The Chopping Block: Is BlackRock’s ETF Proposal Breathing Life Into Bitcoin? - Ep. 510

Welcome to “The Chopping Block” – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest crypto news. With BTC topping $30,000, the gang tackles the apparent surge in institutional bitcoin interest, with BlackRock’s spot ETF application spawning a bumper crop of similar bids. Why did all these TradFi players act at the same time? That, plus a look at the drama surrounding SEC-friendly Prometheum’s Congressional testimony and what Haseeb and Robert see as the trading platform’s many “red flags.”
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.
Show highlights:

the not-so logical reasons why the markets are up

whether GBTC’s ETF conversion will also get approved if BlackRock’s bitcoin ETF gets the SEC go-ahead

how all the applications were ready and were “waiting for some sign,” according to Robert

whether Grayscale will have to sell the underlying assets of its GBTC trust

why a bitcoin spot ETF is more retail-friendly than a bitcoin futures one

how plausible it is that London becomes a leading crypto hub

the drama around Prometheum’s testimony before Congress

the “shady” details of Prometheum’s track record, according to Haseeb

why Tarun says that the venture-funded exchanges have “completely failed on many different levels” and what tokens he would list

what happened with Curve founder Michael Egorov’s loan on Aave and why Gauntlet, Tarun’s company, advocated freezing the CRV market in the lending protocol

why the Aave community rejected the proposal

Hosts

Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly

Robert Leshner, founder of Compound

Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly

Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures

Disclosures
Links

Unchained:

3AC Founders Launch Venture Capital Firm

Binance.US Briefly Displays Bitcoin Price at $138,000

Invesco and WisdomTree Follow BlackRock, Reapply for Bitcoin ETFs

​​BlackRock Files for Bitcoin Spot ETF - Coinbase

WSJ: Crypto Exchange Backed by Citadel Securities, Fidelity, Schwab Starts Operations

Cointelegraph:

Blockchain Assoc. requests info on Prometheum over ‘suspicious’ approval

Aave proposal to freeze alleged Curve founder’s loans draws controversy

CoinDesk: Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) Chooses U.K. as Destination for First Office Outside U.S.

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