Real World Assets Are The Siren Call Of This Cycle

Marty's Bent

via me

Earlier today there was an event held by the Federal Reserve with representatives from the "crypto" industry that had the vibe of a teach-in. Industry participants and representatives from banks that serve many of these industry participants spent a few minutes explaining the nuances of bitcoin's distributed ledger, private key management, and how it represents a step-function improvement on the incumbent ledger, payments and accounting technologies that banks operating within the Federal Reserve network use today. After that they moved on to glazing stablecoins and the potential for "tokenizing real world assets" has to revolutionize the financial system.

I will concede that being able to buy, sell, send and receive tokenized assets using "blockchain technology" sounds cool. However, I am very far from being convinced that it is as revolutionary as is being marketed by the crypto crowd. And, furthermore, I would put forth that it is completely missing the forest for the trees. As I stated when Robinhood's CEO Vlad Tenev was interviewed about Robinhood's intentions to tokenize real estate and offer it to their users during the Token 2049 conference earlier this month; this is your brain on fiat. No one needs "easier and more granular access" to real estate and stock markets. The avenues to get exposure to these assets are already very well established and the last decade has popularized and commoditized the ability to by fractions of a share in a stock.

Individuals do not need access to equity slivers of multi-family shit boxes with razor thin margins. THEY NEED BETTER MONEY. Trying to push tokenization so that more people can speculate in the high velocity trash economy for financialized assets doesn't solve the core issue we face as a society today. It will only serve to exacerbate it as the unwitting retail masses treat speculating on multi-family residences in newly gentrified neighborhoods like their meme tokens on pump dot fun. People don't need more and easier ways to speculate. THEY NEED BETTER MONEY.

Alas, you are going to be bludgeoned to death by the constant refrain that tokenized real world assets are here to revolutionize finance and take us into the future. At best, these things are marginally better ways to buy something like a stock, claim you have ownership of that share, and sell it efficiently when the time is right. The TAM for this is not that large. The DTCC, which these mechanisms replace, did about $2.5b in revenue last year. At worst, they are an affinity scam being pushed by a crypto industry looking for its next group of suckers.

And the most shameful thing about this push is that it will distract an untold number of people who desperately need legitimate solutions to their financial problems from focusing on bitcoin and it will attract untold billions to be incinerated in yet another crypto startup pyre.

Stay humble, stack sats, and avoid the siren calls this cycle.

The Stablecoin Strategy: Why the U.S. Can't Sell Long-Term Bonds Anymore

Luke Gromen presented a stark assessment of U.S. fiscal strategy that reframes the stablecoin narrative entirely. He argues that Treasury Secretary Bessent's immediate doubling of Treasury buybacks—heavily focused on short-term paper—signals that long-term bond markets can no longer adequately finance U.S. deficits at sustainable prices. The "Genius Act" promoting stablecoins isn't about innovation, Gromen contends, but necessity: the U.S. must refinance debt in near-cash markets because traditional bond auctions are failing. He suggests the endgame involves making stablecoin-backed T-bills non-marketable with artificially suppressed yields, similar to the 1950s financial repression playbook.

"They should have called it, we can't issue bonds at the long end of the curve in sufficient amounts at prices that don't blow up our debt anymore."- Luke Groman

This represents Bessent wresting control of the short end from the Fed, Gromen explained. While marketed as financial innovation, it's functionally equivalent to printing money to finance deficits without the political liability of calling it quantitative easing. The implications are clear: nominal stability maintained through monetary sleight of hand, with stablecoin holders worldwide absorbing the hidden inflation tax.

Check out the full podcast here for more on China's rare earth leverage, gold's role as reserve asset, and the cost of reshoring manufacturing.

Headlines of the Day

Fed Injects Another $2B via Repos

Traders Bet on 50bps Fed Cut by Year-End

Gold Reaches New All-Time High

UK Bank Tracks Spending Carbon Footprint

TD Cowen Forecasts $141K Bitcoin by December

Scaramucci Sees Bitcoin Hitting $1.5 Million

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Final thought...

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