The Bitcoin Layer

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290

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Aug 2026

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About the show

The Bitcoin Layer is a premium markets research provider, covering bitcoin through a global macro lens | Research, Analysis, & Education Featuring Nik Bhatia, author of the #1 Amazon bestseller Layered Money and USC Marshall School of Business professor. Subscribe to our research publication and YouTube channel to learn about global macroeconomics, bitcoin, Lightning Network, the monetary and financial system, the Federal Reserve, interest rates, and geopolitics. Most importantly, develop a framework for understanding global markets—connect the dots between economic and financial concepts to see the bigger picture. Look no further for your bitcoin and macro education!

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August 19, 202623 min

Global Macro Update: The Real Reason Bitcoin Just Ripped

In this Global Macro Update, Nik covers the financial war he sees playing out across treasuries and currencies, and why bitcoin popped above $67,000 on the back of it. He walks through the trend lines he is watching, and why the zone between $70,000 and $82,000 is the work bitcoin has to do before a technical bull market emerges. Nik explains why he calls Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent the Secretary of Volatility, where he thinks Bessent's lines in the sand sit on the dollar and the ten-year yield, and how the new buyback program functions as a form of yield curve control. He also covers why rates are rising naturally in an AI boom. The Bitcoin Layer and its guests do not provide investment advice.

August 12, 202622 min

Bitcoin Just Went Vertical (Is The Bear Over?)

In this episode, Nik covers bitcoin's 22% week and a run that took price to just shy of $80,000. He walks through the multi-year trend line connecting the FTX lows to the start of the ETF bull market, why bitcoin generates most of its returns in short concentrated bursts, and the bullish divergence that showed up before this move. Nik explains why he thinks the real driver was not the Treasury buyback but the yen intervention and the developing US-Japan monetary alliance, and why Kevin Warsh lowering front-end rates is the only lever left. He closes on gold's run to $5,500 and the rising correlation between bitcoin and gold. The Bitcoin Layer and its guests do not provide investment advice.

August 11, 202634 min

Russia Is Now Legalizing Bitcoin for Trade with Joe Consorti

In this episode, Demian welcomes back Joe Consorti for a conversation on the Clarity Act and what it means for bitcoin. Joe explains the bill's three buckets, how it would separate commodities from securities and put bitcoin under the CFTC, and why he sees that as a win for investor protections rather than price. He covers why the bill has stalled in the Senate over ethics concerns, why he thinks that fight is now ideological, and why the stablecoin rails it would create make it bullish long term. Joe also covers Russia legalizing bitcoin for cross-border settlement, the jobs revisions that boxed in the Fed, and why he thinks bitcoin's low is likely in. The Bitcoin Layer and its guests do not provide investment advice.

August 7, 202623 min

Self Custody Is Not Dead with Stacie Waleyko

In this episode, Demian welcomes back Stacie Waleyko, a bitcoin developer with the Bitcoin Dev Project, on the Coldcard entropy vulnerability and the ongoing theft of funds. Stacie explains how hardware wallets are supposed to source randomness, why affected devices fell back to a weaker software path, and why anyone with funds from a post-2021 Coldcard should move them now. She covers the suspicion that attackers used an open weight model to grind through the reduced key space, how a licensing switch removed the Trezor library that had worked, and why she now points people toward multi-vendor multisig. They also get into covenants and why she argues self custody is not dead. The Bitcoin Layer and its guests do not provide investment advice.

August 5, 202639 min

Why Jack Mallers Walked Away From Twenty One

In this episode, Nik welcomes Jack Mallers, founder and CEO of Strike, for a conversation on his exit from Twenty One. Jack describes the guilt and humility of stepping away from a company whose vision he says did not work, and where Strike sits between an operating company like Coinbase and a conviction vehicle like Strategy. He shares his reaction to the Coldcard vulnerability, which he calls a horror because the victims did everything right, and why he still does not think self-custody is dead. Jack also covers the red team of AI agents now testing Strike's code, and why he calls America's AI strategy shameful next to China's open-source push. The Bitcoin Layer and its guests do not provide investment advice.

August 3, 202643 min

Tracing the Stolen Coldcard Bitcoin w/ Galaxy's Alex Thorn

In this episode, Nik welcomes back Alex Thorn of Galaxy Research on the Coldcard key generation vulnerability and the theft that followed. Alex explains how a March 17, 2021 firmware change left the devices silently defaulting to a much weaker random number generator, a bug that went unfound for five years, and why the victims are self-custody holders who never leaked a key or made a mistake. He walks through Galaxy's on-chain tracing across three confirmed waves totaling roughly 1,350 bitcoin, or about $88 million, why the stolen coins are sitting inert, how cheap compute and open source AI models made the exploit trivial, and what Coldcard owners should consider doing now. The Bitcoin Layer and its guests do not provide investment advice.

July 31, 202625 min

Coldcard Wallet Hack: What Happened and What to Do Now

In this episode, Nik and TBL's Demian Schatt cover a breaking security situation: a seed-generation vulnerability in Coldcard hardware wallets that has exposed some bitcoiners to theft, with reports of wallets being swept over the last twenty-four hours. Nik, speaking as a researcher rather than a cryptographer, explains how bitcoin seed phrases are generated, why the entropy behind a seed is what keeps it safe, and how Coldcard's default seed generation left certain users vulnerable while those who added dice-roll entropy or a passphrase are better protected. He explains why bitcoin ETF holders are not affected and why he has long favored diversified storage. The video is a call to action: check your wallet and how your seed was generated. The Bitcoin Layer and its guests do not provide investment advice.

July 29, 202633 min

Kevin Warsh Just Blew Up How the Fed Works

In this Global Macro Update, Nik covers today's FOMC decision and Kevin Warsh's press conference, where the new Fed chair reaffirmed the 2% inflation target as a firm goal and made clear he is steering the Fed away from forward guidance. Nik explains why Warsh took credit for the recent rise in Treasury yields, calling it healthy price discovery, and why Warsh now says the Fed will look to the Treasury market for signal rather than telling markets what it will do. He also covers the yield curve steepening on the day, the Nasdaq correction and Korea's stock market crash, and why he thinks Treasury yields have left their four-year anchor for good. The Bitcoin Layer and its guests do not provide investment advice.

July 28, 20261 hr 10 min

The Great Unwinding Wall Street Isn’t Pricing In with Matt Dines

In this episode, Nik welcomes back Matt Dines to lay out his thesis that the global order built after World War Two is being reset. Matt walks through the signals he is watching: the Kuwaiti pipeline deal with Blackstone, KKR, and Brookfield that reroutes energy toward Europe, the US-China rare earths truce and its expiring clock, and the chokepoints from Hormuz to the Red Sea. He connects rising real yields, a flattening curve, and dollar strength to that same reconfiguration, then turns to the Paramount and Warner Brothers fight over Oracle bonds and why he believes the November elections will resolve much of it. The Bitcoin Layer and its guests do not provide investment advice.

July 22, 202651 min

The $45,000 Bitcoin Everyone Fears Is Getting Less Likely

In this episode, Nik walks through the latest bitcoin research from Johan Bergman, head of bitcoin research at The Bitcoin Layer, using the charts inside TBL Pulse. He explains Johan's state grid, which plots bitcoin on valuation and trend, and why the framework currently places bitcoin in disbelief territory, a zone where, together with capitulation, bitcoin has spent roughly 40% of its life. Nik covers why bulls bracing for $45,000 are facing data that makes it less likely, and why the 200-day moving average near $73,000 stands as the final boss of the downtrend. He closes on why not retesting the realized price this cycle would signal a maturing bitcoin market. The Bitcoin Layer and its guests do not provide investment advice.