Stepping Down From Twenty One, The Fed Coin Flip & The AI Credit Bubble

[0:02] Yo, welcome back to another episode of
[0:04] the Jack Mer Show. I am your host, Jack,
[0:07] and this is yet another edition of Mail
[0:10] Bag Monday. Every Monday, 6:00 p.m.
[0:13] Eastern, 5:00 p.m. Central, 3:00 p.m.
[0:15] Pacific, as much signal as I can, and
[0:18] the least amount of noise. No ads, no
[0:22] nonsense, no [ __ ] pure signal. Uh,
[0:25] trying to find truth and build a better
[0:27] world for us and our kids. How about it?
[0:30] Um, okay. Let's kick this episode off.
[0:32] Before I get started, I time stamp these
[0:34] things. I'm talking to you all at a
[0:36] Bitcoin price of 64,700
[0:39] US. Bitcoin's market cap sits at a clean
[0:42] $1.3 trillion.
[0:45] All-time high remains 126,160
[0:48] bucks. We're 48.7%
[0:52] off that all-time high we made on
[0:53] October 6, 2025.
[0:58] The last Bitcoin block mined since I hit
[1:00] stream. It's block height 959,890.
[1:08] Okay guys, uh it is good to talk to you
[1:11] all. Uh obviously we have a lot to
[1:14] discuss together. Um so the title of
[1:16] today's episode is stepping down from 21
[1:19] the Fed coin flip and the AI credit
[1:22] bubble. So this is the first episode
[1:24] since I stepped down. Um,
[1:28] so that I mean it is what it is. Uh,
[1:32] we'll talk about that. Sorry, I'm making
[1:33] sure I'm live. Not a professional
[1:35] podcaster.
[1:36] Um, we'll talk about that. Uh, hopefully
[1:39] you guys have seen my resignation video.
[1:41] Hopefully you have seen my letter to
[1:43] strike investors. Hopefully you have
[1:45] seen the essay that I wrote. But even if
[1:47] you didn't, we'll get into it. We'll
[1:49] cover it. And hopefully I can do the
[1:51] brunt of the work on Q&A. So, for those
[1:53] that don't know, I do live Q&A every
[1:55] single Monday. Show up no matter what
[1:57] and try and answer your guys' questions.
[1:59] So, Dylan is in the chat this week. He's
[2:01] writing down your questions as we speak.
[2:03] So, any question that you guys want to
[2:04] ask me about myself, about 21, about
[2:08] anything, literally try me. Um, I'm a
[2:11] wideopened book. I have no secrets. So,
[2:16] we'll talk about that and then, uh, in
[2:18] the back half of the show, we'll just
[2:20] keep it normal. I mean, there's lots
[2:22] going on in the markets. Uh, the Fed's
[2:24] got a decision to make this week. Are
[2:26] they going to raise rates? Are they
[2:27] going to keep rates as is? And then the
[2:29] AI credit bubble is increasingly driving
[2:32] a lot of market sentiment and market
[2:34] activity. And I do think that some
[2:37] resolution of this AI credit bubble is
[2:39] what's going to drive the next wave of
[2:41] money printing. We'll see. I mean, I'm
[2:43] not always right. Uh, so with that,
[2:46] let's get into it. Uh before we get
[2:48] started, as always, let's answer these
[2:49] first because technically we are in what
[2:51] is self-described by the United States
[2:53] as a conflict. I would say at what point
[2:56] is it a war? It's been going on for 5
[2:58] months now instead of the 5 weeks that
[3:00] we were told. But the questions are is
[3:02] the straight of horm still closed? Is
[3:04] this conflict still ongoing? Are global
[3:06] supply chains still disrupted? And can
[3:08] global debt survive this disruption? Uh
[3:10] the answers remain the same. So, I will
[3:12] admit that uh the straight update,
[3:16] here's a more detailed visual of what is
[3:19] going through the straight. And hey,
[3:21] credit where credit's due. You got to
[3:22] get you got to give credit where
[3:24] credit's due. It looks like things are
[3:25] moving in the right direction. And it's
[3:27] impossible for me to know if that's why
[3:31] oil is trading the way it is. Oil's come
[3:33] down.
[3:34] It seemed to come down and be directly
[3:37] correlated with Iran and the United
[3:39] States wanting to renew the idea of
[3:42] being at peace again late Sunday night
[3:44] as they do before market open. But we'll
[3:46] see. It looks like things are getting
[3:48] through again. But the whole point of
[3:50] asking these questions is because we
[3:52] don't know the answer. Following around
[3:53] headlines and politicians is exhausting
[3:55] and pointless. It doesn't matter. Uh,
[3:58] I'd rather spend our time focusing on
[4:00] more interesting things and figuring out
[4:02] where we can be productive and useful in
[4:03] the world. So, here's the straight of
[4:05] Hormuz update. I mean, listen, it's
[4:07] still relatively closed. That's just
[4:09] what this visual shows. And then, are we
[4:12] Last time I talked to you guys, we were
[4:14] in conflict with Iran. We were back.
[4:16] War, missiles, violence, and as of this
[4:20] morning, the president of the United
[4:22] States, Donald J. Trump, said uh that
[4:24] very friendly talks are ongoing. So now
[4:26] we are back agreeing to agree to agree
[4:29] to agree to not be in conflict anymore.
[4:31] So this is exactly why we don't spend
[4:33] too much time on the show about it
[4:34] because they flip-flop like pancakes. Um
[4:39] my guys, my sentiment remains the same.
[4:41] It seems like this conflict is going to
[4:43] go on longer than anyone thinks. That's
[4:46] always seemingly been the case no matter
[4:47] what politicians tell you. uh and it
[4:50] seems to be providing inflationary
[4:54] pressure onto a system that was already
[4:56] struggling with inflation and money
[4:58] printing to begin with. Uh that I I
[5:01] remain those two remain um you're going
[5:04] to get commodity inflation, you're going
[5:06] to get energy inflation, you're going to
[5:07] get oil market disruption um because of
[5:10] all of the things and and I don't see
[5:12] any near-term resolution. There's just
[5:14] nothing that gives me confidence. It
[5:16] doesn't mean it can't happen, but
[5:17] there's just nothing that gives me
[5:18] confidence in and that like, oh yeah,
[5:20] like this this is definitely going to
[5:22] end soon. Been saying that since
[5:24] February. Um, okay, chapter one. Let's
[5:27] get into it. Uh, I stepped down from 21.
[5:31] So, a lot of the messaging here will be
[5:34] there's not a ton of new information.
[5:36] Um, so I don't want to bore you guys.
[5:37] I'll I'll try and get through it at a
[5:39] medium pace. Not going to blitz through
[5:42] it. Not going to take my time and wax
[5:44] philosophically. I really do think the
[5:47] opportunity is to allow you guys to ask
[5:49] questions u for anyone that does. Um but
[5:52] I will reiterate some of the messaging
[5:54] that I've already been consistent on and
[5:56] and the things that I own um and where I
[5:59] feel uh disappointed in myself. Um and I
[6:02] want to own some of the outcomes uh and
[6:05] just what was accomplished or frankly
[6:07] lack thereof while I was the CEO. Uh,
[6:10] and then just some of the reasoning and
[6:12] what comes next, what this all means.
[6:14] Doesn't, you know, I'm not dying
[6:16] thankfully. Knock on wood, right? Uh, it
[6:19] strikes an unbelievable company. And I,
[6:21] I mean, this has been a very, uh,
[6:23] clarifying experience for me, uh, what I
[6:24] care about, who I am as a man, as a
[6:26] leader, and, uh, how I want to spend my
[6:28] time hopefully being useful. So, uh,
[6:31] let's do it. Uh first of all, let's you
[6:34] know, going all the way back what we set
[6:36] out to build at 21. Uh we wanted to
[6:39] build and you know they are still
[6:41] building this by the way the the folks
[6:43] still at the company. But we wanted to
[6:45] build the dream Bitcoin company. That's
[6:47] why I co-founded the business. That's
[6:49] why I got involved and that's what I was
[6:52] working on. And to me, I've given this
[6:55] presentation at Nauseium at this point,
[6:58] but that means Bitcoin on the balance
[6:59] sheet. So, owning Bitcoin and you know,
[7:04] sure, of course, I I would love to own
[7:06] the most Bitcoin in the world cuz I love
[7:08] Bitcoin so much. I don't know a
[7:09] Bitcoiner that wouldn't, but it it
[7:11] didn't necessarily mean we needed to own
[7:14] a 100,000 coins or 500,000 coins or a
[7:16] million coins. Um, it just meant that
[7:19] our conviction displayed through our
[7:21] balance sheet. So, our conviction
[7:23] explained economically, not just
[7:25] verbally. It's one thing to say, I love
[7:27] Bitcoin, but it's another thing to put
[7:28] your money where your mouth is. And so,
[7:30] there's a company where we put our money
[7:32] where our mouth is, and then a company
[7:35] that also built Bitcoin businesses
[7:36] underneath it. And it was the
[7:38] combination of those two. So, it's like,
[7:40] can you take the best of what Coinbase
[7:43] is or Robin Hood is and but the Bitcoin
[7:46] version and combine it with like what
[7:48] the best of Strategy is because I I view
[7:51] these companies as polar opposites uh in
[7:55] the sense that strategy has a ton of
[7:56] Bitcoin conviction, Bitcoin focus. They
[7:58] don't get distracted by shitcoin. Sailor
[8:00] seems to be a bitcoiner. Um but uh it's
[8:04] all financial engineering. um there is
[8:07] no cash generating products because of
[8:09] customers and building tools that push
[8:12] Bitcoin adoption at the consumer level
[8:14] or the business level. Uh they are is
[8:17] capital markets financial engineering.
[8:19] Now Coinbase is the opposite. Coinbase
[8:21] actually does not own a ton of Bitcoin
[8:24] relative to the size of their balance
[8:26] sheet. Um, so I would say Coinbase's
[8:28] conviction in Bitcoin has has not been
[8:32] in the same universe as someone like
[8:34] myself or someone like Sailor. Not to
[8:36] say that they don't like Bitcoin, but
[8:38] they seem to like crypto as a whole. And
[8:40] they like prediction markets and they I
[8:42] would say categorically have liked
[8:44] Ethereum more than Bitcoin throughout
[8:47] their history, which again, I mean, it's
[8:48] not an indictment. I personally think
[8:51] that that's a mistake, but whatever.
[8:53] That's not what this episode's about.
[8:55] The question was, can you build someone
[8:56] in between? Because Coinbase has loads
[8:58] of cash flow, loads of customers. They
[9:00] build lots of tools, but there's a lack
[9:02] of focus and conviction in Bitcoin
[9:03] itself. Strategy has only conviction in
[9:06] Bitcoin itself, which is very exciting
[9:08] and I love that. But there's no cash
[9:10] flow, customers, Bitcoin, and tools. And
[9:11] that's what we tried to build. Um, and I
[9:14] would say in large part, we built some
[9:15] of that. Um, we raised I mean outside of
[9:19] the founding founders capital, we raised
[9:21] over a billion bucks. Um, we bought a
[9:24] lot of Bitcoin. You know, there are some
[9:26] misunderstandings of that we never
[9:28] bought Bitcoin. That's not true. Um, you
[9:30] know, the technicality is Tether
[9:33] contributed Bitcoin in kind. That's
[9:35] true. But a lot of the Bitcoin that
[9:37] Tether bought to contribute in kind was
[9:40] purchased via capital that I raised. Um,
[9:43] and so we did raise over a billion
[9:46] dollars. We did buy I think it's 1.
[9:49] Don't hold me to this. And now I'm not
[9:51] bound by the SEC, so I don't give a
[9:53] [ __ ] But it's 1.4 billion, something
[9:56] like that. It was a really big number of
[9:58] Bitcoin that we purchased. Uh, and we
[10:00] did build what became the second largest
[10:03] treasury and we were able to get the
[10:05] company public in a fairly short time
[10:07] frame. So for for that much uh we
[10:10] achieved uh very proud of that. Uh and
[10:13] you know, we did it with a lack of a
[10:15] team. I mean for a very long time I was
[10:17] the only employee. Um so uh we did a lot
[10:21] but um the what we absolutely failed at
[10:25] utterly and completely and that I own is
[10:27] following through on the second half of
[10:29] the vision which I think is the most
[10:31] important part of the vision and the
[10:33] part that would make the business unique
[10:35] in its uh totality and uh I failed at
[10:39] that. I I as the CEO was unable to
[10:42] execute on what I was vocal about
[10:45] wanting to achieve and that's just a
[10:47] fact. That's just a fact. And you know,
[10:50] the reasons for that and the stories
[10:51] behind that and what will ever see the
[10:53] light of day and all of that doesn't
[10:54] matter. It doesn't matter. Um, you know,
[10:57] something I I'll tell you guys as a CEO,
[11:00] the buck stops here. That's my job. You
[11:03] know, there there is no there is nobody
[11:05] else to point and to blame and to no
[11:08] it's the buck stops here. You know, I'll
[11:12] never forget um after I graduated high
[11:15] school, um basketball was a huge part of
[11:17] my life until I realized I was going to
[11:19] be 5'8 and 150 pounds forever. But uh
[11:23] after I graduated high school, I
[11:25] followed up with my high school
[11:26] basketball coach who's had huge
[11:28] influence on my life just when it comes
[11:30] to leadership and work ethic. And uh he
[11:33] had a line that I'll never forget. And
[11:34] he was like um the type of leader that
[11:39] uh being a coach and a leader of men
[11:41] requires of you in basketball is when
[11:44] the team wins, it's credit to the
[11:47] players. And when the team loses, it's
[11:49] the fault of the coach. And that's a
[11:53] leader. And that's how I've really led
[11:56] as a CEO is like when things go well,
[12:00] you know, the amount of support you guys
[12:02] gave me and that shareholders and the
[12:05] Bitcoin community and investors to 21.
[12:08] But at the end of the day, like if it
[12:09] didn't work, it's my fault and it's
[12:11] leadership and I own that. So anyway,
[12:15] what changed? Why did I step down? Well,
[12:18] it's really simple, guys. the company's
[12:20] path and the path that I believed I was
[12:23] building and that I co-founded weren't
[12:26] the same anymore. Simple as that. Now,
[12:29] you ask yourself, how is that possible?
[12:31] Well, something else that you guys
[12:32] should know is that I never had
[12:36] governing control over 21, which if you
[12:39] want to draw a comparison is not true at
[12:41] strike. Strike is mine. I control every
[12:46] piece of it. There is no way I can get
[12:49] outvoted at strike. There is no one that
[12:52] can tell me what to do at strike. I call
[12:55] the shots. That is my ship to drive. I
[12:58] am the captain of that ship. You know
[12:59] how Bitcoin is decentralized and no one
[13:01] controls it. Well, that's not true at
[13:02] strike. I control it. And you know, some
[13:06] people love that, some people hate that.
[13:08] It doesn't matter. That's the way it is.
[13:09] Now, at 21, that was the furthest thing
[13:12] from the truth. I had no governing say.
[13:16] And that's not necessarily a bad thing.
[13:18] You know, different companies operate in
[13:20] different ways. Uh 21 ultimately was
[13:22] governed by the board and the board used
[13:26] to be made up of SoftBank, Tether and
[13:28] myself. And then obviously SoftBank
[13:30] departed from the business and the board
[13:32] was made up primarily of Tether. But the
[13:35] point is that the board ultimately has
[13:38] always and until that changes will
[13:42] always determine the future of 21. And
[13:45] so if you were to say, well, how is it
[13:47] possible that a co-founder and the CEO
[13:50] didn't align with where the company was
[13:52] going? It's pretty simple. That's how uh
[13:56] the board grew to have different
[13:58] opinions and vision than I did. Um,
[14:02] which I put here, but you know,
[14:04] sometimes my font is too small for you
[14:06] guys, especially on mobile, so I want to
[14:08] read it. That doesn't mean that there
[14:10] was a fight where people were throwing
[14:12] things at each other and screaming at
[14:13] each other. And that doesn't make
[14:15] anybody the villain. I think
[14:19] there was just a very fundamental
[14:20] difference in strategy. So that doesn't
[14:22] that doesn't mean that it I don't have
[14:26] to sit with this blame and I 100% own
[14:29] the fact that I couldn't get to the
[14:31] board to see and support my vision and
[14:35] that a lot of the market trusted me and
[14:37] trusted in me to be the CEO of this
[14:39] thing and I couldn't get the board to
[14:41] follow through on the vision that we had
[14:43] been communicating publicly like I own
[14:45] that 100%. But that's what happened.
[14:48] That's what happened. And obviously I
[14:49] will talk about that to the extent in
[14:51] which I can. I obviously can talk about
[14:53] my vision and and what I wanted to do.
[14:56] Um but I also need to respect my friends
[14:58] that are still running that business.
[15:00] And now that I'm not employed and not
[15:02] working on it, I'm the last person that
[15:04] needs to be talking about what they're
[15:05] going to do or what they should do. That
[15:07] would be the most like the mo the most
[15:11] small man childish thing I could do. um
[15:14] that they still I mean they have
[15:16] everything they need to be incredibly
[15:18] successful. Worldclass backing,
[15:20] unbelievable entrepreneurs sitting on
[15:22] the board. Paulo I mean uh Junk Carlo is
[15:25] not on the board but I mean the amount
[15:27] of people involved in that company the
[15:29] backing that they have the second
[15:30] biggest treasury I mean the world is
[15:32] their oyster. Unfortunately it just
[15:34] became clear to me that the right thing
[15:35] to do was for me not to lead the thing
[15:39] that um diverged from you know what I
[15:42] was there to build. Pretty simple. as
[15:43] much as painful it is as it is. Um I I I
[15:47] wholeheartedly think that was the right
[15:48] thing to do. Um so yeah anyway I I just
[15:52] I could not honestly lead and represent
[15:53] a strategy that I didn't believe in. So
[15:56] I stepped aside. I think and listen
[16:00] again I own all of it. Like all of the
[16:03] anger and the frustration and the
[16:05] emotion directed at me is not
[16:08] misdirected. I own all of that and I
[16:11] hear all of it. Um it's real. I mean, I
[16:14] tried a thing and it didn't work. That's
[16:16] just a fact. But with that being said,
[16:19] on something my dad instilled in me
[16:21] since I was a child was the difference
[16:24] between a good man and a great man is
[16:28] the ability to do what's right no matter
[16:30] how hard it is. Because what is right,
[16:34] you almost always know what is right in
[16:37] your heart. You know, like you know in
[16:40] your heart you should not be eating
[16:43] pints of ice cream for dinner. You
[16:45] should get your nutrients in. You know,
[16:47] you should, you know, dieting is it's
[16:50] not hard to know what the right diet is.
[16:54] It's hard to actually stick to it. It's
[16:58] not hard like what's what's better for
[17:00] you to just lounge on the couch or go to
[17:01] the gym? It's not that some people don't
[17:04] know the answer to that. Everybody in
[17:06] their heart knows the answer. But the
[17:09] difference between a great person and a
[17:12] person is the ability to commit to
[17:15] what's right no matter the difficulty.
[17:18] And and for me, this was another one of
[17:20] those instances is obviously um I I
[17:24] could have probably pursued an
[17:26] acquisition of strike and gone and said
[17:28] whatever the p the path the board wants
[17:31] and the path that I was here to build
[17:32] doesn't align, but whatever. you know,
[17:34] my paychecks are clearing and what do I
[17:36] care? I'm happy to just get on Bloomberg
[17:38] every now and then and and and push the
[17:40] stock. But I knew I knew that that
[17:42] wasn't right. I knew it. Um and and I
[17:45] knew in my heart in the same way that
[17:47] you know that a steak is better than ice
[17:49] cream, going to the gym is better than
[17:51] lounging on the couch. You know, in your
[17:53] heart. Um but it's hard. It's hard. And
[17:56] uh you know, I I try as a person, pass
[17:59] or fail. Um, you know, I'm not saying
[18:02] I'm the greatest performer or achiever
[18:04] of all time, right? Um, but I I try and
[18:07] hold myself accountable to being the
[18:09] most honorable, transparent person. And
[18:12] I knew in my heart what was right. It
[18:13] was right. It was right for the company.
[18:15] The future of the company needs to be
[18:17] led by someone that believes in that
[18:19] mission and that's aligned with the
[18:21] board. Period. That means it's also
[18:23] right for shareholders,
[18:25] right? That is also what's right for
[18:27] investors. And then on top of that, it's
[18:29] also what's right for Bitcoin, Strike,
[18:32] and myself to be pouring my blood, my
[18:35] sweat, my tears, and my energy into uh
[18:38] what I unequivocally can spend the rest
[18:41] of my life doing. And and I I took out I
[18:46] mean a lot of you had sent emails to me
[18:48] and DMs and text messages of just like
[18:52] really trying to challenge what my true
[18:54] calling was and did I need to be in the
[18:57] public markets and did I need to be
[18:59] building big treasuries in the capital
[19:01] markets. Um and and I think you guys
[19:04] were right at the end of the day. Um I'm
[19:06] a I'm a professional orange pillar and I
[19:09] I don't know how big Strike can be. I
[19:12] think Strike's becoming one of the
[19:14] important more important Bitcoin
[19:15] companies in the space for Bitcoiners,
[19:17] but I don't know how big of a company
[19:19] we'll be and if we'll ever achieve these
[19:22] massively great things and yada yada and
[19:24] this and that. Um, but it's mine and
[19:27] it's ours as this kind of uh corner of
[19:30] Bitcoin that that we all believe in and
[19:33] support and spend time and energy on.
[19:36] and just, you know, having you guys come
[19:38] up to me and say, "You're the person
[19:39] that truly truly got me to understand
[19:41] Bitcoin," or, "You give me a lot of
[19:43] hope." Or, "The fact that you control
[19:45] Strike um and you build tools for
[19:47] Bitcoiners means a lot to me and has
[19:49] changed my life." Like, those are the
[19:50] things that uh that um I I felt much
[19:56] more I felt much stronger about that
[19:59] life uh than I did the other one. So
[20:05] anyway, uh, repeating what I said, I own
[20:07] it. Um, I was a CEO. I gave you guys
[20:10] kind of the the analogy and the backdrop
[20:12] from what I learned when I was 18
[20:14] playing basketball. The buck stops here.
[20:16] Um, I didn't achieve what I wanted to
[20:18] achieve. There's just there's no more
[20:20] story to it. Uh, I own it. I do not, you
[20:23] know, it's it's tough because I want to
[20:25] be able to engage with you guys in Q&A.
[20:27] I want to be able to set the record
[20:28] straight, but I don't want that to be
[20:30] perceived as me asking for sympathy or
[20:32] you guys accepting. That's not, just to
[20:35] be very, very clear, that is not what
[20:37] I'm doing. I'm not asking for a, oh, now
[20:40] I understand why you did it. Okay, never
[20:42] mind. I get it. That's not it. I own it.
[20:45] I helped create expectations and we
[20:48] didn't finish what I said we would.
[20:50] Period. And here's the other thing,
[20:53] looking back, would I do anything
[20:55] different? And the answer is yeah,
[20:57] absolutely. Of course, that means I I
[21:00] didn't make poor decisions on purpose.
[21:02] But, you know, that's always for me in
[21:04] my opinion a judgment of if you made
[21:08] mistakes and if you can learn from those
[21:09] mistakes because obviously if there's
[21:11] nothing you would have done differently
[21:12] and whatever the ball didn't bounce your
[21:14] way, luck didn't didn't align with you
[21:16] that one time, well, there's only so
[21:18] much you can do. And and I do think that
[21:21] people sometimes spend too much energy
[21:24] on the past and dwelling and getting
[21:26] depressed and sorrow and you know
[21:28] there's so much life in front of you and
[21:30] the life behind you you can't do
[21:31] anything about. So I don't want you know
[21:34] typically in my life I don't want to get
[21:35] caught up on things I can't control. But
[21:38] in this instance I absolutely could
[21:40] control it. I was the CEO. There's
[21:42] things I would have done differently. I
[21:43] created expectations and we didn't hit
[21:44] them. Period. Point blank. Period.
[21:47] That's it.
[21:49] people trusted me and in many respects I
[21:52] feel like I let them down and I feel
[21:54] that and I own that.
[21:56] Now with that being said the company
[21:58] still goes on. You know what's
[21:59] interesting is like that this isn't like
[22:01] it's not like the company dissolves of
[22:02] itself and the Bitcoin we said we had we
[22:04] didn't have. I mean we have proof of
[22:05] reserves second largest treasury in the
[22:07] world. So I I also have to be careful in
[22:09] that my chapter of the story is over and
[22:12] I wish I was able to achieve what I
[22:14] wanted to achieve while I was there. But
[22:18] I mean, if the board goes on to build a
[22:21] massive Bitcoin company with cash flows
[22:23] and unbelievable product lines and they
[22:25] already have public markets access and a
[22:28] huge treasury, I mean, the best days of
[22:31] the company are surely in front of it.
[22:32] So, you have to you have to be clear
[22:34] about that as well. Um, so it's not my
[22:38] my story with 21 is over, but the 21
[22:42] story isn't over. Um, so anyway, uh,
[22:46] these two things I believe to be true.
[22:48] We built something real at the company.
[22:50] Um, and we didn't I didn't I didn't
[22:52] complete the full vision that I set out
[22:55] to do. So, I don't think either of those
[22:57] truths cancel out the other. Um, we did
[23:00] build the second largest treasury. I
[23:02] mean, there are many people that tried
[23:04] to take a company public, tried to do
[23:06] what we did, and they couldn't do it.
[23:09] And we did it, and it was hard. But I
[23:12] mean I would say on net if you were to
[23:15] tell me when I started 21 that this is
[23:19] how my time there would end and you
[23:22] would have told me what I did accomplish
[23:23] and what I didn't I would have said no
[23:26] way. Um I I wouldn't take that. So
[23:30] that's uh the unfortunate reality that I
[23:32] own. Um now what does this mean for
[23:35] Strike and myself? Uh just to be
[23:37] abundantly clear, Strike has always been
[23:40] independent, remains independent. Uh
[23:42] we're not selling anybody. Uh in case
[23:45] that's not clear, Strike is mine. I own
[23:48] that business. I run that business. I
[23:50] continue to run that business. I I
[23:52] tweeted out the letter I sent to
[23:54] shareholders or to Strike investors
[23:56] because um you know, Strike has no
[24:00] direct relationship to 21 outside of me.
[24:03] strike. I mean, we're sitting on over a
[24:05] hundred million dollars worth of
[24:06] Bitcoin. It's a it's a five-year-old
[24:08] startup, mind you, uh of of a of a team
[24:12] that, you know, I think is around a
[24:13] hundred people at this point. So, and
[24:16] we're 50% off the Bitcoin highs. I think
[24:18] at one point we had a quarter billion
[24:19] dollars on our balance sheet. So, I
[24:21] mean, Strike is sitting on Warchester
[24:22] Capital. Um, despite this bare market
[24:24] that's been ruthless to other peers in
[24:27] the space, Strike remains profitable,
[24:30] growing year-over-year. Uh, I mean,
[24:33] unbelievably proud of the team, of the
[24:36] culture, of the products, of the focus.
[24:38] Uh, we are kicking ass and like I said,
[24:42] like listen, is Strike going to be on
[24:43] the cover of every magazine and, uh, is
[24:46] Strike going to be documentaries made
[24:48] about it? I don't know. I think that we
[24:51] could be one of the coolest companies
[24:52] ever. Um, but I guess my point is I
[24:55] don't need that. I don't need that. Uh,
[24:57] I love building tools for Bitcoiners and
[25:00] as I'll get into a second, I love Orange
[25:01] Pilling. Strike is an unbelievable
[25:04] business. I believe in products, cash
[25:07] flow, profits. Yeah, our Bitcoin
[25:09] treasury is not 43,000 Bitcoin. I'm okay
[25:12] with that. I'm okay with that. You know
[25:14] what I mean? The Bitcoin treasury is
[25:16] ours and we produce it with cash flow
[25:18] and we're proud of that. Uh, so uh yeah,
[25:22] that strike is I'm pouring my blood,
[25:25] sweat, and tears. not that I wasn't
[25:26] before into Strike. Um I mean
[25:28] considering how young Strike is and the
[25:30] future that it has and the leadership
[25:32] team and how young we are. I mean I
[25:34] think Strike can grow over the decades.
[25:36] We think in decades into you know a
[25:39] Bitcoin financial institution that's
[25:40] that's gone a long way into pushing
[25:42] adoption around the world too for what
[25:45] it's worth. I mean there's not many
[25:46] companies that can say they distribute
[25:48] products globally on this new asset
[25:50] class and we do. Uh and then one more
[25:53] thing guys. So, as I reflected on all of
[25:55] this stuff, and again, I encourage you
[25:57] to take the time, and if you're
[25:58] interested, read the essay I put out,
[26:01] um, I I recorded an audio version and a
[26:03] video version for those of you that like
[26:05] walking around and listening to books or
[26:08] podcasts. Uh, I uploaded it to this
[26:11] YouTube channel and to the podcast feed.
[26:14] Um, but I do a lot of deep reflection on
[26:16] bare markets and uh tough lessons and
[26:19] you know what punishments are not gifts
[26:21] uh what hard times um are not things
[26:23] that you're ultimately grateful for in
[26:25] your future. Uh and so there's a lot
[26:27] more deeper philosophical waxing in
[26:29] those. Uh, but one thing that I didn't
[26:32] mention yet that I do want to is this
[26:34] idea of Bitcoin adoption because, you
[26:37] know, I spent a lot of time thinking
[26:39] about, you know, how can I help the
[26:43] most? Where can I be the most valuable?
[26:45] And I did, you know, a lot of you guys
[26:46] DM me and write me emails and stuff and
[26:48] I read every single one. And one of the
[26:51] things that uh I found interesting is
[26:53] there's this, you know, cliche that you
[26:55] see people say of like, oh well, Bitcoin
[26:56] adoption, you know, is only like one to
[26:59] two to 3% of the world globally. We're
[27:01] so early. And I sat with that and I
[27:05] tried to do the math and I think that's
[27:07] [ __ ] There's no way Bitcoin
[27:09] adoption is 1% of planet Earth. And if I
[27:13] mean, if you do the math, I think it's
[27:15] it's non-debatable. There's 8 billion
[27:18] people on the planet, right? Roughly. I
[27:19] don't know. Call it 8 billion. 1% of
[27:21] that's 80 million. You think 80 million
[27:24] people understand Bitcoin? Because I to
[27:28] me like adoption of like, oh well, they
[27:30] have some proxied exposure. You they
[27:32] have a 401k that has exposure to that.
[27:35] No, that's not adoption.
[27:38] At least not to me.
[27:42] You know what I mean? Like I like I
[27:44] don't know if your dad or your mom or
[27:46] your best friend or your wife was like,
[27:50] "Yeah, I I have proxied exposure through
[27:52] this this this and I guess like.7% of my
[27:55] 401k is like technically exposed through
[27:58] a securities rapper." Would you say
[28:01] like, "Okay, cool. You get it. You're
[28:03] adopted." [ __ ] no. I wouldn't like
[28:06] that's not even a question. It's not
[28:08] even like the fact that some people
[28:10] believe that to me is asinon.
[28:14] I I don't know. It depends on what you
[28:15] want Bitcoin to be and it's Bitcoin's
[28:17] not for me to define. It's not mine.
[28:20] But that's not adoption.
[28:22] And so I sat and I thought I said,
[28:25] "Okay, well, you know, first of all, it
[28:27] goes to show how early we really are."
[28:29] Because if we're not at 1% Bitcoin
[28:31] adoption, at least how I think of
[28:33] Bitcoin, where like you at least
[28:35] remotely understand it. And whether you
[28:37] want to know own an ETF or a security or
[28:39] spot, whatever, but at least you like
[28:41] understand it. You get how it works, you
[28:42] get why it's important. Like 80 million
[28:45] people are at that level, guys. We
[28:48] aren't even close to that number. In
[28:50] fact, I don't think 8 million people
[28:53] have like a vague understanding of
[28:55] Bitcoin. We might not even be at
[28:57] 800,000. I don't even know if we've
[29:00] achieved a basis point of Bitcoin
[29:02] adoption, at least a level of adoption
[29:04] that the folks listening to me right now
[29:07] and I have, like not even close. And so
[29:10] I thought to myself, I said, you know
[29:12] what,
[29:13] of all the like how is the world because
[29:16] inevitably the world will get to 1%. 80
[29:19] million people, 8 million people, and
[29:21] then 800 million people, and then 8
[29:24] billion people will understand Bitcoin
[29:27] at some point. And it's going to take
[29:30] time, and it's going to be hard. But I
[29:32] thought to myself and I said, you know,
[29:34] who's going to do that work?
[29:38] It's a I I don't know. To me, it's a
[29:40] good question.
[29:42] Like, is Coinbase going to do it? Is the
[29:44] US government going to do it?
[29:48] is Chase Bank going to do it?
[29:52] And I don't know, I you know, because I
[29:53] was thinking to myself like, okay,
[29:55] obviously, you know, Strike, we have so
[29:57] much to do, but I was like, yeah, man.
[30:00] Um, you know, I still have so much
[30:02] ambition and and uh conviction in in
[30:04] this thing. And just because, you know,
[30:08] I didn't believe I was the right CEO for
[30:10] 21,
[30:13] I still like really really want to
[30:16] contribute to orange pilling. So, the
[30:19] other thing I'm going to be doing is
[30:20] focusing on that. Uh, so this YouTube
[30:24] channel, for example, we're I'm going to
[30:26] start bringing on a lot more guests. Um,
[30:29] I'm hitting the podcast waves more. I
[30:32] got uh I'm doing what now that I'm not a
[30:34] public company CEO. I could say what I
[30:37] want. I could talk when I want. I mean
[30:40] uh it's amazing. Uh and so in that
[30:43] respect. So I go on a podcast tomorrow,
[30:46] another one on Wednesday. Uh I'm going
[30:48] to produce more content on here. A lot
[30:50] more educational content. Um like what
[30:52] is money? Um how does Bitcoin work? I
[30:56] mean I don't know who's going to produce
[30:57] this stuff. And I I kind of sat with
[30:59] myself and I thought, well, why not me?
[31:01] And I don't know, maybe people will love
[31:02] it, maybe people won't. Um, but I think
[31:05] it's I think it's work worth doing. And
[31:07] again, this isn't like the sexiest work.
[31:09] Like, you know, I I don't think I'm
[31:11] going to be stacking 20,000 Bitcoin a
[31:13] week um doing this work. Um, but I don't
[31:17] care. I don't care. I really don't. I,
[31:21] you know, so much of Bitcoin is that ego
[31:24] death thing. Um, I don't that that stuff
[31:28] don't matter to me.
[31:31] So you guys can expect that from me.
[31:34] I'll I'll get your uh feedback a bit
[31:36] later into uh the show. But anyh who, um
[31:40] that's the section. So for those that
[31:41] hadn't heard the news, now you know. Uh
[31:44] unfortunate obviously what we set out to
[31:47] start and where the company's going is
[31:48] no longer the same. Um so I need to step
[31:50] down and I did. Uh it's the right thing.
[31:53] Hard thing but the right thing. um that
[31:55] doesn't take away from the fact that the
[31:58] outcome of my endeavors with the company
[32:02] didn't match the vision and the
[32:03] expectations I set and I own that 100%
[32:05] and um I apologize for that. Uh
[32:08] certainly not the story and the ending
[32:11] to this movie that I wanted in regards
[32:13] to 21. But it's the right thing to do.
[32:14] It's best for the company, its
[32:15] shareholders, for me, for Strike, for
[32:17] Bitcoin. Uh and so then what does it
[32:19] mean for the future? Well, I mean, let's
[32:23] [ __ ] build tools for Bitcoiners,
[32:25] build cash flow. I want to build the
[32:27] company that, you know, I have a very
[32:30] particular vision for what a Bitcoin
[32:32] company should look like, how it should
[32:33] behave, what it should be working on.
[32:35] And that's strike for me. And I also now
[32:38] have a lot more time and focus to orange
[32:41] pill and like really build uh a voice
[32:44] and a platform and content uh for
[32:48] Bitcoin adoption in the way that I think
[32:50] uh it matters. So, you know, Bitcoin is
[32:53] this Bitcoin is this open open thing.
[32:56] It's like a public utility. It's like a
[32:57] it's like a park down the street. You
[32:59] know, if I were to walk to the park to
[33:01] sit and read a book and, you know, a dad
[33:06] and his son come play catch, who's
[33:08] right? Is the park for catch? Or is the
[33:11] park for reading? Well, no one's right.
[33:13] It's it's a public utility. It's for
[33:15] whatever the [ __ ] you want. Some people
[33:17] are going to use the park to walk their
[33:18] dog. Some people are use the park for a
[33:20] picnic. Some are going to read a book.
[33:21] Some are going to play catch. Everyone's
[33:23] wrong and everyone's right. So, it
[33:26] doesn't invalidate everyone else's
[33:27] vision for a Bitcoin company. it doesn't
[33:29] invalidate everyone else's perception of
[33:31] what Bitcoin is, but what Strike is and
[33:34] what I am will be mine and I'm going to
[33:37] do it my way. And I'm very excited about
[33:40] that. And as painful as um some of this
[33:43] has been, uh like I write in my essay,
[33:45] uh what punishments are not gifts,
[33:48] I'm very grateful for acquiring lessons
[33:52] as cheap as I am. Um because I'm
[33:55] learning a lot about what it means to be
[33:57] a leader, what it means to be uh a great
[34:00] man, a friend, a colleague, a Bitcoiner.
[34:04] Um and uh listen, 21 is still a business
[34:08] that has a ton of Bitcoin and is set up
[34:10] to be successful. Strike is an
[34:12] unbelievable company that despite
[34:14] anything thrown at its way, it seems to
[34:15] just get stronger, get more profitable,
[34:18] grow bigger. Opportunities seem to be
[34:21] everywhere. I mean, for all all of the
[34:25] humbling and all of the pain, um, we're
[34:28] still here. And so, I'm very grateful
[34:31] for an ability to learn, as hard as it's
[34:34] been. And, uh, march on.
[34:37] March on. I think 99%
[34:41] of success is just showing up.
[34:46] I do, you know, at the margins, you'll
[34:49] have to make decisions of like, oh, you
[34:51] know, do we build this product or that
[34:53] product or do you price it this way or
[34:55] that way? And I'm not trying to
[34:56] invalidate that work, but I'm telling
[34:58] you guys, most of the work, like, like I
[35:01] say, markets try and wear you out or
[35:03] scare you out, right? It's just don't
[35:05] quit. Just show up. Just do the work.
[35:09] Take the lessons to the chin. Humble
[35:11] yourself. Own it. Be a man. Be
[35:14] transparent. be honest and show up.
[35:20] So, that's what I'll be doing. Okay.
[35:23] Now, for uh the listeners to this show
[35:26] that don't give a [ __ ] about any of
[35:28] that, I apologize. Um let's do market
[35:31] updates. So, uh we have a big week
[35:35] because the Fed has an opportunity to
[35:38] change interest rates. And I I just want
[35:40] to say something here. Um, you know,
[35:46] I've said there's no way wars hikes
[35:48] rates. That would be impossible. He'd
[35:50] have to be an idiot. And
[35:53] feedback for my own self, I got to be a
[35:55] little careful with such declarative
[35:57] statements like that because inevitably
[35:59] when he does raise rates, then
[36:01] everyone's going to be like, "Wow, I
[36:02] listen to your show. You're you're an
[36:03] idiot." So, let me just rephrase uh
[36:07] things quickly. I really don't think he
[36:10] should. I think it's a very bad idea
[36:12] mathematically. It cannot work. But that
[36:16] doesn't mean that he won't. I have to be
[36:19] honest about that because I mean we're
[36:21] dealing in a world of politics and I
[36:23] mean this is all Ponzi nomics. It's a
[36:26] woozy. It's a wazy. It's fairy dust,
[36:28] right? Wolf of Wall Street. And so I
[36:31] don't know, you know, the the politics
[36:33] and being in the war room and what's
[36:34] going on with Iran and AI companies and
[36:36] China. And so I can't make such
[36:38] declarative statements. So, I just got
[36:39] to be clear on that. Now, I I will walk
[36:41] you guys through once again why it just
[36:44] isn't an option for the long term, but
[36:46] it doesn't mean that he won't. And so,
[36:48] the market is effectively pricing this
[36:51] week as a tossup. So, Trump today was
[36:54] very vocal with the media. Um, so I got
[36:56] two screenshots here. Trump asked the
[36:57] Fed this week, costs are going down
[36:59] rapidly. Um,
[37:02] and then Trump again, rates should be
[37:04] lowered. So, Trump is sticking to his
[37:06] guns. He thinks he also had one I didn't
[37:08] put in here. He thinks the US should
[37:10] have the lowest interest rates in the
[37:11] world. So Trump wants aggressive rate
[37:13] cutting. He always has. Seemingly he
[37:16] sticks by that. Uh which is also fine
[37:18] but obviously is inflationary. Um and
[37:21] then this tweet from Fiju uh is really
[37:26] the visualization of what I was just
[37:30] describing is that it's kind of a
[37:31] tossup. The market is saying Worsh
[37:34] really might raise rates. like he really
[37:36] might do it. The way that he's talking
[37:38] and the way the market is pricing it in,
[37:40] it's a nonzero chance. Which is why I
[37:42] had to get on here and say I think it'd
[37:44] be a bad idea. He might pop the AI
[37:46] credit bubble. Uh he might cause a lot
[37:48] of irreversible harm to equities and to
[37:51] the bond market and that's when we're
[37:53] going to get like a big print bailout
[37:55] type of event. Um but he might do it
[37:58] because I don't again politicians I
[38:00] don't know. I mean it's the most
[38:01] irrational ridiculous chapter in human
[38:04] history arguably. I I can't predict
[38:06] these things. Um, and so this FU tweet
[38:09] reads, "Welcome to the new age. Rates
[38:11] being a tossup going into meetings is
[38:12] the new normal. Expect volatility." So
[38:15] that's really my market update is to
[38:17] expect volatility. Um, so this from the
[38:19] Wall Street Journal, how sky-high
[38:21] deficits threaten the bond market. And
[38:25] I mean, we've gone over this a million
[38:27] times. Luke Groman has gone over this a
[38:29] million time. Every macro analyst has
[38:31] gone over this a million times. the the
[38:34] slide on the left or the visual on the
[38:35] left is showing how the US Treasury has
[38:40] financed itself through bills as opposed
[38:43] to long duration. So, you know, when
[38:45] people say short duration, long
[38:46] duration, it's you're issuing these debt
[38:49] notes and you know what's the duration
[38:52] of the note? Like a 10-year US Treasury
[38:54] or a 30-year US Treasury. That's
[38:56] longterm. That's long duration, right?
[38:58] Versus a 3month bill. 3 month versus 10
[39:01] years. One is short, one is long. Now
[39:04] the US Treasury, so the US government
[39:06] has been financing itself on the short
[39:08] end, issuing bills short. And they're
[39:11] doing that because the long end doesn't
[39:13] have enough demand to sustain the amount
[39:16] of debt that the government needs to
[39:18] issue because of the deficits. So the
[39:20] government wants to spend $2 trillion a
[39:22] year that it doesn't have. Okay? It
[39:24] wants to run a $2 trillion deficit. They
[39:27] would issue 10 year 30 years if they
[39:30] could, but there's not enough demand for
[39:32] people willing to lend to the government
[39:34] over that duration. And so if there's a
[39:36] supply demand mismatch in the bond
[39:38] market, which we've talked about all the
[39:39] time, you know, remember bond math.
[39:41] Yields go up when the bond value goes
[39:44] down when right. So if they're pushing a
[39:47] lot of supply to the long end and
[39:49] there's not enough demand to meet it,
[39:50] then they're going to break the bond
[39:52] market. Yields are going to go to
[39:53] infinity. And so the way that they've
[39:55] been able to to subsidize the US
[39:59] government despite having really fragile
[40:02] uh treasury US treasuries market is by
[40:05] substituting the financing via bills.
[40:08] Okay. What are the consequences of that?
[40:11] Well, when you have to roll over all of
[40:13] the all of this short duration, I mean
[40:16] this is trillions of dollars. So on the
[40:19] right you can see privately held
[40:22] marketable US treasury debt maturing
[40:24] within one year is now over $8 trillion.
[40:29] And so the point is like the raising
[40:33] interest rates is like pouring gasoline
[40:35] onto a fire because who is the person
[40:39] most impacted by a higher cost of
[40:42] financing? Well, the US government
[40:44] itself.
[40:46] And so it's like it's like, you know,
[40:49] obviously we when you hear stories of
[40:51] like, oh well, you know, the Fed 50
[40:53] years ago was really aggressive with
[40:55] rates and got inflation under control.
[40:56] Yeah. But 50 years ago, debt to GDP
[40:59] wasn't 120 some odd percent. They didn't
[41:01] have $40 trillion of debt. They weren't
[41:03] doing most of the issuance via bills.
[41:06] Like it doesn't don't tell me what
[41:08] happened 50 years ago. It's a different
[41:10] world.
[41:12] We had taken goldbacked currency notes
[41:16] and we've now just printed them out of
[41:18] thin air running $2 trillion deficits
[41:21] going to wars we can't afford. I mean
[41:23] don't that's why raising rates is a
[41:27] joke. Now on top of that the AI industry
[41:31] continues to see stress and I have to
[41:35] just say it every single week because
[41:37] you can't ignore it at this point. The
[41:40] reason we have to care about the AI
[41:41] market is it is such a m it's become
[41:44] such a material part of the economy. If
[41:47] you take AI and tech out of economic
[41:50] data, we are in like a depression. In
[41:53] fact, because of this whole K-shaped
[41:54] economy thing, I mean, a lot of America,
[41:59] maybe the majority is in some form of
[42:01] recession depression and has been for
[42:02] quite some time. So AI needs to succeed
[42:07] and the well I don't I you know I have
[42:11] to divorce the US government's opinion
[42:13] from my personal opinion. That's not my
[42:14] personal opinion. I think it will
[42:16] succeed. I think it's very cool. But I
[42:19] if I'm not convinced that the these US
[42:22] AI companies are going to be successful.
[42:24] I have no idea how they're going to out
[42:25] compete China, which we'll get to in a
[42:26] second. But the point is the US
[42:28] government, the Trump administration,
[42:30] there's been no ifands or buts about it.
[42:33] AI is strategically important. It is a
[42:36] national security uh event. I if
[42:39] anything else, we must win the AI race.
[42:42] We must reshore America as part of this
[42:46] re-industrialization around AI, around
[42:49] uh energy production
[42:52] and and we must win with with like it is
[42:56] at all cost win. So we have to pay
[42:59] attention to AI because if AI starts to
[43:01] face issues, you're going to start to
[43:02] see stress in the market, stress in the
[43:04] market, you're getting to bailout
[43:06] territory. You're getting to like, okay,
[43:07] well, you know, do we let this whole,
[43:10] you know, US western civilization empire
[43:13] collapse? Uh, or do we print the money
[43:16] and sustain it? So what are we looking
[43:18] at here? This is credit credit risk
[43:21] across AI backers or AI finance years.
[43:25] So, something that you guys need to keep
[43:26] in mind, and I'll say it, I'll say it
[43:28] every single week if I have to. AI is
[43:30] not financed out of profitable cash
[43:32] flow. These guys are borrowing an insane
[43:35] amount of money. And the biggest
[43:37] borrowers are companies that don't
[43:39] produce profits. So, there is no path
[43:42] currently to pay that back. Now,
[43:44] obviously, you borrow money because you
[43:46] think your future will be worth more
[43:47] than your present. And so, if that's
[43:49] true and they're able to produce loads
[43:51] and loads and loads of profits, good for
[43:52] them. But that's why Chinese competition
[43:55] seems to be like a knife to the throat
[43:57] of these guys where they're like, "Ban
[43:59] that shit." Or, "I can't believe I'm
[44:01] seeing uh AI o open AI executive say
[44:05] open source is bad." I mean, you'd have
[44:07] to be some kind of [ __ ] up human with
[44:09] the moral compass backwards to say that
[44:12] open source is bad. But this is what
[44:14] these guys are saying. Why are they so
[44:16] threatened by China? Well, if China
[44:18] comes in and is even marginally
[44:20] competitive to their business, well, all
[44:22] of the profits that they were banking on
[44:24] somehow achieving in the future is
[44:27] severely threatened. Even if someone
[44:28] comes in and takes 20% 30% market share
[44:31] in some, that's enough to have made all
[44:33] of the financing decisions that they've
[44:35] already chosen a moot and totally
[44:38] worthless, right? So, who are they
[44:40] borrowing money from? Well, we haven't
[44:43] gotten to a point where the US
[44:45] government in combined in combination
[44:47] with the banks have been doing like
[44:49] large swasts of effectively
[44:51] governmentbacked financing, which is
[44:54] that highly inflationary pure money
[44:56] printing. That's when I, you know, my
[44:58] interpretation of of Bitcoin is it's
[45:00] calling out there's not enough liquidity
[45:02] to support all of this right now. There
[45:05] is a ton of malinvestment going on and
[45:07] there's a ton of people swimming naked.
[45:09] And so Bitcoin has pointed this out
[45:12] since the end of last year and it's been
[45:14] sitting here waiting for a resolution. I
[45:17] call it this fiat liquidity smoke alarm.
[45:19] I think Bitcoin is going to rip people's
[45:21] face off if and when the US government
[45:24] de facto backs all of this garbage and
[45:26] says whatever. Open AAI probably [ __ ]
[45:28] up and who knows if they're going to be
[45:30] a good company, but we they can't fail
[45:31] at this point. So whatever, screw it.
[45:33] Then Bitcoin, gold, all these things are
[45:35] going to rip. And the more time goes on
[45:37] and the more these questions are
[45:39] presented and the more trouble in pe uh
[45:41] people get in trouble and the more China
[45:43] presents like legitimate technology
[45:45] threats in the AI sector to the United
[45:46] States then the more like Bitcoin and
[45:49] other assets are going to chop around
[45:50] and fall. So who's lending the money
[45:52] today? Uh Oracle, Microsoft, Amazon,
[45:57] Meta. That's what we're looking at right
[45:59] here. So this is Oracle, Microsoft, Soft
[46:02] Bank, AMD, Meta, Amazon, uh, Coreweave.
[46:07] Okay, look at the credit risk across
[46:10] these businesses, which was, you know,
[46:12] virtually nothing in the middle of last
[46:15] year outside of Oracle, and now they're
[46:18] all right. Like this trend is real. Now,
[46:21] it's not saying that these businesses
[46:23] aren't creditworthy, but I think the
[46:25] point is that the market is starting to
[46:27] assess this as one giant correlated bet
[46:32] that is not certain any longer. Okay?
[46:36] Meaning, it's not as if like, oh, like
[46:38] some of this might work out, some not,
[46:41] and you know, oh, the the risk is
[46:43] isolated over it's like no, no, no. It's
[46:45] like if this doesn't work out, like the
[46:48] risk is spread across all of these
[46:50] lenders. Nobody is safe. There's
[46:52] concentrated risk, which again continues
[46:55] to imply that there's probably going to
[46:57] be a government back stop, government
[46:58] bailout. And then today, one of the only
[47:01] companies that seem to have a unique
[47:03] product that was cheap for them to
[47:05] produce relative to the cost they were
[47:07] able to sell it, cash flow out the
[47:09] wazoo, stock through the roof. Nvidia
[47:12] came out and said they're going to
[47:16] guarantee $250 billion in financing to
[47:20] Open AI. I've been calling out Open AI
[47:23] for a while now of like they are not
[47:26] profitable. The path to profitability is
[47:28] not within the next half decade. So I
[47:31] mean what like what model is reliable
[47:34] that's further than 5 years out for a
[47:36] company that's not even 5 years old? I
[47:38] mean what are we talking about? So, the
[47:40] details include uh guarantees from
[47:41] Nvidia to help OpenAI lease a 10 gawatt
[47:44] project that SoftBank is developing in
[47:46] Ohio. In total, the project could cost
[47:49] more than $500 billion. It's hard to say
[47:52] these numbers out loud. I mean, they're
[47:53] just so preposterous. Cost more than
[47:56] $500 billion. The largest data center
[47:58] project ever announced. The power for
[48:01] the project is controlled by the US
[48:02] government and funded separately by
[48:04] Japan under a recent trade deal.
[48:07] signpost. Commerce Secretary Lutnik is
[48:10] reportedly involved in deciding who will
[48:12] get the power. Interesting. Uh the data
[48:15] center buildout just hit a whole new
[48:17] level. Now, Nvidia
[48:20] I have on the left, don't forget is the
[48:22] largest waiting in the S&P 500 right
[48:24] now. Their credit risk jumped
[48:28] tremendously. It looks like it jumped 40
[48:31] basis points over a 100% just based on
[48:35] this announcement today and the stock
[48:37] got hammered. The whole stock market got
[48:39] hammered because of these decisions. Jim
[48:41] Chenos writes, "So we're at the point in
[48:43] the cycle where Nvidia has to provide
[48:45] financing guarantees for roughly 2/3 of
[48:48] the cost of the chips it is selling to
[48:50] the data center project." And then he
[48:52] follows up to that and says just so you
[48:54] have an idea of how immense that figure
[48:55] is. It represents 135% of Nvidia's total
[48:59] retained earnings. I mean these are
[49:03] gargantuan preposterous numbers. And
[49:06] what we're seeing is the financing of
[49:08] all of this keeps getting pushed further
[49:11] and further down the stack until you get
[49:12] to the US government. So now Nvidia is
[49:15] the lender of last resort.
[49:18] and and how long until they're deemed
[49:20] not creditworthy. And you know, I
[49:22] thought this tweet was spot on. The
[49:24] market doesn't reward circular financing
[49:26] and revenues roundtpping each other
[49:28] anymore. Time is up on this whole
[49:30] charade. That's kind of what I've been
[49:32] saying. And I'm not saying AI itself is
[49:34] a charade. I use AI every day. It's here
[49:36] to stay. I think it's an unbelievable
[49:38] innovation. And like I said, it's very
[49:40] in line with my worldview where I think
[49:42] the human story is commercializing
[49:45] energy from the sun. Bitcoin is energy
[49:48] money. We have commercialized energy
[49:50] into a market good that we can monetize.
[49:52] That's unbelievable invention. AI is
[49:56] commercializing energy and turning it
[49:57] into accessible cheap intelligence.
[50:00] That's an unbelievable invention. I
[50:02] mean, who knows where the world's going
[50:03] to be in a year, in 5 years, and 10
[50:05] years. However, is China going to be
[50:09] really competitive and just open source
[50:10] all of AI? Has there been malinvestment?
[50:13] Who's going to finance and pay for all
[50:15] of this? None of those questions have
[50:17] been answered. I think there's been tons
[50:19] of malinvestment. And when we're talking
[50:20] about, you know, on the order of
[50:23] trillions of dollars, guys, like if you
[50:25] thought the COVID print was big, all of
[50:28] the malinvestment that's gone into AI
[50:31] projects, did nobody think China was
[50:33] going to be competitive? I mean, it's
[50:34] mind-blowing assumptions and risk and
[50:38] decisions that have been made, which um
[50:41] I don't know how it's going to work out,
[50:42] but the point is SoftBank was down big
[50:44] today. Nvidia was down big today. The
[50:46] market is basically saying
[50:49] we can't make the math work and I also
[50:52] can't make the math work. And so we'll
[50:54] see. Inevitably, I think the Fed and the
[50:58] US Treasury, so the government and the
[51:00] Federal Reserve are going to have to
[51:01] decide
[51:04] who are we protecting?
[51:06] Are we who are we let me say it another
[51:08] way, who are we willing to let fail? Are
[51:11] you willing to let
[51:14] Oracle, Google, Meta, all these
[51:16] companies fail? Are you willing to let
[51:18] Open AI in anthropic fail? Are you
[51:22] willing to let China win the AI race?
[51:24] Are you willing to let these commercial
[51:26] banks that probably have dog [ __ ] loans
[51:30] riddled throughout their books fail? If
[51:33] not, all of this has to be papered over,
[51:36] which is fine. Bitcoin's going to the
[51:38] moon. Now, if you are, well, you know, I
[51:42] don't know how investable that little
[51:44] time that we'll have to live through
[51:45] will be because I mean, the world will
[51:47] fall apart. It will get built again, and
[51:50] I think it will use Bitcoin. Ultimately,
[51:52] Bitcoin's just the most competitive
[51:54] thing we have access to in regards to
[51:56] money. But, I mean, yeah, uh either way,
[52:01] Bitcoin will win. I think that they're
[52:03] going to paper this over, print their
[52:05] way through it, and uh Bitcoin is gonna
[52:08] sniff that liquidity out and be the
[52:10] greatest absorber of it because it's the
[52:11] scarcest thing, right? But I mean, guys,
[52:14] every single week this AI stuff just
[52:15] gets a little more interesting right
[52:17] now. All of a sudden, Nvidia's backing
[52:20] guaranteeing a quarter trillion dollar.
[52:23] And just so you guys know, the reason
[52:24] they're doing that is because Open AI is
[52:27] has lost like Open AI. No, no one's
[52:30] willing to lend to OpenAI. Let me say it
[52:32] that way. And I like I use their
[52:35] products. I think OpenAI is great in
[52:37] regards to the products I use. I'm I
[52:40] don't know anyone that works there. I'm
[52:42] not like talking [ __ ] but it's like,
[52:43] okay. Um, no bank was willing to lend to
[52:48] these people. So, they had to get Nvidia
[52:51] to backs stop it in order
[52:55] for them to get the backing to build
[52:57] this stuff.
[53:00] So we can continue to kind of like
[53:01] shuffle through larger and larger
[53:04] balance sheets, bigger and bigger
[53:05] lenders
[53:06] before no one's creditw worthy anymore.
[53:09] No one can get a loan because there is
[53:12] no ability to pay all of this back. And
[53:15] then you ask the US government like,
[53:16] okay, do you want, you know, the stock
[53:19] market and your banking system to fall
[53:21] apart or, you know, do we must win the
[53:24] AI race and you got to monetize your uh
[53:27] all of this debt and you print it. So,
[53:29] we'll see. But it seems that this whole
[53:32] AI credit bubble thing is racing towards
[53:37] some finish line. And that and that's
[53:38] another thing when I when I see the
[53:40] market pricing in Worsh like is they're
[53:43] saying, "Oh yeah, Worsh is definitely
[53:45] going to raise rates." It's like these
[53:49] guys borrowing all this money are going
[53:51] to go through a rate hike.
[53:53] Someone's going to blow up. I'm just I'm
[53:57] just calling a spade a spade. Somebody's
[53:59] going to blow up. Um so he might though.
[54:02] Worsh might. Hey, he's got to establish
[54:04] his independence. Trump is out on the
[54:06] airwaves saying cut, cut, cut. Worsh has
[54:08] to show that the Fed is independent.
[54:10] He's been clear on that. He's not here
[54:12] to bail anybody out. That those are
[54:14] exactly his words. The Fed's not here to
[54:16] bail anybody out. Okay, he can hike. I'm
[54:19] not saying he can't. I really don't
[54:21] think he should. Um but whatever. Um I I
[54:24] just wouldn't be surprised if someone
[54:25] blew up.
[54:28] I mean, mind you, that's what happened
[54:31] last time. They hiked rates a bunch.
[54:33] Silicon Valley Bank blew up.
[54:38] History doesn't repeat, but it rhymes.
[54:40] Okay. Uh let's check in on Bitcoin. At
[54:43] the end of the day, I consider this a
[54:45] Bitcoin show. Don't want to go a whole
[54:46] show without checking on Bitcoin. Um on
[54:48] the left, you see the COT data. Um so,
[54:52] uh
[54:54] still I mean still bearish looking. Um
[54:59] just looking at the shorts here. And on
[55:02] the right, I've got the ETF flows. So, I
[55:05] I mean, again, don't rely on me for
[55:08] predictions about the future. I'm not a
[55:10] genie. No one knows the future. Anyone
[55:11] that sells you on an idea that they know
[55:13] the future's full of [ __ ] Um
[55:16] I my base case is Bitcoin's going to
[55:19] continue to chop around. Is the bottom
[55:21] is the low end? Could be. Could not be.
[55:24] So, you know, I I know for a fact I'm
[55:27] not going to regret buying Bitcoin at
[55:29] these levels in 1 year, 2 year, 3 year,
[55:32] four year, 5 years. Uh I've got DCAs on
[55:36] uh I'm a buyer every single day. Strike
[55:38] produces cash every single day and we
[55:40] buy Bitcoin. So, um I feel good about
[55:46] the fact that the bare market's going to
[55:47] continue to try and wear people out,
[55:49] scare people out. Let's go through an
[55:50] example. Worsh raises rates, someone
[55:52] blows up, Bitcoin goes down 20%, stocks
[55:55] down 20%, and that's like the that's the
[55:58] level of pain where you would get
[56:00] central bank or US government
[56:02] intervention and bailouts. But like that
[56:05] would be a scare you out scenario where
[56:07] if Bitcoin went from, you know, 65k to
[56:10] 50k overnight or it hit the 40s, that's
[56:13] a scare you out. a wear you out is we're
[56:15] at the same price in November and it's
[56:18] just chop and chop and wear you down and
[56:21] it's grueling and as midterms approach
[56:24] we're going to learn more about how
[56:25] politicians are either trying to ban
[56:27] Bitcoin or using bit using shitcoins and
[56:30] memecoins to enrich themselves. So I
[56:32] expect more wear you out. I expect more
[56:34] scare you out. Um as I always say, earn
[56:37] more than you're spending. Uh try try
[56:41] and reduce your cost the best you can.
[56:42] try and be more valuable and and earn
[56:44] cash where you can. Turn on your DCA,
[56:47] stay patient, touch grass, lift weights,
[56:50] eat well. Um, take care of yourself. Uh,
[56:52] Bitcoin is a game of survival. Like I
[56:54] said earlier in the show, 90 some odd
[56:57] percent of achieving things. It's just
[56:59] showing up, just never quitting, just
[57:02] making sure that you're there tomorrow.
[57:04] So, don't take on too much risk. Don't
[57:05] blow yourself out. Don't think that, you
[57:07] know, you're going to solve your life's
[57:08] problems with one wick or one smash by.
[57:12] Um, you're not you're not um it's a it's
[57:15] a long duration game. Uh, and then I
[57:18] don't know, people ask me about the
[57:19] Clarity Act. I guess the Clarity Act
[57:21] odds are going lower and lower and lower
[57:23] like it's not going to pass. Again, if
[57:25] you're into crypto and whatever, I don't
[57:29] understand why as a Bitcoiner I care
[57:32] about this. Um, Bitcoin is fine. it. I'm
[57:37] sure there's like one or two things that
[57:38] would be nice like if we can protect
[57:41] Bitcoin developers or if we can protect
[57:43] self- custody. Sure. But largely, I
[57:45] mean, all of these things like the
[57:47] Genius Act or the Clarity Act, it's all
[57:50] a bunch of hot air garbage. What does
[57:52] this have to do with Bitcoin? Like
[57:53] Bitcoin is like the US government
[57:57] recognizes it not as a security because
[57:59] it's not uh it's taxed as property which
[58:02] I mean outside of no taxes at all is
[58:05] reasonable. Makes sense. Um and so I
[58:08] don't know why um I need a shitcoin
[58:12] bill. Why why do I need to care about a
[58:14] shitcoin bill? I certainly don't care
[58:16] about a shitcoin bill. So people will
[58:18] point, oh, Bitcoin's going to go down
[58:20] because the Clarity Act. I' I'd be happy
[58:22] with that. I'm happy to buy cheaper
[58:23] because people interpret a shitcoin bill
[58:25] as anything to do with Bitcoin. But in
[58:28] regards to like how I run Strike, the
[58:29] things I want to achieve in my career
[58:31] has nothing to do with the Clarity Act.
[58:33] Like literally, the Clarity Act could
[58:35] pass or not pass. And I would I wouldn't
[58:38] know unless someone told me the outcome.
[58:40] Like it's none of my life would change
[58:42] as a Bitcoiner, just to be clear. So I
[58:45] just expect I expect more more grind. Um
[58:48] okay. Uh, I wanted to leave room for Q&A
[58:52] today, so I skipped grind my gears.
[58:54] We'll get back to that at some point,
[58:55] but I I figured Q&A would be uh the most
[58:58] valuable section of today given the
[59:00] context. So, quickly from Strike. So,
[59:03] what we Oh, where's my animations? There
[59:06] they are. Uh, what we shipped this week.
[59:08] So, every single week we're producing
[59:10] products, enhancements, features for our
[59:12] customers, um, which we're obviously
[59:14] very proud of. I don't think anybody the
[59:17] velocity of uh product building um I I
[59:21] don't think anyone does it like we do.
[59:23] Um just being honest. So what we shipped
[59:26] last week uh Apple Pay and Google Pay in
[59:29] the United States, you can now buy
[59:30] Bitcoin. I think that this is the
[59:32] cleanest experience. Um one of the
[59:34] metrics that we follow closely is when a
[59:37] customer signs up and onboards to
[59:39] Strike, what's the quickest way we can
[59:40] get them to get in some sats? And
[59:42] sometimes there's a lot of friction in
[59:44] linking your [ __ ] bank account or
[59:45] needing to send a wire. So obviously if
[59:47] you're looking to buy a million dollars
[59:48] worth of Bitcoin, Apple Pay is probably
[59:50] not the way to go. But if you're just
[59:52] looking to get a friend on and say,
[59:53] "Hey, you know, double tap the side of
[59:55] your iPhone um and just get yourself 10
[59:57] bucks worth of SAS. We now support it."
[60:00] These are these are tiny features,
[60:01] right? But they're important. But
[60:03] they're important because if you
[60:04] compound every single week, which is
[60:06] building building things people care
[60:08] about, listening to customers, and then
[60:10] you take that and you do it for years,
[60:11] and you take those years, and you do it
[60:13] for decades, you're going to be able to
[60:15] change the world. Um, so the other one
[60:18] is uh German. So, Strike now speaks
[60:21] German, obviously, if you're in Germany.
[60:23] Uh, and what's really exciting about
[60:25] this is since we got Mika, we are now
[60:28] allowed to add different languages. We
[60:30] weren't allowed to add native languages
[60:32] to the app before we got our Mika
[60:34] license and registration. So now we do
[60:37] have MA. So we are allowed to add more
[60:39] languages. So Strike will get a lot more
[60:42] uh multilingual with time. We want to be
[60:44] a global financial institution because
[60:46] Bitcoin is global and uh that was part
[60:48] of my frustration uh and why I started
[60:51] Strike is nobody had built a global
[60:53] Bitcoin company just focused on doing
[60:55] Bitcoin stuff. So, uh, yeah, those is
[60:58] that's what we shipped, uh, the two main
[61:01] things last week. Um, again, my essay,
[61:04] so I'm going to try and highlight more
[61:05] content that I do, whether it's other
[61:07] podcasts I'm on or having guests on here
[61:10] or doing more educational uh, videos.
[61:14] Uh, I'm just going to try and orange
[61:16] pill like I'm taking it personally that
[61:19] not even 1% of the planet vaguely
[61:21] understands Bitcoin. Like, I think I can
[61:24] help. So, I'm going to try and highlight
[61:26] some of my stuff. So, last week I
[61:29] published an essay. It's called The Last
[61:31] Honest Market. This is definitely a more
[61:33] sophisticated piece. Um, definitely a
[61:35] more vulnerable and emotional piece. It
[61:37] is not for someone that doesn't really
[61:39] know Bitcoin. It's definitely for
[61:40] Bitcoiners, but if you haven't checked
[61:42] it out, check it out. If you are an
[61:44] audio or video listener as opposed to a
[61:47] reader, um, I did upload a version to my
[61:50] podcast feed and to this YouTube
[61:53] channel. Uh, one more thing really
[61:56] quick. Uh, strike is,
[62:00] uh, we are doing some really cool [ __ ]
[62:02] with AI, like really really cool [ __ ]
[62:05] And our CTO published a new blog, uh,
[62:10] about
[62:12] he calls it the strike software factory,
[62:14] AI agents as first class part of our
[62:17] team. But we're building insane features
[62:20] uh and insane things with AI. It's
[62:23] really really cool. Uh and check it out.
[62:27] Give it a read. Um if you're interested.
[62:30] Um but the reason we're one of the
[62:32] reasons we're able to ship so fast and
[62:35] do so much with not a ton of people, you
[62:38] know, remain profitable, all the things
[62:39] that I brag about is, you know, there
[62:42] there's a lot of reasons. culture,
[62:43] leadership, mission alignment, you know,
[62:46] not being spread between prediction
[62:48] markets and shitcoins and memecoins.
[62:50] That all obviously plays a very
[62:51] important part, but another is our
[62:54] technical capabilities and our technical
[62:55] prowess and how we're using AI. So, it's
[62:57] a very cool post. Um, I'd recommend you
[62:59] guys check it out if that interests you.
[63:02] And then last but not least before we
[63:04] get into Q&A is what's coming up next.
[63:07] So, on the strike side, some features
[63:09] you guys can look out for. We're
[63:10] launching beneficiaries. So you en
[63:12] ensure your assets, your Bitcoin goes
[63:14] directly to your loved ones. So that's
[63:16] coming to strike a new activity feed. So
[63:18] we've gotten a lot of requests that
[63:20] parsing through your history, being able
[63:23] to search, being able to download
[63:25] specific parts of your transaction
[63:28] history and do it your way. So we call
[63:30] it activity 3.0 internally. Um but we'll
[63:34] be rolling that out to customers. Our
[63:36] interest on cash. So um we are going to
[63:39] start internal testing hopefully this
[63:40] week. uh for our interest on cash which
[63:43] should start at 3.5% or or even higher
[63:47] and I think it'll get to hopefully over
[63:49] time like five six maybe even 7% and
[63:53] I've talked about how we would do that
[63:55] but there are rules about uh banking
[63:57] rules about offering you know certain
[64:00] amounts of interest but we're going to
[64:02] start at a pretty attractive number and
[64:04] that uh has an ability to be paid in
[64:07] bitcoin which is very exciting and then
[64:09] stacks is also this quarter stacks is
[64:12] creating subbalances inside of strike.
[64:14] Uh because people, this is one of the
[64:18] biggest requested features of I would
[64:20] like to create a sub balance or a sub
[64:22] account or a subwallet for my wife or
[64:25] for my children or for you know my kid
[64:27] by the time he turns 18 and organizing
[64:30] your Bitcoin balance or your asset
[64:32] balances within different sub accounts.
[64:34] That's also coming. So pretty exciting
[64:36] there. if you're not seeing, you know,
[64:38] your killer feature that you expect to
[64:40] be announced soon, um, and it's not in
[64:42] that list, let me know. And then for me,
[64:44] um, now that I'm not a public company
[64:46] officer, uh, as much as this outcome
[64:49] sucks, uh, I'm [ __ ] back. I am so
[64:52] excited. So, I'm hitting the podcast
[64:54] circuit, I'm orange pilling as much as I
[64:56] can. If you want me to come on your
[64:57] show, just DM me, DM Dylan. Uh, again,
[65:00] we got to orange pill the world. So, I'm
[65:03] hitting the podcast circuit. I'm going
[65:04] on a podcast tomorrow night. I'm going
[65:06] on another podcast Wednesday. Uh I'm
[65:09] going to bring more guests onto the
[65:10] show. So you guys let me know who you
[65:12] would like to see me interview. I will
[65:13] say this, I don't want to bring on all
[65:15] the same guests that go on all the
[65:17] Bitcoin podcast cuz this isn't my this
[65:20] isn't how I pay my bills. Um I, you
[65:23] know, Strike is a profitable business. I
[65:26] own a lot of equity in it. I pay my
[65:29] bills that way. Uh I want to have
[65:33] interesting conversations. I want to
[65:34] educate people. I want to continue to
[65:36] push this movement that we're all
[65:38] building together. And so I was kind of
[65:40] planning on bringing on guests that just
[65:41] interest me. And it might be the Luke
[65:43] Romans or the Lin Aldens and stuff if
[65:45] they're willing to come on. But it also
[65:47] might be Saquon Barkley. It also might
[65:50] be Diplo is a investor in Stripe that is
[65:53] a friend of mine. He's a DJ. I don't
[65:55] know how much we would end up talking
[65:56] about Bitcoin. It might be Jason Freed,
[65:58] which is a friend of mine about, you
[66:00] know, we have really tight alignment on
[66:02] how to build a company, being
[66:03] profitable, being small, being focused.
[66:05] So, you know, I kind of want to just
[66:07] talk to people that interest me. Um, and
[66:11] obviously what interests me is Bitcoin.
[66:13] So, there will be a strong Bitcoin lean.
[66:16] But, um, yeah, I don't know. I I I don't
[66:18] I don't feel necessary to like make
[66:20] another macro show with the same guest,
[66:23] but just like my voice asking questions.
[66:24] I I personally don't feel the need to
[66:27] create that and I assume you guys don't
[66:29] have like a deep desire for that either.
[66:31] But let me know who you would want to
[66:33] hear on the show or what conversations
[66:35] you think would be fun. Uh and then
[66:37] educational content. So what is money?
[66:40] What is Bitcoin? Um how does Bitcoin
[66:42] work? I think there's an opportunity to
[66:44] create long videos, short videos, um
[66:48] digestible content. Cuz like I said, you
[66:50] I was asking myself, damn, like
[66:52] basically nobody on planet Earth totally
[66:55] understands this Bitcoin thing or even
[66:57] remotely understands it. Who's going to
[66:59] like spend the time and do the work to
[67:01] educate them and not educate them on
[67:03] like, you know, digital credit or, you
[67:06] know, not that those things are bad, but
[67:08] like what is money?
[67:11] Like why was Bitcoin invented? You know,
[67:14] [ __ ] like that. Who's going to do that?
[67:16] Coinbase hasn't been doing it. You know
[67:17] what I mean? Um, I'm going to give it a
[67:20] try.
[67:21] Uh, okay. Let's do questions. Let me
[67:24] pull up Dylan's document and, uh,
[67:29] try and answer as many as I can.
[67:47] Okay.
[67:49] Uh, all right. We're starting out with
[67:51] macro questions. Uh, "Hey Jack, China is
[67:54] stacking gold faster than ever, so why
[67:57] not have the US sell its gold and buy
[67:59] Bitcoin? It sinks gold and pumps Bitcoin
[68:02] demand, switching reserves." Um,
[68:08] yeah, I I guess it's possible. I I'm a
[68:11] little bit dubious of like dumping all
[68:14] of our gold uh to stack Bitcoin. I mean,
[68:18] the the practical answer to that
[68:20] question
[68:22] um is fairly nuanced, right? Like the US
[68:26] owns far more gold than the Bitcoin has
[68:30] in market cap. So, how do you do that
[68:33] without, you know, buying the top of
[68:36] this asset class? like, you know, um
[68:39] like I said, Bitcoin's skeletal frame is
[68:42] just still not wide enough and tall
[68:44] enough to support
[68:47] uh sovereign liquidity. Um and so
[68:51] h how you would practically pull that
[68:53] off would be challenging.
[68:56] Um but I get the point. The point is
[69:00] well taken. Why doesn't the US if what
[69:02] we want to be like the US prides itself
[69:04] on being a tech leader? I think that's
[69:06] the most frightening thing about China's
[69:08] ability to compete in AI is that it's
[69:11] starting to question like are we the de
[69:13] facto king of technology? Um, and even
[69:16] if we are, but like has the margins in
[69:19] our lead drastically shrunk over the
[69:22] recent decades? Uh, so if we are
[69:25] America's about technology and freedom
[69:28] and open source and stuff, then like
[69:30] first of all, all these high-flying
[69:31] execs can't talk [ __ ] about open source.
[69:33] Uh but then yeah, we should lean into
[69:35] Bitcoin 100%. So I get I I don't think
[69:38] uh in theory that thesis is wrong, but I
[69:41] think in practice
[69:43] it would be incredibly challenging to
[69:46] just like you can't just log into
[69:48] Coinbase, dump all the gold, and buy a
[69:50] bunch of Bitcoin and like aha China
[69:52] checkmate. Um unfortunately, I don't
[69:55] think it I don't think we could do that.
[69:58] Um and there's, you know, in the same
[70:00] way that the dollar has lots of network
[70:01] effects, so does gold, right? like all
[70:03] the central banks around the world don't
[70:05] own Bitcoin, they own gold. And so it's
[70:08] like, well, what do you own the Bitcoin
[70:10] for? To trade. Trade with who? Um, none
[70:13] of them have nodes running, right? So
[70:16] So, you know, I I think it will take a
[70:19] bit longer um than we would hope, but I
[70:23] your your point is well taken. Um, and I
[70:26] get it and it's awesome. Uh so uh so
[70:31] yeah any
[70:33] um as more miners transition to AI/HPC
[70:36] workloads with compute often locked up
[70:38] for 5 to 10 years for AI what do you
[70:41] forecast for the Bitcoin hash price?
[70:45] Uh that's a good question. I don't know.
[70:47] Um obviously you listen Bitcoin mining
[70:51] is so cutthroat as a business. It is not
[70:55] a business that is going to have high
[70:58] margin. And even if you do experience
[71:00] high margin in some interim period, I
[71:03] don't know if high margins are very
[71:05] sustainable in that industry. Um, you
[71:08] know, it you're you're effectively
[71:09] saying like
[71:11] it's an open bid for
[71:15] energy in the world. Whoever can amass
[71:19] the cheapest energy source on planet
[71:22] Earth, that's incred that it doesn't get
[71:26] more competitive than that because
[71:28] energy is the currency of the universe.
[71:30] And so that's a highly highly highly
[71:34] competitive
[71:35] margin compressing industry to be in.
[71:39] And so, uh, I think, you know, Bitcoin
[71:44] mining, uh, is going to always be
[71:48] challenging, difficult, doesn't mean
[71:50] it's not worth doing. Um, supporting the
[71:52] network. And, you know, the coolest part
[71:54] about Bitcoin is it's a it's constantly
[71:57] incentivizing excess energy and cheap
[72:00] energy because imagine this. Imagine you
[72:03] have a waterfall in rural [ __ ]
[72:07] The energy that's produced by that
[72:09] waterfall was currently meaningless to
[72:12] society because what? How is the energy
[72:15] hundreds of miles away in a in a
[72:18] waterfall in a forest going to wash my
[72:21] clothes or going to stream the NBA game
[72:24] or going to allow me to live stream to
[72:26] you guys in my office? It couldn't. What
[72:29] am I extension cord 200 miles out and
[72:32] trying to plug it into a waterfall that
[72:35] wires all the way up into my empty
[72:36] closet? Of course not. But what Bitcoin
[72:38] allows you to do is take that energy and
[72:41] turn it into a money that then you can
[72:45] transmute and sell. And so it's
[72:47] constantly, you can picture the Bitcoin
[72:49] network is constantly
[72:51] auditing planet Earth for, hey, who's
[72:54] got abundant, cheap, accessible energy
[72:58] that would be better off being turned
[73:00] into bitcoins? And if the answer for a
[73:03] period a chapter of human history is
[73:05] well there there's not many because we'd
[73:07] rather be you know plugging them into
[73:10] open AI and being backed by SoftBank
[73:13] which is backed by Nvidia which is
[73:15] backed by the US government. We'd rather
[73:17] be doing that then you know the Bitcoin
[73:19] market's fine with that difficulty
[73:20] adjust the show goes on. It doesn't
[73:22] really matter. Um so I don't know. I
[73:24] just know that Bitcoin mining's going to
[73:26] perpetually be, you know, a very
[73:29] cutthroat space um with, you know, low
[73:32] margins very hard. I mean, also guys,
[73:34] never, like, let me say this. I've never
[73:37] ever ever ever ever in my life heard of
[73:39] a of an industry where it's like, you
[73:43] know, every four years our revenue model
[73:45] gets cut in half. It's like, okay, I
[73:49] mean, that sounds challenging, right?
[73:53] So, so yeah, I don't know if I answered
[73:56] your question, but the what I will leave
[73:59] you guys with is it's really important
[74:00] to understand that it doesn't matter.
[74:03] One of Satoshi's greatest inventions was
[74:04] what's called the difficulty adjustment,
[74:07] where what Bitcoin does is it measures
[74:10] how fast blocks have been produced on
[74:12] average over a certain duration of time,
[74:15] which is technically supposed to be
[74:17] around two weeks, although, you know,
[74:20] Bitcoin doesn't think in human time. It
[74:22] thinks in blocks, [snorts]
[74:26] but call it every two weeks, the Bitcoin
[74:28] network is looking back and saying,
[74:30] "What was the average time a block was
[74:33] found?" If it was slower than 10 minutes
[74:37] on average, that means there Bitcoin
[74:41] call it math problem that miners are
[74:42] trying to solve is too hard because it's
[74:46] targeting for every 10 minutes. And if
[74:47] everyone's solving it on average 11
[74:49] minutes, 12 minutes, then we got to
[74:51] reduce the difficulty of the math
[74:54] problem to get them back in line to a
[74:56] target of around 10 minutes. Now, if
[74:58] they're solving it quicker than 10
[74:59] minutes, say they're solving it on
[75:00] average every minute, 5 minutes, 7
[75:03] minutes, well, the problem's too easy.
[75:05] There's a lot more demand to solve the
[75:07] problem than the difficulty of the
[75:08] problem itself. So, let's make the
[75:10] problem a little bit harder. And is the
[75:12] most ingenious insight because the
[75:14] question is how do you you know imagine
[75:16] Bitcoin like a heartbeat like boom boom
[75:19] boom boom boom how do you keep it at a
[75:23] steady heartbeat? You don't want it the
[75:24] heart to race like and then you die of a
[75:28] heart attack. You also don't want the
[75:29] heart to barely beat and you die from
[75:33] you know lack of blood flow. You need a
[75:36] consistent 10 minutes on average
[75:39] heartbeat. And the question is, well,
[75:40] how do you achieve that? And Satoshi had
[75:43] this like really simple but really
[75:45] brilliant insight which is instead of
[75:47] changing the outside world, the outside
[75:50] world will always change and you can't
[75:52] control the outside world. What we can
[75:53] control is how hard it is for the
[75:57] outside world to contribute to Bitcoin.
[75:59] Like Bitcoin itself can change. And so
[76:02] it's this selfreinforcing,
[76:04] self-curing
[76:06] difficulty adjustment. And so it doesn't
[76:08] really matter. Like there's been times
[76:10] since I've been in Bitcoin where
[76:12] everyone wants to be a Bitcoin miner and
[76:14] then the difficulty gets really really
[76:15] hard because everyone's trying to solve
[76:17] it. So blocks are produced faster on
[76:19] average. the difficulty gets really high
[76:21] and then all of a sudden people like,
[76:22] "Holy [ __ ] like this is so hard and now
[76:25] there's a having and my revenue is going
[76:27] to get cut in half and all these miners
[76:28] that borrowed all this money get blown
[76:29] the [ __ ] out and then no one wants to
[76:32] mine Bitcoin and then difficulty comes
[76:34] all the way back down because it's
[76:36] incentivizing people say, "Hey, looks
[76:38] like according to the average block
[76:41] being found over the last two weeks, no
[76:43] one gives a [ __ ] about me anymore."
[76:44] Well, let me entice you a little bit.
[76:46] Let me make it a little bit easier. And
[76:48] then it's kind of been this cyclical
[76:51] thing. It's very cool. So, Bitcoin
[76:53] doesn't care that people are infatuated
[76:56] with AI for now. Let them go. They're
[76:58] going to go in their little sandbox and
[77:00] have fun and throw sand at each other
[77:02] and borrow money from everyone until
[77:04] they need the government. And Bitcoin
[77:06] doesn't mind. We'll we'll sit and we'll
[77:08] watch. We we'll have our DCAs on and
[77:10] we'll watch from a distance. Uh, okay.
[77:15] Bitcoin markets. Uh, hey Jack. Why
[77:17] hasn't Sailor bought Bitcoin lately when
[77:19] he said he will be buying the top
[77:20] forever?
[77:23] Yeah, let me say this. Uh, everyone
[77:25] assumed that my questions about sailor
[77:29] and strategy were because I was the CEO
[77:31] of 21. Now, I can say that's not the
[77:34] case cuz I still have the same
[77:35] questions. I still don't totally
[77:37] understand the strategy and I'm not the
[77:39] CEO of 21. So, in case you guys didn't
[77:42] truly know me as a person, very
[77:46] integral, very transparent, very honest,
[77:49] very principled. I do not do passive
[77:52] marketing gimmicks by asking questions
[77:54] about other CEOs. That's not how I roll.
[77:58] Never will be ever. It's why I step
[78:01] down. If I wanted to compromise on my
[78:03] morals and my integrity and who I am as
[78:06] a man to be the CEO of something, I
[78:09] would still be the CEO. I'm not. So,
[78:12] just to be clear, why has Sailor not
[78:14] been buying Bitcoin lately? Because the
[78:16] market basically told him to stop. Um,
[78:21] he does not have a very rich MNAV. So,
[78:24] the premium uh that his equity has to
[78:28] his uh Bitcoin holdings is effectively
[78:31] zero. And to be honest, it's zero based
[78:34] on the new metric that he unreleased.
[78:37] So, also, you know what's kind of [ __ ]
[78:39] up? I asked these questions and everyone
[78:42] got mad at me, but then the questions
[78:44] were good questions because then after I
[78:46] asked the questions, STRC fell off a
[78:49] 100, still hasn't recovered, and he
[78:51] introduced a brand new version of MNAV.
[78:53] So, it's [ __ ] up. Like, you know, no
[78:55] one ever called me and said, "Hey, dude.
[78:57] Sorry for how hard we were on you."
[78:58] Those were really good questions. So,
[79:00] you know, not that I'm waiting for the
[79:01] phone call. I'm just kidding. But yeah,
[79:04] I mean, listen, the the problem is that
[79:06] he reinvented uh the MNAV metric, which
[79:09] is fine. You know, he told me uh you
[79:12] know, maybe it's such a new becoming
[79:14] industry, maybe it needs new metrics. We
[79:16] need to revisit this stuff. Whatever. I
[79:17] don't care. Um but certainly confusing,
[79:20] confusing for the market. So, it depends
[79:21] on how you measure his metric, but if
[79:23] you measure it the way he used to
[79:25] measure it, it's severely under. If you
[79:27] measure it his new way, it's about at
[79:29] one, but it's not rich enough to be
[79:31] buying Bitcoin. Uh, and uh he's now the
[79:37] the market is also concerned about this
[79:38] STRC like liability thing and he's now
[79:41] starting to spend money buying that
[79:43] back. So, and here's the other thing.
[79:45] Let me say, you know, I was very very
[79:48] very offended as a Bitcoiner and I know
[79:51] I'm sure Michael didn't mean it and um
[79:54] I'm I get it. Like people clip things on
[79:56] the internet and you know it goes it
[80:00] it's taken out of context and it's used
[80:02] against you and like I get it. So I'm
[80:04] just being clear. I'm not calling
[80:06] anybody out. But I was offended when I
[80:08] saw a clip that said without strategy
[80:11] Bitcoin would be worth 5K. And so like
[80:14] Bitcoiners should be thankful for
[80:16] strategy um or else like it wouldn't be
[80:19] a successful project. Like I was very
[80:21] offended by that. There's a lot of
[80:22] people that you know and the other thing
[80:24] about being a Bitcoiner is you're you
[80:27] are able to experience this phenomenon
[80:30] because of all the people that came
[80:31] before you because of the open source
[80:34] developers that were building on Bitcoin
[80:35] when Bitcoin was zero dollars per coin
[80:37] right because of Satoshi. um because of
[80:40] how thiny. And so it's just always like
[80:42] I just I was really offended by that.
[80:45] Like you know, no one no one on Wall
[80:47] Street today was at the Bitcoin meetup
[80:50] in my living room in 2014.
[80:53] Like come on, that's super offensive.
[80:56] And I think it's a really cool sign that
[80:58] Bitcoin's up 10% since the last time
[81:01] these treasury companies have been
[81:03] buying Bitcoin, which doesn't make them
[81:06] bad, but I'm just saying they're not the
[81:08] entire market. They don't determine the
[81:10] price. Uh Bitcoin would be plenty
[81:13] successful with or without them. You
[81:15] know, I always say you need Bitcoin.
[81:19] Bitcoin doesn't need you. Bitcoin will
[81:21] survive without any of us. None of us
[81:24] are too important. Trust me. And you do
[81:28] not want Bitcoin to have to prove that
[81:29] to you. Trust me. Trust me, daddy. So,
[81:35] why hasn't Bitcoin been or Sailor been
[81:36] buying Bitcoin lately? Because he can't
[81:38] really. I mean, he could, but the stock
[81:40] would keep going down. So, the market
[81:42] was basically saying, "Hey, this STRC
[81:44] thing is a mess. You need to tend to it.
[81:47] You need to add cash reserves." Um, and
[81:49] your MNAV is low. And so he's changed
[81:52] the way he encourages the market to
[81:54] think about the MNAV and he's trying to
[81:55] aid towards the STRC thing. Um, and then
[81:59] hopefully he can get back in a position
[82:01] where he can uh be responsibly buying
[82:03] Bitcoin. But who knows? Um, that's my
[82:07] interpretation. And I I still have the
[82:09] same kind of questions or lack of full
[82:11] understanding of uh kind of like the
[82:14] whole thing. Not that I want to spend my
[82:16] time on it, at least right now. If you
[82:18] guys really want me to, I will. But good
[82:21] opportunity for me to say that had
[82:22] nothing to do with 21 at all. That had
[82:25] everything to do with I'm a Bitcoiner.
[82:27] Spent my life here. Plan to spend the
[82:29] rest of my life here. I care deeply
[82:30] about Bitcoin. I just didn't get it.
[82:33] Still don't.
[82:35] Uh how do you reconcile a cash flow
[82:37] business in fiat terms with the belief
[82:39] that Bitcoin is going to replace fiat?
[82:41] like I get strike as it is onboarding
[82:43] people onto slash into the network but
[82:47] um I mean this kind of goes into
[82:48] Austrian theory a little bit and that
[82:51] you know people will say why do you care
[82:54] about cash flow why don't you just buy
[82:55] Bitcoin well I'm doing something
[82:58] productive to produce cash that I don't
[83:00] yet have you know what I mean like it's
[83:03] not like I'm saying you know do I
[83:05] produce $100 million of cash or do I
[83:08] spend $100 million of cash well I can't
[83:10] spend spend $100 million of cash on
[83:12] Bitcoin without earning it first. And I
[83:14] earn it by being valuable. You know, in
[83:17] in in Austrian theory, that's the
[83:20] definition of whether something is
[83:21] successful or not, is if it's profitable
[83:23] because that is the literal expression
[83:25] of something being more valuable to the
[83:28] world than it is consuming from the
[83:30] world. If something's earning $100
[83:32] million of revenue a year, but it costs
[83:34] them $200 million to produce that $100
[83:36] million worth of value, well, they're a
[83:38] net negative to the world.
[83:40] they cost more to the world than they
[83:42] are driving value to the world. So you
[83:45] you want to create more value than
[83:47] you're consuming, that's being
[83:48] profitable. Now whether you measure
[83:50] those profits in Bitcoin terms or in
[83:52] fiat terms or in gold terms, whatever.
[83:54] But the point is you're cash flow
[83:56] positive, which means you're productive,
[83:58] you're useful, you're adding and aiding
[84:00] towards society. And if you're not,
[84:03] well, and and sometimes there's excuses
[84:05] for that. Maybe you're making
[84:07] investments currently to be more
[84:10] valuable in the future and you're using
[84:11] your cash flows for that or you're
[84:12] taking out a loan for that. That's all
[84:14] fine. But like the idea that you can be
[84:16] perpetually not profitable is just a
[84:19] violation of common sense. It doesn't
[84:21] make any sense. Uh and
[84:25] I think that the world should just be
[84:27] governed by it's like a form of
[84:28] Darwinism almost. is like those who
[84:31] survive
[84:32] should be the ones that you know that
[84:35] then make up the DNA of the future of
[84:37] the species. Like the giraffes with the
[84:40] short necks didn't make it cuz they
[84:42] couldn't reach the leaves. So like the
[84:45] companies that couldn't find a way to be
[84:47] more valuable for the world than the
[84:49] cost that they burdened on the world
[84:51] should not make it. And the companies
[84:54] that are able to figure that out, those
[84:57] are the people that get to dictate
[84:59] future investment into
[85:02] businesses, society, funding new new
[85:05] companies. Um,
[85:08] so yeah, I don't know whether whether
[85:10] you measure it in fiat or bitcoin, it
[85:13] doesn't matter. Like strike for example,
[85:15] any like excess cash that we build up
[85:17] like we plow into bitcoin. So, if your
[85:19] point is why am I earning fiat only to
[85:22] be replacing it? I mean, I earn fiat
[85:26] because that's what people give me, but
[85:28] then I take the fiat and I buy Bitcoin,
[85:30] so it doesn't really matter. I guess I'm
[85:32] long fiat for like a second. Uh, but it
[85:36] doesn't matter. It's not like where I'm
[85:37] storing my savings.
[85:40] Uh, Jack or Dylan question. What
[85:41] opportunities do you see for
[85:43] entrepreneurs in Bitcoin? Um, something
[85:45] for a common Michigander.
[85:48] I don't know, dude. I will say this.
[85:50] I've had the most success building
[85:53] things for myself.
[85:55] I think people like want to be either
[85:59] want to be rich or want to be famous or
[86:02] want to they they and that's fine.
[86:07] Wanting those things is reasonable and
[86:09] there are some people that do, some
[86:11] people that don't. I don't necessarily
[86:12] recommend being anything remotely close
[86:15] to a public figure. Uh it's an it's an
[86:19] interesting thing. But anyway, you can
[86:21] want what whatever you want, but that
[86:23] doesn't mean that that's a good reason
[86:26] to start a product or a company. You
[86:29] know, you need to you need to feel very
[86:31] strongly and passionately about solving
[86:33] a problem and then become very good at
[86:35] solving that problem. And again because
[86:38] at the end of the day to be profitable
[86:41] to create something valuable to society
[86:42] you have to produce more value for the
[86:45] world than it costs you know for you to
[86:47] consume from the world. That's very
[86:49] hard.
[86:51] That's a very hard thing to invent. And
[86:53] so I've found the most success solving
[86:57] my own problems. Like I was a Bitcoiner
[87:00] for many years before I started Strike.
[87:02] But I started it because I needed to
[87:05] solve my own problems. There was no
[87:07] Bitcoin company that didn't give me a
[87:08] bunch of shitcoins, that wasn't giving
[87:10] me stablecoin APY [ __ ] that wasn't
[87:14] incentivizing me to gamble and March
[87:16] Madness
[87:18] that was going to like just do Bitcoin
[87:21] the right way, educate Bitcoiners, be
[87:24] simple, be useful, be reliable,
[87:26] reasonably priced. We're not going to
[87:28] explode our headcount and explode our
[87:30] investment. So then we're going to need
[87:32] to raise our prices to justify this,
[87:34] that, and the third. remain founder led
[87:36] and founder control so that you don't
[87:39] get a bunch of VCs that then have their
[87:41] incentives changed and now the company
[87:43] is being driven in a totally different
[87:45] direction. So like I was able to create
[87:48] something that was very high quality
[87:52] because I was the first user.
[87:54] So, I don't know. I would ask, you know,
[87:56] what problems do you have? And I would
[87:58] try and solve your own problem. And then
[87:59] the odds that other people have your
[88:01] same problem are probably high. And then
[88:04] you just start saying like, hey, would
[88:06] you pay for this thing that I built?
[88:08] Solved solved X, Y, and Z problem for
[88:10] me.
[88:13] Uh, that's the story of Strike at least
[88:15] to be honest. Uh, hi Jack. Thanks for
[88:18] all you do for Bitcoin and Bitcoiners.
[88:21] Do you have any latest info on when
[88:23] borrowing and line of credit might be
[88:24] available in the UK? Um, yeah, it's just
[88:27] a regulation thing. Uh, we're hopeful
[88:30] next quarter, which would be Q4, so
[88:33] earliest a few months from now, latest
[88:36] hopefully by the end of the year, but
[88:37] it's just a regulators thing
[88:39] unfortunately, but we're working on it.
[88:41] So, should be soon. Um, but I apologize
[88:44] for the delay. Obviously, if we could,
[88:45] we would be there now. Um, hey Dylan,
[88:48] can you ask Jack when Strike will roll
[88:50] out mobile check deposits?
[88:52] Uh,
[88:54] yeah. I think I don't know. I would say
[89:01] maybe end of this year, early next year.
[89:04] It's just a problem of priority. Like we
[89:06] we know that you guys want interest on
[89:08] your cash. You know that you want
[89:09] stacks. We know that you want IRA.
[89:12] There's so much to build. And so where
[89:14] does that fit in? Um, but it's on it's
[89:17] on the list for sure. And if more of you
[89:19] guys say, I need mobile check deposit
[89:21] really really bad, then it'll move up
[89:23] the list. But I would say it's probably
[89:24] like a Q4 Q1 thing earliest for now. Uh,
[89:28] hi Jack. Question regarding strike. The
[89:30] cash withdraw to banks option uses plaid
[89:33] which says that it is US only. Is there
[89:35] something that can be done for El
[89:36] Salvador and withdraw to banks here?
[89:38] Thanks.
[89:39] Um,
[89:41] if there's a lot of demand
[89:44] for El Salvador specific withdrawals,
[89:49] we can build it. That's another thing.
[89:52] You guys should not be quiet about what
[89:54] you need from us because we we like b I
[89:58] mean we work for you. And so I would say
[90:00] if there's increased demand in certain
[90:02] markets, we'll turn our focus there. we
[90:04] try and figure out, hey, given we have
[90:06] 24 hours in a day, what's the best use
[90:10] of our time? What can we be building?
[90:12] And uh that's usually what drives these
[90:14] decisions. So, I'll I'll try and
[90:16] personally take a look for integrations
[90:18] in El Salvador. Um and if there's more
[90:21] of you out there that really need that
[90:23] feature, uh let us know and and maybe it
[90:25] can become more of a priority. Uh strike
[90:27] question. Lots people asking for a
[90:29] credit card, but what about a debit card
[90:31] that converts to SATs upon charge so I
[90:33] can ditch Coinbase? I depend on their
[90:35] debit card, but would prefer to use one
[90:37] with Strike? Um,
[90:41] yeah, my answers on this one have always
[90:44] kind of been predominantly
[90:47] cards are tough. There's a lot of fraud
[90:49] and cost that come with them. And so,
[90:52] you know, in order to justify a card
[90:54] product,
[90:55] you know, I got to charge you guys some
[90:57] way somehow. I could not give you
[90:59] rewards and I can keep the interchange
[91:03] and then I can pay the expenses that
[91:05] come with launching a card that way. But
[91:06] if you guys want the rewards and you
[91:08] want a card, I just need to find a way
[91:10] to make it economical. Obviously, we can
[91:12] make our money via other products,
[91:15] buying Bitcoin, lending and stuff, but
[91:17] they're this is very like cost
[91:19] intensive. There's lots of fraud
[91:20] involved and there's all sorts of [ __ ]
[91:23] involved in cards. And I've always
[91:25] wondered, well, are we going to be
[91:27] better at making a card than like AMX or
[91:29] Chase? Is that really where I want to be
[91:31] spending so much resources and effort as
[91:33] opposed to more Bitcoin native stuff
[91:35] that they're going to be really bad at
[91:37] and maybe never get to? Um, so that's
[91:39] kind of been my internal justification,
[91:41] but the more and more we build, the more
[91:43] and more customers want Strike to be
[91:45] their primary financial account. And you
[91:47] really can't like just live your life on
[91:50] Strike without a card. I mean, I do. I
[91:54] use Strike's bill pay. So, I use credit
[91:56] card and then I pay my credit card bill
[91:58] and my HOA and my Comeded, my
[92:02] electricity bill. I I pay all my bills
[92:03] with Strike. But, uh, point taken. I
[92:06] don't spend on Strike. I spend I have an
[92:09] Apple card, whatever. So, um, yeah, I I
[92:13] have a feeling we'll reevaluate this
[92:14] soon because so far our answer's been,
[92:17] "Ah, we're not going to be better than
[92:19] Chase Bank at this. Why would we even
[92:22] try?" But if you guys really want cards
[92:24] from us, we could do it easily. Um, just
[92:27] have to find a way to justify it. Figure
[92:28] out how we're going to make it
[92:30] economically reasonable. Cuz like I
[92:32] said, I don't want to run a perpetually
[92:34] VCF funded, unprofitable
[92:36] thing. There's no endgame there. That's
[92:39] stupid. um doesn't make any sense. So
[92:41] that that's the only thing I'm trying to
[92:42] avoid.
[92:45] Um okay,
[92:48] interesting. No 21 questions.
[92:52] Uh
[92:54] don't get mad at me cuz Dylan curates
[92:57] these. So either you guys don't care
[93:00] that much about it, which is fine. I
[93:03] mean, uh or Yeah. or Dylan didn't put
[93:08] him in there for some reason.
[93:10] We'll see. Um okay. Uh that's the end of
[93:15] my questions list. I'm gonna I know that
[93:17] you got this is like 20 second delay I
[93:19] think. So uh I'll give Dylan a second um
[93:25] to respond to that because I really
[93:28] really
[93:30] you know like I said you got to show up.
[93:33] Um,
[93:52] okay. I'm getting nothing from Dill and
[93:55] I got no more questions. Uh, appreciate
[93:57] you guys all the support um and and all
[94:00] the criticism. Like I said, um
[94:05] yeah, I I'll end it by just the
[94:08] relationship I have. Oh, I did get a
[94:10] message from Dylan. Uh oh, most of the
[94:13] questions were covered by me talking. Um
[94:17] and others he does not think I'm allowed
[94:20] to answer. Uh cuz I mean at the end of
[94:24] the day, it is still a public company
[94:26] run by my friends. So, you know, there
[94:28] are there is only so much I could say.
[94:30] Um, so I guess I covered most and uh the
[94:34] other ones uh he doesn't think I'm
[94:35] allowed to answer. Fair enough. Uh yeah.
[94:38] Um just real quick, you guys, um I'm
[94:42] telling you maybe maybe I do include
[94:44] these in the next show, but like the
[94:46] emails you guys send me or the DMs you
[94:48] guys send me um
[94:51] they really mattered in how I thought
[94:56] about how to spend my life. and uh
[95:00] and where I can be valuable and who I am
[95:02] as a person and what matters to me and
[95:05] uh yeah, man, you know, you guys and I
[95:09] have a special thing going.
[95:12] Um whatever we got going on over here
[95:15] and like I said, I don't know how big
[95:16] this all all this is going to be and
[95:19] like if we're, you know, the building
[95:22] the next SpaceX or whatever. Um but I
[95:24] don't think it really matters. um we got
[95:27] a cool thing going and you guys have
[95:30] changed my life in many ways but
[95:32] specifically recently you really really
[95:34] did change my life and just uh the
[95:36] messages that you sent and um yeah I
[95:41] don't know you guys get it if you know
[95:43] you know I really really appreciate it
[95:45] and the support and support is not
[95:47] always you know compliments and roses
[95:49] and stuff it's criticism too when it's
[95:51] necessary um I don't take criticism as a
[95:54] personal indictment Um, if I need to be
[95:57] called out on my [ __ ] uh, and I need to
[95:59] be a better person or a better
[96:01] Bitcoiner, you guys, uh, hold me
[96:03] accountable to that. So, I appreciate
[96:05] it. Um, I appreciate what we have and I
[96:08] appreciate the fact that, uh,
[96:12] I have Strike to build for you guys and
[96:14] I get to produce a lot more content and
[96:16] try and orange pill. Let's get to that
[96:17] 1%. Let's see if 80 million people over
[96:20] the next 10 years can like remotely
[96:22] understand Bitcoin.
[96:24] Uh, cool. Okay. Uh, I'll talk to you
[96:26] guys later. Peace and love. Take care.