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As profitability tightens and competition soars, many Bitcoin mining companies are turning to artificial intelligence and high-performance computing (HPC) to stay relevant. In this week’s Bits + Bips, host Steve Ehrlich sits down with John Todaro, Managing Director, Crypto & HPC/AI Equity Research at Needham & Company, and Kevin Dede, Senior Research Analyst at H.C. Wainwright, to unpack the pivot that’s reshaping an entire corner of the crypto industry.

They discuss how miners are courting AI clients, why Wall Street is suddenly valuing them like data infrastructure plays, and what this means for Bitcoin’s long-term security model. The conversation dives deep into hashprice trends, investor signals, power constraints, and whether these companies can truly deliver on the AI promise — or risk stretching too thin.

Guests:

Kevin Dede, Senior Research AnalystManaging Director of Equity Research at H.C. Wainwright

John Todaro, Managing Director, Crypto & HPC/AI Equity Research at Needham & CompanySenior Research Analyst at Needham & Company

Timestamps:

💡 0:00 Introduction

🏗️ 3:23 Why investors suddenly care about miners’ HPC capacity

📈 9:08 Why the Bitcoin Mining Index is outperforming BTC itself

🤖 12:49 Can AI demand really live up to the hype?

⚠️ 16:31 The red flags investors should be watching

💰 20:50 Why debt levels could make or break mining firms

🔄 23:14 Can miners truly pivot and deliver on the AI promise?

📊 29:42 Why hashprice is falling even as hashrate rises

🚀 34:02 The long-term potential for Bitcoin mining operations

🏦 42:07 Bitcoin miners vs. holding BTC on balance sheets

🇺🇸 51:10 The future of Bitcoin mining in the United States

🔁 57:08 Could miners pivot to securing other assets?

🧠 59:22 Should the U.S. government buy a stake in Bitcoin miners?

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Most new blockchains promise to scale. MegaETH promises to feel instant.

Fresh off its public sale, for which allocations were revealed on Thursday, the team behind MegaETH joins Unchained to explain why they’re calling it the world’s first real-time blockchain.

Co-founder Shuyao Kong and ecosystem lead Amir Almaimani walk through their decision to build as a layer 2 on Ethereum, not a competing layer 1, and why they think the real opportunity is creating onchain experiences that feel like Web2 apps.

The pair also dive deep into the tokenomics behind $MEGA, from sequencer rotation to proximity markets, and defend their choice to skip an airdrop in favor of “skin-in-the-game” token distribution.

Guests:

Shuyao Kong, Co-founder of MegaETH

Amir Almaimani, Head of Ecosystem at MegaETH

Unchained: Why Protocol-Native Stablecoins May Be Crypto’s Next Big Thing

MegaETH Public Allocation Strategy by MegaETH’s CSO Namik Murodoglu

Timestamps:

🚀 0:00 Introduction

🧱 1:47 Why MegaETH chose to build as an Ethereum layer 2, not a new layer 1

⚡ 5:10 How it plans to stand out from Arbitrum, Base, and other successful L2s

🔓 9:53 Why Shuyao says many L2s are actually more decentralized than L1s

🧩 11:16 Whether MegaETH plans to decentralize its sequencer

💰 13:43 The utility of the $MEGA token—and how Tesla and Ethereum inspired it

📍 16:58 How “proximity markets” work

⛽ 18:09 How MegaETH designed its gas model and tokenomics

🎯 21:28 The philosophy behind the public sales

😬 25:13 Why Shuyao says the soulbound NFT sale didn’t go as planned

📊 27:29 How MegaETH decided allocations in its latest sale

🙅‍♂️ 30:39 Why the team rejected the airdrop model entirely

🤝 32:00 How early community members earned 25% of the sale allocation

🕵️‍♀️ 34:46 How MegaETH scored onchain users and detected Sybil clusters

💳 39:36 Why MegaETH has its own native stablecoin, USDm

👷 41:34 How the project hopes to attract the best builders

🔥 46:00 The kinds of apps that are “only possible” on MegaETH

🎯 50:35 What’s next for MegaETH

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Welcome to The Chopping Block — where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest in crypto. This week, the crew breaks down DeFi’s Black Friday: a brutal week that saw the $120 million Balancer v2 hack, the collapse of Stream Finance, and a market-wide panic that reminded everyone — nothing in crypto is risk-free.

They dive into how one of DeFi’s oldest, most audited contracts failed, why smaller chains froze or rolled back transactions, and what it means for decentralization as Berachain, Sonic, and Polygon took emergency action. The panel debates whether the Balancer attacker used an AI “vibe-coded” exploit, how Ethereum might one day face its own rollback dilemma, and why privacy chains like Zcash may be the last true cypherpunk strongholds.

In the second half, they unpack the off-chain losses behind Stream Finance’s XUSD blow-up, the contagion risk across Euler, Silo, and Morpho, and the hard lessons for “yield-chasing” DeFi vaults. The gang closes with advice for founders weathering the storm — from Tarun’s “cockroach mindset” to Haseeb’s reminder that crypto’s long-term fundamentals haven’t changed.

Whether you’re building in DeFi, securing smart contracts, or surviving the next credit unwind, this episode lays bare the harsh truths — and enduring resilience — of crypto’s frontier markets.

Show highlights

🔹 Market Meltdown Post-“10/10” — The crew dissects October 10’s liquidation shock, lingering rumors about blown-up market makers, and why confidence cratered despite steady fundamentals.

🔹 ADL & Forced Sellers — What auto-deleverage events signaled about thin liquidity and whale-driven order books across perps venues.

🔹 “Nothing Is Risk-Free” — Haseeb’s reminder that there is no crypto “risk-free rate”; even delta-neutral and staking carry hidden smart-contract and market risks.

🔹 Balancer v2 Hack, Explained — Why an OG, heavily-audited E-Pool contract still failed; $120M+ impact across chains and the psychological hit to DeFi’s “battle-tested” narrative.

🔹 AI “Vibe-Coded” Exploit? — The team debates whether attacker logs hint at LLM-assisted discovery vs. expert-guided coding—and why the doomsday “one-shot” scenario isn’t here yet.

🔹 Freeze/Rollback Firestorm — Berachain halted, Sonic froze the attacker, Polygon censored transfers; the panel weighs user protection vs. decentralization purity.

🔹 When Would Ethereum Roll Back? — A thought experiment: is there a loss threshold (e.g., LST or validator-level failure) where even ETH would contemplate extraordinary action?

🔹 Privacy Chains as Last Bastion — Why true no-rollback, censorship-resistant values may persist most credibly on privacy smart-contract chains.

🔹 Builder Mindset in a Doom Cycle — “Be a cockroach”: ignore price, conserve runway, keep shipping; sentiment flips in crypto faster than in any other industry.

Hosts

⭐️Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly

⭐️Robert Leshner, CEO & Co-founder of Superstate

⭐️Tarun Chitra, Managing Partner at Robot Ventures

⭐️Tom Schmidt, General Partner at Dragonfly 

Timestamps

00:00 Intro 

01:01 Market Carnage & Sentiment

04:42 Speculations & Rumors: Wintermute vs. Binance

08:34 Builders’ Advice: Survive & Ship

23:11 Balancer V2 Hack: Berachain & Sonic Labs

28:28 Defi Confidence Shaken Hard

33:26 AI “Vibe-Coded” Exploit Debate

36:18 Rollbacks, Freezes, & Chain Ethics

40:13 Future of Decentralization

48:55 Stream Finance & XUSD Collapse

Disclosures

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Crypto’s most controversial trading product might be Wall Street’s next obsession.

In this interview, Brett Harrison, former president of FTX.US and founder of Architect Financial Technologies, joins to explain how he’s aiming to take perpetual futures — crypto’s 24/7 leveraged trading engine — to traditional markets like stocks, commodities, and FX.

Will this be the next big shift in global finance?

Thank you to our sponsors!

Mantle

Guest:

Brett Harrison, Founder & CEO of Architect Financial Technologies 

Links:

The Defiant: Former FTX US President Brett Harrison to Launch Perpetuals Exchange

Timestamps:

💡 0:00 Introduction

🏗️ 1:43 What problems Architect is trying to solve

📜 4:27 The two licenses Architect holds — with the SEC and CFTC

⚖️ 6:18 The key difference between CFDs and perpetual futures

🌐 8:15 Who Architect’s products are designed for

💥10:02 What crypto learned the hard way from the Oct. 10 liquidation event

📊 15:25 Why reputable benchmarks are critical for pricing assets

💰 18:02 How leverage actually works in these new exchanges

🛡️ 22:03 How Architect’s insurance fund is built

🎯 22:46 Whether prediction markets will ever offer leverage

💵 24:35 Why Architect includes interest rate swaps

🔗 25:27 How tokenization could affect the derivatives trading space

🚀 28:50 How Architect plans to attract users and market makers

🔥 31:50 What Brett is most excited about next

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Bitcoin’s bleeding again and sentiment is collapsing.

But if you’ve been around for a few cycles, this kind of pain might look familiar.

In this episode of Unchained, Laura sits down with Yann Allemann, Co-founder of Swissblock, and Joe Vezzani, CEO of LunarCrush, to unpack the latest market wipeout, and whether it’s a signal of exhaustion or opportunity.

From retail’s record-breaking bearishness to the unwinding of crypto’s DAT mania, they explore why the market feels bearish and what that might mean for what’s coming next.

They also dive into the likelihood of a blow-off top, the resurgence of privacy coins, the risk in digital asset treasury companies, and even why some think we could see new all-time highs before the year ends.

Thank you to our sponsors!

Mantle

Yann Allemann, Co-founder and Chairman of Swissblock

Joe Vezzani, Co-founder and CEO of LunarCrush

Timestamps:

🎬 0:00 Intro

📉 2:13 Why Bitcoin’s crashing again and whether DATs are to blame

💥 10:43 The consequences of the October 10 liquidation wave

🔄 18:48 Is the four-year crypto cycle finally dead?

📊 25:00 The unraveling of the DAT trend: end of the mania or just a pause?

😶 29:32 Why markets feel eerily quiet and deeply bearish

🐻 32:55 How this became the “most bearish bull market” ever

🥇 40:49 If Bitcoin is digital gold, why hasn’t it followed gold’s rally?

🎯 47:09 Are prediction markets stealing attention from crypto?

🚀 53:30 Why Yann thinks a blow-off top is still coming

🕵️‍♂️ 55:51 The privacy coin comeback led by Zcash

💫 1:02:00 Why ETH’s relative strength could surprise the market

⚠️ 1:07:36 Why Yann says there’s “no reason to hold speculative assets”

💰 1:12:59 Bitcoin price predictions and what smart money’s really doing

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Bitcoin has fallen below $102,000. “Uptober” ended in blood.

But while retail traders are terrified, institutional conversations are heating up.

In this episode of Bits + Bips, hosts Austin Campbell, Ram Ahluwalia, and Chris Perkins are joined by Teddy Fusaro, President of Bitwise, to unpack the week’s market turmoil.

They dig into why institutions are finally comfortable allocating to bitcoin, how Ripple is building an ecosystem that can’t be ignored, and whether Tether’s staggering $500 billion valuation makes sense.

Plus: the shrinking odds of the CLARITY Act, the merging of TradFi and crypto rails, and why the competition in the payments space is so hot.

Sponsors:

Binance

Mantle

Ram Ahluwalia, CFA, CEO and Founder of Lumida

Austin Campbell, NYU Stern professor and founder and managing partner of Zero Knowledge Consulting

Christopher Perkins, Managing Partner and President of CoinFund

Teddy Fusaro, President of Bitwise

Links:

Unchained: 

Ripple Hits $4B Investment Milestone With Palisade Deal

Extreme Fear Returns to Market as Bitcoin Breaks $104k Support

Solana ETFs Draw $44 Million as Bitcoin Funds Bleed $191 Million

Stablecoin Volume on Ethereum Breaks $2.8 Trillion Record in October

Bitcoin ETFs Record $470 Million Outflows Amid Fed Rate Decision

DL News: Clarity Act has 80% chance of passing by 2026: Bitwise

The Block: Tether's annual profits top $10 billion as Treasury holdings swell

Timestamps:

🎬 0:00 Intro

📈 3:03 Why Ram is still bullish on markets despite recent carnage

💧 6:03 Why a slingshot economy will soon send liquidity back into risk assets

🏦 9:18 How institutional sentiment now differs sharply from crypto Twitter

🚀 16:43 Inside Bitwise’s clever move to launch BSOL

🌊 21:20 Why Chris says “you can’t sleep on Ripple”

🔗 25:28 How TradFi and crypto rails are starting to merge

💳 29:38 Why every company suddenly wants to own the payments layer

💣 30:53 Exlporing Tether’s biggest challenge —and whether it’s worth $500B

📊 39:52 ETFs vs. digital asset treasuries: Teddy’s take

⚖️ 46:48 Why the CLARITY Act is unlikely to pass in 2025

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Welcome to The Chopping Block — where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest in crypto. This week, Kaledora Linn, Co-founder and “Empress of RWAs” at Ostium, joins to break down the rise of on-chain equity perps, the funding-rate chaos that hit 365%, and why she believes the next wave of tokenized assets won’t come from exchanges—but from structured liquidity markets.

We dive deep into Ostium’s hybrid CFD model that blends TradFi mechanics with on-chain transparency, explore why most retail traders can’t stomach perp carry costs, and debate what “safe leverage” could look like in an RWA world. The panel also touches on CZ’s presidential pardon and Coinbase’s new Echo platform, connecting the dots between political optics, capital formation, and how crypto’s product design is evolving beyond speculation.

Whether you’re building perpetual DEXs, tokenizing RWAs, or just trying to survive the next funding-rate spike, this episode unpacks how market design, UX, and regulation will shape crypto’s next trillion-dollar frontier.

Show highlights

🔹 Equity Perps, ADL, and UX Reality — Why funding swings as high as 365 percent make traditional perps unusable for mainstream traders, even if they work for short-term speculators.

🔹 Inside Ostium’s RWA Derivatives Model — Kaledora Linn explains how Ostium re-engineered perps into a CFD-style liquidity system to stabilize funding and attract institutional flow.

🔹 CFDs vs. Options — Why trillions in CFD volume dominate global retail markets and how a linear, simple payoff structure beats the complexity of options.

🔹 Market Microstructure and Path Dependence — How thin liquidity and whale-driven order books make on-chain equity markets fragile in early growth stages.

🔹 Funding-Rate Distortions — Tarun breaks down why “delta-neutral” strategies blow up when funding turns asymmetric and leverage resets too quickly.

🔹 From Perps to Products People Actually Use — Haseeb and Kaledora debate how to make RWAs tradeable without the hidden costs of perps.

🔹 Leveraged ETF Paradox — Despite structural decay, leverage products remain popular because of UX, accessibility, and clear narratives—lessons for on-chain builders.

🔹 Predictable Costs Win Power Users — Why whales and market makers prefer stable, knowable carry over yield-chasing chaos.

🔹 CZ Pardon and Optics — The panel dissects political fallout, public perception, and what “clemency for founders” means for crypto’s reputation.

🔹 Coinbase Echo Launch — A new experiment in on-chain crowd sales, retail capital formation, and the post-airdrop meta.

🔹 From Airdrops to Allocations — Why curated, paid token sales may replace “free money” farming to create long-term aligned communities.

🔹 MegaETH and Luxury Distribution Models — The “sorting hat” approach to allocation mirrors art galleries and luxury brands—scarcity and provenance as value signals.

🔹 Go-to-Market Over Purity — Tom and Robert argue that product distribution and user education matter more than perfect decentralization in early RWA markets.

Hosts:

⭐️Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly

⭐️Robert Leshner, CEO & Co-founder of Superstate

⭐️Tarun Chitra, Managing Partner at Robot Ventures

⭐️Tom Schmidt, General Partner at Dragonfly 

Guest

⭐️ Kaledora, Co-founder at Ostium

Timestamps

00:00 Intro

01:39 Kaldora’s Crypto Twitter Controversy

03:43 Debate on Perpetuals & Equities

07:20 Funding Rates & Market Dynamics

16:09 CFDs vs. Perpetuals

29:31 CZ's Pardon & Political Backlash

37:42 Trump's Pardon: Optics and Implications

39:06 Crypto's Midterm Impact

41:50 Echo Acquisition by Coinbase

46:11 Crowdfunding Platforms & MegaETH

55:36 Luxury Goods & Token Sales Analogy

Disclosures

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In this episode of Unchained, Laura is joined by Rob Hadick, General Partner at Dragonfly, and Sam MacPherson, Co-founder and CEO of Phoenix Labs, to break down the fast-moving world of stablecoins and stablechains.

They discuss Ethena’s USDe $5 billion drop, the rise of “stablecoin-as-a-service” models, the emergence of payment-focused blockchains like Tempo and Codex, and the return of TradFi heavyweights like Visa, Mastercard, and Western Union to the digital dollar race.

From liquidity challenges to regulatory shakeups and tokenized deposits, the conversation explores what it really takes to win the stablecoin wars, and, importantly, whether any of these players can even make a scratch to king Tether.

Thank you to our sponsors!

Binance

Guests:

Rob Hadick, General Partner at Dragonfly

Sam MacPherson, Co-founder and CEO of Phoenix Labs

Links:

Previous coverage on Unchained:

Stablecoins Are Popping Up Everywhere. What’s the End Game?

Why Every Chain Suddenly Wants Its OWN Stablecoin - The Chopping Block

Timestamps:

🎬 0:00 Intro and ads: Binance

📉 1:09 Why Ethena’s USDe plunged from $15B to $10B

🔮 5:34 Rob’s view on the future of Ethena

💸 7:06 Why Spark exited Ethena despite being an early believer

⚔️ 11:32 Protocol-native stablecoins—and why Rob and Sam disagree about the trend

💡 21:03 What it really takes to win the stablecoin wars + what makes Tempo's strategy “interesting”

💳 32:11 Tether’s USAT launch: can it succeed?

🏦 36:27 How Tether and Ripple are using the same acquisition playbook

🔥 39:40 Plasma’s emissions strategy and whether it’s sustainable

🏛️ 44:10 Inside Circle’s Arc testnet and its 100+ institutional partners

⛓️ 51:08 Codex and the debate: should stablechains be L1s or L2s?

💵 56:42 How Spark aims to stand out in the new wave of stablecoin competition

🏢 1:00:04 Why TradFi players are entering the space with so much strength

🚀 1:06:04 Why Rob remains so bullish on the future of stablecoins

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Gold may have history, but does it have a future?

Former Citi Chief Economist Willem Buiter joins Unchained Executive Editor Steve Ehrlich to argue that gold’s “6,000-year bubble” is long overdue to burst. 

He explains why he thinks central banks should dump their bullion, why Bitcoin isn’t a reliable store of value, and why fully backed stablecoins and central-bank digital currencies could define the next era of money.

He also touches on Trump’s influence on the Fed, tokenized deposits and the future of stablecoins.

Thank you to our sponsors!

Binance

Guest:

Willem Buiter, Independent Economic Advisor, Previously Global Chief Economist at Citigroup

Timestamps:

💰 0:00 Introduction

🏺 0:28 Is gold really in a 6,000-year bubble?

🫧 4:33 Why Willem says some bubbles can last forever

💵 7:16 What to make of the dollar’s debasement and why other currencies aren’t better

🚫 11:56 Why Willem doesn’t believe in Bitcoin as a store of value

🪙 16:32 Why he says fully backed stablecoins could define the future of money

🏦 19:10 Are tokenized deposits a breakthrough or a threat to the monetary system?

🌐 22:36 Why Willem supports central bank digital currencies

🔢 27:51 Will the world end up with hundreds of stablecoins?

📊 31:23 Is the Fed quietly shifting its inflation target to 3%?

⚖️ 33:57 How Trump’s pressure could undermine Fed independence

🚀 37:39 Why Willem is bullish on tokenized assets

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In this episode of Bits + Bips, former BlackRock executive and SharpLink co-CEO Joseph Chalom joins hosts Austin Campbell, Chris Perkins, and Ram Ahluwalia to discuss why the Federal Reserve may move to ease rates despite a “Goldilocks” economy, the growing role of stablecoins in foreign exchange and settlement, and how major banks like JPMorgan and Citi are expanding their use of blockchain. 

The conversation also explores Japan’s first yen-backed stablecoin, the implications of AI for the labor market, and the generational shift that could make crypto wallets the default interface for finance.

Plus, the implications of CZ’s pardon and why it’s “bullish” to have Mike Selig chairing the CFTC.

Sponsors:

Binance

Mantle

Ram Ahluwalia, CFA, CEO and Founder of Lumida

Austin Campbell, NYU Stern professor and founder and managing partner of Zero Knowledge Consulting

Christopher Perkins, Managing Partner and President of CoinFund

Guest:

 Joseph Chalom, Co-CEO of SharpLink Gaming, Inc.

Reuters: Fed poised to cut rates this week, with more easing likely on tap

WSJ: Trump Considers Fed Chair Selection by Year-End From Slate of Five Finalists

CoinDesk: Gov. Waller: U.S. Fed to 'Embrace Disruption,' Pitches 'Skinny' Master Account Idea

Reuters: World's first yen-pegged stablecoin debuts in Japan

EF: ERC-8004: Trustless Agents

Bloomberg: JPMorgan to Allow Bitcoin, Ether as Collateral in Crypto Push

Unchained: Trump Pardons Binance Founder CZ

CNBC: Trump names Michael Selig to chair CFTC; Selig cites crypto capital goal

Timestamps:

🎬 0:00 Intro

💸 3:23 Why the Fed will likely still cut rates despite a “Goldilocks” economy

👷‍♂️ 6:47 Why Joseph says the labor market is at a “moment that matters” as Amazon cuts 30,000 jobs

🏛️ 8:26 What Chris shockingly heard at a recent Fed conference

⚖️ 10:15 What could force the Fed to become hawkish

🚀 12:33 How the Fed is “frontrunning innovation”

💴 14:46 Why Japan’s first fully yen-backed stablecoin, JPYC, is significant

🌍 17:36 Why Chris is so excited about stablecoins disrupting FX markets

🔗 22:55 Why L1 tokens may be the next “strategic commodity”

🏦 26:25 How major banks are joining the stablecoin race

👛 31:33 Why retail adoption could explode in the coming years

🤖 33:37 How AI agents could soon manage our payments

💡 36:34 Why JPMorgan decided to accept bitcoin and ether as collateral

⚖️ 44:04 Was CZ’s pardon fair, and what about “pay to play” concerns

🐂 54:55 Why having Mike Selig chair the CFTC is “bullish” for crypto

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