Unchained

By Laura Shin

Crypto assets and blockchain technology are about to transform every trust-based interaction of our lives, from financial services to identity to the Internet of Things. In this podcast, host Laura Sh... more

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FAQs about Unchained:

How many episodes does Unchained have?

The podcast currently has 871 episodes available.

Unchained episodes:

March 21, 2023Why Caitlin Long and Meltem Demirors Are Worried About Crypto’s Future in the US - Ep. 470
Caitlin Long, founder and CEO of Custodia Bank, and Meltem Demirors, chief strategy officer of CoinShares, share their concerns about crypto in the U.S. following a wild week in the banking sector. With Signature Bank’s takeover looking like a targeted takedown and crypto-friendly upstarts like Custodia being shadowbanned by the Fed, the two longtime experts look ahead at the fights to come. Is USDC next to land in regulators’ crosshairs?
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights:
how crypto is viewed as a “big, scary, and strange” industry
how Signature and Silvergate became so important for the crypto industry with SEN and Signet
why Caitlin says it’s “crystal clear” that we are now in Operation Choke Point 2.0, with U.S. regulators pushing to debank the crypto industry
why Caitlin says the Fed’s vote against Custodia’s application was preordained
whether Sen. Elizabeth Warren had an impact on the current crisis
how everything comes down to game theory
whether VCs are responsible for causing the bank run
whether the rollback in 2018 of certain provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act played a role in the recent collapse
Caitlin’s hot takes on what happened with Signature Bank
the unique characteristics of Custodia’s business model as a bank
how stablecoins challenge the current financial system
why it’s so important for crypto to improve its public perception
Thank you to our sponsors!
Crypto.com
Halborn
Guests:
Meltem Demirors, Chief Strategy Officer at CoinShares
Caitlin Long, founder and CEO of Custodia Bank
Links
Previous coverage of Unchained:
Jim Bianco on Why the Banking System Has Always Been Broken
The Fed Is In Checkmate: What Will Powell Do?
The Fall of SVB: What Happened and How It Affects Crypto
NYT: Congress Approves First Big Dodd-Frank Rollback
NYMAG: Barney Frank Talks More About the Surprise Shuttering of Signature Bank
WSJ Editorial Board: Signature Bank’s Crypto Execution
Unchained:
FDIC Denies Asking Signature Buyers to Give Up Crypto: Report
Was Signature Bank Actually Insolvent?
Circle to Bring On New Banking Partner for USDC Minting, Redemption
Circle Clears Backlog of USDC Minting and Redemption Requests
Regulators Close Signature Bank Following SVB Collapse
Silvergate to Wind Down Operations in ‘Voluntary Liquidation’

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1h 18min
March 17, 2023Jim Bianco on Why the Banking System Has Always Been Broken - Ep. 469
Jim Bianco, president and macro strategist at Bianco Research, explains what’s causing the recent cascade of bank failures. Yield seekers taking their money elsewhere are putting banks under strain. However, the Signature Bank takeover by New York regulators is “a little fishy,” Bianco says. He adds that DeFi has been holding up strong, providing an “alternative to this unstable system that we have right now.”

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights:
why Jim thinks this is a liquidity crisis, not a solvency crisis
the role of crypto and tech startups in the recent bank run
how people have been pulling out of crypto in the past 18 months
why the traditional fractional reserve system for banks is broken
why crypto projects like Aave and Compound are solutions
why Jim says the Fed is a “legal counterfeiter”
why money moving around so fast is a challenge to our antiquated financial system
whether Signet, Signature Bank’s digital payments platform, is the real reason why regulators shut the bank down
whether the Fed will succeed or fail with FedNow, its instant payment system
Thank you to our sponsors!
Crypto.com
Railgun DAO
Guest
Jim Bianco, President and founder of Bianco Research

Links
Unchained:
The Fall of SVB: What Happened and How It Affects Crypto
Was Signature Bank Actually Insolvent?
Circle to Bring On New Banking Partner for USDC Minting, Redemption
Regulators Close Signature Bank Following SVB Collapse
Silvergate to Wind Down Operations in ‘Voluntary Liquidation’
CNBC: Long-awaited Fed digital payment system to launch in July
Ram Ahluwalia’s tweet on the Fed

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46min
March 16, 2023The Chopping Block: Was Crypto Just Debanked? - Ep. 468
Welcome to “The Chopping Block” – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Robert Leshner, Tom Schmidt, and Tarun Chitra chop it up about the latest news. This week: Silicon Valley Bank went belly up and knocked USDC off its peg with it. For good measure, Signature Bank was taken over by regulators. After a hellish weekend, what did we learn?

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights:
what happened with Silicon Valley Bank
why USDC depegged and reached a low of 88 cents
how Maker responded to the depegging of USDC
whether DeFi responded flawlessly to the chaotic events
how Haseeb’s VC fund, Dragonfly, was ensnared in SVB’s collapse
what Tarun thinks made Elizabeth Warren change her tune on SVB
whether Signature Bank was shut down because of its crypto-related activities
why bonds are not marked to market by banks
which company is going to issue the euro-dollar stablecoin
how BTC has been outperforming the NASDAQ since the FTX collapse
how Euler Finance got hacked for almost $200 million
whether flash loans should be banned
the rules around crypto and finance in the Middle East
why DeFi is a fundamental innovation that’s better than many financial systems across the world
Hosts
Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly
Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures
Robert Leshner, founder of Compound
Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly
DisclosuresLinks
Unchained:
The Fall of SVB: What Happened and How It Affects Crypto
Was Signature Bank Actually Insolvent?
Euler Finance Loses $197 Million in Flash Loan Exploit
MakerDAO to Reinforce DAI Peg With Parameter Changes
Circle to Bring On New Banking Partner for USDC Minting, Redemption
Coinbase Says It Holds $240 Million in Cash at Signature Bank
Regulators Close Signature Bank Following SVB Collapse
Silvergate to Wind Down Operations in ‘Voluntary Liquidation’

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1h 7min
March 14, 2023How Will ETH React to Ethereum’s Shanghai Upgrade? - Ep. 467
ETH staking began in December 2020. With Ethereum’s Shanghai upgrade, which could happen as early as mid-April, withdrawals of staked ETH will finally be enabled. Will validators rush to cash out? Or will Shanghai bring more institutional stakers into the fold? Christine Kim, VP of research at Galaxy Digital, joins the show to discuss how Etheruem’s latest upgrade will affect the network, and maybe even ETH’s price.

Show highlights:
how Christine became an Ethereum expert
what you need to know about Ethereum’s Shanghai upgrade
when Shanghai is expected to go live on mainnet
what the difference is between Shanghai and Capella
possible outcomes following the activation of staked ETH withdrawals
whether Shanghai makes ETH staking more attractive to institutions
why Christine thinks there won’t be much impact on ETH’s price
how Shanghai will impact liquid staking providers
upgrades that are coming to Lido and Rocket Pool
what will happen in Ethereum’s subsequent upgrade: Cancun
what “proto-danksharding” is and how it will help Ethereum scale
what New York Attorney General Letitia James got wrong when she said ETH is a security
how Ethereum development has become more and more decentralized over the years
the next steps in Ethereum’s roadmap
why Christine is still concerned about Lido and staking centralization
what zkEVMs are and why they play a key role in the future of Ethereum scaling
Thank you to our sponsors!
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FTSE
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Guest:
Christine Kim, Vice president of research at Galaxy Digital
Twitter
Links
Post-Merge, If Lido Becomes Dominant, What Does That Mean for Ethereum?
In the Recent Crypto Market Meltdown, What Role Did Lido’s stETH Play?
Is ETH on Its Way to Becoming Ultra-Sound Money? Yes, Says Justin Drake
ETHDenver presentation: Staked ETH Withdrawals: A Step-By-Step Overview with Christine Kim

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1h 3min
March 11, 2023The Chopping Block: Arthur Hayes on Why Crypto Needs to Ditch the Banks - Ep. 466
BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes, fresh out of home confinement after settling charges with the U.S. government, joins “The Chopping Block” with Haseeb Qureshi, Robert Leshner, and Tarun Chitra. The early crypto pioneer pulls no punches in his assessment of SBF, TradFi’s failings, and how crypto traders lost the plot in trusting CeFi middlemen.

Show highlights:
why Arthur travels with stuffed animals, and what his favorite brands are
what factors led Sam Bankman-Fried to success
how Bill Clinton seems to be related to many multibillion-dollar downfalls
whether everyone in crypto thinks that prices are eventually going up
what’s the thesis behind Maelstrom, Arthur’s new investment arm
why he’s bullish on decentralization but also game to trade “dog shit”
what the impact of Silvergate’s failure will be on the crypto industry
what would Arthur have done if he was the CEO of Silvergate
the role of rising interest rates in understanding Silvergate’s downfall
why holding Tether’s USDT is not so different from USDC
why crypto needs alternatives to dollar-backed stablecoins
the real reasons why the U.S. Treasury is worried about stablecoins
Hosts
Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly
Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures
Robert Leshner, founder of Compound
Guest
Arthur Hayes, cofounder of BitMEX
Twitter
Medium
DisclosuresLinks
Unchained:
Silvergate to Wind Down Operations in ‘Voluntary Liquidation’
Silvergate Confers With FDIC to Avoid Closing Down: Report
Silvergate Shuts Down Crypto Payments Network
Bloomberg: Silvergate Had a Crypto Bank Run
NYMAG: Arthur Hayes, the Original King of Crypto, Is Back.
Arthur’s posts:
White Boy
Dust on Crust

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1h
March 10, 2023Grayscale v. SEC: Who Won This Week’s Hearing? - Ep. 465
Elliott Stein, senior litigation analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, shares his insights from a court hearing this week on the SEC’s rejection of Grayscale’s bid to convert GBTC into a spot bitcoin ETF. Stein says federal appellate court judges seemed skeptical of the SEC’s arguments for why bitcoin futures ETFs are OK while bitcoin spot ETFs aren’t. Who’s likely to win the case and what does it mean for the crypto industry as a whole?

Show highlights:
why Grayscale filed the lawsuit against the SEC
why Grayscale believes that a bitcoin futures ETF is essentially the same as a spot ETF
what the SEC disagrees
why the judges pushed back against the SEC’s arguments
why Elliott changed his mind about who will win the case after the hearing
what would happen if Grayscale ends up winning the lawsuit and whether the SEC could go back on its previous approvals
whether other companies applying for a bitcoin spot ETF would benefit from Grayscale winning the case
whether this case could have an impact on the jurisdictional battle between the SEC and the CFTC
why Elliott is keeping an eye on other cases such as Ripple, Terraform Labs, and insider trading at Coinbase
Thank you to our sponsors!
Crypto.com
Railgun DAO
Previous coverage of Unchained on Grayscale and GBTC:
Why Grayscale Is Suing the SEC Over Its Denial of a Bitcoin ETF
$5 Billion in AUM: Why Growth at Grayscale Exploded in the Last Quarter
Bitwise's Latest Plans to Get a Bitcoin ETF Approved
DCG's Dilemma: Should It Sell Its GBTC Holdings to Repay Gemini?
Gemini vs. DCG Is Heating Up. Could Gemini Force Genesis Into Bankruptcy?
‘The Last Big Whale’: Why the Crypto Contagion of 2022 Eventually Hit Genesis
Guest
Elliott Stein, Senior Litigation Analyst for the Financials Sector at Bloomberg Intelligence
Twitter

Links
CoinDesk:
Judges Express Skepticism of SEC Arguments in Grayscale Bitcoin ETF Hearing
A Dozen Reasons Why the SEC Should Have Approved Grayscale's Spot Bitcoin ETF
Axios: Judges question SEC rejection of Grayscale's spot bitcoin ETF
Reuters: US court questions SEC's rejection of Grayscale's bitcoin fund proposal
Don Verrilli

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38min
March 07, 2023ETH Denver Debate: Should Testnet ETH Be Free or Have a Price? - Ep. 464
LayerZero launched a testnet bridge that allows users to swap mainnet ETH for Goerli ETH (GoETH), which led to a sudden emergence of a liquid market for GoETH tokens.
This was a hugely controversial decision, as many in the Ethereum community believe that testnet tokens should remain free.

At ETH Denver, Laura moderated a panel discussion about this hot topic with Bryan Pellegrino, cofounder and CEO of LayerZero Labs, Greg Markou, founder of Chainsafe and Matt Garnett, software engineer for the Ethereum Foundation.

Show highlights:
why LazerZero launched a testnet bridge for Goerli ETH (GoETH)
the three reasons why Greg is opposed to Goerli ETH having a price
why Bryan believes it is impossible for a permissionless testnet to have free tokens
the three types of constituencies that use testnets
whether the Sepolia testnet solves the issues with Goerli
the upcoming Holli testnet and the problems it aims to solve
how to create a permissionless testnet that takes into account the needs of developers from all over the world
whether LayerZero’s move will create more problems in the future
Thank you to our sponsors!
Crypto.com
FTSE
Halborn
Panel
Bryan Pellegrino, cofounder and CEO of LayerZero Labs.
Greg Markou, founder of Chainsafe
Matt Garnett, software engineer for the Ethereum Foundation

Links:
Unchained: Goerli Testnet ETH Is Now Being Monetized
CoinDesk: Start of the End? Testnet Goerli Ether Spikes to $1.60 as Traders Jump on Opportunity Meant for Developers
LayerZero blog post: Public Goods by LayerZero.
Alchemy: What is the Sepolia testnet?
Ethereum (ETH) Developer Announces Plan To Launch New ‘Holli’ Testnet Later This Year

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

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47min
March 04, 2023The Chopping Block: Is Coinbase’s Base ‘the Binance Smart Chain for White People’? - Ep. 463
In-person at ETH Denver, crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, and Tarun Chitra chop it up about the latest crypto news. This week, Kyle Samani, scion of Solana, joins the show.

Show highlights:
why Coinbase decided to launch Base, a layer 2 on Ethereum and whether developers are building on it
how Coinbase might make money from it
whether it will be a permissioned, KYC’ed chain that requires users to reveal their identities
Kyle's opinion on the allegedly fraudulent operations of FTX, in which his firm, Multicoin Capital, was an investor
how due diligence changed in the investing space after the collapse of FTX
what the future of Paxos looks like now that its primary source of revenue, BUSD, was impacted
why Kyle thinks the latest nearly 20-hour outage of Solana is different from previous outages
what he’s excited about in Solana now
how Jump, a VC firm, was able to “hack back” $150 million in previously stolen assets after a court order
Hosts
Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly
Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures
Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly
Guest
Kyle Samani, managing partner at Multicoin Capital
Disclosures

Links
Base
Unchained:
Coinbase Launches Ethereum Layer 2 Network ‘Base’
Video
Solana
Unchained: Solana Attempts Two Chain Restarts After Near 20-Hour Outage
FTX
Unchained: FTX’s Nishad Singh Charged With Fraud After Guilty Plea
Wormhole
Coindesk: Oasis Exploits Its Own Wallet Software to Seize Crypto Stolen in Wormhole Hack

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48min
March 03, 2023Bitcoin Ordinal NFTs Are Hot and Getting Hotter. What's the Hype About? - Ep. 462
Muneeb Ali, co-creator of Stacks, discusses the Bitcoin trend that has everyone – or at least, many Bitcoiners – buzzing: Bitcoin ordinals. Ali explains why it is that they’ve taken up block space, pushed Bitcoin fees higher, and caused controversy in the community. Plus, he explains why the phenomenon has generated excitement about Stacks.

Show highlights:
how Ordinals technology works to enable NFTs in the Bitcoin blockchain
the difference between NFTs in smart contracts platforms like Ethereum vs. NFTs in Bitcoin
the way in which the Taproot upgrade allowed Ordinals technology to exist
what security measures to take in order to protect one’s Bitcoin NFTs
why the Bitcoin maxi community reacted negatively to Ordinals
why Stacks jumped so much in price after the release of Ordinals
what Muneeb thinks is the significance of Yuga Labs launching NFTs on Bitcoin
Thank you to our sponsors!
Crypto.com
Railgun DAO
Guest
Muneeb Ali, co-creator of Stacks
Twitter
Previous appearance on Unchained: Blockstack On Getting Independence From Google, Facebook And Amazon
Links
Unchained: BAYC Creator Yuga Labs to Launch Bitcoin Ordinal NFTs
Decrypt: What Are Ordinals? A Beginner's Guide to Bitcoin NFTs
Dune: Ordinals - Inscriptions on Bitcoin
Episodes about Bitcoin mentioned in the show:
Does Maximalism Help or Hurt Bitcoin? Lyn Alden and Udi Wertheimer Debate
Eric Wall and Udi Wertheimer on Why Bitcoin Maximalism Is ‘Like a Shitcoin Community’
Is Bitcoin Doomed to Fail? Eric Wall and Justin Bons Face Off

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40min
February 28, 2023Have Crypto Detectives Killed the Cypherpunk Dream? - Ep. 461
Andy Greenberg, senior writer for WIRED and author of “Tracers in the Dark,” takes us inside the world of crypto-tracing crimebusters and voices the ambivalence of Bitcoin – a cypherpunk creation – eroding financial privacy. Hear how the longtime crypto scribe got law enforcement and sleuthing firms like Chainalysis to open up about their major wins in taking down darknet kingpins.

Show highlights:
why Andy thought early on that Bitcoin would enable crypto anarchy
how blockchain analytics started being used to tackle crime
why the IRS Criminal Investigation unit was more open to discussing its techniques
how Andy learned many new things about already well-known stories when writing about them for the book
the methods used to bring down the “biggest dark-web drug lord” in history
did AlphaBay’s Alexandre Cazes really kill himself in a Thai prison?
how researcher Sarah Meiklejohn developed tools to deanonymize Bitcoin
why she’s now uncomfortable that her techniques were adopted by Chainalysis and sold to law enforcement
what Andy feels about the importance of privacy
how Monero is harder to trace than Bitcoin but not untraceable
what the impact of zero-knowledge technology will be for blockchain analytics firms
whether the cypherpunk ethos is dead
why the mystery of Satoshi Nakamoto’s identity will never die
Thank you to our sponsors!
Crypto.com
FTSE
Halborn
NYU
Guest
Andy Greenberg, senior writer for WIRED and author of “Tracers in the Dark: The Global Hunt for the Crime Lords of Cryptocurrency”
Twitter
Writings for WIRED
Tracers in the Dark: The Global Hunt for the Crime Lords of Cryptocurrency
Links:
WIRED:
The Hunt for the Kingpin Behind AlphaBay, Part 1: The Shadow
The Hunt for the Kingpin Behind AlphaBay, Part 2: Pimp_alex_91
The Hunt for the Kingpin Behind AlphaBay, Part 3: Alpha Male
De-Anonymization in Bitcoin with Sarah Meiklejohn | a16z crypto research talks
Wikipedia: Welcome to Video case

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1h 12min

FAQs about Unchained:

How many episodes does Unchained have?

The podcast currently has 871 episodes available.