I keep coming back to one uncomfortable thought from this week:
Friction may be one of banking’s most valuable assets.
Banks make money because deposits sit still.
Now 3,283 banks want to make those deposits programmable, while AI is getting good enough to manage money without us.
The Dallas Fed ran the numbers: make deposits just 10% more rate-sensitive and banks could lose roughly $700 billion of capacity to hold long-term assets.
That’s the paradox nobody talks about.
We’re building the fastest financial system in history on top of a banking model that depends on money moving slowly.
And this week, both sides accelerated.
Let’s get into it.
PS: Did we hit the bottom yet…? That’s the question I discussed this with with Anthony Bassili, President of Coinbase Asset Management:
Fiscal policy is the chart.
Bitcoin broke $80,000 this week for the first time since May after closing its strongest week since March 2023.
