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. 1 day ago

    Was the SpaceX IPO Really to Blame for Bitcoin's Worst Week Since FTX?

    Strategy owes $3.4 billion over two years on its preferreds. Austin maps the three exits: issue more stock, sell Bitcoin, or suspend dividends. None are good. --- Thank you to our sponsors: Fidelity: Fidelity has been building in crypto and DeFi since 2014 — now they're hiring. Explore career opportunities at one of the most forward-thinking names in finance here: crypto.fidelitycareers.com. Cape: Your biggest crypto vulnerability isn't your wallet, it's your phone number. Cape is America's privacy-first mobile carrier that rotates your SIM identity daily and blocks SIM swaps before they happen. Get 33% off your first six months at cape.co/unchained (use code: UNCHAINED). ---- Bitcoin logged its worst week since the FTX collapse, falling 17%, while Ethereum dropped 22% and the total crypto market cap shed roughly a third of a trillion dollars. The looming SpaceX IPO seems like an easy explanation. But Ram Ahluwalia argues that's not the real culprit:  STRF and STRC, Strategy's preferred securities, have slipped below par, stalling the capital engine that funds Bitcoin buys. Austin Campbell, Ram, and Chris Perkins cover three distinct crises in this episode. A Claude Opus 4.8 agent found a live counterfeiting bug in Zcash's Orchard Shielded Pool, undetected since 2022, prompting the group to map how AI is rewiring the threat landscape for financial services. Back on Strategy, Ram applies Hyman Minsky's three market phases and argues the company was built for the final phase — where price appreciation is the only bailout. Austin closes by framing Strategy's $3.4 billion in preferred obligations as an SVB-style depositor flight problem with no clear resolution in sight. Hosts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Austin Campbell⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Host of Bits + Bips, Zero Knowledge Consulting ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Ram Ahluwalia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Co-Host, CEO of Lumida ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Chris Perkins⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Co-Host, President of CoinFund Timestamps 💣 03:02 What caused crypto's worst week since the FTX collapse 🌍 09:46 Why retail still drives crypto volatility and why Chris thinks the market misread incoming Fed chair Warsh 🤖 18:33 AI tools discovering critical crypto vulnerabilities faster than devs can patch them 🐛 24:25 How Claude Opus 4.8 found a live counterfeiting bug in Zcash's Orchard pool ₿ 31:02 Austin on whether Bitcoin's Lindy effect survives the quantum-refactoring problem 💼 32:42 Fidelity: Explore crypto careers that could change your future at https://crypto.fidelitycareers.com 📱 33:24 Cape: Get 33% off your first six months at https://cape.co/unchained 🏦 34:23 Strategy's preferred problem and the math on 32 BTC sold and 1,550 bought 📊 38:03 Ram on Minsky's three market phases, and why Strategy was built for the riskiest one ⏰ 44:00 Why Austin says introducing preferreds turned Strategy from a Bitcoin play to a clock 🇺🇸 52:56 Is Hunter Biden's crypto interest genuine conviction or attention play

    59 min

  2. 3 days ago

    Strategy Sold Bitcoin. Polymarket Can't Agree on When

    Strategy sold Bitcoin in May and disclosed the sale via SEC filing in June. The Polymarket market on that sale resolved to no sale in May, with tens of millions of dollars on one question: does the trade date control, or the disclosure date? Sam Enzer and Steven Ehrlich map the dispute, the oracle governance concentration risk behind it, and the practical checklist for diligencing any prediction market bet before placing it. Host: Steven Ehrlich, Host of Bits + Bips and Head of Research at Sharplink - https://x.com/Steven_Ehrlich Guest: Sam Enzer - Partner and CahillNXT Co-Chair at Cahill Gordon & Reindel This clip is from a longer conversation on prediction market law, insider trading, and oracle risk. Full episode here: https://youtube.com/live/Lo6g6VBF46U  We go live every Thursday at 12:00pm ET - subscribe to catch it live. Sponsor: Unchained Daily: Subscribe for free at https://unchainedcrypto.com/newsletters   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. 👉 https://linktr.ee/bitsandbips

    9 min

  3. 3 Jun

    Why Strategy's Capital Stack Is Starting to Show Cracks

    Strategy sold Bitcoin for the first time since 2022 — a small sale, but a meaningful signal. Ram, Austin, and Chris work through the capital stack math: $15 billion in preferred stock needs Bitcoin to appreciate 11.5% annually just to cover dividends. What happens if it doesn't? With: Austin Campbell, Founder, Zero Knowledge Consulting; Adjunct Professor, NYU Stern - https://x.com/austincampbell Ram Ahluwalia, Co-Host, CEO of Lumida - https://x.com/ramahluwalia Chris Perkins, Co-Host, CEO of 250 Digital Asset Management - https://x.com/perkinscr97 This clip is from a longer conversation on Strategy's Bitcoin capital stack, the Anthropic IPO, and crypto's political fight with the banking lobby. Full episode here: https://youtube.com/live/eIarmme4Jvc  We go live every Monday at 4:30pm ET. Subscribe to catch it live. 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.  🔥 Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bits-bips/id1827931786  🔥 YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuKiSkbYrUOOEEiYQEVPniQ  🔥 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/6aSBMrOyi33aVDCULJ9mjN?si=NTLk-jl5QGeytA6-2kxMVQ&nd=1&dlsi=42f0b13dd53c4ba0  🔥X - https://x.com/bitsandbips  🔥 Unchained - https://unchainedcrypto.com/bitsandbips/

    13 min

  4. 31 May

    Why Crypto Is Losing the Momentum Trade to AI Stocks Right Now

    Bitcoin’s implied volatility just hit a nine-month low. ETF outflows have been running for weeks. And a memory chip ETF may have matched IBIT for the fastest ETF launch in history. So what’s happening to crypto? Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers, and Steve Ehrlich break down the structural forces working against crypto right now: AI stocks doing the heavy lifting in portfolios, upcoming SpaceX, OpenAI, and Anthropic IPOs pulling momentum capital, Kraken and Ledger delaying their own listings, and the ‘crypto tourist’ problem — ETF buyers who bought on momentum and will sell on momentum the moment something else outperforms. Is this a cleansing moment, or is crypto just one sector now? Guests: Steve Sosnick, Chief Strategist at Interactive Brokers. Host: Steve Ehrlich, Head of Research at SharpLink. This clip is from a longer conversation. Full episode here: https://youtube.com/live/H31JcAM0evI   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. 🔥 Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bits-bips/id1827931786 🔥 YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuKiSkbYrUOOEEiYQEVPniQ 🔥 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/6aSBMrOyi33aVDCULJ9mjN?si=NTLk-jl5QGeytA6-2kxMVQ&nd=1&dlsi=42f0b13dd53c4ba0 🔥X - https://x.com/bitsandbips 🔥 Unchained - https://unchainedcrypto.com/bitsandbips/

    12 min

  5. 28 May

    Why Arjun Sees a Link Between Pope Leo and Bitcoin

    What does Pope Leo's first AI encyclical have to do with the Bitcoin white paper? Arjun Sethi, co-CEO of Kraken, traces a philosophical thread from Augustine's City of God through Catholic social teaching's subsidiarity principle to Satoshi's monetary architecture. Austin Campbell finds the same argument in the Federalist Papers. Ram Ahluwalia brings in Immanuel Kant and the Tower of Babel. And Chris Perkins asks the question the whole room is thinking: is the Pope into DeFi? Hosts:  @austincampbell, @perkinscr97, @ramahluwalia Guest: @arjunsethi This clip is from a longer conversation on Kraken's global strategy, tokenized equities, and the SEC's paused innovation exemption. Full episode here: https://youtube.com/live/KKec65JyBjw  We go live every Monday at 4:30 pm ET. Subscribe to catch it live. 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.  🔥 Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bits-bips/id1827931786   🔥 YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuKiSkbYrUOOEEiYQEVPniQ   🔥 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/6aSBMrOyi33aVDCULJ9mjN?si=NTLk-jl5QGeytA6-2kxMVQ&nd=1&dlsi=42f0b13dd53c4ba0   🔥X - https://x.com/bitsandbips 🔥 Unchained - https://unchainedcrypto.com/bitsandbips/

    17 min

  6. 23 May

    Kevin Warsh Takes Over the Fed. Here's What He Actually Can Do

    Kevin Warsh is confirmed as Fed chair today. He says he wants a smaller balance sheet, fewer dot plots, less forward guidance, and new ways to measure inflation. In this clip, Noelle Acheson tells Steve Ehrlich why the bond market will veto the balance sheet goal, why fewer FOMC press conferences may increase volatility rather than reduce noise, and why the most likely outcome for the next few Fed meetings is no hike and no cut — giving Warsh room to build trust within the FOMC before he can move on anything structural. Host: Steve Ehrlich | Head of Research, Sharplink Guest: Noelle Acheson | Author, Crypto Is Macro Now This clip is from a longer conversation on bond yields, Kevin Warsh's Fed, and the macro outlook for Bitcoin. Full episode here: https://youtu.be/2Zi-3QmapM4  Bits + Bips: The Interview streams twice weekly — subscribe so you don't miss it. 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.  🔥 Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bits-bips/id1827931786 🔥 YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuKiSkbYrUOOEEiYQEVPniQ   🔥 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/6aSBMrOyi33aVDCULJ9mjN?si=NTLk-jl5QGeytA6-2kxMVQ&nd=1&dlsi=42f0b13dd53c4ba0   🔥X - https://x.com/bitsandbips 🔥 Unchained - https://unchainedcrypto.com/bitsandbips/

    6 min

  7. 23 May

    Structural Stimulus Has Replaced the TACO Trade

    The TACO trade — the assumption that Trump will always walk back market damage — is temporary. The BLISS trade is not. In this clip, Noelle Acheson explains Gita Gopinath's thesis from the Financial Times: no government, regardless of political party or political system, will be voted out for spending to protect citizens from hardship. The put under markets is now structural. Noelle and Steve Ehrlich work through what that means for currency debasement, moral hazard, and why risk-on appetite is so strong in such an uncertain environment. Host: Steve Ehrlich | Head of Research, Sharplink Guest: Noelle Acheson | Author, Crypto Is Macro Now This clip is from a longer conversation on bond yields, Kevin Warsh's Fed, and the macro outlook for Bitcoin. Full episode here: https://youtu.be/2Zi-3QmapM4  Bits + Bips: The Interview streams twice weekly — subscribe so you don't miss it. 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.  🔥 Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bits-bips/id1827931786 🔥 YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuKiSkbYrUOOEEiYQEVPniQ   🔥 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/6aSBMrOyi33aVDCULJ9mjN?si=NTLk-jl5QGeytA6-2kxMVQ&nd=1&dlsi=42f0b13dd53c4ba0   🔥X - https://x.com/bitsandbips 🔥 Unchained - https://unchainedcrypto.com/bitsandbips/

    7 min

  8. 20 May

    Why Agents Will Ditch Stablecoins That Don't Pay Yield

    If the risk is the same, why would any rational agent choose a stablecoin that pays nothing over a money market fund that does?  In this clip, Chris Perkins puts the question directly to Circle’s Gordon Liao, who walks through USYC — Circle's yield-bearing instrument — and the seamless toggle between it and USDC.  Austin Campbell frames the winners as "transformers": platforms that can move fluidly between yield and liquidity states. The answer matters for every wallet, exchange, and agentic commerce stack being built right now.   Hosts: Austin Campbell @austincampbell | Ram Ahluwalia @ramahluwalia | Chris Perkins @perkinscr97 Guest: Gordon Liao, Chief Economist and Head of Research at Circle   This clip is from a longer conversation on USDC, the CLARITY Act, and rising bond yields. Full episode here: https://youtube.com/live/bYgoVvXME3Q?feature=share   We go live every Monday at 4.30 ET — subscribe to catch it live.   Follow us on our new channels! Bits + Bips is moving to its own feeds. Subscribe now at unchainedcrypto.com/bitsandbips so you don't miss the launch.   Coinbase: Get 20% off the first year of your Coinbase One annual plan at coinbase.com/unchained.

    7 min
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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
    39
  • Show Website
    Bits + Bips

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