The Chopping Block: OM’s Collapse, Vitalik’s Morality Test, & Tariff Chaos - Ep. 819

Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner chop it up about the latest in crypto. In this episode, the crew dives into the drama surrounding the OM token crash, the murky world of fake market caps, and Binance’s role in fueling questionable projects. They unpack Trump’s tariff chaos and whether Bitcoin could emerge as the real winner in a broken economic order. Plus, Vitalik stirs the pot by calling out “bad apps” like Pump.fun—igniting a moral war over what crypto should be building.

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pods, Fountain, Podcast Addict, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.

Show highlights

🔹 OM Token Implodes – How a top-25 token collapsed 90% in 90 minutes and why it exposed deeper issues with fake float

🔹 Market Cap Manipulation – Haseeb breaks down how teams game CoinGecko, and why circulating supply might be mostly fiction

🔹 Binance Listings = Domain Squatting? – The crew explores how projects “reverse-merge” into dead tokens to skip the line

🔹 Coffeezilla Strikes Again – The panel reacts to OM founder’s bizarre interview and what it reveals about crypto’s accountability gap

🔹 Should Exchanges Demand Disclosures? – A fiery debate on whether market making agreements should be public

🔹 Tarun Goes Full Macro – Why Trump’s tariffs could actually boost Bitcoin—and what capital flight means for crypto

🔹 Vitalik’s App Morality Test – Did he go too far calling Pump.fun a “bad” app? The panel isn’t so sure

🔹 Ethereum’s Vibe Crisis – Solana and Base push back as Vitalik gets philosophical about the soul of crypto

🔹 Is Railgun the Real Hero? – Tarun questions Vitalik’s taste in apps and whether ideological projects matter if no one uses them

🔹 Regulation Without Regulators – Can the industry police itself, or is it time for a new kind of crypto SRO?

Hosts

⭐️Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly

⭐️Robert Leshner, CEO & Co-founder of Superstate

⭐️Tarun Chitra, Managing Partner at Robot Ventures

⭐️Tom Schmidt, General Partner at Dragonfly 

DisclosuresLinks

Use Code CHOPINNOVATE, for tickets to the U.S. Innovation in Crypto conference at Cornell Tech on Roosevelt Island (NYC): cbc25.eventbrite.com

Timestamps 

00:00 Intro

02:47 Trump's Tariff Turmoil

15:48 Mantra's OM Token Controversy

29:42 Crypto Disclosures & Market Making Agreements

31:49 Debate on Exchange Incentives & Market Maker Costs

33:57 The Role of Self-Regulation in Crypto Exchanges

44:15 Vitalik's Views on Blockchain Ethics

56:33 Upcoming Live Event Announcement

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