These past 2 weeks have been very busy though, from Powell's speech at Jackson Hole, to Plasma launching at ludicrous valuations, to dear old Kanye West launching his own coin. Our hands have been full, so let's go over everything!

If you were in the markets during the last week, you may have noticed that everything absolutely sent on Friday afternoon, and there’s a very good reason for that: Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s recent speech at Jackson Hole signaled a potential shift in U.S. monetary policy, suggesting that the first interest rate cut in over four years could arrive as early as September.

For traditional markets, this hinted easing served as reassurance that the Fed may prioritize cushioning a slowing labor market, even as inflation remains above target. For crypto, however, the implications are far more dramatic. Bitcoin and Ethereum both surged on Powell’s dovish tone, liquidating $900 million in short positions.

Looking to history, the relationship between interest rates and crypto markets has been consistent: cheaper money tends to fuel risk appetite. After the Fed slashed rates to near-zero in March 2020 during the COVID dump, Bitcoin exploded from around $6,000 to over $64,000 by April 2021. AKA, a 10x in just over a year.

Powell’s Jackson Hole message matters because it marks a potential return to looser conditions, which historically have unleashed enormous rallies in crypto markets, but he also emphasized that the Fed remains data-dependent and not swayed by political pressure.

When Powell says the Fed is “data-dependent,” he means that any decision to cut rates will hinge on clear signals from the U.S. economy (Through data points like CPI, PCE, etc…).

Political influence has zero ground with the fed’s decisions, Trump literally cannot touch Powell due to legal structure & independence of the Federal Reserve System.

So overall, this is great news, but keep in mind that while cuts are bullish long term, but in the short term, markets could potentially take cuts as a bearish signal given a potential recession forecasted by the Fed, which is why they are willing to cut.

Now is not the time to take on extra leverage, but this is definitely a good indicator that the cycle isn’t over yet.

Plasma has emerged as one of the highest valued projects in crypto this year, positioning itself as a "stablecoin-first" blockchain with an ambitious goal: to become the fastest and most efficient network for USDT and other dollar-pegged assets.

If you’ve never heard about Plasma, don’t worry you’re not alone; no one has. But last June, they managed to raise $500M in minutes through their public sale, with a total of 1000 participants. Not the most organic if you ask me...

But ignoring this fact, what is Plasma? Well, some could argue it's XRP 2.0.

Market dynamics appear to justify the hype. Stablecoin supply on Ethereum alone has surged past $140 billion, doubling since early 2024, and traders increasingly demand faster, cheaper rails. Plasma’s promise of zero fees and Bitcoin-level settlement security taps directly into that demand.

After seeing the performance of $CRCL, everyone wants in on the stablecoin mania, so of course if you pitched a stablecoin chain based on Bitcoin to some VCs who have never touched crypto; they are going to throw money at you; and they did.

Looking ahead, Plasma’s roadmap is centered on its mainnet launch, which is expected to debut with over $1 billion in stablecoin liquidity from day one. The chain is courting integrations from DeFi mainstays like Curve and Aave, banking on its EVM compatibility to attract developers quickly.

Longer term, the team has hinted at institutional payment rails, cross-border remittance solutions, and governance features powered by its native XPL token, which if you’re following markets, has just been the subject of a flash-pump attack on HyperLiquid. Lol.

To be fair, with it’s heavyweight backers, regulatory clarity around stablecoins from the new GENIUS Act, and a market that increasingly treats stablecoins as the core plumbing of crypto, the conditions are in its favor. Let's see how this ages.

In a twist worthy of Ye’s own unpredictable narrative, Mr West, our favorite Neo-Nazi who famously declared “COINS PREY ON FANS WITH HYPE” earlier this year, has now launched his very own memecoin: YZY on the Solana blockchain.

The announcement, an X video that probably took Kanye 30 seconds to make, sent the token soaring to a staggering $3 billion market cap within 40 minutes of its debut.

When will we ever learn?

The carnage followed just as fast. YZY dropped two thirds of its value within hours as early “traders” cashed in, creating over $740 million in volume, and some of them extracting over $10M from retail degenerates.

Those “Lucky” traders happen to also have been the ones making massive profits from $LIBRA earlier this year, which was launched by none other than the president of Argentina.

In true celebrity coin fashion, bubble maps also showed that 70% to over 90% of the $YZY supply remains in the hands of wallets linked to YE’s inner circle or affiliated entities.

Under the hood, $YZY is part of Ye’s broader “YZY Money” ecosystem, promising a crypto payments system called Ye Pay, a YZY Card, and access to an on chain Yeezy shopping universe. Lmao, who are we kidding?

At the end of the day, $YZY is most likely going to be added to the pile of dead influencer coins with a red “-99%” next to their ticker. It really isn’t surprising, but for those with over 6 brain cells, it proved to be a good short.

[All topics are meant to be educational only. None of it is financial advice, please do your own research.]

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