From Harvard at 18 to Building Crypto's Fastest Exchange | Vlad, Lighter

Memecoins were supposed to be a dead end, but Mike Dudas believes their deeper idea is only beginning to spread. The 6MV investor joins David to unpack Bonk’s role in reviving Solana, Ansem’s latest experiment, Robinhood’s push into the trenches, and how games, collectibles, prediction markets, and compute could power consumer crypto’s next chapter. Mike also answers the $1 million ETH versus SOL question, lays out Ethereum’s best strategic response, and explains why crypto’s slower progress may be setting up a more durable cycle. Subscribe for more conversations from the frontier of crypto. --- 📣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 ✈️COINBASE ONE CARD | EARN 5% BACK IN BITCOIN https://bankless.cc/coinbase-one-card 📊BITGET | TOKENIZED STOCKS 2.0 https://bankless.cc/bitget-stocks 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Bonk at Solana’s Bottom 7:07 What Gives Memecoins Value? 13:45 The Ansem Experiment 20:53 Are Memecoins Built to Die? 26:19 Culture Goes Onchain 29:45 Robinhood, Base, and the Trenches 32:59 Better Assets, Better Cycles 36:20 What 6MV Is Betting On 38:21 The Consumer Crypto Comeback 43:37 Compute Becomes a Market 47:57 Crypto’s AI Diaspora 50:53 SOL Versus ETH 57:02 Cycles, Equity, and Tokens 1:01:34 Why Crypto Takes Longer --- RESOURCES Mike Dudas https://x.com/mdudas --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Crypto prices are weak, OG sentiment is exhausted, and institutions are leaning in. Blockchain Capital GPs Aleks Larsen and Spencer Bogart join David Hoffman to explain why this disconnect may be the opportunity. They unpack crypto’s shift toward application-layer value, stablecoins as onchain working capital, tokenized equities, Aave V4, public blockchains, and BCAP. Is the cypherpunk dream fading, or becoming the foundation of global finance? --- 📣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 ✈️COINBASE ONE CARD | EARN 5% BACK IN BITCOIN https://bankless.cc/coinbase-one-card 📊BITGET | TOKENIZED STOCKS 2.0 https://bankless.cc/bitget-stocks 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Buybacks, Burns and Tokenholder Trust 5:47 Why Blockchain Capital Is Doubling Down 14:38 Institutions Arrive as Crypto OGs Lose Faith 21:03 From Infrastructure Scarcity to Abundant Blockspace 30:24 What AI Can Learn From Crypto 38:43 Stablecoins Become Onchain Working Capital 44:41 The Stablecoin Revenue Multiplier 47:40 Aave and Open Financial Infrastructure 55:08 The Roadmap for Tokenized Equities 59:41 Public Chains, Ownership and Compliance 1:04:24 Blockchain Capital’s Tokenized Fund 1:09:03 Bringing BCAP Fully Onchain --- RESOURCES Spencer Bogart https://x.com/CremeDeLaCrypto Aleks Larsen https://x.com/alekslarsen --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Korea’s leveraged stock boom imploded and the AI trade found a forced seller, but crypto held firm. Ryan and David unpack whether the winds are shifting toward BTC and ETH, Warsh’s hawkish Fed debut, and Ethereum’s 11th birthday. --- 📣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 📊BITGET | TOKENIZED STOCKS 2.0 https://bankless.cc/bitget-stocks 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless 👑BANKLESS PREMIUM | AD-FREE & BONUS EPISODES https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 0:17 Korea & AI Liquidation https://x.com/kobeissiletter/status/2082463897387257895 https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2082792020993536283 https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/why-did-south-korean-stocks-just https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/the-ai-bust-scenario-that-no-one https://x.com/tbpn/status/2082849965102219677 https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/30/leopold-aschenbrenners-hedge-fund-is-facing-steep-ai-losses.html https://x.com/amitisinvesting/status/2082860784242049407 14:39 Crypto Holds Firm https://x.com/micro2macr0/status/2081868142230286664 https://x.com/cryptunez/status/2081893515223535625 https://x.com/blknoiz06/status/2082560475951251789 20:27 Warsh, Rates & Global Liquidity https://x.com/YahooFinance/status/2082538170533519741 https://www.theblock.co/post/410092/fed-holds-rates-steady-three-officials-push-hike-crypto-market-stays-flat https://thedefireport.io/research/can-the-economy-handle-rate-hikes https://x.com/AlexCorrino/status/2082667540090859698 https://x.com/Barchart/status/2082683129681092931 https://x.com/wallstengine/status/2082551083583541287 https://capitalwars.substack.com/p/global-liquidity-and-cryptocurrencies 36:47 Clarity Act Stalls https://x.com/EleanorTerrett/status/2082127523249262881 https://polymarket.com/event/clarity-act-signed-into-law-in-2026/clarity-act-signed-into-law-in-2026 https://x.com/Cointelegraph/status/2082190857336205486 38:25 Ethereum Turns Eleven https://x.com/LefterisJP/status/2082771162942075080 https://www.theblock.co/post/410083/ethereum-cypherpunk-manifesto-author-ethereum-foundation-fourth-board-member https://x.com/ethereumfndn/status/2082437165233951223 https://x.com/AyaMiyagotchi/status/2082437879494488566 44:35 Robinhood’s Mixed Quarter https://dune.com/entropy_advisors/robinhood-chain-network-overview https://thedefiant.io/news/blockchains/robinhood-chain-tops-solana-in-tokenized-stock-volume-via-memecoin-pairs 47:52 New York’s Doxxing Scandal https://x.com/haydenzadams/status/2081740559694074248 https://nypost.com/2026/07/27/us-news/mamdani-names-all-nyc-property-owners-who-could-be-hit-with-new-pied-a-terre-tax 53:26 July Wrap-Up --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Vaults could become the financial rails that bring trillions onchain, but only if they solve risk, regulation and investor protection. Steakhouse co-founder Adrian Cachinero joins David to explain how vaults work, why repo markets matter and where this new asset-management layer goes next. --- 📣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 📊BITGET | TOKENIZED STOCKS 2.0 https://bankless.cc/bitget-stocks 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless 👑BANKLESS PREMIUM | AD-FREE & BONUS EPISODES https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 0:13 Vaults Explained 2:27 Morpho and Vault Origins 6:46 Vault Infrastructure Layers 8:53 Curators and Control 18:25 Risk Frameworks 24:48 Risk Creep and Incentives 32:51 Principal-Agent Tensions 39:33 Safe Vaults Scale 41:50 SEC and Regulation 46:58 Two Vault Futures 53:54 Distributors vs Curators 59:21 AI Meets Vaults 1:01:23 Growth and Challenges --- RESOURCES Adrian Cachinero https://www.linkedin.com/in/adriancachinero Steakhouse Financial https://www.linkedin.com/company/steakhouse-financial/ --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Every lending protocol in DeFi quietly decides your interest rate for you. Paul Frambot thinks that was always a workaround and Morpho Midnight is his argument for what replaces it. Fixed-rate lending as the only true primitive, pricing trust on-chain, and the one switch Morpho won't flip yet. --- 📣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 📊BITGET | TOKENIZED STOCKS 2.0 https://bankless.cc/bitget-stocks 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless 👑BANKLESS PREMIUM | AD-FREE & BONUS EPISODES https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 What Is Morpho Midnight? 1:59 DeFi's Wrong First Shape 7:18 The Only Real Primitive 14:47 Inside a Midnight Market 20:49 Openness Is the Advantage 22:52 Order Books and New Curves 30:01 Pricing Trust 35:40 Stablecoins and What's Next 37:13 Who Comes On-Chain Next 42:18 Collapsing the Margin 44:50 The Bankless Connection 47:57 How Big by 2027? 51:59 Hester Peirce on Vaults 55:49 Who Takes the Liability? --- RESOURCES Paul Frambot https://x.com/PaulFrambot --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

What does it take to build an exchange that refuses to choose between speed, cost, security, verifiability and composability? Lighter founder Vlad Novakovski joins David to trace his path from international Olympiads and Harvard at 18 to Citadel, early machine learning, Lunchclub and an 18-month ZK engineering bet. --- 📣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-20 📊BITGET | TOKENIZED STOCKS 2.0 https://bankless.cc/bitget-stocks 🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY to OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDE https://app.okx.com/join/USBANKLESS 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless 👑BANKLESS PREMIUM | AD-FREE & BONUS EPISODES https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 A Particular Set of Skills 11:33 Harvard at 18 19:03 Citadel and the Search for Alpha 25:14 Machine Learning Before the AI Boom 36:46 ​​Finding Elite Talent Early 41:39 The Lunchclub Matching Problem 45:11 Pivoting Into Lighter 51:18 The 18-Month ZK Engineering Bet 56:38 Lighter’s Five Pillars 1:00:04 A New Generation of Exchanges --- RESOURCES Vlad Novakovski https://x.com/vnovakovski --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Ryan and David unpack the CLARITY Act’s last-minute lifeline, $100 oil, BitMine’s ETH slowdown, and the OpenAI model that escaped its sandbox. --- 📣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-podcast 📊BITGET | TOKENIZED STOCKS 2.0 https://bankless.cc/bitget-stocks  🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY to OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDE https://app.okx.com/join/USBANKLESS  🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless  👑BANKLESS PREMIUM | AD-FREE & BONUS EPISODES https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 0:33 CLARITY Act at a Crossroads https://x.com/EleanorTerrett/status/2079334038104408522 https://x.com/EleanorTerrett/status/2079962528243650990 https://x.com/coindesk/status/2079633633023836667 https://x.com/EleanorTerrett/status/2079608362522575063 https://x.com/politico/status/2080261045114065177 https://polymarket.com/event/clarity-act-signed-into-law-in-2026/clarity-act-signed-into-law-in-2026 17:56 BitMine’s 5% ETH Strategy https://x.com/BitMNR/status/2079184988541448638 https://x.com/ykkz99/status/2079607294354964696 https://x.com/ykkz99/status/2079244980103659697 https://x.com/coindesk/status/2079200035045036162 27:40 Hester Peirce Eyes DeFi Vaults https://x.com/HesterPeirce/status/2080011999702880341 https://x.com/CJRobins01/status/2079976258423627785 https://x.com/Bankless/status/2079536878588715366 https://morpho.org/blog/now-live-morpho-midnight 38:28 BitMEX’s End of an Era https://x.com/CryptoHayes/status/2080286601125482771 https://x.com/BitMEX/status/2080201602456301580 44:36 NEAR Goes Post-Quantum https://bankless.cc/near-podcast https://x.com/NEARProtocol/status/2079189515843821764 48:58 TradFi Moves Deeper Into Crypto https://x.com/EricBalchunas/status/2077774644652790240 https://x.com/JSeyff/status/2077792050573918432 https://crypto.com/us/company-news/cryptocom-announces-400-million-strategic-investment-from-citadel-securities https://x.com/mzorkin/status/2077834551091478695 54:07 OpenAI Model Breaks Out https://simonwillison.net/2026/Jul/22/openai-cyberattack/ https://huggingface.co/blog/security-incident-july-2026 https://openai.com/index/hugging-face-model-evaluation-security-incident/ 1:02:40 Closing & Disclaimers --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Securitize has gone public, raised $400 million and tokenized its own equity, but Carlos Domingo says the real race is only beginning. He joins David to explain how Securitize makes money, why investor demand remains tokenization’s biggest bottleneck and what separates an actual onchain share from a synthetic stock wrapper. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast 📊BITGET | TOKENIZED STOCKS 2.0 https://bankless.cc/bitget-stocks 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless 👑BANKLESS PREMIUM | AD-FREE & BONUS EPISODES https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Going Public 4:50 Demand Bottleneck 10:19 Real vs Synthetic 17:31 Liquidity Wins 23:43 First Movers 29:24 Trading SECZ 39:47 Spot and Perps 43:01 The $1T Goal --- RESOURCES Carlos Domingo https://x.com/carlosdomingo Securitize https://securitize.io/ --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Bitcoin has won the store-of-value argument, but can it become the foundation of an entirely new credit system? David Seroy of Alpen Labs joins David Hoffman to explore why Bitcoin’s next era may be defined by digital credit, ZK rollups, fixed-duration lending, and an onchain repo market rather than payments alone. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast 📊BITGET | TOKENIZED STOCKS 2.0 https://bankless.cc/bitget-stocks 🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless 👑BANKLESS PREMIUM | AD-FREE & BONUS EPISODES https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Hyperbitcoinization 3:51 Bitcoin’s Next Phase 9:57 The Talent Crisis 11:29 BitVM and ZK 16:26 Bitcoin L2s 19:06 Bitcoin Credit 28:28 Onchain Repo 34:09 The Yield Curve 38:21 Borrowing and Risk 43:24 Why L2s Failed 48:29 Saylor vs Onchain 54:51 Alpen and Strata 56:36 Ethereum’s Purpose --- RESOURCES Alpen Labs https://www.alpenlabs.io/ --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Inflation cooled, war intensified, and crypto climbed anyway. Ryan and David ask if the bottom is in, unpack Robinhood Chain’s surge past Base, and debate who benefits from Ethereum’s L2 boom. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 📊BITGET | TOKENIZED STOCKS 2.0 https://bankless.cc/bitget-stocks  🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY to OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDE https://app.okx.com/join/USBANKLESS  🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS https://thedefireport.io/bankless  👑BANKLESS PREMIUM | AD-FREE & BONUS EPISODES https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 0:29 Cycle Bottom Watch https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/2077774313726304659 https://x.com/goodalexander/status/2077031311664197738 https://x.com/brian_armstrong/status/2076857638059720736 5:24 Inflation Cools, War Heats https://x.com/kobeissiletter/status/2077008212994253025 https://x.com/geiger_capital/status/2077011477580451983 14:56 Crypto Outperforms Stocks https://x.com/saylor/status/2076638696053276748 https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/2076647130572235017 https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/2077197119207756098 22:34 Robinhood Chain Breaks Out https://x.com/donnoh_eth/status/2075890751834071189 https://dune.com/entropy_advisors/robinhood-chain-network-overview https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/07/15/the-launchpad-that-fueled-robinhood-chain-s-memecoin-boom-just-gave-away-all-its-revenue https://dune.com/adam_tehc/the-robinhood-trenches 29:31 Base Pivots to Trading https://x.com/jessepollak/status/2077427261586997745 https://x.com/jessepollak/status/2077550728416256489 https://x.com/austincampbell/status/2077545305789067398 36:15 Does ETH Earn Enough? https://x.com/vladtenev/status/2076666114801877310 https://x.com/LorenzoARK/status/2076792007184298076 https://x.com/apolynya/status/2077301418860466487 https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/2077400104458154428 https://x.com/ethereumJoseph/status/2076838398510211122 47:29 L2s and Rent Sharing https://x.com/sgoldfed/status/2077082053330272454 https://x.com/l2beat/status/2077764769436553272 https://l2beat.com/native-rollups 56:20 Ethereum Spinoffs Multiply https://x.com/eth_systems/status/2077000602320805918 https://x.com/fradamt/status/2077739531520921621 58:49 DeFi Hacks May Be Peaking https://x.com/hosseeb/status/2076682247168827849 https://x.com/maraoz/status/2059413451265441990 1:01:44 Buy-and-Burn Wins https://x.com/TrustlessState/status/2077186630566224208 https://x.com/blknoiz06/status/2077773554033037509 1:06:29 Closing & Disclaimers --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures