CoinDesk Podcast Network

CoinDesk's The Policy Protocol hosts Rebecca Rettig and Renato Mariotti dig into the New York Times investigation of the CFTC and Kalshi's latest lawsuit against Minnesota before sitting down with Aaron Klein, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Klein argues that independent financial regulators have been turned into "subsidiaries of the White House," warns that the CFTC is not structurally up to the jurisdiction CLARITY would hand it, and makes the case that the SEC and CFTC should be merged. He also unpacks lessons from Dodd-Frank and the savings-and-loan crisis. Plus, Rebecca and Renato debrief on the CFTC staffing debate and name House Agriculture Chairman GT Thompson and Ranking Member Angie Craig as their People of the Week for their bipartisan push to fill out the CFTC commission.

-

Timecodes:

00:00 Welcome to The Policy Protocol

00:43 All Roads Lead to the CFTC

01:22 Unpacking the NYT's CFTC Investigation

02:41 Pendulum Swing: Reading the NYT in Context

05:11 Why the CFTC Needs Funding and Personnel

06:52 Aaron Klein Joins the Show

07:30 The History of the CFTC and the Great Salad Oil Swindle

08:10 Independent Regulators as White House Subsidiaries

09:39 Dodd-Frank Lessons for the CLARITY Era

11:47 The Case for Merging the SEC and CFTC

13:21 PolyMarket, Soft on Financial Crime, and CZ/Binance

15:06 SEC-CFTC Office Sharing and the Value of MOUs

18:16 Renato and Rebecca Debrief on the CFTC's Future

21:45 Trump on Prediction Markets and Expanded Jurisdiction

22:30 People of the Week: GT Thompson and Angie Craig

24:26 Tribute to Ondo CEO Nathan Allman

25:01 Closing Thoughts and Sign-Off

Altcoins have lost the plot with Scott Melker.

In today's Markets Outlook, Scott Melker, Host of Wolf of All Streets, tells CoinDesk's Jennifer Sanasie why altcoins have lost the plot, what's really driving the weird market we're all feeling, and why Bitcoin is still the only bet he's making long-term. Plus: are prediction markets, tokenized equities, and "private Bitcoin" just hype?

-

Timecodes:

00:00 - Scott Melker Joins Markets Outlook

01:38 - Why Bitcoin Is Underrated

03:59 - Is Crypto Recreating the System It Was Built to Fight? 

06:08 - Scott’s Bitcoin Origin Story

08:04 - Why This Market Feels Impossible to Read

10:07 - How Prediction Markets Killed the Altcoin Casino 

13:33 - Teaching His Kids About Bitcoin and AI in a Complicated World

16:22 - AI Tokens and Zcash Outlook

18:33 - Zcash as Privacy Bitcoin: “It Makes Me Want to Puke”

19:46 - Scott's Bitcoin Price Outlook for the Rest of the Year

-

This episode was hosted by Jennifer Sanasie.

A Google engineer arrested for allegedly insider trading on Polymarket.

A Google security engineer was arrested for allegedly using the company's internal search data to place winning bets on Polymarket prediction markets. Michele Spagnuolo transferred $3.8 million in USDC and personally cleared about $1.2 million before attempting to conceal the funds through a privacy mixer. CoinDesk's Jennifer Sanasie hosts "CoinDesk Daily."

-

This episode was hosted by Jennifer Sanasie. “CoinDesk Daily” is produced by Jennifer Sanasie and edited by Victor Chen.

Robinhood now allows AI to trade for you, and IREN just purchased $1.6 billion worth of GPUs for AI workloads.

Welcome back to The Blockspace Podcast! Today, Asher Genoot, CEO of Hut 8 joins us to talk about the company’s $9.8 billion deal for its Beacon Point AI data center in Texas. For news, we cover Robinhood launching access for AI trading agents, IREN’s $1.6B Dell Blackwell purchase, hardware rollout, Core 42’s $500M financing, and Mara’s rising executive security expenses.

Check out our latest report, “What’s a Megawatt Worth?” where we quantify the trillion dollar opportunity for bitcoin miners venturing into the AI sector. Download here: https://megawattreport.com/

Subscribe to our newsletter to receive updates for all of our shows and content: https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com

👉CleanSpark (Nasdaq: CLSK), a market-leading data center developer with a proven track record of success.

👉Luxor, Blockspace's preferred mining pool. Start hashing today with Luxor!

👉Lygos Finance, Borrow against your Bitcoin, without compromising on custody.

President Trump defends the CFTC's authority over prediction markets.

President Trump defended the CFTC's exclusive authority over prediction markets in a Truth Social post, calling state officials trying to regulate them "scum." His attack targeted Chris Christie, Letitia James, Tim Walz, and JB Pritzker — all of whom have moved against prediction market platforms in their states. CoinDesk's Jennifer Sanasie hosts "CoinDesk Daily."

-

This episode was hosted by Jennifer Sanasie. “CoinDesk Daily” is produced by Jennifer Sanasie and edited by Victor Chen.