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Crypto Is Shifting Gears + AI Router Wars – The Chopping Block

The Chopping Block - Podcast Series

The crew sizes up Bitcoin’s rebound, the fight to bring Hyperliquid onshore, the SEC’s new token fundraising framework, and why Stripe’s OpenRouter deal could make AI inference markets look a lot like DeFi.

Show highlights

🔹 Tom and Tarun report from Bhutan after discussing Bitcoin mining, AI, and tokenization with the king.

🔹 Bitcoin pushes back toward $80,000 as ETF inflows and the debasement trade revive crypto sentiment.

🔹 The panel explains why a U.S. Hyperliquid would probably require KYC, surveillance, and separate liquidity.

🔹 Robert argues the SEC’s $5 million startup exemption could reopen token crowdfunding for smaller projects.

🔹 Tom asks whether Regulation Crypto Assets solves an ICO-era problem that today’s builders no longer have.

🔹 Tarun predicts financial engineers will try to scale the small-offering exemption through many token launches.

🔹 AI could overwhelm government processes by removing the bureaucratic proof-of-work that quietly rationed access.

🔹 Stripe’s OpenRouter acquisition turns model routing, inference providers, and cached tokens into a DeFi-style market.

🔹 The hosts debate whether data rebates and inference tokens could finally revive crypto’s 2017 data-ownership dreams.

Hosts

⭐️Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly

⭐️Tom Schmidt, General Partner at Dragonfly

⭐️Tarun Chitra, Managing Partner at Robot Ventures

⭐️Robert Leshner, Founder & CEO of Superstate

Links SEC Regulation Crypto Assets: https://www.sec.gov/rules-regulations… OpenRouter is joining Stripe: https://openrouter.ai/blog/announceme…

Timestamps

  • 00:00 Intro
  • 01:22 Tom & Tarun meet the King of Bhutan
  • 04:13 Bitcoin rebounds and crypto gets hot again
  • 08:10 What a compliant U.S. Hyperliquid could look like
  • 13:14 The SEC’s proposed Regulation Crypto Assets
  • 23:53 Are the new token rules eight years too late?
  • 28:23 AI removes the government’s bureaucratic speed bumps
  • 31:12 Why AI inference tokens could power the next cycle
  • 34:13 Stripe buys OpenRouter and AI starts looking like DeFi
  • 43:28 Router economics, data markets, and new security risks
  • 51:01 Bull-market vibes from Bhutan and Asia

Related posts:

  1. How Hyper-liquid Quietly Killed Every DeFi Competitor – The Chopping Block
  2. Robinhood’s Vlad Tenev Claps Back: From Memecoins to Real Assets – The Chopping Block
  3. The Chopping Block: Is Strategy the Luna for Suits?, ETH Labs Shakeup & CME vs Perps
  4. Will Every Failed Crypto Idea Work? – The Chopping Block
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