The gang is joined by Unchained host Laura Shin to discuss the latest manifesto from Ethereum’s co-founder, as well as the likely impact of the impending approval of a U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF.

Chris Burniske and two proponents of each approach discuss their different characteristics and relative benefits, and what will drive the next crypto bull cycle.

Jito Labs CEO Lucas Bruder discusses the ins and outs of maximum extractable value (MEV) and how the Jito airdrop rejuvenated Solana.

Arthur Hayes, Chief Investment Officer of Maelstrom, delves into the anticipated bull run in crypto, the potential collapse of the traditional financial system, and his unique take on Bitcoin, Ethereum, shitcoins, and more.

2023 was another packed year for crypto, with some big winners, and regulatory news taking the main spot.

Li Jin of Variant Fund dives into the trend of points in crypto: why projects favor points over tokens, the art of designing such systems, and the potential of on-chain points.

Swan founder and CEO Cory Klippsten is all-in on Bitcoin. Not only does he believe that Bitcoin is poised to reach $1 million by 2030, he also thinks most alt-coins add little to no value and will eventually all go to zero.

Was the year’s biggest winner Solana, Tether or Brad Garlinghouse? Was its biggest loser Michael Lewis or the SEC? Hear the arguments for and against these choices, and many others, in today’s year-end episode.

Bloomberg analyst James Seyffart explains why it seems the SEC prefers cash vs. in-kind creation of spot bitcoin ETFs, and why this choice would negatively impact Grayscale.

Experts Dorothy DeWitt and Michael Dawson discuss the implications, challenges, and potential outcomes of Binance's compliance monitorship.

Raoul Pal describes the likely scenarios for where Bitcoin’s price goes next year, and also discusses the relative merits of Ether vs. Solana and the usefulness of BRC-20 tokens.

Pseudonymous white hat Samczsun argues that crypto security has improved significantly in recent years and explains what individuals can do to improve their personal crypto security.

Things looked bleak for Solana after the collapse of FTX. Anatoly Yakovenko explains how the blockchain rebounded so successfully that SOL became the best performing top crypto in 2023.

Welcome to The Chopping Block — where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest news. This week, the gang sits down with Ogle Crypto, a veteran negotiator in crypto hacks, to discuss the recent KyberSwap exploit, which involved an almost $50 million loss across various chains.

Vivek Ramaswamy is likely the biggest supporter of crypto among the current crop of presidential candidates. But his enthusiasm comes not from an inherent love of the technology or its principles themselves, but a dissatisfaction with what he calls the “administrative state” that’s stifled innovation in a number of important industries, crypto among them.

A pair of crypto industry tax experts describe the problems with the tax agency’s new reporting proposals and suggest alternatives.

Tiffany Fong has had an unusual route to crypto fame. After losing most of her life savings in the Celsius bankruptcy, she began posting on YouTube about her experiences and eventually received some leaked documents, which she shared with The New York Times and on her channel. The leaks gave her some visibility, and that’s when Sam Bankman-Fried began following her on Twitter.

Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest news. This week, the gang breaks down the record $4.3 billion settlement between Binance and the U.S. government — whether it was fair, the chances CEO Changpeng Zhao will face any jail time, whether it was ultimately a good thing for Binance and for the U.S., and what this changes for the industry going forward. They also delve into the SEC’s lawsuit against Kraken, and the drama around Sam Altman’s firing from Open AI and what it says about corporate governance and crypto companies.

Financial advisors in the US control $8 trillion in assets. Here’s why 77% are waiting for spot Bitcoin ETFs.

Coin Center’s Peter Van Valkenburgh believes that the U.S. Treasury could use the Bank Secrecy Act in a dark way against crypto developers.

The recent Wall Street Journal article that claimed Hamas raised $130 million via cryptocurrency has sparked considerable debate, especially after Sen. Elizabeth Warren used it as her sole source to ask for tighter regulations around crypto. However, the veracity of this claim has come under scrutiny.

Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest news. This week, the gang welcomes Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who discusses his mission to end the U.S. government’s regulatory overreach of the crypto industry, the parallels between crypto and the biotech industry where he came from, whether “code is law” is an appropriate framework for crypto regulation, how Bitcoin could be a check on the Fed, and how less regulation would actually lead to fewer, not more, instances of fraud like FTX.

NFT expert gmoney says that OpenSea “rested on their laurels” far too long. Can the once-leading marketplace rise again?

Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest news. This week, they explore the enigmatic 'unhinged scale' metric, consider whether recent layoffs could have been anticipated, and examine the challenges facing the NFT market. They also provide a somewhat critical look at the events of the recent BAYC Apefest and share their takeaways on how Solana survived the Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX fiasco.

In this episode of Unchained, Laura does a detailed unpacking of the historic Sam Bankman-Fried trial and verdict with defense lawyer Sam Enzer and former Southern District of New York prosecutor Rich Cooper. They discuss what a thorough job the government did in presenting its case, whether the government will pursue a second trial on campaign finance charges, why it takes so long for sentencing to occur, what the differences between this case and the Bernie Madoff case are, and what Bankman-Fried’s likely sentence will be.