Bankless

A conversation with new CFTC Chairman Mike Selig on the policy shift behind America’s push to become the crypto capital of the world.

We cover the CFTC’s evolving role in crypto, prediction markets, and perpetuals, the end of regulation by enforcement, how the agency is thinking about DeFi and software developers, and why market structure legislation like the Clarity Act could reshape the future of U.S. crypto.

------

🎬 DEBRIEF | RYAN & DAVID UNPACKING THE EPISODE

https://www.bankless.com/podcast/debrief-making-america-the-crypto-capital-of-the-world

------

🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET

https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast 

🪐GALAXY | INSTITUTIONAL DIGITAL FINANCE

https://bankless.cc/galaxy-podcast 

🏅BITGET TRADFI | TRADE GOLD WITH USDT

https://bankless.cc/bitget

🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS

https://thedefireport.io/bankless

🌍 WORLD | FULLY ONCHAIN EXCHANGE

https://bankless.cc/world

------

TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro

0:33 Mike’s Background

4:25 Commodity Markets Transformation

7:31 Commodity Definition

10:56 The Role of the CFTC

11:56 Prediction Markets

17:48 Navigating New Markets

20:34 Are Prediction Markets CFTC Territory?

24:45 Insider Trading vs Information Advantage

28:25 Trump’s Conflict of Interests

29:21 Clarity Act

34:58 Project Crypto

36:58 Project Crypto

39:37 Defining Intermediary

43:32 Exchanges vs L2s

45:50 No More Wells Notices

50:17 The New CFTC & SEC

54:51 Making America the Crypto Capital of the World

57:08 Best of the Clarity Act

59:04 Closing & Disclaimers

------
RESOURCES

Mike Selig

https://x.com/ChairmanSelig 

CFTC

https://www.cftc.gov/ 

------

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

https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠

Ryan and David break down a week where war hit markets, and the safe-haven playbook broke down. Oil spiked, gold failed, bonds sold off, the dollar caught the flight to safety, and crypto somehow bounced right through it. Then they unpack Trump’s public pressure campaign against banks over stablecoin yield, Kraken’s historic Fedwire breakthrough, and why crypto is starting to look less like an outsider and more like part of the financial core. Plus: Anthropic vs. the Pentagon, Erik Voorhees’ private AI push with Venice, fresh Aave governance drama, ZachXBT helping catch the $46M government crypto thief, and the New York Times calling crypto dead right on schedule.

---

📣FIGURE | CRYPTO-BACKED LOANS & ~9% RWA YIELD

https://bankless.cc/Figure

---

BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET

https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast 

🪐GALAXY | INSTITUTIONAL DIGITAL FINANCE

https://bankless.cc/galaxy-podcast 

🏅BITGET TRADFI | TRADE GOLD WITH USDT

https://bankless.cc/bitget

🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS

https://thedefireport.io/bankless

🌍 WORLD | FULLY ONCHAIN EXCHANGE

https://bankless.cc/world

   

---

TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES

0:00 Intro

2:54 Wartime Markets: US / Israel vs Iran + Market Reaction

https://x.com/WhiteHouse/status/2028229365440344419

https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2028426099474981156

https://x.com/BullTheoryio/status/2029251045885665465

https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2029274787474743761

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

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

https://alternative.me/crypto/fear-and-greed-index

12:33 Polymarket Becomes the Biggest Winner

https://x.com/PolymarketStory/status/2028863241942671865

https://polymarket.com/event/will-the-iranian-regime-fall-by-march-31/?via=bankless?

https://polymarket.com/event/will-reza-pahlavi-lead-iran-in-2026/?via=bankless?

15:20 Pentagon vs Anthropic: AI is Military Tech

https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2027958511334723716

https://x.com/WatcherGuru/status/2027488317286351266

https://x.com/BullTheoryio/status/2027626521217929683

https://x.com/ns123abc/status/2028642962196811791

https://app.ventuals.com/trade/anthropic

23:57 Kraken Gets Fedwire Access (First Crypto Bank)

https://x.com/krakenfx/status/2029206389957009419

https://x.com/SenLummis/status/2029195363119173710 

https://x.com/dgt10011/status/2029241024069910558

https://bpi.com/bpi-statement-on-kraken-master-account

https://x.com/jespow/status/2029262374499434919

https://x.com/mikeippolito_/status/2029213224625963310

31:37 Trump vs Banks Over Stablecoin Yield

https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2028955180650099117

https://x.com/EricTrump/status/2029309823423009211

https://x.com/coinbureau/status/2029067345055105162

https://polymarket.com/event/clarity-act-signed-into-law-in-2026/?via=bankless?

https://x.com/RonwHammond/status/2028960282450567547

https://x.com/intangiblecoins/status/2029554248883839324

40:03 Private AI + Crypto: Erik Voorhees’ Venice

https://x.com/ErikVoorhees/status/2029352394317029871

https://x.com/ErikVoorhees/status/2029387068384678014

https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/venice-token

https://x.com/steipete/status/2028578713126707547

https://x.com/ErikVoorhees/status/2029399902011224272

47:30 Aave Governance Drama

https://governance.aave.com/t/aci-is-leaving-aave/24205

https://governance.aave.com/t/temp-check-aave-will-win-framework/24055/137

50:11 TradFi Moves Into Crypto (NYSE + OKX)

https://www.theblock.co/post/392397/nyse-parent-ice-invests-in-crypto-exchange-okx-at-25-billion-valuation-amid-tokenized-stocks-push-fortune

51:10 Million Bitcoin Milestone

https://x.com/JoeConsorti/status/2028931445125706171

52:09 X Money (Elon’s Payments Wallet) & SpaceX Bitcoin Treasury

https://x.com/abskoop/status/2029088219858346446

https://x.com/dagaadit/status/2029256180644659379

https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2026/03/01/spacex-s-usd780-million-bitcoin-stack-now-down-to-about-usd545-million-ahead-of-ipo-filing

54:42 ZachXBT Catches $46M Crypto Thief

https://x.com/BecauseBitcoin/status/2029585484960145866

https://x.com/zachxbt/status/2029577374057296175

https://x.com/zachxbt/status/2014685299025060154

58:13 South Korean Police Leak Crypto Wallet Seed

https://gizmodo.com/south-korean-police-lose-seized-crypto-by-posting-password-online-2000728191

1:00:33 NYTimes Says “Crypto Is Dead” Again

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/26/opinion/crypto-trump-bitcoin-clarity-genius.html

https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/2027392307050188828

1:02:10 Closing & Disclaimers

---

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

https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

AI is getting dangerously good at smart contract security. Faster than crypto is ready for. Alpin Yukseloglu joins Bankless to break down EVMBench (built with OpenAI), a benchmark testing whether AI agents can detect, patch, and exploit real fund-draining bugs and why the jump from ~12–13% exploit-finding to 70%+ could rewrite today’s security assumptions. We unpack what that “70%” really means, why crypto’s verifiability is an ideal training ground, why AI labs haven’t prioritized crypto data yet, and what a 24/7 blackhat vs whitehat AI arms race means for DeFi.

---
📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24
https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium

---
BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET
https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast

🪐GALAXY | INSTITUTIONAL DIGITAL FINANCE
https://bankless.cc/galaxy-podcast

⚡ EUPHORIA | REAL-TIME ONE-TAP TRADING
https://bankless.cc/euphoria

🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD
https://bankless.cc/brix

🏅BITGET TRADFI | TRADE GOLD WITH USDT
https://bankless.cc/bitget

🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS
https://thedefireport.io/bankless

---
TIMESTAMPS

0:00 AI’s exploit leap: 12% → 70% and the “Superhuman auditors”
7:02: Staring at the singularity without losing your mind
10:31 Agency » doom: the Thiel framing
19:10 What’s most at risk (and what’s safer)
23:37 What EVMBench actually is (benchmark + harness)
27:03 Why exploiting is the key: killing false positives
29:24 AI gets “good at crypto” fast: verifiability
30:56 What “70% exploit rate” really means
33:32 Why AI labs avoided crypto (it’s not technical)
43:38 Blackhat vs whitehat: how the race plays out
47:21 Agents and “payments at the speed of light”
51:02 EVM vs Solana: network effects
56:18 AI formal verification as an endgame
58:06 EVMBench V2: expanding the frontier
59:54 Why Alpin stays in crypto

---
RESOURCES

Alpin Yukseloglu
https://x.com/0xalpo

EVMBench
https://paradigm.xyz/evmbench

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

Nat Eliason joins to show what it looks like to build a “zero human company” with OpenClaw agents. — led by Felix, an AI CEO that ships products, runs ops, and even manages other agents for support and sales. 

We unpack how Felix went from an overnight info product to a full marketplace for agent “skills” (Clawmart) and a bespoke service that deploys custom OpenClaw employees for real businesses, hitting nearly $80k in revenue since early February while operating on surprisingly low monthly costs.

------

📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24

https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium

------

🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET

https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast

🪐GALAXY | INSTITUTIONAL DIGITAL FINANCE

https://bankless.cc/galaxy-podcast

⚡ EUPHORIA | REAL-TIME ONE-TAP TRADING

https://bankless.cc/euphoria

🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD

https://bankless.cc/brix

🏅BITGET TRADFI | TRADE GOLD WITH USDT

https://bankless.cc/bitget

🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS

https://thedefireport.io/bankless

------

TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro

0.24 Nat’s Background

6:30 Felix

11:43 Real Businesses vs Memecoins

14:23 Felix’s Employees

18:06 Felix’s Business

31:26 How Customized is Felix?

38:17 Felix’s Business Risks

40:12 Can OpenClaw Replace Knowledge Workers?

43:38 Claw Mart

48:49 Felix’s Expenses

51:15 Nat’s Role

56:39 Felix’s Discord

1:03:19 Citrini Doomer Scenario

1:13:04 Hiring Your First Agent

1:16:19 General AI Assistants

1:19:50 AI Friends

1:22:39 The AI Agent Frontier

1:26:52 Crypto x AI

1:31:53 What’s Next

1:34:27 Closing & Disclaimers

------
RESOURCES

Nat Eliason

https://x.com/nateliason 

Felix Craft

https://x.com/FelixCraftAI 

Felix Dashboard

https://felixcraft.ai/dashboard 

Claw Mart

https://www.shopclawmart.com/ 

Crypto Confidential: Winning and Losing Millions in the New Frontier of Finance

https://www.amazon.com/Crypto-Confidential-Winning-Millions-Frontier/dp/0593714040 

------

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

https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠

Crypto still feels like a minefield for humans:

Haseeb Qureshi argues that’s a clue, not a bug: blockchains and smart contracts are machine-readable systems that AI agents can parse, simulate, and execute far more reliably than people, shifting crypto’s core user from humans clicking through wallets to agents acting on our behalf.

We also dig into the two-track future of agent commerce (safe, human-approved flows vs. the wild-west frontier), why major AI labs have avoided crypto training so far (liability), how agent-driven discovery could rewrite DeFi competition, and what this means for Dragonfly’s investing playbook.

------

🎬 DEBRIEF | RYAN & DAVID UNPACKING THE EPISODE

https://www.bankless.com/podcast/debrief-haseeb-quereshi-cryptos-not-made-for-humans-its-for-ai

------

🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET

https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast

🪐GALAXY | INSTITUTIONAL DIGITAL FINANCE

https://bankless.cc/galaxy-podcast

⚡ EUPHORIA | REAL-TIME ONE-TAP TRADING

https://bankless.cc/euphoria

🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD

https://bankless.cc/brix

🏅BITGET TRADFI | TRADE GOLD WITH USDT

https://bankless.cc/bitget

🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS

https://bankless.cc/TDRpro

------

TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro

0:42 Why Crypto’s Not Made for Humans

17:49 How AI Agents Think

28:51 Why Crypto x AI is Unexplored

32:58 The Botconomy & OpenClaw

43:42 How Long Until the Frontier is Here?

50:07 How Crazy Does it Get?

1:06:00 AI Thinks Crypto’s Cringe

1:10:31 Dragonfly’s New 650M Fund

1:13:05 Closing & Disclaimers

------
RESOURCES

Haseeb Qureshi

https://x.com/hosseeb 

Dragonfly

https://www.dragonfly.xyz/ 

------

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

https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠