What happens when every market starts trading like crypto?
This week, Santi and Rob examine how leverage, automation, and retail speculation are exporting crypto-style volatility across traditional finance.
They also explore CLARITY’s fading odds, AI fatigue, Robinhood’s onchain expansion, and the battle between public and private tokenization. Enjoy!
TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Intro
00:58 CLARITY’s Falling Odds
04:54 Everything Trades Like Crypto
08:53 AI Capex and Semiconductor Volatility
12:47 The Death of Long-Term Investing
18:19 Why Market-Neutral Funds Win
20:09 Institutional AI Fatigue
24:22 AI’s Token Economics Problem
25:55 peaq Ad
26:41 AI Token Costs and Model Routing
30:37 Robinhood Chain’s Early Traction
34:13 Prediction Markets Eclipse Crypto
38:51 Ethereum L2 Activity Collapses
45:49 Ondo’s Private Chain Bet
52:18 Stablecoin Adoption and Crypto VC
58:55 Content of the Week
Robots will soon outnumber humans onchain. peaqOS turns them into a new trusted liquid asset class, with yield tied to real-world workloads. It gives robots all they need to do business on any chain — and lets humans earn from automation.
Explore the Machine Economy: https://peaq.xyz
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EVENTS
› Join us at Digital Asset Summit 2026 Asia October 7th & Digital Asset 2026 London November 10-11th
https://blockworks.com/events
DISCLAIMER
Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only. Any views expressed are opinions, not financial advice. Hosts and guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.