cover whether venture capitalists are extractive to crypto, whether these games with circulating supply and FDV have caused investors to turn to memecoins, and why they believe the ICO era was better for retail investors.  Show highlights: 00:00 Intro 01:58 Why upcoming token unlocks are creating market jitters 10:22 How the ratio of unrealized gains to market cap influences token price movements  12:22 How some token projects manipulate their reported circulating supply 20:24 Whether and how everyday investors can uncover the truth about token projects 23:37 What secondary market trading says about the potential impact of upcoming token unlocks 34:50 Why Jose believes that the current token launch strategy, despite its flaws, is still favored by insiders and unlikely to change soon 41:02 Why some projects favor decisions that are more likely to result in short-term gains over long-term success 46:36 Why Jose believes that simple time-based token unlocks often work better than complex metrics, and how projects can balance funding with realistic success metrics 53:04 Why Ari believes the SEC's investigations into VCs for acting as securities dealers might be justified, and how these practices resemble pump-and-dump schemes 59:11 With numerous token unlocks looming, why the outlook is bearish for many projects, and what challenges they face in mitigating potential sell-offs 1:05:52 Why many crypto investors might end up holding the bag in the current cycle, despite plans to sell early and avoid losses 1:12:27 What the future role of VCs is in crypto, and how the influx of token unlocks and the rise of memecoins could shape the bull cycle Visit our website for breaking news, analysis, op-eds, articles to learn about crypto, and much more: unchainedcrypto.com Thank you to our sponsors! Polkadot Guests: Jose Macedo, founder at Delphi Labs Ari Paul, CIO of Blocktower Capital Previous appearances on Unchained: Ari Paul on Why Bitcoin Is a Good Value Buy Ari Paul of BlockTower Capital on the Crypto Downturn and Why It Could Change Direction Links High FDV and unlocks: Unchained: How ‘Fully Diluted Valuation' Can Be a Very Dangerous Metric for Crypto Markets to Rely On Who's to Blame for the Underperformance of Low Float, High FDV Tokens? 80% of Tokens on Binance Are Down Since Listing Date: SwissBorg Researcher Cobie newsletter: New launches (part 1) - private capture, phantom pricing Rocknblock: Token vesting explainer CoinDesk: 'Liquid Vesting' Is Oxymoronic Blockchain Feature That Lets Early Investors Sell Without Waiting Jose's thread that inspired the episode Ari's post responding to Jose's thread Token.unlocks.app: Token vesting tracker Solutions: Hack VC: Potential Solutions to Crypto's Unlock Problem Colony Lab: Early-Stage Program & Liquid Vesting Imran Khan's tweet on Blast https://x.com/lmrankhan/status/1806040646433522149  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matthew King is an Entrepreneurial Investor passionate about venture investing & building, deeptech, sustainability, mental health, wellness, automotive, luxury goods, and hospitality.Currently Co-Founder & Managing Partner at Valhalla Ventures, a venture capital firm backing visionary founders at the forefront of social and technological breakthroughs.Inveterate connector of extraordinary human beings who frequently colors outside the lines and thrives on helping founders accomplish legendary outcomes while helping investors produce stellar returns & impact.Valhalla Ventures backs visionaries building enduring moats.Today, the most enduring moats exist in physical technology (think industrials, space, chips, biology, defense, energy, etc) and media IP (think games).Valhalla manages $200M+ in assets with $150M in committed capital across all vehicles to date. Our primary focus currently is deploying $35M in dry powder in Seed and Series A financings (and in between), investing $1M to $3M per company with a 5% minimum ownership target. Valhalla's Limited Partner community includes:1) C-suites/Managing Partners (current and former) of: Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Citadel, Bridgewater Associates, Oaktree Capital, Apollo Global, Point72, PayPal, Alibaba, Hillhouse Capital, NBC Universal, General Motors, Swiss Re, Discover, PizzaHut, DoorDash, DocuSign, Sandoz, Gusto, Guinness, Bitmain, Thomson Reuters, Yahoo, Zynga, the Dallas Cowboys, BlockTower Capital, and TopGolf; and2) Board Members (current and former) of: BlackRock, Goldman Sachs, MasterCard, MIO Partners, Fortress, BNY Mellon, RBC, Altria, ARM Semiconductor, SoFi, Warburg Pincus, Kraft, SABMiller, Cognizant, Western Union, Raine Group, Harvard Business School, Harvard Law School, Harvard Medical School, Harvard University, Stanford's Graduate School of Business, Wharton, and Johns Hopkins University.Outside of work what energizes me is travel (40+ countries visited or lived in), electronic music, nature, and Burning Man (12x). --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/geeksofthevalley/support

This is Eric Golden and my guest this week is Kevin Miao, Partner and Head of Credit at BlockTower Capital. I've been excited for this conversation because while a lot of people in crypto seem to be focused on building a brand new financial system from scratch, this conversation focuses on how crypto rails can improve the traditional finance world. After nearly a decade at Citi, Kevin straddles both the TradFi and the DeFi world, and at BlockTower, he is working on bringing the multi-trillion dollar securitization market on-chain. We go deep into the weeds in this one, first getting into the nuts and bolts of how credit and securitization traditionally work, before diving into BlockTower's approach to transform this entire process, moving it on chain, which will reduce friction, errors. and consequently fees. Enjoy. For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here. ----- This episode is brought to you by OKX. You may have seen OKX on McLaren's Formula 1 race car or Manchester City's football kit. But what is OKX? OKX has over 730 spot trading pairs, 280 derivatives markets, and 1000 options markets. It processes 400,000 requests per second with 99.95% uptime. That's why over 20 million traders and institutions choose OKX when they want to trade. Visit okx.com to learn more. ----- Web3 Breakdowns is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Web3 Breakdowns, visit joincolossus.com/episodes. Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here. Follow us on Twitter: @Web3Breakdowns | @ericgoldenx | @patrick_oshag  Show Notes (00:04:00) - (First question) - The impact of TradFi shifting towards crypto infrastructure (00:14:00) - How crypto could drastically reduce friction in credit markets and mortgages (00:28:29) - Building crypto rails in parallel to legacy systems to prove their power and destabilize those traditional structures (00:37:15) - The gravity of competing with the most entrenched American industry and how Blocktower's system addresses this (00:45:22) - How they cooperate and compete with different TradFi and DeFi players (00:47:38) - Considerations for privacy and reversibility with crypto-based banking (00:55:41) - How blockchain in banking can eliminate much of the human error in the system (00:58:57) - What he's most excited to see built over the next six months and six years

Most major cryptocurrencies have navigated the recently choppy (even stormy at times) waters of global finance with aplomb. So is it “full steam ahead” from here? Ash is joined by Kevin Miao, head of credit at crypto investment firm BlockTower Capital and a former VP of structured product trading at Citi, to discuss the intersection of Web3 and lending, and what cracks in the broader banking system mean for crypto. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode of Engaging Alternatives Spotlight, Elana Margulies-Snyderman, Director, Publications, EisnerAmper, speaks with Kevin Miao, Head of Credit at BlockTower Capital, an institutional investment firm headquartered in Miami focused on cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. Kevin shares with us his outlook for asset-backed specialty finance enhanced through blockchain technology, including the greatest opportunities and challenges. He addresses how the firm integrates DEI.

James Andrew is the CEO and Technical Director at Global Liquidity, Inc. He is the creator of Lightning Bridge ATM, the personal ATM for your Web3 wallets, a fully transparent and 10X faster solution for depositing and withdrawing funds via the Bitcoin Lightning Network. James is an entrepreneur and technologist at heart. He was an early pioneer of high-frequency algorithmic trading, and deeply involved in the electronification of Wall Street, where he started his career back in 1997. In 2018, he created his current company, Global Liquidity, where he began developing an advanced electronic trading interface based on real-time 3D graphics. Global Liquidity is backed by institutional investors, including BlockTower Capital and GSR Markets, as well as Hivemind Ventures, LD Capital LTD., Rich Rosenblum, Jason Williams, Brad Mills, Willy Woo, and Micah Spruill. https://www.globalliquidity.io Links about Lighting Network: https://amboss.space/magma https://hivemind.vc/why-lightning-why-now/ Follow me on Facebook: Santino Peralta Instagram: sonny232323 Snapchat: peralta2323 Twitter: @santinoperalta1 TikTok: @cryptokid23 https://www.facebook.com/cryptokidpodcast/ affiliate link: https://kitcaster.com/cryptokid/ --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/cryptokid/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/cryptokid/support

This is Eric Golden and my guest today is Avi Felman. Avi is young but he has already had a successful career as a crypto investor. Earlier this year, he left BlockTower Capital to join GoldenTree as their Head of Digital Assets Trading. His ambition is to put crypto on TradFi's map by bringing this large well-known, credit-focused asset manager to the forefront of our industry. We dive into his investment process, hiring Discord anons into GoldenTree, and how long-term thinking manifests in crypto markets. Please enjoy this great conversation with Avi Felman.   For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here.   -----   This episode is brought to you by Coinbase Prime. Coinbase Prime combines advanced trading, battle-tested custody, financing, and prime services in a single solution. Clients have used our comprehensive investing platform to execute some of the largest trades in the industry because they are the only publicly-traded company with experience trading and custodying crypto assets at scale. Get started with Coinbase Prime today at coinbase.com/prime.   -----   Web3 Breakdowns is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Web3 Breakdowns, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.   Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.   Follow us on Twitter: @Web3Breakdowns | @ericgoldenx | @patrick_oshag    Show Notes [00:02:16] - [First question] - Learning everything he needed to about crypto from RuneScape [00:06:41] - Thoughts on the average market participant trying to find an edge in crypto [00:09:38] - Whether or not he's ever thought about leaving crypto behind completely [00:11:10] - How much of his education has been self-taught or via mentors [00:14:02] - Defining an investor and a trader; and his style as a bidirectional trader [00:15:56] - An example of a theme that he's changed his mind on  [00:18:10] - Why he chose to work with GoldenTree over their competitors [00:21:10] - What it's like pitching a token like SHIB to GoldenTree [00:25:09] - How he thinks about training, discipline, and building a team  [00:28:44] - Thoughts on trades when it comes to managing risk [00:30:05] - Separating alpha and beta when valuing analysts and PMs [00:31:57] - What he meant by the entire market being based on the bid for Ethereum [00:33:57] - What an average person can do to track crypto market flows  [00:35:16] - Things he's currently focused on in the market today [00:37:32] - What he's most excited to see built over the next six months and six years

On Episode 11 of The Felix Hartmann Show, we sit down with Ari Paul of BlockTower Capital. We cover a spectrum of topics including real world lending, regulation, investing strategies, risk management and more. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/felix-o-hartmann/support

Listen in podcast appIn this week's episode of Reformed Millennials, Joel and Cam talk Alberta’s Childcare plan and its impact on women’s unemployment, Political Policy changing as we move down the rungs of Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs and all things inflation.It’s a long-term game. Stay the course.Listen on Apple, Spotify, or Google Podcasts.If you aren’t in the Reformed Millennials Facebook Group join us for daily updates, discussions, and deep dives into the investable trends Millennials should be paying attention to.👉 For specific investment questions or advice contact Joel @ Gold Investment Management.📈📊Market Update💵📉Remember, inflation will come down when no one can afford to buy anything. The best cure for high prices, is high prices.After the index entered a bear market yesterday, dropping more than 20% from highs, S&P 500 futures are pointing to a relatively small rise at the open.Fed FeverTraders in the bond markets are fully prepared for the Federal Reserve to raise its benchmark rate by 75 basis points on Wednesday. While Chair Jerome Powell had vowed to increase the Fed funds rate by 50 basis points this month, a report in the Wall Street Journal suggested that policy makers were considering a bigger move after inflation accelerated in May. Meanwhile, JPMorgan Chase & Co. said there was a "non-trivial risk" of a 100-basis point increase.Bitcoin dropsLiquidity draining out of financial markets sent Bitcoin to the the lowest in about 18 months. But crypto’s trouble isn’t all external, with the freezing of withdrawals by the Celsius lending platform adding to concern that systemic risk in the crypto ecosystem will accelerate the digital-asset market meltdown. Meanwhile, MicroStrategy Inc. may need to post additional collateral for a loan as Bitcoin tests a key price range flagged by the company last month.10yr     3.3%U.S. 2-year yields spiked the most since 2008FOMC decision is tomorrowPowell has communicated a 50 bps increase but don’t be surprised if its 75JPMorgan said “non-trivial risk” of a 100-basis point increaseI think the street is now at 75 bpsCrude  122Oil YTD +62%Biden to visit Saudi Arabia in July 13-16Can he convince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) to increase production?DisneyDisney won the local TV broadcast rights to India’s Premier League cricket matches5 year deal worth ~$3 billionViacom won the streaming rights worth $2.6 billionStreaming rights would have gone on Disney+ Hotstar in 2024Disney CEO has said that the cricket matches are “not critical” to achieving its 2024 subscriber targets.TwitterElon Musk is to attend an all-hands meeting with Twitter employees on ThursdayGood sign Elon wants the deal but at a lower priceContinental ResourcesShale oil billionaire offers to take Continental private$4.3 billion, $70 all-cash offer, 8.5% premiumEarningsOracle             +12%, 10% organic revenue growthCRYPTOMajor crypto lender Celsius froze withdrawals, swaps, and transfers yesterday due to “extreme market conditions”Here’s Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky 2 days before:The Celsius freezer helped spark a massive sell-off with major cryptocurrencies declining 15% on averageTotal liquidations totaled over $1BHere’s a look at the spike in Bitcoin liquidations:Bitcoin held long-term support around in the $20-22k range:💸Reformed Millennials - Post of The WeekMany companies are now facing a Hobson’s choice between trying to maintain the high-flying valuation they’ve established over the last year — no matter the contortions necessary to do it — or conducting a “down round,” a financing that results in a lower valuation. And industry experts suggest the latter often makes more sense.Brad Feld, who has been a venture capitalist for more than 25 years, is among those who advocate for embracing the down round in cases where a company needs capital and hasn’t yet grown into a previously established valuation. Feld says that he has participated in financing rounds for startups so married to a particular number that they’ve agreed to anything to maintain it. He has also participated in deals where the company and its board agreed to bite the bullet and readjust the company’s valuation downward.Based on both experiences, he says his “strong belief” that “just doing a clean resetting — at whatever the valuation so that everybody is aligned and dealing with reality — is much, much better for a company.”He’s not alone. “As a young investor in the early 2000s, I ended up spending a lot of time restructuring cap tables” after the dot com bust, says Frederic Court, founder of the early-stage firm Felix Capital in London. Court says he learned then that “trying to readjust things or maintain an artificially inflated price through structure is a recipe for disaster.”Maslow’s and its impact on political policy and market direction.Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a theory of motivation which states that five categories of human needs dictate an individual's behaviour.Those needs are physiological needs, safety needs, love and belonging needs, esteem needs, and self-actualization needs.🐦 Twitter Thread of The Week 🐦BITCOIN IS DEAD! - from my most trusted name in Crypto, Ari Paul of BlockTower Capital🎬 Video of The Week🎬🔮Best Links of The Week🔮🥵 Over 100m Americans urged to stay indoors over extreme heat and humidity💊 FDA approves historic alopecia treatment🛑 Ford issues stop-sale of electric Mustang Mach-E crossovers due to potential safety defectAs the world tightens, China prepares to ease - China Last Night This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.reformedmillennials.com

Sign up for my Daily Fintech or Daily Digital Banking Newsletters here. Check out my latest podcast episode below: Welcome to another episode of our Daily Fintech Podcast. This podcast episode is sponsored by Uncover, the new podcast by ComplyAdvantage. Join CEO Charles Delingpole and his team as they interview compliance leaders, FinTech innovators, and financial crime experts to uncover the latest best practices and industry trends. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify today THE NEWS HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY IS Valar Ventures LLC Management is leading a US$185 million funding round for Canada's Neo Financial Technologies Inc., propelling it to a valuation of more than US$1 billion

Avi Felman's eyes are glued to his trading screen, waiting for market-moving headlines that could be prime opportunities to put on a multi-million crypto trade.  These past few weeks have been especially active for the portfolio manager, who joined crypto investment firm BlockTower in November 2019. Felman, who co-leads the firm's flagship fund, navigated price gyrations stemming from macro and industry news, ranging from headlines that government officials recovered funds from Bitfinex's 2016 hack to more recent news that Russia could invade neighbor Ukraine. On this episode of The Scoop, Felman explained the decision-making process that goes into making a trade on headlines, using reports that Russia was on the verge of invading Ukraine as one case study example.  "I know that the context is that the Biden administration has been warning about Russia for quite some time," he said. "I know that bitcoin doesn't like uncertainty. I read the headline as being extremely uncertain." Whether a certain news event adds uncertainty is just one factor Felman considers. Timing is equally important.  "Okay, I want to make a trade and this all happens in the span of, you have to think, about 15 to 30 seconds," he explained. "You need to make those connections. Then I need to start de-risking a little bit." In some instances, Felman takes a cue from the S&P 500, which has been moving very closely with bitcoin despite the crypto's reputation as a hedge asset. "The vast majority of time the bitcoin decouples from the S&P, it's because of a delayed reaction," he said. "It's because bitcoin has some idiosyncratic crypto native bidder that isn't paying attention to broader risk." ...For more visit Theblockcrypto.com/podcast Episode 9 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block's Frank Chaparro and Avi Felman, Co-Portfolio Manager at Blocktower Capital. Listen below, and subscribe to The Scoop on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you listen to podcasts. Email feedback and revision requests to podcast@theblockcrypto.com. This episode is brought to you by our sponsors Fireblocks, Coinbase Prime & Chainalysis Fireblocks is an enterprise-grade platform delivering a secure infrastructure for moving, storing, and issuing digital assets. Fireblocks enables exchanges, lending desks, custodians, banks, trading desks, and hedge funds to securely scale digital asset operations through the Fireblocks Network and MPC-based Wallet Infrastructure. Fireblocks serves over 725 financial institutions, has secured the transfer of over $1.5 trillion in digital assets, and has a unique insurance policy that covers assets in storage & transit. For more information, please visit www.fireblocks.com. About Coinbase Prime Coinbase Prime is an integrated solution that provides institutional investors with an advanced trading platform, secure custody, and prime services to manage all their crypto assets in one place. Coinbase Prime fully integrates crypto trading and custody on a single platform, and gives clients the best all-in pricing in their network using their proprietary Smart Order Router and algorithmic execution. For more information, visit www.coinbase.com/prime. About Chainalysis Chainalysis is the blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services, and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, and insurance and cybersecurity companies in over 60 countries. Our data powers investigation, compliance, and market intelligence software that has been used to solve some of the world's most high-profile criminal cases and grow consumer access to cryptocurrency safely. Backed by Accel, Addition, Benchmark, Coatue, Paradigm, Ribbit, and other leading firms in venture capital, Chainalysis builds trust in blockchains to promote more financial freedom with less risk. For more information, visit www.chainalysis.com.

Avi Felman is a portfolio manager at Blocktower Capital, a crypto hedgefund, and we discuss his current framework for approaching Bitcoin/crypto, momentum returning to the market, what smart money is doing, activity acrosss exchanges, Bitfinex hack & LEO, and simple tricks to help your investing approach. (not financial advice) Thank you for listening to the show. If you could please leave me a rating on iTunes, I would really appreciate it. Tweet me your thoughts about the episode! Show sponsors: •Bybit: Trade Bitcoin, ETH, EOS, and XRP derivatives and get a deposit bonus with the show link: https://partner.bybit.com/b/coinistBONUS

Ari Paul is co-founder and CIO of BlockTower Capital. BlockTower is a crypto and blockchain investment firm, applying professional trading, investing and portfolio management to this digital asset class. It is funded by well-known investors such as A16z and Union Square Ventures. Before BlockTower, Ari was a portfolio manager for the University of Chicago's $8 billion endowment, and a derivatives market maker and proprietary trader for Susquehanna International Group (SIG). In this podcast we discuss: How to value bitcoin Understanding drivers of crypto markets What flows have driven crypto in recent years? Business for exchanges like UniSwap The real benefit of crypto is co-ordination power Trends in layer one protocols like Ethereum and Solana Will switch to Proof of Stake make a difference? What stage of hype cycle are Metaverse and DeFi tokens? Risk is about sizing positions Books/articles that influenced Ari: Money, blockchains, and social scalability (Nick Szabo), Shelling Out: The Origin Of Money (Szabo), Debt: The First 5000 Years (Graeber)

In this episode of On The Margin Mike is joined by returning guest Avi Felman. Avi is the Co Portfolio Manager at BlockTower Capital and joins us to share his updated outlook on the market. Avi discusses the key trends in the crypto market from Bitcoin & Ethereum, value vs momentum, the layer-1 wars & more. -- Ledger: This episode is brought to you by Ledger, your secure gateway to buy, exchange and grow your crypto. Combine a Ledger hardware wallet with the Ledger Live app to access all your favorite crypto services & DApps from one place. All that with the best security. Visit https://onthemargin.link/ledger and make your crypto journey easier and safer. -- OurCrowd: Join the fastest growing venture capital investment community, at https://www.ourcrowd.com/otm --- If you like this episode be sure to subscribe to our newsletter at https://blockworks.co/newsletter On The Margin is brought to you by Blockworks, a financial media brand delivering breaking news and premium insights about digital assets to millions of investors. For more content like On the Margin, visit http://blockworks.co/podcasts.

【特別ゲスト：BlockTower Capital スティーブ・リー氏紹介】 スティーブ氏は、2018年からBlockTower Capitalで投資ディレクターとアジア代表として勤めている。それ以前は、ゴールドマン・サックスの東京及びシンガポール支店の資産管理部門で、マルチアセット・ポートフォリオマネージャー、トレーダーとして８年間勤めた。 https://twitter.com/xxstevelee https://www.linkedin.com/in/xxstevelee 【BlockTower Capital】 BlockTower Capitalはブロックチェーンと暗号資産に特化したヘッジファンドである。ゴールドマン・サックスとシカゴ大学年金基金出身者を中心に設立され、世界最大のベンチャーキャピタルであるAndreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures、世界最大のヘッジファンドであるRenaissance Technologiesの共同創設者であるHoward Morganに投資を貰っている。 ーーーーーーーーーーー ▼既に応募されましたか？ たった10USDTで総額5000万円相当のNFTと最大100万USDTの賞金キャンペーン！ NFTはオークションで約27億円で落札された『Bored Ape Yacht Club（BAYC）』 ✅キャンペーンリンク（詳細）：https://partner.bybit.com/b/banana ✅bybit無料登録：http://bit.ly/Joebybit ✅参加登録期間：2021年11月12日午後7時〜12月1日午後7時（日本時間） ✅参加条件：デリバティブアカウントに「10 USDT」以上の資産を保有していればご参加可能 ■Bybit使い方マスターガイド：https://youtu.be/swUth8LN4BA ■Bybitアプリ完全攻略動画：https://youtu.be/jPL4ZYwZ2eA

【特別ゲスト：BlockTower Capital スティーブ・リー氏紹介】 スティーブ氏は、2018年からBlockTower Capitalで投資ディレクターとアジア代表として勤めている。それ以前は、ゴールドマン・サックスの東京及びシンガポール支店の資産管理部門で、マルチアセット・ポートフォリオマネージャー、トレーダーとして８年間勤めた。 https://twitter.com/xxstevelee https://www.linkedin.com/in/xxstevelee 【BlockTower Capital】 BlockTower Capitalはブロックチェーンと暗号資産に特化したヘッジファンドである。ゴールドマン・サックスとシカゴ大学年金基金出身者を中心に設立され、世界最大のベンチャーキャピタルであるAndreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures、世界最大のヘッジファンドであるRenaissance Technologiesの共同創設者であるHoward Morganに投資を貰っている。 ーーーーーーーーーーー ▼既に応募されましたか？ たった10USDTで総額5000万円相当のNFTと最大100万USDTの賞金キャンペーン！ NFTはオークションで約27億円で落札された『Bored Ape Yacht Club（BAYC）』 ✅キャンペーンリンク（詳細）：https://partner.bybit.com/b/banana ✅bybit無料登録：http://bit.ly/Joebybit ✅参加登録期間：2021年11月12日午後7時〜12月1日午後7時（日本時間） ✅参加条件：デリバティブアカウントに「10 USDT」以上の資産を保有していればご参加可能 ■Bybit使い方マスターガイド：https://youtu.be/swUth8LN4BA ■Bybitアプリ完全攻略動画：https://youtu.be/jPL4ZYwZ2eA

【特別ゲスト：BlockTower Capital スティーブ・リー氏紹介】 スティーブ氏は、2018年からBlockTower Capitalで投資ディレクターとアジア代表として勤めている。それ以前は、ゴールドマン・サックスの東京及びシンガポール支店の資産管理部門で、マルチアセット・ポートフォリオマネージャー、トレーダーとして８年間勤めた。 https://twitter.com/xxstevelee https://www.linkedin.com/in/xxstevelee 【BlockTower Capital】 BlockTower Capitalはブロックチェーンと暗号資産に特化したヘッジファンドである。ゴールドマン・サックスとシカゴ大学年金基金出身者を中心に設立され、世界最大のベンチャーキャピタルであるAndreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures、世界最大のヘッジファンドであるRenaissance Technologiesの共同創設者であるHoward Morganに投資を貰っている。 ーーーーーーーーーーー ▼既に応募されましたか？ たった10USDTで総額5000万円相当のNFTと最大100万USDTの賞金キャンペーン！ NFTはオークションで約27億円で落札された『Bored Ape Yacht Club（BAYC）』 ✅キャンペーンリンク（詳細）：https://partner.bybit.com/b/banana ✅bybit無料登録：http://bit.ly/Joebybit ✅参加登録期間：2021年11月12日午後7時〜12月1日午後7時（日本時間） ✅参加条件：デリバティブアカウントに「10 USDT」以上の資産を保有していればご参加可能 ■Bybit使い方マスターガイド：https://youtu.be/swUth8LN4BA ■Bybitアプリ完全攻略動画：https://youtu.be/jPL4ZYwZ2eA

Today we are re-sharing our Hash Power documentary. This series was originally released in September 2017 when 1 Bitcoin hovered around $4000 US Dollars. While so much has changed in the years since - these episodes are a great introduction to the technology, the power of decentralization, Bitcoin, Ethereum, ICO's, cryptography, and hashing. You will hear from a variety of industry experts throughout these episodes - please enjoy.   For the full show notes, transcript, and links to the best content to learn more, check out the episode page here.    ----   Original Intro (10.03.17)   In episode 1 of Hash Power, we explored blockchains as a technology—how they work, why tokens (also known as cryptocurrencies) are an integral part of any blockchain, and how these new networks might change the world. In episode two, we spend time with the leading investors in the field. Like any frenzied asset class, there are countless cryptocurrency hedge funds popping up everywhere. But founders from three of the original firms—Polychain, Metastable, and Blocktower Capital—are our primary guides this week.   As I speak, the total market cap of all cryptocurrencies is $136B. There are hundreds of tokens currently available, but bitcoin and Ethereum represent 75% of the total market cap. $136B sounds like a big number, but its tiny relative to any other asset class—and I use that term with hesitation. To put it in perspective, that's exactly the same size as the market cap of IBM. But IBM had more than $10B of earnings in 2016. Tokens have none. As you will hear, valuing tokens is a very hard exercise.   In such a nascent world, we are seeing investing strategies take hold. Olaf Carlson-Wee, Josh Seims, and Ari Paul walk us through different takes on cryptocurrency investing, be it early stage, long term buy and hold, or more hedge fund style strategies.   -----   Web3 Breakdowns is a property of Colossus, LLC. For more episodes of Web3 Breakdowns, visit joincolossus.com/episodes.   Stay up to date on all our podcasts by signing up to Colossus Weekly, our quick dive every Sunday highlighting the top business and investing concepts from our podcasts and the best of what we read that week. Sign up here.   Follow us on Twitter: @Web3Breakdowns | @patrick_oshag | @JoinColossus   Show Notes: [00:00:05] – Recap of part 1 and introduction to part 2 of Hash Power [00:02:58] – Ari Paul, CIO of Blocktower explains how he got involved in cryptocurrencies [00:05:23] – Why do we need bitcoin [00:07:23] – Polychain Capital founder Olaf Carlson-Wee on why the value of tokens accrue [00:09:23] – How mainstream money is getting into this space [00:12:26] – Useful comparisons when talking about ICOs when compared to IPOs [00:15:01] – Naval Ravikant, CEO of Angellist, is asked to explain the protocols of cryptocurrencies to platform businesses like Uber or Airbnb [00:17:43] – Naval's interest in investing in cryptocurrencies [00:18:42] – Why average folks should avoid it before they dive thoroughly into the topic [00:20:25] – What are the most compelling counter-arguments to using cryptocurrencies [00:23:07] – Olaf Carlson Wee on the lifecycle of a token [00:25:31] – What is the earliest stage that edge is most present for investors in cryptocurrency protocols [00:28:12] – How do you mitigate the volatility that is present in blockchain [00:31:18] – Jeremiah Lowin, a risk and statistics expert, who runs risk management for a large private family office, talks about why he no longer owns cryptocurrencies [00:34:19] – Jordan Cooper, a venture capital investor, is optimistic about blockchains in general, but thinks there may be some overvaluations in current currencies [00:37:02] – How Jordan would value a single cryptocurrency [00:43:52] – Josh Seims, of Metastable, the value investor in blockchain? [00:51:15] – Ari Paul on the equivalent of listed stocks in the cryptocurrency world [00:52:33] – Understanding the concept of a coin in blockchain and how people are getting access to them [00:55:07] – The fairground analogy to understand cryptocurrencies [00:57:57] – What lessons from traditional markets can you apply to investing in cryptocurrencies [01:02:48] – Where do family offices stand when it comes to jumping into this space [01:06:51] – Ari is asked to discuss some of the alternative cryptocurrencies

Strap in for the deepest of deep dives into all things DeFi. Blake Richardson, investor at BlockTower Capital, enlightens viewers with his expert perspective as an investor in the space. Decentralized finance is a relatively new industry, but the number of subtopics continues to grow. A helpful discussion for beginners and experts, Richardson educates viewers on a wide range of material including synthetics, stablecoins, DeFi in the insurance industry, smart contracts, bonding curves, and more. He also shares insight into the due diligence process undergone by his team at BlockTower when assessing the ever-increasing number of DeFi companies emerging today. Interviewed by Ash Bennington on July 16, 2021.

Axie Infinity is a collectible NFT game where players battle, raise and trade digital creatures called Axies. It has existed since 2018, but experienced a huge spike in sales at the start of June-July. The sales spike comes after its parent company, Mavis Sky, raised $8.75 million in funding for Axie Infinity, led by billionaire Mark Cuban and BlockTower Capital. Is it a good time to buy?#AXS #MarkCuban #AxieInfinity~Mark Cuban-Backed Axie Infinity AXS Coin Analysis

Avi Felman is the head of trading at Blocktower Capital, and we discuss the narrative split for Bitcoin, the last time price was in a similar spot, 2 distinct players in the market today, correlations dropping, the types of trades working right now, and more. Thank you for listening to the show. If you could please leave me a rating on iTunes, I would really appreciate it. Tweet me your thoughts about the episode! Show sponsors: •Bybit: Trade Bitcoin, ETH, EOS, and XRP derivatives and get a deposit bonus with the show link: https://partner.bybit.com/b/coinistBONUS

One of crypto's most trusted voices of reason, Ari Paul, is gifted with the ability to stay neutral and logical while many others swing wildly between euphoria and depression. Although Paul remains optimistic towards Bitcoin, he understands that it fundamentally, and existentially, still has some growing to do as it morphs into the ultra-secure network many believe it will become. Furthermore, he knows that if grandma can't easily navigate and trust the system, it isn't truly ready for the masses. The truth isn't always easy to hear, but in this episode, Paul offers one of the most holistic and logical views regarding Bitcoin and the crypto space. Follow Ari Paul: https://twitter.com/AriDavidPaul In this episode, Melker and Paul discuss a range of topics including: The Coinbase listing breakdown Exposure to exchange tokens Bitcoin's existential risk Billion-dollar slippage Bull market phenomena Trusting grandma with crypto Coordinated Bitcoin attacks Fragmented crypto liquidity Uniswap rug pulls The natural trend towards consolidation Ledgers in a safety deposit box ---- NEXO Try Nexo's full-suite, instant crypto banking service, featuring: Savings accounts with up to 12% interest on crypto, stablecoins & fiat, Flexible crypto-backed credit lines at just 5.9% APR, An exchange with 75+ crypto and fiat pairs and best-price guarantee, All this and more wrapped up in a single Nexo Wallet. Start banking at https://thewolfofallstreets.link/nexo or download the app on Google Play or the App Store. ---- Legacy of Dead This episode was brought to you by Bitcasino. The worlds leading Bitcoin-led online casino and crypto-centric gaming destination. Wager your way into a world of opportunity, with the ultimate Fun, Fast and Fair crypto-casino experience. Deposit, wager, and withdraw in real-time with a host of top cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), LiteCoin (LTC), Tether (USDT), TRON (TRX), Ripple (XRP), and more! Use the promo link https://thewolfofallstreets.link/Bitcasino, to unlock your 200 FREE SPINS in the Legacy of Dead Promotion. –––– COSMOS Visit https://thewolfofallstreets.link/cosmos to learn about the Cosmos Hub and how the $ATOM can connect every blockchain. Cosmos is the port city connecting chains like Bitcoin and Ethereum to ensure your liquidity on any chain can be used anywhere. Find new staking opportunities, applications, or build your own parachain at cosmos.network. https://thewolfofallstreets.link/cosmos --- If you enjoyed this conversation, share it with your colleagues & friends, rate, review, and subscribe. This podcast is presented by Blockworks. For exclusive content and events that provide insights into the crypto and blockchain space, visit them at: https://www.blockworks.co ---- Join the Wolf Den newsletter: ►►https://www.getrevue.co/profile/TheWolfDen/members

I continue our special bitcoin podcast series by welcoming Ari Paul, CIO of BlockTower Capital to the show to discuss how bitcoin is traded.

Mike Novogratz is the CEO of Galaxy Investment Partners, a cryptocurrency investment firm. Ari Paul is the co-founder and chief investment officer of BlockTower Capital, an investment firm that manages a portfolio of crypto assets. In the early stages around 2013, Bitcoin was a speculative asset that appealed mainly to libertarians and those with frustrations surrounding recent economic crises. The passion behind the decentralized finance community was unmatched and served as an early indicator of its eventual rise. Before recognizing Bitcoin as the answer, it was clear that the rapid expansion of the money supply would call for a response. With concerns around inflation, Bitcoin serves as the guard against that. "The bet of a lifetime is going to be betting on currency depreciation… it didn't click for me that Bitcoin could be that asset until 2014." Until recently, the majority of Bitcoin purchases happened at the retail level. That is partly responsible for its initial volatility. As major financial institutions become more involved and put it on their balance sheets, expect Bitcoin to stabilize and grow in value. ————————————————————————— To learn more about this episode, including podcast transcripts and show notes, visit *salt.org/talks* ( http://salt.org/talks ) Moderated by Anthony Scaramucci.

The founder and CIO of BlockTower Capital, Ari Paul talks his journey and change of heart with bitcoin. He delves into the bitcoin energy problem and the value in non-fungible tokens. Ari also talks on entrepreneurship and going full time into crypto. Sponsored by @blockfi get up $250 when you join: https://www.blockfi.com/layah

Ari Paul is the co-founder and chief investment officer of BlockTower Capital, a crypto and blockchain investment firm he started alongside Matthew Goetz in 2017 with backing from Andreesen Horowitz and Union Square Ventures. He started his career as a trader at Susquehanna International Group, and later found his way to the University of Chicago endowment as a portfolio manager, overseeing an internal hedge fund portfolio and assessing risk for the university’s $8 billion endowment.   Our conversation covers Ari’s early lessons in trading, discovery of crypto while at University of Chicago endowment, obstacles for institutional participation, and launch of BlockTower in 2017 as a result.  We discuss active management in the crypto markets, research and trading, portfolio construction, opportunities in NFTs and gaming, risks, and the exciting landscape over the coming years.   While this episode concludes our current mini-series, we’ve just scratched the surface on crypto, blockchain protocols, and institutional engagement in the space. In the coming months, we’ll dive deeper into the evolving ecosystem with more key participants and ideas. Learn More Subscribe: Apple | Spotify | Google Follow Ted on twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe Monthly Mailing List Read the Transcript

Avi Felman (Head of Trading at BlockTower Capital) joins The TIE's Fundamental Value Podcast to discuss trading crypto bull markets, valuing digital assets, institutional interest, and the rise of DeFi.

Show from 2/12/21Wharton Finance Professor Jeremy Siegel delivers his market update discussing the lingering threat of inflation and bitcoin. Then Host Jeremy Schwartz and Guest Host Will Peck, Head of Strategy and Emerging Technology at WisdomTree, talk cryptoassets with an expert in the space. Find out how to navigate the bitcoin bull market, invest in cryptocurrency, and measure the value of emerging technology.Guests:Ari Paul - Co-Founder and Chief Investment Officer at BlockTower CapitalFollow BlockTower Capital on Twitter: @BlockTowerCheck out BlockTower Capital's website: https://www.blocktower.com/ Follow Jeremy Schwartz on Twitter: @JeremyDSchwartzAsk Siegel: If you have a pressing finance question we invite you to email us: asksiegel@wisdomtree.com See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

How long will the current Crypto season of prosperity last? Ari Paul, chief information officer at BlockTower Capital, thinks this Bitcoin (BTC) bull run has at least nine more months. “Time-wise, my guess is we have 9-22 months,” Paul said of the current crypto bull run, responding to a comment on one of his tweets. “Price wise - my guess is BTC ends the bull run between $100k-$400k and alts do better.” For complete show notes and for the full premium experience with video, visit our YouTube channel at http://CryptoNewsAlerts.net

Bully sits down with Ari Paul, founder and CIO of BlockTower Capital. He shares his view on current and future crypto markets and the regulatory landscape.

Crypto Wednesday: Ari Paul, CIO & managing partner of BlockTower Capital, joins Real Vision CEO Raoul Pal to discuss the launch of Paul's fund, value accrual in the crypto space, and how far along we are in this crypto bull market. Paul explains how he views the risk curve and how he filters through crypto projects. He describes the importance of understanding timing in the markets and how he believes crypto markets have dramatically more alpha in them than traditional markets. He closes by discussing the recent regulatory attention that the crypto space has received. Key Learnings: Paul explains the game theoretical concerns of crypto hard forks and how minority chains are insecure. He believes, "We are only in the 4th inning of this bull market cycle." Paul and Pal state that there is significantly more alpha to be found in crypto markets over traditional markets, and they expect it to remain this way for the foreseeable future. Recorded on December 10, 2020. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Avi Felman is a trader at Blocktower Capital, a crypto hedgefund. We talk about different market indicators for Bitcoin's trend, funding rates, who is buying Bitcoin, US trading hours vs Asian trading hours, defi coins, and more. Thank you for listening to the show. If you could please leave me a rating on iTunes, I would really appreciate it. Tweet me your thoughts about the episode! Show sponsors: •Matcha: Find the best prices across crypto exchange networks: https://matcha.xyz/luke •Fun, Fast, and Fair gaming with a dedicated Bitcoin company: CoinGaming •Bybit: Trade Bitcoin, ETH, EOS, and XRP derivatives and get a deposit bonus with the show link: Bybit_Deposit_Bonus

Host Ash Bennington and Ari Paul, CIO and managing partner of BlockTower Capital, rip up the script and talk about game theory, adversarial thinking, principal agency conflict, network effects, information asymmetry, and the core mental models that we use to understand our world. Join the conversation as they go down the rabbit hole to unearth the ideas behind the story on this episode of Ground Floor Consensus. Visit www.realvision.com/crypto to join the crypto revolution. You can reach out to Ash Bennington on Twitter : https://twitter.com/AshBennington Follow Real Vision : Twitter : https://twitter.com/RealVision Linked In : https://uk.linkedin.com/company/real-vision Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jonathan Keim, Communications Director of CryptoCurrencyWire, appeared with his usual trio of news developments. He kicked off his Weekly News Update with a report that: US Fed economists are exploring the ‘intrinsic' value drivers of CBDCs (https://ccw.fm/LiKvH). CBDCs are digital currencies issued by a central bank. They appear to differ from regular fiat currencies by being directly issued to consumers rather than through the banking system. The Fed is considering the possibility of issuing such a CBDC and has initiated a study to explore “the potential impact of a digital dollar on commercial banking and monetary policy.” Other countries, notably China, have already launched digital currency programs. In October, the People's Bank of China distributed 200 digital yuan ($29.75) each to 50,000 randomly selected consumers with online digital wallets, in a pilot project to test the waters. Central banks around the world are considering CBDCs, concerned that growing use of cryptocurrencies may reduce their ability to manage local monetary systems and economies, to detrimental effect. In other news:  Fund execs offer $1M bets that Bitcoin's S2F model won't come true (https://ccw.fm/3Wvo6). Two executives at crypto hedge funds are prepared to place bets against the Bitcoin stock-to-flow model, developed by Dutch investor Plan B, which predicts a price of $100,000-$288,000 before December 2021. Eric Wall, chief investment officer of crypto hedge fund Arcane Assets, is willing to stake $1 million that the prediction will fail. He's so sure, he's extended the wager period to 2025. And Ari Paul, CIO at BlockTower Capital, says he would give 3:1 odds on the same bet against the S2F model, which means he'll gain $1 million if he wins and have to pay out $3 million if he loses. Finally, InvestorBrandNetwork (“IBN”) Announces Latest Episode of Stock2Me Podcast Featuring Bestselling Author John Truman Wolfe (https://ccw.fm/38rC3). The Stock2Me Podcast, hosted by Stuart Smith, is an initiative of InvestorBrandNetwork (“IBN”), a multifaceted communications organization that connects public companies to the investment community. The podcast is designed to provide specialized content distribution via widespread syndication channels. The current episode features Strategic Financial Intelligence editor John Truman Wolfe sharing his perspectives on the continuing evolution and adoption of decentralized currencies, the impending rise of centralized digital currencies and the long-term effects of recent economic policy decisions in the U.S. To view the most recent episode of the Wild West Crypto Show, now on TV in 45 cities across the nation, including its ongoing segment from CryptoCurrencyWire featuring the latest news from around the world, visit https://ccw.fm/p1DyD

'Post-Bitcoin Halving, Cryptocurrency Markets & Trading' With Avi Felman of BlockTower Capital. Now that the 3rd bitcoin halving is complete, what's happening in the crypto markets? Is it what people expected or forecasted? Ryan Gorman and myself will discus with BlockTowers Head of Trading; Avi Felman. Tune in to this smart, educating conversation.   Don't forget to hit the subscribe button so you can see the next video!   Today's Cast: Alex Mascioli - https://twitter.com/AlexMascioli of https://bequant.pro   Ryan Gorman - https://twitter.com/gormoexjourno of https://www.gormanstrategies.com   Avi Felman - https://twitter.com/AviFelman of https://www.blocktower.com/   Interested in starting a crypto fund? Visit - https://www.institutionaldigitalasset... or https://www.alexmascioli.com/   Want to get all the important institutional crypto & digital-assets news delivered to your inbox every Sunday. Subscribe to the Crypto Fund Report newsletter here: https://www.cryptofundreport.com/subs...  

June 2020 will go down in the history books as an extremely chaotic and confusing period.  In this “Best of the Month” retrospective, we look at some of the best guest conversations from The Breakdown, including: Human Rights Foundation CSO Alex Gladstein on the importance of cash for privacy DigiChina Editor-in-Chief Graham Webster on China’s decade-long turn away from liberalism  Alhambra Investments lead researcher Jeff Snider on why the Federal Reserve’s power is a myth Popular Front founder Jake Hanrahan on the media’s veneer of objectivity Castle Island Ventures’ Nic Carter on why people should have rights to their social media profiles The Crypto Dog on mining bitcoin in 2011 Independent macro analyst Jesse Felder on the Fed’s role in increasing inequality  BlockTower Capital’s Ari Paul on how people lose faith in central banks “Think For Yourself” author Dr. Vikram Mansharamani on the recipe for inflation Independent oil and trading expert Tracy Shuchart on how easy money enabled the shale revolution  Adamant Capital’s Tuur Demeester on historical analogies for seething discontent

Guests from the crypto investor Ari Paul to Harvard prof Dr. Vikram Mansharamani discuss bitcoin, the economy and social unrest.This episode is sponsored by Bitstamp and Ciphertrace.June 2020 will go down in the history books as an extremely chaotic and confusing period. In this “Best of the Month” retrospective, we look at some of the best guest conversations from The Breakdown, including:Human Rights Foundation CSO Alex Gladstein on the importance of cash for privacyDigiChina Editor-in-Chief Graham Webster on China’s decade-long turn away from liberalism Alhambra Investments lead researcher Jeff Snider on why the Federal Reserve’s power is a mythPopular Front founder Jake Hanrahan on the media’s veneer of objectivityCastle Island Ventures’ Nic Carter on why people should have rights to their social media profilesThe Crypto Dog on mining bitcoin in 2011Independent macro analyst Jesse Felder on the Fed’s role in increasing inequality BlockTower Capital’s Ari Paul on how people lose faith in central banks“Think For Yourself” author Dr. Vikram Mansharamani on the recipe for inflationIndependent oil and trading expert Tracy Shuchart on how easy money enabled the shale revolution Adamant Capital’s Tuur Demeester on historical analogies for seething discontent

Some of the smartest investors in the crypto space share how they think the larger macro context is shaping interest in bitcoin and digital assets.This episode is sponsored by Bitstamp and Ciphertrace.Today on the Brief:New Federal Reserve research suggests reaction to Facebook’s Libra basket approach was overblownItalian Banking Association pushing to test a digital euroU.S. housing has worst month since 2010Our main conversation:Earlier this month, Messari hosted the Mainnet virtual summit. At that event, NLW moderated a session called “Macro Investors Sound Off!” featuring BlockTower Capital’s Ari Paul, Blockchain Capital’s Spencer Bogart and Arca’s David Nage. The discussion included:The evolution of the Fed put and how it shapes the markets How the collision of Bitcoin’s halving and the Fed’s reaction to COVID-19 created a powerful narrative momentWhy the Money Printer Go BRR meme was so effectiveWhy the Paul Tudor Jones letter was hugely influential within Family OfficesWhy these investors expect to see some significant announcements around bitcoin exposure from traditional investors in the months to come Find our guests online:Ari Paul: @AriDavidPaulSpencer Bogart: @CremeDeLaCryptoDavid Nage: @DavidJNageWatch the rest of Messari’s Mainnet 2020 sessions.

Today on the Brief: New Federal Reserve research suggests reaction to Facebook’s Libra basket approach was overblown Italian Banking Association pushing to test a digital euro U.S. housing has worst month since 2010 Our main conversation: Earlier this month, Messari hosted the Mainnet virtual summit. At that event, NLW moderated a session called “Macro Investors Sound Off!” featuring BlockTower Capital’s Ari Paul, Blockchain Capital’s Spencer Bogart and Arca’s David Nage.  The discussion included: The evolution of the Fed put and how it shapes the markets  How the collision of Bitcoin’s halving and the Fed’s reaction to COVID-19 created a powerful narrative moment Why the “Money Printer Go BRR” meme was so effective Why the Paul Tudor Jones letter was hugely influential within family offices Why these investors expect to see some significant announcements around bitcoin exposure from traditional investors in the months to come  Find our guests online: Ari Paul: @AriDavidPaul Spencer Bogart: @CremeDeLaCrypto David Nage: @DavidJNage Watch the rest of Messari’s Mainnet 2020 sessions.

Today’s episode features a conversation between Ari Paul - the cryptocurrency investor and co-founder of BlockTower Capital who also serves as its Chief Investment Officer - and Muneeb Ali, co-founder & CEO of Blockstack PBC. Ari and Muneeb cover a variety of crypto developments from both a Political Science and Distributed Systems Engineering perspective. They focus particularly on the issues of scaling networks like Ethereum, whether sharding is a holy grail or not, the challenges of digital asset custody, and more. Show Notes 0:41 Muneeb: "How we met through Naval..." 2:33 There aren't many industries or asset classes where you can show up and be talking with the leaders almost immediately. 4:13 Muneeb: "What are you up to these days?" 7:10 Muneeb: "I'd love to get your Poli Sci perspective on a complex system being directly interacted with by users versus a very simple base layer being built on top of." 8:19 Ari: "One thing you see throughout time is some form of federalism." 10:31 Muneeb: "Imagine a mainframe computer for the entire world... it's not scalable by definition." 12:19 Muneeb: "Should you even be trying to attempt sharding at the blockchain layer?" 14:19 Muneeb: "Nodes would need near global information... which kind of kills the purpose of having shards in the first place." 16:52 Muneeb: "There's this notion - if you’re interacting with the blockchain - that smart contracts are the only interface available." 19:04 Muneeb: "Imagine a word processor... what parts do you want to hit the blockchain layer?" 24:24 Ari on how development of solutions like sharding gets going. 26:50 Muneeb: "We recently got pulled into some of the Ethereum scalability research... and recently did this public review of Casper's CBC." 29:04 Ari: "It's very frustrating to me when I discover the religion in politics of crypto." 30:03 Muneeb: "Sometimes people will ask me 'How is your Gaia storage system different FileCoin?'" 32:58 Ari: "Are you going to be integrating any Craig Wright innovations into Blockstack?" 35:34 Ari: "When you're playing poker, you want to play rational actors." 36:11 Ari: On custody and the value of vanishing. 37:07 Muneeb: "I do think [custody is] something that more and more people will start worrying about as our assets are in crypto currencies." 40:11 Ari: "Something that scares me in an existential sense: all tech is breakable." 42:30 Muneeb: "We really believe in the ability to exit." 45:32 Ari: "My concern is in the asymmetry." 47:57 Muneeb: "Look at SSL: maintained by one individual, then Heartbleed happened." 49:24 Ari: "I think it's wonderful we’ve had some Proof of Work attacks on the Ethereum Classic network... that's antifragile." 49:59 Ari: "The financial system doesn't worry about this because there's the fallback to legal." 50:57 Ari: "Andreas Antonopoulos would say Bitcoin is uncensorable because the network can block bad actors, but..." 51:28 Goodbyes. 51:52 Credits. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ari Paul, CIO and Co-founder of BlockTower Capital https://www.blocktower.com/ joins hosts Paul Madsen and Jordan Fried on the Gossip About Gossip podcast to share insights on trends and opportunities for leveraging distributed ledger technologies DLT.

The role of crypto investors is evolving—rapidly. Blockchain technologies will create trillions of dollars of value over the next decade. But investing in tokens is fundamentally different than investing in companies. New tools, heuristics, and security measures are required to responsibly invest in this ecosystem. It’s not enough to simply be a pure custodian or asset manager any more. Crypto-native managers also bear the responsibility of ushering nascent markets to stability—by way of investment, governance, and active participation. This panel brings together managers from disparate backgrounds to share their perspective and experience. This panel features Tushar Jain of Multicoin Capital; Ari Paul, the CIO of Blocktower Capital; Alex Felix, Managing Director and CIO at CoinFund; Josh Nussbaum, a Partner at  Compound.vc; and last but not least, Shane Molidor, the Global Head of Business Development for FBG One.

Ari Paul, CIO of BlockTower Capital, explains why he likes how short-term trades concentrate risk in investment, why, "no matter what," he thinks Bitcoin is a good-value buy today, and how big university endowments investing in crypto now could eventually lead institutions to go from having a fear-of-loss attitude about crypto to having FOMO. He also dives into why he's not as excited about generalized mining as some of BlockTower's crypto fund peers and who he thinks is really well-poised in that space. We also discuss why Bitcoin futures didn't have a positive impact on the price and what effect Bakkt and Fidelity launching their crypto products could have. Plus, he responds to people who accused him of insider trading when a private conversation in which he mentioned Stellar was acquiring enterprise blockchain startup Chain was released. Thank you to our sponsors! CipherTrace: https://ciphertrace.com/unchained Altlending: https://altlending.com Episode links: Ari Paul: https://twitter.com/AriDavidPaul BlockTower Capital: https://www.blocktower.com Harvard, Stanford, MIT endowments invest in crypto: https://www.theinformation.com/articles/harvard-stanford-mit-endowments-invest-in-crypto-funds Yale endowment invests in a16z and Paradigm: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/05/yale-investment-chief-david-swensen-jumps-into-crypto-with-bets-on-two-silicon-valley-funds.html Bitcoin Cash hard fork recap: https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/week-2-how-bitcoin-cash-hash-war-came-and-went-and-not-much-happened/ Unconfirmed episode on Bitcoin Cash hard fork with Aaron Van Wirdum: http://unconfirmed.libsyn.com/the-bitcoin-cash-hard-fork-bitcoin-abc-vs-bitcoin-sv-ep046 Unchained episode with Riccardo Spagni of Monero: http://unchainedpodcast.co/coinfunds-jake-brukhman-and-multicoins-tushar-jain-on-generalized-mining-ep92 Unchained episode with Jake Brukhman and Tushar Jain of Multicoin Capital: http://unchainedpodcast.co/coinfunds-jake-brukhman-and-multicoins-tushar-jain-on-generalized-mining-ep92 Unconfirmed episode with Fidelity's Tom Jessop: http://unconfirmed.libsyn.com/fidelity-digital-asset-services-tom-jessop-on-why-its-serving-institutional-clients-first-ep043 Ari's private conversation in which he mentioned Stellar was acquiring Chain: https://hackernoon.com/ten-questions-for-ari-david-paul-of-blocktower-capital-dcd8d81ef27e IMF managing director Christine Lagarde's talk on the case for central bank digital currencies: https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2018/11/13/sp111418-winds-of-change-the-case-for-new-digital-currency

Ari Paul, CIO of BlockTower Capital, explains why he likes how short-term trades concentrate risk in investment, why, "no matter what," he thinks Bitcoin is a good-value buy today, and how big university endowments investing in crypto now could eventually lead institutions to go from having a fear-of-loss attitude about crypto to having FOMO. He also dives into why he's not as excited about generalized mining as some of BlockTower's crypto fund peers and who he thinks is really well-poised in that space. We also discuss why Bitcoin futures didn't have a positive impact on the price and what effect Bakkt and Fidelity launching their crypto products could have. Plus, he responds to people who accused him of insider trading when a private conversation in which he mentioned Stellar was acquiring enterprise blockchain startup Chain was released. Thank you to our sponsors! CipherTrace: https://ciphertrace.com/unchained Altlending: https://altlending.com Episode links: Ari Paul: https://twitter.com/AriDavidPaul BlockTower Capital: https://www.blocktower.com Harvard, Stanford, MIT endowments invest in crypto: https://www.theinformation.com/articles/harvard-stanford-mit-endowments-invest-in-crypto-funds Yale endowment invests in a16z and Paradigm: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/05/yale-investment-chief-david-swensen-jumps-into-crypto-with-bets-on-two-silicon-valley-funds.html Bitcoin Cash hard fork recap: https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/week-2-how-bitcoin-cash-hash-war-came-and-went-and-not-much-happened/ Unconfirmed episode on Bitcoin Cash hard fork with Aaron Van Wirdum: http://unconfirmed.libsyn.com/the-bitcoin-cash-hard-fork-bitcoin-abc-vs-bitcoin-sv-ep046 Unchained episode with Riccardo Spagni of Monero: http://unchainedpodcast.co/coinfunds-jake-brukhman-and-multicoins-tushar-jain-on-generalized-mining-ep92 Unchained episode with Jake Brukhman and Tushar Jain of Multicoin Capital: http://unchainedpodcast.co/coinfunds-jake-brukhman-and-multicoins-tushar-jain-on-generalized-mining-ep92 Unconfirmed episode with Fidelity's Tom Jessop: http://unconfirmed.libsyn.com/fidelity-digital-asset-services-tom-jessop-on-why-its-serving-institutional-clients-first-ep043 Ari's private conversation in which he mentioned Stellar was acquiring Chain: https://hackernoon.com/ten-questions-for-ari-david-paul-of-blocktower-capital-dcd8d81ef27e IMF managing director Christine Lagarde's talk on the case for central bank digital currencies: https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2018/11/13/sp111418-winds-of-change-the-case-for-new-digital-currency

Hosted by Enigma's Head of Growth Tor Bair, our tenth episode features Ari Paul. Ari is a managing partner and CIO at BlockTower Capital, which is one of the leading cryptoasset investment firms. He has a fairly traditional finance background, having worked previously as a portfolio manager for the University of Chicago as well as a derivatives marketmaker and trader, and he holds an MBA from the University of Chicago. However, Ari has fully embraced the potential of cryptoassets and you’ll often hear him advocating for them on mainstream channels like CNBC or Bloomberg. He’s also generous with his thoughts on Twitter, where he will post at length about complex topics and how he develops his investment theses. On this episode Ari discusses with Tor how he got into the crypto space, how he and BlockTower evaluate opportunities, whether or not decentralized protocols are winner-take-all, capturing versus creating new value, and what the largest barriers are to the adoption of these new technologies at scale. Enigma's new podcast "Decentralize This!" features guests from all over the decentralization space: developers, investors, entrepreneurs, researchers, writers, artists, people in government and enterprise - all individuals who care deeply about building a more decentralized and sustainable world. How can all these people with different perspectives collaborate to create and scale the technologies we need to shape a better future? **Disclosure: BlockTower invests in and actively trade many cryptocurrencies, long and short, and may have positions in assets discussed in this podcast.** ---- Relevant links: Ari's Twitter: www.twitter.com/aridavidpaul Enigma: www.enigma.co Enigma Blog: blog.enigma.co Enigma Twitter: www.twitter.com/enigmampc

Interview location: SkypeInterview date: Fri 17th August 2018Company: BlockTower CapitalRole: CIOEight months into a Crypto bear market and the lens firmly on the Crypto industry. Last week I caught up with Ari Paul from BlockTower Capital to discuss many important issues relating to token projects.We talk about Joel Monegro's Fat Protocol Thesis; product/market fit within token projects and Crypto marketing.-----If you enjoy The What Bitcoin Did Podcast you can help support the show my doing the following:Become a Patron and get access to shows early or help contributeMake a tip:Bitcoin: 3FiC6w7eb3dkcaNHMAnj39ANTAkv8Ufi2SQR Codes: Bitcoin | Ethereum | Litecoin | Monero | ZCash | RipplecoinIf you do send a tip then please email me so that I can say thank youSubscribe on iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher | SoundCloud | YouTube | TuneIn | RSS FeedLeave a review on iTunesShare the show and episodes with your friends and familySubscribe to the newsletter on my websiteFollow me on Twitter Personal | Twitter Podcast | Instagram | Medium | YouTubeIf you are interested in sponsoring the show, you can read more about that here or please feel free to drop me an email to discuss options.

Ryan Selkis - The Crypto Barbell and Token Curated Registries - [Invest Like the Best, EP.98] This week’s conversation is for those interested in the nitty gritty of cryptocurrencies and for those who, like me, are fascinated by that world but more than a bit skeptical of the investing prospects for the many cryptocurrencies now in existence. My guest is Ryan Selkis, who I met at an event hosted by Union Square Ventures and Blocktower Capital. At that event, in a crowd of many brilliant people, Ryan was consistently asking hard questions and raising counterpoints. I love his perspective because he is both passionate, but realistic, excited about crypto, but worried about many aspects of the ecosystem. We discuss many new topics like his barbell analogy for thinking about different kinds of coins, token curated registries, and the need to better transparency around decentralized projects. Hash Power is presented by Fidelity Investments Please enjoy our conversation.   March for the Fallen Want to meet other curious investors, get in good shape, and support a fantastic cause? Consider joining a great group to hike 28 miles in honor of those who have fallen in defense of our nation.  Learn more and sign up at alphaarchitect.com/mftf.    For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Show Notes 2:55 - (First Question) – how he best explains blockchain technology 4:12 – How does he categorize each cryptocurrency 9:11 – How Numeraii is valued 10:04 – Explaining token curated registries (TCR) 12:58 – How Token Curated Registries are being applied 15:05 – Innovations that will protect against nefarious actors in the crypto space 16:37 – How do you convince investors to commit to TCR’s 18:40 – Biggest headwinds to this industry 22:12 – What are the quality filters to root out the bad actors 25:42 – Thoughts on the ICO market as an alternative to capital raising 29:23 – Litmus test for who should use an ICO to raise capital 34:28 – What is unique about creation of a token vs the normal exchange of cash to determine if a company needs a token 36:21 – How many ICO projects are really necessary 38:28 – How should people form an investment opinion about this space 41:35 – Core mission of his company 44:28 – What are some of the reasons his goals won’t happen 49:30 – Lessons learned while working at Coindesk 49:58 – What is he most excited about for the future of this space 52:56 – Kindest thing anyone has done for Ryan   Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.  Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub Follow Patrick on twitter at @patrick_oshag

TrustToken is a platform to create asset-backed tokens that you can easily buy and sell around the world. For example, gold to gold tokens or dollar to dollar tokens. The company's first asset token is TrueUSD, a stablecoin that you can redeem 1-for-1 for US dollars. TrustToken was founded in 2017 and consists of a team from Stanford, UC Berkeley, Airbnb, Goldman Sachs, PayPal, and Google, and is backed by a16z crypto, BlockTower Capital, Danhua Capital, Founders Fund Angel, GGV Capital, Jump Capital, Stanford-StartX, and others.  For more information about TrustToken and its TrueUSD product, visit http://www.trusttoken.com.

Conversation about what institutional money is in crypto currently and how they are invested with Ari, CIO of Blocktower Capital ( https://twitter.com/AriDavidPaul ).

Note: This Episode of Flippening is Made Possible by Nomics' free Cryptocurrency and Bitcoin API.The Nomics API offers squeaky clean and normalized primary source cryptocurrency trade data offered through fast and modern endpoints. Instead of having to integrate with a bunch of exchange APIs of varying quality, you can get everything through one screaming fast firehose. If you’ve found that you or your developer has to spend too much time cleaning up and maintaining cryptoasset datasets, instead of identifying investing/trading opportunities . . . or if you’re tired of interpolated data and want raw primary source trades delivered simply and consistently, with top-notch support and SLAs, then check us out at Nomics.com.My guest today is Ari Nazir and this is one of our top 3 episodes to date.Ari is a founder and managing partner at Neural Capital. I met Ari in part because I’m a limited partner in Protocol Ventures, which we covered in a previous episode. Protocol Ventures is a Fund of Funds with a portfolio that includes prominent crypto asset hedge funds like BlockTower Capital, Metastable, PolyChain, and Ari’s Neural Capital. As an LP of protocol ventures, I get to see how these funds are performing; these reports made it clear to me that I needed to have Ari on the show. Ari is without a doubt one of the top minds in crypto investing, and I think you’ll find this episode to be as funny as it is informative.

Ari Paul, CIO of BlockTower Capital, discusses the slump in crypto prices, and how infrastructure rolling out over the rest of the year could have a positive effect on the market. He also describes how BlockTower Capital thinks about security for its assets and what risks they consider. Additionally, we discuss the movement in some parts of the crypto community to build coins to be ASIC-resistant and whether or not that could adversely affect the security of those tokens. BlockTower Capital: https://blocktower.com/ More info on custody solutions and how they could affect the development of the space: http://unchainedpodcast.co/mike-belshe-on-what-bitgos-kingdom-trust-acquisition-means-for-crypto-and-how-security-will-develop-in-the-future  Coins sorted by percent down from all-time high: https://onchainfx.com/v/aiTLnb The Carlota Perez book, Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital: https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/technological-revolutions-and-financial-capital  Movements toward ASIC resistance: Monero: https://www.coindesk.com/crypto-kill-switch-monero-going-war-big-miners/ Ethereum -- Bitmain may have created an Ethereum ASIC miner: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bitmain-developed-ethereum-asic-miner-194845158.html Discussion around whether to hard fork Ethereum to make ASICs obsolete: https://www.reddit.com/r/ethereum/comments/87ucsk/would_you_support_a_hard_fork_that_obsceletes_eth/ Twitter poll on whether or not to hard fork: https://twitter.com/VladZamfir/status/979060233430552576 Siacoin's decision not to soft fork to invalidate Bitmain's new Siacoin miners: https://blog.sia.tech/response-to-the-sia-community-and-bitmain-653a12284098 Its previous blog post on why ASICs were good for security: https://blog.sia.tech/choosing-asics-for-sia-b318505b5b51 Thank you to our sponsors: Onramp: http://thinkonramp.com/ Quantstamp: https://quantstamp.com/ StartEngine Summit: http://www.startenginesummit.com/

In Episode 32 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Ari Paul about the inner workings of hedge funds focused exclusively on the cryptocurrency space. Over the course of the last year, cryptocurrency has dominated our society. The price of the most popular digital currencies surged, increasing in value by well over 1000% in a matter of weeks. We saw similar rises in initial coin offerings, with the number of token offerings increasing from just seven a month in January 2017 to more than forty a month by the end of the year. This crypto euphoria fueled the formation of several cryptocurrency hedge funds which, according to their various founders, aim to bring the professional trading and portfolio management of Wall Street to the emerging class of digital asset. Although this work promises to open the crypto space to an entirely new class of traders, there are many questions regarding how these funds work and how reliable they are. For example, how are crypto fund managers managing risk? What sorts of benchmarks are crypto funds using in order to measure performance? And how does a cryptocurrency investor seek alpha in an already uncorrelated market? To answer these questions, and help shed some light on the emerging world of crypto hedge funds, we turned to Ari Paul. As a portfolio manager who oversaw risk at the University of Chicago’s endowment investment office and the Chief Investment Officer at BlockTower Capital- a leading crypto hedge fund that raised over $140 Million in 2017 - Ari Paul is uniquely qualified to discuss the most interesting and creative investment opportunities for making money in cryptocurrencies. His positioning also means that he is intimately familiar with many of the risk factors that populate this new and fledgling market. Over the course of the discussion, Ari Paul speaks with host Demetri Kofinas about the skepticism surrounding market values, how we can protect ourselves from counterparty and exchange risk, and how hedge funds like BlockTower Capital are making it easier for someone who may not be intimately familiar with blockchain technologies or the inner working of specific cryptocurrencies, participate in this new digital economy. Demetri also asks Ari what the benchmarks for crypto funds like Blocktower are and how they measure performance. The challenge in the cryptocurrency space, according to Paul, Is that there are really three benchmarks: bitcoin, cryptocurrencies in general, as well as the broader equity markets. Seeking Alpha in an already uncorrelated asset class, therefore, presents a slew of new risk factors that aren’t present for traditional hedge fund managers. Ari Paul also gives his opinion on how the flood of institutional capital might alter these correlations, what a consolidation in cryptocurrencies might look like, and if we are verging near a collapse in valuations. The two also take a look at cash-settled futures markets, consider the use of put and call options, and explore ways in which investors can better protect themselves from counterparty and exchange risk. Finally, they examine some of the most interesting and creative investment opportunities for making money in cryptocurrencies and what the average investor can do in order to take advantage of them. Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou Join the conversation at @hiddenforcespod

Stephen Olmon is a business development executive, investor, writer, and was formerly a consultant at KPMG. His current company, SimpleLTC, was acquired in 2016 after seeing significant revenue growth during his tenure. He is passionate about all things finance - he loves the ins and outs of traditional investments, is a self-taught cryptocurrency investor, and is currently writing a book on personal finance. Stephen loves disruption in any market and wants to be at the forefront of that disruption whenever possible. Stephen, his wife Jennifer, and soon-to-arrive daughter are based in Dallas, TX. Stephen is a childhood friend that I've recently re-connected with and it was awesome to have him on the show talking about two of his favorite subjects; finances and crypto. As crypto is becoming more popular, it's important to understand what it is, how it could shape the future, and how to safely get involved. Here are just some of the things we covered in this episode: What is cryptocurrency and blockchain? Is there a bubble? What can crypto and blockchain technology be used for? You've bought cryptocurrency before, you just didn't realize it! You first steps to get into crypto and some general advice Some pointers on how to choose what to invest in Stephen tells us how much money he has made in crypto (no not really, but kind of) Mistakes that Kylon has made in the crypto-verse Crypto terminology And much more! Resources Below are several resources, links and tools relating to crypto. Everything from early beginnings to who to follow in the space. Early Beginnings NSA Document “The Cryptography of Anonymous Electronic Cash”, 1996  Weidai’s theoretical b-money (referenced in Bitcoin white paper) Original Bitcoin White Paper Ethereum White Paper Updates and News Coindesk Coin Market Cap Coinbase Blog Recent Thought Leadership Bruce Fenton speaking on “Bitcoin as the Global Reserve Currency” Maria Bustillo’s “You Don’t Understand Bitcoin Because You Think Money Is Real” Ari Paul of BlockTower Capital speaks on the value of cryptocurrency (11/27/2017) Blockchain and Online Marketplaces Blockchain Don Tapscott’s TED talk on “How Blockchain is changing money and business” How Blockchain Works illustrated by Israth Elona Investing Coinbase - #1 platform for retail investors Coinigy - #1 crypto trading and analysis platform www.coinigy.com Intro to Crypto Investing and Analysis by BTCKYLE How to profit in the new cryptocurrency economy by Rocky Darius THANK YOU! Thanks again for listening to the show! If it has helped you in any way, please share it using the social media buttons you see on the page. Additionally, reviews for the podcast on iTunes are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They do matter in the rankings of the show and I read each and every one of them. Join the Successful Dropout Nation! Subscribe to the Successful Dropout Podcast. Enter your email on the top right of this page for regular emails from Kylon Gienger on how to drop out, grind, and succeed. Follow @kylongienger on Instagram!

In episode 1 of Hash Power, we explored blockchains as a technology—how they work, why tokens (also known as cryptocurrencies) are an integral part of any blockchain, and how these new networks might change the world. In episode two, we spend time with the leading investors in the field. Like any frenzied asset class, there are countless cryptocurrency hedge funds popping up everywhere. But founders from three of the original firms—Polychain, Metastable, and Blocktower Capital—are our primary guides this week. As I speak, the total market cap of cryptocurrencies is $136B. There are hundreds of tokens currently available, but bitcoin and Ethereum represent 75% of the total market cap. $136B sounds like a big number, but its tiny relative to any other asset class—and I use that term with hesitation. To put it in perspective, that’s exactly the same size as the market cap of IBM. But IBM had more than $10B of earnings in 2016. Tokens have none. As you will hear, valuing tokens is a very hard exercise. In such a nascent world, we are seeing investing strategies take hold. Olaf Carlson-Wee, Josh Seims, and Ari Paul walk us through different takes on cryptocurrency investing, be it early stage, long term buy and hold, or more hedge fund style strategies. Hash Power is presented by Fidelity Investments For comprehensive show notes on this episode go to http://investorfieldguide.com/hashpower For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast. To get involved with Project Frontier, head to InvestorFieldGuide.com/frontier. Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub. Follow Patrick on Twitter at @patrick_oshag   Links Referenced Fat Protocols (Joel Monegro)   Show Notes 0:05 – Recap of part 1 and introduction to part 2 of Hash Power 2:58 – Ari Paul, CIO of Blocktower explains how he got involved in cryptocurrencies 5:23 – Why do we need bitcoin 7:23 – Polychain Capital founder Olaf Carlson-Wee on why the value of tokens accrue 9:23 – How main stream money is getting into this space 12:26- Useful comparisons when talking about ICOs when compared to IPOs 15:01 - Naval Ravikant, CEO of Angellist, is asked to explain the protocols of cryptocurrencies to platform businesses like Uber or Airbnb 17:43 – Naval’s interest in investing in cryptocurrencies 18:42 – Why average folks should avoid it before they dive thoroughly into the topic 20:25 – what are the most compelling counter arguments to using cryptocurrencies 23:07 - Olaf Carlson Wee on the lifecycle of a token 24:02 – SAFT note, Simple Agreement for Future Tokens 25:31 – What is the earliest stage that edge is most present for investors in cryptocurrency protocols 28:12 – How do you mitigate the volatility that is present in blockchain 31:18 - Jeremiah Lowin, a risk and statistics expert, who runs risk management for a large private family office, talks about why he no longer owns cryptocurrencies  34:19 - Jordan Cooper, a venture capital investor, is optimistic about blockchains in general, but thinks there may be some overvaluations in current currencies 37:02 – How Jordan would value a single cryptocurrency 42:10 – Fat Protocols (Joel Monegro) 43:52 - Josh Seims, of Metastable, the value investor in blockchain? 51:15 - Ari Paul on the equivalent of listed stocks in the crypto currency world 52:33 – Understanding the concept of a coin in blockchain and how people are getting access to them 55:07 – The fairground analogy to understand cryptocurrencies 57:57 – What lessons from traditional markets can you apply to investing in cryptocurrencies 1:02:48 – Where do family offices stand when it comes to jumping into this space 1:06:51 – Ari is asked to discuss some of the alternative cryptocurrencies outside of Bitcoin and Ethereum. He starts with Ripple 1:10:27 – What would help firms or traders create edge in investing in cryptocurrencies   Learn More For more episodes go to InvestorFieldGuide.com/podcast.  Sign up for the book club, where you’ll get a full investor curriculum and then 3-4 suggestions every month at InvestorFieldGuide.com/bookclub Follow Patrick on twitter at @patrick_oshag

LISTEN HERE: ITUNES | OVERCAST Ari Paul is the co-founder and Chief Investment Officer of BlockTower Capital. He was previously a portfolio manager for the University of Chicago's $8 billion endowment. Ari earned a BA in political science from the University of Pennsylvania, and an MBA from the University of Chicago with concentrations in economics, entrepreneurship, strategic management, and econometrics & statistics.  In this episode, we talk about Ari’s passion for poker, and what the game taught him about investing, risk, and table selection, a powerful concept that applies to just about every field. Ari recently identified what he calls “the opportunity of a lifetime” — cryptocurrency. It led him to start investing in cryptocurrencies, a decision that was guided by Ari’s commitment to stretching boundaries. Finally, Ari discusses his passions for backpacking and travel, and like so many guests, Japan was one of Ari’s favorites.  Time Codes:  2:30 - 6:20: Background and departure from science.  6:20 - 9:35: Playing poker and complete information. Tilt.  9:35 - 14:25: Table selection. Phil Ivey. Sharp Ratio.  14:25 - 17:40: Childhood/youth. Building skills and transferring them to trading.  17:40 - 20:30: Value investing vs. momentum investing. Path dependency for crypto.  20:30 - 24:00: All heuristics are regime dependent.  24:00 - 28:25: Shorter attention spans. Analogies. Changing minds.  28:25 - 32:30: Backpacking. Consuming information vs. going off the grid. Stoicism. 32:30 - 35:40: Japan/Osaka/Kyoto. Accelerated living.  35:40 - 40:00: Consciously stretching boundaries ("Life is lived at the margins"). Behavioral economics. Internalizing stereotypes.  40:00 - 43:20: Stretching boundaries applied to cryptocurrencies. Principal component analysis.  43:20 - 44:00: Specializing vs. building bridges in your career.  44:00 - 45:30: Moving away from hard skills 45:30 - 49:20: Perspectives and trust building pre and post internet. Signaling. Psychological bias. Overconfidence vs. familiarity.  49:20.- 50:10: We don't know people like we think we do.  50:10 - 53:35: Blogging and personal brand. Blogging as a way to falsify ideas. Cunningham's law.  53:35 - 57:45: Learning > Ego. Power laws. Combined talents out of necessity can create a combinatorial edge.  57:45 - 59:50: The experience of starting a crypto fund.  59:50 - 1:03:50: Agency when there's no roadmap. MBA students.  1:03:50 - 1:08:45: Breaking through natural momentum. Anchoring. Status quo bias. Fat pitch. Crypto as the opportunity of a lifetime. Hard work, burnout, and compounding. Links:  Ari Paul Twitter Blocktower Capital Seth Klarman Benjamin Graham Phil Ivey Sharp Ratio Cunningham's Law Books Mentioned:  Vagabonding The Intelligent Investor Antifragile Connect with David:  Twitter Subscribe to Receive the Latest Episodes Please leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and reviews really help and I read each one

For many years, Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies were regarded as little more than a nerdy curiosity by the financial world. But with the rise of Bitcoin and Ethereum, the process of cryptocurrencies becoming a recognized asset class has begun. One person at the forefront of this transformation is Ari Paul. Previously a portfolio manager at the University of Chicago’s $8 billion endowment, he recently left to start the cryptocurrency hedge fund BlockTower Capital. He joined us for an insightful conversation about one of the biggest trends in the industry. Topics covered in this episode: Ari’s background as a portfolio manager at the University of Chicago The difficulties of investing in cryptocurrency for a large endowment Why he started the cryptocurrency hedge fund BlockTower Capital How to construct a cryptocurrency portfolio The hedge fund vs the VC model in the cryptocurrency space Why cryptocurrencies represent an exceptional investment opportunity The operational complexities of running a crypto hedge fund Why an avalanche of institutional money is entering the blockchain space Episode links: The Cryptocurrency Investor Blog How to Think About Investing in Cryptocurrency: Why Exceptional Opportunities Exist How to Think About Investing in Cryptocurrency: What needs to exist Table Selection | The Cryptocurrency Investor The Wall Street Moment | The Cryptocurrency Investor BlockTower Capital Twitter - Ari Paul This episode is hosted by Brian Fabian Crain and Meher Roy. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/202

In this special investing episode featuring **Ari Paul** of BlockTower Capital, you'll learn: * How to explain why cryptocurrency investment is a great opportunity * How investing in cryptocurrencies now could be compared to playing minor league basketball versus playing in the NBA * Why early investors in cryptocurrencies are rewarded for the risks they take that others may be unwilling to, and what some of those risks are * Why many traditional investors have not yet invested in cryptocurrencies

In this special investing episode featuring Ari Paul of BlockTower Capital, you’ll learn: How to explain why cryptocurrency investment is a great opportunity How investing in cryptocurrencies now could be compared to playing minor league basketball versus playing in the NBA Why early investors in cryptocurrencies are rewarded for the risks they take that others may be unwilling to, and what some of those risks are Why many traditional investors have not yet invested in cryptocurrencies