Blockspace: AI & Bitcoin

Episode Title: SBF Goes to Hollywood, SEC Clears Nasdaq for Tokenized Trading, Clarity on CLARITY
Hosts: Charlie Spears & Colin Harper
Date: March 20, 2026

Episode Overview

This packed episode of Blockspace delivers a tour de force through the latest in Bitcoin market volatility, hash rate trends, AI’s growing impact on Bitcoin mining and coding, celebrity-powered crypto dramas, regulatory moves in tokenized stock trading, and the wild world of “Maxi Madness” (think the March Madness of Bitcoin’s biggest influencers). Interviews featuring industry insiders such as Portland Hodl and Ayden Killick (CEO, Hive) provide deep dives into how AI is turbocharging Bitcoin development and compute infrastructure. The episode closes with an update on the much-watched Clarity Act, set to reshape US crypto regulation.

Key Segments & Highlights

1. Bitcoin Mining & Hash Rate Volatility

[02:12 – 12:44]

• Market Update:

  • Bitcoin is hovering around $70,000 amid a “macro liquidity crunch.” Other traditional safe havens like gold and silver are also down, while bond yields and the US dollar are up.
  • Hash price: $30.46 per PH/day — “not an all-time low, not that great either.”
  • Network hash rate has plummeted: down from 1,086 EH/s (Feb 28) to about 938 EH/s—a reduction of ~150 EH/s in 2-3 weeks.

• Causes for Hash Rate Drop:

  • Pivot of public/big miners toward AI operations.
  • Possible disruption from the recent war in Iran and broader Middle East geopolitics affecting regional bitcoin mining operations.
  • Depressed hash price: unprofitable miners shutting off.

• Upcoming Difficulty Adjustment:

  • Live on the show, a downward adjustment of about –7.23% is anticipated, offering some relief for miners—“biggest swing since the China mining ban in 2021.”
  • “Out of the last twelve adjustments since October... nine have been downward. That does NOT happen, y’all.” – Colin ([07:28])

• “Whiplash” from Multiple Factors:

  • Weather events (Texas and Tennessee storms)
  • “I got whiplash, man. How do I collect my insurance check? Who’s the CEO of Bitcoin?” – Charlie ([07:52])

• Quote:

  • “This kind of movement with bitcoin’s hash rate and the extreme volatility and undulations is something that we haven’t really seen since the China mining ban in 2021.” – Colin ([08:21])

2. SBF Goes to Hollywood: The FTX Netflix Biopic

[12:56 – 18:44]

• Netflix Series:
  • Titled The Altruist, produced by the Obamas' Higher Ground Productions, focuses on SBF and Caroline Ellison’s relationship—emphasizing drama over fraud.
  • “This is how historical revisionism creeps into the masses, you know.” – Colin ([14:09])
  • Casting: Anthony Boyle as SBF, Julia Garner as Caroline Ellison (“glowed them up, man. Absolutely glowed them up.”).
• Competition:
  • At least three FTX projects are in the works: Netflix, Lena Dunham/Apple, and Amazon with the Russo Brothers.
• Pop Culture Note:
  • “Why do we have three of these things? I mean, you only really need one, but it’s gotta be done well. I don’t think any of them are going to be done well.” – Colin ([16:43])
• Humor:
  • Speculating whether SBF or his lawyers could claim IP/royalties from the biopics. ([18:05])

3. AI & Bitcoin Coding with Portland Hodl

[18:48 – 30:59]
Guest: Portland Hodl, Bitcoin Developer

• AI Adoption in Coding:

  • Portland used a billion tokens of Anthropic’s Claude model in February alone: “I wanted to hit a billion tokens and build everything I’ve always wanted to build.” ([20:03])
  • Example: Built a Rust FFI interface to Bitcoin Core’s miniscript using Claude—AI handled boilerplate, test suite porting, reducing manual labor.

• On AI’s Impact on Software Work:

  • “This is probably the most deflationary technology I’ve ever witnessed.” – Portland ([21:05])
  • High-agency developers leveraging AI will outcompete: “You don’t need to ask [teammates] to do things… You’ll see much smaller, flatter teams.” ([26:34])

• Quote:

  • “At the end of the day, if you have high agency and vision, you can use [AI] as a force multiplier… whatever you dream, you could probably ask it to make.” – Portland ([26:32])

• Lightning Round:

  • Claude Code vs. Codex? “Claude Code, hands down.” ([30:13])
  • Token spend: $1,000 for a billion tokens (~1 month of development). ([28:40])

4. SEC Approves Nasdaq Tokenized Trading; Coinbase & Morgan Stanley News

[32:09 – 40:19]

• SEC/Nasdaq Approval:

  • SEC approves Nasdaq to support tokenized securities (stocks) trading on blockchain; details still unclear but rollout expected late Q3 2026.
  • “Don’t expect this to look like the DeFi landscape… they want complete control over it.” – Colin ([36:16])

• Coinbase Non-US Perpetuals:

  • Non-US users can now trade perpetual stock futures (Apple, Microsoft, Tesla, ETFs, indices).

• TradFi/DeFi Tug of War:

  • Both legacy and crypto-native exchanges are expanding into each other's markets.
  • “You’re starting to see the intersections of both tradfi and crypto really ramp up, both sides trying to protect their piece of the pie.” – Colin ([35:29])

• Morgan Stanley ETF Update:

  • Morgan Stanley’s Bitcoin ETF gains its ticker (MSBT), pending launch on NYSE.

5. AI Compute Arms Race: Interview with Hive CEO Ayden Killick

[40:31 – 65:10]
Guest: Ayden Killick, CEO & President of Hive Digital

• Industry Update:

  • Reports back from Nvidia’s GTC and latest hardware (Vera Rubin, Nemo Claw). Nvidia is selling high-end “AI boxes” ($160k each).
  • “Tokens per second per watt” is now the equivalent of terahash: efficiency of compute output for AI.

• Hive Expansions:

  • Manitoba and British Columbia: Quick ramp-up of HPC/AI clusters. Bell partnership: “A $30 million deal… increased our annual run rate revenue from $20 million to $35 million. 70% increase just like that.” ([44:06])
  • AI clusters offer contracted, predictable returns.
  • Breaking down facility specs, power use, and economics with real numbers.

• Strategy: Neo Cloud vs. “Powershell”:

  • Hive builds both infrastructure for others and runs its own GPU cloud. Neo cloud model (operating clusters for customers) yields faster ROI (2.5 years vs. 7-8+ for powershell).
  • “As the street gets more comfortable… you start seeing five year contracts for GPU rentals, you are literally baking in 2x ROI into a fixed term contract.” ([58:08])

• Paraguay R&D:

  • First cluster operating in partnership with Tigo, testing LLM workloads, leveraging low power costs in future expansions.

• Comparison:

  • “In tech stocks that’s a relative bargain... We’re an even better buy than Nvidia right now.” – Ayden ([64:37])

6. Maxi Madness: The March Madness of Bitcoin Influencers

[66:17 – 74:48]
Guest: Rod Palmer, CEO of Bitcoin Bugle

• What is Maxi Madness?

  • Twitter and Nostr “brackets” pit Bitcoin influencers, podcasters, and personalities against each other. Winners decided by social media voting (and sats via Lightning on Nostr).
  • “Maxi madness is that without all the athletic ability—just Bitcoin influencers, podcasters, entrepreneurs, builders and some other people sprinkled in.” – Rod ([67:08])

• Bracket Highlights:

  • Four regions: Node, Pioneer, Podcast Conference Industrial Complex (Pod Comp), and Hot.
  • Notable upsets: Aaron Redwing beat Ross Ulbricht (“lock him up!” as trash talk). ([70:34])

• Rules & Intrigue:

  • “If you win this, you are the CEO of Bitcoin. Until next Maxi Madness...” – Charlie ([74:14])
  • Previous winners: Teddy Bitcoins clinched 2025 over Michael Saylor.

7. Clarity Act Update: Regulation on the Horizon

[74:48 – 79:26]

• What is the Clarity Act?

  • Crypto market structure bill:
    • CFTC gets jurisdiction over digital commodities spot markets
    • SEC retains jurisdiction over investment contracts
    • Tailored registration for exchanges/brokers/custodians
    • Clear carveouts for DeFi if clearly decentralized
    • Limits on regulator power over stablecoins

• Legislative Progress:

  • Passed House, now in Senate Banking Committee.
  • Sen. Lummis: “We think we’ve got it. We are really going to get [it] out of the Banking Committee in April.”
  • Democrats seek concessions: barring lawmakers from crypto investments, CFTC seat appointments.

• Key Issue—Stablecoin Yield:

  • Banks and exchanges clash over whether stablecoin holders should earn yield/interest—potential compromise likely to see “rewards” programs rather than direct interest.
  • “On the yield issue... rewards programs that steer clear of bank language may survive the compromise if they’re more akin to credit card rewards than interest from bank deposits.” ([78:50])

Notable Quotes & Moments

• “Out of the last twelve [Bitcoin difficulty adjustments]... nine have been downward. That does NOT happen, y’all.” – Colin ([07:28])
• “This is how historical revisionism creeps into the masses, you know.” – Colin on Netflix’s SBF show ([14:09])
• “You don’t need to ask [teammates] to do things… You’ll see much smaller, flatter teams.” – Portland Hodl ([26:34])
• “If you win [Maxi Madness], you are the CEO of Bitcoin. Until next Maxi Madness...” – Charlie ([74:14])
• “As the street gets more comfortable… start seeing five year contracts for GPU rentals, you are literally baking in 2x ROI…” – Ayden Killick ([58:08])
• “This whole time we were building super hard money to disrupt the financial system, but the real wedge issue apparently is interest on your stablecoins.” – Charlie ([79:26])

Timestamps for Important Segments

• Bitcoin Mining Volatility, Hash Rate Trends – 02:12–12:44
• SBF Netflix Biopic Discussion – 12:56–18:44
• AI Coding with Portland Hodl – 18:48–30:59
• Nasdaq/SEC/Coinbase/Morgan Stanley News – 32:09–40:19
• Hive CEO Ayden Killick on AI Compute – 40:31–65:10
• Maxi Madness (Bitcoin Influencer March Madness) – 66:17–74:48
• Clarity Act Regulatory Update – 74:48–79:26

Summary Table

| Topic | Segment Time | Key Guests | Key Quotes / Moments | |-------------------------------------- |---------------------|---------------------- |-------------------------------------------------------------------| | Bitcoin Hash Rate / Market Update | 02:12–12:44 | — | “Out of... twelve... nine have been downward. That does NOT happen.” | | SBF Hollywood Biopic(s) | 12:56–18:44 | — | “Historical revisionism creeps into the masses...” | | AI/Bitcoin Coding/Engineering | 18:48–30:59 | Portland Hodl | “You have the force multiplier, the ability to produce unlimited code.” | | Nasdaq Tokenization & TradFi Encroach | 32:09–40:19 | — | “They want complete control...not like DeFi landscape.” | | AI Infrastructure Arms Race | 40:31–65:10 | Ayden Killick (Hive) | “2x ROI... five year contracts for GPU rentals...” | | Maxi Madness (Bitcoin influencers) | 66:17–74:48 | Rod Palmer (Bugle) | “You are the CEO of Bitcoin. Until next Maxi Madness...” | | Clarity Act / Regulatory Outlook | 74:48–79:26 | — | “Rewards, not interest, on stablecoins likely favored compromise.”|

For more deep dives, subscribe to Blockspace on your favorite podcast platform or check out the newsletter: newsletter.blockspacemedia.com