The Market Runup

Host Erin Gambrel (The Blonde Broker) sits down with DeFi Dave, co-founder of CAP, to get into why credit has always been the engine of the economy and why onchain credit might finally be the story that pulls institutions and retail alike back into DeFi.  Dave breaks down how CAP works — a three-sided marketplace of depositors, borrowers, and underwriters where smart contracts replace the trust yo...

Host Erin Gambrel (The Blonde Broker) sits down with Abram Wimmer of HODL Bonds who thinks the space's biggest enemy has never been AI, regulation, or even bear markets — it's the emotional whiplash of its own users.  Abram breaks down why HODLing sounds simple but keeps failing in practice, and walks through HODL Bonds, the structured product he's building that lets people hold Bitcoi...

Host Erin Gambrel (The Blonde Broker) sits down with Kyle Reidhead, Co-Owner of Milk Road & Co-Founder of Impact3 to talk about all the ways crypto is suffering right now.  Kyle's been saying "buy Compute, sell Bitcoin" for months, and he breaks down exactly why. Corporations are treating Compute the way everyone thought they'd treat Bitcoin, as a productive store of value, a...

Host Erin Gambrel (The Blonde Broker) sits down with Brian J. Esposito, founder of Diamond Lake, to talk about why he's spent 13 years building toward a world most people are only now starting to pay attention to. Brian has a lot to say about what's broken in the current financial system and he argues tokenization isn't just a trend, it's the only real fix.  He walks through the Diamond Lake model...

Host Erin Gambrel (The Blonde Broker) sits down with Chris Soriano, co-founder and CCO of Bridgeport, to dig into the market structure shift that's been quietly reshaping how institutions actually move capital in crypto. Chris breaks down why pre-funding requirements have locked up billions in dead capital across exchanges, and why off-exchange settlement is the fix that serious players have b...

Host Erin Gambrel (The Blonde Broker) sits down with Fahmi Syed, President of the Midnight Foundation, to break down why privacy has to be core infrastructure before crypto sees real institutional adoption. Fahmi spent over 20 years in traditional finance, including 17 years at a hedge fund that scaled from $1B to $45B AUM, and he draws a straight line from that world to why on-chain transparency...

Host Erin Gambrel (The Blonde Broker) sits down with Amar Odedra, Head of Investments at Algorand Foundation, to discuss how tighter liquidity is exposing which crypto business models were only sustainable in speculative environments. Amar explains the shift from Web3 read-write-own culture toward digital assets and tokenization, with stablecoins leading adoption over the past 3-4 years. Higher in...

Host Erin Gambrel (The Blonde Broker) sits down with Xiao-Xiao J. Zhu, President of Jupiter Exchange, to discuss how Jupiter is expanding from Solana's leading DEX aggregator into a comprehensive on-chain finance super app. Xiao-Xiao explains the difference between creating value and capturing value, revealing how institutions enter crypto through different pathways: investing in DeFi tokens l...

Host Erin Gambrel (The Blonde Broker) sits down with Aryan Sheikhalian, Head of Research at CMT Digital, to discuss the current macro regime, Bitcoin's complete correlation flip, and why institutional capital is shifting from narratives to infrastructure revenue. Aryan explains we're in a hybrid regime where the Fed holds rates around 3.5-3.75% while the balance sheet starts turning. Year-...

Host Erin Gambrel (The Blonde Broker) sits down with John Nahas, Chief Business Officer at Ava Labs, to discuss why crypto is at the end of the beginning, how the industry is maturing from speculation to real business infrastructure, and where Avalanche fits in the institutional adoption wave. John explains why crypto is no longer the shiny object as AI takes center stage, and how the industry is...

Host Erin Gambrel (The Blonde Broker) sits down with Giang Bui, VP of Issuer Growth at Securitize, to break down one of the biggest shifts in markets right now: the move from speculation to infrastructure. As institutions like the New York Stock Exchange begin building tokenized securities platforms, Giang explains why tokenization is no longer experimental — it’s becoming core financial infrastru...

Host Erin Gambrel (The Blonde Broker) sits down with Ashley Ebersole, Co-Founder and Chief Legal Officer at TX, to break down one of the most misunderstood shifts in markets: tokenization. Drawing from his time at the SEC, Ashley explains why regulation isn’t just friction, it’s what unlocks new investors and capital. They dive into why tokenized real-world assets could become a multi-trillion dol...

Host Erin Gambrel (The Blonde Broker) sits down with AJ Warner, Chief Strategy Officer at Offchain Labs, the team behind Arbitrum, to discuss Ethereum scaling, the Robinhood Chain launch, and building the programmable economy. AJ shares how New York has become crypto's center over the last 18 months as traditional financial institutions and fintechs converge here. Arbitrum is now the top five...

Host Erin Gambrel (The Blonde Broker) sits down with John D'Agostino, Head of Strategy at Coinbase Institutional, to discuss what institutions are actually doing in crypto right now. John brings decades of traditional finance experience, former Head of Strategy at NYMEX, subject of two NY Times bestselling books, lecturer at MIT and Columbia and a front-row seat to how capital is moving. He br...

Host Erin Gambrel (The Blonde Broker) sits down with Lucas Bruder, co-founder and CEO of Jito Labs, to discuss building Solana's leading MEV infrastructure. Lucas shares his journey from electrical engineering at Carnegie Mellon working on Tesla's Falcon Wing doors and programming self-driving bulldozers to discovering MEV and realizing this was modern-day high-frequency trading with hard...

Host Erin Gambrel (The Blonde Broker) sits down with Anthony Scaramucci, founder and co-managing partner of SkyBridge Capital, to discuss the precarious macro environment and Bitcoin's role in an increasingly uncertain world. Anthony breaks down the cost of ongoing conflict: energy facilities targeted, crude oil jumping from $55 to $116 per barrel, Secretary Willliam Hague requesting $200 bill...

Host Erin Gambrel (The Blonde Broker) sits down with Kain Warwick, founder of Synthetix and Infinex, to break down the current market environment and what builders are focusing on during this sideways phase. Kain compares 2026 to 2018: Bitcoin grinding sideways, everyone feeling depressed, questioning their life choices. But there's a critical difference this time. Institutional adoption is re...

Welcome to The Market Runup podcast, hosted by Erin Gambrel aka The Blonde Broker. For this episode, Erin sits down with Matt Hougan, Chief Investment Officer at Bitwise, one of the world's largest crypto asset managers. We dive into a structural shift happening right now: Wall Street is rapidly moving financial infrastructure to onchain data, yet market participants remain anchored to outdate...

This week's market feels confusing. Not crashing, not euphoric, just stuck and macro-driven. Host Erin Gambrel (The Blonde Broker) breaks down what's actually happening beyond the headlines. We start with the Jane Street lawsuit over alleged insider information during the 2022 Luna Terra collapse, a $40 billion wipeout that's resurfacing years later as people dig through blockchain dat...

Markets are under pressure. Liquidity is tight, risk appetite is low, and crypto is being forced to mature faster than anyone expected. But in moments like these, infrastructure matters more than hype. Austin Federa, co-founder of DoubleZero, joins host Erin Gambrel (The Blonde Broker) to explain why blockchains are no longer limited by software but by the physical internet itself. We dive into th...

Welcome to The Market Runup podcast, hosted by Erin Gambrel aka The Blonde Broker and powered by Token Relations. For the flagship episode, Erin sits down with one of DeFi's most influential builders: Stani Kulechov, founder of Aave Labs. Markets are in a risk-off environment, liquidity is tightening, and crypto is moving in lockstep with broader global markets. This isn't a pullback, it&#...