a16z crypto show
a16z crypto, Robert Hackett, Sonal Chokshi
The a16z crypto show explores how decentralized networks are reshaping money, ownership, and the architecture of the internet. We go beyond the hype to look at what’s actually working, what isn’t, and what comes next as crypto continues to go mainstream and blockchains become core infrastructure.
Each episode features conversations with founders, engineers, economists, policymakers, and researchers building at the frontier of finance, payments, AI, and distributed systems. We cover stablecoins and global payments, the tokenization of "real-world" assets, decentralized physical infrastructure, network design and governance, and the practical tradeoffs behind decentralization — along with lessons from past technology shifts.
Produced and hosted by the a16z crypto team, the show combines reporting, analysis, and first-principles thinking to explain how crypto intersects with the economy and society — and why it matters now.
Learn more at a16zcrypto.com.
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Posts should not be considered investment advice or an advertisement for investment services. Reposts of third-party content are not attributable to a16z; see disclosures for more information: https://a16z.com/disclosures/.
Each episode features conversations with founders, engineers, economists, policymakers, and researchers building at the frontier of finance, payments, AI, and distributed systems. We cover stablecoins and global payments, the tokenization of "real-world" assets, decentralized physical infrastructure, network design and governance, and the practical tradeoffs behind decentralization — along with lessons from past technology shifts.
Produced and hosted by the a16z crypto team, the show combines reporting, analysis, and first-principles thinking to explain how crypto intersects with the economy and society — and why it matters now.
Learn more at a16zcrypto.com.
***
Posts should not be considered investment advice or an advertisement for investment services. Reposts of third-party content are not attributable to a16z; see disclosures for more information: https://a16z.com/disclosures/.
Episodes
Mentioned books
17 snips
May 5, 2026 • 1h 1min
We Raised $2.2B. Here’s Why.
Eddy Lazzarin, GP and CTO focused on developer tooling and ZK; Guy Wuollet, GP focused on on-chain finance and market design; Ali Yahya, GP with AI roots exploring privacy and AI×crypto; Chris Dixon, GP and long‑time crypto advocate on fund strategy and regulation. They discuss programmable money meeting AI, on‑chain capital markets for compute and energy, stablecoins’ mainstream moment, privacy and zero‑knowledge breakthroughs, and the shift to pragmatic builders.
48 snips
Apr 27, 2026 • 57min
The end of ads? AI agents are about to change how we buy
Sam Ragsdale, founder and CEO of Merit Systems building infrastructure for agentic commerce. He explains agentic commerce, the headless merchant thesis, how agents reshape friction and discovery, and why payments and instant settlement matter as agents start spending on users' behalf.
27 snips
Apr 22, 2026 • 17min
Why AI is so centralized: How it's built, who controls it, and what comes next
Harry Grieve, cofounder of Gensyn and machine learning + crypto builder, and Ben Fielding, Gensyn cofounder and former ML practitioner, explore AI’s centralized infrastructure. They discuss why centralization matters, how crypto can provide programmatic trust, rebuilding AI as open infrastructure, and the rise of autonomous onchain AI agents.
32 snips
Apr 17, 2026 • 42min
How Bots, Deepfakes and AI Agents Are Forcing a New Internet Identity Layer
Alex Blania, founder of Tools for Humanity and builder of World ID, is creating a privacy-preserving proof-of-humanity network using iris biometrics. He discusses proving human uniqueness at scale, the Orb hardware and anti-deepfake measures, privacy via MPC and zero-knowledge, and real-world uses from dating to video calls and platform verification.
25 snips
Apr 8, 2026 • 18min
How DeFi lending actually works (with Paul Frambot, cofounder and CEO of Morpho Labs)
Paul Frambot, cofounder and CEO of Morpho, builds on-chain lending infrastructure to disintermediate banks. He explains open, on-chain markets that price loan risk transparently. Conversation covers why institutions are adopting quickly, who leads adoption, the race for a euro stablecoin, and a 5–10 year vision of finance as a global open database.
16 snips
Apr 3, 2026 • 18min
Why Solana keeps getting faster — and what's next (ft. Jito Labs CEO Lucas Bruder)
Lucas Bruder, CEO of Jito — a leader in Solana liquid staking and validator tooling. He explains why Solana’s fees are tiny, how Jito acts like Cloudflare for the network by filtering spam and improving ordering, and why the team doubled down on Solana during the bear market. They also discuss making finance accessible on a phone and Solana’s rapid technical improvements.
48 snips
Mar 25, 2026 • 1h 38min
Vitalik Buterin vs Beff Jezos: AI Acceleration Debate (E/acc vs D/acc)
Guillaume Verdon (Beff Jezos), founder of Extropic and acceleration proponent focused on generative AI and hardware, debates Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum co‑founder and decentralized systems researcher. They clash over pushing AI fast versus steering it carefully. Topics include thermodynamics and civilization, open hardware and verifiability, local compute and decentralization, slowing AI, autonomous agents, and crypto as a trust layer.
41 snips
Mar 17, 2026 • 37min
AI Is Changing the Internet. What Does It Mean for Creators? (with Justin and Michael Blau)
Michael Blau, Head of Product at Bond and former magician-turned-builder, and Justin Blau, CEO of Bond and ex-DJ-artist turned crypto founder. They discuss creators lacking audience data and how on-chain relationships could fix that. They explore stablecoins and global rails, bonding as a new creator-fan model, AI-driven content abundance, and why human curation and provenance will still matter.
20 snips
Mar 13, 2026 • 11min
The Emmy Built on ETH: Emily Yang aka pplpleasr on the Future of Storytelling
Emily Yang (pplpleasr), founder of Shibuya and Emmy-winning artist/filmmaker, discusses permissionless creativity using crypto to fund and co-create stories. She explains White Rabbit’s NFT-based interactive model and how communities shape endings. Conversation covers turning viewers into participants, new capital formation for creators, and balancing community input with artistic vision.
71 snips
Mar 5, 2026 • 1h 6min
AI Just Gave You Superpowers — Now What?
Christian Catalini, economist and MIT Crypto Economics Lab founder, explores AGI economics and verification. Eddy Lazzarin, CTO-level technologist, discusses practical agent deployment and tooling. They discuss agents as coworkers, the automation versus verification split, the AI sandwich firm structure, crypto for identity and provenance, and the contrast between a hollow and an augmented economy.
