On The Brink with Castle Island

Latest Episodes:

Weekly Roundup 03/31/23 (CFTC v Binance, McHenry's stablecoin bill, Gruenberg's questionable testimony) (EP.411) Mar 31, 2023

Show notes

Matt and Nic return for another week of news and deals.

Cooper and Kirk's white paper on Operation Choke Point 2.0
How bank regulators put crypto-facing banks in a catch-22
SBF charged with bribing a Chinese official
Is Sam funding his legal defense with funds purloined from FTX users?
The CFTC charges Binance with operating an unlicensed derivatives exchange
Binance execs haz no confidence in their geofencing
How did the CFTC get their hands on CZ's Signal history
The SEC shuts down Beaxy
Microstrategy buys another $150m worth of Bitcoin
NASDAQ is aiming to launch their crypto custody platform in June
What's the deal with McHenry's stablecoin bill?
House Democrats would make issuing a stablecoin effectively illegal
Elizabeth Warren is "building an anti-crypto army"
Are DAOs unincorporated associations or general partnerships?
Is the SPDI dead in the water?
Did the FDIC Chair perjure himself in front of Congress this week?
What's the deal with the SigNet sale?
Is dedollarization happening?

Content mentioned:

Cooper & Kirk whitepaper on Operation Choke Point 2.0

Matt Hougan (Bitwise) on Crypto Market Narratives and the Launch of BITC (EP.410) Mar 28, 2023

Show notes

Matt Hougan, the Chief Investment Officer at Bitwise Asset Management joins the show. In this episode we discuss:

The banking crisis and Operation Chokepoint 2.0
The decisions facing the Fed and the second order impacts of Fed policy
How the cryptocurrency industry has evolved post FTX
Prospects for stablecoin and market structure regulation in the digital asset industry
The bitcoin futures market
The launch of the Bitwise Bitcoin Strategy Optimum Roll ETF (BITC)

To learn more about Bitwise visit www.bitwiseinvestments.com and follow Matt on Twitter.

Weekly Roundup 03/24/23 (Do Kwon apprehended, SEC v Coinbase, bank crisis retrospective) (EP.409) Mar 24, 2023

Show notes

Matt and Nic return for another week of news and deals. In this episode:

Matt's turkey trouble continues
Nic's vespa problem
Nic's latest Choke Point 2.0 article
Did the government destroy Signature on purpose?
Who is the main architect of Choke Point 2.0?
Why was Signature closed when PacWest and First Republic were given time?
The Catch-22 in NY banking law
Who has recourse in the Signature situation?
Why we won't be going offshore
The SEC announces charges against Justin Sun and celebrity endorsers
The SEC sends Coinbase a Wells Notice
FTX creditors recoup $460m from Modulo Capital
Reps Emmer and Soto introduce the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act
The White House report is hostile to crypto
Matt's Hong Kong conspiracy theory
Is the EU racing ahead of the US in terms of regulation?
The XRP case is nearing summary judgment
Bitwise announces their futures ETF $BITC
We read some of our podcast reviews

Content mentioned:

Nic in Pirate Wires, Did The Government Start A Global Financial Crisis In An Attempt To Destroy Crypto?

Jamil Dhanani & Nick Sainato (Gamma) on Building a Trustless Ordinals Marketplace (EP.408) Mar 20, 2023

Show notes

Jamil and Nick, co-founders of Gamma.io, join us on the show to discuss:

Lowering the barrier to inscribing NFTs on Bitcoin

Why creators and collectors are excited about NFTs on Bitcoin

Designing a trustless Ordinals marketplace that aligns with its unique culture

The emerging collecting and trading culture on Bitcoin and it's key differences

Nick Hansen (Luxor) on Ordinals, Blockspace, and Mining Pools (EP.407) Mar 20, 2023

Show notes

Nick Hansen is the cofounder and CEO of Luxor, a Bitcoin mining pool. He joins to talk to us about his excitement around ordinals and inscriptions, and how Luxor is thinking about the opportunity.

The history of ordinals and how Luxor got started in the space
How Luxor mined the first 4MB block in Bitcoin
Luxor's decision to acquire Ordinalhub and their intentions with the project
Risks Luxor incurred by mining the first 4MB block
Transaction standardness versus validity
How ordinals increase the overall quantity of Bitcoin blockspace
The risks of out of band fees to Bitcoin
Does Bitcoin already have MEV?
How does the block reward decay make reorgs more likely?
Where Luxor sees opportunity in ordinals
Have inscriptions had a material impact on miner rewards?
The effect of inscriptions on fees
Transacting with PSBTs versus standard NFT marketplaces
Nick's confidence in the long-term persistence of Bitcoin state
Why it's virtually impossible to purge state in Bitcoin
Are ordinals and inscriptions a violation of the implied Bitcoin social contract?
Have inscriptions inadvertently ossified Bitcoin at the protocol level?

Weekly Roundup 03/17/23 feat. Alex Thorn (Bank crisis, Fed makes $2T available, Signature mysteries) (EP.406) Mar 17, 2023

Show notes

Matt and Nic are back to cover a dramatic week in crypto. Galaxy Digital's Alex Thorn also joins to provide market color. In this episode:

Bitcoin's price action in response to the bank runs
USDC recovers its peg
FTX crime family news
Signature bank is shut down somewhat arbitrarily
What happened with Silvergate?
Is Operation Choke Point 2.0 real?
Blockchain Association FOIA's federal banking regulators
Are macro funds dipping their toes back into Bitcoin?
Crypto Banks are gutted
Was Signature solvent when it was shut down?
Will Signet be sold off in the Signature auction?
What was the importance of SEN and Signet?
First Republic secures $30b in deposits
What happened with Silvergate and the FHLB?
Galaxy Digital's head of research Alex Thorn joins the show
Arbitrum announces their airdrop

Weekly Roundup 03/10/23 (Silvergate wind-down, NYAG comes after ETH, more bank runs) (EP.405) Mar 10, 2023

Show notes

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

Nic's Vespa crisis
FTX crime family update
Grayscale's oral arguments go well against the SEC in the GBTC case
Binance.US wins the right to buy the Voyager assets in court
NYAG sues Kucoin and alleges that ETH is a security
Silvergate is undergoing an orderly wind-down of the bank
Why did Silvergate really collapse?
Why are regulators trying to precipitate bank runs?
Structural issues explaining why Silvergate's deposits were so correlated
SVB experiences a bank run
Are the Silvergate and SVB difficulties warning sights that the Fed's rate regime can't last?

Content mentioned:

How Banks Fail, by Austin Campbell

Weekly Roundup 03/10/23 (Silvergate wind-down, NYAG comes after ETH, more bank runs) (EP.405) Mar 10, 2023

Show notes

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

Nic's Vespa crisis
FTX crime family update
Grayscale's oral arguments go well against the SEC in the GBTC case
Binance.US wins the right to buy the Voyager assets in court
NYAG sues Kucoin and alleges that ETH is a security
Silvergate is undergoing an orderly wind-down of the bank
Why did Silvergate really collapse?
Why are regulators trying to precipitate bank runs?
Structural issues explaining why Silvergate's deposits were so correlated
SVB experiences a bank run
Are the Silvergate and SVB difficulties warning sights that the Fed's rate regime can't last?

Content mentioned:

How Banks Fail, by Austin Campbell

Rob Hamilton (AnchorWatch) on Ordinals and Miniscript (EP.404) Mar 08, 2023

Show notes

Rob Hamilton, the founder and CEO of AnchorWatch joins the show. In this episode we discuss:

Rob's career journey and path to finding Bitcoin.
The origins of miniscript and how Rob started to build in this area.
The potential applicability for miniscript to the custody market.
The current state of bitcoin core development.
Ordinals and how Rob started to get involved in this project.
The future applicability of ordinals and inscriptions.

Links: AnchorWatch, Rob's Twitter.

Michael Gronager (Chainalysis) on Building a Blockchain Analytics Juggernaut (EP.403) Mar 06, 2023

Show notes

Chainalysis CEO and co-founder Michael Gronager joins us for an episode chronicling the rise of the blockchain analytics firm. In this episode:

Michael's origin story and how he went from helping build Kraken to founding Chainalysis
Responding to early market pull from the public sector when building products
Responding to criticism around privacy vs. anonymity
Building the Crypto Adoption Index for content marketing around what is actually happening on the blockchain
Perspective on how long it can take to change an industry online

Content mentioned:

Public Key (Podcast) Global Crypto Adoption Index Chainalysis Content / Blog

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

On The Brink with Castle Island

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected