Bankless

Crypto prices are weak, OG sentiment is exhausted, and institutions are leaning in. Blockchain Capital GPs Aleks Larsen and Spencer Bogart join David Hoffman to explain why this disconnect may be the opportunity. They unpack crypto’s shift toward application-layer value, stablecoins as onchain working capital, tokenized equities, Aave V4, public blockchains, and BCAP. Is the cypherpunk dream fading, or becoming the foundation of global finance?

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TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Buybacks, Burns and Tokenholder Trust
5:47 Why Blockchain Capital Is Doubling Down
14:38 Institutions Arrive as Crypto OGs Lose Faith
21:03 From Infrastructure Scarcity to Abundant Blockspace
30:24 What AI Can Learn From Crypto
38:43 Stablecoins Become Onchain Working Capital
44:41 The Stablecoin Revenue Multiplier
47:40 Aave and Open Financial Infrastructure
55:08 The Roadmap for Tokenized Equities
59:41 Public Chains, Ownership and Compliance
1:04:24 Blockchain Capital’s Tokenized Fund
1:09:03 Bringing BCAP Fully Onchain

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RESOURCES

Spencer Bogart
https://x.com/CremeDeLaCrypto

Aleks Larsen
https://x.com/alekslarsen

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

Korea’s leveraged stock boom imploded and the AI trade found a forced seller, but crypto held firm. Ryan and David unpack whether the winds are shifting toward BTC and ETH, Warsh’s hawkish Fed debut, and Ethereum’s 11th birthday.

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TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro

0:17 Korea & AI Liquidation

https://x.com/kobeissiletter/status/2082463897387257895

https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2082792020993536283

https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/why-did-south-korean-stocks-just

https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/the-ai-bust-scenario-that-no-one

https://x.com/tbpn/status/2082849965102219677

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/30/leopold-aschenbrenners-hedge-fund-is-facing-steep-ai-losses.html

https://x.com/amitisinvesting/status/2082860784242049407

14:39 Crypto Holds Firm

https://x.com/micro2macr0/status/2081868142230286664

https://x.com/cryptunez/status/2081893515223535625

https://x.com/blknoiz06/status/2082560475951251789

20:27 Warsh, Rates & Global Liquidity

https://x.com/YahooFinance/status/2082538170533519741

https://www.theblock.co/post/410092/fed-holds-rates-steady-three-officials-push-hike-crypto-market-stays-flat

https://thedefireport.io/research/can-the-economy-handle-rate-hikes

https://x.com/AlexCorrino/status/2082667540090859698

https://x.com/Barchart/status/2082683129681092931

https://x.com/wallstengine/status/2082551083583541287

https://capitalwars.substack.com/p/global-liquidity-and-cryptocurrencies

36:47 Clarity Act Stalls

https://x.com/EleanorTerrett/status/2082127523249262881

https://polymarket.com/event/clarity-act-signed-into-law-in-2026/clarity-act-signed-into-law-in-2026

https://x.com/Cointelegraph/status/2082190857336205486

38:25 Ethereum Turns Eleven

https://x.com/LefterisJP/status/2082771162942075080

https://www.theblock.co/post/410083/ethereum-cypherpunk-manifesto-author-ethereum-foundation-fourth-board-member

https://x.com/ethereumfndn/status/2082437165233951223

https://x.com/AyaMiyagotchi/status/2082437879494488566

44:35 Robinhood’s Mixed Quarter

https://dune.com/entropy_advisors/robinhood-chain-network-overview

https://thedefiant.io/news/blockchains/robinhood-chain-tops-solana-in-tokenized-stock-volume-via-memecoin-pairs

47:52 New York’s Doxxing Scandal

https://x.com/haydenzadams/status/2081740559694074248

https://nypost.com/2026/07/27/us-news/mamdani-names-all-nyc-property-owners-who-could-be-hit-with-new-pied-a-terre-tax

53:26 July Wrap-Up

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

https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Vaults could become the financial rails that bring trillions onchain, but only if they solve risk, regulation and investor protection. Steakhouse co-founder Adrian Cachinero joins David to explain how vaults work, why repo markets matter and where this new asset-management layer goes next.

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TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro

0:13 Vaults Explained

2:27 Morpho and Vault Origins

6:46 Vault Infrastructure Layers

8:53 Curators and Control

18:25 Risk Frameworks

24:48 Risk Creep and Incentives

32:51 Principal-Agent Tensions

39:33 Safe Vaults Scale

41:50 SEC and Regulation

46:58 Two Vault Futures

53:54 Distributors vs Curators

59:21 AI Meets Vaults

1:01:23 Growth and Challenges

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RESOURCES

Adrian Cachinero

https://www.linkedin.com/in/adriancachinero

Steakhouse Financial

https://www.linkedin.com/company/steakhouse-financial/

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

https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Every lending protocol in DeFi quietly decides your interest rate for you. Paul Frambot thinks that was always a workaround and Morpho Midnight is his argument for what replaces it. Fixed-rate lending as the only true primitive, pricing trust on-chain, and the one switch Morpho won't flip yet.

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TIMESTAMPS

0:00 What Is Morpho Midnight?
1:59 DeFi's Wrong First Shape
7:18 The Only Real Primitive
14:47 Inside a Midnight Market
20:49 Openness Is the Advantage
22:52 Order Books and New Curves
30:01 Pricing Trust
35:40 Stablecoins and What's Next
37:13 Who Comes On-Chain Next
42:18 Collapsing the Margin
44:50 The Bankless Connection
47:57 How Big by 2027?
51:59 Hester Peirce on Vaults
55:49 Who Takes the Liability?

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RESOURCES

Paul Frambot
https://x.com/PaulFrambot

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

What does it take to build an exchange that refuses to choose between speed, cost, security, verifiability and composability? Lighter founder Vlad Novakovski joins David to trace his path from international Olympiads and Harvard at 18 to Citadel, early machine learning, Lunchclub and an 18-month ZK engineering bet.

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TIMESTAMPS

0:00 A Particular Set of Skills
11:33 Harvard at 18
19:03 Citadel and the Search for Alpha
25:14 Machine Learning Before the AI Boom
36:46 ​​Finding Elite Talent Early
41:39 The Lunchclub Matching Problem
45:11 Pivoting Into Lighter
51:18 The 18-Month ZK Engineering Bet
56:38 Lighter’s Five Pillars
1:00:04 A New Generation of Exchanges

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RESOURCES

Vlad Novakovski
https://x.com/vnovakovski

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