Anders Larson (U.S. Bitcoin Corp) on strategic miner decision making (EP.270)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Release Date: 12/20/2021
Weekly Roundup 01/31/25 (Senate Debanking Hearing, Powell's pivot, Tokenized Securities) (EP.592)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Matt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode: Should we revisit Basel rules on Bitcoin? Jay Powell evolves on banks serving crypto Are banks going to offer crypto custody post SAB121? Gensler joins MIT Sloan Should crypto firms boycott MIT? The Senate will hold a hearing on debanking next week Choke Point 2.0 is getting caught up in conservative debanking Where are we on DeSci? Is tokenization finally going to happen? X is adding payments to the platform with Visa Truth Social is launching Truth.Fi...
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Weekly Roundup 01/24/25 (Trump EO, the Stockpile, Ross Free, SAB121 Gone!) (EP.591)
On The Brink with Castle Island
The episode where we logged on and won forever. Probably the biggest week in crypto history... In this episode: Ross Ulbricht is granted a full pardon Did Ross Ulbricht deserve a life sentence? SAB121 is finally gone Why SAB121 was bad Crypto ball review Trump launches a memecoin Trump is inaugurated OCP2.0 is over CBDCs are banned We review Trump's Executive Order No Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, but a stockpile instead Larry Fink calls for 600-700k BTC Mark Uyeda, the formation of a new task force: SEC Crypto 2.0 Senator Cynthia Lummis the formation of the...
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Weekly Roundup 01/17/25 (Lummis FDIC letter, the Tether tower, American made coins) (EP.590)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Matt and Nic are back for more news and deals. In this episode: Lummis instructs FDIC staff to not destroy evidence of Chokepoint Did the FDIC call Nic poor? Coinbase wins a partial victory against the SEC Canary Capital files for a Litecoin ETF Tether is moving to El Salvador and building an HQ there Atlanta Fed gets stablecoins The case for non-USD stablecoins Is there a case for other assets in a Strategic Reserve?
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Weekly Roundup 01/10/24 (FDIC Pause Letters released, SEC v Coinbase) (EP.589)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Matt and Nic are back after a week off. In this episode: Southern District of New York grants Coinbase’s appeal in their case against the SEC The Governor of the Czech national bank is considering Bitcoin in their reserves Do Kwon is extradited to the US E-trade is launching crypto trading The FDIC is forced by a court to further un-redact documents Coinbase asked for in a FOIA request We cover the FDIC’s Pause Letters Content mentioned in this episode: Fidelity Digital Assets, Bitwise, Nick Anthony,
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Dana Syracuse and Josh Boehm (Paul Hastings LLP) on the 2025 Digital Asset Legal Landscape (EP.588)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Dana Syracuse and Josh Boehm of Paul Hastings LLP join the show. In this episode we discuss: The common legal and regulatory considerations that are encountered by companies in the digital asset industry. Common pitfalls that entrepreneurs in this ecosystem should avoid. The state of the stablecoin industry and the regulatory considerations in this category. Potential changes ahead in 2025 on how digital assets are regulated in the United States. To learn more about Paul Hastings and their fintech and digital asset practices visit
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Weekly Roundup 12/27/24 (Tether x Rumble, quantum threat, End of year predictions) (EP.587)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Matt and Nic are back for an end of year episode. In this episode: Tether invests $775m in Rumble Who are the Rumble shareholders in Trump's admin? Microstrategy seeks approval for more Bitcoin buying We review the quantum risk to Bitcoin Matt and Nic's predictions for 2025 Sponsor notes: Coin Metrics, In Coin Metrics State of the Network Issue 291, we revisit major stories that shaped the digital asset industry in 2024 with a data-driven lens
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Janusz and Red (Bitcoin Layers) on Bitcoin Season 2 (EP.586)
On The Brink with Castle Island
and from join the show. In this episode: Innovation on Bitcoin, previously and now Technology vs consumer adoption The future of BTC use cases More about
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Weekly Roundup 12/20/24 (No SBR?, Prometheum, Crenshaw) (EP.585)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Matt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode: Nic comes out against the SBR on Bloomberg More Prometheum nonsense MicroStrategy an additional 15,350 BTC for roughly $1.5 billion, bringing the company's total holdings to 439,000 BTC. Microstrategy was also to the Nasdaq 100 this week, which will lead to the stock's inclusion in several large ETFs including Invesco's QQQ. Anchorage Digital has New York BitLicense approval, enabling them to offer digital asset custody and trading services to more customers in the state such as RIAs and other...
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Alex Lin (Reforge) on On-chain Innovation & Consumer Use Cases (EP.584)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Wyatt sits down with . In this episode: Alex’s interdisciplinary road into crypto Innovation in blockchain infrastructure Crypto-powered consumer applications Learn more about a blockchain and frontier tech investment firm.
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Rodrigo Seira (Cooley) and Ron Hammond (Blockchain Association) on Digital Asset Policy in 2025 (EP.583)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Rodrigo Seira, Special Counsel at and Ron Hammond, Director of Government Relations at join the show. In this episode we discuss: The 2024 election and the impact of the crypto vote. Executive branch actions to keep an eye on in 2025. Potential SEC related actions that would impact the digital asset market. The future of Staff Accounting Bulletin 121. Where digital asset legislation fits into the 2025 legislative priorities. Stablecoin legislation. Market structure legislation. To learn more about Cooley visit: To learn more about The Blockchain Association visit:
info_outlineAnders Larson, head of strategic finance at U.S. Bitcoin Corp, joins us to talk about how miners make decisions and allocate capital. In this episode:
- The Wharton class of 2018
- Are Bitcoin miners clogging up the chip supply chain?
- Why Bitcoin miners are 'tier 2' customers at foundries
- The scale of US BTC operations in terms of hashrate
- Why US BTC has been so quiet historically
- How US BTC targets renewable energy
- Which renewables are easiest to find
- Is there any truth to the story of Bitcoin improving the economics of renewables?
- Why ASIC depreciation is slowing, and how that affects the viability of different energy sources
- The relationship between Bitcoin's carbon intensity and ASIC depreciation period
- Can ASICs last for 5 years?
- How does US BTC think about uptime on their units?
- Why lower uptime means that you have cheaper power due to demand response
- How US BTC thinks about hashrate growth and why they are more conservative than their competitors
- Why Chinese hashrate is not completely eliminated
- The state of affairs in Kazakhstan
- How Anders thinks about political risk in mining
- How policy logic informs selective mining bans and mining subsidies
- How Anders sees miners vertically integrating with energy firms
- How Anders thinks about proposed state bitcoin mining bans in places like NY
- Why mining bans in the West are often counterproductive
- The relationship between energy consumption and civilizational progress
- How Anders thinks about the energy cost debate
- Whether the CBECI hashrate distribution estimates are reliable
- Why the US having a large share of hashrate isn't something to be concerned about
- How mining could become a states rights issue
- Does US BTC project fee growth in their models?
Sponsor notes:
- Compass Mining is the world's first and largest online marketplace for bitcoin mining hardware, hosting, and ASIC reselling. Start mining your own bitcoin by visiting compassmining.io
- This episode supported by Public.com. Start investing with as little as $1 and get a free slice of stock up to $50 when you join Public.com today. Visit public.com/onthebrink to download the app and sign up.