web3 breakdowns: Kevin Miao - Crypto and Credit: Moving a Trillion Dollar Market On-Chain | colossus
PODCAST / MAR 31, 2023 Kevin Miao is a Partner and Head of Credit at BlockTower Capital. We cover how credit and securitization traditionally work, BlockTower’s approach to transform this entire process, and what he’s most excited to see built in the future.
with a $150 million debut venture fund, blocktower is ready to take advantage of the crypto winter | forbes
PRESS / OCT 13, 2022In the noisy venture capital landscape, crypto investors have emerged as some of the most aggressive to make their business into a brand. They’ve written white papers and launched podcasts; on social media, partners at multi-billion-dollar firms have become minor celebrities themselves within the crypto bubble, sharing predictions and memes for their legions of followers. BlockTower Capital, a new venture practice led by investor Thomas Klocanas, is opting for a different approach. A previously unannounced $150 million fund that’s part of a larger hedge fund and credit business, BlockTower barely has a website. Its corporate Twitter account, despite its 10,000 followers, has yet to tweet.
everything is broken - Kevin miao explains a very real crypto use case: fixing the $14 trillion securitization market | not boring WITH PACKY MCCORMICK
CONTENT / AUG 8, 2022Despite being a skeptic of some recent crypto “innovation,” I was so compelled by the vision of a more efficient financial system that I dropped out of Harvard Business School to join BlockTower, a stalwart digital asset investment manager, in February. Founded in 2017 by Matthew Goetz and Ari Paul, BlockTower gave me a window into what was really happening beneath the surface of crypto. And I have never had more conviction that I am in the right place, at the right time, and in the right industry. To explain, I’ll frame the opportunity I see in the following way:
The goal: engineering cheaper cost of capital to borrowers
The problem: our anachronistic securitization infrastructure today sucks and extracts a tax on us all
The solution: the pursuit of efficiencies and new possibilities through blockchain
Once-Dull Crypto Strategies Are Now Shining in the Bear Market | bloomberg
PRESS / JUN 22, 2022There’s no question that 2022 has been a tough year for crypto: Bitcoin’s down 50%, and digital assets have shed more than $1 trillion as central banks around the world tighten monetary policy to combat inflation. But funds like Miami-based BlockTower Capital and Nickel Digital Asset Management, which utilize so-called market-neutral strategies, said they are still notching positive returns.
THE BANKS FOR THE NEW ECONOMY | BLOCKWORKS
CONFERENCE / MAY 18, 2022PERMISSIONLESS conference with BlockTower Head of Credit, Kevin Miao, speaking about the platforms and infrastructure building the future of finance.
interview with thomas klocanas, Blocktower head of venture | cLOCKWORK
PRESS / MAR 15, 2022HOW AND WHY DID YOU GET STARTED IN PRIVATE INVESTING?
My early career at Barclays, covering European Tech & Payments from an Equity Research perspective really awakened my interest in private investing, perhaps counter intuitively given a job description focused on public markets! I had a long-running interest in consumer tech prior to this, ranging from video games, pre-iPod portable music players, through to popular early internet applications and communities, but analyzing large, mature, public companies interested me in one unique way….
web3 breakdowns: the evolution of crypto investing | colossus
PODCAST / JAN 27, 2022Ari Paul is the co-founder and CIO of BlockTower Capital. We cover cryptocurrency valuation frameworks, parallels between the NFT and DeFi cycles, and his perspectives on various blockchain asset classes.
ARI PAUL ON VALUING BITCOIN, ETHEREUM KILLERS AND THE METAVERSE BUBBLES | MACROHIVE
PODCAST / DEC 17, 2021Ari Paul is co-founder and CIO of BlockTower Capital. BlockTower is a crypto and blockchain investment firm, applying professional trading, investing, and portfolio management to this digital asset class. It is funded by well-known investors such as a16z and Union Square Ventures. Before BlockTower, Ari was a portfolio manager for the University of Chicago’s $8 billion endowment, and a derivatives market maker and proprietary trader for Susquehanna International Group (SIG).
WHAT IT TAKES TO RUN A CRYPTO HEDGE FUND | RAOUL PAL
PODCAST / OCT 29, 2021Ari Paul, co-founder and CIO of BlockTower Capital, runs one of the largest crypto hedge funds and has learned every lesson, both the hard way and the good way. The key thing he has learned is to always adapt as things develop. After all, this is the fastest changing asset class in history. As the crypto world exponentially rises in complexity and breadth, Ari shares how he navigates the space, and the opportunities it offers. Crypto also offers a different set of risks than many traditional assets and it is important for all of us to understand those esoteric risks as well.
BLOCKTOWER ACQUIRES RIVAL CRYPTO HEDGE FUND | BLOOMBERG
PRESS / JUN 8, 2021BlockTower Capital, a cryptocurrency fund that recently snagged an investment from billionaire hedge-fund manager Marc Lasry, has acquired rival Gamma Point Capital in a deal valued at $35 million.
HOW TO TRADE BITCOIN WITH ARI PAUL | vANECK
PODCAST / APR 27, 2021Store of Value vs. Technology — What Will it Be? Ari and I begin our discussion by taking a walk down memory lane, if you will, by looking back at the crypto space over the last decade or so. Ari began his career in the traditional finance space and describes his introduction to bitcoin and the moment in 2016, when he realized its magnitude, categorizing it as the best asymmetric trade of his lifetime.
crypto for institutions | ted seides
PODCAST / MAR 17, 2021Ari Paul is the co-founder and chief investment officer of BlockTower Capital, a crypto and blockchain investment firm he started alongside Matthew Goetz in 2017 with backing from Andreesen Horowitz and Union Square Ventures. He started his career as a trader at Susquehanna International Group, and later found his way to the University of Chicago endowment as a portfolio manager, overseeing an internal hedge fund portfolio and assessing risk for the university’s $8 billion endowment.
MIKE NOVOGRATZ & aRI PAUL: THE FUTURE OF CRYPTO | SALT TALKS
PODCAST / JAN 25, 2021In the early stages around 2013, Bitcoin was a speculative asset that appealed mainly to libertarians and those with frustrations surrounding recent economic crises. The passion behind the decentralized finance community was unmatched and served as an early indicator of its eventual rise. Before recognizing Bitcoin as the answer, it was clear that the rapid expansion of the money supply would call for a response. With concerns around inflation, Bitcoin serves as the guard against that. "The bet of a lifetime is going to be betting on currency depreciation… it didn't click for me that Bitcoin could be that asset until 2014."
the hidden value in crypto | real vision
PODCAST / OCT 23, 2018Ari Paul, CIO and managing partner of BlockTower Capital, joins Real Vision's Ash Bennington for a wide-ranging conversation about the future of blockchain and cryptocurrency. Paul unpacks his views on the risks and opportunities in crypto-assets now, and discusses the ways in which he draws on his background as a traditional asset portfolio manager to make better decisions. Filmed on October 23, 2018 in New York.
History of Cryptocurrency | insights
CONTENT / NOV 10, 2017Bitcoin’s pseudoanonymous creator(s), Satoshi Nakamoto, sought to create “trustless” money - a P2P payment system and store of value that could replace trust in central banks and financial institutions with cryptographic proof and game theory. Satoshi combined three elements:
How Does Cryptocurrency Fit Into A Portfolio? | forbes
CONTENT / OCT 9, 2017How should investors think about cryptocurrency as part of a broader diversified portfolio? I spent most of the past four years working for the University of Chicago endowment where we had to consider into which "bucket" investments would fall. Is cryptocurrency best thought of as venture capital? Absolute return? A potential inflation hedge like gold or real estate? An average investor may not be bound by the buckets above, but should still carefully consider the role cryptocurrency plays in the context of a complete portfolio.
It's 1994 In Cryptocurrency | forbes
CONTENT / NOV 27, 2017The total market value of cryptocurrency has increased from $18 billion at the start of the year to over $300 billion today. Sometimes it seems like everyone is talking about Bitcoin, yet less than 1% of the world owns any. Cryptocurrency today is similar to the tech boom in 1994.
dON’T IGNORE THE COMPETITION | insights
CONTENT / Aug 20, 2017Cryptocurrency investors usually only look at the investable landscape. They ignore those projects that are hard (or impossible) to invest in. This is a big mistake when considering an investment in a competitive industry.
table selection | insights
CONTENT / Aug 1, 2017Back in my college days, I played poker. A lot of poker, at high stakes. I played online, in Atlantic City, in underground Philadelphia poker clubs, and against other UPenn undergrads. I was a very good player, but I had a few college friends who were objectively better. They were better at every aspect of the game…except one: table selection. And because of that one weakness, a couple of them were constantly broke.
Cryptocurrency’s “nifty fifty” | insights
CONTENT / JUL 20, 2017Usually in bull markets, the “high beta”, riskier securities outperform. This is what we saw over the last 7 months. Bitcoin rallied impressively but was dramatically outperformed by the more volatile and more speculative Ethereum, which was itself outperformed by some of the even more speculative and smaller cryptocurrencies. The tail end of such rallies are often “junk rallies”, with the strongest gains accruing to the fundamentally least attractive securities.
the wallstreet moment | insights
CONTENT / JUL 14, 2017Over the last two years, the big investor in cryptocurrency was “Silicon Valley.” The high profile investors were mostly tech entrepreneurs and their family offices and venture capital firms.
the coinbase effect | insights
CONTENT / MAY 3, 2017Coinbase added Litecoin for direct purchase today, and litecoin (LTC) is up about 30% as a result. The rumor of this addition may have also contributed to LTC’s 100%+ rally over the last 2 months.
HOW TO THINK ABOUT INVESTING IN CRYPTOCURRENCY: WHAT NEEDS TO EXIST | insights
CONTENT / APR 17, 2017First, let me try to convince you that cryptoccurency isn’t “winner take all”, although some specific niches within the crypto world probably are. Imagine if Uber tried to offer term life insurance? Imagine if Lloyd’s of London tried to sell virtual reality headsets? Imagine if McDonald’s tried to offer a 12-course $400 dinner with wine pairing? Imagine if Nordstrom tried to compete with Walmart with rock bottom pricing?
HOW TO THINK ABOUT INVESTING IN CRYPTOCURRENCY: WHY EXCEPTIONAL OPPORTUNITIES EXIST | insights
CONTENT / APR 13, 2017Part 1 is an exploration of why extraordinary investment opportunities exist in cryptocurrency. To an engineer, that might seem like an obvious and uninteresting question, but professional investors generally start with the premise that it’s nearly impossible to find the kind of returns that we’re seeing. This is the essay that uses traditional financial theory to explain to your broker or pension fund manager why such a great opportunity exists.