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Join co-hosts Richard Carthon and January Jones as they dive into the latest hot topics in Web3, blockchain, and digital assets. This episode covers the significance of Stripe’s landmark acquisition of the stablecoin platform Bridge, the SEC's renewed focus on cryptocurrencies through 2025, Michael Saylor's inspiring pledge to donate his Bitcoin wealth, and ApeCoin’s resurgence following the launch of ApeChain.
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Key Topics Covered:
- Stripe’s Acquisition of Bridge: Stripe makes waves with its $1.1 billion acquisition of the stablecoin platform Bridge, signaling increased interest in integrating stablecoins within digital payment systems. Richard discusses how Bridge’s API technology can help Stripe expand crypto adoption across Web3, facilitating cross-platform transactions in a seamless, cost-effective way.
- SEC Priorities for 2025: The SEC’s recent announcement of a focused agenda for cryptocurrencies through 2025 brings both excitement and uncertainty to the Web3 community. January highlights the implications for the industry, including the ongoing debate over whether the SEC’s regulation-by-enforcement approach is stifling innovation.
- Michael Saylor’s Philanthropy: Michael Saylor, co-founder of MicroStrategy, recently declared his intention to donate his Bitcoin wealth for humanity. Richard and January discuss the impact of Saylor's philanthropy and the potential role of crypto benefactors in driving social change.
- ApeCoin and ApeChain Surge: The launch of ApeChain, Yuga Labs’ Ethereum Layer 3 network, has driven a significant uptick in ApeCoin value and BAYC NFTs. Richard and January break down the reasons behind this resurgence and how Yuga Labs’ commitment to ecosystem-building is paying off for its community.
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:
- Richard Carthon: “Bridge’s integration with Stripe will enable users to make cross-platform stablecoin transactions. This is a step toward connecting Web2 with Web3 and making stablecoins more accessible to businesses globally.”
- January Jones: “The SEC’s priority announcement for 2025 may create mixed messages, potentially incentivizing businesses to move outside the U.S. for clearer, more crypto-friendly regulations.”
- Michael Saylor on Philanthropy: “With no direct heirs, I want my Bitcoin wealth to benefit humanity. It’s not just for my legacy, but to ensure crypto wealth drives innovation for the common good.”
- Richard on ApeChain: “Yuga Labs has stayed focused on building a unified ecosystem. ApeChain and the recent surge in ApeCoin showcase the resilience of their community and their commitment to delivering long-term value.”
For the full transcript, see further below.
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Transcription:
Topics on Edge of NFT. I'm Richard Carthon. I'm here at my co host, January Jones, and we're going to delve into the latest news shaping the landscape of Web3, blockchain, and digital assets.
Coming up, we are going to discuss Stripe's acquisition, SEC priorities for 2025, Sailor's philanthropy and eight change search.
It's another production of the edge of company, a rapidly growing media ecosystem and powering the pioneers of web three tech and culture.
Let's dive in. Crypto potato is reporting that fintech giant stripe has just acquired the stable coin platform bridge for a record breaking 1. 1 billion. This marks the largest acquisition in the crypto industry to date and a significant increase in bridges valuation, which was at 200 million earlier this year.
This is yet another milestone we've seen this year, marking broader crypto adoption. Richard, what do you think this means for the general public and the crypto market?
Yeah, it's, it's great because it's not only in a scoring stripes commitments, expanding its crypto offerings, but it also reflects the importance of stable coins in the digital payments.
So like bridge itself, uh, is all about. APIs to help with different companies that want to bridge all these stable coins, uh, across different platforms. So a good visualization for all you newbies out there, uh, think of them as islands. So you have an Ethereum islands, a lot of island, uh, and even let's say Binance and, uh, to be able to put these simple coins across each one, you need a bridge to be able to go from each one.
And so the company bridge literally. And so Stripe saw that as an opportunity, uh, to get more involved with these different payment solutions. Of course, you've heard of like PayPal and how they met PUSD and they have been going heavily into stable coins. And Stripe saw that as like, huh, we need to keep up.
We need to make sure that we're also competing. So. They have done the strategic acquisition to be able to do that and, um, even have p uh, their, the PayPal is stable coin on top of it as well. So I think this is really good for when we look at, you know, how we keep bridging web two to Web3, how do we make it more accessible for companies that want to do, uh, business from one another?
Like even the, the idea of going from. Uh, USDC, AKA like a stable coin in U. S. dollars over two euros or over to the Australian dollar, et cetera. Uh, this type of acquisition and the technology in this company makes that possible. A lot easier, a lot more accessible and a lot cheaper than having to go to a lot of other bridges that are out there, but generate, you know, what do you think this integration is going to help with?
Well, I think it's nice that it goes back and forth. So not only, um, did Stripe acquire bridge, but now you can pay and get cryptocurrency using Stripe. through bridge. And so it's just showing that the market is talking to each other more than ever. But at the same time, as we'll talk about in our next topic, stable coins are under fire a bit, right?
Um, they're not in the most stable position based on the SEC's priorities, which they just announced, um, for 2025, which we're going to talk about next.
Yeah, so let's talk about a little bit more. So this week, the SEC announced that cryptocurrencies will remain a priority in their examination process for 2025.
This includes a specific focus on spot Bitcoin and Ethereum exchange traded products following their recent launch. What are your thoughts on this? And what do you think are the implications for this announcement and what's happening in the crypto market? I
mean, I think it just adds to the confusion.
You know, because the SEC's decision to prioritize that is just more mixed messages. You know, they seem committed to regulating the sector, but mostly by enforcement and not by changing with the times to reflect how business is done now. You know, they approved the spot Bitcoin, they approved the EFTs, but they're continuing to sue companies.
So it's confusing for people. And I think it adds not to investor confidence, but I think it kind of destabilizes, um, the whole web three and crypto industry that is bringing up so many businesses now in the U S and maybe is an incentive for companies to go to Europe or other places or Latin America.
So what's the upside for the company or the consumer for it to be, Located in the United States.
Yeah. I think that's an interesting point and I do think it will drive builders to go overseas. Um, but I also think it is a necessary move forward in that just the pure scale of the amount of tokens that have come out over the last several years.
So I got back in the industry. And at the moment there is like somewhere between two and three thousand tokens. If you go on coin market cap right now, there's like over a million. So like, again, 90, these are all blockchain startups. Most startups failed. 90 percent are going to fail. So there's like, you know, potentially 900, 000 different.
Projects out there that most likely will fail. And, but even for the a hundred thousand that are still there, a good chunk of them are probably still, uh, figuring things out as well. So there needs to be some things put in place to protect end consumers that are coming into this space that don't know better, but also it will stifle innovation and it will drive people to not even want to deal with the U S and having to deal with the sec and just purely go overseas.
And I think until regulation is clearly stated. For how the US is going to react to crypto, uh, the, the interest and where world money is being poured in is going to continue to stay overseas.
Well, it makes a lot of sense because, you know, again, mixed messages. And then, um, everybody's a little unsure of what's going to happen in 2025.
If those priorities will change, do you really think that, um, a different person, uh, running the SEC would, would radically change policy?
Um, I don't know whoever holds the helm will have such a drastic change as it relates to crypto. I think it has everything to do with the administration running things, but regardless of, uh, what shakes out, uh, in about two weeks, uh, there's going to be more emphasis on what the future of crypto looks like here in the U S.
And, uh, I'm just ready to get on the other side of that and we can, you know, See what next steps are. Uh, just it's, uh, it's time for us to start progressing, uh, over here in the West, uh, on how we're going to regulate crypto and, uh, the faster that comes, the quicker companies can make larger decisions.
Well, let's turn our attention to Michael Saylor, co founder and executive chairman of MicroStrategy. He recently announced on a podcast, his intention to donate all his Bitcoin wealth to humanity. So Richard, what do you think about this? statements. Humanity is, I don't know whose wallet that goes into. Um, but you're, we're seeing this, you know, we just heard CZ get out of jail and he said he's going to do philanthropy, philanthropy and, and bigger projects.
So are we finally seeing like this, these Bitcoin benefactors out there, like making a real difference?
Yeah, I see this as too prone. Obviously, Michael Saylor is the face of Bitcoin Maxis in a lot of ways and just moving the crypto narrative forward. And I just see this as like, you know, take the word crypto out and just like, Michael Saylor is doing very well, uh, and he's running a fund that's doing extremely well.
Uh, and if when all things are said and done, what do you, one of the things he said in his interview is like, he's like, look, I have no kids. And so if there's not really a next generation for my own that I want to leave this for, I want to leave it, you know, just for, you know, uh, just humanity, which again, sounds really nice and rosy, but, um, he wants that wealth to be moving.
Progress forward for mankind. And a lot of people have different ideas of, you know, what that potentially could look like. But still just pledging and saying like, Hey, my wealth is going to go in this, uh, in this fashion. Uh, I mean, you've seen this happen with like a ton of other people in the space from like, I mean, not in the space, but just in general, like Bill Gates and, uh, the, the Gates foundation, um, and, and several others.
So I think this is, uh, not going to be the last person in this space that is going to, uh, pledge some of their money to some philanthropic work. Uh, but what do you see this as?
Well, he might be one of the few who can pledge that much, you know, because they're holdings, you know, 250 to a hundred thousand BTC, that's a couple billion dollars,
like 16 billion.
Oh, it is 16. Okay. Sorry. I did my math wrong. Um, but yeah, if you think about that, um, what impact that could have. Of course, that's, that's everything, you know, you can run a country on that, you know, at least for a year. Um, but what does humanity mean, you know, in this space? Because we're in a space where we're kind of disconnected for it for From it in many ways, people function virtually and, um, having humanity and considering, um, what's good for the world, not good for my wallet is not always, um, the intention of people in this space.
Yeah, I think it's going to be interesting. Uh, he's already made the pledge to do that now. I think him having in defining what does that actually mean? Uh, are the next steps and who's going to hold them to it. Um, I think people are really going to probably go reference this too. If his predictions of a, you know, a hundred thousand to potentially all the way up to a million dollar Bitcoin comes to fruition, uh, cause they're still buying more Bitcoin, uh, people are going to leave, check back in and be like, Hey, now your wealth is double, triple 10 X, et cetera.
Uh, you still going to do that? So I think it'll be interesting to see how he kind of lays out. What is that? Um, so I'll, I'll be looking out for that, but I'm really excited about our final article, um, that we're now talking about with, with ApeCoin.
Yeah, they had a recent surge in ApeCoin and board a, yeah, they had a recent surge in ApeCoin and board ApeYacht Club.
They're NFTs following a launch of ApeChain, Eugolabs, Ethereum, Layer 3 network. The Ape token has more than doubled in value. While the B. A. Y. C. N. F. T. S. Have also seen significant price increases. Why do you think this is rallied like this? When a lot of people think N. F. T. S. Are dead? We don't, of course, at edge of N.
F. T. Um, but you know, we haven't seen those same values in the market.
Yeah, they've really been trying to piece together. How do they make their entire ecosystem work? So obviously they started with their NFT, um, and then they did the mutants, then they did other sides and they've then did a coin and now they're really trying to figure out like, how do we synergistically make this all into one cohesive ecosystem?
Uh, and, and Ape Chain has helped to do that. And whereas a lot of projects came in, NFT projects came in, you know, did their PFPs and kind of let the wealth come left, uh, things have been a little bit more bearish and harder to endure, but they've been building, they've been like, Nope, we're going to really double down and like, make this work as an ecosystem.
And the grinding that they've been doing over the last several years has It's coming to fruition. And it's just, I think the beginning of like more that's going to come and, you know, the, the eight tokens market capitalization exceeds a billion, uh, which is great and shows like some really good investor confidence.
And of course, but everything we're saying here, not financial advice, we're just reporting on like the news and what's happening. And I think something that's really cool here. Is, um, how they made some interoperability with layer zero. And that like helps with utility for eight. So like the other thing about these tokens is like, okay, how does the token itself go back to really utility back to the rest of the ecosystem?
And they found a way to kind of cohesively put everything together. But like, what do you think, January? I like some of the other implications of this launch.
Well, I think about it from a community perspective, you know, because everyone talks about all these separate, um, coins as communities. And, you know, why do people want to collect these strange cartoons, you know, from the outside, it can look like that.
Um, but I am fascinated with that idea of these all create communities. And then it's such an interesting thing to look at the market because it's like social hype that drives this sometimes, right? And like, have we, I mean, it's a, it's a, Totally new concept. The way crypto and social media and basically FOMO and people who want to be on the edge of everything, um, are influencing each other.
We've never really seen anything like this before. Um, and so I'm endlessly fascinated, um, with how all these experiences are. how these coins are working. And then when I meet people who collect them, I ask like, what is it about it? You know what I mean? Like, and they tell me they make friends through these communities and then they'll see them at conferences.
Um, but people have connected over the years virtually through these communities. And then, you know, in the last couple of years, post COVID, Met for the first time in real life. Um, so I kind of think that's one of the most fascinating aspects, um, of all these markets, because they're really driven by the people.
Yeah. And I think the community has done a really good job with building that strong community foundation. And they were looking for like, okay, well, how do we now. Get the rest of everything else going from a, not necessarily a business standpoint, but from a value drive standpoint and sustainability. And I think this is a really good step in that direction and looking forward to seeing what happens in 2025.
Well, that's a wrap for today's Hot Topics. We've explored Stripe's groundbreaking 1. 1 billion acquisition of Stablecoin Platform Bridge, the SEC's renewed focus on cryptocurrencies for 2025, and Michael Saylor's inspiring pledge to donate his Bitcoin wealth, as well as the exciting rally of ApeCoin.
Following the launch of eight chain. We'd love to hear your thoughts on these developments, share your insights and comments on social media.
Thank you for tuning to the edge of NFT. I'm Richard and I'm here with January. We're signing off, stay secure, stay curious and catch you on the flip side.
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