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⌐◪-◪ → Goldman Sachs, a $2.8T asset manager, just disclosed over $418M in Bitcoin ETF holdings in its latest quarterly filing.

This is a major 180° from their stance a few years ago, where they staunchly opposed Bitcoin — specifically NOT recommending Bitcoin as an asset for their client’s portfolios.

This change is a significant indicator of the growing institutional interest in crypto, specifically Bitcoin, as Goldman joins the ranks of other major banks like Morgan Stanley ($1.4T AUM) and Wells Fargo ($600B AUM).

While institutional adoption is certainly exciting, it does feel a bit centralized, but I suppose Bitcoin was never going to solve the power law distribution of wealth.

The real change Bitcoin brought is the infrastructure is now owned and operated by the people (not the banks).

💬 Is institutional adoption a good thing or not necessarily?

⌐◪-◪ → Pump.Fun is on a tear! Yesterday they generated $5.3M in revenue — more than Ethereum, Solana, and the other top 20 protocols combined. Pretty insane.

This action comes after the Elon x Trump conversation, where traders gambled memecoins in hopes of 1,000x returns.

Some have criticized the project for redirecting capital that could have been invested for “legitimate” projects to worthless memecoins, but I disagree with this take.

Gamblers will always find a way to speculate, whether it be penny stocks, NFTs, or random memecoins.

Yes, the memecoin mania is madness, and in many instances straight-up gambling addiction, but I don’t think Pump.Fun is to blame here. That’s like blaming the casino for your gambling addiction. Dumb.

💬 Let me know what you think in Specs.Chat!

⌐◪-◪ → It looks like Coinbase is planning to launch its own wrapped Bitcoin token called “cbBTC” to rival WBTC. Many speculate the new token will live on Base after Jesse Pollak, the head of protocols at Coinbase and creator of Base, said:

“I love bitcoin, am so grateful for its role kickstarting crypto, and we're going to build a massive bitcoin economy on base.”

While Jesse didn’t confirm it, I think it’s pretty safe to say cbBTC will be issued on Base — which to be clear doesn’t mean it won’t be accessible on other networks as well. Bridging is a thing.

This comes at an interesting time as BitGo, the primary custodian for WBTC, announced its plans to move custody out of the US and into Hong Kong + Singapore.

So there’s a very real possibility that BitGo fumbles the wrapped Bitcoin market and Coinbase steps in as the new dominant provider of Bitcoin on Ethereum. There’s truly never a dull day in this space.

💬 What do you think about “wrapped” Bitcoin?