HUGE NEWS! US TO SEIZE IRAN CRYPTO, XRP LEDGER NEW FEATURE, SUI BITCOIN DEFI, & ZCASH QUANTUM!

Tony Edward (0:05)

Hey folks, welcome into the Thinking Crypto Podcast, your home for cryptocurrency news and interviews. I'm your host Tony Edward. On your way in, please hit that subscribe button, as well as the thumbs up button, and leave a comment below. If you're listening on a podcast platform, such as Spotify or Apple, please be sure to follow and leave a five-star rating. All right guys, first news item, Thailand SEC issues Bitcoin and Ether ETF rules, set to take effect on October 16th. The Thai regulator set an October 16 effective date for its crypto ETF framework, while limiting initial assets to Bitcoin and Ether. So again, the theme of global crypto adoption playing out here, guys, we're seeing countries and jurisdictions around the globe embracing crypto, not banning it, and they're putting the regulation and passing legislation, putting the rules in place. So we're seeing onramps being set up for more capital to come into this market. So it seems like every week we're reporting on some country taking action to move forward with crypto. So really, really great stuff. So slated to take effect on October 16, the rules require funds to track crypto asset prices and maintain average net exposure of at least 80% of net asset value to that asset over each accounting year. The funds must also use custodians licensed by the SEC and trade exclusively on the stock exchange of Thailand, according to the statement.

Folks, it's incredible to see what is taking place, crypto going on stock exchanges, being offered by banks, asset managers and much more. And I got into the market in 2016, and at that time, many of these folks were saying negative things about Bitcoin and crypto that it's a scam. If you guys recall, Larry Fink of BlackRock, he said it was an index for money laundering and much more. Now, a complete 180, right? All the asset managers, all the bank stock exchanges and much more are on board, and the governments are regulating it. So very, very exciting. And I am so optimistic on the outlook of this asset class because we're so early and the technology is being used to build the infrastructure for the future financial system. So this is incredible news. Now, we have some very interesting news coming out from the US Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent. He says the US is expected to seize $1 billion in Iran-linked crypto this week, part of an absolute isolation campaign targeting the regime's access to financial channels. So obviously, there's a political, geopolitical layer to this, but now they're looking to go after any of their crypto assets. So we'll see how this plays out. We've seen the US seize assets from other countries, like Venezuela. So could they take this crypto and put it in their stockpile? Again, I'm not here to say whether it's right or wrong. I'm just reporting the news to you guys. But could they seize this crypto and then put it into the digital stockpile? So depending on which assets the Iran holds, they can allocate accordingly to the Bitcoin reserve and then all coins to the digital stockpile. So we'll see how this plays out.

This could have huge implications on the U.S.'s crypto holdings because as you all recall, while we do have a Bitcoin reserve set up, there's no legislation in place to talk about how the US would buy Bitcoin or buy crypto assets, right? That has been left out, but they have used the assets they've seized from bad actors over the years to fund their stockpile. So we'll see because there's a geopolitical layer to this and the negotiations and things that may not actually come to fruition, but this is something to keep an eye on. Okay, moving ahead, XRP Ledger adds new controls for banks, stable coins, and tokenized funds. The feature lets businesses give separate accounts limited powers, such as approving customers or making payments while keeping the keys that control their main holdings offline. So we continue to see a lot of updates on the XRP Ledger, which is really great. And don't get me wrong, other blockchains are also doing updates. And this is what you want to see. I'm invested in the XRP token and other blockchains, and I want to see continued utility and expansion and upgrades and doing more. So the feature called permission delegation version 1.1 activated on October 8th. According to monitoring site XRPL Dashboard, upgrades require more than 80 percent support from trusted validators. The operators who confirm transactions for two straight weeks with the current list of 35, that means at least 29 supporters. So really great update here. And many of you know, I will be at the Ripple Swell Conference coming up towards the end of October. I'll be doing interviews there, so I'll have a media setup and more. So stay tuned for that. And speaking of tokenization, HSBC, pretty big bank, Ant Digital tests AI agent payments using tokenized deposits. So we know the big banks, they are building tokenized deposits, which is going to move kind of on a wholesale level between the banks. And some of these banks are also looking to launch stable coins and integrating stable coins, which will be more so on the retail side. But look at what they're testing, AI agents being able to use these tokenized assets. And it makes sense because AI is going to play a big part in the economy. And while you're sleeping, you can continue to work and monitor things and much more. So the technical trial showed how AI agents could discover services and make micro payments using HSBC's tokenized deposits with real time settlement and risk checks. So this folks is a microcosm of what's to come. This is the future. It's going to happen in many aspects of the economy, not just with the banks, but with the payment companies, credit card companies and much more. So according to Friday's announcement, the test combined HSBC's tokenized deposits service with Ant Digital's Envita Flow network, which enables AI agents to find and use services on the Jovay Testnet, a layer two blockchain testing environment.