OPINIONATED: ‘COVID-19 Was a Catalyst’: Henri Arslanian on a ‘Game-Changing’ Year for Crypto and 10 Predictions for 2021

12/13/20 • 21 min

This week on the Opinionated podcast, we’re joined by PwC’s Henri Arslanian, the consultancy’s very smart global crypto hand.

Arslanian wrote a 2021 look-ahead op-ed for CoinDesk giving 10 Predictions for 2021: China, Bitcoin, Taxes, Stablecoins and More

He thinks next year will see a number of big trends in crypto come to fruition.

“2020 has been a terrible year for pretty much the entire world but when we look at it from a fintech and crypto perspective, it has been a game-changing year,” Arslanian tells me.

“COVID-19 really acted as a catalyst.”

Take bank notes. We’ve been using them less for years but the pandemic has really stopped us using them. At the same time, people are hoarding bank notes (because it’s a crisis), leading central banks to think more seriously about issuing their own digital currencies.

Next year, Arslanian expects to see the first retail digital currencies. All eyes will be on China’s advanced project.

Arslanian also discusses bitcoin, derivatives and taxes. He expects lots of M&A activity as crypto unicorns become “crypto octopuses.”

Listen in for one of the smartest consultants in the crypto space.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on the Opinionated podcast, we’re joined by PwC’s Henri Arslanian, the consultancy’s very smart global crypto hand.

Arslanian wrote a 2021 look-ahead op-ed for CoinDesk giving 10 Predictions for 2021: China, Bitcoin, Taxes, Stablecoins and More

He thinks next year will see a number of big trends in crypto come to fruition.

“2020 has been a terrible year for pretty much the entire world but when we look at it from a fintech and crypto perspective, it has been a game-changing year,” Arslanian tells me.

“COVID-19 really acted as a catalyst.”

Next year, Arslanian expects to see the first retail digital currencies. All eyes will be on China’s advanced project.

Arslanian also discusses bitcoin, derivatives and taxes. He expects lots of M&A activity as crypto unicorns become “crypto octopuses.”

Listen in for one of the smartest consultants in the crypto space.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Previous Episode

OPINIONATED: 'Where Banks Go, Regulation Follows.' Why Institutional Acceptance Is a Double-Edged Sword For Crypto – Feat. Ajit Tripathi

With PayPal recently announcing crypto services for millions of customers, it seems the crypto industry has passed another acceptance milestone.

But, with that acceptance comes greater responsibility, says Ajit Tripathi, a long-time consultant working at the top of the industry.

Going forward, crypto can expect greater regulatory scrutiny and higher compliance costs. Times ten, says Tripathi.

On the Opinionated podcast this week, Tripathi discusses his recent op-ed “Bitcoin Is Good for PayPal, but Is PayPal Good for Bitcoin?” where he compares the costs of setting up a neobank in the U.K. (like Monzo) with creating a DeFi protocol this summer.

At the moment, the former comes with millions in compliance costs and the latter comes with none, and customers are not protected, he says.

As mainstream players, like PayPal, enter the market, Tripathi argues it’s inevitable that regulators will intervene. After the last financial crisis and following the ICO run-up, they feel obliged to take notice.

Listen in as Tripathi describes the regulatory challenges facing the industry as it becomes more popular.

Find Ajit online: twitter.com/chainyoda

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undefined - OPINIONATED: ‘You’re Starting to Democratize Access’: Arca’s Jeff Dorman on Crypto’s Impact on Organizational Structure and Other Big Trends to Look for in 2021

OPINIONATED: ‘You’re Starting to Democratize Access’: Arca’s Jeff Dorman on Crypto’s Impact on Organizational Structure and Other Big Trends to Look for in 2021

What impact will crypto have on the nature of organizations? Will experiments in crypto’s governance lab lead to lasting trends in how companies are orchestrated?

This week on the “Opinionated” podcast we discussed this big topic with Jeff Dorman, the chief investment officer at Arca, a crypto hedge fund.

Dorman, a CoinDesk columnist, argues that “community tokens” (like LINK or SUSHI) will inevitably outpace “VC tokens” (like COMP, ATOM) because of the preferable incentives at play.

And he believes the trend of community ownership in crypto will meld with the wider shift towards companies doing right by a range of stakeholders as well as just their shareholders.

Dorman contrasts a decentralized finance (DeFi) project like Uniswap with Airbnb and DoorDash, which are now heading for initial public offerings. The former rewards liquidity providers (and soon token holders) who share in the system’s success. The latter companies were built on the work of homeowners and delivery guys, but all the gains from a public listing will go to stock holders.

“With digital assets, you’re starting to democratize access to these companies and you’re starting to spread out income inequality,” he says.

Incentives are key to make more democratic governance work. “Nobody cares about governance until it affects their bottom line. Twitter isn’t going to change its governance for the sake of ideology. If there’s governance for the sake of cash flows, that is another story.”

A sharp thinker with two decades of investing experience, Dorman had plenty of insights in our conversation covering bitcoin, nonfungible tokens (NFT) and Twitter in the wake of the Capitol attack this week.

Check out the episode now and read Dorman’s CoinDesk columns here.

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