CoinDesk Podcast Network

The top stories and best shows in the blockchain world, delivered daily from the team at CoinDesk.

Latest Episodes:

A-Rod Bought the Timberwolves at the Worst Possible Time. Here Is Why It Worked. Jun 07, 2026

Show notes

Alex Rodriguez joins the Consensus Main Stage for a candid conversation on life after baseball, building a championship organization, and the lessons that shaped him. From buying the Minnesota Timberwolves during COVID to applying AI and real-time technology to the fan experience, A-Rod breaks down what it actually takes to turn around a franchise. He also opens up about growing up without a father, the mentors who changed the trajectory of his life, and why showing up with full attention is still the most underrated competitive advantage.

Timecodes:

00:00 - Alex Rodriguez at Consensus Miami 2026

01:06 - The 2004 Red Sox-Yankees Series and Baseball's Big Moment

04:00 - Buying the Minnesota Timberwolves and the NBA's Global Growth

06:56 - Building the Timberwolves from the Ground Up

09:39 - The Jump App and Applying Tech to the Fan Experience

12:18 - Anthony Edwards, Rudy Gobert, and Building a Championship Team

15:41 - Family, Faith, and the Importance of Being Present

19:50 - The Power of Mentors: Buffett, Magic Johnson, and Giving Back

23:50 - NBA Playoffs Predictions and Parity in Pro Sports

Why the Co-Founder of LinkedIn Is Betting on NFTs Again Jun 06, 2026

Show notes

Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn and prominent AI investor, joins the Consensus mainstage for a wide-ranging conversation on where crypto, AI, and identity are headed. Hoffman argues that as agents outnumber people on the internet, crypto becomes the only viable solution for trust, provenance, and identity at scale. From his 2014 Bitcoin purchase to his recent CryptoPunk buy, Hoffman explains why the age of AI has brought him back to crypto with fresh conviction.

Timecodes:

00:00 - Reid Hoffman at Consensus Miami 2026

01:11 - What Reid Is Focused on Today

04:13 - Deepfakes, Provenance, and Crypto as Identity Infrastructure

09:00 - Stablecoins, the GENIUS Act, and Keeping Crypto Bipartisan

10:51 - The Cognitive Industrial Revolution and Working with AI

13:28 - AI in the Workforce: Superpowers, Not Layoffs

15:32 - Where Reid Is Investing: NFTs, DAOs, and Agent Identity

Everything You Need to Know about x402: The 30-Year-Old HTTP Code Built for the AI Economy Jun 06, 2026

Show notes

Erik Reppel, Head of Engineering at Coinbase Developer Platform, joins the Consensus mainstage to make the case for internet-native payments. The internet was built for humans, but AI agents are taking over and they don't click ads. x402 is an open standard that finally gives the web a native payment layer, built on a forgotten HTTP status code that's been sitting unused since 1994. Created by Reppel and now backed by Visa, Stripe, Cloudflare, Microsoft, and others under the Linux Foundation, it lets any agent pay for any content or API with two lines of code and a stablecoin transaction that costs less than a cent.

Timecodes:

00:00 - Erik from x402 at Consensus Miami 2026

00:48 - The Internet Was Designed for Humans, Not Agents

03:53 - AI Is About to Break the Internet's Economic Model

05:03 - Defining What an Agent Actually Is

08:59 - Open Protocols vs Walled Gardens

12:21 - x402: An Open Standard for Internet Native Payments

15:02 - Why Now Is the Right Time for Agentic Payments

Kevin O’Leary on the asset class that beat everything else in his portfolio Jun 05, 2026

Show notes

Kevin O'Leary joins the mainstage at Consensus wearing a $5.2 million Michael Jordan card around his neck and explains why collectibles have become his best-performing asset class, including a 3am bidding war that cost him nearly $13 million. He then breaks down why 97% of institutional crypto interest is concentrated in just BTC and ETH, why altcoins got slaughtered, and what it will actually take for blockchain to get adopted by the S&P 500. Plus, why he thinks power infrastructure and data centers are a better bet than picking crypto winners.

Timecodes:

00:00 - Kevin O'Leary at Consensus Miami 2026

01:16 - Sports Cards as an Asset Class

03:25 - Tokenization, the Clarity Act, and Why Altcoins Got Slaughtered

05:21 - The S&P 500 Blockchain Thesis: One Chain Will Win

07:53 - Why Power Is More Valuable Than Bitcoin

09:34 - The US vs China AI Race

'I Will Not Vote for Clarity Until We Address Ethics': Sen. Angela Alsobrooks Jun 05, 2026

Show notes

Senator Angela Alsobrooks joins hosts Rebecca Rettig and Renato Mariotti to discuss the three outstanding issues she needs resolved before voting Clarity off the Senate floor. Plus, insights into Jamie Dimon's criticism over stablecoin yield. And, former Congressman George Santos named person of the week for the Kalshi insider trading investigation.

Timecodes:

00:00 Sen. Alsobrooks on Ethics

00:26 Welcome to The Policy Protocol

00:56 CFTC Greenlights Perps in 24 Hours

02:33 OFAC Sanctions Iran's Nobitex

05:56 Offshore Exchanges Coming Onshore

07:05 Senator Angela Alsobrooks Joins

07:45 Defending the Yield Compromise Against Jamie Dimon

10:21 What's Needed for an Ethics Compromise

12:17 How ClarityHelps Underbanked Constituents

15:03 Why More Democrats Aren't on Board

16:25 What It Takes to Get Clarity Across the Line

17:13 Sen. Alsobrooks's Approach

18:33 Why Clarity Is the World's Only DeFi Legislation

21:27 Senator Lummis Pushes Back on Jamie Dimon

22:31 George Santos Named Person of the Week

CFTC Chairman Mike Selig on crypto, prediction markets and AI-powered market surveillance Jun 05, 2026

Show notes

CFTC Chairman Mike Selig sits down on the mainstage at Consensus to break down the most consequential regulatory shift in crypto history: a joint SEC-CFTC taxonomy that finally defines what kind of asset everything is, effectively putting the Howey Test to rest. He also makes the case for why prediction markets belong under federal jurisdiction, not state gaming commissions, and why he's already suing multiple states to prove it. Operating as the sole commissioner on a five-member body, Selig is moving fast on rulemaking, AI-powered market surveillance, and cementing the US as the global home for crypto innovation.

Timecodes:

00:00 - CFTC Chairman Mike Selig at Consensus Miami 2026

01:00 - The New Crypto Taxonomy

03:13 - Joint CFTC/SEC Rulemaking and Its Durability

04:34 - Protecting Software Developers

06:53 - Why Prediction Markets Belong With the CFTC

09:13 - Sports Wagers vs Event Contracts Explained

11:33 - State Lawsuits and the Path to the Supreme Court

13:36 - Using AI for Market Surveillance

15:09 - Operating as the Sole Commissioner

Arthur Hayes Sold HYPE and NEAR, Mert Mumtaz Says That’s Missing the Point | Markets Outlook Jun 04, 2026

Show notes

Market convictions with Helius' Mert Mumtaz.

On today's Markets Outlook, Helius CEO Mert Mumtaz tells CoinDesk's Jennifer Sanasie why he's tuning out the noise and staying convicted on Zcash, Solana, BTC and Hyperliquid. Plus, he weighs in on the Arthur Hayes drama, the Clarity Act, and why Bitcoin's transparency is actually a long-term vulnerability.

Timecodes:

00:00 - Institutional Capital Rotating into AI IPOs

01:53 - Met's 'Shield and Chill' Strategy

04:29 - Responding to Arthur Hayes Selling HYPE and NEAR positions

08:44 - Mert's Zcash Thesis

13:00 - Solana as the "Silicon Valley of Finance"

15:43 - Hyperliquid Thesis

Check out CoinDesk's latest episode of Public Keys from the NYSE: https://youtu.be/Nlp1QLZx0r0

This episode was hosted by Jennifer Sanasie.

Blockspace: IREN's 800MW in Australia, Zcash bug, and Google upscales to $84b Jun 04, 2026

Show notes

Charlie and Will break down the crash of Michael Saylor’s STRC, IREN's massive 800MW deal in Australia, a critical Zcash soundness bug, Google’s massive $80B equity raise for AI, and why Joe Wiesenthal calls this the coldest crypto winter ever.

Janusz, former engineer at Electric Coin Company, joins us to talk about a potential Zcash soundness bug and the trade-offs of privacy versus auditability. Plus, Charlie and Will dive into Michael Saylor's STRC asset crash, IREN’s massive 800MW data center agreement in Australia, Google's unprecedented $80B equity upsize for AI infrastructure, and why the Texas grid is moving away from the 4CP mechanism.

Subscribe to the newsletter! https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com

Notes:

* Saylor's STRC credit dropped 5% to $94.

* IREN’s total power pipeline exceeds 5GW.

* Zcash Orchard pool holds 4.5M locked tokens.

Timestamps:

00:00 Start

02:07 STRC down bad

05:03 IREN back to the AUS

13:37 Zcash bug with Janusz

28:20 Google upsizes deal

31:50 Jeff Park tweet

41:15 Joe Weisenthal thread

46:56 ERCOT & 4CP

Check out our latest report, “What’s a Megawatt Worth?” where we quantify the trillion dollar opportunity for bitcoin miners venturing into the AI sector. Download here: https://megawattreport.com/

Subscribe to our newsletter to receive updates for all of our shows and content: https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com

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Tom Lee's Ethereum Bet Is Down $9 Billion | CoinDesk Daily Jun 04, 2026

Show notes

Bitmine sitting on $9B of unrealized losses from its ETH bag.

Bitmine, the largest corporate holder of ether, is sitting on nearly $9 billion in unrealized losses as ETH falls below $1,800. Chairman Tom Lee still predicts a $250,000 price target, but shares of BMNR are down drastically since early May. CoinDesk's Jennifer Sanasie hosts "CoinDesk Daily."

This episode was hosted by Jennifer Sanasie. “CoinDesk Daily” is produced by Jennifer Sanasie and edited by Victor Chen.

Morgan Stanley's 10-Year Bet on the Future of Finance Jun 03, 2026

Show notes

$7 trillion goes digital.

Amy Oldenburg, Morgan Stanley's Head of Digital Asset Strategy, breaks down how one of the world's largest wealth platforms is going all-in on crypto, from a Bitcoin ETF that crossed $200 million in just three weeks to spot crypto trading coming to their full advisory platform later this year. On the mainstage at CoinDesk’s Consensus, she makes the case that the TradFi vs. DeFi battle is over, and it's all just finance now.

Timecodes:

00:00 - Amy Oldenburg at Consensus Miami 2026

00:47 - Morgan Stanley's Digital Asset Strategy

01:52 - The Bitcoin ETP Hits $200M in Three Weeks

05:21 - Morgan Stanley's Early Lead in Crypto Access

08:38 - Advisor Education When Clients Know More Than the Advisors

10:38 - What Comes Next: Tokenization and Redemptions

12:35 - The DeFi vs TradFi Battle

13:43 - A Decade-Long Project, Not a 2026 Project