0:00

At BP, we've reset

0:02

our strategy with a

0:04

focused downstream, a growing

0:06

upstream, and disciplined investment

0:08

in the transition. See

0:10

how will grow shareholder

0:13

value at bp.com/ reset.

0:15

At BP, we've reset

0:17

our strategy with a

0:20

focused downstream, a growing

0:22

upstream, and disciplined investment

0:24

in the transition. See

0:26

how will grow shareholder

0:28

value at bp.com/ reset.

0:30

makes a $1.2 billion acquisition which

0:32

is going to bolster their services.

0:34

It's pretty significant and it makes

0:37

it the largest crypto acquisition deal

0:39

to date. And a major bank

0:41

has given an XRP price prediction

0:43

of over $12. I'll share the

0:45

details there with you. And Black

0:48

Rock is making a big update

0:50

with its Bitcoin ETF and its

0:52

custodians. And the DOJ is dropping

0:54

its crypto enforcement actions. I'll give

0:56

you all the details. Let's get

0:58

into it. Yeah. Hey

1:03

everybody welcome into the thinking crypto podcast

1:05

your home for cryptocurrency news and interviews

1:07

I'm your host Tony Edward on your

1:10

way in please at that subscribe button

1:12

as well as a thumbs up button

1:14

and leave a comment below if you're

1:16

listening on a podcast platform such as

1:19

Spotify or Apple please leave a five-star

1:21

rating and review folks let's talk about

1:23

ripple because there's huge news that came

1:26

out today they said here today Ripple

1:28

announced it is acquiring hidden road for

1:30

1.25 billion dollars becoming the first crypto

1:33

company to own and operate a

1:35

global multi-acid prime broker. Together Ripple

1:37

and Hidden Road are bringing the

1:40

promise of digital assets to institutional

1:42

customers at scale bridging traditional finance

1:44

and decentralized finance in ways never

1:47

seen before. Now there are multiple

1:49

takeaways here. First, this acquisition is

1:52

massive. It's the largest to date

1:54

in the crypto industry. We've seen

1:56

around a billion dollars just over

1:59

a billion. Well Ripple is topping

2:01

in the charts here at $1.25

2:03

billion. And this is a very

2:05

good sign. They're still bullish. And

2:08

we're seeing a lot of folks

2:10

talking about IPOs and doing other

2:12

M&A activity. I think folks see

2:14

that there's light at the end

2:16

of the tunnel after this tariff

2:19

stuff is being put to bed

2:21

and that the bull market will

2:23

continue. Obviously that's not a guarantee,

2:25

but I think based on the

2:27

activities we're seeing, it's a positive

2:30

sign. Huge acquisition here for Ripple

2:32

and Ripple CEO Bright Garland House

2:34

weighed in highlighting the news saying

2:36

it's that this deal marks a

2:38

once in a lifetime opportunity for

2:41

crypto to access the largest and

2:43

most trusted traditional markets and vice

2:45

versa. Prime brokers along with other

2:47

key functions historically managed by banks

2:49

for the most part like Hidden

2:52

Road have proven themselves as the

2:54

trusted intermediary for the largest hedge

2:56

funds market makers. C desk, quant

2:58

traders, and more. Ripple has been

3:00

a customer of Hidden Road for

3:03

years, and we know their breadth

3:05

of expertise first hand, clearing $3

3:07

trillion annually for 300 plus. of

3:09

the top financials institutions globally. This

3:12

is a massive chess move by

3:14

ripple. And you know folks, we've

3:16

often talked about it, once they

3:18

have this all up and running,

3:20

they're gonna introduce XRP ledger, R-L-U-S-D,

3:23

and much more here, Brad talks

3:25

about it. He said, this is

3:27

the capital and activity that will

3:29

tap into XRP and the XRP

3:31

ledgers, bread and butter, instant efficient,

3:34

scalable, and low cost movement of

3:36

value. Instead of waiting. for less

3:38

than 24 hours to settle trades

3:40

through Fiat Rail's hidden road will

3:42

be using the XRP ledger for

3:45

clearing a portion of trades and

3:47

most consequently using RLLUSD as collateral

3:49

across its prime brokerage services including

3:51

cross-asset, crypto and traditional instrument trades.

3:53

What? a move and clearly XRP

3:56

and the XRP ledger will be

3:58

used as well as Ripple's stable

4:00

coin RLLUSD which is based on

4:02

the XRP ledger so it's win-win

4:04

across the board and not just

4:07

for Ripple but for the entire

4:09

crypto market guys because the infrastructure

4:11

has to be there for institutions

4:13

and retail to come on board

4:16

to make it easy so they're

4:18

taking an existing business which obviously

4:20

was servicing TradFi and helping them

4:22

to integrate blockchain. Ripple's CTO David

4:24

Schwartz also weighed in saying Ripple's

4:27

acquisition of hidden road is a

4:29

defining moment for the XRP ledger

4:31

and XRP. The prime broker clears

4:33

upwards of $10 billion and processes

4:35

over 50 million transactions a day

4:38

on various traditional rails. waiting up

4:40

to 24 hours for those transactions

4:42

to settle. Now imagine even a

4:44

portion of the activity on the

4:46

XRP ledger. And that's exactly what

4:49

Hidden Road plans on doing, not

4:51

to mention future use of collateral

4:53

and real-world assets tokenized on the

4:55

XRPL. Incredible news. Now, I know

4:57

some of you are going to

5:00

say, well, of course Brad Garland

5:02

House and Ripple is going to

5:04

say this, they are biased. They

5:06

work at Ripple. They own XRP.

5:09

Okay. Well, let me share what

5:11

Christopher Perkins, and I had him

5:13

on the podcast in the past,

5:15

he's the president at coin fund.

5:17

So they are a crypto VC

5:20

firm. He says, as a former

5:22

Tradfai PB and derivatives veteran, I

5:24

think Ripple's acquisition of Hidden Road

5:26

is a big deal. Most traditional

5:28

institutions cannot handle directional spot volatility.

5:31

Therefore, they need to find ways

5:33

to trade bases, to drive returns.

5:35

They need capital efficiency and leverage.

5:37

For this reason, many traded Bitcoin

5:39

versus Bitcoin features, but lack of

5:42

developed onshore regulated futures market beyond

5:44

a handful of majors have left

5:46

traditional institutions with few options. With

5:48

Hidden Road, Ripple has assembled a

5:50

formidable derivatives ecosystem that could allow

5:53

for deeper crypto derivatives. liquidity starting

5:55

with XRP futures hidden road has

5:57

an FCM license FCMs are the

5:59

intermediaries that are required in the

6:01

US to clear and execute listed

6:04

derivatives. Wow guys once again this

6:06

is a guy who's not a

6:08

ripple and he's giving an objective

6:10

view of what's happening here. This

6:13

is a massive move for Ripple

6:15

and it's going to be very

6:17

beneficial for XRP. Now speaking of

6:19

XRP, standard charter sees XRP jumping

6:21

over 500% to $12.50 by 2028

6:24

expects XRP ETF approval in Q3

6:26

of 2025. Now I honestly think

6:28

if the bullmarket continues and the

6:30

ETF for XRP is approved, we

6:32

could see $12 dollars. 10 to

6:35

$12 this cycle. I would lean

6:37

more conservative by going 8 to

6:39

10, but if things get really

6:41

bullish. two dollars more is not

6:43

much, right? It's not like they're

6:46

saying 20 bucks, like some people

6:48

are there saying 25, 89, 89,

6:50

so forth, right? I don't agree

6:52

with that, but I think this

6:54

is a decent price prediction. It's

6:57

not too outlandish or crazy. Now,

6:59

the analyst at Standard Charter, Kendrick,

7:01

he forecasts XRP to hit $5.50

7:03

gradually climbing to eight dollars in

7:06

2026, peaking at $12.50 cents in

7:08

2028. So, statements, he said XRP's

7:10

blockchain, the XRP ledger, is a

7:12

payments chain and may become a

7:14

tokenization chain. So we're starting to

7:17

see more folks tokenize. He talked

7:19

about XRP's core function as cross-border

7:21

payments, the XRP ledger, their stable

7:23

coin, RLLUSD, and much more, and

7:25

the reasons why they're giving this

7:28

price prediction and that he could

7:30

see XRP's market cap overtaking cap

7:32

overtaking a theorem. This is of

7:34

course his prediction, his full name

7:36

is Jeffrey Kendrick by the way,

7:39

and he's the global head of

7:41

digital assets research at Standard Chartered

7:43

and this is just one price

7:45

prediction. I don't think this is

7:47

far-fetched. This is not something like

7:50

outlandish crazy price prediction. I think

7:52

it's reasonable and pretty level-headed in

7:54

my opinion. Haters are gonna hate,

7:56

but if you look at the

7:58

charts, this is not. Outlandish at

8:01

all. Now guys, a great place

8:03

you can buy XRP and other

8:05

all coins and Bitcoin is on

8:07

Uphold. Uphold is a platform I've

8:10

been using since 2018. They have

8:12

300 plus crypto currencies. They recently

8:14

added staking for 19 crypto currencies

8:16

on their platform as staking is

8:18

opening up in the United States.

8:21

And folks, they're easy to use,

8:23

safe to use, they're reliable, and

8:25

they don't commingle or lend out

8:27

your crypto funds. They are 100%

8:29

reserved. They have a transparency report

8:32

that you can review. And folks,

8:34

they have a great rewards program

8:36

where you can earn up to

8:38

5.25% on stable coins. And part

8:40

of this rewards program, you get

8:43

24-hour early access to any new

8:45

tokens that they list. So to

8:47

participate, you have to open the

8:49

app once per month, deposit $50

8:51

once per month, and trade $50

8:54

once per month. And you can

8:56

get the access to the rewards.

8:58

And the stable coins they support

9:00

are RLLUSUSSD. PayPal's P-Y-U-S-D and US-B-C.

9:02

Now US-B-C gives you 5.25% but

9:05

you get 5% on R-L-U-S-D-C-N-P-Y-U-S-D-S-C-N-P-Y-U-S-D-S-T-P-Y-U-S-D-S-T-P-I-U-S-S-T-P-I-E-S-S-I-S-I-I-S-S-S-I-S-S-S-I-S-S-S-S-I-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-I-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-I-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S- the

9:07

custody. Right now Black Rock was

9:09

cussing all their stuff with coin

9:11

base. Nothing wrong with coin base,

9:14

but I believe they should diversify

9:16

the assets as far as how

9:18

it's being cussied and stored, right?

9:20

So there's no single point of

9:22

failure, if you know what I

9:25

mean. It's just proper risk management,

9:27

right? And we know Black Rock

9:29

had they have the biggest Bitcoin

9:31

ETF and it's about $44 billion

9:33

of assets under management. which is

9:36

crazy when you think about it.

9:38

So Anchorage Digital is a trusted

9:40

custodian. I've interviewed folks in there

9:42

a couple times and they actually

9:44

have a banking license, if I'm

9:47

not mistaken, a charter banking license.

9:49

I think it's called. So they've

9:51

been in a business for a

9:53

long time. So this is really

9:55

great to see. Now guys tomorrow

9:58

there's going to be a vote

10:00

for SEC chair Paul Atkins or

10:02

the nominee but I think he's

10:04

going to be in right so

10:07

that's going to take place at

10:09

11 30 a.m. tomorrow so this

10:11

is really great to have his

10:13

full confirmation in place and get

10:15

him in office and I think

10:18

that will help fast-track a lot

10:20

of stuff like getting the ETFs

10:22

all-cone ETFs prepped for approval which

10:24

may not happen right away of

10:26

course he's going and may happen

10:29

in Q3. but we'll have to

10:31

wait and see. Now, some very

10:33

bullish news. The DOJ, they are

10:35

dropping their regulation by enforcement, essentially.

10:37

So amended to Manelli from the

10:40

defy education fund, said major update

10:42

regarding the DOJ and the prosecution

10:44

of digital assets. The department will

10:46

stop participating in regulation by prosecution

10:48

in this space. This memo from

10:51

the deputy attorney general does a

10:53

few important things, including making it

10:55

clear. The DOJ is not going

10:57

after exchanges and wallets for actions.

10:59

of third parties and the DOJ

11:02

is not a regulator of section

11:04

1960 registration violations. So we saw

11:06

regulation by enforcement and at the

11:08

SEC it's happening here at the

11:11

DOJ and remember all these people

11:13

were coerced under the Biden administration

11:15

specifically by Elizabeth Warren who had

11:17

her cronies and all the different

11:19

parts of the government and the

11:22

biggest one being Gary Genser of

11:24

course. So all this stuff is

11:26

coming to an end. This is

11:28

why I'm bullish. macro headwinds we're

11:30

facing right now with the tariffs

11:33

guys look at the macro look

11:35

at the setup that's happening here

11:37

for capital to come in the

11:39

regulations the moves that are being

11:41

made it's pretty incredible now we

11:44

get Some interesting news here. Apollo

11:46

Global invests in tokenized real-world assets

11:48

firm Plume Network. So the investment,

11:50

the expansions continue. Apollo Global Management

11:52

has made a strategic investment into

11:55

Plume Network, the real-world asset tokenization

11:57

firm bringing solar assets equities, and

11:59

real estate on chain. Plume's TestNet

12:01

has over 18 million wallets according

12:04

to the firm. So guys, these

12:06

are all healthy signs. I've often

12:08

said if you're an entrepreneur, you

12:10

know, go pitch your idea because

12:12

you're going to get money. There's

12:15

a lot of firms out there

12:17

that are ready to invest in

12:19

crypto projects and companies that are

12:21

building the infrastructure and tokenization is

12:23

going to be a big part

12:26

of this. Now, speaking of tokenization,

12:28

base, which is coin bases, Ethereum

12:30

layer 2 chain, and stable coins

12:32

set stage for coin base to

12:34

become mission critical for crypto infrastructure,

12:37

Cantor Fitzgerald says. Cantor Fitzgerald, of

12:39

course, headed up by Howard Lutnik,

12:41

who's the Secretary of Commerce, I

12:43

believe, in the Trump administration, very

12:45

bullish on crypto, they own crypto,

12:48

of course. So they're saying that

12:50

coin base is the best position

12:52

for a crypto chat GPT moment

12:54

as the institutional tied bills. coin

12:56

base could see a 5 to

12:59

10 X stable coin revenue growth

13:01

by 2030 according to Cantor, which

13:03

gave coin a $245 target. So

13:05

coin base is stock, of course.

13:08

Now. I think they're not wrong

13:10

here. coin base is doing a

13:12

lot guys, a lot. I've interviewed

13:14

quite a few folks there and

13:16

the building that's happening and I

13:19

think it was a genius move

13:21

to have base and they don't

13:23

have a token. They just kind

13:25

of, you know, collect the fees.

13:27

is amazing. It's helping their revenue

13:30

and they're doing an amazing job

13:32

getting adoption. Here's another example. Ave

13:34

Gachi, NFT gaming community votes to

13:36

migrate to base, sunset polygon deployment.

13:38

Not so much good news for

13:41

polygon, but they're going to base.

13:43

A great example of that, right?

13:45

So this was according to a

13:47

governance decision. So the strategic shift

13:49

comes after development company Pixel Craft

13:52

Studios made significant team cuts to

13:54

reduce our burn and extend runway.

13:56

So that's a quote there. Great

13:58

move by coin base. I do

14:01

have some coin base stock I

14:03

will be looking to add some

14:05

as we see where this market

14:07

You know is almost near the

14:09

bottom. Obviously, no one can directly

14:12

call the bottom, but the prices

14:14

are depreciated right now So I

14:16

think You know coin base is

14:18

gonna do well. This is not

14:20

financial advice. I do have stocks

14:23

for different crypto companies and things

14:25

like that and coin base has

14:27

been the primary one, but as

14:29

others go public, you know, like

14:31

your circles and even your crackins,

14:34

I'm going to take positions, not

14:36

when they're exactly IPOing and the

14:38

price pumping, right? I don't buy

14:40

pumps like that. I'm going to

14:42

wait for them to, you know,

14:45

when the price goes down, take

14:47

my positions, obviously. do my research,

14:49

try and make sure that they

14:51

have a solid roadmap and you

14:53

know see what they have on

14:56

the horizon and then take my

14:58

positions guys because I know crypto

15:00

is only going to continue to

15:02

grow guys. We're still very early.

15:05

Now look at this stable coin

15:07

infrastructure platform M0 expands as Solana.

15:09

So I remember interviewing the founder

15:11

M0 I think it was sometime

15:13

last year and they are building

15:16

unique stable coins. So now they're

15:18

expanding to Solana. They were on

15:20

Ethereum first. So we're seeing expansion

15:22

and guys, you know, you know,

15:24

I've often talked about we're headed

15:27

to a multi-chain world and you're

15:29

going to see. stable coins and

15:31

different coins being issued on multiple

15:33

block chains. There's not going to

15:35

be one blockchain to rule them

15:38

all. That's very silly. If you

15:40

think that, there's going to be

15:42

multiple chains and they're going to

15:44

be interoperables. So that is what

15:46

we can expect. So M0, an

15:49

EVM protocol for stable coin coordination,

15:51

has expanded to Solana. The team

15:53

told light speed exclusively. M0's first

15:55

Solana user will be cast a

15:57

platform offering banking-like services with stable

16:00

coins. The move comes as various

16:02

and sundry actors, bring new stable

16:04

coins to market, and M0 hopes

16:06

to unify the increasingly fragmented sector.

16:09

So they're trying to build interoperability

16:11

between these different stable coins and

16:13

much more. So, guys, I'm so

16:15

bullish on what's happening in the

16:17

market conditions, but the setup. Right?

16:20

All of these things are going

16:22

to lead to higher prices. All

16:24

the investments, the acquisitions, the building

16:26

of the infrastructure to onboard more

16:28

institutions, more retail, and this is

16:31

a global movement. So it's not

16:33

just a United States asset class.

16:35

You're going to have capital flowing

16:37

in from across the world. And

16:39

we're seeing competitions heating up globally,

16:42

game theories playing out with the

16:44

governments, with the private sector, the

16:46

businesses, and much more. It's exciting.

16:48

As always be patient have the

16:50

macro view and don't be emotional

16:53

about these these investments guys it's

16:55

we're here to make money but

16:57

don't get too emotional because the

16:59

market will wreck you if you're

17:02

operating by your emotions because the

17:04

markets are of course volatile and

17:06

especially crypto because it's still a

17:08

very young market. That's why there's

17:10

a lot of opportunity here. Folks

17:13

let me know what you think.

17:15

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17:17

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17:48

all later. You