Recorded June 18, 2026.

In the latest CF Benchmarks live X Space, Head of Research Gabe Selby is joined by Kraken Chief Economist Thomas Perfumo, CF Benchmarks Research Analyst Mark Pilipczuk, and CF Benchmarks Head of Business Development Peter Stern, with CEO Sui Chung calling in from London. The team also welcomes a special guest: David Lawant, Head of Research at Anchorage Digital and previously head of research at FalconX.

The panel grades Kevin Warsh's first FOMC meeting, unpacks the mechanics of synthetic Bitcoin yield from David's new whitepaper on covered call strategies, examines the arrival of covered-call ETFs, and works through the price movements in Strategy's STRETCH preferred.

Chapters: 00:00 – Intro, Compliance Note & Team Welcome

03:32 – The FOMC Recap: Rates Held, the Statement Slashed, a Dot Goes Missing

05:46 – Grading Warsh's Debut: The Panel's Report Card

15:17 – Killing the Dot Plot? The Forward Guidance Debate

18:45 – The "Fed Put" & Market Reflexivity

24:11 – Hawkish on Rates or the Balance Sheet?

30:38 – Synthetic Bitcoin Yield: Inside David's latest research piece

34:43 – Bitcoin's Volatility Risk Premium & a Call-Heavy Options Market

37:00 – Covered-Call ETFs Arrive: BlackRock's BITA & Advisor Appetite

42:53 – Muted Basis & Funding: Why Yield-Seekers Turn to Options

44:51 – STRETCH Under Stress: Strategy's Preferred Slips Below Par

47:05 – Reading the Spread: STRETCH vs Peer Yield Products

50:20 – Strategy's Mechanics: USD Reserve, Convert Buyback & the Dividend Standoff

53:28 – The Fast Round: What We're Watching Over the Next Week

In the latest CF Benchmarks live X Space, recorded June 11, 2026, Head of Research Gabe Selby, CFA is joined by Research Analyst Mark Pilipczuk, Kraken Chief Economist Thomas Perfumo, CFA, and CF Benchmarks CEO Sui Chung, with special guest Ishmael Asad, Research Analyst at Bitwise, for a wide-ranging roundtable across macro, markets, and crypto fundamentals.

With long-end yields at multi-year highs, a hot CPI and PPI print, and a new Fed chair stepping in the panel works through the following question: when do a string of "one-off" shocks cement into a structural regime? From there the conversation turns to where capital is actually flowing, contrasting a discounted crypto market, Hyperliquid's fundamentals-driven ascent and entry into the CF Large Cap, and a record-breaking SpaceX IPO drawing in a wave of retail demand.

Chapters: 00:00 – Intro, Team Welcome & Guest Introduction

02:06 – The Macro Setup: Multi-Year-High Yields, Hot CPI & PPI

04:27 – A 1970s Redux? Oil, Iran & the Incoming Warsh Fed

06:50 – How Long Can "One-Off" Inflation Shocks Continue?

09:11 – Hot Labor Data, Rate-Hike Odds & a Global Liquidity Squeeze

14:08 – A View From London: Political Shocks & Stagflation Risk

17:10 – When Good News Is Bad News: Labor Market Cracks & Capital Rotation

19:58 – Spotlight on Hyperliquid: Inside CFB's New Valuation Framework

21:25 – HYPE's Economics: ~$1B Revenue, an 83% Margin & a 61x TTM Multiple

24:20 – Why a Scalable 24/7 Model Commands a Premium

26:13 – HYPE's Institutional Bid: ETF Flows & the Coinbase Deal

28:38 – HYPE Joins the CF Large Cap at Number Five

32:29 – Index Inclusion Explained: Why SpaceX Can't Join the S&P 500 Yet

37:14 – The Bear Case: Token Unlocks & Supply Overhang

39:55 – Hyperliquid's Competition & the Perps Landscape

44:33 – The SpaceX IPO: What Are Investors Looking At?

47:54 – Orbital AI: The Interstellar Data Center Narrative

49:40 – Elon's Playbook: Narrative, Multiples & "Populist Liquidity"

53:16 – Rapid Fire: The Week Ahead

This episode was recorded live via X Spaces - audio quality varies in places.

Recorded June 4, 2026, the latest CF Benchmarks live X Space finds Head of Research Gabe Selby, CFA joined by Research Analyst Mark Pilipczuk, Kraken Chief Economist Thomas Perfumo, CFA, and CF Benchmarks Product Manager Jen Wang, with special guest John Todaro, Managing Director of crypto and AI/HPC equity research at Needham.

With Bitcoin near $63,500 after thirteen straight days of ETF outflows, the panel works through what a tightening capital markets backdrop, renewed rate-hike risk, and an unresolved US-Iran oil shock mean for digital assets. The conversation turns to why public Bitcoin miners are racing to become AI infrastructure landlords, how MicroStrategy and the new wave of treasury companies are faring under pressure, and where genuine fundamentals are still separating the winners from the noise.

00:00 – Intro & Team Welcome 01:09 – Meet the Guest: Needham's John Todaro

02:48 – Data Check: Bitcoin Near $63.5K as the BVX Spikes

04:23 – Are Fed Rate Hikes Back on the Table?

06:50 – Looking Through the Oil Shock: The Hormuz Premium

08:25 – How Rates Hit Crypto Equities vs. AI Infrastructure

11:37 – Is Bitcoin Mining a Dying Business?

14:11 – Supply Constraints: GPUs, IREN–Nvidia & the Power Bottleneck

18:10 – Public vs. Private Miners: The Great HPC Bifurcation

22:47 – MicroStrategy's First BTC Sale Since 2022 & the Capital Markets Squeeze

27:39 – Why Institutions Want Operating Cash Flows, Not Just Treasuries

30:36 – BitMine's 9.5% Preferred: Does Staking Yield Change the DAT Math?

33:14 – Crypto's Strangest Chart: Hyperliquid, Its ETF & "Fundamentals Not Vibes"

36:29 – The Echo Chamber: Is This Really Capitulation?

38:27 – Bitcoin's Technical Setup & the $59–60K Demand Zone

41:19 – HYPE Joins the CF Capitalization Series (Jen Wang)

42:58 – Reading the Vol Surface: Where the Protection Bid Sits

44:48 – CME BVX Futures Go Live: A Hedging Playbook & the ETN Pipeline

49:58 – Week Ahead: Clarity Act, ERCOT, FOMC & Friday Payrolls

56:16 – Closing Remarks

The information contained within is for educational and informational purposes ONLY. It is not intended nor should it be considered an invitation or inducement to buy or sell any of the underlying instruments cited including but not limited to cryptoassets, financial instruments or any instruments that reference any index provided by CF Benchmarks Ltd. This communication is not intended to persuade or incite you to buy or sell security or securities noted within. Any commentary provided is the opinion of the author and should not be considered a personalised recommendation. Please contact your financial adviser or professional before making an investment decision.

Note: Some of the underlying instruments cited within this material may be restricted to certain customer categories in certain jurisdictions.

This episode was recorded live via X Spaces - audio quality varies in places.

In this week's CF Benchmarks live X Space, recorded May 14, 2026, the team unpacks a packed week for macro, policy and market structure: a hot CPI print that flips rate-cut expectations on their head; the CLARITY Act clears the Senate Banking Committee with bipartisan support; Kevin Warsh's narrow confirmation as Fed Chair designate; and CME announces Bitcoin Volatility futures will launch on June 1.

Join Head of Research Gabe Selby, CFA, Research Analyst Mark Pilipczuk, Kraken Chief Economist Thomas Perfumo, CFA, and - for a special deep dive on CME's watershed product launch - CF Benchmarks Senior Product Manager Xin Wang.

Chapters:

00:00 – Intro & Team Welcome

00:53 – Hot CPI Print: 3.8% YoY & The Rate Hike Pivot

03:25 – PPI Confirms The Trend: Sharpest Print Since March 2022

05:25 – Market Impact: S&P at All-Time Highs, 10-Year Tops Year-to-Date

07:00 – CLARITY Act Markup: Today's Pivotal Senate Banking Vote

09:35 – GENIUS Act as the Analog: Why CLARITY Matters

11:57 – Calendar Risk: Beating the Midterm Clock

13:06 – Warsh Confirmed 54-45 — But Powell Stays Until 2028

18:46 – The Real Story: A Divided Fed Board, Not a Puppet Chair

21:00 – Bitcoin at $81K & The 200-Week Moving Average in Focus

24:26 – ETF Bid Support: Stairs Up, Elevator Down?

27:05 – Stagflation Tilt: GDPNow & Decelerating Growth

28:20 – Ether's Relief Rally: Catch-Up Trade or Real Move?

31:03 – Altcoin Leadership: AI & Compute Tokens Take the Lead

34:51 – CME Launches Bitcoin Vol. Futures June 1: a Watershed Moment

36:33 – Inside BVX/BVXS: 30-Day Forward Vol. on CME Bitcoin Options

39:18 – Is BVX the "VIX of Bitcoin"? Similarities & Differences

41:40 – Vol. as Feature, Not Bug: How Practitioners Will Deploy BVX

44:25 – The IBIT Options Effect: Compressing Bitcoin's Vol. Curve

50:06 – The $10T Asset Question: Why Bitcoin Vol. Trends Down

52:54 – Week Ahead: FOMC Minutes & The Trump-Xi Summit

56:26 – Closing Remarks

This episode was recorded live via X Spaces - audio quality varies in places.

In the fourth CF Benchmarks live X Space, recorded Friday May 8, 2026, Head of Content Ken Odeluga is joined by Head of Research Gabe Selby, CFA, Research Analyst Mark Pilipczuk, Kraken Chief Economist Thomas Perfumo, CFA and CF Benchmarks Senior Product Manager James Flamant - with special guest Ryan Rasmussen, Head of Research at Bitwise.

A red-hot NFP print, Michael Saylor's signal that Bitcoin sales aren't off the table, Circle's 20% pop on stablecoin-rewards optimism, and a forensic walk-through of the Kelp DAO ~$300M cross-chain exploit. From AI concentration risk and chipmaker earnings to the Clarity Act markup expected within days, the team unpacks the cross-currents shaping crypto right now.

Chapters:

00:00 – Intro & Team Welcome

01:21 – NFP Shocker: 115K Print Smashes the 65K Estimate

04:36 – Household vs. Employer Survey: The Revisions Question

06:42 – AI, Crypto & the Decade-Long Productivity Boom

07:31 – Cross-Asset Reaction: NQ Bid, Bitcoin Offered

08:38 – The K-Shaped Equity Market & Mark-to-Market EPS

12:13 – Chipmakers in Focus: Intel's Comeback, AMD's GPU Push

15:19 – AI Concentration Risk: What Happens If Momentum Fades?

17:50 – Bitcoin Decoupling from Tech: Finding the Next Catalyst

20:46 – Crypto Equities & Miners Steal the Show

23:27 – Coinbase Earnings: The Institutional Pivot Accelerates

25:56 – Strategy's $12.5B Loss & Saylor's Capital-Structure Pivot

30:26 – The Signal Heard Round Crypto: Strategy May Sell Bitcoin

35:04 – ETF Flows vs. MicroStrategy: Who's Really Driving Price?

38:09 – Is Strategy Coming In From the Cold?

41:00 – Bitcoin's Volatility as a Feature: Tax-Loss Harvesting

44:30 – The Clarity Act: Where Market Structure Stands Right Now

47:39 – Circle Pops 20%: Stablecoin Rewards in the Spotlight

50:32 – Deep Dive: The Kelp DAO $300M Cross-Chain Exploit

55:28 – Safeguards, Sandboxes & the Innovation Exemption

58:25 – Architecture After Kelp: Hunting the Weakest Link

01:00:11 – Week Ahead: Inflation, the Warsh Vote & the Clarity Markup

01:04:18 – Rethinking On-Chain Risk-Free Rates

01:05:16 – Closing Remarks

This episode was recorded live via X Spaces — audio quality varies in places.

In the third CF Benchmarks live X Space, recorded April 30, 2026, Head of Content Ken Odeluga is joined by Kraken Chief Economist Thomas Perfumo, CF Benchmarks Head of Research Gabe Selby, and Research Analyst Mark Pilipczuk for a packed session the morning after the most divided FOMC vote in over three decades.

The DOJ has dropped its probe into Jerome Powell, Kevin Warsh has cleared the Senate Banking Committee on a historic party-line vote, and Powell has signalled he intends to stay on as a board governor — all in the space of a week.

Meanwhile, four dissents at Wednesday's FOMC meeting — the most since October 1992 — have laid bare a fragmented central bank just as its leadership transition begins. The team unpacks what it all means for the rate path, risk assets, and crypto specifically, before turning to the Bitcoin ETF distribution war heating up between IBIT, Morgan Stanley's newly launched MSBT, and Goldman Sachs' income-focused filing.

00:00 – Intro & Team Welcome

01:20 – DOJ Drops the Powell Probe: Clearing the Path for Warsh

05:04 – Powell Digs In: Staying as Governor Until 2028

09:33 – Jackson Hole: The Next Real Fed Event

10:26 – Risk Assets in Earnings Mode, Not Rate-Cut Mode

12:18 – Inside the FOMC Decision: Four Dissents, Most Since 1992

24:25 – Rate Cut Odds Collapse: What It Means for Crypto

29:40 – Why Crypto Is Lagging Equities Right Now

31:54 – Morgan Stanley's MSBT: Can a Late Entrant Compete?

35:02 – The Distribution War: IBIT's Portability Edge

41:58 – Goldman's Bitcoin Premium Income ETF: Boomer Candy Arrives

48:07 – Bitcoin's Gamma Ceiling & the Missing Euphoria Bid

52:20 – Capital Flows: ETFs vs. MicroStrategy

54:46 – The Silver Lining: Warsh as Crypto Bull & Fed Deregulation

56:24 – AI CapEx & the Growth Sustainability Question

57:57 – Week Ahead: Iran, Clarity Act, Michigan Sentiment & Earnings

61:03 – Closing Remarks

In around four weeks after its listing, BlackRock's iShares Staked Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHB) had gathered roughly $450M in assets — which BlackRock itself calls a "top-quintile" launch.

We're stoked to welcome Matt Kunke, CFA — Director and US iShares Digital Assets ETFs Product Strategist at BlackRock — to the CFB Talks Digital Assets podcast for a deep dive on what ETHB unlocks, why it sits alongside the original Ether ETF (ETHA) rather than replacing it, and how staking actually works inside an ETP wrapper.

CF Benchmarks is the index provider for BlackRock's IBIT, ETHA and ETHB - so this conversation gets technical fast, but Matt is at his lucid best throughout.

A sample of what's in store:

• Why BlackRock built ETHB as a separate product instead of converting ETHA — and the reasoning behind giving investors choice
• The "collateralized bond" mental model for proof-of-stake, and why correlated slashing — the tail risk everyone names — has never actually happened
• How ETHB manages its stated 70%–95% staking range, the entry queue currently sitting at ~50 days, and why the exit queue is the one that really matters
• The Lido stETH precedent: why sophisticated market actors should keep ETHB-style products at-or-near NAV even in stressed environments
• Where staking yields are headed post-Pectra, the floor mechanics, and why the glide path is gradual rather than abrupt
• ETH + staking rewards — how wealth advisors and hedge funds are actually framing the trade
• Why ETH's wirehouse approval trajectory looks today the way IBIT's did roughly nine months ago

Grab your beverage of choice and dive in!

Recorded April 2026.

Chapters

00:00 – Intro & Welcome: Matt Kunke from BlackRock

02:00 – A Top-Quintile Launch: ETHB Hits $450M in Under Four Weeks

04:15 – A New Product, Not an ETHA Conversion

06:14 – TradFi Demand vs. Crypto-Native Sentiment

08:29 – Tax & The Case for Keeping an Unstaked Option

09:08 – Staking 101: The Collateralized Bond Mental Model

11:24 – Three Staking Providers & the Correlated Slashing Defense

13:23 – Slashing in Practice

14:42 – Why 32 ETH? Pectra's Move to 2048 and Validator Consolidation

16:11 – Inside the 70%–95% Staking Range

18:25 – Why Lido's stETH Says Staking Discounts Stay Tight

20:54 – The 50-Day Entry Queue vs. the Empty Exit Queue

23:24 – Genesis of ETHB: Regulation & International Precedent

25:13 – ETH + Staking Rewards: How Investors Frame the Trade

26:31 – The Ethereum Thesis: Lindy, Liveness & Institutional Use Cases

28:59 – Inside Staking Yields: Issuance, Fees & The Gentle Glide Path

33:18 – What's Next: Basis Trades, Covered Calls & Modulated Risk

35:53 – Bitcoin's Bias & ETH's Wirehouse Approval Trajectory

38:24 – Closing Remarks

Recorded April 23, 2026. This episode was recorded live via X Spaces - audio quality varies in places.

In the second CF Benchmarks live X Space, Head of Research Gabe Selby is joined by Kraken Chief Economist Thomas Perfumo, CF Benchmarks Head of Product Thomas Erdosi, and Research Analyst Mark Pilipczuk for another packed markets discussion. The team breaks down Kevin Warsh's Senate confirmation hearing and what a shift away from forward guidance could mean for rate volatility. They dive into Strategy's accelerating Bitcoin purchases - now at a 16-month high - and whether the NAV premium can sustain the buying machine. The conversation turns to CME's landmark move to 24/7 crypto futures trading from May 29th, and Kraken's acquisition of Bitnomial, giving it the full CFTC license stack that brings regulated perpetual futures to the U.S. for the first time. A deep dive into the Kelp DAO's $292M bridge exploit opens up a broader discussion on AI's dual role as both threat and defence in DeFi security. The team closes with their Q1 factor performance breakdown and a look at the key catalysts ahead.

Chapters:

• 00:00 – Intro & Team Welcome
• 02:27 – Warsh's Confirmation Hearing: What Did We Learn?
• 05:58 – Killing the Dot Plot? The Forward Guidance Debate
• 09:07 – Why Less Transparency Could Backfire on Rates
• 10:06 – Balance Sheet Reduction: Tough Talk, Tougher Execution
• 12:19 – Strategy's Bitcoin Buying Spree Hits a 16-Month High
• 14:52 – NAV Premiums, STRF & the Sustainability Question
• 18:00 – CME Goes 24/7: A Watershed Moment for Crypto Futures
• 21:40 – The Weekend Gap Problem
• 24:27 – Kraken's CFTC License Stack: Spot, Margin & Perps Under One Roof
• 26:21 – Perpetual Futures Go Regulated in the U.S.
• 29:31 – Will Perps Eat Fixed-Term Futures' Lunch?
• 31:51 – On-Chain Innovation: CF Benchmarks Oracles & Tokenised Indices
• 34:15 – Deep Dive: The Kelp DAO $292M Bridge Exploit
• 38:36 – DeFi's Hidden Counterparty Risk Problem
• 43:00 – AI as Defence: Patching Vulnerabilities Before the Hackers Do
• 44:19 – Q1 Factor Performance: What Worked & What Didn't
• 48:14 – Week Ahead: PCE, GDP, Fund Flows & the Clarity Act
• 52:28 – Closing Remarks

This episode was recorded live via X Spaces - audio quality varies in places.

In the inaugural CF Benchmarks live X Space, recorded April 1 2026, Head of Research Gabe Selby, CFA is joined by Research Analyst Mark Pilipczuk, Kraken's Chief Economist Thomas Perfumo, CFA and Senior Product Manager Cristian Isac for a wide-ranging markets discussion. The team unpacks Bitcoin's surprising resilience during Operation Epic Fury, why traditional safe havens like Treasuries failed to protect portfolios, and what the Fed's paralysis between inflation and a weakening labor market means for rate expectations heading into the Powell-to-Warsh transition. They also dig into the breakdown of the Bitcoin–M2 money supply relationship (and why that dislocation may signal undervaluation), MicroStrategy's evolving capital structure and preferred yield, the emerging world of Bitcoin structured products, and what institutional appetite on the ground at DAS tells us about where the market is heading next.

• 00:00 – Intro & Team Welcome
• 01:02 – Operation Epic Fury: Market Reactions & Surprises
• 03:34 – Why Treasuries Failed as a Safe Haven
• 04:41 – Bitcoin's Resilience: Holding the Line Through Conflict
• 05:49 – CF Benchmarks Flagship Index Recap
• 06:42 – Macro Regimes & Bitcoin's Shifting Role
• 08:58 – NFP Preview & Labor Market Weakness
• 10:20 – Fed Policy Paralysis: Inflation vs. Employment
• 12:54 – Powell's Exit, Warsh's Nomination & Fed Composition
• 17:30 – Should the Fed Look Through the Inflation Spike?
• 19:28 – Global Money Supply & Bitcoin: Building a Forecast Model
• 21:27 – Correlation ≠ Causation: Why Factors Break Down
• 25:05 – Market Dislocations: Gold vs. Real Yields, Forex & M2-BTC Divergence
• 28:07 – Where's the Fair Value? The Case for BTC Undervaluation
• 31:30 – Gold vs. Bitcoin Flows: A Rotation Underway?
• 34:10 – MicroStrategy: Treasury Strategy, Preferred Shares & Yield
• 39:02 – Could MSTR Acquire Discount Treasury Companies?
• 41:14 – Structured Products: Packaging Bitcoin for Institutions
• 46:17 – Bitcoin Volatility Index & Covered Call ETFs
• 50:32 – Vol Products Paradox: Does Selling Vol Kill Vol?
• 52:56 – Institutional Appetite Post-DAS & What's Next
• 55:03 – Closing Remarks

Kraken’s xStocks are nothing short of a global phenomenon - with total transaction volumes reaching $25 billion in just 8 months.

The more important question is what that growth says about the future of market structure.

On the latest CFB Talks Digital Assets podcast, we explore the rise of Kraken xStocks with Mark Greenberg, Head of B2B at Payward Services / Kraken, and Thomas Erdösi, Head of Product at CF Benchmarks.

Topics covered include:

• How xStocks are gaining traction by combining equity exposure with crypto-native functionality, including 24/7 access, transferability, self-custody, and on-chain facilities
• How xStocks work: the mechanics behind 1:1 backing, price integrity, and the critical design choices needed to support tokenized stock exposure at scale
• The role of CF Benchmarks: regulated pricing methodology and calculation infrastructure
• How Kraken’s new partnership with Nasdaq paves the way for a regulated, permissioned U.S. pathway to tokenized equities, powered by the xStocks infrastructure - and what that means for issuance, settlement, and expanded market access

If you’re following the convergence of digital assets and traditional markets, this is a conversation you won’t want to miss!