The Gwart Show | Blockspace Media

Noah Goldberg, Partner at Theia Research, talks about the shifting dynamics of the crypto market in 2025. We chat about why crypto funds are facing attrition, the "Spac-like" collapse of recent projects, and the pivot toward fintech rails. Noah breaks down the fundamentals of Hyperliquid, the reality of token overhang, and the challenges for venture capital in an environment of compressed returns.

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Notes:

→ Funds should be up 50% annualized in 2023-24

→ Binance TGE tokens down 80-90% after 90 days

→ Robinhood margin rates: Sofr plus 700

Timestamps:

00:00 Start

00:35 Market overview

03:50 Liquid vs equity funds

06:43 What edge does a crypto fund have now?

12:37 Venture fund revenue prospects

18:15 Thoughts on HYPE

22:42 Quality of earnings

28:46 Taking on Wall Street

39:23 ellipsis labs

40:11 Morpho

52:07 Figure

55:51 Collaterized lending is growing

59:32 Early stage financing

1:03:34 Avici

1:06:00 MetaDAO & futarcy

1:10:25 Prediction markets

The Gwart Show is sponsored by Ellipsis Labs. Ellipsis Labs builds the most efficient on-chain markets. Their orderbook and Prop AMM products have delivered price improvement to hundreds of billions of dollars in retail volume. Now, they are bringing their expertise to build Phoenix, the best on-chain perpetuals platform.

Ellipsis Labs is hiring New York-based engineers. If you're an engineer looking to work with a proven team in making DeFi better, go to ellipsislabs dot xyz slash careers.
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Dean Eigenmann, Co-Founder of Market Start Inc, joins us to talk about
the massive shift in crypto market dynamics. Dean explains his
transition from the "closeted" world of MEV trading to launching a
liquid-focused fund. We discuss why venture capital overhang has left
the market without marginal buyers and why "crypto mullets" are the
future of critical infrastructure. Dean also breaks down the math behind
token buybacks, comparing the success of Hyperliquid to the struggles
of Helium and Jupiter.

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Notes:
→ Tokens should be equity
→ Hyperliquid 11 employees
→ Jane Street conspiracy

Timestamps:
00:00 Start
00:28 Pivoting away from trading
01:11 The acquisition & current MEV landscape
02:11 Markets Inc
04:09 Token framework
05:24 Regulations & other barriers
07:41 Buy backs
09:37 Hyperliquid buy back program
11:33 HYPE
12:49 Inflection point
13:51 Markets Inc scale & project development phases
16:25 ellipsis labs
17:13 What does "helping" projects mean?
20:58 Real time trade finance
23:48 Stablecoins & efficiency gains
25:25 Tokens vs equity
26:01 Investing in stablecoin infrastructure
28:25 Other sectors
29:39 What's NOT investable now?
30:17 But but DePIN... right?
33:41 Projects with sustainable demand?
35:24 AAVE drama
37:13 AAVE DAO & project structure
39:39 Morpho
40:53 Prediction markets
44:11 What's insider trading & Jane Street
45:59 Jane Street conspiracy
47:56 Wrap up

The Gwart Show is sponsored by Ellipsis Labs. Ellipsis Labs builds the
most efficient on-chain markets. Their orderbook and Prop AMM products
have delivered price improvement to hundreds of billions of dollars in
retail volume. Now, they are bringing their expertise to build Phoenix,
the best on-chain perpetuals platform.

Ellipsis Labs is hiring New York-based engineers. If you're an engineer
looking to work with a proven team in making DeFi better, go to
ellipsislabs dot xyz slash careers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Zack Shapiro, Head of Policy at the Bitcoin Policy Institute and Founder of Rains, joins us to talk about the shifting landscape of crypto regulation under the Trump administration. We discuss why the CLARITY Act is in limbo, the "Defi mullet" and the legal challenges facing AI agents. Zack gives a behind-the-scenes look at the banking lobby's war on stablecoin yields and evaluates the progress of the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve.

Subscribe to the newsletter! https://newsletter.blockspacemedia.com

Notes:

* Banks lobbied for 1:1 yield ban.

* Coinbase takes their pound of flesh

* AI ends billable hour standard.

Timestamps:

00:00 Start

00:24 Who is Zack?

01:25 Bitcoin Policy Institute

04:23 Current policy outlook

10:49 CLARITY Act

17:34 Will CLARITY pass?

19:32 Commodities vs Securities

21:02 Safe harbor

21:19 Howey & Utility tokens

22:37 Developer protections

24:25 How good are protections in CLARITY?

28:56 Crypto crashout & AI agents

33:43 Front ends & KYC

36:13 OFAC

39:43 Ideals in crypto

42:21 BASE

43:30 Crypto in-fighting

46:55 LLMs & the law

52:17 Prediction markets

The Gwart Show is sponsored by Ellipsis Labs. Ellipsis Labs builds the most efficient on-chain markets. Their orderbook and Prop AMM products have delivered price improvement to hundreds of billions of dollars in retail volume. Now, they are bringing their expertise to build Phoenix, the best on-chain perpetuals platform.

Ellipsis Labs is hiring New York-based engineers. If you're an engineer looking to work with a proven team in making DeFi better, go to ellipsislabs dot xyz slash careers.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kevin and Mitchell, Co-Founders of Sierra, talk about how their backgrounds in central banking and liquid funds led them to build a next-generation stablecoin protocol. We chat about the mechanics of yield, the regulatory landscape for platforms like Polymarket, and why the current shift in crypto is moving toward lean, efficient fintech models.

Notes:

* 95% to 100% of capital earns yield

* Money market yields currently 2-3%

* Industry shift to fintech and robotics

Timestamps:

00:00 Start

00:44 Mitchell's background

02:11 Kevin's background

03:41 What is Sierra?

05:07 Yield strategies

05:31 Why is Sierra different?

09:01 Abstracting complexity away

10:50 Assessing risk

14:40 Yield percentages

15:48 DeFi Summer yields

18:05 Why use Sierra?

24:00 RWAs & T-bills

27:34 RWA "quality"

32:20 What is "on-chain"?

37:14 Composability

42:04 Current state of funds

46:38 Future of venture funding

49:24 Winners & losers

The Gwart Show is sponsored by Ellipsis Labs. Ellipsis Labs builds the most efficient on-chain markets. Their orderbook and Prop AMM products have delivered price improvement to hundreds of billions of dollars in retail volume. Now, they are bringing their expertise to build Phoenix, the best on-chain perpetuals platform.

Ellipsis Labs is hiring New York-based engineers. If you're an engineer looking to work with a proven team in making DeFi better, go to
ellipsislabs.xyz/careers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tyler Whittle, Head of Product at Project 11 , joins us to talk about the intersection of quantum hardware and cryptographic security. He explains why current encryption like RSA and ECC are vulnerable , the progress made by Google’s Willow in noise reduction , and the specific NIST timelines for 2035. Tyler says the industry can prepare for Q-Day with new standards and why the transition is a race against time for global financial privacy and the Bitcoin network.

Notes:

* NIST says to deprecate classical crypto by 2035.

* Google Willow reduces noise as qubits increase.

* 35% of Cloudflare traffic is already PQC.

* Quantum hardware could factor numbers in 18 mo.

* Quantum signatures will increase Bitcoin fees.

* Q-Day risk is mispriced in digital assets.

Timeline:

00:02:05 Quantum Cats

00:04:57 Project Eleven

00:07:33 Project Eleven business case?

00:10:44 What's currently happening in Quantum?

00:18:10 Willow chip

00:25:33 Physical space vs digital space

00:29:10 Wen Quantum unlock?

00:29:56 Error correction

00:34:16 What is a red flag event?

00:38:00 Won't the NSA save us?

00:43:18 Costs of new signature schemes?

00:44:41 Proposals for BTC changes

00:46:31 Old coins, wat do?

00:51:49 Economic actors

00:53:14 Nuking price

00:59:13 Bitcoin vs other blockchains

01:00:46 Block size increase

01:05:56 Quantum money

01:11:04 Timelines

The Gwart Show is sponsored by Ellipsis Labs. Ellipsis Labs builds the most efficient on-chain markets. Their orderbook and Prop AMM products have delivered price improvement to hundreds of billions of dollars in retail volume. Now, they are bringing their expertise to build Phoenix, the best on-chain perpetuals platform.

Ellipsis Labs is hiring New York-based engineers. If you're an engineer looking to work with a proven team in making DeFi better, go to ellipsislabs dot xyz slash careers.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices