Will Lex Ham (📍Everywhere)

Renaissance Man | Vibe Chemist

[Watcher.Guru @WatcherGuru]

JUST IN: 🇯🇵 Japan to tokenize government bonds on blockchain.

[Patrick L Riley ᐰ @Acquired_Savant]

If you missed yesterday's $XRP announcement, this is what I was referring to.

Most people still don't get the significance, so allow me to elaborate:

During SEC v. Ripple Labs it surfaced that there were 1,700 NDA's between Ripple and other companies. A lot of people speculated that those NDA's pertained to banks.

Yesterday's announcement is not Speculation. Ripple publicly confirmed not just 1,700, but 13,000 banks connected through their system where $12.5T flows.

Putting that into perspective, there are 4,336 registered 'Banks and Savings Institutions' in the United States. There are also 4,287 'Credit Unions'. Many of these institutions are international throughout Western civilization.

That means that Ripple is now promulgated into almost every western (anglo-society) banking institution. That is where the $12.5T number comes from.

But you don't care about that right? You want to know what it will do for the price of XRP. Let's go apply the Bakkes Pipeline (Stock to flow) model:

If 20,000,000,000 $XRP move $12.5 Trillion annually the average price per $XRP is $625. That $589 number and the chart I've shared many times do not look so far out of reach now, do they?

There is hopium, and then there is this 👇

[Bull Theory @BullTheoryio]

BREAKING: Japan just confirmed a massive Yen-buying intervention.

Last time the Bank of Japan sold US dollars to save the Yen, global markets crashed brutally.

But this time it is even worse.

Today they are dealing with two problems at the same time.

Japan's 10 year bond yield is at 2.52%, the highest since 1999. The 5 year bond just hit a record high of 1.88%. The BOJ is defending the yen while its own bond market is selling off hard.

In 2024 bonds were stable. Today every dollar they spend buying yen tightens liquidity, and tightening liquidity puts more pressure on bonds already at 27 year high yields. Both problems feed each other and there is no clean way out.

Oil is at $120 and Every barrel Japan imports gets more expensive as the yen weakens, which pushes inflation higher, which forces the BOJ toward rate hikes, which slows an economy already being damaged by the US-Iran war.

The BOJ raised its inflation forecast this week to 2.8% while simultaneously cutting its GDP growth forecast to just 0.5%. Three of nine board members already voted for a rate hike at the last meeting. The BOJ is being squeezed from both sides, hike rates to defend the yen and you damage an economy already under pressure from the war.

Do nothing and the yen keeps weakening and imported inflation keeps rising.

In 2024 oil was not a factor. Today it is the core driver of everything.
Investors currently hold the largest short yen position since July 2024. Every single one of those positions is now being forced to unwind at the same time. When that happened in 2024 it did not just move the yen, it crashed stocks, crypto, and bond yields simultaneously across every major market.

Japan's Finance Minister Katayama told G7 members Japan is watching FX with a "high sense of urgency" and confirmed direct talks with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent about the yen.

And Kevin Warsh takes over as Fed Chair on May 15. If he signals any lean toward rate cuts, the interest rate gap between the US and Japan narrows and the carry trade that has been driving USD/JPY to 160 unwinds violently on its own, without any BOJ action needed at all.

In 2024 the BOJ had one tool and one problem. They spent $62 billion and it worked temporarily.

Today they have a weak yen, a bond market at 27 year highs, oil at $120, an active war raising inflation, and a new Fed Chair arriving in two weeks.

[Brad Garlinghouse @bgarlinghouse]

100%
All roads lead back to Ripple’s North Star, $XRP.

[Jake Claver, QFOP @beyond_broke]

Liquidity doesn’t just enter XRP…
it gets absorbed and locked!

It started with retail…
exchange listings created the first layer of liquidity and price discovery.

Then in 2017, Ripple locks up a massive portion of supply in escrow.
shrinking the float and setting the stage for a structural supply shock…

As the market matured, ETFs drove new institutional demand while RLUSD expanded on chain liquidity and settlement rails…

More capital will flow in, but instead of staying liquid, it will be captured..

That’s where Evernorth and DeFi come in.
Lending, liquidity pools, and collateralization mechanisms pull XRP out of circulation…

Further cementing it as institutional collateral.

Every new layer adds demand while quietly removing available supply.

The result is a tightening market, less float, more demand…

and eventually significant price expansion!

That’s when institutions really step in…

Bringing with them settlement for markets and other derivatives.

Eventually creating a world with XRP as premium collateral across the financial system…

You can be upset about how long this is taking to play out…
but this is exactly how it leads to institutional adoption for XRP

[Will Lex Ham (📍Everywhere) @WillLexHam]

@katy_kin Congrats Katy 💪💪

[Dom Kwok | EasyA @dom_kwok]

when i met with the SEC in DC last month, we specifically discussed “digital commodities”.

what most people misunderstand is that commodities derive their value from utility and supply / demand.

valuation metrics like market cap do not apply.

SEC’s official definition below.

[Jack @Jackkk]

Andrew Yang says AI will create new jobs but will destroy millions

“AI is going to create many new jobs that we cannot predict. Millions of Americans are going to lose their jobs to AI, both those statements are 100% true”

“The issue in my mind is that many of the jobs that are gonna be created are gonna be for different people with different skills than the jobs that got eliminated, and the number of jobs eliminated will be many times higher”

“The comparison I make for White Collar folks is when the internet came and did a number on local newspapers. Some people would say, oh, there’ll be new media jobs, which there were…”

“But for every 10 local reporters that lost their jobs, maybe you had 3 that then worked at BuzzFeed and now BuzzFeed is disappearing too”

“The numbers just don’t match up”

[threadguy @notthreadguy]

LIVE: THE ANDREW YANG INTERVIEW (330pm est)

Pull UP: https://t.co/lcLhHOgP77 https://t.co/j7JybBRRfG

[Jake Claver, QFOP @beyond_broke]

Every major institution that's tried to tokenize bonds or treasuries on Ethereum runs into the same wall about six months in. They need compliance built into the protocol. Not layered on top through custom contracts. Actually inside the ledger, and for a long time, that kind of solution didn't exist.

The XRPL activated the Multi-Purpose Token standard and most people are treating this that like some kind of routine infrastructure update, but let me tell you...it's not.

Here's the specific problem that's been blocking trillions of institutional capital from hitting blockchain rails:

A bank decides to issue tokenized bonds....reasonable idea. They start with Ethereum because everyone does, right? Then legal gets involved.

What happens if a sanctioned entity receives these tokens?
What if we need to freeze assets for a fraud case?
How do we clawback funds from a compromised wallet?
Who's on the hook when the smart contract has a bug?

Those questions don't have clean answers on EVM chains. So the bank hires devs to build a custom compliance layer. Six months. Half a million in audit fees. And the operational risk line on their regulatory capital allocation just got expensive. One exploit and the whole compliance framework collapses.

Most projects stall here. Not publicly. The press releases just stop coming.

So MPTs on the XRP Ledger do a whole lot to address this issue.

Deep freeze is built into the protocol. Sanction a holder, freeze them, no smart contract involved. Clawback works the same way. Protocol-native, auditable, predictable.

Identity verification sits at the ledger level too. Issuers restrict transfers to KYC-verified holders using DIDs and credentials enforced by the core protocol, not by a separate compliance layer that lives or dies on one code audit.

Transaction finality is 3-5 seconds. Fees under a penny, paid in XRP and burned. During the last Ethereum congestion cycle, gas hit $50 per transaction. For institutions running high-frequency settlement, that math is a nonstarter.
And there's a metadata field supporting the Actus standard. This is the part most people are skipping completely. It means an MPT can carry machine-readable financial contract terms, maturity dates, coupon rates, embedded directly in the token. Your risk systems read it automatically. No manual reconciliation.

Every MPT transaction burns XRP. Every new issuance locks XRP as a reserve. If RWA tokenization hits even a fraction of the projected multi-trillion scale, that demand for XRP isn't speculative. It's tied directly to settlement volume. That's a different conversation than price predictions.

Watch which institutions start issuing on XRPL over the next 12 months. The compliance problem was the blocker. MPT removed it. Execution is the question now.

Leave a comment and let me know...is your thesis on XRP utility-based at this point, or still primarily speculative?

[Brad Garlinghouse @bgarlinghouse]

3 continents, 4 global office visits, 5 days. Crossed too many time zones to count...
Recently, @MonicaLongSF and I (along with others on the Ripple leadership team) traveled to Dublin, London, Singapore and Sydney to meet with the Ripple Team (many of whom joined from our acquisitions of GTreasury, Hidden Road, Rail, Palisade and Solvexia).

A few notes from the road -
1/ centers of gravity (business and/or employee) are never stagnant, and getting out of the US coastal mindset is imperative. It was incredibly energizing to hear from new and longtime Ripplers on what moves the needle where they are.

2/ Culture cannot be taken for granted. More than ever, we’re championing a maniacal focus and eliminating bureaucracy for employees to be owners. Don’t confuse activity with progress.

3/ Adoption doesn’t happen overnight. Platforms > point solutions. Meet customers where they are, not where they might be in a couple years.

4/ AI is becoming a fundamental part of our products – especially in cash forecasting and liquidity management in real-time for the office of the CFO. Employee productivity may be where AI starts, but the end goal is much bigger.

5/ 2026 is shaping up to be another defining year. We’re in the right markets with the right capabilities across payments, custody, liquidity and treasury management. There's a huge opportunity ahead, and we are making sure XRP is at the center of it.

[Will Lex Ham (📍Everywhere) @WillLexHam]

@LeonardoAi Symbols

[Will Lex Ham (📍Everywhere) @WillLexHam]

@runwayml Mammoth

[Jake Claver, QFOP @beyond_broke]

The signs have been there all along & Ripple's deep integration into the global financial system is unlike anything we've seen in crypto. From the Federal Reserve to the World Bank, from BlackRock to the UN - they're everywhere that matters

XRP isn't just another digital asset. It's positioned to be the bridge between the old and new financial world

This is bigger than most realize

[Will Lex Ham (📍Everywhere) @WillLexHam]

@dimiwonders Wonda

[Coach, JV @Coachjv_]

CAPL + DR FRAMEWORK

CASH FLOW
• Businesses
• Dividend stocks

APPRECIATION
• Crypto: XRP, Bitcoin, WLFI, SOL, XLM, HBAR
• Stocks: ABTC, XXI

PROTECTION
• Life insurance
• Silver

LEVERAGE
• Family Bank via cash-value life insurance
• Borrow against insurance to acquire cash-flowing and appreciating assets

DE-RISK (DR)
• Continuously adjust based on economic cycles and macro conditions
• Take profits during expansion
• Build a storehouse during abundance
• Preserve capital during contraction

CORE PRINCIPLE
Money flows from the undisciplined to the disciplined.
No emotion. No guessing. No saviors.
System over feelings. Cycles over hype.

GOD. Family. Protection of your ecosystem at all costs.

Do your own research just being open on what I do. Not financial advice. What's your plan?

[Solana @solana]

XRP has stood the test of time and cemented itself as one of crypto's preeminent and most liquid currencies.

XRP's long standing utility meets Solana's high-performance execution.

[Jomboy @Jomboy_]

Dodgers stun Blue Jays to win Game 7 of the World Series, a breakdown

[MY NAME IS MY NAME 🇺🇸🪮 @ctreid89]

This makes a lot of sense.

[Elon Musk @elonmusk]

We’re bringing back Vine, but in AI form