Written by Bryan Lutz, Editor at Dollarcollapse.com:
Every Sunday morning I sit down to write a few thoughts.
Sometimes these thoughts end up being about life, other times they are on gold, geopolitical issues affecting the markets, or the economy.
Here are three thoughts for this morning:
1. Gold rallies can be explosive.
Ronnie Stoeferle from the ‘In Gold We Trust Report’ posted this on X last week.
Gold pumped over 50% this year.
If you think this year was a recording breaking year for gold just wait for 2026, but don’t blink…
The chart could look like this sooner than you think.
2. Pavel Durov is a probably one of the least-known, most important men in the world right now. He is the founder and CEO of Telegram and his philosophy of freedom over money is extremely dangerous… to governments.
Durov’s value of freedom over money is dangerous.
That’s because money is something governments can control.
Freedom is questionable.
And more or less understood.
That’s why Durov recently spent almost four days in a concrete cell with no windows in France.
He was answering police questions about Telegram’s operations, which mainly focuses on making messaging the most financially inclusive, intuitive, and private system available.
Governments hardly understand this.
For them, privacy itself is suspicious because it renders their services irrelevant. And it can erect a wall between citizens and taxation.
His system even allows users to own their digital identities and withdraw funds (privately).
So he keeps a low profile… the majority of the time. He’s working, going to the gym, enjoying the freedom life has to offer. Rarely will you see interviews with him, until now.
Three weeks ago, Durov sat down for an interview with Lex Fridman.
Here’s the interview:
3. Big news for Bitcoin. According to America’s biggest bank, Bitcoin is officially becoming the denominator. Here’s why this is so important and what to look for. So you can make your money work.
Here’s the report…
Then I’ll tell you why this is so important.
Bloomberg reports:
JPMorgan to Allow Bitcoin and Ether as Collateral in Crypto Push
“JPMorgan Chase & Co. plans to allow institutional clients to use their holdings of Bitcoin and Ether as collateral for loans by the end of the year in a significant deepening of Wall Street’s crypto integration.
The program, offered globally, will rely on a third-party custodian to safeguard the pledged tokens, according to people familiar with the matter. It builds on JPMorgan’s earlier move to accept crypto-linked ETFs as collateral.”
JP Morgan is moving from accepting Bitcoin ETFs as collateral to accepting the coin as collateral.
It’s a big move because it changes where the counter-party risk is coming from.
Whenever a currency, loan, or casino bet is issued, it has to be backed by something.
The USD (backed by nothing in reality) is backed by the US economy. As long as economic growth outpaces debt, most mainstream economists would say the USD is trustworthy.
Your mortgage loan at a bank is backed by the appraised value of your home. If you don’t pay they can ask for it back.
And when you go into a casino and place a big $1 million bet that could payout 10x, the casino better hope it has $10 million available for you to cash out. Otherwise the casino goes bankrupt.
That’s how important counter-party risk is.
It is what everything else is based on.
So it is important to know and secure those assets. You have to know where they are, be confident they are securely stored, and believe that the asset will hold its value.
If you’ve ever bought a large amount of physical gold then you know what I’m talking about because you are aware of the storage fees.
There are warehouses out there guarded by armed men who are paid from your fees to “incapacitate” anyone who wants to steal your gold.
Well, if you scroll up and read that line in Bloomberg’s article, “The program, offered globally, will rely on a third-party custodian to safeguard the pledged tokens…”, then you will know where to invest your money.
JP Morgan, America’s largest bank, will require those who want to collateralize their loans with Bitcoin or other cryptos to hold their digital assets with a specific company.
So pay attention.
I wonder who that company will be?
Coinbase holds the Bitcoin for Blackrock’s ETF.
(Just saying…)
