Latest digital asset analysis

Weekly Note

196: Congress said no. The SEC yes.

The Senate killed the Clarity Act 49-50. Two days later the SEC gave tokenized stock venues a five-year exemption. And Deutsche Bank launches digital asset custody.

CEO note

The SEC Took the Pen

The SEC legalized onchain US stock trading for five years, by order, two days after the Senate killed Clarity. Almost nothing trading onchain today qualifies.

CEO note

Who won the Clarity fight

The Clarity Act died 49-50. The three fights that killed it were not about crypto, and the SEC walks away holding the pen. Winners and losers, by seat.

Monday Briefing

Who wins the clarity deal?

Clarity Act ethics concessions, developer protections and a proposed stablecoin rewards circuit breaker, plus the Fed meeting and Arc's planned launch.

Insights

Clarity’s three IOUs

The final Clarity Act text gives Democrats delayed ethics rules, developers a civil-only shield and banks an 18-month rewards brake. What each side got, and what it didn't.

Weekly Note

195: Nasdaq’s $100M Kraken bet

Stablecoins and tokenized stocks: Nasdaq's Payward deal, U.S. Bank's USBDC pilot, Circle's Tazapay agreement and the Clarity vote.

CEO note

Circle Buys Tazapay: $400M for Fees, Not Float

On September 8, Circle agreed to buy Tazapay, a Singapore B2B cross-border payments company, for $400M in Circle stock, closing in 2027. Investors shrugged; CRCL fell 5.75% to $96.18 on the day. Why it matters: Every write-up says Circle bought the last mile. Wrong frame. Circle keeps 39 cents of every dollar USDC earns in interest and gives the rest to distributors, mostly Coinbase. It will keep every cent Tazapay charges in fees.

Weekly Note

194: Wall Street builds its own hedge

Hey, it’s Marc.

CEO note

Robinhood built a bigger business that makes less money

A tenth the take.

CEO note

21 globally systemic banks to launch stablecoin

Shared float.

Weekly Note

193: Your deposits are lazy

CEO note

Japan Puts Its Settlement Layer on a Chain

Hey, it’s Marc.

Weekly Note

192: Washington ships

Pens down.

CEO note

A Wyoming Bank Beat JPMorgan Out the Door

Narrow banking.

Weekly Note

191: Goldman didn't buy bitcoin

Pay me to wait.

CEO note

Cloudflare gives AI agents a corporate card

Spend management.

Weekly Note

190: Western Union ships a stablecoin card

Mastercard closed BVNK, Western Union shipped a stablecoin card, Visa opened stablecoin payouts, and Circle's numbers explain why: volume is exploding while the float lags far behind.

CEO note

Circle Built a $73 Billion Dollar and Keeps a Quarter of a Cent

Circle reported $701 million in Q2 revenue this morning, took final approval from the OCC for its national trust bank charter, and set 16 September as the mainnet date for Arc, its own settlement chain, with BlackRock, DTCC, Visa, and Mastercard among the founding validators.

CEO note

Tether’s gold pile grows while its safety buffer shrinks

Tether published its Q2 2026 attestation in late July.

Weekly Note

189: "AI is the only focus"

I spoke with a bank executive this week about where the attention is going.