Navigating Financial Innovations

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Last week’s macroeconomic data came with a twist: a massive job downward revision from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But is it a recession signal, or just statistical noise?

In this episode of Bits + Bips, Ben Werkman, chief investment officer at Swan Bitcoin, joins hosts Ram Ahluwalia, Noelle Acheson, and Steve Ehrlich to examine why markets shrugged off the data, and what it means for crypto. The panel also discusses:

• Whether markets are mispricing macro risk

• How Strategy’s latest capital raise may reflect rising treasury company risk

• The future of tokenized equity and how Coinbase could unlock private market value

• New regulatory signals suggesting the U.S. may allow banks to hold crypto

• The rise of “super apps” blending payments, trading, and custody

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Hosts:

• Ram Ahluwalia, CFA, CEO and Founder of Lumida

• Noelle Acheson, Author of the “Crypto Is Macro Now” Newsletter 

• Steve Ehrlich, Executive Editor at Unchained

Guest:

• Ben Werkman, Chief Investment Officer at Swan Bitcoin

Links:

Macro

BLS Drama

• CNN: Trump says the Bureau of Labor Statistics orchestrated a ‘scam.’ Here’s how the jobs report really works

• NYT: Big Downward Jobs Revisions Could Be a Warning Sign for the Economy

• CNBC: 

• 'The revisions are hard evidence': White House struggles to justify firing of BLS chief over weak jobs numbers

• Trump fires commissioner of labor statistics after weaker-than-expected jobs figures slam markets

 PCE

• Reuters: US inflation warms up in June as tariffs boost some goods prices

Tariffs 

• NYT: Trump’s Tariffs Are Making Money. That May Make Them Hard to Quit.

• FT: Donald Trump to raise tariffs on India over Russian oil purchases

• CNBC: EU will delay planned U.S. tariffs for six months to allow for trade talks

Crypto earnings season

• Coverage of $COIN and $MSRT on Bits + Bips: 

• Strategy Had a Massive Quarter: Impressive Numbers, But Are They Sustainable?

• Coinbase Missed Earnings, But the Bull Case Is Still Intact, Analyst Says

• Unchained articles:

• Coinbase Veered From Its Neutral Stance With Base. Could That Bet Go Wrong?

• How Michael Saylor Plans to Ensure Strategy Keeps Its Bitcoin Forever

• Coinbase Expands Into Tokenized Stocks and Prediction Markets

• How Robinhood's New Crypto Strategy Could Help Its TradFi Ambitions

Timestamps:

🎬 0:00 Intro

📉 4:25 Why Noelle thinks we’re looking at the job numbers all wrong

🍔 16:23 Whether the BLS revision is actually a nothing burger

🧊 19:33 How investors are managing to shrug off all the macro noise

🏢 32:37 What surprised Ben about corporate bitcoin adoption and how earnings are shifting the narrative

💰 37:57 Why Strategy is raising capital at sky-high premiums

📊 44:40 How Robinhood and Coinbase stack up by the numbers

📜 51:11 What new signals reveal about the U.S. rewriting financial rules

📱 57:43 How “super apps” are changing the game for crypto and TradFi

📈 1:05:18 Where the panel sees markets heading next

🏛️ 1:13:17 What it might take for governments to start holding crypto

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