Bankless

Why has the dollar remained dominant despite rising debt, geopolitical strain, and growing challengers?

Barry Eichengreen joins Bankless to trace the history of global reserve currencies. From Spanish silver and the Byzantine solidus to sterling and the modern dollar, Barry explains the conditions that make a currency rise, endure, and eventually fall.

We explore fiscal discipline, rule of law, military power, gold, China, and crypto to understand what history suggests about the dollar’s future.

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🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS

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🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD

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TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro

5:11 Spanish Pieces of ape

14:58 Solidus

18:56 International Currency Status

29:32 The Fall of International Currencies

33:27 The Fall of The US Dollar

41:38 What’s Special about the Dollar?

47:39 Theoretical Currencies

51:09 US Dollar Dominance Consequences

59:39 When will the Dollar Fall?

1:03:09 US Dollar Competitors

1:08:32 Gold

1:14:08 Bitcoin & Crypto

1:18:23 Closing & Disclaimers

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RESOURCES

Barry Eichengreen

https://x.com/B_Eichengreen

Money Beyond Borders: Global Currencies from Croesus to Crypto

https://www.amazon.com/Money-Beyond-Borders-Currencies-Croesus/dp/0691280533 

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Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:

https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠

Has crypto already bottomed, or is more pain still ahead? Mike and Ryan break down the bull and bear case in full, from Bitcoin fair value and market structure to global liquidity, AI demand, and the macro risks still hanging over markets. Mike explains why he thinks the setup still looks more like a bear market than a new uptrend, even if the odds are close. It’s a sharp episode on how to navigate a market that could break either way.

Michael Nadeau & The DeFi Report:

https://x.com/JustDeauIt
https://thedefireport.io/bankless 

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BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET

https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast 

🪐GALAXYONE | SOLANA STAKING

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🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOW

https://go.metamask.io/BL-Pod-Download 

🏅BITGET TRADFI | TRADE GOLD WITH USDT

https://bankless.cc/bitget

🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS

https://thedefireport.io/bankless

🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELD

https://bankless.cc/brix

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TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro

1:18 Understanding the crypto cycle

3:23 The wealth destruction phase

5:30 Defining the current market conditions

8:14 Reflecting on past market battles

11:15 The four-year cycle explained

13:19 The impact of liquidity cycles

17:12 Analyzing the S&P and market health

20:34 The bullish case for crypto

24:07 Exploring on-chain metrics

27:16 The bear case outlined

32:14 The difficulty of market navigation

44:26 Summarizing the bearish perspective

48:12 Market uncertainty

59:54 Closing & disclaimers

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Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:

https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Michael Saylor thinks Bitcoin is headed to $21 million, but the real story in this conversation is how he believes it gets there. In his first appearance on Bankless, Saylor breaks down Strategy’s evolving capital machine, why STRC may be the most ambitious instrument the company has built yet, how he thinks about quantum risk without panic, why his view on Ethereum has become more constructive, and what he means when he says the endgame is giving the world an 8% bank account forever.

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BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET
https://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast

🪐GALAXYONE | SOLANA STAKING
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🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOW
https://go.metamask.io/BL-Pod-Download

🏅BITGET TRADFI | TRADE GOLD WITH USDT
https://bankless.cc/bitget

🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS
https://thedefireport.io/bankless

🐇MEGAETH | 1ST REAL-TIME BLOCKCHAIN
https://bankless.cc/megaeth

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TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro
1:00 Michael Saylor’s $21M Bitcoin thesis
4:33 What has to go right for Bitcoin to get there
11:00 Has Bitcoin adoption stalled out?
13:20 Why STRC became Strategy’s breakout product
18:05 The pitch behind a Bitcoin-backed money market
21:13 How STRC is engineered to stay stable
27:31 Where the 11.5% yield comes from
36:35 Is Strategy taking too much risk?
46:50 Does Strategy ever stop buying Bitcoin?
58:48 Quantum, panic, and the Bitcoin response
1:16:18 Michael Saylor on Ethereum today
1:25:46 “Fix the money, fix the world”
1:38:39 The crypto reactor and Strategy’s endgame

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RESOURCES

Michael Saylor
https://x.com/saylor

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Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:
https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Markets are rallying on a fragile Iran ceasefire, but the real risks may be getting closer.

David and Haseeb break down Anthropic’s secretive new AI model and why it could expose vulnerabilities across crypto, from smart contracts to core blockchain infrastructure, plus the growing divide around “Q-Day” and how urgent the quantum threat really is.

They also unpack Iran’s unexpected use of Bitcoin in global trade, the White House’s stance on stablecoin yields, and why the market feels stable on the surface while bigger risks continue to build.

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BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:

🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKET

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🪐GALAXYONE | SOLANA STAKING

https://bankless.cc/GalaxyOne

🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOW

https://go.metamask.io/BL-Pod-Download 

🏅BITGET TRADFI | TRADE GOLD WITH USDT

https://bankless.cc/bitget

🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS

https://thedefireport.io/bankless

🐇MEGAETH | 1ST REAL-TIME BLOCKCHAIN

https://bankless.cc/megaeth

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TIMESTAMPS & RESOURCES

0:00 Intro

1:56 Ceasefire in Iran

https://images.wsj.net/im-97657631 

https://x.com/KobeissiLetter/status/2041728989119529307

https://x.com/WatcherGuru/status/2041867478033195336

15:43 Two Polymarkets of Relevance

https://polymarket.com/event/iran-x-israelus-conflict-ends-by/?via=bankless?

70% chance the conflict ends by April 30

https://polymarket.com/event/will-the-us-invade-iran-before-2027/?via=bankless?

30% chance!

17:50 Anthropic Releases Project Glasswing 

https://x.com/AnthropicAI/status/2041578392852517128

https://red.anthropic.com/2026/mythos-preview/

https://x.com/DarioAmodei/status/2041580338426585171

https://x.com/hosseeb/status/2041579488224657581

https://x.com/kevinsxu/status/2042065892658258357

https://x.com/nic_carter/status/2041256570462326843

48:49 Satoshi is Adam Back?

57:44 The White House Weighs in on the Stablecoin Yield Debate

https://www.whitehouse.gov/research/2026/04/effects-of-stablecoin-yield-prohibition-on-bank-lending/

1:02:04 $MON trading above ICO price!

https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/monad

1:05:47 Closing & Disclaimers

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Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:

https://www.bankless.com/disclosures

Can Ethereum become one economic zone again?

Martin Koppelmann and Friederike Ernst from Gnosis explain how real-time proving and the Ethereum Economic Zone could reconnect fragmented rollups, unify liquidity, and give specialized chains seamless access to Ethereum’s settlement and security.

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🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOW
https://go.metamask.io/BL-Pod-Download

🏅BITGET TRADFI | TRADE GOLD WITH USDT
https://bankless.cc/bitget

🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTS
https://thedefireport.io/bankless

🐇MEGAETH | 1ST REAL-TIME BLOCKCHAIN
https://bankless.cc/megaeth

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TIMESTAMPS

0:00 Intro

0:18 Fixing Fragmentation

7:49 Ethereum Economic Zone Explained

26:19 EEZ Thin Layer

30:30 Block Builders

33:06 The Bull Case

35:18 Ethereum Reorg

42:56 Layer2 EEZ Adoption

50:47 A New Age for Builders

55:54 How to Get Involved

57:42 EEZ Rollout

1:00:51 Closing & Disclaimers

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RESOURCES

Martin Koppelman

https://x.com/koeppelmann 

Friederike Ernst

https://x.com/tw_tter 

EEZ

https://eez.io/ 

EEZ GitHub

https://github.com/eez-association 

Gnosis

https://www.gnosis.io/ 

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Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:

https://www.bankless.com/disclosures⁠