Episode Details

Unfiltered Chat | FOMC Decisions, Stablecoin Shakeups, & the Global Bitcoin Pulse
🗓️ Date: June 19, 2025
🎧 Hosts: RA George (Blockchain DXB + Bitcoin DXB) & Markose Chentittha (Oort Foundation + Society X)

Welcome to another insightful episode of Unfiltered Chat, your weekly deep-dive into the pulse of crypto, blockchain, and AI – live from the Middle East to the world. Co-hosted by RA George and Markose Chentittha, this episode covers breaking developments across regulation, geopolitics, DeFi, stablecoins, and more.

• 📊 FOMC Meeting Recap:
  Federal Reserve leaves interest rates unchanged – bullish for Bitcoin and crypto markets.

• 🧓 Jerome Powell’s Future?
  Speculation intensifies on Powell being replaced in 2026. Potential successors:

  • Kevin Warsh

  • Scott Besennett

• 📉 Inflation is trending lower — attributed to tariffs and macro controls.

• 📜 Major legislation now mandates:

  • U.S. dollar-pegged stablecoins must be backed 1:1 with liquid reserves (USD or short-term T-bills).

  • Raises philosophical questions: Are stablecoin issuers simply new-age banks?

• 🇦🇪 UAE Alignment:
  UAE’s new stablecoin regulations show significant similarity – hinting at global convergence.

• 🤔 Discussion Highlights:

  • Do stablecoin issuers uphold open blockchain ethos?

    • Opensource

    • Permissionless

    • Borderless

    • Neutral

    • Publicly Verifiable

    • Censorship Resistant

  • Can double-spending be prevented?

  • Will reserve audits be transparent and real-time?

  • Is there still a future for algorithmically backed stablecoins?

• 🇮🇷 Nobitex crypto exchange wiped out in a massive $90M hack.

• 🤐 Hack linked to geopolitically motivated actors; more on this in a blog by Elliptic: Read Blog

• 🔐 Not Your Keys, Not Your Crypto — security remains paramount.

• 🧱 Mining Difficulty:

  • Dropping due to rising energy costs and miner exits.

  • "Only the strong survive" – consolidation in miner ecosystems.

• 🏦 Miners Becoming Treasury Players:

  • MARA: Holds 49,000 BTC

  • CleanSpark: Holds 12,502 BTC

  • New trend = Bitcoin miners are buying and hodling BTC as strategic reserves.

• 🟧 Cardano Treasury Proposal:

  • Charles Hoskinson suggests moving $100M ADA into BTC + Cardano-native stablecoins (USDM, USDA).

• 🧮 Why It Matters:

  • Boost Cardano’s DeFi activity and Total Value Locked (TVL).

  • Current Cardano stats:

    • TVL: $356M

    • Stablecoins: $31M (~9%)

  • Solana comparison:

    • TVL: $9.8B

    • Stablecoins: $11B

  • Target: 30–40% ratio of stablecoins to TVL

• ❌ Pump.fun & Co-Founder Alon Cohen Suspended from X (Twitter)

  • Part of wider suspension targeting 20+ crypto-related accounts.

  • Allegations of billion-dollar token sale and $4B valuation.

• 📺 Black Mirror Connection:

  • Netflix episode “Common People” eerily reflects real-world dangers of social-token platforms.

• ⚔️ War & Bitcoin:

  • For the first time, major conflicts had no significant impact on BTC’s price.

  • Is Bitcoin now a