Bankless

Crypto’s old leaders are struggling, but new winners are breaking out. Ryan and David unpack the rise of HYPE, Zcash, and Venice, the macro bear fuel markets are ignoring, the EF talent exodus, and why David selling his last ETH may mark a new era for Ethereum and Bankless.

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TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES

0:00 Intro

3:28 Bear Fuel for Markets & Pockets of Bullishness in Crypto

https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2056184339390419205

https://x.com/Barchart/status/2056350919139500364

https://x.com/JesseCohenInv/status/2056297490366837184

https://imgur.com/YqnyoBc

https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2056556783221502060

https://polymarket.com/event/how-many-fed-rate-cuts-in-2026

https://thedefireport.io/research/signs-of-a-cycle-bottom#macro-update

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/21/iran-war-us-peace-talks-trump-hormuz.html

https://polymarket.com/event/us-x-iran-permanent-peace-deal-by

21:27 Hyperliquid, HYPE, and Pre-IPO Price Discovery

https://x.com/Matt_Hougan/status/2056720926234882533

https://polymarket.com/event/openai-ipo-closing-market-cap

https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/05/20/elon-musk-s-spacex-holds-18-712-bitcoin-at-fair-value-of-usd1-29-billion-ipo-filing-shows

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/sec-readies-plan-trading-crypto-versions-stocks-bloomberg-news-reports-2026-05-18/

https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/05/21/binance-launches-spacex-pre-ipo-perps

32:43 Wintermute Opens DeFi Vaults on Morpho

https://www.wintermute.com/insights/news/wintermute-launches-armitage-bringing-its-defi-and-trading-expertise-to-vault-curation

https://x.com/wintermute_t/status/2056722776241902065

https://bitwiseinvestments.com/newsroom/bitwise-expands-onchain-solutions-with-introduction-of-non-custodial-vault

38:12  Trump’s Quantum Bets and U.S. Industrial Policy & Blockchain.com IPO and Ronin Migrates to Ethereum L2

https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2057431484915454235

https://www.theblock.co/post/402182/blockchain-com-confidentially-files-for-us-ipo-as-crypto-firms-continue-public-market-push

https://www.coindesk.com/tech/2026/05/11/ronin-set-to-transition-to-ethereum-layer-2-from-independent-sidechain

46:34 EF Exodus and Ethereum’s Identity Crisis

https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/2056383261648015443

https://x.com/drjasper_eth/status/2056405742769377490/photo/1

https://x.com/tkstanczak/status/2022315368430067847

https://x.com/0xstark/status/2044757694389670239

https://x.com/trent_vanepps/status/2044412517313556786

https://x.com/barnabemonnot/status/2053914533211558331

https://x.com/TimBeiko/status/2050570831491645874

https://blog.ethereum.org/2026/05/11/protocol-update-may-26

https://x.com/CarlBeek/status/2056379557889143042

https://x.com/_julianma/status/2056391635731128763

https://x.com/DefiIgnas/status/2056403039968174208

https://www.theblock.co/post/395541/miladys-loyalty-pledge-unnecessary-culture-schism-ethereum-community

https://x.com/josephdelong/status/2019116049694880021

https://x.com/dankrad/status/2057441946616930799

https://x.com/ETH_Daily/status/2056549932455330020

https://x.com/wmougayar/status/2047274807230611805

1:00:04 David Sold His ETH and a New Era for Bankless

https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/2057183150816583834

https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/2057216981368221776

1:10:00 Moment of Zen

https://x.com/ethcforg/status/2057474005913792654 

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Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:

https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Bitcoin may be outgrowing the “digital gold” narrative. David sits down with Strive Chief Risk Officer Jeff Walton to unpack how Bitcoin-backed credit products like SATA and Strategy’s STRETCH could turn BTC into digital capital, why Jeff says the “Ponzi” framing misunderstands the balance sheet, how 13% yield and daily dividends could disrupt credit markets, and why this new financial layer may expand Bitcoin’s TAM far beyond gold.

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🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY to OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDE

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🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOW

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🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD

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💰NEXO | Get your 30-day access to Wealth Club Premier

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TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro

1:59 Stretch, Risk, and Balance Sheets

5:28 Dividend Backstop Debate

8:53 Measuring Bitcoin Downside

15:25 Success as Long-Tail Risk

19:17 Common Equity as Revenue

25:57 Digital Credit’s Massive Market

29:37 Credit, Liquidity, and Yield

33:02 Banks, Trust, and Inflation

36:08 Trust Networks Rebuilt

40:26 Digital Labor and Yield

44:38 Bitcoin’s Growing Capital Base

48:36 S-Curve and Market Size

52:36 Building on Bitcoin Instruments

55:58 Transforming the Asset

59:12 Co-opetition in Bitcoin Credit

1:03:23 Low Vol for Long Holders

1:09:13 Strive Versus Strategy

1:12:38 Scaling Faster Than Strategy

1:14:38 Jeff’s Bitcoin Origin Story

1:17:30 Closing & Disclaimers

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RESOURCES

Jeff Walton

https://x.com/PunterJeff

True North Show

https://www.youtube.com/@BTCTrueNorth

Jeff’s Coffeezilla Interview

https://youtu.be/pvZnpppwkoM?si=lXcF6r02yzmYE9jt

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Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:

https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Zcash is having its first real narrative moment in years. David sits down with Multicoin Capital co-founder Tushar Jain and Mert Mumtaz to unpack why privacy may be crypto’s missing store-of-value primitive, why Zcash is being framed as “private Bitcoin,” how institutional adoption could normalize shielded money, what AI and onchain surveillance change about the privacy debate, and why quantum risk could become a real catalyst.

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🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOW
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🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD
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TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Why Multicoin Got Interested in Zcash
5:22 Mert’s Path from Solana to Zcash
9:57 Why Zcash, Why Now?
17:01 The Institutional Path for Private Money
22:03 Zcash as a Private Store of Value
25:27 Fungibility, Tainted Coins, and Financial History
27:26 The Bear Case: Does Anyone Really Care About Privacy?
34:43 Onchain Surveillance and Government Power
39:13 Zcash Tokenomics and the Forgotten Coin Thesis
44:58 The Last PVE in Crypto
50:17 Zcash and the Quantum Threat
59:14 Shielded Pool Growth and Upcoming Catalysts

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RESOURCES

Tushar Jain
https://x.com/tushar_jain

Mert Mumtaz
https://x.com/mert

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Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:
https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Two surprise Democrat votes just rerated the entire crypto policy timeline.

After the Senate Banking Committee advanced the Clarity Act on a bipartisan basis, Galaxy Digital head of research Alex Thorn moved his odds of the bill being signed this year from a coin flip to 75%.

He and David map the seven-week sprint to the president's desk, the ethics-provision standoff that could still sink everything, the bank lobby's quiet obstruction game, and why the stablecoin yield compromise leaves the real fight for rulemaking.

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🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET

https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast 

🟦 COINBASE ONE | MEMBER MONTH

https://bankless.cc/coinbase-one

🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY to OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDE

https://app.okx.com/join/USBANKLESS

🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOW

https://go.metamask.io/BL-Pod-Download 

🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD

https://bankless.cc/brix

💰NEXO | Get your 30-day access to Wealth Club Premier

https://bankless.cc/nexo 

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TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro

0:39 Clarity Act Vote Reactions

5:16 What’s Next?

10:05 Trump Veto?

15:21 Stablecoin Rewards Compromise

28:14 Administration Precedence

31:02 Why is Clarity So Important?

41:01 Which Ecosystems Benefit the Most?

42:59 Clarity Act Passing Over-Under

48:17 Bitcoin Price After CLARITY

49:39 Closing & Disclaimers

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RESOURCES

Alex Thorn

https://x.com/intangiblecoins 

Galaxy Digital

https://www.galaxy.com/ 

Senate Banking Committee Advances Crypto CLARITY Act

https://www.bankless.com/read/news/senate-banking-committee-advances-crypto-clarity-act 

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Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:

https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠

Markets are ignoring every warning sign as stocks hit new highs, but crypto may finally have its catalyst. Ryan and David break down the CLARITY Act’s key vote, Wall Street’s Ethereum push, Bitcoin’s $80K test, and why private AI stocks are creating chaos onchain.

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📣GALAXY | INSTITUTIONAL DIGITAL FINANCE

https://bankless.cc/Galaxy  

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BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET

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🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY to OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDE

https://app.okx.com/join/USBANKLESS

🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOW

https://go.metamask.io/BL-Pod-Download 

🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD

https://bankless.cc/brix

💰NEXO | Get your 30-day access to Wealth Club Premier

https://bankless.cc/nexo

---

TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES

0:00 Intro

2:46 Trump/Xi Meeting, Nvidia China Deal, and AI Stocks

https://x.com/WhiteHouse/status/2054607212513730674

https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/us-clears-h200-chip-sales-10-china-firms-nvidia-ceo-looks-breakthrough-2026-05-14/

https://imgur.com/wLddwGM

https://x.com/BullTheoryio/status/2054558694785077478

https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2054177816573329496

https://fred.stlouisfed.org/graph/

https://x.com/coindesk/status/2054542868522365141

https://x.com/TedPillows/status/2054545275281182861

https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2054940927379014035

https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2054655260652716149

https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/ethereum

28:06 Circle Earnings, Arc, and USDC Growth

https://x.com/circle/status/2053785252037022157

https://x.com/marcarjoon/status/2054539947466522815

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/05/11/circle-closes-222-million-from-blackrock-apollo-for-arc-blockchain.html

https://x.com/coingecko/status/2054042800203719158

32:54 Coinbase, USDC, and Hyperliquid Team Up + Anthropic and OpenAI Crack Down on Unauthorized Private Stock Sales

https://x.com/wallstengine/status/2054928782918816102

https://app.hyperliquid.xyz/trade/xyz:CBRS

https://x.com/caseycraig/status/2053568380796367301

46:57 CLARITY Act Passes Key Committee Vote

https://x.com/brian_armstrong/status/2054552885376016718 

https://x.com/DegenerateNews/status/2054968887796539789

https://x.com/valkenburgh/status/2054968314292486621

https://x.com/EleanorTerrett/status/2052890357952627000

https://polymarket.com/event/clarity-act-signed-into-law-in-2026/?via=bankless?

https://x.com/FidelityPolicy/status/2054587652121284648

https://x.com/EleanorTerrett/status/2054295187048853637

https://www.banking.senate.gov/newsroom/minority/warren-statement-on-no-trump-ethics-provision-in-crypto-bill

https://x.com/patrickjwitt/status/2054183222305554643

https://x.com/glxyresearch/status/2054635251503108596

https://x.com/EleanorTerrett/status/2054575825681367098

55:58 BlackRock, JPMorgan, and Fidelity Bring Money Markets to Ethereum

https://x.com/VivekVentures/status/2054946669083390374

https://x.com/VivekVentures/status/2053101323390754982

https://x.com/NateGeraci/status/2052872497779896460

https://app.rwa.xyz/assets/BUIDL

https://x.com/VivekVentures/status/2054305703272103977

https://x.com/EricBalchunas/status/2054316547712196688

https://am.jpmorgan.com/us/en/asset-management/adv/about-us/media/press-releases/jp-morgan-asset-management-launches-second-tokenized-fund-on-ethereum/

https://x.com/Etherealize_io/status/2054945868210450519

https://x.com/NateGeraci/status/2054355513182171502

59:23 Bankless Thesis Check-In

https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/2054969401154130163

https://www.bankless.com/docs/mcp

1:03:43 Euphoria Mainnet Launch

https://x.com/Euphoria_fi/status/2054954998375535097

1:04:45 Closing & Disclaimers

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Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:

https://www.bankless.com/disclosures