Despite the doom and gloom, Placeholder VC partners Chris Burniske and Joel Monegro are highly bullish on the present moment. “We’re all going to look back on this period and remember it as fondly as we remember ‘18 and ‘19,” Monegro tells Laura Shin. The two long-term investors explain why the confluence of macroeconomic factors and crypto-native (and AI) innovations make this the ideal time to invest in a Web3 future. They cut their teeth on Bitcoin, they grew up with Ethereum; hear what they think is next.Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.Show highlights: why Chris says crypto’s four-year cycle will likely play out once again the role of interest rates in asset valuation whether the crypto industry has learned its lessons from the “crypto carnage” of 2022 whether there’s a future for KYC’d DeFi when failing in crypto should be considered a crime, as in the Do Kwon case what could happen with the rate hikes and how the macroeconomic environment affects the markets how the ruling in the Ripple case impacts the development of new crypto companies and user adoption whether Joel felt relieved by the ruling, considering Placeholder has invested in many tokens that were named as securities by the SEC what Joel thinks of the new crypto bill in Congress and how he wishes that smart contracts were used to self-regulate the industry what Joel and Chris think of the delicate situations of crypto giants such as Binance and DCG whether the fat protocol thesis still holds up and whether it colors Placeholder’s current investment thesis why most of the Layer 1s will become rollups, according to Chris why Chris is bullish on Solana, despite the massive collapse in value following the FTX debacle how NFTs will play a significant role in “establishing the provenance of content” whether AI agents will become crypto power users Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com Arbitrum Foundation TOKEN2049 Guests: Chris Burniske, partner at Placeholder VC Previous appearance on Unchained:  2022 in Review + How Cobie and Chris Burniske Are Playing the New Year Cobie and Chris Burniske on How to Navigate a Crypto Bear Market How To Value A Crypto Asset Joel Monegro, partner at Placeholder VC. Placeholder’s Joel Monegro on the Fat Protocols Thesis Links Fat Protocols by Joel Monegro The Blockchain Application Stack by Joel Monegro Decred Thesis by Joel Monegro and Chris Burniske WSJ:  Binance Lays Off Over 1,000 Employees Binance Cuts Back Employee Benefits, Citing Decline in Profit CoinDesk: Unpacking the Latest Lummis-Gillibrand Bill Draft Reuters: US SEC accepts six spot bitcoin ETF proposals for review Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

If the SEC wants to appeal last week’s judgment in the Ripple case, it better act fast. So says Bill Hughes, regulatory chief at Ethereum booster ConsenSys and one of the many crypto policy pros assessing the ramifications of U.S. district judge Analisa Torres’ decision. The regulatory agency’s decision to appeal hinges on a number of factors, Hughes says, including that this Supreme Court will likely be unkind to SEC Chair Gary Gensler’s interpretation of how to regulate crypto. But of course, a political calculus is also in play, and suddenly U.S. lawmakers have a slew of crypto bills and amendments to choose from. How will it play out?Show highlights: whether the SEC is going to appeal the recent Ripple ruling and whether Judge Analisa Torres would allow it what the risks are for the SEC of taking the case to the Second Circuit why Bill believes that the SEC’s chances are not good at the Supreme Court what the motivation is behind the new DeFi bill in the U.S. Senate how that bill would impact the different stakeholders in a DeFi project why the crypto community should put its focus on the stablecoin and market structure bills first, according to Bill how the SEC has been dropping lawsuits days prior to Congressional debates about crypto Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com Railgun DAO Ondo Finance Arbitrum Foundation Guest Bill Hughes, senior counsel and director of global regulatory matters at ConsenSys.Links Previous coverage of Unchained on the Ripple case:  Why the SEC vs. Ripple Order Is Now About 2 Things: Coinbase and Congress  New Order in SEC vs. Ripple Over XRP Is a Win for Crypto: What Happens Now? The Chopping Block: Should XRP Holders Really Be Rejoicing? The SEC's Lawsuit Against Ripple and 2 Execs: What You Need to Know  Ripple's XRP: Why Its Chances of Success Are Low CoinDesk: Ripple's Legal Win Means It's Time for Crypto to Stand Up to the SEC Unchained:  U.S. Senate Bill Calls for Strict KYC and AML Regulations for DeFi SEC vs Ripple: Judge Rules XRP Sold on Exchanges Is Not a Security Bill’s thread on the Lummis-Gillibrand amendment S.Amdt.712 to S.2226 - 118th Congress (2023-2024) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

XRP isn’t itself a security; it depends on how it’s sold. So said a federal judge last Thursday in the SEC vs. Ripple case and the implications are significant. Jake Chervinsky, chief policy officer at the Blockchain Association, and lawyer Kayvan Sadeghi, partner at Jenner & Block, join the show to discuss two major ramifications. One: U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres dealt a major blow to the legal theory underpinning the SEC’s case against Coinbase. Two: This order really “lights a fire” under U.S. lawmakers to act on a pair of crypto bills in Congress.Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.Show highlights: why this is an “extraordinary victory” for the industry, according to Jake whether Judge Torres made the right decision how the SEC could seek an interlocutory appeal to halt the case, though it’s unlikely what are the pending items in the case that need to be resolved why the order that Judge Torres issued is not a final judgment why it is more important to look at the transaction, not at the nature of the asset, to determine whether something should be deemed a security whether the SEC has the authority to call digital assets securities the significance of the “major questions doctrine” how the order in the Ripple case will affect other cases like the Coinbase one whether exchanges should re-list XRP why this case could be instrumental in steering the direction of crypto regulation in the U.S. whether other crypto tokens like SOL or MATIC should feel relieved with this new ruling why Jake says that this case will speed up the chances of crypto legislation getting passed what the differences are between the current crypto bills that are being proposed whether SEC Chair Gary Gensler should recuse himself from enforcement actions in the crypto industry Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com Arbitrum Foundation TOKEN2049 Guests: Jake Chervinsky, chief policy officer at the Blockchain Association Previous appearances on Unchained: The Chopping Block: Jake Chervinsky on How the SEC Has Lost Credibility All Things Crypto Regulation With Jake Chervinsky Everything You Need to Know About the Looming Battle Over Privacy in Crypto Can Crypto Be a Force in the Midterms? Yes, Say Kristin Smith and Jake Chervinsky Kayvan Sadeghi, partner at Jenner & Block and co-chair of the fintech and crypto assets practice. Links: Previous coverage of Unchained on the Ripple case:  New Order in SEC vs. Ripple Over XRP Is a Win for Crypto: What Happens Now? The Chopping Block: Should XRP Holders Really Be Rejoicing? The SEC's Lawsuit Against Ripple and 2 Execs: What You Need to Know  Ripple's XRP: Why Its Chances of Success Are Low SEC vs Ripple: Judge Rules XRP Sold on Exchanges Is Not a Security CoinDesk: Ripple, Crypto Industry Score Partial Win in SEC Court Fight Over XRP Ripple Labs Ruling Throws U.S. Crypto-Token Regulation into Disarray The Washington Post: Ripple ruling threatens SEC’s crypto regulation push Chair Gensler Must Recuse Himself From Digital Asset Enforcement Decisions - Blockchain Association Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to “The Chopping Block” – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest news. This week, crypto lawyer Stephen Palley joins an emergency live show to unpack Thursday’s judgment in the Ripple case. Crypto markets are pumping after a judge handed Ripple Labs a partial victory in its fight against the SEC. But is the jubilation warranted? “I can understand why people are happy,” said Palley, a partner at Brown Rudnick LLP. “I’m just a little more cautious on what happens next.”Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.Show highlights:  why Judge Analisa Torres ruled that retail sales of XRP do not violate U.S. securities laws how the court denied summary judgment on some issues relating to Ripple’s Brad Garlinghouse and Chris Larsen why “Footnote 16” of the ruling was so “surprising,” according to Stephen whether the SEC will appeal the case and how that process could unfold why Coinbase, Kraken and other exchanges re-listed XRP and whether that’s a safe step whether Coinbase will cite the Ripple judgment in its lawsuit against the SEC  how this ruling does not represent a binding precedent why, even though this is a win for Ripple, it shouldn’t be used for investment strategy why Haseeb thinks the SEC should “fire their press department” whether the SEC’s case is “stronger than people on Twitter might like to believe” how, if proven, the allegations against Celsius founder Alex Mashinsky are “straight-up fraud”  why Stephen says that a lot of the enforcement activity focused on DeFi was an “absolute misuse of resources” Hosts Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly  Robert Leshner, founder of Compound Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly  Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures Guest: Stephen Palley, litigation partner at Brown RudnickDisclosuresLinks Previous coverage of Unchained on the Ripple case:  New Order in SEC vs. Ripple Over XRP Is a Win for Crypto: What Happens Now? The SEC's Lawsuit Against Ripple and 2 Execs: What You Need to Know  Ripple's XRP: Why Its Chances of Success Are Low Unchained:  SEC vs Ripple: Judge Rules XRP Sold on Exchanges Is Not a Security Former Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky Arrested in New York - Unchained Crypto CoinDesk: Ripple, Crypto Industry Score Partial Win in SEC Court Fight Over XRP Ripple Labs Ruling Throws U.S. Crypto-Token Regulation into Disarray The Washington Post: Ripple ruling threatens SEC’s crypto regulation push Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The SEC and Ripple have been locked in a legal tug of war for years, stirring up waves of controversy and debate in the crypto community. Finally, Judge Analisa Torres has given an order establishing that XRP buyers trading on exchanges were not, in fact, engaging in a securities transaction, a decision that could have far-reaching implications for the industry. Lewis Cohen, co-founder of DLx Law, unpacks the details of this pivotal case and what it might mean for the future of cryptocurrency regulation.Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.Show highlights: why the SEC lawsuit against Ripple has such historical significance in the crypto industry how Judge Torres split the case into two categories  why the 'programmatic buyers' did not meet the four prongs of the Howey test why the institutional sales constituted an investment contract  what makes the Ripple case different from the Kik and Telegram cases whether the new ruling by Judge Torres will have an impact on how other crypto projects deal with their offerings why, in the event of an appeal, Lewis expects a Second Circuit decision to take at least one year whether Judge Torres' decision will impact the ongoing cases against crypto exchanges like Coinbase why Lewis thinks the XRP order will not change the likelihood that spot bitcoin ETFs get approved how there's no way to deal with information asymmetries in digital assets now Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com Railgun DAO Ondo Finance Arbitrum Foundation Guest Lewis Cohen, Cofounder DLx Law Previous appearances on Unchained: The Lummis/Gillibrand Crypto Bill: Is the ‘Ancillary Token’ Approach the Best Links Previous coverage of Unchained on the Ripple case:  The SEC's Lawsuit Against Ripple and 2 Execs: What You Need to Know  Ripple's XRP: Why Its Chances of Success Are Low CoinDesk: Ripple, Crypto Industry Score Partial Win in SEC Court Fight Over XRP The Ineluctable Modality of Securities Law: Why Fungible Crypto Assets Are not Securities Paradigm Files Amicus Brief in SEC’s Lawsuit Against Ripple The Block: Lummis, Gillibrand to introduce revised comprehensive crypto bill  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Welcome to “The Chopping Block” – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest crypto news. This week, the crew is joined by Goldfinch co-founder Blake West to talk about the momentum around asset tokenization. Whether it’s private credit (what Goldfinch specializes in) or U.S. Treasurys (what Robert’s new venture Superstate will tackle), real-world assets (RWAs) are en vogue among the crypto set. What’s driving this fresh interest in an old concept that has failed to take off?Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, TuneIn, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.Show highlights:  how Blake got into RWAs why Robert launched his new company Superstate why Robert hates the term “real-world asset” why the only actual RWA in the blockchain space is the U.S. dollar, aka stablecoins why other non-native crypto assets have struggled to migrate onto blockchains how having on-chain T-bills could push demand for stablecoins why private credit is a good thing to bring on chain, according to Blake what the not-so-obvious benefits of bringing these things onto blockchains are whether Arkham’s model of de-anonymizing people goes against the ethos of crypto Hosts Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at Dragonfly  Robert Leshner, founder of Compound Tom Schmidt, general partner at Dragonfly  Tarun Chitra, managing partner at Robot Ventures Guest: Blake West, cofounder of GoldfinchDisclosuresLinks Unchained: Compound Founder Creates ‘Superstate’ to Bridge TradFi and Blockchains Arkham Launches Bounty Marketplace to Trade Crypto Wallet Intel MakerDAO Mulls Proposal to Allocate $750 Million More to US Treasuries MakerDAO Has Brought in Real World Assets. Is It Worth the Risk? CoinDesk: Tokenized U.S. Treasurys Surpass $600M as Crypto Investors Capture TradFi Yield Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In recent months, ChatGPT, Bard and other new artificial intelligence (AI) products have revolutionized numerous industries. But how this nascent technology can work with crypto and blockchain technology is still relatively unexplored. In this episode, Illia Polosukhin and Jason Warner delve into the transformative potential of AI and crypto coming together. They explore a wide array of applications, from AIs managing Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), to DAOs being used to help open source AIs, to blockchain technology making the inner workings of AIs more transparent. Tune in to this episode for a deep dive into the fusion of AI and crypto.Show highlights: Illia's and Jason’s backgrounds, including how Illia’s work in artificial intelligence (AI) got him into crypto what AI actually encompasses and how to define it why Jason says that "it works right now, it's machine learning and if you're raising money, it's AI" how blockchains can facilitate the provision of resources for training data  the problem of attribution in training AI models how OpenAI and Midjourney hold a lot of power at the moment, according to Illia why open source code helps build better AI systems how LLMs are being used to audit code in the blockchain ecosystem up to what point AI can be used for crypto trading why misinformation is a human problem, not an “AI problem,” and how blockchain technology can help solve this issue how blockchains can be used to verify facts to combat misinformation whether AI can help mitigate attacks on DeFi protocols how DAOS and AI can work together and whether AI can coordinate a company what’s missing in terms of infrastructure for DAOs to thrive with AI how to structure regulation with this rapidly evolving technology Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com Arbitrum Foundation TOKEN2049 OKX Guests: Illia Polosukhin, cofounder of NEAR. Previous appearance on The Chopping Block: The Chopping Block: Why AI Will Change the Course of History in Crypto Jason Warner, founder at Poolside.  Links Op-ed by Illia: Blockchain can save the media - Blockworks CoinDesk:  AI Can Generate a Trading Edge in Crypto Markets 10 Ways Crypto and AI Can Make Each Other Better (or Maybe Worse) Blockchain May Offer Answers for AI Challenges Former FTX.US President Brett Harrison's New Venture Is Seeking to Harness AI for Crypto Trading Blockchain Developer Platform Alchemy Releases AI-Powered Tools for Web3 Builders When AI and Blockchain Merge, Expect the Mundane at First Imagining the Future AI and Web3 Can Build World Economic Forum: Blockchain can help combat the threat of deepfakes. Here's how Cointelegraph: DAOs: Where humans may fail, AI could succeed Forbes: Convergence Of Web3, AI And Metaverse: Navigating The Great Reset For Investors,  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2022, crypto crime hit an all-time high. A staggering $3.8 billion in crypto was stolen, with DeFi protocols bearing the brunt of these thefts, accounting for 82% of the total losses. Amid this alarming scenario, has a beacon of hope emerged in ERC-7265? The proposal aims to create a 'circuit breaker' safety layer for DeFi contracts, potentially revolutionizing security measures in the crypto space. Could this be the key to bolstering security and paving the way for mass adoption of DeFi? Will it essentially centralize protocols? Tune in to find out.Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.Show highlights: what ERC-7265 is meant to do and why they called it a 'circuit breaker’ how the idea would actually work on chain how this ERC could make DeFi applications more centralized, rather than decentralized what can be done to prevent small teams from seizing funds how different teams will be able to design the circuit breaker as they want what unsafe arbitrary calls and unprotected flows are why Philippe believes that this proposal will help newer teams improve their security how the ERC can pave the way for a more decentralized protocol  what will it take for protocols to start adopting the new standard Thank you to our sponsors!  Crypto.com Railgun DAO Ondo Finance Arbitrum Foundation Guest Philippe Dumonet, Cofounder of DeRegLinks Chainalysis 2022 report The Block: Ethereum community proposes new standard to mitigate DeFi hacks Philippe’s thread on ERC-7265 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The ERC-721 token standard on Ethereum ignited the frenzied world of NFTs. Yet, as the dust settled, their limitations became apparent. Enter ERC-6551, a new standard designed to overcome these challenges.Benny Giang and Jayden Windle, cofounder and founding developer of Future Primitive, respectively, delve into the transformative potential of ERC-6551, a standard which allows every NFT to have a smart contract wallet associated with it. They discuss the exciting new possibilities it unlocks in the spheres of gaming, the metaverse, identity, messaging, and more.Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.Show highlights: what ERC-6551 is and how the idea was born the differences between NFT token standards the four big categories of applications for this new token standard why Benny thinks that "network playable characters" will solve many of the problems in the digital space how the token bound accounts work and whether they can interact with existing wallets the security implications of using ERC-6551 what Future Primitive does in the web3 space how creators can benefit from this new development whether it's possible for soulbound tokens to work with token bound accounts how blue chip NFT collections are using ERC-6551, if at all what could go wrong with token-bound accounts that are combined with AI what new things are being envisioned with this new standard Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com Arbitrum Foundation TOKEN2049 OKX Guests: Benny Giang, cofounder of Future Primitive  Jayden Windle, founding developer of Future Primitive Previous appearance on Unchained: Your NFTs Can Do Much More Than You Think Links ERC-6551: Non-fungible Token Bound Accounts Tokenbound ERC 6551 — Token Bound Accounts. Every NFT will have their own wallets… by Benny Giang Unchained:  How Soulbound Tokens Could Reduce Speculation and Improve DAO Voting - Quadratic Funding Could Account Abstraction Make Self-Custody Easier for Crypto Users? Ethereum Implements Account Abstraction With ERC-4337 What Can You Do in the Metaverse? Exploring the NFT blue chips What is the metaverse? What Is an NFT Marketplace? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From “hush money” allegations to a prospective FTX relaunch, it’s been a crazy week for those following the legal saga of Sam Bankman-Fried’s collapsed crypto empire. Perhaps few are following it more closely than 507 Capital founder Thomas Braziel, who specializes in the trading of bankruptcy claims. He explains the significance of a spate of recent headlines and shares newsworthy tidbits from his meeting with new FTX honcho John J. Ray III.Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.Show highlights: what the Daniel Friedberg lawsuit revealed about the whistleblowers of FTX how FTX used allegedly false claims in its Series C funding round whether Friedberg’s former law firm, Fenwick & West, will suffer legal consequences how John Ray is prosecuting the allegedly fraudulent transactions made by FTX what stood out to Thomas in his personal dealings with John Ray what the timeline is for filing a reorganization plan for FTX what the odds are of an FTX 2.0 relaunch, according to Thomas why Thomas says that FTT won’t play a role in the potential FTX recovery  whether the decision to redact the identities of FTX customers was right Thank you to our sponsors! Crypto.com Proton Railgun DAO Guest Thomas Braziel, Founder of 507 Capital Previous appearances on Unchained Will FTX Customers Ever Recover Their Assets? Two Insolvency Experts Weigh In Will Celsius Survive the Bankruptcy Process? How Crypto Bankruptcy Claims Buyers Will Profit From the Collapse of FTX Links Previous coverage of Unchained on Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX: The Chopping Block: Was FTX a Scam From the Very Beginning?  How Much Prison Time Is FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried Facing?  Why the Legal Process for FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried Could Take Years The Chopping Block: SBF Wants to Win in the Court of Public Opinion. Will He? Jesse Powell and Kevin Zhou on How FTX and Alameda Lost $10 Billion Is the Collapse of Crypto Lending Over, or Is It Just Starting? Did the Bahamian Government Direct SBF and Gary Wang to Hack FTX? The Chopping Block: Why Lenders Didn’t Liquidate Alameda When It Was Underwater  Erik Voorhees and Cobie on Why FTX Loaned Out Customers’ Assets The Chopping Block: FTX: The Biggest Collapse in the History of Crypto? Sam Bankman-Fried on How to Prevent the Next Terra and 3AC CoinDesk: FTX Customers Have Until End-September to Submit Bankruptcy Claims Unchained: FTX Sues Former Compliance Chief Who Allegedly Silenced Whistleblowers FTX Stops Sale of $500 Million Stake in AI Firm Anthropic: Report FTX Recovers $7 Billion in Assets in Liquid Assets WSJ: FTX Begins Talks on Reboot Amid Regulatory Crackdown on Crypto Exchanges  Bloomberg: Bankman-Fried's FTX Halts Sale of $500 Million AI Startup Anthropic Stake Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices