Tether+Rumble, stablecoins as money

plus: market optimism, intensifying protest, nuclear pacts and more

“The bird that sleeps on the back of the hippopotamus does not think about losing its perch until the hippopotamus actually moves.” – James Dale Davidson ||

Hey everyone! I hope you’re all doing well.

If you have any questions on anything, hop on over to the Substack chat, I’ll be checking in there pretty much daily for the rest of the quarter and sharing thoughts, issues and updates. And sometimes photos of my city, Madrid, because why not?

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IN THIS NEWSLETTER:

• What’s the next step for the Tether/Rumble alliance?

• The BoE stablecoin op-ed contained some surprises. Why does this matter for the ecosystem?

• Why aren’t markets aren’t phased by the shutdown?

• Why should we keep an eye on the GeZ protests?

• What’s behind the US/Qatar pact?

(Pushed to tomorrow: tokenization in Q4, Stripe’s moves this week, ECB paper, Citi and stablecoins, and a lot more from my backlog)

WHAT I’M WATCHING:

Tether, Rumble and AI

Earlier this year, I wrote about Tether’s $775 million “strategic” investment in P2P video platform Rumble, musing that we would soon see signs of a rethinking of the traditional media business model. How? By linking stablecoins to video consumption.

An overlooked feature of stablecoins is their suitability for micropayments, something credit card-based commerce has not managed to pull off.

And Rumble prides itself on being censorship-free, which makes the case for a decentralized web of connected wallets rather than centralized payment providers that can have their deplatforming arm twisted.

Well, what do you know, Tether has announced that Rumble will be a key launch platform for its planned US stablecoin USAT. It most likely won’t end up being the only one, but it’s an intriguing partnership for both Tether and Rumble.

The video platform is well-connected: JD Vance’s company Narya Capital was one of the first investors in Rumble, and the Vice President has personally invested, according to filings. And Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick was instrumental in taking Rumble public back in the day. But Rumble’s business model is flagging: Q2 revenue was up 12% vs the same period last year, but losses continued to deepen.

Introducing stablecoin wallets and payments will help with reducing transaction costs and therefore boosting margins for the media business. But there could be something more going on here: the nexus between artificial intelligence, stablecoins and media.