Unchained
Unchained
Laura Shin
Bits + Bips: Why the AI Rally Keeps Growing — and Why Circle Launched Arc
53 minutes Posted May 11, 2026 at 6:44 pm.
Introduction and Iran ceasefire update
What Ram and Chris are watching in oil and Hormuz
Why markets are shrugging off geopolitical noise
Ram on why the market is all one giant bet on AI
Is the AI rally a bubble or a fundamental shift?
Circle launches Arc: could its token compete with its own stock?
Coinbase: were the layoffs due to AI or the bear market?
What it says about the industry that Consensus’s afterparty was at E11even The Crypto Industry’s Maturity Problem
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Show notes
Ram says the entire market is now one giant AI trade. Chris argues the boom is backed by real fundamentals. Austin asks: is AI creating value for the right companies?
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Circle just made history as the first publicly traded company to run a token presale, raising $222 million from BlackRock, Apollo, ICE, and a16z at a $3 billion valuation — and the stock went up.
At the same time, Coinbase reported a $394 million loss, cut 700 jobs, and suffered a five-hour outage. 
Ram, Austin, and Chris work through what's really happening: whether Circle's Arc is the institutional payment rail the industry has been waiting for or a financial engineering play, whether Coinbase's troubles are cyclical or structural, and whether the AI-driven market rally is a bubble forming or a fundamental shift that makes the dotcom comparison wrong.
Hosts:
⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Austin Campbell (@austincampbell) — Founder, Zero Knowledge Consulting; Adjunct Professor, NYU Stern
⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Ram Ahluwalia⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Co-Host, CEO of Lumida
⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Chris Perkins⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, Co-Host, CEO of 250 Digital Asset Management
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