Ben Lerer, Lerer Hippeau managing partner, joins 'Money Movers' to discuss the crypto ecosystem and IPO market.

Ben Lerer, managing partner at Lerer Hippeau, described the current crypto landscape as a new paradigm for moving money, noting a shift from traditional systems like SWIFT to more secure, faster, and less expensive alternatives. He observed that recent legislative developments are encouraging greater involvement from established financial institutions, with early-stage founders showing renewed enthusiasm for the sector.

Lerer also discussed the launch of a new $200 million fund dedicated to early-stage startups, emphasizing the firm's consistent approach to investment and focus on innovation in areas like fintech, crypto, and artificial intelligence. He suggested that the convergence of fintech and crypto, supported by regulatory clarity, is likely to drive significant growth and participation from both startups and major banks.

Crypto is new paradigm for how money is moved, says Ben Lerer

Joining us now to discuss what's next for the crypto ecosystem in the IPO market, Lair Hippo Managing Partner Ben Lair. It's great to have you back on. Ben, how much are you devoting time and resources and money to crypto right now? Well, look, we are early stage investors. And so, you know, we've we've always been focused on the space, but really on the back of founders energy as it's poured into this market. The last few years have had a bunch of uncertainty. And I think at the early stage, that's been fine. But for certainly the public markets and later stage investors, ambiguity is no good. And so this now provides a framework where I think you're going to see a bunch of companies come out and go public like bullish. And you're going to see a lot of late stage money flow into this market, which really has not been the case for the last several years. And how do you distinguish winners from losers? Time will tell. Look, I think that the reality is that this is a new paradigm for how money is going to be moved writ large. I think, you know, for the last 50 years or so, we've been using Swift as the main infrastructure for how money gets transferred. I think that ultimately, over time, that's going to be replaced. You now have more secure, less expensive, faster rails that people are going to play with in all different kinds of ways. And quite frankly, I don't know what the sort of like what the winners and losers are going to look like. But I know that we see a groundswell of early stage founders who are very excited about this. And I think you're going to see a lot of movement in this industry. Do you are you making like hard delineations between crypto and Bitcoin or Bitcoin and Ether? How do you how do those lines begin to form themselves? That's a really good question. And I do think that this is sort of a mainstream moment for crypto where now you see fintech and crypto coming together in ways that have not necessarily been the case, because crypto was always this sort of like unregulated, you know, Wild West. And now that you have real legislation coming into play, I think that you're going to see the worlds come together. They did actually sort of track along the same lines back in the Zerp 21 era where you saw tons of money pouring into both fintech and crypto simultaneously. They, in some ways, went through a similar winter over the last few years. But now you're going to see the two sort of intermingle. And this legislation in particular, I think, is going to show it's going to bring the big banks into this space in really serious ways. And so companies that have been laying infrastructure like a company in our portfolio called Blockdaemon, I think are going to now after sort of building great product and getting ready for for really hitting the market, you're now going to start to see big banks get in on the action. So I think you guys just announced in April a new fund, 200 million exclusively for early stage startups, nine seed fund, 13 total fund. How are you finding the fundraising environment in general and where is that money going to go? What interests you most right now? Yeah, look, I think, you know, we had our fundraising went well, but I think that's the product of having done this for a long time pretty well and also with some sobriety. We never chased crazily into sort of highs and, you know, hype cycles. And we always do one thing, which is this true early stage focus. And so I think LPs appreciated that right now. What we're excited about is there is just, again, sort of this there's a bunch of things happening, whether it's A.I., which is obviously sort of like the topic of probably the decade for good reason. But things like what's happening now in fintech and crypto, there's just big shifts that are happening that are going to drive innovation. And for us, we want to find people that are starting their journeys at the earliest stages. And there's a lot of folks who want to start businesses right now.

Protestors showed up at the federal courthouse in Boston on Monday amid Harvard's $2 billion legal battle with the Trump administration.

Boston

Protestors gather outside courthouse amid Harvard-Trump hearing

Malcolm-Jamal Warner, an actor and artist who rose to fame as a child as Theodore Huxtable on “The Cosby Show,” has died in a drowning accident in Costa Rica, where he was on vacation with his family, according to a source close to the actor.

Los Angeles

‘The Cosby Show’ star Malcolm-Jamal Warner dead at 54

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New York

Off-duty Border Patrol agent shot in NYC by undocumented migrant

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Dhaka

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Muan-gun

Report says pilot shut wrong engine before Jeju Air crash

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Tehran

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As Suwayda

Bedouin civilians evacuate Syria's Sweida as tense truce holds

Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba vowed to remain in office on Monday after his ruling coalition suffered a bruising defeat in upper house elections, prompting some of his own party to deliberate his future as the opposition weighed a no-confidence motion.

Tokyo

Japan PM Ishiba vows to stay on after bruising election defeat

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Police search for gunman after car-ramming attack in L.A.

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Japan's ruling coalition loses control of upper house

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Middle East Conflict

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Washington

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Trump sues Wall Street Journal for $10 billion over Epstein report

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Caracas

El Salvador sends detained Venezuelans home in swap for Americans

Japanese voters headed to the polls on Sunday (July 20) in a tightly contested upper house election that could unleash political turmoil, with rising prices, immigration concerns and the emergence of a Trump-style "Japanese-first" party threatening to weaken Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba's grip on power.

Japan heads to the polls for Upper House elections

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Damascus

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Kyiv

Ukraine Invasion

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West Hollywood

Driver crashes into line of people in Hollywood, police say he was shot

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Hạ Long Bay

Dozens drown after tourist boat capsizes in Ha Long Bay

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Yulia Svyrydenko takes charge as Ukraine's new prime minister

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Rio de Janeiro

Brazil's Bolsonaro ordered to wear ankle monitor

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London

UK lowers voting age from 18 to 16 in historic electoral reform

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Moscow

EU imposes new sanctions on Russia's oil and banks

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