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, October 25th, and today we are talking about more

weird quirks of this proto bull market. But before we get into that, 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. Hello friends. Well, today we are following up on the story that we've

been tracking all week, which is all of the intrigue and interest around a potential ETF being

approved, which had a really funny and weird little wrinkle yesterday. But before we get into that, as I was

prepping this show, news broke that Sam Bangman-Fried would indeed be taking the stand in his own

defense. Now, my feeling on this was that, of course he would. I have had nearly 100%

conviction that this was going to happen, and it is only grown over the course of the

trial. This is despite this being a very bad idea in general. It usually does not go well

for the accused to speak in their own defense. However, one, Sam is not a person who can really

resist talking, and two, after what we've seen on this trial, it's sort of the only thing

he has left. Martin Screlli summed this up last week. The former pharma exec who himself went to

jail has been taking a close interest in the trial, and he wrote, The only chance SBF has to get

acquitted is to take the stand. 11 out of 10 criminal defense attorneys would tell you it's a mistake, but while it's a

harold Mary, it's the only shot he has.

Taking the stand is an ambitious move by a defense.

OJ famously did not take the stand.

Neither did Michael Jackson or Casey Anthony.

...