The Breakdown

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Can $700B in Quantitative Easing Calm The Markets? Feat. CoinDesk’s Michael Casey and Noelle Acheson Mar 16, 2020

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Over the weekend, the Fed decided it couldn’t wait for Wednesday’s planned meeting to act, cutting interest rates to nearly 0%. It also announced $700 billion of direct capital injection through the purchase of Treasury securities and mortgage-backed debt.

The question is whether this action can actually calm markets? So far, it’s not looking great. Within minutes, emergency circuit breakers were triggered again. Markets are down more than 9% on the day.

In this episode, @NLW chats with CoinDesk’s Chief Content Officer Michael Casey and director of research Noelle Acheson about:

Why the market isn’t impressed with Fed action
Why no Fed response will be enough on its own to solve the health crisis and the resulting economic dislocation
Why we’re going to see more conversations in the coming weeks about UBI, MMT and other direct citizen stimulus

The Breakdown Weekly Recap | March 14 2020 Mar 14, 2020

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The entire week's shows in one convenient file:

Monday | What the Market Crash Means for Bitcoin, Feat. Delphi's Kevin Kelly
Tuesday | Crypto Fundraising and the Nothing-Is-Safe Haven
Wednesday | Ben Hunt on the Clash of Narratives in the Age of Coronavirus
Thursday | 6 Good Reasons for Bitcoiners to Keep Calm and HODL On
Friday | What Happens When Currencies Fail? Featuring Preston Pysh

What Happens When Currencies Fail? Featuring Preston Pysh Mar 13, 2020

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Yesterday, the Federal Reserve announced more than a trillion dollars in liquidity injections into the market. In the coming weeks, many observers expect trillions of more in stimulus in a variety of exotic new intervention tactics.

While this will (hopefully) stem the still emerging economic fallout from the pandemic, it creates its own new set of problems. In this episode of The Breakdown, @NLW is joined by “We Study Billionaires” host Preston Pysh to discuss:

How bond markets will react to the wave of stimulus
The challenge of global coordination for a new Bretton Woods
Why in the wake of stimulus some governments might turn to bitcoin
The three factors that lead to currency failure

6 Good Reasons for Bitcoiners to Keep Calm and HODL On Mar 12, 2020

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The Coronavirus got really extra real today for markets. A two and a half week selloff was tipped to the next level by a major ratcheting up of action from the US government (which still seemed clearly to be not enough to calm markets).

In bitcoin, this meant a drop from around $8000 yesterday to under $6000 today - a head-spinning dump, especially for those who are more recent to crypto.

Still, in this episode, @NLW argues that there are 7 good reasons to keep calm and HODL on:

It’s not just bitcoin
Correlation means infiltration
Peak fear
Asia on the upswing
Buy order behavior
Bitcoin’s been dead before
And a bonus: this environment is exactly what bitcoin was built for

Ben Hunt on the Clash of Narratives in the Age of Coronavirus Mar 11, 2020

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The week of February 12, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was reaching new all time highs. Meanwhile, China’s quarantine of the 11 million people in Wuhan was three weeks old and expanding to other parts of the country.

While the global equities markets have finally started to catch up to the fear of a global pandemic, the Coronavirus has been one a profound case study in the power of narratives to shape behavior. Even now, those seeking to contain the spread in the US are fighting against narratives from leadership that range from “it’s just the flu” to “it’s a hoax from the media.”

On today’s episode of The Breakdown, NLW speaks with Epsilon Theory co-founder and market theorist Ben Hunt, who makes it his business to understand how narratives are shape and shaped by the world around us.

Since the beginning of the Coronavirus outbreak, Ben has been a clarion voice in the chaos. This episode is no exception.

Crypto Fundraising and the Nothing-Is-Safe Haven Mar 10, 2020

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Whatever you thought of the uncorrelated or safe haven narratives a few weeks ago, it’s hard to deny that bitcoin and crypto are moving in lock step with equities - even mirroring a small bounce in the morning that retreated in the early afternoon.

On this episode of The Breakdown, NLW looks at hot takes on the narrative from Bloomberg’s Joe Weisenthal and crypto investor Ari David Paul.

Not all the news is bleak, however. Also on this episode, we break down recent financings for

Argent’s de-fi friendly wallet
Horizon Games’ blockchain-based Hearthstone/MtG style game SkyWeaver
Futureswap’s decentralized futures exchange and more

What the Market Crash Means for Bitcoin, Feat. Delphi's Kevin Kelly Mar 09, 2020

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Bitcoin’s price has cratered, but it’s nothing compared to the broader market havoc. From the Coronavirus scare to an oil price war, a confluence of factors is aligning to make it a very rough Monday.

On this episode of The Breakdown, @nlw is joined by Delphi Digital’s Kevin Kelly to discuss:

Why the stock market is just catching up to what the bond markets have been saying
Why the bond markets have been a better reflection of potential economic pain
Why we need to pay attention to what happens in the credit markets
The role of the oil price war in today’s market drop
What the declining bitcoin price means for the safe haven and uncorrelated asset narratives
Which assets are actually acting like safe havens

The Breakdown Weekly Recap | March 7 2020 Mar 07, 2020

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The full week's episodes in one convenient package

The View From China: Crypto, Crisis and Digital Currencies Feat. Matthew Graham
What Us Election Outcome Is Best for Bitcoin?
Libra Plus? A New Global Digital Currency Strategy For Facebook
Why Bitcoin Mining Might Be the New Business Model for US Power Plants
Riccardo 'Fluffypony' Spagni on How Coronavirus Could Impact Privacy

Riccardo 'Fluffypony' Spagni on How Coronavirus Could Impact Privacy Mar 07, 2020

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As the Coronavirus took hold in China, officials in the Hubei province tracked potential patients by examining purchase records for cough and flu medicine for the previous month.

Welcome to the new frontiers of privacy. In this wide-ranging episode, @NLW chats with former lead maintainer of Monero and Tari co-founder Riccardo Spagni - aka @FluffyPony on Twitter - about privacy in the context of:

The recent arrest of DropBit CEO Larry Harmon surrounding bitcoin mixer technology being used for illicit purposes
The US govt’s battle against end-to-end encryption
Central bank digital currencies
At home devices like Alexa and Google home
Clearview AI and facial recognition
China’s response to Coronavirus
Why individual apathy is the greatest threat to privacy in the world

Why Bitcoin Mining Might Be the New Business Model for US Power Plants Mar 06, 2020

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It was another good day for global crypto, as South Korea votes to formally integrate the industry into the existing financial system, opening the market to new players and potentially improving services for crypto companies.

In New York state, meanwhile, a recently renovated power plant is taking advantage of low cost energy with 7000 bitcoin miners. This is part of a larger trend of US-based mining in 2020.

In a very different part of the industry, a new partnership between ConsenSys, EY and Microsoft suggests the intranet era of enterprise blockchain might be coming to a close.

Finally, the new governor of the Bank of England says be prepared to lose money if you buy bitcoin.