Onramp Bitcoin Media

Bitcoin just posted its highest weekly close since January, up 43% on the quarter and roughly 50% off the bottom. Jackson, Michael and Brian make the bull case, then take on Ari Paul's Coinbase allegations and what they mean for custody concentration.

BOOK A CONSULTATION
Holding Bitcoin for decades raises two questions: who protects it, and how it reaches your family. Onramp answers both. Three institutions protect it, and no single one can lose it, move it, or use it. Inheritance built in. Insured through Lloyd's of London. Speak with our team to see if it fits.
👉 https://go.onrampbitcoin.com/consult-tlt-pod

GET ON THE LIST
Our research, event invites, and the week's Bitcoin news in one free email.
📩 https://go.onrampbitcoin.com/research-tlt-pod

ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Bitcoin closed its best week since January near $84,400, capping a quarter up about 43% and a move of roughly 50% off the bottom near $58,000. Brian argues there is no fake out: the last time Bitcoin bounced 50% off a bottom, in 2022, it went on to rally about six times. Michael points to rising bond yields, AI capex, private credit and inflation as the backdrop that makes Bitcoin the obvious safe haven, and the hosts debut Ask Onramp with its first listener question. They then walk through BlockTower founder Ari Paul's allegations that Coinbase concealed repeated hacks, which remain unproven and tied up in legal proceedings, and why custody concentration matters when one firm custodies most of the ETF supply. The back half covers Citigroup and Coinbase on stablecoin payments, Morgan Stanley's digital asset lab, AI agents and bank runs, the Blockstream lawsuits, and the White House AI accord.

CHAPTERS
00:00 - Welcome from Philly week
03:19 - Bitcoin's best weekly close since January, up 43% in Q3
04:30 - No fake out: 50% off the bottom and the 2022 6X
07:40 - October seasonality and rising bond yields
13:18 - The super bullish setup: bonds, capex, private credit
14:51 - Howard Marks, the rate hike and 21 million
16:23 - Sizing for your whole net worth
17:44 - Ask Onramp: can one company move my Bitcoin?
23:04 - Ari Paul's Coinbase hack allegations
27:58 - Why serious holders avoid single custodians
31:22 - Coinbase, the ETFs and custody concentration
34:50 - Too big to fail and a new way to custody Bitcoin
38:22 - Citigroup, Coinbase and Morgan Stanley's digital asset lab
44:39 - AI bank runs and this year's bank failures
48:04 - Adam Back, Blockstream and the Liquid fallout
52:12 - Muse, Apple layoffs and AI agents managing money
58:58 - The end of 60/40, the White House AI accord and open weights

ABOUT THE SHOW
The Last Trade: a weekly, bitcoin-native podcast covering the intersection of bitcoin, tech, and finance on a macro scale. Hosted by Jackson Mikalic, Michael Tanguma, and Brian Cubellis. Join us for the biggest stories shaping bitcoin and digital asset adoption, and what they mean for investors protecting their wealth for the long term.

MORE FROM ONRAMP MEDIA
• Signal vs Noise, live twice a week: https://www.youtube.com/@SignalvsNoiseLIVE
• Final Settlement and First Principles: https://www.youtube.com/@OnrampMedia
• Audio, every show: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1690709152 or search Onramp Bitcoin Media on Spotify
• News and data: https://onramp.media

Onramp does not provide financial, tax, or legal advice. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell any asset. This episode is for entertainment purposes only.

Gold and silver just shed over a trillion dollars in a day as the 10-year yield hit a 19-year high, and the math on gold's $18 trillion run says Bitcoin could move faster than anyone expects. Also on the clock: OpenAI shelving GPT-6.1 Astra, Apollo's warning about an agentic bank run, and Ari Paul's hack allegations against Coinbase. Where's the signal, and where's the noise?

OPEN A FREE ONRAMP FINANCE ACCOUNT
One free account to buy Bitcoin, use the Onramp Terminal, and access the rest of Onramp: Bitcoin IRA, Bitcoin-backed loans, and Multi-Institution Custody. Recurring buys carry no Onramp trading fee. Active clients are eligible for Onramp-funded rewards up to 5%. Cash back on the Onramp Card converts to Bitcoin in one click. Takes a few minutes to open.
👉 https://go.onrampbitcoin.com/finance-svn-pod

GET ON THE LIST
Our research, event invites, and the week's Bitcoin news in one free email.
📩 https://go.onrampbitcoin.com/research-svn-pod

CHAPTERS
00:00 - Intro
00:25 - Topic 1 - OpenAI Shelves GPT-6.1 Astra as Anthropic Files for Its IPO
08:43 - Topic 2 - Gold and Silver Sell Off as the 10-Year Yield Hits a 19-Year High
16:28 - Topic 3 - Apollo's Torsten Slok Asks If AI Agents Could Trigger a Bank Run
23:27 - Topic 4 - BlockTower's Ari Paul Alleges Coinbase Hid Hack Losses
32:26 - Wrap-Up & Lightning Round: The Bitget Hack and Morgan Stanley's Digital Asset Lab

ABOUT THE SHOW
Signal vs Noise is a twice-weekly livestream and show unpacking the biggest stories across capital, markets, technology, and people, six minutes on the clock for each, with Jackson Mikalic, Michael Tanguma, Liam Nelson, and Brian Cubellis.

MORE FROM ONRAMP MEDIA
• The Last Trade, Final Settlement, and First Principles: https://www.youtube.com/@OnrampMedia
• Audio, every show: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1690709152 or search Onramp Bitcoin Media on Spotify
• News and data: https://onramp.media

Onramp does not provide financial, tax, or legal advice. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell any asset. This episode is for entertainment purposes only.

One chart from Epoch AI shows the cost of AI falling about 47% a quarter since 2023, faster than any technology in history, and it exposes the math under the AI trade. Michael, Liam and Brian on why cheap intelligence competes away profit, and why Bitcoin is the scarce unit left.

BOOK A CONSULTATION
Holding Bitcoin for decades raises two questions: who protects it, and how it reaches your family. Onramp answers both. Three institutions protect it, and no single one can lose it, move it, or use it. Inheritance built in. Insured through Lloyd's of London. Speak with our team to see if it fits.
👉 https://go.onrampbitcoin.com/consult-fs-pod

GET ON THE LIST
• Onramp: our research, event invites, and the week's Bitcoin news in one free email. https://go.onrampbitcoin.com/research-fs-pod
• Early Riders Insights: the best content in the ecosystem, weekly. https://www.earlyriders.com/research

ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Eight major AI models shipped in two weeks, open-weight models now carry most of the tokens on Vercel's AI Gateway, Oracle invoked force majeure on a Stargate site, and Epoch AI finds the cost of a given level of performance has fallen about 47% a quarter since 2023. Michael's read is that AI will compete away the profits it touches, which makes the scarce unit in an abundant world the question that matters. From there the three of them work through Amazon blocking Meta's Muse while Shopify opens its merchants to it, Block bringing Bitcoin Lightning payments to x402 for AI agents, the Open USD stablecoin consortium, the CFTC's call to prepare for mass tokenization, Citi and Coinbase, BlackRock's model portfolios on Ondo, Binance's $100 million stake in Circle, and Apollo's warning that agents could set off a bank run. The single point of failure of the week is the roughly $350 million Bitget hack, linked to North Korea.

CHAPTERS
00:00 - Eight AI models in two weeks: what the singularity looks like
03:53 - Open-weight models, Oracle's Stargate notice, and Jevons paradox
07:15 - Frontier versus open models, and why the harness holds the value
10:46 - Amazon blocks Muse, Shopify opens the door
16:57 - Why blocking bots fails, and why agents may raise prices
23:13 - Block brings Bitcoin Lightning to x402 for AI agents
26:26 - What if the ads of the agent internet are just money?
29:07 - Open USD: Stripe, Visa, Mastercard, Coinbase and Shopify
30:56 - Mass tokenization, from the CFTC to the ECB's Pontes
33:51 - Citi and Coinbase, BlackRock on Ondo, Binance into Circle
36:50 - Stablecoins as the onramp, and the agentic bank run
41:02 - If intelligence is free, where does alpha come from?
44:09 - Single point of failure of the week: the Bitget hack
48:35 - Russia tells investors to eat stablecoin freeze losses
50:16 - The Epoch AI chart: cheaper faster than any tech in history

ABOUT THE SHOW
Final Settlement is a weekly show on capital markets, dealmaking, early-stage venture, Bitcoin applications, and protocol development, presented by Early Riders and Onramp Media with Michael Tanguma, Liam Nelson, and Brian Cubellis.
• Connect with Early Riders: https://www.earlyriders.com/contact
• Michael: https://x.com/MTanguma · Liam: https://x.com/Lnelson_21 · Brian: https://x.com/BackslashBTC
▶️ Watch the video: [YouTube link for this episode]

MORE FROM ONRAMP MEDIA
• The Last Trade and First Principles: https://www.youtube.com/@OnrampMedia
• Signal vs Noise, live twice a week: https://www.youtube.com/@SignalvsNoiseLIVE
• Audio, every show: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1690709152 or search Onramp Bitcoin Media on Spotify
• News and data: https://onramp.media

Onramp does not provide financial, tax, or legal advice. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell any asset. This episode is for entertainment purposes only.

AI just bailed out Bitcoin's public miners, and Bob Burnett says that is the healthiest thing to happen to mining in years. Liam sits down with the Ocean executive chairman on falling hash rate, who builds Bitcoin's blocks, and what the BIP-110 fork proved.

Guest: Bob Burnett, CEO of Barefoot Mining and executive chairman of Ocean. https://www.barefootmining.com/

BOOK A CONSULTATION
Holding Bitcoin for decades raises two questions: who protects it, and how it reaches your family. Onramp answers both. Three institutions protect it, and no single one can lose it, move it, or use it. Inheritance built in. Insured through Lloyd's of London. Speak with our team to see if it fits.
👉 https://go.onrampbitcoin.com/consult-fs-pod

GET ON THE LIST
• Onramp: our research, event invites, and the week's Bitcoin news in one free email. https://go.onrampbitcoin.com/research-fs-pod
• Early Riders Insights: the best content in the ecosystem, weekly. https://www.earlyriders.com/research

ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Bob Burnett was CTO of Gateway before starting Barefoot Mining in 2017, and now chairs the Ocean mining pool. He sorts miners into rabbits, horses and elephants, and argues the elephants' rush into AI hosting is trimming fat that never belonged: public miners have fallen from roughly 38% to 28% of hash rate, and he expects global hash rate to stay flat to down for up to two years. He explains why mining is a commodity business that sells block space, why off grid power beats an on grid contract, and why five pools building 80% of block templates is the risk Ocean and DATUM were built to fix. It closes on Core and Knots, what the BIP-110 fork revealed about consensus, and why Wall Street and nation states will have a voice.

CHAPTERS
00:00 - Bob Burnett: Barefoot Mining, Ocean and The Bitcoin Boomers
03:52 - Rabbits, horses and elephants: the three classes of miner
07:07 - Why the public miners pivoted to AI, and why that is healthy
10:40 - Worst hashprice ever, and what AI pays for power
18:07 - Hash rate is falling: is Bitcoin's security at risk
23:24 - Used rigs at dimes on the dollar, and the next mining chips
31:00 - Wild vs captured: why the future of mining is off grid
38:09 - All of Bitcoin mining is a $10 billion business
40:32 - Miners or hashers: five pools build 80% of blocks
46:03 - FPPS vs TIDES: the hidden cost of steady payouts
51:24 - Stratum V2 vs DATUM, and hundreds of templates on Ocean
56:12 - Bitcoin Core, Knots and why process matters
1:03:21 - What the BIP-110 fork taught Bitcoin about consensus
1:10:15 - The tenth man, and Ocean parting ways with Luke Dashjr
1:14:48 - The Bitcoin Boomers, and why boomers aren't the problem

ABOUT THE SHOW
Final Settlement Interview Series: a one on one interview series hosted by Liam Nelson, Partner at Early Riders. One guest, and a deep conversation on the deals, the capital and the technology moving through bitcoin, so you can hear how the people actually doing the work think about where the future is going. Presented by Early Riders and Onramp Media.
• Connect with Early Riders: https://www.earlyriders.com/contact
• Liam: https://x.com/Lnelson_21
• Bob Burnett: https://x.com/boomer_btc

MORE FROM ONRAMP MEDIA
• The Last Trade and First Principles: https://www.youtube.com/@OnrampMedia
• Signal vs Noise, live twice a week: https://www.youtube.com/@SignalvsNoiseLIVE
• Audio, every show: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1690709152 or search Onramp Bitcoin Media on Spotify
• News and data: https://onramp.media

Onramp does not provide financial, tax, or legal advice. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell any asset. This episode is for entertainment purposes only.

Brandon Quittem helped build Swan from a Bitcoin gifting app into a full service firm, and he thinks custody is the piece Bitcoin still needs before it grows 10x. Cam Stromme sits down with him on meetups, DCA, multisig and protecting your Bitcoin as if it were already worth ten times more.

Guest: Brandon Quittem, VP of Client Experience at Swan Bitcoin and founder of the Minneapolis Bitcoin meetup. https://x.com/Bquittem

BOOK A CONSULTATION
Holding Bitcoin for decades raises two questions: who protects it, and how it reaches your family. Onramp answers both. Three institutions protect it, and no single one can lose it, move it, or use it. Inheritance built in. Insured through Lloyd's of London. Speak with our team to see if it fits.
👉 https://go.onrampbitcoin.com/consult-fp-pod

GET ON THE LIST
Our research, event invites, and the week's Bitcoin news in one free email.
📩 https://go.onrampbitcoin.com/research-fp-pod

ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Brandon Quittem joined Swan as an advisor in 2019, came up through marketing and now runs client experience, so he has watched Bitcoin adoption from the first sales call to the recovery call. He tells Cam how Swan began as a gifting platform until users hacked it into a weekly DCA, why the company hired for content first, and why a steady buy is still the best guardrail against our own psychology. The second half turns to custody. Brandon makes the honest case against collaborative multisig before he makes the case for it, and explains why he sees it as the middle ground most holders will actually use. They cover the physical threat to holders, why withdrawal delays add real friction for criminals, Swan's RBX path out of GBTC, and why an inheritance plan needs legal title as well as access to the keys.

CHAPTERS
00:00 - Building Swan with Brandon Quittem
02:18 - From altcoins to Bitcoin only
07:53 - Starting a Bitcoin meetup people come back to
17:34 - Swan started as a Bitcoin gifting app
20:56 - Why Swan led with education
31:09 - Why DCA became the core product
41:05 - Seven years across every team at Swan
51:40 - Should you work at a Bitcoin company?
57:42 - Swan's custody journey
1:01:58 - The honest case for and against multisig
1:07:16 - What custody has to look like to scale
1:09:25 - Protect your Bitcoin like it's already 10x
1:13:25 - The physical threat to Bitcoin holders
1:22:42 - The third way: no single point of failure
1:24:17 - Why withdrawal delays stop criminals
1:27:34 - RBX and why to hold real Bitcoin
1:33:36 - Advice for young people: get off zero
1:37:25 - Inheritance: access is not the same as title

ABOUT THE SHOW
First Principles is Onramp Media's show on building and protecting Bitcoin wealth for the long term, hosted by Cam Stromme, Head of Private Wealth at Onramp. Join Cam's conversations with the people building Bitcoin's financial services on how they manage their own Bitcoin, how they weigh risk and tradeoffs, and what they see coming next.

MORE FROM ONRAMP MEDIA
• The Last Trade and Final Settlement: https://www.youtube.com/@OnrampMedia
• Signal vs Noise, live twice a week: https://www.youtube.com/@SignalvsNoiseLIVE
• Audio, every show: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1690709152 or search Onramp Bitcoin Media on Spotify
• News and data: https://onramp.media

Onramp does not provide financial, tax, or legal advice. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy or sell any asset. This episode is for entertainment purposes only.