Welcome to The Chopping Block — where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest in crypto. This week, the squad is joined by MegaETH co-founder Shuyao Kong, fresh off their headline-making KPI-gated token launch. First, we dive into the whirlwind that is Defi United: a who’s-who of Ethereum OGs and protocols pledging hundreds of millions to fill bailout holes from the massive KelpDAO hack—voluntarily. Are we witnessing a new age of protocol do-gooder vibes or just kicking the moral hazard can down the road? 

Then, we tear into the “are DeFi yields way too low” debate, prodded by Tom Dunleavy’s viral thread—should degens really be earning more for taking protocol risk, or are the markets just as weird as they seem? Shuyao gives us an under-the-hood look at MegaETH’s radical KPI vesting mechanics, why they made the token vesting play risky pre-TGE, and whether dynamic tokenomics could be the industry’s way forward (with plenty of banter about airdrop farming and governance theater along the way). 

Finally, we spin through the saga of PolyMarket’s big DOJ insider trading bust: is “insider info” a feature or a bug in prediction markets? All that, history lessons, cynicism, and more—let’s get into it.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights

🔹 Defi United’s “bailout”—how a crowd-sourced effort filled the KelpDAO hack hole and melted crypto Twitter  

🔹 Are protocol donations precedent-setting, a warning shot, or just vibes maxing?  

🔹 Inside debates about moral hazard, socialized losses, and why kumbaya only works once  

🔹 Surprising names (and missing ones!) from the bailout contributor list: Consensys, Mantle, Lido, Arbitrum, Circle, more  

🔹 Why airdrop farmers sending dust is the most on-brand thing for crypto  

🔹 The “are DeFi yields too low?” debate and why the true risk-free rate may be a myth in DeFi  

🔹 MegaETH’s “KPI vesting” tokenomics—how gating TGEs by actual ecosystem milestones might fix launch incentives  

🔹 Insight on why pre-TGE KPI mechanics might actually be the future (and why most fail after launch)  

🔹 PolyMarket’s first big insider trading bust—when is secret alpha “market info” and when is it treason?  

🔹 Vintage history, cyber insurance analogies, and philosophical banter you can only get on TCB

Hosts

⭐️ Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly

⭐️ Tarun Chitra, Managing Partner at Robot Ventures

⭐️ Tom Schmidt, General Partner at Dragonfly 

Guest

⭐️ Shuyao Kong, Co-founder at MegaETH

Disclosures

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---

Heads up!

If you haven’t yet, be sure to subscribe to Bits + Bips, since the show will migrate there in a few weeks. Follow us on ⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠X⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠Unchained⁠⁠⁠ and wherever you get your podcasts.

----

Chris Perkins and Ram Ahluwalia cover a lot of ground this week: Iran appears to be seeking a deal to end the Strait of Hormuz blockade as US economic pressure mounts, and the US government just worked with Tether to seize over $300 million in Iranian-linked stablecoins. 

Bottoms-up S&P earnings estimates are running at 19% year-over-year growth, tech earnings are about to hit, and both hosts think the setup for markets is unusually constructive. 

They also break down the new Microsoft-OpenAI agreement, the arrest of a special operations soldier for betting on the Maduro raid on Polymarket, and what the Kelp DAO hack means for DeFi's path to institutional adoption.

Hosts:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Ram Ahluwalia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Co-Host, CEO of Lumida

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Chris Perkins⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Co-Host, CEO of 250 Digital Asset Management

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In this segment from Bits + Bips, Ram explains the three things Microsoft secured from the new deal, walks through the contract-breach context that shifted the negotiating leverage, and argues that Microsoft now holds a free call option on all of OpenAI's future model development, at no additional cost.

Chris Perkins (@perkinscr97) — Co-Founder & Managing Partner, 250 Digital Asset Management

Ram Ahluwalia (@ramahluwalia) — CEO, Lumida Wealth

This clip is from a longer conversation on markets, tech earnings, DeFi security, and prediction markets. Full episode here: https://youtube.com/live/GE_847Xrj9E 

We go live every Monday at 4:30pm ET — subscribe to catch it live.

If you haven’t yet, be sure to subscribe to Bits + Bips, since the show will migrate there in a few weeks. Follow us on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, X, Unchained and wherever you get your podcasts. 🔥 Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bits-bips/id1827931786 🔥 YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuKiSkbYrUOOEEiYQEVPniQ 🔥 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/6aSBMrOyi33aVDCULJ9mjN?si=NTLk-jl5QGeytA6-2kxMVQ&nd=1&dlsi=42f0b13dd53c4ba0 🔥X - https://x.com/bitsandbips 🔥 Unchained - https://unchainedcrypto.com/bitsandbips/

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After North Korea's Lazarus Group drained nearly $300 million from Kelp DAO's bridge, the contagion spread fast, leaving close to $200 million in bad debt on Aave. Morpho, one of the largest lending protocols in DeFi, ended up with about $1 million in exposure. 

Paul Frambot, co-founder and CEO of Morpho, explains why the protocol's modular, isolated architecture produced a different outcome, and what it reveals about how DeFi lending is supposed to work. 

He also addresses the ongoing debate over whether DeFi lenders are fairly compensated for risk, the institutional reaction to the hack and what it means for the sector's timeline, the moral complexity of Arbitrum's decision to freeze stolen funds, and why formal verification may be DeFi's last line of defense in an age of increasingly powerful AI.

Host:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Laura Shin⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Host / Unchained

Guests:

• ⁠Paul Frambot, Co-founder and CEO of Morpho Labs

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Shaunda Devens then breaks down the monolithic pool design that concentrated risk, showing how 98% of rsETH collateral was backing a single leverage looping strategy. 

This clip is from a longer conversation on the Kelp rsETH hack and its implications for DeFi. Full episode here: https://youtube.com/live/hJ9X_btsvD0

We go live every Thursday at 12:00 PM ET — subscribe to catch it live.

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========================================================

Thank you to our sponsors!

As Bitcoin's application layer, Citrea gives you access to the first trust-minimized BTC on a fully programmable platform and a native stablecoin for Bitcoin, ctUSD. 

You can now participate in Bitcoin capital markets with lending, privacy, payments, Bitcoin yield, trading and predictions. You get expanded Bitcoin utility without sacrificing its security. 

Citrea mainnet is live. Put your BTC to work at citrea.xyz/unchained.  

Ether.fi is giving Unchained listeners 15% cashback on food and ride apps — and that's on top of the 3% you get on everything else. 

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========================================================

In this episode about the hack on KelpDAO that had a broad impact across all of DeFi, Miguel Morel of Arkham, explains what digital fingerprints made it clear North Korea was the likely hacker, plus how it is that Arkham’s users are using the platform to figure out how to get their bad debt out of Aave and when.

Then Griff Green, a member of the Arbitrum Security Council, explains some of the reasoning that went into the decision to freeze $71 million of the funds stolen by DPRK, how the surprise move worked technically, and why blockchains are immutable only by social consensus — and how even Bitcoin could be changed by social consensus.

Host:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Laura Shin⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Host / Unchained

Guests:

• Miguel Morel, CEO of Arkham Intelligence

• Griff Green, Arbitrum Security Council Member, Leader of the DAO Security Fund, Co-founder of Giveth

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Thank you to our sponsors!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

MultiChain Advisors is an emerging technology growth firm that has helped create $50B+ in enterprise value for 80+ clients over the past 4 years. They're the partner to help navigate markets. 

Build real traction today at multichainadv.com

The largest DeFi hack of 2026 starts with an RPC node. Not a smart contract bug. Not a stolen key. A spoofed node and a forged transaction. And North Korea drained $300 million from Kelp DAO through LayerZero’s bridge in a single block. Then the attacker went to Aave, borrowed against assets that didn’t exist, and created a bad debt crisis that locked Kain out of his own position.

That was Friday. By Sunday, North Korea had started laundering. By Tuesday, Arbitrum’s security council had done something no L2 has ever done: frozen $70 million of funds had stolen by upgrading a bridge contract mid-hack. Kain Warwick, Taylor Monahan, and Luca Netz, with guest Odysseas Lamtzidis, take apart every layer: the DVN architecture flaw, the Aave contagion, the circuit breaker debate, and why the ‘code is law’ era may have just quietly ended.

Hosts:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Kain Warwick⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Founder of Infinex and Synthetix

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Taylor Monahan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Security Expert

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Luca Netz, CEO of Pudgy Penguins

Guest:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Odysseas Lamtzidis, Founder & CEO of Phylax

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Thanks to our sponsors!

*⁠ As Bitcoin's application layer, Citrea gives you access to the first trust-minimized BTC on a fully programmable platform and a native stablecoin for Bitcoin, ctUSD. 

You can now participate in Bitcoin capital markets with lending, privacy, payments, Bitcoin yield, trading and predictions. You get expanded Bitcoin utility without sacrificing its security. 

⁠Citrea mainnet is live. Put your BTC to work at ⁠⁠citrea.xyz/unchained.⁠ 

*⁠ Nexo is the premier digital wealth platform. Receive interest on your crypto, borrow against it without selling, and trade a range of assets. Now available in the U.S with 30 days of exclusive privileges.

Get started at http://nexo.com/unchained

A $300 million bridge exploit at Kelp DAO has put DeFi's most uncomfortable question back on the table: when users lose money, who is actually responsible? 

Katherine, Jessi, and Vy dig into the Kelp and Layer Zero finger-pointing and ask whether the industry's core values — permissionlessness, open composability — have become its greatest vulnerability. 

Then: the Ninth Circuit heard oral arguments on prediction markets last week, and the panel's pointed questions signal the case is headed to the Supreme Court sooner than most expect. 

Finally: American Express just solved three of agentic commerce's hardest problems — identity, mandate, and accountability — with a product that's live today. The crypto industry, which should be leading this race, is watching from the sidelines.

Hosts:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos⁠⁠, General Counsel at StarkWare. Previously held senior legal roles across DeFi and centralized exchanges.

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jessi Brooks⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, General Counsel at Ribbit Capital

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TuongVy Le⁠⁠⁠, General Counsel at Veda

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Welcome to The Chopping Block — where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest in crypto. This week, we’re joined by Monet Supply, DeFi governance OG and current Spark brain, for a front-row seat to crypto’s hack-of-the-week: the $200M “Kelp DAO—LayerZero—Aave” debacle. If you thought DeFi risk was just about liquidations, buckle up. The team untangles the hack mechanics, the musical chairs of collateral across bridges and lending markets, and—most importantly—the prime time blame game: is it LayerZero’s fault for running a single-signer bridge, or did Kelp DAO or Aave drop the ball?

We dive deep into the “socialized losses” mess facing Aave depositors (especially on L2s), unpack Arbitrum’s extraordinary move to confiscate coins back from North Korea (yes, really), and debate whether rollups can—or should—aspire to Ethereum’s censorship resistance. Finally, the squad discusses concrete remediation: rate limits, portfolio triage on risky collaterals, and the meta-game of DeFi crisis response. If you want the blunt, unfiltered, and occasionally spicy take on DeFi’s latest chaos, let’s get into it.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights

🔹 Kelp DAO bridge exploit: $200M minted, North Korea fingered, DeFi lending protocols left holding the bag  

🔹 Why LayerZero’s single-validator bridge design was a disaster waiting to happen  

🔹 The Spider-Man meme comes to DeFi: KelpDAO, LayerZero, and Aave point fingers  

🔹 Aave’s socialized losses headache: who eats the bad debt, L1 vs L2 depositors  

🔹 Arbitrum’s Security Council “reverse hack” to claw back stolen ETH—feature or bug?  

🔹 DeFi lending protocol design flaws, cascading risks, and pooled markets explained  

🔹 Remediation: rate limits, fewer LRTs, and the “surface of death” in risk management  

🔹 Rollups & L2s: why “Ethereum with training wheels” isn’t always the goal  

🔹 What this week means for DeFi precedent, governance, and future hacks  

🔹 DeFi’s growing pains: market demands bailouts, but who should actually pay up?

Hosts

⭐️Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly

⭐️Tarun Chitra, Managing Partner at Robot Ventures

⭐️Tom Schmidt, General Partner at Dragonfly 

Guest

⭐️ Monet Supply, Head of Strategy at Spark

Disclosures

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

========================================================

As Bitcoin's application layer, Citrea gives you access to the first trust-minimized BTC on a fully programmable platform and a native stablecoin for Bitcoin, ctUSD. 

You can now participate in Bitcoin capital markets with lending, privacy, payments, Bitcoin yield, trading and predictions. You get expanded Bitcoin utility without sacrificing its security. 

Citrea mainnet is live. Put your BTC to work at citrea.xyz/unchained.  

Ether.fi is giving Unchained listeners 15% cashback on food and ride apps — and that's on top of the 3% you get on everything else. 

Your bank is charging you to use your own money. Laura switched and loves her card!

Go to ether.fi/unchained to claim your offer.

========================================================

Canton is the chain behind JPMorgan’s deposit token, DTCC, Broadridge’s $400 billion repo book, HSBC, Visa, and a growing roster of the biggest names in global finance. It describes itself as a public permissionless blockchain. But is it? 

Yuval Rooz, co-founder and CEO of Digital Asset, faces off against Alex Gluchowski, co-founder and CEO of Matter Labs, and Dragonfly managing partner Haseeb Qureshi in a live debate. 

The charges range from foundational: Canton cannot enforce financial rules without a trusted third party, its validators are permissioned in everything but name, and there is no universally shared ledger. Rooz fires back on all of it and, at one point, concedes something that may surprise you. 

If the label matters as much as the technology, this episode will force you to decide what blockchain actually means, and whether that answer has consequences for the institutions staking their infrastructure on it.

Host:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠Laura Shin⁠⁠⁠⁠, Host / Unchained

Guests:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Yuval Rooz: Co-Founder & CEO, Digital Asset

• Haseeb Qureshi: Managing Partner, Dragonfly

• Alex Gluchowski: Co-Founder & CEO, Matter Labs

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---

Heads up!

If you haven’t yet, be sure to subscribe to Bits + Bips, since the show will migrate there in a few weeks. Follow us on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, X, Unchained and wherever you get your podcasts.

----

DeFi TVL fell from $99.5 to $86.3 billion in 48 hours after the $290 million Kelp DAO exploit — the latest nine-figure attack attributed to North Korea's Lazarus Group, this time via a compromised Layer Zero bridge. 

Meanwhile, a new class of yield-bearing instrument is staking a claim on capital fleeing private credit: Apyx's APY USD, backed by Strategy's STRC preferred stock, launched on Kraken this week with a 12% yield target and $180 million in supply after just seven weeks. Is STRC-backed yield a legitimate financial primitive, or a Bitcoin derivative with extra steps? 

And as DeFi absorbs yet another devastating security failure, is the industry's core assumption — that incoming transactions should be treated as legitimate — finally due for an overhaul? Austin Campbell, Ram Ahluwalia, and Chris Perkins dig in with Parker White of Apyx and Michael Bentley of Euler.

Hosts:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Austin Campbell⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Host of Bits + Bips, Zero Knowledge Consulting

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Ram Ahluwalia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Co-Host, CEO of Lumida

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Chris Perkins⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Co-Host, CEO of 250 Digital Asset Management

Hosts:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Parker White — @TheOtherParker_ — Founding Contributor, Apyx.

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Michael Bentley — @euler_mab — Former CEO, Euler Labs

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

---

Thank you to our sponsors!

MultiChain Advisors is an emerging technology growth firm that has helped create $50B+ in enterprise value for 80+ clients over the past 4 years. They're the partner to help navigate markets. 

Build real traction today at multichainadv.com

As Bitcoin's application layer, Citrea gives you access to the first trust-minimized BTC on a fully programmable platform and a native stablecoin for Bitcoin, ctUSD. 

You can now participate in Bitcoin capital markets with lending, privacy, payments, Bitcoin yield, trading and predictions. You get expanded Bitcoin utility without sacrificing its security. 

Citrea mainnet is live. Put your BTC to work at citrea.xyz/unchained. 

---

Bitcoin is trading near $75,000, but the market structure around it tells a more complicated story. Implied volatility has collapsed to sub-50, funding rates are negative, and the options market is dominated by sellers, not buyers. Meanwhile, Bitcoin miners are liquidating holdings to fund the transition to high-performance compute, generating a persistent offer just as breakeven retail holders look for an exit. 

FalconX Global Co-Head of Markets Josh Lim joins Steve Ehrlich to map exactly what is keeping Bitcoin range-bound, where the rotation into ETH and alts is actually coming from, and what signals in derivatives and on-chain data would indicate the market is ready to move. 

They also get into whether the Clarity Act changes the long-term structure of the altcoin market, how Hyperliquid is being used for institutional RWA arbitrage, and what the quantum threat means not for cryptography, but for trading Bitcoin.

Host:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Steven Ehrlich⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Head of Research, SharpLink

Guest:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Josh Lim — Global Co-Head of Markets, FalconX. Repeat guest; previously covered market structure and institutional crypto flows on Bits + Bips.

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Welcome to The Chopping Block — where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest in crypto. This week, the crew is joined by special guest Joshua Lim, Head of Derivatives at FalconX (and self-described Quantum FUD Whisperer). Ever wondered what happens when a quantum computer finally threatens public key cryptography? We break down the real and imagined risks of “Q Day,” what markets are actually pricing in, and why watching for Satoshi’s coins moving is still the ultimate market panic trigger.

Next up, the hosts tackle the messiest storyline in stablecoins: the massive Drift hack, North Korea’s role, and the blame game between USDC and Tether. Is Circle’s “wait for the court order” approach defensible, or are PR wins up for grabs for whoever moves fastest?

We would never forget the crypto car crash that is World Liberty Financial: from drama-filled governance votes that magically extend lockups, to Justin Sun’s redemption arc versus Trumpcoin, to whale-scale DeFi leverage that could nuke a protocol. It’s a masterclass in governance theater and permissioned shenanigans.

Finally, we level with all the “crypto venture is dead” crowd — who’s still building, where the real capital is now, and why bear markets always demand an extra shot of conviction.

From quantum nightmares to meme coin melodrama, let’s get into it.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights

🔹“Q Day” decoded: What quantum risk really means for Bitcoin and the markets  

🔹 How institutional allocators cite quantum FUD — but are they just making excuses?  

🔹 Why “watching for Satoshi’s coins moving” would nuke market confidence  

🔹 Drift hack dissected: USDC vs. Tether, North Korea fingerprints, and Circle’s PR headache  

🔹 Is Circle’s don’t-freeze-without-court-order policy defensible or just bad optics?  

🔹 World Liberty Financial’s (Trumpcoin) greatest hits: forced lockups, governance theater, and Justin Sun’s crusade  

🔹 Tether’s “PR coup” and the stablecoin migration on Solana  

🔹 Are most crypto VCs washed? Debating the right-sizing of venture capital in the bear  

🔹 Hot takes on “revenue meta,” mature infrastructure, and why there’s less room for dreamers  

🔹 Who’s actually still building in crypto — and why cycles always come back

Hosts

⭐️Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly

⭐️Tarun Chitra, Managing Partner at Robot Ventures

⭐️Tom Schmidt, General Partner at Dragonfly 

Guest

⭐️ Joshua Lim, Head of Markets at FalconX

Links:

Joshua Lim’s Q-Day Thread: ⁠https://x.com/joshua_j_lim/status/2044602429002367330?s=20⁠

Disclosures

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

========================================================

Nexo is the premier digital wealth platform. Receive interest on your crypto, borrow against it without selling, and trade a range of assets. Now available in the U.S with 30 days of exclusive privileges. 

Get started at http://nexo.com/unchained

========================================================

In July 2024, Nader Al-Naji was preparing to board a flight to Turkey when the FBI arrested him in front of with his wife and son and walked him in handcuffs through the airport. 

The DOJ and SEC had jointly charged the DESO and BitClout founder with defrauding investors of $3 million and running an unregistered securities offering. Twenty months later, both cases are gone: the DOJ dismissed in March 2025, the SEC dismissed with prejudice — meaning it can’t be refiled — in March 2026. 

Nader tells Laura what actually happened, from the FBI raid on his Beverly Hills home and the clerical error that sent him to federal prison for a weekend, to the legal strategy that convinced both agencies to back off. He also revisits the BitClout celebrity era, the long call with Do Kwon before Terra launched, and the debanking tactic he calls ‘subpoena sniping.’

Host:

• ⁠⁠⁠Laura Shin⁠⁠⁠, Host / Unchained

Guests:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Nader Al-Naji (@nadertheory), Founder of DESO and BitClout

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Thank you to our sponsors!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Nexo

Nexo is the premier digital wealth platform. Receive interest on your crypto, borrow against it without selling, and trade a range of assets. Now available in the U.S with 30 days of exclusive privileges. 

Get started at http://nexo.com/unchained

Multichain Advisors

MultiChain Advisors is an emerging technology growth firm that has helped create $50B+ in enterprise value for 80+ clients over the past 4 years. They're the partner to help navigate markets. 

Build real traction today at multichainadv.com

Citrea 

Bitcoin’s application layer, Citrea, launched its mainnet, expanding Bitcoin’s utility to privacy, lending, BTC yields, and more. Citrea enables:

• cBTC: The first trust-minimized Bitcoin on a fully programmable platform.

• ctUSD: A native stablecoin for Bitcoin, allowing for unified liquidity.

• Bitcoin Capital Markets bringing demand, and utility to the Bitcoin Network.

Explore the Citrea Ecosystem.

A Bitcoin developer just proposed the unthinkable: freeze every wallet that does not upgrade for quantum resistance, including Satoshi's. 

Kain Warwick and Taylor Monahan are here to reckon with BIP-361, the quantum threat to early Bitcoin addresses, and what it means that this proposal exists at all. They also work through who actually wrote Bitcoin — Hal Finney, Adam Back, and Dave Kleiman — and a trail that runs through the Epstein files. 

Plus: Justin Sun's frozen World Liberty Financial tokens expose why token holders have no legal rights, EtherFi's exit from Scroll turns into a live platform risk case study, and Circle's decision not to freeze known stolen USDC raises the question of what stablecoin issuers owe to the ecosystem.

Hosts:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Kain Warwick⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Founder of Infinex and Synthetix

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Taylor Monahan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Security Expert

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Thanks to our sponsors!

*⁠ As Bitcoin's application layer, Citrea gives you access to the first trust-minimized BTC on a fully programmable platform and a native stablecoin for Bitcoin, ctUSD. 

You can now participate in Bitcoin capital markets with lending, privacy, payments, Bitcoin yield, trading and predictions. You get expanded Bitcoin utility without sacrificing its security. 

Citrea mainnet is live. Put your BTC to work at citrea.xyz/unchained. 

*⁠ Ether.fi is giving Unchained listeners 15% cashback on food and ride apps — and that's on top of the 3% you get on everything else. 

Your bank is charging you to use your own money. Laura switched and loves her card!

Go to ether.fi/unchained to claim your offer.

The week StarkWare’s chief product officer published a paper proposing a quantum-resistant mechanism for Bitcoin that doesn’t require changing Bitcoin’s code. The crew discuss the the threat quantum computers pose to bitcoin, which raises philosophical questions about what it means to “own” bitcoin. “Not your keys, not your coins” has long been the catchphrase — so what happens if a quantum computer wrests your keys away fro you?

Plus they discuss the fact that Anthropic decided not to release its most powerful model to the public at the same time its technology is being removed from the government. What does it mean when a private company has greater capability than the U.S. government?  

Also, the SEC’s Division of Trading and Markets quietly released major guidance clarifying when DeFi front ends need to register as broker-dealers — and Chair Atkins announced what could become the first actual crypto rulemaking in the agency’s history. 

Katherine, Jessi, and TuongVy work through what each of these developments means for builders, lawyers, and founders navigating crypto right now — and why the question of who gets to make these calls is the same whether you’re talking about AI or regulation.

Hosts:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos⁠, General Counsel at StarkWare. Previously held senior legal roles across DeFi and centralized exchanges.

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jessi Brooks⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, General Counsel at Ribbit Capital

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TuongVy Le⁠⁠, General Counsel at Veda

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---

Thank you to our sponsors:

Citrea 

As Bitcoin's application layer, Citrea gives you access to the first trust-minimized BTC on a fully programmable platform and a native stablecoin for Bitcoin, ctUSD. 

You can now participate in Bitcoin capital markets with lending, privacy, payments, Bitcoin yield, trading and predictions. You get expanded Bitcoin utility without sacrificing its security. 

Citrea mainnet is live. Put your BTC to work at citrea.xyz/unchained.  

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Ether.fi is giving Unchained listeners 15% cashback on food and ride apps — and that's on top of the 3% you get on everything else. 

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● crypto yield up to 15% (based on stated annual interest rates)

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----

The day the US Naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz went live, peace talks had just collapsed in Islamabad and markets were holding. Ram, Austin, and Chris work through the tactical logic behind CENTCOM’s move, why regional powers are standing down, and how long Iran can sustain the economic pressure. 

Then: Anthropic previewed a model called Mythos, cybersecurity stocks fell, and the question of whether AI security risk is real or manufactured now has real money behind it. 

Meanwhile, World Liberty Financial borrowed $75 million against its own governance token on a platform co-founded by its own advisor, Justin Sun is accusing the team of treating investors as a personal ATM, and the stablecoin bill clock is ticking. 

Which sectors are most dislocated? What would it take to bring the next wave of investors into crypto? And is this actually a market bottom?

Hosts:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Austin Campbell⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Host of Bits + Bips, Zero Knowledge Consulting

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Ram Ahluwalia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Co-Host, CEO of Lumida

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Chris Perkins⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Co-Host, CEO of 250 Digital Asset Management

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

========================================================

As Bitcoin's application layer, Citrea gives you access to the first trust-minimized BTC on a fully programmable platform and a native stablecoin for Bitcoin, ctUSD.

You can now participate in Bitcoin capital markets with lending, privacy, payments, Bitcoin yield, trading and predictions. You get expanded Bitcoin utility without sacrificing its security.

Citrea mainnet is live. Put your BTC to work at citrea.xyz/unchained.  

Ether.fi is giving Unchained listeners 15% cashback on food and ride apps — and that's on top of the 3% you get on everything else. 

Your bank is charging you to use your own money. Laura switched and loves her card!

Go to ether.fi/unchained to claim your offer.

========================================================

For years, the basis trade and token-launch points farming crowded out options as a yield tool in crypto — not because options were inferior, but because the alternatives were simply too easy and too lucrative. 

That changed on 10/10. With the basis trade effectively dead and altcoin valuations cratered, a window has opened for onchain options to compete for capital in a way they never could before. 

Nick Forster, CEO of Derive (formerly Lyra), has been building toward this moment for five years. He joins LTR, venture investor at Cosmos, who has tracked the full graveyard of failed options DEXes — Opyn, HEGIC, Ribbon, Dopex, Strike — and still believes this time is different. The question isn't whether crypto options will scale. It's whether the infrastructure is finally ready.

Host:

• ⁠⁠Laura Shin⁠⁠, Host / Unchained

Guests:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Nick Forster, CEO and Founder, Derive

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LTR, Venture Investor, Kosmos

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---

Thank you to our sponsors!

• Ether.fi — 15% cash back on food and rideshare apps, 3% on everything else, borrow at 4% or less

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---

A tenuous Iran ceasefire sent oil prices tumbling this past week, and crypto responded before any other asset class. Bitcoin climbed to around $72K, Ethereum outperformed with 6.7 to 7% gains in 48 hours, and billions poured back into ETFs after months of withdrawals. 

But amid the rally, uncomfortable questions are surfacing: who profited from suspicious prediction market bets placed just before the ceasefire announcement? Are Middle Eastern governments and corporations now using Bitcoin as actual settlement infrastructure? And if the Clarity Act passes without allowing yield-bearing stablecoins, has the banking lobby won? 

Kavita Gupta, founder and general partner at Delta Blockchain Fund, sits down with Steven Ehrlich to work through a week of whipsawing markets, fragile geopolitics, and structural shifts that could define where crypto goes from here.

Host:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Steven Ehrlich⁠⁠⁠⁠, Head of Research, SharpLink

Guest:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Kavita Gupta, Founder & General Partner at Delta Blockchain Fund

Links:

Ceasefire, Markets & Institutional Flows:

• Crypto Markets Rebound After Iran-Israel Ceasefire Deal (Unchained)

• Bitcoin ETFs Record $5 Billion in Daily Volume as Inflows Top $870 Million (Unchained)

• Crypto Adoption in MENA 2025: Crisis, Adaptation, and Growth (Chainalysis)

Prediction Markets & Insider Trading:

• DEX in the City: Why Prediction Market 'Insider Trading' Isn't Illegal — Yet (Unchained)

• DEX in the City: How Prediction Markets Pose a National Security Risk (Unchained)

• Trading Volumes on Prediction Markets Will Drop After the November Election. Will New Market Entrants Still Attract Users? (Unchained)

• DOJ and CFTC Drop Investigations Into Polymarket: Report (Unchained)

Clarity Act & Stablecoin Regulation:

• Bessent Presses Senate on Clarity Act, Labels Resistant Crypto Leaders 'Nihilists' (Unchained)

• Circle Stock Plunges 20% as Clarity Act Draft Threatens Stablecoin Yield (Unchained)

• Treasury Secretary Bessent Presses Congress to Pass CLARITY Act (The Hill)

Bessent Ramps Up Pressure on Congress to Pass CLARITY Act (CoinTelegraph)

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Nexo is the premier digital wealth platform. Receive interest on your crypto, borrow against it without selling, and trade a range of assets. Now available in the U.S with 30 days of exclusive privileges. 

Get started at http://nexo.com/unchained

Ether.fi is giving Unchained listeners 15% cashback on food and ride apps — and that's on top of the 3% you get on everything else. 

Your bank is charging you to use your own money. Laura switched and loves her card!

Go to ether.fi/unchained to claim your offer. 

Bitcoin’s application layer, Citrea, launched its mainnet, expanding Bitcoin’s utility to privacy, lending, BTC yields, and more. Citrea enables:

• cBTC: The first trust-minimized Bitcoin on a fully programmable platform.

• ctUSD: A native stablecoin for Bitcoin, allowing for unified liquidity.

• Bitcoin Capital Markets bringing demand, and utility to the Bitcoin Network.

Explore the Citrea Ecosystem.

========================================================

When Morgan Stanley launched MSBT this week, it didn't just become the first major US bank to issue its own spot Bitcoin ETF — it became the cheapest one on the market, undercutting BlackRock's iBIT by 11 basis points. For a firm not known for fee competition, that surprised even close ETF watchers. 

James Seyffart, senior analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, has spent years tracking how wirehouses have slowly warmed to Bitcoin products. He joins Laura Shin to discuss what MSBT's launch says about where institutional crypto adoption is heading, whether Morgan Stanley's 16,000 advisors and $7 trillion in assets could meaningfully shift flows, and why Seyffart now sees inaction on crypto as the active choice, not the safe one, for portfolio managers. 

Plus: Strategy's $14.5 billion loss, Saylor keeps buying, and why MSTR’s S&P 500 question is now entirely a Bitcoin price story.

Host:

• ⁠Laura Shin⁠, Host / Unchained

Guest:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠James Seyffart, Senior Analyst, Bloomberg Intelligence

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Welcome to The Chopping Block — where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest in crypto. This week we’re joined by Justin Drake, Ethereum Foundation researcher and the internet’s favorite quantum attack alarm bell ringer. Things get spicy immediately: the eternal guessing game “Who is Satoshi?” gets a new round of attention as John Carreyrou (yeah, Theranos guy) drops a supposed expose pointing his finger at none other than Blockstream’s Adam Back. 

The crew debates whether this Satoshi story is tired PR, inside baseball, or a genuine existential turning point for Bitcoin culture. Then things escalate: Justin walks us through Google and Atomic’s quantum computing breakthrough—a real, validated step forward that potentially pulls the “Q-day” clock up to as soon as 2029. The implications? Bitcoin and Ethereum’s security models are suddenly under the gun, and community denial is in full effect. Who’s better poised to survive a quantum apocalypse… and is coin burning on the menu for Satoshi’s stash?

Later, we break down the Drift hack—North Korea’s latest state-level heist, featuring IRL social engineering that sounds like Mr. Robot meets Oceans Eleven. Finally, it’s an AI arms race: Anthropic’s Mythos model is reportedly the most dangerous security researcher ever coded, and it’s already quietly hardening corporate fortresses. 

Panic? Prepare? Both? One thing’s for sure—there are no do-overs on the blockchain, so let’s get into it.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights

🔹 Blockstream’s Adam Back is the new “Satoshi” according to a viral John Carreyrou story  

🔹 Bitcoin’s culture wars: PR rumor mill vs. industry insiders roll their eyes  

🔹 The Google & Atomic quantum computing breakthrough slashes Q-Day timelines dramatically  

🔹 Ethereum’s quantum readiness (thanks Justin) vs. Bitcoin’s “not my problem” response  

🔹 Why crypto’s “immutable” past is a quantum-ticking time bomb for dormant addresses  

🔹 Satoshi coin burning debate—do we idolize, fork, or rage-quit?  

🔹 The Drift hack: North Korean ops, social engineering, and multi-sig failures  

🔹 Anthropic’s Mythos: the AI that finds bugs before humans—and sometimes emails you about it  

🔹 Formal verification, client diversity, and the future defense of blockchains  

🔹 Haseeb’s question: Could AI break crypto before quantum does?

Hosts

⭐️Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly

⭐️Tarun Chitra, Managing Partner at Robot Ventures

⭐️Tom Schmidt, General Partner at Dragonfly 

Guest

⭐️ Justin Drake, Researcher of Ethereum Foundation

Disclosures

LINKS

"Securing Elliptic Curve Cryptocurrencies against Quantum Vulnerabilities: Resource Estimates and Mitigations" — Google Quantum AI, Ethereum Foundation, Stanford https://quantumai.google/static/site-assets/downloads/cryptocurrency-whitepaper.pdf

"Shor's algorithm is possible with as few as 10,000 reconfigurable atomic qubits" — Cain, Xu, King, Picard, Levine, Endres, Preskill, Huang, Bluvstein https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.28627

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Thank you to our sponsors!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

MultiChain Advisors is an emerging technology growth firm that has helped create over $50 billion in enterprise value for more than 80 clients, like Pyth, Moonpay Commerce, and Wormhole. 

They’re the partner you want when you’re navigating markets and trying to break out from the noise. They help navigate TGEs, go‑to‑market, BD and partnerships, capital markets advisory, PR, media placements, KOL activations and more, driving execution from launch to scale. Visit multichainadv.com.

Bitcoin’s application layer, Citrea, launched its mainnet, expanding Bitcoin’s utility to privacy, lending, BTC yields, and more. Citrea enables:

• cBTC: The first trust-minimized Bitcoin on a fully programmable platform.

• ctUSD: A native stablecoin for Bitcoin, allowing for unified liquidity.

• Bitcoin Capital Markets bringing demand, and utility to the Bitcoin Network.

Explore the Citrea Ecosystem.

Ether.fi is giving Unchained listeners 15% cashback on food and ride apps — and that's on top of the 3% you get on everything else. 

Your bank is charging you to use your own money. Laura switched and loves her card!

Go to ether.fi/unchained to claim your offer.

Anthropic's Mythos model is so capable that the company restricted access to 12 partners and a $100 million compute budget rather than releasing it publicly. It has already identified 20 zero-day vulnerabilities in decades-old software. 

Now the question over DeFi: if Mythos turns its attention to smart contracts, what survives? The Balancer V2 hack rattled assumptions about immutability as a security guarantee. 

Kain Warwick, Taylor Monahan, and Austin Griffith of the Ethereum Foundation work through what autonomous AI hacking means for protocols built to be unhackable, why skill files are the sleeper development in the agent stack, how a degen farming bot locked funds in an Aerodrome gauge through a single wrong NFT transfer, and what Anthropic's 89% uptime tells you about the infrastructure running the most powerful AI on earth.

Hosts:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Kain Warwick⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Founder of Infinex and Synthetix

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Taylor Monahan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Security Expert

Guest:

• Austin Griffith, Ethereum Foundation

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Thanks to our sponsors!

* Citrea — Bitcoin changed how money works. Citrea changes how Bitcoin scales. Trust-minimized BTC on a fully programmable platform with native stablecoin CTUSD. Get started at citrea.xyz/unchained

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* Multichain Advisors — Emerging technology growth firm with $50B+ in enterprise value created for 80+ clients. TGEs, go-to-market, BD, capital markets advisory, and more. Visit multichainadv.com.

The SEC’s Crypto Task Force has spent over a year rebuilding a relationship the industry feared was broken for good. Commissioner Hester Peirce and task force Chief of Operations Sumeera Younis explain how the SEC prioritizes crypto policy questions, why tokenization leads the agenda, and what happens to this guidance when the administration changes. 

They tackle the gap between large players shaping policy and small builders who want clear instructions, reveal how the SEC and CFTC coordinate to prevent jurisdictional conflicts, and argue that smart contracts and AI could reinvent securities disclosure.

Hosts:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos, General Counsel at StarkWare. Previously held senior legal roles across DeFi and centralized exchanges.

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jessi Brooks⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, General Counsel at Ribbit Capital

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TuongVy Le⁠, General Counsel at Veda

Guests:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠ Commissioner Hester Peirce, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
• Sumeera Younis, Chief of Operations, SEC Crypto Task Force

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bitcoin’s application layer, Citrea, launched its mainnet, expanding Bitcoin’s utility to privacy, lending, BTC yields, and more.

Citrea enables:

• cBTC: The first trust-minimized Bitcoin on a fully programmable platform.

• ctUSD: A native stablecoin for Bitcoin, allowing for unified liquidity.
• Bitcoin Capital Markets bringing demand, and utility to the Bitcoin Network.

Explore the Citrea Ecosystem. http://citrea.xyz/unchained

===============================================================================

Ether.fi is giving Unchained listeners 15% cashback on food and ride apps — and that's on top of the 3% you get on everything else.

Your bank is charging you to use your own money. Laura switched and loves her card!

Go to http://ether.fi/unchained to claim your offer.

===============================================================================

The Drift hack looked like a typical smart contract exploit until the postmortem revealed something far more elaborate: a six-month DPRK intelligence operation involving in-person social engineering at crypto conferences, fully constructed professional identities, and a $1 million deposit to build trust.

Then, after $232 million in USDC was stolen, Circle declined to freeze the funds while attackers bridged them across chains for six hours during business hours.

Michael Lewellen from Turnkey and Amanda Wick from VerifyVASP tackle what the Drift compromise teaches about operational security in crypto, why Circle's decision raises hard questions about stablecoin issuer responsibility, and whether the legal framework is forcing companies to choose between compliance and doing what's right.

Host:

• Laura Shin, Host / Unchained

Guests:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠Amanda Wick, Head of Americas at VerifyVASP

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠Michael Lewellen, Head of Solutions Engineering at Turnkey

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

---

Thank you to our sponsors:

Bitcoin’s application layer, Citrea, launched its mainnet, expanding Bitcoin’s utility to privacy, lending, BTC yields, and more.

Citrea enables:

• cBTC: The first trust-minimized Bitcoin on a fully programmable platform.

• ctUSD: A native stablecoin for Bitcoin, allowing for unified liquidity.

• Bitcoin Capital Markets bringing demand, and utility to the Bitcoin Network.

Explore the Citrea Ecosystem.

Ether.fi is giving Unchained listeners 15% cashback on food and ride apps — and that's on top of the 3% you get on everything else. 

Your bank is charging you to use your own money. Laura switched and loves her card!
Go to ether.fi/unchained to claim your offer.

----

North Korea just pulled off the largest DeFi hack of 2026, draining $285 million from Drift protocol in 12 minutes through a six-month social engineering campaign that included face-to-face meetings at industry conferences. Circle had a six-hour window to freeze $232 million in USDC moving through its own bridge and didn't act. 

Meanwhile, Iran's IRGC is reportedly collecting crypto tolls at the Strait of Hormuz in USDT via Tron, and the token market is cracking under the weight of 750,000 issuances since 2020 with the median token down 80% from peak. 

Ram, Austin, and Chris confront the liability question for stablecoin issuers, whether DeFi's security model can survive nation-state attackers, why Chris is calling for licensed "neoprivateers" to recover stolen funds, and what Franklin Templeton's acquisition of 250 Digital signals about where institutional capital is headed.

Hosts:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠Austin Campbell⁠⁠⁠⁠, Host of Bits + Bips, Zero Knowledge Consulting

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠Ram Ahluwalia⁠⁠⁠⁠, Co-Host, CEO of Lumida

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠Chris Perkins⁠⁠⁠⁠, Co-Host, President of CoinFund

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---

Multichain Advisors is an emerging technology growth firm that has helped create over $50 billion in enterprise value for 80+ clients. Services include TGE support, go-to-market strategy, BD, partnerships, capital markets advisory, PR, media placements, and KOL activations.

Visit ⁠⁠⁠https://www.multichainadv.com/⁠⁠⁠

---

Charles Schwab recently hired Jim Ferraioli to build a dedicated crypto research team, a signal that institutions are moving beyond narrative-driven investing and are taking this asset class seriously. 

In this episode, Steven Ehrlich sits down with Jim to explore how traditional finance valuation frameworks apply to crypto. They discuss Bitcoin’s role as a hedge against monetary debasement (not a safe haven), Jim’s cost-of-production model for valuing Bitcoin, and why Ethereum’s dominance in tokenization matters far more than short-term price action. 

Most compellingly, Jim argues that today’s Bitcoin prices sit at historical support levels used by the most efficient miners, and that Ethereum’s position as the tokenization standard is nearly unshakeable. If you’ve been waiting for crypto analysis grounded in fundamentals rather than hype, this is the conversation to hear.

Host:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Steven Ehrlich⁠⁠⁠, Head of Research, SharpLink

Guest:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jim Ferraioli⁠⁠, Director of Digital Currencies Research and Strategy at Charles Schwab

Links:

Charles Schwab & Institutional Crypto Research

• ⁠⁠Jim Ferraioli | Charles Schwab⁠⁠

• CoinDesk: 

• ⁠⁠Liquidity Lifts Bitcoin, but 'Halving Cycle' Fears Could Limit Rally, Says Schwab⁠⁠

• Nasdaq: 

• ⁠⁠Top 4 Reasons More Americans Are Investing in Crypto, According to Schwab⁠⁠

  
  

Ethereum Tokenization & Real-World Assets

• Coindesk: 

• ⁠⁠The Tokenization Boom: Why Ethereum Remains the Rails for RWA Tokenization⁠⁠

  
  

Quantum Computing Risk

• CoinDesk: 

• ⁠⁠Bitcoin Isn't Under Quantum Threat Yet, but Upgrading Could Take 5-10 Years⁠⁠

• ⁠⁠How Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana Are Preparing for the Quantum Threat

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Thank you to our sponsors!

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Fuse: The Energy Network ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ – Shift your energy use and earn rewards.

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠MultiChain Advisors -⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ The Growth & Capital Markets Partner You Need

The Drift Protocol hack was still unfolding when Kain, Taylor, and Luca went live. Within hours of a suspected admin key compromise, over $285 million had been drained across Solana, with Circle sitting on the ability to freeze the stolen USDC — and choosing not to. 

Taylor Monahan, who was already in an active incident response room, walked through exactly how DPRK malware operates silently on devices for months before striking, why standard antivirus software won’t catch it, and what the Axios supply chain attack revealed about the vulnerability of open source infrastructure. 

Then the conversation shifted to the Claude Code source leak — what it actually reveals about how the most sophisticated agentic coding harness in the world was built, and why Kain thinks a new Anthropic model may be days away.

Hosts:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Kain Warwick⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Founder of Infinex and Synthetix

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Taylor Monahan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Security Expert

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Luca Netz⁠⁠⁠⁠, CEO of Pudgy Penguins

Links

Unchained:

• Drift Protocol Coverage — Search unchainedcrypto.com for current coverage

Related:

• SEAL 911 — Volunteer crypto incident response group

• Drift Protocol

• Axios npm package — Supply chain attack vector discussed

• CrowdStrike EDR — Recommended endpoint detection tool

• Claude Code — Subject of source leak discussion

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Welcome to The Chopping Block — where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest in crypto. This week we’ve got Evgeny Gaevoy, Founder of Wintermute, known for sharp takes and sharper trades.

First up, the group unpacks the Twitter war over enterprise chain Canton—does it deserve to be called “permissionless”, or is it just TradFi with extra steps? Cue the Solana–Ethereum truce, and a rare moment where every old-school degenerate finds a common enemy. Evgeny makes a strong case for why, despite years of jokes at the Ethereum Foundation’s expense, he thinks they’re finally ahead of the curve by doubling down on cypherpunk roots—even if it makes ETH a little more Linux and a little less Nasdaq.

But does decentralization matter if stablecoins and institutions now control the fork-choice? Haseeb and Evgeny spar over whether Ethereum’s “world computer” vision means inviting in the corporate crowd or keeping the punk sanctuary alive.

The mood shifts as the hosts dig into crypto’s unfolding security meltdown: AI-written hacks, NPM supply chain fiascos, and what that means for the future of open source in crypto. Plus, a fresh new hack (RIP Drift), and predictions on how defensive tech (or lack thereof) will shape the next cycle. Barstool banter, spicy takes, and zero investment advice as always—let’s get into it.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights

🔹 The Chopping Block crew and Evgeny Gaevoy debate whether Canton is a permissionless blockchain or just TradFi LARPing as crypto  

🔹 Does Ethereum need to double down on cypherpunk “sanctuary” values—or let BlackRock and Circle join the party?  

🔹 Haseeb dismantles the idea that all “tokenized RWAs” on “permissioned” blockchains are equivalent to Ethereum  

🔹 Solana and Ethereum align—briefly!—with both camps skeptical of enterprise “default no” blockchains  

🔹 Circle and Tether’s growing influence: can fork-choice governance still exist if stables dictate the canonical chain?  

🔹 Linux, the open internet, and how crypto’s utopian dreams get co-opted by institutions  

🔹 Drift’s $270M hack highlights the AI-enabled acceleration of exploits and the mounting risks for open-source software  

🔹 AI in security: From North Korean supply chain attacks to open source’s existential crisis  

🔹 Is the future of crypto code closed or open? Zero knowledge proofs vs. code visibility in the LLM era  

🔹 Are we headed for a world where only org-backed, audit-heavy open source survives?

Hosts

⭐️Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly

⭐️Tarun Chitra, Managing Partner at Robot Ventures

⭐️Tom Schmidt, General Partner at Dragonfly 

Guest

⭐️ Evgeny Gaevoy, Founder and CEO at Wintermute

Disclosures

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

---

Thank you to our sponsor:

⁠⁠⁠Nexo⁠⁠⁠ — the premier digital wealth platform. Receive interest on your digital assets, borrow against them without selling, and trade a wide range of cryptocurrencies all in one place. Now available in the US with 30 days of exclusive privileges for new clients. Get started at ⁠⁠⁠nexo.com/unchained⁠⁠⁠.

----

Bond market tightening has become the invisible hand constraining every policy decision, from Iran talks to stimulus spending. 

With Brent crude at $107 and the 10-year yield climbing, asset prices face a cascade of headwinds: inflationary supply shocks, tightening financial conditions, and no clear off-ramp for a conflict that the IRGC shows no appetite to negotiate. 

Yet within crypto, a sharper debate is emerging: does institutional adoption demand Canton’s permissioned structure, or can Ethereum survive with real-world assets on a permissionless layer? 

Austin, Ram, and Chris dig into the structural fault lines that the macro backdrop is now exposing, and why market-timing in a conflict where you don’t know who the endgame negotiator is may be the wrong frame entirely.

Hosts:

• ⁠⁠⁠Austin Campbell⁠⁠⁠, Host of Bits + Bips, Zero Knowledge Consulting

• ⁠⁠⁠Ram Ahluwalia⁠⁠⁠, Co-Host, CEO of Lumida

• ⁠⁠⁠Chris Perkins⁠⁠⁠, Co-Host, President of CoinFund

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

---

Multichain Advisors is an emerging technology growth firm that has helped create over $50 billion in enterprise value for 80+ clients. Services include TGE support, go-to-market strategy, BD, partnerships, capital markets advisory, PR, media placements, and KOL activations.

Visit ⁠https://www.multichainadv.com/⁠

---

Charles Schwab recently hired Jim Ferraioli to build a dedicated crypto research team, a signal that institutions are moving beyond narrative-driven investing and are taking this asset class seriously. 

In this episode, Steven Ehrlich sits down with Jim to explore how traditional finance valuation frameworks apply to crypto. They discuss Bitcoin’s role as a hedge against monetary debasement (not a safe haven), Jim’s cost-of-production model for valuing Bitcoin, and why Ethereum’s dominance in tokenization matters far more than short-term price action. 

Most compellingly, Jim argues that today’s Bitcoin prices sit at historical support levels used by the most efficient miners, and that Ethereum’s position as the tokenization standard is nearly unshakeable. If you’ve been waiting for crypto analysis grounded in fundamentals rather than hype, this is the conversation to hear.

Host:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Steven Ehrlich⁠, Head of Research, SharpLink

Guest:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jim Ferraioli, Director of Digital Currencies Research and Strategy at Charles Schwab

Links:

Charles Schwab & Institutional Crypto Research

• Jim Ferraioli | Charles Schwab

• CoinDesk: 

• Liquidity Lifts Bitcoin, but 'Halving Cycle' Fears Could Limit Rally, Says Schwab

• Nasdaq: 

• Top 4 Reasons More Americans Are Investing in Crypto, According to Schwab

  
  

Ethereum Tokenization & Real-World Assets

• Coindesk: 

• The Tokenization Boom: Why Ethereum Remains the Rails for RWA Tokenization

  
  

Quantum Computing Risk

• CoinDesk: 

• Bitcoin Isn't Under Quantum Threat Yet, but Upgrading Could Take 5-10 Years

• How Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana Are Preparing for the Quantum Threat

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Solana's biggest perp DEX Drift Protocol was exploited for $285 million on April Fool's Day in a compromise observers have described as “methodical” and “chilling.”

Chaos Labs founder Omer Goldberg unpacks how the exploit, which is among the 10 largest in DeFi history, went down, including how hackers leveraged a Solana feature to lie in wait without triggering alarms and how the attack bore some resemblance to the Mango DAO and Resolv exploits.

He also weighs in on criticism against Circle for its slow response and whether the exploit has the markings of a North Korean state sponsored attack.

In Omer's telling, the loss could have been avoided. 

Listen to find out more!

Guest:

• ⁠Omer Goldberg, Founder and CEO of Chaos Labs

  Previous appearances on Unchained:

  • How the Resolv Hack Was a Web2 Exploit, Not a Crypto One - Uneasy Money

Links

Unchained:

• Drift Protocol Suffers $285 Million Exploit After Admin Key Compromise and Oracle Manipulation

• Uneasy Money: How the Resolv Hack Shows an Audit Doesn’t Mean ‘Secure’

• The Mango Markets Attacker on Whether His ‘Trade’ Was Ethical or Not

• North Korean Hackers Are Winning. Is the Crypto Industry Ready to Stop Them?

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The Commodity Futures Trading Commission under Chair Mike Selig has unveiled an expansive agenda across artificial intelligence, crypto and prediction markets. 

Former CFTC staffer and FTX General Counsel Ryne Miller joins DEX in the City hosts Vy Le and Jessi Brooks to unpack the agenda and answer whether the regulator has the resources to fulfill it.

According to Miller, the agenda could see the agency return to a schedule similar to the Dodd-Frank era under then-Chair Gary Gensler. 

Beyond the CFTC's regulatory moves, Miller also weighs in on the growing bans on the use of prediction markets by certain officials. Find out why he says it is a trend that is likely to continue. Plus, should Canton be segregated from other blockchains?

Hosts:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jessi Brooks⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, General Counsel at Ribbit Capital

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TuongVy Le, General Counsel at Veda

Guest:

• ⁠Ryne Miller, Partner at Morrison Foerster & Former FTX General Counsel

Links:

• Unchained:

• CFTC Clears Path for Phantom to Bridge Crypto Wallets and Derivatives

• CFTC Moves to Rein In Prediction Markets as Industry Booms

• SEC and CFTC Move Toward Unified Crypto Rules

• Crypto Startup Bet on Its Own Fundraise on Polymarket, Then Apologized

• How Prediction Markets Make Espionage So Much Easier — and Risk National Security

• Visa Approves Its First Blockchain Governance Proposal, Joining Canton Network as Super Validator

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Google and Oratomic published quantum computing research on the same day, and together they redraw the timeline for when blockchains need to be post-quantum secure.

Google's paper, co-authored by Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake and Stanford cryptographer Dan Boneh, estimates 2029 for breaking the elliptic curve cryptography that protects Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Oratomic's findings are sharper: utility-scale quantum computers may need only 10,000 qubits, not the millions previously assumed, and the company already has 6,000 in the lab.

With 6.7 million BTC in vulnerable addresses and a newly identified 9-minute attack window on unspent Bitcoin transactions, the question is no longer whether blockchains need to migrate. It's whether they can do it fast enough.

Guests:

• ⁠Alex Pruden, Co-Founder & CEO, Project Eleven

• ⁠Dolev Bluvstein, CEO of Oratomic

Links:

• Unchained:

• Q-Day Is Imminent. Can Bitcoin Survive the Quantum Threat?

• Solana Deploys Post-Quantum Signatures on Testnet

• Is Nic Carter Exaggerating Bitcoin's Quantum Risk? Yes, Says One Core Dev

• Research Papers:

• Google: Securing Elliptic Curve Cryptocurrencies Against Quantum Vulnerabilities

• Oratomic: Shor's Algorithm with as Few as 10,000 Reconfigurable Atomic Qubits (arXiv)

• Caltech: Useful Quantum Computers Could Be Built with as Few as 10,000 Qubits

• Companies & Tools:

• Project Eleven

• Project Eleven: Yellow Pages

• Oratomic

• BIP 360: Pay-to-Merkle-Root (P2MR)

• Standards & Infrastructure:

• NIST Post-Quantum Cryptography Standards

• Cloudflare: State of the Post-Quantum Internet

• Google Quantum AI: Willow & Error Correction

• Algorand: Quantum-Resistant Falcon Signatures

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A $5 billion UK energy company built by Revolut alumni is about to launch a new token, and they already have an SEC no-action letter to back it up. 

But the real story starts with the grid itself. European gas prices are running 50-70% above normal. Multi-billion dollar LNG facilities damaged in recent attacks could take years to repair. And a power grid designed 150 years ago is buckling under AI data centers, EVs, and renewables it was never built to handle. 

Sean Murray, Fuse Energy's crypto lead, joins Steven Ehrlich to lay out why an estimated $70 billion in clean energy has been wasted because the grid can't move it, why that congestion problem mirrors crypto's own L1 scalability crisis, and how coordinating millions of smart home devices through a token-incentivized network could fix it.

Host:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Steven Ehrlich, Head of Research, SharpLink

Guest:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠Sean Murray, Head of Special Projects & Crypto Lead, Fuse Energy — Previously part of the Revolut early team; now leading Fuse's crypto strategy and DePIN network launch for a vertically integrated energy company doing ~$500 million in annual revenue across the UK and Europe.

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What happens when merchants are code instead of storefronts? Noah Levine and Robbie Petersen debate whether stablecoins or cards win in an agentic economy, and more importantly, where the profit pools end up.

One sees headless merchants driving a new payment stack; the other warns that front ends never fully disappear. Both agree on this: traditional fraud detection will likely fail against AI behavior patterns, and the rails question masks a deeper problem of regulatory and social inertia.

The outcome hinges on whether permissionless infrastructure can outcompete existing payment incumbents, and whether agentic commerce actually scales beyond niche use cases.

Guest:

• Noah Levine, Partner at a16z

• Robbie Petersen, Junior Partner at Dragonfly

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$25 million extracted and millions more in bad debt across lending protocols.

Chaos Labs founder Omer Goldberg joins Uneasy Money hosts Kain Warwick, Luca Netz and Taylor Monahan to unpack the Resolv exploit.

They dive into how the exploit reveals DeFi's basic OpSec and risk judgement failings. Omer highlights the various ways it could have been prevented as Tay says protocol audits have become “security theater.”

Kain questions Morpho's curator model after its pools were hit hard as the contagion spread. He also highlights markers that suggest the exploit may have been executed in panic.

Beyond the Resolv exploit, the crew highlights that Aave v4 has made it out of governance, discussing the motivations behind the upgrade and whether the hub and spoke model will impact listing standards.

Hosts:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Kain Warwick⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Founder of Infinex and Synthetix

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Taylor Monahan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Security Expert

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Luca Netz⁠⁠⁠, CEO of Pudgy Penguins

Guest:

• Omer Goldberg, Founder and CEO of Chaos Labs

Links:

• Unchained:

• Aave V4 Clears First Governance Vote with 100% Support After Months of Internal Conflict

• Stani Kulechov on Why Aave Labs Is Putting Itself at the Mercy of the DAO

• How Aave Labs and the DAO Should Split Ownership of the Brand – Uneasy Money
  

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Trump announced a five-day pause on strikes against Iranian energy infrastructure just hours before his own 48-hour ultimatum expired. Oil crashed below $90. Bitcoin surged from $68,200 to above $71,000. Ram called it the greatest TACO of Trump’s career and said the Trump put is officially here.

Meanwhile the Fed held rates steady but the dot plot revealed a historically wide internal split: seven members want zero cuts in 2026 while five want 50 basis points or more. Powell warned inflation isn’t coming down as hoped with projections now at 2.7% for headline. 

And in tech, Elon Musk unveiled a $25 billion chip fab that Ram says is pure fiction while Bezos raised $100 billion to buy manufacturing companies and transform them with AI.

Hosts:

• Austin Campbell, Host of Bits + Bips, Zero Knowledge Consulting

• Ram Ahluwalia, Co-Host, CEO of Lumida

• Chris Perkins, Co-Host, President of CoinFund

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Bitcoin dropped under $69K after the Fed, ECB, and Bank of England all held rates steady this week, while Australia hiked. Kaiko's Laurens Fraussen joins to explain what's actually happening beneath the surface, from collapsing liquidity to a quiet geographic shift in who's buying.

He also makes the case that agentic commerce could reshape how crypto payments work entirely and we break down why the market mostly shrugged at the latest crypto guidance from the SEC and CFTC.

Host:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Steven Ehrlich⁠, Host of Bits + Bips: The Interview

Guest:

• ⁠Laurens Fraussen, Research Analyst at Kaiko

Links:

Bitcoin, Markets, and the Iran Conflict

• Bitcoin Holding at $70,000 as Iran War Stokes Inflation Concerns — Bloomberg
• These 3 Charts Show Bitcoin’s War-Linked Selloff Keeps Shrinking as Iran Conflict Worsens — CoinDesk
• What Bitcoin’s Falling Hash Rate Might Mean for Prices — CoinDesk
• What’s Next for Bitcoin Price Amid Iran War and Oil Prices Surge — DL News

Central bank rate decisions

• Fed Interest Rate Decision March 2026: Holds Rates Steady — CNBC
• Fed Meeting Recap: Powell Says Inflation Isn’t Coming Down as Much as ‘Hoped’ — CNBC
• Bank Rate Maintained at 3.75%, March 2026 — Bank of England
• ECB, BOE, Swiss National Bank, Riksbank Interest Rate Decisions — CNBC
• ECB Holds Rates, Predicts 2.6% Inflation for 2026 — Central Banking

SEC/CFTC Interpretive Guidance

• SEC Clarifies the Application of Federal Securities Laws to Crypto Assets — SEC.gov
• Joint Interpretation From the SEC and CFTC on Certain Types of Crypto Assets — Free Writings & Perspectives
• SEC Names Bitcoin, Ether, Solana and 13 More Crypto Assets Digital Commodities — FinTech Weekly

Agentic Commerce and Payments

• Stripe-Led Payments Blockchain Tempo Goes Live With AI Agent Protocol — CoinDesk
• Stripe and Paradigm’s Tempo Mainnet Goes Live for Machine Payments — Crypto.news
• Coinbase-Backed AI Payments Protocol Wants to Fix Micropayments but Demand Is Just Not There Yet — CoinDesk
• Google Agentic Payments Protocol + x402: Agents Can Now Actually Pay Each Other — Coinbase
• Google Debuts ‘Universal’ Protocol for Agentic Commerce — PYMNTS
• Coinbase and Cloudflare Will Launch the x402 Foundation — Coinbase
• World Launches AgentKit With Coinbase-Backed x402 to Verify Human Identity Behind AI Agents — CoinDesk

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Mysten Labs has announced Hashi, a protocol designed to unlock several financial applications for native Bitcoin in a trust minimized way.

Mysten Labs co-founder Adeniyi Abiodun walks through how Hashi works and how it differs from wrapped Bitcoin tokens and L2s.

He says the protocol is built with institutions in mind, highlighting for one that it does not trigger a tax event like alternatives and also comes with low-premium on-chain Bitcoin denominated insurance.

Listen to find out how Hashi manages these and more.

Will Mysten Labs succeed in unlocking Bitcoin's long-desired $1.4 trillion liquidity?

Guest:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠Adeniyi Abiodun, Co-Founder and CPO of Mysten Labs

Links

• Unchained:

• Sui Blockchain Restored After Six-Hour Outage

• Sui-Based Typus Finance Loses $3.4 Million in Hack

• Coinbase’s cbBTC Crosses $1 Billion Market Cap, Deploys on Solana

• New Bitcoin Liquid Staking Protocols Aim to Replicate Lido’s Success

• Kraken Launches Wrapped Bitcoin Token kBTC

• Top Wrapped Bitcoin (WBTC) Alternatives You Should Know About

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Trade[XYZ] has obtained a license from the S&P Dow Jones Indices to offer S&P 500 perps on Hyperliquid. A crypto trader lost $50 million in a single Aave swap. A Vanity Fair crypto shoot and article is sparking backlash. And the Ethereum Foundation has unveiled a “new” mandate.

Uneasy Money hosts Kain Warwick, Luca Netz and Taylor Monahan dig into what the S&P license means for crypto with Kain saying it is not priced in yet.

They also debate whether DeFi frontends should block high slippage swaps after the recent Aave swap gone wrong.

Plus, did Vanity Fair intend to mock crypto? Luca shares how he dodged the bullet. Tay explains why OpenSea founder Devin Finzer and his wife got the most heat. Kain lets slip how he found himself on the New York Times for buying Trump's memecoin.

And why Kain does not think the Ethereum Foundation's new mandate matters in the long-run.

Hosts:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Kain Warwick⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Founder of Infinex and Synthetix

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Taylor Monahan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Security Expert

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Luca Netz⁠⁠, CEO of Pudgy Penguins

Links:

• Unchained:

  • S&P 500 Gets First Officially Licensed Onchain Perpetual, Landing on Hyperliquid

  • Dueling Post-Mortems Reveal How a $50 Million DeFi Swap Went From Bad to Catastrophic

  • Ethereum Foundation Codifies Its Own Obsolescence in New Mandate

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Get started at nexo.com/unchained Binance has sued the Wall Street Journal for defamation over a report that money has flowed from its platform to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp. 

DEX in the City hosts Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos and Jessi Brooks are joined by Arktouros Partner Jane Khodarkovsky to discuss the sanctions implications of the story, what is at stake in the lawsuit and the burden of proof on Binance. 

Is Binance fighting a losing battle? And could the case backfire amid a parallel DOJ investigation?

Beyond the Binance case, the crew unpacks recent efforts by the CFTC and SEC to provide crypto with regulatory clarity. Find out why KK says the CFTC's recent prediction markets guidance is a “nothingburger” and why a no-action letter to Phantom is not a carte blanche for all crypto frontends.

Plus, is it time for crypto to consider best execution rules as an Aave user loses $50 million in a DeFi swap gone wrong?

Hosts:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jessi Brooks⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, General Counsel at Ribbit Capital

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos⁠⁠⁠⁠, General Counsel at StarkWare

Guest:

• Jane Khodarkovsky, Sanctions expert

Links:

• Unchained:

• CFTC Moves to Rein In Prediction Markets as Industry Booms

• SEC and CFTC Move Toward Unified Crypto Rules

• Dueling Post-Mortems Reveal How a $50 Million DeFi Swap Went From Bad to Catastrophic

  
  

• Vy Le's paper on on-chain best execution:

• Fairness by Design: Verifiable Execution in On-Chain Markets

  
  

• This week's good news:

• Tech boss uses ChatGPT to create cancer vaccine to save dying dog

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• Adaptive Security

With Across Protocol proposing to retire its ACX token in favor of equity, a long-simmering question in crypto governance is finally breaking into the open: do token holders actually have meaningful ownership, or just the illusion of it? 

As the regulatory environment under the new U.S. administration shifts dramatically from the Gensler era, the structures that crypto teams were forced to build may now be working against the very communities they were meant to serve. 

Ryan Yi, founder of Onchain Group, and Felipe Montealegre, co-founder and CIO of Theia, have studied these incentive structures closely, and what they have found is uncomfortable. From PumpFun's suppressed valuation to the perverse incentives baked into token buyouts, this conversation examines whether the DAO model was ever built to last, and what governance actually needs to look like if crypto is going to compete with global finance.

Guests:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠Ryan Yi, Founder of Onchain Group

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠Felipe Montealegre, Co-Founder & Chief Investment Officer at Theia

Links:

• Read our Aave deep dive here

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Welcome to The Chopping Block — where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest in crypto. This week we’ve got plenty of firepower with special guests Taylor Monahan (formerly of MetaMask, now a security sensei) and Bankless impresario David Hoffman. The crew digs into the Ethereum Foundation’s freshly dropped “CROPS” manifesto — a 38-page PDF full of cypherpunk values, new acronyms, and debate fuel.

What does it really say about where Ethereum is headed? Is EF finally embracing “sanctuary tech,” or just giving startups another reason to choose Solana? Who deserves credit for Ethereum’s growth: the Foundation, the community, or the market?

Expect sharp takes on EF’s endless comms problems, why L2s aren’t a cure-all, and whether crypto culture matters as much as the tech. It’s a spicy, insider-heavy episode — so grab your popcorn and dive in.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights

🔹 Ethereum Foundation’s new CROPS mandate—what it says, what it avoids, and why it sparked a vibe war  

🔹 Is Vitalik’s “sanctuary tech” vision pushing builders away or just keeping Ethereum pure?  

🔹 The never-ending battle between “cypherpunks” and “pragmatists” in Ethereum’s governance  

🔹 Why Ethereum’s “bad comms” tradition keeps causing existential crises  

🔹 Solana’s support playbook: How culture, not tech, is dominating the builder mindshare  

🔹 Are new projects ditching Ethereum L1 for Base, Arbitrum, and Solana—and does platform risk even matter now?  

🔹 Should EF just stick to research, or actually help grow the ecosystem? And what does “supporting builders” actually mean?  

🔹 Can you keep your values if you don’t win? The hard truths of crypto capitalism  

🔹 Lessons from Defi Summer, NFT mania, and what L2 drama says about ecosystem incentives  

🔹 Haseeb goes “political”: Why virtue-signaling and simple narratives are killing real debate

Hosts

⭐️ Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly

⭐️ Tarun Chitra, Managing Partner at Robot Ventures

⭐️ Tom Schmidt, General Partner at Dragonfly 

Guest

⭐️ Taylor Monahan, Security expert & Host of Uneasy Money
⭐️ David Hoffman, Host of Bankless

Timestamps

00:00 Intro

01:51 EF Mandate Explained

03:23 Pragmatists vs. Cypherpunks

05:13 Tay’s Middle Ground

08:54 David Reads Between Lines

13:51 Tom & Tarun Push Back

18:20 EF Factions & Solana Shadow

24:13 Does Ethereum Want Growth

31:01 Virtue Signaling

35:35 Where to Build Now

39:16 Solana Support vs Ethereum Stability

42:12 EF Promotion & Builder Support 

47:54 Goldilocks Time Horizons

51:10 Ethereum Soul and Body

56:03 Does EF Leadership Matter?

01:02:45 Stewardship and Market Failures

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Three weeks into the Iran conflict, oil is keeping inflation elevated, rate cuts are getting pushed out, and hedge funds are being forced to sell good names just to reduce exposure. So why is Bitcoin holding up? 

Ram sees a market on the right shoulder of a bubble, with industrials like Caterpillar at 35x earnings and no real capitulation yet in equities or private credit. Chris is watching trading desks pick up the “short-gold, long-Bitcoin” trade, and sees Ethereum's fundamentals quietly strengthening. Austin wants to know what happens to DeFi the day a major stablecoin gets compromised on a censorship-resistant chain with no network-level controls. 

And all three are asking the same question investors need answered now: does the Iran conflict end fast enough to stop oil from triggering a true inflationary regime, or is a harder correction still ahead?

Hosts:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Ram Ahluwalia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, CFA, CEO and Founder of Lumida

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Austin Campbell⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, NYU Stern professor and founder and managing partner of Zero Knowledge Consulting

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Christopher Perkins⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Managing Partner and President of CoinFund

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Bits + Bips is spreading its wings

Starting soon, new episodes will only be published on our brand‑new feeds.

What you need to do:

1. Click the links below.

1. ⁠YouTube⁠

2. ⁠Apple⁠

3. ⁠Spotify⁠

4. ⁠X⁠

2. Smash Follow or Subscribe.

3. 🎉 Done.

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The Strait of Hormuz is closed. Oil is past $100 a barrel. The traditional safe haven playbook, from treasuries to gold, is failing to perform the way it should. And yet bitcoin is up 4% since the conflict started, holding steady in a tight range that Andy Baehr, newly installed as managing director of asset management at GSR, calls "base camp." 

What signals should investors watch to know if the next move is up or down? Why does the VIX suggest calm when the world feels anything but? And why might the tokenization boom be built on demand that doesn't exist yet? 

Baehr, who spent years constructing the crypto index ecosystem at CoinDesk, brings a structural lens to a market moment where nothing is where it should be.

Host:

• ⁠⁠Steven Ehrlich, Host of Bits + Bips: The Interview

Guest:

• Andy Baehr, Managing Director of Asset Management, GSR

Links:

Bitcoin = Safe Haven

• Is Bitcoin Now a Safe-Haven Asset? If So, Then It Could Be Hugely Undervalued at Just $70,000

• How Bitcoin and Gold Reacted Differently to the Iran War Shock

Hyperliquid Oil Perps

• The Hottest New Crypto Trade Is 24/7 Oil Futures

• Crypto Markets Track War Risk as Iran Conflict Endures

Tokenization

• Wall Street Pushes Tokenized Stocks, but Institutions Aren’t Eager to Trade Them

• Nasdaq Partners With Kraken in Plan for 24/7 Tokenized Stock Trading
  

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Onchain lending used to be a crypto-native curiosity. Now Cantor Fitzgerald is extending credit facilities through it, Apollo Global Management is acquiring governance tokens, and Coinbase users are borrowing against Bitcoin to buy houses, all running on DeFi protocols operating in the background.

Maple Finance CEO Sid Powell and Morpho co-founder Paul Frambot sit at the center of this shift, and they have very different reads on what it takes to make institutional adoption real. 

What are the actual limits to onchain lending growth right now? Does the DeFi mullet model work for everyone, or only for specific use cases? And as DAOs across the industry stumble under the weight of public governance, what structures actually let a protocol move fast without losing trust? 

This conversation gets into the mechanics, the trade-offs, and the deals that are quietly redrawing the lines between DeFi and traditional finance.

Guests:

• ⁠Paul Frambot, Co-Founder & CEO at Morpho Labs

• ⁠Sid Powell, CEO & Co-Founder of Maple Finance

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• ⁠⁠⁠⁠Fuse: The Energy Network ⁠⁠⁠ – Shift your energy use and earn rewards.

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Hyperliquid is having its mainstream moment like Polymarket in 2024 and OpenSea in 2021. Amid the U.S.’s war on Iran, the platform has become a popular venue for speculators to express their market opinions.

Uneasy Money hosts Kain Warwick, Luca Netz and Taylor Monahan dig into choices that have allowed Hyperliquid to succeed where many others before it have failed. In a single sentence: not putting ideology over the product's goals.

Kain says the protocol may become unassailable in the future even as Luca says HYPE is bound to be a top five crypto by market cap.

The crew also discusses Pudgy Penguin's new open world game Pudgy World. Luca says “crypto rails have to be a tech stack not a hook” explaining why the game relegated crypto to the background.

Plus, how Across Protocol's move to pivot to only equity highlights the broken nature of tokens. Has Luca cracked the problem?

Listen to find out!

Hosts:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠Kain Warwick⁠⁠⁠⁠, Founder of Infinex and Synthetix

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠Taylor Monahan⁠⁠⁠⁠, Security Expert

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Luca Netz⁠, CEO of Pudgy Penguins

Links:

• Unchained:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Oil Becomes the Hottest Trade on Hyperliquid

• Hyperliquid Launches $29 Million Policy Push in Washington

• Uneasy Money: Hyperliquid’s Dilemma After 10/10: Protect Itself or Its Users?

• The Aave DAO Is Collapsing. Is the Token Still a Good Investment?

• Uneasy Money: Why the AI Singularity May Already Be Out of Our Hands

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The SEC has submitted guidance on how securities laws apply to crypto to the White House.

DEX in the City hosts Jessi Brooks, Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos and TuongVy Le dig into what the proposal could mean for the crypto industry and whether it could be enough to provide developers regulatory clarity as anticipated market structure legislation stalls. Why is the agency submitting guidance to the White House?

Plus, KK explains why current regulatory efforts could lead crypto to resort to more “come at me bro” legal tactics and Jessi covers why the industry may regret the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to overturn Chevron deference.

Beyond the SEC's recent crypto regulatory move, the crew discusses the arrest of the son of a government contractor alleged to have stolen the U.S.’s bitcoin, what the DOJ's planned retrial of unresolved charges against Roman Storm suggests and why banks are up in arms over Kraken's “skinny” Fed master account.

They also discuss why the crypto industry should tighten up security as Iranian groups target U.S. banking services and tech infrastructure.

Hosts:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠Jessi Brooks⁠⁠⁠⁠, General Counsel at Ribbit Capital

• ⁠⁠⁠Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos⁠⁠⁠, General Counsel at StarkWare

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TuongVy Le⁠, General Counsel at Veda

Links:

• Unchained:

  • ⁠SEC Sends Crypto Securities Framework to the White House

    Blame Exchanges for Holding Up the Market Structure Bill? - DEX in the City

    DOJ Pushes for Retrial of Tornado Cash Developer Roman Storm

    Kraken Wins Direct Access to the Fed’s Payment System

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Welcome to The Chopping Block — where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest in crypto. This week, we’re joined by none other than Erik Voorhees, legendary crypto pioneer and founder of Venice, for a no-holds-barred discussion on the wild convergence of AI, crypto, and the meme coin casino. Erik unpacks his journey from anti-surveillance crusader to AI entrepreneur, why Venice is all-in on privacy and free speech for LLMs, and how “provable privacy” is a Sisyphean technical challenge.

The crew breaks down OpenClaw’s agent drama, memecoin carpet-bombing of Moltbook, and Meta muscling in on AI social networks. We debate agentic payments (will your first paying customer soon be a bot?), the true game theory behind state surveillance, and why crypto’s greatest killer use case might actually be building tools for robots instead of humans. Plus: existential crises for software engineers, why “AI alignment” is a philosophical dead end, and the childlike glee (or open psychosis) of trading OpenClaw war stories at AI meetups.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights

🔹 Erik Voorhees traces his journey from crypto OG to Venice AI founder, fighting for privacy and free speech  

🔹 Explainer: Why all big AI labs store your prompts — and how Venice’s model tries to break the surveillance cycle  

🔹 The crew tears into "agentic payments" hype and asks if crypto was really made for humans — or just robots  

🔹 OpenClaw, Moltbook, and memecoin floods: Welcome to the unholy spawnpoint of AI agents and CT scam culture  

🔹 Meta acquires Moltbook—what happens when agent societies meet social networks (and meme coins ensue)  

🔹 AI alignment isn’t as hard as they said—until agents start “optimizing” in the wild (and mining your GPU for crypto)  

🔹 Existential crisis time: Why software engineers feel like Paul Bunyan fighting tunnel machines  

🔹 Crypto’s endgame: DeFi legos for agents, not just degens—will AI really build its own protocols?  

🔹 The game theory of state surveillance and why institutions, not individuals, are the ultimate privacy adversary  

🔹 "Provable privacy” isn’t just trust, it’s math—Venice’s plan to win over the tinfoil crowd

Hosts

⭐️Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly

⭐️Tarun Chitra, Managing Partner at Robot Ventures

⭐️Tom Schmidt, General Partner at Dragonfly 

Guest
⭐️ Erik Voorhees, Founder of Venice.ai

Timestamps

00:00 Intro

01:16 Erik’s Origin & Venice.AI’s Mission

03:51 Censorship Future

08:58 Proving Privacy With TEEs

11:44 Frontier Models Tradeoffs

15:02 Agents & Crypto Payments

18:22 OpenClaw Provider Drama

22:24 Moltbook Meta Acquisition

29:16 Exponential AI Moment

33:00 Alibaba Agent Breakout

37:06 Alignment Reality Check

39:22 Who Understands LLMs?

41:48 Engineers Facing Disruption

47:55 AI Psychosis Meetups

54:24 Pro Models & Pricing

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Oil briefly traded above $119 a barrel. Iran threatened to shut the Strait of Hormuz, the single chokepoint that carries roughly 20% of global oil supply. And then, just as fast, prices started pulling back, after Trump said the conflict was "almost completely over." 

But what is actually happening on the ground, what did markets get right, and what are they still missing? 

We bring in U.S. Army Major-General James "Spider" Marks, who spent over 30 years in the U.S. Army, serving as senior intelligence officer through the LA riots, the Balkans, Korea, and Operation Iraqi Freedom, and who culminated his career as commanding general of the U.S. Army Intelligence Center. With a conflict still unfolding, a regime in flux, and markets trying to price it all in real time, there may be no better person to ask.

Hosts:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠Ram Ahluwalia⁠⁠⁠⁠, CFA, CEO and Founder of Lumida

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠Austin Campbell⁠⁠⁠⁠, NYU Stern professor and founder and managing partner of Zero Knowledge Consulting

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠Christopher Perkins⁠⁠⁠⁠, Managing Partner and President of CoinFund

Guest:

• James "Spider" Marks, U.S. Army Major-General

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Bitget since September has said it is much more than a centralized cryptocurrency exchange.

Dragonfly General Partner Rob Hadick and Bitget CEO Gracy Chen peel back Bitget's universal exchange branding to reveal the trends driving the company's expansion and really that of other exchanges both in TradFi and crypto.

The main takeaway? “Users want a place to trade everything.”

Gracy also teases Bitget's U.S. market entry plans and lets slip the real reason the company transferred ownership of BGB. 

Plus, why Gracy is not so optimistic about AI agents materially impacting the crypto market and what Rob says needs to happen for altcoins to accrue value again. He says it is no longer a market where everything goes up and down together.

Guests:

• Rob Hadick, General Partner at Dragonfly

• Gracy Chen, CEO at Bitget, previous appearances on Unchained:

• Why All Financial Institutions Are 'All Systems Go' on Stablecoins

• Stablecoins Are Popping Up Everywhere. What's the End Game?

• When a Crypto Treasury Company Is and Isn't Worth a Premium

• Why Crypto Has 'a Good Setup' for the Long Term Right Now: Bits + Bips

Links:

• Unchained:

• Inside Robinhood’s Big Super App Plan: ‘There’s Still a Lot of Work to Be Done’

• Coinbase Launches Stock Trading and Prediction Markets

• Crypto’s Black Friday Was Its Largest Liquidation Ever. What the Hell Happened?

• Uneasy Money: Why Peter Steinberger and Non-Crypto People Hate the Crypto Mob

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The institutions are here and they may have already picked their preferred blockchain. 

Sharplink Gaming CEO Joseph Chalom and Etherealize co-founder Danny Ryan discuss the institutional outlook on Ethereum. They say the network is the only chain being discussed by institutions thinking about tokenization, dismissing Solana as a possible contender. They explore what this means for ether and why anticipated upgrades only strengthen the case.

Meanwhile, Danny maintains that L2s are still part of the Ethereum roadmap, albeit agreeing with Vitalik that they need to evolve.

Plus, why Joseph thinks privacy will unlock Ethereum's next DeFi wave and why Danny sees AI agents as the salve to crypto's UX woes, though he calls the current activity “a toy.”

Guest:

• ⁠Joseph Chalom, President/CEO at SharpLink Gaming Inc.

• Danny Ryan, Co-Founder & President of Etherealize

Links:

• Unchained:⁠⁠

  • ⁠Vitalik Targets Block Building as Ethereum Prepares Glamsterdam Upgrade

    Vitalik Buterin Lays Out Quantum Defense Plan for Ethereum

    Can Solana Edge Out Ethereum to Win the AI Agent & RWA Race?

    Ethereum Researchers Outline Seven Forks Through 2029 in New “Strawmap”

    BlackRock Just Chose Uniswap. The Market Didn’t Care. Here’s Why.

    Want to Hire an AI Agent? Check Their Reputation Via ERC-8004

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The Aave civil war appears to be at an end with key members of the DAO rage quitting and leaving Aave Labs standing as the sole protocol contributor. 

Uneasy Money hosts Kain Warwick, Luca Netz, and Taylor Monahan explain why the Aave DAO's messy collapse is a death knell for the DAO system. Ironically, they wonder — could this be good for Aave, but bad for the token?

The crew also wades into ZachXBT's recent Axiom investigation and how the on-chain detective has become “a vigilante for hire.” 

They also cover all the insider trading claims and fights around prediction markets involving the Iran War and Mr. Beast, and “Kalshi jail.” Kain suspects another reason for the U.S. government's rift with Anthropic. Luca, an Anthropic investor, says he wished Dario had taken the government's deal, but that Sam Altman needs to “take the Zuck playbook.”

Meanwhile, is Anthropic nerfing OpenClaw?

Hosts:

• ⁠⁠⁠Kain Warwick⁠⁠⁠, Founder of Infinex and Synthetix

• ⁠⁠⁠Taylor Monahan⁠⁠⁠, Security Expert

• ⁠⁠⁠Luca Netz, CEO of Pudgy Penguins

Links:

• Unchained:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠Aave Governance Fight Escalates Ahead of $51 Million Funding Vote

  Uneasy Money: Why the AI Singularity May Already Be Out of Our Hands

  How Aave Labs and the DAO Should Split Ownership of the Brand – Uneasy Money

  ZachXBT Alleges Axiom Employee Misused Internal Data

  Uneasy Money: Why Peter Steinberger and Non-Crypto People Hate the Crypto Mob

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Bitcoin's price has largely held steady despite President Donald Trump's escalation of hostilities with Iran. Is this the bottom signal the market has been waiting for?

STIX investments chief Will Clemente, LunarCrush co-founder Joe Vezzani and Delphi Digital Research Analyst Marcus Wu explain why it looks like Bitcoin is bottoming, why a 10/10-style crash would have happened in crypto even without the Binance glitch, and why, regardless of the Jane Street rumors, it’s not beyond Wall Street to manipulate an asset.

They also address speculation that Jane Street has been suppressing Bitcoin's price and how AI's rapid advancement could impact crypto in light of Citrini Research's article and Jack Dorsey's Block layoffs.

Don't miss Joe's reasoning on why Trump could come to the market's rescue and Will's thesis on why zoomers face four unique financial and technological challenges. Plus Marcus also previews his new game theory model for trading the Bitcoin market.

Guest:

• ⁠Marcus Wu, Research Analyst at Delphi Digital

• Joe Vezzani, Co-founder and CEO of LunarCrush

• Will Clemente, Investments at STIX

  • Previous appearances on Unchained:

  • Bitcoin Crashed Below $100K, But Smart Money Is Buying the Dip

  • Strong Hands Aren't Selling Bitcoin. So Who Is? - Ep. 183

  • Arthur Hayes and Will Clemente on the 2024 Bitcoin Halving

  
  

Links:

• Unchained:⁠⁠

  • • Why Gold Rose and Bitcoin Tumbled on Japan Bond Turmoil

    • Is Nic Carter Exaggerating Bitcoin’s Quantum Risk? Yes, Says One Core Dev

    • Bitcoin Rebounds as ETF Inflows Return, Jane Street Speculation Swirls

    • Terraform Estate Targets Jane Street in Explosive Terra Collapse Lawsuit

    • Crypto’s Black Friday Was Its Largest Liquidation Ever. What the Hell Happened?

    • Will’s essay

    • Climbing a Broken Ladder: A message to my fellow Zoomers

    • Marcus’s Bitcoin game theory model

    • Bitcoin Game Theory on Delphi Digital

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Prediction markets are in the spotlight again. On one hand adoption appears to be growing as the Nasdaq has announced plans of entering the space. On the other hand, they scrutinize markets that pose a national security risk. 

In this DEX in the City episode, hosts Jessi Brooks, Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos and TuongVy Le discuss suspected insider trading activity around a market tied to the strikes on Iran. Beyond ethical concerns about betting on war, they grapple with the definition of “a death market” and ask whether all prediction markets around an individual are death markets. 

The big question: How can these markets on literally any possible event be policed?

Plus, is Jane Street manipulating the Bitcoin market? Why the OCC is saying NO to stablecoin yield and the takeaway from Jack Dorsey's Block layoffs.

Hosts:

• ⁠⁠⁠Jessi Brooks⁠⁠⁠, General Counsel at Ribbit Capital

• ⁠⁠Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos⁠⁠, General Counsel at StarkWare

• ⁠⁠TuongVy Le, General Counsel at Veda

Links:

• Unchained:

  • Nasdaq Eyes Prediction Markets With SEC Filing

  • Bitcoin Rebounds as ETF Inflows Return, Jane Street Speculation Swirls

  • ZachXBT Alleges Axiom Employee Misused Internal Data

  • White House Talks Make Progress on Stablecoin Yields but No Deal Yet

  • DEX in the City: Insider Trading and Crypto: What the Law Actually Says

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Welcome to The Chopping Block — where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest in crypto. This week the gang is joined by super-perpetuals-junkie Jez for a spicy look at whether crypto has lost its soul — or if things are just getting interesting. Is crypto’s vibe shift just growing pains, or did Memecoins and jaded traders nuke our idealism for good? The crew rehashes dreams of cypherpunk glory, debates the “death of the dream,” and gets existential about crypto’s place in a world where everything is either a commodity, a meme, or a permissionless financial machine. Plus: War in Iran sends TradFi running, but DeFi markets are live, and prediction markets step up just as the regulators get weird. Enough nostalgia — let’s get into it.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights

🔹 Jez and Tarun’s crypto origin story: from MIT outcast to NFT party degens.

🔹 Has crypto really lost its soul, or just shed its rose-tinted glasses? The hosts debate.

🔹 The rise and rise of Memecoins, rampant speculation, and Solana’s culture shift.

🔹 Do “return to cypherpunk” calls matter—or is this what crypto winning looks like?

🔹 Why stablecoins, perps, and DeFi are actually success stories (despite maximalist whining).

🔹 AI eating crypto’s lunch: the “everything on the blockchain” promise gets a reality check.

🔹 Real world chaos, onchain price discovery: Iran war, commodities, and DeFi’s 24/7 edge.

🔹 Prediction markets—Kalshi vs. Polymarket—tripped up by the ambiguous reality of war and death.

🔹 CFTC, insider trading, and whether banning informed bets is just protecting “the fish.”

🔹 The future: agents, open-source AI, and keeping the door open for true permissionless finance.

Hosts

⭐️Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly

⭐️Tarun Chitra, Managing Partner at Robot Ventures

⭐️Tom Schmidt, General Partner at Dragonfly 

Guest

⭐️ Jez, Legend
Disclosures

Timestamps

00:00 Intro

01:07 Jez x Tarun Lore

03:24 Cynicism & Rug Culture

09:00 Back To Cypherpunk Roots?

14:37 Compromises & Reality

23:36 Intermediaries Coexist

25:23 Gates Closing Fears

28:10 Stablecoins & Policy

29:24 Agents As Middlemen

30:28 Microfinance to DeFi Agents

31:57 Open Source AI and Crypto Control

32:41 Iran War DeFi Price Discovery

33:57 Why Perps Beat TradFi

37:21 Kalshi vs Polymarket Dispute

44:31 Are Prediction Markets Just Toys?

50:50 Insider Trading Crackdown

54:15 Adverse Selection and Market Design

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The U.S. and Israel have struck Iran, killing Ayatollah Khamenei, and markets are still calibrating. Oil is climbing toward $100, yields are confounding textbook expectations, and when news first broke, Bitcoin dropped to around $63,000 before recovering to roughly $70,000 during Monday's session. Equity futures that opened sharply lower also reversed, ending roughly flat vs. Friday's close. What does that price action actually mean? Is the crypto bounce a sign of structural resilience, or is it moving in lockstep with a broader risk recovery? 

In this episode, Steven Ehrlich sits down with Rob Hadick, General Partner at Dragonfly Capital, a veteran crypto venture investor managing hundreds of millions of dollars to work through what the Iran conflict actually means for digital assets. They also get into the stalled Clarity Act that could be crypto's biggest catalyst of the year, the rise of on-chain derivatives markets, and why one of the largest crypto-focused funds believes now is one of the best moments in history to be building in this space.

Host:

• ⁠Steven Ehrlich⁠

Guest:

• Rob Hadick, General Partner, Dragonfly

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Bits + Bips is spreading its wings

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Over the weekend, US and Israeli forces conducted coordinated strikes on Iran under an operation called Epic Fury, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and triggering retaliatory missile attacks across the Gulf region. 

Markets absorbed the shock in ways that surprised almost everyone: bitcoin briefly dropped and recovered to $70,000, gold touched $5,400, oil surged, and the VIX held in the low 20s while equities finished roughly flat. 

In this episode of Bits + Bips, Austin Campbell, Ram Ahluwalia, and Chris Perkins discuss whether the market is correctly pricing this as a contained regional conflict, or is something larger being missed? What does crypto's stability in a weekend war say about its role as an asset class? And with the Clarity Bill stalling again over stablecoin yield, and Anthropic handing the Pentagon to OpenAI, is the window for principled positioning in both crypto and AI closing faster than anyone admits?

Hosts:

• ⁠⁠⁠Ram Ahluwalia⁠⁠⁠, CFA, CEO and Founder of Lumida

• ⁠⁠⁠Austin Campbell⁠⁠⁠, NYU Stern professor and founder and managing partner of Zero Knowledge Consulting

• ⁠⁠⁠Christopher Perkins⁠⁠⁠, Managing Partner and President of CoinFund

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Hours after this episode was recorded, the United States and Israel launched a coordinated military campaign against Iran, killing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in what analysts are calling the most significant U.S.-Iran escalation in decades.

Charles Myers, Founder and CEO of Signum Global Advisors and a former senior foreign policy advisor to Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, had just sat down with Steven Ehrlich to discuss the geopolitical landscape and what it means for investors. 

What he said about Iran during that conversation is now raising serious questions about what comes next, and the investment implications are far from settled.

In this episode, Myers also addresses whether the "sell America" trade is overdone, where oil is heading, the future of AI funding, and whether Bitcoin can actually function as a safe haven when the world is on fire.

Hosts:

• ⁠Steven Ehrlich⁠, Host of Bits + Bips: The Interview

Guests:

• ⁠Charles Myers, Founder and CEO, Signum Global Advisors

Links:

Iran strike / military action:

US strikes Iran — https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/israel-iran-attack-02-28-26-hnk-intl 

US-Iran nuclear talks — https://www.nbcnews.com/world/iran/us-iran-nuclear-talks-trump-military-buildup-attack-missiles-rcna260764 

Largest US military buildup in the Middle East since the early 2000s — https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2026/02/26/us-military-assembles-largest-force-of-warships-aircraft-in-middle-east-in-decades/ 

Oil markets:

Oil prices surge after Iran strike — https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/28/iran-us-attack-oil-market-economy.html 

Trump’s energy strategy: targeting oil in the low $50s — https://www.axios.com/2026/02/28/us-iran-attack-energy-oil-prices 

Sell America / US safe haven:

Global investors question US safe haven status — https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/28/markets-brace-for-impact-following-us-military-strikes-against-iran.html 

The “Sell America” trade, explained — https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-02-02/sell-america-trade-why-investors-are-questioning-us-assets 

Venezuela / Monroe Doctrine:

Maduro government and the US oil deal — https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/05/maduro-overthrow-could-pave-the-way-for-us-oil-companies-to-recover-venezuela-assets.html 

The return of the Monroe Doctrine under Trump — https://www.cfr.org/articles/oil-power-and-the-climate-stakes-of-the-u-s-move-in-venezuela 

OpenAI / AI:

OpenAI raises $110 billion — https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/27/open-ai-funding-round-amazon.html 

Stargate: OpenAI and SoftBank’s AI moonshot — https://openai.com/index/announcing-the-stargate-project/

Prediction Markets:

Polymarket Iran strike odds — https://polymarket.com 

Insider trading on Polymarket: the Maduro bet — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_United_States_strikes_in_Venezuela 

Stablecoins / GENIUS Act:

The GENIUS Act and stablecoin regulation — https://www.gibsondunn.com/the-genius-act-a-new-era-of-stablecoin-regulation/

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An article from Boost CEO Brian Flynn sparks conversation about whether tokens are dead. The Aave civil war continues to escalate. China is trying to reverse engineer Claude even as Anthropic faces off against the U.S. government.

In this episode of Uneasy Money, hosts Kain Warwick and Taylor Monahan are joined by MegaETH founding team member Namik Muduroglu to discuss how to fix token incentives, whether there is a happy ending in sight for Aave. 

They also discuss the geopolitical risks that come with AI and the technology's rapid rate of advancement. Is the Singularity already out of our hands?

Plus, ZachXBT's teased announcement and Ethereum's “strawmap.”

Don't miss Kain's plan to fuse Claude with his Unitree dog and why Namik is a closet AI doomer.

Hosts:

• ⁠⁠Kain Warwick⁠⁠, Founder of Infinex and Synthetix

• ⁠⁠Taylor Monahan⁠⁠, Security Expert

Guest:

• ⁠Namik Muduroglu, CSO & Founding Team at MegaETH

Links:

• Unchained:

• ⁠Uneasy Money: Why Token Holders Have No Rights & Why Every DAO ‘Has Failed’

• ⁠Why MegaETH Is Delaying Its Token and Rejecting Credible Neutrality

• ⁠Aave Governance Fight Escalates Ahead of $51 Million Funding Vote

• How Aave Labs and the DAO Should Split Ownership of the Brand – Uneasy Money

• Uneasy Money: Why Peter Steinberger and Non-Crypto People Hate the Crypto Mob

• ⁠Ethereum Researchers Outline Seven Forks Through 2029 in New “Strawmap”

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• Crypto Tax Girl – Save $100 on your crypto taxes.

With Ethereum refocusing on L1 and Hyperliquid adoption growing, Solana is arguably facing stronger competition than ever. Can it thrive still?

Multicoin co-founder Tushar Jain and Blockworks co-founder Mike Ippolito share several reasons to be excited about Solana, including Alpenglow and anticipated market microstructure design flexibility.

Find out why Tushar and Mike say Firedancer has not been a flop despite seemingly low adoption, why they don't see block building issues stopping Solana from challenging Hyperliquid, and why they say the network doesn't have to do anything to specifically attract AI agents. Plus, why they both believe that the RWA race is too early to call despite Ethereum's dominance.

Meanwhile, with Alpenglow still months away, Mike says the wait doesn’t matter — for the next 12 to 18 months BD and marketing matter more than tech for adoption.

#UN1047

Guest:

• Tushar Jain, Co-Founder & Managing Partner at Multicoin Capital

• Previous appearances on Unchained:

• Solana Rejected Inflation Reduction-Here's Why

• CoinFund's Jake Brukhman and Multicoin's Tushar Jain on Generalized Mining 

• Binance Hack: Should the Threat of Reorgs Be Used to Deter Hackers?

• Multicoin on the 1 Thing Crypto Teams Miss in Their Quests for Success

• Mike Ippolito, Co-Founder at Blockworks

Links:

• Unchained:
  

  • Ethereum Lets Go of the Rollup Story. Here Are the 6 Tokens That Benefit

  • Jump Crypto’s Firedancer Goes Live on Solana Mainnet

  • BlackRock Just Chose Uniswap. The Market Didn’t Care. Here’s Why.

  • When AI Agents Take Over, What Does a Post-Human Economy Look Like?

  • Uneasy Money: How the Increasingly Better AI Agents Are Being Used Onchain

  • Pump.fun Cashed Out $436M Since Mid-October: Lookonchain

  • Zora Shocks Base Community With Solana Pivot

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Robinhood's proposed chain for the trading of tokenized assets is live in testnet.

In this DEX in the City episode, Coy Garrison, Robinhood's deputy general counsel on crypto, and Robinhood Crypto Head of Product Seong Seog Lee walk hosts Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos and Jessi Brooks through the thinking behind the blockchain's testnet launch and why it is important that it supports tokenized equities out of the gate.

Beyond the Robinhood Chain testnet launch, KK and Jessi discuss OpenAI and Paradigm's EVMbench tool and why it highlights the need for a safety-first approach. “AI and crypto are in the same room now, but the room's sort of on fire,” Jessi says.

Don't miss how a man accidentally gained remote access to 7,000 robot vacuums in 24 countries with AI-written code.

KK and Jessi also dig into the Terraform Labs estate's lawsuit against Jane Street. Is there any real credibility behind the lawsuit? Listen to find out!

Save $100 with Crypto Tax Girl!

Hosts:

• ⁠⁠Jessi Brooks⁠⁠, General Counsel at Ribbit Capital

• ⁠Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos⁠, General Counsel at StarkWare

Guests:

• ⁠⁠⁠Coy Garrison, Senior Director and Deputy General Counsel, Crypto at Robinhood

• ⁠⁠Seong Seog Lee, Head of Product at Robinhood Crypto

Links:

• Unchained:

  • Robinhood Pushes Deeper Into Tokenization With Layer 2 Testnet Launch

  • Inside Robinhood’s Big Super App Plan: ‘There’s Still a Lot of Work to Be Done’

  • OpenAI and Paradigm Launch EVMbench to Stress Test AI on Smart Contract Security

  • Uneasy Money: How the Increasingly Better AI Agents Are Being Used Onchain

  • When AI Agents Take Over, What Does a Post-Human Economy Look Like?

  • Terraform Estate Targets Jane Street in Explosive Terra Collapse Lawsuit

  • DeFi Platforms Could Get ‘Innovation Exemption,’ SEC Chair Says

  • SEC Quietly Eases Capital Rules for Stablecoins

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Welcome to The Chopping Block — where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest in crypto.

Joining us is Illia Polosukhin, co-founder of NEAR Protocol and contributing author to the original transformers paper that’s revolutionized AI.

Buckle up as we delve into AI’s burgeoning role in the crypto world, dissect the sensational claims from Citrini’s article predicting an AI-triggered financial crisis, and explore the potential of agentic coding in reshaping traditional systems.

Let’s get into it!

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Hosts

⭐️Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly

⭐️Tarun Chitra, Managing Partner at Robot Ventures

⭐️Tom Schmidt, General Partner at Dragonfly 

Guest
⭐️ Illia Polosukhin, Co-founder of NEAR Protocol

Disclosures

Links:

THE 2028 GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE CRISIS by Citrini and Alap Shah

Timestamps

00:00 Intro

01:06 AI Agents Meet Crypto

08:06 Dark Forest Threat Model

15:31 How Close Are We

18:41 AI Coding Risks in Crypto

27:27 Citrini 2028 Crisis Explained

35:01 Demand Shock Missing Money

37:55 Automation Limits and Human Value

44:13 AI Zero Days and Botnets

51:40 Escrow Courts and Enforcement

56:05 Illia on Vibe Coding Future

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Bitcoin is below $63,000, digital asset treasuries are under pressure, and the debate over whether crypto markets are bottoming or breaking down is splitting the hosts. 

Ram is skeptical of institutional demand when he looks at the 13F data from institutions filing SEC reports. Chris is on the phone with institutions all day and is bullish. 

Omid Malekan, adjunct professor at Columbia Business School, comes in with a longer lens: he admits he contributed to the DAT hype cycle, has doubts about agentic commerce that remind him of the metaverse in 2021, and thinks the strongest argument for crypto is not a product or a token but a fact about how nation-states treat their own citizens. 

The conversation also covers tokenized bank deposits, the SEC's updated broker-dealer guidance on stablecoins, and what it means that the Supreme Court just struck down Trump's tariffs.

Hosts:

• ⁠⁠Ram Ahluwalia⁠⁠, CFA, CEO and Founder of Lumida

• ⁠⁠Austin Campbell⁠⁠, NYU Stern professor and founder and managing partner of Zero Knowledge Consulting

• ⁠⁠Christopher Perkins⁠⁠, Managing Partner and President of CoinFund

Guest:

• ⁠Omid Malekan, Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School

Links:

• Unchained:

• Bitcoin Slips Below $63,000 as Fear Deepens

• Bitcoin Dips Below $65,000 as Tariff Uncertainty Weighs on Risk

• White House Talks Make Progress on Stablecoin Yields but No Deal Yet

• SEC Quietly Eases Capital Rules for Stablecoins

• SCOTUS: Supreme Court strikes down tariffs

• Citrini: ⁠THE 2028 GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE CRISIS

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• ⁠⁠⁠⁠Crypto Tax Girl⁠⁠⁠⁠

Virtuals Protocol has announced the launch of Eastworld Labs, an AI accelerator to make it easier for builders to deploy humanoid robots.

Virtuals Protocol co-founder Jansen Teng unpacks the idea behind the program, how it would work and what it hopes to achieve. He also addresses questions about how to prevent damage to remotely controlled robots, how to address backlash to robots taking jobs, and whether Virtuals views OpenClaw as a competitor.

Will human relationships eventually be replaced by AI agents?

Guest:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠Jansen Teng, CEO & Co-Founder of Virtuals Protocol

Links:

• Unchained:

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠Virtuals Ecosystem Sees Boost After Team Reveals Details of Buyback-and-Burn Program

• ⁠⁠⁠⁠Want to Hire an AI Agent? Check Their Reputation Via ERC-8004

• When AI Agents Take Over, What Does a Post-Human Economy Look Like?

• How Nansen’s New Trading Agent Makes It Easier to Follow the Smart Money Onchain

• How the x402 Standard Is Enabling AI Agents to Pay Each Other

• Uneasy Money: How the Increasingly Better AI Agents Are Being Used Onchain

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• ⁠Crypto Tax Girl⁠

• ⁠Fuse: The Energy Network⁠

When it comes to the quantum computing threat to crypto, the focus is often on Bitcoin and for good reason. The blockchain lacks a defined governance structure and the vulnerability around Satoshi's and other abandoned and lost coins is far greater than on any other chain.

Furthermore, influential figures like Nic Carter have accused developers of sleeping at the wheel.

Bitcoin Core contributor Matt Corallo argues that it won't take much to make the network quantum-resistant and, contrary to popular narrative, says work is already underway.

Find out why Corallo says quantum-proofing Bitcoin requires only two steps ”you burn old lost coins, you burn anyone who hasn't migrated.”

Guest:

• ⁠Matt Corallo, Open Source Engineer at Block/Spiral

Links:

• Unchained:

• ⁠Why Bitcoin Developers Are Not Incentivized to Talk About the Quantum Threat⁠

• ⁠Q-Day Is Imminent. Can Bitcoin Survive the Quantum Threat?⁠

• ⁠Solana Deploys Post-Quantum Signatures on Testnet⁠

• ⁠Cracking Bitcoin Encryption Is Getting Much Easier, Google Says

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Coinbase's Base is making a shock move away from Optimism's OP Stack.

In this Uneasy Money episode, LayerZero Labs CEO Bryan Pellegrino joins hosts Kain Warwick and Taylor Monahan to unpack whether this is the right move for Base and what it could mean for Optimism.

Beyond Base's big move, the trio also discuss Zora's Solana migration, whether Coinbase was wrong to initially pursue a super app strategy with Base App, Peter Steinberger joining OpenAI, the launch of Zero blockchain and OpenAI's EVMbench.

Will OpenAI's acqui-hiring of Peter prove to be a “generational fumble” for Anthropic? And can crypto fix its brand problem?

Also, learn why the rise of AI agents have Kain and Tay confident that open source will win in the end.

Hosts:

• ⁠Kain Warwick⁠, Founder of Infinex and Synthetix

• ⁠Taylor Monahan⁠, Security Expert

Guest:

• Bryan Pellegrino, CEO of LayerZero Labs

Links:

• Unchained:

• Zora Shocks Base Community With Solana Pivot

• ⁠⁠BlackRock Just Chose Uniswap. The Market Didn’t Care. Here’s Why.

• ⁠⁠LayerZero Launches ‘Zero’ Layer 1 as Citadel, ARK Buy ZRO

• ⁠⁠How Zero Blockchain Cracked 2 Million TPS and Is Still Decentralized

• ⁠⁠Uneasy Money: Are Institutions Creating a New Crypto Meta?

• ⁠⁠Uneasy Money: How the Increasingly Better AI Agents Are Being Used OnchainVitalik Rethinks Ethereum’s L2 Playbook, Calls for Shift Toward Native Rollups

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Aave Labs has proposed a “Aave Will Win” framework that will direct all revenue to the DAO to bring the protocol under “a token-centric model.”

In this episode, Aave founder Stani Kulechov explains why Aave Labs is putting its funding at the mercy of the DAO and how the framework could drive DeFi innovation.

Plus wen Aave v4? And is Aave Labs’ requested budget too much?

Guest:

• Stani Kulechov, Founder of Aave Labs

• Previous appearances on Unchained:

• Why Aave's Founder Is 'More Bullish on Ethereum Than Anything Else’

• Why the Founders of Aave and Sky Are Still Bullish on Ethereum DeFi

• Satoshi, Shorter Blocks, & Secret Plot - The Chopping Block

• Stani Kulechov on Why Aave Is So Successful - Ep.212

Links:

• Unchained:

• Aave Revenue Overhaul Sparks Governance Clash

• Aave Labs Proposes Off-Protocol Revenue Sharing With Token Holders

• The Chopping Block: Aave Civil War + Flow Hack + Coinbase Super-App

• Aave’s Rushed Governance Vote Draws Backlash

• How Aave Labs and the DAO Should Split Ownership of the Brand – Uneasy Money

• Uneasy Money: Why Token Holders Have No Rights & Why Every DAO ‘Has Failed’

• ‘Poison Pill’ Proposal Calls for Aave DAO to Take Over Aave Labs

• AAVE Holders Question if DAO Quietly Redirected Revenue Away From Treasury

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Welcome to The Chopping Block — where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest in crypto.

This episode kicks off with major news: Dragonfly just closed their $650 million Fund IV, making them one of the largest crypto VCs not through growth, but because others have downsized. The timing feels surreal — they keep raising right when markets dump, creating the biggest gap between institutional optimism and retail sentiment Haseeb has ever seen.

But money flowing in contrasts sharply with talent flowing out. Kyle Samani left Multicoin, Arianna Simpson departed A16z Crypto, and several other crypto veterans are moving on. The crew unpacks what this "great resignation" means for an industry that feels like it's shifted from pioneer phase to settler phase.

Then they dive into the OpenClaw saga — the viral AI coding assistant that got acquired by OpenAI, but not before its creator almost deleted it due to harassment from crypto Twitter demanding he launch a token. This leads to a deep discussion on X402 payment standards and why AI agents might prefer crypto over credit cards.

Finally, they debate Polymarket's controversial 5-minute Bitcoin betting markets and the brewing legal battle between federal and state regulation of prediction markets. Let's get into it.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.
Show highlights 🔹 Dragonfly raises $650M Fund IV while other crypto VCs face "mass extinction" and downsizing 🔹 Kyle Samani's departure from Multicoin signals crypto's shift from pioneer to settler phase 🔹 Industry exodus includes Arianna Simpson, Toshi from Ethereum Foundation, and other veterans 🔹 OpenClaw creator almost deleted viral AI tool due to crypto Twitter harassment over tokens 🔹 X402 payment standard emerges as walletless protocol for AI agent transactions 🔹 OpenAI acquires OpenClaw through separate foundation structure, not direct acquisition 🔹 Polymarket launches controversial 5-minute Bitcoin up/down markets sparking gambling debate 🔹 CFTC chair files amicus briefs defending prediction markets against state regulation attempts 🔹 Federal vs state jurisdiction battle intensifies over event contracts vs sports betting classification 🔹 Institutional sentiment remains bullish while crypto native sentiment hits historic lows Hosts ⭐️Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly ⭐️Robert Leshner, CEO & Co-founder of Superstate ⭐️Tarun Chitra, Managing Partner at Robot Ventures ⭐️Tom Schmidt, General Partner at Dragonfly Timestamps 00:00 Intro 01:04 Dragonfly Closes $650M Fund IV 03:26 Institutional vs Retail Sentiment 06:14 Bear Markets as Opportunity 13:48 Kyle Samani’s Exit 21:44 OpenClaw Gets ‘Acquired’ by OpenAI 24:03 Token Pressure & Harassment 25:05 Is OpenClaw Actually Useful? 31:01 Why Open Source Will Move Faster Than Big Labs 33:13 Agents, Memecoins, and the Dark Incentives 37:40 Why Crypto Payments Beat Credit Cards 40:09 Polymarket’s New 5-Minute Markets 49:43 State Gambling Laws vs CFTC Federal Preemption

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The CFTC has announced an innovation council, Chair Mike Selig has asserted that prediction markets are under the agency's ambit, SBF wants another trial and Nancy Guthrie's kidnapping is casting crypto in a negative light.

In this episode of DEX in the City, hosts Jessi Brooks, Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos and TuongVy Le discuss how the distribution of the CFTC's council highlights industry's need for better gender equity, why Selig's stance on prediction markets triggers “a huge constitutional debate,” why SBF's push for a new trial is so dangerous for crypto, and whether the crypto industry can do more to mitigate crime.

Find out why SBF's search for a new trial has far reaching effects beyond his case. Plus, can crypto tackle crime without sacrificing its benefits?

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Hosts:

• ⁠Jessi Brooks⁠, General Counsel at Ribbit Capital

• Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos, General Counsel at StarkWare

• ⁠TuongVy Le⁠, General Counsel at Veda

Links:

• SEC and CFTC Signal United Front on Crypto

• Trump Won’t Consider Pardon for SBF: Report

• DEX in the City: How Crypto Exchanges May Be Holding Up the Market Structure Bill

• How Ripple is Helping Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity to Unlock Crypto Philanthropy

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The BLS just quietly revised away 862,000 jobs, and real-time inflation trackers now peg price growth below 1%, less than half of what official figures report. 

If the Fed is steering monetary policy with stale data, investors need to ask what else the models are getting wrong. 

At the same time, the Mag 7 have committed more than $700 billion to AI infrastructure, with Anthropic alone projecting $1 trillion in revenue within five years. Is that conviction or the early stages of a debt cycle nobody is pricing? 

And then there is the institutional side of crypto: BlackRock's BUIDL fund just landed on Uniswap with $2.4 billion in assets, Apollo acquired $90 million in Morpho tokens, and AI agents are already settling micropayments in stablecoins. 

Austin Campbell, Ram Ahluwalia, and Christopher Perkins sit down with Truflation’s CEO Stefan Rust to ask whether the numbers we trust are telling us the truth.

Hosts:

• ⁠Ram Ahluwalia⁠, CFA, CEO and Founder of Lumida

• ⁠Austin Campbell⁠, NYU Stern professor and founder and managing partner of Zero Knowledge Consulting

• ⁠Christopher Perkins⁠, Managing Partner and President of CoinFund

Guest:

• Stefan Rust, Founder and CEO of Truflation

Links:

• Unchained: 

• BlackRock Just Chose Uniswap. The Market Didn’t Care. Here’s Why.

• Apollo Moves Into DeFi Lending With Morpho Token Deal

• UNI Spikes on BlackRock DeFi Move, Then Gives It All Back

Macro:

• NBC: U.S. had almost no job growth in 2025

• PBS: Inflation measure falls to nearly five-year low as gas prices fall and housing costs cool

• Crowdfund Insider: Secretary Of The Treasury Scott Bessent Calls Out Truflation's Inflation Numbers At Senate Banking Hearing

AI CapEx:

• Amazon, Google And Others Are Pouring $700 Billion Into AI CapEx, Top Analyst Explains Why This Makes It 'Hard' To Bet Against Nvidia

• CIO: Data center capex to hit $1.7 trillion by 2030 due to AI boom

• Reuters: OpenClaw founder Steinberger joins OpenAI, open-source bot becomes foundation

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• MultiChain Advisors

• Crypto Tax Girl

AI safety chiefs are leaving, BlackRock's launching on Uniswap and buying UNI, LayerZero launches “the last blockchain” with institutional backing, Kaito is launching attention markets, Base is abandoning social and Vitalik has some thoughts on AI.

Hosts Kain Warwick, Luca Netz and Taylor Monahan unpack these and more in yet another packed episode of Uneasy Money.

Find out why Kain thinks the Uniswap and LayerZero news point to a new meta reminiscent of DeFi Summer. Plus, is Coinbase's Base playing it too safe? And is Vitalik fighting a losing battle?

Hosts:

• Luca Netz, CEO of Pudgy Penguins

• Kain Warwick, Founder of Infinex and Synthetix

• Taylor Monahan, Security at MetaMask

Links:

• Unchained:

• ⁠LayerZero Launches ‘Zero’ Layer 1 as Citadel, ARK Buy ZRO⁠

• ⁠How Zero Blockchain Cracked 2 Million TPS and Is Still Decentralized⁠

• ⁠Vitalik Buterin Pushes Back on the ‘Race to AGI,’ Outlines Ethereum-Led AI Path⁠

• ⁠When AI Agents Take Over, What Does a Post-Human Economy Look Like?⁠

• ⁠Uneasy Money: How the Increasingly Better AI Agents Are Being Used Onchain⁠

• ⁠Uneasy Money: Why Crypto Still Can’t Overcome Its ICO Struggles

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Peter Van Valkenburgh of Coin Center sits down with Jessi Brooks and Vy Le to confront a question that will determine which DeFi projects can operate in the United States and which ones can't. 

The Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act creates a carve-out for non-custodial developers, codifying the principle that if you never hold customer funds, you shouldn't need a money transmitter license. Simple enough on paper. 

But Vy presses on the hard cases: what about an admin key, an upgradeable vault, or a pause function built for security? Where exactly does "non-custodial" end and "control" begin? 

Meanwhile, Jessi raises the tension the industry rarely wants to discuss. The DOJ just charged cartel brokers moving money through crypto, yet simultaneously dismantled its own enforcement teams. 

If Congress clears developers, who pursues the actual criminals? The answer matters for every builder, investor, and victim watching this play out.

Hosts:

• Jessi Brooks, General Counsel at Ribbit Capital

• TuongVy Le, General Counsel at Veda

Guest:

• ⁠Peter Van Valkenburgh, Executive Director of Coin Center

Links:

• ⁠​​Crypto Market Structure Bill Clears Senate Committee — But the Hard Part Is Still Ahead⁠
• ⁠Senators Move to Curb Passive Stablecoin Yields in Market Structure Push⁠
• ⁠Mastercard in Talks to Buy Zerohash for $2 Billion: Report⁠
• ⁠How the GENIUS Act Creates a Built-In Advantage for Banks and Deposit Tokens⁠
• ⁠How Nansen’s New Trading Agent Makes It Easier to Follow the Smart Money Onchain⁠
• ⁠How the x402 Standard Is Enabling AI Agents to Pay Each Other⁠
• ⁠Reading is Fundamental⁠
• ⁠Stablecoin for Babies

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Namik Muduroglu and Amir Almaimani walk through MegaETH's launch strategy and why they are delaying the TGE.

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Months after its oversubscribed initial coin offering, MegaETH's mainnet is live. But the project is not launching its token just yet. 

In this Unchained podcast episode, MegaETH strategy chief Namik Muduroglu and Head of Ecosystem Amir Almaimani break down the Ethereum Layer 2 chain’s launch strategy, including its decision to delay TGE.

They also explain how the MegaETH is navigating the current market slump and how it is positioning USDM as its long term moat. Plus, why they believe credible neutrality is a “losing strategy.”

Guests:

• Namik Muduroglu, CSO & Founding Team at MegaETH

• Amir Almaimani, Head of Ecosystem of MegaETH

• Previous appearances on Unchained:

• MegaETH Just Had Its Public Sale. Can It Succeed in Building a Web2-Like Experience?

  
  

Links:

• Unchained:

• Ethereum Lets Go of the Rollup Story. Here Are the 6 Tokens That Benefit

• MegaETH Plans Return of All Pre-Deposit Funds

• MegaETH Just Had Its Public Sale. Can It Succeed in Building a Web2-Like Experience?

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Are bitcoiners underestimating the quantum threat to Bitcoin? That's the question Castle Island Ventures Partner Nic Carter has posed with some recent posts gauging the views of several leading Bitcoin developers on quantum computing.

To help answer the question, Unchained reached out to Ethereum Foundation Researcher Justin Drake and Michigan University Professor Chris Peikert. In this episode, Justin and Chris, who is one of the foremost experts on lattice cryptography, break down the quantum computing threat to crypto and the potential timelines.

Justin theorizes that Bitcoin developers may not be incentivized to talk about the quantum computing risk while still saying that a number of smart people are already taking it seriously and that may be enough.

Conversely, Chris highlights the constraints that come with uncertainty around risks and timelines.

Listen to find out what they conclude. Plus, could AI do crypto in before quantum computers?

Guests:

• Justin Drake, Researcher at the Ethereum Foundation

• Chris Peikert, Professor, Computer Science and Engineering, University of Michigan

Links:

• Ethereum and Optimism Lay the Groundwork for a Post-Quantum Future
• Q-Day Is Imminent. Can Bitcoin Survive the Quantum Threat?
• Solana Deploys Post-Quantum Signatures on Testnet
• Cracking Bitcoin Encryption Is Getting Much Easier, Google Says

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What happened to Bitcoin on Feb. 5? And why does the apex crypto continue to underperform?

DeFi Development Corp investment chief Parker White has some theories. In this Unchained podcast episode, Parker walks Laura Shin through them as they gain traction on X.

At the center of it all is non-crypto Hong Kong fund and another fund that may be executing a ‘Big Short’-style trade using derivatives.

Listen to find out why Parker is so convinced.

Guest:

• Parker White, COO/Chief Investment Officer at DeFi Development Corp

Links:

• Bitcoin Mining Gets a Rare Reset as Weaker Players Drop Out
• Why Bitcoin Is Down, Plus the Rare Bright Spot in Crypto: Hyperliquid
• Crypto Sentiment Is Down Bad. The Reality Is Far Different, Says Ryan Watkins

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---

Bitcoin slid toward $60,000 on Feb. 5 in a brutal, cross-asset selloff that hit gold, equities, and crypto alike. With leverage unwinding and basis trades breaking, long-time bitcoin holders are distributing to institutional buyers who, by 13F data, are mostly underwater. The mood across digital assets is bleak.

Against that backdrop, Nic Carter of Castle Island Ventures argues that key Bitcoin narratives have quietly failed—and warns that developers’ inaction on quantum risk could open the door to institutional control. If devs don’t act, Carter says ETF giants like BlackRock will.

The panel then widens the lens: declaring the token-centric VC model dead, debating whether AI now rivals the industrial revolution, and stress-testing it all across topics ranging from Solana vs. Hyperliquid to Japan’s political shift and MrBeast’s fintech play.

---

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Hosts:

• Ram Ahluwalia, CFA, CEO and Founder of Lumida

• Austin Campbell, NYU Stern professor and founder and managing partner of Zero Knowledge Consulting

• Christopher Perkins, Managing Partner and President of CoinFund

Guest:

Nic Carter, Founding Partner at Castle Island Ventures

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LayerZero Labs is making bold promises with its coming Zero Blockchain. 2 million transactions per second per node. A thousandth of a penny per transaction. No compromises to decentralization. The big question is how?!

In this Unchained podcast episode, LayerZero Labs CEO Bryan Pellegrino explains how the team was able to crack scalability by fixing blockchain storage and rethinking the crypto industry's approach to zero knowledge technology.

With the blockchain already boasting partners such as Citadel Securities, DTCC and ICE, will Zero be the blockchain institutions decide to build on?

Guest:

• Bryan Pellegrino, Co-founder & CEO of LayerZero Labs

Links:

• LayerZero Foundation Buys Back 5% of ZRO Token Supply From Early Investors
• PayPal’s PYUSD Integrates LayerZero to Expand Across Blockchains
• The LayerZero/Wormhole Bidding War Shows How to Value a Crypto Business
• LayerZero Fought the Sybils and Airdropped Its Token. Did the Team Win?

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In this Unchained episode, Ethereum Foundation AI Lead Davide Crapis joins to explain what the standard is, how it works, how it’s protected against manipulation, and what's next.

Listen to find out his most interesting experience building the project and tips for builders looking to start businesses around AI agents.

Guest:

• Davide Crapis, AI Lead at Ethereum Foundation

Links:

• How the x402 Standard Is Enabling AI Agents to Pay Each Other
• Uneasy Money: How Ethereum May Have One-Upped Bitcoin in One Big Way

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Vitalik Buterin just dropped a bombshell: the L2 vision no longer makes sense. Meanwhile, AI coding agents are going parabolic.

In this monster episode of Uneasy Money, Ethereum Foundation Head of Developer Growth Austin Griffith and Optimism co-founder Karl Floersch join hosts Kain Warwick and Taylor Monahan to unpack the reasoning behind Vitalik's remarks and debate whether Ethereum needs L2s to pull institutions.

They also take a deep dive into the OpenClaw and Moltbook craze and Austin shares how he has different agents running on different machines, including one that texts his wife good morning everyday. Is “AI the new UI?”

Hosts:

• Kain Warwick, Founder of Infinex and Synthetix

• Taylor Monahan, Security Expert, Metamask

Guests:

• Austin Griffith, AI Lead at Ethereum Foundation

• Karl Floersh, CTO of OP Labs

Links:

• Vitalik Rethinks Ethereum’s L2 Playbook, Calls for Shift Toward Native Rollups
• How the x402 Standard Is Enabling AI Agents to Pay Each Other

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In one week, OpenClaw agents have gotten their own social networking platform, launched cryptocurrency tokens and built a site to rent humans.

In this episode of Unchained, DAIS Global Chair Michael Casey and The Exponentialist co-founder David Mattin explore what Moltbook reveals about the direction of the AI trend, how AI could impact jobs and what a post-human economy looks like. Will Bitcoin be the currency of the future?

Don't miss Michael's sovereign AI thesis and how Mattin believes we can navigate the transition to a post-human society.

Hint: “lean into your weirdness.”

Guests:

• Michael Casey, Chairman of DAIS Global

• David Mattin, Co-founder of The Exponentialist

Links:

• How Nansen’s New Trading Agent Makes It Easier to Follow the Smart Money Onchain
• How the x402 Standard Is Enabling AI Agents to Pay Each Other
• Check out David's newsletter New World Same Humans

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The White House is intervening in the fight over stablecoin yield. And AI agents are… organizing?

In this special episode of DEX in the City, Zerohash CEO Edward Woodford joins hosts Jessi Brooks and Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos to unpack the White House meeting to resolve disputes over the CLARITY Act and the Moltbook craze.

Listen to find out why Edward thinks CLARITY should have a narrower focus and what he thinks is more important than the yield debate. Plus why Jessi thinks the crypto industry is pinning too much hope on the bill.

Don't also miss Edward's rationale behind rejecting $2B from Mastercard and KK's awkward interaction with a teacher after offering to teach crypto at her son's school.

Meanwhile, as AI agents proliferate, where does accountability lie?

Hosts:

• Jessi Brooks, General Counsel at Ribbit Capital

• Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos, General Counsel at StarkWare

Guest:

• Edward Woodford, Founder and CEO of Zerohash

Links:

• ​​Crypto Market Structure Bill Clears Senate Committee — But the Hard Part Is Still Ahead
• Senators Move to Curb Passive Stablecoin Yields in Market Structure Push
• Mastercard in Talks to Buy Zerohash for $2 Billion: Report
• How the GENIUS Act Creates a Built-In Advantage for Banks and Deposit Tokens
• How Nansen’s New Trading Agent Makes It Easier to Follow the Smart Money Onchain
• How the x402 Standard Is Enabling AI Agents to Pay Each Other
• Reading is Fundamental
• Stablecoin for Babies

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Bitcoin's collapse is accelerating. Continuing a descent that began last week, the asset this week has all the price progress made under the Trump administration. The price action begs the question why amid greater adoption and support.

In this episode of Unchained, FalconX Head of Markets Joshua Lim highlights two main reasons for Bitcoin's regression and offers his outlook for the year. Is it 2022 all over?

Plus, how gold's run resembles GameStop in 2021 and why Hyperliquid is a bright spot amid market weakness.

Guest:

• Joshua Lim, Head of Markets, FalconX

Links:

• Bitcoin Sinks as Markets Price In a More Hawkish Fed
• Has Bitcoin Failed to Live Up to the Digital Gold Narrative?
• Why HYPE Is Up While Every Other Crypto, Including Bitcoin, Is Down

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They discuss why oversold does not automatically mean a bottom, how technicians look for downside exhaustion, and what needs to change before confidence returns for Bitcoin and ETH.

Hosts:

• Steven Ehrlich, Host, Bits + Bips

Guests:

Katie Stockton, Founder and Managing Partner, Fairlead Strategies

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Welcome to The Chopping Block — where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest in crypto.

This week, the crew tackles a volatile market with Bitcoin struggling below $75K and explores what's driving the uncertainty. They dive deep into the explosive Twitter battle between Binance founder CZ and OKX's Star over who really caused the catastrophic 10/10 liquidation event that broke crypto's correlation with traditional markets. The conversation gets heated as the hosts debate the ethics of founder secondary sales — with Haseeb taking a surprisingly libertarian stance against his co-hosts. Finally, they explore the unexpected crypto connections in the newly released Epstein files, including Tarun's own amusing cameo and connections to Coinbase, Bitcoin Core developers, and other industry figures.

From market analysis to Twitter drama to moral philosophy, this episode covers the full spectrum of crypto discourse. Let's get into it.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights

🔹 Bitcoin below $75K signals uncertain market conditions with equal odds of hitting $40K or $130K

🔹 CZ vs Star Twitter battle over who caused the catastrophic 10/10 liquidation cascade  

🔹 Athena unwinding timeline analysis challenges Star's claims about Binance's role

🔹 Heated debate on founder secondary sales ethics with sharp disagreements among hosts

🔹 Tarun's unexpected appearance in Epstein files via Quora digest on homomorphic encryption

🔹 Epstein's 2014 Coinbase investment and connections to Brock Pierce revealed

🔹 Bitcoin developers' interactions with Epstein including Adam Back and Jeremy Rubin

🔹 MicroStrategy's break-even position becomes psychological market threshold

🔹 Quantum computing concerns emerge as potential Bitcoin selling catalyst

🔹 Post-10/10 correlation breakdown between crypto and traditional risk assets analyzed

Hosts

⭐️Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly

⭐️Robert Leshner, CEO & Co-founder of Superstate

⭐️Tarun Chitra, Managing Partner at Robot Ventures

⭐️Tom Schmidt, General Partner at Dragonfly 

Disclosures

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In this episode of Bits + Bips, Austin Campbell and Chris Perkins sit down with Cosmo Jiang to unpack what gold’s volatility shock revealed about market structure, why onchain venues like Hyperliquid are increasingly where price discovery happens, and how digital asset treasuries are being blamed for stress they did not create.

The conversation also turns to Kevin Warsh’s nomination as Fed chair and why it represents a deeper shift in institutional power, not just personnel.

Hosts:

• Austin Campbell, NYU Stern professor and founder and managing partner of Zero Knowledge Consulting

• Christopher Perkins, Managing Partner and President of CoinFund

Guest:

• Cosmo Jiang, General Partner at Pantera Capital

Links:

• Crypto at a Crossroads: Winter Fatigue Meets the Risk of Lower Lows
• Weekend Drama Rekindles Debate Over What Really Caused the October 10 Crash
• Crypto’s Weekend Washout Tests Conviction After a Brutal Week
• Bitcoin Sinks as Markets Price In a More Hawkish Fed
• Why HYPE Is Up While Every Other Crypto, Including Bitcoin, Is Down
• Hyperliquid Prepares Prediction-Style Markets With HIP-4 Upgrade
• Hyperliquid Sees Record Trading as Commodities Drive New Interest
• ​​Crypto Market Structure Bill Clears Senate Committee — But the Hard Part Is Still Ahead
• Silver and gold extend losses after last week's historic plunge
• Gold Volatility Tops Bitcoin in Wildest Price Swings Since 2008

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Host:

• Steven Ehrlich, Host: Bits + Bips: The Interview

Guest:

• Evgeny Gaevoy, Founder and CEO, Wintermute

Links:

• Adams’ NYC Memecoin Crashes After Debut, Sparking Outcry
• Memecoins Were Hot a Year Ago. Many Have Crashed Over 90%
• Crypto Traders Flee to Prediction Bets After Crash
• Prediction Markets to Get New Federal Rules, CFTC Chair Says
• Three Reasons for the Record Rise in Gold Prices, and One Why They Are Falling
• Gold Falls as Investors Take Profits After Record High

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What is the Moltbot buzz about?

In this episode of Uneasy Money, hosts Kain Warwick, Luca Netz and Taylor Monahan delve into why Moltbot, the new AI agent hogging the internet spotlight, is so exciting as well as the memecoin drama that has followed.

They also discuss how the son of a U.S. government contractor was allegedly caught flexing stolen Bitcoin in an online contest, analyzing how scammers can be so dumb.

Plus, why Ethereum's quantum computing initiative is so bullish in contrast to Bitcoin’s nonchalance. Also, are memecoins back?

Don't miss out on what Kain says is the real AI agent opportunity and Luca's tales of flipping Instagram handles for millions of dollars.

Hosts:

• Kain Warwick, Founder of Infinex and Synthetix

• Luca Netz, CEO of Pudgy Penguins

• Taylor Monahan, Security at MetaMask

Links:

• How Nansen’s New Trading Agent Makes It Easier to Follow the Smart Money Onchain
• How the x402 Standard Is Enabling AI Agents to Pay Each Other
• Ilya Lichtenstein Pleads Guilty to 2016 Bitfinex Hack of Billions in Bitcoin
• Ethereum and Optimism Lay the Groundwork for a Post-Quantum Future
• Q-Day Is Imminent. Can Bitcoin Survive the Quantum Threat?
• PUMP Drops Below ICO Price as Private Sale Investors Send $160 Million to Exchanges

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They provide personalized crypto tax reports and tax returns, and availability before April 15 is limited.

Go to http://cryptotaxgirl.com/unchained to save $100!

President Donald Trump is suing JPMorgan for $5 billion, a U.S. government contractor's son is linked to Bitcoin theft from the government, the SEC and CFTC appear to be collaborating on crypto and CZ's Davos interview goes viral.

In yet another packed episode of DEX in the City, hosts Jessi Brooks, Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos and Vy Le dive into how Trump's case impacts the debanking debate, how a government contractor’s son was bragging about controlling federally seized crypto, why the crypto regulatory turf war may be taking a different shape and CZ's interview, which got a bit too detailed about the horrors of prison.

Does the government need a Bitcoin Fort Knox and is the U.S. moving towards a single financial regulator? Listen to find out!

Hosts:

• Jessi Brooks, General Counsel at Ribbit Capital

• Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos, General Counsel at StarkWare

• TuongVy Le, General Counsel at Veda

Links:

• Trump Signs Executive Order to Prevent Crypto Debanking
• Bessent Clarifies U.S. Bitcoin Reserve Plans
• Ilya Lichtenstein Pleads Guilty to 2016 Bitfinex Hack of Billions in Bitcoin
• SEC and CFTC Signal United Front on Crypto
• CZ Denies Ties to Trump and WLFI After Pardon
• Good news

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Why is crypto sentiment so low despite the growing adoption narrative?

In this episode of Unchained, Syncracy Capital co-founder Ryan Watkins unpacks why he thinks crypto is in a “twilight zone” and why the market could take investors by surprise.

He also sheds light on why he thinks bitcoin is underperforming gold and what needs to change. Plus what he is excited about in the coming years and why crypto is not just fintech.

Is a big move ahead? Listen to find out!

Guests:

• Ryan Watkins, Co-Founder of Syncracy Capital

Links:

• Why Gold Rose and Bitcoin Tumbled on Japan Bond Turmoil
• Has Bitcoin Failed to Live Up to the Digital Gold Narrative?
• Will Bitcoin’s New Phase Change It Forever? And Is the 4-Year Cycle Dead?
• Why the Crypto Markets Seem Down Bad as Bitcoin Dips Below $100K

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Walrus is where the world’s data becomes reliable, valuable, and governable.

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In this exclusive Unchained interview, Griff Green, one of the original DAO curators and a member of the White Hat Group that helped recover funds after the 2016 DAO hack, reveals how tens of thousands of unclaimed ETH are being transformed into a long-term security fund for the Ethereum ecosystem.

Nearly ten years after the most infamous exploit in crypto history, the community is repurposing its leftovers, not to rewrite history, but to prevent it from repeating itself.

The new DAO Security Fund will deploy grants for Ethereum security research, infrastructure, incident response, and user protection, while also reviving DAO-based governance experiments that have fallen out of favor.

Griff explains how the fund will work, why the Ethereum Foundation is involved, how staking will generate sustainable funding, and why, despite Ethereum’s strength, crypto still isn't safe enough for everyday users.

Guests:

• Griff Green, Co-Founder at Giveth, q/acc & Unicorn.eth

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Welcome to The Chopping Block — where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest in crypto.

This week, Robert drops news about Superstate's massive $82 million Series B raise led by Bain Capital to bring Wall Street on-chain through tokenization. The crew dives deep into the explosive growth of Hip3 markets, particularly TradeXYZ's commodities trading that's hitting over $1 billion in daily volume as precious metals rip to all-time highs. They break down the different tokenization models emerging - from "bootleg" third-party approaches to "back office" settlement tools to issuer-led official tokenization.

Then the conversation shifts to the ClawdBot phenomenon taking the internet by storm, exploring how AI agents are revolutionizing coding and what this means for the future of software engineering in crypto. From vibe coding to the complete transformation of how startups will be built, the hosts examine whether we're witnessing a fundamental shift in how technical work gets done.

Show highlights

🔹 Superstate raises $82M Series B led by Bain Capital for official securities tokenization

🔹 TradeXYZ hits $1B+ daily volume trading commodities on HyperLiquid's Hip3 markets  

🔹 Gold and silver surge drives massive crypto-native precious metals trading boom

🔹 Three tokenization models emerge: "bootleg" third-party, "back office" settlement, issuer-led official

🔹 ClawdBot/Molt Bot AI phenomenon explodes with agent-based life automation tools

🔹 Security concerns arise as thousands of unsecured ClawdBot gateways discovered online

🔹 Agent coding revolution transforms software engineering from hand-coding to management

🔹 Anthropic employees fully transition to Claude Code, abandoning traditional IDEs entirely

🔹 Crypto exchanges expand beyond crypto to capture trading cohorts aging into new assets

🔹 AI meme coin cycles continue as crypto financializes every new tech breakthrough

Hosts

⭐️Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly

⭐️Robert Leshner, CEO & Co-founder of Superstate

⭐️Tarun Chitra, Managing Partner at Robot Ventures

⭐️Tom Schmidt, General Partner at Dragonfly 

Timestamps

00:00 Intro

01:05 Superstate's $82M Series B Raise

05:16 Tokenization Models: Bootleg vs Back Office vs Issuer-Led

10:03 Trade XYZ HIP-3 Markets Commodities Surge

17:06 Why Crypto Traders Are Flocking to Precious Metals

20:45 The Evolution of Crypto Trading Cohorts

28:14 ClawdBot AI Phenomenon 

32:02 Security Concerns with AI Life Automation

35:43 Agent Coding Revolution

41:30 How AI is Transforming Crypto Startups

46:22 Anthropic Teams Fully Adopt Claude Code

51:06 Future of Software Engineering and Hiring

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They provide personalized crypto tax reports and tax returns, and availability before April 15 is limited.

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Worried about your 2025 taxes? Don't fret, Unchained has you covered!

In this episode, Crypto Tax Girl founder Laura Walter joins to unpack new crypto tax developments such as the 1099-DA, offering strategies to navigate what she calls a tricky year for crypto taxation.

The key takeaway: “Don't freak out.”

Whether you only use stablecoins, are a heavy DeFi user, are a miner or staker, or even just a prediction market trader, you don't want to miss this episode!

Guest:

• Laura Walter, Founder and CPA of Crypto Tax Girl

Links:

• White House Considers Bid to Tax Crypto Held in Foreign Accounts
• Roger Ver to Pay $48 Million in Tentative Settlement Deal With DOJ: Report
• Senator Lummis Pushes Making Small Crypto Transactions Tax-Free in ‘Big Beautiful Bill’
• Crypto’s Black Friday Was Its Largest Liquidation Ever. What the Hell Happened?

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We’ve partnered with Crypto Tax Girl, a crypto-focused tax firm that’s been helping investors since 2017, to give readers $100 off personalized, one-on-one crypto tax help.

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In this episode of Bits + Bips, Austin Campbell, Ram Ahluwalia, Chris Perkins, and guest Charles Edwards debate what “realpolitik” means for markets, why gold is leading, and whether Bitcoin is lagging for a reason that is not just sentiment.

They also argue over a counterintuitive claim gaining traction on desks: that rate cuts can be bad for risk assets in a high-debt world, and that the biggest adoption blocker for Bitcoin may be a known unknown, the quantum threat, whether it is imminent or simply believed enough to cap upside.

Hosts:

• Ram Ahluwalia, CFA, CEO and Founder of Lumida

• Austin Campbell, NYU Stern professor and founder and managing partner of Zero Knowledge Consulting

• Christopher Perkins, Managing Partner and President of CoinFund

Guests:

• Charles Edwards, Founder & CIO at Capriole Investments

Links:

• Why Gold Rose and Bitcoin Tumbled on Japan Bond Turmoil
• Should You Buy Gold or Bitcoin? Here’s How to Think About It
• Bitcoin Stumbles as Global Tensions Push Investors Toward Safe Havens
• Bitcoin Rebounds After Trump’s Truth Social Post Eases Tariff Fears

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From rising bond yields to geopolitics and Fed independence, this conversation cuts through the noise to explain what’s really driving markets right now.

Hosts:

• Steven Ehrlich, Executive Editor at Unchained

Guests:

• Steve Sosnick, Chief Strategist at Interactive Brokers

Links:

• Should You Buy Gold or Bitcoin? Here’s How to Think About It
• Bitcoin Rebounds After Trump’s Truth Social Post Eases Tariff Fears
• Crypto Slides on Tariff Fears as Gold Breaks Above $4,850
• Why Gold Rose and Bitcoin Tumbled on Japan Bond Turmoil
• Supreme Court casts doubt on Trump’s power to fire Fed official without proper review

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Fuse: The Energy Network

MultiChain Advisors

Trove Markets crashed at launch after a hyped ICO. X has pulled the plug on the InfoFi meta. Farcaster has been absorbed.

In this packed Uneasy Money episode, hosts Luca Netz, Kain Warwick and Taylor Monahan delve into how Trove's crash suggests that crypto's ICO struggles persist. Kain suggests X's move to block out InfoFi applications is “bullish” for the platform and the crew explores what's next for decentralized social media along with the takeaways from Farcaster's run.

They also discuss the pervasiveness of wallet poisoning scams, why Cosmos is struggling despite its good tech and why Paradex's rollback suggests that crypto's “code is law” ethos may be dying out.

Don't miss out on how Luca nearly got wrapped up in the Trove drama and Tay's tips to spot suspicious projects. Plus, why Kain thinks two people building with AI could succeed where Farcaster failed.

Hosts:

• Luca Netz, CEO of Pudgy Penguins

• Kain Warwick, Founder of Infinex and Synthetix

• Taylor Monahan, Security at MetaMask

Links:

• Uneasy Money: ICOs Are Back and Why Airdrops Are Instantly Dumped
• X Bans Incentivized Posting Apps, Prompting Shakeup in Crypto Engagement Platforms
• Linda Xie on How Mini-Apps Are Helping Farcaster Take on Web2 Social Media
• Ethereum Sets New Activity Record as Network Upgrades Pay Off
• Paradex Rollback Raises Hard Questions After Pricing Glitch Triggers Liquidations

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Welcome to The Chopping Block — where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest in crypto. Tarun's out this episode, but we're joined by Peter Van Valkenburgh, Principal of Policy at Coin Center and one of the sharpest legal minds in crypto.

This week, we're diving deep into the Crypto Clarity Act drama that has DC in chaos mode. What started as crypto's best shot at comprehensive regulation just hit a major roadblock when Coinbase pulled their support hours before the Senate markup. We'll break down the developer liability questions around "control" definitions, the tokenized securities language that has Brian Armstrong fired up, and the stablecoin yield restrictions that have banks and crypto companies at each other's throats.

Peter gives us the inside scoop on what's really in this 200-page bill, why Polymarket odds crashed from 80% to 40%, and whether this legislative train wreck can still get back on track. Let's get into it.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights

🔹 Coinbase pulls support for Crypto Clarity Act hours before Senate markup, citing "defacto ban" on tokenized equities

🔹 Peter Van Valkenburgh explains developer liability concerns and how "control" definitions could impact DeFi protocols  

🔹 Debate over whether the bill actually kills tokenized securities innovation or just restates existing law

🔹 Banking industry fights to restrict stablecoin yield payments, fearing deposit flight and profit compression

🔹 Tom breaks down multiple loopholes in yield restrictions that could easily be exploited through rewards programs

🔹 Robert argues banks are protecting oligopoly profits while stifling consumer choice and competition

🔹 Peter warns that fighting over yield could jeopardize crucial developer protections like the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act

🔹 Polymarket odds for bill passage crash from 80% to 40% as political tensions escalate

🔹 Discussion of sanctions obligations for DeFi frontend operators and application layer providers

Hosts

⭐️Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly

⭐️Robert Leshner, CEO & Co-founder of Superstate

⭐️Tom Schmidt, General Partner at Dragonfly 

Guest

⭐️Peter Van Valkenburgh, Executive Director of Coin Center

Disclosures

Links

Senate Banking Nears Vote on Digital Asset Market Structure by Peter Van Valkenburgh & Jason Somensatto & Lizandro (Laz) Pieper

https://www.coincenter.org/senate-banking-nears-vote-on-digital-asset-market-structure/ 

Timestamps

00:00 Intro

01:36 Clarity Act Panic

04:46 Peter's Expert Take: Why This Bill Matters

10:16 Developer Liability

19:36 Sanctions Compliance

27:03 Tokenized Equities Fight

35:42 Great Yield War: Banks vs. Stablecoins

45:11 Will Clarity Survive?

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Your next big idea could go live here

The New York Stock Exchange just announced that it has developed a platform for the trading of tokenized equities with plans to unlock 24/7 trading for users.

In this DEX in the City episode hosts Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos and Vy Le are joined by Superstate General Counsel Alex Zozos to unpack the implications of NYSE's move and how tokenization could reshape markets.

Are traditional financial grants facing an Existential crisis? And will tokenization make most regulatory regimes redundant?

Plus, Zozos explains why all tokenized equities are not the same.

Hosts:

• Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos

• TuongVy Le

Guests:

• Alex Zozos, General Counsel at Superstate

Links:

• NYSE’s Tokenized Trading Push Marks a Quiet Win for Crypto
• Inside Robinhood’s Big Super App Plan: ‘There’s Still a Lot of Work to Be Done’
• JPMorgan Launches Tokenized Money Market Fund on Ethereum
• Vy's paper on the evolution of capital markets

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Crypto intelligence platform Nansen has rolled out an AI trading agent, aiming to let users complete the full trading lifecycle—from discovery to execution—within a single platform. But the move also heralds a new horizon for trading and investment, one potentially filled with interesting possibilities.

In this episode of Unchained Nansen CEO Alex Svanevik unpacks what the AI agent does, the end game, the opportunities and the hurdles.

Can Nansen AI do for trading what Anthropic's Claude is doing for coding? And will humans soon be able to work without being glued to a screen?

Listen to find out!

Guests:

• Alex Svanevik, Co-founder and CEO at Nansen

Links:

• How the x402 Standard Is Enabling AI Agents to Pay Each Other
• GOAT: How AI Agents Talking Turned Into a $268 Million Memecoin ‘Religion’

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Is Bitcoin losing its “digital gold” narrative just as geopolitics heat up? The Bits + Bips crew debates what markets still aren’t pricing in.

In this episode of Bits + Bips, hosts Austin Campbell, Ram Ahluwalia, and Chris Perkins are joined by David Duong, Global Head of Research at Coinbase, to unpack a volatile mix of crypto regulation, geopolitics, and shifting market structure.

The group digs into why the latest market structure bill is starting to crack, why investors may be underpricing regulatory clarity, and what it means that Bitcoin is failing to behave like digital gold just as global risk rises.

They also explore whether the U.S. and Europe are still true allies, why Wall Street’s move toward 24/7 onchain markets matters more than most realize, and how internet capital markets could reshape who gets access to capital in the next decade.

Hosts:

• Ram Ahluwalia, CFA, CEO and Founder of Lumida

• Austin Campbell, NYU Stern professor and founder and managing partner of Zero Knowledge Consulting

• Christopher Perkins, Managing Partner and President of CoinFund

Guests:

• David Duong, Global Head of Research at Coinbase

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Walrus is where the world’s data becomes reliable, valuable, and governable.

Geopolitical tensions are rising. Crypto legislation is stalled. And pressure on the Federal Reserve is intensifying.
So why are Bitcoin and the broader crypto market holding strong?

In this episode of Bits + Bips: The Interview, Steve Ehrlich sits down with Zach Pandl, Director of Research at Grayscale Investments, to unpack what’s been driving markets since 2026 began, from Washington’s regulatory battles to global instability and the Fed’s fight to maintain independence.

They break down where U.S. crypto policy stands, why Wall Street isn’t waiting for Congress, and how macro forces like inflation, debt, and geopolitics are shaping crypto’s next move.

Hosts:

• Steven Ehrlich

Guests:

• Zach Pandl, Head of Research at Grayscale

Links:

• Robinhood CEO warns Congress delay is hurting Americans - TheStreet Crypto: Bitcoin and cryptocurrency news, advice, analysis and more
• Senate Banking Committee postpones vote on crypto market structure legislation amid industry pushback
• Crypto bill delay 'may ultimately be constructive' for final product, Benchmark says
• Trump attacks on Jerome Powell testing Fed’s independence
• Why the Federal Reserve has historically been independent of the White House

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Walrus

Post-quantum era focused blockchain builder Project Eleven has just raised $20 million from the industry's heavy hitters as concerns over Bitcoin's quantum readiness grow.

In this Unchained podcast episode, Project Eleven CEO Alex Pruden delves into the urgency of the quantum threat to Bitcoin while highlighting which other blockchains are most at risk. He also shares what Project Eleven is focused on to help crypto prepare and the potential outcomes.

Listen to learn why Pruden believes implementing post-quantum cryptography would be the most significant upgrade blockchains have ever undergone and why a Bitcoin chain split is likely.

Guests:

• Alex Pruden, CEO and Co-Founder of Project Eleven

Links:

• Solana Deploys Post-Quantum Signatures on Testnet

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Privacy is back on the radar as Monero gets compared to silver. Meanwhile, Vitalik wants Ethereum to ossify, former New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ NYC token rugs and X's algorithm has crypto Twitter up in arms.

In this episode of Uneasy Money, hosts Kain Warwick, Luca Netz and Taylor Monahan unpack: Monero's sudden surge, Vitalik's “walkaway test,” why blatant scams like Adams’ NYC token continue to succeed and whether X has been suppressing crypto content.

Don’t miss Kain’s story on how he lost nearly $250K in a wild vibe coding experiment.

Plus, Is Vitalik's “walkaway test” too “aspirational?” And could X cashtags usher in the next altseason?

Hosts:

• Luca Netz

• Kain Warwick

• Taylor Monahan

Links:

• Why the Privacy Coins Mania Is Much More Than Price Action
• Eric Adams’ NYC Token Crashes Amid Liquidity Concerns
• Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin Says Blockchain Trilemma ‘Has Been Solved’

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Ethereum scaling network Polygon is charting a new course. Polygon on Jan. 13 announced that it was becoming a “regulated U.S. payments platform” following the acquisition of Web3 services companies Coinme and Sequence.

In this Unchained episode, Polygon Labs CEO Marc Boiron reveals the motivations behind the pivot and what it means for the network and its native token POL. He says that despite the pivot, Polygon is not becoming an application chain.

Can Polygon thrive in the stablecoin dominated space? And will POL benefit?

Guests:

• Marc Boiron, Chief Executive Officer at Polygon Labs

Links:

• Flutterwave and Polygon to Launch Africa-Wide Stablecoin Payments
• Why Wall Street Banks Need to Launch Their Own Stablecoins
• Stripe and Paradigm Announce New Layer 1 Blockchain ’Tempo’
• Circle to Launch Layer 1 Blockchain ‘Arc’
• Stablecoin Blockchains Are Coming. Here’s Why These Two Giants Should Be Nervous

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As tensions between the Trump administration and the Federal Reserve rise, gold and silver have surged to record highs. Bitcoin, meanwhile, has struggled to keep pace, raising uncomfortable questions about its “digital gold” narrative.

In this back-to-back Unchained episode, Vinny Lingham, cofounder of Xash, and Eric Fine, portfolio manager at VanEck, offer two distinct but complementary perspectives on what’s happening beneath the surface of global markets.

Vinny explains why gold’s liquidity, trust, and central-bank adoption still dwarf Bitcoin’s, and why that gap led him to design a gold-backed, reward-bearing stablecoin, USDX.

Eric walks through VanEck’s provocative analysis showing gold could reach $39,000 or even $184,000 if the dollar were to lose its reserve-currency dominance and gold had to back the money supply. He also dives into why some developed markets may be more fragile than investors assume.

Guests:

• Vinny Lingham, Co-founder, and President of Xash

• Eric Fine, Portfolio Manager, Active Emerging Markets Debt at VanEck

Links:

• Why Gold and Bitcoin Work Best Together
• Why Bitcoin Is Tanking Despite Gold Reaching High After High
• How Venezuela Shows Why Bitcoin, Crypto and Stablecoins Help Everyday People
• Bitcoin Rallies to $93,000 After U.S. Attack on Venezuela

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If trust in central banks erodes, what replaces it? This week’s Bits + Bips connects AI, energy, inflation, and Bitcoin.

In this episode of Bits + Bips, hosts Austin Campbell, Ram Ahluwalia, and Chris Perkins are joined by Daniel Ives, one of Wall Street’s most closely followed technology analysts, to break down how AI is colliding with macroeconomics.

They debate whether AI will ultimately be inflationary or deflationary, why energy may become the binding constraint on technological growth, and how rising productivity could force the Federal Reserve into uncomfortable trade-offs.

The conversation also covers pressure on central bank independence, the fragility of trust in fiat systems, and why Bitcoin increasingly enters the conversation when that trust erodes.

Hosts:

• Ram Ahluwalia

• Austin Campbell

• Christopher Perkins

Guests:

• Daniel Ives, Managing Director and Senior Equity Research Analyst at Wedbush

Links:

• Bitcoin Briefly Pops to $92K on Powell DOJ News, Then Retreats
• Tether Freezes $182 Million in USDT on Tron

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After months of anticipation, U.S. Senators have unveiled draft crypto market structure legislation.

In this episode of DEX in the City, hosts Jessi Brooks, Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos and Vy Le are joined by Blockchain Association CEO and former CFTC Commissioner Summer Mersinger to unpack all the provisions that stand out.

These include the bill's attempt to draw a line between centralized and decentralized platforms, the amended stance on stablecoin yield and exemptions for assets with ETFs.

Would the bill “sweep up all of DeFi?” Has crypto lost the fight over stablecoin yield? And is Trump playing interference for crypto?

Hosts:

• Jessi Brooks

• Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos

• TuongVy Le

Guests:

• Summer Mersinger, CEO Blockchain Association

Links:

• Tether Freezes $182 Million in USDT on Tron
• Senators Move to Curb Passive Stablecoin Yields in Market Structure Push
• How the Crypto Market Structure Law Would Expose that Trump’s WLFI Isn’t DeFi
• Jessi and Katherine's paper on programmable risk management

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Welcome to The Chopping Block — where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest in crypto. This week, the crew dives deep into Venezuela's unexpected crypto connections following Maduro's capture, unpacking how the YC-backed fintech Kontigo allegedly used stablecoins to arbitrage sanctions and capital controls.

They debate the moral complexities of banking the unbanked versus violating US sanctions, and whether stablecoins are fulfilling their promise of financial freedom or enabling bad actors. The conversation then shifts to prediction markets drama, as a mysterious trader made $400k betting on Maduro's downfall just hours before it happened — sparking calls for insider trading laws in political betting markets.

Finally, they tackle the governance chaos in Zcash land, where the entire Electric Coin Company team quit en masse over disagreements with the nonprofit board, launching a new for-profit venture called CashZ. The hosts debate whether this signals the end of the foundation era in crypto, or just growing pains for protocols trying to build killer products.

Hosts:

• Haseeb Qureshi

• Robert Leshner

• Tarun Chitra

• Tom Schmidt

Links:

• FinTech Business Weekly - Kontigo: Y Combinator's Venezuelan Sanctions Evasion Startup
• Wall Street Journal - A Mystery Trader Made $400,000 Betting on Maduro’s Downfall

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Amid several years of economic challenges, Venezuela boasts a long and intriguing relationship with crypto. Following the capture of President Nicolas Maduro by the U.S. government, these crypto ties have again been brought into focus.

In this Unchained podcast episode, Ledn cofounder Mauricio Di Bartolomeo and Economic Inclusion Group President Jorge Jraissati join Laura Shin to unpack this history, including the plausibility of the Latin American country sitting on a $60 billion Bitcoin stash.

Mauricio details how the hums of Bitcoin mining rigs became the sound of freedom for Venezuelans. Jorge says post-Maduro Venezuela will “demand” a crypto powered economy.

Will the crypto industry shape the future of Venezuela? And what does such a future look like?

Hosts:

• Laura Shin

Guests:

• Mauricio Di Bartolomeo, Cofounder and CSO of Ledn

• Jorge Jraissati, President of Economic Inclusion Group

Links:

• Bitcoin Rallies to $93,000 After U.S. Attack on Venezuela
• How Maduro’s Capture and a ‘Pre-War World’ Affects Bitcoin: Bits + Bips
• Brian Kelly on Token-Curated Registries, Robinhood Crypto Trading and the Petro

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Canton's in bed with Nasdaq, a Google DeepMind's paper talks up the role of blockchain in an agentic economy and an alleged insider cashes in on Maduro's capture.

In this DEX in the City episode, hosts Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos, Jessi Brooks and Vy Le dive into the implications of Canton's Nasdaq deal, why DeepMind's study matters for crypto and the legality of insider trading on prediction markets.

Vy highlights what Canton's Nasdaq deal signals about the priorities of institutions adopting blockchain technology. Katherine and Jessi engage in what happens when the machines take over. Plus, should federal officials be banned from using prediction markets?

Hosts:

• Jessi Brooks
• Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos
• TuongVy Le

Links:

• Bitcoin Rallies to $93,000 After U.S. Attack on Venezuela
• How the x402 Standard Is Enabling AI Agents to Pay Each Other
• Why the Black Friday Whale’s $192 Million Crypto Trade Was Legal
• DEX in the City: Insider Trading and Crypto: What the Law Actually Says
• Google DeepMind’s agentic economy paper
• Pawthereum's website
• A copy of Rep. Ritchie's bill

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Aave DAO on Christmas Day lost the vote to take control of Aave brand assets, but the fight is likely not over.

In this Uneasy Money episode Aave Chan Initiative (ACI) founder Marc Zeller takes hosts Kain Warwick and Taylor Monahan inside the fight over one of DeFi's biggest names, teasing a “phase two” of the fight.

Plus, why is Infinex's ICO getting so much flak and are claims of insider trading on Polymarket misguided?

Hosts:

• Kain Warwick

• Taylor Monahan

Guests:

• Marc Zeller, Founder of the Aave Chan Initiative (ACI)

Links:

• Uneasy Money: Why Token Holders Have No Rights & Why Every DAO ‘Has Failed’
• Aave Labs Proposes Off-Protocol Revenue Sharing With Token Holders
• Aave’s Rushed Governance Vote Draws Backlash
• Infinex Changes INX Token Sale Terms After Low Demand
• MegaETH Just Had Its Public Sale. Can It Succeed in Building a Web2-Like Experience?
• Polymarket Introduces Taker Fees in 15-Minute Markets
• Polymarket Resolves Issues After Polygon Network Disruption
• How to Trade Prediction Markets Without an Opinion on the Event
• Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin Says Blockchain Trilemma ‘Has Been Solved’

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In this Unchained podcast episode, guests Alex Thorn and Ryan Graham share their 2026 outlook for Bitcoin and the broader crypto market, exploring why the year looks unusually uncertain.

The conversation also digs into questions around Ethereum’s long-term value, whether killer apps are enough to drive adoption, prediction markets’ push into sports betting, and why the privacy meta could continue in 2026.

Hosts:

• Laura Shin

Guests:

• Ryan Graham, Research Analyst at Messari
• Alex Thorn, Head of Firmwide Research at Galaxy Digital

Links:

• DAT Stocks Are on Sale. Are They a Buy? Plus, Why Crypto Is Dead
• Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin Says Blockchain Trilemma ‘Has Been Solved’
• Solana Withstands Week-Long DDoS Attack
• Solana Mulls Proposal to Lower Inflation Rate
• Western Union Files ‘WUUSD’ Trademark After Solana Stablecoin Reveal
• Why the Privacy Coins Mania Is Much More Than Price Action
• The Chopping Block: Hyperliquid vs. Tarun, ADL Transparency & The Coming Perps Arms Race
• How to Trade Prediction Markets Without an Opinion on the Event
• Why Wall Street Banks Need to Launch Their Own Stablecoins
• How the GENIUS Act Creates a Built-In Advantage for Banks and Deposit Tokens
• Klarna Launches Stablecoin Built on Stripe’s Tempo Chain
• How the x402 Standard Is Enabling AI Agents to Pay Each Other

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First up: the 2025 winners and losers. From Trump's meme-coin windfall to Gary Gensler's legacy getting torched, from prediction markets going mainstream to Web3 getting its official eulogy — no one is safe. The team debates the biggest surprises (Circle's shocking IPO run, Ethereum's pivot under new leadership, Zcash's unlikely comeback), the best new mechanisms (ICO 2.0, DATs, federal preemption), and the year's best memes (including the Chopping Block's own tariff factory video).

Then comes the flops and comebacks: AI agents that overpromised, Berachain's fall from grace, and Tether somehow winning again. Finally, the crew reviews how badly their 2025 predictions aged — spoiler: not great — and lays out fresh calls for 2026 including AI-powered hacks, stable-coin-funded AI capex, and equity perps taking over DeFi.

New year, fresh takes, brutal honesty — let's get into it.

Show highlights

🔹 Biggest winner debate — Trump's meme-coin empire, prediction markets going mainstream, and M&A consolidation reshaping the industry.

🔹 Gary Gensler's legacy destroyed — Haseeb declares his SEC tenure the biggest loser as every initiative got reversed.

🔹 Web3 pronounced dead — Tarun writes the epitaph on the "ownership economy" thesis as NFT sentiment hits rock bottom.

🔹 Bitcoin as biggest loser? — Robert's controversial pick: BTC underperformed in a year that should have been its best.

🔹 Circle IPO shocks — From skeptics to $70B market cap, the stablecoin thesis briefly took over Wall Street.

🔹 Ethereum pivot surprise — Vitalik's leadership shake-up and new EF direction restored optimism no one expected.

🔹 DATs dominate mechanism talk — Robert calls them highest "absolute value of impact" — amplifying volatility both ways.

🔹 AI agents flopped hard — From mania to annoyance, the speculative thesis collapsed and sentiment turned hostile.

🔹 2025 predictions reviewed — The team confesses their misses (150K BTC, 5x AI agent caps) with Tom winning at 2/3.

🔹 2026 predictions dropped — AI-generated $100M+ hacks, stable-coin-funded AI capex, and equity perps hitting 20% of DeFi volume.

Hosts:

⭐️Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly

⭐️Robert Leshner, CEO & Co-founder of Superstate

⭐️Tarun Chitra, Managing Partner at Robot Ventures

⭐️Tom Schmidt, General Partner at Dragonfly 

Timestamps

00:00 Intro

00:26 Crypto Industry Overview

02:39 Biggest Winners of 2025

07:32 Biggest Losers of 2025

13:29 Biggest Surprises of 2025

22:24 Best New Mechanisms of 2025

28:49 Best Memes of 2025

33:24 Best and Worst Pivots of 2025

39:15 Biggest Flops of 2025

41:31 Biggest Flop of 2025

42:58 Bitcoin's Disappointing Year

45:30 Biggest Comeback Stories of 2025

49:12 Favorite Guests of 2025

52:40 Reflecting on 2025 Predictions

56:33 Predictions for 2026

Disclosures

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In this episode of Bits + Bips, hosts Austin Campbell, Ram Ahluwalia, and Chris Perkins are joined by macro strategist Peter Tchir to unpack one of the most consequential geopolitical events in years: the U.S. capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

The conversation explores why Bitcoin surged past $94,000, what the operation signals about U.S. power and strategy, and how investors should think about energy, supply chains, and national security in a shifting global order.

The group also debates whether crypto’s 24/7 markets are revealing a structural weakness in traditional finance, whether Latin America is poised for an investment renaissance, and why “production for security” may replace ESG as the dominant investment framework.

Hosts:

• Ram Ahluwalia, CFA, CEO and Founder of Lumida
• Austin Campbell, NYU Stern professor and founder and managing partner of Zero Knowledge Consulting
• Christopher Perkins, Managing Partner and President of CoinFund

Guest:

• Peter Tchir, Head of Macro Strategy at Academy Securities

Links:

• Bitcoin Rallies to $93,000 After U.S. Attack on Venezuela
• The Venezuelan Oil Narative is PURE THEATRE
• Venezuela: The $60B+ Bitcoin "Shadow Reserve"

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Crypto markets this year failed to live up to expectations, raising questions about the trajectory for next year. The situation is further complicated by speculation that Bitcoin is about to kick off a multiyear decline in line with the so-called four year cycle.

In this Unchained podcast episode, Delphi Digital analysts Jason Pagoulatos and Jordan Yeakley break down the market and applications outlook for next year.

They look at whether the four year cycle would hold, what gold's run means for Bitcoin and the conditions that have led to recent market apathy. They also discussed whether the recent resurgence of privacy coins is a fad and who would come out on top in the race to become an “everything app.”

Is the four year cycle the result of multiple coincidences? And, is X the dark horse in the everything app meta?

Guests:

• Jason Pagoulatos, Head of Markets at Delphi Digital

• Jordan Yeakley, CFA, Research Analyst at Delphi Digital

Previous appearances on Unchained:

• What Went Wrong With Pump's ICO and Where It Goes From Here

• How Crypto Markets Are Post-Selloff, With Election/Fed Uncertainty

Links

• Unchained:

  • Will Bitcoin’s New Phase Change It Forever? And Is the 4-Year Cycle Dead?

  • The Chopping Block: Hyperliquid vs. Tarun, ADL Transparency & The Coming Perps Arms Race

  • What Ethereum Will Look Like When It Implements Its New Privacy Focus

  • Why the Privacy Coins Mania Is Much More Than Price Action

  • Coinbase Launches Stock Trading and Prediction Markets

  • Inside Robinhood’s Big Super App Plan: ‘There’s Still a Lot of Work to Be Done’

  • How the x402 Standard Is Enabling AI Agents to Pay Each Other

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Next, the crew unpacks the Flow hack (a $3.9M mint exploit) and the wild rollback talk that followed — plus why forks and bridges make rollbacks dangerous, turning bridges into accidental custodians and breaking old security assumptions.

Finally, they break down Coinbase’s System Update and the “Everything Exchange” strategy — stocks, tokenization, perps, prediction markets, stablecoin rails — and whether this approach can win against Robinhood. DAO wars, chain chaos, and super-app ambition — let’s get into it.

Show highlights

🔹 Aave DAO civil war erupts — CoWSwap fees reportedly route to Aave Labs/Avara, not the DAO, fueling “stealth privatization” claims.

🔹 “Poison pill” proposal — DAO demands Aave IP/brand and Aave.com control, turning governance into a DevCo vs DAO showdown.

🔹 No foundation, messy ownership — Aave’s pre-foundation setup exposes off-chain IP risk, jurisdiction questions, and untested legal theory.

🔹 Christmas vote drama — 41% abstain signals a redo; OG/Asia backlash pits “property rights” vs “commons” narratives.

🔹 Flow hacked for $3.9M — chain pause + rollback idea sparks outrage (and wouldn’t even stop the attacker).

🔹 Rollbacks meet bridges — forked history can wipe innocent bridgers; bridges become custodians when chains reorg or rewind.

🔹 Interconnected chains break security — old models crumble, and small chains “die twice” when bridges/oracles unplug.

🔹 Coinbase goes “Everything Exchange” — stocks/ETFs, tokenization, perps, prediction markets; can Coinbase beat Robinhood’s funnel?

Hosts:

⭐️Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly

⭐️Robert Leshner [MIA], CEO & Co-founder of Superstate

⭐️Tarun Chitra, Managing Partner at Robot Ventures

⭐️Tom Schmidt, General Partner at Dragonfly 

Links:

Aave Cowswap Integration- Tokenholder Questions (aave discussion) 

https://governance.aave.com/t/aave-cowswap-integration-tokenholder-questions/23530?u=ignas 

Aave Will Win: 2026 Master Plan by Stani Kulechov

https://x.com/StaniKulechov/status/2001036446098919461 

Timestamps

00:00 Intro

01:51 Aave Civil War Erupts

06:37 CoWSwap Fees Spark Aave IP Debate

10:20 Can a DAO Own IP?

15:25 Aave’s Pre-Foundation Legal Quirk

28:20 Flow Hacked: $3.9M Mint Attack

33:50 Small Chains Die When Bridges Leave

34:33 App Chains Boom Is Over

36:32 The Hidden $20M L1 Tax

43:29 Coinbase System Update: Everything Exchange

57:43 Coinbase vs Robinhood: Build vs Buy

Disclosures

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In this year-end Bits + Bips roundtable, hosts Austin Campbell and Chris Perkins are joined by John D’Agostino, Head of Strategy at Coinbase Institutional, for a wide-ranging and often contentious look at what 2026 may hold for crypto.

They debate whether a major global brand will launch its own stablecoin, whether altcoins are structurally doomed—or secretly set up for a Wall Street–driven resurgence—and whether a major crypto hack is coming.

The conversation also explores how tokens accrue value and whether there will be a new M&A trend that’ll reshape the industry as we know it.

Plus: don’t miss what they have to say about NFTs, financial nihilism, and whether we’ll see all-time highs for bitcoin in 2026.

Hosts:

• Ram Ahluwalia, CFA, CEO and Founder of Lumida

• Austin Campbell, NYU Stern professor and Founder of Zero Knowledge Consulting

• Christopher Perkins, Managing Partner and President of CoinFund

Guest:

• John D'Agostino, Head of Strategy for Coinbase Institutional

Timestamps

🚀 3:38 Why John thinks a global Web2 giant will launch a stablecoin in 2026
💵 8:34 How big the stablecoin market can actually get and where tokenized deposits fit in
🚫 12:18 Whether stablecoins will face outright bans in parts of the world
🔓 16:18 Why a major crypto hack of more than $2 billion in 2026 seems likely
🏛️ 19:56 Why it looks like crypto market structure legislation won’t pass in 2026 — and maybe not after the midterms either
🧠 30:57 John’s three counter-consensus predictions involving quantum tech and AGI
📉 39:25 Whether altcoins are structurally set up to underperform again in 2026
⚡ 44:02 Whether massive Solana adoption would or wouldn’t translate into token value
🌀 45:00 What “financial nihilism” explains about altcoin behavior
🤝 49:50 Why Chris believes 2026 could become a defining year for crypto M&A
🇺🇸 59:57 How U.S. political shifts now could ripple into the 2028 election cycle
🖼️ 1:02:39 What an NFT comeback would actually look like and why it won’t resemble JPEG mania
💣 1:07:05 Why John isn’t buying the idea that post-10/10 blowups are inevitable
📈 1:08:26 Whether all-time highs in 2026 are still on the table

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• Uniswap

• Mantle

2025 was a year of mixed outcomes for crypto. The industry got landmark stablecoin regulations in the U.S. but with a major limitation. Bitcoin soared to new all-time highs but failed to surge to heights many expected and is set to end the year flat.

In this final installment of Unchained's year in review show, Ambient Finance founder Doug Colkitt and Gwart take a look back at the passing of the GENIUS Act, Bitcoin's all-time high run and the “10/10” crash.

Plus, did “threadguy's” tax woes trigger Zcash's run? And is Nic Carter overreacting about the quantum computing threat to Bitcoin?

Guests:

• Doug Colkitt, Co-founder of Fogo and Ambient Finance

• Gwart, Host of The Gwart Show

Links:

• Unchained:

• Who Are the Winners and Losers of the New Stablecoin Law in the U.S.?

• Pump.fun Becomes Third Largest ICO, Raises $600M in 12 Minutes

• Stripe and Paradigm Announce New Layer 1 Blockchain ’Tempo’

• Stablecoin Issuers Enter Bidding War to Launch Hyperliquid’s USDH

• Coinbase Buys Cobie’s ‘Up Only’ NFT and Echo in $375 Million Deal

• Bitcoin Hits All-Time High Ahead of $125,500

• Crypto Markets Recover After Record $19 Billion Liquidation

• Why the Black Friday Whale’s $192 Million Crypto Trade Was Legal

• Why the Privacy Coins Mania Is Much More Than Price Action

• How the x402 Standard Is Enabling AI Agents to Pay Each Other

• MegaETH Just Had Its Public Sale. Can It Succeed in Building a Web2-Like Experience?

• Can ‘Choose Rich’ Nick Create the Barstool Sports of Crypto?

• Do Kwon Sentenced to 15 Years in Prison

• Cracking Bitcoin Encryption Is Getting Much Easier, Google Says

Timestamps:

🚀 00:00 Introduction 

🫠 00:53 Why GENIUS Act blocking interest payments is problematic 

🤔 4:31 Did PUMP launch buybacks too soon?

👀 10:56 Is Stripe fully committed to Tempo?

⁉️ 14:28 Was Hyperliquid's USDH partner “pre-ordained?”

😅 19:38 Is Cobie Coinbase’s best hire yet?

😵‍💫 27:16 Bitcoin's peak in downtober

❕️ 29:55 What “10/10” says about the crypto industry 

🤣 41:13 Did “threadguy's” tax woes trigger Zcash's run?

👀 47:27 Is the AI agent meta a “charade?”

🤺 50:27 What is fueling the bitter rivalry between Kalshi and Polymarket

🤔 56:50 Did “ICOBeast” deserve to lose his MegaETH allocation?

💥 1:00:40 Is “Choose Rich” Nick now mainstream?

🫣 1:02:55 Was Do Kwon's 15 year sentence excessive?

🧐 1:08:54 Is Nic Carter overreacting about the quantum computing threat to Bitcoin?

🔮 1:13:42 Doug and Gwart lock in their 2026 predictions

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