Bankless
ROLLUP: Clarity Bill Stalls | Powell vs. Trump | NYC Meme Rug | Silver Explodes | X Adds Crypto
16 Jan 2026
Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Bankless Nation is the third week of January. It's time for the Bankless Weekly Roll-Up, the Clarity Bill.
Chapter 2: What investigation is the DOJ conducting into Jerome Powell?
It took front and center. It was in the Senate. It was a big conversation this week. It's probably the most important bill for crypto. I would say, David, even above the Genius Bill, which was much more straightforward, much more simple. But the Clarity Bill is supposed to do what we hope, which is provide clarity to crypto on what's legal in the U.S. and what's not.
There's some horse trading going on, though. The bank lobby hates it.
Horse trading. I've never heard of this phrase.
Yeah, horse trading. It's like all the parties are, you know, negotiating together to see what they can get in and what they'll tolerate and what they won't. You know, it's all the lobbyists working together.
Okay, we're negotiating.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Bank lobby wants to kill stablecoin yield. They don't want you to have that, David, you in particular.
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Chapter 3: What are the implications of the Clarity Bill for the crypto industry?
Right. Also, Coinbase is now rage quitting, as of the latest. Yeah, I saw that. They withdrew their support. They did. The current version of the bill, they say, is worse than it not passing. But there are some still that I appreciate and respect in crypto that still like this bill, even as is. They say it's passable.
Of course, they'd be on the Coinbase side of things in general, but we got to figure all that out, uncover the bill, and also figure out whether it's going to pass or if we actually want it.
Yeah, yeah. And what is it going to take? What do we have to give up to get that to pass versus what can we win? But there's plenty of other things to talk about. Jerome Powell, under criminal investigation from Trump's Department of Justice, is the central bank able to remain independent?
And also, also in the world of finance and our government leaders, former New York City Mayor Eric Adams issues a meme coin. And you can guess what happens next, right? What happens next? What after merely hours after you issued the meme coin?
Well, the first step when you launch a meme coin is you launch it. And the second step is always you got to rug people. You got to rug as many people as you can. Don't tell me that's what happened.
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Chapter 4: How did NYC Mayor Eric Adams's meme coin initiative unfold?
Do you think the story was any different? We're going to talk about it. Everyone place your bets. We're going to talk about the silver going absolutely parabolic and X rolling out crypto integrations while also killing InfoFly, which I think is just a fantastic thing.
Chapter 5: What investment did Tom Lee make in MrBeast Media, and why is it significant?
And also Tom Lee using his Ethereum treasury company to invest in Mr. Beast because that's the same thing.
He's got some comments on that. But before we get in, our friends over at Zama have a message.
Chapter 6: What developments are happening with World Liberty Financial?
You know, HTTP, it made HTTPS, I should say, the S stands for secure. It made the internet private.
Chapter 7: How is Polygon expanding its role in the stablecoin market?
Well, Zama is doing exactly the same thing for crypto. I mean, because privacy and crypto, of course, would be very nice. In the early days of the internet, everything was clear, text, no privacy.
Chapter 8: What changes is X implementing regarding crypto integration?
It still feels like those days in crypto right now on chains like Bitcoin, on Ethereum, on Solano. Well, no more. Zama is providing HTTPZ, which is the confidential web they are launching as well. The Zama token, applying their technology to the ICO. So if you want to go experience Zama, you can actually do that as you participate in the ICO. The auction is starting on January 21st.
So that's coming up soon. My favorite thing about Zama, we talked to Rand, the founder of Zama, David. My favorite thing about it is it adds privacy to existing chains. You have to go to a whole new chain to get your privacy. You can get it on the chain.
Privacy comes to you.
Yeah, starting with Ethereum. So you can go check that out. Participate in the ICO as well. That is at bankless.com.cc slash Zama hyphen auction. A link in the show notes. David, let's talk about the big, big, big news on the week, which was Jerome Powell. And did you see the video that he sent out last Sunday?
Yes.
Yeah, basically, hey, world, look at this injustice that is happening to the central bank's independence. Donald Trump is coming after me. Let's watch a bit of this clip.
Good evening. On Friday, the Department of Justice served the Federal Reserve with grand jury subpoenas, threatening a criminal indictment related to my testimony before the Senate Banking Committee last June. That testimony concerned, in part, a multi-year project to renovate historic Federal Reserve office buildings.
I have deep respect for the rule of law and for accountability in our democracy. No one, certainly not the Chair of the Federal Reserve, is above the law. But this unprecedented action should be seen in the broader context of the Administration's threats and ongoing pressure. This new threat is not about my testimony last June or about the renovation of the Federal Reserve buildings.
It is not about Congress's oversight role. The Fed, through testimony and other public disclosures, made every effort to keep Congress informed about the renovation project.
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