Ep 55 - October 22, 2025 - $300T?!
Welcome to the weekly crypto check-in recorded your excuse me. Your go to podcast for navigating the world of cryptocurrencies hosted by Robert Sporthal and Andres Sadate. Today, recorded on October 22, we're diving into the latest crypto market shifts, blockchain breakthroughs, and expert insights to keep you ahead of the curve. How's it going, Andres?
Andres Sandate:Good, Robert. Happy Wednesday here, in Atlanta. I was just telling you before we, jumped on, I haven't had the chance to get outside, but, we've, you know, had some marvelous weather the last week. I feel like we're sort of like closet weatherman. We talk about the weather because that's how boring we are.
Andres Sandate:But Yeah. Yeah. Lots going on in crypto, so I'm excited about the show. And you might be asking yourself, why is he wearing that hurricane hat? They choked last week.
Andres Sandate:And I said, well, you know, I've got I've got confidence. We're we're we're gonna be fine. Everybody's, you know, gonna slip their toe in a college football season. So
Robert Swarthout:Yeah. That's, college football has been wild this year.
Andres Sandate:You know? It has been.
Robert Swarthout:I'm a Florida fan, so this is, I was excited about Sunday when our coach got fired. I was ready for a change. So
Andres Sandate:Yeah. Yeah. I, I told you this before. These headlines, you know, there's some massive headlines. I'm like, is Robert getting into, you know, his his angling on the media side?
Andres Sandate:Because he's putting, you know, trillions now in the headlines is
Robert Swarthout:Yeah.
Andres Sandate:Is trying to add more viewers. But, yeah, the the first 1, 300,000,000,000,000, PYUSD. Right? PayPal?
Robert Swarthout:So we'll, I guess, preface this by saying it has since been reversed. So nothing crazy crazy. More of an error that happened here. But, Paxos and PayPal are the combination here. Paxos is the issuer of PayPal's, stablecoin PYUSD.
Robert Swarthout:And they, inadvertently, it's my understanding, issued $300,000,000,000,000 in p y USD. To put this in perspective, it is a 125 times more than the USD in circulation around the world. So just a small oops.
Andres Sandate:Small oops. That that didn't have anything to do with the Amazon outage, earlier this week, did it?
Robert Swarthout:No. This this predated that. Okay. Yeah. So I this the, yeah.
Robert Swarthout:Amazon outage, everyone notices. This, no one really noticed, but the crypto people that were guys watching the news. But this Yeah. Crazy. This shows how, you know, crypto is not infallible, obviously, and just that you can you do have risk with counterparty.
Robert Swarthout:Obviously, I think they corrected so quickly. It didn't really affect anybody.
Andres Sandate:Yeah. Twenty minutes, I saw.
Robert Swarthout:Yeah. Yeah. So it wasn't terribly tongue. I I guarantee you, they hit enter on the keyboard to create it, and somebody noticed what they did. Then they were kinda very like, how do we unwind this?
Robert Swarthout:And it took them twenty two minutes to figure it out. It's how that went.
Andres Sandate:Yeah. I mean, it's a red flag oversight. Right? And I think it probably for skeptics of this whole space is just another example of there's a lack of internal controls, and there's no financial oversight. And who's running this whole thing?
Andres Sandate:Is it some guy? You know, I always say some guy in his boxers.
Robert Swarthout:I don't know
Andres Sandate:why, but it's you know, you sees you you know, you just you see these headlines, and I'm sure the the traditionalists, the tradfis, and the regulators out there, are like, yep. See? We need more adults in the room. But, glad that, you know, nobody was hurt.
Robert Swarthout:Ironically, this is probably the adults in the room doing this one now. Like Yeah. Yeah. I can't imagine Paxos is done by a bunch of teenagers or anything like that. So, anyways, I more of an entertaining headline than anything else.
Robert Swarthout:Obviously, I don't think anyone got harmed by this. So Yeah. But, yeah, we can we can move on here. This next one is about acquisition. So Ripple, the company obviously, not XRP, but Ripple, the company here, is on a tariff this year with acquisitions.
Robert Swarthout:They this is the third one this year. This is the, I believe, the second one that's at least a billion dollars. This one is right at a billion. And kinda cool to kinda see them add another, length to the stool, you might say, for a business line for them.
Andres Sandate:Yeah. I mean, the corporate treasury market is massive, and my understanding, you know, is this puts them square in the in the marketplace for serving, you know, corporate treasuries, publicly traded companies, and nonpublic companies. Banks. Yeah. Banks, everything from liquidity, risk management, exchanges Mhmm.
Andres Sandate:You know, the, exchange risk. So there there's so much that comes in. It's just this another really, really important, I think, sign for not just for Ripple, but also for the industry, of this combination of traditional and digital Right. Coming together.
Robert Swarthout:Yeah. It's, you know, it it it functionally g tries really to be clear, sells software to whether it's banks, corporations, fortune five hundreds. I know I remember looking at kinda, like, a list of who their customers were because I was curious. I'd never heard of the g treasury. You know, American Airlines is is an example of this fortune 500 that uses them all the way down to 13,000 banks around the country.
Robert Swarthout:So my guess is those are probably more credit union type style banks, but but a big deal. Because if you think about it, like, I'm sure Ripple would love to be in this market, but in their old model, a way of thinking potentially, they would have to go and send their salespeople out and sell the software into 13,000 banks. This with a with a single acquisition, you basically all of sudden get it all. Obviously, they have to convince them to use it, but it it is still a big deal. I actually think this one flew underneath the radar more than than the importance will be long term, I guess.
Andres Sandate:Well, in the the you look at the headlines, beneath the headlines and the scope of the customer base is is pretty impressive. Right? I mean, a thousand plus clients across a 160 countries.
Robert Swarthout:Right.
Andres Sandate:And the ability, you know, to roll out new products, you know, that Ripple is in a position to roll out. You know? As as as one takeaway said, it's it's gonna come down to how they and is this a slow rollout? Is it an aggressive rollout? Just covering all those customers in all those countries, you know, is pretty fascinating for a company like Ripple.
Andres Sandate:A a private
Robert Swarthout:company at that. Right? I mean, like A thousand people. Right? Yeah.
Robert Swarthout:Thousand people due to largely acquisitions. And, you know, you know, one thing that they did differently with this announcement that I've seen with a couple of the other prior announcements for acquisitions was the you know, in the past, say, Hidden Road, that was 1,250,000,000.00. They announced it, and they also said, this is how we intend to also put the XRP Ledger and crypto into how to how we have this mix together. Okay? Move forward to g treasury, and they said, hey.
Robert Swarthout:We we bought them, but it doesn't really say what we're doing with it. So, like, I think there's more to figure out there. Think this one will move slower than you may see with other acquisitions. So I don't know. And and that could surprise us, but this one does was help.
Robert Swarthout:This one was handled a little bit differently.
Andres Sandate:Yeah. For sure. My my, yeah, my my sense is the, you know, the the folks at Ripple have a lot a lot more in in the in the pipeline. It's it seems like they're really making a play like Coinbase has of of building critical infrastructure underneath, you know, what likely will be a pretty regulated entity over time to not just play in, you know, one segment of the financial markets, but to be a key cog in the wheel for many, many aspects of our daily and kinda corporate financial lives.
Robert Swarthout:Yeah. It's interesting your comment there. You know, there'll be more regulation. Obviously, that that will be the case eventually. Do you think there's any sort of, like like, rush by these companies making these acquisitions, whether it's Ripple or or Coinbase or the like, to do these before there's more regulation because it may be harder to do them later?
Robert Swarthout:Or do you think it's just purely, like, they're just doing a lot because it's No.
Andres Sandate:I I think, yeah, I think there's probably some of that too. It's, like, the the the ability to establish where you wanna participate and compete before more rules come into play because, yeah, there you'd have to think that with a lot of these acquisitions I mean, right now with president Trump, it seems like there's a more pro m and a environment because the FTC was, you know, a real, challenge for m and a activity among others, right, under the Biden administration. And now there's a, you know, a more pro let's call it, you know, pro m and a environment. You'd have to think that that's part of the calculus here, especially also that I think a lot of these boards and these leadership teams are recognizing now is the time to play the hand, if you will, and decide what businesses you wanna compete in. Some of these m and a deals may not work out, but play the hand, try to build your you know, the different verticals you wanna be in.
Andres Sandate:And then you to me, you end up being an even more compelling public company
Robert Swarthout:Mhmm.
Andres Sandate:More diversified customer base, revenue base, earnings base, but you also are that much more attractive to a bigger acquirer at some point in time because you've done a lot of the consolidating at the lower level.
Robert Swarthout:Absolutely. You know, and it could be that there may be, you know, some of the same some of these more traditional larger, you know, call it JPMorgan type figures out there. Maybe they would want to be more, you know, heavy on the acquisition right now, but there may be so much regulation they already feel, right, from what they have to deal with. So, like, maybe this is allowing the the new incumbents that are don't that aren't burdened by that to potentially have a little bit of, I would say, head start, but a little more freedom. So I guess we'll find out here over the next six months.
Robert Swarthout:It'd probably be pretty telling. So we'll move on to our next topic, number three. And, really, three, four, and five, we're gonna bundle all together and talk about the same time because this is different angles on the same thing. A week ago, Friday, crypto had its largest liquidation event in history. This trumpet this made FTX look small.
Robert Swarthout:This made everything else look small. And it, you know, crypto has its liquidations. I'm not necessarily complaining about that. The part that I'm gonna complain about here a little bit is while it's not illegal currently, there there absolutely was likely some insider trading going on here. Thirty minutes before president Trump on that Friday, I believe it was a Friday, Thursday, Friday, tweeted that he was thinking about raising the tariffs on China to a 100%.
Robert Swarthout:A Bitcoin wallet was opened. It was funded with a 4 or $5,000,000. They went and got leverage at a DeFi exchange to basically get a $200,000,000 position. And then Trump's tweet happens or truth social post, whatever it may be, and then the market sold off heavily very quickly. The liquidations are staggering.
Robert Swarthout:It potentially could be 20 x larger than anything else that we had seen, like, above magnitude larger. And and then right about the time that it felt like it'd be a bottom, that short was closed. Like, it it is hard to time something, but to time a top and a bottom within a within an hour candle or a couple hour candle is pretty bonkers.
Andres Sandate:Yeah. I mean, if there was a public square where the long the the the long term oriented market participants in crypto and digital assets, could could could, you know, burn somebody in effigy. You would think whoever is behind this is, you know, I'm not I'm not advocating for that to happen, but I'm just saying these are the kinds of things that really just put a stain on, you know, all all the good things that are happening in the space. Somebody manipulated information, took advantage of it. It it appears.
Andres Sandate:We have no name. We have no party. We have no entity. We have no evidence of who it is. So my only comment is it's you hope that with regulation and with more, rules and frame a framework in place for how all participants are gonna are gonna have to abide by some level of rules.
Andres Sandate:That doesn't mean it's gonna be perfecting. That doesn't mean that there still isn't manipulation of our markets today. But Right. Trust in our markets and and and confidence in our markets is super, super critical for their health and function. And so when this type of stuff happens, you know, it it's just a bad look.
Andres Sandate:It's a bad eye, and it's it's unfortunate.
Robert Swarthout:Yeah. It's and, again, we'll we'll emphasize because we don't have regulation, what what happened was not illegal. Right. We we are hopefully not too far away from that being illegal. Not to say that it won't happen, but maybe there could be repercussions and maybe some of it will be Yeah.
Robert Swarthout:Some people may be disturbed. So I don't know. It's I didn't realize the whole inside piece of this until after the fact as I was reading through kind of the news items. But, you know, to kinda put some numbers around this, there's some estimation that there was $400,000,000,000 in liquidations in that hour ish period. That is a vicious sale sell off.
Robert Swarthout:And, I guess, tying it all together as more of something just kinda laugh about, Bitcoin also had its first $20,000 candle on the hourly chart. People would have guessed if you would have asked them prior to this. When when Bitcoin has a a $20,000 candle, is it up or down? 95% of people would be saying it's up. Right?
Andres Sandate:Yeah. Yeah.
Robert Swarthout:It ended up being to the downside. So it finished roughly in the middle of that, so it kind of, pulled back roughly 10,000. So it went from, call it, 01/23 or 01/22 a 122,000 all the way down to a 102 and change. So Yeah.
Andres Sandate:Yeah. You saw it bouncing around this week at $1.00 2, one zero four, some you know, somewhere in there. Yeah. I mean, it it it's not a surprise to you or I because we, you know, we we follow the space, but, how many how many folks are you know, when they think about this whole space, the crypto space, you know, it's it's still Bitcoin only. And I feel like a old, you know, tired, you know, telling old horse war stories, you know, type of thing when I say this, but, we just we have come a long way as an industry, and you can see that in these headlines and hopefully in things that we're covering.
Andres Sandate:But in another sense, I still feel like it's super early days.
Robert Swarthout:Oh, I mean right. I mean, I I I've used this analogy for years, but it still feels to be true is we are, like, singing or singing the tail end of a national anthem at the baseball game. Like, first pitch hasn't been thrown, but maybe we're kinda right around that that period kinda floating in there, but, but super early. Absolutely. So
Andres Sandate:Yeah. Well, and, you know, the thing is we can also say that we've seen an evolution in the markets just to put a bow on this, these headlines. If we woulda had a 20,000 downtick or candle move
Robert Swarthout:Mhmm.
Andres Sandate:In Bitcoin five years ago
Robert Swarthout:Right.
Andres Sandate:You know, peep people would have probably thought the whole space is gonna collapse as point to zero. And now we can actually have it as a headline, and we can see that the whole space can absorb this and BTC, Bitcoin can absorb this. Yes. People lost a lot of money. Yes.
Andres Sandate:There's, you know, manipulation, but the space and the industry is in a much, I would say, healthier place Right. You know, today than than it was five years ago. And I would argue it'll hopefully be in a healthier place in five years so that, you know, we're we're not hanging on every thread about what happens with Bitcoin. But to me, it goes back to the comment I said. It's just so many folks tie the whole industry up in one, you know, effectively one asset Right.
Andres Sandate:When it's obviously there's a lot more going on.
Robert Swarthout:A 100%. And, you know, e even if you're you adjust for on a percentage basis. Right? This was, a 15 or 18% move. Yeah.
Robert Swarthout:Yeah. You know, if we went back to an FTX happened, there wasn't 18% moves in an hour. And you're right. Back then, it would have been people felt that zero number coming a lot quicker, than they would have felt it Yeah. Week ago.
Robert Swarthout:So, anyways, we'll move on here. Our next topic is, the crypto banking race is heating up, and this one came out of left field for me. So I know that there's been some, application sitting out there. It's for the OCC to potentially charter some banks. I know that, like, Circle's looking at it.
Robert Swarthout:Ripple's looking at it. But a notable precedent was set this last week. The OCC granted conditional approval for national bank bank charter, to. It's an Yeah. Ohio based crypto friendly bank.
Robert Swarthout:Again, this is potentially a little bit of political favor here. But, so Palmer Lucky, Joe Losedale, and Peter Thiel, are the backers behind that. So Yeah. Of cool, to see this happening. Yeah.
Robert Swarthout:So
Andres Sandate:Palmer Lucky shot to, I guess, more more fame. I think a lot of people in tech circles in Silicon Valley and, amongst the the tech elite would be more familiar with Peter Thiel Yes. As he'll and be more familiar with, you said, Joe Lonsdale? Yes. Yeah.
Andres Sandate:Then then Palmer Lucky. But Palmer Lucky is the one that, you know, you could pick out of a crowd.
Robert Swarthout:Correct. Yes.
Andres Sandate:You you just have to trust me, and you have to go out and and search for it. But here's the question. He got well known for a couple of different tech investments and for a couple of different things. Isn't he one of the folks that's behind some of the stuff that's going on in defense and tech that's working with the US government?
Robert Swarthout:Correct. Yes. So he founded Oculus, which pay basically bought.
Andres Sandate:Yeah. Facebook bought it. Right? That was one of his startups.
Robert Swarthout:And then, yes, then he took basically the funding that he got from that. It prompted the purposes. And now he's doing a bunch of stuff with the defense department. No. The well, defense industry.
Andres Sandate:Defense industry. Right.
Robert Swarthout:Right. With Chinese AI and and apply a technology lens to it. Yeah. It's pretty cool what he's doing.
Andres Sandate:Yeah. Yeah. So he's he's a known quantity in DC, like you said, with the the size of our US, defense budget and just a lot of the stuff you're reading about with drones and AI and modern what's called modern defense, modern war warfare. So but those are three big names.
Robert Swarthout:Mhmm.
Andres Sandate:Right? I think a lot of people have heard of the other two. Sure. The the the third one, you know, people in tech and people in the space would be like, okay. You're putting together, like, an a list team here of of of tech folks.
Andres Sandate:So they got conditional federal approval, which means, you know, they're forming a new bank. And, you know, there hasn't been as much bank formation in the last five years as there was, you know
Robert Swarthout:Really since the financial
Andres Sandate:crisis. Ago. Right. Ten, twenty years ago. Georgia was one of the leading places for de novo bank charters and approvals, and we had a lot of collapses.
Robert Swarthout:Mhmm.
Andres Sandate:Question for you is the they wanna become a regulated deposit, you know
Robert Swarthout:Yeah. Full service depository.
Andres Sandate:Gathering institution. Do you think they're aiming to be more like a SoFi or more like a tradition I mean, I'm gonna say brick and mortar, but more more of a traditional bank that offers you know, that has that has, say, retail presence.
Robert Swarthout:Yeah. I mean, I'm just gonna be able to kinda pull from what I can see that's been put out there publicly. But, like, they do also have a pending application with the FDIC so they can protect customer deposits. So to me, that says they would be more of a traditional bank, but maybe with a crypto first mentality would be my guess Mhmm. Is the way that it makes sum that up in a couple sentences.
Andres Sandate:Interesting. Yeah.
Robert Swarthout:Yeah. I mean, I who knows? We may actually find out pretty soon, but it's you know, there was players in the space prior to, you know, the Chokepoint two point o that we talked about a lot.
Andres Sandate:Well Yeah. The regional banking class. I mean, that ate up two or three Right. You know, institutions that were pretty focused on tech and crypto.
Robert Swarthout:That would have been probably one, two, and three in the space market share wise. They are gone. That's Silvergate, Signature and SVB. So, like, it's kind of a greenfield again, oddly enough. You don't see that happen very much in industries to have players there get wiped out and kinda get get to start again.
Robert Swarthout:So But
Andres Sandate:we also are seeing banks that or financial institutions that had pulled back on crypto come back, and we know that firsthand because, you know, one one of the institutions that had said, we're just not in crypto banking business anymore came back and said, we're back in crypto banking business, and Right. We'd love to talk to you. So Yep. This whole thing is is has morphed, obviously, under the new administration with with with new sheriff in town, if you will, at at, you know, at at the SEC and at Treasury and the OCC. Like, this whole regime change, if you will, has led to, banks and financial institutions recognizing, like, we're maybe we just didn't have crypto high enough on the on the agenda, and now some of them are moving back into the space aggressively.
Robert Swarthout:Yeah. And I think that part of it is they didn't wanna be caught up in anything to do with the SEC. I mean, it didn't make sense. There wasn't enough business to be made there, profits, to to justify the risk. And so totally fair because that definitely was a government orchestrated shakedown of the industry.
Robert Swarthout:So
Andres Sandate:Well, and Ripple Labs and Circle Internet Financial to you know, are also applying for banking charters, you know, to be national trustees.
Robert Swarthout:Yeah. I mean, there's some names out there. There's, think, five or six decent sized applications sitting out there.
Andres Sandate:So Well, and part of it is that the FDIC used to have this, like, process that you had to go through, is my understanding, to to be, you know, to to be a to be a bank. And if you were doing crypto in that letter, right, it it kinda killed your chances to get applied. What was what's the name of the woman who's been trying to, you know, have a a a banking license approved in Wyoming? Caitlin Clark or Kate not Caitlin Clark. Caitlin Long.
Robert Swarthout:Caitlin Long. Yes. With
Andres Sandate:Yeah. Caitlin Clark is known for something else called hoops. But Caitlin Long has been going, you know, for With Spinkridge Digital.
Robert Swarthout:Yeah. Yeah. But that was 02/2021, and it was a a state charter, I believe. Yeah.
Andres Sandate:Yeah. In Wyoming.
Robert Swarthout:It's she's in the middle of a well, they are in the middle of a lawsuit against the Fed. And I've often wondered if that's gonna become a liability for them effectively and, like, they're gonna get passed up in the line because they have an application sitting out there. And and it it was denied, but I guarantee they've reissued it at this point. Right.
Andres Sandate:So But, yeah, but it looks like some of the headwinds have eased around banks. And it one of the things that it's opened up is that FDIC has removed this preapproval required, quote, unquote, letter that that did slow bank involvement in crypto. So Yep. Seems like there's there's a a revisiting of of of of sorts happening at the FDIC.
Robert Swarthout:Yep. Well, I'm sure we all know a lot, potentially by the end of the year, on a lot of these that they're already kind of, approving, initially approving this one. So
Andres Sandate:Well, I just yeah. I I kinda go back to one of the headlines you brought up a month ago or so when a couple of, banks, maybe it was Ripple, and others applied for banking charters and the American Bankers Association or one of
Robert Swarthout:the Yes.
Andres Sandate:The other one of the lobbying groups that supports the the bank lobbies for the 7,000 or whatever community and regional banks basically, you know, objected. And it it it makes me wonder what the incumbent, even fintechs. Right? But banks for sure, like, what's gonna be their game plan?
Robert Swarthout:Yeah. I mean The one for the Stripe's application will be the one, I guess, the the the most unobvious one to watch. Right? Mean, because the other ones obviously are in crypto. Stripe probably has ambitions to be in crypto, because they have done a little bit of stuff, on the side, but nothing, I would say, in a major way.
Robert Swarthout:So, so our next topic here is, Citi. The traditional bank is set to launch crypto custody in 2026. There's not tons to talk about here just beyond another big bank and a new crypto custody. You know, it almost is to the point where it's not even worth talking about these on the podcast, which is kinda cool. That shows progress.
Robert Swarthout:But we will be able to hopefully learn more. And I always I always see these headlines. I'm like, what are they gonna ask? Is it just Bitcoin and Ethereum, or is it are they actually gonna have a suite of options? So we'll find I'll have to find out.
Andres Sandate:Yeah. And and the big banks, the individuals who run those banks, you know, the people in compliance and technology and, you know, regulatory affairs, not to mention the c's I mean, they all know each other.
Robert Swarthout:Yep.
Andres Sandate:And so it's almost like they moved first, but Wells Fargo, JPMorgan, and Bank of America, they're all paying attention. They they all have a game plan, and it's it's it's not like all those other firms couldn't move in. JPMorgan came out, I guess, in comment and said, you know, they're not moving in to do crypto custody. But you you have to think depending on what happens with the Genius Act and the legislation, like, all this stuff is subject to change once that bill is finalized. Hopefully, it gets finalized before the the the next midterms.
Robert Swarthout:The
Andres Sandate:We're scoping by the end of this year. But
Robert Swarthout:Not the Genius Act, the Clarity Act.
Andres Sandate:The Clarity Act. Sorry. Sorry. The Clarity Act. We'll we'll hopefully see something and some progress before the end of this year, because I I think, the question is is if it floats into the middle of next year, that could be a challenge.
Robert Swarthout:Yeah. I it's not on our list here, but I was reading today, and I I guess we can talk about it quickly, there's a disc there was somebody saying how they felt like the bill had stalled. Obviously, congress has gotta get its act together around this whole government shutdown. But assume that gets taken care of. They felt like the the crypto the the Clarity Act had stalled.
Robert Swarthout:And one of the goals there was a meeting today happening. Actually, I think it's happening still right now up in, DC, that the president's crypto czar, and Democrats and Republicans had gotten together, and they were hoping to reunite bipartisan talk, to get the bill to president Trump's desk before the midterms take priority. So I don't know when that kicks in the year. My guess is summer next year, is when they kick in the gears. I I would love to have it sooner than that, but we're admittedly not but maybe nine months from that, six eight months from that.
Robert Swarthout:So it could happen pretty quickly. So
Andres Sandate:Yeah. Yeah.
Robert Swarthout:Anyways, what we can move on to our second to last topic is the DTCC confirms that and their head of cryptos who said this, confirms that a $100,000,000,000,000 of assets is coming to the blockchain. They didn't give a date. They didn't say which blockchain. There there was a bunch of ambiguity here. But it it this is gonna be the moment, I think, where it's gonna feel like nothing's happened in crypto, and then all of sudden you wake up the next day and it looks like everything is tokenized.
Robert Swarthout:It's gonna be because of this. They they are the, basically, the agency of record for all the stocks and bonds and who owns what and all that kind of stuff.
Andres Sandate:Yeah.
Robert Swarthout:They are they are the one in The United States and, pretty, cool. And when when we're talking about trillions here, not like the 300,000,000,000,000 at the top of the show. The 100,000,000,000,000 at the bottom of the show is a real number. So
Andres Sandate:Yeah. I mean and and there's some there's some, I guess, question out there that this statement of a 100,000,000,000,000 is coming to crypto, as you dig in. It, you know, crypto is full of conspiracy theories and
Robert Swarthout:Yes.
Andres Sandate:Innuendos and and understanding kind of what's the what is the implication and interpretation of a 100,000,000,000,000? What what it means, does it not that and this this goes back to sort of the adviser in me and investor in me is, like, we're talking about assets out there today, like ETFs, stocks, bonds
Robert Swarthout:All the things.
Andres Sandate:That those could be
Robert Swarthout:Referenced on the one.
Andres Sandate:Under custody in crypto
Robert Swarthout:Yes.
Andres Sandate:Or tokenized on the CCC. That's not assets that are on chain crypto on the platform.
Robert Swarthout:Correct. So we'll just kinda boil it down even further. It's not they're not saying say that they had said they were gonna tokenize this all on Ethereum. We're not saying that a $100,000,000,000,000 is gonna flow into Ethereum.
Andres Sandate:Yeah.
Robert Swarthout:Just to be clear. Yeah. This is it would be a digital representation. Kinda think of it as a, a database record, saying that, you know, Andres owns some Apple stock. That's what they're referring to here.
Robert Swarthout:But this opens the door to $24.07 trading, $3.65, instant settlement, all the fun things that we've been waiting for, that tokenization can bring along.
Andres Sandate:So Yeah. I think we just need to get a press release out, from the DTCC clarifying what what exactly they mean. And more importantly, like, what's the road map for timeline. Right. Settlement and for tokenization
Robert Swarthout:Yep.
Andres Sandate:And put some figures around that. Because, obviously, there's probably a lot of pilot projects happening, and there's a lot of development that's gotta happen around regulation in terms of not only securities, but real world assets, you know, like real estate and infrastructure and other things that we would love to see tokenized. But, again, the financial industry heavily reliant on some core systems. DTCC is one of them. Right?
Andres Sandate:Yep. Moving money around the world through, the, you know, through through the SWIFT system, another one. Right? A stuff that you just it doesn't make headlines, but it it's almost like the Amazon outage this week made some companies vulnerable that do online commerce. Right?
Andres Sandate:Yeah. Without these infrastructure components, DTCC, Swift, etcetera, like, money doesn't move. So the question is, what does that road map look like?
Robert Swarthout:Mhmm.
Andres Sandate:How long is it gonna take, etcetera? Fascinating to see these figures thrown out because it it's out there, and it's coming.
Robert Swarthout:Absolutely. Well, our last topic, and this is gonna be a quick one, T. Rowe Price. So, yeah, I guess everyone probably recognizes that name, largely mutual funds, but they, have filed to have it actively traded crypto ETF, versus just a spot or an index. This is the first, I would say, more exotic product of sorts, that they hope to come.
Robert Swarthout:They gave no details on what would be underneath the hood. But, you know, Eric Balakunas at Bloomberg
Andres Sandate:Bloomberg.
Robert Swarthout:Brought this up, and I saw it on my my Twitter feed. But he he's like, there's about to be a land rush. And I I can only imagine the combination of these things. It's gonna be hard to keep up with all of them.
Andres Sandate:Yeah. Yeah. You're you're absolutely right because there's been so much activity from the traditional asset managers, T Rowe, one of them, doing what they can do in alternatives to to partner up to realize, you know, what they have is distribution. They have brands, but they didn't, you know, they didn't have in house expertise. You have to think the same thing if crypto becomes available at retail through your brokerage account, through your bank, as we've talked about today.
Andres Sandate:Yep. You know, they're gonna wanna sell you crypto funds online on your you know, through your through your brokerage account online, etcetera. So you've gotta have the capabilities to offer not just passive, not just multi asset, but now, you know, people want active. So it's coming. It's coming.
Robert Swarthout:Absolutely. Well, that's a wrap for this episode of the weekly crypto check-in recorded on 10/22/2025. Keep up with the latest crypto insights by searching TITAN crypto capital or the weekly crypto check-in on your favorite podcast platform. Leave us a review to share your thoughts, or like Teton Crypto Capital's LinkedIn page for more updates. Until next time.
Robert Swarthout:Take care.
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