Unchained

Ordinal theory has unleashed a new wave of NFTs, memecoins and innovation on Bitcoin — but not without controversy. Bitcoin educator Dan Held and Bitcoin Frontier Fund Managing Partner Trevor Owens join the show to discuss the breakneck rise of BRC-20s and why they’re both bullish on what memecoins mean for the original blockchain.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights:

• what ordinal theory is and how it enabled Bitcoin “NFTs”
• how the Ordinals Protocol differs from the ERC-721 token standard used by many Ethereum NFTs
• how BRC-20s work by relying on some off-chain mechanisms
• why Bitcoin is not a “dinosaur chain,” according to Dan
• why Trevor says BRC-20 memecoins are superior to those on Ethereum
• what the practical utilities of BRC-20s are, if any
• why transaction fees in Bitcoin rose so much and why it’s healthy for the network 
• whether innovation is coming back to Bitcoin
• whether Satoshi Nakamoto would have approved of Bitcoin NFTs
• the role of speculation in fueling bitcoin adoption 
• the current and future state of layer 2s on Bitcoin
• why Dan says BRC-20s “absolutely” solve the problem with Bitcoin’s security budget
• why it’s hard to determine an “appropriate” amount for the security budget of Bitcoin
• how the NFT market could be shaped after the rise of Ordinals and BRC-20s
• what needs to be developed so that BRC-20s can flourish

• Crypto.com

• Dan Held, Bitcoin educator and marketing advisor at Trust Machines 
• Trevor Owens, managing partner at Bitcoin Frontier Fund

• Bitcoin Ordinal NFTs Are Hot and Getting Hotter. What's the Hype About? - NFT Crypto

• Unchained: 
• How to Create a Bitcoin Ordinal
• Bitcoin Core Developers Mull Getting Rid of BRC-20 Transactions
• Binance Briefly Halted Bitcoin Withdrawals Amid Network Congestion
• Domo’s thread on BRC-20s 
• Anita Posch’s comments.on the high fees
• Nic Carter: There's No Such Thing as High Fees on Bitcoin
• Nic Carter’s MIT presentation: MIT Bitcoin Expo 2019 - 10 years of Bitcoin: Evaluating its Performance as a Monetary System
• Decrypt: Michael Saylor: Bitcoin Ordinals Are a ‘Catalyst’ for Adoption
• [bitcoin-dev] [Mempool spam] Should we as developers reject non-standard Taproot transactions from full nodes?

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Welcome to “The Chopping Block” – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Robert Leshner, Tom Schmidt, and Tarun Chitra chop it up about the latest news. In this episode, they talk about the recent issues surrounding the Aragon Foundation, the likelihood of Montenegro becoming an ETH hub, the BRC-20s mania, and much more!

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights: 

• why Zuzalu is “Burning Man in the daytime”
• whether Montenegro could become the “ETH El Salvador doppelganger”
• why the Aragon Foundation alleged that they were under attack
• why Aragon has “missed the boat on a lot of everything that’s happened in DAOs”
• whether the Aragon Foundation is “suckling on the teat of the DAO for a fat salary”
• whether Arca was right about wanting the Aragon treasury to be part of the on-chain governance
• how on-chain governance can do even more than many of the investment banking functions that exist currently
• why some Bitcoin developers want to censor BRC-20 transactions
• why the way XEN works gives Haseeb a headache
• whether Binance CEO CZ invented the memecoin PEPE
• what the impact of Jump and Jane Street decreasing their market making activity is
• where the next market makers will come from

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

• Unchained: 
• Coinbase Apologizes After Calling PEPE a ‘Hate Symbol’
• Market Makers Jump and Jane Street Withdraw From U.S. Crypto Trading: Report
• CoinDesk: Aragon Cancels Planned Community Control of $200M Treasury Amid Battle With Activist Investors
• The Block: Coinbase cuddles up to UAE policymakers as US outlook sours

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News emerged this week that the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) placed $44 billion in claims on the FTX bankruptcy estate. Now creditors of the defunct crypto exchange are worried that the taxman is going to gobble up funds that would otherwise be used to make users partially whole. Wassielawyer, a lawyer specializing in restructuring and insolvency, joins the show to explain what’s going on, how that huge number is even possible, and why the so-called “trust argument” is not going to be the silver bullet that some FTX customers are dreaming of.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights:

• whether the numbers of the IRS claim are even correct
• how these claims may affect all customers and unsecured creditors of FTX
• whether FTX CEO John Ray will fight the claims 
• what the trust argument is and how it could potentially save (or not) FTX’s creditors
• in what currency the investments made by creditors would be returned
• why the Three Arrows Capital case differs from FTX and Mt. Gox
• why what FTX allegedly did is similar, but different, from what Celsius or Voyager did

• Crypto.com
• Railgun DAO 
• Stader Labs

Wassielawyer, a lawyer specializing in restructuring and insolvency

Previous appearances on Unchained: 

• Did the Bahamian Government Direct SBF and Gary Wang to Hack
• Why the Messy 3AC, Celsius, and Voyager Bankruptcies Will Drag on for Years 
• Three Crypto Bankruptcies: 3AC, Celsius and Voyager. What Happens Now?

• CoinDesk: U.S. Internal Revenue Service Files Claims Worth $44 Billion Against FTX Bankruptcy
• MeatTC’s Twitter thread
• Wassie’s Twitter thread

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Longtime crypto reporter Brady Dale has beat Michael Lewis to market with the first book on the dramatic collapse of FTX. In stores today, “SBF: How the FTX Bankruptcy Unwound Crypto’s Very Bad Good Guy,” tells the tale of the outsized role that Sam Bankman-Fried played in the FTX-Alameda death spiral. Drawing on years of reporting and interviews with SBF himself, the book charts the rise and fall of the one-time crypto wunderkind. “It became clear to me that Sam got really addicted to fame,” said Dale.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights:

• Brady’s background and how he came to cover crypto
• how covering the space for a crypto outlet is different from a more mainstream publication
• how Brady was able to finalize his book so fast 
• what Brady’s favorite parts of the book are
• who was really responsible for the collapse of the FTX empire
• whether Sam Bankman-Fried will plead guilty 
• whether FTX will make a comeback
• how SBF thinks differently from other people, and how it led to his downfall
• why Brady thinks the “dot-com bust” for crypto has yet to arrive
• whether crypto has betrayed its cypherpunk ideals

• Crypto.com

• Brady Dale, writer and reporter at Axios, and author of “SBF: How the FTX Bankruptcy Unwound Crypto’s Very Bad Good Guy”

• The Chopping Block: Was FTX a Scam From the Very Beginning? 
• How Much Prison Time Is FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried Facing? 
• Why the Legal Process for FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried Could Take Years
• The Chopping Block: SBF Wants to Win in the Court of Public Opinion. Will He?
• Jesse Powell and Kevin Zhou on How FTX and Alameda Lost $10 Billion
• Is the Collapse of Crypto Lending Over, or Is It Just Starting?
• Did the Bahamian Government Direct SBF and Gary Wang to Hack FTX?
• The Chopping Block: Why Lenders Didn’t Liquidate Alameda When It Was Underwater 
• Erik Voorhees and Cobie on Why FTX Loaned Out Customers’ Assets
• The Chopping Block: FTX: The Biggest Collapse in the History of Crypto?
• Sam Bankman-Fried on How to Prevent the Next Terra and 3AC

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The Genesis bankruptcy is about to take a high-stakes turn with a $630 million payment from Digital Currency Group (DCG) due by May 11. Barry Silbert’s DCG, the parent company of Genesis, is on the hook for the massive payment, but doubts are swirling as to whether the crypto conglomerate can cover it. Lumida Wealth CEO Ram Ahluwalia joins the show to unpack what could happen to Genesis creditors, Gemini Earn users, and the markets should DCG fail to cover its debt obligations.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights:

• whether DCG will be able to pay its debt to the Genesis bankruptcy estate
• the ways DCG can “plug the hole”
• what the likelihood of DCG filing for bankruptcy is
• how FTX’s intent to claw back $3.9 billion from Genesis would affect DCG
• whether Gemini Earn customers will be made whole
• why Ram says that asymmetric information has plagued the bankruptcy process
• whether the creditors should accept the latest term sheet
• how the Grayscale lawsuit against the SEC could impact DCG’s cash flow

• Crypto.com
• Railgun DAO 
• Stader Labs

Ram Ahluwalia, CEO & Founder of Lumida Wealth

• Previous appearances on Unchained: 
• ​​Genesis May Be Facing Bankruptcy. Could It Take DCG Down With It?
• Gemini vs. DCG Is Heating Up. Could Gemini Force Genesis Into Bankruptcy?
• How Will the FTX Collapse Affect Silvergate? A Bear and a Bull Debate
• How Is the Fed Going to Respond to the Banking Crisis?

• Unchained: FTX Moves to Claw Back $3.9 Billion From Genesis
• Reuters: Crypto group DCG says bankrupt unit Genesis' creditors renege on deal
• CoinDesk: 
• Genesis Files for Mediator Assistance Over Amount of DCG Contribution to Reorganization
• DCG's CFO Steps Down as Crypto Conglomerate Repays $350M Loan

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In this episode, Sreeram Kannan, founder of EigenLayer, and Konstantin Lomashuk, cofounder of Lido Finance, discuss the complex world of staking in Ethereum's post-Shanghai ecosystem.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights:

• how the staking ecosystem in Ethereum looks after the full completion of the Merge
• what EigenLayer is and why it's called that
• whether EigenLayer's model is more similar to Polkadot or, actually, to Ethereum Layer 2s
• what the risks of restaking are, for both projects and users
• how Lido is working to keep Ethereum decentralized and censorship-resistant
• what superfluid staking is and whether it could be done on Ethereum
• how EigenLayer incentivizes alignment between the delegator and the stakers
• whether there's a risk that Lido could become a governance layer for Ethereum
• what can be done to increase staking services adoption

Crypto.com

• Sreeram Kannan, founder of EigenLayer
• Konstantin Lomashuk, cofounder of Lido Finance

• Shapella in the Rearview: After Major Upgrade, What’s Next for Ethereum?
• How Will ETH React to Ethereum’s Shanghai Upgrade?
• Post-Merge, If Lido Becomes Dominant, What Does That Mean for Ethereum?
• In the Recent Crypto Market Meltdown, What Role Did Lido’s stETH Play?
• Is ETH on Its Way to Becoming Ultra-Sound Money? Yes, Says Justin Drake

• How Liquid Staking Works
• A Guide to Ethereum’s Shanghai Upgrade
• How to Stake Ethereum With Liquid Staking

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Welcome to “The Chopping Block” – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, and Tarun Chitra chop it up about the latest news in digital assets. In this live episode from Consensus 2023, they are joined by Avery Ching, chief architect of Aptos, to discuss the latest SEC enforcement actions, an embarrasing admission by audit firm Certik, and crypto’s impact on the coming election.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights: 

• everyone's impressions of the conference
• why Korea has become a hub for crypto adoption
• why there's no benchmarking infrastructure to compare data across blockchains
• how Sui decided not to airdrop a token and what the implications for future airdrops are
• whether CertiK bears responsibility in the Merlin DEX rugpull
• whether the US elections have an effect on how the SEC is playing the case with Coinbase
• what impact AI will have on the crypto industry

• Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly 
• Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures
• Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly 

• Avery Ching, cofounder and CTO of Aptos

• Unchained: 
• Coinbase Seeks to Compel SEC Response to Rulemaking Petition
• ​​Exploit or Rug Pull? $1.8 Million Drained From zkSync DEX Merlin Despite Audit 
• SEC Sues Bittrex, Names Dash, Algorand and Other Tokens ‘Crypto Asset Securities’
• CoinDesk: Sui Network to Issue Token Following Exchange Sale; Airdrop Hunters Dismayed

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Major crypto exchange Coinbase has decided to take action to get an answer from the Securities and Exchange Commission: this week, they filed a court action seeking to compel Gary Gensler’s agency to give specific rulemaking on crypto assets. J.W. Verret, associate professor of law at George Mason Law School, talks about how both parties are playing this game, how it could change the Howey test, and much more.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights:

• whether there's a long-term chess strategy being played by Coinbase
• whether the case could actually change the Howey test
• why the 'West Virginia vs. EPA' is important for crypto
• what the SEC's strategy is and why the Kraken settlement was an “overreach,” according to J.W.
• whether the SEC could develop a new framework for crypto assets 
• how the Ripple case will unfold and how long it will take if it is appealed

• Crypto.com
• Railgun DAO 

J.W. Verret, Associate Professor of Law at George Mason Law School

• J.W.’s thread
• My story of telling the SEC ‘I told you so’ on FTX
• Public Request for Rulemaking: Securities Regulation Genesis Block Proposal

• Rep. Emmer on Why He Believes Gary Gensler Is a ‘Bad-Faith Regulator’
• Is the Government Trying to Kill Off Crypto in the US?
• Coinbase’s Top Lawyer Calls SEC Wells Notice a ‘Massive Overreach’

• Unchained: Coinbase Seeks to Compel SEC Response to Rulemaking Petition - Unchained Crypto
• Coinbase takes another formal step to seek regulatory clarity from SEC for the crypto industry
• IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE THIRD CIRCUIT COINBASE, INC.’S PETITION FOR WRIT OF MANDAMUS TO THE
• Coinbase petition for SEC rulemaking

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Two lawyers, Josh Klayman, head of digital assets at Linklaters, and Marc Boiron, chief legal officer at Polygon Labs, offer their takes on the SEC’s recent crypto crackdown. They share what they heard from SEC Chair Gary Gensler’s Congressional testimony, whether this crackdown was inevitable or sparked by FTX, and why a proposed change to the definition of an exchange could be an existential threat for DeFi in the U.S.

Show highlights:

• what Gary Gensler’s approach to crypto was when he took office
• whether the FTX collapse had any impact at all on the SEC’s recent actions
• whether the actions against Coinbase are “inappropriate”
• what the differences between Coinbase and Kraken staking services are
• why the concept of “exemptive relief” is important for exchanges
• whether the SEC is looking to go after AMM-based decentralized exchanges
• why SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce says that complying with a new proposal wouldn’t be possible for much of DeFi
• why, according to Marc, the industry should be “pushing very hard” against the newly proposed definition of an exchange
• whether the SEC’s ability to pursue enforcement actions against ETH is diminished by the statements of the previous SEC chair

• Crypto.com
• Halborn

• Josh Klayman, head of blockchain and digital assets at Linklaters, 
• Marc Boiron, chief legal officer at Polygon Labs.
• Sufficient Decentralization

• ‘Is ETH a Security?’ Why Gary Gensler Couldn’t Give Congress a Straight Answer
• Rep. Emmer on Why He Believes Gary Gensler Is a ‘Bad-Faith Regulator’
• Is the Government Trying to Kill Off Crypto in the US?
• Coinbase’s Top Lawyer Calls SEC Wells Notice a ‘Massive Overreach’
• SEC Chair Gary Gensler Avoids Question: ‘Is Ethereum a Security?’
• SEC Sues Bittrex, Names Dash, Algorand and Other Tokens ‘Crypto Asset Securities’

• CoinDesk: U.S. SEC Moves Toward DeFi Oversight as It Reopens Proposed Regulations
• Proposed rule: Amendments Regarding the Definition of “Exchange” and Alternative Trading Systems (ATSs)
• Rendering Innovation Kaput: Statement on Amending the Definition of Exchange
• POLITICO: McHenry clashes with SEC’s Gensler over crypto crackdown
• Forbes: Crypto Exchange Beaxy Shuts Down Amid SEC Charges
• Treasury Releases 2023 DeFi Illicit Finance Risk Assessment

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Welcome to “The Chopping Block” – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Robert Leshner, and Tarun Chitra chop it up about the latest news. In this episode, the gang plays “guess the chart” and takes a deep dive into the booming world of Ethereum Layer 2s.

Show highlights: 

• how much Layer 2s are spending to post data to Ethereum
• whether L2s suck up all the value of ETH
• the challenge of providing a good user experience across multiple rollups
• how the underlying technology of security is not improving but attackers are getting more sophisticated
• whether centralized lending in the industry is dead
• why crypto users still hold stablecoins that yield much lower than Treasury bills
• the new approach to bringing real-world assets and tokenized yields to blockchains
• whether all L2s are running via proof of authority
• whether alternative Layer 1s are dead or are actually more important than ETH L2s

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

Hildebert’s charts

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It got heated this week on Capitol Hill with SEC Chair Gary Gensler testifying before the House Financial Services Committee on his agency’s efforts to rein in the U.S. crypto industry. Jason Gottlieb, partner at Morrison Cohen, unpacks what was said and whether we’ll continue to see more crackdowns from the U.S. securities regulator.

Show highlights:

• Whether ETH is a security and what would be the impact if it was declared as such by the SEC
• Whether the SEC is harming investors 
• What the potential impacts of the SEC lawsuit against Bittrex are
• Why the case against crypto exchange Beaxy could serve as a precursor to a potential case against Coinbase
• How the SEC’s lack of clear regulation is pushing crypto out of America, according to Jason
• Why the SEC is trying to expand the definition of an exchange and its possible effects on DeFi

• Crypto.com
• Railgun DAO 

Jason Gottlieb, Partner at Morrison Cohen & Chair of the Digital Assets Department 

• Previous appearances on Unchained: The Department of Justice Goes After Its First NFT Insider Trading Case

• Rep. Emmer on Why He Believes Gary Gensler Is a ‘Bad-Faith Regulator’
• Is the Government Trying to Kill Off Crypto in the US?
• Coinbase’s Top Lawyer Calls SEC Wells Notice a ‘Massive Overreach’

• CoinDesk: U.S. SEC Moves Toward DeFi Oversight as It Reopens Proposed Regulations
• Unchained: 
• SEC Chair Gary Gensler Avoids Question: ‘Is Ethereum a Security?’
• SEC Sues Bittrex, Names Dash, Algorand and Other Tokens ‘Crypto Asset Securities’
• Proposed rule: Amendments Regarding the Definition of “Exchange” and Alternative Trading Systems (ATSs)
• Rendering Innovation Kaput: Statement on Amending the Definition of Exchange
• POLITICO: McHenry clashes with SEC’s Gensler over crypto crackdown
• Forbes: Crypto Exchange Beaxy Shuts Down Amid SEC Charges

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Maximal extractable value, or MEV, is a mainstay of the Ethereum landscape. But the process of validators reaping profits from handling new blocks is not without controversy. Ethereum Foundation researcher Justin Drake and bloXroute Labs CEO Uri Klarman assess the current state of MEV. Hear them disagree about the path forward for making Ethereum fairer for all its economic actors.

Show highlights:

• what MEV is and how it has evolved over time
• the nuances of the newly proposed MEV Blocker and why it’s important for users
• whether it’s possible to enable “back-running” while preventing front-running
• how to give power back to blockchain users
• what the differences and similarities are among several projects trying to solve MEV
• how “MEV Burn” will be like the EIP-1559 to what Justin calls contention
• whether EigenLayer can help solve MEV problems
• whether wallets and DEXs could be doing something different to prevent MEV and generate more revenue
• how “exclusive order flow” could be detrimental to DeFi users
• what proposer-builder separation (PBS) is and whether it will change MEV distribution
• why Uri doesn’t think PBS is the right step forward for Ethereum

Crypto.com

Halborn

• Justin Drake, researcher at the Ethereum Foundation
• Uri Klarman, CEO of bloXroute Labs

• Previous coverage of Unchained on MEV:
• Why Is Ethereum Trying to Maximize Value From Users? Two Sides Debate
• The Chopping Block: Why the Once-Taboo MEV Is Now a Core Part of Ethereum

MEV Blocker

• CoinDesk: MEV Blocker Wants to Help You Outrun the Front-Runners
• MEV Blocker
• Unchained: Ethereum Builders Join Forces to Launch MEV Blocker

MEV Distribution

• CoinDesk: Flashbots Proposes New Class of 'Matchmakers' to Share MEV Gains With Ethereum Users
• MEV-Share: programmably private orderflow to share MEV with users - The Flashbots Ship
• BackRunMe
• Wallet-Boost Design Doc · blocknative discourse · Discussion #1 · GitHub
• OpenMEV Mechanics and Formulas - Manifold Finance

MEV Smoothing

• Committee-driven MEV smoothing - Economics

MEV Burn

• Burning MEV through block proposer auctions - Economics

Proposer-Builder separation

• Proposer-builder separation | ethereum.org
• Vitalik Buterin’s tweet

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Welcome to “The Chopping Block” – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest news. In this episode, they’re joined by Unchained’s Laura Shin to debate FTX revival rumors, what the U.S. Treasury got wrong about DeFi, and whether VCs are antithetical to crypto’s core principles.

Show highlights: 

• how much ETH is getting unstaked and deposited after Shapella
• the market reaction following the successful implementation of the upgrade
• whether FTX could reopen after its massive collapse
• why Robert thinks rebooting the exchange is a “terrible” idea
• whether FTX could do the same thing as Bitfinex and issue a debt token for creditors
• how the U.S. government misunderstands decentralized finance, in stark contrast with regulators from other parts of the world
• whether DeFi front-ends should be subject to the Bank Secrecy Act
• whether VCs go against the principles of crypto
• the difference between democratizing finance and democratizing fundraising

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

• Laura Shin, author, and CEO of Unchained

Shapella:

• Previous coverage of Unchained on the upgrade:
• Shapella in the Rearview: After Major Upgrade, What’s Next for Ethereum?
• Ethereum's Shapella Upgrade - What to Expect?
• How Will ETH React to Ethereum’s Shanghai Upgrade?
• Unchained: 
• Staked Ethereum Withdrawals Enabled As Shanghai Upgrade Goes Live
• Ethereum Surges Past $2,000 Post-Shanghai, $2 Billion Staked Withdrawals Pending
• Nansen: The Shanghai Upgrade Dashboard
• CoinDesk: What’s Next After the Ethereum Shanghai Upgrade Known as Shapella

FTX:

• Unchained: FTX Could Reopen Crypto Exchange, Recovers $7.3 Billion in Assets

Treasury Report:

• Unchained: Poor DeFi Cybersecurity Presents Risks for National Security, Says U.S. Treasury

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Laura’s 10-Year Anniversary of Self-Employment: A Personal Message 

Laura Shin, the host of Unchained, celebrated her 10-year anniversary of self-employment on Wednesday, April 12. She tells her story and has a message that she hopes will help others on their journeys. 

Links: 

Original Twitter thread

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This week’s major Ethereum upgrade, Shapella (it was really two upgrades, Shanghai and Capella, in one), brings the network’s multi-year journey to proof-of-stake to a close. With validator withdrawals now live, the Ethereum Foundation’s Tim Beiko explains Shapella’s significance, why EIP-4844 is the next big thing, and what else is on Ethereum’s roadmap.

Show highlights:

• how Ethereum transitioned from a proof-of-work consensus mechanism to proof-of-stake
• what the concerns about enabling withdrawals among developers were 
• why the upgrade has “de-risked” staking on Ethereum
• whether there are going to be more solo stakers now that The Merge is fully completed
• what’s next in the roadmap of Ethereum and how EIP-4844 will decrease the cost of posting data for Layer 2s
• what “proposer-builder separation” is and what it intends to solve

Crypto.com

Railgun DAO 

Tim Beiko, head of the Ethereum protocol developer calls 

• Previous appearances on Unchained: Why Ethereum's Merge Was Delayed and Why It Won't Reduce Gas Fees Much

Ethereum's Shapella Upgrade - What to Expect?

How Will ETH React to Ethereum’s Shanghai Upgrade?

• Unchained: Staked Ethereum Withdrawals Enabled As Shanghai Upgrade Goes Live
• Nansen: The Shanghai Upgrade Dashboard
• CoinDesk: What’s Next After the Ethereum Shanghai Upgrade Known as Shapella

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How can decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) be more resilient? Gabriel Shapiro, general counsel at Delphi Labs, and Fatemeh Fannizadeh, lawyer and researcher at Geneva-legal.ch, survey the landscape and offer their insights on what will fuel the next wave of DAO innovation. Are new rules from U.S. states like Wyoming and Utah a boon for DAO creation? Or will the proceedings against Ooki DAO by U.S. regulators cast a pall on this emerging segment of the Web3 world?

Show highlights:

• how Gabriel and Fatemeh determine whether something is actually a DAO
• the pressing legal issues around DAO formation
• where the liabilities lie in these types of organizations
• Delphi Labs’ new “borg” concept and the problems it aims to solve
• what jurisdictions are more appropriate for different DAOs
• the nuances of Wyoming’s DAO LLC law
• Utah’s Introduction of LLDs – limited liability DAOs – and why it is innovative 
• why the CFTC filed a lawsuit against Ooki DAO
• whether governance token holders are liable for the DAO’s actions
• how the Ooki lawsuit will impact how DAOs structure their activities in the future
• what happened in the MakerDAO case and its implications
• why Fatemeh and Gabriel disagree on whether the Mango DAO’s agreement to not pursue actions against Avi Eisenberg was legally binding

• Crypto.com
• Halborn

• Gabriel Shapiro, general counsel at Delphi Labs
• Previous appearances on Unchained: 
• What Does Mango Markets Exploiter Avi Eisenberg’s Arrest in Puerto Rico Mean for DeFi? 
• Fatemeh Fannizadeh, lawyer and researcher at Geneva-legal.ch
• Lawmakers In New Hampshire And Utah Recognize DAOs As Legal Persons

MakerDAO:

• CoinDesk: Crypto Investors' $28M ‘Black Thursday’ Lawsuit Against DeFi Giant Maker Dismissed by US Judge

Mango Markets:

• CoinDesk: Legal Expert Says Mango Markets Exploit Case Is Wake-Up Call for DAOs
• Avi Eisenberg Detained Unlike SBF As Mango Labs Is Denied Injunction But TRO to March 15
• Unchained: 
• The Mango Markets Attacker on Whether His 'Trade' Was Ethical or Not
• CFTC Charges Mango Markets Exploiter With Market Manipulation
• Mango Markets Exploiter Arrested on Market Manipulation Charges

Tornado Cash

• Unchained:
• The Chopping Block: Did OFAC Overstep by Sanctioning Tornado Cash?
• Given the Sanctions on Tornado Cash, Is Ethereum Censorship Resistant?
• Tornado Cash Sanctioned. Did the Government Overstep Its Bounds?

Ooki DAO:

• Unchained: Why the Ooki DAO Case Could Hurt Participation in DAOs
• CoinDesk: Interpreting the CFTC’s Lawsuit Against Ooki DAO

Wyoming law

• Legal Nodes: Wyoming LLC as a DAO Legal Wrapper: What You Need to Know

Utah

• The National Law Review: Utah Passes Innovative DAO Legislation

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Amidst a wide-ranging crackdown on all kinds of crypto players, Representative Tom Emmer talks about recent enforcement actions, the classification of cryptocurrencies as securities or commodities, the potential impact of US regulatory actions on the country’s global economic power, and the Federal Reserve's upcoming payment system. He touches on the importance of innovation and entrepreneurship in the crypto industry and the role of government in fostering these developments.

Show highlights:

• why Rep. Emmer thinks there's an operation to cut crypto off from the banking system
• how, as he puts it, Sen. Elizabeth Warren has been 'dancing on the grave' of the recent banking failures
• how the interest in crypto in Congress has changed over time, especially after the Infrastructure bill in 2021
• whether the CFTC lawsuit against Binance represents an "appropriate" use of enforcement actions
• why Rep. Emmer says that bureaucrats are trying to polarize blockchain technology
• how the US’s attitudes toward crypto could affect the country’s global power
• why he is against FedNow, the new Federal Reserve's payment system

• Crypto.com
• Railgun DAO 

Congressman and House Majority Whip Tom Emmer

• Previous appearances on Unchained: Rep. Tom Emmer, One of the Most Active Crypto Congress Members, on Taxes and DeFi

Operation Choke Point 2.0:

• Coverage of Unchained Podcast on the topic: Is the Government Trying to Kill Off Crypto in the US?
• Operation Choke Point 2.0 Is Underway, And Crypto Is In Its Crosshairs

Enforcement actions

• Unchained:
• CFTC Sues Binance and CZ Over US Regulatory Violations
• SEC Issues Coinbase a Wells Notice
• Coverage of Unchained Podcast on the recent regulatory crackdown: 
• Why the CFTC Case Against Binance Will Have Very Important Consequences for Crypto
• Coinbase’s Top Lawyer Calls SEC Wells Notice a ‘Massive Overreach’ 

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Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, and Tarun Chitra chop it up about the latest news. In this episode, they are joined by Laura Shin, author, journalist, and host of Unchained, to discuss the drama around the Arbitrum governance’s proposal, the MEV attack on Ethereum, the Shanghai upgrade… and much more!

Show highlights: 

• what the intentions behind Arbitrum Foundation's ratification poll were
• why Tarun says that it was suggested by a crypto lawyer
• what will happen to Ethereum staking after the Shanghai upgrade
• how ETH provides 'organic yield,' according to Tarun
• whether staking makes ETH a security 
• how a validator on Ethereum got slashed after a $25 million MEV attack
• the drawbacks of how Proof of Stake requires a locked stake, while Proof of Work allows joining and leaving freely
• whether Tarun should cut his hair (yes, this was actually discussed)

• Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly 
• Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures
• Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly 

• Laura Shin, author, and host of Unchained

Arbitrum DAO

• Unchained: Arbitrum Backtracks on AIP-1 After Community Backlash 

MEV attack

• Unchained: Rogue Ethereum Validator Slashed After $25 Million MEV Bot Attack

Euler hack 

• Unchained: Euler Hacker Returns All $200 Million Stolen in Exploit

Shanghai: 

• Unchained: A Guide to Ethereum’s Shanghai Upgrade
• Single Secret Leader Election
• Gauntlet’s View on the Shanghai Upgrade

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Brian Quintenz, head of policy for a16z crypto, and Nic Carter, general partner at Castle Island Ventures, talk about Operation Choke Point 2.0, the relationship between the government and the crypto industry, the status of different tokens as securities or commodities, and potential future developments in the space

Show highlights:

• what the original Operation Choke Point was like
• the "evidence" that shows that Operation Choke Point 2.0 against crypto is real, according to Nic 
• how hard it is for crypto companies to get banked in the U.S.
• whether crypto had anything to do with the current banking crisis
• whether agencies such as the CFTC and the SEC are performing coordinated action against the industry
• how the collapse of FTX changed the approach of banking regulators toward crypto
• whether the U.S. needs to change its regulatory approach to maintain its status as a global leader
• whether crypto is a threat to the U.S. dollar and the financial system
• how Tether has benefited from the recent regulatory events
• why Brian says that the SEC has already demonstrated that BTC and – also ETH -- are not securities

Crypto.com

Halborn

• Brian Quintenz, head of policy for a16z crypto
• Nic Carter, general partner at Castle Island Ventures
• Did The Government Start A Global Financial Crisis In An Attempt To Destroy Crypto?
• Operation Choke Point 2.0 Is Underway, And Crypto Is In Its Crosshairs

Previous coverage of Unchained on the banking situation:

• Jim Bianco on Why the Banking System Has Always Been Broken
• The Fed Is In Checkmate: What Will Powell Do?
• The Fall of SVB: What Happened and How It Affects Crypto

Previous coverage of Unchained on the recent regulatory crackdown: 

• Why the CFTC Case Against Binance Will Have Very Important Consequences for Crypto
• Coinbase’s Top Lawyer Calls SEC Wells Notice a ‘Massive Overreach’ 

• NYMAG: Barney Frank Talks More About the Surprise Shuttering of Signature Bank
• Unchained:
• Was Signature Bank Actually Insolvent?
• Regulators Close Signature Bank Following SVB Collapse
• CFTC Sues Binance and CZ Over US Regulatory Violations
• CoinDesk Editorial: It Sure Looks Like the U.S. Is Trying to Kill Crypto
• The Administration’s Roadmap to Mitigate Cryptocurrencies’ Risks | NEC | The White House

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In this episode, Austin Campbell, a professor at Columbia Business School, discusses the recent allegations made by the CFTC against Binance, and whether or not criminal charges will be brought against company officers such as CEO Changpeng Zhao, or CZ, or former Chief Compliance Officer Samuel Lim. He also sheds light on how this case could shape which agency will have regulatory authority over crypto assets.

Show highlights:

• what the CFTC's allegations against Binance are
• whether Binance and its employees will face criminal charges
• what the two most likely scenarios for Binance are, according to Austin
• how regulators got so many details and so much information from CZ's phone
• whether CZ is personally liable and whether the US could extradite him 
• how the CFTC used the complaint to state that BTC, LTC, ETH, and some stablecoins are commodities
• Why Austin believes Coinbase would be the "single biggest winner" if Binance US is shut down
• how this case is going to help determine which agency has jurisdiction to regulate crypto assets

• Crypto.com
• Railgun DAO 

Austin Campbell, professor at Columbia Business School and Managing Partner at Zero Knowledge Consulting

• Previous coverage on Unchained: Just a Coincidence? Coinbase and Polygon Lawyers See Bad Omens in SEC Crackdown

CFTC vs. Binance

• Unchained: CFTC Sues Binance and CZ Over US Regulatory Violations
• Bloomberg’s Matt Levine: The CFTC Comes for Binance
• Previous coverage on Unchained: The Chopping Block: Is This the Beginning of the End for Binance?

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Welcome to “The Chopping Block” – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Robert Leshner, Tom Schmidt, and Tarun Chitra chop it up about the latest news. In this episode, they discuss Binance's recent regulatory issues, the potential impact on the crypto markets, the CFTC's stance on tokens, and also touch on Do Kwon's arrest and Hong Kong's approach to crypto regulation.

Show highlights: 

• whether the chief compliance officer of Binance was aware of how the exchange was evading compliance
• how the CFTC contradicted the SEC about some tokens being securities
• whether Binance was trading against its customers
• what the future of Binance looks like after the CFTC lawsuit
• how the Do Kwon arrest coincided with Vitalik running an experiment in Montenegro 
• how the SEC's Wells Notice against Coinbase will affect the exchange
• whether all the regulatory actions are coordinated 
• what would happen to the crypto markets if Binance goes down 
• how Hong Kong’s approach to crypto regulation contrasts with that of the US

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

CFTC vs. Binance

• Unchained: CFTC Sues Binance and CZ Over US Regulatory Violations

Coinbase Wells Notice

• Previous coverage of Unchained: Coinbase’s Top Lawyer Calls SEC Wells Notice a ‘Massive Overreach’ 
• Coinbase:
• We asked the SEC for reasonable crypto rules for Americans. We got legal threats instead.
• The Crypto Securities Market is Waiting to be Unlocked. But First We Need Workable Rules.
• Unchained: 
• SEC Issues Coinbase a Wells Notice
• U.S. Supreme Court Hears First Crypto Case: Coinbase Arbitration Dispute
• Bloomberg: Coinbase (COIN) Gets SEC Wells Notice Over Crypto Offerings

Do Kwon

• Unchained: 
• Do Kwon Arrested in Montenegro, Faces Criminal Charges From US Prosecutors 
• Do Kwon Plans to Appeal 30-Day Detention Extension After Arrest
• DL News: US requests extradition of Do Kwon from Montenegro

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In this episode, Stanford cryptography professor Dan Boneh and a16z General Partner Ali Yahya elevate our knowledge of zero-knowledge proofs and their applications in the blockchain world. Listen as they dive into the intricacies of succinct proof systems, the difference between SNARKs and STARKs, the magic of recursive SNARKs, and why zero-knowledge systems are essential to the evolution of Ethereum.

Show highlights:

• how Ali became a general partner at a16z Crypto and why Dan started working on “the science of blockchains”
• what a succinct proof system is
• analogies for understanding zero-knowledge proofs
• the difference between SNARKs and STARKs and whether centralization can be fully avoided
• how zero-knowledge technology became so crucial for blockchains
• the reasons to push computations off-chain and the applications of this technology
• why zkEVMs are essential to help Ethereum scale
• why privacy is important not only in financial transactions but also in other areas like social networks and gaming
• the challenges that arise from trusted setups and whether it would be possible to create false proofs
• how to mitigate the trusted setup problem with different proof systems
• what is being built to make zero-knowledge proofs cheaper to create
• whether a privacy-focused technology can be pursued while staying compliant with regulations
• how zero-knowledge proofs can improve the security of blockchain bridges

• Crypto.com
• Halborn

• Ali Yahya, general partner at a16z crypto
• Dan Boneh, professor of computer science and electrical engineering, Stanford University; and senior research advisor, a16z crypto
• Using ZK Proofs to Fight Disinformation

• Unchained: zkEVM: The Computing Overhaul to Help Scale Ethereum
• Previous coverage of Unchained on zero-knowledge:
• Can You Trace Monero? 'It's Hard - But Not Impossible,' Says Nick Bax
• a16z crypto:
• Privacy-Protecting Regulatory Solutions Using Zero-Knowledge Proofs: Full Paper
• zkDocs: Zero-knowledge Information Sharing
• How the Coming Privacy Layer Will Fix the Broken Web
• CoinDesk: Polygon Rolls Out Zero-Knowledge, Privacy-Enhanced Identification Product

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Paul Grewal, Coinbase’s chief legal officer, shares his concerns about the SEC’s recent warning that it would pursue legal action against the crypto exchange. With the U.S. markets regulator failing to provide clear rules on digital assets, Grewal discusses the implications for Coinbase and for the future of crypto in the United States.

Show highlights:

• why Grewal was not surprised by the Wells notice 
• how Coinbase asked the SEC multiple times for clear rules and got no response, according to Grewal
• how the SEC is withholding information about which rules Coinbase allegedly broke, according to Grewal
• Coinbase’s efforts to disclose everything about its operations 
• whether Grewal thinks there was a change in the regulators’ approach after the collapse of FTX
• why Grewal thinks this is not the right way to go to keep crypto in the United States
• the jurisdictional fight between the CFTC and the SEC
• whether Coinbase will proceed with litigation 
• why Grewal thinks the Wells notice is a “shot at crypto as a whole”
• why Coinbase believes that its products are “fully compliant”
• what opportunities the U.S. Congress has to legislate blockchain technology

Crypto.com

Railgun DAO 

Paul Grewal, chief legal officer at Coinbase

• Previous appearances on Unchained: Just a Coincidence? Coinbase and Polygon Lawyers See Bad Omens in SEC Crackdown

• Coinbase: 
• We asked the SEC for reasonable crypto rules for Americans. We got legal threats instead.
• The Crypto Securities Market is Waiting to be Unlocked. But First We Need Workable Rules.
• Unchained: 
• SEC Issues Coinbase a Wells Notice
• U.S. Supreme Court Hears First Crypto Case: Coinbase Arbitration Dispute
• Bloomberg: Coinbase (COIN) Gets SEC Wells Notice Over Crypto Offerings

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Welcome to “The Chopping Block” – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, and Tarun Chitra chop it up about the latest news. This week, NEAR co-founder and former Google AI researcher Illia Polosukhin joins the show to discuss the intersection of crypto and machine learning.

Show highlights: 

• whether Signature was shut down because of its crypto arm
• whether banking crypto is riskier than banking other industries
• how Balaji’s $1 million BTC bet is just highly effective marketing
• whether the Fed is doing quantitative easing again
• how the artificial intelligence industry has changed over the years
• why Illia says that “open source always wins”
• the intersection of blockchain technology and AI
• whether a broken Tesla could become the world’s greatest investor

• Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly 
• Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures
• Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly 

• Illia Polosukhin, co-founder of Near

Signature and Banking

• Unchained:
• $4 Billion in Crypto Deposits Not Included in Flagstar Signature Deal
• Was Signature Bank Actually Insolvent?
• Regulators Close Signature Bank Following SVB Collapse
• Jim Bianco on Why the Banking System Has Always Been Broken
• Nic Carter: Operation Choke Point 2.0 Is Underway, And Crypto Is In Its Crosshairs
• Arthur Hayes: Kaiseki

Balaji’s bet

• Coin Edition: Balaji Bets $1M on Bitcoin Price, Says US Hyperinflation Is Underway

Artificial Intelligence:

• Richard Sutton: The Bitter Lesson
• Facebook: Introducing LLaMA: A foundational, 65-billion-parameter large language model
• Stanford: Alpaca: A Strong, Replicable Instruction-Following Model

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Caitlin Long, founder and CEO of Custodia Bank, and Meltem Demirors, chief strategy officer of CoinShares, share their concerns about crypto in the U.S. following a wild week in the banking sector. With Signature Bank’s takeover looking like a targeted takedown and crypto-friendly upstarts like Custodia being shadowbanned by the Fed, the two longtime experts look ahead at the fights to come. Is USDC next to land in regulators’ crosshairs?

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights:

• how crypto is viewed as a “big, scary, and strange” industry
• how Signature and Silvergate became so important for the crypto industry with SEN and Signet
• why Caitlin says it’s “crystal clear” that we are now in Operation Choke Point 2.0, with U.S. regulators pushing to debank the crypto industry
• why Caitlin says the Fed’s vote against Custodia’s application was preordained
• whether Sen. Elizabeth Warren had an impact on the current crisis
• how everything comes down to game theory
• whether VCs are responsible for causing the bank run
• whether the rollback in 2018 of certain provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act played a role in the recent collapse
• Caitlin’s hot takes on what happened with Signature Bank
• the unique characteristics of Custodia’s business model as a bank
• how stablecoins challenge the current financial system
• why it’s so important for crypto to improve its public perception

• Crypto.com
• Halborn

• Meltem Demirors, Chief Strategy Officer at CoinShares
• Caitlin Long, founder and CEO of Custodia Bank

• Previous coverage of Unchained:
• Jim Bianco on Why the Banking System Has Always Been Broken
• The Fed Is In Checkmate: What Will Powell Do?
• The Fall of SVB: What Happened and How It Affects Crypto
• NYT: Congress Approves First Big Dodd-Frank Rollback
• NYMAG: Barney Frank Talks More About the Surprise Shuttering of Signature Bank
• WSJ Editorial Board: Signature Bank’s Crypto Execution
• Unchained:
• FDIC Denies Asking Signature Buyers to Give Up Crypto: Report
• Was Signature Bank Actually Insolvent?
• Circle to Bring On New Banking Partner for USDC Minting, Redemption
• Circle Clears Backlog of USDC Minting and Redemption Requests
• Regulators Close Signature Bank Following SVB Collapse
• ​​Silvergate to Wind Down Operations in ‘Voluntary Liquidation’

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Jim Bianco, president and macro strategist at Bianco Research, explains what’s causing the recent cascade of bank failures. Yield seekers taking their money elsewhere are putting banks under strain. However, the Signature Bank takeover by New York regulators is “a little fishy,” Bianco says. He adds that DeFi has been holding up strong, providing an “alternative to this unstable system that we have right now.”

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights:

• why Jim thinks this is a liquidity crisis, not a solvency crisis
• the role of crypto and tech startups in the recent bank run 
• how people have been pulling out of crypto in the past 18 months
• why the traditional fractional reserve system for banks is broken
• why crypto projects like Aave and Compound are solutions
• why Jim says the Fed is a “legal counterfeiter”
• why money moving around so fast is a challenge to our antiquated financial system 
• whether Signet, Signature Bank’s digital payments platform, is the real reason why regulators shut the bank down
• whether the Fed will succeed or fail with FedNow, its instant payment system

Crypto.com

Railgun DAO 

Jim Bianco, President and founder of Bianco Research

• Unchained:
• The Fall of SVB: What Happened and How It Affects Crypto
• Was Signature Bank Actually Insolvent?
• Circle to Bring On New Banking Partner for USDC Minting, Redemption
• Regulators Close Signature Bank Following SVB Collapse
• Silvergate to Wind Down Operations in ‘Voluntary Liquidation’
• CNBC: Long-awaited Fed digital payment system to launch in July
• Ram Ahluwalia’s tweet on the Fed

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Welcome to “The Chopping Block” – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Robert Leshner, Tom Schmidt, and Tarun Chitra chop it up about the latest news. This week: Silicon Valley Bank went belly up and knocked USDC off its peg with it. For good measure, Signature Bank was taken over by regulators. After a hellish weekend, what did we learn?

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights: 

• what happened with Silicon Valley Bank 
• why USDC depegged and reached a low of 88 cents
• how Maker responded to the depegging of USDC
• whether DeFi responded flawlessly to the chaotic events
• how Haseeb’s VC fund, Dragonfly, was ensnared in SVB’s collapse
• what Tarun thinks made Elizabeth Warren change her tune on SVB
• whether Signature Bank was shut down because of its crypto-related activities
• why bonds are not marked to market by banks
• which company is going to issue the euro-dollar stablecoin
• how BTC has been outperforming the NASDAQ since the FTX collapse
• how Euler Finance got hacked for almost $200 million
• whether flash loans should be banned 
• the rules around crypto and finance in the Middle East
• why DeFi is a fundamental innovation that’s better than many financial systems across the world

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

• Unchained:
• The Fall of SVB: What Happened and How It Affects Crypto
• Was Signature Bank Actually Insolvent?
• Euler Finance Loses $197 Million in Flash Loan Exploit
• MakerDAO to Reinforce DAI Peg With Parameter Changes
• Circle to Bring On New Banking Partner for USDC Minting, Redemption
• Coinbase Says It Holds $240 Million in Cash at Signature Bank
• Regulators Close Signature Bank Following SVB Collapse
• Silvergate to Wind Down Operations in ‘Voluntary Liquidation’

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ETH staking began in December 2020. With Ethereum’s Shanghai upgrade, which could happen as early as mid-April, withdrawals of staked ETH will finally be enabled. Will validators rush to cash out? Or will Shanghai bring more institutional stakers into the fold? Christine Kim, VP of research at Galaxy Digital, joins the show to discuss how Etheruem’s latest upgrade will affect the network, and maybe even ETH’s price.

Show highlights:

• how Christine became an Ethereum expert
• what you need to know about Ethereum’s Shanghai upgrade
• when Shanghai is expected to go live on mainnet
• what the difference is between Shanghai and Capella
• possible outcomes following the activation of staked ETH withdrawals
• whether Shanghai makes ETH staking more attractive to institutions
• why Christine thinks there won’t be much impact on ETH’s price
• how Shanghai will impact liquid staking providers
• upgrades that are coming to Lido and Rocket Pool
• what will happen in Ethereum’s subsequent upgrade: Cancun
• what “proto-danksharding” is and how it will help Ethereum scale
• what New York Attorney General Letitia James got wrong when she said ETH is a security
• how Ethereum development has become more and more decentralized over the years
• the next steps in Ethereum’s roadmap 
• why Christine is still concerned about Lido and staking centralization
• what zkEVMs are and why they play a key role in the future of Ethereum scaling

• Crypto.com
• FTSE
• Halborn

Christine Kim, Vice president of research at Galaxy Digital

• Twitter

Post-Merge, If Lido Becomes Dominant, What Does That Mean for Ethereum?

In the Recent Crypto Market Meltdown, What Role Did Lido’s stETH Play?

ETHDenver presentation: Staked ETH Withdrawals: A Step-By-Step Overview with Christine Kim

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BitMEX founder Arthur Hayes, fresh out of home confinement after settling charges with the U.S. government, joins “The Chopping Block” with Haseeb Qureshi, Robert Leshner, and Tarun Chitra. The early crypto pioneer pulls no punches in his assessment of SBF, TradFi’s failings, and how crypto traders lost the plot in trusting CeFi middlemen.

Show highlights: 

• why Arthur travels with stuffed animals, and what his favorite brands are
• what factors led Sam Bankman-Fried to success
• how Bill Clinton seems to be related to many multibillion-dollar downfalls
• whether everyone in crypto thinks that prices are eventually going up
• what’s the thesis behind Maelstrom, Arthur’s new investment arm
• why he’s bullish on decentralization but also game to trade “dog shit”
• what the impact of Silvergate’s failure will be on the crypto industry
• what would Arthur have done if he was the CEO of Silvergate
• the role of rising interest rates in understanding Silvergate’s downfall
• why holding Tether’s USDT is not so different from USDC
• why crypto needs alternatives to dollar-backed stablecoins
• the real reasons why the U.S. Treasury is worried about stablecoins

• Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly 
• Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures
• Robert Leshner, founder of Compound 

Arthur Hayes, cofounder of BitMEX

• Twitter
• Medium

• Unchained: 
• ​​Silvergate to Wind Down Operations in ‘Voluntary Liquidation’
• Silvergate Confers With FDIC to Avoid Closing Down: Report
• Silvergate Shuts Down Crypto Payments Network
• Bloomberg: Silvergate Had a Crypto Bank Run
• NYMAG: Arthur Hayes, the Original King of Crypto, Is Back.
• Arthur’s posts: 
• White Boy
• Dust on Crust

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Elliott Stein, senior litigation analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, shares his insights from a court hearing this week on the SEC’s rejection of Grayscale’s bid to convert GBTC into a spot bitcoin ETF. Stein says federal appellate court judges seemed skeptical of the SEC’s arguments for why bitcoin futures ETFs are OK while bitcoin spot ETFs aren’t. Who’s likely to win the case and what does it mean for the crypto industry as a whole?

Show highlights:

• why Grayscale filed the lawsuit against the SEC
• why Grayscale believes that a bitcoin futures ETF is essentially the same as a spot ETF
• what the SEC disagrees
• why the judges pushed back against the SEC’s arguments
• why Elliott changed his mind about who will win the case after the hearing
• what would happen if Grayscale ends up winning the lawsuit and whether the SEC could go back on its previous approvals
• whether other companies applying for a bitcoin spot ETF would benefit from Grayscale winning the case
• whether this case could have an impact on the jurisdictional battle between the SEC and the CFTC
• why Elliott is keeping an eye on other cases such as Ripple, Terraform Labs, and insider trading at Coinbase

Crypto.com

Railgun DAO 

• Why Grayscale Is Suing the SEC Over Its Denial of a Bitcoin ETF
• $5 Billion in AUM: Why Growth at Grayscale Exploded in the Last Quarter
• Bitwise's Latest Plans to Get a Bitcoin ETF Approved
• DCG's Dilemma: Should It Sell Its GBTC Holdings to Repay Gemini?
• Gemini vs. DCG Is Heating Up. Could Gemini Force Genesis Into Bankruptcy?
• ‘The Last Big Whale’: Why the Crypto Contagion of 2022 Eventually Hit Genesis

Elliott Stein, Senior Litigation Analyst for the Financials Sector at Bloomberg Intelligence

• Twitter

• CoinDesk: 
• Judges Express Skepticism of SEC Arguments in Grayscale Bitcoin ETF Hearing
• A Dozen Reasons Why the SEC Should Have Approved Grayscale's Spot Bitcoin ETF
• Axios: Judges question SEC rejection of Grayscale's spot bitcoin ETF
• Reuters: US court questions SEC's rejection of Grayscale's bitcoin fund proposal
• Don Verrilli

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LayerZero launched a testnet bridge that allows users to swap mainnet ETH for Goerli ETH (GoETH), which led to a sudden emergence of a liquid market for GoETH tokens.

This was a hugely controversial decision, as many in the Ethereum community believe that testnet tokens should remain free.

At ETH Denver, Laura moderated a panel discussion about this hot topic with Bryan Pellegrino, cofounder and CEO of LayerZero Labs, Greg Markou, founder of Chainsafe and Matt Garnett, software engineer for the Ethereum Foundation.

Show highlights:

• why LazerZero launched a testnet bridge for Goerli ETH (GoETH)
• the three reasons why Greg is opposed to Goerli ETH having a price
• why Bryan believes it is impossible for a permissionless testnet to have free tokens 
• the three types of constituencies that use testnets 
• whether the Sepolia testnet solves the issues with Goerli
• the upcoming Holli testnet and the problems it aims to solve
• how to create a permissionless testnet that takes into account the needs of developers from all over the world
• whether LayerZero’s move will create more problems in the future

• Crypto.com
• FTSE
• Halborn

Bryan Pellegrino, cofounder and CEO of LayerZero Labs.

Greg Markou, founder of Chainsafe

Matt Garnett, software engineer for the Ethereum Foundation

• Unchained: Goerli Testnet ETH Is Now Being Monetized
• CoinDesk: Start of the End? Testnet Goerli Ether Spikes to $1.60 as Traders Jump on Opportunity Meant for Developers
• LayerZero blog post: Public Goods by LayerZero.
• Alchemy: What is the Sepolia testnet?
• Ethereum (ETH) Developer Announces Plan To Launch New ‘Holli’ Testnet Later This Year

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

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In-person at ETH Denver, crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, and Tarun Chitra chop it up about the latest crypto news. This week, Kyle Samani, scion of Solana, joins the show. 

Show highlights: 

• why Coinbase decided to launch Base, a layer 2 on Ethereum and whether developers are building on it
• how Coinbase might make money from it
• whether it will be a permissioned, KYC’ed chain that requires users to reveal their identities 
• Kyle's opinion on the allegedly fraudulent operations of FTX, in which his firm, Multicoin Capital, was an investor
• how due diligence changed in the investing space after the collapse of FTX
• what the future of Paxos looks like now that its primary source of revenue, BUSD, was impacted
• why Kyle thinks the latest nearly 20-hour outage of Solana is different from previous outages
• what he’s excited about in Solana now
• how Jump, a VC firm, was able to “hack back” $150 million in previously stolen assets after a court order

• Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly 
• Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures
• Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly 

Kyle Samani, managing partner at Multicoin Capital

Base

• Unchained: 
• Coinbase Launches Ethereum Layer 2 Network ‘Base’
• Video

Solana

• Unchained: Solana Attempts Two Chain Restarts After Near 20-Hour Outage

FTX

• Unchained: FTX’s Nishad Singh Charged With Fraud After Guilty Plea

Wormhole

• Coindesk: Oasis Exploits Its Own Wallet Software to Seize Crypto Stolen in Wormhole Hack

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Muneeb Ali, co-creator of Stacks, discusses the Bitcoin trend that has everyone – or at least, many Bitcoiners – buzzing: Bitcoin ordinals. Ali explains why it is that they’ve taken up block space, pushed Bitcoin fees higher, and caused controversy in the community. Plus, he explains why the phenomenon has generated excitement about Stacks.

Show highlights:

• how Ordinals technology works to enable NFTs in the Bitcoin blockchain
• the difference between NFTs in smart contracts platforms like Ethereum vs. NFTs in Bitcoin
• the way in which the Taproot upgrade allowed Ordinals technology to exist
• what security measures to take in order to protect one’s Bitcoin NFTs
• why the Bitcoin maxi community reacted negatively to Ordinals 
• why Stacks jumped so much in price after the release of Ordinals
• what Muneeb thinks is the significance of Yuga Labs launching NFTs on Bitcoin

• Crypto.com
• Railgun DAO 

Muneeb Ali, co-creator of Stacks

• Twitter
• Previous appearance on Unchained: Blockstack On Getting Independence From Google, Facebook And Amazon

• Unchained: BAYC Creator Yuga Labs to Launch Bitcoin Ordinal NFTs
• Decrypt: What Are Ordinals? A Beginner's Guide to Bitcoin NFTs
• Dune: Ordinals - Inscriptions on Bitcoin

Episodes about Bitcoin mentioned in the show: 

• Does Maximalism Help or Hurt Bitcoin? Lyn Alden and Udi Wertheimer Debate
• Eric Wall and Udi Wertheimer on Why Bitcoin Maximalism Is ‘Like a Shitcoin Community’
• Is Bitcoin Doomed to Fail? Eric Wall and Justin Bons Face Off

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Andy Greenberg, senior writer for WIRED and author of “Tracers in the Dark,” takes us inside the world of crypto-tracing crimebusters and voices the ambivalence of Bitcoin – a cypherpunk creation – eroding financial privacy. Hear how the longtime crypto scribe got law enforcement and sleuthing firms like Chainalysis to open up about their major wins in taking down darknet kingpins.

Show highlights:

• why Andy thought early on that Bitcoin would enable crypto anarchy
• how blockchain analytics started being used to tackle crime
• why the IRS Criminal Investigation unit was more open to discussing its techniques 
• how Andy learned many new things about already well-known stories when writing about them for the book
• the methods used to bring down the “biggest dark-web drug lord” in history
• did AlphaBay’s Alexandre Cazes really kill himself in a Thai prison?
• how researcher Sarah Meiklejohn developed tools to deanonymize Bitcoin 
• why she’s now uncomfortable that her techniques were adopted by Chainalysis and sold to law enforcement
• what Andy feels about the importance of privacy
• how Monero is harder to trace than Bitcoin but not untraceable
• what the impact of zero-knowledge technology will be for blockchain analytics firms
• whether the cypherpunk ethos is dead
• why the mystery of Satoshi Nakamoto’s identity will never die

• Crypto.com
• FTSE
• Halborn
• NYU

Andy Greenberg, senior writer for WIRED and author of “Tracers in the Dark: The Global Hunt for the Crime Lords of Cryptocurrency”

• Twitter
• Writings for WIRED
• Tracers in the Dark: The Global Hunt for the Crime Lords of Cryptocurrency

• WIRED:
• The Hunt for the Kingpin Behind AlphaBay, Part 1: The Shadow
• The Hunt for the Kingpin Behind AlphaBay, Part 2: Pimp_alex_91
• The Hunt for the Kingpin Behind AlphaBay, Part 3: Alpha Male 
• De-Anonymization in Bitcoin with Sarah Meiklejohn | a16z crypto research talks
• Wikipedia: Welcome to Video case

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Emily Parker, CoinDesk’s executive director of global content, joins the show to discuss the Asian crypto markets. From Hong Kong to Tokyo, Parker sees bullish signs in recent developments. Hear why she thinks China and Japan are closely watching as the U.S. clamps down on the crypto industry. 

Show highlights:

• how Hong Kong is trying to create a regulated environment for crypto
• whether Beijing and Chinese officials support Hong Kong’s initiative 
• what was China’s motivation to make it harder to buy and hold crypto
• whether Asian countries will lead the next bull run 
• what the crypto environment looks like in Japan and how it differs from the U.S.
• how Japan responded to major crypto hacks and meltdowns
• what Japan is doing in terms of stablecoin regulation and adoption
• how Japanese authorities are trying to establish guidelines for DAOs
• whether people in Asia have different attitudes and views toward crypto and investing in general

Crypto.com

Railgun DAO 

Emily Parker, executive director of global content at CoinDesk.

• Twitter
• Previous appearance on Unchained: Crypto in China: What It Really Looks Like

• CoinDesk: 
• Japan Embraces Web3 As Global Regulators Grow Wary of Crypto
• FTX Japan Customers Can Begin Withdrawing Fiat, Crypto on Feb. 21
• WSJ: Some FTX Customers Can Withdraw Their Money—in Japan, at Least
• Bloomberg: 
• Hong Kong’s Crypto Hub Ambitions Win Quiet Backing From Beijing - Bloomberg
• Hong Kong Plans to Let Retail Sector Trade Larger Crypto Tokens Like Bitcoin
• Crypto Mogul Sun Says Huobi Betting China Will Warm to Digital Assets as Exchange Targets Hong Kong
• Hong Kong to Establish Task Force to Help Develop Crypto Hub
• US Crypto Crackdown Boosts Appeal of Dubai, Hong Kong, Europe

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Welcome to “The Chopping Block” – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Robert Leshner, Tom Schmidt, and Tarun Chitra chop it up about the latest news. This week, it’s time for a case study: Special guest Pacman, founder of Blur, explains how his upstart NFT marketplace fought OpenSea and won.

Show highlights: 

• what it’s like to launch a token
• why Blur was created and what its strategy was for competing with OpenSea
• why royalties remain a lightning rod in the NFT community
• how Blur designed its liquidity mining program and the lesson learned from failed designs
• the reasons why Blur succeeded in the NFT marketplace environment
• Pacman’s reaction to OpenSea’s decision to not enforce royalties
• why forking the Blur code won’t work for new marketplace competitors
• why the NFT market remained strong in the depths of a bear market
• why Pacman thinks AMMs for NFTs won’t work
• whether the “death of royalties” is good or bad for the ecosystem

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

Pacman, founder of Blur

• Twitter

• The Chopping Block: Two on Two Debate: NFT Royalty Throwdown!
• Are NFT Royalties the Way? How to Build a Sustainable Creator Economy

• Dune: Blur VS OpenSea
• Blog post: How to earn royalties on Blur
• OpenSea’s response
• Unchained: 
• OpenSea Eliminates Marketplace Fee, Makes Creator Royalties Optional
• Blur Airdrops 360M Tokens to NFT Traders

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A settlement with Kraken, a proposed custody rule, and lawsuits against Paxos and Terraform Labs. “This week has been a very long year,” said Polygon Labs Chief Policy Officer Rebecca Rettig. She joins Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Paul Grewal to interpret what’s going on with the SEC. Is it just one big push to cripple the crypto industry? “The fact that we’re all … trying to read tea leaves speaks to a failure in the system that relies upon one-off enforcement actions rather than a public rulemaking process,” said Grewal.

Show highlights:

• how the implosion of FTX sped up regulatory actions 
• whether the SEC will go after other staking services
• why the statement that crypto firms should just register with the SEC is “disingenuous”
• what seems to be behind the decision to target the BUSD stablecoin
• whether SEC enforcement actions will be detrimental to innovation in the U.S.
• what features would make stablecoins securities
• why the SEC is alleging that the UST stablecoin is a security
• why “expansion of jurisdiction” is at the heart of the SEC’s proposed crypto custody rules
• why Paul thinks that forcing crypto innovation offshore could become a national security issue for the U.S.

Crypto.com

FTSE

Halborn

NYU

Guests:

Paul Grewal, Chief Legal Officer at Coinbase:

• Twitter

Rebecca Rettig, Chief Policy Officer at Polygon Labs:

• Twitter

Links

• WIRED: Confusion Spirals in Crypto as the US Cracks Down
• Unchained: 
• Circle Told NYDFS That Paxos-Issued BUSD Wasn’t Fully Backed
• SEC Wants Tougher Rules for Crypto Custody
• SEC Sues Do Kwon and Terraform Labs
• WSJ: 
• Crypto Firm Paxos Faces SEC Lawsuit Over Binance USD Token
• Regulator Orders Crypto Firm Paxos to Stop Issuing Binance Stablecoin
• Bloomberg: US Crackdown Seeks to Push Crypto Back to the Fringes of Finance
• SEC: 
• Pocketful of Quarters, Inc.
• Statement on Safeguarding Advisory Client Assets Proposal
• CoinDesk: SEC Proposal Could Bar Investment Advisers From Keeping Assets at Crypto Firms
• Jesse Powell’s tweet

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Mike Selig, counsel at Willkie Farr, has plenty to talk about this week, with a slew of actions from Gary Gensler’s SEC putting the future of crypto in the U.S. in question. From Kraken’s custodial staking settlement to action against BUSD issuer Paxos, the former CFTC law clerk voices concern that coordination among regulators could choke off the industry’s growth. Hear how Selig thinks Gensler’s SEC is working to bring crypto markets “within the regulatory perimeter.”

Show highlights:

• whether regulators are using the FTX case to go against crypto as a whole
• what likely caused the NYDFS action against Paxos for BUSD
• whether there’s a coordinated effort to undermine the crypto markets
• how issuers could argue that stablecoins aren’t securities
• why there are limited implications for staking as a whole after Kraken’s SEC settlement
• how the regulators are “discouraging access and participation in crypto markets at the banking level”
• the differences between Gary Gensler’s SEC and that of his predecessor, Jay Clayton
• how the Gensler administration is skeptical of governance and DAOs
• why the SEC’s crypto custody rule proposal is refreshing, albeit not perfect

Crypto.com

Guest

Mike Selig, counsel at Willkie Farr

• Twitter

• Unchained: 
• Circle Told NYDFS That Paxos-Issued BUSD Wasn’t Fully Backed
• SEC Wants Tougher Rules for Crypto Custody
• CoinDesk: SEC Proposal Could Bar Investment Advisers From Keeping Assets at Crypto Firms
• WSJ: Crypto Firm Paxos Faces SEC Lawsuit Over Binance USD Token
• Regulator Orders Crypto Firm Paxos to Stop Issuing Binance Stablecoin - WSJ
• The Block: SEC action against Paxos paints regulatory target on stablecoins
• Tom Wan on the ramifications of Paxos being ordered to stop issuing BUSD 
• Bloomberg: US Crackdown Seeks to Push Crypto Back to the Fringes of Finance

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Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Robert Leshner, Tom Schmidt, and Tarun Chitra chop it up about the latest news. This week, Polygon Chief Legal Officer Marc Boiron joins the show to examine the SEC’s recent enforcement ramp-up.

• why Marc thinks NYDFS coming after Paxos is the most interesting thing to analyze in the SEC-BUSD spat
• whether the SEC and NYDFS actions against Paxos were coordinated 
• whether a stablecoin is a security and why the SEC might be inclined to go after Paxos
• how a stablecoin could resemble a money market fund
• whether the SEC action against BUSD consolidates Tether's dominance
• why Robert is nervous about the ramifications of the Paxos situation for all of crypto
• the unique characteristics of Kraken's staking services that led to settlement with the SEC
• the meaning of the settlement for other custodial staking services and staking in general
• why Robert voted in favor of the Uniswap governance proposal
• why Haseeb is fine with how a16z voted in the proposal
• how on-chain governance should be approached 

Hosts

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

Marc Boiron, chief legal officer at Polygon

Disclosures

• WSJ:
• Crypto Firm Paxos Faces SEC Lawsuit Over Binance USD Token
• Regulator Orders Crypto Firm Paxos to Stop Issuing Binance Stablecoin
• The Block: Gensler: SEC has been 'clear' on cryptocurrencies
• Unchained: Circle Told NYDFS That Paxos-Issued BUSD Wasn’t Fully Backed

Ethereum ETH Staking Deposits

Kraken to Discontinue Unregistered Offer and Sale of Crypto Asset Staking-As-A-Service Program and Pay $30 Million to Settle SEC Charges

Coinbase’s staking services are not securities. And here's why. - Blog

• Unchained episode on the topic: Chris Blec on Why He Believes a16z’s Uniswap Vote Exposes DeFi as a Farce - Ep. 454 
• Wormhole vs. LayerZero posts
• Wormhole 
• LayerZero
• Explanation video from Unchained 

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Erin West, Deputy District Attorney of California’s Santa Clara County, has heard firsthand tales of scammers preying on victims for hundreds of thousands of dollars. She joins the show to explain the scamming technique known as “pig butchering,” how it is estimated to have raked in tens of billions worldwide, and why it has led to suicide in some cases. West makes the case for why victims need empathy and how law enforcement is working with exchanges to claw back scammed funds.

Show highlights:

• Erin’s background and how she started investigating crypto crimes
• what exactly the “pig butchering” method entails — and why it’s called that
• what kind of people scammers are targeting
• the devastating stories that have arisen from these crypto scams
• fresh intel on where the fraudsters are located
• whether the scammers may be connected to foreign governments 
• how the victims are often turned away by U.S. law enforcement agencies
• how Erin’s agency was able to return almost $1 million to victims late last year
• what local agencies can do to address these problems
• how law enforcement agencies around the U.S. are lacking crypto education
• the workshops Erin has been leading to help such agencies get educated
• the relatively low number of NFT-related scams her agency has dealt with so far
• what Erin recommends for victims of “pig butchering” scams

• Crypto.com
• FTSE
• Halborn
• NYU

Links

SIM Swaps and Pig Butchering scams: 

Forbes: Hackers Have Stolen Millions Of Dollars In Bitcoin -- Using Only Phone Numbers

WIRED: What Is a Pig Butchering Scam?

Podcast on Indian telemarketing scams: Chameleon: Scam Likely — Campside Media

Guests:

Erin:

• LinkedIn

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Chris Blec, DeFi researcher and founder of the Blec Report, explains why he believes the involvement of Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) in a contentious Uniswap governance proposal flies in the face of crypto’s core value: decentralization. He argues that the venture capital firm’s ability to potentially sway the vote in favor of a portfolio company undermines claims that DeFi is “people-powered.” The vote, which is not yet concluded, is the latest venue for people to debate the merits of DeFi governance and whether one token really should equal one vote.

Show highlights:

• why a16z decided to vote against a key section of the Uniswap governance proposal
• the problem Chris sees with the current design of DAOs
• whether there is a parallel to be drawn between TradFi and DAO governance
• why Chris says people are mistaken when they think about the goals of crypto VC
• whether the fact that some VCs control so much voting power goes against the ethos of decentralization
• how Chris thinks VCs are funding lobbyist groups to push for their interests, not those of crypto as a whole
• why Chris believes the "one token, one vote" system doesn't work
• some alternatives that could be pursued to help the issue of whale token voting
• whether regulators will come after DAOs and especially the ones that are using current governance mechanisms

Crypto.com

Guest

Chris Blec, DeFi researcher and founder of the Blec Report

• Twitter
• Tweet about token voting
• Tweet about engaging with a16z

• Unchained: Does a16z Control Uniswap?
• CoinDesk: Contentious Uniswap Vote Highlights the Opaqueness of Decentralized Governance

• From Eddy Lazzarin
• From Defi Ignas
• From Abdullah Umar
• From Philipp Zentner
• From Macro Mate
• From Adam Cochran

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Lawrence Zlatkin, VP of Tax at Coinbase, and Shehan Chandrasekera, Head of Tax Strategy at CoinTracker, give a full accounting of everything U.S. crypto traders should be aware of as we inch closer to April 18. The two tax experts discuss the latest on how the IRS is approaching crypto taxation, going deep on everything from staking rewards to NFT royalties. Just a heads up: This interview is meant for informational purposes only and should not be construed as financial or tax advice.

Show highlights:

• what’s new this year when it comes to reporting crypto transactions
• why staking is now firmly on the IRS’s radar
• how capital gains tax works for crypto
• the types of crypto transactions that are taxable as income
• the five situations where a crypto user incurs a taxable event
• the types of crypto activity that are not taxable
• what crypto holders can do to make tax time easier
• the IRS forms you need for various types of crypto transactions
• typical mistakes that crypto users make when it comes to filing their taxes
• why there’s not much you can do if you have assets stuck in Voyager, Celsius or other bankrupt crypto firms
• why you might consider arguing a “theft loss deduction”
• what to know about the Ethereum Merge as it relates to taxes
• things NFT creators should be aware of during tax time
• how the U.S. tax system can or cannot be applied to DeFi
• what tax forms you can expect to receive if you’re a Coinbase customer
• how corporations holding crypto may soon see favorable changes to current accounting rules
• why $5,000 is a key threshold for crypto donations

Crypto.com

FTSE

Halborn

NYU

Links

Previous coverage of crypto taxes on Unchained:

• Your 2021 Crypto Taxes: How to Handle NFTs, DAOs, Airdrops and More
• Everything You Need to Know About Your 2020 Crypto Taxes 
• Why You Shouldn't Trust Crypto Exchange Reports for Your Taxes
• The IRS Is Cracking Down on Crypto Taxes: What You Need to Know 

Guests:

Shehan:

• Twitter
• CoinTracker

Lawrence:

• Twitter

Links:

• Digital Assets | Internal Revenue Service
• IRS CCA 202302012 (Crypto charitable donations)
• IRS CCA 202302011 (Coins which have substantially lost in value. Ex: Luna)
• MiCA – Overview of the New EU Crypto-Asset Regulatory Framework (Part 1) | HUB | K&L Gates
• CNBC: President Joe Biden to sign the bipartisan infrastructure bill⁠ into law—here's how crypto investors will be impacted
• S&P Global: What the US infrastructure bill means for cryptocurrency brokers and owners

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Welcome to “The Chopping Block!” – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Robert Leshner, Tom Schmidt, and Tarun Chitra chop it up about the latest news. This week, they cover:

• why Bitcoin maximalists are mad about Bitcoin NFTs
• why Robert thinks Bitcoin is not a good blockchain on which to build things
• why Canto, a layer 1 blockchain, surged in price and activity and why Haseeb is anti-Canto
• how Ethereum will have multi-dimensional fee structures 
• what the role of applications in generalized blockchains should be and why they think they shouldn't be enforced at the base layer
• the accusations against the LayerZero team and their response
• the battle to provide the bridging services to Uniswap

Hosts

• Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly Capital
• Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures
• Robert Leshner, founder of Compound 
• Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly Capital

Links

Disclosures

Bitcoin NFTs: 

• The Block: What are Bitcoin NFTs Ordinals and how do they work?
• BTC: Core On-chain - Glassnode Studio
• Bitcoin - The Overview
• Ordinals

Canto: 

• The Block: Layer 1 blockchain Canto sees surge in trading activity
• Canto - Lending

LayerZero controversy:

• James Prestwich’s tweet
• Bryan Pellegrino’s response
• Explanation of the situation by Bartek

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Following the release of Celsius' examiner report, Kadhim Shubber, an investigative reporter at The Financial Times, dives into the controversial business practices of the lender, how the company inflated the CEL token, the use of customers' money, and much more.

Show highlights:

• how Celsius used investors’ money to prop up the price of CEL
• the reasons why Celsius inflated the CEL token
• where the money to pay rewards to investors came from
• blatant misstatements from Alex Mashinsky and how his team tried to cover him
• how the company leveraged Bitcoin to fill the hole in its balance sheet
• who was responsible for Celsius' shady business practices
• Celsius' poor investment decisions
• whether Mashinsky is at risk of facing criminal charges

Crypto.com

Guest

Kadhim:

• Twitter

Links

• Final report of Shoba Pillay, examiner
• Financial Times: Crypto lender Celsius misused customer funds for years, examiner finds
• Unchained: 7 Revelations From Celsius’ Examiner Report
• CoinDesk: Celsius Used New Customer Funds to Pay for Withdrawals: Independent Examiner
• The Block: Tether denies it borrowed $2B from Celsius, as described in court report
• Blockchain News: Celsius' Official Creditor Committee Denies Rejected Bids
• Ram Ahluwalia’s take on the Celsius bankruptcy examiner report

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Sheila Warren, CEO of the Crypto Council for Innovation, and Miller Whitehouse-Levine, Policy Director of the DeFi Education Fund, offer insider takes on how lawmakers and regulators are viewing crypto after FTX’s catastrophic failure. Both expect heightened activity in the U.S. from what they’re calling the “Crypto Congress.” Will this be the year for stablecoin regulation? Is DeFi still in the crosshairs? What about Ripple’s fight with the SEC? The two crypto policy experts look to the U.S. and beyond for what regulatory battles lie ahead in 2023.

Show highlights:

• why the current environment in Washington makes it difficult to pass new legislation
• whether the opinion of members of Congress on crypto has changed in the aftermath of FTX’s alleged fraud
• how Elizabeth Warren and others are using the FTX collapse to prove their anti-crypto stance
• whether it’s possible to prevent a fallout like FTX from ever happening again
• why Miller believes that this year Congress will be “absolutely obsessed” with crypto
• what stablecoin legislation would look like, and why stablecoins are more likely to be regulated sooner
• why Sheila thinks Ripple could win its case against the SEC
• why they believe the SEC’s failure to approve a spot Bitcoin ETF is a logical inconsistency 
• why they think it’s not possible to apply TradFi rules to DeFi technology
• how more policymaker education needs to be done
• how OFAC sanctioning Tornado Cash sparked many conversations among researchers and policymakers
• the role of the government in preserving national security
• how MiCA took an appropriately slow approach to imposing DeFi regulations
• the impact of China and India adopting digital currencies 
• why Miller thinks China’s digital yuan is “the apotheosis of a totalitarian technology” 

Crypto.com

FTSE

Links

Previous coverage of Unchained on crypto legislation:

• Why Bitcoin Now: Michael Casey and Niall Ferguson on How Bitcoin Fits in the History of Money
• Kristin Smith on Why Crypto Legislation Could Be Passed by Year's End
• Why Senator Pat Toomey Thinks SEC Chair Gary Gensler Is Wrong About Crypto

Guests:

Sheila:

• Twitter

Miller:

• LinkedIn

FTX

• CoinDesk: 
• After FTX: How Congress Is Gearing Up to Regulate Crypto
• Congress' FTX Problem: 1 in 3 Members Got Cash From Crypto Exchange's Bosses
• After FTX: How Congress Is Gearing Up to Regulate Crypto

• CNBC: House Republicans move to regulate crypto industry with a new subcommittee

MiCA

• CoinDesk:
• Analyzing What's Next for Europe's Markets in Crypto Assets Law
• EU’s MiCA Crypto Law Would Have Stopped FTX's Malpractice, Officials Say

Others

• Project Hamilton - Building a Hypothetical Central Bank Digital Currency
• U.S. Treasury Sanctions Notorious Virtual Currency Mixer Tornado Cash
• Tornado Cash is no “golem.” It’s a tool for privacy and free speech. - Coin Center

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Welcome to “The Chopping Block!” – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, and Tarun Chitra chop it up about the latest news. This week, Flashbots co-founder Phil Daian joins the show to go deep on what maximal extractable value (MEV) means and how it’s shaping the Ethereum ecosystem.

Show highlights:

• how Phil started working in MEV and why he believes it resembles 'Alice in Wonderland'
• Phil's definition of MEV and when he realized this was an actual problem
• how Flashbots was born
• the story of how Vitalik didn't care about sandwich attacks at the time Uniswap was released
• whether it's possible to minimize MEV via more competition
• the never-ending debate about whether MEV should be accepted
• why Tarun thinks the concept of fair ordering is against nature 
• how Bitcoin uses social norms to solve its weaknesses 
• how Google is being called out in court for creating auction to front run its customers
• how Flashbots worked prior to and after Ethereum's Merge
• why Flashbots complies with OFAC sanctions 
• what is the Suave project and how it aims to decentralize Flashbots
• what the future of MEV looks like

Hosts

• Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly Capital
• Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures
• Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly Capital

Guest:

Phil:

• Twitter

Disclosures

Links

The Block: Flashbots seeks up to $50 million at a billion-dollar valuation

CoinDesk: Opinion: Miners, Front-Running-as-a-Service Is Theft

CNN: DOJ sues Google over its dominance in online advertising market

Unchained: 51% of Ethereum Blocks Are OFAC Censored

Given the Sanctions on Tornado Cash, Is Ethereum Censorship Resistant? - Ep. 390

The Cost of Decentralization in 0x and EtherDelta

Previous coverage of Unchained on MEV:

• Why Is Ethereum Trying to Maximize Value From Users? Two Sides Debate

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Michael Sonnenshein, CEO of Grayscale Investments, gives an overview of his firm’s case against the SEC, which has denied requests to turn Grayscale’s bitcoin trust into an exchange-traded fund (ETF). With oral arguments kicking off March 7, Sonnenshein lays out what a worst-case “tender offer” would entail and whether DCG CEO Barry Silbert has any say over GBTC’s fate. 

Show highlights:

• why Grayscale charges higher fees than, say, the average ETF
• what Grayscale will do if it loses its case against the SEC
• why Grayscale has not filed for Regulation M relief
• Michael's comments on Gemini liquidating 31 million shares of GBTC
• the reason behind the October 2022 timing of Grayscale changing GBTC's “authorized participant”
• the relationship between Grayscale and DCG, and Barry Silbert's involvement in Grayscale's operations
• why the trust agreement of GBTC was changed

Crypto.com

Guest

Michael Sonnenshein:

• Twitter

Links

• CNBC: Court sets date for oral arguments in Grayscale's challenge of SEC's bitcoin ETF decision
• Reuters: 
• Grayscale would appeal lawsuit against SEC if court rejects case, CEO says
• Ruling in Grayscale-U.S. SEC lawsuit likely within a year
• MarketWatch: Grayscale may ‘ultimately’ consider tender offer for bitcoin trust, CEO says
• CoinTelegraph: Grayscale terminates Bitcoin trust material agreements with Genesis
• CoinDesk: Grayscale Slams SEC's 'Unreasonable' Barring of Spot Bitcoin ETFs
• Bloomberg: Hedge Fund Sues Grayscale for Data on Battered Bitcoin Trust
• Bitcoinist: Here's What A Reg M Will Entail For Genesis, DCG And Bitcoin
• Why Investment Experts Say a Spot Bitcoin ETF Would Be Superior to Bitcoin Futures ETFs by Laura Shin
• Andrew Parish’s tweet on the possibility of the case going to the Supreme Court
• Grayscale’s End of Year CEO Letter to Investors
• Ycharts: GBTC Discount or Premium to NAV

Previous coverage of Unchained on GBTC: 

• Bitwise's Latest Plans to Get a Bitcoin ETF Approved
• DCG's Dilemma: Should It Sell Its GBTC Holdings to Repay Gemini?
• Gemini vs. DCG Is Heating Up. Could Gemini Force Genesis Into Bankruptcy?
• ‘The Last Big Whale’: Why the Crypto Contagion of 2022 Eventually Hit Genesis

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Welcome to “The Chopping Block!” – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Robert Leshner, Tom Schmidt, and Tarun Chitra chop it up about the latest news. This week, they covered:

• why the markets were up so much recently
• how and why Genesis entered into bankruptcy
• why the hole in DCG's financials are potentially much bigger than previously reported
• the differences between the bankruptcies of FTX and Genesis
• whether 3AC founders Su Zhu and Kyle Davies will find success with their new exchange
• what will happen to GTBC now that a huge portion has already been liquidated
• whether Tarun is predicting "the start of a new supercycle"
• the large percentage of vested SOL held by the FTX estate
• how SBF is still trying to win the public 

Hosts

• Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly Capital
• Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures
• Robert Leshner, founder of Compound 
• Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly Capital

Links

Disclosures

Genesis: 

• Bloomberg: FTX Bankruptcy Judge Backs Company Law Firm, Rejects Last Minute ‘Rumors’
• CoinDesk: 
• Crypto Lender Genesis Global Capital Is FTX's Largest Unsecured Creditor
• Crypto Trading Firm Cumberland DRW Disputes Genesis Exposure
• CNBC: 
• Crypto firms Genesis and Gemini charged by SEC with selling unregistered securities
• Crypto publication CoinDesk hires Lazard to explore sale as crisis deepens at parent company DCG
• Unchained: 
• Is Genesis’s Prepackaged Bankruptcy The Ultimate Sacrifice? 
• Gemini Ends Its Earn Program and Calls for Barry Silbert’s Ouster
• DCG Under Investigation by DOJ and SEC: Report
• Genesis CEO Says Firm Needs More Time to Find a Solution

FTX:

• Unchained: 
• SBF Says Excel Spreadsheet Proves FTX US Is Solvent
• WSJ: New FTX Chief Says Crypto Exchange Could Restart
• The Block: FTX debtors identify $5.5 billion of liquid assets in ’Herculean effort’

3AC/GTX: 

• Unchained: 3AC Founders Are Raising $25M for ‘GTX’

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James Block, crypto skeptic and author of the Dirty Bubble Media newsletter, rose to prominence with a timely post predicting FTX’s insolvency. The blogger, a doctor by day, explains why he sees crypto as an unregulated morass of would-be securities and outright “Ponzi schemes.” From an early interest in Tether to connecting the dots on Celsius, Block explains why he does what he does and why almost all of crypto is just “regulatory arbitrage.”

Show highlights:

• how James got into crypto and why he started writing about the space
• why James chose "Dirty Bubble Media" for the name of his publication
• the problems with the legitimacy of crypto projects
• the reasons to be bearish on Coinbase
• why the question of whether Bitcoin has intrinsic value is highly subjective
• whether every token in crypto is a scam and whether regulations will hit stablecoin issuers hard
• how FTX used tokens to create fictitious value worth billions of dollars 
• why Celsius and FTX were closely linked, and the difference between both cases
• ties James found between FTX's European subsidiary and a company doing binary options, an industry characterized by fraud
• how he believes financial fraud is similar throughout history — it doesn't repeat, but it rhymes
• James’s concerns around Signature Bank and its "questionable tactics"
• why Genesis and DCG got into trouble and how James thinks the situation will likely play out
• whether exchange tokens are securities and why he believes they have very little value
• why he says BNB resembles OneCoin's pyramid scheme
• James's contrarian take on the Avi Eisenberg case

Crypto.com

DeFi Saver

Links

Guests:

James Block:

• Twitter
• Substack

FTX: 

Dirty Bubble Media:

• Is Alameda Research Insolvent?
• FTX'ed: The Tangled Ties Of Celsius Network and Sam Bankman-Fried
• FTX's European subsidiary was built on top of a binary options scam
• A forgotten banking scandal suggests FTX is the tip of the crypto iceberg

DCG

• Dirty Bubble Media: Digital Currency Grift 
• Unchained: ​SEC Charges Gemini and Genesis With Sale of Unregistered Securities

Binance

• Dirty Bubble Media: The Binance Scam Chain

Signature

• Bloomberg: Binance Says Signature Sets Transaction Minimum Amid Pullback

Mango Markets

• The Ballad of Risk-Free Avi - Dirty Bubble Media 
• Unchained: 
• Mango Markets Exploiter Arrested on Market Manipulation Charges
• Solana’s Mango Markets Sees $100M Drained in DeFi Exploit

Celsius

• Dirty Bubble Media: Anatomy of a (fake) Market
• Unchained: NYAG Sues Celsius’s Alex Mashinsky for Defrauding Investors

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Maria Shen, partner at Electric Capital, unpacks the venture firm’s latest Developer Report. Hotly anticipated among crypto observers, the annual report captures which chains developers are building on. Despite 2022’s price carnage, the report finds developer interest remains strong. Ethereum is the leading chain by far but EVM-compatibility is emerging as a major force in winning developers’ hearts and minds. Shen unpacks Bitcoin’s stability, Terra’s implosion, and many more insights from crypto’s open-source code repos.

Show highlights:

• why the report "undercounts" developers and how it defines active developers
• how developers represent a fundamental measure of the health of emerging technologies like crypto
• the meaning of developer numbers going up even when prices plummet
• why in recent years the speed of developer growth jumped so drastically
• what happened after the number of developers reached an all-time high in June 2022
• the role of Terra in the decline of developer activity in 2022’s second half
• why Ethereum dominates the ecosystem and whether it will continue to be the leader
• the benefits of being part of “the EVM universe”
• why the number of Bitcoin developers has remained flat over the last year
• whether looking at the number of developers in the NFT ecosystem is even relevant

Crypto.com

Guest

Maria Shen:

• Twitter

Electric Capital Developer Report

• Full report
• Maria’s 2022 thread
• 2021 report
• 2020 report

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