Good now revolutionaries— Will and Evan open Episode 498 with the call that's already playing out: Bitcoin's printing a short-term double top, breaking support, and lining up for a correction into the May 1 full moon. Will already booked his Pengu profits — a 26-27% trade in a few days — and walks through why he's holding back capital for HYPE on the way down.

From there: are NFTs really back? Lucanets (Pudgy Penguins CEO) just bought into 14 NFT projects he thinks are still building — Mutant Ape, On-Chain Heroes, V-Friends, Moonbirds, RektGuy, Bearish, Heavy Metal, Azuki, more. Will breaks down why Pudgy itself might be a real investment: $100M+/year in toy sales, fastest-growing IP in the world, third for total impressions behind Disney. Plus the comeback for branded NFT loyalty programs like the original Starbucks Odyssey on Polygon.

On charts: Hyperliquid is pinging below $40 and Will sees a multi-week correction. Purr (the Hyperliquid spinoff) is now listed on Kraken — Evan and Will compare it to HYPE itself. Polymarket reportedly looking to leave Polygon as the VP of Engineering keeps publicly saying it isn't scalable enough. Robinhood's M&A spree (Bitstamp, TradePMR, WonderFi, Indonesia's PT Buana, ZigLoo, Meax DX) gets unpacked. Solana Accelerate dropped a self-aware AI-generated commercial poking fun at last year's canceled America-in-therapy ad — Evan plays it live.

Closing scam-watch: Evan debunks the Robinhood-holds-13B-XRP rumor with a live CoinGecko walkthrough, then unpacks why XRP runs through a closed corporate validator network and why Hyperliquid's revenue buybacks are a fundamentally different value mechanism. The clarity: ask where the information comes from, and verify on RWA.xyz.

Brought to you by Arculus (cold storage you can actually use — code ARCURUMS10 for 10% off) and Jito (jito.network). Free questions and weekly coaching at community.rumshq.com. Premium with weekly office hours from Will, Evan, and Alex is $30/month.

RUMS x Arculus Purple Wallet: https://forms.gle/r9fBTRAw79oSmBWaA

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Good now revolutionaries—Will and Doug ran the tape on a market caught between a Bitcoin double top, a sneaky bullish bear-trap setup, and an oil chart that won't quit. Crypto closed red while the S&P kept printing all-time highs — the first real divergence in weeks. Earnings season is loud: 40% of the S&P and 6 of 7 FANG report this week.

NFTs are quietly back. BAYC up 78%, Pudgy 29%, Azuki 56%. Pengu landed a Paxos partnership that puts the meme on Venmo, PayPal, and Charles Schwab — half a billion potential eyeballs. Will and Doug walked through the use case that always made sense: NFTs as receipts for digital ownership, membership cards, and on-chain royalties on resold textbooks.

On the charts: Hyperliquid is a textbook Elliott Wave 5 print — overbought weekly Stoch RSI, $30 if it actually corrects. Will called nickel's bottom to the dollar. Cattle, corn, and wheat all bullish. Coffee and cocoa bearish. SoFi's new "crypto bank" is an ETF in a banking app — locked custody, no withdrawals, but real Solana rails underneath.

Doug's parting tell: watch oil. It's the cleanest signal in the market right now.

Sponsor: Get questions answered live at community.rumshq.com — Will hosts office hours Tuesdays at 3pm ET inside RUMSHQ Premium ($30/mo).

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☕ THE RISE UP MORNING SHOW☀️
LIVE Monday - Thursday @ 7a central
Helpful web3 news, commentary, & answers to your crypto questions.

🍻RISE UP AFTER DARK🌗
LIVE Wednesdays @ 7p central
DYOR and BYOB for casual Q&A, fun with expert guests, and altcoin research.

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Good now revolutionaries— Episode 497 (T-minus 3 to the big 500). Evan and Alex unpack the Ben McKenzie crypto-bashing book tour and where his critique lands and where it doesn't. Spoiler: he's right about World Liberty, USD1, and the conflicts of interest, but he's missing the technical depth to actually swing where it counts.

Then a real DeFi moment: DeFi United crosses $237.7M raised and 102.6K ETH contributed to make KelpDAO/Drift exploit victims whole — Aave-led, Stani Kulechov personal contribution, ArbitrumDAO, EtherFi, Lido, Mantle, Golem Foundation, even Justin Sun jumping in. Arbitrum's Security Council also clawed back ~30,765 ETH from the attackers — the centralization debate everyone wants to have was already in the founding governance docs.

Carrot redemption walkthrough — CRT redeems for USDC, USDT, or PYUSD; boost positions get force-deleveraged to 1; Drift compensation will arrive as IOU tokens distributed proportionally per the April 1 snapshot. Plus: the Polymarket Maduro insider — a U.S. soldier on the capture mission turned a $30K bet into $400K and got CFTC-charged; Todd Blanche's tone-deaf statement; JD Vance's "let Marco get his polymarket in first" quote. Canton Network's $65M monthly revenue dissected — they're minting 2.5B tokens annually, ~$1B in incentives, losing ~$1.2M/day. Riz's PSA arc on impersonator scams (Coach JV, Jake Clover lookalikes), trading bots, and why fast money invites fast loss. Final thoughts: Alex's portfolio (BTC, ETH, SOL, HYPE, AERO), the XRP utility argument, and how he and Evan met on the Faceless Crypto Discord.

Sponsored by Arculus — official cold wallet sponsor of Rise Up. Self-custody made simple. Use code ARCURUMS10 for 10% off at thisisarculus on TikTok shop and getarculus.com — and ask about the exclusive Purple Wallet at community.rumshq.com. Plus a renewal shoutout to Jito — they'll have a coffee-shop booth at Consensus Miami, come hang.

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☕ THE RISE UP MORNING SHOW☀️
LIVE Monday - Thursday @ 7a central
Helpful web3 news, commentary, & answers to your crypto questions.

🍻RISE UP AFTER DARK🌗
LIVE Wednesdays @ 7p central
DYOR and BYOB for casual Q&A, fun with expert guests, and altcoin research.

📈RISE UP MARKET WATCH🤑
LIVE Monday @ 7p central
Technical analysis, real macro insight, and practical takeaways to help you invest smarter in every market.

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RISE UP!
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Good now revolutionaries—Will kicks off solo with Alex Popovich, then Evan catches the back half, and Crypto Crush's Danielle joins from the UK to talk about what you actually do with your money when the DeFi world feels like it's on fire.

Danielle opens with her thesis — Circle anywhere below $90 is a buy, she's eyeing $70 or below, and "cash is also a position." From there the conversation gets into the real DeFi playbook: she uses Morpho to borrow against Bitcoin (cbBTC), Kamino to borrow against Solana, and insures her positions through Nexus Mutual. Evan defends Aave after the Kelp bridge exploit — the contract did exactly what it was supposed to do, and absorbing a $6B TVL flight in 24 hours is a quiet vote of confidence. Alex explains why the Clarity Act keeps getting punted, and why all of crypto legislation right now is really about one company's banking interests.

Breaking news lands mid-show: Tether just froze $344M in USDT at the request of U.S. law enforcement. Tether now works with 340+ LEAs across 65 countries — 2,300+ cases globally. The hosts argue both sides of the decentralization-vs-cooperation whiplash. Plus: China's sulfuric acid export ban, the $70 Circle stock pick, and why Hyperliquid settling tokenized volume in USDT + USDC is the real stablecoin infrastructure story.

The show is sponsored by Arculus — get 10% off at GetArculus.com or the TikTok shop with promo code ARCURUMS10 (purple RUMS-branded wallet waitlist is live), and powered by Jito — the largest place to stake your Solana. Join us in the community after every show: community.rumshq.com. The only thing missing is you

Support the show

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☕ THE RISE UP MORNING SHOW☀️
LIVE Monday - Thursday @ 7a central
Helpful web3 news, commentary, & answers to your crypto questions.

🍻RISE UP AFTER DARK🌗
LIVE Wednesdays @ 7p central
DYOR and BYOB for casual Q&A, fun with expert guests, and altcoin research.

📈RISE UP MARKET WATCH🤑
LIVE Monday @ 7p central
Technical analysis, real macro insight, and practical takeaways to help you invest smarter in every market.

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WANT MORE?
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FOLLOW OUR HOSTS:
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🐬 Will Watson: https://coinguide.vip

RISE UP!
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—

Nothing on this channel should be construed as financial/legal advice. Educational/entertainment purposes only....

Good now revolutionaries—Emily's back in the co-host chair and we're dissecting the wave of DeFi exploits that just reshaped the conversation around security, governance, and trust. This is not a heat-check episode. This is an autopsy.

Evan walks through the Drift exploit — $285M gone via a 2-of-5 multisig with no time lock — and the KelpDAO bridge exploit that used a single DVN validator on LayerZero to push ~$300M out through bad debt on Aave. Emily translates the security failure modes into plain English: why vibe-coded products are uniformly insecure, what SOC2 actually is (a framework built by accounting teams, not the DeFi marketing department), and why Aave "worked exactly as designed" is the most damning possible defense.

Big takes to listen for: Arbitrum's 9-of-12 Security Council freeze was in the governance docs from day one — read your protocol's founding documents. Circle's decision not to freeze for Drift is defensible. And the bank-run dynamic we're watching unfold across TVL isn't a crypto problem — it's a finance problem the banking world has been bailing out for decades.

Scam watches and real-world use: the Strait of Hormuz USDC anecdote, why the safety-stand-down model from aviation and the military is exactly what DeFi needs right now, and a teaser for next week on Tether and stablecoin reserves.

If you're checking out: lock your keys, read your governance docs, and come hang out with the community at community.rumshq.com — the only thing missing is you.

Support the show

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Want to hang out with us after the show, get live answers to your questions, or join future giveaways?
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☕ THE RISE UP MORNING SHOW☀️
LIVE Monday - Thursday @ 7a central
Helpful web3 news, commentary, & answers to your crypto questions.

🍻RISE UP AFTER DARK🌗
LIVE Wednesdays @ 7p central
DYOR and BYOB for casual Q&A, fun with expert guests, and altcoin research.

📈RISE UP MARKET WATCH🤑
LIVE Monday @ 7p central
Technical analysis, real macro insight, and practical takeaways to help you invest smarter in every market.

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WANT MORE?
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FOLLOW OUR HOSTS:
☮️ Evan Mann: https://beacons.ai/conversationswithevan
🤬 Alex Popovic: https://alexpopovic.info
🐬 Will Watson: https://coinguide.vip

RISE UP!
✊🔥

—

Nothing on this channel should be construed as financial/legal advice. Educational/entertainment purposes only....

Good now revolutionaries—

Solo-host vibes. Will runs the show today while Evan takes the day off under a new trial schedule, with Alex co-riding. Bitcoin is trying to push through initial resistance toward $81–83K, but Alex isn't convinced the fundamentals are driving this — he sees insider-led trade action, a potentially compromised Fed chair in Kevin Warsh, and oil-market theatrics around the Iran-US "ceasefire where no one ceased firing." His only high-conviction fundamental play right now is Hyperliquid.

Post-hack DeFi is the spine of this one. Will and Alex walk through why Aave wasn't hacked (the contracts worked exactly as written — a user set slippage to "absolutely bananas"), how the Drift $292M theft was pulled off Italian Job-style by a DPRK group who socially engineered the multi-sig to remove the time lock, and why the Arbitrum Security Council freeze was written in the founding docs — people just didn't read them. A clean zero-day explainer and a sharp disambiguation of the Layer Zero / Kelp DVN blame game round it out.

Two PSA moments to watch for: Alex's MEXC warning (the White Whale freeze story, plus his personal grant story where MEXC tried to strong-arm him into launching a token) and his warning about the "crash-it-to-a-new-system" narrative — which he's seen weaponized to shill specific assets to scared people. There is no new system. There are just people extracting on the way down.

Sponsors: Arculus Wallet — the purple-themed Rise Up Morning Show wallet pre-order is live (scan the QR), or grab a regular Arculus at GetArculus.com with promo code ARCURUMS10 for 10% off. The RUMSHQ community at community.rumshq.com is free to join; Premium is $30/mo (first two weeks free) and gets you office hours with Will, Evan, and Alex, discounts on classes, and a stack of free altcoin research and DeFi-safety materials

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Join our free community where the show lives 24/7:
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☕ THE RISE UP MORNING SHOW☀️
LIVE Monday - Thursday @ 7a central
Helpful web3 news, commentary, & answers to your crypto questions.

🍻RISE UP AFTER DARK🌗
LIVE Wednesdays @ 7p central
DYOR and BYOB for casual Q&A, fun with expert guests, and altcoin research.

📈RISE UP MARKET WATCH🤑
LIVE Monday @ 7p central
Technical analysis, real macro insight, and practical takeaways to help you invest smarter in every market.

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WANT MORE?
👉Connect w/us on your favorite social: https://rumshq.com
👉Become a guest or sponsor: riseup@rumshq.com
👉Join our free community: https://community.rumshq.com

FOLLOW OUR HOSTS:
☮️ Evan Mann: https://beacons.ai/conversationswithevan
🤬 Alex Popovic: https://alexpopovic.info
🐬 Will Watson: https://coinguide.vip

RISE UP!
✊🔥

—

Nothing on this channel should be construed as financial/legal advice. Educational/entertainment purposes only....

Good now revolutionaries—Emily's back in the co-host chair and we're dissecting the wave of DeFi exploits that just reshaped the conversation around security, governance, and trust. This is not a heat-check episode. This is an autopsy.

Evan walks through the Drift exploit — $285M gone via a 2-of-5 multisig with no time lock — and the KelpDAO bridge exploit that used a single DVN validator on LayerZero to push ~$300M out through bad debt on Aave. Emily translates the security failure modes into plain English: why vibe-coded products are uniformly insecure, what SOC2 actually is (a framework built by accounting teams, not the DeFi marketing department), and why Aave "worked exactly as designed" is the most damning possible defense.

Big takes to listen for: Arbitrum's 9-of-12 Security Council freeze was in the governance docs from day one — read your protocol's founding documents. Circle's decision not to freeze for Drift is defensible. And the bank-run dynamic we're watching unfold across TVL isn't a crypto problem — it's a finance problem the banking world has been bailing out for decades.

Scam watches and real-world use: the Strait of Hormuz USDC anecdote, why the safety-stand-down model from aviation and the military is exactly what DeFi needs right now, and a teaser for next week on Tether and stablecoin reserves.

If you're checking out: lock your keys, read your governance docs, and come hang out with the community at community.rumshq.com — the only thing missing is you

Support the show

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Want to hang out with us after the show, get live answers to your questions, or join future giveaways?
Join our free community where the show lives 24/7:
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☕ THE RISE UP MORNING SHOW☀️
LIVE Monday - Thursday @ 7a central
Helpful web3 news, commentary, & answers to your crypto questions.

🍻RISE UP AFTER DARK🌗
LIVE Wednesdays @ 7p central
DYOR and BYOB for casual Q&A, fun with expert guests, and altcoin research.

📈RISE UP MARKET WATCH🤑
LIVE Monday @ 7p central
Technical analysis, real macro insight, and practical takeaways to help you invest smarter in every market.

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WANT MORE?
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👉Become a guest or sponsor: riseup@rumshq.com
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FOLLOW OUR HOSTS:
☮️ Evan Mann: https://beacons.ai/conversationswithevan
🤬 Alex Popovic: https://alexpopovic.info
🐬 Will Watson: https://coinguide.vip

RISE UP!
✊🔥

—

Nothing on this channel should be construed as financial/legal advice. Educational/entertainment purposes only....

Good now revolutionaries—

The Arculus purple wallet order form is officially LIVE. Evan and Will (with Alex taking the morning off to host Trust Issues tonight) kick off Tuesday with a packed show: the purple wallet QR hits the screen, shouts to Crystal, Lakita, Derek, and Jason — the first wave of orderers — and a real-time breakdown of why Pengu's 83% drawdown may still have further to fall even as Pudgy Penguins remains the only successful community takeover in crypto.

Evan pulls up DeFi Llama live to debunk a rumor that Jito is shutting down (it's not — they're the largest Solana liquid staking platform, doing billions in TVL). Will gets philosophical on the Arbitrum Security Council's recent smart-contract freeze and what "decentralized enough" actually means when 12 compliance-checked members can freeze a protocol. Tether is raising $500B — not because they need it, but because OPM is a hell of a drug. Plus: Satoshi-era BTC is moving, Circle TA ahead of May 11 earnings, and a full walk-through of why ChatGPT alone is not due diligence (ask it about Balancer and see what happens).

Question of the day: Lethal Weapons asks why he can't move his USDC off his Arculus wallet. Evan's answer turns into the clearest gas fee explainer you'll hear this week — nominal native token, every chain, every movement.

Grab your cold wallet at getarculus.com with code ARCURUMS10

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☕ THE RISE UP MORNING SHOW☀️
LIVE Monday - Thursday @ 7a central
Helpful web3 news, commentary, & answers to your crypto questions.

🍻RISE UP AFTER DARK🌗
LIVE Wednesdays @ 7p central
DYOR and BYOB for casual Q&A, fun with expert guests, and altcoin research.

📈RISE UP MARKET WATCH🤑
LIVE Monday @ 7p central
Technical analysis, real macro insight, and practical takeaways to help you invest smarter in every market.

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WANT MORE?
👉Connect w/us on your favorite social: https://rumshq.com
👉Become a guest or sponsor: riseup@rumshq.com
👉Join our free community: https://community.rumshq.com

FOLLOW OUR HOSTS:
☮️ Evan Mann: https://beacons.ai/conversationswithevan
🤬 Alex Popovic: https://alexpopovic.info
🐬 Will Watson: https://coinguide.vip

RISE UP!
✊🔥

—

Nothing on this channel should be construed as financial/legal advice. Educational/entertainment purposes only....