August 22, 2018
Last week in NYC I shared a panel with Valerie Szczepanik, SEC’s “crypto czar”. We had a wide-ranging discussion on self-regulation, utility tokens, the SEC’s role in protecting investors, and accredited investor definitions. While the conversation was under Chatham House Rules Read more…
August 19, 2018
I took a hiatus from the newsletter last week, while meeting with entrepreneurs and speaking at SXSW in Austin. Similar to what I saw (at the very different gathering) at Davos in January, much of the conference chatter revolved around Read more…
August 14, 2018
Financial headlines over the past week focused on Turkey’s rapidly depreciating lira. Meanwhile many citizens there, ignoring President Erdogan’s calls to exchange gold and foreign currencies to local currency, tapped into the crypto market: s “Bunyamin Yavuz, a cardiologist in Read more…
August 3, 2018
The big news this morning is that Intercontinental Exchange, parent of the New York Stock Exchange, announced the formation of a new company, Bakkt, a global platform to allow consumers and institutions to buy, hold and store digital assets. Its Read more…
July 6, 2018
As the United States celebrated its Independence Day on July 4th, several jurisdictions around the world, including South Korea, Bermuda and Malta, passed legislation to support crypto assets and virtual currencies. Of these, South Korea’s appears the most detailed by Read more…
June 4, 2018
Blockchain Week 2018 came in with a bang — 8500 attendees at the Consensus conference (vs 400 the last time I spoke there in 2015), thousands more at side events. The price of major cryptocurrencies saw a run up to Read more…
May 11, 2018
I am back in NYC after a trip around the world — with stops in London, Mumbai, Beijing, Korea, Los Angeles and Palo Alto along the way. I wrote about London and India observations in the last newsletter. A few Read more…
April 24, 2018
After a few days in Mumbai meeting with large industrials and regulators (and FPV portfolio company Everledger which just opened a Mumbai office), I spent the past couple of days in London, where I spoke at the World Built Summit, Read more…
April 9, 2018
This past Friday I spoke at Penn’s inaugural Blockchain Conference. It was a special speaking engagement for me, as I am a Penn grad and my interest in economics and business started and flourished there. Over the past five years speaking on Read more…
April 3, 2018
The first quarter was not a pretty one for cryptocurrency prices — from January 1-March 31, Bitcoin lost over 50% of its value, with a number of smaller altcoins down over 60%. Regulatory action, hacks and scams weighed heavily, with Read more…