The Crypto Explorer - by Sygnum Bank AG

The Layer Two wars are heating up! Across the crypto ecosystem are rumblings of cutting edge Zero-Knowledge technology being developed and when they officially hit the market.  So we were delighted to sit down with Omar Azhar from Matter Labs (zkSync) and Rico Muller (Sygnum) to understand Layer 2s, and the evolution from plasma chains, side chains and optimistic roll ups to zero knowledge proofs and the arrival of Layer 3s. Its a technical subject, but an important one to understand!  We look at questions like: Why do we need to scale? What are different approaches to scaling? What are Zero-Knowledge rollups and why is everyone so excited about them? What does the Layer 2 ecosystem look like? And how come everyone made big ZK announcements at the *exact* same time? How does this effectively change our engagement with web3? How do you aim to address the fragmentation of liquidity with all the new solutions in the market? Read the disclaimer here: https://www.sygnum.com/disclaimer 

Have you ever wondered why crypto projects are valued the way they are? Or how VCs make decisions in a sea of interesting projects? Tune in, as we sit down with David Toh from Mirana Ventures and Luca Burlando from Sygnum Bank to figure out how VCs deploy capital, and how this changes in a bear market. We explore questions like:When considering crypto investments, what are the key factors you consider? In what ways do you think these differ from non-crypto investments? How do you compare cases for token investments vs equity investments?There has been some criticism of centralization caused by VCs in the decentralized crypto universe – what are your thoughts on this?For founders, bear markets are often called build market, how does that impact the investment environment? What are red-flags for you, when considering an investment case? DisclaimerBecause Sygnum is a bank and some of the information in the podcast relates to financial and investment topics, we want you to understand that we do not create a bank client relationship with you when you listen to the podcast. By listening to the podcast, you agree that the information on this podcast does not constitute professional advice and no bank-client or other relationship is created between you and Sygnum. Do not consider the podcast to be a substitute for obtaining advice from a qualified investment advisor. The information in the podcast may be changed without notice and is not guaranteed to be complete, correct or up-to-date. All information you hear is never considered to be a solicitation for any purpose, in any form or content.Read the disclaimer here: https://www.sygnum.com/disclaimer 

Right now, all everyone cares about in crypto is the MERGE. When the second largest blockchain transitions from PoW to PoS, people argue that this is the largest development in crypto since the advent of smart contracts in 2014! So of course, we had to sit down with Francesco Andreoli and Matt Nelson from Consensys and the Ethereum Foundation and Admir Opardija from Sygnum, to unwrap what exactly this means, and what changes for you! We explore questions like: What is the merge – and why is everyone so excited? How does this change the way I interact with eth? What about the PoW chain – are you anxious about the fork? What are the most annoying misconceptions about the Merge? What are the next big steps ahead? Which ones are you most looking forward to?DisclaimerBecause Sygnum is a bank and some of the information in the podcast relates to financial and investment topics, we want you to understand that we do not create a bank client relationship with you when you listen to the podcast. By listening to the podcast, you agree that the information on this podcast does not constitute professional advice and no bank-client or other relationship is created between you and Sygnum. Do not consider the podcast to be a substitute for obtaining advice from a qualified investment advisor. The information in the podcast may be changed without notice and is not guaranteed to be complete, correct or up-to-date. All information you hear is never considered to be a solicitation for any purpose, in any form or content. Read the disclaimer here: https://www.sygnum.com/disclaimer 

What is the point of a DEX aggregator? How do they work? why are they useful? and how could this become a big driver for institutional adoption?  Listen in, as we sit down with Mounir Benchemled from Paraswap and Martin Burgherr from Sygnum Bank, as we explore opportunities for optimizing trades in the crypto world. We look at questions liek: What differentiates a CEX and DEX?Between a DEX and DEX aggregator – what are factors users need to look out for ? How do we see DEXs enter the mainstream? What is the institutional journey for DEXs and DEX aggregators? How do you expect this to unfold? DisclaimerBecause Sygnum is a bank and some of the information in the podcast relates to financial and investment topics, we want you to understand that we do not create a bank client relationship with you when you listen to the podcast. By listening to the podcast, you agree that the information on this podcast does not constitute professional advice and no bank-client or other relationship is created between you and Sygnum. Do not consider the podcast to be a substitute for obtaining advice from a qualified investment advisor. The information in the podcast may be changed without notice and is not guaranteed to be complete, correct or up-to-date. All information you hear is never considered to be a solicitation for any purpose, in any form or content. Read the disclaimer here: https://www.sygnum.com/disclaimer 

In times of market turbulence, its nice to hear it straight from the experts.  What explains the movements we see, how are investments valued and what possibly could be the way forward. It was a pleasure to sit down with Daniel Egger and Katalin Tischhauser to make some sense of all the noise. Read the disclaimer here: https://www.sygnum.com/disclaimer 

Bear season = Build season. As the crypto universe recovers from recent turbulence - it is a good time to revisit the power of the tech stack. In discussion with Ralf Kubli from Casper Labs and Dominic Lohberger from Sygnum Bank, we dig into the interesting applications for blockchain in the finance world, and the power of smart financial contracts: far beyond defi as we know it today! This is unchartered, unexplored territory - so of course, full of immense possibility!  We dig into questions like: What are some interesting ways smart contracts have been used to fuel further blockchain innovation?Where do we see possible use cases for smart contracts in financial infrastructure?Derivatives on chain – how can smart contracts be applied in there?  What are the dangers of decentralized financial smart contracts?How can you address non-chain data needed for fulfillment of contracts?Current systems seems work fine, but what’s the big bonus of moving on chain?DisclaimerBecause Sygnum is a bank and some of the information in the podcast relates to financial and investment topics, we want you to understand that we do not create a bank client relationship with you when you listen to the podcast. By listening to the podcast, you agree that the information on this podcast does not constitute professional advice and no bank-client or other relationship is created between you and Sygnum. Do not consider the podcast to be a substitute for obtaining advice from a qualified investment advisor. The information in the podcast may be changed without notice and is not guaranteed to be complete, correct or up-to-date. All information you hear is never considered to be a solicitation for any purpose, in any form or content. Read the disclaimer here: https://www.sygnum.com/disclaimer 

In a turbulent market environment, it seems wise to revisit the fundamentals. Thinking about investing in crypto is already challenging during exciting bull markets - and when we see  multiple black swan events play out, things get a lot harder. So, it made sense to sit down with Mike Taormina from Indexcoop and Stefan Edelman from Sygnum Bank, to look at different ways the megatrend can be assessed  - and consider simplified ways to develop broad exposure. We looked at questions like:What megatrends or sectors do you see within crypto? Considering DeFi as one of the biggest trends, where do you see the opportunities for investors?  How do you approach the building of an index?How can an investor get exposure to different sectors? Active vs. Passive; Diversified solutions vs. Single token selectionHow did the both of you approach building a diversified portfolio across crypto?DisclaimerBecause Sygnum is a bank and some of the information in the podcast relates to financial and investment topics, we want you to understand that we do not create a bank client relationship with you when you listen to the podcast. By listening to the podcast, you agree that the information on this podcast does not constitute professional advice and no bank-client or other relationship is created between you and Sygnum. Do not consider the podcast to be a substitute for obtaining advice from a qualified investment advisor. The information in the podcast may be changed without notice and is not guaranteed to be complete, correct or up-to-date. All information you hear is never considered to be a solicitation for any purpose, in any form or content.Read the disclaimer here: https://www.sygnum.com/disclaimer 

At its origins, crypto was designed to live outside of government regulation. However, the last decade has seen slow but clear frameworks evolve in regulating with Web3. At the forefront of this evolution has been Luka Mueller (MME) - starting from the set up of the Ethereum foundation in Zug back in 2014. In our new episode, we speak to Luka and  Magdalena Boskic (Head of Regtech at Sygnum) about how crypto regulation unfolded and how it continues to evolve as the market grows, covering topics like: Early days of crypto regulation: setting up the ETH foundation How has regulation in the crypto world evolved since 2017 Governing the ungovernable: Regulation by definition is a centralized endeavor; How successful can it be in the world of crypto? We have seen regulators race to keep up with crypto. But do we perhaps need law 2.0 and not just an update of our aging legal frameworks to cope with the opportunities the technology provides? Are smart contracts the future of legal work? Anonymity in crypto: the current political climate has seen crypto be blamed  as a vehicle to circumvent sanctions - what do you think?DisclaimerBecause Sygnum is a bank and some of the information in the podcast relates to financial and investment topics, we want you to understand that we do not create a bank client relationship with you when you listen to the podcast. By listening to the podcast, you agree that the information on this podcast does not constitute professional advice and no bank-client or other relationship is created between you and Sygnum. Do not consider the podcast to be a substitute for obtaining advice from a qualified investment advisor. The information in the podcast may be changed without notice and is not guaranteed to be complete, correct or up-to-date. All information you hear is never considered to be a solicitation for any purpose, in any form or content.Read the disclaimer here: https://www.sygnum.com/disclaimer 

Have you also been a bit bewildered by all the big headlines about major luxury brands engaging with NFTs?  Seeing Dolce and Gabbana, Givenchy, Louis Vuitton and Burberry all jumping into the fray, we decided it was time to sit down with Kelly Vero and Elena Baltaga, to understand the market opportunity, how NFTs are standardized, and what kind of role NFTs can play in the luxury market, exploring questions like: What makes a good NFT? What is the point of standardizing NFTs? Isnt the point of Web3 to have open markets? How do traditional companies enter and use the NFT market, beyond just marketing?What are good examples we have seen of effective usage / what upcoming uses are you excited about?What are the possibilities for luxury brands in particular to engage? Why should they care? Skeptics would say this just a cash grab? DisclaimerBecause Sygnum is a bank and some of the information in the podcast relates to financial and investment topics, we want you to understand that we do not create a bank client relationship with you when you listen to the podcast. By listening to the podcast, you agree that the information on this podcast does not constitute professional advice and no bank-client or other relationship is created between you and Sygnum. Do not consider the podcast to be a substitute for obtaining advice from a qualified investment advisor. The information in the podcast may be changed without notice and is not guaranteed to be complete, correct or up-to-date. All information you hear is never considered to be a solicitation for any purpose, in any form or content.Read the disclaimer here: https://www.sygnum.com/disclaimer 

NFTs have created whole new world of possibilities for a series of new use cases: from the worlds of gaming and art to product and brand engagement. There is something here for everyone, and so to learn more about it, we sat down with Jan Albers from Tezos and Nigel Fillep from Sygnum Bank, to explore the idea of NFTs and the opportunities they create. We dove into questions like: What is an NFT -   and why do you think they're important? Use cases developing for NFTs – combined with physical assets vs. only used on the Metaverse How do traditional companies enter and engage with NFTs, beyond just marketing? Discovering new customer journeys with NFTs: Use cases still in development DisclaimerBecause Sygnum is a bank and some of the information in the podcast relates to financial and investment topics, we want you to understand that we do not create a bank client relationship with you when you listen to the podcast. By listening to the podcast, you agree that the information on this podcast does not constitute professional advice and no bank-client or other relationship is created between you and Sygnum. Do not consider the podcast to be a substitute for obtaining advice from a qualified investment advisor. The information in the podcast may be changed without notice and is not guaranteed to be complete, correct or up-to-date. All information you hear is never considered to be a solicitation for any purpose, in any form or content.Read the disclaimer here: https://www.sygnum.com/disclaimer