Bankless

Bankless originated as a newsletter of the same name started by Ryan Sean Adams, who set its goal as helping onboard 1 billion people to open money systems. “Going bankless” means using crypto tools to take back sovereignty from the banks and tech companies that control people’s lives.⁠[1][1][1][2]

In March 2020, Bankless launched a podcast, with David Hoffman helping to produce it; the first 9 episodes explained decentralized finance in an introductory way. That summer it opened a YouTube channel, launching the weekly “State of the Nation” and “Weekly Rollup” shows. By the end of 2020, it had about 20,000 subscribers and had published more than 150 articles during the year; the podcast was downloaded about 200,000 times per month across 100 episodes, and the YouTube channel had almost 14,000 subscribers.⁠[3][3][3][3][3][3][3]

In March 2021, marking the podcast’s first anniversary, Adams and Hoffman produced a special episode of about three hours that updated and summed up the introductory content of the first nine episodes.⁠[4][4][4]

On May 4, 2021, Adams and Hoffman announced their support for the community-initiated Bankless DAO, calling it the first media DAO, with its tokens distributed entirely to the community. At the time, the Bankless readership community numbered about 50,000. Addresses meeting conditions such as holding a 2020 or 2021 Bankless Badge could claim BANK tokens, which were used to access the DAO’s Discord and vote on proposals; Bankless stated that the tokens themselves had no value.⁠[1][1][1][1][1]

On March 10, 2023, Bankless launched a new website, “Bankless 2.0,” offering paid members (called Citizens) content such as a token guide, an airdrop guide, market analysis, extra episodes, and an exclusive Discord. Adams said at the time that in the four years since its launch, Bankless had published 724 podcasts and 1,245 articles.⁠[5][5][5]

In April of the same year, Adams and Hoffman established the early-stage venture fund Bankless Ventures, led full-time by Ben Lakoff; Fund I was under $40 million, with individual investments of about $500,000, and the two founders were rewarded solely according to fund performance and did not draw salaries.⁠[6][6][6][6]

In their weekly rollup episode of March 15, 2024, Adams and Hoffman celebrated the Bankless podcast’s fourth anniversary.⁠[7][7]

On February 18, 2025, Hoffman announced that Bankless Ventures Fund I was about 90% deployed and that the firm was raising Fund II with a target of $50 million, opening applications for limited partners. He said that he and Adams had, without outside capital, taken Bankless Media from zero to a profitable business with eight-figure annual recurring revenue within a year, and that about 20 contributors also took part in running the media business day-to-day.⁠[6][6][6][6][6]

In May 2025, Hoffman announced a change in content direction: artificial intelligence and frontier technology content would be spun off into a new show feed, while the main feed would again center on Ethereum, bringing back the protocol-native content of the early days; Adams also returned to the podcast.⁠[8][8][8]

As of October 2026, besides its flagship newsletter, Bankless publishes newsletters including Metaversal (NFTs, gaming, and crypto culture), Mindshare (AI and crypto), and Ethereum Weekly, and offers tools for airdrop tracking, token data, and yield-pool screening; Markdown versions of some paid articles allow AI agents to pay per article in USDC on the Base network, at $1 per article.⁠[9][9][9][9][9][9]

Bankless describes itself as “thesis driven,” believing that crypto is a powerful, investible coordination technology and a force for good; team members hold crypto assets, and the website updates weekly disclosures of personal holdings, the Bankless Ventures portfolio, the onchain addresses of Bankless, LLC, which operates the newsletter and website, and a list of sponsors.⁠[10][10][10][10][10]

Bankless: Official website: https://www.bankless.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[2]

X: Public account: https://x.com/BanklessHQ (opens in a new window)⁠[11]

YouTube: Public channel: https://www.youtube.com/@Bankless (opens in a new window)⁠[11]