Unchained
Bits + Bips: Why the AI Rally Keeps Growing — and Why Circle Launched Arc
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Show notes
Ram says the entire market is now one giant AI trade. Chris argues the boom is backed by real fundamentals. Austin asks: is AI creating value for the right companies?
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Circle just made history as the first publicly traded company to run a token presale, raising $222 million from BlackRock, Apollo, ICE, and a16z at a $3 billion valuation — and the stock went up.
At the same time, Coinbase reported a $394 million loss, cut 700 jobs, and suffered a five-hour outage.
Ram, Austin, and Chris work through what's really happening: whether Circle's Arc is the institutional payment rail the industry has been waiting for or a financial engineering play, whether Coinbase's troubles are cyclical or structural, and whether the AI-driven market rally is a bubble forming or a fundamental shift that makes the dotcom comparison wrong.
Hosts:
Austin Campbell (@austincampbell) — Founder, Zero Knowledge Consulting; Adjunct Professor, NYU Stern
Ram Ahluwalia, Co-Host, CEO of Lumida
Chris Perkins, Co-Host, CEO of 250 Digital Asset Management
Timestamps
🚀 0:00 Introduction and Iran ceasefire update
🛢️ 1:02 What Ram and Chris are watching in oil and Hormuz
📊 4:49 Why markets are shrugging off geopolitical noise
🤖 13:25 Ram on why the market is all one giant bet on AI
💬 16:03 Is the AI rally a bubble or a fundamental shift?
🏦 27:04 Circle launches Arc: could its token compete with its own stock?
📉 40:21 Coinbase: were the layoffs due to AI or the bear market?
🎭 48:26 What it says about the industry that Consensus’s afterparty was at E11even The Crypto Industry’s Maturity Problem
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