Kraken Up | Bitcoin News

0:00It is 8.32 a.m. Pacific Daylight Time. It's the 27th day of March, 2026. This is episode 12.87 of Bitcoin and GameStop didn't sell their Bitcoin. It's apparently bigger news than what's going on in the Middle East. We're going to start off today with that one here on the Bitcoin end podcast with me, your host, David Bennett, with all the news that you can use about Bitcoin and more macro around the world. Oh yeah, Brazil is going to be our next stop. We're going to go down South to where they're going to steal people's crypto. They say they're going to keep it. I'll tell you how. Tether has announced the name of the big four accounting firm and one other name. Ah, there's a little twist here going on. St. Cloud Financial Credit Union. I brought you the news that they were

1:01going to start a custody and Bitcoin for some of their customers. They've started custody and Bitcoin for their customers. Prediction markets are back in the news. Then in the second half of the show, trust wallet is getting into the AI game and then we're going to talk about who's who's buying stretch? That's that STRC preferred equity or whatever from strategy. Yes, some reports come in and it's kind of surprising who's actually buying stretch. And then we're going to end the day with the United States lawmakers getting all pissed off and getting their diapers in a twist about the Kansas Fed and Kraken, which I brought you news about that. Kansas Fed had has granted Kraken some some a master account with a not fully functional master account like a regular bank would get, but it's still

2:08a master account. Maxine Waters is not happy about it like at all, but GameStop because we can't stop talking about meme stocks. The 4,709 Bitcoin were not sold. They were held as collateral at Coinbase. Atlas 21 starts our day. GameStop didn't sell 324 million dollars in Bitcoin acquired back in 2025, contrary to speculation that had been circulating in recent months. The 10K filing submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission this week reveals that the company pledged 4,709 Bitcoin as collateral with Coinbase credit as part of a covered call strategy in the filing GameStop states, quote, in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2025, we entered into an agreement with Coinbase credit incorporated under which we sold, covered call options on a portion of the Bitcoin that we own, unquote.

3:15The strategy allows the company to generate additional yield through option premiums with strike prices set between 105 and 110,000 dollars. This approach limits the upside potential should Bitcoin surpass those levels, but guarantees income while maintaining overall exposure to the asset. The news refutes analysis of several on-chain analysts who had speculated the GameStop had fully exited its position in a context where the price of BTC had lost 45% from its all-time high back in October. The agreement with Coinbase credit was set to expire on Friday, according to the filing, and as of January 31, the call option contracts had generated a liability of $700,000 in an unrealized gain of approximately $2.3 million. Subsequent to the fiscal year close, some of the covered call options expired unexercised.

4:16Under the agreement, Coinbase credit attained the right to unilaterally re-hypothicate, co-mingle, or sell the pledged Bitcoin resulting in control of the assets being transferred to the counterparty. GameStop, therefore, de-recognized the pledged Bitcoin as an intangible asset and recognized $368.3 million in digital asset receivables within its consolidated balance sheet as of January 31, 2026. The company then clarified that its exposure to Bitcoin remains equivalent to directly holding the asset. During the fiscal year 2025, GameStop recorded an unrealized loss of $59.7 million on digital asset receivables. What is it all mean? They were earning yield. They sent their Bitcoin to Coinbase. They were earning yield and options expired this morning. I've been Washington State, United

5:22States. This morning, 1 a.m. my time, Pacific Daylight Time, the monthly options on Deribit and OKX expired. That's pretty much most of the options. There are other platforms, but they don't do the kind of options volume that Deribit does. All of it expired. This seems to have been part of those options. Now, we've been under this assumption that GameStop sold their Bitcoin. During all the speculation that GameStop sold their Bitcoin and you know they knew that they were in the news about selling their Bitcoin, they didn't say a word. They didn't make a press release. They didn't do nothing. The only way we found out is that they had to file this K10 or whatever, what is this? Yeah, 10K filing with the SEC. That's the only reason that we know what really happened. It sounds

6:25to me like they've been their Bitcoin has either been returned or is still at Coinbase, which is most likely, but they now actually have possession of it because it's rolled back over into a non-covered call non-option state of being. So now GameStop can actually say, OK, this is actually our property now again, but we don't know what they're going to do now. We have literally no idea. So that's what's going on with the GameStop Bitcoin story. On to Brazil, it's rundown south where they've passed a law. They've passed the law turning C's crypto into public security, war chest, Micah Zimmerman, Bitcoin magazine. Brazil has enacted a landmark law that allows authorities to channel crypto C's from criminal organizations directly into public security initiatives, marking a major step in the

7:27country's crackdown on organized crime, assigned by President Luiz in Nassio Lula de Silva, law number 15.358, equips law enforcement with unprecedented powers to freeze block and C's both traditional as well as digital assets, including cryptocurrency during investigations. The legislation also permits the provisional use of C's crypto assets with judicial approval to fund police operations, intelligence work, officer training, and other public security efforts, even before final convictions. The law specifically targets ultraviolet criminal organizations, paramilitary groups, and private militias broadening the definition of crimes and significantly increasing penalties for acts such as controlling territories, obstructing police or using encrypted messaging apps and privacy tools to conceal illicit activities.

8:27Authorities can now suspend access to exchanges, digital wallets, and online platforms during investigations with permanent restrictions applied upon conviction, pausing just to say, they're not going to be able to do that with hardware wallets unless they beat the guy half to death and get his private keys. That's the only way that works. Hot wallets like that are on exchanges. Oh yeah, yeah, they'll be able to do that. But if you hold your own private keys, it doesn't work that way. So let's be very, very, very, very clear about that. The legislation also facilitates international cooperation for asset recovery and intelligent sharing, aiming to track and recover illicit proceeds across Brazilian borders. The law further strengthens civil measures allowing courts to seize property, block funds, and liquidate assets connected to criminal activity. It establishes a national criminal database that integrates the financial structures of known criminal groups, improving coordination

9:31between police prosecutors in the judiciary. Back in February, 2026, Brazilian law makers reintroduced a bill proposing the creation of a strategic sovereign Bitcoin reserve to gradually acquire one million Bitcoin over the period of five years. The bill presented by federal deputy Louise Gastau outlines a comprehensive framework to integrate Bitcoin into the country's financial strategy to diversify national reserve. Resbit, which is the strategic sovereign Bitcoin reserve would emphasize transparency and security, requiring public disclosure of holdings in the use of cold wallets. It's, it's not dead. This, this bill is still in there because it's saying if approved, Brazil would join a small group of countries holding national Bitcoin reserves like El Salvador, as well as proposals in the United States. Also, French utility giant Inge is considering adding, adding battery storage and Bitcoin mining data centers.

10:34Down there in Brazil, so it already brought you that that French Inge news a while back. This begs me the question, how much crime is going on in Brazil? This is like, this is a heavy hammer because it's like everything. It's not like they're going, oh, they hate Bitcoins and therefore they're just going after Bitcoin. No, they're going after everything, dude. Fiat, traditional holdings, real estate, art, yachts, I don't know, or anything. And from what I'm reading, everything, I was unaware that Brazil was this lawless. I mean, giving, giving police and they're not saying federal police, so I can only presume here that they're talking about they're all of the local and state level police forces, the ability to just, hey, we're seasoned, you're shit. In this criminal database with financial activity and

11:34you know, link to it, you know, that this is the kind of social graph nobody wants to see. And here's the reason, am I, am I against Friday fighting crime? No, I'm not. It's just show me the man I will show you the crime. And people say that all the time, they never, they very rarely defined it. What does it mean? It means everybody's got something that could be found to be used against them in a court of law. It, it, it doesn't matter. That's what, what's happened is not humanity sucks. It's that the people that we've entrusted are safety and futures to continuously look at us like criminals. And as they do so, they continuously make laws that one day we wake up or one day we go to sleep one night and we're not a criminal. And the next morning we wake up and the thing that we did that wasn't illegal 10 years ago is now illegal.

12:37Show me the man. I will show you the crime. This is not good for Brazil or anybody for that matter, but definitely for Brazilians. Let's move on to Tether. They've announced KPMG for first big four USDT audit amid US expansion push. But as I hinted, there's a twist. This is from decrypt Stephen Graves's writing. Tether has engaged KPMG to conduct a comprehensive audit of USDT, the world's largest stablecoin. The financial times reported that the stablecoin issuer had hired KPMG following Tether's announcement earlier in the week that it had engaged one of the big four counting firms for the first time to conduct a full financial statement audit. Per the financial times, Tether has also brought in PWC. That's one of the other big four auditing

13:39firms. PWC is to prepare its internal systems for the audit process. The dual engagement comes as Tether faces investor hesitation in its fundraising efforts while pursuing expansion into the United States market. The comprehensive review will examine Tether's complete financial reporting system, including internal controls and asset valuation according to industry analysis. The audit represents a significant shift for Tether, which has faced scrutiny over its reserve transparency and was hit with a $41 million fine by the CFTC in 2021 over misleading statements relating to USDT. Tether claims to hold some $192 billion in reserve assets to back the value of its dollar peg stablecoin USDT, the majority of wish are purported to be held in United States Treasuries. Tether's long sought an audit of its reserves by one of the big four accounting firms, which is Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers, that's PWC, Ernst & Young and KPMG. The world's largest

14:44auditors regarded as a kite mark of transparency and rigor. Last year, Tether CEO Pallor Doino told to crypt that the El Salvador based firm intends to register USDT under the Genius Axe regime for foreign stablecoin issuers, which imposes stringent anti-money laundering requirements and comprehensive audits of reserves. In January, Tether issued USAT, a fully regulated and genius act compliant dollar pegs gets stablecoin, but with a circulating supply of just $28 million, the token is a minnow, a minnow compared to USDT. So, not one but two of the big four accounting firms or auditing firms, they're also accounting firms because accounting is part of the whole process. Two, not just one but two, and one's good, it looks like PricewaterhouseCoopers is going to prepare the way for KPMG to come in and be able to say PWC has already vetted all of their systems and

15:50controls. And now we can just completely and confidently use what's already here as part of our toolset to go through and make sure that if they have $197 billion in assets that they really actually do have a proper valuation of $197 billion in assets to cover USDT. One of two things happens. Actually, one of three things happens. The first two big ones are they pass with flying colors, everything, and they really do have $197 billion in assets. And it's clear as crystal and it puts all the fud that we've experienced about tether too bad forever. Two, they completely fail the audit and we get problems, big problems because then the fud monsters are going to come out and play. Or PricewaterhouseCoopers comes in and says,

16:56your systems are so jacked that we can't even complete this part of it which would stall the KPMG portion of the audit which also will allow the fud monsters to come out and play. So we got three possible scenarios and only one good outcome either of the other two outcomes not looking good. You know, not looking good. What do I think will happen? I think they're going to pass. I think PricewaterhouseCoopers is going to come in and say clean as a whistle and then KPMG is going to come in and say we can use these systems, we can trust the internal controls, we can do all that so we can do our stuff and they're going to find out that they really actually have $197 billion of assets. And I hope that that's true. I really do. Not because I want to be right but because I'm tired of people like BitFinext over on Twitter, continuously getting people agitated about Tether. That Tether's sole

17:59purpose is to keep the price of Bitcoin up because if that's true, it hasn't been working since October the 10th of last year. It's just what it is. It's been a rough morning for me and you know what that means. Chocolate. I need chocolate from Bitcoin beans at Bitcoinbeans.co invest in your health like you invest in Bitcoin. Kakao is a nutrient dense super food. It's food. This is not the chocolate from the grocery store. This is food. All right, because it's 100% chocolate. There's no sugar. Like when you go to a supermarket and you pick up a Hershey's bar, not only is there a bunch of sugar in it, there's also a bunch of wax. You're literally eating food grade wax as a filler because it's cheaper than chocolate. They put just enough chocolate in to make it look chocolatey, to taste chocolatey, but what you're really getting is your

19:02pancreas basically roundhouse all over the place because you're just ingesting so much sugar. There's not here. There's no sugar here. This is the best chocolate I've ever tasted in my entire life and you can do all kinds of stuff with it. It can act as baking chocolate. You can make desserts with it or you can just eat it raw because it's rich in magnesium, antioxidants, theobromine for natural energy and mood support. They craft one pound blocks of 100% pure cacao. It's grown regeneratively in Colombia and you pay for it in Bitcoin. There's no chemicals, no fiat, no middlemen, just real food sourced with integrity and exchanged through proof of work. You can buy one pound bricks or blocks of chocolate and you can also buy bags of cacao nibs from Bitcoinbeans.co. That's Bitcoinbeans.co. Make sure you use the code Bitcoin and to receive a 5%

20:03discount. One pound block of one of the finest chocolates I've ever had the pleasure of eating. It's the most beautiful food I've ever had and you can pay for it in Bitcoin because if you're not paying for it, if you're not selling it in Bitcoin as a vendor, you're not in the circle P. The circle P is where we are right now and it's where I bring plebs with goods and services just like you to plebs just like you who want to buy said goods and services. But you're going to buy it a Bitcoin because if you're not selling a Bitcoin, you're not in the circle P Bitcoinbeans.co use code Bitcoin and St. Cloud Financial Credit Union surpasses 10 Bitcoin in member custody pilot. That's $660,000 right at today's prices. It's small. Yeah, but this is a credit union. Remember, this isn't like a big bank. This isn't some huge investment firm. This isn't a family office.

21:06This is just a small credit union. St. Cloud credit union and they have 10 Bitcoin in member custody pilot Mike Zimmerman Bitcoin magazine St. Cloud Financial Credit Union surpassed 10 Bitcoin held on behalf of its members through its newly launched CU digital asset vault signaling early demand for community-based Bitcoin custody solutions. The credit union told Bitcoin magazine that it now is safeguarding more than 12.6 BTC along with smaller amounts of Ether in USDC only weeks after rolling out the service to its base of more than 28,000 members. Okay, let's pause right there and look at those numbers. This credit union is very small. 28,000 people. Canyon Texas, which is about, I don't know, 20 minutes south, 10 minutes south of Amarillo, has about 20,000 people living in it.

22:12You know, Lubbock, Texas has like 310,000 people. 28,000 members is not a lot of people and yet collectively amongst them, they own over 12.6 Bitcoin. Do the math and check out the percentage of what percentage of this 28,000 members would possibly be able to be a Bitcoiner. And dude, unless it's just one bit, one one of these guys, it has 12.6 Bitcoin that then there's a decent, there's a decent percentage of Bitcoiners in their membership. And this is good to see. But unlike institutional custody platforms, the holdings reflect adoption at the individual level with everyday users opting to store digital assets within a familiar financial institution rather than relying on exchanges or full self-custody. Quote what we're seeing is members looking for a way to participate without leaving the institution that they already trust said CEO

23:14Jed mayor. Quote this milestone tells us that when you bring this capability into a familiar trusted environment, people respond. The CU digital asset vault uses a hybrid self-custody model allowing members to retain control of their Bitcoin while leveraging infrastructure integrated into the credit union's core systems. The service remains limited to members for now, though SCFCU does plan to expand access to businesses and additional markets in the coming months. Longer term, the credit union is exploring Bitcoin-enabled payments and lending products as it looks to integrate digital assets more deeply into everyday banking. Earlier this month, they launched the vault, a core integrated platform that allows members to hold and manage digital assets like Bitcoin without relying on third-party providers. According to Jed mayor, the platform reflects a long-term strategy to preserve the credit union's role at the center of its members' financial lives. And he emphasized that maintaining

24:20control over digital asset services is critical. As these assets become increasingly embedded in financial infrastructure, the vault also supports broad or board-level oversight and aligns with regulatory requirements reinforcing the credit union's cooperative principles by integrating digital assets into its core operations, the credit union can monitor transactions, manage risk, and adapt to evolving compliant standards. So here we go, a nice, small, very limited membership credit union has over 12.6 Bitcoin. It's actually pretty impressive when you really think about it. I know, it doesn't sound like you wanted me to say they have a thousand Bitcoin. No, man, I actually like the fact that they have a low amount of Bitcoin because they have a lower amount of members. They have a really low amount of membership. And the credit unions, like banks, like everybody else, credit unions have their own set of conferences that people

25:26like Jed mayor go to, the CEO, and they tell each other their stories. So Jed's going to be able to go to whatever Shin digs that the credit union guys go to. And over whiskey's in beer, he's going to be talking about Bitcoin and Bitcoin custody and how many of his members actually have Bitcoin, and how that custody works. And I would imagine by the end of the year, we will see at least one more credit union dive into the custody game. But we're going to have to wait on that news, because it's not out yet. But this news is in. It just rolled in prediction markets top 20 billion dollars in monthly volume as geopolitics now drives the majority of activity, according to TRM labs. Oh boy, Brian Danga from the block. The market for betting on future events has surpassed 20 billion dollars in monthly trading volume for the first time amid a surge of activity tied to geopolitical conflict and US politics.

26:32Monthly transaction volume across prediction markets has grown from 1.2 billion in early 2025 to over 20 billion with unique wallets more than tripling to 840,000 in six months leading up to February 2026, according to a report from blockchain analytics firm TRM labs. Per the report geo political events macro economic outcomes and United States political developments now account for the bulk of trading activity overtaking crypto native markets that previously dominated those platforms based on user dynamic TRM identified four defining features and poly markets structure market structure. Geopolitics dominates at the top in with volume fragmenting across overlapping questions on leadership outcomes conflict scenarios and policy events rather than coalescing around a single narrative. US politics remains a core secondary pillar

27:35with contracts tied to domestic political events consistently ranking among the highest volume markets. Crypto price markets represented a consistently small share of activity at every experience level the report said with sports and entertainment betting peaking among mid-tier active traders and the most experienced market makers not among newcomers. The report also noted that poly markets designed is not distinguished between serious and non-serious markets or event contracts by instrument classification offering a consolidated super app experience where users can trade political cultural and crypto outcomes on a single platform. According to the report, the 10 most profitable poly market wallets in early 2026 reflected three strategies including macro conviction algorithmic market making and event driven opportunism. The top wallet earned 6.2

28:39million across diverse markets including federal reserve decisions the world cup and the 2028 election. Six of the 10 wallets traded every day over the 80 days from January 1st to March 22nd. TRM labs analysts said they observed behaviors that resembles forms of market manipulation as defined in traditional finance including coordinated wallets entering positions ahead of major news accounts funding once to play or hold on accounts funding once just to place a single high conviction bet and exiting immediately after resolution and thin markets were a single participant dominates pricing. One example cited in the report involves four wallets that collectively turned roughly $40,000 into 872,000 betting on U.S. military action against Iran in January and February of 2026. All four entered markets price between 10 cents and 80 cents per share and

29:47redeemed at $1 when the markets then resolved. The report noted shared infrastructure between the wallets saying that all four funded positions through the same bridge within a narrow time window swept balances after collecting winnings and have not re-entered the market. On March 23rd, 2026 both Calci and Polymarket publicly outlined new measures to curb such activity including restrictions on participants with access to non-public information and enhanced integrity controls according to the report. So the four wallets using the same bridging technology at roughly the exact same time sounds like either one person with four wallets or two people with two wallets each or maybe even four people with you know one wallet each and they all know what the hell's going on probably because they're all buddies and if I was it in the United States Congress I would be

30:48looking at all my younger crew. I certainly wouldn't be looking at like you know Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders and I wouldn't be I wouldn't be looking at Rand Paul. He doesn't have time for this shit but your aides. Ah your aides they know what's going on they hear they hear discussions they're not stupid otherwise you wouldn't hire them. Then I'll have to make money out of this they know how to use Polymarket and Calci and they're not afraid to do it and that's exactly what I think is going on. I think it's complete insider trading and it's a matter of time before Calci and Polymarket figure out a real way to shut it down or all the senate offices and House of Representative offices and anybody in the executive are all banned from using this shit and that's not really going to stop it. So insider trading is really taking center stage with this whole prediction

31:49market thing. So I expect basically I expect the United States Senate and House of Representatives to start making bills to legally ban any prediction markets within the confines of the United States of America or any place else that our legal arm can reach out and bitch slap that's exactly what I think that's going to be tried. Now will it will it be successful. I don't know but I guarantee you they're going to they're they're they realize there's no real way to stop this shit. So at least they could ban it in the United States thinking it's going to stop this shit and even that is not really going to stop this shit. It will stop a lot of it but there's always going to be somebody who goes dude I'll VPN over to fucking Thailand and use Polymarket there and they will be working inside the White House or they will be working inside Congress in some capacity and they will have insider knowledge and they will make bets and they will kick

32:49financial ass. See there's just no stopping this. Let's run the numbers. The CNBC futures and commodities Brent nor C and the rest of energy is screaming this morning. I don't think the extension to April the 6th that Trump gave the Iranians before he started bombing them back into the Stone Age is working. I don't think it's working. I don't think the markets are buying it because Brent nor C is up three and a third today to 1167 that is that's the kind of price that headlines above. Oh my god oils above a hundred and ten dollars were all going to die. West Texas intermediate itself is also up 3.7 percent back to 97 dollars

33:53and 96 cents a barrel natural gas is also up as well 2.17 percent to the upside three dollars and six cents per thousand cubic feet and gasoline is up as you'd expect 1.8 percent to 3.18 a gallon merbon crude is up five and a half points to a hundred and eighteen. Metals are doing well today despite the fact that oil is going up. Platinum is up three and a half points gold is up three and a quarter to 4,516 and nine dimes. Platinum is up one and a half silver is up four percent back to 70 dollars and 78 cents per toy ounce and copper is up one half. Ag is mostly in the red probably because all this shit depends on gasoline and diesel and boats to ship right so the biggest loser today looks to be wow they're all in a range dude. Chocolate and coffee are tied and sugar just took it 0.82

34:56percent to the downside biggest winner is rough rice 0.6 to the upside live cattle up 1.21 percent so technically it's the the winner here but this is livestock and not ag. It's ag but it's livestock is different lean hogs basically down nothing feeder cattle is up 1.5 percent indexes are not happy they are hurting s and p is down 0.8 NASDAQ is down a full one point the Dow is down one point and the s and p mini is down 0.67 percent then price a Bitcoin is $65,920 that drops to a 1.32 trillion dollar market cap and we can now only purchase 14.6 ounces of our favorite shiny metal rock with our one Bitcoin of which there are 20 million 7,563.66 of average fees per block are normal 0.02 BTC taking a fees on a per block basis is about 12 blocks carrying 25,000 unconfirmed transactions

36:04waiting to clear at one sat per V by low priority is going to get you in at 0.1 and one Zeta hash per second we are back to one Zeta hash per second on hash rate I was actually expecting a further dip and I I do expect a further dip by the end of the weekend and Monday morning when I bring you all the news that you can use I do not think we will be at one Zeta hash and it's fine but that's more security than I can shake a stick at all right so from homes for Bitcoin yesterday's episode of Bitcoin and Nick dose with 1,079 no one not not thousand sorry Nick 179 sat says cheers cheers pies with 121 says thank you sir no thank you and Nostra gang with 100 sat says absolutely nothing and that is it those are all the boosts that I got yet streaming I like fountain has changed

37:08something I can now see the total sats of boosts and streaming all together right so I only get one number out of it so I have to I would have to do the math but yesterday's show has garnered 4,742 which is you know dismal and that's okay I guess it's just that the vast majority of those sats are streaming sats through podcasting 2.0 enabled podcast platforms like the one that I use is fountain.fm go use fountain.fm man stream me some satoshis because I'm getting way more satoshis getting streamed to me than I am getting boosted to me and if you just don't have the satoshis to hand over a 5 star review on apple or Spotify or YouTube or any place that you find the Bitcoin and podcast right if they enable you to leave a review please leave me a 5 star review it helps

38:11visibility and right now this podcast is in the top 1% of 4 million global podcasts I don't know if I've ever told anybody that here before but I'm in the top 1% which I mean it's not you know it's not when you actually think about it you're talking about competing against 40,000 other podcasts when you're in the top 1% but you guys brought me here I didn't buy I didn't buy that there have been a couple of times where I will cut like 10 bucks 2x and promote one of the show announcements that I do but I don't I don't have the money to go hire an agency to you know to get me into the top 0.1% right I don't I don't have that kind of cat this is all organic and I don't have that big of a presence on X and I certainly don't on Instagram I my biggest present it presents is on Noster's far social media is concerned you guys have done all this

39:16you listening to the show I mean I could be I could be last on the list in in not only Bitcoin shows I can literally be last on the list I could be number 4 million in one in ranking but I'm not because of you guys and the five star reviews helped get me there if I can get more of those under my belt then I start raising from you know 1% to 0.7% to 0.5% but that's all you guys because I don't I don't do things like employee bots to do it for me and maybe I should because that's some people do that and I have to compete against them and I just don't think it's ethically right so if you guys would do that for me I would consider that a great thing that's the weather report welcome to part two of the news that you can use where trust wallet launches agent

40:24kit that lets AI execute crypto transactions under user control Micah Zimmerman Bitcoin magazine trust wallet the self custody crypto wallet with over 220 million downloads announced that launch of the trust wallet agent kit a new infrastructure that enables AI agents to execute real crypto transactions across more than 25 blockchains while keeping users fully in control for the first time artificial intelligence can take actions inside a user's wallet but only with the permissions and boundaries defined by the user the agent kit integrates with the model context protocol or mcp and is available via a command line interface giving developers the tools to build a test build and test AI powered crypto workflows safely and efficiently according to a press release the launch follows the recent opening of trust wallets developer portal which allowed AI agents read only access to data across more than 100 chains while the developer portal

41:27provided context for understanding users crypto positions the agent kit adds a wallet connected layer enabling user directed actions and automated workflows quote AI can understand what a user wants to do with their money but it needs a trusted layer before it can safely do it said Felix fans CEO of trust wallet quote the agent kit is that layer developers can now build agents that execute on real wallets within rules user set and will expand those capabilities as users build confidence in what AI can do on their behalf in quote interestingly a new Bitcoin policy institute study from this month found that frontier AI models overwhelmingly favored digitally native money with Bitcoin chosen in 48.3% of scenarios stable coins lagged behind and traditional fiat was rarely selected as AI cited bitcoins fixed supply decentralization and self custody is key advantages the agent kit supports two modes of interaction the first is a dedicated AI agent wallet where users pre configure

42:34permissions for tasks such as dollar cost averaging alerts limit based strategies without per transaction approvals the second which is unique in the industry connects an AI agent directly to a user's existing trust wallet through wallet connect where agents propose transactions that users approve before execution custody always remains with the user ensuring safety and control at launch the agent kit supports more than 25 blockchains making it the broadest AI connected wallet infrastructure available today the toolkit comes equipped with full defy infrastructure including swaps automations limit orders alerts and risk scoring along with developer features such as ENS resolution and message signing developers can set up a working AI agent in under 15 minutes looking ahead trust wallet plans to integrate AI directly into its wallet for all 220 million users providing in

43:37wallet insights automated strategies personalized alerts and approved transaction suggestions later this year an agent marketplace will allow developers to publish reusable agent strategies and trading bots while users explore and deploy them directly from their wallets the company said with the agent kit trust wallet aims to become the foundation for self custody in an AI driven world giving users the benefits of automation while ensuring their assets remain under their control the number that jumps out to me here is 220 million users of trust wallet that's a lot of people for just using that one wallet yeah i'm sure they use they use others too but still that's a that's a really big number i'm actually really surprised words of warning only keep on this is new we're entering this brand new territory that's been provided to

44:42us by the advent of AI first there was AI and then we got open claw and shit and now we're seeing agents directly in control or being given permissions specific permissions to use money inside of a wallet be very careful about this do not put all of your bitcoin on a trust wallet and then hand it over to AI and say hey do whatever to hey you want here's your permissions don't spend over this and then oops it's spent over that because reasons if it doesn't have access to the bitcoin then it can't spend the bitcoin so only if you're going to do this if you if you're like there are reasons i need to have this done there are reasons why i need AI in my trust wallet and there are reasons why i'm going to put some of my bitcoin or whatever on that wallet because i need x y and z to be done and i want to do it this way okay then only put the amount that you can

45:49afford to throw in a brown paper bag soak in diesel light on fire and throw out of a wind up and i'm not saying that that's because that that is what's going to happen to your money i'm just saying there's no reason to gamble with your entire stack treat it as a hot wallet even i'm sure at one point or another somebody will say well this is actually a cold wallet it just has AI inside of it and therefore it can yeah at that point it's no one in my it's just my opinion it's no longer a hot a cold wallet at that point it's no longer cold storage it is active you might as well consider those keys being exposed directly to the internet and being live 24 seven while that AI agent exists inside your wallet and also be aware of this once it's inside your wallet are you ever sure you could get rid of it if that is an option are you ever really sure it's gone

46:49just please for the love of god be careful and mom and pop needs to be careful too because it turns out that the vast majority of buyers for strategies stretch preferred stock our mom and pop investors retail investors dominate strategy strategy stretch shares which have been used to acquire over a billion dollars worth of Bitcoin this year by the way this is from coin telegraph roughly 80 percent of strc holders are retail investors according to CEO Fong Lee who said on Wednesday that these investors prefer low volatility high yield digital credit retail investors prefer low volatility high yield digital credit he added that's see I should see exact same sentence editing people editing the figure suggests that retail investors are still interested in exposure to Bitcoin even though it's down about 45 percent from its all time highs the figure suggests that retail investors are

47:53still interested in that exposure and strategies executive chairman michael sailor has been stepping up sales and the marketing of stretch following the drop in bitcoin and the company stock pitching the shares as a way to gain exposure to btc without the volatility in march strategy used around $1.2 billion from at the market sales of stretch to buy bitcoin though it switched back to using the sale of common stock in most of its recent buys normally this is a quote the hardest thing in the world to do is to sell a new credit instrument to a retail investor sailor said on thursday at the 2026 digital asset summit in new york speaking on cmbc's power lunch on thursday sailor say quote the idea is to create an on ramp for people who believe bitcoin is going to be around for a little the long term but they can't handle the volatility in the near term he added that stretch strips the first 10 to 11 percent of annual bitcoin returns and passes it on to credit investor

49:00strc is way over collateralized but strategy is betting the bitcoin will rise more than 11 percent this year and our equity holders are going to make a fortune while credit investors are happy with 11 percent he said strategies common stock is down 19 percent more in blah blah blah blah the investments are perpet these investments are perpetual derivatives this is the stretch thing meaning they do not have a maturity date so strategy never has to pay investors back like a bond and they can be held indefinitely earning dividends the dividend rate is variable and adjust monthly alongside market conditions the fact that stretch is mo is 80 percent owned by retail is a little striking that means a couple of things one they're in danger I would not buy stretch I just I would I'm not advising you on dick but for me the advice I give to myself is just buy

50:03bitcoin and try to hold on to your bitcoin otherwise the other the other thing that I think is weird is that his marketing and sales has been so effective that 80 percent of stretch is owned by retail and not institution I find that fascinating if he had only sold a smattering of it like a very low volume overall then I wouldn't care but he sold it a lot more than that this man is sold a shit ton of stretch a metric shit ton of stretch and 80 percent of it is in the hands of retail it's really interesting this however it's not that it's not interesting it's just that it's predictable US lawmaker presses Kansas federal aren't fed over the crack and master account approval point telegraph writing Maxine Waters the ranking Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee is demanding she's demanding it answers from the federal reserve

51:09bank of Kansas City over the approval of Kraken's financials a limited purpose master account in a letter on Thursday Maxine Waters asked Kansas City Fed president Jeff Schmidt to respond by April the 10th outlining what Kraken's approval means in practice which federal reserve services it can access the conditions or restrictions that apply and what anti money laundering and consumer protection measures were considered Kraken's banking unit was granted a limited purpose master account by the federal reserve bank of Kansas City earlier this month it was seen as a milestone for the crypto industry as several crypto linked US companies have been pursuing a master account with the Fed for years years thinking of my friends out in Wyoming the account provides direct access to Fed wire the Fed's core payment system potentially allowing Kraken to move money

52:11on the same rails used by banks and credit unions quote the Kansas City Fed's announcement does not disclose specific information about Kraken's access to a wide range of federal reserve financial services due to the confidentiality of business information provided by applicants miss waters wrote in the letter quote answers to these questions are critical to ensuring that the process of approving federal reserve bank account access is conducted consistently with the law with impartiality and in a matter that continues to foster a safe and efficient payment system she added waters also argue that Kraken's access to the federal reserve's payment system raises policy regulatory and consumer protection concerns as a result she said full transparency and clear legal grounding are required to ensure any risks or properly managed quote innovations in payments and digital assets tokenization and even artificial intelligence are rapidly

53:12outpacing statutory frameworks developed to mitigate risk promote competition and protect consumers in a traditional financial environment I'm going to come back to that statement quote given this environment much is required of those who exercise discretionary authority over safe access to an operation of our nation's critical financial infrastructure she added US crypto companies that have been pursuing Fed master accounts include Caitlin Long's custodia bank that's who I'm thinking of out in Wyoming which filed a court petition in late 2025 to renew its bid crypto platform anchorage digital bank also applied for an account last year and ripple is applied through its standard custody and trust company waters is classed as strongly against crypto by the crypto advocacy group stand with crypto yeah scored her really really low she gets an f in fact from our friends at stand with crypto I'm tired of standing with Ukraine

54:17I'm tired of standing with all these other shit I'm going to stand with crypto waters is listed by the group is strongly against crypto based on five statements and six votes against crypto legislation including the digital asset market clarity act as well as the genius act she also called for a hearing with securities and exchange commission chair Paul Atkins last year citing concerns about the agency's dismissal of crypto enforcement cases so Maxine waters is got to put a bug in the Kansas Fed chief's ear in his demanding answers as to why on earth the Kansas Fed would allow Kraken to have a limited limited services master account with the Federal Reserve I wonder if he'll respond at all or if he responds late or if he does respond you know at all he just says go fish that's what I would do for Maxine waters all right that's the end of all the

55:24news that I can give you today it also ends our week so have a happy Friday I know things look a little bleak look a little grim oil screaming bitcoins kind of yeah and we've been in this bayon for a long time you know what okay fine I'm honestly I'm good with it but oil screaming yeah that's just telling me again that there is no resolution between the United States and Iran there's not going to be one I don't know at what point there there there will have to be some kind of resolution even if it's 50 years from now there will be some kind of resolution I just don't know when it's going to be but I don't think it's going to be short term and I'm pretty sure it's probably not going to be midterm either because I think that there was that that as usual the United States and any military at anybody with a military capability of a super

56:28power like the United States Russia China they usually have one shot one shot to make it a short war and we didn't do it and now it looks like we may drag this out for a long time I hope not I really really hope this shit settles back down and as somebody who literally I get income off of oil and gas so you would think you would think oh my god he must be rolling in the dough he must be like wishing for $200 oil I'm not because you get pounded on the other side and what's on the other side the prices of everything that depends on oil which is what everything because everything depends on the price of oil I am not happy not really all that happy at ninety seven dollar a barrel West Texas intermediate crew I don't like how it suppresses Bitcoin and it does

57:34it because it means that we might actually see a rate hike we sure a shit ain't going to get a rate cut out of the Fed and that means money is expensive and they don't expensive money doesn't fly to risk assets and as of right now Bitcoin is a risk asset or at least it's considered one so pulls liquidity potential liquidity to buy Bitcoin away from buying Bitcoin and at this point kind of stay in in cash sure there's a little bit of gold buying and silver buying going on but not enough to represent the amount of cash has been pulled out of all manner of markets from around the world I mean shit the NASDAQ is off 267 points right now it's at 21 130 that's because of oil the Dow Jones is down 565 points that's because of oil Bitcoin is down you know 4.2% today and that's because of oil it's this is all about oil

58:35I would much rather see like just 70 dollar oil hell I'd be happy with 68 67 dollar oil that would be fine that would be just fine but I don't think we're going to get there so enjoy the weekend if you have kids go have fun with the kids spring is basically here at least in my neck of the woods I'm looking at a beautiful sunny day and I plan to go get out in it and try to leave some of the buffoonery behind me if you can do the same and have an excellent weekend then when you come back and I see you on the other side will both be happy have a good weekend y'all this has been Bitcoin and and I'm your host David Bennett I hope you enjoyed today's episode and hope to see you again real soon have a great day