DEX in the City: Will the CLARITY Act Pass? Three Crypto Lawyers Give Their Odds
As a new CLARITY Act draft dropped, KK, Vy, and guest Josh Riezman of GSR give their passage odds and explain the one developer protection provision that matters most.
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A new draft of the CLARITY Act just landed — all 300-plus pages of it — and Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos, TuongVy Le, and guest Josh Riezman of GSR didn't wait to dig in.
On this episode they break down the specific developer protection provision in the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act that introduces a specific intent standard for charging developers, debate passage odds, and explain why Circle releasing a token as a public company signals a real shift in how the SEC thinks about the security/token distinction.
They also unpack Chair Atkins' remarks at the SEC's AI+ Expo — a speech Vy argues shows the SEC and Congress are now in lockstep on modernizing securities regulation for on-chain infrastructure — and why, for the first time, that infrastructure includes vaults.
Hosts:
Katherine Kirkpatrick Bos, General Counsel at StarkWare. Previously held senior legal roles across DeFi and centralized exchanges.
TuongVy Le, General Counsel at Veda
Guest:
Josh Riezman — Chief Legal and Strategy Officer, GSR
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Bits + Bips: Crypto Had Its Reset. Will It Go to New Highs Now? - Ep. 924
Crypto just went through its biggest crash.
In the wake of “Black Friday,” when $19 billion in positions were wiped out in hours, Bits + Bips hosts Steve Ehrlich and Ram Ahluwalia are joined by Carlos Guzman of GSR and YQ of AltLayer to dissect what really happened.
Was it a coordinated attack exploiting Binance’s oracles? A failure of market structure? Or simply too much leverage waiting for a trigger? Or some combination of the three? The group breaks down how liquidity vanished, why hedges failed, how this flash crash echoed the worst moments of traditional markets, and why the industry urgently needs reform before it happens again.
Sponsors:
Aptos
Hosts:
Ram Ahluwalia, CFA, CEO and Founder of Lumida
Steve Ehrlich, Executive Editor at Unchained
Guests:
Carlos Guzman, Research Analyst at GSR
YQ, Co-founder of AltLayer
Timestamps:
🔥 0:00 Introduction and ads
⚡ 3:22 First reactions to crypto’s biggest crash ever
💥 5:55 The USDe depeg on Binance. Plus: coordinated attack or market failure?
🧠 12:57 Why Ram calls it a potential “zero-day hack”
📉 15:38 Are perpetuals the riskiest instruments in crypto?
💫 18:38 Huge spreads, no liquidity: where were the market makers?
🏦 22:59 The eerie parallels to a flash crash in U.S. equities 15 years ago
💀 25:01 How both longs and shorts got wrecked, and why perps fail as hedging tools
🔧 29:00 What crypto needs to fix its liquidity problem
🏛️ 33:34 How TradFi solved this years ago, and what crypto can learn
⚖️ 36:25 How systemic leverage makes every crash worse
📜 42:16 Why this proves crypto urgently needs a market structure bill
🚀 47:13 Why Ram says Hyperliquid came out as the winner
🔮 50:14 Outlook for prices and volatility in the coming days
🛡️ 1:00:04 Will insurance funds rise after this?
⏳ 1:02:18 Why YQ says it’ll take a long time to recover from the damage
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Bits + Bips: The Case for Why DATs Are Superior to Crypto ETFs - Ep. 897
DATs aren’t done. They may just be getting started.
In this episode, CoinFund’s Chris Perkins and Upexi’s Brian Rudick join Ram Ahluwalia and Steven Ehrlich to dissect why some DATs could outcompete ETFs for certain investors, the bullish accretion math behind premiums, and what makes a winning vehicle.
We also dig into whether this is altcoin season or a head fake, why Galaxy’s tokenized-share move matters, and the one market unlock Perkins says could change everything.
Use this episode to pressure-test your assumptions: are DATs “just banks,” or the best product-market-fit crypto has found for TradFi capital?
Thank you to our sponsor Xapo Bank!
Xapo offers Bitcoin-backed loans of up to $1 million, so eligible members can access liquidity without selling their BTC.
Hosts:
Ram Ahluwalia, CFA, CEO and Founder of Lumida
Steve Ehrlich, Executive Editor at Unchained
Guests:
Christopher Perkins, Managing Partner and President of CoinFund
Brian Rudick, Chief Strategy Officer at Upexi
Links:
DATs:
How Crypto Treasury Companies Are Turning to DeFi and TradFi to Juice Yields
How Michael Saylor Plans to Ensure Strategy Keeps Its Bitcoin Forever
These 4 Crypto Treasury Companies Are Primed for a Price Crash
Crypto Treasury Companies Are All the Rage. Could They Cause an Industry Collapse?
Tokenization:
Federal Reserve to hold conference discussing crypto stablecoins, tokenization, and AI
GLXY tokenized stock
Ondo Finance launched over 100 tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs on Ethereum
CZ-owned Trust Wallet launches tokenized stocks and ETFs
Timestamps:
🎬 0:00 Intro
⏱ 3:00 Are markets set for another September swoon?
📈 6:03 Why the bull case for DATs isn’t over
🏦 12:41 Why Brian says “DATs are banks”
💡 18:20 Are DATs better products than ETFs for investors?
🧮 21:00 How the math behind premiums shows DATs create value
🪙 28:01 Whether this is the time for altcoins to shine
🌍 35:10 Where macro is heading and what investors should watch
🚨 37:48 Why Galaxy’s tokenized-share move on Solana is such a big deal
🔑 49:25 What the key market unlock is for altcoins
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Why memetics and flows matter more in crypto markets versus stocks
Brian Rudick is a senior strategist at GSR.
In this episode of The Scoop, GSR senior strategist Brian Rudick examines the differences between the forces driving the crypto markets and those affecting stocks. He also offers insights into the market dynamics supporting the current rally in the crypto market.
OUTLINE
00:00 Introduction
04:47 Crypto vs. Equities
06:56 Memetics in Crypto
11:26 Macro Factors
14:11 Retail Participation
17:02 Crypto Tailwinds
22:03 Bitcoin Halving
26:03 Closing Thoughts
Crypto has the highest 'talent density' since the internet's early days, says GSR CEO
Founded in 2013, GSR is one of the oldest crypto market makers and is also an active venture investor.
In this episode of The Scoop, GSR CEO Jakob Palmstierna discusses how his firm is responding to the collapse of FTX and shares his forecast for what a crypto recovery might look like.
According to Palmstierna, GSR covered the losses of all of its customers who had funds stuck on FTX:
“We announced that customers of ours that had funds locked in FTX, we would reimburse them so they didn't have those losses, which is not ‘effective altruism,’ it's about creating some stability within the market and being here for the future.”
Although 2022 was filled with calamities for the crypto industry, Palmstierna says the underlying technology is continuing to develop:
“Everything that happened over 2022 has very little to nothing to do with the underlying technology of crypto. There are well-funded projects out there, there are really good builders — it's one of the biggest sections of talent density that we have seen since the early internet days.”
Disclaimer: Beginning in 2021, Michael McCaffrey, the former CEO and majority owner of The Block, took a series of loans from former FTX and Alameda founder Sam Bankman-Fried. McCaffrey resigned from the company in December 2022 after failing to disclose those transactions.
Episode 128 of Season 4 of The Scoop was recorded live with The Block's Frank Chaparro and GSR CEO Jakob Palmstierna.
Listen below, and subscribe to The Scoop on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher or wherever you listen to podcasts. Email feedback and revision requests can be sent to podcast@theblockcrypto.com.
This episode is brought to you by our sponsors Tron, Ledn, Athletic Greens
About Tron
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