On The Brink with Castle Island Weekly Roundup 01/16/26 (CLARITY problems, InfoFi Dead, CA Wealth Tax, Kontigo) (EP.696)
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Jan 16, 2026 The hosts dive into the delayed Clarity market structure bill and Coinbase's withdrawal, highlighting the bank lobby's machinations. Sanction violations surrounding Kontigo raise eyebrows, while X's blocking of InfoFi's API aims to combat spam. California's wealth tax backlash is discussed alongside BitMine's hefty investment in MrBeast’s company. They also debate the merits of tokenized deposits versus stablecoins and share insights on emerging institutional ETF filings and the Ledger data breach.
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Market-Structure Bill Could Cement Bank Power
- The Clarity market-structure bill risks codifying bank-favoring rules that harm DeFi and tokenized products.
- Nic Carter and Matt Walsh prefer no bill to a bad bill that locks in anti-competitive structures.
Stablecoin Yield Ban Benefits Banks
- Stablecoin yield bans would effectively let banks ban competition by keeping rewards for themselves.
- Industry factions differ: some want any bill for clarity; others fear a bad bill is worse than none.
Champion Quality Rulemaking Over Quick Laws
- Prefer strong regulator rulemaking over a rushed, flawed statute when possible.
- Fight for durable, well-crafted rules from the SEC/CFTC rather than accepting a harmful compromise bill.