It hasn’t gone unnoticed that Apple is largely hostile to the goals of cryptocurrency producers, and as the market braces for a bear market, some of its supporters are advancing ideas to redesign the iPhone with the interests of their own sector at heart.

Hello and welcome back to the Chain Reaction podcast, where we unpack and explain the latest crypto news, drama and trends, breaking it down block by block for the crypto curious.

Jacquie Melinek, a senior crypto reporter for TC+, joined me this week while my co-host Anita was absent. We talked about some of the bizarre developments in the cryptocurrency world, such as FTX’s flirtations with Robinhood and the most recent turmoil at Celsius.

We also discussed the Saga smartphone, which is backed by Solana, which was the week’s major surprise news. The new gadget will function as a standard Android-based smartphone as well as having crypto capabilities built into its silicon. Jacquie and I had a lot to say about the device, which apparently won’t arrive until next year, so listen above!

Our guest: Doodles CEO Julian Holguin

This week, I chatted with Julian Holguin, who is the CEO of the NFT project Doodles. The collection of 10,000 NFT profile pictures is one of the most popular crypto projects on the web and Holguin just banked funding from Alexis Ohanian to push the startup behind the art even further.

Chain Reaction podcast episodes come out every Thursday at 12:00 p.m. PDT. Subscribe to us on Apple, Spotify or your alternative podcast platform of choice to keep up with us every week.