In an
exclusive video podcast, we had the chance to speak with one of the brightest
crypto analyst in the space, Messari’s Ryan Watkins. We chat about his
background and how we went from a career in investment banking to now analyzing
the crypto space. We then get his thoughts ranging from different topics such
as YFI, the OCC’s recent stablecoin guidance, crypto analytics, to the
significance of the historical figure, Mansa Musa, in Ryan’s first NFT
creation.
For those who
may have already noticed, Ryan Watkins has carved out a name for himself
posting insightful analysis of a range of topics within crypto, recently mostly
DeFi. Coming from a traditional investment banking background, Ryan has been
pedal to the metal in crypto and sees no turning back anytime soon.
“noone really
knows where this industry is going to go, people are more interested and open
minded to younger voices. So it allows young people to come in and be respected
for some of their thoughts and opinions. And the last thing is just that it’s a
lot more exciting this industry.”
Messari has
been on top of the DeFi coverage over the past few months, not only just in
posting recent news or headlines but also digging deeper into myriads of
perspectives such as DeFi tokenomics, valuation, and the hype around it.
“…it [DeFi]
really addresses a very compelling use case for people getting into
cryptocurrency, which is basically just, how can you help people make money…”,
Ryan on the recent boom of DeFi, “it’s no longer just about trading tokens with
a whitepaper.”
The stablecoin
sector is another area Ryan is deeply immersed in as we chat about implications
of the OCC’s recent stablecoin guidance. But Ryan believes it probably has more
importance than DeFi itself, “one of the most important use cases for crypto
today is stablecoins, allow people access to a stable form of currency, it’s
very important, it’s very simple, less sexy but it really does provide real
world value to people”.
Analytics in
crypto is going to become ever so more important as adoption increases. Being able
to provide valuable data is what will entice outsiders inside. In the same way
DeFiPulse’s TVL was a critical data benchmark for DeFi. But now there are so
many blockchain data analytics platforms with many becoming a commodity in this
space.
As Ryan sees it playing out, “for the foreseeable future, crypto analytic platforms will probably remain fragmented with specialized data providers, in the longer term, it is definitely a space that is ripe for consolidation”.
Ending it with
a trivial question on his personal NFT posted on Rarible, we asked him where he
got his inspiration from to design his 10 NFTs selling for $50 each. Ryan explains,
“we are still doing the same things now as we were back in the 14th
century. Now everyone is fascinated by this asset of bitcoin, just like Matsa
Musa was fascinated by gold. So I called it ‘money is a flat circle’ because of
this story that we continuously to tell over and over again”.
