The Chopping Block: OM’s Collapse, Vitalik’s Morality Test, & Tariff Chaos - Ep. 819

Unchained

Laura Shin

News, Tech News, Business News

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 17 April 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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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, the crew dives into the drama surrounding the OM token crash, the murky world of fake market caps, and Binance’s role in fueling questionable projects. They unpack Trump’s tariff chaos and whether Bitcoin could emerge as the real winner in a broken economic order. Plus, Vitalik stirs the pot by calling out “bad apps” like Pump.fun—igniting a moral war over what crypto should be building. Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform. Show highlights 🔹 OM Token Implodes – How a top-25 token collapsed 90% in 90 minutes and why it exposed deeper issues with fake float 🔹 Market Cap Manipulation – Haseeb breaks down how teams game CoinGecko, and why circulating supply might be mostly fiction 🔹 Binance Listings = Domain Squatting? – The crew explores how projects “reverse-merge” into dead tokens to skip the line 🔹 Coffeezilla Strikes Again – The panel reacts to OM founder’s bizarre interview and what it reveals about crypto’s accountability gap 🔹 Should Exchanges Demand Disclosures? – A fiery debate on whether market making agreements should be public 🔹 Tarun Goes Full Macro – Why Trump’s tariffs could actually boost Bitcoin—and what capital flight means for crypto 🔹 Vitalik’s App Morality Test – Did he go too far calling Pump.fun a “bad” app? The panel isn’t so sure 🔹 Ethereum’s Vibe Crisis – Solana and Base push back as Vitalik gets philosophical about the soul of crypto 🔹 Is Railgun the Real Hero? – Tarun questions Vitalik’s taste in apps and whether ideological projects matter if no one uses them 🔹 Regulation Without Regulators – Can the industry police itself, or is it time for a new kind of crypto SRO? 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 Use Code CHOPINNOVATE, for tickets to the U.S. Innovation in Crypto conference at Cornell Tech on Roosevelt Island (NYC): cbc25.eventbrite.com Timestamps 00:00 Intro 02:47 Trump's Tariff Turmoil 15:48 Mantra's OM Token Controversy 29:42 Crypto Disclosures & Market Making Agreements 31:49 Debate on Exchange Incentives & Market Maker Costs 33:57 The Role of Self-Regulation in Crypto Exchanges 44:15 Vitalik's Views on Blockchain Ethics 56:33 Upcoming Live Event Announcement Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I mean, Ford is where I don't think Fatalek has ever had good taste in apps.
0:03.6	I feel like the stuff that he cites of things that he's excited about are generally bad.
0:07.2	Not a dividend.
0:08.6	It's a tale of two Kwan.
0:09.7	Now, your losses are on someone else's balance.
0:12.4	Generally speaking, air drops are kind of pointless anyways.
0:15.0	Unimmed to trading firms who are very involved.
0:18.0	I like that ETH is the ultimate.
0:20.0	D5 protocols are the antidote to this problem.
0:23.9	Hi, everybody.
0:24.8	Welcome to the chopping block.
0:27.0	Every couple weeks, the four of us get together and give the industry insider's perspective
0:31.1	on the crypto topics of the day.
0:33.4	Today, Haseeb, as an influencer, is going to show you his preparation that he goes through every single episode prior to the show.
0:42.2	Yeah, guys, I don't know if you saw, but I recently became number two on the Quito Yapper leaderboard, which means I'm officially an influencer now.
0:50.8	So, oh, okay.
0:52.9	So let's just, it's time for, it's game time. Ooh. Oh. Okay. Wow, that got all over the
1:04.2	screen. Okay, now I just need a little bit of this. Wipe it off, yeah. Oh, beautiful. Okay.
1:10.9	That's the youthful glow right there. Yeah. Can you guys off, yeah. Oh, oh, beautiful. Okay. That's the youthful glow right there.
1:12.5	Yeah.
1:13.0	Can you guys tell?
1:14.7	Can you guys tell?
	...

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