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In this episode of Hot Topics on the Edge of NFT, the hosts discuss the cryptocurrency market reaching a record capitalization of $3.2 trillion, primarily driven by Bitcoin's performance. They also cover Near Protocol's ambitious plan to create a 1.4 trillion parameter AI model, a lawsuit from 18 states against the SEC for regulatory overreach, and the launch of a blockchain-based digital identity verification service in Brazil aimed at combating identity theft.
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Key Topics Covered:
- Cryptocurrency Market Growth: The total cryptocurrency market capitalization has surged to an all-time high of $3.2 trillion, driven primarily by Bitcoin's performance, which now holds over 60% of the market share.
- Decentralized AI Development: Near Protocol announced plans to create the world's largest open-source AI model with 1.4 trillion parameters, significantly larger than existing models, signaling a strong shift towards decentralized AI innovation.
- Legal Challenge Against the SEC: Eighteen states have filed a lawsuit against the SEC, claiming regulatory overreach in the crypto industry, highlighting a growing tension between state rights and federal regulations in the evolving landscape of cryptocurrency.
What was your favorite quote or lesson from this episode? Please let us know in the comments on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/@edgeofnft/
Episode Highlights:
- "The total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies has surged to an all-time new high of 3.2 trillion, reflecting an 86 percent increase since the beginning of the year." -Richard Carathon (00:02:10)
- "Eighteen states have filed a lawsuit against the SEC, alleging that the agency has overstepped its crypto industry, highlighting a classic states' rights argument." - Josh Krieger (00:19:45)
For the full transcript, see further below.
People and Resources Mentioned:
- Sam Altman Website
- Near Protocol Website
- Gary Gensler Website
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Full Episode Transcript:
Richard Carthon: Welcome to Hot Topics on the Edge of NFT. I'm Richard Carathon and I'm here with my co hosts Josh Krieger and January Jones. Join us on the latest news shaping Web3, blockchain, and digital assets.
Josh Kriger: Coming up, crypto market hits 3. 2 trillion, plus another all time high for Bitcoin. Speaking of trillions, we'll also cover Near Protocol's 1.
4 trillion Parameter AI model, plus 18 states sue SEC, and the World ID Verification Service in Brazil.
January Jones: It's another production of Edge of Company, a rapidly growing media ecosystem empowering the pioneers of Web3 tech and culture.
Josh Kriger: Let's dive right in
January Jones: Another milestone in the crypto world. The total market capitalization of cryptocurrencies has surged to an all time new high of 3. 2 trillion. This remarkable growth reflects an 86 percent increase since the beginning of the year. This is largely driven by Bitcoin's performance, which currently holds over 60 percent of the total market share.
Justin Richard, has the pace of this growth surprised you?
Josh Kriger: I think there's been this waiting period for quite a while. We knew that the election, Would have an impact on the price of a Bitcoin and it has, I think, proven out to be expected around a more pro crypto policy in the White House and the implications for not only the U.S., but globally the optimism about the industry as the U. S. policy opens the doors to greater innovation globally. So not a tremendous surprise to me. I anticipated 90, I guess it's a little bit fast as we speak Bitcoin just hit 98, 000 and looks like it's on our way past a hundred K I. For me that happened a little faster than I would have expected but not too far off of schedule.
Richard, what are your thoughts?
Richard Carthon: Yeah, the pace of this market capitalization is being funded primarily through what's happening with Bitcoin, but there's a lot of other money flowing in right now. And a lot of it's due to bean coins. The Solana meme coin ecosystem is just going absolutely bonkers right now.
There's both a lot of money being made and lost over there, but we haven't really seen all season happen yet. So even with all the money that's being poured into Bitcoin, Ethereum is still 25 percent off of its all time high. So it still has a lot of room to grow up as well. And so you see Solana approaching its new all time high around 250 and there's a lot of other larger projects that are growing right now.
Buying Bitcoin right now is outpacing everything. But where you see Bitcoin becoming bullish the alts tend to eventually follow. And when all season happens it means it's a lot of game changing opportunities that are out there. So I think we have a lot more to come. I, as Josh mentioned with.
The U S becoming way more bullish on web three with the new administration as well as it's not official yet, but there are rumors that there's going to be the creation of the first ever white house crypto role. And with news like that, and a lot of pro crypto regulation coming into the West there's this new excitement and flood of interest in investing in the web three space.
Josh Kriger: So there was an estimate that the crypto market could reach over 10 trillion by the end of 2026. That's not too crazy when you think about it. We're talking about a little over 3x from this current moment. This could be the super cycle that folks predicted and that would line up.
I think there's still a lot of work to be done on the ground around policies and a lot of interesting signals that we'll get around how the rest of the world reflects on what the U. S. is doing and how much of a domino effect there is. But definitely optimistic times for the crypto industry as a whole.
A lot more liquidity and folks like to have fun in this industry. There is a gambling tendency. So definitely not financial advice to delve into all these areas. If you are asking for our advice I would say there's a great opportunity to stay traditional and still benefit from the dynamics of this industry.
What's up next, January?
January Jones: The next big one for decentralized AI air protocol has announced plans to build the world's largest open source AI model with an astonishing 1. 4 trillion parameters. This model is set to be 3. 5 times larger than Meta's current Lama model. Near Protocol made the announcement at the opening day of their Redacted conference in Bangkok, Thailand.
And Josh and Richard, I believe you guys were there.
Richard Carthon: Yeah, we were. And got the opportunity to go check out DevCon while in Bangkok and it was extremely developer focused while I was there, I'd probably say somewhere between 12 and 15, 000 people a lot of collaborative talks you saw whiteboards with people putting sticky notes and like working through advanced models and it was really cool from a standpoint of seeing all of these.
Builders come together to educate, network and learn. But the news of this, I think is incredible because when you think about what near has been doing over the last two years, they've really been trying to figure out what's their niche going to be like, what's their lane, what is it, what is the thing that they're going to like really rely on it and go deep into.
And they made the pivot to really lean into AI and like they created a model that is, is insane. Like you think about being 3. 5 times bigger than the llama model, which is some of the best engineers in the world and pulling its data sets from that is huge. They have data sets from all over and being able to pull in that type of data astronomically larger is gonna just help them to be able to come up with some really advanced models that I think others are gonna start to pull from.
So I think this is a huge jump for near protocol. Yeah,
Josh Kriger: I think it's a, it's also a broader signal for where decentralized AI is moving. We've been covering a lot of events lately everywhere from Riyadh to Dubai to Bangkok to Singapore. The decentralized physical infrastructure in the AI community is out with vengeance building, creating, innovating.
We have some exciting developments in this area we'll be announcing soon as well. I think bottom line there's a lot of untapped potential in leveraging decentralization AI together and competing with the big guys, right? I think that is the narrative that NIR is offsetting.
Is when Big Brother controls your LLMs, what happens versus sort of the power of a more libertarian, egalitarian approach to how these models get created and get deployed, get used, get leveraged, and how they get monetized. I think there's still concern about the Facebooks of the world and what they did to social media and people want to ensure that doesn't happen with AI.
This is a strong signal of innovation in this area and excited about what these guys are doing.
January Jones: Yeah. They've also figured out a monetization strategy to encourage that open source participation. So they're going to fund it with a new token sale for each model version. And so then people can reinvest when the next model comes out.
So they're gamifying Decentralized AI, which seems like a pretty novel approach in this space.
Josh Kriger: Absolutely. What else do we have in January?
January Jones: Now we're going to talk about a new legal challenge against the SEC. 18 states have filed a lawsuit against the SEC and its chair, Gary Gensler, alleging that the agency has overstepped its crypto industry.
We've seen crypto companies taking the offensive and suing, but states have largely stayed out of it. But now they are taking up a classic states right argument to assert their position. I really can't imagine how much more complicated things could get with states setting regulations. Josh, what do you think about this?
Josh Kriger: It's definitely interesting. I don't think there's been a week in the crypto industry without a lawsuit in the news and this sort of jujitsu situation I think is an indicator of a new sort of evolution and policy development. Obviously we know from the plaintiff's position that the SEC's crackdown on crypto firms lacks clear, consistent rules, and it's really stifling innovation.
And we have a situation where the U. S. is trying to get back on its feet and be a leader globally as in, in the world of innovation, and states are realizing that they have a say in the matter. I think it's interesting from that perspective, I would say that there's, this is a broader indicator of the tension between states and federal regulators not only over cryptocurrency, but in a lot of different areas of policy in the U.
S., we're seeing that sort of tension come to light. Overall, I feel like depending on how things shake out with the administration's crypto policy, which Richard talked about earlier, if some of these sorts of lawsuits go favorably for the states it could actually be a bullish indicator of a more crypto friendly environment.
Richard, what are your thoughts?
Richard Carthon: Yeah, I'm not super surprised about these lawsuits. And I think you might see more. There's a couple of things that are trying to be established right now. We covered this a few weeks ago. But one of the things in the crypto industry that was said back when we were at Bitcoin Nashville and President Trump was running Bitcoin Was that on day one, he would fire Gary Gensler.
And with that in mind, now you have a lot of these states who have been very pro crypto who are now stepping up and are basically voicing the need to go against the SEC and also Gary Gensler. But the other thing to keep in mind is. When you look at where some of the largest donations this year were for the presidential race, a lot of them came from crypto.
A lot of donations were taken in Bitcoin. And so of course, when you have that type of group that is putting those kinds of donations towards a policy, you get constituents to step up and start doing something. And so when 18 states step up and do this. I don't see that as a coincidence, and I think you're gonna see even more things like this come up.
They're making the defense for state rights versus regulations. That's always gonna be like one of the things that happens here in the States. I think you're gonna have to get something more at the federal level eventually. And I think there's the next four years something like that will happen.
But until that happens trying to go the route of states rights is probably one of the most pro crypto things that can happen. I'm not super surprised by this news.
January Jones: Yeah, I think they're also trying to set themselves up to get into the strategic Bitcoin reserves, right? Why can't you have that at a state level?
And everybody's saying, It's getting FOMO. And so I think this is part of a larger strategy too for states to find that ever renewing revenue that's possibly out there. I think maybe one of the positive things when states get involved, sometimes it's consumer protection, right? But what does that look like?
But yeah, it is hard to imagine if they can't even. Decide if crypto is a security, then how the state's getting involved is going to move crypto forward or not.
Josh Kriger: Yeah, a lot to unpack as we get into 2025, I think there'll be a lot more clarity in the next quarter of the year.
So it'll be interesting to see what happens.
January Jones: Next up, let's discuss the launch of world ID verification services in Brazil, formerly known as world coin. This initiative aims to enhance digital identity verification using the blockchain. It was co-founded by Sam Altman and World ID seeks to combat the rising concern over AI driven identity theft.
According to the project's website, they have verified over 7. 5 million unique humans. And they are utilizing biometric technology to confirm identities through iris scanning. So the future is here in Brazil. Richard, when do you think we will see this sort of blockchain verified digital identity happen in the U.
S.?
Richard Carthon: It's already a matter of time. So you're, for those who have traveled to the U. S., you might have seen these clear lines. And what Clear's doing is using biometrics to verify your face and let you go through quickly. You can see this on Delta Airlines as well. They have the quick pass and you can do it as other airlines that are beginning to do this.
For those who haven't had the opportunity to travel internationally, this is already happening in a lot of other countries. Or as soon as you come in, you're immediately getting biometrically scanned and you're going through for example Singapore, which has one of the best airport, or it's ranked probably the best airport in the world which has some of the easiest customs to go through they literally just use biometric scanning to go through.
And so there's a lot of these countries who are seeing what's happening internationally, and they're like, we should be able to do that too. So Melvin provided a way to do that through world coin, which is now identity. And a lot of these countries are now trying to set this up and go that step forward by also having this data on blockchain.
So I think that Brazil adopting this is going to be another domino to get more and more countries to go in this direction. What's your take on this, Josh?
Josh Kriger: , I'm not sure at this point how I feel about big brother aspects of digital identity and how that intersects with blockchain. I think that the goal of blockchain has been the right amount of privacy and security and the right information sharing at the right time.
I've always been a proponent of that aspect of utilizing blockchain. So I want to make sure that there's not an overreach here overall. And I think there are complicated scalability and interoperability issues for different platforms with this type of technology globally. The idea of one company that sort of dominates and sets the standard, I think also as challenges we, I'm, I've been a victim of Breaches of information hacks like three or four times this past year.
And I know I'm not the only one. I guess I'm a little bit ambivalent about all of it. To be honest, January, what about you?
January Jones: I'm optimistic about it. We pick and choose who owns our data and who has the idea that you own your own identity and can have that nexus in the blockchain.
I think it is appealing, but maybe idealistic. But I think we have to move away from places with borders, right? And the idea of a world ID is getting to global citizens and helping people who can just jump the technological divide, right? They have a world ID and now maybe they have a smartphone for web three where you're seeing.
I think great moves forward that encourage personal identity, but also sovereignty. And so these, this is just another tool in that hopefully we can see working in countries who don't have as much economic, don't have as much economic opportunity as we may have here in the United States to move forward and maintain their own personal security while also engaging in all the.
Opportunities to make a little money here and there and join in on this global economy.
Josh Kriger: Yeah, no, fair enough. And I, I think you, you pointed out something that I haven't thought about as much, which is that connection between this global ID and the telecom world. We recently interviewed.
It's on a mobile and some other projects in that telecom space are coming to life and telecom reinventing itself and a more sort of connected world. So when you say it that way, I am optimistic about the potential of individual citizens to have. More economic opportunities and that this sort of technology enables that.
That's a good thing. I know when you go to a different country the same rules are the way that you have to do KYC to get on the internet. It all varies and it can create barriers for certain individuals that might not be a citizen of a given country, but they want to use the internet, they want to have access to their phone without having to do a SIM swap.
I think if we can use this as a bridge to create a deeper level of connectedness and more mobility for citizens, that's a really good thing.
So that wraps up today's discussion on the latest hot topics.
We've covered the total crypto market capitalization reaching a new peak of 3. 2 trillion, Mirror Protocol's ambitious plan for a large AI model, States suing the SEC for regulatory overreach and World ID verification service in Brazil. We'd love to hear your thoughts on these developments, so share your insights in the comments or connect with us on social media.
Richard Carthon: Thank you for tuning in to the Edge of NFT. I'm Richard and I'm here with Josh in January signing off. Remember to stay secure, stay curious, and catch you on the flip side.
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