Welcome to the Thinking Crypto podcast. You're home for cryptocurrency news and interviews. If you are new here, 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. It supports the podcast and that doesn't cost you anything. Well, folks, let's take a look at the price of bitcoin. Still consolidating, still
bouncing between sixty nine to seventy one thousand dollars. Right now, bitcoin is just over seventy thousand dollars, so we're waiting to see what the next move is going to be. We're waiting for that dxy to start collapsing. It is forming a small red candle on the daily chart, but we need to see more confirmation here. Here's what Matthew Hiland, who's a great analyst, is saying. Bitcoin will attempt to go for its highest weekly close ever on
Sunday. Of course, Sunday is the last day of the month March thirty first, so fingers crossed that it's able to do that. Also, it is attempting to complete its seventh consecutive green monthly candle for the first time in its entire history with the March closed. So look, nothing can go up forever in a straight line. So even if it closes in the red, that's okay. I believe April will be bullish. I could be wrong, but I believe April is going to be bullish with the having and the narrative
and the hype behind that. But who knows. Guys, Bitcoin is doing its own thing right now, so we've got to be patient and let things play out. Now, let's take a look at the top trending coins on social media. This data is brought to you by Sentiment, which provides a lot of cryptometrics and analytics. If you like to sign it for an account, check out my link in the description. You can use the code thinking crypto to get a discount. So light coin is trending at number one here,
it's positive sentiments at forty eight percent. It's negative sentiment though, is at thirty one percent, so not too much positive sentiment there. Light Coin is trending due to the upcoming future trading on coinbase, the potential for and ETF and the recent price increases, so that makes sense why it's trending There was news of course earlier in the week about it, like cooin, etf
and much more. Coming in at number two is Vello. Vello has been getting a lot of news lately in price increase with positive sentiment here number two. It's trending due to discussions about Vello Finance, a defive project on the blockchain. Users are talking about holding vellow tokens and wallets and features, as well as accessing information and trading options related to Vello on various platforms. Now coming at number three here is Hat in a Dog's World mew mew. Yes,
that's a real coin. It's a meme coin. Be careful with these meme coins, guys. But it comes in at number three. Number four is a raven Coin RVN. Actually haven't heard of that dog with hat. Another meme coin coming in at number five. Bitcoin Cash coming in at number six with a positive sentiment of forty five percent but a negative sentiment of forty percent. Cat token Oh my gosh, see literally c AT is the token symbol here. It has positive sentiment. Folks. I'm gonna give the warning
again, be careful with these meme coins. Defy or defy dot money or YFII from saying that right coming in here in number eight, but has high negative sentiment at forty one percent and positive sentiment at thirty nine percent. Dojelon mars Elon that's seventy one percent positive sentiment at number nine, and Shiba you know here at number ten with positive sentiments. So a lot of meme coins, guys, some new ones as well. I personally don't invest in meme
coin. I find them to be very risky. But if your risk appetite is, you know, at that level, and you know what you're doing, then more power to you. But just be careful to my new investors in the crypto industry, be very careful with mean coins. You can get burned. It's like go walking into the casino and throwing it on black or red whatever. Right, it's that level of risk, so just be careful out there. Now, we got some interesting information here that these spot bitcoin
ETFs have accumulated over thirty five billion dollars worth of bitcoins since January. Wow, folks, incredible performance and we're just getting started. And of course Larry Fink was on TV this week saying, you know, black Rocks ETF is the fastest growing ETF and history of all ETFs so very bullish, and we still got ways to go as more rias and wealth managers start allocating their clients'
funds to these ETFs. Now the big news of the day, folks, we got Ripple CEO Brad garling House and Ripple's chief legal officer, Stuart Aldoraddy were spotted in New York today at a federal courthouse and the question was asked, are they in talks with the SEC for settlement? So the photos checked
out. They were certainly in New York at the federal courthouse. And Eleanor Tarott of Fox Business confirmed that there was a hearing indeed today at the court, and she says, according to a court listener, there was a settlement
conference schedule for today, March twenty ninth. She asked Ripple for comments and they did not comment, of course, So I don't think they're going to come out and say anything about this, but we will probably hear from the SEC and Ripple if there is some sort of settlement or action item here. So Eleanor did find a document which highlighted that there was a one hour meetings
schedule for today. So once again this is legit and confirmed. Some folks on Twitter here were able to pull up some scheduling information and once again confirmed it. And he also asked Mark Fagel, who's a former SEC official, about his thoughts on this. He ditrol people initially saying it means the parties have settled, Ripple will pay two billion dollars and it is now illegal for you to trade XRP, and he says, no, sorry, I read
that wrong. It's a mandatory pre hearing settlement conference. Part of the original scheduling order. Odds of a settlement is about zero percent. Now, Mark did say, to be clear, that's my assumption. I have no actional knowledge of this. Now. I don't think he's entirely wrong, but zero percent chance, I think that's not right. You know, from a probability
standpoint, I think it has to be higher. I think we could say fifteen percent chance of settlement or twenty percent, right, but eighty percent maybe no. But I think we see the gears are in motion here. If they're meeting, they're discussing the SEC has put out how much money it wants two billion dollars. Obviously they're not going to get two billion, right, they're going to negotiate this down. Maybe they walk away with a few hundred
million dollars. I think, honestly, I had said since the beginning in this lawsuit that Ripple would have to pay a fine for the early days. You guys know I've been on record for that. So we're at least near
the conclusion of this. You know, I did tweet out that I think I think it would be wise for Gary Ginser to take this small win right, split the baby in the middle here, because they lost on the fact that XRP is intrinsically a security and that secondary market sales and exchanges are securities. They lost that very clearly, right, and that has set case law
precedent for the entire market. So if you're Gary, you could walk away with a small victory here saying, hey, at least we were able to get some clarity and we got rippled to pay a fine because he's taking a lot of losses in court right now. It would actually be wise. But look, Gary's actually not the one in control, right He's been controlled by
Elizabeth Warren, and Elizabeth Warren is being controlled by the Tradfy incumbents. But we'll see because there's also the election coming up, and Elizabeth Warren and Gary Ginser are Democrats, and Biden, of course is a Democrat. And you know Biden's administration appointed Gary Ginster. So maybe they, you know, try to walk away with some sort of victory because you can imagine the headlines. Ripple pays three hundred million dollars in settlement with the SEC. That's going to
look good for Gary. So even though it's not going to be the big victory that he wanted, he's at least gonna walk away with something here. But who knows, right, this is all just speculation, So I think there's some chance of settlement. I don't think it's zero percent, like Mark Fagel saying here. I think Mark is a little bit biased because he's constantly bashing crypto people and much more, and he's been wrong on on certain topics.
But I'm not saying it's one hundred percent. I think we have to be logical here and at least give a fifteen to twenty percent chance that settlement may be possible. Now. Funny enough, Ripple's chief legal officer, Stuart ALLROADI tweeted out today that seven years after the Dow report, which the SEC claims provided clarity the crypto. The SEC is still litigating eight major crypto cases
in federal courts with no end in sight. Something's broken, so this may and this was after the court hearing they had today, so he's kind of venting his frustration here. But yeah, folks, you know interesting, Like I said, the ball is rolling here, the gears are in motion, and we'll see, hopefully we get some sort of conclusion to this soon because
this is so annoying and we need to move forward. But we're dealing with a scumbag regulator that is controlled by Elizabeth Warren and the incumbent, so we got to keep fighting. And look, it's like the saying goes right. First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you. That's the phase we're in right now. Then you win the genius out of the bottle. They can't stop this technology. What they're doing is causing
a lot of confusion. They're putting up roadblocks, they're slowing down projects. But guess what, the crypto projects are going overseas and they can still exist, right because this is a global asset class in technology, So you can put up a as many roadblocks in the US as you want. It's only a matter of time too, when you think about generations that pass away and the changing of the guard, right, So eventually this technology is going to
win. Disruptive technology always wins. This is apparent throughout the history of the world. So time is on our side here and gainser. He's going to be here till whenever, and he's going to be out right, a new president will come in. You got younger members of Congress coming in, many who are pro crypto. So the tide is changing here and against there is not on the winning side of history here quick way from our sponsor, folks,
and that is v chain. V chain is one of the top enterprise layer one blockchains out there that is working on amazing Web three and decentralized app initiatives. They are partnered with some of the big brands out there such as BMW, Walmart, China, PwC. They are also working with the Boston Consulting Group. V chain is a very eco friendly blockchain using low energy. It's very fast and great security, and that's why it's getting incredible adoption for
many enterprises. I am a VET token holder. I have been for years. So if you'd like to learn more about v chain, go to vchain dot org. Link will be in the description. Now some not so good news, folks. Eleanor Terrytor Fox Business is reporting that Indie Custodia versus the FED lawsuit. The judge in the case sided with the FED in a summary judgment and denied Custodia's petition for review of its APA claim and its motion for
judgment on its statutory mandamus claim. So not great news. Custodia can certainly appeal here, but everyone was hoping they could win against the FED. But I think this is all goes back to they're trying to slow crypto down as much as possible. They don't want Custodia launching. It disrupts the trad five banking incumbents, right, Custodia is trying to build a new model being a crypto bank. So it's but once again time is on our side here,
Eleanor Territt said. A spokesperson for Custodia told Fox Business challenging the Fed's strong arm tactics has always been an uphill battle, but Custodia Bank remains committed to our vision of creating a safe, tech enabled bank. We are reviewing the court's decision and all of our options, including appeal, so it's not entirely over here, but we'll see what happens now. The other major thing that's going on is the waiting of the Ethereum ETF spot ETF approval from the SEC.
Many folks are doubtful that this will happen by May twenty third, which is the next deadline. So Attorney Fred Wispoli, who I've had on the podcast, he did say, I continue to believe the ETF gets rejected and the SEC just forces applicants to beat it in the court, with said loss being almost guaranteed. There is simply no penalty for the SEC for engaging in arbitrary and capricious actions, So what does it care. That's a great point, and here Ryan selkis a Missari, agreed with that. He said,
this is the correct take regarding the ether METF. The set under Gary Ginser is a corrupt institution that is rotting from the head. It actively undermines its own mandate in order to prioritize political ends. So this is what I've been saying, guys. This ether METF situation is not as simple as the Bitcoin ETF situation. Look, Bitcoin didn't have any problems with it being a security or commodity, there was no question about that right, but they still didn't
want to approve it. It took the courts to force Gary Genser and it was a three to two vote. Gary was the third, first was commissioner person and Marcy Wada and then Gary the third, and then the other two Democrat commissioners voted no. So even after the court rules, so I don't think this eth ETF is getting through. I could be wrong. I think Gary is gonna die in the hill and he's gonna go all the way because his handler's Elizabeth Warren and the banking incumbents want him to do that. He
doesn't care. And as Fred says here, he can be called arbitrary and capricious. He call a liar unlawful regulator much more. He doesn't care because there's no penalty for him. You know, I don't see the House Financial Services cutting off his funding or doing thing like that. They're just sending him letters. Patrick McHenry has not even issued at subpoena he threatened against Gary a year ago. So at this point Gary's just like, Yeah, I'll do
whatever I want because there's no penalty. Sure, I get bad headlines, I get bad optics, and I do think that plays a factor. In the long run, He's gonna lose Democrat support, right because politics, a lot of it is an optics game. But in the immediate nothing's going to happen to him. He's just hanging out in his office and he's going to try to get as much the penalty and settlement money and that he can from the industry, and he's probably enjoying this that he gets to go around shaking
down these companies like the mob here. Charles Gasparino, Fox Business also tweeted out today scoop securities lawyers growing in reasingly pessimistic about the approval of an etheroreum ETF, saying it would be impossible to create one if the SEC deems it as security guys. I actually interviewed just this past week Steven Narioff, who's was an Etheroum advisor I think a co founder as well, and we had a long discussion about this, and that interview should be published maybe Monday or
Tuesday, so it is day tuned for that. So there's a lot of complications here and we got to keep fighting. Gary Genser is not giving up, and we cannot give up. We got to use social media, we got to contact our representatives. And this is why I'll be going to the DC Blockchain Summit, which will be held in Washington, DC. Of course, this is being put together by the Chamber of Digital Commerce. It's a two day event. You got the summit on the fifteenth, You got the
Blockchain Education Day on the sixteenth, so you can attend either one. The Blockchain Education Day we go to Capitol Hill, so if you'd like to buy a ticket and you know, we can meet up there and talk about crypto and go have our voices heard in DC. Check out the link in the description. You can use the code thinking crypto to get a discount. So hopefully I can see some of you there. But like I said, folks, we got to keep fighting. All right. That's the news. Let
me know what you think. Leave your thoughts and comments below, hit the thumbs up button, hit the five star rating. Don't forget to follow me on TikTok, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and all social platforms. Links in a description also, folks, sign up for my free email newsletter on substack one hundred percent free. Thank you for watching and listening, and I'll talk to you all later