What does that mean?

Well, you know, it's a bit of a delay, it's a setback, but I don't really think that it's going to derail, uh, the progress, the growth, and the interest that we're seeing in the crypto market.

SEC Chair Paul Atkins and CFTC Chair Mike Selig have already said on multiple occasions that each regulator will proceed with crypto rulemaking regardless of the outcome, whether Clarity fails, uh, or if it becomes law at a later point, say next year or the year after.

So that signal's already been interpreted as truth by Wall Street and the SEC's, like, kind of reg crypto proposal, and its tokenization exemption framework is part of that.

So I think in the absence of Clarity, uh, not passing, uh, we're likely to see BlackRock, ARK Investments, Fidelity, and others lean into this SEC innovation exemption for tokenization.

And we should see more securities listing, um, you know, more, more tokenization of securities, more 24-hour trading, more integration from decentralized exchanges like Hyperliquid, Coinbase, Kraken, being integrated into the New York Stock Exchange and vice versa.

And, um, why is that? Why do we need to worry about what the other countries are doing or not doing?

One of the things that President Trump ran on, and one of the things that his constituents wanted, was the United States to lead on crypto innovation.

What do you think gets us to 100,000?

Well, what Bitcoin needs is sustained ETF inflows and continuation of the bid and spot and futures markets.

So the last three weeks, we saw $3.8 billion in net flows and daily volumes into iBit, which put it back into the top 10 ETFs by volume.

This was something that we hadn't seen since January.

And in the weeks prior to these huge ETF inflows and net flows, there were multiple entities whose 13F filings showed that they had added to their iBit position.

So it's clear that a discount was there, just people weren't really like biting into that discount um until we crashed through 64k and rallied all the way up to 82k now despite all this liquidation heat map data shows short liquidity basically capping bitcoin price at 82 300 and pushing through that is likely to manifest through futures speculation and this speculation requires confidence And the next two weeks present kind of a tense economic calendar.

So I would say if the CPI comes in hot and we're able to identify that a lot of the increase is through the energy pass through and the Fed has already said, you know, the jobs market looks bad.

But the debasement trade, why to hold Bitcoin? seems to be a story that doesn't go away.

How might we see, um, crypto markets react or not react?

Yeah, I was really surprised.

So that late-night reporting from Politico, Republicans said, "Hey, it's not gonna happen." Uh, Majority Leader John Thune said, "It's, it's not happening," and he blamed it on the Democrats.

He said the Dems, uh, insisted on no CLARITY vote, and it's now been pushed to September.

So I think, you know, the sausage-making of politics is, it's always really messy.

And the valid concerns that exist over consumer protections, uh, how do banks and regional banks deal with, you know, stablecoins imposing their will on the market and providing yield, and apparently sucking away deposits out of banks and profits into the hands of stablecoin companies.

Take that as you will, right? But apparently, those are all real valid issues.

What do you expect to see, uh, in the markets?

How might we see, um, crypto markets react or not react?

Yeah, I was really surprised.

So that late-night reporting from Politico, Republicans said, "Hey, it's not gonna happen." Uh, Majority Leader John Thune said, "It's, it's not happening," and he blamed it on the Democrats.

He said the Dems, uh, insisted on no CLARITY vote, and it's now been pushed to September.

So I think, you know, the sausage-making of politics is, it's always really messy.

And the valid concerns that exist over consumer protections, uh, how do banks and regional banks deal with, you know, stablecoins imposing their will on the market and providing yield and apparently sucking away deposits out of banks and profits into the hands of stablecoin companies? Take that as you will, right? But apparently, those are all real valid issues.

And furthermore, you know, the president's, President Trump's dealings with cryptocurrencies and his investments in the whole Trump meme coin has kind of put a cloud over, um, the CLARITY Act moving forward to a floor vote because of those concerns over ethics and insider dealing and, and, and that sort of thing.

What do you expect to see, uh, in the markets?

What do you attribute that little recent pop that we've seen in Bitcoin?

Hey, Nicole.

Great to see you.

So it's good to see Bitcoin's back in the green also.

I think, uh, what we're seeing happen is the appetite from traders and speculators come back to the market.

It's not necessary, uh, necessarily like a market rotation where capital's exiting, let's say the data center or AI trade and flowing back into crypto, but, uh, Strategy sold again yesterday.

It was disclosed that they sold about $225 million worth of Bitcoin, and this time the result, uh, was much different.

Um, do you think that Bitcoin stays somewhat range bound? And what kind of range do you see?

If the deal happens or doesn't happen, how does it affect crypto? We've seen Bitcoin doing okay and being quite resilient, no?

Yeah, to be honest with you, Nicole, I think the peace deal is somewhat irrelevant.

And I know that that's a huge statement to make, but many Bitcoin investors believe that resulting from the way that this economy is being managed, that if economic stress leads to easier monetary policy, or rate cuts, such decisions have been historically positive for Bitcoin.

So Bitcoin has shown strength since the Iran war started.

Bitcoin has shown strength since the market started reacting to the reality that inflation may rise.

Bitcoin has risen since Kevin Warsh was nominated as the next potential Fed chair.

And Bitcoin appears to respond well to the concept of multilateralism, breaking down an individual financial self-sovereignty and the sovereignty of and borders of nations being challenged through a weaponized dollar, through military incursions, and through whipsaw tariff policies.

I mean, what does it take to get to 100,000 sooner than later?

Ray, what say you about Bitcoin? What happened? Why did we go down to 60,000? And where do you think it's headed?

Right.

Well, I agree with Sameer, and you know, Bitcoin's near-term weakness was driven by a combination of macroeconomic and equities-related factors.

It just wasn't crypto-specific catalyst this time.

There was huge investor anxiety last week over corporate earnings, especially big tech.

software companies, the Mag7.

And as stocks softened, we saw de-risking in Bitcoin price also.

You know, can everything go up at the same time? Gold, silver, Bitcoin and the markets?

How so?

The crypto market's always been driven by narratives, whether it's corporate adoption, whether it's some sort of new wallet, which is going to build infrastructure globally, whether it's stablecoin demand, it's always a narrative which is boosting sentiment.

So I think really what is going to be the driver in 2026 is the impact that AI has, the expectations that investors have on of AI and also of Mag7.

So the AI build out, the valuations, the fundraising, the IPOs, whether or not data center hyperscalers continue to propel the equities markets higher alongside the Magnificent 7.

I think that's really what's going to be at the front of everybody's mind because that has a direct impact on equities and then the performance of equities has a spillover effect on crypto.

So I think that that's really the main um you know catalyst that can either lead to upside in price or downside in price in the short term beyond that there's things like the strategic bitcoin reserve the digital asset treasuries um whether or not the clarity act um leads to some sort of d5 bull run or leads to offshore crypto companies returning to the US where they can sandbox and offer new goods and services to consumers? And of course, what is the actual consumer uptake of those products? So yeah, I think the primary narrative that investors might be keeping an eye on going into 2026 is what happens with AI?

And Ray, as we look at this, what will you be watching for, whether it's more legislation or more of an international footprint? Will that help?

Beyond what happens with the AI build out, I think inflation and the Fed's policy shift and President Trump's 2026 Fed chair selection is going to impact markets.

Ray, some of your thoughts.

I think it was good for Coinbase.

Their Q3 earnings were good.

Their revenue, their market share, and their growth is in a good place.

Transaction and trading revenue rose slightly above $1 billion from $527 million in the previous year.

Revenue from their subscription and services sector is up by 34% to $746 million, while their stablecoin-related revenue also rose to $354 million.

So they beat analyst expectations, which was I think $1.06 per share and the print was $1.50.

Ray?

Do you still love crypto? Let's start with that.

Of course I do.

And I think institutional and retail investors are still deeply in love with crypto and also deeply interested in it.

So the funny thing with our president, President Trump, is the 4D chess continues.

What he loves to do is make a market rattling announcement on a Friday or on a Saturday.

which kind of shakes confidence in markets.

They close in the red and then we have a gap down open on Monday.

No one wants Bitcoin today.