Rod Askarov

The crypto era is over. Long live crypto. Some thoughts on a16z Crypto becoming a16z Frontier. Initially building logistics infrastructure on distributed technologies seemed sensible. It was the golden age of DeFi and NFTs. Distributed systems promised direct information exchange between companies without a central intermediary. IBM and Maersk were building TradeLens along similar lines. Then came two blows. First Luna. Then FTX. Other problems damaged the sector's reputation too. Web3 sounded better than crypto, but a different name did not restore trust or fix bad business models. Europe also introduced MiCA. That did not end crypto. But in my view, by the end of 2023, much of the original promise, removing intermediaries and returning money and power to people, had run its course. The technology did not disappear. Instead, it started blending into the broader tech landscape. Prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi gained attention. They work differently, but users care about what they can do. Not the infrastructure underneath. Businesses kept experimenting with product provenance, loyalty programmes, priority purchase rights and programmable money. Some found real uses. Others are still looking. Yet calling every such solution a crypto project makes less sense. Not every business using the internet is an internet company. This is why a16z's name change makes sense. To be clear: they are not stopping crypto investments. Chris Dixon said that explicitly. They are expanding their focus. Crypto became too narrow a label. Frontier also covers new devices, autonomous machines, and entirely new products and markets enabled by AI. Investment firms have outgrown web, mobile, SaaS and fintech specialisations before. Some are now outgrowing crypto as a standalone category. Not necessarily the technology. The category. AI agents buying compute. Credit and energy markets on public blockchains. Programmable money. Still very much relevant. But calling them crypto tells us little about what is being built or whose problem it solves. Define a business by what it does. Not just the technology it uses. Interesting times. But attention is moving on. Beyond the next AI model or infrastructure layer. Towards what they make possible for the first time. Not just doing old things faster. Doing genuinely new things.

So Here Is What Actually Happened Binance hot wallets reportedly lost $5.6 billion across Ethereum, Bitcoin, and Tron. Another $200 million was reportedly transferred recently, suggesting the incident may still be ongoing. Around $2.38 billion has reportedly been frozen by Tether and Circle, while roughly $2.6 billion remains unfrozen. The stolen funds include 18,270 BTC worth $1.45 billion and 197,000 ETH worth $451 million, which cannot be frozen directly. Around $730 million in USDT remains unfrozen. The attack method is still unconfirmed. The biggest questions now are whether more funds can be frozen, where the BTC and ETH move next, and how the assets were withdrawn. If confirmed, the $5.6 billion figure would be far larger than Bybit’s $1.5 billion hack in February 2025. These figures are based on the provided report and have not been independently verified.

The rules of Roy Cohn, the man who taught Trump to win. A scene from The Apprentice (2024) Cohn was Senator McCarthy's chief counsel in the 1950s, prosecuted the Rosenbergs, and became Trump's lawyer in 1973. In this scene he has just won Trump's case against the Justice Department, not in court but through blackmail. In 1986 Cohn was disbarred for unethical conduct, and he died a few weeks later.

📦 $10,000 of T-shirts. A $100,000 invoice. $90,000 of dirty money just crossed the border. New Risk Cafe‌ Files: The Paper Trail. How trade-based money laundering works, from over-invoicing to the black market peso exchange, and the red flags that give it away. 👥 Train your team: The Paper Trail Training Pack (45-min session, quiz, certificates) 📌 TBML Red Flags Cheat Sheet 🛒 payhip.com/SafeSquareConsulting ▶ Full episode on YouTube: @TheRiskCafe The cargo is real. The trick is in the paperwork. Save this and tag someone in trade finance 👇 #TBML #TradeBasedMoneyLaundering #AML #MoneyLaundering #TradeFinance #FinancialCrime #Compliance

Istanbul. July. No freezers… and the Sultan wants his sherbet ice-cold 🥶 Every summer, ice was cut on Mount Uludağ, the ancient Olympus above Bursa, carried down by mule and shipped to Istanbul for the palace kitchens. What was it for? Sherbet: a sweet fruit drink, cooled with snow. The Turkish word şerbet (from Arabic for "a drink") went west. Its first known use in Italian is in a Venetian ambassador's report from the Ottoman court in 1581: sorbetto. By the late 1600s Italian cooks froze it in snow and salt, and the drink became a dessert. So next time a sorbet gives you a brain freeze… blame the Sultan. 😄 📜 Sources & scholarship: • Evliya Çelebi, Seyahatname, vol. II (Bursa, Keşiş Dağı / Uludağ) • Pierre Belon, Observations (1553), on snow-cooled sherbet • Jacopo Soranzo, relazione (1581), via the Italian etymological dictionaries (DELI, VoSLIG) and Treccani • Antonio Latini, Lo scalco alla moderna (Naples, 1694) • Ayşe Özkan Emanet, Osmanlı Sarayına Kar ve Buz Temini (TTK) • Elizabeth David, Harvest of the Cold Months (1994)

grab your popcorn 🍿 we’re so back

The humanoid robot race just got insane. 🚀 We’re not talking about slow shuffling or gentle handwaves - this machine is pulling off high-speed aerial kicks, backflips, and heavy-duty emergency maneuvers. Here’s why the tech world is freaking out over this release: 🔋 8-Hour Powerhouse: Standard humanoids tap out in 2-3 hours. The H2-X runs for a massive 8 hours straight. ⚡️ Raw Motor Torque: Packed with 31 articulated joints pushing up to 360 N·m of torque to deliver lightning-fast martial arts precision. 🧠 Monster Compute: Over 2,070 TOPS of AI processing power handles real-time vision, balance, and spatial awareness instantly. 🛡 Built to Guard & Assist: Staged demos show it pulling heavy loads, clearing hazards, and handling extreme physical rescue tasks. Unitree reminded everyone to use it "safely and in a friendly manner"- and looking at those kicks, you definitely want to stay on its good side! Video: X/UnitreeRobotics #unitree #kungfu #robotics #humanoid #innovation

Level 8 | 8 Levels of Wealth in NYC

Level 7 | 8 Levels of Wealth in NYC

the AI boom has a bill to pay. building the infrastructure is only the beginning. the harder part is earning enough from it to justify the investment. how much of your own spending do you think AI could eventually earn? source: stijn van nieuwerburgh, financing the AI buildout; brookings / columbia business school, 2026.

Level 6 | 8 Levels of Wealth in NYC

Level 5 | 8 Levels of Wealth in NYC

Level 4 | 8 Levels of Wealth in NYC

Level - Tony - Level 3 - 8 Levels of Wealth in NYC