Bankless

ROLLUP: Is the Bull Market Back? | Treasury QE | Trump Pumps Crypto | SEC Token Rules Aug 21, 2026 3778 Crypto just had one of its biggest breakout days in years. Ryan and David unpack the Treasury’s QE-like move, the White House and SEC’s crypto push, ETH’s violent rebound, and whether this rally finally broke the back of the bear market. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔓 NEAR | TRADE CONFIDENTIALLY

Why Ethereum MUST Change Its Monetary Policy | Sam Jernigan and Jerome de Tychey Aug 20, 2026 4952 Ethereum may be paying too much to secure itself, and the consequences could extend far beyond a little extra ETH issuance. Jerome de Tychey, co-author of EIP-8363, and Sam Jernigan join David Hoffman to make the case for stake targeting, a proposal designed to stop Ethereum’s staking ratio from climbing indefinitely. They debate what happens if more than half of ETH becomes staked, whether today’

Why Raising Rates Would Actually Calm Markets | Jim Bianco Aug 17, 2026 4155 The Fed may no longer be a one-person institution, and markets are not ready for the consequences. Jim Bianco joins David Hoffman to unpack Kevin Warsh's emerging 12-voter Fed, the end of forward guidance, and the counterintuitive case that higher short-term rates could actually pull long-term yields lower. They also explore sticky inflation, why balance sheet reduction cannot happen overnight, ho

EtherFi’s Next Act: Stocks, Loans, and Global Banking | Mike Silagadze Aug 14, 2026 2554 EtherFi is expanding from a crypto-native neobank into a broader financial account built around DeFi. Mike Silagadze joins David to break down the next version of the product, including tokenized stocks and metals, Aave V4-powered credit, yield-bearing balances, global fiat rails, and a much more normie-friendly experience. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/

ROLLUP: Bitcoin’s Fork Died in 2 Blocks | Saylor Sells Again | Robinhood Chain | Fidelity Staking Aug 13, 2026 3320 Bitcoin’s latest fork died after just two blocks. Ryan and David unpack what the failure says about Bitcoin maximalism, why Saylor keeps selling BTC, Robinhood Chain’s breakout, and Fidelity’s push to bring staking yield to Wall Street. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔓NEAR | TRADE CONFIDENTIALLY, G

NEAR’s New Token Utility and AI Economy | Illia Polosukhin Aug 11, 2026 3091 What if staking a token could keep an AI agent thinking? NEAR cofounder Illia Polosukhin joins David to explain NEAR’s new staking-powered inference model, where yield funds access to confidential and verifiable AI. They unpack how NEAR AI Cloud, IronClaw, Intents, and the NEAR token fit into one integrated economy for autonomous agents, why AI outputs may need cryptographic proof when money is at

The EIP That Destroys DeFi | Stani Kulechov & Mike Silagadze Aug 10, 2026 3267 Ethereum’s latest staking proposal is sparking backlash across DeFi. Aave founder Stani Kulechov and EtherFi CEO Mike Silagadze join David to break down why stake tapering could push ETH yield toward zero, weaken solo staking, drive capital out of DeFi, and make ETH less attractive to institutions. They debate Ethereum’s monetary policy, whether the network is overpaying for security, and why tryi

ROLLUP: The ETH Issuance War | $130M Coldcard Exploit | Saylor Sells Again | Uniswap Launchpad Aug 7, 2026 4017 Ethereum’s monetary policy is suddenly up for debate. Ryan and David unpack the issuance fight dividing researchers and DeFi builders, the Coldcard exploit that hit users who “did everything right,” Saylor’s latest Bitcoin sale, and markets ripping back to all-time highs. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

$ANSEM, Robinhood Chain, & Why SOL Still Beats ETH in 2026 | Mike Dudas Aug 5, 2026 3911 Memecoins were supposed to be a dead end, but Mike Dudas believes their deeper idea is only beginning to spread. The 6MV investor joins David to unpack Bonk’s role in reviving Solana, Ansem’s latest experiment, Robinhood’s push into the trenches, and how games, collectibles, prediction markets, and compute could power consumer crypto’s next chapter. Mike also answers the $1 million ETH versus SOL

The Next Bull Market is Here, and Obvious | Spencer and Aleks, Blockchain Capital Aug 3, 2026 4293 Crypto prices are weak, OG sentiment is exhausted, and institutions are leaning in. Blockchain Capital GPs Aleks Larsen and Spencer Bogart join David Hoffman to explain why this disconnect may be the opportunity. They unpack crypto’s shift toward application-layer value, stablecoins as onchain working capital, tokenized equities, Aave V4, public blockchains, and BCAP. Is the cypherpunk dream fadin

ROLLUP: Korea Gets Liquidated | The AI Trade Unwinds | Crypto Holds Firm | Warsh Holds Rates Jul 31, 2026 3249 Korea’s leveraged stock boom imploded and the AI trade found a forced seller, but crypto held firm. Ryan and David unpack whether the winds are shifting toward BTC and ETH, Warsh’s hawkish Fed debut, and Ethereum’s 11th birthday. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔓NEAR | TRADE CONFIDENTIALLY, GET 20%

What's Next for Vaults? | Steakhouse Co-Founder, Adrian Cachinero Jul 30, 2026 3888 Vaults could become the financial rails that bring trillions onchain, but only if they solve risk, regulation and investor protection. Steakhouse co-founder Adrian Cachinero joins David to explain how vaults work, why repo markets matter and where this new asset-management layer goes next. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKL

Morpho Midnight: The Future of Fixed-Rate Lending | Paul Frambot Jul 29, 2026 3661 Every lending protocol in DeFi quietly decides your interest rate for you. Paul Frambot thinks that was always a workaround and Morpho Midnight is his argument for what replaces it. Fixed-rate lending as the only true primitive, pricing trust on-chain, and the one switch Morpho won't flip yet. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SP

From Harvard at 18 to Building Crypto's Fastest Exchange | Vlad, Lighter Jul 27, 2026 3900 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-

ROLLUP: Crypto’s 2-Week Deadline | The CLARITY Act | $100 Oil | OpenAI Model Escapes Jul 24, 2026 3825 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://bank

Securitize Just Went Public — Are We Still Tokenizing the World? Jul 23, 2026 2796 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

Rebuilding the $12T Repo Market on Bitcoin | Bitcoin Dave Jul 20, 2026 3441 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-p

ROLLUP: Bull Market? | Inflation Cools, War Heats | Robinhood Flips Base | ETH’s Fee Problem Jul 17, 2026 4026 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

Why Every Chain, Wallet & App Is Integrating NEAR Intents | Kendall Cole Jul 16, 2026 3378 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 PR

Jito Declares War on Coinbase & Binance | Lucas Bruder on the Launch of JTX Jul 15, 2026 2989 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/spoti

Is Bitcoin Going According to Plan? Gold, Saylor, Satoshi | Dan Held Jul 13, 2026 3357 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 thin

ROLLUP: War Returns, Markets Shrug | Saylor Sells | Robinhood Memecoins | Ethereum 3.0? Jul 10, 2026 3898 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/bi

How Hyperliquid Becomes the Backend for ALL of Finance | Tushar Jain Jul 7, 2026 3244 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, leverag

The Rise of Robinhood Chain: Tokenized Stocks, Perps, and 27M Users | Johann Kerbrat Jul 6, 2026 1845 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 cryp

ROLLUP: Crypto Bullish Again? | OpenUSD vs USDC | Robinhood Chain | Trump’s $1.4B Haul Jul 3, 2026 3860 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 t

How Ondo Is Bringing Stocks and Perps Onchain | Ian De Bode Jul 2, 2026 2863 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. --

Strategy is Trapped & in Crisis — "It's Basically a Hedge Fund Now" | Jeff Dorman & Matt Walsh Jul 1, 2026 3230 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.

Ethlabs: The New Org to Make Ethereum Win | Ansgar & Caspar Jun 29, 2026 3512 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 --- BANKL

ROLLUP: Bitcoin Breaks Below $60K | Saylor’s Three Bad Options | ETH Labs | The Quantum Clock Jun 26, 2026 3840 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-pod

AI, Surveillance, and the Fight for Digital Sovereignty | Near's Illia Polosukhin Jun 23, 2026 3447 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 unpa

"The Fed Can't Print Moore's Law" - How the AI Crash Sends Bitcoin to $1M | Arthur Hayes Jun 22, 2026 3496 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,

ROLLUP: Saylor Risk? | Warsh’s New Fed | SpaceX IPO | Coinbase’s Everything Exchange Jun 19, 2026 3635 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://ba

How Re is Rebuilding the $1T Reinsurance Market with Stablecoins | Karn Saroya & Avichal Garg Jun 18, 2026 3515 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 als

Why The Pokémon Card Market Is Blowing Up | Andy8052 Jun 17, 2026 2796 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 collec

Perps Are Coming Onshore | CFTC Chairman Mike Selig Jun 15, 2026 2108 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 equ

ROLLUP: One More Dip? | Saylor Sold | IPO Season | Ethereum vs ETH Jun 12, 2026 4090 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 --- BANKLE

Is $LIT Cheap? | Will Price and Flip Jun 9, 2026 3647 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

Venice is Here to Win: How a Private AI Company Plans to Take On OpenAI and Anthropic Jun 8, 2026 3532 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 pr

ROLLUP: Bitcoin’s Confidence Game | Bitmine’s ETH Bet | Token Rotation | U.S. Perps Jun 5, 2026 3487 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: SPOTIFY

Capitol Hill War Stories from a DC Lobbyist Who’s Seen It All (SBF, Gensler, Elizabeth Warren) Jun 4, 2026 3534 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 m

"ZODL is to Zcash What Coinbase Was to Bitcoin" | Josh Swihart on ZEC’s Awakening Jun 1, 2026 3184 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 i

ROLLUP: False Strength? | ETH Crisis | Altcoin ATHs | Satoshi’s Coins May 29, 2026 3818 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 MARKE

NEAR’s AI Money Thesis: Intents, Privacy, and Tokenomics | Sal Ternullo May 27, 2026 2951 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 commercia

Cloudflare Needs 100M TPS from Crypto to Fix the Internet | CEO Matthew Prince May 25, 2026 5563 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 c

ROLLUP: David Sold His ETH | EF Exodus | Hyperliquid’s Breakout | Stagflation Fears May 22, 2026 4285 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: 🔮

Bitcoin’s $300T Credit Market Opportunity | Jeff Walton May 21, 2026 4681 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 e

"Crypto Without Privacy Isn't Crypto" - The Zcash Bull Case | Tushar Jain & Mert Mumtaz May 19, 2026 3685 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 ris

Clarity Act Odds Jump to 75% After Surprise Senate Vote | Alex Thorn May 18, 2026 3006 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 e

ROLLUP: Is the Bull Back? | The Clarity Act | Wall Street on Ethereum | Anthropic Nukes Perps May 15, 2026 3923 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 P

The $200 Billion Shadow Market Behind Anthropic's Stock | Dio Casares May 14, 2026 2654 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 repr

Will AI Populism Decide the 2028 Election? | Jasmine Sun May 13, 2026 4843 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://ww

How Long Will the AI Boom Continue? The #1 Question for Crypto Investors | Michael Nadeau May 12, 2026 3958 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://

Why North Korea Is Winning Crypto Crime and How to Fight Back | Ari Redbord, TRM Labs May 11, 2026 5469 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

ROLLUP: Crypto’s Nasdaq Problem | The CLARITY Act | Saylor Selling? | ETH L1 Scaling May 8, 2026 3617 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/s

“Finding Satoshi”—How a Private Investigator Solved the Mystery of Bitcoin’s Creator | Bill Cohan & Tyler Maroney May 4, 2026 4588 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

ROLLUP: $120 Oil vs New Highs | AI Boom Masks War | IPO Top Signal | DeFi Bailout May 1, 2026 3574 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 |

MegaETH Token Launch with Co-Founders Shuyao and Lei Apr 30, 2026 3350 $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: SPOTIF

$200 Oil by June?—The Biggest Oil Shock in History | Rory Johnston on The Hormuz Crisis Apr 29, 2026 5837 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, geo

Has Bitcoin Bottomed? Jordi Visser on AI, Inflation, and Moats Apr 27, 2026 5378 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

ROLLUP: $300M DeFi Hack Fallout | Arbitrum Freezes Funds | AI Deflation Debate | Productive ETH Apr 24, 2026 4058 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 $280M DeFi Exploit That Changes Crypto Forever | Dan Elitzer & Odysseus Apr 23, 2026 4414 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

Productive Money: The Most Bullish Case for Ethereum ($250K) | Michael McGuiness & Vivek Raman Apr 21, 2026 5062 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

Can AI Agents Build Real Businesses? | Kelly Claude creator Austen Allred Apr 20, 2026 4477 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: SPO

ROLLUP: Markets at ATHs | Saylor’s STRC Bid | Trump DeFi Scandal | SEC Clears DeFi Apr 17, 2026 3810 Markets are ripping back to all-time highs, but crypto still isn’t following suit. Ryan and David break down the V-shaped recovery driven by Iran de-escalation, why Bitcoin is still stuck in range, and the growing bull vs bear divide across macro and onchain data. They also unpack Saylor’s STRC “money printer,” the World Liberty DeFi controversy, and the SEC’s surprise ruling that just gave De

Why Hasn't The Dollar Fallen? | Lessons from Currency Historian Barry Eichengreen Apr 16, 2026 4593 Why has the dollar remained dominant despite rising debt, geopolitical strain, and growing challengers? Barry Eichengreen joins Bankless to trace the history of global reserve currencies. From Spanish silver and the Byzantine solidus to sterling and the modern dollar, Barry explains the conditions that make a currency rise, endure, and eventually fall. We explore fiscal discipline, rule of law,

Up or Down from Here? Bears vs. Bulls Apr 14, 2026 3648 Has crypto already bottomed, or is more pain still ahead? Mike and Ryan break down the bull and bear case in full, from Bitcoin fair value and market structure to global liquidity, AI demand, and the macro risks still hanging over markets. Mike explains why he thinks the setup still looks more like a bear market than a new uptrend, even if the odds are close. It’s a sharp episode on how to navigat

"Fix the Money, Fix the World" — Michael Saylor's Master Plan (plus questions on Quantum and Ethereum) Apr 13, 2026 5886 Michael Saylor thinks Bitcoin is headed to $21 million, but the real story in this conversation is how he believes it gets there. In his first appearance on Bankless, Saylor breaks down Strategy’s evolving capital machine, why STRC may be the most ambitious instrument the company has built yet, how he thinks about quantum risk without panic, why his view on Ethereum has become more constructive, a

ROLLUP: Iran Ceasefire Rally | Anthropic’s “Mythos” Model | Q-Day Divide | Stablecoin Yield Debate Apr 10, 2026 3998 Markets are rallying on a fragile Iran ceasefire, but the real risks may be getting closer. David and Haseeb break down Anthropic’s secretive new AI model and why it could expose vulnerabilities across crypto, from smart contracts to core blockchain infrastructure, plus the growing divide around “Q-Day” and how urgent the quantum threat really is. They also unpack Iran’s unexpected use of

Will The Ethereum Economic Zone (EEZ) Rebuild $ETH Dominance? | Gnosis Martin Koppelman & Friederike Ernst Apr 9, 2026 3492 Can Ethereum become one economic zone again? Martin Koppelmann and Friederike Ernst from Gnosis explain how real-time proving and the Ethereum Economic Zone could reconnect fragmented rollups, unify liquidity, and give specialized chains seamless access to Ethereum’s settlement and security. ------ 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium ----

The Largest Securities Exchange in the World is Coming Onchain | Michael Blaugrund of NYSE and Carlos Domingo of Securitize Apr 7, 2026 3886 NYSE and Securitize are laying the rails to bring real, issuer-backed securities onchain. Michael Blaugrund of NYSE and Carlos Domingo of Securitize break down how blockchain-native equities could work in practice: transfer agents, tokenized issuance, interoperable trading infrastructure, 24/7 markets, and what it will take for public stocks to move from legacy rails to crypto rails. T Th

Bitcoin Has 3 Years to Survive | Nic Carter on Bitcoin’s Quantum Vulnerability Apr 6, 2026 4410 What if Bitcoin’s biggest strength becomes its fatal weakness? Nic Carter joins Bankless to unpack why the latest quantum papers changed the threat model, why a 2029 migration window could leave Bitcoin dangerously behind, what a real post-quantum transition would require, and why the fight over Satoshi’s dormant coins may become the most explosive governance battle in Bitcoin history. --- 🎬 DEB

ROLLUP: Google’s Quantum Warning | Trump’s Iran Speech | Ethereum Economic Zones | Drift Hack Apr 3, 2026 3854 Google just dropped a major quantum warning for crypto, claiming a breakthrough that could accelerate the timeline to breaking Bitcoin and Ethereum’s core security. Ryan and David unpack what changed, how real the threat is, and why the industry may need to act sooner than expected. Plus: Trump signals three more weeks in the Iran conflict and markets shrug it off, a $285M Solana DeFi hack exp

3 Megatrends Every Investor Needs to Know: Demographics, Wealth Inequality, & the End of Labor (with Jeff Park) Mar 30, 2026 5256 Three macro forces are converging that almost no one is pricing in correctly. Jeff Park returns to Bankless to lay out what he calls the "certain truths" shaping markets for the next two decades: collapsing demographics across every major economy, wealth concentration that now exceeds even the Gilded Age, and a labor market being structurally hollowed out by AI before robots even arrive. --- 📣S

ROLLUP: The World is On the Clock | The Clarity Act | Crypto Mortgages | Bitmine Staking Mar 27, 2026 3642 We examine the proposed Clarity Act and its impact on stablecoin yields and crypto finance. Ryan and David discuss geopolitical tensions in Iran and their effects on global markets. Highlights include Tom Lee's ETH staking venture, the NYSE's stock tokenization, and emerging quantum computing developments. We also touch on Coinbase’s stock dip, Tether’s auditing, and Fannie Mae's acceptance of

The Economics of AGI: Why Verification Is the New Scarcity w/ Christian Catalini Mar 26, 2026 5154 MIT economist Christian Catalini joins Ryan and David to unpack his new paper, "Some Simple Economics of AGI," which argues that the scarce resource in the AI economy is no longer intelligence but verification: the human capacity to check, judge, and certify that AI output is correct. Christian walks through the two cost curves reshaping every industry (cost to automate vs. cost to verify), explai

Illia Polosukhin: Why AI Agents Are Still Useless (And What Fixes Them) | NEAR Founder on IronClaw Mar 24, 2026 4667 NEAR founder and Transformer co-author Illia Polosukhin joins us to break down why today’s AI agents still fall short, what’s missing to make them actually useful, and how IronClaw could unlock secure, private, autonomous AI. We also explore Illia’s bigger thesis: AI becomes the interface, blockchains become the backend, and both reshape how humans, agents, and digital markets interact. ----

Ethereum’s Quantum Strategy with Justin Drake Mar 23, 2026 6025 Quantum used to be crypto’s distant sci-fi problem. Justin Drake says it now has a clock. In this episode, we unpack what “Q-Day” actually means, why Justin thinks 2032 is the date the entire industry should be planning around, and why Ethereum is targeting 2029 to get post-quantum ready. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPON

ROLLUP: Crypto Momentum | Regime Shift? | Payments War | Prediction Boom | SBF on Netflix Mar 20, 2026 4145 Ryan and David break down a historic week for crypto as the SEC and CFTC finally deliver long-awaited clarity, classifying major tokens and reshaping the market. At the same time, Bitcoin is outperforming stocks and gold amid global tensions, raising the key question: is this a real regime shift or just a relief rally? They also cover the rise of prediction markets, the emerging battle for agentic

Tempo Mainnet: The Race to Agentic Commerce Mar 19, 2026 4796 Tempo Mainnet is live, but this episode isn’t really about just another chain launch. It’s about a bigger claim: that AI agents are about to need native money, and that the internet may need a new payment layer to support them. Georgios Konstantopoulos and Brendan Ryan join Bankless to unpack why Tempo launched with agentic payments front and center, what MPP actually is, how it compares to x402,

Trump's Grand Strategy: Iran, China & The New World Order | Kamran Bokhari Mar 18, 2026 4101 A deep dive into Trump’s emerging grand strategy and the geopolitical logic behind the Iran conflict. Kamran Bokhari joins Bankless to unpack how the U.S. is trying to reshape the Middle East, manage tensions with China and Russia, and transition from direct intervention toward a new model of burden-sharing, regional power balancing, and global restraint. ------ 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED

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