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I always thought venture capitalism was an interesting field. Throwing crypto into the mix takes it to a whole new level.
I sat down with David Siemer, CEO and longtime VC at Wave Financial, which focuses on cryptocurrencies, for the CoinJournal podcast.
David first got involved with cryptocurrencies “accidentally” in 2010 when a friend gifted him 50 bitcoins. That’s very early considering Satoshi launched Bitcoin in January 2009. David also bought his ICO on Ethereum, so it’s safe to say he’s been in the space for a while.
His VC career spanned both the dot-com bubble just after the turn of the 20th century and the financial crisis of 2008, so it’s time to explore his brain as to what he thinks about the current bear market. was particularly interested in
While this is the first bearish turn for cryptocurrencies, it is very important to note that the broader macro environment is also deteriorating. Satoshi Nakamoto appeared in his 2009 after the bank collapsed and the bubble burst. So, we’ve never been in a situation like this with crypto before, as the S&P 500 has fallen 25% this year. So what does David think about all this?
He also touched on the inefficiencies of the cryptocurrency market, citing the contango risk premium in the bitcoin futures/cash markets and the historical kimchi premium where the cryptocurrency market in South Korea is trading at a much higher price than in other countries. I paid attention. How easy is it to generate alpha through active management in the cryptocurrency market as opposed to traditional markets?
It’s easy to forget how new cryptocurrencies are, so it’s interesting to talk to someone who has experience in traditional markets before taking over the same business, VC, into cryptocurrencies.
David is “a natural risk taker. I’m a VC,” but his outlook clearly comes from his trad-phi background. The meshing of these two areas has really happened in the last few years at a mainstream level, and the future is very exciting. Even a few years ago, it would have been strange to imagine interviewing a crypto VC (Wave has been around for quite some time).
It was fun to get the VC side’s perspective on what’s happening right now. We talked about his various funds, their relative performance compared to the stock market, and even the dark side of cryptocurrencies.
David and I are relatively aligned on a macro level. Long term? I’ll leave David’s thoughts there at the end of the podcast (but like I said, he’s a risk taker at heart…).
Link below:
