Good Sunday!
Quick favor: We're deciding what Unchained does next; new shows, stream times, what's worth paying for.
Our listener survey takes five minutes, it's anonymous, and I read the write-in answers myself. Everyone who takes it can enter a drawing for a free year of Unchained Premium or Bits + Bips Premium. Open through Sunday, October 18.
🎧 PODCAST SPOTLIGHT • PRESENTED BY 1INCH
Crypto’s biggest legislative push just collapsed, and the fallout is already spreading.
The Clarity Act failed a 49-50 Senate cloture vote, raising questions about whether crypto can still get legislation through Congress.
On Uneasy Money, Delphi Ventures’ Tommy Shaughnessy joins Kain Warwick and Taylor Monahan to unpack what went wrong, why AI labs may be pushing for regulation, and whether crypto squandered its best shot at clear rules.
Shaughnessy argues that calls to slow AI could become a regulatory moat against cheaper Chinese models, while the conversation also digs into an Anthropic surveillance report, a Safe wallet exploit, and alleged insider trading involving Robinhood engineers.
Two days after the Clarity Act failed, the SEC introduced an innovation exemption for tokenized stocks.
Digital Chamber CEO Cody Carbone joins Laura Shin to explain how regulators could move ahead without Congress, what killed the bill, and whether agency-driven crypto rulemaking can survive a change in administration.
Here’s more on what we unpacked this week on Unchained:
Ethena founder Guy Young explains why the company launched a neobank offering 6% yield and 5% cashback while keeping the stablecoin infrastructure largely invisible to users.
He also discusses USDe’s shift toward real-world-asset lending, the risks of KYC and self-custody, competition from Plasma, and why card spending and FX fees could matter more to Ethena than stablecoin yield.
This episode is brought to you by 1inch. Visit 1inch.com to swap tokenized securities, crypto and more. Simple. Secure. Self-custodial. Whatever asset you’re buying – swap it at 1inch.com.
The CLARITY Act falls short with 47 votes, leaving the industry to look toward SEC and CFTC rulemaking instead. The TCB crew also digs into Hunter Biden’s $LAPTOP token collapsing 99.85%, allegations of Robinhood engineer front-running on Hyperliquid, Balancer and other exchanges winding down, and whether AI labs should slow the frontier.
OpenAI says a swarm of AI agents solved the Navier-Stokes problem as Anthropic calls for slowing down the AI race.
Jordi Visser joins Austin, Ram, and Chris to debate whether the safety push is really about safety, why increasingly capable models could change the economics of AI, and what oil prices, Saudi infrastructure and grid capacity mean for markets.
All these episodes are available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.
In Case You Missed It 👀
If You Like Unchained:
🎧 Subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts!
