Unchained

📢 Bits + Bips has its own channel now — full episodes here: https://www.youtube.com/@Bitsandbips

A firmware bug quietly introduced into Coldcard hardware wallets in 2021 has let attackers drain an estimated 1,600 to 2,000 bitcoin, over $100 million, from cold storage addresses that sat untouched for years.

Galaxy Digital's Alex Thorn has been tracing the exploit in real time, and in this clip he breaks down exactly how the random number generator meant to secure private keys "failed silently" into "way too weak entropy," and lays out the wave-by-wave forensic trail he is using to track the attacker.

Alex Thorn identifies three confirmed attack waves and a possible fourth, and Chris Perkins makes the case that even a "trustless, permissionless" system still requires trusting something, in this case, a hardware wallet's own firmware.

Hosts:

Austin Campbell - Host of Bits + Bips, Founder of Zero Knowledge Group, and Adjunct Professor at NYU Stern

Ram Ahluwalia - Co-host of Bits + Bips and CEO of Lumida

Chris Perkins - Co-host of Bits + Bips and Head of Franklin Crypto

Guest:

Alex Thorn - Head of Research at Galaxy Digital and host of Galaxy Brains

This clip is from a longer conversation on the Coldcard hack, U.S. AI guardrails, and the case for self custody. Full episode here. https://youtu.be/0oYZGw2DSj0?si=TwubhLQ35L8cXyG_

We go live every Monday at 4:30pm ET. Subscribe to catch it live.

👉 Cape: Your biggest crypto vulnerability isn't your wallet, it's your phone number. Cape is America's privacy-first mobile carrier that rotates your SIM identity daily and blocks SIM swaps before they happen. Get 33% off your first six months at https://cape.co/unchained (use code: UNCHAINED).

Chapters

🔐 00:00 Coldcard's reputation as Bitcoin's gold standard hides a deep systemic flaw

🎲 03:42 How a 2021 firmware update let key generation fail silently into weak entropy

🕵️ 09:56 Alex Thorn traces three confirmed attack waves, and a possible fourth

🤝 14:05 'They trusted Coldcard to do the right thing': what broke when a hardware wallet failed
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Wall Street's transfer agents want issuers, not outside platforms, to control tokenized stock. Securitize's CEO says the alternative invites insider trading.

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Thank you to our sponsor!

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Cape⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠: Your biggest crypto vulnerability isn't your wallet, it's your phone number. Cape is America's privacy-first mobile carrier that rotates your SIM identity daily and blocks SIM swaps before they happen. Get 33% off your first six months at cape.co/unchained (use code: UNCHAINED).

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Securitize took itself public twice this year: once through a direct listing, and once by tokenizing more than $265 million of its own stock via a SPAC with Cantor Equity Partners, testing whether Wall Street lets equities trade onchain.

Carlos Domingo, founder and CEO of Securitize, joins Laura Shin to argue that much of crypto's tokenized stock boom is unauthorized, offshore paper exposing investors and issuers to real legal risk, and to make the case that transfer agents, not outside platforms, should control what gets tokenized.

They cover Rule 611, the SEC rule locking onchain and offchain share prices together, the Securities Transfer Association's push for issuer authorization, and a Netflix stock split that left an unauthorized derivative trading five times off. Domingo also lays out Securitize's NYSE partnership, launching tokenized trading in the fourth quarter.

The SEC is now weighing whether to unwind the rule that keeps those prices identical, with real stakes for how equities trade next.

Host:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Laura Shin⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Host / Unchained

Guests:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Carlos Domingo - Founder and CEO of Securitize

Timestamps

🏛️ 01:09 Why Domingo took Securitize public after Circle's IPO opened the door

💹 04:12 Securitize's SPAC: tokenizing over $265M in stock with Cantor Equity Partners

📣 10:10 Cape: Get 33% off your first six months with code unchained at https://cape.co/unchained

🔗 10:24 Why Securitize tokenized SECZ on Solana for trading, Avalanche for lockup

📜 14:51 DTCC entitlement vs onchain shares: what you actually own on Robinhood

⚠️ 16:46 Why owning tokenized versus traditional shares carries real risk

⚖️ 20:53 Why Rule 611 keeps onchain and offchain share prices identical

🧩 28:37 The three models of tokenized equity, and who should authorize them

🚨 34:47 Tom Farley's insider trading warning about unauthorized stock derivatives

🏦 40:10 Why institutions still fear crypto after Celsius, BlockFi, and FTX

🗽 44:02 Inside Securitize's tokenized trading partnership with the NYSE

🪙 50:01 Why Domingo calls Robinhood a partner, not a competitor
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📢 Bits + Bips has its own channel now — full episodes here: https://www.youtube.com/@Bitsandbips

Meta and Microsoft reported earnings on the same night, and investors sent their stocks in opposite directions.

Chris Galipeau of the Franklin Templeton Institute walks Steven Ehrlich through why Meta got punished for raising its CapEx guidance while Microsoft's Azure growth held steady, then makes the case that the broader AI CapEx boom is still only in its second inning, not a bubble about to pop.

Host:

Steven Ehrlich - Host, Head of Research at Sharplink - https://x.com/Steven_Ehrlich

Guest:

Chris Galipeau - Head Market Strategist at the Franklin Templeton Institute

This clip is from a longer conversation on Fed policy, Iran, AI earnings, and prediction markets. Full episode here:https://youtu.be/BXWq7OPcm24

We go live every Thursday - subscribe to catch it live.

Cape: Your biggest crypto vulnerability isn't your wallet, it's your phone number. Cape is America's privacy-first mobile carrier that rotates your SIM identity daily and blocks SIM swaps before they happen. Get 33% off your first six months at https://cape.co/unchained (use code: UNCHAINED).

Chapters

🎙️ 00:00 Kicking off the Meta vs Microsoft earnings comparison

📉 00:26 Why Meta landed in the 'penalty box' on CapEx guidance

☁️ 01:25 Microsoft's Azure growth number was 'super strong'

💰 02:41 The FAANG-era CapEx inversion nobody saw coming

📊 03:41 How to actually evaluate a company's balance sheet health

🔄 04:52 The circular financing risk, and Steve's 'incestuous' tech giants question

⚾ 07:24 The baseball analogy: still early innings, and why this isn't a bubble
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Privacy is having a moment in crypto. As competition heats up, the pitfalls of the technology around the quantum threat, regulatory risk and more make the trajectory hard to predict.

A counterfeit bug sat undetected in Zcash's Orchard privacy pool for four years, capable of minting an unlimited supply of untraceable coins, illustrating the risks of one of the hottest crazes in crypto.

Joe Andrews, CEO of Aztec Labs, Jarrad Hope, founder of Logos, and Mert Mumtaz, cofounder and CEO of Helius, join Laura Shin to argue the bug is less alarming than what it reveals: cryptographic privacy is difficult to get right, and the industry is racing to get it right anyway, because institutions will not come onchain without it.

They cover Zcash's quantum-recoverable Ironwood upgrade and the turnstile proving the counterfeit coins never moved, Ethereum's sprawling privacy roadmap and the risk it arrives too late, Logos' mixnet built to protect validators from block relays now censoring transactions, and why all three see Canton's private stablecoins as little more than a bank with extra steps.

The fight over what actually counts as privacy on a blockchain is only getting started.

Host

⁠Laura Shin⁠ - Founder, CEO and Host of Unchained

Guest

⁠Joe Andrews - CEO of Aztec Labs

⁠Jarrad Hope - Founder of Logos

⁠Mert Mumtaz - Cofounder and CEO of Helius

Sponsor

⁠Cape⁠: Your biggest crypto vulnerability isn't your wallet, it's your phone number. Cape is America's privacy-first mobile carrier that rotates your SIM identity daily and blocks SIM swaps before they happen. Get 33% off your first six months at ⁠https://cape.co/unchained⁠ (use code: UNCHAINED).

Timestamps:

🔐 01:52 Why Joe, Jarrad, and Mert think privacy's crypto moment is now

💙 18:18 Cape: Get 33% off your first six months with code unchained at https://cape.co/unchained

⚖️ 19:14 Why Jarrad says the weak need privacy and the powerful need transparency

🔬 24:49 How zero knowledge proofs actually update encrypted state onchain

🕸️ 33:07 Why 43.7% of block relays now censor, and how Logos fixes it

🐛 36:32 The undetected Zcash bug that could have minted infinite fake coins

🔒 46:32 Mert explains how Zcash's Ironwood upgrade closes the counterfeit hole

🛤️ 51:44 Why Joe worries Ethereum's privacy roadmap might arrive too late

🏦 57:39 Why Mert calls Canton no more private than trusting JPMorgan
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BitMEX shut down without an angry tweet. Offchain Labs CEO Steven Goldfeder joins Kain and Taylor on why dead tokens never get that mercy. Plus, Kyle Samani's Multicoin blowup.

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Thank you to our sponsors!

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Cape⁠⁠⁠⁠: Your biggest crypto vulnerability isn't your wallet, it's your phone number. Cape is America's privacy-first mobile carrier that rotates your SIM identity daily and blocks SIM swaps before they happen. Get 33% off your first six months at ⁠https://cape.co/unchained⁠ (use code: UNCHAINED).

========================================================

BitMEX shut down after 11 years and crypto Twitter answered with nostalgia. When a token project dies, the same audience spends weeks dragging it.

Steven Goldfeder, co-founder and CEO of Offchain Labs, the team behind Arbitrum, joins Kain Warwick and Taylor Monahan to work through why. Goldfeder argues crypto's grant-funded, revenue-optional era is over, and explains why Arbitrum licensed its stack so that partners like Robinhood Chain have to keep paying for it, while Base pays Optimism.

They trace the DPRK crewhacking crews now rotating through bridge exploits, debate whether Uniswap's new permissioned pools point toward tokens that carry real investor rights, and ask Goldfeder whether he would trade Arbitrum's open token for a restricted one only a fraction of the world could hold.

The conversation closes on Kyle Samani telling Solana builders that Multicoin, the firm he co-founded, is working against them, and what that says about how much of an ecosystem can rest on a single fund.

Hosts:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Kain Warwick⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - Host of Uneasy Money and Founder of Infinex and Synthetix

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Taylor Monahan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - Co-host of Uneasy Money and Security Expert

Guest:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Steven Goldfeder - Co-Founder and CEO of Offchain Labs

Timestamps

📣 00:47 Cape: Get 33% off six months at https://cape.co/unchained

🪦 01:47 Kain opens wondering whether crypto itself is quietly dying in 2026

📊 03:41 Steven on Arbitrum's project tracking and the 'massive consolidation' hitting L2s

⚔️ 10:03 The proxy war: Robinhood Chain and Base now fight instead of Arbitrum and Optimism

🪦 14:23 Why BitMEX's shutdown felt nostalgic while token deaths trigger real anger

🌉 26:21 Hacks of the week: the DPRK crew behind the AFX perp DEX bridge exploit

👽 32:51 Kain's take: bridges got safer until 'aliens landed' and started hacking again

🏛️ 40:32 Permissioned DeFi: Uniswap's compliance pools and Superstate's equity-like tokens

🎯 57:32 Would Steven trade Arbitrum's open token for a 5% investor-only model?

🥊 01:05:42 Kyle Samani's Multicoin tweet and Solana's VC fight over Hyperliquid
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