Fraud, Waste, and the Case for Hard Assets

The Last Trade: Marty Bent breaks down bitcoin’s 2026 setup, Fed vs Treasury tension, and why the denominator is breaking.

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The Last Trade: a weekly, bitcoin-native podcast covering the intersection of bitcoin, tech, & finance on a macro scale. Hosted by Jackson Mikalic, Michael Tanguma, & Brian Cubellis. Join us as we dive into what bitcoin means for how individuals & institutions save, invest, & propagate their purchasing power through time. It's not just another asset… in the digital age, it's The Last Trade that investors will ever need to make.

🎙️ About This Episode

Marty Bent (TFTC) joins the show to explain why 2025 looked like a year of consolidation, how tax-loss harvesting and year-end positioning may have created artificial pressure, and why the next leg could be driven by something deeper than a typical cycle narrative. We discuss the “Last Trade” order of operations, where gold and silver absorb the first wave of sovereign and institutional stress, and Bitcoin increasingly earns the bid as the superior digital reserve asset.

We also dig into the growing public tension between the Fed and Treasury, why “independence” is starting to look like theater, and how trust erosion is becoming a primary macro driver. From there, we debate the role of stablecoins as rails versus money, the risks of CBDC/digital ID creep, and why sovereignty still has a high bar.

Finally, we close on AI: the productivity unlock for high-agency builders, the coming barbell economy, and why sound savings matter more in a world where technology accelerates deflation while policy accelerates debasement.

🧠 Chapters

00:00 — Marty Bent Returns & Bitcoin Starts 2026 Strong

05:52 — Sovereign Stress & Bitcoin as a Neutral Reserve

12:14 — Fed vs Treasury, Monetary Authority, Trust Erosion

17:13 — Fraud, Waste, & the Hard Asset Rotation

27:24 — Stablecoins, CBDCs, Digital ID Risk

34:28 — AI, Privacy, Productivity, Agency Divide

52:07 — Gold & Silver Dislocations, Physical vs Paper

58:03 — Broken Denominator, Supercycle Framing

01:08:53 — Guest Requests & Onramp Update

01:11:27 — Outro & Disclaimer

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