Back To The Basics: Why VanEck Wants To Invest In Great Products and Founders Who Won’t Rug Us
Pranav Kanade is Portfolio Manager for Digital Assets at VanEck. In this episode, we break down why altcoins have struggled this cycle, what sets the few winners apart, and where real opportunities lie—both in crypto and public markets. We also explore how stablecoin legislation could unlock new value and what’s next for ETFs in the digital asset space. ------ 🔗 Essential Show Links 🔗 ► Newsletter: https://the-edge.xyz ► Youtube: https://youtube.com/@DeFiDad ► Apple: https://tinyurl.com/edgepod ► Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/edgepodspotify ► Linktree: https://linktr.ee/edge_pod ► Follow DeFi Dad: https://x.com/DeFi_Dad ► Follow Nomatic: https://x.com/Nomaticcap ► Learn DeFi: http://defidad.com/ ------ The Edge Podcast Sponsor Resources 🔮 PYTH NETWORK | SMARTER DATA FOR SMARTER CONTRACTS https://pyth.network/ ⏳ HOURGLASS | LEVERAGED AIRDROP FARMING AND BOOSTED POINTS https://hourglass.com/ 🪄 TANSSI | LAUNCH YOUR SYMBIOTIC RESTAKED NETWORK IN MINUTES https://www.tanssi.network/ 📊 iYIELD | YOUR FINANCIAL PICTURE, SIMPLIFIED https://go.iyield.com/edge 🧪 MANTLE | START YOUR RESTAKING JOURNEY TODAY WITH CMETH https://meth.mantle.xyz/restake 🐡 PUFFER UNIFI | A BASED ROLLUP TO ETHEREUM WITH NATIVE YIELDS https://unifi.puffer.fi/ 🌔 MOONWELL | THE LEADING LENDING AND BORROWING APP ON BASE https://moonwell.fi/ 🐐 GOAT NETWORK | A BITCOIN L2 TO EARN WITH BTC & DOGE https://www.goat.network/ ⚙️ GEARBOX PROTOCOL | ONCHAIN LENDING REIMAGINED https://gearbox.fi/ 📈 DEFINITIVE | THE MOST ADVANCED PLATFORM FOR ONCHAIN TRADING https://app.definitive.fi/r/DEFIDAD ------ Timestamps 0:00 - Intro 5:44 - Pranav’s background and VanEck 11:43 - A day in the life as an investor 13:50 - Thoughts on Kaito and InfoFi 17:03 - What’s been different this cycle with altcoins? 19:06 - Mantle mid-roll 19:44 - Oversupply of tokens, plus lessened demand for quality projects 23:29 - Fundamentals investing and the memecoin casino can coexist 26:59 - What can we learn from alts that have done well? 29:16 - Will we have a true alt season ever again? 33:05 - Sponsor mid-roll 34:44 - What’s the lesson from the LIBRA blowup? 39:51 - Stablecoin legislation and how it’s bullish for tokens + equities 46:49 - Identifying publicly traded companies to benefit from stablecoins 48:59 - How will stablecoin growth in Web2 affect what’s built onchain? 51:20 - Do AI agents have staying power? 56:47 - How new ETFs could impact us this year 59:06 - Thoughts on ETH ETFs 1:01:28 - Closing ------ 🔗 Guest Links 🔗 ► VanEck website: https://www.vaneck.com/ ► VanEck on X: https://x.com/vaneck_us ► Pranav on X: https://x.com/vaneckpk ------ If you're a DeFi/Web3 builder, contact our team at: https://fourthrevolution.capital/ All opinions expressed by hosts and podcast guests are solely their own opinions and not necessarily those of Fourth Revolution Capital. Podcast guests and 4RC may have positions in the assets or other matters discussed in this podcast. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions. Do your own research. This is not a recommendation or endorsement to buy any token(s) related to any platform(s) discussed.
Flaunch: The Game-Changing Platform for Devs & Investors | Up to 100% Fees to Builders! 🚀
💡 Is Flaunch the Future of Crypto Launchpads? 💡 In this podcast, we dive deep into Flaunch—a groundbreaking platform that lets developers create tokens, keep 100% of fees, and ensures contract security for investors. Unlike traditional systems where companies take all the fees (hurting both builders and token holders), Flaunch is flipping the script to create a more sustainable and fair ecosystem.🔍 Topics Covered:✅ How Flaunch empowers developers & strengthens investor confidence✅ Why current launch models hurt token prices and how Flaunch fixes it✅ What motivated the team to dedicate their time and effort to work on Flaunch✅ Why they launched on Base and the type of impact they believe their project can have for the entire crypto marketTo learn more about Flaunch:X: https://x.com/flaunchggWEB: https://flaunch.gg/To learn more about Late Night on Base:X: https://x.com/latenightonbase👀 If you're a developer, investor, or passionate about the evolution of crypto, this is a must-listen! Hit LIKE & SUBSCRIBE to stay ahead of the biggest shifts in blockchain and Web3. 🚀🔥#Flaunch #CryptoLaunchpad #Web3 #DeFi #CryptoSecurity #Base #Ethereum #Blockchain #CryptoNews
S11 E1 | Building Decentralized Knowledge Graphs With AI w/Billy Luedtke (Intuition)
In this episode, we bring back listener favorite, Billy Luedtke, founder of Intuition. Billy received votes from 113 unique wallets in this season's all-stars contest, which is the highest number of unique wallets to vote for a single nominee in Rehash history. Billy shares updates on Intuition since his last appearance in August 2023, in particular highlighting how the platform has evolved from a concept to a publicly accessible product. We also dive deep into the core concepts of Intuition such as atoms, triples, and signals, and the novel economic incentives for data creation.
Natural remedies and hustle mentality with Dezie and Clinton
From Granada to Canada comes a superfood like no other… sea moss. Turns out this algae, sourced responsibly from the Caribbean, is a nutrient dense, affordable, natural remedy with a variety of health benefits. Join Fred and Derek as they dive in and learn more from Dezie and Clinton, a real life couple and co-founders of Toronto-based business, The Sea Moss Guy. We’ll hear how their hustle mentality during the pandemic led them to take something they’ve used for years growing up in Caribbean households and share it with Canadian consumers. They also chat through maintaining a work-life balance at home when you live with your business partner, and the amazing support they've received from their community so far in their entrepreneurial journey. Now the question is… How do Dezie and Clinton leverage their high demand to build out a robust supply chain and grow their operation to the next level? Fred and Derek have a few thoughts on the subject, as always.
"Winning Together" with Clanker Founders Proxy and Dish | ZEROPOD S2 E8
Welcome back to another episode of ZEROPOD. This week, Toady Hawk is joined by JackWyldes and they have a very interesting conversation with Proxy and Dish, the two indomitable founders of the little AI agent token launcher called Clanker which has taken the Base ecosystem by storm over the past couple months. This pod is structured a little differently than most, because we actually sat down with the clankers-in-chief on two separate occasions, a couple weeks apart. In between, the guys hosted a hackathon in Boston called Clankhack, where many builders from their burgeoning ecosystem gathered to build together for a weekend, and our own Jack was fortunate enough to attend and document the whole thing (more on this soon.) In any case, we have edited these 2 conversations into a single podcast for your enjoyment, with hinge in the middle separating the pre-clankhack and post-clank-hack eras. We had a blast digging in to get the raw clanker story for you and we hope you will enjoy this conversation as much as we did. So grab a tall glass of milk and a fresh can of spinach and strap in for the Clankpod! —- TIMESTAMPS: 0:00 - Introduction to Clanker: What is Clanker? Deploying meme coins made simple. 2:04 - ZEROPOD Intro 3:00 - Start of Part 1: Pre-Clankhack. Personal Stories of the Founders 6:00 - The Origin of Clanker 9:04 - Building Clanker in Five Days 12:02 - Launching and Scaling Clanker 15:02 - Clanker’s Value Proposition 18:33 - A message from our sponsors 20:00 - Reminiscing about launch day 22:00 - Create the job(s) you want 24:00 - “Farcaster is an incredible network” 26:00 - Tokens as a novel bootstrapping mechanism 29:00 - Dish got kicked off of Facebook 36:00 - The speculative power of ERC-20s vs NFTs 48:00 - Start of Part 2 (Post Clankhack) 49:00 - What is Clanker, exactly? 51:00 - How does it differ from other models 54:00 - The moat is the network 57:00 - What was Clankhack? 1:00:00 - The space needs more good content 1:03:00 - How can Zero Rights Help creators 1:05:00 - Being bombarded by VC term sheets 1:08:00 - “It shouldn’t be easy to make 16 million dollars” 1:10:00 - The future of Clankhack 1:17:00 - Comparison to UX on Solana 1:19:00 - “No more L2s” 1:21:00 - “If the leader of the free world can do it, so can you.” 1:24:00 - Wen $SNOWDEN on Base? 1:33:00 - Bit of a love fest tbh 1:38:00 - Chugging canned spinach for the plot 1:40:00 - Alpha? 1:42:00 - Outro — Podcast recorded by Toady Hawk and JackWyldes, edited by Toady Hawk, JackWyldes and Santhosh. Hosted by Toady Hawk and JackWyldes. Music by Toady Hawk, SuperTightWoody & Suno AI. Ad spot by JackWyldes. Produced by Zero Rights Media. This content is zero rights reserved (cc0), please remix and reuse it in any way you like! #base #onchain #clanker #ai #ethereum #tokens
Smudged eyeliner, political dreams and confessions from the Y2K Vault
Holly aka swampnet is a community manager at OrbisDB. She is also known for her fun & viral video content on Farcaster. you know u want to be a producer of the show. subscribe on Hypersub https://www.hypersub.xyz/dashboard/los-fomos-fm-producer-yfpf5xwg6qkg Follow us everywhere but start here on Farcaster: https://warpcast.com/~/channel/los-fomos and on X https://x.com/LosFomos
Courtside Crypto Episode 3: Build Your Tomorrow with Moonwell
In this episode, Tristan sits down with Luke Youngblood from Moonwell to dive into their mission of bringing the world onchain with powerful financial tools designed for everyone. From Moonwell's new VISA debit card to virtual bank accounts, Luke explains how Moonwell is simplifying onchain finance and empowering people across the globe to take control of their financial futures. 00:00 - Introduction 01:44 - Who is Luke Youngblood 03:30 - Moonwell Mission and Vision 06:40 - Virtual Bank Accounts 10:54 - The Power of Stablecoin Payments 18:45 - TradFi vs. DeFi 21:00 - Saving in Moonwell Vaults 25:00 - Doing More with Moonwell 29:00 - From Memes to Onchain Finance 34:15 - Lending Made Simple 36:45 - What’s Next for Moonwell 38:42 - Starting Your Crypto Journey 📲 Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and hit the bell 🔔 for updates on future episodes!
Richard Chen on Venture Capital and Data-Driven Community Building
Mint Season 6, Episode 15 welcomed Richard Chen, Venture Partner at Varrock and a Dune top wizard. During the half-hour discussion, we covered all things venture investing, where data intersects with the creator economy, music NFTs, building a successful community, and much more. Enjoy this blast from the past.
Using POAPs to Sell Music Onchain
Mint Season 6, Episode 27 featured crypto-native music artist Annika Rose, who shared how she successfully sold out her Sound.xyz drop using a POAP-only pre-sale and offered insights on how others can replicate her strategy. We also explored her transition into the onchain space, her journey as a music artist, and the lessons she's learned along the way. This episode is packed with inspiration and actionable advice for creators. Hope you enjoy this blast from the past.
"Building a Better Internet on Base" with Aneri Amin (Product Lead at Base) | ZEROPOD S2 E5
Welcome back to another episode of ZEROPOD, our zero copyright video podcast about enjoying Ethereum. In this episode, host Toady Hawk, from the Zero Rights Media Collective sits down with Aneri Amin, the Head of Product in charge of social, creators and onchain summer at Base. Aneri’s career journey spans from the high tech hallways of Apple and Meta to the onchain trenches of Coinbase's leading Ethereum L2 rollup. She has been a force for change, driving innovation in creator tools, decentralized social, and onchain ecosystems. In this episode, we chat about Base’s explosive first full year, its plans for 2025, and how they’re building a future where creators like me can own our content, identity, and audience. Plus, she shares some great insights into her own journey—from a curious kid asking “why” to every question to a crew chief on the construction site for what she calls “the new internet.” This was an inspiring conversation about the power of community, ownership, and innovation—so buckle up, stay based and let’s dive in! Also, if you enjoy this content and want to see more like it, please Like, leave a comment and Subscribe so you don't miss the next episode. --- TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 The Future of the Creator Economy is Onchain 00:54 Welcome to ZEROPOD 02:00 Childhood Curiosity and Governance Passion 04:00 A Lifelong Love of Reading 06:26 Education 07:00 From Public Sector to Big Tech 09:00 What Exactly Does a Product Manager Do? 11:03 Creator Challenges and Meta Days 15:00 Biggest Learnings From Time at Meta 16:30 Onchain as a New Internet for Creators 20:00 Creator Wellbeing as a New Pillar 22:00 Original Intro to Crypto, and Later Onchain-pilling via Coinbase 27:00 Goals for Onchain Summer 3 29:00 Why Did Base Find So Much Success in 2025? 30:00 Aneri Spills The Tea on What It’s Like Working With Jesse Every Day 34:00 Around the World with Base Lessons and community insights from Base’s global tour across Africa, India, and beyond. 37:00 Different Regional Onchain Needs How cultural differences shape creator priorities in various regions. 40:00 Strategies for Tackling Global Expansion of the Onchain Economy 41:00 Big Plans for 2025 Aneri hints at major Coinbase Wallet updates and what’s next for Base. 44:00 What is Aneri Most Excited About in 2025? 46:00 Aneri’s Advice for Onchain Creators 48:00 Wrapping Up --- Podcast recorded by Toady Hawk, edited by Toady Hawk and Santhosh. Hosted by Toady Hawk. Music by Toady Hawk, SuperTightWoody & Suno AI. Produced and distributed by the Zero Rights Media Collective. This content is zero rights reserved (cc0), please remix and reuse it in any way you like! #base #onchain #content #creators #ethereum
Choreographing a stronger community with Clarence Ford
Clarence Ford started out as an athlete; first as a competitive hockey player, then transitioning to dance as a choreographer for the world-renowned Cirque du Soleil. After seeing the power of community-building first-hand within Cirque du Soleil, Clarence embarked on a journey of creating circus programming for underserved youth in Toronto. He launched a non-for-profit called Square Circle, with a mission to “help students develop communication, interpersonal, artistic, and physical skills in a safe, collaborative, and fun environment”. Through educational partnerships and community workshops, Clarence hopes to build out his business by tapping into as many youth groups as possible in Toronto and beyond. On this week’s episode, Clarence sits down with Fred and Derek to discuss new avenues to explore expansion and growth of Square Circle. They speak to building a solid foundation for his business - from considering a strategic board, to finding mentorship, and building community as a new entrepreneur. Finally, they discuss strategies on how to manage burn out while navigating multiple priorities to get your business off the ground.
Going Viral Onchain
This episode welcomes Cooper Turley, Founder of Coop Records. Cooper is a recurring guest on the pod, though this time, we focus all of our attention on how to go viral onchain. Consider this a round table discussion where him and I share our insights, lessons learned, and debate our perspectives on the current state of the onchain creator economy. I hope you enjoy our conversation.
Building Web3’s Ultimate Gaming Community w/ Sam Vuong
In this episode of Growth Stories, Sam Vuong, Treasure’s CMO, shares her journey of building one of web3’s most active gaming communities. Highlights: 🎯 Decentralized marketing strategies that work. 📊 Metrics for scaling web3 games. 🚀 Why retention beats hype in gaming. 🎧 Tune in for exclusive insights and rewards! Connect with Sam: @samjvuong Follow Growth Stories: @growth_beast | @TheCrypthena
Rebuilding the Creator Economy
For centuries, creators have given up a big share of their earnings for a chance to reach audiences. In 18th century England, authors’ desires to break free of censorship and exercise the power of the written word led to the growth of modern copyright law, a key pillar of the creator economy. But to this day, publishers and distributors of content have enormous power over how creators make money and grow with their audiences.What if that didn’t have to be the case? What if, by “going onchain” through blockchain-based apps and platforms, creators could gain complete ownership over their content and create new revenue models, where they (not publishers or platforms) could set the terms?We’ll examine what it means to create, consume, and connect onchain — and find out how this next evolution of the online world could rebuild the creator economy as we know it.
Removing barriers to art with Gaetane Verna
Born in the Congo and raised in Montréal, today’s guest both embodies and promotes the cultural diversity of her new hometown, Toronto, where she is the Director of The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Canada’s leading public gallery. Without a permanent collection, Gaetane isn’t bogged down by the past and instead keeps her finger on the pulse of the contemporary art world AND current issues in society. It is her job to find and present a wide array of diverse artists who often question history, challenge injustice and inequities while also producing works that transcend the mere materials being used. She and the art presented at the Power Plant are always looking forward and staying relevant to the issues of interest to both artists and audiences alike, and in the process, prompting a more constructive conversation around cultural change.
The artist’s story with Tammy Yiu Coyne
The Bet On Yourself podcast was created to amplify the voices of BIPOC business owners who faced immense challenges during the pandemic, including systemic barriers like the lack of support from traditional banks. Led by Fred VanVleet, Derek Folk, myself, and a lineup of inspiring guests, the podcast quickly became the largest in Canadian history—a groundbreaking achievement. In this episode, we’re joined by Tammy Coyne of Partial, who shares her incredible journey and insights into building resilience and innovation in challenging times. Don’t miss this historic and impactful conversation!
ZEROPOD SPOTLIGHT #3: "Obsessed with the Craft of Content" feat. Cameron Armstrong of Seemore.tv
If the internet decides what’s funny, Cameron Armstrong (@cameron on farcaster) has spent his career listening closely to find out. In this edition of our popular ZEROPOD Spotlight series, the Seemore.tv founder shares how he’s helping creators escape the “content algorithm lottery” and why our completionist instinct is one of humanity’s most underrated traits. We explore Farcaster’s journey from tight-knit weirdo haven to high-value creator launchpad, the challenge of minting new platform stars, and the magic of Mandarin oranges on sticks (what?) Whether you’re trying to build a personal brand, a community, or create content like his “OK Banger” podcast, Cameron’s got plenty of advice and anecdotes and you won’t want to miss this conversation. — TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 - “Content Quality Arms Race” 00:47 - ZEROPOD Intro 02:05 - Crypto space needs more video content 04:15 - The Right Kind of Cringe 05:31 - The thing you can consistently do the longest is what you’ll be the best at 07:04 - The Cameron Origin Story: Military beginnings 08:32 - Harvard Business School 09:32 - E-commerce startup 10:35 - Illicit Farcaster Beginnings 11:50 - “A Bunch of Weirdos in a Room” 12:26 - Farcaster, then and now 15:09 - What is seemore.tv 17:58 - “If Linktree and Google Analytics had a baby” 20:55 - Badges for pod collectors 21:27 - Minting is a patronage behaviour for podcasts 23:00 - A minted episode is a creator tip with a lindy receipt 25:00 - The future promise of Ethereum Attestations 26:22 - The Seemore Story (pivot! pivot!) 30:00 - Problems with current business models for creators 32:00 - Conflicts of interest risk with advertising partnerships 34:00 - The advantage to bad actors in crypto 36:00 - The Seemore List 37:00 - The importance of finding values aligned sponsors for content 38:00 - Does Farcaster have enough interesting people? 40:00 - Rewarding creators is baked into the system on Farcaster 41:50 - The Content Valley of Death 43:00 - Problems with spam filters and dopamine triggers 45:18 - Cam’s got alts 46:00 - You don’t get to decide what’s funny on the internet 47:24 - Why is he bullish on Farcaster? 49:00 - OK Banger 50:53 - From Band Kid to Bangers 51:52 - Outro --- Podcast recorded by Toady Hawk, edited by Toady Hawk and Santhosh. Hosted by Toady Hawk. Music by Toady Hawk x Suno AI. This content is zero rights reserved (cc0), please remix and reuse it in any way you like!
Spicy pickles and lips on fire: a berlin tie affair with Varun Srinivasan
Become a producer of the show to support Los Fomos: subscribe on Hypersub! 🌶️ https://www.hypersub.xyz/dashboard/los-fomos-fm-producer-yfpf5xwg6qkg Follow Los Fomos on Farcaster: https://warpcast.com/~/channel/los-fomos Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZ8MI1slzXKUv9fb0I9Ho2A X: https://x.com/LosFomos
Writing, Podcasts and Minting Base Colors — JAKE
JAKE is a pseudo anonymous internet creator. Going with the classic blue, colour code #0000FF as his pfp. Host at Pod Of Jake where he’s interviewed almost 200 guests over 4 years. Most recently Jacob from Zora and others such as Vitalik Buterin, pplpleasr and Mark Cuban. Writer at Blog of Jake, where he’s published about creativity and writing, documenting his experiences as a podcaster, observing what’s happening on the internet, reviewing crypto news, thinking about how to learn and build. JAKE is also the founder of Base Colors, a new onchain collection where you can mint unique colour codes on Base and give them a name, an interesting primitive which many people are starting to play around and experiment with. We talk about the benefits of writing online. Go behind the scenes experiences of hosting a podcast. Thoughts on the crypto scene, Bitcoin and pseudo anon identities on the internet, decentralized social like Farcaster, and thinking too much about Colors. ___ UFO Sponsor Resources ↑ Higher — https://www.aimhigher.net/ 🌐 International Meme Fund — https://imf.bz/ --- @jake @ufoclub.eth @hollins For more episodes, go to ufo.fm
Electronic Music Scenes — Sound Of Fractures
Jamie Reddington is an electronic music producer, consultant and lecturer from London who recently released his debut album Scenes. His music is shaped by hiphop, UK dance music and soul. Leaning into telling stories, with textures and samples captured from his phone, featuring the sound of his daughter’s heartbeat. The record was released as a co-creation. ‘Over 350 memories were submitted and turned into Scenes, capturing a moment in time. People stopped, took time out of their lives and engaged in a process that connected music and emotions.' We talk about the past, present and future of music on the internet. What's most interesting for artists right now? ___ UFO Sponsor Resources ↑ Higher — https://www.aimhigher.net/ 🌐 International Meme Fund — https://imf.bz/ --- @soundoffractures @ufoclub.eth @hollins For more episodes, go to ufo.fm
Exploring the Memecoin Supercycle with IMF — Gami, Clouted
Gami and Clouted are core contributors from International Meme Fund (IMF) and $MONEY. Their team believes it is now crucial to have native liquidity and financial infrastructure for the meme sector. They're both from Sydney and have shared interests in defi financial engineering, game theory and the memecoin phenomonen. We talk about financial nihilism. Memes as emergent properties of the internet. Why do some meme assets succeed when the vast majority fail? How do you choose the tokens that go up? (no financial advice). The internet is stranger than you think.
Interpreting Technology with AIxDESIGN — Nadia Piet
Nadia Piet is Founder and Creative Lead of AIxDESIGN, a global community conducting critical AI research for the benefit of people, not profits. She's a designer, researcher, organiser and faculty member at ELISAVA's Design for Responsible AI. We talk about many things artificial intelligence. AlphaGO and Move 37. AI models trained on creative assets without permission. Commodification of digital life. What's causing the rapidly improving visual quality of generative AI such as DALL-E and Midjourney? Big picture, what are constructive ways to be thinking about AI?
