The Chopping Block: Nic Carter on Hamas’ Crypto Funding, SBF’s Courtroom Collapse, and Dramas Involving Lido and dYdX - Ep. 564

Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest news. This week, the gang sits down with guest Nic Carter of Castle Island Ventures, whose tweet thread pushed the Wall Street Journal to correct its story that Hamas had raised tens of millions in crypto. Carter discusses the challenges in tracking how much crypto Hamas has actually received, the declining prospects for Sam Bankman-Fried’s acquittal, and ongoing dramas surrounding staking protocol Lido and decentralized exchange dYdX.  

Show highlights: 

• Why the cross-examination has not gone well for Sam Bankman-Fried
• how the Wall Street Journal misinterpreted data and may have overstated the amount of crypto donations flowing to Hamas for terrorist activities 
• why it’s difficult to pinpoint how much funding Hamas has raised in crypto donations
• how extensive crypto funding for terrorists is believable to many outside observers of the industry, even recently some of its supporters in Congress, but does not reflect reality
• Why Hamas has decided on its own to stop trying to raise funds in crypto
• how Lido is upset at the way Layer Zero has pre-marketed its bridge
• why dYdX’s pivot to decentralization with fees going into its token is a positive development but does not give the protocol the moral high ground to attack erstwhile competitors such as UniSwap.

• Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly 
• Robert Leshner, founder of Compound
• Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly

• Nic Carter, general partner at Castle Island Ventures

Previous coverage by Unchained on the trial of Sam Bankman-Fried:

• How Heated Sidebars During the SBF Trial Could Impact the Jury’s Decision
• Day 1: Possible Witnesses Include FTX Insiders, Big Names in Crypto, and SBF’s Family
• Day 2: DOJ Says Sam Bankman-Fried ‘Lied’ While Defense Claims His Actions Were ‘Reasonable’
• Day 3: Why a True Believer in FTX Flipped Once He Learned One Fact
• Day 4: SBF’s Lawyers Annoy Judge Kaplan, While Wang Reveals Alameda’s Special Privileges
• Sam Bankman-Fried Trial: Here's Everything That Happened So Far
• Day 5: SBF's Defense Finally Found Its Legs, But Can It Counter Caroline Ellison?
• Day 6: Caroline Ellison Recalls 'The Worst Week of My Life'
• Day 7: In SBF Trial, Did the Defense Lose Its Opportunity With the Star Witness?
• Day 8: Former BlockFi CEO Adds Credibility to Fraud Charges 
• Day 9: Nishad Singh Describes Former FTX CEO as a Bully and Big Spender
• Day 10: Defense Struggles to Discredit Nishad Singh's Testimony
• Day 11: How Alameda Got FTX Into a $9 Billion Hole
• Day 12: Former FTX General Counsel Speaks Out Against SBF
• Day 13: Before Judge, Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried Gives Few Straight Answers
• Day 14: Sam Bankman-Fried Casts Blame on Others for Key Decisions at FTX
• Day 15: Prosecutors Hammer Bankman-Fried’s Contradictions With Reams of Evidence
• Day 16: In Final Cross Examination, SBF Gets Caught Again by His Own Words

Hamas

• Unchained: Binance Helps Israel Police Freeze Hamas Crypto Accounts: Report
• Unchained: Bitcoin Slips to $27.4K Amid Escalating Israel-Hamas War but Long-Range Impact Remains Uncertain
• Nic Carter Twitter thread: Can crypto-twitter OSINT outperform the WSJ’s chain analysis?
• Nic Carter Tweet: Liz Warren wyd?
• The Wall Street Journal: The Wall Street Journal and Liz Warren double down on the Hamas crypto canard
• Washington Post: U.S. to warn crypto firms against financing Hamas, terror groups
• CoinDesk: The Hamas Funding Story Is Why Crypto Is Sick of the Mainstream Media

Layer Zero/Lido

• LayerZero’s wstETH bridge deployment draws Lido DAO ire
• LayerZero introduces omnichain token to move Lido's wstETH across Avalanche, BNB Chain and Scroll

dYdX

• Examining dYdX’s Path to Profitable DeFi

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