Motion: Ethereum is too early for institutional money (Lyn Alden vs. Qiao Wang)

Guests:

Lyn Alden (twitter.com/lynaldencontact)
Qiao Wang (twitter.com/qwqiao)

Host:

Richard Yan (twitter.com/gentso09)


Today’s motion is “Ethereum is too early for institutional money.”

Quite a few institutions have voted with their feet on Bitcoin. This ranges from corporate treasuries to money managers. At what point will Ethereum catch the attention of non-crypto native capital allocators? Our debaters today are Lyn Alden and Qiao Wang, both well known in crypto circles. Lyn wrote a well-researched article arguing that from an institutional perspective, Ethereum feels like an unfinished product and isn’t likely to pick up significant interest in the short run. Qiao has been looking at Ethereum as an investment in its early days, and it’s fair to say he has been a perma-bull.

If you’re into crypto and like to hear two sides of the story, be sure to also check out our previous episodes. We’ve featured some of the best known thinkers in the crypto space.

By the way, we're planning episodes on CBDC, centralized lending versus de-centralized lending, the fad of NFT or non-fungible tokens, whether Bitcoin is good for America and whether Bitcoin is good for the environment.

So if you're interested or know someone that would be interested in debating, please feel free to DM me at @blockdebate on Twitter.

Please note that nothing in our podcast should be construed as financial advice.


"Listen-along" transcript: https://share.descript.com/view/aDjpT7gmJCn


Source of select items discussed in the debate (and supplemental material):

• Lyn's investment strategy website: https://lynalden.com
• DeFi alliance: https://defialliance.co/
• Grayscale ETHE trust: https://grayscale.co/ethereum-trust/
• John Pfeffer paper on crypto value accrual: https://medium.com/john-pfeffer/an-institutional-investors-take-on-cryptoassets-690421158904

Guest bios:

Lyn Alden runs an investment research service for both retail and institutional investors at LynAlden.com. Her focus is on fundamental investing with a global macro overlay, with a specialization in currency differentials and equity valuations. She also manages financial operation of an aviation simulation research facility.

Qiao Wang is a macro and crypto investor. He is one of the founders for DeFi Alliance, an accelerator for decentralized finance projects. Previously, Qiao Wang helped build Messari, a startup aiming to create Bloomberg for the crypto markets. Prior to that, Qiao was a quantitative trader. He ran R&D teams and helped build two trading businesses at IMC and Tower Research.