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Crypto News Recap 🗞️
Recorded: Sept. 11, 2023 Duration: 0:43:10Space Recording
Full Transcription
It feels like morning.
I know you've been running around a lot of things going on.
You were just chatting with Senator Cruz, it looked like earlier today.
So you've been you've been running all over.
Yes, it's been quite a busy Monday, as is mostly all of my Mondays, all of our Mondays in this industry.
But yes, today was slightly crazy.
Our internet went down today at Fox.
So just getting back up on the airwaves now.
So forgive me for this sort of what was it?
I guess a four-hour delay at this point.
It's all good.
You know, who's to say when the right time to do a space about all the big headlines in crypto really is?
Is it the morning?
Is it in the afternoon when finally the caffeine may be hitting?
Maybe it's not.
Maybe it's not.
It's unclear.
But I do know this.
We've got a lot of stories to hit with you today, Ellie, because a lot has always, I guess you're right, it's always something going on.
But specifically, just recently, there's another huge story that I was digging through that I feel like a lot of people right now have been digging through when it comes to yet another custodian facing some issues.
Ripple actually stepped in, as if Ripple's not already done enough in 2023 to maybe help the whole entire industry.
We're going to get into that and what's going on with Fortress, as well as more fears around Binance, as well as the other exchange, Brian Armstrong, really stepping up his push in D.C.
And, of course, Vitalik Buterin's Twitter account, or should I say X account, getting hacked as well.
So a lot to dig into today, as well as your look ahead, Ellie, as you always hit us with on Monday.
It may be later in the afternoon, but still a lot of things to look for this week.
So I want to save some time for that, as well as any questions for people in the space.
So if you are in the space, go ahead and tap in.
Tap the bottom right.
Like the space.
Retweet the space, and more people can come in and join us and hear what Ellie and I are talking about to watch.
And Ellie, let's kick things off here with what we are seeing play out at Fortress, because we've seen this story before.
If you followed along with Prime Trust and what happened there in terms of customer funds, CryptoCustodian only has one job, which is to make sure that they can custody assets in the digital space.
And Fortress Trust sounds like they ran into some issues and weren't exactly forthcoming with what those are.
I just want to read what Ripple's press statement was.
This is to the block, saying conversations accelerated last week following the security incident via a third-party analytics vendor.
But this opportunity makes sense for Ripple in the long term, referencing their deal to step in and buy Fortress Trust.
And Ellie, I know you've been covering Ripple for a while, but they're pretty active, I think, now in looking out at the entire space and making decisions when they need to when it comes to things like this.
But just your reaction to yet another CryptoCustodian facing issues and Ripple, of all people, coming in to save the day.
Yeah. Had you told me that this happened, say, a few months ago, maybe early in the summer, I would have said I was surprised.
But I think Ripple is really ramping up, not just the purchases and sort of really shopping.
I think that's the correct term, right?
They've sort of been on a shopping spree in the last, you know, I guess since the lawsuit came down or, you know, part of the lawsuit.
Obviously, we've still got a little bit more to go where that's concerned.
But I do feel that Ripple has gained confidence from that ruling, from Judge Torres' ruling on July 13th that we saw.
It feels like a long time ago now. We are in September.
So, yeah, if you told me a few months ago they've done this, I would be surprised.
But now, you know, kind of seeing their entrance into the market, into other areas of the market, I'm not very shocked.
However, it is interesting, and I know we spoke before we started the space, is just sort of how you kind of framed it as Ripple coming in to save the day, right?
They're coming into – yeah, they are a minority shareholder, I believe, in Fortress.
But then, you know, they did this acquisition and this full acquisition over the weekend.
Yeah, it's an interesting move.
And I really think it shows that Ripple is trying to expand.
And just to go back to my earlier point, how confident they are in their business, their business model, in what they have to offer, even though this lawsuit hasn't actually come to an end yet.
And I say that because, you know, look at this party they're throwing.
And I'm sure you've heard of it.
And most people on, you know, XRP community, I believe a lot of the community is actually going.
It's here in New York on September 29th.
They're calling it the proper party, and it's to celebrate the, you know, sort of the win or the good part of the lawsuit that, you know, that was part of the ruling that came out of the lawsuit.
So it's quite interesting.
You know, they're taking this sort of stance that, you know, they do feel very victorious.
So I don't know what you think of that, Zach.
I think it's maybe a little too early to be throwing parties.
It's me.
I don't know.
But, you know, Ripple's doing it, and they're inviting a whole ton of people here to New York City on September 29th.
So we'll have to see.
I believe there's going to be an announcement or two.
I think there's a lot of speculation around what they could announce in that party.
But, yeah, I mean, what are your thoughts?
I thought it was quite, maybe a little early.
Yeah, I think that's a really good point to bring up, Ellie, because it is, you know, whenever you have to explain what exactly the party is for, it does raise questions.
It's kind of like explaining religious holidays.
What exactly are we celebrating here?
What happened?
And with this one, I do think you're right, because as we both chatted here, the SEC coming back to challenge the idea of what we can really take away beyond just Ripple and applying it to the broader crypto space, I think that is still to be determined.
And so, yes, a party is questionable, perhaps, in terms of celebrating a bit too early.
But I do think we're seeing the same thing from Brian Armstrong.
And we talked about this, I think, a couple weeks ago, just the idea that it has triggered a whole new wave of confidence in that if you have a little bit of an inch, you're going to take the mile.
And I think that, you know, we are seeing this political groundswell maybe forming now when it comes to what Ripple's trying to lead, what Coinbase is trying to lead in their legal defense against the SEC.
So we will continue to see that.
And we'll save a little bit of that because I want to get into that with Brian Armstrong and what he said just down in D.C. a little bit ago.
But just one last point on this, because I actually pinned it in the space.
Mike Belshi, the CEO of BitGo, another huge crypto custodian, is also going out and tweeting quite a bit right now.
And one of the points that he raises is just kind of this idea of Fortress after having seen some of this, kind of not fully disclosing it to their clients.
And he's basically bashing them for doing that, saying that you should have come out and been, you know, more upfront with your clients and customers about what exactly happened here.
And anytime you're dealing with customer funds, of course, it's a very touchy topic right now, just given kind of what we're still recovering from in the case of FTX, but not really being as forthcoming as you can and then deciding to just sell to Ripple.
I think there's going to be a lot of questions coming out from this to say, all right, yet again, here we are in 2023, another custodian having to answer what do they know and when and what actually happened to customer funds, which normally maybe we wouldn't spend so much time talking about on this show.
But given that a custodian, again, only has one job, seems pretty important to figure out why this keeps happening to company after company.
Right, right. It has one job, but then it also has the job of when something happens like this to have responsible and responsive press release, right, press relations, press releases, or dealing with the media, dealing with customers in a way that makes people not freak out and not panic in the way that they did with FTX.
Because we see how badly that was handled. We've seen a couple of crypto companies this year, LedgerX for one, handle PR pretty badly when something went wrong or there was a little bit of a hiccup in the road.
So, yes, to your point, you know, they have one job, but also if something goes wrong, let's come out and talk about it.
Let's be honest about it, not just kind of sweep it under the rug in a way and then say, oh, never mind, it's cool because we're being acquired.
So, you know, everything's good.
On the flip side, though, I guess Ripple's doing a pretty good press job of, like you said, really starting to lean into that vacuum that's been left.
Obviously, a lot of people refer to SPF as crypto's white knight at one point in time before he wound up being, I guess, you know, not that.
But it's kind of like Gotham's hero and who you need versus who you deserve.
And it's kind of sad to think that there's constantly a need for heroes in crypto when you're not supposed to be trusting anybody.
And yet we still see a lot of people stepping in one after another to save the day.
To your point, though, just to put a pin in it, the idea of Ripple really starting to ramp up its spend.
And I think that's worth shouting out.
They had Swiss tokenization for Medeco, another crypto custodian that they scooped up for $250 million, I believe, as well as a stake in Bitstamp, that crypto exchange.
So Ripple does seem to be expanding way beyond what I think their original mission was and is now kind of starting to take a little bit of a dipping a toe in the waters across the ecosystem.
I'm not sure if that's kind of signaling anything to you.
And maybe we'll hear more about it at the party if we both hit that up.
But it does seem like they are starting to really hit a stride here.
Yeah, yeah, I agree.
And I think one of the sort of rumors swirling around the potential announcement for this party at the end of September is an IPO announcement.
And I know that was sort of hot in the news right before we got the Judge Torres ruling in July.
There was some reporting around the fact that Ripple had sort of a private roadshow.
You know, in a sense, it wasn't like a roadshow where they went out and literally sat down with, you know, with investors and big banks and said, you know, this is our plan.
This is what we want to do.
Like, let's put it in motion now.
Obviously, we had to wait for the ruling to come down from Torres.
But there is that, you know, there were those early talks they did meet with with some investors to kind of just like test the waters is what I was told, just to see, you know, gather, gauge interest, gather interest and really say, you know, this is who we are.
And this is where we plan to be in the next one to five years.
So they kind of really put themselves on the map.
So I think in a way that is cause to celebrate, obviously, obviously, their their plans to grow.
And I think there is big interest.
But also, like you said, they're expanding, you know, out from their what their real core business is, right?
You keep seeing them take stakes in different companies.
They're joining these boards like, you know, you keep seeing Ripple's added to, you know, the board of this and and they're a part of this group now.
So they're really putting themselves on the map.
I think it's a positive.
But like you said, you know, you've always got a white knight.
And I think it's interesting that Ripple goes from what underdog to like knight in shining armor, right?
It's kind of an interesting trajectory we've seen.
I don't know if it says more about them or just the rest of the space, because I do think that is something to celebrate.
If you are a company that really does maybe have the allure of having your, you know, shit figured out, for lack of a better term, being regulatory above board.
And, you know, again, that's why I think it's such a huge piece and why they're pushing to celebrate it so much right now is how many crypto companies can say they have a legal win.
Again, not a lot, you know, facing all the pressure right now.
So if you do have something like that or you do have a leg to stand on when it comes to maybe some of the regulatory compliance, that's a huge competitive advantage that I, too, would probably roll into this idea of, all right, let's figure out how much money we can attract in the public market with an IPO.
So that is interesting.
I haven't really dug into any of those rumors with my sources, but I do like the idea of potentially that being kind of one of the things to celebrate at the end of September.
Maybe we flip to the other side of this topic and say if Ripple's starting to figure its own stuff out, maybe not so true for Binance because, as we've been documenting, a lot of similarities have been coming through, Ellie.
I don't know if you would fall into this camp or not, but the idea of a lot of the same promises being made to customers that echo some of what we saw from FTX before their collapse, not only in terms of people leaving Binance, but also you have Binance's regional markets head, Richard Tang, coming out and saying that, look, things might look shaky, but we're no FTX.
This is coming to us from Cointelegraph, the idea of maybe needing to beat back some of these rumors that there could be issues, and of course, we've discussed before the DOJ maybe not wanting to investigate CZ criminally or charge him criminally because of fears that it could spark a bank run, which does not necessarily constitute any sort of confidence that you might have in Binance, but interesting to see the need to beat back some of these concerns that are now being raised publicly.
I don't know where you fall on some of these issues.
Yeah, I mean, I think we have to remember that, obviously, FTX had a similar PR strategy when, in the early days, right, before everything sort of hit the fan, they came out and said, oh, there's nothing to worry about, oh, we're not commingling funds, everything's fine.
So I'm not saying this is necessarily the case with Binance, but just to look at the other side of the coin here, it could just be, you know, people in the company, high up executives sort of just saving face a little bit.
I do not know anything. I'm just saying that could be a possibility, you know, just because a company says something, they're not a public company, right?
They don't have to disclose anything, really. So we don't really know what's going on internally.
You mentioned the sort of the hesitance maybe by the DOJ to bring charges against CZ and against Binance because of a possible bank run.
I don't know about that. I honestly think if the DOJ had something and it was, you know, solid, like ironclad, they would go after CZ and Binance no matter what.
I don't think they would necessarily hold back just to save what could be, you know, a possible bank run necessarily.
I mean, I think they, are they just going to not follow through on justice because they're worried about, you know, potential economic fallout in the short run?
Like, I just don't know if the DOJ would think like that.
I mean, it kind of makes sense, you know, given what we've seen with everything.
Obviously, we saw the free banks, the big banks collapse in March.
There was a bank run, several bank runs, and obviously social media sort of enhanced that, sort of made it a little bit worse by sort of everybody having that information right at their fingertips.
But I think there's so much uncertainty right now surrounding Binance.
It's really, is it or isn't it?
Like, we see, you know, a negative headline, and then we see the executives come out and say, oh, that's just fun.
That's just fun.
I think with the top executives leaving, you know, in the beginning, I kind of thought when those three left, sort of the initial three, and that was the big, big news just maybe two months ago, it didn't really seem like that much of a big deal to me anyway.
I thought, you know, maybe it was kind of just, you know, these people, it was their time.
And CZ, I believe, came out and said, you know, I've had great relationships with these people.
And it's just, it's just what we do at Binance.
We, you know, we, we, people, the people leave, and then we hire new people.
And that's just the, what goes on in the company, right?
It goes on in any company.
But there has been maybe one or two more since then.
And I can't make up my mind, Zach, if that is, you know, is that people running for the hills because they know what's coming?
Or is it just sort of, you know, the timing is coincidental?
I mean, I know there's a lot of people, a lot of people on crypto Twitter who would say, oh, you know, there's nothing, there's nothing coincidental about it.
Like, how can you, how can you look at everything that, you know, has come out about Binance and still think that?
I don't, I just, I haven't seen enough evidence against them right now to, you know, to make a judgment one way or the other.
And I think, you know, obviously we've got the CFTC and the SEC going after them for, you know, for what they're going after them for, the civil part of it.
And then the criminal part of it is sort of a big question mark.
And I think we're really going to have to wait and see what comes down on that side of things to really kind of, to really kind of judge.
I mean, I just feel like it's stuck in limbo at the moment, don't you?
Like, it's like, do they?
Don't they?
Are they?
Aren't they?
It's just, oh, it's just so unsure.
I think that's, I think that's the real interesting point.
And this is kind of what we discussed in our third episode digging into SPF's criminal defense that we are previewing ahead of trial is just the idea of how much of why SPF got criminally charged so quickly.
Keep in mind how much, how much time passed before Mashinsky at Celsius got hit with criminal charges and then the due diligence you're describing there to not get that wrong.
It's interesting to think about how quick they were with SPF.
And obviously, I guess they share the trait at Celsius and FTX that there was a collapse on both fronts, right?
Celsius, obviously, a lot of client funds got ensnarled there.
Same thing at FTX.
Not the case with Binance.
And so that could be a piece of why they're taking so long to go through and say, look, do we really have the political coverage here?
You would like to think that the justice system does not weigh political coverage.
The idea that, yes, we're going to get these charges brought and we're going to, you know, convict this person should not really be part of the equation in terms of the sway that you might have.
But that is the reality, I think, of the situation and why prosecutors right now finalizing their case against SPF feel so confident is because you've got the aftermath of everything that's still going on.
And by the way, to your point on what exactly happened back in November, the new update from the FTX bankruptcy filings finally put a number on just how much money was withdrawn in those days that you're describing when CZ was out there tweeting about, you know, dumping FTT tokens.
You had the CoinDesk story coming out and revealing how much exactly Alameda had in FTT tokens.
It was $11.2 billion withdrawn in 15 days, the 15 days before FTX officially filed its bankruptcy.
Shout out to Travis Kling for his Twitter thread that just kind of dug into this.
But that's a lot of money.
My point being that $11.2 billion is getting sucked out.
If you're not planning on that happening, then, yeah, you could be screwed.
And so I think to your point on no one really knowing what's going on at Binance, that is the scariest thing is that no one really knows.
And could any company, whether it's even Coinbase, right?
Like, they're a publicly traded company.
They show you exactly how much they have.
And if it's matched one to one, no real worries, no real cause for concern.
But if there's leverage built anywhere into that, then all of a sudden $11.2 billion getting sucked out in 15 days does become a problem.
And no one really knows.
And I think that's the scariest part is that no one really knows.
So, yeah, tough to say.
Absolutely.
I know.
And then you could also, I mean, to kind of factor in that we could see, I don't know, not expecting it.
But, you know, anything can happen in crypto, as we've obviously seen over the last couple of years.
So, you know, you've got to think about also like a drop in markets, too.
You know, people say we are on the sort of heels or like the sort of upward trajectory of a bull run.
But you have to see how much the bear market is really, you know, what it's taken out of crypto since the highs of November 21, right?
And it wasn't just FTX and it wasn't just Terra, but it was also just a complete sort of collapse in the overall crypto market.
So you've kind of got to be prepared for, you know, some of that as well, you know, potentially, you know, having an effect on reserves and things like that.
Yeah. And it's also, I guess, a good segue into what's going on with Coinbase and why, despite all of that, Brian Armstrong is still potentially in the confident position he's in.
He was just speaking to a lot of reporters in D.C. kind of discussing some of this stuff when it comes to how he is different and what he's noticing.
And, Ellie, I think, honestly, you probably had a front row seat for this.
So I kind of want to play what we heard from Ben Armstrong, the CEO of Binance, when it comes to what he estimates is a huge swell of support among crypto.
Well, whoever's left really in the space, you and me, I guess, would fall in this camp.
But we'll just play what Ben Armstrong said in a Yahoo Finance interview with my old friend Brian Sazi.
Here's what he had to say about that groundswell in D.C.
I don't think everybody in D.C. actually fully realizes how powerful the crypto voting block is.
And I think 2024 is an election where, you know, the voters of America are really going to hold candidates' feet to the fire and say, what is your position on crypto?
Are you going to be a continuation of these existing policies that have been unnecessarily hostile?
Or are you going to allow this technology to flourish and ensure America's leadership as a technology hub?
Yeah, leadership as a technology hub.
And Elliot, we didn't get to talk about this, but there was a little side bet I had going on whether or not that whether or not there would be a Bitcoin or crypto question at the Fox Republican debate.
I didn't think there was unless I missed it.
But but I don't know.
It's interesting to think about the idea of 2024 being such a huge year for crypto in this election cycle.
I mean, do you think that it's going to become even more important the closer we get?
Yeah, I do.
And I judge that by, you know, I shouldn't judge everything by what I see on crypto Twitter, but it is literally like my day and night.
I'm on it all the time.
But, you know, you see these big accounts.
And this just kind of popped into my head when you were playing the Brian Armstrongs.
I saw these big accounts with big followings literally tweeting out as headlines what candidates think of crypto.
What even not even people who are running.
I saw I saw an account tweet out the other day that they said Ted Cruz.
Just funny you mentioned that because obviously I was I was meeting him earlier today.
Did not get to ask him about crypto because he was on a tight schedule and we were talking about something else.
However, he you know, there was a big kind of stink around the fact that he's bullish on Bitcoin.
So you've got literally these these politicians coming out and saying I'm either bullish on crypto or I think it's not that great.
And everyone is judged based on what their stance is.
And I think Brian Armstrong is right in the sense that in 2024, in this election, crypto is going to be a crucial part of how at least crypto Twitter.
And there's a lot of people who use crypto now, obviously, it's not what the adoption rate, obviously, isn't quite as as big as I think, you know, most of the space would like it to be.
I think there's a lot of awareness out there now.
You see the bills in Congress.
You see, you know, a lot of conversation surrounding regulate regulation, obviously, with the SEC and the CFTC.
So it really is a big topic.
And I think voters will vote with how they feel about a certain candidate and how they are positioning themselves.
Are they tech friendly? Are they not tech friendly?
And I think there's a good amount of at least Republican candidates who have come out and had a stance.
Right. You've got Fubek, who is very pro Bitcoin.
He's taking campaign donations in Bitcoin.
DeSantis is very anti-CBDC.
You've got, I think, Robert Kennedy, yes, RFK Jr. as well, is a Democrat, obviously.
But he's also, he's a pretty, he's up to, you know, speed.
I don't want to say up to speed.
I don't know if he's up to speed on the technology, but he's definitely positive.
Yeah, he spoke of Bitcoin Miami, too.
I mean, the big conference down there.
You heard from RFK Jr. not only saying, yeah, I want to accept money donations, as you say, in Bitcoin,
but also this idea of understanding that CBDCs are a real threat.
You heard him talking about that, not even just, you know, in Bitcoin Miami at that conference,
but also in a lot of interviews he does.
And you heard that from Governor DeSantis as well.
So to your point, it's kind of a bipartisan issue at this point,
the idea that some of these things are not just libertarian or tech talking points,
but have kind of crossed over the political aisle on both sides here being freedom.
It's a freedom element that I think a lot of people have latched on to.
I do.
I do just want to be, I've said this before, too, but just, I think it's always worth just being
sure that, you know, these people aren't, these candidates aren't just kind of saying it
or saying, you know, kind of referencing crypto as just a talking point, right?
Because, you know, it obviously is an important issue.
It gets a lot of engagement on social media.
You do a hashtag crypto and you've got, you know, hundreds of thousands of tags.
And I think you have to kind of weed out who is just kind of saying it for effect
or saying it for followers or saying it for votes.
And those who are actually serious about it and actually serious about implementing the
technology, giving it the attention and sort of the, the observance that it deserves.
So I think just to be aware of that, I mean, it's not entirely, it's not always clear, right?
Because, you know, that's not always what they talk about in the public sphere.
They're mostly talking about, you know, other issues.
But to your point about the question on Fox News, we actually have the second GOP debate.
Fox Business is hosting it in California, September 27th, I believe, at the Reagan Library.
And I think there will be more econ-focused questions there.
So I believe, you know, crypto will probably be brought up in that debate.
So we'll have to see, you know, how they react to those questions and really see, you know,
who's up to speed and who's not.
I think it's a really good question to have, you know, or maybe people listening on the space
right now.
I am seeing a few of the comments on here, which I do appreciate, as always, Elliot.
I think you do, too.
Getting spicy in the replies here, which I enjoy all the time.
So if there is a take from everybody, again, maybe a push to go ahead and tap the like button
in the space or retweet.
And especially now, in the comments, I am curious who is the actual pro-crypto candidate
and who we all are kind of seeing through right now.
Because to your point, I guess politics, you know, politicians are going to be politicians
out there.
So they're always going to maybe overpromise some things.
They're always going to try and give votes.
But I am curious who people think is the real crypto candidate that eventually I think everyone's
going to throw their support behind.
Vivek, as you said, is going to be speaking at Missouri Mainnet.
Ryan Selkis is going to be talking to him.
So that's kind of a big deal, I think, because now he's polling so well to see if he's really
going to be throwing some other things out there at, you know, pretty important crypto
conference.
I'm not entirely sure what's going to come out of it.
But if anything were to come out, that might be the time.
And I think it's a good time to maybe get your take as well on the other politics side
of the coin.
The idea of of Gary bashing Gary Gensler, of course, speaking again in front of Congress
this week.
I know you've circled those dates on your calendar, Ellie, but maybe it's a good look
ahead to what you're going to be looking for when finally he gets grilled once again.
Yeah.
So we just saw the talking points that he came out with for tomorrow.
He just released them.
And it's very predictable.
I'm not going to say that there's anything unsurprising in those comments.
Obviously, it's not just about crypto, but there is a part in there with a headline of
crypto.
So and he just recycles the same old talking points that he said, you know, crypto is not
in compliance.
It needs to come into compliance.
There's no reason why crypto companies shouldn't register.
Nothing.
I think people were thinking that I didn't believe that he was going to address the grayscale
loss in his prepared statement.
You know, I'm sure he's going to get asked those questions by the by the committee tomorrow.
However, yes, his talking points were just very, you know, very vanilla, basically what
you expect from Gensler.
So I don't think and, you know, you've seen him as much as I have, Zach, do these appearances
in front of Congress.
And it's just a nothing burger at the end of the day, really.
You know, he gets some spicy questions from representatives and tomorrow's the Senate
banking.
So it'll be obviously senators.
But the House Financial Services is talking to him on the 27th, I believe.
But he gets, you know, some spicy questions.
But then there's no follow up.
He either says, I can't speak to that.
I can't speak to an ongoing investigation or, you know, kind of gives that very one one
angled answer, you know, just sort of deflects.
So I think we can expect that tomorrow.
A lot of that.
It will be interesting, though, to see whether, you know, the grayscale loss is brought up,
possibly what his stance is on a Bitcoin spot ETF.
I think we know.
But, you know, it will be interesting to see how the senators frame the questions.
Um, and that's tomorrow in front of the Senate banking committee, who, uh, let's see, who's
important on that committee.
We've got a list of one.
Let's go, yeah, let's go through the list of most important senators to be watching.
I mean, I think that is, it is kind of important.
It is cool.
Like, we and I, you and I discussed this last time.
The idea of, like, where incrementally some of this has shifted, and it's not even just
Republicans at this point kind of being critical of Gary Gensler.
You know, I've discussed that time and time again, that we've seen more and more Democrats,
probably not going to see it from Elizabeth Warren, but more Democrats being critical of him.
Yeah, yeah, definitely.
And as you see more Democrats getting on board with crypto in general, you saw there were
six Democrats that got on board with the crypto market structure bill.
That was more than what was actually expected, and some more on the stablecoin bill as well.
So I think you are sort of seeing a shift there.
Like you said, I don't think Elizabeth Warren's ever going to shift her stance.
However, you know, she's, you know, she's not the majority, right?
She's one person.
She's, I'll say, influential, but you've got a lot of younger and more sort of tech-friendly
senators and representatives who, I think, really see the importance of this, you know, how
this, how crypto fits into the future.
It'll be interesting to see, you know, when, if this year, I believe it should be this year,
but with that crypto market structure bill and the stablecoin bill get marked up, probably
I'm sure we would expect it to pass a House vote.
It would be, you know, more of a struggle to pass, obviously, the Senate with the Democrat
majority, but we'll have to see.
So I'm interested to see tomorrow sort of, because we haven't seen so much from the Senate
side, right?
We've seen a lot from the House agriculture and the House financial services, but in
terms of the Senate, this should be sort of an interesting insight into actually how Democrats
on the Senate are feeling.
Maybe they might've changed in the last, you know, maybe not, but they might've changed
in the last couple months.
Who knows?
Yeah, I think it'll be, it'll be definitely worth, we'll probably stream it, to be honest.
I'm looking at my producer over here and we're, we're nodding.
We're probably going to have it go on live as well.
I know you always have nice threads.
We'll be retweeting anything that we get from our community, which shout out to our community,
by the way, celebrating a huge sellout here in season two.
We've seen our NFTs pop off.
So that's been exciting over the weekend.
A new all time high on some of those.
I think because we have great guests like you coming on, Ellie, and we've got, you know,
this real backbone of letting our community decide some of the stories we cover, as well
as unlocking true ownership in coinage.
So that's been exciting to see the price moving up and our community being the ones winning
in that.
But I think you're right.
It's not only just to, just to make sure people have it.
Tomorrow, Senate banking, later on in the week, it's Wednesday, right?
That he's speaking again?
He is speaking the 27th in front of the House Financial Services.
Okay, so we've got to wait a little bit longer for that is what it is.
Well, it's tomorrow.
Yeah, Senate banking tomorrow.
So, yeah.
All right.
You don't want to, you don't want to oversaturate the Gary Gensler content.
That's important.
But we'll be tracking that tomorrow to bring out the headlines there.
And again, always expected to see fireworks, at least from across the aisle and excited
to see people continue to get crypto wrong.
And we'll bring you the lowlights as well.
Just as fun to cover.
But Ellie, to wrap up here, speaking of maybe a cell phone, this one's, this one's less fun
to cover.
But I think something that we've seen constantly across the cryptosphere, which is hacks.
This time around, though, a big name hack, Vitalik Buterin, his Twitter account, his X
account, basically getting taken over, compromised.
And I guess the suspects in that posting a phishing link and draining roughly $700,000
to people who clicked on that.
Maybe another good reminder to everyone out there that if things look like a scam, it was
actually MetaLawman, James.
We were talking to him not too long ago, his account got hacked, too, and people posted
malicious links.
Always dangerous.
You got to keep your head on a swivel.
But Vitalik being the one that was hacked, that's, you don't see that every day.
And I think we may have lost Ellie just because of the internet pieces going on at Fox.
Hey, I'm here still on Facebook.
Right now, but I think she unmuted herself.
So if we have audio on our side, I'd be able to hear.
I mean, I can now.
I can hear her now.
You got me now?
Yeah.
They're trying to silence you.
They're trying to silence me.
Oh, my goodness.
Now, it's my crazy, I don't know what's going on with the internet here, but I apologize.
I'm back anyway on spaces.
Yes, you're back.
So sorry, please just repeat the last second.
No, I was just saying that we had Vitalik's Twitter account hacked over this, what was
it, over the last, well, September 9th, I guess, is when it really happened, is when
we heard from his dad saying that his account had gotten compromised, which actually is kind
of funny to think about a guy who controls so much of where crypto goes, to have your
dad come on and say, it was my son's account that got compromised.
It's just, it's a family affair.
But thank you, Dimitri.
Yeah, that was funny.
Kind of reminds me of something probably my dad would do too, right?
He's sort of in the industry as well.
He probably would want to be like, all right, well, my daughter's account was hacked, just
so you know, she's alive and well, but I don't know if you put her account down.
And I get worried now because, I don't know if you remember when John Deaton's account
got hacked, he couldn't get in for about like a week and a half.
And because he didn't set up that two-factor authentication, so here's just a PSA, everybody
set up two-factor authentication, because if you don't, you can't get back into your
account, and yeah, like X wouldn't let him back in.
And I think eventually it took sort of a, it was a crypto Twitter effort to get him back
onto his account.
Everybody literally tagging Musk, tagging X, tagging X support, saying, this guy is a
big figure in our community.
We need him back.
And there was hackers, I guess, that got hold of his account.
So that's kind of scary, right?
To think that you, you know, get hacked and scanned and you can't necessarily get your
original account back.
John Deaton did, but I know there's others who haven't.
So a bit of a scary thought.
I would be very upset if that was me.
Yeah, luckily, and you know, knock on wood, I haven't seen it happen over here yet.
But again, to your point, I think it's something that increasingly we've seen, you know, the
risk-reward continue to increase quite a bit for everyone trying these things.
And I mean, the numbers are still pretty staggering.
Honestly, this is another tweet from Ryan Selkis at Masari, highlighting how much money and all
these hacks goes directly to North Korea.
And it's shocking in terms of, it's like billions of dollars, I think, to be honest with you,
if not hundreds of millions that are going to North Korea in these hacks.
And obviously, a lot of them are more focused on the DeFi protocols out there, not so much
phishing scams like these and what happened to Vitalik.
But still, I mean, I think that's a political piece of this that often does come up when
people are thinking about who's really winning when crypto gets big.
And it's tough to overlook the fact that North Korea, honestly, has been a huge winner
over the last few years.
And, yeah, I was just, you mentioned North Korea and just made me think of my friend
actually had a crypto brokerage and it was based out of Hoboken.
And one day it was hacked by North Korea, go figure.
And they hacked and I think they stole, it was between 15 to 20 million dollars.
And they had to close down the whole company, you know, fire all the staff and say, we're
really sorry, but, you know, this was basically what we were, this was our money that we were
existing on.
We can't pay you.
So, you know, this is the end of the business.
I thought that was crazy.
Just from a hack and it ended up being a North Korea, you know, attempt or a North Korean
success, which was pretty nuts.
So, yeah, I mean, to your point, I'm not surprised that a big majority is actually happening, you
know, because, you know, to have hackers from over there, which is, it's a scary thought.
And then you see all the scammers on, on Twitter now, right?
It's not even just, it's like bots.
People come up and they impersonate you.
I myself have 40 imposters.
I think I counted last time when I went on and they blocked me too.
So I can't even tell, you know, who they are.
I can't actually like, you know, block them myself, but I've, I've seen people, you know,
send me lists of people just impersonating my account, literally like 40, 45, like this
is insane.
And they're scamming people, you know, they inbox them and say,
you know, subscribe to my trading strategy.
I can make you a lot of money.
So I always feel like I have to put out, say, I'm never going to inbox you.
Like you inbox me, I might answer, but, but I'm never going to just reach out and say,
Hey, I've got a great trading strategy for you because I don't.
Yeah.
Some people, maybe, maybe some people should just know that off the bat.
I don't know.
I don't, I don't think, you know, it's, it's quite common to see, uh, to see people
like you and me reaching out about trading strategies, but who knows, you know, who knows,
but it is, it is something to keep your head on a swivel on.
Uh, Ellie, as we always do, you know, on these spaces, we'd like to ask what you, aside
from, you know, SEC, obviously watching Gary Gensler tomorrow, you and I will both be glued
to that one, but looking beyond it, if there are other things this week, you're keeping
your eyes peeled for just because, uh, you know, as we remind our viewers all the time,
it's, it's hard to find someone as plugged in as Eleanor Tara to have her on the space.
So I always got to ask what you're, what you're looking at.
Yep.
So aside from Gensler, I do have a scoop coming out tomorrow.
I don't have an article coming out.
I'd say tomorrow, like early, uh, late morning, um, early afternoon.
And, uh, Tom Emmer, who is the, um, majority whip, he is going to reintroduce the CBDC
Anti-Surveillance State Act tomorrow afternoon.
Um, that is the landmark Republican CBDC bill for those who, um, you know, there's a ton of
bills.
So just to distinguish between all the other ones.
And, uh, so he's reintroducing it with some, um, with some amendments.
So that'll be, uh, that'll be something to watch.
He's going to reintroduce it tomorrow.
I'll have the details in my piece that will come out tomorrow morning, Zach, I'll send
it to you.
Um, but there'll be something to look at.
Yes, please do.
Obviously are a big, uh, you know, topic, um, of interest right now.
Um, like we said earlier, you know, people are candidates, 2024 candidates are, are bringing
it up as part of their campaign.
So it's just a, it's an interesting topic.
I think, uh, I think it'll be definitely a headline tomorrow.
Yeah, I think that one's definitely worth watching.
And I think, you know, again, as Brian Armstrong was speaking to you, I think it becomes increasingly
uh, even if it's not through votes, I think, you know, what we've seen and maybe criminally
so a lot of people in crypto donating to political candidates, I think as a block, not in terms
of votes, but in terms of funding, it becomes increasingly powerful just because it's a one
issue kind of block in making sure that big banks are not able to shut down this idea
of crypto companies offering stable coins, which may look a lot like money market funds
or offering, you know, all kinds of other financial services that clearly they want to
get their hands involved in.
And so I think it does become increasingly a pretty interesting split in terms of, you
know, I guess it's gone back and forth between Republican and Democrats, but the idea of,
you know, wall street and tech interests, uh, it would be pretty bad if all of a sudden
both parties just had one controlling interest versus maybe the policies leading the way.
But again, I think it's increasingly interesting to watch each player one by one, whether it
is, you know, players on the agriculture committee, on the financial committee, banking, whatever
it may be, starting to see where these candidates themselves, where these politicians themselves
decide this is worth it for me to take a plunge and dig into this.
But Eleanor, Tarrant, I appreciate you coming back on.
Every time we have you, it's something good we get out of it.
Our listeners get something good out of it.
Our followers get something good out of it.
So as always, despite the internet difficulties, I appreciate you popping on here to chat with
me again to kick off the week.
Of course.
Anytime.
Thank you for having me, Zach.
All right, everybody.
Be sure to follow Eleanor if you aren't following her already.
Be sure to be following Quenitch as we continue to cover these things and retweet a lot of the
good, the good takes we get from Eleanor Tarrant.
That'll do it for us here from our Brooklyn studio.
I'm Zach Guzman.
Have a great Monday, everybody.
I'm Zach Guzman.
