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Bankless

ROLLUP: Buy Signal? | Fusaka Launch | Polymarket Mainstream | Trump’s Fed Chair | SEC Crypto Shift

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Read time

2 min

Topics

Investing, Startups, Fundraising & VC

AI-Generated Summary

Key Takeaways

  • Bitcoin-Gold Ratio: Bitcoin now sits below the statistical floor of a fifteen-year power law model versus gold, a level only reached once before in late 2017, suggesting potential catch-up opportunity as institutional allocators still prefer gold for debasement hedging over crypto assets.
  • Ethereum Scaling Progress: Fusaka upgrade delivers Peerless sharding with 8x more blob capacity for layer twos plus 33% increase in layer one throughput to 60 million gas per block. Six-second block times are fully prototyped and ready to ship next year, cutting confirmation times in half.
  • Prediction Market Expansion: Polymarket acquired QCX LLC for 112 million dollars to expedite CFTC authorization in four months, launching US operations with mobile app ranking fourth in sports category. Kalshi faces nationwide class action lawsuit alleging illegal sports betting and trading against customers.
  • Tether Reserve Structure: Tether maintains 140 billion dollars in cash equivalents backing 181 billion dollars outstanding, with 20 billion dollars in Bitcoin and gold creating 50% reserve ratio. A 30% decline in volatile assets would not trigger insolvency given massive equity buffer and off-balance sheet assets.

What It Covers

Bitcoin trades cheaper relative to gold than almost any point in fifteen years while Ethereum ships Fusaka upgrade with 8x more blob capacity. Polymarket launches US operations and mobile app as prediction markets face regulatory challenges.

Key Questions Answered

  • Bitcoin-Gold Ratio: Bitcoin now sits below the statistical floor of a fifteen-year power law model versus gold, a level only reached once before in late 2017, suggesting potential catch-up opportunity as institutional allocators still prefer gold for debasement hedging over crypto assets.
  • Ethereum Scaling Progress: Fusaka upgrade delivers Peerless sharding with 8x more blob capacity for layer twos plus 33% increase in layer one throughput to 60 million gas per block. Six-second block times are fully prototyped and ready to ship next year, cutting confirmation times in half.
  • Prediction Market Expansion: Polymarket acquired QCX LLC for 112 million dollars to expedite CFTC authorization in four months, launching US operations with mobile app ranking fourth in sports category. Kalshi faces nationwide class action lawsuit alleging illegal sports betting and trading against customers.
  • Tether Reserve Structure: Tether maintains 140 billion dollars in cash equivalents backing 181 billion dollars outstanding, with 20 billion dollars in Bitcoin and gold creating 50% reserve ratio. A 30% decline in volatile assets would not trigger insolvency given massive equity buffer and off-balance sheet assets.

Notable Moment

Shane Copeland revealed he emailed the SEC while still in high school asking how to register his planned exchange, demonstrating early regulatory awareness that contrasts sharply with his recent FBI raid experience involving a battering ram at his door.

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Episode Transcript

Bankless nation. It is the December. It's time for the bankless d weekly roll up. David, you're back in the saddle, man. It's so good to have you. I've I've had to do three of these with I I'm not gonna with fantastic substitute guests. Okay? Not the same as David Hoffman, but they are fantastic. There are fantastic, talented podcasters out there that aren't us in in crypto. That's right. And we found all of them, actually. Yeah. Yeah. But I miss you, man. You were climbing mountains. I saw the the photos. Looked absolutely incredible. I don't know how you're doing that. But you were telling me that it might be over for you, actually. I think I don't need to climb any harder mountains than what I have climbed. That one was particularly hard. And I was exhausted, like four or five hours into it. And I knew that I had more than twelve hours left to go. Yeah. And at that point, I was like, You know what, I think I'm gonna find something easy to do for 2026. So that's gonna be my new year's resolution is, do easier things. Yeah. Alright. That sounds good. And, you know, I think you reached your max level. Right? You don't need to level up anymore. You've done all the mountains. Now go focus on something super easy. So I can't wait to hear what that is. If anyone has got a good easy hobby idea for me, let me know. I'm open to success. I think you should admit. Especially during this bear cycle. What else are you gonna do, man? Make a little sweater for your grandma or something. Is it is it a bear cycle? Is that determined? I kinda feel like consensus is moving in that direction. I have not quite given up hope, but I'm It's a green week this week. It's pretty green. I wanna get your takes on this, actually. So you're coming at it with fresh eyes. Maybe you can tell me something I don't know or I haven't seen. But we gotta talk about Bitcoin. Of course, it is cheaper than ever in gold terms. You know that? Because gold is up. Is that a buy signal? Has been in the past. Ethereum got its second big upgrade of the year. Fusaka is live. How'd it go? And what does it actually bring to Ethereum? And is Vitalik happy with the progress? And I hope I hope he is. Yeah. Vitalik laughs. Why is he inviting everyone back to the Ethereum layer one? Is the Ethereum layer one ready for more stuff? We're gonna talk about that. Also, PolyMark is going mainstream. They were on sixty Minutes, which I feel like is a mainstream moment. Also, Shane, the founder of PolyMarketing, becomes one of the youngest billionaires ever. They're open to US users now. Also, Kalshi, so the competitor to to, PolyMarket, they became an exclusive partner of CNN. …

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  • Polymarket launches US operations and mobile app as prediction markets face regulatory challenges. Polymarket acquired QCX LLC for 112 million dollars to expedite CFTC authorization in four months, launching US operations with mobile app ranking fourth in sports category.
  • Kalshi faces nationwide class action lawsuit alleging illegal sports betting and trading against customers.
  • Tether maintains 140 billion dollars in cash equivalents backing 181 billion dollars outstanding, with 20 billion dollars in Bitcoin and gold creating 50% reserve ratio.

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