Blog: Unchained Podcast

Ryan Watkins and Wilson Withiam, senior research analysts at Messari, explain the nuts and bolts of Ethereum 2.0, including how it will transform ETH as an asset and why they believe it will be Ethereum’s most ambitious upgrade yet. Topics include: the different phases of Ethereum 2.0 and the functions they serve...

This episode is a discussion from Stellar's Meridian conference, in which I moderated the panel, Crypto on Every Corner: Driving Adoption, featuring Jeremy Allaire, cofounder, chairman and CEO of Circle, and Meltem Demirors, chief strategy officer at CoinShares. In this discussion, we cover: what adoption means and looks like...

Christine Sandler, head of sales and marketing at Fidelity Digital Assets, talks about how 30 years in traditional finance and an early retirement led her to Coinbase, and, eventually, Fidelity Digital Assets. She discusses the history of Fidelity's involvement in crypto, how they became one of the first to enter the space, and what the future holds. Topics include:...

Nic Carter, general partner at Castle Island Ventures, and cofounder and chairman of Coin Metrics, explains why the Bitcoin price has been rising without the retail bubble seen in 2017-2018. In this episode he covers: how this Bitcoin rally differs from the ones in 2017-2018 and why the market is much more mature...

Plus, 9 reasons Bitcoin is near its ATH Binance is taking on the media with a defamation lawsuit against Forbes filed in the U.S. District Court in New Jersey over Forbes' October story reporting on the leaked "Tai Chi" document. Bitcoin has seen one of its most bullish weeks in years, with the price continuing to hover close to all-time...

Jake Chervinsky, general counsel at Compound Labs, and Kristin Smith, executive director of The Blockchain Association, talk about the storm brewing in the cryptosphere involving self-custody and privacy. In this episode, they cover: the differences between hosted and self-hosted wallets and how transactions between them differ...

And Binance begins to block US customers This week, the Ethereum community was rattled by a surprise chain-split that some called an unannounced hard fork, leading to demands for increased transparency from Ethereum devs. The other big news this week: Bitcoin surpassed $16k for the first time in three years. Meanwhile, big-name...

Paxos CEO and cofounder Chad Cascarilla discusses his company's partnership with PayPal, which just opened up its crypto purchase and selling product to all its US customers. In this episode, he covers: how Paxos enables PayPal's crypto product the regulatory...

In this episode, Dan Tapiero, founder of 10T Holdings and Gold Bullion International, and Cathie Wood, CEO and CIO at ARK Invest, discuss the long election week in the U.S. and how they believe Bitcoin will behave in a post- election world. They also talk about: how a changeover from a Trump to a Biden administration could affect Bitcoin...

Kristin Smith, executive director of the Blockchain Association and a board member of HODLpac, discusses how advocating for crypto will change under what is likely to be a new presidential administration. In this episode she talks about: what crypto advocacy typically entails...

And $15k BTC! The election is front and center in everyone's mind this week -- and that even applies to the world of crypto. For the first time, one of the largest non-profit news agencies in America has been using blockchain to verify the accuracy of election results. And a big name in the crypto world made an eye-popping donation to a presidential...

In this seventh installment of the Why Bitcoin Now series, Meltem Demirors, the chief strategy officer at Coinshares, and Lyn Alden, the founder of Lyn Alden Investment Strategy, discuss the state of Bitcoin since June, amidst the presidential election – which takes place on the date of publication of the show -- and a global pandemic. Topics discussed include:...

Banks Bitcoin After years of skepticism, JPMorgan sent out its rationale for why Bitcoin could double or triple in a research note sent out to its...

Matt Hougan, chief investment officer of Bitwise Asset Management, discusses a milestone Bitwise reached this week -- hitting $100 million in assets under management. He also covered what has been driving interest in Bitwise products the two types of customers who have...

Brian Brooks got his start in traditional finance before joining Coinbase in 2018 and is currently the acting comptroller of the currency. In this episode, he discusses: how his background in traditional financial services led him to take a position at Coinbase whether the...

Willy Woo, on-chain Bitcoin analyst and writer of “The Bitcoin Forecast,” a market intelligence newsletter, discusses how the Bitcoin markets have been changing amidst what may be a forthcoming ebbing of derivatives exchanges and a revival of the importance of spot exchanges. In this episode, he covers: what the PayPal news means when there are...

Plus: the crypto companies turning away business What may prove to be the crypto news of the year broke this week, with the long-rumored announcement by PayPal that support for buying, selling, hodling, and purchasing will soon make its way to the company's customers. Filecoin continues forward with its long-awaited mainnet as several of its top miners object to the...

Magistrate judge Zia Faruqui, and Jessi Brooks, assistant U.S. attorney in the national security section at the United States Attorney’s Office, have prosecuted several cryptocurrency-related cases, many of them amongst the most well-known. In this episode, they talk about: how they came to be involved in the prosecution of so many cases...

Jessie Liu, partner at Skadden and the former US attorney for the District of Columbia, headed up the team that has prosecuted what some believe is the greatest number of cryptocurrency crimes worldwide — Welcome to Video, Dark Scandals, Helix, North Korea, Hamas/Al Qaeda and ISIS. In this episode, she discusses: how she came to create a Threat...

\+ CFTC Chair Gushes About ETH This week, another big institutional player invested an eye-opening sum in Bitcoin, while BTC's overall bullish trend shows no signs of slowing down. CFTC Chairman Heath Tarbert praised Ethereum while dancing around whether ETH or the greater DeFi landscape should be labeled securities or commodities. We also have a roundup of the latest...