Crypto markets still have an 'opacity' problem says CoinShares CEO

CoinShares — a London-based crypto firm whose operations include asset management, venture capital, and proprietary trading — had exposure to Terra's "algorithmic" stablecoin UST, the collapse of which resulted in a loss of $21 million for the firm's trading unit of the business.

In this episode of The Scoop, CoinShares CEO Jean-Marie Mognetti provides an inside look at how CoinShares navigated Terra's collapse, and why crypto's "private company environment" leads to marketplace uncertainty.

According to Mognetti, a lack of standardized disclosure requirements for crypto firms makes it difficult to verify balance sheet details.

"The opacity despite all the progress we're doing is quite intense, so you don't have as much information as you want."

While Mognetti points to Voyager Digital as an example of a crypto company that has fully disclosed the state of its book, he acknowledges this is likely due to Voyager's status as a publicly traded company — for private companies, the disclosure requirements aren't nearly as robust and largely vary by jurisdiction.

This leads to uncertainty, Mognetti argued.

"Even if they tell you they're good, you don't know what they have in the book and against whom they are exposed."

Episode 75 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block's Frank Chaparro and CoinShares Co-Founder and CEO Jean-Marie Mognetti.

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 Chainalysis & IWC Schaffhausen

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About IWC Schaffhausen

IWC Schaffhausen is a Swiss luxury watch manufacturer based in Schaffhausen, Switzerland. Known for its unique engineering approach to watchmaking, IWC combines the best of human craftsmanship and creativity with cutting-edge technology and processes. With collections like the Portugieser and the Pilot’s Watches, the brand covers the whole spectrum from elegant timepieces to sports watches. For more information, visit IWC.com