Can ‘Choose Rich’ Nick Create the Barstool Sports of Crypto? - Ep. 964
Thank you to our sponsor Uniswap!
Nick O’Neill has become one of crypto’s biggest viral sensations over the past year with his “Choose Rich Nick” persona. But beyond a content creator, he is a business man and developer.
In this Thanksgiving/Black Friday episode of Unchained, he discusses how he stumbled into internet fame, the man behind the persona and how he intends to become the Barstool Sports of crypto and NFTs.
He also delves into what really happened at the controversial Avalanche yacht party and what it was like being viewed as “gay” for doing theater as a child. Plus how he feels about attacks on his looks and the secret to his success.
Guest:
Nick O’Neill, CEO & Co-Founder of BoDoggos
Links:
Unchained:
Avalanche’s Unlocked Supply of AVAX Set to Increase by $350 Million
Coinbase Buys Cobie’s ‘Up Only’ NFT and Echo in $375 Million Deal
Timestamps:
🚀 0:00 Introduction
🧏 1:42 How Nick stumbled into internet fame
🤔 9:16 Who is “Choose Rich Nick” actually?
💡 12:23 Where Nick draws the line with the ‘Choose Rich’ persona
💥 13:22 How Nick wants to create the Barstool Sports of crypto and NFTs
💃16:33 Nick explains the “hot girlfriend” arc and drama
🤯 20:31 What REALLY happened at the Avalanche yacht party
📽 30:06 How Nick got into crypto
😕 35:08 Nick on being viewed as “gay” for doing theater as a child
💡 38:43 How Nick feels about the jabs at his looks
🧠 43:25 The most important ingredient to his success
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Uneasy Money: Monad Soars After Launch. Was Its Slow ICO an Advantage in the End? - Ep. 963
Thank you to our sponsor Uniswap!
In this episode of Uneasy Money, hosts Kain Warwick, Luca Netz and Taylor Monahan discuss Monad's mainnet launch performance and how its ICO strategy may have proven solid in the end.
They also delve into MegaETH's botched TVL campaign with Kain explaining why scrambling is bad for projects.
In addition, they dissect Polymarket's CFTC greenlight, Klarna's stablecoin launch, Cardano's chain split and Berachain's secret Brevan Howard deal.
Hosts:
Luca Netz, CEO of Pudgy Penguins
Kain Warwick, Founder of Infinex and Synthetix
Taylor Monahan, Security at MetaMask
Links:
Unchained:
Monad Co-Founder Defends Token Sale After Slow Uptake
MegaETH Aborts $1B Cap Raise After Multisig Error Triggers Chaos
Polymarket Gets CFTC Green Light to Operate in the US
Klarna Launches Stablecoin Built on Stripe’s Tempo Chain
Cardano Founder Contacts FBI After Dev’s ‘Careless’ Test Splits Chain
Uneasy Money: ICOs Are Back and Why Airdrops Are Instantly Dumped
Timestamps:
🚀 00:00 Introduction
📈 2:08 Monad's post-mainnet launch performance
🫣 6:57 Will Binance regret not listing Monad?
💡 12:57 How Monad's ICO strategy impacted its launch
🧠 16:00 Lessons from MegaETH's botched TVL campaign
🫠 21:53 How the MegaETH TVL campaign could have been worse
💥 22:32 Why Polymarket's CFTC greenlight is a big deal
🤔 30:32 Why Klarna's stablecoin launch raises eyebrows
🤯 36:35 What happened with Cardano?
👀 39:33 Will AI kill all our chains?
😕 48:24 Why Berachain's Brevan Howard deal is weird
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DEX in the City: Insider Trading and Crypto: What the Law Actually Says - Ep. 962
Insider trading has become a hot topic in crypto in recent months from questionable digital asset treasury stock trades to suspiciously timed asset trades amid news-led market volatility. But do people really know what it means?
In this episode of DEX in the City, hosts Jessi Brooks of Ribbit Capital, Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos of StarkWare and Vy Le of Veda explore the complexities of insider trading law and how blockchain technology can make it easier to detect.
They also delve into how AI agents impact market dynamics, the problem with regulators not being able to hold crypto and how insider trading law would differ from centralized to decentralized platforms. Plus Katherine talks about the future of front running and Vy explains how DATs should approach insider trading policy.Hosts:
Jessi Brooks, General Counsel at Ribbit Capital
Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos, General Counsel at StarkWare
TuongVy Le, General Counsel at Veda
Links:
Unchained:
Why the Black Friday Whale’s $192 Million Crypto Trade Was Legal
Insider Trading? Yep, But the Real Story Is Securities
The Department of Justice Goes After Its First NFT Insider Trading Case
SEC and FINRA Scrutinize 200 Crypto-Treasury Firms: Report
How the x402 Standard Is Enabling AI Agents to Pay Each Other
Timestamps:
🚀 00:00 Introduction
🌫 01:25 Why insider trading is not as clear cut as many think
⚡️18:21 How blockchain has made insider trading detection easier
💡 20:15 Why Katherine sees the crypto front-running landscape changing as tokenization takes off
🤔 23:35 Do AI agents unfairly affect market balance?
🧱 25:38 The problem with regulators not being able to hold crypto
⚠️ 30:20 How DATs are in a tricky spot as regards insider trading
💡 33:25 Vy explains how DATs should approach insider trading policy
🚨 36:08 How insider trading controls work in TradFi
💥 42:06 How insider trading policy would differ from CeFi to DeFi
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Why Berachain Gave Brevan Howard a Secret $25M Escape Hatch - Ep. 961
Crypto funding rounds often look glamorous from the outside: big name investors, big valuations, big narratives. But behind the scenes, the terms can look very different — and sometimes, radically so.
In this episode of Bits + Bips, host Steve Ehrlich sits down with reporter Jack Kubinec, who broke the story about Berachain’s Series B and one of the most unusual terms we’ve seen in a major token deal: a lead investor receiving the right to ask for its entire $25 million investment back, for up to a year after Berachain’s token launched.
Jack walks through what the documents show, why lawyers say the clause is extremely rare, and how a refund right like this could impact other investors, and even trigger MFN clauses. They also unpack Berachain’s market struggles since TGE, the state of the Nova Digital fund inside Brevan Howard, and the transparency questions this episode raises across crypto venture investing.
Read the full story here on Unchained
Thank you to our sponsor Uniswap!
Host:
Steve Ehrlich, Executive Editor at Unchained
Guest:
Jack Kubinec, Crypto Journalist and Podcast Host
Timestamps:
0:00 — Start
0:25 — Steve introduces Jack
2:24 — What the documents reveal
5:17 — Why Brevan Howard’s refund is a big problem
9:21 — How refund clauses really work
14:09 — Jack’s interactions with the Bera team and how Smokey responded to the story
19:29 — Why the MFN clause is key
26:19 — How Breva Howard Digital didn’t actually invest in Bera
30:18 — What investors should learn from a deal like this
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Bits + Bips: Why the Markets Now Have a Bullish Setup - Ep. 960
In this week’s Bits + Bips, Austin Campbell, Ram Ahluwalia, and Chris Perkins dig into a macro environment that’s suddenly turning more supportive: QT ending, institutions stepping in, improving liquidity signals, and major catalysts across global markets. But while the setup may be bullish, one corner of crypto isn’t participating at all: DATs, which Ram calls “a death spiral.”
The hosts debate whether altcoins can recover, whether Strategy pushed its structure too far, if banks’ unrealized losses still matter, and why the return of ICO-style launches may say more about regulation than mania.
Show highlights:
0:00 Intro
3:16 Why Ram says we are still in goldilocks economy
5:07 What is missing in the markets according to Chris and how retail is so hurt
11:07 Why the dollar has been on an uptrend, contrary to what people think
13:17 The importance of banks sitting on so much unrealized losses
18:24 Nvidia’s earnings and whether we are in a buying opportunity
22:21 Whether banks will be negatively affected by stablecoins growth or they are fine
25:05 What Austin and Ram disagree on whether the 50-year mortgage is good
28:25 Whether MSTR should be excluded from the MSCI index
32:56 Why Ram is “very bearish on DATs” and the importance of their operating businesses
45:19 Why Chris finds it fascinating the revival of the ICOs
51:19 Whether there’s a new operations choke point going on in crypto
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
Links:
Unchained: MON Rallies 40% After Mainnet Launch
Fortune: Suddenly, the Fed interest rate cut in December looks like it is very much back on the table
Nvidia didn’t save the market. What’s next for the AI trade?
The Index Exclusion That Ends an Era: How MicroStrategy’s Exile Redefines Corporate Finance
Saylor fights back
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Crypto assets and blockchain technology are about to transform every trust-based interaction of our lives, from financial services to identity to the Internet of Things. In this podcast, host Laura Shin, an independent journalist covering all things crypto, talks with industry pioneers about how crypto assets and blockchains will change the way we earn, spend and invest our money. Tune in to find out how Web 3.0, the decentralized web, will revolutionize our world. Disclosure: I'm a nocoiner.