Unchained

Latest Episodes:

The Chopping Block: Points or Airdrops, Which Is the Better Engagement Model for Crypto Projects? - Ep. 603 Feb 03, 2024

Show notes

Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest news and with special guest Aevo's Co-Founder - Julian Koh. This episode zeroes in on the latest buzz around the Jupiter ($JUP) airdrop: What's the real story behind Jupiter’s valuation and controversy? We peel back the layers of Jupiter's token strategy and its impact on market dynamics. The dialogue then shifts to the innovative approaches of Aevo (formerly Ribbon Finance) in pre-launch derivatives and the burgeoning trend of airdrop farming: How are Airdrop strategies altering the landscape of token valuation and investor behavior? The debate intensifies as we tackle the contentious battle between points systems and traditional airdrops: Are points a revolutionary engagement tool or a complex web of incentives? With the resurgence of ICOs and the strategic pivot of Ribbon Finance, we explore the implications of rebrands on the crypto ecosystem. Join us for an in-depth exploration of these critical topics and their profound impact on the world of cryptocurrency.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Pandora, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show Highlights

🔹 Jupiter Airdrop Deep Dive: Unraveling the complexities and controversies behind the Jupiter ($JUP) airdrop.

🔹 Valuation Variance: Examining the fluctuations in Jupiter token valuation and their market repercussions.

🔹 Community Engagement: Evaluating the effectiveness of @weremeow's live streams in shaping community perceptions.

🔹 Airdrop Discontent: Analyzing the liquidity dynamics and user dissatisfaction stemming from airdrop strategies.

🔹 Innovations in Derivatives: Exploring Aevo's unique approach to pre-launch derivatives in the DeFi space.

🔹 The Airdrop Farmer's Dilemma: Discussing the strategies used by airdrop farmers to hedge against price volatility.

🔹 Points vs. Airdrops Debate: Delving into the pros and cons of points systems compared to traditional airdrop mechanisms.

🔹 Rebranding Strategies: Assessing the impact of token rebrands, with a focus on Ribbon Finance's evolution.

🔹 Pre-IPO Markets and Crypto: Drawing parallels between traditional pre-IPO conversion markets and crypto points systems.

🔹 The Uncertainty Factor: Considering how the allure of uncertainty influences engagement and investment in crypto.

🔹 Protocol Dynamics: Investigating the effects of airdrop farmers on the health and engagement of blockchain protocols.

🔹 ICO Resurgence: Discussing the potential comeback of Initial Coin Offerings and their role in the crypto funding landscape.

🔹 Stress Testing with Points: Highlighting innovative uses of points for protocol stress testing like Eigenlayer.

🔹 Referral Systems in Crypto: Analyzing the impact of referral-based points systems on protocol engagement and growth.

Hosts

⭐️Haseeb Qureshi, Managing partner at Dragonfly

⭐️Tom Schmidt, General Partner at Dragonfly

⭐️Tarun Chitra, Managing Partner at Robot Ventures

Guest

⭐️ Julian Koh, Aevo's Co-Founder

Disclosures

Links

Jupiter LFG Launchpad Blog Article - https://station.jup.ag/blog/jupiter-lfg-launchpad
Blockworks: “Jupiter airdrop draws criticism, but support remains strong” - https://blockworks.co/news/jupiter-airdrop-draws-criticism
Proposal: “Merge Ribbon Finance into Aevo” - https://gov.ribbon.finance/t/rgp-33-merge-ribbon-finance-into-aevo/709
Weremeow’s Twitch Stream: https://www.twitch.tv/weremeow

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Jupiter Founder Meow to Critics of JUP Airdrop: ‘Give Me a Break’ - Ep. 602 Feb 02, 2024

Show notes

While Solana DeFi protocol Jupiter staged what was by most measures a very successful airdrop launch on Wednesday, achieving a market cap of close to $800 million, the company’s critics pointed out numerous ways the company seemed to unfairly enrich itself in the process. While Jupiter’s founder, who goes by the pseudonym Meow, acknowledges he might have done some things differently, he finds the criticisms of the launch mostly based on “bad faith” and misinformation.

Meow joined Unchained to discuss the thinking behind the launch mechanics of JUP, how the prior launch of memecoin WEN served as a dry run for JUP, whether the aggressive pricing strategy of JUP was a mistake, and what he hopes to achieve with Jupiter next, including the possibility of enabling companies of all kinds to list themselves publicly on chain.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,Fountain, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Pandora, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights:

What Jupiter is and how it extends its functionality beyond mere token swapping
What users are primarily utilizing the dollar-cost-average feature of Jupiter for
Meow’s background in crypto and how he ended up in the Solana ecosystem
Why a launchpad seemed the ideal choice for Jupiter's token launch
What prompted the decision to release WEN, a memecoin, before launching JUP
Meow's response to criticisms regarding the launchpad's mechanics
Whether the aggressive pricing strategy for Jupiter was a misstep
How Meow feels about being targeted for criticism
What's on the horizon for Jupiter as a platform following the airdrop

Thank you to our sponsors!

Guest:

Meow, cofounder of Jupiter

Links

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A16z Crypto’s Chris Dixon on How Blockchains Can Save the Internet - Ep. 601 Jan 30, 2024

Show notes

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Chris Dixon, founder and managing partner of a16z crypto, believes the Internet’s early ideals of democratization and community ownership have been subverted by the consolidation of power into just a few small companies like Facebook and Google. He’s written a new book called Read Write Own in which he writes about this phenomenon, and argues that blockchain technology can help reverse the trend by providing an environment in which developers and entrepreneurs can once again build direct relationships with their audiences.

Dixon joins Unchained to discuss criticisms of crypto VC firms, how he feels now about a16z’s previous investment in Facebook, how crypto has become overly politicized in the U.S., why Facebook’s Libra project was ultimately shut down, the significant promise of restaking and EigenLayer in particular, and why he believes that creator royalties are essential for the NFT market.

Show highlights:

what inspired Chris to write his new book and why he thinks the crypto industry is misunderstood
what the current problems of the Internet are and how just a few companies control most of the revenue
how Chris explains the concept of blockchains to the layman
the importance of property rights in the real world and how blockchains make this better
how Chris responds to the criticism that venture capital firms “dump on retail” and what a proper allocation of tokens to VCs is
what the best designs are to achieve good governance in decentralized networks
how the crypto industry has become politicized in the U.S.
what Chris thinks about a16z’s investment in Facebook
why Facebook’s Libra project was shut down and his takeaways from the venture
what lessons Chris learned from the 2022 crypto debacle, with the collapse of FTX, Terra, Celsius, 3AC, etc.
where Chris sits in the debate about modular vs. monolithic networks
how restaking and EigenLayer could “unlock a bunch of new design possibilities,” according to Chris
the role of open source software in driving a better environment and better projects
how decentralized social networks could attract new levels of adoption
whether creator royalties are necessary and why Chris believes that they are “non-negotiable”

Thank you to our sponsors!

Popcorn Network

Guest:

Chris Dixon, founder and managing partner of a16z crypto, author of Read Write Own
Previous appearance on Unchained: Chris Dixon on How Trust Is the Best Lego

Links

Tokenomics

Unchained: What Is Tokenomics? A Beginner's Guide

Venture Capital

Unchained: Does Venture Capital Investment Violate the Ethos of Crypto? Sequoia Says No

Modular vs. monolithic

Restaking

Royalties

The 2022 debacle

Unchained: Collapses, Bankruptcies, and Fraud: How 2022 Became the Year of Crypto Carnage

SocialFi

Unchained: What Is SocialFi? A Beginner’s Guide

Crypto & AI

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The Black Swan Event That Could Cause a Fork in Ethereum (Again) - Ep. 600 Jan 26, 2024

Show notes

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This week a major potential risk to Ethereum was highlighted by a bug that surfaced in Nethermind, a minority execution client. While the bug was fixed quickly, it raised the question of what would happen to the blockchain if Geth, which is used by more than two-thirds of validators and so is considered a “supermajority client,” had a bug. The situation could potentially result in a catastrophic fork of Ethereum.

Ethereum developer Lefteris Karapetsas joined Unchained to discuss the different scenarios of what could happen, the potential impact of a supermajority client issue on staking services such as Lido, why he feels the incentive system is poorly designed, and what other solutions are out there to address the lack of client diversity.

Show highlights:

What a consensus issue is in Ethereum and what happened with Nethermind last weekend
Why it would be a big problem if a supermajority client had a bug
The potential impact on staking services such as Lido
Why Lefteris feels like he is reliving the historic Ethereum DAO hack all over again
Whether the largest entities running nodes will start pursuing client diversity
How the data on the prevalence of specific Ethereum execution clients is not verifiable or programmatic, making it less transparent and difficult to analyze
Why Lefteris believes that the incentive system is not designed to achieve client diversity
Whether there are developments in the works to try to solve the lack of client diversity

Thank you to our sponsors!

Guest

Lefteris Karapetsas, Founder of Rotkiapp
Previous appearance on Unchained: Is Code Law? Should the Hacker Be Punished? The DAO Creators Disagree

Links

Unchained:
Most Ethereum Staking Pools Are Using Just One Execution Client, Potentially Increasing Risks to the Network
The Chopping Block: Data Availability & Why It’s Important
CoinDesk: Bug That Took Down 8% of Ethereum's Validators Sparks Worries About Even Bigger Outage
The Defiant: Ethereum Software Client Centralization Sparks Concern
Crypto.news: Nethermind rolls out urgent fix for block processing bug in Ethereum client
Lukasz Rosmej’s tweet that minority client Nethermind had a consensus issue
Lefteris’ tweet on a supermajority Ethereum client bug
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong's tweet on what he’d do in a censorship resistance request scenario
Run the majority client at your own peril! by Dankrad Feist

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The Chopping Block: Data Availability & Why It’s Important - Ep. 599 Jan 25, 2024

Show notes

Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest news. This week kicks off with a crucial question: Are the latest trends in crypto ETFs signaling a major shift in the investment landscape? We delve into the market's nuanced response to these ETFs and what it means for investors. How important is client diversity for Ethereum's stability and future growth? The squad engages in a lively debate on this topic. With the advent of Proto-Danksharding, how might Ethereum's scalability be impacted, and what are the implications for the blockchain ecosystem? We further examine the user experience across blockchain platforms, particularly comparing Solana and Ethereum in terms of their user interfaces and transaction dynamics. Looking to the future, what breakthroughs and challenges can we anticipate in blockchain technology? Join us for an in-depth exploration of these key questions and their profound impact on the world of cryptocurrency.

Show highlights:

🔹 ETF Market Analysis: Dissecting the impact of GBTC and other ETFs on the crypto market.

🔹 Client Diversity in Ethereum: Debating the pros and cons of multiple clients for network resilience.

🔹 Proto-Danksharding Effects: Assessing its potential to lower rollup costs and enhance scalability.

🔹 User Experience in Crypto: Exploring how fees and speeds affect user interactions on various platforms.

🔹 Solana vs. Ethereum UX: Comparing their user interfaces, focusing on transaction costs and latency.

🔹 Blockchain's Future Trends: Delving into predictions and emerging innovations in the blockchain world.

🔹 Ethereum's Protocol Evolution: Discussing the roadmap and future developments in Ethereum.

🔹 Scalability Solutions: Evaluating different approaches to scaling blockchains effectively.

🔹 Layer 2 Dynamics: Analyzing the growth and challenges of Layer 2 solutions on Ethereum.

Hosts

Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly
Robert Leshner, founder of Compound
Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly
Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures

Disclosures

Links

Vitalik's post about Cypherpunk values: https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2023/12/28/cypherpunk.html
PolyMarket for gas price per blob after EIP 4844: https://polymarket.com/event/gas-price-per-blob-1-month-after-eip-4844?tid=1706149992794
Tweet thread from DC investor: https://twitter.com/iamDCinvestor/status/1749410364666606075
Ethereum's Proto-Danksharding and EIP-4844: https://www.eip4844.com/
Ethereum 2.0 Clients Dashboard: https://clientdiversity.org/#distribution
Solana's Firedancer: https://github.com/firedancer-io

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OG Olaf Carlson-Wee on Why His Crypto Thesis Is Stronger Than Ever - Ep. 598 Jan 23, 2024

Show notes

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Pandora, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Polychain Capital founder and CIO Olaf Carlson-Wee has been through every single bubble in crypto history, from Bitcoin’s rise past the single digits in 2012 to the ICO craze of 2017 to 2021’s NFT mania, and he says his main thesis about crypto has remained consistent since the beginning. That is, that crypto constitutes an “incentive vortex” that will replace the world’s preoccupation with country-backed currencies.

Carlson-Wee, who was the first employee at Coinbase, joins Unchained to discuss the significance of the launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs, how he successfully navigated all the industry blow-ups in 2022, the challenges of balancing incentives for early adopters versus new users, why EigenLayer is so significant, why Worldcoin’s distribution strategy is a “disaster,” and the strange places that the intersection between crypto and AI could take us.

Show highlights:

Why Olaf sees the current market as the cusp of another bull run and how his thesis has remained consistent since 2011
How the launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs marks a significant milestone
Why criticisms of the crypto space are really criticisms of money in general
The fundamental differences between Web3 applications and the Web2 ecosystem and why they matter
The importance of fair token distribution in enhancing the value of Web3 projects
When Olaf expects Bitcoin to replace legacy financial systems
The areas and technologies Olaf and his fund are keen to invest in
Why Olaf thinks a modular blockchain architecture is superior to a monolithic one in the long term
How EigenLayer is innovating to enable new types of applications and whether it competes with Celestia
How Polychain managed to avoid being hurt by the major market blowups of 2022, including Terra and FTX
The evolution of the space from an ideologically driven to a more pragmatic approach
The significance of incentive design in crypto ecosystems and the trade-offs involved in system design
Olaf’s perspective on the recent rise of points systems
The growth of privacy-focused crypto projects and the potential for private blockchains to become the norm
Why he thinks Worldcoin’s distribution strategy is a “disaster”
Olaf’s interest in the intersection of AI and crypto and potential developments in this area
His bullish outlook on SocialFi and Web3 gaming

Thank you to our sponsors!

Popcorn Network

Guest:

Olaf Carlson-Wee, founder and CIO of Polychain Capital
Previous appearances on Unchained:
Olaf Carlson-Wee: 'If There Is a Money-Losing Exploit, the Money Is Gone'
Why The First Employee Of Coinbase Launched A Hedge Fund
To the Moon and Back With Polychain's Olaf Carlson-Wee
Special Episode with CNBC's Crypto Trader: Olaf Carlson-Wee on Why This Crypto Winter Is Different From Previous Ones
All Things Cryptoeconomics, Pt. 1, With Olaf Carlson-Wee and Ryan Zurrer of Polychain Capital

Links

Olaf Carlson-Wee

Forbes:
This Man Has Been Living On Bitcoin For 3 Years
Why This Hedge Fund CEO Once 'Put Most Of My Meager Life Savings Into Bitcoin'
TechCrunch: The future is a decentralized internet
Blockworks: Why Polychain Capital Founder Never Sells His Crypto
CoinDesk: Olaf Carlson-Wee: Crypto Is the Great Wealth-Redistribution Machine

Restaking/EigenLayer

Unchained:
DeFi Protocol EigenLayer Reaches Restaking Capacity, Pushing TVL Past $1.4 Billion
Do You Need to Think Twice Before Restaking Your Assets?
Olaf’s tweet on EigenLayer

Crypto + AI

Olaf’s tweet: “in crypto nearly 100% of value accrues to start-ups and outsiders, not existing establishment interests”

Visit Unchained for more links and details

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Why the SEC’s Case Against Coinbase Is So Significant for Crypto - Ep. 597 Jan 19, 2024

Show notes

On Wednesday, a federal court in New York heard oral arguments in Coinbase’s motion to dismiss the SEC’s case against it for, among other things, allegedly acting as an unregulated securities exchange. Notably, Judge Katherine Polk Failla pressed the SEC to explain how it has jurisdiction over Coinbase in the case by defining what it considers a security.

Sam Enzer, a partner at Cahill Gorden & Reindel who represents Coinbase but not in this matter, joined Unchained to discuss why this case is so significant for the crypto industry, how he believes the government contradicted itself on the crucial definition of what constitutes a security, why he thinks the judge will not dismiss the case at this early stage, how the Ripple and Terraform Labs cases could be used by each side, and why he thinks Judge Failla is such a perfect choice to rule in this case.

Show highlights:

Why SEC v Coinbase holds important implications for the U.S. crypto ecosystem
What the SEC alleges against Coinbase, focusing on its trading platform, wallet, and staking services
How Coinbase forcefully counters the SEC's claims as it strives to get the case dismissed
What the “major questions doctrine” entails and its critical role in this dispute
Why Sam perceives the judge as “extremely skeptical” of the SEC's stance
Whether inconsistencies surfaced in the SEC lawyers' arguments
What “strict liability” means and its frequent mention in this legal battle
What takeaways from the Ripple and Terraform Labs cases offer about secondary market sales
Why Sam believes Judge Katherine Polk Failla is exceptionally well-suited for this case
Whether Judge Failla might reject the motion to dismiss, and when

Thank you to our sponsors!

Guest

Sam Enzer, partner at Cahill Gordon & Reindel
Previous appearances on Unchained:
Why SBF's Testimony So Far Has Likely Already Doomed Him
Another Bad Week for Sam Bankman-Fried in His Criminal Trial
Why These Lawyers Say It's Over for SBF-But His Only Hail Mary Is to Testify
SBF Trial: How Sam Bankman-Fried’s Lawyers Might Try and Win His Case
SBF’s Lawyers Could Be Annoying the Judge How Might That Impact the Trial?

Links

Previous coverage of Unchained on the Coinbase case and the topic of securities:
SEC Sues Binance, Coinbase: ‘This Is Not the End of Crypto in the United States’
These 2 Crypto Trading Platforms Agree With SEC Chair Gary Gensler
Coinbase’s Legal Action Against the SEC: How It Will Likely Unfold
‘Is ETH a Security?’ Why Gary Gensler Couldn’t Give Congress a Straight Answer
Gary Gensler vs. Crypto: What Will the SEC Attack Next?
Rep. Emmer on Why He Believes Gary Gensler Is a ‘Bad-Faith Regulator’

Coinbase vs. SEC

Other cases

Kraken

CNBC: Crypto exchange Kraken settles with SEC for $30 million, will close US staking operation

XRP

Unchained: SEC vs Ripple: Judge Rules XRP Sold on Exchanges Is Not a Security

Terraform Labs

Reuters: Judge sides with US SEC, says Terraform Labs crypto founder Do Kwon violated law

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The Chopping Block: When Will the ETF Hype End? - Ep. 596 Jan 18, 2024

Show notes

Welcome to The Chopping Block, where crypto experts Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner bring you inside perspectives on critical topics in the crypto world. This episode delves into the complexities and market impact of crypto ETFs: Are they a game-changer for investors? The team also examines the controversies surrounding Tether, exploring its stability and the implications of recent scandals. They then shift focus to the burgeoning world of asset-backed securities and crypto casinos: What potential and challenges do they present? NFTs and their evolving role beyond digital art are scrutinized, along with the integration of crypto technology in devices like the Solana phone. Tune in for a thought-provoking discussion on these critical developments shaping the future of cryptocurrency.

Show highlights:

🔹 ETF Performance Analysis: Grayscale Bitcoin Trust and Competitors.

🔹 Circle IPO: Impact on Stablecoin Market and Financial Ecosystem.

🔹 Tether Controversy: Financial Backing and Southeast Asian Scams.

🔹 Vivek Ramaswamy's Political Future: Influence on Crypto Policy.

🔹 Asset-Backed Securities (ABS) in Crypto: Opportunities for Investors.

🔹 Crypto Casinos: Rise in Popularity and Move Toward Transparency.

🔹 NFTs in Mainstream Culture: Adoption and New Use Cases.

🔹 Crypto and Traditional Finance: Stablecoins like USDC and Tether.

🔹 Crypto Integration in Devices: Solana Phone and Market Adoption.

Hosts

Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly
Robert Leshner, founder of Compound
Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly
Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures

Disclosures

Links

Blockworks: Tether says UN needs more blockchain education in response to USDT report by Casey Wagner
UNODC: Casinos, Money Laundering, Underground Banking, and Transnational Organized Crime in East and Southeast Asia: A Hidden and Accelerating Threat
CNBC: Costco sold more than $100 million in gold bars last quarter by Spencer Kimball
Number Go Up: Inside Crypto's Wild Rise And Staggering Fall by Zeke Faux
CNBC: BlackRock CEO Larry Fink: Bitcoin ETF approvals are ‘stepping stones’ towards tokenization

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How Small Bitcoin ETF Issuers Will Compete With the Likes of BlackRock - Ep. 595 Jan 16, 2024

Show notes

Thursday was a momentous day in crypto as the first SEC-approved spot Bitcoin ETFs finally began trading after more than a decade of waiting, and by almost all accounts, it was a huge success, with more than $625 million in inflows on the first day of trading.

Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan and VanEck head of digital assets research Matthew Sigel joined Unchained to discuss their approaches towards selling their products in the market, the challenges of competing with larger firms like BlackRock and Fidelity, the fee wars and where those are headed, the importance of specialist expertise in the crypto investment space, and how Bitcoin prices might react to all the new supply in the market.

Show highlights:

Why Matt Hougan regards the first week as a massive success for Bitcoin
How Matthew Sigel emphasizes the costs and benefits ETFs offer to retail investors
The strategic marketing approaches of VanEck and Bitwise aligning with Bitcoin community values
The reasons for Bitwise's standout performance in the first days of trading, according to Matt
Whether the introduction of Bitcoin ETFs will reshape the broader ETF landscape
Matt's perspective on why some financial institutions resist Bitcoin, and their eventual openness to crypto
Whether the established players in finance feel threatened by the rise of open source technologies
Whether Gary Gensler’s statement after the approval is “totally crazy”
Why data for the various ETFs in the market should be analyzed on a weekly or monthly basis
The ongoing fee competition and how smaller entities can compete against giants like BlackRock and Fidelity
Grayscale's strategies to remain competitive with higher fees and the possibility of launching a new, low-fee ETF
How investment advisors might adapt to these new crypto products and the potential for mainstream adoption
Matthew’s predictions for when BTC investors, both short-term and long-term, will take profits
Why they are both closely monitoring Ethereum's performance and the prospects for a spot ether ETF in the market

Thank you to our sponsors!

Guests:

Matt Hougan, Chief Investment Officer at Bitwise Asset Management
Previous appearances on Unchained: Why a Spot Bitcoin ETF Will Probably Launch No Later Than January 10
Matthew Sigel, Head of Digital Assets Research at VanEck.

Links

Approval:

Unchained:
Spot Bitcoin ETFs Finally Receive SEC Seal of Approval
What Officials, ETF Issuers, and Others Are Saying About the SEC's Spot Bitcoin ETF Approvals
Laura Shin’s op-ed on Unchained: Why Spot Bitcoin ETFs Are (But Mostly Aren't) a Big Deal for Crypto
David Z. Morris’ op-ed on Unchained: The SEC’s Bumbling Bitcoin ETF Rollout Was Perfectly On-Brand

First days of trading

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Why Some Brokerage Firms Are Blocking Access to Spot Bitcoin ETFs - Ep. 594 Jan 12, 2024

Show notes

Unless you've been living under a rock, you probably heard that spot Bitcoin ETFs were finally approved by the SEC this week. That set the stage for 11 such offerings from the likes of BlackRock, Fidelity, and ARK 21Shares to begin trading on Thursday. On this episode of Unchained, Nate Geraci, president of the ETF Store; Eric Balchunas, senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence; and James Seyffart, research analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence discussed the initial record trading volumes, the mechanics of how the funds work, the botched roll-out process, the pointed commentary from SEC commissioners, the potential for future Ethereum spot ETFs and predictions for total inflows. Plus, they explain why brokerage firms like Vanguard, Merrill and others were blocking customer access to the ETFs.

Show highlights:

The initial impact and trading volumes on the launch day of the ETFs
How BlackRock’s ETF, IBIT, had a lot of volume in pre-market and what that means
Why Eric was surprised that BlackRock proceeded with a waiver for its ETF, but realized that it was “genius marketing”
Whether there’s a problem that ETFs don’t trade 24/7, unlike BTC itself
Why James says the spot ETFs are not going to have significant premiums or discounts to NAV
What the percentage premium is and how it will play out with spot Bitcoin ETFs
Whether the SEC will ever allow in-kind creation and redemption
Why Nate and Eric believe that the SEC’s denials of spot Bitcoin ETFs for a decade was “completely suboptimal” for retail investors
How the SEC commissioners pointedly disagreed with each other in their comments and dissents
The politics of the approval process
Whether Ethereum spot ETFs will be approved next
Why some big platforms and brokerages are not offering the spot Bitcoin ETFs
How RIAs will respond to the ETF and whether there’s going to be mainstream adoption by advisors

Thank you to our sponsors!

Guests

James Seyffart, Research analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence
Previous appearances on Unchained: Why Spot Bitcoin ETFs Are Likely to Finally Start Trading on Thursday
Why the SEC May Want Cash Creation of Spot Bitcoin ETFs
Why It Looks Like BlackRock Could Win America’s First Spot Bitcoin ETF
Why a Spot Bitcoin ETF Will Probably Launch No Later Than January 10
Eric Balchunas, Senior ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence
Previous appearances on Unchained:
Why Spot Bitcoin ETFs Are Likely to Finally Start Trading on Thursday
Will a Spot Bitcoin ETF Finally Get Approved?
Nate Geraci, President of The ETF Store

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