Unchained

Latest Episodes:

How Hyperliquid Benefits From Its New Deal With Coinbase Over USDC May 14, 2026

Show notes

Coinbase just became the official USDC treasury deployer on Hyperliquid. Alex Weseley of Artemis explains how this boosts Hyperliquid’s annual revenue by 25%.

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The morning this episode was recorded, Coinbase announced it was acquiring the USDH brand and becoming the official USDC treasury deployer on Hyperliquid — a deal with $150 million in annual revenue implications for a platform that previously earned nothing from its $5 billion USDC float.

Alex Weseley, institutional data lead at Artemis Analytics, walks through the math on the HYPE price move, explains why the deal had to be bilateral between Circle and Coinbase, lays out his $300 billion Coinbase thesis built on X402 and agentic commerce, and takes on the question Laura's been asking all week: is the Circle–Coinbase relationship heading for divorce?

Host:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Laura Shin⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Host / Unchained

Guests:

⁠Alex Weseley — Institutional Data Lead, Artemis Analytics

Timestamps 🔵 0:00 Coinbase acquires USDH brand, and what an aligned quote asset is on Hyperliquid

📈 3:42 Why Hype jumped 10% and what's in it for Coinbase

💙 8:51 Coinbase: Get 20% off the first year of your Coinbase One annual plan at coinbase.com/unchained.

⚖️ 10:52 Coinbase increases its staked Hype position: why is it aligning with a no-KYC competitor?

🤖 14:00 The two reasons why Alex projects that Coinbase could be a $300B company by 2031

📜 22:11 CLARITY Act: activity-based stablecoin yield compromise and what it means for Coinbase

💔 26:25 Is the Circle–Coinbase marriage heading for divorce?

🌊 30:22 After recent successes, where does Hyperliquid go from here?

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Bits + Bips: The Interview — The $16 Trillion Repo Market Is TradFi’s Central Nervous System. Its Finally Coming Onchain May 14, 2026

Show notes

The repo market is $16 trillion globally and most people have never heard of it — until the plumbing breaks. Craig Birchall of FalconX and Matteo Pandolfi of Pareto explain how it works and why bringing it on-chain is the next big unlock for DeFi.

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The repo market is $16 trillion globally and it is, as Craig Birchall puts it, the oil that makes everything go. It is also almost entirely absent from on-chain finance — and that gap is creating real problems for RWA liquidity, stablecoin swap desks, and DeFi protocols trying to manage redemption queues. Steve Ehrlich sits down with Craig Birchall, head of lending at FalconX, and Matteo Pandolfi, CEO of on-chain credit infrastructure provider Pareto, to map exactly how repo works, what broke in 2019, why it translates extremely well into onchain finance. Matteo puts a $1 trillion figure on where on-chain repo gets in five years. Craig gives you one reason it gets there and one very honest reason it might not.

Host:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Steve Ehrlich, Head of Research at SharpLink and Host of Bits + Bips: The Interview - https://x.com/Steven_Ehrlich

Guest:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Craig Birchall — Head of Lending, FalconX; previously Head of Lending at Membrane Finance. @_CraigBirchall
⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Matteo Pandolfi — CEO & Co-Founder, Pareto (on-chain credit infrastructure). @pan_teo_

Timestamps 📋 2:35 Repo, explained: what repurchase agreements actually are and why they matter 💥 5:31 The 2019 repo crisis: rates spiked from 2% to 20% in a single day 🔧 7:55 The real lesson of 2019: cash was there, the plumbing couldn't move it ⚖️ 23:13 Why repo breaks smart contracts: bankruptcy remoteness and the legal problem nobody solved 💧 28:00 The hard question: does on-chain finance need a lender of last resort? 🚨 36:43 The Aave crisis reframed: how a mature repo market would have changed everything 📈 41:28 The call: on-chain repo hits $1 trillion within five years 🚧 42:32 The bear case: standardization is the gargantuan challenge in the way

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Uneasy Money: Why the Broken Pre-IPO Secondary Markets Won't Be Fixed Anytime Soon May 13, 2026

Show notes

Anthropic is voiding secondary market trades. Who gets hurt — WhatsApp scammers, Forge buyers, or the founders? Plus: why continuous synthetic pricing is coming for every pre-IPO company.

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Coinbase: Get 20% off the first year of your Coinbase One annual plan at coinbase.com/unchained.

Anthropic and OpenAI are moving to void secondary market trades — and Kain, Tay, and Luca think that's only going to work if they're serious about it, which means a lawsuit is probably coming.

This week on Uneasy Money they trace the full anatomy of the pre-IPO SPV fraud wave, explain why synthetic perpetual markets will eventually price every in-demand private company continuously whether founders want it or not, and dig into the latest AI hacks. Tay breaks down how attackers are now using local on-device Gemini APIs to construct malware on the fly, and Kain shares the story of an agent that caught a slow-drain attack in 90 seconds that humans missed for 12 hours.

Luca explains why Circle's Arc token is a brilliant move for Circle equity holders even if it changes nothing for ETH or Solana. Plus: the Aave/Kelp court update and why the Gerstein lawyers' argument that every victim needs to show up in court is fundamentally incompatible with how onchain recovery works.

Hosts:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Kain Warwick⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Founder of Infinex and Synthetix
⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Taylor Monahan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Security Expert
⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Luca Netz⁠⁠⁠⁠, CEO of Pudgy Penguins

Timestamps

📉 0:00 Intro: the Anthropic/OpenAI SPV daisy chain and the 'rocks with Anthropic written on them' problem

📋 4:31 When Luca faced a situation similar to Anthropic’s with Pudgy Penguins

🧱 7:12 Why this shows the secondary SPV market is broken, even catching legit platforms like Forge

🔗 13:11 How onchain synthetic pre-IPO markets, like PreStocks and Ventuals on Solana, work

🕹️ 24:54 The end game for Anthropic/OpenAI with these secondary SPVs

🚫 29:52 Why pre-IPO companies have no incentive to IPO — and why that breaks markets

38:01 ⛓️ : Multichain Advisors: Get help navigating TGEs, go‑to‑market, BD and partnerships, capital markets advisory, PR, media placements, KOL activations and more at multichainadv.com.💙 38:40 Coinbase: Get 20% off the first year of your Coinbase One annual plan at coinbase.com/unchained.

💥 40:37 Google disrupts AI-mediated attack and how local Gemini APIs have greatly increased surface attack area

🤖 50:05 Why Kain is bullish on continuous monitoring by agents for slow drain attacks

⭕ 59:14 Why members of the crew are confused/bullish/skeptical on Circle's $220M Arc token presale

📈 1:00:51 Is Arc bullish Ethereum? Kain says Circle equity holders win, not ETH bags

⚖️ 1:06:35 Gerstein lawyers' absurd argument in the Aave/Arbitrum/KelpDAO case

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Why Arthur Hayes Thinks the AI Bubble Bursting Could Spark a Crypto Bull Market May 12, 2026

Show notes

Arthur Hayes sees one force driving markets right now: governments printing money to finance AI and war. He explains why that ends with Bitcoin much higher — and what could derail it.

========================================================

Thank you to our sponsor!

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Maelstrom CIO Arthur Hayes called the Tehran toll booth scenario in writing — and now it's playing out. Sovereign nations are waking up to the fact that dollar assets don't buy oil when the strait is closed.

On this episode, Hayes joins Laura Shin to explain why the structural unwinding of petrodollar recycling forces the Fed to print, why an AI deflationary bust could rival 2008 in severity before central banks step in, and why that path ends with Bitcoin substantially higher.

He also breaks down his current highest-conviction positions: Hyperliquid, Zcash, and NEAR, and explains why he's deploying into what he calls maximum disillusionment in private crypto equity.

Host:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Laura Shin⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Host / Unchained

Guests:

Arthur Hayes — CIO, Maelstrom

Timestamps

🚀 0:00 Why Arthur thinks all wars, including the Iran War, are inflationary

🌍 3:01 How the Iran war is causing demand for US treasuries to decline

💙 10:17 Get 20% off the first year of your Coinbase One annual plan at coinbase.com/unchained

🪖 12:18 How the Iran War is eroding the dominance of the petrodollar

📊 16:11 Why Arthur watches WTI futures — and when 'all hell breaks loose'

⏸️ 18:16 Why Arthur considered Q1 “a no-trade zone” and his approach to Q2

🏦 20:20 Kevin Warsh as Fed chair: why Arthur says he's a neutral variable

🌏 22:43 How Asia perceives the Iran war and the US-China AI race

🤖 26:28 Two catalysts that Arthur believes could end the AI bull market

💥 31:42 What Arthur sees as a coming AI agentic deflationary bust

😂 36:32 How Arthur actually invests in AI stocks: buy first, research later

🔵 38:42 The Hype thesis: why Hyperliquid got tokenomics right

⚖️ 45:11 Why Zcash is Arthur's largest position outside Bitcoin

🔗 48:24 NEAR as the next shitcoin: the Zcash-Near integration thesis

🔐 50:26 On-chain risk, the Kelpout hack, and what teams get wrong

🏢 53:12 Maelstrom update: fundraising and why now is the right time to deploy

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DEX in the City: Will the CLARITY Act Pass? Three Crypto Lawyers Give Their Odds May 12, 2026

Show notes

As a new CLARITY Act draft dropped, KK, Vy, and guest Josh Riezman of GSR give their passage odds and explain the one developer protection provision that matters most.

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A new draft of the CLARITY Act just landed — all 300-plus pages of it — and Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos, TuongVy Le, and guest Josh Riezman of GSR didn't wait to dig in.

On this episode they break down the specific developer protection provision in the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act that introduces a specific intent standard for charging developers, debate passage odds, and explain why Circle releasing a token as a public company signals a real shift in how the SEC thinks about the security/token distinction.

They also unpack Chair Atkins' remarks at the SEC's AI+ Expo — a speech Vy argues shows the SEC and Congress are now in lockstep on modernizing securities regulation for on-chain infrastructure — and why, for the first time, that infrastructure includes vaults.

Hosts:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, General Counsel at StarkWare. Previously held senior legal roles across DeFi and centralized exchanges.
⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TuongVy Le⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, General Counsel at Veda

Guest:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Josh Riezman — Chief Legal and Strategy Officer, GSR

Timestamps

⚖️ 0:00 Intro — new CLARITY Act draft drops; why there’s still a lot of work to do

📜 5:27 Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Aact developer protections and why the “specific intent” standard is so important

🏦 11:06 How TradFi actually feels about crypto market structure legislation

📊 14:45 What CLARITY must achieve: the US as the center for crypto innovation and the security/commodity line

🎰 18:11 Lightning round — passage odds: KK at 35%, Vy at 90%, Josh at 45%

🌸 21:32 Does the recent M&A wave, massive VC raises and Circle's Arc token presale mean it’s crypto spring?

💙 27:41 Coinbase: Get 20% off the first year of your Coinbase One annual plan at coinbase.com/unchained

📈 29:39 The least bearish bear market in history — RWA wave and institutional onchain demand

♀️ 33:41 The E11even controversy: ‘Maybe we should just not have strippers at official events.’

🎤 34:56 SEC Chair Paul Atkins' speech recognizing that onchain infrastructure can achieve the same goals as TradFi rails

📚 43:00 The education gap: most legislators still at Bitcoin-level crypto knowledge

🤖 46:46 AI good news: Redmod AI system may detect pancreatic cancer early

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Bits + Bips: Why the AI Rally Keeps Growing — and Why Circle Launched Arc May 11, 2026

Show notes

Ram says the entire market is now one giant AI trade. Chris argues the boom is backed by real fundamentals. Austin asks: is AI creating value for the right companies?

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Coinbase One: Get 20% off the first year of your Coinbase One annual plan at coinbase.com/unchained.

Heads up!

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Circle just made history as the first publicly traded company to run a token presale, raising $222 million from BlackRock, Apollo, ICE, and a16z at a $3 billion valuation — and the stock went up.

At the same time, Coinbase reported a $394 million loss, cut 700 jobs, and suffered a five-hour outage.

Ram, Austin, and Chris work through what's really happening: whether Circle's Arc is the institutional payment rail the industry has been waiting for or a financial engineering play, whether Coinbase's troubles are cyclical or structural, and whether the AI-driven market rally is a bubble forming or a fundamental shift that makes the dotcom comparison wrong.

Hosts:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Austin Campbell (@austincampbell) — Founder, Zero Knowledge Consulting; Adjunct Professor, NYU Stern
⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Ram Ahluwalia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Co-Host, CEO of Lumida
⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Chris Perkins⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Co-Host, CEO of 250 Digital Asset Management

Timestamps 🚀 0:00 Introduction and Iran ceasefire update 🛢️ 1:02 What Ram and Chris are watching in oil and Hormuz 📊 4:49 Why markets are shrugging off geopolitical noise 🤖 13:25 Ram on why the market is all one giant bet on AI 💬 16:03 Is the AI rally a bubble or a fundamental shift? 🏦 27:04 Circle launches Arc: could its token compete with its own stock? 📉 40:21 Coinbase: were the layoffs due to AI or the bear market? 🎭 48:26 What it says about the industry that Consensus’s afterparty was at E11even The Crypto Industry’s Maturity Problem

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Coinbase's Chief Policy Officer on Why He Believes the Clarity Act Will Pass May 08, 2026

Show notes

Coinbase's chief policy officer explains why the bank lobby failed to kill stablecoin rewards — and what 'workable compromise' actually means for crypto users.

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The Genius Act established that stablecoin issuers could pay rewards to users. The banks said no. For months, the American Bankers Association used the Clarity Act as a pressure point to reverse that decision — tying up a bill that was supposed to govern an entirely different corner of crypto. Now there's compromise language. Coinbase's chief policy officer, Faryar Shirzad, says it's workable. The banks say it doesn't go far enough.

Meanwhile, the Clarity Act itself is racing toward a July 4th deadline, with a Senate Banking Committee markup expected the week of May 14. Ethics provisions around government officials holding crypto assets remain the hardest open question — and, as Shirzad puts it, one entirely above his pay grade.

This is where the biggest crypto legislation in US history actually stands.

Host:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Laura Shin⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Host / Unchained

Guests:

Faryar Shirzad (@faryarshirzad) — Chief Policy Officer, Coinbase

Timestamps 🎙️ 0:00 Introduction 💰 0:43 What the Clarity Act's stablecoin rewards compromise means in practice 🏦 4:04 What the banks got, what crypto kept — and why rewards are still workable ⚖️ 7:51 The American Bankers Association pushes back — is this fight really over? 🔵 13:36 Coinbase One ad: Get 20% off the first year of your Coinbase One annual plan 🔒 14:58 Adaptive Security ad: Run deep fake AI generated phishing and vising simulations 📋 15:55 Getting the Clarity Act over the finish line — what's still unresolved? 🔑 18:54 Remaining issues, such as ethics, SEC exemptive relief, whether DeFi apps are money transmitters 🗓️ 28:27 Can the Clarity Act pass by July 4th? What happens if it doesn't? 🌍 32:33 What's next after the Clarity Act — taxes, rulemaking, and global expansion

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A16z Crypto Raised $2.2 Billion for Fund 5. Here's How They Plan to Deploy It May 07, 2026

Show notes

From AI agents as economic actors to quantum threats and prediction market regulation, Ali Yahya of a16z lays out the investment thesis behind a16z crypto's fifth fund.

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a16z crypto just closed its fifth crypto fund at $2.2 billion — smaller than its previous fund, but the firm says that's deliberate.

General Partner Ali Yahya argues we are entering a different phase of crypto's development: one where infrastructure is ready, regulatory clarity is arriving, and the competition for real users has begun in earnest.

Two themes sit at the center of a16z's thesis — the collision of crypto and FinTech, and the emergence of AI agents as economic actors. But Yahya's most striking claim may be about blockchains themselves: that performance is no longer a moat, privacy is. And that the chains which get privacy right will accrue stronger network effects than anything the industry has built before.

What does a world of privacy-dominant blockchains do to DeFi composability, to security, to the ability to track hackers? And where does the quantum threat actually stand?

Host:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Laura Shin⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Host / Unchained

Guests:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Ali Yahya, General Partner, a16z crypto

Timestamps 🚀 0:00 Introduction — Why a16z crypto raised its $2.2B Fund 5 now 💰 2:50 The two big investment themes: fintech x crypto and AI x crypto 🔒 9:25 Why Ali believes privacy is the most important moat in crypto ⛓️ 14:31 How the three privacy approaches compare: centralized sequencers, TEEs, zk tech 🔐 18:32 What happens to security in a world of privacy chains? 🧩 28:48 When privacy chains dominate, can we still have DeFi money Legos? 🤖 34:12 Ali's AI background and how agents will enter the financial system 🎨 43:55 What AI x crypto means for entrepreneurs and creative types ⚠️ 49:13 The quantum threat — why Ali says we have 10-15 years 📊 51:58 Prediction markets and insider trading — where the line is

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Why Wrapped Energy or Compute Will Be the New Store of Value: Bits + Bips May 07, 2026

Show notes

Missiles in the Strait of Hormuz. Brent jumps 5%. Bitcoin breaks through $80. The Bits + Bips crew reads the geopolitical tape — and explains why crypto is shrugging it off.

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Heads up!

If you haven’t yet, be sure to subscribe to Bits + Bips, since the show will migrate there in a few weeks. Follow us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠X⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠Unchained⁠⁠⁠⁠ and wherever you get your podcasts.

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Iranian cruise missiles struck commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, Brent jumped 5%, and Bitcoin broke through $80 — all in the same day.

The Bits + Bips crew unpacks what the escalation means for crypto and macro positioning, why Ram stays bullish, and whether Paul Tudor Jones is right that Bitcoin is now the best inflation hedge.

They also break down the Clarity Act’s yield compromise — with Circle up 16% — and why Austin argues banks may have handed asset managers a structural win.

Finally, a U.S. court filing targeting Arbitrum’s frozen North Korean funds raises a bigger question: can you serve legal papers on code, and what does that mean for DAO governance?

Austin Campbell, Ram Ahluwalia, and Chris Perkins break it all down.

Hosts:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Austin Campbell (@austincampbell) — Founder, Zero Knowledge Consulting; Adjunct Professor, NYU Stern
⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Ram Ahluwalia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Co-Host, CEO of Lumida
⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Chris Perkins⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Co-Host, CEO of 250 Digital Asset Management

Timestamps ⚔️ 1:06 Iran strikes in the Strait of Hormuz — what's happening on the ground 📈 3:14 Why Bitcoin ripped through $80 while equities sold off 🛢️ 6:47 Ram's macro read: markets one day from all-time highs, stay bullish 🪙 17:45 What to make of Paul Tudor Jones calling Bitcoin the best inflation hedge ⚡ 20:58 Chris's thesis: the future store of value is wrapped energy or wrapped compute 🏛️ 37:29 Clarity Act yield compromise: did crypto win, did banks win, did anyone win? ⚖️ 48:47 What happens now that there’s a lawsuit against Arbitrum for freezing funds stolen by North Korea 🔐 51:47 Can DeFi achieve mass adoption without resolving the security question?

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DEX in the City: With the Stablecoin Yield Compromise, Can the Clarity Act Get Passed? May 07, 2026

Show notes

Seven lawsuits blame OpenAI for enabling a mass shooting. Could the same legal theory come for DeFi?

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Seven families just sued OpenAI in federal court, arguing ChatGPT was a defective product that helped plan a mass shooting. OpenAI's own safety team flagged the risk eight months earlier and did nothing. The legal theory being tested here, that software developers can be held liable for foreseeable misuse of their tools, is the same theory that has been circling DeFi for years.

Meanwhile, April ended as the most hacked month in crypto history, with over $600 million stolen in roughly 30 exploits, most of them linked to North Korea and its weapons programs. DeFi United, a $300M relief coalition led by Aave, emerged as the industry's response.

KK, Vy, and Jessi unpack what it means when the 'code is law' defense starts to crack, why basic operational security is still not standard practice, and how close the Clarity Act actually is to crossing the finish line.

Hosts:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos⁠⁠⁠, General Counsel at StarkWare. Previously held senior legal roles across DeFi and centralized exchanges.
⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jessi Brooks⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, General Counsel at Ribbit Capital
⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TuongVy Le⁠⁠⁠⁠, General Counsel at Veda

Timestamps 🚀 0:00 Introduction 🤖 2:44 How several lawsuits claiming AI companies have liability for defective products has warning signs for DeFi 🔓 12:11 April: the most hacked month in crypto history. Who’s being social engineered now? 🛡️ 16:01 Why basic OpSec failures are still enabling North Korea's hackers 💸 18:17 Is the $300M raised by DeFi United a bailout or solidarity? 📜 26:41 The Clarity Act stablecoin yield compromise: what changed and what's left 🐶 36:47 Crypto good news: Dogecoin and Moonpay donate 1M DOGE to dogs

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