Unchained

The US Naval blockade is live, markets are holding, and Ram thinks the bottom is in. Austin and Chris are not so sure.

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The day the US Naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz went live, peace talks had just collapsed in Islamabad and markets were holding. Ram, Austin, and Chris work through the tactical logic behind CENTCOM’s move, why regional powers are standing down, and how long Iran can sustain the economic pressure. 

Then: Anthropic previewed a model called Mythos, cybersecurity stocks fell, and the question of whether AI security risk is real or manufactured now has real money behind it. 

Meanwhile, World Liberty Financial borrowed $75 million against its own governance token on a platform co-founded by its own advisor, Justin Sun is accusing the team of treating investors as a personal ATM, and the stablecoin bill clock is ticking. 

Which sectors are most dislocated? What would it take to bring the next wave of investors into crypto? And is this actually a market bottom?

Hosts:


⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Austin Campbell⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Host of Bits + Bips, Zero Knowledge Consulting


⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Ram Ahluwalia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Co-Host, CEO of Lumida


⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Chris Perkins⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Co-Host, CEO of 250 Digital Asset Management

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The basis trade paid 15–30% near risk-free for years. Options couldn't compete. Then 10/10 happened.

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As Bitcoin's application layer, Citrea gives you access to the first trust-minimized BTC on a fully programmable platform and a native stablecoin for Bitcoin, ctUSD.

You can now participate in Bitcoin capital markets with lending, privacy, payments, Bitcoin yield, trading and predictions. You get expanded Bitcoin utility without sacrificing its security.

Citrea mainnet is live. Put your BTC to work at citrea.xyz/unchained.  

Ether.fi is giving Unchained listeners 15% cashback on food and ride apps — and that's on top of the 3% you get on everything else. 

Your bank is charging you to use your own money. Laura switched and loves her card!

Go to ether.fi/unchained to claim your offer.

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For years, the basis trade and token-launch points farming crowded out options as a yield tool in crypto — not because options were inferior, but because the alternatives were simply too easy and too lucrative. 

That changed on 10/10. With the basis trade effectively dead and altcoin valuations cratered, a window has opened for onchain options to compete for capital in a way they never could before. 

Nick Forster, CEO of Derive (formerly Lyra), has been building toward this moment for five years. He joins LTR, venture investor at Cosmos, who has tracked the full graveyard of failed options DEXes — Opyn, HEGIC, Ribbon, Dopex, Strike — and still believes this time is different. The question isn't whether crypto options will scale. It's whether the infrastructure is finally ready.

Host:


⁠⁠Laura Shin⁠⁠, Host / Unchained

Guests:


⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Nick Forster, CEO and Founder, Derive


⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LTR, Venture Investor, Kosmos

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Why ETH outperformed Bitcoin this past week, what's really behind the prediction market activity during the Iran situation, and what comes next for institutional crypto adoption.

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Ether.fi — 15% cash back on food and rideshare apps, 3% on everything else, borrow at 4% or less


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A tenuous Iran ceasefire sent oil prices tumbling this past week, and crypto responded before any other asset class. Bitcoin climbed to around $72K, Ethereum outperformed with 6.7 to 7% gains in 48 hours, and billions poured back into ETFs after months of withdrawals. 

But amid the rally, uncomfortable questions are surfacing: who profited from suspicious prediction market bets placed just before the ceasefire announcement? Are Middle Eastern governments and corporations now using Bitcoin as actual settlement infrastructure? And if the Clarity Act passes without allowing yield-bearing stablecoins, has the banking lobby won? 

Kavita Gupta, founder and general partner at Delta Blockchain Fund, sits down with Steven Ehrlich to work through a week of whipsawing markets, fragile geopolitics, and structural shifts that could define where crypto goes from here.

Host:


⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Steven Ehrlich⁠⁠⁠⁠, Head of Research, SharpLink

Guest:


⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Kavita Gupta, Founder & General Partner at Delta Blockchain Fund

Links:

Ceasefire, Markets & Institutional Flows:


Crypto Markets Rebound After Iran-Israel Ceasefire Deal (Unchained)


Bitcoin ETFs Record $5 Billion in Daily Volume as Inflows Top $870 Million (Unchained)


Crypto Adoption in MENA 2025: Crisis, Adaptation, and Growth (Chainalysis)

Prediction Markets & Insider Trading:


DEX in the City: Why Prediction Market 'Insider Trading' Isn't Illegal — Yet (Unchained)


DEX in the City: How Prediction Markets Pose a National Security Risk (Unchained)


Trading Volumes on Prediction Markets Will Drop After the November Election. Will New Market Entrants Still Attract Users? (Unchained)


DOJ and CFTC Drop Investigations Into Polymarket: Report (Unchained)

Clarity Act & Stablecoin Regulation:


Bessent Presses Senate on Clarity Act, Labels Resistant Crypto Leaders 'Nihilists' (Unchained)


Circle Stock Plunges 20% as Clarity Act Draft Threatens Stablecoin Yield (Unchained)


Treasury Secretary Bessent Presses Congress to Pass CLARITY Act (The Hill)

Bessent Ramps Up Pressure on Congress to Pass CLARITY Act (CoinTelegraph)
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James Seyffart didn't expect Morgan Stanley to do this. Now he's watching to see if BlackRock blinks.

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Ether.fi is giving Unchained listeners 15% cashback on food and ride apps — and that's on top of the 3% you get on everything else. 

Your bank is charging you to use your own money. Laura switched and loves her card!

Go to ether.fi/unchained to claim your offer. 

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cBTC: The first trust-minimized Bitcoin on a fully programmable platform.


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When Morgan Stanley launched MSBT this week, it didn't just become the first major US bank to issue its own spot Bitcoin ETF — it became the cheapest one on the market, undercutting BlackRock's iBIT by 11 basis points. For a firm not known for fee competition, that surprised even close ETF watchers. 

James Seyffart, senior analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, has spent years tracking how wirehouses have slowly warmed to Bitcoin products. He joins Laura Shin to discuss what MSBT's launch says about where institutional crypto adoption is heading, whether Morgan Stanley's 16,000 advisors and $7 trillion in assets could meaningfully shift flows, and why Seyffart now sees inaction on crypto as the active choice, not the safe one, for portfolio managers. 

Plus: Strategy's $14.5 billion loss, Saylor keeps buying, and why MSTR’s S&P 500 question is now entirely a Bitcoin price story.

Host:


⁠Laura Shin⁠, Host / Unchained

Guest:


⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠James Seyffart, Senior Analyst, Bloomberg Intelligence

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Bitcoin’s Satoshi drama heats up again as a major journalistic “reveal” drops, just as the crypto industry gets rocked by a quantum computing breakthrough that pulls up security timelines—and AI-powered exploits are suddenly real. We break down Satoshi theories, Blockstream PR whispers, the new quantum risk landscape, Ethereum vs. Bitcoin migration pain, and why your favorite protocols might not be ready for North Korea or superintelligent bug finders.

Welcome to The Chopping Block — where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest in crypto. This week we’re joined by Justin Drake, Ethereum Foundation researcher and the internet’s favorite quantum attack alarm bell ringer. Things get spicy immediately: the eternal guessing game “Who is Satoshi?” gets a new round of attention as John Carreyrou (yeah, Theranos guy) drops a supposed expose pointing his finger at none other than Blockstream’s Adam Back. 

The crew debates whether this Satoshi story is tired PR, inside baseball, or a genuine existential turning point for Bitcoin culture. Then things escalate: Justin walks us through Google and Atomic’s quantum computing breakthrough—a real, validated step forward that potentially pulls the “Q-day” clock up to as soon as 2029. The implications? Bitcoin and Ethereum’s security models are suddenly under the gun, and community denial is in full effect. Who’s better poised to survive a quantum apocalypse… and is coin burning on the menu for Satoshi’s stash?

Later, we break down the Drift hack—North Korea’s latest state-level heist, featuring IRL social engineering that sounds like Mr. Robot meets Oceans Eleven. Finally, it’s an AI arms race: Anthropic’s Mythos model is reportedly the most dangerous security researcher ever coded, and it’s already quietly hardening corporate fortresses. 

Panic? Prepare? Both? One thing’s for sure—there are no do-overs on the blockchain, so let’s get into it.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights

🔹 Blockstream’s Adam Back is the new “Satoshi” according to a viral John Carreyrou story  

🔹 Bitcoin’s culture wars: PR rumor mill vs. industry insiders roll their eyes  

🔹 The Google & Atomic quantum computing breakthrough slashes Q-Day timelines dramatically  

🔹 Ethereum’s quantum readiness (thanks Justin) vs. Bitcoin’s “not my problem” response  

🔹 Why crypto’s “immutable” past is a quantum-ticking time bomb for dormant addresses  

🔹 Satoshi coin burning debate—do we idolize, fork, or rage-quit?  

🔹 The Drift hack: North Korean ops, social engineering, and multi-sig failures  

🔹 Anthropic’s Mythos: the AI that finds bugs before humans—and sometimes emails you about it  

🔹 Formal verification, client diversity, and the future defense of blockchains  

🔹 Haseeb’s question: Could AI break crypto before quantum does?

Hosts

⭐️Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly

⭐️Tarun Chitra, Managing Partner at Robot Ventures

⭐️Tom Schmidt, General Partner at Dragonfly 

Guest

⭐️ Justin Drake, Researcher of Ethereum Foundation

Disclosures

LINKS

"Securing Elliptic Curve Cryptocurrencies against Quantum Vulnerabilities: Resource Estimates and Mitigations" — Google Quantum AI, Ethereum Foundation, Stanford https://quantumai.google/static/site-assets/downloads/cryptocurrency-whitepaper.pdf

"Shor's algorithm is possible with as few as 10,000 reconfigurable atomic qubits" — Cain, Xu, King, Picard, Levine, Endres, Preskill, Huang, Bluvstein https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.28627

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