Unchained: Big Ideas From The Worlds Of Blockchain And Cryptocurrency

According to surveys of financial advisors, only 12% are currently recommending that clients invest in Bitcoin, while 47% of advisors personally own Bitcoin and a whopping 77% say they are waiting for a spot Bitcoin ETF to become available so they can offer it to their clients.  On this episode of Unchained, Ric Edelman, founder of the Digital Assets Council of Financial Professionals and author of “The Truth About Crypto,” explains how this should all lead to high demand once the first spot Bitcoin ETFs become available, although it will take some time for them to allocate. Edelman also discusses how FTX’s implosion impacted advisor perceptions of crypto, why investors have not been that excited by crypto futures ETFs, and which Bitcoin ETF issuers he believes are likely to be the big winners. Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights: how regulatory confu

In this episode of Unchained, Peter Van Valkenburgh, director of research at Coin Center, explains why the IRS's proposed broker rule for tax reporting in crypto could harm the crypto industry as well as the security and privacy of users. He explains how Coin Center thinks the IRS should accomplish its aims, and why that would even work for collecting taxes on DeFi gains.  Additionally, Peter explains why he believes the Bank Secrecy Act might be unconstitutional and how that could potentially affect developers building in crypto.  Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights: What the IRS's proposed broker rule entails for crypto tax reporting and why this could have a negative impact on the industry What responsibilities brokers in the crypto space now face Why the IRS didn’t use Congress's amended language from the infrastructure bill Why Peter argues that

The recent Wall Street Journal article that claimed Hamas raised $130 million via cryptocurrency has sparked considerable debate, especially after Sen. Elizabeth Warren used it as her sole source to ask for tighter regulations around crypto. However, the veracity of this claim has come under scrutiny.  Yaya Fanusie, Jessi Brooks, and Andrew Fierman delve into the veracity of reported figures, the methodology behind them, and the subsequent industry responses that sought to correct the public record. They examine the political implications of cryptocurrency, its use in funding organizations, and the nuanced role of stablecoins in this digital economy. Additionally, they address the broader challenges in regulating crypto to prevent illicit funding, emphasizing the need for factual accuracy and a comprehensive approach to understanding and tackling such complex issues.  Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or

Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest news. This week, the gang welcomes Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who discusses his mission to end the U.S. government’s regulatory overreach of the crypto industry, the parallels between crypto and the biotech industry where he came from, whether “code is law” is an appropriate framework for crypto regulation, how Bitcoin could be a check on the Fed, and how less regulation would actually lead to fewer, not more, instances of fraud like FTX.   Ramaswamy is promising to release a comprehensive crypto policy plan this week.  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 Vivek thinks about crypto and why he is interested in this topic as a presidential candidate why he believes the SEC i

Last week, OpenSea, the former frontrunner in the NFT marketplace, confirmed the layoff of half its workforce as the NFT markets seemed to bottom out.  gmoney, NFT collector and founder of 9dcc, joins Unchained to provide insight into the once-dominant NFT marketplace’s fall from grace. He talks about the competitive dynamics that challenge the platform's market share and whether a token launch could help. In addition, gmoney delves into why the NFT market has been “abysmal,” what could potentially catalyze its revival, and how he thinks creator royalties will evolve.  Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights: whether OpenSea 'rested on their laurels' after becoming the market leader whether the fact that its competitor Blur launched a token was a reason for OpenSea's fall whether OpenSea not immediately following other platforms such as Blur in making c

Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest news. This week, they explore the enigmatic 'unhinged scale' metric, consider whether recent layoffs could have been anticipated, and examine the challenges facing the NFT market. They also provide a somewhat critical look at the events of the recent BAYC Apefest and share their takeaways on how Solana survived the Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX fiasco.  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 the unhinged scale metric is and why SBF ranks the highest in that metric Whether the companies doing layoffs could have predicted the market moves in a better way Whether people and the press are being too harsh on the companies reducing their workforce How the NFT market is a much harder environment than every

In this episode of Unchained, Laura does a detailed unpacking of the historic Sam Bankman-Fried trial and verdict with defense lawyer Sam Enzer and former Southern District of New York prosecutor Rich Cooper. They discuss what a thorough job the government did in presenting its case, whether the government will pursue a second trial on campaign finance charges, why it takes so long for sentencing to occur, what the differences between this case and the Bernie Madoff case are, and what Bankman-Fried’s likely sentence will be.  Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights: how the cross-examination of SBF showed to the jury that he was unreliable, according to Rich why the charge conference with the jury is important to the prosecution for “protecting the record” why the closing argument of the prosecutors was so effective  what “conscious avoidance” is and how

Two Genesis creditors, BJ and Branden, who prefer to use pseudonyms for security reasons, spoke with Unchained about the alleged fraud by the crypto lender and its parent company, Digital Currency Group (DCG). The discussion is one of the first times Genesis creditors have spoken with a media organization about the situation.   BJ and Branden explain how they gave more loans to Genesis after it took a $1.1 billion hit from the liquidation of Three Arrows Capital and how they then came to be members of the ad hoc group, a collective of Genesis customers who came together to try and save the company from bankruptcy.   They talk about how they now want DCG to pay back the $1.1 billion it owes over a shorter timeframe and to pay back any Bitcoin in actual Bitcoin. The discussion with Unchained followed shortly after New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a lawsuit against Genesis, along with its parent company Digital Currency Group, and Gemini Trust. Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overc

The downfall of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried from king of the crypto world to crypto scammer is complete. A Manhattan jury of nine women and three men took less than five hours Thursday afternoon, day 18 of the high-profile trial, to convict Bankman-Fried on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy for stealing billions of dollars of his customers’ assets.  “Sam Bankman-Fried perpetrated one of the biggest financial frauds in American history, a multi-million scheme designed to make him the king of crypto,” said Damian Williams, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York in remarks following the verdict. The guilty verdict came a year to the day after crypto publication CoinDesk published a story showing balance sheet irregularities at Bankman-Fried’s investment company, Alameda Research, that suggested the ties between Alameda and FTX were unusually close. Bankman-Fried now faces potentially decades in prison. Sentencing is scheduled for March 28. After listening to Judge Lewis Kaplan read throu

Prosecutors and defense attorneys in the trial of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried closed their arguments with similar stories to their opening statements more than three weeks ago: a tale of two Sams. On Wednesday morning, day 17 of the trial, the government took jurors on a final grand tour of Bankman-Fried’s alleged lies, evasions and misdirections that they said aimed to hide the ugly truth of a gaping $8 billion hole in the crypto exchange’s balance sheet from investors and regulators, and that reflected his indifference to spending customer assets.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas Roos said that as the person overseeing FTX and the separate trading entity, Alameda Research, to which FTX funneled customer deposits, Bankman-Fried was the only person who could have been responsible for decisions that led to the deficit – criminally so. “He told a story and he lied to you,” said Roos, who punctuated his more than two-hour presentation with metadata readings and time tables that seemed to devastatingly i

Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest news. This week, the gang sits down with guest Nic Carter of Castle Island Ventures, whose tweet thread pushed the Wall Street Journal to correct its story that Hamas had raised tens of millions in crypto. Carter discusses the challenges in tracking how much crypto Hamas has actually received, the declining prospects for Sam Bankman-Fried’s acquittal, and ongoing dramas surrounding staking protocol Lido and decentralized exchange dYdX.   Show highlights:  Why the cross-examination has not gone well for Sam Bankman-Fried how the Wall Street Journal misinterpreted data and may have overstated the amount of crypto donations flowing to Hamas for terrorist activities  why it’s difficult to pinpoint how much funding Hamas has raised in crypto donations how extensive crypto funding for terrorists is believable to many outside observers of the industry, even recently some of its supporter

For a second, consecutive day, prosecutors pounded away at Sam Bankman-Fried’s credibility, asking the former FTX CEO to explain his obliviousness about how Alameda had spent $8 billion of FTX customer funds. Prosecutors and the defense both rested their cases on Day 16 of the high-profile trial. Both sides will make their closing arguments on Wednesday and jurors could begin deliberating the following day.  While Bankman-Fried claimed that he thought “it was permissible” for Alameda to use FTX customers’ fiat deposits, he also admitted that he didn’t tell his employees not to spend that money or create measures to segregate FTX customer funds from Alameda’s. Prosecutor Danielle Sassoon also grilled him on why he didn’t look into who had spent the FTX customer money. “So it’s your testimony that while you were CEO of Alameda some unknown people spent $8 billion without your knowledge?” prosecutor Danielle Sassoon asked Bankman-Fried, who replied that he didn’t agree that was his testimony. Bankman-Fried l

In a trial during which he has suffered many low points, former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried may have reached a nadir on day 15 as prosecutor Danielle Sassoon used his own words to show stark contradictions from his earlier testimony and a seemingly callous disregard for customer assets. The tenacious, methodical Sassoon punctuated her more than four hours of interrogation on Monday afternoon with devastating audio and visual evidence of Bankman-Fried, including memos to himself, internal FTX and Alameda documents, and testimony to Congress that countered statements he’d made under his defense team team’s kinder questioning. In one instance, Sassoon showed a Signal chat in which Bankman-Fried expressed his interest in purchasing MAPs token, a direct refutation of his testifying that he “was not involved at all in any way” in trading.  In another instance, she illustrated Bankman-Fried’s alleged lack of regard for his Twitter followers, showing a screenshot of a Twitter DM with Kelsy Piper in which he admits to

Sam Enzer, a partner at the law firm Cahill Gordon & Reindel, told Laura that former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried did about as well as he could in his testimony Friday but that he was unlikely “to withstand the scrutiny” of what prosecutors have already said will be a robust cross-examination when he takes the stand Monday.  Enzer noted that Bankman-Fried’s attempts to explain why he thought his trading shop, Alameda Research, could borrow billions in dollars of FTX customer assets “defies common sense,” and that the company’s own terms of agreement or any other communications offered no justification for this belief. A Thursday hearing without the jury present, in which the defense gave a preview of some arguments it wanted to make, ended up giving the government answers from SBF that it can now use against him. Enzer also said that Bankman-Fried’s contention that his biggest mistake – a failure to implement proper risk management – did not constitute criminal fraud, did not address the core of the government’s

Sam Bankman-Fried took the stand before a jury for the first time in his criminal trial for allegedly defrauding FTX customers. The exchange’s co-founder and former CEO tried to recast the image that prosecutors spent nearly three weeks shaping of an executive who defrauded customers and dismissed the concerns of the three members of his inner circle, all of whom named him as their co-conspirator earlier in the trial.   Responding to his defense team’s gentle questioning, SBF spent large parts of his testimony, offering alternative, often long-winded explanations for actions and behavior that prosecutors allege demonstrated intent to evade legal and regulatory scrutiny of the business he created. He admitted to making mistakes, which supported his defense team’s “failed entrepreneur” strategy, and none more significant than a failure to create a dedicated risk management team.  Bankman-Fried denied committing any crimes or attempting to defraud anyone and said that he believed funds used for sponsorships, r

In a recent report, Alex Thorn, head of research at Galaxy, predicted that inflows to spot bitcoin ETFs would rise above $14 billion in the first year following the potential approval by the Securities and Exchange Commission of multiple applications the agency is considering. Thorn called the availability of this product significant because it will give financial advisors and wealth managers accessibility to digital assets in a way that will be acceptable to clients seeking exposure to crypto. He also believes approval of a spot BTC ETF could occur this year before the holidays, and draws comparisons between bitcoin and gold as investment products.  Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights: why Alex believes this is a significant moment for Bitcoin how, in Bitcoin, retail had access to this asset before institutions why Alex expects the spot Bitcoin ETF a

In a courtroom drama minus the jury, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) took the stand for what can be best described as a “test run.” The hearing aimed to help the judge decide what evidence will be admissible in the actual trial. SBF's performance under Assistant U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon's questioning was less than stellar. His verbose answers and frequent apologies contrasted sharply with Sassoon's pointed questions, at times making him appear evasive. The hearing also touched on SBF's use of encrypted messaging app Signal and his company's data retention policy. Catch up on Unchained’s previous coverage:  SBF Trial, Day 1: Possible Witnesses Include FTX Insiders, Big Names in Crypto, and SBF’s Family SBF Trial, Day 2: DOJ Says Sam Bankman-Fried ‘Lied’ While Defense Claims His Actions Were ‘Reasonable’ SBF Trial, Day 3: Why a True Believer in FTX Flipped Once He Learned One Fact SBF Trial, Day 4: SBF’s Lawyers Annoy Judge Kaplan, While Wang Reveals Alameda’s Special Privileges SBF Trial, Day 5: SBF's Defen

Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest news. This week, the four discuss Bitcoin’s price surge over the past week amid growing optimism that a spot BTC exchange traded fund would win regulatory approval, an erroneous Wall Street Journal story about crypto funding to the terrorist group Hamas and AI and crypto illiteracy among leading U.S. lawmakers.  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:  the reasons why the price of Bitcoin has gone up so much in the last week whether Bitcoin is decoupling from the traditional stock and equity markets  why Robert is convinced that Bitcoin pumped this much due to the BlackRock ETF news what an ETF is and why it could be a big deal for Bitcoin whether the analogy to the gold ETFs works for Bitcoin how an

James Seyffart, market analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, and Matt Hougan, chief investment officer at Bitwise Asset Management, feel quite certain a spot Bitcoin ETF will launch in the next few months.  First, the SEC decided not to appeal a court’s rejection of Grayscale’s application to convert its bitcoin trust to a spot ETF. Second, there’s been a change in the way the SEC has been treating the many other spot Bitcoin ETF applications—requesting miniscule tweaks in disclosure language. And even though other legal hiccups are occurring—the NY Attorney General’s lawsuit against Grayscale parent company, DCG, the SEC’s potentially renewed vigor in the Ripple case, and Cointelegraph’s incorrect tweet about a bitcoin ETF—the SEC needs a PR win right now. According to them, this means good things not just for spot Bitcoin ETFs but also, shortly thereafter, Ethereum ETFs.  Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music,

Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest news. This week, the four discuss – and disagree about – Uniswap’s new fees, SBF trial week 3, and DCG potentially being taken out by the NY Attorney General.  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 recently on the criminal trial against Sam Bankman-Fried, including testimonies from Caroline Ellison, Nishad Singh why Robert doesn't like the cartoonist and how Tarun is friends with a stenographer  how Nishad Singh confirmed what everyone suspected about the cross-collateral risk engine at FTX why Haseeb believes that the NYAG's lawsuit against DCG, Genesis, and Gemini is "brutal" how DCG resembles the Roman Empire, according to Haseeb what Robert thinks about the introduction of the Un