From BlackRock to Ethereum: Betting It All on ETH | Joseph Chalom

Bankless

Technology, News, Tech News

4.7 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 1 September 2025

⏱️ 92 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What does BlackRock’s former crypto lead see in Ethereum that others still miss? Joseph Chalom joins Bankless to take us inside the IBIT/ETHA ramp, why BUIDL launched on Ethereum mainnet, and the simple—but powerful—framework he uses to value ETH as “high-octane money.” We break down staking inside ETFs, the tokenization roadmap from stablecoins to the S&P in your wallet, and the real mechanics of ETH treasury companies—mNAV premiums, ATMs, converts, and the transparency metrics that matter. Less hype, more architecture: if security, liquidity, and 24/7 settlement are the future, this is the bridge. --- 📣SPOTIFY PREMIUM RSS FEED | USE CODE: SPOTIFY24 https://bankless.cc/spotify-premium --- BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS: 🪙FRAX | SELF SUFFICIENT DeFi https://bankless.cc/Frax 🦄UNISWAP | SWAP ON UNICHAIN https://bankless.cc/unichain 🛞MANTLE | MODULAR LAYER 2 NETWORK https://bankless.cc/Mantle 🎩DEGEN | JOIN THE COMMUNITY https://bankless.cc/degen --- TIMESTAMPS 0:00 Intro 3:53 Larry Fink’s arc: skeptic to champion 9:15 Joseph’s crypto journey 18:09 Aladdin × Coinbase Prime 20:55 Building IBIT 24:28 ETHA & ETH ETF staking approval 36:04 Tokenization roadmap & magnitude 44:48 SharpLink’s ETH bet 50:13 Ether as “high-octane money” 58:54 Beyond ‘buy and hold’ 1:03:11 ETH vs BTC treasuries 1:06:09 Radical transparency 1:10:31 mNAV, ATMs & buybacks 1:19:10 Where’s the price impact? 1:25:32 How many treasuries win? 1:29:25 Closing thoughts --- RESOURCES Joseph Chalom https://x.com/joechalom Sharplink https://www.sharplink.com/ --- Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here: https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Transcript

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0:00.0	We are building an institutional grade treasury, not just with incredible talent, but through our
0:07.2	partnership with consensus.
0:09.5	You know, we have Joe Lubin, the co-founder of Ethereum on our board, and that gives us lots
0:13.6	of opportunities to do interesting things.
0:16.3	We're not content to buy and hold a percentage of the ether ecosystem and stop and become a vehicle
0:24.6	and a dividend company. Our goal is to have a really positive influence on institutional adoption
0:30.4	and to build businesses that are correlated to the ecosystem.
0:37.7	Welcome to Bankless, where we explore the frontier of internet money and internet finance.
0:42.3	This is Ryan Sean Adams.
0:43.3	It's just me today.
0:44.5	David's out.
0:45.3	So I'm here to help you become more bankless.
0:49.1	Joseph Shalham on the episode today.
0:51.5	Now this is the guy who led BlackRock's digital asset group. This is the
0:55.2	group that rolled out the Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs at BlackRock. They launched Biddle,
1:00.2	the on-chain treasury fund. He retired for a few short months, and now he's back as co-CEO of an
1:07.9	Ethereum Treasury Fund. This is the story of going from Black Rock to Ethereum. And I think this
1:14.4	is very much the theme of this cycle in crypto. The institutions are coming to Ethereum. And
1:19.8	Ethereum is coming to the institutions. This is the great convergence. And Joseph's story is almost a
1:25.4	microcosm of the story of this cycle. And I think maybe it's most
1:28.3	interesting where Joseph has ended up. He's at Esbet. That's the second largest Ethereum Treasury
1:33.7	company, a company co-CEOed by Joe Lubin. Now, his job at Esbet is to accumulate ETH, to educate
	...

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