Ethereum’s next big leap might not look like a single “flip the switch” moment—but it could change how the chain verifies everything. In this episode, Ansgar Dietrichs comes back to unpack the ZK EVM: why “re-executing every block” has been Ethereum’s hidden scaling tax, how real-time proofs finally make a different verification model viable, and what it would take to transition safely without sacrificing the verifiability that keeps Ethereum credibly neutral. They explore the three true bottlen...
Feb 23, 2026•1 hr 21 min
A legal war over prediction markets just went public. Ryan and David break down the CFTC’s claim of exclusive authority, the backlash from state officials and lawmakers, and why this fight is really about whether markets or politics get to define truth. They explore why AI-powered prediction markets may be crypto’s strongest product-market fit yet, and why that scares regulators. Plus: Harvard rotates from Bitcoin into Ethereum, Base breaks from Optimism, Zora expands to Solana, the Ethereum Fou...
Feb 20, 2026•1 hr 9 min
Lyn Alden joins us to make sense of the “everything, everywhere, all at once” macro moment. A fourth-turning-style unwind of the long-term debt cycle, rising fiscal dominance, and a rare, headline-level clash over Fed independence—plus what a Kevin Warsh Fed might actually do under real-world constraints. We dig into the “gradual print” era, why gold is ripping, how a more multipolar monetary order could emerge (gold, bitcoin, and stablecoins in different roles), and what trade war dynamics mean...
Feb 16, 2026•1 hr 39 min
Crypto feels cooked in 2026, and the Super Bowl proves it. Ryan and David unpack Coinbase’s Backstreet Boys rug pull ad and what it reveals about crypto’s collapsed public narrative. Then they dig into the brutal selloff, why IBIT’s record volume hints at forced TradFi liquidation, and what Polymarket is pricing for Bitcoin under $50K. From Robinhood’s prediction markets exploding into a real revenue engine to the political fight over who regulates “gambling vs markets,” the thesis is clear: fin...
Feb 13, 2026•1 hr 6 min
Last week felt like four different crashes happening at the same time: AI software stocks melting down, crypto capitulating, gold and silver whipping around, and markets suddenly panicking about AI CapEx. Jim Bianco returns to Bankless to explain what actually changed: why AI is collapsing the cost of building software (and threatening SaaS pricing models), how “synthetic Bitcoin” in TradFi can amplify volatility even when nothing breaks onchain, and why the next crypto cycle can’t be powered by...
Feb 12, 2026•1 hr 15 min
Robinhood isn’t just adding another crypto feature—it’s assembling a new exchange stack: stock tokens, an Ethereum L2 built for real-world assets, and a wallet that can plug into DeFi. Johann Kerbrat (GM of Crypto at Robinhood) joins Bankless to unpack what “24/7 markets” actually requires, why liquidity and routing are the hidden battleground for tokenized equities, and how “Certified by Robinhood” could become a distribution moat for onchain apps. Along the way, they compare Robinhood’s approa...
Feb 11, 2026•44 min
MegaETH mainnet is live, kicking off a new frontier for Ethereum scaling: ultra-low latency, massive throughput, and an execution environment built to unlock apps that can’t exist on L1. Lei Yang & Namik break down why Vitalik’s latest L2 framing validates “barbell” scaling, what users actually inherit from Ethereum (censorship resistance, exit guarantees, and fraud-proof security assumptions), and why stages + governance are harder than they look. Plus: the mainnet stress test (11.4B tx in ...
Feb 09, 2026•1 hr 22 min
A single Vitalik tweet just snapped Ethereum’s scaling narrative into focus: the rollup-centric roadmap is over, and a new path is here. Ryan and David break down what Vitalik actually said (and what he didn’t), why stage 2 plus rollup interop proved far slower than anyone hoped, and why L1 scaling, powered by ZK, may be Ethereum’s real reset button in 2026. Along the way, they unpack the quiet death of the “L2s are Ethereum” meme, the community’s whiplash reaction, and what differentiated “gen ...
Feb 07, 2026•52 min
Crypto enters a full-blown pain market as Bitcoin, ETH, tech stocks, and even gold sell off together. Ryan and David break down why crowded trades are unwinding across markets, what the Warsh Fed chair pick means for rates and risk assets, and whether crypto has become uniquely fragile in this cycle. They dig into Vitalik’s L2 pivot and what it signals about Ethereum’s next era, unpack massive institutional paper losses at Strategy, BitMine, and Galaxy, and analyze Polymarket odds on where Bitco...
Feb 06, 2026•1 hr 5 min
AI agents aren’t “coming” to Ethereum—they’re already here, spinning up on dedicated machines, clicking through wallets, deploying contracts, and even building apps for themselves. In this episode, Ryan and David sit down with Davide Crapis and Austin Griffith to map the emerging agent stack: ERC-8004 as a decentralized identity + reputation layer, x402 as payment rails for agent-to-agent commerce, and the real-world “Clawdbot” experiments that show what happens when an agent gets a wallet, a co...
Feb 05, 2026•1 hr 37 min
Michael Nadeau went risk-off in October and has been targeting Bitcoin's fair value near $65K. In this episode, he joins Ryan to unpack what changed after BTC broke below $80K, why he does not think this is the macro low yet, and what a real bottom typically looks like (capitulation, then apathy). They also dig into the new wild card: incoming Fed chair Kevin Warsh, and why “rates down” could still mean tighter liquidity if the balance sheet shrinks. Mike walks through the key cycle signals he i...
Feb 03, 2026•1 hr
Capitalism may be heading toward an “event horizon,” where a handful of firms become so entrenched they’re effectively the last companies standing. We break down the four “Infinity Gauntlet” pillars: intelligence, energy, capital, and labor. And why collapsing costs in AI and robotics could make abundance, and monopolies, the default outcome. From Google’s data + compute flywheel to the Tesla/SpaceX/xAI convergence and even space-based energy/data centers, we map the new battlefield and what it ...
Feb 02, 2026•1 hr 30 min
Markets wobble as gold and silver hit all time highs, raising the big question of what comes next for crypto. Ryan and David unpack the macro shock driving the move, from Fed independence and shutdown risk to a weaker dollar narrative, and why Tether is quietly becoming one of the world’s largest gold holders. They make the case for Ethereum’s comeback, from surging usage to serious quantum resistance efforts, break down Fidelity’s new onchain dollar, and dig into MegaETH’s eye popping stress te...
Jan 30, 2026•1 hr 5 min
Celo is quietly powering real-world payments at global scale. In this episode, David and Ryan sit down with Marek Olszewski, CEO of cLabs, to unpack how Celo became a fast, low-cost payments layer used for remittances, savings, onchain FX, and identity across emerging markets. They explore why Celo stayed focused on peer-to-peer payments while others chased trends, how Opera’s MiniPay onboarded hundreds of thousands of daily users, and why stablecoins are reshaping global finance from the ground...
Jan 29, 2026•1 hr 12 min
Iran is a real-world stress test of freedom: the Islamic Republic is built to outlast dissent. In this special Iran Unchained episode, David talks with Sana Ebrahimi and Amin Soleimani about the regime’s control stack, including unelected theocracy, street-level coercion, corruption as governance, and propaganda that reaches far beyond Iran’s borders. They unpack gender apartheid, internet blackouts during uprisings, why protests keep returning, and what the West gets wrong about “intervention” ...
Jan 27, 2026•1 hr 35 min
Zcash founder Zooko Wilcox joins Bankless to argue that privacy is back on the critical path—because AI turns chain surveillance into pattern-recognition at scale—and that the real bottleneck for cypherpunk tools has always been UX and onboarding. We dig into Zcash’s “encrypted Bitcoin” meme, the dev fund’s evolving design (and why it helped Zcash survive), recent ZEC momentum, and the wallet/intents stack that makes private spending actually usable. Plus: why “value at rest” beats “value in fli...
Jan 26, 2026•1 hr 35 min
Markets slide this week as Trump floats taking Greenland and tariff threats resurface, pushing investors toward gold. Ryan and David break down what Davos revealed about a shifting world order, why crypto finally had a real seat at the table, and the moments from Brian Armstrong and Larry Fink that framed Crypto versus Central Banks. Plus: the NYSE unveils a tokenized trading platform and whether it validates or co-opts DeFi, Farcaster and Lens are acquired as on-chain social hits a crossroads, ...
Jan 23, 2026•1 hr 2 min
Crypto in 2026 is consolidating into a handful of high-stakes rivalries: Ethereum vs. Solana for the center of gravity, Coinbase vs. Robinhood for the finance super-app, and Polymarket vs. Kalshi for prediction markets. Arnav Pagidyala (Bankless Ventures) joins David and Ryan to map the investment implications, why incentives-driven L1s keep leaking liquidity, what makes Morpho’s institutional playbook work, and whether Hyperliquid, wallets, and onchain rails start eating the exchange business. ...
Jan 19, 2026•1 hr 3 min
Washington takes center stage this week as crypto collides with power, policy, and markets. Ryan and David break down the CLARITY Act fight in the Senate, why banks want to kill stablecoin yield, and why Coinbase says the bill may be worse than no bill at all. They also unpack Trump’s DOJ targeting Jerome Powell and what it means for Fed independence, silver’s explosive move as markets search for safety, X’s push toward becoming a crypto super app, and the NYC mayor’s meme coin disaster. Plus: T...
Jan 16, 2026•1 hr 7 min
What if the biggest threat to your freedom isn’t a bad decision - but a scoreboard you never agreed to? Philosopher C. Thi Nguyen joins Bankless to unpack how modern life quietly turns values into points: likes, GPAs, net worth, rankings, and performance metrics that feel objective - but often flatten what matters most. We explore what games really are, why “gamified” platforms like social media can be uniquely corrosive, and how “value capture” pulls you from meaning into measurable proxies. Th...
Jan 13, 2026•1 hr 23 min
Is Canton a real blockchain or a new kind of capital-markets operating system? Digital Asset co-founder Yuval Rooz explains why Canton prioritizes privacy as “need-to-know” information sharing and a federated “cantons” design that still allows atomic cross-canton transactions without bridges. We unpack the two-tier architecture (edge validators + super validators that stitch cantons together and validate the public Canton Coin) and what that means for governance in regulated finance. Plus: DTCC’...
Jan 12, 2026•1 hr 31 min
Prediction markets are turning into real-time intelligence, and policymakers are already reacting. In this week’s Weekly Rollup, Ryan and David unpack the Venezuela “Maduro” trade, the debate over fairness vs. public signal, and Polymarket’s expansion into real estate markets. They also cover Bitcoin’s lowest-vol year ever, Solana’s DEX surge, Ethereum’s stablecoin settlement ATH, Morgan Stanley’s crypto ETF filings, Zcash’s governance blowup, Lighter’s massive $LIT airdrop, Vitalik’s “trilemma ...
Jan 09, 2026•52 min
Brent Johnson returns to Bankless to update the Dollar Milkshake Theory and explain why the de-dollarization narrative misses the bigger trend. He argues markets may want out of the dollar, but the Eurodollar system keeps pulling demand back in, and “dollar down” headlines do not break the framework. Brent also covers how debt stress can spill into political instability, why stablecoins and the GENIUS Act could accelerate re-dollarization, and what this means for monetary sovereignty. We close w...
Jan 05, 2026•56 min
Crypto is maturing while attention moves elsewhere. In this Weekly Rollup, David Hoffman and Anthony Sassano break down silver, gold, and the S&P hitting new highs, the Aave civil war over control and fees, Uniswap’s unification win, a new pro crypto CFTC chair, and why quantum computing may be Bitcoin’s biggest long term risk. --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 👑BANKLESS PREMIUM | AD-FREE & BONUS EPISODES https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://bankles...
Jan 02, 2026•1 hr 4 min
David Hoffman sits down with Mike Ippolito to unpack why 2025 felt brutal despite new all-time highs and why that tension matters for 2026. They argue crypto is entering its “2002 internet” phase, where speculation fades, fundamentals matter, and consolidation accelerates. The conversation covers why Ethereum may see a renaissance, why Bitcoin sentiment could struggle, how prediction markets and equity perps actually play out, and what builders and investors should focus on as crypto matures fro...
Dec 31, 2025•1 hr 12 min
Ben Lakoff and Arnav Pagidyala from Bankless Ventures lay out how they’re thinking about crypto investing heading into 2026. The conversation spans four persistent pillars of every cycle: DeFi, tokenization, capital formation, and speculation and how each is evolving as crypto matures. Topics include the next wave of on-chain lending, equity perps, DeFi neobanks, verticalized tokenization platforms, compliant ICOs, prediction and opinion markets, and where AI agents may reshape crypto-native fin...
Dec 29, 2025•1 hr 16 min
Ryan and David skip a quiet holiday weekly rollup and instead break down the biggest 2026 crypto forecasts from Bitwise, Coinbase, Galaxy, Grayscale, CoinShares, Fidelity, a16z, and Pantera. They lay out the clearest consensus, stablecoins as real payment rails, tokenization scaling beyond pilots, and ETFs expanding institutional access, then hit the big debates around regulation, prediction markets, token value capture, and the growing quantum question for Bitcoin. ------ 📣M0 | THE UNIVERSAL S...
Dec 24, 2025•1 hr 11 min
Is the crypto cycle already over? Ben Cowen returns to break down what a post-euphoria cycle looks like, why Bitcoin may have already topped, and how 2026 could play out across crypto, stocks, and macro. We explore the case for a prolonged bear market, why a true alt season may not arrive, and the narrow scenarios where Ethereum could still make a fleeting run at new highs. From Fed policy and labor markets to AI stealing investor attention, this episode maps the competing paths ahead and what p...
Dec 23, 2025•1 hr 7 min
Joey Krug (Founders Fund partner, former Pantera co-CIO, and Augur co-founder) returns to unpack whether the “crypto-native era” is fading as institutions and mainstream apps adopt crypto rails without adopting crypto culture. We dig into prediction markets’ breakout (and why Polymarket finally found product-market fit), the coming regulatory fights around market structure and “insider” edges, and what’s next for founders building in a post-cypherpunk, distribution-first phase of crypto. ------ ...
Dec 22, 2025•1 hr 24 min
Crypto prices are down, but the most important players are still building. In this week’s Weekly Rollup, Ryan and David break down Coinbase’s push to become a financial super app, JPMorgan’s first tokenized money market fund on Ethereum, and why regulators are quietly opening the door for onchain settlement through DTCC pilots. They also unpack Solana’s Firedancer finally going live, the growing fight over tokenholder rights at Aave and what Uniswap’s unification proposal gets right, and why tok...
Dec 19, 2025•1 hr 4 min
