The Breakdown

View Top 200 Chart

Back to Rankings Page

Business
**The Breakdown**

The Breakdown dives into the deepest topics in crypto, blockchain, and the macro forces shaping markets and power structures. Each episode breaks down complex ideas into clear, grounded analysis — separating signal from noise across crypto, finance, and geopolitics.

Hosted by David Canellis, The Breakdown features explainers, interviews, and conversations with the people building, regulating, and challenging the financial system.

A Blockworks podcast.

Subscribe to The Breakdown newsletter: https://the-breakdown.carrd.co/

Latest Episodes:

Are Central Bank Coins the End of Financial Privacy? Oct 06, 2020

Show notes

Today on the Brief:

Markets gain as Pres. Trump’s condition stabilizes
SEC Chairman Clayton sees future where all stocks are tokenized
Uniswap had more volume than Coinbase in September

Our main discussion: central bank coins and financial privacy.

The EU recently released a new research paper on a possible digital euro. Like many other official central bank reports, it assumes there is no possibility of an anonymous digital bank currency. NLW dissects arguments from people including JP Koning and CoinCenter’s Jerry Brito on why this shouldn’t be true.

Inflation Is the Cruelest Tax Oct 04, 2020

Show notes

Today’s Long Reads Sunday selection is “How To Avoid Paying the Cruelest Tax: Inflation” from the Wall Street Journal.

NLW argues the piece reflects a changing conversation in mainstream financial circles about the possibility of inflation on the other side of new Federal Reserve policy.

“The Fed Meetings Are a Dead Spectator Sport” Best of The Breakdown September 2020 Oct 03, 2020

Show notes

A recap of September, which NLW calls a transitional month between the post-lockdown excitement of the summer and the growing macro insecurity around second wave fears and election volatility.

Featuring some of the most interesting insights from our guests, including:

Luke Gromen on the four options for countries that can’t pay their debts
Tavi Costa on the Fed’s new “mandate” to keep asset prices high
Raoul Pal on why “monetary policy is over”
Sven Henrich on the ever-weakening economic cycle
Corey Hoffstein on the fundamental supply-demand mismatch that exacerbates exogenous shocks
Michael Saylor on why he moved his company’s cash reserves to bitcoin

“Good Reason to Worry” What the BitMEX Indictment Means for DeFi and Bitcoin Oct 03, 2020

Show notes

Today on the Brief:

Market reaction to Pres.Trump contracting COVID-19
Subpar September jobs report
Decentralized exchanges have third straight 100%+ growth month

Our main discussion features Stephen Palley and Preston Byrne of Anderson Kill.

Yesterday, BitMEX was targeted with both civil and criminal complaints, with the CTO being arrested for violation of the Bank Secrecy Act.

In this conversation, NLW talks to two crypto legal experts to discuss:

The specifics of the charges
How long this investigation has been in the works
Whether there was anything surprising to legal experts
Why the criminal complaints represent an escalation of enforcement
Whether there are implications for other industry areas, particularly decentralized finance

Find our guests online:

Stephen Palley: @stephendpalley

Preston Byrne: @prestonjbyrne

Anderson Kill: andersonkill.com

'Stocks Only Go Up' and Other Ignorable Investment Advice Oct 02, 2020

Show notes

When popular finance writer Morgan Housel asked followers on Twitter to share the commonly held investing beliefs they most disagreed with, the internet responded with vigor.

A thousand or so replies later, NLW ranks the top 10 investing ideas we should be questioning, including:

Ignoring compounding interest in our 20s
Buying homes rather than renting
The idea US Treasury bonds are risk-free

Listen to hear the full list.

DeFi Summer; Bitcoin Fall Oct 01, 2020

Show notes

Today on the Brief:

Coinbase offers severance to employees who want to leave over new politics policy
Long-term job cuts hamper any idea of V-shaped recovery
Last chance for a stimulus package before the U.S. presidential election

Our main discussion is a narrative shift from DeFi back to bitcoin.

Over the summer, DeFi led the crypto charge. From growth in total value locked to narrative dominance to even leadership in the all important category of crypto drama, DeFi was it.

Now, as a potentially turbulent macro environment rears its head, the narrative is shifting back to a focus on bitcoin.

Coinbase’s New Policy: Anti-Woke or Just A Joke? Sep 30, 2020

Show notes

Monday, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong published the innocuously titled “Coinbase Is a Mission-Driven Company.”

While the post talked a lot about Coinbase’s core mission, its real goal seemed to be to make clear Coinbase would not be engaging with any other social or political issues beyond that, and to the extent employees wanted to do so they needed to do it on their own time.

The reactions were intense, immediate and in many instances, totally opposite.

In this episode, NLW breaks down the entire social media reaction and the arguments for and against this policy.

So Now They’re Hacking DeFi Protocols Before They’ve Even Launched? Sep 30, 2020

Show notes

DeFi is one of the breakout crypto categories of 2020. Indeed, yield farming and the grand game of “money legos” has been so profitable that many are following every new protocol with rapt attention.

This is all the more true for projects graced by YFI creator Andre Cronje. So when word got out about a new, pre-release game economy engine called “Eminence,” the DeFi degens took advantage of the permissionless nature of DeFi to pump $16 million or so into EMN.

What happened next was arguably the first pre-release hack in DeFi’s history. This episode breaks down what happened and what it means for the fledgling field.

Why Bitcoin's Longest Run Above $10,000 Matters Sep 29, 2020

Show notes

Today on the Brief:

After four weeks down, bitcoin bounces back on suspicions that recent bearishness was overblown
KuCoin exchange gets hacked for somewhere between $150 million and $280 million
Jack Dorsey outlines Twitter’s blockchain and bitcoin beliefs during Oslo Freedom Forum appearance

Our main discussion: Digging in to bitcoin’s 64-day run over $10,000

Bitcoin has been above $10,000 for longer than any time in its history. Its volatility is also at recent historic lows. In this episode, NLW puts this in the context of broader market movements and explains why new price floors are self-reinforcing.

Understanding the Coming Currency Cold War Sep 27, 2020

Show notes

This week’s Long Reads Sunday is a reading of “The Currency Cold War: Four Scenarios” by Jeff Wilsner – part of CoinDesk’s Internet 2030 series.

In it, Wilsner talks to experts about four scenarios:

A multi-currency scenario, where exchange is abstracted away via digital wallets
A China-led scenario
A U.S.-led scenario
A bitcoin/non-state currency-led scenario

In addition to reading, NLW gives his take on which scenario is most likely.