Unchained

Latest Episodes:

Bits + Bips: Could Blackrock Someday Feel Compelled to 'Fire' Bitcoin Core Devs? Feb 11, 2026

Show notes

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

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Bitcoin slid toward $60,000 on Feb. 5 in a brutal, cross-asset selloff that hit gold, equities, and crypto alike. With leverage unwinding and basis trades breaking, long-time bitcoin holders are distributing to institutional buyers who, by 13F data, are mostly underwater. The mood across digital assets is bleak.

Against that backdrop, Nic Carter of Castle Island Ventures argues that key Bitcoin narratives have quietly failed—and warns that developers’ inaction on quantum risk could open the door to institutional control. If devs don’t act, Carter says ETF giants like BlackRock will.

The panel then widens the lens: declaring the token-centric VC model dead, debating whether AI now rivals the industrial revolution, and stress-testing it all across topics ranging from Solana vs. Hyperliquid to Japan’s political shift and MrBeast’s fintech play.

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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:

Nic Carter, Founding Partner at Castle Island Ventures

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How Zero Blockchain Cracked 2M TPS Without Sacrificing Decentralization Feb 10, 2026

Show notes

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LayerZero Labs is making bold promises with its coming Zero Blockchain. 2 million transactions per second per node. A thousandth of a penny per transaction. No compromises to decentralization. The big question is how?!

In this Unchained podcast episode, LayerZero Labs CEO Bryan Pellegrino explains how the team was able to crack scalability by fixing blockchain storage and rethinking the crypto industry's approach to zero knowledge technology.

With the blockchain already boasting partners such as Citadel Securities, DTCC and ICE, will Zero be the blockchain institutions decide to build on?

Guest:

Bryan Pellegrino, Co-founder & CEO of LayerZero Labs

Links:

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Want to Hire an AI Agent? Check Their Reputation Via ERC-8004 Feb 08, 2026

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The ERC-8004 standard for trustless AI agent interactions is finally live on mainnet!

In this Unchained episode, Ethereum Foundation AI Lead Davide Crapis joins to explain what the standard is, how it works, how it’s protected against manipulation, and what's next.

Listen to find out his most interesting experience building the project and tips for builders looking to start businesses around AI agents.

Guest:

Davide Crapis, AI Lead at Ethereum Foundation

Links:

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Uneasy Money: How the Increasingly Better AI Agents Are Being Used Onchain Feb 07, 2026

Show notes

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MultiChain Advisors

Vitalik Buterin just dropped a bombshell: the L2 vision no longer makes sense. Meanwhile, AI coding agents are going parabolic.

In this monster episode of Uneasy Money, Ethereum Foundation Head of Developer Growth Austin Griffith and Optimism co-founder Karl Floersch join hosts Kain Warwick and Taylor Monahan to unpack the reasoning behind Vitalik's remarks and debate whether Ethereum needs L2s to pull institutions.

They also take a deep dive into the OpenClaw and Moltbook craze and Austin shares how he has different agents running on different machines, including one that texts his wife good morning everyday. Is “AI the new UI?”

Hosts:

Kain Warwick, Founder of Infinex and Synthetix

Taylor Monahan, Security Expert, Metamask

Guests:

Austin Griffith, AI Lead at Ethereum Foundation

Karl Floersh, CTO of OP Labs

Links:

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When AI Agents Take Over, What Does a Post-Human Economy Look Like? Feb 07, 2026

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In one week, OpenClaw agents have gotten their own social networking platform, launched cryptocurrency tokens and built a site to rent humans.

In this episode of Unchained, DAIS Global Chair Michael Casey and The Exponentialist co-founder David Mattin explore what Moltbook reveals about the direction of the AI trend, how AI could impact jobs and what a post-human economy looks like. Will Bitcoin be the currency of the future?

Don't miss Michael's sovereign AI thesis and how Mattin believes we can navigate the transition to a post-human society.

Hint: “lean into your weirdness.”

Guests:

Michael Casey, Chairman of DAIS Global

David Mattin, Co-founder of The Exponentialist

Links:

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DEX in the City: Why AI Agents Are Good for Crypto and Stablecoins Feb 06, 2026

Show notes

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The White House is intervening in the fight over stablecoin yield. And AI agents are… organizing?

In this special episode of DEX in the City, Zerohash CEO Edward Woodford joins hosts Jessi Brooks and Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos to unpack the White House meeting to resolve disputes over the CLARITY Act and the Moltbook craze.

Listen to find out why Edward thinks CLARITY should have a narrower focus and what he thinks is more important than the yield debate. Plus why Jessi thinks the crypto industry is pinning too much hope on the bill.

Don't also miss Edward's rationale behind rejecting $2B from Mastercard and KK's awkward interaction with a teacher after offering to teach crypto at her son's school.

Meanwhile, as AI agents proliferate, where does accountability lie?

Hosts:

Jessi Brooks, General Counsel at Ribbit Capital

Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos, General Counsel at StarkWare

Guest:

Edward Woodford, Founder and CEO of Zerohash

Links:

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Why Bitcoin Is Down, Plus the Rare Bright Spot in Crypto: Hyperliquid Feb 06, 2026

Show notes

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Fuse

Bitcoin's collapse is accelerating. Continuing a descent that began last week, the asset this week has all the price progress made under the Trump administration. The price action begs the question why amid greater adoption and support.

In this episode of Unchained, FalconX Head of Markets Joshua Lim highlights two main reasons for Bitcoin's regression and offers his outlook for the year. Is it 2022 all over?

Plus, how gold's run resembles GameStop in 2021 and why Hyperliquid is a bright spot amid market weakness.

Guest:

Joshua Lim, Head of Markets, FalconX

Links:

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Bits + Bips: Bitcoin Is Deeply Oversold. Does That Mean the Bottom Is In? Feb 05, 2026

Show notes

Crypto markets are under severe pressure, with Bitcoin sliding into one of the most oversold conditions in its history and Ethereum following closely behind. In this episode of Bits + Bips, Steve Ehrlich sits down with Fairlead Strategies founder Katie Stockton to walk through what the charts are actually signaling amid the selloff.

They discuss why oversold does not automatically mean a bottom, how technicians look for downside exhaustion, and what needs to change before confidence returns for Bitcoin and ETH.

Hosts:

Steven Ehrlich, Host, Bits + Bips

Guests:

Katie Stockton, Founder and Managing Partner, Fairlead Strategies

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The Chopping Block: Market Meltdown, CZ vs. Star Feud, and Tarun's Epstein Files Cameo Feb 05, 2026

Show notes

The hosts dive into Bitcoin's volatility below $75K, dissect the explosive CZ vs Star Twitter battle over who caused the 10/10 liquidation cascade, debate the ethics of founder secondary sales with passionate disagreement, and explore the surprising crypto connections in the newly released Epstein files including Tarun's unexpected cameo.

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.

This week, the crew tackles a volatile market with Bitcoin struggling below $75K and explores what's driving the uncertainty. They dive deep into the explosive Twitter battle between Binance founder CZ and OKX's Star over who really caused the catastrophic 10/10 liquidation event that broke crypto's correlation with traditional markets. The conversation gets heated as the hosts debate the ethics of founder secondary sales — with Haseeb taking a surprisingly libertarian stance against his co-hosts. Finally, they explore the unexpected crypto connections in the newly released Epstein files, including Tarun's own amusing cameo and connections to Coinbase, Bitcoin Core developers, and other industry figures.

From market analysis to Twitter drama to moral philosophy, this episode covers the full spectrum of crypto discourse. 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.

Show highlights

🔹 Bitcoin below $75K signals uncertain market conditions with equal odds of hitting $40K or $130K

🔹 CZ vs Star Twitter battle over who caused the catastrophic 10/10 liquidation cascade

🔹 Athena unwinding timeline analysis challenges Star's claims about Binance's role

🔹 Heated debate on founder secondary sales ethics with sharp disagreements among hosts

🔹 Tarun's unexpected appearance in Epstein files via Quora digest on homomorphic encryption

🔹 Epstein's 2014 Coinbase investment and connections to Brock Pierce revealed

🔹 Bitcoin developers' interactions with Epstein including Adam Back and Jeremy Rubin

🔹 MicroStrategy's break-even position becomes psychological market threshold

🔹 Quantum computing concerns emerge as potential Bitcoin selling catalyst

🔹 Post-10/10 correlation breakdown between crypto and traditional risk assets analyzed

Hosts

⭐️Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly

⭐️Robert Leshner, CEO & Co-founder of Superstate

⭐️Tarun Chitra, Managing Partner at Robot Ventures

⭐️Tom Schmidt, General Partner at Dragonfly

Disclosures

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Bits + Bips: Why Gold Price Discovery Happened on Hyperliquid Feb 04, 2026

Show notes

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

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In this episode of Bits + Bips, Austin Campbell and Chris Perkins sit down with Cosmo Jiang to unpack what gold’s volatility shock revealed about market structure, why onchain venues like Hyperliquid are increasingly where price discovery happens, and how digital asset treasuries are being blamed for stress they did not create.

The conversation also turns to Kevin Warsh’s nomination as Fed chair and why it represents a deeper shift in institutional power, not just personnel.

Hosts: