241: Money Talks with Mai Santamaria | Binance and CZ | Argentina's New President | Vitalik's Techno-Optimism Manifesto | Blockchain and AI Intersect
This week I’m joined by guest co-host Mai Santamaria, the Head of the Financial Advisory Unit for the Department of Finance in Ireland. Mai and I riff on where crypto exchange Binance goes from here after being fined $4.3bn, with co-founder and CEO Changpeng Zao stepping down. We also look at the new crypto-friendly Argentinian president, Javier Milei, and what he might do with dollarization and crypto adoption, and then finish up with a mind-opening counterpoint on Ethereum co-founder Vitalk Buterin’s new manifesto.
Mai Santamaria and I met in February 2018 at a meeting of the Irish Blockchain Expert Group which later became the industry group now referred to as Blockchain Ireland.
She’s one of the most helpful people I know and always has a uniquely incisive insight or two on what’s going on at the crossover of finance and emerging tech when she and I catch up. Mai Santamaria originally featured on episode 5 of MoneyNeverSleeps back in 2018, she made a cameo on our 200th episode last year, she’s a Techstars mentor, and has received a ton of shout-outs from Eoin Fitzgerald and me on this podcast over the years.
STORIES COVERED:
Binance CEO Resigns, Part of $4.3 Billion Settlement With US (Sporting Crypto, 27-Nov-23)
Everyone Needs a Manifesto (CoinDesk, 28-Nov-23)
My techno-optimism (Vitalik Buterin, 27-Nov-23)
Elon Musk Sees A Bright Future For Argentina Under Its New Pro-Bitcoin President (Binance Square, 21-Nov-23)
Argentina Has a New Pro-Bitcoin President—Who Is Javier Milei? (Decrypt, 20-Nov-23)
LINKS:
Follow our guest co-host Mai Santamaria on LinkedIn
Leave a review and subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify
Subscribe to our MoneyNeverSleeps newsletter on Substack
Check out our MoneyNeverSleeps website and email us at info@norioventures.com
Follow us on X(Twitter): Pete Townsend | MoneyNeverSleeps
Follow us on LinkedIn:: Pete Townsend | MoneyNeverSleeps
--- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/moneyneversleeps/message
Listen On
Recommended
Here are some great episodes to start with if you're new to the podcast!
274: Filmmaker to Founder | René Pinnell and Artizen | Funding Human …
René Pinnell is the founder of Artizen, a match-funding platform for human creativity, helping creators match fund new projects at the frontier of art, science, technology and culture. With over two decades of experience, René has helped creators raise more …
270: The Stablecoin Revolution with Linda Jeng | Unpacking Castle Isl…
Linda Jeng is the Founder and CEO of Digital Self Labs, and she joins me in exploring the evolving landscape of stablecoins. Our discussion focuses on our key takeaways from Castle Island Ventures' latest stablecoin report, '...
257: How I Got To Techstars on a Flywheel | Hesus Inoma Interviews Pe…
This week, I’m sharing an episode of the ‘Venture with Hesus’ podcast that I recorded in late 2023 with the unstoppable Hesus Inoma, as he interviews me on lessons learned from being part of the startup ecosystem the last 8 …
249: Bridging the Gap | Connor Murphy | One Problem, Two Ventures and…
This week’s guest is Connor Murphy, the CEO of Bridge. I met Connor at a Techstars event in Dublin in 2019 as he was just getting his latest venture off the ground in Bridge, and I started using the Bridge …
248: Venture Investing and Connecting the Dots
We've remastered and packaged up two of our most popular episodes from 2023 that were originally going to be one episode looking at the venture capital mantra of ‘investing in lines and not dots’ with VC investing insights from Patrick …
054: Startup Insights #1: Hard Decisions
The MoneyNeverSleeps crew picked out six founders from past episodes talking about the hard decisions they've made along the way, including taking the leap, operating without a playbook, building teams, penetrating new markets, and finding your way home from the …
207: What Makes a Great Web3 Team
In this special segment, we’re featuring web3 investors, founders and mentors such as Joey Krug from Pantera Capital, Matthew Graham from Sino Global Capital, Teana Baker-Taylor from Circle, Sam Williams from Arweave, John Wu from Ava Labs, Clarisse Hagege from …
205: Memory Lane | Sam Williams and Arweave
Sam Williams is co-founder and CEO of Arweave, a blockchain protocol allowing us to remember and preserve valuable information, apps, and history indefinitely. In this episode, Sam shares the inspirational story of how Arweave got started, their life-changing experience with …
166: Joey Krug | Pantera Capital, Being Early in Crypto and Shipping …
Joey Krug is the Co-Chief Investment Officer of Pantera Capital, the first institutional investment firm focused exclusively on bitcoin, other digital currencies, and companies in the blockchain tech ecosystem. Joey joins Pete Townsend on this episode originally recorded as part …
067: Startup Insights #2: The Unexpected
In this special segment, we feature four founders sharing how they dealt with one thing they didn't expect to face as a founder - Martin Brown from Unitek, Lizzy Hayashida from Change Donations, Andrew Mullaney from Premind and Paul Smyth …