Welcome back, friends —

Something unusual just happened: A purpose-built perps chain generated more revenue than Ethereum itself. Meanwhile, ETH is quietly becoming Wall Street’s next balance sheet asset, and even delisted meme coins are staging chaotic comebacks.

Let’s break it down.

Retirement goes crypto: Trump’s $10 trillion shake-up and the end of debanking

Trump just signed two executive orders that could redefine how 90 million Americans save money — and who gets to access the financial system.

• One opens the floodgates for crypto and private assets inside 401(k) retirement plans.

• The other strikes back at what Trump calls “political debanking” by regulators and banks.

But to understand why this moment actually matters, you need to understand the hidden plumbing behind American finance — and why crypto just got the biggest green light in its institutional history.

🧠 What’s a 401(k) — and Why it’s a big deal

A 401(k) is the backbone of retirement savings in America.
Offered by employers, these accounts allow workers to invest a portion of their paychecks before taxes into portfolios that grow over decades.

Total value of 401(k) plans in the U.S. = ~$10 trillion
Used by ~90 million American workers
Governed by strict rules limiting risk exposure
Default options = index funds, government bonds, blue-chip stocks

Until now, alternative assets like crypto, private equity, and real estate were either banned or extremely difficult to access for 401(k) users.

🪙 Trump’s executive order: A new menu for retirement

With the new order titled “Democratizing Access to Alternative Assets for 401(k) Investors,” the White House has told federal agencies — including the Department of Labor and Treasury to revise outdated rules and make room for crypto, private equity, and real estate in mainstream retirement plans.

• Fund managers get the green light to offer, not mandate, access to new asset classes

• Opens the path for BlackRock, Fidelity, and others to include Bitcoin and Ethereum

• BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said this will “replace the outdated 60/40 split” with a more modern mix of public and private assets

In short: this makes crypto exposure not just legal but potentially default in how future Americans save for retirement.

Crypto + 401(k): What’s been happening behind the scenes

This wasn’t random.

• In 2022, Fidelity (managing $4.9 trillion in assets) launched the first Bitcoin 401(k) offering.

• But under Biden’s Department of Labor, companies were warned against offering it, citing volatility and fiduciary risk.

• Trump’s new order reverses that stance — giving legal room and encouragement for crypto-backed retirement products to grow.

Now, asset managers like Blackstone, KKR, Apollo, and even crypto-native funds are preparing to tap this massive new pool of capital.

🚫 Debanking: Why it’s Trump’s second big target

The second executive order, “Guaranteeing Fair Banking for All Americans,” bans financial discrimination based on political beliefs, religious affiliation, or lawful business activities and this includes crypto.

What is debanking?
It’s when banks or financial platforms deny services like opening accounts, processing payments, or providing loans based on what they perceive as reputational or political risk.

🧾 Debanking + Crypto: A history of bias

The crypto industry has long been a victim of systemic debanking.

• Tornado Cash developers had their personal bank accounts closed before any conviction.

• Multiple banks in the U.S. shut down crypto exchange accounts, citing “compliance risks.”

• Payment processors denied transactions labeled “Bitcoin,” “Trump,” or “MAGA.”

• In Australia, Binance was debanked overnight, despite no legal proceedings.

• In the U.S., crypto-friendly banks like Silvergate and Signature were shuttered, leading many in the industry to claim political targeting.

This new order bans banks from using ‘reputational risk’ as a pretext, and forces federal regulators to audit, reprimand, and restore services where they were denied without lawful justification.

🧠 Why Trump is going all-in

This isn’t just about policy. It’s about building political capital with the crypto community and unlocking new financial territory.

• Trump’s campaign is heavily backed by crypto donors and venture capitalists

• He sees crypto as a wedge issue to attract younger, tech-savvy voters

• His new crypto “czar,” David Sacks, is rewriting federal policy from the inside

• Meanwhile, institutions like Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) are pushing for Bitcoin adoption in public companies and now, retirement plans

Trump is positioning crypto not just as a currency but as a freedom tool, a retirement solution, and a rebellion against overreach.

🚨 What happens next?

Expect more headlines about Bitcoin 401(k) plans, institutional inflows, and legal challenges but also a major push by traditional firms to finally play the crypto game at scale.

TL;DR

Crypto just entered your 401(k). And the banks can’t shut your account down for believing in it.
Trump’s latest executive orders open $10T+ in retirement savings to Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other private assets and ban financial discrimination based on politics or beliefs. The age of crypto-compatible public policy has arrived.

🧵 WTF happened here?

1/ Ripple vs SEC is over.

After five years of courtroom battles, appeals, partial wins, and public drama — both sides have officially dropped it.

They just filed a joint dismissal of all appeals, ending one of the most high-stakes crypto cases in U.S. history.

📄 Case closed. XRP cleared.

2/ Let’s rewind.

In 2020, the SEC sued Ripple, claiming XRP was an unregistered security.
The case dragged on for years… until 2023, when Ripple scored a partial win:
✅ XRP ≠ Security in secondary markets.

But appeals continued.
Until now.

3/ So what does this mean?

• No more federal litigation around XRP’s status

• Ripple execs — cleared

• SEC — backpedaling

• XRP — pumping

Price is hovering around $3.27, and over 80% of XRP is held long-term.
Japan’s SBI is even letting users convert credit card points to XRP.

4/ The ripple effect is real.

This could change how every altcoin is treated by regulators.

After years of lawsuits, Ripple now stands vindicated and maybe even ready for a global comeback.

• Binance enables direct crypto withdrawals to Mastercard across Europe.

• Paxos reaches $48.5m settlement with NYDFS over Binance, AML failures

• Musk insists Grok is better than GPT-5, ‘OpenAI’s best AI system to date’

• President Trump nominates Miran to Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors

• Chainlink Reserve goes live as project bets on its LINK token as store of value

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