Bankless

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