CRYPTO 101 Podcast — Crypto Rundown: Macro Volatility Hits Crypto... The Bullish News Under the News Flow

Date: January 21, 2026
Hosts: Bryce Paul & Brendan Viehman
Special Guest: Brian (likely Brian Armstrong or a prominent crypto expert named Brian)

Overview

This episode dives deep into the current high volatility in both the crypto and traditional markets, attributed mainly to macroeconomic uncertainty and political decision-making. Hosts and guests analyze recent political developments affecting the markets, discuss the New York Stock Exchange's plans for 24/7 trading (and its partnership with Chainlink), highlight bullish signals beneath the negative headlines, and share updates on momentum moneymakers, meme coins, NFTs, and crossover between the crypto and content creator worlds. The tone is frank, energetic, and optimistic despite short-term price pain.

Table of Contents

• Market Meltdown: Macro Forces and "Red Everywhere"
• Unpacking the Macro "Chili": Politics & Policy in Focus
• Trump, Tariffs, and the Greenland Gambit
• Crypto Performance: Facts, Figures & The Political Scoreboard
• Bullish News ‘Under the Hood’: Gold/Bitcoin RSI & Wall Street Tokenization
• The NYSE, Chainlink, and 24/7 Markets
• Brian Armstrong vs. The White House: Regulation & The Clarity Act
• Institutional Adoption: Bullish Data Points
• Content Meets Crypto: Mr. Beast, BitMine & Billionaire Backing
• Momentum Projects: Meme Coins, NFTs, and Real-world Utility
• Listener Q&A: Gold, Crypto Events, and Closing Thoughts

Market Meltdown: Macro Forces and "Red Everywhere"

Theme: Markets are down hard; crypto is especially punished as macro fears hit all risk assets.

• Market Recap (02:03–04:39):
  • Major stock indexes down 1.5–2%.
  • Bitcoin down nearly 5%; Ethereum down 6.5%; Monero down ~25%.
  • Fear & Greed Index set to tip into “fear.”
• Brian: "Solana down almost 12% on the week... nothing fundamentally, just macro affects smaller cap coins harder." (03:04)
• Monero Special Note: Massive hack (approx. $250M) led to Monero price spike from laundering.

"We're live on YouTube... And it's not too hard to figure out what's going on, but we do want to pull it up. It is quite the, quite the red day here." — Host (02:03)

Unpacking the Macro "Chili": Politics & Policy in Focus

Theme: Macro uncertainty, driven by US politics, is causing whiplash—markets hate not knowing.

• Host: Supreme Court delays Trump tariffs decision, new rules for credit card interest rates ("cap at 10%"), Trump’s inflammatory diplomacy on Greenland.
• Big issue: Uncertainty crushes risk appetite; markets "can digest bad news," but "hate not knowing." (04:39–07:44)
• Brian: "We're throwing everything into this chili... It's becoming a bit of a hot mess. Might be too spicy for everyone out there." (07:44)

"I think what the market truly hates is not knowing. And we're just in this absolute... chili." — Host (04:39)

Trump, Tariffs, and the Greenland Gambit

Theme: Escalating rhetoric around Greenland and EU tariffs mirrors prior trade wars, spooks markets.

• Brian: "Let's buy some countries. Let's take control of some countries nicely... Now it's an actual talking issue." (12:25)

  • Trump threatens tariffs: 10% on EU (Feb 1), up to 25% (June 1) if no support for Greenland acquisition.

• Speculation: Will tariffs repeat the volatility of the US/China trade war?

• Quote: “We've seen this playbook before... The markets hate that. They don't like uncertainty.” (12:26–14:12)

• Clip Reference: Scott Bessant from Davos—advises “do not escalate.”

"We have like Scott Bessette coming out and talking about it... If you're not going to support it, I'm going to slap 10% tariffs on the EU..." — Brian (12:26, summarized)

• Host: "This is not movies... This is reality TV, social media style... curveballs every day." (15:14)

Crypto Performance: Facts, Figures & The Political Scoreboard

Theme: Irony: Trump originally seen as bullish for crypto; markets now down since Trump reelection

• Host: Running tally shows Bitcoin -13%, ETH -5%, Solana -50% since Trump's first year back.
  • “If you want the crypto vote, you better turn this story around for midterms.”
• Brian: "We had our own celebrations and we had some opportunities... but the fact is that prices are down right now." (18:22)
  • “Only a couple pieces of news could turn the market very bullish.”

Bullish News ‘Under the Hood’: Gold/Bitcoin RSI & Wall Street Tokenization

Theme: Surface negativity belies deeper bullish signals

• Bitcoin vs Gold RSI (19:58):
  • First time in history Bitcoin's price vs. gold hits RSI of 30 (oversold) — historically preludes sharp Bitcoin upside.
  • “It’s not a slow catch up... It’s a repricing.” (19:58)

The NYSE, Chainlink, and 24/7 Markets

Theme: NYSE embracing tokenization and partnering with Chainlink is huge validation

• Host: NYSE building a 24/7 tokenized equities platform, picking Chainlink to build.
  • “It looks like they’re going to partner and use Chainlink... huge vote of confidence for Chainlink.” (21:30)
• Brian: "There couldn't be a bigger vote of confidence for crypto... But macro can even depress bullish headlines." (22:11)
  • “Chainlink down 5% on this news. In better conditions, it's up 40%!” (22:11)

Brian Armstrong vs. The White House: Regulation & The Clarity Act

Theme: Policy limbo, especially around Clarity Act, is feeding the FUD and price whiplash

• Clip: Brian Armstrong at Davos on competition & tokenization (24:08):
  • “New York Stock Exchange announcing their interest in tokenized equities is just one more data point of crypto updating the financial system... There should be clear rules... then everyone competes. That’s how the customer benefits.” — Brian Armstrong (24:08)
• Panel Chatter: Armstrong pulled support for the Clarity Act; this upset the White House, leading to public posturing.
  • Ongoing “back and forth” fuels market jitters.

“We literally see this news happening in front of us as it's going on and the price reacts.” — Brian (26:37)

Institutional Adoption: Bullish Data Points

Theme: Long-term adoption remains strong—advisors, Wall Street, asset managers all getting deeper

• Host:
  • 99% of financial advisors who allocated to crypto in 2025 will increase or maintain their exposure (Bitwise/Bloomberg).
  • JP Morgan: crypto inflows could surpass $130 billion/year.
  • Vanguard (long-time skeptic) now buying MicroStrategy for value index fund.
• Brian: “When you zoom out... institutions, advisors, money managers—they’re still very interested and still buying crypto.” (30:50)

Content Meets Crypto: Mr. Beast, BitMine & Billionaire Backing

Theme: The convergence of creator culture, major capital, and crypto signals how the next bull is forming

• BitMine invests $200M into Mr. Beast’s “Beast Industries” (34:45):
  • Mr. Beast rumored to be launching a crypto wallet and financial services arm.
  • Chamath Palihapitiya (All In Podcast) revealed as early investor.
• Brian: "Just with his massive audience in mainstream for crypto adoption, I love this partnership... If you ever doubt crypto: take a step back—yes, it's going to work out." (40:37)

“If Beast Financial is trying to build... how could it not be based on Ethereum? You don’t give $200M otherwise.” — Host (36:12)

Momentum Projects: Meme Coins, NFTs, and Real-world Utility

Theme: Even in bearish conditions, real adoption and product-market fit are emerging

Highlights & Notable Quotes:

• Pudgy Penguins x Manchester City (43:02):

  • “Much more than a meme coin... keep doing what you’re doing.” — Brian

• Polymarket hitting all-time high activity (44:30): Predictive/betting markets are entering a “supercycle.”

  • “I've had more questions about Polymarket over the past few days than since the election—just from normies.” — Brian (44:42)
  • “When in doubt, zoom out, buy the dip boys.” — Ziggy, friend of show (32:36)

• Pump.fun evolves into $3M hackathon for real projects (47:28):

  • "They're trying to optimize their existing ecosystem... moving beyond just memes."

• Rec drinks + token at Giant Eagle (49:35):

  • Buy real drinks, receive tokens redeemable for real $.
  • “This is Web3 and Web2 colliding... You’re making money buying a product.” — Brian

• Caveat: BFS/Beast Financial token (“ruggery”) (51:48–54:23):

  • Explains cautionary tale of a meme coin riding Mr. Beast hype with zero actual connection. Rug pulled: “Lost $40M in market cap in just about a few hours.”

Listener Q&A: Gold, Crypto Events, and Closing Thoughts

Is it too late to invest in gold? (54:23–58:20)

• Hosts: Gold's chart is parabolic, but every time Bitcoin/gold RSI gets this low, Bitcoin mean-reverts hard.
• “Bitcoin presents opportunity on volatility; its returns outpace gold by multiples when it bounces.” — Host

What crypto events are you attending?

• Consensus (Miami), Bitcoin 2026 (Vegas), ETH Denver
• “If you’re there, hit me up for a coffee!” — Brian

Closing Take:

• Steak & Shake embraces Bitcoin payments: Stores see 10–15% sales jump, $10M in strategic reserve.
  • “If I had one near me, I'd go all the time... but I wouldn't use my BTC!” — Brian (62:28)

Notable Quotes (with Timestamps)

• "Solana down almost 12% on the week... nothing fundamentally, but macro can just hit the smaller caps harder." — Brian, 03:04
• "We're throwing everything into this chili... Might be a little too spicy for everyone out there." — Brian, 07:44
• "We've seen this playbook before... the markets hate that. They don't like uncertainty." — Brian, 12:26
• "If you want the crypto vote for the midterms, you gotta turn this story around." — Host, 18:22
• “There couldn't be a bigger vote of confidence for crypto [than the NYSE using Chainlink].” — Brian, 22:11
• "Crypto is updating the financial system... There should be clear rules... then everyone competes. That's how the customer benefits." — Brian Armstrong (via audio clip), 24:08
• "Zoom out. Advisors, wealth managers, institutions—they're still very interested and still buying." — Brian, 30:50
• “Is this crypto thing gonna work out? Yes. A lot of smart, very educated people are doubling and tripling down.” — Brian, 40:37
• "When in doubt, zoom out, buy the dip boys." — Ziggy (community member), 32:36
• "Content is king. People come to view content now through... it's not CNN or CNBC, it's great threads on Twitter." — Brian, 40:37

Key Takeaways

• Short-term pain, long-term gain: Massive volatility is being driven by macro and political factors, but long-term fundamentals are only getting stronger—with institutional adoption, creator-backed projects, and Wall Street infrastructure shifting on-chain.
• Macro uncertainty is the main culprit: Markets prefer clear outcomes, even if bad; delay and confusion are poison.
• Tokenization & 24/7 markets: The NYSE's embrace of Chainlink and 24/7 trading is a milestone for the whole industry.
• Regulation uncertainty continues to weigh: The White House, Clarity Act, and industry response are moving the market in real-time.
• Bullish catalysts everywhere: Institutional inflows, headline partnerships, and real-world uses abound if you "zoom out."
• Culture + Crypto: The confluence of content creators, investors, and crypto products (Mr. Beast, Chamath, BitMine) reveals where mainstream adoption will come from next.

For the Crypto Curious:

• Feeling bearish? Zoom out. The market reacts fast, but beneath the noise are seismic shifts toward digital finance, real-world use, and community-led growth.
• Watch for:
  • Resolution on major US policy issues—when clarity comes, sentiment can flip fast.
  • Mainstream brands (NYSE, Vanguard, Mr. Beast, Steak & Shake) going “on chain.”
  • Meme projects and NFTs with real utility outlasting pure hype cycles.

End of Summary