Unchained

Robinhood's Coy Garrison and Seong Seog Lee join the crew to unpack the Robinhood Chain launch strategy.

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Robinhood's proposed chain for the trading of tokenized assets is live in testnet.

In this DEX in the City episode, Coy Garrison, Robinhood's deputy general counsel on crypto, and Robinhood Crypto Head of Product Seong Seog Lee walk hosts Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos and Jessi Brooks through the thinking behind the blockchain's testnet launch and why it is important that it supports tokenized equities out of the gate.

Beyond the Robinhood Chain testnet launch, KK and Jessi discuss OpenAI and Paradigm's EVMbench tool and why it highlights the need for a safety-first approach. “AI and crypto are in the same room now, but the room's sort of on fire,” Jessi says.

Don't miss how a man accidentally gained remote access to 7,000 robot vacuums in 24 countries with AI-written code.

KK and Jessi also dig into the Terraform Labs estate's lawsuit against Jane Street. Is there any real credibility behind the lawsuit? Listen to find out!

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Hosts:

⁠⁠Jessi Brooks⁠⁠, General Counsel at Ribbit Capital

⁠Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos⁠, General Counsel at StarkWare

Guests:

⁠⁠⁠Coy Garrison, Senior Director and Deputy General Counsel, Crypto at Robinhood

⁠⁠Seong Seog Lee, Head of Product at Robinhood Crypto

Links:

Unchained:

Robinhood Pushes Deeper Into Tokenization With Layer 2 Testnet Launch

Inside Robinhood’s Big Super App Plan: ‘There’s Still a Lot of Work to Be Done’

OpenAI and Paradigm Launch EVMbench to Stress Test AI on Smart Contract Security

Uneasy Money: How the Increasingly Better AI Agents Are Being Used Onchain

When AI Agents Take Over, What Does a Post-Human Economy Look Like?

Terraform Estate Targets Jane Street in Explosive Terra Collapse Lawsuit

DeFi Platforms Could Get ‘Innovation Exemption,’ SEC Chair Says

SEC Quietly Eases Capital Rules for Stablecoins

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Explore how AI could reshape crypto and finance, redefining traditional systems and introducing new threats. As AI-powered agents promise efficiency, Haseeb, Tom, Tarun, and guest Illia Polosukhin critique Citrini's controversial predictions on a global financial crisis and consider whether AI might just save or further complicate crypto's role in the economy.

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.

Joining us is Illia Polosukhin, co-founder of NEAR Protocol and contributing author to the original transformers paper that’s revolutionized AI.

Buckle up as we delve into AI’s burgeoning role in the crypto world, dissect the sensational claims from Citrini’s article predicting an AI-triggered financial crisis, and explore the potential of agentic coding in reshaping traditional systems.

Let’s get into it!

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Hosts

⭐️Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly

⭐️Tarun Chitra, Managing Partner at Robot Ventures

⭐️Tom Schmidt, General Partner at Dragonfly 

Guest
⭐️ Illia Polosukhin, Co-founder of NEAR Protocol

Disclosures

Links:

THE 2028 GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE CRISIS by Citrini and Alap Shah

Timestamps

00:00 Intro

01:06 AI Agents Meet Crypto

08:06 Dark Forest Threat Model

15:31 How Close Are We

18:41 AI Coding Risks in Crypto

27:27 Citrini 2028 Crisis Explained

35:01 Demand Shock Missing Money

37:55 Automation Limits and Human Value

44:13 AI Zero Days and Botnets

51:40 Escrow Courts and Enforcement

56:05 Illia on Vibe Coding Future

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DATs may be collapsing, AI agents may be overhyped, but Omid Malekan thinks the strongest case for crypto has nothing to do with either.

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Bitcoin is below $63,000, digital asset treasuries are under pressure, and the debate over whether crypto markets are bottoming or breaking down is splitting the hosts. 

Ram is skeptical of institutional demand when he looks at the 13F data from institutions filing SEC reports. Chris is on the phone with institutions all day and is bullish. 

Omid Malekan, adjunct professor at Columbia Business School, comes in with a longer lens: he admits he contributed to the DAT hype cycle, has doubts about agentic commerce that remind him of the metaverse in 2021, and thinks the strongest argument for crypto is not a product or a token but a fact about how nation-states treat their own citizens. 

The conversation also covers tokenized bank deposits, the SEC's updated broker-dealer guidance on stablecoins, and what it means that the Supreme Court just struck down Trump's tariffs.

Hosts:

Guest:

Links:

Unchained:

Bitcoin Slips Below $63,000 as Fear Deepens

Bitcoin Dips Below $65,000 as Tariff Uncertainty Weighs on Risk

White House Talks Make Progress on Stablecoin Yields but No Deal Yet

SEC Quietly Eases Capital Rules for Stablecoins

SCOTUS: Supreme Court strikes down tariffs

Citrini: ⁠THE 2028 GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE CRISIS

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Jansen Teng announces  Virtuals’ new humanoid robotics accelerator. Is this the next frontier for the AI agent meta?

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⁠⁠⁠⁠Figure⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠Crypto Tax Girl⁠⁠⁠⁠

Virtuals Protocol has announced the launch of Eastworld Labs, an AI accelerator to make it easier for builders to deploy humanoid robots.

Virtuals Protocol co-founder Jansen Teng unpacks the idea behind the program, how it would work and what it hopes to achieve. He also addresses questions about how to prevent damage to remotely controlled robots, how to address backlash to robots taking jobs, and whether Virtuals views OpenClaw as a competitor.

Will human relationships eventually be replaced by AI agents?

Guest:

⁠⁠⁠⁠Jansen Teng, CEO & Co-Founder of Virtuals Protocol

Links:

Unchained:

⁠⁠⁠⁠Virtuals Ecosystem Sees Boost After Team Reveals Details of Buyback-and-Burn Program

⁠⁠⁠⁠Want to Hire an AI Agent? Check Their Reputation Via ERC-8004

When AI Agents Take Over, What Does a Post-Human Economy Look Like?

How Nansen’s New Trading Agent Makes It Easier to Follow the Smart Money Onchain

How the x402 Standard Is Enabling AI Agents to Pay Each Other

Uneasy Money: How the Increasingly Better AI Agents Are Being Used Onchain

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Matt Corallo says “the community that exists at the time” will make decisions on how Bitcoin deals with the threat of quantum computing.

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When it comes to the quantum computing threat to crypto, the focus is

Guest:

⁠Matt Corallo, Open Source Engineer at Block/Spiral

Links:

Unchained:

⁠Why Bitcoin Developers Are Not Incentivized to Talk About the Quantum Threat⁠

⁠Q-Day Is Imminent. Can Bitcoin Survive the Quantum Threat?⁠

⁠Solana Deploys Post-Quantum Signatures on Testnet⁠

⁠Cracking Bitcoin Encryption Is Getting Much Easier, Google Says

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LayerZero’s Bryan Pellegrino joins to unpack Base's decision to leave the OP Stack, Zora's migration to Solana and more.

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⁠MultiChain Advisors -⁠ The Growth & Capital Markets Partner You Need

Coinbase's Base is making a shock move away from Optimism's OP Stack.

In this Uneasy Money episode, LayerZero Labs CEO Bryan Pellegrino joins hosts Kain Warwick and Taylor Monahan to unpack whether this is the right move for Base and what it could mean for Optimism.

Beyond Base's big move, the trio also discuss Zora's Solana migration, whether Coinbase was wrong to initially pursue a super app strategy with Base App, Peter Steinberger joining OpenAI, the launch of Zero blockchain and OpenAI's EVMbench.

Will OpenAI's acqui-hiring of Peter prove to be a “generational fumble” for Anthropic? And can crypto fix its brand problem?

Also, learn why the rise of AI agents have Kain and Tay confident that open source will win in the end.

Hosts:

⁠Kain Warwick⁠, Founder of Infinex and Synthetix

⁠Taylor Monahan⁠, Security Expert

Guest:

Links:

Unchained:

Zora Shocks Base Community With Solana Pivot

⁠⁠BlackRock Just Chose Uniswap. The Market Didn’t Care. Here’s Why.

⁠⁠LayerZero Launches ‘Zero’ Layer 1 as Citadel, ARK Buy ZRO

⁠⁠How Zero Blockchain Cracked 2 Million TPS and Is Still Decentralized

⁠⁠Uneasy Money: Are Institutions Creating a New Crypto Meta?

⁠⁠Uneasy Money: How the Increasingly Better AI Agents Are Being Used OnchainVitalik Rethinks Ethereum’s L2 Playbook, Calls for Shift Toward Native Rollups

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Stani Kulechov unpacks Aave Labs’ “Aave Will Win” proposal, explaining why the company wants the DAO to have power over its finances.

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Adaptive Security

Aave Labs has proposed a “Aave Will Win” framework that will direct all revenue to the DAO to bring the protocol under “a token-centric model.”

In this episode, Aave founder Stani Kulechov explains why Aave Labs is putting its funding at the mercy of the DAO and how the framework could drive DeFi innovation.

Plus wen Aave v4? And is Aave Labs’ requested budget too much?

Guest:

Stani Kulechov, Founder of Aave Labs

Previous appearances on Unchained:

Why Aave's Founder Is 'More Bullish on Ethereum Than Anything Else’

Why the Founders of Aave and Sky Are Still Bullish on Ethereum DeFi

Satoshi, Shorter Blocks, & Secret Plot - The Chopping Block

Stani Kulechov on Why Aave Is So Successful - Ep.212

Links:

Unchained:

Aave Revenue Overhaul Sparks Governance Clash

Aave Labs Proposes Off-Protocol Revenue Sharing With Token Holders

The Chopping Block: Aave Civil War + Flow Hack + Coinbase Super-App

Aave’s Rushed Governance Vote Draws Backlash

How Aave Labs and the DAO Should Split Ownership of the Brand – Uneasy Money

Uneasy Money: Why Token Holders Have No Rights & Why Every DAO ‘Has Failed’

‘Poison Pill’ Proposal Calls for Aave DAO to Take Over Aave Labs

AAVE Holders Question if DAO Quietly Redirected Revenue Away From Treasury

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Dragonfly raises a $650M Fund IV amid crypto's institutional vs retail sentiment gap, the industry exodus including Kyle Samani's departure from Multicoin, OpenClaw's OpenAI acquisition and crypto Twitter harassment, X402 payment standards for AI agents, Polymarket's controversial 5-minute Bitcoin betting markets, and the brewing federal vs state regulation battle over prediction markets.

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 episode kicks off with major news: Dragonfly just closed their $650 million Fund IV, making them one of the largest crypto VCs not through growth, but because others have downsized. The timing feels surreal — they keep raising right when markets dump, creating the biggest gap between institutional optimism and retail sentiment Haseeb has ever seen.

But money flowing in contrasts sharply with talent flowing out. Kyle Samani left Multicoin, Arianna Simpson departed A16z Crypto, and several other crypto veterans are moving on. The crew unpacks what this "great resignation" means for an industry that feels like it's shifted from pioneer phase to settler phase.

Then they dive into the OpenClaw saga — the viral AI coding assistant that got acquired by OpenAI, but not before its creator almost deleted it due to harassment from crypto Twitter demanding he launch a token. This leads to a deep discussion on X402 payment standards and why AI agents might prefer crypto over credit cards.

Finally, they debate Polymarket's controversial 5-minute Bitcoin betting markets and the brewing legal battle between federal and state regulation of prediction markets. Let's get into it.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

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The crew tackles everything from the CFTC's controversial stance on prediction markets to the real-world impacts of rising crypto crime.

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The CFTC has announced an innovation council, Chair Mike Selig has asserted that prediction markets are under the agency's ambit, SBF wants another trial and Nancy Guthrie's kidnapping is casting crypto in a negative light.

In this episode of DEX in the City, hosts Jessi Brooks, Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos and TuongVy Le discuss how the distribution of the CFTC's council highlights industry's need for better gender equity, why Selig's stance on prediction markets triggers “a huge constitutional debate,” why SBF's push for a new trial is so dangerous for crypto, and whether the crypto industry can do more to mitigate crime.

Find out why SBF's search for a new trial has far reaching effects beyond his case. Plus, can crypto tackle crime without sacrificing its benefits?

If you want your crypto taxes done carefully — not guessed — Crypto Tax Girl is offering $100 off one-on-one crypto tax services.

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Hosts:

⁠Jessi Brooks⁠, General Counsel at Ribbit Capital

Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos, General Counsel at StarkWare

⁠TuongVy Le⁠, General Counsel at Veda

Links:

Unchained:

SEC and CFTC Signal United Front on Crypto

Trump Won’t Consider Pardon for SBF: Report

DEX in the City: How Crypto Exchanges May Be Holding Up the Market Structure Bill

This week's good news:

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The Mag 7 have committed over $700 billion to AI infrastructure, but the companies building the models may never capture the value.

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Adaptive Security

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The BLS just quietly revised away 862,000 jobs, and real-time inflation trackers now peg price growth below 1%, less than half of what official figures report. 

If the Fed is steering monetary policy with stale data, investors need to ask what else the models are getting wrong. 

At the same time, the Mag 7 have committed more than $700 billion to AI infrastructure, with Anthropic alone projecting $1 trillion in revenue within five years. Is that conviction or the early stages of a debt cycle nobody is pricing? 

And then there is the institutional side of crypto: BlackRock's BUIDL fund just landed on Uniswap with $2.4 billion in assets, Apollo acquired $90 million in Morpho tokens, and AI agents are already settling micropayments in stablecoins. 

Austin Campbell, Ram Ahluwalia, and Christopher Perkins sit down with Truflation’s CEO Stefan Rust to ask whether the numbers we trust are telling us the truth.

Hosts:

Guest:

Links:

Unchained: 

BlackRock Just Chose Uniswap. The Market Didn’t Care. Here’s Why.

Apollo Moves Into DeFi Lending With Morpho Token Deal

UNI Spikes on BlackRock DeFi Move, Then Gives It All Back

Macro:

NBC: U.S. had almost no job growth in 2025

PBS: Inflation measure falls to nearly five-year low as gas prices fall and housing costs cool

Crowdfund Insider: Secretary Of The Treasury Scott Bessent Calls Out Truflation's Inflation Numbers At Senate Banking Hearing

AI CapEx:

Amazon, Google And Others Are Pouring $700 Billion Into AI CapEx, Top Analyst Explains Why This Makes It 'Hard' To Bet Against Nvidia

CIO: Data center capex to hit $1.7 trillion by 2030 due to AI boom

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