Bankless

Ryan and David break down a week where war hit markets, and the safe-haven playbook broke down. Oil spiked, gold failed, bonds sold off, the dollar caught the flight to safety, and crypto somehow bounced right through it. Then they unpack Trump’s public pressure campaign against banks over stablecoin yield, Kraken’s historic Fedwire breakthrough, and why crypto is starting to look less like an outsider and more like part of the financial core. Plus: Anthropic vs. the Pentagon, Erik Voorhees’ private AI push with Venice, fresh Aave governance drama, ZachXBT helping catch the $46M government crypto thief, and the New York Times calling crypto dead right on schedule.

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📣FIGURE | CRYPTO-BACKED LOANS & ~9% RWA YIELD

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🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS

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🌍 WORLD | FULLY ONCHAIN EXCHANGE

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TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES

0:00 Intro

2:54 Wartime Markets: US / Israel vs Iran + Market Reaction

https://x.com/WhiteHouse/status/2028229365440344419

https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2028426099474981156

https://x.com/BullTheoryio/status/2029251045885665465

https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2029274787474743761

https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/bitcoin

https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/ethereum

https://alternative.me/crypto/fear-and-greed-index

12:33 Polymarket Becomes the Biggest Winner

https://x.com/PolymarketStory/status/2028863241942671865

https://polymarket.com/event/will-the-iranian-regime-fall-by-march-31/?via=bankless?

https://polymarket.com/event/will-reza-pahlavi-lead-iran-in-2026/?via=bankless?

15:20 Pentagon vs Anthropic: AI is Military Tech

https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2027958511334723716

https://x.com/WatcherGuru/status/2027488317286351266

https://x.com/BullTheoryio/status/2027626521217929683

https://x.com/ns123abc/status/2028642962196811791

https://app.ventuals.com/trade/anthropic

23:57 Kraken Gets Fedwire Access (First Crypto Bank)

https://x.com/krakenfx/status/2029206389957009419

https://x.com/SenLummis/status/2029195363119173710 

https://x.com/dgt10011/status/2029241024069910558

https://bpi.com/bpi-statement-on-kraken-master-account

https://x.com/jespow/status/2029262374499434919

https://x.com/mikeippolito_/status/2029213224625963310

31:37 Trump vs Banks Over Stablecoin Yield

https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2028955180650099117

https://x.com/EricTrump/status/2029309823423009211

https://x.com/coinbureau/status/2029067345055105162

https://polymarket.com/event/clarity-act-signed-into-law-in-2026/?via=bankless?

https://x.com/RonwHammond/status/2028960282450567547

https://x.com/intangiblecoins/status/2029554248883839324

40:03 Private AI + Crypto: Erik Voorhees’ Venice

https://x.com/ErikVoorhees/status/2029352394317029871

https://x.com/ErikVoorhees/status/2029387068384678014

https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/venice-token

https://x.com/steipete/status/2028578713126707547

https://x.com/ErikVoorhees/status/2029399902011224272

47:30 Aave Governance Drama

https://governance.aave.com/t/aci-is-leaving-aave/24205

https://governance.aave.com/t/temp-check-aave-will-win-framework/24055/137

50:11 TradFi Moves Into Crypto (NYSE + OKX)

https://www.theblock.co/post/392397/nyse-parent-ice-invests-in-crypto-exchange-okx-at-25-billion-valuation-amid-tokenized-stocks-push-fortune

51:10 Million Bitcoin Milestone

https://x.com/JoeConsorti/status/2028931445125706171

52:09 X Money (Elon’s Payments Wallet) & SpaceX Bitcoin Treasury

https://x.com/abskoop/status/2029088219858346446

https://x.com/dagaadit/status/2029256180644659379

https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/03/01/spacex-s-usd780-million-bitcoin-stack-now-down-to-about-usd545-million-ahead-of-ipo-filing

54:42 ZachXBT Catches $46M Crypto Thief

https://x.com/BecauseBitcoin/status/2029585484960145866

https://x.com/zachxbt/status/2029577374057296175

https://x.com/zachxbt/status/2014685299025060154

58:13 South Korean Police Leak Crypto Wallet Seed

https://gizmodo.com/south-korean-police-lose-seized-crypto-by-posting-password-online-2000728191

1:00:33 NYTimes Says “Crypto Is Dead” Again

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/26/opinion/crypto-trump-bitcoin-clarity-genius.html

https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/2027392307050188828

1:02:10 Closing & Disclaimers

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Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:

https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

AI is getting dangerously good at smart contract security. Faster than crypto is ready for. Alpin Yukseloglu joins Bankless to break down EVMBench (built with OpenAI), a benchmark testing whether AI agents can detect, patch, and exploit real fund-draining bugs and why the jump from ~12–13% exploit-finding to 70%+ could rewrite today’s security assumptions. We unpack what that “70%” really means, why crypto’s verifiability is an ideal training ground, why AI labs haven’t prioritized crypto data yet, and what a 24/7 blackhat vs whitehat AI arms race means for DeFi.

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🏅BITGET TRADFI | TRADE GOLD WITH USDT
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🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS
https://thedefireport.io/bankless

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TIMESTAMPS

0:00 AI’s exploit leap: 12% → 70% and the “Superhuman auditors”
7:02: Staring at the singularity without losing your mind
10:31 Agency » doom: the Thiel framing
19:10 What’s most at risk (and what’s safer)
23:37 What EVMBench actually is (benchmark + harness)
27:03 Why exploiting is the key: killing false positives
29:24 AI gets “good at crypto” fast: verifiability
30:56 What “70% exploit rate” really means
33:32 Why AI labs avoided crypto (it’s not technical)
43:38 Blackhat vs whitehat: how the race plays out
47:21 Agents and “payments at the speed of light”
51:02 EVM vs Solana: network effects
56:18 AI formal verification as an endgame
58:06 EVMBench V2: expanding the frontier
59:54 Why Alpin stays in crypto

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RESOURCES

Alpin Yukseloglu
https://x.com/0xalpo

EVMBench
https://paradigm.xyz/evmbench

---
Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:
https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Nat Eliason joins to show what it looks like to build a “zero human company” with OpenClaw agents. — led by Felix, an AI CEO that ships products, runs ops, and even manages other agents for support and sales. 

We unpack how Felix went from an overnight info product to a full marketplace for agent “skills” (Clawmart) and a bespoke service that deploys custom OpenClaw employees for real businesses, hitting nearly $80k in revenue since early February while operating on surprisingly low monthly costs.

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https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast

🪐GALAXY | INSTITUTIONAL DIGITAL FINANCE

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⚡ EUPHORIA | REAL-TIME ONE-TAP TRADING

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🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD

https://bankless.cc/brix

🏅BITGET TRADFI | TRADE GOLD WITH USDT

https://bankless.cc/bitget

🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS

https://thedefireport.io/bankless

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TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro

0.24 Nat’s Background

6:30 Felix

11:43 Real Businesses vs Memecoins

14:23 Felix’s Employees

18:06 Felix’s Business

31:26 How Customized is Felix?

38:17 Felix’s Business Risks

40:12 Can OpenClaw Replace Knowledge Workers?

43:38 Claw Mart

48:49 Felix’s Expenses

51:15 Nat’s Role

56:39 Felix’s Discord

1:03:19 Citrini Doomer Scenario

1:13:04 Hiring Your First Agent

1:16:19 General AI Assistants

1:19:50 AI Friends

1:22:39 The AI Agent Frontier

1:26:52 Crypto x AI

1:31:53 What’s Next

1:34:27 Closing & Disclaimers

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RESOURCES

Nat Eliason

https://x.com/nateliason 

Felix Craft

https://x.com/FelixCraftAI 

Felix Dashboard

https://felixcraft.ai/dashboard 

Claw Mart

https://www.shopclawmart.com/ 

Crypto Confidential: Winning and Losing Millions in the New Frontier of Finance

https://www.amazon.com/Crypto-Confidential-Winning-Millions-Frontier/dp/0593714040 

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Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:

https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠

Crypto still feels like a minefield for humans:

Haseeb Qureshi argues that’s a clue, not a bug: blockchains and smart contracts are machine-readable systems that AI agents can parse, simulate, and execute far more reliably than people, shifting crypto’s core user from humans clicking through wallets to agents acting on our behalf.

We also dig into the two-track future of agent commerce (safe, human-approved flows vs. the wild-west frontier), why major AI labs have avoided crypto training so far (liability), how agent-driven discovery could rewrite DeFi competition, and what this means for Dragonfly’s investing playbook.

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🎬 DEBRIEF | RYAN & DAVID UNPACKING THE EPISODE

https://www.bankless.com/podcast/debrief-haseeb-quereshi-cryptos-not-made-for-humans-its-for-ai

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🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET

https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast

🪐GALAXY | INSTITUTIONAL DIGITAL FINANCE

https://bankless.cc/galaxy-podcast

⚡ EUPHORIA | REAL-TIME ONE-TAP TRADING

https://bankless.cc/euphoria

🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD

https://bankless.cc/brix

🏅BITGET TRADFI | TRADE GOLD WITH USDT

https://bankless.cc/bitget

🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS

https://bankless.cc/TDRpro

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TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro

0:42 Why Crypto’s Not Made for Humans

17:49 How AI Agents Think

28:51 Why Crypto x AI is Unexplored

32:58 The Botconomy & OpenClaw

43:42 How Long Until the Frontier is Here?

50:07 How Crazy Does it Get?

1:06:00 AI Thinks Crypto’s Cringe

1:10:31 Dragonfly’s New 650M Fund

1:13:05 Closing & Disclaimers

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RESOURCES

Haseeb Qureshi

https://x.com/hosseeb 

Dragonfly

https://www.dragonfly.xyz/ 

------

Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:

https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠

February ends with peak FUD. Ryan and David unpack why crypto is stuck in historic “Extreme Fear” even without a major blowup, and why markets feel like they’ve entered an uncertainty bubble. They break down the Supreme Court striking Trump’s tariffs, Trump immediately finding new legal doors to bring them back, and the looming $150B+ refund fight. Then the “Citrini Crash”: AI doomer scenarios going viral, spooking stocks, and leaving investors terrified that AI will be either not good enough or far too good. Plus: fresh allegations that Jane Street helped accelerate Terra’s collapse, Meta’s stablecoin reboot for its billions of users, ZachXBT’s Axiom insider trading exposé, Hyperliquid’s new DC policy push, Robinhood’s retail venture fund, Coinbase’s 24/5 stocks rollout, and the Pentagon’s ultimatum to Anthropic over AI guardrails.

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📣FIGURE | CRYPTO-BACKED LOANS & ~9% RWA YIELD

https://bankless.cc/FigureCBL

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⚡EUPHORIA | REAL-TIME ONE-TAP TRADING

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🏅BITGET TRADFI | TRADE GOLD WITH USDT

https://bankless.cc/bitget

🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD

https://bankless.cc/brix 

🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS

https://bankless.cc/TDRpro   

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TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES

0:00 Intro

2:51 Extreme Fear & the “Uncertainty Bubble”

https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/bitcoin

https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/ethereum

https://alternative.me/crypto/fear-and-greed-index

https://x.com/xeer/status/2025867669707043156

https://x.com/Evan_ss6/status/2026363413610238032

https://thedefireport.io/research/uncertainty-bubble

https://x.com/kobeissiletter/status/2024862913761001477

https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2026067372604371286

https://www.citriniresearch.com/p/2028gic

https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2026040229535047769

https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2026028854461047220

https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/the-citrini-post-is-just-a-scary

https://x.com/mattshumer_/status/2021256989876109403

https://x.com/intangiblecoins/status/2027011410627027024

26:24 Was Jane Street Behind the 2022 Crypto Winter?

https://www.wsj.com/finance/currencies/jane-street-accused-of-insider-trading-that-helped-collapse-terraform-659e6993

https://x.com/OGDfarmer/status/2026343910923006123

https://x.com/hasufl/status/2026246191550193756

https://x.com/davidzmorris/status/2026286018643603749

https://x.com/1914ad/status/2026757796390449382

35:29 Meta Revives Stablecoin Plans

https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/02/24/mark-zuckerberg-s-meta-is-planning-stablecoin-comeback-in-the-second-half-of-this-year

39:49 ZachXBT Exposes Insider Trading at Axiom

https://x.com/zachxbt/status/2025917891678523644

https://polymarket.com/event/which-crypto-company-will-zachxbt-expose-for-insider-trading/?via=bankless?

https://x.com/zachxbt/status/2027016064534757659

https://x.com/zachxbt/status/2027016170126323925

50:40 Hyperliquid DC Policy Center, Robinhood VC, & Coinbase 24/5 stocks & ETFs trading

https://x.com/jchervinsky/status/2024116520427651480

https://x.com/vladtenev/status/2026028297822588941

https://x.com/coinbase/status/2026303315382870364

55:49 AI Watch: Pentagon vs Anthropic

https://x.com/DeItaone/status/2027028927756054670

https://x.com/VitalikButerin/status/2026382701562048545

https://x.com/VitalikButerin/status/2026329054887239697

1:02:33 Closing & Disclaimers

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Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:

https://www.bankless.com/disclosures