Unchained: The Chopping Block – Tokenomics Reset — ICOs Rise, UNI Turns On Fees, MEV Goes to Court

Host: Laura Shin
Guests: Aseev, Tom, Tarun, Robert
Date: November 15, 2025
Episode: 949
Timestamps: Bracketed throughout

Episode Overview

This episode dives deep into the paradigm shift currently underway in crypto tokenomics – with a pronounced move from airdrops to ICOs as the primary token distribution method. The Chopping Block crew, consisting of crypto insiders and investors, unpacks the resurgence of ICOs, Uniswap’s major governance pivot, and a headline-grabbing MEV court case. Expect heated debate, inside baseball stories, and some fresh takes on how regulatory and community landscapes are reshaping what comes next in crypto.

1. The Rise of ICOs and Collapse of the Airdrop Meta

ICOs Make a Comeback

• The episode opens with a spirited discussion about the return of ICOs, spotlighting the Monad and Mega ETH token launches.
• ICOs are being handled through more established platforms like Coinbase, with stricter rules on flipping tokens and attempts to channel tokens to committed holders, not short-term speculators.
• “You’re putting in the hands of someone, but you’re not putting in the hands of your users… so why don’t you just sell the tokens on the market and skip the middleman, which is essentially what an ICO is. So I think the ICO is the right answer.” — Aseev [00:00]

Oversubscription and Rules for Good Buyers

• New rules echo IPOs: rapid token flippers risk future exclusion.
• “If you quickly flip your shares that you get in the IPO, you basically get…you can’t participate in IPOs for a while…Coinbase is doing the same thing. So you can participate in the ICO and flip it, but if you do, you may not get to participate in future ICOs.” — Aseev [06:05]
• “These sales are extremely oversubscribed and so obviously the leverage sits with the sellers.” — Tom [07:16]

Influence of Crypto Personalities & Social Media

• “ICO Beast,” a prominent influencer, lost allocation in the Mega ETH ICO after publicly sharing plans to hedge profits, prompting debate about trust, ethics, and PR mechanics in token allocations.
• “Why were you bragging about your hedging strategy? …You’re telling everyone, so you’re also creating adverse selection for yourself.” — Tarun [07:49, 08:34]
• FOMO and influencer optics vs. alignment with project goals discussed.

2. Are Airdrops Over? Data, Debate, and Disillusionment

Farming Fatigue

• The crew (especially Aseev and Robert) criticize airdrop farming as costly, gamified, and largely ineffective for building sustainable userbases.
• “At this point in 2025, we can look at all of this as just marketing…And in general, if you’re attracting the right users, then that marketing is well spent. If you’re attracting the wrong users, marketing poorly spent…I think, you know, nine times out of ten, it’s poorly spent.” — Robert [11:21]

Notable Data Point

• There is little evidence that airdrop recipients become sticky, high-value users.
• “It does seem like the experiment has been run and that we don’t have almost a single example of a sticky airdrop. It just is crazy how much churn airdrop recipients have.” — Aseev [15:53]
• CAC (customer acquisition cost) vs. LTV (long-term value) framework: In crypto, airdrops rack up CAC with minimal LTV.
• “Airdrops as a product would just be non existent already. It’d be a crater.” — Aseev [15:53]

Exceptions: Defi, Linear Airdrops

• Some success seen in DeFi projects where airdrops are directly linked to metrics like liquidity provision or lending/borrowing.
• Outside DeFi, most airdrops are gameable and unproductive.

ICOS As The New Model

• “The ICO is the right answer…if you know that this interim thing of like, okay, people who show up and like do random actions on my testnet is not actually my long term users, then I’m not accomplishing the goal of getting tokens in the hands of long term users. So I might as well get them in the hands of long term buyers.” — Aseev [16:51]

3. Uniswap’s Fee Switch Flip: Protocol Unification & Governance Milestone

A New Era for Uniswap

• Uniswap’s drastic shift: burning 100 million UNI, collapsing the company/frontend vs. protocol split, and turning on protocol-level fees.
• “They are dropping all the front end fees, the wallet fees, the API fees, allocating 20 million a year to a Uniswap growth budget and turning on the fee switch. And this will basically finally make it so that the UNI token is the primary beneficiary of everything within the Uniswap ecosystem.” — Aseev [21:58]

Regulatory Chill Thaws

• Many attribute the prior division to the hostile SEC environment, which led to years of legal ambiguity and personal cost for Uniswap’s team.
• “The act of issuing a subpoena and creating these cases is extremely expensive and invasive. I had thousands of hours of my life lost on this and millions of dollars spent in legal fees…in between where it’s like the act of not even really enforcement can still ruin these companies.” — Tom [26:12]

Industry Ripple Effects

• “This is the start of a new meta, frankly. I think people were waiting for Uniswap as a standard bearer for a long time.” — Robert [27:18]
• A “second act” for DeFi tokenomics is underway, as other projects are likely to follow Uniswap’s lead.
• “All investors, whether they hold the token or whether they hold the stock, unified. They’re all unified. Unified in favor of one asset. And if that’s not the case, you’re going to get conflicts of interest…” — Aseev [31:11]
• Speculation on the legal structure and thanks to legal architects like Miles Jennings for paving the way with the “duna”/DUNA structure.

Notable Quotes

• “If Uniswap’s not afraid to do this the right way…No one’s going to be.” — Robert [28:39]
• “Everybody should celebrate. Totally.” — Robert [31:00]

4. MEV Goes to Trial: Law, Game Theory, and Crypto Ethics

The Case: “Low Carb Crusader” MEV Bot

• The Perer Buen brothers ran a bot that “sandwiched” other sandwich attackers, netting $25M in seconds. Indicted on wire fraud and related charges.
• The defense: everyone involved was sophisticated, there were no complaints from victims, and everything was transparent.
• The prosecution: framed the actions as deception and criminal exploitation.

Complexity and Mistrial

• Multiple jurors ended in tears; all were overwhelmed by technical details (MEV, PBS, mempool mechanics).
• Mistrial declared; DOJ intends to retry.
• Discussion about “rule of lenity”: If it’s not obvious something is criminal, it shouldn’t be prosecuted as such.
• “The answer here is that clearly these guys should be acquitted. Because if you had asked me…is sandwiching sandwich attackers illegal under criminal law? …If it’s not obvious, then it should not be criminal.” — Aseev [46:06]

Game Theory, Permissionless Systems, and Legal Ambiguity

• Tarun provides key insight, knowing both parties, explaining the economics and technical nuances, and arguing the gray area between protocol rules and out-of-protocol manipulation.
• “In a world of permissionless transactions, all is fair in love and war and someone lost. But…I do kind of get the idea that this is extra protocol in the sense that Ethereum’s consensus rules do not give you any guarantee on this.” — Tarun [43:22]
• Comparison to traditional markets (spoofing laws), which also grapple with borderline manipulative behavior.

Critique of Prosecutorial Priorities

• Panel criticizes the DOJ for prosecuting complex, uncertain “victimless” crypto exploits — especially on behalf of a non-US victim who did not testify — while ignoring rampant, clear scams.
• “If you told me someone made a scam token and then owned 80% of the supply and rugged someone…why are we not prosecuting that?” — Tarun [50:02]

5. Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Aseev [00:00]: "So I think the ICO is the right answer."
• Robert [11:21]: "Nine times out of ten, it’s poorly spent, people are attracting the wrong users, the wrong audience…"
• Tom [07:16]: "These sales are extremely oversubscribed…obviously the leverage sits with the sellers."
• Tarun [43:22]: "In a world of permissionless transactions, all is fair in love and war and someone lost."
• Aseev [15:53]: "Airdrops as a product would just be non existent already. It’d be a crater."
• Robert [31:00]: "I have tremendous respect for them doing this. I view this as…such a major milestone that everybody should celebrate totally."
• Tarun [19:36]: "Very few of the things that actually do well in long term value have done big airdrops. That's...a CAC vs LTV story."
• Aseev [46:06]: "If it’s not obvious then it should not be criminal. That’s the rule of lenity…"

6. Key Segment Timestamps

• [00:00] – Opening remarks on new ICO wave, Monad & Mega ETH
• [06:05] – ICO flipping, parallels with IPOs, buyer incentives
• [11:21] – Airdrop effectiveness, airdrop farming, and failures
• [15:53] – Statistical unviability of airdrops for user retention
• [21:58] – Uniswap’s historic “fee switch” and value unification
• [26:12] – Regulatory pressure and the personal cost to Uniswap
• [27:18] – Impact on broader tokenomics, predictions for DeFi meta
• [38:38] – Low Carb Crusader MEV bot case, summary and legal debate
• [43:22] – Permissionless game theory, protocol vs. extra-protocol actions
• [46:06] – Rule of lenity and boundaries for criminal cases in crypto

Conclusion

The Chopping Block team brings an insider’s, sometimes irreverent, perspective to defining issues in crypto's evolution: from airdrops and tokenomics to legal boundaries and regulatory sea changes. The episode paints a stark picture of the death of the airdrop meta, the reemergence of ICOs, and the unification of protocol and company value via Uniswap’s bold governance move. Finally, the MEV court case highlights the ongoing clash between on-chain innovation and off-chain law—a drama that’s far from finished.

For regulars and newcomers alike, this episode captures a critical turning point for crypto’s evolving playbook.