DATs may be collapsing, AI agents may be overhyped, but Omid Malekan thinks the strongest case for crypto has nothing to do with either.

Thank you to our sponsors:

⁠⁠Fuse: The Energy Network⁠

Bitcoin is below $63,000, digital asset treasuries are under pressure, and the debate over whether crypto markets are bottoming or breaking down is splitting the hosts.

Ram is skeptical of institutional demand when he looks at the 13F data from institutions filing SEC reports. Chris is on the phone with institutions all day and is bullish.

Omid Malekan, adjunct professor at Columbia Business School, comes in with a longer lens: he admits he contributed to the DAT hype cycle, has doubts about agentic commerce that remind him of the metaverse in 2021, and thinks the strongest argument for crypto is not a product or a token but a fact about how nation-states treat their own citizens.

The conversation also covers tokenized bank deposits, the SEC's updated broker-dealer guidance on stablecoins, and what it means that the Supreme Court just struck down Trump's tariffs.

Hosts:

⁠⁠Ram Ahluwalia⁠⁠, CFA, CEO and Founder of Lumida

⁠⁠Austin Campbell⁠⁠, NYU Stern professor and founder and managing partner of Zero Knowledge Consulting

⁠⁠Christopher Perkins⁠⁠, Managing Partner and President of CoinFund

Guest:

⁠Omid Malekan, Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School

Links:

Unchained:

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You Don’t Feel Ready—Good. That’s Where Leadership Begins