The Plot Is In The Plumbing & Bitcoin Can Smell the Printer

[0:01] YO, what is going on you guys? Welcome
[0:05] back to another episode of Mailbag
[0:08] Monday. I am your host Jack and this is
[0:11] episode 91.
[0:16] Boys and girls, I come at you live at a
[0:19] Bitcoin price of $16,040
[0:23] US. Bitcoin's market cap eases a bit
[0:26] above 2.1 trillion at $2.12 trillion.
[0:30] All-time high has not changed. It was
[0:33] made on October 6, 2025.
[0:35] We still remain at $126,160
[0:39] as our all-time high. We're about 15%
[0:42] off the all-time high as I talk to you
[0:45] right now. For those of you that have
[0:47] moved on from UTC, Eastern time, all
[0:50] that nonsense, and you keep track of
[0:52] Bitcoin block time, the last Bitcoin
[0:55] block to be mined since I hit record is
[0:58] Bitcoin block height 923 23,64.
[1:04] How the hell are we? Good to see you
[1:08] all. Let's open the chat. So, I'm on the
[1:10] road. I'm on the road again. I am in
[1:13] Miami at the Caner conference. Um,
[1:18] funniest thing ever. Um, honestly,
[1:22] everybody watches this show, which I
[1:25] love and I appreciate. And if you're new
[1:26] here, consider hitting subscribe, but
[1:28] like Visa watches this show. Some really
[1:31] big investors watch this show, which is
[1:33] hilarious. I run this show like I'm
[1:37] talking to myself in a room because I am
[1:39] like I just shoot the [ __ ] But anyways,
[1:41] I'm sure Caner watches this show, so
[1:43] it'll be funny for them to hear this
[1:45] version of the story, but uh the
[1:47] conference is at the Ritz Carlton. Okay,
[1:49] so um I'm a carniv I'm on the carnivore
[1:52] diet. You know, I do all these health
[1:54] things. You know, things like carnivore
[1:56] remind me of getting into Bitcoin. When
[1:58] I travel, sometimes the easiest way to
[2:00] be on carnivore is uh just going to
[2:03] McDonald's and getting a bunch of beef
[2:04] patties. It kind of sounds gross. It's
[2:07] not. Um and it's real beef. And so I'm
[2:10] like, "Okay, I landed. I'm preparing for
[2:12] the show. I need to eat before the show.
[2:13] I have an event after the show." And so
[2:16] I'm like, "All right, I'm gonna walk to
[2:17] McDonald's five minutes away. I'm gonna
[2:19] get a couple pounds of beef patties,
[2:21] guys." I'm in a hoodie. I'm in my
[2:23] flip-flops. I just got off a flight. I
[2:25] walk into the lobby of the Ritz Carlton
[2:27] with two pounds of McDonald's beef
[2:30] patties.
[2:32] These Wall Street guys are looking at me
[2:34] like, "That's the CEO of 21."
[2:38] When I tell you I smelled like a cooked
[2:42] cow
[2:43] walking around the McDonald's bag has
[2:46] broken, so I'm like carrying it like my
[2:48] newborn child.
[2:51] And they're like, "Jack, Jack, I'm need
[2:52] 30 minutes of your time. Jack, Jack, I'm
[2:55] Can you explain uh Bitcoin uh fixed
[2:57] supply issuance to me?" I said, "Guys,
[3:01] I got to go scarf these beef patties
[3:03] down and I got to record the Jack Maller
[3:06] show." So, it's good to see you guys
[3:10] coming into you live from Miami at the
[3:12] Ritz Carlton, baby. So, with that, let's
[3:16] go. Title of today's show is the plot is
[3:19] in the plumbing and Bitcoin can smell
[3:22] the printer. Fiscal dominance continues
[3:25] to strengthen. It's becoming a serious
[3:27] problem. And as I've told you guys
[3:28] before, Bitcoin is a truth machine. It's
[3:31] telling you the realities of the world
[3:33] around you. things like the US
[3:35] government, things like the stock
[3:36] market, things like the Federal Reserve.
[3:38] These things are distorting reality.
[3:41] They're manufacturing volatility to be
[3:44] down. They're engineering risk out of
[3:46] your life. They're not telling you the
[3:48] truth. They're not telling you what's
[3:49] real. Bitcoin is. It's in fact, I'd make
[3:52] the argument Bitcoin is the only free
[3:53] market we have left in the world. And
[3:56] so, as the plot thickens, and the plot
[3:58] to me is in the plumbing. It's in the
[4:00] financial system. It's in the pipes. and
[4:02] the pipes are breaking.
[4:04] Seeing Bitcoin bounce around, seeing it
[4:06] react, seeing it move 5% up over the
[4:08] weekend as the US government seems to be
[4:11] coming back and as Trump is introducing
[4:14] stemmies.
[4:16] You hear that? You hear that? That's the
[4:19] money printer. It's really interesting
[4:21] to see Bitcoin move. So, first and
[4:23] foremost, for chapter one today, let's
[4:24] talk about fiscal dominance. when
[4:26] deficits sent the monetary policy. For
[4:28] those that don't know, fiscal dominance
[4:30] is when first of all there's the US
[4:33] government which is financed by the US
[4:35] Treasury. So, you know, we've talked
[4:37] about Scott Besson, our boy Scotty B.
[4:39] Scotty B is effectively the CFO of the
[4:41] US government. He's in charge of
[4:43] financing what the US government needs.
[4:45] US government needs military. US
[4:47] government needs health and uh human
[4:49] services. It needs to pay interest on
[4:50] its debt. It has expenses and it's
[4:52] Scotty B's job to make sure that those
[4:54] expenses are met and they're met either
[4:56] with income and revenue like tax
[4:58] receipts or they're met through
[5:00] financing new debt and selling things
[5:01] like tea bills. Okay. Then you have the
[5:04] Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve is
[5:05] supposed to be an independent central
[5:07] bank. The Federal Reserve is not
[5:09] supposed to be a part of the US
[5:10] government. The Federal Reserve is
[5:12] supposed to be independent central bank,
[5:15] not political. Okay. the con. Now,
[5:18] whether that's real or not, we all know
[5:19] that the Federal Reserve is highly
[5:21] political and they exist to perpetuate
[5:24] the regime that is the Pax Americana,
[5:27] the empire. Um, but that aside, they're
[5:30] supposed to be two independent things.
[5:32] Now the concept of fiscal dominance is
[5:35] when the needs of the US government and
[5:38] the needs of the Treasury and the needs
[5:39] of Scotty B to perpetuate all Trump's
[5:43] plans and all politicians needs to get
[5:46] reelected when those needs and desires
[5:49] outweigh and crowd out the quote unquote
[5:53] independence of the Federal Reserve. So
[5:55] when I say when deficits set monetary
[5:57] policy, deficits is our government
[5:59] deficits. All the debt that we have
[6:01] created in the past and continue to
[6:03] create to march forward, it is setting
[6:06] monetary policy. It's demanding new
[6:08] money printing. It's drying up liquidity
[6:11] and that is a very dangerous place for a
[6:14] government and a currency to be in. This
[6:16] is emerging market behavior. Okay, this
[6:19] is like Argentina. Okay, this is
[6:21] behavior where the government is so
[6:23] indebted the only way out is to print a
[6:25] bunch of money and that's what I mean by
[6:28] fiscal dominance. Okay, so first
[6:30] screenshot. I've been throwing these
[6:32] terms around sofurb.
[6:35] There's all sorts of stuff. Um, I I had
[6:37] a thesis last week on the show that
[6:40] maybe the US government is purposefully
[6:42] shut down to dry up cash reserves in the
[6:47] financial system to force the Fed to do
[6:49] what the government needs them to do.
[6:51] That this would be an egregious,
[6:52] manipulative form of fiscal dominance. I
[6:54] have an updated thought on that
[6:56] actually. And so I want to walk through
[6:59] in detail, relative detail. This isn't
[7:01] the show to get too tight. You're not a
[7:03] PhD listening to me ramble. Okay? So
[7:06] relative detail but more detailed than
[7:07] usual. So first and foremost this is
[7:09] from the Federal Reserve Bank of New
[7:11] York website. Okay, as you can see in
[7:12] the screenshot and this is literally
[7:15] from their website. Secured overnight
[7:17] financing rate. So when I say sofur
[7:20] that's it. Sofr secured overnight
[7:23] financing rate. The secured overnight
[7:25] financing rate sofur is a broad measure
[7:28] of the cost of borrowing cash overnight
[7:30] collateralized by treasury securities.
[7:32] Okay. Boom. Simple. I'm not even going
[7:34] to read the rest. So, it's the cost of
[7:36] borrowing cash money collateralized by
[7:39] call it US treasuries. Okay. Next, from
[7:43] the Fed's website again, what is IO
[7:48] interest on reserves? The Federal
[7:50] Reserve pays interest on reserve
[7:52] balances. That is that IB
[7:55] that I keep referencing. The board of
[7:58] governors has prescribed rules governing
[8:00] the payment of interest by Federal
[8:01] Reserve banks in regulation D. So it's
[8:04] very simple. IB is the interest you get
[8:08] for parking your cash at the Fed. Okay.
[8:11] Sofur is the cost of borrowing cash
[8:16] collateralized by treasuries. Okay. Now
[8:19] what's been happening recently that has
[8:21] all these economists up in arms and
[8:24] panicking is that sofur the rate for
[8:27] sofur so the rate to borrow cash
[8:29] collateralized by US treasury securities
[8:32] has exceeded the interest on cash okay
[8:37] that is a big deal because traditionally
[8:40] it's not supposed to work that way it's
[8:42] intended to be the opposite okay
[8:45] [snorts]
[8:45] you do not want the cash reserves
[8:49] being lent out. You, the system is
[8:52] designed so that the interest on cash
[8:57] parked at the Fed pays you more than the
[9:00] secured overnight financing rate. Okay.
[9:03] Now, recently this rate, sorry, let me
[9:07] pull up the chat. Recently, this rate
[9:10] has done the opposite. You can see here
[9:13] this is so it's sitting it's typically I
[9:16] don't want to say there's a target
[9:17] because there's not actually a real
[9:19] target but generally in a healthy market
[9:22] it's about 10 basis points below. So you
[9:25] can see here this 0.1
[9:27] this is a healthy market we're seeing
[9:29] January well you know relative January
[9:32] 2022 through 2023 and then you can see
[9:35] some unhealthiness at the end of last
[9:38] year and it started to get a little
[9:40] volatile. it started to spike a bit and
[9:42] now it's really gone vertical very very
[9:44] recently. And if I go to the next slide
[9:48] here, um, this happened in 2019. So last
[9:53] show I referenced that this type of
[9:56] imbalance and I know it it might not
[9:58] make [clears throat] sense now. Just let
[9:58] me get through these slides. I'm reading
[10:00] some of the chat. This imbalance
[10:03] happened in 2019 right before COVID.
[10:06] Now, not the exact same, not sofur over
[10:08] the interest on cash, but the the same
[10:11] practice is that cash reserves got very
[10:13] very scarce. The Fed implemented
[10:17] something called their standing repo
[10:18] facility to basically fix this problem
[10:21] going forward. So, this is again from
[10:24] the Federal Reserve Bank of New York's
[10:25] website. What are the standing repo
[10:28] facilities operations?
[10:30] At its July 2021 meeting, the Federal
[10:34] Open Market Committee, FOMC, established
[10:37] the SRF, the standing repo facility, to
[10:40] serve as a backs stop in money markets
[10:43] to support the effective implementation
[10:45] and transmission of monetary policy and
[10:47] smooth market functioning. Th that's a
[10:50] very fancy professional Harvard educated
[10:54] way to say
[10:56] we stood up this facility where if there
[10:59] are no reserves, if people need printed
[11:02] dollars to get financing in these
[11:05] markets, they can come get it. We will
[11:08] give it to them. So the standing repo
[11:11] facility was created after the two after
[11:13] the 2019 drama and crisis that we saw in
[11:17] funding markets.
[11:19] And it is effectively a facility created
[11:21] by the Fed to give freshly printed
[11:24] dollars to protect the rate of these
[11:28] funding markets. Let me check the chat.
[11:30] Does that make sense?
[11:37] So
[11:39] in other words guys when the interest on
[11:43] reserve balances is over the sofur rate
[11:47] that means there's plenty of liquidity
[11:49] in the financial system. Okay there's
[11:51] plenty of cash to go around.
[11:55] When this happens, when the so when the
[11:58] secured overnight financing rate gets
[12:00] higher than the interest on cash, that
[12:03] means there's more US treasuries
[12:06] flooding the market that need financing
[12:08] than there is cash to finance them.
[12:11] That's the easiest way to think about
[12:12] it. When the market's operating normally
[12:15] normally, there's plenty of reserves.
[12:16] There's plenty of cash in the system.
[12:18] when it's not, when you see spikes like
[12:20] this, that means there's not enough cash
[12:23] to finance the amount of US debt that's
[12:26] being issued into the market. So, now we
[12:29] keep going. And if you guys have
[12:30] questions on this, I'm happy to answer
[12:32] in the Q&A. So, now we keep going. If we
[12:34] look at this repo facility that the
[12:37] Federal Reserve stood up, okay, so
[12:39] again, this was a facility to protect
[12:41] against these funding crisis. When the
[12:43] market gets super illquid, there's not
[12:45] enough cash reserves to finance the
[12:47] government. Guys, what's a US Treasury?
[12:49] A US Treasury is you're lending to the
[12:52] US government. Scotty B is issuing these
[12:54] things and raising money to continue to
[12:56] fund the US government because the US
[12:58] government runs about a $2 trillion
[13:00] annualized deficit a year. As the World
[13:03] Reserve Currency issuer, it's implied
[13:05] you have to run these massive deficits.
[13:08] So when we look at how active the
[13:10] standing repo facility has been, this
[13:12] will tell us how much newly printed
[13:15] money these market participants needed
[13:17] to continue to fund the government. If
[13:20] you look on Halloween night, it was
[13:22] tapped for $50 billion.
[13:27] And you can see relative to other nights
[13:29] and other days now hopefully and
[13:31] traditionally it's never tapped at all.
[13:32] You don't need newly printed money to
[13:35] sustain and finance new T bill issuance,
[13:38] new US debt.
[13:40] But the reason everyone was up in arms
[13:42] in this, including up in arms about
[13:44] this, including myself, is because you
[13:47] can start to see the system falling
[13:49] apart. You can start to see there's
[13:51] scarcity in reserves within the
[13:53] financial system. There's not enough
[13:55] cash. And the thing that people don't
[13:58] actually understand is that it's tea
[14:01] bills. It's the US government that is
[14:03] issuing these shortduration debt
[14:06] instruments. That's the reason there's
[14:08] not enough cash. If the US government
[14:10] finances itself with 10-year treasuries,
[14:13] so they're borrowing money and they
[14:15] don't they don't need to refinance or
[14:17] owe it back for 10 years for 30 years.
[14:20] That's a lot easier on Scott Besson and
[14:23] the US Treasury. They don't have to
[14:25] constantly be raising money, refinancing
[14:28] it, rolling it over when they're raising
[14:30] T bills. So all of the US government
[14:32] debt issuance since like halfway through
[14:35] Biden's term with Janet Yellen and now
[14:37] in the first year of Trump's term with
[14:39] Scott Besson, they keep going to the
[14:41] front end of the curve. They what that
[14:43] means is they're not doing 30 years or
[14:46] 10 years or even two years. They're
[14:48] doing like one to three months like what
[14:51] Tether buys. Tether is buying tea bills.
[14:54] So yes, they are buying US debt. They're
[14:57] buying very short duration. That puts a
[15:00] lot of pressure on the US government,
[15:02] particularly Scott Bessant, to be able
[15:04] to finance all of this. And so you're
[15:06] flooding the market with new T bill
[15:08] issuance. When you have so much T-
[15:11] billill issuance flooding and hitting
[15:13] the market, it pulls all the cash out of
[15:16] the system. Right? So think about it.
[15:19] all of our bank deposits, money market
[15:22] funds, endowments, these are the
[15:24] predominant lenders to the US
[15:26] government. They're buying these
[15:27] instruments. If Scott Besson instead of
[15:30] issuing like one load of 10 years and
[15:33] not having to worry about it for a
[15:34] while, he's constantly issuing these T
[15:37] bills, these shorter instruments. And so
[15:39] I and sorry if I'm overexplaining to
[15:41] those that know this, but when you're
[15:43] when you ramp up that way, you need a
[15:46] lot more cash liquidity to finance the
[15:49] US government. Now, if the US government
[15:50] could lend at 10 years, it would, but no
[15:53] one's buying that dog [ __ ] Nobody's
[15:55] buying that dog [ __ ] And so the way
[15:57] they kind of kick the can down the road
[15:58] is they say, "Okay, will you lend to us
[16:00] for 1 to three months? We understand
[16:03] that no one wants counterparty risk with
[16:05] the US government. We're $37 trillion in
[16:07] debt. there's inflation on the horizon.
[16:09] There's all sorts of problems. No one
[16:11] wants a relationship with us for 10
[16:13] years as a counterpart.
[16:16] Will you take one to three months? And
[16:18] someone like Tether says, "Yeah, I'll
[16:19] take one to three months." That's
[16:21] virtually risk-free. I mean, at the end
[16:23] of the day, you're at least going to
[16:24] give me printed new printed dollars. You
[16:26] can't default. And if I have to take
[16:29] future inflation risk for 1 to three
[16:30] months for 30 to 90 days, that's
[16:33] reasonable, right? And so that's what's
[16:36] drawing all of the liquidity out of the
[16:38] financial system. And you see the
[16:41] results of this when you see that sofur
[16:44] starts to exceed the interest on
[16:46] reserves at the Fed. And when you see
[16:48] the standing repo facility get tapped
[16:50] for $50 billion. This is 50 billion
[16:52] printed US currency to protect this
[16:55] market and prevent it from exploding and
[16:58] causing a financial crisis. Okay? And so
[17:00] I showed the screenshot last week. I'm
[17:03] going to show it again. Joseph Wang. The
[17:05] Fed will need to expand its balance
[17:07] sheet by several hundred billion a year
[17:09] and may start in December to head off
[17:12] year-end funding pressures. A
[17:14] structurally rising TGA an insatiable
[17:17] demand for repo financing leave them
[17:19] little choice. So last week my idea was
[17:23] and it's not mine to own by the way like
[17:25] guys like Luke Roman. There's a lot of
[17:26] people that have these ideas which is
[17:28] well hold on a second. There's two
[17:30] things that are really straining the
[17:32] cash reserves in the financial system.
[17:34] One is that the US government has now
[17:37] just resulted to T billills. So these
[17:38] one to threemonth debt instruments.
[17:40] They're just puking them constantly
[17:42] issuing these. So it's really pulling
[17:45] cash reserves away from sitting at the
[17:49] Fed. Okay.
[17:51] The other is that the government's been
[17:53] shut down. The government's been shut
[17:55] down the TGA, the Treasury General's
[17:57] account. So, think of it like the US
[17:58] government's checking account. So, the
[18:00] account that Scott Besset manages to
[18:02] finance the United States, it's been
[18:05] frozen because the United States hasn't
[18:07] been turned on. Someone unplugged the
[18:09] government. And so, the TGA has reached
[18:12] a trillion dollars worth of balance. And
[18:15] so, when you see Bitcoin chopping
[18:16] around, going down a little bit, guys,
[18:19] again, it's telling us something. Think
[18:21] of Bitcoin's price. Don't be mad at it.
[18:24] Don't get emotional about it. Think of
[18:26] it like a truth machine. It's speaking
[18:27] to you. When Bitcoin's going down, what
[18:29] it was telling us is there's not enough
[18:31] liquidity in the financial system. There
[18:34] is a risk of a financial crisis. Sofur
[18:37] is over interest on cash. The repo
[18:40] facilities are being tapped with freshly
[18:42] printed dollars. There is a liquidity
[18:44] crisis brewing. And the second is that
[18:47] the economy is in a lot of pain because
[18:50] the Treasury General's account can't
[18:52] spend. One of the biggest spenders in
[18:53] the US economy is the US government
[18:55] itself. We've learned this through Elon
[18:57] and Doge, right? And so the com
[18:59] combination of the two was causing a
[19:02] mini crisis, was causing potential
[19:04] systemic issues if they were to persist.
[19:06] And so my idea last week was maybe Trump
[19:10] and Bessant are doing this on purpose
[19:12] because it's the way for them to get the
[19:14] Fed on side. They've been wanting the
[19:16] Fed to slash rates, reduce the cost of
[19:19] capital, and really juice the economy
[19:22] and focus on growth, growth, growth,
[19:23] growth, growth for months since Trump
[19:26] got inaugurated. And they can never get
[19:28] him on side. And we've seen opeds from
[19:30] Fed members saying they hate Trump. It
[19:32] seemed very political.
[19:34] Okay. But my idea was maybe they shut
[19:36] down the government, which adds more.
[19:40] They're they're pulling liquidity
[19:42] further out of the financial system and
[19:47] that forces the Fed to have to pause QT
[19:50] sooner than it wanted to, start QE
[19:52] sooner than it wanted to add to its
[19:54] balance sheet. So, as Joseph says, add
[19:57] expand its balance sheet by several
[19:58] hundred billion a year at minimum. So,
[20:01] maybe this was their way to get Jerome
[20:03] on their side. That was my idea. But,
[20:06] so, and by the way, this is a screenshot
[20:08] that shows the TGA. So the the US
[20:12] government's checking account. This is
[20:13] our balance. Okay. So you can see this
[20:15] unbelievable spike that was COVID. You
[20:19] can see the TGA hit over $ 1.5 trillion
[20:22] and then it was immediately spent into
[20:24] the economy. Assets went flying, right?
[20:26] And then you can see it's kind of
[20:28] chopped around between zero and a
[20:30] trillion. Okay. And we're exceeding a
[20:32] trillion now. And this is primarily I
[20:35] thought because the government was shut
[20:36] down. And I'm like, man, Scott Besson is
[20:38] a genius. This guy's playing 3D chess.
[20:40] He's got the government shut down and
[20:43] he's puking these tea bills out into the
[20:45] market, which is pulling all the cash
[20:47] liquidity out of the financial system,
[20:49] which is causing all these systemic
[20:51] issues, which is forcing Jerome Powell
[20:53] to do what he's always wanted him to do.
[20:55] That's what I thought. Now, I saw this
[20:59] this uh Twitter thread between this guy
[21:02] John Kamisky and Luke Groman. And you
[21:05] know, Luke is I've I've shouted out Luke
[21:07] pretty much every episode. He's the goat
[21:09] to me, the macro goat. Um, I follow all
[21:12] of his stuff and he highlighted this
[21:13] thread. And so, I want to just read this
[21:16] thread to you guys because it it
[21:18] actually answers some of my hypothesis
[21:21] of last week of are Trump investment
[21:23] doing this on purpose? What's really
[21:24] going on? So, I'll read. John wrote,
[21:27] "The TGA hit $1 trillion at end of day
[21:31] on 10:30. Why did this happen?
[21:34] Treasury's risk policy combined with
[21:36] Treasury's desire for stable
[21:38] slashpredict predictable bill issuance
[21:40] forced it this high. It is mechanical
[21:44] effect that has nothing nefarious
[21:46] associated with it. So I'll pause there.
[21:49] I it wasn't even worth me. I mean the
[21:50] guy wrote a novel and he sounds really
[21:52] smart. But that's it. The point is
[21:55] Treasury's risk policy combined with
[21:57] their desire for stable and predictable
[21:59] bill issuance te issuance. So he this
[22:02] John guy is claiming it has more to do
[22:04] with the fact that they're constantly
[22:05] needing to issue these tea bills and it
[22:08] has it's not nefarious and Luke responds
[22:11] so if I understand correctly this is
[22:13] essentially a mechanical impact of more
[22:15] front-end issuance and sizable deficit.
[22:18] So Luke is saying hold on this isn't
[22:20] chess between the Fed and the US
[22:22] government. This is just the reality
[22:25] that if you're going to issue tons of T
[22:27] bills, one to three month T bills, and
[22:30] you have $37 trillion in debt, naturally
[22:33] your Treasury General's account has to
[22:35] go up. John says, "Yes, front-end
[22:37] issuance means quick redemptions versus
[22:39] coupons, which forces the risk policy
[22:42] TGA level higher. The deficit impact
[22:44] isn't nothing, but the gross debt
[22:46] redemption has more and more impact on
[22:48] the required level." Luke writes, "But
[22:51] paradoxically or conveniently, this
[22:53] higher TGA level seems to be pressuring
[22:55] funding markets right now." John says,
[22:58] "Yes, the more reserves that are tapped
[23:00] in the TGA, the fewer reserves there are
[23:03] available in the banking system." Luke
[23:06] says, "So, it's not so much that the
[23:07] current deficits, but the refinancing of
[23:10] past deficits that are biting us." John
[23:13] writes, "Yes, 1.8 trillion is a lot, but
[23:16] when you spread it over 52 weeks, it's
[23:19] not that much." So he's saying the US
[23:21] government's losing about $2 trillion a
[23:22] year, but divided by 52, it's
[23:25] sustainable, but it's concentrated
[23:28] around the first of the month, maybe 150
[23:31] billion in net spend, less receipts.
[23:34] There has been so much front-end
[23:35] issuance that over $400 billion has to
[23:38] be refinanced. Luke writes, "So over
[23:41] time, it becomes more and more of a
[23:43] treadmill type problem." John says,
[23:46] "Unsure what you mean by treadmill type
[23:48] problem." Luke says, 'Well, you have to
[23:50] run faster and faster just to stay in
[23:53] the same place as deficits occur every
[23:56] year. So, more and more financed in the
[23:58] front end every year piles up, which
[24:01] equals more and more Treasury general
[24:02] account balance. All with insufficient
[24:05] price insensitive demand for treasuries.
[24:08] Okay,
[24:10] does that make sense guys? So sofur the
[24:14] overnight funding rate is supposed to be
[24:16] below the interest you get on cash at
[24:17] the Fed. The reason that it keeps
[24:19] spiking above it is because there's so
[24:22] much tea bills being issued into the
[24:24] market. The US government needs to
[24:25] finance its debt so bad that it's
[24:27] pulling all the reserves out of the
[24:29] banking system.
[24:31] Okay, that's creating a huge problem
[24:34] with just cash reserves in the financial
[24:36] system. And so people are tapping this
[24:40] Fed repo facility printing $50 billion
[24:44] in a day to keep these markets stable.
[24:47] This is a form of yield curve control
[24:50] but it's in these funding markets. You
[24:52] know people will say oh no yield curve
[24:53] control is when you know the Fed is
[24:56] going to u ensure that the 10-year
[24:58] doesn't get high enough. Yeah, I know
[25:00] what yield curve control is technically,
[25:03] but what I'm saying practically, the Fed
[25:06] is printing money to suppress to to
[25:10] suppress a financial crisis in these
[25:12] funding markets. That's just a fact. I
[25:16] don't know how else to tell you guys
[25:17] that. That's a fact. Okay? And yes,
[25:21] maybe Trump and Bessant are playing
[25:23] chess with the Fed and the government
[25:25] shutdown has benefited them to getting
[25:27] the Fed on side because there's no
[25:29] liquidity left in the system and the Fed
[25:31] has no choice but to start printing
[25:33] money. But this back and forth shows us
[25:37] that this is just a design of the
[25:40] system. If the US government can only
[25:42] finance itself through the front end is
[25:45] what it's called, shortterm T bills,
[25:48] then the Treasury General's account has
[25:50] to have a larger cash buffer to make
[25:53] this work. It's the only way this works.
[25:57] And so the point of all of this in a in
[25:59] a potentially over complicated way, the
[26:02] financial system needs a lot more
[26:05] dollars than it already has to survive.
[26:08] Period. because you're thinking, "Oh,
[26:10] the government's going to come back on.
[26:12] The Treasury General's account can be
[26:13] spent down." No. John's point here is
[26:16] that it has to be structurally higher
[26:18] because of the deficits. This is fiscal
[26:22] dominance. Fiscal dominance is like
[26:25] someone clipped this. If people want an
[26:27] example of fiscal dominance, it doesn't
[26:29] matter what the Fed wants or thinks. The
[26:32] US government has to finance itself. It
[26:34] can only find that financing on the
[26:36] front end. No one's buying these 10
[26:38] years anymore. No one wants that level
[26:40] of counterparty risk with the United
[26:42] States. I'll lend you money in one month
[26:45] duration or three-month duration before
[26:47] you got to pay me back. That's it. And
[26:50] so those come flooding into the system
[26:52] that there's a lot of cash needed to
[26:54] finance that. There's not enough
[26:56] reserves in the system to finance the US
[26:58] government. That means rates have to
[27:00] come down. Quantitative easing in some
[27:02] capacity has to start. This is science.
[27:06] This is math.
[27:08] Okay, hopefully that made sense. Which
[27:10] leads us into QE for voters, chapter 2.
[27:14] So, this tweet from Arthur Hayes, I
[27:17] mean, this is me speaking, just in
[27:19] slightly different verbiage. Team red
[27:21] got smoked today by team blue in the
[27:24] United States. He tweeted this on the
[27:26] day Mumani got elected. Time for Trump
[27:28] and Bessant to run the printer back
[27:30] turbo in 2026 to hand out goodies so
[27:33] team red doesn't lose big in November
[27:35] 2026 at the midterms. I hope you're long
[27:38] Bitcoin. His point is very simple. It's
[27:41] a point we've been making on this show.
[27:42] The US government has no choice. The
[27:46] Federal Reserve has no choice. And I've
[27:49] said guys, I know Bitcoin four-year
[27:51] cycles. I know all the chart bros on
[27:53] Twitter say that technically in October
[27:56] 17th at 472 uh UTC the bull market ended
[28:00] because the stars aligned. Guess what? I
[28:03] don't give a [ __ ] I'm looking at the
[28:06] I'm looking at the chessboard and I'm
[28:08] seeing there's only one move my opponent
[28:10] can make and it's good for me. They have
[28:12] to print money. They don't have a
[28:16] choice. 2026 has to structurally be a
[28:19] massive year. Jerome Powell is leaving
[28:22] the Fed. Before he even departs, he's
[28:25] getting brought on side because there's
[28:27] no more reserves in the banking system.
[28:29] There's no more reserves in the banking
[28:30] system because all of them are going to
[28:33] financing the US government.
[28:36] It is time for Trump and Besson to run
[28:38] the printer back turbo in 2026 and hand
[28:41] out goodies to the people for midterms.
[28:44] Okay, we go on. This is from our dear
[28:48] boy DJT. This was today talking about
[28:52] the government shutdown. Let's give it a
[28:55] listen.
[28:57] >> Do you personally approve of the deal
[28:59] that's happening right now on Capitol
[29:00] Hill to end the government?
[29:01] >> Well, it depends what deal we're talking
[29:02] about, but if it's a deal I heard about,
[29:04] that's certainly, you know, they want to
[29:06] change the deal a little bit, but I
[29:08] would say so. I think based on
[29:10] everything I'm hearing, they haven't
[29:11] changed anything and we have support
[29:13] from enough Democrats and we're going to
[29:16] be opening up our country. It's too bad
[29:18] it was closed, but we'll be opening up
[29:20] our country very quickly.
[29:21] >> Mr. President, that deal does reverse
[29:23] the mass firings your administration put
[29:25] through during the shutdown. Did you
[29:26] sign off on that? And will you abide by
[29:28] that if this passes?
[29:30] >> Well, I will be. I'll abide by the deal.
[29:32] The deal is very good. We're not going
[29:34] to be giving $1.5 trillion dollars to
[29:36] people that came in from jails and from
[29:39] uh you know the gangs and drug dealers
[29:41] and all of these others that uh they
[29:43] wanted to be given healthcare which
[29:45] would have hurt our healthare system.
[29:46] >> Do you personally approve
[29:50] >> the government's back? The government's
[29:52] back. All of the all of the austerity,
[29:56] all of the Doge, all of the Elon [ __ ] is
[29:59] getting slowly unwound. Remember when
[30:01] Elon was going to manage our finances
[30:04] like a startup and save this country?
[30:06] Remember when we were firing everybody
[30:09] in the US government that is so
[30:10] obviously fraudulent scammers scamming
[30:13] the American taxpayers, scamming the
[30:15] American people? Well, all of that's
[30:17] being unwound and put back in place. The
[30:20] first six months of this administration,
[30:22] none of that progress is going to be
[30:23] sustainable. And we're turning back the
[30:25] government on. And it's all about
[30:27] printing money. It's all about adding
[30:29] reserves to this financial system
[30:30] because you cannot run a debt-based
[30:33] financial system in some form of
[30:35] austerity or deflation. It doesn't work.
[30:37] Inflation is implied in the system that
[30:40] is built. Point blank. Period. And you
[30:43] guys want to know why Bitcoin went up
[30:46] over the weekend. Guys, it is reacting
[30:48] to this.
[30:51] Whether you're left or right, blue or
[30:53] red, the financial system needs
[30:55] reserves. So the Fed pause QT, you're
[30:59] starting to see Myronin advocate for a
[31:01] 50 basis point cut in December after we
[31:04] just got a 25 point cut. 50 basis point
[31:07] cut in December. Resume QE. We need to
[31:10] add hundreds of billions of dollars to
[31:12] the balance sheet. Dems and Republicans
[31:14] quit the fighting. Get the government
[31:16] back on because the money printing has
[31:18] to commence. This system fails on its
[31:21] face if you do not keep printing money.
[31:25] Okay, next from Trump. People that are
[31:29] against tariffs are fools. We are now
[31:32] the richest, most respected country in
[31:35] the world with almost no inflation and a
[31:38] record stock market price. 401ks are
[31:41] highest ever. We are taking in trillions
[31:44] of dollars and will soon begin paying
[31:46] down our enormous debt of $ 37 trillion.
[31:50] record investments in the United States
[31:52] of America, plants and factories going
[31:54] up all over the place. A dividend of at
[31:56] least $2,000 a person, not including
[31:59] highincome people, will be paid to
[32:02] everyone. Obviously, this tweet or
[32:04] whatever this is, this truth social is
[32:06] hilarious for many reasons. One of these
[32:09] reasons is because I love we're about to
[32:13] pay down all of our debt, but first I'm
[32:15] going to give everyone two grand. Well,
[32:17] you're not paying down the debt. If you
[32:19] could pay down the debt, you'd pay down
[32:20] the debt. Why are you giving everyone
[32:22] two grand instead of extinguishing your
[32:25] debt? It doesn't make any sense. Uh and
[32:28] then the other stemmies are [ __ ]
[32:30] back, baby. Stemies are back. This is
[32:33] the most inflationary thing you could
[32:35] possibly do is basically hand everyone
[32:39] to purchasing power on the house to go
[32:42] inject it into the economy. Last time
[32:44] this happened, markets had never been
[32:46] more bullish. asset prices had never
[32:48] been more inflated. And I'm telling you
[32:51] guys, Bitcoin is starting to smell and
[32:53] sniff this out. Follow the Bitcoin price
[32:56] if you want to follow the money printing
[32:58] and the liquidity. I've said Bitcoin is
[33:00] the best expression of currency
[33:01] debasement. It's the best index on
[33:03] liquidity in the financial system, guys.
[33:06] Trust on this. The last few weeks, we've
[33:08] said there's a liquidity crisis brewing.
[33:11] Funding markets are under serious
[33:13] stress. The Fed is printing money to
[33:15] ensure that these markets don't get out
[33:17] of control. Boom. Government comes back.
[33:20] Boom. Stemmies.
[33:24] For someone to sit here and look at me
[33:26] and say, "Yeah, we topped. The Bitcoin
[33:28] cycle is over.
[33:30] I'm sorry. You got hit in your head as a
[33:34] child." I'm sorry. I just I call the
[33:37] world how I see it. I don't see anything
[33:41] telling me anything other than number go
[33:43] up and the fact that through all of this
[33:46] funding stress through the Fed and the
[33:48] US Treasury fighting about how the US
[33:52] government's going to finance itself
[33:53] through a government shutdown where the
[33:55] TGA ran up to a trillion dollar balance.
[33:57] Bitcoin remained over 100K.
[34:01] 100K is the new floor, guys. 100K was
[34:05] all-time high like less than a year ago.
[34:11] What are we talking about?
[34:16] Our all-time high within the last 12
[34:17] months is now the new floor through
[34:19] dramatic liquidity stress in the
[34:22] financial market right before the year
[34:24] of midterms as the president's tweeting
[34:26] out stemmies and doing deals with the
[34:29] Democrats that unwind all of his violent
[34:32] progress of firing them all. I'm
[34:35] supposed to be bearish.
[34:38] Ah, you guys got the wrong guy.
[34:42] More money printing. Thanks to President
[34:45] Trump, we are indeed working on the
[34:47] 50-year mortgage. A complete gamecher. A
[34:50] 50-year mortgage. I mean, thankfully, I
[34:53] saw no reactions online of people
[34:56] cheering this on. This is outrageous.
[34:59] You'd have to be a [ __ ] Just think of
[35:01] it this way. You get out of college at
[35:04] 21 22 years old and you don't fully own
[35:07] your property until you're in your 70s.
[35:12] That's the innovation that we're bring.
[35:14] That's how we bring housing down. That's
[35:16] how we make housing affordable. Are you
[35:19] insane?
[35:20] The money is entirely broken. And by the
[35:23] way, the way this financing works, like
[35:26] you're going to end up pay like I mean I
[35:28] I sound like an idiot saying it out
[35:31] loud, but like you're going to end up
[35:32] paying a lot more by being in debt for
[35:35] 20 years longer. So, it's more expensive
[35:38] for you to have a 50-year mortgage than
[35:40] a 30-year mortgage on net, obviously,
[35:43] because you're owing more money over a
[35:45] longer duration. But the problem is
[35:48] we're in a debt-based world. Everyone is
[35:51] living based on their future earnings.
[35:53] Nobody has hard assets today. Everyone
[35:56] is broke today, including the United
[35:58] States of America.
[36:02] We go forward. US shutdown nears end as
[36:06] Senate Democrats agree to a funding
[36:08] deal. Again,
[36:10] I we just heard the video from Trump,
[36:12] but I wanted to show you guys this that
[36:14] hit the Bloomberg terminals because it
[36:17] tells the more true story. A group of
[36:20] moderate Senate Dem De Democrats agreed
[36:22] to support a deal to reopen the
[36:24] government and fund some departments and
[36:26] agencies for the next year. People
[36:27] familiar with the talk said under the
[36:29] agreement, Congress would pass fullyear
[36:32] funding for the departments of
[36:33] agriculture, veterans affairs, and
[36:35] Congress itself while funding other
[36:37] agencies through January 30th. The deal
[36:39] would provide pay for f for fur
[36:44] furoughed oh furoughed would pay for
[36:46] furoughed government workers resume
[36:48] withheld federal payments to state and
[36:51] local localities um and recall agencies
[36:54] employees who were laid off during the
[36:56] shutdown. So the record-breaking US
[36:59] government shutdown is nearing an end
[37:00] after a group of moderate Senate
[37:02] Democrats agreed to support the deal. So
[37:04] the US government is getting back to
[37:06] what it does best and that's print the
[37:07] [ __ ] money. That's what they do best.
[37:10] That's why they're all elected is to
[37:11] hand out quoteunquote free [ __ ] to the
[37:13] people. And
[37:17] I mean the podcast gets gets all so
[37:21] tiresome and I know it feels repetitive
[37:23] but I mean this is just the truth of the
[37:25] matter guys. Like they have to print the
[37:27] money. I'm not like you guys can't
[37:29] convince me to be bearish on Bitcoin
[37:30] right now. You can't. And through all of
[37:33] the liquidity stress,
[37:36] I mean, Bitcoin's at 106.
[37:39] It was it was at Okay, in fairness, it
[37:42] dipped below 100 for like a few hours,
[37:45] but it it was around 100 to 102 and then
[37:48] it the government coming back online
[37:51] dropped and it popped to 106. And once
[37:54] the government does come back and the
[37:55] TGA starts to get spent, it'll pop
[37:57] again. And once the Fed cuts rates again
[37:59] in December and resumes QE and it'll pop
[38:02] again. And I just I I cannot imagine
[38:05] this thing going anywhere but up. And
[38:08] this slide is a reminder that Bitcoin is
[38:11] a global financial asset. Bitcoin is
[38:14] competing to be the world reserve
[38:16] currency. Let's be clear about that. And
[38:18] so there's money printing everywhere.
[38:20] When the US prints money, everyone else
[38:21] has to print money. It's a game of who
[38:23] can have the weakest currency. Guys,
[38:25] I've told you guys this before. If you
[38:27] care about manufacturing, if you care
[38:30] about having cheap labor, implied in
[38:32] that means you have to have a cheap
[38:34] currency. We've said on this show
[38:35] before, if the US really wants to solve
[38:38] their problems, I can solve it in 10
[38:41] seconds. Don't be the world reserve
[38:43] currency. Boom. Problem solved. Then
[38:45] your currency will naturally weaken.
[38:48] Your deficits will naturally go away.
[38:50] Now, the problem is that won't get you
[38:52] reelected.
[38:55] So, how do they solve this problem while
[38:57] getting reelected? I don't know. That's
[38:58] why I'm not in politics. That's why I
[39:00] build software for the people. But the
[39:02] point is, China is not going to sit idly
[39:05] and let the US debase its currency and
[39:07] compete in manufacturing. The US wants
[39:09] to weaken the dollar. China's going to
[39:11] weaken their currency as well. The money
[39:13] printing has to commence everywhere. to
[39:15] this from the PBOC. The PBOC's net
[39:17] purchases effectively increase the
[39:19] supply of cash in the financial system,
[39:21] helping to contain borrowing costs and
[39:23] support economic growth. Demand for
[39:25] bonds has eased among investors in
[39:27] recent months due to a fund rotation
[39:29] into equities and easing tensions in US
[39:31] China trade relations.
[39:34] Money printing everywhere. They're going
[39:36] to run it turbo in 2026. That is what I
[39:39] think. All right, last chapter. This is
[39:43] a shorter episode because I do have a an
[39:45] event with all the people that I shared
[39:47] an elevator with with my two pounds of
[39:49] beef patties. Um,
[39:52] innovation is deflation. Okay.
[39:56] Now, the thing that was top of mind for
[39:57] me over the last week, honestly, is just
[40:00] the state of
[40:02] the younger generation, uh, my friends,
[40:06] uh, sentiment around the world. So, I
[40:10] don't know. I mean, watching the
[40:12] financial plumbing fall apart due to
[40:14] fiscal dominance is interesting.
[40:16] Watching the US government panic to
[40:19] reopen and start puking stimulus checks
[40:21] everywhere while they claim they're
[40:23] going to pay off $37 trillion, that's
[40:25] hilarious. Um, it's as if we can't just
[40:28] do simple math. But anyway, um, where I
[40:32] wanted to spend most of my time is on
[40:34] this innovation is deflation idea. And
[40:36] this is this idea that, you know, AI is
[40:39] theoretically deflationary, right? Um,
[40:42] but the problem is in a debt-based
[40:44] economy that we've built, inflation is
[40:47] required. You can't have deflation. I
[40:49] explained that a little bit earlier.
[40:50] Deflation's not allowed. Okay? And so
[40:53] what we're seeing is just the
[40:55] destruction of an entire generation and
[40:57] sentiment um that's driven by technology
[41:00] innovation. It's so backwards. Like if
[41:02] we're innovating as a species and
[41:04] building better tools for each other, we
[41:06] should all prosper because of that. But
[41:08] in a really [ __ ] up way, we're not. In
[41:11] fact, society is unraveling right before
[41:13] us. So, let me get into it here. I'm
[41:16] going to have to I really had to zoom
[41:18] out to screenshot this one. I'm going to
[41:19] have to really squint here and read to
[41:20] read this, but um I liked this tweet.
[41:24] Debt-based banking systems are
[41:26] inherently inflationary. So, I mean,
[41:28] this makes the same point I was making
[41:29] earlier. Um, but it's a good example.
[41:32] Imagine you live in a town with a money
[41:34] supply at zero. A bank opens for
[41:38] business and gives you a loan for $100
[41:40] at 5%. In a year, you have to pay $105.
[41:45] So, that's the principal plus the 5%
[41:47] interest. Where does the other $5 come
[41:50] from? Think about it. So, you get lent
[41:53] $100. You need to give them back $105.
[41:57] But the money supply in your town is
[42:00] zero. There are no dollars for you to
[42:02] get. So, how the hell do you pay it
[42:04] back?
[42:08] Where does the other $5 come from? From
[42:10] new loans. The bank finds another
[42:13] customer and lends him money. You
[42:15] provide a service to that said customer
[42:18] and that grants you the additional $5
[42:20] you need to repay your interest on your
[42:22] loans. The banks must continually expand
[42:26] the credit supply in order to pay off
[42:28] the previous year's debt with interest.
[42:30] This is why they say quote 2% inflation
[42:33] target end quote. What they're really
[42:36] telling you is their credit creation
[42:37] target. 2% is the lowend range of their
[42:41] target. Look at commercial bank credit
[42:43] in the United States.
[42:45] If you extrapolate this data to Excel
[42:48] and look for year-over-year change, it
[42:51] only goes negative about 3% of the time.
[42:54] And the years it does go negative, 2009,
[42:56] 2010, and 2023 are all coincidentally
[43:00] with banking crisis.
[43:04] The system needs eternal inflation to
[43:08] survive.
[43:10] So when people say AI is here to save
[43:12] us,
[43:14] save who?
[43:16] Deflation is going to crash the system.
[43:19] The system needs inflation. The only way
[43:22] to save yourself is to get out of the
[43:24] system.
[43:27] You can't survive in the system. The
[43:30] system has to debase you. It has to
[43:32] inflate.
[43:35] Okay. So we go on
[43:38] consumer sentiment from University of
[43:40] Michigan is weaker in November at 50.3
[43:42] verse 53 was the estimate and 53.6
[43:47] in the prior month. Current conditions
[43:49] down to 52.3 verse 59 estimate and 58.6
[43:54] in the prior month. Expectations down to
[43:56] 49 verse 50 and 50.3 in prior month. So
[44:02] consumer sentiment in the United States
[44:04] of America is crashing. Is crashing,
[44:07] guys. People are pissed. Why are people
[44:09] pissed? US job cuts for October hit
[44:12] 22year
[44:14] high. Look at 2008, it's highlighted.
[44:17] The global financial crisis. Look at
[44:19] COVID 2020, the pandemic, it's
[44:21] highlighted.
[44:23] We are crushing both of those eras in
[44:27] layoffs. Over 153,000 people laid off.
[44:31] layoffs for any October, highest since
[44:34] 2003. Warehousing and technology sectors
[44:37] led last month's charge. And this is
[44:40] also embedded in here as a JP Morgan
[44:42] quote. JP Morgan says, "Market rocked by
[44:45] quote headlines that layoffs are spiking
[44:47] due to AI. The market is weighing a
[44:50] weaker labor market and potential
[44:52] spending verse evidence on the efficacy
[44:54] and ROI of AI plus productivity gains."
[44:58] Okay. Next,
[45:00] US industry shedding and gaining
[45:03] workers.
[45:05] Some of the leading layoff the so the
[45:07] sectors losing the most jobs.
[45:10] Warehousing
[45:11] technology.
[45:13] Look at that. Look at technology at
[45:16] number two. Unbelievable.
[45:19] Unbelievable.
[45:21] I mean there's just no doubt that AI is
[45:24] having a significant impact on society.
[45:27] And the thing is everyone if if you go
[45:29] online or you ask people on the train on
[45:31] your commute to work they say oh AI is
[45:32] going to save us. We're going to grow
[45:34] our way out of it. Imagine when we don't
[45:36] need to have all of this stuff to be
[45:39] productive. Yeah. But have all this
[45:41] stuff to be productive? That means no
[45:43] one has jobs. All these people have
[45:44] mortgages. All these people have car
[45:46] notes. All these people have credit
[45:47] cards. All these people have student
[45:49] loans. Also all these people are humans.
[45:53] They've sacrificed and lived a very
[45:54] specific life with the expectation that
[45:57] they're not only going to get employed,
[45:59] but their employment income would grow,
[46:02] outgrow inflation.
[46:07] So, we go next.
[46:09] Now, I tried to tweet this chart. I'm
[46:11] gonna I'm gonna admit I kind of botched
[46:13] the tweet a little bit, but what we're
[46:15] looking at here is the University of
[46:17] Michigan consumer sentiment in white and
[46:20] the S&P 500 in blue. Okay,
[46:24] the point of this chart and for those
[46:26] listening is that consumer sentiment in
[46:29] America and the stock market were one to
[46:31] one. They equaled each other. Stock
[46:34] market went down, consumer sentiment was
[46:36] bad. Stock market had all-time highs,
[46:38] consumer sentiment was good. Now what
[46:41] you can see very clearly is this broke
[46:44] in 2020 in COVID where the stock market
[46:48] went up up up and consumer sentiment has
[46:52] gone down since. Consumer sentiment is
[46:54] lower today than it was during the 2008
[46:58] financial crisis and the years that
[47:00] followed. I'm going to say that again.
[47:02] The stock market is at an all-time high.
[47:05] Consumer sentiment is at an all-time low
[47:08] in the last 25 years.
[47:16] The people are in pain,
[47:19] but assets are at all-time highs.
[47:24] Now,
[47:26] if I then overlay the stock market
[47:29] measured in gold and the stock market
[47:32] measured in Bitcoin on this chart, it
[47:35] tells a much more honest story. So, what
[47:38] are we looking at in white? Consumer
[47:40] sentiment. In blue, the S&P 500. In
[47:43] yellow, you're looking at the stock
[47:45] market measured
[47:48] in gold. The S&P 500 measured in gold
[47:51] matches about consumer sentiment. It
[47:53] makes a lot more sense.
[47:56] So, we're measuring the S&P 500 in the
[47:58] wrong ruler. We're using the wrong
[48:01] measuring system. Dollars are pointless.
[48:03] They're worthless. They're distorting
[48:06] reality.
[48:07] If you measure the stock market in gold,
[48:10] you'd realize the world has been going
[48:12] to [ __ ] for decades
[48:15] and that none no one's job out of
[48:17] college is outpacing inflation.
[48:20] There's a K-shaped economy that's
[48:22] already been formed.
[48:25] Most of America has been living through
[48:27] a recession, a depression, a real
[48:29] depression. I've said on this show
[48:31] before, you all have been living through
[48:34] a depression. You're like, "Man, I
[48:35] wonder what it was like during the Great
[48:37] Depression." You're living through one.
[48:39] Just measure it in the right asset.
[48:41] Because during the real Great Depression
[48:43] 100 years ago, the dollar was backed by
[48:46] gold. Now, the dollar is backed by
[48:49] someone clicking a keystroke on a
[48:50] computer. So, if you measure it in gold
[48:53] like it was during the Great Depression
[48:55] years prior, you're living through one
[48:57] right now. And on this chart, this my
[49:00] favorite part, I put the S&P 500 against
[49:03] Bitcoin.
[49:05] Look at that. As soon as Bitcoin
[49:08] launched, Bitcoin, the S&P 500 measured
[49:11] against Bitcoin went to zero as fast as
[49:13] it could. And so, the way I read this
[49:16] chart is the blue line is a distorted
[49:19] version of reality. It's not real
[49:21] because consumer sentiment, gold, and
[49:23] Bitcoin tell the opposite story. It's
[49:26] tricking you.
[49:28] And consumer sentiment is trying to
[49:30] catch up to gold. And consumer sentiment
[49:32] and gold is trying to catch up to
[49:34] Bitcoin. Bitcoin tells you the future.
[49:37] Bitcoin tells you the truth.
[49:40] You can't cheat Bitcoin.
[49:44] You can't confiscate it in central banks
[49:46] and governments. You can't go on and
[49:48] off. You know, the the gold reserve, you
[49:50] know, we divorced from the gold reserve.
[49:51] We're back on it. China can't do that.
[49:54] Bitcoin doesn't need anybody. It is a
[49:56] self-contained, self-operated financial
[49:58] system. You can't cheat it. So, you want
[50:00] to see a piercing truth? Do you want to
[50:03] look outside the window and see the
[50:04] universe as it really is?
[50:07] This is it. Bitcoin is showing you how
[50:10] bad things actually are and where
[50:12] consumer sentiment is actually going.
[50:14] Consumer sentiment is going to find that
[50:16] orange line. So will gold.
[50:21] So, we go on. 41% of recent college
[50:25] grads are undermployed, not unemployed,
[50:29] undermployed.
[50:31] And that's a huge distinction
[50:34] because the question is going to be,
[50:35] well, do we have an employing employment
[50:37] crisis? Is everyone unemployed? And the
[50:40] problem is they're not unemployed. They
[50:42] went to Stanford, got a computer science
[50:44] degree, and are working at Whole Foods.
[50:49] That's the problem.
[50:53] The problem is you have highly educated,
[50:56] articulate, coordinated young adults
[50:58] that feel like they got cheated because
[51:00] they did.
[51:03] Under employed, the person making your
[51:06] Chipotle burrito
[51:08] has a business degree from Cal.
[51:17] 41% of recent college grads are
[51:20] undermployed, stuck in jobs that don't
[51:22] even need a degree per the New York Fed.
[51:28] And you guys don't think they're going
[51:29] to print a bunch of money. All right,
[51:31] let's listen to this video from Jordy
[51:32] Visser. Again, it's my language and
[51:35] different verbiage, which I think
[51:36] sometimes is useful. Let's take a
[51:38] listen. Chipotle reported. So with all
[51:41] this weakness going on and we've heard
[51:42] that it's been hurting the lower-end
[51:44] consumer plus the lower-end consumer is
[51:46] getting hurt by the inflation side. So
[51:49] Chipotle reported stock gets hammered
[51:50] and in there earlier this year as
[51:52] consumer sentiment decline we saw a
[51:53] broad-based pullback in frequency among
[51:55] all income cohorts. Since then the gap
[51:57] has widened with low to middle income
[51:59] guests further reducing frequency. We
[52:02] believe this is guests with household
[52:03] income below 100,000 that represents 40%
[52:06] of our total sales. The group that is
[52:08] particularly challenged is the 25 to 34
[52:11] 5y old. Those are the ones being hurt.
[52:12] This group is faced with several
[52:14] headwinds including unemployment,
[52:16] increased student loan payments, and
[52:17] slower wage growth. That consumer is
[52:19] under pressure and they feel the pinch
[52:21] and we feel the pullback. You have to
[52:23] understand this cohort had a belief when
[52:25] they went to school that they would not
[52:27] only be having a job, they'd be in a
[52:30] position that it would grow every year
[52:32] by more than inflation. That is the
[52:34] reason why you go to college and you get
[52:35] it. not just to get a job, but to
[52:37] actually see your wages grow. Now, what
[52:39] you're talking about is it's harder to
[52:41] get a job out of college. They're
[52:42] getting pressured on the AI side, and
[52:44] then they have to transition to another
[52:46] job. But the corporate ladder is that
[52:48] exponential innovation is always in your
[52:50] face as a headwind, and that means
[52:52] there'll be more digital employees in
[52:53] two years, double that in three years.
[52:55] That's the whole point of this is it
[52:57] never gets better. So when I hear people
[52:59] like economists not talking about this
[53:02] and trying to pretend to sell you guys
[53:05] goods that well the Fed shouldn't be
[53:07] cutting rates because we're going to
[53:08] have inflation and unemployment rate is
[53:10] low. The labor force participation rate
[53:13] continues to fall and as I said I am
[53:15] renaming the labor participation rate
[53:18] officially as the rate of people that
[53:20] need to work. It it has just become a
[53:23] problem that is only going to worsen.
[53:30] Yeah, I mean you you can get the clues
[53:34] from wherever you want. Literally, it's
[53:37] like, you know, throwing darts in the
[53:38] ocean. Chipotle earnings. Chipotle is
[53:41] saying the cohort of people that are
[53:43] struggling the most in today's economy
[53:45] are adults from 25 years old to 34 years
[53:48] old. They're undermployed or unemployed.
[53:52] Student debt expenses increase. They are
[53:55] burdened in this debt-based economy,
[53:57] born into tremendous amounts of debt,
[53:59] and there are no jobs for them anymore.
[54:02] And we've heard a lot about this
[54:04] K-shaped economy. How do you guys like
[54:06] my art? Here's the K-shaped economy.
[54:09] That means some of the economy goes
[54:11] skyrocketing and up and to the right.
[54:13] Nvidia, Meta, Amazon, Google, and
[54:18] everyone else is unemployed,
[54:22] working at Whole Foods with a computer
[54:24] science degree,
[54:26] never going to own a home, can't ever
[54:29] afford their car, lives perpetually on
[54:32] credit cards,
[54:33] can't afford to have kids, can't afford
[54:35] to have family. Population decline only
[54:37] gets exponentially worse.
[54:40] You're 30 years old. You're 40 years
[54:42] old, living in your parents' basement.
[54:44] Not because you didn't go to college and
[54:45] do all your homework and sacrifice and
[54:47] study long hours and get a perfect score
[54:49] on the ACT. No, none of that.
[54:52] Because AI took your jobs. That's what
[54:54] they think, right? That's what they
[54:56] think. And so
[55:00] Mandani won
[55:02] the New York New York mayoral election.
[55:05] And I've been saying on this show, guys,
[55:07] like this is just the beginning. If you
[55:10] think socialism is just like a flash in
[55:13] the pan in New York City, like you're
[55:14] wrong. This is coming for all of the
[55:17] United States of America. At the rate in
[55:20] which people are disenfranchised, young,
[55:23] educated,
[55:24] articulate, coordinated adults are
[55:26] disenfranchised and pissed, unemployed,
[55:29] undermployed.
[55:32] I wouldn't be surprised if a socialist
[55:34] got
[55:36] a a decent level of
[55:39] voting base in the next presidential
[55:42] election.
[55:43] Literally,
[55:47] how how are these people winning
[55:49] elections? It's very simple to
[55:51] understand.
[55:53] I was born I was encouraged to go into
[55:56] debt. I was encouraged to borrow money
[55:58] from my future to learn math, to get a
[56:00] degree. I was promised employment. I was
[56:03] promised wage growth.
[56:08] I have no job or I'm working at
[56:10] Chipotle.
[56:11] I can't afford my college debt. I can't
[56:13] afford to buy a home. I can't afford to
[56:14] fall in love. I can't afford to have
[56:16] kids.
[56:19] [ __ ] this.
[56:21] And I and and the problem is when you
[56:23] see people doing these like street
[56:25] interviews, it's no one is rationalizing
[56:28] socialism as a good idea. I don't think
[56:30] any like I don't think at scale of
[56:32] course you're going to find some cuckoo
[56:34] on the street, but I don't think anybody
[56:35] at scale is saying that this is a good
[56:37] idea. Here's the problem, guys. And I
[56:39] I've I've phrased it this way before.
[56:42] There is a hole in the balance sheet.
[56:46] Okay? There is a $37 trillion hole. It's
[56:50] gone. it's missing. And it is not just
[56:54] printed pieces of paper we can create
[56:57] with a keystroke to solve our problem.
[56:59] Remember, money is your time and energy
[57:02] in an abstracted form, right?
[57:06] And so there's $37 trillion of time and
[57:10] energy missing, gone, evaporated.
[57:15] Somebody has to realize that loss.
[57:18] Who is going to pay? Not with money, not
[57:22] with printed pieces of paper, with time
[57:24] and energy. Is it the youth? Is the
[57:27] youth expected to have dog [ __ ] life and
[57:32] pay for the mistakes before they were
[57:33] born? Is it the Jamie Diamonds of the
[57:36] world?
[57:38] Are they expected to lose in real terms
[57:41] on investing and lending to the US
[57:43] government? Is it peer nations? Trump is
[57:47] saying, "No, China and Russia, you're
[57:49] paying for all of it. Tariffs." Well,
[57:52] their response to that is, "Fuck no, I'm
[57:55] not paying for [ __ ] If you want rare
[57:57] earth and you want a military, I'm not
[58:00] paying for a damn thing." So, it's a
[58:02] game of tugof-war. Who is losing? The
[58:06] problem is somebody has to lose.
[58:11] And the youth going full socialism and
[58:15] electing Mandami is saying very simply,
[58:18] [ __ ] this. Yes. Is this system fair? Is
[58:22] state-run grocery stores like the way to
[58:24] go? No.
[58:27] But I don't want to lose because the
[58:29] system is pinning me as a loser. I'm not
[58:32] justifying it. In fact, I think it's
[58:35] terrifying and sad.
[58:39] But this is the reality we're living
[58:40] through. And and here's the thing. The
[58:43] way I conceptualize Bitcoin, carrying
[58:45] forward my analogies, Bitcoin is a way
[58:48] for me to say, I don't know who's going
[58:50] to lose, but it's not going to be me.
[58:55] That's how I think about owning Bitcoin.
[58:58] I don't know who's going to lose. Is it
[58:59] going to be Russia, China, the banking
[59:02] system, the youthful generation?
[59:05] Who? I don't know. You guys are going to
[59:07] have to duke that out. But I'll tell you
[59:09] who's not going to lose.
[59:12] Jack Morer's not going to lose. How do I
[59:14] know that? Because I got Bitcoin and
[59:16] cold storage. You can't print that. You
[59:19] can't take that out of my hands.
[59:22] My time and energy is protected.
[59:25] It doesn't matter the election results.
[59:27] I don't give a [ __ ] if China likes
[59:29] tariffs or doesn't like tariffs. I don't
[59:31] care if Jamie Diamond is the one that
[59:33] has to foot the bill. I don't care. I
[59:37] don't have to protest about it. I don't
[59:38] need to convince you to agree with me.
[59:41] You could do whatever you want. My time
[59:44] and energy is in Bitcoin, protected by
[59:48] cryptography, defended by math.
[59:52] The rules are upheld by a distributed
[59:55] group of humans all over the planet that
[59:57] want a fair system. So, I am not footing
[60:01] the bill.
[60:03] That's how I think about Bitcoin.
[60:06] Now, this tweet again, boomers simply
[60:09] don't appreciate the radicalizing nature
[60:12] of the last 5 years. For them, it's a
[60:14] blip in their overall decent life. For
[60:16] those in their 20s, it was the time to
[60:19] lay a foundation, to buy a house, meet a
[60:21] spouse, have a child. Destroying those
[60:24] years destroys hope for a decent life.
[60:27] So, I'm just giving you guys insight
[60:29] into how my generation feels. No one.
[60:33] Everyone feels like they're cheated out
[60:34] of having a family, ever owning a home,
[60:36] having a real job. No one likes doing
[60:39] [ __ ] homework. I didn't like it so
[60:42] much. I just dropped out of school. I
[60:44] thought to myself, "This is pointless.
[60:45] This doesn't make any sense." Honestly,
[60:47] it's a humiliation ritual.
[60:50] Get out of bed, put on clothes you don't
[60:52] like, walk in, and sit down like a good
[60:55] boy, and do homework that doesn't make
[60:57] any sense. How about [ __ ] you, no? But
[61:01] people do that in exchange for the life
[61:04] that they think is worth living and
[61:07] they're realizing they got scammed.
[61:12] The amount of radicalizing that is being
[61:14] done by the youth is immense. Guys, I've
[61:17] shown this chart on here before. I'm
[61:18] going to resurface it. Incidents of
[61:20] assassinations. We are approaching the
[61:23] highest assassination attempts and su uh
[61:26] successions. So, successful
[61:27] assassinations since the mid 1800s. Do
[61:30] you guys know what happened in the mid-
[61:31] 1800s? The Civil War.
[61:34] The level of societal divide from fiat
[61:37] currency is immense. The level of
[61:39] societal divide from a debt-based
[61:41] monetary system is immense.
[61:46] So what I did,
[61:49] this is the chart I was showing you
[61:51] guys. This is consumer sentiment
[61:52] divorcing from the stock market during
[61:54] COVID. And then if you look at it in
[61:56] gold terms, it makes a little bit more
[61:57] sense. If you look at it in Bitcoin
[61:59] terms, you can see the future. Now, what
[62:02] I did with this chart is I just inversed
[62:05] it. Okay? So, instead of looking like
[62:07] the world is declining, this looks like
[62:10] the world is getting better. This is a
[62:14] Bitcoin standard visualized. The blue
[62:17] line is the fake fiat world, the
[62:20] [ __ ] stock market, the savings
[62:22] account. They've tricked everyone into
[62:24] thinking
[62:26] that they're saving for their future
[62:28] only for them to realize when it's time
[62:30] to buy a home, they can't afford it.
[62:31] When it's time to fall in love, they
[62:33] can't afford it. When it's time to buy a
[62:35] house or excuse me, to to have kids,
[62:36] they can't afford it. When it's time to
[62:38] pay off student loans, they can't afford
[62:40] it.
[62:41] The orange line is a Bitcoiner exiting
[62:45] the system, having children,
[62:48] real estate getting more affordable,
[62:50] education getting more affordable,
[62:52] family getting more affordable.
[62:56] When you live on the orange line, life
[62:58] gets cheaper. When you live on the blue
[63:00] line, life gets more expensive. Look at
[63:03] So the white line is consumer sentiment
[63:05] inversed.
[63:08] So that's Bitcoiner sentiment.
[63:10] Since Bitcoin has launched, the world
[63:13] has gotten better for Bitcoiners. It's a
[63:17] bigger place. It's happier. We're
[63:19] healthier. Since I became a Bitcoiner,
[63:22] I've gotten healthier. I've gotten more
[63:23] educated. I've fallen in love. I plan to
[63:25] have loads and loads of children. I've
[63:27] started businesses. And I've been able
[63:29] to acrue savings for my future. I've
[63:33] been able to stack sats. I've become a
[63:35] net producer to society.
[63:39] This is the fiat world. The blue line
[63:41] tricking you. It's like underwater.
[63:45] Underground is the truth. And above
[63:48] water, this blue line, Trump says, "Oh,
[63:50] stock market's at alltime highs."
[63:53] You flip the chart. That's what becoming
[63:55] a Bitcoiner is. Exit the blue line. Get
[63:58] on the orange train.
[64:01] All right. And with that, a little past
[64:03] the top of the hour. Um, some strike
[64:05] updates. So, the UK business lending is
[64:07] now fully live. If you are a business in
[64:09] the United Kingdom and you want to
[64:11] borrow against your Bitcoin, we can
[64:13] support you at 10,000 GBP minimum. Next,
[64:18] we also enabled lending in Idaho. So, we
[64:21] continue to expand our lending product.
[64:23] We're going to be everywhere as soon as
[64:25] we possibly can. And there's some drama
[64:27] over the last week, but we're regulated.
[64:29] We're compliant. We do this legally. And
[64:32] so obviously we can't just be everywhere
[64:35] because there are laws or else I would
[64:36] be everywhere but I can't. And so we get
[64:38] licenses on our own. We do everything
[64:40] the right way. And and uh and so we
[64:45] finally were able to allow loans in
[64:47] Idaho. So if you are a resident in Idaho
[64:50] and you want to borrow against your
[64:51] Bitcoin with Strike, you now can. 21.
[64:55] Okay, real quick. You guys know I can't
[64:58] say much. And I know everyone tweets at
[65:02] me every single day like, "Dude, talk
[65:04] about 21. Talk about 21." I can't. And
[65:06] in fact, if I did, I would do more harm
[65:09] than good. And I know it's hard to
[65:10] believe. It's the truth. Um, we're
[65:13] almost done, guys. We're getting there.
[65:14] Uh, but I can't say much. There were
[65:17] these few tweets that I did want to
[65:19] comment on and make sure I just gave I
[65:23] don't know. I just you guys are
[65:24] misunderstanding how this works and I
[65:26] would feel bad uh if I did not comment
[65:29] on this. So, uh let me uh pull up
[65:33] quickly what exactly I'm allowed to say
[65:35] to you. Um but anyways, the tweet reads,
[65:37] "Hey, Jack Mallers, any chance you could
[65:39] explain the C corporate action in a
[65:41] manner that even the plebs can
[65:43] understand?" And then this guy gambled
[65:45] on some treasury stocks this cycle with
[65:47] a small percentage of my portfolio.
[65:49] Thanks for nothing. Bailey
[65:51] just notified that C is offering to buy
[65:54] my C shares for $10.68 each with the
[65:57] current market price at nearly $17. Why
[66:00] would I take this offer? What am I
[66:01] missing? Jack Morers. Okay.
[66:04] Um in a very oversimplified way and in a
[66:07] way that I'm allowed to say. Um so
[66:11] again, just just be mindful here guys
[66:13] like C is not my company. 21 is my
[66:16] company. 21 approval has not or 21
[66:19] merger has not been approved. And so for
[66:21] that reason, I can't say much. I cannot
[66:23] be pumping or advising on another
[66:26] company's stock. Okay? That I I'd get in
[66:29] a lot of trouble. The deal wouldn't
[66:30] happen. I'm here to bring capital
[66:33] markets or bring Bitcoin to the capital
[66:35] markets. That's just like my mission
[66:37] here with 21 in part alongside a bunch
[66:39] of other stuff. And so just be mindful
[66:41] here of this situation. But uh the way
[66:46] it works is
[66:48] when there is a a spa, shareholders have
[66:52] what's called a redemption right. So
[66:55] spaxs raise money at $10 a share. Okay?
[66:59] So all these Bitcoin spaxs you're
[67:01] seeing, they're able to raise money,
[67:03] they or they all raise money at 10 bucks
[67:05] a share. Okay? And then there's interest
[67:07] acred. So the $10.68 68 cents here is
[67:11] the 10 bucks a share plus interest. Now,
[67:14] every single shareholder has a
[67:16] redemption right. That is the right to
[67:18] redeem as opposed to approve the merger.
[67:21] Okay. So, if I don't know what C is
[67:25] right now, but this tweet says it's 17
[67:27] bucks. So, it's $17 a share. You could
[67:30] say I'm not cool. Like I was I was a fan
[67:32] of Caner Equity Partners. I don't want
[67:34] this 21 stuff. This jack is crazy.
[67:37] Tether and Soft Bank. I don't believe in
[67:38] it. screw 21, I want to redeem. And you
[67:43] would redeem for the $10 per share plus
[67:45] the interest acred, which is $10.68.
[67:48] Okay? Now, if you say, I do believe in
[67:52] 21, I do believe in Jack, or I just
[67:54] believe that the number 17 is higher
[67:56] than $10.68,
[67:57] meaning you don't have to redeem. So,
[67:59] when this guy says, why would I take
[68:01] this offer? What's going on? And people
[68:03] are tweeting at me like, "This guy's a
[68:05] scammer." [laughter] And I'm not a
[68:07] scammer. This is how financial markets
[68:10] work. Everyone has the right to redeem.
[68:13] There's redemption right and clause. And
[68:15] so the $1068 is the $10 plus the
[68:18] interest. And every shareholder has that
[68:22] right um because this is going to a vote
[68:25] soon. And then once there is a vote and
[68:27] assuming it is approved, then the merger
[68:31] would be successful and then you guys
[68:34] can hear all about it and uh we'll be
[68:36] public and that's when the game really
[68:39] starts. That's that's day one. Um
[68:41] obviously we're working really hard on
[68:43] stuff that I can't tell you guys about
[68:44] yet. Um I've referenced it on this pod.
[68:48] But anyways, I hope I hope that made
[68:49] sense. Um most of the time I just have
[68:52] to ignore you guys legally. I'm not
[68:54] allowed to respond. But for this one, I
[68:56] made an exception because this is a
[68:59] bunch of like financial gobly gawk
[69:01] gibberish and uh most of you might not
[69:03] understand it. Um and so hopefully that
[69:07] uh cleared it up at least to the best
[69:09] that I'm allowed to clear it up. Uh
[69:11] okay, that's all I got. Uh let me blow
[69:15] up my face. Uh let's see. Dylan, what
[69:18] time is my event that I'm supposed to go
[69:20] to?
[69:22] Oh, I got a little bit of time. I got a
[69:25] little bit of time. All right. Face
[69:28] blown up.
[69:31] Look at that. Look at this guy. Look at
[69:34] this Chad. Two pounds of McDonald's
[69:37] patties in the in the Ritz Carlton
[69:38] elevator. Uh, all right. Let's uh
[69:43] let's see what Dylan's got for me today.
[69:46] Um,
[69:51] >> [snorts]
[69:52] >> man, long travel day. And and from here
[69:56] I go to Amsterdam, which I'm really
[69:58] excited about. But your boy has been on
[70:02] the road.
[70:05] Hopefully these suits out here have
[70:06] something interesting to tell me. All
[70:08] right. Uh here we go. Okay, Dylan, I see
[70:14] what you're doing here. Okay, let's go.
[70:18] Macro
[70:19] an Aussie fan of yours. I love your
[70:21] show. My favorite time of the week and
[70:23] favorite spelled with a U. Love that.
[70:25] Good day, mate. Uh, when do you think
[70:28] liquidity will significantly be turned
[70:30] on? Early, mid, or late 2026 or later
[70:33] than that? Thanks, Peace, brother. I
[70:35] think earlier than later. Um, midterms
[70:37] are November 2026, so the midterm
[70:39] elections in the United States are late
[70:42] 2026. They got to get this thing going.
[70:45] I mean, you'd have to I think you can
[70:46] safely assume that if if they had their
[70:50] way with the Fed, they would have had
[70:52] liquidity on sooner. Um, so my
[70:55] assumption is uh I mean, listen, like
[70:58] walking through the Treasury General's
[71:01] account and sofur and interest on cash
[71:03] and the repo facility, all of that
[71:05] stuff. I mean, it's clear that Bessant
[71:07] realized he needs more cash than usual
[71:09] to finance the government at the short
[71:11] end through these tea bills and a way to
[71:14] stimulate more reserves in the financial
[71:16] system is to cut rates and and so
[71:17] they've been very vocal about needing
[71:19] rates lower in order to make all this
[71:21] work. And so, yeah, I would assume it's
[71:24] now very clear that the Fed is being
[71:25] brought on side whether they like it or
[71:27] not. Powell is still kicking his feet,
[71:29] kicking and screaming and dragging his
[71:31] feet, but um I mean I think latest mid
[71:35] 2026, but more practically it could
[71:37] start in December. It could start in
[71:38] three to four weeks. Um and definitely
[71:40] in Q1 of 2026, but I mean I don't know.
[71:43] The point is it has to like this time
[71:45] next year. They don't have a choice. So
[71:47] you just got to stay humble and stack
[71:48] stats at the end of the day. Um, Q&A.
[71:51] Thoughts on Elon Musk talking about
[71:53] universal high income and growing our
[71:55] way out through AI and robotics on Joe
[71:57] Rogan? Any chance of seeing you on the
[71:59] Joe Rogan show?
[72:01] Um,
[72:03] thoughts on Elon and uh, Universal High
[72:05] Income and Growing Our Way Out? Yeah, I
[72:07] mean, I touched on this briefly, but uh,
[72:09] just to reiterate,
[72:11] growing your way out is virtually
[72:13] impossible because deflation doesn't
[72:16] pair well with a debt-based economy. you
[72:19] need inflation. You need new dollars to
[72:22] make the system work. Um the example
[72:25] that we gave earlier is let's say you're
[72:28] born into a town that has a money supply
[72:30] of zero. A bank opens and gives you a
[72:34] loan of a 100 bucks and they're charging
[72:36] you 5% interest a year. So at the end of
[72:39] your loan term next year, you owe $105.
[72:42] The hundred that you initially borrowed
[72:43] and the $5 of interest. The problem is
[72:46] how are you going to get the $5 you owe
[72:48] in interest because the town has a money
[72:51] supply of zero. The $5 don't exist. The
[72:55] way that you do it is the bank also
[72:57] gives a loan to some other dude and you
[73:00] build a product or service for the other
[73:01] dude. The other dude pays you $105 or
[73:05] $106 hopefully. You pay back the
[73:08] principal which is 100 bucks, the
[73:09] interest which is five bucks and you're
[73:10] left with $1 of profit. But the point is
[73:13] all of that money was printed. It it's a
[73:15] form of credit from the banking system.
[73:18] And so the system has to work in an
[73:22] inflationary capacity. If they don't
[73:24] keep printing money, then the system
[73:27] falls apart. So it can't be
[73:29] deflationary. There can't be a form of
[73:31] austerity without collapsing the very
[73:34] empire that we now know as Pax
[73:36] Americana.
[73:37] So
[73:40] yeah, I mean I just
[73:42] I don't I think no offense to Elon or
[73:46] maybe offense to Elon honestly depends
[73:48] on the mood I'm in but he was the same
[73:52] guy that said he was going to cut our
[73:53] way to or cut our way out of this with
[73:56] Doge and we said on the show that was
[73:59] the dumbest thing I'd ever heard. It's
[74:02] just physically impossible. It's as if
[74:04] these people don't think I can pull up
[74:06] like a calculator
[74:08] and everyone's like, "Dude, he's the
[74:09] smartest person in the world. He's the
[74:10] richest person in the world. Who are you
[74:12] to say? Yeah, but like here's the
[74:13] problem, guys. I was right. So,
[74:17] do I do I want to blindly believe Elon
[74:19] this time? No. I I'm just pulling out a
[74:22] calculator. Like, it what he's saying
[74:24] isn't physically possible. Do I think
[74:26] that AI is incredible innovation? It's
[74:28] going to make everyone more productive
[74:29] and society more efficient? 100%. If a
[74:32] business can achieve what Amazon is
[74:35] achieving with half the employees, a
[74:37] tenth of the employees, that does
[74:38] amazing things for productivity levels.
[74:40] I've said, and I'm I'm debating doing a
[74:43] keynote on this at one of the
[74:44] conferences. I don't know which one, but
[74:46] one day I want to do a keynote on, you
[74:48] know, I think the combination of Bitcoin
[74:50] and AI
[74:52] will spur an art renaissance.
[74:55] And the reason for that is for bit the
[74:58] Bitcoin piece when you are living a life
[75:01] on fiat just doing a job isn't enough.
[75:06] So you can't just be a doctor. You can't
[75:08] just be an accountant. You can't just be
[75:10] a lawyer. You have to be a doctor and be
[75:12] an expert in central bank monetary
[75:14] policy or be an expert in Nvidia
[75:16] earnings or be an expert in call
[75:17] options. And so you become half the
[75:20] doctor you could be because you also
[75:22] have to be half of a trader. That's the
[75:24] only way to sustain yourself and outpace
[75:26] inflation. And mind you, you can't
[75:28] actually pursue artistic pursuits
[75:30] because they can't outpace inflation
[75:32] either. So, you become a begrudging
[75:36] accountant that does everyone's taxes,
[75:37] that hates your job, that indulges in
[75:40] substances you probably shouldn't on the
[75:42] weekend, and also you're half the
[75:44] accountant you should be because you
[75:46] spend just as much time on your Robin
[75:48] Hood account and on Twitter following
[75:50] people like me.
[75:54] It destroys society. Now combine that
[75:56] with AI. No one like it's a waste of
[76:00] human talent and human ingenuity to just
[76:03] be an accountant. Sorry. Like every time
[76:06] I go on these rants, I end up offending
[76:08] someone. One of my buddies that is an
[76:10] accountant text me like, "Dude, what the
[76:11] [ __ ] man? You're such an asshole." I'm
[76:13] not trying to be a dick. My point is, my
[76:15] point is, you know,
[76:18] AI can do our taxes. AI can write our
[76:22] legal documents. AI can read our
[76:26] blood panels.
[76:29] And then Bitcoin can actually be real,
[76:31] hard, fair, equitable money to build a
[76:35] prosperous society on. So you don't have
[76:36] to spend over half your time trading and
[76:40] speculating to survive. And then what I
[76:43] think we'll be left with is an art
[76:45] renaissance where people can pursue art
[76:48] again.
[76:50] And so I I think AI and robotics are
[76:54] phenomenal. I think it's going to help
[76:56] bring back an art renaissance unlike
[77:00] anything we've ever seen, but not on the
[77:04] current financial system. We have to
[77:05] adopt something like Bitcoin for that to
[77:07] work, where deflation is allowed.
[77:11] Here's the thing. When I own Bitcoin, I
[77:14] benefit from human innovation.
[77:17] The prices of things go down in Bitcoin
[77:20] terms for me.
[77:22] Owning dollars, you don't benefit from
[77:24] the innovations around you created by
[77:25] your peers. Owning Bitcoin, you do. So
[77:29] Elon could say we're going to grow our
[77:31] way out. We're going to grow our way in
[77:33] to a Bitcoin standard. We can't grow our
[77:36] way out of [ __ ] Sorry. And like I know
[77:39] he's the richest guy, all [ __ ] but like
[77:41] it's a dumb thing to say if he knows
[77:44] anything about what he's talking about.
[77:45] And and I'm dubious that he does because
[77:48] because because we I mean we just
[77:51] watched him effectively join the
[77:53] government and utter and completely fail
[77:55] so bad that he called our president a
[77:56] rapist, a child rapist, actually.
[78:01] It's like it's outrageous.
[78:03] Anyways, okay. Macro question. Do you
[78:06] think Q2 2026 will tip Bitcoin into a
[78:09] higher Bitcoin price in fiat when the
[78:11] Fed gets a dovish chairman? like
[78:14] something you said before, the marriage
[78:16] of Fed and Treasury.
[78:18] Yeah. I mean, I think we're gonna get
[78:21] tipped to a higher Bitcoin price sooner
[78:23] than that. I don't know. I mean, I'm
[78:25] bullish, guys. Like,
[78:28] so the Q2 2026, um, this person is
[78:31] referencing when we'll get a chairperson
[78:33] that isn't Jerome Powell. Hawkish is
[78:36] like when they want to tighten monetary
[78:38] policy. Dovish is the opposite. So, I
[78:41] agree with you. I just don't see how
[78:43] they continue to chop this around um
[78:47] until then. But you maybe you're right
[78:49] because I mean anything is possible and
[78:51] Jerome Powell has been very clear that
[78:53] he's trying to take a stance. But yeah,
[78:56] I mean I um I don't know guys. I mean
[78:59] even when the government comes back, I
[79:01] mean the TGA liquidity is going to be
[79:03] immense. So um
[79:07] so anyways, yeah, I I agree with you.
[79:10] Uh, so I'll say my answer is yes. I
[79:12] agree 100%.
[79:14] But I wouldn't be surprised if it
[79:17] happened even sooner. And you know,
[79:20] remember Trump and these guys have to
[79:22] win an election. And so that's the
[79:24] problem with politicians, right? Is I
[79:26] told you guys, I can solve the US's
[79:28] problems. I just can't get you guys
[79:30] reelected. Don't be the world reserve
[79:32] currency. Period. Done. Dollar will go
[79:35] down. Deficits will go down. we'll start
[79:37] being able to manufacture stuff again.
[79:39] If the dollar isn't so [ __ ]
[79:41] artificially expensive and US assets
[79:43] aren't so artificially expensive, then
[79:44] you can make the iPhone in Manhattan
[79:46] because it won't be five grand a month
[79:47] just for rent. Sure, no problem. It'll
[79:51] rebalance trade globally. But the
[79:53] problem is like, oh yeah, social
[79:55] security payments, those will start to
[79:56] fail. Our military expense budgets going
[79:59] to have to be more realistic. Health and
[80:01] human services, sorry. If you don't take
[80:03] care of yourself and you get fat, he you
[80:06] have to deal with those consequences. If
[80:08] you like are unhealthy, that's your
[80:11] fault, not everyone else's fault. So,
[80:13] you're not going to get reelected. You
[80:15] know, the problem is here's the problem.
[80:18] People don't understand that they're
[80:20] voting for what we're living through.
[80:22] Like, if I ran for president and I said,
[80:25] "Hey, here's the deal, guys. Long story
[80:28] short, we're [ __ ]
[80:30] The generations before us borrowed so
[80:32] much from our future. There's a $ 37
[80:34] trillion hole that someone we we all
[80:37] have to realize together. Like we got to
[80:39] eat the loss. We might as well eat it
[80:40] now. The whole world reserve currency
[80:42] thing sounds better than it is. It's
[80:44] actually a disease. We're not going to
[80:45] be the world reserve currency. We're
[80:46] going to get on a Bitcoin standard. Uh
[80:49] and all of this like if you get super
[80:51] unhealthy because you eat Pop-Tarts all
[80:53] day, like we're going to like take care
[80:56] of that for you. Or the social security
[80:58] stuff. Like sorry, sorry. like, you
[81:00] know, we have to start cutting losses.
[81:03] Someone would run next to me and say,
[81:06] I'm going to give you all this free
[81:07] [ __ ] I'm going to increase your so
[81:09] social security. I'm going to give you
[81:10] more dividend payments. I'm going to
[81:12] like health and human services. Like,
[81:14] you can be so obese that you can't even
[81:16] walk, but I'll make sure that you can
[81:17] live till you're 70. And that person's
[81:19] going to win the election. Like, people
[81:21] are voting for that stupid [ __ ] So,
[81:24] that's the problem. They have to they
[81:26] have to win an election. And that's why
[81:27] I think you're seeing Trump saying,
[81:29] "Fuck it. If Jerome Pal won't cut rates
[81:31] in time, I'll just start giving you guys
[81:33] the tariff money."
[81:35] Tariffs were literally supposed to pay
[81:36] down our debt and balance the trade. And
[81:39] they're just going to go into people
[81:40] buying like shoes for Christmas
[81:43] cuz Trump's got to win an election. It's
[81:46] just, you know, like some things change,
[81:49] but they mostly stay the same. Like
[81:51] Bitcoin is going to go to a [ __ ]
[81:52] million dollars. Um,
[81:55] Jack, on a scale of 1 to 10, how bold up
[81:58] are you? Oh, talk dirty to me. Um, if a
[82:03] 10 a 10 is like Bitcoin December 2017,
[82:11] I'm like a
[82:16] three or a four. But that doesn't mean
[82:18] I'm bearish. I'm This is a scale of
[82:21] bullish. So, I'm bullish. I'm very
[82:23] bullish. I'm very impressed by Bitcoin
[82:26] taking record distribution from quote
[82:29] unquote OGs, taking liquidity crisis in
[82:33] the funding markets, taking government
[82:35] shutdown, and we're sitting at 106,000.
[82:38] That is absolutely bonkers, banana land,
[82:41] insane. That is unbelievable.
[82:43] And I think Bitcoin has just it's the
[82:46] only free market, so it reacts in real
[82:49] time to the world around it. and they
[82:51] have to print the money and I think
[82:53] Bitcoin is going to be the best
[82:54] performer when that era starts. But I'm
[82:58] just telling you guys, it's going to get
[83:00] a lot more insane. The thing I tell my
[83:03] companies is, you know, as bad as you
[83:07] think it can get, it's going to get
[83:10] worse in a Bitcoin bare market. You're
[83:12] like, "Okay, I knew we were going to
[83:13] have a bare market, but Sam Bankmanfree
[83:15] didn't really steal$10 billion dollars
[83:17] from people, did he? Oh, yeah, he did.
[83:20] Oh yeah, he did. So, however bad you
[83:23] think it can get, it's going to be
[83:26] worse. Now, conversely, how good you
[83:28] think it can be, it's going to be even
[83:31] better. And this is another way of
[83:33] saying that again, Bitcoin has no
[83:35] central planners, it has no governing
[83:37] body. There's nobody in the middle
[83:40] between you and the real world.
[83:42] like whether it's your government or
[83:44] your bank or your corporations,
[83:47] people are are mediating your experience
[83:51] with reality. And so they're like, "We
[83:54] don't want it to be that bad for the
[83:55] people. So we're going to create
[83:56] bailouts. We're going to tell them what
[83:58] they can and can't eat. We're going to
[83:59] tell them what they can and can't do.
[84:01] We're going to tell them where they can
[84:02] and can't go." Like with COVID, don't
[84:05] leave your house. It's insane. But
[84:08] that's why the lived experience, it's
[84:10] like, well, it can't be that bad. it
[84:12] can't be that good. But Bitcoin shows
[84:14] you what the real world is. It's
[84:17] reality. It's truth. And so all of that
[84:20] context to say I think things are going
[84:22] to get way better than people expect in
[84:26] Bitcoin land. Like okay, like I've seen
[84:28] people say like, "Yeah, I guess I'm
[84:29] bullish. Like I think we'll hit 135 this
[84:32] cycle." All right, I think we can hit
[84:35] 500. And I I know it sounds crazy, but
[84:38] like again, Bitcoin is the best
[84:42] expression of this stuff. It's the only
[84:43] free market. If the world is really
[84:45] going where I think it's going,
[84:48] it's going to be a lot higher than you
[84:50] think. And then conversely, when the
[84:52] world starts to fall apart, and you
[84:54] know, I'm I'm not saying it's a super
[84:56] cycle, then yeah, like it's going to be
[84:58] a lot worse than you think. Like, oh,
[85:01] well, the US government doesn't have
[85:03] zero Bitcoin, do they? They they should.
[85:05] Oh, no. So, we'll see. That's that's how
[85:08] I'm feeling. Okay, moving on. Topics,
[85:10] Bitcoin and markets. In the coming
[85:13] economic reset of digital and neutral
[85:15] reserve assets, I feel many people will
[85:17] be left in the dust. What can you say
[85:19] about the late adopters and the
[85:21] potentially larger wealth gap? Um, all
[85:25] right. I got a few uh answers to this
[85:28] one. Firstly, people say,
[85:31] "Well, aren't we recreating a wealth
[85:33] gap? Isn't Bitcoin just replacing who is
[85:36] elite? And then, you know, we've
[85:40] basically recreated the system, but
[85:42] instead of inherited real estate and the
[85:45] banking system, you just have Bitcoin
[85:48] OGs and early Bitcoin adopters. And
[85:51] that's not true. And the reason that's
[85:53] not true is because in the current
[85:56] financial system, you don't have to be a
[85:58] net producer to remain wealthy. You can
[86:01] have a bunch of [ __ ] a bunch of assets,
[86:03] and do [ __ ] all, but because they just
[86:05] keep printing money, you remain elite.
[86:08] You remain rich. Conversely, in a
[86:12] Bitcoin system, let's say you were early
[86:14] to Bitcoin and you've been able to
[86:16] accumulate 10,000 Bitcoin, okay? And
[86:18] that's that's that's your wealth. That's
[86:20] what you have, an immense amount of
[86:21] wealth. Now, in order to keep 10,000
[86:26] Bitcoin and not have to sell any
[86:28] Bitcoin, you have to be a net producer
[86:30] in society, you have to be productive.
[86:33] So, either those Bitcoin get
[86:35] redistributed into the market because
[86:37] you sell those Bitcoin to live and then
[86:40] your kids need some and then your
[86:42] grandkids need some and before you know
[86:44] it, some generations down the line,
[86:49] you're out of Bitcoin. Now, it might
[86:51] take many generations with that amount
[86:53] of wealth, but the point is if you want
[86:55] to remain upper class, you have to work
[86:58] for it in a Bitcoin standard because you
[87:01] cannot just print money. You cannot just
[87:03] own dog [ __ ] US treasuries and the
[87:05] government prints money and gives you
[87:07] 5%.
[87:10] Where's the yield come from? You seen
[87:12] those memes? Nowhere. And so that's why
[87:15] if you're wealthy on a Bitcoin standard
[87:18] and you're able to live without selling
[87:20] Bitcoin, that means you're a net
[87:21] producer. That means you're doing well
[87:23] for the world. That means you're
[87:25] sustaining your lifestyle. So there's
[87:27] two ways to to remain wealthy. You can
[87:30] either consume less [ __ ] So you can
[87:32] have someone with 10,000 Bitcoin that
[87:33] lives in a studio apartment in Chicago
[87:35] with a rent of $1,500,
[87:38] which would be hilarious. But that
[87:39] person could say, "Well, I'm not
[87:41] bringing in that much cash flow. I'm not
[87:43] producing that much for society. So, in
[87:45] order to never sell a sat, I got to live
[87:47] cheaply. So, you can consume less or you
[87:50] could be more valuable. So, if this
[87:51] person wanted private jets and they
[87:54] wanted mansions and they wanted all this
[87:55] stuff in order to avoid decreasing their
[87:59] stack and distributing it back into the
[88:00] market, they have to sustain that
[88:02] lifestyle by earning more than they
[88:04] spend. And so, you know, I hear people
[88:08] say like, "We're just replacing the
[88:10] wealth class with a new wealth class."
[88:14] I guess I mean
[88:17] anyway, and the other thing I'll say is
[88:21] first of all, I don't like when people
[88:23] get shunned for being early to Bitcoin,
[88:25] like, "Oh, you're lucky." Or, "Oh, you
[88:27] don't deserve that wealth." Like, a new
[88:30] tech Bitcoin wouldn't have survived
[88:32] without the early adopters. Like I think
[88:34] of people like my father. Like my father
[88:36] is a hero because in a network in its
[88:40] infancy, it needed attention. It needed
[88:43] time and energy to bootstrap. And the
[88:46] people that
[88:48] found the market inefficiency of here's
[88:50] this incredible innovation that nobody
[88:53] else has seen but I recognize and I'm
[88:56] going to give it capital, time, energy,
[88:59] and attention. Like you get rewarded for
[89:02] that. Like that is an immensely valuable
[89:04] service. Like there were people making
[89:06] keynotes, conferences, going on TV,
[89:08] blogging. I mean there were meetups in
[89:11] my house of like anyone that wants to
[89:13] learn about Bitcoin in 2013 come into
[89:15] our home and like we'll one by one like
[89:18] walk you through the white paper. That's
[89:20] immensely valuable. So like Bitcoin
[89:24] wouldn't have made it. Like at this
[89:26] point Bitcoin feels too big to fail. And
[89:28] I'm not saying that like it wasn't back
[89:29] then. And I don't want anyone taking
[89:31] credit for Bitcoin success, but my point
[89:33] is like that that was creating value for
[89:35] the world 100%. So I don't think anyone
[89:39] should feel shamed for being early. And
[89:41] then for the people that feel like
[89:42] they're late, how many answers do you
[89:45] want me to give on this one? I mean,
[89:47] Bitcoin's like a fraction of gold.
[89:49] You're not late at all. I mean, Bitcoin
[89:51] I think Bitcoin is going to be worth
[89:53] half the world's wealth. So, you know,
[89:55] we still have a 200 to 300x left in the
[90:00] Bitcoin market in my opinion. And uh and
[90:04] the other thing too is just bringing it
[90:05] back to money is your time and energy in
[90:07] abstracted form. And so it's it's not
[90:09] necessarily about being early or late to
[90:11] anything. It's about doing well for
[90:13] those around you, producing value uh for
[90:16] those around you, and storing it
[90:18] somewhere. Okay, fine. You don't want to
[90:19] store it in Bitcoin. Where are you going
[90:21] to store it? Dollars? No. The stock
[90:24] market? No, you're sorting gold. You're
[90:26] going to buy gold bars and put it in in
[90:28] under your mattress. The point is like
[90:31] every single day I make a conscious
[90:34] decision to own Bitcoin. Like people
[90:36] say, "Well, you already decided to own
[90:37] Bitcoin." No, I make a decision to own
[90:39] Bitcoin. Every day, guys, if I ever
[90:41] didn't want to own Bitcoin, I could just
[90:44] sell it all. Like every single second
[90:47] that I say, you know what? I'm going to
[90:49] keep the Bitcoin. That's a conscious
[90:51] decision that I'm choosing Bitcoin over
[90:53] the other market codes that I could use
[90:55] as money. And so I don't give a [ __ ]
[90:57] whether you adopted it 10 years ago or
[90:59] whether you're adopting it now. Like in
[91:01] my opinion, it's the best choice. I
[91:02] still get paychecks every other week. My
[91:05] paychecks go all into Bitcoin because
[91:07] it's the best choice for me to monetize
[91:09] a market good for my future.
[91:13] Uh Jack, in your opinion, will Bitcoin
[91:15] fail if we don't use layer 1 Bitcoin to
[91:18] pay fees to miners?
[91:20] Um, no. I I think the whole like, you
[91:24] know, uh, Bitcoin fee crisis, it happens
[91:28] every cycle, like every four years. It's
[91:32] the same proponents saying people aren't
[91:34] going to, like Bitcoin security design
[91:36] is flawed. People aren't going to pay
[91:38] fees. Uh, miners are then going to drop
[91:41] off the network. There's a few things.
[91:43] For one, the difficulty adjustment
[91:45] solves a lot of this where, you know, if
[91:48] miners drop off the network, Bitcoin
[91:50] remains secure because it gets easier to
[91:52] mine. If a bunch of miners come on the
[91:54] network, Bitcoin remains secure because
[91:55] it gets harder to mine. Bitcoin targets
[91:58] a predictable issuance rate and it
[92:00] secures itself by having the difficulty
[92:03] to mine adjusted on a very periodic set
[92:07] of time. Okay? And so that's not a
[92:10] concern. And I also just fundamentally
[92:13] don't believe that in
[92:15] a hundred years
[92:17] Bitcoin layer one like people won't be
[92:20] willing to pay Bitcoin fees to settle on
[92:23] chain because I mean like for the next
[92:26] foreseeable future a lot of the we're
[92:29] we're subsidizing mining and the energy
[92:31] on the network through uh the uh Bitcoin
[92:35] block reward anyway. So no, it's the
[92:39] same debate every four years. My answer
[92:40] to this one is no. Not not a concern
[92:42] like whatsoever.
[92:44] Hey Jack, Square just switched on the
[92:46] ability for over 4 million merchants to
[92:48] receive payments in Bitcoin. Love it.
[92:51] Can you assess the significance of this
[92:53] for Bitcoin adoption? Um, yeah. I mean,
[92:57] I've always been a proponent of
[93:02] I mean, I think Bitcoin is both a
[93:05] monetary asset to store your wealth, but
[93:08] then also I think of it like a value
[93:09] transfer protocol. I mean, if you've
[93:12] listened a podcast to me years ago, I
[93:14] would equate it to the internet. The
[93:15] internet is a information transfer
[93:18] protocol. So, it's a it's a protocol.
[93:20] It's a network that describes how peers
[93:23] can exchange information. And I think
[93:25] Bitcoin is the same for value. It's a
[93:27] network that allows network participants
[93:29] to exchange and settle value. And if you
[93:32] think about well what's that compete
[93:33] with? It competes with Visa. It competes
[93:35] with Swift. It competes with AC. And so
[93:38] I think Bitcoin is fundamentally a
[93:40] better value transfer protocol than all
[93:43] the other ones that exist today for lots
[93:45] of reasons. It's cheaper. It's open.
[93:47] It's inclusive. It's instant settlement.
[93:50] So you're not dealing with credit and
[93:52] with intermediaries. So for all of those
[93:54] reasons, I think someone like Square
[93:56] turning on for four million merchants, I
[93:58] mean, I tried my hardest to get merchant
[94:00] adoption. I just wasn't the CEO of
[94:02] Square. So I can only go so far as like
[94:05] a 25year-old kid. Um, but nonetheless, I
[94:10] mean, Strike's done a lot of work here.
[94:12] And then conversely, the opposite, and I
[94:14] think Cash App is going to release this
[94:16] just based on all their their tweeting
[94:18] is the ability to do this with fiat
[94:20] currency. So, you know, I had this idea
[94:23] many years ago. It's actually a funny
[94:24] story, believe it or not. I had this
[94:27] idea. And so, I had this idea that, you
[94:31] know, Bitcoin can be used as a payment
[94:33] rail, meaning I could send $10 over the
[94:38] Bitcoin network and have it received as
[94:40] $10 or in British pounds or in Aussie
[94:43] dollars. How? Well, if I have a customer
[94:45] that wants to send $10, I debit the $10
[94:48] from their account. I convert it to the
[94:51] equivalent in Bitcoin and send it over
[94:53] the network. That's just a BTCUSD buy
[94:55] order, right? It's the same thing as if
[94:57] as if a customer is purchasing Bitcoin.
[95:00] When when one of you guys buys Bitcoin
[95:02] on Strike, I debit your account for $10
[95:05] and I turn it into Bitcoin. Now, it's
[95:07] taking it a step further. debit your
[95:09] account for $10, convert it into bitcoin
[95:11] and then send said bitcoin somewhere and
[95:14] then let's say on the recipient end
[95:15] someone wanted to receive that in
[95:17] Nigerian naira or British pounds or
[95:20] euros well you have the bitcoin coming
[95:22] in you convert that said bitcoin into
[95:24] euros and you credit the customer euros
[95:27] and then you have a remittance payment
[95:30] cleared by the bitcoin network both in
[95:32] the settlement of the value but also the
[95:34] exchange rate so the dollar to euro
[95:37] exchange rate is actually achieved by
[95:39] going through bitcoin where typically if
[95:41] you have like a naira to euro exchange
[95:44] rate you can only achieve that by going
[95:46] through the dollar you go naira to
[95:48] dollars dollars to euros and in this
[95:50] case you go naira to bitcoin bitcoin to
[95:52] euros and you you treat bitcoin as the
[95:54] reserve currency and so strike has these
[95:57] features you can receive bitcoin and
[95:59] lightning payments as dollars if you
[96:02] want and you know people that use our
[96:04] API and stuff and you can actually send
[96:06] bitcoin
[96:08] or send uh lightning payments. So,
[96:10] Bitcoin, yes, with your dollar balance.
[96:12] So, people have have tweeted at me like,
[96:14] "Well, isn't it a taxable event if I go
[96:16] to Square and I buy a coffee with with
[96:20] Bitcoin?" And I will be supporting
[96:23] Square merchants, but I will not be I I
[96:26] I will not be spending my Bitcoin. I
[96:29] will be spending any dollar balance that
[96:31] I would have on Strike over Lightning um
[96:34] or my line of credit. uh o over
[96:37] lightning. And so um anyways, that's
[96:40] been my vision. The funny part about
[96:42] that story is I actually had this idea.
[96:44] I was like, "Holy [ __ ] lightning
[96:46] enables Bitcoin to be for money what the
[96:49] internet was for innovation in uh
[96:51] information. It's a value transfer
[96:53] protocol. Oh my god." And I texted my
[96:56] buddies that worked at Cash App and I
[96:59] wrote a one-pager for them and I
[97:01] presented it to them. And at the time it
[97:04] was just very early and I also don't
[97:06] know if they knew what I was talking
[97:07] about at the time. Uh I'm not sure. But
[97:11] anyways, it was too early for them to
[97:13] focus on it and work on it or maybe they
[97:14] didn't get it. But that was another
[97:16] reason I started Strike. I started
[97:18] Strike for a lot of reasons, but one of
[97:19] the reasons was because I wanted to
[97:22] build this stuff and whether it was
[97:24] Coinbase was just focused on shitcoins
[97:26] or Cash App was focused on other stuff.
[97:28] Um, so yeah, it was one of the first
[97:30] products I built at Strike was moving
[97:32] fiat over lightning so that it can
[97:35] compete with Visa. So what's the
[97:37] significance of this? I think it's
[97:38] amazing. It's a huge moment. Using an
[97:40] open interoperable network to settle
[97:42] value for a merchant is insane. We've
[97:44] lived in this duopoly of payment
[97:47] clearance with Mastercard and Visa. Now
[97:51] I think it's going to be really hard to
[97:52] get adoption. I think it's going to take
[97:54] a little bit of it's going to take
[97:56] longer than people expect. Um, and I can
[97:58] explain that later if you guys want. I
[98:00] feel like I've ranted enough on this
[98:01] topic, but nonetheless, huge milestone.
[98:04] And if you want to spend your dollars to
[98:06] a Square merchant, it would work exactly
[98:09] how I'm explaining. We would literally
[98:11] debit the dollars from your account,
[98:13] turn it to Bitcoin, send it to Jack
[98:15] Dorsey's nodes, who would then, if the
[98:17] merchant is accepting Bitcoin payments
[98:18] as dollars, convert it back to dollars,
[98:21] and credit them. and we would have
[98:22] achieved dollarto-doll settlement in a
[98:25] commerce setting without Visa, cash
[98:27] final, no fees. Crazy. So, it's only a
[98:31] matter of time before all this stuff
[98:32] gets very disruptive and takes down the
[98:35] duopolies like Visa and Mastercard. But,
[98:37] I do think it will take time for lots of
[98:39] other reasons that I'm I can explain if
[98:42] you guys want. Let's see. Dylan sent me
[98:44] some messages. Hold on.
[98:47] I think your mic is rubbing against your
[98:49] hoodie. Oops. Sorry.
[98:56] Oops. Sorry.
[98:59] Not a professional podcaster. Um, hey
[99:03] Jack, what do you think about the people
[99:05] saying that it can't be the world
[99:07] reserve currency because countries
[99:09] wouldn't let Bitcoin become a powerhouse
[99:11] over their own currencies in every
[99:12] country? Um, yeah. I mean,
[99:17] if money is time and energy in an
[99:19] abstracted form, then you get a lot of
[99:22] power being able to print it. You get to
[99:25] print time and energy. And so,
[99:28] I don't think people are going to
[99:30] forgive that superpower very easily at
[99:33] all. There's no doubt about that. I
[99:34] don't doubt that for a second. So, yeah,
[99:37] I I I mean, I would say I agree. if if
[99:41] the world was rational and peaceful and
[99:42] and people did things out of love,
[99:44] Bitcoin would already be the world
[99:45] reserve currency. So, I don't know. I
[99:48] it's hard for me to speculate when it
[99:50] will overcome some of these hurdles
[99:52] because you're dealing with very
[99:54] powerful
[99:56] uh incentive structures and human
[99:58] emotion that's complicated. But, um
[100:00] we'll see. I I don't know. I I I don't
[100:03] have a perfect answer for you. I agree.
[100:05] I I don't spend too much time
[100:07] speculating on when Bitcoin will conquer
[100:10] the world. I just know I'm part of, you
[100:13] know, I had a I had a passing thought um
[100:16] this weekend. I was actually on my way
[100:18] to the Bears game and I had a passing
[100:19] thought. When people say Bitcoin is a
[100:22] cult, I don't know if it's a cult. Well,
[100:26] I know it's not a cult. Um not I don't
[100:28] know. I do know. But what I was going to
[100:31] say is it's maybe more like a sports
[100:32] team in the sense that like I am team
[100:36] Bitcoin and I'm team Bitcoin because
[100:39] it's more equitable. It's fair. The
[100:42] money's hard. Like it supports the
[100:45] things that I believe in. Very similar
[100:47] to like the Chicago Bears. Like I'm a
[100:49] Bears fan. Whether we lose, we win cuz
[100:54] I'm from Chicago and that's my team. And
[100:56] it's the same thing with Bitcoin. like
[100:58] I'm a Bitcoin fan whether the price is
[101:01] up or down or the president likes
[101:04] Bitcoin or doesn't because I believe in
[101:06] it. I believe in what it stands for. And
[101:08] so, um,
[101:10] anyway, interesting passing thought I
[101:13] had in relation to I just don't
[101:15] speculate on like when it's going to
[101:17] win, when it's going to topple
[101:18] governments. I'm just I'm just here to
[101:21] support, you know, what the technology
[101:23] stands for. I'm just a fan of it and I
[101:25] know it's going in the right direction.
[101:26] And it could take as long as it wants
[101:28] and it might take longer than I'm alive
[101:30] and I've come to terms with that. Okay.
[101:33] Strike question.
[101:35] Uh would you guys make a self-custody
[101:37] wallet app that allows for hardware
[101:39] wallets to connect to it? Uh I don't
[101:42] think so. Not in the foreseeable future.
[101:45] Uh there's plenty of products like that
[101:47] in the market and uh you know I I don't
[101:50] know. It's really hard to be good at one
[101:53] thing. It's even harder to be good at a
[101:56] few things. It's impossible to be good
[101:58] at everything. And so for Strike, you
[102:00] know, we're becoming like the Bitcoin
[102:03] bank for the world. And I know that bank
[102:05] is a nasty term for a lot of purists out
[102:07] there, but you know, we're a regulated
[102:09] financial institution that you can trust
[102:12] to buy and sell Bitcoin with, to custody
[102:15] your Bitcoin with, to send and receive
[102:17] payments with, to get a loan against, to
[102:19] get a line of credit, to maybe get a
[102:21] credit card. And that's what we think
[102:25] will we can do the most value for
[102:27] Bitcoiners around the world is a trusted
[102:29] financial institution to make their life
[102:31] better with Bitcoin. And so that's what
[102:33] our focus should be. If at any point,
[102:37] you know, a self-custody app makes sense
[102:41] in our product suite, we'll do it. But I
[102:43] don't want to stretch us too thin and
[102:46] our focus all over the place because
[102:48] then we won't be good at anything. will
[102:49] be like okay at a lot of things and that
[102:52] doesn't benefit many people honestly.
[102:56] Um,
[102:58] thanks uh Jack for the show. I look
[103:01] forward to this every week. Do you think
[103:02] there's a chance Strike will ever be
[103:04] able to operate in China? Um, not
[103:08] anytime soon. uh just because the
[103:11] regulatory environment, like I said,
[103:13] we're not one of those companies that's
[103:14] just going to be like we're everywhere
[103:16] and anywhere and everything that you
[103:17] want we have cuz that'd be very illegal
[103:21] and eventually would get shut down and
[103:22] people would get in trouble and again
[103:24] that just doesn't do well for anybody.
[103:26] So, um if I would if I could, uh right
[103:29] now I can't. So, um any plans to have
[103:33] strike in Taiwan? We are live in Taiwan.
[103:35] So, Taiwan is a market we're allowed to
[103:37] operate in and we've achieved uh
[103:39] regulatory approvals for Taiwan. So, we
[103:41] are in Taiwan. Uh I think a great place
[103:43] to hold Bitcoin is in a Roth account,
[103:45] taxes, etc. Does Strike have plans for
[103:47] both Roth IAS and Roth 401k accounts? Uh
[103:51] not in the immediate term. Uh not
[103:54] anything you'd see like this quarter,
[103:56] for example, but definitely eventually.
[104:01] um on the on the idea of being like the
[104:03] Bitcoin bank for the world or or the
[104:05] go-to financial institution for the
[104:06] Bitcoiner. I I think that's a product
[104:08] that you guys need to have within our
[104:10] product suite. Um but you know, some
[104:12] other stuff uh comes first. Actually,
[104:15] did I forget a slide here? Oh, I did.
[104:19] Hold on.
[104:22] I was just reminded that I totally
[104:23] forgot.
[104:25] I made a slide and I just didn't put it
[104:27] in.
[104:30] about strikes road map.
[104:34] Long travel day. Sorry, not a
[104:36] professional podcaster. Oh, I got to
[104:38] keep holding this mic so it doesn't hit
[104:39] my hoodie.
[104:41] Um, all right. Let me blow this up
[104:46] and uh
[104:49] reduce my camera. So I had this slide
[104:52] and I forgot to include it but I you
[104:55] know this is what you guys can expect
[104:56] from us in the near term. So lending
[105:00] meaning I wrote expand uh strike lending
[105:03] across the US including Texas,
[105:05] California and New York lowering our
[105:07] minimums to the best that we can and
[105:10] scaling globally so that anyone can
[105:12] borrow. So just more lending expansion.
[105:14] Uh line of credit so launching the first
[105:16] fully compliant regulated Bitcoin line
[105:17] of credit in the United States. borrow
[105:19] dollars against your Bitcoin instantly
[105:20] and seamlessly. So, um you need to
[105:23] either be a bank or partner with a bank
[105:25] to issue a line of credit to Americans.
[105:27] Uh we have partnered with a bank on this
[105:29] which is very exciting. So, this will be
[105:31] like the first legitimate line of credit
[105:33] product in the US which is very cool and
[105:34] the the product is super cool. We went
[105:36] through all the designs as a team. It's
[105:38] like a payment method. So, when you go
[105:40] make a lightning payment or when you go
[105:42] pay a bill or when you go buy Bitcoin,
[105:44] you can do it with your cash. You can do
[105:45] it with a linked bank account and you
[105:47] can do it with this line of credit that
[105:48] you have. So, it acts like a payment
[105:51] method alongside the things that you can
[105:52] do on Strike, which is unbelievably
[105:54] cool. So, the way I'll use it obviously
[105:56] is I'll hook it up to all my bills. So,
[105:58] when I have to pay my credit card or my
[106:00] HOA or or the bills I have in my life,
[106:03] um it'll pull from my line of credit
[106:04] against my Bitcoin, which is so cool.
[106:07] So, I won't need to have like an active
[106:09] like loan, 12-month duration loan. I'll
[106:12] just have a line of credit and then as
[106:13] my direct deposit comes in, you know,
[106:14] some of it can go towards paying off the
[106:16] interest and down paying the line of
[106:17] credit and the rest can go towards
[106:19] buying Bitcoin. Yield on cash. So, uh,
[106:23] strike yield, uh, 5 to 8%, I would say
[106:26] somewhere in that range. I would be,
[106:29] it'll probably be higher than 5%. It'll
[106:30] probably be less than 8%. That's why you
[106:32] give ranges. The truth is somewhere in
[106:33] the middle there. Um, but we should we
[106:36] should have give you way more yield than
[106:39] any other service that's basically
[106:40] getting the Fed funds rate. So, I don't
[106:42] know, Fed funds right now is three
[106:44] something percent. We'll probably be
[106:45] able to double that. So, uh, that's
[106:48] going to be an incredible product and
[106:49] it's backed by Bitcoin. It's because
[106:51] we're one of the biggest lenders against
[106:53] Bitcoin in the world. And so, the way
[106:55] our lending product works today is we go
[106:57] to institutions and say, "We have all
[106:58] these people that want all these loans
[107:00] and if you want yield on your cash, you
[107:03] can give it to us. we get double the
[107:05] collateral to give out a loan so it's
[107:07] you know over collateralized you know
[107:08] little to no risk and uh we'll lend your
[107:11] dollars out um to our customers and uh
[107:14] so people are getting yield on cash that
[107:16] way and you guys kept asking for yield
[107:18] on cash and I figured well we could just
[107:19] let our customers get in on the same
[107:21] deal that all these institutions are so
[107:22] if you want if you had like 100 grand on
[107:25] strike um as like some rainy day fund
[107:27] and you wanted yield on that you know we
[107:29] can give you five six seven eight% on
[107:32] that so you're getting five to eight
[107:33] grand a year virtually. You know, I
[107:36] can't legally say risk-f free, but it's
[107:37] an overcolateralized loan with Bitcoin.
[107:39] So, pretty amazing feature there. I know
[107:41] you guys are really excited about that.
[107:42] And then we're looking into the Strike
[107:44] Card. Um, Visa actually listens to this
[107:46] show, so shout out Visa. Every every
[107:48] show they DM me, so I'm expecting a DM.
[107:51] I'm not going to dox you, but uh but
[107:54] yeah, uh we're looking at the Strike
[107:56] Card, and this would be a secured credit
[107:58] card. So, the first truly secured credit
[108:01] card by Bitcoin. Um, and it would allow
[108:03] you to live on your Bitcoin, live on
[108:06] that line of credit so that you can you
[108:08] don't have to use the line of credit for
[108:09] bill pay. You can actually use it to
[108:11] spend. And uh, we've thought a lot about
[108:13] how we can make your strike experience
[108:15] better. Like maybe if you spend a bunch,
[108:17] you know, because competing in rewards
[108:19] is is ridiculous. Like I'm never going
[108:20] to build an airport lounge in the
[108:23] airport better than MX or or Chase. So
[108:27] it's just like gonna be like we're not
[108:29] going to have better rewards than that.
[108:31] But, you know, spending on your card
[108:34] could go towards your feared or your T
[108:38] fee tiers. So, like you're you're you
[108:41] can you know, there's all sorts of
[108:43] benefits we can give. So, but I I'm
[108:45] continuing. Keep leaving me comments
[108:46] about the card. You know, some of you
[108:48] say, "I'm just going to use my MX. Why
[108:50] would I use the card?" And then some of
[108:51] you say like, "If you give me the card,
[108:53] like I'll never use another card." So,
[108:55] I'm kind of curious if we should build
[108:57] it or what kind of card we should build.
[108:59] But, um, that's the last one. So, as far
[109:01] as what to expect from our road map,
[109:02] these are the big items, not all of
[109:04] them. We have announcements and smaller
[109:06] ones uh every single day that are
[109:08] sometimes equally as important. But
[109:10] sorry, I forgot this slide. So, um you
[109:13] know what to expect from us. So,
[109:14] something like Roth IAS uh not going to
[109:18] be more important than any of those, but
[109:21] probably shortly after those, if I had
[109:24] to guess.
[109:26] Uh, okay. Let's go back
[109:31] to the questions. Almost done.
[109:34] Uh, we'll keep the episode under two
[109:36] hours, so I got five minutes. Uh, would
[109:39] it be hard for Strike to add the ability
[109:41] for users to add a beneficiary?
[109:43] Um, we are going to do this in 2026.
[109:47] Some legal hurdles, but we're going to
[109:48] get it done in 2026.
[109:51] Uh,
[109:53] oh, here we go. Jack, I saw you going
[109:55] off on Twitter about lava. Is there a
[109:57] reason to be concerned or is this just
[109:59] competitive spirit?
[110:02] Uh,
[110:08] neither.
[110:10] I mean,
[110:14] [sighs]
[110:16] listen, I saw like some Lava investor
[110:18] being like, you know, Bitcoin
[110:21] entrepreneurs are being competitive and
[110:24] jealous that Lava
[110:27] raised $200 million. And that's just the
[110:29] competitive nature.
[110:32] Let me tell you guys something, man. And
[110:34] I'm not trying to be a dick. I'm not
[110:36] trying to show off. First of all, Lava
[110:39] didn't raise $200 million. And all the
[110:41] power to Lava. Like I I've said in my
[110:43] tweets, if everything Lava says is true,
[110:45] it's a great thing for Bitcoin. It's
[110:47] amazing. I mean, I'm out here cheering
[110:49] on Cash App. Cash App's a competitor to
[110:51] strike if you really want to be brass
[110:52] taxed. Cash App's a far like who do you
[110:55] think competes more for my business,
[110:57] Cash App or Lava? And that's no slight
[110:59] to Lava. Like it's just a tiny it's a
[111:02] startup. I think they have like 15
[111:03] employees. Um, so it's no slight. I have
[111:07] no problem cheering on quoteunquote
[111:09] competitors. I think the Bitcoin
[111:10] market's big enough for all of us to
[111:12] win, but they didn't raise $200 million.
[111:15] The $200 million is debt financing. If
[111:18] we were to announce
[111:20] funding like they did, we've raised
[111:23] billions of dollars because it's debt
[111:25] financing to finance loans. So, they
[111:27] found someone to give them $200 million
[111:29] to give out loans if they were to give
[111:32] them out. So the notion that I would be
[111:36] jealous about that or like that I need
[111:38] to go out of my way to like compete with
[111:41] that. I mean Strike is operating at an
[111:44] immensely larger scale than that. Um I
[111:49] like like Strike's volume this year it's
[111:53] like well over 10 billion through the
[111:56] platform. So,
[112:00] I'm not going to get all up in arms
[112:01] about a startup having $200 million
[112:03] worth of debt financing. I do think that
[112:05] their announcement was intentionally
[112:07] misleading to amplify the marketing
[112:09] aspect of the announcement, but
[112:11] whatever. To each their own. But like
[112:14] guys, I am the founder and CEO of
[112:17] Strike, which is
[112:20] probably, if not definitely the biggest
[112:22] Bitcoin only financial services platform
[112:24] in the world by a a very healthy margin.
[112:28] Most profitable per employee for sure,
[112:30] by a lot.
[112:32] And I'm also the co-founder and CEO of
[112:35] 21. I've raised billions of dollars this
[112:39] year to have the third largest corporate
[112:42] treasury in the world. I'm taking that
[112:44] company public. So, the notion that I am
[112:48] jealous or competitive,
[112:50] that's not why I'm speaking out. Again,
[112:53] I'm not trying to sound like an [ __ ]
[112:55] just being honest. Um, I'm speaking out
[112:59] not because I know any specific
[113:00] information that would be worrisome, but
[113:06] a lot of what's being said isn't true
[113:09] and that's a problem. You know, Bitcoin
[113:12] doesn't have any governing body. It
[113:15] doesn't have a police force protecting
[113:17] it. It doesn't have a military to like
[113:20] the protecting armor of Bitcoin is all
[113:22] of us people. If I don't speak out,
[113:25] who's going to speak out? I [snorts]
[113:27] would argue I know this industry almost
[113:30] better, if not better than anyone in the
[113:32] world. And so I could tell you guys when
[113:36] something smells really fishy and is
[113:37] off. And there was just a lot of
[113:39] questions I had and I'm speaking out for
[113:42] the best interest of Bitcoin. We don't
[113:44] want any more BlockFi or FTXs. And not
[113:47] to say that that's Lava. I I genuinely
[113:50] don't know. I I don't know much about
[113:52] the business at Oh, I have no
[113:53] affiliation with it, no association with
[113:55] it. None of the investors all that I've
[113:57] been asking these questions. None of the
[113:59] investors
[114:01] that have talked plenty [ __ ] about me
[114:03] have DM'd me and asked me any questions.
[114:06] Nothing. So, I know nothing. All I know
[114:09] is what's been public. They said they
[114:11] they did a hund00 million of new loans
[114:14] in
[114:15] two days, but the onchain data shows
[114:20] that they have not received more than
[114:22] $50 million of collateral in the life of
[114:24] the company, which means at 50% LTV, the
[114:28] most they could have ever issued was 25
[114:30] million, but it's probably substantially
[114:31] lower than that. It's probably like 10
[114:33] to$20 million of lifetime outstanding
[114:36] loans for the company. So that $und00
[114:39] million being used to attract investors
[114:42] and customer confidence, that's
[114:43] potentially a really bad lie. That's
[114:46] that's I'm not going to use the f-word.
[114:50] That's that's not good. Um the switching
[114:53] from non-custodial to custodial without
[114:55] being clear with customers and then
[114:58] presuming that there's no legal
[115:00] obligation and regulatory and compliance
[115:02] obligation or not being straight with
[115:04] people about that. That's not good. New
[115:07] York can shut your entire company down
[115:09] if you don't abide by their rules. Do
[115:11] you think I want to be in New York,
[115:12] guys? Of course I do. If I break the
[115:15] rules, I jeopardize myself, my business,
[115:17] and customers.
[115:20] And so the notion that like, guys, do
[115:23] you think Cash App, Strike, Coinbase, do
[115:25] you think all these companies want to be
[115:26] global and serving every market in every
[115:28] way? Yeah. So, like, what do you think
[115:31] Lava is doing different than these
[115:32] companies that are worth billions of
[115:34] dollars?
[115:36] These are important questions. So, do I
[115:38] know for a fact something bad's going to
[115:40] happen? No. Are there very serious
[115:43] questions that need to be asked? Yes. Am
[115:46] I asking them out of spite or jealousy?
[115:48] No. I'm not I'm not out here futing Cash
[115:52] App today. I'm not like of all the [ __ ]
[115:55] people talk about me. I take a decent
[115:57] amount of punches nowadays. And I used
[115:59] to complain about it a lot more. I'm
[116:00] used to it. Comes with the territory.
[116:02] It's just part of my life at this point
[116:05] in many ways. I appreciate it. I
[116:07] actually really like you guys are always
[116:09] making fun of my haircut or my
[116:10] professional podcasterism.
[116:14] I don't talk [ __ ] back unless it's like
[116:16] about Scott Bessant and stuff, but
[116:19] that's more, you know, entertainment and
[116:20] education. I don't I don't sit around on
[116:22] these podcasts and talk [ __ ] about
[116:23] Bitcoin companies ever. So, it's really
[116:25] no it's really just like in the best
[116:27] interest of
[116:29] Bitcoiners, honestly. So, whatever.
[116:33] I stopped replying to that stuff at some
[116:35] point on Friday. Like, I said what I
[116:37] felt like I needed to say. I made my
[116:39] points. Uh, I find it really
[116:41] disheartening that a lot of the
[116:44] questions I asked are yet to be
[116:45] answered. Like, these guys seem to have
[116:48] plenty of time to promote their products
[116:50] and to [ __ ] on other people. But when it
[116:53] comes to how did you go from
[116:56] self-custody to custodial? What licenses
[116:58] do you have? How did you do $100 million
[117:01] of loans if you've only had $50 million
[117:04] of collateral through the lifetime of
[117:05] the business? Like they don't have time
[117:07] to answer those questions. I don't know.
[117:09] It's just a little concerning.
[117:12] But I have no no issue. If somehow Lava
[117:15] created a way for all of us to be
[117:17] custodial and not have to follow the
[117:19] rules, that'd be great. Cash App and
[117:22] Strike would love to see that innovation
[117:24] and we'd be the first to adopt Lava's
[117:26] new found genius invention,
[117:29] but I just like none of us think it's a
[117:32] genius invention. We we we don't know
[117:34] what it is. We're just asking questions.
[117:35] So, whatever. Too much time spent on
[117:38] this topic to be honest. But no. Uh what
[117:41] was the actual question? Was it what'
[117:43] you say?
[117:45] Competitive spirit. No.
[117:49] Like I said, like I don't know. I mean,
[117:53] the CEO of the largest Bitcoin financial
[117:55] services company in the world and CEO of
[117:58] 21 with Soft Bank and Tether. I would
[118:01] love if Lava if everything Lava said was
[118:04] true. I'm just it's not clear to me that
[118:07] it is. And that's not good. Our job is
[118:10] to keep the Sam Bankman Freeds out of
[118:12] this space.
[118:13] Like if we don't do it, no one will.
[118:15] There is no there is no governing body
[118:18] that gets paid to surveil
[118:21] We are the armor.
[118:24] Okay, last question. Hey Dylan, do we
[118:26] already post the list of all these links
[118:29] for each show? Would be nice to have a
[118:31] weekly slide pack to refer back to.
[118:36] Why did you What? That's not even a
[118:38] question, Dylan. Why did you put that
[118:40] here? Is that a question or are you just
[118:42] taking notes?
[118:48] Whatever. If that's a question, that's
[118:50] my bad. Uh, okay. Now, now actual last
[118:54] question. Aren't you concerned about the
[118:55] quality of McDonald's beef? [snorts]
[118:58] Would be better to just buy ground beef
[119:00] at the supermarket and microwave it.
[119:02] Yeah, but bro, I'm staying in a hotel,
[119:04] man. Uh, I'm staying in a hotel for like
[119:08] a day to meet with the suits. Uh, I'm
[119:12] not concerned. I mean, you know, you
[119:14] know what I find funny? people people
[119:16] will be like uh worried about uh like
[119:21] the type of shampoo they're using,
[119:24] which I am too, by the way. I'm I'm one
[119:27] of those organic guys, but they're like,
[119:29] "Oh, aren't you worried about the
[119:31] quality of the ground beef?" But then
[119:32] they eat a bunch of fries with it.
[119:35] No, I mean, ground beef's ground beef.
[119:38] If it's got sufficient fat in it and
[119:40] it's not fake, it's fine. I'm not eating
[119:43] it every day of the year. I'm eating it
[119:45] on a day like today. It's fine. Because
[119:47] the other problem is I order room
[119:49] service. Let's say I did. The problem is
[119:52] they give you they're like, "Oh, you can
[119:53] get the steak." The steak is like a
[119:55] [ __ ] 6 sirloin.
[119:57] I need pounds of beef. It's it's
[120:00] predominantly all I eat. Eat like beef,
[120:03] butter, eggs, maybe some like pork rinds
[120:06] and stuff, but it's like I need I need
[120:09] like volume here or else I'm going to be
[120:11] hungry. I don't have time for these
[120:13] petite little steaks that serve you a
[120:15] bunch of [ __ ] on the side to fill
[120:17] you up. I don't want that [ __ ]
[120:20] So, and I don't do coffee either. Like,
[120:22] you know, I find it funny that in order
[120:24] to be in shape, people suppress the
[120:27] amount of calories they intake, which is
[120:29] your energy source. So, you're
[120:30] suppressing the amount of energy you're
[120:32] getting from nutrients. And then you're
[120:34] stimulating energy via caffeine and
[120:37] suppressing your appetite. So, I do no
[120:40] coffee. Everyone always assumes I'm on
[120:42] drugs or caffeine during these. Like I
[120:43] don't I don't have no caffeine. Never
[120:45] done any drugs outside marijuana. I've
[120:47] told you guys that. And I just eat
[120:49] pounds of beef. My body metabolizes it
[120:52] as energy because of ketosis. So I don't
[120:55] know where are you going to get two
[120:57] pounds of beef in an hour before you got
[120:59] to record a live stream and go to a
[121:01] Caner Fitzgerald event at the Ritz
[121:02] Carlton. [ __ ] Mecky D's baby. That's
[121:05] where. I don't know. I'm not worried
[121:07] about it. There's plenty of other things
[121:09] to be worried about um than the quality
[121:11] of uh today's dinner. It was high
[121:13] quality beef.
[121:16] Um what a way to end it. All right, I
[121:20] got to hop in the shower and go uh kick
[121:24] it with the suits. Suits are very kind
[121:26] to me nowadays.
[121:28] The suits are listening. I appreciate
[121:29] the suits.
[121:31] Good men and women in these suits.
[121:34] Starting to get orange pill day by day.
[121:36] All right, guys. Well, let's see what
[121:39] the chat is saying. I don't have the
[121:41] chat on my computer.
[121:43] Um,
[121:45] I'm out of here.
[121:47] Uh, you guys are so funny. Uh, Cali
[121:51] Loans will be in December, brother. Cali
[121:53] Loans will be in December. I'm out of
[121:55] here. I'll see you guys next week. I'll
[121:57] be back in the closet. Uh, peace and
[121:58] love. Uh, if you have any feedback, just
[122:01] drop it in the comments. Uh, we're
[122:03] always trying to get better, both as a
[122:04] company and this show. Oh [ __ ] Here we
[122:07] go.