Unchained

The crew unpacks BlackRock buying UNI, ARK, Citadel, DTCC, the Intercontinental Exchange and other TradFi players backing Zero, , Vitalik's thoughts on AI, and more. 

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Crypto Tax Girl

AI safety chiefs are leaving, BlackRock's launching on Uniswap and buying UNI, LayerZero launches “the last blockchain” with institutional backing, Kaito is launching attention markets, Base is abandoning social and Vitalik has some thoughts on AI.

Hosts Kain Warwick, Luca Netz and Taylor Monahan unpack these and more in yet another packed episode of Uneasy Money.

Find out why Kain thinks the Uniswap and LayerZero news point to a new meta reminiscent of DeFi Summer. Plus, is Coinbase's Base playing it too safe? And is Vitalik fighting a losing battle?

Hosts:

Luca Netz, CEO of Pudgy Penguins

Kain Warwick, Founder of Infinex and Synthetix

Taylor Monahan, Security at MetaMask

Links:

Unchained:

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

⁠How Zero Blockchain Cracked 2 Million TPS and Is Still Decentralized⁠

⁠Vitalik Buterin Pushes Back on the ‘Race to AGI,’ Outlines Ethereum-Led AI Path⁠

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

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

⁠Uneasy Money: Why Crypto Still Can’t Overcome Its ICO Struggles

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The market structure bill introduces a "control" test for DeFi protocols. The problem: nobody agrees on what control means.

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Peter Van Valkenburgh of Coin Center sits down with Jessi Brooks and Vy Le to confront a question that will determine which DeFi projects can operate in the United States and which ones can't. 

The Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act creates a carve-out for non-custodial developers, codifying the principle that if you never hold customer funds, you shouldn't need a money transmitter license. Simple enough on paper. 

But Vy presses on the hard cases: what about an admin key, an upgradeable vault, or a pause function built for security? Where exactly does "non-custodial" end and "control" begin? 

Meanwhile, Jessi raises the tension the industry rarely wants to discuss. The DOJ just charged cartel brokers moving money through crypto, yet simultaneously dismantled its own enforcement teams. 

If Congress clears developers, who pursues the actual criminals? The answer matters for every builder, investor, and victim watching this play out.

Hosts:

Jessi Brooks, General Counsel at Ribbit Capital

TuongVy Le, General Counsel at Veda

Guest:

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Namik Muduroglu and Amir Almaimani walk through MegaETH's launch strategy and why they are delaying the TGE.

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Months after its oversubscribed initial coin offering, MegaETH's mainnet is live. But the project is not launching its token just yet. 

In this Unchained podcast episode, MegaETH strategy chief Namik Muduroglu and Head of Ecosystem Amir Almaimani break down the Ethereum Layer 2 chain’s launch strategy, including its decision to delay TGE.

They also explain how the MegaETH is navigating the current market slump and how it is positioning USDM as its long term moat. Plus, why they believe credible neutrality is a “losing strategy.”

Guests:

Namik Muduroglu, CSO & Founding Team at MegaETH

Amir Almaimani, Head of Ecosystem of MegaETH

Previous appearances on Unchained:

MegaETH Just Had Its Public Sale. Can It Succeed in Building a Web2-Like Experience?

Links:

Unchained:

Ethereum Lets Go of the Rollup Story. Here Are the 6 Tokens That Benefit

MegaETH Plans Return of All Pre-Deposit Funds

MegaETH Just Had Its Public Sale. Can It Succeed in Building a Web2-Like Experience?

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Are bitcoiners underestimating the quantum threat to Bitcoin? That's the question Castle Island Ventures Partner Nic Carter has posed with some recent posts gauging the views of several leading Bitcoin developers on quantum computing.

To help answer the question, Unchained reached out to Ethereum Foundation Researcher Justin Drake and Michigan University Professor Chris Peikert. In this episode, Justin and Chris, who is one of the foremost experts on lattice cryptography, break down the quantum computing threat to crypto and the potential timelines.

Justin theorizes that Bitcoin developers may not be incentivized to talk about the quantum computing risk while still saying that a number of smart people are already taking it seriously and that may be enough.

Conversely, Chris highlights the constraints that come with uncertainty around risks and timelines.

Listen to find out what they conclude. Plus, could AI do crypto in before quantum computers?

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What happened to Bitcoin on Feb. 5? And why does the apex crypto continue to underperform?

DeFi Development Corp investment chief Parker White has some theories. In this Unchained podcast episode, Parker walks Laura Shin through them as they gain traction on X.

At the center of it all is non-crypto Hong Kong fund and another fund that may be executing a ‘Big Short’-style trade using derivatives.

Listen to find out why Parker is so convinced.

Guest:

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

Figure is giving away $25,000 in USDC. Deposit into Democratized Prime, earn ~9% APY hourly—and every $1 you keep in for 25 days is 1 entry.

Enter here

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Bitcoin slid toward $60,000 on Feb. 5 in a brutal, cross-asset selloff that hit gold, equities, and crypto alike. With leverage unwinding and basis trades breaking, long-time bitcoin holders are distributing to institutional buyers who, by 13F data, are mostly underwater. The mood across digital assets is bleak.

Against that backdrop, Nic Carter of Castle Island Ventures argues that key Bitcoin narratives have quietly failed—and warns that developers’ inaction on quantum risk could open the door to institutional control. If devs don’t act, Carter says ETF giants like BlackRock will.

The panel then widens the lens: declaring the token-centric VC model dead, debating whether AI now rivals the industrial revolution, and stress-testing it all across topics ranging from Solana vs. Hyperliquid to Japan’s political shift and MrBeast’s fintech play.

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Hosts:

Guest:

Nic Carter, Founding Partner at Castle Island Ventures

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Crypto Tax Girl

LayerZero Labs is making bold promises with its coming Zero Blockchain. 2 million transactions per second per node. A thousandth of a penny per transaction. No compromises to decentralization. The big question is how?!

In this Unchained podcast episode, LayerZero Labs CEO Bryan Pellegrino explains how the team was able to crack scalability by fixing blockchain storage and rethinking the crypto industry's approach to zero knowledge technology.

With the blockchain already boasting partners such as Citadel Securities, DTCC and ICE, will Zero be the blockchain institutions decide to build on?

Guest:

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The ERC-8004 standard for trustless AI agent interactions is finally live on mainnet!

In this Unchained episode, Ethereum Foundation AI Lead Davide Crapis joins to explain what the standard is, how it works, how it’s protected against manipulation, and what's next.

Listen to find out his most interesting experience building the project and tips for builders looking to start businesses around AI agents.

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Vitalik Buterin just dropped a bombshell: the L2 vision no longer makes sense. Meanwhile, AI coding agents are going parabolic.

In this monster episode of Uneasy Money, Ethereum Foundation Head of Developer Growth Austin Griffith and Optimism co-founder Karl Floersch join hosts Kain Warwick and Taylor Monahan to unpack the reasoning behind Vitalik's remarks and debate whether Ethereum needs L2s to pull institutions.

They also take a deep dive into the OpenClaw and Moltbook craze and Austin shares how he has different agents running on different machines, including one that texts his wife good morning everyday. Is “AI the new UI?”

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Fuse

In one week, OpenClaw agents have gotten their own social networking platform, launched cryptocurrency tokens and built a site to rent humans.

In this episode of Unchained, DAIS Global Chair Michael Casey and The Exponentialist co-founder David Mattin explore what Moltbook reveals about the direction of the AI trend, how AI could impact jobs and what a post-human economy looks like. Will Bitcoin be the currency of the future?

Don't miss Michael's sovereign AI thesis and how Mattin believes we can navigate the transition to a post-human society.

Hint: “lean into your weirdness.”

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