The Breakdown

Today on the Brief:

• Chinese citizens less than impressed with DCEP trial
• Is Filecoin the “Titanic” of ICOs?
• Mnuchin, Pelosi go one more round on stimulus

Our main discussion: A new Bretton Woods moment?

In a recent speech, the International Monetary Fund argued that the time to fundamentally re-evaluate the global economic order is here. Goldbugs see the potential to return to the gold standard, bitcoiners anticipate ever-growing stimulus and macro observers are betting on massive disruptions in the wake of central bank digital currencies.

On this week’s Long Reads Sunday, NLW reads: “Capital Allocation & Risk Asset Ramifications in a 0% Interest Rate World”

The piece examines how different asset classes – from stocks to bonds to bitcoin and beyond – fare in the context of a world where the Federal Reserve is determined to keep interest rates at or near zero for years to come.

On this edition of The Breakdown weekly recap, NLW looks at:

• Growth in the institutional investment space in crypto
• A new 10,000 BTC treasury announcement 
• Reports from the Bank for International Settlements, G20, WEF, IMF and more around central bank digital currencies
• A National Security Council report labeling distributed ledger technology key for national security

Today’s Breakdown is a conversation with Andre Anjos – aka RAC, a Grammy Award-winning recording artist and music entrepreneur. He and NLW discuss:

• Starting the “Remix Artist Collective” as a business
• Evolving from remixing to performing artist
• The challenges and trade-offs of working with major labels 
• How the music industry beat back technology innovation where other industries failed
• How NFTs, tokens and other crypto innovations are opening up truly free markets for music and culture 

Find our guest online:

Twitter: @RAC

Web: rac.fm

Today on the Brief:

• Initial jobless claims rise to highest level since August

Our main discussion focuses on the convergence of the crypto and public markets. NLW looks at:

• Narratives of bitcoin’s correlations to stocks
• Growing overlap of retail and institutional traders
• SPACs and public crypto companies 
• Bitcoin treasuries 
• Geopolitical intrigue around ANT Financial

Today on the Brief: 

• Bitcoin hashrate at all-time highs
• Record number of large companies lose money during the pandemic
• JPMorgan releases research note on bitcoin

Our main discussion: Stone Ridge Holdings Group discloses $114 million in bitcoin treasury assets. 

NLW digs into what Stone Ridge is, why it spun off New York Digital Investments Group (NYDIG) and how the company has quietly built itself into a serious player in the institutional crypto asset space. 

Today on the Brief:

• Is the “blue wave” Democrat victory narrative in the presidential election starting to shake up Wall Street? 
• Johnson & Johnson pause COVID-19 vaccine trial 
• 1000 Satoshi-era bitcoins are on the move 

Our main discussion: The world’s central banks are moving quickly on digital currencies. NLW looks at a slew of recent news showing how much of a priority CBDCs are becoming:

• A report from the Bank for International Settlements and seven other central banks setting design principles for CBDCs
• A G20 regulatory standards framework 
• A forthcoming OECD tax reporting framework 

One need only look at the increasingly speedy rollout of China’s DCEP to understand why this has become a major priority for central banks everywhere.

Today on the Brief:

• Market rally to highest point in six weeks
• BTC and ETH up in part on Grayscale ETH trust becoming an SEC reporting company (Grayscale, like CoinDesk, is a unit of DCG.)
• CBDCs (and CBDC skepticism) on the rise

Our main discussion: How markets are trading the U.S. presidential election in November. 

A look at what different stock and other market preferences suggests about who Wall Street expects to win, including: 

• Energy
• Private prisons
• Student loans
• Health care 
• Infrastructure
• Dollar
• Bitcoin

Today on Long Reads Sunday, a reading of Lyn Alden’s piece for CoinDesk: “Bitcoin Correlations Depend on What Phase It Is In”

In it, Lyn argues that bitcoin’s correlation patterns are, in part, reliant on where bitcoin finds itself in its own cycles of expansion or consolidation.

On this week’s Breakdown weekly recap, NLW looks at a cross-section of regulatory news, including:

• CFTC and DOJ action against BitMEX and its leadership
• The U.K. Financial Conduct Authority’s ban of crypto derivative products for retail investors
• The DOJ’s new cryptocurrency enforcement framework 

NLW discusses why these might reflect a new moment in crypto history, what it means for current builders in bitcoin and DeFi, and why recruiting corporate allies like Square will become more important than ever.