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 Sunday, January 7th, and that means it's time for the first

long-read Sunday of 2024. 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, well, today we are looking optimistically and

positively towards the future. And instead of just talking again about the ETF and what it might do

for price and attraction, we're going to step back and ask the question of why crypto more

broadly. Our main piece on that is going to be a long Twitter essay from Austin Campbell, but first

I want to pair it with another piece by Christine Kye and Sefton Kincaid of Sakata Partners that

argues that stable coins can have a specific function in the world today. The piece was called

stable coins can help fix the current lending market, and Christine and Sefton write,

lending markets are evolving, transitioning from a traditional bank-centric framework to a more

diverse and technologically advanced system. This evolution is particularly evident since the global

financial crisis and is fundamentally reshaping the

landscape of capital aggregation and distribution. However, the current market structure

still faces considerable friction. We believe integrating blockchain into the existing financial

tech stack will improve the efficiency of capital flows and expand access.

Section. Blockchain enhanced capital distribution.

The diminishing role of traditional banks in capital distribution post-global financial crisis has paved the way for fintech lending companies like SoFi and Ramp.

These firms are filling the void with innovative solutions such as buy-now pay-later options

...