"We Want to Be Bigger Than the CME" | Kalshi's John Wang

What if the most interesting crypto investments of the next cycle aren’t new blockchains at all? RockawayX Liquid founder Austin Barack joins David to explain why his attention has shifted toward a small group of applications with real users, rapidly growing revenue, and increasingly explicit token value capture. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔓NEAR | TRADE CONFIDENTIALLY, GET 20% BACK https://bankless.cc/near2026 🔑BITKEY | GET 10% OFF USE CODE: BANKLESS | #bitkeypartner https://bankless.cc/bitkey 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless 👑BANKLESS CONTENT MCP https://www.bankless.com/premium --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Finding Growth and Value in Crypto 4:17 Why Liquid Tokens Are Winning His Attention 7:00 How Austin Values Venice and VVV 15:34 The Biggest Bet in the Venice Model 24:53 Can Venice Balance Growth and Token Value? 32:53 Venice Growth and the OpenRouter Signal 37:31 Can Fundamental Tokens Outperform the Crypto Cycle? 43:50 Pump, Hyperliquid and EtherFi 48:57 EtherFi’s Shift Into a Neo Brokerage 58:24 Why the Market Discounts Pump 1:02:42 The Next Era of Crypto --- RESOURCES Austin Barack https://x.com/AustinBarack --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Robinhood Chain is exploding as memecoins collide with tokenized stocks and Haseeb thinks the whole thing may end badly. Ryan and Haseeb unpack the new casino economy, Saylor’s Bitcoin comeback, Solana’s issuance cut, and the latest AI safety scare. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔓 NEAR | TRADE CONFIDENTIALLY, GET 20% BACK https://bankless.cc/near2026 🔑 BITKEY | GET 10% OFF USE CODE: BANKLESS | #bitkeypartner https://bankless.cc/bitkey 📊 BITGET | TOKENIZED STOCKS 2.0 https://bankless.cc/bitget-stocks 🎯 THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless 👑 BANKLESS CONTENT MCP https://www.bankless.com/premium --- TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES 0:00 Intro 2:32 Macro Bounce & Treasury-Fed Tug-of-War https://x.com/exec_sum/status/2095153582819414237 https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/01/bessent-trump-bond-yields-g20.html https://x.com/0xVirtanen/status/2095121085079462032 https://x.com/hosseeb/status/2095008393434108373 12:41 Saylor’s Bitcoin Comeback https://x.com/saylor/status/2095524315936530834 https://x.com/Strategy/status/2094396231866777976 https://x.com/AIGOLDOfficial/status/2095360679226364361 https://x.com/AltcoinPro_/status/2095319252769366525 17:35 Robinhood Meme & Stock Token Mania https://x.com/MikeIppolito_/status/2095210343244894659 https://x.com/MikeIppolito_/status/2095211833124639103 https://x.com/haydenzadams/status/2095261533236252831 https://x.com/nansen_ai/status/2095350826047049942 https://x.com/nansen_ai/status/2095350856610926677 https://x.com/hosseeb/status/2095539969297404266 31:41 Ethereum, Solana & the Issuance Vote https://x.com/LorenzoARK/status/2094517633122979994 https://x.com/web3_data/status/2095054796344406404 https://x.com/0xcarlosg/status/2095444848551633401 https://x.com/P2Pvalidator/status/2094363684361388089 https://x.com/stevenzeiler/status/2094908384789123200 https://x.com/mert/status/2093359812633616577 46:52 21 Banks Chase Stablecoins https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/goldman-sachs-bofa-others-plan-issue-dollar-stablecoin-together-2027-2026-09-01/ 50:44 KYC Breach Fallout https://krebsonsecurity.com/2026/09/fbi-probes-service-selling-153m-drivers-licenses/ https://x.com/ErikVoorhees/status/2095319741716193431 https://x.com/rstormsf/status/2095331699672732122 56:56 Astra Raises AI Alarms https://venturebeat.com/technology/welcome-to-the-agi-era-openai-launches-gpt-6-astra --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

What if the answer to NFT liquidity looked more like opening a Pokémon pack than trading on a traditional marketplace? FWA creator Adam “Rhynotic” joins David Hoffman and Eric Conner to unpack Fake World Assets, an Ethereum protocol combining random NFT pulls, ETH-backed liquidity and permissionless market infrastructure. They explore why FWA has made NFTs fun again, how its unusual pricing and buyback mechanics work, the FWA token, custom pools and FWAR's new approach to NFT launches. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔓NEAR | TRADE CONFIDENTIALLY, GET 20% BACK https://bankless.cc/near2026 🔑BITKEY | GET 10% OFF USE CODE: BANKLESS | #bitkeypartner https://bankless.cc/bitkey 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless 👑BANKLESS CONTENT MCP https://www.bankless.com/premium --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 What Is Fake World Assets? 1:38 Making NFTs Fun Again 3:55 How the FWA Pool Works 8:42 Why Eric Is Bullish on FWA 13:20 A Liquidity Layer for NFTs 16:00 From NFTs to Real-World Assets 20:13 Pricing, Buybacks and Incentives 28:36 Custom Pools and New NFT Markets 31:57 The FWA Token 39:06 FWAR and a New Way to Launch NFTs 48:47 What Comes Next for FWA 50:12 Multichain FWA and the Bigger Vision 54:46 Closing Thoughts --- RESOURCES Adam (Rhynotic) https://x.com/Rhynotic Eric Conner https://x.com/econoar --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Kalshi’s ambition extends far beyond winning prediction markets. It wants to become the largest exchange on Earth. John Wang joins David to explain Kalshi’s regulated crypto-perps push, upcoming gold and silver markets, international expansion, and the strategy for turning retail event contracts into serious institutional hedging infrastructure. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔓NEAR | TRADE CONFIDENTIALLY, GET 20% BACK https://bankless.cc/near-pod 🔑BITKEY | GET 10% OFF USE CODE: BANKLESS | #bitkeypartner https://bankless.cc/bitkey 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless 👑BANKLESS CONTENT MCP https://www.bankless.com/premium --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Is Kalshi a Crypto Company? 3:56 Global Expansion and the Regulated Edge 14:55 The Regulated Perps Bet 21:38 Combining Perps and Predictions 27:51 The Insider Trading Problem 38:50 Who Owns Market Information? 45:58 From Sportsbooks to the CME 55:24 Prediction Markets for Institutions 1:02:40 Kalshi Versus Polymarket --- RESOURCES John Wang https://x.com/j0hnwang --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Robotics hype is everywhere, but are humanoids actually the main event? Lux Capital partner Shahin Farshchi joins David to explain why the bigger opportunity may be AI-powered automation hiding inside factories, warehouses, and other industrial settings. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔓NEAR | TRADE CONFIDENTIALLY, GET 20% BACK https://bankless.cc/near-pod 🔑BITKEY | GET 10% OFF USE CODE: BANKLESS | #bitkeypartner https://bankless.cc/bitkey 📊BITGET | TOKENIZED STOCKS 2.0 https://bankless.cc/bitget-stocks 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless 👑BANKLESS CONTENT MCP https://www.bankless.com/premium --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Is the Robotics Hype Justified? 2:02 Why Humanoids Aren’t the Main Story 8:14 Robotics vs. Automation 12:20 Specialized Robots vs. Generalists 19:24 Making Robotics Accessible 22:25 AI Unlocks New Robotic Tasks 24:52 Robotics’ Internet Moment 27:52 Robots, Jobs, and Cheap Labor 31:28 What Automation Does to the Economy 39:07 What Still Holds Robotics Back 42:30 How AI Actually Powers Robots 50:49 The Robotics Data Bottleneck 53:34 Robotics Companies to Watch --- RESOURCES Shahin Farshchi https://x.com/Farshchi --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Bitcoin may be entering a new cycle just as the Treasury starts pushing back on rising yields. Ryan and Haseeb break down the Bessent Put, the return of the debasement trade, Coinbase’s tokenized stocks push, Ethena’s token reset, and whether AI is starting to consume the world’s capital. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔓 NEAR | TRADE CONFIDENTIALLY, GET 20% BACK https://bankless.cc/near-pod 🔑 BITKEY | GET 10% OFF USE CODE: BANKLESS | #bitkeypartner https://bankless.cc/bitkey 📊 BITGET | TOKENIZED STOCKS 2.0 https://bankless.cc/bitget-stocks 🎯 THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless 👑 BANKLESS CONTENT MCP https://www.bankless.com/premium --- TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES 0:00 Intro 0:31 Crypto Energy Shift & Bitcoin’s New Cycle https://x.com/hosseeb/status/2091945147357675623 https://www.theblock.co/news/markets/2026-08-23-bitcoin-record-weekly-dollar-gain-412547 5:55 The Bessent Put https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/24/bessent-1-trillion-treasury-general-account-bond-buybacks.html https://x.com/DeItaone/status/2091852135675658265 https://x.com/CGasparino/status/2091918792146247833 14:11 Druckenmiller vs. Bessent https://x.com/NickTimiraos/status/2092023686148817227 23:31 Debasement Trade Returns https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/26/debasement-trade-to-take-bitcoin-to-300000-in-2029-bernstein-says-.html https://x.com/TimmerFidelity/status/2092991527127789913 https://x.com/fundstrat/status/2091895628003528804 30:03 Coinbase Tokenized Stocks https://x.com/base/status/2091918696620896485 41:14 Ethena’s Token Reset https://x.com/EthenaFndtn/status/2092976592738001383 https://x.com/hosseeb/status/2090828427574268023 53:59 AI Capital Hunger https://x.com/RaoulGMI/status/2092704327227867585 --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Wall Street wants to come onchain, but public-by-default finance creates a problem institutions cannot ignore. ETH Systems co-founders Mo Jalil and Oskar Thoren join David to explain why privacy may be one of Ethereum’s biggest institutional unlocks, what banks and asset managers are actually asking for, and why the opportunity goes far beyond private payments. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔓NEAR | TRADE CONFIDENTIALLY, GET 20% BACK https://bankless.cc/near-pod 🔑BITKEY | GET 10% OFF USE CODE: BANKLESS | #bitkeypartner https://bankless.cc/bitkey 📊BITGET | TOKENIZED STOCKS 2.0 https://bankless.cc/bitget-stocks 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless 👑BANKLESS CONTENT MCP https://www.bankless.com/premium --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 ETH Systems 1:34 The Founders 5:28 Institutional Privacy 12:43 Real-World Use Cases 21:19 From Bespoke to Scalable 30:22 Building the Product 33:40 Institutions Are Coming 35:40 The Future of Institutional DeFi 40:24 Privacy vs Transparency 46:51 What Ethereum Can Do? 49:54 Cypherpunks and Institutions --- RESOURCES Oskar Thoren https://x.com/oskarth Mo Jalil https://x.com/motypes EthSystems https://x.com/eth_systems --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

The stock market is coming onchain. Jesse Pollak joins David to unpack Coinbase Tokenized Stocks, a new push to bring one-to-one equities onto Base with 24/7 trading, dividends, governance rights and permissionless onchain composability. They explore what happens when stocks plug directly into DeFi, why borrowing and lending may matter more than trading itself, how neobanks could evolve into global brokerages, and Jesse’s bigger vision for Base as the financial backend for stocks, payments, credit and local currencies around the world. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔓NEAR | TRADE CONFIDENTIALLY, GET 20% BACK https://bankless.cc/near-pod 🔑BITKEY | GET 10% OFF USE CODE: BANKLESS | #bitkeypartner https://bankless.cc/bitkey 📊BITGET | TOKENIZED STOCKS 2.0 https://bankless.cc/bitget-stocks 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless 👑BANKLESS CONTENT MCP https://www.bankless.com/premium --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Coinbase Brings Tokenized Stocks to Base 5:17 Permissionless Stocks and the First Assets Going Live 10:11 Plugging Stocks Into Base DeFi 17:52 From Tokenized Stocks to Neo Brokerages 23:32 Crypto as a Global Financial System 27:20 What Builders Can Create With Onchain Stocks 32:04 Bringing Every Currency Onchain 42:47 Jesse’s Role at Base and the Everything Exchange 49:50 Tokenized Stocks Beyond Base --- RESOURCES Jesse Pollak https://x.com/jessepollak --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

BitMine is within reach of owning 5% of ETH after more than 60 consecutive weeks of purchases, and Tom Lee believes the larger Ethereum trade may only be beginning. He joins David to explain how BitMine accumulated nearly 5% without debt, why it sometimes chooses stock buybacks over additional ETH, what happens when the target is reached, and whether the company would ever sell. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔓NEAR | TRADE CONFIDENTIALLY, GET 20% BACK https://bankless.cc/near-pod 🔑BITKEY | GET 10% OFF USE CODE: BANKLESS | #bitkeypartner https://bankless.cc/bitkey 📊BITGET | TOKENIZED STOCKS 2.0 https://bankless.cc/bitget-stocks 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless 👑BANKLESS CONTENT MCP https://www.bankless.com/premium --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 BitMine’s Rapid March Toward 5% of ETH 3:36 More Than 60 Consecutive Weeks of ETH Purchases 5:29 Where BitMine’s Capital Comes From 8:27 What Happens When BitMine Reaches 5%? 13:47 Would BitMine Ever Sell Its ETH? 15:29 Maven and BitMine’s Evolution Beyond a Treasury Company 16:52 Ethereum’s Next Narrative 23:06 Does Ethereum Actually Capture Value? 29:13 Is ETH a Store of Value or a Cash-Flowing Asset? 35:19 What BitMine Has Learned From Michael Saylor 37:42 Why BitMine Issued BMNP 42:13 The Proposal That Could Reduce Staking Yield to Zero 47:54 Funding Ethereum Foundation Spinouts 53:23 BitMine’s Role in Ethereum’s Future 1:02:14 Is AI Crowding Crypto Out of the Market? 1:05:11 Has the Crypto Market Already Bottomed? 1:06:18 Tom Lee’s ETH Price Outlook --- RESOURCES Tom Lee https://x.com/fundstrat --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Crypto just had one of its biggest breakout days in years. Ryan and David unpack the Treasury’s QE-like move, the White House and SEC’s crypto push, ETH’s violent rebound, and whether this rally finally broke the back of the bear market. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔓 NEAR | TRADE CONFIDENTIALLY, GET 20% BACK https://bankless.cc/near-pod 🔑 BITKEY | GET 10% OFF USE CODE: BANKLESS | #bitkeypartner https://bankless.cc/bitkey 📊 BITGET | TOKENIZED STOCKS 2.0 https://bankless.cc/bitget-stocks 🎯 THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless 👑 BANKLESS CONTENT MCP https://www.bankless.com/premium --- TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES 0:00 Intro 0:08 Crypto Market Breakout: BTC, ETH & ETFs https://x.com/Matt_Hougan/status/2090070306199089249 https://x.com/HHorsley/status/2090198850485338569 https://x.com/jonnym1ller/status/2090196488500723745 https://x.com/TheBlockCo/status/2089338657605898711 17:14 White House Pumps Crypto https://x.com/WhiteHouse/status/2090152688302411815 https://x.com/Bankless/status/2090449581171454021 https://x.com/ChairmanSelig/status/2090159414170771778/video/1 https://x.com/tradfi/status/2090154939675021396 22:40 Treasury's QE-Like Move https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sb0607 https://x.com/Hedgeye/status/2090058257180029345 https://x.com/biancoresearch/status/2090065814581911653 https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2090212967317115053 https://x.com/fejau_inc/status/2090071008652980699 31:42 Did the Bear Market Just End? 40:58 SEC Unveils New Crypto Rules https://x.com/SECGov/status/2089784594409103507 https://x.com/SECPaulSAtkins/status/2089788275913322994 50:53 Stablecoins Get Accounting Boost https://www.fasb.org/news-and-meetings/in-the-news/fasb-seeks-public-comment-on-proposal-to-enhance-cash-equivalents-disclosures-and-clarify-the-cash-equivalents-evaluation-for-certain-digital-assets-425287 https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/2090230682781938071 https://x.com/austincampbell/status/2090231550080094599 53:01 Crypto Apps & DeFi Momentum https://x.com/ErikVoorhees/status/2089375845425287610 https://x.com/business/status/2089077253778915636 https://x.com/paulerlanger/status/2089733900109021486 https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/2090140422513348899 https://x.com/Compound_xyz/status/2089386082441871388 1:01:11 Bullish Into the Close --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures