Bits + Bips

Unchained
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Exploring how crypto and macro collide one basis point at a time. Hosted by Ram Ahluwalia, Austin Campbell and Chris Perkins. Livestream: Every Monday at 4:30 pm ET.

  1. 2 DAYS AGO

    DeFi's Security Ceiling: Why Lending Can't Be Like Uniswap

    After Bybit, the CDS hack, and Kelp DAO, Austin Campbell argues that DeFi's foundational assumption — that incoming transactions should be treated as legitimate — may no longer hold. Ram Ahluwalia pushes back: change that assumption and you risk giving up immutability and finality. Austin draws the distinction: an immutable chain and a skeptical transaction queue aren't mutually exclusive.   Michael Bentley, who built the Euler lending protocol, explains why the problem runs deeper than resources or audits. AMMs like Uniswap are self-contained; they don't care about the outside world. Lending protocols are structurally dependent on external prices, liquidity conditions, and third-party oracles — making true immutability unreachable. The question isn't whether to add centralizing safeguards; it's how many, and which ones, and whether DeFi can survive the trade-offs.   This clip is from a longer conversation on DeFi security, the $290M Kelp DAO hack, and the future of yield-bearing stablecoins. Full episode here: ⁠https://youtube.com/live/tB5_2lUy4fs⁠ We go live every Monday at 4:30 PM ET — subscribe to catch it live. Heads up! If you haven’t yet, be sure to subscribe to Bits + Bips, since the show will migrate there in a few weeks. Follow us on ⁠Apple Podcasts⁠, ⁠YouTube⁠, ⁠Spotify⁠, ⁠X⁠, ⁠Unchained⁠ and wherever you get your podcasts.

    13 min

  2. 2 DAYS AGO

    Who's Really to Blame for the $290M Kelp DAO Hack?

    North Korea's Lazarus Group drained $290 million from Kelp DAO by compromising two RPC nodes feeding Layer Zero's single DVN, swapping the binary for a malicious one, and DDoSing clean nodes to force a failover. In 46 minutes, Kelp DAO managed to stop the bleed — but not before $290M was gone and DeFi TVL dropped $13 billion in 48 hours. Now Layer Zero and Kelp DAO are fighting publicly, with third-party analysts largely blaming Layer Zero for a default setup that left 40% of protocols exposed to a one-of-one verifier configuration.   Austin Campbell, Ram Ahluwalia, and Chris Perkins sit down with Michael Bentley, builder of the Euler lending protocol, to work through who bears responsibility, what a whole-government response to Lazarus Group actually looks like, whether AI can close the security gap, and what it would take for DeFi to finally price and transfer its own risk.   This clip is from a longer conversation on DeFi security, the $290M Kelp DAO hack, and the future of yield-bearing stablecoins. Full episode here: https://youtube.com/live/tB5_2lUy4fs We go live every Monday at 4:30 PM ET — subscribe to catch it live. Heads up!If you haven’t yet, be sure to subscribe to Bits + Bips, since the show will migrate there in a few weeks. Follow us on Apple Podcasts, YouTube, Spotify, X, Unchained and wherever you get your podcasts.

    17 min

  3. 2 DAYS AGO

    Strategy's Preferred Stock Is Now a Stablecoin. And DeFi Has a Security Problem.

    The $290 million Kelp DAO hack, attributed to North Korea's Lazarus Group, has DeFi TVL down $13 billion in 48 hours. Do DeFi's foundational assumptions need to change? --- Heads up! If you haven’t yet, be sure to subscribe to Bits + Bips, since the show will migrate there in a few weeks. Follow us on ⁠Apple Podcasts⁠, ⁠YouTube⁠, ⁠Spotify⁠, ⁠X⁠, ⁠Unchained⁠ and wherever you get your podcasts. ---- DeFi TVL fell from $99.5 to $86.3 billion in 48 hours after the $290 million Kelp DAO exploit — the latest nine-figure attack attributed to North Korea's Lazarus Group, this time via a compromised Layer Zero bridge.  Meanwhile, a new class of yield-bearing instrument is staking a claim on capital fleeing private credit: Apyx's APY USD, backed by Strategy's STRC preferred stock, launched on Kraken this week with a 12% yield target and $180 million in supply after just seven weeks. Is STRC-backed yield a legitimate financial primitive, or a Bitcoin derivative with extra steps?  And as DeFi absorbs yet another devastating security failure, is the industry's core assumption — that incoming transactions should be treated as legitimate — finally due for an overhaul? Austin Campbell, Ram Ahluwalia, and Chris Perkins dig in with Parker White of Apyx and Michael Bentley of Euler. Hosts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Austin Campbell⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Host of Bits + Bips, Zero Knowledge Consulting ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Ram Ahluwalia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Co-Host, CEO of Lumida ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Chris Perkins⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Co-Host, CEO of 250 Digital Asset Management Hosts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Parker White — @TheOtherParker_ — Founding Contributor, Apyx. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Michael Bentley — @euler_mab — Former CEO, Euler Labs

    1 hr

  4. 5 DAYS AGO

    The Miner Sell Wall and Why Saylor Is Absorbing It

    FalconX global co-head of markets Josh Lim explains what's keeping Bitcoin range-bound near $75-76K: miner selling to fund high-performance compute transitions, breakeven retail holders looking for an exit, and an options market oversupplied with calls.  He also covers why the negative funding rates and low vol environment are less bearish than they appear when spot is cash-funded, not levered.  This clip is from a longer interview covering Bitcoin macro, altcoin rotation, Hyperliquid, and quantum risk. Full episode here: https://youtube.com/live/rDN5IHVhjfg  We go live every Monday at 4:30 PM ET — subscribe to catch it live.

    10 min

  5. 5 DAYS AGO

    Bits + Bips: Why Josh Lim Is Optimistic on the Dynamics He's Seeing in Bitcoin

    Bitcoin's spot-led rally looks healthy on the surface. But derivatives say conviction is thin. Josh Lim from FalconX on what the market structure is actually telling you right now. --- Thank you to our sponsors! MultiChain Advisors is an emerging technology growth firm that has helped create $50B+ in enterprise value for 80+ clients over the past 4 years. They're the partner to help navigate markets.  Build real traction today at ⁠multichainadv.com⁠ As Bitcoin's application layer, Citrea gives you access to the first trust-minimized BTC on a fully programmable platform and a native stablecoin for Bitcoin, ctUSD.  You can now participate in Bitcoin capital markets with lending, privacy, payments, Bitcoin yield, trading and predictions. You get expanded Bitcoin utility without sacrificing its security.  ⁠Citrea mainnet is live. Put your BTC to work at ⁠⁠citrea.xyz/unchained.⁠  --- Bitcoin is trading near $75,000, but the market structure around it tells a more complicated story. Implied volatility has collapsed to sub-50, funding rates are negative, and the options market is dominated by sellers, not buyers. Meanwhile, Bitcoin miners are liquidating holdings to fund the transition to high-performance compute, generating a persistent offer just as breakeven retail holders look for an exit.  FalconX Global Co-Head of Markets Josh Lim joins Steve Ehrlich to map exactly what is keeping Bitcoin range-bound, where the rotation into ETH and alts is actually coming from, and what signals in derivatives and on-chain data would indicate the market is ready to move.  They also get into whether the Clarity Act changes the long-term structure of the altcoin market, how Hyperliquid is being used for institutional RWA arbitrage, and what the quantum threat means not for cryptography, but for trading Bitcoin. Host: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Steven Ehrlich⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Head of Research, SharpLink Guest: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Josh Lim⁠ — Global Co-Head of Markets, FalconX. Repeat guest; previously covered market structure and institutional crypto flows on Bits + Bips.

    45 min

  6. 15 APR

    Is Anthropic’s Mythos a Real Threat? And Who Pays for AI?

    Anthropic previewed Mythos, a model it says autonomously found 181 Firefox JavaScript exploits and vulnerabilities in OpenBSD that had been missed for decades. Cybersecurity stocks fell. Ram Ahluwalia says it’s masterclass marketing — a Keyser Soze play designed to win back DOD contracts and rattle OpenAI. Chris Perkins thinks the threat is real and the opportunity is bigger than the fear. Austin Campbell lands somewhere else: the AI competitive arms race is accruing to consumers, not companies, and the firms spending the most CapEx may never recover it. From there the conversation moves to where the money actually is: Ram’s free cash flow positioning, why AI CapEx is crowding out the buybacks that powered the Mag 7, what Apple understood that Anthropic and OpenAI didn’t, and why MicroStrategy’s preferred dividend structure is a 2008-era liability mismatch waiting to be tested. Hosted by Austin Campbell (Zero Knowledge Consulting), Ram Ahluwalia (Lumida), and Christopher Perkins (250 Digital Asset Management) This clip is from a longer conversation on the Iran blockade, Anthropic’s Mythos, AI buyback risk, and the WLFI conflict. Full episode here: https://youtube.com/live/P4fSTXVnC2Y  We go live every Monday at 4:30 PM ET — subscribe to catch it live. As Bitcoin's application layer, Citrea gives you access to the first trust-minimized BTC on a fully programmable platform and a native stablecoin for Bitcoin, ctUSD.  You can now participate in Bitcoin capital markets with lending, privacy, payments, Bitcoin yield, trading and predictions. You get expanded Bitcoin utility without sacrificing its security.  Citrea mainnet is live. Put your BTC to work at citrea.xyz/unchained.   Ether.fi is giving Unchained listeners 15% cashback on food and ride apps — and that's on top of the 3% you get on everything else.  Your bank is charging you to use your own money. Laura switched and loves her card! Go to ether.fi/unchained to claim your offer. Nexo is a premier digital wealth platform offering: ● crypto yield up to 15% (based on stated annual interest rates) ● crypto-backed credit lines from 1.9% ● a wide range of digital assets.  Join today and get 30-day access to exclusive rates. Join Nexo.

    17 min

  7. 15 APR

    The IRGC Is Damned Either Way — Here’s Why

    Ram Ahluwalia argues that CENTCOM’s move to enforce the US Naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz was exquisitely timed — placing the IRGC in a vice with no clean exit. He walks through why Iran can’t escalate without facing worse outcomes, and can’t stand down without ceding economic control. Austin Campbell adds the market dimension: we’ve shifted from kinetic escalation to long-term economic attrition, and the regional neighbors are notably not objecting. Chris Perkins frames China’s role as reluctant broker and what a scheduled Xi-Trump meeting in May could mean for resolution. Hosted by Ram Ahluwalia (Lumida), Austin Campbell (Zero Knowledge Consulting), and Christopher Perkins (250 Digital Asset Management) This clip is from a longer conversation on the Iran blockade, Anthropic’s Mythos, AI buyback risk, and the WLFI conflict. Full episode here: https://youtube.com/live/P4fSTXVnC2Y  We go live every Monday at 4:30 PM ET — subscribe to catch it live. Citrea  As Bitcoin's application layer, Citrea gives you access to the first trust-minimized BTC on a fully programmable platform and a native stablecoin for Bitcoin, ctUSD.  You can now participate in Bitcoin capital markets with lending, privacy, payments, Bitcoin yield, trading and predictions. You get expanded Bitcoin utility without sacrificing its security.  Citrea mainnet is live. Put your BTC to work at citrea.xyz/unchained.   Ether.fi is giving Unchained listeners 15% cashback on food and ride apps — and that's on top of the 3% you get on everything else.  Your bank is charging you to use your own money. Laura switched and loves her card! Go to ether.fi/unchained to claim your offer. Nexo is a premier digital wealth platform offering: ● crypto yield up to 15% (based on stated annual interest rates) ● crypto-backed credit lines from 1.9% ● a wide range of digital assets.  Join today and get 30-day access to exclusive rates. Join Nexo.

    9 min

  8. 14 APR

    Why Apple Might Benefit More From AI Than AI Companies Will

    The US Naval blockade is live, markets are holding, and Ram thinks the bottom is in. Austin and Chris are not so sure. --- Thank you to our sponsors: ⁠Citrea⁠⁠ ⁠ As Bitcoin's application layer, Citrea gives you access to the first trust-minimized BTC on a fully programmable platform and a native stablecoin for Bitcoin, ctUSD.  You can now participate in Bitcoin capital markets with lending, privacy, payments, Bitcoin yield, trading and predictions. You get expanded Bitcoin utility without sacrificing its security.  ⁠Citrea mainnet is live. Put your BTC to work at ⁠⁠citrea.xyz/unchained.⁠   ⁠Etherfi⁠ Ether.fi is giving Unchained listeners 15% cashback on food and ride apps — and that's on top of the 3% you get on everything else.  Your bank is charging you to use your own money. Laura switched and loves her card! Go to ⁠ether.fi/unchained⁠ to claim your offer. ⁠Nexo⁠ Nexo is a premier digital wealth platform offering: ● crypto yield up to 15% (based on stated annual interest rates) ● crypto-backed credit lines from 1.9% ● a wide range of digital assets.  Join today and get 30-day access to exclusive rates. ⁠Join Nexo.⁠ ---- The day the US Naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz went live, peace talks had just collapsed in Islamabad and markets were holding. Ram, Austin, and Chris work through the tactical logic behind CENTCOM’s move, why regional powers are standing down, and how long Iran can sustain the economic pressure.  Then: Anthropic previewed a model called Mythos, cybersecurity stocks fell, and the question of whether AI security risk is real or manufactured now has real money behind it.  Meanwhile, World Liberty Financial borrowed $75 million against its own governance token on a platform co-founded by its own advisor, Justin Sun is accusing the team of treating investors as a personal ATM, and the stablecoin bill clock is ticking.  Which sectors are most dislocated? What would it take to bring the next wave of investors into crypto? And is this actually a market bottom? Hosts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Austin Campbell⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Host of Bits + Bips, Zero Knowledge Consulting ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Ram Ahluwalia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Co-Host, CEO of Lumida ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Chris Perkins⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Co-Host, CEO of 250 Digital Asset Management

    1hr 4min
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About

Exploring how crypto and macro collide one basis point at a time. Hosted by Ram Ahluwalia, Austin Campbell and Chris Perkins. Livestream: Every Monday at 4:30 pm ET.

Information

  • Creator
    Unchained
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    24
  • Show Website
    Bits + Bips

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