Memecoins have more potential upside than blue-chip governance tokens, according to VC

Michael Bentley is the co-founder and CEO of Euler Labs. In this episode, Bentley reflects on last year's $200 million Euler hack and the recovery process and walks through the steps taken to enhance security in Euler V2. Euler V2 is a modular and composable lending platform that allows users to create flexible and secure lending pools.

Roshun Patel is a partner at the Web3 venture capital firm HackVC. In this episode, Chaparro and Patel discuss the recent crypto market volatility and the trends shaping crypto's venture capital landscape. OUTLINE 00:00 Intro 08:11 Market Volatility 25:57 Caution in the Funding Market 32:18 The Intersection of AI and Crypto 43:05 The Future of Tokenomics

Li Jin is a co-founder and general partner at the crypto VC firm, Variant. In this episode, Li analyzes the memecoin phenomenon that has recently swept over the crypto market, and explores how different types of memecoins capture and monetize attention. OUTLINE 00:35 Memecoin Zeitgeist 04:04 The Attention Economy 10:58 Classifying Memecoins 17:40 Trading Memecoins 21:05 Are Memecoins Productive? 23:14 Memetic Analysis 29:10 Memecoins & Marketing Strategies 34:42 Closing Thoughts

Professor J.W. Verret teaches corporate and securities law and financial accounting at George Mason Law School. In this episode of The Scoop,  Verret discusses the potential legal challenges that Uniswap may face from the Securities and Exchange Commission and highlights the similarities between the Coinbase case and the possible claims against Uniswap. Verret says the charges the SEC is likely to bring against Uniswap could include operating as an unlicensed broker dealer, operating an unregistered exchange, and/or selling unregistered securities.

Brandon Mulvihill is the co-founder and CEO of Crossover Markets. In this episode of The Scoop, Mulvihill discusses crypto's changing market structure and the role of Crossover as an execution-only trading venue. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction and Background 01:07 The Role of Crossover in the Market 04:04 FX & Crypto Trading Similarities 08:22 ECN vs. CLOB Differences 18:30 The Importance of Fee Compression 22:33 Crypto Flash Crashes 26:15 Crypto Market Structure Maturity 29:27 Institutional Credit 34:02 Closing Thoughts

Austin Reid is the global head of revenue and business at FalconX. In this episode of The Scoop, Reid discusses why we are still at the 'early stages' of institutional adoption of crypto, and the role retail traders have played in the market's current rally. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 04:12 Market Overview 08:06 FalconX Volume 12:03 Crypto Derivatives 15:55 Interest Rates 19:19 Institutional Adoption 22:10 ETF Flows 26:49 Retail Flows 32:51 Market Maturation 35:06 Exchange Improvements 39:25 Closing Thoughts

Haseeb Qureshi is a managing partner at the crypto VC firm Dragonfly. In this episode of The Scoop, Qureshi explains how the crypto VC landscape has changed during his five years at Dragonfly and why he believes 'points' are a more useful mechanism than airdrops for incentivizing user behavior. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 05:41 Dragonfly Early Days 09:45 Early Crypto VC 13:14 Competing in Layer-1s 26:11 Old Blockchains 29:26 Points 31:47 Airdrop Mechanism Design 37:38 Closing Thoughts

Craig Burel is a partner at Reciprocal Ventures. In this episode of The Scoop, Burel explains how the recent market rally caused sidelined venture capitalists to return to the crypto industry in earnest. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 07:38 Nuances of Crypto VC 10:05 Crypto Venture Maturation 13:12 Valuations in the Bull 19:15 Solana Conviction 23:15 Navigating Market Cycles 28:17 Consumer Crypto Apps 32:22 Improving Tokenomics 38:00 Closing Thoughts

Mike Belshe is the co-founder and CEO of BitGo. In this episode of The Scoop, Belshe discusses the growth and challenges of the custody market in the crypto industry, and explains what it will take to make crypto's market structure more robust. OUTLINE 00:00 BitGo Background 05:15 Institutional Crypto Custodians 10:41 New Market Participants 14:36 Market Structure 24:09 Bullish Catalysts 32:08 Crypto Robustness 41:58 Closing Thoughts

Muneeb Ali is the CEO of Trust Machines and the co-creators of Stacks — a layer-2 that enables smart contracts and decentralized applications to utilize bitcoin for base-layer security. In this episode of The Scoop, Ali discusses the growth and importance of Bitcoin Layer 2 solutions. He emphasizes the need for BTC capital to be deployed in L2s and the potential for Bitcoin L2s to become a significant category in the crypto industry. According to Ali, creating more on-chain uses for bitcoin will ultimately make the asset more valuable: “Bitcoin rails can be upgraded through layer-2s... There can be all sorts of use cases that that are deployed there and BTC the capital can be more productive — it will make bitcoin more valuable.”