Hey, it’s Marc,

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.

  • bitcoin clears $80K after its best week since March 2023,

  • Nvidia prints a $96B quarter, state bankers associations draft a blockchain for their 3,283 member banks,

  • and the Trump family’s planned crypto trust bank reveals a 49% silent partner in Abu Dhabi.

PS: Did we hit the bottom yet…? That’s the question I discussed this with with Anthony Bassili, President of Coinbase Asset Management:

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