Michael Arrington 🏴‍☠️

buying bitcoin.

JUST IN: Ripple’s RLUSD volume exploding toward $1 billion monthly on Visa

Two weeks ago, watching Agnessa Pedersen mind control a drone in real time, was one of the most moving moments in my career. Agnessa is a rare and wondrous human working towards a wild future.

"A Breakthrough": White House Says Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Announcement Is Imminent zerohedge.com/crypto/breakth…

BREAKING: The SEC is set to release its so-called "innovation exemption" for tokenized stocks which will pave the path for trading digital versions of securities, per Bloomberg. Details include: 1. In a "surprise move," the SEC is leaning toward allowing the trading of tokenized assets 2. These tokenized assets would be tradeable on decentralized crypto platforms 3. The move could "reshape the landscape of the American stock market" 4. This would also be one of the US' biggest shifts into crypto infrastructure yet Tokenized assets are rapidly expanding.

Ripple is #16 on the 2026 @CNBC Disruptor 50, representing the role crypto infrastructure plays in bringing blockchain into real-world finance. The infrastructure era is here. 🚀 on.ripple.com/3RQ5Wz2

A fire alarm is going off and everyone is ignoring it.

NEW: @Ripple is the only crypto firm on @CNBC's 2026 Disruptor 50 list, ranked 16th.

Hyperliquid has quietly become crypto’s dominant fee engine, capturing 43% of all chain fees (~$11M weekly) as perpetual futures continue to out-monetize nearly every other onchain activity category. H/t @cryptounfolded

Your dog likely loves you more than anything — and science finally proves it. A new brain-imaging study has provided scientific proof of what most dog owners have always suspected: many dogs love their humans even more than they love food. Published in Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, the research led by Emory University neuroscientist Gregory Berns used fMRI scans to watch how dogs’ brains lit up in response to different rewards. Dogs were first trained to associate one toy with food and another with enthusiastic praise from their owner. The findings were striking: while a few dogs leaned toward treats and some showed no clear favorite, a remarkable four out of the fifteen participants consistently chose praise over food—even when both were offered at the same time. For those dogs, the neural reward centers activated more strongly for their owner’s happy voice than for the promise of a snack. This builds on earlier work from the same lab showing that dogs’ brains respond more powerfully to their owner’s scent than to the scent of any other person or dog. The message is clear: for a significant number of dogs, the bond with their human isn’t just about getting fed. They genuinely crave our affection and approval, which means praise can be every bit as motivating (and far healthier) than treats when it comes to training and strengthening that special relationship.

The 10-year Treasury yield is perhaps the most important financial benchmark in the global fiat system, as it drives valuations and market trends worldwide. It is widely—and erroneously—regarded as the risk-free rate of return. The 10-year Treasury yield can be thought of as a key barometer of the US dollar-based fiat system—a critical measure akin to its beating heart. Bond yields move inversely to bond prices. When bond prices fall, bond yields rise. A rising 10-year Treasury yield signals trouble for the US dollar because it means investors are selling Treasuries, which pushes up the US government’s borrowing costs. That is why the 10-year Treasury yield is a major pain point for the US government. The 10-year Treasury yield was 3.97% when the war started. Now it is around 4.60%, an increase of roughly 63 basis points. I expect the 10-year Treasury yield to keep climbing over the coming weeks and months—until it forces the Fed’s hand. At that point, the intervention will be sold as “stability,” but the mechanism will be familiar: suppress yields by debasing the currency. At today’s debt levels, every 1 basis point increase in the government’s average borrowing cost adds roughly $3.9 billion in annual interest expense. So a 63 bps rise is not trivial—it translates to nearly $250 billion in additional yearly interest costs, materially widening a 2025 budget deficit that was already around $1.8 trillion. Higher yields mean the US government must pay tens or even hundreds of billions more in interest on its debt. At the same time, the global economy faces even greater added costs because Treasury rates serve as the benchmark for borrowing worldwide. That is not an insignificant move. However, given all the headwinds I have discussed, I suspect the 10-year Treasury yield is headed much higher because investors will demand higher yields to compensate for rising inflation. Further, if Hormuz remains closed, drastically higher oil prices are all but certain. Higher energy prices mean higher prices across the economy and higher official inflation rates, which means investors will demand still higher yields to compensate. The problem is that interest on the federal debt is already over $1.2 trillion and is now the second-largest item in the budget. The US government cannot afford yields going much higher because the interest expense would push it toward bankruptcy. I am not sure how—or even if—the US government can manage this situation. Something has to give, and we will not have to wait long to find out what. The Iran war may prove to be more than another foreign policy disaster. It could be the trigger that exposes the fragility of the entire dollar-based financial system.

American consumers are now facing 7%+ mortgage rates, 4%+ inflation, and a 30% loss in the purchasing power of the US Dollar since 2020. The second half of 2026 is going to be interesting to say the least.

@KeliCallaghan @BusinessInsider @Arrington_Cap Sorry everyone, it's so great to be me.

Lucky to work alongside one of the best💫 Congrats to @arrington for making Business Insider’s 2026 list of top early-stage investors! @BusinessInsider @Arrington_Cap businessinsider.com/seed-100-best-…

@Arrington_Cap @BusinessInsider

Our own @arrington on The Seed 100 from @BusinessInsider's latest list of the top early-stage investors of 2026!

Truly honored to be recognized on @BusinessInsider's 2026 Seed 100 list. Credit goes to the founders and teams executing on hard stuff every day. On a side note, it's great to finally have my amazingness recognized.

Agree

Jury says no to Elon in OpenAI lawsuit.

@KlaytM damnit! I'm still in.

@arrington Kills every bug in the area, ecosystem collapses 😅

This may be the greatest human invention since the wheel. perplexity.ai/search/6451f5e…

@KeithGrossman Wonderful! Happy to be a small part of this.