The Scoop

Agatha Bacelar is a 27-year-old Brazilian-American running for Congress in California’s 12th district, a seat currently held by House speaker Nancy Pelosi. Agatha is not your typical Congressional candidate. With a degree from Stanford University and a professional background in blockchain, Agatha is aiming to make tech regulation an important conversation in politics. In this conversation, Agatha discusses how she got into politics, her time working at Democracy Earth, her stance on universal basic income, and why now is the time to run against the most powerful Democrat in the country. I hope you enjoy the episode.

State Street, one of the largest custody banks in the world is yet to launch a service to store crypto assets but that doesn't mean the Boston based firm isn't making waves when it comes to digital assets. On this episode of The Scoop we spoke to Jay Biancamano, managing director of digital product development and innovation at the firm about the opportunity State Street sees in the market. The 25 year plus financial services veteran also shared stories about his time in the US equity market structure, explained why the firm isn't in the bitcoin custody business yet and how block chain can make multi-asset trading finally a reality. I hope you enjoy the episode

On this episode of The Scoop, Michael Sonnenshein talks about the largest Q3 that Grayscale has experienced in it's 6 year history, the increased participation of institutions in the space and the transference of traditional wealth that will be occurring over the next couple of decades -- a transference that will undoubtedly expand the scope and usage of digital currencies. 

While big players like Coinbase, Bakkt and Consensus make most of the headlines in Crypto and on Crypto Twitter there are some institutional players that have been quietly operating in the background for years in the Bitcoin market. One such player is Jump Trading and it's affiliate venture capital firm, Jump Capital. Jump Trading is one of the most active traders in the digital asset world and also one of the most discrete. Leading investments on the Crypto side at it's sister firm Jump Capital is Peter Johnson -- a principal at the firm who joined The Scoop to discuss the firm's origin story in Crypto, we also dove into the firm's Crypto incubator at the University of Illinois Champaign and we talked about the trends Johnson is expecting to play out in 2019. I hope you enjoy the episode.

Tom Lee is one of the great luminaries of crypto and finance Twitter. The former chief equity analyst at JP Morgan made headlines during the bitcoin boom of 2017 with his calls that the cryptocurrency would soar to it's price target of $25,000. Fast forward to today; Lee isn't making anymore price targets on bitcoin but he still makes calls on the market -- leading Fundstrat, a market research shop covering both equities and crypto. On this episode of The Scoop, Lee shared his thoughts on how the research business has evolved over the last 2 decades, why he doesn't think bitcoin is a macro-hedge and the largest roadblocks keeping big investors out of the market. We hope you enjoy the episode.  

Union Square Ventures is one of the most prominent east coast VC firms and is also one of the most notable mainstream investors in the bitcoin market. On this episode of The Scoop USV partner Nick Grossman joined us to discuss the firm's approach to investing in the market -- he was recently promoted to partner to lead blockchain investments after 5 years with the firm. We spoke about Libra association which USV is a member of, we examined USV's portfolio and talked about the future of venture capital and the future of capital formation. I hope you enjoy the episode 

Galaxy Digital is one of the most well known brands in the market for digital currencies led by it's stalwart Mike Novogratz. The firm's origin story dates back to the bitcoin boom of 2017. Originally, Galaxy was to be a $500 million hedge fund which at the time reportedly lured the attention of family offices and other hedge fund managers. It also marked a striking comeback story for Novogratz who left his previous employer, Fortress Investments after his $2.3 billion macro-fund was liquidated resulting in his exile from the Wall Street world. Fast forward to 2019 and Galaxy Digital looks a lot different than it was described in initial reports. The nearly 80 person firm spans asset management, trading and consulting -- an operation some have likened to Wall Street's investment banks. In this episode of The Scoop Novogratz talked about Galaxy's multi-faceted role in the crypto market, why it is expanding into San Francisco and the reason why the bear market might not necessarily be over. I hope you enjoy the episode.

Listen to a preview of next week's The Scoop episode where Frank chats with Mike Novogratz, the Founder, CEO and Chairman at Galaxy Digital.

Founded in 2013, Pantera Capital is one of the oldest investors in the nascent market for digital currencies. Having previously made headlines for it's eye-popping 25,000%+ returns in bitcoin back in the heyday of 2017 -- it might also be one of the most recognizable brands. On this episode of The Scoop, The Block welcomed Pantera Capital partner Paul Veradittakit to talk about the firm's history, why it sees more room for investing in the crowded crypto currency exchange market and how the firm plans to fend off new upstart challengers in the years to come. 

Paxos wears many hats in the blockchain ecosystem. It offers one of the better known stable coins, $PAX. Operates a crypto currency exchange, that's itBit and the company provides products that help large firms use blockcain to improve their settlement systems. But at the heart of Paxos (according to CEO Charles Cascarilla) is to move the financial system onto the blockchain -- it's a move he says could prevent future financial calamities like what the market saw in 2008. On this episode of The Scoop Cascarilla talked about the growth of it's stable coin and why stable coins are a better alternative for merchants. I hope you enjoy the episode