Unchained

The Chopping Block: The Midterm Mega Tsunami, a16z Goes Frontier, the CFTC Clears Equity Perps, and the Fight Over Abliterated AI Models

Welcome to The Chopping Block, where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest in crypto. This week Haseeb

What the 2026 Midterm Elections Mean for Crypto Regulation and the Clarity Act

Democrats won both chambers in a historic midterm wave. Mike Katz and Justin Slaughter on what that means for the Clarity Act, DeFi and crypto's next 2 years. ==========

Uneasy Money: What the $6B Binance Hack Revealed About Who Can Freeze Stolen Funds

The $6B Binance hack sent stolen funds through Aave. LlamaRisk CEO Adam Sadowski walks through the market freeze and why nothing was taken from the protocol. ===========

How North Korea Stole $6.3 Billion From Binance in 20 Minutes

A compromised developer laptop and 50 pre-signed transactions let North Korea drain $6.3 billion from Binance. Jonty and Pablo Sabbatella trace how it happened. ========

The Chopping Block: The Binance Hack, Circle's Fast Freeze, YC's Crypto Wishlist, and ICE Bringing Hyperliquid Perps Onshore

Rob Hadick guest-hosts for a second week with Tom and Robert, joined by Nemil Dalal of Y Combinator. Hours before the show, Binance lost an estimated $5 billion in what l

Bitcoin's Price May Have Bottomed. One Reason Is the AI Debasement Trade

Galaxy's Alex Thorn argues Bitcoin bottomed in late June. While macro funds exit, sovereign wealth funds buy and AI pushes debasement, he says now makes a good entry poin

Uneasy Money: Why Anthropic's IPO Governance Has Crypto Veterans Worried

Anthropic's S-1 shows the company is still burning cash. Kain Warwick and Taylor Monahan say the bigger risk is a founder voting bloc that has to vote together. ========

Why America's New Cyber Privateers Can't Go After North Korea

Can the US fight AI-powered hackers and North Korea by deputizing its private sector? Two government veterans explain why the answer is yes and no. =====================

The Chopping Block: Black October, Banks Blocking AI Agents, Hyperliquid's Blockchain-Not-Bitcoin Moment, and the Visa-Fireblocks Rumor

Welcome to The Chopping Block, where crypto insiders Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest in crypto. This week Rob Hadick of Dragonfl

PaperTrade Attracted $140M, Then Changed the Rules. Was It a Bait and Switch?

Traders tried to lose money fast to earn PAPER. Now the token may never be transferable, and one tracker shows staking revenue fell 93% in a day. =======================

Uneasy Money: Is the Internet Breaking Because Bots Never Get Lazy?

A certificate authority's private key was the number 4 for over a year. Kain, Taylor, and Austin on why the internet's trust schemes are cracking. ======================

How Crypto Can Survive If AI or Quantum Computers Break Its Cryptography

Justin Drake says crypto should brace for AI breaking elliptic curves before Q-Day. Project Eleven's Alex Pruden and Conor Deegan weigh in on what's actually at risk. ==

Ledger Wallets Were Drained of $100 Million. Is Self-Custody Still Safe?

A hidden implant read Ledger seed phrases off the screen and sent them out over an eSIM. Mark Karpelès and SEAL 911's Jonty discuss what that means for self-custody. ===

Uneasy Money: Why Ledger's Supply Chain Became a Nearly $100M Target

A Ledger reseller's devices shipped with a hidden LTE modem inside. Taylor Monahan lays out how it passed the genuine check and why panicking now costs more. ===========

The Chopping Block: The Ledger Hardware Implant, a Listening Device at OpenAI, Papertrade's 1000x House, and the Death of Technical Moats

The boys regroup after TOKEN2049. Ledgers sold through CryptoBilis, an authorized reseller in Malaysia, came with an LTE implant that read seed phrases off the screen, an

Why Crypto Buybacks Are 'the Wrong Way to Allocate Capital'

ARK Invest's Lorenzo Valente says quantum fears and the Ledger hack are speeding up the death of self-custody, that Ethereum has to pick a lane, and buybacks are “crazy.”

How NEAR Intents Identified a Suspect and Got Its Stolen Funds Back

A bridging bug cost NEAR Intents $3.8 million. Alex Shevchenko reveals how a coded tweet and a Signal invite encrypted with the attacker's key got the funds back. ======

The Chopping Block: Live at TOKEN2049 feat. Balaji Srinivasan & Arthur Hayes on Kazakhstan, Crypto Bunker Mode, and the L2 Shutdowns

Live from TOKEN2049 in Singapore, Haseeb, Tom, and Tarun sit down with Balaji Srinivasan and Arthur Hayes. Welcome to The Chopping Block, where crypto insiders Haseeb Q

How OpenAI's Math Dump Has Crypto Rethinking Its Cryptography: Uneasy Money

Justin Drake told holders not to panic. Ben DiFrancesco says if AI weakens elliptic curves, the clock is how fast Chinese models catch up. ==============================

THORChain Says It Can't Block North Korean Laundering. Is That True?

In this spicypost-Bitget hack debate, THORChain co-founder Chad Barraford says the protocol can't block laundering. Taylor Monahan points to the halts it has used before.