Bankless

ICOs are suddenly back, but this time the projects are real, the mechanisms are better, and retail isn’t shut out. Ryan and David break down why MegaEth, Monad, Aztec, Zama, and Infinex are launching public sales all at once, how onchain auctions are fixing 2017’s mistakes, and what regulatory clarity means for U.S. participation. They also dive into the rise of internet native capital markets on Ethereum, the shift away from airdrop farming, and why fair price discovery could be a defining theme of 2026. ------ 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔵COINBASE | ETH & BTC BACKED LOANS https://bankless.cc/coinbase-borrow 🪙FRAXNET | MINT, REDEEM, & EARN https://bankless.cc/fraxnet 🦄UNISWAP LABS | SWAP NOW https://bankless.cc/uniswap-labs 🛞MANTLE | GLOBAL HACKATHON 2025 https://bankless.cc/mantle-hackathon 💤EIGHT SLEEP | IMPROVE YOUR SLEEP https://bankless.cc/eight-sleep ------ TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 0:13 Are ICOs Back? 2:54 The Rise of Capital Formation 5:04 Learning from 2017 ICO Mania 7:19 Regulatory Challenges & Arbitrage 10:56 Recent ICOs Overview 17:01 Exploring the MegaEth Sale 26:21 Monad's Unique Approach 30:40 The Innovative Aztec ICO 45:19 Upcoming Auctions: Zama & Infinex 1:04:41 The Future of Capital Formation 1:07:46 Closing & Disclaimers ------ Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

What was really happening inside the SEC during the Gensler years? Today, we sat down with Corey Frayer, former senior crypto policy advisor to SEC Chair Gary Gensler and now Director of Investor Protection at the Consumer Federation of America. We dig into how the agency thought about securities law, DeFi, Uniswap, stablecoins, SAB 121, and why platforms like Coinbase and Kraken ended up in the crosshairs. Corey defends the Gensler playbook while responding to the industry’s harshest criticisms, from “regulation by enforcement” to claims of a political war on crypto. Corey Frayer: https://www.linkedin.com/in/corey-frayer-990a6b2 ------ 🎬 DEBRIEF | RYAN & DAVID UNPACKING THE EPISODE https://www.bankless.com/podcast/debrief-inside-gary-genslers-sec ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔵COINBASE | ETH & BTC BACKED LOANS https://bankless.cc/coinbase-borrow 🪙FRAXNET | MINT, REDEEM, & EARN https://bankless.cc/fraxnet 🦄UNISWAP LABS | SWAP NOW https://bankless.cc/uniswap-labs 🛞MANTLE | GLOBAL HACKATHON 2025 https://bankless.cc/mantle-hackathon 💤EIGHT SLEEP | IMPROVE YOUR SLEEP https://bankless.cc/eight-sleep ------ TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 4:58 Crypto Industry Misconceptions 7:59 Corey’s Role & Background 14:20 How it All Started 24:16 No Path to Register? 31:26 Technology vs Economic Activity 38:22 Protecting Investors 41:07 DeFi Regulation 44:53 Uniswap’s Wells Notice 57:00 Fake DeFi vs True DeFi 1:03:41 Google Analogy 1:08:35 The Howey Test 1:16:53 SEC: Good or Evil? 1:26:52 GENIUS Bill 1:29:10 SAB 121 1:33:01 Crypto & SEC Political Impact 1:36:02 Paul Atkin’s SEC 1:38:15 What Would Corey Change? 1:41:23 Gary’s Text Messages 1:43:10 Is ETH a Security? 1:44:39 Gary Gensler’s Radio Silence 1:47:37 Gary’s Twitter April Fools PFP 1:50:44 Closing & Disclaimers ------ Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠

At our Bankless Summit in Buenos Aires, four standout talks captured the frontier of crypto’s next chapter. Lincoln Murr lays out why x402 is emerging as the missing payment layer for the agentic internet. Shay Ketsdever explains how bots already run modern markets, and how programmable auctions and privacy can turn the bot economy into something that benefits people instead of exploits them. Michael Dong shows how real-time ZK proving unlocks a hundred-fold expansion of Ethereum’s computational power. And Luca Prosperi reframes money as a network, warning that today’s stablecoin architecture is a single point of failure and arguing for a more resilient, distributed monetary system. ------ 📣BANKLESS SUMMIT 2025 | SPONSORED BY M0 https://bankless.cc/m0 ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔵COINBASE | ETH & BTC BACKED LOANS https://bankless.cc/coinbase-borrow 🪙FRAXNET | MINT, REDEEM, & EARN https://bankless.cc/fraxnet 🦄UNISWAP LABS | SWAP NOW https://bankless.cc/uniswap-labs 🛞MANTLE | GLOBAL HACKATHON 2025 https://bankless.cc/mantle-hackathon 💤EIGHT SLEEP | IMPROVE YOUR SLEEP https://bankless.cc/eight-sleep ------ TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES 0:00 Intro 4:26 x402 & The Agentic Internet | Lincoln Murr 22:58 The Bot Economy: When AI & MEV Collide | Shea Ketsdever 47:16 1000x the L1: The Path To Infinite Compute | Michael Dong 1:09:25 A Network Theory of Money | Luca Prosperi ------ Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Bitcoin hit a rare signal this week, dropping to its cheapest level relative to gold in nearly 15 years. Is that a buy signal or something deeper in the macro picture? Ryan and David break down what the BTC–gold anomaly really means, how liquidity, rates, and Trump’s surprise Fed Chair pick factor in, and whether the market is entering a shallow cycle instead of a true winter. We also cover Ethereum’s Fusaka upgrade, Vitalik’s push to bring builders back to L1, Polymarket’s mainstream breakout and CNN–Kalshi deal, and Aztec’s 16K ETH privacy auction. Plus, the SEC’s coming innovation exemption and the growing alliance between Larry Fink and Brian Armstrong. ------ 📣REYA | ETHEREUM FOR TRADERS https://bankless.cc/reya ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔵COINBASE | ETH & BTC BACKED LOANS https://bankless.cc/coinbase-borrow 🪙FRAXNET | MINT, REDEEM, EARN https://bankless.cc/fraxnet 🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN https://bankless.cc/unichain 🛞MANTLE | GLOBAL HACKATHON 2025 https://bankless.cc/mantle-hackathon 💤EIGHT SLEEP | IMPROVE YOUR SLEEP https://bankless.cc/eight-sleep ------ TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES 0:00 Intro 4:09 Spotify Wrapped https://x.com/AviiWeb3/status/1996326825736487062 https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/1996331131164373441 7:17 Markets https://x.com/stacy_muur/status/1995761132527911338 https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2025/11/29/why-gold-is-winning-over-bitcoin-in-2025-liquidity-trade-and-trust https://x.com/simonkim_nft/status/1993744596908802121 https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/1996543833753174365 https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-says-new-federal-reserve-chair-be-announced-early-next-year-2025-12-02/ https://polymarket.com/event/who-will-trump-nominate-as-fed-chair https://thedefireport.io/research/macro-risks-are-mispriced#rate-cuts https://www.strategy.com/press/strategy-announces-establishment-of-1-44-billion-usd-reserve-and-updates-fy-2025-guidance_12-1-2025 https://www.tradingview.com/chart/52u4tG3f/ https://x.com/BlackRock/status/1995537254022869438 https://x.com/WatcherGuru/status/1996264980241617007 https://x.com/brian_armstrong/status/1996275431625159096 https://www.coindesk.com/business/2025/12/02/bank-of-america-greenlights-wealth-advisors-to-recommend-up-to-4-bitcoin-allocation https://x.com/WatcherGuru/status/1996270024663957881 30:20 Polymarket Live in the U.S. on 60 mins & Kalshi CNN https://x.com/Polymarket/status/1996231420117688701 https://apps.apple.com/us/iphone/charts/6004 https://polymarket.com/event/will-polymarket-us-go-live-in-2025 https://app.artemisanalytics.com/asset/polymarket https://www.forbes.com/profile/shayne-coplan https://youtu.be/ZA5bY4K9XPs https://x.com/60Minutes/status/1995293602612691238 https://x.com/WhaleInsider/status/1995886355713589307 https://x.com/WALLACHLEGAL/status/1994039650877628546 https://x.com/Kalshi/status/1996233186251075862 40:27 Ethereum Fusaka is live! https://x.com/sassal0x/status/1996336227474423991 https://x.com/VitalikButerin/status/1996342458234605895 https://x.com/sassal0x/status/1996442356464361817 https://etherscan.io/gastracker https://x.com/VitalikButerin/status/1995209899182375024 https://ultrasound.money https://x.com/haydenzadams/status/1995349830265159782 https://x.com/nero_eth/status/1995480367050920265 https://x.com/nero_eth/status/1995487640309944639 50:05 Tether Fud https://x.com/CryptoHayes/status/1994915256150495652 https://x.com/JosephA140/status/1994943733054542124 https://x.com/MonetSupply/status/1995187007803285936 53:21 The AZTEC token sale just crossed 15.9k ETH committed https://x.com/aztecnetwork/status/1996054062450786392 https://x.com/haydenzadams/status/1996088299354497325 https://x.com/BillHughesDC/status/1995851990082224151 55:28 SEC announced Innovation Exemption https://x.com/BitcoinMagazine/status/1995839722854514838 https://x.com/DeItaone/status/1995849795219378590 56:22 Uniswap & Revolut https://x.com/Uniswap/status/1995873897334669428 56:45 Bullish UK Crypto? https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2025/29/pdfs/ukpga_20250029_en.pdf https://www.theblock.co/post/381181/uk-new-law-crypto-property 55:25 Meme of the Week https://x.com/jonwu_/status/1995483574238347289 58:58 Closing & Disclaimers ------ Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

This episode showcases four of the most important talks from our Bankless Summit event in Buenos Aires for Devconnect, each capturing how Ethereum is evolving as it enters the real world. Tomasz K. Stańczak reveals the EF’s new priorities around developer acceleration, founder support, institutional engagement, and unifying the L2 ecosystem. Ansgar Dietrichs explains why Ethereum is shifting from long-term exploration to near-term execution, detailing the plan to 3x L1 scale annually and accelerate real-time ZKVM progress. Dankrad Feist makes the case for a DeFi-centric L1 where Ethereum becomes the global liquidity layer for RWAs and high-value settlement. And Danny Ryan closes with a raw, personal account of building proof of stake, surviving an SEC scare, and why he still believes Ethereum can meaningfully reshape global finance. These talks matter because they chart the clearest picture yet of where Ethereum is heading, what the next decade requires, and how its core builders are steering it there. ------ 📣BANKLESS SUMMIT 2025 | SPONSORED BY M0 https://bankless.cc/m0 ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔵COINBASE | ETH & BTC BACKED LOANS https://bankless.cc/coinbase-borrow 🪙FRAXNET | MINT, REDEEM, EARN https://bankless.cc/fraxnet 🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN https://bankless.cc/unichain 🛞MANTLE | MODULAR L2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle 💤EIGHT SLEEP | IMPROVE YOUR SLEEP https://bankless.cc/eight-sleep ------ TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES 0:00 Intro 4:19 Tomasz K. Stańczak Ethereum's Next 5 Years 28:00 Ansgar Dietrichs Scaling Ethereum 2026: Why & How? 53:22 Dankrad Feist | Ethereum's DeFi Centric Strategy 1:10:22 Danny Ryan | The Last 8 Years: Ethereum, Burnout, & Coming Back ------ Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Michael Nadeau called the top before the 10/10 crash. In this episode, he sits down with Ryan to explain why. They break down the onchain data that flipped him risk off, Bitcoin’s decisive break below the 50-week moving average, and why global liquidity and rate cuts may not rescue this cycle. Michael shares the price zones where Bitcoin becomes compelling again, how long-term holder behavior maps to past tops, and the framework he’s using to build a high conviction watch list for the next bull. Michael Nadeau https://x.com/JustDeauIt ------ 📣REYA | ETHEREUM FOR TRADERS https://bankless.cc/reya 🗞️ THE DEFI REPORT | SIGN-UP & SUBSCRIBE (CODE: TDRPRO30) https://thedefireport.io/sign-up https://buy.stripe.com/dRm3cv84e6FYfFzbVgebu01 ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔵COINBASE | ETH & BTC BACKED LOANS https://bankless.cc/coinbase-borrow 🪙FRAXNET | MINT, REDEEM, EARN https://bankless.cc/fraxnet 🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN https://bankless.cc/unichain 🛞MANTLE | MODULAR L2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle 💤EIGHT SLEEP | IMPROVE YOUR SLEEP https://bankless.cc/eight-sleep ------ TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES 0:00 Intro 0:48 Market Downturn Analysis 5:22 Risk-Off Position Insights 8:25 Market Structure Breakdown 9:49 October Call Reflection 11:27 November Confirmation 13:48 Market Psychology Overview 24:43 Cycling Through Market Phases 28:55 Wealth Destruction Zone 34:11 Markets KPIs 38:47 Long-Term Holder Dynamics 44:02 Cycle End Analysis 49:07 Global Liquidity Conditions 52:15 Trading Strategies Discussion 56:13 Price Points & Metrics 1:04:47 Watch List Strategy 1:07:38 Closing & Disclaimers ------ Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

If crypto wins without privacy, did we actually win? In this episode, Ryan sits down with Aztec co-founders Zac Williamson and Joe Andrews to unpack their eight-year quest to build a private world computer for Ethereum, covering the Aztec ignition chain, zero-knowledge-powered “private intents,” and how you can route trades across L1 and L2s without exposing your strategies or balances. They dive into ZK Passport (turning your NFC e-passport into a proof of personhood), the coming breakdown of selfie KYC in an AI world, holistic on-chain identity, Aztec’s one-shot move to a fully decentralized L2. Along the way, Zac and Joe get candid about the regulatory risk of building privacy rails, echoes of the early SSL wars, and what keeps them grinding after nearly a decade of R&D to ship Aztec Alpha --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔵 COINBASE | ETH & BTC BACKED LOANS https://bankless.cc/coinbase-borrow 🪙 FRAXNET | MINT, REDEEM, & EARN https://bankless.cc/fraxnet 🦄 UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN https://bankless.cc/unichain 🛞 MANTLE | MODULAR L2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle 💤 EIGHT SLEEP | IMPROVE YOUR SLEEP https://bankless.cc/eight-sleep --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 6:00 The State of Privacy on Ethereum in 2025 9:47 Identity as the Missing Piece of Privacy 11:52 AI Deepfakes Just Broke Web2 KYC 20:19 How ZK Passport Plugs Into Aztec (and the Token Sale) 23:04 Holistic On-Chain Identity: Bottom-Up, Not Top-Down 30:54 From Private Bitcoin to a Private World Computer 36:36 Private Intents: Using Aztec as Ethereum’s Privacy Router 43:15 Compliant DeFi with ZK Identity in the Loop 48:37 Does This Actually Solve Privacy on Ethereum? 50:38 Ignition Chain Launch: Stage-2 Rollup with Decentralized Sequencers 56:19 One-Shot Decentralization, Alpha/Beta, and Security Model 1:05:37 Scaling a Private Rollup: TPS, Fees, and the Aztec Stack 1:11:40 Noir, No VM for Private State, and New DeFi Primitives 1:17:08 Selective Disclosure and ZK Receipts for Regulators 1:21:29 Privacy vs Nation States: The Second Crypto Privacy War 1:29:45 Why Keep Building Privacy After 8 Years? 1:33:37 Token Sale, Fair Auctions, and Running an Aztec Node 1:37:33 Closing Thoughts: The Most Cypherpunk L2 Since 2016? --- RESOURCES Zac Williamson https://x.com/Zac_Aztec Joe Andrews https://x.com/jaosef Aztec https://x.com/aztecnetwork --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Ethereum is transparent by design, and that’s a problem if you don’t want your entire financial life on display. Rand Hindi, co-founder of Zama, joins us to explain how fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) can turn Ethereum into an encrypted, confidential blockchain where contracts stay composable and UX feels exactly the same. We get into why blockchains were public in the first place, why “anonymous addresses” were never enough, how FHE compares to ZK and MPC, and what a world of private DeFi, encrypted stablecoins, and on-chain “digital immortality” could look like. ------ 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔵COINBASE | ETH & BTC BACKED LOANS https://bankless.cc/coinbase-borrow 🪙FRAXNET | MINT, REDEEM, & EARN https://bankless.cc/fraxnet 🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN https://bankless.cc/unichain 🛞MANTLE | MODULAR L2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle 💤EIGHT SLEEP | IMPROVE YOUR SLEEP https://bankless.cc/eight-sleep ------ TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 0:24 Why Are Blockchains Public? 9:11 Privacy vs Confidentiality 11:13 Zama: Privacy on Ethereum 15:05 Fully Homomorphic Encryption (FHE) 19:34 Multi-Party Computation (MPC) 23:50 FHE vs ZK 37:25 FHE Critiques 40:08 Nation State Attacks 45:58 Combining ZK & FHE 49:20 Privacy Season 51:39 Compliance 1:00:18 Zama 1:04:03 Confidential Tokens 1:08:12 How it Works 1:11:30 Zama Token & Protocol 1:14:09 Privacy Competitors 1:17:36 Fhenix 1:19:46 Rand’s Background 1:23:07 AI Privacy 1:26:42 Longevity 1:33:01 Crypto & Privacy in 2026 1:33:33 Closing & Disclaimers ------ RESOURCES Rand Hindi https://x.com/randhindi Zama https://www.zama.org/ Fhenix https://www.fhenix.io/ Unit Ventures https://github.com/randhindi/unit-vc ------ Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠

Happy Thanksgiving! Ethereum is heading into one of its biggest upgrades of the year. In this week’s Weekly Rollup, Ryan and Anthony Sassano break down the Fusaka hard fork, what it ships for L2 scaling and gas limits, and why Justin Drake’s real-time ZK proving demo could reshape Ethereum sooner than expected. They revisit the four-year cycle debate, unpack Tom Lee’s “supercycle” conviction, and catch up on Monad’s mainnet launch, the CFTC clearing Polymarket for U.S. users, and growing concern about Bitcoin’s quantum risk. Anthony Sassano & The Daily Gwei https://x.com/sassal0x https://x.com/thedailygwei ------ 📣REYA | ETHEREUM FOR TRADERS https://bankless.cc/reya ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔵COINBASE | ETH & BTC BACKED LOANS https://bankless.cc/coinbase-borrow 🪙FRAXNET | MINT, REDEEM, EARN https://bankless.cc/fraxnet 🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN https://bankless.cc/unichain 🛞MANTLE | MODULAR L2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle 💤EIGHT SLEEP | IMPROVE YOUR SLEEP https://bankless.cc/eight-sleep ------ TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES 0:00 Intro 2:49 Markets https://x.com/SERdotxyz/status/1992978303817490589 https://x.com/fundstrat/status/1990082437116780901 https://x.com/SAMALTCOIN_ETH/status/1993316804303687813 https://ethval.com/ https://x.com/TaikiMaeda2/status/1991911063034757578 https://x.com/hosseeb/status/1992297969383854575 https://x.com/cryptomanran/status/1991823369453351261 https://app2.msci.com/webapp/index_ann/DocGet https://x.com/matthew_sigel/status/1991616596419191285 https://x.com/saylor/status/1991875241107222701 21:40 Ethereum's Fusaka is coming next week! https://x.com/sassal0x/status/1992755722980032889 https://x.com/ripeth/status/1993405655076778302 https://forkcast.org/upgrade/fusaka https://x.com/sassal0x/status/1993415381978169577 https://x.com/sassal0x/status/1993517759528157580 https://forkcast.org/upgrade/glamsterdam https://x.com/nero_eth/status/1991947238042431859 https://x.com/sassal0x/status/1993097491844415657 https://x.com/drakefjustin/status/1991836045076263380 https://x.com/no89thkey/status/1992561927298359752 https://x.com/sassal0x/status/1993058178096152881 https://x.com/jchaskin22/status/1993355808285831474 https://x.com/ripeth/status/1990793070842163669 https://x.com/Aayush_gupta_ji/status/1991128951347896337 https://x.com/donnoh_eth/status/1991471292655235148 https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/1993418143977373974 https://x.com/sassal0x/status/1991167063784849550 https://x.com/sassal0x/status/1992335400271257768 51:54 Monad mainnet is live! https://x.com/monad/status/1992956417263935947 https://youtu.be/op2-a-sO6Y0 https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/1991896909955604816 https://x.com/coinbase/status/1992544829515898937 https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/monad 57:00 Polymarkets can now be integrated into brokerages! (First crypto app?) https://x.com/shayne_coplan/status/1993405727785075151 1:00:01 Nic Carter - Quantum and Bitcoin…as early as 2030. https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/1993727697852432684 https://murmurationstwo.substack.com/p/bitcoin-and-the-quantum-problem-part-47f https://x.com/nic_carter/status/1993754323252031644 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DRDjeMmOPw 1:08:08 Daily Gwei comes back in regular cadence https://x.com/sassal0x/status/1993418606714266072 1:09:23 Closing & Disclaimers ------ Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Monad just launched Mainnet! That’s why Ryan sits down with Monad co-founder Keone Hon today. We ask the blunt question: do we really need another general-purpose L1? Why not just build this as an Ethereum L2 instead? Keone explains how Monad’s parallel, pipelined EVM works under tight consumer-hardware constraints (32GB RAM, 2TB SSD, 100 Mbps), delivering ~500M gas/sec, 400ms blocks, and fast finality while preserving decentralization. Enjoy the episode! ------ 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔵COINBASE | ETH & BTC BACKED LOANS https://bankless.cc/coinbase-borrow 🪙FRAXNET | MINT, REDEEM, & EARN https://bankless.cc/fraxnet 🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN https://bankless.cc/unichain 🛞MANTLE | MODULAR L2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle 💤EIGHT SLEEP | IMPROVE YOUR SLEEP https://bankless.cc/eight-sleep ------ TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Another L1? 1:36 Why L1 vs L2? 2:46 Decentralization 10:19 Run at Home vs Datacenter Chains 12:09 The Purpose of a Blockchain 14:06 The Purpose of Monad 16:00 Why EVM? 28:33 Solana for the EVM? 29:47 Monad vs Ethereum 34:23 Monad Scaling 36:40 Ethereum Roadmap 39:43 How Monad Benefits Ethereum 42:51 Keone’s Background 50:49 How Fast is Too Fast? 59:12 MEV 1:04:07 Monad Layer2s? 1:05:14 Monad Launch Decentralization 1:06:00 Launch Ecosystem 1:08:22 Monad Token 1:16:55 L1 Token Valuations 1:19:18 Monad vs MegaETH 1:23:59 Monad’s Success Case 1:25:57 Mainnet 1:27:11 Closing & Disclaimers ------ RESOURCES Keone Hon https://x.com/keoneHD Monad https://x.com/monad Monad Website https://www.monad.xyz/ Monad Links https://linktr.ee/monad_xyz ------ Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠

Global liquidity veteran Michael Howell joins to map out the “master variable” driving asset prices: a 65-month global liquidity and debt refinancing cycle that underpins booms, busts, and the recent “everything bubble.” He breaks down the coming debt maturity wall, rising repo stress, the shift from Fed QE to “Treasury QE,” and a new capital war between a US dollar stablecoin system and China’s gold-backed strategy. Plus, what all of this means for Bitcoin, gold, equities, and how to position as the current cycle rolls over. ------ 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔵COINBASE | ETH & BTC BACKED LOANS https://bankless.cc/coinbase-borrow 🪙FRAXNET | MINT, REDEEM, & EARN https://bankless.cc/fraxnet 🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN https://bankless.cc/unichain 🛞MANTLE | MODULAR L2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle 💤EIGHT SLEEP | IMPROVE YOUR SLEEP https://bankless.cc/eight-sleep 💠BIT DIGITAL ($BTBT) | ETH TREASURY https://bankless.cc/bit-digital We’re being compensated by Bit Digital (NASDAQ BTBT) for this segment promoting their company and BTBT. The compensation is paid in cash as a one time payment. You can find additional information about Bit Digital and BTBT on their Investor page at https://bit-digital.com/investors ------ TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 0:45 Global Liquidity: Theory of Everything? 14:49 Will it Go Up Forever? 24:50 Where Are We in The Cycle? 34:23 Asset Allocation 47:14 Can The Monetary Regime Break? 58:55 China Gold vs US Tech 1:04:29 Crypto & Gold 1:08:03 4-Year Cycles 1:12:40 AI Bubble 1:15:14 Global Liquidity Limitations 1:18:39 Next 3-6 Months 1:20:24 Assets to Hold 1:21:25 Closing & Disclaimers ------ RESOURCES CrossBorder Capital https://x.com/crossbordercap CrossBorder Capital Website https://crossbordercapital.com Capital Wars Substack https://capitalwars.substack.com/ ------ Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠

We analyze the crypto market's turbulence as Bitcoin falls below $90k, signaling potential bear market conditions. Also, it’s DevConnect! We discuss investor sentiment, and examine key updates like Vitalik Buterin's roadmap for Ethereum and Aave's new app. Tune in for essential market updates! ------ 📣 BLACK FRIDAY | BANKLESS PREMIUM https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔵COINBASE | ETH & BTC BACKED LOANS https://bankless.cc/coinbase-borrow 🪙FRAXNET | MINT, REDEEM, & EARN https://bankless.cc/fraxnet 🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN https://bankless.cc/unichain 🛞MANTLE | MODULAR L2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle 💤EIGHT SLEEP | IMPROVE YOUR SLEEP https://bankless.cc/eight-sleep 💠BIT DIGITAL ($BTBT) | ETH TREASURY https://bankless.cc/bit-digital ------ TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 5:09 Markets https://www.reuters.com/world/china/global-markets-trading-day-graphic-2025-11-13/ https://www.cmegroup.com/markets/interest-rates/cme-fedwatch-tool.html https://polymarket.com/event/fed-decision-in-december https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/technology/peter-thiel-sells-entire-nvidia-stake-amid-ai-bubble-fears/articleshow/125379608.cms https://x.com/amitisinvesting/status/1991263435493974047?s=20 https://coinmarketcap.com/charts/fear-and-greed-index/ https://x.com/intocryptoverse/status/1989965484150628639?s=20 https://x.com/tomcrown/status/1990179433282683287?s=46&t=2ZINVXJQKx6xO_6Wiiu_2g https://x.com/BitcoinArchive/status/1989337109878964499?s=20 https://cryptohayes.substack.com/p/snow-forecast https://thedefireport.io/research/btc-market-structure-is-broken#broken-momentum https://x.com/nic__carter/status/1989713072970178899?s=46&t=2ZINVXJQKx6xO_6Wiiu_2g 25:37 Devconnect https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/1991172751302832498?s=20 https://x.com/adietrichs/status/1991203626358899081?s=20 https://x.com/kocikowski/status/1991202772289745101?s=20 https://x.com/wildbambii/status/1991144720605532336?s=20 https://x.com/richardchen39/status/1990941231937896513?s=20 https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/1990741519301570859?s=20 42:21 Aave App Launch https://x.com/aave/status/1990421343175672159?s=20 https://x.com/alpha_pls/status/1990453904899706971?s=20 https://x.com/0xMari0/status/1990829156712530307?s=20 46:04 Aztec's Decentralized L2 https://x.com/aztecnetwork/status/1991214517594759652?s=20 https://x.com/lisacuesta/status/1991233718271332597?s=20 48:50 Coinbase's New Features https://www.theblock.co/post/379516/coinbase-app-code-include-early-prediction-market-stock-trading-modules https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/1990453391252935157 59:35 Bitcoin Purchases by Harvard https://www.theblock.co/post/378967/harvard-triples-down-on-bitcoin-bet-with-spot-etf-buys-from-worlds-largest-academic-endowment 1:01:21 El Salvador's Bold Bitcoin Moves https://www.theblock.co/post/378967/harvard-triples-down-on-bitcoin-bet-with-spot-etf-buys-from-worlds-largest-academic-endowment 1:02:26 BlackRock's Ethereum Trust https://x.com/EricBalchunas/status/1991257411483537813?s=20 1:03:24 Institutional Interest in ETH https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/1990460127510695940?s=20 1:05:09 Closing ------ Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠

America isn’t just leading the AI race; it’s increasingly built on it. Investor–author Ruchir Sharma joins Bankless to unpack why U.S. growth, stock gains, and even debt complacency are now tethered to a single story, and what a sensible hedge looks like. We trace how U.S. dominance happened, what could puncture the current euphoria, and where the real diversification lives: quality stocks that have lagged, broad ex-US exposure with currency tailwinds, and selective bets in India, China, and reform winners like Greece and Poland. We also tackle the “gold + stocks up together” puzzle, why that correlation can bite in a tightening cycle, and Ruchir’s “two cheers” case for Bitcoin as a portfolio asset whose utility still has room to grow. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🪙FRAXNET | MINT, REDEEM, EARN https://bankless.cc/fraxnet 🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN https://bankless.cc/unichain 🛞MANTLE | MODULAR L2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle 💤EIGHT SLEEP | IMPROVE YOUR SLEEP https://bankless.cc/eight-sleep 💠BIT DIGITAL ($BTBT) | ETH TREASURY https://bankless.cc/bit-digital We’re being compensated by Bit Digital (NASDAQ BTBT) for this segment promoting their company and BTBT. The compensation is paid in cash as a one time payment. You can find additional information about Bit Digital and BTBT on their Investor page at https://bit-digital.com/investors --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 The Contrarian Take: American Exceptionalism Peaks 4:06 Theme of the 2020s 6:42 “America Is One Big Bet on AI” 13:07 The Counterfactual 19:01 Is This an AI Bubble? 22:59 The Catalyst That Pops Bubbles 29:05 How U.S. Dominance Happened 34:41 Moral Hazard & Household Risk 37:24 Green Shoots Abroad 39:37 Practical Rebalance for U.S.-Heavy Investors 50:17 How to Start Outside the U.S. 1:00:58 Gold & Stocks: Partying Together 1:05:47 Real Hedges Now 1:09:39 Bitcoin: Two Cheers 1:13:08 Closing Thoughts --- RESOURCES Ruchir Sharma https://ruchirsharma.com Ruchir’s FT Articles https://www.ft.com/ruchir-sharma --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Bryan Johnson lays out “Don’t Die,” a moral framework that puts existence first and turns longevity into a shared fight against entropy. We pressure-test the hard stuff: selfishness, inequality, stagnation, and the so-called two-species future. Bryan argues these are solvable with smart societal engineering if “don’t die” is for everyone. He breaks down Blueprint as a practical on-ramp with evidence-based health, behavior, and social habits. We finish on crypto, from his Braintree days with Coinbase to how web3 could power a broad “don’t die” commons. ------ 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🪙FRAXNET | MINT, REDEEM, EARN https://bankless.cc/fraxnet 🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN https://bankless.cc/unichain 🛞MANTLE | MODULAR L2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle 💤EIGHT SLEEP | IMPROVE YOUR SLEEP https://bankless.cc/eight-sleep 💠BIT DIGITAL ($BTBT) | ETH TREASURY https://bankless.cc/bit-digital We’re being compensated by Bit Digital (NASDAQ BTBT) for this segment promoting their company and BTBT. The compensation is paid in cash as a one time payment. You can find additional information about Bit Digital and BTBT on their Investor page at https://bit-digital.com/investors ------ TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Don’t Die 8:18 Beating Entropy 18:35 Existence as The Highest Virtue 21:01 Isn’t Don’t Die Selfish? 27:12 AI Alignment 31:36 Collective Don’t Die 33:34 Don’t Die & AI 37:36 Longevity Escape Velocity 40:57 The Two-Species Future 47:07 A Path Without Creative Destruction? 52:40 Bryan’s 500-Year Lifespan 59:19 Blueprint 1:04:52 Crypto 1:06:23 Closing Thoughts ------ RESOURCES Bryan johnson https://x.com/bryan_johnson Bryan Johnson Links https://bryanjohnson.komi.io/ ------ Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠

Market uncertainty? On this week’s Weekly Rollup, Ryan and guest co-host Tom Schmidt dig into a jittery crypto market, Trump’s new economic ideas aimed at boosting sentiment, and whether the four-year cycle prophecy is finally catching up with Bitcoin. They also cover Coinbase bringing ICOs back to U.S. retail, Uniswap’s long-awaited fee switch moment, and JPMorgan launching a deposit token on Base. Plus: Zcash’s 4,000 percent surge, Ethereum’s renewed privacy push, Binance tightening rules on shielded coins, and a privacy-wallet developer receiving a five-year prison sentence. ------ 📣BANKLESS SUMMIT 2025 | SPONSORED BY M0 https://bankless.cc/devconnet-2025 https://bankless.cc/m0 ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🪙FRAXNET | MINT, REDEEM, EARN https://bankless.cc/fraxnet 🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN https://bankless.cc/unichain 🛞MANTLE | MODULAR L2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle 💤EIGHT SLEEP | IMPROVE YOUR SLEEP https://bankless.cc/eight-sleep 💠BIT DIGITAL ($BTBT) | ETH TREASURY https://bankless.cc/bit-digital We’re being compensated by Bit Digital (NASDAQ BTBT) for this segment promoting their company and BTBT. The compensation is paid in cash as a one time payment. You can find additional information about Bit Digital and BTBT on their Investor page at https://bit-digital.com/investors ------ TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES 0:00 Intro 3:05 Markets https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/1988811150402916672 https://x.com/intocryptoverse/status/1987681686218228125 https://x.com/QwQiao/status/1988769174005698675 https://x.com/bonchieredstate/status/1987276536584818914 https://x.com/RepThomasMassie/status/1987537420263338275 https://x.com/ts_hodl/status/1987279165041545634 https://x.com/kianejatian/status/1987373998087270424 https://x.com/pro__trading/status/1987343377718038585 https://x.com/biancoresearch/status/1988035796490694949 https://edition.cnn.com/2025/11/11/business/trump-dividend-payment-tariff-stimulus https://polymarket.com/event/will-trump-create-a-tariff-dividend-in-2025 20:08 Privacy season in crypto? https://x.com/damskotrades/status/1986772019854160184 https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/zcash https://x.com/CryptoHayes/status/1973733637582708971 https://x.com/AvgJoesCrypto/status/1986822768667525347 https://x.com/hasufl/status/1985288958603927788 https://x.com/VitalikButerin/status/1988035181127626810 https://x.com/MisterMonero/status/1986520956333170844 https://x.com/tyler/status/1988609730646778061 https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2025/11/06/samourai-wallet-developer-sentenced-to-5-years-in-prison-for-unlicensed-money-transmitting https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.615997/gov.uscourts.nysd.615997.154.1_1.pdf https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/1986845985088168271 35:00 Uniswap turning on the fee switch! https://x.com/haydenzadams/status/1987990314997739625 https://x.com/PaulFrambot/status/1988075691359748317 https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/1988266505096536085 https://imgur.com/a/OuSZTXk https://imgur.com/a/AxKHIMi https://dune.com/kunallegendd/uniswap-revenue-estimates https://x.com/EffortCapital/status/1988263477593440611 https://x.com/DefiIgnas/status/1988245763957125539 https://x.com/DefiIgnas/status/1988188661578449219 https://x.com/lemiscate/status/1988204573400723544 https://x.com/jchervinsky/status/1988333836611011037 https://x.com/milesjennings/status/1988628499087736998 https://x.com/haydenzadams/status/1988846923080421878 https://x.com/haydenzadams/status/1988044454939279379 49:59 Coinbase is launching an ICO platform & Monad ICO https://x.com/coinbase/status/1987883986924843073 https://x.com/BillHughesDC/status/1987969709711458584 https://x.com/brian_armstrong/status/1987884634789556488 https://x.com/monad/status/1987884528724017167 https://x.com/confugen/status/1987886741689454708 https://x.com/onchainmo/status/1987889262893945022 https://x.com/marggaarin/status/1987884981683642725 https://x.com/0xkydo/status/1988111486418661546 55:23 Bank Adoption https://x.com/WhaleInsider/status/1988468697980129350 https://x.com/sytaylor/status/1988543985049116942 https://x.com/WatcherGuru/status/1988246045222912207 https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/1987882958234218601 1:01:44 Crypto Geopolitics https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/1988341005431828918 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-11-11/china-accuses-us-of-orchestrating-13-billion-bitcoin-hack?srnd=homepage-americas https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/1988627943107490112 1:07:35 Closing & Disclaimers ------ Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Ethereum hasn’t reached full speed yet. Now it might. Justin Drake of the Ethereum Foundation outlines Lean Ethereum, a plan to optimise the stack so validators stop executing and start verifying. With zk proofs in under 12 seconds and on-prem provers around 10 kW, the base layer can reach gigagas capacity and roughly 10,000 TPS while getting more decentralized. Add Fossil, seconds-level finality, and post-quantum signatures, and the changes stick. We unpack the EthProofs race, the four-phase path to mandatory proofs, the three-times-a-year gas target in EIP-7938, and why native rollups could remove gas ceilings for L2s. If you’re wondering whether Ethereum can scale without turning into a data center chain, this is the roadmap. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🪙FRAXNET | MINT, REDEEM, EARN https://bankless.cc/fraxnet 🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN https://bankless.cc/unichain 🛞MANTLE | MODULAR L2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle 💤EIGHT SLEEP | IMPROVE YOUR SLEEP https://bankless.cc/eight-sleep 💠BIT DIGITAL ($BTBT) | ETH TREASURY https://bankless.cc/bit-digital We’re being compensated by Bit Digital (NASDAQ BTBT) for this segment promoting their company and BTBT. The compensation is paid in cash as a one time payment. You can find additional information about Bit Digital and BTBT on their Investor page at https://bit-digital.com/investors --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro: What is Lean Ethereum? 3:32 Beast Mode? Gas & Blocks 5:39 GigaGas, TeraGas, Gap to Target 9:32 Why Scale L1: Decentralization Tradeoffs 20:22 Provability, Power, Real-Time, Decentralization 24:43 L1 Security: Money, Key Uses 28:59 Lean Ethereum: SNARKs, Beast, Fort 36:32 SNARKs & zkVMs: What, Why 48:50 Execute→Verify: Validators & Lean Client 56:08 Builders, Provers, PBS, Fossil 1:08:49 Devconnect Demo, EthProofs, Roadmap Phases 1:31:06 Rollout, Gas Limits, Slots, Hardware 1:44:33 Home Provers: Power, Costs, Incentives/Penalties 1:54:38 Data Availability, Lean Consensus, Upgrades 2:04:22 Talent, Competition, Community, Closing --- RESOURCES Justin Drake https://x.com/drakefjustin Lean Ethereum https://blog.ethereum.org/2025/07/31/lean-ethereum --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

BlackRock’s Head of Crypto Robbie Mitchnick joins Ryan to unpack how institutions are actually allocating (and why correlation to “digital gold” matters), what the ETF data says about demand for BTC and ETH, and why the October leverage flush didn’t dent long-term adoption. We dig into BlackRock’s tokenization roadmap, from the BUIDL-style tokenized money market funds and the Genius Act angle to the stablecoin flywheel, plus what’s still missing: secondary liquidity and pragmatic regulatory clarity. Robbie lays out a realistic 24–36 month path, a 2026 “show-me” phase for real utility, and candid advice for allocators on sizing and asset selection. ------ 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🪙FRAXNET | MINT, REDEEM, EARN https://bankless.cc/fraxnet 🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN https://bankless.cc/unichain 🛞MANTLE | MODULAR L2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle 💤EIGHT SLEEP | IMPROVE YOUR SLEEP https://bankless.cc/eight-sleep 💠BIT DIGITAL ($BTBT) | ETH TREASURY https://bankless.cc/bit-digital We’re being compensated by Bit Digital (NASDAQ BTBT) for this segment promoting their company and BTBT. The compensation is paid in cash as a one time payment. You can find additional information about Bit Digital and BTBT on their Investor page at https://bit-digital.com/investors ------ TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Is It Over? 11:54 Institutional Response to Liquidations 13:57 Bitcoin vs Gold 16:36 Bitcoin’s IPO Moment? 19:29 Next Catalyst 24:23 Institutional Growth 26:41 Central Bank Adoption 28:25 BlackRock ETFs 30:21 Ethereum ETFs 32:38 Tokenization Roadmap 35:33 GENIUS-Aligned Money Market Fund 38:08 Progress in Tokenization 43:04 Regulatory Clarity 46:30 Bull Case for Tokenization 48:08 Is Wall Street Convinced? 49:59 Bear Case for Tokenization 52:01 Restructuring Banks 54:16 How Many Stablecoins? 55:10 1-Year Goals 57:37 Advice to Institutional Investors 59:47 Closing & Disclaimers ------ RESOURCES Robbie Mitchnick https://x.com/robbiemitchnick Blackrock Digital Assets https://www.blackrock.com/us/financial-professionals/investments/products/bitcoin-investing “Bitcoin’s Silent IPO” https://finance.yahoo.com/news/bitcoins-silent-ipo-analyst-addresses-144047837.html ------ Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠

Is the crypto bull market really over, or just pausing while AI takes the spotlight? On this week’s Weekly Rollup, Ryan and guest co-host Haseeb break down Bitcoin’s 10/10 crash, hidden leverage, and the “Bitcoin silent IPO” thesis. They also cover the $128M Balancer hack, DeFi’s decentralization debate, L2 vanity metrics, Brian Armstrong’s prediction market stunt, and why Peter Thiel says Bitcoin’s becoming a BlackRock coin. ------ 📣UNISWAP UNO DECK GIVEAWAY | COMPLETE THE SURVEY TO ENTER https://www.bankless.com/survey ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🪙FRAXNET | MINT, REDEEM, EARN https://bankless.cc/fraxnet 🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN https://bankless.cc/unichain 🛞MANTLE | MODULAR L2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle 💤EIGHT SLEEP | IMPROVE YOUR SLEEP https://bankless.cc/eight-sleep 💠BIT DIGITAL ($BTBT) | ETH TREASURY https://bankless.cc/bit-digital We’re being compensated by Bit Digital (NASDAQ BTBT) for this segment promoting their company and BTBT. The compensation is paid in cash as a one time payment. You can find additional information about Bit Digital and BTBT on their Investor page at https://bit-digital.com/investors ------ TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES 0:00 Intro 2:14 Markets https://x.com/intocryptoverse/status/1985771197460558099 https://x.com/ColinTCrypto/status/1985781111713390894 https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/03/stock-market-today-live-updates.html https://edition.cnn.com/2025/11/05/business/nvidia-palantir-michael-burry-stock https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/35-days-government-shutdown-record-longest-history-election-day-rcna241576 https://polymarket.com/event/when-will-the-government-shutdown-end-545?tid=1762452064029 https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/1985791658689024101 https://visserlabs.substack.com/p/bitcoins-silent-ipo-why-this-consolidation https://x.com/StreamDefi/status/1985556360507822093 https://x.com/AzFlin/status/1985496697255170279 https://x.com/deepcryptodive/status/1985693763121889722 https://x.com/deepcryptodive/status/1986047552135835855 https://x.com/DefiIgnas/status/1984947279942611123 https://x.com/seanlippel/status/1984013993111888013 https://x.com/DTAPCAP/status/1985733571097567457 30:46 Balancer hacked for $128M - biggest DeFi hack all year, OG protocol https://x.com/Balancer/status/1985390307245244573 https://x.com/Balancer/status/1986104426667401241 https://x.com/hasufl/status/1985284234064408997 https://x.com/suhailkakar/status/1985331523646615664 https://x.com/peckshieldalert/status/1985281156259201044 https://x.com/berachain/status/1985288599152042101 https://x.com/hosseeb/status/1985394967712510295 https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/1985707754636345619 44:57 Did Brian Armston manipulate a CFTC regulated market? https://x.com/0xTyrael/status/1984023540111437882 https://x.com/brian_armstrong/status/1984048706220609998 https://x.com/hasufl/status/1984253822898962867 https://x.com/adamscochran/status/1984077017738801420 https://x.com/kylascan/status/1984304278882877849 https://x.com/jdorman81/status/1984284538210779428 https://x.com/VitalikButerin/status/1984254951141593470 https://x.com/probaaron/status/1984039423412203558 https://x.com/hosseeb/status/1986496773737881907 53:22 Ethereum L2s scaling & RWAs https://www.growthepie.com/ethereum-ecosystem/metrics https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/1986440364014620943 https://stokes.io/blob-scaling-fyi/ https://x.com/tomwanhh/status/1983657507940893158 https://app.rwa.xyz/ 57:24 Is BlackRock bullish or bearish for crypto? https://x.com/WhaleInsider/status/1983924685382295782 https://x.com/0xMert_/status/1985071565042749663 1:05:33 Closing & Disclaimers ------ Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Payment chains are heating up. Not every “stablecoin chain” is playing the same game. Codex cofounder and CEO Haonan Li joins David to map the real landscape: what neutrality looks like in practice, why the bottleneck isn’t TPS but fiat-to-stable friction, and how on-chain FX could pull global flows. We dig into the Bear-Chain incentive trap. Why Codex chose to build as an Ethereum L2. The case for app-specific rollups that return value to ETH. And the growing split between projects that bundle value toward Ethereum and those that pull it away. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🪙FRAXNET | MINT, REDEEM, EARN https://bankless.cc/fraxnet 🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN https://bankless.cc/unichain 🛞MANTLE | MODULAR L2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle 💤EIGHT SLEEP | IMPROVE YOUR SLEEP https://bankless.cc/eight-sleep 💠BIT DIGITAL ($BTBT) | ETH TREASURY https://bankless.cc/bit-digital We’re being compensated by Bit Digital (NASDAQ BTBT) for this segment promoting their company and BTBT. The compensation is paid in cash as a one time payment. You can find additional information about Bit Digital and BTBT on their Investor page at https://bit-digital.com/investors --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 1:10 Codex’s Market Positioning 2:24 How Stablecoin Chains Differ 4:55 Neutrality For Chains And Customers 8:11 Codex’s Focus: Fiat Friction & Wholesale FX 14:16 The Golden Goose: On-Chain Transfers Vs On-Ramps 17:49 Liquidity, Demand, Exotics: The Case For On-Chain FX 24:55 Why An Ethereum L2: Technical & Economic Rationale 32:50 Founding Codex, Contrarian Thesis & Focused L2s 40:23 Community Dynamics, Tempo, Bundlers Vs Unbundlers 1:00:16 Closing Thoughts --- RESOURCES Haonan Li https://x.com/haonan Codex https://www.codex.xyz/ --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Micropayments were always meant to be part of the internet, but the technology never existed to make them work. Until now. David sits down with Sam Ragsdale, CEO of Merit Systems, to unpack x402, a new protocol reviving the long-dormant “Payment Required” status code to enable crypto-powered microtransactions across the web. They explore how x402 could transform how machines, AI agents, and humans pay for internet resources, reshape online business models beyond ads, and unlock a new economy of autonomous agents and programmable commerce. ------ 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🪙FRAXNET | MINT, REDEEM, EARN https://bankless.cc/fraxnet 🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN https://bankless.cc/unichain 🛞MANTLE | MODULAR L2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle 💤EIGHT SLEEP | IMPROVE YOUR SLEEP https://bankless.cc/eight-sleep 💠BIT DIGITAL ($BTBT) | ETH TREASURY https://bankless.cc/bit-digital We’re being compensated by Bit Digital (NASDAQ BTBT) for this segment promoting their company and BTBT. The compensation is paid in cash as a one time payment. You can find additional information about Bit Digital and BTBT on their Investor page at https://bit-digital.com/investors ------ TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 0:10 What is x402? 6:19 Internet Micropayments 9:45 x402 Encryption 12:10 x402 Inception 15:20 How x402 Transactions Work 27:02 x402 Experiments 39:46 Paywalls 43:53 A New Internet? 47:12 Call to Builders 49:21 Merit Systems 53:56 Resources 55:36 Closing & Disclaimers ------ RESOURCES Sam Ragsdale https://x.com/samrags_ Merit Systems https://www.merit.systems/ x402scan https://www.x402scan.com/ Coinbase x402 https://www.coinbase.com/en-pt/developer-platform/products/x402 Stratechery - The Agentic Web and Original Sin https://stratechery.com/2025/the-agentic-web-and-original-sin/ ------ Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠

Land isn’t just dirt under buildings—it’s the world’s oldest, strangest asset, worth an estimated $180T, quietly steering credit cycles, politics, and who gets to build the future. Economist editor and Money Talks host Mike Bird joins us to decode the “land trap”: why superstar cities underbuild, how mortgages turned banks into land-collateral machines, and what Japan’s 1980s super-bubble can (and can’t) teach us about China’s managed deflation today. We trace ownership from Babylonian stone ledgers to modern cadastres, ask whether America ever ran a de facto “land standard,” and explore pragmatic exits: build where demand is, deepen capital markets so homes aren’t the only savings vehicle, and tax land value uplift to fund infrastructure. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🪙FRAXNET | MINT, REDEEM, EARN https://bankless.cc/fraxnet 🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN https://bankless.cc/unichain 🛞MANTLE | MODULAR L2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle 💤EIGHT SLEEP | IMPROVE YOUR SLEEP https://bankless.cc/eight-sleep 💠BIT DIGITAL ($BTBT) | ETH TREASURY https://bankless.cc/bit-digital We’re being compensated by Bit Digital (NASDAQ BTBT) for this segment promoting their company and BTBT. The compensation is paid in cash as a one time payment. You can find additional information about Bit Digital and BTBT on their Investor page at https://bit-digital.com/investors --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Why Housing Is Unaffordable 4:20 Demand, Supply & Social Spillovers Of Housing Costs 10:31 Land As Collateral, Money & Banking 16:29 Henry George, Georgism & Early Land Reform Politics 22:22 Monopoly, Georgism’s Decline & Why Reform Faded 29:45 Policy Dilemmas: Homeownership, Infrastructure & Land-Value Capture 32:38 Land’s Scale, Uniqueness & Three Attributes 43:27 Origins Of Property Records & Cadastral Systems 49:45 Dead Capital: Hernando De Soto & Formal Property Rights 54:35 Land-Backed Money Experiments & Early U.S. Land Banks 1:00:32 Japan’s 1980s Land Boom & Aftermath 1:18:19 China’s Land Model, Three Red Lines & Unfinished Adjustment 1:26:43 Summary: Land Traps & Policy Levers 1:35:09 Lightning Round, Takeaways & Outro --- RESOURCES Mike Bird https://x.com/Birdyword Mike Bird’s “The Land Trap” https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/753001/the-land-trap-by-mike-bird/ --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Luke Gromen makes the case that “debasement” isn’t a trade, it’s the new regime. We unpack why assets look strong in dollars yet stagnate in gold/Bitcoin terms, the global reserves shift back toward gold, how a U.S. gold reprice to $10k–$20k could fund a balance-sheet reset, the risks of “paper gold,” Bitcoin’s potential catch-up (and a possible East=gold, West=BTC split), AI as an accelerant, and a pragmatic portfolio framework for navigating a 100-year reset. ------ 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🪙FRAXNET | MINT, REDEEM, EARN https://bankless.cc/fraxnet 🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN https://bankless.cc/unichain 🛞MANTLE | MODULAR L2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle 💤EIGHT SLEEP | IMPROVE YOUR SLEEP https://bankless.cc/eight-sleep 💠BIT DIGITAL ($BTBT) | ETH TREASURY https://bankless.cc/bit-digital We’re being compensated by Bit Digital (NASDAQ BTBT) for this segment promoting their company and BTBT. The compensation is paid in cash as a one time payment. You can find additional information about Bit Digital and BTBT on their Investor page at https://bit-digital.com/investors ------ TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 4:15 How Long is The Trade? 11:23 Gold vs Treasury Reserves 19:34 Gold All Time Highs 23:17 Gold Buying Pressure 29:08 Back to The Gold Standard? 37:37 The Transition 43:10 Central Bank Gold Accumulation 49:20 Gold Demonetization 57:00 Types of Gold 1:05:17 Gold vs Bitcoin 1:10:06 The Future of Bitcoin 1:16:19 4-Year Cycles 1:19:02 Tokenized Gold 1:24:19 100 Year Reset Portfolio 1:28:25 Closing & Disclaimers ------ RESOURCES Luke Gromen https://x.com/LukeGromen "The Debasement Trade" https://x.com/LukeGromen/status/1974184554782220583 FFTT, LLC https://fftt-llc.com/ ------ Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠

Markets got the treat they were waiting for with a Fed rate cut and pause on quantitative tightening, but prices still fell. Why? This week, Ryan and David break down why the markets got spooked, what Powell really said about December cuts, and what it means heading into November. We also cover MegaETH’s oversubscribed ICO, Monad’s airdrop, Polymarket’s confirmed token, and JP Morgan’s $34B Base token estimate. Plus Solana’s new ETF, Western Union’s stablecoin, Circle’s controversial L1 launch, the X402 payment boom, and the latest on Consensys and Securitize IPOs. ------ 📣BANKLESS SUMMIT 2025 | SPONSORED BY M0 https://bankless.cc/devconnet-2025 https://bankless.cc/m0 ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🪙FRAXNET | MINT, REDEEM, EARN https://bankless.cc/fraxnet 🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN https://bankless.cc/unichain 🛞MANTLE | MODULAR L2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle 🌳KGEN | REQUEST A DEMO https://bankless.cc/KGEN-podcast 💠BIT DIGITAL ($BTBT) | ETH TREASURY https://bankless.cc/bit-digital We’re being compensated by Bit Digital (NASDAQ BTBT) for this segment promoting their company and BTBT. The compensation is paid in cash as a one time payment. You can find additional information about Bit Digital and BTBT on their Investor page at https://bit-digital.com/investors ------ TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES 0:00 Intro 5:03 Markets https://www.tradingview.com/chart/1RYLG2gC/ https://www.tradingview.com/chart/1RYLG2gC/ https://x.com/fundstrat/status/198307855327420049 https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/1983595486259950049 https://polymarket.com/event/fed-decision-in-december?tid=1761832318180 https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/1983613170691535094 https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/1983606477479899214 https://x.com/TKL_Adam/status/1983560866436927875 https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/1983855569996861631 https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2025/10/28/solana-etfs-could-draw-over-usd3b-if-bitcoin-ether-etf-trends-repeat https://x.com/ETHZilla_ETHZ/status/1982901255782445420 https://www.strategicethreserve.xyz/ 30:32 3 of the most exciting tokens this year & new valuations! It’s token launch season! https://x.com/megaeth/status/1983188518756339906 https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/1982831157491184073 https://x.com/megaeth/status/1982502453515071847 https://x.com/kunalgoel/status/1983304334835077425 https://x.com/0xd1namit/status/1981661321101009388 https://claim.monad.xyz/ https://app.hyperliquid.xyz/trade/MON https://app.hyperliquid.xyz/trade/MEGA https://www.theblock.co/post/376134/coinbases-base-token-could-be-worth-34-billion-jpmorgan-says 44:36 Circle’s Arc EVM L1 goes to public testnet - RSA triggered https://www.arc.network/blog/circle-launches-arc-public-testnet 47:00 x402 gets its first signs of traction - 200,000% growth week over week https://www.x402scan.com/ https://dune.com/programmer/x402 52:27 Trump names Michael Selig to chair CFTC https://x.com/CoinMarketCap/status/1983262571277762907 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPdqwebmJzE https://x.com/davidsacks47/status/1982009725110600145 https://x.com/cdixon/status/1981834098932167131 53:41 Trump Media is about to launch a prediction market https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-10-28/trump-media-plans-to-enter-booming-prediction-markets-business https://x.com/WatcherGuru/status/1982976302803234955 56:46 Western Union is building exclusively on Solana https://x.com/solana/status/1983215174883430839 https://x.com/DegenerateNews/status/1983265904348803569 https://x.com/camillionaire_m/status/1983506060343185571 https://x.com/0xMert_/status/1983517171234861273 https://x.com/calilyliu/status/1983386544271704528 https://x.com/vibhu/status/1983568810360643945 1:03:21 3 themes this cycle: Acquisitions, Banks, IPO https://aave.com/blog/stable-acquire https://x.com/farcaster_xyz/status/1981398124242620852 https://www.wsj.com/finance/regulation/zelle-stablecoin-cryptocurrency-7ef515e7 https://www.coinbase.com/blog/coinbase-and-citi-collaborate-to-build-the-future-of-payments https://x.com/brian_armstrong/status/1982850023718105337 https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/securitize-the-leading-tokenization-platform-to-become-a-public-company-at-1-25b-valuation-via-business-combination-with-cantor-equity-partners-ii-302596208.html https://app.rwa.xyz/platforms https://www.theblock.co/post/376845/metamask-parent-consensys-pursues-ipo-jpmorgan-goldman-axios 1:09:55 Closing & Disclaimers ------ Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Neobanks might be the quiet coordination hack that makes Visa optional. David sits down with Frax’s Sam Kazemian to map the new payment stack: why cards today settle over Visa yet still onboard users into stablecoins, how Frax USD (payments) pairs with sFRAX USD (savings), and why Ethereum remains the “savings/issuance” base while specialized payment chains battle for flows. Sam unpacks Frax’s white-label issuance strategy and RWA plumbing, shares an institutional DD story that highlights reliability over hype, and lays out the metrics that actually matter—card acceptance, bank deposits, chain coverage, and real-world spend. If you’re tracking how stablecoins, neobanks, and RWAs converge into an on-chain economy, this one connects the pipes. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🪙FRAXNET | MINT, REDEEM, EARN https://bankless.cc/fraxnet 🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN https://bankless.cc/unichain 🛞MANTLE | MODULAR L2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle 🌳KGEN | REQUEST A DEMO https://bankless.cc/KGEN-podcast 💠BIT DIGITAL ($BTBT) | ETH TREASURY https://bankless.cc/bit-digital We’re being compensated by Bit Digital (NASDAQ BTBT) for this segment promoting their company and BTBT. The compensation is paid in cash as a one time payment. You can find additional information about Bit Digital and BTBT on their Investor page at https://bit-digital.com/investors --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 0:54 What Is a Neobank 2:45 Crypto Neobanks & Frax’s Two-Coin Model 5:28 Strategy: Be the Pipes, Not the Card 14:48 Design: RWAs On-Chain & Compliance Surface 18:16 Cards Today, Native Pay Tomorrow 28:52 The Standards Fight 33:30 Institutional Proof Point & Growth Curve 40:28 Closed-Loop On-Chain Economy 55:36 What to Track Next --- RESOURCES Sam Kazemian https://x.com/samkazemian --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

NBA Star Tristan Thompson and Coinbase CLO Paul Grewal break down why pro athletes are moving into Bitcoin, crypto, and onchain prediction markets. We cover stablecoin rewards after the Genius Act, Coinbase’s fight to preserve consumer yield and staking, the CFTC vs. state path for prediction markets, and Tristan’s new onchain app, basketball.fun. ------ 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium ------ BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🪙FRAXNET | MINT, REDEEM, EARN https://bankless.cc/fraxnet 🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN https://bankless.cc/unichain 🛞MANTLE | MODULAR L2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle 🌳KGEN | REQUEST A DEMO https://bankless.cc/KGEN-podcast 💠BIT DIGITAL ($BTBT) | ETH TREASURY https://bankless.cc/bit-digital We’re being compensated by Bit Digital (NASDAQ BTBT) for this segment promoting their company and BTBT. The compensation is paid in cash as a one time payment. You can find additional information about Bit Digital and BTBT on their Investor page at https://bit-digital.com/investors ------ TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 0:54 An Athlete & a Lawyer? 2:47 Athletes Love Crypto 8:19 Bitcoin & Trust 15:16 Stablecoin Yields 18:41 Crypto vs Banks 21:34 Tristan’s Crypto Interests 26:58 Crypto’s UX 35:48 Prediction Markets 43:58 Prediction Market Regulation 48:41 Anti-Crypto Democrats 51:00 Basketball.fun 56:00 Gary Gensler’s Deleted Texts 1:00:25 Closing & Disclaimers ------ RESOURCES Tristan Paul https://x.com/RealTristan13 Paul Grewal https://x.com/iampaulgrewal Basketball.fun https://www.basketball.fun/ ------ Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠