The biggest DeFi hack of 2026 wasn't a code exploit. It was a six-month North Korean social engineering campaign that ended with $285M drained from Drift protocol in 12 minutes. Circle had six hours to freeze $232M in USDC moving through its own bridge. 

Should stablecoin issuers be liable? Is a 2-of-5 multisig really decentralized? 

Austin Campbell (NYU Stern, Zero Knowledge Consulting), Ram Ahluwalia (Lumida), and Chris Perkins (CoinFund) confront the liability question, Chris's proposal for licensed "neoprivateers," and why US regulators wasted four years not building the framework we need now.

This clip is from a longer conversation on DeFi security, Iran's crypto war machine, and the token fundamentals crisis. Full episode here: https://youtube.com/live/SKcuC5kqQ7k We go live every Monday at 4:30 PM ET — subscribe to catch it live.

Bitcoin’s application layer, Citrea, launched its mainnet, expanding Bitcoin’s utility to privacy, lending, BTC yields, and more.

Citrea enables:

cBTC: The first trust-minimized Bitcoin on a fully programmable platform.

ctUSD: A native stablecoin for Bitcoin, allowing for unified liquidity.

Bitcoin Capital Markets bringing demand, and utility to the Bitcoin Network.

Explore the Citrea Ecosystem.

Ether.fi is giving Unchained listeners 15% cashback on food and ride apps — and that's on top of the 3% you get on everything else. 

Your bank is charging you to use your own money. Laura switched and loves her card!
Go to ether.fi/unchained to claim your offer.

A nation state hacked a startup and won. The hosts debate who's liable, what's fixable, and what isn't.

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Thank you to our sponsors:

Bitcoin’s application layer, Citrea, launched its mainnet, expanding Bitcoin’s utility to privacy, lending, BTC yields, and more.

Citrea enables:

cBTC: The first trust-minimized Bitcoin on a fully programmable platform.

ctUSD: A native stablecoin for Bitcoin, allowing for unified liquidity.

Bitcoin Capital Markets bringing demand, and utility to the Bitcoin Network.

Explore the ⁠Citrea Ecosystem⁠.

Ether.fi is giving Unchained listeners 15% cashback on food and ride apps — and that's on top of the 3% you get on everything else. 

Your bank is charging you to use your own money. Laura switched and loves her card!Go to ⁠ether.fi/unchained⁠ to claim your offer.

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North Korea just pulled off the largest DeFi hack of 2026, draining $285 million from Drift protocol in 12 minutes through a six-month social engineering campaign that included face-to-face meetings at industry conferences. Circle had a six-hour window to freeze $232 million in USDC moving through its own bridge and didn't act. 

Meanwhile, Iran's IRGC is reportedly collecting crypto tolls at the Strait of Hormuz in USDT via Tron, and the token market is cracking under the weight of 750,000 issuances since 2020 with the median token down 80% from peak. 

Ram, Austin, and Chris confront the liability question for stablecoin issuers, whether DeFi's security model can survive nation-state attackers, why Chris is calling for licensed "neoprivateers" to recover stolen funds, and what Franklin Templeton's acquisition of 250 Digital signals about where institutional capital is headed.

Hosts:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Austin Campbell⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Host of Bits + Bips, Zero Knowledge Consulting

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Ram Ahluwalia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Co-Host, CEO of Lumida

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Chris Perkins⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Co-Host, President of CoinFund

Charles Schwab’s chief crypto strategist breaks down why traditional finance valuation frameworks, not narratives, are finally taking hold in digital assets.

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Charles Schwab recently hired Jim Ferraioli to build a dedicated crypto research team, a signal that institutions are moving beyond narrative-driven investing and are taking this asset class seriously. 

In this episode, Steven Ehrlich sits down with Jim to explore how traditional finance valuation frameworks apply to crypto. They discuss Bitcoin’s role as a hedge against monetary debasement (not a safe haven), Jim’s cost-of-production model for valuing Bitcoin, and why Ethereum’s dominance in tokenization matters far more than short-term price action. 

Most compellingly, Jim argues that today’s Bitcoin prices sit at historical support levels used by the most efficient miners, and that Ethereum’s position as the tokenization standard is nearly unshakeable. If you’ve been waiting for crypto analysis grounded in fundamentals rather than hype, this is the conversation to hear.

Host:

Guest:

Links:

Charles Schwab & Institutional Crypto Research

⁠Jim Ferraioli | Charles Schwab⁠

CoinDesk: 

⁠Liquidity Lifts Bitcoin, but 'Halving Cycle' Fears Could Limit Rally, Says Schwab⁠

Nasdaq: 

⁠Top 4 Reasons More Americans Are Investing in Crypto, According to Schwab⁠

Ethereum Tokenization & Real-World Assets

Coindesk: 

⁠The Tokenization Boom: Why Ethereum Remains the Rails for RWA Tokenization⁠

Quantum Computing Risk

CoinDesk: 

⁠Bitcoin Isn't Under Quantum Threat Yet, but Upgrading Could Take 5-10 Years⁠

⁠How Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana Are Preparing for the Quantum Threat

Jim Ferraioli, Director of Crypto Strategy and Research at Charles

The S&P just closed its worst month since March 2025 at 6,368,

When do oil prices force a ceasefire? Why is crypto holding firm while equities crack? And does Canton or Ethereum win the institutional race?

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Bond market tightening has become the invisible hand constraining every policy decision, from Iran talks to stimulus spending. 

With Brent crude at $107 and the 10-year yield climbing, asset prices face a cascade of headwinds: inflationary supply shocks, tightening financial conditions, and no clear off-ramp for a conflict that the IRGC shows no appetite to negotiate. 

Yet within crypto, a sharper debate is emerging: does institutional adoption demand Canton’s permissioned structure, or can Ethereum survive with real-world assets on a permissionless layer? 

Austin, Ram, and Chris dig into the structural fault lines that the macro backdrop is now exposing, and why market-timing in a conflict where you don’t know who the endgame negotiator is may be the wrong frame entirely.

Hosts:

⁠Austin Campbell⁠, Host of Bits + Bips, Zero Knowledge Consulting

⁠Ram Ahluwalia⁠, Co-Host, CEO of Lumida

⁠Chris Perkins⁠, Co-Host, President of CoinFund

With European gas prices running 50-70% above normal, Steven Ehrlich sits down with Sean Murray, Head of Special Projects and Crypto Lead at Fuse Energy, to map the cascade: why gas, not oil, drives what consumers pay for electricity; how the Strait of Hormuz closure and the attack on Qatar's LNG processing facility are rippling through fertilizers, jet fuel, and copper markets; and why Sean argues the long-term supply disruption is being badly underpriced by markets worldwide. Multi-billion dollar facilities don't come back in months.

This clip is from a longer conversation on energy markets, DePIN, and Fuse Energy's token launch on Solana. Full episode here: https://youtu.be/RMXJsFT15UA

We go live every Monday at 4:30 PM ET — subscribe to catch it live.

Jeff Bezos is raising $100 billion for Project Prometheus to acquire

Elon Musk announced TeraFab, a $25 billion joint chip fabrication

Coinbase x402 has processed $34M. Tempo just launched its mainnet. Steven and Laurens discuss how the agentic commerce war is shaping up, why stablecoins are the infrastructure layer underneath it, how to tell real adoption from inflated metrics, and what happens when AI agents start getting scammed.