On the mic
Summary
Dave @DCBK2LA opened the Wednesday episode of All Things Crypto with cohosts Kool @koolcryptovc and NatNat @Natnatx007. The first part covered markets: the FOMC held rates but pointed to a possible rate cut in September, the panel explained what basis points mean, NatNat went over the week's tech earnings, and Dave reported that Tether made 5,200,000,000 in profit in the first half of 2024. The main topic was the launch of a pump.fun style bonding curve launchpad on Stacks, built by an independent dev called STX City and running through the Velar DEX. The panel argued about whether it should launch before the Nakamoto upgrade speeds up transactions, and ALEX DAMSKER @AlexDamsker explained how bonding curves work and why personal tokens rarely find a real use. Collin Smith @Attonasi described building token ecosystems around businesses, and the show ended on health, wealth and a short pitch from Stakit @stakit_live. All of this is discussion, not financial advice.
Chapters
Risk assets in low rate environments, past crash patterns after rate cuts, and the election timingMomentAt 0:12:42 on X
Bonding curve pillars, the liquidity pool question, and buying and selling in chunksMomentAt 0:55:34 on X
Waves, personal tokens, and why businesses rather than individuals find uses for tokensMomentAt 1:09:55 on X
Key quotes
“But right now, the federal... The Fed's benchmark rate right now is 5.25 to 5.5%, which is, guys, which is sitting at a twenty three year high.”
NatNat0:20:21Share on X
“5,200,000,000 in profit for Tether for USDT in the first six months of the year. Is that not crazy?”
Dave0:24:20Share on X
“So because you're forced to wait, in a way, it almost saves you from yourself, and people are almost forced to kinda hold their positions.”
“Businesses will find core necessity for making tokens. People don't find core necessity for making tokens.”
AALEX DAMSKER1:11:59Share on X
“I'm anti scammer. That's really what I am.”
AALEX DAMSKER1:24:59Share on X
Excerpts
Welcome and cohost intros for the hump day episode
- 0:04:44 Dave Yo. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome, everybody. Another episode. Here we are. Wednesday, hump day of all things crypto. I got my cohost in the house, cool crypto and Nat Nat. Yo. What's good, guys? Cool. What's good, my bro?…
- 0:05:31 Dave where she samurai. Excuse me. Don't where she samurai is at. I hope she's feeling better, obviously. But, yeah, there's some... Gonna be some meme talk today. There's definitely gonna be some meme talk today. Nat Nat…
- 0:06:06 Dave If I have to see... Wait, Matt. I can't tell if you're trolling me right now or not because I can't... Like, I literally went on rants about this because John Cena, like, goes around and everyone's like, I made it…
Junie gets the day off, and an eight year old playing simulated games with AI
- 0:06:45 Dave I love that. That's amazing. Let's go. Incredible. Guys, no Junie today. Junie has the day off. She put in the request a long time ago. You know what I mean? She's got PTO, so I had to give her the day off. It is what…
FOMC holds rates and sets up a possible September rate cut
- 0:08:35 NatNat Correct. They did nothing, but they did set the table up for a potential rate cut in September. If you guys remember two weeks ago, we talked about this on space where Cool actually mentioned that this is going…
- 0:09:47 NatNat I do. I do. In my in my personal opinion, not financial advice. Right? I do think that the reason why a lot of these coins, especially BTC, have been somewhat stagnant. It did front run based on all the ETFs, but it's…
- 0:10:44 Kool So I would like for Natna to explain what a FOMC is because I know a lot of people in this space might even know what that means. If you do that real quick, then I'll I'll just give give my thoughts real quick. Natna…
What the FOMC is and how rates relate to inflation
- 0:11:16 NatNat There you go. Federal Open Market Commission. They dictate the interest rates. Right? So based on how they... When interest... When inflation was high, what they did is they started to increase rates. Right? Because…
- 0:12:34 NatNat Market commission, They are the ones that dictate all of this, which impacts the global economy.
Risk assets in low rate environments, past crash patterns after rate cuts, and the election timing
- 0:12:42 Kool That's a great explanation. So so we've been talking about rate cost for a very long time. It's important for us in this industry because they consider our industry risky assets. So risky assets normally do well in a…
- 0:16:43 NatNat And just to add a little more to that, there are reports that are issued out daily and weekly, and the the the fed... The feds, they look at it. Especially Powell and his team, they look at it at it as a deciding…
- 0:17:37 Dave So let me ask you guys a question, right, just so we can clarify kind of for the listening audience. Right? Cool. When you say you don't expect it to be big, right, like a big rate cut, Do you guys wanna maybe kinda…
Small vs big rate cuts, basis points, and the 5.25 to 5.5% benchmark rate
- 0:17:55 Kool Oh, okay. Yeah. So so when when COVID happened, right, I think they cut rates aggressively. Right? Right? So right now, I think, I think the rates, I think it's, five point or 6%, I think. So when they... When I say…
- 0:20:21 NatNat Yeah. So the current federal benchmark rate right now is 5.25% to 5.5. So I agree. I do think the the consensus right now is for a 25 basis point cut. So that would take it from, let's say, five five point two five. So…
- 0:21:05 Dave Damn. Is that really is that really it? Twenty three year high?
Earnings recap: Microsoft cloud miss, AMD, Meta beat, Amazon and Apple up next
- 0:21:22 NatNat Yeah. So the... This week, we had some earnings. So we saw Microsoft was a surprise. Right? Because everyone was expecting Microsoft to beat. Even though they did overall beat, however, investors are really looking at…
- 0:22:49 Dave Damn. So Meta's killing it out here. Like, they are absolutely... I mean, with their new AI models and everything else, I mean, I know that's not directly crypto related, but indirectly, if Meta's killing it on the AI…
- 0:23:13 NatNat Absolutely. I am. I am. And I really do like that he's taken he's taken the company. Zuckerberg is taking the company outside of just, like, social media. I like that he's growing his footprint, which is such a huge…
Tether reports 5,200,000,000 in profit for the first half of 2024
- 0:23:31 Dave Interesting. Okay. We're gonna get to the g... We're gonna get to the degen stuff in a second because, obviously, I know all the degens are here to obviously obviously listen to, tell me how the pumped up fun stuff…
- 0:24:20 Dave 5,200,000,000 in profit for Tether for USDT in the first six months of the year. Is that not crazy?
- 0:25:34 Dave Nana, did you genuinely think that it was gonna be, like, 5,200,000,000 for USDT? I mean, a stable coin issuer. Like No. What?
STX City launches a pump.fun style bonding curve on Stacks with Velar
- 0:25:57 Dave Agreed. I think they're branching out into so many different arenas that ultimately, like, it's it's gonna be unavoidable. Right? Like, they're they're they're dipping their toes in AI. They're dipping their toes in…
- 0:28:38 Kool Yeah. This this is... It's a good idea, man. I know you mentioned this already in... Like, couple weeks ago, but but this cannot thrive unless... Until we have the Nakamoto upgrade, man. So it's a it's a good idea, but…
- 0:31:21 Dave Nat, give me your initial thoughts, and then we're gonna go into some of bonding curves and how this whole shit works and what people need to look out for so we make sure that we prepare people. But what's your initial…
Nakamoto upgrade status and how a bonding curve works
- 0:32:26 Dave Okay. Great take. So here's where we're at currently in terms of, like, Nakamoto. I think a 100% of the code base is complete. And what that means is they've done what they needed to do. Now I think this is just…
- 0:36:25 Dave the that? But what is the benefit of something like this? Right? I wanna really reiterate this. Now I can't vouch for the code. I don't know. I'm not a coder. I didn't run it through. No, you know, no audit. I have no…
- 0:39:25 Dave this great freaking token. Like, go buy this on pumped up. Like, no. No. No. No. No. No. It's not. This is a good... It's an in... It's an innovative new feature. It's building off of something that's already been…
Launch now or wait for Nakamoto: transaction speed compared with other chains
- 0:40:07 Kool Bro, I I don't I don't know how you could launch now. But if you do that now, you know, like I said, most of us here, maybe not all of us, we've been... We've used stacks before. We've seen the wait times, you know…
- 0:43:42 Dave And I got one more question before I go to NetNap real quick. Cool. You... Have you played on pump.fund already? Like, had like, participated in it? Have you bought tokens? Like, do you have any advice for people?…
Kool's degen stories, the Shib sale and the mental toll
- 0:44:07 Kool Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I have I have, not too much, though, because, you know, I I I don't like losing money, so I like I like to keep money. I don't like I don't like to gamble. I like to buy and hold long term. I like…
- 0:50:42 Dave And just like that, that's when Alex comes in the room. This is gonna be fucking great. Let's go. Web three legend, what's up? What's good? You wanna chime in on the pumped out fun? Tell me you got a little bit of…
- 0:53:03 Dave But great take, man. Great take. For those that for those you... Of course, bro. Of course. Of course. For those that don't know, obviously, like, on the platform, right, like, you're gonna see... There's also... If…
Bonding curve pillars, the liquidity pool question, and buying and selling in chunks
- 0:55:34 ALEX DAMSKER I'm here to bother Dave. But... So, I mean, I I actually did a whole space a while ago, and I've done this before on on bonding curves and what what they are and what they need. And there's, like, four pillars for…
- 1:02:05 Dave Go ahead, Bendy, and then I'm gonna come right back to Alex.
- 1:06:17 ALEX DAMSKER Well, the way that that bonding curves work, it rewards you buying and selling in chunks as opposed to piecemeal. Like, that's how they work. So, unless you have, like, something weird like an s curve or something like…
Waves, personal tokens, and why businesses rather than individuals find uses for tokens
- 1:09:55 ALEX DAMSKER Seriously? You don't remember that? Oh, we're not around then. Oh, so Waves came out... Let me think. It was, like, I wanna say 2018, 2017 maybe. So it was one of the first preformatted, tokens that you could get or…
- 1:24:59 ALEX DAMSKER Please. Talk about them. I have bought a meme talk... Token before to be involved with the community because they asked me to join them to... For legal help. So, yes, I have. And so I was in a community before. I…
- 1:30:50 Dave And there you have the kids right there. Amazing closing thoughts. Okay.
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