In this episode, Santi and Jason discuss the SAB-121 vote with Blockworks' Senior Reporter Casey Wagner, unpacking its bipartisan political support and huge implications for crypto. They cover the DOJ's charges in the $25M MEV boost exploit, the resurgence of meme stock mania with GameStop, and the ongoing Pump.Fun exploit drama. Santi shares his framework for valuing L1 and L2 blockchains based on total economic value. They close our by highlighting insights from DBA's research day and share their favorite youtube comments. Enjoy!
- -
Follow Casey: https://x.com/caseywagnerr
Follow Jason: https://twitter.com/JasonYanowitz
Follow Santiago: https://twitter.com/santiagoroel
Follow Empire: https://twitter.com/theempirepod

Subscribe on YouTube: https://tinyurl.com/4fdhhb2j
Subscribe on Apple: https://tinyurl.com/mv4frfv7
Subscribe on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/wbaypprw

Start your day with crypto news, analysis and data from Katherine Ross and David Canellis. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire

Get top market insights and the latest in crypto news. Subscribe to Blockworks Daily Newsletter: https://blockworks.co/newsletter/
- -
Sei Labs believes the EVM is here to stay.

By providing the fastest time to finality of any chain, thousands of transactions per second and full backwards compatibility with the EVM, Ethereum developers can try out a brand new design space for their applications.

Try out sei v2 devnet - visit the new sei.io to find out more.
- -
This episode is brought to you by Aura, the AI-powered digital security protection app that keeps your personal information, passwords, online activity, and tech safe from digital threats. It’s all-in-one protection from identity theft, financial fraud, malware, scams, and more.

For a limited time, Aura is offering our listeners a 14-day FREE trial plus up to 55% off an Aura subscription.

Visit aura.com/blockworks to sign up for your free trial.
- -
SKALE is a modular, AppChain network that offers zero gas fee transactions and instant finality. Tailored for ease of development and onboarding, SKALE's configurable EVM chains enable next-gen use cases in gaming, AI, DePin, and others. With over 20,000,000 users having saved over $6 Billion on gas fees, SKALE is the blockchain for mass adoption.

Bridge to SKALE at portal.skale.space and stay up to date with the gasless blockchain at @skalenetwork
- -
Kinto is the Safety-first L2 designed to accelerate the transition to an on-chain financial system.

If you believe in this on-chain financial system, join Kinto's launch program (Engen) and become a founding member at engen.kinto.xyz
- -
Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction
02:12 SAB 21 Vote
12:51 Crypto Voting in the US
28:00 MEV Boost Exploiters Charged by DOJ
36:02 SEI Ad
37:01 Aura Ad
37:49 Kinto Ad
38:45 Skale Ad
40:02 PumpFun Exploit
45:08 Youtube Comment Hate
47:11 GameStop Return
52:06 DBA Research Day
55:54 How to Value L1s & L2s
- -
Disclaimer: Nothing said on Empire is a recommendation to buy or sell securities or tokens. This podcast is for informational purposes only, and any views expressed by anyone on the show are solely our opinions, not financial advice. Santiago, Jason, and our guests may hold positions in the companies, funds, or projects discussed.