The Scoop – Details, episodes & analysis

This episode of The Scoop features Bitget Wallet COO Alvin Kan, and two builders from the TON ecosystem — Catizen co-founder Ricky Wong and Miles, a core team member of Tomarket. The conversation explores how Telegram's large user base is enabling rapid adoption and growth of Telegram 'Mini Apps' on top of the TON blockchain. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 01:29 TON Overview 03:06 TON's Advantages 06:21 TON's Future 08:29 Catizen's Hyper Adoption 10:30 Tomarket Overview 12:34 Ton Ecosystem Collaboration 15:54 Building on TON 17:14 TON's Consumer Focus 20:56 TON User Behavior 24:45 User Retention 27:59 TON Roadmap 31:47 Closing Thoughts This episode is brought to you by our sponsor Polkadot Polkadot is the blockspace ecosystem for boundless innovation. To discover more, head to polkadot.network The Block Community The Block is launching a new community experience for fans of The Scoop! Follow us on Lens to stay in the loop: hey.xyz/u/theblockcommunity The Block Newsletters The Block's newsletters bring you the latest news and analysis of the fast-moving crypto and DeFi markets. To subscribe, visit theblock.co/newsletters

Vishal Gupta is the co-founder and CEO of TrueX — a new stablecoin-native trading platform. In this episode, Gupta unpacks how TrueX aims to provide a "stablecoin-native" trading experience with segregated custody, primarily targeted at institutional clients in the United States. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 04:50 TrueX Overview 11:13 Exchange Innovation 14:42 Institutional Client Trading Needs 17:52 Stablecoin Collateral 19:21 TrueX Matching Engine 23:11 Segregated Service Offerings 25:52 TrueX Funding 27:41 Broker Adoption 31:06 Crypto's Credit Market 33:51 True Markets Roadmap 35:50 Closing Thoughts This episode is brought to you by our sponsor Polkadot Polkadot is the blockspace ecosystem for boundless innovation. To discover more, head to polkadot.network The Block Community The Block is launching a new community experience for fans of The Scoop! Follow us on Lens to stay in the loop: hey.xyz/u/theblockcommunity The Block Newsletters The Block's newsletters bring you the latest news and analysis of the fast-moving crypto and DeFi markets. To subscribe, visit theblock.co/newsletters

Smokey the Bera is the pseudonymous co-founder of Berachain — a Layer 1 network that raised $100 million in a Series B back in April. In this episode, Chaparro and Smokey discuss how memetics influences community building, and unpack Berachain's innovative 'proof of liquidity' consensus, where users earn governance tokens by contributing liquidity to the ecosystem. OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 04:42 Berachain Conception 14:08 Ecosystem 'Politics' 15:58 The Power of Memetics 20:31 Tri-Token Model 27:43 Layer-1 "BD War" 32:39 Smokey's Inspiration 35:02 Aligning Incentives 39:17 Identifying Passion 42:49 Berachain Roadmap This episode is brought to you by our sponsor Polkadot Polkadot is the blockspace ecosystem for boundless innovation. To discover more head to polkadot.network The Block Community The Block is launching a new community experience for fans of The Scoop! Follow us on Lens to stay in the loop: hey.xyz/u/theblockcommunity The Block Newsletters The Block's newsletters bring you the latest news and analysis of the fast-moving crypto and DeFi markets. To subscribe, visit theblock.co/newsletters

Brian Quintenz is the Global Head of Policy at a16z crypto and a former commissioner at the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. In this episode, Quintenz explains how the SEC's failure to issue updated guidance for the crypto industry has created a legislative opportunity for clarity. According to Quintenz, "Congress needs to show the way by creating the framework that the SEC is refusing to contemplate." Outline: 0:36 Policy & regulation overview 2:43 Securities v. commodities 06:37 Registered securities 11:58 Special Purpose Broker-Dealers 14:49 a16z’s policy uutlook 18:34 Ponzi schemes 21:31 CeFi regulation 27:16 Lummis x Gillibrand’s crypto bill 30:30 Token decentralization 32:32 Legislative hurdles

Moritz Baier-Lentz is a partner and head of gaming at Lightspeed, and Sam Harrison is the managing partner of Faction.  In this episode, Baier-Lentz and Harrison unpack their thesis behind investing in the nascent Web3 gaming industry.  While Web3 gaming has yet to reach mainstream appeal, Baier-Lentz and Harrison believe that a combination of technological advancements and veteran game developers embracing blockchain rails will help facilitate breakout Web3 games in the near future. Outline: 1:13 Web3 VC Update 4:41 Lightspeed + Faction 8:46 Market Cycles 14:04 Web3 vs. Web2 Gaming 20:40 Gaming Metrics for VC 23:38 Tokenomics & Gaming 33:50 AI & Gaming 38:41 Closing Thoughts

Professor J.W. Verret teaches corporate and securities law and financial accounting at George Mason Law School.  In this episode, Verret analyzes the recent verdict on Ripple's XRP token which concludes that "Ripple’s Programmatic Sales of XRP did not constitute the offer and sale of investment contracts." In addition to providing a degree of regulatory clarity for crypto assets, Verret also argues that the court's decision in the XRP case will greatly improve Coinbase's chances in their court case against the SEC. Outline: 1:05 - XRP Court Verdict 6:00 - Coinbase Re-listing XRP 7:15 - Coinbase vs. SEC 9:55 - Will the SEC Settle? 12:08 - Appellate Court 13:04 - New SEC Chair 14:06 - Unregistered Securities 15:00 - Major Questions Doctrine 16:22 - Crypto Legislation 17:00 - Partisan Politics 20:40 - Spot Bitcoin ETF 22:05 - Closing Thoughts

Carlos Domingo is the founder and CEO of Securitize — a compliance platform for trading security tokens or digital securities on the blockchain used by the likes of KKR and Hamilton Lane. In this episode, Domingo explains how blockchain technology can be used to unlock broader access to alternative investments and how regulatory clarity in the U.S. could help trillions of dollars of real world assets be tokenized on-chain. Outline: 1:17 - About Securitize 2:32 - Market Evolution 7:22 - Tokenization 8:07 - Transfer Agent License 9:58 - Broker Dealers 12:00 - Prometheum 13:04 - Special Purpose Broker Dealer 16:38 - Alternative Trading Systems 19:05 - Second Order Effects of Regulation 21:30 - Tokenization of Real World Assets 28:02 - What’s Next for Securitize 31:32 - Closing Thoughts

Mike Belshe is the co-founder and CEO of BitGo — a leading digital asset custody and security platform. In this episode, Belshe shares his thoughts on last year's collapse of the crypto credit market and explains what it will take to restore confidence in the sector. Outline: 0:52 - Market musings 3:12 - Crypto conspiracies 5:54 - Business at BitGo 8:39 - Crypto prime brokerage 14:24 - Lending market cooldown 15:55 - Crypto’s opaque transparency 21:22 - Crypto market recovery 32:47 - BitGo x Galaxy Digital

Michael Saylor is the Executive Chairman of MicroStrategy. Since 2020, MicroStrategy has amassed an eye-catching bitcoin reserve, making it one of the largest corporate holders of bitcoin in the world. Critics have been vocal, but Saylor and his company have stood firm in their belief and commitment. In this episode, Saylor explains why bitcoin's performance over the last two years relative to other asset classes is indicative of relative strength, and gives his opinion on recent bitcoin developments including the flurry of ETF applications as well as the Ordinals/BRC-20 debate.  Outline: 1:59 - Inflation & Bitcoin 8:29 - MicroStrategy's leverage 9:12 - Bitcoin's volatility regime 13:48 - Technocrats 15:19 - Bitcoin legitimization 19:34 - Bitcoin Maximalism 25:31 - Saylor on Ordinals 28:39 - Unregistered securities 30:20 - Crypto crackdown conspiracies 34:38 - Spot Bitcoin ETF 39:54 - Bitcoin dominance 51:50 - Work/life balance 53:30 - MicroStrategy's miscalculation 55:09 - Thermodynamically sound economic energy This episode is brought to you by our sponsors PayPal and CleanSpark. About PayPal Make your crypto move with PayPal. Get started today at PayPal.com/crypto About CleanSpark CleanSpark (NASDAQ: CLSK) is America’s Bitcoin Miner™. Visit cleanspark.com/theblock to learn more about the CleanSpark way.

David Marcus is a renowned entrepreneur and executive in the tech industry known for his leadership roles at PayPal and Meta. In this episode, Marcus unpacks how his latest venture, Lightspark, is helping transform Bitcoin's Lightning Network into a real-time global settlement layer for the internet. Lightspark raised about $173 million last year at a valuation of almost $1 billion at the time, as reported by The Block. Outline: 2:33 - David Marcus' Bitcoin journey 5:29 - Lightspark & Bitcoin 9:50 - Lightspark adoption 12:37 - Regulatory tailwinds for bitcoin 16:33 - Merchant payment innovation 23:25 - Lightspark’s partnerships 26:26 - SEN/SIGNET replacement 28:47 - Lessons learned from libra 40:21 - What’s next for Lightspark 43:43 - Closing thoughts This episode is brought to you by our sponsors PayPal and CleanSpark. About PayPal Make your crypto move with PayPal. Get started today at PayPal.com/crypto About CleanSpark CleanSpark (NASDAQ: CLSK) is America’s Bitcoin Miner™. Visit cleanspark.com/theblock to learn more about the CleanSpark way.