The Dollar Kill-Switch: Edward Fishman on How The U.S. Controls The Global Economy
Can a country wage war without ever firing a bullet? In this episode of Bankless, we uncover the surprising truth: America’s most powerful weapon isn’t its military - it’s the dollar.
Joining us is Edward Fishman, a former State Department official and the author of Chokepoints: American Power in the Age of Economic Warfare. He explains how U.S. sanctions work, why they’re so effective, and what happens when countries try to escape them. From Iran and Russia to the rise of stablecoins and China’s digital yuan, we dive deep into the geopolitical power of financial infrastructure and crypto’s growing role in rewriting the rules.
If you want to understand the silent machinery behind global power, and why crypto might be the next battleground - don’t miss this one.
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TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Intro
5:51 Sanctions 101
8:32 The History of Economic Warfare
17:03 When Sanctions Precede War
22:27 Life After Dollar Disconnection
31:28 Sanctioning Russia: Methods & Lessons
43:49 Measuring Sanctions’ Effectiveness
49:20 The Strategic Tradeoffs of Sanctions
57:28 The Rise of Dollar Dominance
1:04:05 Unseen Costs of Sanction Power
1:08:15 Shifting Global Economic Power
1:15:47 Risks to U.S. Economic Leadership
1:20:43 Stablecoins as U.S. Leverage
1:28:13 Crypto’s Role in Sanction Evasion
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RESOURCES
Edward Fishman
https://x.com/edwardfishman
Edward Fishman’s “Chokepoints”
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/726149/chokepoints-by-edward-fishman/
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Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:
https://www.bankless.com/disclosures
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LIMITLESS - Dwarkesh Patel: The Scaling Era of AI is Here
Is intelligence just compute plus data? And if so... what happens next?
In this episode, Dwarkesh Patel, host of one of the most respected AI podcasts and author of “The Scaling Era”, joins us to break down the exponential rise of artificial intelligence. We explore how scaling laws became the engine behind modern models, why AI still can’t learn on the job, and whether we’re truly on the brink of AGI.
From coding to consciousness, from geopolitics to governance, Dwarkesh shares a grounded but urgent perspective on what it means to live through the transition and how we might prepare for what’s coming.
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TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Intro
6:59 What Is the Scaling Era?
9:31 Compute + Data = Intelligence?
15:08 Are We Building God?
17:57 The Catalyst: Discovering the Scaling Laws
20:54 Model Capabilities
24:35 Why Coding Is the AI Frontier
31:43 What AIs Still Can’t Do
36:26 AI Isn’t Around the Corner
46:01 Is AI Really Smart?
50:54 Inside the Black Box
54:46 AI Safety and Alignment
1:03:49 Who Controls the Models?
1:08:16 Swiss Cheese Safety & Liberal AI
1:19:30 Scaling Inputs: Energy, Compute, Data
1:26:40 Jobs, Growth & the Intelligence Curse
1:32:07 Why 60% AGI by 2040?
1:36:14 Dwarkesh’s Personal View
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RESOURCES
Dwarkesh Patel
https://x.com/dwarkesh_sp
Dwarkesh’s Book
https://www.amazon.com/Scaling-Era-Oral-History-2019-2025/dp/1953953557
Dwarkesh’s Podcast
https://www.dwarkesh.com/
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Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:
https://www.bankless.com/disclosures
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The Ether Machine: How ETH Becomes the Internet’s Reserve Currency | Andrew Keys & David Merin
Andrew Keys and David Merin join us to unveil the Ether Machine—a bold new strategy to make ETH the internet’s reserve currency.
We unpack their ambitious plan to acquire and actively manage hundreds of thousands of ETH, why they believe ETH is more than just a treasury asset, and how institutional capital can finally understand and tap into Ethereum’s full potential. From staking and restaking to DeFi yield generation and Wall Street education, this episode explores why Ether is not just digital oil—it’s the engine of the next internet.
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TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Intro
1:32 How Much Ether?
4:57 Other ETH Treasuries
9:41 Ether Machine
12:46 ETH vs BTC
17:27 Ether Machine DeFi Strategy
21:14 Explaining ETH to Wall Street
26:01 How Big is ETH?
28:14 ETH ETFs vs Ether Machine
37:13 Andrew’s Journey
40:54 Gensler’s SEC Era
43:30 Michael Saylor of ETH?
49:29 Decentralization Worries
52:09 ETH’s Narrative Problem
56:47 The Institutional Cycle
1:00:41 Closing
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RESOURCES
The Ether Machine
https://x.com/TheEtherMachine
https://ethermachine.com/
Andrew Keys
https://x.com/ak_ethermachine
David Merin
https://x.com/dfmerin
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Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:
https://www.bankless.com/disclosures
The internet is broken for creators, and Base thinks it has the fix.
Jesse Pollak joins Bankless to unveil the Base app, a crypto-powered everything app where posts earn, creators own, and mini apps go viral. From meme coins to market-based social media, this might be the start of a new onchain economy.
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📣BANKLESS TV | BASE DAY
https://x.com/BanklessHQ/status/1948769160932327886
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TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Intro
1:04 The Vision of BASE
3:11 The Everything App
6:10 The Future for Creators
10:13 Earning Through Engagement
14:29 Crafting the Perfect Content
20:54 The Rise of Mini Apps
23:59 Monetization and the Free Market
25:52 Addressing Creator Concerns
29:23 Closing Thoughts on BASE
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RESOURCES
Jesse
https://x.com/jessepollak
Base
https://x.com/base
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Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:
https://www.bankless.com/disclosures
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ROLLUP: $4 Trillion Market Cap | GENIUS Act | ETH ETF Mania
In this episode, we celebrate the crypto market reaching a $4 trillion cap, exploring the impact of the Genius Bill on stablecoins and digital assets. We discuss Polymarket's U.S. acquisition, Ethereum's ETF inflows, and the courtroom drama surrounding the Roman Storm trial.
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TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Intro
2:15 MARKETS
https://x.com/WatcherGuru/status/1948062927879131412
https://x.com/TheCryptoLark/status/1947212505039704467
8:45 ETH ETF Inflows
https://x.com/Matt_Hougan/status/1948377319027998909
https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/1948375840737124460
https://farside.co.uk/eth/
https://x.com/EricBalchunas/status/1948352147050930196
https://x.com/JasonYanowitz/status/1947348010045780016
11:15 ETH Treasuries
https://ethermachine.com/
https://x.com/jdetychey/status/1947278978454061240
https://x.com/fabdarice/status/1948395310310732184
https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/1948355494885622027
https://x.com/fundstrat/status/1948114342680879306
https://x.com/hughkarp/status/1948021401513771236
https://x.com/materkel/status/1948360988832461271
https://x.com/laurashin/status/1948166358832759016
30:00 GENIUS Act
https://x.com/CoinDesk/status/1946292667098308757
https://x.com/WhiteHouse/status/1946632494855368917
https://x.com/paoloardoino/status/1946307158515069334
https://x.com/paoloardoino/status/1946292409068834935
https://x.com/SecScottBessent/status/1946283991562084432
https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2025/07/18/tether-ceo-says-he-ll-comply-with-genius-to-come-to-u-s-circle-says-it-s-set-now
38:45 Polymarket in US
https://x.com/shayne_coplan/status/1947322129654927465
https://x.com/shayne_coplan/status/1948087129193751030
https://x.com/shayne_coplan/status/1948087129193751030
https://x.com/jespow/status/1947702880838029717
https://x.com/brian_armstrong/status/1947827460307087528
47:00 45M Gas Limit Block
https://x.com/ChodoKamil/status/1947295096656794054
https://x.com/potuz_eth/status/1948068611341398286
52:45 Solana Bam Protocol and RICO Suit
https://x.com/jito_sol
59:10 Coinbase Perps and PNC Partnership
https://x.com/brian_armstrong/status/1947340416283537633
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/pnc-bank-coinbase-announce-strategic-partnership-to-advance-digital-asset-solutions-and-expand-banking-services-302510790.html
58:30 Roman Storm Trial
https://x.com/tayvano_/status/1946062228878508119
https://www.propublica.org/article/whats-a-pig-butchering-scam-heres-how-to-avoid-falling-victim-to-one
https://x.com/tayvano_/status/1946062275871391924
https://x.com/amandatums/status/1948031555084972080
https://x.com/jchervinsky/status/1948037194909688230
https://x.com/RyanSAdams/status/1948348407103299814
1:05:44 Zora vs Pump
https://x.com/andy8052/status/1947791347538391199
https://x.com/smyyguy/status/1947291271401222593
https://blockworks.co/analytics/zora/zora-coin-platform
https://dune.com/adam_tehc/memecoin-wars
https://x.com/notthreadguy/status/1947793270169604321
https://x.com/ZeMirch/status/1948109514793689244
https://x.com/blocknewsdotcom/status/1948113825095458836
https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/pump-fun
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Ireland