The Scoop

Back in April, digital asset infrastructure provider PolySign acquired top fund administration firm MG Stover as reported by CoinDesk. At the time of acquisition, MG Stover had more than $40 billion in digital assets under administration. This move coincided with PolySign completing its Series C fundraise, which included new powerhouse investors such as Soros Fund Management, Brevan Howard and GSR, along with former investors including Cowen Digital, who led PolySign’s $54 million Series B last year.In this episode of The Scoop, Jack McDonald, chair and CEO of Polysign, and Matt Stover, CEO of MG Stover, sit down with host Frank Chaparro to record their first-ever podcast together, and to discuss the unwavering demand for digital asset-related products they are seeing from their clients.As Stover explained, while crypto prices may be down, there is still plenty of private funding flowing toward building out digital asset infrastructure:“We get to see both the liquid and illiquid on the investment side and there's so much capital still flowing into the private companies building infrastructure around this new asset class.”Although the recent market downturn has many market participants on edge, McDonald says the long-term view institutions from traditional finance have when it comes to digital assets make short-term market movements irrelevant.As McDonald said during the interview:“The long-term view that these traditional asset managers make in investing in this sort of way is really unaffected by the recent market downturns. They're taking a long-term view and they've done the work to make these decisions.”Episode 54 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block’s Frank Chaparro, Jack McDonald, Chair & CEO of PolySign, and Matt Stover, CEO of MG Stover.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.comThis episode is brought to you by our sponsors Fireblocks, Coinbase Prime & Cross RiverFireblocks is an enterprise-grade platform delivering a secure infrastructure for moving, storing, and issuing digital assets. Fireblocks enables exchanges, lending desks, custodians, banks, trading desks, and hedge funds to securely scale digital asset operations through the Fireblocks Network and MPC-based Wallet Infrastructure. Fireblocks serves over 725 financial institutions, has secured the transfer of over $1.5 trillion in digital assets, and has a unique insurance policy that covers assets in storage & transit. For more information, please visit www.fireblocks.com.About Coinbase PrimeCoinbase Prime is an integrated solution that provides institutional investors with an advanced trading platform, secure custody, and prime services to manage all their crypto assets in one place. Coinbase Prime fully integrates crypto trading and custody on a single platform, and gives clients the best all-in pricing in their network using their proprietary Smart Order Router and algorithmic execution. For more information, visit www.coinbase.com/prime.About Cross RiverCross River is powering today’s most innovative crypto companies, with banking and payments solutions you can rely on, including fiat on/off ramp solutions. Whether you are a crypto exchange, NFT marketplace, or wallet, Cross River’s API-based, all-in-one platform enables banking as a service, ACH & wire transfers, push-to-card disbursements, real-time payments, and virtual accounts and subledgers. Request your fiat on/off ramp solution now at crossriver.com/crypto.

Panic and fear gripped the crypto market this week as falling prices and market pressure caused two industry titans — hedge fund Three Arrows Capital and lending platform Celsius Network — to face potential insolvency.While the extended crypto market downturn has caught many market participants offside, one high-frequency trading firm managed to not only survive recent conditions but concluded trading for the month of May up 3.7%.In this episode of The Scoop, Martin Green, Co-CIO & CEO of Cambrian Asset Management, explains why proper risk management is key to his firm’s success, and why he believes there is still a bright future ahead for the crypto industry.According to Green, Cambrian’s risk management systems are designed to take the human element out of the equation:“Humans aren't designed to make great analytical judgments when their brains are filled with cortisol, serotonin or dopamine. They're just not. So our systems are designed to take risk off, like sell along, or buy to cover a short if the market goes against us. So if we're long, the market goes against us to some pre-programed amount… the systems will take risk off so that if the market becomes more extreme, we've protected our investors capital.”Although nearly $500 billion dollars has been wiped from the total crypto market cap so far in June, Green believes the severity of this correction has likely been exacerbated by crypto’s reflexive nature.While crypto’s volatility often draws the ire of critics who do not believe it to be a viable alternative to the current financial system, Green thinks it is important to remember is still a new technology:“I think we have to remember — and we all do in the industry — but people outside the industry have to remember that [crypto] fundamentally… is an early stage technology. Early stage in an eventual possible adoption curve.”Episode 53 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block’s Frank Chaparro and Martin Green, Co-CIO & CEO at Cambrian Asset Management.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 Fireblocks, Coinbase Prime & Cross RiverFireblocks is an enterprise-grade platform delivering a secure infrastructure for moving, storing, and issuing digital assets. Fireblocks enables exchanges, lending desks, custodians, banks, trading desks, and hedge funds to securely scale digital asset operations through the Fireblocks Network and MPC-based Wallet Infrastructure. Fireblocks serves over 725 financial institutions, has secured the transfer of over $1.5 trillion in digital assets, and has a unique insurance policy that covers assets in storage & transit. For more information, please visit www.fireblocks.com.About Coinbase PrimeCoinbase Prime is an integrated solution that provides institutional investors with an advanced trading platform, secure custody, and prime services to manage all their crypto assets in one place. Coinbase Prime fully integrates crypto trading and custody on a single platform, and gives clients the best all-in pricing in their network using their proprietary Smart Order Router and algorithmic execution. For more information, visit www.coinbase.com/prime.About Cross RiverCross River is powering today’s most innovative crypto companies, with banking and payments solutions you can rely on, including fiat on/off ramp solutions. Whether you are a crypto exchange, NFT marketplace, or wallet, Cross River’s API-based, all-in-one platform enables banking as a service, ACH & wire transfers, push-to-card disbursements, real-time payments, and virtual accounts and subledgers. Request your fiat on/off ramp solution now at crossriver.com/crypto.

As persistent inflation strikes fear in the market ahead of Wednesday’s FOMC meeting, the total crypto market cap has plunged below $1 trillion dollars for the first time since January 2021, as data from The Block shows:In this special episode of The Scoop, financial veteran Jim Greco — a general partner at crypto high-frequency trading firm F9 Research — examines some of the causes of the recent market meltdown, and explains why only the strongest crypto companies will survive.According to Greco, this sell off was driven primarily by macro concerns regarding persistent inflation:“On the actual market structure component of what the sell off has been about, I think it's largely a macroeconomic story — and really ever since the end of last year, we've been dealing with a huge inflation story.”Last Friday, the US Labor Department reported May’s consumer price index to be up 8.6% compared to May of 2021, signaling the highest levels of inflation since the 1980s. In addition to cratering crypto prices, Greco also believes the bear market will help bring last year’s inflated crypto valuations back to reality:“Were these companies ever worth $10 billion or whatever the valuation was? Probably not. I think this was just investors looking at the direction of volumes and volatility last year, projecting out as if that wouldn’t stop into 2025, but now we've had a huge correction and it's pretty clear what those projections into 2025 look like now, and they're not anywhere close.”Indeed, crypto financial services firm BlockFi, which reportedly raised funds at over a $5 billion valuation just last year, announced recently that it was in the process of finalizing a down round that would bring BlockFi’s valuation to just $1 billion. Episode 52 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block’s Frank Chaparro and Jim Greco general partner at F9 Research.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 Fireblocks, Coinbase Prime & Cross RiverFireblocks is an enterprise-grade platform delivering a secure infrastructure for moving, storing, and issuing digital assets. Fireblocks enables exchanges, lending desks, custodians, banks, trading desks, and hedge funds to securely scale digital asset operations through the Fireblocks Network and MPC-based Wallet Infrastructure. Fireblocks serves over 725 financial institutions, has secured the transfer of over $1.5 trillion in digital assets, and has a unique insurance policy that covers assets in storage & transit. For more information, please visit www.fireblocks.com.About Coinbase PrimeCoinbase Prime is an integrated solution that provides institutional investors with an advanced trading platform, secure custody, and prime services to manage all their crypto assets in one place. Coinbase Prime fully integrates crypto trading and custody on a single platform, and gives clients the best all-in pricing in their network using their proprietary Smart Order Router and algorithmic execution. For more information, visit www.coinbase.com/prime.About Cross RiverCross River is powering today’s most innovative crypto companies, with banking and payments solutions you can rely on, including fiat on/off ramp solutions. Whether you are a crypto exchange, NFT marketplace, or wallet, Cross River’s API-based, all-in-one platform enables banking as a service, ACH & wire transfers, push-to-card disbursements, real-time payments, and virtual accounts and subledgers. Request your fiat on/off ramp solution now at crossriver.com/crypto.

Elwood Technologies — an Alan Howard backed digital asset platform that is building trading infrastructure for institutional investors — closed a $70 million Series A last month co-led by Goldman Sachs and Dawn Capital.In this episode of The Scoop, Elwood CEO James Stickland sits down with host Frank Chaparro to discuss Elwood’s recent fundraise, and to provide a closer look at the institutional activity that is occurring in the crypto market.According to Stickland, institutional exposure to crypto “is more on the derivatives end of the market,” largely because of the lucrative spreads:“Crypto derivative specialists are still able to make spreads they can drive buses through. Which is fantastic for them, which is obviously therefore creating FOMO, and with the synthetic nature and capability of it, is driving that real appetite.”While derivatives are, for now, the extent of many institutions’ crypto exposure, Stickland claims that regulatory clarity regarding digital assets will “really allow engagement on spot and holding on balance sheet.”Stickland views the combination of coming regulatory clarity along with more robust market infrastructure as having a powerful impact on the market in the long run:“Getting great prime, getting great credit approved facilities, and the regulator making a call — that plus having some real stable infrastructure, that lights this thing up beyond all belief.”Episode 51 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block’s Frank Chaparro and James Stickland, CEO of Elwood Technologies.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 Fireblocks, Coinbase Prime & Cross RiverFireblocks is an enterprise-grade platform delivering a secure infrastructure for moving, storing, and issuing digital assets. Fireblocks enables exchanges, lending desks, custodians, banks, trading desks, and hedge funds to securely scale digital asset operations through the Fireblocks Network and MPC-based Wallet Infrastructure. Fireblocks serves over 725 financial institutions, has secured the transfer of over $1.5 trillion in digital assets, and has a unique insurance policy that covers assets in storage & transit. For more information, please visit www.fireblocks.com.About Coinbase PrimeCoinbase Prime is an integrated solution that provides institutional investors with an advanced trading platform, secure custody, and prime services to manage all their crypto assets in one place. Coinbase Prime fully integrates crypto trading and custody on a single platform, and gives clients the best all-in pricing in their network using their proprietary Smart Order Router and algorithmic execution. For more information, visit www.coinbase.com/prime.About Cross RiverCross River is powering today’s most innovative crypto companies, with banking and payments solutions you can rely on, including fiat on/off ramp solutions. Whether you are a crypto exchange, NFT marketplace, or wallet, Cross River’s API-based, all-in-one platform enables banking as a service, ACH & wire transfers, push-to-card disbursements, real-time payments, and virtual accounts and subledgers. Request your fiat on/off ramp solution now at crossriver.com/crypto.

Marathon Digital produced a “record” 1,259 bitcoins during the first three months of 2022. Yet the US-based bitcoin mining firm reported a Q1 net loss of $13 million, largely due to the decline in bitcoin’s price since last year’s highs.Despite falling short on revenue estimates, Marathon CEO Fred Thiel claims that the current cost for his company to produce one bitcoin via mining is “about $6,250,” giving the firm plenty of margin before they would need to consider scaling down their operation.In this episode of The Scoop, Fred Thiel sits down with host Frank Chaparro to discuss the intricacies of effectively managing a bitcoin mining company, along with Marathon’s growth over the years.As Thiel explains during the interview, there are three main considerations when it comes to operating a bitcoin mining company:“There are really three things we worry about: the price of Bitcoin, the cost of power, and our ability to deploy and then access hardware. Capital is important, too, but those are the three KPIs we look at all day long.”While the price of bitcoin will always be prone to fluctuation, the energy cost for bitcoin miners is typically predictable since it is purchased on long-term contracts. As Thiel explains:“Just like the airline industry will hedge their fuel purchases by buying futures on fuel, when we write a hosting agreement, we are locking in a fixed price for five years. So our cost of hosting, which is energy hosting, services, etc., is locked in a little over $0.04 a kilowatt hour for five years. And our energy provider has to take out the hedges to make sure that they're not upside down on the energy cost.”The third consideration — the ability to deploy and access hardware — is often a bottleneck for Marathon, because the company has to wait on government bodies to approve operational permits.Episode 50 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block’s Frank Chaparro and Fred Thiel, Chair and CEO at Marathon Digital.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 Fireblocks, Coinbase Prime & Cross RiverFireblocks is an enterprise-grade platform delivering a secure infrastructure for moving, storing, and issuing digital assets. Fireblocks enables exchanges, lending desks, custodians, banks, trading desks, and hedge funds to securely scale digital asset operations through the Fireblocks Network and MPC-based Wallet Infrastructure. Fireblocks serves over 725 financial institutions, has secured the transfer of over $1.5 trillion in digital assets, and has a unique insurance policy that covers assets in storage & transit. For more information, please visit www.fireblocks.com.About Coinbase PrimeCoinbase Prime is an integrated solution that provides institutional investors with an advanced trading platform, secure custody, and prime services to manage all their crypto assets in one place. Coinbase Prime fully integrates crypto trading and custody on a single platform, and gives clients the best all-in pricing in their network using their proprietary Smart Order Router and algorithmic execution. For more information, visit www.coinbase.com/prime.About Cross RiverCross River is powering today’s most innovative crypto companies, with banking and payments solutions you can rely on, including fiat on/off ramp solutions. Whether you are a crypto exchange, NFT marketplace, or wallet, Cross River’s API-based, all-in-one platform enables banking as a service, ACH & wire transfers, push-to-card disbursements, real-time payments, and virtual accounts and subledgers. Request your fiat on/off ramp solution now at crossriver.com/crypto.

 Coinbase shares are down over 70% on the year, a state of affairs compounded by a rough Q1, but one leading Wall Street analyst believes Coinbase may be undervalued. In this episode of The Scoop, Mark Palmer — managing director and fintech analyst at global financial services firm BTIG — shares why his firm is bullish on a narrative shift on Wall Street regarding Coinbase stock in the coming months.As Palmer contended during the show:“Coinbase has developed itself over the last ten years, largely via acquisition… and over time, this is going to become much less of a retail trading story and much more about a sort of crypto supermarket that's going to have an awful lot of different revenue drivers.”Palmer points to the 2021 acquisition of Bison Trails as an example of Coinbase’s horizontal expansion. As Coinbase CPO Surojit Chatterjee and Bison Trails founder Joe Lallouz argued during an episode of The Scoop, the deal enhanced Coinbase’s crypto infrastructure services products, including institutional staking support.Although Coinbase offers a wide range of crypto services, Palmer believes many Wall Street analysts tend to view Coinbase first and foremost through the lens of an exchange:“There are a lot of folks who are covering some of the crypto exchanges and platforms that really aren't as focused on crypto — maybe they're focused on exchanges at large — and some of those distinctions and nuances, which are crucially important, get missed.”Editor's Note: While Coinbase is a sponsor of The Scoop podcast, this episode is not an endorsement of Coinbase stock or products, nor was it produced with involvement from Coinbase. All opinions expressed by host and podcast guest are solely their own opinions and not necessarily those of The Block. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.Episode 48 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block’s Frank Chaparro and Mark Palmer, Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at BTIG.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 Fireblocks, Coinbase Prime & Cross RiverFireblocks is an enterprise-grade platform delivering a secure infrastructure for moving, storing, and issuing digital assets. Fireblocks enables exchanges, lending desks, custodians, banks, trading desks, and hedge funds to securely scale digital asset operations through the Fireblocks Network and MPC-based Wallet Infrastructure. Fireblocks serves over 725 financial institutions, has secured the transfer of over $1.5 trillion in digital assets, and has a unique insurance policy that covers assets in storage & transit. For more information, please visit www.fireblocks.com.About Coinbase PrimeCoinbase Prime is an integrated solution that provides institutional investors with an advanced trading platform, secure custody, and prime services to manage all their crypto assets in one place. Coinbase Prime fully integrates crypto trading and custody on a single platform, and gives clients the best all-in pricing in their network using their proprietary Smart Order Router and algorithmic execution. For more information, visit www.coinbase.com/prime.About Cross RiverCross River is powering today’s most innovative crypto companies, with banking and payments solutions you can rely on, including fiat on/off ramp solutions. Whether you are a crypto exchange, NFT marketplace, or wallet, Cross River’s API-based, all-in-one platform enables banking as a service, ACH & wire transfers, push-to-card disbursements, real-time payments, and virtual accounts and subledgers. Request your fiat on/off ramp solution now at crossriver.com/crypto.

In his last appearance on The Scoop, Antonio Juliano — founder and CEO of decentralized derivatives platform dYdX — was preparing to integrate StarkWare’s layer-2 scaling technology into the third iteration of the dYdX protocol.  Just over a year later, dYdX has grown to dominate the decentralized derivatives space, with the majority of decentralized perpetual swap trading volume occurring on the platform, according to data from The Block.In this episode of The Scoop, Antonio Juliano explains why his team remains undeterred by the global market drawdown as they work towards the upcoming dYdX v4 release, which will fully decentralize governance of the protocol.As Juliano said on the show, his long-term vision extends past market cyclicality:“It's really important for us to maintain that mentality of: the markets may go down, people may write us off to some level, but really what we're building for is five years from now.”While most “blue chip” DeFi tokens have fallen significantly from last year’s all-time highs, Juliano believes the recent trend of centralized exchanges like Coinbase and Robinhood providing users with streamlined access to Web3 platforms will provide an influx of new market participants to DeFi protocols.As Juliano explained during the interview,“It's just going to be a huge magnifier and multiplier in terms of the types of people and the number of people that can interact with DeFi. I'm really excited about this — I've been excited about this narrative playing out for a while now. I thought it would probably take a little bit longer, to be honest than it did... but it's something that that I'm really excited about and I think will be a huge multiplier for DeFi." Episode 48 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block’s Frank Chaparro and Antonio Juliano, Founder & CEO of dYdX.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 Fireblocks, Coinbase Prime & Cross RiverFireblocks is an enterprise-grade platform delivering a secure infrastructure for moving, storing, and issuing digital assets. Fireblocks enables exchanges, lending desks, custodians, banks, trading desks, and hedge funds to securely scale digital asset operations through the Fireblocks Network and MPC-based Wallet Infrastructure. Fireblocks serves over 725 financial institutions, has secured the transfer of over $1.5 trillion in digital assets, and has a unique insurance policy that covers assets in storage & transit. For more information, please visit www.fireblocks.com.About Coinbase PrimeCoinbase Prime is an integrated solution that provides institutional investors with an advanced trading platform, secure custody, and prime services to manage all their crypto assets in one place. Coinbase Prime fully integrates crypto trading and custody on a single platform, and gives clients the best all-in pricing in their network using their proprietary Smart Order Router and algorithmic execution. For more information, visit www.coinbase.com/prime.About Cross RiverCross River is powering today’s most innovative crypto companies, with banking and payments solutions you can rely on, including fiat on/off ramp solutions. Whether you are a crypto exchange, NFT marketplace, or wallet, Cross River’s API-based, all-in-one platform enables banking as a service, ACH & wire transfers, push-to-card disbursements, real-time payments, and virtual accounts and subledgers. Request your fiat on/off ramp solution now at crossriver.com/crypto.

As Anthony Scaramucci explained during his last appearance on The Scoop, his firm SkyBridge Capital began investing in bitcoin near the end of 2020. Just under two years later, Scaramucci is positioned near the center of the burgeoning crypto industry, largely due to his role as Chair of finance conference business SALT, which partnered with FTX to host the first annual Crypto Bahamas conference in April of this year.In this episode of The Scoop, Scaramucci tells the story of how he first met FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried, and explains why upcoming regulatory clarity could signify “a floodgate opening” for bitcoin.Out of the multiple structural tailwinds Scaramucci covers during the interview, he believes his prediction that a “cash bitcoin ETF will happen sometime this year” would likely have the biggest impact on the market, if it turns out to be true.As Scaramucci hinted at during the show, “Buddies of mine have very large institutions, that unfortunately for right now have to remain nameless due to confidentiality, that are gearing up and ready to pounce on the Bitcoin cash ETF.”According to a Nasdaq survey conducted in April, 72% of financial advisors polled indicated they would be more likely to invest client assets into crypto if there was spot ETF product available. Although the SEC has either rejected or delayed bitcoin spot ETF applications for years, Scaramucci believes that could all change soon, “given the saturation and the maturity of the market.”In addition to a potential bitcoin spot ETF approval, Scaramucci also points to Fidelity’s recent announcement that it will allow clients to gain bitcoin exposure through their 401k accounts as another structural tailwind for bitcoin in the long run.“Fidelity is about to do for bitcoin what it did for the mutual fund and the U.S. equity markets when the 401k programs came into existence in the 1980s."Episode 47 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block’s Frank Chaparro and Anthony Scaramucci, Founder of SkyBridge Capital and Chair of SALT.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 Fireblocks, Coinbase Prime & Cross RiverFireblocks is an enterprise-grade platform delivering a secure infrastructure for moving, storing, and issuing digital assets. Fireblocks enables exchanges, lending desks, custodians, banks, trading desks, and hedge funds to securely scale digital asset operations through the Fireblocks Network and MPC-based Wallet Infrastructure. Fireblocks serves over 725 financial institutions, has secured the transfer of over $1.5 trillion in digital assets, and has a unique insurance policy that covers assets in storage & transit. For more information, please visit www.fireblocks.com.About Coinbase PrimeCoinbase Prime is an integrated solution that provides institutional investors with an advanced trading platform, secure custody, and prime services to manage all their crypto assets in one place. Coinbase Prime fully integrates crypto trading and custody on a single platform, and gives clients the best all-in pricing in their network using their proprietary Smart Order Router and algorithmic execution. For more information, visit www.coinbase.com/prime.About Cross RiverCross River is powering today’s most innovative crypto companies, with banking and payments solutions you can rely on, including fiat on/off ramp solutions. Whether you are a crypto exchange, NFT marketplace, or wallet, Cross River’s API-based, all-in-one platform enables banking as a service, ACH & wire transfers, push-to-card disbursements, real-time payments, and virtual accounts and subledgers. Request your fiat on/off ramp solution now at crossriver.com/crypto.

Fresh off the heels of a $50M Series C round last November, StarkWare Industries closed a $100M Series D round on Wednesday, giving the Israeli-based startup a valuation of $8 billion. The fundraise was led by Greenoaks Capital and Coatue, and included Tiger Global amongst others.StarkWare aims to bring efficient, affordable blockchain transactions to the masses through its ZK-rollup technology, which addresses blockchain congestion by compressing multiple transactions into ‘STARK proofs’ that are then passed on to the underlying blockchain.In this episode of The Scoop, StarkWare co-founders Eli Ben-Sasson and Uri Kolodny sit down with host Frank Chaparro to discuss what their firm has been building, and how their technology will allow blockchains to scale.According to Kolodny, the trustless computational integrity enabled by StarkWare technology will be very useful to society:“It delivers something that is dearly missing and dearly needed in modern societies and the way they’re doing their computation. That is something very simple: it is integrity — the ability to know that something was done the right way, even when you weren’t watching.”Despite bearish sentiment across markets, StarkWare’s recent fundraise shows VCs are excited about the opportunities unlocked through StarkWare’s scaling technology, and are willing to continue providing the developer with capital.StarkWare’s two products, StarkEx and StarkNet, both serve as Ethereum scaling solutions, with the former being "scaling as a service," while the latter is permissionless. StarkNet completed its launch earlier this year, allowing any developer to integrate the platform into their application.... For more visit theblockcrypto.com/podcastsEpisode 46 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block’s Frank Chaparro and StarkWare Co-Founders Uri Kolodny and Eli Ben-Sasson.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 Fireblocks, Coinbase Prime & Cross RiverFireblocks is an enterprise-grade platform delivering a secure infrastructure for moving, storing, and issuing digital assets. Fireblocks enables exchanges, lending desks, custodians, banks, trading desks, and hedge funds to securely scale digital asset operations through the Fireblocks Network and MPC-based Wallet Infrastructure. Fireblocks serves over 725 financial institutions, has secured the transfer of over $1.5 trillion in digital assets, and has a unique insurance policy that covers assets in storage & transit. For more information, please visit www.fireblocks.com.About Coinbase PrimeCoinbase Prime is an integrated solution that provides institutional investors with an advanced trading platform, secure custody, and prime services to manage all their crypto assets in one place. Coinbase Prime fully integrates crypto trading and custody on a single platform, and gives clients the best all-in pricing in their network using their proprietary Smart Order Router and algorithmic execution. For more information, visit www.coinbase.com/prime.About Cross RiverCross River is powering today’s most innovative crypto companies, with banking and payments solutions you can rely on, including fiat on/off ramp solutions. Whether you are a crypto exchange, NFT marketplace, or wallet, Cross River’s API-based, all-in-one platform enables banking as a service, ACH & wire transfers, push-to-card disbursements, real-time payments, and virtual accounts and subledgers. Request your fiat on/off ramp solution now at crossriver.com/crypto.

Much of the policy conversation surrounding crypto is concerned with Wall Street-minded issues that mostly take place in the digital world – investor protection, cybersecurity, licensure to provide online financial services. But the policy conversation surrounding proof-of-work mining is asking crypto to contend with real-world issues. Mining firms are answering to environmental narratives, concerns of noise pollution and questions as to how a data center can better a community.This episode of Policy Scoop takes a deep dive into the policy dialogues around mining, from the federal level down to local communities. Host Aislinn Keely sits down with Taras Kulyk, Senior VP of Growth at mining firm Core Scientific, to talk about regulators' and lawmakers' views on proof-of-work mining and how the industry is meeting those concerns. "It all boils down to the executive order from the Biden administration that's dealing with a wide swath of things. But the environmental impact kind of became the key rallying mark for digital asset miners in the United States," said Kulyk. "The good thing is, is it seems like there's a lot of misinformation that can be very easily quelled and dealt with within Washington, specifically that for some reason, legislators think that digital miners produce CO2."New York Assembly Member Clyde Vanel also joins the show to talk about the proposed mining moratorium in the state, and why he thinks it's not the answer to environmental concerns. Vanel shares how he's seen mining firms positively shape some of New York's communities, and why he's hopeful for its role in the state.Episode 45 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block’s Aislinn Keely and Core Scientific SVP of Growth Taras Kulyk & NYS Assemblyman Clyde Vanel.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 Fireblocks, Coinbase Prime & Cross RiverFireblocks is an enterprise-grade platform delivering a secure infrastructure for moving, storing, and issuing digital assets. Fireblocks enables exchanges, lending desks, custodians, banks, trading desks, and hedge funds to securely scale digital asset operations through the Fireblocks Network and MPC-based Wallet Infrastructure. Fireblocks serves over 725 financial institutions, has secured the transfer of over $1.5 trillion in digital assets, and has a unique insurance policy that covers assets in storage & transit. For more information, please visit www.fireblocks.com.About Coinbase PrimeCoinbase Prime is an integrated solution that provides institutional investors with an advanced trading platform, secure custody, and prime services to manage all their crypto assets in one place. Coinbase Prime fully integrates crypto trading and custody on a single platform, and gives clients the best all-in pricing in their network using their proprietary Smart Order Router and algorithmic execution. For more information, visit www.coinbase.com/prime.About Cross RiverCross River is powering today’s most innovative crypto companies, with banking and payments solutions you can rely on, including fiat on/off ramp solutions. Whether you are a crypto exchange, NFT marketplace, or wallet, Cross River’s API-based, all-in-one platform enables banking as a service, ACH & wire transfers, push-to-card disbursements, real-time payments, and virtual accounts and subledgers. Request your fiat on/off ramp solution now at crossriver.com/crypto.