Welcome to The Gwart Show! Today, @rajivpoc from @hiFramework joins us. We discuss the L1 trade narrative (“not cooked”), the influx of talented builders entering crypto, and dynamics between VCs and retail investors. Rajiv offers perspectives on Hyperliquid's success, the future of memecoins, and why Bitcoin-based financial products represent a massive opportunity. He also shares his optimistic outlook on washing away "grift" from the space while supporting serious builders with real business models.

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Timestamps:

00:00 Start

00:50 Who is Rajiv?

01:35 Venture capital vibes

04:26 What are builders focused on?

05:54 AI + Crypto = ?

07:51 What's Rajiv's specialty

09:54 Are L1 investments cooked?

13:49 Application development

16:16 Infra vs Apps definitions

19:19 Pump Swap

20:41 Are memecoins done?

22:42 Hyperliquid

27:48 Hyperliquid & VC funding

32:37 Direct investment

36:35 Investment time horizons

40:11 Tokens don't make assets NOT securities

43:46 Long TSLA at 75x leverage LFG

47:21 Where's the trade in stablecoins

49:35 VC gonna get REKT?

57:21 Bleeding value from tokens

1:01:20 Golden age of pump & dump

1:05:48 I WANT TO BELIVE

👋 The Gwart Show is sponsored by Ellipsis Labs. Ellipsis Labs is building Atlas, the blockchain purpose-built for verifiable finance. You may know of Ellipsis Labs by their first product Phoenix, a fully on-chain orderbook DEX that’s done over 50 billion dollars in unincentivized volume. They are one of the strongest teams I know in crypto. If you’re interested in working for a mission-driven company, Ellipsis Labs is hiring engineers passionate about crypto and finance to work on Atlas. You can learn more and apply on Ellipsis Labs’ Twitter “at Ellipsis_Labs”. Don’t forget to check out Atlas too, @atlasxyz on Twitter.

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Welcome to The Gwart Show! Today, we are joined by Guy, the founder of Ethena, one of crypto's fastest-growing stablecoin projects, which reached $6 billion faster than any dollar-pegged asset in history. We discuss how Ethena's synthetic dollar works by capturing funding rates from perpetual futures markets, why they've embraced centralized exchanges while maintaining neutrality, and their ambitious new Converge blockchain. The conversation explores stablecoin competition, the limitations of decentralized approaches, and how they plan to bridge traditional finance with crypto through their partnership with Securitize.

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# Notes:

- Ethena reached $6B faster than any dollar asset

- Currently offering ~16% yield (avg 18% last year)

- Uses Bitcoin perps funding rates for yield

- Maintains neutrality across exchanges

- Converge is launching with Securitize partnership

- Looking to tokenize equities and T-bills

Timestamps:

00:00 Start

00:19 Guy's background

03:11 What's Ethena?

04:52 What hasn't this been tried before?

06:50 Rival stablecoins

10:57 Where are the risks?

15:13 Hyperliquid cancels order

18:04 How to compete with other stablecoins

21:01 One stablecoins to rule them all!

22:47 Why no yeild yet?

24:54 Why USDE isn't for payments (yet)

27:25 Superiority of a yield asset

30:54 What is Converge?

34:16 Alt L1?

34:31 Why build a new chain?

37:51 ETH in stagnation?

39:43 Vitalik the business man?

41:35 ETH as collateral for stablecoins

43:58 RWAs

48:15 Regulatory capture

49:57 Why equities on-chain?

54:16 On-chain price discovery

56:47 Airdrops

58:52 AMMs

1:01:57 Perpetual Futures funding rates

1:06:54 Trading edge

1:07:39 Citadel

1:10:09 Payment for order flow

👋 The Gwart Show is sponsored by Ellipsis Labs. Ellipsis Labs is building Atlas, the blockchain purpose-built for verifiable finance. You may know of Ellipsis Labs by their first product Phoenix, a fully on-chain orderbook DEX that’s done over 50 billion dollars in unincentivized volume. They are one of the strongest teams I know in crypto. If you’re interested in working for a mission-driven company, Ellipsis Labs is hiring engineers passionate about crypto and finance to work on Atlas. You can learn more and apply on Ellipsis Labs’ Twitter “at Ellipsis_Labs”. Don’t forget to check out Atlas too, @atlasxyz on Twitter.

Enjoy the show? Check out our website and newsletter by clicking here.

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Welcome back to The Gwart Show! Today, Andrew Bailey–fellow at the Bitcoin Policy Institute– joins Gwart to discuss Bitcoin's role as resistance money, the philosophical implications of cryptocurrency, and why simplicity might trump utility in digital assets. 

Follow our guest on Twitter: @resistancemoney

TOPICS

-Bitcoin as Resistance Money

-Philosophy in Cryptocurrency

-Stablecoins vs Bitcoin

-Ethical Money Creation

-Future of Financial Freedom

CHAPTERS

00:00 Start

01:07 Andrew bio

01:55 Why philosophy & Bitcoin?

04:26 Bitcoin background

06:31 What is resistance money?

07:14 Why is this book important?

10:24 Examples of BTC as resistance money

13:14 Tron is the People's Blockchain

18:12 ETH as alternative

20:48 Long EVM, Short ETH

32:40 What new-coiners care about

35:27 The philosophy of ETH

36:07 Vitalik's writing

41:50 Legitimate use cases

46:13 What is "utility"?

51:21 Lightning & MoE

54:16 What crypto tech should come to BTC?

1:03:05 Worldcoin

1:09:17 Effective altruism

1:14:16 Ends justify means?

1:17:28 When David Hoffman cries

👋 The Gwart Show is sponsored by Ellipsis Labs. Ellipsis Labs is building Atlas, the blockchain purpose-built for verifiable finance. You may know of Ellipsis Labs by their first product Phoenix, a fully on-chain orderbook DEX that’s done over 50 billion dollars in unincentivized volume. They are one of the strongest teams I know in crypto. If you’re interested in working for a mission-driven company, Ellipsis Labs is hiring engineers passionate about crypto and finance to work on Atlas. You can learn more and apply on Ellipsis Labs’ Twitter “at Ellipsis_Labs”. Don’t forget to check out Atlas too, @atlasxyz on Twitter.

Enjoy the show? Check out our website and newsletter by clicking here.

Questions or want to sponsor? [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to The Gwart Show! Today, Willem from Botanix Labs joins us to discuss their pioneering "spider chain" approach for Bitcoin's second layer. Unlike traditional rollups, Botanix creates a decentralized network of multi-sig validators to bring EVM capabilities to Bitcoin while maintaining censorship resistance. Willem explains why decentralization matters for DeFi applications, how their validator system works with Bitcoin staking, and why they've chosen a different path than rollups. With mainnet launch planned for Q2, Botanix aims to enable Bitcoin holders to use their BTC in familiar DeFi applications without sacrificing security.

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Notes:

- Spider chains prioritize decentralization over speed

- Botanix launching mainnet in Q2 2025

- Initial 15 validators expanding to hundreds

- Block time is 5 seconds with ~$0.01 fees

- Uses Bitcoin as gas fee, no separate token

- Validators will stake 3-5 BTC as bond

Timestamps:

00:00 Start

00:21 Intro

01:04 Spiderchain

02:20 Proof of stake on layer 2

06:14 Risk vs reward

08:02 Spiderchain vs rollup

14:55 BitVM

16:42 ZK tech

20:34 Data availability w/ Spierchains

21:25 Data on Bitcoin chain

22:13 Alt DA

24:23 Updates on Botanix

26:47 Wen token?

28:00 Primary users?

30:27 Block interval

30:50 Decentralization design limits

32:55 Fees

33:43 Porting ETH apps to Botanix

34:52 Bitcoin staking

36:34 EVM wallet compatibility

37:28 Place in L2 ecosystem

39:35 Functional BitVM rollup?

40:32 Changes to BTC

41:16 L2 protocol consensus?

42:17 Social consensus in BTC

45:49 Ordinals & Runes

👋 The Gwart Show is sponsored by Ellipsis Labs. Ellipsis Labs is building Atlas, the blockchain purpose-built for verifiable finance. You may know of Ellipsis Labs by their first product Phoenix, a fully on-chain orderbook DEX that’s done over 50 billion dollars in unincentivized volume. They are one of the strongest teams I know in crypto. If you’re interested in working for a mission-driven company, Ellipsis Labs is hiring engineers passionate about crypto and finance to work on Atlas. You can learn more and apply on Ellipsis Labs’ Twitter “at Ellipsis_Labs”. Don’t forget to check out Atlas too, @atlasxyz on Twitter.

Enjoy the show? Check out our website and newsletter by clicking here.

Questions or want to sponsor? [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to The Gwart Show! Today, Alex Gladstein, Chief Strategy Officer at the Human Rights Foundation, joins us to discuss how Bitcoin functions as essential "money dictators can't stop" for human rights activists worldwide. With nearly 18 years at HRF, Alex shares fascinating stories of Bitcoin adoption in authoritarian regimes, his journey from skeptic to advocate, and why Bitcoin—not general "crypto"—provides the unique properties needed for financial freedom in oppressive environments. He explores privacy solutions, scaling challenges, and the future of complementary technologies like ecash and Nostr.

Follow Alex on Twitter: @gladstein

Notes:

- HRF quarterly Bitcoin grants

- The "currency of activists"

- Most global humanitarian funding stays in free countries

- Alex’s "Check Your Financial Privilege" book

- Bitcoin users in Malawi upgrading from saving with goats

- Stablecoins are primarily valuable when permissionless

Timestamps:

00:00 Start

00:30 Alex intro

11:48 HRF Bitcoin focus

17:08 Current projects

21:55 Cross border vs circular economies

27:30 Stablecoins

38:17 Bitcoin privacy

45:59 Covenants

51:17 Education is lagging

55:24 Does "crypto" have value?

1:02:31 NOSTR

👋 The Gwart Show is sponsored by Ellipsis Labs. Ellipsis Labs is building Atlas, the blockchain purpose-built for verifiable finance. You may know of Ellipsis Labs by their first product Phoenix, a fully on-chain orderbook DEX that’s done over 50 billion dollars in unincentivized volume. They are one of the strongest teams I know in crypto. If you’re interested in working for a mission-driven company, Ellipsis Labs is hiring engineers passionate about crypto and finance to work on Atlas. You can learn more and apply on Ellipsis Labs’ Twitter “at Ellipsis_Labs”. Don’t forget to check out Atlas too, @atlasxyz on Twitter.

Enjoy the show? Check out our website and newsletter by clicking here.

Questions or want to sponsor? [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe to the newsletter! https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com

Welcome back to The Great Show! Today, we finish the second half of our chat with Felipe Montealegre from Theia Research on traditional private equity valuation methods and crypto investing. We explore fundamental analysis in DeFi, token valuations, shareholder rights, and the evolution of crypto markets. Felipe shares insights on identifying quality revenue streams, evaluating moats, and building sustainable value in the crypto ecosystem.

Topics: 

• DeFi Investment Strategies

• Token Valuation Methods

• VC vs Liquid Fund Dynamics

• Revenue Sustainability

• Market Psychology

• Risk Management Approaches

🐦Follow our guests on Twitter: @TheiaResearch

Timesstamps

00:00 Start

00:32 Wall street follow fast problem

01:41 Micropayments for services

05:20 Fat protocol thesis

07:10 Lack of innovation

09:26 The social role of investors

11:17 Lending on Solana

13:18 Incentive programs

16:38 Hyperliquid air drop

22:08 Radium

30:51 Houdini

35:54 Absolute trash projects

38:43 Bad token strategies

40:27 VC

44:30 VC vs liquid investing

52:01 Being early vs actual utility

55:57 LP process

59:35 Bitcoin

1:02:56 Private equity

👋 The Gwart Show is sponsored by Ellipsis Labs. Ellipsis Labs is building Atlas, the blockchain purpose-built for verifiable finance. You may know of Ellipsis Labs by their first product Phoenix, a fully on-chain orderbook DEX that’s done over 50 billion dollars in unincentivized volume. They are one of the strongest teams I know in crypto. If you’re interested in working for a mission-driven company, Ellipsis Labs is hiring engineers passionate about crypto and finance to work on Atlas. You can learn more and apply on Ellipsis Labs’ Twitter “at Ellipsis_Labs”. Don’t forget to check out Atlas too, @atlasxyz on Twitter.

Enjoy the show? Check out our website and newsletter by clicking here.

Questions or want to sponsor? [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome back to The Great Show! Today, Felipe Montealegre from Theia Research joins to discuss traditional private equity valuation methods and crypto investing. We explore fundamental analysis in DeFi, token valuations, shareholder rights, and the evolution of crypto markets. Felipe shares insights on identifying quality revenue streams, evaluating moats, and building sustainable value in the crypto ecosystem.

Subscribe to the newsletter! https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com

Topic:

3. PE vs Crypto Valuations

4. Finding Crypto Fundamentals

5. Investing in Token Cash Flow

6. Crypto Moats & Real Value

🐦Follow our guests on Twitter: @TheiaResearch

Timestamps:

00:46 Intro

03:35 Thesis of the fund

05:57 Fundamentals & market cap

12:40 Valuation methods

17:07 Timeframes

21:57 Defendible moats

28:22 AAVE

33:49 Token holders are not shareholders

39:42 Metaplaex

43:57 Returning token holder value

👋 The Gwart Show is sponsored by Ellipsis Labs. Ellipsis Labs is building Atlas, the blockchain purpose-built for verifiable finance. You may know of Ellipsis Labs by their first product Phoenix, a fully on-chain orderbook DEX that’s done over 50 billion dollars in unincentivized volume. They are one of the strongest teams I know in crypto. If you’re interested in working for a mission-driven company, Ellipsis Labs is hiring engineers passionate about crypto and finance to work on Atlas. You can learn more and apply on Ellipsis Labs’ Twitter “at Ellipsis_Labs”. Don’t forget to check out Atlas too, @atlasxyz on Twitter.

Enjoy the show? Check out our website and newsletter by clicking here.

Questions or want to sponsor? [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to The Gwart Show! Today, Jacob Phillips, founder of Lombard Finance, joins us to talk Bitcoin staking. From Babylon protocol's approach to Bitcoin security to Lombard's role in creating liquid staking derivatives, we chat about Bitcoin as a productive asset. Plus thoughts on technical infrastructure, market dynamics, and Bitcoin staking in DeFi.

TOPICS

• Bitcoin Staking Mechanisms

• Babylon Protocol Overview

• Liquid Staking Derivatives

• DeFi Integration

• Security Models

• Cross-chain Bitcoin Solutions

🐦Follow our guests on Twitter: @JacobPPhillips

Timestamps:

00:00 Start

00:52 Jacob intro

02:14 BTC staking

04:13 What is LBTC?

04:59 Minting LBTC on ETH

07:23 Demand

11:43 Yield

14:37 BTC restaking

15:53 Why restaking for security

18:11 Future of yield

22:19 BTC v ETH staking

25:22 New financial primitives

28:26 Points farming and the future

30:53 Lombard business case

33:40 Copy/paste rollups

35:45 Chain adoption

37:47 Competition

39:33 Babylon ecosystem

42:05 Why LBTC token

45:50 Current Bitcoin L2s

50:33 What happens if covenants?

55:15 Validator incentives

👋 The Gwart Show is sponsored by Ellipsis Labs. Ellipsis Labs is building Atlas, the blockchain purpose-built for verifiable finance. You may know of Ellipsis Labs by their first product Phoenix, a fully on-chain orderbook DEX that’s done over 50 billion dollars in unincentivized volume. They are one of the strongest teams I know in crypto. If you’re interested in working for a mission-driven company, Ellipsis Labs is hiring engineers passionate about crypto and finance to work on Atlas. You can learn more and apply on Ellipsis Labs’ Twitter “at Ellipsis_Labs”. Don’t forget to check out Atlas too, @atlasxyz on Twitter.

Enjoy the show? Check out our website and newsletter by clicking here.

Questions or want to sponsor? [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome back to The Gwart Show! Peter van Valkenburgh breaks down Coin Center's legal battle against the DOJ's crackdown on privacy tools like Tornado Cash. From First Amendment rights to money transmission laws, we explore how these cases could alter development. Peter explains why software isn't money transmission and how these prosecutions threaten innovation in America.

🐦Follow our guests on Twitter: @valkenburgh @coincenter 

📝Quick notes & topics:

• Code as protected speech

• DOJ vs privacy tools

• Money transmission laws

• First Amendment rights

• Regulatory overreach

• Trump vs Biden crypto policy

Timestamps:

00:00 Start

00:46 Peter bio

02:02 What is Coin Center?

07:01 Other advocacy groups

12:54 Alignment w/ older orgs

24:59 Location specific legal interpretation

30:01 Tornado Cash case update

33:47 3 charges in Tornado Cash case

38:46 Samurai v Tornado Cash

44:41 How does this fail?

48:21 On & off ramps

51:17 Tornado Cash token

53:37 Token complications

55:43 Securities law

1:02:28 Legal response to immutable code

1:06:49 Optimism & timelines

1:10:51 What should we do?

1:15:16 Solana's got the same problems

👋 The Gwart Show is sponsored by Ellipsis Labs. Ellipsis Labs is building Atlas, the blockchain purpose-built for verifiable finance. You may know of Ellipsis Labs by their first product Phoenix, a fully on-chain orderbook DEX that’s done over 50 billion dollars in unincentivized volume. They are one of the strongest teams I know in crypto. If you’re interested in working for a mission-driven company, Ellipsis Labs is hiring engineers passionate about crypto and finance to work on Atlas. You can learn more and apply on Ellipsis Labs’ Twitter “at Ellipsis_Labs”. Don’t forget to check out Atlas too, @atlasxyz on Twitter.

Enjoy the show? Check out our website and newsletter by clicking here.

Questions or want to sponsor? [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this deep dive episode, Kevin Mills from Triton Liquid Fund joins us to examine the fundamental value of Ethereum through multiple analytical frameworks. Building on John Pfeifer's influential 2017 paper, Kevin explores cash flow models, equation of exchange, and the internet bond theory to assess ETH's true value. The conversation challenges popular narratives around monetary premium and questions traditional valuation approaches in crypto markets. Essential listening for anyone interested in crypto asset valuation fundamentals.

Read the paper: https://whatisethereumworth.com/

🐦Follow our guests on Twitter: @__kfm__

📝Quick notes & topics:

• ETH cash flow valuation challenges

• Value capture vs value creation

• L2 impact on ETH economics

• Monetary premium limitations

• Application layer value capture

• Protocol value extraction limits

Timestamps:

00:00 Start

01:39 Kevin bio

04:26 Original paper overview

08:19 Valuation methods

11:51 Denominating in ETH

13:17 Issuance rate / cash flow

18:26 Equation of exchange

29:41 Internet bond

33:41 Working capital theory

37:16 Carrying cost of capital

41:18 Counter arguments: Ultra Sound Money

47:14 Premium block space

55:20 Bimetalic history

58:39 Likely outcomes

1:03:06 The utility path to zero

1:05:08 App layer thesis

1:09:11 RIP Fat Protocol Thesis

1:11:08 Value capture mechanisms

1:15:16 Solana's got the same problems

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