On The Brink with Castle Island

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**On The Brink with Castle Island**

Hosts Matt Walsh and Nic Carter of Castle Island Ventures explore news and deals in the public blockchain space and talk to some of the leading experts in the industry. Learn more and stay up to date at CastleIsland.vc and follow on twitter @CastleIslandVC

Latest Episodes:

Weekly Roundup 01/24/25 (Trump EO, the Stockpile, Ross Free, SAB121 Gone!) (EP.591) Jan 24, 2025

Show notes

The episode where we logged on and won forever. Probably the biggest week in crypto history...

In this episode:

Ross Ulbricht is granted a full pardon
Did Ross Ulbricht deserve a life sentence?
SAB121 is finally gone
Why SAB121 was bad
Crypto ball review
Trump launches a memecoin
Trump is inaugurated
OCP2.0 is over
CBDCs are banned
We review Trump's Executive Order
No Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, but a stockpile instead
Larry Fink calls for 600-700k BTC
Mark Uyeda, announces the formation of a new task force: SEC Crypto 2.0
Senator Cynthia Lummis announces the formation of the Senate Banking Committee on Digital Assets
A US court in Texas overturnes the sanctions placed on Tornado Cash

Weekly Roundup 01/17/25 (Lummis FDIC letter, the Tether tower, American made coins) (EP.590) Jan 17, 2025

Show notes

Matt and Nic are back for more news and deals. In this episode:

Lummis instructs FDIC staff to not destroy evidence of Chokepoint
Did the FDIC call Nic poor?
Coinbase wins a partial victory against the SEC
Canary Capital files for a Litecoin ETF
Tether is moving to El Salvador and building an HQ there
Atlanta Fed gets stablecoins
The case for non-USD stablecoins
Is there a case for other assets in a Strategic Reserve?

Weekly Roundup 01/10/24 (FDIC Pause Letters released, SEC v Coinbase) (EP.589) Jan 10, 2025

Show notes

Matt and Nic are back after a week off. In this episode:

Southern District of New York grants Coinbase's appeal in their case against the SEC
The Governor of the Czech national bank is considering Bitcoin in their reserves
Do Kwon is extradited to the US
E-trade is launching crypto trading
The FDIC is forced by a court to further un-redact documents Coinbase asked for in a FOIA request
We cover the FDIC's Pause Letters

Content mentioned in this episode:

Fidelity Digital Assets, 2025 Look Ahead
Bitwise, Benchmark Survey of Financial Advisor Attitudes Toward Crypto Assets
Nick Anthony, Fair Access to Banking

Dana Syracuse and Josh Boehm (Paul Hastings LLP) on the 2025 Digital Asset Legal Landscape (EP.588) Jan 09, 2025

Show notes

Dana Syracuse and Josh Boehm of Paul Hastings LLP join the show. In this episode we discuss:

The common legal and regulatory considerations that are encountered by companies in the digital asset industry.
Common pitfalls that entrepreneurs in this ecosystem should avoid.
The state of the stablecoin industry and the regulatory considerations in this category.
Potential changes ahead in 2025 on how digital assets are regulated in the United States.

To learn more about Paul Hastings and their fintech and digital asset practices visit www.paulhastings.com

Weekly Roundup 12/27/24 (Tether x Rumble, quantum threat, End of year predictions) (EP.587) Dec 27, 2024

Show notes

Matt and Nic are back for an end of year episode. In this episode:

Tether invests $775m in Rumble
Who are the Rumble shareholders in Trump's admin?
Microstrategy seeks approval for more Bitcoin buying
We review the quantum risk to Bitcoin
Matt and Nic's predictions for 2025

Sponsor notes:

Coin Metrics, State of the Network's 2024 Year in Review
In Coin Metrics State of the Network Issue 291, we revisit major stories that shaped the digital asset industry in 2024 with a data-driven lens

Janusz and Red (Bitcoin Layers) on Bitcoin Season 2 (EP.586) Dec 25, 2024

Show notes

Janusz and Red from Bitcoin Layers join the show. In this episode:

Innovation on Bitcoin, previously and now
Technology vs consumer adoption
The future of BTC use cases

More about Bitcoin Layers

Weekly Roundup 12/20/24 (No SBR?, Prometheum, Crenshaw) (EP.585) Dec 20, 2024

Show notes

Matt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode:

Nic comes out against the SBR on Bloomberg
More Prometheum nonsense
MicroStrategy acquired an additional 15,350 BTC for roughly $1.5 billion, bringing the company's total holdings to 439,000 BTC. Microstrategy was also added to the Nasdaq 100 this week, which will lead to the stock's inclusion in several large ETFs including Invesco's QQQ.
Anchorage Digital has received New York BitLicense approval, enabling them to offer digital asset custody and trading services to more customers in the state such as RIAs and other institutional asset managers.
The US Senate scrapped a vote to renominate SEC Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw in response to immense backlash from the crypto community, led by Coinbase-backed non-profit Stand With Crypto, for Commissioner Crenshaw's treatment of the digital asset industry.
A Texas state representative, Giovanni Capriglione, introduced a bill for the state to create a strategic Bitcoin reserve.
Riot Platforms, the publicly traded Bitcoin miner, acquired 667 BTC this week for $67.4 million to add to their balance sheet, bringing their total holdings to 17,429 BTC.
The NFT collection CyberKongz announced they had received a Wells Notice from the SEC.
A California judge sided with Coinbase in a suit brought by BiT Global over the exchange's delisting of wBTC. Coinbase had recently moved to remove the asset, a tokenized version of BTC tradeable on Ethereum-based networks, following BiT Global, a custodian closely affiliated with Tron founder Justin Sun, assuming custody services for wBTC.

Sponsor notes:

Coin Metrics, State of the Network's Q4 2024 Mining Data Special
A quarterly update on Bitcoin mining in Q4 2024

Alex Lin (Reforge) on On-chain Innovation & Consumer Use Cases (EP.584) Dec 18, 2024

Show notes

Wyatt sits down with Reforge VC's Alex Lin. In this episode:

Alex's interdisciplinary road into crypto
Innovation in blockchain infrastructure
Crypto-powered consumer applications

Learn more about Reforge, a blockchain and frontier tech investment firm.

Rodrigo Seira (Cooley) and Ron Hammond (Blockchain Association) on Digital Asset Policy in 2025 (EP.583) Dec 16, 2024

Show notes

Rodrigo Seira, Special Counsel at Cooley and Ron Hammond, Director of Government Relations at The Blockchain Association join the show. In this episode we discuss:

The 2024 election and the impact of the crypto vote.
Executive branch actions to keep an eye on in 2025.
Potential SEC related actions that would impact the digital asset market.
The future of Staff Accounting Bulletin 121.
Where digital asset legislation fits into the 2025 legislative priorities.
Stablecoin legislation.
Market structure legislation.

To learn more about Cooley visit:

www.cooley.com

To learn more about The Blockchain Association visit:

www.theblockchainassociation.org

Weekly Roundup 12/13/24 (French Hill, Circle x Binance, more OCP2.0) (EP582) Dec 13, 2024

Show notes

Matt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode:

French Hill wins the nomination to chair the House Financial Services Committee
Riot Platforms, a bitcoin mining company, announced the intention to raise $500 million via a convertible note offering. The proceeds will be used to acquire additional bitcoins, and for general corporate purposes.
MicroStrategy acquired another 21,550 bitcoin for roughly $2.1 billion.
Circle and Binance announced a partnership with the goal of expanding the reach of Circle's USDC stablecoin across Binance's trading, saving, and payments platforms. Additionally, Binance plans to adopt USDC as part of the company's corporate treasury.

Coincheck, the second largest crypto exchange in Japan, went public via SPAC, joining Coinbase as the only other crypto exchange listed on Nasdaq.
The total stablecoin market cap eclipsed $200 billion this week, a record high following a 13% increase in supply in the past month.
Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin gained approval from New York's Department of Financial Services, a key step in the company's plan to launch the tokenized dollar by year-end.
Google announced a new quantum computing chip, though the specs are still many orders of magnitude away from threatening the encryption levels of Bitcoin and other crypto protocols.

Sponsor notes:

Coin Metrics State of the Network: Where in the World is Crypto Trading?
Exploring the Kimchi premium, regional exchange activity, and crypto seasonality

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