CIO & Founder, Blocktower Capital
Search every verified Ari Paul interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Ari Paul, CIO and co-founder of BlockTower Capital, has been discussing the state of the crypto market cycle, regulatory challenges, and the tokenization of real-world assets. In a November 2023 appearance, Paul described the current market as being in "something like the third inning of a bull market," characterized by early-stage recovery with low volumes and weak product-market fit. He stated that his firm has tokenized approximately $1.4 billion in assets, including T-bills and asset-backed credit securities, but noted that many of these tokens are not yet transferable due to regulatory hurdles. Paul described Tether as "basically a hedge fund" that takes active credit risk, arguing that its structure is the "worst possible credit hedge fund structure" while noting it has over $40 billion in assets due to regulatory barriers that have made it difficult for compliant on-chain credit products to pay out yield. Paul has also commented on the regulatory landscape, distinguishing between civil SEC actions and criminal DOJ enforcement, particularly around AML/KYC compliance. He stated that upcoming U.S. elections could result in a "regime change for the SEC Administration." In earlier appearances, Paul discussed the Gartner hype cycle in relation to the metaverse and DeFi, arguing that both are "very real" and will "change the world" but face a "three to seven year very, very tough rebuilding slog" before products are ready for mainstream use. He has also expressed a view that the current macro environment resembles the 1970s, with rising inflation, volatility, and geopolitical risk, and has advocated for a "barbell approach" to investing that includes hard assets like gold and Bitcoin alongside cash-flowing businesses.
“I think we're likely looking at something like the 1970s as a decade — we're seeing rising inflation concerns, rising volatility, rising geopolitical risk, and governments under very tight pressure from their massive debt overhang and competitive currency depreciation.”
“Venture capital as an asset class was one of the biggest bubbles in human history two years ago and I think people still don't fully appreciate just how big of a bubble it was — in crypto we saw seed-stage projects with no chance of success getting $100 million seed rounds.”
“For me personally what makes sense is a barbell approach: hard assets — things like real estate, gold, maybe Bitcoin — as well as cash-flowing businesses; cash flow is king in these kinds of environments.”
“I like a baseball analogy: I think we're in something like the third inning of a bull market in cryptocurrency — early-stage recovery with relatively low volumes and weak product-market fit, but steady improvement in several variables.”
“The BlackRock Bitcoin ETF — that's about 90% to be approved in the next six months — could usher in more institutional interest and inflows, and if history repeats that institutional demand can trigger public interest and retail mania over a multiyear cycle.”
“One of the biggest headaches in the space is the regulatory side — the SEC is one thing, DOJ is another; when we talk about financial regulations around security offerings that's usually civil, but AML/KYC are often 'do not pass go, go straight to jail' kind of stuff.”
“What I'm betting on is that over the next 10 to 15 years we create an alternative system to Wall Street prime brokerage — the current 60–80 year old system is a crazy Rube Goldberg machine with outdated software and many interconnected players.”
“Tether is basically a hedge fund that takes active credit and trading risk where returns are kept by the principals and any losses are borne by stablecoin holders — it's the worst credit-hedge-fund structure in the world, and yet it has more than $40 billion.”
“Over the last year and a half we've tokenized about $1.4 billion in assets — roughly $1.2 billion of that in T-bills and about $250 million in asset-backed credit securities — but many of those tokens are not transferable today for regulatory reasons.”
“For me I think we're likely looking at something like the 1970s as a decade — we're seeing rising inflation concerns, rising volatility, rising geopolitical risk, and governments under very tight pressure from their massive debt overhang and competitive currency depreciation.”
“Venture capital as an asset class was one of the biggest bubbles in human history, and in cryptocurrency it was probably the most egregious — seed projects with no chance of success were getting hundred‑million dollar seed rounds and valuations have come in by roughly 80%.”
“Personally I favor a barbell approach: hard assets like real estate, gold, maybe Bitcoin on one side, and cash‑flowing businesses on the other — cash flow is king in these environments.”
“I think we're in something like the third inning of a bull market in cryptocurrency — volumes and usage are low now but a BlackRock Bitcoin ETF (about 90% likely to be approved in the next six months) could usher institutional inflows that trigger broader public interest.”
“My firm has tokenized about $1.4 billion of assets — roughly $1.2 billion in T‑bills and about $250 million in asset‑backed credit securities — and we've placed some of that with a stablecoin operator called MakerDAO.”
“The SEC is one thing and the DOJ is another — SEC actions are typically civil, DOJ actions can be criminal; AML/KYC failures are the real 'go straight to jail' risk, so there's a race to build the right regulatory compliance structures and upcoming U.S. elections matter because they can change the regulatory regime.”
Ari Paul is the CIO of BlockTower Capital, an institutional investment firm that applies professional trading, venture investing, credit ...
On Episode 11 of The Felix Hartmann Show, we sit down with Ari Paul of BlockTower Capital. We cover a spectrum of topics including real world lending, regulation, investing strategies, risk management and more. LIKE & SUBSCRIBE Hartmann Capital Website: https://hartmanncapital.com EMAIL / COLLAB: [email protected] BlockTower Capital's Links: https://www.blocktower.com/ Twitter: / blocktower LinkedIn: / blocktower Ari's Links: Twitter: / aridavidpaul LinkedIn: / ari-paul-8895a57 Felix's Social: Instagram: / felix_hartmann Twitter: / felixohartmann LinkedIn:…
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Ari Paul, co-founder and CIO of BlockTower Capital, runs one of the largest crypto hedge funds and has learned every lesson, both the hard way and the good way. The key thing he has learned is to always adapt as things develop. After all, this is the fastest changing asset class in history. As the crypto world exponentially rises in complexity and breadth, Ari shares how he navigates the space, and the opportunities it offers. Crypto also offers a different set of risks than many traditional assets and it is important for all of us to understand those esoteric risks as well. As more of us are…
Ari Paul discusses the risks with Ethereum. Clip from UpOnly October 14. 2021 Full episode: • Ari Paul of Blocktower on maximilism, dece... Subscribe :)
In this episode of UpOnly, Cobie & Ledger talk to Ari Paul, the founder of CIO of Blocktower about an array of topics, including fudding each of the top five coins by market cap. Presented by FTX: https://uponly.tv/ftx 00:00 - Intro 04:39 - Getting into crypto 11:20 - Where does Ari spend his brainpower? 16:50 - Investing / VC / Portfolio management 25:18 - Has the original purpose of crypto been lost? 33:50 - What are ecosystems missing? / Privacy stack 42:05 - Innovation and competition / Bitcoin maximalists 53:05 - Ethereum maximalists / Developer moats / Ethereum is a risky tech start…
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