The Breakdown dives into the deepest topics in crypto, blockchain, and the macro forces shaping markets and power structures. Each episode breaks down complex ideas into clear, grounded analysis — separating signal from noise across crypto, finance, and geopolitics. Hosted by David Canellis, The Breakdown features explainers, interviews, and conversations with the people building, regulating, and challenging the financial system. A Blockworks podcast. Subscribe to The Breakdown newsletter: https://the-breakdown.carrd.co/
1990 episodes transcribedOn today’s Breakdown, NLW kicks off the first Friday Five of October with Bitcoin’s soaring price action. From October’s uncanny seasonality and ETF i...
October has a reputation as Bitcoin’s strongest month, and so far 2025 is no exception. After a choppy September, BTC is already pushing back toward n...
As of midnight, the U.S. government has officially shut down after Democrats and Republicans failed to reach a last-minute deal. In today’s Breakdown,...
After years of turf wars, the SEC and CFTC are finally signaling a new era of collaboration. At their first joint roundtable in 14 years, agency heads...
Fortune revealed that Kraken quietly raised $500 million at a $15 billion valuation—its first significant raise in over a decade—as the exchange eyes...
In this week’s Friday Five, we dive into Tether’s jaw-dropping $500B valuation bid, the SEC’s surprise innovation exemption, bipartisan momentum on a...
Coinbase and Cloudflare are pushing forward with X402, a new crypto-powered payments protocol for AI agents. Could agent-to-agent transactions reshape...
Tether is reportedly courting outside investors for the first time—at a staggering $500 billion valuation. In today’s Breakdown, NLW digs into Bloombe...
Bitcoin’s September rally finally stumbled, with a 3.5% drop triggering $1.7B in long liquidations—the biggest of the year. While traders were caught...
On today’s Breakdown, NLW looks at the latest twists in the crypto market structure bill. A group of 12 Senate Democrats is pushing for true bipartisa...
The Federal Reserve delivered its first rate cut since last November, reducing the target range to 4–4.25% as weakening labor data outweighed inflatio...
Today on The Breakdown, NLW explores Google’s announcement of AP2, a new open-source payments standard that lets AI agents transact securely. Built wi...
On today’s Breakdown, NLW unpacks the Senate’s confirmation of Trump adviser Stephen Moran to the Fed and the fierce debate over central bank independ...
Gemini and Figure Markets both raised significant cash in their IPOs last week, but their subdued trading debuts highlighted a cooler speculative envi...
This week’s Friday Five dives into the accelerating cryptoization of finance. SEC Chair Paul Atkins signaled a new era of pro-innovation policy, exten...
SEC Chair Paul Atkins says the Gensler era of regulation by enforcement is over, as the agency launches Project Crypto to bring clarity and push capit...
Senate Democrats have introduced their own framework for crypto market structure, setting up negotiations with Republicans and potentially clearing th...
August’s jobs report showed just 22,000 payrolls added, unemployment rising to 4.3%, and manufacturing losses continuing—making it the weakest labor m...
Stripe has unveiled Tempo, a new blockchain built for high-throughput stablecoin payments, developed with Paradigm and backed by partners like Visa, S...
The Federal Reserve will host a payments innovation conference next month with stablecoins at the center—a major change for an institution that long k...
