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The Defiant: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Camila Russo
The internet of money is being built with blockchain technology and without banks. We call it DeFi, short for Decentralized Finance, and this is where you can hear the builders and users of this cutting edge world tell their stories first hand. Hosted by Camila Russo.
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- 4 days ago54 min
Solana's Historic Governance Vote — While Robinhood Invades Its Meme Coin Turf
Solana just took the most historic step in its governance history: its first real on-chain vote, where any SOL holder — not just validators — could weigh in on the network's constitution, inflation and fees.Camila Russo sits down with Nick Almond, Head of Governance at the Jito Foundation, right as that shift collides with a new threat: Robinhood's own chain moving in on meme coins, the one corner of crypto that was always Solana's. Nick breaks down how the vote actually played out — including the disinflation proposal that was decided with eight seconds left after Kraken flipped its vote — how JitoSOL swung its entire stake pool with a 13% quorum trigger, and why he still thinks Solana's shot at attracting new apps, from tokenized stocks to meme coins, is stronger than people give it credit for.Presented by Oasis — a self-custody wallet built on a 2/3 multisig. You hold two keys, Oasis holds a recovery key, and never has unilateral access. Oasis is giving away a CryptoPunk to the first 500 new or upgraded plans through October 31: https://www.oasisvault.io/cryptopunk
- 1 weeks ago58 min
Can RobinHood Chain Take This Boom? w/ ARB's Steven Goldfeder
Robinhood is surging on Arbitrum's stack, and today we're joined by ARB co-founder Steven Goldfeder to break down the boom.On this stream we discuss:Does the tokenization / meme craze have legs?Spiking Robinhood feesWhere's crypto's decentralization promise when Robinhood owns the sequencer?The landlord model and the ARB rallyWho's the next Robinhood?Guest: Steven Goldfeder, Co-Founder and CEO of Offchain LabsLike, subscribe, and hit the bell so you don't miss our next streams.
- Aug 11, 202620 min
The EIP That Wants to Cap ETH Staking at 50%
About a third of all ETH — over 41 million coins across nearly 900,000 validators — is already locked into staking. A new Ethereum proposal, EIP-8363, wants to make sure it never crosses 50%, by tapering staking rewards down to almost nothing as that threshold approaches.The proposal landed just 48 hours before the deadline to be considered for Ethereum's next upgrade, and it immediately set off one of the most heated governance fights the ecosystem has seen in years.We brought on both sides. Jérôme de Tychey, one of the EIP's co-authors and a solo staker since Ethereum's genesis, makes the case that an unchecked staking ratio threatens the network's neutrality and security. Mike Silagadze, CEO of ether.fi, argues the fix is worse than the disease — that it would push out solo stakers, gut DeFi, and hand more power to the biggest institutional players it claims to guard against.At the center of it all: does Ethereum have a real problem with how much ETH is staked, or is this a solution in search of a crisis?Jérôme has a public bet on the table with a co-author. Mike has one of his own, worth a million dollars. Neither is backing down.Guests: Jérôme de Tychey (EIP-8363 co-author) | Mike Silagadze (CEO, ether.fi) Topics: Ethereum, EIP-8363, staking, issuance, solo stakers, DeFi, liquid staking tokens, ether.fi, Lido, Ethereum governance
- Aug 3, 202629 min
The $114 Trillion Question: How DTCC Is Tokenizing the Entire U.S. Market
DTCC holds $114 trillion in assets. On July 15th, it showed the world how those assets can be converted into digital tokens, traded in real production conditions, and converted back — without disrupting anything. Nadine Chakar joins The Defiant to explain the digital twin model, why they chose Besu and Canton, what the Russell 1000 SEC authorization covers, and what realistic demand will look like at October's launch. She also confronts the big philosophical question: did blockchain disrupt Wall Street, or did Wall Street absorb blockchain? The answer might surprise you.Explore The Defiant ✨📰 Websitehttps://thedefiant.io/✉️ Free Daily Newsletter https://thedefiant.io/newsletter/defi...🤑 Weekly Premium Newsletter https://thedefiant.io/newsletter/defi...✊ Follow The DefiantX/Twitter: https://x.com/DefiantNews📬 Contact our Newsroomeditorial@thedefiant.io🤝 Sponsorships & Partnershipssponsors@thedefiant.io#TheDefiant #DeFi #Decentralized #Finance #Blockchain #Web3
- Jul 30, 202617 min
Memecoins Eat Everything: Robinhood's Accidental Casino & Base's Identity Crisis
Brian Armstrong changed his profile picture to a memecoin. It pumped to thirty million. Ten thousand wallets piled in. Less than twenty-four hours later, he changed it back — and every one of those wallets felt it.That one move cracked open the week's biggest debate: what should Coinbase and Base actually be for? And what does it mean that Robinhood's new L2 — launched three weeks ago, supposedly for tokenized stocks — already has five hundred million in memecoin volume versus thirteen million in RWAs?This week on The Defiant, Camila Russo sits down with three guests who can't agree on anything — and that's exactly why this conversation works.Austin Campbell (Zero Knowledge / NYU Stern) says Base's behavior was both an intellectual and moral failing — memecoins are gambling, and Coinbase can't build payment infrastructure while promoting gambling to young people at the same time. Jason Yanowitz (Blockworks) says the strategy is closer to right than people admit, and the real problem is execution, not direction. Michael Lee (LienFi), a Base builder since day one, says Armstrong's PFP move caused real damage — but mercenary traders have also paid twenty million dollars to creators on Base, and nobody else is stepping in to do that.School bus. Rocket ship. Same company. That's the problem.Guests: Austin Campbell (Zero Knowledge / NYU Stern) | Jason Yanowitz (Blockworks) | Michael Lee (LienFi) Topics: Memecoins, Coinbase, Base, Robinhood L2, content coins, Brian Armstrong, crypto regulation, everything exchange
- Jul 29, 202618 min
Now or Never: Inside the Fight to Pass the CLARITY Act
Fourteen days. That's the window the crypto industry has to get the CLARITY Act through the Senate — or wait until the 2030s for another shot.The combined draft dropped last week for the first time, merging the Senate Banking and Agriculture committee text into one bill. It added a law enforcement title (the Fraternal Order of Police endorsed it the same day). It added an ethics provision. And Democrats are rejecting that provision outright.This week on The Defiant, we're bringing three people living this fight from the inside: Miller Whitehouse-Levine (Solana Policy Institute), Amanda Tuminelli (DeFi Education Fund), and Adrian Wall (Digital Sovereignty Alliance). They don't all agree on how close we are — and one of them drops what might be the most explosive political take of the year: that Republicans, Democrats, financial institutions, and Coinbase may none of them actually want this bill to pass.The Polymarket odds: down from 80% in February to 37% this week. The stakes: if it fails, the next administration can undo anything the agencies do by rulemaking. Without a law, there's no floor. And innovation goes abroad.Guests: Miller Whitehouse-Levine (Solana Policy Institute) | Amanda Tuminelli (DeFi Education Fund) | Adrian Wall (Digital Sovereignty Alliance / Tron DAO US Policy) Topics: CLARITY Act, crypto regulation, SEC, CFTC, DeFi, stablecoins, blockchain policy, US Congress, ethics provision, RWAs
- Jul 7, 202610 min
Saylor Selling BTC: Strategy Lifeline or Betrayal?
Michael Saylor built his entire identity around one promise: he would never sell Bitcoin. Last week, that promise ended.Strategy's board voted to authorize selling Bitcoin to cover dividend payments and build cash reserves — in the middle of MSTR and STRC crashing to record lows, the yield blowing up, and confidence in the whole experiment starting to crack.Is this a rational pivot? Or the beginning of the end for the world's largest corporate Bitcoin treasury?This week on The Defiant, I sat down with Scott Melker and Kaleo to get into all of it: the hollow signaling, the STRC question, whether Saylor should rip the Band-Aid and sell billions now — and what any of this actually means for Bitcoin.Spoiler: they disagree. Strongly.Guests: Scott Melker | Kaleo (CryptoKaleo)Topics: Strategy, Michael Saylor, Bitcoin, MSTR, STRC, corporate Bitcoin treasury, convertible debt
- Jul 1, 202613 min
Inside the Ethereum Foundation Overhaul: is a Multi-Node Structure Bullish?
The Ethereum Foundation just cut 20% of its staff and 40% of its budget. Two co-executive directors are gone. And the talent exodus has been quiet but real. But the community didn't wait. In a matter of weeks, 50 institutions and Ethereum leaders came together to form ETH Labs — a new organization backed by Sharp Link, Joe Lubin, and Bitmain, with a mandate to build what the Foundation decided it no longer wants to. Is this a rescue? A power grab? Or the most important moment in Ethereum's 11-year history?Last week on The Defiant, I sat down with Josef Chalom (Sharp Link, the second-largest public ETH holder) and Viktor Bunin (Coinbase) to get into all of it: the funding structure, the credible neutrality question, the ETH asset vs. protocol tension, and what's actually coming in the Glastonbury upgrade — including a technical shift that could finally make Ethereum feel good to use. Guests: Josef Chalom, CEO of Sharp Link | Viktor Bunin, Coinbase Topics: Ethereum Foundation, ETH Labs, protocol governance, institutional adoption, Glastonbury upgrade
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About The Defiant
The internet of money is being built with blockchain technology and without banks. We call it DeFi, short for Decentralized Finance, and this is where you can hear the builders and users of this cutting edge world tell their stories first hand. Hosted by Camila Russo.
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