Bankless

Ethereum may be paying too much to secure itself, and the consequences could extend far beyond a little extra ETH issuance. Jerome de Tychey, co-author of EIP-8363, and Sam Jernigan join David Hoffman to make the case for stake targeting, a proposal designed to stop Ethereum’s staking ratio from climbing indefinitely. They debate what happens if more than half of ETH becomes staked, whether today’s issuance threatens credible neutrality, why staking may be crowding out DeFi, what lower rewards could mean for ETH’s monetary premium, and whether solo stakers and institutional holders ultimately win or lose from the change. Subscribe for more conversations on Ethereum’s monetary policy and future.

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TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Why Ethereum Needs Stake Targeting
4:27 What Actually Breaks With More ETH Staked?
9:54 The 50% Social Backstop
18:24 Ethereum’s Protocol vs. Its DeFi Economy
21:30 Is Staking Crowding Out DeFi?
26:19 Dilution, Subsidies, and ETH Price
35:46 Would Lower Rewards Hurt or Help DeFi?
49:48 What About Tom Lee and Institutional ETH Holders?
57:02 Does This Hurt Solo Stakers?
1:09:01 Why EIP-8363 Is So Contentious
1:18:10 The Final Case for Changing Issuance

---
RESOURCES

Jerome de Tychey
https://x.com/jdetychey

Sam Jernigan
https://x.com/macrosam

---
Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:
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The Fed may no longer be a one-person institution, and markets are not ready for the consequences. Jim Bianco joins David Hoffman to unpack Kevin Warsh's emerging 12-voter Fed, the end of forward guidance, and the counterintuitive case that higher short-term rates could actually pull long-term yields lower. They also explore sticky inflation, why balance sheet reduction cannot happen overnight, how AI capex is reshaping the economy, why the AI bubble may look more like 1998 than 2000, and why Bitcoin needs more strong crypto rather than deeper dependence on Wall Street and Washington.

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TIMESTAMPS

0:00 A New Fed Takes Shape
4:34 Warsh's Good Family Fight
10:16 The End of Forward Guidance
17:07 Markets Learn to Price Ambiguity
22:29 Why Rate Cuts Raised Long-Term Yields
26:42 Inflation Changes the Vote
30:42 Rates or Balance Sheet?
35:00 The Case for Higher Rates
41:07 AI Capex and the Economy
49:17 Warsh's AI Deflation Bet
53:51 The Bubble Comes Later
1:02:00 Gold, Bitcoin, and Debasement
1:07:04 Strong Crypto vs Weak Crypto

---
RESOURCES

Jim Bianco
https://x.com/biancoresearch

Jim’s podcast
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhq-IKbzpDs&list=PLdyJxdkS1yBU

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EtherFi is expanding from a crypto-native neobank into a broader financial account built around DeFi. Mike Silagadze joins David to break down the next version of the product, including tokenized stocks and metals, Aave V4-powered credit, yield-bearing balances, global fiat rails, and a much more normie-friendly experience.

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TIMESTAMPS

0:00 EtherFi’s Next Act
4:20 Stocks, Yield, and Credit
9:48 Building Beyond the Crypto Casino
16:05 Tokenized Assets and Aave V4
22:03 How EtherFi’s Lending Market Works
26:32 EtherFi Summer and What Comes Next
30:05 From Fiat Rails to Crypto Payments
37:05 ETHFI Buybacks, Privacy, and the Endgame

---
RESOURCES

Mike Silagadze
https://x.com/MikeSilagadze

---
Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:
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Bitcoin’s latest fork died after just two blocks. Ryan and David unpack what the failure says about Bitcoin maximalism, why Saylor keeps selling BTC, Robinhood Chain’s breakout, and Fidelity’s push to bring staking yield to Wall Street.

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TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro

3:21 Bitcoin Markets: Inflation, Gold, Saylor & the Bottom

https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2087525891911893362

https://capitalwars.substack.com/p/china-restarts-her-great-debasement

https://thedefireport.io/research/did-the-u-s-treasury-just-implement-a-qe-lite-policy

https://x.com/saylor/status/2086785552355860895

22:12 Bitcoin’s Failed Fork

https://x.com/ercwl/status/2086079471853985980

https://x.com/lopp/status/2086512275012075811

https://x.com/nic_carter/status/2086108921689682213

32:43 Robinhood Chain Takes #1

https://x.com/AvgJoesCrypto/status/2086889992035717166

https://dune.com/entropy_advisors/robinhood-chain-network-overview

https://x.com/vladtenev/status/2087407743028355336

40:46 FOMO vs Pump

https://x.com/stacy_muur/status/2087206916447670564

https://x.com/seyong/status/2087210357370577394

https://www.bankless.com/read/the-pump-vs-fomo-rivalry

https://fomo.family/

45:39 Clarity Act Faces Trouble

https://x.com/EleanorTerrett/status/2085543590583836678

https://www.theblock.co/news/regulation/2026-08-11-whats-next-for-clarity-act-september-brings-tough-road-ahead-411465

https://www.theblock.co/news/regulation/2026-08-11-sec-crypto-rules-token-safe-harbor-td-cowen-411455

https://polymarket.com/event/clarity-act-signed-into-law-in-2026

47:55 Fidelity Bets on Staked ETH

https://x.com/CoinDesk/status/2087475561316622745

53:00 Venice Revenue Keeps Climbing

https://x.com/AustinBarack/status/2087336389654270398

---

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What if staking a token could keep an AI agent thinking? NEAR cofounder Illia Polosukhin joins David to explain NEAR’s new staking-powered inference model, where yield funds access to confidential and verifiable AI. They unpack how NEAR AI Cloud, IronClaw, Intents, and the NEAR token fit into one integrated economy for autonomous agents, why AI outputs may need cryptographic proof when money is at stake, and how GPU compute could become a liquid global market.

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TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Private, Verifiable AI
4:57 Why AI Outputs Need Proof
9:13 From Staking Yield to Inference
16:16 NEAR’s Integrated AI Stack
20:01 NEAR as AI Money
24:27 Autonomous Businesses
28:51 Partners and Real-World Uses
33:26 What NEAR Ships Next
38:01 Where AI Value Accrues
40:56 The AI Operating System
48:07 Turning Compute Into a Market
51:48 Closing Thoughts

---
RESOURCES

Illia Polosukhin
https://x.com/j0hnwang

Near revenue
https://revenue.near.org/

---
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Ethereum’s latest staking proposal is sparking backlash across DeFi. Aave founder Stani Kulechov and EtherFi CEO Mike Silagadze join David to break down why stake tapering could push ETH yield toward zero, weaken solo staking, drive capital out of DeFi, and make ETH less attractive to institutions. They debate Ethereum’s monetary policy, whether the network is overpaying for security, and why trying to make ETH more like Bitcoin could undermine what makes Ethereum valuable in the first place. Subscribe for more conversations from the frontier of crypto.

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---

TIMESTAMPS

Intro 0:00 

0:09 Ethereum’s Staking Debate

2:41 Stani’s First Reaction

7:48 Mike’s Centralization Concerns

14:37 DeFi Under Pressure

17:15 Stani on Yield and Cash Flow

24:54 The Case for Vanilla Ether

27:20 Mike Pushes Back

34:27 Issuance and Monetary Policy

35:16 Minimum Viable Issuance

40:47 Institutions Need Predictability

46:10 Conservative Yield, Not Zero

47:46 Legitimacy and Process

52:54 Final Verdict on the EIP

---

RESOURCES

Stani Kulechov

https://x.com/StaniKulechov

Mike Silagadze

https://x.com/MikeSilagadze

---

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Ethereum’s monetary policy is suddenly up for debate. Ryan and David unpack the issuance fight dividing researchers and DeFi builders, the Coldcard exploit that hit users who “did everything right,” Saylor’s latest Bitcoin sale, and markets ripping back to all-time highs.

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TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro

0:25 Markets, AI, and Bitcoin

https://x.com/bulltheoryio/status/2084634593836372202

https://www.vanityfair.com/story/anthropic-situational-awareness-wedding

6:31 Saylor’s Bitcoin Selloff

https://x.com/hedgeye/status/2084278278794117372

https://x.com/zerohedge/status/2084247862833971631

https://x.com/saylor/status/2084315637715763579

18:00 Ethereum Issuance Fight

https://x.com/zoomerfied/status/2084641592615256254

https://x.com/jdetychey/status/2084638778677751889

https://issuance.wtf/

https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/2084685295484633349

https://x.com/StaniKulechov/status/2084925768711213105

https://x.com/StaniKulechov/status/2084667208668467574

https://x.com/DCinvestor/status/2084971858311438688

https://x.com/MikeSilagadze/status/2084703078909907000

39:59 Coldcard Wallet Drain

https://x.com/itscoachgoodman/status/2083527082223563157

https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/04/hackers-steal-over-130-million-by-exploiting-bug-in-offline-hardware-wallets/

https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2026/08/05/coldcard-exploit-could-boost-demand-for-regulated-bitcoin-exposure-analysts-say

https://thedefiant.io/news/hacks/i-did-everything-right-coldcard-victims-recount-losing-life-savings

https://x.com/EpsilonTheory/status/2083642741075124680

https://x.com/lopp/status/2083575437599371321

https://x.com/AriDavidPaul/status/2083591462726361235

https://x.com/PeterMcCormack/status/2083631731052290261

52:00 Uniswap, Clarity, and Crypto Updates

https://x.com/Uniswap/status/2084678603812274275

https://polymarket.com/event/clarity-act-signed-into-law-in-2026/clarity-act-signed-into-law-in-2026

https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2026/07/27/u-s-senate-puts-off-crypto-clarity-act-for-now-as-it-focuses-limited-bandwidth-elsewhere

https://x.com/Cloudflare/status/2084648084131242402

https://x.com/NEARProtocol/status/2082879865385062520

https://x.com/zerohedge/status/2084614210118426971

https://x.com/arc/status/2084993791413678099

---

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Memecoins were supposed to be a dead end, but Mike Dudas believes their deeper idea is only beginning to spread. The 6MV investor joins David to unpack Bonk’s role in reviving Solana, Ansem’s latest experiment, Robinhood’s push into the trenches, and how games, collectibles, prediction markets, and compute could power consumer crypto’s next chapter. Mike also answers the $1 million ETH versus SOL question, lays out Ethereum’s best strategic response, and explains why crypto’s slower progress may be setting up a more durable cycle. Subscribe for more conversations from the frontier of crypto.

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TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Bonk at Solana’s Bottom
7:07 What Gives Memecoins Value?
13:45 The Ansem Experiment
20:53 Are Memecoins Built to Die?
26:19 Culture Goes Onchain
29:45 Robinhood, Base, and the Trenches
32:59 Better Assets, Better Cycles
36:20 What 6MV Is Betting On
38:21 The Consumer Crypto Comeback
43:37 Compute Becomes a Market
47:57 Crypto’s AI Diaspora
50:53 SOL Versus ETH
57:02 Cycles, Equity, and Tokens
1:01:34 Why Crypto Takes Longer

---
RESOURCES

Mike Dudas
https://x.com/mdudas

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Crypto prices are weak, OG sentiment is exhausted, and institutions are leaning in. Blockchain Capital GPs Aleks Larsen and Spencer Bogart join David Hoffman to explain why this disconnect may be the opportunity. They unpack crypto’s shift toward application-layer value, stablecoins as onchain working capital, tokenized equities, Aave V4, public blockchains, and BCAP. Is the cypherpunk dream fading, or becoming the foundation of global finance?

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TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Buybacks, Burns and Tokenholder Trust
5:47 Why Blockchain Capital Is Doubling Down
14:38 Institutions Arrive as Crypto OGs Lose Faith
21:03 From Infrastructure Scarcity to Abundant Blockspace
30:24 What AI Can Learn From Crypto
38:43 Stablecoins Become Onchain Working Capital
44:41 The Stablecoin Revenue Multiplier
47:40 Aave and Open Financial Infrastructure
55:08 The Roadmap for Tokenized Equities
59:41 Public Chains, Ownership and Compliance
1:04:24 Blockchain Capital’s Tokenized Fund
1:09:03 Bringing BCAP Fully Onchain

---
RESOURCES

Spencer Bogart
https://x.com/CremeDeLaCrypto

Aleks Larsen
https://x.com/alekslarsen

---
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Korea’s leveraged stock boom imploded and the AI trade found a forced seller, but crypto held firm. Ryan and David unpack whether the winds are shifting toward BTC and ETH, Warsh’s hawkish Fed debut, and Ethereum’s 11th birthday.

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TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro

0:17 Korea & AI Liquidation

https://x.com/kobeissiletter/status/2082463897387257895

https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2082792020993536283

https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/why-did-south-korean-stocks-just

https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/the-ai-bust-scenario-that-no-one

https://x.com/tbpn/status/2082849965102219677

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/30/leopold-aschenbrenners-hedge-fund-is-facing-steep-ai-losses.html

https://x.com/amitisinvesting/status/2082860784242049407

14:39 Crypto Holds Firm

https://x.com/micro2macr0/status/2081868142230286664

https://x.com/cryptunez/status/2081893515223535625

https://x.com/blknoiz06/status/2082560475951251789

20:27 Warsh, Rates & Global Liquidity

https://x.com/YahooFinance/status/2082538170533519741

https://www.theblock.co/post/410092/fed-holds-rates-steady-three-officials-push-hike-crypto-market-stays-flat

https://thedefireport.io/research/can-the-economy-handle-rate-hikes

https://x.com/AlexCorrino/status/2082667540090859698

https://x.com/Barchart/status/2082683129681092931

https://x.com/wallstengine/status/2082551083583541287

https://capitalwars.substack.com/p/global-liquidity-and-cryptocurrencies

36:47 Clarity Act Stalls

https://x.com/EleanorTerrett/status/2082127523249262881

https://polymarket.com/event/clarity-act-signed-into-law-in-2026/clarity-act-signed-into-law-in-2026

https://x.com/Cointelegraph/status/2082190857336205486

38:25 Ethereum Turns Eleven

https://x.com/LefterisJP/status/2082771162942075080

https://www.theblock.co/post/410083/ethereum-cypherpunk-manifesto-author-ethereum-foundation-fourth-board-member

https://x.com/ethereumfndn/status/2082437165233951223

https://x.com/AyaMiyagotchi/status/2082437879494488566

44:35 Robinhood’s Mixed Quarter

https://dune.com/entropy_advisors/robinhood-chain-network-overview

https://thedefiant.io/news/blockchains/robinhood-chain-tops-solana-in-tokenized-stock-volume-via-memecoin-pairs

47:52 New York’s Doxxing Scandal

https://x.com/haydenzadams/status/2081740559694074248

https://nypost.com/2026/07/27/us-news/mamdani-names-all-nyc-property-owners-who-could-be-hit-with-new-pied-a-terre-tax

53:26 July Wrap-Up

---

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