Yo-yo, yo-yo, what up? What up?
Good morning. Good morning GMP Thursday,
January 11th, 2024. Look at that.
Another beautiful day to have a beautiful day, another
historical day. To have a historical day as the
Coin Tucky Derby is off to the races.
Ladies and gentlemen, the Bitcoin ETFs were approved
yesterday afternoon as you all know by now, because everybody
and their mothers, including myself, is Boo posting out the
wazoo and reporting on that. It is absolutely crazy.
What a first day. What a start.
What a morning. What a time to be alive.
And so we'll be joined by Stacey Elliott that you had on the show
earlier this week correspondent Sorry journalist on the on the
decrypt side. And and of course after that we
will be joined by the Queen of ETFs Alien or Tourette of of Fox
Business. So super exciting one last ETF
special. Y'all I promise you.
I promise you as of tomorrow we'll talk more about all coins
with pictures. But today it's too important not
to talk about what is going on. But first and foremost, I got my
Co host in the house, OSF Mando. How we feeling today?
Yeah, good. And it's, it's a weird feeling.
It's like the big day we've been waiting for and here it is.
Although prices are kind of dropping now, yeah.
I mean prices are dropping now but you know it's we still, we
still. Huge gain?
Yeah. Huge gains on many altcoins in
the last 24 hours. Still so.
Just historic historic day to be doing the show right.
We we we've done the show in the depths of the of the bear market
and now we've got an ETF basically a year and a half
later from from from that FTX was barely over a year ago,
right. It's kind of wild that we just
do this every single day. So you really do remember the
the tough ones? It's surreal, yeah.
ETFTX feels like 20 years ago, but it was just it was really
recently. We're just January 2024.
Mind you Christmas was just two weeks ago.
Like people don't realize. Like I have to realize like wait
like Christmas 2 weeks ago. We've survived FTX.
We survived Terra Luna. We survived 3 AC.
We survived the SEC and Gary Gensler non-stop bashing and
trying to stop us with multiple lawsuits against Coinbase, Crack
and CZ and everything we survived.
We survive. What else we survived.
We survived the Great OSF Dump. We survived Mark safe from I'm
kidding. But we we've survived.
We've taken a lot of punches to the face, to the throat, to the
gut, to the nuts. We've taken a lot of stabs
behind the back. We've taken it a lot.
We've taken a lot of weight, stress and and I totally
understand why. The timeline is euphoric.
I'm not going to personally stop myself from euphoria, mania or
being overly happy because God knows that we showed up when,
when, when shit hit the fan. I still, I still remember those
conversations. That's what we used to have in
the back end when like things were bad and we're like guys we
can't be dooming. Like we have to show up with
people. Like, remember back in May 22,
we were talking in our GM Web 3 channel.
Like guys like we kind of have to like we're going to have to
like be that guy because there was Doom posting, right?
Making jokes and Doom posts about how it's over.
And we're like, what are we going to do?
Like are we just going to turn it up 1 notch or are we just
going to like like people are losing their lives, you know?
Yeah, so. Dude in the 800 or whatever the
fuck it was that was, that was wild.
I remember that. That was crazy.
I remember flying to Bar Mitzvah from Vanessa's cousin and my
luggage never made it to Miami, so I could even end up made
going to bar Mitzvah. So I had to stay back in the
hotel room and watch there him go to $860.
That was that was crazy. Experience.
That was crazy. I I mean that was I mean
remember crypto punks hit $48,000 that day and it got
swept up and now crypto punks wake up to $140,000 this
morning. So that also is is is quite the
single. But anyways so let's let's get
into it right since we're we're kind of talking about it but
today on the show, today, today I'm going to bring the wonderful
Stacy up on stage with us right now.
So today on the show today, today, well market updates and
moves. I don't think we'll get to NFTS
if we get there we do. If we don't we don't I do not
think we're getting there. So we're going to heavily talk
about ETFs and price action inflows and what not today of
course. And then we will be joined by
Eleanor Tourette, like I said earlier, our special guest at
11:00 AM Eastern Standard Time. So about 15 minutes to go even
deeper. And also like now the question
is what's what now and what's next.
As usual the show is being broadcasted on X and on YouTube.
You can find us across our platform on video and on audio.
I am about to post the broadcast link as we speak, but for more
our already Hass, so find us there.
So I mean you know let's go, let's go to a quick market
report. You know what, let me, let me,
let me go to Mando real quick and then we'll we'll say our GMs
to Stacey who is the main macro daddy of the land.
Can you dig it? Yeah, GM.
Like I said, historic, historic day.
It feels like Bitcoin. Bitcoin definitely
underperformed the stuff that we were talking about yesterday
where you know the I think if Bitcoin ratio was about nought
.53 was it yesterday on nought point nought 5, three, sorry.
And then it it gapped up higher. We kind of moved if I think went
all the way up about 10% versus Bitcoin again on the day, which
is kind of a a wild move but maybe not unexpected given we
saw that kind of happen on the fake move out.
So he's definitely led the rally, all the ETH, let's say
ETH beta ecosystem coins mainly L twos pumped the most.
You had things like Metis, you had things like Mantle,
Arbitrum, optimism all hitting local highs or even all time
highs I think for Mantle. So big, big moves across the L2
ecosystem, the, the underperformers.
Yeah, Bitcoin up until kind of this morning was was kind of
hanging out roughly unchanged or up up only slightly.
It then gapped with the, with the start of this ETF all the
way up to 49 K it's back down to 47 K You're seeing unbelievable
volumes go through for the ETF. Unbelievable in the broader
macro sense. I don't know what people, if
people had wild, wild expectations.
I think Bloomberg said 4/4 billion was their expectation
going into today. I feel like we're going to,
we're going to go well above that.
It looks like we're won't push a billion dollars in the 30
minutes that it opened, by the way.
Yeah, I I think I saw it. It was already at 2.5 nearly.
So I think we're going to and we've you know we're only an
hour into or just over an hour into the trading day.
So I think we're going to have record ETF volumes there.
I don't know about the the record inflows, but the volumes
are going to be unbelievably high.
So looks like it's going to be a success, although Bitcoin is
slightly having a bit of a sell the news as this has happened.
I would say the strongest narrative still feels like ETH
right now, just because again, this has been a lot of focus as
we've spoken about on the next play here.
So people are looking to ETH, but there's there have been some
other movies as well. Meme coins had some wild wild
moves higher, particularly on Solana.
You had I think with did like a a 3X over the space of about 12
hours about that. Like who only?
Was late last night. I I remember I just got in one
of the group chats and we were with OSF.
He just puts like somebody just bought 6 1/2 million dollars of
with it gapped up to a this is a a coin which is trading at $18
million market or 100. 110 hundred and 20 million.
Dollar market cap It gapped to 3 billion and then and then.
Look at that Wick man. Fill the Wick.
Fill the Wick from 3 billion. Look at what I have to do here,
Mando. I have to like literally just
like get it. I've never seen, I've actually
never seen anything like that. Like even in crypto that's that
is full degen. So yeah, that happened and that
set off just like a wild move. The trader himself lost about $4
million in the process of even doing this trade.
But everyone was like, that's just so DJ and we have to
respect it It it seemed to do like a move up 50% on the back
of that. Then you had Arthur Hayes
tweeting about it and then you had about three different
exchanges, decided they needed to list it this morning and I
think it went all the way up to like nought .35, right like it.
It really went close to its all time high and then the sit and
stick back down. But that is just like, I don't
know, it's it's indicative of what the risk taking appetite
seems to be over the last 24 hours like it was we everything
with a pulse was rallying and it really did feel like a bit of a
wagging season because you started to see Solana catch up
and then Bitcoin started to move again this morning.
So everything, everyone woke up with with things higher.
I don't know if that's like too much euphoria.
It does feel as though we're maybe getting a little bit of
cold water right now on that. But yeah, it's been it's been a
pretty wild, wild 24 hours. Yeah, it's been absolutely
insane. 60. Which one of you decided to punt
60,517 soul in one clip on a shit coin?
I mean anybody in their mothers know that something that's why
something leads me to think that this person just like knowingly
did this and was just like reckless and didn't care.
But like what? In the right minds of something
like this it it makes no sense. But hey, good for the dog with
hat because that thing just came back to life and is now sitting
at twenty $25 million market cap and went back up to all the time
of that 300 million. So shows you the risk appetite.
I mean, Stacy, good morning. How are you doing today?
I mean, what a time, what a time.
We just had you on, what, Tuesday morning?
I think it was yesterday. Maybe it was Tuesday morning.
I don't know. Time has no meaning.
OK, GM Guten Morgan. All in the same I mean Stacey
talk to us what what what how what's your read on here like
how how do you feel about all this I mean we saw what can you
give us like the the TLDR of the news over the since we last saw
you know words from Gary what not know you guys in The
Newsroom at the crypt have been looks like you've been quite
busy. Yeah, I mean, the last time I
was on was before the fake tweet went out from the SEC, right?
So like, a a ton of shit has happened since then.
I don't know, man. It was wild.
Like, we were so hesitant to even pull the trigger on
publishing our story yesterday because we were like, OK, so
that announcement just showed up and then disappeared.
So maybe this is the hacker again.
Maybe the hacker is still in the house over at the SEC, so all of
the pending Bitcoin ETF applications have been approved,
including hashtags, which for a little while we all thought was
kind of out of the running because they were converting a
Bitcoin futures ETF into a spot Bitcoin ETF.
But yeah, there's now 11 different Bitcoin ETFs trading,
which is just wild. Like it took us 10 years to get
to this point. And the volume so far has been
crazy. Like I was watching just the
iShares one this morning. That's the Black Rock Bitcoin
ETF and it looked like they had moved like 3 million shares and
that was in pre market trading. That was before it like markets
even opened here in the States and I think it only took like 15
minutes to get up to like 10 million shares having moved.
I haven't checked it recently but like these things are flying
like you guys were saying. Like, I really do think we're
going to clear all the estimates and like these are going to be
like record-breaking days, like day ones for all these ETFs, or
at least definitely for the the IBIT 1, the iShares 1.
Yeah, that's So what what are we looking at right now, Stacey?
We're looking at what one, what, $2 billion almost inflows?
I think so, yeah. I'm checking out looking
together. That's that's absolutely insane.
And So what it was dude this this is so crazy what's
happening right now. I mean we I've, I'm trying to
keep up with all the news coming out.
It's non-stop. You have Vanek like just putting
out like brand new ads, no longer playing the ads on the
show. By the way, sorry, y'all, but
last time we played an ad from who was it there was a Pharrell
song in there and they DMC in US in Russia.
Oh so I guess we're not going to be playing the adverts here but
you know you were you can, you can just go find out for
yourself what what is going down on the on the on the on this
side. But besides that, I mean, whoo.
It's it's really just really just crazy.
Stacy. What?
What do you make of all this? What happens next?
I mean, I think we're going to see all of the really eager
money pour in. I think we're going to see a lot
of institutions that have been sitting on the sideline decide,
OK, now's the time. Like, we even saw that in some
of the, like, different surveys and stuff that were coming out.
Like people were talking to advisors saying, like, OK, if
your clients aren't in crypto yet or Bitcoin specifically yet,
what is keeping them back? A lot of them said once the ETF
got approved, they would go in. So I think we're going to see
like some really big money come in initially.
And yeah, I mean, I think there's going to be a lot of
interest in like kind of like essentially normies trying to
figure out how to get in. Like, I don't know, OK.
So like you have your, you know, retirement savings and like a
target date fund or something like you can put a little bit of
that into like a Bitcoin ETF. Why not?
Like, I'm literally looking at trying to do some of that
myself. So I don't know, like, I think
now it's just going to be a matter of seeing like who's
going to be the most dominant. Like, we're definitely going to
be checking in over at decrypt, like kind of looking at OK,
who's got the most market share. I think it's like a really easy
prediction to say that BlackRock and the iShares ETF are going to
kind of eat up most of it. But we'll see.
It's kind of going to be looking at, OK, everyone who's not
BlackRock like who's going to like win there.
So I think it's going to be really interesting.
The other thing is that now that because these are trading and
we're going to get so much like different reporting and stuff
coming through, the SEC is like we'll kind of be able to kind of
pick through it and figure out who's doing what.
I think it's going to be really interesting.
It's it's wild. I know I saw a bunch of stuff
coming out about Gary yesterday. Like, I mean, even Thanos
thought he was doing the right thing.
So I I'm trying not to dump too much on Gary.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. It's, it's interesting.
I mean, he, he did, you know, he did reaffirm that the SEC does
not endorse Bitcoin, right. Yeah.
In his capitulation speech or whatever you want to call it on
the SEC government, they may sure to put this in the
conclusion too, right? Because everyone else you read
the introduction, conclusion, nobody's reading the whole block
text. Maybe you guys in The Newsroom,
but you know. I mean, even for us, like for
some of the really big long stuff, like sometimes we're
checking that in AI just to be like, give me the highlights,
please. Because, like, that's the
closest thing we get to like having like, a news assistant
who can read stuff for us and be like, OK, here's what you need
to care about. Yeah.
No, that's how. Wild.
Wild is it. Don't even put that in.
Right. You're now saying the the
biggest volumes ever most probably for an ETF like and
he's saying oh we don't endorse. It's like you're just being
proved that people want this product.
Like they they want this product even.
Yeah, in a regulated way. But like you can't just keep on
standing in the way of people wanting to have this product.
It seems. It seems wild to me that he
still has that view. I don't know.
I guess it's maybe like a it's like a private, I don't know
what it is like. I don't like, OK fine, you're
proving this thing, but you have to make all of these different
like pronouncements about how like, well, we don't really
endorse it, but you guys can trade it, right?
And then like the trading, like the shares are flying on day
one. So like, I don't know.
I think he's trying to, I think he's trying to secure himself a
nice consultancy job with JP Morgan or something, because him
and Jamie Dimon seem to be seem to be pretty close when it comes
to their opinions on that. Why?
Like, you know, it's interesting to see JP Morgan.
I mean, that's very much a thing, is that it's just a
revolving door, like with Washington and the big banks and
Wall Street. Like there's plenty of people
who go back and forth, back and forth, right.
Like I think they call them, you know, Goldman, Gary.
So you never know. Yeah, we definitely never know
what's happened on that front. And that's what I mean what is
your, you know last question for you Stacy, I guess here is like
what are you expecting next, I mean you're you're in there,
you're reporting on this daily, you have obviously over 10 years
experience in the financial markets here writing about them.
What do you What happens now? So like our and especially for
like covering like all the market stuff for decrypt, we're
definitely shifting over and looking to see what's going to
happen and how quickly we'll see movement for like the Ethereum
ETFs. Like I'm seeing some predictions
that like those will be approved within months, whereas like, you
know, we had to wait 10 years to get to this point with Bitcoin.
But now that we've got to spot Bitcoin ETF through, everyone's
thinking that this is going to kind of speed up the ETF stuff
for Ethereum. And then we keep seeing chatter
about like a Solana ETF and I think that would be super
exciting. I know all the soul like fanboys
would. Let.
Hold on, hold on, hold on. You got you got two manlets on
this. Stage I know so but.
It's. True, one is like the other.
Problem is that like the SEC has blatantly called Solana an
unregistered security, so like it would be really exciting but.
Can I just say their words on? Other.
Stuff. Thank you.
Thank you for backing me up, Stacy, because I've been trying
to tell these guys for the last few days.
Every time I do, they just they just.
Mando is muted. He's not approximately.
I don't know. I just said she just said
there's going to be a Solana ETF.
This is going to be wild. Like.
Yeah, right now it's not like what's going on here.
I I I mean, I did. There was a lot of tweets and I
think a lot of people speculating that if ET has an
ETF, people will apply because I think Grayscale have a Solana
product as well, right? They have like a a product we
should eventually. The same as what the Grayscale
Bitcoin Trust was before it became a spot ETF.
They've got a Solana, Grayscale Solana Trust and I think there's
a few other Solana products out there.
Like we knew that like like institutional investors were
interested in Solana and some of the other alts just because we
were seeing a bunch of inflows when everyone was getting
excited about the Bitcoin ETF maybe happening.
So, like, there's interest. And The thing is, like, if
there's interest, like they're going to find a way to make it
happen. But Oh my God, like the SEC
would have to eat so many words to, like, approve that.
Almost even more so than with Bitcoin.
Wow, OK. I mean, listen, I'm not against
it. I I'm not against it.
You know, I think now you know who the mandates are on this
show. Stacey and.
I do. Yeah, OK.
And I mean, OV's first reaction yesterday, Obi's first tweet
yesterday after Bitcoin approval, was not even whoever
had to prove it. Remember that Gary Gensler in
the SEC named a lot of the old coins into a security you know?
But anyways, it's OK, it's OK. We said that today is Mando's
turn because he tried to to shake us out of our hat coin and
then that didn't work out pretty well for him.
So did you sell it? I did.
Obi didn't. All right.
I mean, but did you sell it when it went higher or or we just
does the hat stay on forever? I'm a comedian.
You know me, Ovi and I are like the best community members.
Don't think you'll. Ever sell these coins?
That's the point. Like there's no level.
Like it couldn't have gone any higher today.
And OSF in the chat being like no, no.
Not selling. Not selling.
Think. It's going higher, A.
Hat a hat stays on boys. DJN's going to DJN.
But anyways that's I think this
is a really good I I didn't, I had not heard that more like
Solana ETF thing like you. You should send me something so
I can maybe check look into it myself.
I got stuff. I can send you.
OK, OK, OK, sources, let's go. Let's go show me them, show me
those things. But you know the most.
Headline out Solana ETF? Come someone files for Solana
ETF. Where's Solana going there?
I really think they're going to see that's.
A wild move. Look in the network.
Now we're. Probably see a filing.
I'm not saying it's going to get approved, but I think somebody's
going to try, somebody is going to run and try to like snatch
that ground. Well, it seems like everyone's
going to try to go to everything like they're trying to go to
like XRP, they're trying to go to obviously this ETH coming
next. So yeah, XRP Army is going to
like, rise up. Are you kidding me?
Oh yeah. That's like the strongest army
on X, so that's for sure. But anyway, what?
You'll see is if you get loads of these applications it will
start to feel very diluted very quickly like the Bitcoin ETF was
super novel. The we're all really bullish on
ETH because that's next. But the effect on ETH will be
you know haircut from from from what it was for for Bitcoin.
And the next one we'll have an even bigger haircut.
So I think like in two weeks we have like oh they've just pipe
Flex, Lana, Ripple, AVAX, etcetera.
Then people are going like, OK, cool, like.
And it'll be diminishing returns.
It's going to be boring at some point.
Like, for all the, like, breathless hype we have around
this ET the Bitcoin one, eventually it's just going to be
very boring stuff. Like, no one's going to be like,
oh, another one, OK. Yeah, that's that's exactly it.
So Stacy, thank you so much. We did have you more, we didn't,
we didn't have you more. You know hopefully you like our
vibe. I mean we're a little crazy on
this side, you know, but we're DJs.
But we also, you know, we do both.
We do a little bit of this, a little bit of that.
You know I don't mind a. Little crazy.
That's fine. Plus we've got matching mics, so
I love that. Thank you for having so much for
your comment, Stacy. Appreciate you.
Sure, later guys. All right.
Stacy cooks.
I got to say Stacy. Stacy cooks.
I we got to. I think we need to make Stacy a
thing more. I mean let the audience here.
We have a lot of the OG audience down in the down there like give
me some thumbs up. You know give me some thumbs up
some some hearts. If you want to see Stacy Armor
remember to retweet and share as we are live both on X Video, on
X Audio. We're live on YouTube on Rock
Videos YouTube. And we are now joined.
I'm going to let Sam's here the honors of bringing our special
guest of the day, Eleanor Tourette of Fox Business, AKA
the Queen of ETS. Eleanor, good morning or GM and
our on our side of of X. How you doing today, GM?
Guys, wow. I don't think I've ever had such
an entrance before. Thank you for that.
Yeah, I mean. Listen, this is, this is how we
hype the people up over here on rug radio.
You know, this is how we like to do things.
And or first and foremost, you know, how was pub key last
night? It seems like everybody and
their mothers were at Pub Key celebrating the ETFs.
Pub key was pretty. Cool.
I've actually been wanting to go there for a while.
It was my first time last night. It's it's a cool spot.
And obviously, you guys know, Bitcoin is accepted there for
payment for drinks and burgers. So kind of just added to the
celebratory vibe of the whole thing yesterday.
So yeah, it was fun. Got to meet very, very cool
people. Obviously I knew Steve Mcclurg
already from from Valkyrie. And then I met Peter McCormick
and James Seifert. Oh my goodness.
He's like super cool in person, super nice guy.
He's just as nice in person as he is like smart.
You know what I mean? Like cool people.
I love that. I.
Saw. I saw.
I saw a photo of you and and and and and James and it's like why
you got like prom king and prom queen of ETFs in one photo.
Of course. Shout out to Eric Bakunas who
was on with here. We missed Eric.
He was apparently back in Philly
with his family. So I love.
Yeah, I love. Yeah.
He turned in I think from Delaware last Friday.
From the Delaware, they are they've.
Turned into complete rock stars, right?
Like they're all their followings have like doubled,
tripled over the lovers the last month.
It's wild, I mean, Eric said. I said to.
James, I said. Oh my goodness, you you crossed
100K yesterday and he was like, I didn't even like notice for a
second. And then, you know, it's just
amazing how how if you're an expert on something and people
really trust your coverage and your expertise, then people are
going to flock to you. And especially in crypto,
because it's sort of more of a, it's everyone's online anyway,
right? So everyone's going to flock to
the people who are making the most sense.
And I think James and Eric's Jerry, James and Eric really
proved themselves for for the ETF.
I agree. Yeah, they've been on one.
And guess what, They're definitely running for the next
ETF, which is Ethereum. But I'm sure we're going to get
into that in a second. I mean, Eleanor, you have been,
you know, covering this for a minute.
I have to say, you gave me a little scare yesterday, OK.
Because, you know, I was on, I started up a Twitter space two
days ago on on on the fake news that we didn't know was fake,
right. I mean, everybody fell for it,
even the, the the Bloomberg boys and and so and so we start up a
space bait and switch. Turns out it was fake yesterday.
We have the ETF approval. Ish.
Then the website goes down and then we're scared again.
And we see your tweets saying, oh, oh, wait, some insurers
haven't heard from the SEC yet. So, Eleanor, what now is my
question. You know, we've been talking
about these ETFs every day. OK, now they're here, all eleven
coin talkie Derby has started. What are you hearing on your
side as the market opened about an hour and a half ago?
Well, I'm seeing tweets from Eric and James and everything
looks very positive. I mean I think we kind of maybe
guessed that Grayscale and and BlackRock will be the two ones
to watch, right. And I think they have had the
most volume. I'm not sure what the most
recent number is, but the 1.2 billion in their first 30
minutes of trading was was pretty historic and I know some
people think this is these are going to be the most flows in
ETF history, right. So, So we'll see.
I mean that's just the 1st 30 minutes.
I think we saw a pretty big spike in Bitcoin.
Was it 49,000? I believe it hit before it's
come back. Yeah, it's come back down a
little bit. But I mean, I think it just goes
to show the the excitement about this, this whole process.
And I just want to clarify yesterday my, my tweet.
So, you know, obviously as a journalist we were dumbfounded
by the SEC hack because I mean the last thing, obviously you
see these Twitter accounts posting these super fast Twitter
accounts that have access to the wires, right.
And they post bitcoins spot ETF approved via Gary Gensler SEC.
And so you say, OK, obviously let's Fact Check that.
But then when you see the SEC official Twitter account coming
out with it with a graphic that looks very, very similar to ones
that the SEC has used before, that's an official account.
So you're not your first thought is not to be like, oh, hmm, let
me study that graphic. Let me study the language used
on there and and and let me see if that's fake.
So we were all just blindsided, I think not just journalists but
obviously the Bloomberg guys, everybody in the space.
We couldn't really believe it. But then yesterday when the
website crashed, that was just, I mean, you couldn't write it
any better. We were like we were like no, no
way is this happening right now. But you know, luckily and I had
reached out to some issues and they were like, well nothing's
really approved. Nothing's really set in stone
until we get those uploads to the SEC website and then about
10 minutes later we got the SEC official statement on the
website. The 19 B fours were were
approved. So it was a happy ending, but
there were some heart stopping moments yesterday.
I'll tell you that for sure, yeah.
It's it's it's it's quite crazy to see it you know go through.
When when did you start reporting on all these the ETF
matters you've been you've been doing this for?
Yeah, a couple months I I first started reporting on crypto late
2021 and it first started out with the Ripple SEC case.
So I heard you guys talking about the XRP army.
They are, they are quite the crowd, that's for sure.
They are. Quite the crowd, indeed.
How I have a question. Like how?
And you don't have to answer what you you can't answer, of
course, but obviously you you operate within a very large
media organization, one of the largest in the world.
How you you were reporting on crypto quite early when it comes
to that, especially with ETS, right?
Two years ago, 2 1/2, some years ago.
How is it being received now behind the scenes, like now and
then, like then there's no ETS now there's a test.
The game changed, right? Yeah, absolutely.
I mean, if you look at our audience, we're more of a trad
Fi audience, right? Fox Business, CNBC, Bloomberg,
we attract the more tradfi boomer, I guess you could say
population. So yeah, for, for a while.
I mean especially let's, I mean let's go back to even like 2017,
right. With the ICO boom from 2017 to
2020, the mainstream media really wasn't covering crypto at
all. I think I first started hearing
about rumblings about MSN coverage of me crypto, I'd say
around like 2020-2021. So that was really sort of when
it it started to trickle in, I think.
And then honestly I think I can say with the Ripple coverage, my
boss Charlie and I, we we obviously we did that deep dive
into it. We did like an Opus.
We called it like a 10,000 word article on what happened, why it
happened, who was involved. And from there it just really
got interesting. We're like, OK, this is a
really, really cool space and not very many people are talking
about it. We would cover like on the
network, we'd cover obviously the prices, right.
We'd cover crypto as as an investment vehicles, Bitcoin,
Ethereum. We would also cover Litecoin for
something I'm not entirely sure. We would always have like those
three on the screen and people would reach out to me on Twitter
and say why is Fox so interested in Litecoin?
I was like, I think it's just one of the ones we have like hot
boards for like we can actually track that in our system.
So it's up there. And then yeah, it just got
really, really interesting And I think from a regulatory
standpoint, that's my expertise. You know, I, I, I love the
space. I love covering different
things, but I'd say my specialty is really in the the regulation
wheelhouse. So and that's what everybody's
focused on, right? Everybody cares what the SEC
says. I think Once Upon a time the
SEC, SEC has always been there. Obviously they've always played
a role in the markets, but but they are so watched in the
crypto space because they are the ones who say yay or nay and
yeah, covering them has been just a wild roller coaster.
Yeah that's that is that's I mean what do you what do you
make then of what what would Gary, we were just talking about
this with Stacey Elliott, right. Why would you know?
What do you make of his statement?
His closing statement being that you know, the SEC does not
endorse nor approve of Bitcoin. But you know, I think.
We got the approvals. That's one small step, right?
I I think it would be asking a lot for Gary Gunzo to come out
and say I love Bitcoin and you know we're endorsing it from
here Con. I think that was kind of a a
given that he had to come out and say because he's he's
basically staked his career on this thing, right.
He's made a name for himself as the guy who's going after
cryptocurrency. So it wouldn't be on very on
brand for him to come out and say yay Bitcoin, here we are and
you know then go after altcoins in the way that he's been going
after all coins. So I read the statement, you
know, because we are proving this today does not mean that
we're endorsing Bitcoin and we still believe it's a vehicle for
money laundering and scammers totally on brand.
But you got to look at his actions.
He was the deciding vote that made it a three, two vote from
the SEC Commission that passed these things.
So you got to look at actions, yeah?
I was going to bring that up, right?
Go ahead, Mando. But just quickly I was, I just
wanted to bring this up right like you have.
Go ahead, Mando. No.
No, I don't know if there's a delay, but you go.
So yeah, there was. There was a delay, Sorry, my
bad. I apologize.
But I was just going to bring this up quickly and I'll go to
you is because you posted that yesterday went quite viral.
So Gary, you're you're saying Gary had to approve this so
there's a vote. You have Hester Pierce by the
way. Hester Pierce for chair of the
SECI stand. But I mean I loved her loved her
message right after like it was phenomenal.
I think if Hester Pierce becomes chair of this is or my opinion
is my own none of Ruggedo Northern Crips nor Fox's you
know 100 year bull run. But anyways, Hester Pierce, you
have Gary Gensler. Someone called something Uyeda
and Lizarraga that voted for and then Crenshaw and Lizarraga not
approved. So Gary Gaza was a deciding
factor like was the people. So what does that mean like?
Well, as the chairman, he always gets the deciding vote right.
But he is a Democrat, so he votes, he has the Democrat vote.
And then you saw Lizarraga and Crenshaw, they're two Democrats.
So I I think I put in that tweet or maybe one after that.
You know, it was a little bit expected for Democrats to vote
on party lines on this thing. But then Gensler really bucked
the trend and I think, you know, I don't think that's him
necessarily. You know, I don't think
everything's going to get easier from this point on.
I think that's, I think it's a very small step.
It is a positive step, but I wouldn't expect him to start
like endorsing all kinds of different spot ETFs.
I I think I know this and consensus that an Ethereum spot
will be coming in a few months. I think it definitely will be
coming. I don't know if it will come
that quickly. I think the structure is in
place now, right? This was the first of its kind
crypto based ETF and I think they had to figure out how to
get it off the ground. All the disclosures involved,
that really was the deciding factor at the end of the day,
the SEC, it likes to regulate by enforcement, right?
But at the end of the day, they are a disclosures based regime
where their job is to say we've given you all the information we
have, the issuers have given them us and you all the
information you have, it's all on the table.
So if you want to invest in this thing, buyer beware, it's your
funeral. It's kind of what that's kind of
what I got from from the statement that Gary sent out
after after the approval. So the SEC has done its job.
So for them to hold back and say no, they're we're just going to
keep denying this thing on principle because we don't like
cryptocurrency, that would have been a problem.
I think they would have seen more lawsuits from that.
So you know, they've done, they've done their job, but but
are they going to treat other altcoins, Ethereum, you know,
XRP, even I heard you guys talking about Solana with the
same kind of treatment. Are they going to stay at the
same? I I don't think so.
OK. OK.
I Amanda, do you want to try and go?
Yeah, I don't know if this. Will delay.
But yeah, I wanted to ask because obviously you work at
Fox, right? It's quite mainstream.
What has it been like in terms of you getting asked questions
even internally? Like, are you starting to see
some of the other business reporters start to look at this
sort of stuff? Are you starting to see more
interest in terms of traffic maybe to the stuff that you're
doing? Like, how do you feel it it is
in terms of mainstream finance media?
Like is it starting to now dominate?
Yeah, I wouldn't say it's dominating, but it's definitely
picked up in the last two years. I've been covering it.
I'd say like tenfold because we're getting a lot more
interest from Congress now. I think you know, and we we are
obviously we're Fox and so we do talk a lot about what's going
on, on the hill and especially at the Business Network we we
like to tailor that to you know, what's going on with regulation
of businesses and and all that kind of fun stuff.
So when you hear from people like Patrick McHenry and French
Hill like you did yesterday, they said, you know, this is a
historic moment for for crypto. We're really happy this
happened. We're paying attention to how
regulators, I'm sorry, lawmakers are seeing it.
And I think you, you've seen an increased interest with the two
bills that are now still in the House.
They have to pass out of the House.
They pass out of the House Financial Services Committee,
the market structure bill and the stable coin bill.
So definitely an increase in visibility for sure.
And then you've got, you've got all the crypto organizations
lobbying the Hill and lobbying Congress for better regulations
for let's work together hand in hand to make this industry work.
And in terms of coverage, yeah, you know, I think this year will
be definitely monumental for, well, for crypto in general, but
also for kicking up the Trapfi interest, I mean just the ETF
alone, right, That that's all we covered on the network.
This, I mean, from my perspective, mine and Charlie's
perspective, that's literally all we covered on air.
And and there's a lot of interest from the network, from
other reporters, from management.
People are asking questions now that's.
That's something that you love to see.
I mean, hey, the Fox reporters are buying our bikes, boys play
with you. But it's it's inherently like a
lot of people. This is true.
Like a lot of people that necessarily didn't want to go
through the regular crypto on ramp.
Regular, sorry, irregular, mind you, but regular for us crypto
on ramps such as decentralized exchanges or even the
centralized one, whether Coinbase or not, feel much more
comfortable buying through ETFs. And that's just the truth.
That's just that's just that's just the way she goes.
And and I have to say those takers are pretty interesting
Eleanor for when it comes to the ETFs you have.
I saw a tweet yesterday about about all eleven of them and
they're they're really good. What ones?
Which was your favorite ticker? I kind of I wanted to ask the
boys earlier, what's everyone's favorite ticker on this one you
have. I bid for backlog, GBTC, Puddle,
Arc, You know what's your favorite 1 Eleanor?
I think I'd have to say huddle, just because that is such a
crypto term, it is not even funny.
And just the fact that Vanek capitalized on that, I think
it's really funny. That's a Vanek I.
Have to say the Vanek intern is the best intern and all like all
8 issuers because they're so funny on Twitter and all XI mean
mando your favorite one's Burr. I have to say the Burr one is
great. The Valkyrie one.
I like that. That one is good money for it to
go Burr. You know, what are you thinking?
Of me? Which one do you like most?
I think I got. To go with Burr as well, I think
it's the best one I have to say. Hashtags is kind of smart
playing on the D Fi thing though it's not really D fi but like
you know decentralized finance the whole they're getting the.
Term D fi out there, right? Because trap fi is like, what is
D fi? That's.
Actually point and then you have look BlackRock it's kind of like
you'd think that it's it's good. I bit like I bit the bullet
Bitcoin I bit I don't know there's there's some there's
some there's something there but huddle definitely you know
definitely a fan favorite OV let me kick it to you here because I
I'm sure you got a few questions here for for Elinor.
Yeah my I think. That it seems obvious now that
the next thing, well, the two things that people will focus on
from here are ongoing volumes for the current spot ETS but
also the application process for the ETF as well.
And it seems like the first deadline for that is I think
sometime in May for I can't remember this ARC or whoever it
is. But do you guys have any view on
like if that's something that we could see get an earlier
approval given, you know, Grayscale had the conversion
from the Bitcoin Trust to spot Bitcoin ETF, which is the court
case they won earlier this year. And theoretically on paper it
should just be the same thing for for ETH as well.
But do you guys have any view and if we could see maybe like
an earlier approval there because there should be less of
a grey area there now that there was you know, maybe six months
ago, Yeah, I. I don't have any inside
knowledge on the timeline, but I think like you said, yes, in
theory it should be easier now, right?
Because we've got the, the pioneer who laid the groundwork.
Now in theory, if we just do the same thing, then, then it'll
work. But I think you are right in
saying that theory was probably going to be the next one, right?
You've already got the applications in.
You've got. I'm also hearing an echo.
If I'm echoing like I'm hearing myself, I'm hearing myself.
Where's it? Echo try try.
Try OK, OK who's echoing? Talking.
Talking, Yeah, that's better.
That's better. OK.
All right.
So is that better? OK, cool.
Sorry about that. So, so the ETF, what was I going
to say, future, right. So we've got the Futures Trading
ETF, ETF Futures Trading, right. We got those approved in
October. I'm not sure.
I think I saw a tweet from James that said that they were a bit
of a flop, not a flop, but compared to, you know, other
futures launches compared to the Bitcoin futures launch for sure
in 2021. But that was sort of the first
step right when when Bito came on the scene in 2021 to like put
crypto in an ETF, even though it was futures, we've got the
Ethereum ETF is already off the ground and applications for spot
in. So I think you know those are
already out of the gate in terms of like timelines and deadlines.
It's we're going to have to refer to James on that because
they're going to have those cool graphics where it's like
deadline one, deadline two, final deadline.
It's so comprehensive. I love it.
Yeah, it's that's true. I mean, look it's it's getting
exciting. I think Eric was talking about
something around 50%, right. They'll be on on by May.
Is that what what Eric said? Yeah, his.
I think his view was greater than 50% chance that we we would
get it by May. So that's yeah, point out.
I want to point out the news out circle this morning.
Pardon me? Yeah, they they.
They applied, they were going to do an IPO, but I think it was
kind of half known by the end of the day, actually applied for it
today, right? Yeah.
What a what? A day to apply for it.
Wow, I did not know that we had news on Circle.
Yep, they. Assuming that well they
officially filed this morning a confidential IPO.
So they filed, oh sorry, they filed confidentially for an IPO
and and like you said, Mando, I think it was sort of known, but
the official move came this morning and and I just think
that's a great sign. I mean obviously they they chose
to do it on a very good day. And I think it's just showing
that you know maybe not anytime in the immediate future, but
hopefully sometime down the line.
The approval of these spot ETFs has signaled to U.S. companies
like Circle that there may be some kind of navigable way to to
work with regulators to to to work with the system.
Now that whereas before I think in 2022 everybody was concerned
that everybody's just going to pack off and go offshore, you
know and set up, set up overseas because US regulations were just
too, too choking. I think it's going to take some
time, but that's I think that's a positive sign.
If U.S. companies, crypto companies especially, are
sticking around to take advantage of U.S. markets, yeah,
that's. No, I think that's a really.
Good point. Yeah, like the, I mean it was
well, like I said it was it was flags but yeah, hopefully you
start to see this. I'm trying to think which other
companies would even do that like The Who are the big ones.
I mean Coinbase is listed. Are there any other like big
unlisted? Sorry.
Yeah, we, we had heard. Ripple, they're not that we'd
heard it from the company. I think some people expected it.
Now that the lawsuit is wrapping up the, you know, XRP is sort of
they've got their own clarity and and they actually just
dropped the charges against the CEO, Brad.
Darling House and founder. Chris Larson, Last year there
was some rumblings about a potential roadshow, a private
roadshow that they were going on.
I think that turned out to be just sort of more of like a
standard thing where they pitch to investors and say, hey, like
this is who we are. This was the favorable court
ruling that we got in July. We've been, we've been beaten
down by the courts for the last three years but we're still here
and we still want to come public in the future and you know just
giving everybody a heads up about what their situation is.
So I think it was more of that. But I do see a Ripple IPO in the
future. Whether it will be in 2024, I
don't know. I think there was some hope that
there would be. That's why I my tweet this
morning about Circle. I said there was expectation
that Ripple might but it it could it could take longer in
theory. You know they're they're in a
better position than they were even a year ago especially since
2020 when they when the SEC brought the lawsuit.
But they're still tying up loose ends from from the court battle.
So. So we'll see.
But yeah, definitely Ripple. Yeah, I guess we'll have to see
who else is is brave enough to throw their hat in the ring.
Ripple will be. Would be a real 180 for for that
company that would be that would be wild yeah I guess none of the
real none of the D5 stuff would would would come to the US is
because that still seems to be in the air with the CFTC.
I'm trying to think if there like.
I guess there are some other more public facing just exchange
maybe like. Maybe Kraken, if you think I
could definitely do it. Yeah.
In terms of.
Exchanges. Yeah it's the the SEC definitely
has got a lot on their hands I guess.
You know Eleanor, I'm sure you got a whole bunch of stuff to do
here and I'm. I'm seeing the time here.
I mean what are you going to report on next Eleanor, what are
we what are now the ETFs are ETFs are approved they're they
they're they're gone through the coin talkie Derby has started.
What's What's next for Eleanor here?
Well, obviously keeping an eye on any other ETF activity and I
think for me it's going to be a lot of focusing on Congress this
year. Obviously we're an election year
now it's 2024. Want to see some movement
hopefully on those, on those crypto bills, on the market
structure and the stable coin bills.
Is that going to happen in the first half of the year?
I don't know. Is it going to happen in the
second-half of the year because we've got the presidential
election, like I think it's going to happen at some point,
but but timing wise, I'm not quite sure.
I'm also really interested in how Congress is going to handle
what happened with the SEC's hack because you saw the SEC
come out yesterday and say they they actually preceded the
announcement of the spot ETF approval with an announcement
that they're working with the FBI and the Office of the
Inspector General is also investigating.
I I kind of predicted that the the office of the IG would would
involved because they're like an independent overseer of the SEC.
But the FBI, I was not expecting that that sort of curveball like
well, they're really like they're bringing in the big guns
for this one. But you also saw a lot of
letters from Congress, from senators saying, you know, what
on earth happened and and how are we going to fix this?
So I expect to see Gary Gensler up on the Hill for a good
grilling because that's what they like to do to to Gensler
when he gets up there. So we'll keep an eye out for
that. I like to live tweet those
hearings because there are always some great quotes from,
you know, from senators and from from Congressman.
So we'll keep an eye out. Thank you.
What is it Reclaim? My time.
What is it? Reclaim my We We love.
My God. These are my favorite clips.
We Didn't we see a congressman buy Ethereum yesterday?
Wasn't that there? Was a we, Did we?
Had a congressman publicly, you have to file that he bought AI.
Don't know. I didn't.
See that?
It was crazy. I'll send that there's a.
Congressman, that's a report that he bought a theorem.
I know how to keep the minutes. On there.
Come on. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, we. I wonder if he'll be able to get
in. Order.
Yeah, it's it's. I just think he.
Didn't answer out of Gensler whether Ethereum is a security
or not. Maybe he'll have better luck
than anyone else, I guess. On that, like, I honestly have
another question because that's something that was asked to me
yesterday, but I obviously don't know, right?
I don't have the answer to this. It's not my expertise.
How much longer is can can Gary Ganser retain his his chair at
the SEC? So I believe his term is up in
26. So he was in, he was he was
brought in in 20/21/2020. 6:00 will be when his term expires.
If we get a switch in administration the Republicans
take over, then he will likely be replaced by someone who the
Republican president favors more.
So one of two things could happen.
He'll get replaced, or actually has one of three He'll get
replaced. He'll he'll retire or not
retire, but he'll he'll quit or we'll see him carry his
position. Through till 2020.
Six. So it'll be very interesting to
watch. I want to point out Caroline
Crenshaw, who is a Democrat. She was one of the dissenting
votes on the bitcoins. But ETF, her term is coming up,
is expiring in June, I believe it's June 5th.
So she will either have to be renominated by President Biden
or he'll have to nominate someone else.
So a lot of things to watch in the SEC this year as well.
Okay. All right, listen, I'm gonna
keep Bull posting about Hester Pierce until we talk into
reality. I find her phenomenal.
Her writing yesterday. You're on the show.
She even tweeted. Macbeth like that was some crazy
thing She's like she's out here quoting Shakespeare like you
know like you're riding against Gary and all that stuff.
I I just I just find so and yes we should try mine That's kind
of part of why I'm like slowly bull posting about her and
tagging her But you know we got we got another queen on the show
today Ella Tourette of Fox. I mean thank you so much for
joining us today Eleanor I really appreciate you.
Thank you so much for. Having me guys and have a great
rest of your week. All right.
See ya. Thank you.
All right, Y'all well, that was, that was another hell of a show.
I think from tomorrow on Lines, we can like slow down the ETF
talk. You know, I I think, I think
it's time to, you know, it's going to be part of the crypto
market talk at the beginning. But, you know, I think we're
good to get back on to the Daily News and topics like the circle
thing. Today I flew over my head
because, you know, didn't have time to look at anything else
but focus on that. But that was a good show and I
think, I think we got what we needed right. 100% it.
Was a great show, 100%. Yeah.
I mean, we're going to be talking about the ETFI still
think for a while, but yeah, it was a, it's been definitely a
success, although the market is not trading that well right now.
The market is not trading. That well, I mean, during these
it was a lot of interviews and a lot of people on the show, so we
haven't really had time to talk coins in the market and stuff,
but it seems like the Pump it Up music really played its course
here. Oh yeah, really.
Right 10% dip in bitcoins since the Pump It Up music was
playing. You know you had you had guys.
You know, a lucky. Trader a nifty portal playing
that pump it up music to open their shows.
We're trying to warn them no pump it up until all time highs.
No pump it up until all time highs while though crypto.
I think what Bitcoin had a two year high only to to kind of
like erase those gains. But we'll see what happens here,
and we'll definitely be here tomorrow morning, 10:30 AM
Eastern Standard Time, 7:30 AM Pacific Standard Time to talk
about all this for another episode of FOMO Hour on Rock
Radio, powered by Ledger. Let's go.