ROLLUP: Stocks vs. Crypto | EthCC Recap | Trump BTC Conf Speaker | ETH Documentary Release

Bankless Nation, happy second week of July. It is time for the Bankless weekly roll-up. Uh David, this is the last weekly roll-up without the ETTF, right?

That's what I heard. That's what I it's this one. This is the one.

This is the most likely weekend. For real

This time.

for real this time. Yeah.

Well, we're gonna keep saying that until it actually is the last weekly roll up without the ETF. How many times in the

So it's

ETTF?

annoying.

Well, we definitely have an update for you there. And David, you are you are in Brussels. You're recording from Brussels today, so you're at a conference, uh, right?

Yep, that's right.

ECC uh usually happens in Paris, uh, but when uh Ethereum goes up against the Olympics, uh, in an in-person conference, we lose. Uh so we're in Brussels. We got booted off to Brussels. Uh which uh there are already some stories about Brussels. Uh we'll talk about them in a little bit. I c I've seen some tweets.

I want to hear about those stories. Uh but w what else we got on tap?

Uh bullish week for tokenization. We're gonna talk about the BlackRock Builder Fund passing a threshold as well as other people coming into the tokenization play. Bitcoin had its first 25% drawdown after 427 days without one. Uh so is it over? Can we go up now? Uh when can we go up? Can we go up, please? Uh what else we got, Ryan?

Yeah, please go up. Republicans are adding crypto to their official party platform. This is actually a pretty cool statement, including the right to go bankless, David. And also uh Trump might be crypto conference. Was he at ETHCC, David? I don't know. Maybe you could fill me in there.

Trump was Trump was not at ETHCC in Brussels.

Oh, he should have been. He missed he missed the the the bet the best crypto conference. And finally, Ethereum got another based rollup. We're very excited about the based rollup space. So what are the vibes at ETHCC, David? Give give me the download. I've been watching a little bit on Twitter, but uh I gotta confess I haven't I saw uh Vitalic tweets and V Vitalic videos, that sort of thing, but I I don't think I have a sense of like what it's like to be on the ground.

Yeah, and I would say other ETH CCs, it has been easier to identify a pretty like core theme, uh just a phase, a check-in of uh Ethereum. Uh ETC always kind of feels like going one year around the sun because it's so consistent. It's middle of July in Paris, the sum in Brussels. Uh the content sphere is a little bit more spread out than usual. Uh pre-commitments, pre-confirmations is a big theme. Base rollups are very adjacent to that is a very big theme. Uh, how to approach MEV on various layers, um, applications, layer ones, layer twos, app chains, how this all ties together. Uh, and then uh also ZK proving uh uh is showing up a little bit more. But these are so like the whole base rollups conversation is also happening on the back of like the paradigm uh uh people, Georgios and uh Charlie.

providing alternative paths to scaling Ethereum that is um uh maybe direction

Yeah, throwing shade a base role of saying, like, we don't that is an unsolved problem, and that's really complicated. Uh, and so uh people are talking about just this kind of like pretty really deep level infrastructure as it relates to Ethereum fragmentation, kind of like kicking the tires all around it. So I would say maybe if they I was gonna draw out one theme of the content of ETH CC, it has been just the refragmentation, the defragmentation of of Ethereum with a specific bent on base roll ups and pre commits. Um then Vitalik also kind of set his own meta of content because he uh is doing like 10 over 10 talks. Uh I asked him this morning. He's doing 10

The Thursday, as of the Thursday morning, he has done six talks and four panels, and he says he's not done yet. These are just his words. Uh, I just I just asked him because people were talking about like how many talks did Vitalik do? And I watched one of these talks, uh, and I just assumed, like, oh, he's probably like doing the smart thing, which is like presenting, like putting together one talk and giving it in 10 different spaces. And I asked him that. It's like, like, are all of these talks different? And yes, apparently, all of these talks are indeed different. He said he spent most of Tuesday writing the slides for every single one of his talks. So he's just like running around ETC, firing off presentations, like no notes, just his slides, uh, and like throwing banger talks. They're pretty great.

Do we do we have a clip of of Vitalik running in the rain to uh get to a talk here? Yeah, so these are

Two tweets that had like a pretty good theme to them, which is that one of them says when Vitalik Buterin makes an entry like this into a Web3 event in a stormy Brussels rain, it like stormed the first day I was here. There's no stopping. You know there's no stopping Ethereum. And this is Vitalik like running over a puddle, like double landing on both feet, like ready to go. And then there's like another one of uh Vitalik coming in a little bit late to his talk, but just like running right in and to it and then starting his talk, banging out his talk, and then running away from it to go to his next talk. Uh just like Vitalik doing talks, a ton of talks this time.

Here's here's the a follow from Mike Dottieth. Uh this man changed the history of innovation in blockchain, and he's a billionaire without a bodyguard. Maximum humility. He just kind of lights up a room when he enters it, doesn't he? He's just so so such an Ethereum vibe there. Actually, speaking of uh Vitalic, like one of the quotes, I don't know if you saw this talk, David, but uh I I saw the story published in the block. Um I haven't seen anything recorded of of what he said. I'd be interested in looking at some of the talks, but Vitalik Buterin pushes for Ethereum to respond to 51% attacks in a more automated way. Apparently, this is one at least the block picked up on, is um the ability rather than to solve a 51% attack at kind of the social coordination level, you know how messy that gets, right? With all of the various stakeholders and parties trying to decide, is having a strategy to automate that a bit more. So it's kind of like executed in code or like ready to go. I don't know if that was part of the the substance of his talks or if that was you just like a side note. Anyway, do you have any highlights of what Vitalik's talking about here?

This one, well, this is where we can invoke the word intersubjective. Uh so this is an intersubjective fault of Ethereum. He says like we can uh uh like fix in an automated way in the same way Eigenlayer is doing the same thing with restaking. Uh and uh I was not at this particular talk. Um all of his talks, generally the theme of his talks are like okay, here are some like like so here are the next frontier problems for Ethereum. Uh and also like we also know what the solutions are. Uh so let's move forward on them. Uh kind of just suggestions for layer two design, um, all that kind of stuff. Um there's also a panel that I walked in on uh with Justin Drake on a restaking panel with David Say from Babylon. Uh and spell, okay, great. Like I know uh I know a pretty good amount about Ethereum staking in Igetlayer. Let's learn about restaking in Babylon. Let's learn what the differences is. And I get into the panel, and it's Justin Drake just arguing with David Say, the founder of Babylon, about the Bitcoin security budget. He's just doing the Justin Drake thing of like Bitcoin's not secure.

They didn't get into restaking minutes into the conversation. Uh it was interesting. Uh I mean I'm always compelled by Justin Drake's arguments. Uh and so uh Justin Drake was like like doing like jujitsu with this guy and it kinda felt like he had one arm behind his back uh in a good way. Uh but that's just me.

Babylon, if people remember, that that's basically an eigenlayer for Bitcoin. They're behind. I think they've got more research to do, so they're not deployed, they're not yet. But that that's the idea is bringing restaking to to Bitcoin. So I imagine that was interesting. Uh d there's reports of people being robbed in Brussels as well. Like what's up with that? What is going on?

Yeah, uh I'm here I'm hearing like two to three stories, unique stories a day of like something bad happening. Either like one a bankless employee, by the way, like uh was like taken, like like not far away, she's like taken a couple blocks away by her taxi driver, and he's like, Oh, the card machine doesn't broke, pay me cash. Also, we happen to be at an ATM. Uh, and like a different bankless employee had to like go over there and like strong was just like be a presence to like allow her to get out of the taxi. So, like, and I've heard of multiple stories of like shady taxi drivers. Another friend got her purse stolen. Uh, this is a tweet that went viral of a guy who is now limping around Brussels because he was mugged at 7 p.m., which is broad daylight in Brussels. Uh uh Luca Netty got his passport stolen from his hotel room. Uh, all of the conferences I have ever been to, there's always been conversations of just like, oh, we're in Bogota, be safe. And Bogota was completely fine. Like, I have never gone to an Ethereum conference where there was like crime and like robberies and anything, except it's for some reason happening all over Brussels, uh in the middle of Europe, with the EU center of Europe. So that's been a theme of Brussels this year. Speaking of crime, uh, Suzu is here uh for some reason. I didn't know that Suzu could go to Brussels. Uh Suzu was at Rave, apparently, uh, just like raving at Rave. Uh we have a picture of this.

No, I do not have a picture of it. One of my friends said he all she also uh interviewed him for her like podcasts that she's doing because he's she's doing a bunch of podcasts. Uh so I like I I kind of figure that I think we have an extradition treaty with uh Belgium. Apparently he's not ready to be extradited or anything. Apparently he's just can go to Europe. Uh so that was interesting. We also had the bankless party as well. Uh so on Monday of ECC, we just had the bankless party for um uh bankless citizens, a bunch of Ola Pop podcast guests, uh, and some um just friends of Bankless. Uh sadly, I missed it uh because I missed my connection in Chicago. So while everyone else was partying at the bankless party, I was in Chicago uh doing nothing, waiting for my flight. So that was a bummer. Uh but over overall, it's been a great time. Been a great evening.

Well, I know you're a bit jet-legged. Uh, you know, we had to coordinate to to find a good hour to record this. So uh thanks for being here. Another week for the Bankless Nation. We never miss. Uh

We have

we never miss

a weekly roll up.

Let's talk markets for a second. So Bitcoin, what's the price in the week?

Uh started the week fifty seven thousand three hundred. Ending the week fifty-seven thousand eight hundred up about a little more than half a percent. So upy flat.

Up you flat

Flat. Um, so the bearish factors, I I guess. I mean, people in general, I don't know what the vibes were at um Ecc. I know it's a more research focused, dev focused type of conference where we talk about like serious things like you know based roll ups, fixing fragmentation, all of these things. But uh I I'll tell you the the the crypto narrative has felt very bearish uh lately. Like we're not enjoying this this flat summer, flat down summer.

now.

Yeah, it it it is. Um so Bitcoin had its first 25% drawdown. This is after a a streak of 427 days. Okay, so we're 25% down, at least we were uh at some point during the week on on Bitcoin. And this um, but but I guess the flip side is this was an incredible run, 427 days uh of a streak, and it beat the 2020 uh the 2012 record by 63 days. So I I guess another way to look at this is like we had an incredible run and we were due for a correction. I mean, 423 days is essentially up before and now down 25%. It's not the end of the world, but people are blaming the German government. Apparently, they keep selling their Bitcoin. Recall we talked a couple roll ups ago that you know Germany had uh a few billion, I think, in Bitcoin seizures, right? So they uh just sold another 362 million on the week, and they still have more. They still have 1.3 billion that they might sell. And there was this.

It is very large numbers. This is uh this is a tweet in German, so I use like I can't uh yeah, my German's a little rusty but there's

Translate post. Hit translate post.

Let's do uh translate posts. Okay, so this is a German MP, I believe, who uh is saying that instead of holding Bitcoin as a strategic reserve currency, uh, we are selling it, and we shouldn't be doing that in Germany. We should be a bit more like the US, which apparently it you're like the US is debating whether they should sell some of their seized uh Bitcoin or or keep it. Or hold it.

Yeah, which is news to me.

It's that's news to me as well, but maybe the the pointing at the Americans who are thinking about this. But like, it's a good point. Why are we selling all of this Bitcoin? We have this Bitcoin.

I said when we were dumping uh when we were dumping our big cards, just just ho just take it from one department and put it in the treasury. Just give it

Exactly. The MP added instead of selling, I recommend developing a comprehensive uh Bitcoin strategy. So, like, why sell when you can when you can hold and maybe support the Euro at some point in time? So, anyway, Germany's dumping on us. This was known, but apparently the the markets don't like this uh the this uh dumpage. There's also Mt. Gox, of course. That that news is out there where the distributions are finally happening, uh, and that's still in the news. They are happening in two more months. So, according to the agreement with Mt. Gox trustees, Bitstamp has 60 days to distribute the token. Um, Kraken has 90 days to Bitcoin, 20 days. So there's a lot of Bitcoin that still could be sold uh as a result of Mt. Gox. So this type of sell pressure and the prospective sell pressure is uh contributing to the flatty down market right now.

Yeah, there's a lot a lot of just overhang. I think uh everyone has uh oversold the Mount Gox sell pressure. I think I gave this take last week. Uh I think the Mount Gox sell pressure is not as much as people are at least fudding about. Like maybe the market has digested it, but like in terms of perception, uh, that's much less sell pressure. Like the German Germany's like dumping $1.3 billion of Bitcoin on us after they've dumped like $600 million of Bitcoin. That's cell pressure. Gox cell pressure. Um, I don't really think is all that real. Anyways, we got some bullish factors too. Uh, so the Bitcoin ETFs are absorbing a lot of this uh sell pressure. So while Bitcoin is being sold by all of these entities, uh on like it's July 8th, uh iBit, the uh BlackRock ETF took in $187 million. So $187 million of buy pressure. Uh the next day, total buy pressure of the ETFs came in and at a quarter billion dollars. Uh so we're we're painting in some numbers of inflows into the Bitcoin ETFs. Uh finally waking up again, uh not no longer dormant. Uh we'll see how long this this holds, but we're we're pulling in a lot of this uh sell pressure Bitcoin into the ETFs.

It's actually super impressive. This is James Seyford like summing up. Bitcoin ETF's doing the exact opposite of dumping during this dumpage in the first 20% drawdown since the launch. They're buying, they're doubling down. So last week, uh 650 million in net inflows on the week. I gotta say, I'm impressed with TradFi here, David. Like it seems like the crypto natives uh and traders are the paper hands here. And TradFi is just diamond handing it. They see the dip and they're and they're buying. Uh so like well done. I mean, this is a more robust set of uh purchasers than I think crypto anticipated, and it's great to have that that support from a price perspective.

Hopefully. Yeah, I on July 4th when I I think what it was the peak dumpage. I just looked at the ETH price. I think it got down to like two thousand eight hundreds and I was like, this is stupid. And also it's the day of freedom, so I'm gonna buy the freedom currency. I just bought in in solidarity with the ETH price. Feels good to buy twenty eight hundred dollar ETH.

The freedom currency, uh

Yeah, ether. It's a freedom, it's a sovereign. Everyone spee your own bank. It's the freedom currency. Freedom Day, freedom currency.

Uh I thought you were trying to make uh dollar as the freedom currency uh kind of joke, but you know, I was like

Oh yeah.

get off the show.

Ignore that. Ignore that.

Funny when I was looking at the spot Bitcoin ETF charts, I noticed these gaps in the charts. I was like, wait, what happened those days? Oh, it's because the markets closed

The week

of course

is closed.

weekends those happen. Uh well let's check in on our friend Eth. So where are we on the week?