Ana De Sousa

News is finally out: we've raised $4.6M to be the world's most trusted source of risk data for the digital asset ecosystem Thanks to @AxiosPro for the feature and to clients like Portofino and LMAX Digital for leading the charge in changing how the industry manages risk

A real ceasefire that even partially reopened the Strait of Hormuz—even under suboptimal conditions and effective Iranian control—would be a godsend to supply-parched markets on the edge of breaking and would spare considerable economic and human misery. A fake ceasefire announcement meant to placate markets actually worsens the long-term consequences of this crisis by delaying more durable adjustments to ongoing shortages. The Strait of Hormuz remains closed.

I'll probably get attacked for saying this, but every team in crypto should use this as an opportunity to slow down and focus on security. If possible, dedicate an entire team to it. I know how hard it is. There's an enormous amount of pressure to grow at all costs. Your runway will pressure you. Your investors will pressure you. Your token holders will pressure you. But you can't grow if you're hacked. Take time to stop what you're doing, stop stressing about growth, and audit your whole stack. Custody. Risk. Dependencies. Access control. Everything. The world will still be here when you get back. Focus on the safety of your users' funds above all else. In the long term, this is the most important requirement to grow.

Reading Moby Dick before bed to "relax from crypto" is one of the worst New Year's resolutions I've ever made. I fall asleep with unprecedented angst about my leadership choices, and the resident 5yr old is unimpressed with my quickly-expanding whale knowledge

After back-to-back weeks in DC and NY, I can say with confidence that the only crypto folks having a fun time right now work at Hyperliquid and Polymarket

As a working class kid going to Harvard, I was completely caught off guard by the role of high status socializing as a big part of college for both the elites and savvy outsiders. I had gone in thinking college was about taking classes.

Layoffs are hitting crypto: • Algorand: 25% • Crypto dot com: -12% workforce • Op Labs: ~20 roles • Gemini: up to 30% (per Bloomberg) • Messari: leadership shakeup + cuts

The 3 years I spent at the CFTC altered the course of my career. It’s a remarkable agency with the right approach to regulation. Feel free to DM me if interested in a deeper dive about why going to the government to give back to the community might be right for you

5yr old asked me what is the "strait of vamoose". It's exactly what it sounds like, specifically for our hopes of global economic stability, little buddy

Why don’t they just tokenize the oil in the Middle East and transport it across permissionless financial rails, thereby avoiding the Strait of Hormuz altogether

The lesson token holders of pseudo decentralized projects will learn over the coming years is that unless there’s a legal document binding a company to do something, the token doesn’t actually own anything other than a pinky promise.

The habit of asking the "dumb questions" consistently can also reveal the quality of the team around you. You'll quickly find out who has a habit of saying things they don't understand or pretending to understand things no one got

Getting quoted a mortgage rate in🇨🇦: you want the 14.72 month fixed or the 34.33 month variable? Me factoring in Carney speech, trade balance, auto sector trajectory, future of NATO, energy resilience: 🤷‍♀️ you pick

Where's the prediction market on whether Europe-US visa-free travel is going to be suspended by June? Disrupting the travel plans of 7% of the US population before the midterms has got to be in play.

Told my spouse I can't wait to buy a BYD and she looked at me in total confusion, and I had to explain it's just a dream I never dared to dream before 🇨🇦🚗

#Jays beating Yankees 13-7 means that I got sh*t-talked by my 5yr old 13 times, and it was a weirdly proud moment as a parent

July me: melting in Cannes, preaching to the converted August me: melting in Nashville, baptizing the banks 🙏 @RiskDotNet

@mud2monarch Fine. Just millennial bands then.

@aptsousa come on..

Interrupting this 1yr+ posting hiatus with my petty grievances. First up: live music past 40. Every band should host 2 shows back-to-back. 1. 8:30-9:30pm: the top 5 hits + 1 encore 2. 9:30pm+: whatever they want Charge me 2X for the first show. Please.

@matt_homer @zcabrams @Stablecoin Congratulations!

Congratulations, @zcabrams , Sean Yu, Eric Weingarten and the entire @Stablecoin team! You were our first investment. I was a new fund manager pitching a quirky and unusual value proposition of bringing regulatory expertise to the cap table. The market was in shambles and stablecoins were seen as "too crypto" to the intelligentsia. Glad you let us take a bet on you and even more glad you took a bet on us. Excited for what is still to come and the powerhouse you'll become wit @stripe.

Folks celebrating the longest day of the year have clearly never spent a Sunday afternoon with a toddler