CFB Talks Digital Assets

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!

We're delighted to welcome Monochrome Asset Management back to the CFB Talks Digital Assets podcast.

Monochrome is Australia's only asset manager licensed for direct retail crypto custody. Consequently, its crypto ETFs are the only ones in Australia that hold assets directly - not via feeder or sub-funds.

Monochrome ETFs are also unusual due to offering in-kind creation and redemption for all investors. Monochrome Bitcoin ETF (IBTC) and Monochrome Ethereum ETF (IETH) are listed on Cboe Australia, each with a management fee of 0.25%. They're the lowest-cost crypto ETFs in Australia.

With IBTC recently passing US$100 million in AuM and Monochrome now expanding in South-East Asia, we're stoked to sit down with CEO Jeff Yew and Chief Operating Officer Grayson McLeod.

Listen in for exclusive insights on Oz's institutional crypto landscape, and the potential offered by the country's vast superannuation system. Key talking points:

• What exactly makes IBTC and IETH distinct as true holders of crypto, and how does this benefit investors?
• How Monochrome's regulated in-kind facility means no cap on institutional allocations
• The key to unlocking faster growth for ETH ETF allocations
• What's behind IBTC's and IETH's airtight tracking?
• How close are we to seeing allocations at scale from Aussie 'Supers'?

For a rare look at the evolution of institutional crypto in the pivotal Australian marketplace get Jeff and Grayson's perceptive commentary now!

The macro canvas for 2026 is shifting, and crypto may be setting up for a broader, more durable “risk-on” regime, but not in a straight line. In CF Benchmarks’ 2026 outlook, “Risk-On Reloaded,” the base case is disinflation with noise, moderating growth, and a policy and liquidity backdrop that can re-open risk appetite and widen participation. We also explore whether Bitcoin and altcoins are poised for a catch-up trade, and whether regulatory clarity unlocks a new wave of product innovation. To pressure-test the thesis, we’re delighted to welcome Juan Leon, Senior Strategist at Bitwise, to the CFB Talks Digital Assets podcast. From the current state of market structure legislation, to allocator and advisor adoption, to long-term capital market assumptions, Juan dives into Bitwise’s 2026 predictions and maps what matters most in the year ahead. Join us for a discussion covering what we’re watching for in 2026, including:

• Why “risk-on reloaded” could broaden performance beyond Bitcoin, and what a catch-up trade looks like
• Bitwise’s “if clarity passes” framework: what a regulatory breakthrough really unlocks for participation
• Whether Bitcoin’s four-year cycle breaks, and what would have to change for that to happen
• The allocator moment: why adoption among endowments, advisors, and institutions may be approaching an inflection point as career risk falls
• Utility-driven growth flywheels: prediction markets and stablecoins
• What Bitwise is focused on next: products, approvals, and the near-to-medium term roadmap

If 2026 is the year macro turns supportive, clarity arrives, and crypto breadth finally shows up, these outlooks will help you navigate the year ahead.

Reserve Protocol, the largest Decentralized Token Folio (DTF) platform, recently deployed the first regulated multi-asset crypto benchmark as a DTF - LCAP - based on CF Benchmarks' CF Large Cap index.

Index DTFs follow the same basic principles as ETFs, but they're implemented fully on-chain, enabling anyone to achieve a diversified, tokenized investment goal, with just a few clicks.

What's more, by referencing an FCA-regulated Registered Benchmark, LCAP paves the way for institutional allocation to index DTFs for the first time.

To walk us through exactly how DTFs work, plus the accelerating tokenization trend, we're delighted to welcome the Head of Reserve Protocol, Thomas Mattimore to the CFB Talks Digital Assets podcast.

A selection of highlights from our fascinating conversation:

• Reserve Protocol design features that optimize it for tokenization of any digital asset - and, in time, tokenization of any real-world asset too
• Don't underestimate the power of index DTFs: e.g., LCAP offers exposure to 95% of the crypto market in one click -- on a growing number of decentralized and centralized platforms, including Kraken
• Only certain institutional ETF participants can leverage the power of create/redeem mechanics, but anyone can mint/redeem a DTF, giving individuals easy access to arbitrage opportunities embedded in unit creation and redemption for the first time
• Insanely low slippage observed, so far, in certain index DTF auctions, with up to 99.99999% of the bid filled
• Reserve Protocol's longstanding and deep focus on good governance - and the role of Reserve Rights (RSRs) for incentivizing that governance

Start getting ready for the tokenized future: sit down with your favorite beverage and catch this episode right now!