The Breakdown Newsletter

Elder fraud, hard money myths, and tokens that refuse to stay dead

The ECB’s Stablecoin Defense Initiative™ seems doomed to fail

A stock by any other name — even “token” — is still a security

Uber raised fares. Disney ignored costs. Linux gave everything away. Which model should Ethereum follow?

Bubbles are how markets create the future

Crypto finds fundamentals, Chanos books profits and prediction markets make trouble

Stripe and Circle are betting the plumbing of payments is ripe for disruption

Gold is proof that belief sustained over millennia creates real value; crypto is hoping to take a shortcut

Every transformational technology begins with utopian hopes, and then runs into the world as it is

If fear moves markets, there could be more all-time highs to come

Airlines defend their rewards moat, Binance courts favor over breakfast, DAT fees pile up and systematic thinking

An SEC commissioner walks into a cypherpunk meetup…

Peter Thiel’s $5 billion Roth IRA walked so token IRAs could run

Uniswap’s DUNA plan might blaze a new trail for decentralized governance

When politics divides, the market conquers

What happens when banks fear regulators and DAOs fear no one

Crypto is still on a mission — and still needs users

You don’t own the protocol. You own the incentives.

All models are wrong, but some are useful

A new quantum experiment shows that observation changes reality — but investors knew that already

In markets, perception can become reality

Fiscal dominance isn’t about interest rates and it isn’t about Trump, either

SPAC investors seem surprisingly skeptical of crypto

Some businesses run on low margins by choice. Others do it because they have no choice.