Matt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode: 

• Milei launches and immediately abandons the Libra memecoin
• Is the memecoin sector dead?
• What is the future of Solana post memecoin fallout?
• Hagerty’s GENIUS act gains bipartisan support
• Why securities laws exist
• What laws apply to memecoins?
• What’s going on with physical gold?

Check out this episode!

Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode:

• Our episode with SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce
• The SEC and Binance are pausing their litigation
• Brian Quintenz nominated for CFTC
• Jonathan Gould nominated for OCC
• Central African Republic launches a memecoin
• Is Vitalik crashing out?
• CBOE wants to add staking to their ETH ETF
• We reflect on the Tigran Gambaryan story
• Rep Waters rolls out a draft stablecoin bill
• Is there a run on gold vaults underway?
• Tungsten is rallying

Check out this episode!

SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce joins the show. In this episode we discuss:

• The past several years of digital asset policy at the SEC
• Different ways that regulators have the potential to stymie technical innovation through policy
• SAB 121
• The impact on the SEC’s policies on capital formation in the digital asset industry
• The role of Congress, specifically with regards to market structure
• The future of token disclosures
• Tokenization and how a regulatory framework could emerge in this category
• Advice to founders

You can follow Commissioner Peirce on X.

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Nathan McCauley, the co-founder and CEO of Anchorage joins the show. In this episode we discuss:

• The history of Anchorage and the evolution of the company from a product and regulatory perspective.
• Operation Chokepoint 2.0 and the debanking of digital asset startups.
• How banks are approaching the digital asset custody ecosystem and the sub-custody market.
• The evolution of stablecoins, the prospects of a stablecoin bill and the Global Dollar Network stablecoin consortium.
• Anchorage’s Porto Wallet and Atlas products and the role they are playing with institutional customers.

To learn more about Anchorage visit www.anchorage.com

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Matt and Nic are back for more news and deals. In this episode: 

• Matt and Nic’s ski adventure
• Berachain launches
• Mike Lempres of Silvergate finally speaks
• What we learned in the Senate debanking hearing
• The FDIC releases 790 pages of new documents related to the pause letters
• The FDIC is reprimanded by a judge in the Coinbase case
• Senator Lummis reveals a Fed memo that may be proof of OCP2.0
• The SEC releases their list of priorities for the Crypto Task Force
• Hagerty releases the GENIUS Act on Stablecoins
• Czech Republic waives capital gains on Bitcoins held for 3 years
• Microstrategy is now just Strategy
• Truth.fi is releasing a Bitcoin product
• Ethereum’s existential crisis

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Former Chairman of Silvergate Bank Mike Lempres joins us for a discussion of Silvergate, the crypto-focused bank that was forced into liquidation in early 2023 following a bank run. This are the first on the record comments from any Silvergate executive following the voluntary liquidation announced in March 2023. In this episode:

• Mike’s background at the DoJ, at Coinbase, and how he came to be chairman of the board at Silvergate
• How Silvergate grew to become the premier crypto-focused bank with $14b in deposits
• Why the Silvergate Exchange Network (SEN) was so useful to the crypto space
• How Silvergate suffered a bank run and ultimate liquidation following the FTX collapse
• How Silvergate survived a 70% bank run
• Regulatory shifts in 2023
• What led the decision to voluntarily liquidate
• What has happened at Silvergate since the announcement of the liquidation?
• The effect of Elizabeth Warren’s letters and short seller behavior on the collapse
• Could Silvergate have survived and thrived?
• Should bank regulators be allowed to ringfence entire industries?
• Silvergate’s relationship with Alameda/FTX – and could they have detected the fraud?
• Was Silvergate a victim of FTX
• How the Signature case adds to the suspicion – were regulators sending a message?
• What was the issue with SEN monitoring?
• Silvergate’s settlements with the Fed, the SEC, and the CA DFP
• How Silvergate was rugpulled by the government with regards to Diem
• The Fed’s recent evolution on the topic of banks serving crypto
• Mike’s outlook on crypto banking and the domestic crypto industry
• Why Signature and Silvergate executives are limited in what they can say publicly
• The problem with “confidential supervisory information”
• Why we may not get a “smoking gun memo” from the regulators on Choke Point 2.0
• What changes would Mike make to bank regulation in the US?
• Lingering misconceptions about Silvergate
• Do Silvergate shareholders have a legal case against the government?

Further reading:

• Nic Carter in Piratewires, Operation Choke Point 2.0 Is Underway, And Crypto Is In Its Crosshairs 
• Nic Carter in Piratewires, Did The Government Start A Global Financial Crisis In An Attempt To Destroy Crypto?
• Nic Carter in Piratewires,  Inside the Biden Admin’s Plot to Destroy Silvergate and Debank Crypto for Good 

Check out this episode!

Matt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode: 

• Should we revisit Basel rules on Bitcoin? 
• Jay Powell evolves on banks serving crypto 
• Are banks going to offer crypto custody post SAB121? 
• Gensler joins MIT Sloan
• Should crypto firms boycott MIT? 
• The Senate will hold a hearing on debanking next week 
• Choke Point 2.0 is getting caught up in conservative debanking 
• Where are we on DeSci? 
• Is tokenization finally going to happen? 
• X is adding payments to the platform with Visa 
• Truth Social is launching Truth.Fi
• Christine Lagarde says the ECB will not buy Bitcoin 
• Is the Czech Republic buying bitcoin? 
• Kraken turns back on staking
• Apollo is launching a tokenized credit fund on Ethereum and Solana
• Fairshake raises another $116m for the midterms 
• SBF is asking Trump for a pardon
• Elliott says crypto is in a bubble

Content mentioned: 

• Blockchain Association Unveils Digital Asset Market Structure Principles

Check out this episode!

The episode where we logged on and won forever. Probably the biggest week in crypto history… 

In this episode: 

• Ross Ulbricht is granted a full pardon 
• Did Ross Ulbricht deserve a life sentence?
• SAB121 is finally gone 
• Why SAB121 was bad
• Crypto ball review
• Trump launches a memecoin
• Trump is inaugurated
• OCP2.0 is over 
• CBDCs are banned
• We review Trump’s Executive Order
• No Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, but a stockpile instead
• Larry Fink calls for 600-700k BTC
• Mark Uyeda, announces the formation of a new task force: SEC Crypto 2.0
• Senator Cynthia Lummis announces the formation of the Senate Banking Committee on Digital Assets
• A US court in Texas overturnes the sanctions placed on Tornado Cash

Check out this episode!

Matt and Nic are back for more news and deals. In this episode:

• Lummis instructs FDIC staff to not destroy evidence of Chokepoint
• Did the FDIC call Nic poor?
• Coinbase wins a partial victory against the SEC
• Canary Capital files for a Litecoin ETF
• Tether is moving to El Salvador and building an HQ there
• Atlanta Fed gets stablecoins
• The case for non-USD stablecoins
• Is there a case for other assets in a Strategic Reserve? 

Check out this episode!

Matt and Nic are back after a week off. In this episode:

• Southern District of New York grants Coinbase’s appeal in their case against the SEC
• The Governor of the Czech national bank is considering Bitcoin in their reserves
• Do Kwon is extradited to the US
• E-trade is launching crypto trading
• The FDIC is forced by a court to further un-redact documents Coinbase asked for in a FOIA request
• We cover the FDIC’s Pause Letters

Content mentioned in this episode: 

• Fidelity Digital Assets, 2025 Look Ahead
• Bitwise, Benchmark Survey of Financial Advisor Attitudes Toward Crypto Assets
• Nick Anthony, Fair Access to Banking

Check out this episode!

Dana Syracuse and Josh Boehm of Paul Hastings LLP join the show. In this episode we discuss:

• The common legal and regulatory considerations that are encountered by companies in the digital asset industry.
• Common pitfalls that entrepreneurs in this ecosystem should avoid.
• The state of the stablecoin industry and the regulatory considerations in this category.
• Potential changes ahead in 2025 on how digital assets are regulated in the United States.

To learn more about Paul Hastings and their fintech and digital asset practices visit www.paulhastings.com

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Matt and Nic are back for an end of year episode. In this episode: 

• Tether invests $775m in Rumble 
• Who are the Rumble shareholders in Trump’s admin? 
• Microstrategy seeks approval for more Bitcoin buying
• We review the quantum risk to Bitcoin
• Matt and Nic’s predictions for 2025 

Sponsor notes: 

• Coin Metrics, State of the Network’s 2024 Year in Review
• In Coin Metrics State of the Network Issue 291, we revisit major stories that shaped the digital asset industry in 2024 with a data-driven lens

Check out this episode!

Janusz and Red from Bitcoin Layers join the show. In this episode: 

• Innovation on Bitcoin, previously and now
• Technology vs consumer adoption
• The future of BTC use cases

More about Bitcoin Layers

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Matt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode: 

• Nic comes out against the SBR on Bloomberg
• More Prometheum nonsense
• MicroStrategy acquired an additional 15,350 BTC for roughly $1.5 billion, bringing the company’s total holdings to 439,000 BTC. Microstrategy was also added to the Nasdaq 100  this week, which will lead to the stock’s inclusion in several large ETFs including Invesco’s QQQ.
• Anchorage Digital has received New York BitLicense approval, enabling them to offer digital asset custody and trading services to more customers in the state such as RIAs and other institutional asset managers.
• The US Senate scrapped a vote to renominate SEC Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw in response to immense backlash from the crypto community, led by Coinbase-backed non-profit Stand With Crypto, for Commissioner Crenshaw’s treatment of the digital asset industry.
• A Texas state representative, Giovanni Capriglione, introduced a bill for the state to create a strategic Bitcoin reserve.
• Riot Platforms, the publicly traded Bitcoin miner, acquired 667 BTC this week for $67.4 million to add to their balance sheet, bringing their total holdings to 17,429 BTC.
• The NFT collection CyberKongz announced they had received a Wells Notice from the SEC.
• A California judge sided with Coinbase in a suit brought by BiT Global over the exchange’s delisting of wBTC. Coinbase had recently moved to remove the asset, a tokenized version of BTC tradeable on Ethereum-based networks, following BiT Global, a custodian closely affiliated with Tron founder Justin Sun, assuming custody services for wBTC.

Sponsor notes: 

• Coin Metrics, State of the Network’s Q4 2024 Mining Data Special
• A quarterly update on Bitcoin mining in Q4 2024

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Wyatt sits down with Reforge VC’s Alex Lin. In this episode:

• Alex’s interdisciplinary road into crypto
• Innovation in blockchain infrastructure
• Crypto-powered consumer applications

Learn more about Reforge, a blockchain and frontier tech investment firm.

Check out this episode!

Rodrigo Seira, Special Counsel at Cooley and Ron Hammond, Director of Government Relations at The Blockchain Association join the show. In this episode we discuss:

• The 2024 election and the impact of the crypto vote.
• Executive branch actions to keep an eye on in 2025.
• Potential SEC related actions that would impact the digital asset market.
• The future of Staff Accounting Bulletin 121.
• Where digital asset legislation fits into the 2025 legislative priorities.
• Stablecoin legislation.
• Market structure legislation.

To learn more about Cooley visit:

www.cooley.com

To learn more about The Blockchain Association visit:

www.theblockchainassociation.org

Check out this episode!

Matt and Nic are back with another week of news and deals. In this episode:

• French Hill wins the nomination to chair the House Financial Services Committee
• Riot Platforms, a bitcoin mining company, announced the intention to raise $500 million via a convertible note offering. The proceeds will be used to acquire additional bitcoins, and for general corporate purposes.
• MicroStrategy acquired another 21,550 bitcoin for roughly $2.1 billion.
• Circle and Binance announced a partnership with the goal of expanding the reach of Circle’s USDC stablecoin across Binance’s trading, saving, and payments platforms. Additionally, Binance plans to adopt USDC as part of the company’s corporate treasury.

• Coincheck, the second largest crypto exchange in Japan, went public via SPAC, joining Coinbase as the only other crypto exchange listed on Nasdaq.
• The total stablecoin market cap eclipsed $200 billion this week, a record high following a 13% increase in supply in the past month.
• Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin gained approval from New York’s Department of Financial Services, a key step in the company’s plan to launch the tokenized dollar by year-end.
• Google announced a new quantum computing chip, though the specs are still many orders of magnitude away from threatening the encryption levels of Bitcoin and other crypto protocols.

Sponsor notes: 

• Coin Metrics State of the Network: Where in the World is Crypto Trading?
• Exploring the Kimchi premium, regional exchange activity, and crypto seasonality

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Matthew Le Merle and Mitch Mechigian of Blockchain Coinvestors return to the show. In this episode we run through the Blockchain Coinvestors 2025 Predictions for the digital asset industry.

To learn more about Blockchain Coinvestors visit their website.

To view the full Blockchain Coinvestors 2025 Predictions webinar visit this link.

Check out this episode!

Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode:

• Bitcoin finally hits $100k
• Our reflections on 100k BTC
• Declaring victory
• Machinsky pleads guilty
• Rep French Hill pledges to investigate Operation Choke Point
• Trump nominates Paul Atkins for SEC Chair
• Hawk Tuah memecoin fiasco

Sponsor notes:

• Coin Metrics State of the Network: Understanding Staking Yields and Economics on Ethereum & Solana
• Contextualizing staking yields, inflation, and network economics on Ethereum & Solana

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Lorien Gabel, the founder and CEO of Figment joins the show. In this episode we discuss:

• The latest developments at Figment.
• Post-election impact on the general crypto markets and the staking category.
• How Figment is approaching the institutional staking market opportunity.
• Staking in the context of investment products.
• Evolving ecosystems like Eigen Layer, Babylon and Bitcoin Layers 2s.
• The stablecoin market.

To learn more about Figment visit www.figment.io

Check out this episode!