Archive: Early Investing

Solana Teaches Crypto Investors a Critical Lesson

By Vin Narayanan on June 3, 2022

Crypto Market Musings As expected, bitcoin continues to trade in a fairly tight range between $28,000 and $30,000. Most other coins are loosely tracking with bitcoin. There are some exceptions, though. Tron, for example, is up about 17% in the last 30 days. If you’re looking for future bumps in the road, circle June 14 and June 15 on your calendar. That’s when the Fed will likely raise interest rates another 0.5%.
In the wake of yet another mass shooting, many Americans are outraged and terrified. While lawmakers continue to argue over gun control legislation, the effects of gun violence are being felt across the country.  That includes businesses too. The May 24 shooting in Uvalde, Texas —…

It’s Easier Than Ever to Invest in Works of Art

By Andy Gordon on May 25, 2022

I was in the fifth grade when Andy Warhol held his first solo painting exhibit in 1962. He was showing his set of 32 Campbell’s soup cans. The exhibit bombed. Pop art was just getting started in the early ‘60s. Art critics didn’t get him or his art. …

Crypto Needs to Solve the Stablecoin Problem

By Vin Narayanan on May 20, 2022

Demo Day Alert Before we get to the crypto markets, we wanted to alert you to a really cool demo day opportunity. One of the things I love the most about being a startup investor is meeting founders and having them demonstrate their products to me. It’s a…
A member reached out to us earlier this month wondering if there was a good way to track all of the startup investments they had made. This particular investor had made several startup investments across multiple investment platforms and had also done some private placement deals. They also…

Crypto Is No Longer a Non-Correlated Asset

By Vin Narayanan on May 13, 2022

Market Musings Crypto is in official bear market mode. Bitcoin briefly fell below $27,000 on Thursday. As of this writing, it’s down around 43% on the year and down about 60% from its all-time high of $67,802 last November. Ethereum dropped to close to $1,748 on Thursday. That’s…
May 16 marks the sixth anniversary of crowdfunding under Regulation Crowdfunding. But it was the JOBS Act of April 2012 that made it possible. Whether you go by 10 years ago or six years ago, crowdfunding has come a long way. …

Fidelity Is Changing the Bitcoin Market

By Vin Narayanan on May 6, 2022

Market Musings The 30-day trendline for bitcoin isn’t pretty. And Thursday was particularly ugly, with bitcoin dropping to $35,871. The broader stock market was routed on Thursday as well. And as of this writing, spot gold and silver prices are down. Investors are skittish.  French regulators…

The Nightmare of Navigating Student Loans

By Allison Brickell on May 4, 2022

What do you picture when you think of college?  Maybe you see cavernous lecture halls. Football stadiums packed with fans. Beautifully manicured lawns where students study or play frisbee or make lifelong connections. For many of today’s students, that image includes mountains of debt.

The Fun and Profitable World of Collectibles

By Vin Narayanan on April 29, 2022

Before crypto, before startups, before I even knew what the stock market was, I was into collectibles. Baseball cards. Garbage Pail Kids cards. Cabbage Patch Kids. Action figures (especially “Star Wars”). I loved them all. And I collected them all. I didn’t know the…
Elon Musk finalized his deal to buy Twitter this week for $44 billion. If you’ve been following me on Twitter (@vinistic), you know that I’ve been obsessed with Musk’s efforts to buy Twitter and…

Washington Contemplates a Digital Dollar

By Vin Narayanan on April 22, 2022

Editor’s note: We’re trying a new format for our Friday crypto updates. We hope you enjoy the new look. And don’t forget that once a month, Vin will be writing about collectibles instead of crypto. Market Musings As of this writing, bitcoin is up around 2%…

News Fix: Cannabis Industry Reaches New Highs

By Allison Brickell on April 20, 2022

It’s April 20, which means cannabis enthusiasts around the country are celebrating what Ronald Reagan once called “probably the most dangerous drug in the United States.” Today, that remark seems pretty outdated. A full 37 states have legalized marijuana in some form (medically or recreationally). Eighteen…

Instagram Embraces NFTs

By Vin Narayanan on April 15, 2022

NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are having a moment.  These tokens typically represent some sort of collectible — often a digital collectible. But NFTs can also be used to represent wine, sneakers and other physical goods. Like bitcoin, NFTs are based on blockchain technology. Each NFT…

Now Is the Best Time to Be a Startup Investor

By Vin Narayanan on April 13, 2022

Andy Gordon and I recommend a startup for our First Stage Investor members to invest in every two weeks (click here to sign up). When Andy and I first started working on startups together in 2018, we couldn’t do…

Ethereum Merge Searches Give ETH a Boost

By Vin Narayanan on April 8, 2022

Google searches are an interesting signal in crypto investing. They’re not necessarily predictive. But they do often correlate with price. The correlation between Google searches for bitcoin and the price of bitcoin is fairly well established. The more searches…