What Actually Gets Built in a Bear Market | Bitcoin Venture Capital & the Future of Bitcoin Finance
About this episode
The episode explores the dynamics of Bitcoin venture capital during bear markets with insights from VJ Vesnaver on building infrastructure and navigating challenges in the Bitcoin ecosystem.
Most people think Bitcoin venture capital is just buying early and waiting. VJ Vesnaver, operating partner at Epoch, says the real work is finding the founders building the infrastructure that makes Bitcoin's future inevitable and backing them before anyone else sees it. Wyatt and Jordan sit down with VJ to unpack what it actually looks like to run a Bitcoin-native venture fund in a market where AI is sucking all the oxygen out of the room, treasury companies are dominating the narrative, and the highest quality builders are the ones nobody's talking about yet. VJ walks through Epoch's thesis from the ground up. Why bear markets produce better pipeline, how Bitcoin venture differs from traditional VC, and why the internal hurdle rate isn't a percentage, it's Bitcoin itself. From layer twos finding their niche to the regulatory tightrope founders walk daily, VJ gives a ground-level view of what's actually getting built in the Bitcoin ecosystem right now. They get into the Bitcoin treasury company debate. Where VJ lands on the Parker Lewis vs. Michael Saylor tension, why he didn't invest in any of them, and what it would actually take for treasury companies to generate real yield…
More episodes of Bitcoin for Financial Services Podcast
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- The Wall Street Veteran Who Went All In on Bitcoin (And How He Makes It Grow)
- The Orange-Pilled Advisor: Building a Bitcoin-First Wealth Management Firm From Scratch
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