Podcast: Is Crypto an Investable Asset Class? | Roundup

Jason and Byron cover this week’s biggest stories and explore crypto’s outlook as an investable asset class

article-image
share

On today’s episode of “Empire,” Jason is joined by Byron Gilliam – markets strategist and author of the Blockworks newsletter. Often called the Matt Levine of Web3, Byron brings his traditional finance experience to crypto with a mix of wisdom and wit.

Jason and Byron cover this week’s biggest stories and explore crypto’s outlook as an investable asset class. Episode highlights include:

  • Why Byron frames crypto as commodities, not equities
  • How private markets are losing their advantage
  • Why crypto may be amazing for users but a bad investment
  • How OpenSea’s insider trading news will affect other Web3 companies
  • What happened with Optimism’s airdrop
  • Can L2s find a sustainable revenue model
  • How BTC mining could fuel growth in renewable energy
  • Byron questions if MEV is crypto’s only use case
  • Why UST’s collapse was not crypto’s Lehman moment
  • and much more

Check out what they had to say in the video below.👇

About the show

“Empire” is a twice-a-week show where we share the real crypto stories that aren’t heard elsewhere. On Mondays, Jason and Santiago Santos interview crypto industry movers and shakers to talk about their struggles, bold moves and tough decisions. Finish off the week with Friday’s weekly roundup episode that covers the top news and narratives of the week.

For any NPR or Guy Raz fans out there, you can think of “Empire” as a “How I Built This” for the bitcoin and crypto industry.

Subscribe to “Empire” today on Apple or Spotify. Watch episodes on YouTube.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Upcoming Events

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Research

article-image

“Bitcoin does not require a strong equity rally to move higher,” YouHodler markets chief Ruslan Lienkha said

article-image

President Trump’s comments that he will not look to fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell sent stocks higher in after-hours trading Tuesday

article-image

The trading card game will use Immutable’s zkEVM chain

article-image

From Ethereum primitive to multichain coordination layer, Symbiotic, EigenLayer, Puffer and MoreMarkets are evolving restaking

article-image

Satoshi’s “moved on to other things” is Bitcoin’s “return some video tapes”

article-image

Base’s Jesse Pollak spoke to Blockworks about his bullish case for content coins and how he’s approaching a real-time learning curve