Weekend Reading #323

This is the three-hundredth-and-twenty-third weekly edition of our newsletter, Weekend Reading, sent out on Saturday 12th July 2025

To receive a copy each week directly into your inbox, sign up here.

*****

What we're thinking.

As stock markets soldiered on, this week was about crypto. Bitcoin broke to a new all time high but the real story of the week has been Ethereum. We have been waiting a long time for Ethereum to wake up. The ingredients for an Ethereum rally have been there but what would make it happen? We have thought for a while that once Wall Street gets a whiff of what stablecoins can become, the logical next step is for them to start buying Ethereum, the main settlement layer of these stablecoins. What Ethereum has lacked up till now has been a missionary as Ben Hunt likes to call it. This week the narrative heated up with some high-profile Wall Street names, in particular Tom Lee, talking up the link between stablecoins and Ethereum. Are we about to see the much-maligned Ethereum reclaim its prize? If so, the sky is the limit. Elsewhere in crypto, crypto dudes are all waiting for the altcoin rally. And it will come, and it will be spectacular in some places. But it will likely prove fleeting. Real money isn’t buying magic internet money; it’s buying real things. And sadly, still in crypto, not much is real. Does this preclude a rally in the tail coins as we like to call them now? Not at all. Every dog has its day. But beyond a trading opportunity we wouldn’t get too clever. What about so-called Bitcoin treasury companies? When the time comes, we will short them until the end of time. But we may bubble up first. The real story is in the businesses like Coinbase, Circle and Robin Hood which has tripled down on crypto in recent weeks. Elsewhere, European defence stocks have resumed their move up after a significant pullback and after some more tariff shenanigans, copper prices went through the roof, taking the underlying producers’ stocks with it. We are all having fun, right? Right?

What we're watching.

I managed to re-watch The Godfather this week – while it’s easy to simply call it a classic, not least because it is, watching it again truly underscores how remarkable a work of art it is. Aside from being a blast from the past, seeing young versions of Hollywood superstars like Al Pacino and Diane Keaton, it’s also a reminder of how organised crime and politics have been intertwined for a long time, and remains so – where the complicity of politicians, law enforcement and organised crime in all sorts of misbehaviour is almost a natural, unavoidable feature of society. Behind the suits, manicured gardens and posh parties lies a less glamourous underbelly, which in all probability persists to this day. Perhaps it’s the uncomfortable truth that The Godfather reveals which underpins its timelessness.

Speaking of blasts from the past, Black Sabbath just last week played their last ever gig: Back to the Beginning, at Villa Park in Birmingham, where it all started nearly 60 years ago. The original Black Sabbath lineup of Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler and Bill Ward came together for the first time in almost 20 years, and their supporting bands paying tribute were the royalty of metal: Metallica, Slayer, Pantera, Guns n’ Roses, Tool, Steven Tyler, Sammy Hagar, Tom Morello, Chad Smith, Travis Barker… the list goes on. Highlights (if they could do the concert justice) here on this thread as well as this one. End of an era. EL
 
What we're listening to.
Danny Jones had a very interesting chat with a Chinese “defector” who goes by the simple name of Lei. It always fascinates me how these “defectors” have the most salacious tales to tell. It doesn’t mean they are not true but in this case she says China’s population is way lower than claimed and goes into detail about her thoughts on Xi Jinping and how he is losing power and may be imminently deposed. One way or the other this is a fascinating conversation which is worth listening to with an open mind. DC

What we're doing.

This weekend I’m off to Dorset to go camping by the beach. When weather in the UK is good one simply has to take advantage and enjoy earth, sand and fire. As is necessary in today’s world of information overload today, I look forward to unplugging and touching grass as they say. One thing one can’t help but notice is the number of Caravans on the road so seems to be thinking the same thing! DC