Wall Street Is Quietly Betting Bigger on Crypto

**Sean** (0:00)
Well, good morning, everyone.

**Scott Melker** (0:01)
Being late.

**Jamie** (0:10)
We lose you, Dave?

**Scott Melker** (0:14)
Sorry, can you guys hear me now?

**Jamie** (0:16)
Yep, yep.

**Scott Melker** (0:17)
Cool, thanks for letting me know, because the light on my microphone's on the far side of me, so if I happen to inadvertently hit the mute button on it, I don't see it.
The thing that's interesting is in the space of a day, last night, I was at a dinner for the Board of Security Traders Association, and pretty much every firm is talking about tokenization, use of crypto, trading, the convergence of crypto and traditional assets. All of this is happening, and all of them are like looking at Washington and saying, what the fuck, and at the same time...

**Mauricio** (0:54)
Can anyone hear, Dave?

**Jamie** (0:57)
Yeah, I can hear him. Yeah, I can hear him too.

**Scott Melker** (1:01)
Yeah, we hear you, Dave. Okay.

**Jamie** (1:03)
Well, maybe you drop down and bring back up. I think it was Rajeev, maybe? Yeah.

**Rajeev** (1:09)
No, no, I can hear him. You can hear me now?

**Scott Melker** (1:11)
Okay, cool. So there's this interesting juxtaposition that pretty much, and pretty much all the major firms are pushing to be able to trade around the clock depending on whether the weekends or not.
It's probably 23.5 is what they're looking for. But also to be able to offer, like Morgan Stanley is, crypto and the convergence of these assets together, etc. There's all sorts of really interesting development going on to make that happen, much of which has investment implications for both crypto assets and crypto firms and crypto adjacent firms. At the same time, we have this group of morons in Washington, who are so butthurt about Trump and what he did with the Trump and Melania meme coins, that they're lying, and they're lying in such a way that's incredibly obvious. I mean, a kindergarten student could probably understand that what Trump did was completely legal and authorized by the Gensler SEC.
And now they're saying that they need an act that's so much stronger than what we currently have.
To me, it's just mind-boggling, this nonsense.
And obviously, if all of Wall Street wants to see regulation, it'll happen, but the politics now are just toxic. Now, I am uniquely qualified, I think, to make these ridiculous statements or to be this angry, because as you all know, or many of you have been listening to me, I was very critical and still am, and think that the bull market was half as big as it was because of the Trump and Melania meme coins and all the grifting that pissed off half the country. So I have been very, very clear about this. I mean, despite my political leanings being more towards the administration than against it, I call that out as absolute corruption, absolute grift, and something that should never have happened. And it's the kind of thing that there shouldn't need to be a law. Anyone who is in public service at all should know that this sort of shit shouldn't be done. And I would say it to his face, so that's fine. But the fact is that the politics are stupid. They will get resolved, even if it takes till 2028 to do it. But we're sitting in this ridiculous situation where who knows whether we're going to get a bill. To understand, the other thing that's really interesting about this bill, and I'll be curious what people think, Tomer, I'm sure you're going to agree with me, is I don't think Bitcoin, I don't think that while it may very well influence the short-term price of Bitcoin, because there are people who think it's relevant, I don't think any of the development going on in Bitcoin is really important for this bill. The closest thing that happens that this bill does, the only thing it does that's really directly Bitcoin related, is it will specifically allow people who use third parties to invest in Bitcoin, whether that's ETFs, which are somewhat protected already, or brokerages, to have their assets protected in the case of bankruptcy. Which is not a small thing, but it has no impact on self-custody. The BRCA, which now they're starting to reopen up for software development, that does have some implications. But really, it's for most of crypto and not for Bitcoin. And so here we are in Crypto Town Hall, and we're trying to look at it broadly, and it's being confused from externally. So I'm curious, I said a lot of stuff here, hopefully, and I didn't trigger one hand, which tells me I'm doing something wrong. Okay, Matt, go ahead.