Unchained Crypto

How 'a Criminal Choice' Got Sam Bankman-Fried a 25-Year Prison Sentence - Unchained Get the scoops on all the details of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried’s 25-year prison sentence, plus the other conditions of punishment.

Expert Sam Enzer unpacks the landmark sentencing of FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried:

⚖️ The fairness of a 25-year sentence
💰 How the $11 billion in forfeiture works
🚔 SBF's potential prison location & security level
🤝 Fate of co-conspirators like Caroline Ellison
⏳ Behaviors for sentence reduction

The Chopping Block: Memecoin Presales, MakerDAO’s Endgame, and BlackRock's Blockchain Bet! - Unchained The Chopping Block: Decoding the Memecoin Phenomenon, Ethereum's Upgrades, and BlackRock's Crypto Appetite!

Venture into the heart of crypto with The Chopping Block our crypto connoisseurs unravel the week's trends:

🔥 The frenzy of memecoin presales
💼 MakerDAO's endgame
🛡 Ethereum's upgrade

3AC's Kyle Davies on Why He's Crypto's Lloyd Blankfein and Why He's Not Sorry - Unchained The brash co-founder of the now defunct crypto hedge fund argues that most, if not all, companies eventually go bankrupt and that 3AC had a “pretty spectacular” run.

On Unchained, Kyle Davies, co-founder of bankrupt hedge fund 3AC, discusses

🤔 Why he thinks he’s the Lloyd Blankfein of crypto
🤡 How he’s in close contact with the liquidators—but didn’t know about a court date
🤷‍♂️ Why he’s not sorry 3AC went bankrupt

Why EigenLayer May Be the Most Innovative New Ecosystem Since Ethereum - Unchained Developer activity on EigenLayer has sprouted up extremely quickly, according to founder Sreeram Kannan and investor Olaf Carlson-Wee.

Sreeram Kannan & Olaf Carlson-Wee join Unchained to discuss how EigenLayer could supercharge rollup scaling. Also:
🌐 How Olaf hasn't seen a dev community spring so fast since Ethereum 
🛠️ The mechanics of restaking
🤖  EigenLayer 🤝 AI and more!

How, in 7 Weeks, Bitcoin ETFs Reached Inflows That Took Gold ETFs 3 Years - Unchained Eric Balchunas of Bloomberg Intelligence explains why the spot Bitcoin ETFs have made TradFi move at the speed of crypto — and why he’s uncertain spot Ether ETFs will be approved.

🎙️ Eric Balchunas from Bloomberg Intelligence breaks down the whirlwind success of Bitcoin ETFs on Unchained: 

💼 BlackRock leads. Will smaller issuers survive?
🚀 The "ETF effect" on market dynamics
🔍 Why Eric gives 50/50 odds the S.E.C. approves Ether ETFs

The Catalysts for This Crypto Bull Market: AI, DeFi, Real World Assets? - Unchained As the crypto bull market gets started, Alex Pack of Hack VC dives into why he thinks crypto is still so early and how his firm believes crypto and AI will intersect.

🔐 Raising $150M in a bear market? Alex Pack shares how Hack VC achieved this feat on Unchained, plus:
🔮 The blend of AI with crypto's future
💪🏻 The resilience of DeFi
🐂 The next big catalysts of the bull market and more!

Bitcoin’s Price Is Way Up. And $48 Trillion in Wealth Just Got Access - Unchained Alex Thorn unpacks how ETFs, long-term holders, and the upcoming halving should push Bitcoin’s price to over $100,000 by the end of the year.

🎙️ Amid #Bitcoin's price surge Alex Thorn joins Unchained to unpack:

🚀 The reasons behind the surge
🔍 Long-term vs. short-term HODLers
🏦 Merrill & Wells Fargo adding the ETFs
⏳ The halving  & predictions for 'altcoin season'

RISC ZERO Listen now | Willem Schroe of Botanix Labs says every Ethereum dapp could be deployed in Botanix.

On Unchained Premium, RISC Zero's CEO Brian Retford breaks down the impact of ZK proofs:

🛠️ Simplifying ZK for developers
💡 ZK EVM's role in enhancing blockchain efficiency
🔗 Exploring the potential of Bitcoin layer 2s

Famed White Hat Hacker Samczsun on How to Improve Crypto Security - Unchained He’s formed a new group, the Security Alliance, to improve the overall security posture of the crypto community.

Famed white hat hacker Samczsun joins Unchained to discuss

🧑‍💻 Why he decided to create the Security Alliance
🔐 Top security measures crypto folks should take
😳 What areas of attack in crypto he still finds “scary”

The Chopping Block: Starknet's Airdrop, Founder Challenges, and Ethena's Mainnet - Unchained The Chopping Block: From Starknet Controversy to Ethena's Novel Approach: Understanding Crypto's Latest

Tune into The Chopping Block as we dissect the nuances of Starknet’s airdrop strategy, the internet's impact on crypto founders, and Ethena Labs’ quest to redefine yield:

🔍 Starknet's airdrop controversy
📈 Crypto vesting's nuances
😍 Ethena’s rose-colored glasses

The Chopping Block: Navigating the New Era of Crypto Social Media with Farcaster's Insights! - Unchained The Chopping Block: Decoding the Crypto Social Revolution: Farcaster's Rise to Fame!

Join The Chopping Block as we chat with Dan Romero about the vibrant world of Farcaster:

🚀 The journey of Farcaster's growth
💬 The allure of meme coins
🌍 Shaping the future of decentralized social media
🔐 The importance of staying permissionless

How Decentralized Social Network Farcaster Hopes to Eventually Get to One Billion Users - Unchained Dan Romero, the co-founder of the decentralized social media network, discusses why Frames has become so popular, the central ideas behind Farcaster, and what’s in store for Farcaster’s future.

🗣️ Farcaster co-founder Dan Romero joins Unchained to discuss

🖼️ Why Frames has taken off
🌎 Getting to a billion users 
😂 How Farcaster is like a mullet

Why One Solana Builder Is Still Optimistic About the Network - Unchained Lucas Bruder, the CEO of Jito Labs, which builds infrastructure for Solana, says despite the outages, the blockchain still has a lot going for it.

💥 The CEO of Jito Labs, Lucas Bruder, talks about #Solana’s latest outage and

 🙏 Why he’s still optimistic
 ⛓️ Recent improvements to Solana’s network
📱The promise of the Saga phone

An Ethereum-Like Experience Built on Bitcoin? Citrea, Bitcoin’s first ZK rollup came out of stealth yesterday. Murat Karademir, and Orkun Mahir Kılıç, cofounders of Chainway Labs, discuss everything about it.

🚀 Murat Karademir and Orkun Mahir Kılıç of Chainway Labs dive into the recently announced first #Bitcoin ZK rollup: Citrea

🔗 How to build an Ethereum-like experience
🧠 Why a Bitcoin zk-rollup is so important
👨‍💻 BitVM's role
🔍 Making BTC more than just a currency

The Chopping Block: Is Farcaster the Web3 Social Layer? - Unchained The Chopping Block: Farcaster's Rise – Revolutionizing Social Media or Just Another Platform?

This week on The Chopping Block Haseeb Qureshi, Tarun Chitra, & Robert Leshner sit down with Ted to discuss all things Farcaster:

🤝 Community building on Farcaster
📊 Post-15x growth analysis
🌐 Adopting new social media platforms
🏆 Remaining permissionless

2 Lawyers on How the U.S. Can Finally Regulate DeFi - Unchained The co-authors of a new paper discuss how to block illicit activity without turning neutral software into financial institutions.

Rebecca Rettig and Michael Mosier, co-authors of a paper on fighting illicit finance in DeFi, discuss

⚠️ DeFi’s principal risks
🪪 Focusing on high-risk wallets 
🌪️ How Tornado Cash could be regulated but not sanctioned

The Chopping Block: Points or Airdrops, Which Is the Better Engagement Model for Crypto Projects? - ... The Chopping Block: Points or Airdrops, Which Is the Better Engagement Model for Crypto Projects?

Out Now on The Chopping Block Podcast: Points vs. Airdrops featuring Julian Koh - co-founder Aevo!

🧑‍🌾️ Farming Points 
🪂 Hedging Airdrops
🪙 Making ICOs Great Again?

Is Saga the Perfect Place for Web3 Gaming? Rebecca Liao and Jin Kwon, cofounders of Saga, explain the architectural design to become a hub for crypto gaming, the role of the token, and more.

🌍 There’s a great place for Web3 gaming projects, say Saga's cofounders Rebecca Liao and Jin Kwon. In this episode, we cover:

🎮 Saga's role in reshaping crypto gaming
🔐 Innovative architecture for gaming platforms
💎 The unique functionalities of the SAGA token
🔗 Watch the full interview:

A16z Crypto’s Chris Dixon on How Blockchains Can Save the Internet - Unchained The well-known venture capitalist has published a book, Read Write Own, about how the concentration of power into the hands of a few Internet behemoths is bad for entrepreneurs and society at large.

📕 A16z Crypto’s Chris Dixon has a new book and joins Unchained to discuss:

⛓️ How blockchains can help save the Internet
🤬 Why he believes crypto VCs get an unfair rap
💰 Why he supports NFT creator royalties

The Black Swan Event That Could Cause a Fork in Ethereum (Again) - Unchained The huge risks of a bug occurring to an Ethereum “supermajority” execution client were laid bare this week.

🚨 Nethermind's recent bug raised 🚩🚩🚩 in Ethereum. On Unchained, Lefteris Karapetsas delves into:

🍴 How a bug in a supermajority client could cause a fork
❓ The inability to verify who is using which client
💔 The lack of incentives to diversify

The Chopping Block: Data Availability & Why It’s Important - Unchained The Chopping Block: Ethereum's Future - Data Availability and Client Diversity?

New on The Chopping Block: Ethereum's evolving landscape! 🌐

🔍 Client Diversity: Necessity or Complication?
🚀 Data Availability: Ethereum's Game Changer?
🧐 Solana vs. Ethereum: A UX Showdown

OG Olaf Carlson-Wee on Why His Crypto Thesis Is Stronger Than Ever - Unchained Crypto creates an “incentive vortex” that is destined to take over everything, according to the investment firm’s founder and CIO.

Crypto OG Olaf Carlson-Wee joins Unchained to discuss:

🌪️The “incentive vortex” that is crypto
🧨 How he avoided 2022’s blow-ups
🎮 The next big crypto apps 
🤖 The strange places crypto and AI could take us

Why the SEC’s Case Against Coinbase Is So Significant for Crypto - Unchained Attorney Sam Enzer explains how the case that’s currently being heard could impact the SEC's entire enforcement regime against crypto.

After this week's hearing, Sam Enzer of Cahill Gordon joins Unchained:

😳 Why SEC v Coinbase is important for crypto in the U.S.
🤨 Why the judge seemed “extremely skeptical” of the SEC's stance

The Chopping Block: When Will the ETF Hype End? - Unchained From Tether troubles to ETF triumphs: what's brewing in crypto?

This week on The Chopping Block, the gang dissects the hottest topics: 

📈Crypto ETFs: Game Changers or Hype?
💱Circle's IPO: Transforming Stablecoins?
📱Solana Phone: Innovation or Gimmick?

How Obol Plans To Become a Key Component of Ethereum Distributed Validator Technology (DVT) could become one of the most important tech layers of Ethereum. Here’s why.

On Unchained, Colin Myers and Oisín Kyne from Obol Labs explain everything about distributed validator technology (DVT). 🌐
Also:
🔍 Ethereum's scalability issues
💥 The threat of the 32 ETH staking requirement
🚀 Preparing for staked ether ETFs?

How Small Bitcoin ETF Issuers Will Compete With the Likes of BlackRock - Unchained Bitwise’s Matt Hougan and VanEck’s Matthew Sigel delve into the details of the first two days of trading and what each company tried to focus on with its offering.

Spot #Bitcoin ETF issuers Matt Hougan of Bitwise and Matthew Sigel of VanEck discuss:

🤺 How they compete against tradfi giants
🔫 ETF fee wars
📈 Where Bitcoin prices could go from here
🙄 Gensler’s response to the approvals

Why Some Brokerage Firms Are Blocking Access to Spot Bitcoin ETFs - Unchained Three ETF experts discuss all things Bitcoin ETF, from record-high trading volumes to how the SEC botched the approval and roll-out process to brokerages blocking customer purchases.

🚀 #Bitcoin ETFs launched with a staggering $4.6B in volume on day one! On Unchained, Eric Balchunas, James Seyffart & Nate Geraci cover:

💥 Why the SEC’s handling was “completely suboptimal” for investors
🌪️ New ETFs—not just in ETH
🔝 BlackRock's "genius" move

The Chopping Block: Unraveling the SEC Hack, Futarchy, and Twitter Trolls - Unchained The Chopping Block: Did the SEC Twitter Hack Expose Vulnerabilities in Crypto Market Manipulation?

🎙️ On The Chopping Block, special guest Gwart from Crypto Twitter dives into:

🧑‍💻SEC Twitter hack - a lesson in digital trust
🏗️ Building crypto infrastructure for the average user
🤔 Governance: Innovation or hype?

Why Spot Bitcoin ETFs Are Likely to Finally Start Trading on Thursday - Unchained Bloomberg Intelligence ETF analysts James Seyffart and Eric Balchunas break down the spot Bitcoin ETF launch timeline, plus analyze the already ruthless fee war.

📈 Spot #Bitcoin ETFs on the brink of approval! James Seyffart and Eric Balchunas join Unchained to dive into:

⚖️ Fee battles – And, what’s up with Grayscale’s 😮 1.5% fee? 
🏦 The role of authorized participants
🤫 BlackRock's $2 billion liquidity rumor

The 4 Factors That Will Determine Which Spot Bitcoin ETFs Win Market Share - Unchained As we head into what’s expected to be the home stretch for an SEC approval, venture capitalist Spencer Bogart gives his take on the most recent news.

🎙️ Spencer Bogart joins Unchained to analyze the latest news concerning spot #Bitcoin ETFs:

💥 The Matrixport report that likely made BTC dump
🏦 Goldman Sachs steps in
📉 Boon or bane for MicroStrategy?
🌟 Is Coinbase the big winner?