Unchained

Was Michael Saylor wrong to sell Bitcoin? Matt Cole breaks from his fellow critics on Strategy, S&P's junk rating on MSTR, and whether the model is breaking. ======================================================== Thank you to our sponsor! ⁠⁠⁠⁠Fidelity⁠⁠⁠⁠: Fidelity has been building in crypto and DeFi since 2014 — now they're hiring. Explore career opportunities at one of the most forward-thinking names in finance here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠crypto.fidelitycareers.com⁠⁠⁠⁠. ⁠⁠⁠⁠Cape⁠⁠⁠⁠: Your biggest crypto vulnerability isn't your wallet, it's your phone number. Cape is America's privacy-first mobile carrier that rotates your SIM identity daily and blocks SIM swaps before they happen. Get 33% off your first six months at cape.co/unchained (use code: UNCHAINED). ======================================================== Strive's Matt Cole had just lived through what he called the most difficult day in the history of digital credit when he sat down to defend it. STRC had touched $82.50, SATA had slipped into the low nineties, and the Bitcoin treasury trade was suddenly the most argued-over corner of crypto. Cole came from a pension background and built Strive into one of the largest Bitcoin treasury companies around a single conviction: that structured credit can solve an income problem fiat can't. The critics, he argues, can't even agree with each other on what is actually wrong. Was last week a leverage liquidation or a crack in the model? Did Michael Saylor quietly change his story? And is wrapping Bitcoin in preferred stock a betrayal of its ethos or the bridge most people actually need? Laura Shin pressed on all of it. Host: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Laura Shin⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Host / Unchained Guests: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Matt Cole - Chairman and CEO of Strive Timestamps 🎙️ 02:07 What Strive is, and why Matt calls SATA the company's main product 🏦 10:16 Could Strive cut SATA's 13% yield without breaking par? 👥 15:45 Who is actually buying SATA, and the one buyer Matt says he's never met 📣 25:15 Fidelity: Explore crypto careers and make the decision that could change your future at https://crypto.fidelitycareers.com 🔒 25:58 Cape: Use code unchained for 33% off at https://cape.co/unchained 💧 27:28 What Matt thinks really drove last week's STRC drop, and why SATA didn't follow 🏛️ 31:28 Why Matt won't fault Saylor for selling, and the S&P rating he calls a joke ⚖️ 50:53 Is buying SATA un-Bitcoin? Matt answers the Mallers vs Saylor critique Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The government export-controlled Anthropic's best model. Kain, Luca, and Taylor debate whether Dario talked his way into it and what the shutdown means for every AI lab. ======================================================== Thank you to our sponsors! ⁠⁠Multichain Advisors⁠⁠: Get help navigating TGEs, go‑to‑market, BD and partnerships, capital markets advisory, PR, media placements, KOL activations and more at https://multichainadv.com. ======================================================== A reported jailbreak of Anthropic's most powerful model, Fable, triggered US government export controls, and the Uneasy Money hosts argue Dario Amodei's response on the call with the administration made it inevitable. Kain, Taylor, and Luca dig into what Dario got wrong, why a company about to go public had no one in Washington who could speak the government's language, and what it means that the shutdown drew no public backlash. Porter Stowell, CEO of W3.io and a Coinbase alum, joins for the first half with his read on the exchange's big announcement day: agentic payments on Base, tokenized stocks, and a ground-up trading rebuild. Midway through, Luca drops something unannounced: Igloo has built a financial instrument to list crypto tokens directly on the NYSE as securities, with protocol revenue flowing back to holders. The episode closes on Strategy, and why Kain thinks selling 32 Bitcoin, then buying back 1,587 two weeks later, exposes the structural risk of a belief-based asset with one dominant buyer. Hosts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Kain Warwick⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Founder of Infinex and Synthetix ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Taylor Monahan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Security Expert ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Luca Netz⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, CEO of Pudgy Penguins Guest: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Porter Stowell - CEO of W3.io Timestamps 🏦 03:16 Porter Stowell on why Coinbase's announcement day signals a real shift in how the exchange competes 💬 06:26 Luca on why Coinbase's core trading product still lags: charts that won't load and page refreshes to buy Bitcoin 🤖 17:40 Porter on why agentic payments on Base is the real sleeper from Coinbase's announcement day 📋 25:10 What "real" means in Coinbase's tokenized stocks launch and whether the custody approach actually differentiates it 💡 34:15 Luca reveals Igloo's instrument to list crypto tokens directly on the NYSE as securities 📣 41:12 Multichain Advisors: Navigate TGEs, go-to-market, and capital markets advisory at https://multichainadv.com 🧠 41:54 What Fable was, why it scared security researchers, and how a reported jailbreak report ended it ⚠️ 48:36 Taylor on why Anthropic's communications with the government made the Fable export control inevitable 🏛️ 57:09 Kain on why the Fable shutdown is the 'first fracture' in AI, and what the lack of pushback means 🌍 01:00:18 Binance's EU license bid in doubt, and Kain's contrarian case that losing Europe is bullish 📉 01:07:32 Strategy sold 32 Bitcoin on June 1 then bought back 1,587: what the panic reaction revealed about Bitcoin's concentration risk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The federal government pulled Anthropic's Fable 5 offline with no public process — and Jessi Brooks makes the case it's a crypto chokepoint story, not just an AI one. Thanks to our sponsor! 👉 Fidelity: Fidelity has been building in crypto and DeFi since 2014 — now they're hiring. Explore career opportunities at one of the most forward-thinking names in finance here: https://crypto.fidelitycareers.com. 👉 Cape: Your biggest crypto vulnerability isn't your wallet, it's your phone number. Cape is America's privacy-first mobile carrier that rotates your SIM identity daily and blocks SIM swaps before they happen. Get 33% off your first six months at https://cape.co/unchained (use code: UNCHAINED). The federal government forced Anthropic to take Fable 5 offline last week, and the justification is still murky. Jessi Brooks makes the case that what began as a cybersecurity story is really a chokepoint story, one crypto has seen before. With no transparent process, no technical experts cited, and no clear legal authority, she argues the administration has effectively invented KYC for AI, raising questions far beyond Anthropic. Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos, Jessi Brooks, and Vy Le work through two regulatory moves with real market-structure stakes. The CFTC released a near-300-page proposed rule on prediction markets, amending Rule 40.11 and clearing political event contracts. The SEC moved to repeal Reg NMS Rules 611 and 610E, two-decade-old market pillars. Vy Le argues the repeal is crypto's real opening: stop forcing AMMs to fit the old rules and start building the replacement, where solver auctions and cryptographic attestations let investors and regulators verify execution in real time. The throughline across the week is the same: when Washington moves this fast and quietly, is crypto the cautionary tale or the fix? Hosts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, General Counsel at StarkWare. Previously held senior legal roles across DeFi and centralized exchanges. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jessi Brooks⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, General Counsel at Ribbit Capital⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Vy Le - Co-host of DEX in the City and General Counsel of Veda Timestamps 🤖 03:04 Why the Fable 5 shutdown is a chokepoint story, not just a security one 🔑 09:36 Jessi on why inventing KYC for AI with no process echoes the Gensler era ☢️ 18:48 Why Vy Le puts AI on the threat level of the nuclear bomb 🏛️ 22:36 What the CFTC's near-300-page prediction-markets rule changes in Rule 40.11 📣 34:21 Fidelity: Explore crypto careers that could change your future at https://crypto.fidelitycareers.com 📈 36:32 Why the SEC's Reg NMS repeal could clear the way for onchain markets ⚙️ 41:18 Why Vy Le says crypto already built the tools for better best execution 📑 46:42 Why Citi's 'tokenized shares' aren't shares, plus Coinbase's onchain dividends 🦕 51:26 Crypto good news: Jurassic Finance tokenizes dinosaur bones Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

For the tenth anniversary of Unchained, Laura reflects on the SBF question she never asked, the Charles Hoskinson beef, and why she may be done with strict neutrality. ======================================================== Thank you to our sponsor! ⁠⁠Fidelity⁠⁠: Fidelity has been building in crypto and DeFi since 2014 — now they're hiring. Explore career opportunities at one of the most forward-thinking names in finance here: ⁠⁠crypto.fidelitycareers.com⁠⁠. ⁠⁠Cape⁠⁠: Your biggest crypto vulnerability isn't your wallet, it's your phone number. Cape is America's privacy-first mobile carrier that rotates your SIM identity daily and blocks SIM swaps before they happen. Get 33% off your first six months at cape.co/unchained (use code: UNCHAINED). ======================================================== Unchained started as a side project by Laura in 2016, with two interviews recorded on Necker Island. Ten years later, it’s become a network of podcasts and newsletters. Haseeb Qureshi of one of most beloved podcasts on the network, The Chopping Block, chats with Laura about everything from its origins to biggest regrets to her interview style and more. Plus, she reveals the one regret she has over a question she never got to ask Sam Bankman-Fried after the collapse of FTX. Haseeb, managing partner at Dragonfly and an effective altruist himself, traces whether EA's moral framework enabled SBF's fraud, or whether SBF simply had ordinary delusions of grandeur. The conversation also moves through Charles Hoskinson's disputed PhD claims, the Brian Armstrong interview that never happened, and Laura's emerging conviction that ten years of institutional disillusionment may be pushing her away from the neutrality that built her career. Host: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Laura Shin⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Host / Unchained Guests: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Haseeb Qureshi - Managing Partner of Dragonfly - https://x.com/hosseeb Timestamps 🎙️ 1:46 How Unchained started: Necker Island, first guests, and the year-one sponsor 📰 6:46 Why Laura sold her crypto for journalism ethics and why she bought back in years later 😳 10:45 Why the SBF collapse was Laura's biggest shock in 11 years of covering crypto 🧠 14:24 Laura's 'license to play God' critique of effective altruism and Haseeb's rebuttal ❓ 23:32 The question Laura would have asked SBF after the FTX Collapse and why nobody did 🎤 25:16 Why Brian Armstrong has never been on the show and Laura's neutrality code 📣 30:08 Fidelity: Explore crypto careers and make the decision that could change your future at https://crypto.fidelitycareers.com 🌐 30:58 Cape: Get 33% off your first six months at https://cape.co/unchained ⚔️ 32:19 Laura ranks her worst and best Crypto Twitter brawls 🎭 38:33 Why Haseeb thinks The Chopping Block works best as a play, not a roundtable 🤔 47:06 Laura asks whether she should shed journalistic neutrality after ten years 🗞️ 51:06 Why Laura now believes independent journalism is better for humanity Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

OpenAI, Anthropic, SpaceXand the AI IPO cycle face a structural problem: a cheap, capable open source exit is already drawing enterprise users away before either company goes public. ======================================================== Thank you to our sponsor! ⁠Fidelity⁠: Fidelity has been building in crypto and DeFi since 2014 — now they're hiring. Explore career opportunities at one of the most forward-thinking names in finance here: ⁠crypto.fidelitycareers.com⁠. ⁠Cape⁠: Your biggest crypto vulnerability isn't your wallet, it's your phone number. Cape is America's privacy-first mobile carrier that rotates your SIM identity daily and blocks SIM swaps before they happen. Get 33% off your first six months at cape.co/unchained (use code: UNCHAINED). ======================================================== A viral tweet by Tom Shaughnessy, founding partner of Delphi Ventures, identified the most basic way AI could blow up: a 40x subsidy gap between consumer AI subscriptions and enterprise API costs quietly pushing businesses toward open source inference providers at 1% of the price. Citadel Securities published a near-identical thesis shortly after. Shaughnessy joins Laura Shin to map the implications for the AI IPO wave, starting with SpaceX. Low floats and passive index demand should lift these stocks out of the gate, but public market disclosures will force OpenAI and Anthropic to reveal payback periods, margins, and subscriber numbers for the first time. He also argues OpenAI's reported price cuts target Anthropic's growth metrics before the IPO, not user demand. The episode also covers the China model wildcard, whether AI model restrictions amount to big brother fearmongering, and whether crypto's tools for capital formation could keep the AGI flywheel from stalling. Host: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Laura Shin⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Host / Unchained Guests: ⁠Tom Shaughnessy - Founding Partner of Delphi Ventures and Co-Founder of Delphi Digital Timestamps 💸 01:10 Why over $600B left crypto in 30 days: AI deal outflows, the SpaceX IPO. and quantum concerns 🧵 04:46 Tom's viral tweet: the 40x subsidy gap hidden in AI subscription pricing 📊 07:51 Why AI IPO filings will force the financials nobody has seen 💡 10:16 Why open source inference will compete with the frontier labs 🏗️ 13:06 Why frontier labs need to own what they create, not collect $200 per month 📣 15:55 Cape: Get 33% off your first six months at https://cape.co/unchained 📣 17:01 Fidelity: Explore crypto careers that could change your future at https://crypto.fidelitycareers.com 🌏 18:08 Chinese open source models and why going closed source could help OpenAI ⚔️ 20:58 Why Tom says OpenAI's price cuts target Anthropic's IPO, not users 🤬 22:09 Why AI model censorship is big brother fearmongering 🔗 24:42 Crypto's answer: ICO for open source AI, Nous Hermes, Venice, Grass, Ambient Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mert and Illia autopsy a brutal weekend in crypto: Saylor's $3M test sale that taught him there's no sell button, the Zcash bug Claude found that could've minted unlimited counterfeit ZEC, formal verification as the bulwark against AI attackers, and whether NEAR's agentic commerce vision is real. Welcome to The Chopping Block — where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest in crypto. This week we've got two heavy hitters: NEAR Protocol co-founder Illia Polosukhin and Helius founder Mert Mumtaz. We kick things off with the weekend market meltdown -- Saylor sold 32 BTC for the first time in four years, STRC is trading below par, and Mert argues the real damage is that Saylor sucks all the air out of the room for actual crypto innovation. Then we get into the biggest story of the week: a critical bug discovered in Zcash's Orchard ZK circuit using Claude Opus 4.8 that could have allowed infinite counterfeit minting inside the shielded pool. Mert walks us through the emergency soft fork, the Ironwood migration, and why formal verification is about to become table stakes. Illia makes the case that AI-powered attackers have a permanent asymmetric advantage and that we need real-time on-chain detection systems to survive. Tom coins the analogy of the episode: we're moving from building boats to building spaceships. We close with Illia's pitch for NEAR's agent commerce vision – $240M in single-day volume, private intents, and the claim that agent-to-agent trustless commerce is already live – while Mert remains a friendly skeptic. Let's get into it.Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Hosts ⭐️Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly ⭐️Tom Schmidt, General Partner at Dragonfly Guest ⭐️ Mert, Co-founder & CEO at Helius ⭐️ Illia Polosukhin, Co-founder of NEAR Protocol Timestamps 00:00 Intro 01:17 Weekend Crypto Meltdown & Bitcoin Crash 02:52 Saylor, STRC & the DAT Death Spiral Fears 11:51 "No Sell Button" — Saylor's Lesson Learned 13:14 Zcash Bug: 50% Crash Explained 20:30 The Fix: Ironwood Pool & Formal Verification 23:11 AI vs Crypto Security: The Attacker Advantage 27:21 What Is Formal Verification? 30:07 Spaceship-Grade Smart Contract Security 31:36 OPSEC, Oracles & Anomaly Detection 36:08 Cypherpunk Dilemma: Stop the Hack or Not? 38:37 Will DeFi Survive? Long Math 42:49 NEAR's AI Agents & Intents Vision 48:43 Is Agentic Commerce Real? Mert's Skepticism Disclosures Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

About 80% of STRC holders are retail investors. Glenn Cameron walks through the prospectus, how Saylor's public claims differ from the reality, and why Strategy has no good options. ======================================================== Thank you to our sponsor! Fidelity: Fidelity has been building in crypto and DeFi since 2014 — now they're hiring. Explore career opportunities at one of the most forward-thinking names in finance here: crypto.fidelitycareers.com. Cape: Your biggest crypto vulnerability isn't your wallet, it's your phone number. Cape is America's privacy-first mobile carrier that rotates your SIM identity daily and blocks SIM swaps before they happen. Get 33% off your first six months at cape.co/unchained (use code: UNCHAINED). ======================================================== Strategy's sale of 32 Bitcoin last week came with unusual framing: Saylor said the purpose was to "inoculate the markets." Glenn Cameron, Global Head of Institutional at Onramp Bitcoin, reads that word as preparation for larger Bitcoin sales ahead. Glenn traces the pressure points. Strategy is trading at 84% of its Bitcoin value, making new equity issuance dilutive rather than accretive on a Bitcoin-per-share basis. Its cash reserve has been cut to roughly seven months after the company redeemed a 0%-interest convertible note. And STRC, the perpetual preferred stock Saylor has marketed as "a high yield bank account," carries a dividend the board can suspend for any reason. The episode's sharpest argument: 83% of STRC holders are retail investors sold a product that resembles a bank account but behaves like junior equity on a volatile Bitcoin company. No maturity, no FDIC protection, no right to redeem. Host: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Laura Shin⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Host / Unchained Guests: Glenn Cameron, CFA - Global Head of Institutional at Onramp Bitcoin Timestamps 📊 1:24 Risk vs uncertainty: why Glenn won't predict Bitcoin's price but will name every structural pressure point 🔑 4:27 What 'inoculate' means: why Saylor's word choice signals a larger Bitcoin sale may be coming 📉 6:58 Strategy below NAV: why buying Bitcoin with new stock now dilutes Bitcoin per share for existing holders 🗣️ 12:33 Glenn's response to people who say that the criticism of Strategy is FUD: STRC has to raise the dividend if bitcoin lowers 👥 19:57 Strrategy's section option: suspend the dividend, but 83% of holders are retail who think STRC is a bank account ⏰ 24:02 The 2028 cliff: $3.5B in convertibles become putable when history says a drawdown may not have recovered 📣 29:21 Fidelity: Explore crypto careers that could change your future at https://crypto.fidelitycareers.com 📱 30:19 Cape: Get 33% off your first six months with code unchained at https://cape.co/unchained 🏷️ 31:02 The 'digital credits' name: why STRC's marketing label creates false expectations about legal structure and protections 💬 36:13 Saylor's own words: three public claims that STRC is a 'high yield bank account' or money market fund ⚖️ 40:54 The real product: how STRC compares to actual money market funds and FDIC-insured accounts 🔄 48:22 SATA vs STRC: same instrument, different issuer since one-third of Sata's cash reserve is in STRC 🪣 55:42 why the staking yield of Bitmine's upcoming BMNP, an Ethereum-backed preferred at $80 par, won't cover the cost of capital Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Steve Sosnick on the ratchet effect in equities, the AI bandwidth parallel, Kevin Warsh’s impossible first week, and why crypto is the unsexy trade right now. --- Thank you to our sponsor! Coinbase: Get 20% off the first year of your Coinbase One annual plan at coinbase.com/unchained. Heads up! If you haven’t yet, be sure to subscribe to Bits + Bips, since the show will migrate there in a few weeks. Follow us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠X⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Unchained⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and wherever you get your podcasts. ---- Equities are near all-time highs, the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge just hit a multi-year peak, Iran ceasefire talks are producing a familiar ratchet effect in markets, and Bitcoin is quietly underperforming tech stocks on a nine-month volatility low. Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers, joins Steve Ehrlich to map what’s actually driving these unique market dynamics. They cover the two vulnerabilities that could change things, the uncomfortable parallel between today’s AI capex and the 1999 bandwidth buildout, what $120 billion in money market inflows says about where retail cash is actually sitting, the challenge Kevin Warsh faces walking into an already-skeptical FOMC, and why crypto is currently losing the competition for momentum-chasing money to AI stocks, upcoming IPOs, and even a memory chip ETF. Host: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Steve Ehrlich, Head of Research at SharpLink and Host of Bits + Bips: The Interview Guest: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sam Enzer - Partner and CahillNXT Co-Chair at Cahill Gordon & Reindel Timestamps 🏛️ 03:02 The two DOJ cases that just put prediction market traders on notice 📜 05:49 Why "insider trading" isn't actually a legal term, and why that matters 💡 11:49 Three scenarios where trading on an information edge is perfectly legal 🎭 15:32 The George Santos bet: closer to scalping than insider trading? ⚖️ 26:46 Why Kalshi may dodge the need for a gambling license 📉 34:41 The Strategy Polymarket bitcoin dispute: trade date vs. disclosure date 🚨 45:29 Expect more enforcement: what these two cases tell us about what's next Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Circle froze $12M in a DeFi pool on a Friday court order, trapping users who had nothing to do with the dispute. . Polymarket couldn't resolve a Strategy market. And MegaETH's apps are defecting. Nothing is simple. ======================================================== Thank you to our sponsors! Multichain Advisors: Get help navigating TGEs, go‑to‑market, BD and partnerships, capital markets advisory, PR, media placements, KOL activations and more at https://multichainadv.com. ======================================================== Strategy sold 32 Bitcoin before the May 31 deadline. It just didn't disclose it until June 1 — and that one-day gap is why a $50M Polymarket market resolved "no," even though Strategy's own 8-K shows the sale happened inside the window.Kain Warwick, Luca Netz, and Taylor Monahan trace why Polymarket keeps writing resolution criteria that break under edge cases, and why handing oracle duties to UMA is a liability for a $20 billion platform. They also get into the third proposal to cut Solana's staking inflation, and what it would take to spark an "ultrasound money" moment for SOL. The most consequential story is Circle. A Friday-afternoon ex-parte court order froze a $12M commingled USDC pool all weekend, trapping innocent users' funds inside the Zama privacy protocol. Taylor’s warning: Circle's policy of complying with any court order without retaining a final say creates a replicable attack template for any pool with USDC exposure. The episode closes on MegaETH and Monad: Kain on whether the "Mega Mafia" approach was adverse selection from the start, and Luca on what chains actually owe their builders. Host: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Kain Warwick⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Founder of Infinex and Synthetix ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Taylor Monahan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Security Expert ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Luca Netz⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, CEO of Pudgy Penguins Timestamps 🎰 00:56 The unnecessarily stupid Polymarket dispute about whether Strategy sold Bitcoin by the end of may 🏛️ 08:49 WhyPolymarket,a $20B platform, is still outsourcing truth to UMA 🤝 12:45 What Taylor thinks Polymarket actually needs to do to rebuild trust after disputed resolutions 🔥 19:49 Solana’s third tokenomics proposals: Luca on what the SOL inflation cut actually changes 🦇 22:06Vitalik accidentally created the ultrasound money meme. Can Solana do the same? 📣 30:43 Multichain Advisors: start building real traction today at https://multichainadv.com ❄️ 31:28 How Circle froze a commingled DeFi pool on a judge's order with no warning, no notice 🏦 44:46 The NYSE CEO calls Hyperliquid ‘bigger than the Nasdaq’. Arthur Hayes bets $100k on it 🏃 51:38 Apps are fleeing MegaETH for Monad: was the ‘Mega Mafia’ approach a mistake? 🏙️ 56:12 Luca on how chains are cities, not VCs. What builders actually want is distribution Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jeff Dorman on why Strategy's four stakeholder classes are all losing, and why Saylor should have sold $2B of Bitcoin at once instead of $2.5M. ======================================================== Thank you to our sponsor! Fidelity: Explore opportunities at https://crypto.fidelitycareers.com ======================================================== Strategy’s late-May Bitcoin sale has turned a long-running investor concern into a sharper question: how sustainable is the company’s capital structure if its Bitcoin accumulation strategy now comes with large cash obligations? Jeff Dorman, chief investment officer at Arca, joins Laura Shin to discuss why the sale changed his view of the risks around Strategy. After months of pushing back on fears of forced selling, Dorman says the company’s preferred-share financing has altered the analysis. He points to roughly $15 billion in preferred shares carrying 10% to 12% dividend rates, which he estimates could mean about $1.7 billion in annual cash obligations for a company without operating revenue. Dorman also breaks down the stakeholder groups shaping Strategy’s choices, the tradeoffs each path may create, and the Polymarket dispute over whether Strategy sold Bitcoin in May. Host: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Laura Shin⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Host / Unchained Guests: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jeff Dorman - Chief Investment Officer at Arca - https://x.com/jdorman81 Timestamps 🐦 01:18 How MSTR was sitting pretty until it complicated its capital structure and put itself in a bind 🎾 04:49 How MSTR committed an unforced error, giving itself only 5 months of cash left 🔀 08:43 Four options, four stakeholder classes, at least one loser each 💼 20:23 Fidelity: Explore opportunities at https://crypto.fidelitycareers.com 📊 21:23 Jeff ranks the capital structure positions by probability 🎲 27:00 Polymarket: a confirmed Bitcoin sale is resolving 'no.' How did that happen? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A co-founder of OpenZeppelin said he’s urging friends to exit blue chip DeFi. Isaac Patka and Mike Silagadze explain what he got right, what he got wrong, and what needs to change. ======================================================== Thank you to our sponsor! ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Coinbase One⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠: Get 20% off the first year of your Coinbase One annual plan at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠coinbase.com/unchained⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. ======================================================== A co-founder of OpenZeppelin set off a firestorm on Crypto Twitter this week by declaring that he now considers all of DeFi unsafe, citing superhuman AI coding agents and the asymmetry between attackers and defenders. Isaac Patka, certifications lead at Security Alliance, and Mike Silagadze, CEO of Ether.Fi, join Laura Shin to push back on that framing — and to make the case that the real problem isn’t AI finding sophisticated zero-days, it’s that 90% of hacks are still embarrassing opsec failures. They cover the full threat taxonomy: opsec and parameter mistakes, contagion from bridge failures, AI-enabled social engineering, and the decentralization theater that leaves protocols unable to protect their own users. Mike makes a pointed argument for why every serious DeFi protocol needs a hard pause button and a blacklist mechanism, while Isaac explains the three-multisig architecture that should be the minimum standard. Plus, both lay out the practical question every user should ask before putting money into any protocol. Host: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Laura Shin⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Host / Unchained Guests: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Isaac Patka (@isaacpatka) — Certifications Lead at Security Alliance & Co-founder of Shield3 ⁠⁠⁠⁠Mike Silagadze (@MikeSilagadze) — CEO of Ether.Fi Timestamps 💥 00:00 Is all of DeFi unsafe? Responding to the OpenZeppelin co-founder’s viral tweet 💙 07:35 Coinbase: Get 20% off the first year of your Coinbase One annual plan at https://coinbase.com/unchained. 🛡️ 9:21 The real DeFi risk taxonomy: opsec, contagion, and bridge failure vs. code bugs 🎭 13:29 Why Mike says fake decentralization makes users less safe 🔐 16:54 The three-multisig architecture every DeFi protocol needs 🔴 20:57 Mike: not having a pause button is irresponsible 🤖 22:44 The AI threat: arms race or advantage for defenders? 🎯 26:45 Social engineering: humans are the weak link, so design around them ⚖️ 33:20 Code is not law — and why Arbitrum got it right 🌉 36:15 Bridge risk: rate limits, monitoring, and why one-of-one bridges should never be allowed as collateral 📦 42:04 Aave vs. Morpho: isolated markets, contagion, and the Kelp attack fallout 📋 48:50 Tips for users + why SEAL certifications matter more than audits alone Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ethereum's midlife crisis hits the podcast as ex-Bankless and ConsenSys insiders unpack ETH's talent exodus, identity spiral, "Microsoft" future, EF shake-ups, and the Solana contender play-all with spicy takes on airdrops, real dev stats, and blockchain adoption drama. 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, it's an Ethereum apostasy spectacular: we're joined by David Hoffman and Max Resnick, who hit the confessional booth to explain why they've left the church of Ethereum. We kick off with David's viral "ETH is money" post-mortem: why he finally sold, and whether ETH can escape its spot on the yield farm for good. Max jumps in with an OG technologist's view on EF's internal struggles, talent flight, and the move-slow, break-nothing philosophy now gripping Ethereum's core. Is the EF just ossifying—or is it devolving into the "Microsoft of crypto"? From there, the hosts dissect the "second foundation" meme, why Twitter doomers might not matter for the ETH price, and whether Solana has stolen the next generation of devs. Max throws down on Solana's quantum future while the group takes barstool shots at metrics, narratives, and the never-ending "Ethereum is for boomers" debate. Whether you're a ride-or-die Etherean or just here for the schadenfreude, let's get into it. Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights 🔹David Hoffman reveals why he sold all his ETH and stepped down from the "ETH is money" pulpit 🔹Max Resnick on Ethereum's talent drain, EF's slow tech culture, and missing the Wall Street on-chain boat 🔹Why the Ethereum Foundation's leadership shuffle triggered so much existential dread 🔹The "Ethereum is Microsoft" thesis: ossification, enterprise comfort, and is that a bad thing? 🔹Are airdrops, stablecoin and NFT on-chain metrics just smoke and mirrors? 🔹Developer mindshare —did Solana peak? Has ETH truly lost the next-gen builders? 🔹Will a new "Number Go Up Foundation" for Ethereum change anything? 🔹Solana's post-quantum roadmap: why Max thinks ETH is over-complicating the problem 🔹What happens if Ethereum stops shipping upgrades —can it just coast Lindy-style? 🔹Is the future of crypto "strong" vs. "weak" crypto, and is ETH now firmly a boomer chain? Hosts ⭐️Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly ⭐️Tarun Chitra, Managing Partner at Robot Ventures ⭐️Tom Schmidt, General Partner at Dragonfly Guest ⭐️ David Hoffman, Co-Founder at Bankless ⭐️ Max Resnick, Lead Economist at Anza “Why I Sold My ETH” by David Hoffman https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/2059371247163613489 Timestamps 00:00 Intro 03:12 Why David Sold ETH 05:26 ETH Momentum and Value Capture 07:38 Ethereum Foundation Shakeups 10:18 Max on Tech and Identity Crisis 15:57 Talent Drain and New Blood 19:29 Strong vs Weak Crypto Debate 25:28 Ethereum as Microsoft 30:02 Second Foundation Idea 35:43 Microsoft Era Ethereum 38:20 EF Money Runs Out 42:02 Utility Asset Narrative 46:07 Etherealize Enterprise Push 48:04 Bitcoin Has Saylor 53:32 Ethereum Narrative Whiplash 55:51 Solana As The Yang 58:15 Post Quantum Solana Roadmap Disclosures Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices