Speaker 1: Hey everyone, Welcome into the Thinking Crypto podcast. You're home
Speaker 1: for cryptocurrency news and interviews. I'm your host, Tony Edward.
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Speaker 1: a five star rating. Folks, I want to apologize ahead
Speaker 1: of time for my voice. I'm a bit under the weather,
Speaker 1: have a bit of a cold, so that's why I
Speaker 1: skipped yesterday's episode. But we got big news today, huge
Speaker 1: adoption news by banks and much more. So let's kick
Speaker 1: it off. Okay, the first news item, Wells Fargo signals
Speaker 1: deeper push into crypto following a trademark for WFUSD. Now,
Speaker 1: wf USD sounds like a stable coin, right. We've seen
Speaker 1: that other folks who have launched stable coins like Ripple
Speaker 1: are l USD like PayPal p yus D, so it
Speaker 1: certainly sounds like a stable coin. But this should come
Speaker 1: as no surprise. We've been seeing JP, Morgan, City Bank,
Speaker 1: P and C Bank and others having launching crypto services.
Speaker 1: They've talked about launching a stable coin. They want to
Speaker 1: offer crypto trading, custody and much more. So. This is
Speaker 1: the direction the puck is heading in. It's inevitable all
Speaker 1: the banks will participate in one way or the other.
Speaker 1: So let me give it to details here. So wells
Speaker 1: Fargo file a crypto related trademark application for WFUSD, signaling
Speaker 1: a deeper push into crypto and blockchain services. The USPTO
Speaker 1: filing indicates WFUSD with support cryptocurrency, payment processing, digital asset trading,
Speaker 1: and software for tokenizing assets, with the name hinting at
Speaker 1: a deposit token or stable coin of course, of course, guys,
Speaker 1: And notice all the different aspects they highlighted here. Tokenization,
Speaker 1: digital asset trading, crypto, payment processing. So all the banks
Speaker 1: are going to get involved, and you're going to see
Speaker 1: them do some very interesting things with crypto, such as
Speaker 1: using crypto for collateral for loans, mortgages and things alone
Speaker 1: those lines. So the move follows similar efforts by JP
Speaker 1: Morgan and comes amid broader interest from major US banks
Speaker 1: in tokenized assets and stable coins. So many of you
Speaker 1: know JP Morgan. They've been at this for a long
Speaker 1: time with Consensus when they launched jpm coin back in
Speaker 1: the day, but it was a wallgarden, right. They tried
Speaker 1: to do a private permission type of setup, but no
Speaker 1: one's going to trust it, right, It's just another wallgarden.
Speaker 1: So we're seeing that they're now bridging to public chains.
Speaker 1: So most recently, JP Morgan they launched their permission USD
Speaker 1: depositoken on Base, which is the ethereum layer two created
Speaker 1: by Coinbase. So I'm very curious to see what wfusd
Speaker 1: wells Fargo's depositoken or stable coin, how that's going to
Speaker 1: be set up maybe similar, Right, they're going to launch
Speaker 1: on different blockchains. Usually they start with Etherereum, but they
Speaker 1: could start with Base because Coinbase they have a crypto
Speaker 1: as a service solution which makes it easier for many
Speaker 1: of these banks, and JP Morgan, City, PNC, and I
Speaker 1: believe some others are already leveraging coinbasis service. So guys,
Speaker 1: I mean, just look at what's happening. So we're still
Speaker 1: in the early innings. This is just a tippitty iceberg,
Speaker 1: and there's going to be a lot more built out,
Speaker 1: But this is just a news item here that you
Speaker 1: got to share with a crypto skeptic, right with a
Speaker 1: blockchain skeptic who they don't get what's going on. They
Speaker 1: may have just read certain headlines, but they haven't gone
Speaker 1: further to educate themselves. So make sure you share this
Speaker 1: type of news with them. Here's another example of a
Speaker 1: massive financial giant getting more involved in crypto. So MasterCard
Speaker 1: launches new Crypto Partner Program, a global initiative which brings
Speaker 1: together more than eighty five industry leaders ensuring that what's
Speaker 1: next works with what already does. So TRADFI trying to
Speaker 1: bring together Crypto and the other TRADFI companies to make
Speaker 1: sure this all works together right because infrastructure is being
Speaker 1: set up right now, and we know MasterCard, this is
Speaker 1: not their first go round. They're supporting stable coins and
Speaker 1: crypto in different ways. They're using blockchain tech. I interviewed
Speaker 1: master cards head of Crypto last year. I should be
Speaker 1: having him back on the podcast soon to talk about
Speaker 1: all these things. But MasterCard is not playing around, and
Speaker 1: the same thing with Visa. Visa is not playing around.
Speaker 1: The race is on. So the credit card companies, the
Speaker 1: stock exchanges, the banks, the investment firms like black Rock
Speaker 1: and Fidelity, and much more all getting involved It was
Speaker 1: once taboo to talk about all of this and to say, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: we're going to look at blockchain crypto. Right. At one
Speaker 1: point Larry Fink, CEO of Blackrock, was calling this all
Speaker 1: a scam as well. But now it will be foolish
Speaker 1: to not have a strategy. So that's why you are
Speaker 1: seeing so many developments from these big trad five firms
Speaker 1: now moving ahead. Bitgo to custody digital assets for stable
Speaker 1: excess one hundred million dollars stable coin plan. Many of
Speaker 1: you may know Bitgo founded by Mike Belshie. They're one
Speaker 1: of the top crypto custodians and they provide a variety
Speaker 1: of services, but they're mostly known for custody and trading services,
Speaker 1: and it looks like they have been selected here by
Speaker 1: stable x Technologies Digital Asset Treasury as it plans to
Speaker 1: acquire up to one hundred million dollars in crypto tookens
Speaker 1: tied to the stable coin sector. According to Tuesday's announcement,
Speaker 1: Bitco Bank and Trust will serve as the custodian for
Speaker 1: stable X's digital asset holdings, while Bitco's trading platforms will
Speaker 1: help execute the company's planned acquisitions through its over the
Speaker 1: counter liquidity desk. Stable X SBLX is a publicly traded
Speaker 1: company focused on stable coin infrastructure and related technologies. Here's
Speaker 1: a quote. The stable x deal is notable because it
Speaker 1: goes beyond bitcoin centric treasury strategies. It signals demand for
Speaker 1: institutional custody infrastructure around stable coin ecosystem tokens. So you
Speaker 1: can see that the ACID class is maturing. It's going
Speaker 1: beyond Bitcoin, it's going beyond just all coins. There's tokenized assets,
Speaker 1: there are stable coins and much more. So, really really
Speaker 1: great stuff here. Okay, moving ahead, Kracken's tokenized stock venue
Speaker 1: starts points program hinting at possible ecosystem token. So this
Speaker 1: is interesting. Kracken's been doing a lot so x stocks,
Speaker 1: a Kraken linked in tokenized equities platform, is launching an
Speaker 1: x rewards program to incentivize traders, liquidity providers, and defive
Speaker 1: builders who use its on chain stock tokens. Points systems
Speaker 1: in crypto often precede token launches or governance incentives, though
Speaker 1: x stocks has not officially announced plans per token yet.
Speaker 1: The move comes as tokenized equities rapidly expand, with more
Speaker 1: than one billion dollars in value locked and growing interest
Speaker 1: from traditional finance, including a new NASDA krack in partnership
Speaker 1: to distribute tokenized stocks outside the US so many we
Speaker 1: may recall earlier in the week, and as that announced,
Speaker 1: they're partnering with Kraken to be able to expand and
Speaker 1: go twenty four to seven. So huge things happen on
Speaker 1: Kraken's front. And look, if Kraken goes public with all
Speaker 1: these partnerships, I'm certainly gonna look to buy the stock now.
Speaker 1: I never buy the initial IPO moments right because the
Speaker 1: stock pumps, but I'm gonna wait for it to go
Speaker 1: down and then scoop up, the same thing I was
Speaker 1: doing with Circle, because Circle, I think many of you saw,
Speaker 1: I pumped like crazy then it corrected, right, So you
Speaker 1: want to buy when there's blood on the streets. So
Speaker 1: I'm diversified. I hold equity stocks and so forth along
Speaker 1: with crypto and certainly on the stock side, more so
Speaker 1: crypto companies than you know, traditional tech companies, although I
Speaker 1: do have some Tesla stock and things like that. Okay,
Speaker 1: moving ahead, we have continued synergy between the SEC and
Speaker 1: the CFDC, so SEC Chair Paul Atkins and CFDC Chair
Speaker 1: Mike Sea Leake. They posted a photo of themselves working
Speaker 1: together signing a memorandum of understanding which solidifies their efforts
Speaker 1: to achieve their mutual goals of harmonization, and of course
Speaker 1: a lot of this is around crypto and digital assets,
Speaker 1: so it's great to see these agencies coming together. So
Speaker 1: it ends a lot of the confusion and problems we've
Speaker 1: had historically, and they can get the rule making done,
Speaker 1: because it's one thing to have the Clarity Act, but
Speaker 1: if you don't have the agencies which are doing a
Speaker 1: lot of the enforcing and the guidance giving you the rules,
Speaker 1: then we're not going to get very far. But the
Speaker 1: fact that they're doing this while the Clarity Act is
Speaker 1: being worked on, and we obviously got to figure out
Speaker 1: the bank stable coin Yald situation, it's great to see
Speaker 1: the two agencies working together. And this is going to
Speaker 1: be really really important for the adoption or further adoption
Speaker 1: by institutions and even the regular folks who want to
Speaker 1: adopt crypto in different ways. So really really big stuff here, folks.
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Speaker 1: Forge launches euure cv stable coin on this Stellar blockchain.
Speaker 1: So a couple of takeaways here. We continue to see
Speaker 1: banks and major institutions around the world launching stable coins,
Speaker 1: doing much more of a crypto and they're building on
Speaker 1: the public chains. Many of you hold the XLM token,
Speaker 1: which is the native token of the Stellar blockchain. I
Speaker 1: personally do, so this is really great. This is how
Speaker 1: you can benefit from this type of adoption. So sociat
Speaker 1: Generale Forge, the crypto arm of French banking company Sociate Generale,
Speaker 1: has deployed its Euro denominated stable coin on the Stellar blockchain,
Speaker 1: continuing a multi chain expansion first announced in twenty twenty five.
Speaker 1: The stable coin, known as euer Coinvertible or eur CV,
Speaker 1: is designed to comply with the European Union's Markets in
Speaker 1: Crypto Assets MICA framework and represents a tokenized Euro issued
Speaker 1: by the company for use in digital asset markets. Incredible
Speaker 1: stuff so according to the company, the Stellar deployment is
Speaker 1: intended to broaden the stable coin's use across blockchain based
Speaker 1: financial applications and tokenize asset services. Sg Forge said Stellar
Speaker 1: offers high transaction through put, low network fees, and built
Speaker 1: in support for tokenized assets. The network also includes a
Speaker 1: decentralized exchange that allows users to trade digital assets directly
Speaker 1: on chain. This is the future, folks. Okay, moving ahead,
Speaker 1: trust Wallet adds real time scam address checks for crypto users.
Speaker 1: I love this update. This is going to be so
Speaker 1: important and I hope more platforms and exchanges do this
Speaker 1: and they can leverage AI to do this. So if
Speaker 1: there's known user names or wallet addresses that have been
Speaker 1: associated with scammers, then you know, as you're trying to
Speaker 1: send money or whatever you're doing, it will flag it, right,
Speaker 1: that would be so helpfulful a lot of people, especially
Speaker 1: if they're you know, using crypto as it's meant to
Speaker 1: use the ethos of it where you're where you have
Speaker 1: a self hosted wallet, or you're on a crypto exchange. Right. Obviously,
Speaker 1: people who participate via ETFs don't have to worry about
Speaker 1: things like this, but I think majority of us who
Speaker 1: are early adopters we you know, self custody for the
Speaker 1: most part. So trust Wallet has introduced address poisoning protection,
Speaker 1: adding a new screening feature designed to help users avoid
Speaker 1: sending cryptocurrency to scam wallets that mimic legitimate addresses. The
Speaker 1: self custody wallet provider said Tuesday that the new feature
Speaker 1: will automatically run a destination address check against a database
Speaker 1: of known scam and look alike addresses to prevent malicious transactions.
Speaker 1: The rollout initially covers thirty two etherorem virtual machine compatible blockchains,
Speaker 1: including Etherorem, BnB, smart Chain, Polygon, Optimism, Arbitrum, Avalanche, and Base.
Speaker 1: So I love this. This is what we need to
Speaker 1: see for further adoption, to weed out the bad actors
Speaker 1: and scammers and to help protect folks. Okay, moving ahead,
Speaker 1: Babylon and Ledger tie up expands access to bitcoin vaults
Speaker 1: for collateral use. So Bitcoin staking infrastructure developer Babylon Labs
Speaker 1: has integrated with Ledger, a cryptocurrency hardware wallet, in a
Speaker 1: move that could make it easier for holders to put
Speaker 1: their bitcoin to work in financial applications without giving up
Speaker 1: self custody. In a Tuesday announcement, the company said Ledger
Speaker 1: signers will be used for Babylon's trustless bitcoin vaults, known
Speaker 1: as BTC vaults. The vaults allow bitcoin holders to lock
Speaker 1: their tokens into programmable contracts governed by on chain conditions,
Speaker 1: while retaining self custody of the underlying assets. Ledger devices
Speaker 1: will act as the secure signing layer for BTC vault transactions,
Speaker 1: enabling users to authorize vault interactions directly from their hardware wallet.
Speaker 1: So the feature relies on ledgers clear signing technology, which
Speaker 1: displays human readable transaction details on the device screen so
Speaker 1: users can verify exactly what they are approving before signing.
Speaker 1: The approach is designed to reduce the risk of signing
Speaker 1: malicious or of pick transactions, a common concern in crypto workflow.
Speaker 1: So I love this again. More security more collaboration here
Speaker 1: among the industries. So this is really great, Okay, Moving ahead,
Speaker 1: TRON joins a gentic Ai Foundation as founder sees future
Speaker 1: in AI, so we're seeing the collaboration between AI technology
Speaker 1: and blockchain technology. So the TRON network has joined the
Speaker 1: Linux Foundation's agentic Ai Foundation as a governing member to
Speaker 1: support the development of infrastructure for AI agents. In an
Speaker 1: announcement of Monday, Trond's Decentralized Autonomous Organization or DOO said
Speaker 1: the network joined the agentic Ai Foundation and will serve
Speaker 1: on its governing board. Tron Dow said agentic ai will
Speaker 1: generate significant demand in the future, and as such, it
Speaker 1: requires collaboration and interoperability to establish systems that can handle continuous,
Speaker 1: high volume, low value transactions efficiently to scale. So I
Speaker 1: think we all know we've talked a lot about it.
Speaker 1: Ad nauseum. AI agents are not going to use cash,
Speaker 1: They're going to use stable coins. Right, is going to
Speaker 1: be a lot of blockchain technology put into place to
Speaker 1: help safeguard these AI agents and also to police them. Right,
Speaker 1: I've often talked about one of the major narratives I
Speaker 1: believe for the next bullmarket and adoption as well, will
Speaker 1: be blockchain used on publishing platforms, whether it be social
Speaker 1: media or news websites, to date, stamp and show the
Speaker 1: origin of content because there will the AI video and
Speaker 1: images will be so sophisticated, guys, and maybe a year
Speaker 1: or two away where you're not going to be able
Speaker 1: to differentiate. It's going to get more advanced and you're
Speaker 1: gonna need blockchain to help you verify. There's gonna have
Speaker 1: to be some sort of dialogue box that says this
Speaker 1: was published on this date by this person on this chain,
Speaker 1: and you know, all the transaction data and everything, timestamps
Speaker 1: and everything will be there and only blockchain can provide
Speaker 1: that verifiability, right, And this is where you know, we
Speaker 1: could see major chaines like Etheroreum, Solana and different things
Speaker 1: be used. I believe the folks that Fox News are
Speaker 1: working on something like this and they're actually using Polygon,
Speaker 1: but don't quote me on that. I plan to do
Speaker 1: a video, you know, talking about that, and that's something
Speaker 1: I'm gonna be personally watching. So that could be a
Speaker 1: huge narrative in a next bullmarket. Now, speaking of the
Speaker 1: next bull market, investment firm, multi coin bets, internet labor
Speaker 1: markets will drive crypto's next wave of adoption. So many
Speaker 1: of you may be familiar with multi Cooin. They're one
Speaker 1: of the crypto funds that they were early to Solana.
Speaker 1: They invest in Solana, they did a lot more as well.
Speaker 1: So crypto's main use case has long been buying and
Speaker 1: trading tokens, but some investors believe the next wave of
Speaker 1: adoption could come from earning them instead. Multi Cooin Capital
Speaker 1: calls this emerging model internet labor markets, where users receive
Speaker 1: crypto for contributing tasks like data labeling, bandwidth, or other
Speaker 1: online work. Proponents the model could transform crypto from a
Speaker 1: speculative trading ecosystem into a global marketplace for digital labor.
Speaker 1: I think there's some part of this which makes sense.
Speaker 1: I think stable coins, right, A lot of people still
Speaker 1: want the US dollars, So if you can pay them
Speaker 1: on stable coins, yeah, yeah, you know, that could work.
Speaker 1: And but you know, as far as specific crypto assets,
Speaker 1: I don't know, you know, that's tbd. If there's more
Speaker 1: infrastructure for people to be able to spend their crypto
Speaker 1: assets like bitcoin, eth, Salona, XRP, and so forth, then yeah,
Speaker 1: I think people will be more open to it. To
Speaker 1: say Okay, yeah, pay me an XRP, pay me an ETH.
Speaker 1: But if they they're not enough off rams for them
Speaker 1: to quickly translate that to cash if they need it
Speaker 1: or to spend it, then it's better off you send
Speaker 1: me the stable coins because the stable coins have less
Speaker 1: friction and less of a barrier for adoption, because it's
Speaker 1: pretty straightforward, tokenized dollar, tokenized euro. Right, many businesses and
Speaker 1: merchants and services going to be familiar with that, and
Speaker 1: you know, we all know the benefits the instant settlements,
Speaker 1: low fees and so forth. But it's TBD. You know,
Speaker 1: this could certainly work out if the infrastructure is there,
Speaker 1: and I don't know if it happens in the next
Speaker 1: bull market. You know, we're really going to have to
Speaker 1: wait and see. But I'm in agreement overall in the
Speaker 1: longer term vision of this that this could work out
Speaker 1: really well. Folks. That's the news. Let me know what
Speaker 1: you think. Leave your thoughts and comments below. Subscribe if
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