Welcome back to The Breakdown with me, NLW.

It's a daily podcast on macro, Bitcoin, and the big picture power shifts remaking our world.

What's going on, guys? It is Wednesday, April 10th, and today we are talking some politics.

Before we get into that, however, if you are enjoying the breakdown, please go subscribe to it,

give it a rating, give it a review, or if you want to dive deeper into the conversation,

come join us on the breakers discord. You can find a link in the show notes or go to bit.

ly slash breakdown pod. All right, friends, some political machinations to discuss today, including a Treasury hearing.

For those not paying attention, this is the first sitting week for Congress after a two-week

break, and for whatever reason, it feels like crypto was at the top of the agenda.

Treasury Deputy Secretary Wally Adayamo appeared before a Senate Banking Committee hearing

on Tuesday.

The hearing was intended

to provide an update on the Treasury's actions to combat illicit finance, terrorism, and sanctions

evasion. Adiyamo uses written testimony to focus exclusively on crypto, arguing that Congress

needed to provide the Treasury with additional tools. He acknowledged that, quote,

terrorists prefer to use traditional financial products and services, but we

fear that without congressional action to provide us with the necessary tools, the use of virtual

assets by these actors will only grow. The hearing was highly anticipated among crypto lobbyists.

So far, Congress has not accepted Treasury's request for more crypto tools. Earlier in the

week, there was a sense that Adyemo could finally be successful in convincing

Congress that these tools are truly necessary. Chairman Sherrod Brown introduced the hearing with a

huge list of illicit finance issues currently being tackled by the Treasury, ranging from

...