Why Crypto Buybacks Are 'the Wrong Way to Allocate Capital'
Unchained | Oct 14 2026 | 00:59:43
ARK Invest's Lorenzo Valente says quantum fears and the Ledger hack are speeding up the death of self-custody, that Ethereum has to pick a lane, and buybacks are “crazy.”
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Justin Drake warned that ECDSA, the cryptography securing Bitcoin and Ethereum, could break before Q-Day, in the worst case "in months, not years," and an attack on Ledger devices sold through a third-party reseller has led to about $100 million in losses. Lorenzo Valente, Director of Research, Digital Assets at ARK Invest, says both threats speed up a trend ARK already saw: self-custody is slowly dying.
He tells Laura Shin why ARK favors a barbell of exchanges that own the user and infrastructure like Solana, Uniswap, and Aave, and why he would point a first-time Bitcoin buyer to an ETF. They also cover Satoshi's coins, why Ethereum's L1 accrues so little while Robinhood makes millions, and why he calls the buyback craze irrational.
Plus: ARK's tokenized venture fund, Cloudflare's agentic commerce plans, and why Binance has never swapped out its USDT despite earning no yield. If he's right, crypto's next wave of users may never hold their own keys.
Host:
Laura Shin, Host / Unchained
Guest:
Lorenzo Valente - Director of Research, Digital Assets at ARK Invest
Timestamps
🔭 01:27 Why Lorenzo says crypto investing is moving from '0 to 1' to '1 to 100'
🧮 08:41 Justin Drake's ECDSA warning and why RIAs keep asking ARK about quantum
💸 16:42 Nexo: Generate daily interest on your crypto or borrow against your assets at https://unchainedcrypto.com/go/nexo-podcast-yt
🏋️ 17:31 The barbell: why Lorenzo favors exchanges and core crypto infrastructure
🪙 24:34 Satoshi's coins and why Lorenzo is less worried about Bitcoin's quantum fix
🔐 26:28 Ledger, Bitget, and why Lorenzo sees 'nowhere to hide' in hardware wallets
🍔 30:11 Ethereum's 'franchise model' and why Lorenzo says L1 value accrual is broken
🔥 38:04 Why Lorenzo thinks crypto has gone 'crazy' over token buybacks
📈 45:17 Why ARK thinks tokenized equities could pass stablecoin supply in 3 years
🤖 51:04 Cloudflare, AI bots, and why L1s are still orders of magnitude too slow
💵 54:05 Why Binance never dropped USDT, and what that says about Tether and Circle
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
========================================================
Thank you to our sponsor!
Put your crypto to work with Nexo: earn daily interest or borrow funds against your assets on one platform trusted by more than 10 million clients.
Find out more at https://unchainedcrypto.com/go/nexo-podcast-sn.
Geo-restrictions, eligibility and terms apply.
========================================================
Quick favor: We're deciding what Unchained does next; new shows, stream times, what's worth paying for. Our listener survey takes five minutes, it's anonymous, and I read the write-in answers myself. Everyone who takes it can enter a drawing for a free year of Unchained Premium or Bits + Bips Premium. Open through Sunday, October 18.
— Laura
========================================================
Justin Drake warned that ECDSA, the cryptography securing Bitcoin and Ethereum, could break before Q-Day, in the worst case "in months, not years," and an attack on Ledger devices sold through a third-party reseller has led to about $100 million in losses. Lorenzo Valente, Director of Research, Digital Assets at ARK Invest, says both threats speed up a trend ARK already saw: self-custody is slowly dying.
He tells Laura Shin why ARK favors a barbell of exchanges that own the user and infrastructure like Solana, Uniswap, and Aave, and why he would point a first-time Bitcoin buyer to an ETF. They also cover Satoshi's coins, why Ethereum's L1 accrues so little while Robinhood makes millions, and why he calls the buyback craze irrational.
Plus: ARK's tokenized venture fund, Cloudflare's agentic commerce plans, and why Binance has never swapped out its USDT despite earning no yield. If he's right, crypto's next wave of users may never hold their own keys.
Host:
Laura Shin, Host / Unchained
Guest:
Lorenzo Valente - Director of Research, Digital Assets at ARK Invest
Timestamps
🔭 01:27 Why Lorenzo says crypto investing is moving from '0 to 1' to '1 to 100'
🧮 08:41 Justin Drake's ECDSA warning and why RIAs keep asking ARK about quantum
💸 16:42 Nexo: Generate daily interest on your crypto or borrow against your assets at https://unchainedcrypto.com/go/nexo-podcast-yt
🏋️ 17:31 The barbell: why Lorenzo favors exchanges and core crypto infrastructure
🪙 24:34 Satoshi's coins and why Lorenzo is less worried about Bitcoin's quantum fix
🔐 26:28 Ledger, Bitget, and why Lorenzo sees 'nowhere to hide' in hardware wallets
🍔 30:11 Ethereum's 'franchise model' and why Lorenzo says L1 value accrual is broken
🔥 38:04 Why Lorenzo thinks crypto has gone 'crazy' over token buybacks
📈 45:17 Why ARK thinks tokenized equities could pass stablecoin supply in 3 years
🤖 51:04 Cloudflare, AI bots, and why L1s are still orders of magnitude too slow
💵 54:05 Why Binance never dropped USDT, and what that says about Tether and Circle
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices