About this episode
In this episode of Bullish on Bitcoin Show, Alexei is joined by two heavyweights from Anchorage Digital — Nathan McCauley, CEO and co-founder, and David Lawant, Head of Research. Anchorage is the first federally chartered crypto bank in the US and the institutional custodian of choice for some of the largest Bitcoin holders in the world, making this conversation an unparalleled window into what institutions are actually doing with their Bitcoin right now.
From the lessons learned building the first regulated crypto bank, to the stunning 10x growth in Bitcoin options markets since the ETF launch, to the most exotic client requests Anchorage has ever received (Bitcoin as collateral on perp DEXes), to the philosophical debate on self-custody vs. institutional custody in a post-Coldcard world — this episode covers the full arc of where institutional Bitcoin is heading, and what agentic finance means for the next chapter.
In this episode, we discuss:
- Nathan's origin story: from Bitcoin skeptic to building the first US federally chartered crypto bank
- David's journey: from TradFi equity research and gold bug to leading crypto research at Anchorage
- The "DeFi mullet" thesis: DeFi in the back, TradFi in the front — and why Anchorage walks this tightrope deliberately
- Hal Finney predicted most Bitcoin would be held at banks — and why Nathan believes Anchorage is the proof
- Key lessons for DeFi-native projects going institutional: compliance is as hard as smart contract engineering
- How the Bitcoin market has structurally changed since the ETF launch — and why it's now harder to read
- Bitcoin options grew 10x in two years: who's writing covered calls, and why treasury companies and miners lead the yield race
- The most exotic institutional Bitcoin request: custody at Anchorage + collateral on a perp DEX simultaneously
- The self-custody vs. institutional custody debate: why the Coldcard incident is accelerating demand for the "best of both worlds"
- Bitcoin ETF in-kind redemptions: could Bitcoin ETFs one day work like gold ETFs where you withdraw the underlying?
- Why LLMs already recommend Bitcoin for inflation hedging and rank it #2 for remittances after stablecoins
- Anchorage's "Know Your Agent" framework: why AI agents need identity, reputation, and a compliance perimeter
- The Waymo analogy for agentic finance: human in the loop first, then trust expands with track record
- Why agents might protect consumers from bad financial decisions better than humans can
- Agent identity, LLCs for agents, and what credit underwriting for AI looks like
