BREAKDOWN: ‘If You’re Not Radicalized, You’re Not Paying Attention’ Feat. Nic Carter
Castle Island Ventures and Coin Metrics co-founder joins to discuss cascading crises, crypto dollarization and the state of the bitcoin narrative.
ABOUT
In this wide-ranging discussion, Castle Island Ventures founding partner and Coin Metrics co-founder Nic Carter joins @NLW to discuss:
- Why corporations weren’t adequately prepared for any serious economic trouble, much less a global pandemic
- Why government backstopping the corporations leads to inappropriate risk-taking
- How stock buybacks became a boogeyman of the current crisis
- Why the crisis is actually four crises in one: health, economic, financial, and geopolitical
- How Covid-19 could accelerate the US’ withdrawal from the world and China stepping into the void
- Why the response to the handling of Covid-19 could lead some to authoritarianism
- How stablecoins are allowing global market exposure to the world’s most in-demand currency: the USD
- Why stablecoins and central bank digital currencies look the same but are functionally opposite
- Why a ‘naive safe haven’ narrative was never correct for bitcoin
- Why bitcoin was designed for exactly this type of moment.
HOST
CoinDesk is the world leader in news, prices and information on bitcoin and other digital currencies.
We cover news and analysis on the trends, price movements, technologies, companies and people in the bitcoin and digital currency world.

EPISODES
The $300M move: Richard Teng on tokenizing Wall Street
9 hours ago
ICE goes live with futures tied to CoinDesk Indices
11 hours ago
Anthony Scaramucci predicts $150K BTC by year-end: This bear market will end 'when we least expect it'
Feb 12, 2026
Fighting for the soul of crypto: Charles Hoskinson on institutional "federation" and the rise of AI agents
Feb 12, 2026

The Mining Pod
Feb 10, 2025

CoinDesk Podcast Network
The top stories and best shows in the blockchain world, delivered daily from the team at CoinDesk.
Dec 20, 2023

Markets Outlook
Tune in as CoinDesk runs down action in the crypto market and some of the most important recent industry development.
Dec 19, 2023

Unchained
Unchained, your no hype resource for all things crypto by former Forbes senior editor Laura Shin, author of The Cryptopians.
Dec 18, 2023
