Bankless - ROLLUP: ETH Beats SEC! | Trump Coin? | LayerZero Token | ETH ETF Trading Soon

Starting point is 00:00:00 Dollar sign DJT, aka Donald J Trump token, that was allegedly started by Baron Trump with endorsement from the Donald himself or not. Is this real? Or is this a fabrication from one of the internet's most hated persons, Martin Screlly? Zach XVT makes an appearance in the story. Bankless Nation is the third week of June. And it is time for your bankless weekly roll up. We got a few things to cover today.

Starting point is 00:00:28 We got a lot of things to cover. It is a big week. All right. First on the list. the SEC dropped all charges against Ethereum. Remember they had these charges against Ethereum? They were actually going after the core devs in this consensus lawsuit. Well, that is no longer.

Starting point is 00:00:43 They have written to consensus that they are dropping their charges against Ethereum. The question is, is Ethereum officially recognized as a commodity? I thought the ETH ETF would make it so, but maybe this is further evidence of this. Just one more nail in the coffin. And speaking of ETH, we are getting even more hints about when the ETH ETF will be. trading hint. It is very soon to hold your breath. But before then, we also have air drops. So airdrop season is fully on layer zero drop their token this week. ZK Sync token is now trading. There's some other air drops coming as well. And so we're going to talk to you all about the

Starting point is 00:01:17 tokenomics, what's going on, the sentiment reaction and how these things are being priced in the markets and where they comp to with some other projects out on the other market today. And then of course, Ryan, I'm sure you're going to love this one. Do you know what's going on with the whole Donald Trump token? Have you been? No. And should I care? That's the question. This is my most hated agenda item. Like so, David, you've done all the research. Thank you for going into the gutter. Took all fucking morning. And discovering what's up with the Donald J. Trump token. And how is the farmer bro, Martin Screlli, related to all of this? Burning questions in my mind. Everything that Ryan wants to know. Before we get there, a moment to talk about our friends and sponsors.

Starting point is 00:01:56 Over at Steakwise Protocol, offering universal or universal access to liquid staking, including for all of you solo stakers out there. So for all of you solo stakers who have been atlacing Ethereum, putting Ethereum on your back and not being able to achieve liquidity, well, you can continue to solo stake. You can continue to tend to your validator while also getting OSEath, that is the sakewise liquid saking token, to enjoy liquidity playing around on defy and eigenlayer

Starting point is 00:02:26 and doing whatever you want to do with your liquid eth while also being a solar staker. There are also other things as well. There are vaults out there for people who want to just deposit their ETH and have MEPV strategies, flexible free structures, auto compounding, some other cool gadgets, really just making just a world of staking in theorem pretty enjoyable. If you are curious about any of this stuff, there is a link in the show notes to get started with Steakwise. Yeah, very bullish on Steakwise and their efforts to further decentralize our stake. Well, let's talk markets today. And we've got to start with King Bitcoin on the Cracken charts. Am I seeing up or down?

Starting point is 00:03:03 You are seeing down. You are seeing down. Down 3% on the week. 66,800 is where we started. $65,000 is where we ended. Some negative flows in the Bitcoin ETFs this week. We've definitely had some good weeks in like two weeks ago. We've had some marginally bad outflows this week.

Starting point is 00:03:24 So once again, Bitcoin price being correlated with outflows as well. Bitcoin, however, like, down 3%. If most people's portfolio was only down 3% this week, they're probably, like, pretty happy because the rest of the market got absolutely obliterated. Heath did pretty good, actually. Heath is one of the outperformers in the market this week. But like, if you were in alt coins, like, rip to you.

Starting point is 00:03:48 Really? Yeah. Even the meme coins, David? Not the meme coins especially. Not the meme coins. Meme coins especially got obliterated this week. Some takes as to why. Bitcoin is just rising in correlation with the SPY.

Starting point is 00:04:02 SPY is just absolutely gigacending right now up just a whopping 1.5% this week. And remember, that's 1.5% of the world's largest capital market. So it actually does mean a lot of money. But just like new all-time highs in the equities market. It's pretty insane. This is the SMP 500 ETF, okay? The most boring ETIP that exists. It's got to be, right?

Starting point is 00:04:27 Well, this is probably some bond ETS. But this is the most boring equities ETF you can own. And this looks like a meme coin itself here. It looks like it looks like an up only meme coin. Now I'm scrolling out all the way to like 1993. Yeah. But that is a beautiful ascent all the way to all time highs for the S&P. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:04:48 Are you getting jealous? It makes a crypto person jealous. But also at the same time, I mean, we all know that the S&P is as a index of money issuance, which crypto also is. When you zoom out to like 1990s, basically every chart looks good except for gold. Gold looks flat. Gold looks flat, sadly. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:05:07 Well, how does micro strategy factor into this? Because you were talking about Bitcoin outflows, and that's on the Bitcoin ETF. Right. But Michael Saylor never outflows. No. He's always in flowing. Only inflows, yep. This is a tweet that says, Microstrategy has acquired an additional 12,000 Bitcoin.

Starting point is 00:05:24 Casual. A casual 786. million dollars using proceeds from convertible notes, those sweet bonds, and excess cash. So taking that fiat on some bond leverage real cheap and going and buying Bitcoin and Michael Saylor's continuing to dollar cost average in. Does that help at all? That definitely helps. Yeah, $786 million of buying pressure definitely helps bolster up Bitcoin. Anyone's meme coin bags do not have that same level of support that Bitcoin has. how does Michael

Starting point is 00:05:55 Micro Strategy still have the tolerance to be able to do this? Why is there so much slack in the MSTR equity price that Michael Saylor can continue to print MSTR sell that for Bitcoin and have that pump the value of MSCR to the point where he can do it again?

Starting point is 00:06:12 That was only supposed to work up until the point that Bitcoin ETFs were approved because why would anyone buy MSTR when there are Bitcoin ETFs? The fact that he can still be doing this Because it's a levered play, David. It's a levered play. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:06:26 You get kind of the leverage. You get like potentially a little extra juice. Actually, there was a clip where Michael Saylor explained why MSTR is actually like in some small ways better. I can't, I can't recall all the details here because it's just like I don't care that much. But it does have some advantages. The market capitalization of micro strategy is at $25 billion. Crazy, right? So yeah, I guess that does make sense.

Starting point is 00:06:53 Because he has so much debt because he has so much, like, Bitcoin. So he's taking debt. I don't want to mess up that, like, somebody is probably listening to this and, like, I know precisely what you're missing here. But, like, yeah, there are some advantages with micro strategy for some types of investors in buying that versus a Bitcoin ETF. The big question is, when is, when is micro strategy the stock going to actually be present in this SMP?

Starting point is 00:07:15 So I don't think it is yet. It's not part of the SMP 500, but it's getting real close in terms of size. Yeah. Bitcoin doesn't have to go up that much more for, like, like micro strategy to gain like a meeting like it's might have to accept it right there's a formal gatekeeping process i believe to get an smp 500 i don't know who decides these things actually i'm not tradfying enough to understand that but um we could probably look that up too micro strategy has 13 billion dollars of bitcoin on their balance sheet with a market cap of 26 billion dollars

Starting point is 00:07:44 so half of their market cap comes from bitcoin and they also have a ton of debt so if like bitcoin doubled, which I expected to, like not in the not distant future, like, yeah, that would make sense. That would, that would turn into the current market cap of the actual stock price. Yeah, it's what the sailor's betting on. It's really one thing I just want to zoom out on because I've been thinking about personal finance, all the things that they don't teach you in school because, you know, like my daughter, my oldest daughter, she's taking her first personal finance class in like high school, right? And so I'm just like, I don't know what they're going to teach there.

Starting point is 00:08:15 And like, I was thinking about advice I'd give to her. You know what my first bit of advice is something I, something I did. didn't figure out until my 20s, early 20s, fortunately for me. But like something that the system didn't teach me is, um, if you don't own assets, you will be poor. Yeah. Like seriously, look at this chart. Look at this chart. They don't teach you this in school. You look at like, okay, what's my job going to be? Like, oh, engineers make X amount of money in terms of salary. Like salary doesn't matter at all. Income doesn't matter. I mean, it matters a little bit. only to the extent that you could take your excess income

Starting point is 00:08:51 from things you don't spend it on and take that delta in profit and buy assets if you don't buy assets you are not in the game I'm talking about any asset it just doesn't even have to be crypto okay like the like very bullish on crypto but like property equity stock like not bonds but like assets are the things you need to have and income is a scam yeah yeah and like it's kind of like

Starting point is 00:09:15 I don't know when people hear this they're like but it's not fair okay it's not fair but like it's the game these are the rules it's how you make it more fair the more assets

Starting point is 00:09:26 you have more assets you own the more fair it is for you I just I don't even think it's fair either right it's like it's not great but that's the system we live in anyway tell me about ETH Price David first off I love how you have your own tweet bookmarked

Starting point is 00:09:38 starting the week at 3,4009 is for your daughter it's for your family starting the week at 3,000 $3,480, up 2% on the week. ETH is up 2% on the week. Hey. Hey.

Starting point is 00:09:50 We're at $3,530. Why? Eth was in just like the dog house. It got down to $3,360. It didn't, well, doesn't want to say there. Eth continues to get pummeled and then bounces back, like, ready to go. It's like, oh, I'm getting slammed by the rest of the market, but I got an ETF soon. And it comes right back.

Starting point is 00:10:10 It's not what it should be, though. It's not what it should be. Not at all. We're already like, what was the ETF announced? I've already like retraced like 60% of the candle. Oh, look at the E. T. I'm zooming out 30 days.

Starting point is 00:10:21 Here's that God Campbell candle. And I guess we're about there. We're like approaching like back to. But now we have now we have dates, don't we? We have some estimated dates. We have some estimate, very clear specific estimated dates, which is, but, July 2nd is the new date that Eric Baltunis and Jamesaber have moved there over under date two. So 50% chance, 50% chances under 50% chances over. July 2nd.

Starting point is 00:10:47 July 2nd. The ETHETF going live. Products. The S1 being approved. Yeah. Get some sweet inflows. Like Bitcoin has all those sweet inflows. And then we can look at the inflows and the outflows on a weekly basis.

Starting point is 00:11:00 And then we get to start talking about how it's bearish because Grayscale has to actually still unload their ETHI trust. Oh, yeah. That's what the whole pivot to. Whatever. I'm not bearish. You know, ETH's got some catch up to do. I think it's going to make it.

Starting point is 00:11:14 But here's the ratio. I guess we're, are we up on the week a little bit? 4.5% in the week. Here, look it. I wanted to show you this. Ultrasound money update. Have you seen this chart?

Starting point is 00:11:23 Yeah. Like ultrasound. Dot money? I can't believe Justin put this in here. This is so dumb. This is the flipping chart. It's not dumb. I love talking about the flippinging as much as the next guy, but this is the worst.

Starting point is 00:11:34 No. It's not TA. It's not TA. It's definitely TA, dude. No, it's just an extrapolated line. That's all we is. It self-adjust. The horizon, it could happen.

Starting point is 00:11:44 that the horizon always, like the trend line always is kind of like, I see. I'm pretty sure it's self-adjust. Anyway, if you can't see this, if you're not watching on YouTube or it's Spotify video here, what we're looking at is a flipping chart for Bitcoin or for ether flippinging Bitcoin, how close we are. Yeah. And based on the trend line over the last last nine years and 294 days, the estimated date for that, if we just hit the trend line is November 16th, 20, 26. That's when we flip in Bitcoin. Now, that's the trend line. So much of this trend line is defined by 2015 through 2017.

Starting point is 00:12:24 Like, if you actually just cut off those three years, the trend line is just like meaningfully different. Yeah. I post this on Twitter and someone's like, yeah, it's been down only since 2017. But 2017 was a weird time. Yeah. That's a glass half empty take, I think, David, because, you know, theorem's doing things. You still believe in the flippinging? Yeah, 100%.

Starting point is 00:12:46 But like I've stopped holding my breath for it. When it happens, it'll happen, you know? We just can't force these things. It'll happen in our lifetimes. And if it doesn't, then you can't really come and scream to me.

Starting point is 00:13:02 All right, total crypto market cap $2.495 trillion under $2.5 trillion definitely down very bigly on the week because the long-tenth in the market this week got like kind of wrecked. All coins? All coins got wrecked.

Starting point is 00:13:17 Anything down... When you say all coin, we're talking about everything besides Bitcoin. Ether? Below ether, yeah. So like Solana down 10% on the week. Dogecoin down 12%. Han down 5%. Cardano down 10%.

Starting point is 00:13:29 Avalanche down 13%. Chib, down 15%. Chain link down 6%. Poker dot down 12%. Uniswap flat on the week. Near Protocol down 13%. Should I keep going or how you feel? No, that's good.

Starting point is 00:13:42 got a flavor. I got the flavor. Yeah. Let's get a flavor of layer two these days. And this is a layer two update brought to you by Mantle. We are not just off all-time highs in terms of total value locked. But one thing to highlight this week, I think, is blob space, David. So blobs are catching a bid. And they were essentially, I mean, you correct me.

Starting point is 00:14:05 I don't monitor these markets all the time. They've been basically free other than very acute instances. I was going to say that. That's basically what I thought. But now they're. have branched into not free not free territory they're like firmly in not free territory for like the last like four three days uh the there is a trend line on here somewhere yeah right there average blob count per block uh and that goes back to june 15th uh so four days uh that that green

Starting point is 00:14:31 line above that green line uh we increase the price of blobs below that green line we decrease the price of blobs uh being closer that green line is like that's where things naturally converge to We've been below that green line for a long time, but we are now poking ahead of... It only costs money on Ethereum when there's contention, right? When you're above the green line, basically? Correct, correct. Okay.

Starting point is 00:14:49 Yes. There can still be contention when the blob count is below the green line, if it was recently above the green line. It's like a control theory mechanism, much like EIP-15.5-9. But like we're also, we are starting to oscillate around the green line, which means that there is a market price.

Starting point is 00:15:06 So we got more blob space in March. Right before that, there was kind of contention. for Ethereum DA and we got more blob space in March. And now it's June, the end of June. And we're already out of blob space? Is that you telling me? We are filling blob space. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:15:19 So like all the layer twos are just slowly growing in more activity, like incrementally, like incrementally growing in activity. So they are buying more blobs. In addition to that, more layer twos are coming online. And so, you know, multiply volume times capacity and like you just get more space or get more demand. And then especially this week is both, ZK Sync has been consuming a lot of blob space to claim the ZK token.

Starting point is 00:15:45 And then also ZRO, you can claim the, and interestingly because, like, is layer zero is an Omnitrain protocol. You can actually claim the zero token on any chain, which is kind of what their deal is. That's what they do. And so as a result of that, most people have been claiming on Arbitrum, I think. And so they've been, like, maxing out the TPS on Arbitrum. Actually, can you go to Layer 2B and look at the Arbitrum activity? I'd like to actually see that.

Starting point is 00:16:06 but like because you can be claiming like your layer zero um uh tokens right now like tons of people are consuming blob space so like we're just actually we're probably hitting like new all time highs and lane two activity specifically because of the uh layer zero uh activity you want me to look at activity here yeah yeah activity on the left side it did move if you were like what the fuck's going on yeah look at 20x scaling factor who all right baby let's go uh that's also because of the new layer two that's on the scene called Zai, which I've never heard of. But in addition to that, like, base activities at all-time highs. And I think if you scroll down, Arbitrum will be there too as well. That's pretty cool. Yeah. Liking that. Arbitrum one.

Starting point is 00:16:47 Can we talk about decks? Talk about decks. Okay. So I saw this headline. Base surpasses Binance chain in terms of active decks users. Binance chain was kind of a juggernaut for trading last cycle. It's been for a long time, yeah. Has been for a while, right?

Starting point is 00:17:04 I mean, that makes sense, like, coming from their exchange routes, and base surpassed it. The broader context here, though, we're looking at some charts. So we've got users, which base just surpassed Binance and is now number two in terms of total Dex users, number two to actually Salana. So Salana's number one, and then base number two now, and then Binance number three. Doesn't come close in terms of volume, though, which is kind of a difference. Anyway, what do you make of these charts? We're looking at Dex volume by different layer two.

Starting point is 00:17:34 and Solana and Ethereum and then also Dex users. What jumps out at you as we look at these charts? That there is a discrepancy between volume and users. Users actually is like kind of dominated in growth by Solana, actually. That's like the most, the biggest chunk of like unique users over the last year. And definitely seen like an unprecedented amount of growth. But then on volume, Ethereum layer one is like still by and far the leader followed by Salana. You can kind of see like Solana meme coins when they really started like going around in

Starting point is 00:18:08 March of 2024. But Ethereum still has like by far the actual like, the majority of volume. And that is also by the way, the most civil resistant because Ethereum layer one is like you got to pay fees. So there's not there's not much like a lower percentage of volume per bot or bot volume there. Simply because you have to pay a lot. 92% of Salana's Dex volume is meme coins right now which has been a huge meme coin cycle

Starting point is 00:18:38 one other thing I want to talk to you about David because this is sort of cool flipping back to the ETF world there are now 19 b4 filings these are SEC filings for not just a Bitcoin ETF oh well that's already been approved but not just an Ethereum ETF but now a

Starting point is 00:18:54 combo ETF where you get a little bit of Bitcoin, a little bit of ETH in the same ETF wrapper I think it's a 75 Oh, no, 70% Bitcoin, 29% ETH. This is like market cap. Yeah, market cap rated. Yeah. Market cap rated.

Starting point is 00:19:09 It's adjusted that way. And I listened to your episode with Matt from Van Egg. I was out last week. Yeah, you were. But both he and Matt Hogan, they make a really compelling kind of like Tradify argument for why it makes sense not just to hold Bitcoin, but why it makes sense to hold Bitcoin and ether. Right.

Starting point is 00:19:29 If you are looking to Matt Hogan. maximize your sharp ratio and return. Which is a boomer term. Well, sharp ratio, I don't consider sharp ratio very much when I think about like investing. But like sharp ratio is sort of a measure of volatility. How much could the price move either up or down in a given year? And it's presented to trad-fi people as risk. Yeah, risk.

Starting point is 00:19:51 Which is dumb and wrong, but fine. I think it's dumb and wrong. I've never seen the world like that. But that's fine. For some people, like if they, you know, they get scared when something drops, you know, To me, that's like, that's called a Thursday, you know? Like so, but, but anyway, the point of the, the point of this is if you even go with a 75% Bitcoin, 25% ETH, a combo inside of your portfolio, not only do you improve your sharp ratio, that actually gets better, but you also improve your returns. So from a portfolio diversification perspective, which appeals to a lot of, like, fund managers, active managers and Tradify,

Starting point is 00:20:30 this is a way to like get more squeeze the juice this is like the value of diversification you know how when people talk about diversification this is what they're talking about there is actual mathematical value right if you if you care about sharp ratio and sort of if you care about sharp volatility adjusted returns right so when i see this data i'm like okay so if according to their mathematical models if you add ether to a crypto portfolio in addition to bitcoin your returns likely according to the models, go up. And also so does your sharp ratio. My head is like, if your returns go up because you add ether,

Starting point is 00:21:07 wouldn't your returns go up if you only had ether? And it turns out the answer to that is yes, but your sharp ratio goes down, which is why they don't do it, because they're like, ooh, too much concentration. Well, that's as an active manager myself. I'm just like, well, then I'd rather have ether. You know, like just give me 100% ether. Exactly.

Starting point is 00:21:25 But that's not how. Concentrated bets, baby. No, that's not how sophisticated investors see these things. But cool stuff. Yeah, from a diversification, diversified portfolio perspective, last thing to talk about in markets, air drop season, it's in full swing.

Starting point is 00:21:38 ZK Sync is claimable and tradable this week. So David, I want to hear about that. Also, Layer Zero, ZRO token just debuted at a unicorn valuation. Got some other things going on in the blast ecosystem. But those two, at least, ZK Sync and ZRO, the layer zero token. What do we need to know?

Starting point is 00:21:54 Okay, introducing ZRO, that is the ticker symbol for Layer Zero. 1.28 million wallets are eligible, which is absolutely massive. That might be the number one in terms of total wallets. Okay, so total supply of zero is $1 billion. The 24% went to the community and builders. Eight of that, eight and a half percent is being distributed on day one. The rest will be coming up in the future.

Starting point is 00:22:19 And so in addition to that, in order, if you are eligible to claim layer zero, you also have to, this was like the weird quirk thing. you have to donate to Protocol Guild. So to claim your Zero token, you must donate 10 cents in USC, Tether, or Native ETH per layer zero that you want to claim, which goes directly to the Protocol Guild, which is a guild.

Starting point is 00:22:39 10 cents or higher, right? 10 cents or higher per token, per token, yeah. And so how much is a layer zero token in this present moment? $3.67. Okay. So you got to donate 10 cents to the Protocol Guild. Protocol Guild, fantastic organization. they fund open source development.

Starting point is 00:22:58 I'm not sure everyone enjoys being forced to pay money to claim their token. So this is what the founder said. It's not like being forced necessarily. It's like, are you being forced to claim? No, you just don't claim. If you don't donate, you don't claim. I don't know if the community's going to accept that one. We'll get to that take at the end.

Starting point is 00:23:17 I feel like the community is getting more and more entitled these days. But yeah, proceed. Okay, let's see. I talked about this earlier. You can claim this anywhere. you can claim this on Ethereum Mainnet, on optimism, on Arbitrum-based polygon, BNB chain, avalanche, any EVM chain?

Starting point is 00:23:31 Kind of cool. And why can you do this? Well, that's literally what Layer Zero does. It is a messaging protocol across chains. You have until September 20th, 2024, layer zero dot foundation slash claim. Please stay on the lookout for fishing. Don't click any links that you're not very sure about. This is also in bankless claimables

Starting point is 00:23:51 if you just want us to do it for you, which is why we do it. That is Layer Zero. So, congrats to Brian Pellegrino, who's just worked through the absolute gamut of just, like, processing civil information. I'm pretty much looking forward to, like, the post-mortem on just, like, the layer zero, perhaps the most sibil drop of all time. And then also had the most, like, complex and, like, rich anti-cibil strategy as well. So it was so innovation there. Some innovation, I think.

Starting point is 00:24:16 Yeah, big time, big time. So if you're in the bankless, citizens discord, there is a forum just so, like, I just spun up this morning to go chat about this. would love to get your feedback, want to know what you think, if you're eligible. The cool thing about that Discord is that it's as gated to paying bankless citizens that we know are humans. So we kind of know that there's no symbols in there, kind of useful. And that brings us to ZK Sync, the ZK token. Like I said, we were processing this as an industry all last week, all this information. ZK is now trading out on the market.

Starting point is 00:24:46 Claiming is now live. So market cap $740 million for $2 billion. fully diluted valuation. So with a total supply of 21 billion tokens, it's got a 17.6% float, which is like definitely way healthier than other like tokens that other like typically get introduced, 17.6%.

Starting point is 00:25:06 Like 17.6% is still like a long way off from like, you know, the majority. But typically we've been seeing tokens. Higher is better. Hires better. Hires better. And so like, and that's a nice,

Starting point is 00:25:16 healthy float to have at the start. Almost 50% of theirdrop was claimed in the first two addresses, claimed by 225,000 addresses in the first two hours overloading some of the RPC services, but otherwise other than that, everything is fine. ZKSink, they released a comment about the community's reaction. This was out last week, but since we didn't talk about it, Ryan, they said, our airdrop is unconventional and has its imperfections,

Starting point is 00:25:42 but we are proud of the path. We have chosen and believe that we have made reasonable tradeoffs. We recognize that many people are upset, having received less than they expected. We spent several days and nights double-checking the data, but didn't identify any major issues. We recognize that communications weren't clear enough. And they set out a list of frequently asked questions.

Starting point is 00:26:01 This was definitely one of the bigger conversations in the bankless Discord. A lot of individuals just came in and dropped in their comments because they asked them to. Like, hey, what do you think about the ZK Sync token? People were like, I feel pretty good about it. Some people said, like, I was using ZK Sync Light and Argent and I wasn't eligible. I noticed a common theme about that. And then anyone who, like, kind of was satisfied, kind of moved. moved on from the conversation because, you know, why would they hang around?

Starting point is 00:26:24 And then other people who had problems and grievances, they definitely like continue that conversation. There was like overall, I think like last week there was a big conversation about like what, what do about the ZKSink airdrop? And I think like, you know, it's very hard, especially in our position where we are bombarded by messages to like really discover truth. And so like still kind of like looking through the porc mortum on that. But nonetheless, ZK Sync is like, we understand it wasn't perfect, but like we got pretty

Starting point is 00:26:50 close to what we want. and we're pretty satisfied with it. So we're moving on. And that's that. My big question was, like, what's going to happen in the aftermath? And this was super interesting. So 24 hours after the ZKirdop became, like, claimable and tradable,

Starting point is 00:27:04 28% of people didn't sell any of their ZK, David, but 30% moved or sold some of their ZK from their wallet. And 40, that's just a portion. And the 41% moved or sold all of it. Are you seeing these numbers? So 70% sold some portion. 40% sold all of it, the entire allotment. What do you make of that?

Starting point is 00:27:26 What's your takeaway? I'd like to compare this with other airdrops. I mean, ZKSink, they gave away 17.5% of their total supply, which is a lot. And so you would expect that market cap to fully diluted ratio setting in. You're seeing a lot of tokens with a lot of unlocks, just getting hammered in price because people are bearish unlocks right now. And ZKC just had like the biggest day one unlock of all time. And so you would expect like a lot of selling pressure to come into the market.

Starting point is 00:27:56 I'm I'm happy to see a large amount of day one selling pressure because that means like it's a more investable asset the more that's unlocked. I guess it's liquid, it's price discovery, that sort of thing. But like another interpretation of this 40% moving is like how many of those are mercenary sort of like air drop hunters or civil attackers that are just taking their money and selling and moving on to the next. I think by definition, if you sold it inside of the first week, you are by definition of mercenary. Which is fine. Which is fine. It's totally fine. I guess it's fine.

Starting point is 00:28:23 One other question I had is benchmark this. All right. So what did you say? $4.1 billion dollar FTV for ZKSink, something like that, over $4 billion. So how does this stack up compared to other layer twos? I was actually looking on Coin Gecko, okay? Top 100 in Coin Gecko. And I sort of buy market caps.

Starting point is 00:28:43 So this is not FDV, but market cap. David, ZK. Sink didn't show up in the first 100. It's like, it was like 160. or something by market cap. Yeah, 110. Yeah, that's what I saw. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:28:53 Okay, like $4 billion? $4 billion doesn't seem like a lot for Zika's saying. 4.2 billion is fully diluted. And it's not showing up on the top 100 of the market cap because it only has 17.5% of that on the market. So benchmark that with other layer twos. And let's just do fully diluted valuation. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:29:11 So in order of highest to lowest fully diluted valuation, we got Arbitrum common in at number one, $8.1 billion. You have optimism coming in at number two, which is at $8.05 billion, kind of crazy that they're basically the same, followed by Polygon at $5.8 billion, followed by ZKC at $4.1 billion. And just because it went live this week, even though Layer Zero is not a Layer 2, it's a Layer Zero, $3.7 billion. And so, like, all within, like a decent range of each other. Those are in a decent range.

Starting point is 00:29:45 I'm going to give you some other comps. B&B, $91 billion. Salana, $77 billion. Buenb has a finance, buying and burning B&B tokens. Toncoin, the telegram. Ton, $36 billion. Cardano, $17 billion. Oh, my God, Cardano.

Starting point is 00:30:05 $12 billion. Tron, freaking Tron, $10 billion. Also has a buyback and burn model. Pocodot, $8 billion. Okay, that one's dumb. I'm just saying? Bitcoin cash, $8.2 billion. billion dollars. Bitcoin cash is worth more than optimism. What the F? Layer twos are not catching a

Starting point is 00:30:23 bid right now. Hey, Uniswop, $10 billion. That's not layer two. It's a good token. It's a cash flowing token. It's a token that has, you know, like, bankless fundamental style. It has fundamentals, which are apparently extremely bearish. Very bearish right now. And like, that's a larger question about this. So we've gone through some major air drops in the last few, including the ZK Sync one, has been met with some upset from the community. Social mess.

Starting point is 00:30:51 I saw somebody in Bankless Discord, this is a real human, just being like, you know what? I'm just exhausted from air drops, like in general, right? And I think that's true of like people who are doing things on chain and getting air drops.

Starting point is 00:31:03 I think it's true of founders too. Like, my God. Right? So this is a Kobe tweet. If you're a founder, in my opinion, you're probably thinking about not doing an air drop at all these days. The downsides are much greater

Starting point is 00:31:14 than the upsides now. Yeah. I do think that with layer zero, ZK Sync, eigen layer, it's marking a different era of air drops.

Starting point is 00:31:22 We jump to shark. There's still going to be airdrop, so I think that will morph into a different form and we'll have to see what that new form, the new meta,

Starting point is 00:31:30 ends up being because people are kind of tired at this point, both projects and like users. Yeah. Well, the civils are just

Starting point is 00:31:37 crowding out the users and then the users are like, I feel un, like, not heard. Unheard. Because they're drowned out, yeah.

Starting point is 00:31:43 Because they're drowned out. And so, like, when you real users get pushed out, like, the meta is going to shift. This was the theme of that episode that we did, like, a couple months ago, where we call the cycle is cooked. That's the same thing. Just like, we got to move on from this distribution method. Yeah. Do we have to talk about mother and daddy? Do we?

Starting point is 00:32:01 No, you don't. I'm just going to burn through these things because it's the thing that everyone wants to hear about. The mother plus daddy update. If you don't know what daddy is, good for you. But I'm about to inform you. Sorry. mother of course is the Iggy Azalea token who issued a meme coin on Solana and just started to grow a community around it and honestly like didn't really do anything egregiously bad so far so that's kind of nice currently $80 million market cap off of its $150 million market cap peak she's still active mostly just sharing memes kind of kind of a deal she appeared last week with Jim Kramer at the New York Stock Exchange oh yeah yeah win mother ETF like $80 million dollars she hasn't like ex-scammed hasn't done anything egregiously wrong um so like not gonna call it a complete grift uh daddy

Starting point is 00:32:48 daddy who's this who's this guy again andrew tate daddy tate uh Andrew tate the best human the best leader the best example of a human on earth um 64 million dollar market cap uh off of its 90 million dollar peak newer coin um uh so that is the current state of celebrity name coin this this token is not affiliated with Andrew Tate. You know that? It says, there's a warning on Coin Gecko. Oh, I thought it was.

Starting point is 00:33:17 I don't even know. I thought that was the whole deal. Like, well, don't know. Everyone knows to not come to bank. Is this a different, is this a different daddy that night?

Starting point is 00:33:25 Do you have the wrong token? No. I think this is the one. Jesus. Yeah, there's only one Daddy Tate. Well, if you had any,

Starting point is 00:33:32 if you had any better indication as to like where you should get your meme coin information, it's not from us. But, nonetheless, we're going to talk to you, you about dollar sign

Starting point is 00:33:42 DJT, a.k.a. Donald J. Trump token that was allegedly started by Baron Trump with endorsement from the Donald himself or not. Is this real, or is this a fabrication from one of the internet's most hated persons, Martin Screlli?

Starting point is 00:33:57 Zach XVT makes an appearance in this story. Ryan's going to grab his popcorn right during this commercial break and then we'll be back. We're also going to talk about how Ethereum is now free and forever free of the SEC's investigation. But first, First, a moment to talk about some of these fantastic sponsors that make this show possible. Like Cracken, with all of the meme coins or the legitimate assets that you want, you can find them on Cracken. If you do not have an account with Cracken, consider clicking the links in the show notes.

Starting point is 00:34:22 Getting to start with Cracken today. If you want a crypto trading experience backed by world-class security and award-winning support teams, then head over to Cracken, one of the longest-standing and most secure crypto platforms in the world. Cracken is on a journey to build a more accessible, inclusive, and fair financial system, making it simple and secure for everyone, everywhere to trade crypto. Cracken's intuitive trading tools are designed to grow with you, empowering you to make your first or your hundredth trade in just a few clicks. And there's an award-winning client support team available 24-7 to help you along the way,

Starting point is 00:34:52 along with a whole range of educational guides, articles, and videos. With products and features like Cracken Pro and Cracken NFT Marketplace and a seamless app to bring it all together, it's really the perfect place to get your complete crypto experience. So check out the simple, secure, and powerful way forever. everyone to trade crypto, whether you're a complete beginner or a season pro. Go to crackin.com slash bank lists to see what crypto can be. Not investment advice, crypto trading involves risk of loss.

Starting point is 00:35:15 Arbitrum is the leading Ethereum scaling solution that is home to hundreds of decentralized applications. Arbitrum's technology allows you to interact with Ethereum at scale with low fees and faster transactions. Arbitrum has the leading defy ecosystem, strong infrastructure options, flourishing NFTs, and is quickly becoming the web-free gaming hub. Explore the ecosystem at portal.arbitrum.io. to permissionlessly launch your own Arbitrum orbit chain. Arbitrum orbit

Starting point is 00:35:40 allows anyone to utilize Arbitrum's secure scaling technology to build your own orbit chain, giving you access to interoperable, customizable permissions with dedicated throughput. Whether you are a developer, an enterprise, or a user, Arbitrum orbit, lets you take your project to new heights. All of these technologies leverage the security and decentralization of Ethereum. Experience Web3 development the way it was always meant to be. Secure, fast, cheap, and friction-free. Visit Arbitrum.com.com and get your journey started. in one of the largest Ethereum communities. Are you worried about the security

Starting point is 00:36:10 of your cross-chain transactions? Cross-chains with confidence using Transporter, the revolutionary token bridging app designed to give you peace of mind. Powered by ChainLink CCIP, Transporter is your trusted gateway for securely moving assets like ETH, Native USC, and Link, and so many more

Starting point is 00:36:25 across some of your favorite blockchains. Over $2.8 billion has been hacked from token bridges to date. Transporter puts a stop to this by ensuring your transfers are protected by the most robust security features available. Chainlink CCIP provides that level five security backed by multiple decentralized Oracle networks and an independent risk management network. Transporter also provides

Starting point is 00:36:46 real-time tracking throughout your transaction with its newly engineered user experience, so you'll never have to second guess the safety or location of your assets ever again. And the best part, Transporter makes it simple. Whether you're a blockchain beginner or a seasoned trader, transporter's intuitive interface lets you execute cross-chain transactions with just a few clicks. No additional fees, just a low cost for you. using CCIP, which can be paid in Link or your blockchain's native gas token. But don't just take my word for it. See for yourself, why Transporter offers a stress-free bridging experience.

Starting point is 00:37:16 Experience the future of token bridging at transporter.io and just send it. All right, Ryan, you got your popcorn? I got my popcorn, like literally. Yep. All right, Ryan is going to just sit down to show. It is a story time. It is story time. My God, this is the first time I'm paying attention to this.

Starting point is 00:37:31 So what is going, what do we need to know about Donald J. Trump coin? Okay, Donald J. Trump coin was issued a while ago. actually. It's currently got a $166 million market cap, which is like something's priced in. Something's priced in there. This all got started from a Pirates Wire tweet started. Per Conversations, Trump is launching an official token dollar sign DJT on Solana, Barron Speedheading. That was the whole entire tweet. That's, by the way. That's Mike Solana from Pirate Wire. You know? We're having Mike's on next week, actually.

Starting point is 00:38:04 Cool. Cool. This is perfect timing. Jesus. Okay, so that's how it all started. Then, just to recap all of this. I'm going to actually just go through this whole entire thing. This made some headlines, not big mainstream headlines, but this is making some headlines in like B-tier media,

Starting point is 00:38:20 trad media, like Newsweek. Like the headline here, is Baron Trump behind a mysterious new DJT coin? What we know. Look, we made it to Newsweek. Cool. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Okay. The part of this, the first line of this,

Starting point is 00:38:36 of this Newsweek article says, convicted Farma Bro, Martin Screlly, has claimed a cryptocurrency partnership with Baron Trump, the youngest child of former U.S. President Donald Trump. Okay, so here's how all of this went down.

Starting point is 00:38:49 Martin Screlly has been on crypto Twitter, has been on crypto Twitter. He's part of the crypto world, unfortunately. Do people remember who he is? He's the guy that jacked up the insulin prices, right? Went to jail. He's a guy that jacked up the insulin prices of Deriprin,

Starting point is 00:39:04 like by 5,000 percent, which became like became like with the most hated man on the internet like hated by Reddit, went, uh, got charged for security fraud unrelated to the whole, um, pharma thing. So got charged for security fraud, uh, went to jail for like 21 months or something, uh, had like seven and a half million dollars of his assets seized, which included the one of one Wu-Tang Clan album, which was then auctioned off by the government by Pleaserdell, which is a separate story, which is also happening right now. Uh, that, we actually talked about that last week.

Starting point is 00:39:36 But that is aside from what's going on. He's in my Twitter timeline. Like, he's trying to get into, like, crypto-Twitter circles. Be relevant? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Maybe that's part of the story here.

Starting point is 00:39:46 It's definitely a part of the story. Go on. I'm joined spot-point. Martin Scriley is, like, causing a storm on Twitter saying, yes, this is real. I have proof. And everyone is, like, WTF. Like, why are you relevant here?

Starting point is 00:39:59 Proof that Baron Trump issued a Donald J. Trump meme coin. This is a Baron Trump issued meme coin. Like Trump endorsed by proxy or maybe explicitly Trump endorsed. Yes. Okay. Yeah. And so like people were spending like hours on Twitter spaces listening to Martin Scraly like try to like prove that he could like link this to Baron Trump.

Starting point is 00:40:19 And Baron Trump is like nowhere to be found. So like what's up with that? He's never like he's never been in the public eye, right? If podcast listeners are like Ryan is legitimately eating popcorn. That's why what you hear in his mouth. He hasn't been. Yeah. I mean, maybe, I don't know.

Starting point is 00:40:36 I haven't. It's not in my public eye. But yeah, he's on Twitter spaces claiming that he works with like up to 50 people, including to like work on this token, including 18 year old Baron Trump. He's 18 years old. People. And so as a result of this, like DJT is pumping. And like it rises up past $100 million.

Starting point is 00:40:54 It's like pumping. People are like talking about it. It's like generating hype. And then there is an Arkham intelligence Twitter account saying, fuck it we ball $150,000 to the first person who can definitively prove the identity of the creator of DHAT

Starting point is 00:41:10 because we're not taking Martin's Kelly's word for it somebody do some on-chain forensic evidence to prove who was the creator not just a few hours later Zach XPT tweeted out that he submitted evidence and then Arkham Intelligence Arkham Intelligence then later tweets out that the bounty has been solved by Zach

Starting point is 00:41:31 XBT, who says that it is indeed Martin Screlly, who is the person that minted, that created the DJT Trump token, the Trump token. Martin Screlly did it. But Martin's been saying he did it the whole time, though, right? Is this or is he not saying? But he is saying that he did it in collaboration and with the endorsement of Baron Trump, who did it with the endorsement of his daddy Donald Trump. Okay.

Starting point is 00:41:58 Okay. Well, and I heard, by the way, I heard Martin had DMs or something. something like evidence. Yes. Yes. Okay. So this is where this goes. This is the way this goes. The link that Zach XBT found was that one of the earliest sellers of DJT, which sold like sold $800,000 of this token, sent it to an address that held, was a large holder of Martin's other project, Shogoff, which is another AI project. So like a pretty direct link there. But then is this where Martin bites back. There's a phase two. We're not done yet. You would think that this would be over because this has proved. But no, like, Martin, some people think Martin has actually, like, vindicated here. So there is a user, Cameron Rocks, a Discord user, whose alleged real name is Cameron Roxborough, that Martin Screlly apparently hired as his intern, a summer intern kind of position to do something in, like, Martin Screlly's office or something.

Starting point is 00:42:52 And this person apparently went to school with Baron Trump and talks about going to school with Baron Trump. Apparently, he's a longtime friend of Baron Trump. And I think this actual part actually checks off. So Martin Screlly paid this old school friend of Barron to be a part of his, like, campaign to get close to Baron Trump. So this is where like the conspiracies come in. And Martin Screlly was like apparently just kind of like social engineering his way to get to Baron Trump to like launch a Trump meme coin because this is it just like perfectly on brand for Martin Screlly. This is like what he does.

Starting point is 00:43:23 The guy like, like, was got charged for 16 year old. A 16 year old Bo Loudin to shell the token. that that's what you're talking about is i don't know who bow bow loudon is but there's like a friend of baron trump who like was the conduit between martin screlly and baron himself all right yeah so this is so i think this is how this all ties together because martin screlly we haven't gotten to the point where there's actually communications between baron trump and martin screlly we're about to get there tbd on if they're real or not they could be fake but they could be real too so here's how here's how we think this all went down just to really like summarize this baron trump receives a message from martin screlly

Starting point is 00:43:58 because of this conduit that he has like the friend, the friend that bridge the connection. And he was like, hey, do this is going to be super sick if you like launch a meme coin. You should ask your dad. So Barron asked Daddy Donald. Hey, dad,

Starting point is 00:44:10 I'm thinking of launching a crypto coin. Is that okay? And like his Donald Trump is like, sure, whatever. Well, like not being sufficiently informed about like what the intent. This is your speculation. This is my speculation. Okay.

Starting point is 00:44:20 I also, I have like, you know, friends and sources who are in the trenches who are more informed than me. So I'm like kind of like regurgitating what other people have said. All right. I've had this. I've had this take corroborated by two people.

Starting point is 00:44:30 All right, but it is a little conspiracy. We'll never know the truth. It is conspiracy. We'll never completely know the truth. But continue. So, like, yeah, Baron Trump goes to Donald Trump, ask, hey, Daddy, can I, I'm sure he says, Daddy, can I launch a crypto coin? And Donald's like, yeah, whatever, sure. I like crypto.

Starting point is 00:44:46 I'm the crypto president. So, so Barron says like, okay, I've, it goes back to Martin Scrolling. He's like, okay, I've got the green light for my dad. I can launch a crypto coin. And he names it DJT, Donald J. Trump. And then it starts to blow up. And the Trump campaign and his lawyers is totally caught off guard about what this actually means because it's massive legal spotlight. Like not what Donald Trump wants.

Starting point is 00:45:11 Donald Trump has other legal issues going on. And they just totally shut this down. Like, Baron, you can't do this. Basically you're grounded. Like, go to your room. And then this is where we get this watcher guru tweet who says Donald Trump's former advisor says that the president and his son have not long. a meme coin. So like official statement out of the Trump administration saying like that this morning. The Thursday morning that we're recording. That's when this was issued. This morning.

Starting point is 00:45:37 8 a.m. Eastern time this morning. Yeah. Yeah. And so basically the Donald Trump like formally severed all association. But then this gets even crazier when GCR and Martin Screlly, GCR like makes a bet saying like $100 million that this is not endorsed. Who is GCR for people who don't know? I think a crypto, Twitter, influencer trader type. Influencer trader, like whale type. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. He puts out a $100 million bet saying, like, I bet $100 million that this is completely fake.

Starting point is 00:46:08 And Martin Screlly is like, I'll make that bet. And I think Martin Screlly is taking that bet like on a technicality because he did have a conversation with Baron Trump. He had like a Zoom call with him and like Baron Trump was there. And so like he's saying like, it's not completely fake. If you define it as completely fake, that's wrong. and so I'll take that bet. And so people start, like, tapping in Kobe is like Kobe do the escrow. And so this is where Martin's Crowley.

Starting point is 00:46:34 This is where Martin Scraly shares a screenshot with allegedly Baron Trump. I think this is on Instagram. These are Instagram, like DMs. Wait, this is Instagram? Yes, this is Instagram, yeah. And so this is Martin Screlli kind of like goading on Baron Trump saying, you are the guy, not your dad, you're going to be bigger than him. And then he says, like, Martin, hop on with us.

Starting point is 00:46:59 Can you send a Google? Measling? Also, no, I don't want to, I don't want that. I don't want to be bigger than my dad. But this is, like, Martin's proof that he was, like, talking to Baron Trump. But this is, this doesn't show Baron's name. Like, I, like, how- B-T is in the left corner, which, like, maybe is him.

Starting point is 00:47:14 Yeah, maybe it's him. It could not be him. But could doctored. I mean, like, there's all sorts of things. It could be doctored, yeah. Apparently, there are people who were, like, in this call with him, who have corroborated this story. And so, like, it's actually generally,

Starting point is 00:47:26 accepted that of from the rumors from the rumor mill in the trenches that like this was baron Trump who did launch a meme coin with like launch unproved maybe maybe had a conversation social engineering with martin screlly and martin i think as soon as martin screlly got baron trump to legitimately launch the token he was like let's fucking go i did it and then he like just throws baron trump by the wayside and he goes on to crypto twitter and it's like it's a donald Trump meme coin like it's totally legit like it was technically like launched by somebody in Donald Trump's circle the Trump administration is like this isn't us we have no we're not endorsing this whatsoever have nothing to do with this. Was like Scarelli making money on this or something?

Starting point is 00:48:07 Yeah because he has all he because like Zach XPT says that it was Martin Screlly's address that launched a token means he has all the supply and and then you also have this screenshot and there's a different screenshot that we're not showing where Baron Trump is asking Martin like yo did we add like a trading fee? So like you could like make a 25% or 25 Bips like fee for anyone who's trading. He asked like Martin Screlly the details on that. And so like I think Martin Screlly launched it. I think he took like a Zoom caller or a couple with Baron Trump to go to him on.

Starting point is 00:48:39 He like socially engineered Baron maybe or something like this. And so it technically if like there is a bet out there saying that there are $100 million that this was completely fake in the definition of completely fake. it actually doesn't, it's not completely fake. Like, Baron Trump was actually here. How weird. But it's just Barron. It's not like official.

Starting point is 00:48:58 It's not official. It's not official. And like all the entire Trump campaign is like, we are not endorsing this. It's not a. So if you're buying the DJT like token thinking that Trump is going to endorse this, you're wrong. You're basically just buying it because like it's in social zeitgeist. I actually think we kind of got lucky here and maybe we actually don't get lucky because

Starting point is 00:49:16 this is like not a good look by the crypto industry because a fuck Martin Screlly. But like. representing the industry, he's going to, like, he's a closest, one of the closest people to the Trump campaign and, like, maybe got his son to, like, commit some sort of financial crime. I was like doing something nefarious by launching and promoting a meme coin. Imagine you're the presidential candidate's dad just found out that you launched a meme coin with his initials. Like, not great. And, like, we have this pro-crypto president who might have just gotten burned by fucking Martin Screlli. Like, it's not what we want. So you're saying it didn't go far enough for that to be. like a big issue, but it could have, it could have gotten worse here. If it does get any bigger, it's getting bigger like today and tomorrow. Yeah, the other thing about like, I wonder with Scarelli, I mean, he's already had what, securities violations. He's already served time in jail for like financial crimes.

Starting point is 00:50:04 Like, no, there's got to be some injunctions here. Like, there's got to be some prohibitions from him doing this sort of thing, I would think. Yeah. I think Martin Scareley just saw an opportunity to like, so chaos. Yeah. Grift a bunch of people and like take like clout for it, even though that clout is negative. he'll take all the negative cloud any day.

Starting point is 00:50:24 Well, I'm done with my popcorn for now, David. So thanks for the story time. I would not have looked that up on my own because I just like, didn't care enough, but, you know, it was entertaining. So thanks. I'm glad you're entertained.

Starting point is 00:50:37 Thanks for that. You know what's something cool this week, though, that is exciting. You're going to keep your sunglasses on the whole rest of the podcast? Just until the break. How about that? Just until we get through this section. All right.

Starting point is 00:50:48 Because this is a big deal. Sunglass-worthy. Ethereum. surviving the SEC. That is the headline from Consensus. Today we're happy to announce a major win for Ethereum developers, tech providers, industry participants. The enforcement division of the SEC has notified us that is closing its investigation

Starting point is 00:51:04 into Ethereum 2.0. So bankless listeners you might remember it was like a month ago. We had Joe Lubin on the podcast and Consensus had just announced that they had received a Wells notice from the SEC that described some of the allegations. one of which, like MetaMasque Wallet, all of these other things, but one of which was basically an investigation into Ethereum. And whether, like, there was the allegation that possibly core devs were centrally controlling this, maybe consensus employees, they were looking at GitHubs, they were looking at commits,

Starting point is 00:51:37 they were looking at all of this detail. And Joe Lubin and the consensus lawyer was pretty convinced that the SEC was coming after Ethereum and it very much looked like it. Now, that was pre-Gensler, pre-SEC Pivot, which it seemed like, if we're, again, doing some conspiracy theory type stuff, it seemed like there was a call made by the White House and the Biden re-election campaign that told Gary to chill the F out and to, like, to approve the Ethereum ETF and do a 180. And Ethereum ETF got approved. Of course, like you guys were here, you remember that story. It seems like part of that fallout was a withdrawal by the SEC on this allegation. against consensus and Ethereum as a security.

Starting point is 00:52:21 So do we have some comments from the consensus lawyers here? This is Laura Brookover, who we didn't talk to, but what is she saying here? She says the SEC sent as a closing letter in the Ethereum 2.0 investigation today. Things have changed remarkably fast since we filed our lawsuit against the SEC in late April, accumulating in today's development. After more than a year, the Ethereum investigation is finally over with no charges against anyone. Full statement here and then a link to the blog post. And I just really want to lay down in like very simple terms what this means.

Starting point is 00:52:51 There has always been this like looming overhanging cloud over Ethereum. But like, is it a security? And a lot of that cloud got dissipated with the Ethereum ETF. And any remaining wisps of moisture in the air that might have potentially turned into a cloud is gone. There could not be any clearer skies. Like it is an official thing by the SEC that they are no longer investigating. Ethereum, the Ethereum project, the Ethereum network, the Ethereum Core Deves, consensus.

Starting point is 00:53:21 The whole idea that Ethereum might be labeled as security is in the grid. It is over. Which has been a thing that has been like frustratingly relevant for my entire time in crypto. Nine years. But like Ethereum could be a security. I'm like, yeah, but less, you know, like Eminem's could be a

Starting point is 00:53:39 security, whatever. Beanie babies. But like finally, like if anyone tells you that Ethereum is a security, you can tell them that they are dumb and wrong officially. Yeah. And like here's another takeaway. I think that hopefully crypto and everyone listening takes from this is Gary Gensler and the SEC tried their hardest to make the security in the U.S.

Starting point is 00:53:56 And the reason they failed was because the crypto community organized politically and we pushed back. Got loud. And we got loud. And this is major progress because we weren't doing this sort of thing in 2022. It was all SBF was doing the political donations and playing the DC game. So it's bullish on another level that we have the power. I mean, it's 20% of Americans own crypto, American adults own crypto.

Starting point is 00:54:20 We have the power to actually push back and make change. And here's an example of that. So a cool lesson from that perspective, too. David. In stark contrast, I love that this is happening at once. So we get the freedom of the SEC from the perjury of the SEC. But also what's going live, I think pretty damn soon here because the ETHs is coming, is this awesome ad from Bitwise.

Starting point is 00:54:45 So just like, can't stop winning against CS. SEC and we're getting these very sick, like, normie targeting ads for the Ethereum ETF. Let's go ahead and watch this ad. I actually haven't watched this, David. Oh, wow, you're going to love it. Hello, I'm Ethereum. And I'm big finance. You okay?

Starting point is 00:55:01 You look really tired. He's calling it a day. But it's 4 p.m. Yeah, and I've been working nonstop since 9.30 this morning, so... 9.30? You don't say. Yep. You want a little shud-eye, too, if you've been moving billions around the world. Well, actually, I do. You know, stable coins, NFTs, loans.

Starting point is 00:55:19 People can access me 24-7. What? But look, everyone's different. You should get your rest. You've had a long day. Well, I have, haven't I? Definitely. You'll get after it tomorrow.

Starting point is 00:55:31 Tomorrow's Saturday. Monday. You'll get after it again on Monday. Monday. That is awesome. It's so good, so good. Bitwise, had a very successful Bitcoin ETF, just like shoulder to shoulder with,

Starting point is 00:55:46 some of the big boys, Fidelity, Black Rock, I mean, Black Rock's dominant, Fidelity's large, but like Bidwise, punching above its weight class with the Bitcoin ETF, I think they're making a very big push to take an even larger market share because Bitwise and Ethereum just go, they just go hand in hand. Like the business model for Bitwise, which is just like asset indices, crypto funds, and what Ethereum is, is just, I think they're making a very big push because they see Ethereum as like a much larger foot in the door that they have into the traditional world. It's a way to tell the story. Because, I mean, they've been bullish on defy assets as well, right?

Starting point is 00:56:20 And just this is the gateway to all of the other tokens and assets too. So, well done on that commercial, it's a bitwise. And by the way, folks can mint that. So it looks like I've minted this. 800 people have minted it. I should still do that. On base or on Zora, on Zora chain using my coin base wallet, which hopefully gets me an irdrop of something, either the Zora something.

Starting point is 00:56:40 That's how I'm doing this. Wow. You're hoping for it. May it Zora AirDrop. I could see that happening. drop. Yeah, but I also use the Coinbase wallet to Mint on base all the time too. There you go. All right, we got more

Starting point is 00:56:50 coming up, including a vulnerability in Cracken. This was proof that the crypto industry is like, dumber than ever. Not any fault of Cracken whatsoever. This like super lame security auditor Sertic. Sorry, we'll talk about this story. Yeah,

Starting point is 00:57:05 I can tell you're fired up about it. It's like, I have a question as whether these were white hats or black hats or what was it on here. It could have been white hats, but they chose not to be. Also, there's More Donald Trump in this episode. Can you believe that? Real news. This time is real news and a clip. This time it's real. All right, before we get to that, I'm going to take off these glasses here, David.

Starting point is 00:57:21 And we're going to thank our sponsors, including Mantle, who is a Layer 2 that you absolutely should check out. And get some yield back. Yeah, it's me yelled. New projects are coming online to the Mantle Layer 2 every single week. Why is this happening? Maybe it's because Mantle has been on the frontier of Layer 2 design architecture since it first started building Mantle DA, powered by technology from EigenDA. Maybe it's because users are coming onto the Mantle Layer 2 to capture some of the highest yields available in Defy

Starting point is 00:57:48 and to automatically receive the points and tokens being accrued by the $3 billion mantle treasury in the Mantle reward station. Maybe it's because the Mantle team is one of the most helpful teams to build with giving you grants, liquidity support, and venture partners to help bootstrap your mantle application. Maybe it's all of these reasons all put together. So if you're a dev and you want to build on one of the best foundations in crypto or your user looking to claim some ownership on Mantle's Defi apps, click the link in the show. notes to getting started with Mantle. Have you ever felt that the tools for developing decentralized applications are too restrictive and fail to leverage advancements from traditional software programming? There's a wide range of expressive building blocks beyond conventional smart contracts and

Starting point is 00:58:26 solidity development. Don't waste your time building the basics from scratch and don't limit the potential of your vision. Cartese provides powerful and scalable solutions for developers that supercharge app development. With a Cartese virtual machine, you can run a full Linux OS and access decades of rich code libraries and open source tooling for building in Web3. And with Cartese's unique roll-up framework, you'll get real-world scaling and computation. No more competing for Blockspace. So, if you're a developer looking to push the boundaries of what's possible in Web 3, Cartesey is now offering up to $50,000 in grants.

Starting point is 00:58:58 Head over to Cartesian's grant application page to apply today. And if you're not a developer, those with staked CTSI can take part in the governance process and vote on whether or not a proposal should be funded. Make sure your vote ready by staking your CTSI before the votes open. Sello is the mobile first and EVM compatible blockchain that's built for the real world and designed for fast, low-cost payments worldwide. Driving real-world use cases like Opera MiniPay, one of the fastest growing Web3 wallets with over 2 million users across Africa.

Starting point is 00:59:26 Sello is seeing a meteoric rise with over 375 million transactions and a million monthly active users. Not to mention Tether and Circle just deployed native USDT and USCC on SELO, supported by leading exchanges like Binance. And now, Selo is looking to come home to Ethereum as a layer two. With a game-changing proposal, core contributors at C-Labs, aims to leverage optimism's OP stack pioneering and transition as the biggest L-1 to become a layer two, with TestNet arriving as early as summer, 2024. With the SELO layer two, gas fees will stay low and users can even pay for gas using ERC-20 tokens, including native USCC and USDT, sending crypto to phone numbers across wallets using Social Connect. But Sello is a community governed protocol. Make your voice hurt in the Sello Forum to shape the future of Ethereum.

Starting point is 01:00:07 Follow at Sellow on Twitter and explore the ecosystem built for the real world on cello.org slash quests. And we're back. A Cracken exploit for $3 million and some drama. Okay, so chat, GPD summary of this. Cracken experience a security breach when Sertic, a cybersecurity firm, exploited a vulnerability, allowing them to withdraw $3 million from the exchange. This incident led to a dispute with a Crackin accusing Sertick of extortion and Sertic claiming that they were conducting white hat security research.

Starting point is 01:00:36 The funds have since been returned, but the incident has now raised questions about the ethics and legality of security research in the cryptocurrency space. I don't actually contest that line from chat in GPT, or actually maybe that was GROC, because I actually don't think the only question that has been raised is like why the F is certic doing what they're doing. I actually have a couple questions. So the first question is like, how did this happen? What's the mechanism by which an exchange actually gets hacked for $3 million? Right. So I'm sure there's a bunch of different ways where an exploit can happen. There's not just like one hole to breach.

Starting point is 01:01:07 There's many that are all patched by all the exchanges. This particular exploit in Cracken, I think had something, some mechanism where like people could trick Cracken to thinking that they deposited when they actually didn't. I don't know the details of how it works, but I think like it's fair to say, at least for illustrated purposes, imagine like you have the trick of like you attach a string like a fishing wire. You glue it to a coin and you drop that coin in a vending machine and then you pull it back out. and just keep on dropping something something like this and so crackin is crediting people on the other side without actually uh receiving the deposits and so you can mint uh you can mint crackin btc for example without actually depositing it it's not like uh it's not like uh they figured out crackin's private fees or something there was an internal so it wasn't a huge deal it was three million dollars but it was kind of that like coin trick that you maybe described something like that and yeah but the way that certic handled this was absolutely ham fisted and bizarre right because it seemed like they almost stole the money? Yeah. What happened here?

Starting point is 01:02:09 Okay, so first they exploited the exploit that I just described for $4.4. All right. To prove that the exploit exists. And this activity would have been classified as a white hacked activity because this is what they needed to do to prove the exploit, right? And this is like white hat ethics. Like don't actually steal money. Just prove into the minimum viable necessary that you need to do that you need to do that you. can steal it.

Starting point is 01:02:36 And then disclose it secretly and responsibly. And then disclose it to Cracken, earn the bug bounty, which was going to be six to seven figures, like $200,000, up to a million dollars, something, a very large sum of money. And then they would just get off with the white hat money, which is like totally fair and square. We appreciate white hats. Anyone who should totally pay out white hat bug bounties. A very celebrated thing in all of security, really.

Starting point is 01:03:00 But instead, what Sertik instead did. they stole four dollars, which I wouldn't count a ceiling, just doing bug bounty stuff, they then did that same exploit and then, you know, removed three million dollars from Cracking, which is far beyond what anyone needs to do to prove that they are white hat like hacking. And so now this is different. And then they went to Cracken and was like, pay us a larger bounty. And so like a $3 million bounty. Like pay us a $3 million bounty per day.

Starting point is 01:03:34 which is like verifiably insane thing to do. And then Cracken then starts to interpret this as no longer white hat activity. Instead, they choose to interpret it as theft and therefore criminal and threatens to sur-tick this. This kind of feels like a ransom. It's kind of feels like a ransom. This is one of the CTOs of Ledger, I believe, saying, exploiting a vulnerability and then returning some funds or negotiating a reward is not white hat behavior. Let's not pretend otherwise. So a lot of people in the industry came down strongly against this, including Taylor Monaghan.

Starting point is 01:04:08 What does she say? Oh, I would not want to be on the other side of Taylor Monaghan. Taylor Monaghan, now of Metamask formerly My Crypto, definitely like a security expert in the space. Not afraid to speak her mind. Not afraid to speak her mind, right. Basically, like, I'm just going to skip to the last line. You should hide in shame and be thanking Cracken for not pursuing you criminally and civilly not bragging about your bullshit on Twitter.

Starting point is 01:04:30 Part of the story is that like Sertic just went on to Twitter and said, like, we've discovered a bug bounty and crackin. Look, we like took $3 million from them. And everyone's like, did you just admit that? Like on Twitter? Why did you do that? Do you have lawyers? Which brings us to the meme that summarizes this whole entire event,

Starting point is 01:04:48 which is the classic grew meme, which is step one, hack, crackin. Step two, steal three million dollars in bank stations. Oh, part of the way, Ryan, that I didn't tell you the story, is that they put it through tornado cash on Polygon. Which like, everyone's like, oh, like you can't touch Polygon. But you know what I learned this week? No. That the Polygon tornado cash is not on the U.S. sanctions list.

Starting point is 01:05:15 They did not add that. Why? It's a different... They forgot. Okay. There's still legal to use tornado cash on Polygon. No, no, no, no. It is not illegal to use tornado.

Starting point is 01:05:27 Yeah. It is still legal to use because it's a different contract address. That's why they did pollin. That is why they did. Don't want a breakstations law. So if you put it through Polygon to like obfuscate your traces. All right. And then you're and okay.

Starting point is 01:05:39 So like that's the second group panel. The third group panel is publicly take credit. And then Gru is like looking back at like, oh wait, we publicly take credit like Rorto. This is the same auditing firm that everyone has made a farce of because like all of their like audits keep getting exploited by North Korea. Oh geez. Really?

Starting point is 01:05:58 Like not a great track record from certain. Okay. Well this is like someone got carried away. I would say in their hacking a little bit of ego up play though hopefully they've been

Starting point is 01:06:10 popularly chastened by the social layer of crypto and they gave the money back to Crackin and they waved the white flag Yay They could have just

Starting point is 01:06:17 gotten the money though They could have just gotten like a six to seven figure bug bounty Yeah and but instead they are like going to lose business

Starting point is 01:06:26 and now like I mean I don't know how they have any business left maybe that's why they have to do this Well there you go Let's talk about Donald J. Trump his second time. Back to Donald

Starting point is 01:06:34 Trump. Yeah, not his token this time. This is actually real. Trump has stated this last week that he explicitly wants all remaining bitcoins to be mined in the United States. We had to play it in his own words because, man,

Starting point is 01:06:51 this is here. Here he goes. Defer the secure America's future create opportunity for young people. I will end Joe Biden's war on crypto and we will ensure that the future of crypto and the future of Bitcoin will be made in America. We're going to keep it right here.

Starting point is 01:07:07 And a lot of it's going to be done right here in Florida. Right? It's so weird to hear cheers from that. Yeah. Isn't it? Wow. Yeah. Bitcoin made in America.

Starting point is 01:07:20 Bitcoin made in America. Just stamp it. American mind Bitcoin. Let's fucking go. But Joe Biden's war on crypto. Do you hear that? That's quite the sound bite. And I wonder if Democrats are hearing that.

Starting point is 01:07:33 I wonder if the Joe Biden campaign is hearing that loud and clear. Later posted on truth social, which is like Donald Trump's version of Twitter, he wants Bitcoin. This is where he said, I want Bitcoin to be made in the USA. It will help us be energy dominant, which is like big Bitcoin or talking points. So, you know he's like winning every single like single issue Bitcoin voter, if not crypto voter. Wow. Well, crypto is definitely an election. I mean, people said it would happen.

Starting point is 01:07:57 I kind of thought it would happen. but I didn't think it would happen in such a big way and it's happening now. Super big way. Two new different types of real world assets being tokenized on chain. I want to talk about 3DNS, which is tokenizing Web2 ICANNNNs

Starting point is 01:08:16 on optimism. So pretty cool. Like kind of self-explanatory. With 3DNS, they just register Web2 domains as NFTs on optimism. That's like dot-coms. If you're not familiar Ican, It's just like dot coms, dot nets, dot orgs, dot edie uses, all of that stuff.

Starting point is 01:08:33 Yeah. And so they're starting with dot box and a few other ICAN domains. And then they're just going to expand from there. But they have this pretty cool partnership with just the ICAN registry to like compliantly, legally, like in a partnership, tokenize the these, these ICAN domains into an NFT. So like trading an NFT is legitimate trading of ownership. So like that's a real, that's even though that's a digital asset, it's a real world. digital asset that is coming and being tokenized on optimism. We could tokenize bankless.com and sell it, David.

Starting point is 01:09:05 I don't want to sell it, but I do want to tokenize it. Okay. Well, because like, Make her Down might actually give us a loan on that, which is like, kind of cool. Take our loan out, and we get liquidated on that loan, and there goes the website. Sorry, guys. Is that how it works? Okay, on second thoughts, we will do something else. But in theory, we could.

Starting point is 01:09:24 This is the future. And that's the first of two real world assets being tokenized. Tether also has announced tethered assets, starting with this platform called Alloy, and they want to tokenize gold. We've actually seen tokenized gold before. It's not the first time, but it's definitely different when tether does it. But you can also kind of just like understand that like tether's not ending at gold. Maybe they tokenize further commodities. Maybe they just put a lot of commodities on chain.

Starting point is 01:09:51 Extremely goldish. Tokenized oil. Like, I don't know, copper, uranium. Uranium on chain would be like kind of sick. Wheat. You would buy some of uranium. uranium on chain, would you? Yeah, well, because, like, uranium's going to catch a bid because of, like, AI power demands.

Starting point is 01:10:04 I used to own. I used to own some gold on chain. You remember digix? Digix. That was the one. Yeah. And then I was like, you know what? I'd rather own more ether than gold. This is how I ended up capitulating on, like, owning Bitcoin.

Starting point is 01:10:18 Because anytime I owned Bitcoin, I'd be like, but I could own more ether. And so I stopped buying Bitcoin because I would keep on losing it. Yeah. You keep losing? You lost your Bitcoin? To E, because I kept on stealing it. Oh, selling it. I thought you were missing private keys and stuff.

Starting point is 01:10:33 I can't hold on to my Bitcoin. It turns into ether all the time. All right. I thought you're confessing the loss of some private keys. In which case, David, I got to get you off some multi-sigs there because that's wearing me. David, there's an event happening that you're going to that I won't be at, but that bankless citizens are invited to at ETHC next conference. What's happening here?

Starting point is 01:10:54 ETHCC is coming up starting Monday, July. July 8th for the second week of July for all of the people that are being in Brussels. It's typically in Paris every single year, but this year it's in Brussels because the Olympics is in Paris. And so when the Ethereum ETH-C community conference goes head to head with the Olympics, we lose. We don't win that one. Yeah. One year. Sadly. But not this year.

Starting point is 01:11:17 So we're in Brussels. So Monday, July 8th, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Brussels time, C-E-E-E-E-S-T time. If you're a bankless citizen and you're going to ETHCC, you're invited to. to come get drinks with me. Rachel, Alex, Christy, Nick, all the other, the bankless team, other podcast listeners,

Starting point is 01:11:37 podcast guests, you know, team member, sponsors, just gonna drink a few cocktails. Martin Srelly will not be there. If he does be, he will not let him in. You don't know that.

Starting point is 01:11:50 If he's a citizen, do I have to let him in? Yeah. No, I'll just cancel a citizen. I'll just do that. Wow. Revocable. So yeah.

Starting point is 01:11:56 So definitely come. There is a link inside of the bankless Discord. There's a link in the show notes. But you can only sign up if your email is a paid citizen because that is how we do things. Can't invite everyone. David, we got some unfinished business. So while I was out last week, I was informed that the results of the ETH pitch. Our beta use of joke race.

Starting point is 01:12:20 Yeah, yeah, yeah. The ETH pitch, let's say, we both gave her best ETH pitches. Yours was absolutely fantastic, I got to say. And then I did mine. And then the bankless community decided. And the stakes here were quite high because there's some rumor. I haven't seen it yet because the mentor of this NFT has been a little slow to minted. It's very busy.

Starting point is 01:12:43 It's super busy with all sorts of other things. But that is going to be a trophy, a bragging rights trophy, NFT, right? That's right. Just to commemorate the successful beta run of bankless users. What I'm trying to say is the results are in and I got this one David. I got this one. Just by a little bit. You barely got across the lot. Well, yeah, I won't share the results then. People can go click the joke race link and see what the results are. The results are 72 to 13. Well, you know what.

Starting point is 01:13:17 Okay, so just for context. Like Ryan said, we engaged in a competition who could give the best pitch for the ETTF. then we had bankless citizens vote on who gave the best pitch. So if you have an Ethereum address that has a POAP, bankless POAP from 2022 or onwards, you were unable to vote. We got 85 votes. Ryan won by, you know, a little bit. Good for him. It was cute.

Starting point is 01:13:39 But this is just like, actually just like us learning how to use joke race and work with our community because we're doing this again. This time it's different. So we're doing another vote for bankless citizens. But this time, the thing being voted on, is a podcast. This is first ever bankless listener,

Starting point is 01:13:57 bankless citizen nominated podcast. So this one's a little bit different than the other two votes that we've done. We will do the podcast, whatever wins? We do the podcast.

Starting point is 01:14:04 Yeah. So there's two phases here. So it's one step more complex, but I think we can handle it. There is a entry phase. So by the time this episode goes out, this will be live. Bankless citizens can propose a podcast,

Starting point is 01:14:17 a podcast episode. You can either propose a topic, and Ryan and I will talk about it. You can propose a guest. and Ryan and I will invite them. And then that goes for one week. So submissions are going for one week. And then after that, there is a one week voting period, which also citizens vote on.

Starting point is 01:14:34 So if citizens get to submit an idea, citizens also get to vote on other citizens' idea. By the end of the one week voting period, which will be in two weeks from now, we will go do that podcast episode. No matter what, no matter what, no matter what. This is a bankless governance vote. This is a unbeatable commitment to do the guest or do the time. topic. Don't mess with us, please. Well, these are bankless citizens, right?

Starting point is 01:14:58 I do not want to do an episode with Martin Screlly. I was just thinking that. I was just thinking that. If they vote for it, then I guess that's the rules. I guess Martin's coming on if he wants to. I guess Martin's coming on if you want to. The guest also has to want to. We can't compel them.

Starting point is 01:15:11 Yeah, that's true. That's true. But we'll do our best, no matter who it is. It could get interesting. It's a great power and great responsibility for the bankless community here. Yes. All right. Well, we'll see how that goes, David.

Starting point is 01:15:23 And I look forward to receiving my NFT, my friend. I'm sure. I got to say, it feels weird to compete against you because we're so collaborative on this. And I just, like, feel kind of... I need to think of another competition. Yes, you got to win it back. And you need you win it back. Well, let's end with some Martin content, shall we?

Starting point is 01:15:39 David, this is the meme of the week. The Ballad of Donald J. Trump. What are we looking at here? We were looking at the Scooby-Doo format. Who is that character? I don't know who that character is. The main frat-boy-o-to-the-man. The main frat-boy-looking Scooby-Doo guy with the handkerchief necktie, is he has got the victim.

Starting point is 01:15:58 He's got the perpetrator and he's pulling off the Donald Trump mask. And it's a very pale ghosty-looking. Martin Sbrelly. There is. Internet's most hated man. Hopefully this is the last week we'll have to talk about DGT coin. But who knows? That's our choice.

Starting point is 01:16:15 That's our choice, I guess. All right. Got it in with this. Of course, you know, crypto is risky. you could lose what you put in, but we are headed west. This is the frontier. It is not for everyone, but we're glad you're with us on the bankless journey. Thanks a lot.

Bankless - ROLLUP: ETH Beats SEC! | Trump Coin? | LayerZero Token | ETH ETF Trading Soon

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.