Episode 31: The Social Market is Dead, MintLocke Co-Founders Lock in Their Crypto Predictions for 2026

00:00

Hey friends, welcome to another episode of the Social Edge Report. This is JR. So you’ve heard me talk a lot throughout the year about social market. And in this episode, we mentioned I am the founder of Midlock now. So what happened is we decided to kill,  what is it? Social market? We decided to kill social market because we were never able to find product market fit. And what we decided to do is make this product, this new approach a lot leaner. And I kind of want to show it to you what we’re doing. So.

00:29

too long didn’t read  is  midlog just  automates your portfolio, your crypto portfolio. It’s basically autopilot buffer crypto. If you’ve used the popular app autopilot on the iOS store, it’s pretty much,  you know, autonomously trading your stocks, wherever, with whatever broker you connect it to. So now we’re doing it in a more decentralized manner, true to crypto and for your portfolio of crypto. So yeah, let me show you what it, how it works a little. So what you do is,

00:59

uh Well first, this is the development stage, but you can always log in, you can sign up.  So the way it works, you have this button conveniently located up here on how to use. um You can kind of read it, but basically you set up a strategy, you follow popular strategies that Wall Street people use to make their clients a lot of money, such as dollar cost averaging, stop loss or yield, something like that. um You can kind of just follow here, you can interact with this.

01:28

You click next. So that was step one. And with step two is you can easily deposit money here by just connecting your MetaMask or your Phantom Wallet, for instance.  And you can kind of get a projection based on your strategy. In this case, it’s about 17%. And then once you have your deposit made, you can kind of get projections and real-time alerts on your portfolio’s performance. So if you want to get started, again, all you got to do is connect your wallets like MetaMask, Phantom Wallet, et cetera. So if I connect my MetaMask,

01:57

You know, I can connect with my real wallet. um kind of, well, first I need to kind of confirm this and I’m in the app. I don’t have any money in here as you can see, but that’s kind of the gist of it. So we’re still building this. We  don’t expect a release until halfway into 2026 because there’s a lot to be done. But if you want to learn more about MintLog, you can always go to MintLog.com and join our wait list. If you actually…

02:25

want this, if you think this is something that’s going to help you, then this is,  I highly encourage you to read into it because we’ve done some simulations, some projections and this could actually work. And we really believe there could be an appetite for this in the markets. So anyways, this has been JR. You can always see more on the podcast, what we talk about more about this, but yeah, thanks for watching. Hey friends, welcome back to another episode. This is JR,  founder of MintLock.  Yes, and I’m Leon.

02:55

I don’t know what my tie I guess chief marketing saw officer of mint lock. We’re in person with cameras. We should do a yeah, just selfie real quick Yeah, we should and we’ve got a beer to celebrate. Yes some Modelo the number one Wait, let’s do it again. Yeah, number one import beer. believe it is right now. I think so Yeah, it’s from Mexico. So yeah, the Mexican beer ever since Budweiser mess up

03:24

Modelo is like the number one beer or like moved up to number one number two spot So  I didn’t know that  but I believe it I’ve seen more people drink Modelo than I see them drink like Bud Light um Lone Star here in San Antonio  and even like ever since the Lone Star got a purchase by Pabst  Really? Pabst Brewery  that one that it’s it’s been  they tweaked the formula and it went downhill  Wow No, but this is it’s tool

03:52

We’re recording in 2025. This will be an episode, the first one, I think in 2026. We’re going to talk what Mint Lock is, and then we’re going to talk predictions. I wanted to do like a fun show where we kind of block ourselves into like a polymarket style predictions. And then maybe we can find some of these on Polymarket or Kalshi, probably Kalshi because it’s legal in the United States. is. I don’t want to, I don’t feel like using a VPN right now. So no. And then also like.

04:21

Getting the money over to Polymarket with the VPN and remembering to use the VPN, keeping track of all that, it’s a lot more work than just betting on call sheet. It’s kind of crazy how Robinhood, well, a couple of things. I don’t know if you guys live under a rock, but I’ll fill you in real quick on the world that is the prediction market rapidly evolving. So they have this new coalition alliance to go against the casinos, casinos, casinos.

04:50

and traditional  gambling industries like casinos,  resorts like in Vegas or even the Indians like in  those reservation ones, Oklahoma, Arizona. Yeah. Are they called? No, not Indians, Native Americans. My  My bad. You’re going to get railed for that one. Oh gosh. I know man.  In Spanish we call them Indians or Indios. So that’s where I’m coming from.  Sometimes my Spanish brain clicks in.  No, but  yeah, this coalition of prediction markets, do you have

05:20

Coinbase, Robinhood, Cal-Sheave, and Polymarket, all of them kind of just  coming together, putting all their money together to lobby for the government to  essentially make it  recognize that  prediction markets are not gambling.  And to a degree, I think that’s true. think  prediction marketing is very new and really weird  kind of great area  where it’s not direct gambling.  Maybe  because of how it’s being interpreted in the media,  the kind of insights you can get.

05:51

That’s where I’m coming from. think so. I also don’t think you’re playing a house like the house always wins and betting. Yes. The bookie you’re playing other people, the payouts go to everybody versus the house. Koshi and Polymarket take fees. Yeah, it’s all fees. And I think not all of them are crypto native, but that’s the beauty of fintech and crypto. It’s all just fees. Yeah. I think they’re going to all run on these rails. Like Koshi has like partnerships with Coinbase to do stuff. Robinhood’s, know, using them as, a

06:20

They’re back in a bunch of crypto like  Gemini has launched it. So  predictions are really where it’s at. And I kind of like that we’re  doing our predictions now  so that we can lock everything in. then  also gives me a sense of like where where I think the sentiment is so that  when when we talk about it, like there’s a  I texted you that uh link for it and we’ll put it in the notes. It’s about predicting the price of Bitcoin.  Did you guess did you put a price prediction in?

06:49

Oh, no, let me go ahead and do that right now. Yeah, like do it real time. The first question is, will Bitcoin trade above $100,000 at any point before the end of 2026? I think yes. I don’t know the exact price, but it’s an easy yes for me. OK, I can get behind that one because I think we’re going to have price movements through 2026 that I don’t know if it will stick above $100,000, but I could definitely see us

07:20

Crossing 100K again and then having downturns or just ability, just like the past few days. Bitcoin, and we’re talking December 27th right now, so Bitcoin is at $87549, so $87,549. It went above $90,000 briefly and then it just dropped again. So I really do think Bitcoin,

07:47

is going to have its year. think there’s a lot of economic pressures happening that are causing Bitcoin right now. Like you have to understand ETF inflows, outflows. You have to understand institutional money and everyone’s really getting on there. And I think 2026 is going to be the year Bitcoin and like all these macro adoptions start really happening in reality. Yeah, I think it’s inevitable. I mean, you probably heard that linger around crypto Twitter or even

08:16

that one weird uncle who always  is very like  the black sheep of the family who is at the family table.  I  think it’s inevitable that Bitcoin is  going to continue growing. mean, it makes sense from  like,  it makes sense from a math perspective, there’s only a limited amount of of it. And then you’re seeing a lot of big money putting like,  quite literally billions of dollars  into that asset.  And

08:44

it is statistically proven that it’s the best performing asset  of the 2010s.  So, I mean, you just can’t beat that.  Okay, I agree with that. Now,  we’re keeping to a thematic  run through here. So, we’re going to talk Bitcoin first, we’ll talk  regulations, we’ll do stable coins, and there’s a few other spots. So,  we’re going to speed run some of these.  The next one in here is…

09:08

Will at least one G20 country officially hold Bitcoin as part of its treasury reserves? What’s G20? Okay, I knew somebody was going to ask that and I wanted to be correct on all the countries. So G20 is 20 countries, well 19 countries now, that are comprising it. So you’re talking Argentina, Australia, Brazil, all modern economies, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan.

09:34

Korea, Mexico,  all of those. Is that like a coalition? Yeah, it’s essentially just like  a… ah Man, like I don’t even know. It’s like an  intergovernmental forum.  Just like the leaders meet with the leaders and they have like important things. Just like the rich people  meet out in California every year  or they go to Omaha to meet with Warren Buffett.  Okay.  I don’t know that. actually G7  too, which is Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK, US.

10:04

So  when you talk about that, these are the developed countries of the world,  modern economies that are really the countries that  have large militaries, make influential  progress in the world,  and have input into what’s happening around the world. ah So will one of these countries hold uh Bitcoin as part of their treasury? At least one? That’s a big yes on my  end.  I’m a little skeptical about it.

10:34

because uh Bitcoin  is a dangerous asset to many people.  I think those people are plebs.  But I’m kidding. But like in all seriousness, like  these countries, can you list them again? I heard France, Canada. I know France, they’re super  anal about a lot of their stuff like legislation. um Well, I guess to keep it short, legislation.  But Canada is also kind of slow with the crypto adoption stuff, but they’re actually

11:03

Moving to the trajectory that so let me give you the full G 20 and okay in this will help color it because it is like 19 nations Because Russia I believe got kicked out recently. It’s Argentina Australia Brazil Canada China France Germany. Well, you know Argentina India Indonesia Italy Japan Mexico Korea, which is Republic Korea Russia’s in here I thought they got kicked out when you say Republic of Korea. You’re talking about both countries. No, it’s just that’s that’s the Republic of Korea’s Southam

11:32

South Korea,  Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States,  and then it’s the European Union and then African Union.  So African Union, don’t actually know who comprises that. That’s a little outside of like my knowledge part, but the European Union,  you don’t think Germany,  all those like big countries in there  in the European Union, all of them collectively together. I how many is in there.  Well,  Britain  is outside the EU again.

12:02

because of the whole Brexit. it did Brexit. Yeah.  And I think  if any one of them  were to at least adopt crypto to any capacity, including Bitcoin, which let’s face it, if you’re talking about crypto,  90 % of the time you’re thinking Bitcoin.  I would be willing to bet my money that at least one of those countries, which you mentioned, at least Britain,  would accept crypto.  Well, as part of their treasury.

12:28

Things so like we have treasuries that  right makeup are our things so right now the US government does hold Bitcoin  Right now China holds Bitcoin, which is a little odd considering their like anti crypto stance  the UK holds Bitcoin Ukraine El Salvador uh North Korea supposedly holds it  and then  Boo Boo  Tana, which I’m  butchering that Venezuela  very interesting, you know  there and then it’s interesting so

12:57

Will they hold it as part of the treasury? I’m going to vote no.  So you’re going to stick it with yes? I will. Okay.  Okay. So now the next one,  um,  I think this is a fun one because right now what’s happening is  boomer coins, AKA  gold and silver. Boomer coins. Yep.  That’s so funny because  it’s quite true. Like you would not find some millennial or gen Z  unless they heard in it, like they heard it.  Um,  you’re never going to find them with like  gold coins.

13:27

Yeah. And they even have like the $50 value to it before it was, um, deep peg from the gold standard. Yeah. So do you think, and the question is, will bitcoins cap exceed gold market cap at any point right now? At any point in 2020, 2026. Yeah. I’m going to say no, this is a longterm thing. Cause right now bitcoins is about 1.8 trillion and gold is about 31 trillion. Yes.

13:57

Quite  a while. I don’t know what the price of Bitcoin would have to be to get to that point, but I think uh it’s there. I think,  not to interrupt you again, but I think Brian Armstrong kind of talked about it in that one podcast with the founder of Stripe.  I forgot what it’s called, the podcast, but it’s available anywhere if you look at it. Is it the one where they have like a cool uh like a pizza parlor style? Okay, yes. I don’t know what it is called, but I just love the clips.  Badass.

14:26

Yes,  and they’re also drinking beer. So, you know, we were a little bit inspired today,  but  Brian said it would probably the value of a single Bitcoin would probably have to be around the range of a million  for the total market cap to overpass  Gold. Okay, so that’s  I don’t think that’s feasible right now I think we’re I think bitcoins a cycle and I think crypto is a cycle and right now I think we’re gonna be in a bearish  cycle,  you know, I think

14:52

So if we’re talking cycles, I think we will see that with almost any industry. Yeah, like  I mean, I don’t know much about oil or energy, but  we’re  kind of seeing this with AI right now.  You know, when Chad’s BT came out in 2022, we saw like this gold rush trying to release  application based AI products.  A lot of them were chat bots and Chad to BT rappers. But  I think.

15:16

we’re now transitioning from like  a SaaS kind of model to a more platform and more  maybe even hardware  because that’s all what’s being funded. Yeah, that’s fair.  And  it always follows the money  and the money is pushing it there.  So that’s my point. I think cycles is just wherever the money goes and wherever people  think the money is going. Yeah.  So that’s fair. And  tied to like where the money is going is the next question. Will another

15:45

Major spot Bitcoin ETF be approved outside the US. So  look at Asian markets Middle Eastern markets like  yeah, I  I personally think the answer is yes  I think ETFs are gonna be the way that most institutions hold money man And I think that they’re gonna really push for this we cover this like this year There were at least two or three countries that enabled it  Obviously there’s the US and I think one of them was Japan  If not, like some Eastern Asian country like Singapore or even Thailand

16:15

uh I want to say yes,  just because there’s a lot of, especially in Southeast Asia, there’s a lot of countries that are very crypto friendly  and  to people’s surprise,  like I was very surprised when I learned that Singapore is actually,  you know,  a very  big  lucrative country. Yeah, because Singapore is like a financial capital.  But  did you see on Twitter how the people were in there buying like

16:42

like gold and silver at the places to like  play the spot prices.  Oh, so like,  wait, what do mean?  So they go buy gold, right? And then they’re, they’re like, there’s so many people buying gold and silver in the stores  that it’s literally busy.  Like imagine a Costco just for gold and silver.  Okay. But like  the,  I’m assuming the price of  gold and silver is pretty volatile.  Uh, no, like generally it’s been going up.  So it’s safe havens.

17:11

Okay, so that’s why gold is at its highest ever. It’s like 4000 something. Silver is at like 70, 80 dollars a thing. Yeah, let me tell you what the gold price right now. By the way, this 4562 and silver is 79, 68, the highest it’s ever been. By the way, I don’t know if you know this, but there is a gold token that is pegged to the value of gold. Or I guess this is coin. Is it?

17:41

Are they like kind of like Circle where they own gold? Yes. Okay. So Circle has treasury bonds to back their USDC stable coin. They’re essentially saying the treasury bonds with T bonds, right? The same as us dollars more or less. And then I imagine that gold one is backed by gold. Yeah. So I’m in this webpage and it’s called PacSOS. I’m assuming they boy at Pacs G like the ticker is P A X G and they’re the providers of

18:10

packs gold or like the stable coin that’s  backed by the  gold.  So  earlier this year we actually covered two tokens. was one, this one packs G which is mostly Ethereum based and it’s layer twos. And then the second one,  I think it’s called gold or like ORO,  O-R-O which is  Spanish for gold.  And that one’s on Solana.  So,  you know,  I think their treasuries are  hardly any different except

18:37

the purity of gold because obviously if it’s 99.9 % pure it’s like the standard but I believe with Pax G it was something around 99.5 or something or 95. Just like the 24 karat versus like 14 karat it’s a crazy amount of like gold difference but the percentage is still pretty high. Yeah so I’m looking at

19:02

This kind of table that shows why packs gold and it’s kind of like a table.  It essentially compares itself to major gold ETFs, gold futures like ComEx,  LBMA 400T,  Goldbar  and unallocated gold.  And  basically  when you’re holding gold, you need to pay a lot of fees  and just  maintenance if you will, just to  sustain the actual raw material.  Here it’s just  digital  and it’s pegged.

19:32

And then  there is a minimum purchase of $20 or like 0.01 ounce.  Now  I’m not sure what it’s talking about or referring to about the minimum purchase. I think it’s like, if you want to buy it from them directly,  um, time to settle the transaction is pretty much instant, which is no big surprise because it’s crypto.  And then there’s an allocation amount for it.  Um,  it is instantly redeemable for physical, which is actually  interesting. I didn’t know that.

20:01

and it’s regulated by NYDFS.  I’m not sure where that I don’t know  who that is or what it is, but.  Well, let me look at it up because I my computer.  So NYDFS, that’s  November, Yankee, Delta,  Falcon, Sierra. um NYDFS cybersecurity regulation applies to any entity conducting business in a New York that operates under a license  accreditation  or similar.

20:30

authorization under New York’s banking law, insurance law, or financial service law. I guess it’s like,  anything New York regulated,  it’s going to be pretty  strict.  Right. Exactly.  So for this next section,  we’ll talk about regulation and institutions.  Well, the U S  here’s my first prediction.  Will the U S pass a comprehensive crypto market structure bill  by 2026? I  think simple answers. Yes.  It’s,

20:59

We’ve got stable coins.  There’s one problem here  is  if big banks start to freak out and they’re already starting to freak out about the stable coin bill that they already passed and everything  because they’re talking about depository flight,  about  that being a risk,  I could see some sort of comprehensive crypto bill  getting stuck  by Congress because of big banks possibly.

21:26

Well, that’s what’s happening with the genius act, which is a stable coin issuers. Like banks would be able to issue stable coins, but they would be under strict law to oversee that there’s legitimate business being conducted. I think, um, it was, it was passed this lot in 2024, it was proposed. And I remember vividly having that conversation, but this year is when it actually passed. So,

21:56

When it passed, think,  well,  I follow this stuff pretty close on Twitter. I remember people were like,  know, loosening their minds because it passed.  But.

22:07

It was reopened or challenged again by big banks and just the traditional finance system.  want to make sure nobody is issuing interest  for the stablecoin providers, but now  they’re possibly going after like Coinbase, which is not  the issuer, but Coinbase offering the yield or the uh interest bearing reward, whatever they want to call it. Yeah. And mean, that’s bad  as an entity. Coinbase doesn’t provide.

22:33

what is it stable coins,  but they own like what 60 70 %  of USTC  like circle the company, the provider. I would, you know,  I mean the whole legality behind it, it makes sense, but I would  still, you know,  I can see, I can see why Brian Armstrong is so devoted to this battle, which  also  I’m glad to have him  be a spokesperson for us because we’re also building a  business on crypto. So I’d much rather have  someone like him.

23:02

be our advocate.  So,  but yeah, why don’t we go for the next question?  So will crypto exchanges be regulated like traditional broker dealers in major economies? I want to say  in major economies, do you mean like,  we’re talking G20  type economies, Korea, Philippines, maybe like,  so if you think  just because the U S says no,  some country like the middle East or EU,

23:31

Yeah, like any other place like, you know, I to yes. I believe yes to mainly because the EU is a regulatory like monster there. They make more money off of finding and.

23:49

Dealing with American text companies then they do  European tech companies tax collected  granted  There’s not a ton of like European tech companies Spotify  SAP  or our rings or Dutch  Hello  Like there’s a little bit but I really do think that they’re gonna  they’re gonna just lump it into that traditional broker dealer  in those major economies  and the United States could win  by allowing these crypto companies to have special regulations that

24:19

in many ways are a little looser because  Coinbase is not like a  traditional bank.  They’re not lending out their crypto to like do fractional to then give mortgages and then parking it at the treasury.  know, like  their business model’s inherently different.  And a bank is all about  fractional. They take, you know, 70, 80 % of all  money that they hold, it out, make money, do all this stuff with it.

24:46

And that’s how they push their money. They’re getting money on interest. They’re getting money on loans, interest. That’s their play, But I do think that a lot of these other economies are going to push for that. And I don’t know if it’s going to be the right decision. But I think it’s going to give them some frameworks to wait till regulation and clarity on what these end up being.

25:14

Yeah, I had to think about it for a moment. uh I definitely see the EU.  I initially thought EU  when  I first said that,  like when I asked this question. But  I also see the Middle East kind of  being a part of it.  Now,  if we’re talking about not every Middle Eastern country is the same.  I think  Saudi Arabia or ah

25:37

Qatar, those kind of countries. UAE. could see them, Turkey,  more like the United States. Yeah, they’re more liberal  as far as  their economies.  Exactly. As far as making money, they’re pretty chill  aside from everything else.  But um they’re actually very closely tied to  America’s  economy and a  lot of their regulations. they bought EA. uh

26:05

They invested  in all of these. Did that really happen?  Yeah, they are  partnered with one of the Trump  juniors or Eric Trump, can’t remember which one.  they went in body A with… uh I’m going to look it up right now. Yeah, look it up.  All right. Yes. Saudi Arabia’s… This is from AI overview from Google, which I think is a really nice feature. It’s pretty accurate. On Gemini. You can trust the AIs.  Right. They’re never wrong. uh

26:34

Yes, Saudi Arabia’s public investment  fund.  God, I’m so guess right now. PIF alongside partners like Silver Lake and Jared Kushner. That’s actually I wasn’t expecting that  affinity partners is acquiring  EA in a massive $55 billion deal.  Dang.  Okay. That’s actually massive.  Yeah. So  the Saudis are trying to like diversify outside of oil. uh

27:03

So technology is probably the best route for them. I have such mixed feelings about the Saudi government. in the end, it’s pretty a regressive regime on the social and everything. I know people love the Middle East and they’ll love Dubai, but they’re still pretty bad governments for human rights.

27:31

and a bunch of other things compared to the United States. there’s a risk on that front, but  on the other front,  they like money,  it’s green, and they’re kind of like,  we’re  gonna  do things to essentially  allow us to get more green money.  do we really care that, like, you probably can’t play  Battlefield 6 in Saudi Arabia  anyway.

27:57

Didn’t they like put money on Battlefield 6? isn’t it because EA owns Frostbite? I think that’s the company that designed Battlefield 6 again. My concern with the Saudi Arabia and Middle Eastern countries getting involved with our economy is we’re going to start to do their bidding, kind like we’ve been doing with Israel. And I don’t want to get political, excuse me, I don’t want to get political, but there’s a…

28:26

quid pro quo when it comes to giving each other money, which we see it all the time in business. There’s nothing new about it.  What I am concerned about is what is the fine line? What is the  quid pro  quo like?  So  we’ll see what happens. I  I like to approach things  glass half full,  pretty optimistic about things  until I get a reason not to. So far I haven’t gotten a reason to, so we’ll see what happens. um But yeah. m

28:54

Moving on to the next question. Will a major global bank launch  on chain settlement for retail customers?  So  I know you wrote these questions,  but em when you say  launch on chain settlement for retail customers, are you talking about like  Coinbase Pay or maybe just talking like JP Morgan. I’m talking Wells Fargo, like settlement as in, so talking JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo as in  USDC or some sort of stable coin.

29:23

is going to be where I send you money and it settles in  crypto payment.  Okay. So  I mean  you’re saying, okay, if I’m sending you, you as dollars,  because Apple pair or whatever. And then my provider is chase. Yeah. Well they settle that in us  stable coin.  Definitely not. I don’t,  I don’t think so because these guys are,  are slow to adapt.  I’m going to say yes. Okay. I mean I would love to be,  okay. Well,

29:52

I know, because like  JP Morgan has chain links, they’re pushing really hard.  I could see at least one major institution say, hey,  our,  our rails are now uh crypto rails.  Yeah, I got to think about this one a little bit more. think the big jump,  like it’s, it’s a risk play. Like I think  in the end  I could be wrong, but I could also be right that

30:22

Like they have to do it.  Right.  But I could set it up.  No, that’s a good point. And I think these are great questions, by the way. But  I just,  I just, I mean, okay. Jimmy, Jamie Diamond was the same guy who  a couple of years back said Bitcoin is a scam.  Yeah.  Don’t waste your money, that sort of stuff. And suddenly this year,  like towards the second half of 2025, he said,  Oh,  Bitcoin is going to,  or

30:49

blockchains and Bitcoin are going to change the  financial world. Yeah. Essentially saying the same thing that Larry Fink,  Brian Armstrong and like A16C or any other  VC on crypto I’ve been saying for the last few years.  So I think he finally  sees the signals and  to be fair,  a  lot of people have been calling it out  just because  I think  if you know  how crypto works, if you understand like

31:17

If you put all the Hawk 2 of coins and Doge coins aside,  the technology is pretty  revolutionary.  And,  you know, just read the Bitcoin white paper  and  you let me know what you think. Leave it on the comments if you  kind of see it as  how Satoshi Nakamoto sees it.  But  I think no  is my answer still because  I mean, there’s still a lot of  clarity  that needs to be.

31:45

given for these big traditional finance institutions.  We still need a little bit more of  legislation to pass. And I think  even if it passes, it’s still going to take a while to build the infrastructure.  Sure, mean, Chainlink has the capital and they have  the capital, have the assets, resources, you name it, and the talent to build these systems. But  it’s still going to take a couple of years maybe. So  for 2026, I would say no. OK.

32:11

The next one, let’s do it because it’s the last one kind of tied to it, ties to the genius, everything. Oh, you’re right. So will stablecoins be formally regulated and issued by banks in the US or  EU? So when I wrote this, and the reason I want to clarify this, they are formally regulated already. So this  part is  kind of asking, is  a bank going to start issuing stablecoins more than anything? I think that’s already happening by JP Morgan with the base app.

32:40

where let’s see if it actually like I think  monetarily somebody  like I want to open my Chase app and have usdc or got it or  usdd for usd diamond  right so  I even though I said no to  on chain settlements I still think it’ll be easier to provide  issuance of tokens even bitcoin because  on chain settlements you’re talking about an entire  payment settlement system that you know  I don’t know if they’re

33:10

going to  kind of do it like how they do with the traditional finance system where someone  manually reviews  and maybe traces for any  potential money laundering because the reason why, and I’ve learned this recently, like the reason why the  traditional finance system is so fucking slow is because they need to  do a system  of balance check  where essentially,  oh,  is there potential money laundering, fraud, et cetera, you name it.  So.

33:40

So  I can see that being harder.  But if you’re  simply issuing USDC or Bitcoin, yeah, it’s easier.  Next section,  a little bit more stable coin payments related, like these all kind of  fine tune  in gear together,  less on the regulation side.  We’re going to go a little speed around. We’ve been talking a lot.  Okay. So the first one will, uh

34:04

Will stablecoin transaction volume exceed Visa’s annual volume by end of 2026? Visa’s annual volume right now is $16.7 trillion. Do you have USDC’s annual transaction volume? And we’ll… Okay, so this is the hard part. Right now, supposed… Because you’ve got Tether, which is the largest, and USDC, which is the second. USDC is about $66.

34:34

76 billion  and tethers about  which is USDT about 186 billion

34:42

I would say yes  because I do believe that major banks and stuff will start doing settlement on chain and that’s going to accelerate it  significantly.  Yeah. It’s a  pie in the sky bet,  but like  it’s one of those one or moonshot moonshot pie in the sky. Okay. Whatever the saying is.  I agree. Yes.  But  that’s funny. Okay.  I think we’ve already starting to see even

35:12

Man, I remember in 2024, I was looking at all that data because when I was first building my social media crypto based app, I was really looking into integrating stable coin payments and USDC came out with a statistic that it was already like in the trillions. And I was like, oh, mean, I mean, trillions is an unimaginable amount of money, but it’s quickly catching up. Yes, it is. I think the jump

35:42

It’s just like when you make a hundred thousand dollars  in like  a Stock account a brokerage account  Getting from a hundred thousand to a million is much easier  Like that’s  the time it takes from you to get to one to a hundred thousand  Yeah, similar amount of time for that for you to get from a hundred thousand to a million  Yeah, so that as a number gets all the compounding it’s just yeah, it just keeps compounding and there’s a thing so the next question is

36:11

is will one stable coin lose its dominance? USDC uh or USDC? I think hands down USDT right now  is in that zone and I could see another stable coin provider, even if it’s not Tether,  really falling apart this year as the first kind of  failure  on that.  I it’s too soon to tell, but I want to say yes as well because  we  covered it a few weeks ago, but

36:41

I know USDT has been largely losing trust since like Terra Luna. know that? that’s fair. I forgot about that. 2022, mean, Terra Luna was a stablecoin on Tether and then we’ve seen FTX, FTT. was also on Tether. So it already has this kind of negative reputation based on these scam stablecoins that were issued on the Tether network.

37:10

I I think it’s just the start of it.  Okay. No, no, that’s fair. I think we’re in a grince there. There’s going to be some sort of drama and we’re going to be here to report on it. Right. Now the next one was will a non USD stable coin think the EU or the euro think  G D  G  G B P, you know, the, the great British pound,  um,  you know, something gold back maybe,  are they going to  reach a meaningful adoption? I’m no,  no, nobody wants. Yeah. No.

37:40

these other currencies. reason people want USDC  is because they want to hold the US dollar equivalent.  So many people I know  that we work with internationally on the marketing company  want to hold US dollar because their currency is so unstable.  What about the  euro? Have you talked to European people?  I don’t think the Europeans are particularly like  troubled with

38:06

with their their economies and stuff and think about holding us dollar compared to their euro i think a lot of developing nations the philippines argentina columbia mexico i think a lot of these other developed developing countries is not about developing so i would say it’s developing i think it’s been developed but their whole that is country latin america’s not developed i don’t know if everyone can argue with me in the comments valid but

38:35

There’s very few data centers.  There’s a whole blue chip market to get uh Argentinian dollars into US dollars because the currency was so inflationary. The  US gave them a $20 billion loan essentially and a weird money transfer.  What about automakers? I don’t want to go off on a tangent, but just  quick side note because I’m kind of boggled, mind boggled by that because  I used to think…

39:00

Mexico was like a second world country, but no, it’s actually a first world country because  of its adopt, like it’s trading with like internationally  big  car providers are in that country. You know, I’m talking for GMC, Chevrolet, you name it.  Um,  I mean you haven’t seen Tesla yet, but  data centers, I can see that point. I don’t really don’t know about that, but there’s very few data centers there. Like  you can go into Argentina, have very developed cities.

39:27

but I would say most of the infrastructure in Latin America all the way from Mexico down is pretty like rudimentary, like the electricity is problems, the internet’s problems. That’s a good point. Like if you’re in Bogota and in Columbia, you don’t want a lot time in certain cities or in certain areas, there’s not even a trash pickup. Like there’s a lot of oddities in modern America that you don’t see like in America, but also like a lot of people in America don’t realize like

39:55

I go out in the country, there’s roads that are just literally like three miles worth of like dirt road  and people are like,  like you  boggles their mind that there’s a dirt road that like thousands of homes probably live. People live down there  and, there’s just a dirt road  that like, it’s literally just  gravel.  You should visit.

40:17

I got engaged in Greece this year.  went to the biggest island of,  I believe the Mediterranean, or at least in Greece. It’s called uh Crete.  We went from Konya, which is like one of their major  port cities, or at least an old port city,  very big on tourism.  We went to this, what is considered by tour guide  or tour  trip?  Sure, I don’t know.  I forgot the provider, bad. m

40:46

They rated this beach the most beautiful beach  on the Mediterranean if not the world and it was like the the sand was quite literally pink Okay, that’s pretty cool getting there was a fucking hassle  we  my fiance was driving at a time and  We almost fell off a cliff at least  so it was like pretty scary  I think a lot of the world is pretty undeveloped like if you go to that’s my point. Yeah,  you Inside it’s like Shanghai where all the developments happening. Yeah, but you go  three hours out there

41:16

there’s people still living in like,  you know, what, we would call a trailer and all of that.  So  I just, I just view lot in America a little less developed  because of like some of their ways or systems. Like  there’s not a lot of banking still in Latin America. Like  there’s a lot of weird  oddities there.  Um, I’m sure people are going to give me a lot of hate, but  I can tell them, you know, like  Brazil, like there’s not data centers.

41:44

anywhere in  Latin America because  security is a problem, corruption is a problem. It’s just like  some of these old  USSR  countries. They’re semi-developed but they’re not quite developed because… mean like the old USSR countries? Yeah, like even Ukraine. The reason Ukraine couldn’t get into NATO was because  government corruption was such a problem. Oh, well. I didn’t know that. There’s like weird little things that  are like nuanced in the world. Total side.

42:10

Jar there but no, but okay. So we got no on that one next one is will stable coins become default B2B payment layer for international trade as much as I want to say Yes, I’m gonna say no.  Oh I think you’re putting yeah, we both put a no in here. We’re keeping track of it,  right?  Okay, but I agree. mean, it’s  We’re so advanced compared to the world. Yeah, you know I used to think man  Like I see all the bad things happening in this country. I wonder how it’s like  on Europe. I always hear it’s

42:39

Really fun to travel and visit Europe. Yeah. No, we have it better here in like so many ways. I think American exceptionalism is is a odd disease to have, but I do believe like if you’re in Germany and you insult somebody, that’s a crime in America. Yeah. Like if you insult them online, it’s a crime. Wow. And you can go to jail. The UK has had more arrests for speech arrest in 2025 than they had of like

43:08

Like petty crimes and stuff thing. So like there there’s a lot of problems in the world I thought that was more come in the Middle East because of how the the Europe has fallen apart for that Like freedom of speech is not a given in most of the world  Wow  so like America like as much as people want to hate it and there’s  so many problems with health care and the economy and  and  many other things like  But like in the grand scheme of it, we are in the best world or best country in the world oh

43:38

to have this economic chance.  Next part.  Yeah. DeFi related, which is really what we’re building now.  We are.  So  I want to see what we say here.  Will  DeFi TVL exceed its 2021 all time high by the  end of 2026? So TVL, you’re saying total value locked  inside of DeFi protocols.  Yes.

44:04

You’re talking protocols like Aave or like Blockchains. Anything DeFi like. um

44:14

2021 was massive.  Everyone was starting to get it.  know, all the 4chan signals that we saw like in the early 2010s, people are finally seeing them. Yeah.  I’m going to say yes.  I want to say yes,  but I am conflicted because I just know DeFi is really hard,  That’s fair. And  I build on DeFi, but  I know people,  I’ve been on so many  threads and blogs, like forums.

44:43

where people just don’t get some basic shit like decentralization, trustless, even simple terminology like that. They’re like, okay, but what does that mean in this context? So I’m kind of conflicted. But Vibe coding makes this a lot easier. So maybe you could make an easy app. I’m going to say yes, fuck it. The reason I’m also saying yes is because I think 2026 is going to be the year that DeFi becomes

45:13

like

45:15

Deconnected decoupled from like this whole complicated  blockchain shit  I think we’re gonna see more DeFi where you put some USDC in there  and then you just kind of do some stuff  like  I’m gonna I think there’s gonna be much more of that.  I see it  I see it  and I mean,  I hope I hope you’re right I’m not trying to be pessimistic, but I just you know me I’m more more of an optimist, but  if we’re talking about like

45:44

It becomes the public  conscious or awareness that  DeFi exists. Would you consider Polymarket DeFi?  Oh, a billion percent. That’s why I think  we’re going to see  it really go because  Polymarket’s there, prediction markets are there.  I wish Cauchy was a  crypto native, but  I could see them turning into a crypto native.

46:10

They wanted to do that.  I mean, I’ve seen an interview from like, I forgot that the founder lady, she’s like,  she’s pretty fucking brilliant.  She’s very fucking brilliant. They’re both from MIT by the way, but no, the guy forgot his name. um I don’t, I don’t know the guy. just know the woman. I didn’t know there was a guy to it. She’s very pretty. That’s also ballerina, which is like my,  um, retired ballerina, think. But anyways,  um,  I think Kal, she  could become defy.

46:38

if they’ve  toned in more on stable coins  and  crypto native  settlements  like  Optimus, how Polymarket does it.  Let’s see.  Will a  DeFi protocol become the top 10 global financial platform by revenue? I don’t think so.  I don’t think it’s going to get big. Yeah, definitely not. I mean, we’re mostly seeing DeFi in like SaaS.  Not really  beyond that. Yeah.  Okay. Then will real world assets, RWAs,

47:08

on chain exceed 500 billion in value? I think this could be a simple yes. Well, you read the A16C state of crypto of 2025. 500 billion is nothing compared to 30 trillion by 2030 that will be managed by agents. And I think the… answer is …progressions is going to be very fast. Okay, so… Yeah. This last one’s a weird one. Will… Oh man, you’re a little…

47:36

Anonymous Wolverine is covering my thing. Okay, there we go. It’s funny. Will on chain replacing meaningful portion of private credit markets?  So  like stable coin more. Yeah, like for example coinbase lets you  lend against your Bitcoin your ether your  your theory about your  yeah, your Your USDC.  I I think  the answer is gonna be no I think the part here is most people are gonna think it’s too dangerous.  I agree

48:05

I mean,  there’s this whole fear of like, just because the protocol could be breached by bad actor, which it actually happens quite often. It’s no different than a bank falling apart  or your mortgage getting sold to the next company to the next company.  Like,  but there’s a greater risk and I think most people are scared of that.  Again, people don’t understand what the fuck DeFi is.  So if they don’t understand it, they’re not going to put their money on it  unless you have like some SaaS that really just  knows how to execute on it. Yeah.  Now,

48:36

Lending is not as dangerous as it might seem. It’s just  D5 breaches happen all the time.  I mean,  it’s not uncommon, but it’s also not very common.  Yeah.  All right. So we’ll talk about now NFTs,  social and culture.  So my first question is, will NFTs regain mainstream relevance outside of speculation? I want to say no. No,  I don’t.  I think it was a fad and I don’t think this fad is coming back.

49:04

I hate how Twitter or  X, whatever you want to call it, removed the whole NFT  profile picture. I think they should stick with it.  I think  they should have implemented it better. Like, let you put like,  and if like mint your own NFT,  like.

49:23

Like you should have been able to make your own NFT avatar  and had your follower information at the time and everything. Like I think there was cooler ways to do it than the half-astery way that they did it.  No, it makes sense. And I agree, but  I think they could have  done way more with it. But  I just answered the question. don’t think the answer is no.  So for the next question, will at least one major global brand  use NFTs as a core loyalty or identity layer?

49:53

Definitely not. We saw that a lot.  Yeah. Well back in like 2021. you slightly.  Okay. On that. American Express is now giving you NFTs for like when you visit places.  Huh? I don’t have American Express. You can tell I’m  No, but  okay. That’s cool.  So like it’s starting to happen, but I don’t think it’s going to progress to be like  a meaningful like identity layer or core loyalty system yet.  Well, you know what’s interesting? Um,

50:21

The resemblance I see there is at one point, and I didn’t notice because I didn’t go there, an MIT, um they give their alumni or their  admitted students $100 worth of Bitcoin back in 2014. Oh  wow.  Exactly. God.  That is  insane. We’re talking about possibly a million dollars. um

50:43

It’s not going to get to that level at least.  So we’re talking about it being a core loyalty or even an identity layer. We have to see like something as big  as like Bitcoin.  Like world coin would have to blow up and  become a core identity layer. And I don’t foresee that happening at the moment. Yeah, me neither. So easy. No. So next question, will social media platforms integrate on chain identity or wallets by default  in the year 2026? No.

51:11

Yeah,  just because far caster  is such a like a high profile one pivoting away from like this,  this decentralized social  web, um,  not, uh, not Web C,  uh,  D so that takes me back.  D so  decentralized social. Yes, they’re, they’re also dying slowly. don’t think  anyone platforms going to do it. I do see.  Meta at some point thinking about it.

51:40

But I just don’t see it right now. You know, at one point in 2021, I read that Meta was exploring their own coin called Libra. Yeah. But then they got crushed because everyone was like, you’re creating your own currency. And like there was all this discussion around like, what’s the US dollar comparative to that? And like regulatory pressure killed that that idea. You know, I would like to see I’m

52:09

If you’ve seen the movie,  if you’ve seen the movie,  um, ready player one,  you know, it’s all digital.  it. Read the book. Yep.  Same. So,  so  I can see us heading into that direction  and  we no longer use us dollars like fiat currency. use digital.  I think there’s going to be a point in time where we get to that point, but not right now. Yeah. I think it’s  a five year pipe dream.

52:34

Maybe in my, maybe definitely in our lifetime, but not for the next decade or so.  So for the last section,  we are kind of mixing AI and crypto,  high variance and high reward prediction sort of.  So  one, will AI agents hold and transact crypto wallets  autonomously at scale?  Wow, I you were going to vomit at the thought of that.  Dude, yeah, I mean, it was kind of a mouthful. um I would say yes.

53:02

But in 2026, mean, hopefully if we launched because that’s  spoiler alert, what we’re doing with MintLog.  I’m going to agree with you because  I do think that it’s going to  like  really pop off. have the 401 protocol, you have Coinbase pushing that. 401, yeah, exactly.  You’re going to see more agents being around. No, it’s called X402. Oh, sorry.  X402. Yeah. I don’t know. I’m thinking all the different web protocols.

53:31

But X4.02, I think, is going be a big one because agents are going to become an on-chain thing that moves through the internet. And more and more, it’s going to be very important. Yeah, so that makes sense. I mean, again, I’ll reiterate. The state of crypto by ASICC of 2025 said that they’re seeing this massive trend where agents will actually be autonomously moving our money up to $32 trillion worth of it by 2030.

54:00

I think that’s a moonshot  kind of  estimation, but it’s not unrealistic.  So  for the next question, will decentralized compute or data markets compete with centralized AI providers?  I’m going to  say that in the end,  they’re not going to like  overtake. They’re not going to really compete.  I think they’re just going to coexist  at the moment.  When you say decentralized compute, you mean like just decentralized versions of like raw

54:30

compute power like  almost agents. Yeah, like  yeah, exactly.

54:37

I it’s going be coexisting because they’re already like  making their push in the markets right now. It’s kind of a big brick question because I think you need to have some level of  technical knowledge  because I’m thinking  AI. Yeah.  Cause like right now you have centralized artificial intelligence. Think open AI.  Right. Is there going to be more decentralized versions of that?  And I think the answer is yes, but I haven’t seen any decentralized versions of that though.  Do you know of any? oh Let’s see.

55:07

I want to say no because I don’t think decentralized computation exists unless  if you want to say open source, that’s a separate topic, but like deep seeking in, um,  what’s that other one starts with a K. a few like Oshka network.  Okay. Ocean protocol.

55:27

There’s a few, they’re very like small starting there. So no to you. I think it’s going to become a big thing this year. I don’t think it’s going to really push these big providers or anything. I mean, I haven’t done my math or I’m sorry. I haven’t done my homework on decentralized compute yet, but I don’t think it’s as relevant or big as it might seem yet. for that reason, no. Okay. Next question then.

55:54

Will a crypto native AI protocol reach a $15 billion market cap? Um, I don’t think I know of any. That’s why I don’t think that it’s got to be there. There could be a one that emerges and happens, but I think the whole AI and compute is, there like, for example, I’ve heard a lot of providers out there turning their Bitcoin minds into AI, like compute like data centers. Right. But I don’t know anybody that’s like doing these ADA protocols quite

56:24

quite like  at scale and with publicity. ah I know that there’s some out there that do some of it,  but I don’t know any of that like,  or on CNBC.  So that makes sense. um Yeah, I guess we’ll see what happens.  And for the last question of today, will AI driven trading dominate on chain volume?  I mean,  if we look at the state of crypto,  $30 trillion is a shit ton of money.

56:54

unimaginable amounts and AI agents are going to be moving that by 2030 according to the state of crypto. Will we see something like that in 2026? I don’t think so yet. Okay, I think we are. Especially as the real world assets, these like the Arbitrum networks, Chainlink, all of that. think like Bloomberg terminal and these all these other tools are going to turn.

57:20

and be like, oh shit, we gotta automate on chain assets.  And I think we could see that towards the middle end of the year. Like  the world is moving so fast. Dude, yeah. That  it’s insane.  One month feels like a quarter many times.  Definitely, especially on the crypto space.  Yeah. Anything AI, anything crypto. I think it’s pushing hard. More so on AI, you’re right. um Shit. I mean, that’s a really big  question  in of itself. m

57:50

I still want to say no because  mean, on-chain volume. so Solana has taken a bit of a hit because of all the lawsuit stuff in case you guys are not aware.  But  Ethereum is still kind of dominating, especially base.  Bitcoin is mostly just sitting idle, people holding long-term. But um we would need to see more,  one, think we would need to see more platforms like pom.fond  that actually work.

58:18

Like people actually make money because right now people put their money there. They lose money.  You could say poly market sort of defy protocols or not even protocols, but like  SAS  that could help.  Yeah. Especially if we can automate that.  But  I don’t think we’re there yet for next year. No, I don’t.  I could see it like we’re seeing cars come on chain. Like  you get your title via uh an NFT on chain thing. Like I could see some, some of that  really hit the market and then. Yeah, I suppose.

58:47

Automation just really hit and do it like I could see people trading futures and all of that  Derivatives are gonna be a big thing all of that  Yeah, yeah. All right.  That was it.  We’re gonna put all predictions. We’ll probably put it on the mint lock blog  Yeah,  lock it in there You know, I’d love to hear you know what people think like  our takes are,  you know uh colored  by being in the crypto industry pretty heavily but  yeah them, know, leave a comment like

59:17

tweet us if that’s what you call it or is it called like an Xing? Xing. I think I heard that going around somewhere. I think it should be called a slice. A slice? What do mean? I don’t know. I think a tweet should be called a slice now. Oh true. You can’t beat tweeting. or tweeting. anyway. like and share. Thanks for watching. And then we’ll be here in the rest of the year. So give us a follow. Yeah, thank you.