GM to all of you nutcases. It’s Crypto Nutshell #854 droppin' the scoop… 🍦🥜

We're the crypto newsletter that's more haunting than a hotel where the walls remember every guest who never checked out… 🏨👁️

What we’ve cooked up for you today…

What’s in the Crypto Nutshell Portfolio?

BREAKING: Charles Schwab Is Gearing Up to Offer Bitcoin, Ethereum Spot Trading

In 2019, Charles Schwab called crypto "purely speculative."

Now it's launching spot Bitcoin trading…

Seven years later, the firm managing $12.2 trillion in client assets just opened a waitlist for direct Bitcoin and Ethereum trading.

The launch is expected this quarter.

That's not a small player testing the waters. Schwab has 38.9 million active brokerage accounts and averages 9.9 million trades per day.

CEO Rick Wurster said the rollout will start in Q2 before expanding.

The new "Schwab Crypto" account will let clients buy and sell Bitcoin and Ethereum alongside their stocks and bonds, all in one place.

But there are some limits at launch…

The service won't be available in New York or Louisiana. Clients can't transfer crypto in from external wallets. And holdings won't be covered by FDIC or SIPC protection.

But the direction is clear.

And as you know, Schwab isn't alone.

Morgan Stanley is preparing to offer spot Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana trading through E*Trade.

EDX Markets, backed by Schwab, Citadel, and Fidelity, just filed for an OCC national bank charter. The infrastructure for traditional finance to plug into crypto is being built across the board.

This is all happening while Bitcoin trades around $69,000, up 3% today on positive Iran news, but still down 45% from its October highs.

The price action is ugly. But the biggest names in finance keep moving in the opposite direction.

Schwab's Wurster put it simply last year: "The risk isn't about owning Bitcoin anymore. It's the opportunity cost of having no exposure at all."

When the firm that once dismissed crypto as speculation starts selling it to 39 million clients, the narrative has clearly shifted. 🚀

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Lawrence Lepard just posted 1 chart that explains everything happening right now.

And what's coming next…

Lepard is a 42-year veteran investment manager, Harvard MBA, Managing Partner at Equity Management Associates, and author of "The Big Print: What Happened to America and How Sound Money Will Fix It."

He's spent his career managing funds focused on gold, silver, and Bitcoin.

His entire thesis boils down to 4 words: fix the money, fix the world.

And this week, he connected the dots between war, spending, and what it all means for Bitcoin:

Then he shared a chart showing U.S. defence spending from 2000 to present:

The proposed FY2027 budget? $1.5 trillion.

That's up from $886 billion in FY2026. A 69% year-over-year increase. The largest jump since the Korean War.

Let that number sink in.

The largest increase in defence spending since the 1950s.

Lepard pointed out that as his book details, nearly every major inflation event in U.S. history came from wartime spending.

Starting in 1776 and 1812. WWI doubled the price level. So did WWII. The only exception was COVID, which involved war-like spending without an actual war.

And now? The Iran conflict is escalating. Defence budgets are exploding. And the question Lepard is asking is the only one that matters.

"How are we going to pay for this?"

His answer? 2 words. Big Print.

The government doesn't have $1.5 trillion lying around for defence.

It's already running massive deficits. The only option is the same one it has used every single time before: print the money and debase the currency.

That's the setup. Wartime spending leads to money printing. Money printing leads to inflation. Inflation leads to the debasement of fiat. And debasement drives capital into hard assets with fixed supply.

Gold knows this. It's was ripping all 2025.

Bitcoin knows this too. It's just loading the spring. 🚀

Let’s kick off the week with a look at the Bitcoin HODL Waves - one of the clearest snapshots of market conviction.

Each coloured band represents the percentage of Bitcoin that last moved within a specific time frame.

The cooler the colour, the older the coins - with purple showing Bitcoin that hasn’t moved in 10+ years.

Today we’ll be focusing on long-term holders (LTHs) - defined as coins held for more than six months.

Here’s how the Bitcoin supply breakdown looks today compared to two weeks ago:

TL;DR: 71.83% of all Bitcoin has not moved in over six months. 🔒

Up from 71.18% two weeks ago. The long-term base just keeps expanding.

The gateway band is doing the heavy lifting. The 6-12 month cohort grew another 0.42% as coins crossed the long-term holder threshold - a pipeline that hasn't slowed down all year.

Meanwhile, the 1-2 year group shed 0.24%. But before you read that as selling, look where it went. The 2-3 year band jumped 0.46% - the biggest single move across all cohorts. Those coins didn't hit exchanges. They just got older.

The ancient supply tells its own story. The 10+ year base climbed to 17.35%. The 5-7 year group ticked higher. Small moves, but always in the same direction - deeper into cold storage, further from the market.

Nearly three quarters of all Bitcoin is now dormant. Not parked for weeks. Not waiting for a bounce to sell. Held for six months or more through one of the most volatile stretches of the cycle.

That's not just holding. That's a statement. 💎

Lucky solo bitcoin miner beats 1-in-28,000 daily odds to win $210,000 block reward. A solo bitcoin miner using CKpool collected roughly $210,000 for solving the 312th solo block cracked with the software since its 2014 launch.

Bitcoin ETFs Will Be Bigger Than Gold ETFs, Says ETF Analyst. Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart said Bitcoin ETFs are set to overtake gold ETFs, citing the broader range of reasons investors might include Bitcoin in their portfolios.

Bitcoin Miner MARA Slashes 15% of Workforce After Selling $1.1 Billion in BTC. Publicly traded Bitcoin miner MARA cut 15% of its staff this week after selling $1.1 billion in Bitcoin to fuel an AI push.

Drift says $270 million exploit was a six-month North Korean intelligence operation. Attackers posed as a trading firm, met Drift contributors in person across multiple countries, deposited $1 million of their own capital, and waited half a year before executing the drain.

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Select your answer below and you’ll be redirected to the results page. (answer explanation can be found after “Meme Corner”)

Because what would the crypto world be without its share of memes?

Trivia Answer: Global market panic as COVID-19 lockdowns began 🥳

On March 12, 2020 (known as "Black Thursday"), Bitcoin plunged from around $8,000 to below $4,000 as every asset class sold off in a global liquidity crisis. It recovered to pre-crash levels within two months.

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DISCLAIMER: The content of this newsletter is not financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice. Please be careful and do your own research.