Speaker 1: Welcome back to another episode of the XRP podcast. This
Speaker 1: is going to be a special week because it is
Speaker 1: the week of the XRP Las Vegas event. If you
Speaker 1: guys are not going, I want you to extend a
Speaker 1: personal invite get out there to Vegas if you can
Speaker 1: and come by and see me because we will be
Speaker 1: doing a media event there along with a handful of
Speaker 1: different sessions there on stage, covering everything from Domin Phil
Speaker 1: Qualk will also be talking with Hugo. We'll be talking
Speaker 1: with ever North. It's going to be a jam packed week.
Speaker 1: So hopefully you guys get a chance visit the XRP
Speaker 1: Los Vegas dot com website. You guys can jump in
Speaker 1: on that. Listen. I have a big show today because
Speaker 1: we're going to be talking to Zach Rector, who is
Speaker 1: a favorite here on the channel, and we're gonna dive
Speaker 1: into some interesting things, not only the idea of where
Speaker 1: the market could be going, but is this the bottom
Speaker 1: and what is a good portfolio allocation for you? And
Speaker 1: we'll talk about gold XRP obviously and even security. So
Speaker 1: stick around for all that. You guys know what to do.
Speaker 1: Make sure I like and subscribe right now and join
Speaker 1: the XRP tribe. By the way, if you are not
Speaker 1: a member, get in on that. We are ramping up
Speaker 1: the member content here. You have been worn because I
Speaker 1: know everybody always gets a little upset if we do
Speaker 1: a member only but that's the way it works, guys.
Speaker 1: That's what we're trying to do is build a really
Speaker 1: solid membership here. And you know what to do. Just
Speaker 1: click on that little member tag down below. Let's go in.
Speaker 1: Zach Rector, the one and only. How are you, my man?
Speaker 2: You doing fantastic, Paul. It's a pleasure to be back
Speaker 2: on the show, Sir.
Speaker 1: I like, I hated what people call me sir, but
Speaker 1: I appreciate it. At the end of the day, I'll
Speaker 1: call you sir, Sir Zach Rector.
Speaker 2: Oh, you're wearing that beautiful suit, looking good as always,
Speaker 2: and I'm glad that you're going to be down in Vegas.
Speaker 2: Unfortunately I won't able to make it this year, but
Speaker 2: I'm glad that you'll be providing some coverage and give
Speaker 2: some content and don't party down there too hard without me.
Speaker 1: I'll hold up the end. I'll give you a couple
Speaker 1: of shout outs while I'm there. I'll make sure and say, hey,
Speaker 1: go over and check out Zach's YouTube channel, which you
Speaker 1: guys should be doing right now. We'll leave a link
Speaker 1: down below. He does a great job over on YouTube,
Speaker 1: covering a lot of XRP news, but also you get
Speaker 1: into a lot of other digital assets and more economic
Speaker 1: news as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I cover current events and the financial markets broadly,
Speaker 2: of course, focusing on crypto. I think it's still the
Speaker 2: best opportunity for sure. And just so everybody knows where
Speaker 2: my bias is at most of my net worth is
Speaker 2: in digital assets, so yeah, I've positioned myself in that,
Speaker 2: but I do hedge with precious metals. And then we
Speaker 2: just got to keep showing up every day, whether it
Speaker 2: be at our jobs, our businesses, because yeah, we'll talk
Speaker 2: about inflation, but it's not going to get any easier,
Speaker 2: and especially if you don't own these assets that are
Speaker 2: set to appreciate significantly even further.
Speaker 1: Well, and I think the point that people are starting
Speaker 1: to understand is that assets he's the only way out
Speaker 1: of this. Nothing stops his train. Lynn Alden's famous for
Speaker 1: saying that I agree with Lynn on that because it
Speaker 1: is a big issue. Peter Schiff is here though, talking
Speaker 1: about that the stock market is inflation. I'm showing a
Speaker 1: tweet right here, and it's not real value. So and
Speaker 1: he's basically saying, hey, when the dollar loses its value,
Speaker 1: everything appears to rise in price. It's an illusion. I
Speaker 1: have some pushback on that, but obviously he's pointing at
Speaker 1: the whole issue that everybody's getting robbed because of debasement,
Speaker 1: digital assets, gold also in play. I still think securities
Speaker 1: are un angled that everybody should be looking at. It's
Speaker 1: something I still participate in. But what do you think
Speaker 1: about his statement here saying this is just highway robbery
Speaker 1: if you're betting on securities right now.
Speaker 2: I think that the push into stocks is driven by
Speaker 2: people scared of inflation. Basically, if you're not making three
Speaker 2: four five percent on your money, you know you are
Speaker 2: losing and being left behind. And so it's driving investors
Speaker 2: and average Americans to have to speculate right whether you're
Speaker 2: speculating on the S and P five hundred or you're
Speaker 2: betting on sports this past weekend. It's basically the inflation,
Speaker 2: which is from the Federal Reserve and our government, is
Speaker 2: driving everyone to be more speculative, and this market punishes
Speaker 2: you for not being in it. So I think that
Speaker 2: there's a lot of complacency in the stock market right now,
Speaker 2: and it's working out so far, so good, new all
Speaker 2: time highs on the S and P five hundred, despite
Speaker 2: this war going on, despite the private credit crisis, new
Speaker 2: all time highs being printed. But we just actually got
Speaker 2: the worst consumer sentiment rapport ever now. And this shows
Speaker 2: the case shaped economy and the discrepant s between Main
Speaker 2: Street and Wall Street. And so we just have to
Speaker 2: understand that the S and P five hundred being at
Speaker 2: an all time high is not a representation of how
Speaker 2: Americans are feeling on Main Street. And that's the big difference.
Speaker 1: Well, and you kind of look at the two options here,
Speaker 1: I mean, because the argument I think a lot of
Speaker 1: people would have with gold is they say, well, all right,
Speaker 1: it's good for eras, and you know, times when we're
Speaker 1: seeing things like stagflation which could be happening very soon
Speaker 1: and or systemic crisis, which we have seen during two
Speaker 1: thousand and eight twenty twenty, you would think maybe now,
Speaker 1: even though it did have a run up. But the
Speaker 1: big problem with gold, at least my argument has always
Speaker 1: been that once it makes a run it usually goes
Speaker 1: into hibernation for a long period of time, so you
Speaker 1: have to be aware of that. Performance wise, I think
Speaker 1: over the long haul, the S and P five hundred
Speaker 1: is still outperforming gold if you look at long horizons
Speaker 1: and I'm talking about ten plus years. But short term,
Speaker 1: right now, gold has been doing its things. So I
Speaker 1: don't know.
Speaker 2: And for me, it's two different sides of the portfolio.
Speaker 2: Right on offense, you should be in stock. You should
Speaker 2: be in digital assets, maybe even more aggressive if you're
Speaker 2: into private equity, right in those types of securities offerings,
Speaker 2: but you have to have the defensive hedge. It might
Speaker 2: not appreciate as much as the stocks are crypto, but
Speaker 2: it's not intended to. And so I think the problem
Speaker 2: with Peter Schiff and a lot of these guys I
Speaker 2: respect and I listened to a lot of Peter is
Speaker 2: you got to distinguish between two different sides of your portfolio.
Speaker 2: You can't be all in gold, and you also don't
Speaker 2: want to be fully exposed to the stock market. With
Speaker 2: the looming correction, I think that we're all worried about.
Speaker 1: That's the thing I am very concerned about. And with that,
Speaker 1: you're probably going to see some activity on digital assets
Speaker 1: and risk in general. This was an interesting video that
Speaker 1: I want to play right here. Mike Noverret's talking about
Speaker 1: the supply on bitcoin, and the only reason I'm playing
Speaker 1: this is so without you could understand if this happens
Speaker 1: on certain digital assets, what goes on with something like
Speaker 1: an XRP. Let's take a listen. It's interesting.
Speaker 3: US retail has come back period end of story, and
Speaker 3: you see it through the ets, but most of you
Speaker 3: see it through micro strategy sailor the wizard of micro strategy.
Speaker 3: Michael Saylor is back and he is selling stock, and
Speaker 3: he is selling perpetuals, and he is buying bitcoin, and
Speaker 3: his premium is expanding, not contracting. What it means by
Speaker 3: now you're one hundred and thirty times an av. His
Speaker 3: m NAV is one thirty relative to the bitcoin he owns.
Speaker 3: And so he can sell micro strategy and make money,
Speaker 3: you know, create yield, as he says, for his investor.
Speaker 3: He dilutes his new investors are current investors, and he
Speaker 3: delutes his new invent and it's a creative.
Speaker 1: To new investor for old investors.
Speaker 2: And so it's a strategy that he has.
Speaker 3: Almost ah, He's almost the only guy that actually has
Speaker 3: this strategy built in, you.
Speaker 1: Know, all right, So I wanted to pause on that
Speaker 1: for that point. This is what Sailor has done is
Speaker 1: really started to make bitcoin an investment book in general
Speaker 1: outside of just not on the micro strategy, but if
Speaker 1: you look at Stretch, which is the biggest performing asset.
Speaker 1: We just had their CeON last week to talk about this.
Speaker 1: What do you make of these financial instruments? Do you
Speaker 1: look at these at all in consideration?
Speaker 2: Yeah, We've been watching micro Strategy and what they did.
Speaker 2: I saw that you had their CEO on, and I
Speaker 2: think that, you know, it's very innovative. I would just
Speaker 2: push back on the comments from Mike Democrats as far
Speaker 2: as retail being back right. These products are not being
Speaker 2: sold to retail. These are all institutional investors, hedge funds,
Speaker 2: insurance companies, asset managers that are funding and fueling micro Strategy.
Speaker 2: And I think that it is a serious play to
Speaker 2: force a supply shock on bitcoin, the you know, twenty
Speaker 2: one million supply with you know, the current market cap.
Speaker 2: It's possible, it really is. And I think that the
Speaker 2: institutional institutionalization of bitcoin has been something that a lot
Speaker 2: of bitcoiners have pushed back on, but I would argue
Speaker 2: that it's the reason why bitcoin traded above one hundred
Speaker 2: thousand this cycle. Without the ETFs, without the institutional spin
Speaker 2: financial rappers, bitcoin won't be, you know, up at the
Speaker 2: level that it's at in my opinion, So the bitcoiners
Speaker 2: have to have a trade off. You know, a lot
Speaker 2: of pure bitcoiners don't like this, But do you like
Speaker 2: one hundred k bitcoin? You know, do you want five
Speaker 2: hundred k bitcoin? The only way that that happens, in
Speaker 2: my opinion, is institutional for supply. I Shock, micro Strategy
Speaker 2: and Sailor have been pretty open about their objectives in
Speaker 2: doing that, and they're not the only ones. We'll see
Speaker 2: how successful they are. But yeah, I think that the
Speaker 2: only thing I pushed back is that retail, retail's not
Speaker 2: buying that product, retails not fueling that rally. That's the
Speaker 2: only pushback I'd give you.
Speaker 1: Look at this kind of supports your your position right there.
Speaker 1: Twenty six following the same book as twenty five. The
Speaker 1: difference is traders now have become much more immune to
Speaker 1: the extreme rhetoric that we've seen, you know, from the
Speaker 1: Trump administration, but also just in general of the macro
Speaker 1: and they're starting to respond differently. So to your point,
Speaker 1: institutional is playing a completely different playbook here and we're
Speaker 1: seeing these, you know, really quickly back to all time
Speaker 1: highs in terms of the SPX. Do you buy this
Speaker 1: right now or do you feel we are in for
Speaker 1: a major re tracement.
Speaker 2: So I have no interest in touching the S and
Speaker 2: P five hundred because on the risk on side of
Speaker 2: my portfolio, if I'm gonna play it risky, I'm gonna
Speaker 2: be shooting for hitting some multiples in the digital asset space.
Speaker 2: You know, I'm trying to hit a three to five
Speaker 2: x on you know, half a dozen to a dozen
Speaker 2: crypto digital asset positions that I have. I Am not
Speaker 2: trying to squeeze out another ten twenty percent out of
Speaker 2: the S and P five hundred, even over the next
Speaker 2: few years. That's just not of interest of me, because
Speaker 2: you have just as much downside risk almost right you know,
Speaker 2: some of our cryptos are down xrps down seventy percent
Speaker 2: from the all time high last year, or at least
Speaker 2: the full swing down was. So you don't have seventy
Speaker 2: percent downside risk in the S and P five hundred
Speaker 2: over the course of you know, nine months like you
Speaker 2: do in crypto. Sure, But like I said, if I'm
Speaker 2: on the risk on side of my portfolio, I'm there
Speaker 2: to hit it big, not squeeze out five to ten
Speaker 2: percent out of the S and P five hundred. I'm
Speaker 2: a thirty one year old though. Do you think far
Speaker 2: the risk curve?
Speaker 1: Yeah, big difference there in terms of time horizon. Do
Speaker 1: you think that we are in or nearing the bottom
Speaker 1: for this for the risk asset side of things digital assets?
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think that the inflows that we saw into AI,
Speaker 2: the hyperscalers, this was what drove the S and P
Speaker 2: five hundred to new all time hus and continues to
Speaker 2: is because people don't want to be left behind on
Speaker 2: that train, the AI train, the build out there. But eventually,
Speaker 2: and it looks like we're kind of close to that
Speaker 2: coming into correction. Is it a full blown bubble that
Speaker 2: pops and everything goes to zero. Absolutely not. This is
Speaker 2: the future. There's still going to be a lot of
Speaker 2: big winners, but we're correcting, and that's what's happening and
Speaker 2: unraveling in the private credit crisis right now. You know,
Speaker 2: David Sachs and the all in guys just talked about
Speaker 2: this on their most recent podcast about software as a
Speaker 2: service being repriced and private credit and even banks that
Speaker 2: have their business development credit facilities, they're exposed here. And
Speaker 2: it's the same thing that they're doing in real estate
Speaker 2: where it was extend and pretend yep, where they were
Speaker 2: extending out the mortgages, extending out the loans. Same thing
Speaker 2: that was happening in the commercial real estate space. This
Speaker 2: is now happening in the private credit crisis. That's real.
Speaker 2: If you talk to a lot of the private credit
Speaker 2: guys at the top, they're saying, it's nothing to worry about.
Speaker 2: This isn't systemic. When did we hear that last time? Right?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Duringa nine. Yeah, and so there's definitely issues. Not everybody
Speaker 2: gets wiped out, but you know, I think that as
Speaker 2: this tops and it starts to correct, people will say, Okay,
Speaker 2: we've squeezed as much juice as we're going to get
Speaker 2: out of this one, and then that rotation occurs. The
Speaker 2: Russell two thousands already kind of sending those signals that
Speaker 2: there's an appetite to start the quotation yeah to digital assets.
Speaker 1: Well, and I think that's the point we're looking at
Speaker 1: here in terms of timing, because you have had a
Speaker 1: very accelerated run in this last year on the S
Speaker 1: and P. But at the same time, risk assets crypto
Speaker 1: in general have suffered dramatically. If you got in literally
Speaker 1: when Trump got into office, you're down significantly, no matter
Speaker 1: what asset you're looking at. So it is something that
Speaker 1: I think is on the fence right now in terms
Speaker 1: of what happens next. So to your point, if private
Speaker 1: credit becomes a time bomb and we look at an
Speaker 1: S and P, possibly that could see a retracement. The
Speaker 1: capital has got to go into you would think risk,
Speaker 1: but at the same time it could also go into
Speaker 1: just being you know, not in the market. So setting
Speaker 1: on sidelines, what's the probability of that?
Speaker 2: Do you think, Well, there's a good probability, but I
Speaker 2: don't think it lasts long. I think that you know,
Speaker 2: my general thesis right now, Paul, is we haven't seen
Speaker 2: the climax of this conflict in the Middle East. You know,
Speaker 2: that's not one of our topics for today. But that's
Speaker 2: the big risk right now and the reason why crypto
Speaker 2: can't catch a bid. The last thing that people are
Speaker 2: thinking about right now is digital assets. When they're worried
Speaker 2: about the war, they're worried about inflation. Six dollars a
Speaker 2: gallon diesel for my truck five dollars a gallon gas. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, the last thing we're going to do is
Speaker 2: bid on some crypto. But I think that once the
Speaker 2: climax of this conflict has passed, then the rotation starts. Now,
Speaker 2: during that climax you would see going from stocks back
Speaker 2: into treasuries. That real climax of the event a lot
Speaker 2: of fear, and it's going to be short lived. And
Speaker 2: I think that you get a V shaped recovery just
Speaker 2: like you got after twenty twenty. You know that's going
Speaker 2: to be very short lived, and then it'll be back
Speaker 2: to risk gone because people will feel fine bidding on crypto,
Speaker 2: even bidding back into stocks again. But as as we
Speaker 2: get past that event, then we can start to see
Speaker 2: inflows pouring again. I think once that fear has subsided.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I think the thing I'm concerned is the tailwinds
Speaker 1: of all these potential issues happening all at one time.
Speaker 1: Whether you look at the energy pressure that we're seeing
Speaker 1: coming out of the Middle East, you look at private credit, obviously,
Speaker 1: the situation with the fed you just had this morning.
Speaker 1: I'm showing on screen right here, Bitcoin just flash crashed
Speaker 1: to seventy seven. That was sixty eight million in longs
Speaker 1: liquidated in an hour. I know that's not a lot,
Speaker 1: but the point is is that you're going to get
Speaker 1: these kind of moves and you could see that, all right.
Speaker 1: The problem in their statement is right here is no
Speaker 1: clear catalyst and there was no headline that really caused this.
Speaker 1: I think it is the cumulative nature of the macro
Speaker 1: pressure that is playing into this, into the mindsets of
Speaker 1: a lot of these traders, because to be honest, all
Speaker 1: this is really sentiment and now you're in the sentiment
Speaker 1: of you know, really the biggest people out there in
Speaker 1: terms that are making a lot of the moves in
Speaker 1: whether it's institutional or even in the crypto market right now.
Speaker 1: So I agree with you. I think we're yeah, we
Speaker 1: still got time, folks.
Speaker 2: You know there's still opportunity in this market. Okay, it's
Speaker 2: it's for me, right. Most of my portfolio's long crypto
Speaker 2: long XRP as most of my net worth. But in
Speaker 2: the past couple of weeks, what I've done to you know,
Speaker 2: basically call out the bluff of peace talks. The first round,
Speaker 2: I went long oil leading into that week. Oil got
Speaker 2: smacked back down because peace talks were going to take
Speaker 2: place in Pakistan, right, And my bet was simple, we
Speaker 2: weren't going to get peace and that we weren't going
Speaker 2: to get any you know, substantial peace agreement from that,
Speaker 2: and we didn't, and so I made about three percent
Speaker 2: profit on that oil. Long as oil I'd shot up
Speaker 2: to one hundred and five five dollars when the Sunday
Speaker 2: futures opened up because the peace talks failed. I tried
Speaker 2: to do the same thing last week. Oil had closed
Speaker 2: off at eighty four on Friday. I set my bid
Speaker 2: at eighty five, and when the Sunday futures opened up,
Speaker 2: it hopped right up to eighty eight dollars. So I
Speaker 2: missed my trade, and then we went back up to
Speaker 2: ninety eight ninety nine dollars per barrel on oil last week.
Speaker 2: So I failed on that second one, but the idea
Speaker 2: was right and then currently right now, just so everybody
Speaker 2: knows my bias, I am in a Bitcoin short, so
Speaker 2: my bet was that we would reject off the eighty
Speaker 2: k level. I went short bitcoin last week and I'm
Speaker 2: still holding that and so it's a way for me
Speaker 2: to hedge my ridiculously long position to make to capture
Speaker 2: some profit during this volatility and the chaos in the war.
Speaker 1: Right Well, and you've got some other things happening right
Speaker 1: now with Ripple that I think will start to set
Speaker 1: up a lot of this. Korea's k Bank entered into
Speaker 1: a partnership with Ripple just this week, so they're going
Speaker 1: to test some banks testing guess what cross border remittance is,
Speaker 1: including the UAE and Thailand, So they're starting to implement this.
Speaker 1: I think the real question is once that clarity comes through,
Speaker 1: how much of this is going to put pressure on
Speaker 1: these countries like Korea, the UAE, Thailand to where we
Speaker 1: see the US banks trying to make it on the
Speaker 1: world stage now that they can possibly do cross border payment,
Speaker 1: because most likely Ripple's going to announce some pretty big
Speaker 1: banking partnerships once this is done.
Speaker 2: What do you think, Yeah, the only place that they
Speaker 2: didn't continue growing during the lawsuit was in the United
Speaker 2: States of America, at least not visibly. I think that
Speaker 2: a lot of work continued under the radar, but that
Speaker 2: lawsuit did hamper growth in the States. They continued to
Speaker 2: you know, see on demand liquidity grow into tens of
Speaker 2: billions of volume outside of the United States, right, but
Speaker 2: lawsuit being completed helped, you know, the case for XRP
Speaker 2: and helped ripple We've definitely seen some US partnership start
Speaker 2: to come through. But I think that the XRP community
Speaker 2: needs to understand that even if we know XRP is
Speaker 2: not a security, the banks and the institutions don't have
Speaker 2: the rules of the road for how they can use it.
Speaker 2: And until they do, you're not going to see the
Speaker 2: institutional liquidity at scale. And so, you know, I think
Speaker 2: that that's been a big point of confusion in the
Speaker 2: community is we're wondering, well, why can't XRPC mass adoption
Speaker 2: right now we have clarity, we don't need the law. Now. Yeah,
Speaker 2: you have clarity on the commodity designation that it's not
Speaker 2: a security, but what can the banks and institutions do
Speaker 2: with it? Exactly So, and the people that I'm talking to,
Speaker 2: the comments that I'm reading, we are so frustrated with
Speaker 2: DC and the DC dance not getting this deal done
Speaker 2: with clarity. I know you've been doing a great job
Speaker 2: reporting on all of it, but it's like, it's great
Speaker 2: for US content creators because every day it's a you know,
Speaker 2: it looks like it's going to pass. Next day it's
Speaker 2: pushed out again. They're incredibly frustrating for all of us.
Speaker 2: But just understand the banks would be putting up such
Speaker 2: a fight if this wasn't worth it. So think of that.
Speaker 2: You know, new incoming fed Shair Kevin worsh has exposure
Speaker 2: to digital assets. Why don't you the banks are putting
Speaker 2: up this big of a fight over digital assets. Why
Speaker 2: wouldn't you have some interest and exposure here? You know,
Speaker 2: So it's frustrating, it is just know that that is
Speaker 2: acknowledgment of how important this industry is.
Speaker 1: Oh for sure. Well, and the point we were making
Speaker 1: there is when you look at the advancement outside the US,
Speaker 1: like what was happening in your Korea, then you look
Speaker 1: at the potential here for the US banks, it is
Speaker 1: going to your point, it is going to take clarity
Speaker 1: to relevant to create some relevancy here for the US
Speaker 1: infrastructure to play because they need the regulation to do it.
Speaker 1: So it's surprising sometimes when the banks and I often
Speaker 1: wonder if this is just a big ploy by the
Speaker 1: banks because This is going to be good for the
Speaker 1: banks in the long run, the smart ones. So that
Speaker 1: starts to make me think is there something else underlying
Speaker 1: here that they're waiting for to get this done the
Speaker 1: right way? I don't know. Hey, listen, this is an
Speaker 1: interesting state release right here by smoke. Let me share
Speaker 1: this over to you guys. You can kind of see
Speaker 1: this one right here. Ribels XRPL patent blocks rivals from
Speaker 1: developing comparable blockchain software. What he's talking about is Swift
Speaker 1: cannot replicate the XRP ledger, so the only biable option
Speaker 1: is to integrate. So what do you think about this?
Speaker 1: There is a there is actually a full on patent
Speaker 1: on this, you know, when it comes down to it.
Speaker 1: But do you think this is I mean, because remember
Speaker 1: that Swift is messaging only where XRP Ledger is messaging
Speaker 1: and settlement, So that's a different Those are two different
Speaker 1: products completely, you know. So do you think that that
Speaker 1: even bothers Swift, are they just going to continue on
Speaker 1: their model of message only? Yeah?
Speaker 2: I think that they're going to leave the settlement to
Speaker 2: the clearing houses that have been doing it for decades, right,
Speaker 2: They're going to stick to messaging. That messaging is going
Speaker 2: to get faster, and I think that they'll be connected
Speaker 2: to a lot of these blockchains. And I've always thought
Speaker 2: this Swift, we kind of have a blockchain agnostic approach
Speaker 2: like many of these bigger institutions are. They don't want
Speaker 2: to stick their neck out and pick any one blockchain
Speaker 2: at this early in the game, but they want to
Speaker 2: understand multiple I mean, look at Franklin Templeton. I know
Speaker 2: you've had some of their people on the show. They've
Speaker 2: done such a great job of running infrastructure on multiple chains,
Speaker 2: selling multiple ETFs for different cryptos, and I think that
Speaker 2: that's going to be the pro of Swift as well.
Speaker 2: And you know, to your point, we looked at this
Speaker 2: a few years ago. The ODL patent that Ripple has
Speaker 2: really secures that technology. So now it's just a matter
Speaker 2: of getting adoption. Like they have the patent for that
Speaker 2: flow and that technology is just a matter of getting
Speaker 2: an adoption. But the most recent tests that we saw
Speaker 2: out of Japan where they showed that payments were sixty
Speaker 2: percent cheap, are using XRP versus Swift plus. Like you said,
Speaker 2: you just don't have the settlement occurring at all in
Speaker 2: the Swift messaging, So it's tough to see how Swift
Speaker 2: kind of maintains any sort of relevancy in this future
Speaker 2: where messaging and settlement are tied into one. That's what
Speaker 2: the ISO two hundred and twenty two messaging standard was
Speaker 2: all about, was to make the payments and the messages
Speaker 2: for them more data rich and that allows Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's important to know too that. Remember, liquidity is
Speaker 1: still a major part of this as well, where if
Speaker 1: you route through Swift, you're still looking at pre funded accounts.
Speaker 1: You know, nostro vostro scenario plays into where versus like
Speaker 1: on XRP as a bridge or use it where you
Speaker 1: know XRPL would be using XRP as a bridge. So
Speaker 1: now you're getting on on on demand liquidity, which is
Speaker 1: conservably faster compared to what is it, one to three
Speaker 1: or four days right now, even though I think they're
Speaker 1: trying to improve that, I just don't know.
Speaker 2: And the client doesn't even have to touch XRP. They
Speaker 2: can exactly go to Ripple directly. Ripple will handle the
Speaker 2: flow and if they want to receive tie Bot on
Speaker 2: the other end exactly. That's it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure, that's that I think is the reality
Speaker 1: check that we are going to see. I think Swift
Speaker 1: and Ripple dice up the market into what percentage, I
Speaker 1: don't know, because I think they'll will still be the
Speaker 1: old stalwarts of the industry that want to use Swift,
Speaker 1: and as Ripple makes more of a play. I know
Speaker 1: Brad has said fourteen percent. I think it's much larger.
Speaker 1: I think he I'm more aggressive. I feel like it's
Speaker 1: probably going to be twenty to thirty percent of the
Speaker 1: market of Swift, which is significant, you know, in terms
Speaker 1: of settlement fees. So all this is good for XRP
Speaker 1: for sure of.
Speaker 2: Five to six trillion daily. If we just get a
Speaker 2: little sliver of that, Pietz, we'll be doing all.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, no problem, let's go there. What do you
Speaker 1: make of this? Right here? This is Tom Lee saying
Speaker 1: that bitcoin and crypto has bottomed and it's about to
Speaker 1: go parabolic right now? What do you think?
Speaker 2: We're very close, Like I said, until the climax of
Speaker 2: this conflict has passed, I hesitate on saying the bottoms in.
Speaker 2: I am not comfortable enough to say that we're going
Speaker 2: to go see a new low. I just don't feel
Speaker 2: comfortable putting out that call until we see the climax
Speaker 2: of this conflict, and not to get too deep into
Speaker 2: the geopolitics, but we're kind of into it so far
Speaker 2: that I think we have to commit to the regime change,
Speaker 2: whether that involves boots on the ground, whatever that entails.
Speaker 2: That's the climax of the conflict that I'm talking about,
Speaker 2: and I just worry that that could be one last
Speaker 2: catalyst that spooks the market to getting close to a
Speaker 2: double bottom. You know, is x aren't going to go
Speaker 2: back below a dollar, but right right, don't think going
Speaker 2: on screen, Yeah, Bitcoin, the bottom at sixty k probably
Speaker 2: will hold. Like it's going to have to be a
Speaker 2: big one to get us below those levels because now
Speaker 2: that we've had that accumulation in this range, and I've
Speaker 2: been talking about front running a dollar for the past
Speaker 2: two months, telling my community where my buy orders are at,
Speaker 2: which is right above a dollar, right above a dollar twenty.
Speaker 2: So I'll be front running a dollar all the way
Speaker 2: down to that level if this event does happen as
Speaker 2: I think it will. But then after that, absolutely absolutely,
Speaker 2: As I said earlier, once the fear of a world
Speaker 2: war six dollars Diesel four hundred dollars grocery bills. A
Speaker 2: friend of you guys with families, you might know what
Speaker 2: I'm talking about. Oh yeah, Once that fear subsides, then
Speaker 2: we can start to catch a bid again. We need
Speaker 2: interest rates to come down to and that path has
Speaker 2: been cleared with fedcher Worsh probably being confirmed this week.
Speaker 2: You thinks are going to come round? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: I think he's gonna play ball with Trump. I think
Speaker 2: the idea of FED independence as a joke, whether we're
Speaker 2: talking about too late Pal or whether we're talking about
Speaker 2: Worsh working with President Trump, and so I think he's
Speaker 2: going to come into playball. And the other thing is
Speaker 2: watch what they do, not what they say. The balance
Speaker 2: sheet of tea bills for the Federal Reserve is already
Speaker 2: exceeding the level it was at after twenty twenty and
Speaker 2: twenty one. Ye, so the money printers already going burr.
Speaker 2: It's just being done in a different fashion. And look
Speaker 2: at the Treasury. The Treasury's conducted its largest buyback in
Speaker 2: history about three four times now, which is fifteen billion
Speaker 2: of T bills bought back in a single day. And
Speaker 2: they didn't just do that once or twice they've done it,
Speaker 2: I think three or four times now, over one hundred
Speaker 2: billions since the beginning of December when they said they
Speaker 2: had ended quantitative tightening and they were gonna not start
Speaker 2: Qwe remember, Paul, do not call it quey, Paul, it's
Speaker 2: treasury reserve management.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: That's the same effect.
Speaker 1: You can call it whatever you want. It's the same thing. Yeah.
Speaker 2: It's like, you need to own these assets as much
Speaker 2: as possible, and you also need to understand that inflation's
Speaker 2: not going away, so the fear of the war being
Speaker 2: over is gonna pass. I don't expect inflation to go
Speaker 2: away though.
Speaker 1: What Okay, So well, for sure, I think this is
Speaker 1: something that we're going to be probably seeing accelerated inflation
Speaker 1: for quite some time. FED I think has to deal
Speaker 1: with the fact that we are not going to be
Speaker 1: hitting that two percent at some point in the future.
Speaker 1: Whether we get back close, you know, to say the
Speaker 1: new stable rate is two and a half or three,
Speaker 1: that would be significant. If we hit three, that would
Speaker 1: be astronomical in terms of impact on the US. So
Speaker 1: I don't know. This is going to be a tough one,
Speaker 1: for sure. I want to take a minute, guys and
Speaker 1: just invite you to join the Baron Market Edge private
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Speaker 1: the link down in our description. This is your insider's
Speaker 1: edge to the AI and crypto money revolution, which is
Speaker 1: what we really focus on here on PBN. This is
Speaker 1: additional research that I do along with our team, and
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Speaker 1: not only what guides our episodes, but a lot of
Speaker 1: that research gets built into more content than I drop
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Speaker 1: to do, of course, is just hit that little subscribe
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Speaker 1: It's absolutely free, it doesn't cost you a thing, so
Speaker 1: check it out. Talk about stable coins because you look
Speaker 1: at RLUSD versus USDC and whether or not RLUSD could
Speaker 1: win the stable coin race because there's a lot of
Speaker 1: activity right now in the stable coins, most likely because
Speaker 1: of what I don't know if you saw the news
Speaker 1: on Circle starting to dominate here in the US over tether.
Speaker 1: I think Ripple has an opportun tunity here, especially with
Speaker 1: the Clarity acts, potential to maybe hurt yield focused competitors
Speaker 1: like USDC, which would favor RIL usd's payment settlement model.
Speaker 1: What do you think, Well, Ripple doesn't have to share
Speaker 1: in their profits exactly. Yeah, it's not even bottom line profits,
Speaker 1: it's top line revenue that USD or Circle has to
Speaker 1: share with coinbase, so that in and of itself gives
Speaker 1: us an advantage.
Speaker 2: And the other thing that I've pointed out is that
Speaker 2: Ripple was using their own custodian. They were using their
Speaker 2: own trust. Now they're using bny Mellon, but still just
Speaker 2: being able to do some of that in house I
Speaker 2: think helps. But they built this full financial stack, and
Speaker 2: that's what the institutions are looking for. Right when you
Speaker 2: go to Circle, you can get USDC and use USDC.
Speaker 2: It's on multiple blockchains and it's grown substantially and a
Speaker 2: lot of people in the United states trust it more
Speaker 2: than tether. The problem is is that you don't have
Speaker 2: financial stack around it like Ripple does. Right Circle and
Speaker 2: Ripple two completely separate different companies, And I think that
Speaker 2: Ripple has built out a much wider infrastructure, much stronger infrastructure,
Speaker 2: where that client, that institution or bank can come in
Speaker 2: and get full representation of all of those services that
Speaker 2: Ripple provides. That I think is what pushes Ripple ahead
Speaker 2: is they're going to be onboarding these institutions and banks.
Speaker 2: Combining this with the programmability that's coming to the XRP ledger,
Speaker 2: where these institutions could pair up RUSD with their deposit coin,
Speaker 2: their staple cooin, their token i zewer world assets, whatever
Speaker 2: that may be in the XRP ledger through permission domains,
Speaker 2: permission decks, the on chain lendings coming, and so it'll
Speaker 2: be a full institutional DeFi stack. So whether you want
Speaker 2: to just use RUSD without Ripple, or you want to
Speaker 2: use Ripple services, you'll have that option on an XRP ledger.
Speaker 2: And so that's why everybody in the XRP community needs
Speaker 2: to keep on cheering on ur USD growth and adoption.
Speaker 2: It is absolutely not working against XRP. It is complementary
Speaker 2: and supplementary to XRP, and and it helps bring liquidity
Speaker 2: to our ledger that otherwise would just be there.
Speaker 1: Big deal. Yeah, that's a big deal. One point six
Speaker 1: billion right now. Remember that Ripple and Rust was able
Speaker 1: to do that without any staking valuation in terms of
Speaker 1: paying yields versus pretty much every other stable point out
Speaker 1: there basically in that game. So I think that's another
Speaker 1: factor into this. Let's flip back to the FED for
Speaker 1: a second, because if.
Speaker 2: You look at all, if I could one second look watch,
Speaker 2: everybody needs to watch closely hidden Road, which is now
Speaker 2: Ripple Prime. They will use that prime brokerage and the
Speaker 2: trading that they're going to offer. I'm just aware that
Speaker 2: they're working with various partners in companies right now to
Speaker 2: be able to provide that yield to those partners as
Speaker 2: well too. So you'll be able to earn yield on
Speaker 2: chain on the XRP ledger through the lending protocol. But
Speaker 2: then I think anybody who's partnered up with Ripple will
Speaker 2: also be able to earn some yield through Ripple's prime
Speaker 2: brokers service that they're running as well too. That'll be
Speaker 2: interesting to watch.
Speaker 1: Okay, so that will be because you're exactly right. If
Speaker 1: we start to see those kind of activities, at least
Speaker 1: on the institutional side. That's the thing I think that
Speaker 1: we'll really bring our LUs D to the game is
Speaker 1: the institutional adoption and use case of our LOSD as
Speaker 1: it starts to roll out. And again, clarity is going
Speaker 1: to be the cornerstone, which is why Brad is so
Speaker 1: adamant of trying to get this thing done. Which is,
Speaker 1: you know, whether you like or not, I still like
Speaker 1: the you know, I'm still in the camp. I wish
Speaker 1: that we could get through this without banning yields because that,
Speaker 1: to me is a win for everyone. But the reality is,
Speaker 1: I just don't think the banks are in a They're
Speaker 1: not gonna play ball when it comes.
Speaker 2: Well, even if we can get it with some activity,
Speaker 2: you know, they call it rewards instead of yielding, you
Speaker 2: have to do a certain amount of trading or do
Speaker 2: some activities, I think that we would still be able to,
Speaker 2: you know, see the space thrive in that sense. But yeah,
Speaker 2: we'll be watching it closely. But that that ripple prime
Speaker 2: flow is three trillion per year. Yeah, and so as
Speaker 2: the collateral for that is r us D and a
Speaker 2: lot of those flows start to move through r o
Speaker 2: us D. R us D is the potential to grow rapidly,
Speaker 2: and just to remind everybody, it's already growing at a
Speaker 2: pace faster than tether did when it got started. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so I think it's gonna be playing ketchup in a
Speaker 2: big way if.
Speaker 1: You look at I want to go backward to the
Speaker 1: potential here around the FED and what the underlying situations
Speaker 1: are looking and not only look at this from a
Speaker 1: business perspective, because we run businesses. We of course we
Speaker 1: look at the FED funds rate. This affects a lot
Speaker 1: of lending. We work with a lot of companies that
Speaker 1: are out there in this same position. You look at
Speaker 1: the price shock right now that seems to still emerging
Speaker 1: from what's happening in the Middle East. And if we
Speaker 1: get a higher for a longer rate environment, which is
Speaker 1: my concern right now, this is where I feel like
Speaker 1: we would see a very big problem in a lot
Speaker 1: of banks because of the flow in which we would
Speaker 1: see loans coming on board, and if we don't see
Speaker 1: some potential rate relief, I think that's going to be
Speaker 1: a potential where this could underscore a much different outlook
Speaker 1: for the US in term of the economy. What do
Speaker 1: you think about that? If the market just slows down
Speaker 1: at this higher for a longer pace, this very uncertain
Speaker 1: situation in the Middle East, how do you think that
Speaker 1: would play out?
Speaker 2: It's going to be rough, because what people need to
Speaker 2: remember is just because the Fed funds rate comes down
Speaker 2: doesn't mean that the bond market's going to agree exactly.
Speaker 2: And that's what's already been happening, is that Jerome pal
Speaker 2: gave us a few rate cuts, but the bond market
Speaker 2: gave Jerome power and the Fed the middle finger. This
Speaker 2: is what I've been saying on my show for the
Speaker 2: past year now. The bond market's not buying it right,
Speaker 2: and this is why that tenure is pushed back up
Speaker 2: towards four and a half percent, towards five percent, and
Speaker 2: it's not going to provide any relief. The Fed can
Speaker 2: cut rates all day long, but if the bond market
Speaker 2: doesn't play ball, and nobody's forcing the bond market too,
Speaker 2: the bond market's got a it's a mind of its
Speaker 2: own and usually gets right. There's a reason why the
Speaker 2: bond want the bond purchasers want more yield. It's because
Speaker 2: they know that we're going to continue to run deficits.
Speaker 2: We have a huge debt problem, and we're going to
Speaker 2: continue to debase the currency. So they're saying, we need
Speaker 2: more for our money. And I think that that's the
Speaker 2: problem that we face here in twenty twenty six is
Speaker 2: that even within the new FED chair coming in, the
Speaker 2: rate cuts will already be priced in. And you know,
Speaker 2: even if it's a drastic you know, fifty basis or
Speaker 2: even he does a couple of rate cuts to get
Speaker 2: it down a full percent, the bond market has to
Speaker 2: play ball for it to make a difference. Is you know,
Speaker 2: we try to roll over trillions of real estate debt,
Speaker 2: we have a private credit crisis that needs to be solved,
Speaker 2: and we have record high student loan debt, credit card debt,
Speaker 2: mortgage debt and by now pay later being used for
Speaker 2: sixty percent of the cool kids going to Coachella tells
Speaker 2: you exactly where we're at in our economy, right, Higher
Speaker 2: for longer makes everybody bleed out more. And so yeah,
Speaker 2: until the bond market plays ball, we won't have any relief.
Speaker 1: Well, let's just not forget guys, this is still instability.
Speaker 1: I think a lot due to what's happening with the
Speaker 1: Middle East. I mean, you have US oil price is
Speaker 1: now hitting almost one hundred bucks a barrel now, especially
Speaker 1: even as we head out in this week, it's likely
Speaker 1: that we're seeing another whipsaw on you know, the progress
Speaker 1: of peace talks being you know, stalled again. So if
Speaker 1: we see another push toward one hundred dollars barrel oil,
Speaker 1: which remember is market price, that's what's driving that. It's
Speaker 1: market price. It's all the all the needs in the
Speaker 1: EU in Asia that drives our gas prices here. I
Speaker 1: don't know if people realize that it's not oil going up,
Speaker 1: it is the market paying more for it because the
Speaker 1: demand is different in terms of the supply side. So
Speaker 1: big difference there for sure.
Speaker 2: And even if okay, even if we open it up too,
Speaker 2: you don't get relief right away exactly. It's the same
Speaker 2: thing as the FED cutting rates doesn't mean you get
Speaker 2: relief right away you open up the straight you have
Speaker 2: a peace deal is a big deal. Difference between a
Speaker 2: peace deal getting signed for the press to take some
Speaker 2: pictures and the oil tankers arriving and reaching those production
Speaker 2: facilities and we're up to ninety seven dollars per barrel
Speaker 2: this morning, so we're already kind of trending back up
Speaker 2: as we start this week.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, And I think a lot of people are
Speaker 1: still saying that, you know, the futures markets are essentially lying,
Speaker 1: because the futures market are calling this for a much
Speaker 1: lower price, and I'm I think many people are saying,
Speaker 1: I'm not sure we're buying this yet, unless, of course,
Speaker 1: we get something major in terms of a relief in
Speaker 1: the Middle East, which is the bigger play here for sure.
Speaker 1: Last stablecrorn we've covered, I wanted to hit on one
Speaker 1: other things and we talked about the k bank move,
Speaker 1: which I think is a good thing right now. Are
Speaker 1: you expecting any major announcements at the XRP Las Vegas event.
Speaker 2: Well, I don't want to shiel any tokens, Paul. I
Speaker 2: guys watching ZBCN very closely. Though. We saw it run
Speaker 2: up last year in the XRP Vegas and my community
Speaker 2: was on that. We made some good money on that one.
Speaker 2: I'm watching it again. I'm actually going to be interviewing
Speaker 2: their CEO for the second time here at the start
Speaker 2: of May. But I would take a look at that
Speaker 2: one guys. They might be doing a partnership with Ripple.
Speaker 2: There might be something in the works there between ZEBEC
Speaker 2: and Ripple. So that's the project I would watch sure.
Speaker 1: To be there at that event.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yep. And so it's already ran up about seventy
Speaker 2: percent since I got into it a couple months ago again,
Speaker 2: and so that's one that I would watch out for.
Speaker 2: I do think that you'll see great conversations there at
Speaker 2: the conference as always, and it's a good mix of
Speaker 2: the retail XRP community, but then Brad Kimes has done
Speaker 2: a great job of getting these bigger institutional players in
Speaker 2: the room having conversations where they'll be more candid about,
Speaker 2: you know, what they're saying. And I think that as
Speaker 2: far as announcements go, I would be on the lookout.
Speaker 2: There's there's some big breakthroughs right now on the amendment
Speaker 2: side on the XRP ledger yep. And so I'm interested
Speaker 2: to see Ripple maybe talking more about how the lending
Speaker 2: protocol will roll out some of those things. The clock
Speaker 2: bros Are going to be doing their uh yep, that'll be.
Speaker 1: Interviewing them on stage. We'll be talking about that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: But there's there's a lot of interesting I think situations
Speaker 1: that because of the timing, you know, as you can see,
Speaker 1: I mean, you see all the companies right here. I'll
Speaker 1: just click on that just to show you. I mean,
Speaker 1: this is Lair two.
Speaker 2: Flair is to keep on.
Speaker 1: Well, there's the back right there. They're a top sponsor.
Speaker 1: I trust you've got Solana that's going to be there.
Speaker 1: Flair is gonna be doing. We'll have Hugo on. Uh.
Speaker 1: It's going to be quite a h there's virtual protocol
Speaker 1: coming in. Bit wise, of course there's us. There's a
Speaker 1: lot happening out there. I think we may end up
Speaker 1: seeing something pretty big happening. So you guys go over
Speaker 1: get your tickets. If you are going to take a
Speaker 1: late flight into Vegas, you can still make it. It's
Speaker 1: Monday as we record this with Zach Rector, and all
Speaker 1: you have to do is make it in two days
Speaker 1: and twelve hours and you're there making it happen.
Speaker 2: It's always it's always cheap and easy to get there
Speaker 2: to Vegas. Paul. It's a matter of getting out with anybody.
Speaker 1: Oh, it's terrible, it's terrible. Yeah, Hey, what do you
Speaker 1: think about Vegas right now? I mean, I'm seeing such
Speaker 1: a I have some friends that have real estate out there.
Speaker 1: They're telling me that the market is falling apart.
Speaker 2: Yep. Yeah, it's one of the metros that we pointed
Speaker 2: out last year. We started to talk about the real
Speaker 2: estate reset is what I called it, and Vegas was
Speaker 2: flooded with a bunch of the builders. Any of these
Speaker 2: markets where the builders went berserk are correcting pretty hard
Speaker 2: right now. The builders are doing a lot of rape
Speaker 2: buydown incentives. So I'll tell your community the same thing
Speaker 2: I tell mine. Go beat up the builders in these
Speaker 2: markets in Vegas and Phoenix and Dallas, Fort Worth, most
Speaker 2: of South Florida. It's a great opportunity. And I think
Speaker 2: it obviously real estate's and asset class that we continue
Speaker 2: to pay attention to. It's for sure so important to
Speaker 2: our portfolio and just our wealth as a whole, so
Speaker 2: be strategic about that. And I think that it has
Speaker 2: become a buyer's market and a lot of these bigger metros,
Speaker 2: So yeah, go take advantage of it.
Speaker 1: I like it. Zach Rector always fun chatting with you guys.
Speaker 1: Make sure I visit Zach over on YouTube. Follow him there.
Speaker 1: What's your Twitter handle?
Speaker 2: Zach Rector seven.
Speaker 1: There you go.
Speaker 2: Okay, Zach right yourself. My name is also my website too,
Speaker 2: so just Zach record dot com. Everybody can find my
Speaker 2: our social media and stuff there.
Speaker 1: Thanks again, guys, we will catch you later on the
Speaker 1: X or papod. Take care,