Unchained

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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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Charles Schwab’s chief crypto strategist breaks down why traditional finance valuation frameworks, not narratives, are finally taking hold in digital assets.

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Charles Schwab recently hired Jim Ferraioli to build a dedicated crypto research team, a signal that institutions are moving beyond narrative-driven investing and are taking this asset class seriously. 

In this episode, Steven Ehrlich sits down with Jim to explore how traditional finance valuation frameworks apply to crypto. They discuss Bitcoin’s role as a hedge against monetary debasement (not a safe haven), Jim’s cost-of-production model for valuing Bitcoin, and why Ethereum’s dominance in tokenization matters far more than short-term price action. 

Most compellingly, Jim argues that today’s Bitcoin prices sit at historical support levels used by the most efficient miners, and that Ethereum’s position as the tokenization standard is nearly unshakeable. If you’ve been waiting for crypto analysis grounded in fundamentals rather than hype, this is the conversation to hear.

Host:


⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Steven Ehrlich⁠⁠⁠, Head of Research, SharpLink

Guest:


⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jim Ferraioli⁠⁠, Director of Digital Currencies Research and Strategy at Charles Schwab

Links:

Charles Schwab & Institutional Crypto Research


⁠⁠Jim Ferraioli | Charles Schwab⁠⁠


CoinDesk: 


⁠⁠Liquidity Lifts Bitcoin, but 'Halving Cycle' Fears Could Limit Rally, Says Schwab⁠⁠


Nasdaq: 


⁠⁠Top 4 Reasons More Americans Are Investing in Crypto, According to Schwab⁠⁠

Ethereum Tokenization & Real-World Assets


Coindesk: 


⁠⁠The Tokenization Boom: Why Ethereum Remains the Rails for RWA Tokenization⁠⁠

Quantum Computing Risk


CoinDesk: 


⁠⁠Bitcoin Isn't Under Quantum Threat Yet, but Upgrading Could Take 5-10 Years⁠⁠


⁠⁠How Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana Are Preparing for the Quantum Threat

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The Drift Protocol is down $285 million and Circle has the power to freeze the funds — but won’t. Kain, Taylor, and Luca explain why.

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The Drift Protocol hack was still unfolding when Kain, Taylor, and Luca went live. Within hours of a suspected admin key compromise, over $285 million had been drained across Solana, with Circle sitting on the ability to freeze the stolen USDC — and choosing not to. 

Taylor Monahan, who was already in an active incident response room, walked through exactly how DPRK malware operates silently on devices for months before striking, why standard antivirus software won’t catch it, and what the Axios supply chain attack revealed about the vulnerability of open source infrastructure. 

Then the conversation shifted to the Claude Code source leak — what it actually reveals about how the most sophisticated agentic coding harness in the world was built, and why Kain thinks a new Anthropic model may be days away.

Hosts:


⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Kain Warwick⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Founder of Infinex and Synthetix


⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Taylor Monahan⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Security Expert


⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Luca Netz⁠⁠⁠⁠, CEO of Pudgy Penguins

Links

Unchained:


Drift Protocol Coverage — Search unchainedcrypto.com for current coverage

Related:


SEAL 911 — Volunteer crypto incident response group


Drift Protocol


Axios npm package — Supply chain attack vector discussed


CrowdStrike EDR — Recommended endpoint detection tool


Claude Code — Subject of source leak discussion

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