Unchained

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. In this episode, the crew dives into the Hyperliquid controversy and what it reveals about decentralization theater in DeFi. Then, things get weirder: the Say Foundation wants to buy 23andMe and put your genetic data onchain. We break down the backlash and privacy concerns. Finally, we look at the new Stable Act making its way through Congress and whether stablecoin regulation is headed toward bank-only control.

Show highlights

🔹 Hyperliquid’s JELLYJELLY Debacle – How a DeFi darling nuked its credibility by bailing out its own vault at a fake oracle price

🔹 The Exchange Wars Heat Up – Why Binance and OKX listing JELLYJELLY perps looked like an assassination attempt on Hyperliquid

🔹 Are DEXes Just CEXes in Disguise? – What the Hyperliquid saga reveals about decentralization theater and validator capture

🔹 23andMe on the Blockchain – Say Foundation wants to token-gate your DNA; is this privacy-preserving or dystopian?

🔹 The Great DeSci Grift – Tarun revisits his war on DeSci and why putting genetics onchain is worse than memecoins

🔹 Stablecoin Regulation Showdown – The Stable Act vs. The Genius Act and who’s really winning in D.C.

🔹 Stablecoins as Narrow Banks – How crypto may finally force the Fed to accept a 20-year-old idea they’ve long resisted

🔹 Red Bull & Ratio Bets – The hosts make a real-money wager on whether HLP deposits will rise or fall after the meltdown

🔹 Memecoins and the Return of Olympus – Are the robbers now just quietly collecting rent from their broken treasuries?

🔹 Tarun’s Aesthetic Death Rankings – Why JELLYJELLY is a worse way to die than MobileCoin, but at least it’s on brand

⭐️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 

Kevin Zhou (Galois Capital) Tweet: https://x.com/Galois_Capital/status/1904942458666094932 

Steil and Hill Introduce STABLE Act Press Release: https://steil.house.gov/media/press-releases/steil-and-hill-introduce-stable-act 

Timestamps

00:00 Intro

01:29 Hyperliquid Drama Unfolds

10:49 Debating the Bailout Decision

18:28 OKX & Binance Join 

23:05 An FTX Moment?

31:45 Future of 23andMe & SEI

44:20 Stablecoin Legislation: Genius Act vs. Stable Act

51:45 Are Stablecoins the Trojan Horse?

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Perpetual swap DEX Hyperliquid suffered a whale attack and was on the brink of losing $15 million. It promptly responded in a way that generated a fair amount of controversy.

The founder and CEO of Ambient Finance Doug Colkitt joined the show to explain:

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

Timestamps:

👋 0:00 Intro

🤔 02:59 What is Hyperliquid?

🐳 05:16 How a whale used $JELLY to attack

⛔ 09:19 How Hyperliquid responded

📈 11:59 Why did Binance and OKX suddenly list the memecoin?

🤔 16:32 How did Hyperliquid ‘change the rules’ to protect themselves?

⚖️ 19:25 ‘Losses for thee, but not for me’: Hyperliquid’s hypocrisy?

💡 24:39 Doug’s ‘cleaner’ solution

👀 28:35 Will this have positive or negative knock-on effects?

🧹 31:20 Tidying up illiquid markets

📰 32:46 Crypto News Recap

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Investors are still licking their wounds from this month’s corrections. But just as Trump’s tariffs are about to move into full-force, our experts are seeing silver linings and causes for optimism.

With conflicting signals coming from all corners of the map, hosts Noelle Acheson, Ram Ahluwalia, Alex Kruger, and Felix Jauvin break down:

• Bitwise

Incoming Trump Tariffs

FOMC Meeting

Animal Spirits Return

BlackRock

Fidelity Tokenization

• CoinDesk: Fidelity Files for Onchain U.S. Treasury Fund, Joining the Asset Tokenization Race

Timestamps:

👋 0:00 Intro

📉 2:16 Why investors are nervous about April 2nd

🌎 4:40 Two ways to think about tariffs

☯️ 6:56 The difference between retail and professional traders

🏦 8:44 Why the Fed is predicting a worst-case scenario

📈 12:08 Why the correction is largely done

💰 19:20 How the Mag7 got its groove back

🏛️ 20:42 Are Bessent and Powell more aligned than thought?

🚀 22:54 BlackRock says a recession is good for bitcoin?

🥇 24:54 Altcoin ETF race about to start?

🎌 28:41 Why Japan is irrelevant right now

🐂 30:42 Why animal spirits are back

⛓️ 35:03 The great financial unshackling

📈 38:02 Is ether ready for a comeback?

✅ 42:09 Why Fidelity is tokenizing on Ethereum

📈📉 44:32 Are pump and dumps over?

🇪🇺 49:32 Dumb money coming to Europe?

🐙 52:35 Why Kraken made a smart buy this week

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As Ethereum deploys Pectra, it faces stiff competition and community criticism. Ethereum Foundation Research co-leads Alex Stokes and Barnabe Monnot map out the chain’s direction.

Ethereum is well on its way to some major upgrades, with Pectra and Fusaka introducing a number of performance improvements in the near future. But will it be enough to stay ahead of the competition?

Ethereum Foundation Research co-leads Alex Stokes and Barnabe Monnot join the show to discuss:

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

• Bitwise

Timestamps:

👋 0:00 Intro

🪝 2:05 How Barnabe and Alex got hooked on Ethereum development

⚙️ 6:37 How Pectra will change Ethereum

🪴 10:35 How does increasing blobs boost Ethereum?

🪲 13:22 Pectra fork bugs on Holeski testnet

🔮 18:38 What’s in the upcoming Fusaka upgrade?

🤯 22:42 How decisions get made in Ethereum and which groups are involved

📈 30:34 Can Ethereum keep up with the competition?

🏁 39:16 Can Ethereum compete by scaling the L1?

🤓 44:02 What are native roll-ups and how do they help Ethereum compete?

🤺 49:26 Native rollups and expanded data availability on Ethereum vs. non-native options

⚰️ 52:22 Is Ethena building its own blockchain the “nail in the coffin” for Ethereum?

👬 1:00:05 Shaking up the EF’s leadership

🤔 1:06:14 Will Etherealize fix Ethereum’s problems?

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Blockchains were supposed to capture the majority of the value in crypto. But what if that’s wrong?

For years, the Fat Protocols Thesis argued that blockchains would be the biggest winners. But new data suggests that apps like Uniswap, Ethena, and others are now out-earning many networks.

Are we watching the rise of “Fat Apps” instead?

On this episode, Ryan Watkins, Co-founder at Syncracy Capital, talks about: 

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

Timestamps:

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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. In this episode, the crew unpacks Ethereum’s existential crisis and whether the rollup-centric roadmap is backfiring. Plus, AI is rapidly changing how crypto is built, traded, and secured—so what happens when blockchain and AI collide? We also dig into Solana’s controversial ad, Ethereum Foundation’s leadership shake-up, and why macro forces are still running the show.

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

Show highlights

🔹 AI’s Invasion of Software Engineering – Why AI is replacing developers & what it means for crypto startups

🔹 Ethereum’s Rollup Reckoning – The “rollup-centric roadmap” was supposed to save Ethereum, but is it actually weakening it?

🔹 The Solana Ad Disaster – How Solana’s political ad backfired & alienated both sides of the aisle

🔹 Is Ethereum Becoming IBM? – Why Ethereum risks getting stuck as the slow-moving corporate giant of crypto

🔹 The Great AI Pivot – Why top engineers are abandoning language models for robotics & what it means for the future

🔹 AI Trading Bots & Crypto Security Risks – How prompt injections could turn AI-powered wallets into honeypots

🔹 Ethereum’s New Leadership – Does the Ethereum Foundation finally have a plan to fix its credibility problem?

🔹 The XRP Bartender Index – The unexpected bar tab metric that tracks XRP market sentiment

🔹 Will AI Replace VCs? – The case for AI-led investment strategies & automated due diligence

⭐️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 

Solana Ad repost by @basedkarbon: https://x.com/basedkarbon/status/1901809992514052319 

Timestamps - 

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The financial market is getting wrecked, inflation is still a problem, and bitcoin isn’t acting like the hedge that it’s supposed to be. Is this a real economic shift, or just noise?

With tariffs, stagflation fears, and fiscal dominance taking center stage, hosts James Seyffart, Joe McCann, Ram Ahluwalia and Noelle Acheson break down:

Sponsors:

• Bitwise

The stagflation trade

Budget bill

• Wharton: The FY2025 House Budget reconciliation and Trump Administration Tax Proposals: Budgetary, Economic, and Distributional Effects

Stablecoin bill:

Solana futures

• Cointelegraph: Solana futures finish first trading day on CME

Solana ad

Unchained: Solana Deletes ‘Cringe’ Ad After Crypto Community Backlash

Timestamps:

👋 0:00 Intro

📉 1:39 Stagflation fears and which tariffs actually matter for the economy

🌎 6:11 Why the outlook for commodities is so uncertain

📊 10:49 Is the Trump administration sabotaging itself?

🐶 16:57 Why DOGE’s role in the market is bigger than you think

📉 23:51 Why the 10-year yield isn’t dropping as expected

💰 28:04 Will shrinking liquidity grind the market to a halt?

🏛️ 32:37 Why the Fed has become irrelevant

🔄 36:53 Is quantitative tightening (QT) ending? Plus, one key thing crypto investors don’t get

⚠️ 41:13 Why a recession is not a foregone conclusion

🥇 48:25 Gold is hitting all-time highs—so why isn’t bitcoin following?

🏦 51:24 How the stablecoin bill could save US government finances

🚀 1:01:47 How bitcoin gets its next rally 

📉 1:07:16 The hidden benefit of CME SOL futures

✅ 1:12:15 The latest on pending crypto ETF approvals

📣 1:17:26 Reactions to the controversial Solana ad

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The memecoin trade might be over. And Joe McCann says that’s just the beginning.

The founder of Asymmetric has been at the intersection of crypto, macro, and tech for years. He called the $BONK trade early, made moves before most saw the opportunity, and now? He’s shifting his focus.

Meanwhile, the crypto markets are a bloodbath, with bitcoin, ether, and solana down 10%, 41%, and 35%, respectively, year-to-date.

In this episode, Joe joins Unchained to discuss:

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

Unchained: 

Timestamps:

👋 0:00 Intro

🚀 2:19 How Joe’s background shaped his crypto investing approach

🐶 10:25 Spotting the $BONK opportunity before the crowd

📉 17:38 Why the memecoin trade might be over

💰 21:51 Why Joe believes Pump.fun is NOT extractive

📊 33:11 Why crypto prices have struggled despite a pro-crypto shift in Washington

🎯 42:34 The moment Joe “finally” gives credit to Arthur Hayes

⏳ 45:15 Could having no catalyst actually BE the catalyst?

🔥 49:22 Why Joe wasn’t convinced by the SOL inflation proposal

⚡ 56:45 Wait—no altcoin season?

⚙️ 1:01:34 What still excites Joe about Solana

🏦 1:04:57 Why Asymmetric is betting on Bitcoin DeFi

🤖 1:07:29 How AI is helping Joe’s team optimize its strategy

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The Solana ecosystem just completed a critical governance vote. SIMD-228, a proposal to tie Solana’s inflation rate to its staking participation rate, was put forward by Multicoin Capital and Anza, but despite a majority voting in favor, it failed to meet the required supermajority to pass.

Tushar Jain, co-founder and managing partner at Multicoin Capital, who co-authored the proposal, joins the show to discuss:

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

Timestamps:

🤝 0:00 Intro

🗳️ 3:09 Why Solana’s inflation rate was initially an afterthought 

💰5:20 Why inflation became untenable

⚙️ 6:23 What does it take to right-size inflation for Solana

⚙️ 7:18 How SIMD-228 would have worked

🤯 11:00 Why Tushar “does not want to bet on people being dumb”

💰 15:48 How this could have strengthened DeFi on Solana

😕 17:49 Why Tushar was disappointed with the outcome but sees a silver lining

📚 19:49 Could the vote have been fairer?

⚖️ 22:06 Whether smaller validators would be unfairly hurt by SIMD-228

🔐 27:37 Does Solana pay too much for security?

📈 27:55 Would this have boosted the price of SOL?

✔️28:19 Whether validators should ask stakers how to vote

✅ 30:13 What the passing of SIMD-123 means for the network

🔄 32:40 Will Multicoin resubmit the proposal?

📰 34:50 News Recap

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Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner break down the biggest stories in crypto. This week, we’re joined by special guest Quinn Thompson, Master of Macro at Lekker Capital, to dissect Trump’s Bitcoin Reserve. The US government is now officially hodling Bitcoin —Trump’s executive order creates a BTC reserve using seized funds. But markets didn’t buy the hype. Bitcoin tanked, and traders are still questioning what this means for crypto’s future. Meanwhile, the global macro picture is a disaster—stocks are down, trade wars are escalating, and recession fears are mounting.Is this controlled demolition of the economy, or just a side effect of Trump’s economic agenda? And most importantly, what does this mean for crypto? Let’s dive in.

Show highlights

🔹 Trump’s Bitcoin Reserve Announcement – The US government officially holds BTC, but it’s not buying more. No new demand—just a change in optics.

🔹 Digital Asset Stockpile – XRP, ADA, SOL? Treasury isn’t sure what it owns, and no guarantee these altcoins stay on the balance sheet.

🔹 Market Reactions – Bitcoin pumped, then crashed. No net buying pressure, just an end to government auctions of seized BTC.

🔹 Trade War Fallout – Tariffs hit Mexico, Canada, EU, and China—S&P 500 posts worst day since 2022, losing $1.4T in market cap.

🔹 Trump’s Endgame? – Is this a controlled demolition of asset prices, or just chaos in motion?

🔹 Crypto’s Liquidity Crunch – The Fed isn’t stepping in (yet), but the macro backdrop is grim. Rate cuts may be the only way out.

⭐️Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly

⭐️Tarun Chitra, Managing Partner at Robot Ventures

⭐️Tom Schmidt, General Partner at Dragonfly 

⭐️Robert Leshner, CEO & Co-founder of Superstate

Guest

⭐️Quinn Thompson, Founder & CIO at Lekker Capital

Timestamps 

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