Is Bitcoin a Safe Haven? Market Correlation, Gold, and Macro Chaos – The Chopping Block - Ep. 823

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 is joined by special guest Joe Weisenthal, co-host of Bloomberg’s Odd Lots podcast, for a wide-ranging, unfiltered conversation. They dive into whether Bitcoin is becoming digital gold, why Ethereum’s value might be leaking away, and how stablecoins are quietly reshaping global finance. Joe challenges the panel on NFTs, DePIN, and whether any of crypto’s big promises have actually delivered. Plus, they debate the rise of MicroStrategy copycats, the failure of crypto social apps, and why Worldcoin’s orb-pilled vision might actually make sense.

Show highlights

🔹 Bitcoin = Safe Haven? – Why BTC is acting like gold in a crisis while ETH and altcoins are tanking

🔹 Ethereum’s Value Leak – Joe questions why ETH hasn’t captured any upside from stablecoins or NFTs

🔹 The MicroStrategy Clone Wars – Solana copycats are trying the Saylor playbook… but will it work?

🔹 Worldcoin’s Creepy Appeal – Joe is orb-pilled: privacy is dead, but proof-of-personhood might just work

🔹 The Freeport Theory of Bitcoin – Could BTC be the decentralized answer to offshore gold storage?

🔹 Are Stablecoins the Eurodollars of Crypto? – Haseeb lays out how stables quietly rewrote the financial system

🔹 Ethereum’s L2 Gamble – The panel debates if Ethereum’s scaling strategy caused value to bleed out

🔹 The DePIN Dilemma – Is decentralized infrastructure a dead-end or just early? Joe wants receipts

🔹 Crypto Social Media? – Joe’s skeptical: why decentralized comms hasn’t clicked yet

🔹 Utopia or Bust? – If crypto’s gonna be this expensive, Joe says it better deliver a better world

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 

Guest

⭐️ Joe Weisenthal, Editor at Bloomberg

Disclosures

Timestamps

00:00 Intro

01:57 Bitcoin's Market Behavior

06:53 Bitcoin as a Safe Haven

15:56 Economic Value in Crypto

19:51 Stablecoins, NFTs, and Worldcoin

36:00 Blockchain's Value in Social Networks

41:20 Reality of Crypto Utopias

49:19 The Future of Stablecoins and Regulation

54:54 MicroStrategy and Bitcoin Investments

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