Binance listing fees, finally out in the open. CJ Hetherington, Founder of Limitless, published the offer he received after no NDA. 8% of total token supply and $250k. We dig into why the founders accept deals like this, the hidden sell pressure, and how onchain price discovery can replace CEX gatekeeping. CJ also breaks down Limitless on Base, instant-settlement price markets, and the path to Coinbase via Aerodrome.

------
📣IMMUNEFI | CRYPTO SECURITY OS
https://bankless.cc/Immunefi

------
BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🪙FRAXNET | MINT, REDEEM, EARN
https://bankless.cc/fraxnet

🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN
https://bankless.cc/unichain

🛞MANTLE | MODULAR L2 NETWORK
https://bankless.cc/Mantle

🌳KGEN | REQUEST A DEMO
https://bankless.cc/KGEN-podcast

💠BIT DIGITAL ($BTBT) | ETH TREASURY
https://bankless.cc/bit-digital
We’re being compensated by Bit Digital (NASDAQ BTBT) for this segment promoting their company and BTBT. The compensation is paid in cash as a one time payment. You can find additional information about Bit Digital and BTBT on their Investor page at https://bit-digital.com/investors

------
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Centralized Exchange Listing Fees
3:08 The Binance Drama Unfolds
3:41 Introducing Limitless
5:00 Conversation with CJ
15:28 The Hidden Costs of Listing Fees
25:17 The Future of Onchain Markets
28:44 Building on Base
32:39 Limitless: A New Prediction Market
43:43 Exploring Limitless Features
53:10 User-Generated Markets & Censorship
1:06:10 How to Engage with Limitless

------
RESOURCES

CJ
https://x.com/cjhtech

Limitless
https://x.com/trylimitless

------
Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:
https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Tom Lee and Arthur Hayes map how crypto is flipping Wall Street: BTC at fresh highs, ETH’s comeback, and a surge of institutional capital, tokenization, and stablecoin rails.

Tom lays out Bitmine’s big ETH accumulation and bold targets (BTC $200–250k, ETH $10–12k), while Arthur dives into cycles, liquidity, why perps outshine leveraged ETFs, and the looming clash between prediction markets and TradFi. Plus: banks turning into on-chain tech companies and what Tether’s rise signals for the new banking stack.

Please visit https://fundstrat.com/tom  for complimentary access to Tom Lee's daily market updates, real-time market alerts, live webinars, and curated stock lists.

------
📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 

https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium

------

BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🪙FRAXNET | MINT, REDEEM, EARN 

https://bankless.cc/fraxnet

🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN

https://bankless.cc/unichain

🛞MANTLE | MODULAR L2 NETWORK

https://bankless.cc/Mantle

🌳KGEN | REQUEST A DEMO 

https://bankless.cc/KGEN-podcast

🐂BULLISH | TRADING COMPETITION

https://bankless.cc/trading-competition

💠BIT DIGITAL ($BTBT) | ETH TREASURY 

https://bankless.cc/bit-digital
We’re being compensated by Bit Digital (NASDAQ BTBT) for this segment promoting their company and BTBT. The compensation is paid in cash as a one time payment. You can find additional information about Bit Digital and BTBT on their Investor page at https://bit-digital.com/investors

------

TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro

0:42 BTC All Time Highs

5:07 ETH Performance & Bitmine

9:32 DATs Market

15:26 4-Year Cycles

25:32 5% Bitmine’s Target

28:00 Tom’s Involvement in Ethereum

32:42 ETH’s Position

38:37 Compute for Finance

40:53 Tether’s $500B Valuation

44:57 USDT Flips BTC?

46:35 Crypto Equities

48:26 Hacks & Exploits

50:39 Financial Entertainment

55:13 Perps

58:38 Price Targets

1:00:45 2026 Wish List

1:03:06 Closing & Disclaimers

------
RESOURCES

Tom Lee

https://x.com/fundstrat 

Arthur Hayes

X - https://x.com/cryptohayes

IG - https://www.instagram.com/cryptohayes/

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/arthur-hayes-b493b42/

Substack - https://cryptohayes.substack.com/

Bitmine

https://bitminetech.io/ 

Fundstrat

https://fundstrat.com/tom 

Maelstrom

https://maelstrom.fund/ 

------

Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:

https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Gold shatters $4,000, Bitcoin quietly hits new all-time highs, and Wall Street just made its biggest bet yet on prediction markets. In this week’s Weekly Rollup, we break down why the debasement trade is heating up, how the AI bubble is shaping markets, and what it all means for crypto’s next move.

We cover BNB’s explosive run to the #3 spot, ICE’s $2B investment in Polymarket, and ETH staking ETFs officially going live. Plus, Solana ETF approval looks imminent, Asian capital rotates onchain, and Galaxy steps back into retail with a familiar face at the helm.

------
📣IMMUNEFI | CRYPTO SECURITY OS 

https://bankless.cc/Immunefi

------

BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🪙FRAXNET | MINT, REDEEM, EARN 

https://bankless.cc/fraxnet

🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN

https://bankless.cc/unichain

🛞MANTLE | MODULAR L2 NETWORK

https://bankless.cc/Mantle

🌳KGEN | REQUEST A DEMO 

https://bankless.cc/KGEN-podcast

🐂BULLISH | TRADING COMPETITION

https://bankless.cc/trading-competition

💠BIT DIGITAL ($BTBT) | ETH TREASURY 

https://bankless.cc/bit-digital

We’re being compensated by Bit Digital (NASDAQ BTBT) for this segment promoting their company and BTBT. The compensation is paid in cash as a one time payment. You can find additional information about Bit Digital and BTBT on their Investor page at https://bit-digital.com/investors

------

TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES

0:00 Intro

3:31  Markets

https://www.theblock.co/post/373369/bitcoin-hits-new-all-time-high-crosses-125000-for-the-first-time-as-uptober-momentum-builds

https://x.com/RayDalio/status/1973766977421275598

https://x.com/BTC_Archive/status/1975562328377528702 

https://x.com/jvb_xyz/status/1975047567852671125

https://x.com/matthew_sigel/status/1976251057421647886

https://www.coinglass.com/bull-market-peak-signals

https://x.com/Grayscale/status/1975262626377834938

https://x.com/joechalom/status/1975251314117648420

https://x.com/TheCryptoLark/status/1975147566351237315

https://x.com/EricBalchunas/status/1976037299373646270

21:56 Gold ATH, Equities at ATH and PTJ is calling out the AI bubble!

https://x.com/elerianm/status/1975782709084500136

https://companiesmarketcap.com/assets-by-market-cap/#google_vignette

https://x.com/SpencerHakimian/status/1975608283751981521

https://x.com/FluentInFinance/status/1975704684808560774

https://x.com/lisaabramowicz1/status/1975121018428809484

https://x.com/noahkaufmanmd/status/1975930839201702195

https://x.com/1MarkMoss/status/1973775891626164276

https://thedefireport.io/research/does-bitcoin-follow-gold#correlation-analysis

https://x.com/esaagar/status/1975290951787745581

https://x.com/spikedoanz/status/1975806155470635429

https://x.com/MauiBoyMacro/status/1975589846971523102

https://x.com/pumatheuma/status/1976085531500200220?s=46

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/10/06/cnbc-transcript-tudor-investments-founder-cio-paul-tudor-jones-on-squawk-box-today.html

https://x.com/AltcoinDaily/status/1975363814167380090 

https://x.com/dgt10011/status/1975353090128638415

https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/1975560592166355425

41:48 Why is BNB pumping!

https://imgur.com/a/4d6Pnb3

https://x.com/cz_binance/status/1975595775540257262

https://defillama.com/chain/bsc

https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/1975601864423940288

https://x.com/TheCryptoDog/status/1975602134189285606

https://x.com/mattyboomboom/status/1975888004074922144

https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/1975909116431515777

https://x.com/eugenegeu/status/1975110416876577133

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/cz-returns-binance-speculations-getting-105754644.html

49:17 ICE - NYSE parent company is investing into Polymarket & Distributing Polymarket - $2 billion

https://x.com/polymarket/status/1975528768039985449?s=46

https://x.com/CoinDesk/status/1975935472586125456

https://x.com/shayne_coplan/status/1975534265698812046

https://x.com/shayne_coplan/status/1975994093529690405?s=46

51:20 Galaxy launched Galaxy One

https://x.com/galaxyhq/status/1975173116428234999

https://x.com/GalaxyOneZac/status/1975140872753999932

https://www.tradingview.com/chart/1CDu50yK/?symbol=NASDAQ%3AGLXY

https://x.com/solspacecadet/status/1975262934797353010

56:11 Monad Airdrop Claim Portal incoming Tuesday Oct 14th

https://x.com/monad/status/1976279260869619994

https://dropstab.com/coins/monad

57:40 3 things Ryan is excited about:

https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/1976044336111341719 https://x.com/Jrag0x/status/1976180218814660675

https://x.com/brian_armstrong/status/1975948961845538985

https://x.com/maxbranzburg/status/1975214629552091239

https://blog.ethereum.org/2025/10/08/privacy-commitment

https://notes.ethereum.org/@niard/KohakuRoadmap

https://beta.walletbeat.eth.limo/wallet/summary/

1:02:18 Moment of Zen

https://x.com/cocothecorncob/status/1975373485410033673 

1:02:45 Closing & Disclaimers

------

Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:

https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠

In this episode of Bankless, Ryan and David dive into prediction markets and their place in today’s financial landscape. They unpack how peer-to-peer markets differ from traditional sportsbooks, spotlighting Polymarket and Kalshi, and explore scalability, regulation, and societal impact. Are these markets tools for informed decision-making or just another gambling avenue?

------

📣BANKLESS SUMMIT 2025 | SPONSORED BY M0
https://bankless.cc/summit-2025
https://bankless.cc/M0

------

BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🪙FRAXNET | MINT, REDEEM, EARN 

https://bankless.cc/fraxnet

🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN

https://bankless.cc/unichain

🛞MANTLE | MODULAR L2 NETWORK

https://bankless.cc/Mantle

🌳KGEN | REQUEST A DEMO 

https://bankless.cc/KGEN-podcast

🐂BULLISH | TRADING COMPETITION

https://bankless.cc/trading-competition

💠BIT DIGITAL ($BTBT) | ETH TREASURY 

https://bankless.cc/bit-digital

We’re being compensated by Bit Digital (NASDAQ BTBT) for this segment promoting their company and BTBT. The compensation is paid in cash as a one time payment. You can find additional information about Bit Digital and BTBT on their Investor page at https://bit-digital.com/investors

------

TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES

0:00 Intro to Prediction Markets

2:43 Bankless Summit Announcement

5:32 How Prediction Markets Work

8:06 Who the Big Players Are

14:31 Kalshi’s Breakout and U.S. Access

19:08 Prediction Markets as Media

20:27 How Big Are They Right Now

https://x.com/Polymarket/status/1975528768039985449

https://x.com/shayne_coplan/status/1975534265698812046

https://www.tradingview.com/chart/?symbol=NASDAQ%3ADKNG

26:17 Where This Is Headed

https://x.com/Domahhhh/status/1973576583064567961

26:40 Sportsbooks vs. Prediction Markets

https://www.tradingview.com/chart/?symbol=NASDAQ%3ADKNG

https://www.tradingview.com/chart/?symbol=NYSE%3AFLUT

31:43 Why Sportsbooks Are Systemically Unfair

39:10 Rules, Regulators, & Court Fights

54:43 Why This Matters for Society

1:00:31 Wrap Up & What to Watch Next

------

Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:

https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠

Why does China build so much faster—and what does that reveal about two very different ways of running a society?

Ryan and David sit down with Dan Wang, author of Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future, to unpack China’s “engineers-in-charge” model versus America’s “lawyerly” governance.

We cover how this shapes daily life and growth (from subways and high-speed rail to batteries, EVs, and drones), common western misconceptions about China (surveillance, social credit, “imminent collapse”), why U.S. capital markets soar while Chinese manufacturing dominates, what an American “abundance agenda” could look like, and Dan’s closing prescription: the U.S. needs ~20% more engineering; China needs ~50% more rights-protecting legalism. 

------
📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 

https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium

------

BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🪙FRAXNET | MINT, REDEEM, EARN 

https://bankless.cc/fraxnet

🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN

https://bankless.cc/unichain

🛞MANTLE | MODULAR L2 NETWORK

https://bankless.cc/Mantle

🌳KGEN | REQUEST A DEMO 

https://bankless.cc/KGEN-podcast

🐂BULLISH | TRADING COMPETITION

https://bankless.cc/trading-competition

💠BIT DIGITAL ($BTBT) | ETH TREASURY 

https://bankless.cc/bit-digital
We’re being compensated by Bit Digital (NASDAQ BTBT) for this segment promoting their company and BTBT. The compensation is paid in cash as a one time payment. You can find additional information about Bit Digital and BTBT on their Investor page at https://bit-digital.com/investors

------

TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro

0:45 US Lawyers vs China Builders

8:50 Becoming Elite in China vs US

14:55 Motivating Forces

18:26 China’s Misconceptions

24:38 Protests in China

26:00 US vs China Innovation

27:59 Digital Authoritarianism

34:49 Social Credit System?

36:51 Will China Collapse?

42:53 China & Crypto

47:59 China’s Capital Markets

49:46 Path to Wealth

54:29 Property Rights

58:49 Stock Price vs Productivity

1:02:35 The 1960s

1:04:56 Abundance Agenda

1:06:51 US Weakness Relative to China

1:10:53 The Best of Both Worlds

1:13:43 Is China a Security Threat?

1:14:52 US Manufacturing Comeback?

1:20:20 US Global Talent Hub

1:25:07 China’s US Misconceptions

1:27:03 US Success Scenario

1:29:39 Closing & Disclaimers

------

RESOURCES

Dan Wang

https://x.com/danwwang 

Breakneck: China's Quest to Engineer the Future

https://www.amazon.com/Breakneck-Chinas-Quest-Engineer-Future/dp/1324106034 

------

Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:

https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠ 

OpenAI’s personalization leads, Christina Kaplan and Samir Ahmed map the shift from an “assistant with a notebook” to Pulse—the part of ChatGPT that quietly preps your day while you sleep. We unpack how short- and long-term memory work across sessions and why April’s subtle update changed the experience, show how daytime chats stay aligned with overnight prep, and close on the big questions: privacy, consent, and why this is an assistant/representative—not a digital clone.

------

💫 LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE
https://pod.link/1813210890
https://youtube.com/watch?v=cDrllt2zn5M

------
TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro
1:03 Why Memory Mattered
6:00 User Reception
9:45 Under the Hood: Short vs Long Term
12:20 Behavior Shift & Data Strategy
20:26 What is Pulse?

------
RESOURCES

Christina Kaplan
https://x.com/ChristinaHartW

Samir Ahmed
https://x.com/PageOfSamir

------
Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:
https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠

How do you spend money in ways that actually make life better?

Morgan Housel, author of the new book The Art of Spending Money, explores status vs. satisfaction, the hedonic treadmill, and why money’s best use is buying independence.

We also cover quiet compounding, a practical 15-stage path to financial freedom, when to spend vs. save, helping kids without spoiling them, and small experiments that raise the utility of every dollar.

------
📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 

https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium

------

BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🪙FRAXNET | MINT, REDEEM, EARN 

https://bankless.cc/fraxnet

🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN

https://bankless.cc/unichain

🛞MANTLE | MODULAR L2 NETWORK

https://bankless.cc/Mantle

🌳KGEN | REQUEST A DEMO 

https://bankless.cc/KGEN-podcast

🐂BULLISH | U.S. EXCHANGE LAUNCH 

https://bankless.cc/bullish

💠BIT DIGITAL ($BTBT) | ETH TREASURY 

https://bankless.cc/bit-digital
We’re being compensated by Bit Digital (NASDAQ BTBT) for this segment promoting their company and BTBT. The compensation is paid in cash as a one time payment. You can find additional information about Bit Digital and BTBT on their Investor page at https://bit-digital.com/investors

------

TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro

2:29 Who’s The Book For?

5:49 There’s No Universal Formula

12:59 What People Want

19:36 Money as a Curse

22:03 Taking a Step Off

26:59 Holding vs Spending

30:26 Identity Traps

33:50 Secret to Contentment

37:32 External vs Internal Benchmarks

40:41 Making an Impact

42:37 Social Debt

50:51 Quiet Compounding

55:10 Financial Freedom

1:02:20 Money & Parenting

1:09:48 Balancing Saving & Spending

1:14:44 Small Purchases

1:16:59 Trying New Things

1:19:29 Morgan’s Financial Decisions

1:21:37 Closing & Disclaimers

------
RESOURCES

Morgan Housel

https://x.com/morganhousel?lang=en 

The Art of Spending Money

https://www.amazon.com/Art-Spending-Money-Simple-Choices/dp/0593716620 

------

Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:

https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠

In this week’s Weekly Rollup, Uptober kicks off with Bitcoin and Ethereum surging toward all-time highs as Tom Lee drops another $1B into ETH and Vanguard finally opens its doors to crypto ETFs.

We cover Stripe’s push to break the Tether–Circle duopoly with its new stablecoin platform, Cloudflare’s surprising entry into onchain payments, and Swift teaming up with Consensys on blockchain rails. Plus, Zcash rockets 200%, Ethereum’s Lighter perps exchange goes live, and Circle sparks debate with plans for reversible USDC.

---
📣0G | CRYPTO X AI

https://bankless.cc/OGAI

---

BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🪙FRAXNET | MINT, REDEEM, EARN

https://bankless.cc/fraxnet

🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN

https://bankless.cc/unichain

🛞MANTLE | MODULAR L2 NETWORK

https://bankless.cc/Mantle

🌳KGEN | REQUEST A DEMO

https://bankless.cc/KGEN-podcast

🐂BULLISH | U.S. EXCHANGE LAUNCH

https://bankless.cc/bullish

💠BIT DIGITAL ($BTBT) | ETH TREASURY

https://bankless.cc/bit-digital

*We’re being compensated by Bit Digital (NASDAQ BTBT) for this segment promoting their company and BTBT. The compensation is paid in cash as a one time payment. You can find additional information about Bit Digital and BTBT on their Investor page at https://bit-digital.com/investors* 

---

TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES

0:00 Intro

3:38 U.S. Government Shutdown

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crrj1znp0pyo

7:13 Markets

https://x.com/pumatheuma/status/1973717212025553313 - ZK Szn??

https://x.com/CoinDesk/status/1971565473218113771

https://www.strategicethreserve.xyz/

https://www.bankless.com/read/news/another-week-another-buy-bitmine-stacks-234k-eth

https://x.com/Jrag0x/status/1972643353918677497

https://x.com/smyyguy/status/1971585912602796266

https://x.com/fundstrat/status/1972948825578131523

https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/us-regulators-probe-stock-moves-before-companies-made-crypto-treasury-2025-09-26/

24:57 Plasma nailed its go-to-market

https://x.com/Plasma/status/1972660468561965173

https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/plasma

https://defillama.com/chains

https://blockworks-research.beehiiv.com/p/plasma-s-defi-shockwave

https://x.com/lemiscate/status/1972337762205339788

https://x.com/ajwarner90/status/1972823448897634648

https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/1973436365225468336

32:35 Everyone gets a Stablecoin! The duopoloy is dead!

Phantom announced Cash stablecoin

https://x.com/phantom/status/1973035201950617617

https://x.com/useCash/status/1973035307139477561

https://stripe.com/blog/introducing-open-issuance-from-bridge

https://x.com/zcabrams/status/1973052207911129557

https://x.com/nic__carter/status/1973399535092171216

38:43 Cloudflare launched their own stablecoin on Base 

https://x.com/CoinbaseDev/status/1970477072792592484

https://x.com/eastdakota/status/1971226533831582073

https://x.com/Kira_sama/status/1971237126378504230

https://x.com/Rewkang/status/1970782770805813392

https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/1973753405894992073

44:18 Lighter - Ethereum Zk Perps

https://x.com/Lighter_xyz/status/1973508660061180363

https://defillama.com/protocol/lighter

50:06 More crypto TradFi mainstream!

https://x.com/MorphoLabs/status/1972913932802421202

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/swift-teams-ethereum-software-giant-190506673.html

https://www.theblock.co/post/372706/swift-blockchain-ledger-consensys

https://x.com/Louis_Tellier/status/1973692818452337125

https://cointelegraph.com/news/circle-examines-reversible-stablecoin-transactions

57:36 With new Sora, the need for zk proving reality 100x-ed

https://youtu.be/qeORiYlsEH4?t=374

https://x.com/pumatheuma/status/1973258262939312433

1:01:52 CEO of Polymarket gets flipped off
https://x.com/shayne_coplan/status/1972675295564931242
https://x.com/nickpreszler/status/1972748902240780589

1:04:44 Closing, Disclaimers, & Moment of Zen

https://x.com/coinbase/status/1972731382830072129 

---

Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:

https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Authoritarian regimes are upgrading their playbook — from surveillance cameras and spyware to algorithmic censorship and AI-driven policing. Steven Feldstein, senior fellow at Carnegie and author of The Rise of Digital Repression, joins Bankless to map the expanding world of repression technology.
We cover everything from Nepal’s protest movement to China’s sophisticated censorship stack, the global spyware industry, and the unsettling rise of predictive policing and AI in warfare. Along the way, Feldstein explains how financial repression and social credit systems extend state power into the economic sphere — and where crypto fits into the story of resistance.

📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24
https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium

---
BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🪙FRAXNET | MINT, REDEEM, EARN
https://bankless.cc/fraxnet

🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN
https://bankless.cc/unichain

🛞MANTLE | MODULAR L2 NETWORK
https://bankless.cc/Mantle

🌳KGEN | REQUEST A DEMO
https://bankless.cc/KGEN-podcast

🐂BULLISH | U.S. EXCHANGE LAUNCH
https://bankless.cc/bullish

💠BIT DIGITAL ($BTBT) | ETH TREASURY
https://bankless.cc/bit-digital
We’re being compensated by Bit Digital (NASDAQ BTBT) for this segment promoting their company and BTBT. The compensation is paid in cash as a one time payment. You can find additional information about Bit Digital and BTBT on their Investor page at https://bit-digital.com/investors

---
TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro
1:54 The Toolkit of Digital Repression
4:22 Nepal Protests & Freedom Tech
13:32 China’s Integrated Control Playbook
19:48 Who Builds And Sells Repression
28:51 Vendors, Dual-Use, Governance Risks
36:04 Democracies Use These Tools Too
45:00 AI Supercharges Repression
51:57 Crushing Mobilization & 3.5% Rule
58:55 Blunt Backfires, Iran Copies China
1:07:43 How Repression Tech Spreads
1:13:29 Financial Repression, Crypto Workarounds
1:18:48 How To Resist, Practically
1:23:44 Closing Thoughts

---
RESOURCES

Steven Feldstein
https://x.com/stevejfeldstein

The Rise of Digital Repression:
How Technology is Reshaping Power, Politics, and Resistance
https://stevejfeldstein.com/

---
Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:
https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Authoritarian regimes are upgrading their playbook — from surveillance cameras and spyware to algorithmic censorship and AI-driven policing. Steven Feldstein, senior fellow at Carnegie and author of The Rise of Digital Repression, joins Bankless to map the expanding world of repression technology.
We cover everything from Nepal’s protest movement to China’s sophisticated censorship stack, the global spyware industry, and the unsettling rise of predictive policing and AI in warfare. Along the way, Feldstein explains how financial repression and social credit systems extend state power into the economic sphere — and where crypto fits into the story of resistance.

---

📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24
https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium

---
BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🪙FRAXNET | MINT, REDEEM, EARN
https://bankless.cc/fraxnet

🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN
https://bankless.cc/unichain

🛞MANTLE | MODULAR L2 NETWORK
https://bankless.cc/Mantle

🌳KGEN | REQUEST A DEMO
https://bankless.cc/KGEN-podcast

🐂BULLISH | U.S. EXCHANGE LAUNCH
https://bankless.cc/bullish

💠BIT DIGITAL ($BTBT) | ETH TREASURY
https://bankless.cc/bit-digital
We’re being compensated by Bit Digital (NASDAQ BTBT) for this segment promoting their company and BTBT. The compensation is paid in cash as a one time payment. You can find additional information about Bit Digital and BTBT on their Investor page at https://bit-digital.com/investors

---
TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro
1:54 The Toolkit of Digital Repression
4:22 Nepal Protests & Freedom Tech
13:32 China’s Integrated Control Playbook
19:48 Who Builds And Sells Repression
28:51 Vendors, Dual-Use, Governance Risks
36:04 Democracies Use These Tools Too
45:00 AI Supercharges Repression
51:57 Crushing Mobilization & 3.5% Rule
58:55 Blunt Backfires, Iran Copies China
1:07:43 How Repression Tech Spreads
1:13:29 Financial Repression, Crypto Workarounds
1:18:48 How To Resist, Practically
1:23:44 Closing Thoughts

---
RESOURCES

Steven Feldstein
https://x.com/stevejfeldstein

The Rise of Digital Repression:
How Technology is Reshaping Power, Politics, and Resistance
https://stevejfeldstein.com/

---
Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:
https://www.bankless.com/disclosures