The Chopping Block: LA Vape Cabal, Market Meltdown, & SEC’s Crypto Pivot - Ep. 779

Unchained

Laura Shin

News, Tech News, Business News

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 6 February 2025

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest in crypto. In this episode, we dissect the chaos triggered by Trump’s trade war, which sent Ethereum and alts into freefall while Bitcoin held strong. Why are alts struggling, and is this just a flight to quality—or something deeper? We also dive into the LA Vape Cabal phenomenon and its bizarre influence on memecoin culture, debate whether the SEC’s new leadership is truly a game-changer for crypto, and analyze Binance’s latest scandal. Plus, is the memecoin cycle really over, or is this just another phase in crypto’s endless casino? Show highlights 🔹 Trump’s Trade War Wrecks Crypto – Ethereum and alts nosedive as Trump’s surprise tariffs shake markets. Is this just macro panic or a deeper shift in investor sentiment? 🔹 Biggest Liquidation Day Ever? – Crypto saw its largest mass liquidation in history, with Bybit’s CEO estimating real losses closer to $8-10 billion—more than the FTX collapse. 🔹 LA Vape Cabal & Memecoin Mania – A bizarre Twitch-fueled trading cult is shaping the memecoin meta. Is this the future of crypto speculation, or just another fleeting grift? 🔹 The Great Altcoin Capitulation – Alts are bleeding while Bitcoin holds strong. Has the market finally given up on everything that isn't BTC? 🔹 Hester Peirce’s Crypto Reset – The SEC’s new approach could rewrite the rules for token issuers. Will the industry finally get the regulatory clarity it’s been begging for? 🔹 Binance Under Fire (Again) – CZ’s former empire faces backlash over insider listings, alleged bribes, and a wave of vaporware projects that tanked after launch. 🔹 Pump.fun = The New NFT Casino? – Memecoin speculation is bigger than 2021’s NFT boom. But is it sustainable, or is the exit liquidity running dry? 🔹 The Memecoin Endgame? – Some claim the bubble has burst, but if history tells us anything, a new wave of degens will always find a way to keep the casino open. 🔹 Bitcoin’s Macro Dominance – BTC’s macro story is unstoppable, with talk of a U.S. sovereign wealth fund investing in Bitcoin. Will the market ever rotate back to alts? Hosts ⭐️Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly ⭐️Robert Leshner, CEO & Co-founder of Superstate ⭐️Tarun Chitra, Managing Partner at Robot Ventures ⭐️Tom Schmidt, General Partner at Dragonfly Disclosures Links Hester Peirce’s Blog Post – “The Journey Begins”: https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/speeches-statements/peirce-journey-begins-020425 David Sacks' Plan for Digital Assets Press Conference: https://youtu.be/LqTsyTuLSSI Timestamps 00:00 Intro 01:08 Market Turmoil and Trade Wars 07:10 Bitcoin's Dominance & Altcoin Struggles 10:33 Memecoins & Market Sentiment 25:05 Cultural Phenomena in Crypto 33:54 The L.A. Vape Cabal 40:45 Millennials and Memecoins 44:51 Binance & the Chinese Community 50:45 Regulatory Developments in Crypto Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, all I'll have to say is,
0:02.0	Binance was just the LA Vap Kabaal 10 years earlier.
0:06.0	That's your take?
0:08.0	I mean, it's like, it is funny.
0:11.0	There's a lot of rhyming here.
0:14.0	I'd love that the new analogy is analogizing things to the LA VAPA ball.
0:19.0	Not a dividend.
0:20.0	It's a tale of two quond.
0:21.7	Now, your losses are on someone else's balance.
0:24.5	Generally speaking, air drops are kind of pointless anyways.
0:27.1	Unnamed trading firms who are very involved.
0:30.1	I like that eight is the ultimate.
0:32.2	Defi protocols are the antidote to this problem.
0:35.8	Hello, everybody. Welcome to chopping block.
0:40.4	Every couple weeks, the four of us get together and give the industry insider's perspective on the crypto topics of the day.
0:42.6	So quick intro, first you got Tom, the defy maven and master of memes.
0:45.9	Hello, everyone.
0:47.7	Thanks, we've got Robert, the Cryptoconisur, and Tsar of Super State.
0:50.8	Let's do it live. And we've got Tarun, the Gigabrein, and Grand Puba at Gauntlet.
0:57.0	Yo.
0:58.7	And finally, I'm a see of the head-hybed man at Dragonfly. We're early-stage investors in
1:02.3	crypto, but I want to caveat that nothing we say here is investment advice, legal advice,
	...

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