Unchained

Bitcoin’s Satoshi drama heats up again as a major journalistic “reveal” drops, just as the crypto industry gets rocked by a quantum computing breakthrough that pulls up security timelines—and AI-powered exploits are suddenly real. We break down Satoshi theories, Blockstream PR whispers, the new quantum risk landscape, Ethereum vs. Bitcoin migration pain, and why your favorite protocols might not be ready for North Korea or superintelligent bug finders.

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 we’re joined by Justin Drake, Ethereum Foundation researcher and the internet’s favorite quantum attack alarm bell ringer. Things get spicy immediately: the eternal guessing game “Who is Satoshi?” gets a new round of attention as John Carreyrou (yeah, Theranos guy) drops a supposed expose pointing his finger at none other than Blockstream’s Adam Back. 

The crew debates whether this Satoshi story is tired PR, inside baseball, or a genuine existential turning point for Bitcoin culture. Then things escalate: Justin walks us through Google and Atomic’s quantum computing breakthrough—a real, validated step forward that potentially pulls the “Q-day” clock up to as soon as 2029. The implications? Bitcoin and Ethereum’s security models are suddenly under the gun, and community denial is in full effect. Who’s better poised to survive a quantum apocalypse… and is coin burning on the menu for Satoshi’s stash?

Later, we break down the Drift hack—North Korea’s latest state-level heist, featuring IRL social engineering that sounds like Mr. Robot meets Oceans Eleven. Finally, it’s an AI arms race: Anthropic’s Mythos model is reportedly the most dangerous security researcher ever coded, and it’s already quietly hardening corporate fortresses. 

Panic? Prepare? Both? One thing’s for sure—there are no do-overs on the blockchain, so let’s get into it.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights

🔹 Blockstream’s Adam Back is the new “Satoshi” according to a viral John Carreyrou story  

🔹 Bitcoin’s culture wars: PR rumor mill vs. industry insiders roll their eyes  

🔹 The Google & Atomic quantum computing breakthrough slashes Q-Day timelines dramatically  

🔹 Ethereum’s quantum readiness (thanks Justin) vs. Bitcoin’s “not my problem” response  

🔹 Why crypto’s “immutable” past is a quantum-ticking time bomb for dormant addresses  

🔹 Satoshi coin burning debate—do we idolize, fork, or rage-quit?  

🔹 The Drift hack: North Korean ops, social engineering, and multi-sig failures  

🔹 Anthropic’s Mythos: the AI that finds bugs before humans—and sometimes emails you about it  

🔹 Formal verification, client diversity, and the future defense of blockchains  

🔹 Haseeb’s question: Could AI break crypto before quantum does?

Hosts

⭐️Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly

⭐️Tarun Chitra, Managing Partner at Robot Ventures

⭐️Tom Schmidt, General Partner at Dragonfly 

Guest

⭐️ Justin Drake, Researcher of Ethereum Foundation

Disclosures

LINKS

"Securing Elliptic Curve Cryptocurrencies against Quantum Vulnerabilities: Resource Estimates and Mitigations" — Google Quantum AI, Ethereum Foundation, Stanford https://quantumai.google/static/site-assets/downloads/cryptocurrency-whitepaper.pdf

"Shor's algorithm is possible with as few as 10,000 reconfigurable atomic qubits" — Cain, Xu, King, Picard, Levine, Endres, Preskill, Huang, Bluvstein https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.28627

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Anthropic's new model is too dangerous to release publicly. It's already found 20 zero-days. Kain, Taylor, and Austin want to know when it finds the first one in a smart contract.

Thank you to our sponsors!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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Bitcoin’s application layer, Citrea, launched its mainnet, expanding Bitcoin’s utility to privacy, lending, BTC yields, and more. Citrea enables:


cBTC: The first trust-minimized Bitcoin on a fully programmable platform.


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Anthropic's Mythos model is so capable that the company restricted access to 12 partners and a $100 million compute budget rather than releasing it publicly. It has already identified 20 zero-day vulnerabilities in decades-old software. 

Now the question over DeFi: if Mythos turns its attention to smart contracts, what survives? The Balancer V2 hack rattled assumptions about immutability as a security guarantee. 

Kain Warwick, Taylor Monahan, and Austin Griffith of the Ethereum Foundation work through what autonomous AI hacking means for protocols built to be unhackable, why skill files are the sleeper development in the agent stack, how a degen farming bot locked funds in an Aerodrome gauge through a single wrong NFT transfer, and what Anthropic's 89% uptime tells you about the infrastructure running the most powerful AI on earth.

Hosts:


⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Kain Warwick⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Founder of Infinex and Synthetix


⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Taylor Monahan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Security Expert

Guest:


Austin Griffith, Ethereum Foundation

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Will SEC guidance stick around if the administration changes? Commissioner Peirce and Sumeera Younis of the Crypto Task Force answer.

Thanks to our sponsors!

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The SEC’s Crypto Task Force has spent over a year rebuilding a relationship the industry feared was broken for good. Commissioner Hester Peirce and task force Chief of Operations Sumeera Younis explain how the SEC prioritizes crypto policy questions, why tokenization leads the agenda, and what happens to this guidance when the administration changes. 

They tackle the gap between large players shaping policy and small builders who want clear instructions, reveal how the SEC and CFTC coordinate to prevent jurisdictional conflicts, and argue that smart contracts and AI could reinvent securities disclosure.

Hosts:


⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos, General Counsel at StarkWare. Previously held senior legal roles across DeFi and centralized exchanges.


⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jessi Brooks⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, General Counsel at Ribbit Capital


⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TuongVy Le⁠, General Counsel at Veda

Guests:


⁠⁠⁠⁠ Commissioner Hester Peirce, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission


Sumeera Younis, Chief of Operations, SEC Crypto Task Force

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The Drift hack wasn't a one-off exploit. It was a patient operation spanning months, with nation-state actors working the conference circuit. Then Circle let the hackers take the money.

Bitcoin’s application layer, Citrea, launched its mainnet, expanding Bitcoin’s utility to privacy, lending, BTC yields, and more.

Citrea enables:

cBTC: The first trust-minimized Bitcoin on a fully programmable platform.

ctUSD: A native stablecoin for Bitcoin, allowing for unified liquidity.

Bitcoin Capital Markets bringing demand, and utility to the Bitcoin Network.

Explore the Citrea Ecosystem. http://citrea.xyz/unchained

===============================================================================

Ether.fi is giving Unchained listeners 15% cashback on food and ride apps — and that's on top of the 3% you get on everything else.

Your bank is charging you to use your own money. Laura switched and loves her card!

Go to http://ether.fi/unchained to claim your offer.

===============================================================================

The Drift hack looked like a typical smart contract exploit until the postmortem revealed something far more elaborate: a six-month DPRK intelligence operation involving in-person social engineering at crypto conferences, fully constructed professional identities, and a $1 million deposit to build trust.

Then, after $232 million in USDC was stolen, Circle declined to freeze the funds while attackers bridged them across chains for six hours during business hours.

Michael Lewellen from Turnkey and Amanda Wick from VerifyVASP tackle what the Drift compromise teaches about operational security in crypto, why Circle's decision raises hard questions about stablecoin issuer responsibility, and whether the legal framework is forcing companies to choose between compliance and doing what's right.

Host:


Laura Shin, Host / Unchained

Guests:


⁠⁠⁠⁠Amanda Wick, Head of Americas at VerifyVASP


⁠⁠⁠⁠Michael Lewellen, Head of Solutions Engineering at Turnkey

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A nation state hacked a startup and won. The hosts debate who's liable, what's fixable, and what isn't.

---

Thank you to our sponsors:

Bitcoin’s application layer, Citrea, launched its mainnet, expanding Bitcoin’s utility to privacy, lending, BTC yields, and more.

Citrea enables:


cBTC: The first trust-minimized Bitcoin on a fully programmable platform.


ctUSD: A native stablecoin for Bitcoin, allowing for unified liquidity.


Bitcoin Capital Markets bringing demand, and utility to the Bitcoin Network.

Explore the Citrea Ecosystem.

Ether.fi is giving Unchained listeners 15% cashback on food and ride apps — and that's on top of the 3% you get on everything else. 

Your bank is charging you to use your own money. Laura switched and loves her card!Go to ether.fi/unchained to claim your offer.

----

North Korea just pulled off the largest DeFi hack of 2026, draining $285 million from Drift protocol in 12 minutes through a six-month social engineering campaign that included face-to-face meetings at industry conferences. Circle had a six-hour window to freeze $232 million in USDC moving through its own bridge and didn't act. 

Meanwhile, Iran's IRGC is reportedly collecting crypto tolls at the Strait of Hormuz in USDT via Tron, and the token market is cracking under the weight of 750,000 issuances since 2020 with the median token down 80% from peak. 

Ram, Austin, and Chris confront the liability question for stablecoin issuers, whether DeFi's security model can survive nation-state attackers, why Chris is calling for licensed "neoprivateers" to recover stolen funds, and what Franklin Templeton's acquisition of 250 Digital signals about where institutional capital is headed.

Hosts:


⁠⁠⁠⁠Austin Campbell⁠⁠⁠⁠, Host of Bits + Bips, Zero Knowledge Consulting


⁠⁠⁠⁠Ram Ahluwalia⁠⁠⁠⁠, Co-Host, CEO of Lumida


⁠⁠⁠⁠Chris Perkins⁠⁠⁠⁠, Co-Host, President of CoinFund

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