The Breakdown

Today on the Brief: Coinbase Pro to list USDT A new Bitcoin Mayor in Tennessee ETH and BTC ETF updates Our main discussion looks at President Biden’s proposed increase of the capital gains tax rate. NLW breaks down everything bitcoiners are saying about it, with a particular focus on what it has to do with monetary policy.  -- Earn up to 12% APY on Bitcoin, Ethereum, USD, EUR, GBP, Stablecoins & m...

Today on the Brief: Crypto M&A heats up Is ETH deflationary now? Cathie Wood is the Michael Saylor of Coinbase stock Our main discussion: Square’s Bitcoin Clean Energy Initiative and ARK Investments have teamed up to release a memo about how bitcoin addresses key issues in the renewable energy space. Not only do renewables make sense as an energy source for mining, but bitcoin mining as “the energ...

The years 2017 and 2018 were some of the frothiest, wildest times in crypto market history. Their fallout also dragged the industry down for years, leaving an unmistakable stench of scam for many.  Thus far in this market cycle, much of those excesses have been avoided. Attention and energy has largely been focused on the rise of institutional bitcoin players, or other areas like decentralized fin...

As this cycle heats up, “governments will ban bitcoin” is one of the top areas of fear, uncertainty and doubt. On this episode, NLW breaks down why that FUD just doesn’t hold much weight right now, looking at: Why the examples of India, Turkey, Nigeria and China are not as bad as what people have posited  Why the early indications suggest the Biden administration is more open to crypto than what t...

In 20 minutes on Saturday night, bitcoin’s price fell by more than 12%. Crypto Twitter raced to explain it as the byproduct of hashrate crashes after Chinese miners went offline, a suspicious report about the U.S. Treasury Department going after crypto money launders, and/or an upcoming ban in Turkey on using cryptos as currency.  NLW argues that all of those explanations are hogwash and that the...

On this week’s “Long Reads Sunday,” NLW reads Nic Carter’s “On Bitcoin, the Gray Lady Embraces Climate Lysenkoism,” a rebuttal of the New York Times’ recent piece on bitcoin energy consumption he says is riddled with false data and debunked sources.    -- Earn up to 12% APY on Bitcoin, Ethereum, USD, EUR, GBP, Stablecoins & more. Get started at nexo.io -- Enjoying this content?   SUBSCRIBE to the...

On this edition of the “Weekly Recap,” NLW looks at three key themes: The continued institutionalization of bitcoin (and, increasingly, ethereum as well)  Warning signs of market mania in DOGE and NFT prices Global intrigue around bitcoin and central bank digital currencies   -- Earn up to 12% APY on Bitcoin, Ethereum, USD, EUR, GBP, Stablecoins & more. Get started at nexo.io -- Enjoying this cont...

Dogecoin is on a tear. And it’s causing many mainstream media outlets to call “bubble.” On this episode, NLW breaks down DOGE as: Valueless memecoin Internet culture incarnate Dada-esque protest to a broken system  Much wow.  -- Earn up to 12% APY on Bitcoin, Ethereum, USD, EUR, GBP, Stablecoins & more. Get started at nexo.io -- Enjoying this content?   SUBSCRIBE to the Podcast Apple:  https://pod...

On today’s “The Breakdown,” NLW looks at an underreported story from earlier this week. There are increasingly loud whispers that officials across several agencies, including Treasury, National Security and Defense, are growing concerned with China’s digital currency efforts.  NLW looks at: Why CBDCs are about power, not digital efficiency  Why Facebook’s libra was the starting gun China’s possibl...

On the day of Coinbase’s historic direct listing on NASDAQ, NLW answers your most important questions about the company and its place in the industry.  How did Coinbase become successful? What is the crypto public's perception of Coinbase? What is Coinbase's business model and how has that model been shifting? What is Coinbase's role in the recent institutional shift in bitcoin? Does Coinbase have...

There is perhaps no question more debated in macroeconomics than what sort of inflation we’re likely to see in the coming years. Many are convinced that the combination of a growing money supply, expansionary monetary policy, pent-up demand, reshoring of manufacturing and more are pointing us to a secular inflation era. Others say the forces of deflation and disinflation, like technology and demog...

Coinbase is set to go public via direct listing on Wednesday. In today’s episode, NLW breaks down why this is the current bull market’s first big test, looking at: Mainstream narratives  Institutional liquidity  Retail participation  Spillover effects  The direction in which we head next  What’s clear is that this bull run does not equal 2017 and will be shaped by a largely different set of forces...

This week’s edition of “Long Reads Sunday” features NLW reading Bradley Rettler’s “The Rich Get Richer, the Poor Get Bitcoin.” It is an argument that, far from being just a speculative tool for the already wealthy, bitcoin represents a disruptive force that can combat wealth inequality.  -- Earn up to 12% APY on Bitcoin, Ethereum, USD, EUR, GBP, Stablecoins & more. Get started at nexo.io -- Enjoyi...

On this week’s “Weekly Recap,” NLW digs into the theory of the bitcoin supercycle. Are we in the same sort of four-year, halving-driven, boom-bust cycle that has characterized bitcoin so far, or are the new institutional participants breaking us out of that in a fundamental way?  -- Earn up to 12% APY on Bitcoin, Ethereum, USD, EUR, GBP, Stablecoins & more. Get started at nexo.io -- Enjoying this...

Today on the Brief: Crypto Climate Accord Robinhood crypto trading  The decentralization of venture capital Our main discussion: This week was absolutely chock-full of institutions getting into the bitcoin space, yet barely anyone noticed. From Liberty Mutual and Starr Insurance investing in NYDIG to a massive real estate company moving treasury into bitcoin and accepting it for rent, the institut...

Peter Thiel is nothing if not good at igniting controversy. For the last 24 hours or so, Bitcoin Twitter (and really, FinTwit and TechTwit and Politics Twitter as well) have been hotly debating his assertion in recent remarks that bitcoin had become a “Chinese financial weapon.” In today’s episode, NLW breaks down: The debate around Thiel’s comments  Why bitcoin is more likely a threat to Chinese...

Today on the Brief: Coinbase’s monster Q1 numbers 150 million evaporate from the global middle class Jamie Dimon’s shareholder letter comments on crypto Our main discussion: Bloomberg’s latest crypto outlook is out. In this episode, NLW looks at seven aspects of the report: Bitcoin as digital reserve asset in a low-yield world Price support at $50,000 Price possibilities of $400,000 in 2021 Gold r...

On today’s episode, NLW provides a whistle stop tour of some of the most interesting and illuminating numbers from crypto and traditional markets, including: The pop in Jurassic Park altcoins Archegos fallout US vaccine distribution Outflows from Turkey SPAC performance before and after mergers  Decline in price and volume of NFTs Coinbase valuation Stablecoin transaction volume  And more! -- Earn...

Today on the Brief: The 88th anniversary of Executive Order 6102 Former SEC Jay Clayton on bitcoin regulations  GBTC intends to become an ETF Our main discussion:  NLW breaks down the potential implications of the Coinbase IPO. He looks at the bullish arguments of mainstream presence, the potential to send people down a bitcoin rabbit hole and the provisioning of easy on-ramps versus the argument...

On this week’s “Long Reads Sunday,” NLW reads CoinDesk journalist Brady Dale’s “Don’t Follow the Suits, Follow the Weirdos.” NLW argues this topic is even more important in the context of bitcoin institutionalization. -- Earn up to 12% APY on Bitcoin, Ethereum, USD, EUR, GBP, Stablecoins & more. Get started at nexo.io -- Enjoying this content?   SUBSCRIBE to the Podcast Apple:  https://podcasts.ap...

On this edition of “The Breakdown” Weekly Recap, NLW looks at a set of mainstream moments including: “SNL” doing a song about NFTs Visa accepting USDC on Ethereum as a native settlement currency PayPal opening crypto checkout to 29 million merchants  Goldman Sachs opening bitcoin investment programs  Chipotle’s “bitcoin and burritos” promotion  -- Earn up to 12% APY on Bitcoin, Ethereum, USD, EUR,...

This episode is a replay of NLW’s conversation with Cathie Wood from October 2020. In it, they discuss:   Why she had conviction in Tesla before the market caught up  Why her fund offered the first bitcoin investment opportunities to Wall Street Why it doesn’t hire traditional Wall Street analysts  Why it gives away all research for free Why it shares the trades made in a completely open-source wa...

The financial world has been rocked by the Archegos scandal. A family office managing at least $10 billion and betting with $50 billion-$80 billion on leverage that was completely undone, literally overnight.  In this episode, NLW breaks down: Bill Hwang’s origins in Julian Robertson’s Tiger Management Hwang’s conviction for insider trading How Hwang leveraged his fund’s performance to get off pri...

As the old saying goes: “First they ignore you, then they mock you, then they fight you, then you win.”  Ten months ago, Goldman Sachs declared that “cryptocurrencies including bitcoin are not an asset class.” Today, CNBC broke the news Goldman is planning to release a full suite of bitcoin and crypto investment products.  On this episode, NLW breaks down the larger macro context that got us from...

Today on the Brief: BTC micro futures coming to CME Michael Jordan is now an NFT investor Bitcoin doesn’t care about Treasury yields Our main discussion: PayPal has begun rolling out its crypto checkout tools to millions of merchants. NLW breaks down: Why payments for day-to-day items have been historically deprioritized for Bitcoin and Ethereum  Why the PayPal checkout tools are unlikely to shift...