The Crypto Conversation

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ICONOMI - An Advanced Crypto Portfolio Platform Feb 22, 2024

Show notes

Peter Curk is the CEO of ICONOMI, an advanced crypto investment and portfolio platform that makes it easy for beginners and for power users to choose from hundreds of Crypto Strategies and copy them with a single click.

Why you should listen

ICONOMI is a cryptocurrency portfolio management platform. Offering a suite of tools and infrastructure, ICONOMI enables experienced traders to create and manage their own Crypto Strategies, with advanced features to align strategy with market conditions. These include algorithmic trading execution, one-click portfolio rebalance, smart price discovery on multiple exchanges, and portfolio automation management rules.

Beginner traders can copy more experienced crypto strategists. There are more than 150 different public strategies on the platform.

ICONOMI has just launched its new digital asset wealth management platform, ICONOMI Wealth for professional asset managers.

The platform will enable small and mid-sized asset management firms, as well as financial advisors, to launch and manage multiple cryptocurrency portfolios, while supporting their own clients.

Asset management firms may be looking into launching their digital asset strategy, or their clients may be requesting alternative investments. If they don't have the know-how or resources to build internal infrastructure, ICONOMI Wealth can bridge the gap.

By leveraging the ICONOMI Wealth platform, they can access ICONOMI's full suite of expert services to tap into digital assets without high costs and complexities, while ensuring the safeguarding of investor assets through cold storage solutions.

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eBTC - stETH Backed BTCLoans Feb 20, 2024

Show notes

Spada₿oom is the founder of BadgerDAO, a Bitcoin-focused DeFi protocol. The team is working on eBTC – a groundbreaking new synthetic asset that capitalizes on the evolution of ETH staking to create the most transparent and capital-efficient borrowing facility for Bitcoin on Ethereum in DeFi.

Why you should listen

eBTC is a protocol that allows anyone to use Lido's Staked Ether (stETH) as collateral to borrow a synthetic Bitcoin asset with zero borrowing fees. Powered by non-custodial, immutable, governance-minimized smart contracts, it aims to be the most trustless and censorship-resistant synthetic Bitcoin in DeFi.

eBTC is the first protocol to focus exclusively on the ETH/BTC ratio. While most of the trading and strategies for this pair are currently done off-chain using centralized counter-parties, eBTC empowers users to now bring this activity on-chain with extreme transparency. Further, due to its immutability and composability, it enables any protocol to integrate its functionality and build on top of it.

Its vision ignited by the abundance of highly publicized financial collapses in 2022, eBTC has been designed as a response to the shortcomings of the centralized and opaque financial infrastructure that is commonplace within the blockchain space. By moving more ETH/BTC activity on-chain within immutable smart contracts, eBTC moves the space further away from the centralized solutions for borrowing Bitcoin currently seen in the market today.

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NFTStudio24 - The Decentralized Media Platform Feb 19, 2024

Show notes

Hinza Asif is the CEO of NFTStudio24, a decentralized media platform based in Japan that's empowering journalists and reporters worldwide.

Why you should listen

Traditional media involves lengthy editorial processes, where journalists may spend weeks on a story, only to have it become the property of the media house they work for.

NFTStudio24 is a platform that allows journalists to publish their stories directly to their decentralized media network. Once published, these stories become the sole property of the author, giving them full ownership. The platform leverages blockchain technology to reward journalists for their contributions based on engagement metrics such as views, likes, shares, and comments. Readers can engage with the story by liking, sharing, and commenting, which increases its visibility and earns the author rewards in the form of cryptocurrency tokens.

The goal is to democratize access to information and empower journalists to tell the stories that matter most to them and their communities.

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CoinRoutes - Algorithmic Trading Strategies and Execution Feb 18, 2024

Show notes

Dave Weisberger is the co-founder and CEO of CoinRoutes, a leading provider of algorithmic trading strategies and execution management.

Why you should listen

CoinRoutes has an extensive algo suite and market data plant specifically designed around crypto market structure and its intricacies. They provide best-in-class smart order routing, along with the infrastructure for exchange market access and market data consolidation, with options for both UI and API users. Dave talks about the challenges of trading in the crypto markets, the benefits of algorithmic trading strategies, and CoinRoutes' role in providing liquidity and better pricing for traders. Dave also shares his thoughts on the recent approval of bitcoin ETFs and their potential impact on bitcoin's adoption as a store of value.

He emphasizes that transparency is an advantage in crypto markets but warns about conflicts of interest due to knowing who is behind certain wallets. Dave expresses concerns about US financial regulation under Elizabeth Warren's influence and highlights the importance of having a supportive regulatory environment for crypto innovation. He concludes by mentioning CoinRoutes' plans for international expansion, its focus on DeFi solutions, and its goal to simplify trading processes while providing more efficient execution for users.

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Secure Digital Markets - The Institutional Choice Feb 14, 2024

Show notes

Mostafa Al-Mashita, is co-founder, and Yacine Ouldchikh is a Senior Trader at Secure Digital Markets (SDM), a digital asset brokerage firm that offers institutional, high net worth, and corporate clients access to spot trading, derivatives, and lending services.

Why you should listen

Mostafa and Yacine from Secure Digital Markets discuss the market structure and deeper trends driving the crypto markets in 2024. They analyze the impact of the spot Bitcoin ETFs and the potential for an Ethereum ETF.

They highlight the growing interest from institutional investors and financial advisors in cryptocurrencies. They mention their focus on building a global financial services ecosystem at Secure Digital Markets, with plans to release a mobile app and expand their presence internationally.

SDM offers comprehensive liquidity and settlement solutions that generate efficient crypto asset exposure.

SDM bridges the gap between institutional balance sheets and Web3 by offering highly liquid onramps into the digital currency market. SDM accommodates the unique execution needs of its clients through multiple technology solutions including GUI (SDM.Live), API, and RFQ.

Supporting links

Secure Digital Markets

SDM Crypto Report

SDM Twitter

Andy on Twitter

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Tari - the Freedom Enhancing Protocol Feb 13, 2024

Show notes

Naveen Jain and Riccardo Spagni are contributors at Tari Labs, building Tari. Tari is a new open-source, decentralized protocol that reimagines the future of digital assets. Tari is being architected as a merge-mined sidechain of Monero and will inherit its security model.

Why you should listen

Tari is an open-source blockchain protocol built in Rust. Tari is architected as a merge-mined sidechain with Monero. Tari aims to provide programmable privacy and composable confidentiality. Tari's philosophy is to normalize privacy in the crypto space and offer a spectrum of confidentiality options for users. Privacy is treated as a spectrum rather than a binary outcome. Tari's protocol allows developers to build applications with varying degrees of confidentiality, meeting user expectations and complying with regulatory requirements when necessary.

It allows developers to build applications on top of it, such as NFT marketplaces, DeFi platforms, and more.

The Tari protocol has a live testnet available for users to explore and participate in mining. Interested individuals can download the Tari Aurora wallet from the App Store and start mining on the testnet. The team is working towards the mainnet launch soon.

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Lantern Finance - Illuminate Your Staking Journey Feb 12, 2024

Show notes

Prince Jindal and Jung Won Kim are co-founders at Lantern Finance, a US-based staking platform built for the everyday crypto investor.

Why you should listen

Lantern Finance is for crypto beginners, crypto OGs, and everyone in-between, offering a seamless Ethereum staking experience for all experience levels.

Lantern's robust security measures are supported by BitGo, an industry leading US-based, qualified crypto custodian. Lantern charges 15% of staking rewards, allowing you to keep more of your rewards.

Lantern is the first consumer crypto app to offer USD loans against staked ETH. This revolutionary product allows users to take out loans that pay themselves off (i.e. self-paying loans). When you borrow against your staked crypto, it means you are still earning staking rewards. These staking rewards can be used to offset your loan's interest payment, creating an automatic, self-repaying loan.

Imagine you bought a house with several bedrooms and decided to live in one of them. Every month you have to pay for the mortgage on the house out of your own pocket. This is like paying for your loan while your assets are unstaked.

Lantern is registered with FinCEN as a Money Services Business (MSB) and has robust KYC and AML processes in place.

Every client has direct access to the Lantern team for support including by telephone.

Supporting links

PH Lantern: (415) 365-0100

Andy on Twitter

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Arcanum Capital - Early Investments in Web3 Feb 08, 2024

Show notes

James McDowall is the founding partner of Arcanum Capital, a venture capital firm focused on supporting enterprising and forward-thinking teams that are establishing decentralized networks and applications for the global blockchain ecosystem.

Why you should listen

Arcanum Capital has just announced its second fund, the Arcanum Luganodes Fund. The new fund is focused on further early-stage investments, as well as more established growth-stage investments at higher valuations, with this made possible by Arcanum's collaboration with Luganodes a leading 'staking services' provider. Luganodes is a Swiss-operated, institutional-grade, non-custodial staking provider born out of the Lugano Plan B Program, an initiative driven by Tether and the City of Lugano. The partnership with Luganodes will help Fund II gain access to some of the most sought-after Layer 1 and Layer 2 investment opportunities in the space and enable us to add even more value to our portfolio networks.

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Rho Protocol - On-chain Interest Rate Derivatives Feb 07, 2024

Show notes

Alex Ryvkin is the CEO of Rho Labs, building Rho Protocol, an interest rate derivatives protocol and the first institutional grade on-chain rates market.

Why you should listen

Rho Protocol is a new institutional-grade decentralized marketplace on Arbitrum that allows retail and professional traders to efficiently exchange rate risk via on-chain swaps and futures in a secure, efficient, and compliant manner.

Rho Protocol's first family of products are fixed-to-floating interest rate swaps on a diverse set of index rates. In TradFi, this product comprises over 60% of the total outstanding interest in interest rate derivatives.

The protocol is currently in beta with big expansion plans for new products planned for 2024. Rho raised $2.2m in a pre-seed funding round late last year.

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