The Breakdown

A daily analysis of macroeconomics, bitcoin, geopolitics and big picture power shifts, hosted by Nathaniel Whittemore @nlw. The Breakdown is part of Blockworks.

Business
Investing
1801
Crypto Daily 3@3 - 7.23 | Trontroversy! // Ethe...
Justin Sun canceled his lunch with Warren Buffett this week, claiming kidney stones. Reports today, however, suggested that he was compelled not to leave China by border authorities due to investigations. But then he showed up in SF? So basically,...
15 min
1802
Crypto Daily 3@3 - 7.22 | The "Libra Goes To Wa...
From 5 to 1, counting down the most important threads, essays and content from last week. Featuring the key setup questions for the Libra hearings; a case study of Cuba on whether a project like Libra could make a difference to the "unbanked"; the...
28 min
1803
Crypto Daily 3@3 - 7.19 | BitMEX vs. CFTC / Bit...
The CFTC's investigation of BitMEX is the latest in string of screws tightening on global exchanges touching US customers. In an interesting twist, a lawsuit leads to a Chinese court determining that Bitcoin is a protected legal property. Ycash has...
12 min
1804
Crypto Daily 3@3 - 7.18 | Libra Aftermath - G7,...
Libra was a hotbutton issue at the G7 meetings - maybe the one thing they agreed on. Meanwhile, the project made news in China as Facebook's David Marcus revealed explicitly that it saw Alipay and Wechat as competitors. Meanwhile, the crypto community...
12 min
1805
Crypto Daily 3@3 - 7.17 | Libra Hearings Day 2 ...
On Day 2 of Libra hearings, Facebook's David Marcus testified in front of the House Financial Services Committee. And boy oh boy, it could not have been more different than yesterday. Today was massively more substantive, thoughtful, and holy crap was...
21 min
1806
Crypto Daily 3@3 - 7.16 | Libra Hearing Day 1 R...
Libra's David Marcus testified before a relatively hostile Senate Banking Committee today. In today's  we go over: 1) Facebook's trust problem; 2) the most important topics and themes of the questioning; 3) what it all means for Bitcoin. ...
17 min
1807
Crypto Daily 3@3 - 7.15 | Long Reads Sunday #55...
Every Sunday, I put together a list of the top tweets, threads and essays shaping the crypto conversation. On Monday, I countdown my five favorites with BlockTV. Monday's Crypto Daily  is the audio recording version.  For those who want to...
21 min
1808
Crypto Daily 3@3 - 7.12 | Special Edition: Trum...
A very Trump-y special edition! On this episode, we look at 1) what happened with Trump’s Bitcoin/Libra tweet; 2) the crypto community’s response; 3) the surprisingly with it mainstream media response; and 4) what it means going forward and why we...
25 min
1809
Crypto Daily 3@3 - 7.11 | Comply or Die Token S...
On this episode, we discuss: 1) Reg A+ compliant token sales from Blockstack and YouNow and why it's becoming comply or die; 2) Turkey planning a central bank digital currency and how the crypto market is trifurcating; 3) IDEO's new crypto startup...
13 min
1810
Crypto Daily 3@3 - 7.10 | Alt Season Dreams & N...
We discuss: 1) the chatter around a potential alt season and what makes things different this time around; 2) new financing that shows where crypto investors heads are at (hint: infrastructure not apps); 3) the latest salvos between Libra and...
13 min
1811
Crypto Daily 3@3 - 7.9.19 | Deutsche Bank layof...
Deutsche Bank announces 18k layoffs & a photo instafamous memes a tailor with a Bitcoin bag as a fired banker Strong counter argument against the idea that Libra is somehow good for Bitcoin A new platform for fractionalized art and culture...
11 min