Bankless

Markets slide this week as Trump floats taking Greenland and tariff threats resurface, pushing investors toward gold. Ryan and David break down what Davos revealed about a shifting world order, why crypto finally had a real seat at the table, and the moments from Brian Armstrong and Larry Fink that framed Crypto versus Central Banks. Plus: the NYSE unveils a tokenized trading platform and whether it validates or co-opts DeFi, Farcaster and Lens are acquired as on-chain social hits a crossroads, and a Jefferies strategist drops Bitcoin over quantum fears. Finally, an update on the Clarity Act delay and the race for the next Fed chair.

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TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES

0:00 Intro

2:31 Why are markets down

https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2013591373006676322

https://x.com/FoxNews/status/2013603538513863126

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/01/14/politics/greenland-trump-nato-denmark

https://x.com/CBSNews/status/2013983374549946581 

https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2014089644288196691

https://polymarket.com/event/will-trump-acquire-greenland-before-2027

https://polymarket.com/event/will-the-us-acquire-any-part-of-greenland-in-2026

https://x.com/fejau_inc/status/2013610390698041805

https://x.com/thestalwart/status/2013580367123423518

https://x.com/Strategy/status/2013598056000725476

15:12 Davos power shifts

https://x.com/CommerceGov/status/2013638111977222213 

https://x.com/KanwalSibal/status/2013863207962845315

https://x.com/alreadydawn/status/2011855946298032188

https://x.com/WatcherGuru/status/2013947391733342444

https://x.com/MSBIntel/status/2014311838092284200

https://x.com/gazza_jenks/status/2014316956787077193

https://x.com/RWAwatchlist_/status/2014302865515479322

25:45 Next Fed Chair

https://polymarket.com/event/who-will-trump-nominate-as-fed-chair

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Warsh

29:23 NYSE tokenization platform

https://ir.theice.com/press/news-details/2026/The-New-York-Stock-Exchange-Develops-Tokenized-Securities-Platform/default.aspx

https://x.com/sytaylor/status/2013248790988214418

https://x.com/jdorman81/status/2013273153544323438

https://x.com/intangiblecoins/status/2013302033286054109

https://x.com/malekanoms/status/2013597558413664443

37:10 Onchain social handover

https://farcaster.xyz/dwr/0x72aab3a5

https://x.com/neynarxyz/status/2014046158700659072

https://x.com/0xfoobar/status/2014169292736979296

https://x.com/StaniKulechov/status/2013617272464580990

https://lens.xyz/news/mask-network-to-steward-the-next-chapter-of-lens

https://x.com/hishboy/status/2014050332675121169

https://x.com/VitalikButerin/status/2013884907659944205

https://firefly.social/signup

https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/2014338767847354766

https://x.com/VitalikButerin/status/2011325527567544393

45:57 Clarity Act delay

https://x.com/DegenerateNews/status/2014119477923705271

https://x.com/eleanorterrett/status/2014139061103907238

https://x.com/brian_armstrong/status/2012612712044573151

https://x.com/patrickjwitt/status/2013776653902614547

https://polymarket.com/event/clarity-act-signed-into-law-in-2026

50:00 Stablecoin payroll

https://x.com/base/status/2013752842822038000

https://imgur.com/a/9kriKIV

51:42 Bitcoin & quantum

https://x.com/matthew_sigel/status/2013266516112712139

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7414027710861045761/

https://x.com/bitcoinofficesv/status/1961564696856727947

https://x.com/batsoupyum/status/2013606402976293243

https://x.com/nic_carter/status/2013781321638695383

https://www.coinbase.com/blog/coinbase-establishes-independent-advisory-board-on-quantum-computing-and-blockchain

59:40 Regulation & Trad

https://x.com/WatcherGuru/status/2013626808474968164

https://x.com/felixprotocol/status/2011831820371828920

https://x.com/0xBroze/status/2011832444102561838

https://x.com/JupiterExchange/status/2013987873943334919

1:01:02 Closing & Disclaimers

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Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:

https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Crypto in 2026 is consolidating into a handful of high-stakes rivalries: 

Ethereum vs. Solana for the center of gravity, Coinbase vs. Robinhood for the finance super-app, and Polymarket vs. Kalshi for prediction markets. 

Arnav Pagidyala (Bankless Ventures) joins David and Ryan to map the investment implications, why incentives-driven L1s keep leaking liquidity, what makes Morpho’s institutional playbook work, and whether Hyperliquid, wallets, and onchain rails start eating the exchange business. 

We also dig into the comeback of ICOs, what it would take for tokens to become truly investable, and why proof-of-personhood and privacy-preserving KYC may become unavoidable infrastructure.

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🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS

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💰ICO WATCH | UPCOMING PUBLIC TOKEN SALES

https://bankless.cc/ico-watch 

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TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro

1:12 Ethereum & Solana

7:33 Why Solana is Winning

9:27 L1 Valuations

13:13 Coinbase & Robinhood

17:16 Base Contentcoins

20:32 Kalshi & Polymarket

23:19 Prediction Market Tokens

24:45 Store of Value Duopoly

27:21 Tokens in 2026

29:41 Tokens & Equity Alignment

31:01 MetaDAO

32:42 ICOs

34:44 Morpho

39:17 Morpho & Aave

40:41 Perp Exchanges

44:28 Proof of Personhood

48:42 Fat Wallet Thesis

51:45 X & Crypto

53:27 AI & Vibecoding

55:28 Is Crypto Dead?

57:18 Capital Stack Moving Onchain

59:10 What About TradFi?

1:02:15 Closing & Disclaimers

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RESOURCES

Arnav Pagidyala

https://x.com/0xArnav 

Bankless Ventures

https://x.com/banklessvc 

Investing Trends for 2026

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Poes3EpAR5c

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Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:

https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠

Washington takes center stage this week as crypto collides with power, policy, and markets. Ryan and David break down the CLARITY Act fight in the Senate, why banks want to kill stablecoin yield, and why Coinbase says the bill may be worse than no bill at all. They also unpack Trump’s DOJ targeting Jerome Powell and what it means for Fed independence, silver’s explosive move as markets search for safety, X’s push toward becoming a crypto super app, and the NYC mayor’s meme coin disaster. Plus: Tom Lee’s surprising MrBeast investment and what it signals about capital, culture, and crypto’s next phase.

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🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS

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💰ICO WATCH | UPCOMING PUBLIC TOKEN SALES

https://bankless.cc/ico-watch

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TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES

0:00 Intro

2:25 DOJ opened an investigation into Jerome Powell

https://x.com/federalreserve/status/2010510130970849338 

https://x.com/federalreserve/status/2010510130970849338

https://x.com/LynAldenContact/status/2010526966953202125

https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/powell-probe-highlights-trump-doj-role-white-house-enforcer-2026-01-14/

https://polymarket.com/event/jerome-powell-out-as-fed-chair-by

10:44 Markets

https://x.com/JesseCohenInv/status/2011311082896572766

https://www.coinnews.net/2025/01/09/american-silver-eagle-series-welcomes-2025-w-proof-edition/

https://www.google.com/finance/beta/quote/GLD:NYSEARCA

https://x.com/echodatruth/status/2010568502474571870

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/13/cpi-inflation-report-december-2026.html

https://polymarket.com/dashboards/fed-rates

20:52 Most important Legislation for crypto…ever?

https://x.com/Cointelegraph/status/2010709769187676430

https://x.com/DavidMMcintosh/status/2010389058271289845

https://www.aba.com/-/media/documents/letters-to-congress-and-regulators/ltrsenatestablecoin20260105.pdf

https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2026/01/11/jpmorgan-downplays-stablecoin-threat-as-local-bankers-warn-of-usd6-6t-risk

https://x.com/EleanorTerrett/status/2009795675635306737

https://x.com/USTransparent

https://x.com/haydenzadams/status/2009809558605299914

https://x.com/SenLummis/status/2010939496830030038

https://x.com/jchervinsky/status/2011464338528166081

https://x.com/jchervinsky/status/2011464341556428936

https://x.com/davidsacks47/status/2011650262361129193

https://polymarket.com/event/clarity-act-signed-into-law-in-2026

https://x.com/Matt_Hougan/status/2010841027800895514

42:09 NYC Mayor Eric Adams issued a memecoin

https://x.com/runecrypto_/status/2010847811781230781

https://x.com/ericadamsfornyc/status/2010849167258566727

https://x.com/bubblemaps/status/2010890093431832789

https://x.com/ericadamsfornyc/status/2011541285354815932

https://x.com/buynyctoken/status/2011501230288257452

https://x.com/haydenzadams/status/2010945632505127317

46:41 TOM LEE - BITMINE….invests $200m in MR BEAST MEDIA

https://x.com/DegenerateNews/status/2011774463818518813 

https://x.com/DegenerateNews/status/2011810278980120830 

49:53 World Liberty Financial launched a lending platform

https://worldlibertyfinancial.com/markets

https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2026/01/13/senate-s-warren-wlfi-tied-bank-application-should-be-halted-until-trump-divests

https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/dolomite

51:45 Polygon….ALL IN on STABLECOIN STACK with two major acquisitions

https://x.com/0xPolygon/status/2011076681302446556

https://x.com/HadickM/status/2011099510957580437

https://x.com/sandeepnailwal/status/2009763000895344766

https://x.com/obchakevich_/status/2008876239285637419

54:21 X is rolling out Smart Cashtags & Killing InfoFi

https://x.com/nikitabier/status/2010277345651990564

https://x.com/jessepollak/status/2010404608263520356

https://www.theblock.co/post/385805/kaito-token-plummets-x-revises-api-policies-ban-infofi-crypto-projects

https://x.com/nikitabier/status/2011825522817270230

https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/kaito

58:33 BitGo IPO - $2 billion! ($100 billion in custody)

https://x.com/AccessIPOs/status/2010727529238417549

59:16 The Golden Globes integrated Polymarket into their broadcast

https://x.com/shayne_coplan/status/2010862175607488709

1:00:38 David’s Market of the Week

https://polymarket.com/event/khamenei-out-as-supreme-leader-of-iran-by-january-31

https://x.com/polymarket/status/2009382529384497184

1:05:00 Closing & Disclaimers

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Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:

https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

What if the biggest threat to your freedom isn’t a bad decision - but a scoreboard you never agreed to? Philosopher C. Thi Nguyen joins Bankless to unpack how modern life quietly turns values into points: likes, GPAs, net worth, rankings, and performance metrics that feel objective - but often flatten what matters most. We explore what games really are, why “gamified” platforms like social media can be uniquely corrosive, and how “value capture” pulls you from meaning into measurable proxies. Then we get practical: playfulness, reflective control, and “value federalism” as ways to use metrics without letting them use you.

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🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS
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https://bankless.cc/ico-watch

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TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro
0:58 “Is this the game you really want to be playing?”
5:45 What counts as a game (Bernard Suits’ definition)
11:38 Bankless “serious games” and the cheating test
16:29 Social media as “game-ish,” not truly a game
21:28 The magic circle and why points get dangerous
24:08 Rotten Tomatoes vs. forming your own taste
33:27 Portability: why metrics flatten nuance
38:15 Value capture: when your values get outsourced
45:52 Plato’s cave: “metrics are the new shadows”
54:12 The outsourcing dilemma: we can’t know everything
1:01:47 Playfulness as an antidote to metric hypnosis
1:12:55 Switching rule-sets: D&D, indie games, and redesigning incentives
1:16:22 Reflective control: using metrics without being used
1:20:21 Two endings: cynicism, hope, and the tradeoff of scale
1:23:38 Value federalism + why "Civilization" makes Thi miserable

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RESOURCES

C. Thi Nguyen
https://x.com/add_hawk

C. Thi Nguyen’s “The Score” Book
https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/457380/the-score-by-nguyen-c-thi/9780241653975

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Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:
https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Is Canton a real blockchain or a new kind of capital-markets operating system?

Digital Asset co-founder Yuval Rooz explains why Canton prioritizes privacy as “need-to-know” information sharing and a federated “cantons” design that still allows atomic cross-canton transactions without bridges.

We unpack the two-tier architecture (edge validators + super validators that stitch cantons together and validate the public Canton Coin) and what that means for governance in regulated finance.

Plus: DTCC’s tokenization pilot starting with U.S. Treasuries, and why CC fees are USD-denominated with a burn/mint mechanism designed to track real network utility. 

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🎬 DEBRIEF | RYAN & DAVID UNPACKING THE EPISODE

https://www.bankless.com/podcast/debrief-is-canton-even-a-real-blockchain

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🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS

https://bankless.cc/the-defi-report

💰ICO WATCH | UPCOMING PUBLIC TOKEN SALES

https://bankless.cc/ico-watch

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TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro

0:57 Canton Origin

8:02 Vitalik’s Post

14:15 Canton Philosophy

24:19 Canton Architecture vs Competitors

34:27 RWA Property Rights Debate

38:17 Canto Super-Validators

50:39 Canton Critiques

56:56 Decentralized vs Open Finance

1:02:16 Are Decentralized RWAs Possible?

1:07:04 Is Canton a Real Blockchain?

1:14:20 Canton Metrics

1:22:17 DTCC Relationship

1:25:27 Canton Token

1:30:43 Ethereum vs Canton in 2030

1:31:55 Closing & Disclaimers

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RESOURCES

Yuval Rooz

https://x.com/YuvalRooz 

Canton

https://www.canton.network/ 

Omid Malekan vs Austin Campbell Professor Debate

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-h-PeUOvDw

RWA Analytics
https://app.rwa.xyz/ 

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Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:

https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠