Speaker 1: We are in a midterm election year and things are
Speaker 1: going to quickly focus to that where people are not
Speaker 1: going to want to talk about the Claritiacro bigcoin reserve anymore.
Speaker 1: It's going to be how can I win my or
Speaker 1: keep my seat or you know, support this candidate to win.
Speaker 2: You know, the game of politics.
Speaker 1: Is going to get nasty, it's in the news cycle
Speaker 1: is going to go crazy, and crypto will not be
Speaker 1: a high priority.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm looking forward to that. It's like I do
Speaker 3: think legislation. I'm looking forward to it being not such
Speaker 3: a topic anymore and just being something that enters into
Speaker 3: this industry so that because regulation at the end of
Speaker 3: the day, I'm sorry it is boring.
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Speaker 1: Hey everyone, welcome into the Thinking Crypto podcast Crypto water
Speaker 1: Cooler series.
Speaker 4: I'm Tony Edward and I'm Amanda Wackcroft and.
Speaker 1: We're going to dive into the latest and greatest crypto
Speaker 1: news that you need to know about.
Speaker 2: Amanda. Good to see you. Happy Friday, you.
Speaker 4: Too, Happy Friday. We made it another week.
Speaker 2: Yeah, right, another week.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: Bitcoin is actually up this morning. It's over seventy eight
Speaker 1: thousand dollars. That's a good sign. I don't know how
Speaker 1: long it will last because I feel like we're still
Speaker 1: in the bear market, but it's good to see some green.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, especially coming off the Bitcoin conference. They imagine that that,
Speaker 3: you know, had something to do with it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there were some interesting announcement announcements coming out of
Speaker 1: the conference. But I'm hearing some not so good things
Speaker 1: about the Bitcoin Las Vegas conference.
Speaker 2: You know, I won't name an I won't give a name,
Speaker 2: but I did.
Speaker 1: I ran into one of the CEOs of an all
Speaker 1: coin project at the airport in Las Vegas. I was
Speaker 1: out in the desert as I was not at the conference,
Speaker 1: but he was saying it was a bit of a
Speaker 1: low turnout, not as exciting.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: He gave an example of Eric Trump's speech. There was
Speaker 1: only about sixty people in the room there for that,
Speaker 1: so not really a great turnout.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think there's a really interesting split happening in
Speaker 3: crypto right now. And you know, not for lack of buzzwords,
Speaker 3: but it really is between signal and noise. And on
Speaker 3: one side you've got a real infrastructure getting built, you know,
Speaker 3: you've got the payments and regulation and institutional rails. And
Speaker 3: on the other side, you've got what I like to
Speaker 3: call conference theater and the hype cycles that feel increasingly
Speaker 3: disconnected from reality. You know, And I tweeted this morning,
Speaker 3: I mean the general admission to go to this conference
Speaker 3: was six p ninety nine. Now I doubt most of
Speaker 3: the masses are doing that because it doesn't get you
Speaker 3: access to certain panels or meeting people. So you're paying
Speaker 3: that next tier is twenty one hundred a ticket. I
Speaker 3: don't know who can afford.
Speaker 1: This, Yeah, especially in today's economy, and not to mention
Speaker 1: we are in a bear market. There's not much excitement,
Speaker 1: and I don't think a lot of people are profit
Speaker 1: right now.
Speaker 2: I think a lot of people are in the red.
Speaker 1: And you know, those ticket prices, they just seem like
Speaker 1: they're catering for maybe institutional folks. So it's no longer
Speaker 1: about the average Joe getting access to bitcoin. It feels
Speaker 1: like it's become this exclusive club.
Speaker 3: It sure does, and it's you know, as a capitalist,
Speaker 3: I understand that your influencers who are there, your sponsors
Speaker 3: who are there, they're contracted to do it, and they're
Speaker 3: doing a job and they're getting paid to be there.
Speaker 3: And I think that's where it's extremely important to differentiate
Speaker 3: between who's actually there because it's their job, and who's
Speaker 3: who's there to actually learn a network. Because I don't
Speaker 3: think a lot was taken out from a substance perspective
Speaker 3: from this conference. I was watching a lot of the
Speaker 3: reshared posts, even from Eric Trump, and it's a lot
Speaker 3: of recycled talking points that simply if you're living in
Speaker 3: crypto Twitter, you're kind of you're already hearing these things.
Speaker 2: Yeah, to your point, there's doesn't seem to be anything new.
Speaker 1: While we got it up date from let's say Patrick Witt,
Speaker 1: the White House crypto advisor, that there may be some
Speaker 1: significant news coming in the near term regarding the strategic
Speaker 1: Bigcoin Reserve. We've been hearing that for months, right, We've
Speaker 1: been hearing all these things. It's coming, it's coming, and
Speaker 1: there's nothing new like why do I need to go
Speaker 1: to the bigcoin conference. Maybe if I'm brand new to crypto,
Speaker 1: I may want to go, but it's still the prices
Speaker 1: are very high.
Speaker 2: But if I already own some bigcoin, there's not reason.
Speaker 2: There's not a reason for me to go.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 3: And that's and remember too, like I'm just I'm mentioning
Speaker 3: the ticket prices. You know, I'm leaving out the fact
Speaker 3: that you have to get a hotel, you have to
Speaker 3: get airfare, and let's say oil prices are through the
Speaker 3: roof because of our involvement in Iran right now, So
Speaker 3: I really, on average on the low end, you're talking
Speaker 3: about the average person spending roughly seven to eight grand
Speaker 3: just to be there. And then again, what are you
Speaker 3: getting out of it? You've got Tim Draper on the floor,
Speaker 3: who I saw was in a lot of selfies with people.
Speaker 3: And again there's also the origin story of bitcoin being
Speaker 3: the decent centralized peer to peer network. I realized it's
Speaker 3: matured much more and we have the you know, convergence
Speaker 3: of trad fine now, but I think that's where the
Speaker 3: conference needs to shift with that, you know, Fintech Week
Speaker 3: in New York was also this week, and I feel
Speaker 3: like it was completely overshadowed by the hype of bitcoin.
Speaker 3: But meanwhile, Fintech Week had more substance. There were more
Speaker 3: institutional players on the ground at that conference, and most
Speaker 3: of their side events were free simply through an our SVPs.
Speaker 3: So I think we really need to navigate what we
Speaker 3: should be paying attention. But I also think that the
Speaker 3: silver lining of all of this is I think it
Speaker 3: goes to prove that the space is maturing because the
Speaker 3: Vegas conference and the big you know people are no
Speaker 3: longer convening at these types of places.
Speaker 1: That's spot on, and some of the fintech event side
Speaker 1: shows and after events and so forth.
Speaker 2: I got invites to them.
Speaker 1: They it wouldn't have cost me anything to go to them,
Speaker 1: Unfortunately I was traveling.
Speaker 2: But to your point, things have shifted.
Speaker 1: There is much more of a crowdsourcing and focus on
Speaker 1: the building that's happening on Wall Street. And guess what,
Speaker 1: the Wall Street folks and not really attending bitcoin at
Speaker 1: Las Vegas, right, They're gonna be having their own uh
Speaker 1: summits and uh maybe on a more intimate level. And
Speaker 1: to your point, there's substance, there's talks of what they're
Speaker 1: building and Atlas Bigcoin Las Vegas. I don't think there's
Speaker 1: any talks about building. It's just hey, bigcoin's great, big
Speaker 1: coins the story value. But like you said, we've seen
Speaker 1: and heard that before.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3: And somebody who I really respect and follow on to
Speaker 3: Haley Lennon, you know, she was she was going on
Speaker 3: about where I'm tired of bitcoin being this this flagship
Speaker 3: conference being in Vegas. I think there's also that as well,
Speaker 3: where uh again, we're trying to legitimize this, this asset
Speaker 3: being so speculative for so many years to the masses.
Speaker 3: I don't think it's a it's prudent to do it
Speaker 3: at the one of the biggest casino cities in this country.
Speaker 1: That's such a great point, like we're trying to get
Speaker 1: away from the cas you know, mindset right right, and
Speaker 1: that this is a mature asset that you can hold
Speaker 1: in your portfolio long term, maybe towards your retirement, treated
Speaker 1: as gold, not go through it on black or red.
Speaker 3: Amanda, Yeah, that's what we're doing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but I agree with you.
Speaker 3: I think the one thing that came out of well
Speaker 3: two things, I think Patrick Witt, which I know we've
Speaker 3: heard before, but also Senator Loomis, who is saying we're
Speaker 3: close to a mid May markup. You know, what are
Speaker 3: your thoughts on that, because I know she's also been
Speaker 3: tweeting that a lot.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's kind of annoying, even though I appreciate
Speaker 1: Senator Lumbus and the work she's done, but constantly saying
Speaker 1: the same thing over and over. But well, we're not
Speaker 1: seeing the actual action, so to speak. Right the rubbers
Speaker 1: not hitting the road here. So I don't know what
Speaker 1: is happening in DC right now. We're hearing we're close
Speaker 1: to compromise with the banks on the staplecorn yield situation,
Speaker 1: which is holding up the Claritiac.
Speaker 2: There's talks of.
Speaker 1: Oh, we're going to have a draft out and we're
Speaker 1: going to start the mark up, and then that gets delayed.
Speaker 1: So I don't know what is happening. I'm seeing tweets,
Speaker 1: I'm seeing people make statements, but there's no action. There's
Speaker 1: no uh, nothing coming to fruition.
Speaker 3: No. And then you have Brad Garlinghouse who comes at
Speaker 3: the at the tail end of this thing, and there
Speaker 3: was the XRP convention at the tail end of a
Speaker 3: bitcoin the Bitcoin conference, and and he's he's saying this
Speaker 3: we've lost We've lost the opportunity or windows over. So
Speaker 3: it's it's yeah, it's weird to see this divide amongst
Speaker 3: you know, all very intelligent, powerful leaders, and so I
Speaker 3: don't know what to.
Speaker 4: Make of it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's really frustrating, and my hope. Look, there
Speaker 1: is a little bit of time because you and I
Speaker 1: spoke to Patrick Witt at this Swana policy summit where
Speaker 1: he said, look, I think the latest is by the
Speaker 1: August recess, so we do have some time.
Speaker 2: But it's not looking good, Amanda.
Speaker 1: Like my confidence level is also dropping, Like we keep
Speaker 1: saying hearing the same thing over and over, but nothing's
Speaker 1: happening right.
Speaker 3: And it's to me, you know, I kind of laugh, like,
Speaker 3: are do people show up to bitcoin the Bitcoin conference
Speaker 3: and Senator Lummis uh, you know, gets up on stage saying,
Speaker 3: all right, guys, it's not gonna happen in May. What
Speaker 3: is she I think she has to to advocate for
Speaker 3: it or champion it in some way other way. I
Speaker 3: don't see the alternative happening, So I do. I am
Speaker 3: concerned that this won't happen this year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's gonna be tough. I am curious. You know,
Speaker 2: Patrick Wood didn't mention about the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve. I
Speaker 2: want to. I'm really curious what that might be.
Speaker 1: You know, are they going to figure out a revenue
Speaker 1: neutral way to buy bitcoin?
Speaker 2: Although I feel the Clarity Act is more.
Speaker 1: Important than the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve because President Trump signed
Speaker 1: the executive order, they are taking all the bitcoin confiscated
Speaker 1: by the different government agencies and putting it into that reserve.
Speaker 2: But everybody wants to know, hey, are you going to
Speaker 2: start buying?
Speaker 1: And I think that's that would be a huge catalyst
Speaker 1: and drive a lot of fomo. But I'm also not
Speaker 1: optimistic about that. If we can get the Clarity Act
Speaker 1: through that, you know, Congress is going to be like, yeah,
Speaker 1: go buy bitcoin.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's you know, and it would be if this
Speaker 4: is true.
Speaker 3: It's a massive narrative shift, but it's it, and it
Speaker 3: does mirror how the government treats gold reserves, energy reserves.
Speaker 3: But we have to be realized as to your point,
Speaker 3: we've heard these big announcements coming before in crypto and policy.
Speaker 3: So while I think the market is cautiously optimistic, we
Speaker 3: can't just you know, the idea isn't crazy anymore.
Speaker 4: I think that's the shift.
Speaker 3: A few years ago this would have sounded absolutely insane.
Speaker 3: But so I am optimistic in that sense. I just
Speaker 3: don't know how the timeline of this, you know, clarity
Speaker 3: seems to be contingent on a lot of this happening.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then you know, we are in a midterm
Speaker 1: election year and things are going to quickly focus to
Speaker 1: that where people are not going to want to talk
Speaker 1: about the Clarity, Acro, Bigcoin Reserve anymore. It's going to
Speaker 1: be how can I win my or keep my seat
Speaker 1: or you know, support this candidate to win.
Speaker 2: You know, the game of politics is going to get nasty.
Speaker 1: It's the news cycle is going to go crazy, and
Speaker 1: crypto will not be a high priority.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'm looking forward to that.
Speaker 3: It's like I do think legislation, I'm looking forward to
Speaker 3: it being not such a topic anymore and just being
Speaker 3: something that enters into this industry. So that because regulation,
Speaker 3: at the end of the day, I'm sorry, it is boring,
Speaker 3: but until it unlocks trillions in capital and now we're
Speaker 3: incentivizing innovation and we're bringing it all here into this country.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we got to get it done.
Speaker 1: But and then to your point, I am also getting
Speaker 1: tired of it, and I wish we can get it
Speaker 1: done and just move forward and just get to building
Speaker 1: and innovation and creating jobs and new companies and like
Speaker 1: you said, bringing some of those companies back to.
Speaker 2: The US at luck.
Speaker 4: Yeah exactly.
Speaker 1: Now, speaking of companies that are building Amanda Tether, I mean,
Speaker 1: they just released their Q one twenty six attestation. Over
Speaker 1: one billion dollars in revenue. If I'm not missing our profit,
Speaker 1: let me just able check here. Yeah, net profits over
Speaker 1: one billion dollars in net off. It's for Q one
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six.
Speaker 2: They're doing acquisitions and much more. This company is going
Speaker 2: to bananas mad.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean this is again back to my point of
Speaker 3: well everyone's arguing about bitcoin narratives. You know here again
Speaker 3: signal versus noise. Tether is quietly becoming one of the
Speaker 3: most important financial institutions in the world. I actually was
Speaker 3: on the phone yesterday with my friend who's an MD
Speaker 3: at Canna Fitzgerald.
Speaker 4: They just partnered with Tether and.
Speaker 3: I did not know that, which makes them extremely marketable
Speaker 3: for IPOs and capital raises for portfolio clients and potentials.
Speaker 3: But you know, they're expanding beyond just USDT, so they're
Speaker 3: acting essentially like a shadow bank, and I think that's brilliant.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's fascinating. You know, there's usually a lot of
Speaker 1: flood around Tether that has been for many years. Look,
Speaker 1: I want to make sure i'm fair because I interviewed
Speaker 1: some of the co founders of Tether back in the day.
Speaker 1: I don't think there the ship was in the right place.
Speaker 1: But they've I think, you know, cleaned up their books
Speaker 1: and everything is copaesetic now and while there's people still
Speaker 1: focusing on fud, this company continues to build that one
Speaker 1: of the most profitable companies in the world. They're doing
Speaker 1: a lot of investments now, there's talks of them proposing
Speaker 1: a merger with twenty one Capital. They're investing in AHI,
Speaker 1: they're doing tokenization of gold. It's amazing what Teather has become.
Speaker 1: And you know, do they even need to go public
Speaker 1: with the amount of money they're working.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's so funny that you say that.
Speaker 3: I feel like the IPO has almost lost its luster
Speaker 3: a little bit. You know, IPOs are happening so and
Speaker 3: I think that was being pushed largely again to legitimize
Speaker 3: this industry, and I don't know exactly the whole the
Speaker 3: vetting process of going public, but it does seem to
Speaker 3: be at a rapid rate where it's it's losing it's Yeah,
Speaker 3: I don't think it's at what it once was.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I'm curious, you know why that is. I
Speaker 2: don't know.
Speaker 1: People are a little bit jaded. It's also economic. You know,
Speaker 1: we're not in a great economic position where people have
Speaker 1: extra money to invest right or they're feeling very optimistic,
Speaker 1: Oh you know what, I'm going to go out and
Speaker 1: invest in this company to go in public. There's not
Speaker 1: that fervor, there's not that excitement. Again, we reference on
Speaker 1: the economic situation. So maybe in the cyclical aspect of
Speaker 1: markets in the economy, once we're back in a better
Speaker 1: place as an economy and there's more companies going public,
Speaker 1: people will get more excited. But also to your point,
Speaker 1: I don't know if there's an underlying jadedness here that hey,
Speaker 1: ibl is who cares?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I hope that changes too.
Speaker 3: And I agree the economy, you know, and again going
Speaker 3: back to the Bitcoin conference and really just the opinions
Speaker 3: on a lot. Right now, we have a new administration
Speaker 3: where there's also now a divide, but you have a
Speaker 3: lot more innovation things being built that they could not
Speaker 3: have otherwise done under the previous administration, or I think
Speaker 3: even if we had Kamala Harris come in as president.
Speaker 3: So while we should be very grateful for those things,
Speaker 3: there's also a foundation, you know, economically that we I
Speaker 3: think we had to almost break apart to build back.
Speaker 3: And I'm hopeful and I have to remain hopeful. I
Speaker 3: think you and I both tony as parents for the future,
Speaker 3: you know that we're raising our children in that this
Speaker 3: does get better.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, absolutely, And I reference that you know it's cyclical,
Speaker 1: so I don't While people get sometimes distracted by politics
Speaker 1: and this side versus this side, there are certain things
Speaker 1: that no party can control because it's the cyclical nature.
Speaker 1: Money printing, right and having to fight the inflation after
Speaker 1: you printed records amount of capital dollars and so forth.
Speaker 1: So I think we're going through that right now that
Speaker 1: no one president, regardless it was Kamala Harris or President Trump,
Speaker 1: could actually change that. That is not something that is
Speaker 1: usually broadcast in the mainstream. A lot of people actually
Speaker 1: don't know how the economic and money system works. I
Speaker 1: always say if people knew what was happening at the FED,
Speaker 1: they would probably riot around the Federal Reserve building. That
Speaker 1: I'm not telling people to do that, so Federal Reserve
Speaker 1: people of that, I don't want any in trouble. But
Speaker 1: if they understood what was happening to their currency and
Speaker 1: the impact that has, they would probably be really really
Speaker 1: upset about the FED. But they you know, there's the
Speaker 1: Democrats versus Republican and the independent in the middle and
Speaker 1: U that's just how the show goes.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and the great choice of word the show. You know,
Speaker 3: I think we need an America first party to emerge
Speaker 3: after especially as we're seeing new digital currency coming in.
Speaker 3: I think with that we need to see new leaders
Speaker 3: come in and take the reins.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, Look, I'm optimistic that you know will come out
Speaker 1: of Look, look, we always have these recessionary periods. It's
Speaker 1: just part of how the economy works. Obviously, it's rough
Speaker 1: and I'm not saying it's an easy thing to go through,
Speaker 1: but it's par for the course. Unfortunately, unless the money
Speaker 1: system changes at some point in the future, they're going
Speaker 1: to have to keep printing and I think they.
Speaker 2: Will rent again.
Speaker 1: We'll go to another boom cycle and then we'll go
Speaker 1: to another bus cycle.
Speaker 2: I think we're going through a bit of a bus
Speaker 2: cycle bus cycle right now.
Speaker 1: And you know, the the idea of learning or having
Speaker 1: financial education is so important now more than ever because
Speaker 1: the governments have kind of ran out of options. They
Speaker 1: just have to hit the money printer unfortunately. And this
Speaker 1: is where you want to hold assets like bitcoining, crypto
Speaker 1: and stocks and so forth, so you can help you
Speaker 1: help yourself and outpace that the basement.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think those are all very very good points.
Speaker 3: And I yeah, I don't I don't want to get
Speaker 3: too down that rabbit hole because I want to refrain
Speaker 3: from getting too political.
Speaker 4: But yeah, and I think those are great points.
Speaker 2: So we got to talk about Alex Mshinsky.
Speaker 1: Uh, this is this is one and that that's close
Speaker 1: to home because I interviewed Alex Mshinsky maybe about eight
Speaker 1: times over the past you know, seven years or so.
Speaker 1: And what really pissed me off was Alex went on TV,
Speaker 1: he went on my show and lie to people and
Speaker 1: that now we're hearing there's going to be some sort
Speaker 1: of settlement.
Speaker 2: You know, what is your take on this?
Speaker 3: He's you know, I think it's yeah, he's banned from crypto,
Speaker 3: and I think financial penalty. You know, a lot of
Speaker 3: people feel this doesn't match the scale of the damage done,
Speaker 3: and I have to agree with that. Retail investors lost billions,
Speaker 3: and others are arguing, you know, regulators are trying to
Speaker 3: set precedent without overreaching. Okay, you know, but I think
Speaker 3: the question is is this accountability or is this the
Speaker 3: cost of doing business in crypto?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 4: And I I just don't really.
Speaker 3: He did scam a lot of people, and this was
Speaker 3: in a crisis, you know, the twenty twenty two crisis
Speaker 3: of of.
Speaker 4: Was it tetra USD oh a USD?
Speaker 3: Yeah, And that's that's I think where this all started happening.
Speaker 3: And they throw assets and people were just like, well,
Speaker 3: where's my money? And you know, he threw his hands
Speaker 3: up to me. I am one that agrees a fine
Speaker 3: and a band from crypto. This guy probably has crypto
Speaker 3: hidden in offshore account you know where he'll just go
Speaker 3: live out.
Speaker 4: The rest of his day is scott free.
Speaker 3: And this industry is so niche such that Alex Mashinski
Speaker 3: can walk outside and probably most of most people won't
Speaker 3: know who he is. You know, if you're in the spate,
Speaker 3: you're a native crypto person, you would know who he is.
Speaker 3: But otherwise I think he'll just live on. And I
Speaker 3: think that's where people are upset.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I'm one of the punishment does not fit
Speaker 1: the crime. He should be and sometime in jail. Look,
Speaker 1: Sam Beckmanfried is in jail, rightfully, So Alice Mashinski should
Speaker 1: also be in jail. Maybe not the same level of
Speaker 1: sentencing and you know, term and so forth, but he
Speaker 1: should spend some time in jail because, like.
Speaker 2: I said, he willingly.
Speaker 1: He knew things were not right, and he had a
Speaker 1: kind of a bit of a ponzi running and he
Speaker 1: would come on, oh, yeah.
Speaker 2: It's fine, put your money and you're going to earn
Speaker 2: and all these things.
Speaker 1: And also I believe when they were about to collapse,
Speaker 1: him and some of the other executives started cashing out.
Speaker 1: Come on, man, you gotta go to jail for that,
Speaker 1: that's right.
Speaker 4: And I'm shocked.
Speaker 3: I mean, he must have very good attorneys or some
Speaker 3: I'm like, how did this guy get off so easy?
Speaker 3: I really don't understand that. And he was of that
Speaker 3: campaign narrative of unbanked the banked, you know, that was
Speaker 3: the Celsius network and launching the token, and and I
Speaker 3: think it's really like you look to now and it's
Speaker 3: really like where as a publicist, you know, where it
Speaker 3: used to be the launches of these huge these token
Speaker 3: launches and press releases for announcements, you're seeing now even
Speaker 3: with Tether, the people that are actually making an impact,
Speaker 3: it's very quiet. It's not an announcement anymore. It's not
Speaker 3: a token launch. And I'm very happy about that because
Speaker 3: obviously we've seen time and time again you're most corrupt
Speaker 3: and you're most fraudulent.
Speaker 4: They're the loudest, they are so loud.
Speaker 3: And they're getting create there on every you know you too,
Speaker 3: simply because they're they're getting this momentum, and it doesn't
Speaker 3: always mean there's legitimacy behind that token and that company.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's funny.
Speaker 1: We saw this playout, as you said in twenty twenty
Speaker 1: two FTX very loud, very big, right, seems like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, they're gonna take over the world, But lots
Speaker 1: of bad things happening in the background. Als Maschinski promoting
Speaker 1: Celsius like crazy, remember him, I Peter Schiff had the
Speaker 1: debate and he was lying through his teeth.
Speaker 2: Man, it was so bad.
Speaker 1: And then of course Tara Luna, right, Luna's gonna think
Speaker 1: of the world. You know, the token was going crazy
Speaker 1: and then we know what happened after that. So to
Speaker 1: your point, a lot of the successful companies are.
Speaker 2: Not out there being loud.
Speaker 1: They're actually building and then when they have a product
Speaker 1: that's ready to go to production, they'll come out and
Speaker 1: tell the public.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think part of this convergence TRADFI and crypto,
Speaker 3: like we always discussed, you know, that's just it. Tratfi
Speaker 3: has the reputation, it has the credibility that crypto is
Speaker 3: slowly trying to grasp right now because of the compliance,
Speaker 3: because of the regulation. You know, these conferences that Tradify
Speaker 3: and these institutions have been doing for decades. They're free,
Speaker 3: they're and they're small, but there are huge turnouts where
Speaker 3: they are sold out and they're turning people away and
Speaker 3: you don't hear about them, but they're they're on the ground, they're.
Speaker 4: Convening at these places.
Speaker 3: And so I think crypto needs to kind of get
Speaker 3: the ball rolling in that's in a similar direction.
Speaker 5: Oh absolutely, Yeah, there's still a bit of maturing that
Speaker 5: needs to happen growing up right from that perspective, and
Speaker 5: you know you mentioned earlier it shouldn't happen in Las Vegas.
Speaker 1: No, but you know, speaking of the building, Amanda, you
Speaker 1: know that these institutions are doing. Meta launched a USD
Speaker 1: staple coin USDC excuse me, staple coin payouts to creators
Speaker 1: via stripe on the Solana and Polygon blockchains. Specifically, it
Speaker 1: is a pilot happening in Colombia and Philippines and is
Speaker 1: the first crypto payments product since the Libra collapse in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two. I think this is significant. And boy
Speaker 1: was Facebook ahead of the curve and now years later day.
Speaker 2: Able to do something.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he sure was. And what a testament to the time.
Speaker 3: You know, when Libra was first created in twenty nineteen,
Speaker 3: and this was you know, he was creating just very
Speaker 3: fast payments through Messenger or WhatsApp, and it was at
Speaker 3: the time the government was very concerned that he was
Speaker 3: creating this private global currency. And I remember that was
Speaker 3: backed by Visa, that was backed by PayPal. I mean,
Speaker 3: he had huge players. But the government came in and
Speaker 3: was like, wait a second, what is this guy doing so.
Speaker 4: He was certainly early.
Speaker 3: It was designed as a stable coin, and now he's
Speaker 3: kind I wonder what Mark Zuckerberg thinks. Of course, billionaires
Speaker 3: have access to a lot more than we do. But
Speaker 3: he Yeah, I'm happy he's back in the playing field,
Speaker 3: and I hope this time he does it, you know,
Speaker 3: with success.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I think the Genius Act passing gives all
Speaker 1: these companies the green light and the confidence to go
Speaker 1: build and integrate stable coins. What I'm curious about the
Speaker 1: Amanda you know, are they just testing at USDC in
Speaker 1: this these small markets say let's see how it goes.
Speaker 1: But they are building their own stable coin, which I
Speaker 1: think would make a lot of sense for them, right,
Speaker 1: given me a network that they have with different social
Speaker 1: platforms Instagram and so forth, and the amount of users. Boy,
Speaker 1: if they launch your own stable point, they can get
Speaker 1: mass adoption very quickly. You can be very competitive and
Speaker 1: not to mention, you know, gain the benefits of having
Speaker 1: a stable coin because you can earn the interest perking it,
Speaker 1: you know, the fat and so on and so forth.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's like we just said, you know, crypto adoption,
Speaker 3: it's not going to come from the big launches. It's
Speaker 3: going to come from these quiet integrations like this. So
Speaker 3: I think it's really smart that the way that they're
Speaker 3: approaching this.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I interviewed recently the head of crypto at PayPal,
Speaker 1: and you know, one of the things they're doing, they're
Speaker 1: working with YouTube where the PayPal stable coin is being
Speaker 1: used to pay out to creators.
Speaker 2: That's something I actually have to test that myself, but
Speaker 2: it looks.
Speaker 1: Like they're piloting the creator aspect of it, which makes sense,
Speaker 1: you know, because they already they already have the payments
Speaker 1: rails going there. And then I can imagine they're going
Speaker 1: to open it up to general users on Facebook and
Speaker 1: all these different platforms to be able to move money.
Speaker 2: So it's going to.
Speaker 1: Get really competitive and I'm really really excited to see
Speaker 1: how that plays out.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: See, that's the that's to me, that's the most important
Speaker 3: part of crypto growing is that the community aspect has
Speaker 3: to be Nobody needs to say, you know, I'm using
Speaker 3: blockchain technology. You know. I always equate it to if
Speaker 3: when when Facebook first came around and everybody's logging on
Speaker 3: starting their accounts. You know, we're not going into the
Speaker 3: tech of it we're not going to the nitty. We're
Speaker 3: just using it because it's connecting us to other people,
Speaker 3: and the same thing has to happen here.
Speaker 4: It should be very user friendly.
Speaker 3: It should be easy to you know, people don't even
Speaker 3: know they're using blockchain technology. It's the fact that they
Speaker 3: it's easy, it's fast, and it's accessible. So I think
Speaker 3: the creator economy tapping into that is key.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a great point.
Speaker 1: It has to just be running behind the scenes and
Speaker 1: to the average Joe and Jay, it just works. It
Speaker 1: offers great benefits, faster, cheaper, and so on and so forth.
Speaker 2: But it just works.
Speaker 1: They don't need to know it's this state look coin,
Speaker 1: it's this blockchain Salona versus Polygon or.
Speaker 2: Whatever it is. They don't need to see the how
Speaker 2: the sausages made it.
Speaker 1: Just it just works, and that's how you're gonna get
Speaker 1: mass adoption, exactly. I'm curious to see which other big
Speaker 1: companies come out, you know, as we head later into
Speaker 1: this year, because as you can imagine, I don't think
Speaker 1: Google is going to sit around. I mentioned YouTube before,
Speaker 1: and it's owned by Google, but I feel like Google's
Speaker 1: cooking out something. They're going to do something more Microsoft
Speaker 1: as well. I feel all these guys probably have a
Speaker 1: stable coin, tokenization, crypto strategy and one way or the other.
Speaker 1: And I'm sure we're going to see more announcements because
Speaker 1: you know game theory.
Speaker 2: No one wants to get left behind.
Speaker 1: Wait a minute, Meta is doing this, yout have we
Speaker 1: got to do it too.
Speaker 3: No, it's true, and that's the beauty, you know, that's
Speaker 3: that's that's what we need. We need competition. We need
Speaker 3: healthy competition in this country. We need entrepreneurship, We need
Speaker 3: more innovators who know that these big corporations are looking
Speaker 3: for those types of entrepreneurs to buy up or somebody
Speaker 3: with a good idea that maybe they didn't think of,
Speaker 3: Like this is the whole point of capitalist that this
Speaker 3: is the positive of capitalism.
Speaker 4: So I'm happy to see that that's all coming back.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, and that's why you know we mentioned earlier,
Speaker 1: we need that Clarity Act task to have capitalism be
Speaker 1: put to work in a greater fashion with crypto, to
Speaker 1: create more companies, more jobs, because the technology is not
Speaker 1: going away across the globe. All major countries are now
Speaker 1: embracing it. They're putting in the rules and the guidelines.
Speaker 1: But they're not banning it anymore. Uh, and especially China,
Speaker 1: you know, they certainly want to take it as much
Speaker 1: advantage of it as possible. And look, they're our biggest
Speaker 1: competitor as far as world superpowers.
Speaker 3: So yeah, well they had a lot more time than
Speaker 3: we did. Unfortunately under Biden we were so restricted did
Speaker 3: and a lot of your your crypto minors you know,
Speaker 3: went offshore and because they weren't allowed to do it here.
Speaker 4: And so as we're bringing this all back, it will.
Speaker 3: Take time, but hopefully hopefully we wind up neck and neck,
Speaker 3: if not further ahead.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and the Clariac would be a big chess move
Speaker 1: on the board. And hopefully the next time we meet
Speaker 1: and have a water cooler episode.
Speaker 2: There's some more positive action, not news, but just action.
Speaker 2: We've got we're moving into the market phase now, Yes.
Speaker 3: And I appreciate all these senators and what they're doing,
Speaker 3: and but enough of the tweets of you know, it's
Speaker 3: moving forward, it's gonna you know, get this pat like,
Speaker 3: just let's see it happen. Like I think people are
Speaker 3: a bit exhausted who've been around of hearing that, like,
Speaker 3: let's let's get it done.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, Manda great stuff and everyone, we will catch you
Speaker 1: in the next episode and as mentioned, hopefully we have
Speaker 1: some very actionable news items around the Clarity Act. But
Speaker 1: Cryptos here to say the technology is here to stay
Speaker 1: and we just got to get through this regulatory piece
Speaker 1: and we'll be in a clear runway to start building.
Speaker 4: Yeah, catch you next time, everybody. Thanks Tony,