Unchained

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Fresh off the launch of Ignition Chain, Aztec’s co-founders Zac Williamson and Joe Andrews discuss why they’re rolling out a privacy-preserving L2 now, how they’re approaching decentralization from the start, and why they chose a token sale instead of the airdrop model.

They also explain why they believe most L2s have evolved into “parasitic” ecosystems, how Aztec plans to avoid those incentives, what the AZTEC token is meant to do, and what’s changed in the broader privacy renaissance across crypto.

Guests:

Zac Williamson, Cofounder of Aztec Network

Joe Andrews, Co-founder and President of Aztec Network

Unchained: 

Vitalik Unveils New Ethereum Privacy Toolkit 'Kohaku'

ETH's HTTP Moment? How Ethereum Interop Layer Hopes to Fix L2 Fragmentation

Zcash Developer Reveals Q4 Roadmap

What’s the Best Way for Ethereum to Grow? Justin Drake and Martin Köppelmann Debate

Why the Privacy Coins Mania Is Much More Than Price Action

CoinDesk: Privacy-Focused Aztec Network's Ignition Chain Lights Up 

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President Donald Trump's pick for chair, Mike Selig, has cleared the Senate Agriculture Committee just as lawmakers look set to hand over crypto oversight to the agency.

In this episode, former CFTC Chair Chris Giancarlo joins Unchained Executive Editor Steven Ehrlich to unpack Selig's Senate hearing. Chris shares his experience working with Mike, why the CFTC should get more resources to handle crypto and crypto's unique commodity trading structure.

He also touches on the challenges the agency could face regulating crypto, whether exchanges should be allowed to continue performing several functions under one umbrella, the timeline for CLARITY and the regulatory path ahead for prediction markets.

Host:

Steve Ehrlich, Executive Editor at Unchained

J. Christopher Giancarlo, Former Commissioner of the CTFC

Unchained:

Prospective CFTC Chair Says It’s ‘Vitally Important to Have a Cop On The Beat’ in Crypto

Senate Committee Shares Bipartisan Draft on Crypto Market Structure Bill

The Chopping Block: When Wall Street Meets DeFi — How Equity Perps and RWAs Redefine Leverage On-Chain

DEX in the City: Are Prediction Markets Gambling, and Who Should Regulate Them?

Polymarket Quietly Relaunches in U.S. in Beta Mode: Report

Timestamps:

🚀 00:00 Introduction 

⚡️1:41 Chris details his experience working with Mike Selig

🤔 6:34 Does the CFTC have enough resources to handle crypto?

📽 10:34 Crypto’s unique commodity trading structure

🧱 13:37 The challenges the CFTC could face with crypto's unique trading structure

🤔 15:15 Should crypto exchanges remain vertically integrated?

💡17:25 How DeFi should be regulated

🧏 20:46 Why Chris says crypto perps do not need new laws

🔮 24:49 Mike's confirmation timeline

💥 25:46 Why prediction markets are important

👀 27:57 Why Chris compares the regulatory trajectory of prediction markets to Uber

💡 28:57 What regulations could look like for prediction markets

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Bitcoin keeps drifting lower — and traders are asking the same question: where’s the floor?

Host Steve Ehrlich brings on Markus Thielen, CEO of 10x Research, to walk through Bitcoin’s technical setup, ETF flows, institutional positioning, and why the recent selloff looks different from past dips.

Markus lays out the metrics he’s watching, the levels that matter, and why the path downward may still be the path of least resistance. He also shares his views on Ethereum, altcoins, digital asset treasuries, and why some investors are stepping away from risk entirely.

Host:

Steve Ehrlich, Executive Editor at Unchained

Markus Thielen, CEO of 10x Research

Timestamps:

🎬 0:00 Introduction

📉 1:39 Why Markus is not optimistic about the current market

🐻 3:23 How he defines a bear market — and why we may already be in one

📊 8:02 The key metric institutions are watching and Bitcoin’s next support level

🔁 13:14 How to spot when a real rebound might be forming

🪙 17:29 Markus’ views on ETH and what catalysts could matter

⚠️ 19:57 Why Markus warns that “you don’t want to be exposed to anything”

🏦 22:10 Digital asset treasuries and what ETF flows are signaling

🧱 28:54How staking inside ETFs threatens DATs

🔮 34:35 What Markus expects to happen by year-end

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The Chopping Block unpacks crypto’s DATpocalypse — NAVs collapsing, volumes drying up, and consolidation on the horizon. Plus: Vitalik sparks a wave of quantum panic, what Q-Day really means for Bitcoin and smart-contract chains, and why “qubits per share” might become the next great crypto meme.

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 opens with the DATpocalypse: almost every DAT is now below NAV, volumes have collapsed outside Bitmine and MicroStrategy, and the market is finally confronting what happens when issuances outrun demand. We get into consolidation talk, preferred-share experiments, capital-structure pivots, and whether any DAT should actually be selling crypto to buy back shares at a discount.

Then we shift into quantum mania. Vitalik’s “2028” comment lit up Q-Day fears, and we separate genuine hardware progress from pure panic. We discuss why post-quantum upgrades are simple for Bitcoin but brutal for stateful chains, and how hype alone could trigger a wave of “quantum-resistant” speculation. And yes — the running gag: DATs using quantum machines to steal Satoshi’s coins.

Tough markets, weird narratives, and institutions quietly holding the line. Let’s get into it.

Show highlights

🔹 DATpocalypse — Most DATs now trade below NAV; Bitmine and MicroStrategy dominate the only real volume.

🔹 Supply & Demand — Issuances outpaced buyers; M/NAV compresses toward 1 across the entire class.

🔹 Consolidation watch — Sub-scale DATs may merge to form multi-billion-dollar vehicles that can compete.

🔹 New financing era — Preferreds, debt, and MicroStrategy-style capital engineering become the next playbook.

🔹 Buyback dilemma — Trading at 0.5× NAV suggests selling crypto to buy shares—if liquidity exists.

🔹 Retail gone, institutions steady — Tokens follow the 4-year retail cycle; equity deals reflect institutional conviction.

🔹 Token vs equity split — Depressed token markets contrast with mega equity raises like Kraken’s $20B round.

🔹 AI distraction — Retail rotates into Nvidia/AI stocks, starving page-2 tokens of attention.

🔹 Quantum mania — Vitalik’s “2028” comment triggers Q-Day fears, despite quantum still being far from breaking ECC.

🔹 Post-quantum headaches — Bitcoin is easy to migrate; Ethereum/Solana transitions will be complex and messy.

🔹 Q-Day = Y2K energy — Expect years of hype and “quantum-resistant” pumps before reality catches up.

🔹 Qubits-per-share meme — DATs running quantum computers to steal Satoshi coins becomes the episode’s running gag.

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 

⁠Disclosures

Timestamps

00:00 Intro 

01:14 BTC Breaks Down

02:52 DATpocalypse Begins

05:01 DAT Playbooks & Buybacks

20:48 Equity Boom, Token Bust

28:00 Retail vs. Institutions

34:01 Quantum Panic Hits Crypto

41:45 Post-Quantum Problems

46:32 Road to Q-Day & Y2K Vibes

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In this episode of Uneasy Money, hosts Kain Warwick, Luca Netz and Taylor Monohan explore how the recent ICO boom compares with the 2017 era. 

They share stories of some of the big names from the past, including Kain's struggles after raising 30,000 ETH at the cycle top. Plus Luca shares what it takes for founders to thrive in crypto.

They also unpack the “FUD” surrounding Hyperliquid following the infamous Oct. 10 crypto crash. Moreover, they discussed what Multicoin's investment in Ethena revealed about Kyle Samani, and potential black swan risks facing the project.

Hosts:

Luca Netz, CEO of Pudgy Penguins

Kain Warwick, Founder of Infinex and Synthetix

Taylor Monahan, Security at MetaMask

Unchained:

Monad ICO on Coinbase Fizzles 12 Hours After Launch

Uneasy Money: ICOs Are Back and Why Airdrops Are Instantly Dumped

The Chopping Block: Tokenomics Reset — ICOs Rise, UNI Turns On Fees, MEV Goes to Court

Hyperliquid Founder Denies Claims That DEX Prioritizes Revenue Over Traders

The Chopping Block: Inside the $19B+ Perp Crash, ADL Explained, Binance’s USDe/Staked-Token Depeg, and the Hyperliquid Whale Debate

Ethena Labs Expands to Support Two New Products

Timestamps:

🚀00:00 Introduction 

🎞 1:12 How the new ICO meta compares to the old days

❕️13:48 Why Luca would still airdrop PENGU despite the ICO craze

📽 16:19 New v. Old ICO meta cont'd

😬 26:00 Kain talks about raising 30,000 ETH at the 2017 top

💡27:49 Luca explains what it takes for founders to thrive in crypto

🤕 31:01 Hyperliquid “FUD” and why some of its celebrity whale traders are leaving

➰️45:18 The tension that Hyperliquid faces: protecting the protocol over users

🤔 47:32 Will a new perp DEX champion emerge?

📈 54:03 Multicoin goes long Ethena

🥊54:27 Kain's beef with Multicoin 

🎞 59:52 Luca's history with Multicoin 

⚠️ 1:01:43 The real black swan scenario for Ethena

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The rise of Ethereum layer 2s has created a need for interoperability. While several solutions have emerged over the years, Ethereum Interop Layer promises to be trustless.

At Ethereum Devconnect, the EF’s  developers Yoav Weiss and Marissa Posner join Unchained to explain why trustlessness is necessary for interoperability.

They also delve into how EIL differs from NEAR Intents and how it could unlock new use cases and spark an explosion of activity on Ethereum.

Guests:

Marissa Posner, Product on the Account and Chain Abstraction Team at the Ethereum Foundation

Yoav Weiss, Research on the Account and Chain Abstraction Team at the Ethereum Foundation

Unchained:

Zcash Developer Reveals Q4 Roadmap

What’s the Best Way for Ethereum to Grow? Justin Drake and Martin Köppelmann Debate

Why the Privacy Coins Mania Is Much More Than Price Action

Timestamps:

🚀00:00 Introduction

🤔4:11 What is Ethereum Interop Layer?

🤷‍♂️5:20 What Ethereum Interop Layer is trying to solve

📍7:08 Marissa explains why trustlessness is necessary for interoperability

⛓️8:21 Yoav describes the current state of L2 fragmentation

🔮9:17 How Yoav and Marissa came to work on EIL

⚙️11:53 How EIL works

🔬18:10 How EIL compares to NEAR Intents

🤔22:19 Does EIL bring new security risks?

🚀23:12 Can EIL unlock Ethereum’s HTTP moment?

📌28:26 What EIL wouldn’t make sense for

💭30:09 How EIL can supercharge wallets

📆34:18 EIL’s mainnet timeline

💥35:51 Whether EIL could lead to an explosion of Ethereum activity

⛓️39:06 Why chain security matters

🤔41:17 Does EIL increase attack vectors?

🔮43:20 The future of bridges

📜45:31 The trustless manifesto

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In the second episode of DEX in the City, hosts Jessi Brooks of Ribbit Capital, Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos of StarkWare and Vy Le of Veda discuss the recent spat between former Securities and Exchange Commission Chief of Staff Amanda Fischer and the cryptocurrency community over changes to Uniswap's model.

They also delve into the return of Initial Coin Offerings now branded as “public token sales.” At the same time, they dissect the legal uncertainties plaguing prediction markets and discuss the state of mainstream crypto adoption despite recent market volatility.

Hosts:

Jessi Brooks, Ribbit Capital

Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos, General Counsel at StarkWare

TuongVy Le, General Counsel at Veda

Unchained:

Uniswap Fee Switch Proposal Sparks 50% UNI Rally

The Chopping Block: Tokenomics Reset — ICOs Rise, UNI Turns On Fees, MEV Goes to Court

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

Coinbase Launches Digital Token Sales Platform

UFC Partners With Polymarket to Launch Real-Time Fan Prediction Scoreboard in Live Fight Broadcasts

Crypto Liquidations Top $500 Million as Bitcoin Dips to $93,000

Timestamps:

🚀 00:00 Introduction

⚔️ 2:00 CT v. Amanda Fischer

💥 13:41 The return of ICOs

🧱 21:34 How the SEC botched crypto and lost oversight to the CFTC

🤔 26:43 Are prediction markets gambling?

📈 41:04 Crypto market sentiment heading into the holidays

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Hosts Austin Campbell, Ram Ahluwalia, and Chris Perkins sit down with Patrick Witt, Executive Director of the President’s Council of Advisors for Digital Assets at the White House, to break down the latest updates in the crypto market structure bill and the political calculus behind it.

Patrick discusses how Democrats have started to listen more actively, why DeFi remains one of the most complicated pieces of the bill, and how the administration is thinking about innovation versus incumbency. 

Later, the group turns to markets: whether the Fed is shifting regimes, why institutions move slowly but decisively, and what catalysts could matter most in the months ahead.

Sponsors:

Walrus

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:

Patrick Witt, Executive Director of the President's Council of Advisors for Digital Assets at the White House

Timestamps:

🎬 0:00 Intro

🚀 2:45 Why Patrick calls the Senate Ag draft a “big step forward”

🧩 4:43 How the bill tackles DeFi—and why it’s so complex

🏛️ 5:28 Why the presidency is putting so much weight on crypto policy

📜 7:01 What happens behind the scenes to move a bill like this

🔪 9:39 Whether the bill could get modularized (including pulling DeFi out)

💡 11:22 Why Chris says crypto is simply a better product

📈 13:37 The short- and long-term implications of passing a market-structure bill

🔐 15:22 The KYC/AML problem in permissionless systems

🕵️‍♂️ 22:12 Privacy: finding the balance between user protection and public ledgers

🗳️ 24:08 How Democrats have increasingly joined the conversation

🌅 25:27 Why Patrick is optimistic we’ll get a Senate vote this year

🤖 29:56 How Patrick sees AI + crypto converging into a major opportunity

📊 32:23 What’s happening in markets, and whether a regime shift is underway

🏦 36:40 How institutions are entering, and what keeps them up at night

🎤 38:46 Why Ram calls the Cantor Conference the best for digital assets

💥 41:53 What Paolo Ardoino revealed about the future of Tether

📉 44:43 Signals that typically mark a market top and why spotting winners is so hard

⚡ 51:38 Ram’s key catalysts to watch for the next market leg

📺 54:39 Whether 60 Minutes misrepresented CZ

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Bitcoin continues to look weak, falling through the psychologically important $100,000 level. Is the cycle over?

In this episode, Fairlead Strategies founder Katie Stockton joins Unchained Executive Editor Steve Ehrlich to break down the charts. She explains how the Bitcoin market has changed and Ethereum's potential trajectory.

She also takes a look at the state of the DAT sector and Zcash's steep rise.

Thank you to our sponsors!

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Uniswap

Katie Stockton, Founder and Managing Partner of Fairlead Strategies

Unchained: 

Why the Crypto Markets Seem Down Bad as Bitcoin Dips Below $100K

A Musk-Style Reward? Anthony Pompliano Could Earn $400 Million From ProCap

Canary XRP ETF Set for Nasdaq Launch as Shutdown Ends

Why the Privacy Coins Mania Is Much More Than Price Action

Timestamps:

🚀 0:00 Introduction

📊 3:56 How liquidity impacts crypto market analysis

🎞 5:44 How much history a token needs to do proper market analysis

🎯 7:31 Key market indicators used by Katie

💡 14:19 Why the character of the Bitcoin market has changed

📉 18:36 What to watch as MSTR diverges from Bitcoin

🧱 20:22 Ethereum's next major support level

📈 23:21 The outlook for ETH DAT Bitmine long term

📍25:10 What to watch as spot XRP ETFs go live

🔎 27:54 Does $ZEC still have room to run?

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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 dives into the shift from airdrops to ICOs as Monad, MegaETH, and Coinbase’s new sale format spark a rethink of how tokens should be distributed.

They discuss ICO Beast’s hedging fiasco, why most airdrops fail to create real users, and whether fixed-price ICOs are a better path for long-term alignment. The gang also unpacks Uniswap’s major “unification,” the end of Labs vs. Foundation, and UNI finally becoming the protocol’s value-accrual asset.

In the back half, they touch on the “low carb crusader” MEV trial, the hung jury, and the broader question of whether MEV games belong in criminal court at all.

A concise, high-signal look at where tokenomics, distribution, and crypto’s legal boundaries are heading next.

Show highlights

🔹 ICOs vs Airdrops, Again — Monad & MegaETH reignite the debate: should teams stop airdrop farming meta and lean fully into ICOs?

🔹 The ICOBeast Meltdown — Hedging tweets, revoked allocations, and “airdrop farmers are parasitic” spark a broader conversation about good vs. bad buyers.

🔹 Airdrops = Bad CAC — Most airdrops fail to create real users; the crew argues they’ve become toxic, easily gamed, and deliver almost no retention.

🔹 When Airdrops Actually Work — Only linear, DeFi-native “pay-for-performance” drops (Hyperliquid/Ethena style) reliably build product moats.

🔹 ICOs as the Cleaner Model — Fixed-price, IPO-style sales may be the better path for decentralization, long-term alignment, and selecting real holders.

🔹 Uniswap’s Great Unification — Labs + Foundation merge, fees turn on, 100M UNI burned; UNI becomes the single value-accruing asset at last.

🔹 Post-Lawfare Tokenomics — With Gensler-era pressure gone, protocols can finally ship real economic models without regulatory fear.

🔹 Simple Capital Structures Win — Tokens + companies with split incentives are a trap; unified value flow is the new meta.

🔹 MEV Showdown: Low Carb Crusader — Sandwiching the sandwichers leads to a hung jury; prosecutors want a retrial despite jurors in tears.

🔹 Is This Even Criminal? — The crew questions why murky MEV games get charged while blatant rug pulls go untouched.

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 

⁠Disclosures⁠

Links

Hayden Adams “UNIfication Proposal” 

🔗 https://gov.uniswap.org/t/unification-proposal/25881/1 

Timestamps

00:00 Intro

01:01 ICOBeast x MegaETH Allocation

10:40 Farming Airdrops vs. ICOs

21:00 Uniswap's Fee Switch and UNIfication

27:13 Unifying Shareholders: A New Meta

29:05 Legal & Regulatory Challenges

30:51 Celebrating Uniswap's Milestone

36:38 The MEV Bot Trial

48:36 Facing Accusers in Crypto Cases

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