Unchained

Crypto’s vibe check time: Jez (izebel_eth) joins the crew to dissect whether idealism is RIP, if cypherpunks should abandon hope, how Memecoins and asset mayhem changed the game, why prediction markets are both truth engines and regulatory minefields, and where real permissionless finance is actually winning in the middle of global chaos.

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 gang is joined by super-perpetuals-junkie Jez for a spicy look at whether crypto has lost its soul — or if things are just getting interesting. Is crypto’s vibe shift just growing pains, or did Memecoins and jaded traders nuke our idealism for good? The crew rehashes dreams of cypherpunk glory, debates the “death of the dream,” and gets existential about crypto’s place in a world where everything is either a commodity, a meme, or a permissionless financial machine. Plus: War in Iran sends TradFi running, but DeFi markets are live, and prediction markets step up just as the regulators get weird. Enough nostalgia — 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

🔹 Jez and Tarun’s crypto origin story: from MIT outcast to NFT party degens.

🔹 Has crypto really lost its soul, or just shed its rose-tinted glasses? The hosts debate.

🔹 The rise and rise of Memecoins, rampant speculation, and Solana’s culture shift.

🔹 Do “return to cypherpunk” calls matter—or is this what crypto winning looks like?

🔹 Why stablecoins, perps, and DeFi are actually success stories (despite maximalist whining).

🔹 AI eating crypto’s lunch: the “everything on the blockchain” promise gets a reality check.

🔹 Real world chaos, onchain price discovery: Iran war, commodities, and DeFi’s 24/7 edge.

🔹 Prediction markets—Kalshi vs. Polymarket—tripped up by the ambiguous reality of war and death.

🔹 CFTC, insider trading, and whether banning informed bets is just protecting “the fish.”

🔹 The future: agents, open-source AI, and keeping the door open for true permissionless finance.

Hosts

⭐️Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly

⭐️Tarun Chitra, Managing Partner at Robot Ventures

⭐️Tom Schmidt, General Partner at Dragonfly 

Guest

⭐️ Jez, LegendDisclosures

Timestamps

00:00 Intro

01:07 Jez x Tarun Lore

03:24 Cynicism & Rug Culture

09:00 Back To Cypherpunk Roots?

14:37 Compromises & Reality

23:36 Intermediaries Coexist

25:23 Gates Closing Fears

28:10 Stablecoins & Policy

29:24 Agents As Middlemen

30:28 Microfinance to DeFi Agents

31:57 Open Source AI and Crypto Control

32:41 Iran War DeFi Price Discovery

33:57 Why Perps Beat TradFi

37:21 Kalshi vs Polymarket Dispute

44:31 Are Prediction Markets Just Toys?

50:50 Insider Trading Crackdown

54:15 Adverse Selection and Market Design
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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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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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Bits + Bips is spreading its wings

Starting soon, new episodes will only be published on our brand‑new feeds.

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Click the links below.


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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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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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As miners approach historical stress zones, Bitcoin’s correlation with tech stocks is hitting at the worst possible moment. Enter AI.

Thank you to our sponsor Crypto Tax Girl!

Public mining companies are once again approaching breakeven territory, a zone that in prior cycles preceded forced selling and capitulation. But unlike past downturns, balance sheets today are cleaner, leverage is lower, and many operators are pivoting toward AI data center hosting as a structural offramp.

At the same time, Bitcoin has been trading alongside frontier technology stocks. That correlation is resurfacing at precisely the wrong moment, as growth equities face renewed pressure. If growth portfolios were the marginal buyers during the rally, they may now be the marginal sellers.

In this episode, Steven Ehrlich speaks first with John Todaro about miner economics, hash rate dynamics, and whether another round of selling could emerge if Bitcoin remains near breakeven levels. Then Zach Pandl joins to examine Bitcoin’s correlation with tech stocks, the mechanics behind recent gold volatility, and why the next phase for crypto may be driven by differentiation rather than broad beta.

Hosts:


Steven Ehrlich, Host of Bits + Bips: The Interview

Guests:


Zach Pandl, Head of Research at Grayscale


John Todaro, Managing Director, Crypto & HPC/AI Equity Research at Needham & Company

Links:

Bitcoin Miner Danger Zone


Major Bitcoin Miners Face Shutdown Risk If BTC Falls Below $70,000

Miner Pivot to AI


America’s Biggest Bitcoin Miners Are Pivoting to AI

The Tech Selloff


Wall Street’s Anything-But-Tech Trade Shakes Up US Stock Market

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