Empire

Empire is the flagship crypto interview show from Blockworks, and it lives up to its name by consistently booking the founders and investors who are actually building the infrastructure of this industry. With 620 episodes and a twice-weekly schedule, the format splits between Monday interviews with crypto founders and Friday roundup panels where co-hosts Santiago, Jason, and Rob debate the biggest developments of the week. The Monday interviews are the standout. The Blockworks brand opens doors that independent podcasters cannot -- you will hear from the people running major exchanges, leading DeFi protocols, and managing crypto venture funds talking candidly about what is working and what is not. Recent episodes have covered everything from stablecoin payment systems and the convergence of traditional finance with crypto to AI agents operating on-chain and Layer 2 scaling wars. These are not softball conversations either; the hosts push back when claims sound too optimistic. The Friday roundups have a different energy -- more informal, sometimes meandering, but useful for catching the narrative arc of the week if you have not been following daily news. Production quality is excellent, as you would expect from a media company that runs crypto conferences and a research division. At 4.8 stars from 164 ratings, the audience skews toward professionals and serious investors rather than casual listeners. If you want to understand where institutional money is flowing in crypto and hear directly from the people deploying it, Empire gives you that access twice a week without wasting your time on filler.