CFB Talks Digital Assets

In this CF Benchmarks live X Space, recorded August 13, 2026, Head of Research Gabe Selby is joined by Research Analyst Mark Pilipczuk and Kraken Chief Economist Thomas Perfumo for a roundtable covering markets, macro, and Fed policy, with a surprise appearance from Bitwise Research Analyst Ishmael Asad.

Chapters:00:00 – Intro & Team Welcome

02:46 – Strategy's STRC Preferred: Racing Back to Par

08:02 – ETH Treasury Preferreds, Issuance & the EIP That Could Lower Staking Rewards

11:35 – July CPI: A Setup for a Fed Pause?

16:43 – Bitcoin vs. Stocks vs. Gold: Who Wins on CPI Surprises?

19:52 – Oil, Iran & the Fed's Reaction Function

25:33 – 2022 Redux? Comparing Today's Labor Market to the Last Hiking Cycle

32:38 – Jackson Hole Preview: What to Expect From Chair Warsh

37:33 – Clarity Act: Reading the September Senate Vote

44:47 – DeFi's Revenue Era: Hyperliquid, Aave, Uniswap & Pump.fun

47:31 – Tokenized Equities: The Next 10x for RWAs

51:28 – The Return of Buybacks: DeFi's Value Accrual Thesis

54:25 – From Layer 1s to App Layer: Where Fees Actually Accrue

57:30 – Week Ahead: Jackson Hole, Clarity & ETF Flows

Has Bitcoin bottomed and what could determine its next move?

Recorded live on August 6, 2026, this episode of CF Benchmarks X Space examines Bitcoin’s performance relative to gold and the Nasdaq, the growing adoption of on-chain asset-management vaults, and the outlook for the Federal Reserve’s September meeting.

CF Benchmarks Head of Research Gabe Selby, CFA, is joined by Research Analyst Mark Pilipczuk; Kraken Chief Economist Thomas Perfumo, CFA; CF Benchmarks Senior Product Manager James Flamant; Head of Business Development Peter Stern; and special guest André Dragosch, PhD, Director and Head of Research for Europe at Bitwise.

The panel begins with Bitcoin near $64,000, Brent crude below $80 and a softer-than-expected ADP employment report. They assess whether Bitcoin has formed a bottom, what market breadth and return dispersion suggest about the broader cycle, and which indicators they are watching next.

The conversation then turns to on-chain asset-management vaults: how they work, where they sit on the adoption curve, and why curation, valuation and round-the-clock creation and redemption introduce risks that investors must understand. The episode closes with a discussion of oracle reliability, the safeguards needed for on-chain derivatives, and whether a September rate hike is now off the table.

Chapters:

01:38 – Meet André Dragosch: Bitwise Europe's Research Chief

06:45 – Market Snapshot: Bitcoin at $64K, Brent Below $80 & a Soft ADP Print

08:34 – Has Bitcoin Bottomed? The Relative-Value Case vs Gold & the Nasdaq

13:32 – CFB's Market Cycle Engine: Market Breadth, Return Dispersion & a Still-Bearish Structure

17:41 – What Thomas Perfumo is Watching

23:00 – James Shares What's on His Watchlist

24:06 – A View From Sales: The Summer Lull & the Wealth-Platform Unlock

25:12 – On-Chain Asset Management: What a Vault Actually Is

28:26 – Curation, Valuation & 24/7 Create-Redeem: The Index Provider's View

34:58 – Where Vaults Sit on the Adoption Curve

44:01 – Oracle Robustness: The Weakest Link in On-Chain Derivatives

52:15 – Rapid Fire: Is a September Rate Hike Dead?

59:24 – Week Ahead: NFP, CPI, ETP Flows & CLARITY's Last Gasp

1:07:27 – Closing Remarks

In the latest CF Benchmarks live X Space, recorded July 30 2026, Head of Research Gabe Selby, CFA is joined by Research Analyst Mark Pilipczuk, Kraken Chief Economist Thomas Perfumo, CFA, and special guest Tyler Evans, Co-Founder and Chief Investment Officer of UTXO Management.

Tyler is a career Bitcoiner. He co-founded BTC Inc, the publisher behind Bitcoin Magazine and The Bitcoin Conference, before launching UTXO Management, a Bitcoin-native asset manager focused on asymmetric opportunities across public and private markets.

The Fed held for a fifth consecutive meeting with three regional presidents dissenting in favor of a hike, the most unified dissent since 2016. The 30 year yield closed at its highest level since 2007. Q2 GDP came in at 1.5% against expectations near 2.1%. Strategy raised another $544 million of common equity without buying a single Bitcoin. And with the Senate's August recess days away, the CLARITY Act remains stuck behind an unresolved ethics provision. The panel works through what all of it means for Bitcoin, treasury companies, and the broader crypto market.

Chapters:

00:00 – Intro & Team Welcome

04:02 – Grading Warsh's Second Press Conference

08:14 – Three Inflation Shocks & the Case for a Hold Through Year-End

12:52 – The Yen at 40-Year Lows & the Carry Trade Read-Across

14:24 – Is the Fed Losing Control of the Long End?

16:22 – Yield Curve Control: Playing Against the House

20:47 – GDP Misses at 1.5%: Soft Headline, Firmer Internals

23:08 – Best Case, Worst Case: Oil, Tariffs & the AI Capex Wobble

26:07 – The K-Shaped Economy & Why the US Is Insulated

28:42 – Dissent Contagion & Volatility Sequencing Across Assets

31:25 – Saylor on Defense: Cash Reserve, Dilution & STRC Buybacks

34:56 – Rebuilding mNAV: Aligning Equity Accretion With Bitcoin Per Share

37:32 – Stretch at $89: Betting Against Strategy Means Shorting Bitcoin

41:15 – Digital Asset Treasuries: Throwing Out the Baby With the Bathwater?

46:00 – Supply Concentration: Bitcoin vs ETH & Hyperliquid Treasuries

48:54 – Volatility Harvesting & the Coiled Bitcoin Spring

54:21 – CLARITY at the One Yard Line: UTXO's Bearish Base Case

56:58 – Week Ahead: Jobs, ECI, Strategy Earnings & the CLARITY Act

Could oil be the catalyst that wakes cross-asset volatility?

In this CF Benchmarks X Space, recorded on July 23, 2026, CF Benchmarks Head of Research Gabe Selby, CFA (@gxselby), is joined by Research Analyst Mark Pilkoczuck; Kraken Chief Economist Thomas Perfumo, CFA (@ThomasPerfumo); CF Benchmarks Head of Business Development Peter Stern (@sternpeter9); and special guest Craig Shapiro (@ces921), Senior Macro Strategist at NinjaTrader and author of The Aletheia Narrative.

The conversation captures markets at a genuine inflection point. With July options expiry behind us and dealer positioning near cyclical lows, the cross-asset volatility suppressed throughout the year may finally be reawakening.

Craig explains his “coiled spring” framework for record-low implied correlations and traces the potential sequence of a volatility shock—from oil to rates, credit and, ultimately, equities. The group also examines why the hyperscalers’ AI capital-expenditure boom is increasingly relying on external financing rather than free cash flow—and whether that shift is beginning to strain some of the world’s most profitable companies.

The discussion then turns to the CLARITY Act, including the Senate draft’s ethics provision and the compressed timeline ahead of the August recess, leaving its prospects for passage close to a coin flip.

Chapters:

00:00 – Introduction and Team Welcome

01:55 – Meet Craig Shapiro: Two Decades on the Buy Side

04:14 – Market Snapshot: Bitcoin, Oil and Rates

05:49 – Implied Correlations and the “Cold Spring” Effect

12:15 – Semiconductors vs. Software: Where the Dispersion Lies

15:38 – Hyperscalers Turn Cash-Flow Negative

21:21 – AI CapEx: Payback, Funding and the Shift From Debt to Equity

29:52 – The Yen Carry Trade and Dollar-Yen at 40-Year Highs

35:45 – Oil, Inflation and the July CPI

38:43 – Crude’s Backwardation and the 2027 Supply Glut

39:59 – Can the Fed Ignore Oil? Warsh’s Next Move and the Balance Sheet

46:50 – The CLARITY Act: Inside the Senate Draft and Its Ethics Provision

56:12 – The Week Ahead: What We’re Watching

Listen to the original X Space: https://x.com/i/spaces/1vKpPPAqaVmKE

Follow the speakers and organizations on X:

CF Benchmarks — @CFBenchmarks https://x.com/CFBenchmarks

Gabe Selby, CFA — @gxselby https://x.com/gxselby

Thomas Perfumo, CFA — @ThomasPerfumo https://x.com/ThomasPerfumo

Peter Stern — @sternpeter9 https://x.com/sternpeter9

Craig Shapiro — @ces921 https://x.com/ces921

Kraken — @krakenfx https://x.com/krakenfx

NinjaTrader — @NinjaTrader https://x.com/NinjaTrader

In this week's CFB Talks Digital Assets live X Space, Head of Research Gabe Selby, CFA is joined by Research Analyst Mark Pilipczuk and Kraken Chief Economist Thomas Perfumo, CFA, with Blue Coin Capital Founder and CIO Mike Treidl, CFA joining for the second half.

A cooler-than-expected June CPI print, a widening reality check on corporate AI budgets, and Strategy's evolving balance-sheet playbook frame a wide-ranging session across macro, markets, and digital asset structure. The team works through the disinflation signal against a still-unresolved energy backdrop, debates whether the AI capital expenditure cycle is approaching a return-on-investment reckoning, and closes with a detailed look at how Strategy is managing its capital stack in a compressed NAV environment.

Chapters: 0:00 – Intro & Team Welcome

2:39 – June Retail Sales: A Softening Consumer?

5:02 – Cooling Inflation & the Rates Market Setup

8:53 – Oil, Energy & the Inflation Impulse

12:41 – A Bifurcated Oil World: Diesel, Refiners & Inventory Risk

17:17 – Fed Speak: Waller's Hawkish Turn

20:00 – Warsh's Fed: Agenda-Setting & Constructive Ambiguity

26:49 – Q2 Earnings: Financials Surprise to The Upside

28:58 – Hyperscaler CapEx & the AI ROI Question

32:53 – The AI Spending Reality Check

38:18 – AI's Moat Problem: Low Switching Costs

43:03 – Guest Mike Treidl Joins: AI Moats & Walled Gardens

45:30 – Strategy's New Playbook: ATM Raises Over Bitcoin Sales

48:33 – The USD Reserve Debate: The Right Use of Cash?

59:38 – Week Ahead: FOMC, the Clarity Act & Fund Flows

1:01:57 – Closing Remarks

In this week’s CF Benchmarks Live X Space, Head of Research Gabe Selby is joined by Research Analyst Mark Pilipczuk, Kraken Chief Economist Thomas Perfumo, CF Benchmarks Head of Sales Peter Stern, Christian Isaac from the CF Benchmarks product team, and Val Gui, General Manager of xStocks. Together they discuss the latest macro developments, crypto markets, Bitcoin, tokenized equities, and how digital assets are reshaping market structure.

The conversation begins with reaction to June’s payrolls report before unpacking CF Benchmarks’ latest Monthly Market Recap, including the broad-based decline across the CF Broad Cap Index and the factor dynamics driving performance across value, growth, and size. The discussion then turns to tokenization, with Val Gui explaining how xStocks is extending price discovery into weekends and after-hours trading, Peter Stern discussing institutional demand for tokenized equities, and the panel debating how private-market access and accredited investor rules may evolve. The episode concludes with a look at MicroStrategy’s updated capital strategy, its implications for Bitcoin investors, and the key events to watch in the week ahead, including the Clarity Act, FOMC minutes, and SK Hynix’s U.S. ADR debut.

Chapters

00:00 – Intro & Team Welcome

02:30 – Welcoming xStocks' Val Gui

06:11 – June Wrap: Broad Cap Down as Every Sector Bleeds

08:49 – Q2 Factor Breakdown

11:08 – 2021 vs. 2022: Is This Crypto Equity Divergence Deja Vu?

16:42 – Bitcoin's Maturation: ETFs, MicroStrategy and a Bigger Asset Class

19:05 – Institutions Dip a Toe Into Tokenized Equities

25:49 – Inside xStocks' Weekend Price Discovery Data

32:21 – The Platform Play: What Sets xStocks Apart from Competitors

38:20 – Pre-IPO Perpetuals: Pricing OpenAI and Anthropic Before They List

49:42 – The IPO Decision Tree Is Being Rewritten

51:53 – MicroStrategy's Capital Plan: Buying Time, Not Just Bitcoin

56:25 – Week Ahead: Clarity Act, FOMC Minutes and SK Hynix's ADR Debut 59:12 – Closing Remarks

In the latest CF Benchmarks live X Space, recorded June 25, 2026, Head of Research Gabe Selby is joined by a deep bench from across CF Benchmarks and Kraken: CEO Sui Chung, Head of Sales Peter Stern, Research Analyst Mark Pilipczuk, and Kraken Chief Economist Thomas Perfumo. The team is joined by special guest James Seyffart, Senior ETF Analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, with a drop-in from Bitwise Head of Research Ryan Rasmussen.

With Bitcoin more than 50% off its all-time high, the panel takes on the question that's all over the headlines: is Strategy breaking the Bitcoin market? The conversation works through Strategy's preferred-share stress, its cash runway, an ETF holder base now underwater for the first time this cycle, the capital rotation into AI and the DRAM trade, and a hotter-than-expected May PCE print, before closing on what they're watching in the coming weeks.

Chapters: 00:00 – Intro & Welcome

03:58 – Is Strategy the Single Biggest Driver of Bitcoin?

06:36 – Dividend Cut or Sell Bitcoin? Pricing the Digital Credit Premium

10:57 – Reflexivity vs Past Cycles: The DAT & ETF Twin Poles

17:16 – ETF Holders Underwater followed by $10B in Outflows

18:30 – What Institutions Are Actually Saying During the Drawdown

23:35 – The Long-Term Bull Case for Crypto

27:36 – Tokenized Equities Overtake Memecoins on Solana

29:00 – The XRP ETF Demand

31:45 – Tracking the 13Fs: Who Currently Owns These ETFs?

33:28 – How Big a Deal Is a Billion-Dollar ETF Launch?

35:38 – Why Index Funds Win Over the Long Term

41:23 – The Elephant in the Room: AI & the DRAM ETF Story

47:44 – Making the Bull Case: Real Incomes & Peak Inflation

50:47 – The Week Ahead: What We're Watching

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.