Bankless

What happens when powerful AI requires an ID, governments can restrict access by country, and your most private data flows through centralized systems? NEAR co-founder Illia Polosukhin joins David to explain why AI export controls could fracture the internet, how nationalized AI could become a surveillance layer, and why decentralized, user-owned AI may be the only real alternative. They also unpack Ironclaw, confidential inference, private agents, and NEAR’s push to make AI and assets fully sovereign.

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BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET

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🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY to OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDE

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🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD

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📊BITGET | TOKENIZED STOCKS 2.0

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🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS

https://thedefireport.io/bankless

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TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro

3:47 Pandora’s Box Opens

6:03 AI Meets Government

7:16 Decentralizing the Stack

8:51 Why Ban Fable?

11:18 Internet Balkanization

13:57 KYC for AI?

18:43 Nationalized Models

21:07 Building Private AI

26:30 Agent Marketplace

30:26 User-Owned Alignment

35:28 Winning Against Giants

40:19 Regulation Fuels Crypto

42:24 Global AI Adoption

45:05 Compute Is the Bottleneck

49:00 Enterprise Use Cases

51:39 Confidential TVL Explained

55:25 Full Sovereign Mode

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RESOURCES

Illia Polosukhin

https://x.com/ilblackdragon

Near Protocol

https://www.near.org/

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Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:

https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Arthur Hayes is back on Bankless, and he’s taking the W off the table. After selling HYPE, NEAR and ZEC, Arthur walks through why the AI trade started to look less asymmetric, why oil and geopolitics may still be the bear case no one wants to price, and why ETH may offer one of the cleaner setups in crypto today. Then the conversation turns bigger: AI capex, circular revenue, China’s cheap models, GPU depreciation, and the moment Arthur thinks the Fed discovers it can’t print Moore’s Law.
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BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:
🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET
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🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY to OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDE
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🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD
https://bankless.cc/brix
📊BITGET | TOKENIZED STOCKS 2.0
https://bankless.cc/bitget-stocks
🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS
https://thedefireport.io/bankless
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TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Why Arthur Sold HYPE, NEAR and ZEC
4:26 The AI Trade Starts to Look Crowded
6:25 How Arthur Is Positioned Now
7:15 Crypto’s Strange Market Dispersion
11:09 Oil, Iran and the Fake-Out Risk
14:16 Why the Iran Deal May Not Be Durable
17:29 Can AI Survive Higher Oil?
21:20 The AI Bubble Thesis
26:11 China’s Cheap AI Threat
30:38 The Credit Event Arthur Is Watching
35:51 The 2028 Perfect Storm
39:45 Why AI Is Draining Crypto’s Bull Market
44:28 Arthur on Inventing Perps
48:11 Why Perps Could Eat Wall Street
51:18 Socialized Loss Explained
53:21 Onshore vs Offshore Perps
55:50 Why Hyperliquid Can Flip Binance
56:30 The Perp Inventor Does Not Use Leverage
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RESOURCES
Arthur Hayes
https://x.com/CryptoHayes
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Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:
https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Equities are rallying, but Bitcoin is breaking down. David and Tom unpack Saylor’s STRC stress, Warsh’s first FOMC, SpaceX’s mega-IPO, Jito’s breakout, Coinbase’s Everything Exchange, and why perps may be crypto’s next real growth engine.

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BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET

https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast

🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY to OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDE

https://app.okx.com/join/USBANKLESS

🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOW

https://go.metamask.io/BL-Pod-Download

🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD

https://bankless.cc/brix

📊BITGET | TOKENIZED STOCKS 2.0

https://bankless.cc/bitget-stocks

🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS

https://thedefireport.io/bankless

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TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES 

0:00 Intro

3:07 Equities Up, Crypto Down: STRC Stress

https://x.com/PeterSchiff/status/2067629492214829114

https://x.com/zackvoell/status/2067628541257429213

https://x.com/R89Capital/status/2067608064627491009

https://x.com/jdorman81/status/2067616073479078386

11:21 First FOMC with Kevin Warsh

https://www.businessinsider.com/kevin-warsh-first-fomc-fed-meeting-interest-rates-2026-6

16:35 SpaceX Becomes One of the World’s Most Valuable Companies

25:43 Mover of the Month: JTO

31:01 Coinbase System Update

https://www.coinbase.com/blog/system-update-take-control-of-your-money-with-coinbase

https://x.com/oost_marcel/status/2067268725883981841

https://x.com/coinbase/status/2066890566667796530

https://www.theblock.co/post/405012/coinbase-unveils-system-update-unlocking-an-ai-advisor-global-unified-liquidity-options-trading-and-more

37:42 Anchorage Brings Hyperliquid to Institutions

https://x.com/nathanmccauley/status/2066906951464947966

46:23 Blockworks Acquires Messari

https://x.com/blockworks/status/2065468327120576863

50:40 UK Moves to Ban Social Media for Children

https://x.com/keir_starmer/status/2066458640010158571

57:50 Polymarket World Cup Trade

https://polymarket.com/sports/world-cup/bracket

https://polymarket.com/event/world-cup-winner

59:50 Closing & Disclaimers

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Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:

https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Re is bringing the $1T reinsurance market onchain. Founder Karn Saroya and Electric Capital’s Avichal Garg join David to unpack how stablecoins can become a new capital source for insurance, why real-world reinsurance may offer crypto’s missing “real yield,” and how Re is using Ethereum, smart contracts, and AI to compete with legacy giants like Lloyd’s of London, Munich Re, and Swiss Re. They also discuss the RE token, the future of onchain capital markets, and why stablecoins could become the backbone of a new financial system.

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BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET

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🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY to OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDE

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🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOW

https://go.metamask.io/BL-Pod-Download

🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD

https://bankless.cc/brix

🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS

https://thedefireport.io/bankless

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TIMESTAMPS 

0:00 Intro

2:13 Blockchain Reinsurance Edge

4:12 Stablecoin Capital Markets

9:17 Efficiency Beats Incumbents

13:02 Rewiring Insurance Plumbing

16:24 Durable Startup Advantage

23:26 Reinsurance Market Size

30:09 How Reinsurance Pays

32:42 Capital Stack Mechanics

35:52 Leverage and Yield

40:02 What $RE Tracks

41:34 Tranche Yields

42:36 Productive Capital Returns

44:47 Looping the Receipts

48:01 $RE Token Governance

51:26 Roadmap to a Billion

52:13 Onchain Adoption Ahead

56:02 The DeFi Mullet Future

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RESOURCES 

Re

https://re.xyz/home

Karn Saroya

https://x.com/karnsaroya

Avichal Garg

https://x.com/avichal

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Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:

https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Pokemon cards are suddenly one of the hottest markets in collectibles. But why now, and what does it have to do with crypto? Andy8052 joins David to break down the rise of digital pack-opening platforms, the nostalgia-driven bull case for Pokémon, why grading companies have a stranglehold on the market, and how millions of dollars of real-world cards are slowly moving onchain. Are tokenized collectibles the next NFT comeback story, or just another frothy mania?

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BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET

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🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY to OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDE

https://app.okx.com/join/USBANKLESS

🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOW

https://go.metamask.io/BL-Pod-Download

🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD

https://bankless.cc/brix

🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS

https://thedefireport.io/bankless

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TIMESTAMPS 

0:00 NFTs to Pokémon Cards

2:59 Why Pokémon Is Hot

8:13 Nostalgia Meets Disposable Income

11:56 Brands, Influencers, and Hype

15:06 Pricing the Cards

16:21 Grading and Market Bottlenecks

22:16 Why Cards Still Aren't On-Chain

30:06 Inside Monster Strategy

34:40 Market Consolidation Ahead

35:42 Vaults, Shipping, and Logistics

38:13 Kids, Parents, and Collecting

40:45 Nostalgia Is the Real Bull Case

43:45 Where to Find Andy

44:35 Tokenized Cards and Stablecoins

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RESOURCES 

Andy8052

https://x.com/andy8052

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Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:

https://www.bankless.com/disclosures