In this video, an experienced barista shows you how to make four simple coffee drinks using only two ingredients – coffee and one other component. Perfect for hot summer days or to elevate your daily coffee routine.

☕ 1. Shakerato (Italian Espresso Shake)

• Ingredients: Espresso (approx. 30 ml) + 5 g sugar (demerara, brown sugar, or simple syrup)
• Preparation:
  • Combine espresso and sugar in a cocktail shaker.
  • Use a milk frother to create foam (10–15 seconds).
  • Shake vigorously with plenty of ice until the shaker is frosty.
  • Strain into a glass – a refreshing, airy treat with a martini-like texture.
• Tip: Use a medium roast with chocolate or nutty notes.

🥤 2. Espresso Tonic

• Ingredients: Espresso (approx. 30 ml) + 150–200 ml tonic water
• Preparation:
  • Fill a glass with ice, then slowly pour in tonic water (leave about 1 inch/2.5 cm of space).
  • Gently layer the espresso over the back of a spoon.
  • Stir softly – light, floral, or fruity coffees pair best with the bitter-sweet tonic.
• Tip: Avoid agitating the tonic too much to keep the carbonation and layering intact.

🥛 3. Aerocano (An Elevated Americano)

• Ingredients: Espresso (approx. 60 ml) + 60 ml hot water + 100 g ice
• Preparation:
  • Mix espresso with hot water, then add ice.
  • Use a milk frother to aerate and mix until most of the ice has melted (15–20 seconds).
  • The result is a nitro-like, creamy texture – far superior to a classic Americano.
• Tip: This drink works with almost any coffee profile.

🍨 4. Affogato (Espresso Ice Cream Treat)

• Ingredients: Double espresso (approx. 60 ml) + 2–3 scoops vanilla ice cream or gelato
• Preparation:
  • Place the ice cream in a cup and extract the hot espresso directly over it.
  • The espresso melts the ice cream slightly, creating a creamy, bittersweet dessert.
• Tip: Use decaf coffee if you're caffeine-sensitive – perfect for an evening treat.

🎁 Extras & Sponsorship

• This video was sponsored by Alton, showcasing their Moka portable espresso maker, Finero grinder, and LatteGo milk frother.
• All products are available at alton.com/mdc.
• Happy 4th birthday, Alton! (Celebration starts August 15th).

In this podcast episode, Erin talks to Seth Ginns, Chief Investment Officer of Franklin Crypto at Franklin Templeton. Seth brings 18 years of growth investing experience and was an early Ethereum participant, including joining the original token sale.

Market Analysis: Is the Crypto Crash a Buying Opportunity?

The recording took place during a severe sell-off on November 5–6. Seth puts the events into context:

• Hedge fund liquidations: Several pods and larger funds unwound positions and faced significant redemptions.
• VIX at ~28: Readings above 25 often point to forced selling; historically, forward returns after such spikes tend to be solid.
• Bonds as safe haven: Yields fell, indicating a classic flight to quality — no immediate signs of fiscal dominance concerns.
• Gold stronger than expected: While the Nasdaq fell about 6%, gold closed higher. That is relatively strong.
• Bitcoin resilience: Bitcoin dropped less than the Nasdaq – a sign of growing robustness.

Seth's Strategy in Stress Phases

• Fundamental analysis over timing: Seth focuses on protocols with real revenue and value accrual to the token – often via buybacks.
• No panic mode: Despite an elevated VIX, a second signal (MOVE, Treasury implied volatility) is still missing. Only when both are elevated is a potential bottom near.
• Vigilance: As in the 2022 bear market, it is important not to get aggressive too early and to wait for the all-clear signal.

Leverage: A Warning

Seth warns against excessive leverage, as crypto is already volatile: “You don't need leverage to achieve 5x or 10x returns.” Many market problems are driven by leverage – both at hedge funds and in crypto retail.

Bitcoin vs. Gold

• The long-term Bitcoin vs. Gold chart shows a secular uptrend.
• Bitcoin is still a tiny fraction of gold's market cap and has far more appeal among younger generations.
• Supply dynamics: As Bitcoin's price rises, miners have to sell fewer coins. For gold, higher prices tend to incentivize more supply.

Tokenization & Real-World Assets

• Tokenized equities are a major theme: The regulatory door is slowly opening.
• Currently, many issuers (around 56–57) decline tokenization – but Seth sees this as an education phase. Once the benefits become clear (24/7 trading, loyalty mechanics), more issuers will likely follow.
• Protocols like Uniswap, Aave, Hyperliquid show how real business models with revenue can emerge – with clearly defined value accrual to token holders.

Outlook for Bitcoin and Gold

• Due to the current political landscape (Democrat sweep in Congress, additional spending) and a bias toward liquidity, Seth expects higher gold and Bitcoin prices.
• AI equities are likely to receive political support to avoid excessive volatility.
• Over the next year, Seth sees a constructive environment – especially Bitcoin should continue to gain ground relative to gold.

Conclusion

Seth remains calm: The recent correction looks more like a healthy pullback than a fundamental break. Investors who know good projects should “sharpen their pencils” during such phases instead of panicking.

📉 Shattered Support Levels

The Nasdaq 100 (QQQ ETF) suffered its worst day of the year (-6.5%), decisively breaking the 200-day moving average and a multi-year bull trendline. The S&P 500 showed similar technical weakness, losing key trend supports. These 'fat tail' events are becoming alarmingly frequent.

🔍 Politics vs. The Credit Cycle

Nick Bhatia argues the crash is less about the midterm elections and more about a fundamental shift in liquidity and credit markets.

• IPO Pipeline Dries Up: Anthropic’s November IPO is looking unlikely, and OpenAI just slashed its capital raise target from $30B to $20B. Investors are fleeing risky assets as liquidity tightens.
• Bonds Confirm the Slowdown: The US 10-year Treasury yield plummeted 55 basis points to 4.81%. The yield curve is steepening. This signals expectations of slowing growth and falling inflation, a sector that is largely apolitical and started weeks before the election.

⚖️ Bitcoin's Relative Strength

While stocks crash, Bitcoin is holding just above its start-of-year price. The Nasdaq has erased almost all of its 2026 gains. This divergence supports the thesis that capital is rotating away from speculative equities towards scarce, hard assets like Bitcoin.

Key Message

• Vaults will become a critical part of global financial infrastructure – but the space is still early.
• Current usage is largely limited to on-chain looping and point farming, which the speaker describes as rather “cheap” or lacking substance.

Progress & Adoption

• The infrastructure is increasingly proving itself.
• Reputable asset managers – both the speaker’s firm and well-known TradFi asset managers – are beginning to enter the space.
• Partnerships with prominent TradFi custodians are underway to offer tokenized securities.
• These developments are converging and will make vaults very important going forward.

Regulatory Hurdles

• The main issue is the currently limited SEC innovation exemption for vaults and automated market makers (AMMs).
• Much of a vault’s value lies in its permissionless nature and composability.
• Once transfer points or access-restricted networks are added, the exemption only allows an AMM on a whitelisted platform – without real liquidity.
• In that form, it is not practically useful.

Outlook

• As a result, many benefits of vaults are currently available only offshore.
• It remains to be seen whether US regulation catches up or explicitly distances itself from these applications.

The Largest Hack in History Hit Binance

On October 29 at 4:00 PM Eastern Time, North Korean hackers made off with $6.3 billion from Binance – the largest hack ever, not just in crypto. Fortunately, about half was frozen, but the incident remains unprecedented.

How the Hack Unfolded

• An infected developer laptop was the entry point. 9 out of 10 major attacks in the last three years started this way.
• The hackers gained access to a service container that could sign transactions – like having access to a pen in a bank that issues checks.
• They pre-signed 50 transactions with different nonces and used one to convert the hot wallet into a smart wallet (via EIP-7702).
• From there, they drained all assets while new deposits kept flowing in and were instantly stolen.

The Role of EIP-7702

• EIP-7702 allows a regular crypto wallet (EOA) to temporarily borrow a smart contract's code.
• The hackers used it to drain all assets in one transaction – more efficient, but not the root cause.
• The hack would have happened with or without EIP-7702; it just sped things up.

Key Takeaway

• This hack is a story about operational security, malware, and likely social engineering.
• New features like EIP-7702 expand the attack surface, but the core failure was inadequate protection of signing capabilities.
• The community must learn from this to prevent future attacks.

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Listen to the full conversation on the podcast 'Unchained' with Laura Shin – live every Monday and Thursday.

The New Political Reality

The 2026 midterms resulted in a historic Democratic sweep of both chambers of Congress, fundamentally breaking the political paradigm of the last decade and reshaping the landscape for crypto regulation.

• The Clarity Act is widely considered dead. The window for industry-friendly market structure legislation has closed, at least for this Congress.

The Internal Democratic Fight

There is a severe split within the Democratic party on how to handle crypto:

• The Revenge Wing (Warren Faction): Senator Elizabeth Warren (incoming Chair of the Banking Committee) is expected to launch aggressive oversight and regulation. The hosts describe this as an 'anti-crypto army' focused on litigating past grievances.
• The Pragmatic Wing: A wave of new, younger millennial members (Tarico, Andrews) is less interested in waging war on tech and more focused on kitchen-table issues like affordability and anti-corruption.

Key Quote: “The extremism of some members of the crypto industry mirrors their antagonist in Elizabeth Warren. ...they are more similar to each other than they are to people in the middle.” (Horseshoe Theory).

Concrete Threats to the Industry

• Market Structure Bill 2.0: Rep. Maxine Waters is drafting a much stricter bill, likely including stricter DeFi rules, expanded SEC jurisdiction, and mandatory 24-hour payout audits.
• Genius Act Implementation at Risk: Even though enacted, the Democratic Congress can hamstring its implementation through budget riders and hostile oversight of the rulemaking agencies.
• Investigations: A major focus will be the Trump family's crypto ventures (World Liberty, meme coins). This scrutiny creates a political opening for other companies to position themselves as good-faith actors.

A Strategic Reset is Required

Panelists Mike Katz and Justin Slaughter strongly advise the industry to change its strategy immediately:

• Super PACs are a weapon of last resort. The massive spending (e.g., $56M against Sherid Brown) failed to intimidate Democrats and may have backfired.
• Build Bridges: The industry must stop relying on raw financial power and instead engage in good faith on Democratic terms, explaining crypto's utility in areas like cheaper payments and financial inclusion.
• Pick Your Battles: Accepting stricter rules on custody and audits while pushing back on extreme DeFi bans is the path forward. The next two years are critical to avoid a much worse outcome if Democrats win the presidency in 2028.

Market Mechanics and Current Situation

• The stock market shows remarkable resilience: despite rising interest rates (10-year Treasury from 4% to 5%), higher oil prices (55 to 95 USD), and geopolitical events, stocks gained 11%.
• The market is currently the second most expensive in history (only surpassed by the dot-com bubble), with a dividend yield at historically low 1%.

Key Market Drivers

• Passive investing dominates with 55-60% of market activity – automated purchases via 401(k) plans and retail investors.
• Foreign inflows: $1.6 trillion flowed into the US market in 2025.
• Stock buybacks by companies: approximately $800 billion annually (including stock-based compensation).
• Inelastic market hypothesis: Each invested dollar increases market capitalization by $5–8. Combined, $2 trillion inflows explain a $10 trillion rise.

What Would Trigger a Proper Crash?

1. Reversal of 401(k) contributions: Starting in 2028, baby boomers may generate net negative contributions for the first time.
2. Panic selling by foreign investors: They hold over $20 trillion in US assets; a $5 trillion withdrawal could push the market down by $25 trillion.
3. Halt of stock buybacks due to a recession.
4. Negative inelastic market: Selling would amplify the downtrend.

• Prerequisite: A severe recession like 2001/2009 – as long as the US economy grows (Q4 accelerated), the market remains stable.

Outlook and Strategy

• Mark Spitznagel predicts a crash around 2027–2028 with an 80% decline, but remains short-term optimistic and hedged.
• Value investing opportunities still exist: Realty Income (dividend + inflation protection), Netflix, Kaspi (high dividend yield), Chinese internet stocks (oversold).
• Recommendation: Focus on fundamentals rather than timing a crash. Buffett quote: "When others are less cautious, we should be more cautious."