Weekly Roundup 07/18/25 (GENIUS is Law, Clarity passes, narrow banking and GENIUS) (EP.647)

Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode:  The Coldplay concert incident It’s Crypto Week in Washington Talos acquires Coin Metrics Do you need an MTL to run a fantasy football league? GENIUS Act is law pending Trump’s signature Clarity Act passes the House Pump.fun ICO Fairshake raises $141m Grayscale is preparing for an IPO Adam Back’s Bitcoin access vehicle Polymarket beats the allegations Is GENIUS creating a narrow bank system?  Governor Waller's comments on stablecoins and banks

Wyatt sits down with Nikhil Raghuveera of Predicate to talk policy for blockchain applications. In this episode:  How Predicate’s “rules for blockchain transactions” are making on-chain finance more scalable and secure Creating more compliant stablecoin transfer systems suitable to mass financial use cases The future of secure money movement How leading software and financial firms can integrate transaction policies in their workflows

Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode:  Bitcoin hits a new ATH and no one is talking about it Grok goes haywire The White House posts chudjak Core Weave looks to buy Core Scientific Stablecoins are going to pay yield anyway Did Zelenskyy wear a suit? How should prediction markets be settled? Pump.fun ICO is coming up Hester Peirce issues a warning on tokenized securities Crypto Week in Congress is coming up Jonathan Gould has been confirmed as Comptroller of the Currency There are new public access vehicles Andreessen wants you to leave Delaware A fundamental valuation model for L1s? GMX is hacked for $42m  Tim Massad's exchange with Bernie Moreno Content mentioned in this episode: Hester Peirce, Enchanting, but Not Magical: A Statement on the Tokenization of Securities Fidelity, Blockchains as emerging economies Bridge, How Meow and Bridge Make USDC Payments as Seamless as Cash  

Zac Townsend, the founder and CEO of Meanwhile, joins the show. In this episode we discuss: Zac’s background and the path that led him to start Meanwhile. The mechanics of Bitcoin denominated life insurance. How Meanwhile generates Bitcoin yield. Zac’s views on the evolution of Bitcoin treasury companies. To learn more about Meanwhile visit meanwhile.bm  

Charles Hamel, Product Director at Opera's MiniPay, joins the show. In this episode:  Stablecoin habits in emerging markets Prospects for local stablecoins What’s next on the stablecoin horizon

Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode:  EthCC troubles  Robinhood has been shipping Figma owns BTC  The House GOP has declared "crypto week" in July Circle and Ripple are applying for bank charters  AI companies are buying Bitcoin miners Sharia finance The BBB passes  America teeters towards default The Sohan Parekh fiasco How do tokenized stocks work?  Another architect of OCP2.0 bites the dust Is AI going to usher in a socialist revolution?  Ric Edelman wants you to buy crypto  Franklin Templeton is worried about bitcoin treasury companies  No crypto language was included in the BBB  

Chris Maurice, founder of Yellow Card, a pan-Africa stablecoin business and exchange, rejoins the show. In this episode: How Chris feels about the crypto space in 2025 as compared to when he started a decade ago How Yellow Card evolved from being a retail BTC exchange to being an enterprise payment platform for stablecoins How Chris realized that stablecoins were all about b2b transfers How businesses in EM use stablecoins, and what the alternatives are Regional differences within Africa in terms of stablecoin adoption Shifting regulatory attitudes in Africa Does Chris worry about crypto-dollarization in Africa? Is dollarization happening on the ground right now Tether and TRON market share developments Where we are in stablecoin infra and tooling and what needs to be built Why we need a stablecoin clearinghouse The future of Yellow Card a few years ahead How banks will engage with stablecoins

Wyatt sits down with Bernando Bilotta, founder of Stables.money. In this episode:  Stablecoin usage in APAC, for saving, spending, and beyond Retail adoption that bleeds into institutional adoption The forward-looking path for stablecoin finance

Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode:  Golden age of prediction markets NYC mayor’s election What’s happening with Canton? The FHFA says crypto can be a qualifying asset for mortages Our thoughts on the market structure bill The significance of the Fiserv stablecoin pilot $500m public access vehicle for BNB The Fed drops reputational risk in bank supervision EO for debanking is rumored Kraken HQ is moving to Wyoming Texas buys Bitcoin Will banking hours be obsolete? 

Josh Frank, the founder and CEO of The Tie joins the show. In this episode we discuss: The origin story behind The Tie and how Josh approached founding the business. The digital asset data market. How sentiment data has evolved in the digital asset industry. The buy-side landscape for digital assets and how Josh sees that evolving in the coming years. The Canton Network and how The Tie is working with this new protocol. To learn more about The Tie visit their website.