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 Friday, March 21st, and today we are talking big acquisitions,

bigger appearances, and much, much more. Before we get into that, however, if you're enjoying

the breakdown, please go subscribe to it, give it a rating, give it a review, or if you want to dive

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breakdown pod. All right, friends, well, Scott is on vacation this week, so there is no Friday

five. Kind of works out for us, though, because there was a lot going on over the last couple of days

that is very useful to dig into, starting with the fact that yesterday, President Trump made

his first appearance at a crypto conference

since inauguration, appearing via video at Blockworks Digital Assets Summit in New York.

Trump declared that the United States is going to dominate crypto and the next generation

of financial technologies. It's not going to be easy, but we're way ahead. He ran through the

administration's actions to date, mentioning the White House Crypto Summit, signing the executive order creating the strategic Bitcoin Reserve, and quote, ending the last

administration's regulatory war on crypto, including stopping the lawless Operation Chokepoint 2.0.

Trump elaborated that Operation Chokepoint went far beyond regulation, claiming it was a, quote,

form of lawfare through government weaponization. Frankly,

it was a disgrace. Trump reiterated that he has called on Congress to create common-sense rules

for stable coins and crypto market structure. He said, it's so big, I think as big as you can get.

Pioneers like you will be able to improve our banking and payment system and promote greater

privacy, safety, security, and wealth for American consumers

...