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Search for 7 Good Minutes on your favorite podcast app and make it part of your morning ritual. such as Spotify or Apple, please leave a five-star rating and review. Okay, folks, let's kick it off with Bitcoin. Currently trading over $90,000. So we're seeing a bit of a pullback as we've been discussing over the past couple of days. That was anticipated based on a Wyckoff accumulation model shared by user Marty Party on X. So no need to panic, just we're gonna see a downturn and then we're gonna see the spring upward. So it's all cyclical, just all market cycles playing out here, retesting of support levels and much more. As long as we keep forming higher highs and higher lows, we are good. And we got the macro on our side. Now, this Friday, as we've been discussing, we're going to hear from the Supreme Court about the tariffs. We'll see what that does to market. That could be a catalyst that makes the market go down, right, before fighting the bottom again and moving back up. So patience is so important here. We're going to have to wait and let this all play out. Now, here's another contributing factor to liquidity. And we know the Fed is full on QE, even though they've started the light version on December 12th of purchasing $40 billion in Treasury bonds. Well, President Trump this evening highlighted that he intends to raise the U.S. national defense budget in 2027 to $1.5 trillion. So it's currently at $1 trillion, and they're going to raise it by half a trillion. So Lynn Alden, who often talks about nothing stops the strain, essentially saying nothing stops the money printer, she reposted Trump's whole post on Truth Social saying that's a whole lot of words to say nothing stops this strain. So regardless of what the narrative is, regardless of this and that and the semantics, nothing stops the money printer. They have to keep printing. So that's why I've been saying my foundational thesis, regardless of what happens in the short term, is that as long as central banks keep printing money, I am bullish because risk assets will move accordingly, guys. So you have to make sure you have that foundational knowledge and you have that thesis as to why we are here investing. Yes, to make money, but part of it is outpacing the debasement and the inflation and the stealing of your purchasing power. Once you grasp that, it makes investing a whole lot easier and it helps you to hold longer term despite the short-term volatility. And obviously, crypto is the fastest horse in the race. Now, I know 2025 was not great, but if you look throughout the past 10 years, Bitcoin has outperformed everything, not to mention all coins, right? So it has outperformed gold, the stock market, the NASDAQ, the S&P 500, real estate, all that stuff. Just we had a kind of a down year last year, you know, the yearly candle closed negative 6%, which was a big deviation for what we've seen historically. But if the thesis is correct, that, you know, liquidity is coming back, we should see new all time highs this year. But look, we don't have a crystal ball. So we're going to have to wait and see. I've been sharing my two scenarios. Number one, that is Bitcoin simply does a relief rally and all coins follow in a relief rally type of format. So we don't hit new all-time highs, and then we roll over into a bear market, or this bull market continues. And we make new highs for Bitcoin, and the altcoins go bananas, and we see the actual euphoric blow off top zone. Because you have contributing factors, such as the market structure bills. You have Trump saying he wants to send out stimulus checks to people using the tariff revenue and much more. So there's a lot on the table here that could set up a bullish move and narrative. And we shall see, guys. This is where, you know, as much as we want new all-time high prices, we're going to have to sit back and let some of the dust settle here. But clearly, guys, they're going to continue printing money, and we know our assets are going to follow. So patience is the key. Now, folks, this episode is brought to you by Proppy, which is leading the charge with putting real estate on chain. Folks, you can buy and sell homes on Proppy's platform for cryptos. If you want to sell your house for Bitcoin or buy a house for Bitcoin, you can do So they are disrupting the real estate process by integrating blockchain and AI. And they've been doing this since 2017, folks. I discovered property back in 2018. I purchased the pro token. I still a holder of that token That how bullish I am on this project They facilitated over billion in deals And folks Tim Draper the legendary billionaire investor he is an investor in this company and he still is to this day. And folks, they use Coinbase for the crypto escrow service for the buying and selling and all that stuff. And they've put deeds on chain. They've created NFTs for properties. They are doing a lot of cool things with blockchain in the real estate industry. And folks, we know every asset class is going to be tokenized. So Proppy is certainly leading the charge in this disruption. So if you'd like to learn more about Proppy, go to Proppy.com. Link will be in the description. Okay, folks, we got an all-out war happening in DC. You know, it's something we've been covering over the past month or so, and that is the banks are lobbying hard to try to stop you from earning stablecoin yield and staking rewards on crypto exchanges and platforms. They don't like that, right? We've talked about it ad nauseum. They don't like that you can earn a higher return there because right now they're giving you next to nothing, 0.01% interest, right? They pocket all the money. And of course, they don't like that you can bypass them and go earn higher yield. So personally, I use Uphold with their stablecoin program to earn yield. And I also use Coinbase. And guess what? It's more than I'm getting at, my bank is JP Morgan Chase, by the way. So it's more I'm getting at JP Morgan Chase. So it's so horrible at JP Morgan that I move my money to other types of accounts and even the stable coin yields to earn higher rewards. So the banking lobby, they're trying to stop this. They're trying to relitigate the Genius Act, but it's already law. They're going to their crony friends like Elizabeth Warren and Maxine Waters, you know, handing them some checks. Come on, midterms are coming up and all these trying to win people back, right? In addition, they want to stop DeFi. So let me share what Faryar Shirzad, Chief Policy Officer at Coinbase, had to say, because he summarized it really well and a lot of different folks in the industry weighed in as well. He said, the Senate Banking Committee marks up the market structure bill next week. The stablecoin rewards remain under debate. Congress already settled this in Genius. Reopening it now only creates uncertainty and risks the future of the US dollar as commerce moves on chain. Here's why Congress should protect the Genius Act and why rewards help consumers without harming community banks. It's no mystery why big banks want rewards banned. U.S. banks earn $176 billion a year on the approximate $3 trillion they park at the Fed and another $187 billion a year from card swipe fees, about $1,440 per household. That's $360 billion plus annually from payments and deposits alone and massive unused lending capacity that the Federal Reserve pays the banks to have sit in a drawer somewhere. So that money just sits there, right? So he says stablecoin rewards threaten those margins, not because it reduces banks' ability to lend, but because they introduce real competition in payments. Lower payments cost mean billions in savings for consumers and businesses and a boost to GDP. This is not a community bank issue. It's the big banks. That's the real fight. This is spot on. You think Jamie Dimon and these big CEOs at the banks alike, that you can bypass them? How dare you bypass them, right? But disruptive technology always wins. But they're the incumbents. They're going to fight. They're going to lobby hard, but they're not going to win this. And I'll share what even Trump and his family is doing today. So he says the data is clear and it doesn't support the bank position. This summer, Charles River Associates found no statistically significant relationship between USDC growth and community bank deposits, different users, different use cases, and people don't treat stablecoins as bank deposit substitutes. Now, a bunch of different folks weighed in, even Mike Novogratz weighed in. He said, we would be fools as a country to reverse the newly passed Genius Act. What I say to banks who are whining like mad fourth graders, toughen up and compete. this is what innovation looks like. In addition, Patrick Witt, who's the White House crypto advisor who works with David Sachs, you guys may have seen my interview with him from Chainlink SmartCon, he says, for the anti-rewards slash yield crowd currently threatening to withhold their support for the Clarity Act, I would remind you that tanking the bill over the issue preserves the status quo which you allege is intolerable. You will have achieved nothing, be reasonable. So this is targeting to the people who are being lobbied by the bank, some Democrats, possibly some Republicans as well. So you get a gloves are coming off here, folks. Ron Hammond, who used to be at the Blockchain Association, he's now at Wintermute said, the White House siding with crypto industry on stablecoin rewards issue within the market structure legislation, not ideal for the bank lobby. So this is important because Trump, look at this. Starting a business can be overwhelming. You're juggling multiple roles, designer, marketer, logistics manager, all while bringing your vision to life. Shopify helps millions of business sell online. Build fast with templates and AI descriptions and photos, inventory and shipping. Sign up for your one euro per month trial and start selling today at shopify.nl. That's shopify.nl. It's time to see what you can accomplish with Shopify by your side. Each week, the world of archaeology, geology, and science in general makes a number of startling discoveries about our past that isn't necessarily reported to the general public. These are cultures that we don know about science that we haven discovered and other archaeological phenomenon that is unusual and just too much to report on Hey this is Cliff your host of Earth Ancients and each Saturday we present a new topic that defies logic, that isn't covered in the news because it's just too amazing, and brings us closer to questions about our past. Join me as we explore Earth's ancient past with writers, scientists, and research investigators. That's Earth Ancients, voted the number one ancient history podcast in the country. Because today, Trump-backed World Liberty Financial seeks U.S. Bank Charter to bring USD1 stablecoin fully onshore. So Trump is bullish on crypto. His family and all these guys have crypto businesses. They have their own stablecoin via World Liberty Financial. Whose side do you think they're going to be on? The bank side? No, no. So I think the banks are in a losing position. That's not to say they're not going to try to fight, right? That's not to say they're not going to hand checks out to Elizabeth Warren and Maxine Waters and all these people. They're going to fight. But I think they're on the losing side. So while many of the banks are adopting crypto, they're launching tokenization efforts, crypto products, and much more. On the other hand, they're trying to control it as much as possible. Again, they don't want you to bypass them. They want to control. They want you to come through them. But of course, they're not being fair. They're pocketing a lot of the money. If they want to compete, why don't they launch your own stablecoin and give rewards or give a higher interest rate? People wouldn't have to move to stablecoins to get a higher yield if you simply up the interest rate. But they don't want that, guys. End of year bonuses, big fat checks, right? Jamie Dimon doesn't want to cut to his bonus. Are you kidding me? Right? So that's what's happening here, folks. And in addition, Cody Carbone of the Digital Chamber, who I interviewed yesterday, and that interview will be published tomorrow morning. You don't want to miss it. He said tomorrow, 55 Digital Chamber member companies will meet with over 20 senators on Capitol Hill to shape market structure. This is how change happens. Grateful for our members flying in from across the U.S. and globally to lead a critical moment before markups. So this is really great crypto industry going in, meeting with the key stakeholders in the Senate to discuss what they need to do, what the crypto industry needs. So this is really great, guys. And like I said, these banks and these people are fighting it. They're on the wrong side of history. We already know that. But I think it's the last hurrah, the last attempt to try to change things and maintain control. But it ain't going to happen. Now, that doesn't mean the crypto industry doesn't have to fight. They have to fight. They have to build their war chest and continue to lobby because that's how you get things done in Washington, unfortunately. So we shall see how it all plays out, guys. We've got to keep an eye on this. But at least we're seeing progress, you know, this dialogue and discussions between the crypto industry and the members of Congress. And then next week, we've got the markup. So that's going to be really great. Now, look at this news, folks. This is huge. This is a milestone in financial innovation. Wyoming issues first state-backed stablecoin on Solana. Now, we got news about this, that that was the plan to launch a stablecoin, but it's the first state back. And you can imagine other states are going to do this in the United States, and they may use different blockchains, but Wyoming is using Solana. So this is a huge endorsement and adoption of Solana. So I feel like Solana is going through this maturation phase where it's moving beyond meme coins. It's getting big adoption, even Western Union, if you all recall, launching their stablecoin on Solana. So FRNT, F-R-N-T, issued under the Wyoming Stablecoin Act, represents the first blockchain-based asset backed by a U.S. state. The Solana-based Wyoming Frontier stablecoin will also be initially available on six EVM chains, including Ethereum-based layer and Arbitrum-based Optimism and Polygon, L2s, as well as layer one Avalanche. Huge news, folks. Huge, huge news. This is, I mean, just amazing and a sign of things to come. And I'm curious how these stablecoins from these different states will compete, so to speak with what it's already in the market, but it could be they're just building this for their own state use. It won't necessarily cross state lines. If you want to pay your taxes or they'll give you maybe certain benefits for using it within Wyoming, that could be part of it. We're going to have to wait and see how all this will play out logistically, but this is a big, big moment right here. and states have been launching Bitcoin reserves, buying Bitcoin ETFs and much more. So we're seeing that once one of them makes a move, the first domino falls, the other follow, right? Game theory plays out. So very, very interesting news here. Now, folks, I'm not sure how many of you heard about this, but Ledger says Global E incident did not compromise crypto wallets. So there was a data breach of Global E, a payment platform integrated by Ledger in 2023. So we've seen data breaches across different industries, guys. This is a problem. This is where data needs to go on the blockchain. But it's as always, guys, you have to make sure that you verify. Don't trust. Verify. Always double check your links. Always double check emails. Double check any messages you get because it's tough out there, right? You got hackers constantly looking for ways to exploit and hack anything they can within crypto So just be careful It would really suck if you lose your funds So with this data breach watch out for bad emails watch out for physical mail I remember getting some of these things years ago when Ledger had a leak. I forget what year it was, but this is like 2018-ish, 2019-ish or something. And I got letters in the mail and I'm like, what the hell is this? And it looked very official. So be careful. I don't use the Ledger hardware wallets. I personally use Trezor, you know, I feel they make a better device with better security. And if you are a Ledger user, just make sure you watch out for this, folks. Okay, look at this news. This is really big as well. Tether and video platform Rumble launch a non-custodial crypto wallet. So the wallet is built to facilitate crypto payments to Rumble's content creators from users on its video streaming platform. And the wallet will initially support Tether's DollarPix stablecoin USDT, Tether Gold, XAUT, a tokenized commodity product, and Bitcoin, according to the announcement from Rumble. It looks like MoonPay is also integrating here. So MoonPay will provide fiat currency on and off ramps for Rumble wallet users, enabling them to cash out crypto into local currencies. This is huge. I personally have my channel on Rumble, so I upload there as well. YouTube is obviously bigger, and I wouldn't be surprised if YouTube is like, wait a minute, okay, we need to get on board and do something similar. I think that's coming, right? And even the streaming platforms, the podcast audio streaming platforms like Spotify and Apple, they do the same as well. So this is really, really cool, and I think it will lead to more adoption of crypto. Okay, Babylon receives $15 million from A16Z crypto to expand Bitcoin native lending. Many of you know A16Z is a powerhouse. They have been for a long time investing in Web2, Mark Andreessen, Netscape, and the Web1 world of the 90s. The big investors, guys, huge, huge. And now they're all in on crypto and AI and much more. So Babylon, a decentralized protocol focused on enabling native Bitcoin staking and lending, received $15 million in funding from A16Z Crypto through the sale of Babylon's native BABY tokens to the digital asset arm of Andreessen Harowitz. Okay, guys, what have I always told you? Watch where the VC and hedge fund capital is going. So if you know they're investing in this and they're buying the token, you know what I'm saying? you know, you could anticipate the price going up. So that's not financial advice, but it's one of the factors I use to invest in tokens. Now, again, one of the factors, you have to go through the checklist, right? You got to look at the tokenomics, their release schedule. You got to make sure this is a legit project because not everything that these firms invest in will pan out. They invest in a bunch of different companies and some are winners and some are not. So just make sure you do your research. Don't blindly invest just because A16Z is doing it. But this is certainly a checklist item that you can check up and say, okay, something to pay attention to. You got some liquidity that's going to be coming in here. So again, I like to call out certain things to you guys. I told you all about Canton Network. I'm telling you about this one now. I don't hold this token, but if I do add it to my portfolio, I'll let you know. Final news item here, Polymarket. Dow Jones deal puts prediction markets data in the Wall Street Journal. So Polymarket, many of you know, blockchain powered. These prediction markets are certainly the future. And we're seeing mainstream integrating them. So again, mass adoption bridges being built between the traditional tech and TradFi world to crypto and Web3. This is really, really amazing. So in a Wednesday notice, Polymarket and Dow Jones said the predictions market data will be available on the Wall Street Journal, Barron's Market Watch, and Investors Business Daily, among others. According to the companies, Polymarket will be featured in dedicated data modules on websites and select print placements. So we are just at the tip of the iceberg, folks, of mass adoption. The building is happening. We need market structure to pass to allow us all to go exponential as far as adoption and building. And we are going to see valuations skyrocket. But you know, there's a process to it. So that's why I'm not just bullish on this cycle, but future cycles as well. And yeah, folks, it's exciting. Okay, folks, that's the news. Let me know what you think. Leave your thoughts and comments below. Hit the thumbs up button. Subscribe if you haven't as yet. Be sure to support the podcast by subscribing to my free email newsletter. It is 100% free. Link will be in the description. Check out my book on Amazon. Grab a copy. It's available and paperback and digital and my course at mycricklocourse.com. Folks, thank you for tuning in. I appreciate you all and I'll talk to you all later. Starting a business can be overwhelming. You're juggling multiple roles, designer, marketer, logistics manager, all while bringing your vision to life. Shopify helps millions of business sell online. Build fast with templates and AI descriptions and photos, inventory and shipping. Sign up for your one euro per month trial and start selling today at shopify.nl. That's shopify.nl. It's time to see what you can accomplish with Shopify by your side.
