Bankless

What if the most interesting crypto investments of the next cycle aren’t new blockchains at all? RockawayX Liquid founder Austin Barack joins David to explain why his attention has shifted toward a small group of applications with real users, rapidly growing revenue, and increasingly explicit token value capture.

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

---
BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🔓NEAR | TRADE CONFIDENTIALLY, GET 20% BACK
https://bankless.cc/near2026

🔑BITKEY | GET 10% OFF USE CODE: BANKLESS | #bitkeypartner
https://bankless.cc/bitkey

🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS
https://thedefireport.io/bankless

👑BANKLESS CONTENT MCP
https://www.bankless.com/premium

---
TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Finding Growth and Value in Crypto
4:17 Why Liquid Tokens Are Winning His Attention
7:00 How Austin Values Venice and VVV
15:34 The Biggest Bet in the Venice Model
24:53 Can Venice Balance Growth and Token Value?
32:53 Venice Growth and the OpenRouter Signal
37:31 Can Fundamental Tokens Outperform the Crypto Cycle?
43:50 Pump, Hyperliquid and EtherFi
48:57 EtherFi’s Shift Into a Neo Brokerage
58:24 Why the Market Discounts Pump
1:02:42 The Next Era of Crypto

---
RESOURCES

Austin Barack
https://x.com/AustinBarack

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

Robinhood Chain is exploding as memecoins collide with tokenized stocks and Haseeb thinks the whole thing may end badly. Ryan and Haseeb unpack the new casino economy, Saylor’s Bitcoin comeback, Solana’s issuance cut, and the latest AI safety scare.

---

📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24

https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium

---

BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🔓 NEAR | TRADE CONFIDENTIALLY, GET 20% BACK

https://bankless.cc/near2026

🔑 BITKEY | GET 10% OFF USE CODE: BANKLESS | #bitkeypartner

https://bankless.cc/bitkey

📊 BITGET | TOKENIZED STOCKS 2.0

https://bankless.cc/bitget-stocks

🎯 THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS

https://thedefireport.io/bankless

👑 BANKLESS CONTENT MCP

https://www.bankless.com/premium

---

TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES

0:00 Intro

2:32 Macro Bounce & Treasury-Fed Tug-of-War

https://x.com/exec_sum/status/2095153582819414237

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/01/bessent-trump-bond-yields-g20.html

https://x.com/0xVirtanen/status/2095121085079462032

https://x.com/hosseeb/status/2095008393434108373

12:41 Saylor’s Bitcoin Comeback

https://x.com/saylor/status/2095524315936530834

https://x.com/Strategy/status/2094396231866777976

https://x.com/AIGOLDOfficial/status/2095360679226364361

https://x.com/AltcoinPro_/status/2095319252769366525

17:35 Robinhood Meme & Stock Token Mania

https://x.com/MikeIppolito_/status/2095210343244894659

https://x.com/MikeIppolito_/status/2095211833124639103

https://x.com/haydenzadams/status/2095261533236252831

https://x.com/nansen_ai/status/2095350826047049942

https://x.com/nansen_ai/status/2095350856610926677

https://x.com/hosseeb/status/2095539969297404266

31:41 Ethereum, Solana & the Issuance Vote

https://x.com/LorenzoARK/status/2094517633122979994

https://x.com/web3_data/status/2095054796344406404

https://x.com/0xcarlosg/status/2095444848551633401

https://x.com/P2Pvalidator/status/2094363684361388089

https://x.com/stevenzeiler/status/2094908384789123200

https://x.com/mert/status/2093359812633616577

46:52 21 Banks Chase Stablecoins

https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/goldman-sachs-bofa-others-plan-issue-dollar-stablecoin-together-2027-2026-09-01/

50:44 KYC Breach Fallout

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2026/09/fbi-probes-service-selling-153m-drivers-licenses/

https://x.com/ErikVoorhees/status/2095319741716193431

https://x.com/rstormsf/status/2095331699672732122

56:56 Astra Raises AI Alarms

https://venturebeat.com/technology/welcome-to-the-agi-era-openai-launches-gpt-6-astra

---

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

https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

What if the answer to NFT liquidity looked more like opening a Pokémon pack than trading on a traditional marketplace? FWA creator Adam “Rhynotic” joins David Hoffman and Eric Conner to unpack Fake World Assets, an Ethereum protocol combining random NFT pulls, ETH-backed liquidity and permissionless market infrastructure. They explore why FWA has made NFTs fun again, how its unusual pricing and buyback mechanics work, the FWA token, custom pools and FWAR's new approach to NFT launches.

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

---
BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🔓NEAR | TRADE CONFIDENTIALLY, GET 20% BACK
https://bankless.cc/near2026

🔑BITKEY | GET 10% OFF USE CODE: BANKLESS | #bitkeypartner
https://bankless.cc/bitkey

🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS
https://thedefireport.io/bankless

👑BANKLESS CONTENT MCP
https://www.bankless.com/premium

---
TIMESTAMPS

0:00 What Is Fake World Assets?
1:38 Making NFTs Fun Again
3:55 How the FWA Pool Works
8:42 Why Eric Is Bullish on FWA
13:20 A Liquidity Layer for NFTs
16:00 From NFTs to Real-World Assets
20:13 Pricing, Buybacks and Incentives
28:36 Custom Pools and New NFT Markets
31:57 The FWA Token
39:06 FWAR and a New Way to Launch NFTs
48:47 What Comes Next for FWA
50:12 Multichain FWA and the Bigger Vision
54:46 Closing Thoughts

---
RESOURCES

Adam (Rhynotic)
https://x.com/Rhynotic

Eric Conner
https://x.com/econoar

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

Kalshi’s ambition extends far beyond winning prediction markets. It wants to become the largest exchange on Earth. John Wang joins David to explain Kalshi’s regulated crypto-perps push, upcoming gold and silver markets, international expansion, and the strategy for turning retail event contracts into serious institutional hedging infrastructure.

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

---
BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🔓NEAR | TRADE CONFIDENTIALLY, GET 20% BACK
https://bankless.cc/near-pod

🔑BITKEY | GET 10% OFF USE CODE: BANKLESS | #bitkeypartner
https://bankless.cc/bitkey

🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS
https://thedefireport.io/bankless

👑BANKLESS CONTENT MCP
https://www.bankless.com/premium

---
TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Is Kalshi a Crypto Company?
3:56 Global Expansion and the Regulated Edge
14:55 The Regulated Perps Bet
21:38 Combining Perps and Predictions
27:51 The Insider Trading Problem
38:50 Who Owns Market Information?
45:58 From Sportsbooks to the CME
55:24 Prediction Markets for Institutions
1:02:40 Kalshi Versus Polymarket

---
RESOURCES

John Wang
https://x.com/j0hnwang

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

Robotics hype is everywhere, but are humanoids actually the main event? Lux Capital partner Shahin Farshchi joins David to explain why the bigger opportunity may be AI-powered automation hiding inside factories, warehouses, and other industrial settings.

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

---
BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🔓NEAR | TRADE CONFIDENTIALLY, GET 20% BACK
https://bankless.cc/near-pod

🔑BITKEY | GET 10% OFF USE CODE: BANKLESS | #bitkeypartner
https://bankless.cc/bitkey

📊BITGET | TOKENIZED STOCKS 2.0
https://bankless.cc/bitget-stocks

🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS
https://thedefireport.io/bankless

👑BANKLESS CONTENT MCP
https://www.bankless.com/premium

---
TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Is the Robotics Hype Justified?
2:02 Why Humanoids Aren’t the Main Story
8:14 Robotics vs. Automation
12:20 Specialized Robots vs. Generalists
19:24 Making Robotics Accessible
22:25 AI Unlocks New Robotic Tasks
24:52 Robotics’ Internet Moment
27:52 Robots, Jobs, and Cheap Labor
31:28 What Automation Does to the Economy
39:07 What Still Holds Robotics Back
42:30 How AI Actually Powers Robots
50:49 The Robotics Data Bottleneck
53:34 Robotics Companies to Watch

---
RESOURCES

Shahin Farshchi
https://x.com/Farshchi

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

Bitcoin may be entering a new cycle just as the Treasury starts pushing back on rising yields. Ryan and Haseeb break down the Bessent Put, the return of the debasement trade, Coinbase’s tokenized stocks push, Ethena’s token reset, and whether AI is starting to consume the world’s capital.

---

📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24

https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium

---

BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🔓 NEAR | TRADE CONFIDENTIALLY, GET 20% BACK

https://bankless.cc/near-pod

🔑 BITKEY | GET 10% OFF USE CODE: BANKLESS | #bitkeypartner

https://bankless.cc/bitkey

📊 BITGET | TOKENIZED STOCKS 2.0

https://bankless.cc/bitget-stocks

🎯 THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS

https://thedefireport.io/bankless

👑 BANKLESS CONTENT MCP

https://www.bankless.com/premium

---

TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES

0:00 Intro

0:31 Crypto Energy Shift & Bitcoin’s New Cycle

https://x.com/hosseeb/status/2091945147357675623

https://www.theblock.co/news/markets/2026-08-23-bitcoin-record-weekly-dollar-gain-412547

5:55 The Bessent Put

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/24/bessent-1-trillion-treasury-general-account-bond-buybacks.html

https://x.com/DeItaone/status/2091852135675658265

https://x.com/CGasparino/status/2091918792146247833

14:11 Druckenmiller vs. Bessent

https://x.com/NickTimiraos/status/2092023686148817227

23:31 Debasement Trade Returns

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/26/debasement-trade-to-take-bitcoin-to-300000-in-2029-bernstein-says-.html

https://x.com/TimmerFidelity/status/2092991527127789913

https://x.com/fundstrat/status/2091895628003528804

30:03 Coinbase Tokenized Stocks

https://x.com/base/status/2091918696620896485

41:14 Ethena’s Token Reset

https://x.com/EthenaFndtn/status/2092976592738001383

https://x.com/hosseeb/status/2090828427574268023

53:59 AI Capital Hunger

https://x.com/RaoulGMI/status/2092704327227867585

---

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

https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Wall Street wants to come onchain, but public-by-default finance creates a problem institutions cannot ignore. ETH Systems co-founders Mo Jalil and Oskar Thoren join David to explain why privacy may be one of Ethereum’s biggest institutional unlocks, what banks and asset managers are actually asking for, and why the opportunity goes far beyond private payments.

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

---
BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🔓NEAR | TRADE CONFIDENTIALLY, GET 20% BACK
https://bankless.cc/near-pod

🔑BITKEY | GET 10% OFF USE CODE: BANKLESS | #bitkeypartner
https://bankless.cc/bitkey

📊BITGET | TOKENIZED STOCKS 2.0
https://bankless.cc/bitget-stocks

🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS
https://thedefireport.io/bankless

👑BANKLESS CONTENT MCP
https://www.bankless.com/premium

---
TIMESTAMPS

0:00 ETH Systems
1:34 The Founders
5:28 Institutional Privacy
12:43 Real-World Use Cases
21:19 From Bespoke to Scalable
30:22 Building the Product
33:40 Institutions Are Coming
35:40 The Future of Institutional DeFi
40:24 Privacy vs Transparency
46:51 What Ethereum Can Do?
49:54 Cypherpunks and Institutions

---
RESOURCES

Oskar Thoren
https://x.com/oskarth

Mo Jalil
https://x.com/motypes

EthSystems
https://x.com/eth_systems

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

The stock market is coming onchain. Jesse Pollak joins David to unpack Coinbase Tokenized Stocks, a new push to bring one-to-one equities onto Base with 24/7 trading, dividends, governance rights and permissionless onchain composability. They explore what happens when stocks plug directly into DeFi, why borrowing and lending may matter more than trading itself, how neobanks could evolve into global brokerages, and Jesse’s bigger vision for Base as the financial backend for stocks, payments, credit and local currencies around the world.

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

---
BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🔓NEAR | TRADE CONFIDENTIALLY, GET 20% BACK
https://bankless.cc/near-pod

🔑BITKEY | GET 10% OFF USE CODE: BANKLESS | #bitkeypartner
https://bankless.cc/bitkey

📊BITGET | TOKENIZED STOCKS 2.0
https://bankless.cc/bitget-stocks

🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS
https://thedefireport.io/bankless

👑BANKLESS CONTENT MCP
https://www.bankless.com/premium

---
TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Coinbase Brings Tokenized Stocks to Base
5:17 Permissionless Stocks and the First Assets Going Live
10:11 Plugging Stocks Into Base DeFi
17:52 From Tokenized Stocks to Neo Brokerages
23:32 Crypto as a Global Financial System
27:20 What Builders Can Create With Onchain Stocks
32:04 Bringing Every Currency Onchain
42:47 Jesse’s Role at Base and the Everything Exchange
49:50 Tokenized Stocks Beyond Base

---
RESOURCES

Jesse Pollak
https://x.com/jessepollak

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

BitMine is within reach of owning 5% of ETH after more than 60 consecutive weeks of purchases, and Tom Lee believes the larger Ethereum trade may only be beginning. He joins David to explain how BitMine accumulated nearly 5% without debt, why it sometimes chooses stock buybacks over additional ETH, what happens when the target is reached, and whether the company would ever sell.

---

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

---
BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🔓NEAR | TRADE CONFIDENTIALLY, GET 20% BACK
https://bankless.cc/near-pod

🔑BITKEY | GET 10% OFF USE CODE: BANKLESS | #bitkeypartner
https://bankless.cc/bitkey

📊BITGET | TOKENIZED STOCKS 2.0
https://bankless.cc/bitget-stocks

🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS
https://thedefireport.io/bankless

👑BANKLESS CONTENT MCP
https://www.bankless.com/premium

---
TIMESTAMPS

0:00 BitMine’s Rapid March Toward 5% of ETH
3:36 More Than 60 Consecutive Weeks of ETH Purchases
5:29 Where BitMine’s Capital Comes From
8:27 What Happens When BitMine Reaches 5%?
13:47 Would BitMine Ever Sell Its ETH?
15:29 Maven and BitMine’s Evolution Beyond a Treasury Company
16:52 Ethereum’s Next Narrative
23:06 Does Ethereum Actually Capture Value?
29:13 Is ETH a Store of Value or a Cash-Flowing Asset?
35:19 What BitMine Has Learned From Michael Saylor
37:42 Why BitMine Issued BMNP
42:13 The Proposal That Could Reduce Staking Yield to Zero
47:54 Funding Ethereum Foundation Spinouts
53:23 BitMine’s Role in Ethereum’s Future
1:02:14 Is AI Crowding Crypto Out of the Market?
1:05:11 Has the Crypto Market Already Bottomed?
1:06:18 Tom Lee’s ETH Price Outlook

---
RESOURCES

Tom Lee
https://x.com/fundstrat

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

Crypto just had one of its biggest breakout days in years. Ryan and David unpack the Treasury’s QE-like move, the White House and SEC’s crypto push, ETH’s violent rebound, and whether this rally finally broke the back of the bear market.

---

📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24

https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium

---

BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🔓 NEAR | TRADE CONFIDENTIALLY, GET 20% BACK

https://bankless.cc/near-pod

🔑 BITKEY | GET 10% OFF USE CODE: BANKLESS | #bitkeypartner

https://bankless.cc/bitkey

📊 BITGET | TOKENIZED STOCKS 2.0

https://bankless.cc/bitget-stocks

🎯 THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS

https://thedefireport.io/bankless

👑 BANKLESS CONTENT MCP

https://www.bankless.com/premium

---

TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES

0:00 Intro

0:08 Crypto Market Breakout: BTC, ETH & ETFs

https://x.com/Matt_Hougan/status/2090070306199089249

https://x.com/HHorsley/status/2090198850485338569

https://x.com/jonnym1ller/status/2090196488500723745

https://x.com/TheBlockCo/status/2089338657605898711

17:14 White House Pumps Crypto

https://x.com/WhiteHouse/status/2090152688302411815

https://x.com/Bankless/status/2090449581171454021

https://x.com/ChairmanSelig/status/2090159414170771778/video/1

https://x.com/tradfi/status/2090154939675021396

22:40 Treasury's QE-Like Move

https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0607

https://x.com/Hedgeye/status/2090058257180029345

https://x.com/biancoresearch/status/2090065814581911653

https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2090212967317115053

https://x.com/fejau_inc/status/2090071008652980699

31:42 Did the Bear Market Just End?

40:58 SEC Unveils New Crypto Rules

https://x.com/SECGov/status/2089784594409103507

https://x.com/SECPaulSAtkins/status/2089788275913322994

50:53 Stablecoins Get Accounting Boost

https://www.fasb.org/news-and-meetings/in-the-news/fasb-seeks-public-comment-on-proposal-to-enhance-cash-equivalents-disclosures-and-clarify-the-cash-equivalents-evaluation-for-certain-digital-assets-425287

https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/2090230682781938071

https://x.com/austincampbell/status/2090231550080094599

53:01 Crypto Apps & DeFi Momentum

https://x.com/ErikVoorhees/status/2089375845425287610

https://x.com/business/status/2089077253778915636

https://x.com/paulerlanger/status/2089733900109021486

https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/2090140422513348899

https://x.com/Compound_xyz/status/2089386082441871388

1:01:11 Bullish Into the Close

---

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

https://www.bankless.com/disclosures