Bankless
@Bankless • 367,602 subscribers
Welcome to Bankless: where we explore the frontier of crypto money, tech and finance. Learn how to get started, get better, and front-run the opportunity.
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LIVE NOW - The $200 Billion Shadow Market Behind Anthropic's Stock | Dio Casares Anthropic's secondary market is tens of billions of dollars deep, stacked with SPVs on top of SPVs charging 10% fees plus carry, and almost entirely opaque. Diogenes of Patagon Markets breaks down how it actually works: - which deals Anthropic blesses and which get cease-and-desists, - why fake share certificates show up in 10-20% of executed deals, - what tokenized equities and pre-IPO perps actually represent, - and the mess of lawsuits and stuck shares coming when Anthropic finally IPOs. Enjoy. -------------- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 0:40 What is Going on in Secondary Markets? 7:03 How Anthropic Secondary Markets Unfold 14:51 Anthropic’s Secondaries Social Elite 19:00 Emerging SPV Structure 21:51 Accidental Frauds? 27:04 After IPO Consequences 35:13 Private Market Lessons 38:21 Patagon Markets 43:54 Tokenized Perps 44:57 Closing Thoughts
Bankless443,657 views • 29 days ago
INTERVIEW - Venice Is Here to Win: How Private AI Takes On OpenAI and Anthropic David Hoffman sits down with Jon ShapeShift and Jesse Proudman to unpack how Venice is taking on OpenAI and Anthropic with private AI. They talk about: - why AI is becoming the biggest data honeypot ever - private Grok access through Venice - unrestricted AI as a consumer wedge - how non-crypto users still feed the $VVV economy - $DIEM, tokenized inference, and AI agents --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 1:12 Why Private AI Matters 3:01 The AI Data Honeypot 6:07 Venice’s Consumer AI Ambition 8:01 Beating the Big AI Labs 10:19 Model Aggregation and Agentic Chat 12:29 Open Source, Closed Source, and Private Grok 17:14 Who Actually Needs Private AI? 21:58 Venice’s User Base 23:53 What Drove Venice’s Recent Growth 27:21 $VVV, $DIEM, and Tokenized Inference 29:00 Where Venice Gets Its Compute 32:17 Bonding Curves and DIEM Monetary Policy 39:14 Real Tokenomics, Not Just a Pie Chart 45:46 AI Agents Need Inference to Exist 52:54 ShapeShift DNA Inside Venice 55:53 Regulation, AI, and Individual Rights
Bankless51,998 views • 3 days ago
EARLY ACCESS: Perps Are Coming Onshore | CFTC Chairman Mike Selig For years, crypto perps grew offshore. Now the CFTC says... we're bringing perps home “We want the industry to survive, to thrive and to build here in the US.” Unlock access to the episode with Mike Selig of the CFTC now 👇
Bankless24,635 views • 2 days ago
LIVE NOW - Michael Salor’s Master Plan: "Fix the Money, Fix the World." Bitcoin to $21M. Strategy as a digital credit machine. An “8% bank account” for a billion people. Michael Michael Saylor joins Bankless for the first time to unpack: - Bitcoin becomes digital capital - Strategy’s Bitcoin credit machine - Quantum without panic - A new view on Ethereum - The “fix the money” thesis Enjoy the episode! -------------- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 1:00 Michael Saylor’s $21M Bitcoin thesis 4:33 What has to go right for Bitcoin to get there 11:00 Has Bitcoin adoption stalled out? 13:20 Why STRC became Strategy’s breakout product 18:05 The pitch behind a Bitcoin-backed money market 21:13 How STRC is engineered to stay stable 27:31 Where the 11.5% yield comes from 36:35 Is Strategy taking too much risk? 46:50 Does Strategy ever stop buying Bitcoin? 58:48 Quantum, panic, and the Bitcoin response 1:16:18 Michael Saylor on Ethereum today 1:25:46 “Fix the money, fix the world” 1:38:39 The crypto reactor and Strategy’s endgame
Bankless516,134 views • 1 month ago
INTERVIEW: “ZODL is to zcash:native what Coinbase was to bitcoin:native .” Josh Swihart 🛡 joins Bankless to unpack ZEC's awakening and why Zcash 🛡️ may be entering its most important chapter yet. We cover: - Zodl (fka Zashi)'s plan for Zcash - the rise of shielded ZEC - privacy in the AI era - why Bitcoiners are paying attention - making private money too big to kill --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 4:17 Privacy in the AI Era 6:19 Crypto’s Missing Privacy Layer 9:49 The Political Fight for Privacy 14:42 Can Crypto Retain Privacy? 16:47 From Zashi to ZODL 19:48 The Zcash Reawakening 21:41 Balaji, Funding, and the Mission 24:49 Product Market Fit for Shielded ZEC 27:51 ZODL's Role in the Zcash Stack 29:36 The Zcash Roadmap 32:56 What Is ZEC and is it Undervalued? 36:56 The Shielded Pool Explained 45:12 The $25M ZODL Raise 47:16 Compliance and Shielded ZEC 51:25 Institutions vs Cypherpunk Values 53:58 Personal Privacy in an AI World
Bankless82,981 views • 10 days ago
LIVE NOW - Crypto Without Privacy Isn’t Crypto: The $ZEC Bull Case mert and Tushar Jain join us to make the case for Zcash 🛡️ as crypto’s private store of value. In the episode: - why privacy may be crypto’s missing primitive, - the “private Bitcoin” thesis, - how $ZEC becomes a Schelling point, - shielded pools, quantum risk, and the return of cypherpunk money. Enjoy. -------------- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Why Multicoin Got Interested in Zcash 5:22 Mert’s Path from Solana to Zcash 9:57 Why Zcash, Why Now? 17:01 The Institutional Path for Private Money 22:03 Zcash as a Private Store of Value 25:27 Fungibility, Tainted Coins, and Financial History 27:26 The Bear Case: Does Anyone Really Care About Privacy? 34:43 Onchain Surveillance and Government Power 39:13 Zcash Tokenomics and the Forgotten Coin Thesis 44:58 The Last PVE in Crypto 50:17 Zcash and the Quantum Threat 59:14 Shielded Pool Growth and Upcoming Catalysts
Bankless184,671 views • 23 days ago
INTERVIEW: Why The Pokémon Card Market Is Blowing Up | Andy8052 Crypto may be down, but andy of Monster explains why physical collectibles are having their moment “They are really a trojan horse to bringing all this inventory onchain.” “These platforms are tokenizing millions of dollars worth of cards.” The NFT comeback might not look like PFPs. It might look like tokenized Charizards 👇
Bankless48,060 views • 7 days ago
LIVE NOW - Building a Million Dollar Zero Human Company with OpenClaw | Nat Eliason Nat Eliason joins us to show what it looks like to build a “zero human company” with Felix Craft, an AI CEO that ships products, runs ops, and manages other agents for support and sales. Felix went from an overnight info product to a full marketplace for AI agent skills: Claw Mart is service that deploys custom OpenClaw employees for real businesses, hitting nearly $80k in revenue since early February while operating on surprisingly low monthly costs. -------------- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 0.24 Nat’s Background 6:30 Felix 11:43 Real Businesses vs Memecoins 14:23 Felix’s Employees 18:06 Felix’s Business 31:26 How Customized is Felix? 38:17 Felix’s Business Risks 40:12 Can OpenClaw Replace Knowledge Workers? 43:38 Claw Mart 48:49 Felix’s Expenses 51:15 Nat’s Role 56:39 Felix’s Discord 1:03:19 Citrini Doomer Scenario 1:13:04 Hiring Your First Agent 1:16:19 General AI Assistants 1:19:50 AI Friends 1:22:39 The AI Agent Frontier 1:26:52 Crypto x AI 1:31:53 What’s Next 1:34:27 Closing & Disclaimers
Bankless533,880 views • 3 months ago
LIVE NOW - Productive Money: The Most Bullish Case for Ethereum ($250K) Ethereum may be one of the most underappreciated assets. Michael McGuiness and Vivek Raman of Etherealize lay out the case for ETH as “productive money”: A monetary asset with the store-of-value properties of gold and Bitcoin, but with the ability to compound through network activity. Enjoy! -------------- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 4:45 $250K ETH? 6:04 How to Price ETH 8:15 ETH’s Monetary Premium 10:25 What Differentiates ETH 13:54 The Path to $250K ETH 16:35 Menger’s Monetary Attributes 20:28 Scarcity 24:58 Fungibility 26:43 Divisibility 27:45 Portability 28:28 Durability 34:30 Verifiability 35:27 Censorship Resistance 37:00 ETH is Productive Money 41:39 How is ETH Productive? 46:40 Ethereum’s Tollbooth 51:28 Counterparty Risk 53:48 Productive Money vs Dead Capital 58:03 Pitching Productive Money to Wall Street 1:00:08 Why is ETH Underappreciated? 1:04:19 Wall Street ETH Investors 1:11:28 Other L1s 1:14:06 Why Not Just Buy the S&P? 1:15:00 Ethereum Technical Risks 1:17:20 How Does ETH Get to $250K? 1:23:18 Closing & Disclaimers
Bankless257,127 views • 1 month ago
![WEEKLY ROLLUP: David Sold All of His $ETH...Why? Crypto’s old leaders are struggling, but new winners are breaking out. RYAN SΞAN ADAMS - rsa.eth 🦄 and David Hoffman unpack the rise of hyperliquid:native, zcash:native, and $VVV, the macro bear fuel markets are ignoring, the EF talent exodus, and why David selling his last ethereum:native may mark a new era for Ethereum and Bankless. [TIMESTAMPS] 0:00 Intro 3:28 Bear Fuel for Markets & Pockets of Bullishness in Crypto - The Kobeissi Letter - Barchart - Jesse Cohen - Strategy - Arkham - The Block 21:27 Hyperliquid, HYPE, and Pre-IPO Price Discovery - Matt Hougan - Geiger Capital - trade.xyz - Yano 🟪 - The Kobeissi Letter 32:43 Wintermute Opens DeFi Vaults on Morpho 🦋 - Wintermute 38:12 Trump’s Quantum Bets and U.S. Industrial Policy & IPO and Ronin Migrates to Ethereum L2 - The Kobeissi Letter 46:34 EF Exodus and Ethereum’s Identity Crisis - David Hoffman - jasperthefriendlyghost.eth - Tomasz K. Stańczak - Josh Stark (0xstark.eth) - trent.eth - barnabe.eth - timbeiko.eth - carlbeek - Julian - Ignas | DeFi - joseph.eth - Dankrad Feist - Ethereum Daily - William Mougayar 1:00:04 David Sold His ETH and a New Era for Bankless - David Hoffman - RYAN SΞAN ADAMS - rsa.eth 🦄 Moment of Zen - Ethereum Community Foundation](https://image.24vids.com/tw-2057793606761791753/amplify_video_thumb/2057707879118127104/img/0ecSfU9L2kRKWw7A.jpg)
WEEKLY ROLLUP: David Sold All of His $ETH...Why? Crypto’s old leaders are struggling, but new winners are breaking out. RYAN SΞAN ADAMS - rsa.eth 🦄 and David Hoffman unpack the rise of hyperliquid:native, zcash:native, and $VVV, the macro bear fuel markets are ignoring, the EF talent exodus, and why David selling his last ethereum:native may mark a new era for Ethereum and Bankless. [TIMESTAMPS] 0:00 Intro 3:28 Bear Fuel for Markets & Pockets of Bullishness in Crypto - The Kobeissi Letter - Barchart - Jesse Cohen - Strategy - Arkham - The Block 21:27 Hyperliquid, HYPE, and Pre-IPO Price Discovery - Matt Hougan - Geiger Capital - trade.xyz - Yano 🟪 - The Kobeissi Letter 32:43 Wintermute Opens DeFi Vaults on Morpho 🦋 - Wintermute 38:12 Trump’s Quantum Bets and U.S. Industrial Policy & IPO and Ronin Migrates to Ethereum L2 - The Kobeissi Letter 46:34 EF Exodus and Ethereum’s Identity Crisis - David Hoffman - jasperthefriendlyghost.eth - Tomasz K. Stańczak - Josh Stark (0xstark.eth) - trent.eth - barnabe.eth - timbeiko.eth - carlbeek - Julian - Ignas | DeFi - joseph.eth - Dankrad Feist - Ethereum Daily - William Mougayar 1:00:04 David Sold His ETH and a New Era for Bankless - David Hoffman - RYAN SΞAN ADAMS - rsa.eth 🦄 Moment of Zen - Ethereum Community Foundation
Bankless98,722 views • 20 days ago
![INTERVIEW: Why $VVV at $17 is cheap, w/ Yan Liberman If the TAM for inference is ~$200B, what's the TAM for Private Inference? David Hoffman chats with Yan Liberman about - Why Venice is crypto AI’s clearest revenue story - How he values $VVV - How Venice serves agentic inference - Why AI agents need $DIEM [TIMESTAMPS] 0:00 Intro 1:40 Privacy Guarantees Explained 5:01 Who Needs Private Inference? 9:25 A Privacy Use Case 10:19 Venice’s Privacy Tiers 12:31 Growth Surges After New Plans 20:29 Inference Reseller Economics 23:39 Why Revenue Is Hard to Know 28:11 Token Value & Trust 32:07 Erik Voorhees & Alignment 33:52 Venice’s Unique Product Edge 37:34 Adult Content Demand 41:18 Permissionless Agentic Inference 44:56 Bear Cases for Venice 49:12 How to Value VVV 51:46 Is VVV Undervalued? 56:10 Closing & Disclaimers](https://image.24vids.com/tw-2057226043124294074/amplify_video_thumb/2057225252309258240/img/3VrYHAElcYXFt8I0.jpg)
INTERVIEW: Why $VVV at $17 is cheap, w/ Yan Liberman If the TAM for inference is ~$200B, what's the TAM for Private Inference? David Hoffman chats with Yan Liberman about - Why Venice is crypto AI’s clearest revenue story - How he values $VVV - How Venice serves agentic inference - Why AI agents need $DIEM [TIMESTAMPS] 0:00 Intro 1:40 Privacy Guarantees Explained 5:01 Who Needs Private Inference? 9:25 A Privacy Use Case 10:19 Venice’s Privacy Tiers 12:31 Growth Surges After New Plans 20:29 Inference Reseller Economics 23:39 Why Revenue Is Hard to Know 28:11 Token Value & Trust 32:07 Erik Voorhees & Alignment 33:52 Venice’s Unique Product Edge 37:34 Adult Content Demand 41:18 Permissionless Agentic Inference 44:56 Bear Cases for Venice 49:12 How to Value VVV 51:46 Is VVV Undervalued? 56:10 Closing & Disclaimers
Bankless105,397 views • 22 days ago
Sal Ternullo of SVRN explains why he thinks near:native is misvalued He thinks there's been a structural change in NEAR Protocol over the last 2 years, that makes NEAR deserves a 2-4x just from human usage alone But the real growth story is from AI Agents using Ironclaw and Near Intents creating a 20-40x opportunity for near:native Episode is out for Premium Subscribers today
Bankless83,787 views • 20 days ago
![INTERVIEW: Why $NEAR is Growing: The AI-Native Money Thesis - Intents, Privacy, & Tokenomics | Sal Ternullo NEAR Protocol is showing up more and more - Integrated in Zodl (fka Zashi), right before the $ZEC explosion - Used in Venice to create private AI inferece - Infinex uses Near Intents for creating a unified wallet What's going on over at NEAR Protocol, and how does Near adoption impact $NEAR? Sal Ternullo, CEO of SVRN, joins us to explain why he thinks the original NEAR thesis finally coming into focus. They dig into NEAR Intents, AI money, tokenomics, privacy, fee capture, agentic commerce, and why SVRN is trying to commercialize the NEAR ecosystem rather than simply hold the asset. [TIMESTAMPS] 0:00 Intro 2:23 Why NEAR is Everywhere Lately 3:58 Pivot or Return to Roots? 7:41 The “AI Money” Thesis 9:54 Intents, Zashi, and Real Product Market Fit 11:38 Tokenomics, Buybacks, and Value Accrual 14:45 NEAR’s Different Approach From Ethereum 18:00 Fees, Scaling, and First-Party Apps 23:04 Cross-Chain Liquidity as NEAR’s Moat 28:27 The Contrarian Investor Case for NEAR 31:43 Privacy, Enterprises, and AI Agents 39:38 What SVRN Is Building for NEAR 46:00 Investor Sentiment and Final Thoughts](https://image.24vids.com/tw-2059612795163844672/amplify_video_thumb/2059417640398204928/img/f8E4X40IeqB7PBxM.jpg)
INTERVIEW: Why $NEAR is Growing: The AI-Native Money Thesis - Intents, Privacy, & Tokenomics | Sal Ternullo NEAR Protocol is showing up more and more - Integrated in Zodl (fka Zashi), right before the $ZEC explosion - Used in Venice to create private AI inferece - Infinex uses Near Intents for creating a unified wallet What's going on over at NEAR Protocol, and how does Near adoption impact $NEAR? Sal Ternullo, CEO of SVRN, joins us to explain why he thinks the original NEAR thesis finally coming into focus. They dig into NEAR Intents, AI money, tokenomics, privacy, fee capture, agentic commerce, and why SVRN is trying to commercialize the NEAR ecosystem rather than simply hold the asset. [TIMESTAMPS] 0:00 Intro 2:23 Why NEAR is Everywhere Lately 3:58 Pivot or Return to Roots? 7:41 The “AI Money” Thesis 9:54 Intents, Zashi, and Real Product Market Fit 11:38 Tokenomics, Buybacks, and Value Accrual 14:45 NEAR’s Different Approach From Ethereum 18:00 Fees, Scaling, and First-Party Apps 23:04 Cross-Chain Liquidity as NEAR’s Moat 28:27 The Contrarian Investor Case for NEAR 31:43 Privacy, Enterprises, and AI Agents 39:38 What SVRN Is Building for NEAR 46:00 Investor Sentiment and Final Thoughts
Bankless49,951 views • 15 days ago
EARLY ACCESS - Venice Is Here to Win: How Private AI Takes On OpenAI and Anthropic Jon ShapeShift says the $VVV flywheel works even if users don’t care about crypto. “Most of our users are actually not crypto people” "some of them even actively dislike crypto and dislike tokens” "they don't care as long as the product itself is good and they can use it" "all of them are contributing downstream to this token economy, regardless"
Bankless27,642 views • 8 days ago
$200–$250k BTC and $10–$12k ETH by year-end? Tom Lee ( Thomas (Tom) Lee (not drummer) FundstratDirect.com ) and Arthur Hayes ( Arthur Hayes ) share their price predictions, and why they think ETH could do a 2.5x in just 2 months. 2 Legends. Same ballpark. Are we ready for these levels by Dec 31? 👀
Bankless576,213 views • 8 months ago
Why does David Hoffman feel differently about $ETH today? What changed his mind? "It's what Laura Shin said... Ethereum isn't focused on putting points on the scoreboard.. ...parts of Ethereum leadership is adverse to growth.... and it's prohibitive for growth to happen"
Bankless50,612 views • 20 days ago
Ryan disagrees with David Hoffman's analysis behind selling his ETH “They're all money, or nothing,” RYAN SΞAN ADAMS - rsa.eth 🦄 says about smart contract chains David pushes back and says, “in order to be Money, Ethereum needs a stronger monopoly in the market" What do you think about this debate? 🤔
Bankless34,052 views • 13 days ago
LIVE NOW: Tom Lee, the World's Biggest ETH Holder Thomas (Tom) Lee (not drummer) FundstratDirect.com has made $BMNR the largest ETH treasury in the world. Over 800,000 ETH. And he's bullish for a reason: ETH is about to have it's Bitcoin 2017 moment. -------- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 2:57 The Rise of ETH Treasuries 8:27 The 5% ETH Strategy 12:08 The Role of Ethereum in Wall Street 17:57 Accumulating More ETH 26:39 Wall Street's Misunderstanding of Crypto 32:41 Ethereum's 2017 Moment 40:09 The Potential for 100x 48:52 Estimating ETH's Value 53:08 Navigating Market Risks 1:01:36 Closing Thoughts on Ethereum
Bankless655,218 views • 10 months ago