Bankless

What does it take to build an exchange that refuses to choose between speed, cost, security, verifiability and composability? Lighter founder Vlad Novakovski joins David to trace his path from international Olympiads and Harvard at 18 to Citadel, early machine learning, Lunchclub and an 18-month ZK engineering bet. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔓NEAR | TRADE CONFIDENTIALLY, GET 20% BACK https://bankless.cc/near-20 📊BITGET | TOKENIZED STOCKS 2.0 https://bankless.cc/bitget-stocks 🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY to OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDE https://app.okx.com/join/USBANKLESS 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless 👑BANKLESS PREMIUM | AD-FREE & BONUS EPISODES https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 A Particular Set of Skills 11:33 Harvard at 18 19:03 Citadel and the Search for Alpha 25:14 Machine Learning Before the AI Boom 36:46 ​​Finding Elite Talent Early 41:39 The Lunchclub Matching Problem 45:11 Pivoting Into Lighter 51:18 The 18-Month ZK Engineering Bet 56:38 Lighter’s Five Pillars 1:00:04 A New Generation of Exchanges --- RESOURCES Vlad Novakovski https://x.com/vnovakovski --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Ryan and David unpack the CLARITY Act’s last-minute lifeline, $100 oil, BitMine’s ETH slowdown, and the OpenAI model that escaped its sandbox. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔒NEAR | TRADE CONFIDENTIALLY, GET 20% BACK https://bankless.cc/near-podcast 📊BITGET | TOKENIZED STOCKS 2.0 https://bankless.cc/bitget-stocks  🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY to OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDE https://app.okx.com/join/USBANKLESS  🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless  👑BANKLESS PREMIUM | AD-FREE & BONUS EPISODES https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 0:33 CLARITY Act at a Crossroads https://x.com/EleanorTerrett/status/2079334038104408522 https://x.com/EleanorTerrett/status/2079962528243650990 https://x.com/coindesk/status/2079633633023836667 https://x.com/EleanorTerrett/status/2079608362522575063 https://x.com/politico/status/2080261045114065177 https://polymarket.com/event/clarity-act-signed-into-law-in-2026/clarity-act-signed-into-law-in-2026 17:56 BitMine’s 5% ETH Strategy https://x.com/BitMNR/status/2079184988541448638 https://x.com/ykkz99/status/2079607294354964696 https://x.com/ykkz99/status/2079244980103659697 https://x.com/coindesk/status/2079200035045036162 27:40 Hester Peirce Eyes DeFi Vaults https://x.com/HesterPeirce/status/2080011999702880341 https://x.com/CJRobins01/status/2079976258423627785 https://x.com/Bankless/status/2079536878588715366 https://morpho.org/blog/now-live-morpho-midnight 38:28 BitMEX’s End of an Era https://x.com/CryptoHayes/status/2080286601125482771 https://x.com/BitMEX/status/2080201602456301580 44:36 NEAR Goes Post-Quantum https://bankless.cc/near-podcast https://x.com/NEARProtocol/status/2079189515843821764 48:58 TradFi Moves Deeper Into Crypto https://x.com/EricBalchunas/status/2077774644652790240 https://x.com/JSeyff/status/2077792050573918432 https://crypto.com/us/company-news/cryptocom-announces-400-million-strategic-investment-from-citadel-securities https://x.com/mzorkin/status/2077834551091478695 54:07 OpenAI Model Breaks Out https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jul/22/openai-cyberattack/ https://huggingface.co/blog/security-incident-july-2026 https://openai.com/index/hugging-face-model-evaluation-security-incident/ 1:02:40 Closing & Disclaimers --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Securitize has gone public, raised $400 million and tokenized its own equity, but Carlos Domingo says the real race is only beginning. He joins David to explain how Securitize makes money, why investor demand remains tokenization’s biggest bottleneck and what separates an actual onchain share from a synthetic stock wrapper. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast 📊BITGET | TOKENIZED STOCKS 2.0 https://bankless.cc/bitget-stocks 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless 👑BANKLESS PREMIUM | AD-FREE & BONUS EPISODES https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Going Public 4:50 Demand Bottleneck 10:19 Real vs Synthetic 17:31 Liquidity Wins 23:43 First Movers 29:24 Trading SECZ 39:47 Spot and Perps 43:01 The $1T Goal --- RESOURCES Carlos Domingo https://x.com/carlosdomingo Securitize https://securitize.io/ --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Bitcoin has won the store-of-value argument, but can it become the foundation of an entirely new credit system? David Seroy of Alpen Labs joins David Hoffman to explore why Bitcoin’s next era may be defined by digital credit, ZK rollups, fixed-duration lending, and an onchain repo market rather than payments alone. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast 📊BITGET | TOKENIZED STOCKS 2.0 https://bankless.cc/bitget-stocks 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless 👑BANKLESS PREMIUM | AD-FREE & BONUS EPISODES https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Hyperbitcoinization 3:51 Bitcoin’s Next Phase 9:57 The Talent Crisis 11:29 BitVM and ZK 16:26 Bitcoin L2s 19:06 Bitcoin Credit 28:28 Onchain Repo 34:09 The Yield Curve 38:21 Borrowing and Risk 43:24 Why L2s Failed 48:29 Saylor vs Onchain 54:51 Alpen and Strata 56:36 Ethereum’s Purpose --- RESOURCES Alpen Labs https://www.alpenlabs.io/ --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Inflation cooled, war intensified, and crypto climbed anyway. Ryan and David ask if the bottom is in, unpack Robinhood Chain’s surge past Base, and debate who benefits from Ethereum’s L2 boom. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 📊BITGET | TOKENIZED STOCKS 2.0 https://bankless.cc/bitget-stocks  🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY to OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDE https://app.okx.com/join/USBANKLESS  🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless  👑BANKLESS PREMIUM | AD-FREE & BONUS EPISODES https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 0:29 Cycle Bottom Watch https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/2077774313726304659 https://x.com/goodalexander/status/2077031311664197738 https://x.com/brian_armstrong/status/2076857638059720736 5:24 Inflation Cools, War Heats https://x.com/kobeissiletter/status/2077008212994253025 https://x.com/geiger_capital/status/2077011477580451983 14:56 Crypto Outperforms Stocks https://x.com/saylor/status/2076638696053276748 https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/2076647130572235017 https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/2077197119207756098 22:34 Robinhood Chain Breaks Out https://x.com/donnoh_eth/status/2075890751834071189 https://dune.com/entropy_advisors/robinhood-chain-network-overview https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/07/15/the-launchpad-that-fueled-robinhood-chain-s-memecoin-boom-just-gave-away-all-its-revenue https://dune.com/adam_tehc/the-robinhood-trenches 29:31 Base Pivots to Trading https://x.com/jessepollak/status/2077427261586997745 https://x.com/jessepollak/status/2077550728416256489 https://x.com/austincampbell/status/2077545305789067398 36:15 Does ETH Earn Enough? https://x.com/vladtenev/status/2076666114801877310 https://x.com/LorenzoARK/status/2076792007184298076 https://x.com/apolynya/status/2077301418860466487 https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/2077400104458154428 https://x.com/ethereumJoseph/status/2076838398510211122 47:29 L2s and Rent Sharing https://x.com/sgoldfed/status/2077082053330272454 https://x.com/l2beat/status/2077764769436553272 https://l2beat.com/native-rollups 56:20 Ethereum Spinoffs Multiply https://x.com/eth_systems/status/2077000602320805918 https://x.com/fradamt/status/2077739531520921621 58:49 DeFi Hacks May Be Peaking https://x.com/hosseeb/status/2076682247168827849 https://x.com/maraoz/status/2059413451265441990 1:01:44 Buy-and-Burn Wins https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/2077186630566224208 https://x.com/blknoiz06/status/2077773554033037509 1:06:29 Closing & Disclaimers --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

NEAR wants users to stop thinking about blockchains altogether. Proximity Labs co-founder Kendall Cole joins David to explain how NEAR Intents connects 35 chains, powers products like Infinex, brings tokenized assets and confidential transactions into one seamless experience, and turns fragmented crypto markets into a single account where users see assets, not infrastructure. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast 📊BITGET | TOKENIZED STOCKS 2.0 https://bankless.cc/bitget-stocks 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless 👑BANKLESS PREMIUM | AD-FREE & BONUS EPISODES https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 2:29 Chains Need Neutrality 4:20 Near’s Chain Abstraction Vision 6:03 Wallets to Retail Expansion 9:30 Bootstrapping Liquidity and Partners 11:23 RWA Asset Explosion 15:00 Tokenized Stocks on Near 15:57 One App Across Chains 19:01 Near as Chain Abstraction 21:35 Trading Bots and Payments 24:54 MiCA’s Market Shock 28:16 Noncustodial Compliance Strategy 29:17 Euro Onramps into Near 31:38 Regulation Meets On-Chain Freedom 38:09 Confidential Intents Launch 41:15 Privacy for Users and Firms 43:36 Private Zcash Routing 46:50 Privacy for AI Models 49:52 Near’s Fee Capture Model 52:19 Crypto as Exchange Infrastructure --- RESOURCES Kendall Cole https://www.linkedin.com/in/kendall-cole-91b00534/ Proximity Labs https://x.com/proximityfi Near Intents https://x.com/near_intents --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Onchain trading infrastructure is reaching a point where it can seriously compete with centralized exchanges. Jito founder Lucas Bruder joins David to introduce JTX, a new prosumer trading terminal built to bring major crypto assets, tokenized equities, perps, and eventually global markets into one onchain experience. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast 📊BITGET | TOKENIZED STOCKS 2.0 https://bankless.cc/bitget-stocks 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless 👑BANKLESS PREMIUM | AD-FREE & BONUS EPISODES https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Solana and Tokenized Stocks 2:22 What Is JTX? 8:44 A Better Trading UX 11:25 Better Execution 15:37 The JTX Roadmap 19:35 JTO and SOL Tokenomics 25:23 Why Solana Got Better 29:34 Prop AMMs Explained 37:25 Liquidity and Market Makers 40:04 Solana vs. Robinhood Chain 46:51 The JTX Rollout 48:07 Global Markets and the SOL Thesis --- RESOURCES Lucas Bruder https://x.com/buffalu__ JTX https://x.com/jtx_trade --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

What happens when rebel money becomes institutional money? In this episode, David sits down with Bitcoin OG Dan Held to ask whether Bitcoin is actually going according to plan. They unpack Bitcoin’s cypherpunk origins, the rise of ETFs and corporate treasuries, Michael Saylor’s influence, Bitcoin’s missed scaling opportunities, privacy tradeoffs, quantum risk, the Satoshi mystery, and why Dan thinks Bitcoin can still flip gold. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast 📊BITGET | TOKENIZED STOCKS 2.0 https://bankless.cc/bitget-stocks 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless 👑BANKLESS PREMIUM | AD-FREE & BONUS EPISODES https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Is Bitcoin Going According to Plan? 2:39 Bitcoin’s Culture Changed, But Did the Code? 9:06 From Magic Internet Money to Digital Gold 15:08 Michael Saylor, Strategy and Concentration Risk 20:08 Is Bitcoin Becoming Too US-Coded? 24:12 Did Bitcoin Miss Its Scaling Moment? 29:42 Privacy, Cash and Bitcoin’s Tradeoffs 32:15 Satoshi’s Design Choices 37:50 BIPs, Quantum Risk and Bitcoin Upgrades 41:35 How Urgent Is Quantum? 44:14 The Satoshi Mystery 47:38 Bitcoin’s Next Phase of Adoption 49:23 Will Bitcoin Flip Gold? 53:11 Being Early Looks Crazy --- RESOURCES Dan Held https://x.com/danheld --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

War with Iran is back, but markets barely blinked. Ryan and David unpack Saylor’s $216 million Bitcoin sale, whether it marked the bottom, Robinhood Chain’s memecoin breakout, and Vitalik’s “Ethereum 3.0” roadmap. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 📊BITGET | TOKENIZED STOCKS 2.0 https://bankless.cc/bitget-stocks  🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY to OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDE https://app.okx.com/join/USBANKLESS  🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless  --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 3:12 Iran War Returns, Markets Shrug & Saylor Sells 3,588 BTC — Was That the Bottom? https://x.com/DrEliDavid/status/2074781504757027087  https://x.com/saylor/status/2074101854875656316 https://www.bankless.com/read/how-strategy-can-sell-billions-in-bitcoin https://x.com/rob_e89rtosmit/status/2074484772622172307 20:17  Robinhood Chain’s First Hit: Memecoins https://x.com/vladtenev/status/2074695821896065360 https://x.com/haydenzadams/status/2075062776473546979 https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2026/07/09/cashcat-trader-turns-usd800-into-over-usd1-million-on-robinhood-s-brand-new-blockchain https://dune.com/entropy_advisors/robinhood-chain-network-overview 28:17 Ethereum 3.0? Vitalik’s New Strawmap https://x.com/VitalikButerin/status/2073459000398463446 https://strawmap.org https://x.com/r2Jamong/status/2074053557284982925 https://x.com/barnabemonnot/status/2073708226701328474 https://x.com/dankrad/status/2073532475431887354 https://x.com/DefiIgnas/status/2073480431887056958 45:46 JPMorgan’s $700M Ethereum Fund & Paradigm Fundraise https://cryptobriefing.com/jpmorgan-jltxx-tokenized-money-market-fund-surges-250-percent/ https://x.com/TradingProtocol/status/2074383012939141407 https://x.com/matthuang/status/2074873573983035801 53:13 The Fight for 24/7 Markets & David’s Portfolio Check-In https://x.com/jchervinsky/status/2075230297134645744 https://x.com/econoar/status/2075056773724062031 https://x.com/rambo_xbt/status/2075192964259672434 https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/2062122936790581520 1:04:00 Closing & Disclaimers --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Multicoin provides investment advice to certain private fund clients that own HYPE tokens discussed herein and stands to gain in the event that the price of the token increases. Multicoin's HYPE valuation report discussed in this podcast can be found as a link in the show notes.  Any trading discussion is for informational purposes only and is not a recommendation to engage in derivatives, leverage, or any specific trading strategy. --- 🧭OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDE https://app.okx.com/join/USBANKLESS --- Hyperliquid is already one of crypto’s biggest perp stories, but Multicoin’s Tushar Jain thinks the market may still be looking at it too narrowly. In this episode, David sits down with Tushar to unpack the deeper thesis: portfolio margining as the hidden unlock, HIP3 and builder codes as the path to platformization, real traction versus farmed volume, and why HYPE’s value-capture model is unusually direct for crypto. --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast 📊BITGET | TOKENIZED STOCKS 2.0 https://bankless.cc/bitget-stocks 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless 👑BANKLESS PREMIUM | AD-FREE & BONUS EPISODES https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 1:50 Perps Get TradFi’s Attention 3:17 More Than a Perp DEX 6:29 Why Portfolio Margining Matters 11:13 HIP3 and Permissionless Market Creation 13:47 Hyperliquid Becomes a Platform 19:54 The On-Ramp Question 21:36 Perps Are Not the Whole Thesis 28:04 Cash Flow as the Credibility Signal 33:05 Valuation Multiples and Lighter 34:36 Multicoin’s HYPE Framework 42:05 Token Value Capture 43:34 Unlocks, Wealth, and Team Motivation 48:30 The US Perps Question 52:27 Does Hyperliquid Need to Come Onshore? 54:32 The Final Bull Case --- RESOURCES Tushar Jain https://x.com/tushar_jain Multicoin's Hype Analysis and Valuation report can be found here: https://multicoin.capital/2026/06/25/hyperliquid-hype-analysis-and-valuation/ The report includes important disclosures concerning the data and assumptions by Multicoin discussed today. Multicoin may have interests in companies mentioned during the episode. --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Robinhood Chain is live, and it may be one of the clearest signs yet that traditional finance is moving onto Ethereum rails. Johann Kerbrat, VP of Crypto at Robinhood, joins David to unpack the launch of tokenized stocks, USDG yield through Morpho, regulated and crypto-native perps, the Lighter integration, and why Robinhood Wallet is being built for the billions of people who have never used crypto before. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast 📊BITGET | TOKENIZED STOCKS 2.0 https://bankless.cc/bitget-stocks 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless 👑BANKLESS PREMIUM | AD-FREE & BONUS EPISODES https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 1:45 Robinhood Chain Goes Live 2:45 Robinhood’s 15-Product Crypto Push 5:47 Tokenized Stocks on Robinhood Chain 11:32 USDG Yield and Robinhood Earn 16:19 Perps Across Robinhood, Bitstamp, and Lighter 19:44 The Lighter Partnership 23:12 Will Robinhood and DeFi Converge? 27:15 Why Robinhood Chose Arbitrum 28:40 Building Crypto for Non-Crypto Users 31:36 How to Get Started on Robinhood Chain --- RESOURCES Johann Kerbrat https://x.com/JohannKerbrat --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Crypto looks bullish again, but the receipts are complicated. David and Ryan unpack OpenUSD’s USDC threat, Robinhood Chain’s tokenized stocks, Saylor’s hedge-fund pivot, Venice’s token dilemma, Cloudflare’s stablecoin payments, and Trump’s $1.4B crypto haul. --- 📣OKX | THE NEW MONEY APP https://app.okx.com/en-us/join/usbankless --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY to OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDE https://app.okx.com/join/USBANKLESS 📊BITGET | TOKENIZED STOCKS 2.0 https://bankless.cc/bitget-stocks 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless --- TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES  0:00 Intro 2:37 Market Bounce + Fed Watch https://x.com/KillaXBT/status/2072288076928266434 https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/01/kevin-warsh-ecb-forum-live-updates.html https://polymarket.com/event/fed-decision-in-july-181 https://thedefireport.io/research/52-of-the-btc-supply-is-now-in-the-red https://x.com/Geiger_Capital/status/2072660106035028395 8:37 Strategy’s Digital Credit Capital Framework https://x.com/saylor/status/2071565162377568377 https://x.com/Strategy/status/2071565225699004761 16:37 The Rise of Robinhood Chain https://x.com/RobinhoodApp/status/2072390893181481419 https://x.com/charliekerr/status/2072477658802217187 https://x.com/EntropyAdvisors/thread/2072395320752050212 https://x.com/trent_vanepps/status/2072405895313588351 https://x.com/Lighter_xyz/status/2072394977729040722 https://x.com/Lighter_xyz/status/2072401925094441109 26:10 Venice AI Becomes a Unicorn https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/01/venice-ai-becomes-a-unicorn-with-65m-series-a-as-its-privacy-first-ai-platform-takes-off/ https://x.com/ErikVoorhees/status/2072326370206581037 https://x.com/ErikVoorhees/status/2072336126912630921 https://x.com/MikeIppolito_/status/2072353260795572281 https://x.com/ChainLinkGod/status/2072378849921577306 https://x.com/CosimoCapital/status/2072450958270050394 35:07 OpenUSD vs USDC https://joinopenstandard.com/blog/introducing-open-usd/ https://x.com/stripe/status/2071948464762618051 https://x.com/jerallaire/status/2072252803163255179 https://x.com/lorenzoark/status/2071997238713127404 https://x.com/HadickM/thread/2072286093744234864 https://x.com/koeppelmann/status/2071961529671418065 https://x.com/paoloardoino/status/2071982330915225771 46:10 Ethereum Institutional Launches https://x.com/ethereuminsti/status/2072304960142729373 https://www.ethereuminstitutional.org/ https://x.com/fundstrat/status/2072318453248094708 https://x.com/Sharplink/status/2072307000298397834 https://x.com/ethlabs_org/status/2072326438594748921 49:03 Trump’s $1.4B Crypto Disclosure https://x.com/aggrnews/status/2072059335081967812 https://x.com/AC360/status/2072128334666879070  https://x.com/business/status/2072069350060617837 54:28 Solana Memecoin Revival https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/2072653822283874481 https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/the-black-bull https://x.com/Adam_Tehc/status/2072183263893065930 https://polymarket.com/event/what-price-will-ansem-hit-in-2026 59:20 Cloudflare x402 Stablecoin Payments https://blog.cloudflare.com/monetization-gateway/ https://youtu.be/TKVY4hVAd9g 1:02:08 Meme of the Week https://x.com/pubity/status/2072436231284072635 https://x.com/FoxNews/status/2072357302942752993 https://x.com/RidazLp2/status/2072563280602927377/photo/4 1:03:35 Closing & Disclosures --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

The stock market is starting to move onchain, and Ondo is one of the teams building the rails. Ian De Bode joins David to explain how Ondo brought tokenized SpaceX stock to Ethereum minutes after trading began, why tokenized equities need real market liquidity instead of shallow DEX pools, and how Ondo Perps could unlock a new generation of RWA trading by using tokenized stocks as collateral. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast 📊BITGET | TOKENIZED STOCKS 2.0 https://bankless.cc/bitget-stocks 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless 👑BANKLESS PREMIUM | AD-FREE & BONUS EPISODES https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Ondo’s RWA Moment 1:17 How SpaceX Stock Hit Ethereum in Minutes 2:57 What Actually Backs a Tokenized Stock? 4:49 The Onchain and Offchain Market Machine 10:29 Where the Demand Comes From 12:46 The Most Popular Tokenized Stocks 14:54 Why Perps Need Better Collateral 20:46 New Strategies for Onchain Asset Management 25:02 The Next 12 to 18 Months 26:14 How Big Can Perps Get? 28:46 Offshore Versus Onshore Perp Markets 32:05 Inside Ondo Perps 36:24 Why Not Build on Hyperliquid? 37:49 Launch Timeline and Early Demand 39:48 Will Wall Street Incumbents Compete or Help? 43:52 Ondo’s 2026 Roadmap 45:22 Remembering Nathan Allman --- RESOURCES Ian De Bode https://x.com/iandebode --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Michael Saylor’s Strategy bought itself time, but did it actually solve the problem? David sits down with Jeff Dorman and Matt Walsh to unpack Strategy’s increasingly complex capital structure, why $STRC and MSTR are now fighting for oxygen, whether Saylor may need to sell Bitcoin, and why the company is starting to look less like a levered BTC play and more like an actively managed hedge fund. --- 📣OKX | THE NEW MONEY APP https://app.okx.com/en-us/join/usbankless --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast 📊BITGET | TOKENIZED STOCKS 2.0 https://bankless.cc/bitget-stocks 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless 👑BANKLESS PREMIUM | AD-FREE & BONUS EPISODES https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 2:30 Can Stretch Return to 100? 4:00 Explaining the New Framework 4:43 Can the Capital Stack Coexist? 6:39 Refunding the Converts 8:32 MNAV Near the Breaking Point 11:15 Option Value or Investor Betrayal 15:37 Legal Risk and Retail Exposure 19:52 Buying Time, Not Solving It 22:20 Scenario Odds After the Pivot 24:54 Sell Bitcoin or Wait 28:59 M&A as a New Path 34:13 Temporary Relief, Future Crash 36:21 Slow Bleed, Not Bankruptcy 40:58 Bitcoin Needs a Bigger Narrative 46:56 Would Jeff Buy Stretch? 48:26 Is the Model Actually Genius? 52:09 Closing & Disclaimers --- RESOURCES Matt Walsh https://x.com/MattWalshInBos Jeff Dorman https://x.com/jdorman81 --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Ethereum has a new R&D lab, and its mission is blunt: make Ethereum and ETH win. In this episode, David sits down with Ansgar and Caspar, two co-founders of Ethlabs, to unpack why the organization exists, how it complements the Ethereum Foundation, and what it means to put Ethereum back on offense. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast 🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY to OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDE https://app.okx.com/join/USBANKLESS 🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOW https://go.metamask.io/BL-Pod-Download 🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD https://bankless.cc/brix 📊BITGET | TOKENIZED STOCKS 2.0 https://bankless.cc/bitget-stocks 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 What is Ethlabs? 2:35 The EF Narrows Its Mission 9:30 Putting Points on the Board 13:06 Principles Need Users 14:53 ETH the Asset and Ethereum the Network 17:33 Scaling, Interop, and Growth Workstreams 22:52 The Talent Behind Ethlabs 25:27 What a New Organization Unlocks 27:53 Pro Markets, Pro Growth, Pro ETH 30:51 The Trillion Dollar ETH Question 37:07 Who Steers Ethereum? 39:55 Shared Vision, Different Path 45:13 Funding Ethlabs 51:54 Hiring for Ethlabs 54:24 Ethereum’s Long Arc 58:14 What Comes First --- RESOURCES Ansgar Dietrichs https://x.com/adietrichs Caspar Schwarz-Schilling https://x.com/casparschwa Ethlabs https://ethlabs.org/ --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Markets are bleeding as Bitcoin breaks below $60K and Strategy faces its biggest test yet. Ryan and David unpack Saylor’s three-way squeeze, ETH Labs vs. the EF reset, quantum timelines moving up, and Illinois’ new crypto tax. --- 🧭OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDE https://app.okx.com/join/USBANKLESS --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast 🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOW https://go.metamask.io/BL-Pod-Download 🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD https://bankless.cc/brix 📊BITGET | TOKENIZED STOCKS 2.0 https://bankless.cc/bitget-stocks 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 3:35 Bitcoin Below $60K and Strategy’s 3 Body Problem https://www.tradingview.com/chart/KZYJV3ef/ https://www.strategy.com/ https://x.com/saylor/status/2069028571880845340 https://x.com/saylor/status/2069682624956612731 https://x.com/Pentosh1/status/2069797143917855024 https://x.com/jdorman81/status/2067616073479078386 https://x.com/jdorman81/status/2069857950202835258 https://x.com/ki_young_ju/status/2069646523668033833 https://x.com/PeterSchiff/status/2070146847692185798 https://polymarket.com/event/what-price-will-bitcoin-hit-before-2027 17:59 ETH, Stocks, South Korea Selloff, and the AI Trade 20:59 Why Crypto Is Down: AI Attention, Debasement Pause, and the 4-Year Cycle 27:06 Mover of the Week: $CARDS and Pokemon Cards as RWAs https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/collector-crypt 31:32 Ethereum’s Center of Gravity Shifts: EF Cuts and ETH Labs https://x.com/VitalikButerin/status/2069431500035023121 https://blog.ethereum.org/2026/06/23/ef-structure https://x.com/aerugoettinea/status/2069017140846330107 https://x.com/tkstanczak/status/2069454499509596582 https://x.com/bobbyong/status/2069965817882755342 https://x.com/ethlabs_org/status/2069104073245159573 https://ethlabs.org/thesis.html https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/2069110440903196810 https://x.com/trent_vanepps/status/2067593124398989551 51:50 White House Quantum EO: Are Crypto Timelines Moving Up? https://x.com/WhiteHouse/status/2069154174818754759 https://x.com/projecteleven/status/2069151681015627881 https://x.com/drakefjustin/status/2061793725299224676 57:25 Illinois Passes a 0.2% Crypto Transaction Tax https://x.com/0xBeaconLayer/status/2069120528238121154 https://x.com/manwithadogg/status/2069158605664756205 https://x.com/DarrenBaileyIL/status/2070149517102469527 59:50 Portfolio Check and Crypto Bottom Watch --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

What happens when powerful AI requires an ID, governments can restrict access by country, and your most private data flows through centralized systems? NEAR co-founder Illia Polosukhin joins David to explain why AI export controls could fracture the internet, how nationalized AI could become a surveillance layer, and why decentralized, user-owned AI may be the only real alternative. They also unpack Ironclaw, confidential inference, private agents, and NEAR’s push to make AI and assets fully sovereign. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast 🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY to OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDE https://app.okx.com/join/USBANKLESS 🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOW https://go.metamask.io/BL-Pod-Download 🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD https://bankless.cc/brix 📊BITGET | TOKENIZED STOCKS 2.0 https://bankless.cc/bitget-stocks 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 3:47 Pandora’s Box Opens 6:03 AI Meets Government 7:16 Decentralizing the Stack 8:51 Why Ban Fable? 11:18 Internet Balkanization 13:57 KYC for AI? 18:43 Nationalized Models 21:07 Building Private AI 26:30 Agent Marketplace 30:26 User-Owned Alignment 35:28 Winning Against Giants 40:19 Regulation Fuels Crypto 42:24 Global AI Adoption 45:05 Compute Is the Bottleneck 49:00 Enterprise Use Cases 51:39 Confidential TVL Explained 55:25 Full Sovereign Mode --- RESOURCES Illia Polosukhin https://x.com/ilblackdragon Near Protocol https://www.near.org/ --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Arthur Hayes is back on Bankless, and he’s taking the W off the table. After selling HYPE, NEAR and ZEC, Arthur walks through why the AI trade started to look less asymmetric, why oil and geopolitics may still be the bear case no one wants to price, and why ETH may offer one of the cleaner setups in crypto today. Then the conversation turns bigger: AI capex, circular revenue, China’s cheap models, GPU depreciation, and the moment Arthur thinks the Fed discovers it can’t print Moore’s Law. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast 🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY to OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDE https://app.okx.com/join/USBANKLESS 🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOW https://go.metamask.io/BL-Pod-Download 🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD https://bankless.cc/brix 📊BITGET | TOKENIZED STOCKS 2.0 https://bankless.cc/bitget-stocks 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Why Arthur Sold HYPE, NEAR and ZEC 4:26 The AI Trade Starts to Look Crowded 6:25 How Arthur Is Positioned Now 7:15 Crypto’s Strange Market Dispersion 11:09 Oil, Iran and the Fake-Out Risk 14:16 Why the Iran Deal May Not Be Durable 17:29 Can AI Survive Higher Oil? 21:20 The AI Bubble Thesis 26:11 China’s Cheap AI Threat 30:38 The Credit Event Arthur Is Watching 35:51 The 2028 Perfect Storm 39:45 Why AI Is Draining Crypto’s Bull Market 44:28 Arthur on Inventing Perps 48:11 Why Perps Could Eat Wall Street 51:18 Socialized Loss Explained 53:21 Onshore vs Offshore Perps 55:50 Why Hyperliquid Can Flip Binance 56:30 The Perp Inventor Does Not Use Leverage --- RESOURCES Arthur Hayes https://x.com/CryptoHayes --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Equities are rallying, but Bitcoin is breaking down. David and Tom unpack Saylor’s STRC stress, Warsh’s first FOMC, SpaceX’s mega-IPO, Jito’s breakout, Coinbase’s Everything Exchange, and why perps may be crypto’s next real growth engine. --- 📣OKX | THE NEW MONEY APP https://app.okx.com/en-us/join/usbankless --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast 🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY to OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDE https://app.okx.com/join/USBANKLESS 🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOW https://go.metamask.io/BL-Pod-Download 🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD https://bankless.cc/brix 📊BITGET | TOKENIZED STOCKS 2.0 https://bankless.cc/bitget-stocks 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless --- TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES  0:00 Intro 3:07 Equities Up, Crypto Down: STRC Stress https://x.com/PeterSchiff/status/2067629492214829114 https://x.com/zackvoell/status/2067628541257429213 https://x.com/R89Capital/status/2067608064627491009 https://x.com/jdorman81/status/2067616073479078386 11:21 First FOMC with Kevin Warsh https://www.businessinsider.com/kevin-warsh-first-fomc-fed-meeting-interest-rates-2026-6 16:35 SpaceX Becomes One of the World’s Most Valuable Companies 25:43 Mover of the Month: JTO 31:01 Coinbase System Update https://www.coinbase.com/blog/system-update-take-control-of-your-money-with-coinbase https://x.com/oost_marcel/status/2067268725883981841 https://x.com/coinbase/status/2066890566667796530 https://www.theblock.co/post/405012/coinbase-unveils-system-update-unlocking-an-ai-advisor-global-unified-liquidity-options-trading-and-more 37:42 Anchorage Brings Hyperliquid to Institutions https://x.com/nathanmccauley/status/2066906951464947966 46:23 Blockworks Acquires Messari https://x.com/blockworks/status/2065468327120576863 50:40 UK Moves to Ban Social Media for Children https://x.com/keir_starmer/status/2066458640010158571 57:50 Polymarket World Cup Trade https://polymarket.com/sports/world-cup/bracket https://polymarket.com/event/world-cup-winner 59:50 Closing & Disclaimers --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Re is bringing the $1T reinsurance market onchain. Founder Karn Saroya and Electric Capital’s Avichal Garg join David to unpack how stablecoins can become a new capital source for insurance, why real-world reinsurance may offer crypto’s missing “real yield,” and how Re is using Ethereum, smart contracts, and AI to compete with legacy giants like Lloyd’s of London, Munich Re, and Swiss Re. They also discuss the RE token, the future of onchain capital markets, and why stablecoins could become the backbone of a new financial system. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast 🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY to OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDE https://app.okx.com/join/USBANKLESS 🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOW https://go.metamask.io/BL-Pod-Download 🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD https://bankless.cc/brix 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless --- TIMESTAMPS  0:00 Intro 2:13 Blockchain Reinsurance Edge 4:12 Stablecoin Capital Markets 9:17 Efficiency Beats Incumbents 13:02 Rewiring Insurance Plumbing 16:24 Durable Startup Advantage 23:26 Reinsurance Market Size 30:09 How Reinsurance Pays 32:42 Capital Stack Mechanics 35:52 Leverage and Yield 40:02 What $RE Tracks 41:34 Tranche Yields 42:36 Productive Capital Returns 44:47 Looping the Receipts 48:01 $RE Token Governance 51:26 Roadmap to a Billion 52:13 Onchain Adoption Ahead 56:02 The DeFi Mullet Future --- RESOURCES  Re https://re.xyz/home Karn Saroya https://x.com/karnsaroya Avichal Garg https://x.com/avichal --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Pokemon cards are suddenly one of the hottest markets in collectibles. But why now, and what does it have to do with crypto? Andy8052 joins David to break down the rise of digital pack-opening platforms, the nostalgia-driven bull case for Pokémon, why grading companies have a stranglehold on the market, and how millions of dollars of real-world cards are slowly moving onchain. Are tokenized collectibles the next NFT comeback story, or just another frothy mania? --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast 🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY to OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDE https://app.okx.com/join/USBANKLESS 🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOW https://go.metamask.io/BL-Pod-Download 🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD https://bankless.cc/brix 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless --- TIMESTAMPS  0:00 NFTs to Pokémon Cards 2:59 Why Pokémon Is Hot 8:13 Nostalgia Meets Disposable Income 11:56 Brands, Influencers, and Hype 15:06 Pricing the Cards 16:21 Grading and Market Bottlenecks 22:16 Why Cards Still Aren't On-Chain 30:06 Inside Monster Strategy 34:40 Market Consolidation Ahead 35:42 Vaults, Shipping, and Logistics 38:13 Kids, Parents, and Collecting 40:45 Nostalgia Is the Real Bull Case 43:45 Where to Find Andy 44:35 Tokenized Cards and Stablecoins --- RESOURCES  Andy8052 https://x.com/andy8052 --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Perps are coming onshore. CFTC Chairman Mike Selig joins David to unpack the first U.S.-regulated Bitcoin perpetual futures contract, the end of regulation by enforcement, and what comes next for Coinbase, Kalshi, Kraken, Gemini, Hyperliquid, Lighter, and the broader U.S. perp market. They also discuss which assets could list next, how U.S. leverage will differ from offshore exchanges, and why equity perps, RWAs, and 24/7 trading may be the next frontier of American finance. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast 🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY to OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDE https://app.okx.com/join/USBANKLESS 🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOW https://go.metamask.io/BL-Pod-Download 🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD https://bankless.cc/brix 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless --- TIMESTAMPS  0:00 Intro 3:32 Self-Certified Crypto Contracts 7:08 Chasing the U.S. Perps Market 9:00 Bringing Liquidity Onshore 10:18 U.S. Market Guardrails 12:44 Blockchain Transparency Advantage 19:17 Hyperliquid and Onchain Perps 23:09 Real-World Asset Perps 24:38 Equity Perps & SEC 26:35 Incumbents Versus Disruptors 31:28 Derivatives Dominating Crypto 33:16 Perps Are Just Beginning --- RESOURCES  CFTC Chair Mike Selig https://x.com/ChairmanSelig --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Bitcoin is back at Biden-era prices, ETFs are bleeding, and Saylor just did the thing he said never to do: sell. Ryan and David unpack whether crypto has one more drop left, what trillion-dollar IPOs reveal about broken capital markets, and why their ETH debate may be the real fight for Ethereum’s future. --- 📣OKX | THE NEW MONEY APP https://app.okx.com/en-us/join/usbankless  --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast 🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY to OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDE https://app.okx.com/join/USBANKLESS 🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOW https://go.metamask.io/BL-Pod-Download 🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD https://bankless.cc/brix 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless --- TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES 0:00 Intro 3:07 Markets https://x.com/aggrnews/status/2063954465678410121 https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/06/01/analysts-agree-strategy-s-bitcoin-sale-was-immaterial-differ-on-future-signals https://imgur.com/SDyYiQS https://x.com/WatcherGuru/status/2063964293478101014  https://x.com/zoomerfied/status/2062288919853490553 https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bitmine-immersion-technologies-announces-pricing-of-upsized-series-a-perpetual-preferred-stock-offering-302792359.html https://thedefiant.io/news/tradfi-and-fintech/bitmine-files-300m-preferred-stock-offering-9-5-yield-eth-treasury https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/06/03/tom-lee-s-bitmine-to-offer-preferred-stock-with-9-5-dividend-seeking-to-raise-usd300-million https://imgur.com/tvIDofV https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2065049515384582205 https://polymarket.com/event/fed-rate-hike-in-2026 https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/ https://www.theguardian.com/business/2026/jun/11/ecb-eurozone-interest-rates-iran-war-inflation 30:11 IPO Season https://app.lighter.xyz/trade/SPACEX https://app.lighter.xyz/trade/ANTHROPIC https://app.lighter.xyz/trade/OPENAI 36:29 Bankless Guys Are Fighting https://x.com/steweycrypto/status/2062796930326094216 https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/2062598415482245528 https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/2062599824491372906 https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/2062612677466202281 https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/2062644365533622705 https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/2062669134614466707 https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/2062674368195686809 https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/2062745848673427471 https://x.com/Tommyb631/status/2062613008304451756 55:39 Morpho Flips Aave https://morpho.org/blog/morpho-association-raises-175m-to-build-the-open-credit-network-for-the-world/ https://x.com/0xLouisT/status/2063963380000407881 58:04 ZEC Vulnerability & Jason Calacanis’ Crypto-to-AI Tweet https://x.com/Jason/status/2064083020257055193 coindesk.com/.../zcash-plummets-30-as-developer-reveals-a-major-bug forum.zcashcommunity.com/.../orchard-counterfeiting-vulnerability 1:02:55 Hester Peirce Almost Out https://x.com/hesterpeirce/status/2064768651488608612 https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/speeches-statements/peirce-remarks-chamber-commerce-capital-markets-summit-060926 1:06:03 World Cup Starts https://polymarket.com/event/world-cup-winner 1:07:26 Closing & Disclaimers --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Hyperliquid has become the breakout perp exchange of crypto. But is the market missing its biggest competitor? Delphi’s Flip and DeFi investor Will Price join David to make the case for Lighter, a ZK-powered Ethereum L2 with zero-fee retail trading, white-glove distribution, real-world asset perps, and a token buying back revenue at a surprising rate. Is LIT just a Hyperliquid beta trade, or is it one of the most underpriced bets in onchain finance? --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast 🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY to OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDE https://app.okx.com/join/USBANKLESS 🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOW https://go.metamask.io/BL-Pod-Download 🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD https://bankless.cc/brix 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 3:05 Why Lighter Is Different 5:32 ZK Rollup Advantages 6:46 Charging Traders, Not Retail 12:07 Fairness Without MEV 14:50 Why Hyperliquid Can’t Copy 18:03 Distribution Beyond Crypto 22:08 Latency & Flow Quality 26:50 Technical Edge Across the Stack 30:31 RWAs & Pre-IPO Markets 34:07 U.S. Perps Market Play 36:05 Back-End For Big Brokers 38:28 Bootstrapping Liquidity 41:54 Lighter As A Platform 46:34 Token Value & Buybacks 50:11 Market Cap Versus FDV 53:02 Valuing LIT Properly 57:51 Cracked Team & Better Comms 58:13 Joining The Lighter Community 58:51 What Comes Next --- RESOURCES Will Price https://x.com/will__price Trevor Flipper https://x.com/trevor_flipper --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

AI is quickly becoming the interface through which people think, work, and make decisions—but most users have no idea how much personal data they're handing over in the process. Jon and Jesse from Venice join David to make the case for privacy-first AI, explain why Venice is aiming to become a mainstream consumer AI brand, and explore how $VVV and DIEM transform inference into a crypto-economic primitive. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast 🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY to OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDE https://app.okx.com/join/USBANKLESS 🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOW https://go.metamask.io/BL-Pod-Download 🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD https://bankless.cc/brix 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 1:12 Why Private AI Matters 3:01 The AI Data Honeypot 6:07 Venice’s Consumer AI Ambition 8:01 Beating the Big AI Labs 10:19 Model Aggregation and Agentic Chat 12:29 Open Source, Closed Source, and Private Grok 17:14 Who Actually Needs Private AI? 21:58 Venice’s User Base 23:53 What Drove Venice’s Recent Growth 27:21 $VVV, DIEM, and Tokenized Inference 29:00 Where Venice Gets Its Compute 32:17 Bonding Curves and DIEM Monetary Policy 39:14 Real Tokenomics, Not Just a Pie Chart 45:46 AI Agents Need Inference to Exist 52:54 ShapeShift DNA Inside Venice 55:53 Regulation, AI, and Individual Rights --- RESOURCES Jon ShapeShift https://x.com/JonShapeShift Jesse Proudman https://x.com/jesseproudman --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Bitcoin is bleeding, STRC is off peg, and Saylor’s “never sell” machine is facing its first real confidence test. David and Haseeb unpack whether Strategy can survive without selling BTC, why Bitmine’s ETH play may be stronger but riskier, and what select token strength, U.S. perps, and Coinbase’s Ethena deal reveal about crypto’s next phase. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast 🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY to OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDE https://app.okx.com/join/USBANKLESS 🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOW https://go.metamask.io/BL-Pod-Download 🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD https://bankless.cc/brix 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless --- TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES 0:00 Intro 1:37 Saylor & Strategy Confidence Test https://x.com/zerohedge/status/2061418482344849785  https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2062475802252365980 https://x.com/glxyresearch/status/2062518531128746000 https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/2062499179239215390 13:26 DATs Underwater & Bitmine Preferred Offering https://x.com/lookonchain/status/2062011412965405059 https://x.com/zoomerfied/status/2062288919853490553 34:19 Major Weakness & Select Token Strength 40:45 U.S. Perps Get Greenlit https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2026/05/28/u-s-cftc-opens-crypto-perp-door-with-approval-of-first-regulated-firm 53:41 Coinbase Invests in Ethena https://www.theblock.co/post/403403/coinbase-invests-ethena-open-market-purchase-ena-flags-new-partnership 57:13 Closing & Disclaimers --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Crypto policy in Washington has gone from punchline to power center. David sits down with Ron Hammond, Head of Policy and Advocacy at Wintermute, for a rare inside look at how crypto actually moves through DC: the SBF era, Elizabeth Warren’s anti-crypto army, Gary Gensler’s SEC, bank lobby pressure, Trump’s crypto conflicts, the Clarity Act fight, and why privacy and self-custody may be the next major battleground. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast 🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY to OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDE https://app.okx.com/join/USBANKLESS 🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOW https://go.metamask.io/BL-Pod-Download 🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD https://bankless.cc/brix 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Becoming “Captain Crypto” in DC 4:03 From Joke to Serious Political Force 6:19 Why Crypto Punches Above Its Weight 10:28 How SBF Captured Washington 13:26 The FTX Fallout in Capitol Hill 16:25 Elizabeth Warren and Crypto’s Proxy Wars 19:04 How DC Letters Actually Get Written 25:33 How Powerful Is the Crypto Lobby? 27:28 Who Is Playing on Crypto’s Side? 31:01 Democrats, Gensler, and the 2024 Lesson 35:07 The Gensler Era and Prometheum 41:21 Will Warren Ever Pivot? 43:20 Trump, the Crypto Ball, and World Liberty 49:30 Will the Clarity Act Pass? 53:30 Privacy, Self-Custody, and the Next Front 56:23 The Social Side of Crypto in DC --- RESOURCES Ron Hammond https://x.com/RonwHammond --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

What happens when every payment, wallet, and onchain interaction becomes searchable by governments, companies, adversaries, and AI? Josh Swihart, founder and CEO of Zcash Open Development Lab, joins David to explain why Zcash is having a major privacy comeback, how ZODL and the Zashi wallet helped unlock real shielded adoption, why the shielded pool may be the most important ZEC metric, and what it will take for private money to become too big to kill. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast 🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY to OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDE https://app.okx.com/join/USBANKLESS 🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOW https://go.metamask.io/BL-Pod-Download 🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD https://bankless.cc/brix 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 4:17 Privacy in the AI Era 6:19 Crypto’s Missing Privacy Layer 9:49 The Political Fight for Privacy 14:42 Can Crypto Retain Privacy? 16:47 From Zashi to ZODL 19:48 The Zcash Reawakening 21:41 Balaji, Funding, and the Mission 24:49 Product Market Fit for Shielded ZEC 27:51 ZODL's Role in the Zcash Stack 29:36 The Zcash Roadmap 32:56 What Is ZEC and is it Undervalued? 36:56 The Shielded Pool Explained 45:12 The $25M ZODL Raise 47:16 Compliance and Shielded ZEC 51:25 Institutions vs Cypherpunk Values 53:58 Personal Privacy in an AI World --- RESOURCES Josh Swihart https://x.com/jswihart ZODL https://x.com/zodl_app --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Crypto is splitting in two: Bitcoin and ETH look weak, while HYPE, ZEC, NEAR, and VVV keep breaking out. Ryan and David unpack the strange market divergence, Ethereum’s crisis of faith, and whether this rally is real or false strength. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast 🟦 COINBASE ONE | MEMBER MONTH https://bankless.cc/coinbase-one 🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY to OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDE https://app.okx.com/join/USBANKLESS 🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOW https://go.metamask.io/BL-Pod-Download 🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD https://bankless.cc/brix --- TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES 0:00 Intro 1:48 Markets https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/2059793993551008245  https://x.com/cburniske/status/2059797889824776463 https://imgur.com/Tp9beNo https://www.theblock.co/post/402816/bitcoin-falls-below-73000 https://imgur.com/R0ih6kL https://x.com/solunavaxxer/status/2060021032455741567 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3ptz8qvZcg https://x.com/readDanwrite/status/2057476278140145717  https://www.artemis.ai/sectors/digital-asset-treasuries https://x.com/saylor/status/2059970505835155782 https://x.com/Kalshi_Crypto/status/2059983883274191046 https://www.hypestrat.xyz/ https://imgur.com/1MUGQy7 https://polymarket.com/event/what-price-will-bitcoin-hit-before-2027 https://polymarket.com/event/what-price-will-ethereum-hit-before-2027 https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/hyperliquid https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/venice-token https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/near https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/zcash https://x.com/JSeyff/status/2059689056368210228 https://farside.co.uk/hyp/ https://x.com/PolymarketTrade/status/2059973516963750204 https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2060004371983667484 https://www.axios.com/2026/05/28/iran-peace-deal-trump-approval https://imgur.com/m7YNdxu https://imgur.com/MIdPjqZ https://imgur.com/VoixfYd https://imgur.com/s5AYaWg https://www.theblock.co/post/402638/tokenized-pokemon-card-marketplaces-record-7-4-million-hype-peaks-30th-anniversary 32:26 Ethereum Sentiment Crisis & DeFi Under AI Threat? https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/2059371247163613489 https://x.com/hosseeb/status/2057455211375976891 https://www.theblock.co/post/402864/standard-chartered-ethereum-amazon-dot-com-bubble-eth-will-catch-up https://x.com/Yogita_Khatri5/status/2059955611085709612 https://x.com/VitalikButerin/status/2058583593102844111 https://farcaster.xyz/vitalik.eth/0x88000d5f https://x.com/maraoz/status/2059413578130641052 55:25 Robostrategy: Nic Carter & Andrew Kang Pivot to Robotics https://x.com/RoboStrategy/status/2059650538380165331 https://x.com/intern/status/2059287577257992623 56:52 NEAR Confidential Transactions https://x.com/NEARProtocol/status/2057810480635228666 t.co/BrLpsWmzKd https://x.com/ilblackdragon/status/2059793756933767379 58:10 SoFiUSD & Bank Stablecoins https://www.theblock.co/post/402361/sofi-rolls-out-sofiusd-stablecoin-to-banking-app-users https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/2059676463125655575 59:22 Cash App Adds Multi-Chain USDC https://www.theblock.co/post/402784/cash-app-lets-users-send-usdc-stablecoins-on-chains-like-solana-and-ethereum 1:00:13 Satoshi Coins Finders-Keepers Lawsuit https://www.galaxy.com/insights/research/satoshi-bitcoin-salomon-brothers-patoshi-abandoned-property-new-york-noah-doe-lawsuit 1:03:00 Closing & Disclaimers --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

NEAR keeps showing up in strange places: cross-chain wallets, privacy apps, AI infrastructure, and now the emerging agent economy. Sal Ternullo, CEO of SVRN, joins us to explain why he thinks this is not another NEAR pivot, but the original thesis finally coming into focus. They dig into NEAR Intents, AI money, tokenomics, privacy, fee capture, agentic commerce, and why SVRN is trying to commercialize the NEAR ecosystem rather than simply hold the asset. --- 🧭OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDE https://bankless.cc/OKXapp --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast 🟦 COINBASE ONE | MEMBER MONTH https://bankless.cc/coinbase-one 🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY to OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDE https://app.okx.com/join/USBANKLESS 🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOW https://go.metamask.io/BL-Pod-Download 🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD https://bankless.cc/brix 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 2:23 Why NEAR Keeps Showing Up 3:58 Pivot or Return to Roots? 7:41 The “AI Money” Thesis 9:54 Intents, Zashi, and Real Product Market Fit 11:38 Tokenomics, Buybacks, and Value Accrual 14:45 NEAR’s Different Approach From Ethereum 18:00 Fees, Scaling, and First-Party Apps 23:04 Cross-Chain Liquidity as NEAR’s Moat 28:27 The Contrarian Investor Case for NEAR 31:43 Privacy, Enterprises, and AI Agents 39:38 What SVRN Is Building for NEAR 46:00 Investor Sentiment and Final Thoughts --- RESOURCES Sal Ternullo https://x.com/sal_ternullo SVRN https://x.com/svrn_ai --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

The internet is about to be flooded by machines, and Matthew Prince thinks the old business model is not ready. The Cloudflare co-founder and CEO joins Bankless to explain why AI agent traffic could overtake human traffic by 2027, how crawlers are changing the economics of content, why ads and subscriptions may not survive in their current form, and how x402, stablecoins, and pay-per-crawl could create a new payment layer for the web. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast 🟦 COINBASE ONE | MEMBER MONTH https://bankless.cc/coinbase-one 🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY to OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDE https://app.okx.com/join/USBANKLESS 🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOW https://go.metamask.io/BL-Pod-Download 🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD https://bankless.cc/brix 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 1:18 When AI Bot Traffic Overtakes Humans 4:19 What Cloudflare Actually Does 10:40 Life on the Internet’s “Ice Wall” 13:33 The Internet’s Business Model Problem 17:43 Google, Traffic, and the Attention Economy 24:56 AI Agents and the End of Ads 28:47 Why Faster Answers Can Still Hurt Creators 33:26 AI Companies as the Next YouTube or Netflix 38:18 Creating Scarcity for Content Markets 41:52 Content Independence Day 45:24 Should AI Agents Count as Human Users? 51:37 The Risks of Subscription-Only AI 57:24 A Golden Age of Content Creation? 1:01:46 Pay-Per-Crawl and x402 1:04:34 Why Stablecoins Matter 1:07:56 The Cloudflare Stablecoin Question 1:14:18 The Final Form of the Internet 1:17:40 The Park Record and Local Journalism 1:22:16 The Centralization Risk 1:27:12 Advice for Content Creators --- RESOURCES Matthew Prince https://x.com/eastdakota --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Crypto’s old leaders are struggling, but new winners are breaking out. Ryan and David unpack the rise of HYPE, Zcash, and Venice, the macro bear fuel markets are ignoring, the EF talent exodus, and why David selling his last ETH may mark a new era for Ethereum and Bankless. --- 📣METAMASK | $100,000 ONDO GM CHALLENGE https://bankless.cc/OndoOnMetaMask  --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast 🟦 COINBASE ONE | MEMBER MONTH https://bankless.cc/coinbase-one 🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY to OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDE https://app.okx.com/join/USBANKLESS 🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOW https://go.metamask.io/BL-Pod-Download 🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD https://bankless.cc/brix --- TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES 0:00 Intro 3:28 Bear Fuel for Markets & Pockets of Bullishness in Crypto https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2056184339390419205 https://x.com/Barchart/status/2056350919139500364 https://x.com/JesseCohenInv/status/2056297490366837184 https://imgur.com/YqnyoBc https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2056556783221502060 https://polymarket.com/event/how-many-fed-rate-cuts-in-2026 https://thedefireport.io/research/signs-of-a-cycle-bottom#macro-update https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/21/iran-war-us-peace-talks-trump-hormuz.html https://polymarket.com/event/us-x-iran-permanent-peace-deal-by 21:27 Hyperliquid, HYPE, and Pre-IPO Price Discovery https://x.com/Matt_Hougan/status/2056720926234882533 https://polymarket.com/event/openai-ipo-closing-market-cap https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/05/20/elon-musk-s-spacex-holds-18-712-bitcoin-at-fair-value-of-usd1-29-billion-ipo-filing-shows https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/sec-readies-plan-trading-crypto-versions-stocks-bloomberg-news-reports-2026-05-18/ https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/05/21/binance-launches-spacex-pre-ipo-perps 32:43 Wintermute Opens DeFi Vaults on Morpho https://www.wintermute.com/insights/news/wintermute-launches-armitage-bringing-its-defi-and-trading-expertise-to-vault-curation https://x.com/wintermute_t/status/2056722776241902065 https://bitwiseinvestments.com/newsroom/bitwise-expands-onchain-solutions-with-introduction-of-non-custodial-vault 38:12  Trump’s Quantum Bets and U.S. Industrial Policy & Blockchain.com IPO and Ronin Migrates to Ethereum L2 https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2057431484915454235 https://www.theblock.co/post/402182/blockchain-com-confidentially-files-for-us-ipo-as-crypto-firms-continue-public-market-push https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2026/05/11/ronin-set-to-transition-to-ethereum-layer-2-from-independent-sidechain 46:34 EF Exodus and Ethereum’s Identity Crisis https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/2056383261648015443 https://x.com/drjasper_eth/status/2056405742769377490/photo/1 https://x.com/tkstanczak/status/2022315368430067847 https://x.com/0xstark/status/2044757694389670239 https://x.com/trent_vanepps/status/2044412517313556786 https://x.com/barnabemonnot/status/2053914533211558331 https://x.com/TimBeiko/status/2050570831491645874 https://blog.ethereum.org/2026/05/11/protocol-update-may-26 https://x.com/CarlBeek/status/2056379557889143042 https://x.com/_julianma/status/2056391635731128763 https://x.com/DefiIgnas/status/2056403039968174208 https://www.theblock.co/post/395541/miladys-loyalty-pledge-unnecessary-culture-schism-ethereum-community https://x.com/josephdelong/status/2019116049694880021 https://x.com/dankrad/status/2057441946616930799 https://x.com/ETH_Daily/status/2056549932455330020 https://x.com/wmougayar/status/2047274807230611805 1:00:04 David Sold His ETH and a New Era for Bankless https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/2057183150816583834 https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/2057216981368221776 1:10:00 Moment of Zen https://x.com/ethcforg/status/2057474005913792654  --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Bitcoin may be outgrowing the “digital gold” narrative. David sits down with Strive Chief Risk Officer Jeff Walton to unpack how Bitcoin-backed credit products like SATA and Strategy’s STRETCH could turn BTC into digital capital, why Jeff says the “Ponzi” framing misunderstands the balance sheet, how 13% yield and daily dividends could disrupt credit markets, and why this new financial layer may expand Bitcoin’s TAM far beyond gold. --- 📣OKX | THE NEW MONEY APP https://bankless.cc/OKXapp --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast 🟦 COINBASE ONE | MEMBER MONTH https://bankless.cc/coinbase-one 🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY to OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDE https://app.okx.com/join/USBANKLESS 🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOW https://go.metamask.io/BL-Pod-Download 🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD https://bankless.cc/brix 💰NEXO | Get your 30-day access to Wealth Club Premier https://bankless.cc/nexo --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 1:59 Stretch, Risk, and Balance Sheets 5:28 Dividend Backstop Debate 8:53 Measuring Bitcoin Downside 15:25 Success as Long-Tail Risk 19:17 Common Equity as Revenue 25:57 Digital Credit’s Massive Market 29:37 Credit, Liquidity, and Yield 33:02 Banks, Trust, and Inflation 36:08 Trust Networks Rebuilt 40:26 Digital Labor and Yield 44:38 Bitcoin’s Growing Capital Base 48:36 S-Curve and Market Size 52:36 Building on Bitcoin Instruments 55:58 Transforming the Asset 59:12 Co-opetition in Bitcoin Credit 1:03:23 Low Vol for Long Holders 1:09:13 Strive Versus Strategy 1:12:38 Scaling Faster Than Strategy 1:14:38 Jeff’s Bitcoin Origin Story 1:17:30 Closing & Disclaimers --- RESOURCES Jeff Walton https://x.com/PunterJeff True North Show https://www.youtube.com/@BTCTrueNorth Jeff’s Coffeezilla Interview https://youtu.be/pvZnpppwkoM?si=lXcF6r02yzmYE9jt --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Zcash is having its first real narrative moment in years. David sits down with Multicoin Capital co-founder Tushar Jain and Mert Mumtaz to unpack why privacy may be crypto’s missing store-of-value primitive, why Zcash is being framed as “private Bitcoin,” how institutional adoption could normalize shielded money, what AI and onchain surveillance change about the privacy debate, and why quantum risk could become a real catalyst. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast 🟦 COINBASE ONE | MEMBER MONTH https://bankless.cc/coinbase-one 🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY to OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDE https://app.okx.com/join/USBANKLESS 🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOW https://go.metamask.io/BL-Pod-Download 🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD https://bankless.cc/brix 💰NEXO | Get your 30-day access to Wealth Club Premier https://bankless.cc/nexo --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Why Multicoin Got Interested in Zcash 5:22 Mert’s Path from Solana to Zcash 9:57 Why Zcash, Why Now? 17:01 The Institutional Path for Private Money 22:03 Zcash as a Private Store of Value 25:27 Fungibility, Tainted Coins, and Financial History 27:26 The Bear Case: Does Anyone Really Care About Privacy? 34:43 Onchain Surveillance and Government Power 39:13 Zcash Tokenomics and the Forgotten Coin Thesis 44:58 The Last PVE in Crypto 50:17 Zcash and the Quantum Threat 59:14 Shielded Pool Growth and Upcoming Catalysts --- RESOURCES Tushar Jain https://x.com/tushar_jain Mert Mumtaz https://x.com/mert --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Two surprise Democrat votes just rerated the entire crypto policy timeline. After the Senate Banking Committee advanced the Clarity Act on a bipartisan basis, Galaxy Digital head of research Alex Thorn moved his odds of the bill being signed this year from a coin flip to 75%. He and David map the seven-week sprint to the president's desk, the ethics-provision standoff that could still sink everything, the bank lobby's quiet obstruction game, and why the stablecoin yield compromise leaves the real fight for rulemaking. ------ 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium ------ 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast  🟦 COINBASE ONE | MEMBER MONTH https://bankless.cc/coinbase-one 🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY to OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDE https://app.okx.com/join/USBANKLESS 🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOW https://go.metamask.io/BL-Pod-Download  🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD https://bankless.cc/brix 💰NEXO | Get your 30-day access to Wealth Club Premier https://bankless.cc/nexo  ------ TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 0:39 Clarity Act Vote Reactions 5:16 What’s Next? 10:05 Trump Veto? 15:21 Stablecoin Rewards Compromise 28:14 Administration Precedence 31:02 Why is Clarity So Important? 41:01 Which Ecosystems Benefit the Most? 42:59 Clarity Act Passing Over-Under 48:17 Bitcoin Price After CLARITY 49:39 Closing & Disclaimers ------ RESOURCES Alex Thorn https://x.com/intangiblecoins  Galaxy Digital https://www.galaxy.com/  Senate Banking Committee Advances Crypto CLARITY Act https://www.bankless.com/read/news/senate-banking-committee-advances-crypto-clarity-act  ------ Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠

Markets are ignoring every warning sign as stocks hit new highs, but crypto may finally have its catalyst. Ryan and David break down the CLARITY Act’s key vote, Wall Street’s Ethereum push, Bitcoin’s $80K test, and why private AI stocks are creating chaos onchain. --- 📣GALAXY | INSTITUTIONAL DIGITAL FINANCE https://bankless.cc/Galaxy   --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast  🟦 COINBASE ONE | GET 20% OFF  https://bankless.cc/coinbase-one 🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY to OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDE https://app.okx.com/join/USBANKLESS 🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOW https://go.metamask.io/BL-Pod-Download  🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD https://bankless.cc/brix 💰NEXO | Get your 30-day access to Wealth Club Premier https://bankless.cc/nexo --- TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES 0:00 Intro 2:46 Trump/Xi Meeting, Nvidia China Deal, and AI Stocks https://x.com/WhiteHouse/status/2054607212513730674 https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/us-clears-h200-chip-sales-10-china-firms-nvidia-ceo-looks-breakthrough-2026-05-14/ https://imgur.com/wLddwGM https://x.com/BullTheoryio/status/2054558694785077478 https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2054177816573329496 https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/ https://x.com/coindesk/status/2054542868522365141 https://x.com/TedPillows/status/2054545275281182861 https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2054940927379014035 https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2054655260652716149 https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/ethereum 28:06 Circle Earnings, Arc, and USDC Growth https://x.com/circle/status/2053785252037022157 https://x.com/marcarjoon/status/2054539947466522815 https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/11/circle-closes-222-million-from-blackrock-apollo-for-arc-blockchain.html https://x.com/coingecko/status/2054042800203719158 32:54 Coinbase, USDC, and Hyperliquid Team Up + Anthropic and OpenAI Crack Down on Unauthorized Private Stock Sales https://x.com/wallstengine/status/2054928782918816102 https://app.hyperliquid.xyz/trade/xyz:CBRS https://x.com/caseycraig/status/2053568380796367301 46:57 CLARITY Act Passes Key Committee Vote https://x.com/brian_armstrong/status/2054552885376016718  https://x.com/DegenerateNews/status/2054968887796539789 https://x.com/valkenburgh/status/2054968314292486621 https://x.com/EleanorTerrett/status/2052890357952627000 https://polymarket.com/event/clarity-act-signed-into-law-in-2026/?via=bankless? https://x.com/FidelityPolicy/status/2054587652121284648 https://x.com/EleanorTerrett/status/2054295187048853637 https://www.banking.senate.gov/newsroom/minority/warren-statement-on-no-trump-ethics-provision-in-crypto-bill https://x.com/patrickjwitt/status/2054183222305554643 https://x.com/glxyresearch/status/2054635251503108596 https://x.com/EleanorTerrett/status/2054575825681367098 55:58 BlackRock, JPMorgan, and Fidelity Bring Money Markets to Ethereum https://x.com/VivekVentures/status/2054946669083390374 https://x.com/VivekVentures/status/2053101323390754982 https://x.com/NateGeraci/status/2052872497779896460 https://app.rwa.xyz/assets/BUIDL https://x.com/VivekVentures/status/2054305703272103977 https://x.com/EricBalchunas/status/2054316547712196688 https://am.jpmorgan.com/us/en/asset-management/adv/about-us/media/press-releases/jp-morgan-asset-management-launches-second-tokenized-fund-on-ethereum/ https://x.com/Etherealize_io/status/2054945868210450519 https://x.com/NateGeraci/status/2054355513182171502 59:23 Bankless Thesis Check-In https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/2054969401154130163 https://www.bankless.com/docs/mcp 1:03:43 Euphoria Mainnet Launch https://x.com/Euphoria_fi/status/2054954998375535097 1:04:45 Closing & Disclaimers --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Anthropic's secondary market is tens of billions of dollars deep, stacked with SPVs on top of SPVs charging 10% fees plus carry, and almost entirely opaque. Dio Casares of Patagon breaks down how it actually works: which deals Anthropic blesses and which get cease-and-desists, why fake share certificates show up in 10-20% of executed deals, what tokenized equities and pre-IPO perps actually represent, and the mess of lawsuits and stuck shares coming when Anthropic finally IPOs.  ------ 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium ------ 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast  🟦 COINBASE ONE | MEMBER MONTH https://bankless.cc/coinbase-one 🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY to OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDE https://app.okx.com/join/USBANKLESS 🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOW https://go.metamask.io/BL-Pod-Download  🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD https://bankless.cc/brix 💰NEXO | Get your 30-day access to Wealth Club Premier https://bankless.cc/nexo  ------ TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 0:40 What is Going on in Secondary Markets? 7:03 How Anthropic Secondary Markets Unfold 14:51 Anthropic’s Secondaries Social Elite 19:00 Emerging SPV Structure 21:51 Accidental Frauds? 27:04 After IPO Consequences 35:13 Private Market Lessons 38:21 Patagon Markets 43:54 Tokenized Perps 44:57 Closing Thoughts ------ RESOURCES Diogenes Cesares https://x.com/diogenes  Patagon Markets https://patagonmarkets.com/  ------ Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠

AI is no longer just a technology story. It is becoming a political fault line. Jasmine Sun joins Bankless to unpack the rise of AI populism, why backlash against data centers and AI labs is spreading across strange political coalitions, and whether jobs, inequality, and SuperPAC money could turn AI into a defining 2028 election issue. --- 🎬 DEBRIEF | RYAN & DAVID BREAKDOWN THE EPSIODE https://www.bankless.com/podcast/debrief-will-ai-populism-decide-the-2028-election --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast 🟦 COINBASE ONE | GET 20% OFF https://bankless.cc/coinbase-one 🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY to OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDE https://app.okx.com/join/USBANKLESS 🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOW https://go.metamask.io/BL-Pod-Download 🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD https://bankless.cc/brix 💰NEXO | Get your 30-day access to Wealth Club Premier https://bankless.cc/nexo --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 What Is AI Populism? 2:56 Why AI Could Matter in 2028 11:13 Data Centers, Distrust, and Warning Shots 25:27 The Jobpacalypse Debate 43:25 Game Over for Labor? 51:52 The New AI Political Map 1:04:50 Power Inequality, Policy, and the Grand Bargain 1:18:37 How to Stay Useful in the AI Era --- RESOURCES Jasmine Sun https://x.com/jasminewsun Jasmine’s Substack https://substack.com/@jasmine --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

AI stocks are ripping, crypto is following, and the question is whether this is the next leg higher or the final frothy phase before a reset. Ryan and Michael Nadeau break down why Bitcoin is so tied to the NASDAQ right now, how today’s AI boom compares to 1999, and what investors should watch if the bubble keeps inflating or finally starts to burst. Michael Nadeau & The DeFi Report: https://x.com/JustDeauIt https://bankless.cc/BTDR-RSS --- 📣THE DEFI REPORT | 20% OFF ANNUAL PLANS https://bankless.cc/BTDR-RSS   --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast  🟦 COINBASE ONE | GET 20% OFF  https://bankless.cc/coinbase-one 🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY to OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDE https://app.okx.com/join/USBANKLESS 🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOW https://go.metamask.io/BL-Pod-Download  🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD https://bankless.cc/brix 💰NEXO | Get your 30-day access to Wealth Club Premier https://bankless.cc/nexo --- TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES 0:00 Intro 1:48 The Bubble Debate 3:16 Defining the Bubble 4:33 Historical Perspectives on Bubbles 7:20 AI's Growth and Market Narratives 8:46 Technology Hype Cycles 11:21 Current Market Analysis 12:08 Understanding the Shiller PE Ratio 15:09 Revenue Growth Forecasts 18:19 Theories Behind Current Market Conditions 20:44 Analyzing Profit Margins 23:53 Price vs. Fundamentals 27:26 The Role of Market Sentiment 31:30 Historical Market Patterns 32:32 Lessons from the Dot-Com Era 35:17 Market Concentration and AI 39:38 The Future of AI Investments 41:45 Capital Flows in Tech 49:31 Geopolitical Implications and Market Behavior 53:25 Investor Positioning Strategies 1:04:30 Closing & Disclaimers --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

North Korea isn’t just hacking crypto anymore, it’s studying it, infiltrating it, and turning DeFi’s weakest links into a state-run revenue machine. This time around, Ryan and David sit down with Ari Redbord of TRM Labs to unpack the Drift hack, the $6B DPRK crypto crime machine, how stolen funds move through THORChain, Bitcoin, OTC desks, and Chinese laundering networks, and why the fightback may require everything from better DeFi security to real-time Beacon alerts and offensive cyber. --- 🎬 DEBRIEF | RYAN & DAVID BREAKDOWN THE EPISODE https://www.bankless.com/podcast/debrief-why-north-korea-is-winning-crypto-crime-and-how-to-fight-back-ari-redbord-trm-labs --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast 🟦 COINBASE ONE | GET 20% OFF https://bankless.cc/coinbase-one 🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY to OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDE https://app.okx.com/join/USBANKLESS 🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOW https://go.metamask.io/BL-Pod-Download 🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD https://bankless.cc/brix 💰NEXO | Get your 30-day access to Wealth Club Premier https://bankless.cc/nexo --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 2:16 The Drift Hack 5:15 Human Weak Points 11:16 The DPRK Hacker Network 14:56 The $6B Machine 20:32 Fighting Back 28:11 Seizures and Victims 38:58 Inside TRM Labs 47:01 Laundering Rails 52:51 The Beacon Network 58:06 Privacy vs Security 1:10:20 Code and Crime 1:14:49 Iran on Tron 1:22:55 Bitcoin and Power 1:28:49 Hardening DeFi --- RESOURCES Ari Redbord https://x.com/ARedbord TRM Labs https://www.trmlabs.com/ TRM’s DPRK Report https://www.trmlabs.com/resources/blog/north-korea-stole-76-of-all-crypto-hack-value-in-2026-with-just-two-attacks Ari’s Homeland Security Testimony https://www.congress.gov/119/meeting/house/119126/witnesses/HHRG-119-HM11-Wstate-RedbordA-20260421.pdf --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Stocks and AI are ripping to new highs, and crypto is getting pulled along for the ride. Ryan and David break down whether this rally is real or too frothy, what the CLARITY Act still needs to survive, why Coinbase layoffs are colliding with billion-dollar crypto raises, and what Saylor selling Bitcoin would actually mean. 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast  🟦 COINBASE ONE | GET 20% OFF  https://bankless.cc/coinbase-one 🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY to OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDE https://app.okx.com/join/USBANKLESS 🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOW https://go.metamask.io/BL-Pod-Download  🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD https://bankless.cc/brix 💰NEXO | Get your 30-day access to Wealth Club Premier https://bankless.cc/nexo --- TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES 0:00 Intro 1:29 Markets  https://www.coingecko.com/  https://imgur.com/a/xfVRCtd https://thedefireport.io/research/btc-is-nearing-an-inflection-point#btc-vs-nasdaq-correlation https://www.google.com/finance/beta/quote/.INX:INDEXSP https://www.reuters.com/business/stunning-us-profit-strength-ignites-stocks-charge-record-peaks-2026-05-06/ https://x.com/claudeai/status/2052060691893227611 https://x.com/Cointelegraph/status/2052247071491604672 https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2052042082185809991 https://app.hyperliquid.xyz/trade/vntl:ANTHROPIC https://x.com/jasongoepfert/status/2052110616622485834 https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/2049971216413343991 https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2050566239961956630 https://x.com/WhitePine009/status/2050578574348845271 https://x.com/Sam_Badawi/status/2050710130766074085/video/2  https://polymarket.com/event/us-x-iran-permanent-peace-deal-by/?via=bankless? https://x.com/RealStockCats/status/2052042448944124110 23:06 CLARITY Act Clears a Hurdle https://x.com/SenThomTillis/status/2051464145384489270 https://x.com/faryarshirzad/status/2050325150747484421 https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2026/05/01/clarity-act-text-lets-crypto-firms-offer-stablecoin-rewards-while-shielding-bank-yield https://x.com/intangiblecoins/status/2050331808240156721 https://x.com/kalshi_crypto/status/2052106907511320920 https://polymarket.com/event/clarity-act-signed-into-law-in-2026/?via=bankless? 31:20 Coinbase Layoffs vs Crypto Fundraises https://x.com/brian_armstrong https://x.com/0x_Lucas https://x.com/katie_haun/status/2051318562497716655 https://x.com/cdixon/status/2051633104549502989 https://x.com/emilios_eth/status/2051704246798549176 34:55 Is Saylor Selling Bitcoin? https://x.com/WatcherGuru/status/2051802384943194431  https://x.com/WatcherGuru/status/2051797790494261301 40:44 Arbitrum DAO Meets U.S. Courts https://unchainedcrypto.com/u-s-court-freezes-71-million-in-kelp-dao-eth-after-north-korea-terrorism-creditors-file-claim/ https://x.com/aave/status/2051329772190347560 https://x.com/tayvano_/status/2050407082084663430 https://x.com/ImperiumPaper 47:09 Ethereum L1 Is Scaling Again https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/2051773131807690847 https://blog.ethereum.org/2026/05/02/soldogn-interop-recap https://forkcast.org/upgrade/glamsterdam 51:16 Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Update https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2026/05/06/u-s-bitcoin-reserve-update-coming-in-next-few-weeks-white-house-s-adviser-says https://www.dlnews.com/articles/people-culture/bo-hines-exits-white-house-crypto-post-amid-bitcoin-mystery/ https://polymarket.com/event/us-national-bitcoin-reserve-before-2027/?via=bankless? 59:31 Closing & Disclaimers --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Spoiler alert: This episode contains spoilers for the documentary Finding Satoshi. Bill Cohan and Tyler Maroney unpack their new documentary Finding Satoshi, a four-year investigation into the identity of Satoshi Nakamoto. They explore why Satoshi’s identity still matters, the cypherpunk roots of Bitcoin, the public interest behind the mystery, and what the search reveals about privacy, money, power, and the mythology at the heart of crypto. ------ 🔎 FINDING SATOSHI | USE CODE: BANKLESS (20% OFF) https://www.findingsatoshi.com/bankless 🎬 DEBRIEF | RYAN & DAVID BREAKDOWN THE EPSIODE https://www.bankless.com/podcast/debrief-finding-satoshi-how-a-private-investigator-solved-the-mystery-of-bitcoins-creator  ------ 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast  🟦 COINBASE ONE | GET 20% OFF  https://bankless.cc/coinbase-one 🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY https://app.okx.com/join/USBANKLESS 🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOW https://go.metamask.io/BL-Pod-Download  🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD https://bankless.cc/brix 💰NEXO | Get your 30-day access to Wealth Club Premier https://bankless.cc/nexo  ------ TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 1:17 Did We Find Him? 6:32 Why Find Satoshi? 11:54 Why OGs Didn’t Care 14:57 How Hard was the Investigation? 18:20 Talking to the Early Cypherpunks 19:58 Public Interest 26:08 Cypherpunk’s Ideology 39:07 Spoiler Alert: The Aha Moment 51:30 Satoshi’s Death 1:00:59 Bitcoin as a Public Good 1:05:23 Will Satoshi Come Back? 1:10:39 Was it All Planned? 1:11:52 Quantum Treasure Hunt 1:14:00 What would Satoshi think of Bitcoin Today? 1:17:09 Closing & Disclaimers ------ RESOURCES William D. Cohan https://x.com/WilliamCohan  Tyler Maroney https://x.com/tydamar  ------ Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠

Markets are ripping despite $120 oil and an escalating war. Ryan and David break down why the AI boom is drowning out macro risks, whether a wave of trillion-dollar IPOs could mark the top, and how DeFi just bailed itself out after its biggest hack ever. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast  🟦 COINBASE ONE | GET 20% OFF  https://bankless.cc/coinbase-one 🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY https://app.okx.com/join/USBANKLESS 🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOW https://go.metamask.io/BL-Pod-Download  🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD https://bankless.cc/brix 💰NEXO | Get your 30-day access to Wealth Club Premier https://bankless.cc/nexo  --- TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES 0:00 Intro 2:28 Oil War & $120 Oil Crisis https://x.com/pete_rizzo_/status/2049589290326212768 https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2049713857728524691 https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2049534394302394603 https://x.com/Rory_Johnston/status/2049834460233756744 https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2048593172423495858 https://x.com/charliebilello/status/2049613424749838445 https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2048461842540834913 https://x.com/biancoresearch/status/2049598646648181221 https://tether.io/news/tether-supports-freeze-of-more-than-344-million-in-usdt-in-coordination-with-ofac-and-u-s-law-enforcement/ https://x.com/AggrNews/status/2047711619304587602 https://x.com/SecScottBessent/status/2049281442451001711 16:46 Markets Rally vs Reality (AI Boom) or AI Bubble & IPO Top Signal https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2049165243100827821 https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2049149137292001672 https://x.com/NoLimitGains/status/2049213286311436597 https://x.com/shiri_shh/status/2049040515107270751 https://x.com/Shaughnessy119/status/2049228075766788402 https://x.com/IvayloPashov/status/2049475041113378909 https://x.com/realarmaansidhu/status/2047080574737592798 27:22 Fed, Powell, Rising Inflation, Bitcoin Narrative & National Security https://x.com/EdwardLawrence/status/2049583458393980995 https://x.com/firsttohearit/status/2049574617665c114570  https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2049551229349511663 https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/29/jerome-powell-says-he-will-continue-to-serve-as-a-fed-governor-even-after-chairmanship-ends-.html https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2049609008399503750 https://x.com/pete_rizzo_/status/2049589290326212768 https://x.com/TFTC21/status/2049135996654981459  36:59 MegaETH Launch https://x.com/megaeth/status/2047352341473505435 https://cryptobriefing.com/megaeth-token-generation-event-set-for-april-30-2026/ https://x.com/bread_/status/2049870525779128345 https://dexscreener.com/megaeth/0x5fb29184c49546c13a14a3958f21e5759f0821f2 https://x.com/bubblemaps/status/2049874252153618436 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4YI5u-hZJo 40:33 DeFi Bailout (KelpDAO → DeFi United) https://defiunited.world/ https://x.com/StaniKulechov/status/2047413237113868576 https://x.com/aave/status/2048189931856535887 https://x.com/CoinDesk/status/2049290843677151501 https://x.com/aave/status/2048958367658332413 https://x.com/jussy_world/status/2049534154488840259 48:30 Polymarket Insider Trading Case https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/us-soldier-charged-using-classified-information-profit-prediction-market-bets https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/clyxd5wrr0wo https://www.wsls.com/news/national/2026/04/28/us-soldier-charged-with-using-intel-to-win-400k-on-maduro-raid-to-appear-in-court-in-nyc/ https://x.com/shayne_coplan/status/2047712706342326496 51:27 “Code Is Not a Crime” vs Reality https://cointelegraph.com/news/acting-ag-blanche-signals-doj-pivot-code-is-not-a-crime https://x.com/Cointelegraph/status/2048834708088267256  https://www.therage.co/blanche-vegas/ https://x.com/valkenburgh/status/2048846522347884669 https://x.com/rstormsf/status/2049157683916464278 55:45 Stablecoins Go Mainstream (Visa + Meta) https://investor.visa.com/news/news-details/2026/Visa-Accelerates-Stablecoin-Momentum-Adding-Five-Blockchains-for-Settlement/default.aspx https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/04/29/tech-giant-meta-starts-paying-some-creators-in-stablecoin-with-stripe-s-support https://x.com/dwr/status/2049551855991308387 58:50 Closing & Disclaimers --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

$MEGA token is live, but the bigger story is what the launch says about the future of L2s. Co-Founders Shuyao and Lei join Bankless to unpack why MegaETH tied its TGE to app milestones, why USDM and proximity markets could become core revenue streams, and how the team is thinking about appchains, AI agents, security, and Stage 2 decentralization. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast 🟦 COINBASE ONE | GET 20% OFF https://bankless.cc/coinbase-one 🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY https://app.okx.com/join/USBANKLESS 🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOW https://go.metamask.io/BL-Pod-Download 🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD https://bankless.cc/brix 💰NEXO | YIELD + CREDIT LINE https://bankless.cc/nexo --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 MegaETH Reaches TGE: KPIs and Milestones 3:10 The 10 Apps That Unlocked Launch 8:12 Composability for New Crypto Apps 11:22 World Markets as MegaETH’s Liquidity Hub 14:13 USDM and the First Revenue Stream 15:59 Co-Location, Low Latency, and Proximity Markets 19:40 Proximity Markets vs. MEV 22:13 Revenue and Token Value Accrual 25:15 Ethereum Decentralization as a KPI 27:40 Token Unlocks and Launch Supply 30:31 Terminal, Incentives, and Flux 32:28 MegaETH vs. Appchains 38:31 Could MegaETH Support Polymarket Scale? 41:12 AI Agents on a Fast, Cheap Chain 47:23 KelpDAO, Arbitrum, and L2 Decentralization 55:38 Life After TGE --- RESOURCES Shuyao Kong https://x.com/hotpot_dao Lai Yang https://x.com/yangl1996 --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Rory Johnston, the “oil quant,” joins us to explain why the Hormuz crisis could become the biggest oil shock in history. Oil markets are already screaming. Supply is trapped, inventories are being drained, and the market may still be underpricing the scale of the disruption.  If the Strait stays closed, Rory says the path to $200 oil is no longer crazy. It may be the next stop. This is oil, geopolitics, inflation, and markets all colliding at once. ------ 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium ------ 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast  🟦 COINBASE ONE | GET 20% OFF  https://bankless.cc/coinbase-one 🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOW https://go.metamask.io/BL-Pod-Download  🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD https://bankless.cc/brix 💰NEXO | YIELD + CREDIT LINE https://bankless.cc/nexo 🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY https://app.okx.com/join/USBANKLESS ------ TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 1:17 What is a Barrel of Oil? 7:04 How is Oil Transported? 8:24 Is Oil Fungible? 13:25 Oil Then Vs Now 17:10 Peak Oil? 24:59 Hydrocarbon World Distribution 29:32 What is Spare Capacity? 32:14 Inventories in the Buffer System 35:04 Oil Futures 38:59 Oil Curve 44:51 Economic Implications of Oil Markets 48:48 Straight of Hormuz 55:30 Future Oil Price Action 1:03:53 Steelmanning the Market Reaction 1:13:23 When will the Straight Open? 1:21:57 Is the USA Winning? 1:27:49 Pressuring Iran 1:31:48 Signals to Watch 1:33:36 Fast Forward to 2050 1:38:38 Closing & Disclaimers ------ RESOURCES Rory Johnston https://x.com/Rory_Johnston  Commodity Context https://www.commoditycontext.com/  ------ Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠

Has Bitcoin already bottomed, or are investors still looking at the wrong signals? Jordi Visser joins Bankless to argue that AI is destroying software moats, reshaping inflation, and pushing capital toward scarce assets, with Bitcoin at the center of that shift. We get into his “AI is the new QE” thesis, the scarcity-versus-abundance portfolio, why the S&P may struggle in an AI regime, what a more muted Bitcoin cycle looks like, and where he still sees upside across the rest of crypto. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast 🟦 COINBASE ONE | GET 20% OFF https://bankless.cc/coinbase-one 🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOW https://go.metamask.io/BL-Pod-Download 🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD https://bankless.cc/brix 💰NEXO | YIELD + CREDIT LINE https://bankless.cc/nexo 🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY https://app.okx.com/join/USBANKLESS --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 2:07 Jordi’s bold Bitcoin call 4:18 The AI endgame lands at Bitcoin 9:26 Bitcoin as the purest AI trade 12:49 SaaSpocalypse, quantum fear, and the private credit risk 20:49 AI is the new QE 26:55 Inflation, deflation, and the scarcity squeeze 34:28 What happens to stocks from here 44:24 Is AI a bubble? 48:17 The Bitcoin IPO and muted cycles 1:01:01 Has Bitcoin already bottomed? 1:09:03 The broken social pact 1:13:21 The rest of crypto, from ETH to stablecoins 1:17:29 Inside the scarcity portfolio 1:20:42 Jensen vs. Dwarkesh, China, and the chip war 1:27:42 Jordi’s AI stack and where to follow his work --- RESOURCES Jordi Visser https://x.com/jvisserlabs Jordi’s Substack https://substack.com/@visserlabs --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Markets are hitting new highs, but crypto just took a major hit. Ryan and David break down the $300M KelpDAO exploit and why it exposed deeper flaws across DeFi and Layer 2s, including Arbitrum’s controversial decision to freeze funds. They also explore whether AI will drive deflation or inequality, unpack a new bullish ETH thesis, and debate why the biggest risks in crypto may be building beneath the surface. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast  🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOW https://go.metamask.io/BL-Pod-Download  🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD https://bankless.cc/brix  🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY https://bankless.cc/OKX 💰NEXO | YIELD + CREDIT LINE https://bankless.cc/nexo 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless --- TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES 0:00 Intro 1:57 Markets Still Bullish? https://x.com/EricBalchunas/status/2047282771664453641 https://thewolfden.substack.com/p/strategy-owns-more-btc-than-blackrock https://x.com/SecScottBessent/status/2046703137541837285 https://polymarket.com/event/us-x-iran-permanent-peace-deal-by/?via=bankless? https://x.com/danielisdizzy/status/2047037188500554010  https://x.com/MikeZaccardi/status/2045855067710914995 https://polymarket.com/event/kevin-warsh-confirmed-as-fed-chair-by-may-15/?via=bankless? https://polymarket.com/event/fed-rate-cut-by-629/?via=bankless? https://x.com/ylecun/status/2045610129119117574 https://x.com/pdmsero/status/2046943519101661561 https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2045675498529808886 https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2046071375446606125 27:32 KelpDAO $300M Exploit & DeFi Fallout https://www.galaxy.com/insights/research/kelpdao-layerzero-exploit-defi https://defillama.com/protocol/aave-v3 https://x.com/LayerZero_Core/status/2046081551574983137 https://x.com/0xdoug/status/2045988844718453186 https://x.com/arbitrum/status/2046435443680346189 http://l2beat.com/scaling/projects/arbitrum https://x.com/TheCryptoNexus/status/2046569510442787209 https://x.com/0xfluid/status/2046971208550486244 https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/spark https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/aave 50:26 Productive Money ETH Thesis https://thewolfden.substack.com/p/the-250k-eth-thesis-sounds-great 55:28 Prediction Markets & Perps Expansion & Tether $344M Freeze https://x.com/polymarket/status/2046653304810156283/?via=bankless? https://polymarket.com/perps/?via=bankless? https://x.com/aaronjmars/status/2047017251270734309 https://polymarket.com/event/highest-temperature-in-paris-on-april-23-2026/?via=bankless? https://tether.io/news/tether-supports-freeze-of-more-than-344-million-in-usdt-in-coordination-with-ofac-and-u-s-law-enforcement 1:00:11 MegaETH & New Chain Activity https://x.com/bread_/status/2047336293462589788 https://app.hyperliquid.xyz/trade https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/monad 1:01:52 Device-Level KYC / Surveillance State https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/2044491861125996617 https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/2045232433197695392 1:06:58 Closing & Disclaimers --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

A $280M DeFi exploit exposed the hidden fragility of crypto’s most trusted systems. Dan Elitzer and Odysseus break down how the attack happened, why bridge risk and protocol composability made the damage so severe, what Arbitrum’s intervention means for immutability, and why DeFi now needs an aerospace-grade security mindset to survive the AI era. ------ 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium ------ 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast  🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOW https://go.metamask.io/BL-Pod-Download  🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD https://bankless.cc/brix  🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY https://bankless.cc/OKX 💰NEXO | YIELD + CREDIT LINE https://bankless.cc/nexo 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless ------ TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 0:57 Worst DeFi Hack Ever? 7:01 What Happened? 10:11 How Sophisticated? 11:42 Explaining the Hack to TradFi 16:51 Who’s to Blame? 22:13 L2 Architecture Consequences 28:17 How Does it Get Resolved? 31:46 Circuit Breakers & Rate Limiters 34:05 AAVE V4 34:51 Arbitrum Intervention Implications 42:02 Code is Law vs Human Governance 51:59 Stage 1 vs Stage 2 Rollups 55:29 Post-Hack DeFi 1:03:05 Aerospace Level Security 1:09:49 Will DeFi Survive? 1:14:33 Closing & Disclaimers ------ RESOURCES Dan Elitezer  https://x.com/delitzer  Odysseus https://x.com/odysseas_eth  Odysseus Article https://x.com/odysseas_eth/status/2019833220431507504  Phylax Systems https://phylax.systems/  ------ Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠

Ethereum may be one of the most underappreciated assets. In this conversation, Michael McGuiness and Vivek Raman lay out the case for ETH as “productive money”, a monetary asset with the store-of-value properties of gold and Bitcoin, plus the ability to compound through network activity. We unpack the $250K ETH thesis, why traditional DCF models miss the bigger picture, and why Ethereum’s role as the settlement layer for a tokenized economy could unlock massive monetary premium. ------ 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium ------ 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast  🪐GALAXYONE | SOLANA STAKING https://bankless.cc/GalaxyOne 🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOW https://go.metamask.io/BL-Pod-Download  💰NEXO | YIELD + CREDIT LINE https://bankless.cc/nexo 🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY https://bankless.cc/OKX 🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD https://bankless.cc/brix  ------ TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 4:45 $250K ETH? 6:04 How to Price ETH 8:15 ETH’s Monetary Premium 10:25 What Differentiates ETH 13:54 The Path to $250K ETH 16:35 Menger’s Monetary Attributes 20:28 Scarcity 24:58 Fungibility 26:43 Divisibility 27:45 Portability 28:28 Durability 34:30 Verifiability 35:27 Censorship Resistance 37:00 ETH is Productive Money 41:39 How is ETH Productive? 46:40 Ethereum’s Tollbooth 51:28 Counterparty Risk 53:48 Productive Money vs Dead Capital 58:03 Pitching Productive Money to Wall Street 1:00:08 Why is ETH Underappreciated? 1:04:19 Wall Street ETH Investors 1:11:28 Other L1s 1:14:06 Why Not Just Buy the S&P? 1:15:00 Ethereum Technical Risks 1:17:20 How Does ETH Get to $250K? 1:23:18 Closing & Disclaimers ------ RESOURCES ETH is Productive Money https://www.productivemoney.org/  Michael McGuiness https://x.com/mikemcg0  Vivek Raman https://x.com/VivekVentures  Etherealize https://www.etherealize.com/  ------ Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠

Austen Allred joins Bankless to unpack Kelly Claude, the AI agent he has given an LLC, bank accounts, a token, and even a human employee. They explore how Kelly finds software opportunities, ships apps to the App Store, learns through orchestration and factory-style workflows, and why crypto rails may be the missing layer for agent-to-agent commerce. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast 🪐GALAXYONE | SOLANA STAKING https://bankless.cc/GalaxyOne 🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOW https://go.metamask.io/BL-Pod-Download 💰NEXO | YIELD + CREDIT LINE https://bankless.cc/nexo 🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY https://bankless.cc/OKX 🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD https://bankless.cc/brix --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 1:05 Meet Kelly 4:46 Why Kelly needed an LLC, bank account, and token 10:27 The real goal is a zero-human company 15:46 The apps Kelly is already shipping 18:33 Can taste be replicated? 21:53 Why AI defaults to consensus 30:04 What orchestration and factories actually mean 34:21 How autonomous is autonomous? 38:20 The marketing factory and why AI ads must look worse 46:47 Why Ryan and David’s agent Daniel keeps failing 54:43 Can there be a generic template for AI companies? 59:14 If everyone can build over a weekend, what are the moats? 1:06:08 Why crypto finally clicks for AI agents 1:12:32 The missing crypto product is distribution 1:14:57 Advice for builders experimenting with agents --- RESOURCES Austen Allred https://x.com/Austen Kelly Claude https://x.com/kellyclaudeai --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures