The catalysts that could decide crypto's next move

Transcript

You lean in at these moments when the market attention and capital are elsewhere and devote more time and attention to crypto because the thesis has never been stronger. The opportunity has never been better and your ROI on your own personal education and investment of time and attention in crypto right now is never going to be stronger than this. So, what's up everybody? It's LG Ducet here. Welcome to the Milk Road Show, the daily crypto show that always switches hosts at the very top or at the very bottom of the market and you, the audience, have to figure out which is which. Today is July 27th, 2026. It's a busy week in the macro and crypto with the FOMC meeting this week and a new revised and combined text of the Clarity Act coming to the floor maybe soon. But does a dip in the stock market indicate a bigger issue

globally? And are we yet again seeing signs of a clear bottom in crypto as some protocols finally capitulate? I'm back to host just this special Monday episode so we can turn the mic back on to your favorite crypto host. And if you want to see what John has in his portfolio and what our analysts are buying and also what John might have on his watch list when it comes to alts as we bought them, all of that is in Milkroad Pro. It's a dollar for a trial for 7 days at the link below. And a reminder that our podcast today is free and it would not be possible without our partners at Securitize the Regulated Rails for tokenization. So keep an ear out later in the show for a message about them. John, what's up, man? I feel like I haven't seen you in weeks. What's

going on? >> I know it's been a while since we talked. when we don't do these Monday episodes together. I feel like we just don't get to catch up enough. Um, but I'm doing well, man. It's it's uh been a really interesting time in the crypto markets. I've got to do some really cool podcasts in the last couple weeks. Um, and I'm just excited for for what the rest of the summer brings. It feels like I moved away to go to school in a different town. You know what I mean? It feels like we had we were in college for like a year or two together and now it's like this the college year ended and I'm like I'm actually I got to move to like Albuquerque to go to some other random college and like we'll see each other.

We'll see each other sometimes on weekends but like it's not going to be the same. Like we were we were like roommates before, you know, and now now we're across and I went I went to go do something kind of weird and different in AI, but now uh but I always want to come back and hear what's going on with you guys in crypto. This sounds like the plot of a John Hughes movie, but um I uh Sure. Yeah, that's that's that's that works for me. Why not? >> Did you just did you just tell me that being in crypto is like being in detention? Because that would be pretty accurate right now. >> You know, sometimes it feels that way, but I think we might be getting out of detention soon, which I'm really excited about. So, yeah, this there's some good things coming.

>> I want to ask you about that, but uh as you know, I've been very focused on AI and I haven't had the chance to really uh keep up with Clarity Act. Uh FOMC is also this week. this week. Uh, so I do want to talk macro stuff. Um, so we have a lot to cover on one show. Like I said in the intro, there's a bigger dip in the market, maybe a bit of a bigger scare. So maybe you can tell us a little bit more about that. But I think a good place to kick off, John, is maybe um, you know, what people probably point to as maybe the one of the larger fears that's scaring the market right now, which is the FOMC, right? Where a lot of people have said, "Hey, listen, there's there's no way he's going to he's going

to raise hike or um hike rates, but maybe that's what the market is afraid of, but you're you're the expert. Can you tell me what what to expect this week? >> Yeah. Well, I don't think he's going to raise hikes, but he might hike rates. Um, so yeah, there's a few things going on in the markets right now. They're spooking people. I'll kind of like back up and frame some of this, but um, so first of all, with with AI, I think that is a big part of the macro landscape right now. And a lot of people are concerned that the Chinese are going to start manufacturing their own chips there. And like so there's a lot of like fear in the semiconductor sector right now. Uh, and then there was also this Kimmy K um 3.0 know, I think it was called um that kind of got to near not

at but near frontier um performance with very low cost. And so that's put like kind of this big question mark generally over a lot of future earnings and the valuations for a lot of things in the the AI sector particularly in the United States US markets. I think that these fears are overdone. But while that digests, I think there's just some uncertainty there. The other thing is that the war in Iran had kicked off again um and conflict had had resumed there up until the last couple of days where now it seems like both sides have have ceased hostilities and things seem to be normalizing a little bit. Oil had you know when when the ceasefire had gone into effect and it seems like the conflict was over. Oil had gone down to around 70 bucks. Uh and now it once the conflict kicked up again it got back up

to $100. Um, and so when when the news of this potential ceasefire came back, I think the we saw oil come down. So now we're in a position where we're going into the FOMC meeting on Wednesday. So on June or sorry, on July 29th, this week, a couple days from now, um the Federal Reserve will have their FOMC meeting and we'll get an announcement from the Fed about what their change to um the Federal Funds rate or interest rates are going to be or or not be. when when things were looking like you know clear skies and the conflict was was not in in full swing again the the poly market the predictions on on the Fed rate hikes for this Wednesday was around 8%. Once things kicked off again and and

and started you know the hostility started oil spiked in price those prediction markets it rose up to about 30 35%. So, it's not quite a coin toss. I think the market is still leaning towards the Federal Reserve not raising interest rates. However, um there is a non-zero chance of that happening. So, I think there's just a lot of uncertainty from these things. There's uncertainty in the semiconductor sector, uncertainty in the AI trade, and you know, this week there's uncertainty about the the Fed's decision. Um Kevin Worsh has been very clear about wanting to give less guidance to the markets and allow the markets to sort of tell him where interest rates or monetary policy should be, where interest rates should be. And so there hasn't been any kind of communication out of the Federal

Reserve's board of governors about this since July. I think 18th was the last time there's kind of like any sort of um noises made about this. So it's been a long time since the market has had any guidance on expectations here. That's one of the reasons for so much uncertainty. Another thing to add into this whole thing is that uh later this week, I think it's Coinbase, Meta, Amazon, Apple, uh and I believe Microsoft are also reporting earnings. So, there's just a lot of of information that the market is waiting on and uncertainty that has come from all these things. And so, we've seen some volatility as it relates to crypto. Ethereum and Bitcoin and uh the rest of the digital asset marketplace have generally done relatively well this week. And so, it's been nice to see some some relative strength and and stability in in those markets. um while all this

is going on and to me it's just another indicator that there is still some strength in crypto that the bottom is forming and getting stronger and hardening um and I don't know if we'll see lower lows or not but it's nice to see us you know kind of holding our ground in the midst of all this uncertainty. Hi everyone, this is John. Listen, our Milk Road Pro analysts nailed this AI bull market. They we had dozens of calls pay off in a big way for our community. If you want to see how our entire team of analysts are positioning for the crypto bull market that's going to come after this bare market finally ends, you can join us now at Milkroad Pro. It's just a dollar. Link is in the description. You'll get access to all of our analyst trades, their watch list, and see how they're

navigating this in their portfolios and get access to ask us questions in Discord anytime, day or night. It's just a dollar. Link is in the description. Milk Road Pro. Join now. I'll see you there. John, one of the prevailing narratives we see and again you know I was trying to bring the more uh you know populist narrative um take and see if there's any truth to it. Um but even weeks ago I saw you know seeing the most obvious narrative that's like listen every year and especially midterm years July gets hot and then August and September there's a cooling and then Q4 goes absolutely berserk. I feel like you do not subscribe to these very populous like just you know kind of fake chart kind of things. But is that is that is that kind of feel like what's happening

here is that we had we had a good start to the summer. Um, but now there's going to be some kind of natural cooling as per everything that you're you're kind of mentioning. A lot of different reasons for that to happen and maybe and maybe some missed earnings because even last week, like you said, we already we already saw some earnings come in and even for something like Tesla on our end on our analyst side, we had mixed reactions to Tesla. Like three of our guys each had a bearish, neutral, and bullish take on what was in Tesla's earnings. So, I feel like this week that, you know, and that represents how the market's reacting, too. And then you still have a lot of big earnings coming this week that will will further affect that clear uncertainty.

>> So I think that the thing I'm watching more is less the seasonality and the cyclical patterns of the markets here and more some of these fundamentals because I think you know if you look at Bitcoin's chart for the last week or two weeks it's more or less been pretty much flat. Like it went down to 62 63. It went up to 65 66 >> but it's it's still kind of more or less like in this range. I think at the time of recording it's between 64 65 somewhere in that ballpark. And so it's kind of turned into a stable coin here at around 64K. That's not good or bad, but it is looking for clear signal from the market which way to go, right? And I think that, you know, what you're describing makes sense. I think there is definitely time this summer for, you

know, a low volume period to come where we see a drop in in price or some sell pressure. There is still a lot of um resistance over our heads that we might go up and bounce our heads off of and, you know, go go lower off of that. So I I don't by any means think that like we're like in the clear, but I do think that we are in a situation where the market, particularly the crypto and Bitcoin markets, are looking for some sort of clear catalyst or signal for a justification for a move in one way or the other. To me, the thing I'm most watching right now is not the seasonality, the cycles, but the the Clarity Act because um Cynth Cynthia Lumis um from Wyoming just released this updated language, which is a revised and combined version of the Clarity Act that

the Senate has been debating. There are plans, I don't know if this will happen, but there are plans to bring it to the floor of the Senate for a vote. That could happen as soon as this week, not likely this week, but it could happen as soon as this week. Um, and so we we'll kind of see how that goes. I think that's going to be what gives Bitcoin its signal here. It's not so much whether or not it's the the window of strength in July for the, you know, the the midterm year seasonal patterns from Bitcoin. It's more so, I think, going to be driven by some of these fundamentals and speculation about them, right? So, like the market right now is still kind of leaning a little bit bearish on the Clarity Act passing. It could happen.

It's just like the path is very narrow to get there. Um, and so if it does pass, I think that is going to be something that is a very strong bullish catalyst for Bitcoin for the the rest of the the digital asset market. Um, and so that's something I'm watching closely. I think if it doesn't pass, Bitcoin will probably see some some softness on that, but I don't think it's going to be like this catastrophic collapse because like, you know, it's been two years, we haven't gotten it. I don't see any reason why Bitcoin should like radically react to that one way or the other. Um, so we'll we'll kind of see how it goes. But I think that's that's what I'm watching here for for a signal on what happens next, but I agree with you that there is still some time for some

continued weakness in in crypto and in other markets in this summer period before um what a lot of people are expecting is going to be a bullish Q4. But uh we we'll we'll have to see when we get there. We we've sung that song before and it hasn't worked out. You know, >> listen, if you if you sing it every year, eventually you'll be right. Maybe. I don't know. >> Well, that's what people do. Happened before, so it's going to happen every time, you know. >> But John, what happened to I feel like when I was doing the crypto show, I heard from you and from our friends at Bitwise and other people that's like, listen, if this doesn't get done before cuz there it had it had passed through the some vote I think in early May or something like that. It had some kind of

it had gone to the next step. Um, and you can remind us what that was. But I had heard that it's like if this doesn't get done before like the summer recess, it's done because come fall you, it's all midterms. There's no time to talk about clarity acts. But you're telling me that may not be the story the case anymore. >> Uh I think that it's like people have been saying that the window gets less realistic. And yeah, I think that the realistic timeline was to pass this when they originally were talking about it in spring in in early summer and there kept being new objections, new forms of hostility, new kinds of problems. Jaime Diamond kept moving what he was upset with. Um same thing with Elizabeth Warren. She keeps either making up new concerns or changing her old concerns or or just like, you know, continuing to

move the goalpost on on what they would need to get to a yes. Um a big thing is they just don't want to get to a yes. I think on this. I think a lot of the Democrats, they're going to need seven votes in the Senate from Democrats to pass this. Um, and I don't think they're going to be able to get them. Um, or if they are able to get them, they're going to have to give up so much and so many kinds of concessions that they don't want to take the deal. Um, and so yeah, like if we don't get it by August, then you're correct. We will see the Senate go into a recess. We'll see everybody leave Washington, stop lawmaking, go to campaign. Um, and then nothing is really going to happen till November. And then, you know, in a midterm election, usually

the incumbent party loses seats. Um, and so if the Democrats pick up seats in the Senate or in the House of Representatives, then the path to getting the bill passed gets even more unlikely and then we either get no bill or um have to wait until 2030 to potentially get a bill. So, it just this is kind of like the actual bitter end of this like okay maybe, okay, maybe thing that we've been doing for two years with this bill. Um, and that's some of the reasoning on that. But yeah, like the the thing that happened in May. Well, anyway, like the House of Representatives has passed versions of this several times. The Senate has voted in committee on several versions this several times too, and it keeps going back to the drawing board. The big sticking point right now, as I understand it, has been around the

ethics requirements and the ethics rules on this. Trump has given some concessions to say that like it's like 600 pages of like ethics provisions, but basically he's saying that neither nobody in in the administration or their spouse will do anything in crypto. However, Democrats like well that leaves out your sons and we want your sons out of crypto too. And then it also is like I think in the the the provisions that Trump uh the White House agreed to. It says that it will be enforced by the attorney general. Well, the attorney general is Todd Blanch, who's Trump's former personal lawyer, and it doesn't seem likely that he's going to go after Trump on these things. Um, and so the Democrats are like, "Okay, well, we want to change that to be enforceable by the

state attorney generals so that we can harass you with lawsuits, all these things." So, yeah, I I don't know where this ends, but there's there's like there's it's clear that both sides are making genuine efforts, I think, but it also seems like the the path is getting really really narrow here. Do you want it to go through? >> I think so. Um, there are a lot of things in it that I would like to have. I would love to have a formal token taxonomy. I would love to have definitions on like, you know, what all these assets are, how they're governed, um, which regulatory agency has oversight, um, developer protections, like there are a lot of things in it that would be really good for the industry. And I think not having it is really damaging to the to the United

States overall because it creates regulatory arbitrage because Japan, Europe, even Russia, all of these different countries have passed their own versions of of legislation around digital assets and and how to do business in crypto in their their jurisdictions. If the United States does not have that, we're at a like just like a structural um disadvantage in the marketplace. So that's I I do want the bill to pass. However, you know, I think that there are some valid concerns and like to summarize them, it's this bill started out as a bill to help and promote um the digital asset industry in the United States and it is not completely turned into something else, but it has kind of over time through debate moved more in the direction of a bill to protect incumbents and legacy

systems and and the banking infrastructure of the country. And I don't think that's really what I would hope for from this bill. So, yeah, I don't know. There's some pros and cons, but on balance, I do want the bill to pass because I think there's a lot of important reasons why we need it. >> Got it. Okay. Okay. So, you do want it, but with some things that you kind of see as vital in there. >> Yeah. Yeah. We got to we got to have it. You got to anything in Washington, if you get a bill passed in Washington, you have to compromise. And a compromise leaves both sides feeling unhappy. And like, so that's kind of how I feel about it. Do you feel like there's an urgency for it to resolve? Because also that's another insight I had clearly and I think again this was from Matt Hogan um

last time I did a show with them that's like listen this just we would just prefer at this point for it to just get figured out more so than for it to hang. And even you were alluding earlier that it's like well one way or another it might not even have an impact on the market. But I don't personally I don't think that's true. I think if you want to if you want to see a true bottoming like if we are going to have an obvious bottoming signal it could come on the day where the clarity act gets shut down for good. You know what I mean? that it's and even if it might just be a blip down to 52K and then it's back. But I feel like I feel like that's the main thing that some people in the market are just waiting for as the only obvious catalyst

right now for crypto. >> Yeah, I agree with that and I think that is something that could happen. This is one of the big reasons why I've been so conservative about deploying cash. Like I've been extremely bullish on crypto on digital assets throughout this entire summer and and longer. But I've been in cash for a long time. Not completely in cash, but I've had one of the largest cash positions I've had through this like last several years because we we haven't found the firm bottom and we haven't seen like a clear turning of the corner. I did a lot of interviews last week with a lot of analysts from CryptoQuant, from Bitcoin Pro magazine, Matt Crosby, and then I also talked to Jamie Coots from Real Vision about this, and they're all saying the same thing.

We are seeing signs of a counter trend rally, but we haven't seen signs that we've totally broken out of this bare trend and gone back into the bull market. Until we see either either way, right, like a a clear, like you said, like a wick down into the 50s, that makes me feel like, okay, that's it. That's the bottom, or until we see like a breakout, you know, into the high 70s. Again, to me, it's it makes sense to just do what the market's doing, which is watch, wait, and look for those clear catalysts to come. So, that's what I'm doing. That's why I'm so much in cash. Um, but I do think that the opportunity here is really excellent. like there there's a fat pitch coming in crypto um that you're not going to have such a clear thesis on in other parts of the

market. So, I'm really excited for what that looks like and and for the price action that follows it. But for the moment, I do think it makes sense to just watch because this the window for them to figure this out yes or no one way or the other is getting really small like a matter of weeks here. Um and so I think um and you know with the FOMC coming like it's just a good time to be in cash and and pay close attention because uh yeah, you don't you don't want to like force a trade and then get caught on the wrong side. Real world assets like funds, treasuries, and private credit are still running on rails built decades ago. Gated, paperwork heavy, slow to settle. Everyone's talking about tokenizing them, but far fewer can actually do it and do it without cutting regulatory

corners. Securitize can. It's the SEC regulated infrastructure bringing real world assets on chain. 9 years in native tokenization not wrapped backed by Black Rockck, Morgan Stanley and Kathy Woods Arc Invest and chosen by the New York Stock Exchange Vanby and Apollo to do it at scale. It's the regulated bridge between traditional finance and crypto tokenized the world at milkroad.com/securitize. And John, it's lining up perfectly with a four-year cycle bottom. That's all I'm saying, man, is that it's like, you know, I've always found, and again, I'm not an analyst. I'm not I don't have the knowledge that you guys have or or the expertise, but to me, I've always found that I'm like somehow somehow the technicals on the chart somehow

magically line up with the thing with the big news events. Magically, it just works that way. Uh and that's and that's even what you're saying now. And if you go through my imaginary scenario, that's like boom. Uh you know, Clarity Act gets struck down. It's all crypto's dead forever. And it's magically just that one day in September. That's that's that exact four-year cycle. One year bottom after the top or whatever and boom, there you go. Everything's confirmed and and we're off to the races after that. It'd be magical for it to be that way. I don't think it's going to happen, but I'm just saying it's just funny to me how these things always seem to to line up so perfectly.

>> You you sound like my favorite analyst, Ben Cowan, because he always says this that the narrative follows the price and that the cycle and the price tell you everything and the narratives always come in to to justify that. Um yeah, >> you know, we could talk about that for an hour and a half, but I I do agree that um it does seem to be shaping up that way. Although I still maintain that I think we're more likely to bottom before the expected bottom in October precisely because so many people have that same mindset and are expecting that bottom in October. So, whatever happens with all the short-term narrative stuff, I do think that we're going to see people capital formation coming back into Bitcoin, into crypto, into overall digital assets um sooner than people are expecting precisely because everyone

thinks they have until October or Q4 to start building your position. So, I think that the front running is going to start to happen again, too. >> You have to pick a day on the calendar that you think is going to be the actual bottom and schedule him to come back on the show for that exact day. You got to you got to preemptively call the bottom by booking the bottom guy. You know, the four-year cycle guy. That's what that's what you got to do. That's what I want to that's what I want to hear. And you'll you'll you'll have frontr run everybody else because that's the day everybody else is going to want him on, but you will have had him on this show uh just in time. Uh and it >> I'm I would always love to talk to Ben.

He's he's great. He's he can talk for for hours about anything. And I watch I one of my favorite parts of this this bare market um was watching him make two-hour videos about Bitcoin dominance. Um so yeah, it's always a good time to talk to Ben whatever is going on in the market. >> Get him back out here. Um, another thing that you shared with me earlier, John, and and we've kind of seen this this tweet circulate a little bit, um, is from Frank Chapo Chaparo at GSR, and basically he's he's painting a picture of the state of the crypto bear market and basically showing capitulation not on the price side, uh, but on the protocol side, right? And you've got, I'll just read it out for the people listening on audio that, uh, state of the crypto bear market and he lists companies that are winding down, which I

think this is story labs, not storage labs. Uh, maybe it's storage labs. I think it's storage. It is storage, not story. I thought there's a story token. Okay, so it's Storage Labs. I don't even know what that is. Uh, BitMEX, Ruth's old company or current company. We don't know. Movement Labs, Pulin, BitMart, Ascend X, all companies maybe you don't know. And then also he lists all the layoffs uh that the major um the super apps and the the central exchanges and a few other players have done including Coinbase which reduce 14% Robin Hood 10% workforce reduction and and so on for even the ETH foundation pointing that out too that uh and we've covered that extensively on the show you know the rotation that happened a couple couple months ago and that bottoming on ETH. Um but this this you see this as a positive

sign I think. Uh I wouldn't say so much a positive sign, but I do think I see it as a a bare market bottom indicator because we see this a lot in bare markets. Um so just to go back to your first point here, storage is a decentralized um uh data and memory like storage solution. Um it was like a competitor to a file coin and different ones like that. Um they were US based I believe and they had been in operation for many years. So I was a little surprised to see that. Um I haven't looked into why they shut down but >> I know the project, I know the team. Um and so I uh yeah, but this is just an indicator of kind of where we are in the bare market, right? Every time we go through a bare market in crypto, there's

always a kind of a situation where a lot of the capital goes out, the demand goes out and projects, protocols that are seeing, you know, basically no action, no movement. Um they have a choice between trying to like, you know, allocate more capital after that and try to build through it or to shut down operations. And you know certain people at different times the market will make different choices and this is just a sign I think that we're seeing uh the the market contract and the you know shrinking relative to the demand to to meet that because like the the market can support a lot more of these projects and protocols during a bull run but during a bare market you see a lot of this like shedding of of of excess projects and and shutting down of things. Um, I think one of those ones, I

think it was Movement Labs or something like that, had only generated like a couple hundred dollars of fees in in the last several months. Um, and like, yeah, they basically just, you know, so they decided to just call it. Um, and so it doesn't mean that the products were bad or the teams were bad. It doesn't mean that they're corrupt. It doesn't mean that we're an industry of, you know, degenerates and and criminals. It just means that, hey, if you know, if there's there's a a drop in user demand, a drop in business, sometimes businesses shut down. So that's what I think we're kind of seeing there. So, I don't think it's necessarily a good thing, but I think it's another indicator that we're bottoming. It's another sign that the bare market has kind of like purged a lot of things that there's a lot of um

like a lot of signs that we've reached the bottom as bad as the pain is going to get and that we should be looking ahead to better days, more bullish action um and more new projects coming in that are getting demand that are launching into um stable businesses. So, um yeah, I don't know. It's just it's just one of the things you always see in a bare market and it was an indicator that a lot of people have been talking about that I think that there's there's truth to because that does happen in bare markets and it's it's happening now and we're also seeing I feel John we're also seeing the the opposite as well right where a lot of the the the VCs who've stuck around in crypto are saying like listen like we are we are I think it was even um Hiva Dragonfly recently

announced like their biggest uh fund ever right and or I don't know what it was but it was something where it's like they it was I don't an obscene number like a billion dollars or 600 million that they've collected to invest in crypto companies and that you're seeing a lot of investment in kind of like the next round of companies that are coming into the space, right? So, it's like you have a clear rotation from like, okay, old protocols, relatively new ones from the last cycle. It's not working out. They're capitulating, but simultaneously you're seeing um you know, new energy coming into the space and and it's happening on happening on the private side right now. you don't really know what those deals look like or a little harder to see what those companies are, but there are companies that are getting funded that are preparing to deploy

products um probably when things look a little greener too. >> Yes. And I think the Robin Hood chain launching is another indicator of this bottoming process too, right? Like they launched in a bare market and they've seen an enormous amount of capital um user adoption volume. Um they they've got you know everything from real world assets trading volume to memecoins. So they're really launching a a lucrative, productive and like in demand um digital assetbased and focused business. Um and so that to me is another shine sign of a green shoot so to speak of of crypto spring coming um and of the digital asset marketplace in the industry overall still having strong life um and just you know continuing to iterate to find product market fit and where um capital and users are and what they are

in demanding from digital assets. So I think yeah there there's a lot of things to be to be bullish on here. Um, and it's just a rotation from, you know, just like you said, shedding some of the old projects that, you know, maybe had a good idea but didn't find market adoption and product market fit and a migration towards things that are getting adoption and finding demand. Uh, and all that's bullish, I think. >> Is this actually I wanted to ask you about Robin Hood chain and obviously it's been a darling in the DGEN world for the last couple weeks is it's brought a lot of good energy. It has a a lot of money is migrating there. It had a memecoin that ran to I think uh Cash Cat ran to like 200 million or something like that in in a matter of a couple

days. Um it has a it has a pump fund style meme launchpad that people can use and it has a few other applications. Virtuals which was like an AI thing on base has migrated there. people are launching projects there but and outside of that like you said it's a home for RWAS but it is it is an L2 John and this kind of brings back into the the question um of whether that is still something that makes sense to do in this modern age right you not only have not only have they launched their L2 but also Tether has launched their L2 in the recent weeks right stable launched had a bit I always talk about a few meme coins I don't even know why they launched it so maybe you can tell me more and now we're getting a little further down the grape vine in terms of talking about you

know primarily like the crypto matrix, but it does I think what you're saying is true that you do you have some pretty big companies seeing now as the time to launch um their chains at least and I'm assuming that's in hopes to attract a lot of the new projects that are coming in the next cycle like come build here, right? >> Yeah. I I think that there's a lot at play in what you just said. I think so. First of all, last week I did one of my favorite podcasts I've ever done to be honest with you. I got three of the five co-founders of ETHLabs, which is a new research and development nonprofit in the Ethereum ecosystem. I got them on the podcast, talked to them for an hour.

I asked them directly about this about how does Robin Hood as an L2, you know, it's based on arbitum, but that's in the Ethereum ecosystem. >> Yeah. >> How does that factor into the vision? Because, you know, like Vitalic said that the old road map for L2's no longer made sense. But, you know, I asked him, what is the new vision? What does that look like? What does success mean here? how much value in terms of fee extraction should Ethereum be doing for the the service and the value that they're offering to Robin Hood and to the Robin Hood chain. And so we talked about that extensively. I would strongly recommend people go listen to that conversation because it's full of alpha.

And frankly LG like we spend so much time talking about digital assets, but it's really rare to get an opportunity to sit down for an hour with some of the people who are actually designing and building the actual protocols that underly all these things. So, it was really enlightening for me to get uh the updated outlook from them on on what they think, you know, a strong Ethereum L1 L2 relationship and ecosystem looks like um and their thoughts specifically on Robin Hood and Robin Hood chain. But I think, you know, overall I think it's it's it's a very bullish thing for Ethereum for digital assets and I I I think you know Anscar Dietrix who's the executive director said like I don't know how you could look at what's going on there and say that it's bearish. Um so it's it's all very positive. Um, I

forget the rest of your question, but um, I think that the the main thing I would say on this is that it's just a sign that the the market is still iterating, still improving. There's still a lot to be pioneered with digital assets. This is one of the reasons why clarity is so important is that not only are, you know, let's say cryptonative or trading native companies like Coinbase and Robin Hood going to be able to bring these products to market, but you're going to see companies like, you know, Google, Meta, um, other people like Microsoft, the JP Morgans of the world, the Black Rocks of the world. there are all kinds of different kinds of uh legacy businesses and incumbents who would want to try and and find ways to launch new products and services in the digital asset space if they have the

regulatory clarity to do so. So I think Robin Hood and Robin Hood chain kind of validates that thesis that there is a huge untapped market, unadressed market in the United States for these things that would get unlocked and you know promote a huge amount of economic activity, innovation and and better outcomes for users if we get this clarity and are allowed to do business in the United States. Um so yeah, o overall though I think it's it's it's bullish no matter how you look at it. Um, and I'm really excited to see where all this goes because now that Robin Hood has done it, it kind of throws down the gauntlet for Bass and Coinbase to respond in a different way and they've already talked about how they're going to change their strategy. Um, and it just kind of keeps going from there.

But, um, yeah, overall it's just really bullish and I'm excited to see where all this goes. >> That's what I was going to say, man, is that Robin Hood knows there's going to be a big crypto cycle coming and they they're putting, you know, they're laying it down ahead of time. And to me, like that whole chain coming out is like this is a sign that there's there's blood in the water for Coinbase. are coming for those users that Coinbase launched based launched in in July 2023, man. Like it's been around for three years. It has it had its up and downs. Kind of lost its way at the end of the bar the bull market last time. A lot of kind of confusing creator coins or all that kind of crap. Brian Armstrong putting his foot in his mouth or at least having a public kind of mess up

recently with changing his profile pick to a memecoin and then saying like, "Well, I just do it for the culture. I don't care about the meme coins." Like a to such an unforced error. And again, this is looking for the trenches side, but still not a good look um for him to kind of mess around with that at a time where a competitor is coming aggressively with their plans for the future, right? So um but inevitably, John, I think it's it's a benefit to the consumer. Um as these assets get more uh you know, accessible and more people want to buy them, it's better to have multiple, you know, all these super apps vying for that for that product and for that retail attention because it'll just drive it'll just drive a better product in the end, right? And and force them to really compete,

>> right? Yeah, and that's one of the things I think is so important about this is that unlocking that competition does drive lower fees, better products, better services, um, and just better outcomes for everybody. And I'm excited about that because I think that's good. That's healthy. You don't want a bunch of legacy incumbents um you know squatting on a system that is allowing them to exploit their users and use their customers capital to enrich themselves and and not share any of that revenue and those that economic uh activity and the benefits of it with the the people whose capital they're actually using to do it. So anyway, there's just a lot to this but yeah I agree Robin Hood sees the future. They see that there is another bull run coming for digital assets. know that this is going to be one of the strongest

one in the history of digital assets and they also understand I think importantly how much AI is going to strengthen the the investment thesis and the the fundamental values of digital assets overall. Brian Armstrong you mentioned Coinbase he posted about that just this morning about how AI and crypto together are going to become one of the strongest economic drivers in the next cycle and in just the economy overall. Uh and so it's it's interesting to see how these people these major players are fighting over this market share. Um, but that you're right, the outcome is better products and service, better experiences for users, and all of that's a win for for crypto. And uh, yeah, I'm here for it.

>> If you guys want to listen a good episode about Robin Hood, actually, I did one with Vincent on the as AI side about two weeks ago, not not last Friday. So, Friday, July 17th, so you could scroll through that channel. Um, and it the the thumbnail, if you're looking on YouTube, is just like an evil looking photo of Lad Tennv, uh, who's the founder CEO of >> I really like that episode, by the way. I meant to tell you this. I really enjoyed that episode. It's really good. >> Thank you. Yeah, I love the episodes of Vincent and all the the AI guys, but um he has a good deep dive, but it was mainly about agentic trading uh and and basically Robin Hood facilitating uh AI to trade for you, right? And their plans for that and how they have like they have their credit cards in order and

everything. So, it's it really paints a good picture of how far ahead Robin Hood is looking, which is kind of what you're alluding to, right? That it's like they are they are playing way way way ahead of where we are right now. So again, bringing it back to crypto that even the chain, even though it's only a month old and there's meme coins and whatever, it's like that is not they didn't just launch this to collect a couple hundred,000 from memecoin fees, you know, or from unis swap fees or people trading ETH for memecoins. Like there's a much bigger plan here and I feel like we won't see what that is, John, for a couple years as as crypto kind of comes back, right? So, I don't think that they're just going to launch a chain and say, "Hey, hey, random projects on the internet, come build here, anonymous

people, kind of like Bass did." Uh, or Bass had some big plans when they launched, but it never really came to fruition, or is Robin Hood's going to learn from that and and I think deliver something really cool or at least um hopefully somewhat innovative. Um, John, great episode, man. I always love talking to you. I always end up talking too much and I feel like people want to hear from you. Um, so what what can you leave us with this week? maybe tell us about what's coming up on on the show this week or even kind of what you're watching besides the FOMC. >> Well, I'll just start by saying I don't think it's going to take a couple of years for this stuff to play out. The the speed and the the speed of capital formation that we are now seeing in these markets is larger than ever

before. The number of self-directed, we call them retail, I think self-directed is a better way to say it because it gets more to the point. the number of self-directed investors and the amount of capital that they are managing themselves has never been higher as a percentage and as a as a you know a dollar figure in nominal terms. So what you're seeing is there's a knife fight over market share at a time when more capital and more users than ever before have been participating in these markets not just in the US but globally. And so winners and losers can happen very quickly. Market share can be won and lost very quickly. You know there's 70 million Ethereum we bridged onto Robin Hood I think in like the first like week or something like that. that was launched. Um, incredible amounts of volume and that can go other places,

too. It's it's mercenary capital. It moves quickly. I do not think that it's going to take a matter of years to get to a place where we're seeing large numbers of agents trading large amounts of digital assets for huge amounts of users. Um, and so I just think that this is a radically underappreciated part of the market right now. Um, and I think, you know, Jordy Viser, I've said this before on this channel, but Jordy Visser keeps pounding the table on this. he's launching his own um research channel just to focus on this thesis on crypto and digital assets because it is so important and is such a big driver of of the next phase of the the economy and just uh the next market cycle in general. Um so that that's something I think I would say there. Um this week we've got a lot of great episodes. I've

got um Bitwise's head of onchain uh analytics and research >> to talk about a report he's done on staking because there's a lot of changes that have come to staking. institutions are driving more staking demand than retail ever did. Um and so I'm going to get some alpha from him on that. I've got the head of uh marketing and strategy I believe from Algarand this week because I want to talk about that project and how they're dealing with quantum resistance because um Google like specifically named them as a project that's like leading the way on this. Uh I believe Google did those some some of those details on that I got to brush up on. And then I've got um the head of uh strategy and and legal for GSR which is a trillion dollar um crypto liquidity provider and market maker.

I've got him on the podcast to talk about the Clarity Act, what that actually means, and to like, you know, get under the fingernails of this because everyone's talked about stable coin yield, but like, hey, what does this actually do? What does this token taxonomy mean? How does this benefit the market? So, there's just a lot of great stuff we're doing. Um, and I've got a lot of great um a lot of great podcasts lined up after that, too. So, there's just there's a lot going on. There's a lot of things to be had um to be understood right now. A lot of things moving in the markets. I just get you can tell I get really excited about this because this is the best opportunity to, like I always say, stay safe. stay educated, stay bullish. You lean in at these moments when the market attention

and capital are elsewhere and devote more time and attention to crypto because the thesis has never been stronger. The opportunity has never been better and your ROI on your own personal education and investment of time and attention in crypto right now is never going to be stronger than this. So, I'm really excited. There's a lot going on and um yeah, I'm just I'm I'm really looking forward to the week ahead. It's going to be a good one. >> Beauty, man. You're doing a great job on the show, man. I think people are really enjoying it. Uh people love listening to it. I think our our our our audience is up, man. Like our download numbers are up and ever since you took over and ever since I left, right at the pico bottom uh of the market, right at that it was literally the day the last episode I

recorded was at the 57K day uh where we touched that. So uh you know, congrats to you guys on the show. No, but in all seriousness, it's a great show. Um we don't we won't be doing another episode together for I think two weeks. So, I'll be back in two weeks, but if you guys want to check out the AI show, um, and and whatever is going to happen there, uh, we are do we that runs 5 days a week now as well. Today, we have a very actually today's actually a very different episode. John, if you listen to it, it's with this guy Lyren Shapiro Shapiro who uh runs a podcast called Doom Debates that has like 200,000 subs on YouTube, but his this might be your style where he's like he just brings on experts that think AI is going to kill us and he rates he rates like their

level of how how realistic those things are. Um, but he uses a lot of like, you know, scientific paradoxes and a lot of philosophy and a lot of like, you know, it's it's it's the total dark side of the AI trade that's just like, listen, what kind of beast are we actually making here? You know what's actually interesting just to give a preview again about him is I was like, this guy's going to come on and be like, listen, you guys, you finance people, like you suck, like you're pumping this stuff, just get rich. And he said, he's like, no, no. He's like, I want to get rich right before we die. Like that's basically what he says that he's like listen the market it will do what everyone thinks it's going to do. It's going to go like on this insane curve up as it's been going and we are going to

build you know these companies will be worth hundred trillion dollars and all that and then one day there's just going to be a switch flipped that it's like AI now takes over crushes us all and we die. I don't think it's going to happen exactly that way but it's it's funny to hear his viewer. This guy spends all his time saying like, listen, AI will be detrimental to to humanity long term, but in the short term, we will build all this stuff and it the economy will boom as a result. So, it's it's a funny kind of two-pronged approach uh uh to to the AI buildout. Um, and obviously, you know, cryptos crypto is kind of a part of that, right? Like it's uh you know, like you're saying that that crypto and AI agents go together. So, um you know, lots of fun right up until the end.

>> I I don't know why you're describing this as funny, but it sounds hilarious. So, >> I said fun. I said fun. I didn't say it was funny. >> You said funny several times, but anyway, I'll I'll check out the episode. It sounds interesting. >> Thanks, John. All right. Thank you, sir. Um, and have yourself have yourself a great week, guys. >> Thanks, LG. I'll see you next time. Want insights on what's moving crypto markets and how we're trading each event? Subscribe to our channel and join the Milkro Daily and Pro Newsletters and start investing like the top 1%. This show is for educational purposes only. Nothing we say is financial advice.

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