Ed Lynch

CFO @ Polymarket US

[Shayne Coplan 🦅 @shayne_coplan]

my 60 minutes episode is airing tonight at 7:30pm est

ct’s very own. much love to you all

[Shayne Coplan 🦅 @shayne_coplan]

Today Polymarket US was approved by the @CFTC for intermediated trading - aka letting people trade Polymarket through their brokerages. A key milestone for permeating the US financial system.

Much props to our legal and US ops team. This process has historically taken years... it took us 4 months. Late nights, early days.

This admin and commission are built different. The pace, thorough feedback on applications, working through weekends - unprecedented. Bravo @CarolineDPham and team.

Quiet before the storm.

[Shayne Coplan 🦅 @shayne_coplan]

Polymarket 🤝 @ufc @TKOGrp

The UFC has chosen to partner with Polymarket as its Exclusive and Official Prediction Market.

The UFC will be integrating a Polymarket Scoreboard into the fights that will show the realtime % likelihood of who will win.

When I watch UFC, I love looking at the Polymarket odds to gauge who's winning. Now, hundreds of millions of others will be introduced to the power of Polymarket too.

Humbled to ring the @NYSE bell this morning with @danawhite, @AriEmanuel, Jeff Sprecher, @lynnmartin, Mark Shapiro, and @MatthewModabber.

Dream come true. More to come.

[Daren Matsuoka @DarenMatsuoka]

Stablecoins now present what I believe is the first credible opportunity to onboard a billion people into crypto.

If you haven’t checked in on the latest stablecoin data recently, you might be surprised. Stablecoins have done $33 trillion in transaction volume in the last 12 months, consistently hitting new all time highs.

To put that into perspective, that’s close to 20 times the volume of PayPal, close to 3 times the volume of Visa, and quickly approaching the volume of ACH.

It’s incredible to see stablecoins in the mix among these massive global payment networks that have been around for decades.

[Carra Wu @carrawu]

https://t.co/UEaQy2plPA

[Chris Dixon @cdixon]

Excited to announce @milesjennings as head of policy for @a16zcrypto. Since 2021, he’s been shaping our policy views, and this role continues that work.

With @BrianQuintenz stepping away for his Senate confirmation as @CFTC Chair, we’re grateful for his leadership and excited for what’s ahead 🇺🇸.

[Anthony Albanese @AAlbaneseNY]

Congrats @milesjennings on becoming @a16zcrypto Head of Policy! 🇺🇸

[miles jennings @milesjennings]

Crypto remains a rare bipartisan issue in DC! 🇺🇸

Senate vote just repealed the harmful IRS broker rule that threatened DeFi, with most Republicans & many Dems backing it. A big win for DeFi developers & U.S. innovation!

Final votes: 70-27.

[David Ulevitch 🇺🇸 @davidu]

1/ Thrilled to announce @JDVance will headline our 3rd annual American Dynamism summit in DC in a few weeks. He’ll be joined by preeminent leaders in tech and gov like @Gwynne_Shotwell, @RitchieTorres, @alighodsi, and many more.

[Katherine Boyle @KTmBoyle]

Thrilled that Vice President Vance is joining us at @a16z’s American Dynamism Summit next month to deliver the keynote address. 🇺🇸 💪🚀

It’s time to build for America.

[Collin McCune @Collin_McCune]

I'm thrilled to welcome Chairman @PatrickMcHenry to the team! Little Tech needs champions who understand both innovation and policy, and there’s no one better to help founders navigate D.C. Let’s build! 🚀 @a16z

[Ali Yahya @alive_]

I’m excited to announce our lead investment in @universaldotxyz (formerly Alongside), which is building a protocol to make all cryptoassets available on all chains.

Over the last few years, performant L1s and Ethereum L2s have transformed onchain activity and created new opportunities for broader DeFi adoption, such as near-instant transactions and improved UX. But many of the largest cryptoassets aren’t easily tradeable on crypto rails or are siloed to just one blockchain. These assets are much harder to access and integrate into DeFi protocols.

As a result, users have had to rely on bridging solutions, multiple wallets, or centralized exchanges. This friction creates capital inefficiency and frustration, but even more importantly, it makes it harder for unsophisticated users to enter DeFi and hinders innovation by reducing DeFi’s composability. In order for crypto to play a larger role in global finance, we need a way to bring any asset onto any chain in an inexpensive, verifiable, and composable way.

With Universal’s wrapped tokens, you can trade, borrow, lend, or stake any asset from your preferred wallet on any chain. Think of Universal as a “Circle for cryptoassets.”: you request a wrapped version of your preferred asset on your preferred chain, and, once verified in reserves, it’s minted 1:1 on the destination chain.

Universal has started by launching on @Base with integrations into DeFi protocols @AerodromeFi and @MorphoLabs, allowing DeFi borrowers to use popular assets from non-smart contract L1s as collateral for lending on Base.

We’ve known Universal’s cofounders @AustinLDiamond, @0xgaut, and Jun for over two years since we led their seed round. Not only are they brilliant, but they have an exceptional ability to translate ambitious ideas into real working products. Their combination of crypto knowledge and operational excellence is what we need to help unlock crypto’s full potential.

We’re excited to continue supporting Austin, Gaut, Jun, and the Universal team.

[Daren Matsuoka @DarenMatsuoka]

The @a16zcrypto team is looking for a full stack web developer and a data engineer to work with me on some ambitious new projects.

If you or anyone you know is interested, send me a DM or apply using the links below.

[Brian Quintenz @BrianQuintenz]

It is my great honor to be nominated by President @realDonaldTrump as the next Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, where I had served as a Commissioner in his last administration. The @CFTC plays a critical role in maintaining robust hedging and price discovery markets that are the envy of the globe. The agency is also well poised to ensure the USA leads the world in blockchain technology and innovation. I look forward to working with President Trump’s incredible financial regulatory team. 🇺🇸

[Chris Dixon @cdixon]

Congratulations on your nomination to be the new CFTC chair, Brian!

It’s been over 3 years since @BrianQuintenz joined us, first as a senior advisor then head of policy. His expertise has been invaluable to our founders and to the crypto industry. 

He will make a fantastic CFTC Chair and will serve the American people honorably. 

Congratulations Brian! 🇺🇸

[Jason Rosenthal @jasonrosenthal]

1/ Applications are now open for @a16zcrypto CSX 04 in SF.

So here are the 5 questions we hear most often from Founders when applying to the program. ⤵️

[Maggie Hsu @meigga]

Join our team!

[Jason Rosenthal @jasonrosenthal]

CSX is coming to San Francisco this spring, and starting today we’re accepting applications to join the cohort!

If you’re a passionate and visionary crypto startup founder, we want to hear from you. Apply using the link in my next post.

@a16zcrypto CSX is an intensive, in-person program for early-stage startups building with blockchain technologies. It focuses on the expertise, mentorship, and support startups need to build ambitious products across industries. Participating founders are connected with capital, a network of industry experts, and a cohort of leading web3 teams.

Each week of CSX is focused on a different pillar of company-building, such as research and engineering, marketing and social strategy, go to market, and people best practices. Founders can go as deep as they need to on the components that matter most for their project, through workshops and 1:1 discussions with specialists from a16z crypto and other experienced operators. We invest a minimum of $500,000 in each company accepted to CSX.

The CSX 04 program will start in April and end in June with a Demo Day event, where each company gets the opportunity to pitch their project to an audience of prominent investors, thought leaders, and executives from many of the top crypto companies.

I can’t wait for the CSX 04 program to get started.

The last day to apply is February 7th, so submit your application today, and I hope to see you in SF! 🌉

[Sam Broner @SamBroner]

Stablecoins will eat payments

Today the payment landscape is dominated by gatekeepers & extractive networks - stifling competition, limiting the creativity of builders & taxing the profitability of every business

All businesses want to add 2% to their bottom line

Here's how👇

[Brian Armstrong @brian_armstrong]

Can confirm this is true. It was one of the most unethical and un-American things that happened in the Biden administration, and my guess is we'll find Elizabeth Warren's fingerprints all over it (Biden himself was probably unaware).

We're still collecting documents via FOIA requests, so hopefully the full story emerges of who was involved and whether they broke any laws.

Warren and Gensler tried to unlawfully kill our entire industry, and it was a major factor in the Dems losing the election. The Democratic party should realize Warren is a liability and further distance themselves if they want to have any hope of rebuilding.