51 Insights - Weekly Briefing
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.
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
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
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
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.
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
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
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
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,
163: The Canton moment
163: The Canton moment0:00/2001× Hey, it’s Marc & the 51 team. While Blackrock took a quiet $100M stake in Canton, BitGo IPO’d at $2B and Tether launched its US stablecoin USAT, the biggest shift in crypto this week came from Capitol Hill: “Advancing this bill brings us closer to a U.S. regulatory framework that protects consumers while allowing American innovation and businesses to thrive.” — John Boozman, U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Chairman * The Senate
162: Davos just confirmed it
162: Davos just confirmed it0:00/2001× Hey, it’s Marc. Davos is usually where the establishment pats itself on the back. This year, they looked over their shoulder. Suddenly, crypto isn’t a “scam” , but national defense. And the bankers who spent a decade mocking it? They are panic-buying the infrastructure. Jamie Dimon (and others) are realizing that if they don’t upgrade to the “new physics of money”, they won’t just lose market share, they’ll be displaced. “We can now move infinite data a
161: Washington stalled. Bitcoin didn’t.
161: Washington stalled. Bitcoin didn’t.0:00/2001× Hey, it’s Marc. Big week for crypto regulation: The industry just shot itself in the foot. “We’d rather have no bill than a bad bill.” — Brian Armstrong, CEO and Co-founder of Coinbase Twenty-four hours before Congress was set to vote on the most comprehensive crypto bill in U.S. history, Coinbase pulled its support. His stance: the CLARITY Act would ban stablecoin yield, narrow tokenized asset pathways, and expand surveillance in DeFi. Plu
160: The signal showed up fast.
160: The signal showed up fast.0:00/2001× Hey, it’s Marc. 2026 didn’t wait. Last week, we shared our top 12 narratives for 2026. Seven days later, the market started confirming them. On January 5, Bank of America opened the door for 15,000 advisors to recommend Bitcoin ETFs. Forty-eight hours later, Morgan Stanley crossed a bigger line: filing to launch its own Bitcoin and Solana ETFs. You’re right: Not distribution, but issuance. Coincidence? No. It’s regulation finally doing its job. Thes
159: 2026, the year of...
159: 2026, the year of...0:00/2001× Hey, it’s Marc. Happy Holidays! Below are the sharpest signals we’ve seen hiding beneath the year-end noise. Here are my top 12 narratives I am interested in going into 2026: 1. RWA’s & 24/7 settlements 2. Stablecoin TradFi implementation and rails 3. Onchain cross-border payments 4. Tokenized treasuries & deposits (vs stablecoins) 5. Public vs. corporate chains 6. DeFi x TradFi (yield products) 7. Privacy 8. Quantum resistance 9. Predicti
158: Exchange everything
Hey, it’s Marc. “Public blockchains are more transparent than any legacy financial system ever built... crypto could become the most powerful financial surveillance architecture ever invented.” — Paul Atkins at SEC crypto task force roundtable The real action this weeks are infrastructure updates: Coinbase, DTCC, SoFi, JP Morgan. The winners? Ethereum, Canton, and Solana. On top of that, the OCC has approved five national trust bank charters for digital asset entities. Now, these entities wi
157: The Fed is bullish
(but read this)
156: Wall Street just surrendered
(but read this)
155: Downgraded
Bitcoin erases 2025 gains (but read this)
154: Quantum, Kraken, Circle
154: Quantum, Kraken, Circle0:00/2001× Hey, it’s Marc. Investors are trying to make sense of one of the sharpest, most confusing selloffs of the year. Here are the top 6 narratives right now: 1. Vitalik Buterin and Ray Dalio warning about crypto’s lack of quantum resistance 2. The rise of privacy coins such as Zcash, a feature Bitcoin can’t deliver (Jan Van Eck talked about this on CNBC this week). 3. a major market maker may have taken balance-sheet damage, thinning liquidity when the mar
153: ICO's are back
153: ICO's are back0:00/2001× Hey, it’s Marc. Introducing… 💎 Investor Insights (PRO): our new bottom-of-newsletter section loaded with alpha: * Each week we break down the biggest news in crypto. * Now, for PRO readers, we answer the only question that matters: How can you act on that and front-run the market? You’ll get trade ideas, allocation plays & actionable alpha. 👉 Upgrade to PRO to unlock this week’s Investor Insights. Let’s get into it… This week, at the Cantor’s Crypto & AI/
152: Billion-dollar checks
152: Billion-dollar checks0:00/2001× Hey, it’s Marc. This week, I had the chance to speak with Raoul Pal on the big debasement trade, rising debt, Bitcoin vs Gold and the best macro play for the next 5 years. Then, the signal of the week: Mastercard: $2B for Zerohash. Coinbase: $2B for BVNK. Kraken: $1.5B for NinjaTrader. Ripple: Palisade. Securitize: $1.25B SPAC. The pattern is unmistakable: crypto and payment giants are writing billion-dollar checks to own the infrastructure layer of digi
151: Forget tokens
151: Forget tokens0:00/2001× Hey, it’s Marc. When JPMorgan tokenizes private equity, Circle launches a blockchain with 100+ Wall Street partners, and Mastercard drops $2 billion on a crypto infrastructure deal, the signal is clear: We’re in a race to own the rails of the next financial system. Some are building them (JPM, BlackRock, Stripe, IBM, Circle), others are buying them. 2025 has quietly become the year of crypto M&A: * Stripe → Privy * Coinbase → Echo, Deribit * Mastercard → ZeroH
150: Same Game, New Rails
150: Same Game, New Rails0:00/2001× Hey, it’s Marc. J.P. Morgan just did what no major bank had dared: it will now lend against Bitcoin and Ethereum. That single decision pulls crypto into the global credit system. This is a small step for JPM, but a big step for crypto, particularly Ethereum (more below). In the same week, Aave launched Horizon, letting institutions borrow stablecoins against tokenized Treasuries and funds on-chain. Read that together: banks are accepting crypto as collater
149: The Great Repricing
Blackrock to tokenize everything
148: Half of Japan
148: Half of Japan0:00/2001× Hey, it’s Marc. Today, major news broke that G7 banks are about to launch a stablecoin. They’re coming for Tether and Circle. More on that below. Another story that caught my eye: Luxembourg’s sovereign wealth fund allocated 1% of its portfolio ($9M) to a BTC ETF. That’s first state-level Bitcoin investment in the Eurozone. But did you know that Norways and Switzerland’s Central Bank already hold 100s of millions in Strategy shares for indirect Bitcoin exposure? W
147: Everyone has a stablecoin
147: Everyone has a stablecoin0:00/2001× Hey, it’s Marc. Token2049, the world’s biggest crypto event, just wrapped in Singapore and this year felt different: stablecoin rails, tokenized treasuries, and prediction markets. Meanwhile, SWIFT just picked Ethereum to build a blockchain with 30+ global banks. The same network that moves $150T a year is admitting crypto rails are the future. Stripe just launched stablecoin-as-a-service. Every fintech, exchange, and enterprise can now mint its own s
146: Vanguard + 401(k)s
146: Vanguard + 401(k)s0:00/2001× Hey, it’s Marc. “There is room for both gold and Bitcoin to coexist on central bank balance sheets by 2030.” — Deutsche Bank, in a new report released this week. Did you know that Norwegian and Swiss National Bank already have $700M+ of Bitcoin exposure by owning Strategy stocks? PS: Upgrade to Pro for our daily CEO Notes & market signals. Then: Citi came out with a new report and estimated the stablecoin market size to grow up to $4T by 2030. [Full report]
145: SEC goes all-in on crypto
145: SEC goes all-in on crypto0:00/2001× Hey, it’s Marc. The SEC approved “generic listing standards” that cut crypto ETF approvals from 240+ days to just 75. What this means: instead of only Bitcoin and Ethen reum ETFs, we could see 100+ new ETFs (Solana, XRP, DOGE, you name it) in the next 12 months. [More] On top of that, the Fed cut rates to 4.0–4.25% and signaled two more this year to support jobs: “Federal Reserve doesn't feel the need to move quickly on interest rate cuts.” — Jerome
144: NASDAQ goes on-chain
144: NASDAQ goes on-chain0:00/2001× Hey, it’s Marc. This week felt like a turning point. Nasdaq tokenizing stocks, Tether entering the US, Fidelity moving Treasuries onchain, Franklin Templeton plugging into Binance, and then, this: “Crypto’s time has come. Most crypto tokens are not securities, and we will draw the lines clearly. We must ensure that entrepreneurs can raise capital on-chain without endless legal uncertainty.” — SEC chair Paul Atkins Wow. On top of that, we’ve all been glued
143: Bad Databases
143: Bad Databases0:00/2001× Hey, it’s Marc. The big story this week: Stripe is launching its own “blockchain for payments.” Circle has Arc. Google has GCUL. Who's operating the nodes? How decentralized is this? How do the validator economics look like? Here’s the truth: these aren’t blockchains. They’re databases with extra cryptography and political and legal overhead. Meanwhile, the real progress is happening in open protocols: Ondo moving stocks on Ethereum, Galaxy putting its equity on
142: Mastercard. Google. Onchain.
142: Mastercard. Google. Onchain.0:00/2001× Hey, it’s Marc. “Ethereum is the Wall Street token.” That’s not crypto Twitter talking. It’s Jan van Eck, CEO of VanEck. His point is simple: every bank will need rails for stablecoins, and they’ll ask where to build them. His answer: Ethereum. That’s the backdrop this week as Google is building its own blockchain, Mastercard embeds stablecoins, and Rain made stablecoins swipeable at 150M Visa merchants. 👉 Crypto Treasury Alpha: We launched anothe