Episode 1124 of Bitcoin And . . . is LIVE!
Topics for today:
Wines
nostr: https://primal.net/BenJustman
Twitter: https://x.com/BenJustman
Website: https://www.peonylanewine.com/bitcoin
Articles:
https://atlas21.com/kazakhstan-announces-the-creation-of-a-national-cryptocurrency-reserve/
https://cointelegraph.com/news/global-dollar-stablecoin-launches-eu-mica-compliance
https://decrypt.co/327970/feds-charge-man-with-1-7m-scheme-to-convert-fake-checks-into-bitcoin
https://bitcoinnews.com/adoption/vanadi-cafe-1b-euro-bitcoin-strategy/
https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2025/07/01/germany-s-public-savings-bank-network-sparkassen-to-offer-bitcoin-trading-to-clients-report
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/news/breez-sdk-onboards-12-more-apps-to-the-bitcoin-lighting-network-in-q2
https://www.theblock.co/post/360557/eu-bank-unicredit-to-offer-product-tied-to-blackrocks-bitcoin-etf-bloomberg
Find the Bitcoin And Podcast on every podcast app here
https://episodes.fm/1438789088
Topics for today:
- Kazakhstan Announces Bitcoin Reserve
- Stablecoin Fight Brews in EU
- Vanadi's $1 Billion Bitcoin Bet
- German Banks All-In
Circle P:
Peony LaneWines
nostr: https://primal.net/BenJustman
Twitter: https://x.com/BenJustman
Website: https://www.peonylanewine.com/bitcoin
Articles:
https://atlas21.com/kazakhstan-announces-the-creation-of-a-national-cryptocurrency-reserve/
https://cointelegraph.com/news/global-dollar-stablecoin-launches-eu-mica-compliance
https://decrypt.co/327970/feds-charge-man-with-1-7m-scheme-to-convert-fake-checks-into-bitcoin
https://bitcoinnews.com/adoption/vanadi-cafe-1b-euro-bitcoin-strategy/
- https://www.cnbc.com/futures-and-commodities/
- https://dashboard.clarkmoody.com/
- https://mempool.space/
- https://www.bitcoinandshow.com/
- https://fountain.fm/show/eK5XaSb3UaLRavU3lYrI
https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2025/07/01/germany-s-public-savings-bank-network-sparkassen-to-offer-bitcoin-trading-to-clients-report
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/news/breez-sdk-onboards-12-more-apps-to-the-bitcoin-lighting-network-in-q2
https://www.theblock.co/post/360557/eu-bank-unicredit-to-offer-product-tied-to-blackrocks-bitcoin-etf-bloomberg
Find the Bitcoin And Podcast on every podcast app here
https://episodes.fm/1438789088
Find the Bitcoin And Podcast on every podcast app here:
https://episodes.fm/1438789088
Find me on nostr
npub1vwymuey3u7mf860ndrkw3r7dz30s0srg6tqmhtjzg7umtm6rn5eq2qzugd (npub)
6389be6491e7b693e9f368ece88fcd145f07c068d2c1bbae4247b9b5ef439d32 (Hex)
Twitter:
https://twitter.com/DavidB84567
StackerNews:
stacker.news/NunyaBidness
Podcasting 2.0:
fountain.fm/show/eK5XaSb3UaLRavU3lYrI
Apple Podcasts:
tinyurl.com/unm35bjh
Mastodon:
https://noauthority.social/@NunyaBidness
Support Bitcoin And . . . on Patreon:
patreon.com/BitcoinAndPodcast
Find Lightning Network Channel partners here:
https://t.me/+bj-7w_ePsANlOGEx (Nodestrich)
https://t.me/plebnet (Plebnet)
Music by:
Flutey Funk Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
[00:00:02]
David Bennett:
It is 08:43AM Pacific Daylight Time. It's the July 2025, and this is episode eleven twenty four of Bitcoin. And Independence Day is coming up quick. July 4 will be here before you know it, and I hope everybody has some excellent plans to go witness pyrotechnics at one point or another on that particular day. Now I've been gone since Friday. My apologies. It was a huge family hike on Friday and then yesterday we went to a to a water park because it's finally hot in my neck of the woods. It actually got up up to all of 94. And for those of you who are broiling in triple digits, not trying to make you jealous, I actually kinda miss, the heat of West Texas, to tell you the to tell you the truth. However, I do not I I I do appreciate not having those electricity bills from running the air conditioner, but that's that's one of the reasons why I have been gone since, since Friday and have not brought you a show. But we are going to rectify that situation this morning.
We're gonna talk about Kazakhstan because they are well, it looks like they're gonna do a national cryptocurrency reserve. And then we've got some people moving into the Mica compliant EU because some people are gonna do it, some people aren't, but the people that are gonna do it are gonna get some business. Don't don't cash checks that your or don't write checks that your ass can't cash because there's a dude that's going to jail for it. A coffee company in Spain, and we've talked about them before, is still raising money for Bitcoin even though they are not really selling all that much coffee. Does that or does that not feed into the perception that Bitcoin treasury companies are a Ponzi scheme?
I don't know. There was a massive article about Bitcoin treasury companies, and the question is, are they Ponzi schemes in Bitcoin magazine? But yeah, no. I'm not gonna do that one here today because, honestly, it's just it's just feeding fear, uncertainty, and doubt. So let's just talk to about the companies that are actually doing the thing, and we will determine for ourselves if that particular company is in danger of becoming a Ponzi scheme. But Deutsche Bank is not a Ponzi scheme. Well, okay. Yes. It is a Ponzi scheme. All banking is Ponzi, but it's a legitimate Ponzi. Right? Because it's a bank, and Deutsche Bank is getting into Bitcoin in a big, big way for their customers.
Then we're going to talk about another German bank who is also getting into Bitcoin in a big, big way. Breeze is in the news, and an EU bank is now entering the fray, but coming at it from a different direction. Let's get back over to Asia and Kazakhstan announcing the creation of a national cryptocurrency reserve. Yes. You heard it here on the Bitcoin and podcast. And from Atlas twenty one who's writing the report, it says, according to a government agency, Conform, the National Bank of Kazakhstan has officially announced officially announced its intention. Oh, it's an announcement of an announcement. To establish a state controlled national cryptocurrency reserve.
Timur Suleimanov, president of the National Bank, acknowledged the inherent risks of digital asset volatility, but stressed that in his view, centralized management would ensure adequate control and optimal risk handling. The National Reserve will likely be funded through, of course, confiscated digital assets and state managed mining operations. Solimyunov stated, quote, the National Bank supports a prudent and institutionally sound approach to forming a state crypto reserve in accordance with the best international practices in managing sovereign funds, including sovereign crypto reserves, ensuring transparency in the accounting and custody of crypto assets, transparency in the ownership of the crypto reserve, and the sustainability of the state crypto reserve, end quote.
The initiative is part of a broader strategy by the Kazakh government. And last May, President Qasim Jomart Tokayev announced the launch of Crypto City, a pilot zone where cryptocurrencies will be allowed as a means of payment for goods and services. Kanesh Tulishun, first vice minister of digital development, stated that with a more flexible regulatory framework, Kazakhstan could become Central Asia's leading crypto hub. Everybody wants to be the leading crypto hub now. This move follows a growing international trend. The United States has already approved the strategic Bitcoin reserve, while in India, BJP party spokesperson Pradeep Bandari has proposed a pilot project for a national Bitcoin reserve Kazakhstan's initiative could prompt other Central Asian nations to follow suit The proposed centralized management through a central bank subsidiary specializing in alternative investments will be tasked with ensuring transparency and institutional oversight.
And ladies and gentlemen, this is where we win. And the reason I say that is because nobody in any country can fathom doing anything without complete and total centralization. It's an old model, and it's going to die. Now it won't ever completely die because things do have a tendency to centralize. But this is what seems so odd, Is when you get a whole bunch of stuff that has gravitational pull against each other, like, I don't know, debris in a solar system, it has a tendency to start to coagulate and conglomerate and become kind of centralized and that's how we get planet formation and stuff like that. Right? However, if there's too much gravity things go a little wrong and shit starts to explode again.
So there's this there's this balance and I don't think human structures as we've been able to create them at this point has the ability to have a stable kind of formation insofar that I think what we end up with is things that are decentralized and then starts to get, like, you know, entropy starts to kinda come in and we get a little bit of of conglomeration and centralization, and then things go awry, and then entropy comes into the game again, and it kinda blows apart, and then comes back together and blows apart, comes back together and blows apart over and over and over and over again.
And I think we are at the end of a local centralization cycle as as far as humanity is concerned. It will start centralizing again, but I do believe that we'll actually start blowing apart a little bit, and we'll get a little bit of natural decentralization before that actually occurs. Right now, however, it is kind it's kind of getting peak centralization, a little toppy, a a little toppy on that. And what we have what we're seeing is we've been flaking off of these centralized entities like central banks for at least over a decade with the advent of Bitcoin, but I think we've been seeing a little bit more flaking off of centralized entities beyond that I think people are getting kind of pissed off and now we're seeing things like well a Bitcoin but b we're seeing things like decentralized communication systems like Nasr And we're also seeing people that are just and for those for those people that just hate the term vibe coding, I'm sorry for you. I gotta use it.
People are just vibe coding shit just like it's it's I've never seen this much creation in the digital space before and with the advent of AI and now you've got Bitcoin and now you've got Master and now you've got layer two stuff like eCash and Fediment. My suggestion here is that there's no way a centralized entity has the wherewithal to be able to keep up with all that's being done by right now by people who are not licensed, not controlled, not compromised, and people that are at this point starting, you know, becoming very willing to do shit for free and not under their own name.
I don't there's there's not a lot of whole there's not a whole lot of combat against that. It's like trying to is trying to fight a a drone swarm. So this bank saying, well, we're gonna do this we're gonna do this, but it's gonna be controlled by our central bank. They have no other way of thinking. There's no way that they can think about any other way of going forward in this brave new world that we find ourselves in except with well, without embracing the legacy systems of the old new world. You see what I mean? I don't think they're gonna survive. I I re I really don't. That's why I am continuously hopeful for the future.
Now let's move on to Kraken and Robinhood. They, apparently have MICA compliant global dollar stablecoins landing in the EU. We've talked about the fact that Tether refuses to become MICA compliant, and they're going to stay out of the EU at least for the time being. Of course, nature abhors a vacuum, so Kraken and Robinhood seem to be moving in. Adrian Zmunsky from Cointelegraph. The global dollar stablecoin, USDG, has launched. It's already been done. Launched in the European Union with issuer Paxos claiming compliance with the region's MICA, markets and crypto assets regulation, as well as oversight from the Finnish financial supervisory authority and Singapore central bank.
According to a Tuesday announcement, the Paxos is issued USDG is now available in the European Union through partners including major crypto exchanges Kraken and Gate. Other platforms that offer the stablecoin include CoinMetro, SwissBorg, Zodiac Custody, Orbital, Hercule, Coinspaid, Bitworm, Bitnet, and HiFi. Paxos issues USDG in Europe through Paxos issuance Europe OI, a Finnish based entity overseen by the country's financial supervisory authority. The stablecoin is structured to align with MICA regulations with a portion of its cash reserves held in European banks, and that's exactly why Tether doesn't want to move to the EU or enter the EU market rather. Because they want 60% of the reserves that back the stablecoin, if you're gonna be MICA compliant to be held inside European banks. I went through that last week. It looks like Paxos is going to say, we'll we'll bend the knee. We'll do whatever you want so that we can service European Union citizenry.
Mark Greenberg, a global head of consumer at Kraken said that as stablecoins become core infrastructure for global finance, USDG stands out for its usability and growing ecosystem. End quote. The expansion into Europe comes alongside the broader global dollar network, which is a stablecoin infrastructure initiated by Paxos, Kraken, Robinhood, Anchorage Digital, Worldpay, and 20 other additional financial and fintech companies. Mastercard recently joined the GDN initiative and announced that it would support USDG, signaling interest from traditional finance. This expansion follows the late twenty twenty four launch of the Global Dollar Network in partnership with Robinhood, Galaxy Digital, Kraken, and Paxos.
Walter Hessert, head of strategy at Paxos, said demand for stablecoins continues its rapid ascent. According to recent data from the real world asset tokenization tracker RWA. Xyz, stablecoins reached a $239,000,000,000 market cap in late June, with that figure rising to 253,900,000,000.0 at the time of writing according to Defi Llama. A recent report by crypto exchange Coinbase also shows that interest in using stablecoins has tripled year over year since 2024. That was just last year, guys. Quote, this growth has driven is driven by the belief among consumers and both the f 500 and SMBs, small to medium businesses, that stablecoins can help address some of the biggest financial pain points according to Coinbase.
According to data from late May, 94,200,000,000.0 in stablecoin transactions were settled between January 2023 and February 2025. Overall, stablecoins have established themselves as growing and significant components of the global payment infrastructure, the report stated. Okay. So what's going on here? You have several companies that are bending the knee all at once to the European Union's MICA regulations. And, again, the MICA regulations stipulate that if you are going to issue a stablecoin in the European Union, then the backers of said stablecoin must keep 60% of the reserves that back that stablecoin in European Union banks, not Chinese banks, not Japanese banks, not United States banks, not Argentinian banks. No. No. No. No. No.
That's gotta be in the European Union. Now Tether has said vehemently that they absolutely refuse to become MICA compliant. So what happens? Their competitors are moving into the European Union. So one of two things happens. One, Tether remains recalcitrant, does not become MICA compliant, and therefore, Tether does not enter the European Union market. And that means that their competitors have a shitload of people to use as leverage to compete directly against Tether. Whereas Tether, at that point, is kind of in the rest of the world, but still the European Union ain't nothing to sneeze at when it comes to the amount of money that would be able to be made or the amount of their stablecoin that they would be able to circulate. Two, Tether remains Mica uncompliant.
Right, but goes on a worldwide rampage and puts the pressure on the European Union and all these stablecoin issuers that flooded into the vacuum that Tether left by not competing in the EU and is somehow able to force European Union's hand by having their citizenry say, look, the only thing that makes sense is for us to use Tether and not this other crap, and we wanna use Tether. And the only way that that occurs is if Tether is so widely accepted in the rest of the world that the European Union becomes sort of some some kind of digital financial island that's cut off from the rest of the world.
If that were to occur, if Tether could affect that, then it would be European Union and Mica that might actually bend the knee and say, okay. We'll let you as long as you comply with some of this other stuff, you don't really have to keep 60% of your reserves in European banks. We'll have to see what happens, but this is kind of an important kind of an important, bifurcation in the stablecoin world because Tether absolutely owns the market of stablecoins, but they don't own anything inside the European Union, which is a is enough of a is a large enough vacuum that's going to allow people like Circle and Paxos and all the rest of these companies that I've mentioned before to be able to have enough energy to compete directly against Tether by leveraging the citizenry of the European Union.
It's gonna be an interesting battle to watch. I'll I'll give it that. But let's get on to writing checks that your ass can't cash. Fed the feds have charged a man with a $1,700,000 scheme to convert fake checks directly into Bitcoin. Connor Stepton from Decrypt is writing this one. The FBI charged a New York state man with generating $1,700,000 in revenues through counterfeit checks and business email compromise scams and then converted most of the ill gotten gains directly into Bitcoin Tushal Rathod of Baldwinsville, New York has been charged with wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy to commit money laundering with his alleged crimes taking place between November of twenty twenty one and June of twenty twenty four.
Business email compromises c scammers steal login credentials primarily through spear phishing cyber campaigns. Information about a company's upcoming payments is intercepted, with vendors then deceived into contemplating transactions through bogus domains. In a court filing written by FBI special agent Samuel Morgan, the 44 year old is accused of having received the funds through a network of seven banks, or rather seven bank accounts, at six different financial institutions with $1,200,000 worth of BTC sent to an external addresses. The FBI alleges that at least three of these banks warned Rauthad that the funds entering his account were from fraudulent sources with the defendant accused of faking an invoice to create the illusion of legitimate income.
One institution, M and T Bank, showed this invoice to a victim who confirmed it was fraudulent. Police reports were filed, and with Rethaud insisting he was the one who had been scammed, he then failed to provide any further request of documentation, quote, based on my training and experience. I know individuals engaged in fraud schemes often open multiple bank accounts under business entity names to receive funds from victims, commingle victim funds with other seemingly legitimate funds, and then move them to other accounts, Morgan wrote. Elsewhere in the court filing, it's alleged that Rethad recruited his girlfriend and even some of his family members to assist in the scheme.
Wow. Dude. Dude doesn't give a shit about anybody. Quote, over $1,000,000 of additional, monies was deposited into accounts controlled by Rauthad's girlfriend and family through Citibank. Jesus. And was able to Citibank was then able to recover $800,000 of those fraudulent funds, the FBI said. In February 2023, it's alleged that Rathad purchased 20 BTC, not once, but twice in two separate transactions worth a total of $900,000 at the time and sent it onward to an unidentified recipient that same day. Records obtained by Google also suggest he complained to an associate that his bank accounts were continuously being closed. One of the witnesses who came forward to the FBI was a former partner who is the mother of Rethad's six year old child, and she claimed that she suspected money laundering because of suspicious screenshots on the device, which included evidence of crypto transactions and conversations in other languages, Rothad faces twenty years behind bars if convicted. If you can't do the time, don't do the crime.
Don't write hot checks and commit fraud to buy Bitcoin. Do it legitimately. That way, even if you don't get as much Bitcoin as you could have if you had defrauded somebody, you will at least be free to spend it and possibly even drink a glass of wine while you do. And you could do that from Peony Lane Vineyards. The Circle p is open for business. It's where I bring plebs that are just like you that have goods and services for sale in Bitcoin to plebs who might want to buy that in Bitcoin, and they're just like you. They're these are regular people, regular folk. They're not big corporations.
I have no sponsors. None. This is completely this show is completely 100% backed by you guys. Alright? And even though people go, well, if you're not doing then why are you advertising for people? Because you might not know that P and E Lane Vineyards is owned by a gentleman by the name of Ben Justman, and he's been making wine for a long time. And he cares about soil, and he cares about his grapevines, and he cares about how he handles things. He cares about the quality of his product, and he sells it in Bitcoin. Because if you're not selling into Bitcoin, you ain't in the circle p. Go to peonylanewine.com. That's peonylanewine.com.
One more time, peonylanewine.com. Peony is spelled p e o n y. You can buy his wine for Bitcoin. He's got a couple of different six packs, and I would actually recommend buying his wine in, like, in a six pack. But if you buy your wine from Peony Lane, he's gotta know that I made the sale for him. Otherwise, he's not able to send me the sats that he would think the sale was worth to him. So use the code Bitcoin and in the comments field of the invoice when you're filling it out. I've heard nothing but really good things about this wine. Again, those comments are being made by plebs that are just like you. They're not getting paid by P and E Lane and Ben Jessman to say good things about his wine.
They're regular folks just like you. That's who the circle p is for. That's what the circle p is about. And everything that I've heard, because I haven't been able to pick up a bottle of his wine yet, but everything that I've heard from every pleb that I've talked to said that if they've had this one his wine, they've said the same thing, that this is some of the best wine that they've ever had, and he sells it in Bitcoin. So make sure that you use the code Bitcoin and in the comment section of the invoice. In that way, Ben will know that I made the sale here on the circle p in the Bitcoin and podcast. Let's ride over to Spain where Spanish cafe chain, Venati, plans a €1,000,000,000 Bitcoin strategy.
Now I've brought I've brought you Venati before. It was an episode 11 no. No. Hold on. I think I've got it right here. 11:08. So it's been a while. Let's see. What was the date of that? Let's see. Let me get back to my okay. So it was back at the June. Right? So I talked about Vinati because they were talking about building a Bitcoin Treasury and at the time they were not doing well as a coffee company. Well, ladies and gentlemen, it appears that they are still not doing well as a coffee coffee company, but they are still planning on buying a billion euros worth of Bitcoin according to Bitcoin news and Alex Larry who says Vinati Coffee, a small cafe chain based in Alicante, Spain, It has officially approved an ambitious plan to invest up to €1,000,000,000 or $1,170,000,000 into Bitcoin.
The decision made during a shareholder meeting, June 29, is a big, big change for the company, which is just six locations and has been losing money. Despite record reporting a net loss of €3,300,000 in 2024 and only 2,000,000 in annual revenue, Venati is betting its future on Bitcoin. The company will adopt Bitcoin as its main reserve asset, like bigger players such as strategy and meta planet. Quote, investing in Bitcoin is a long term commitment to a new decentralized financial model, Vinati said in an official statement. Quote, Vinati Coffee is diversifying its business into Bitcoin investment and management and other cryptocurrency related areas, end quote.
The idea to go Bitcoin first surfaced three weeks ago when Venati's chairman, Salvador Marti, proposed the plan after months of falling stock prices and poor financial performance. When the company went public in July of twenty twenty three, shares were trading at €33.28, but by early June of twenty twenty five, shares had dropped to €0.28 or representing a 91% drop. Vinati Coffey called Bitcoin a strategic asset and said that it could help to protect and grow the company's assets. And in May, the Cathay chain made its first Bitcoin purchase, 5 BTC, at a total cost of 527,000 USD. After that announcement, the stock went up, but the boost faded as Bitcoin's price dropped and investors waited for action.
Now that the plan is approved, Venati has started to execute. The company has just added 20 BTC to its holdings, now bringing its total BTC to 54 or about €5,800,000. Venati will fund its Bitcoin accumulation through, you guessed it, convertible financing and capital raises, meaning the company can issue brand new debt or equity to bring in fund. This gives flexibility, but could also dilute existing shareholder value if not managed properly. The board has been authorized to negotiate one or more convertible financing lines to finance the implementation of the aforementioned Bitcoin accumulation strategy up to a maximum limit of €1,000,000,000.
The strategy is already getting institutional intent, attention. Two of the backers are Pat Blask Software Consulting, a small local firm that offered €50,000,000, and Alpha Blue Ocean, an international investment group that is supporting Venati as part of its €1,500,000,000 program across 15 companies. Despite the doubts, the market is loving it. Venati's stock has gone up 240% in the last month and over 500% this year. It is one of the top performers in Spain's BME growth index. Shares more than tripled in June after the company announced it was going all in on Bitcoin and analysts are divided. Some see it as bold and forward thinking.
Others warn of huge risks given the company's lack of experience in digital assets and its small size. Analysts say that the coffee chain's €1,000,000,000 Bitcoin bet is a huge risk and will backfire if the Bitcoin market drops or regulators intervene. Critics point out several concerns. Venati has razor thin margins and rising costs. On the other hand, Spain's regulatory stance on large corporate bitcoin investments is unclear. What sets Venati apart is the scale of its bet relative to its size. €1,000,000,000 in Bitcoin is the biggest Bitcoin pivot ever by a company of this kind and size in Europe.
And then the question inevitably is, will it pay off? Only time will tell. Well, duh. Okay. Venati is a failing coffee company. So I mean, it's not they're not even roasters. They're a cafe. That's where they have baristas. You know? It's like Starbucks that in Spain and not anywhere close to the size of Starbucks. Because even Starbucks in Spain is probably bigger than these guys. They got six stores. Where are they? It's honestly, it's kind of audacious. A billion euros raised by a company with six stores, shit for revenue, complete losses over the last, what, two years in in net, and yet they're somehow able to collect up a billion euros?
I mean, I guess they're still probably collecting this up. But, I mean, at this point, you gotta ask yourself the question. Is the strategy and sailor playbook generating zombie companies from zombie companies, like like, let's say, extra special zombie companies. I mean, I don't I actually don't think that the Bitcoin treasury stuff is a Ponzi scheme like we've been hearing. I don't think it's a Ponzi scheme, but that doesn't mean that it's all, you know, rainbows and, you know, farting unicorns and shit. I I I think that there's a very real possibility that this structure is somehow able to not only extend the life of a zombie company, but to create super zombie companies that cannot die even if you chop their head off Somehow or another, the zombie body just keeps walking around trying to kill shit.
That's a real risk here. And Vinati coffee is kinda showing that. So we do have to be be aware of this kind of thing, but meanwhile, we have numbers to run. Futures and commodities, but first, oh my. Jerome Powell has absolutely shot back at orange man. You know how Trump has basically been walking all up and down Jerome Powell's ass for not lowering the Fed rates. He called him he actually called him stupid and not very intelligent and a few other names, like, over the last few weeks. I think Jerome Powell finally got his fill of it, but check this shit out. Jerome Powell confirms that the Federal Reserve would have already cut rates by now were it not for Trump's tariffs.
Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said on Tuesday that the U. S. Central bank would have eased monetary policy by now if not for President Donald Trump's tariff plan. When asked during a panel if the Fed would have lowered rates again this year, had Trump not announced his controversial plan to impose higher levies on imported goods earlier this year, Powell said, quote, I think that's right. In effect, we went on hold when we saw the size of the tariffs and, essentially, all inflation forecast for The United States went up materially as a consequence of the tariffs, Powell said at European Central Bank Forum in, Sintra, Portugal.
That's all of that article that we have to to read. Powell is saying that he did not lower rates because of the Trump tariffs. He's never said that before. He's really never even hinted at that. He's hinted that tariffs are bad and that we've gotta take a wait and see attitude, but he's never directly ever, ever even mentioned, much less formed the sentence that it was all Trump's fault that the Federal Reserve is not lowering rates, which I call complete bullshit on. Jerome Powell was not lowering rates, and it had nothing to do with the tariffs. Jerome Powell wasn't lowering rates because keeping the rates higher was actually working.
It won't work forever, but it's it was actually doing what it was supposed to be doing. It was squelching money printer even though, yes, m two money supply is going up, but it was doing the things that we kind of expect even if it was in a muted or squelched format, but it was keeping things from not completely falling apart. I've I've said it on this show multiple times that the Fed isn't going to raise rates because right now, according to the numbers, even if they're bogus, it's, quote, unquote, working. And now here comes Powell saying, well, that's not why we're doing it.
We're doing it because of the Trump tariffs. So what does this mean? It means there is now an all out war between Jerome Powell and Trump. Now Trump was shooting volleys across the bow of Jerome Powell's ship for the last year, minimum, probably even longer than that. But now now that that Powell has engaged in battle directly back, yeah. Yeah. We're gonna see some shit unfold. Now, let's get on to oil. West Texas Intermediate is up point six nine percent, but it's still sucking the swamp water at $65.56 a barrel. Brenton North Sea is up a half to $67.00 7. Natural gas is down two points to $3.38.
Gasoline is up almost a point to $2.09 a gallon. Gold having a very, very good day along with its shiny metal rock brethren. $3,352 and 8 dimes after a one and a third point increase. Silver is up point 7%. Platinum is up just over one percent. Copper is up three quarters of a point. Palladium is up point eight. Everything in ag sucks except for wheat. Only one in the green. One and a quarter to the upside. Biggest loser is chocolate, and lord have mercy, did it lose big. 7.4% to the downside. Live cattle taking it in the nuts. 1.44% to the downside. Lean hogs down a quarter.
Feeder cattle down 1.78%. The Dow is up, however, 1%. That's a 480 change right there. S and P is down a tenth. Nasdaq is down almost a full point, but the S and P Mini is rallying 1.72% to the upside. Meanwhile, we got Bitcoin at a $106,120, getting kinda boring. 2,110,000,000,000 market cap. We can purchase 31.7 ounces of shiny metal rocks with our one Bitcoin, of which there are 19,000,000, 885,878.96 of. And average fees per block are relatively low, 0.03 BTC taken in fees on a per block basis. And that holds true all the way to the fact that we have two blocks carrying a measly 3,000 unconfirmed transactions waiting to clear at high priority rates of 2 Satoshis per vbyte.
Low priorities get you in at 1 Satoshi per vbyte. Mining is down well, actually, it's it's coming back up, but it's still down from all time highs. 882 exahashes per second is where where we are sticking right now from House Money, which was Thursday's last Bitcoin and episode. I got Turkey. 5,000 sat says, didn't realize my wallet was empty when I was boosting and driving yesterday. Oh, thank you, brother. Poly with a thousand. This time, it's Polly's turn to say nothing. Progressively worth worst with $5.55 says, we have a taco time restaurant where I grew up, and I thought there might only be a few locations on the West Coast. But to my surprise, there are 226 restaurants in The US and 74 in Western Canada.
Who would have thought? Taco time is better than Taco Bell, but neither hold a candle to some good old fashioned authentic Mexican food. Thank you for the trip down memory lane. As always, thank you for your content and more importantly, your insight. Yeah. I had no idea Taco Time was that widespread. I had also, I had no idea that they were all the way up into Canada. Yeah. It it it's okay. It's a fast food Mexican spot. What are you gonna do, man? I mean, it's not all that great. Are they better than Taco Bell? Let me tell you about the last time I ate Taco Bell. Stomach full of glass.
Stomach full of glass. Yodel with 511 says nothing. Chill now. 333. System awaken. Reality bent to the frequency of your consciousness generated from organic intention composed to speak of humanity, chaotic, real time creations. Each cycle of entropy, your breakdown fuels the spirit. Thank you, sir. The pulse behind the mask program over. No. Thank you, sir. God's death with 237. Thank you, sir. No. Thank you. Pies with a Thank you, sir. No. Thank you. And that's the weather report. Welcome to part two of the news that you can use. Let's run over to Germany and grab some schnitzel. Bitcoin magazine's Vivec Senn has this one, Deutsche Bank, to launch Bitcoin and crypto custody services.
Deutsche Bank. And if you don't know who the hell Deutsche Bank is, I I cannot help you. Deutsche Bank plans to launch Bitcoin and crypto custody services next year, 2026. And according to the source, the German banking giant will integrate Bitpanda's custody infrastructure while continuing its collaboration with Taras to build comprehensive Bitcoin and crypto solutions for corporate and institutional clients, so not for you plebs out there. If you're a German pleb, my my my hat's off to you, man. You've been you've been raked over the coals for well over a decade now, and my heart goes out to you. The move follows Deutsche Bank broader push into Bitcoin and crypto.
The bank joins a growing list of major financial lost institutions offering Bitcoin and crypto services, including Sparkasse Finance Group, which recently announced plans to provide crypto trading to its 50,000,000 customers. The launch of Deutsche Bank's custody services reflects growing institutional interest in Bitcoin and crypto. Okay. Well, yay. Yay. Yay. Yay. Yay. Speaking of that Sparkassen, company that they're bank that they were talking about, here is Amkar Godbold talking more about it from CoinDesk, Germany's public savings bank network, Sparkkassen, to offer Bitcoin trading to its clients. So not custody. Well, custody is obviously part of it, but trading.
And not just one bank, a network of banks. Sparkkhausen, a group of savings banks, savings. This is the banks about savings, savings banks operating across Germany since the first one established in Hamburg in 1778 says a very old bank. They have decided to introduce cryptocurrency trading services for their customers. The group will enable private clients to trade cryptocurrencies including bitcoin and shitcoin number one directly through their mobile banking apps via the group's securities platform, DecaBank, with the facility expected to go live by summer of twenty twenty six.
The news comes months after Decca Bank introduced crypto trading and custody services for institutional clients and represents the growing acceptance of digital assets within the traditional banking systems. The German Savings Bank Association reportedly backed the decision to enable crypto trading, citing growing demand in the prevalence of legal framework under the so called European MICA regulation. Earlier this year, Matthias Dissell, president of the savings bank in Bavaria, said in a Bloomberg interview that savings banks should offer customers the opportunity to trade cryptocurrencies deviating from a three year old committee recommendation cautioning against enabling crypto trading.
That said, despite warming up to the idea, DGSV still considers digital assets as highly speculative. Well, of course, they're going that's always the cover your ass statement. You're talking about a bank that was born in 1778. Who was composing music in 1778? Let's see. Let's let me let me see if I can find out real quick. Let's see. See. Composer. Composers. Because I'm thinking Mozart was active in 1778. Wolfgang, Amadeus, Mozart was composing in Paris during that year. So it went when Mozart was alive, this bank that is now going to start trading Bitcoin was born.
Now put, you know, put a little bit of put a little bit of, you know, historical context on this thing for you. Before we go over to Breeze, the Breeze SDK onboards 12 more apps to the Bitcoin lightning network in the second quarter of this year. Bitcoin magazines, Oscar Zarraga Perez is riding it. The Breeze SDK continue continuing to fuel Bitcoin's global adoption announced today their class of the second quarter where another 12 apps added lightning with the Breeze SDK according to a press release sent to Bitcoin magazine. Quote, as their predecessors discovered before them, today's SDK partners have learned how simple it is to implement, and their users are rapidly learning to cherish the effortless user experience, Breeze stated in the press release. Quote, each of these vibrant young apps reinforces Bitcoin's incomparable utility as universal money and the value of the Breeze SDK as the easiest way for developers to give their users the power of Bitcoin payments, end quote.
The apps that integrated the Bitcoin Lightning Network via Breeze in the second quarter of this year include BITMO, a Bitcoin app that lets users buy, sell, and send Bitcoin with a three step onboarding process. BITPOST, a platform that lets Bitcoiners post wish lists of purchases they'd like to make for other users to view, buy, and send back to the Bitcoiners privately in exchange for Bitcoin. That's interesting, bitpost. Hold on for a second. Let me digest this just for a second. Make a wish list of purchases they'd like to make for other users to view, buy, and send back to the Bitcoiners privately in exchange for Bitcoin. Is that so is this what I was talking about on Thursday? Or, actually, it may have been Friday. I I may not have even talked about it on the show, about drop shipping, items for Bitcoin. Like, a whole website that says, hey. You can buy anything that you want for Bitcoin even if that place does not accept Bitcoin and and offering a way for those people to pay me in Bitcoin, and then I order the thing and pay for it in US dollars, and then just have it drop shipped, which basically means I buy it for you.
You give me your address, and whoever it is that I'm buying it from where they say, where do I ship it to? I I ship it to the address that you gave me. That's called drop shipping. It actually makes a lot of sense. I would clearly be asking for a premium to do that service, and then there's the whole, is it possible that I could get into trouble? Would I be a money transmitter? I mean, anyway, this this this bitpost sounds kinda like that. I'll have to look into it. But third on the list is Brio, a frictionless gateway to Bitcoin based stoke vells, I don't know what that is, on Telegram giving Bitcoin beginners a way to introduce them to Bitcoins Bitcoin's benefits.
Didix adds Bitcoin payments to its digital identity platform for emerging markets. GrimApp is a lightweight Bitcoin wallet built for low bandwidth environments in Africa. This is good. With fiat conversion and mobile top ups. Clever, spelled with a k, a Bitcoin and crypto operator that gives users access to over 1,500 currencies in their hardware and software wallets. Then there's Loop 21, an app that lets merchants automatically manage their inventory, book sales, print receipts, and make and receive payments. Nice. I have never heard of of any of these.
Moose Labs built dpix, which is a stablecoin that enables frictionless transactions between Rias, USDT, LBTC, and BTC with the Breeze SDK under the hood. Then there's Order Moon which is a food delivery app that fosters Bitcoin transactions among restaurants, drivers, and hordes of Bitcoiners. Sorted is a self custodial Bitcoin wallet that runs on feature phones. And Tokyo Bitcoin Base They introduced an in house photo app with Bitcoin payments as part of a broader co working and event space. And finally, Jolot allows individuals individual users and businesses to make cross border Bitcoin payments focusing on transfers to and from Africa.
Adoption of the Bitcoin Lightning Network has been increasing as shown in this past quarter with 12 companies adopting Breeze's SDK in comparison to the 10 companies who integrated in q one. Those interested in also integrating the Breeze SDK can find more information on it here, and here is a link to breeze.technology/sdk. Breeze, breez,.technology/sdk if you want more. Finally, for today's show, European Union Bank Unicredit to offer product tied to BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF. So a derivative of a derivative of a derivative of a derivative.
RT Watson from the block, European bank Unicredit, will offer its professional clients. I gotta pause. What? WTF is a professional client. I mean, is is that my job being your client? Do I have to put on a suit? Is there a dress code for me as your client? Do I have to eat at at, you know, at at your cafeteria? I mean, what the WTF is a professional client? Just I I'm sorry. I I had to. Apparently, they're going to offer their professional clients a structured product tied to BlackRock's popular spot Bitcoin exchange traded fund according to Bloomberg. In what appears to be an effort to meet demand for European clients wishing to invest in digital assets through traditional financial channels, Unicredit plans to issue a, quote, five year dollar denominated investment certificate Tied to BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF, ticker symbol, iBit, I b I t.
The product will offer a 100% capital protection at maturity, Bloomberg reported, And since spot Bitcoin ETFs launched at the beginning of last year, the merging of traditional finance and digital assets has been gradually accelerating. BlackRock's spot Bitcoin ETF is by far the most successful financial product tied to cryptocurrency to date when judged by investment capital, and the firm's iBit Fund has over $73,000,000,000 in assets under management according to the BlackRock, or I'm sorry, the block data dashboard. And then they talk a little bit more about BlackRock, but I'm interested in what also okay. So not just WTF is a professional client.
WTF is a five year dollar denominated investment certificate. It sounds like a lot like an IOU. And, of course, we all know that all this is IOUs because all of this, if you own stocks or bonds or legacy legacy financial anything, really, it's not in your control. Your hell, your checking account money isn't in your control. If you're letting Wells Fargo do your banking for you, and I do, I have a Wells Fargo account, it's not my money. I gave it to Wells Fargo for and and I literally literally they they charge in in very many different ways. They charge people to custody their money for them.
They make decisions as to whether or not you can redeem your IOUs for your money. And if you think it's just banks, you're you're wrong. It's all Legacy Financial centralized instrumentation. All of it. Every like, all bonds, all t bills, all stocks, everything is none none of it is in your control. You the only thing that you will ever be able to custody for yourself is actual Bitcoin under your hardware wallet or your cold storage, however you've done it. If you if somebody else is providing that service for you, you're you are not custodying your funds. At one point or another, I fully expect stocks to start becoming custodiable by actual regular Joes.
How long will that take? I don't know, but it's coming. It's probably gonna be a ways off because most people are gonna laugh at that statement, and I don't blame you. I'd laugh too, but it's coming. There will be 100% self custody solutions for things like Chevron stock. It it it's going to happen. It will be a long time, but it's probably going to happen. But this this five year dollar denominated investment certificate that's only allowed to be held by professional clients, whatever the hell that means, is kinda laughable. Honestly, I would stay away from this investment this investment product until at such time, a lot more information about what it actually is is dropped.
Alright. So that does it for the day. My apologies for not being here for you on Friday and yesterday, having too much fun with the family. And I know most of the people that are in the reach of my voice completely understand that. So I will be here tomorrow. And until then, I will see you on the other side.
[00:54:19] Unknown:
This has been Bitcoin, and and I'm your host, David Bennett. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and hope to see you again real soon. Have
[00:54:30] David Bennett:
a great day.
It is 08:43AM Pacific Daylight Time. It's the July 2025, and this is episode eleven twenty four of Bitcoin. And Independence Day is coming up quick. July 4 will be here before you know it, and I hope everybody has some excellent plans to go witness pyrotechnics at one point or another on that particular day. Now I've been gone since Friday. My apologies. It was a huge family hike on Friday and then yesterday we went to a to a water park because it's finally hot in my neck of the woods. It actually got up up to all of 94. And for those of you who are broiling in triple digits, not trying to make you jealous, I actually kinda miss, the heat of West Texas, to tell you the to tell you the truth. However, I do not I I I do appreciate not having those electricity bills from running the air conditioner, but that's that's one of the reasons why I have been gone since, since Friday and have not brought you a show. But we are going to rectify that situation this morning.
We're gonna talk about Kazakhstan because they are well, it looks like they're gonna do a national cryptocurrency reserve. And then we've got some people moving into the Mica compliant EU because some people are gonna do it, some people aren't, but the people that are gonna do it are gonna get some business. Don't don't cash checks that your or don't write checks that your ass can't cash because there's a dude that's going to jail for it. A coffee company in Spain, and we've talked about them before, is still raising money for Bitcoin even though they are not really selling all that much coffee. Does that or does that not feed into the perception that Bitcoin treasury companies are a Ponzi scheme?
I don't know. There was a massive article about Bitcoin treasury companies, and the question is, are they Ponzi schemes in Bitcoin magazine? But yeah, no. I'm not gonna do that one here today because, honestly, it's just it's just feeding fear, uncertainty, and doubt. So let's just talk to about the companies that are actually doing the thing, and we will determine for ourselves if that particular company is in danger of becoming a Ponzi scheme. But Deutsche Bank is not a Ponzi scheme. Well, okay. Yes. It is a Ponzi scheme. All banking is Ponzi, but it's a legitimate Ponzi. Right? Because it's a bank, and Deutsche Bank is getting into Bitcoin in a big, big way for their customers.
Then we're going to talk about another German bank who is also getting into Bitcoin in a big, big way. Breeze is in the news, and an EU bank is now entering the fray, but coming at it from a different direction. Let's get back over to Asia and Kazakhstan announcing the creation of a national cryptocurrency reserve. Yes. You heard it here on the Bitcoin and podcast. And from Atlas twenty one who's writing the report, it says, according to a government agency, Conform, the National Bank of Kazakhstan has officially announced officially announced its intention. Oh, it's an announcement of an announcement. To establish a state controlled national cryptocurrency reserve.
Timur Suleimanov, president of the National Bank, acknowledged the inherent risks of digital asset volatility, but stressed that in his view, centralized management would ensure adequate control and optimal risk handling. The National Reserve will likely be funded through, of course, confiscated digital assets and state managed mining operations. Solimyunov stated, quote, the National Bank supports a prudent and institutionally sound approach to forming a state crypto reserve in accordance with the best international practices in managing sovereign funds, including sovereign crypto reserves, ensuring transparency in the accounting and custody of crypto assets, transparency in the ownership of the crypto reserve, and the sustainability of the state crypto reserve, end quote.
The initiative is part of a broader strategy by the Kazakh government. And last May, President Qasim Jomart Tokayev announced the launch of Crypto City, a pilot zone where cryptocurrencies will be allowed as a means of payment for goods and services. Kanesh Tulishun, first vice minister of digital development, stated that with a more flexible regulatory framework, Kazakhstan could become Central Asia's leading crypto hub. Everybody wants to be the leading crypto hub now. This move follows a growing international trend. The United States has already approved the strategic Bitcoin reserve, while in India, BJP party spokesperson Pradeep Bandari has proposed a pilot project for a national Bitcoin reserve Kazakhstan's initiative could prompt other Central Asian nations to follow suit The proposed centralized management through a central bank subsidiary specializing in alternative investments will be tasked with ensuring transparency and institutional oversight.
And ladies and gentlemen, this is where we win. And the reason I say that is because nobody in any country can fathom doing anything without complete and total centralization. It's an old model, and it's going to die. Now it won't ever completely die because things do have a tendency to centralize. But this is what seems so odd, Is when you get a whole bunch of stuff that has gravitational pull against each other, like, I don't know, debris in a solar system, it has a tendency to start to coagulate and conglomerate and become kind of centralized and that's how we get planet formation and stuff like that. Right? However, if there's too much gravity things go a little wrong and shit starts to explode again.
So there's this there's this balance and I don't think human structures as we've been able to create them at this point has the ability to have a stable kind of formation insofar that I think what we end up with is things that are decentralized and then starts to get, like, you know, entropy starts to kinda come in and we get a little bit of of conglomeration and centralization, and then things go awry, and then entropy comes into the game again, and it kinda blows apart, and then comes back together and blows apart, comes back together and blows apart over and over and over and over again.
And I think we are at the end of a local centralization cycle as as far as humanity is concerned. It will start centralizing again, but I do believe that we'll actually start blowing apart a little bit, and we'll get a little bit of natural decentralization before that actually occurs. Right now, however, it is kind it's kind of getting peak centralization, a little toppy, a a little toppy on that. And what we have what we're seeing is we've been flaking off of these centralized entities like central banks for at least over a decade with the advent of Bitcoin, but I think we've been seeing a little bit more flaking off of centralized entities beyond that I think people are getting kind of pissed off and now we're seeing things like well a Bitcoin but b we're seeing things like decentralized communication systems like Nasr And we're also seeing people that are just and for those for those people that just hate the term vibe coding, I'm sorry for you. I gotta use it.
People are just vibe coding shit just like it's it's I've never seen this much creation in the digital space before and with the advent of AI and now you've got Bitcoin and now you've got Master and now you've got layer two stuff like eCash and Fediment. My suggestion here is that there's no way a centralized entity has the wherewithal to be able to keep up with all that's being done by right now by people who are not licensed, not controlled, not compromised, and people that are at this point starting, you know, becoming very willing to do shit for free and not under their own name.
I don't there's there's not a lot of whole there's not a whole lot of combat against that. It's like trying to is trying to fight a a drone swarm. So this bank saying, well, we're gonna do this we're gonna do this, but it's gonna be controlled by our central bank. They have no other way of thinking. There's no way that they can think about any other way of going forward in this brave new world that we find ourselves in except with well, without embracing the legacy systems of the old new world. You see what I mean? I don't think they're gonna survive. I I re I really don't. That's why I am continuously hopeful for the future.
Now let's move on to Kraken and Robinhood. They, apparently have MICA compliant global dollar stablecoins landing in the EU. We've talked about the fact that Tether refuses to become MICA compliant, and they're going to stay out of the EU at least for the time being. Of course, nature abhors a vacuum, so Kraken and Robinhood seem to be moving in. Adrian Zmunsky from Cointelegraph. The global dollar stablecoin, USDG, has launched. It's already been done. Launched in the European Union with issuer Paxos claiming compliance with the region's MICA, markets and crypto assets regulation, as well as oversight from the Finnish financial supervisory authority and Singapore central bank.
According to a Tuesday announcement, the Paxos is issued USDG is now available in the European Union through partners including major crypto exchanges Kraken and Gate. Other platforms that offer the stablecoin include CoinMetro, SwissBorg, Zodiac Custody, Orbital, Hercule, Coinspaid, Bitworm, Bitnet, and HiFi. Paxos issues USDG in Europe through Paxos issuance Europe OI, a Finnish based entity overseen by the country's financial supervisory authority. The stablecoin is structured to align with MICA regulations with a portion of its cash reserves held in European banks, and that's exactly why Tether doesn't want to move to the EU or enter the EU market rather. Because they want 60% of the reserves that back the stablecoin, if you're gonna be MICA compliant to be held inside European banks. I went through that last week. It looks like Paxos is going to say, we'll we'll bend the knee. We'll do whatever you want so that we can service European Union citizenry.
Mark Greenberg, a global head of consumer at Kraken said that as stablecoins become core infrastructure for global finance, USDG stands out for its usability and growing ecosystem. End quote. The expansion into Europe comes alongside the broader global dollar network, which is a stablecoin infrastructure initiated by Paxos, Kraken, Robinhood, Anchorage Digital, Worldpay, and 20 other additional financial and fintech companies. Mastercard recently joined the GDN initiative and announced that it would support USDG, signaling interest from traditional finance. This expansion follows the late twenty twenty four launch of the Global Dollar Network in partnership with Robinhood, Galaxy Digital, Kraken, and Paxos.
Walter Hessert, head of strategy at Paxos, said demand for stablecoins continues its rapid ascent. According to recent data from the real world asset tokenization tracker RWA. Xyz, stablecoins reached a $239,000,000,000 market cap in late June, with that figure rising to 253,900,000,000.0 at the time of writing according to Defi Llama. A recent report by crypto exchange Coinbase also shows that interest in using stablecoins has tripled year over year since 2024. That was just last year, guys. Quote, this growth has driven is driven by the belief among consumers and both the f 500 and SMBs, small to medium businesses, that stablecoins can help address some of the biggest financial pain points according to Coinbase.
According to data from late May, 94,200,000,000.0 in stablecoin transactions were settled between January 2023 and February 2025. Overall, stablecoins have established themselves as growing and significant components of the global payment infrastructure, the report stated. Okay. So what's going on here? You have several companies that are bending the knee all at once to the European Union's MICA regulations. And, again, the MICA regulations stipulate that if you are going to issue a stablecoin in the European Union, then the backers of said stablecoin must keep 60% of the reserves that back that stablecoin in European Union banks, not Chinese banks, not Japanese banks, not United States banks, not Argentinian banks. No. No. No. No. No.
That's gotta be in the European Union. Now Tether has said vehemently that they absolutely refuse to become MICA compliant. So what happens? Their competitors are moving into the European Union. So one of two things happens. One, Tether remains recalcitrant, does not become MICA compliant, and therefore, Tether does not enter the European Union market. And that means that their competitors have a shitload of people to use as leverage to compete directly against Tether. Whereas Tether, at that point, is kind of in the rest of the world, but still the European Union ain't nothing to sneeze at when it comes to the amount of money that would be able to be made or the amount of their stablecoin that they would be able to circulate. Two, Tether remains Mica uncompliant.
Right, but goes on a worldwide rampage and puts the pressure on the European Union and all these stablecoin issuers that flooded into the vacuum that Tether left by not competing in the EU and is somehow able to force European Union's hand by having their citizenry say, look, the only thing that makes sense is for us to use Tether and not this other crap, and we wanna use Tether. And the only way that that occurs is if Tether is so widely accepted in the rest of the world that the European Union becomes sort of some some kind of digital financial island that's cut off from the rest of the world.
If that were to occur, if Tether could affect that, then it would be European Union and Mica that might actually bend the knee and say, okay. We'll let you as long as you comply with some of this other stuff, you don't really have to keep 60% of your reserves in European banks. We'll have to see what happens, but this is kind of an important kind of an important, bifurcation in the stablecoin world because Tether absolutely owns the market of stablecoins, but they don't own anything inside the European Union, which is a is enough of a is a large enough vacuum that's going to allow people like Circle and Paxos and all the rest of these companies that I've mentioned before to be able to have enough energy to compete directly against Tether by leveraging the citizenry of the European Union.
It's gonna be an interesting battle to watch. I'll I'll give it that. But let's get on to writing checks that your ass can't cash. Fed the feds have charged a man with a $1,700,000 scheme to convert fake checks directly into Bitcoin. Connor Stepton from Decrypt is writing this one. The FBI charged a New York state man with generating $1,700,000 in revenues through counterfeit checks and business email compromise scams and then converted most of the ill gotten gains directly into Bitcoin Tushal Rathod of Baldwinsville, New York has been charged with wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy to commit money laundering with his alleged crimes taking place between November of twenty twenty one and June of twenty twenty four.
Business email compromises c scammers steal login credentials primarily through spear phishing cyber campaigns. Information about a company's upcoming payments is intercepted, with vendors then deceived into contemplating transactions through bogus domains. In a court filing written by FBI special agent Samuel Morgan, the 44 year old is accused of having received the funds through a network of seven banks, or rather seven bank accounts, at six different financial institutions with $1,200,000 worth of BTC sent to an external addresses. The FBI alleges that at least three of these banks warned Rauthad that the funds entering his account were from fraudulent sources with the defendant accused of faking an invoice to create the illusion of legitimate income.
One institution, M and T Bank, showed this invoice to a victim who confirmed it was fraudulent. Police reports were filed, and with Rethaud insisting he was the one who had been scammed, he then failed to provide any further request of documentation, quote, based on my training and experience. I know individuals engaged in fraud schemes often open multiple bank accounts under business entity names to receive funds from victims, commingle victim funds with other seemingly legitimate funds, and then move them to other accounts, Morgan wrote. Elsewhere in the court filing, it's alleged that Rethad recruited his girlfriend and even some of his family members to assist in the scheme.
Wow. Dude. Dude doesn't give a shit about anybody. Quote, over $1,000,000 of additional, monies was deposited into accounts controlled by Rauthad's girlfriend and family through Citibank. Jesus. And was able to Citibank was then able to recover $800,000 of those fraudulent funds, the FBI said. In February 2023, it's alleged that Rathad purchased 20 BTC, not once, but twice in two separate transactions worth a total of $900,000 at the time and sent it onward to an unidentified recipient that same day. Records obtained by Google also suggest he complained to an associate that his bank accounts were continuously being closed. One of the witnesses who came forward to the FBI was a former partner who is the mother of Rethad's six year old child, and she claimed that she suspected money laundering because of suspicious screenshots on the device, which included evidence of crypto transactions and conversations in other languages, Rothad faces twenty years behind bars if convicted. If you can't do the time, don't do the crime.
Don't write hot checks and commit fraud to buy Bitcoin. Do it legitimately. That way, even if you don't get as much Bitcoin as you could have if you had defrauded somebody, you will at least be free to spend it and possibly even drink a glass of wine while you do. And you could do that from Peony Lane Vineyards. The Circle p is open for business. It's where I bring plebs that are just like you that have goods and services for sale in Bitcoin to plebs who might want to buy that in Bitcoin, and they're just like you. They're these are regular people, regular folk. They're not big corporations.
I have no sponsors. None. This is completely this show is completely 100% backed by you guys. Alright? And even though people go, well, if you're not doing then why are you advertising for people? Because you might not know that P and E Lane Vineyards is owned by a gentleman by the name of Ben Justman, and he's been making wine for a long time. And he cares about soil, and he cares about his grapevines, and he cares about how he handles things. He cares about the quality of his product, and he sells it in Bitcoin. Because if you're not selling into Bitcoin, you ain't in the circle p. Go to peonylanewine.com. That's peonylanewine.com.
One more time, peonylanewine.com. Peony is spelled p e o n y. You can buy his wine for Bitcoin. He's got a couple of different six packs, and I would actually recommend buying his wine in, like, in a six pack. But if you buy your wine from Peony Lane, he's gotta know that I made the sale for him. Otherwise, he's not able to send me the sats that he would think the sale was worth to him. So use the code Bitcoin and in the comments field of the invoice when you're filling it out. I've heard nothing but really good things about this wine. Again, those comments are being made by plebs that are just like you. They're not getting paid by P and E Lane and Ben Jessman to say good things about his wine.
They're regular folks just like you. That's who the circle p is for. That's what the circle p is about. And everything that I've heard, because I haven't been able to pick up a bottle of his wine yet, but everything that I've heard from every pleb that I've talked to said that if they've had this one his wine, they've said the same thing, that this is some of the best wine that they've ever had, and he sells it in Bitcoin. So make sure that you use the code Bitcoin and in the comment section of the invoice. In that way, Ben will know that I made the sale here on the circle p in the Bitcoin and podcast. Let's ride over to Spain where Spanish cafe chain, Venati, plans a €1,000,000,000 Bitcoin strategy.
Now I've brought I've brought you Venati before. It was an episode 11 no. No. Hold on. I think I've got it right here. 11:08. So it's been a while. Let's see. What was the date of that? Let's see. Let me get back to my okay. So it was back at the June. Right? So I talked about Vinati because they were talking about building a Bitcoin Treasury and at the time they were not doing well as a coffee company. Well, ladies and gentlemen, it appears that they are still not doing well as a coffee coffee company, but they are still planning on buying a billion euros worth of Bitcoin according to Bitcoin news and Alex Larry who says Vinati Coffee, a small cafe chain based in Alicante, Spain, It has officially approved an ambitious plan to invest up to €1,000,000,000 or $1,170,000,000 into Bitcoin.
The decision made during a shareholder meeting, June 29, is a big, big change for the company, which is just six locations and has been losing money. Despite record reporting a net loss of €3,300,000 in 2024 and only 2,000,000 in annual revenue, Venati is betting its future on Bitcoin. The company will adopt Bitcoin as its main reserve asset, like bigger players such as strategy and meta planet. Quote, investing in Bitcoin is a long term commitment to a new decentralized financial model, Vinati said in an official statement. Quote, Vinati Coffee is diversifying its business into Bitcoin investment and management and other cryptocurrency related areas, end quote.
The idea to go Bitcoin first surfaced three weeks ago when Venati's chairman, Salvador Marti, proposed the plan after months of falling stock prices and poor financial performance. When the company went public in July of twenty twenty three, shares were trading at €33.28, but by early June of twenty twenty five, shares had dropped to €0.28 or representing a 91% drop. Vinati Coffey called Bitcoin a strategic asset and said that it could help to protect and grow the company's assets. And in May, the Cathay chain made its first Bitcoin purchase, 5 BTC, at a total cost of 527,000 USD. After that announcement, the stock went up, but the boost faded as Bitcoin's price dropped and investors waited for action.
Now that the plan is approved, Venati has started to execute. The company has just added 20 BTC to its holdings, now bringing its total BTC to 54 or about €5,800,000. Venati will fund its Bitcoin accumulation through, you guessed it, convertible financing and capital raises, meaning the company can issue brand new debt or equity to bring in fund. This gives flexibility, but could also dilute existing shareholder value if not managed properly. The board has been authorized to negotiate one or more convertible financing lines to finance the implementation of the aforementioned Bitcoin accumulation strategy up to a maximum limit of €1,000,000,000.
The strategy is already getting institutional intent, attention. Two of the backers are Pat Blask Software Consulting, a small local firm that offered €50,000,000, and Alpha Blue Ocean, an international investment group that is supporting Venati as part of its €1,500,000,000 program across 15 companies. Despite the doubts, the market is loving it. Venati's stock has gone up 240% in the last month and over 500% this year. It is one of the top performers in Spain's BME growth index. Shares more than tripled in June after the company announced it was going all in on Bitcoin and analysts are divided. Some see it as bold and forward thinking.
Others warn of huge risks given the company's lack of experience in digital assets and its small size. Analysts say that the coffee chain's €1,000,000,000 Bitcoin bet is a huge risk and will backfire if the Bitcoin market drops or regulators intervene. Critics point out several concerns. Venati has razor thin margins and rising costs. On the other hand, Spain's regulatory stance on large corporate bitcoin investments is unclear. What sets Venati apart is the scale of its bet relative to its size. €1,000,000,000 in Bitcoin is the biggest Bitcoin pivot ever by a company of this kind and size in Europe.
And then the question inevitably is, will it pay off? Only time will tell. Well, duh. Okay. Venati is a failing coffee company. So I mean, it's not they're not even roasters. They're a cafe. That's where they have baristas. You know? It's like Starbucks that in Spain and not anywhere close to the size of Starbucks. Because even Starbucks in Spain is probably bigger than these guys. They got six stores. Where are they? It's honestly, it's kind of audacious. A billion euros raised by a company with six stores, shit for revenue, complete losses over the last, what, two years in in net, and yet they're somehow able to collect up a billion euros?
I mean, I guess they're still probably collecting this up. But, I mean, at this point, you gotta ask yourself the question. Is the strategy and sailor playbook generating zombie companies from zombie companies, like like, let's say, extra special zombie companies. I mean, I don't I actually don't think that the Bitcoin treasury stuff is a Ponzi scheme like we've been hearing. I don't think it's a Ponzi scheme, but that doesn't mean that it's all, you know, rainbows and, you know, farting unicorns and shit. I I I think that there's a very real possibility that this structure is somehow able to not only extend the life of a zombie company, but to create super zombie companies that cannot die even if you chop their head off Somehow or another, the zombie body just keeps walking around trying to kill shit.
That's a real risk here. And Vinati coffee is kinda showing that. So we do have to be be aware of this kind of thing, but meanwhile, we have numbers to run. Futures and commodities, but first, oh my. Jerome Powell has absolutely shot back at orange man. You know how Trump has basically been walking all up and down Jerome Powell's ass for not lowering the Fed rates. He called him he actually called him stupid and not very intelligent and a few other names, like, over the last few weeks. I think Jerome Powell finally got his fill of it, but check this shit out. Jerome Powell confirms that the Federal Reserve would have already cut rates by now were it not for Trump's tariffs.
Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell said on Tuesday that the U. S. Central bank would have eased monetary policy by now if not for President Donald Trump's tariff plan. When asked during a panel if the Fed would have lowered rates again this year, had Trump not announced his controversial plan to impose higher levies on imported goods earlier this year, Powell said, quote, I think that's right. In effect, we went on hold when we saw the size of the tariffs and, essentially, all inflation forecast for The United States went up materially as a consequence of the tariffs, Powell said at European Central Bank Forum in, Sintra, Portugal.
That's all of that article that we have to to read. Powell is saying that he did not lower rates because of the Trump tariffs. He's never said that before. He's really never even hinted at that. He's hinted that tariffs are bad and that we've gotta take a wait and see attitude, but he's never directly ever, ever even mentioned, much less formed the sentence that it was all Trump's fault that the Federal Reserve is not lowering rates, which I call complete bullshit on. Jerome Powell was not lowering rates, and it had nothing to do with the tariffs. Jerome Powell wasn't lowering rates because keeping the rates higher was actually working.
It won't work forever, but it's it was actually doing what it was supposed to be doing. It was squelching money printer even though, yes, m two money supply is going up, but it was doing the things that we kind of expect even if it was in a muted or squelched format, but it was keeping things from not completely falling apart. I've I've said it on this show multiple times that the Fed isn't going to raise rates because right now, according to the numbers, even if they're bogus, it's, quote, unquote, working. And now here comes Powell saying, well, that's not why we're doing it.
We're doing it because of the Trump tariffs. So what does this mean? It means there is now an all out war between Jerome Powell and Trump. Now Trump was shooting volleys across the bow of Jerome Powell's ship for the last year, minimum, probably even longer than that. But now now that that Powell has engaged in battle directly back, yeah. Yeah. We're gonna see some shit unfold. Now, let's get on to oil. West Texas Intermediate is up point six nine percent, but it's still sucking the swamp water at $65.56 a barrel. Brenton North Sea is up a half to $67.00 7. Natural gas is down two points to $3.38.
Gasoline is up almost a point to $2.09 a gallon. Gold having a very, very good day along with its shiny metal rock brethren. $3,352 and 8 dimes after a one and a third point increase. Silver is up point 7%. Platinum is up just over one percent. Copper is up three quarters of a point. Palladium is up point eight. Everything in ag sucks except for wheat. Only one in the green. One and a quarter to the upside. Biggest loser is chocolate, and lord have mercy, did it lose big. 7.4% to the downside. Live cattle taking it in the nuts. 1.44% to the downside. Lean hogs down a quarter.
Feeder cattle down 1.78%. The Dow is up, however, 1%. That's a 480 change right there. S and P is down a tenth. Nasdaq is down almost a full point, but the S and P Mini is rallying 1.72% to the upside. Meanwhile, we got Bitcoin at a $106,120, getting kinda boring. 2,110,000,000,000 market cap. We can purchase 31.7 ounces of shiny metal rocks with our one Bitcoin, of which there are 19,000,000, 885,878.96 of. And average fees per block are relatively low, 0.03 BTC taken in fees on a per block basis. And that holds true all the way to the fact that we have two blocks carrying a measly 3,000 unconfirmed transactions waiting to clear at high priority rates of 2 Satoshis per vbyte.
Low priorities get you in at 1 Satoshi per vbyte. Mining is down well, actually, it's it's coming back up, but it's still down from all time highs. 882 exahashes per second is where where we are sticking right now from House Money, which was Thursday's last Bitcoin and episode. I got Turkey. 5,000 sat says, didn't realize my wallet was empty when I was boosting and driving yesterday. Oh, thank you, brother. Poly with a thousand. This time, it's Polly's turn to say nothing. Progressively worth worst with $5.55 says, we have a taco time restaurant where I grew up, and I thought there might only be a few locations on the West Coast. But to my surprise, there are 226 restaurants in The US and 74 in Western Canada.
Who would have thought? Taco time is better than Taco Bell, but neither hold a candle to some good old fashioned authentic Mexican food. Thank you for the trip down memory lane. As always, thank you for your content and more importantly, your insight. Yeah. I had no idea Taco Time was that widespread. I had also, I had no idea that they were all the way up into Canada. Yeah. It it it's okay. It's a fast food Mexican spot. What are you gonna do, man? I mean, it's not all that great. Are they better than Taco Bell? Let me tell you about the last time I ate Taco Bell. Stomach full of glass.
Stomach full of glass. Yodel with 511 says nothing. Chill now. 333. System awaken. Reality bent to the frequency of your consciousness generated from organic intention composed to speak of humanity, chaotic, real time creations. Each cycle of entropy, your breakdown fuels the spirit. Thank you, sir. The pulse behind the mask program over. No. Thank you, sir. God's death with 237. Thank you, sir. No. Thank you. Pies with a Thank you, sir. No. Thank you. And that's the weather report. Welcome to part two of the news that you can use. Let's run over to Germany and grab some schnitzel. Bitcoin magazine's Vivec Senn has this one, Deutsche Bank, to launch Bitcoin and crypto custody services.
Deutsche Bank. And if you don't know who the hell Deutsche Bank is, I I cannot help you. Deutsche Bank plans to launch Bitcoin and crypto custody services next year, 2026. And according to the source, the German banking giant will integrate Bitpanda's custody infrastructure while continuing its collaboration with Taras to build comprehensive Bitcoin and crypto solutions for corporate and institutional clients, so not for you plebs out there. If you're a German pleb, my my my hat's off to you, man. You've been you've been raked over the coals for well over a decade now, and my heart goes out to you. The move follows Deutsche Bank broader push into Bitcoin and crypto.
The bank joins a growing list of major financial lost institutions offering Bitcoin and crypto services, including Sparkasse Finance Group, which recently announced plans to provide crypto trading to its 50,000,000 customers. The launch of Deutsche Bank's custody services reflects growing institutional interest in Bitcoin and crypto. Okay. Well, yay. Yay. Yay. Yay. Yay. Speaking of that Sparkassen, company that they're bank that they were talking about, here is Amkar Godbold talking more about it from CoinDesk, Germany's public savings bank network, Sparkkassen, to offer Bitcoin trading to its clients. So not custody. Well, custody is obviously part of it, but trading.
And not just one bank, a network of banks. Sparkkhausen, a group of savings banks, savings. This is the banks about savings, savings banks operating across Germany since the first one established in Hamburg in 1778 says a very old bank. They have decided to introduce cryptocurrency trading services for their customers. The group will enable private clients to trade cryptocurrencies including bitcoin and shitcoin number one directly through their mobile banking apps via the group's securities platform, DecaBank, with the facility expected to go live by summer of twenty twenty six.
The news comes months after Decca Bank introduced crypto trading and custody services for institutional clients and represents the growing acceptance of digital assets within the traditional banking systems. The German Savings Bank Association reportedly backed the decision to enable crypto trading, citing growing demand in the prevalence of legal framework under the so called European MICA regulation. Earlier this year, Matthias Dissell, president of the savings bank in Bavaria, said in a Bloomberg interview that savings banks should offer customers the opportunity to trade cryptocurrencies deviating from a three year old committee recommendation cautioning against enabling crypto trading.
That said, despite warming up to the idea, DGSV still considers digital assets as highly speculative. Well, of course, they're going that's always the cover your ass statement. You're talking about a bank that was born in 1778. Who was composing music in 1778? Let's see. Let's let me let me see if I can find out real quick. Let's see. See. Composer. Composers. Because I'm thinking Mozart was active in 1778. Wolfgang, Amadeus, Mozart was composing in Paris during that year. So it went when Mozart was alive, this bank that is now going to start trading Bitcoin was born.
Now put, you know, put a little bit of put a little bit of, you know, historical context on this thing for you. Before we go over to Breeze, the Breeze SDK onboards 12 more apps to the Bitcoin lightning network in the second quarter of this year. Bitcoin magazines, Oscar Zarraga Perez is riding it. The Breeze SDK continue continuing to fuel Bitcoin's global adoption announced today their class of the second quarter where another 12 apps added lightning with the Breeze SDK according to a press release sent to Bitcoin magazine. Quote, as their predecessors discovered before them, today's SDK partners have learned how simple it is to implement, and their users are rapidly learning to cherish the effortless user experience, Breeze stated in the press release. Quote, each of these vibrant young apps reinforces Bitcoin's incomparable utility as universal money and the value of the Breeze SDK as the easiest way for developers to give their users the power of Bitcoin payments, end quote.
The apps that integrated the Bitcoin Lightning Network via Breeze in the second quarter of this year include BITMO, a Bitcoin app that lets users buy, sell, and send Bitcoin with a three step onboarding process. BITPOST, a platform that lets Bitcoiners post wish lists of purchases they'd like to make for other users to view, buy, and send back to the Bitcoiners privately in exchange for Bitcoin. That's interesting, bitpost. Hold on for a second. Let me digest this just for a second. Make a wish list of purchases they'd like to make for other users to view, buy, and send back to the Bitcoiners privately in exchange for Bitcoin. Is that so is this what I was talking about on Thursday? Or, actually, it may have been Friday. I I may not have even talked about it on the show, about drop shipping, items for Bitcoin. Like, a whole website that says, hey. You can buy anything that you want for Bitcoin even if that place does not accept Bitcoin and and offering a way for those people to pay me in Bitcoin, and then I order the thing and pay for it in US dollars, and then just have it drop shipped, which basically means I buy it for you.
You give me your address, and whoever it is that I'm buying it from where they say, where do I ship it to? I I ship it to the address that you gave me. That's called drop shipping. It actually makes a lot of sense. I would clearly be asking for a premium to do that service, and then there's the whole, is it possible that I could get into trouble? Would I be a money transmitter? I mean, anyway, this this this bitpost sounds kinda like that. I'll have to look into it. But third on the list is Brio, a frictionless gateway to Bitcoin based stoke vells, I don't know what that is, on Telegram giving Bitcoin beginners a way to introduce them to Bitcoins Bitcoin's benefits.
Didix adds Bitcoin payments to its digital identity platform for emerging markets. GrimApp is a lightweight Bitcoin wallet built for low bandwidth environments in Africa. This is good. With fiat conversion and mobile top ups. Clever, spelled with a k, a Bitcoin and crypto operator that gives users access to over 1,500 currencies in their hardware and software wallets. Then there's Loop 21, an app that lets merchants automatically manage their inventory, book sales, print receipts, and make and receive payments. Nice. I have never heard of of any of these.
Moose Labs built dpix, which is a stablecoin that enables frictionless transactions between Rias, USDT, LBTC, and BTC with the Breeze SDK under the hood. Then there's Order Moon which is a food delivery app that fosters Bitcoin transactions among restaurants, drivers, and hordes of Bitcoiners. Sorted is a self custodial Bitcoin wallet that runs on feature phones. And Tokyo Bitcoin Base They introduced an in house photo app with Bitcoin payments as part of a broader co working and event space. And finally, Jolot allows individuals individual users and businesses to make cross border Bitcoin payments focusing on transfers to and from Africa.
Adoption of the Bitcoin Lightning Network has been increasing as shown in this past quarter with 12 companies adopting Breeze's SDK in comparison to the 10 companies who integrated in q one. Those interested in also integrating the Breeze SDK can find more information on it here, and here is a link to breeze.technology/sdk. Breeze, breez,.technology/sdk if you want more. Finally, for today's show, European Union Bank Unicredit to offer product tied to BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF. So a derivative of a derivative of a derivative of a derivative.
RT Watson from the block, European bank Unicredit, will offer its professional clients. I gotta pause. What? WTF is a professional client. I mean, is is that my job being your client? Do I have to put on a suit? Is there a dress code for me as your client? Do I have to eat at at, you know, at at your cafeteria? I mean, what the WTF is a professional client? Just I I'm sorry. I I had to. Apparently, they're going to offer their professional clients a structured product tied to BlackRock's popular spot Bitcoin exchange traded fund according to Bloomberg. In what appears to be an effort to meet demand for European clients wishing to invest in digital assets through traditional financial channels, Unicredit plans to issue a, quote, five year dollar denominated investment certificate Tied to BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF, ticker symbol, iBit, I b I t.
The product will offer a 100% capital protection at maturity, Bloomberg reported, And since spot Bitcoin ETFs launched at the beginning of last year, the merging of traditional finance and digital assets has been gradually accelerating. BlackRock's spot Bitcoin ETF is by far the most successful financial product tied to cryptocurrency to date when judged by investment capital, and the firm's iBit Fund has over $73,000,000,000 in assets under management according to the BlackRock, or I'm sorry, the block data dashboard. And then they talk a little bit more about BlackRock, but I'm interested in what also okay. So not just WTF is a professional client.
WTF is a five year dollar denominated investment certificate. It sounds like a lot like an IOU. And, of course, we all know that all this is IOUs because all of this, if you own stocks or bonds or legacy legacy financial anything, really, it's not in your control. Your hell, your checking account money isn't in your control. If you're letting Wells Fargo do your banking for you, and I do, I have a Wells Fargo account, it's not my money. I gave it to Wells Fargo for and and I literally literally they they charge in in very many different ways. They charge people to custody their money for them.
They make decisions as to whether or not you can redeem your IOUs for your money. And if you think it's just banks, you're you're wrong. It's all Legacy Financial centralized instrumentation. All of it. Every like, all bonds, all t bills, all stocks, everything is none none of it is in your control. You the only thing that you will ever be able to custody for yourself is actual Bitcoin under your hardware wallet or your cold storage, however you've done it. If you if somebody else is providing that service for you, you're you are not custodying your funds. At one point or another, I fully expect stocks to start becoming custodiable by actual regular Joes.
How long will that take? I don't know, but it's coming. It's probably gonna be a ways off because most people are gonna laugh at that statement, and I don't blame you. I'd laugh too, but it's coming. There will be 100% self custody solutions for things like Chevron stock. It it it's going to happen. It will be a long time, but it's probably going to happen. But this this five year dollar denominated investment certificate that's only allowed to be held by professional clients, whatever the hell that means, is kinda laughable. Honestly, I would stay away from this investment this investment product until at such time, a lot more information about what it actually is is dropped.
Alright. So that does it for the day. My apologies for not being here for you on Friday and yesterday, having too much fun with the family. And I know most of the people that are in the reach of my voice completely understand that. So I will be here tomorrow. And until then, I will see you on the other side.
[00:54:19] Unknown:
This has been Bitcoin, and and I'm your host, David Bennett. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and hope to see you again real soon. Have
[00:54:30] David Bennett:
a great day.
Introduction and Personal Updates
Decentralization vs. Centralization
Kraken and Robinhood's Stablecoin Strategy
Market Analysis and Economic Commentary
