In this episode of Empire's Weekly Roundup, Jason is joined by Byron Gilliam - a markets strategist and author of the Blockworks newsletter. Often called the Matt Levine of Web3, Byron brings his traditional finance experience to crypto with a mix of wisdom and wit.
Jason and Byron cover this week's biggest stories and explore crypto's outlook as an investable asset class. Episode highlights include:
- Why Byron frames crypto as commodities, not equities
- How private markets are losing their advantage
- Why crypto may be amazing for users, but a bad investment
- How OpenSea's insider trading news will affect other Web3 companies
- What happened with Optimism's airdrop
- Can L2s find a sustainable revenue model
- How BTC mining could fuel growth in renewable energy
- Byron questions if MEV is crypto's only use case
- Why UST's collapse was not crypto's Lehman moment
- and much more!
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Referenced in the show:
Byron's Newsletter
https://blockworks.co/newsletter/
0xHamZ tweet on $100B required market inflows
https://twitter.com/0xHamz/status/1530222542413234176
Arthur Hayes article
https://entrepreneurshandbook.co/shut-it-down-15d230b28089
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(00:00) Introduction
(01:26) Byron's Evolving View on Crypto
(05:50) Lack of moats and risk taking founders
(11:28) Byron's investment outlook
(13:30) The private market arbitrage
(16:25) OpenSea insider trading
(23:49) Optimism's Airdrop
(27:18) Bitmex Ad
(33:08) Public goods & Layer 2 tokens
(36:28) Oil companies working with BTC miners
(38:51) Is everything just MEV?
(42:39) Crypto's structural selling
(46:31) No profits, just circular pricing
(48:13) Trust in Tether
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Disclaimer: Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Santiago, Jason, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.