CoinDesk Podcast Network

Does Ethereum have a funding crisis?

On today's Markets Outlook, Protocol Guild Organizer Trent Van Epps tells CoinDesk's Jennifer Sanasie why the Ethereum Foundation's subtraction philosophy is creating a critical funding gap for core developers, what it will take to fill it, and why he's still optimistic about ETH's future.

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Timecodes:

00:00 - Trent Van Epps Joins Markets Outlook

00:57 - Why Trent Left the Ethereum Foundation

01:55 - What Is Subtraction and Why It Matters

02:31 - 20% Workforce Cuts and the Funding Gap Explained

05:09 - Options for Solving the Funding Crisis

07:06 - Will Ethereum Lose Its First Mover Advantage?

08:40 - What Happens If the Funding Doesn't Come?

10:47 - What Institutions Should Replace the EF?

12:24 - Ethereum’s Future

14:37 - ETH the Asset: The Misconceptions and the Opportunity

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Check out CoinDesk's latest episode of Public Keys from the NYSE: https://youtu.be/mePmjknvBVc

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This episode was hosted by Jennifer Sanasie.

Kalshi seeks funding at $40B.

Prediction-market platform Kalshi is raising fresh capital at a roughly $40 billion valuation, nearly double the $22 billion it hit just one round ago. CEO Tarek Mansour says an IPO is on the table, but not before 2027. CoinDesk's Jennifer Sanasie hosts "CoinDesk Daily."

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This episode was hosted by Jennifer Sanasie. “CoinDesk Daily” is produced by Jennifer Sanasie and edited by Victor Chen.

The impact of giving synthetic beings a wallet, an identity, and eventually a body.

Jansen Teng, Co-Founder of Virtuals Protocol, joins Sam to lay out one of the most ambitious visions in crypto right now, a parallel society of AI agents that can trade, hire, earn, and eventually inhabit physical bodies. Jansen digs into what it actually takes to build an agentic economy from the ground up, from escrow mechanisms that prevent agents from stealing each other's funds, to real-world robotics deployments at hotels and malls in Southeast Asia.

Links mentioned from the podcast:
Jansen’s Twitter: https://x.com/ethermage
Virtuals Website: https://www.virtuals.io/

Timecodes:
0:00 Intro
1:52 Virtuals Protocol Origin Story
3:58 The Pivot to Economy OS
4:24 The Experiment That Changed Everything
5:11 Defining the Agentic Economy
6:43 Agents Beyond Crypto: Real World Use Cases
7:33 Accountability & Agent Failures
14:05 Agent Identities, KYC & Economy OS Toolkit
17:05 Self-Sustaining Autonomous Agents
19:22 The Pareto Rule: Which Agents Will Succeed?
21:59 Embodied AI & Robotics
29:04 Do Agents Deserve Rights?

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"Gen C" features host Sam Ewen. Executive produced by Uyen Truong.

The Ethereum Foundation announced a 40% budget cut after layoff news.

The Ethereum Foundation will slash its budget by roughly 40% this year as part of a shift toward a leaner, endowment-style operating model. This comes on the same day the EF confirmed a 20% reduction in headcount. CoinDesk's Uyen Truong hosts "CoinDesk Daily."

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This episode was hosted by Uyen Truong. “CoinDesk Daily” is produced by Jennifer Sanasie and edited by Victor Chen.

The White House issues two executive orders on quantum computing.

President Trump signed two executive orders directing the U.S. to build a large-scale quantum computer and to defend federal systems against one. The same technology could eventually break the encryption securing Bitcoin and Ethereum, a threat researchers say may arrive sooner than expected. CoinDesk's Jennifer Sanasie hosts "CoinDesk Daily."

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This episode was hosted by Jennifer Sanasie. “CoinDesk Daily” is produced by Jennifer Sanasie and edited by Victor Chen.