RECENT EPISODES
Wed 16 SeptCircle Launched Its Own Blockchain. What Happens to Ethereum? | Markets OutlookCircle's launch of the ARC mainnet marks a significant development in the blockchain space, positioning it as the largest compliant distributed stable coin ahead of the Genius Act's implementation. The ARC blockchain features innovative transaction privacy, uses USDC as its gas token, and offers sub-second finality, enhancing efficiency. While Circle will maintain USDC issuance on Ethereum and other blockchains, the episode explores the implications for Ethereum's future and the evolving dynamics of institutional crypto engagement.Thu 10 SeptIs Bitcoin on the Verge of Its Biggest Bull Run? | Markets OutlookIn this episode, the discussion centers on Bitcoin's potential to embark on its largest bull run yet, following a recent peak around $81,000. Despite a typical pullback and mixed market reactions to a $6 billion buyback, optimism remains high. The episode also highlights the growing importance of energy as a currency and the innovative potential of tokenizing oil, while suggesting that altcoins may significantly outperform Bitcoin in the upcoming market cycle.Thu 3 Sept$1.3 Million Bitcoin Will Be “Relatively Easy,” Says Bitwise’s Matt Hougan | Markets OutlookIn this episode, Matt Hougan forecasts that Bitcoin could reach $1.3 million by 2035, with a potential surge to $100,000 this year amid bullish market conditions. He emphasizes the importance of asset allocation, warning against having zero exposure to Bitcoin due to risks from a looming $40 trillion debt crisis. Hougan also discusses the tokenization supercycle, predicting significant growth in tokenized assets and highlighting the role of retail investors in driving the crypto market forward.Thu 27 AugAre AI Chips the New Crypto Trade? | Markets OutlookIn this episode, Pierre Rochard discusses the potential of AI chips as a new asset class, suggesting they may surpass traditional crypto tokens in relevance. He predicts a nearing end to the Bitcoin bear market, with a possible price surge to $80,000 driven by renewed retail interest. Rochard contrasts the abundance of AI technology with Bitcoin's scarcity, emphasizing how upcoming halving events will enhance Bitcoin's purchasing power while cautioning against potential overcapacity in the AI chip market.Wed 26 AugFomo Co-Founder: The Next Breakout App Won't Call Itself Crypto | Markets OutlookIn this episode, FOMO co-founder Se Young Park discusses the evolving landscape of the crypto market, highlighting a potential shift from a bear to a bull market driven by institutional adoption. With FOMO generating significant user engagement and fees, Park emphasizes the importance of delivering exceptional user experiences in social finance. The conversation also touches on the emergence of consumer apps that leverage blockchain technology without overtly branding themselves as crypto, reflecting a broader trend towards innovation in the space.Thu 20 AugBitcoin Breaks $70K—When Will It Hit a New All-Time High? | Markets OutlookBitcoin recently crossed 70,000 and Marcus Thielen sees 80,000 as achievable by year-end, though he argues a new all-time high is at least a year away given the capital, catalysts, and narratives required at current price levels.Thu 13 AugWall Street Infrastructure Comes to Prediction Markets | Markets OutlookKalshi and 00 have partnered to bring professional-grade market data infrastructure to prediction markets, delivering full layer one and layer two data across Kalshi's sports and crypto perps books over a low-latency global fiber network.Sat 8 AugElizaOS Founder Shaw Walters on Closing the Foundation, the Burwick Lawsuit, and Why Crypto Is Failing Builders | Markets OutlookShaw Walters, founder of ElizaOS, joins the show to explain why he shut down the AI16Z foundation, describing the token as originally conceived as a parody to raise $75,000 rather than a serious investment vehicle, and detailing how the Dallas fund insider traded against the project and abandoned it mid-development while taking the treasury.Fri 7 AugCLARITY Act Delayed: What It Means for Markets | Markets OutlookThe CLARITY Act vote has been pushed to September after Senate Majority Leader John Thune cited Democratic obstruction, though substantive hurdles remain including ethics concerns tied to Trump's meme coin dealings, consumer protection questions, and uncertainty over how banks would handle stablecoins. Bitcoin was trading near $65,300 at recording and has been range bound between $55,000 and $65,000, with the CLARITY Act seen as the next meaningful price catalyst for Bitcoin, Ether, and DeFi tokens including Uniswap and Pendle.Thu 30 JulZcash Sealed $1.7B – Here's Everything You Need to Know | Markets OutlookZcash's Ironwood upgrade activated this week, sealing the Orchard shielded pool at 3.66 million ZEC worth roughly 1.7 billion dollars after a critical flaw was discovered that had allowed potential undetectable counterfeiting since 2022. A new turnstile rule permanently freezes any counterfeit coins inside the pool by capping withdrawals at the amount verifiably deposited.Thu 23 JulCharles Hoskinson on Cardano's Future, Ethereum's Mistakes, and Crypto's Missing Safety Net | Markets OutlookCharles Hoskinson argues that crypto will never achieve mainstream trust without an insurance safety net, and that Midnight, his six-year project combining zero-knowledge proofs with selective disclosure and dead man switch recovery, is designed to give frontier insurers the privacy and compliance tools they need to finally enter the market. On Cardano, a completed on-chain governance hard fork added Groth16 proof verification, and the next upgrade called Leos is projected to make the network roughly 60 times faster.Thu 16 JulInside the CASHCAT Bet That Paid $1.2 Million | Markets OutlookBrian Zhang and Brian Jung each entered CASHCAT with around eighty thousand dollars, having first spotted the coin at a two million dollar market cap before buying in at ten to twelve million dollars. The position peaked on paper at one point two five million dollars when the coin hit roughly one hundred twenty million dollar market cap overnight.Fri 10 JulEthereum Must Move Faster or Risk Losing Its Edge Says Starkware Founder | Markets OutlookEli Ben-Sasson, co-founder of StarkWare, argues that Ethereum's three-to-four-year roadmap timeline is dangerously slow for a platform meant to rebuild global financial infrastructure, warning that delays could allow a more modern competitor or centralized corporate chains to displace it. He calls for faster execution, clearer governance, and greater use of existing ecosystem tools, noting that recursive Starks and a new virtual machine have been live on StarkNet for years.Thu 2 JulWhy Markus Thielen Says Bitcoin's Pain Isn't Over Yet | Markets OutlookMarkus Thielen, speaking with Bitcoin trading around $58,500, makes the case that the market lacks any meaningful structural buyer, with MicroStrategy's purchasing activity slowing because its stock must trade at roughly 1.2 times net asset value before new share issuances can fund acquisitions. ETF outflows have reached approximately $7 billion since mid-May, with the average buyer underwater and prone to cutting losses near $60,000.Thu 25 JunEthereum Is Facing A Critical Funding Gap, Says Ex-EF Member | Markets OutlookTrent Van Epps, a former Ethereum Foundation member who spent five years there before departing in early 2024, warns that Ethereum faces a concrete funding gap arriving within three to nine months, with core protocol development costing an estimated 30 million dollars annually against a finite and declining EF treasury.Fri 19 JunWhy Arthur Hayes Says Fed Chair Kevin Warsh Is a Dove Despite Hawkish Reputation | Markets OutlookArthur Hayes makes the case that Kevin Warsh, despite a hawkish reputation built on resigning from the Fed over quantitative easing and criticizing forward guidance, is functionally a dove because his first FOMC press conference produced task forces rather than real policy tightening, a signal Hayes reads as money printing continuing under a different posture.Thu 18 JunWhy Arthur Hayes Says Fed Chair Kevin Warsh Is a Dove Despite Hawkish Reputation | Markets OutlookArthur Hayes argues that Bitcoin's recent price weakness reflects a liquidity rotation into AI trades rather than any selling by MicroStrategy or Michael Saylor, noting that Saylor's 32 Bitcoin test transaction meant to calm markets only raised more questions.Thu 11 JunInside the Race to Fix Zcash's Shielded Pool Vulnerability | Markets OutlookA four-year-old vulnerability in Zcash's Orchard shielded pool, capable of enabling undetected inflation by allowing unauthorized coin creation, was discovered by security researcher Taylor Ornby using deep protocol knowledge combined with Claude Opus 4.8. A soft fork followed within roughly two days and a hard fork within 24 hours. The incident has accelerated formal verification efforts across the ecosystem, with Zcash's Ironwood update targeting mid-to-late July and including a formally verified Orchard pool as a direct response.Thu 4 JunArthur Hayes Sold HYPE and NEAR, Mert Mumtaz Says That’s Missing the Point | Markets OutlookMert Mumtaz argues that the real force behind current crypto market weakness is capital rotating out of crypto and into anticipated IPOs from companies like SpaceX, Anthropic, and OpenAI, dismissing quantum computing fears and Michael Saylor as meaningful causes. On Arthur Hayes selling his full positions in HYPE and NEAR, Mumtaz says Hayes is a trader by design and buyers who followed his public recommendations were always playing a player-versus-player game at a structural disadvantage.Thu 28 MayAre Prediction Markets Killing Altcoins? | Scott Melker on Markets OutlookScott Melker makes the case that prediction markets have effectively killed the altcoin casino by giving speculators better options without requiring them to leave crypto platforms, pointing to Hyperliquid as an example where pre-IPO equities like SpaceX and Cerebras are moving 30 percent a day and outcompeting altcoins for attention. He argues that 99.9 percent of altcoins never followed Bitcoin to new all-time highs and have been in a sustained bear market for five years.Thu 21 MayWhy Michaël van de Poppe Sees $100 for HYPE | Markets OutlookMichaël van de Poppe makes a near-term $100 price target for HYPE while Hyperliquid is printing a new all-time high, citing the launch of two HYPE ETFs in the United States, structural demand from European professional traders locked out of perpetuals under local regulation, and what he describes as a super undervalued PE ratio relative to the platform's growth rate.Thu 14 MayArthur Hayes Says AI Layoffs Are Coming for the Banking System | Markets OutlookArthur Hayes returns from a self-imposed first-quarter silence to argue that AI is about to hollow out the bottom 10 to 20 percent of knowledge workers within one to two years, sending earners from roughly 150,000 dollars a year down to unemployment benefits of 30,000 to 40,000 dollars, cutting discretionary spending, and punching holes in bank balance sheets that will force Federal Reserve money printing.Wed 29 AprMoonPay Bets Big on Institutions With $100M Sodot Deal | Markets OutlookThe podcast discusses MoonPay's strategic $100 million acquisition of Soda to enhance its Institutional Business Unit, focusing on secure key management and non-custodial wallets for financial institutions. It highlights the growing trend of central bank adoption of blockchain technology, which is expected to boost institutional engagement by 2026. Additionally, the conversation addresses the evolving regulatory landscape and MoonPay's unique positioning in integrating DeFi with traditional finance, ensuring compliance while promoting cross-chain interoperability.Thu 16 Apr"Chaos Is a Ladder”: Bitwise’s Matt Hougan on Bitcoin’s Path to $1M | Markets OutlookThe conversation highlights the transformative potential of Bitcoin as a store of value, with projections suggesting it could reach $1 million to $1.3 million by 2035 amidst growing institutional interest, exemplified by the success of Morgan Stanley's Bitcoin ETF. The maturation of the cryptocurrency market is evident through increasing inquiries about stablecoins and tokenization, while concerns about quantum computing are deemed manageable by experts. Lastly, the discourse addresses emerging trends in decentralized finance (DeFi), particularly around staking ETFs and blockchain innovations, reflecting a shift in global monetary dynamics.Thu 9 AprWhy 35% of Bitcoin Is Vulnerable to Quantum Attacks | Markets OutlookThe discussion underscores the immediate threat of quantum computing to Bitcoin, revealing that 35% of Bitcoin and 70% of Ethereum are vulnerable to potential attacks on their cryptographic security. Expert predictions suggest a quantum computer capable of breaking Bitcoin's encryption could emerge by 2030, prompting a need for rapid adoption of post-quantum cryptography. Additionally, concerns about blockchain's heightened susceptibility to national security threats underlines the importance of proactive measures in addressing these challenges within the cryptocurrency space.Fri 27 MarWhy Cypherpunk’s CIO Calls Zcash the Most Mispriced Asset in CryptoThe conversation highlights the importance of privacy amidst rising AI surveillance, linking it to freedoms jeopardized by data misuse. Zcash is presented as a pivotal asset in the crypto realm, distinguished by its robust privacy features and potential growth if it captures a share of Bitcoin's value. The discussion also touches on regulatory risks facing privacy technologies, with Zcash positioned as a preferred option for confidential transactions amid the evolving landscape of digital assets.Thu 26 MarZcash Could Reach $4000 as Privacy Demand Rises Says Will McEvoy | Markets OutlookThe discussion emphasizes the rising demand for privacy in response to AI advancements, underscoring its essential role in freedom of speech. Zcash is positioned as a key player in the cryptocurrency market, with potential price predictions reaching $4,000 due to its superior privacy features and appeal to wealth holders. However, regulatory risks and the rapid evolution of crypto markets present challenges for privacy technologies like Zcash, particularly as societal awareness of privacy issues grows amidst technological change.Fri 13 MarHYPE to $150? Arthur Hayes Breaks Down His Bull Case | Markets OutlookArthur Hayes projects a bullish outlook for the cryptocurrency HYPE, potentially reaching $150 by August 2026, driven by robust annual revenues and genuine trading activity on the Hyperliquid platform. He emphasizes Hyperliquid's liquidity and real volume, differentiating it from competitors. The episode also highlights Zcash's rising prominence due to its privacy features amid transaction transparency concerns in the crypto space, alongside ongoing optimism for Bitcoin reaching a $250,000 target by year-end.Tue 10 MarBitcoin’s Resilience Stands Out as Stocks Face Geopolitical Pressure | Markets OutlookThe discussion highlights the impact of geopolitical tensions on markets, particularly with rising oil prices affecting equities. Despite this downturn, Bitcoin's resilience is notable, maintaining stability amidst declining stock values and suggesting a divergence from traditional assets. Additionally, the emerging trends in AI infrastructure and the Clarity Act surrounding cryptocurrencies underscore the evolving landscape of blockchain technology.Tue 10 MarWhy Institutions Don’t Want to Rely on a Single Stablecoin Payment Rail | Markets OutlookThe discussion focuses on the challenges faced by institutions like IBM and MoneyGram regarding stablecoin payment rails, highlighting the risks of relying on a single provider amid varying regulations. Kevin Lettignetti shares insights on a partnership to launch a stablecoin off-ramp, enhancing payment routing for financial institutions by promoting reliable infrastructure. The conversation emphasizes the evolution from single-vendor reliance to a more compliant, multi-provider ecosystem for better pricing and risk mitigation in emerging markets.Mon 9 MarWhat the Middle East Conflict Means for Your Portfolio | Markets OutlookThe podcast discusses how geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, especially relating to Iran, have led to oil price volatility, affecting equity markets and prompting a broader de-risking trend. It notes a notable connection between cryptocurrency and software performance, highlighting Bitcoin's consolidation amid equity declines. Additionally, it emphasizes the implications of rising oil prices on consumer behavior and interest rates, as well as the importance of upcoming earnings reports in the context of AI infrastructure investments.Mon 9 MarRic Edelman Says Banking Lobby ‘Likely to Win’ the Stablecoin Fight | Markets OutlookRick Edelman discusses the significant implications of the Clarity Act on stablecoins, advocating for its passage to enhance their utility in the financial system, while expressing skepticism about the banking lobby's opposition. He forecasts that the Act's approval could reignite crypto momentum, potentially driving Bitcoin prices to unprecedented highs. Additionally, he highlights that concerns over quantum computing disrupting Bitcoin are overblown, emphasizing that traditional banks would be more vulnerable targets for hackers.Wed 4 MarWhat Does It Mean for Kraken to Have Fed Master Account Access? | Markets OutlookKraken's attainment of Fedmaster Account access is pivotal, enhancing operational efficiency and enabling direct US dollar settlements, potentially influencing the broader digital asset space. This development, along with the integration of custody services and improved treasury management, reflects a significant evolution in risk management. The discussion also highlights a push for regulatory clarity in the US, fostering collaboration between the crypto industry and traditional financial markets.Tue 3 MarIs Institutional Capital Waiting on the Clarity Act? | Markets OutlookThe discussion emphasizes the potential impact of the Clarity Act on attracting institutional capital to crypto, despite recent market declines. Regulatory advancements, particularly regarding stablecoins and the tokenization of assets, are crucial for fostering institutional interest. Additionally, companies like Coinbase and MicroStrategy are innovating to navigate volatility and enhance their market positions, with Coinbase’s Base protocol poised for future growth and broader developer engagement.Mon 2 MarHow Coinbase is Blurring the Line Between Wall Street and Web3 | Markets OutlookCoinbase is redefining the intersection of Wall Street and Web3 by introducing 24/7 stock trading alongside cryptocurrencies, enabling a unified platform for diverse assets. Their partnership with Yahoo Finance enhances trading accessibility, with potential AI integration for automated trading using stablecoins. Coinbase's vision of an "everything app" aims to foster a seamless financial ecosystem, bridging traditional finance and blockchain technology, and positioning itself as a core player in this evolving landscape.Fri 27 FebHow Kraken is Bringing Wall Street to Every App | Markets OutlookMark Greenberg from Kraken discussed the importance of Hong Kong in the tokenization landscape and revealed Kraken's achievement of $20 billion in trading volume while exploring local stock inclusion. He highlighted the demand for tokenized equities through X-Stalks, which enhance accessibility and cater to diverse users. Additionally, he addressed the regulatory landscape, noting progress in the U.S. and Europe, and emphasized education as a key challenge in promoting tokenized assets and crypto trading.Mon 23 FebWhy You Should Never Give AI Your Private Key | Markets OutlookShadi Aldamadi emphasizes the dangers of allowing AI agents access to private keys, advocating for security measures like sharding. He anticipates a shift toward a services-based economy in crypto, moving from speculation to user-focused applications, bolstered by stablecoin adoption and traditional finance integration. The discussion highlights the importance of wallet infrastructure, automated business operations using LLM technology, and the potential evolution of "super apps" that enhance user experience while navigating compliance and regulatory challenges.Fri 20 FebAnthony Scaramucci & The Wizard of Soho: Inside the New Age of Onchain Leverage | Markets OutlookThe discussion highlights the significance of leveraging decentralized exchanges (DEXs) in the crypto space, emphasizing responsible risk management amidst market inefficiencies. Anthony Scaramucci notes the transformational transparency DEXs offer compared to traditional finance, while both speakers acknowledge the inherent risks from larger market players. They also underscore the need for enhanced infrastructure and regulatory clarity to integrate cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin into mainstream finance.Fri 20 FebAnthony Scaramucci & The Wizard of Soho: Inside the New Age of On-Chain Leverage | Markets OutlookThe discussion highlights a transformative era of on-chain leverage in cryptocurrency, emphasizing the need for robust risk management and the contrast between transparency in decentralized exchanges and traditional finance's opacity. Anthony Scaramucci notes the resistance from traditional institutions to adopting new technologies, while concerns are raised about the visibility of leverage in crypto analytics. Looking ahead, the future of crypto depends on increased participation, improved infrastructure, and clearer regulations, alongside potential roles for banks in custody and yield generation.Tue 17 FebWhy 10x Research Sees a Bitcoin Drop to $50,000 This Summer | Markets OutlookMarcus Thielen, CEO of 10xResearch, foresees Bitcoin potentially dropping to $40,000-$50,000 this summer due to significant sell-offs and lack of ETF buying interest amid unfavorable market dynamics. He attributes recent price pressures to challenges faced by crypto hedge funds and changing U.S. economic expectations, which reduce prospects for Federal Reserve rate cuts. Thielen notes that if Bitcoin continues its downtrend, it could transition from a B wave to a C wave, indicating a market bottom could be seen during the FIFA World Cup.