Unchained

Cap's founders on shrinking their Stabledrop from $11M to $4M — plus a $23M hack traced toward North Korea, a BarnBridge governance exploit, and Kain's case to force weak L2s to become their own L1s.

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

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).

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

Cap committed to a roughly 11 million dollar Stabledrop in February, promising early users stablecoins instead of tokens. A delayed token sale raised less than hoped, and the reward shrank to about 4 million, forcing a fast rewrite of who got paid.

Benjamin Sarquis Peillard, Founder and CEO of Cap, and Weso of Cap join Kain Warwick and Taylor Monahan to walk through a restructuring that made yield-token holders whole, left farmers without a windfall, and argue points programs are an uncapped marketing expense many projects cannot afford.

The conversation widens into EthSystems, a new Ethereum Foundation spinout backed by Joe Lubin, SharpLink and BitMine, Jesse Pollak handing Base product leadership to Cobie, Robinhood Chain's Morpho integration, and whether Ethereum mainnet undercharges L2s.

They revisit BarnBridge's SEC-era DAO structure, a dormant governance exploit, a MetaMask and Revoke.cash delegation tool, and a 23 million dollar Ostium hack Taylor traced toward North Korea.

Kain closes with a Three Mile Island analogy: complex systems fail not from one mistake, but from small shortcuts compounding at once.

Hosts:

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

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

Guests:

Benjamin Sarquis Peillard - Founder and CEO of Cap

Weso - Co-Founder of Cap

Timestamps

🪂 01:30 Benjamin and Weso explain how Cap's Stabledrop plan fell apart post-TGE

💸 08:05 Weso on why uncapped points programs turn into runaway marketing spend

🐦 21:31 Kain and Taylor on crypto Twitter's algorithm flip after a year of exile

📱 24:17 Cape: Get 33% off your first six months of privacy-first mobile service at https://cape.co/unchained

🏛️ 25:09 Why EthSystems, the newest EF spinout, splits Kain on bullish or bearish

🤝 30:20 Taylor on Jesse handing Base app duties to Cobie and what it signals

🎰 36:28 Robinhood Chain's memecoin surge, Morpho ties, and the Cashcat backstory

⚖️ 41:17 Is Ethereum undercharging L2s? Kain makes the case for pushing costs to L1

🔓 55:51 BarnBridge's SEC-era DAO, this week's governance exploit, and the Revoke.cash fix that stops it

☢️ 01:11:31 The Ostium hack: North Korea-linked actor, stolen keys, oracle compromise

💥 01:26:24 Closing rapid-fire: Euler's recovery and an old Vyper compiler bug revisited
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Two weeks after launch, 85% of Robinhood Chain's trading is memecoins and just 1% is RWAs. Johann Kerbrat says that doesn’t change the strategy.

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

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).

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

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev told CNBC on July 2 that real-world assets, not memecoins, were the future of crypto on Robinhood Chain. Two weeks after launch, the numbers disagree: roughly 85% of daily trading on the chain is memecoins, while tokenized RWAs sit at about 1%.

Johann Kerbrat, Vice President and General Manager of Robinhood Crypto, joins Laura Shin to argue the split is not a problem. He makes the case that building the chain permissionless was deliberate, and that memecoin trading through CashCat and PumpFun brings the liquidity RWAs will eventually need.

Kerbrat also defends building the chain's lending and margin system on USDG over USDC or Tether, walks through the separate, unshared liquidity instance behind Robinhood's new perps product with Lighter, and addresses Robinhood's 63% quarterly drop in crypto transaction revenue. His answer: Robinhood Chain was never meant to smooth out that swing, and the real test is whether tokenization can outrun regulation.

Host:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Laura Shin⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Host / Unchained

Guests:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Johann Kerbrat - Vice President and General Manager of Robinhood Crypto

Timestamps

🐸 01:06 Why memecoins are 85% of Robinhood Chain's DEX volume, not RWAs

🚀 05:35 Why PumpFun listing Robinhood Chain tokens was the result of their strategy

🔐 09:33 Where Robinhood's responsibility ends and the permissionless chain begins

📣 11:12 Cape: Use code UNCHAINED for 33% off your first six months at https://cape.co/unchained

⚡ 16:17 Why Robinhood built a separate Lighter instance for its perps

💵 20:24 Why USDG, not USDC or Tether, backs Robinhood Chain's lending and margin

📉 23:23 Does the chain mitigate the 63% swing crypto can have on Robinhood's earnings?
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Supreme Court just made it easier to fire SEC and CFTC commissioners. Katherine, Jessi, and Vy on why that could reset who controls crypto policy. Plus, the UK's new rulebook.

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

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 https://cape.co/unchained
(use code: UNCHAINED).

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

The Supreme Court just tore up a 90-year-old precedent that kept independent-agency commissioners safe from a president's whims, and almost no one in crypto is talking about what it means for the SEC and the CFTC.

Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos, Jessi Brooks, and Vy Le trace how the ruling in Trump v. Slaughter changes who actually controls financial regulation. Then they cross the Atlantic to the UK's sweeping new crypto rulebook and the European Commission's move to expand MiCA just as its first version fully takes effect.

They also dig into a Cambridge report showing fighters from one of the world's most brutal terror groups using chatbots to troubleshoot weapons and plan attacks, and ask why there's no Section 230 for crypto or AI, only a growing pile of civil lawsuits testing where liability lands.

Jessi Brooks argues crypto's decade of learning to police neutral technology might be the only playbook AI has left to borrow.

Host:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, General Counsel. Previously held senior legal roles across DeFi and centralized exchanges.

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jessi Brooks⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, General Counsel at Ribbit Capital⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Vy Le⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ - Co-host of DEX in the City and General Counsel of Veda

Timestamps

💙 00:28 Cape: Get 33% off your first six months of privacy-first mobile service at⁠ https://cape.co/unchained⁠

🇬🇧 01:05 Why the UK just published a crypto rulebook few even noticed

🇪🇺 13:15 Why Brussels wants to expand MiCA to cover tokenized assets and stablecoins

⚖️ 24:57 How the Supreme Court handed presidents new power over the SEC and CFTC

🏛️ 33:47 The legal reasoning behind the ruling, and why the Fed board was spared

🤖 39:37 The AI segment: a Cambridge report on Boko Haram's chatbot fueled weapons unit

⚖️ 47:58 Why crypto and AI both lack a Section 230, and who ends up getting sued

🦎 52:20 The good news: how TRM traced $15 million in crypto tied to wildlife trafficking
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nick Almond and Proph3t on ENS's treasury fight, the BonkDAO heist, and why Proph3t would not touch Venice's VVV token.

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

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).

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

Nick Johnson, the founder of ENS Labs, used his own tokens to kill a vote renewing ENS DAO's Security Council, potentially clearing the way for a foundation to take over a treasury worth more than $100 million.

Nick Almond, head of governance at the Jito Foundation, and Proph3t, cofounder of MetaDAO, join Laura Shin to untangle what that move reveals about who should control a DAO's money, and whether voting was ever the right way to decide it.

They trace ENS cofounder Jeff Lau's warning that the treasury became a honeypot with zero accountability, and the collapsing voter turnout that let a 3% token stake decide the DAO's fate. Proph3t makes the case for MetaDAO's decision markets over voting entirely, while Nick argues curated delegates solve the same capture problem without giving up the vote. They also cover the $20 million BonkDAO heist, pulled off with one proposal and seven votes, and the backlash over Dragonfly's investment in Venice's VVV token.

Both guests agree DAOs are near a bottom. What comes next depends on whether anyone tries something new.

Host:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Laura Shin⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Host / Unchained

Guests:

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Nick Almond - Head of Governance at the Jito Foundation

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Proph3t - Co-founder of MetaDAO

Timestamps

🏛️ 01:06 Laura frames the DAO reckoning: disbandments, low turnout, and the Venice fight

📉 08:26 How ENS DAO's collapsing voter turnout let a 3% stake decide its fate

⚖️ 12:55 Proph3t on why voting is a cost, and how a 51% attack captures a DAO

🏦 19:11 Nick maps DAOs' next phase: substructures picked for expertise, not popularity

🍯 24:09 Why Jeff Lau called ENS's treasury plan a honeypot with zero accountability

📣 28:50 Cape: Get 33% off six months of privacy first mobile service at https://cape.co/unchained

🏗️ 29:49 Why founders like Nick Johnson get vilified for wanting DAOs to run efficiently

🗳️ 36:35 Why Nick Johnson's silent vote against ENS's Security Council reads as an attack

💰 41:34 How BonkDAO lost $20 million to one proposal backed by just seven votes

🧩 46:22 Why Proph3t would not buy Venice's VVV token despite defending its disclosures

🔮 56:45 Proph3t on MetaDAO's origin story: pro oversight, not pro governance
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Austin Campbell draws a parallel between the AI data center backlash and the decades-long collapse of US nuclear power, then Sam Lyman of the Bitcoin Policy Institute puts real odds on whether the Clarity Act passes the Senate before August recess.

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:

Sam Lyman - Head of Research at the Bitcoin Policy Institute

This clip is from a longer conversation on foreign funded opposition to AI data centers and the odds of the Clarity Act passing. Full episode here: https://youtu.be/-xbSniveaQU

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

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).

Chapters:

🏗️ 00:00 Austin compares the AI backlash to nuclear power's collapse, citing Indian Point

🧭 01:21 Sam calls nuclear the ideal analogy: a problem we solved, then banned

🏠 02:10 Why Sam says AI's real opposition comes from inside the house

👷 02:37 The blue-collar AI boom: construction jobs, electricians, and data centers

🗳️ 04:07 Ram says political leadership, not just technology, has to show up

🎯 05:15 Sam puts Clarity's odds at 70% before August recess

⏳ 06:55 Why the August recess deadline is the real driver of momentum

📉 07:38 Sam's odds drop to 35 to 40% if Congress doesn't act in the next few weeks
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices