Show notes
The Last Trade: Jackson, Michael, and Brian break down Vanguard's surprise listing for a head of digital assets and what TradFi's reluctant capitulation really signals. They dig into Bitcoin's 50% retrace into the $60Ks, why momentum (not Saylor) is driving price, and Bill Miller's case for intrinsic value. They close on the culture downstream of debasement: the socialist moment, a gambling epidemic, and Apple's overnight price hikes.
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The Last Trade: a weekly, bitcoin-native podcast covering the intersection of bitcoin, tech, & finance on a macro scale. Hosted by Jackson Mikalic, Michael Tanguma, & Brian Cubellis. Join us as we dive into what bitcoin means for how individuals & institutions save, invest, & propagate their purchasing power through time. It's not just another asset… in the digital age, it's The Last Trade that investors will ever need to make.
🎙️ About This Episode
The crew opens on Vanguard's listing for a head of digital assets in its personal wealth division, weighing whether it's a career-maker or a bureaucratic trap inside a $10T passive giant that only recently allowed Bitcoin ETFs on its platform. They compare the inertia across TradFi, from Fidelity Digital Assets and Charles Schwab's live brokerage to Franklin Templeton's more aggressive push, and note the new Vanguard CEO ran iShares during the iBit launch. Brian unpacks Bill Miller's piece on Bitcoin's intrinsic value, arguing a 17-year discount to terminal value persists because so few understand money itself. Michael ties the monetization path to education, micropayments (Spark, Cash App), and the Bitcoin and AI convergence, while Jackson points to Scott Bessent's speech on America writing the rules of the next economy alongside stablecoins, the Genius Act, and OpenUSD. The back half turns social: the Mises Institute on the socialist moment and Mamdani, the Cantillon effect and wealth concentration since 1971, skyrocketing gambling-disorder diagnoses in legal sports-betting states, and Apple raising hardware prices 10 to 50% overnight. They wrap on a running tally of crypto and KYC data breaches, 29 incidents and 31M+ records over seven years, and why self-custody and sovereignty matter more than ever.
🧠 Chapters
00:00 - Introduction and Excitement for the Episode
01:30 - Discussion on Vanguard's New Role in Digital Assets
04:57 - Challenges of Traditional Financial Institutions
09:30 - Market Dynamics and Bitcoin's Momentum
13:52 - Bitcoin's Intrinsic Value and Market Perception
18:05 - The Role of Education in Bitcoin Adoption
24:19 - The Future of Digital Assets and Inflation
30:44 - Convergence of Bitcoin and AI in the Future
36:17 - The Future of Money and Tokenization
41:43 - Understanding Bitcoin's Value and Scarcity
42:01 - The Rise of Socialism in America
49:11 - Wealth Concentration and Economic Inequality
52:59 - Gambling Disorders and Economic Desperation
58:21 - Consumer Product Price Increases and Class Divides
01:03:57 - Data Breaches and the Permanent Underclass
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