PODCAST

Bankless

The Ultimate Guide to Crypto Finance. DeFi, NFTs, and cryptocurrencies. Level up. Go bankless.

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All Episodes

62:42

ROLLUP: Wartime Markets | Kraken Gets Fedwire | Trump...

Bankless ·

2026/03/06

Ryan and David break down a week where war hit markets, and the safe-haven playbook broke down. Oil spiked, gold failed, bonds sold off, the dollar caught the flight to safety, and crypto somehow bounced right through it. Then they unpack Trump’s public pressure campaign against banks over stablecoin yield, Kraken’s historic Fedwire breakthrough, and why crypto is starting to look less like an outsider and more like part of the financial core. Plus: Anthropic vs. the Pentagon, Erik Voorhees’ private

61:38

AI Finds 70% of Smart Contract Exploits | Alpin...

Bankless ·

2026/03/05

AI is getting dangerously good at smart contract security. Faster than crypto is ready for. Alpin Yukseloglu joins Bankless to break down EVMBench (built with OpenAI), a benchmark testing whether AI agents can detect, patch, and exploit real fund-draining bugs and why the jump from ~12–13% exploit-finding to 70%+ could rewrite today’s security assumptions. We unpack what that “70%” really means, why crypto’s verifiability is an ideal training ground, why AI labs haven’t prioritized crypto data yet,

94:32

Building a Million Dollar Zero Human Company with...

Bankless ·

2026/03/04

Nat Eliason joins to show what it looks like to build a “zero human company” with OpenClaw agents. — led by Felix, an AI CEO that ships products, runs ops, and even manages other agents for support and sales. We unpack how Felix went from an overnight info product to a full marketplace for agent “skills” (Clawmart) and a bespoke service that deploys custom OpenClaw employees for real businesses, hitting nearly $80k in revenue since early February while operating on surprisingly low monthly

72:44

Haseeb Quereshi: Crypto’s Not Made for Humans—It’s...

Bankless ·

2026/03/02

Crypto still feels like a minefield for humans: Haseeb Qureshi argues that’s a clue, not a bug: blockchains and smart contracts are machine-readable systems that AI agents can parse, simulate, and execute far more reliably than people, shifting crypto’s core user from humans clicking through wallets to agents acting on our behalf. We also dig into the two-track future of agent commerce (safe, human-approved flows vs. the wild-west frontier), why major AI labs have avoided crypto training so far

63:10

ROLLUP: Extreme Fear | Tariff Whiplash | Citrini AI...

Bankless ·

2026/02/27

February ends with peak FUD. Ryan and David unpack why crypto is stuck in historic “Extreme Fear” even without a major blowup, and why markets feel like they’ve entered an uncertainty bubble. They break down the Supreme Court striking Trump’s tariffs, Trump immediately finding new legal doors to bring them back, and the looming $150B+ refund fight. Then the “Citrini Crash”: AI doomer scenarios going viral, spooking stocks, and leaving investors terrified that AI will be either not good enough or far

102:58

Zero Crypto at Home: Bankless in the Age of Wrench...

Bankless ·

2026/02/25

Crypto’s newest threat isn’t a smart contract exploit, it’s a knock at your door. In this episode, Ryan sits down with Jameson Lopp (Casa) and Beau (former CIA, now safety at Pudgy Penguins) to map the real security landscape for crypto holders in 2026: the phishing traps you’ll see daily, the physical “wrench attacks” that terrify the community, and the practical systems that can make both dramatically less effective. If going bankless is about freedom, this is the playbook for keeping that freedom

80:48

Ethereum's Last Big Upgrade: The zkEVM | Ansgar...

Bankless ·

2026/02/23

Ethereum’s next big leap might not look like a single “flip the switch” moment—but it could change how the chain verifies everything. In this episode, Ansgar Dietrichs comes back to unpack the ZK EVM: why “re-executing every block” has been Ethereum’s hidden scaling tax, how real-time proofs finally make a different verification model viable, and what it would take to transition safely without sacrificing the verifiability that keeps Ethereum credibly neutral. They explore the three true bottlenecks

69:10

ROLLUP: Prediction Market War | Base Leaves Optimism...

Bankless ·

2026/02/20

A legal war over prediction markets just went public. Ryan and David break down the CFTC’s claim of exclusive authority, the backlash from state officials and lawmakers, and why this fight is really about whether markets or politics get to define truth. They explore why AI-powered prediction markets may be crypto’s strongest product-market fit yet, and why that scares regulators. Plus: Harvard rotates from Bitcoin into Ethereum, Base breaks from Optimism, Zora expands to Solana, the Ethereum

98:37

Lyn Alden: How to Survive The Gradual Print Era — Fed...

Bankless ·

2026/02/16

Lyn Alden joins us to make sense of the “everything, everywhere, all at once” macro moment.A fourth-turning-style unwind of the long-term debt cycle, rising fiscal dominance, and a rare, headline-level clash over Fed independence—plus what a Kevin Warsh Fed might actually do under real-world constraints. We dig into the “gradual print” era, why gold is ripping, how a more multipolar monetary order could emerge (gold, bitcoin, and stablecoins in different roles), and what trade war dynamics

66:19

ROLLUP: Crypto Pain Market | Coinbase Super Bowl Rug...

Bankless ·

2026/02/13

Crypto feels cooked in 2026, and the Super Bowl proves it. Ryan and David unpack Coinbase’s Backstreet Boys rug pull ad and what it reveals about crypto’s collapsed public narrative. Then they dig into the brutal selloff, why IBIT’s record volume hints at forced TradFi liquidation, and what Polymarket is pricing for Bitcoin under $50K. From Robinhood’s prediction markets exploding into a real revenue engine to the political fight over who regulates “gambling vs markets,” the thesis is clear: finance

75:10

What’s the Story? AI Stocks, Crypto Downturn, Metals...

Bankless ·

2026/02/12

Last week felt like four different crashes happening at the same time: AI software stocks melting down, crypto capitulating, gold and silver whipping around, and markets suddenly panicking about AI CapEx. Jim Bianco returns to Bankless to explain what actually changed: why AI is collapsing the cost of building software (and threatening SaaS pricing models), how “synthetic Bitcoin” in TradFi can amplify volatility even when nothing breaks onchain, and why the next crypto cycle can’t be powered by

44:12

Robinhood Chain Takes on NYSE/Nasdaq | Robinhood...

Bankless ·

2026/02/11

Robinhood isn’t just adding another crypto feature—it’s assembling a new exchange stack: stock tokens, an Ethereum L2 built for real-world assets, and a wallet that can plug into DeFi. Johann Kerbrat (GM of Crypto at Robinhood) joins Bankless to unpack what “24/7 markets” actually requires, why liquidity and routing are the hidden battleground for tokenized equities, and how “Certified by Robinhood” could become a distribution moat for onchain apps. Along the way, they compare Robinhood’s approach

82:17

MegaETH Mainnet is Live! — The Next Era of Ethereum...

Bankless ·

2026/02/09

MegaETH mainnet is live, kicking off a new frontier for Ethereum scaling: ultra-low latency, massive throughput, and an execution environment built to unlock apps that can’t exist on L1. Lei Yang & Namik break down why Vitalik’s latest L2 framing validates “barbell” scaling, what users actually inherit from Ethereum (censorship resistance, exit guarantees, and fraud-proof security assumptions), and why stages + governance are harder than they look. Plus: the mainnet stress test (11.4B tx in 7

52:14

Vitalik Signals the End of the Rollup-Centric...

Bankless ·

2026/02/07

A single Vitalik tweet just snapped Ethereum’s scaling narrative into focus: the rollup-centric roadmap is over, and a new path is here. Ryan and David break down what Vitalik actually said (and what he didn’t), why stage 2 plus rollup interop proved far slower than anyone hoped, and why L1 scaling, powered by ZK, may be Ethereum’s real reset button in 2026. Along the way, they unpack the quiet death of the “L2s are Ethereum” meme, the community’s whiplash reaction, and what differentiated “gen 2”

64:38

ROLLUP: Crypto in Free Fall | Vitalik’s L2 Pivot |...

Bankless ·

2026/02/06

Crypto enters a full-blown pain market as Bitcoin, ETH, tech stocks, and even gold sell off together. Ryan and David break down why crowded trades are unwinding across markets, what the Warsh Fed chair pick means for rates and risk assets, and whether crypto has become uniquely fragile in this cycle. They dig into Vitalik’s L2 pivot and what it signals about Ethereum’s next era, unpack massive institutional paper losses at Strategy, BitMine, and Galaxy, and analyze Polymarket odds on where Bitcoin

97:18

AI on Ethereum: ERC-8004, x402, OpenClaw and the...

Bankless ·

2026/02/05

AI agents aren’t “coming” to Ethereum—they’re already here, spinning up on dedicated machines, clicking through wallets, deploying contracts, and even building apps for themselves. In this episode, Ryan and David sit down with Davide Crapis and Austin Griffith to map the emerging agent stack: ERC-8004 as a decentralized identity + reputation layer, x402 as payment rails for agent-to-agent commerce, and the real-world “Clawdbot” experiments that show what happens when an agent gets a wallet, a

59:33

Where Do We Go From Here? | Michael Nadeau

Bankless ·

2026/02/03

Michael Nadeau went risk-off in October and has been targeting Bitcoin's fair value near $65K. In this episode, he joins Ryan to unpack what changed after BTC broke below $80K, why he does not think this is the macro low yet, and what a real bottom typically looks like (capitulation, then apathy).They also dig into the new wild card: incoming Fed chair Kevin Warsh, and why “rates down” could still mean tighter liquidity if the balance sheet shrinks. Mike walks through the key cycle signals he

89:40

Capitalism’s Endgame: The Last Companies That Will...

Bankless ·

2026/02/02

Capitalism may be heading toward an “event horizon,” where a handful of firms become so entrenched they’re effectively the last companies standing. We break down the four “Infinity Gauntlet” pillars: intelligence, energy, capital, and labor. And why collapsing costs in AI and robotics could make abundance, and monopolies, the default outcome. From Google’s data + compute flywheel to the Tesla/SpaceX/xAI convergence and even space-based energy/data centers, we map the new battlefield and what it

64:37

ROLLUP: Gold & Silver ATHs | Fidelity’s Stablecoin |...

Bankless ·

2026/01/30

Markets wobble as gold and silver hit all time highs, raising the big question of what comes next for crypto. Ryan and David unpack the macro shock driving the move, from Fed independence and shutdown risk to a weaker dollar narrative, and why Tether is quietly becoming one of the world’s largest gold holders. They make the case for Ethereum’s comeback, from surging usage to serious quantum resistance efforts, break down Fidelity’s new onchain dollar, and dig into MegaETH’s eye popping stress test

72:06

The Most Underrated Chain: Celo’s Surprising Traction...

Bankless ·

2026/01/29

Celo is quietly powering real-world payments at global scale. In this episode, David and Ryan sit down with Marek Olszewski, CEO of cLabs, to unpack how Celo became a fast, low-cost payments layer used for remittances, savings, onchain FX, and identity across emerging markets.They explore why Celo stayed focused on peer-to-peer payments while others chased trends, how Opera’s MiniPay onboarded hundreds of thousands of daily users, and why stablecoins are reshaping global finance from the ground up

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Bankless

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