Afleveringen
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Cole Kennelly says Bitcoin's volatility index is already pricing in the Clarity Act, weeks before the Senate even votes on it.Sponsors 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).Heads up! If you haven't yet, be sure to subscribe to Bits + Bips on its dedicated channels. Follow us on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, X, Unchained and wherever you get your podcasts. 🔥 Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bits-bips/id1827931786 🔥 YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuKiSkbYrUOOEEiYQEVPniQ 🔥 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/6aSBMrOyi33aVDCULJ9mjN?si=NTLk-jl5QGeytA6-2kxMVQ&nd=1&dlsi=42f0b13dd53c4ba0 🔥X - https://x.com/bitsandbips 🔥 Unchained - https://unchainedcrypto.com/bitsandbips/ Bitcoin's Implied Volatility Index has quietly ticked higher in the 14-day tenor, and Cole Kennelly, founder and CEO of Volmex Labs, says the market is pricing in the Clarity Act before Congress finishes voting.Kennelly joins Steven Ehrlich to unpack what Volmex's BVIV, BVIV-US, and EVIV indices are picking up as oil climbs past $100 a barrel, the ECB holds rates, and traders brace for the FOMC. He argues Bitcoin, already a settled CFTC commodity, has the least to gain from Clarity passing, while Ethereum, Solana, and Hyperliquid stand to benefit far more.They trace the two-point premium between BVIV and BVIV-US to the transparency built into IBIT's regulated options market, and Kennelly compares Polymarket's BVIV and EVIV contracts to what perpetual futures once did for crypto derivatives.With the Senate's August recess looming and Clarity's odds near a coin flip, the 14-day kink in his term structure may be the clearest signal anyone has.Host: Steven Ehrlich, Head of Research, SharpLinkGuest: Cole Kennelly - Founder and CEO of Volmex LabsTimestamps🎙️ 03:54 Cole breaks down Volmex's BVIV, BVIV-US, and EVIV — the benchmarks bringing real volatility pricing to crypto📉 07:14 The Clarity Act just showed up as a kink in BVIV's 14-day term structure — here's why💙 13:06 Cape: get 33% off six months of privacy-first mobile service at cape.co/unchained🏦 14:41 Inside IBIT's $25B options market — and why BVIV and BVIV-US are starting to diverge⚖️ 16:56 Ethereum and Solana have way more riding on Clarity than Bitcoin — here's the case why🎲 22:29 Polymarket's big tie-up, and why Cole thinks prediction markets are basically perpetuals in disguise
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Cyclops founder Alex Wilson on why PayPal 'chose to fail' at stablecoins, and what Stripe's $53 billion bid really means for the payment wars. Plus: the Clarity Act's last shot before recess.---Thank you to our sponsors: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).Heads up!If you haven't yet, be sure to subscribe to Bits + Bips on its dedicated channels. Follow us on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, X, Unchained and wherever you get your podcasts. 🔥 Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bits-bips/id1827931786 🔥 YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuKiSkbYrUOOEEiYQEVPniQ 🔥 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/6aSBMrOyi33aVDCULJ9mjN?si=NTLk-jl5QGeytA6-2kxMVQ&nd=1&dlsi=42f0b13dd53c4ba0 🔥X - https://x.com/bitsandbips 🔥 Unchained - https://unchainedcrypto.com/bitsandbips/----Stripe and Advent's $53 billion bid for PayPal has reopened an old argument: did PayPal ever really try to win with stablecoins? Alex Wilson, founder of Cyclops and former head of crypto and stablecoins at Shift4, joins Austin Campbell, Ram Ahluwalia, and Chris Perkins to argue that PayPal chose the innovator's dilemma over disrupting its own checkout business, while Stripe used its richer private valuation to buy up cheap public payments companies outright.Wilson and the hosts then map the stablecoin distribution war, from Circle's exposure to bank-led consortiums like OUSD to Robinhood's USDG, which arrived with a built-in user base and a promotional 7% yield.Markets and AI round out the show. Ram Ahluwalia explains why SpaceX's post-IPO round trip is less a top signal than a series of mini euphoric moments unwinding, and why he sees Oracle's balance sheet exposed as Kimi K3 undercuts OpenAI's pricing.Chris Perkins closes on why banks are suddenly pushing for the Clarity Act's federal preemption, and why the Senate may get only one shot before recess.Hosts: Austin Campbell, Host of Bits + Bips, Founder of Zero Knowledge Group, and Adjunct Professor at NYU Stern Ram Ahluwalia, Co-Host, CEO of Lumida Chris Perkins, Co-Host, Head of Franklin CryptoGuest: Alex Wilson - Founder of Cyclops, Cofounder of The Giving Block, and former Head of Crypto and Stablecoins at Shift4Timestamps📣 01:33 Cape: Get 33% off your first six months of America's privacy first mobile carrier at https://cape.co/unchained🤝 02:49 Meet Alex Wilson: the Cyclops founder on his second run at stablecoin payments💳 04:59 Stripe's $53B bid for PayPal and what it says about the distribution battle⚔️ 16:51 The stablecoin distribution war: Circle, the bank-led OUSD, and Robinhood's USDG🚀 25:47 SpaceX's post-IPO round trip and what record US equity issuance signals🇨🇳 32:56 Kimi K3: China's cheap open weight model rattles US AI and chip stocks🧩 38:42 Where Ram thinks AI's value actually accrues: semis, then the app layer🧠 41:23 Austin on AI in health care and Claude Fable 5's Jacobian conjecture breakthrough🛡️ 48:11 Why Austin says there's no way to opt out of the AI guardrails race⚖️ 52:12 The Clarity Act: why Chris says it's one shot on goal before recess
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Crypto just had its best week in months. GSR's Andy Baehr explains why he is not calling it a real rally yet, and what would actually change his mind.Sponsors 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).Heads up! If you haven't yet, be sure to subscribe to Bits + Bips on its dedicated channels. Follow us on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, X, Unchained and wherever you get your podcasts. 🔥 Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bits-bips/id1827931786 🔥 YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuKiSkbYrUOOEEiYQEVPniQ 🔥 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/6aSBMrOyi33aVDCULJ9mjN?si=NTLk-jl5QGeytA6-2kxMVQ&nd=1&dlsi=42f0b13dd53c4ba0 🔥X - https://x.com/bitsandbips 🔥 Unchained - https://unchainedcrypto.com/bitsandbips/ Crypto just booked its best week in months, with Bitcoin pushing toward $65,000 and Ether closing back in on $2,000 after June CPI cooled to 3.5%.Andy Baehr, Managing Director of Asset Management at GSR, joins Steven Ehrlich to explain why he still calls the market ambivalent rather than convicted, and what would actually flip it.They trace new Fed chair Kevin Warsh's “inflation is a choice testimony”, the CoinDesk 80 Index's surprising outperformance against Bitcoin and Ether in the second quarter, Strategy's rare decision to sell Bitcoin to cover preferred dividends, and why Aave lending rates sitting near the risk-free rate show a market with almost no appetite to lever up.Baehr also walks through the fiduciary questions facing onchain vaults and their curators, then puts Polymarket's odds on the Clarity Act at under 40%, down from 75% in May, and argues passage would still catch traders off guard.Host: Steven Ehrlich, Head of Research, SharpLinkGuest: Andy Baehr - Managing Director of Asset Management at GSRTimestamps🌡️ 02:56 CPI cools to 3.5%. Does crypto's rally finally have real legs?🎯 07:29 Peak hawkishness hasn't hit yet, Baehr explains why under Kevin Warsh📊 11:53 Mag 7 vs Russell 2000: the surprising reason CoinDesk 80 beat Bitcoin in Q2🏦 17:32 What actually powered Ether's 2025 rally, Baehr's pro-DAT case💧 22:20 Stablecoin supply is shrinking and Strategy stopped buying. So who's left to buy?📈 25:35 Aave lending rates near the risk free rate. What that says about appetite to lever up🏛️ 34:46 Vaults, curators, and the fiduciary questions DeFi still can't answer⚖️ 43:59 Clarity Act countdown: why passage would still catch markets off guard
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Sam Lyman says a Shanghai-based network is quietly blocking billions in AI data centers. Austin, Ram, and Chris also debate Clarity odds and stablecoins.
---
Thank you to our sponsors:
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).
Heads up!
If you haven't yet, be sure to subscribe to Bits + Bips on its dedicated
channels. Follow us on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, X, Unchained
and wherever you get your podcasts.
🔥 Apple Podcasts -
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bits-bips/id1827931786
🔥 YouTube -
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuKiSkbYrUOOEEiYQEVPniQ
🔥 Spotify -
https://open.spotify.com/show/6aSBMrOyi33aVDCULJ9mjN?si=NTLk-jl5QGeytA6-2kxMVQ&nd=1&dlsi=42f0b13dd53c4ba0
🔥X - https://x.com/bitsandbips
🔥 Unchained - https://unchainedcrypto.com/bitsandbips/
----
A political network based in Shanghai has helped block or delay $24 billion in US AI data center construction, according to new research from the Bitcoin Policy Institute.
Sam Lyman, head of research at BPI, joins Austin Campbell, Ram Ahluwalia, and Chris Perkins to walk through 21 case studies of Marxist-Leninist activists organizing town hall showdowns, sometimes bused in from out of state, while separating that inorganic pressure from the genuine local concern over water and power that also exists.
The hosts press him on the mechanics, then turn to whether the Clarity Act survives the Senate before August recess. Lyman puts the odds at 70%, helped by senator Ron Wyden's surprise endorsement of BRCA. Austin argues age, not party, is the real predictor of political support, and later makes the case that Jamie Dimon has stablecoins backwards.
The through line: money moves policy long before votes do, in Shanghai and on Wall Street alike.
Hosts:
Austin Campbell, Host of Bits + Bips, Founder of Zero Knowledge Group, and Adjunct Professor at NYU Stern
Ram Ahluwalia, Co-Host, CEO of Lumida
Chris Perkins, Co-Host, Head of Franklin Crypto
Guest:
Sam Lyman - Head of Research at the Bitcoin Policy Institute
Timestamps
🗺️ 02:20 BPI's report: the Singham network's $24B block on US AI data centers
🏛️ 07:34 Astroturfing 101: town halls, busing, and the PSL playbook
⚛️ 20:41 Why the AI backlash echoes the mistakes made on nuclear power
📜 25:49 Sam's odds: Clarity passes in the next few weeks at 70%
📣 29:31 Cape: Get 33% off your first six months with code UNCHAINED at https://cape.co/unchained
🤝 30:31 Wyden's surprise break: why a key Democrat just backed BRCA
🎂 37:51 Austin's heuristic: age, not party, predicts crypto and AI support
🛢️ 43:18 Why the market is really pricing Iran tail risk, not a rate hike
🏦 48:57 Dimon's blind spot: why JPMorgan may be stablecoins' biggest winner
🎟️ 53:22 Interchange as a tax: Ram's coupons fix for merchants and consumers
💰 58:04 Franklin's Benji tech and the case for tokenized money funds -
From inventing DeFi's first oracle at MakerDAO to auditing BlackRock's tokenized billions, Niklas Kunkel maps the hidden plumbing behind the RWA boom.
Sponsors
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).
Investors who bought pre-IPO SpaceX exposure through tokenized markets this year found out the hard way that some wrappers were an SPV stacked inside another SPV, and the shares were never there when it came time to redeem.
Niklas Kunkel, founder and CEO of Chronicle Labs and a founding member of MakerDAO, joins Steven Ehrlich to argue that catching failures like that is the entire point of an oracle. Chronicle rebuilds a fund from its underlying collateral instead of taking an issuer's word, a discipline traced back to inventing DeFi's first oracle while building Maker from scratch.
He details how that model verifies BlackRock's BUIDL fund and the crypto collateral behind Galaxy's first tokenized CLO, then revisits the KelpDAO exploit that froze Aave, calling a compromised bridge an oracle under a different name. Ten years after Chronicle's first oracle went live without a hack, Kunkel says that rigor decides which parts of the RWA market survive.
Host:
Steven Ehrlich, Head of Research, SharpLink
Guest:
Niklas Kunkel - Founder and CEO of Chronicle Labs
Timestamps
🎙️ 00:41 Niklas Kunkel on what actually separates the oracle providers, and why most people get it wrong
🛠️ 02:39 The origin story: why building MakerDAO forced Niklas to invent the oracle from scratch
⚠️ 06:35 The hidden single point of failure lurking inside every DeFi protocol
🏦 11:07 Chronicle's bet: from pricing tokens to verifying the real collateral behind tokenized RWAs
🧾 15:30 Don't trust, verify: how Chronicle rebuilds BlackRock's BUIDL fund from scratch, independently
📣 24:50 Cape: Get 33% off your first six months with code unchained at https://cape.co/unchained
📈 27:07 The hottest RWA trade nobody's talking about: why CLOs like Galaxy's new tokenized credit product are taking off
🚀 32:36 The SpaceX pre-IPO token mess: buyers paid up, then never got their shares
🌉 36:21 The KelpDAO exploit and the uncomfortable truth: every bridge is just an oracle in disguise
📊 42:28 Chronicle's next growth wave: tokenized equities and the redemption gap that could break them
⛓️ 48:15 The counterintuitive one: why even fully onchain-issued funds still can't skip proof of asset -
Strategy sold $216M more Bitcoin. Ram, Austin, and Chris ask if Saylor's now a recurring seller, and whether tokens can ever coexist with equity. Plus: the stablecoin wars get real.
---
Thank you to our sponsors:
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).
Heads up!
If you haven't yet, be sure to subscribe to Bits + Bips on its dedicated
channels. Follow us on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, X, Unchained
and wherever you get your podcasts.
🔥 Apple Podcasts -
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bits-bips/id1827931786
🔥 YouTube -
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuKiSkbYrUOOEEiYQEVPniQ
🔥 Spotify -
https://open.spotify.com/show/6aSBMrOyi33aVDCULJ9mjN?si=NTLk-jl5QGeytA6-2kxMVQ&nd=1&dlsi=42f0b13dd53c4ba0
🔥X - https://x.com/bitsandbips
🔥 Unchained - https://unchainedcrypto.com/bitsandbips/
----
Strategy sold $216 million worth of Bitcoin this week, its largest single sale yet, raising the question of whether Michael Saylor's company has quietly flipped from Bitcoin buyer to seller.Ram Ahluwalia, Austin Campbell, and Chris Perkins dig into the mechanics behind the sale, the STRC preferred dividend Strategy is racing to protect, and a bigger structural fight over whether tokens can ever function alongside equity in a company's capital stack without one cannibalizing the other.
They also cover the widening stablecoin wars: Robinhood's new USDG yield product running through Morpho vaults, Tether's retreat from a MiCA-regulated Europe, and the backlash after Global Dollar Network's OUSD launch named partners who say they were never consulted. The hosts weigh which banks, from JPMorgan to Europe's regional lenders, are positioned to win as deposits migrate onchain, and why Securitize's freshly public stock is already trading like a call option.
Hosts:
Austin Campbell, Host of Bits + Bips, Zero Knowledge Consulting
Ram Ahluwalia, Co-Host, CEO of Lumida
Chris Perkins, Co-Host, President of CoinFund
Timestamps
💰 02:10 Strategy sells $216M more Bitcoin: is Saylor now a recurring seller?
⚖️ 09:55 Why Ram says there's no room for a third category beyond debt and equity
🪙 22:41 Ram: could up to 99% of today's tokens end up worthless?
📣 28:52 Cape: Use code UNCHAINED for 33% off your first six months at https://cape.co/unchained
🌍 29:51 Robinhood's USDG yield, Tether's Europe exit, and the OUSD backlash
🏦 42:44 Why Austin says the banks that ignored stablecoins risk becoming Borders
📈 50:12 Securitize goes public: why Austin says the stock trades like a call option
🤖 53:59 Why quality stocks are clawing back share from the AI and semis rally -
Fear and greed says panic. The options market says something else. David Lawant of Anchorage Digital walks through the signals that matter right now.
Sponsors
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).
Bitcoin has been stuck near $60,000, more than 50% off its November 2024 highs, and Strategy's STRC preferred stock was sinking hard enough to spook the market before a sweeping 8-K aimed at stabilizing it.
David Lawant, Head of Research at Anchorage Digital, joins Steven Ehrlich to argue that the panic in STRC's price and in crypto's fear and greed index is not showing up in the options market, where he says the real signals live.
Lawant walks through Strategy's $1.15 billion ATM raise, why Bitcoin's options open interest has topped $60 billion and now exceeds futures, what the MSTR risk reversal revealed about tail risk during the selloff, and why Bitcoin's volatility term structure has stayed inverted for months. He also maps who trades these options, from retail call buyers to Anchorage's OTC desk, and argues real relief needs looser Fed policy and Bitcoin clawing attention back from the AI trade, which could take six to nine months.
Host:
Steven Ehrlich, Head of Research, SharpLink
Guest:
David Lawant - Head of Research at Anchorage Digital
Timestamps
🏛️ 01:46 Inside Strategy's high-stakes gambit to rescue its sinking STRC stock
📉 09:06 Bitcoin has no native yield, and that gap is quietly forcing Strategy to rewrite its entire playbook
📊 16:05 David reveals the moment Bitcoin's options market quietly overtook its futures market
💙 23:43 Cape: Get 33% off your first six months with code unchained at https://cape.co/unchained
💼 24:37 Fidelity: Explore crypto careers that could change your future at https://crypto.fidelitycareers.com
🌐 25:21 What Bitcoin's inverted volatility curve secretly tells you about who's really trading these options
🔮 36:00 Why alts refuse to trade like MSTR, and the exact signals David is tracking right now
🎯 41:45 David's blunt call: six to nine months of chop before the next leg up -
Bitcoin logged its worst ETF month on record, and the hosts debate whether Strategy has become the marginal seller dragging the whole market down.
---
Thank you to our sponsors:
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).
Heads up!
If you haven't yet, be sure to subscribe to Bits + Bips on its dedicated
channels. Follow us on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, X, Unchained
and wherever you get your podcasts.
🔥 Apple Podcasts -
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bits-bips/id1827931786
🔥 YouTube -
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuKiSkbYrUOOEEiYQEVPniQ
🔥 Spotify -
https://open.spotify.com/show/6aSBMrOyi33aVDCULJ9mjN?si=NTLk-jl5QGeytA6-2kxMVQ&nd=1&dlsi=42f0b13dd53c4ba0
🔥X - https://x.com/bitsandbips
🔥 Unchained - https://unchainedcrypto.com/bitsandbips/
----
Bitcoin slid to roughly $58,000 over the weekend, its lowest level in years, capping the worst month on record for spot Bitcoin ETFs as billions flowed out of funds like IBIT.
Austin Campbell, Ram Ahluwalia, and Chris Perkins debate whether Strategy has shifted from Bitcoin’s marginal buyer to its marginal seller, and whether the market can move higher while Michael Saylor remains the main character. Laura Shin opens with a more immediate and personal risk: a spear-phishing attempt that convinced her to run a terminal command before she caught it.
From there the hosts handicap the Clarity Act's odds before the August recess, why a Supreme Court geofencing ruling could gut the Bank Secrecy Act, and why community banks are dying. Ram makes the case that crypto's real unlock is community lending and capital formation, not tokenizing Wall Street, and that fighting BlackRock was always an act of hubris.
Hosts:
Austin Campbell, Host of Bits + Bips, Zero Knowledge Consulting
Ram Ahluwalia, Co-Host, CEO of Lumida
Chris Perkins, Co-Host, President of CoinFund
Timestamps
🎣 02:43 How Laura Shin got spear-phished by a fake podcast invite
🛡️ 07:09 Austin's rules for beating social engineering when the pressure is on
🏦 09:18 The security case for holding crypto in ETFs over self-custody
📉 15:59 Bitcoin's worst ETF month on record and a $58K weekend low
🪙 17:36 Why Ram says any Bitcoin call has to start with Strategy
🎯 22:20 The hedge fund take: Bitcoin may not run until Saylor gets blown up
🤖 27:06 AI, quantum, and where crypto's real utility actually shows up
💙 33:09 Fidelity: Explore crypto careers that could change your future at https://crypto.fidelitycareers.com
📱 33:51 Cape: Get 33% off your first six months with code unchained at https://cape.co/unchained
🏛️ 34:49 The Clarity Act push: can market structure pass before the recess?
⚖️ 40:28 How a Supreme Court ruling could gut the Bank Secrecy Act
🏘️ 47:02 Why community lending, not tokenizing Wall Street, is crypto's real unlock -
Carmen Li is bringing GPU futures to the CME while crypto perp venues court her index. She lays out which financial wrappers actually fit which assets.
Sponsors
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).
A perpetual futures marketplace asked Carmen Li to become the market maker for her own index, and could not believe the question was serious.
Li, CEO of Silicon Data and Compute Exchange, sits down with Steven Ehrlich to explain why that request exposes a conflict of interest crypto has normalized. A former DRW options trader and Bloomberg data executive, she is building the price discovery layer for compute, the commodity she argues will soon be the largest on earth.
The conversation traces how you index a market where no two GPUs are alike, why a $600 billion buildout implies a derivatives market between $6 trillion and $30 trillion, what launching cash-settled futures on the CME takes, and why 200 data sources make manipulation harder than transaction-only feeds.
They also weigh stablecoin payments and miners pivoting to AI. As GPU futures move onshore and offshore perp venues circle her benchmark, the question becomes who gets to set the price.
Host:
Steven Ehrlich, Head of Research, SharpLink
Guest:
Carmen Li - CEO of Silicon Data and Compute Exchange
Timestamps
💡 02:54 The elevator pitch: what Silicon Data and Compute Exchange are really building
🧮 04:37 No two GPUs are alike. So how do you build an index that tracks them all?
📈 07:37 The numbers that stop you cold: 1,000% month over month growth into a market worth $6T to $30T
🏛️ 10:15 Inside the CFTC: Carmen on Mike Selig and the race to put cash settled GPU futures on the CME
🔗 13:06 Why every perp marketplace and DEX suddenly wants her GPU index
⛏️ 15:28 The great pivot: Bitcoin miners walking away from mining for long term AI compute
⚠️ 25:06 The request that set off alarm bells: be the market maker of your own index
🛡️ 33:21 The manipulation defense: why 200 data sources crush transaction only feeds
💵 36:19 Billion dollar deals in stablecoins? Why Compute Exchange is saying yes
🌐 39:34 A bifurcating economy and the trillion dollar question: can crypto ride AI's wave -
Coinbase is tokenizing US stocks for the rest of the world — but what makes a token 'real,' and who owns it? Plus: the AI trade wobbles and the CME sues its own regulator.
---
Thank you to our sponsors:
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).
Heads up!
If you haven't yet, be sure to subscribe to Bits + Bips on its dedicated
channels. Follow us on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, X, Unchained
and wherever you get your podcasts.
🔥 Apple Podcasts -
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bits-bips/id1827931786
🔥 YouTube -
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuKiSkbYrUOOEEiYQEVPniQ
🔥 Spotify -
https://open.spotify.com/show/6aSBMrOyi33aVDCULJ9mjN?si=NTLk-jl5QGeytA6-2kxMVQ&nd=1&dlsi=42f0b13dd53c4ba0
🔥X - https://x.com/bitsandbips
🔥 Unchained - https://unchainedcrypto.com/bitsandbips/
----
Chris Perkins just took the helm of Franklin Crypto, and he arrives with a thesis: the old choice between TradFi and crypto has collapsed. What does it look like when the two finally stop competing and start absorbing each other's tools?
Austin, Ram, and Chris map the messy middle of tokenization, from yield-bearing money market funds that could undercut stablecoins to Coinbase's push to put US stocks in the hands of everyone but Americans. Which models are real, and which try to spin gold from bronze?
Then they dig into whether the AI trade is quietly rolling over — weighing data-center cancellations, a Mythos national-security scare, and why the CME is picking a fight with the very regulator that approved its rivals.
The conversation covers Coinbase's tokenized stocks, whether tokenized money funds could disintermediate stablecoins, the AI trade, and the CME's lawsuit against the CFTC.
Hosts:
Austin Campbell, Host of Bits + Bips, Zero Knowledge Consulting
Ram Ahluwalia, Co-Host, CEO of Lumida
Chris Perkins, Co-Host, President of CoinFund
Timestamps
🏛️ 02:17 Chris on Franklin Crypto, and why you no longer have to choose TradFi or crypto
💵 05:57 Austin: why would a TradFi player adopt stablecoins and give up its own margin?
🔁 09:13 Could yield-bearing tokenized money market funds disintermediate stablecoins?
📈 22:21 What 'real' tokenization means, and who Coinbase's stock tokens are really for
📣 34:09 Cape: Get 33% off your first six months with code unchained at https://cape.co/unchained
🤖 35:31 Is the AI trade rolling over? The one number Ram says decides the market
🔓 42:09 How real is the Mythos 'classified systems' breach claim?
⚖️ 47:19 Why the CME is suing its own regulator over Bitcoin perpetuals -
The Fed dropped its easing bias and half the FOMC penciled in rate hikes. Zach Pandl on what Kevin Warsh's first meeting means for Bitcoin, gold, and Strategy.
Sponsors
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.
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Kevin Warsh held rates steady at his first FOMC meeting but removed the committee's easing bias — and nine of eighteen participating members wrote down a rate hike for 2026, a bigger shift than markets expected.
Zach Pandl, Head of Research at Grayscale Investments and a former Goldman Sachs economist, joins Steven Ehrlich to discuss. Pandl argues that rising real rates are a constraint equity markets are not pricing correctly, and that AI euphoria makes the downside case, not blunts it.
The conversation covers the SpaceX IPO's low-float mechanics, why perpetual futures outperformed tokenized stocks around the IPO, Strategy's preferred equity cracking below $90, and why speculative flows explain gold and Bitcoin's recent turbulence better than fundamentals. Pandl closes with a buy-the-dip case for both stores of value and argues the DeFi revenue story, anchored in Hyperliquid and Aave, will define the second half of 2026.
Host:
Steven Ehrlich, Head of Research, SharpLink
Guest:
Zach Pandl - Head of Research at Grayscale Investments
Timestamps
🏛️ 02:32 The Warsh era begins: what the Fed just signaled without saying it
📈 14:39 Rising rates and irrational markets: where this breaks down
💹 16:47 The SpaceX IPO and a crypto déjà vu moment
🎓 22:56 Fidelity's message to crypto's next generation
🏆 25:55 Perpetual futures just proved something important about the SpaceX test
❄️ 27:27 Pandl just made the crypto winter official—here's why
⚠️ 31:30 The problem with Bitcoin as collateral (and no one's talking about it)
🥇 37:03 Gold and Bitcoin diverge: what the Iran conflict reveals
💰 40:01 The DeFi revenue shift nobody saw coming -
A Friday-night directive banned Anthropic's Fable 5 with no public explanation — Sam Enzer on what it means for AI, crypto, and who controls the national security card next.
---
Thank you to our sponsors:
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).
Heads up!
If you haven't yet, be sure to subscribe to Bits + Bips on its dedicated
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🔥X - https://x.com/bitsandbips
🔥 Unchained - https://unchainedcrypto.com/bitsandbips/
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The US government issued a Friday-night export ban on Anthropic's Fable 5, citing a jailbreak that could expose the underlying Mythos model's cyber capabilities, with no disclosure of statutory authority and no comment period.
Sam Enzer, Partner and CahillNXT Co-Chair at Cahill Gordon & Reindel, joins Austin Campbell, Ram Ahluwalia, and Chris Perkins to assess the directive's legal standing. Enzer draws a parallel to Gensler-era regulation by enforcement and warns that, absent a transparent framework, export controls could reach APIs, DeFi protocols, and blockchain front ends serving foreign nationals, raising First Amendment questions that echo the 1990s encryption wars.
Austin frames SpaceX's $1.77 trillion debut as a classic low-float, high-FDV token: a squeeze at open, then a bleed. Ram cites the 135x price-to-sales ratio and the coming VC unlock wave as reasons to avoid it. The hosts close on the SEC's proposed Reg NMS rescission, which Chris calls a generational unlock for tokenized equities and DeFi, and which could rewrite two decades of equity market structure.
Hosts:
Austin Campbell, Host of Bits + Bips, Zero Knowledge Consulting
Ram Ahluwalia, Co-Host, CEO of Lumida
Chris Perkins, Co-Host, President of CoinFund
Guest:
Sam Enzer - Partner and CahillNXT Co-Chair at Cahill Gordon & Reindel
Timestamps
🤖 02:48 What the Fable 5 export ban says, what Anthropic disputes, and why neither side has released the full directive
⚖️ 04:39 Sam Enzer on why restricting software is restricting speech 🌐 07:16 Sam Enzer on whether export controls can reach APIs and DeFi protocols
🏛️ 09:55 Austin on the Choke Point parallel and why the limiting principle matters 📜 15:09 Ram on the First Amendment: why restricting software is restricting speech
📣 26:12 Fidelity: Explore crypto careers that could change your future at https://crypto.fidelitycareers.com
🌐 26:54 Cape: Get 33% off your first six months at https://cape.co/unchained
🚀 29:00 SpaceX's $1.77T IPO: bull case, bear case, and what the onchain perps showed
📉 31:05 Why Ram calls SpaceX a bad investment: 135x revenue and VC unlocks incoming
💰 37:22 Austin on SpaceX as a low-float, high-FDV token: where this chart always goes
📋 49:48 Why Reg NMS rescission unlocks tokenized equities for onchain markets
💸 56:15 Ram on Robinhood and PFOF brokers as the biggest Reg NMS losers -
Strategy owes $3.4 billion over two years on its preferreds. Austin maps the three exits: issue more stock, sell Bitcoin, or suspend dividends. None are good.
---
Thank you to our sponsors:
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).
----
Bitcoin logged its worst week since the FTX collapse, falling 17%, while Ethereum dropped 22% and the total crypto market cap shed roughly a third of a trillion dollars. The looming SpaceX IPO seems like an easy explanation. But Ram Ahluwalia argues that's not the real culprit: STRF and STRC, Strategy's preferred securities, have slipped below par, stalling the capital engine that funds Bitcoin buys.
Austin Campbell, Ram, and Chris Perkins cover three distinct crises in this episode. A Claude Opus 4.8 agent found a live counterfeiting bug in Zcash's Orchard Shielded Pool, undetected since 2022, prompting the group to map how AI is rewiring the threat landscape for financial services. Back on Strategy, Ram applies Hyman Minsky's three market phases and argues the company was built for the final phase — where price appreciation is the only bailout.
Austin closes by framing Strategy's $3.4 billion in preferred obligations as an SVB-style depositor flight problem with no clear resolution in sight.
Hosts:
Austin Campbell, Host of Bits + Bips, Zero Knowledge Consulting
Ram Ahluwalia, Co-Host, CEO of Lumida
Chris Perkins, Co-Host, President of CoinFund
Timestamps
💣 03:02 What caused crypto's worst week since the FTX collapse
🌍 09:46 Why retail still drives crypto volatility and why Chris thinks the market misread incoming Fed chair Warsh
🤖 18:33 AI tools discovering critical crypto vulnerabilities faster than devs can patch them
🐛 24:25 How Claude Opus 4.8 found a live counterfeiting bug in Zcash's Orchard pool
₿ 31:02 Austin on whether Bitcoin's Lindy effect survives the quantum-refactoring problem
💼 32:42 Fidelity: Explore crypto careers that could change your future at https://crypto.fidelitycareers.com
📱 33:24 Cape: Get 33% off your first six months at https://cape.co/unchained
🏦 34:23 Strategy's preferred problem and the math on 32 BTC sold and 1,550 bought
📊 38:03 Ram on Minsky's three market phases, and why Strategy was built for the riskiest one
⏰ 44:00 Why Austin says introducing preferreds turned Strategy from a Bitcoin play to a clock
🇺🇸 52:56 Is Hunter Biden's crypto interest genuine conviction or attention play -
Strategy sold Bitcoin in May and disclosed the sale via SEC filing in June. The Polymarket market on that sale resolved to no sale in May, with tens of millions of dollars on one question: does the trade date control, or the disclosure date?
Sam Enzer and Steven Ehrlich map the dispute, the oracle governance concentration risk behind it, and the practical checklist for diligencing any prediction market bet before placing it.
Host:
Steven Ehrlich, Host of Bits + Bips and Head of Research at Sharplink - https://x.com/Steven_Ehrlich
Guest:
Sam Enzer - Partner and CahillNXT Co-Chair at Cahill Gordon & Reindel
This clip is from a longer conversation on prediction market law, insider trading, and oracle risk. Full episode here: https://youtube.com/live/Lo6g6VBF46U
We go live every Thursday at 12:00pm ET - subscribe to catch it live.
Sponsor:
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Heads up! If you haven’t yet, be sure to subscribe to Bits + Bips, since the show will migrate there in a few weeks. Follow us on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, X, Unchained and wherever you get your podcasts. 👉 https://linktr.ee/bitsandbips -
Strategy sold Bitcoin for the first time since 2022 — a small sale, but a meaningful signal. Ram, Austin, and Chris work through the capital stack math: $15 billion in preferred stock needs Bitcoin to appreciate 11.5% annually just to cover dividends. What happens if it doesn't?With: Austin Campbell, Founder, Zero Knowledge Consulting; Adjunct Professor, NYU Stern - https://x.com/austincampbell Ram Ahluwalia, Co-Host, CEO of Lumida - https://x.com/ramahluwalia Chris Perkins, Co-Host, CEO of 250 Digital Asset Management - https://x.com/perkinscr97This clip is from a longer conversation on Strategy's Bitcoin capital stack, the Anthropic IPO, and crypto's political fight with the banking lobby. Full episode here: https://youtube.com/live/eIarmme4Jvc We go live every Monday at 4:30pm ET. Subscribe to catch it live.If you haven’t yet, be sure to subscribe to Bits + Bips, since the show will migrate there in a few weeks. Follow us on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, X, Unchained and wherever you get your podcasts. 🔥 Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bits-bips/id1827931786 🔥 YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuKiSkbYrUOOEEiYQEVPniQ 🔥 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/6aSBMrOyi33aVDCULJ9mjN?si=NTLk-jl5QGeytA6-2kxMVQ&nd=1&dlsi=42f0b13dd53c4ba0 🔥X - https://x.com/bitsandbips 🔥 Unchained - https://unchainedcrypto.com/bitsandbips/
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Bitcoin’s implied volatility just hit a nine-month low. ETF outflows have been running for weeks. And a memory chip ETF may have matched IBIT for the fastest ETF launch in history. So what’s happening to crypto?
Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers, and Steve Ehrlich break down the structural forces working against crypto right now: AI stocks doing the heavy lifting in portfolios, upcoming SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic IPOs pulling momentum capital, Kraken and Ledger delaying their own listings, and the ‘crypto tourist’ problem — ETF buyers who bought on momentum and will sell on momentum the moment something else outperforms.
Is this a cleansing moment, or is crypto just one sector now?
Guests: Steve Sosnick, Chief Strategist at Interactive Brokers. Host: Steve Ehrlich, Head of Research at SharpLink.
This clip is from a longer conversation. Full episode here: https://youtube.com/live/H31JcAM0evI
If you haven’t yet, be sure to subscribe to Bits + Bips, since the show will migrate there in a few weeks. Follow us on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, X, Unchained and wherever you get your podcasts.
🔥 Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bits-bips/id1827931786
🔥 YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuKiSkbYrUOOEEiYQEVPniQ
🔥 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/6aSBMrOyi33aVDCULJ9mjN?si=NTLk-jl5QGeytA6-2kxMVQ&nd=1&dlsi=42f0b13dd53c4ba0
🔥X - https://x.com/bitsandbips 🔥 Unchained - https://unchainedcrypto.com/bitsandbips/ -
What does Pope Leo's first AI encyclical have to do with the Bitcoin white paper?
Arjun Sethi, co-CEO of Kraken, traces a philosophical thread from Augustine's City of God through Catholic social teaching's subsidiarity principle to Satoshi's monetary architecture.
Austin Campbell finds the same argument in the Federalist Papers. Ram Ahluwalia brings in Immanuel Kant and the Tower of Babel. And Chris Perkins asks the question the whole room is thinking: is the Pope into DeFi?
Hosts:
@austincampbell, @perkinscr97, @ramahluwalia
Guest: @arjunsethi
This clip is from a longer conversation on Kraken's global strategy, tokenized equities, and the SEC's paused innovation exemption. Full episode here: https://youtube.com/live/KKec65JyBjw
We go live every Monday at 4:30 pm ET. Subscribe to catch it live.
If you haven’t yet, be sure to subscribe to Bits + Bips, since the show will migrate there in a few weeks. Follow us on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, X, Unchained and wherever you get your podcasts.
🔥 Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bits-bips/id1827931786
🔥 YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuKiSkbYrUOOEEiYQEVPniQ
🔥 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/6aSBMrOyi33aVDCULJ9mjN?si=NTLk-jl5QGeytA6-2kxMVQ&nd=1&dlsi=42f0b13dd53c4ba0
🔥X - https://x.com/bitsandbips
🔥 Unchained - https://unchainedcrypto.com/bitsandbips/ -
Kevin Warsh is confirmed as Fed chair today. He says he wants a smaller balance sheet, fewer dot plots, less forward guidance, and new ways to measure inflation. In this clip, Noelle Acheson tells Steve Ehrlich why the bond market will veto the balance sheet goal, why fewer FOMC press conferences may increase volatility rather than reduce noise, and why the most likely outcome for the next few Fed meetings is no hike and no cut — giving Warsh room to build trust within the FOMC before he can move on anything structural.
Host: Steve Ehrlich | Head of Research, Sharplink
Guest: Noelle Acheson | Author, Crypto Is Macro Now
This clip is from a longer conversation on bond yields, Kevin Warsh's Fed, and the macro outlook for Bitcoin. Full episode here: https://youtu.be/2Zi-3QmapM4
Bits + Bips: The Interview streams twice weekly — subscribe so you don't miss it.
If you haven’t yet, be sure to subscribe to Bits + Bips, since the show will migrate there in a few weeks. Follow us on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, X, Unchained and wherever you get your podcasts.
🔥 Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bits-bips/id1827931786
🔥 YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuKiSkbYrUOOEEiYQEVPniQ
🔥 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/6aSBMrOyi33aVDCULJ9mjN?si=NTLk-jl5QGeytA6-2kxMVQ&nd=1&dlsi=42f0b13dd53c4ba0
🔥X - https://x.com/bitsandbips 🔥 Unchained - https://unchainedcrypto.com/bitsandbips/ -
The TACO trade — the assumption that Trump will always walk back market damage — is temporary. The BLISS trade is not. In this clip, Noelle Acheson explains Gita Gopinath's thesis from the Financial Times: no government, regardless of political party or political system, will be voted out for spending to protect citizens from hardship. The put under markets is now structural. Noelle and Steve Ehrlich work through what that means for currency debasement, moral hazard, and why risk-on appetite is so strong in such an uncertain environment.
Host: Steve Ehrlich | Head of Research, Sharplink
Guest: Noelle Acheson | Author, Crypto Is Macro Now
This clip is from a longer conversation on bond yields, Kevin Warsh's Fed, and the macro outlook for Bitcoin. Full episode here: https://youtu.be/2Zi-3QmapM4
Bits + Bips: The Interview streams twice weekly — subscribe so you don't miss it.
If you haven’t yet, be sure to subscribe to Bits + Bips, since the show will migrate there in a few weeks. Follow us on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, X, Unchained and wherever you get your podcasts.
🔥 Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bits-bips/id1827931786
🔥 YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuKiSkbYrUOOEEiYQEVPniQ
🔥 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/6aSBMrOyi33aVDCULJ9mjN?si=NTLk-jl5QGeytA6-2kxMVQ&nd=1&dlsi=42f0b13dd53c4ba0
🔥X - https://x.com/bitsandbips 🔥 Unchained - https://unchainedcrypto.com/bitsandbips/ -
If the risk is the same, why would any rational agent choose a stablecoin that pays nothing over a money market fund that does?
In this clip, Chris Perkins puts the question directly to Circle’s Gordon Liao, who walks through USYC — Circle's yield-bearing instrument — and the seamless toggle between it and USDC.
Austin Campbell frames the winners as "transformers": platforms that can move fluidly between yield and liquidity states. The answer matters for every wallet, exchange, and agentic commerce stack being built right now.
Hosts: Austin Campbell @austincampbell | Ram Ahluwalia @ramahluwalia | Chris Perkins @perkinscr97
Guest: Gordon Liao, Chief Economist and Head of Research at Circle
This clip is from a longer conversation on USDC, the CLARITY Act, and rising bond yields. Full episode here: https://youtube.com/live/bYgoVvXME3Q?feature=share
We go live every Monday at 4.30 ET — subscribe to catch it live.
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