What Bitcoin Did
What Bitcoin Did
Danny Knowles
The Global Financial System Is Structurally Broken | David Dredge
1 hour 13 minutes Posted Dec 26, 2025 at 10:41 am.
October 1987 crash and risk management
Defining risk as vulnerability, not predictability
The Sharpe ratio and flawed financial metrics
TradFi and leverage in the Bitcoin system
How large option markets impact Bitcoin
Endogenous risk and the buildup of leverage
TradFi destroys everything
Race car analogy: The key is good brakes
The fiat currency world is frustrating
Moving to a hard money standard
The single biggest weakness in economic policy
The true solution is productivity gains
Eliminate the unrecoverable so that you can pursue the unimaginable
The big risks in the macro world right now
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Show notes

David Dredge joins the show for a deep dive into why risk is being dangerously misunderstood across global markets, and why Bitcoin’s recent underperformance may actually be a symptom of structural stress, not failure. David explains why volatility itself isn’t the risk, why leverage is the real accelerant, and how TradFi risk models quietly manufacture systemic blow-ups.

We unpack how suppressed volatility, ETFs, options markets, and structured products are changing Bitcoin’s market structure, why leverage is creeping in through Wall Street rather than native crypto venues, and how max pain dynamics emerge when under-capitalised risk builds up. David breaks down why the four-year cycle narrative is breaking down, why Bitcoin’s muted year isn’t about demand weakness, and how positioning ultimately drives outcomes.

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