Good morning, everybody. It’s your Daily Crypto News, and it’s Wednesday, August 13, 2025. Yesterday Kyle hosted, and I have to say — the guy’s getting better and better. One listener on Spotify even commented, “Kyle’s getting pretty good at this and I am enjoying the show.” He’s much more tech, DeFi, and small-cap coin focused, while I’m more geopolitical, macro, and political. The contrast works, and I think it makes for a well-rounded show.
📉 Bessent Predicts 50bps September Rate Cut — What It Could Mean for Crypto
🛡️ Monero Survives 51% Attack Attempt — How AI Protocol Qubic Helped Protect the Privacy Chain
🚀 Ethzilla: Ethereum Treasury Stock Soars as Peter Thiel Buys In
🏛️ Bank Groups Push U.S. Senate to Close Gaps in New Stablecoin Law
🎓 Harvard’s $117M Bitcoin ETF Stake Now Tops Holdings in Google and Nvidia
📉 Trader Cobb & Market Training via The Grow Me Co
U.S. Treasury Signals Possible 50 bps Rate Cut
"If the real numbers had been known earlier, cuts would have started in June or July."
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has suggested the Federal Reserve should consider a 50 basis point rate cut in September. This comes after revised job data showed 258,000 fewer jobs than initially reported in May and June, alongside inflation figures coming in lower than expected.
While a 25 bps cut is still widely expected next month, another round of jobs and inflation data will heavily influence the Fed’s decision. Historically, Q3 returns have been modest — but a deeper cut could create a “risk-on” environment that benefits assets like crypto.
My Take: This isn’t just about stimulating housing or general economic growth. I think it’s an attempt to prop up the economy ahead of the midterms to avoid a pre-election recession. Housing supply is outpacing buyers, job markets aren’t as strong as the headlines suggest, and tariffs could soon start hitting consumers. AI is also cutting into middle and entry-level white-collar jobs. My prediction? By Christmas we’ll see consumer spending fall sharply — maybe 10–20% below expectations — and within 12–18 months, we could be facing a recession as bad or worse than 2008.
Qubic Claims 51% Attack on Monero
"The move was intended to prepare Monero for possible government attacks."
AI protocol Qubic claims it briefly controlled Monero through a 51% attack, mining 63 out of 122 blocks in a four-hour period. The group says it was an “experiment” to help Monero defend itself against future threats.
Some experts questioned whether the takeover was fully successful, pointing to the lack of large-scale blockchain rewrites. Still, the incident raised alarms about Monero’s security budget and the cost of maintaining majority hash power — estimated at $75 million per day.
My Take: Whether or not this was truly successful, it’s a wake-up call for proof-of-work systems. If an actor — even one claiming to be benevolent — can briefly seize control, the potential for damage is real. Monero will need to seriously evaluate its decentralization and resilience.
Peter Thiel’s Ethereum Bet
Peter Thiel and entities he manages have acquired a 7.5% stake in ETHzilla, a biotech firm that pivoted from medical research to stockpiling Ethereum. The company’s stock has more than tripled, and this follows Thiel’s 9.1% purchase in Bitmine, another Ethereum-hoarding public company.
Thiel’s history in crypto investment runs deep — from co-founding PayPal to funding exchanges and DeFi projects like Bullish, Bitpanda, and Polymarket.
My Take: This is a huge endorsement for Ethereum’s long-term value proposition. When someone with Thiel’s track record starts amassing ETH like this, it’s a signal that institutional-level accumulation is still just getting started.
Banks Push Back on Stablecoin Yield
"Be more efficient, fix your shit."
Over 50 banking groups have urged the U.S. Senate Banking Committee to “close loopholes” in the Genius Act, warning that the new stablecoin law could cause massive deposit flight from banks. They’re particularly concerned about exchanges and third parties offering rewards on stablecoins, which could draw funds away from traditional bank deposits.
The Treasury estimates stablecoins could trigger up to $6.6 trillion in outflows if yield is allowed.
My Take: This is nothing more than an attempt by banks to protect their outdated business model. Instead of competing in the free market and offering competitive yield, they’d rather lobby Congress to preserve their monopoly. If stablecoins force banks to pay customers more, that’s not a bug — that’s the free market working.
Harvard’s $117M Bitcoin ETF Buy
"Harvard once said Bitcoin would be closer to $100 than $100,000."
Harvard University’s endowment now holds $116.7 million in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust, giving it more exposure to BTC than to Nvidia or Alphabet. Harvard bought 1.9 million IBIT shares in Q2, making it the 29th largest holder of the ETF.
My Take: This is a remarkable reversal from Harvard’s earlier skepticism. Endowments are among the hardest institutions to onboard into ETFs, and the fact that they’re now heavily invested in Bitcoin speaks volumes about how mainstream it’s becoming.
Listener Questions
Ton’s Kraken Staking Yield
Tun asked about Kraken offering 14% staking yield with auto-enrollment. My take? That’s high, but not outrageous. The key is understanding whether it’s sustainable and where it’s coming from — in this case, is it the blockchain protocols themselves?
Ripple and Ondo Partnership
Ton also asked about Ripple and Ondo. Ripple seems to be positioning itself as the liquidity layer, while Ondo focuses on tokenizing real-world assets. Together, they could create a vertical integrating Ripple’s stablecoin with Ondo’s RWA tokenization. Whether this sticks is another question — it feels like Ripple is still searching for true product-market fit.
Crypto Prices — 9:11 a.m. EST
Fear & Greed Index: 63 (Greedy)
Bitcoin (BTC): $120,500 — up 1.25% (24h), 6.9% (7d)
Ethereum (ETH): $4,708 — up 7% (24h), 32% (7d)
XRP: $3.27 — up 3.15% (24h), 11% (7d)
Binance Coin (BNB): $854 — up 5.5% (24h)
Solana (SOL): $201.55 — up 13.5% (24h)
USD Coin (USDC): $1.00 — flat
Dogecoin (DOGE): $0.245 — up 9.1% (24h)
Tron (TRX): $0.358 — up 3.3% (24h)
Cardano (ADA): $0.88 — up 11.6% (24h)
Total Crypto Market Cap: $4.1 trillion — up 3.1% (24h)
Bitcoin Market Cap: $2.39 trillion
Ethereum Market Cap: $568.7 billion
That’s the news for today. Until tomorrow — happy HODLing, everyone.
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