Hey there.
GM. This is The Chain, where we talk about failed Senate crypto bills and Tom Lee investing in MrBeast. What? Yes, that’s right.
Here are this week's highlights:
🧑⚖ Coinbase Vetoes the Congress Crypto Bill
🔷 Bitmine 🤝 MrBeast, the Collab of the Century
🟠 Bitcoin Knocks at the Door of $100K (Again)
Let’s take a look.
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Crypto Bill Disaster: Coinbase Backs Out, Senate Cancels
The crypto industry may have seen a lot of regulatory progress over the past year, but all good things must come to an end.
Or at least, all good stories require a few road blocks.
The US Senate is putting the crypto regulation bill on hold after Coinbase withdrew its backing of the bill.
Why did Coinbase withdraw its support? Here’s Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase:
The short answer: This version of the bill “would be materially worse than the current status quo.” Brutal.
Some highlights (really, lowlights) from the bill, which overall favored traditional banks over crypto:
Limits on stablecoin rewards
Removal of privacy in crypto
Banning of tokenized equities
And here’s Robinhood’s CEO, Vlad Tenev, on the subject:
There were also some differences between Democrats and Republicans over the bill that need to be settled, too. So they’ll run it back and try again soon, we’re sure.
Remember: not all is lost. This is still the first crypto-friendly administration, and we have the first-ever crypto-friendly SEC chair in Paul Atkins on our side.
Will BTC’s price skyrocket out of nowhere to $300,000 this year? Probably not.
But if you need some motivation, listen to the way Paul Atkins talks about Bitcoin and crypto 😭
Brings tears to a grown man’s eyes:
Crypto Is Investing in… MrBeast?
Yes, you read that confusing headline correctly. Bitmine, the Ethereum treasury company led by Tom Lee, is investing $200M in Beast Industries.
Why? Well, remember how Mr. Beast was going to start a financial services platform? Under the trademark “MrBeast Financial”?
…Yeah, he’s still planning on doing that.
And he wants to implement DeFi into his platform apparently!
Which is crazy. (Fast forward 20 years. Who do you think Gen Z will bank with?)
Here’s what Tom Lee had to say about Jimmy Donaldson (MrBeast): that he’s a generational content creator “with a reach and engagement unmatched with GenZ, Gen Alpha, and Millennials,” according to Decrypt.
He also called Beast Industries the “largest and most innovative creator-based platform in the world.”
Weighty words. We’ll see if the $200M investment pays off for both Tom Lee and MrBeast himself!
Also, this is ridiculous (and obviously fake) but funny lol:
Bitcoin Spikes Above $97K. Can it Break $100K?
After weeks of bouncing back and forth between $85-93K, Bitcoin seems to have some real momentum. The question is whether that momentum stays!
BTC’s rise to $97K was supported mainly by ETF inflows (institutional appetite is back?).
Here’s Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas’s interpretation: the inflow of demand “suggests that maybe the buyers have exhausted the sellers.”
Is that too optimistic? Maybe. Do we really hope it’s true? Yes, yes we do.
Because we’re tired of THIS:
At this point, it feels pointless to make guesses about what will happen next for BTC.
But one thing’s true: the Orange coin is rallying during a time that has historically been pretty difficult for it. End of the 4-year cycle and all that.
So maybe something’s changing. Stay tuned.
🍟 Extra Crispy Crypto Links
Bank of America’s CEO just warned of a $6T shift from bank deposits to stablecoins.
The crypto fear and greed index has tipped into “Greed” for the first time since October.
Metamask now supports Tron, Bitcoin, and Solana—not just Ethereum-based tokens anymore.
A 70-year-old with dementia apparently won a $1.2M slot machine jackpot after mistaking it for a vending machine.
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⏳ Wrapping Up
The crypto bill will get back up again, hopefully looking better than it did this time. Bitcoin may or may not rise above $100K—but we at least don’t think it will crash. And Tom Lee and MrBeast will keep doing insane things.
The world goes on. Just stay the course, slow and steady. Showing up every day and counting choices in years instead of days.
Sound philosophical? 2025 will do that to you 😂
Same time next week? Sounds good.
Until next time,
- The Chain Team