Brian Venturo (CoreWeave) on the journey from mining crypto to the cloud (EP.163)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Release Date: 12/30/2020
Weekly Roundup 04/18/25 (Signature Postmortem, Mantra collapse, Powell on stablecoins) (EP.615)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Matt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode: We recap Nic’s article on why Signature collapsed Crypto exchange OKX their plans to expand to the US Kraken that US equities are now supported on the exchange MANTRA, a layer 1 network focused on RWAs, saw the price of its native token 90% in a matter of hours Global Payments agreed to Worldpay, a payments processor, for $24 billion from FIS and private equity firm GTCR The US Department of Homeland Security has launched a into Anchorage,...
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Fred Hsu and Michael Ho (D3) on Creating Efficient Domain Name Markets (EP.614)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Wyatt sits down with Fred Hsu and Michael Ho of to talk domain markets. In this episode: The existing domain name industry and legacy systems An interoperable marketplace for domains New financial promitives around domains and RWAs
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Yuval Rooz and Eric Saraniecki (Digital Asset) on the Canton Network (EP.613)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Yuval Rooz and Eric Saraniecki, co-founders of Digital Asset join the show. In this episode we discuss: The origins of Digital Asset and the path to starting the firm. Views on privacy in the context of public blockchains. How enterprises and financial institutions are approaching tokenizing assets and leveraging blockchain technology. Examples of how on-chain privacy enables use cases in collateral management and stablecoin payments. The role of the Canton Network public blockchain for enabling institutional use cases. How Canton Network works from a design perspective. To learn...
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Weekly Roundup 04/11/25 (Tether’s new stablecoin, Signature, dedollarization, DoJ disbands crypto team) (EP.612)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Matt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode: Is dedollarization happening? The SEC's Division of Corporate Finance released a "" The US Justice Department has its National Cryptocurrency Enforcement team The SEC releases new guidance on securities offerings in crypto markets FDIC Chair relaxes rules on crypto activities at banks Paul Atkins is confirmed The SEC has approved options trading for spot ETH ETFs Tether is exploring a US stablecoin Janover is doing a Microstrategy for SOL strategy Michelle Bowman is launching a review...
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Wyatt Lonergan and Juan Lopez (Vaneck Ventures) on Stablecoin Adoption and The Institutionalization of Crypto (EP.611)
On The Brink with Castle Island
and of join the show to talk stablecoins and institutionalization. In this episode, we cover: The landscape of stablecoin growth and activity A world with many stablecoins vs few stablecoins Winning/losing companies in the new stablecoin era Impact on the longer tail of altcoins
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Hoolie Tejwani (Coinbase) on The Evolution of Coinbase Ventures (EP.610)
On The Brink with Castle Island
, the head of Coinbase Ventures joins the show. In this episode we discuss: The history and rationale behind the launch of Coinbase Ventures. The evolution of the crypto venture category. Areas of focus for Coinbase Ventures. Stablecoins, Crypto/AI and consumer startup category. The regulatory landscape in the United States. Operation Chokepoint 2.0 and the impact on startups. The rise of the Coinbase Mafia. To learn more visit
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Weekly Roundup 04/03/25 (Circle S1, Tariffs, Galaxy settles, BitMEX pardons) (EP.609)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode: What’s the deal with the tariffs? Are the tariffs 4D chess? STABLE Act advances from committee Galaxy settles with the NYAG for touting Luna Trump pardons the BitMEX founders Coinlist returns to the US FDUSD has a depeg amidst Justin Sun drama Fidelity launches a no-fee crypto IRA product Larry Fink is bullish bitcoin Content mentioned:
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Alexei Zamyatin (Build on Bitcoin) on True Rollups on Bitcoin (EP.608)
On The Brink with Castle Island
, the cofounder of (BOB), joins the show to talk about the state of the art in Bitcoin Rollups. In this episode: Can Bitcoin achieve parity with Ethereum rollups? How BitVM and BitVMv2 changed the game for Bitcoin rollups When will Bitcoin rollups be considered “Stage 1” Ethereum’s existential crisis Bitcoin fees in a rollup world The risk of L2s cannibalizing Bitcoin Will Bitcoin DeFi look different from Ethereum DeFi? Why Bitcoin deserves Rollups What soft forks is Alexei looking forward to? Does institutionalization ossify Bitcoin? BOB’s progress and roadmap for 2025 Learn...
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Weekly Roundup 03/28/25 (MiCA Stablecoins, Gamestop, Hyperliquid) (EP.607)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Matt and Nic return for another week of news and deals. In this episode: We reflect on our podcast with Paolo Ardoino The EU’s MiCA rules make launching a stablecoin virtually impossible We explain the Ghiblification crazy OCC removes Reputation risk from bank supervision World Liberty Fi launches a stablecoin Hyperliquid suffers an exploit - are they decentralized? Fidelity is exploring the launch of a stablecoin ICE is looking to use USDC Coinbase is reportedly looking to acquire Deribit US Treasury lifts sanctions on Tornado Cash Sei is looking to buy 23andme
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Paolo Ardoino (Tether) on stablecoin bills, pursuing an audit, and getting to 400m users (EP.606)
On The Brink with Castle Island
, the CEO of Tether, rejoins the show for a timely discussion. In this episode: How is Paolo feeling about political trends in the US today? Tether is the 7th-largest buyer of USTs at the sovereign level Paolo’s decision to spend more time in the US What does Paolo make of the stablecoin bills in Congress? Does Tether want to eventually come onshore to the US? Tether is pursuing a Big 4 Audit The effect of Operation Choke Point 2.0 on Tether Tether is moving their HQ to El Salvador Paolo’s thoughts on stablecoins in MiCA How does Tether get to the figure of 400m global users of the...
info_outlineBrian Venturo is the CTO of CoreWeave, the largest North American GPU miner, which also doubles as a cloud infrastructure firm for general computation. In this episode:
- How Brian went from hobbyist Ethereum mining to wielding a fleet of 50,000 GPUs
- How Core Weave was able to cheaply acquire GPUs from insolvent mining farms
- The implications of the Ethereum DAG file growing beyond 4 GB and its effect on miners
- The effect of the looming PoS transition on miner decision-making
- Why Core Weave specifically limited their GPU fleet to NVIDIAs with more memory
- Brian's stance on Ethereum's transition to Proof of Stake
- Are miners pro-cyclical or counter-cyclical?
- Does Core Weave hold inventory in the coins they mine or do they divest them immediately?
- Brian's options based model for pricing hardware
- The mini gold rush happening in publicly traded mining firms
- Brian's opinion on hashrate swaps or derivatives
- How Core Weave is transitioning from purely mining based to public cloud services
- The feasibility of GPU miners moving into cloud computing
- Core Weave's plans to train an open source version of GPT-3
- Brian's view of the role of miners in the Ethereum ecosystem
- The motivations behind monetary-related EIPs in Ethereum
- Brian's analysis of incentives to make Ethereum deflationary
- Why Proof of Work is an underrated distribution method
- Brian's position on increasing the gas limit
- Why tinkering with the fee market is counterproductive in terms of transactional efficiency
- The relationship between blockspace and fee revenue for miners
- Brian's thoughts on EIP 1559 and whether it increases Ethereum's security
- Brian's view on the pace of ethereum development
- Why Proof of Work launches are preferable to liquidity mining launches
- The current state of the ASIC v GPU debate
- Brian's retrospective on the Grin launch
- Why Core Weave is not interested in miner-extractable value (MEV)
Sponsor notes:
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