Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Robert Leshner, and special guest Evgeny Gaevoy of Wintermute break down the biggest stories in crypto. This week: the $38M Move token dump exposes the shady side of market making, with shocking incentives that blurred the line between liquidity support and pure exit liquidity. We dig into what really happened, why major VCs looked the other way, and how the entire token launch playbook might be broken. Evgeny joins to give the market maker’s perspective — and to answer the question: how many more of these sh*t shows are still lurking beneath the surface?

Show highlights

🔹 $38M Token Dump Exposed – How Movement Labs’ shady deal with Web3Port revealed the dark side of crypto market making.

🔹 Market Makers or Exit Liquidity? – Inside the incentive structure that let a market maker dump tokens and split profits with the foundation.

🔹 VCs Looked the Other Way – Why top investors backed Movement Labs despite red flags — and what it says about crypto due diligence.

🔹 Rushi Gets Fired – The Movement Labs CEO is out after weeks of denial. But was the rest of the team complicit too?

🔹 Wintermute’s Evgeny Speaks Out – The biggest market maker in crypto weighs in on shady deals, dump mechanics, and transparency failures.

🔹 Airdrops, Float Games, and Retail Rugging – We dissect how token launches get manipulated behind the scenes — and who really pays.

🔹 The Case for Disclosure – Why Haseeb argues crypto needs mandatory public disclosures for market making agreements — before regulators step in.

🔹 Self-Regulation or SEC Crackdown? – Can the industry grow up on its own… or are we begging for another wave of securities enforcement?

🔹 Crypto’s Trust Crisis – Without transparency, the entire token model risks collapse. This episode lays out how to fix it.

⭐️Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly ⭐️Robert Leshner, CEO & Co-founder of Superstate⭐️Tom Schmidt, General Partner at Dragonfly 

Guest

⭐️ Evgeny Gaevoy, Founder and CEO at Wintermute

Inside Movement’s Token-Dump Scandal: Secret Contracts, Shadow Advisers and Hidden Middlemen by Sam Kessler 

🔗https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2025/04/30/inside-movement-s-token-dump-scandal-secret-contracts-shadow-advisors-and-hidden-middlemen 

Timestamps

00:00 Intro

01:19 Movement Labs Scandal: Inside the Market Maker Mess

06:26 How Crypto Market Making Really Works

10:54 Rigged from the Start?

17:25 Who Knew What? Movement Labs and the Industry Fallout

25:57 Why Crypto Needs a Market Maker Disclosure

34:45 Transparency vs. Manipulation

38:02 Do Market Makers Control Token Prices?

51:51 The Crypto Market Structure Bill: What’s at Stake

59:18 Can We Fix Crypto Before It Breaks?

Hosts
DisclosuresLinks

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The crypto industry is fixated on the U.S. Senate.

On Thursday, lawmakers failed to advance the GENIUS Act, the most significant federal stablecoin bill to date. But the story isn’t over. 

Behind the process is a drama about potential presidential conflicts, shifting political alliances, and unresolved policy questions.

In this episode, Kristin Smith, CEO of the Blockchain Association and Amanda Tuminelli, executive director and CLO of the DeFi Education Fund, break down:

Why the bill stalled but isn’t dead yet

The role Trump’s crypto ties are playing

Whether Democrats who once backed crypto are turning away

Why advocates are still pushing for a deal this year

Visit our website for breaking news, analysis, op-eds, articles to learn about crypto, and much more: unchainedcrypto.com

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Kristin Smith, CEO of the Blockchain Association

Amanda Tuminelli, executive director and CLO of the DeFi Education Fund

Timestamps:

👋 0:00 Intro

📉 2:01 Why the Senate blocked the vote but the bill isn’t dead yet

🔄 5:17 Why some pro-crypto Democrats suddenly flipped

⚖️ 8:08 Key differences between the two competing GENIUS Act proposals

🔄 14:18 Whether lawmakers are starting to shift their crypto stances

🤝 16:05 Can the Senate overcome divisions and get this across the finish line?

🏛️ 18:14 How Trump’s crypto ties are shaping the legislative battle

⏳ 20:46 Is the August deadline already slipping out of reach

📝 22:39 Combining stablecoin and market structure bills 

🎉 25:59 Why Kristin says it’s a relief not to have to deal with Gensler anymore

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On Thursday, Coinbase announced its acquisition of Deribit in a $2.9 billion deal, the largest merger in the crypto industry to date.

In this episode, Owen Lau, executive director and senior analyst at Oppenheimer, delves into why Deribit was such a coveted prize, what this deal means for the global derivatives landscape, and how Coinbase is using its position as a public company to cement its dominance.

Plus:

The importance of Coinbase paying mostly in stock and barely touching its cash

How the derivatives market dwarfs spot trading, and is only getting bigger

What this means for CME and smaller crypto exchanges

And how Base, Coinbase’s L2, fits into the long game

Visit our website for breaking news, analysis, op-eds, articles to learn about crypto, and much more: unchainedcrypto.com

Thank you to our sponsors!

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Guest

Timestamps:

👋 0:00 Intro

📢 2:26 What this record-breaking $2.9B deal really means for crypto

🔥 4:39 Why Deribit was the most sought - after acquisition target in the space

📊 5:59 How the derivatives market became bigger than spot — and what’s next

⚔️ 10:16 What this move signals for CME and how the competitive landscape shifts

🛡️ 12:08 Will this deal make crypto safer for everyone?

💸 16:28 Why Coinbase used mostly stock and why that matters

📈 18:59 How the deal changes Coinbase’s revenue outlook going forward

🚀 22:15 Whether Coinbase is building the “WeChat of the U.S.” financial system

🔗 24:32 The role of Base in Coinbase’s future 

🤝 25:48 Why M&A is heating up across crypto right now

⚖️ 27:35 How ongoing regulatory uncertainty still casts a shadow

🧠 28:12 What investors should keep in mind when evaluating the risks and rewards

📰 30:40  Crypto News Recap

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Crypto doesn’t reward fundamentals. It rewards attention. So what does that say about how investors, like Warren Buffett, would fare today?

In this week’s Bits + Bips, the crew dissects what’s really behind this rally, why Ethereum’s sentiment problem may run deeper than roadmap delays, and how the stablecoin bill turned into a political tug of war.

Plus:

Apple and NFTs: why this matters more than people think

Whether tariffs are about politics or actual policy

Why Bessent is “the best” in the Trump administration

And why Buffett’s era may be ending, with Portnoy rising in his place 😬

Sponsor:

Bitwise

James Seyffart, Research Analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence

Alex Kruger, Founder of Asgard

Ram Ahluwalia, CFA, CEO and Founder of Lumida

Katalin Tischhauser, Head of Research at Sygnum Bank

Macro 

Bloomberg: Trump Suggests Some Trade Deals May Come as Soon as This Week - 

Asymmetric Market Update™️ #29

May 2025 Newsletter: A Trade Breakdown - Lyn Alden

Stagflation bears are wrong?

Reuters: Dollar slips as Taiwan dollar surge sparks revaluation talk

WSJ: 

Tariffs Threaten Semiconductor Supply Chains, Chip-Equipment Maker Warns

Bessent’s oped: Trump’s Three Steps to Economic Growth

Buffett on Tariffs

Buffet: The Natural Course of Government is to make Currency worth less overtime

ETH pivot

Unchained: 

Ethereum Gave Away Too Much for Too Long. Will Its Pivot Be Enough?

Ethereum Ecosystem Shifts Toward User Focus

Ethereum Developers Vote EOF Out of Fusaka Hard Fork

Vitalik Buterin Proposes Replacing Ethereum Virtual Machine

The Block: 

Vitalik and new Ethereum Foundation co-executive directors outline updated board structure, mission

Vitalik Buterin- and StarkWare-backed Kakarot reveals alternative Ethereum ZK stack, targeting real-time STARK proofs on Layer 1 by end of 2025

CoinDesk: Ethereum Could Supercharge Transaction Speed to 2,000 TPS Thanks to Bold New Proposal

Simplifying the L1 by Vitalik Buterin

Stablecoin bill:

POLITICO: Why the Senate crypto bill is in turmoil

Latest on the Senate's "GENIUS Act" by Alex Thorn, head of research at Galaxy 

Timestamps:

🚪 0:00 Intro

👋 1:01 Katalin’s background

📦 3:40 The real motive behind tariffs, according to Katalin

😬 11:43 What the market is forgetting to price in

🇪🇺  18:57 How Europe views Trump’s trade moves

🤝 21:33 Trump thinking that U.S. companies are cutting bad deals with China

🧠 26:04 Why Bessent’s op-ed made waves, and why Alex calls him the smartest in Trump’s crew

📉 29:13 The collapse in U.S. manufacturing employment, despite a surge in production

🧓 33:12 Buffett’s exit and his old-school take on tariffs in a new-school market

🌀 39:46 Will Ethereum’s pivot actually improve the price?

⚖️ 51:28 The impact of the political mess around the stablecoin bill

💸 53:53 Ripple’s attempted Circle acquisition and why Ram wouldn’t touch XRP

🍎 1:00:43 Importance of Apple quietly opening the door to NFTs and crypto sales

💱 1:03:34 What’s up with the Taiwanese dollar

💻 1:06:05 Why adding tariffs to chips could backfire big time

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After years of underperformance, Ethereum is trying to change course, from scaling the layer 1 to potentially dumping the EVM. In this episode, Tarun Chitra and Max Resnick break down each of these new changes, analyzing the good, the bad, and the ugly. 

Is this a reset that can save Ethereum’s market position and price? Or has the protocol given away too much for too long?

They dive into:

Whether the gas limit increase changes everything

What went wrong with Ethereum’s economics and solo staking politics

Max’s view on “the single most important” change Ethereum needs to make

How ETH could claw back value from layer 2s

What Max would do if he ran Ethereum

Whether this pivot is too little, too late

Visit our website for breaking news, analysis, op-eds, articles to learn about crypto, and much more: unchainedcrypto.com

Bitwise https://bitwiseinvestments.com/ciomemo

Tarun Chitra, CEO and Co-Founder of Gauntlet

Max Resnick, Lead economist at Anza

Unchained: 

Ethereum Ecosystem Shifts Toward User Focus

Ethereum Developers Vote EOF Out of Fusaka Hard Fork

Vitalik Buterin Proposes Replacing Ethereum Virtual Machine

The Block: 

Vitalik and new Ethereum Foundation co-executive directors outline updated board structure, mission

Vitalik Buterin- and StarkWare-backed Kakarot reveals alternative Ethereum ZK stack, targeting real-time STARK proofs on Layer 1 by end of 2025

CoinDesk: Ethereum Could Supercharge Transaction Speed to 2,000 TPS Thanks to Bold New Proposal

Simplifying the L1 by Vitalik Buterin

Timestamps:

👋 0:00 Introduction

🛠️ 2:05 Why Ethereum had to pivot and what triggered the urgency

📈 7:16 Why raising the gas limit could actually be a big deal

💻 9:12 Whether Ethereum devs are too idealistic

⚡ 19:02 How Solana managed to outperform Ethereum at the base layer

👨‍🏫 24:09 Why Max feels Vitalik’s proposals focus on outdated technology 

🔧 27:57 The growing gap between Ethereum research and its execution clients

👍 35:02 The ONE thing Max thinks Ethereum is doing well

⚖️ 40:38 Did “credible neutrality” push Ethereum down the wrong path?

🌀 48:23 Will the new Ethereum R1 rollup succeed? 

🔀 52:53 What the new updates mean for layer 2s and their value proposition

📉 1:02:58 Whether ETH is finally due for a price reversal

🎯 1:09:12 Why Ethereum should take a page from Trump’s strategy playbook

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The MOVE token collapse sparked one of the most damning investigations in the industry this year.

In this episode of Unchained, investigative journalist Sam Kessler joins Laura Shin to walk through the contracts, questionable market-making deals, and finger pointing inside Movement Labs. From Binance’s ban to a Trump-affiliated crypto deal, this story unearths how the MOVE token collapse was the product of what looks like a pump-and-dump plan written out in legal contracts.

Plus:

How insiders structured deals to profit from artificial price spikes

How this could have happened with a project backed by some of crypto’s most reputable VCs

What this saga says about token launches, regulation, and market integrity

And whether Movement Labs can (or should) be trusted to investigate itself

Visit our website for breaking news, analysis, op-eds, articles to learn about crypto, and much more: unchainedcrypto.com

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Sam Kessler, Deputy Managing Editor for Tech and Protocols at CoinDesk

CoinDesk: Inside Movement’s Token-Dump Scandal: Secret Contracts, Shadow Advisers and Hidden Middlemen

Trading for MOVE will be suspended on Coinbase

Timestamps:

👋 0:00 Introduction

🕵️‍♀️ 1:52 Initial details of the scandal

⚖️ 6:20 Conflicts of interest at Movement Labs and who knew what

💥 8:42 Why 5% of tokens = 50% of supply and why that’s wild

🧾 13:14 How a lawyer called the deal “the worst agreement I’ve ever seen”

🚫 18:41 Why Binance banned Web3Port after suspicious trading

🧩 20:38 The web of key players: founders, shadow advisors, and middlemen

🧠 25:51 A theory on treasury selling and token price manipulation

🔍 27:49 Can Movement Labs investigate itself, and will anyone trust the outcome?

📉 29:39 Why Coinbase is suspending MOVE and what that signals

🇺🇸 30:47 How Trump’s crypto arm is tangled up in the MOVE ecosystem

📰34:15 News Recap

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While it’s been a calmer week in the markets (thank God!), there’s a lot to talk about!

This week on Bits + Bips, hosts James Seyffart, Ram Ahluwalia, and Steven Ehrlich, along with guest Charles Edwards of Capriole Investments, dive into:

Whether it’s time to be bullish on all crypto assets

Whether a Trump put actually exists

The risks behind bitcoin treasury companies like the new Twenty One Capital

Why Solana ETFs might not be the smash success people expect

The controversial invite to the White House for $TRUMP holders

Why there’s a big disconnect in the markets

Bitwise

James Seyffart, Research Analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence

Ram Ahluwalia, CFA, CEO and Founder of Lumida

Steven Ehrlich, Executive Editor at Unchained

Guest:

Charles Edwards, Founder of Capriole Investments

Twenty One:

Recent coverage of Unchained on Twenty One: 

Why Twenty One Capital Is More About Volatility Than Bitcoin

Twenty One Aims to Buy as Much Bitcoin as Possible. Can It Succeed?

Press Release: Tether, SoftBank Group, and Jack Mallers Launch Twenty One, a Bitcoin-native Company, Through a Business Combination With Cantor Equity Partners

Does The Market Still Control Trump?

Donald Trump’s chaos has left investors with frayed nerves

4 of the Mag7 Reporting This Week

Big Tech’s Earnings Problem Is Estimates May Be Way Too High

$TRUMP

Trump's Meme Coin Dinner Contest Earns Insiders $900,000 in Two Days

Other: 

​​Apollo slides

Timestamps:

👋 0:00 Introductions

🧠 3:22 Is the market controlling Trump or is Trump controlling the market?

📈 8:51 Can investors trust it if there’s a positive earnings season?

🚚 14:13 How tariffs are hitting supply chains and consumer goods

🏛️ 19:25 Is Twenty One Capital a threat to MicroStrategy?

⛏️ 31:19 What is the future of bitcoin miners?

⚡ 34:42 Will the Bitcoin corporate flywheel eventually break?

🔥 43:31 Can Solana holding companies follow MSTR? 

🇨🇦 48:19 Wen Solana ETFs? \Poor early trading trends in Canada

🤔 53:50 Is there a silver lining to $TRUMP?

📊 1:06:30 Bitcoin strength: time to be bullish?

🌍 1:14:24 Macro wrap-up with tariffs, rate cuts, and global market risks

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The race for Bitcoin supremacy just got more complicated.

Twenty One Capital, backed by Tether, SoftBank, and Cantor Fitzgerald, plans to stack as much BTC as it possibly can. 

But is this new venture really about Bitcoin … or about creating a hyper-volatile stock to play market cycles?

This week on Unchained, Jeff Park of Bitwise and Mark Palmer of Benchmark join to discuss:

Why SoftBank and Tether are a “perfect match”—and why they turned to Bitcoin

How volatility, not bitcoin itself, might be the real asset investors are buying

What Cantor’s involvement says about Wall Street’s readiness for crypto

Why the launch timing matters

Whether Twenty One could repeat MicroStrategy’s mistakes

Whether these new Bitcoin vehicles are better bets than spot bitcoin or ETFs

Plus, is SoftBank getting into crypto a top signal? 👀

Visit our website for breaking news, analysis, op-eds, articles to learn about crypto, and much more: unchainedcrypto.com

Bitwise

Jeff Park, Head of Alpha Strategies at Bitwise

Mark Palmer, Senior Analyst at Benchmark

Recent coverage of Unchained on Twenty One: Twenty One Aims to Buy as Much Bitcoin as Possible. Can It Succeed?

Press Release: Tether, SoftBank Group, and Jack Mallers Launch Twenty One, a Bitcoin-native Company, Through a Business Combination With Cantor Equity Partners

Jeff Park’s post on X

Timestamps:

📰 0:00 Introduction

🚀 2:07 Why Jeff sees the Twenty One Capital launch as a huge development

🧠 6:09 How Twenty One might learn from MicroStrategy’s playbook

🏦 11:59 Risks of turning into the next Celsius, Voyager or Genesis

💸 18:52 Why Bitcoin needs income-generating activities to evolve

📊 21:17 How metrics like bitcoin per share bridge crypto and TradFi 

🤝 30:16 Whether Tether’s participation makes sense

💍 34:18 Why Jeff thinks SoftBank and Tether are “a perfect match”

🚩 42:29 Is SoftBank entering crypto a top signal?

🏛️ 46:32 Why Cantor’s involvement shows Wall Street is serious

📈 50:24 Why bitcoin vehicle stocks trade at a premium

🗓️ 55:48 Why timing matters compared to MicroStrategy’s 2020 debut

🧮 1:00:06 How to decide between investing in vehicles, spot bitcoin, or ETFs

🌊 1:08:52 Whether SOL investment vehicles will have the same success as bitcoin ones

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Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and special guest David Hoffman break down the biggest stories in crypto. This week: MicroStrategy clones are popping up, with Bitcoin-backed SPACs trying to replay Saylor’s playbook. Meanwhile, Trump launches a memecoin for dinner invites, Zora kicks off a new era of “content coins,” and Ethereum faces an existential pivot. David Hoffman joins the crew to debate whether crypto’s future is real innovation—or just financial theater.

Show highlights

🔹 Bitcoin vs Ethereum: Who Wins the Future? – Breaking down why Bitcoin could outgrow Ethereum… or why Ethereum might still be crypto’s last hope.

🔹 Can Content Coins Save Crypto? – Zora’s pivot and the rise of “content coins” spark a full-blown identity crisis for the industry.

🔹 Are We Just Rebranding Memecoins? – The crew debates whether “content coins” are innovation… or just the same casino with better UX.

🔹 The Culture Clash – Why crypto’s new apps feel like they’re built for millennials — and why Gen Z might just not care.

🔹 SoftBank, SPACs, and the Top Signal – 21Capital’s Bitcoin MicroStrategy clone is here. Are we seeing the beginning of the end… again?

🔹 Vitalik’s Existential Pivot – Ethereum is trying to save itself. But can it change fast enough to stay relevant?

🔹 Bitcoin’s Macro Moment – In a world of tariffs, inflation, and chaos, Bitcoin might accidentally become the next Federal Reserve.

🔹 Crypto’s Morality Crisis – Vitalik’s attack on “bad apps” raises a deeper question: what should crypto even be building anymore?

⭐️Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly ⭐️Tarun Chitra, Managing Partner at Robot Ventures⭐️Tom Schmidt, General Partner at Dragonfly 

Guest

⭐️ David Hoffman, Co-owner at Bankless  

Hosts
Disclosures

Timestamps

00:00 Intro

01:55 MicroStrategy Clones and Market Impact

13:40 Trump Coin and Its Controversies

20:35 Zora’s Content Coin vs. Jesse's Coining Controversy

26:56 Zora’s Market Position

32:29 Generational Divide in Crypto

39:32 Ethereum's Strategic Pivot

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A new company called Twenty One is making waves—with a launch strategy that echoes Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy), a cap table that includes Tether, SoftBank, and Cantor Fitzgerald, and a plan to acquire more Bitcoin than anyone else.

They’re starting with 42,000 BTC, worth nearly $4 billion, and they’ve hinted they’ll use convertible debt, equity raises, and other market mechanics to buy more.

But is this just a smarter MicroStrategy? Or a recipe for financial reflexivity gone wrong?

In this episode, Matthew Sigel, head of digital assets research at VanEck, digs into:

Sigel also shares a bold idea for “BIT Bonds” that could let the U.S. Treasury issue Bitcoin-linked government debt. Could it work?

Plus, Unchained regulatory reporter Veronica Irwin talks about her scoop that we might see a crypto market structure bill as early as this week. 

Visit our website for breaking news, analysis, op-eds, articles to learn about crypto, and much more: unchainedcrypto.com

Timestamps:

👋 0:00 Introduction

🚀 4:59 How Twenty One plans to buy more bitcoin than anyone else

⚠️ 7:23 The key risks behind the reflexive BTC acquisition strategy

📈 12:38 Why more companies are copying the MicroStrategy playbook

👔 16:17 Jack Mallers’ role and why the CFO matters even more here

💥 17:55 Could one bad move blow these companies up?

💰 22:28 The types of investors this model attracts

⏳ 25:40 Did Twenty One launch at the worst possible time?

🤔 26:58 How to think about investing in BTC vs. these BTC-heavy stocks

🇺🇸  28:23 Unchained regulatory reporter Veronica Irwin on why a market structure bill might be on its way relatively soon

📰 35:31 Crypto News Recap

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