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, May 31st, last day of the month. Today we are talking about the rotation of China, Hong Kong, and the East into the mainstream of the crypto narrative, even as the U.S. recedes.

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Hello, friends, as I said, today is the last day of May, and so we're going to get a sense

of what the month was all about. We're going to talk about what I think was one of the biggest narratives. But we're going to start with some numbers because

May has been a bit of a tumultuous month for Bitcoin. The month began with Bitcoin trading in a volatile

range around 29,000, with the seizure of First Republic Bank, sparking fears that the banking

crisis was not yet behind us.

Over the first weekend of May trading, a deluge of negative headlines surrounding

U.S. government investigations into Binance also crushed the Bitcoin price down, culminating

in a flush lower that saw Bitcoin collapse below $26,000 for the first time since March.

Now, after remaining stuck at a lower range for the past few weeks,

Bitcoin spiked above 28,000 over the weekend on news that the debt ceiling standoff had likely

reached a resolution before then collapsing to a lower level. At the time of recording, it is

trading around 27,000, and with this last day of trading remaining, it looks set to mark its first

red months since September, dropping by around 6.5%. This month also marks a significant test of the

theory that Bitcoin price is correlated to stocks. The correlation has been in a multi-month breakdown,

but has shown faint signs of recovery at times. This month saw the

tech-heavy NASDAQ rally by more than 6.5% moving in entirely the opposite direction of Bitcoin.

Over the course of the last month, the correlation between Bitcoin and the broader S&P 500

...