Marc Baumann

172: four rules, five days

Hey, it’s Marc & the 51 team. I don't think Washington has ever shipped this much crypto policy in a single week. Each one would normally be the headline. * The US Labor Department proposed allowing Bitcoin in 401(k) plans, opening digital assets to $7.7 trillion in American retirement savings. * US Congress advanced a payment stablecoin framework, pushing dollar-backed digital currencies closer to formal regulatory recognition. * The Treasury published its first rule under the GENIUS Act.

the first on-chain M&A

Arizona is lending its Bitcoin

Europe's $2.3T manager went on-chain

Morgan Stanley is building a full-stack crypto bank

171: NYSE and Nasdaq pick sides

Hey, it’s Marc & the 51 team. Tuning in from DAS New York this week (which was much more institutional than last year). A few things that caught my eye: * A bipartisan Senate deal on stablecoin yields finally broke months of gridlock on the Clarity Act (banks won). * Both NYSE and Nasdaq announced tokenization partners this week, but they have very different ideas about what comes next. Our other highlights this week: * Franklin Templeton puts five ETFs on the blockchain * Coinbase and B

The man who co-wrote HTTP/2 just IPO'd a crypto bank, with Mike Belshe, CEO of BitGo

Hi, it’s Marc. ✌️ The man who co-wrote HTTP/2, the protocol loading this page right now, just IPO’d a crypto bank. Priced at $18 in January, trading at ~$10 today. And he doesn’t care. Watch on Youtube Mike Belshe started BitGo in 2013 and spent 13 years doing the boring work nobody wanted to do: multi-sig wallets, cold storage, SOC audits, trust company licenses in seven jurisdictions. While every other crypto firm was chasing volume or yield or hype, BitGo was filing paperwork. Now the fir

who owns the agent economy?

On March 18, 2026, Stripe and Tempo co-released the Machine Payments Protocol, an open specification for machine-to-machine payments.

Wall Street just put stocks on a blockchain

On March 18, the SEC approved Nasdaq to trade and settle U.S. equities as blockchain tokens.

Mastercard, PayPal, Stripe

Hey, it’s Marc & the 51 team. The SEC did something this week that people will look back on. * They issued a 68-page joint interpretation on token classifications together with the CFTC, for the first time in 183 years of combined existence. * Chairman Atkins proposed a principles-based framework, replacing stock-market checklists with broad standards like disclosure and investor protection. * Director Moloney declared the end of the Howey Test for crypto, the 80-year-old standard used to c

the SEC sorts its tokens

Hey, it’s Marc, For the first time ever in their combined 183 years of existence, the SEC and CFTC published a joint document agreeing on what crypto actually is. They named 16 specific tokens as commodities. They said staking isn't a security. And they formally acknowledged that a security can stop being a security. That last part is the one that changes everything. [RELEASE] The Signal: Most crypto tokens aren’t securities by default, and their regulatory status depends on how they’re used

"I apologize", SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce on Crypto's New Rules

Hi, it’s Marc. ✌️ An SEC Commissioner just apologized to the crypto industry. On the record. To us. “The regulatory approach made your lives a lot more difficult. I’ve talked to people who really were hurt. I do apologize for that.” Watch on Youtube That’s Hester Peirce, who spent eight years as the SEC’s lone crypto dissenter and now leads its entire Crypto Task Force. The woman who quoted the cypherpunk manifesto from a government podium and wore protest t-shirts during commission meetings

Mastercard acquired BVNK for $1.8B

Florida's stablecoin bill

Hey, it’s Marc, JPMorgan closed Trump’s accounts. Congress froze on crypto regulation. Whereas, Florida just built the first state-level stablecoin regulatory system in America. And it did it unanimously. In one legislative sprint, the state passed a stablecoin issuance framework, authorized a potential $24B+ sovereign digital asset allocation, and launched a pilot to accept crypto for state taxes. It’s a live fork of the U.S. financial system. [RELEASE] 👉PRO: Download the PDF below Subscr

NYSE's parent just bought 120M crypto users

169: NYSE, OKX, Kraken, ECB, Revolut

Hey, it’s Marc & the 51 team. NYSE picked OKX. Nasdaq picked Kraken. America's two largest stock exchanges are now both building tokenized equities through crypto-native settlement partners, and neither picked a bank. Also this week, the SEC and CFTC signed a historic MOU to coordinate on digital asset oversight, with Chairman Atkins pushing for a unified framework including joint product reviews. Here are our highlights this week: * Nasdaq to build tokenized equities with Kraken * ECB lau

4.5% broke Congress

Hey, it’s Marc, The CLARITY Act missed its March 1 deadline because banks and crypto can't agree on one number: 4.5%. That's the yield Coinbase pays on USDC. Your bank pays 0.01%. A Treasury study says $6.6 trillion in deposits are at risk. The most important crypto bill in U.S. history is stuck, with four months before the midterms freeze everything. [RELEASE] Let’s unpack. 👉PRO: Download the PDF below Subscribe now What happened The CLARITY Act passed the House in July 2025 with bipa

Nasdaq ate crypto and called it an upgrade

Hey, it’s Marc, Crypto promised to kill the middleman. The middleman just hired crypto instead. Nasdaq and Kraken are turning every Nasdaq-listed stock into a blockchain token, same CUSIP, same rules, just faster. Through Kraken’s xStocks, NASDAQ has access to 68% of the tokenized equities market with $25B+ in transaction volume across 85,000 unique holders. [RELEASE] The stock market is about to run 24/7. Let’s unpack. 👉PRO: Download the PDF below Subscribe nowHe ran the NYSE, now he's

The first crypto firm on Fedwire

MoonPay, Iron, and the Stablecoin Endgame

In February 2025 Stripe acquired Bridge for $1.1B. A few months later, in March 2025, MoonPay acquired Iron, a German stablecoin infrastructure company, for a reported $100M+.

BNP Paribas called it an 'experiment'

Hey, it’s Marc, Name one major institution that launched tokenized funds on a private blockchain and stayed there. You can’t. BlackRock moved to Ethereum. Franklin Templeton moved to Ethereum. JPMorgan moved to Ethereum. Last week, BNP Paribas joined them as the first and largest European bank. And they went further. [RELEASE] Let’s unpack. 👉PRO: Download the PDF at the bottom Download Subscribe now What happened On February 19, 2026, BNP Paribas Asset Management issued a tokenized sha

Wall Street's weekend just died

Santander let a bot spend real money

Hey, it’s Marc, I keep asking bank executives the same question: when does an AI agent make its first real purchase inside your system? On March 2, Santander answered it. An AI agent completed a live, end-to-end payment on real rails, no human at checkout. The $5 trillion checkout just got its first non-human customer. [RELEASE] Let’s unpack. Subscribe now 👉PRO: Download the PDF at the bottom Download Subscribe now What happened Santander and Mastercard executed Europe’s first live AI

168: NYSE, OKX, Kraken

Hey, it’s Marc & the 51 team. The SEC submitted a proposal outlining how securities laws apply to crypto. This means: SEC won’t wait for Congress. And Washington is betting on private stablecoins and regulated crypto. [SEC] More on that below. Here are our highlights this week: * ICE (NYSE’s parent) invested in OKX at a $25 billion valuation, with plans to let OKX users trade tokenized NYSE-listed stocks on-chain by H2 2026. [RELEASE] * We sat down with the man responsible for this.

He ran the NYSE, now he's putting it on a blockchain, with Michael Blaugrund, VP at ICE

Hi, it’s Marc. ✌️ We sat down with Michael Blaugrund, the man bridging the world’s most important equity market, the NYSE, on-chain. The platform goes live later in 2026. It’s the biggest change to capital market since electronic trading. “Irrespective of where crypto asset prices are, the infrastructure momentum at this point is unstoppable.” All US equities on-chain by 2030? Michael thinks not quite. By 2035? He’s betting yes. Watch on Youtube “For a crypto-native investor, the idea of ma

Fidelity goes on-chain

Fidelity doesn't do crypto. It manages $6.8 trillion. So when the 79-year-old asset manager launched its own stablecoin on January 28, the game fundamentally changed. On January 28, 2026, the second-largest asset manager in America launched FIDD, a dollar-pegged stablecoin that Fidelity issues, distributes, and custodies in-house. [PRESS RELEASE]. For the first time, a titan with a national trust bank charter, the highest tier of federal oversight, is offering 24/7 dollar settlement on Ethereu

USDC prints $2.7B. Coinbase keeps 60%

Meta's stablecoin comeback with Stripe

In 2021, U.S. regulators killed Facebook’s Diem stablecoin project with a phone call. No law, no court order, just the Fed’s General Counsel Mark Van Der Weide dialling Diem’s CEO Stuart Leve and its banking partners with a message that landed like a cease-and-desist. Fast forward four years: Meta is back. But they aren’t minting a coin this time. Instead, they are renting Stripe’s stablecoin plumbing to turn WhatsApp, Instagram, and Facebook into a 3B user global settlement layer. And, this is

The liquidity cycle just broke bitcoin, with Michael Howell, Founder at CrossBorder Capital

Hi, it’s Marc. ✌️ There's a chart making the rounds right now. Gold at $5,400. Bitcoin at $66,000. One is at an all-time high. The other is down 47% from its October peak of ~$126,000. Same "store of value" thesis that the crypto community sold to investors over the last 5 years. Wildly different outcomes. We sat down with the man who saw it coming. Dr. Michael Howell, one of the world’s foremost authorities on global liquidity, founder of CrossBorder Capital and creator of the Global Liquidit

167: Stripe wants to eat PayPal alive

Hey, it’s Marc & the 51 team. Welcome back to your weekly briefing. The US stablecoin regulation is maturing. The OCC just proposed new rules to put guardrails around stablecoins (digital money tied to the U.S. dollar), following the GENIUS Act that passed last year. The rules cover everything from who can issue them to how they must be backed and managed. [RELEASE] 👉 Join the 51 live session with SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce on March 6, 3pm EST. Spots are limited! Reserve your spot Other

Apollo bought 9% of a DeFi protocol

Wall Street went from dismissing DeFi to integrating DeFi for tokenized funds to acquiring governance stakes. Morpho Association announced a cooperation agreement with Apollo Global Management affiliates. The deal: Apollo may acquire up to 90 million MORPHO tokens, over the next four years. This came just 48 hours after BlackRock listed its $2.1B BUIDL fund on Uniswap and purchased UNI governance tokens. [RELEASE] This didn't happen overnight. The shift from dismissing DeFi to governing it tel

12 signals the ambiguity is over

Today we’re publishing our 2026 Outlook: The End of Crypto Ambiguity

Stripe doesn’t need bank

Hey, it’s Marc! For over 15 years, Stripe processed payments. It needed banks to hold the money. It needed card networks to move it. It needed partners for everything. That just changed. Now, Stripe owns a bank. Kind of. On February 17, 2026, the OCC conditionally approved Bridge, Stripe’s $1.1 billion stablecoin acquisition, for a national trust bank charter. [RELEASE] 👉PRO: Download the PDF at the bottom Subscribe now What happened The OCC greenlit a national trust bank charter1 for

From 100% to 2%

You know what’s more powerful than a 1,000-page regulation? A two-page FAQ. On February 19, the SEC’s Division of Trading and Markets quietly dropped guidance that slashes the capital charge on stablecoins from 100% to 2% for broker-dealers. That’s the same haircut as money market funds. This makes stablecoins near-cash working capital and it might be the single most important regulatory shift for Wall Street in 2026. [RELEASE] [FAQs] 👉PRO: Download the PDF at the bottom 👉Need it simple? Re

166: Apollo bought 9% of a DeFi protocol

166: Apollo bought 9% of a DeFi protocol0:00/2001× Hey, it’s Marc & the 51 team. Welcome back to your weekly briefing. Here's where we are: * BTC is holding around $67K with the broader market steady near ~$2.3T. Polymarket odds for BTC reaching up $75K in February sit at 15%. * Institutions kept averaging into the drawdown: BitMine bought 45,759 ETH ($90M), while Strategy added 2,486 BTC ($168M). * Now, DeFi had an interesting week. Strong announcements (BlackRock x Uniswap, Apollo x Morp

The first nation to run on USDC

BlackRock just plugged into DeFi

Citi just picked Solana over Ethereum

Coinbase took Epstein's $3M in 2014

3.5 million pages of DOJ documents confirm what no compliance officer flagged in 2014: a convicted sex offender was funding Bitcoin’s development pipeline. The 2026 Tranche of Epstein files suggests that the roadmap of Bitcoin was a commercial strategy financed by Jeffrey Epstein. But the story is different and a mix of fact, rumors, interpretations and opinions. Let’s unpack. 👉PRO: PDF at the bottom The Consensus Miami 2026 Global Digital Asset Adoption Index Report by CoinDesk Data just d

165: The dip is being bought

165: The dip is being bought0:00/2001× Hey, it’s Marc & the 51 team. After last week’s brutal sell-off that pushed BTC toward the low around $60k (2024 level), the market has finally staged a calm. Institutions are back in business buying the dip; * BitMine bought 40,613 ETH ($79M) while Strategy added 1,142 BTC ($90M). * Binance’s Secure Asset Fund for Users (SAFU) added about 8,770 BTC ($600M). * Goldman Sachs’ recent SEC filing showed about $2.36B in crypto exposure through ETFs, includ

Wall Street's new darling

On Monday, Citadel Securities, the DTCC, the New York Stock Exchange, Google Cloud, ARK Invest, and Tether backed a single Layer 1 called Zero. These aren’t institutions “exploring” blockchain. They’re the operating system of global capital and they just placed a bet on replacing their own plumbing. This is the most consequential infrastructure announcement in digital assets this year. Here’s why. [RELEASE] 👉PRO: PDF at the bottom Subscribe nowDTCC, Goldman, Citadel pick Canton: Why Wall Str

Ethereum, AI, and the end of trust: Joseph Lubin, co-founder of Ethereum & CEO of Consensys

Hi, it’s Marc. ✌️ The world is broken. Trust in nearly all institutions is lost. The complex systems we rely on for our survival are daunting and unwieldy. We are in the dying stages of an 80-year monetary regime and debt supercycle. The conclusion is clear: the current system is unsustainable. The answer is decentralization. That’s Joseph Lubin, Co-founder of Ethereum and CEO of Consensys. While most people are watching the daily candles of Bitcoin and Ether, Joe is watching the “Fourth Tur

Tether just put on a suit

The U.S. crypto battlefield

Hey, it’s Marc & 51 team, Jamie Dimon interrupted Brian Armstrong’s coffee with Tony Blair at Davos. The JPMorgan CEO got in Armstrong’s face and told him he was “full of sh*t” for claiming banks were sabotaging crypto legislation. While CEOs traded insults in Switzerland, SEC Chair Atkins is building the regulatory framework: the GENIUS Act is live. Project Crypto just formalized SEC-CFTC coordination. DTCC launched its tokenisation pilot. OCC greenlit five crypto-focused national trust banks

Why crypto broke

Hey, it’s Marc & 51 team, For 18 months, the crypto pitch to allocators was simple: ETFs brought in real money, regulation was coming, and Bitcoin had decoupled from degen retail. Mature asset class. Uncorrelated store of value. Digital gold. Then three pipes burst at the same time: the U.S. Treasury sucked $200B out of bank reserves, Japan ended 30 years of free-money leverage, and AI’s hype cycle suddenly became a risk event, and Bitcoin did what “digital gold” isn’t supposed to do: it crash

164: Capital is repricing

164: Capital is repricing0:00/2001× Hey, it’s Marc & the 51 team. What a week, folks – and only in crypto. We have a packed newsletter for you today to untangle everything that happened. In case you missed it: Bitcoin crashed 30% in 7 days below $60K (is not already back at $70K) amid a brutal market-wide crash that wiped over $1T in value and lead $5B+ in liquidations. Strategy and Bitmine are sitting on billions in unrealized losses, choosing not to sell and instead continuing to buy more,

Hong Kong built the rails. Will the trains arrive?

What would make this worth 10x more to you?

Buy Bitcoin. Then What?

Where regulation meets reality

Hey, it’s Marc Your competitive intelligence just got uncomfortable. While Asia processed $12.5 trillion in stablecoin flows in 2025, the US quietly built the institutional infrastructure to trigger adoption on a scale few have dared to imagine. This is according to Consensus Miami 2026 Global Digital Asset Adoption Index Report by CoinDesk Data that dropped today, which our 51 team dissected line-by-line and stress-tested against our own institutional data. Trust me: You should pay attention