Unchained

The Aave DAO collapsed — but might that be good for Aave? (But bad for the token?) Plus, how the feud between the U.S. government and Anthropic helped the AI company.

Thank you to our sponsors!


⁠⁠⁠Fuse: The Energy Network ⁠⁠ – Shift your energy use and earn rewards.


⁠⁠⁠MultiChain Advisors -⁠⁠⁠ The Growth & Capital Markets Partner You Need

The Aave civil war appears to be at an end with key members of the DAO rage quitting and leaving Aave Labs standing as the sole protocol contributor. 

Uneasy Money hosts Kain Warwick, Luca Netz, and Taylor Monahan explain why the Aave DAO's messy collapse is a death knell for the DAO system. Ironically, they wonder — could this be good for Aave, but bad for the token?

The crew also wades into ZachXBT's recent Axiom investigation and how the on-chain detective has become “a vigilante for hire.” 

They also cover all the insider trading claims and fights around prediction markets involving the Iran War and Mr. Beast, and “Kalshi jail.” Kain suspects another reason for the U.S. government's rift with Anthropic. Luca, an Anthropic investor, says he wished Dario had taken the government's deal, but that Sam Altman needs to “take the Zuck playbook.”

Meanwhile, is Anthropic nerfing OpenClaw?

Hosts:


⁠⁠⁠Kain Warwick⁠⁠⁠, Founder of Infinex and Synthetix


⁠⁠⁠Taylor Monahan⁠⁠⁠, Security Expert


⁠⁠⁠Luca Netz, CEO of Pudgy Penguins

Links:


Unchained:


⁠⁠⁠⁠Aave Governance Fight Escalates Ahead of $51 Million Funding Vote

Uneasy Money: Why the AI Singularity May Already Be Out of Our Hands

How Aave Labs and the DAO Should Split Ownership of the Brand – Uneasy Money

ZachXBT Alleges Axiom Employee Misused Internal Data

Uneasy Money: Why Peter Steinberger and Non-Crypto People Hate the Crypto Mob

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Analysts Will Clemente, Joe Vezzani and Marcus Wu share their Bitcoin outlook amidst war. Plus, Will shares his thesis on Gen Z’s future, and Marcus previews his Bitcoin game theory model.

Thank you to our sponsors!


⁠Nexo


⁠Crypto Tax Girl

Bitcoin's price has largely held steady despite President Donald Trump's escalation of hostilities with Iran. Is this the bottom signal the market has been waiting for?

STIX investments chief Will Clemente, LunarCrush co-founder Joe Vezzani and Delphi Digital Research Analyst Marcus Wu explain why it looks like Bitcoin is bottoming, why a 10/10-style crash would have happened in crypto even without the Binance glitch, and why, regardless of the Jane Street rumors, it’s not beyond Wall Street to manipulate an asset.

They also address speculation that Jane Street has been suppressing Bitcoin's price and how AI's rapid advancement could impact crypto in light of Citrini Research's article and Jack Dorsey's Block layoffs.

Don't miss Joe's reasoning on why Trump could come to the market's rescue and Will's thesis on why zoomers face four unique financial and technological challenges. Plus Marcus also previews his new game theory model for trading the Bitcoin market.

Guest:


⁠Marcus Wu, Research Analyst at Delphi Digital


Joe Vezzani, Co-founder and CEO of LunarCrush


Will Clemente, Investments at STIX


Previous appearances on Unchained:


Bitcoin Crashed Below $100K, But Smart Money Is Buying the Dip


Strong Hands Aren't Selling Bitcoin. So Who Is? - Ep. 183


Arthur Hayes and Will Clemente on the 2024 Bitcoin Halving

Links:


Unchained:⁠⁠




Why Gold Rose and Bitcoin Tumbled on Japan Bond Turmoil


Is Nic Carter Exaggerating Bitcoin’s Quantum Risk? Yes, Says One Core Dev


Bitcoin Rebounds as ETF Inflows Return, Jane Street Speculation Swirls


Terraform Estate Targets Jane Street in Explosive Terra Collapse Lawsuit


Crypto’s Black Friday Was Its Largest Liquidation Ever. What the Hell Happened?


Will’s essay


Climbing a Broken Ladder: A message to my fellow Zoomers


Marcus’s Bitcoin game theory model


Bitcoin Game Theory on Delphi Digital

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The crew discusses whether prediction markets enable “Bloomberg terminal espionage,,” wonder how to regulate markets that could be on anything, dive into why the OCC is saying no to stablecoin yield and more.

Thank you to our sponsors! 

⁠⁠Fuse: The Energy Network

Prediction markets are in the spotlight again. On one hand adoption appears to be growing as the Nasdaq has announced plans of entering the space. On the other hand, they scrutinize markets that pose a national security risk. 

In this DEX in the City episode, hosts Jessi Brooks, Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos and TuongVy Le discuss suspected insider trading activity around a market tied to the strikes on Iran. Beyond ethical concerns about betting on war, they grapple with the definition of “a death market” and ask whether all prediction markets around an individual are death markets. 

The big question: How can these markets on literally any possible event be policed?

Plus, is Jane Street manipulating the Bitcoin market? Why the OCC is saying NO to stablecoin yield and the takeaway from Jack Dorsey's Block layoffs.

Hosts:


⁠⁠⁠Jessi Brooks⁠⁠⁠, General Counsel at Ribbit Capital


⁠⁠Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos⁠⁠, General Counsel at StarkWare


⁠⁠TuongVy Le, General Counsel at Veda

Links:


Unchained:


Nasdaq Eyes Prediction Markets With SEC Filing


Bitcoin Rebounds as ETF Inflows Return, Jane Street Speculation Swirls


ZachXBT Alleges Axiom Employee Misused Internal Data


White House Talks Make Progress on Stablecoin Yields but No Deal Yet


DEX in the City: Insider Trading and Crypto: What the Law Actually Says

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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.

---

Bits + Bips is spreading its wings

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

What you need to do:


Click the links below.


YouTube


Apple


Spotify


X


Smash Follow or Subscribe.


🎉 Done.

---

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

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices