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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. This week Haseeb is back in the host’s chair after two weeks away.
The hosts start with a16z Crypto becoming a16z Frontier, and Robert remembers how Twitter bullied Paradigm for trying the same thing in 2023. Then the midterms: a blue mega tsunami that Polymarket had called at 99% by 7 PM, Robert’s case that the polls missed the size of the wave yet again, and what a new Congress that is roughly 2:1 pro-crypto means when the next two years are about Trump corruption, World Liberty Financial, and Trump Coin. The CFTC clears single-stock perps and Cboe and Citadel sue within hours, which Tarun can’t make sense of as a market maker. Anthropic’s S-1 update adds recursive self-improvement as a risk factor, the data center states go blue, and Robert explains why hedge funds think less compute is good for the frontier labs. Finally, the Foundation for American Innovation calls abliterated AI models a threat, and the hosts argue that banning them is prior restraint in the middle of a cyber apocalypse.
Show highlights
🔹 Haseeb is back after two weeks of Rob Hadick in his seat.
🔹 a16z Crypto is now a16z Frontier. Robert says when Paradigm tried the same thing in 2023, Twitter bullied it right back to crypto.
🔹 The midterms were a blue mega tsunami, and Polymarket had 99% on total control of Congress by 7 PM.
🔹 Robert says the polls underweighted the Democrats yet again, and the markets underpriced the wave because they tracked the polls.
🔹 Robert’s one test for Trump on crypto: did he make America the crypto capital of the world? His answer: not really.
🔹 Haseeb runs the Stand With Crypto numbers: the new Congress is roughly 2:1 pro-crypto in both the House and the Senate.
🔹 Robert expects a pragmatic, moderate Congress, and close to zero chance of any crypto legislation in the next two years.
🔹 Tarun loves that Robert thinks Donald Trump believes in mean reversion.
🔹 Robert declares the show done talking about DC for two years. It lasts about a minute.
🔹 The CFTC clears single-stock perps, Cboe and Citadel sue within hours, and Tarun can’t see why a market maker would turn down free volume.
🔹 Anthropic’s S-1 update shows $17 billion in Q3 revenue and adds recursive self-improvement as a risk factor.
🔹 Robert explains why hedge funds think fewer new data centers is good for the frontier labs, and Tom says they bought all the chickens.
🔹 Tarun says the non-US compute build-out has 100X’d in two weeks.
🔹 Robert proposes renaming the show The Chipping Block.
🔹 FAI calls abliterated AI models a threat. Haseeb says security researchers depend on them, and banning them is prior restraint.
🔹 Tom went as Claude Hansen for Halloween, and Claude refused to write the prop.
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
