Democrats weigh crypto bill with a bigger SEC role

Regulation (2)

• Greece approved a 10% tax on net crypto capital gains, effective in 2027, with gains up to €500 exempt and losses carried forward for five years. Crypto-to-crypto swaps remain untaxed; purchases will also face source-of-funds checks.
• A Department of Labor final rule that could ease crypto and other alternative assets into 401(k) menus reached White House review. The proposal gives fiduciaries a process-based safe harbor, reducing litigation risk without requiring plans to offer crypto.

Labor (1)

• The October U.S. jobs report showed 165,000 new jobs, far above the 65,000 estimate, while September’s reported gain was revised from 29,000 to 60,000. David Bennett called the figures unreliable; traders increased bets on a December Fed rate hike.

Markets (1)

• Markets rallied after the jobs report: the Nasdaq 100 futures gained 1.5% and the 10-year Treasury yield rose to 4.894%. Bitcoin traded near $75,870, while oil, gold, silver, and other commodities were mixed.

Elections (2)

• David Bennett criticized AIPAC’s access to U.S. lawmakers and argued that foreign lobbying should not shape congressional decisions. Jason High speculated that Israel could be blackmailing or threatening Donald Trump over Iran; Bennett said he could not judge that claim.
• A listener argued that presidents should face a maximum age of 65 at inauguration, contrasting that proposed cap with the existing minimum age. David Bennett praised the comment but did not offer a policy position on the age limit.

Custody (2)

• Elliptic tracked stolen XRP being routed through THORChain into Bitcoin after the Binance theft. More than 20,000 wallets across 16 blockchains and 65,000 transactions formed part of the laundering trail; roughly $3.1 billion remained in linked addresses.
• South Korean exchange GOPAX suspended trading and withdrawals after receiving a hacking-threat email, saying it would move customer assets into cold wallets. David Bennett questioned the explanation, arguing that a warning could be a pretext for the exchange to restrict access to funds.

BTC Markets (1)

• David Bennett said hackers converting stolen altcoins into Bitcoin could create selling pressure on those tokens and buying pressure on Bitcoin. He viewed that market effect as interesting while acknowledging that the theft itself is unethical.

Protocol (1)

• Bitcoin developer Cory Fields proposed quantum “landmines” that require a thief to lock matching Bitcoin collateral before spending vulnerable coins. Owners could reveal proof during a delay to reclaim their coins and seize the collateral, but moving one’s own funds could also require matching collateral.

Psychology (1)

• David Bennett doubts quantum landmines would gain adoption because they add complex steps and collateral requirements. He used the proposal to question whether increasingly layered digital security can keep pace with quantum threats, while noting that physical money creates its own costly barriers.

AI Infrastructure (1)

• OpenAI promised that communities near campuses it owns and operates would not pay for its electricity needs, with public energy and water reporting and independent noise studies. The compact specifies no penalties, enforcement process, or independent verification, and does not clearly cover partner-owned facilities.

Elections (2)

• David Bennett says the Democratic election sweep will change the political flavor without easing household costs; he doubts Democrats can affect Strait of Hormuz disruptions and speculates Trump could resume bombing Iran.
• Democratic lawmakers are signaling subpoenas and investigations into Trump-aligned tech executives and the Trump family's crypto businesses; Robert Garcia named corporate corruption and government agencies among his planned oversight targets.

Regulation (1)

• Block agreed in principle to a DOJ resolution over anti-money-laundering controls, while its Bitcoin profit fell after it cut transaction fees; the company rejected Hindenburg Research's allegations, and New York regulators separately found compliance gaps.

Banking (1)

• Crédit Mutuel Arkéa said attackers reached the bank through a service provider and used the bank's own account for fraudulent transfers; the bank said customer assets were untouched and some funds were frozen.

Markets (1)

• David Bennett reported broad losses across stocks and mixed commodity moves alongside Bitcoin's decline; he also noted higher Bitcoin transaction fees, a modest mempool queue, and a small drop in hash rate.

Stablecoins (1)

• Paolo Ardoino said Tether holds roughly 150,000 Bitcoin, about 50,000 more than its latest reserve attestation implies; Tether says profit-funded investments sit outside USDT reserves, but the location and ownership of the extra coins remain unclear.

AI Infrastructure (3)

• OpenAI says its Grid Protectors program would let AI facilities cut electricity use during grid emergencies, while its reported shift from “data centers” to “compute campuses” aims to improve public acceptance of the same infrastructure.
• Sam Altman said his comments about idle computer memory were taken out of context, but he had argued that scarce DRAM should be used efficiently in cloud systems; memory makers warn supply will remain tight as AI demand grows.
• Texas's unexpected Democratic gubernatorial win has put AI data-center approvals and power access in doubt; analysts see already-secured grid capacity as an advantage for miners shifting toward AI hosting.

Labor (1)

• David Bennett warned that a pause in Texas data-center construction could hit electricians, plumbers, HVAC workers, and other trades; he also recalled that Texas felt much the same to him under Democratic Governor Ann Richards as under later Republican leadership.

Markets (2)

• The hosts describe a sharp technology-led selloff after the midterms: semiconductor and AI-infrastructure stocks fell hardest, while they debate whether the move marks an AI bubble bursting or a correction.
• Coinbase reported $590 million in trading revenue, with prediction-market revenue offsetting lower spot volume; subscriptions and services supplied 49% of net revenue, while Brian Armstrong filed a plan allowing sales of 24% of his shares at preset prices.

Elections (1)

• The hosts call the midterms a Democratic sweep, linking the result to voter concerns about affordability, energy prices, the war, and ICE enforcement; they say Trump-aligned assets fell while the broader market initially rallied.

BTC Markets (2)

• Bitcoin briefly topped $80,000 after the election, then set a new local low near $75,500; the hosts viewed its hold near the 50-week moving average as resilient, while ETH was roughly flat on the week.
• Strategy’s preferred security STRC briefly returned to $100 after trading below that level for 174 days; the hosts warned that convertible debt coming due over the next six to nine months could require Michael Saylor to raise cash if MSTR remains below conversion thresholds.

Safety (1)

• The Binance breach began with a fake job interview that tricked an employee into installing spyware on a work computer; attackers spread through the company network and used EIP-7702 to bypass normal withdrawal controls.

Protocol (6)

• North Korean hackers reportedly routed stolen assets through THORChain, converting tokens including TRX and SOL into Bitcoin and Ether; the FBI explicitly urged THORChain node operators and other service providers not to process related transactions.
• Polygon validators froze stolen tokens and discussed a chain rollback, while hackers offered a large transaction fee and contacted validators privately to induce them to release the funds; the hosts framed this as a test of validator discretion and chain immutability.
• Justin Drake moved Ethereum’s post-quantum target forward, proposing post-quantum transactions, attestations, and data sampling by December 2028; he cited LeanVM’s end-to-end formal verification milestone as a reason the accelerated schedule may be achievable.
• The Ethereum Economic Zone would let participating rollups access Ethereum mainnet liquidity; Gnosis plans to become the first such chain, while the hosts expect distribution-heavy L2s such as Coinbase’s and Robinhood’s to have less reason to join.
• L2BEAT rebranded as ETHBe to broaden its remit from monitoring L2 control over users to protecting sovereignty across Ethereum’s L1 and intermediated services, including node providers and smart contracts.
• Vitalik Buterin’s 15-minute Devcon keynote focused on user privacy, health data, social platforms, and defensive acceleration rather than Ethereum or DeFi; Georgios criticized the lack of project direction, while the hosts saw the talk as evidence of Buterin’s broader focus.

Banking (1)

• Hackers allegedly stole about $130 million from French bank Crédit Mutuel through a third-party system, sent funds to mule accounts, then moved fiat through crypto exchanges into stablecoins; onchain analyst ZachXBT flagged $106 million before the bank story was public.

Coding (1)

• Paradigm and Georgios shipped Solar, which the hosts described as making Solidity 100 times faster; they cited the release as evidence that prominent critics of Ethereum’s direction still contribute to its developer ecosystem.