Weekly Roundup 08/08/25 (Debanking EO, Storm Verdict, RMB stables) (EP.653)

Matt and Nic are back for another week of news and deals. In this episode:

• What’s wrong with NYC?
• China bans Bitcoin for the 15th time
• Is China really lauching an RMB stablecoin?
• We dissect the Trump debanking EO
• OpenAI releases GPT5
• SEC: Liquid staking tokens are not securities
• Roman Storm is found guilty on one of three counts
• Hester Peirce’s speech on financial privacy
• How should we solve debanking?
• Will stablecoins replace bank wires?
• Is AI going to reveal the identity of Satoshi

Further reading:

• Hester Peirce, Peanut Butter & Watermelon: Financial Privacy in the Digital Age
• Nic on Substack, The Last Word on Stablecoins and Free Banking