CFB Talks Digital Assets

CFB Talks Digital Assets is the home of informed conversation about crypto from CF Benchmarks. We are the first and leading digital asset index provider, authorized and regulated by the UK FCA. Respected and innovative financial institutions use our indices and reference rates to power regulated financial instruments, like listed derivatives, investment funds and structured products. Join CF Benchmarks’ Head of Content, Ken Odeluga, Head of Research, Gabe Selby, CFA and Research Analyst, Mark Pilipczuk, as they talk with some of the most accomplished and influential figures in finance, about everything affecting digital assets — crypto protocols, markets, fund flows, on-chain metrics, macroeconomics and more.

CFB Talks Digital Assets is a business podcast hosted by Unknown Host, with 0 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Unknown Host hosts CFB Talks Digital Assets, a business show with 0 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Episode #71

  New on CME: CFB's Basket Indices, the Bessent Put, and Our Jackson Hole Preview

  Aug 20, 20261h 5mS1

  In this week's CF Benchmarks live X Space, recorded August 20, 2026, Head of Research Gabe Selby is joined by Research Analyst Mark Pilipczuk and Kraken Chief Economist Thomas Perfumo, with CF Benchmarks CEO Sui Chung joining as a special guest for a landmark product announcement. The panel unveils two new benchmarks, the CME CF Crypto Market Index (CMI) and the CME CF Emerging Crypto Index (ECI), set to launch on August 31, before turning to a frenetic twenty-four hours in markets: a US Treasury long end buyback increase that failed to hold yields down for even one session, a sharp Bitcoin breakout past key resistance, and a first look at the July FOMC minutes ahead of next week's Jackson Hole symposium, where Kevin Warsh takes the podium. Chapters: 00:00 – Intro & Team Welcome 01:33 – Breaking: CME and CF Benchmarks Announce Two New Crypto Indices 03:15 – Why Build Both a Market Index and an Emerging Leaders Index? 08:47 – Inside CMI's Universe: From 1,000 Tokens to the Top 12 14:57 – Product Market Fit: The Rule That Sets CMI Apart 20:19 – Unveiling ECI: Crypto's Satellite Sleeve 26:29 – ECI by the Numbers: Fees, TVL, Users & the DeFi Leaders Behind Them 28:32 – Why Launch Now? Regulatory Clarity Meets Market Timing 31:27 – Treasury's $4 Billion Buyback Bet Meets the Bessent Put 35:47 – Deficits, Duration & Why Crypto Is Outperforming Big Tech 41:13 – Bitcoin's Breakout: Reflexivity and the Levels to Watch 48:55 – FOMC Minutes Recap: AI Inflation Chatter and a Balance Sheet Task Force 52:35 – Jackson Hole Preview: What Will Warsh Say? 1:01:30 – Week Ahead: PCE, Fund Flows, MSTR & the Treasury Auction Slate

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  Episode #70

  Our Read on Inflation, Clarity's Odds of Passage & DeFi's Revenue Era

  Aug 13, 20261h 2mS1

  In this CF Benchmarks live X Space, recorded August 13, 2026, Head of Research Gabe Selby is joined by Research Analyst Mark Pilipczuk and Kraken Chief Economist Thomas Perfumo for a roundtable covering markets, macro, and Fed policy, with a surprise appearance from Bitwise Research Analyst Ishmael Asad. Chapters:00:00 – Intro & Team Welcome 02:46 – Strategy's STRC Preferred: Racing Back to Par 08:02 – ETH Treasury Preferreds, Issuance & the EIP That Could Lower Staking Rewards 11:35 – July CPI: A Setup for a Fed Pause? 16:43 – Bitcoin vs. Stocks vs. Gold: Who Wins on CPI Surprises? 19:52 – Oil, Iran & the Fed's Reaction Function 25:33 – 2022 Redux? Comparing Today's Labor Market to the Last Hiking Cycle 32:38 – Jackson Hole Preview: What to Expect From Chair Warsh 37:33 – Clarity Act: Reading the September Senate Vote 44:47 – DeFi's Revenue Era: Hyperliquid, Aave, Uniswap & Pump.fun 47:31 – Tokenized Equities: The Next 10x for RWAs 51:28 – The Return of Buybacks: DeFi's Value Accrual Thesis 54:25 – From Layer 1s to App Layer: Where Fees Actually Accrue 57:30 – Week Ahead: Jackson Hole, Clarity & ETF Flows

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  Episode #69

  Signs of a Bitcoin Bottom, Vault Adoption & The Fed's September Meeting

  Aug 6, 20261h 8mS1

  Has Bitcoin bottomed and what could determine its next move? Recorded live on August 6, 2026, this episode of CF Benchmarks X Space examines Bitcoin’s performance relative to gold and the Nasdaq, the growing adoption of on-chain asset-management vaults, and the outlook for the Federal Reserve’s September meeting. CF Benchmarks Head of Research Gabe Selby, CFA, is joined by Research Analyst Mark Pilipczuk; Kraken Chief Economist Thomas Perfumo, CFA; CF Benchmarks Senior Product Manager James Flamant; Head of Business Development Peter Stern; and special guest André Dragosch, PhD, Director and Head of Research for Europe at Bitwise. The panel begins with Bitcoin near $64,000, Brent crude below $80 and a softer-than-expected ADP employment report. They assess whether Bitcoin has formed a bottom, what market breadth and return dispersion suggest about the broader cycle, and which indicators they are watching next. The conversation then turns to on-chain asset-management vaults: how they work, where they sit on the adoption curve, and why curation, valuation and round-the-clock creation and redemption introduce risks that investors must understand. The episode closes with a discussion of oracle reliability, the safeguards needed for on-chain derivatives, and whether a September rate hike is now off the table. Chapters: 01:38 – Meet André Dragosch: Bitwise Europe's Research Chief 06:45 – Market Snapshot: Bitcoin at $64K, Brent Below $80 & a Soft ADP Print 08:34 – Has Bitcoin Bottomed? The Relative-Value Case vs Gold & the Nasdaq 13:32 – CFB's Market Cycle Engine: Market Breadth, Return Dispersion & a Still-Bearish Structure 17:41 – What Thomas Perfumo is Watching 23:00 – James Shares What's on His Watchlist 24:06 – A View From Sales: The Summer Lull & the Wealth-Platform Unlock 25:12 – On-Chain Asset Management: What a Vault Actually Is 28:26 – Curation, Valuation & 24/7 Create-Redeem: The Index Provider's View 34:58 – Where Vaults Sit on the Adoption Curve 44:01 – Oracle Robustness: The Weakest Link in On-Chain Derivatives 52:15 – Rapid Fire: Is a September Rate Hike Dead? 59:24 – Week Ahead: NFP, CPI, ETP Flows & CLARITY's Last Gasp 1:07:27 – Closing Remarks

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  Episode #68

  Post-FOMC Debrief, Treasury Companies Under Pressure & CLARITY Stalls Again

  Jul 30, 20261h 13mS1

  In the latest CF Benchmarks live X Space, recorded July 30 2026, Head of Research Gabe Selby, CFA is joined by Research Analyst Mark Pilipczuk, Kraken Chief Economist Thomas Perfumo, CFA, and special guest Tyler Evans, Co-Founder and Chief Investment Officer of UTXO Management. Tyler is a career Bitcoiner. He co-founded BTC Inc, the publisher behind Bitcoin Magazine and The Bitcoin Conference, before launching UTXO Management, a Bitcoin-native asset manager focused on asymmetric opportunities across public and private markets. The Fed held for a fifth consecutive meeting with three regional presidents dissenting in favor of a hike, the most unified dissent since 2016. The 30 year yield closed at its highest level since 2007. Q2 GDP came in at 1.5% against expectations near 2.1%. Strategy raised another $544 million of common equity without buying a single Bitcoin. And with the Senate's August recess days away, the CLARITY Act remains stuck behind an unresolved ethics provision. The panel works through what all of it means for Bitcoin, treasury companies, and the broader crypto market. Chapters: 00:00 – Intro & Team Welcome 04:02 – Grading Warsh's Second Press Conference 08:14 – Three Inflation Shocks & the Case for a Hold Through Year-End 12:52 – The Yen at 40-Year Lows & the Carry Trade Read-Across 14:24 – Is the Fed Losing Control of the Long End? 16:22 – Yield Curve Control: Playing Against the House 20:47 – GDP Misses at 1.5%: Soft Headline, Firmer Internals 23:08 – Best Case, Worst Case: Oil, Tariffs & the AI Capex Wobble 26:07 – The K-Shaped Economy & Why the US Is Insulated 28:42 – Dissent Contagion & Volatility Sequencing Across Assets 31:25 – Saylor on Defense: Cash Reserve, Dilution & STRC Buybacks 34:56 – Rebuilding mNAV: Aligning Equity Accretion With Bitcoin Per Share 37:32 – Stretch at $89: Betting Against Strategy Means Shorting Bitcoin 41:15 – Digital Asset Treasuries: Throwing Out the Baby With the Bathwater? 46:00 – Supply Concentration: Bitcoin vs ETH & Hyperliquid Treasuries 48:54 – Volatility Harvesting & the Coiled Bitcoin Spring 54:21 – CLARITY at the One Yard Line: UTXO's Bearish Base Case 56:58 – Week Ahead: Jobs, ECI, Strategy Earnings & the CLARITY Act

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  Episode #67

  Cross-Asset Volatility at the Lows, the AI CapEx Reckoning & the Latest Text For CLARITY

  Jul 23, 20261h 1mS1

  Could oil be the catalyst that wakes cross-asset volatility? In this CF Benchmarks X Space, recorded on July 23, 2026, CF Benchmarks Head of Research Gabe Selby, CFA (@gxselby), is joined by Research Analyst Mark Pilkoczuck; Kraken Chief Economist Thomas Perfumo, CFA (@ThomasPerfumo); CF Benchmarks Head of Business Development Peter Stern (@sternpeter9); and special guest Craig Shapiro (@ces921), Senior Macro Strategist at NinjaTrader and author of The Aletheia Narrative. The conversation captures markets at a genuine inflection point. With July options expiry behind us and dealer positioning near cyclical lows, the cross-asset volatility suppressed throughout the year may finally be reawakening. Craig explains his “coiled spring” framework for record-low implied correlations and traces the potential sequence of a volatility shock—from oil to rates, credit and, ultimately, equities. The group also examines why the hyperscalers’ AI capital-expenditure boom is increasingly relying on external financing rather than free cash flow—and whether that shift is beginning to strain some of the world’s most profitable companies. The discussion then turns to the CLARITY Act, including the Senate draft’s ethics provision and the compressed timeline ahead of the August recess, leaving its prospects for passage close to a coin flip. Chapters: 00:00 – Introduction and Team Welcome 01:55 – Meet Craig Shapiro: Two Decades on the Buy Side 04:14 – Market Snapshot: Bitcoin, Oil and Rates 05:49 – Implied Correlations and the “Cold Spring” Effect 12:15 – Semiconductors vs. Software: Where the Dispersion Lies 15:38 – Hyperscalers Turn Cash-Flow Negative 21:21 – AI CapEx: Payback, Funding and the Shift From Debt to Equity 29:52 – The Yen Carry Trade and Dollar-Yen at 40-Year Highs 35:45 – Oil, Inflation and the July CPI 38:43 – Crude’s Backwardation and the 2027 Supply Glut 39:59 – Can the Fed Ignore Oil? Warsh’s Next Move and the Balance Sheet 46:50 – The CLARITY Act: Inside the Senate Draft and Its Ethics Provision 56:12 – The Week Ahead: What We’re Watching Listen to the original X Space: https://x.com/i/spaces/1vKpPPAqaVmKE Follow the speakers and organizations on X: CF Benchmarks — @CFBenchmarks https://x.com/CFBenchmarks Gabe Selby, CFA — @gxselby https://x.com/gxselby Thomas Perfumo, CFA — @ThomasPerfumo https://x.com/ThomasPerfumo Peter Stern — @sternpeter9 https://x.com/sternpeter9 Craig Shapiro — @ces921 https://x.com/ces921 Kraken — @krakenfx https://x.com/krakenfx NinjaTrader — @NinjaTrader https://x.com/NinjaTrader

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