The Scoop

At the onset of the pandemic in 2020, the daily lives of virtually everyone around the world radically changed. Commutes to the office ceased. Concerts and dining outings were canceled.For some, punting stocks and cryptocurrencies on online brokerages filled the void. That fundamental shift reshaped US equity markets, ushering in an era dominated by Wall Street Bets, meme stocks, and cryptocurrency. Indeed, retail trading has yet to subside even as economies reopen. Monthly net purchases of US equities by individual investors have stabilized at around $20 billion—a surge from the pre-pandemic norm of about $5 billion. On this episode of The Scoop, eToro's newly-appointed US lead Lule Demmissie explained why she doesn't see retail's newfound presence in the market subsiding anytime soon, and how eToro plans to capitalize on growing its business related to cryptocurrencies and stock trading."What you're seeing is the sustainability of that user base staying engaged, waiting for dips, getting in the markets when necessary," said Demmissie, former Ally Invest president and TD Ameritrade managing director."Ultimately they're sticking around and they're engaging every time there's volatility," she added. Demmissie said that the collective mind of the retail crowd could have more insight than institutions previously may have thought."I'm originally from Ethiopia, right? So I grew up in the throes of a revolution. So the idea of mob rule is something that is like embedded in my DNA as to be averse to it," said Demmissie. "There is a self-made mechanism, a self-clearing mechanism that is happening in social, where there is a balance that takes place within the crowd, where the crowd gets smarter and smarter, and the synthesis of it afterwards becomes something that is really interesting to listen to."Episode 4 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block’s Frank Chaparro and CEO Lule Demmissie of eToroUS.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, Kraken & ChainalysisFireblocks 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 KrakenWhether you’re an experienced crypto trader or just starting out, Kraken has the tools to help you achieve financial freedom. With 50+ cryptocurrencies to choose from, industry-leading security and a wide variety of features to suit any investing strategy, Kraken puts the power in your hands to buy, sell and trade digital assets. Visit Kraken.com to get started today.About ChainalysisChainalysis is the blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services, and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, and insurance and cybersecurity companies in over 60 countries. Our data powers investigation, compliance, and market intelligence software that has been used to solve some of the world’s most high-profile criminal cases and grow consumer access to cryptocurrency safely. Backed by Accel, Addition, Benchmark, Coatue, Paradigm, Ribbit, and other leading firms in venture capital, Chainalysis builds trust in blockchains to promote more financial freedom with less risk. For more information, visit www.chainalysis.com.

ADA — the native cryptocurrency of the Cardano network — is among the myriad of cryptocurrencies that saw their price soar in 2021.On this episode of The Scoop, The Block's Frank Chaparro sat down with Charles Hoskinson, founder of Cardano and CEO of Input-Output Global, to unpack the ecosystem underpinning the price headlines.While Cardano's ADA has surged over the course of 2021, the blockchain that underpins the token is yet to play host to a large decentralized exchange, of the kind that have sprung up on Solana or Ethereum. There have also been questions about the number of successful decentralized applications or 'DApps' in the ecosystem, when compared to others.Hoskinson says that this sentiment reflects a misunderstanding about what is being developed on Cardano."There's almost 200 DApps that are under construction right now," he noted. "SundaeSwap is one of the most prominent, it's launching tomorrow," referring to the DEX that launched Thursday — albeit with congestion issues that resulted in some transactions taking longer than expected to complete."There are several already running on the ecosystem," Hoskinson clarified.In the future, Cardano could even continue to exist without the participation of the Wyoming-resident. As Hoskinson opined, "the founders are important because they get the party started and they set the initial state of the system." He went on to add, "I think that you have to plan for obsolescence, you have to plan to fire yourself. And that's what Satoshi did."Episode 3 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block’s Frank Chaparro and Charles Hoskinson, founder of Cardano and CEO of Input-Output Global.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, Kraken & ChainalysisFireblocks 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 KrakenWhether you’re an experienced crypto trader or just starting out, Kraken has the tools to help you achieve financial freedom. With 50+ cryptocurrencies to choose from, industry-leading security and a wide variety of features to suit any investing strategy, Kraken puts the power in your hands to buy, sell and trade digital assets. Visit Kraken.com to get started today.About ChainalysisChainalysis is the blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services, and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, and insurance and cybersecurity companies in over 60 countries. Our data powers investigation, compliance, and market intelligence software that has been used to solve some of the world’s most high-profile criminal cases and grow consumer access to cryptocurrency safely. Backed by Accel, Addition, Benchmark, Coatue, Paradigm, Ribbit, and other leading firms in venture capital, Chainalysis builds trust in blockchains to promote more financial freedom with less risk. For more information, visit www.chainalysis.com.

Last year, cryptocurrency concerns took center stage in an ongoing debate over the US government's trillion-dollar infrastructure bill.The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act proposed a variety of ways to pay for its intended projects, including a heightened focus on crypto tax reporting. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has long teased unified broker reporting for exchanges, meaning entities that fall under the broker definition will be required to report information and send tax forms to the IRS. The infrastructure bill made it official: broker reporting is coming in 2023. But some are worried the bill's definition of a "broker" is too broad and could encompass entities that can't reasonably report to the IRS, like miners or decentralized finance (DeFi) entities. Key amendments to clarify that definition failed to pass, and it's now all on the to clarify "broker" in its upcoming guidance.In this week's Policy Scoop, The Block's Aislinn Keely dives into the current landscape of crypto tax reporting and how the coming guidance might affect taxpayers.Keely spoke with Justin Woodward, tax attorney and co-founder of TaxBit, and Seth Wilks, Senior Director of SME and Government Relations at TaxBit about: The historical context of the long-awaited broker reporting guidance and why it matters. What will likely be in the guidance and why it's likely to affect centralized exchanges first. When it will take effect and what that might look like. How the IRS is thinking about DeFi and non-fungible tokens. Episode 2 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block’s Aislinn Keely and Justin Woodward, tax attorney & co-founder of TaxBit and Seth Wilks, Senior Director of SME & Government Relations, at TaxBitListen 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, Kraken & ChainalysisFireblocks 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 KrakenWhether you’re an experienced crypto trader or just starting out, Kraken has the tools to help you achieve financial freedom. With 50+ cryptocurrencies to choose from, industry-leading security and a wide variety of features to suit any investing strategy, Kraken puts the power in your hands to buy, sell and trade digital assets. Visit Kraken.com to get started today.About ChainalysisChainalysis is the blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services, and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, and insurance and cybersecurity companies in over 60 countries. Our data powers investigation, compliance, and market intelligence software that has been used to solve some of the world’s most high-profile criminal cases and grow consumer access to cryptocurrency safely. Backed by Accel, Addition, Benchmark, Coatue, Paradigm, Ribbit, and other leading firms in venture capital, Chainalysis builds trust in blockchains to promote more financial freedom with less risk. For more information, visit www.chainalysis.com.

2021 was a watershed year for crypto exchange Coinbase. In addition to becoming the biggest cryptocurrency company to tap the public markets via a direct listing, the firm grew its total assets-on-platform to more than $255 billion, hired more than 3,000 people, and clocked in quarterly revenues above $1 billion during both the second and third quarters. Still, the company’s stock price has slid since its market debut in April, down by more than 31% since its first day of trading. The bearish sentiment is likely tied to the lack of predictability in Coinbase’s revenues, which are volatile and heavily dependent on trading fees.During the latest episode of The Scoop, Coinbase president Emilie Choi said that Wall Street is focused too much on the predictability of short-term revenue rather than the much broader gameplan the company has for becoming a foundation for the emerging crypto-economy.“We have obviously our flagship brokerage, and then we have the exchange and those are reinventing what a financial system can mean,” she said. “And then the final part of this strategy is about crypto as a new form of App Store, and there’s so much to tap into there.”That shift could help diversify its revenue model, she added. “We have largely a trading model that generates a ton of revenue for us, and we love that model and we’re totally OK with the volatility of it. And at the same time, we’re investing very heavily in the subscription and services model, and you’re seeing a lot of growth from that because it’s the thing that helps us control our own destiny.”To that end, Choi said the firm plans to pour more resources into its Coinbase Wallet. It is also expanding its subscription businesses — like Coinbase Cloud — as a means to grow its non-transaction-based revenue.....For more visit theblockcrypto.com/podcastsEpisode 1 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block’s Frank Chaparro and President & COO Emilie Choi of Coinbase.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, Kraken & ChainalysisFireblocks 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 KrakenWhether you’re an experienced crypto trader or just starting out, Kraken has the tools to help you achieve financial freedom. With 50+ cryptocurrencies to choose from, industry-leading security and a wide variety of features to suit any investing strategy, Kraken puts the power in your hands to buy, sell and trade digital assets. Visit Kraken.com to get started today.About ChainalysisChainalysis is the blockchain data platform. We provide data, software, services, and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, and insurance and cybersecurity companies in over 60 countries. Our data powers investigation, compliance, and market intelligence software that has been used to solve some of the world’s most high-profile criminal cases and grow consumer access to cryptocurrency safely. Backed by Accel, Addition, Benchmark, Coatue, Paradigm, Ribbit, and other leading firms in venture capital, Chainalysis builds trust in blockchains to promote more financial freedom with less risk. For more information, visit www.chainalysis.com.

Sam Bankman-Fried, the billionaire founder of crypto exchange FTX, joins The Scoop to close out 2021 in a two-part episode that explores the origin story of the increasingly ubiquitous trading venue, Bankman-Fried's worldview, and what he expects for the digital asset market in the year to come.In Part 2 of this episode, Bankman-Fried and Chaparro also explore: Whether a crackdown on stablecoins is a possible concern for FTX’s business The ramifications of the government’s “really extreme fiscal” reaction to Covid-19 and its impact on the monetary supply Why the Fed should have seen hot inflation coming Product leverage in the cryptocurrency market and cascading liquidations How the amount of capital sitting on the sidelines is “absolutely massive” and could fend off a big crypto bear market Disclaimer: Beginning in 2021, Michael McCaffrey, the former CEO and majority owner of The Block, took a series of loans from founder and former FTX and Alameda CEO Sam Bankman-Fried. McCaffrey resigned from the company in December 2022 after failing to disclose those transactions.Episode 86 of Season 3 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block’s Frank Chaparro and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried of FTX.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 Bakkt, Kraken and KavaBakkt® unlocks the $1.2+ trillion of digital assets that is currently held in cryptocurrencies, rewards and loyalty points, gaming assets and merchant stored value. We began in 2018 with the vision to bring trust and transparency to digital assets. Through the Bakkt Warehouse and Bakkt Bitcoin Futures and Options contracts, we serve institutional clients in an end-to-end regulated market with true price transparency. For consumers, Bakkt aggregates digital assets to enable instant liquidity and to empower users to trade, transfer and pay however they want. Visit Bakkt.com for more informationAbout KrakenWhether you’re an experienced crypto trader or just starting out, Kraken has the tools to help you achieve financial freedom. With 50+ cryptocurrencies to choose from, industry-leading security and a wide variety of features to suit any investing strategy, Kraken puts the power in your hands to buy, sell and trade digital assets. Visit Kraken.com to get started today.About KavaFor over four years, Kava Labs has contributed to building a portfolio of decentralized products and services that allow users to gain access to all of the benefits of DeFi. Kava connects the world's largest cryptocurrencies, ecosystems, and financial applications on one of DeFi’s most trusted, scalable, and secure earning platforms. Kava lets you mint stablecoins, lend, borrow, earn and swap safely and efficiently across the world’s biggest crypto assets with a simple and intuitive user experience and the full confidence of institutional-grade security and quality. With a proven track record of delivering successful projects safely, the Kava Platform is DeFi's most trusted, scalable, and secure institutional-grade cross-chain engine.

Sam Bankman-Fried, the billionaire founder of crypto exchange FTX, joins The Scoop to close out 2021 in a two-part episode that explores the origin story of the increasingly ubiquitous trading venue, Bankman-Fried's worldview, and what he expects for the digital asset market in the year to come.We begin with Part 1, during which the former Jane Street trader and Stanford graduate harkens back to the precious beginnings of FTX, spun out of Alameda Research, a trading firm he also founded. Bankman-Fried also explained why the firm was launched in the first place back in 2019. “What it really was, was saying, OK here’s a business [that’s] making $1 billion-plus a year collectively at the time, which we understand deeply,” he said. “They were just not well built. The number of problems they had were enormous. Losing millions of dollars a day in customer funds ... the risk engines just didn’t work. And you could see why.”As Bankman-Fried recalled, some back-of-envelope math played a role in the decision-making process. He said he considered what the expected value of an exchange could be and figured that the odds of success were non-trivial:"I don’t know exactly how high, but definitely not close to zero, so fuck, it let’s do it. That was basically the chain of logic there. Eighty percent chance we fail to ever get a user. If we do get users then there is a 50% chance that it goes pretty well.”Disclaimer: Beginning in 2021, Michael McCaffrey, the former CEO and majority owner of The Block, took a series of loans from founder and former FTX and Alameda CEO Sam Bankman-Fried. McCaffrey resigned from the company in December 2022 after failing to disclose those transactions.Episode 85 of Season 3 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block’s Frank Chaparro and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried of FTX.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 Bakkt, Kraken and KavaBakkt® unlocks the $1.2+ trillion of digital assets that is currently held in cryptocurrencies, rewards and loyalty points, gaming assets and merchant stored value. We began in 2018 with the vision to bring trust and transparency to digital assets. Through the Bakkt Warehouse and Bakkt Bitcoin Futures and Options contracts, we serve institutional clients in an end-to-end regulated market with true price transparency. For consumers, Bakkt aggregates digital assets to enable instant liquidity and to empower users to trade, transfer and pay however they want. Visit Bakkt.com for more informationAbout KrakenWhether you’re an experienced crypto trader or just starting out, Kraken has the tools to help you achieve financial freedom. With 50+ cryptocurrencies to choose from, industry-leading security and a wide variety of features to suit any investing strategy, Kraken puts the power in your hands to buy, sell and trade digital assets. Visit Kraken.com to get started today.About KavaFor over four years, Kava Labs has contributed to building a portfolio of decentralized products and services that allow users to gain access to all of the benefits of DeFi. Kava connects the world's largest cryptocurrencies, ecosystems, and financial applications on one of DeFi’s most trusted, scalable, and secure earning platforms. Kava lets you mint stablecoins, lend, borrow, earn and swap safely and efficiently across the world’s biggest crypto assets with a simple and intuitive user experience and the full confidence of institutional-grade security and quality. With a proven track record of delivering successful projects safely, the Kava Platform is DeFi's most trusted, scalable, and secure institutional-grade cross-chain engine.

On this episode of The Scoop, The Block's VP of Research Larry Cermak joined host Frank Chaparro for a discussion in which he broke down his predictions for the top crypto trends to come in 2022.For the year ahead, Cermak expects that market appetite for established projects will continue, and that exchanges and data businesses in particular stand to benefit most.“If there is already an established exchange or established data business and it just needs a little bit of cash to raise, they're never going to have issues," Cermak remarked.Layer-2's in focusCermak also outlined why he believes layer-2 networks — protocols that enable faster and cheaper transactions on top of blockchains — will be a central theme of 2022, with a particular focus on zero-knowledge rollups.“I do think that there's going to be a big development in layer-2's next year," said Cermak, adding:“You have the first proper decentralized applications launching on these chains not just built for Ethereum, but built already for the layer-2’s. So I think that will be the main theme of next year when it comes to this perspective.” The next NFT wave?Despite recent reductions in attention on NFTs as a whole, Cermak believes there's going to be a shift in demand for certain kinds of NFTs and gaming tokens.Indeed, he expects the NFT market to continue to grow and become more sophisticated in its next wave. “I think, you know, maybe some of the profile NFTs are not going to be as hot next year," Cermak told Chaparro, "But I think some of the more creative ones and in-game assets of proper games… I think we’re going to see some of that next year.”For an overview of The Block's 2022 Digital Asset Outlook, you can download the free, public report from The Block Research team here. Episode 84 of Season 3 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block’s Frank Chaparro and Larry Cermak, VP of Research at The Block.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 Bakkt, Kraken and KavaBakkt® unlocks the $1.2+ trillion of digital assets that is currently held in cryptocurrencies, rewards and loyalty points, gaming assets and merchant stored value. We began in 2018 with the vision to bring trust and transparency to digital assets. Through the Bakkt Warehouse and Bakkt Bitcoin Futures and Options contracts, we serve institutional clients in an end-to-end regulated market with true price transparency. For consumers, Bakkt aggregates digital assets to enable instant liquidity and to empower users to trade, transfer and pay however they want. Visit Bakkt.com for more informationAbout KrakenWhether you’re an experienced crypto trader or just starting out, Kraken has the tools to help you achieve financial freedom. With 50+ cryptocurrencies to choose from, industry-leading security and a wide variety of features to suit any investing strategy, Kraken puts the power in your hands to buy, sell and trade digital assets. Visit Kraken.com to get started today.About KavaFor over four years, Kava Labs has contributed to building a portfolio of decentralized products and services that allow users to gain access to all of the benefits of DeFi. Kava connects the world's largest cryptocurrencies, ecosystems, and financial applications on one of DeFi’s most trusted, scalable, and secure earning platforms. Kava lets you mint stablecoins, lend, borrow, earn and swap safely and efficiently across the world’s biggest crypto assets with a simple and intuitive user experience and the full confidence of institutional-grade security and quality. With a proven track record of delivering successful projects safely, the Kava Platform is DeFi's most trusted, scalable, and secure institutional-grade cross-chain engine.

As 2021 comes to a close, Copper's head of research Fadi Aboualfa joined The Block's VP of Research Larry Cermak and host Frank Chaparro to unpack the trends that shaped the crypto market this year as well as the future dynamics that might be on the horizon for 2022.Aboualfa highlighted the ascent of so-called meme cryptocurrencies like dogecoin and shiba inu, which surged in value this year. Aboualfa said their rise is tied to strong social and community elements."There's a social aspect to that price appreciation," he said. "Bitcoin started by a couple of people who really believe in it and started becoming very vocal about it."Another trend unpacked by Aboualfa was the race to become the next Ethereum killer. Projects like Avalanche and Solana are among the layer-1s that have seen their price surge as investors appear to believe that these blockchains might be superior to Ethereum.Ultimately, Aboualfa and Cermak both agreed that the crypto markets won't face a prolonged bear market akin to the one that occurred in 2018, but markets will face volatility and short-term setbacks. Cermak outlined two major risks in 2022 that markets face:"One is that, you know, central banks are now starting to hint at tapering measures, starting to hint at being less aggressive when it comes to just responding to Covid and responding to the situation. That, I think, can have a very negative effect when the market starts pricing in that the central banks are going to be way more conservative.""Second risk that I think is pretty real, but I think it's now smaller after what I've seen yesterday at the hearing, is the regulatory risk in the US," he added, referring to the recent hearing on crypto hosted by the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services.Episode 83 of Season 3 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block’s Frank Chaparro and Larry Cermak, VP of Research at The Block, and Fadi Aboualfa, Head of Research at Copper.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 Bakkt, Kraken and KavaBakkt® unlocks the $1.2+ trillion of digital assets that is currently held in cryptocurrencies, rewards and loyalty points, gaming assets and merchant stored value. We began in 2018 with the vision to bring trust and transparency to digital assets. Through the Bakkt Warehouse and Bakkt Bitcoin Futures and Options contracts, we serve institutional clients in an end-to-end regulated market with true price transparency. For consumers, Bakkt aggregates digital assets to enable instant liquidity and to empower users to trade, transfer and pay however they want. Visit Bakkt.com for more informationAbout KrakenWhether you’re an experienced crypto trader or just starting out, Kraken has the tools to help you achieve financial freedom. With 50+ cryptocurrencies to choose from, industry-leading security and a wide variety of features to suit any investing strategy, Kraken puts the power in your hands to buy, sell and trade digital assets. Visit Kraken.com to get started today.About KavaFor over four years, Kava Labs has contributed to building a portfolio of decentralized products and services that allow users to gain access to all of the benefits of DeFi. Kava connects the world's largest cryptocurrencies, ecosystems, and financial applications on one of DeFi’s most trusted, scalable, and secure earning platforms. Kava lets you mint stablecoins, lend, borrow, earn and swap safely and efficiently across the world’s biggest crypto assets with a simple and intuitive user experience and the full confidence of institutional-grade security and quality. With a proven track record of delivering successful projects safely, the Kava Platform is DeFi's most trusted, scalable, and secure institutional-grade cross-chain engine.

A lot has changed since the sluggish days of the crypto bear market in 2019, according to infamous Twitter personality “Loomdart.”The investor at Egirl Capital—an anonymous group of crypto traders—joined host Frank Chaparro for a discussion about how the market has matured since 2019's doldrums and why he believes it will only continue to mature in the years ahead. In Loomdart's view, cryptocurrencies are no longer as correlated with one other as they once were. However, he also acknowledged that today the recent Metaverse and NFT headlines have temporarily “hijacked” momentum in the $2 trillion market.“Ever since this kind of metaverse narrative started and Facebook did the whole 'Meta' brand takeover, there has been this gigantic influx of capital,” he said.To be sure, Loomdart is also talking about his own book as the founder of MetaDrop, which recently helped Alien-themed shooting game VAIL raise money through an NFT drop. But the anonymous UK-native has data to back up his investment thesis. Over the past month, NFT gaming firm Sandbox raised $93 million, while Solana Ventures, FTX, and Lightspeed Venture Partners has raised $100 million for a blockchain gaming fund.Loomdart told Chaparro that this VC interest in the metaverse and NFTs will ultimately feed back into the broader crypto market, thereby making it more dynamic.“This isn't 2017, 2018's crypto anymore,” Said Loomdart. “Everything was just one market, but like crypto has evolved so far beyond that.”In this episode, Chaparro and Loomdart discuss: How Ether's "flippening" of bitcoin could open up a Pandora’s box Why Loomdart believes crypto prices will likely “slowly go up forever” The impact of the macro backdrop on crypto prices Why the metaverse will only take off if crypto is in the background Episode 82 of Season 3 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block’s Frank Chaparro and Loomdart, Co-Founder of MetaDrop.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 Bakkt, Kraken and KavaBakkt® unlocks the $1.2+ trillion of digital assets that is currently held in cryptocurrencies, rewards and loyalty points, gaming assets and merchant stored value. We began in 2018 with the vision to bring trust and transparency to digital assets. Through the Bakkt Warehouse and Bakkt Bitcoin Futures and Options contracts, we serve institutional clients in an end-to-end regulated market with true price transparency. For consumers, Bakkt aggregates digital assets to enable instant liquidity and to empower users to trade, transfer and pay however they want. Visit Bakkt.com for more informationAbout KrakenWhether you’re an experienced crypto trader or just starting out, Kraken has the tools to help you achieve financial freedom. With 50+ cryptocurrencies to choose from, industry-leading security and a wide variety of features to suit any investing strategy, Kraken puts the power in your hands to buy, sell and trade digital assets. Visit Kraken.com to get started today.About KavaFor over four years, Kava Labs has contributed to building a portfolio of decentralized products and services that allow users to gain access to all of the benefits of DeFi. Kava connects the world's largest cryptocurrencies, ecosystems, and financial applications on one of DeFi’s most trusted, scalable, and secure earning platforms. Kava lets you mint stablecoins, lend, borrow, earn and swap safely and efficiently across the world’s biggest crypto assets with a simple and intuitive user experience and the full confidence of institutional-grade security and quality. With a proven track record of delivering successful projects safely, the Kava Platform is DeFi's most trusted, scalable, and secure institutional-grade cross-chain engine.

“The evolution is inevitable.”On this episode of The Scoop, Partner at Lightspeed Ventures Amy Wu joined host Frank Chaparro to discuss Lighstpeed's investments in the intersection of crypto and gaming as well as the problems participants in that corner of the market face. Specifically, Wu says that game developers in crypto have to worry about not only building a good game but creating financial incentives to support a robust in-game economy. "Opening up a game economy and allowing a lot of really creative incentivization of both player and creator alike can actually deeply add to a game environment," she said.The rise of in-game economiesAs for blockchain-focused companies, specifically, Wu said that such projects will have to abstract away the complexities of blockchain to allow for a superior gaming experience. "The primary reason for some of these games with the longest longevity is not going to be around NFT speculation at all. It ultimately will actually just be about gameplay in my opinion...it cannot be the main driver of play." Turning in-game assets into NFTs solves a big problem for game developers and players, allowing holders of in-game assets to tap into their value. “Gamers have been buying digital assets in games for decades, so this is essentially just the next step towards that evolution… I think that having the ability to invest the time, actually put money into the game to buy these assets, and then sort of have some guarantee that there will be some value coming out of the assets as well is pretty attractive”.... For more visit theblockcrypto.com/podcastsEpisode 81 of Season 3 of The Scoop was recorded remotely with The Block’s Frank Chaparro and Amy Wu, Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners.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 Bakkt, Kraken and KavaBakkt® unlocks the $1.2+ trillion of digital assets that is currently held in cryptocurrencies, rewards and loyalty points, gaming assets and merchant stored value. We began in 2018 with the vision to bring trust and transparency to digital assets. Through the Bakkt Warehouse and Bakkt Bitcoin Futures and Options contracts, we serve institutional clients in an end-to-end regulated market with true price transparency. For consumers, Bakkt aggregates digital assets to enable instant liquidity and to empower users to trade, transfer and pay however they want. Visit Bakkt.com for more informationAbout KrakenWhether you’re an experienced crypto trader or just starting out, Kraken has the tools to help you achieve financial freedom. With 50+ cryptocurrencies to choose from, industry-leading security and a wide variety of features to suit any investing strategy, Kraken puts the power in your hands to buy, sell and trade digital assets. Visit Kraken.com to get started today.About KavaFor over four years, Kava Labs has contributed to building a portfolio of decentralized products and services that allow users to gain access to all of the benefits of DeFi. Kava connects the world's largest cryptocurrencies, ecosystems, and financial applications on one of DeFi’s most trusted, scalable, and secure earning platforms. Kava lets you mint stablecoins, lend, borrow, earn and swap safely and efficiently across the world’s biggest crypto assets with a simple and intuitive user experience and the full confidence of institutional-grade security and quality. With a proven track record of delivering successful projects safely, the Kava Platform is DeFi's most trusted, scalable, and secure institutional-grade cross-chain engine.