Bankless

Stablecoins are no longer a niche crypto curiosity—they're a full-blown financial revolution.

In this episode, Rob Hadick, General Partner at Dragonfly, joins us to unpack the emerging stablecoin tech stack and why cross-border payments, savings, and financial infrastructure are being rebuilt from the ground up.

From Circle and Tether to next-gen orchestration layers and stablecoin-native blockchains, we explore why this $200 trillion global opportunity is only 5% unlocked—and who stands to win the most.

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TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro

5:08 Why Stablecoins?

6:50 The Stablecoin Train

20:26 Stablecoin Network Effects

22:55 Stablecoin Payments: Who Actually Wins?

26:51 Orchestration Layers

41:53 Stablecoin Blockchains

52:53 Stablecoin Singularity

56:03 Traditional Banks

59:38 Non-USD Stablecoins

1:02:05 How Many Stablecoins?

1:05:03 Circle IPO

1:09:32 Closing & Disclaimers

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RESOURCES

Rob Hadick

https://x.com/hadickm

Stablecoin Payments: Who Actually Wins?

https://medium.com/@HadickM/stablecoin-payments-who-actually-wins-ebd72a1cc8b3

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

https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠

This week, Haseeb Qureshi joins us to break down Trump’s explosive new tariffs that rocked global markets and triggered a full-blown trade war with China. Stocks whipsawed, recession odds spiked, and the world scrambled to the negotiation table — except China. Was it 3D chess or policy chaos? Plus, we explore the ripple effects on crypto markets, investor sentiment, and what this all means for the future of U.S. economic leadership. It's a jam-packed Weekly Rollup you don't want to miss.

Follow Haseeb on X:
https://x.com/hosseeb 

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TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES

0:00 Intro

0:44 What has happened since Liberation Day?
https://x.com/tier10k/status/1910020421870637132
https://x.com/Birdyword/status/1910364014825070652
https://polymarket.com/event/us-recession-in-2025

31:17 Inflation 
https://x.com/intocryptoverse/status/1910311058222227586

41:49 Paul Atkins confirmed as the new SEC chair
https://x.com/Cointelegraph/status/1910117967230300613

45:43 ETH/BTC Ratio & Crypto VC Funding 
https://x.com/pet3rpan_/status/1910345673288958052

58:36 MegaETH released its testnet
https://x.com/megaeth_labs/status/1903099481874153880
https://x.com/0xBreadguy/status/1909619744455741709

1:03:05 Closing & Disclosures 

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

Welcome to the AI Rollup, your weekly ride through the fast-paced world of artificial intelligence! This week, we’re joined by frontier tech enthusiast Josh Kale to unpack the drama around Meta’s controversial launch of Llama 4, scrutinized for potentially overstating its capabilities. We dive into “AI 2027,” a provocative roadmap predicting espionage, geopolitical turmoil, and runaway intelligence, and explore Shopify’s bold move making AI usage mandatory for employees. Plus, we cover Claude Education’s groundbreaking efforts to boost student performance with tailored AI tutors and a16z’s massive $20 billion AI startup fund aiming to shape the industry’s next era.

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🛞MANTLE | MODULAR LAYER 2 NETWORK

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🌐SELF | PROVE YOUR SELF

https://bankless.cc/Self

🏦INFINEX | THE CRYPTO-EVERYTHING APP

https://bankless.cc/Infinex

------

TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES

00:00:00 AI Generated Tarriff’s

00:03:58 Meta’s Huge New LLAMA 4 Announcement

https://x.com/ahmad_al_dahle/status/1908595680828154198?s=46

https://x.com/alexocheema/status/1908651942777397737?s=46

00:11:54 Did Meta Cheat?

https://x.com/Yuchenj_UW/status/1909061004207816960

https://x.com/andrewallenxo/status/1909143884321481157

https://x.com/ahmad_al_dahle/status/1909302532306092107?s=46

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/4mvphwx5pdsZLMmpY/recent-ai-model-progress-feels-mostly-like-bullshit

00:20:45 AGI Is Coming in 2027

https://ai-2027.com/

https://situational-awareness.ai/

00:28:02 What Happens After AGI

https://ai-2027.com/

https://situational-awareness.ai/

00:39:58 Shopify And The Employment Crisis

https://x.com/tobi/status/1909251946235437514

00:48:34 The Future Of Education

https://www.anthropic.com/news/introducing-claude-for-education

https://x.com/jowettbrendan/status/1907695965726978184

https://x.com/cryptopunk7213/status/1907969387958513727

https://x.com/itsPaulAi/status/1907122207136137368

https://www.foxnews.com/media/texas-private-schools-use-ai-tutor-rockets-student-test-scores-top-2-country

00:59:55 How Much Does AI Know About You

01:04:58 A16Z’s $30B Fund

https://x.com/tkexpress11/status/1909626333711548526

https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/andreessen-horowitz-seeks-raise-20-billion-megafund-amid-global-interest-us-ai-2025-04-08/

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

https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

We’ve got the team behind Etherealize on the show today—Vivek Raman and Danny Ryan—to discuss their mission to onboard institutions, governments, and capital markets to Ethereum.

We explore how Ethereum is “open for business” with L2 scaling, modular architecture, and a maturing regulatory landscape. The Etherealize team breaks down their dual structure—a for-profit consulting and product arm alongside a nonprofit focused on R&D and policy—to drive institutional adoption.

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🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN

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🌐SELF | PROVE YOUR SELF

https://bankless.cc/Self

🛞MANTLE | MODULAR LAYER 2 NETWORK

https://bankless.cc/Mantle

🏦INFINEX | THE CRYPTO-EVERYTHING APP

https://bankless.cc/Infinex

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TIMESTAMPS

00:00:00 Intro

00:07:12 Etherealize & Its Mission

00:15:29 Clients & Finances

00:20:17 Relation Between Ethereum Foundation & Etherealize

00:21:31 Etherealize's Funding

00:22:43 Etherealize's Competitions

00:26:02 Challenges & Roadblocks

00:28:15 What Success Looks Like for Etherealize

00:29:56 Etherealize's Co-Founders

00:31:10 Ethereum’s Upcoming Era

00:40:20 What Makes Ethereum Special

00:46:00 Political Effect on Ethereum

00:51:33 Community Support

00:54:51 Layer 1 & Etherealize

00:58:36 Hypothetical Scenarios with Ethereum

01:01:50 What’s Next for Etherealize

01:04:47 Some Unturned Stones

01:07:32 Closing & Disclosures

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RESOURCES

Etherealize

https://www.etherealize.com

Vivek Raman

https://x.com/VivekVentures

Danny Ryan

https://x.com/dannyryan

------

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

https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠

This week, Alex Thorn joins us to unpack Trump's shocking tariff announcement that sent markets plunging and investors scrambling. Circle files for its IPO, revealing surprising financials, while the FDIC gives banks the crypto green light. CoreWeave debuts with a blockbuster IPO, and Eric Trump dives deeper into Bitcoin mining. We cover all this chaos and more in this week’s Weekly Rollup.

Follow Alex on X & check out his Galaxy Brains podcast:
https://x.com/intangiblecoins
https://www.galaxy.com/insights/podcasts/galaxy-brains/

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🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN
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🌐CELO | BUILD TOGETHER AND PROSPER
https://bankless.cc/Celo

🏦INFINEX | THE CRYPTO-EVERYTHING APP
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TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES

0:00 Intro

0:29 Trump’s Reciprocal Tariffs

https://x.com/kobeissiletter/status/1907556839686054240

https://x.com/WhiteHouse/status/1907533090559324204

https://x.com/CalltoActivism/status/1907549193650188469

https://x.com/notlouisck/status/1907657906117554278

https://x.com/JamesSurowiecki/status/1907559189234196942

https://x.com/KushDesai47/status/1907618136444067901

https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/1907769359621067017

36:53 Circle Files for IPO

https://x.com/Cointelegraph/status/1907172102353924269

https://x.com/g_djuric/status/1907200843289370910

https://x.com/Nick_van_Eck/status/1907181670504993026

https://x.com/TheOneandOmsy/status/1907229821043626100

https://polymarket.com/event/circle-ipo-in-2025?tid=1743435443834

54:32 Eric Trump & Bitcoin Mining

https://x.com/EricBalchunas/status/1906689372142915712

https://x.com/FDICgov/status/1905662427783467111

58:07 CoreWeave IPO

https://www.galaxy.com/transactions/coreweave-growth-financing

1:04:47 Closing & Disclaimers

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

AI heats up, markets shake, and the internet gets Ghbilified.

OpenAI hits 1M users in 60 minutes, CoreWeave IPO rocks NASDAQ, and XAI acquires X.

A new “world’s best” model quietly drops—did Google just take the lead?

Cursor raises at a $9.6B valuation as “vibecoding” enters the mainstream.

Welcome back to another week of the AI Rollup.

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🪙FRAX | SELF SUFFICIENT DeFi

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🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN

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🛞MANTLE | MODULAR LAYER 2 NETWORK

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🌐SELF | PROVE YOUR SELF

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🏦INFINEX | THE CRYPTO-EVERYTHING APP

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TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES

00:00:00 The Ghibli Effect

https://x.com/alifarhat79/status/1904884015858884884

https://x.com/unusual_whales/status/1906831621166440583

00:05:09 Coreweave IPO

https://www.ft.com/content/519006a9-82c6-4939-afa1-58921a399105

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/01/coreweave-shares-bounce-ipo-price.html

https://x.com/TheStalwart/status/1907438208662552647

00:14:28 xAI Acquires X

https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1905731750275510312?s=46

00:20:02 Grok's Telegram Integration

00:24:38 New Best Model Has Arrived

https://x.com/bookwormengr/status/1905050740110090429?s=46

https://x.com/gfodor/status/1904980153329242147?s=46

00:32:09 Cursor And The Vibe Coding Explosion

https://x.com/ArfurRock/status/1906768733135098360

00:39:02 AI Crypto Trend Update

https://x.com/defi0xjeff/status/1904154090424402163?s=46

00:45:47 BillyBets March Madness

https://x.com/playprophetx/status/1899535745435742608?s=46

https://x.com/bunchubets/status/1904224002123473294?s=46

00:56:51 Olas

https://olas.network/

01:01:32 Vana

https://x.com/anna_kazlauskas/status/1905414468315549737?s=46

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

https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Felipe Montealegre, co-founder of Thea Capital, joins us to unpack a new vision for global finance—what he calls the Internet Financial System. 

Felipe makes the case that today's financial world still runs on siloed, permissioned databases—slow, expensive, and riddled with gatekeepers. But blockchains and smart contracts offer something radically different: a unified, open system where capital can move efficiently across borders and property rights are stronger than ever. 

This episode is a must-listen for anyone wondering how crypto is building the financial infrastructure of the 21st century.

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BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🪙FRAX | SELF SUFFICIENT DeFi

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🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN

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🛞MANTLE | MODULAR LAYER 2 NETWORK

https://bankless.cc/Mantle 

🌐SELF | PROVE YOUR SELF

https://bankless.cc/Self 

🏦INFINEX | THE CRYPTO-EVERYTHING APP

https://bankless.cc/Infinex

------

TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro

5:29 Internet Financial Systems

12:03 Frictions in Financial Systems

20:33 Innovations in Internet Financial Systems

28:42 Server with Laws

40:02 Incompatibilities within Systems

50:17 Absence of Financial Laws

57:34 Potential of Finance in Crypto

1:09:59 Server Compatibility with Governments

1:16:18 Different Laws for Investing in Crypto

1:26:26 Building Protocols 

1:29:52 Closing & Disclaimers

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RESOURCES

Felipe Montealegre 

https://x.com/TheiaResearch

Internet Finance

https://x.com/TheiaResearch/status/1876618725547233417

------

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

https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠ 

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev returns to Bankless for a wide-ranging conversation on the future of tokenization, crypto regulation, and Robinhood’s evolving product suite. 

Vlad lays out a bold vision for bringing tokenized assets like SpaceX and OpenAI equity to retail investors, discusses the role of prediction markets as "truth machines," and introduces Robinhood's latest products: Strategies, Cortex, and Banking. 

This one’s a big glimpse into where TradFi and DeFi collide.

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🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN

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⚖️ARBITRUM | SCALING ETHEREUM

⁠https://bankless.cc/Arbitrum

🛞MANTLE | MODULAR LAYER 2 NETWORK

https://bankless.cc/Mantle

🌐CELO | BUILD TOGETHER AND PROSPER

https://bankless.cc/Celo

🏦INFINEX | THE CRYPTO-EVERYTHING APP

https://bankless.cc/Infinex 

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TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro

5:54 New Administration

12:19 Tokenization

16:18 Tokenized SpaceX

18:12 An IPO Alternative

23:39 Prediction Markets

25:40 Kalshi

29:58 Future of Prediction Markets

35:58 Robinhood Banking

38:27 Robinhood Cortex

44:08 Robinhood Strategies

49:04 Cash Delivery

52:10 Crypto Listings

54:37 Why Distinct Apps?

56:32 How Bankless is Robinhood?

1:00:42 Closing Thoughts

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RESOURCES

Vlad Tenev

https://x.com/vladtenev 

Robinhood
https://robinhood.com/

Washington Post Op-ed

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/01/28/investing-crypto-tech-robinhood-stock-market/ 

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

https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠

This week, Mike Ippolito joins us to break down crypto’s big flip as institutions rush into stablecoins—triggering excitement and anxiety alike. Hyperliquid faces drama after a high-stakes market manipulation attack, BlackRock's tokenized treasuries surge to nearly $2 billion, and the U.S. Treasury finally removes Tornado Cash from its sanctions list. Meanwhile, Robinhood enters banking, raising questions about DeFi’s future. We dive into all of this and so much more.

Follow Mike on X & Checkout Bell Curve: 

https://x.com/MikeIppolito_

https://www.youtube.com/@bellcurvepodcast/videos 

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BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🪙FRAX | SELF SUFFICIENT DeFi

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🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN

https://bankless.cc/unichain

⚖️ARBITRUM | SCALING ETHEREUM

⁠https://bankless.cc/Arbitrum

🛞MANTLE | MODULAR LAYER 2 NETWORK

https://bankless.cc/Mantle

🌐CELO | BUILD TOGETHER AND PROSPER

https://bankless.cc/Celo

🏦INFINEX | THE CRYPTO-EVERYTHING APP

https://bankless.cc/Infinex

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✨ Mint the episode on Zora ✨

https://zora.co/coin/base:0xe36312b13decbe5af463aaf188a510b69f28ce7e

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TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES

0:00 Intro

0:56 Blockworks DAS Week Recap

6:45 Saylor’s Strategy bought more Bitcoin

https://x.com/WatcherGuru/status/1904155021781901741

https://x.com/SaylorBuysBTC/status/1904631210887836142

12:33 Stablecoin Gold Rush
https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/1905219932612178237

https://x.com/JasonYanowitz/status/1904886554708898112

https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/1904521913528975550

25:32 Blackrock’s BUIDL fund is expanding to Solana

https://x.com/solana/status/1904520943667716531

https://x.com/carlosdomingo/status/1904516023623028894

44:59 Hyperliquid 

https://x.com/MacroCRG/status/1904895153384357990

https://x.com/HyperliquidX/status/1904923137684496784

https://x.com/toghrulmaharram/status/1904935313081856406

https://x.com/Dogetoshi/status/1904919007930577175

1:03:10 US lifted sanctions on Tornado Cash

https://x.com/matthuang/status/1904192079691170137

https://wewantjusticedao.org/ 

1:05:55 Robinhood Banking 

https://x.com/RobinhoodApp/status/1905127283532484696

1:09:38 Closing & Disclaimers 

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

https://www.bankless.com/disclosures