Bell Curve
Blockworks
Bell Curve breaks down the most important themes in crypto for people who, like us, are confined to the middle of the bell curve. Each season explores a different thesis that we'll test and refine through debate with crypto's best. If you're a crypto native, degen or investooor, this podcast is for you.Subscribe on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3R1D1D9Subscribe on Apple: https://apple.co/3pQTfmDSubscribe on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3cpKZXHGet top market insights and the latest in crypto news. Subscribe to Blockworks Daily Newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/Join the Bell Curve Telegram group: https://t.me/+nzyxAvQ0Xxc3YTEx
Episodes
Mentioned books
Mar 6, 2026 • 1h 8min
A New Era in Crypto: Product-led Founders Take Over | Roundup
They debate institutional optimism vs crypto-native skepticism and the major innovation themes reshaping markets. They spotlight the shift from visionary tinkerers to product-led, operator founders who can scale. AI and fintech’s role in execution and go-to-market strategies gets attention. They also cover changing VC dynamics, fund sizing, and how distribution-driven growth is winning today.
Mar 5, 2026 • 1h 4min
Introducing: Inflection Point | The Crypto-TradFi Convergence
Michael Mark Antonio, Head of DeFi at Galaxy Digital, builds institutional on‑chain primitives. Matt Hogan, CIO at Bitwise, oversees large crypto ETFs and institutional research. David Lawant, Head of Research at Anchorage Digital, focuses on custody and prime brokerage. They discuss TradFi moving into crypto, spot ETFs and big institutions signaling change, DeFi tradeoffs like UX and regulation, and shifting market structure and settlement.
Mar 3, 2026 • 57min
Everything Is Market: How Crypto Is Expanding Finance Into Culture | Jesse Walden
Jesse Walden, founder and partner at Variant and proponent of the 'Everything Is Market' thesis, links markets, culture, and on‑chain infrastructure. He explains how crypto lowers friction to create new markets. They explore markets as change agents and as APIs for intelligent agents. They also discuss hyperfinancialization, prediction markets, and AI-driven organizational forms.
14 snips
Feb 27, 2026 • 1h 2min
The Rise of Real World Asset Vaults | Roundup
They unpack the surge of vibe coding and how it mirrors past token booms. The conversation tracks the evolution of DeFi vaults, real-world asset looping, and vault value chains. They tackle distribution, curation, oracle and liquidation risks, and institutional adoption hurdles. Practical fixes like whitelists, dealer warehousing, and product design rounds out the talk.
Feb 24, 2026 • 57min
Funding Abundance: Aave’s Vision for DeFi and Real-World Assets | Stani Kulechov
Stani Kulechov, founder of Aave Labs and DeFi pioneer, talks about Funding Abundance and tokenized real-world assets. He outlines Aave V4’s modular hub-and-spoke design. He explores RWA looping, institutional adoption, capital efficiency, and new monetization paths like GHO and Aave Will Win.
Feb 20, 2026 • 49min
Introducing Oneshot: The AI Arms Race and Crypto Market Consolidation | Michael & Vance
They cover U.S. crypto market structure momentum and looming consolidation across stablecoins, derivatives, and prediction markets. They explore tokenization versus traditional venture fundraising and valuation gaps between private and public AI firms. They dive into AI adoption, workforce shifts, and the capital-intensive arms race among OpenAI, Anthropic, and xAI.
25 snips
Feb 20, 2026 • 1h 23min
The New Rules of Crypto Distribution | Roundup
They debate market sentiment and whether enterprise demand or speculative froth drives crypto today. They react to Hyperliquid’s new policy center and funding for regulatory work. They revisit the fat protocol thesis and who captures value in modern stacks. They unpack distribution playbooks—airdrops, virality, referrals—and explore how AI and agents could reshape discovery and moats.
20 snips
Feb 13, 2026 • 1h 12min
What Makes a Good Token? | Roundup
They unpack token types and whether old categories still matter. The conversation contrasts buybacks versus reinvesting revenue for growth. They debate distribution, emissions, allocation timing, and the legacy problems of token launches. Institutional demand and regulatory pressures shaping token design also get explored.
11 snips
Feb 7, 2026 • 50min
Crypto’s Reality Check | Roundup
They unpack crypto’s big selloff and why prices diverged from equities. They revisit October liquidations and how market structure broke. They debate talent and capital shifting to AI and what that means for product-market fit. They cover tougher VC standards, consolidation around revenue-generating protocols, and experimental AI-plus-crypto opportunities.
14 snips
Jan 30, 2026 • 1h 1min
The Infrastructure Behind Agentic Finance | Roundup
Xavier (Zave / Mippo), a crypto and AI infrastructure commentator, explains agentic finance at the intersection of AI and crypto. He discusses payment rails and why crypto fits agents. He explores trust, verification, staking and collateral designs. He covers emerging standards, market competition, trading use cases, UX challenges, and compliance implications.
