The Chopping Block: The Macro Special – Trump’s Trade War, Bitcoin Reserve & Market Chaos - Ep. 799

Unchained

Laura Shin

News, Tech News, Business News

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 13 March 2025

⏱️ 59 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Welcome to The Chopping Block – where crypto insiders Haseeb Qureshi, Tom Schmidt, Tarun Chitra, and Robert Leshner break down the biggest stories in crypto. This week, we’re joined by special guest Quinn Thompson, Master of Macro at Lekker Capital, to dissect Trump’s Bitcoin Reserve. The US government is now officially hodling Bitcoin —Trump’s executive order creates a BTC reserve using seized funds. But markets didn’t buy the hype. Bitcoin tanked, and traders are still questioning what this means for crypto’s future. Meanwhile, the global macro picture is a disaster—stocks are down, trade wars are escalating, and recession fears are mounting.Is this controlled demolition of the economy, or just a side effect of Trump’s economic agenda? And most importantly, what does this mean for crypto? Let’s dive in. Show highlights 🔹 Trump’s Bitcoin Reserve Announcement – The US government officially holds BTC, but it’s not buying more. No new demand—just a change in optics. 🔹 Digital Asset Stockpile – XRP, ADA, SOL? Treasury isn’t sure what it owns, and no guarantee these altcoins stay on the balance sheet. 🔹 Market Reactions – Bitcoin pumped, then crashed. No net buying pressure, just an end to government auctions of seized BTC. 🔹 Trade War Fallout – Tariffs hit Mexico, Canada, EU, and China—S&P 500 posts worst day since 2022, losing $1.4T in market cap. 🔹 Trump’s Endgame? – Is this a controlled demolition of asset prices, or just chaos in motion? 🔹 Crypto’s Liquidity Crunch – The Fed isn’t stepping in (yet), but the macro backdrop is grim. Rate cuts may be the only way out. Hosts ⭐️Haseeb Qureshi, Managing Partner at Dragonfly ⭐️Tarun Chitra, Managing Partner at Robot Ventures ⭐️Tom Schmidt, General Partner at Dragonfly ⭐️Robert Leshner, CEO & Co-founder of Superstate Guest ⭐️Quinn Thompson, Founder & CIO at Lekker Capital Disclosures Timestamps 00:00 Intro 02:36 Trump’s Bitcoin Reserve 05:17 Bitcoin Tanks 14:30 How This Affects Crypto & Traditional Finance 19:36 Trade Wars Escalate 31:30 Corn Twitter Is Mad 35:16 Why Stocks & Crypto Are Dumping in Sync 41:39 Trump's Historical Stance on Tariffs 54:57 Government Spending and Crypto Market Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	So it sounds like your base case then is that this year going through Q3 is just going to be bloodshed in every risk asset.
0:09.0	Yeah, I don't like it. I mean, this also is like, you guys are probably like, oh, nice, Quinn here coming on the show talking about stocks down 10% and Bitcoin's down whatever, 30.
0:18.0	Very amazing timing.
0:21.3	I've been telling investors since late December and early January through all our communications
0:25.9	have been very bearish and we've been pretty much out of the market.
0:29.1	Not a dividend.
0:30.1	It's a tale of two pawn.
0:31.1	Now your losses are on someone else's balance.
0:34.1	Generally speaking, air drops are kind of pointless anyways.
0:36.7	I'm in-aged trading firms who are very involved.
0:39.3	Delic.Eight is the ultimate problem.
0:41.3	DeFi protocols are the antidote to this problem.
0:44.3	Hello everybody. Welcome to chopping block.
0:46.3	Every couple weeks, the four of us get together and give the industry insider's perspective on the crypto topics of the day.
0:51.3	So quick intro is for us to got Tom, the D-Fi Maven and Master of Memes.
0:55.3	Hello, everyone.
0:57.5	Next we've got Robert,
0:58.5	the Cryptoconisure and Tsar of Super State.
1:00.8	Good afternoon.
1:03.7	Next to get Tarun, the Gigabrain,
1:05.3	and Grand Puba at Gauntlet.
1:07.3	Yo.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Laura Shin, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Laura Shin and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.