Who are the best long-term, fundamentals public markets investors you follow? Tokens or equities Please drop recs in the comments, bonus points if they write publicly!

We've been doing a new quick-hitter series called Work In Progress sub-20 min clips of WIP thematic ideas This week's was about lending protocols. Check it out below!

There’s a huge opportunity to build defi infra for prediction markets Aggregators, leverage, lending, better order routing, derivatives, & more The best builders will draw on lessons from defi 1.0 while still approaching the unique market structures of PMs from first principles

Fate of Ophelia is the best song on the album, hands down

The DraftKings turnaround plan: 1. Announce they are either integrating and/or embedding a prediction market 2. Get access to the 24 states they're not currently in, including CA, FL, and TX --> big potential rev boost 3. Re-rate into the "active trader" segment instead of just iGaming/casinos (much higher multiples)

New Ways to Earn Online

New piece on Stablecoin-Enabled Markets! Publishing 4 new themes / essays this week, this is the first:

Crypto gave us borderless assets Corporations launching chains give us new borders

NYC is beautiful this time of year

The biggest surprise of the past year: tokenized treasuries aren't bigger There are about $7.5B of tokenized t-bills right now. The category has experienced ~100% growth in the past 6 months But it's still small, especially compared to other assets. Total stablecoin supply exceeds $260B. Multiple individual stablecoi... Show more

It's 2030 You're a merchant receiving payment from a customer. They pay with USDC on CircleChain but your payment termainl only receives StripeUSD on StripeChain. But once you get StripeUSD, you want to transfer it to your account with Bank of America, so you need to transfer it to BofAUSD on BofAChain. But wait, ... Show more

Working hard doesn’t cause burnout. Lack of direction does Having momentum and velocity make it easy to work the hardest you’ve ever worked, because the work feels energizing and fun

Best feeling in the world is rediscovering a food you forgot you loved

Stablecoins are still early

Know a bunch of really high quality projects looking to hire strong frontend and full stack engineers If you know anyone looking for their next thing, drop your recs below (or dm me)

New ways to package assets onchain is the #1 idea I'm most excited about right now There are ~4300 equities on the NYSE. Hundreds of products exist to structure, organize, and curate those assets for investors There are millions of tokens, but far fewer products to help investors easily buy baskets of assets. Easily ... Show more

Currently using Google Slides to create a deck and it feels like trying to replicate a Picasso but with crayons

Few feelings better than walking down a tree-lined street, coffee in hand, on the first day that feels like fall

In Q2, Coinbase made more from stablecoins OFF platform (ie that they had little-to-nothing to do with) than ON platform (stables they helped distribute). Insane

Markets should update at the speed with which information becomes available That’s 24/7

Today in charts that barely feel real:

One of my goals in life is to sit in on some studio sessions of my favorite artists

What is a good gift to get someone for a wedding present? (The wedding is in two days)

All of my fittest friends basically eat the same thing every day

Currently in a battle with myself deciding if I should get ice cream

The only good new tv show to premiere this year is Overcompensating

This is easily one of the best things you can buy for <$50

It’s an incredible feeling to see hard-working, mission-driven teams rack up wins

Someone who's good at sports betting, please tell me where the math breaks down

Firmly believe that the only way to justify living in NYC is to take full advantage of the city If you live here, you should be going to standup shows and jazz clubs. Find new people every week to grab dinner with - almost anyone you could hope to meet passes through NYC at some point during the year. There are sponta... Show more

Walked another 7 miles yesterday just while watching the Fritz match

Libby is probably one of the most underrated public goods in the US

New essay analyzing many of Robinhood's recent product announcements, including an updated perspective about where the company may be headed: x.com/AlanaDLevin/...

Discovered the TVs by the treadmills in my gym are broadcasting Wimbledon and as a result I’ve walked nearly 15 miles today

Everyone should think of themselves as an athlete Imo it’s the single greatest unlock for staying healthy. So much easier to eat well, exercise intentionally, and recover consistently when the litmus test is “what would an athlete do?”

Vibe Coding is AI-Native Social Media full essay: backoftheenvelope.substack.com/p/vibe-codin...

There has never been a better time to build wearable cooling devices

Wrote a short thread on the state of the perps market

The #1 question that matters when buying a token: what belief does buying this asset allow me to express about the future?

It's supposed to hit 99 degrees in NYC next Tuesday Will be one of the hottest June days ever recorded

Saw Materialists this weekend Initially disliked it (it’s NOT a rom com) but I also haven’t stopped thinking about it Feel like every person will have a different reaction to it based on where they are in life, and that actually makes it a way more interesting movie

One trick for finding insights When something strikes you as interesting, innovative, disruptive, or even just memorable, ask “how might this generalize?”

One of the most striking insights from Coinbase's State of Crypto summit today came from @barmstrong's fireside: how is it that Coinbase is such a startup factory? There are more paths to a yes than a no Twice a year, Coinbase holds an internal pitch competition, where anyone can suggest an initiative for Coinbase to ... Show more

Making money Saving money Saving time Making time more entertaining These are the foundations of most killer apps

What's dead may never die

Fifth set in the Roland Garros final, let's go Alcaraz!!

This may be the second time I've seriously rooted for Djokovic to win a match

More crypto companies going public would be a huge win because it likely expands the set of large-scale acquirers in the industry

Venmo's new ad with Patrick and Aimee Lou is one of the best things I've seen all year

This may be one of the first times I've seriously rooted for Djokovic to win a match

The vibe coding platforms are the next iteration of social media

Activities that used to require specialized skillsets are becoming accessible to everyone. The companies pioneering this transition are the new apps Probably most observable with coding -- used to be limited to those with the relevant education, now an app in the form of "vibe coding" that anyone can do Interestingly... Show more

We're moving from the "everything app" era to the "everything is an app" era

Is this accurate? What's driving stablecoin adoption in Europe?

What's the best thing you read last week?

Insane chart

My takeaway from the new Meeker report is that however much compute you think we need, it's still probably not even close to enough

Really annoying trend in AI outreach -- someone sends a cold email almost certainty generated / automated by AI, I respond with a specific follow up, actual human behind the email either doesn't respond or replies without answering the request Pretty easy to stand out in cold outreach with a little care and attention... Show more

Intrigued by the Rhode acquisition (and other influencer-distributed brands)? Highly recommend checking out Emma Grede's new podcast Aspire Grede is one of co-founders and powerhouses behind Skims and Good American. She also did an excellent episode on Gwyneth Paltrow's pod

Trends I believe with relatively high confidence: - The number of wallets will grow exponentially - The number of new tokens will grow exponentially - More markets will move toward 24/7 trading - More markets will find ways to facilitate global access - Proof of humanity will continue to grow in importance - We'll see... Show more

Who are the best solutions engineers you've met? Trying to learn what excellent looks like

Autobiographies >> biographies Just finished Barry Diller's "Who Knew?" It was excellent - so many detailed stories over so many years Autobiographers have such unique credibility, knowledge, and authority to write with a specificity and openness that can't really be replicated by regular biographers

What does a pro subscription offer? Looked through the comments and couldn’t find anything substantive

It's genuinely incredible that one of the most important data center companies started off as a bitcoin miner Never give up

I'm skeptical of the dozens of "new payment rails for agents" startups emerging BUT I'm rooting for the stablecoin-based ones regardless b/c I would like to see micropayments enabled at scale

At first glance, Coinbase acquiring Circle doesn't make sense - Coinbase already receives the majority of interest revenue and is the dominant USDC distributor So, what would be the reasons Coinbase could be interested in an acquisition? 1) Their distributor deal may be nearing renegotiation and they're set to receiv... Show more

Obsessed with Elizabeth Banks ending her Penn commencement speech with “May the odds be ever in your favor”

Unironically, Airbnb is becoming Craigslist (but with better branding)

Every time I cast something related to (non tech) culture, I feel the strong urge to tag @ted bc I’m not sure who else on here will resonate with the post

I wish there were a way to bet on the growth of Giggly Squad

Underrated commentary on tokenization and private equities from the most recent Robinhood earnings call

From November:

It’s actually so crazy that an iced latte is just a caffeinated cup of milk

What are the places most likely to be cultivating talent mafias right now? Bonus points if it’s non-obvious

The TAM for digital assets and crypto rails is the largest it's ever been, while simultaneously being the smallest it'll ever be

Every platform that supports mini apps should embed Kickstarter-like rails to help devs get early funding

VCs can genuinely add value. Here's how:

Just as venture capitalists diligence investments, founders should diligence VCs. The process I'd run, if I were in a founder's shoes:

Hyrox seems like the new CrossFit

XRP trading volume on Coinbase last quarter was higher than pretty much every asset besides BTC and USDT Lesson in there

Great example of crypto rails being used to help make the world more productive

Fun set of thought experiments: - What companies that are around today will still be around in 5 years? - Which of those companies will continue to grow in value or societal importance? - How would you rate your exposure to that upside? - What is commonplace today that *won’t* be around in 5 years? Then, for all o... Show more

Feels like every week we're seeing new announcements about major fintechs and payment co's utilizing stablecoins Imagine that in two years these headlines will look similar, but about various DeFi protocols instead of stablecoins

Checklist of things all founders should do when picking a VC: 1. Run references, with both success and failure cases in each VC's portfolio 2. Check for conflict risk - both explicit conflicts, and companies that could be competitive in the future 3. Consider how long the specific partner may remain at the firm. Fa... Show more

Cute coffee spot I found while on a run this morning

The best way to avoid burnout isn’t rest, it’s momentum and success Working on something meaningful and seeing its impact is a powerful stimulant and makes it easier to work harder for longer

If I were to have been asked at the beginning of the decade what wouldn’t be around by 2030, I don’t think “what we currently perceive as coding” would have made the list Ask me today and it much more likely it would

NYC in a photo

There are broadly two categories of venture-investable businesses: 1) products that enhance productivity in the world 2) products that provide entertainment One challenge in crypto is that many people have focused on the entertainment side but far less have built with the true intent of increasing productivity An ... Show more

Paperview is one of the cooler mini apps I’ve seen, and has a pretty good starter list of content ideas

A good litmus test for identifying strong founders: do you feel like you’re learning every time you catch up with them?

Spotted on Robinhood's roadmap: Tokenization

New episode just dropped!! In this moment, I am euphoric

Is there a Farcon Summit schedule anywhere?

Trend I'm starting to see with mini apps: they're amazing distribution for getting a strong foundational base of users (>10k) BUT hit speed bumps when trying to onboard entirely new users --> it's tough for mini app devs to convince a new users to go through an entirely different app's onboarding flow before getting to... Show more

Patronage is not a business model It can be a feature that's embedded into an app as a way to expand optionality of how users engage, but I'd take the bet 10 times out of 10 that it won't lead to a sustainable source of revenue

I miss the Ben & Marc show

One of the best things you can do to keep momentum going is simply avoid unforced errors

A person's answer to "what famous / well-known person would you want to have dinner with?" can reveal so much about them

There's so much value in simply writing down things as they're happening + sharing those thoughts publicly Case in point: Namecoin came up in an internal discussion the other day as an early protocol that had been working on something similar to what we were debating. Namecoin was a 2014-era crypto project. USV docu... Show more

Update: it was user error - I clicked Ethereum as the chain (thinking it was ETH the asset). $5 USDC converted to $4.95 ETH on Base Definitely my fault, but am also someone who is very familiar with interacting onchain. Still wonder if there’s a way to make the swap experience even simpler to reduce user errors like mine

Wanted to tip some farcasters I had great debates with last week - sharing my experience (as a crypto savvy user) bc it was still so subpar 1. Gas issue - didn’t have ETH on Base. Plenty of USDC, disappointing I couldn’t use that 2. Went to swap some USDC to ETH. $5 USDC -> $3 ETH (see screenshot). This feels absurd... Show more

Any cool dinners going on during Farcon next week?

Kind of wild that some folks are more upset about content coins than they are about what happened when tokens were paired with live streams

Circle launching a payments network is far more like the origin story of Discover than it is Visa

ITAP in Bryant Park today

I believe all of these things simultaneously: 1. Expanding the set of ways for people to earn online is good (and @zora is playing a role in this) 2. Earning on platforms like Zora is not an apples-to-apples comparison with Instagram payouts. It's an actively bad comparison when reasoning about second-order effects.... Show more

Have been asking my friends at VCs / investing firms what AI tools they use and the answers are surprisingly similar + narrow (2-3 tools, all for pretty similar functions)

Pro tip if you live in NYC: spend some time outside today

It's cool that @jesse.base.eth is using the apps

In the future, every app will have an embedded wallet It's just an easier, lower-cost way to send and receive payments online (especially as stablecoins grow in prevalence) Doubly true for tools that let anyone, anywhere build and sell products. Eg a 16yo vibe codes a cool app that people around the world are willing... Show more

Neil Mehta (Greenoaks) on the unit economics of investing in foundation model companies

The two most consistent pain points I hear from founders building crypto apps: on-ramps and bridging

It's finally frozen grape season (ie it's warm out again)

SAVE THE DATE Come hang at the Variant HQ during Farcon in NYC. Good food, good vibes, good fun Register here:

ITAP while on a run in Central Park

New Essay: What We're Looking for in DePIN (Pt 1.) When evaluating a DePIN project, the core question one should ask is: what coordination challenge does crypto help solve? There are really only three: 1. Solving verification 2. Overcoming barriers to centralized supply formation 3. Accessing financial services Ful... Show more

Warpcast gripe: it's really hard to navigate the mini apps tab - no ability to search - no categorization for the apps / ability to easily preview what each app does - the featured mini app doesn't update frequently enough (it has consistently shown an app I'm not interested in)

Shopify storefront integration in Warpcast would go hard

I'd love to reinvest the money I earn on Farcaster each week (prob $10-$20) back into the ecosystem by trying different mini apps / features. Ideally things that don't involve simply buying & selling tokens. What should I check out?

Seeing so many mini apps experiment with good growth hacks

Incredible turnout yesterday at our Protocol Security event cohosted alongside Blockaid, Anchorage, and Spearbit Thank you to the fantastic speakers for sharing best practices for securing all parts of the protocol stack When it comes to security, even too much is never enough!

Does anyone know how this is being calculated / tracked? I opened the Eggs mini app and it seems like there's nothing to do in it? How is it #1

I was 0 km away from today's mystery location 📍. Two days in a row 😎

I was 0 km away from today's mystery location 📍. Can you beat me?

Different way of answering the question "why hold a token?" is to ask "what belief does holding this asset enable the owner to express?"

Read a fiction book for the first time in a LONG time and was able to concentrate for 5 hours straight Checked my phone once, and ended up staying up way later than normal to finish the book

Would have expected significantly more volume on prediction markets this week given they seem the purest play way to make bets on - rate cuts - probability of a recession - almost anything about the tariffs

This is really cool from Ohara. One of the newer things I’ve seen in crypto over the past few months

Maybe this time the fundamentals really did change overnight

Haven't seen a single take on the tariffs on here this AM not sure if that's good or bad 😛

The TLDR of the Circle-Coinbase rev share: distribution is all that matters Always has been

Increasingly believe that dinners are the lifeblood of VC

This may be my new favorite flavor of casts: pick a handful of random culture things that I follow (from different corners of the web) and see how many of them folks recognize

Most people only need one big win The more shots on goal, the broader the surface area for luck to strike Even if one attempt fails, the key is to have a throughline that compounds and increases the probability that the next shot is the one that hits Keep building

What version of being too online is it to know every one of these references and/or people: - Saratoga water - Cooper Flagg - Leslie Bibb's bob - Everyone tagging Garry Tan on X - Benny Blanco and how he wrote like every hit song in the 2010s - Jake Shane - Everything's computer

One of the best things about running: it’s the quickest way to explore a new city

Now is an amazing time to lock in Max uncertainty in the markets creates opportunity for those who have (and act on) strong beliefs Max willingness among many customers to experiment = easier than ever to unseat incumbents Early stages of some of the greatest technological advancements of our lifetimes - many of whi... Show more

Substack's feed is increasingly becoming my favorite place to discover new long-form content

Rules of thumb when hiring for early stage co's Employees 1-10 should be sourced from founder's network (or from external devs experimenting with the product!) Employees 10-30 will likely be attracted by the mission / vision After that, probably becomes about traction and pmf

SAVE THE DATE On April 8th, we're co-hosting a Protocol Security Day alongside our friends at Blockaid, Spearbit, and Anchorage It'll cover best practices for security hygiene across the stack Chain and protocol builders, register here:

If @fredwilson.eth still blogged daily, I bet we would have gotten an essay on the Ghibli phenomenon today

1/ Gold visas: a new market catalyst for financing undiscovered talent

A major difference between today vs the 2021 market is the amount of leverage Last cycle, there were far more lending desks - which supercharged higher highs, but also created bigger crashes Many wound down following Luna / FTX. That side of the industry hasn't really rebuilt

One of the signs of a builder bull market is new category creation and enablement We're seeing that across the board today - DAOs 2.0 - Attention marketplaces - Frames / mini apps - Tokenization of the AI supply chain (compute, model contributions, data) What else?

I was 1 km away from today's mystery location 📍. Can you beat me?

Currently only have @farcade pinned in my favorited frames Which other ones should I try out?

Can't believe Navarro lost that round