Bankless

Washington takes center stage this week as crypto collides with power, policy, and markets. Ryan and David break down the CLARITY Act fight in the Senate, why banks want to kill stablecoin yield, and why Coinbase says the bill may be worse than no bill at all. They also unpack Trump’s DOJ targeting Jerome Powell and what it means for Fed independence, silver’s explosive move as markets search for safety, X’s push toward becoming a crypto super app, and the NYC mayor’s meme coin disaster. Plus: Tom Lee’s surprising MrBeast investment and what it signals about capital, culture, and crypto’s next phase. --- 📣ZAMA | $ZAMA PUBLIC AUCTION  https://bankless.cc/zama-auction --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast 🏅BITGET TRADFI | TRADE GOLD WITH USDT https://bankless.cc/bitget 👑BANKLESS PREMIUM | AD-FREE & BONUS EPISODES https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://bankless.cc/TDR-pro 💰ICO WATCH | UPCOMING PUBLIC TOKEN SALES https://bankless.cc/ico-watch --- TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES 0:00 Intro 2:25 DOJ opened an investigation into Jerome Powell https://x.com/federalreserve/status/2010510130970849338  https://x.com/federalreserve/status/2010510130970849338 https://x.com/LynAldenContact/status/2010526966953202125 https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/powell-probe-highlights-trump-doj-role-white-house-enforcer-2026-01-14/ https://polymarket.com/event/jerome-powell-out-as-fed-chair-by 10:44 Markets https://x.com/JesseCohenInv/status/2011311082896572766 https://www.coinnews.net/2025/01/09/american-silver-eagle-series-welcomes-2025-w-proof-edition/ https://www.google.com/finance/beta/quote/GLD:NYSEARCA https://x.com/echodatruth/status/2010568502474571870 https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/13/cpi-inflation-report-december-2026.html https://polymarket.com/dashboards/fed-rates 20:52 Most important Legislation for crypto…ever? https://x.com/Cointelegraph/status/2010709769187676430 https://x.com/DavidMMcintosh/status/2010389058271289845 https://www.aba.com/-/media/documents/letters-to-congress-and-regulators/ltrsenatestablecoin20260105.pdf https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2026/01/11/jpmorgan-downplays-stablecoin-threat-as-local-bankers-warn-of-usd6-6t-risk https://x.com/EleanorTerrett/status/2009795675635306737 https://x.com/USTransparent https://x.com/haydenzadams/status/2009809558605299914 https://x.com/SenLummis/status/2010939496830030038 https://x.com/jchervinsky/status/2011464338528166081 https://x.com/jchervinsky/status/2011464341556428936 https://x.com/davidsacks47/status/2011650262361129193 https://polymarket.com/event/clarity-act-signed-into-law-in-2026 https://x.com/Matt_Hougan/status/2010841027800895514 42:09 NYC Mayor Eric Adams issued a memecoin https://x.com/runecrypto_/status/2010847811781230781 https://x.com/ericadamsfornyc/status/2010849167258566727 https://x.com/bubblemaps/status/2010890093431832789 https://x.com/ericadamsfornyc/status/2011541285354815932 https://x.com/buynyctoken/status/2011501230288257452 https://x.com/haydenzadams/status/2010945632505127317 46:41 TOM LEE - BITMINE….invests $200m in MR BEAST MEDIA https://x.com/DegenerateNews/status/2011774463818518813  https://x.com/DegenerateNews/status/2011810278980120830  49:53 World Liberty Financial launched a lending platform https://worldlibertyfinancial.com/markets https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2026/01/13/senate-s-warren-wlfi-tied-bank-application-should-be-halted-until-trump-divests https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/dolomite 51:45 Polygon….ALL IN on STABLECOIN STACK with two major acquisitions https://x.com/0xPolygon/status/2011076681302446556 https://x.com/HadickM/status/2011099510957580437 https://x.com/sandeepnailwal/status/2009763000895344766 https://x.com/obchakevich_/status/2008876239285637419 54:21 X is rolling out Smart Cashtags & Killing InfoFi https://x.com/nikitabier/status/2010277345651990564 https://x.com/jessepollak/status/2010404608263520356 https://www.theblock.co/post/385805/kaito-token-plummets-x-revises-api-policies-ban-infofi-crypto-projects https://x.com/nikitabier/status/2011825522817270230 https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/kaito 58:33 BitGo IPO - $2 billion! ($100 billion in custody) https://x.com/AccessIPOs/status/2010727529238417549 59:16 The Golden Globes integrated Polymarket into their broadcast https://x.com/shayne_coplan/status/2010862175607488709 1:00:38 David’s Market of the Week https://polymarket.com/event/khamenei-out-as-supreme-leader-of-iran-by-january-31 https://x.com/polymarket/status/2009382529384497184 1:05:00 Closing & Disclaimers --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

What if the biggest threat to your freedom isn’t a bad decision - but a scoreboard you never agreed to? Philosopher C. Thi Nguyen joins Bankless to unpack how modern life quietly turns values into points: likes, GPAs, net worth, rankings, and performance metrics that feel objective - but often flatten what matters most. We explore what games really are, why “gamified” platforms like social media can be uniquely corrosive, and how “value capture” pulls you from meaning into measurable proxies. Then we get practical: playfulness, reflective control, and “value federalism” as ways to use metrics without letting them use you. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast 👑BANKLESS PREMIUM | AD-FREE & BONUS EPISODES https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://bankless.cc/the-defi-report 💰ICO WATCH | UPCOMING PUBLIC TOKEN SALES https://bankless.cc/ico-watch --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 0:58 “Is this the game you really want to be playing?” 5:45 What counts as a game (Bernard Suits’ definition) 11:38 Bankless “serious games” and the cheating test 16:29 Social media as “game-ish,” not truly a game 21:28 The magic circle and why points get dangerous 24:08 Rotten Tomatoes vs. forming your own taste 33:27 Portability: why metrics flatten nuance 38:15 Value capture: when your values get outsourced 45:52 Plato’s cave: “metrics are the new shadows” 54:12 The outsourcing dilemma: we can’t know everything 1:01:47 Playfulness as an antidote to metric hypnosis 1:12:55 Switching rule-sets: D&D, indie games, and redesigning incentives 1:16:22 Reflective control: using metrics without being used 1:20:21 Two endings: cynicism, hope, and the tradeoff of scale 1:23:38 Value federalism + why "Civilization" makes Thi miserable --- RESOURCES C. Thi Nguyen https://x.com/add_hawk C. Thi Nguyen’s “The Score” Book https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/457380/the-score-by-nguyen-c-thi/9780241653975 --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Is Canton a real blockchain or a new kind of capital-markets operating system? Digital Asset co-founder Yuval Rooz explains why Canton prioritizes privacy as “need-to-know” information sharing and a federated “cantons” design that still allows atomic cross-canton transactions without bridges. We unpack the two-tier architecture (edge validators + super validators that stitch cantons together and validate the public Canton Coin) and what that means for governance in regulated finance. Plus: DTCC’s tokenization pilot starting with U.S. Treasuries, and why CC fees are USD-denominated with a burn/mint mechanism designed to track real network utility.  ------ 🎬 DEBRIEF | RYAN & DAVID UNPACKING THE EPISODE https://www.bankless.com/podcast/debrief-is-canton-even-a-real-blockchain ------ 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast 👑BANKLESS PREMIUM | AD-FREE & BONUS EPISODES https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://bankless.cc/the-defi-report 💰ICO WATCH | UPCOMING PUBLIC TOKEN SALES https://bankless.cc/ico-watch ------ TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 0:57 Canton Origin 8:02 Vitalik’s Post 14:15 Canton Philosophy 24:19 Canton Architecture vs Competitors 34:27 RWA Property Rights Debate 38:17 Canto Super-Validators 50:39 Canton Critiques 56:56 Decentralized vs Open Finance 1:02:16 Are Decentralized RWAs Possible? 1:07:04 Is Canton a Real Blockchain? 1:14:20 Canton Metrics 1:22:17 DTCC Relationship 1:25:27 Canton Token 1:30:43 Ethereum vs Canton in 2030 1:31:55 Closing & Disclaimers ------ RESOURCES Yuval Rooz https://x.com/YuvalRooz  Canton https://www.canton.network/  Omid Malekan vs Austin Campbell Professor Debate https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-h-PeUOvDw RWA Analytics https://app.rwa.xyz/  ------ Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠

Prediction markets are turning into real-time intelligence, and policymakers are already reacting. In this week’s Weekly Rollup, Ryan and David unpack the Venezuela “Maduro” trade, the debate over fairness vs. public signal, and Polymarket’s expansion into real estate markets. They also cover Bitcoin’s lowest-vol year ever, Solana’s DEX surge, Ethereum’s stablecoin settlement ATH, Morgan Stanley’s crypto ETF filings, Zcash’s governance blowup, Lighter’s massive $LIT airdrop, Vitalik’s “trilemma solved” claim, Wyoming’s state stablecoin, and Strategy’s path toward major indices. --- 📣ZAMA | $ZAMA PUBLIC AUCTION  https://bankless.cc/zama-auction --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast 👑BANKLESS PREMIUM | AD-FREE & BONUS EPISODES https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://bankless.cc/the-defi-report 💰ICO WATCH | UPCOMING PUBLIC TOKEN SALES https://bankless.cc/ico-watch --- TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES 0:00 Intro 2:49 Markets https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/2025-ray-dalio-kaf8e/ https://x.com/dampedspring/status/2008568524046991733 https://www.coinglass.com/pro/i/bl https://www.dlnews.com/articles/regulation/bitcoin-least-volatile-year/ https://x.com/NTmoney/status/2007111582317215767 https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2007167084980044071 https://x.com/smyyguy/status/2009282261384888407 https://x.com/Cointelegraph/status/2007980573365502161 https://x.com/ericbalchunas/status/2008527564550156315 https://x.com/WatcherGuru/status/2008926447205843202 https://x.com/Matt_Hougan/status/2008542347425149247 14:03 Did Polymarket reveal the Venezuela invasion hours prior the announcement? https://www.war.gov/News/News-Stories/Article/Article/4370431/trump-announces-us-militarys-capture-of-maduro/ https://x.com/JoePompliano/status/2007455311351718118 https://x.com/0xKelle/status/2008099287851561262 https://x.com/JakeSherman/status/2007497192974459372 https://x.com/QuiverQuant/status/2008029132484206664 https://x.com/WatcherGuru/status/2008245382539882784 https://x.com/zoomerfied/status/2008184924377960502 25:41 Polymarket Market of the Week 27:42 ZEC dump and resignation  https://x.com/solidintel_x/status/2009172254496870816 https://x.com/DefiIgnas/status/2009235841751613660 31:05 Lighter launched the Lighter Infrastructure Token https://x.com/Lighter_xyz/status/2005862682608472263 https://x.com/bubblemaps/status/2006296418622001313 https://defillama.com/protocol/perps/lighter-perps https://x.com/Lighter_xyz/status/2008309047787753497 35:27 Has Ethereum resolved the blockchain trilemma?  https://x.com/VitalikButerin/status/2007559523528233041 https://x.com/ralexstokes/status/2008707458563535022 https://x.com/VitalikButerin/status/2008174642066845778 https://x.com/dankrad/status/2008466291913265443 45:49 SEC Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw resigned https://x.com/EleanorTerrett/status/2007195935403847868 46:32 Major US retailers are accepting crypto payments https://finance.yahoo.com/news/walmart-starbucks-more-accepting-crypto-202205775.html 48:14 Wyoming launches first US state-issued stablecoin https://x.com/WatcherGuru/status/2008958574962028924 50:00 MSCI decided not to exclude DATs from their indexes https://www.msci.com/indexes/index-resources/index-announcements 51:28 Closing & Disclaimers  --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Brent Johnson returns to Bankless to update the Dollar Milkshake Theory and explain why the de-dollarization narrative misses the bigger trend. He argues markets may want out of the dollar, but the Eurodollar system keeps pulling demand back in, and “dollar down” headlines do not break the framework. Brent also covers how debt stress can spill into political instability, why stablecoins and the GENIUS Act could accelerate re-dollarization, and what this means for monetary sovereignty. We close with China’s counter-strategy and how Brent thinks about positioning from here. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- 👑BANKLESS PREMIUM | AD-FREE & BONUS EPISODES https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://bankless.cc/the-defi-report 💰ICO WATCH | UPCOMING PUBLIC TOKEN SALES https://bankless.cc/ico-watch --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 1:20 De-Dollarizing vs Re-Dollarizing: Milkshake Recap 4:18 What a Sovereign Debt Crisis Actually Means 5:45 Central Banks as “Professional Can-Kickers” 8:56 Can They Slowly Let the Air Out? 11:03 Can AI Productivity Save the System? 13:06 2025 Setup: The Narrative for Dedollarization 18:06 BRICS: Conference Talk vs Structural Reality 23:37 Store of Value vs Medium of Exchange 34:24 “Crisis = Dollar Up” (and the April Exception) 39:06 Stablecoin Redollarization and the GENIUS Act 47:20 Monetary Sovereignty, Faster Bank Runs, Faster Dollarization 52:34 China’s Response: Two Currency Stacks 54:21 Positioning as an Investor --- RESOURCES Brent Johnson https://x.com/SantiagoAuFund The Dollar Milkshake Theory https://research.santiagocapital.com/p/the-dollar-milkshake --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures