Bankless

Felipe Montealegre, co-founder of Thea Capital, joins us to unpack a new vision for global finance—what he calls the Internet Financial System.  Felipe makes the case that today's financial world still runs on siloed, permissioned databases—slow, expensive, and riddled with gatekeepers. But blockchains and smart contracts offer something radically different: a unified, open system where capit...

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev returns to Bankless for a wide-ranging conversation on the future of tokenization, crypto regulation, and Robinhood’s evolving product suite.  Vlad lays out a bold vision for bringing tokenized assets like SpaceX and OpenAI equity to retail investors, discusses the role of prediction markets as "truth machines," and introduces Robinhood's latest products: Strategies,...

This week, Mike Ippolito joins us to break down crypto’s big flip as institutions rush into stablecoins—triggering excitement and anxiety alike. Hyperliquid faces drama after a high-stakes market manipulation attack, BlackRock's tokenized treasuries surge to nearly $2 billion, and the U.S. Treasury finally removes Tornado Cash from its sanctions list. Meanwhile, Robinhood enters banking, raising q...

📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium ------ Alon, co-founder of Pump. Fun, joins us to discuss the meteoric rise of their token launchpad platform, the controversial yet impactful role of memecoins in crypto, and the vision behind their newest product, PumpSwap. We dive deep into the cultural influence, sustainability mechanisms, and future possibili...

Alon, co-founder of Pump. Fun, joins us to discuss the meteoric rise of their token launchpad platform, the controversial yet impactful role of memecoins in crypto, and the vision behind their newest product, PumpSwap. We dive deep into the cultural influence, sustainability mechanisms, and future possibilities for the memecoin launchpad ecosystem. Alon on X: https://x.com/a1lon9 ------ 📣SPOTIFY...

We’re joined by Tim Beiko, Ethereum Foundation coordinator, to break down Ethereum’s next major upgrades and the future of scaling. We explore the upcoming Petra hard fork, which introduces validator consolidation, increased blob space for rollups, and EIP-7702 for improved account abstraction. Tim also shares insights on Fusaka and Glacier Dam, Ethereum’s roadmap for scaling, and how Ethereum’s u...

This week, Anthony Sassano joins us to unpack Solana’s most controversial governance vote yet, Ethereum’s major leadership overhaul, and crypto markets wrestling with macro chaos despite promising policy shifts. Kraken makes waves with a massive $1.5B acquisition—but will it move the needle? We dive into all of this and so much more. Follow Anthony on X: https://x.com/sassal0x ------ 📣 RONIN WALL...

This week on the AI Rollup, we’re diving into hyper-realistic AI-generated podcast hosts, showcasing Hedera Studio’s cutting-edge character tech. Google drops Gemini 2.0 Flash, making AI image generation even more powerful with improved consistency and text integration. Meanwhile, China is pushing hard—Baidu’s latest model beats GPT-4.5 at half the cost, challenging OpenAI’s dominance. Plus, Sesam...

Native Rollups are the next big step toward scaling Ethereum securely. In this episode, Uma Roy (CEO of Succinct) and Justin Drake (Ethereum Foundation researcher) break down what Native Rollups are, how they leverage Ethereum’s core infrastructure for execution and validation, and why they're crucial for stronger security, better composability, and sustainable Ethereum growth. Tune in to understa...

This week, the U.S. establishes its long-awaited Strategic Bitcoin Reserve yet the charts barely move and questions remain about altcoins like ADA, XRP, and SOL. A high-profile White House Digital Summit draws big names but yields few concrete regulatory wins. Meanwhile, HyperLiquid got exploited? Not quite but we'll get into that this week and so much more. Follow Jordi on X: https://x.com/gameth...

In this episode, we break down China's latest AI breakthrough—the Manus agent—and how it's shaking up the AI race. We discuss Alibaba's powerful, compact new AI model, the rise of autonomous coding agents, and Microsoft's shifting relationship with OpenAI. Plus, we explore how AI agents like Grok are starting to impact crypto markets. ------ 📣RONIN WALLET | DOWNLOAD NOW https://bankless.cc/Ronin_...

AI isn't just growing—it's skyrocketing us into an unprecedented era of hyper-acceleration. Josh Kale joins us to explore how breakthroughs in intelligence, from protein sequencing and synthetic biology to autonomous transportation and energy abundance, are reshaping our world at dizzying speeds.  Prepare for a future that's closer than you think, where the cost of intelligence approaches zero and...

Joining the Weekly Rollup this week is Haseeb Qureshi, dissecting Trump's controversial Crypto Strategic Reserve announcement featuring Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Cardano, and Ripple—causing an initial market surge and a swift reversal. They unpack Sam Bankman-Fried's candid prison interview with Tucker Carlson, revealing a stark divide between human empathy and detached pragmatism. Plus, Trump's...

In this episode, we kick off with jaw-dropping scenes of home robots that aren’t just putting groceries away, they’re taking the fight to you, echoing the dark vibes of i-Robot. Next, we unravel a crazy demo where encrypted agents develop their own language, and break down Google’s game-changing agent swarm that’s setting new research standards. We also explore Claude’s innovative new model and co...

Is Trump trying to wreck the economy, or is he just ripping off the Band-Aid?  Macro expert Jim Bianco breaks down Trump's economic strategy—tariffs, tax cuts, and shifting focus from the stock market to the 10-year Treasury yield.  We discuss the potential risks of short-term pain, the surprising Crypto Strategic Reserve, and whether this shift could lead to long-term economic stability. Is this...

The AI arms race is on, and the stakes couldn’t be higher. Bankless podcast producer Josh Kale breaks down which players are poised to dominate this next industrial revolution. From the transformative power of AI across industries to the geopolitical and economic implications, we explore the critical dynamics shaping our technological future—and what this means for investors, builders, and society...

Joining us this week is Alex Thorn to break down why crypto markets are taking a hit. Major hacks, bearish macro signals, and fresh tariffs from the U.S. all played a role. But it’s not all bad news: the SEC is backing off from lawsuits against Coinbase, OpenSea, and Uniswap, signaling a potential shift in regulatory pressure. Plus, Bybit suffered the biggest crypto hack ever, losing $1.5B—how did...

📣RESERVE | INVEST IN CRYPTO NARRATIVES  https://bankless.cc/reserve    ------ Tom Shaughnessy from Delphi joins us to break down the AI x crypto space—where the value is, how to spot winning models, and why Silicon Valley AI and crypto AI are taking very different approaches. We also get into agent-based research, the fracturing of frontier models, and… a birthday surprise at the end. ------ BANK...

Ben Cowen, founder of Into the Cryptoverse, breaks down why the current crypto cycle feels different from past ones.  We explore the Advanced Decline Index and how it reveals why Bitcoin is thriving while most altcoins struggle. Ben also discusses the impact of quantitative tightening, the ETH/BTC ratio, and why meme coin speculation is distorting market dynamics.  A must-listen for anyone navigat...

This week’s Weekly Rollup, David and Kain Warwick dive into Argentine President Milei’s LIBRA fiasco and Strategy’s bold $2B Bitcoin play, while we check out the new Kaito airdrop making waves. We also explore Ethereum’s biggest upgrade yet—Pectra—plus Monad’s high‐speed L1 testnet launch. Finally, we dig into the SEC’s fresh “CETU” cyber unit and what the brand‐new Infinex platform means for DeFi...

Ejaaz and David are back this week with a new frontier model to dissect. With the release of Grok 3, xAI is now a real competitor to companies like Anthropic and OpenAI. Joining this news cycle is Kaito, set to launch it's airdrop and it turns out Ejaaz is... a top yapper?  Meanwhile, David tried to get a date with an AI agent and a Kardashian is quote tweeting Virtuals, it's been a weird week.  -...

SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce discusses her new role as head of the SEC Crypto Task Force and its impact on crypto regulation. We explore the repeal of SAB 121, how the task force aims to bring clarity to token issuances, and potential pathways for retroactive relief for crypto projects. Peirce also shares insights on SEC-CFTC collaboration, no-action letters, and her approach to prioritizing key...

This week’s Weekly Rollup covers Trump’s clash with the Fed over interest rates and the surprising crypto moves from Trump Media. Gauntlet’s Tarun Chitra joins us to unpack the latest developments—from OpenSea’s upcoming airdrop to Arbitrum’s permissionless fault proofs—while we debate whether airdrops are truly over. We also dig into Vitalik’s “communist” joke and Dave Portnoy’s memecoin mania. T...

Ejaaz and David reunite to dissect the AI Crypto sector’s rebound from a 70% crash, fueled by Elon’s rumored $97B OpenAI bid and the relentless rise of open-source devs being heads down. They explore how tokens might be the most accessible path to AI exposure, why ARC’s curated launchpad could elevate agent quality, and what Virtuals’ move onto Solana means for cross-chain expansion. Meanwhile, X...

In this episode, we speak with Smokey the Bera, co-founder of Berachain, about the project’s newly launched mainnet and its innovative Proof of Liquidity model. The discussion unpacks Berachain’s unique three-way relationship between its app layer, validators, and a nontransferable governance token that reimagines traditional proof of stake systems. Smokey explores both the potential benefits and...