Everybody, Welcome into the Thinking Crypto podcast. You're home for your cryptocurrency news and interviews. 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 leave a five star rating and review. Well, folks, we've got to start off with the big news, and that is Consensus, which is the firm that works on the
development of Etherorem. They have filed a lawsuit against the SEC because the SEC we know, is trying to categorize Etherorem as a security. We heard rumors over the past month that they were investigating the Theorem foundation, and we've been talking about it for years that Gary Genser, scumbag regulator Gary Ginser refuses to echo the statements of Jay Clayton and Bill Himmon that etherorem is not a security, so it's really messy. And of course the CFTC views Etherorem as a
commodity. So this is so messy. This this is why we need regulations. We need Congress to act because you have this rogue regulator that is Gary Gainser just doing all types of nonsense and I've been saying that I don't think Gary necessarily wants to classify eth as a security, but rather he wants to delay the Etheroreum's BODYTF Now, I could be wrong because there are some moving pieces here with Prometheum, and they got the license to custody Etheroreum as a
security. I had Aaron Kaplan of Prometheum on the podcast and he was echoing Gainser's statements of these things are all digital asset securities, and that's a term Gary Genser coined. So what a mess. But let me give it a details. Here they said, today Consensus file a lawsuit against the Securities in
Exchange Commission. The goal behind this is to ensure that the etherorem remains a vibrant and indispensable blockchain platform and to preserve access for the countless developers, market participants, and institutions who have a stake in the world's second large blockchain. And they added the hashtag eth for all. They said here, we took
this step for two basic reasons. Number one, the SEC should not be allowed to arbitrarily expand its jurisdiction to include regulating the future of the Internet by wrongly labeling eth as a security. And number two, the SEC's reckless approach is bringing chaos to developers, market participants, institutions, and nations who are building or already managing critical systems running on the etheroreum. Now they continue into
their reasons and so forth. But that's the TLDR and I'm glad they're doing this. Recently, I had Bill Hughes, who's a lawyer at Consensus. I interviewed him. You know, I upload that interview six days ago. If you haven't seen it, be sure to check it out. We talk about what the SEC is trying to do here in categorizing ETH as a security.
I personally think this is a delayed tactic to push back that etherorem SPOTTYTF because the deadline is May twenty third, and you just see this mess though, right the SEC is soon the industry, the industry suing the SEC, and it's just all a mess. But we need Congress to act because we're all just going to be back and forth in litigation. Now. Don't get
me wrong. This is where the balance and the checks and balances comes in because the SEC has been taking some big losses because they've been lying to the courts. They've been acting arbitrary and capricious and just doing unlawful activities, so they're getting exposed. So that's a good thing, right, because we want these government agencies who are supposed to be the good guys to abide by the
law. They're taking our tax dollars and operating, so they should at least treat us fairly within the law versus the puppet masters who donate money to them. So we got to fight here, folks. There's a bigger theme here, and that is accountability by the government and to push back against these rogue agencies which have done incredible government overreach. So fascinating what's happening. Like I said, check out my interview with Bill Hughes. So a lot of folks
are weighing in on this. Paul grad Wall of Coinbase Chief Legal Officers said, I know eth is a commodity. You know eth is a commodity. The c FDC knows eth is a commodity. It's time for the SEC to admit that it still knows eth is a commodity too. No more games. Thank you Consensus for standing up against the SEC's unlawful expansion of authority. So we also have the Blockchain Association weighing in on this, giving a full statement.
Their CEO Kristen Smith also weighing in, talking about, Look, you know this is overreach by the SEC and consensuses. Lawsuit seeks to defend the ecosystem and much more. Now, folks, it's not that simple because we know, and I'll quote Stephen Narryoff here in his tweet, that Bill Hinman was compromised. He had conflicts of interest, so that's a fact, and he was warned by the SEC Ethics Office. And there's people who try to
cover this up and sweep it out and under the rug. But we have to call it what it is. And I'm not so much angry at Joe Lubin the or the etherorem folks, because it was the SEC agency which was compromised. They take my tax dollars, not Joe Lubin and so forth right. If you want to call him a bad actor, fine, right, and bad actors exist, but we at least want the government to abide by the law and not be bribe and not do all these unlawful activities. So
Steven Nariov was of course part of the creation of the Etheroreum ICO. I interviewed him about a month ago. He said, Joseph Lubin and Consensus have filed a lawsuit against the SEC to ensure that etherorem is not the cleator security. Joe Lubin, do you recall when you wrote the terms and conditions? He tagged him by the way, and they purchased agreement in twenty fourteen.
Lubin's significant buying during the ICO amounted to securities fraud one oh one and also transformed Ether into a security Gary Genso later confirmed this by stating Lubin bought nine point five percent of the ICO. So he continues, you know, to talk about Lubin met with Bill Hinman. We know how that went. He mentioned here Prometheum they got their license, of course in February of this year.
And much more so, he's essentially trying to say that this is the SEC coordinating with Lubin and so forth to try to put up some smoke and mirrors here. I don't know all the details, you know, because I wasn't there. Steven Arroyoff obviously was, So I'll take him at his word, but you know, we'll see how this plays out at the end of the day, what we need is Congress to act to provide clarity because it's
just a mess and people are going to keep suing each other. This one's going to come up with this narrative, this one's going to say this story. So it's getting very messy, like where does this even end? And you know, one of the things I spoke to Bill Hughes about at Consensus is that if the SEC denies the etherorem' spot ETF, they could get sued by Fidelity, black Rock and many of the Etheroreum etf issuers. It's no
longer just grayscale like it was in the Bitcoin ETF case. So Gary, I don't think he wants these problems, but we'll see where this goes. There's something cooking up here. I don't trust Gary, I don't trust Prometheum, I don't trust Joe Lubin once again. But my ripe mainly is with the government agency because that's being funded by my tax dollar. So I've been on record saying that, and we'll see where this goes. Now, what's interesting is that eth is trending here. The data is brought to you by
Sentiment, which does social media metrics and sentiment about different crypto coins. So if you want to sign up for a pro account, you can check out the LinkedIn and description. You can get a discount using the code thinking crypto so eth though, even though this news is popping up, is trending positively, I guess because the investors see this is a good thing going on the offensive against the SEC. Coming in at number two is Amp with positive sentiment.
Number three baby dos Coin, a meme coin coming in with a positive sentiment. Vello comes in at number four with positive sentiment. Eos Wow a blasphom pass. This thing was essentially dead, but it's still here. I'm not invested in it, but it has high positive sentiment. Chronoscro crypto dot COM's coin coming in with positive sentiment, Bunk another meme coin coming in with positive sentiment, and number seven Masa. I've not heard of this. This
token comes in at number eight with positive sentiment. Doge Coin another meme coin coming in at number nine with positive sentiment, and BnB coming in at number ten with positive sentiment. So those are you top ten trending tokens on social media data brought to you by Sentiment Now folks, We've got some interesting news that Ripple is using USDT the stable coin. It's fascinating and I think this has to do with the lawsuit. Right They were kind of forced to step
away from XRP a little bit during that period. In crypto. Eddie, who has a great channel you can check out her channel, highlighted an email here from Monica Long of Ripple saying that they took steps to mitigate each US based ODL customer from using Excorp as the bridge in the ODL to using USDT or the contract was terminated. We should continue to use USDT or Bitcoin or other vetted stable coins for US based flows unless otherwise approved by legal So you
know, this has to do with the lawsuit. I understand why they pivoted, but I think the key point here and I always keep it real with you guys. I don't have a hidden agenda. You know some people have a hidden agenda. They spread foot about Tether and USDT. I've interviewed the CEO Tether. I've found their attestations and their audits which appear on the website
to be legit. They got a big endorsement from Howard Lutnick, the CEO of Canthor Fitzgerald firm that's been on Wall Street forever, and he said at Davos they have the money. So I think with all the details that Teather has done and cleaned up their books and they're in I think they're in a
better place now that even a company like Ripple is using u SDT. So, you know, crypto Eddie called out the folks who are spreading fud and lying and saying, you know, you know those channels claiming usdt's a scam, oh the twist of life, and you know you're pretty much talking about some XRP maximalists who do this. So, guys, this is why you always do your own research and don't just listen to stories and people. Go do your research. Even what I'm telling you, validate it, And I
have confidence saying that because I don't have a hidden agenda. You can go read up this email, go check out the article and see that indeed this is fact right, it's not a lie. I'm not trying to blow smoke up here you know where, or gaslight you or anything. I'm here to make money and I'm telling you what I'm doing. I'm sharing the facts and the news and the reporting here, so and Tether. Here's a report that
actually came out yesterday. Tether will freeze while it's evading Venezuelan sanctioned. So Tether's actually been working with governments to stop bad actors, and that's what you want to see from the world's largest stable coin issuer. They are working with
different folks. So use of Tether has increased in Venezuela after the US reimposed sanctions on oil exports, so the firm froze forty one wallets tied to the US Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control specifically designated nationals list in December. So again they're working with the governments. They have cleaned up their books, they're doing the attestations, they've done audits. Go on their website and check
it out. And they're getting endorsements from Wall Street firms. So I think Tether isn't a better place now. I always keep it real with you guys. I don't think things were in a good place years ago. I'm talking like four or five years ago, or maybe you know what five six years ago, I would say, And when it was a bit of the wild west of the crypto market, and I've had, like I said, represented some tethers, a couple on the podcasts. I've interviewed them and asked them
the hard questions and so forth. And like I said, my most recent interview was with the CEO Tether, Paolo r Emos, So be sure to check out at interview. It's a pretty good one, ri folks. Quick word from our sponsor and that is bitgo. Big Goes one of the top tier crypto custodians in the market, serving many large institutions and crypto firms. Some of the names include Pantera Capital, Bitstamp Exchange, Bitcoin Ira, and many more. In fact, Nike uses bitgoes wallets service for their NFTs,
so bitco has been around for a long time. It's headed up by Mike Belshie, who was building in Web one point zero and two point zero. He's pretty much an Internet legend man who's at Google building Google Chrome and much more. But the features and services that bitgo offers includes hot wallets, custodial wallets, self managed coal walts, and NFT walts. And they have top
tier security and insurance and much more. So. If you'd like to learn more about bidgo, check out the link in the description or go to bitgo dot com. Now, folks, we've got news area. Stripe is looking to bring back crypto payments in the next few months. This is the first cryptocentric announcement from Stripe since May of last year. So we're seeing all types of technology services, business solutions, and apps and technologies are integrating crypto and
of course because it's a growing technology and acid class. So global payments company Stripe announced that it was going to start allowing crypto payments on Thursday at the company's Global Internet Economy Conference. Speaking at the final keynote titled the Future of Payments, Stripe's president John Collison said, our history with crypto goes back a long time. He cited the company's now defunct Bitcoin support back in twenty eighteen
because it wasn't being used. We're excited to announce that we're bringing back crypto as a way to accept payments, but this time it will be a much better experience, folks. As I always say, this is news you want to see if you're investing in a nascent acid class. So it's incredible what's happening. Some of the biggest companies in the world are integrating and adopting crypto. They're tokenizing their building with it. They're creating financial products right like the
ETFs and much more. Due to the fact that crypto has more use cases and Callson presentations said, cryptos back Stripe decided to bring back crypto payments. Here's a quote. Crypto is finding real utility. Callison said, with transaction speeds increasing and costs coming down, we're seeing crypto finally make sense as a means of exchange. And I think we're seeing a lot of that is due to stable coins like USDC and much more. And with interoperability and different blockchains
and faster transaction times and lower costs. You know, as there's more iterations with these different cryptocurrencies and like I said, better experience and speed and transaction fee standpoint, you're going to see more adoption globally. So this is really good news. Now we got some big news around Algoran. Many of you know I hold the Algo token. I am bullish on this project, not financial advice through your own research. But the headline reads Algoran courts Python devs
in seismic chain. The Algrand Foundation touts the network as the first to go after full of ten million global developers. A choice of programming language is not the be all and end all of smart contract development, but it does influence security, efficiency, and accessibility of blockchain applications. Each language comes with its own set of capabilities and limitations that can impact how contracts are executed, the
potential for vulnerabilities, and the ease of finding and fixing errors. Algran is becoming the first Layer one blockchain to adopt Python as its canonical language. In what Algrand Foundation Chief technology Officer John Woods calls a seismic change. Python is a massive step forward on the roadmap towards removing all barriers to entry for developers,
said Woods. So this is actually really good. I know it's not something that we as investors really pay attention to, but when you want to attract more developers and the best developers, you want to make sure you're using certain coding language that is familiar and has global presence so that you get more talent, right, and you get people who are more familiar with that talent,
and you can try to get the best out of these folks. So I think it makes sense, and this is really good news for Algo token holders. So great to see that this is a door they're opening up, and I think it will lead to more adoption of blockchains if they're more compatible with you know, other solutions that are out there, other technologies and so forth. So I think it's a win win all around. Now, next news item here, crypto focused federal chartered bank intro settlement network, coin fund
edX Clearing and non co are among the first users of the offering. So this is Anchorage Digital. Many of you may recall my interview with Nathan McCauley, he's the CEO of Anchorage Digital, just maybe about a month ago, so be sure to check that out. I try to bring you guys these interviews so you can hear from people building and investing in the market. So, Anchorage Digital is a federally chartered bank and it is now offering settlement of
US dollars and crypto assets for buy and sell side institutions. Crypto focused. Anchorage Digital unveil its new settlement network called Atlas in a Thursday announcement. Atlas has already settled hundreds of millions of dollars in crypto since its early access launch earlier this year. To company said, Atlass users can access counterparties that include clients of Anchorage Digital and its Singapore subsidiary on chain settlement ensures the assets are
not commingled and don't leave on chain addresses until settlement occurs. According to the bank, this is what we need for the growth of the market. No commingling, no FTX, right trusted institutions who are federally chartered, god insurance, your license, and much more. And you know if you put your crypto funds with these firms, you know there's safeguards, there's guardrails in place, and that they're not going to do nonsense like FTX was allowed to do
under Gary Genser's watch. By the way, so at List participants are not reliant on settlement providers books, a spokesperson told block Works. Our regulatory status and security profile represent a major unlock for institutions, with ATLAS advancing a new era of safe and secure settlement across the industry. So really great to see this. And the industry is growing, guys, it's maturing all the bells
and whistles and even more than what exists in the tratify markets. So these are custody and these things are pillars for the growth of this asset class and a continued adoption and we continue to raise the bar and the standard here. So this is a great, great sign. So that's the news, folks. Friendly reminder to check out my book, Rethinking Crypto. It is available on Amazon in digital and in paperback. Guys. This book tells the story
of crypto. Talks about you know, the sec versus Gray Scale and Ripple, and why those lawsuits are there, why FTX was not the ethos of crypto, Sam Beck, mcfred was just a bad actor. It talks about the future of crypto, what that looks like. It talks about the bigcoin ETM phrase with Black Rock and Wall Street. It also highlights tips for how
to invest in crypto. Now, if you know all about crypto, you know, this would make a great gift for someone who doesn't know, because it gives the holistic view of crypto, not just okay, it's only bitcoin, but or it's only this and that. It talks about everything, tokenization, CBDCs, everything, guys. So grab a copy, guys. Link will be in the description. And I also have a book signing event next week, So if you are in the New York City area, come check
it out. The book signing will be in a building right across the street from the Wall Street Bowl. Will be in the Financial district. Come get some food and chat up about crypto. Get a signed copy of the book, we can hang out. It'll be Tuesday, April thirty. A link will be in a description. Thank you guys for watching and listening, and I'll talk to you all late. This task stop post tasks. Don't stand