Ben Cowen Says You Have Permission to be Bullish

NEAR just got a new institutional gateway, but the ETF may only be the beginning of the story. Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley and Sovereign’s Sal Ternullo join David to unpack why investors are starting to view NEAR through the lens of AI, how NEAR Intents has already processed more than $32 billion in volume, what staking and token buybacks mean for the asset, and why a future filled with many AI models, chains, agents, and stablecoins could play directly into NEAR’s strengths. --- 📣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 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless 👑BANKLESS CONTENT MCP https://www.bankless.com/premium --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 NEAR’s New ETF 2:15 Bitwise and NEAR 8:49 Selling NEAR to Investors 12:18 Intents and Buybacks 20:23 Staking and ETF Demand 26:34 The AI Opportunity 33:11 Many Models, Many Chains 38:37 AI Privacy 42:48 Closing Thoughts --- RESOURCES Sal Ternullo https://x.com/sal_ternullo Hunter Horsley https://x.com/HHorsley --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Venice‘s Head of Strategy Jon, joins David for the September $VVV community call to unpack Venice reaching 250B daily tokens, the latest $VVV emissions cuts and $DIEM supply changes, accelerating burns, rising demand for private AI, Venice Minds, the upcoming data center rollout, and what comes next. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- [TIMESTAMPS] 0:00 Intro 0:21 September AI Update 2:12 Token Growth Surge 8:36 Emissions and Diem Supply 16:10 Burn Mechanics Explained 23:40 OpenAI Privacy Controversy 32:00 Data Retention Warnings 35:52 Anthropic's Retention Shift 39:24 Privacy Boosts Venice 43:03 Minds and Model Combinations 52:48 Staking and Burn Questions 55:47 Data Center and Near 59:37 Lumara Film Festival --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Bitcoin just broke its bearish market structure, but surging bond yields could still test the rally. Ryan and David unpack Uptober, Robinhood’s trading push, the Bitget hack, and prediction markets’ path to the Supreme Court. --- 📣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 🎯 THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless 👑 BANKLESS CONTENT MCP https://www.bankless.com/premium --- TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES 0:00 Intro 0:09 Bitcoin Breaks Bearish Structure https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/bitcoin https://x.com/hariskhantrader/status/2104621748591403035 6:35 Bond Yields, Liquidity & Macro Risk https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2105337195884052870 https://www.reuters.com/markets/us/us-inflation-rises-less-than-expected-august-consumer-spending-surges-2026-09-30/ https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2105355997892239838 https://x.com/EpsilonTheory/status/2105345560064745548 https://www.tradingview.com/symbols/TVC-MOVE/ https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2105279482957369587 22:06 Robinhood Goes All-In https://x.com/fintechfrank/status/2105082039733305734 https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/2105062331436966323 https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/2105063773165818119 https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/2105072369509257220 https://robinhood.com/us/en/agents/ 33:19 BitGet Hack & NEAR Permissionless Debate https://www.theblock.co/news/business/bitget-starts-phased-withdrawal-resumption https://x.com/AlexAuroraDev/status/2104554958754357482 https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/2104955420401955273 https://x.com/kylekrason/status/2104562944457740481 https://x.com/near_intents/status/2105642219357241796 44:23 Prediction Markets Head to Court https://www.legalreader.com/new-york-sues-polymarket-over-gambling-rules/ https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/us-appeals-court-rules-against-kalshi-says-states-can-regulate-prediction-2026-09-25/ https://www.coinbase.com/blog/coinbase-receives-cftc-approval-for-coinbase-clearing-llc 48:29 Ethereum’s Cryptographic World Computer https://x.com/VitalikButerin/status/2104160561374343176 https://x.com/cryptographicas/status/2104212366271390055 https://x.com/barnabemonnot/status/2104260847975707013 56:14 AI Agents & Bank Runs https://x.com/JasonYanowitz/status/2104213040937812262 https://openai.com/index/introducing-dots/ --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

What if the next major onchain trading platform looks less like a crypto exchange and more like Robinhood with institutional liquidity underneath? Variational co-founder Lucas Schumann and Head of Product Justin Bram join David to unpack the broker model behind Variational, why they believe swaps can improve on perps for real-world assets, and how TradFi liquidity can be brought onchain without rebuilding every market from scratch. --- 📣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 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless 👑BANKLESS CONTENT MCP https://www.bankless.com/premium --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Broker, Not Exchange 5:07 Why Brokerage Wins for Retail 8:22 What Is a Swap? 9:58 The Real Cost of Trading 11:43 Bringing TradFi Liquidity Onchain 14:44 Building Variational 23:14 From Crypto Traders to Everyone 26:42 The Next User Base 30:35 What Actually Happens Onchain? 34:00 Inside OLP 37:03 Arbitrum and User Funds 39:44 The VAR Token and 32% Airdrop 42:34 Funding the Token Model 44:11 The 2027 Roadmap 47:44 Protocol or Platform? --- RESOURCES Lucas Schuermann https://x.com/variational_lvs Justin Bram https://x.com/JustinCBram Variational https://www.variational.io/en --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Ben Cowen is back on Bankless after publicly admitting one of his key Bitcoin calls was wrong. What changed? Ben and David unpack the breakout that challenged his bear-market thesis, whether the four-year cycle is still intact, why Bitcoin is shrugging off a macro environment Ben expected to pressure it, and the crucial difference between easier monetary policy and genuinely abundant global liquidity. --- 📣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 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless 👑BANKLESS CONTENT MCP https://www.bankless.com/premium --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Ben Cowen Admits What He Got Wrong 3:30 Did the Bear Market End Too Easily? 6:06 Why This Bear Market Looks Different From 2022 9:59 Is the Four-Year Cycle Still Alive? 12:27 What an Early Low Means for the Next Bull Market 14:02 Why Altcoins Are Already Moving 19:15 Monetary Policy vs. Global Liquidity 22:56 Does Altseason Need a Crisis? 28:13 Why Liquidity Could Stay Tight 31:56 Can Bitcoin Catch Up to Stocks? 34:41 Five Years of Restrictive Conditions 37:27 Is Retail Finally Coming Back? 45:46 Bitcoin Defies the Macro Setup 48:47 The Weekly Bitcoin Close That Matters 53:43 Building a Conference Around Disagreement --- RESOURCES Ben Cowen https://x.com/benjamincowen --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

The bull market may be back, but Bitcoin might not be leading it. Ryan and David break down the early-bull signals, Zcash and NEAR’s surge, rising yields, Kalshi’s wash-trading controversy, and BlackRock’s expanding crypto push. --- 📣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 🎯 THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless 👑 BANKLESS CONTENT MCP https://www.bankless.com/premium --- TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES 0:00 Intro 0:28 Early Bull Confirmed https://thedefireport.io/research/early-bull-confirmed https://x.com/benjamincowen/status/2102007452057079986 https://x.com/benjamincowen/status/2102572123185107151 https://x.com/saylor/status/2102011709808353551 13:23 New Bull Market Leaders https://www.bankless.com/read/this-is-not-bitcoin-s-cycle https://x.com/Delphi_Digital/status/2064430003731804517 https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/zcash https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/near https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/2100789397960704285 https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/2102787878552015357 https://x.com/CosimoCapital/status/2102886894115696978 33:18 Rising Yields & the Debasement Trade https://x.com/Geiger_Capital/status/2103118843061182872 https://www.tradingview.com/symbols/TVC-US10Y/ https://www.tradingview.com/chart/KZYJV3ef/ https://www.oaktreecapital.com/insights/memo/shall-we-repeal-the-laws-of-economics---part-iii 42:29 Kalshi Wash Trading Drama https://x.com/icobeast/status/2101358009477632410 https://x.com/beniduboss/status/2101459048247808010 https://news.kalshi.com/p/the-facts-behind-kalshi-s-perpetuals-volume https://cointelegraph.com/news/kalshi-says-cftc-hasnt-contacted-it-over-unusual-5b-trading-activity 47:57 Vitalik Backs Trueo https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/true https://trueo.com/ https://x.com/VitalikButerin/status/2102143283493507554 https://x.com/Trueo_/article/2102123554162561272 54:37 New Tokens & Institutional Crypto Expansion https://x.com/variational_io/status/2102929439063765192 https://x.com/Ondo/status/2103106602593087575 https://x.com/WSJmarkets/status/2103092730880569691 https://x.com/BlackRock/status/2102409739175141458 https://www.blackrock.com/us/individual/literature/whitepaper/the-machine-native-economy.pdf https://www.theblock.co/news/business/2026-09-22-binance-takes-100-million-circle-stake-alongside-five-year-usdc-deal-416042 https://www.blockhead.co/2026/09/22/coinbase-opens-ipo-share-allocations-to-us-retail-customers-starting-with-smart-ring-maker-oura/ --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Meme coins are back, but this time the more interesting story may be what they're building around them. David sits down with Eric and Andy to unpack the latest meme-coin cycle, the rise of stock-paired memes on Robinhood Chain, and the strange possibility that speculative trading could actually bootstrap liquidity for tokenized equities. --- 📣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 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless 👑BANKLESS CONTENT MCP https://www.bankless.com/premium --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Meme Coins Are Back 5:47 Can Meme Markets Mature? 7:48 AI as a Safety Layer 13:10 Stock-Paired Meme Coins 17:01 Building Stronger Schelling Points 21:00 Will Public Companies Care? 28:56 The Community Takeover Scenario 32:18 Meme Coins as a Liquidity Engine 36:16 How Andy and Eric Use FOMO 42:39 What Signals Actually Matter 47:54 When Do You Sell a Loser? 52:26 FOMO Rewards and Public Trading Data 55:36 The $20K ETH Jinx --- RESOURCES Andy 8052 https://x.com/andy8052 Eric Conner https://x.com/econoar --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Robinhood is trying to erase the line between crypto markets and traditional finance. David sits down with Johann from Robinhood to unpack the rise of tokenized stocks, why so much activity is already happening outside normal trading hours, and what changes when equities become programmable, composable and available across DeFi. --- 📣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 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless 👑BANKLESS CONTENT MCP https://www.bankless.com/premium --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Bringing Tokenization to the U.S. 2:17 How Robinhood Stock Tokens Actually Work 5:19 TradFi Pushback and Demand for Tokenized Stocks 7:59 Voting Rights, Redemption and DeFi Utility 10:29 What Happens When Stocks Trade on Weekends 13:42 Will Blockchain Become the Primary Market? 18:46 Robinhood Chain’s Early Traction 21:22 Beyond Stocks: Real Estate, Gold and More 24:22 How Robinhood Chooses What to Build 26:36 What U.S. Users Still Can’t Access 29:49 Combining Tokenized Stocks With Perps 32:51 Why Robinhood Chose Ethereum 35:32 AI Agents and the Next Robinhood Products --- RESOURCES Johann Kerbrat https://x.com/JohannKerbrat --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Crypto just shrugged off a Fed hike and the death of the Clarity Act. Ryan and David break down the early-bull signal, the SEC’s tokenized-stock breakthrough, the coming options race, and Hyperliquid’s path into the U.S. --- 📣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 🎯 THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless 👑 BANKLESS CONTENT MCP https://www.bankless.com/premium --- TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES 0:00 Intro 0:26 Bull Market Signals: BTC, Zcash & Altcoins https://x.com/econoar/status/2099874713539604734 https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/2100286172253815281 https://x.com/AviFelman/status/2100288435474825301 https://x.com/NEARProtocol/status/2099968050405495246 https://x.com/NEARProtocol/status/2099883498848784778 8:39 Macro: Tom Lee, Bonds & the Fed Hike https://x.com/StockMKTNewz/status/2100267546683543913 https://x.com/geiger_capital/status/2099503989364609340 https://x.com/CNBC/status/2100284014221295770 https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/2026-09-16/fed-chairman-warsh-calls-rate-hike-a-sober-decision-video https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/16/trump-fed-interest-rate-warsh.html 23:43 Clarity Act Falls Apart https://x.com/CoinDesk/status/2099429197034766830 https://x.com/tradfi/status/2099319531168731528 https://x.com/Polymarket/status/2099529644596731950 https://x.com/EleanorTerrett/status/2100389230874689650 26:27 Regulators Fill the Gap: SEC & Tokenized Stocks https://x.com/chairmanselig/status/2100232064259735589 https://x.com/SECPaulSAtkins/status/2100256253645668860 https://x.com/hosseeb/status/2100274788170162522 https://x.com/SECPaulSAtkins/status/2100572313334821271 https://x.com/Bankless/status/2100582318335275190 https://x.com/NateGeraci/status/2100581006004691453 42:31 The Crypto Options Race https://thedefireport.io/research/the-watch-list-derive-drv https://www.bankless.com/podcast/crypto-is-ready-for-onchain-options-nick-forster-ceo-of-derive https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/2100297485147406766 45:46 Hyperliquid Comes Onshore https://x.com/Payward/status/2100178016617869710 https://www.payward.com/press-release/payward-hyperliquid-onchain-perpetual-futures 48:38 Arc Chain Launches https://x.com/arc/status/2100170550857404852 50:50 OpenZeppelin Joins S&P Global https://x.com/OpenZeppelin/status/2100557026438848568 --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Circle just launched Arc Mainnet, and its ambition is much bigger than putting USDC on another blockchain. Circle Chief Product and Technology Officer Nikhil Chandhok joins David on launch day to unpack the vision for an “economic OS” built around fast settlement, stablecoin gas, privacy, and institutional-grade financial 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/near2026 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless 👑BANKLESS CONTENT MCP https://www.bankless.com/premium --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Arc Mainnet Is Live 2:57 The “Economic OS” Vision 5:29 Validators, Privacy and Post-Quantum Security 8:27 How Private Is Arc? 12:24 Immutability and the Lazarus Test 16:14 What Gets Built on Arc First? 19:19 AI Agents Become Economic Actors 26:45 Agentic Commerce Gets Real 33:17 Reputation, Nano-Payments and Agent Credit 36:37 Tokenized Stocks and 24/7 Markets 39:59 Solving the On-Ramp and FX Problem 47:39 What Happens After Launch Day? 49:16 Closing Thoughts --- RESOURCES Nikhil Chandhok https://x.com/chandhok Arc https://www.arc.io/ --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures