Unchained

Neobanks changed how fintech thinks about money. Now, crypto builders want to do the same, without custody. In this episode, Itamar Lesuisse, CEO of Ready, and Mike Silagadze, CEO of EtherFi, argue the real shift isn't about "crypto cards," it's about who controls your assets. EtherFi’s and Ready’s self-custodial apps merge saving, spending, and investing. The result: faster settlement, lower fees, and more transparency, but also new challenges around compliance, credit, and security. Itamar Lesuisse and Mike Silagadze explain how layer 2 networks made crypto cards economically viable after years of failed attempts and how Africa’s FX markets could become the breakthrough use case for crypto banking. Visit our website for breaking news, analysis, op-eds, articles to learn about crypto, and much more: unchainedcrypto.com Thank you to our sponsors! Mantle Binance Guests: Itamar Lesuisse, Co-founder and CEO of Ready (formerly Argent) Mike Silagadze, Founder and CEO of EtherFi, and Founder of Top Hat Links: The Block: Best crypto cards with token rewards in 2025 Bitcoin Starknet Staking Post by Ready (Formerly Argent) Timestamps: 🎬 0:00 Intro 💳 1:57 What crypto neobanks are, and why they’re suddenly booming ⚖️ 6:19 Custody as the real divide between traditional and crypto banking 🏦 8:07 From Argent to Ready, turning wallets into full neobanks 💳 10:05 Why early crypto cards failed, and how L2 settlement fixed them 💰 18:49 Credit without credit scores: the rise of collateralized cards 🔒 32:52 How smart accounts and recovery improve wallet security 🌍 44:29 Onchain FX and the next profit frontier for crypto banks 🚀 55:36 How self-custody could reach mass adoption 🔚 58:19 Closing thoughts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to The Chopping Block — where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest in crypto. This week, Helius’s Mert returns to defend Zcash’s ~400% run and the “encrypted Bitcoin” framing, digging into anonymity sets, privacy UX, and why Bitcoiners are so riled up. We then tackle the Tempo bombshell — a ~$500M raise at a ~$5B pre, Stripe/Paradigm ties, Dankrad’s move from the EF — alongside Péter Szilágyi’s letter on EF culture and compensation: public goods priesthood vs. market incentives. Next up: Mert’s “USD Manlet” rethink (why coordinating Solana around one stable is hard, and why pushing USDT to compete with USDC may be the sharper play) plus a gripe-fueled tour of today’s DeFi trading UX. Finally, an AWS-outage autopsy: Coinbase downtime, Base sequencer hiccups, Infura/MetaMask ripple effects, and the case for multi-region/multi-cloud redundancy when real money — and sometimes safety — are on the line. And no, despite the memes, Mert is not launching a DEX. For more links and Show Hilights - https://unchainedcrypto.com/podcast-chopping-block/the-chopping-block-zcash-400-tempos-500m-shock-ef-pay-firestorm-aws-base-meltdown-feat-mert/ ⭐️Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly ⭐️Robert Leshner, CEO & Co-founder of Superstate ⭐️Tom Schmidt, General Partner at Dragonfly Guest ⭐️ Mert, Co-founder & CEO at Helius Hosts ⭐️Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly ⭐️Robert Leshner, CEO & Co-founder of Superstate⭐️Tom Schmidt, General Partner at Dragonfly Guest ⭐️ Mert, Co-founder & CEO at Helius “One Long Memo” [A Letter To The EF] by Péter Szilágyi https://gist.github.com/karalabe/a2bc53436f29e0711fe680d59e180f6c Timestamps 00:00 Intro 01:22 Mert a Madman of Solana and now Zcash 05:20 Bitcoin vs. Zcash: A Philosophical Clash 14:35 Tempo Fundraise and Ethereum's Talent Exodus 33:05 Ethereum's Social Layer & Public Goods 34:45 The Importance of Religious Priesthood in Crypto 41:01 The USD Manlet Proposal & Stablecoin Coordination 49:32 AWS Outage & Its Impact on Crypto Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of Bits + Bips, hosts Austin Campbell, Ram Ahluwalia, and Chris Perkins tackle a packed agenda: from the fairness of Binance’s listing fees to the ways in which DeFi didn’t perform well during the “Black Friday” crash, why Tempo’s $500 million raise might have been a political ploy, and the growing war over stablecoin dominance. The trio debates whether Bitcoin is undervalued compared to gold, why Ethereum’s 10-year track record gives it an edge, and whether today’s Digital Asset Treasuries (DATs) are just froth, or the permanent backbone of institutional crypto. Plus: Austin makes a bold prediction about the stablecoin that will dominate by 2040. Sponsors: Mantle Hosts: Ram Ahluwalia, CFA, CEO and Founder of Lumida Austin Campbell, NYU Stern professor and founder and managing partner of Zero Knowledge Consulting Christopher Perkins, Managing Partner and President of CoinFund Links: Binance Listing Fee Drama Unchained: Binance Listing Fee Fight: What’s a Fair Price to List on the Top Crypto Exchange? Binance Claims It Does Not Profit From Token Listings Jesse Pollak (Base) chimes in Tempo & Dankrad Fortune: Exclusive: Stripe-backed blockchain startup Tempo raises $500 million round led by Joshua Kushner’s Thrive Capital and Greenoaks Ethereum core dev Dankrad Feist joins Tempo Reactions: Ryan Adams (Bankless): Tempo will optimize for itself, not ETH. Nick Almond: Not a death sentence for ETH Breadguy: Big loss. Dankrad was a major L1 scaling advocate. Black Friday Dan Wilson: 3 big lessons post-crash Gold vs. BTC GOLD/BTC up ‎23.5% in past month Bitcoin Is Undervalued vs. Gold DATs Bloomberg: Huobi Founder Li Lin Set To Launch $1 Billion Ether Accumulator - Bloomberg CoinDesk: Ripple Set to Enter Corporate Treasury Business With $1B Acquisition of GTreasury Timestamps: 🎬 0:00 Intro 💸 3:39 Binance listing fees — fair price for distribution or pay-to-play? 🏛️ 10:19 What is the best way to go public? ⚔️ 11:57 How exchanges really compete behind the scenes 💥 15:00 “Black Friday”: why Chris calls it catastrophic — but with a silver lining 🧱 24:52 What the industry must fix to prevent another meltdown 💵 30:15 How Tempo’s $500M raise represents peak frothiness 🚨 39:12 Is Dankrad’s exit from the Ethereum Foundation a red alarm for ETH? 🔮 43:07 Austin’s bold prediction: which stablecoin wins by 2040 🥇 46:17 Is Bitcoin undervalued compared to gold? 🏗️ 52:21 Why DATs are here to stay despite the market carnage Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last Friday, billions evaporated in a liquidation cascade—and nobody knows exactly what happened because centralized exchanges won't share the data. In this sponsored episode recorded at Aptos' NYC event, Aptos CEO Avery Ching says if their Decibel perpetual exchange had been live, traders would have seen every order, every spread change, every liquidation in real-time onchain. But while critics argue existing perp DEXs like Hyperliquid are already decentralized, Ching says most still match orders off-chain in black boxes. Avery explains why Decibel (launching Q1 2026) will be different, how 500 million Indian users are coming to crypto through Reliance Jio's Jiocoin, and why Aptos partnered with World Liberty Financial despite VCs calling it "garbage in your living room." Guest: Avery Ching, CEO & Co-Founder, Aptos Links: The Composable Global Exchange Engine, by Avery Ching, CEO Aptos Aptos Post: The fully onchain trading engine built by Decibel Foundation Previous coverage of Unchained on Black Friday: Crypto’s Black Friday Was Its Largest Liquidation Ever. What the Hell Happened? Timestamps: 🎬 0:00 Intro 🧭 0:33 How Aptos evolved from Meta’s Libra/Diem project 💡 2:27 Aptos’ vision for global trading engine and everyday crypto use 💾 10:11 What Shelby is and how it supports AI, creators, and enterprise use. 🎥 12:22 Aptos’ new media partnership with NBCUniversal ⚡ 14:46 Avery’s vision for a future when blockchains are widely used 🧩 16:10 What Decibel is and how it aims to bring perps fully onchain 🔎 17:58 What would have changed if Friday’s crash was onchain 💵 24:12 Why Aptos partnered with World Liberty Financial on USD1 🇮🇳 28:46 How the Reliance Jio deal expands Aptos’ reach in India 🌏 30:46 How Aptos is building enterprise adoption across Asia 🏦 32:59 Why Aave launched its first non-EVM deployment on Aptos 🛡️ 36:42 What Aptos learned from recent market turmoil 🔚 42:18 Closing thoughts and Avery’s vision for onchain transparency Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kain Warwick, founder of Synthetix and Infinex, is returning to Ethereum Layer 1 with a bold new experiment: a perpetuals DEX built directly on mainnet. In this episode, he joins Laura to explain why Synthetix is taking this contrarian step, how its hybrid “optimistic order book” can run efficiently on Ethereum’s slower block times, and why he believes the future of trading will move fully on-chain. Warwick also discusses the tradeoffs behind using USDT, what it will take to match centralized exchange performance, and his “super app” vision for how DeFi platforms could finally outcompete CEXs. Thank you to our sponsor, ⁠Binance⁠! Guest: Kain Warwick, Founder of Infinex and Synthetix Links: The Superapp Thesis Spreads for ETH-USD Timestamps: 🔥 0:00 Introduction and ads: Binance ⚙️ 0:56 Why Synthetix is launching a perps DEX directly on Ethereum mainnet ⏳ 5:18 How a perpetuals exchange can even work on slow Ethereum block times 🔍 10:34 How transparency will differ from other onchain trading venues 🏗️ 13:53 Why Kain believes being on Ethereum mainnet still matters 🧱 17:00 The challenges of operating on L1—margin posting, gas costs, and more ⚔️ 21:43 How Synthetix plans to compete in an overcrowded perps DEX landscape 💣 24:33 How liquidations on an Ethereum perp DEX would play out during a Black Friday-like crash 🕵️‍♂️ 29:32 How traders could maintain privacy while staying fully decentralized 🌐 31:57 Why a perps DEX on mainnet could reshape Ethereum DeFi 💵 34:25 Why Synthetix is using USDT—despite its centralization risks 🏦 37:28 Which premium assets will serve as collateral 📱 39:36 Inside Kain’s “super app” vision for DeFi’s next evolution 🏁 50:31 Why Kain is fired up about Synthetix’s upcoming trading competition Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When CJ Hetherington revealed the token listing terms Binance allegedly offered his startup, the crypto world exploded. In this episode, CJ, founder of prediction market app Limitless, and his investor Nick Tomaino of 1confirmation join Laura to discuss why he went public, how Binance responded, and what the incident reveals about the power dynamics between exchanges and builders. The conversation tackles how retail gets dumped on, why transparency is the next frontier for crypto, and why both guests agree that the “revolution won’t be centralized.” Guests: CJ Hetherington, CEO/CO-Founder at Limitless Labs Nick Tomaino, Founder and General Partner at 1confirmation Links: CJ’s tweet Unchained: Coinbase Adds Rival Binance’s BNB to Listing Roadmap Binance Claims It Does Not Profit From Token Listings Timestamps: 🔥 0:00 Introduction 🗣️ 2:24 Why CJ decided to reveal Binance’s alleged listing terms 🏗️ 8:44 Why he built Limitless on Base 🤝 9:11 Whether Base coordinated with CJ before he went public 💥 13:04 How the crypto world reacted to CJ’s viral tweet 🧨 15:00 Whether Binance exploits projects and founders 💸 18:06 How short-term founders dump on retail investors, per CJ 📢 23:18 Binance’s response—and why they called CJ’s claims false 🔍 25:38 Why CJ and Nick say Binance needs far more transparency ⚠️ 30:42 Whether CJ fears retaliation for calling out the world’s biggest exchange 🤔 33:48 Why he doesn’t buy Binance’s claim that its policies “protect users” 💫 39:36 Why Nick is urging crypto founders and users to “believe in something” 🚀 42:03 CJ’s plan to build an “army of token holders” and make Limitless succeed 🪙 48:25 Inside Limitless’s community token sale 📈 50:34 What Nick learned from Polymarket’s rise as an early investor 👀 54:10 Coinbase adding BNB to its listing roadmap Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to The Chopping Block — where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest in crypto. This week, Doug Colkitt, Founder Ambient Finance & Founding Contributor at Fogo, joins us as one of the wildest weekends in crypto history drags us back on air: a record $19B+ in liquidations, gas spiking toward $400, exchange APIs wobbling, and ADL ripping through perps as hedges vanished. We unpack what ADL actually does, why delta-neutral farmers got nuked, and how Binance’s USDe and staked ETH/SOL pegs snapped amid index design and mint/redeem gaps—followed by refunds. We get into HLP vs. LLP (vaults vs. winning traders), the Hyperliquid “whale” short ahead of the tariff tweet, cross-margin reflexivity that torched alts, and why market makers wore outsized pain. Then we zoom out to infra: sequencers, force-inclusion in practice, and the case for on-chain clearing plus real insurance funds before the next Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights 🔹 Record wipeout — $19B+ liquidations, 1.6M traders rekt, gas spiking to ~$400 while major exchanges wobbled. 🔹 ADL, decoded — What happens when perps run out of counterparties; socialized losses, P&L/leverage ranking, and why hedges vanished. 🔹 Delta-neutral nuked — Cross-venue long/short farmers turned naked as ADL picked off one leg first. 🔹 Binance peg breaks — USDe to ~$0.68 on Binance, staked ETH/SOL snapped; refunds >$250M after index/oracle and mint-redeem gaps. 🔹 Flows vs. “attack” — Earn users rushing to USDT + copy-trade momentum likely amplified the depeg more than cunning index games. 🔹 DeFi vs. CeFi — Perp DEX performance broadly comparable; transparency gaps in ADL policies and liquidation mechanics laid bare. 🔹 Vaults vs. traders — HLP vs. LLP outcomes show who platforms chose to protect in tail events—and the retention risks of clipping winners. 🔹 OI collapse — Hyperliquid open interest ~15B → ~6B; cross-margin reflexivity helped nuke alts far worse than BTC. 🔹 Why it felt one-sided — Market-maker/API failures and risk misallocation made typically “safe” actors eat outsized losses. 🔹 The whale short — A massive Hyperliquid short pre-tariff tweet sparks insider-vs-coincidence debate. 🔹 Infra faceplants — Sequencers down, force-inclusion in theory only, docs offline—while base L1s largely kept ticking. 🔹 What to fix — On-chain clearing, real insurance funds, sane ADL ranking, robust mint/redeem, and better index/oracle design before the next shock. Hosts ⭐️Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly ⭐️Robert Leshner, CEO & Co-founder of Superstate⭐️Tarun Chitra, Managing Partner at Robot Ventures⭐️Tom Schmidt, General Partner at Dragonfly Guest ⭐️ Doug Colkitt, Founder Ambient Finance & Founding Contributor at Fogo ⁠⁠Disclosures⁠⁠ Timestamps 00:00 Intro 01:11 $19B+ Liquidated 04:35 Personal Experiences & Reactions 08:30 Understanding Auto De-leveraging (ADL) 14:37 Binance & USDe Incident 23:19 DeFi vs CeFi Performance 26:05 Zero-Sum & Greedy Algorithms 34:26 Vaults & Trader Protection 39:43 Market Reactions & Trader Sentiments 44:33 Infrastructure Failures & OI Collapse 46:56 Insider Trading Allegations & Market Manipulation 52:14 Future of Perpetual DEXs Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Crypto just went through its biggest crash. In the wake of “Black Friday,” when $19 billion in positions were wiped out in hours, Bits + Bips hosts Steve Ehrlich and Ram Ahluwalia are joined by Carlos Guzman of GSR and YQ of AltLayer to dissect what really happened. Was it a coordinated attack exploiting Binance’s oracles? A failure of market structure? Or simply too much leverage waiting for a trigger? Or some combination of the three? The group breaks down how liquidity vanished, why hedges failed, how this flash crash echoed the worst moments of traditional markets, and why the industry urgently needs reform before it happens again. Sponsors: Aptos Hosts: Ram Ahluwalia, CFA, CEO and Founder of Lumida Steve Ehrlich, Executive Editor at Unchained Guests: Carlos Guzman, Research Analyst at GSR YQ, Co-founder of AltLayer Timestamps: 🔥 0:00 Introduction and ads ⚡ 3:22 First reactions to crypto’s biggest crash ever 💥 5:55 The USDe depeg on Binance. Plus: coordinated attack or market failure? 🧠 12:57 Why Ram calls it a potential “zero-day hack” 📉 15:38 Are perpetuals the riskiest instruments in crypto? 💫 18:38 Huge spreads, no liquidity: where were the market makers? 🏦 22:59 The eerie parallels to a flash crash in U.S. equities 15 years ago 💀 25:01 How both longs and shorts got wrecked, and why perps fail as hedging tools 🔧 29:00 What crypto needs to fix its liquidity problem 🏛️ 33:34 How TradFi solved this years ago, and what crypto can learn ⚖️ 36:25 How systemic leverage makes every crash worse 📜 42:16 Why this proves crypto urgently needs a market structure bill 🚀 47:13 Why Ram says Hyperliquid came out as the winner 🔮 50:14 Outlook for prices and volatility in the coming days 🛡️ 1:00:04 Will insurance funds rise after this? ⏳ 1:02:18 Why YQ says it’ll take a long time to recover from the damage Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Trump tweeted about 100% tariffs on China, crypto collapsed — $19 billion in liquidations in just hours. Altcoins plunged 95%, exchanges froze, and stablecoins depegged. In this special episode, Diogenes Casares, founder of Klyra Protocol, joins Laura to break down the chain reaction: what really caused the crash, whether insiders knew it was coming, and how infrastructure failures and extreme leverage turned a policy tweet into crypto’s Black Friday. Thank you to our sponsor, ⁠Aptos⁠! Guest: Diogenes Casares, founder of Klyra Protocol and advisor at Patagon Management Links: Diogenes’s article on X: "Black Friday: What Happened?" Jordi Alexander on "What happened? Stani Kulechov on Aave’s performance Binance co-founder’s statement Timestamps: 💥 0:00 Introduction ⏱️ 1:00 What markets looked like in the hours before the crash 🕵️‍♂️ 3:25 Whether traders on Hyperliquid knew the tariff tweet was coming 📉 5:44 Why altcoins plunged up to 95% and how market makers amplified the move ⚙️ 7:56 How auto-deleveraging kicked in—and why it mattered 💣 13:07 How DATs created hidden leverage that made the system fragile 🏦 14:54 How perps DEXes and CEXes responded differently to the meltdown 🧩 18:09 Was it a coordinated attack—or just market mania? 🤯 25:56 What happened to smaller market makers when liquidity vanished 💥 29:44 How the USDe depeg on Binance triggered cascading liquidations 📊 32:16 Why Ethena “managed it well” and why exchanges don’t ADL their positions ⚠️ 34:04 What caused the USDe “depeg” 🔧 35:22 How infrastructure failures made price feeds unreliable 🚨 37:28 What perps exchanges need to change going forward ⏳ 43:56 Why Diogenes thinks this kind of crash will happen again—and worse 📜 50:20 The “extraordinary rights” LPs hold on exchanges 💱 49:02 How traders should decide where to trade after this 👀 52:19 A rumor about how much Jump lost Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Polymarket scales with Wall Street’s blessing, Kalshi fires up KOLs, and BNB chain melts down as fast as it ran. We dissect Aster’s data drama, the new privacy wave lifting Zcash, and Galaxy One’s glossy yields—what’s smart strategy vs. old mistakes in new clothes? Welcome to The Chopping Block — where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest in crypto. This week, we unpack Polymarket’s jaw-dropper: a $2B raise at a $9B valuation led by ICE (parent of the NYSE), the token tease, and whether prediction markets will eat sportsbooks. We get into the KOL wars (Kalshi vs. Polymarket), the line between paid shilling and product marketing, and what “parlays” look like on prediction platforms. Then: Aster vs. Hyperliquid and DeFiLlama’s delist sparks transparency questions, while BNB Chain’s 72-hour meme-coin supercycle goes boom→bust. Privacy takes center stage as Zcash rips and the “privacy meta” returns. We close with Galaxy One’s 8% yield pitch — BlockFi déjà vu or smarter risk management in a post-CeFi world? Show highlights 🔹 Polymarket’s $2B at $9B — led by ICE (NYSE parent): why a TradFi giant is backing prediction markets and what integrations could follow. 🔹 Token tease — the crew debates what a Polymarket token could represent amid a CFTC path and U.S. re-entry. 🔹 KOL Wars: Kalshi vs. Polymarket — disclosed influencer marketing vs. “paid shilling,” and where the ethical line actually sits. 🔹 Product vs. Asset promos — why “use this platform” ≠ “buy this ticker,” and the gray zone of shilling specific markets or sides. 🔹 Do prediction markets influence reality? When odds can sway decisions (Fed, elections), and why markets may self-correct before hitting “99%.” 🔹 Sportsbooks in the crosshairs — parlays on prediction markets, Robinhood funnels, and why DraftKings/FanDuel should care. 🔹 Aster vs. Hyperliquid — incentives, wash-trading risk, and DeFiLlama’s delist after suspicious Binance-correlated volumes. 🔹 BNB’s 72-hour supercycle — memecoins moon, CZ’s “not endorsements” tweet, then a brutal boom→bust as bridgers retreat. 🔹 Privacy supercycle — Zcash rips on Naval/Mert momentum; Zashi UX + NEAR intents cited vs. “it’s just flows” skepticism. 🔹 Old coin, new crowd — why ZEC’s age + thin float can turbocharge moves, even with lower on-chain usage than Monero. 🔹 Galaxy One’s 8% yield — comeback arc for BlockFi’s Zach Prince or smarter, public-company-backed risk management? 🔹 CeFi vs. DeFi lending — on-chain transparency, Coinbase’s approach, 60-day gates, and whether unsecured credit is creeping back. Hosts ⭐️Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly ⭐️Robert Leshner, CEO & Co-founder of Superstate ⭐️Tarun Chitra, Managing Partner at Robot Ventures ⭐️Tom Schmidt, General Partner at Dragonfly Timestamps 00:00 Intro 01:08 Polymarket & Shayne Coplan’s Journey to Success 05:28 The Role of Prediction Markets 10:21 Kalshi vs. Polymarket: KOL Wars 23:56 Sports Betting & Prediction Markets 29:19 BNB Chain's Memecoin Boom and Bust 33:55 Aster and Defi Lama: The Delisting Drama 37:04 Privacy Supercycle: The Zcash Bull Run 50:02 Galaxy One: BlockFi's Comeback? Disclosures Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The stablecoin race is heating up. With the passage of the U.S. stablecoin law the floodgates have opened. Tether still dominates globally, but Circle, Stripe, and a wave of new “stablechains” are making their move. In this episode, Dragonfly partner Rob Hadick and Helius CEO Mert Mumtaz join Laura Shin to map out how this battle could reshape crypto and payments. Will ecosystem apps like Phantom and Jupiter keep their own stablecoins? Can Circle’s new Layer 1, Arc, compete with Tether’s network effect? Don’t miss it! Thank you to our sponsors! Binance Aptos Guests: Rob Hadick, General Partner at Dragonfly Mert Mumtaz, CEO of Helius Timestamps: 🎬 0:00 Intro 🔥 2:50 What Rob and Mert expect from the coming flood of stablecoins and stablechains 🌐 12:06 How network effects could decide the winners in the stablecoin wars 💵 14:09 Whether Tether’s dominance is here to stay 💱 22:45 Why Forex matters—and why everyone still wants dollars 😎 27:15 Whether Tether even cares about its new competitors ⚠️ 33:18 What Rob calls the biggest existential threat to Tether 🏦 36:00 Can Circle’s new payments chain, Arc, really compete in this environment 🧩 40:42 Why Mert says Circle is in a difficult strategic position 🤝 45:17 How new Layer 1s risk pleasing no one by trying to please everyone 💣 52:55 Whether banks are doomed—and why employees might want to start exiting now Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bitcoin is hitting new all-time highs—but is this real euphoria, or just a prelude to it? In this double-header episode, we bring you a Bits + Bips roundtable and an in-depth interview on the five companies best positioned to bring crypto onchain. First, the Bits + Bips crew, Lumida’s Ram Ahluwalia, FalconX’s Joshua Lim, and NYU professor Austin Campbell, break down what’s really driving this crypto rally. Is it dollar debasement, asset revaluation, or just pure animal spirits? They debate how close we are to a true blow-off top, how to spot a real market peak, and what shocks could shelve bitcoin in an instant. Plus, their takes on Zcash, Japan, Coinbase’s banking ambitions, and more. Then, Unchained’s Steven Ehrlich sits down with Ryan Yi, author of the Onchain 5 series, to discuss the five companies that are leading crypto’s push into real-world adoption. From Coinbase’s Base app and token plans, to Robinhood’s play for tokenized assets, Stripe’s all-in crypto tech stack, Telegram’s TON-powered mini-app ecosystem, and Binance’s BNB-based loyalty empire, this is the playbook for what going onchain really looks like. Thank you to our sponsor, Aptos! Hosts: Steve Ehrlich, Executive Editor at Unchained Ram Ahluwalia, CFA, CEO and Founder of Lumida Guests: Joshua Lim, Co-Head of Markets at FalconX Austin Campbell, NYU Stern professor and founder and managing partner of Zero Knowledge Consulting Ryan Yi, Ex Coinbase, Coinbase Ventures, and CoinFund For links to all the amazing articles, visit https://unchainedcrypto.com/bits-bips/bits-bips-whats-really-driving-bitcoin-and-whos-driving-crypto-onchain/ Timestamps: 0:00 Intro 4:38 What Josh learned at Token2049 about what’s really moving the market 10:12 How the options market is quietly driving bitcoin’s price 13:25 Why Ram says this isn’t a “debasement trade,” despite what everyone thinks 20:29 Whether we’ve hit peak euphoria—or not even close 23:54 Why Zcash suddenly exploded in price 26:45 How political changes in Japan are shaping markets 30:30 How to spot the real market top—and why Austin challenges Ram’s call on stocks beating gold 35:41 How CME’s 24/7 futures could change crypto trading 39:20 The signs Ram thinks would signal when the top is in 43:43 How bitcoin, altcoins, and tech stocks trade together and how they don’t 47:59 What kind of shock could finally take bitcoin down 51:34 What to make of Coinbase applying for a banking license 53:34 Whether Galaxy is trying to become the next crypto super app 57:59 Why this cycle might play out completely differently 1:02:04 Why Ram believes banks are about to crush earnings 1:03:03 The biggest risks investors still aren’t paying attention to 1:07:56 Meet 5 The Firms Poised to Drive the Next Wave of Crypto Adoption 1:08:53 Why distribution is the key battleground for the next wave of crypto adoption 1:12:24 How Coinbase is rearchitecting its platform around Base 1:15:42 What the upcoming Base token and Base app could unlock for users 1:19:13 How Robinhood is competing in crypto—and why it might have an edge 1:25:56 What the tokenization trend means for Robinhood’s future 1:27:52 Why Stripe is building a crypto tech stack of its own 1:35:02 Why Telegram’s TON token is central to its survival and growth 1:41:40 What’s behind TON’s lagging price performance 1:45:13 How Binance uses the BNB token as a cornerstone of its entire ecosystem 1:52:43 Why going fully onchain could be the defining strategy for the next generation of companies Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Monday, bitcoin hit a new all-time high of over $126,000, but Bitcoin’s biggest fight right now isn’t about price; it’s about purpose. Since 2023, image files and meme tokens have clogged the network, spiking fees and making everyday payments expensive. Bitcoin Core wants to lift an 80-byte data limit that's existed since 2014. Bitcoin Knots disagrees — and has built code to enforce a different limit. Should Bitcoin stay a payments network, or evolve into a platform that stores everything from NFTs to memecoins to experimental layer 2 protocols? Blockstream CEO Adam Back and Bitcoin and Lightning developer Chris Guida debate whether removing limits on OP_RETURN protects Bitcoin from what they call “spam,” or opens the floodgates to it. Plus: the real lesson from 2014 when Vitalik Buterin left Bitcoin, why miners can bypass any filter by renting hash rate, and whether 22% of nodes running different code actually matters in a decentralized network. Thank you to our sponsors! Mantle Aptos Guests: Chris Guida, Bitcoin and Lightning Ecosystem dev and Educator Adam Back, CEO of Blockstream Timestamps: 🎬 0:00 Intro ⚙️ 1:37 What the Core vs. Knots debate is really about 🧩 4:46 Why “spam” filtering and “censorship” aren’t the same 💾 7:28 How NFTs, ordinals, and BRC-20s created the “spam” problem 🧱 8:51 The Genesis block message vs. today’s onchain data 🔍 13:27 What op_return does and why its size limit matters ⚔️ 22:04 Why the proposed change has split the Bitcoin community 📈 26:25 Can Bitcoin stay censorship-resistant while filtering “spam”? 💣 30:26 Do economic incentives make “spam” filters useless? 🧰 34:17 Why some believe filters still work to protect blockspace 💰 36:05 Would higher fees from non-payment data help miners secure Bitcoin? 🧮 42:06 Does more data make it harder to run a node? 🧭 46:04 Can Bitcoin fight storage data without hurting its core principles? ⚡ 50:37 What counts as a “real” layer 2 on Bitcoin 🧱 55:55 How much support the Knots software actually has 🧩 1:00:35 Could this debate cause a Bitcoin chain split? 🔚 1:04:22 Closing thoughts on what’s next for the network Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Arthur Hayes & Tom Lee map the new crypto arms race—Hyperliquid vs Aster, Plasma’s stablecoin rails, and ETH’s DAT-fueled supercycle. Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest in crypto. Live at Token2049 Singapore, we’re joined by Arthur Hayes (Maelstrom) and Tom Lee (Bitmine) to map two battles shaping the next cycle: the Perp DEX war—Hyperliquid’s moat vs. CZ-linked Aster, zero-fee experiments like Lighter, and whether ~$500M/year token unlocks can stay “bullish”—and the race to own stablecoin rails, from Tether-affiliated Plasma’s zero-fee USDT chain to distribution plays like Tempo and Codex. We dig into DATs, mNAV compression, and Tom’s “ETH supercycle,” plus prediction markets (Polymarket vs. Kalshi) crossing into the mainstream and a surprise Zcash revival. If crypto’s future is being decided in trading venues and in money itself, this is where the battle lines get drawn. Show highlights🔹 Perp DEX wars — Hyperliquid vs Aster: Binance-linked Aster surges as Hyperliquid’s moat is stress-tested; CEX tie-ups (Bybit–ApeX, Coinbase–Avantis) escalate the fight. 🔹 Arthur Hayes on Hyperliquid: 126x call but sold ahead of ~$500M/yr token unlocks (starting November); “bullish unlocks” depend on sustained dominance + real fees. 🔹 Lighter’s zero-fee perps: Can post-airdrop volume stick, or do profits migrate to HLP/LLP vault strategies as fees compress? 🔹 DATs & ETH “supercycle” — Tom Lee (Bitmine): Communications flywheel, mNAV compression, ~70 ETH DATs with many below NAV; consolidation/unwinds/ETF conversions amid SEC/Nasdaq scrutiny and ZeroG controversy. 🔹 Plasma stablecoin chain (Tether-affiliated): Zero-fee USDT transfers, heavy incentives, Binance Earn distribution—are flows durable vs Ethereum/Tron? 🔹 Prediction markets — Polymarket vs Kalshi: South Park moment; funds cite PMs for shutdown/Fed odds; 2024 election accuracy pushes PMs mainstream. 🔹 Privacy coins & Zcash revival: ZEC rally, Monero 51%-attack mention, and the ongoing listings/compliance tug-of-war. 🔹 Stablecoins to $4T? — Tom Lee: Micropayments + 24/7 rails expand TAM across multiple chains, not just Ethereum. Hosts⁠ Disclosures⁠ ⭐️Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly ⭐️Tom Schmidt, General Partner at Dragonfly ⭐️Tarun Chitra, Managing Partner at Robot Ventures Guest ⭐️ Arthur Hayes, CIO at Maelstrom ⭐️Tom Lee, CIO of Fundstrat Capital & Chairman of Bitmine Timestamps 00:00 Intro 01:15 Token 2049 Reflections 03:55 Tom Lee's Role in Ethereum 08:04 Challenges & Future of DATs 13:09 Plasma: Berachain for Stablecoins 20:06 Perp Dex Wars & Hyperliquid 24:26 Fee Compression 29:59 Kalshi vs. Polymarket 39:52 Zcash & Privacy Coins Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is gold the ultimate hedge against inflation and sovereign risk? Or are stocks the better long-term wealth builder thanks to innovation and earnings growth? In this heated and highly entertaining episode, Ram Ahluwalia (Lumida Wealth) and Vinny Lingham (Praxos Capital) dive deep into the macro landscape to debate the relative merits of gold vs. the S&P 500. Along the way, they explore: Gold’s decentralization vs. Bitcoin Why share buybacks might be distorting wealth creation The role of inflation, AI, fiscal dominance, and central banks The logic behind each of their portfolios And to make things more interesting? They make a $10,000 bet on whether gold or the S&P 500 will perform better over the 9 months. Token2049 Binance Ram Ahluwalia, CFA, CEO and Founder of Lumida Vinny Lingham, Co-founder of Praxos Capital Timestamps: 🎬 0:00 Intro 📈 4:30 Why Ram argues stocks are the stronger long-term play 🥇 7:18 Why Vinny says gold is more decentralized than even Bitcoin 💵 12:08 Why Ram believes earnings make stocks the superior investment ♻️ 16:37 Why Vinny thinks stock buybacks are harmful for society 🌍 27:30 Is this still the best time in history to be alive? ⏳ 33:23 Whether its too expensive now to buy gold ⚡ 40:40 What Vinny predicts will trigger the next major macro crisis 🤝 42:56 The $10,000 bet: gold vs. the S&P 500 🤖 48:33 Whether we’re still early in the AI boom 🎤 54:15 Closing arguments from Ram and Vinny Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Aster, backed by YZi Labs (formerly Binance Labs), has suddenly vaulted to the top of volume charts, but is its rise organic, or manufactured? But while everyone frames the battle as Aster vs. Hyperliquid, Syncracy’s Ryan Watkins and Sunny Shi argue the real fight is much bigger: decentralized exchanges versus centralized giants like Binance. Plus: what role Solana will play in the next chapter in the perps dex wars? And won’t Ethereum even compete? Thank you to our sponsors! Binance Token2049 Guests: Ryan Watkins, Co-Founder of Syncracy Capital Sunny Shi, Investor at Syncracy Capital Links: Unchained: Nearly $12 Billion in HYPE Token Unlocks Loom Ahead: Maelstrom Why Hyperliquid Should Cut Its Total Token Supply Nearly in Half Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

DoubleZero just launched its mainnet-beta, offering a new type of high-performance fiber network for blockchains, live across 5 continents and already adopted by 20%+ of Solana stake. Co-founder Austin Federa joins Unchained to walk through: How DoubleZero creates a dedicated internet for crypto Who contributes fiber and why they earn the 2Z token What the SEC’s no-action letter means for crypto and DePIN specifically And what this could unlock for L2s, onchain trading, and more Thank you to our sponsors! Binance Token2049 Guest: Austin Federa, Co-founder of DoubleZero Timestamps: 🎬 0:00 Introduction and ads: Token2049 and Binance 🌐 0:59 What’s wrong with the public internet—and why crypto needs its own ⚡ 5:28 How DoubleZero is building a dedicated network for blockchains 🌍 7:54 How the physical world gets integrated into the blockchain economy ⏱️ 10:49 Why traders demand more determinism in transaction times 🛠️ 13:09 How anyone can become a contributor to the DoubleZero network 🚫 14:32 Why Ethereum might not be the right fit for this product 💰 16:06 What role the 2Z token plays in the ecosystem 🔥 23:12 Why Jump’s token allocation sparked controversy ⚖️ 27:40 What the SEC’s no-action letter really means for DePIN 🏆 32:59 If DoubleZero succeeds, who will come out on top? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week on Unchained, we’ve got a double-header. First, Zach Abrams, CEO of Bridge (acquired by Stripe), unveils Open Issuance, a platform designed to let any company launch its own stablecoin. He explains why the stablecoin duopoly is ending, why fragmentation won’t slow adoption, and how stablecoins could pair with AI to reshape global money movement. Then, Kenny Li, co-founder of Manta Network, joins to reveal why Manta is pivoting away from being just another L2. He argues that the scaling wars are oversaturated, that mercenary users make infra battles a fight for crumbs, and that the real prize is at the application layer. Thank you to our sponsors! Mantle Aptos Guests: Zach Abrams, Co-Founder and CEO of Bridge Kenny Li, Co-Founder and Core Contributor of Manta Network Links: Unchained: How New Stablecoin Startup Bridge Got Acquired by Stripe for $1.1B MetaMask Stablecoin mUSD Goes Live Why JPMorgan and Shopify Are Rolling Out New Products on Ethereum Layer 2 Base Tempo Launch Announcement: The Blockchain Designed for Payments Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Crypto’s bull run may be far from over, but the battleground is shifting. On this week’s Bits + Bips, Bill Barhydt of Abra and Robert Leshner of Superstate join Ram Ahluwalia and Steven Ehrlich to debate: The current state of the markets with a looming government shutdown SWIFT’s move to build on Linea, an Ethereum layer 2 Hyperliquid vs Aster The future of perps vs. spot Why some DATs are starting to look like grifts Whether DeFi billionaires will ultimately eclipse their CeFi predecessors Plus: Binance’s and Tether’s valuation, CZ as the entrepreneur of the decade, and why the industry may be entering an era of “perpification.” Thank you to Xapo for sponsoring this episode! Hosts: Ram Ahluwalia, CFA, CEO and Founder of Lumida Steven Ehrlich, Executive Editor at Unchained Guests: Bill Barhydt, Founder and CEO of Abra Robert Leshner, Co-founder & CEO of Superstate Links: Steve’s story on the DAT that claimed it raised much more than it actually did Subscribe to Bits + Bips newsletter here Timestamps: 🎬0:00 Intro 📈 3:26 Why Bill believes the bull run is far from over 🧐 5:10 Why Ram is pushing back on market FUD 🏛️ 9:10 Will a government shutdown impact markets? 🌐 12:48 Why SWIFT building on Ethereum’s Linea layer 2 is such a big deal 🏦 22:15 Whether it even matters if banks embrace crypto ⚠️ 27:50 How one DAT may have been the “ultimate grift” ⚔️ 35:58 Inside the DEX perps wars: Hyperliquid vs Aster 👑 40:32 How valuable Binance and CZ really are to the industry 🚀 50:39 What advantages make Hyperliquid stand out in the perp battle 🤔 53:14 Why picking winners in trading isn’t so simple 🔄 57:29 Winners in stablecoin race plus why perps are better than spot Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest in crypto. This week, we’re joined by Farooq Malik, co-founder and CEO of Rain, as two parallel wars erupt across crypto: the Perp DEX war between Hyperliquid and the CZ-backed Aster, and the deepening battle for stablecoin dominance. As Aster rockets to $30B in daily volume, we debate whether it’s real adoption or points-fueled froth — and what it means for Hyperliquid’s lead. Then we dive into Tether’s shocking $500B valuation play, Circle’s shrinking moat, and how Rain is building real-world rails for stablecoin payments. If crypto has two new battlegrounds — trading venues and money itself — this is where the future is getting drawn. Show highlights 🔹 DEX Wars: Aster vs. Hyperliquid – Aster hits $30B daily volume; is it real demand or a points-fueled surge? Hyperliquid’s dominance faces its first real threat. 🔹 CZ’s Return to Form – Aster’s Binance links, aggressive fee model, and possible “James Wynn” conspiracy theory raise the stakes in the perp DEX arena. 🔹 Wash Trading & Open Interest Gaps – Aster’s $2B TVL contrasts with $1.25B open interest vs. Hyperliquid’s $10B, sparking questions about organic traction. 🔹 Incentive Wars – Aster rewards takers 2x over makers; Hyperliquid and Blur praised for long-game design that built sticky liquidity instead of short-term volume. 🔹 The Execution Advantage – Haseeb: “Asia executes better than it innovates”; Aster may stumble now but could out-iterate and outscale its rivals. 🔹 Stablecoin Shockwave: Tether’s $500B Valuation Leak – Tether quietly seeks $15–20B in private funding, aiming for a $500B valuation—matching OpenAI and SpaceX. 🔹 Circle vs. Tether – Circle trades at 0.5x supply, Tether seeks 3x; the panel debates margins, moat, and whether USDC can survive the “reverse momentum.” 🔹 Rain’s Real-World Stablecoin Rails – Farooq Malik shares how Rain powers payroll, P2P, cards, and merchant payments on stablecoins—without touching fiat. 🔹 New Use Cases: Stablecoins in the Wild – On-chain credit cards, just-in-time lending, cross-border Facebook ad funding, and more—all enabled by 24/7 money. 🔹 Global Adoption: LatAm, MENA, Asia – Rain’s data shows stablecoin usage exploding outside the U.S., especially in regions with FX controls and unstable banks. Hosts ⭐️Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly ⭐️Robert Leshner, CEO & Co-founder of Superstate ⭐️Tom Schmidt, General Partner at Dragonfly Guest ⭐️Farooq Malik, Co-Founder & CEO of Rain ⁠Disclosures⁠ Timestamps 00:00 Intro 01:02 Aster vs. Hyperliquid 14:25 Regulatory Capture: L2s, Sequencers, CFTC 26:08 Tether’s $500B Valuation: Bubble or Bargain? 31:36 Tether vs. Circle: Stablecoin Economics 42:56 Rain: Stablecoin Payments Infra 47:16 Stablecoin Use Cases; Cards, Payroll, P2P 54:04 Global Stablecoin Growth Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices