Speaker 1: Hey, folks, welcome into the Thinking Crypto podcast. You're home
for cryptocurrency news and interviews. I'm your host, Tony Edward.
On your way in. Please hit that subscribe button as
well as a thumbsup button and leave a common below.
If you're listening on a podcast platform such as Spotify
or Apple, please follow and leave a five star rating.
All right, folks, we have a big update around the
claritiac regards to the Democrats and what they're looking to
do with the ethics management or enforcement by the states.
So Democrats, led by Senator Galago are now working with
GOP Senator Tom Tillis of North Carolina on a counter
offer to the current draft of the bill, which includes
the ethics Galago told reporters Monday night that lawmakers are
finalizing language that they plan to send to the White
House in the next couple of days. So we know
the vote's not happening this week. Yesterday I reported to
you all that next week, the week of August third,
is when they're anticipating that vote. So Tillis signaled Monday
that a key Democrat demand creating a role for state
attorney generals to enforce the ethics language, not just the
Department of Justice, will be included in what is sent
back to the White House. Now, is it going to
be something that's acceptable to the GOP folks? Will have
to wait and see. But I've been saying that I
don't like this proposal buy the Democrats because it's going
to cause a lot of confusion with all the different
state attorney generals unless, again, there's some sort of compromise
that makes sense. Maybe it's as simple as if a
state wants to take action, they have to notify the
DOJ of what they're doing, get the green light, and
then they can do their thing. Maybe that's a compromise.
I don't know, but we're going to have to wait
and see. But it's good to see that the Democrats
are not just throwing your hands up in the air
and saying, all right, that's it. They're looking to get
something done, even though we don't have the detail. So
we'll have to wait and see if this is actually
doable or it's a non starter. So patients is the
key here. Next week is going to be the big week.
But I'm glad to see a counter offer is being
worked on, and this is the sausage making process right.
This is how it works in DC. The CLARITIAC continues
to get support from multiple law enforcement agencies and associations.
Here we have another one. The Consumer Technology Association has
thrown its support behind the CLARITIAC. They said America should
be competitive in blockchain and digital asset technologies. We respectfully
urge you to prioritize Senate Floor consideration of the CLARITIAC.
Another part of the letter d Scent included the following.
The longer we delay, the more investment moves elsewhere, startups
launch overseas, capital flows the jurisdictions with clearer rules, America
loses jobs, innovation, and leadership. This is spot on right.
This is a global competition we are in. And it's
no longer that these developers and engineers need the infrastructure
in the United States. They don't need the bridges and
the tunnels in the roadways. They don't need the internet
broadband right, those things exist globally. We are in a
much different economy. It's all digital. So I can go
to Singapore, I can go to Dubai and build these
companies and these projects, and could I eventually come back
to the United States. Sure, but we want the creation
to happen here. We want the jobs to happen here.
So this is where the United States is in danger
of losing that seat. Yes, we have the advantage of
being the largest capital market. But if I can go
overseas and still raise funds from sovereign wealth funds and others,
I'm still in a good position. It's not like it
was fifty years ago. Right where I want to come
to the United States. I want to be here because
there's more capital here. But now these things have become democratized,
if you want to say that way. There are huge
funds overseas as well. So I think the United States
needs to get this done. I think we're all agreement now.
The banks are still fighting. So the US credit unions,
which of course are working with the community banks, which
are all following the leadership of the American Banking Association,
and of course JP Morgan and Jamie Diamond. They said
that they overall support the clardiac but Warnick could pull
deposits away from local credit unions. So they signed a
letter and they sent it to the Senate. Again, this
is the BS stable coin situation. Remember, a compromise was
reached right, there was an update to this. You guys
recalled before the bill was able to make it out
of the Senate Banking Committee. Now they're asking for more.
So you guys already got your deal, so stop it, right,
But we know they want to control as much as possible.
This is not about deposit flight. This is about bonuses.
This is about over time. People are going to say,
wait a minute, these guys are not paying me, let
me start moving some of my funds. I don't think
everybody's going to move all their funds. I don't even
do that now. I'm an advanced crypto user. But they
don't want to compete, and that's the problem. They want
to keep those big bonuses. But the banking lobby has
a problem because the other Wall Street banks who don't
do commercial banking, you know, black Rock, Goldman, Sachs, Fidelity, Franklin,
Templeton so far, Goldman, Sachs and much more have come
out and said, hey, we got to get this bill
pass right, So Jamie Dimon and some of these guys
here at the ABA looking like fools, so they can
no longer say you know, all the banks are against this. No,
not all of them are against it, so things are
not looking too good for the bank, so I don't
think they have a strong argument. I honestly think the
biggest roadblock is the ethics piece, which as mentioned earlier,
is being worked out with the Democrats and Republicans. Now.
SEC Chair Paul Atkins today was on CNBC and he said,
I'm committed to supporting Congress and advancing the CLARITIAC, including
providing technical assistance. He says American leadership in the digital
finance revolution means matching the energy of American innovators with
a regulatory framework worthy of them. Now, he said, if
the bill doesn't pass, the SEC is ready to get
whatever rules and place they need to make sure the
market has clarity. And we've talked a lot about this.
The CLARITIAC is just a umbrella stamp of approval so
that another administration can't just come in and wipe out
all the work the SEC and the CFTC and other
agencies have done. Obviously, it also gives that assurance to
companies and folks to say, Okay, this is law, we
don't have to worry again about getting sued and all
these things. We can start building. So it is a
bit of a green light, but also it is the
rubber stamp and seal for the future that if another
Gary Ginster in the future pops up, you know, they
can't undo these things. They would have to go through
the legislative process. So great to hear that. And they've
already been doing this right, so I have confidence that
they will continue to do this. And I've had many
guests on the podcast who've echoed these sentiments as well.
So we'll see how it all plays out, folks, But
I believe that with Wall Street, as mentioned yesterday's podcast,
with Wall Street, Goldman Sachs, Blackrock, the world's wealthiest asset managers,
and others calling for the passing, it's going to get
done because when they want something, they usually get it.
Not to mention, it's a midterm election year, so if
these Democrats or even some Republicans play around here, they're
going to feel it in the midterm elections because crypto
is ready to deploy the war chess now. Funny enough,
and we've been seeing a lot of this over the
past few weeks. Russia has been continuing to push their
crypto legislation through. So Russia's Central Bank just publish its
first rules to regulate bitcoin in the crypto market. So
this is of course in direct response to the CLARITIAC
and they're not the only ones. Other countries are putting
forth THEIRS. We know the EU has already passed THEIRS.
The UK they're also pushing a version through their parliament,
so everybody's moving the same direction. My hope is the
United States can be much faster and get this done. Now,
we have some big news coming out of Wall Street
with Morgan Stanley. If you all recall they launched their
Bitcoin etf not too long ago. They were certainly late
to the game, not as late as Vanguard, but it
were certainly one of the laggards amongst the Wall Street firms.
But now they saw the success of the bitcoiningts and
they're launching Ethereum and Solana ETPs. So the competition's heating up.
So this is great to see. So Morgan Stanley Investment
Management has launched Ether and Solana exchange traded products, expanding
its fun lineup beyond Bitcoin. The Morgan Stanley Etheroreum Trust
in Morgan Stanley's Solana Trust seek to track the performance
of Ether and Solana respectively. Both funds carry a zero
point one four percent expense ratio and intend to stake
a portion of their holdings with staking rewards passed through
to investors. Morgan Stanley said it will not reach any
portion of the staking rewards earned earned by either fund. Guys.
This is very competitive, So not only can you get
access to the assets, they're gonna give you the full
staking rewards. Crypto exchanges, native crypto exchanges better wake up.
These big Wall Street firms are coming to take their
market share, steal their lunch, essentially. And we've talked a
lot about it over the years, many of you know, right,
I've been saying if these crypto exchanges don't up their game,
Wall Street's gonna come in and take over. They got
millions of customers, they got the branding, they have the trust,
and a lot of people who don't want to get
involved with private keys and go on crypto exchanges and
deal with crypto walts. You're gonna say, man, i'mm already
investing with Mortgan Stanley on stocks, bonds and ets. Sign
me up for your crypto products, right. It's an easy sell, folks,
and plus you're gonna get the yield the staking rewards
so huge. You're getting the full amount, which is wild.
So the law Munch follows Morgan Stanley's rollout of Spot
cryptocurrency trading on its e trade platform earlier this month,
allowing eligible clients to buy, sell, and whole bitcoin, Ether,
and Solana through a partnership with crypto infrastructure providers zero Hash. Folks,
you see what's happening here. So wait till we enter
back into a bull market. You think these guys are
gonna want to see these products fail. They're going to
pump this thing to the moon. So this is where
you got to have the patience. You know how Wall
Street works, guys, and it's great again. The staking component
is huge. And check out our sponsor here.
Speaker 2: This episode is brought to you by Fortax. Guys. Let's
be honest. The crypto market has been moving sideways for
a while now. A lot of people are just sitting
on their coins waiting for the next big move. But
while you're waiting, your crypto is just sitting in your
wallet doing absolutely nothing. That's why I want to mention
one of my longtime partners, Fortax. Instead of just letting
your assets sit idle, you can put supported cryptocurrencies into
fortestx liquidity pools and earn daily rewards while still keeping
the flexibility to withdraw whenever you want. One of the
reasons I've continued working with them is because they keep delivering.
The team is public, they've successfully completed Cyberscope team verification,
KYC past independent security audits, and the platform has been
building consistently for years. They've focused on long term growth,
transparency and security rather than hype. In a market like this,
it makes far more sense to have your crypto working
for you instead of letting it sit idle in your wallet.
I've worked with fortest x for a long time, and
if you're planning to hold your crypto anyway, I genuinely
think it's one of the smartest ways to put those
assets to work. And folks, I know security is very
important to all of us as we hold our crypto
assets and they are fully audited by certic and they
are sec registered and much more so. You've got to
check out fordax. Go to fordest x slash x slash
thinking crypto link will be in the description.
Speaker 1: All right, moving ahead. Visa outlines stable coin strategy during
Q three earnings call, so Visa and all the major
payment companies like MasterCard and others. They continue to invest
in stable coins and blockchain technology, so during their company's
earnings call, Visa outline its broader stable coin strategy, saying
it has been investing across multiple layers of the stable
coin ecosystem. The company said, we are active in investing
in each layer of the stable coin stack, from blockchain
to issuance, wallets, infrastructure and orchestration and applications. This quarter,
we've made progress in both issuance and application layers incredible.
Visa added that it had joined the Open Standard Consortium,
which plans to issue the open us the stable coin
for global money movement. Many of you may recall that
was launched like last month, I believe OUSD or OPENUSD.
It's a soortium stable coin. The company said. The Visa
stable coin platform is designed to enable partners to settle
with Visa in stable coins, provide on chain wallet as
a service infrastructure, and move money between fiat currencies and
stable coins. Beginning with OPENUSD Huge Huge, they are also
going to integrate Pismo to support tokenized deposits. So, if
you know a cryptoskeptic, a blockchain skeptic. Send them this
news guys, because I'm sure they have a Visa credit
card somewhere or they've used Visa at some point. Ask
them what they think about this news. Right. This is
where I think a lot of people need to see
the real world utility versus just this speculation of the coins,
which is fine. Every market has a speculation layer, but
they need to see the utility, the use cases like this,
and the actual tangible building that's happening. All right, Moving ahead,
American Fortress proposes Quantum Save crypto wallet protection without migration.
The proposed cryptographic scheme aims to protect existing Bitcoin, Etherorem
and Solana wallets from future quantum attacks without requiring users
to move funds or change wallet addresses. So we see
everyone has a quantum resistance strategy, and wallets are going
to have to be a big part of that because
crypto wallets are going to get attacked, crypto apps, crypto websites, exchanges,
and much more so everyone's going to have to have
some sort of quantum resistance strategy. So great to see
all these things are being built. Now we'll see who
the winners are and who builds the appropriate technology to
be able to safeguard your funds, and I'm sure all
of Wall Street is going to have to do this.
Quantum is not just a threat to crypto, it's a
threat to the banking system, the air traffic controls system, everything.
So quantum computers and all this technology is going to
have to be integrated into tech stack in every industry,
doesn't matter if you're dealing with AI or crypto, whatever.
It may be a robotics, right, I mean, you can
imagine the problem with humanoid robots and quantum computers. So
we're gonna have bigger problems if quantum becomes this bigger thing.
It's not there yet, but he will eventually. So, Unlike
most proposed post quantum approaches, American Fortress said its scheme
allows existing wallet addresses to remain unchanged while adding post
quantum protection. That's pretty good. The company published the proposal
in a technical paper on the Cryptography ePrint Archive, describing
the scheme as compatible with seed based hierarchical If I'm
saying that right, deterministic wallets based or used across Bitcoin
e theorem, Salon and other blockchain networks that rely on
elliptic curve cryptography. The paper has not yet been peer reviewed,
so you can see we're still in that conception phase.
But it has to start somewhere. The ball has to
get rolling because this will be a threat possibly in
five years time as the technology gets more sophisticated. But
great to see a lot of folks and multiple fronts
are preparing for this now. Speaking of preparedness. Crypto hack
hits record high in H one first half of twenty
twenty six as losses top one billion dollars. Blockade says,
so you've got to be careful out there, folks. A
lot of people still trying to steal your crypto. I
often state, you know, store your crypto and hardware wallet,
I use the treasure devices. If you want to get one,
links will be in a description, and you know if
you are going to put your crypto in some exchanges,
make sure they have insurance. Make sure you're using all
the appropriate safeguards. You're not using easy passwords, You're not
using maybe a public email to access, maybe it's an
email that you have never shared with anybody else. You
have authentication apps, all the different layers you need to
make sure you put into place, because you know people
are going to use different ways to try to, you know,
steal your funds, like social engineering and much more so.
Blockade called H one twenty six the most hacked half
year on record, although last year total losses came in
higher due to the one point five billion dollars by
bit hacked. According to Blockade, DPRK hackers were responsible for
the largest share of money stolen, totaling nearly six hundred
million dollars. Similar attacks will likely continue to Firm said.
Looking ahead, the report predicts the number of artificial intelligence
related exploits will likely increase in the coming months. I
often state guys, don't trust, verify, double check everything, watch
the emails that you're getting. Don't get emotional if you
see something your funds are gone or whatever. Don't panic.
You get a text, you get a call, don't panic.
Take a deep breath and slow down and just double check.
Because you may get a text or an email, but
you know it's fake. It's better you go directly to
the site and check and verify did I actually lose
my funds? Is something really happen? Right? Because oftentimes as
human beings, we get those things and we're like, oh
my gosh, I list lot my crypto. But if you
step back for a second and slow down, you know,
the emotional control, the mental control can help you to
not make rash decisions, right because these messages and emails
are you know, meant to evoke emotions, strong emotions and panic,
so you don't want to have that happen. The other thing,
you know, watch out for different plugins that you use
on your browsers and much more, because if you use
the wrong plugin or even the wrong app, obviously, you
can lose your funds. So just double check everything, guys,
even triple check it, you know what I mean. Sometimes
it's best to even if you download something, don't execute
the setup right away. Maybe come back to it in
an hour or a day later, right unless you're in
some sort of emergency, obviously, but take your time as
the point, so that you're not rushing. Because these guys
are getting more sophisticated, they're going to use AI and
much more. But that's where if you're using a hardware
wallet where you control the private keys, it's in a
safe or a safety deposit box or whateverever you store it.
It's it's that's a really strong way to control your assets. Obviously,
if you use an ETF, you don't have to worry
about this. You know, we talked about the Morgan Stanley
ETF and all these things. But I like the ability
to control my funds and I personally use a hardware wallup. Obviously,
I have, you know, some funds and exchanges that I
use for swing training, but the majority are stored on
a hardware wallup. So guys, please be careful and double
check everything. Once again, don't trust verify folks. That's the news.
Let me know what you think. Leave your thoughts and
comments below. Hit the thumbsup button. Subscribe if you haven't
as yet, please support the podcast by subscribing to my
free email news that are on Substack. It's one hundred
percent free. Grab a copy of my book. It's available
on Amazon in paperback and digital, and check out my
course at my Crypto course dot com. This is a
comprehensive course that teaches you everything you need to know
about blockchain and crypto technology. All the links will be
in the description. Thank you so much for tuning in.
I appreciate you all, and I'll talk to you all later.