Connect with Early Riders — https://www.earlyriders.com/contact
Connect with Onramp — https://onrampbitcoin.com/contact-us/
Presented collaboratively by Early Riders & Onramp Media…
Final Settlement is a weekly podcast covering capital markets, dealmaking, early-stage venture, bitcoin applications and protocol development.
This week Brian, Michael, and Liam cover Anthropic's Mythos and Fable controversy and the orchestrated open-source-vs-frontier AI dynamic (Microsoft eyeing DeepSeek for enterprise, Japan's Sakana Fugu launch, Goldman's 24x token forecast by 2030), Franklin Templeton's new ETFs that auto-invest stock dividends into Bitcoin, Fidelity and State Street's entry into stablecoin reserve management, Illinois Governor Pritzker's 0.2% crypto wealth tax, the Fed's 130-page stablecoin KYC rulemaking, Binance's MiCA expulsion, Coinbase's tokenized-stocks rollout, SpaceX's IPO run and $60B Cursor acquisition, and the latest on Strategy's stretch product.
Chapters
00:00 - Introduction and Current Events
03:04 - Anthropic's Mythos and Fable Controversy
05:58 - The Role of Open Source in AI
08:54 - AI Models and National Security Concerns
11:54 - Microsoft's Strategic Moves in AI
14:57 - The Future of AI Infrastructure
17:55 - The Dynamics of AI Token Consumption
21:06 - Emerging AI Technologies and Market Trends
24:10 - Japan's Entry into AI with Sakana Fugu
27:11 - Open Source Challenges and GitHub Controversy
30:31 - Merging Money and AI for Market Success
32:08 - Stablecoin Management: Fidelity and State Street's Moves
33:59 - Innovative ETF: Dividends into Bitcoin
38:48 - Regulatory Challenges: Illinois Crypto Tax
42:52 - Stablecoin Issuer Regulations and KYC
48:54 - Tokenized Stocks: Coinbase's New Offering
50:53 - SpaceX's Rapid Growth and Market Dynamics
If you found this valuable, please subscribe to Early Riders Insights for access to the best content in the ecosystem weekly: https://www.earlyriders.com/research
Keep up with Michael:
https://x.com/MTanguma
Keep up with Liam:
https://x.com/Lnelson_21
Keep up with Brian:
https://x.com/BackslashBTC

Strategy's recent sale of 32 Bitcoin came with unusual framing: Michael Saylor said the purpose was to "inoculate the markets." Glenn Cameron, Global Head of Institutional at Onramp Bitcoin, reads that word as preparation for larger Bitcoin sales ahead, walks through the STRC prospectus and the pressure points (Strategy now trading at 84% of NAV, the cash reserve cut to roughly seven months after redeeming a 0% convertible note, the board-suspendable dividend), and lands on the sharpest argument: 83% of STRC holders are retail investors sold a product marketed as "a high yield bank account" that's structurally junior equity on a volatile Bitcoin company.---🎙️ About This EpisodeGlenn Cameron, CFA, Global Head of Institutional at Onramp Bitcoin, joins Laura Shin to break down the STRC prospectus and argue that Saylor's "inoculate the markets" framing of Strategy's 32 BTC sale signals larger sales ahead. Glenn walks through the pressure points: Strategy trading at 84% of its Bitcoin value (so new equity issuance dilutes Bitcoin-per-share for existing holders), the cash reserve sitting at roughly seven months after redeeming a 0% convertible note, and STRC's board-suspendable dividend. He returns to the heart of the case: 83% of STRC holders are retail investors sold a product marketed as "a high yield bank account" that's structurally junior equity with no maturity, no FDIC protection, and no redemption right. Plus the 2028 cliff where $3.5B in convertibles become putable, the SATA-vs-STRC comparison, the "digital credits" naming critique, and why Bitmine's upcoming BMNP staking yield won't cover its cost of capital.🧠 Chapters00:00 - Welcome, sponsors, and Glenn's introduction01:04 - Risk vs uncertainty: Glenn's framework for analyzing Strategy04:07 - What 'inoculate' really means: Saylor preparing the market for bigger Bitcoin sales06:38 - Strategy below NAV: why issuing new stock now dilutes Bitcoin per share12:13 - The dilution spiral: Glenn's response to people calling Strategy criticism FUD19:37 - Strategy's last option: suspend the dividend (and what that does to retail)23:42 - The 2028 cliff: $3.5B in convertibles become putable27:30 - Why sell only 32 Bitcoin: changing the narrative for future sales30:42 - The 'digital credit' name and the Moody's analysis: how STRC is classified 100% equity35:53 - Saylor's own words: three claims that STRC is a high-yield bank account40:34 - STRC vs money markets and FDIC: what the actual product looks like44:30 - The confidence game: why MSTR needs premium-to-NAV to keep the flywheel turning48:02 - SATA vs STRC: same instrument, different coat of paint55:22 - Bitmine's BMNP: Tom Lee's ETH-backed preferred and why the wrapper is doubly flawed01:01:00 - What Glenn would advise: don't drain the cash reserve

💡 Subscribe & Stay AheadConnect with Laura Shin:

https://x.com/laurashinConnect with Glenn Cameron:

https://x.com/GlennOnrampBTC🎧 Subscribe to Unchained for more high-signal interviews on crypto, finance, and macro:https://open.spotify.com/show/1cJrrfGY1SKBIRn5noKSAf?si=ec9517a508a34436

The Last Trade: Mark Yusko, CIO of Morgan Creek Capital Management, joins to call the SpaceX IPO and the broader AI capex wave the greatest bubble in the history of markets, why Elon's $1 trillion XAI revenue promise by 2030 is securities fraud, how DeepSeek is poised to break the AI bubble by doing what OpenAI and Anthropic do for 5 cents on the dollar, why Bitcoin's Metcalf's Law fair value already sits around $125,000 even as price trades closer to $60K, his specific October 5 cycle-bottom call for the next crypto spring, and the brutal truth that the 1986 Tax Act and the rise of the 401k were a heist on the American middle class.

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🔸 Connect with Onramp: The leader in resilient, fault-tolerant Multi-Institution Custody for secure, enduring bitcoin ownership.

👉 Onramp Finance: https://onrampbitcoin.com/finance

👉 Sign up for Genesis: https://onrampbitcoin.com/finance#gen..

📩 Schedule a consultation: https://onrampbitcoin.com/consult

The Last Trade: a weekly, bitcoin-native podcast covering the intersection of bitcoin, tech, & finance on a macro scale. Hosted by Jackson Mikalic, Michael Tanguma, & Brian Cubellis. Join us as we dive into what bitcoin means for how individuals & institutions save, invest, & propagate their purchasing power through time. It's not just another asset… in the digital age, it's The Last Trade that investors will ever need to make.

🎙️ About This Episode

Mark Yusko, CIO of Morgan Creek Capital Management, joins Jackson and Michael to reframe the current setup as a classic late-cycle bubble forming around AI and SpaceX while Bitcoin sits hated and on sale. He calls Elon's $1 trillion XAI revenue tweet a textbook securities fraud, shows how the Intel pattern from 1990 to 2000 (up 20x, then down 87%) is repeating in semiconductors today, and explains why a SpaceX moon data center is physically impossible. On the bullish side: DeepSeek doing what OpenAI and Anthropic do at 5 cents on the dollar, Metcalf's Law fair value for Bitcoin sitting around $125,000 (per Tim Peterson at N Squared Value), and Mark's specific October 5, 2026 cycle-bottom call with crypto spring to follow. Plus the three-bucket savings framework, why 99.5% of prediction-market accounts lose money, and why the 1986 Tax Act was a quiet heist on corporate pension funds.

🧠 Chapters

00:00 - Introduction and Consistency in Podcasting

02:56 - The Challenges of Building and Execution

08:37 - The Intersection of Sports and Market Trends

09:02 - Market Sentiment: AI, SpaceX, and Digital Assets

19:21 - The Bubble of Innovation and SpaceX's Promises

28:10 - Liquidity Cycles and Capital Allocation in Markets

40:55 - The Evolution of Networks and Value

51:46 - Understanding Market Dynamics: Investors vs. Traders vs. Gamblers

01:01:51 - The Importance of Long-Term Investment Strategies

01:09:30 - The Role of Innovation in Wealth Creation

01:17:52 - Final Thoughts on Investing and Gambling

💡 Subscribe & Stay Ahead

Get Onramp's weekly Research & Analysis:

High-signal insights in bitcoin, macro, and custody.

📩 https://onrampbitcoin.com/research

Subscribe to Onramp Media for more:

🎧 The Last Trade | Final Settlement | Scarce Assets

The Last Trade: Matt Dines, CIO of Build Asset Management, joins to lay out the seismic monetary reshuffling underway in 2026, the unwind of the post-Bretton-Woods offshore-dollar system that ran the global economy from 1971 to 2022, why LIBOR's deprecation and the SOFR transition quietly moved the dollar's command center from London to New York, Scott Bessent's strategy to monetize the asset side of the Treasury balance sheet through the GENIUS Act stablecoin and a Bitcoin reserve targeting 1 million BTC, Tether's December 2023 alignment with the American Sovereignist movement, and the contrarian read on MicroStrategy as a "dollar strategy" rather than a Bitcoin strategy.

---

🔸 Connect with Onramp: The leader in resilient, fault-tolerant Multi-Institution Custody for secure, enduring bitcoin ownership.

👉 Onramp Finance: https://onrampbitcoin.com/finance

👉 Sign up for Genesis: https://onrampbitcoin.com/finance#gen..

📩 Schedule a consultation: https://onrampbitcoin.com/consult

The Last Trade: a weekly, bitcoin-native podcast covering the intersection of bitcoin, tech, & finance on a macro scale. Hosted by Jackson Mikalic, Michael Tanguma, & Brian Cubellis. Join us as we dive into what bitcoin means for how individuals & institutions save, invest, & propagate their purchasing power through time. It's not just another asset… in the digital age, it's The Last Trade that investors will ever need to make.

🎙️ About This Episode

Matt Dines, CIO of Build Asset Management and author of "The Offshore Dollar Is Being Left Out to Dry" on mindprinthash.com, joins Jackson, Brian, and Michael to walk through the structural shift in the global dollar system that he argues is the single most important macro story of 2026. Matt traces the unwind of the post-Bretton-Woods offshore-dollar (eurodollar) system back to 2008, explains how the Federal Reserve's deprecation of LIBOR in favor of SOFR moved the dollar's command center from London to New York, and frames the 2024 election as a fork in the road between Biden's CBDC path (EO 14067) and the Trump / Sovereignist asset-backed dollar path. He details the playbook unfolding under Scott Bessent and Treasury: the GENIUS Act stablecoin as the bridge, a Bitcoin reserve targeting 1 million BTC (per Congressman Begich's American Reserve Modernization Act, the successor to Senator Lummis' Bitcoin Act), and gold becoming the biggest liquidity pool while the offshore dollar drains. Matt argues that Bitcoin is NOT yet seen as a risk-off asset by the market, but the long-term setup points there. He reframes MicroStrategy as a "dollar strategy" rather than a Bitcoin strategy: borrowing US onshore equity-market liquidity at 11-13% to go long Bitcoin priced primarily in the OLD offshore-dollar (Tether) standard, with major implications for stretch and the broader DAT trade. Plus historical parallels (Civil War greenbacks transitioning to the gold-pegged dollar of 1875; silver certificates phasing out for Fed notes from 1957), Tether's December 2023 alignment with the American Sovereignist movement, the Schwab UTXO Bitcoin custody rollout, and how to position for the most violent middle innings of this dollar transition.

🧠 Chapters

00:00 - Introduction and Context Setting

01:52 - Monetary Reshuffling and Global Dynamics

12:50 - The Shift from Liability to Asset-Based Dollar

20:51 - Implications for Investors and Capital Allocation

26:31 - The Future of Bitcoin in the New Monetary Order

35:12 - The Future of Currency: Asset-Backed Dollars

42:32 - Tether's Strategic Shift and Geopolitical Implications

46:07 - Fragmentation in the Bitcoin Space

52:30 - Corporate Strategies and Market Dynamics

61:29 - The Integration of Bitcoin into Traditional Finance

💡 Subscribe & Stay Ahead

Get Onramp's weekly Research & Analysis:

High-signal insights in bitcoin, macro, and custody.

📩 https://onrampbitcoin.com/research

Subscribe to Onramp Media for more:

🎧 The Last Trade | Final Settlement | Scarce Assets

Connect with Early Riders // Connect with Onramp

Presented collaboratively by Early Riders & Onramp Media...

Final Settlement is a weekly podcast covering capital markets, dealmaking, early-stage venture, bitcoin applications and protocol development.

This week Brian, Michael, and Liam cover the SpaceX IPO and the capital-rotation narrative around Bitcoin, the Bernie Sanders / David Sachs debate over government equity stakes in AI companies, the Zcash inflation bug that allowed unlimited mint for four years before Claude caught it, JPMorgan's tokenized-deposit consortium with Citi, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Chase, the Stripe / Visa / MasterCard stablecoin consortium, Morgan Stanley's Galaxy partnership letting high-net-worth clients lend Bitcoin for in-kind ETF conversions, Tether's first gold-backed Visa card, the US sanctioning Iran's largest crypto exchange Nobitex, and the Polymarket MicroStrategy resolution controversy.

Chapters

00:00 - The State of Digital Assets

01:13 - Upcoming IPOs and Market Dynamics

05:54 - Contrasting Views on Investment Strategies

08:19 - Long-Term Perspectives on Bitcoin

14:11 - Speculation vs. Saving in Investments

18:32 - Government Involvement and Market Bubbles

25:22 - Zcash Inflation Bug and Crypto Vulnerabilities

31:12 - Tokenization of Deposits and Future of Banking

34:12 - Understanding the Future of Investment and Money

35:56 - The Role of Traditional Finance in Digital Assets

37:11 - Morgan Stanley's Bitcoin Lending and ETF Strategy

40:54 - Market Timing and ETF Launches

42:48 - The Evolution of Wealth Management and Asset Preservation

44:40 - Stablecoins and 24/7 Trading in Crypto Markets

49:05 - US Sanctions and the Impact on Crypto Markets

52:59 - Tether's Gold-Backed Innovations

55:19 - The Future of Agentic Payments and Prediction Markets

If you found this valuable, please subscribe to Early Riders Insights for access to the best content in the ecosystem weekly.

Keep up with Michael:

https://x.com/MTanguma

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mtanguma/

Keep up with Liam:

https://x.com/Lnelson_21

https://www.linkedin.com/in/liam-nelson1/

Keep up with Brian:

https://x.com/BackslashBTC

https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-cubellis-00b1a660/

The Last Trade: Chris Kuiper, VP of Research at Fidelity Digital Assets, returns to make the case that this is the worst sentiment he has seen in his decade-plus following Bitcoin even though nothing fundamental has actually broken, why Bitcoin is finally decoupling from the AI-led "everything-but-Bitcoin" rally, how Fidelity's updated "Getting Off Zero" report uses mean variance optimization to show a 90/0/10 stocks-bonds-Bitcoin allocation maximizing the Sharpe ratio at a conservative 25% Bitcoin CAGR assumption, why bondholders have spent decades underwater on a real-return basis, and why the Czech National Bank's small but symbolic Bitcoin position may be the start of central bank adoption gradually then suddenly.

---

🔸 Connect with Onramp: The leader in resilient, fault-tolerant Multi-Institution Custody for secure, enduring bitcoin ownership.

👉 Onramp Finance: https://onrampbitcoin.com/finance

👉 Sign up for Genesis: https://onrampbitcoin.com/finance#gen..

📩 Schedule a consultation: https://onrampbitcoin.com/consult

The Last Trade: a weekly, bitcoin-native podcast covering the intersection of bitcoin, tech, & finance on a macro scale. Hosted by Jackson Mikalic, Michael Tanguma, & Brian Cubellis. Join us as we dive into what bitcoin means for how individuals & institutions save, invest, & propagate their purchasing power through time. It's not just another asset… in the digital age, it's The Last Trade that investors will ever need to make.

🎙️ About This Episode

Chris Kuiper, VP of Research at Fidelity Digital Assets, joins Jackson, Brian, and Michael to walk through Fidelity's updated "Getting Off Zero" report and reframe the current Bitcoin drawdown for sophisticated allocators. Chris argues the sentiment is the worst he has seen in his decade-plus in the space, but nothing fundamental has broken; Bitcoin is simply finally decoupling from the AI-momentum rally, which is the diversification benefit allocators actually want. The episode covers Bitcoin spending ~96% of its history below all-time highs (so being underwater is the default state, not a signal), the four-year cycle's diminishing predictive power as derivatives smooth volatility, and the mean variance optimization that pops out a 90% stocks / 0% bonds / 10% Bitcoin portfolio at conservative assumptions (25% CAGR, 50% vol). On the macro side, Chris reiterates his 2026 look-ahead view that inflation comes back in waves, points to bond yields rising globally as the bond market sniffs out higher-for-longer, and revisits the 30-50% real drawdowns bondholders endured from the 1940s through the 1980s. Plus the Czech National Bank's symbolic but precedent-setting Bitcoin allocation, why advisor excuses for zero-allocation have shifted from "it's a Ponzi" to "I don't know how to operationally hold it," and why a zero allocation is now itself an active position requiring justification.

🧠 Chapters

00:00 - Market Sentiment and Current Trends

03:05 - Understanding Bitcoin's Price Action

06:03 - The Role of Education in Investing

09:08 - Long-Term Trends and Market Cycles

11:46 - Evaluating Bitcoin's Role in Portfolios

15:05 - Institutional Perspectives on Bitcoin

18:01 - The Future of Bitcoin in Investment Strategies

34:23 - Understanding Money and Bitcoin's Value

36:11 - The Role of Financial Advisors in Bitcoin Investment

37:29 - Mean Variance Optimization and Bitcoin's Portfolio Role

42:10 - Shifts in Institutional Sentiment Towards Bitcoin

48:28 - Navigating Inflation and Market Uncertainty

58:46 - The Future of Stablecoins and Central Bank Adoption

💡 Subscribe & Stay Ahead

Get Onramp's weekly Research & Analysis:

High-signal insights in bitcoin, macro, and custody.

📩 https://onrampbitcoin.com/research

Subscribe to Onramp Media for more:

🎧 The Last Trade | Final Settlement | Scarce Assets

Connect with Early Riders — https://www.earlyriders.com/contactConnect with Onramp — https://onrampbitcoin.com/contact-us/Presented collaboratively by Early Riders & Onramp Media…Final Settlement is a weekly podcast covering capital markets, dealmaking, early-stage venture, bitcoin applications and protocol development.This week Brian, Michael, and Liam cover MicroStrategy's first Bitcoin sale and the broader DAT unwind, Jamie Dimon's Clarity Act outburst against Coinbase, the AI IPO wave that Michael Burry compares to the 2000 dot-com peak, the CFTC approving Coinbase's first onshore BTC perpetuals, Falcon X's confidential IPO filing, Cash App and SoFi rolling out stablecoins to retail, MasterCard's NY BitLicense, and Binance launching tokenized shares.Chapters00:00 - Welcome Back and Market Overview00:46 - MicroStrategy's Bitcoin Sale and Market Sentiment08:06 - The State of Digital Asset Firms11:32 - Jamie Dimon's Stance on Stablecoins and Financial Rails22:53 - AI's Impact on Markets and Upcoming IPOs39:03 - CFTC Approval and Coinbase's Expansion40:41 - Falcon X IPO and Market Dynamics45:58 - Market Sentiment and Investment Strategies49:22 - Stablecoin Integration and Cash App's Innovations53:32 - SoFi's Stablecoin Launch and Regulatory Landscape56:01 - MasterCard's Bit License and Market Implications58:07 - Tokenized Stocks and the Future of Digital AssetsIf you found this valuable, please subscribe to Early Riders Insights for access to the best content in the ecosystem weekly: https://www.earlyriders.com/researchKeep up with Michael: https://x.com/MTangumahttps://www.linkedin.com/in/mtanguma/Keep up with Liam: https://x.com/Lnelson_21https://www.linkedin.com/in/liam-nelson1/Keep up with Brian: https://x.com/BackslashBTChttps://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-cubellis-00b1a660/

The Last Trade: Vijay Boyapati, author of The Bullish Case for Bitcoin, joins to argue the bottom is in on what he calls a relatively shallow bear market, why the $100K-era whale distribution into ETF hands sets up a stronger base for the next run, what Charles Schwab onboarding 40 million clients through a Bitcoiner-led trading platform means for adoption, the Clarity Act expected to pass in the next month or two, and where Michael Saylor's stretch preferred-share strategy is starting to add real risk to Bitcoin.

---

🔸 Connect with Onramp: The leader in resilient, fault-tolerant Multi-Institution Custody for secure, enduring bitcoin ownership.

👉 Onramp Finance: https://onrampbitcoin.com/finance

👉 Sign up for Genesis: https://onrampbitcoin.com/finance#gen..

📩 Schedule a consultation: https://onrampbitcoin.com/consult

The Last Trade: a weekly, bitcoin-native podcast covering the intersection of bitcoin, tech, & finance on a macro scale. Hosted by Jackson Mikalic, Michael Tanguma, & Brian Cubellis. Join us as we dive into what bitcoin means for how individuals & institutions save, invest, & propagate their purchasing power through time. It's not just another asset… in the digital age, it's The Last Trade that investors will ever need to make.

🎙️ About This Episode

Vijay Boyapati, author of The Bullish Case for Bitcoin, joins Jackson and Michael to walk through where Bitcoin sits in this "everything-but-Bitcoin" rally and why he's still bullish. He frames the current drawdown as a shallow bear market compared to 2014, argues the bottom is in, and explains why the $100K-era whale distribution (Galaxy alone reportedly sold $9B) actually sets up a stronger base because Bitcoin is now in the hands of ETF holders with a 2-4% allocation and an $80-100K cost basis. Vijay also covers the Charles Schwab crypto platform rolling out to 40 million brokerage clients (led by a senior Bitcoiner exec), the Clarity Act expected to pass within the next month or two, the political-capture moment marked by Sherrod Brown's unseating, and why Michael Saylor's third-level financial engineering through stretch has found product-market fit (mostly retail, ~80% of demand) but is starting to introduce leverage risk into the Bitcoin system. Plus a brief tangent on AI as a personal productivity superpower.

🧠 Chapters

00:00 - Introduction to Bitcoin Sentiment

02:57 - Current Market Dynamics and Bitcoin's Performance

05:46 - Comparative Analysis of Past Bear Markets

09:05 - Opportunity Cost and Investment Strategies

11:58 - AI vs Bitcoin: Market Dynamics

15:12 - The Role of ETFs and Institutional Adoption18:12 - Whale Behavior and Market Psychology

21:04 - The Future of Bitcoin: Adoption and Growth

24:13 - Regulatory Landscape and Political Capture

34:03 - Political Capture and Adoption Dynamics

36:00 - The Role of Retail in Bitcoin Adoption

38:04 - The Clarity Act and Its Implications

40:02 - The Future of Bitcoin Adoption

44:01 - Treasury Companies and Market Dynamics

51:49 - Financial Engineering and Risk Management

59:13 - The Impact of AI on Personal Productivity

💡 Subscribe & Stay Ahead

Get Onramp's weekly Research & Analysis:

High-signal insights in bitcoin, macro, and custody.

📩 https://onrampbitcoin.com/research

Subscribe to Onramp Media for more:

🎧 The Last Trade | Final Settlement | Scarce Assets

The Last Trade: James Seyffart of Bloomberg Intelligence joins to break down the sentiment divergence between beaten-down crypto Twitter and a TradFi apparatus that's finally all in, Morgan Stanley launching MSBT at a market-low 14 bips with a 2-4% Bitcoin recommendation across 17,000 advisors and $7T+ in assets, Mike Wilson's 60/20/20 portfolio call adding 20% gold, and why the boomer diamond hands held through the drawdown while the basis trade collapsed from 10%+ to under 5%.

---

🔸 Connect with Onramp: The leader in resilient, fault-tolerant Multi-Institution Custody for secure, enduring bitcoin ownership.

👉 Onramp Finance: https://onrampbitcoin.com/finance

👉 Sign up for Genesis: https://onrampbitcoin.com/finance#gen...

📩 Schedule a consultation:

https://onrampbitcoin.com/consult

The Last Trade: a weekly, bitcoin-native podcast covering the intersection of bitcoin, tech, & finance on a macro scale. Hosted by Jackson Mikalic, Michael Tanguma, & Brian Cubellis. Join us as we dive into what bitcoin means for how individuals & institutions save, invest, & propagate their purchasing power through time. It's not just another asset… in the digital age, it's The Last Trade that investors will ever need to make.

🎙️ About This Episode

James Seyffart, ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, returns to talk through the two parallel stories playing out in digital assets right now. Crypto Twitter is beaten down while TradFi quietly takes over the rails. Morgan Stanley's MSBT comes in at 14 bips, the lowest fee on the market, and turns on a 2-4% Bitcoin allocation across 17,000 advisors and $7T+ in assets. Mike Wilson's 60/20/20 call gives gold a 20% sleeve, and JP Morgan, Ondo, and Securitize keep building tokenization rails. James also covers the latest 13Fs (Abu Dhabi pushing toward $600M, hedge funds dumping as the basis trade compresses below 5%), Truth Social pulling its spot Bitcoin ETF filing, the Hyperliquid ETF launches, and the prediction market ETF wave that's stuck at the SEC. Plus a preview of the Balchunas-Seyffart book coming in November.

🧠 Chapters

00:00 — Diverging Sentiments In Crypto & Traditional Finance

12:56 — Morgan Stanley's Bitcoin ETF & Institutional Adoption

25:56 — Portfolio Strategies: Gold, Bitcoin & Alternatives

30:32 — Understanding Investor Behavior In Down Markets

31:30 — The Role Of Education In Bitcoin Investments

32:56 — Institutional Strategies & Bitcoin Allocations

33:59 — The Impact Of Trading Platforms On Bitcoin Exposure

35:10 — Challenges Of Self-Custody In Financial Planning

36:40 — The Future Of Custody Solutions In Crypto

38:46 — Insights From Recent 13F Filings

39:08 — Analyzing Bitcoin ETF Trends

40:31 — Understanding Hedge Fund Strategies In Bitcoin

42:46 — The Growing Interest In Altcoin ETFs

44:51 — The Emergence Of Prediction Market ETFs

48:13 — The Future Of Prediction Markets In Finance

💡 Subscribe & Stay Ahead

Get Onramp’s weekly Research & Analysis:

High-signal insights in bitcoin, macro, and custody.

📩 https://onrampbitcoin.com/research

Subscribe to Onramp Media for more:

🎧 The Last Trade | Final Settlement | Scarce Assets

Connect with Early Riders // Connect with Onramp

Presented collaboratively by Early Riders & Onramp Media…

Final Settlement is a weekly podcast covering capital markets, dealmaking, early-stage venture, bitcoin applications and protocol development.

This week Liam, Brian, and Michael cover Onramp's $12.5M Series A, Iran's Bitcoin-denominated Hormuz Safe insurance platform, the Clarity Act's passage through the Senate Banking Committee, Hyperliquid's USDC pivot and partnership with Coinbase, Standard Chartered's acquisition of Zodia Custody, Gemini's mounting losses, and Prime Trust's $970M lawsuit against Swan Bitcoin.

Chapters

00:00 - Introduction and Overview of Current Events

01:58 - Onramp's Series A and Market Positioning

05:54 - Bitcoin's Role in Global Transactions

10:21 - Iran's Adoption of Bitcoin for Payments

15:14 - The Clarity Act and Its Implications

20:23 - Stablecoins and Their Future

31:36 - Hyperliquid's Partnership with Coinbase

34:37 - The Future of Stablecoins and Bitcoin Adoption

39:50 - Standard Chartered's Strategic Moves in Crypto Custody

44:22 - Building vs. Buying: The Path of Traditional Finance

47:18 - Gemini's Financial Struggles and Market Positioning

50:58 - Pre-IPO Trading and Market Speculation

54:03 - Prime Trust's Legal Challenges and Custody Concerns

If you found this valuable, please subscribe to Early Riders Insights for access to the best content in the ecosystem weekly.

Keep up with Michael:

https://x.com/MTanguma

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mtanguma/

Keep up with Liam:

https://x.com/Lnelson_21

https://www.linkedin.com/in/liam-nelson1/

Keep up with Brian:

https://x.com/BackslashBTC

https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-cubellis-00b1a660/