🧵TradFi Giants May Have Bought $XRP at Half Price Ripple just closed $500M at a $40B valuation from Citadel Securities, Fortress, Brevan Howard, Galaxy, and Pantera. Sounds impressive. Until you realize Ripple holds 34.76 billion XRP tokens worth over $80 billion. 1/7

From hash to AI hardware. ⚡️ Bitcoin miners are racing to supply AI compute — but can they deliver? John Todaro & Kevin Dede join @steven_ehrlich to discuss: 🧠 HPC economics 💰 Investor hype 🔋 The new frontier for miners https://t.co/wOQHc2JNYd

The public sale of crypto’s newest L2 sold out and allocations were revealed Thursday. But can MegaETH succeed in building a UX similar to Web2? On @unchained_pod, MegaETH’s @hotpot_dao & @amiralmaimani joined me to discuss: ⏱ Real-time blockchain (10ms latency) 🔁 Rotating

MegaETH + Bitcoin Mining 🤝 AI

So did Wall Street just get played, or did they outplay everyone by getting discounted XRP exposure wrapped in equity? Full breakdown of the math and what investors really bought by @steven_ehrlich👇 https://t.co/SiNcSaL1H3 7/7

💥The Quiet Part Out Loud One source familiar with a participant noted: "Even if they can't [build a successful business] themselves, they can just buy another company." When you're sitting on $80B in XRP, you're basically playing with house money while shopping for the future

🛒The Acquisition Shopping Spree Ripple's been buying: Hidden Road ($1.25B prime broker), GTreasury ($1B), Palisade (custody), and Rail (stablecoin infrastructure). 5/7

🔊Nobody's Talking, And That Says A Lot All investors in the round declined to comment on the role Ripple's XRP holdings played in their decision-making. Ripple didn't respond to questions before the story went to press. The silence is loud. 4/7

🤔Why Its a Sweet Deal for Investors Ripple can't liquidate $80B in XRP without crashing the market. But even with a 50% discount on those holdings, which one investor not involved in the round called "reasonable"—investors would be buying at an mNAV of 1. Translation: They get

🤫 Is This Just a Secret XRP DAT? "[The company] is not worth anything outside of XRP holdings. No one uses their tech," one prominent VC told Unchained. If you view this through a Digital Asset Treasury lens, buying into a company at $40B valuation when it holds $80B in assets

Tether’s been the pirate ship of crypto: opaque, offshore, unstoppable. But @CampbellJAustin says if it wants to win global payments, it needs to become interoperable and transparent. “Can it cross that gap?” he asks.

Perps, one of crypto’s most powerful innovations, might be Wall Street’s next big trade. 💼 @BrettHarrison88 on @bitsandbips: 📊 Why perps are more efficient than expiring futures 💸 How regulation could finally make them mainstream 🔥 The lessons crypto exchanges had to learn

Is Ripple quietly building something big? 🧱 “I see them as a very formidable organization and institution,” says @perkinscr97.

The panic is loud. The data says otherwise. 📊 @ramahluwalia breaks down why he’s still bullish 🐂.

Full episode here:

Still, not all bad news: “It may be long-term bullish for the space if it doesn’t happen yet,” Austin says. Let Congress learn first. Better no law than a bad one. ⚖️

@CampbellJAustin says the real obstacle is education: People underestimate how much of a lift it is to explain DeFi to the Senate. He thinks CLARITY might need to be broken into smaller pieces — or wait until next year.

He adds that this bill is so much more complex than the GENIUS Act, and it threatens to shift power between agencies like the CFTC and SEC. That alone makes it a heavy lift for Congress in an election year.

The CLARITY Act was meant to bring order to U.S. crypto rules. But @perkinscr97 says politics got in the way: Democrats can’t get past Trump being involved in crypto… and national security is now the attack vector.

Everyone in DC says they want crypto regulation. But almost no one can agree on how to do it 🥲 Here’s what’s really happening behind closed doors 🧵