 Welcome to Digital Assets News, to get top stories in cryptocurrency and digital assets and break down a bite-sized piece of today. We've got a great story about mass adoption, especially as it pertains to institutions. First up, Morgan Stanley, rumor to be eyeing stake in Bitfum, or BitHum however you want to say it. So when we take a look at this story, we can see that mass adoption is coming a lot faster than what some people may have expected and institutions are really coming in hot and heavy. On top of that, we'll take a look at the IRS is pushing back the text downline to May 17th and what that means for cryptocurrencies as far as your crypto IRA. We'll take a look at both of those stories, but first let's take a look at what's going on into the market. So today it is the 19th, 11 a.m. El Paso, Texas time, beautiful day over here. That's 75 degrees should be awesome. So right now we have a $1.8 trillion market cap. Pretty great and everything's up, but you might notice, let's just bring up the coins real quick and let me blow this up so you can see what I'm talking about. When we take a look at Bitcoin, last time we had a market cap of around 1.8 trillion. Bitcoin was around 61,000, but now you see it's around 58, 59. And what's going on is that things are flowing into the alts like they should. So you've got Bitcoin holding, holding perty right here at 59 almost and then a tenor for Ethereum, Binance coin, you know it's down, it's a little bit not too bad. Tet is tether, what else do we have? 5% for Uniswap, 0.65 for Chainlink, 1.24. So as we see, there's a little bit of a bump here, but as you go down, you start to see things like Bitcoin SV. You start to see other different things that are coming around 1% for Sushi, 1.3 for Bridge Oracle, I've never even heard of that. And then the lower you go, the more you will see all these assets getting into it. So again, really everything starts with Bitcoin, but as you see is things start to flow out. It goes into all coins and it'll come back into Bitcoin. And I think this is what is going to be one of those catalysts. So what we're talking about here today, this was interesting, not just because it's a rumor and all these things, but again, in cryptocurrency, whether it's smoke, there's fire, this is what's going on. Morgan Stanley is rumored to be negotiating the acquisition of a significant share in leading Korean crypto exchange, Bithumb. Bithumb, Bithumb, I always say it differently. So this is how much they're planning to invest, $254 to $440 million, which is quite a bit of cash just to put into Bithumb. And it goes to note that not only are they doing this, but this was just after they talked about enabling Bitcoin ownership for their clients with an aggressive risk tolerance. And they have to be pretty well to do of $2 million, $2 to $5 million in assets with Morgan Stanley. And this was the article that they're referencing, which just came out two, three days ago. So when we take a look what's going on here, I mean, look, Morgan Stanley is I think the fourth, third or fourth largest bank in the United States. And if you've got something this big and they're like, you know what, we want to not only recommend it to our clients, which is one aspect. I mean, that's just one little thing where they say, you know, just to our clients, just a little bit here. And just the rich ones, just the accredited investors. And they say, you know what, we want to go one step further. We want to get into an exchange, which I find it very odd, it's a Korean exchange that they want to get into. But I'm sure there's repercussions globally. Maybe they want to get out of the clutches of the American system that is crippling cryptocurrency innovation here. That's my personal opinion. And just saying, you know what, we're going to go this route and we're going to own this because we can see where the future is going. So when you take a look at Morgan Stanley, which is again, big, huge bank, been around for a very long time. The other institutions, it's not just about, you know, should we get into cryptocurrency assets? But they're going to take a look around and go, look at all these institutions getting in, look at all our other banks that are getting into, look at all the different companies that are getting into it. It's not the question of, should we get in? It's when should we get in? And the timing is right now. If they don't get in right now, I think that there are going to be a lot of banks, a lot of institutions and a lot of just corporations that are going to get blockbustered, meaning that they're just going to get passed by, by what's going on in the background. And I think this type of thing really plays a huge part. Not to mention that, I mean, the SEC is looking at affirming a person that gives blockchain lectures at MIT. The CFTC, the person's going to be put in charge there, that is also a very heavy cryptocurrency digital asset blockchain proponent. So if you have these two things, these two people in very high places on top of all these institutions and now banks getting into the fray, not to mention a couple of banks having a nice specialized charter in Wyoming, how long do you think before, and I'm just going to say it, an ETF gets approved. I know we've heard this song and dance for a long time, but I didn't think it was actually going to happen, but I mean, why wouldn't it? Everybody's in the game right now. So why wouldn't something like that actually get approved? The real question is, why don't you make a difference because everybody's getting it now. Now, let me know what you think of the comment section and not financial advice, but even I might actually start to buy a little more Bitcoin after this news. All right, so that's what's going on there. Just real quick, if you don't know, if you live in the United States, which some of you do, actually, I get a lot of my viewers are from Australia. I think it's like 20 some percent are from Australia. So for you guys, hey, this means nothing to you really. So let's go over this real quick. The IRS moves everything back for tax reasons for the US to May 17th. So what does that mean? Really, it just means one thing and that is that we don't have to pay until May 17th. So that means that we can actually spend a little bit more into crypto and digital assets before we have to pay the Pipe Piper, which is Uncle Sam. On top of that, if you have a Roth or traditional IRA or crypto IRA like I do, you're gonna be able to contribute all the way to May 17th for 2020, as opposed to 2021. What am I talking about? I'm gonna bring in Anthony Bertolino. He is one of the heads over there at iTrust. I'm gonna let him answer it and why I am so bullish on using iTrust, especially for tax-free gains and trading within my crypto IRA account. And I'm gonna pay zero taxes on staking Ethereum and Polkadot. So let's jump right in. All right, so that's what we just heard. Everything that's going on with taxes and the deadline being pushed out to May. So what does that mean for your IRA? Well, thankfully, I've got Anthony Bertolino. He is from iTrust Capital, which is what I've been using for the last two years. I've had no problems, fantastic service, and I'm really, I'm excited about what's gonna happen when I actually turn to that magical 59 and a half years old. But the real question is, what does this mean for your IRA as far as pushing these dates back to the middle of May? So Anthony, first of all, thanks for coming on the show. I appreciate it. So what does this mean if you got anything to do with IRAs, crypto IRAs with iTrust? Yeah, definitely. Thank you for having me on. I don't think anyone would probably be upset about the taxes being pushed back here. A lot of people, obviously we're crushing it, trying to get everything in, especially people who might have crypto taxable gains they have to deal with and our accountants hate us by now and say, what is this yield farming and this unit swap and all this stuff, right? But luckily for retirement accounts, if anyone listening, you have not made your 2020 contribution, each year you are able to contribute to your retirement accounts in the amounts of six to 7,000, depending on your age. And once that timeline is passed for a year, you can never contribute again. So that sort of tax-free gains for 2020 you would be able to kiss that goodbye forever. And that deadline was April to get your 2020 contributions in. Now it's moved, you have an extra month, right? And so you have until, I believe May 17th roughly to be able to get that final contribution in for the 2020 season, you can still already start your 2021 contributions. And so, you know, from a financial planning perspective, my view is always try to max out those IRAs year over year. And again, if you get it in the Roth, that that's tax-free money for life. Yeah, I like to not be taxed so much. That is the great thing. So yeah, this is one of those things that I was, I have ignorance of, and this is why I rely on you guys to tell me, because when I thought once the year was over, I could not contribute. And then you send an email like, hey, make sure you get your contributions in. So at the end of January, early February, I hadn't yet maxed out my 2020 and I was able to put in just enough to max out 2020. And then the very next two or three weeks, I maxed out 2021. So it was a perfect timeline of where I max both out because for me, I can only put in $7,000 per year. And I was like, well, shoot, you know, everything's going up, I gotta get it in. Thank God I got able to put in more for last year and this year. So that makes sense. And now we got till May, if you want to do that type of thing. Also, yeah. Also, if you're looking for like a video that explains all this stuff, I did a 20 minute video, it's in the description. I'll also link at the very end. So there is that piece. And then, Anthony, talk to us about, because there was this question. I'm not a big trader. Every so often I do some trades on Trinity Trading, but people ask me about trading within the actual iTrust account, within our actual IRA, because they're like, well, can I do this? And then what happens when the bear market comes and I want to get out into stable coins? Because you guys don't offer stable coins. So how does this work? Yeah, that's a really good question. And maybe we need to add some more clarification to the website because people often do ask, hey, do you guys have USDT or USDC or DAI? I want some stable coins. I don't want to hold Bitcoin maybe temporarily. And the answer is we actually have FDIC insured US dollar position. So if you look at USDC or Tether or DAI is a little different. USDC is dollars supposed to be in a bank with additional smart contract risk. These stable coins are built on Ethereum, which are smart contracts. Now what we have is real dollars in a real bank account, FDIC insured. So you have the benefit of stable coins, it's stable, but you don't have any of that smart contract risk. So if anyone's listening, you do want to trade in your iTrust IRA, we have what is better than stable coins, which are regular dollars. Yeah, of course people are gonna say that's debatable, but you know, whatever. So in this situation, okay, we got it. So we can actually just transfer it over and that's all tax free. If you want to trade within your IRA, trade to your heart's content and that's a way it goes. Perfect, okay. 100%. Yeah, that's the biggest benefit, right? Someone who say, body ether early in the year at 600 and now it's up there at 2000. Maybe people want to take profits and when you're inside your IRA, you never have to worry about giving away 30 or 40% when you just want to take some profits. So it's a magical thing. Yeah, I like that. I don't like paying taxes. I don't know what it is about me. So there is that piece. There was two more things, which is that one, when I first came in here and you guys sat me down and go, listen, this is how this whole thing works. I had to get it through, because you had to get it through my head because I didn't understand. And then you guys started talking about curve and the way that curve actually cussed at you. Because before that, I was just all about the cold storage and doing the ledger way. When we talked about curve, he said, well, it's a multi, it's an MPC. It's a multi-party contract. And that's very stable, very secure. And he talked about all these different big companies. And now we just learned that curve was purchased by PayPal. So real quick, talk to us about curve. And also the thing that I'm looking most forward to is to be able to actually stake my Ethereum and Polkadot within my iTrust account, within my Roth IRA and getting tax-free gains on all of the, all the coins that I can actually stake with. Yeah, so we've been with curve since inception. A lot of people would say, oh, I've never heard of curve if it was six months ago or a year ago. And it was true. I mean, curve was amazing technology, amazing team, one of the true leaders, the most secure in my opinion. And one of the top five custodians, but they're an institutional player. So most retail investors say, oh, I've never heard a curve. Maybe that's not even good company. And now over the last few months, people have been hearing more and more about them with all the work they've been doing with banks and Franklin Templeton and Etoro. And now finally, PayPal, who has been sort of looking at the landscape to make some key acquisitions, they looked at all the different custody options and they acquired curve. So that shows you just how powerful they are or they're in the progress of acquiring. So, people ask, it's business as usual on our side. I think that it simply will improve the product, probably bring in some even better engineers and I don't see any downsides. Very proud to be working with them. We've recently implemented something called an air gap piece, which now essentially this is like a cold storage 2.0, which don't need to get into the logistics of it, but it's a quite advanced version of cold storage the next evolution in regards to staking. Obviously one of the biggest and best questions. So first and foremost, for staking, it's for for stakeable assets, things that are running a proof of stake system because like lending is different than staking. People often ask that. So first it would be like Ethereum, right? You know, Ethereum 2, the beacon chain is live, money is a lot of money's in there staking, securing the consensus. Now there's sort of two things that we think about. Right now, if we did want to enable staking right away and we wanted to sort of push it forward as quickly as possible, people would not be able to sell. Money right now, ETH, when it's locked up in ETH2, it is no longer liquid, okay? It is permanently in Ethereum until the merge happens. Right, right, right. That's the problem in my experience. Yes, yeah. And so what that is is if people were willing to take that, you know, maybe we'll run some surveys and see if people like that. Now there are options like Rocket Pool, which I think people should really look into. This is a system that allows ETH to be staked, but also be liquid and tradable, right? So we're also looking at Rocket Pool. Then Polkadot is the next one. Polkadot is already live, can be staked. But again, it comes back to Curve, where our security is through Curve. So we need Curve to support things that we do. Curve is currently in the sort of research and development. I don't know how quick to finalization stages it is for Polkadot, but they are working on it very, very seriously. And so right when they'll announce Polkadot staking, I would assume our implementation to go live would be shortly after. And so just know, you know, we do plan on being the first crypto IRA provider in the whole world to offer staking. Like that is my goal, and I will try to seek to, to get that goal as quickly as possible. And good things do take a little time though. I'm okay with that. As long as it comes in, like within next week, I'm good. Not seriously. So you know what, that just, it makes me think about something else. Like if Curve has been purchased by PayPal and they're working this diligently for Polkadot to get it into staking, maybe at some point we might see Polkadot on the PayPal network as far as part of their suite. But that's just, that's just the reach. I'm not going to say, don't listen to me. I just thought it was, it's just the idea that came across my head. All right, so besides that, the last thing I want to talk about is NFTs. You guys are doing some kind of giveaway. So first of all, let me share my screen so we can see what the heck I'm talking about. So tell about your NFT giveaway it's going on. Yeah, so it's obviously super exciting. You know, we have two different art pieces that we haven't released. So if anyone sees here and reads the blog posts, they are sort of blurred out and this is sort of the sneak peek to say the least. We're very, very lucky to have a lot of artists reaching out to us who want to collaborate in the future. What this is is we want our clients to be some of the first people in the world to own NFTs. So some listeners here, you might have already bought NFTs. I think a lot have not. And I think it's really exciting to be able to get a piece of the future of art right now. And luckily we're doing it for free. And so the coolest thing about NFTs too, is it allows for additional programmability or additional benefits. So our NFTs are not only pieces of art, but or provably scarce in terms of a limited true rare supply, but they have additional utility. And so there's two different ones. People can read the blog post, the legendary one, which we're going to be minting five of those, I believe I would have to double check. If anyone ever receives a legendary NFT, you receive free accounts with us for life. And so if you hold the legendary NFT, your account with iTrust is free forever. And that asset can also be theoretically given to a family or friend. And if they hold it, then they have an account free for life. So this is sort of a digital representation of a iTrust prime client, right? And then for people who can't win the legendary one, because it's a little more limited, we do have the contender edition, which is if anyone makes two referrals in like a 70 day span, there's quite some time, they will get one of the contender NFTs. So if you're a listener and you're not an iTrust capital client, head to itrustcapital.com, set up our free account, use the promo code D-A-N. And again, this is a free account. So promo code Dan, and you can actually refer people with your free account. And so you tell a friend or family, hey, come make an iTrust capital account. They do have to fund it with at least the minimum, but you can win a contender NFT or a legendary NFT. And even the contender will also give you some free months. And so just take, they take this as a moment to tell people about crypto IRAs, why tax-free crypto is so huge, and get yourself a piece of the future of art. And we are sub, we do reserve the right to give additional benefits to any of our NFT holders in the future. So do not discount that this is our first NFT drop in the first crypto IRA NFT drop in the whole world. And I think people that hold these might have something special for them. Gotcha. Okay, so real quick, just one more time. How do they get in this entrance for these NFTs? Yes, so head to itrustcapital.com, set up a free account, again, use the promo code Dan, and this is a free account. You will have a referral code in there and you can refer friends or family to set up accounts, have them fund it. And it's all listed on the blog post. So itrustcapital.com, the Knowledge Center, or our Twitter, but this is an exciting time. Perfect. I'll link that blog post below in the description. And that is it. So Anthony, thanks for stopping by and answering those questions. Exciting times, right? It really is. Thanks for having me, brother. All right, I'll see you. All right, great. So hope that answers some questions. I'm going to link what Anthony was talking about, the blog post underneath in the description. Also, in the description you can check out. I trust just like I did two, you know, a year ago and so far it's been great. But that is it for today. So look, first of all, thanks for sticking with me all the way and I really appreciate it. If you liked the video and got some value, give it a thumbs up. That helps the channel tremendously. Also, if you would like to subscribe, that'd be fantastic. Things we talk about are very time sensitive and that's just one of these examples. So that is it for today. Thanks for sticking with me to the end. I appreciate it and we'll see you on the next one.