Bankless

Bankless

The Ultimate Guide to Crypto Finance. DeFi, NFTs, and cryptocurrencies. Level up. Go bankless.

  1. "ZODL is to Zcash What Coinbase Was to Bitcoin" | Josh Swihart on ZEC’s Awakening

    12 hr ago ·  Video

    "ZODL is to Zcash What Coinbase Was to Bitcoin" | Josh Swihart on ZEC’s Awakening

    What happens when every payment, wallet, and onchain interaction becomes searchable by governments, companies, adversaries, and AI? Josh Swihart, founder and CEO of Zcash Open Development Lab, joins David to explain why Zcash is having a major privacy comeback, how ZODL and the Zashi wallet helped unlock real shielded adoption, why the shielded pool may be the most important ZEC metric, and what it will take for private money to become too big to kill. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast 🧭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 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 4:17 Privacy in the AI Era 6:19 Crypto’s Missing Privacy Layer 9:49 The Political Fight for Privacy 14:42 Can Crypto Retain Privacy? 16:47 From Zashi to ZODL 19:48 The Zcash Reawakening 21:41 Balaji, Funding, and the Mission 24:49 Product Market Fit for Shielded ZEC 27:51 ZODL's Role in the Zcash Stack 29:36 The Zcash Roadmap 32:56 What Is ZEC and is it Undervalued? 36:56 The Shielded Pool Explained 45:12 The $25M ZODL Raise 47:16 Compliance and Shielded ZEC 51:25 Institutions vs Cypherpunk Values 53:58 Personal Privacy in an AI World --- RESOURCES Josh Swihart https://x.com/jswihart ZODL https://x.com/zodl_app --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

    57 min
  2. ROLLUP: False Strength? | ETH Crisis | Altcoin ATHs | Satoshi’s Coins

    3 days ago ·  Video

    ROLLUP: False Strength? | ETH Crisis | Altcoin ATHs | Satoshi’s Coins

    Crypto is splitting in two: Bitcoin and ETH look weak, while HYPE, ZEC, NEAR, and VVV keep breaking out. Ryan and David unpack the strange market divergence, Ethereum’s crisis of faith, and whether this rally is real or false strength. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮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 --- TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES 0:00 Intro 1:48 Markets https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/2059793993551008245  https://x.com/cburniske/status/2059797889824776463 https://imgur.com/Tp9beNo https://www.theblock.co/post/402816/bitcoin-falls-below-73000 https://imgur.com/R0ih6kL https://x.com/solunavaxxer/status/2060021032455741567 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3ptz8qvZcg https://x.com/readDanwrite/status/2057476278140145717  https://www.artemis.ai/sectors/digital-asset-treasuries https://x.com/saylor/status/2059970505835155782 https://x.com/Kalshi_Crypto/status/2059983883274191046 https://www.hypestrat.xyz/ https://imgur.com/1MUGQy7 https://polymarket.com/event/what-price-will-bitcoin-hit-before-2027 https://polymarket.com/event/what-price-will-ethereum-hit-before-2027 https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/hyperliquid https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/venice-token https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/near https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/zcash https://x.com/JSeyff/status/2059689056368210228 https://farside.co.uk/hyp/ https://x.com/PolymarketTrade/status/2059973516963750204 https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2060004371983667484 https://www.axios.com/2026/05/28/iran-peace-deal-trump-approval https://imgur.com/m7YNdxu https://imgur.com/MIdPjqZ https://imgur.com/VoixfYd https://imgur.com/s5AYaWg https://www.theblock.co/post/402638/tokenized-pokemon-card-marketplaces-record-7-4-million-hype-peaks-30th-anniversary 32:26 Ethereum Sentiment Crisis & DeFi Under AI Threat? https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/2059371247163613489 https://x.com/hosseeb/status/2057455211375976891 https://www.theblock.co/post/402864/standard-chartered-ethereum-amazon-dot-com-bubble-eth-will-catch-up https://x.com/Yogita_Khatri5/status/2059955611085709612 https://x.com/VitalikButerin/status/2058583593102844111 https://farcaster.xyz/vitalik.eth/0x88000d5f https://x.com/maraoz/status/2059413578130641052 55:25 Robostrategy: Nic Carter & Andrew Kang Pivot to Robotics https://x.com/RoboStrategy/status/2059650538380165331 https://x.com/intern/status/2059287577257992623 56:52 NEAR Confidential Transactions https://x.com/NEARProtocol/status/2057810480635228666 t.co/BrLpsWmzKd https://x.com/ilblackdragon/status/2059793756933767379 58:10 SoFiUSD & Bank Stablecoins https://www.theblock.co/post/402361/sofi-rolls-out-sofiusd-stablecoin-to-banking-app-users https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/2059676463125655575 59:22 Cash App Adds Multi-Chain USDC https://www.theblock.co/post/402784/cash-app-lets-users-send-usdc-stablecoins-on-chains-like-solana-and-ethereum 1:00:13 Satoshi Coins Finders-Keepers Lawsuit https://www.galaxy.com/insights/research/satoshi-bitcoin-salomon-brothers-patoshi-abandoned-property-new-york-noah-doe-lawsuit 1:03:00 Closing & Disclaimers --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

    1hr 4min
  3. NEAR’s AI Money Thesis: Intents, Privacy, and Tokenomics | Sal Ternullo

    5 days ago ·  Video

    NEAR’s AI Money Thesis: Intents, Privacy, and Tokenomics | Sal Ternullo

    NEAR keeps showing up in strange places: cross-chain wallets, privacy apps, AI infrastructure, and now the emerging agent economy. Sal Ternullo, CEO of SVRN, joins us to explain why he thinks this is not another NEAR pivot, but the original thesis finally coming into focus. They dig into NEAR Intents, AI money, tokenomics, privacy, fee capture, agentic commerce, and why SVRN is trying to commercialize the NEAR ecosystem rather than simply hold the asset. --- 🧭OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDE https://bankless.cc/OKXapp --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮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 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 2:23 Why NEAR Keeps Showing Up 3:58 Pivot or Return to Roots? 7:41 The “AI Money” Thesis 9:54 Intents, Zashi, and Real Product Market Fit 11:38 Tokenomics, Buybacks, and Value Accrual 14:45 NEAR’s Different Approach From Ethereum 18:00 Fees, Scaling, and First-Party Apps 23:04 Cross-Chain Liquidity as NEAR’s Moat 28:27 The Contrarian Investor Case for NEAR 31:43 Privacy, Enterprises, and AI Agents 39:38 What SVRN Is Building for NEAR 46:00 Investor Sentiment and Final Thoughts --- RESOURCES Sal Ternullo https://x.com/sal_ternullo SVRN https://x.com/svrn_ai --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

    50 min
  4. Cloudflare Needs 100M TPS from Crypto to Fix the Internet | CEO Matthew Prince

    25 May ·  Video

    Cloudflare Needs 100M TPS from Crypto to Fix the Internet | CEO Matthew Prince

    The internet is about to be flooded by machines, and Matthew Prince thinks the old business model is not ready. The Cloudflare co-founder and CEO joins Bankless to explain why AI agent traffic could overtake human traffic by 2027, how crawlers are changing the economics of content, why ads and subscriptions may not survive in their current form, and how x402, stablecoins, and pay-per-crawl could create a new payment layer for the web. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮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 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 1:18 When AI Bot Traffic Overtakes Humans 4:19 What Cloudflare Actually Does 10:40 Life on the Internet’s “Ice Wall” 13:33 The Internet’s Business Model Problem 17:43 Google, Traffic, and the Attention Economy 24:56 AI Agents and the End of Ads 28:47 Why Faster Answers Can Still Hurt Creators 33:26 AI Companies as the Next YouTube or Netflix 38:18 Creating Scarcity for Content Markets 41:52 Content Independence Day 45:24 Should AI Agents Count as Human Users? 51:37 The Risks of Subscription-Only AI 57:24 A Golden Age of Content Creation? 1:01:46 Pay-Per-Crawl and x402 1:04:34 Why Stablecoins Matter 1:07:56 The Cloudflare Stablecoin Question 1:14:18 The Final Form of the Internet 1:17:40 The Park Record and Local Journalism 1:22:16 The Centralization Risk 1:27:12 Advice for Content Creators --- RESOURCES Matthew Prince https://x.com/eastdakota --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

    1hr 33min
  5. ROLLUP: David Sold His ETH | EF Exodus | Hyperliquid’s Breakout | Stagflation Fears

    22 May ·  Video

    ROLLUP: David Sold His ETH | EF Exodus | Hyperliquid’s Breakout | Stagflation Fears

    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. --- 📣METAMASK | $100,000 ONDO GM CHALLENGE https://bankless.cc/OndoOnMetaMask  --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮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 --- 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  --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

    1hr 11min
  6. Bitcoin’s $300T Credit Market Opportunity | Jeff Walton

    21 May ·  Video

    Bitcoin’s $300T Credit Market Opportunity | Jeff Walton

    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. --- 📣OKX | THE NEW MONEY APP https://bankless.cc/OKXapp --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮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 --- 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 --- 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 --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

    1hr 18min
  7. "Crypto Without Privacy Isn't Crypto" - The Zcash Bull Case | Tushar Jain & Mert Mumtaz

    19 May ·  Video

    "Crypto Without Privacy Isn't Crypto" - The Zcash Bull Case | Tushar Jain & Mert Mumtaz

    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. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮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 --- 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 --- RESOURCES Tushar Jain https://x.com/tushar_jain Mert Mumtaz https://x.com/mert --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

    1hr 4min
  8. Clarity Act Odds Jump to 75% After Surprise Senate Vote | Alex Thorn

    18 May ·  Video

    Clarity Act Odds Jump to 75% After Surprise Senate Vote | Alex Thorn

    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. ------ 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium ------ 🔮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  ------ 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 ------ 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  ------ Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠

    51 min
See All (1.3k)

Hosts & Guests

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
2 Ratings

About

The Ultimate Guide to Crypto Finance. DeFi, NFTs, and cryptocurrencies. Level up. Go bankless.

Information

  • Creator
    Bankless
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2026
  • Episodes
    1.3k
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Show Website
    Bankless

You Might Also Like