Empire

What separates lasting winners from everyone chasing the next trend?

This week, we dig into why specialization may be the biggest edge in venture investing as crypto, AI, and traditional finance increasingly converge.

We discuss venture mandates, stablecoin competition, Circle's earnings, Cloudflare's agent wallets, and why reputation compounds faster than capital. Enjoy!

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Intro

04:05 Crypto Venture Expands Beyond Crypto

09:20 Can Crypto Funds Go Generalist?

16:06 The Hidden Cost Of Dilution

22:43 Crypto Venture Enters Hard Mode

28:39 Ads (Peaq)

29:25 Cloudflare Bets On Agent Wallets

41:04 Is Circle Stock Mispriced?

53:04 Western Union Goes Onchain

01:02:13 Watches And Content Picks

01:09:01 Amazon Discovery Rewrites History

01:11:29 DAS Asia And London Preview

Robots will soon outnumber humans onchain. peaqOS turns them into a new trusted liquid asset class, with yield tied to real-world workloads. It gives robots all they need to do business on any chain — and lets humans earn from automation.

Explore the Machine Economy: https://peaq.xyz

FOLLOW THE SHOW

› Empire – https://x.com/theempirepod

› Jason – https://x.com/jasonyanowitz

› Santi – https://x.com/santiagoroel

› Rob – https://x.com/HadickM

› Telegram – https://t.me/+CaCYvTOB4Eg1OWJh

› Blockworks – https://x.com/Blockworks

EVENTS

› Join us at Digital Asset Summit 2026 Asia October 7th & Digital Asset 2026 London November 10-11th

https://blockworks.com/events

DISCLAIMER

Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only. Any views expressed are opinions, not financial advice. Hosts and guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

What happens when every market starts trading like crypto?

This week, Santi and Rob examine how leverage, automation, and retail speculation are exporting crypto-style volatility across traditional finance.

They also explore CLARITY’s fading odds, AI fatigue, Robinhood’s onchain expansion, and the battle between public and private tokenization. Enjoy!

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Intro

00:58 CLARITY’s Falling Odds

04:54 Everything Trades Like Crypto

08:53 AI Capex and Semiconductor Volatility

12:47 The Death of Long-Term Investing

18:19 Why Market-Neutral Funds Win

20:09 Institutional AI Fatigue

24:22 AI’s Token Economics Problem

25:55 peaq Ad

26:41 AI Token Costs and Model Routing

30:37 Robinhood Chain’s Early Traction

34:13 Prediction Markets Eclipse Crypto

38:51 Ethereum L2 Activity Collapses

45:49 Ondo’s Private Chain Bet

52:18 Stablecoin Adoption and Crypto VC

58:55 Content of the Week

Robots will soon outnumber humans onchain. peaqOS turns them into a new trusted liquid asset class, with yield tied to real-world workloads. It gives robots all they need to do business on any chain — and lets humans earn from automation.

Explore the Machine Economy: https://peaq.xyz

FOLLOW THE SHOW

› Empire – https://x.com/theempirepod

› Jason – https://x.com/jasonyanowitz

› Santi – https://x.com/santiagoroel

› Rob – https://x.com/HadickM

› Telegram – https://t.me/+CaCYvTOB4Eg1OWJh

› Blockworks – https://x.com/Blockworks

EVENTS

› Join us at Digital Asset Summit 2026 Asia October 7th & Digital Asset 2026 London November 10-11th

https://blockworks.com/events

DISCLAIMER

Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only. Any views expressed are opinions, not financial advice. Hosts and guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

What happens when Robinhood turns crypto from a trading feature into the backbone of its global financial platform?

This week, Robinhood's GM of Crypto, Johann Kerbrat, explains how Robinhood Chain connects DeFi, tokenized assets, and mainstream users.

We explore global access, permissionless development, strategic partnerships, token economics, and whether equities and crypto eventually converge. Enjoy!

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Intro

00:59 Robinhood’s Onchain Vision

04:46 Will Robinhood Move Fully Onchain?

11:07 Inside Robinhood Chain’s Explosive Launch

14:33 Building The Chain For Adoption

16:15 Ads (peaq)

17:00 Building Robinhood’s DeFi Stack

21:20 Why DeFi Partners Stay Independent

26:58 Tokenized Equities Go Global

30:38 Robinhood’s Crypto Growth Strategy

34:52 Competition And Financial Convergence

Robots will soon outnumber humans onchain. peaqOS turns them into a new trusted liquid asset class, with yield tied to real-world workloads. It gives robots all they need to do business on any chain — and lets humans earn from automation.

Explore the Machine Economy: https://peaq.xyz

FOLLOW JOHANN

› X/Twitter – https://x.com/JohannKerbrat

› Robinhood Crypto – https://x.com/RobinhoodCrypto

FOLLOW THE SHOW

› Empire – https://x.com/theempirepod

› Jason – https://x.com/jasonyanowitz

› Telegram – https://t.me/+CaCYvTOB4Eg1OWJh

› Blockworks – https://x.com/Blockworks

EVENTS

› Join us at Digital Asset Summit 2026 Asia October 7th & Digital Asset 2026 London November 10-11th

https://blockworks.com/events

DISCLAIMER

Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only. Any views expressed are opinions, not financial advice. Hosts and guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

Is CLARITY the breakthrough crypto needs or just the beginning?

This week, Jason and Multicoin’s Greg Xethalis unpack how the bill could reshape crypto’s regulatory future.

They explore CFTC oversight, token classification, DeFi protections, disclosure requirements, and the fight threatening its passage. Enjoy!

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Intro

01:20 How CLARITY Came To Be

07:08 Who Built The CLARITY Act?

11:05 What CLARITY Actually Does

15:13 The New Token Taxonomy

18:13 Ads (Peaq)

18:58 When Is A Blockchain Mature?

23:01 Protecting DeFi And Developers

33:51 The Future Of Token Disclosures

40:14 What CLARITY Could Unlock

44:30 Closing Thoughts

Robots will soon outnumber humans onchain. peaqOS turns them into a new trusted liquid asset class, with yield tied to real-world workloads. It gives robots all they need to do business on any chain — and lets humans earn from automation.

Explore the Machine Economy: https://peaq.xyz

FOLLOW GREG

› X/Twitter – https://x.com/xethalis

› Multicoin – https://x.com/multicoin

FOLLOW THE SHOW

› Empire – https://x.com/theempirepod

› Jason – https://x.com/jasonyanowitz

› Telegram – https://t.me/+CaCYvTOB4Eg1OWJh

› Blockworks – https://x.com/Blockworks

EVENTS

› Join us at Digital Asset Summit 2026 Asia October 7th & Digital Asset 2026 London November 10-11th

https://blockworks.com/events

DISCLAIMER

Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only. Any views expressed are opinions, not financial advice. Hosts and guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.

Crypto's window for regulatory clarity is about to close while Robinhood raises questions about who actually captures the value created onchain.

This week, we unpack Clarity’s narrowing path through Congress and what failure could mean for crypto markets and institutional adoption.

We also debate Ethereum’s economics, Coinbase’s Base reset, the Ostium hack vs instant settlement, and Stripe’s reported PayPal bid. Enjoy!

TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Intro

01:50 Clarity Act’s Closing Window

08:40 Trump’s Crypto Ethics Roadblock

14:07 What Clarity Means For Markets

18:13 Robinhood Exposes Ethereum’s Value Problem

28:14 Coinbase Resets Base’s Strategy

39:28 Ostium Hack Challenges Instant Settlement

50:50 Stripe’s Bid To Reinvent PayPal

01:04:57 AI Trades And Biohacking

01:10:20 Content Of The Week

FOLLOW THE SHOW

› Empire – https://x.com/theempirepod

› Jason – https://x.com/jasonyanowitz

› Santiago – https://x.com/santiagoroel

› Rob – https://x.com/HadickM

› Telegram – https://t.me/+CaCYvTOB4Eg1OWJh

› Blockworks – https://x.com/Blockworks

EVENTS

› Join us at Digital Asset Summit 2026 Asia October 7th & Digital Asset 2026 London November 10-11th

https://blockworks.com/events

DISCLAIMER

Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only. Any views expressed are opinions, not financial advice. Hosts and guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.