EPISODE 139 — What Is On-Chain Analysis — How Professionals Read the Blockchain

Every Bitcoin transaction ever made is permanently recorded and publicly visible to anyone in the world. Every Ethereum swap, every DeFi position, every NFT purchase — all of it sits on a public ledger that anyone can query without asking permission from anyone. On-chain analysis is the discipline of extracting useful market signals from this data. Professional investors use it to assess cycle phase. Security researchers use it to trace stolen funds. Regulators use it to identify illicit activity. Understanding the basics of on-chain analysis gives you a window into market behaviour that no traditional asset class offers.

In this episode of Crypto for Beginners, we explain on-chain analysis and its most useful metrics in full. We cover the MVRV ratio — Market Value to Realised Value — explaining what realised value means as the aggregate cost basis of all Bitcoin, and why MVRV above 3.5 has historically correlated with cycle peaks while MVRV near 1 has correlated with market bottoms. We explain SOPR — Spent Output Profit Ratio — and what sustained values below 1 (sellers accepting losses) historically signal about market capitulation. We cover exchange inflows and outflows — why large movements of Bitcoin onto exchanges suggest preparation to sell while outflows signal long-term storage.

We explain long-term holder supply versus short-term holder supply and the signal it carries. We cover the major on-chain analytics platforms: Glassnode — the most comprehensive; CryptoQuant — specialising in exchange flows; Nansen — for Ethereum wallet labelling and smart money tracking; and Dune Analytics — for community-built custom queries. We are honest about the limitations: attribution is often wrong, patterns observed in past cycles may not repeat, and sophisticated participants actively obscure their on-chain footprint. We explain how to use on-chain data as context for systematic decisions rather than as precise trading signals.

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EPISODE 134 — What Is Crypto Custody — and Why Does It Matter?

When BlackRock launched its BUIDL tokenised Treasury fund, it used Anchorage Digital as custodian. When MicroStrategy holds over 500,000 Bitcoin on its corporate balance sheet, those Bitcoin sit in multi-signature cold storage managed through institutional custody infrastructure. When spot Bitcoin ETFs launched in January 2024, Coinbase Custody holds the Bitcoin on behalf of BlackRock and Fidelity. Crypto custody is the infrastructure that makes institutional participation possible — and understanding it tells you something important about the difference between safe and unsafe ways to hold digital assets at any scale.

In this episode of Crypto for Beginners, we explain crypto custody from first principles. We start with what custody actually means: the secure management of private keys — the cryptographic secrets that authorise blockchain transactions — at a scale and in a framework that satisfies regulatory requirements, investor obligations, and audit standards that individual self-custody cannot meet. We explain the two primary technical approaches: multi-signature custody, where multiple independent keys must sign every transaction and no single key compromise enables theft, and Multi-Party Computation (MPC) custody, where no complete private key ever exists in one place — the computation to sign is distributed across multiple parties who each contribute a key share.

We walk through the leading institutional custodians in 2026: Coinbase Custody — holding Bitcoin for multiple spot ETFs with $320M insurance coverage; BitGo — the multi-sig pioneer supporting 400+ digital assets; Fireblocks — the MPC-based platform that has processed over $6 trillion in transfers; Anchorage Digital — the only crypto-native nationally chartered bank; and Fidelity Digital Assets. We explain why regulated custody infrastructure was the critical enabling factor for ETF approvals and corporate treasury adoption. We cover the post-FTX regulatory changes that strengthened asset segregation requirements.

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EPISODE 133 — What Is a Rug Pull — and How Do You Spot One?

In October 2021, the Squid Game token launched riding the global viral wave of the Netflix show, rose 45,000% within days, then crashed to zero in seconds as the developers drained all liquidity. Investors lost millions. The developers were never found. In 2026, rug pulls drain an estimated three to four billion dollars from crypto investors annually. They are the most common form of outright theft in the space — and they follow predictable mechanics that anyone can learn to recognise before losing money.

In this episode of Crypto for Beginners, we explain rug pulls completely. We cover exactly how they work mechanically: the token creation stage where hidden smart contract functions are embedded, the liquidity pool seeding, the promotion campaign through Telegram groups and paid influencers, and the drain — how a single admin transaction removes all liquidity in seconds, collapsing the token price to zero. We explain honeypot contracts specifically — tokens that allow buying but contain code that prevents all holders from selling — and why they are among the most malicious variants.

We explain the free on-chain tools that identify rug pulls before they execute: Unicrypt and Team.Finance for liquidity lock verification, blockchain explorers for holder concentration analysis, and GoPlus Security and TokenSniffer for smart contract danger function detection. We cover the 2026 evolution of rug pull tactics: AI-generated project facades, fake audit logo displays, celebrity impersonation, and wash trading that creates artificial price history. We give a practical due diligence checklist: five checks that take ten minutes and protect against the vast majority of rug pull attempts. We cover what to do if you realise you are already in one.

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