 Welcome to Digital Asset News to get top stories in crypto and bring them on to bite-sized pieces. So today, I just want to talk about real quick about what's going on in the market and how things are pretty easily manipulated to make it appear one way when in actuality, there's a total flip side of what's going on. So first up, I want to talk about what I call the magician, Guggenheim Scott Menard, doesn't see any reason to own Bitcoin right now, and he's going to give him his actual case, which is kind of odd because he's the same one that said that Bitcoin was going to 400,000. On top of that, we'll take a look at Elizabeth Warren, Senator Warren, as she calls for regulation by July 28th, and we'll see just how kind of ridiculous that actually is. And then we want to take a look at what is going on and then take a middle ground and then just some more positive things. So this one, Bitcoin grayscales unlock shouldn't impact spot prices in theory, but we're going to take a look at why this is actually about Bitcoin, not actually shares and not about the actual physical Bitcoin that's being sold. And it's just about shares really shouldn't matter. And then finally, we'll wrap it up with Visa and 50 crypto platforms to enable crypto payments at 70 million merchants. Again, let's take a look at the big picture. And finally, big news that Microsoft is using Bitcoin to let people own and protect their decentralized virtual identity. So we'll dive into all those things and we'll do it as quickly as possible. But first, take a look at what's going on the market. So today, it is the 9th, 3pm Texas time. And it looks like we're just stagnant. We're at 1.39 trillion. Bitcoin's at 33,500. There's really not too much to see here. It's going to go sideways. Unfortunately, I think there's going to be some turbulent times ahead. But again, we need to take a look at the big picture and we need to take a look at who is orchestrating all these different things. And here is just one example. So I call Scott the magician because he is really good at whatever it is that he does as far as like spreading out information and kind of moving markets a little bit in certain ways. So this was an article just published today. And this was in a July 9th interview today with CNBC's Brian Sullivan. Sullivan and Scott Menard, the CIO at Guggenheim Partners Global. And just so you know, Guggenheim, they've got like trillions of assets under management. They're a pretty big company. And it's just interesting to see, again, what these people are talking about as far as where the market goes. And he said that there's no reason to own Bitcoin at the moment. And he states, look at where we are. I really do believe this is probably a crash. And a crash would mean we'd be down 70 to 80%. Let's just say it's, and he's talking about Bitcoin, goes between 10,000 and 15,000. And he's calling essentially for Bitcoin to go down to 10,000 dollars, which seems a little bit ridiculous, but whatever. And he says, if you're going to be a speculator, speculate that it's heading lower. And Menard has an opinion that 10,000 Bitcoin's ultimate bottom. And his comments, and his comments came just days after the cryptocurrency plunged to a five month low of 28,600, but managed to swiftly recover. So here's the thing. Scott came out and said, yes, we're going to 10,000 dollars. And he kind of like, he plays on this fear of what is going on the market. Like, it's going to go down, it's going to go down. And we see it, you know, really go down. And he's like, see, I told you. And then of course it recovers. And let's not talk about that. Let's just talk about where I think things are going. And it's kind of odd because again, he's, he's the magician. He kind of gets out there and pretty much just talks about like, these are where we think things are going, which is very odd because not too long ago, just about six months ago, December 2020, he went on TV and said that, hey, from what our analysts say, Bitcoin right now should be worth 400,000 dollars. And I think, I don't know if Scott got in trouble as the CIO, the chief investment officer, but they're like, hey, genius, we would like to buy more of these things called Bitcoin. So if you could tell, not tell people that it should really be 400,000, that would be fantastic. And then all of a sudden you see a total reversal. And then here we are. And we're like, oh, well, that is not what it is. It's actually $10,000. So again, on this channel, this is just investment opinion, not investment advice. But it is weird how these different types of people are, I'm not going to say they're trying to pull things back, but it's odd how they just kind of like, first they come out and say one thing, and then they're like, well, we shouldn't do that. Let's pull this train back. Maybe we can invest a little bit and then bring things a little bit forward. And really all you've got to do is not just look at one person, just look at everything that's going on the market. And that will bring me to my next point when we talk about Elizabeth Warren and regulation. So this was an article that came out yesterday. And Senator Warren is urging SEC Chair Gary Gensler that she needs regulation by July 28th. And I think this is just a call to arms of what to do. Do we think that Gensler is going to jump and go, yes, ma'am, let's make sure that we get everything put into place and we can maybe just make sure that all these cryptocurrencies are classified as either a security, a commodity, or actual, or just a currency itself. And we'll do it all within two weeks. No problem. Don't worry about that XRP case that we've got going. We'll just trudge over that as well and we'll get it all done for you, Senator. No problem. Are you out of your mind? That was sarcasm. So this is essentially what happened. She just, the Senator, Warren, who chairs the Senate banking committee's subcommittee on economic policy. And if you take a look at who her big donors are, surprise, surprise, it's Banks. Said in a letter to SEC Chair Gary Gensler that she needs answers by July 28th. Despite the rising popularity of crypto, a lack of common sense regulation has left ordinary investors at the mercy of manipulators and fraudsters. So there's two comments here. And the one I think is just ridiculous to think that's actually going to happen by July 28th. I think there's probably some answers, or maybe just like some directions of where they're going. But they're not going to have regulation in this time. So I know people are kind of flipping out, going, this is awful. They're going to have regulation. They're going to shut everything down. That's not happening. It's not happening. But the second part here is true. And I agree with her. Despite the rising popularity of crypto, a lack of common sense regulation has left ordinary investors at the mercy of manipulators and fraudsters. Look, here's the problem. We need some clarity. We need to know exactly what these cryptocurrencies are. Are they security? Are they a commodity? Or are they a currency? We need to have them classified and just go from there. I had a great talk with Simon from StormX or SimonU. And we were talking on Alex Masioli's show. And he said, you know, in Korea, they have a pretty well laid out and they have their own committee. And that committee's sole responsibility is to determine if cryptocurrencies are a commodity, which in the United States would fall under the CFTC if they are security, which would be under the SEC, or if they are a currency, and that would fall under the IRS. And you could just differentiate that. And then of course, if you have clarity, then the businesses know exactly where to go and how to build things and everything else. So I think that is actually a good plan. I know people are screaming at the screen, but that is how I see things. A little regulation I think goes a long way. Of course, people will say, well, you don't understand because they're going to over-regulate things. Look, if we don't get this right now and people keep getting screwed over because you're going to see this time and time again, and essentially what is going on with the unregulated activities and people getting pretty much over leveraged and the different things that are happening to them just losing money left and right, there's going to come a time when it's going to happen anyhow. So let's just get this over with so we can get to the next point. And I think that is exactly what needs to happen, which essentially will lead me to the next part, which we know that things are that regulation, people get scared about that. And then, of course, they start to go, oh, maybe I should sell. But this next piece is also making people sell. And it really shouldn't. And that is the grayscale unlock period. So real quick, this just came out two or three days ago. And the unlock period, just so you know, grayscale, they have their own fund. It's kind of like an ETF, but not an ETF, and allows people who do not really like to deal with exchanges and custody and holding all their other crypto to actually get involved in cryptocurrency in a trust. And starting from the 13th, the biggest unlocks of the year will be happening over a two month period with 16,240 Bitcoin scheduled for unlock on the 18th of July. So when people hear that like, oh, man, they're going to unlock it, and then people are going to sell their Bitcoin. But you have to understand, these are just shares of Bitcoin. It's paper Bitcoin. It's not the actual Bitcoin. Grayscale never sells their Bitcoin whatsoever. So when people start to talk about this, it's not like it's going to sell off. So JPMorgan jumps in. And of course, here's another one of the people who are trying to, they know what's going on, but they try to manipulate it, told its clients recently that the world's largest cryptocurrency might fall at 25,000 on the charts, thanks to the aforementioned unlocks. This has no effect on Bitcoin itself. The Bitcoin in the trust does not trade, only the shares trade. Moreover, since most buyers of GBDC, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, were doing it for the R back when Grayscale Bitcoin was trading at a premium, they were also shorting Bitcoin because that's exactly what they do. And then to finish this up, in theory, this Grayscale Bitcoin at least should have no market impact on spot prices because they're not selling the actual Bitcoin, just the shares. But this market, like all markets, is massively manipulated. And the product is too complex for most investors. So it allows the manipulators, all the people we just talked about, to prey on you. JPMorgan is going hard by spreading misinformation. And that's just one of those things. So of course, now here we are and people are getting scared. They hear about this unlock, everything's going to be sold. It's going to 10,000. Oh, the sky is falling. And that is a problem. But you have to again, look at the big picture. And that's what leads me into the next point. So just take a look at everything that's going on around us. Has there been a change in effect as far as like the Bitcoin network? Has there been a hack? Has there been a double spend? Has somebody come out as like Vladimir Putin said, Hey, I'm the creator. It's not Satoshi Nakamoto. No, it's all the same thing. And really, it all just comes down to news and how people play the market. But just look at where we are moving as far as in direction. So this just came out 18 hours ago. Visa and 50 crypto platforms enable payments at 70 merchants. So Visa announced Wednesday that the transactions via crypto linked Visa cards, and there's more coming, exceeded one billion in the first quarter. Further, so that is partnering with 50 major crypto platforms to launch card programs to be able to spend and buy. So this was a tweet. Let me blow this up and says with more than a billion spent on crypto linked Visa, Visa is partnering with 50 of the leading platforms to launch card programs that make it easy to convert and spend digital currency at 70 million merchants worldwide. So that's nice. Visa, the largest payment processor in the world is getting together with cryptocurrency. You know what? Let's do more of that. So Visa, CFO, Basant Prabhu said, I think I nailed that, said we see a lot of volume on our network of people buying crypto at these various regulated exchanges. And as far as we can see, that trend continues. He further goes on to state we are doing a lot to create an ecosystem that makes crypto more usable and more like any other currency people are exploring ways in which they can use crypto for things they would use normally currencies for. So again, not going anywhere, only accelerating. Crypto platforms that Visa is working with include Coinbase, BlockFi, Circle and FTX. Program is focused on part of making crypto more practical. And the partnerships will make it easier for clients to convert and spend crypto. And among the features being worked on is letting users spend fiat and earn crypto currencies as a reward. So that sounds pretty good. You can actually spend your crypto and you get cashback or crypto back. And then to finish up, the merchants don't have to change anything. It will be the same as any other Visa transaction to them. But on the back end, the crypto assets are instantly converted into fiat and just one more on ramp or off ramp or however you want to say it for crypto to actually be utilized as far as a massive adoption. So those are the good parts. And then the last one, I think this is one of the biggest things that I think is very interesting is Microsoft is getting into the game and they see crypto. So what's going on here? So Microsoft is using Bitcoin to let people own and protect their decentralized virtual identity or DID, decentralized IDs. This was the article that shares how the global global IT is building a project. This is by Michael Sailor for Michael Strategy. So here's what they're doing. I'm not going to read this. It gets boring. This is in the first 20 seconds of this 22 minute video. This is what is summed up. Let me just play this, make it very simple about what's going on. In an age of increasingly ubiquitous government surveillance, security breaches and high profile cancellations in which Internet giants have ultimate control over users, online profiles and data. Microsoft is helping to build a technology that would give individuals ownership rights over their own virtual identities. The mission of the ION project is to build decentralized identifiers or DIDs that can service the anchor point for all our activities across the Internet. Great. That's all I want to know. So look, if we take a look at what's going on, I mean, not just as far as like DIDs and not just as far as like Visa, but also take a look at the big banks that are getting into this. We've covered this story before. I'm just going to just brief over it. BNY Mellon, the oldest bank and with a huge amounts of assets under management is to offer Bitcoin services, financial systems, Bitcoin and other great stuff. Great. So then also State Street Bank, again, one of the older ones, trillions of assets under management launches a cryptocurrency division. And then you've also got the 6 billion NCR payment processing opens Bitcoin purchases to 650 banks and credit unions because these banks are sick and tired of seeing your money that they actually have in their banks go to the exchanges and like we want a piece of this because it hasn't stopped like we thought it would. It's actually accelerating. So we need to get in this game sooner than later. So all these things that are going on with Scott Menard and all the people that are and JP Morgan and all the people that are coming in and it's going, you know what? This is what we want to do. Let's bring this back because they see the writing on the wall. And this is just how I see things. And you also have to remember one more thing is that Scott here is he talking about and JP Morgan all the different places. Are they talking about how you should not have it now? And then, you know, just kind of just pull back a little bit. But in the long grand scheme of things, I think we see where things are going. Now I could be wrong. Let me know what you think in the comments section. But it looks pretty positive. Now, having said all that, lastly, I will just say this last piece. And that is that for this month of July, all these things that are happening and all the different information that we put out here on this channel and other channels that do the good work, July is going to be a bad month. I'm just going to let you know right now. I don't see how we don't dip a little bit further, especially what's going on and just the avalanche of negative news. I've never thought that July was going to be a good month. I thought we were going to actually retract. I saw a Bitcoin price of around $28, $26 to $28K. And then I saw in August, September and October fireworks. I think I said like every single video now. So let's see if I'm right. Could be wrong. And that's it. So look, if you made it to the very end, first of all, thanks. There was a lot of stuff to go over. If you liked the video, give it a thumbs up, a like. Also consider subscribing. A lot of things we talk about are time sensitive on this channel, like the stories we just talked about. And that is it for today. So thanks so much for stopping by. I appreciate it. I'll see you on the next.