Unchained

Latest Episodes:

Why Crypto Has a Good Long-Term Setup Right Now: Bits + Bips Mar 04, 2026

Show notes

A major war broke out in the Middle East, but Bitcoin didn’t break. One veteran investor says that price action reveals something important about where crypto stands today.

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The U.S. and Israel have struck Iran, killing Ayatollah Khamenei, and markets are still calibrating. Oil is climbing toward $100, yields are confounding textbook expectations, and when news first broke, Bitcoin dropped to around $63,000 before recovering to roughly $70,000 during Monday's session. Equity futures that opened sharply lower also reversed, ending roughly flat vs. Friday's close. What does that price action actually mean? Is the crypto bounce a sign of structural resilience, or is it moving in lockstep with a broader risk recovery?

In this episode, Steven Ehrlich sits down with Rob Hadick, General Partner at Dragonfly Capital, a veteran crypto venture investor managing hundreds of millions of dollars to work through what the Iran conflict actually means for digital assets. They also get into the stalled Clarity Act that could be crypto's biggest catalyst of the year, the rise of on-chain derivatives markets, and why one of the largest crypto-focused funds believes now is one of the best moments in history to be building in this space.

Host:

⁠Steven Ehrlich⁠

Guest:

Rob Hadick, General Partner, Dragonfly

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Bits + Bips: Is Crypto the Only Asset That Works When Geopolitics Breaks Down? Mar 04, 2026

Show notes

US and Israeli strikes killed Iran's Supreme Leader and initially rattled markets. But does the subsequent market calm reflect genuine resilience or a dangerous underpricing of what comes next?

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Over the weekend, US and Israeli forces conducted coordinated strikes on Iran under an operation called Epic Fury, killing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and triggering retaliatory missile attacks across the Gulf region.

Markets absorbed the shock in ways that surprised almost everyone: bitcoin briefly dropped and recovered to $70,000, gold touched $5,400, oil surged, and the VIX held in the low 20s while equities finished roughly flat.

In this episode of Bits + Bips, Austin Campbell, Ram Ahluwalia, and Chris Perkins discuss whether the market is correctly pricing this as a contained regional conflict, or is something larger being missed? What does crypto's stability in a weekend war say about its role as an asset class? And with the Clarity Bill stalling again over stablecoin yield, and Anthropic handing the Pentagon to OpenAI, is the window for principled positioning in both crypto and AI closing faster than anyone admits?

Hosts:

⁠⁠⁠Ram Ahluwalia⁠⁠⁠, CFA, CEO and Founder of Lumida

⁠⁠⁠Austin Campbell⁠⁠⁠, NYU Stern professor and founder and managing partner of Zero Knowledge Consulting

⁠⁠⁠Christopher Perkins⁠⁠⁠, Managing Partner and President of CoinFund

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Bits + Bips: What Happens to Markets Now That the U.S. Has Struck Iran? Mar 02, 2026

Show notes

A former Clinton and Biden foreign policy advisor saw it before it happened. Now the question is what investors do next.

Hours after this episode was recorded, the United States and Israel launched a coordinated military campaign against Iran, killing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in what analysts are calling the most significant U.S.-Iran escalation in decades.

Charles Myers, Founder and CEO of Signum Global Advisors and a former senior foreign policy advisor to Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, had just sat down with Steven Ehrlich to discuss the geopolitical landscape and what it means for investors.

What he said about Iran during that conversation is now raising serious questions about what comes next, and the investment implications are far from settled.

In this episode, Myers also addresses whether the "sell America" trade is overdone, where oil is heading, the future of AI funding, and whether Bitcoin can actually function as a safe haven when the world is on fire.

Hosts:

⁠Steven Ehrlich⁠, Host of Bits + Bips: The Interview

Guests:

⁠Charles Myers, Founder and CEO, Signum Global Advisors

Links:

Iran strike / military action:

US strikes Iran — https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/israel-iran-attack-02-28-26-hnk-intl

US-Iran nuclear talks — https://www.nbcnews.com/world/iran/us-iran-nuclear-talks-trump-military-buildup-attack-missiles-rcna260764

Largest US military buildup in the Middle East since the early 2000s — https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2026/02/26/us-military-assembles-largest-force-of-warships-aircraft-in-middle-east-in-decades/

Oil markets:

Oil prices surge after Iran strike — https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/28/iran-us-attack-oil-market-economy.html

Trump’s energy strategy: targeting oil in the low $50s — https://www.axios.com/2026/02/28/us-iran-attack-energy-oil-prices

Sell America / US safe haven:

Global investors question US safe haven status — https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/28/markets-brace-for-impact-following-us-military-strikes-against-iran.html

The “Sell America” trade, explained — https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-02-02/sell-america-trade-why-investors-are-questioning-us-assets

Venezuela / Monroe Doctrine:

Maduro government and the US oil deal — https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/05/maduro-overthrow-could-pave-the-way-for-us-oil-companies-to-recover-venezuela-assets.html

The return of the Monroe Doctrine under Trump — https://www.cfr.org/articles/oil-power-and-the-climate-stakes-of-the-u-s-move-in-venezuela

OpenAI / AI:

OpenAI raises $110 billion — https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/27/open-ai-funding-round-amazon.html

Stargate: OpenAI and SoftBank’s AI moonshot — https://openai.com/index/announcing-the-stargate-project/

Prediction Markets:

Polymarket Iran strike odds — https://polymarket.com

Insider trading on Polymarket: the Maduro bet — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_United_States_strikes_in_Venezuela

Stablecoins / GENIUS Act:

The GENIUS Act and stablecoin regulation — https://www.gibsondunn.com/the-genius-act-a-new-era-of-stablecoin-regulation/

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Uneasy Money: Why the AI Singularity May Already Be Out of Our Hands Feb 28, 2026

Show notes

MegaETH's Namik Muduroglu joins the Uneasy Money crew to discuss how the industry can fix token incentives, the continued escalation of the Aave civil war and more.

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An article from Boost CEO Brian Flynn sparks conversation about whether tokens are dead. The Aave civil war continues to escalate. China is trying to reverse engineer Claude even as Anthropic faces off against the U.S. government.

In this episode of Uneasy Money, hosts Kain Warwick and Taylor Monahan are joined by MegaETH founding team member Namik Muduroglu to discuss how to fix token incentives, whether there is a happy ending in sight for Aave.

They also discuss the geopolitical risks that come with AI and the technology's rapid rate of advancement. Is the Singularity already out of our hands?

Plus, ZachXBT's teased announcement and Ethereum's “strawmap.”

Don't miss Kain's plan to fuse Claude with his Unitree dog and why Namik is a closet AI doomer.

Hosts:

⁠⁠Kain Warwick⁠⁠, Founder of Infinex and Synthetix
⁠⁠Taylor Monahan⁠⁠, Security Expert

Guest:

⁠Namik Muduroglu, CSO & Founding Team at MegaETH

Links:

Unchained:

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Can Solana Edge Out Ethereum to Win the AI Agent & RWA Race? Feb 27, 2026

Show notes

Tushar Jain and Mike Ippolito make the bull case for Solana as competition heats up.

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With Ethereum refocusing on L1 and Hyperliquid adoption growing, Solana is arguably facing stronger competition than ever. Can it thrive still?

Multicoin co-founder Tushar Jain and Blockworks co-founder Mike Ippolito share several reasons to be excited about Solana, including Alpenglow and anticipated market microstructure design flexibility.

Find out why Tushar and Mike say Firedancer has not been a flop despite seemingly low adoption, why they don't see block building issues stopping Solana from challenging Hyperliquid, and why they say the network doesn't have to do anything to specifically attract AI agents. Plus, why they both believe that the RWA race is too early to call despite Ethereum's dominance.

Meanwhile, with Alpenglow still months away, Mike says the wait doesn’t matter — for the next 12 to 18 months BD and marketing matter more than tech for adoption.

#UN1047

Guest:

Tushar Jain, Co-Founder & Managing Partner at Multicoin Capital
Previous appearances on Unchained:

Mike Ippolito, Co-Founder at Blockworks

Links:

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DEX in the City: Why Everyone Is Overreacting About the Terra v. Jane Street Lawsuit Feb 27, 2026

Show notes

Robinhood's Coy Garrison and Seong Seog Lee join the crew to unpack the Robinhood Chain launch strategy.

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Robinhood's proposed chain for the trading of tokenized assets is live in testnet.

In this DEX in the City episode, Coy Garrison, Robinhood's deputy general counsel on crypto, and Robinhood Crypto Head of Product Seong Seog Lee walk hosts Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos and Jessi Brooks through the thinking behind the blockchain's testnet launch and why it is important that it supports tokenized equities out of the gate.

Beyond the Robinhood Chain testnet launch, KK and Jessi discuss OpenAI and Paradigm's EVMbench tool and why it highlights the need for a safety-first approach. “AI and crypto are in the same room now, but the room's sort of on fire,” Jessi says.

Don't miss how a man accidentally gained remote access to 7,000 robot vacuums in 24 countries with AI-written code.

KK and Jessi also dig into the Terraform Labs estate's lawsuit against Jane Street. Is there any real credibility behind the lawsuit? Listen to find out!

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Hosts:

⁠⁠Jessi Brooks⁠⁠, General Counsel at Ribbit Capital
⁠Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos⁠, General Counsel at StarkWare

Guests:

⁠⁠⁠Coy Garrison, Senior Director and Deputy General Counsel, Crypto at Robinhood
⁠⁠Seong Seog Lee, Head of Product at Robinhood Crypto

Links:

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The Chopping Block: AI's Role in Crypto, Agentic Coding, & Citrini Financial Crisis Feb 27, 2026

Show notes

Explore how AI could reshape crypto and finance, redefining traditional systems and introducing new threats. As AI-powered agents promise efficiency, Haseeb, Tom, Tarun, and guest Illia Polosukhin critique Citrini's controversial predictions on a global financial crisis and consider whether AI might just save or further complicate crypto's role in the economy.

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.

Joining us is Illia Polosukhin, co-founder of NEAR Protocol and contributing author to the original transformers paper that’s revolutionized AI.

Buckle up as we delve into AI’s burgeoning role in the crypto world, dissect the sensational claims from Citrini’s article predicting an AI-triggered financial crisis, and explore the potential of agentic coding in reshaping traditional systems.

Let’s get into it!

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

Hosts

⭐️Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly

⭐️Tarun Chitra, Managing Partner at Robot Ventures

⭐️Tom Schmidt, General Partner at Dragonfly

Guest
⭐️ Illia Polosukhin, Co-founder of NEAR Protocol

Disclosures

Links:

THE 2028 GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE CRISIS by Citrini and Alap Shah

Timestamps

00:00 Intro

01:06 AI Agents Meet Crypto

08:06 Dark Forest Threat Model

15:31 How Close Are We

18:41 AI Coding Risks in Crypto

27:27 Citrini 2028 Crisis Explained

35:01 Demand Shock Missing Money

37:55 Automation Limits and Human Value

44:13 AI Zero Days and Botnets

51:40 Escrow Courts and Enforcement

56:05 Illia on Vibe Coding Future

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Bits + Bips: Are Crypto Markets Bottoming, or Is There More Pain Ahead? Feb 26, 2026

Show notes

DATs may be collapsing, AI agents may be overhyped, but Omid Malekan thinks the strongest case for crypto has nothing to do with either.

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Bitcoin is below $63,000, digital asset treasuries are under pressure, and the debate over whether crypto markets are bottoming or breaking down is splitting the hosts.

Ram is skeptical of institutional demand when he looks at the 13F data from institutions filing SEC reports. Chris is on the phone with institutions all day and is bullish.

Omid Malekan, adjunct professor at Columbia Business School, comes in with a longer lens: he admits he contributed to the DAT hype cycle, has doubts about agentic commerce that remind him of the metaverse in 2021, and thinks the strongest argument for crypto is not a product or a token but a fact about how nation-states treat their own citizens.

The conversation also covers tokenized bank deposits, the SEC's updated broker-dealer guidance on stablecoins, and what it means that the Supreme Court just struck down Trump's tariffs.

Hosts:

⁠⁠Ram Ahluwalia⁠⁠, CFA, CEO and Founder of Lumida

⁠⁠Austin Campbell⁠⁠, NYU Stern professor and founder and managing partner of Zero Knowledge Consulting

⁠⁠Christopher Perkins⁠⁠, Managing Partner and President of CoinFund

Guest:

⁠Omid Malekan, Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School

Links:

Unchained:

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How Virtuals' New AI Accelerator Will Bring Humanoid Robots to the Real World Feb 23, 2026

Show notes

Jansen Teng announces Virtuals’ new humanoid robotics accelerator. Is this the next frontier for the AI agent meta?

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Virtuals Protocol has announced the launch of Eastworld Labs, an AI accelerator to make it easier for builders to deploy humanoid robots.

Virtuals Protocol co-founder Jansen Teng unpacks the idea behind the program, how it would work and what it hopes to achieve. He also addresses questions about how to prevent damage to remotely controlled robots, how to address backlash to robots taking jobs, and whether Virtuals views OpenClaw as a competitor.

Will human relationships eventually be replaced by AI agents?

Guest:

⁠⁠⁠⁠Jansen Teng, CEO & Co-Founder of Virtuals Protocol

Links:

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Is Nic Carter Exaggerating Bitcoin's Quantum Risk? Yes, Says One Core Dev Feb 22, 2026

Show notes

Matt Corallo says “the community that exists at the time” will make decisions on how Bitcoin deals with the threat of quantum computing.

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When it comes to the quantum computing threat to crypto, the focus is often on Bitcoin and for good reason. The blockchain lacks a defined governance structure and the vulnerability around Satoshi's and other abandoned and lost coins is far greater than on any other chain.

Furthermore, influential figures like Nic Carter have accused developers of sleeping at the wheel.

Bitcoin Core contributor Matt Corallo argues that it won't take much to make the network quantum-resistant and, contrary to popular narrative, says work is already underway.

Find out why Corallo says quantum-proofing Bitcoin requires only two steps ”you burn old lost coins, you burn anyone who hasn't migrated.”

Guest: