Bits + Bips

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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. 5 HR AGO

    Will On-Chain Repo Reach $1 Trillion? One Reason Yes, One Reason No

    Matteo Pandolfi of Pareto puts a number on the table: on-chain repo reaches $1 trillion within five years. He makes the case using the current pipeline of traditional institutions entering the space and the hybrid infrastructure model that does not require full on-chain execution. Craig Burchell of FalconX gives you both sides. The bull case: the facilities are already being built, the demand is real, and you are watching it happen in real time. The bear case: the standardization problem. The reason centrally cleared repo works in TradFi is that everything operates under the same agreement and can be automated like clockwork. Getting an entire ecosystem on a standardized on-chain repo form is a gargantuan challenge. On-chain is probably one of the best places to try, but that is still essentially standing up a new exchange from scratch. To open the segment, Craig walks through the Aave deleveraging crisis as the clearest example of what a mature on-chain repo market changes: nobody wanted to sell their positions. They needed short-term liquidity. The cascade did not have to happen. This clip is from a longer conversation on bringing the repo market on-chain. Full episode here: ⁠https://youtube.com/live/E_X1rmunes4⁠  Bits + Bips: The Interview drops every Thursday — subscribe to catch it. 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.

    8 min

  2. 5 HR AGO

    $5B On-Chain Credit: What's Actually Working and What's Still Missing

    On-chain private credit has crossed $5 billion across more than 2,000 assets. The borrower side has matured significantly — institutional counterparties like FalconX are accessing credit on-chain with clear terms, legal structures that hold up to institutional scrutiny, and professional underwriters applying real credit discipline. But the liquidity side remains the visible gap. Tokenization improves transferability; it does not automatically create an active secondary market. Craig Burchell and Matteo Pandolfi walk through the current landscape: the different flavors of on-chain credit from stablecoin yield strategies (USDE, USDS, Syrup USDC) to tokenized TradFi private credit (JTRY, Apollo ACRED, Fasanara, Maple), how FalconX is already using on-chain channels for its tokenized loan book, and what the specific stablecoin repo and RWA deleveraging use cases look like in practice. Craig explains the 'HiFi' framework — why a robust on-chain repo market does not require everything to be fully programmatic — and Matteo maps the composability advantage: using an on-chain credit facility as collateral in a Morpho vault is a proof of concept that goes well beyond yield. This clip is from a longer conversation on bringing the repo market on-chain. Full episode here: https://youtube.com/live/E_X1rmunes4  Bits + Bips: The Interview drops every Thursday — subscribe to catch it. 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.

    22 min

  3. 2 DAYS AGO

    Is the AI Rally a Bubble? Ram, Chris, and Austin Disagree

    Semiconductors now make up 18% of the S&P 500 — a record — as capital floods into AI infrastructure. Is this another dotcom bubble, or something structurally different? Ram Ahluwalia says the spending is coming from the world’s most profitable companies and the returns are already showing up in cloud growth. Christopher Perkins says every mania eventually reaches an extreme. Austin Campbell argues the bigger question is whether investors are actually backing the right companies. This clip is from a longer conversation on markets, AI, and crypto. Full episode here: https://youtube.com/live/owJbpl30Zq4  We go live every Monday at 4:30 PM ET — subscribe to catch it live. Coinbase One: Get 20% off the first year of your Coinbase One annual plan at coinbase.com/unchained.

    13 min

  4. 7 MAY

    Paul Tudor Jones Says Bitcoin Is the Best Inflation Hedge. Is He Right?

    Paul Tudor Jones called Bitcoin the best inflation hedge the same day it broke through 80 while equities sold off. The Bits + Bips crew debates whether he’s right — and what comes next for the store of value. Ram Ahluwalia sees quantum-resistant successor coins on the horizon. Chris Perkins argues the next backed asset may rely on energy or compute — not gold or Treasuries. Featuring Austin Campbell (@austincampbell), Ram Ahluwalia (@ramahluwalia), and Chris Perkins (@perkinscr97). Full episode: https://youtube.com/live/7MTkawyMU8o  Thank you to our sponsor! Coinbase One — coinbase.com/unchained 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

    8 min

  5. 4 MAY

    On Polymarket, You Can't Pose a Question. On Delphi, Anyone Can

    Why does Delphi call itself an information market instead of a prediction market? Ben Fielding, CEO of Gensys, says the difference is the direction of the question. On Polymarket, users cannot create markets — only suggest them. On Delphi, anyone can pose a question and pay for the world to answer it. Ben walks through the full thesis: the orange farmer who can finally hedge drought risk without going to JP Morgan, the flywheel that pulls machine learning models into markets as faster and more accurate information traders than any human, and why the long tail of markets nobody has thought to create yet is where the real opportunity sits. He also addresses the hardest question: how do you prevent a decentralized market platform from being used for markets no society should allow? His answer is the Uniswap vs. Coinbase distinction. Guest: Ben Fielding @BenFielding [confirm], CEO & Co-Founder, Gensys. Host: Steve Ehrlich @Steven_Ehrlich. This clip is from a longer conversation on decentralized AI infrastructure, information markets, and the AI token. Full episode here: https://youtube.com/live/cUz1PU8O3_8  We go live every Wednesday at 10 AM 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.

    12 min

  6. 4 MAY

    OpenAI Is Building an AOL. Here Is Why That Limits AI's Scale

    How does a decentralized AI network compete with companies spending hundreds of billions on data centers? Ben Fielding, CEO of Gensys, says the question misunderstands what scale actually means. The big AI labs are building walled gardens, exactly the way AOL built one in the early internet era. They will attract users, extract value, and make great products, but they will not reach the scale of an open system running on every device in the world. Ben traces the pattern through the early internet, through social media, and into machine learning, and explains why the window is still open for a decentralized alternative that can get to internet-level scale rather than Meta-level scale. Guest: Ben Fielding @BenFielding, CEO & Co-Founder, Gensys. Host: Steve Ehrlich @Steven_Ehrlich. This clip is from a longer conversation on decentralized AI infrastructure, information markets, and the AI token. Full episode here: https://youtube.com/live/cUz1PU8O3_8  We go live every Wednesday at 10 AM 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.

    9 min

  7. 26 APR

    How the Kelp rsETH Hack Left Aave With $193M in Bad Debt

    The Kelp hack exposed a flaw at the center of monolithic DeFi lending. What comes next for Aave, for looping traders caught underwater, and for users who never knew the risk. A single compromised signature was enough.  When an attacker exploited Layer Zero's DVN network to mint 116,000 unbacked rsETH on Ethereum mainnet, Aave's unified pool design did the rest: within minutes, a $193M loan was originated against fraudulent collateral, ETH borrow rates went to 100% utilization, and thousands of leveraged looping positions flipped from positive carry to deeply negative.  Now Kelp faces a decision with no clean answer: socialize losses across all rsETH holders at a 17% haircut, or isolate the damage to the Layer 2 and blow through lenders on mainnet. Meanwhile, Aave's $250M umbrella module, designed precisely for moments like this, looks critically undercapitalized for a tail risk of this magnitude.  Blockworks researchers Luke Leasure, Shaunda Devens, and Carlos Gonzalez Campo walk through the mechanics of the exploit, the design choices that amplified it, and what the resolution scenarios mean for DeFi's future. Host: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Steven Ehrlich⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Head of Research, SharpLink Guest: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Luke Leasure (@0xMether), Head of Research at Blockworks Shaunda Devens (@shaundadevens), Research Analyst at Blockworks Carlos Gonzalez Campo (@0xcarlosg),  Researcher at Blockworks

    49 min

  8. 22 APR

    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
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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
    31
  • Show Website
    Bits + Bips

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