The Breakdown

VVV is down 50% on news that should be good for Venice. David unpacks why — covering the token vs. equity distinction, Dragonfly's reasoning, and what the onchain data says about how many people are actually using Venice's paid features right now. FOLLOW THE SHOW › David — https://x.com/dcanellis › The Breakdown — https://x.com/TheBreakdownBW › The Breakdown Newsletter — https://blockworks.com/new...

David sits down with Paul Dylan-Ennis — lecturer at University College Dublin and member of the Ethereum Foundation’s Silviculture Society — to map the split between the EF and the newly-formed ETH Labs. TIMESTAMPS: (00:00) Intro (00:41) EF Silviculture Society (03:28) Full Cypherpunk (14:15) Roadmaps and Governance (17:58) Capture Resistance Concerns (24:19) What is Ethereum Success (27:13) New P...

Binance is out of the EU as of July 1 after its MICA license application in Greece was rejected. David runs through who is and isn't licensed under MICA, checks Blockworks Research for Binance's actual spot market share (~33%), and looks at whether the outflow data suggests real damage. Then: the US government is now effectively approving AI model releases — Anthropic's Mythos 5 is live for a whit...

FOLLOW THE SHOW › David — https://x.com/dcanellis › The Breakdown — https://x.com/TheBreakdownBW › The Breakdown Newsletter — https://blockworks.com/newsletter/the-breakdown DISCLAIMER As always, remember this podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely their opinions, not financial advice.

FOLLOW THE SHOW › David — https://x.com/dcanellis › The Breakdown — https://x.com/TheBreakdownBW › The Breakdown Newsletter — https://blockworks.com/newsletter/the-breakdown DISCLAIMER As always, remember this podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely their opinions, not financial advice.

Strategy’s STRC is still trading below its $100 target and has drawn comparisons to Terra Luna. David walks through how Terra Luna actually imploded, why Strategy's flywheel is meaningfully different, and the real problem he sees underneath it all. Enjoy! FOLLOW THE SHOW › David — https://x.com/dcanellis › The Breakdown — https://x.com/TheBreakdownBW › The Breakdown Newsletter — https://blockworks...

Standard Chartered just put a $100 price target on Uniswap by 2030 — a 40× move from current levels. David walks through the call, the tokenization thesis underpinning it, and how Standard Chartered's past calls on Bitcoin, ETH, XRP, BNB and AVAX have actually played out. FOLLOW THE SHOW › David — https://x.com/dcanellis › The Breakdown — https://x.com/TheBreakdownBW › The Breakdown Newsletter — h...

Anthropic released Fable V — a wrapper around its Mythos model with strict guardrails. Within 24 hours, the White House forced it offline over a jailbreak that exposed Mythos's full cyber capabilities. David walks through David Sack’s thread, the export control, and why this is the strongest case yet for running your own open-source AI at home. Plus: Blockworks just acquired Messari, and the Space...

In this special episode, Blockworks announces its acquisition of Messari and unpacks what it means for crypto’s next phase. Michael and Jason explore why Messari’s breadth of data, APIs, and research complement Blockworks’ deep on-chain analytics, investor relations, and disclosure products. They also address crypto’s trust problem, the need for standardized data and disclosures, and how Blockwork...

It's SpaceX IPO day, and it’s on track to be the most valuable post-IPO company in history — $1.77T, surpassing Saudi Aramco. David walks through the numbers, the pre-IPO trade on Hyperliquid, and why the edge wore off months ago. Plus: Nakamoto selling Bitcoin while Tom Lee's BitMine keeps stacking ETH, and where prediction market volumes are during the NBA Finals. TIMESTAMPS: (00:00) Intro (01:0...

BlackRock's IBIT is sitting about $13 billion underwater on its Bitcoin holdings. Every ETH ETF is in the red. David walks through which funds bought the top, which took profit, and what happens to crypto if ETF holders finally crack. Plus: a preview of DAS Asia and DAS London, and the SpaceX pre-IPO trade on Hyperliquid. TIMESTAMPS: (00:00) Intro (01:16) Crypto ETFs (15:54) DAS Events 2026 (18:07...

Pump.fun just rolled out Pump.fun Go — a bounty platform that pays you crypto for filming yourself doing… well, whatever. David on why this might actually matter for the next retail cycle. Plus: the coins quietly pumping through the bear, and the stablecoin chart suggesting we're still months from a bottom. TIMESTAMPS: (00:00) Intro (01:09) Pump. Fun Bounties (14:48) Token Winners (24:36) Stableco...

A critical bug in Zcash's Orchard shielded pool could have minted unlimited counterfeit ZEC — and it sat there for 4 years. The price has lost ~47% in three days. David walks through what happened, why ZK trust keeps mattering, and what it means for holders. Plus: Polymarket's UMA ruling that Strategy didn't sell Bitcoin (it did), and the end of the Bitcoin ETF outflow streak. TIMESTAMPS: (00:00)...

Everyone's saying crypto has been left behind by the stock market. David digs into the numbers — VVV outperformed SanDisk YTD, Hyperliquid beat NVIDIA and AMD, Stellar beat NVIDIA. The market is selecting winners. Plus: $4B of Bitcoin ETF outflows in 13 days (it's not as bad as it looks), and Microsoft's new "quantum-breaking" chip. TIMESTAMPS: (00:00) Intro (01:05) Crypto Left Behind? (10:24) Bit...

A centrist Democratic group is spending six figures to brand the CLARITY Act as "Trump's crypto grifto." Jamie Dimon is on the same side. David walks through what's actually happening and why crypto might need a Plan B. Plus: the SpaceX pre-IPO perp that flash crashed 45% on Hyperliquid, and Cardano canceling its annual conference. Enjoy! TIMESTAMPS: (00:00) Intro (01:10) Anti-CLARITY FUD (13:43)...

David maps the current Bitcoin bear market against every prior one — where we are, how much longer it could run, and where the bottom could land. FOLLOW THE SHOW › David — https://x.com/dcanellis › The Breakdown — https://x.com/TheBreakdownBW › The Breakdown Newsletter — https://blockworks.com/newsletter/the-breakdown Get top market insights and the latest in crypto news. Subscribe to the Blockwor...

A Google engineer allegedly profited $1.2 million on Polymarket betting that d4vd would be Google's most-searched person of 2025 — using Google's own internal data. Plus: Blockworks' new Token Transparency Alliance, and an OpenZeppelin co-founder telling friends and family to exit DeFi. TIMESTAMPS: (00:00) Intro (01:03) Polymarket Insider Trading (10:39) Transparency Alliance (21:56) DeFi Unsafe?...

Polsia (AI Slop spelled backwards) just announced a $30M raise at a $250M valuation with one human employee. David thinks it's less a company, more performance art. Plus: Uber, Microsoft and NVIDIA all admit AI compute is too expensive, and Tether is launching what looks like a CBDC with the government of Georgia. Enjoy! TIMESTAMPS: (00:00) Intro (01:28) Polsia (06:22) Nexo Ad (06:57) Polsia (Cont...

It's Bitcoin Pizza Day, and David runs through three Friday stories: Hyperliquid breaking all-time high (and why the buyback isn't really the driver), the XRP wallet and ETF flow narrative vs. what the data actually says, and Dankrad Feist's $1B proposal to "save Ethereum." Enjoy! TIMESTAMPS: (00:00) Intro (01:35) HYPE All-Time High (06:48) Nexo Ad (07:22) HYPE All-Time High (Cont.) (12:25) XRP ET...

David unpacks the Ethereum Foundation exits, the Polymarket / UMA Oracle dispute mess revealed by the WSJ, and OpenAI's push to sell guaranteed compute on 1–3 year commits. Enjoy! TIMESTAMPS: (00:00) Intro (01:23) ETH Foundation Departures (17:00) Polymarket Dispute Judges (27:11) OpenAI Guaranteed Compute FOLLOW THE SHOW › David — https://x.com/dcanellis › The Breakdown — https://x.com/TheBreakdo...

Nick Almond of the Jito Foundation joins David to walk through why DAO governance is a mess, what “pragmatic decentralization” looks like in practice, and how the CLARITY Act will reshape governance going forward. Enjoy! TIMESTAMPS: (00:00) Intro (01:22) Why Governance Matters (03:43) Token Voting (05:12) Delegates and Multisigs (08:56) Nexo Ad (09:30) Sub-DAOs and Specialization (11:33) Governanc...

Hyperliquid enabled early exposure to the biggest AI IPO of the year. Claude helped recover a Bitcoin wallet locked for 11 years. And CLARITY made it through markup. David runs through all three. Enjoy! TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 Intro 01:05 Cerebras 12:42 Claude Rescues Wallet 19:17 CLARITY Markup Update FOLLOW THE SHOW › David — https://x.com/dcanellis › The Breakdown — https://x.com/TheBreakdownBW Get t...

Bhutan timed the Bitcoin top almost perfectly. The CLARITY Act may only let 10–20 chains qualify as “decentralized.” And onchain Pokémon cards are popping off. David runs through all three. TIMESTAMPS: (00:00) Intro (01:31) Bhutan Sells (06:37) Nexo Ad (07:12) Bhutan Sells (Cont.) (14:39) CLARITY Markup (15:40) Nexo Ad (16:31) CLARITY Markup (Cont.) (25:30) Onchain Pokemon Card Boom FOLLOW THE SHO...

David covers three Monday stories: the NFT mini-revival (Bored Apes doubled in a month), Canton raising $300M at a $2B valuation, and Saylor's AI rap video defending Strategy from “Ponzi” accusations. Enjoy! TIMESTAMPS: (00:00) Intro (01:15) Are NFTs Back? (07:24) Nexo Ad (07:59) Are NFTs Back? (Cont.) (12:06) Canton (16:52) Nexo Ad (17:46) Canton (Cont.) (23:27) Strategy Rap FOLLOW THE SHOW › Dav...

David covers three Friday stories: Coinbase's hours-long outage on the back of an AWS cooling failure, the data on whether prediction markets are actually beating memecoins, and the dueling Solana + Google Cloud / AWS + Coinbase + Stripe agentic commerce announcements. TIMESTAMPS: (00:00) Intro (01:23) Coinbase AWS Outage (07:20) Nexo Ad (07:55) Prediction Markets, Memecoins, and HIP-4 (15:58) Nex...