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Brannin McBee (Core Weave) on Greening the Grid, the Texas Meltdown, and Bitcoin Mining (EP.183)

On The Brink with Castle Island

Release Date: 02/22/2021

David Low (Hata) on Crypto in Southeast Asia (EP.574) show art David Low (Hata) on Crypto in Southeast Asia (EP.574)

On The Brink with Castle Island

, CEO and cofounder of joins the show. In this episode,  In this episode, Wyatt and David discuss: Crypto adoption in Southeast Asia Regulatory attitudes Operating a centralized exchange Bitcoin interest vs other cryptoassets in the region

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Weekly Roundup 11/08/24 (Trump wins, crypto candidates win, Election implications) (EP.573) show art Weekly Roundup 11/08/24 (Trump wins, crypto candidates win, Election implications) (EP.573)

On The Brink with Castle Island

Nic and Matt are back with more news and deals. In this episode: Trump resoundingly wins the election A demographic realignment Polymarket versus the polls Podcasts and twitter versus the legacy media How did the pro-crypto candidates do? Trump promises to fire Gensler on day 1 How did the Fairshake PAC do? Review of key Senate races Will Trump execute on his crypto promises? Moreno defeats Brown in Ohio Will OCP2.0 finally end? What’s the deal with Trump’s Bitcoin reserve? How would the SEC change token issuance rules? How will Trump's election affect DeFi and cashflowing tokens? Why...

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Hadley Stern (Marinade) on Institutional Staking (EP.572) show art Hadley Stern (Marinade) on Institutional Staking (EP.572)

On The Brink with Castle Island

, the Chief Commercial Officer of joins the show. In this episode we discuss: Hadley’s career in the blockchain industry. The early days of researching and building blockchain products at Fidelity.   The landscape for banks in the United States as it relates to digital asset product development. The evolving regulatory landscape and the prospects of pro-innovation legislation. The staking landscape and how Marinade is going to market with its products and services. To learn more about Marinade visit    

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Weekly Roundup 11/01/24 (US Treasury on Stables, Polymarket volume, Singh Sentenced) (EP.571) show art Weekly Roundup 11/01/24 (US Treasury on Stables, Polymarket volume, Singh Sentenced) (EP.571)

On The Brink with Castle Island

Matt and Nic return for another week of news and deals. In this episode: We check in on the presidential odds State races to watch As part of their quarterly earnings release, Microstrategy  a plan to raise $42 billion in the next 3 years in order to buy more Bitcoin. The raise will be evenly split between equity offerings and sales of fixed-income securities. Coinbase  a future donation of $25 million to Fairshake to be used for the 2026 midterm elections. Nishad Singh, the former director of engineering for FTX,  prison time following his guilty...

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Pat Larsen (Zenledger) on Digital Asset Tax and Compliance (EP.570) show art Pat Larsen (Zenledger) on Digital Asset Tax and Compliance (EP.570)

On The Brink with Castle Island

Pat Larsen, the founder and CEO of joins the show. In this episode we discuss: The latest developments in the tax and compliance categories within digital assets. How asset managers and large financial institutions are increasingly adopting digital assets. The compliance obligations of financial services firms as it relates to digital asset trading. The venture capital landscape for digital asset startups. The use cases that are currently driving adoption in the blockchain industry. To learn more about Zenledger, visit

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Weekly Roundup 10/25/24 (Stripe acquires Bridge, Polymarket whale, Stables as Fintech 3.0) (EP.569) show art Weekly Roundup 10/25/24 (Stripe acquires Bridge, Polymarket whale, Stables as Fintech 3.0) (EP.569)

On The Brink with Castle Island

Matt and Nic are back for more news and deals. In this episode: The Polymarket whale is identified BTCUSD predictions for the election Election models versus prediction markets Stripe acquires Bridge for $1.1b Did the Bridge deal make sense for Stripe? Stablecoins as Fintech 3.0 Nigeria frees Tigran Gambaryan Kraken is launching the Ink blockchain Buenos Aires is launching a blockchain-based identity solution Opera launches the minipay wallet A new paper from the Fed gives us new insight into the 2023 bank run Coinbase FOIAs the regulators behind OCP 2.0 Content mentioned in this episode: ...

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Weekly Roundup 10/18/24 (Hagerty’s Stablecoin Bill, WLF Launches, GOAT Coin) (EP.568) show art Weekly Roundup 10/18/24 (Hagerty’s Stablecoin Bill, WLF Launches, GOAT Coin) (EP.568)

On The Brink with Castle Island

Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode: Nic’s Dutch misadventures Federal versus State regulation of Stablecoins TD Bank filed $3b for money laundering Are stake rewards property or income? Italy hikes capital gains taxes on Bitcoin Is Polymarket manipulated? Has the first AI bot millionaire been minted? The World Liberty Financial tokensale flopped Sponsor notes:  Withum’s Digital Currency and Blockchain Technology Team specializes in crypto-assets, offering accounting, tax and advisory solutions to fortify trust in a dynamic industry. Contact...

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Weekly Roundup 10/11/24 (HBO Satoshi Unveil, SEC v Cumberland, World Liberty Fi tokensale) (EP.567) show art Weekly Roundup 10/11/24 (HBO Satoshi Unveil, SEC v Cumberland, World Liberty Fi tokensale) (EP.567)

On The Brink with Castle Island

Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode: Are shipping regulations making the oceans hotter? Is Satoshi Peter Todd? Is the identity of Satoshi the best mystery of all time? The SEC comes after Cumberland sues the SEC World Liberty Financial is doing a tokensale Uniswap announces Unichain Is Polymarket manipulated? Ryan Salame appears on Tucker Sponsor notes: Coin Metrics, : In Coin Metrics' State of the Network issue 280, we provide our quarterly update on Bitcoin mining. Withum’s Digital Currency and Blockchain Technology Team specializes in...

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Weekly Roundup 10/04/24 (CZ Free, Visa’s stablecoin, Satoshi unveiled) (EP.566) show art Weekly Roundup 10/04/24 (CZ Free, Visa’s stablecoin, Satoshi unveiled) (EP.566)

On The Brink with Castle Island

Matt and Nic return for another week of news and deals. In this episode: Monad Madness CZ is released from jail Roman Storm’s motion to dismiss is denied Mango settles with the SEC Swift is piloting digital asset transactions Bitwise submits and S-1 for a Ripple ETF Visa announces their Tokenized Assets Platform Franklin moves to Aptos The SEC’s Gurbir Grewal steps down Sponsor notes Coin Metrics, : A data-driven overview of events shaping crypto markets in Q3–2024 Withum’s Digital Currency and Blockchain Technology Team specializes in crypto-assets, offering accounting, tax and...

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Stephen Novenstern (Kintsu) on Building on Monad (EP.565) show art Stephen Novenstern (Kintsu) on Building on Monad (EP.565)

On The Brink with Castle Island

, the founder of joins the show. In this episode we discuss: Stephen’s path to the cryptocurrency industry and the vision for Kintsu, a liquid staking project in the Monad ecosystem. The history of DeFi and the LST category. Why Monad and views on the net new primitives that are enabled by this new layer one blockchain. The future of layer one blockchains. Central limit orderbooks in decentralized finance. To learn more about visit their website and follow the project on .  

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More Episodes

Core Weave chief strategy officer and former energy trader Brannin McBee joins the show to talk about the grid meltdown in Texas and the impact of renewables on the grid. In this episode: 

  • Brannin's history in energy trading and energy analytics
  • How his firm survived a 95% collapse in the price of natural gas – and how that presaged his work in the crypto space
  • How Brannin's firm Core Weave alternates between mining ETH and monetizing GPUs through high-performance compute
  • How wholesale power trading works – and how it provides valuable informational signals to the grid
  • How the US grid is arranged – and how the energy mix has changed in the last decade
  • How coal has been marginalized in the last decade through natural gas and renewables
  • Why energy is not globally fungible
  • Why forecasting wind is so difficult – and how that complicates including wind into the grid
  • How renewables trade off reliability against carbon impact
  • How increasing the share of wind and solar destabilizing the grid
  • Why increasing units of wind requires new units of gas on the grid
  • The confluence of causes behind the Texas grid failure last week
  • How Core Weave selected their location on the grid – and how they took political risk into account
  • How much energy Bitcoin consumes – and where that stands relative to the energy consumption of the US
  • How flaring natural gas to mine Bitcoin works – and whether it's economical
  • Does Bitcoin work as a load balancer for grids?
  • Can you compare Bitcoin's footprint to that of entire countries?