Fireside chat with Sam Tabar I Sam Tabar (Bit Digital) and Adam Wozney (Circle) at ETHConf

Sun, Aug 2, 2026, 12:00 AM

In this fireside chat, Adam Wozney, senior director of global community at Circle, sits down with Sam Tabar, CEO of Bit Digital and White Fiber, to discuss the state of Ethereum, how TradFi is entering the space, and how physical infrastructure is evolving to power it all. An Oxford and Columbia law graduate and former attorney, Sam leads two publicly traded companies bridging the digital and physical worlds through Ethereum staking and AI high performance computing infrastructure. He opens by reflecting on following intuition over pure logic (a lesson from his tarot-reading mother and car-mechanic father), noting he was a poor lawyer before pivoting to finance. On Ethereum, Sam argues the money frame was always the wrong one. Bitcoin is the mother coin with first-mover advantage but is simply a store of value competing with the roughly $16 trillion gold market, while Ethereum is programmable money that competes with the entire financial system by removing middlemen and friction through smart contracts. He views ETH as a utility settlement layer and watches settlement and development activity as his key metrics, noting a favorable gap between strong fundamentals and current price. He predicts a generational shift as boomer decision-makers who resisted crypto give way to Gen X, millennials, and Gen Z who have normalized it, eventually making crypto a responsible part of family office portfolios and an inflation hedge superior to gold. He distinguishes Bit Digital as a strategic asset company rather than a digital asset treasury: rather than just shoving ETH on a shell balance sheet, Bit Digital sold all its Bitcoin to go all in on Ethereum, holds around 158,000 ETH which it stakes, owns 70% of NASDAQ-listed White Fiber (an AI data center company serving clients like Cerebras and Nscale with billion-dollar contracts), and lends against its ETH to finance White Fiber's buildout for alpha positioning. He frames AI as the third catalyst of the industrial revolution after electricity and the internet, describes the White Fiber IPO as the best day of his life, and closes predicting Wall Street has already chosen Ethereum as its programmable money horse though it is not yet priced in, plus a lightning round where he names government surveillance as his biggest AI fear. 00:00 Introduction 00:26 Setting the Stage: Finance, Networks, and Scale 00:48 Meet Sam Tabar 01:25 A Get to Know You Question 01:40 Growing Up With a Mechanic and a Tarot Reader 02:15 Logic vs Intuition in Leadership 03:03 Why Following Intuition Matters 03:31 Leaving Law to Follow Intuition 04:19 Why the Money Frame Is Wrong for Ethereum 04:57 Bitcoin as a Store of Value vs Gold 05:19 The Generational Shift in Portfolio Construction 06:08 Why Crypto Will Enter Family Offices 06:34 Ethereum as Programmable Money 06:58 Removing Middlemen and Friction 07:21 Ethereum as a Utility Settlement Layer 07:49 Conflating ETH Price and the Settlement Layer 08:10 Why Boomer Resistance Will Fade 08:48 From Bitcoin Mining to 158,000 Ethereum 09:29 Strategic Asset Company vs Digital Asset Treasury 10:08 Going All In on Ethereum 10:28 Taking Digital Tomatoes From Bitcoin Maxis 10:49 How the Strategic Asset Model Works 11:08 The ChatGPT Eureka Moment 11:50 Why AI Runs on Data Centers 12:23 Building Data Centers for Cerebras and Nscale 12:46 Why It Is Called White Fiber 13:12 How Bit Digital Owns 70% of White Fiber 13:43 Lending Against ETH to Finance Data Centers 14:05 Why This Is an Alpha Posture 14:19 What the NASDAQ Launch Day Was Like 14:49 Building Something That Outlasts You 15:04 Why He Would Not Recommend an IPO 15:32 Where Ethereum Goes Next Year 15:59 Why Wall Street Has Already Chosen Ethereum 16:23 Performing Regardless of ETH Direction 16:53 The Third Catalyst of the Industrial Revolution 17:24 The Lightning Round 17:36 Bitcoin or Ethereum 17:52 The Biggest Threat From AI 18:25 Secured or Unsecured Debt 18:32 Oxford or Columbia 19:47 Financial Data or Tarot Cards 20:00 Closing _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ *ETHConf 2026* ETHConf is a 3 day event for founders, industry leaders, and builders who are excited about the possibilities of building on top of Ethereum. Connect with 2,000+ top innovators in crypto, finance, technology, and policy at our inaugural three-day event packed with showcases, demos, partnerships, and conversations shaping the future of the global economy. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ✅ *Follow ETHConf* X: https://x.com/ethconf Website: https://ethconf.com _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 🎟️ Get your early bird tickets for ETHConf 2027: https://ethconf.com/2027#tickets 🎤 View the full ETHConf 2026 Speaker Schedule: https://ethconf.com/schedule _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _