Hold Onto Your Butts (And Your Bitcoin)

[0:02] Yo, welcome back to another episode of
[0:05] the Jack Mallers Show. I am your host
[0:08] Jack and you are listening to yet
[0:10] another edition of Mailbag Monday
[0:13] episode 116.
[0:16] Ladies and gentlemen,
[0:18] I am talking to you all at a Bitcoin
[0:20] price of 80,340.
[0:24] Welcome back 80,000. Hopefully you stay
[0:28] for a while. Okay.
[0:32] Not a professional podcaster, didn't
[0:34] mute the episode, and we're back.
[0:36] Talking to you all at a Bitcoin price of
[0:37] 80,340
[0:39] US dollars. That puts Bitcoin's market
[0:41] cap back above 1.6 trillion at 1.61
[0:47] trillion US dollars for the asset class.
[0:49] Our all-time high is still 126,160
[0:53] dollars, which we made on October 6th of
[0:55] 2025, 210 days ago at this point. We are
[1:00] now only 36.3%
[1:02] down from that all-time high. Don't look
[1:04] now, here comes the orange coin. The
[1:07] last Bitcoin block height since I hit
[1:09] stream was Bitcoin block height 947,928.
[1:16] Ladies and gentlemen, it is good to be
[1:19] back in the empty closet. I am back from
[1:22] Las Vegas.
[1:24] Again, not the biggest fan, but I was
[1:25] happy to be there. We're fighting the
[1:26] good fight. We're fixing the money.
[1:28] We're fixing the world. And today's
[1:30] episode is titled Hold on to your butts,
[1:33] grab both cheeks,
[1:35] and your Bitcoin.
[1:37] Um oil surging again, bond market
[1:40] falling apart, gas prices in the US
[1:44] through the roof, and consumer sentiment
[1:47] has arguably never been worse at least
[1:49] in recent recorded history.
[1:52] The reason I picked this title is I
[1:54] believe that volatility is mispriced.
[1:57] The market is not valuing volatility.
[2:01] It's not implying volatility anytime
[2:03] soon. I think that is can't be the case.
[2:06] Bitcoin is starting to kick and scream a
[2:08] little bit. And we know that Bitcoin
[2:09] usually leads. It usually tells us
[2:12] inklings of what's going to happen in
[2:14] the future because it is such a free
[2:15] market. So, my recommendation is to hold
[2:19] on to your butts and your Bitcoin. So,
[2:21] without further to further ado, let's
[2:24] get started. Okay.
[2:26] I had mentioned a few weeks ago
[2:28] uh I'm over the
[2:31] political like I'm done. I'm done
[2:32] chasing the headlines. Um all these
[2:34] politicians do, doesn't matter if
[2:36] they're on the left or the right, the up
[2:38] or the down, the red or the blue, or
[2:40] this or that. On this podcast, we bleed
[2:43] orange. We are Bitcoiners. I think
[2:45] government's gotten too big, and I think
[2:46] all they do is lie, lie, lie, lie.
[2:50] And I'm done wasting my time on it. So,
[2:53] I told you guys very simply
[2:56] the only reason I was going to
[2:57] reintroduce, try and understand what's
[2:59] going on, what central planners were
[3:01] thinking, is if I could answer these
[3:04] four questions. Or if these four
[3:06] questions, rather, would uh their
[3:08] answers would change.
[3:10] One, is the Strait of Hormuz still
[3:12] closed?
[3:14] Two, is the conflict still going on in
[3:17] Iran?
[3:18] Three, are global supply chains still
[3:20] being disrupted? And four, can global
[3:23] debt survive this disruption?
[3:27] My point is the answers to these have
[3:29] yet to be changed. Week after week,
[3:32] announcement after announcement, Truth
[3:34] Social post after Truth Social post.
[3:37] No matter what these politicians say
[3:39] they're trying both on both sides. US,
[3:41] Iran, this way, that way, China, Russia,
[3:44] blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
[3:46] Politicians, they're giant chief
[3:48] marketing officers. They talk, they
[3:50] talk, they talk, they they lie, they
[3:52] lie, okay?
[3:54] And it's not worth our time. This this
[3:57] little beloved corner of the internet
[3:59] that we all share here, they were we're
[4:01] we're trying to lock arms and understand
[4:03] the future and hard money and how to
[4:06] uh bring prosperous times to ourselves
[4:08] and our family and our children. They're
[4:10] not going to steal our time and energy
[4:12] on this podcast. No, no, no. Because is
[4:14] the Strait of Hormuz still closed? Yes.
[4:16] Is the conflict still ongoing? Yes. Are
[4:18] global supply chains still being
[4:20] disrupted? Yes. Can global debt survive
[4:22] this disruption? No. We move on. Because
[4:24] here's the deal.
[4:26] Sunday night Trump tweeted this like
[4:28] vague thing that he called Project
[4:31] Freedom, which was supposedly going to
[4:33] impact the Strait of Hormuz and how
[4:34] ships got through and all this stuff.
[4:36] And markets started to rally a little
[4:38] bit on Sunday night as if this was
[4:41] meaningful news, as if this was going to
[4:42] be something that actually mattered,
[4:44] that was real.
[4:45] And of course on Monday morning, what do
[4:47] we do? Apparently Trump did not announce
[4:49] that the Navy will start escorting ships
[4:50] through the Strait of Hormuz,
[4:52] even though that is what he posted 2
[4:54] hours ago.
[4:55] This might explain why markets are
[4:56] hardly moving on this news. He
[4:58] effectively announced nothing.
[5:01] And I mean, hate to be the I told you so
[5:04] guy,
[5:05] but I told you so.
[5:07] The markets are getting fatigued of the
[5:10] media media media headline headline
[5:12] headline. They're trying to control
[5:14] markets
[5:16] so that they can buy themselves more
[5:17] time. We've talked about it. The United
[5:19] States, their biggest vulnerability, our
[5:21] biggest vulnerability as a country,
[5:24] is the bond market, is the ability to
[5:25] finance ourselves, is our fiscal
[5:27] situation.
[5:28] And I think the market is fatigued of
[5:30] all these headlines. I think people like
[5:32] me, well, I don't think, I know, are
[5:34] fatigued of all this political rhetoric.
[5:37] And again, it's not not picking sides.
[5:39] I'm over that. I'm over that. Until the
[5:42] the answer to these four questions
[5:44] change, is the Strait still closed? Is
[5:47] the conflict ongoing? Are global supply
[5:49] chains being disrupted and can global
[5:50] debt survive the disruption? If these
[5:52] remain unchanged week over week, we move
[5:55] on and we have to figure out well, what
[5:59] is this doing to implied inflation? How
[6:01] is Bitcoin reacting to this? What tools
[6:03] do we need to build as a community? What
[6:04] education do we need to invest in as a
[6:06] community? And so that is where we are
[6:08] going to go for chapter one. The oil
[6:10] shock is here. And so given that the
[6:13] straight is still closed, given that the
[6:15] conflict in Iran is still ongoing, given
[6:18] that global supply chains continue to be
[6:20] disrupted cuz guys remember
[6:23] the Strait of Hormuz is 20%
[6:26] of the global oil supply chain. And we
[6:29] you guys also have to keep in mind one
[6:31] thing.
[6:32] Everything in your life is a derivative
[6:35] of energy, okay?
[6:38] The The human story is very simply can
[6:42] Well,
[6:43] I wouldn't be that dramatic, but the
[6:44] human story can very simply be
[6:46] understood as How about that? The human
[6:49] story can very simply be understood as
[6:52] commercializing energy from the sun.
[6:55] There's this big giant orange yellow
[6:57] thing in the sky
[6:59] and it beams energy down onto planet
[7:02] Earth.
[7:03] And the human story can best be
[7:05] understood as commercializing that
[7:07] energy that is beaming from the bright
[7:10] thing in the sky
[7:11] and making use of it for a prosperous
[7:14] life for our species. That is the human
[7:17] story, okay?
[7:19] And
[7:20] everything that we consume and that we
[7:23] use is some derivative
[7:25] of that energy, right? The food you're
[7:28] eating, those are calories. That's a
[7:30] derivative of energy. How you transport
[7:33] yourself, whether it's the car, via
[7:35] plane, or even walking, you cannot walk,
[7:39] you cannot run without sufficient energy
[7:42] in your body. Whether you're burning
[7:45] calories, whether you're burning fat,
[7:47] it's all a derivative of energy. The
[7:49] house you're living in, that is a
[7:51] derivative of energy. And the
[7:53] electricity bill, how we communicate
[7:56] with each other is a derivative of
[7:58] energy. The cell phone in your pocket.
[8:00] So, you have to understand oil is one of
[8:03] the most important markets in the world.
[8:06] And when there is an oil shock or
[8:08] disruption to the oil supply chain, you
[8:11] have to understand the ripple effects
[8:12] that that has on everything around you.
[8:15] Because oil and the energy market,
[8:18] everything else is a derivative of that.
[8:20] And so, when they say, "Oh, there's
[8:22] inflation in oil." That means inflation
[8:24] in everything else must be coming. The
[8:26] reason people say that is because
[8:28] everything else is a mere derivative of
[8:30] energy. And that's also when you hear
[8:32] people say, "Well, Bitcoin is energy
[8:34] money." And it's really important that
[8:36] Bitcoin uses stuff like proof of work,
[8:38] which demand and require external
[8:40] energy. This is why that property is so
[8:43] important is because ultimately, what
[8:45] you should care about in your money is
[8:47] how well it does in keeping energy
[8:50] purchasing power.
[8:51] Your money should do a good job at
[8:53] protecting your right to consume energy.
[8:56] All right, that's what everyone wants.
[8:57] Everyone wants a two-car garage guzzling
[9:00] oil, unlimited flights whenever they
[9:02] want to travel somewhere, an ability to
[9:05] get as much housing as they want, keep
[9:08] the lights on through the night if their
[9:09] kid wants to play video games, order the
[9:12] nicest food, the nicest form of
[9:14] calories, the most organic grass-fed
[9:17] steaks as opposed to the pleb slop jail
[9:20] lunch. It's all a derivative of energy.
[9:23] And so, money is your time and energy in
[9:25] abstracted form. Consumption as humans
[9:27] is derivative of energy. And the oil
[9:30] market is really, really, really
[9:32] important to things like inflation, to
[9:34] things like macroeconomics, geopolitics,
[9:37] so on and so forth. And so,
[9:39] with
[9:41] the the thing about this war
[9:43] is we were told, "Oh, it's going to I
[9:45] mean, guys, like the amount of
[9:46] gaslighting is crazy. We were told, "Oh,
[9:48] it's going to end really soon. It's just
[9:50] a little blip. We just need to go in, do
[9:52] this thing, boom boom boom, and it's
[9:53] over. Oh, wait one more week. Oh, wait
[9:55] one more thing. Oh, wait this. Oh, wait
[9:57] that." And here we are, and it's May
[10:00] 4th.
[10:01] And I believe the conflict started in
[10:03] the last few days of February.
[10:05] So, it's been all of March, all of
[10:07] April. So, it's been at least 2 months.
[10:10] And the Strait of Hormuz is still
[10:13] experiencing blockage. And so, then
[10:16] let's take a look at how this really
[10:19] critical commodity market, this oil
[10:21] market, energy markets, which are the
[10:23] tip of the iceberg, because everything
[10:25] else is a derivative of energy, of this
[10:28] thing that's beaming energy out of the
[10:30] sky, which we call the sun.
[10:32] So, you can see from this tweet from Jim
[10:34] Bianco, "What does the oil market think?
[10:37] Both the July orange and the December
[10:39] blue Brent crude oil futures contracts
[10:41] are at new highs, at new highs."
[10:44] And this is dating back to the beginning
[10:46] of this year. The December contract is
[10:48] now signaling that the market expects
[10:50] crude oil to be above $90 for the next 7
[10:53] months.
[10:55] So, the reason looking at futures
[10:56] contracts are important is because
[10:58] they're trying to price, hence the name,
[11:00] the future of the physical commodity.
[11:02] They're derivative for forward pricing
[11:05] is what it's called, risk transfer of
[11:07] forward pricing.
[11:08] And so, the reason that this is valuable
[11:10] is we're like, "Whoa, markets expect
[11:13] that crude oil is going to be worth over
[11:16] $90 all the way in December." The blue
[11:19] line is when the contract settles in
[11:21] December. And so, you can hear all of
[11:23] the talking heads on TV, all of the
[11:25] politicians, all of the paid podcasters.
[11:29] Hey, no sponsors. I'm not paid, man of
[11:31] the people, man of the people.
[11:32] But all the rhetoric trying to convince
[11:35] you to believe their bias or believe uh
[11:37] what they're being paid to say,
[11:39] what I care more about is I love markets
[11:42] because markets force people to put real
[11:45] time and energy on the line, real
[11:46] capital on the line. Words are cheap.
[11:48] Words are easy. Words are free.
[11:51] Money's not.
[11:52] And the fact that futures are saying
[11:54] that oil is still going to be
[11:57] at or near $100
[12:00] per barrel even by December, what does
[12:03] that tell you guys about the level of
[12:04] disruption in these markets? What does
[12:06] that tell you guys about the conflict?
[12:08] So earlier today, Iran had an attack on
[12:11] the UAE. The UAE announced it and Brent
[12:14] crude went from
[12:16] 110 to 120 and it's back on the run,
[12:20] it's back on the rise, just screeching
[12:22] higher. And again, considering
[12:25] everything is a derivative of energy,
[12:27] this is going to have grave impact on
[12:30] the world we're living in and obviously
[12:32] as Bitcoiners, you know, I had someone
[12:34] ask me on a podcast recently. I recorded
[12:37] a podcast on Friday. I think it'll be
[12:38] out on Wednesday maybe. And
[12:42] he said, "Well, what like what what's
[12:44] your answer when people say, why do you
[12:45] care about the Strait of Hormuz? Why are
[12:47] you always talking about this macro
[12:49] stuff?" And it's because Bitcoin is a
[12:51] solution to a problem and the problem is
[12:54] fiat, the problem is the legacy finance
[12:56] system and I benefit from and enjoy
[13:00] trying to understand the state of the
[13:02] problem and how bad it really is and
[13:05] how I can best position the solution
[13:07] which is Bitcoin
[13:09] for the world that we're in right now.
[13:11] Um you know, people are caring about
[13:12] different things. There's different
[13:14] stuff ongoing in the world and so the
[13:16] fact that you know, Brent crude oil is
[13:19] above $120 a barrel, like that's really
[13:22] meaningful. Um gas prices are starting
[13:25] to really, really, really move. So you
[13:26] can see in the green line here, gas
[13:29] prices are up 33% this year, and it
[13:32] looks like they're just getting started.
[13:33] We're already almost at the 2022 gas
[13:37] price high, and we're already higher
[13:40] than the gas price
[13:42] uh highs of the 2008-2009 Great
[13:45] Financial Crisis. So,
[13:47] gas prices are really starting to move.
[13:50] And I wanted to highlight some stuff
[13:52] because you're going to start seeing
[13:53] economic data. I I've seen um whether
[13:56] it's central banks, or whether it's
[13:59] commercial banks, or whether it's
[14:01] governments around the world, they're
[14:03] starting to cite strong economic growth.
[14:06] They're saying, "Oh, man, the the US
[14:08] economy or the European economy or
[14:10] whoever's booming. There's so much
[14:12] spending. There's so much economic
[14:14] activity." You're going to start to see
[14:16] that and hear that, and then you know,
[14:17] there's a Fed chair change. Obviously,
[14:19] Warsh is expected to be coming in, and
[14:21] Jerome Powell is now done.
[14:24] And I wanted to highlight a really
[14:25] important point, and that yes,
[14:27] nominally, so in US dollar terms,
[14:31] things are {quote} {unquote} booming,
[14:33] right? Like the amount of dollars moving
[14:35] around and being spent by consumers
[14:38] looks high. But the question is, what
[14:41] are those dollars being spent on, number
[14:44] one, and number two,
[14:46] what about the real economic terms? So,
[14:50] instead of measuring things in dollars,
[14:52] which we know get debased and are worth
[14:54] less over time, what about measuring
[14:56] things in real terms? So, first on the
[14:59] left, you can see this is increased
[15:02] spending on gasoline is likely to weigh
[15:04] most on the real consumer spending. And
[15:06] so, you can see this average effect
[15:09] baseline of an oil shock, energy goods
[15:12] on the far left, and then all the way on
[15:14] the far right is housing and utilities,
[15:16] health care. And when you have an oil
[15:18] shock,
[15:20] the amount of capital being spent just
[15:23] on energy goods, just on oil is
[15:26] unbelievably high. So, I wouldn't say
[15:29] the economy is booming if people are
[15:31] just forced to spend and dip into their
[15:33] savings just to fill their gas tank,
[15:36] just to pay the electricity bill, just
[15:38] to get by. On the right, you can see US
[15:41] retail sales by kind of business, and
[15:43] look at gasoline stations. Gasoline
[15:46] station sitting at 15.5%
[15:49] and then furniture and home furnishing
[15:51] is second in 2.2%.
[15:54] And so again, I encourage you guys
[15:56] always pull on the thread, think
[15:58] critically, think think for yourselves.
[16:00] Yes, nominally there are more dollars
[16:03] sloshing around the US economy, but it's
[16:05] all on energy goods, derivatives of
[16:08] energy, gas stations. That's not
[16:10] necessarily a good thing, and I pull on
[16:13] the thread a little bit more in this
[16:14] slide, and you can see that
[16:17] adjusted for inflation, consumer
[16:19] spending is pulling back tremendously.
[16:22] So, you can see this yellow line is the
[16:24] pre-pandemic trend, and we know
[16:26] post-pandemic, post-COVID, money
[16:28] bazooka, money printing, this is an
[16:30] entirely different world, and you you
[16:32] know, history might look back at COVID
[16:35] and the timeline we're living through
[16:36] today is the beginning of the end for
[16:40] fiat, or it depends on what you want to
[16:42] call it, the post-1971 dollar, right?
[16:45] Because, you know, there's almost two
[16:46] chapters of fiat. One chapter where it
[16:48] was supposedly linked to a physical
[16:51] commodity that you couldn't print like
[16:53] gold, and supposedly it was redeemable
[16:56] for gold. Now, the practicality of that,
[16:58] I'd highly question. I would guess that
[17:00] the you big governments and central
[17:03] banks of the world were actually largely
[17:05] insolvent before 1971, but let's just
[17:08] say this post-71 dollar to keep it
[17:10] clean, which is it's not redeemable for
[17:13] any hard money, it's not redeemable for
[17:15] any commodity, it's not governed by the
[17:19] natural laws of the universe, by mother
[17:22] nature, by things that you can't just
[17:24] print out of thin air. It is man-made,
[17:26] man-governed, centrally planned slop.
[17:29] This post-71 dollar, this is likely the
[17:31] beginning of the end. And you can see
[17:33] that visually in this chart where once
[17:36] we adjust for inflation, once we adjust
[17:38] for real purchasing power terms, uh let
[17:41] me try and dumb it down.
[17:43] If $1 gets you an egg and then we
[17:47] experience inflation
[17:49] where
[17:50] now you need $2 for an egg measuring
[17:53] things in dollars is not that
[17:56] interesting because you can say
[17:58] "Oh, there's a dollar like the US
[18:01] economy went from spending $1 to $1.50.
[18:04] Wow, that's 50% growth. That's crazy
[18:07] amounts of growth."
[18:09] But if it doesn't even get you one egg
[18:12] anymore, then the real purchasing power
[18:15] terms is declining. Yes, nominally
[18:17] people are spending more dollars, but
[18:20] practically speaking in the exchange of
[18:22] goods and services, which is ultimately
[18:24] what money's for
[18:26] people are consuming and getting less.
[18:29] And so you can see the retail sales in
[18:31] the blue is starting to fall apart in
[18:34] this post-COVID world when you adjust
[18:37] for inflation. And so don't be fooled
[18:40] when you see, "Oh, the US economy is a
[18:42] booming. Look at all of these metrics."
[18:45] Well, nominal terms and real terms are
[18:46] different. And when you pull on the
[18:47] thread, you realize that during an oil
[18:49] shock, people are dipping into their
[18:51] savings just to get by. Like things like
[18:54] energy consumption and oil and gas,
[18:58] these are like base level needs. That's
[19:00] that's not like discretionary consumer
[19:02] spending. It's not like, "Oh,
[19:04] I won't get the Louboutin bag this this
[19:07] Christmas cuz money's tight." It doesn't
[19:09] matter how tight money is. Like you need
[19:12] to commute to work. You need to get your
[19:14] kid to school. You need the lights to be
[19:16] you you need the AC or the heat to be on
[19:19] in your home. It just doesn't really So,
[19:22] again, just keep that in mind.
[19:25] Meanwhile, the US crude reserves are
[19:27] declining to scary amounts of lows. They
[19:30] are continuing to dwindle. So, you know,
[19:33] the United States is using their SPR.
[19:37] And this is something to keep an eye on
[19:39] as well. I mean, listen.
[19:41] An oil shock and high gas prices is a
[19:44] sure-fire way to lose an election. So, I
[19:47] would keep my eye on
[19:49] oil policies. I honestly wouldn't put it
[19:52] past the administration to even look
[19:54] into, you know, export restrictions. So,
[19:58] the combination of what we're walking
[20:00] through, of consumers are getting
[20:02] crushed, inflation seems to be roaring
[20:05] back, which we'll get to in a second,
[20:07] gas prices are likely going to make
[20:10] all-time highs, at least in the last 20
[20:12] years.
[20:14] And our SPR, strategic petroleum
[20:17] reserves, are declining.
[20:20] I mean, that is screaming some form of
[20:23] policy from government or central
[20:24] planners. So, I would keep an eye on on
[20:26] it I out on it. I just wanted to
[20:28] highlight it um because it is an
[20:31] important thing to note. For chapter
[20:34] two, the bond market. So, on one side,
[20:37] you've got oil is screaming higher. And
[20:40] what that's doing to the bond market is
[20:42] it's crushing it. And so, let's take a
[20:44] step back.
[20:45] I try and make the show for the common
[20:48] man, by the common man.
[20:50] We're not here to get into, you know,
[20:53] this is not a economics class at
[20:55] Harvard. That's not what this show is
[20:56] about. Try and dumb all this stuff down
[20:59] and make sure it's digestible and easy
[21:00] to understand.
[21:02] So, what is the bond market? Just a
[21:04] quick reminder.
[21:05] It's how the US government gets money
[21:08] lent to it. Again, the US government
[21:10] runs what's called a deficit. They on
[21:13] net, if they were a business, they'd be
[21:14] extremely unprofitable. They run about a
[21:16] two trillion dollar deficit a year. You
[21:19] can think of it like losing two trillion
[21:20] dollars a year. So the US government
[21:22] spends a lot more than it quote unquote
[21:25] makes. So how does it afford it? Well,
[21:28] the bond market. And a bond is just
[21:30] lending money to the government. Is a
[21:33] bond it when you buy a bond, you're
[21:34] lending money to the government and
[21:36] you're getting interest, you're getting
[21:37] yield. So the US government owes
[21:39] interest on on that loan. And that is
[21:42] the bond yield. And so when bonds go
[21:44] down, yields go up.
[21:46] Because for very simple it's it's very
[21:49] simple math.
[21:50] If the US government wants money lent to
[21:52] it and the yield is at 3% and the market
[21:55] is like ugh, I don't want to touch that.
[21:57] I'm not lending money to the US
[21:58] government for 3%. Well then the yields
[22:01] will go higher. And so okay, what about
[22:02] 3.1%? 3.2? 3.3? 3.4? Until demand meets
[22:08] supply. Until oh okay, fine. If the US
[22:10] government's willing to pay me 20%
[22:13] yield, I'll lend the US government
[22:15] money. And so as bonds lose demand, the
[22:18] yield goes up and vice versa. As
[22:21] everyone's piling into bonds, yields
[22:24] come down. If everyone's like fine like
[22:26] I really want to lend to the US
[22:27] government, they can probably get away
[22:29] with financing it for cheaper interest.
[22:31] Make sense? So let's take a look at how
[22:34] bond markets are doing. Oil is driving
[22:36] bond volatility. Oil's impact on the
[22:39] bond market. I would argue that oil in
[22:41] the blue is driving bond volatility in
[22:43] the orange, not the other way around.
[22:46] That means wider daily ranges and given
[22:48] the current environment, higher yields.
[22:51] So bond volatility has been one of the
[22:54] most important metrics to understand
[22:56] when the money printer is coming out.
[22:58] The US government's got 40 trillion
[23:00] dollars worth of debt.
[23:02] A really simple way to think about the
[23:04] US government and the current filthy
[23:05] fiat financial system is a highly
[23:08] indebted system, a highly leveraged
[23:11] system, tons of leverage. We're all
[23:14] familiar with leverage on this podcast
[23:17] because we're in crypto. We know that
[23:19] like if you're super leveraged and the
[23:20] price moves a little bit, you get
[23:22] liquidated. And you can think of the US
[23:24] government in the same way, extremely
[23:26] extremely leveraged. So, what does a
[23:28] highly leveraged, highly indebted system
[23:30] not like? Volatility. Volatility is
[23:33] scary. And the the very specific reason
[23:37] why the US highly leveraged system
[23:39] doesn't like volatility is a lot of the
[23:42] people that are lending to the US
[23:43] government are doing it via what's
[23:45] called a carry trade. These are hedge
[23:47] funds that are leveraging up their
[23:49] balance sheet to lend to the US
[23:51] government. And when the collateral that
[23:53] you're posting is experiencing
[23:55] volatility, then you have to de-risk.
[23:57] And then you have to pull that trade
[23:59] back.
[24:00] And when there's a lot of bond volatili-
[24:02] bond volatility, the market gets weaker.
[24:05] The buyers kind of step back because all
[24:07] of these fast money traders, they can't
[24:10] leverage up their balance sheets when
[24:12] there's volatility. And so, the fact
[24:14] that one of the most important, if not
[24:16] the most important commodity, is
[24:18] experiencing a shock, is experiencing
[24:20] supply chain shortages around the world.
[24:22] And again, you know, Japan imports
[24:26] I think it's 90% of their oil and over
[24:28] 50% of their food. And these are all of
[24:32] these global supply chains are in
[24:34] serious trouble cuz everything's a
[24:36] derivative of energy of things like oil.
[24:40] And so, the fact that oil markets are
[24:42] all messed up is going to mess up
[24:44] everything else. And you're starting to
[24:47] see volatility in the bond market start
[24:50] to peel back up. And this is, by the
[24:53] way, the MOVE index, which is the bond
[24:55] volatility index. This is the same index
[24:58] that shot up during liberation week that
[25:00] forced Trump to taco and forced the
[25:02] money printers to come out in storm and
[25:04] that sent Bitcoin from whatever it was
[25:07] at at the time of April of last year of
[25:09] 25 to 125,000 by October. That run was
[25:14] money printing, it was stimulus, and it
[25:17] was in a reaction to things like bond
[25:20] volatility. And you're starting to see
[25:21] bond volatility creep back up cuz I'm
[25:24] telling you guys you cannot take 20% of
[25:27] the world's oil offline, one of the most
[25:29] important supply chain vectors in the
[25:31] Strait of Hormuz, offline and expect the
[25:33] world to function as normal. These
[25:36] things like gas prices are going to go
[25:37] up. Inflation is going to come back. US
[25:40] consumer sentiment is going to be as bad
[25:43] as it's ever been. Combine that with AI.
[25:46] Combine that with the fact that people
[25:48] are comparing this to oh, what what
[25:50] about when we were in 2001? What about
[25:53] in the '90s? Yeah, but in 2001 in the
[25:55] '90s, we weren't 40 trillion dollars of
[25:57] debt.
[25:58] They you cannot keep borrowing from your
[26:00] future, not paying it back, and
[26:02] comparing us to times when you know,
[26:05] it's like the equivalent of like
[26:07] comparing a runner who's running a mile
[26:10] who's in pristine Olympic shape versus
[26:12] comparing a runner who's running a mile
[26:14] in the Olympics that's obese. It's like
[26:17] these are not comparable things. Like
[26:18] the US has a ton of excess weight. It is
[26:21] obese and drowning in in debt.
[26:25] I mean, it's just it's just not going to
[26:27] work. So, the bond markets are falling
[26:31] apart. So, again, bond math confuses
[26:34] people, but when you guys see rates go
[26:38] up, that means bonds are crashing,
[26:40] right? Because if people are getting rid
[26:42] of bonds, they're like, oh my goodness,
[26:43] I do not want to lend to the United
[26:45] States right now. And why would they be
[26:47] saying that? Well, one because as fiscal
[26:50] situation is just such a mess, generally
[26:52] speaking. But, if you expect there to be
[26:54] inflation, you need higher yields to
[26:56] compensate you for that inflation. Let's
[26:58] say the things around you that you want
[27:00] to buy, you think are going to be
[27:02] getting more expensive, at least 5% more
[27:05] expensive a year. Well, you certainly
[27:07] wouldn't lend money out for 3% then, cuz
[27:10] sure, you're making 3% a year,
[27:11] quote-unquote risk-free, but everything
[27:13] that you want to buy is getting 5% more
[27:15] expensive. So, that is real rates
[27:18] negative is what they call it. That
[27:20] means you're losing purchasing power
[27:21] over time. And so, if the collective
[27:25] consensus is yikes, Strait of Hormuz is
[27:28] closed, there's conflict in the Middle
[27:29] East, AI is coming and taking everyone's
[27:31] job, I don't know if I want to lend to
[27:33] the United States right now, I'd rather
[27:35] buy Bitcoin, then bonds will fall and
[27:39] yields will go up, and that's what we're
[27:40] seeing here. So, if you look at this
[27:42] diagram, the yellow lines is when Trump
[27:44] introduced tariffs. And you can see in
[27:47] 2018, tariffs were introduced, yields
[27:50] collapsed until COVID,
[27:52] and the inflation bonanza after that,
[27:55] you could see the post-COVID recovery
[27:57] and the 2022 inflation shock. And then
[27:59] you can see Trump back in office,
[28:01] released ter- or announced tariffs again
[28:04] in 2025, and you can see that the
[28:07] 10-year and the 30-year rates tried to
[28:10] start to come down again, but they're on
[28:13] the rise and they're back up and they're
[28:14] almost at these all-time highs, at least
[28:17] all- like all-time highs within this
[28:19] time window, which is a little over a
[28:21] decade. But, across the 2-year, the
[28:24] 10-year, the 30-year, bond rates are
[28:26] soaring, which is, again, collectively,
[28:29] that means that people aren't as
[28:32] interested in lending to the US
[28:34] government anymore, and there's
[28:35] absolutely a relationship. Oil going up
[28:39] and bond rates going up, that means
[28:41] there are inflation concerns, that means
[28:43] that the fiscal situation people aren't
[28:45] as confident in anymore. It's one thing
[28:47] to hear a podcaster say it, it's another
[28:49] thing to see the bond market say it.
[28:51] This is the biggest, most unruly market
[28:53] in the world. Okay, this is what Bitcoin
[28:58] is trying to replace. This is the
[29:00] world's store of value today.
[29:03] Government debt, bonds, government
[29:06] paper.
[29:07] So, you see this is just the 30-year US
[29:09] Treasury. The 30-year US Treasury is
[29:12] flirting with 5% and James Lavish,
[29:14] friend friend of the show, friend of the
[29:16] show, he tweets, "How about those
[29:18] mortgage rates?"
[29:19] So, again, you want to lose an election?
[29:22] You want to create societal unrest?
[29:25] Well, have gas prices be at all-time
[29:27] highs in the last 20 years and have long
[29:31] long
[29:32] long duration rates soaring, which is
[29:34] going to screw up everyone's ability to
[29:35] actually get a mortgage and own a home.
[29:38] So, again,
[29:40] we you know, we cannot talk like the
[29:42] straight or her moves and all stuff. We
[29:43] cannot talk about it on the show, but
[29:45] the reality is the world we live in is a
[29:48] derivative of energy, guys. The the
[29:50] story of mankind is commercializing
[29:53] energy. That's the story of human
[29:55] prosperity. I joke all the time. People
[29:57] say, "Oh, Bitcoin miners take up too
[29:59] much energy. I'm not that kind of guy. I
[30:01] wouldn't use that much energy." Okay,
[30:03] you don't like using energy? Okay, cool.
[30:05] I'll tell you what. Next time you go to
[30:07] Europe, you take a kayak and I'll fly
[30:10] United because oh, no, no, you don't
[30:12] like using energy. You're not the kind
[30:14] of guy that would use energy.
[30:16] All right?
[30:17] Next time this your favorite sports team
[30:19] plays, you listen to the radio
[30:21] broadcast, I'll watch it on television.
[30:24] All right?
[30:25] Next time you need to send a message to
[30:26] a friend, you use a pigeon and I'll use
[30:29] an iPhone.
[30:31] You understand that commercializing
[30:33] energy and harnessing energy
[30:36] for all is the road to prosperity.
[30:40] Whoever's convincing you that consuming
[30:42] energy is a bad thing is short energy
[30:45] for some reason. My dad once told me, "A
[30:47] politician's opinion is a politician's
[30:49] position."
[30:51] Politicians saying energy consumption is
[30:53] bad isn't based in fact, isn't based in
[30:56] your best interest. It's based in that
[30:58] the country isn't have an abundance of
[31:01] energy, and energy inflation is the root
[31:04] of all societal distress.
[31:07] But make no mistake, the lives that you
[31:09] dream about
[31:11] concede consume the most energy.
[31:14] Private travel, two-car garages, big
[31:17] houses, like that I mean the the nicest
[31:21] food quality, that's all energy.
[31:24] All energy.
[31:26] Make no mistake about it.
[31:28] And so anyways, now I'm going to
[31:31] transition this subtly into what does it
[31:34] mean for Bitcoin? What does it mean for
[31:36] financial markets? Well, interestingly,
[31:39] Bitcoin is rising in this environment
[31:42] right now, which is kind of crazy. And I
[31:45] think broadly markets are going to have
[31:47] to make a decision. Are they going to
[31:49] crash because, you know, the oil shock
[31:53] is really going to tighten liquidity,
[31:55] there's going to be some form of a
[31:56] financial crisis, which will result in
[31:58] money printing?
[31:59] Or are they going to rip? Because
[32:02] there's going to be continued stimulus
[32:04] into the
[32:05] financial markets and into the economy.
[32:08] So, I just wanted to highlight that the
[32:10] US government is what they call running
[32:12] it hot. They are providing lots of
[32:14] liquidity. There are three primary
[32:17] stealth liquidity channels that are
[32:18] propping up markets today. Why Bitcoin
[32:21] is going out? It's smelling the
[32:23] liquidity that the US government is
[32:24] providing. It's really interesting
[32:26] because usually
[32:28] central planners provide liquidity only
[32:31] after there's a crisis because it's more
[32:32] politically palatable to do it that way.
[32:35] Right? You say, "Instead of juicing
[32:37] markets and inciting inflation before
[32:40] there's a crisis, they usually do it
[32:42] after because it's like, 'Oh, I'll I'm
[32:44] here to save the day. Oh, your bank
[32:46] failed? Well, I'm here with a b c d e f
[32:48] g funding program that's saving
[32:51] everyone's deposits, making sure that
[32:53] everyone knows that I saved you, I saved
[32:55] your deposits, I saved your bank.'" That
[32:58] sounds what like way more of a heroic
[33:00] hero's journey than I just printed a
[33:04] bunch of money, sent assets higher, and
[33:06] the reason your eggs are twice as
[33:08] expensive is probably my fault. So, it's
[33:11] interesting. This is kind of out of
[33:12] character for policy makers, but
[33:15] nonetheless, number one is this reserve
[33:17] management pur- purchase program.
[33:19] Remember, back in uh Q4 of last year,
[33:23] the Fed said that they would start to
[33:26] enable this repurchase program in
[33:28] growing the size of their balance sheet.
[33:30] We had been in QT for a while.
[33:33] For years.
[33:35] And the the Fed's balance sheet was uh
[33:37] getting smaller.
[33:39] And the Fed said they're finally pausing
[33:41] QT. Now, they didn't say we're starting
[33:42] QE cuz QE is a bad word. People know
[33:45] what QE is. They associate it with
[33:47] inflation. They associate it with the
[33:49] wealth gap. And so, in my opinion, this
[33:52] is de facto QE, but they didn't call it
[33:55] QE. It's not QE technically, but still,
[33:57] the Fed's balance sheet has now started
[33:59] to grow. That is stimulus number one.
[34:02] Stimulus Stimulus number two is
[34:04] suppressing the dollar. And so, we've
[34:06] seen the US government go out of its way
[34:09] to try and weaken the dollar at every
[34:11] chance it can. It's called for rate
[34:14] checks. It's tried to negotiate swap
[34:16] lines with the UAE we've talked about
[34:18] recently. Anything it can do to make
[34:21] sure the dollar doesn't strengthen. Why
[34:23] is that? Am I saying that that's a bad
[34:25] thing they're doing? It's not good or
[34:27] bad. It's important to understand. The
[34:29] reason they're doing it
[34:31] is because
[34:33] you cannot reshore manufacturing,
[34:36] reshore production in your country with
[34:38] a strong currency.
[34:40] Or else, there's never going to be an
[34:42] opportunity to make the iPhone in
[34:44] America or to produce your own military
[34:47] equipment in America because labor will
[34:49] always be cheaper elsewhere.
[34:52] The US dollar is artificially priced
[34:54] high. US assets are artificially priced
[34:56] high. Now, ultimately, the reason for
[34:58] that is cuz of the world reserve
[35:00] currency status.
[35:01] There is a persistent level of demand
[35:04] for the US dollar that no other currency
[35:06] has. And so, there is a persistent
[35:08] artificially high price for the US
[35:10] dollar that no other currency has. I've
[35:13] said time and time again, if the US
[35:14] wants to solve their problem really
[35:16] quickly, they could just say we don't
[35:18] want to be the world reserve currency
[35:19] anymore and that'll be that. Now, it's
[35:21] not that simple, obviously. But, that's
[35:24] the reason. And so, the goal of a weaker
[35:26] dollar, therein lies the goal of the US
[35:30] government. It doesn't really matter
[35:32] Democrat, Republican, left, right, red,
[35:34] blue. It's a consistent theme that the
[35:37] US feels globalism is no longer
[35:39] advancing what America wants and what
[35:42] they want for their people. They're
[35:43] trying to reshore. They're trying to
[35:45] bring back blue collar. They're trying
[35:47] to bring back manual labor. They're
[35:48] trying to bring back industrial
[35:51] production.
[35:52] And that requires a weaker currency.
[35:54] Now, a weaker dollar implies inflation,
[35:57] naturally. A weaker dollar gets you less
[35:59] food. A weaker dollar gets you less
[36:00] housing. A weaker dollar gets you less
[36:02] Bitcoin. So, it implies higher asset
[36:05] prices. So, one
[36:07] RMPs, reserve management repurchases
[36:09] from uh or
[36:11] reserve management purchases from uh the
[36:13] Fed. Two is the US government is clearly
[36:16] going out of its way. And when I say
[36:17] government, primarily the Treasury, is
[36:19] going out of its way to ensure that the
[36:21] dollar not only doesn't get strong, but
[36:25] finds a way to get weaker.
[36:27] And three is issuance manipulation.
[36:30] The US government is issuing treasuries
[36:33] on the what they call the short end.
[36:36] So, you could issue T-bills, which are
[36:38] more like cash instruments, or you could
[36:40] issue 10 years, which are, you know,
[36:43] 10-year US Treasury.
[36:45] Now, the government is staying away from
[36:47] the long end, and it's obvious because
[36:50] it's the long end is weak. There's not a
[36:52] lot of demand at the long end. Virtually
[36:54] nobody wants to lend the US government
[36:57] money over 10 years. You'd have to be
[36:59] nuts. How do you price in inflation over
[37:01] 10 years? How do you price in what our
[37:03] monetary system is even going to look
[37:05] like, or are we going to be living in
[37:07] this multipolar world? I mean, you'd
[37:09] have to be crazy. I mean, COVID wasn't
[37:11] even 10 years ago. You want to lend a
[37:14] sovereign money for 10 years?
[37:16] I mean, the level of uncertainty, the
[37:18] lack of trust. I mean, the world this is
[37:20] fourth turning stuff, right? The world
[37:22] is changing in front of our eyes.
[37:25] And so, the US government is solving
[37:27] this problem by issuing it on the front
[37:29] end, which is fine,
[37:32] but it's much more stimulative, much
[37:34] more stimulative. And so,
[37:37] we're seeing,
[37:39] and I'll get to this in a second,
[37:41] Bitcoin, markets want to move.
[37:43] Volatility is coming. That's why I
[37:45] titled this hold on to your butt, clench
[37:48] those cheeks.
[37:49] Hey,
[37:50] not a professional podcaster. You're
[37:52] going to want clench those cheeks and
[37:53] those private keys, because change is
[37:56] cometh. You cannot disrupt the oil
[38:00] markets and everything else be a
[38:01] derivative of energy as we know it and
[38:04] expect no volatility. It is coming. The
[38:07] question is, are we going to get a big
[38:08] whoosh down crash,
[38:11] or are markets going to rip higher
[38:12] because they're going to provide enough
[38:14] liquidity to protect the crash? Now, the
[38:16] answer is, which I'll get into in a
[38:18] second, I don't know. That's why I stay
[38:20] humble and stack sats. That's why I turn
[38:22] on my DCAs.
[38:24] I don't It's not worth our time, in my
[38:26] opinion, to try and trade and spot the
[38:28] lows and sell the highs. That you know,
[38:31] like be productive, do something
[38:34] worthwhile in society and for those
[38:35] around you, provide value on net and
[38:38] then stack sats and stay humble. That's
[38:40] the way to That That That's the That's
[38:42] the the road to the high land. But,
[38:45] anyway,
[38:47] um this tweet caught my eye because I
[38:49] don't think that we've seen
[38:52] the oil shock's impact on the normal
[38:55] American consumer yet. So, with US
[38:58] gasoline prices at $4.45 per gallon,
[39:02] $4.50 imminently and likely $5 per
[39:06] gallon in the near term, a look at how
[39:08] it's impacting the public is in demand.
[39:11] On Wednesday, the New York Fed is going
[39:13] to publish research on the K-shaped
[39:15] pattern in gasoline spending. Get your
[39:17] popcorn out because that is going to
[39:20] spook the public and the political
[39:22] sector over who is bearing the burden of
[39:25] adjustment to the supply shock.
[39:27] So, again, I don't think
[39:30] the I I think that
[39:32] Iran has been ongoing, this oil shock is
[39:35] happening, and I'll tell you who's
[39:37] feeling it before us. Japan, Europe.
[39:41] Japan and Europe look not good. The US
[39:45] actually is a very resource-rich nation.
[39:49] Push comes to shove, the US actually has
[39:52] lots of food, lots of oil now. It
[39:55] doesn't have oil in a way that we can
[39:56] consume it. The US has been very long
[40:00] globalism, short proof of work, and
[40:03] there everyone's starting to realize
[40:05] that doesn't make any sense, really bad
[40:07] strategy. Um
[40:09] start buying Bitcoin, start buying hard
[40:11] assets, start investing in proof of
[40:13] work, whether it's yourself, your your
[40:15] your business, your nation.
[40:17] And the world is starting to reprice
[40:18] what it means to be real, what it means
[40:20] to be hard working, what it means to be
[40:21] productive. Those things are going to be
[40:23] in a perpetual, as far as the eye can
[40:26] see, bull market.
[40:29] Okay?
[40:30] But, theoretically, when it comes to
[40:32] just like
[40:33] pure resources, the US is generally
[40:36] rich. Like the soil that I'm on right
[40:38] now, it does technically have
[40:42] energy resources and food. We just need
[40:44] to start doing the proof of work in
[40:46] making the country self-sustainable.
[40:48] Other countries are not as lucky and in
[40:50] are are in a way worse position, like
[40:52] Japan, a lot of Europe.
[40:55] So, this oil shock, it will hit the US
[40:59] last. I guess the US will will start
[41:02] feeling the pain later.
[41:04] But, it doesn't mean that it's not going
[41:05] to start feeling the pain.
[41:06] And that's the question that I really
[41:08] have or
[41:09] not a question cuz I'm going to stay
[41:10] humble and stack sats either way. But,
[41:12] what I'm watching is is the pain going
[41:15] to result in a financial crisis? Is it
[41:17] going to result in the stock market
[41:18] puking 20% down? Bitcoin likely to fall
[41:21] with it?
[41:22] Or are they giving so much stimulus
[41:25] behind the scenes through issuing
[41:27] T-bills, through the repurchase
[41:31] management agreement Fed expanding
[41:33] balance sheet thingy
[41:35] to where assets are going to start to
[41:36] rip? And I'm really watching Bitcoin to
[41:39] give me hints as to which way the market
[41:42] is going to lean. Because right now,
[41:44] volatility is priced at effectively
[41:46] worthless. The VIX is just not The VIX
[41:48] is not moving. Bond volatility is low.
[41:51] It's ho-hum. It's ho-hum while 20% of
[41:53] the world's oil is offline. That's It's
[41:55] not going to vibe. So,
[41:57] last chapter is the second wave is baked
[41:59] in.
[42:00] This is a chart of US CPI, consumer
[42:05] price index, and this is dating all the
[42:07] way back. Sorry. I know sometimes you
[42:09] guys can't see. So, let me see if I can
[42:11] zoom in.
[42:13] So, this is going all the way to 1950,
[42:15] as you can see here.
[42:17] And it's all the way till today, 2026.
[42:21] And
[42:22] the what I wanted to highlight is as you
[42:24] guys can see over here on the far left
[42:27] up until almost the middle,
[42:29] this is the 1970s. And the 1970s
[42:32] experienced very historic inflation.
[42:35] Look at these giant inflation waves. You
[42:37] had one, and then two, and then this
[42:40] blow-off third inflation. And it's it's
[42:43] no accident that this was coincided with
[42:46] when we severed the backing of the US
[42:49] dollar with gold. Like ruined that
[42:52] relationship. Your dollar was no longer
[42:53] redeemable for gold. Of course, that's
[42:55] highly highly inflationary because it
[42:57] implies a lot of money creation, a lot
[43:00] of credit, a lot of money printing,
[43:02] which if there's more growth in the
[43:04] currency unit than there is in the goods
[43:06] and services that people want to
[43:07] consume, then there's inflation.
[43:11] Another way of saying that that
[43:12] Bitcoiners will understand, if the
[43:14] supply of dollars is growing faster than
[43:16] the supply of Bitcoins, then the price
[43:18] of Bitcoins will inevitably go up.
[43:20] Same thing with eggs, same thing with
[43:22] housing. That's why everything in
[43:24] Bitcoin terms will crash. Bitcoin will
[43:26] go up against everything cuz nothing is
[43:28] scarcer than Bitcoin.
[43:30] And that's why it's the reverse for
[43:32] dollars. Everything will get more
[43:34] expensive in fiat because nothing is
[43:36] growing in supply quite like fiat
[43:38] currency.
[43:40] Now, the question that I have
[43:42] is are we set for the same type of
[43:46] pattern in the 2020s? You can see this
[43:48] little COVID blip right here.
[43:51] But guys,
[43:52] we printed money
[43:54] into oil at negative $40 a barrel during
[43:57] COVID. During COVID, markets were so
[44:00] screwed that you got paid if you could
[44:02] accept a physical barrel of
[44:04] oil. Like someone would pay you to
[44:07] receive oil.
[44:09] Now oil is $120 a barrel as I'm talking
[44:12] to you today.
[44:14] We're going to print money into that?
[44:17] You think you saw inflation in COVID?
[44:19] You haven't seen anything yet. Mind you,
[44:22] I spent years saying we're never going
[44:24] to get close to the Fed's 2% inflation
[44:27] target. They're going to have to
[44:28] readjust and say ah, 2% is not the goal
[44:31] anymore, which they've done. But keep in
[44:33] mind, we haven't even quote-unquote
[44:35] solved the inflation from COVID. That
[44:38] was in 2020. This is 2026.
[44:41] So not only does it look like there's
[44:44] tons of inflation and money printing on
[44:46] the horizon,
[44:48] but they're doing it into a market where
[44:51] oil and energy markets are already
[44:54] almost at all-time highs in the last 20
[44:55] years, this century.
[44:58] And so
[45:00] I look at the 1970s
[45:03] and we're going to keep updating this
[45:04] chart over the years on this show. It
[45:07] would not surprise me if you saw the
[45:08] same pattern of blip, higher blip,
[45:11] highest blip. We've been through one. I
[45:13] think the second is coming. I think
[45:15] inflation is baked in the cake. It's too
[45:18] late.
[45:19] It's too late.
[45:21] I believe that
[45:24] the US economy is going to quote-unquote
[45:25] run it hot. There's going to be lots of
[45:27] growth,
[45:29] but the price that is going to be paid
[45:31] is inflation.
[45:32] And the only way that the math will work
[45:36] there's some extreme productivity gain
[45:40] like AI.
[45:41] That's obviously the government's hope
[45:43] and why the government has labeled AI a
[45:44] national security threat or national
[45:46] security importance strategy, whatever.
[45:50] Is uh not not only because it probably
[45:53] is, you know, the US wants to be a
[45:55] leader there,
[45:56] but also it needs that level of
[45:58] productivity.
[45:59] Like the US is going to invest
[46:01] everything it can
[46:02] to try and bring like deflationary
[46:06] technology and meet highly inflationary
[46:10] money printing, 100%.
[46:12] So, anyways, let's check in on consumer
[46:15] sentiment. How are the people feeling?
[46:18] Like is Bitcoin interesting? Is it
[46:19] actually solving a problem people have?
[46:21] Are we just sitting in our own little
[46:23] bubble and nobody cares about what we
[46:26] have to say or what we're working on
[46:28] because hard money is just like meh.
[46:30] People would rather not know.
[46:32] So, share of Americans who say their
[46:34] financial situation is getting worse is
[46:37] now all-time high, 55%.
[46:40] Yes, higher than COVID. Yes, higher than
[46:43] the '08 financial crisis, the great
[46:45] financial crisis.
[46:47] Higher than by a lot.
[46:51] This is one of the worst times in recent
[46:54] recorded history
[46:56] financially as an American.
[46:59] If you look on the right, this is the
[47:01] University of Michigan's economic
[47:03] conditions index that they keep track
[47:05] of.
[47:07] Again, lower than COVID, lower than the
[47:10] great financial crisis, lower than 9/11,
[47:13] lower than Black Monday.
[47:16] The average person, the everyday man is
[47:20] in pain.
[47:22] That's why I get up and record this
[47:24] podcast. That's why I founded Strike in
[47:26] 21. That's why we as a community won't
[47:29] stop until we fix the money. This is not
[47:32] only a real problem, it's arguably the
[47:34] largest problem
[47:36] that we all face as a society today,
[47:39] hands down.
[47:40] Because this is only getting worse.
[47:42] Inflation's only going to get worse.
[47:44] People are only going to work even
[47:47] harder but get less.
[47:50] That's the problem facing society. It
[47:52] doesn't matter how hard you work. Just
[47:55] think about how unfair this is.
[47:57] It doesn't matter how hard you work.
[48:00] You're going to get less food, less
[48:02] housing, less vacation, less family,
[48:06] less life expectancy, less everything.
[48:12] How much is the solution to that worth?
[48:16] Money that works, money that serves all,
[48:18] money that serves the people. How much
[48:20] How valuable is that project?
[48:24] And people could call us Bitcoiners
[48:25] crazy, but at the end of the day, that's
[48:26] what we're working on.
[48:28] It's not going to be a perfect journey.
[48:30] It's going to be a bumpy one. It's going
[48:31] to be a volatile one. It's going to be
[48:32] worth it, though.
[48:35] Cuz I'm sitting here and I'm telling you
[48:37] every single consumer survey I read,
[48:39] University of Michigan,
[48:41] Gallup, and the Fed surveys, everything
[48:45] I read,
[48:47] there's never been a worse time
[48:49] to be a working person than today.
[48:54] And that's nothing to do with politics,
[48:56] or wars, or this, or that. Has
[48:58] everything to do with the money. That's
[49:01] it.
[49:02] No man should work for what another man
[49:04] can print. Straight up. It's that
[49:06] simple.
[49:10] And people are out there working, time,
[49:12] energy, effort, labor,
[49:15] for what others are printing out of thin
[49:17] air.
[49:18] And there is human time and energy being
[49:21] robbed in broad daylight. That's just
[49:24] the situation.
[49:26] So, the societal impact, I mean, listen,
[49:29] the upper echelon of
[49:32] what I wrote here, capital, is
[49:34] controlling everything.
[49:36] So, hyper financialization has pushed
[49:40] that's created such a wealth gap, where
[49:42] money is stored traditionally at the
[49:44] top. And hyper financialization has
[49:48] trained
[49:50] people to be so good at seeking out the
[49:53] most productive and the most efficient
[49:55] thing that it's actually killing human
[49:57] labor.
[49:59] So, we're Again, I I brought this up
[50:02] before. Like some of my smartest friends
[50:06] are working on like high-frequency
[50:07] trading algorithms.
[50:09] And it's crazy when you think like from
[50:12] the most base level of logic, like
[50:14] should the brightest, most capable
[50:16] people in society be working on how to
[50:19] arbitrage
[50:21] other people's Robinhood accounts? Like
[50:24] probably not.
[50:25] Like what about mining rare earths? What
[50:28] about
[50:30] building factories again? What about um
[50:33] curing medical diseases? Like what about
[50:36] understanding and doing research on why
[50:38] cancer rates are rising? Like
[50:41] some of our smartest computer scientists
[50:43] are building like leveraged arbitrage
[50:45] strategies on normal people trading
[50:48] stocks.
[50:50] But that's the situation is like when
[50:52] you print so much money and you hyper
[50:54] financialize and it's all about
[50:56] globalization, that's the world you get.
[51:02] That's the world you get.
[51:04] So,
[51:05] going back to markets and what I'm
[51:08] seeing.
[51:09] I found this interesting.
[51:11] Funds are selling while retail is
[51:13] buying. The second largest hedge fund
[51:15] selling in tech in a decade meets the
[51:17] third largest retail fund flow into the
[51:20] QQQ.
[51:21] And so, I think markets are at a
[51:23] crossroads and the level of 80,000 for
[51:27] Bitcoin is critically important cuz it's
[51:30] about break even for a large amount of
[51:33] Bitcoin capital according to these
[51:34] on-chain metrics and stuff. I don't
[51:36] know.
[51:37] But the way I'm seeing it, either
[51:40] Bitcoin's going to be able to defeat
[51:42] this 80,000 level and blast through it,
[51:44] and then things are going to get really
[51:46] bullish really quickly, and I think not
[51:48] only for Bitcoin, but the business cycle
[51:50] is fully back, stocks are fully back. Or
[51:53] Bitcoin will have a tough time
[51:55] reclaiming this 80,000 level, and it's
[51:58] unclear if stocks and Bitcoin don't have
[52:01] one last large puke that are going to
[52:04] require central planning intervention
[52:06] and lots and lots of money printing. Cuz
[52:08] make no mistake, as we've talked about
[52:10] it before, the US can't afford a
[52:12] recession.
[52:13] I mean, it relies too much on consumer
[52:16] spending, on asset prices, on tax on
[52:18] capital gains tax receipts. Like that
[52:21] going through a prolonged recession is
[52:23] not an option.
[52:24] No matter how you slice it, money
[52:26] printing is cometh.
[52:28] In fact, we kind of talked about it,
[52:29] it's already here.
[52:31] It's just an order of operations
[52:33] question. And it's interesting. You're
[52:35] seeing, obviously, funds think there's a
[52:39] puke, retail thinks there's not. You
[52:42] know,
[52:42] are stocks sensitive to oil shocks and
[52:47] commodity disruption? This chart says
[52:49] yes.
[52:51] And so, although Bitcoin and stocks are
[52:53] experiencing a bit of a rebound and a
[52:55] bit of a like the a mini bull, like the
[52:57] last few weeks have been, you know, some
[53:00] some good price gains, are they fully
[53:02] fully fully back? Is the oil shock going
[53:05] to get in the way of persistent bull run
[53:08] without further money printing, without
[53:10] things like yield curve control, without
[53:11] new policy that basically demands
[53:14] inflation and higher asset prices?
[53:18] So, this is kind of the thing that I am
[53:20] watching. And, you know, one of the
[53:21] things cuz at the end of the day, I
[53:23] don't really care. Like, I stay humble
[53:25] and stack sats no matter what. I'll be
[53:26] buying the top forever, I'll be buying
[53:28] the bottom forever, cuz I'll be buying
[53:29] Bitcoin forever. And I'll be buying
[53:31] Bitcoin forever because I'll just be
[53:33] hopefully,
[53:35] as long as I'm healthy and capable, I'll
[53:37] be providing value to society. And I I
[53:40] store my work and my time and my energy
[53:43] and my effort in something that someone
[53:45] else can print out of thin air. I store
[53:47] it in Bitcoin. Just like that's it.
[53:49] Plain and simple. Some people can't seem
[53:50] to conceptually understand that, but
[53:52] that's just how I live my life. Straight
[53:54] up. And so I'll be buying Bitcoin
[53:56] forever no matter the price. So to be
[53:58] totally candid with you guys, it doesn't
[53:59] really matter to me.
[54:01] But [snorts] as I look at markets and
[54:03] look at what's going on in the Middle
[54:05] East and look at what's going on with
[54:06] AI,
[54:07] it's the bull case is this is like 1998
[54:11] all over the all over again. And we're
[54:13] going to experience this massive
[54:15] blow-off of everything piling into the
[54:17] US because Europe is down worse, Japan
[54:20] is down worse.
[54:21] And there's going to be this late cycle
[54:24] blow-off in AI and Bitcoin's going to be
[54:27] the best performer in that environment.
[54:29] And you better pile into Bitcoin now cuz
[54:32] you're never going to get it lower. If
[54:33] that happens, hell yeah. Cuz like I
[54:36] said,
[54:37] I'm I don't have any fiat and I stack
[54:41] with my with my effort with my paychecks
[54:43] with my labor anyways.
[54:45] Now the bear case is that oil shock is
[54:48] too much to overcome. You cannot take
[54:50] 20% of the world's oil offline and just
[54:52] expect the world to be able to overcome
[54:54] that. Uh and so there's going to be
[54:58] credit constraints. We are we've already
[55:00] seen, you know, these
[55:02] uh private credit funds uh halt
[55:05] withdrawals, like the equivalent of
[55:07] such. And that stocks roll over and
[55:10] Bitcoin rolls over.
[55:12] Again, either way, stay humble and stack
[55:14] sats. This is why you don't trade
[55:16] because imagine needing to predict the
[55:19] future in that way.
[55:20] Like what are we, Houdini?
[55:22] Give me a break.
[55:24] Total waste of your time.
[55:26] Just work hard. Just be productive. Just
[55:31] earn more than you spend.
[55:34] In decades, when your kids look up at
[55:36] you and say, "Wow, how'd you do it?" You
[55:38] say, "You know what? I didn't do much."
[55:41] That's the answer. Simplicity is the
[55:42] answer. I worked hard. I didn't spend
[55:45] more than we were making.
[55:46] And I saved in something
[55:48] that protected us. That's it. That's
[55:51] all.
[55:53] Listen, any any show that's going to try
[55:55] and convince you that the solution to
[55:57] your problems is to turn into Superman
[55:59] and defy gravity and defy physics and
[56:01] predict the future, get the [ __ ] out of
[56:03] here.
[56:07] That Bitcoin empowers all. Everybody has
[56:11] the ability to work hard. Everybody has
[56:13] the ability to earn more than they
[56:15] spent. Everybody has the ability to
[56:18] save.
[56:19] It doesn't take You don't got to be a
[56:20] rocket scientist. You don't got to be a
[56:22] freak athlete. You don't got to be a uh
[56:24] Houdini predictor of the future.
[56:30] Focus your time and energy on other
[56:31] parts of life. Fall in love. Have kids.
[56:34] Build relationships. Start a business.
[56:37] Make those things where you expense a
[56:38] lot of your time. Don't spend your time
[56:40] trying to study central bank monetary
[56:43] policy. This stuff, get out of here.
[56:46] Work hard. Stack sats. Stay humble.
[56:48] Stack sats. No fee DCA on Strike.
[56:50] Convert any of your paycheck that
[56:52] converts into Bitcoin, no fee on Strike.
[56:54] That's why we do it.
[56:57] So, last thing I just wanted to point
[56:59] out, Bitcoin and software are still
[57:01] marching to the same tune.
[57:03] So, again, Bitcoin now, granted, credit
[57:06] where credit's due, Bitcoin has
[57:08] outperformed
[57:09] since the crisis started. It has
[57:11] outperformed software. It's outperformed
[57:12] gold. It's outperformed silver. It's
[57:14] outperformed it all, everything except
[57:15] oil.
[57:16] So, as a Bitcoiner, I'm not thrilled.
[57:19] I'm not like beating my chest because I
[57:22] want Bitcoin to protect my ability to
[57:24] consume energy, and energy right now is
[57:27] going up more than my Bitcoins, right?
[57:30] And so, at the end of the day, I still
[57:31] think Bitcoin has work to do. And it'll
[57:33] do that work. But, it's important to
[57:35] point out that it's not like Bitcoin is
[57:37] separating from risk, separating from
[57:40] tech stocks, and is beating to the tune
[57:42] of its own drum, and is on its way to
[57:45] solving the world's problems yet.
[57:47] Software is experiencing the the same
[57:49] rebound Bitcoin is. And so, like I said,
[57:52] I'm all eyes on Bitcoin. If Bitcoin
[57:55] breaks through 80, 81, 82, and starts to
[57:58] rip towards 90, then we've answered our
[58:00] question.
[58:02] The bull case is back on. If not, and
[58:04] Bitcoin starts to puke, then the oil
[58:06] shock has gotten the best of things, and
[58:08] look out for central planning
[58:09] intervention.
[58:11] Another interesting thing that I thought
[58:12] is worth pointing out is since the
[58:14] conflict started, Bitcoin's been kicking
[58:16] gold's butt.
[58:17] I don't think this is an accident. If
[58:19] you're in crisis, would you rather be
[58:21] lugging around a bunch of bars, or would
[58:24] you rather have 12 words in your brain?
[58:27] And it's not even close. People could
[58:29] say all they want about Bitcoin. The
[58:31] Peter Shifts of the world can talk all
[58:32] the smack they want. At the end of the
[58:34] day, which one's more divisible? Which
[58:36] one's easier to verify? Which one's
[58:37] easier to transport? Which one's cheaper
[58:39] to send? Which one is scarcer?
[58:42] And it's not like these are these are I
[58:44] the the fact that in the history books,
[58:48] my kids are going to have to read that
[58:50] these topics were debated, is silly.
[58:53] It's embarrassing.
[58:54] I mean, one is digital software, and the
[58:57] other is literally a rock we find in the
[58:59] ground.
[59:01] Are you nuts?
[59:04] So, it is worth noting that
[59:08] this trend has reversed. Bitcoin has
[59:10] been kicking gold's butt in crisis,
[59:12] again. Again.
[59:15] Again.
[59:17] Mar- The marginal buyer pushes pushes
[59:20] price higher. Someone that says,
[59:23] "I don't really care what the price of
[59:25] Bitcoin is. I need it. I need it. That's
[59:28] what pushes price higher.
[59:31] People like me push price higher cuz my
[59:33] paychecks just go into Bitcoin no matter
[59:34] what. I don't really care the price.
[59:36] It's always a good price to get some
[59:38] sats.
[59:40] And and when there's conflict in the
[59:41] Middle East, people aren't saying, "Oh,
[59:44] I got to flee to safety. I got to take
[59:47] my wealth out of banks and and and out
[59:50] of centralized companies because I might
[59:52] have to flee my family out of war.
[59:56] >> [sighs]
[59:57] >> But I don't know. I was really hoping to
[59:58] get Bitcoin at 60k." That's not No, no,
[60:00] no.
[60:02] At the end of the day, the best money
[60:03] wins.
[60:07] And
[60:09] that's what I got for today until
[60:10] Grandma Gear. So, here's the deal.
[60:13] All I
[60:14] Hold on to your butts. Hold on to your
[60:16] private keys. Volatility is cometh.
[60:20] And we will see.
[60:22] Are we going to experience a puke? Is
[60:23] Bitcoin going to go on a bull? Don't
[60:25] place that bet. Stay humble and stack
[60:27] sats. Work hard. Earn more than you're
[60:30] consuming, okay?
[60:32] And
[60:34] I don't know. I mean, this fiat system
[60:37] is continues to look untenable.
[60:41] Oil up, bond yields up, bonds getting
[60:44] slaughtered, and societal unrest is on
[60:47] the rise.
[60:49] Like, I mean, I lived through COVID. I
[60:52] mean, I know I was really young, but I
[60:54] know the great financial crisis was
[60:55] devastating. The fact that it's an even
[60:57] worse time now
[61:00] to be an American financially, that's
[61:02] crazy.
[61:04] I mean,
[61:05] I tried not to be too depressing on the
[61:07] show, but when you see near all-time
[61:10] high assassination attempts, political
[61:12] violence, this like socialism versus
[61:15] capitalism war that doesn't look like
[61:16] it's going to end anytime soon.
[61:19] I mean,
[61:21] fiat is rapidly and coming to an end.
[61:24] It's not like the dollar will cease to
[61:25] exist.
[61:27] But, it's purchasing power in energy
[61:28] terms, the market's repricing things
[61:31] like gold, things like Bitcoin, things
[61:33] like manual labor, the death of things
[61:36] like globalism.
[61:38] That seems to be around the corner.
[61:41] These are This is all real fourth
[61:43] turning [ __ ] Make no mistake about it.
[61:48] Okay, grind my gears.
[61:51] Let's get into it. What grinds my gears
[61:53] this week?
[61:54] Prediction markets. I tweeted about it
[61:56] this morning. I couldn't help myself. I
[61:58] got to go on a rant. This from the Wall
[62:00] Street Journal this morning.
[62:02] Why almost everyone loses except a few
[62:04] sharks on prediction market.
[62:07] Let me pull up this data really quick
[62:09] cuz I don't want to get the number
[62:11] wrong.
[62:15] A Wall Street Journal analysis found
[62:17] that 67
[62:19] 67%
[62:21] 67% of Polymarket profits goes to just
[62:24] 0.1%
[62:26] of the accounts, while most traders are
[62:28] in the red. Most Call Sheet users also
[62:30] lose money.
[62:33] It's all so exhausting
[62:35] because here's the problem. Here's the
[62:37] problem I have cuz the title of this
[62:39] slide is Las Vegas in new clothes. This
[62:41] is not financial freedom. This is not
[62:43] financial innovation. This is not
[62:44] anything new.
[62:46] What are prediction markets? Prediction
[62:47] markets are Las Vegas in a new outfit.
[62:50] It's gambling dressed up. Lipstick on a
[62:53] pig.
[62:55] And it's all so tiresome because Satoshi
[62:57] Nakamoto gifted us the greatest, most
[63:01] humble gift
[63:03] humanity's maybe ever seen.
[63:07] This person didn't pre-mine for
[63:09] themselves. They didn't mis-market it.
[63:10] They didn't mislead. Open source for the
[63:13] public. Proof of work. They didn't ask
[63:16] for anything.
[63:17] And we as a community have taken this
[63:20] gift and pushed it forward and propelled
[63:23] it to such heights that it could change
[63:25] the world for the better. Fix the money,
[63:28] fix the world. And you have these
[63:30] grifters that just won't stop. They're
[63:34] relentless with their grift. They never
[63:37] stop. I've been in this industry for
[63:38] almost 14 years and the amount of
[63:42] pre-mined
[63:44] garbage,
[63:45] shitcoins, prediction markets, ICOs,
[63:47] NFTs, meme coins. I mean, you'd think
[63:51] I'm making this up. The amount of scam,
[63:54] fraud, grift.
[63:56] And it's one thing
[63:59] to do to to for Las Vegas to sell sugary
[64:03] cocktails and disgusting seed oils and
[64:07] try and force you and trick you into
[64:08] sitting all day in front of an LED
[64:11] screen and losing your money.
[64:13] At least Las Vegas doesn't pretend that
[64:16] it's Bitcoin. And Las Vegas doesn't
[64:18] pretend that it's financial freedom. And
[64:20] Las Vegas doesn't pretend that it's
[64:22] fighting for prosperity.
[64:24] At least Las Vegas is honest. And Las
[64:27] Vegas is about sex addiction and drug
[64:29] addiction and gambling addiction. And
[64:31] when you get off that plane in Las
[64:32] Vegas, at least they're honest about
[64:34] what you're doing.
[64:38] It's so unethical and immoral these
[64:40] things.
[64:42] How is this financial freedom? Because
[64:44] check this slide out.
[64:46] All of the volume on these things are
[64:48] sports gambling. So, for those of you
[64:50] listening, I mean, I'm looking at this
[64:52] visual and I'm taking a wild guess. Over
[64:54] 90% of the volume on this is sports
[64:57] gambling.
[64:59] Not elections, not politics, not
[65:01] economics. Prediction markets are sports
[65:03] gambling. What are they?
[65:06] They're an arbitra- a legal arbitrage.
[65:08] They're sports gambling regulated by the
[65:09] CFTC.
[65:11] That's what they are.
[65:13] So, they've routed around gambling laws
[65:16] and dressed up Las Vegas and casinos in
[65:19] a new grift.
[65:22] And it's ridiculous. And here's here's
[65:24] the reason it's ridiculous. And people
[65:25] can say, "Oh, what what's it to you to
[65:27] get in the way of someone else's
[65:29] business?" I don't give a [ __ ] about
[65:31] someone else's business. I've no problem
[65:33] with other people being successful and
[65:34] providing value. It's never never been
[65:36] my issue. Here's my issue.
[65:40] Fiat currency turns everyone into a
[65:43] speculator, whether you like it or not,
[65:45] whether you know it or not. Guess what?
[65:49] If you're alive today, if you're working
[65:51] today, and you are forced to use fiat
[65:54] currency, which by the way, if you're
[65:56] American, you are. Cuz guess what? If
[65:58] you don't want to use the dollar,
[66:00] someone will show up to your home with a
[66:02] weapon on their waist and say, "You pay
[66:04] the IRS or you live your life in a box."
[66:07] Do you understand that?
[66:09] So, you are forced to use the dollar. I
[66:12] have to pay my taxes in dollars or I get
[66:14] arrested and I spend my life in a box.
[66:19] So, if you are
[66:21] forced to use fiat, and you are working,
[66:24] and you are getting paychecks, you're a
[66:26] speculator whether you like it or not,
[66:28] because your currency is being debased.
[66:30] And whether you like it or not, whether
[66:31] you want it or not, whether you know it
[66:33] or not,
[66:35] you have to turn your fiat into
[66:38] something else just to survive, just to
[66:40] live a normal life.
[66:43] And so, the mere fact that things like
[66:46] prediction markets have taken the
[66:48] problem that fiat has created and
[66:51] marketed themselves as a solution
[66:54] as part of the new trend, as part of the
[66:56] new system, when it's really just sports
[66:58] gambling dressed up
[67:01] in some distributed decentralized
[67:03] technology fad, is [ __ ] It's
[67:05] garbage.
[67:08] The problem I have and and and what I've
[67:10] always had with all these companies
[67:13] is that they're monetizing
[67:16] the need to speculate.
[67:19] Financial freedom is not betting on meme
[67:21] coins, betting on ICOs, betting on
[67:24] shitcoins, betting on penny stocks,
[67:26] betting on sports. That is Do you guys
[67:29] know honest, sane person can look me in
[67:32] the eye and say we solve fiat to
[67:35] basement by sports betting.
[67:38] That's [ __ ]
[67:40] But they have no problem marketing it as
[67:42] such to the broad public.
[67:46] I mean, I was going back and forth with
[67:47] someone on Twitter that works at one of
[67:49] these companies. I say, "Hey, you know,
[67:50] prediction markets aren't necessarily
[67:52] all bad." I say I asked the guy, "How
[67:55] would you market it ethically?
[67:57] Not to get users, not to trick people
[68:00] into volume, not to optimize for
[68:01] revenue. Would you look like Here's the
[68:04] problem. For some of these businesses,
[68:07] I'd rather my family be investors in
[68:10] these businesses than users. Users on
[68:13] these services lose money.
[68:16] I'd rather people own equity than use
[68:18] the service. How messed up is that? What
[68:20] type of world are we living in where in
[68:22] the people I love in my family, I would
[68:25] rather not actually use the product,
[68:27] just own shares in the business.
[68:33] I'm sorry. It just At a certain point I
[68:36] mean, I've been working my whole adult
[68:38] life on Bitcoin. And when people grift
[68:42] and when people pretend, and it's the
[68:43] same thing with Ethereum, it's the same
[68:46] thing with all these shitcoins, they
[68:47] market themselves as the better Bitcoin,
[68:49] the faster Bitcoin, the more smart
[68:51] contracty Bitcoin, the more
[68:52] decentralized Bitcoin, the this Bitcoin,
[68:55] the that Bitcoin. Get out of our way.
[68:59] Just say you're a more convenient
[69:02] digital Las Vegas." I don't care if you
[69:04] make money. I don't care if people want
[69:05] to use your service. Do not trick them
[69:08] because, as we just went over on this
[69:10] show, consumer sentiment has never been
[69:12] worse.
[69:14] Raising billions of dollars to dress up
[69:16] sports gambling in a new outfit. It's
[69:19] pathetic.
[69:21] Some of us are trying to actually fix
[69:24] the money.
[69:26] And I see people People get so upset
[69:29] that I could possibly disagree with some
[69:32] things that Bitcoin treasury companies
[69:33] are doing. I mean, oh,
[69:35] God forbid. And so, they're tweeting
[69:37] out, "What is Strike good for? Why
[69:40] doesn't everyone just use Coinbase?"
[69:42] What is Strike good for? I'll tell you
[69:43] what Strike is good for. We don't allow
[69:46] people to speculate on junk.
[69:49] If you're a Strike user,
[69:51] you're not losing money. Over the course
[69:53] of time, your wealth is growing. We are
[69:56] building you financial services to
[69:57] survive this era of currency debasement.
[70:00] Our services could not be different more
[70:02] different than these
[70:05] lipstick on a pig speculative casinos. I
[70:09] I mean, if I'm going to be losing money,
[70:11] I might as well take my ass back to
[70:13] [ __ ] Las Vegas and at least lay in
[70:15] the sun by the pool.
[70:21] Grinds my gears to no end. What's the
[70:24] difference between Strike and these
[70:26] casinos? Are you Is that a joke?
[70:30] And it's just not The other thing is,
[70:32] it's not even a long-term strategy.
[70:33] Sometimes some investors used to ask me,
[70:35] "Hey, are you going to list all these
[70:36] things?" No.
[70:38] Why Why would I think that that's a good
[70:40] long-term strategy
[70:42] to in like encourage my customers to
[70:45] participate in things that are
[70:46] eventually going to make them poor?
[70:52] So, 67%
[70:54] of the winnings is going to 0.1% of the
[70:57] users. So, everyone that downloads
[70:59] Polymarket, if they actually use the
[71:01] product or service, they're very likely
[71:03] to get poorer.
[71:05] Right? I mean, I'm not trying to talk
[71:06] [ __ ] I'm just like that's math, right?
[71:08] Am I misunderstanding?
[71:12] So, like if my family members text me
[71:14] like, "Hey, I just downloaded
[71:15] Polymarket." My reaction's going to be
[71:16] like, "Oh, no. No, get off. Get off.
[71:20] That like that's what we're working on?"
[71:26] Just take the grift elsewhere. Take the
[71:28] grift out Leave Bitcoiners out of it.
[71:31] That goes for shitcoins. That goes for
[71:33] penny stocks and G future GME. People
[71:36] asking, "What do you think about
[71:37] GameStop trying to buy eBay?" I don't
[71:39] give a [ __ ]
[71:41] Leave Bitcoiners out of it. We're here
[71:43] to fix the money. We could not be more
[71:45] different than this stuff.
[71:50] All right. I'll cap myself there.
[71:52] You guys got You guys got a good one out
[71:54] of me today. Blood pressure was
[71:56] certainly certainly higher than usual.
[72:01] And with that,
[72:04] let's go to company updates.
[72:06] Um
[72:07] big week for me, obviously. If you guys
[72:10] did not catch my uh
[72:12] keynote
[72:14] at the Las Vegas Bitcoin 2026, highly
[72:17] encourage you check that out. I had a
[72:19] lot to say. I'm not going to be able to
[72:21] recap it perfectly on here, but I'll
[72:22] give it a try.
[72:24] Firstly, um it was an opportunity for me
[72:26] to remind everyone what Strike is. So,
[72:29] during the presentation, I called Strike
[72:31] the global Bitcoin bank.
[72:34] We're not actually a bank cuz that
[72:35] requires a certain license, and I'd get
[72:37] in a lot of trouble if I told you guys
[72:39] we were a bank without the disclaimer
[72:40] that like I don't mean literally.
[72:43] But, I mean you can think of us like
[72:44] one. Why do I say that? Well, you can
[72:46] get your paycheck into Strike. You can
[72:48] pay your bills with Strike. You You buy
[72:50] and sell Bitcoin with Strike. You can
[72:52] get out uh
[72:53] fixed-term loans, so a Bitcoin-backed
[72:55] loan with Strike. We now have this
[72:57] Bitcoin line of credit product, which is
[72:59] one of the most popular products we
[73:01] have. It's like a HELOC, but for your
[73:03] Bitcoin. So, you can open a line of
[73:06] credit. You don't actually get charged
[73:08] anything until you use the line of
[73:09] credit. And the way I use the product is
[73:12] I get my paychecks into Strike, I pay my
[73:13] bills with Strike, and I pay my bills
[73:15] with my Bitcoin line of credit. So,
[73:16] every time I have a bill that's pulling
[73:19] from my Strike account, so let's say
[73:21] like my HOA on my house or my credit
[73:23] card bill or my Comcast electricity
[73:25] bill, every time a bill pulls from my
[73:28] Strike account, which is my primary
[73:30] financial account, Strike uses my line
[73:32] of credit. So, it extends like, "Oh,
[73:34] your credit card bill was a couple
[73:35] grand?" And it adds to my line of credit
[73:38] and pays it off. And that way, I'm never
[73:40] selling Bitcoin. My paychecks come in,
[73:41] I'm stacking Bitcoin, and as the Bitcoin
[73:43] price goes up, I'm able to refinance
[73:45] these loans or sometimes I'll take some
[73:47] of my paycheck or I get a bonus or
[73:49] something, and I'll pay down the line of
[73:50] credit. And it's just like the dream
[73:53] product, cuz I'm constantly stacking,
[73:55] I'm never forced to sell, but I'm also
[73:58] not having to take out these massive
[73:59] 12-month loans all at once. And it's
[74:02] like uh
[74:03] it's like a open revolving working
[74:06] capital credit line to live my life on
[74:08] top of my Bitcoins. It's like the best.
[74:11] Uh and on top of that, we have
[74:14] all sorts of awesome features like
[74:16] no-fee DCA, free on-chain withdrawals.
[74:19] So, and you can I mean, if you
[74:20] conceptually think of us like a global
[74:23] Bitcoin bank, you can imagine what our
[74:26] future probably looks like. So, as I've
[74:27] talked about publicly, we're super
[74:30] interested in working on giving our
[74:32] customers yield on their cash, yield on
[74:34] their deposits on the platform.
[74:36] Customers have actually asked us if we
[74:38] can come up with different options if
[74:40] they want to opt into yield on their
[74:42] Bitcoin even, which I've taken a closer
[74:44] look at. We we're able to generate
[74:46] pretty good returns on our lightning
[74:48] network infrastructure. Maybe there's
[74:50] opportunities for us to to share that
[74:51] with customers. Um and you know, looking
[74:55] at potentially offering a strike card.
[74:57] There there's all sorts of things and
[74:59] you can kind of tell, you know, we are
[75:01] building a primary financial account for
[75:04] businesses, for individuals. We even
[75:06] have API services for developers and for
[75:08] future AI agents, but built on top of
[75:11] new monetary infrastructure with Bitcoin
[75:14] at the corn center of it. So, that's who
[75:15] we are. You know, I don't run any ads on
[75:18] this podcast. So, if you ever want to
[75:20] support me, you just be a customer of my
[75:22] services. Um
[75:24] and what we announced last week was all
[75:27] around strike lending. So, strike also
[75:29] uniquely, I think is there's a lot of
[75:32] Bitcoin backed lending companies.
[75:34] There's a lot of Bitcoin brokerage
[75:35] companies that let you buy and sell
[75:37] Bitcoin.
[75:38] There's I don't know if there's many
[75:40] companies that do all of it.
[75:43] And so, strike is probably one of the
[75:44] more multifaceted Bitcoin accounts you
[75:47] can have today.
[75:49] And so, we have, like I said, brokerage.
[75:51] We have some banking services like
[75:53] direct deposit and bill pay. We also
[75:55] have lending services, which is now
[75:57] fixed-term loans and Bitcoin line of
[75:59] credit. I think we're the only Bitcoin
[76:01] company that offers both of those, which
[76:04] is really cool. And we made a ton of
[76:06] announcements around that part of our
[76:07] business, around the lending part. The
[76:09] lending strike lending's the fastest
[76:11] growing product I've ever launched in
[76:13] Bitcoin. And I've been working on
[76:14] Bitcoin for a long time.
[76:16] I I mean, I it's obvious in hindsight,
[76:18] it always is, but
[76:21] I mean, the the biggest product market
[76:23] fit I've ever built is allowing people
[76:26] to live on their Bitcoin without having
[76:28] to sell it.
[76:29] Like, Bitcoin's number goes up if you
[76:31] hold it long enough and people are
[76:33] building real wealth. Like, for many of
[76:35] our customers, bit their Bitcoin is like
[76:38] 50, 60, 70, 80, 90% of their net worth
[76:41] and they want to get a house. They want
[76:43] to put their kid through school. They
[76:44] want, you know,
[76:46] emergency cash because there was a
[76:48] medical issue, but they don't want to
[76:50] sell the Bitcoin. And so, coming up with
[76:52] all sorts of different products that
[76:53] allow their newfound wealth to benefit
[76:56] their everyday life without having to
[76:58] necessarily part with the sats and incur
[77:00] a taxable gains event and stuff. Like,
[77:03] that has been the fastest growing
[77:04] product I've ever built and launched by
[77:07] far. So, anyways,
[77:09] what did we announce? One,
[77:11] we announced this idea of what we call
[77:13] volatility-proof loans. These are loans
[77:15] where we don't liquidate you. So, you
[77:17] pay an upfront fee cuz obviously it's
[77:19] not going to be a free product. You pay
[77:21] an upfront fee, and then we remove the
[77:23] ability to liquidate you. So, we take
[77:25] the money that you give us upfront, and
[77:27] we actually have built out trading
[77:29] strategies to hedge ourselves. We take
[77:31] on that risk for you because the biggest
[77:33] thing people say is, "Jack, what just
[77:36] keeps me up at night is what if, you
[77:37] know, Trump tweets out something
[77:39] controversial and Bitcoin wicks down,
[77:41] and then you liquidate me, and I lose
[77:42] all my Bitcoin collateral?" And I get
[77:44] it. I mean, I like I want you guys to be
[77:47] able to live the best life possible on
[77:50] the best money possible. That's what I
[77:51] consider my job. I work for you guys at
[77:53] the end of the day.
[77:54] And
[77:56] this is the top request is, "Can we have
[77:58] a product where we don't liquidate?" And
[78:00] so, we built it. Right now, we're doing
[78:03] it on an OTC basis. So, we're not
[78:05] necessarily putting it in the app just
[78:07] yet.
[78:09] You guys will see. This is how I like to
[78:10] build products cuz I like to minimize
[78:12] the amount of guessing that I do cuz at
[78:14] the end of the day, my job isn't to try
[78:16] and guess the future. My job is to
[78:18] listen to you all and build what you
[78:20] want. And so, we have it on an OTC
[78:22] basis. You can reach out to
[78:23] private@strike.me if you're interested
[78:26] in one of these loans. It's a ton of
[78:28] demand so far. It's the most popular
[78:29] thing that we announced is the idea that
[78:31] people can open a loan with us and not
[78:32] get liquidated. And so, and we're doing
[78:35] it in partnership with Tether.
[78:36] Um, and
[78:38] so you can reach out to
[78:39] private@strike.me.
[78:41] I would say over the next few weeks or
[78:43] month or so, once we kind of really
[78:46] understand where we want to price it,
[78:48] and we get a bit more comfortable, we'll
[78:50] put it in the app. But really, really
[78:52] excited about that. We also have an
[78:54] option to segregate your collateral in a
[78:56] separate address. So people have said,
[78:58] "Hey, if you're truly not
[79:00] rehypothecating, if the Bitcoin's truly
[79:02] sitting there, do you mind putting my
[79:03] collateral in a Bitcoin address where
[79:05] it's sitting there on its own that I can
[79:07] just stare at all day whenever I want
[79:09] just to be sure." And we're like, "Yeah,
[79:11] of course. There's no rehypothecation,
[79:13] there's no funny business. The Bitcoin
[79:14] is just sitting here as collateral, and
[79:17] absolutely. So if customers are
[79:19] interested in that, also you can reach
[79:20] out to us. We're going to start at I
[79:23] believe it's
[79:25] It's I forget the threshold that we're
[79:27] going to do immediately, but it's for
[79:29] larger size. Cuz here's the thing, I
[79:31] don't want to have $10 worth of Bitcoin
[79:34] all sitting in separate addresses.
[79:35] That's tons of UTXOs to manage for us.
[79:38] So what we're curious is how much
[79:40] inbound we get, like how many people
[79:42] want their collateral sitting in a
[79:44] separate address, and seeing if we can
[79:46] set a reasonable threshold of whether
[79:48] you qualify for that or not. Cuz like I
[79:49] said, it's untenable to do $10
[79:53] segregated collateral.
[79:55] Another announcement, lending. So we
[79:58] have some form of a lending product in
[80:00] pretty much every state in the United
[80:01] States. So that is Bitcoin back loans
[80:04] for businesses, Bitcoin back loans for
[80:05] individuals, and line of credit. And
[80:07] line of credit is for both individuals
[80:09] and businesses. And so we added 15 new
[80:11] states for our line of credit rollout.
[80:14] We're now in over 40 states with our
[80:15] line of credit across the United States
[80:17] of America, including New York. We have
[80:19] our bit license. So we went from in less
[80:23] than a year
[80:24] announcing this product in a beta to
[80:26] being one of the largest retail and
[80:29] business Bitcoin back loan providers in
[80:31] the market, and now with multiple
[80:33] different products. We have volatility
[80:35] proof loans, we have Bitcoin line of
[80:36] credit, we have fixed term loans, and
[80:38] we're just getting started. So, that's
[80:40] cool. We launched our first iteration of
[80:43] proof of reserves. So, external audit
[80:45] will do quarterly that ensures our
[80:48] uh lending proof of reserves are there,
[80:51] and we are who we say we are.
[80:53] Uh I just want to touch on this real
[80:55] quick.
[80:55] You know,
[80:56] I've always said the best form of proof
[80:58] of reserves is just withdrawing your
[81:00] Bitcoin. And when people buy Bitcoin on
[81:02] Strike, they can always withdraw, and
[81:03] they can withdraw for free. I think
[81:05] we're one of the rare services that lets
[81:06] you withdraw for free, unlimited,
[81:09] anytime, any place, anywhere, doesn't
[81:11] matter.
[81:12] But when you post collateral for a loan,
[81:14] I can't let you withdraw that. And so, I
[81:17] did think it was warranted of like when
[81:19] people say, "Hey, can we get, you know,
[81:21] some proof of reserves product for our
[81:23] collateral cuz I can't withdraw that?"
[81:25] So, yeah, absolutely. That makes a ton
[81:27] of sense. So, this is the first
[81:28] iteration. It'll only get better from
[81:30] here, but that lives now on our website.
[81:32] You can go find that. It's public. And
[81:34] then the last is we lowered our rates.
[81:36] So, we want to be one of, if not the
[81:39] cheapest in the industry, not for any
[81:41] other reason than we want to be the most
[81:43] accessible way to get credit against
[81:44] your Bitcoin that's also trustworthy,
[81:47] that also is just an amazing product.
[81:49] Like I said, it's not only Bitcoin back
[81:51] lending, but it's also Bitcoin banking,
[81:53] it's also Bitcoin brokerage. We're going
[81:55] to continue to try and build the dream
[81:57] financial account for a business, for an
[81:59] individual, for anyone really in the
[82:03] world. I mean, we're already operative
[82:05] in 100 markets. I'm not I know a lot of
[82:07] this is US related, but
[82:09] I said Europe Q2 for us. Europe's going
[82:12] to be big. UK, we're hoping to get
[82:14] lending there very shortly. Australia
[82:16] has been a big market for us. So, yeah,
[82:19] really big week for Strike. Oh, and
[82:23] how could I forget? The last one, uh we
[82:24] have a new $2.1 billion credit facility.
[82:27] And obviously the 2.1 is for the memes.
[82:29] It's for more jokes, but basically
[82:32] Tether
[82:33] I the the hardest thing for Bitcoin
[82:35] lending is who's financing the capital,
[82:38] right? I don't think there's any
[82:39] shortage of Bitcoiners. Bitcoin is now a
[82:41] $1.6 trillion asset, right? So, there's
[82:44] a lot of money that wants to borrow fiat
[82:47] against this newfound wealth, against
[82:49] this new pristine collateral. You know
[82:51] the age-old sailor never sell, right?
[82:54] But,
[82:55] the question is who's giving Bitcoiners
[82:56] the fiat?
[82:58] And that's not that easy.
[83:00] Because, you know, there's lots of
[83:01] things people can do with fiat. They
[83:03] could buy US Treasury bonds and get now
[83:06] yields are up and get 5% back. They
[83:08] could put their money in a money market
[83:10] fund. They could do all They could buy
[83:12] Nvidia stock. They could buy Bitcoin
[83:13] themselves. Why would they give you fiat
[83:16] instead of buying Bitcoin themselves if
[83:17] Bitcoin's a 30 k or asset? And so, I
[83:20] went to Tether and said, "Hey, there's a
[83:22] shortage of dollars out here. Like,
[83:24] until the US government is implicitly
[83:27] backing Bitcoin backed loans like they
[83:29] are mortgage rates,
[83:31] it's going to be hard for me to find
[83:33] billions and billions and billions of
[83:34] dollars as our products continue to
[83:36] grow. And that's where you get into
[83:38] expensive terms is when the the fiat
[83:41] gets scarce and it's hard to find and
[83:43] the only capital we can find is
[83:45] expensive. And so, I went to Tether and
[83:47] said, "I mean, I know you guys are
[83:49] Bitcoiners. Like, what do you think
[83:51] about helping out the industry?" And
[83:53] they said, "Easy. Done. Like, how much
[83:55] do you need? Like, just try us. Let's
[83:58] like we got Bitcoin's back." And so, we
[84:01] came up with the $2.1 billion number
[84:03] just cuz it's a meme, but as soon as we
[84:05] blow through that, we'll go back and
[84:07] we'll get more. But, the point of that
[84:09] is people should know how large our
[84:13] scale is. Like, there's no loan I can't
[84:16] fill. There's no customer I can't serve.
[84:19] Um this is not We don't do $10 loans. We
[84:23] we can do any size, any scale. We have
[84:26] massive businesses on our platform and
[84:28] we have everyday mom and pops on our
[84:30] platform.
[84:31] Um and so shout out to Tether for that.
[84:33] I mean that that was real Bitcoiner [ __ ]
[84:35] right there cuz uh like I said, it's not
[84:37] easy to find fiat to finance the stuff
[84:40] for you guys and the fact that I was
[84:42] able to just give them a call and
[84:44] they're like easy done, name your number
[84:46] like that. It was really meaningful uh
[84:48] to me and huge support. So
[84:51] that's also really cool. I don't know
[84:52] how many companies can say
[84:54] they have billions of dollars sitting
[84:56] just, you know, waiting for you guys to
[84:58] want to borrow it.
[85:00] And then on the 21 side, so I finally
[85:03] was able to talk to you guys more about
[85:05] my vision.
[85:06] Uh very excited about that. I know a
[85:09] long time coming um but, you know, a lot
[85:12] of this uh was the MNPI as they call it.
[85:16] Um I I can't be, you know, talking too
[85:19] much if the market doesn't know. So
[85:21] Tether published a blog post that they
[85:23] propose a merger between Strike, my
[85:27] other business, and 21
[85:29] amongst other things like a merger with
[85:30] their mining business.
[85:32] Um I gave my thoughts as the CEO of the
[85:34] company.
[85:35] Uh in my opinion, I think it's largely a
[85:38] good idea. I mean, there's lots of
[85:40] details and I can't sit here and say I
[85:42] agree with every single fine print
[85:43] detail, but directionally, I think it's
[85:46] a great idea and I think it's a great
[85:47] idea cuz I think the ideal Bitcoin
[85:49] company, the dream Bitcoin company
[85:51] I outlined in outlined in my
[85:53] presentation looks like this. So I made
[85:55] this kind of
[85:57] quad graph here
[85:59] where on one side of the spectrum, you
[86:00] have extremely low conviction in Bitcoin
[86:03] and on the right side of the spectrum,
[86:05] you have extremely high conviction in
[86:06] Bitcoin.
[86:07] And on the bottom side of the spectrum,
[86:09] you have extremely low operating income
[86:10] as a business.
[86:12] And on the top side of the spectrum, you
[86:13] have extremely high operating income as
[86:15] a business. And I think
[86:17] to understand where I'm coming from at
[86:20] when I view the industry and how I want
[86:23] 21 to develop and where I want it to
[86:25] grow as a company,
[86:27] I think on one side of the spectrum,
[86:30] you have crypto exchanges.
[86:32] And these exchanges make tons of money.
[86:35] They are economically such good
[86:38] companies. Like you're talking about
[86:40] billions of dollars of net profit.
[86:42] They're growing 10, 20, 30%
[86:45] year-over-year. So I put them in the top
[86:47] left quadrant because they are high
[86:49] operating income. However, the reason I
[86:52] don't want to build a business like
[86:54] that, I wouldn't want to work for a
[86:55] business like that, I personally
[86:57] wouldn't want to be a customer of a
[86:58] business like that, is they display
[87:01] extremely low or no conviction in
[87:03] Bitcoin at all.
[87:05] I'm getting Slack messages. I just want
[87:06] to make sure it's not Dylan.
[87:08] Yep, all good.
[87:09] >> [snorts]
[87:09] >> Um
[87:11] these businesses don't seem to really
[87:13] care about Bitcoin. Like I cited in my
[87:15] talk, Coinbase is holding almost $11
[87:18] billion in cash and fiat right now
[87:20] versus a billion dollars in Bitcoin. And
[87:22] I'm like, wait, what the hell? Do you
[87:23] guys even believe in what we're working
[87:25] on? That's a lot of fiat compared to
[87:27] Bitcoin. I thought we all thought
[87:28] Bitcoin was better money.
[87:30] Um and as I talked about before, these
[87:32] prediction markets, it doesn't seem like
[87:35] they care much about Bitcoin and hard
[87:37] money and encouraging proper savings.
[87:41] It's more like speculative casino
[87:43] behavior. And so I put them in the top
[87:46] left quadrant, which is really, really,
[87:48] really good businesses economically, but
[87:51] so are Las Vegas casinos. Las Vegas
[87:53] casinos are good businesses, but they're
[87:56] not Bitcoin businesses, and so very low
[87:58] conviction in Bitcoin.
[88:00] Now in the bottom right quadrant, I
[88:02] would position oppositely treasury
[88:04] companies,
[88:05] which again,
[88:06] also good businesses. Some of the
[88:08] greatest success stories in Bitcoin are
[88:10] treasury companies, like strategy, like
[88:13] Metaplanet. I mean, these are some of
[88:16] the rare success stories in trying to
[88:18] build a business in this space.
[88:20] However, there's no operating income. Um
[88:23] they're not producing cash flow, and
[88:26] there's a difference between,
[88:28] you know, GAAP accounting, unrealized
[88:30] gains on your balance sheet versus cash
[88:33] flow. Um and
[88:35] that's, you know, operating income is
[88:37] building products and having revenue and
[88:40] having cash flow and income. Uh and and
[88:44] you can use that cash to then finance
[88:46] things like leverage, finance things
[88:48] like preferreds, finance all sorts of
[88:50] stuff.
[88:51] And so, anyways, my dream
[88:54] as a founder and a CEO
[88:56] is to be in the top right quadrant, and
[88:58] that's where I don't think any company
[89:00] is, which is both
[89:02] an incredibly high operating income
[89:04] business, has customers, has cash flow,
[89:06] has products, and it also displays
[89:08] extremely high conviction in Bitcoin.
[89:11] And I think that there are opportunities
[89:13] there to do that.
[89:14] And that's where I'd like to see 21
[89:16] focus and where I agree with Tether's
[89:18] proposal, our larger shareholder.
[89:21] Um
[89:22] and so, I kind of laid out these four
[89:24] divisions. You can almost think of 21
[89:27] almost like a
[89:28] Bitcoin Berkshire Hathaway in a way.
[89:30] It's not a perfect analogy, but the idea
[89:33] is 21 has a financial services division,
[89:36] and this is our ability to build and
[89:39] distribute Bitcoin financial services
[89:41] for the Bitcoin economy. And this is
[89:43] where the theoretical merger with Strike
[89:46] would make a lot of sense, cuz Strike
[89:48] could be that arm, where you have
[89:52] brokerage, you have banking, you have
[89:53] custody, you have payments, you have
[89:55] lending and credit, you have all sorts
[89:57] of financial services that can produce
[90:00] cash flow and scale and experience
[90:02] growth, where ultimately, if I think
[90:04] Bitcoin's going to be a asset worth tens
[90:06] of trillions of dollars, there's a lot
[90:08] of opportunity to build services and
[90:10] build products. And I don't want to just
[90:12] stack Bitcoin on a balance sheet. I want
[90:14] to build tools and I I want to have
[90:16] customers and I want to be able to
[90:19] obtain leverage in the capital markets
[90:21] and finance it with cash flow as a as
[90:23] opposed to dilution. And so financial
[90:26] services is would be one arm
[90:27] theoretically. Another Bitcoin
[90:29] infrastructure. And for me, this is the
[90:31] physical economy of Bitcoin. So, this is
[90:35] power contracts. These are miners. These
[90:37] are sites. These are physical
[90:39] infrastructure that both protects and
[90:42] mines and propagates the Bitcoin
[90:44] network. And this is also historically
[90:47] one of the rare places in the Bitcoin
[90:48] economy that's proven to be cash flow
[90:51] positive and a good business if you have
[90:54] the capital and the economies of scale
[90:56] to pull it off, which Tether does.
[90:58] They've invested a ton of money and a
[91:00] ton of resources into their own Bitcoin
[91:03] physical Bitcoin infrastructure
[91:04] business. And they think it'd be a good
[91:07] idea to merge it into 21. So,
[91:10] that to me, I think also for the dream
[91:12] Bitcoin company,
[91:14] that is pillar number two. Pillar number
[91:16] three is capital markets. And this is a
[91:17] lot of the Bitcoin treasury company
[91:19] strategy that exists and some more. So,
[91:22] yes, let's take a look at an ability to
[91:25] raise cheap capital, acquire very
[91:27] reasonable leverage with Bitcoin on our
[91:30] balance sheet. I mean, 21 already has
[91:32] 43,514
[91:33] Bitcoin. We can absolutely use the
[91:35] capital markets to our advantage to
[91:37] display further Bitcoin conviction. But,
[91:40] because we would have other, in theory,
[91:43] other products and services like
[91:44] lending, like mining, we can securitize
[91:47] lending in the capital markets. We can
[91:49] securitize mining in the capital
[91:50] markets. We can do things that other
[91:53] companies can't because if we can pull
[91:56] off the ability to live in this upper
[91:58] white quadrant, it makes us incredibly
[92:00] unique. And so,
[92:03] the third pillar is a capital markets
[92:05] business, which is, you know, very
[92:06] separate than financial services and
[92:08] Bitcoin infrastructure. And this
[92:10] business is focused on accretive
[92:12] strategies in the capital markets and
[92:14] further entrenching Bitcoin into the
[92:17] capital markets. Again, not only with
[92:19] things like preferreds, things like
[92:22] uh convertible bonds, but also things
[92:25] like securitizing some of the things to
[92:27] the left. And then the last one is
[92:29] mergers and acquisitions where
[92:31] I've been an entrepreneur in the space
[92:32] for a long time. I know tons of other
[92:34] really good businesses. I know tons of
[92:36] other really good assets in the space.
[92:38] And I think that there's a lot of
[92:39] opportunity to consolidate some of the
[92:42] Bitcoin efforts. Like, I don't believe
[92:44] that there's going to be 44 Bitcoin
[92:46] companies that all offer the same
[92:48] products. I think inevitably, you know,
[92:51] we're going to end up consolidating. And
[92:53] And whether that's through M&A or other
[92:55] forms. And I've seen lots of opportunity
[92:59] that I think would benefit 21. And 21
[93:01] would be unique in this capacity because
[93:03] again, there are If I go back to this
[93:06] slide, you know, there are companies in
[93:08] the bottom right that aren't necessarily
[93:10] focusing on their operating business or
[93:12] building products or focusing on cash
[93:14] flow. And then the ones in the left
[93:15] don't really care to display conviction
[93:18] in Bitcoin. They'd rather It's more like
[93:20] speculative. They'll list anything.
[93:22] They'll list stocks, they'll list
[93:23] prediction markets, they'll list
[93:24] gambling, they'll list whatever as long
[93:26] as people are on the platform and
[93:28] betting on stuff. And so I think 21 has
[93:31] a unique opportunity because Tether and
[93:33] I are proven operators in the space.
[93:36] Uh and
[93:37] I think we can make use of some
[93:40] accretive M&A and really build like a
[93:42] Bitcoin powerhouse is really the goal.
[93:45] Uh a unique one at that. So,
[93:48] check out my keynote. Um
[93:50] I spent a little bit more time there. Um
[93:52] and just to be clear, uh I I said in a
[93:54] podcast that I think comes out on
[93:56] Wednesday. This is a proposed
[93:58] transaction.
[93:59] No one should interpret my words as if
[94:01] this is already done or anything has
[94:04] been signed.
[94:05] Uh our largest shareholder proposed it.
[94:08] Ultimately, that has to go to the board
[94:11] and there are theoretically a lot lots
[94:15] of, you know, negotiations and all sorts
[94:17] of stuff that would follow. Um but the
[94:22] the big news is that our largest
[94:23] shareholder and the CEO, which is me, um
[94:27] have a strategic direction that they're
[94:29] aligned on and really excited about. Um
[94:32] and so we'll see from there. But uh you
[94:34] guys know the type of man I am. I'm all
[94:36] about transparency and making sure I'm
[94:39] accessible and uh just trying to be man
[94:41] of the people at the end of the day. Um
[94:44] and so wanted to spend a little time
[94:46] walking you guys through that and uh
[94:49] giving you enough information to
[94:50] hopefully ask questions for Q&A, which
[94:53] can start right now.
[94:55] So let me uh turn on some lights really
[94:57] quick. I just realized it got real dark
[94:58] in here.
[94:59] And uh we'll do some Q&A. I'll pull up
[95:01] Dylan's uh
[95:03] doc. Let me blow myself up. There we go.
[95:08] And let me turn on some lights. I'll be
[95:09] right back.
[95:21] >> [snorts]
[95:28] [snorts]
[95:35] >> All right. Let's do this.
[95:38] Pull up Dylan's doc.
[95:42] Shout out Dylan for hanging out in the
[95:43] chat
[95:44] and uh
[95:46] jotting down questions for us.
[95:50] Um
[95:52] Okay.
[95:54] Hey Jack, what's your view on fixing the
[95:56] mortgage rate and for how long?
[95:59] Hmm, not sure
[96:02] I understand that question entirely. I
[96:05] mean the view on fixing the mortgage
[96:06] rate, things like the 10-year and
[96:08] 30-year yields
[96:10] are really important in the ability for
[96:13] banks to offer cheap mortgage. At the
[96:15] end of the day, a mortgage is just a
[96:17] loan.
[96:18] And so, it all goes into what's the cost
[96:21] of money, you know, are interest rates
[96:23] going to lower, are bond yields going to
[96:25] lower?
[96:26] So, if
[96:28] the United States wants to get mortgage
[96:30] rates lower, they're going to have to
[96:32] get bond yields lower. And keep in mind
[96:35] again, bond yields go up when demand for
[96:38] bonds goes down. So, demand has been
[96:41] going down, yields have been going up,
[96:43] and if there's no one that's going to
[96:45] provide demand for bonds, who's the
[96:47] lender of last resort? The Federal
[96:49] Reserve. And so, my best guess is you're
[96:52] going to get some form of like yield
[96:53] curve control, which is the Federal
[96:55] Reserve basically lending to the US
[96:58] government, which is printing money out
[96:59] of thin air and handing it to the
[97:00] government. If that's how they want to
[97:02] get yields down, cuz otherwise they're
[97:03] going to have to entice people to want
[97:05] to lend to the US, but I mean the
[97:07] market's pretty clear. I'd rather own
[97:09] gold, I'd rather own Bitcoin, I'd rather
[97:11] own stocks. There's a plethora of things
[97:12] I'd rather do than lend to the US right
[97:14] now. Um and so, we'll see, but that
[97:18] that's the path to getting mortgage
[97:20] rates lower is getting uh these these
[97:22] yields lower.
[97:24] Uh Dylan, question for Jack.
[97:26] Jack, what do you think about Powell's
[97:27] recent comments that he is going to stay
[97:29] on the Fed board for a while?
[97:31] Uh it's all political. I don't know. I
[97:35] try and
[97:37] I'm like caring far less about that
[97:39] stuff. Um it just doesn't make for the
[97:41] most fun show. I found like a lot of the
[97:44] comments and a lot and a lot of like my
[97:47] back and forth with you guys. All it's
[97:49] always fun, but it just was like
[97:52] negative and no one I don't know. No one
[97:55] wants like a political podcast. And and
[97:57] the funny thing is is I'm not a
[97:58] political guy. Like I genuinely I'm not
[98:01] like putting on a farce here. Like I'm
[98:03] genuinely never voted, don't know much
[98:06] about politics, just trying to follow
[98:09] the X's and O's to get a good sense of
[98:11] where the world is going and how I can
[98:13] help. Um so, I don't know whether Powell
[98:17] stays on the board or not.
[98:19] I don't think it matters. I mean Warsh
[98:21] was nominated in my opinion cuz he's
[98:24] willing to do Trump's doing and he's
[98:26] uh comes from the same
[98:29] um like community as Scott Bessent.
[98:33] That's These are all Druckenmiller,
[98:35] Soros guys.
[98:37] And they all have the same vision that
[98:39] the Fed's independence should be
[98:40] reevaluated, that AI
[98:43] uh needs a lot of money printing, that
[98:45] they can look past the near-term
[98:46] inflation of this Iran conflict. So, I I
[98:50] at the end of the day I don't think it
[98:51] matters. The math is the math and a lot
[98:53] of this political We know that Biden was
[98:55] highly political. Um he was willing to
[98:58] cut rates randomly
[99:01] uh during the end of Biden's term. Um
[99:03] but then like got in fights with Trump
[99:06] and I don't know, whatever. So, my
[99:08] my answer is it doesn't matter. The math
[99:10] is the math. They have to print money. I
[99:13] don't I don't think it's worth spending
[99:16] time trying to dissect what these
[99:18] politicians are rambling on about. Um
[99:22] They're They're They're no good no
[99:24] matter what.
[99:26] At least for monetary policy. Maybe
[99:29] they're good people. I I wouldn't know.
[99:31] When you bring up trading, you say they
[99:33] are not productive. If traders are not
[99:36] productive, how do you explain price
[99:37] discovery and liquidity existing at all
[99:40] in a functioning market without them.
[99:42] >> [snorts]
[99:43] >> I wouldn't say that they're not
[99:44] productive.
[99:45] I would say that
[99:48] it's not productive for everyone to be a
[99:50] trader. Like the problem is
[99:53] trading is a profession, just like being
[99:56] a doctor, just like being an athlete,
[99:59] just like being a teacher, just like
[100:01] being a firefighter.
[100:03] If you're not a trader, and that's not
[100:06] what you do for a living,
[100:08] then you shouldn't trade.
[100:11] So, I'm not saying that like the
[100:12] profession of providing liquidity and
[100:14] price discovery in a market is a bad
[100:16] thing.
[100:17] But, what I am saying is
[100:20] fiat forces everyone to be a speculator,
[100:22] everyone to be a trader, and one of the
[100:25] worst
[100:26] things that comes of that,
[100:27] unfortunately,
[100:29] is now you have a society where only
[100:32] half of our time as a collective society
[100:34] is spent on doing our profession.
[100:36] So, people, let's say you take a doctor,
[100:39] a doctor dad who has a family of four,
[100:42] him, his wife, and two kids. Let's say
[100:44] that for example's sake.
[100:47] This doctor in this modern-day era is
[100:49] spending less time being a doctor and
[100:52] being a dad and more time managing a
[100:55] portfolio, understanding what tech
[100:57] stocks to pick, reading books about
[101:00] Bitcoin. And that's a That's the true
[101:02] crime uh of society is that
[101:06] you have to be a speculator and you have
[101:08] to be a trader just to beat inflation,
[101:11] and that's making us worse at our jobs,
[101:13] that's making us worse husbands, worse
[101:16] fathers.
[101:17] But, we don't have a choice because our
[101:19] lives are being debased, and it's a job
[101:22] within itself to try and beat inflation.
[101:25] And so, my message is is less that a
[101:28] certain profession isn't productive. I
[101:30] mean, depends on the context. Is this
[101:32] person a good trader? Are they
[101:33] professional trader, right? That's It's
[101:35] my place. I'm not talking literally.
[101:37] Talking more philosophically that
[101:40] I encourage people to spend more time on
[101:42] relationship, on family, and on their
[101:45] passion, and on their craft, and on
[101:48] their labor
[101:49] in providing value for the world than
[101:52] speculating and trading.
[101:54] Like unless it's your profession, I
[101:56] wouldn't sit around all day and try and
[101:57] pick bottoms and tops for Bitcoin. As we
[101:59] know, most people just lose money.
[102:02] And again, you're better off just
[102:04] staying humble and stacking sats. Just
[102:05] turn your DCAs on. If Bitcoin rips to
[102:07] 100 from here, you win. If Bitcoin drops
[102:10] to 60 from here, you win. You buy the
[102:12] dip. But as long as you're being a net
[102:15] producer in society, you're producing
[102:17] more value than you're consuming,
[102:19] and Bitcoin also, again, money's time
[102:21] and energy in abstracted form. Bitcoin
[102:23] is saving us all time, right? Like
[102:26] you don't have to
[102:28] solve for inflation in your spare time.
[102:31] You know how many people get off work
[102:33] and spend all day on Robinhood and
[102:35] listening to podcasts about what stocks
[102:36] to pick and trying to figure out what
[102:38] GME is doing with eBay.
[102:40] You don't have to do that. Like go to
[102:42] your kids soccer game, right? Like go
[102:45] fall in love, go pick up a hobby, or go
[102:47] get better at your job, start a business
[102:50] on the side. Like
[102:52] it like Bitcoin saves so much time and
[102:54] effort and energy for the things that
[102:56] matter.
[102:58] For me at least. I can at least speak
[103:00] from my own lived experience.
[103:03] Um okay, Bitcoin and markets. What are
[103:07] uh let's see. Question for Jack.
[103:11] First, congrats on the huge
[103:12] accomplishment with XXI. As 21 grows,
[103:15] I'm assuming you'll hire more people.
[103:16] What's the best way to be considered for
[103:18] a role
[103:19] uh in the future?
[103:21] Um just stay up to date um for our jobs
[103:24] page. I'd say right now we aren't
[103:27] actively hiring for any roles. I mean
[103:29] obviously our larger shareholder
[103:31] proposed a strategic direction, and
[103:33] that's a really big deal. So, as a
[103:35] company we need to figure that one out.
[103:37] And then, you know, it will become more
[103:39] clear
[103:40] how I want to staff the business.
[103:43] But just be on the lookout. And on the
[103:44] Strike side of things, separate company,
[103:46] but on our jobs page we always keep an
[103:48] open application cuz I'm in the business
[103:50] of hiring talent and passion.
[103:53] You know, so if you are someone that
[103:56] wants to work at Strike, you can always
[103:58] write us a letter
[104:00] on what you want to do and and why
[104:01] you're the person for the role. And we
[104:04] hire people all the time based on that.
[104:06] So, never hesitate to reach out.
[104:10] Hi Jack and Dylan, I love a Tuesday
[104:13] morning here in the UK and seeing the
[104:15] show ready to download and listening on
[104:17] the journey to work. Oh, thank you.
[104:19] That's very charming.
[104:20] Any news on Strike loans coming to the
[104:22] UK? Yes, we're working on it. We will
[104:25] get there. Hopefully this quarter is a
[104:27] big quarter for us when it comes to the
[104:28] EU and the UK.
[104:30] Any news on Bitcoin line of credit for
[104:31] individuals coming to Washington? Yes,
[104:34] working on it as well.
[104:37] Unfortunately in the US, a lot of this
[104:39] is regulated on a state-by-state basis
[104:41] and so Washington has just been a bit
[104:44] slow with us, but we're working on it. I
[104:46] know that we're working on it and we
[104:48] expect to get it hopefully soon. Hey
[104:50] Jack, exciting announcements last week.
[104:53] Do HELOC loans start charging interest
[104:55] right when they are taken out?
[104:57] So,
[104:58] they're not HELOC, they're BLOC, not
[105:01] HELOC, but I know I know that that's a
[105:03] good comparison. So,
[105:05] BLOC, block?
[105:07] Bitcoin line of credit? I don't know how
[105:09] we would pronounce that. You guys tell
[105:10] me.
[105:11] But
[105:12] we start charging interest once you use
[105:15] once you pull on that line of credit.
[105:16] So, let's say you open a $5,000 line of
[105:18] credit,
[105:19] you don't get charged anything until you
[105:21] start to use it. But if that line of
[105:23] credit pays a $100 electricity bill for
[105:26] you,
[105:26] then we start charging interest on that
[105:29] $100 that you spent. And then as soon as
[105:31] you pay it off, no interest charged. So,
[105:33] obviously it costs us money to operate
[105:36] the product, so we need to at least
[105:38] charge you guys to recoup our costs.
[105:41] But, check out the product. It's like
[105:44] very cheap. I mean, at the end of the
[105:45] day, if I can borrow money against my
[105:49] Bitcoin at a rate that's cheaper than
[105:51] what I think my Bitcoin will grow over
[105:53] time, it's a no-brainer. And especially
[105:56] when you factor in as an American the
[105:58] tax consequences involved in selling the
[106:00] Bitcoin or spending the Bitcoin, I mean,
[106:02] these products have changed my life. So,
[106:04] check it out and we do not charge
[106:06] anything until you actually use the line
[106:08] of credit. So, if you open one and you
[106:11] don't draw on it, don't worry about it.
[106:13] It's if you actually start paying bills
[106:14] with it or you can buy Bitcoin with it
[106:16] or you can pay your friends with it.
[106:17] It's It's like a payment method. Um
[106:19] that's when we we start charging
[106:21] interest. But, once you pay it down and
[106:23] pay it off, then again, as long as you
[106:25] don't have an outstanding balance,
[106:26] there's no problem.
[106:28] Um
[106:29] Okay, can Strike build a tap-to-pay
[106:32] debit card that lives uh in Apple Pay?
[106:35] It's definitely something that we've
[106:37] looked into. We've talked about it on
[106:38] the show a decent amount. I mean, my
[106:41] hesitancy is that I think Amex or
[106:45] uh Chase are always going to have better
[106:47] rewards cards than we will.
[106:49] So, the way I live on Strike is I use my
[106:52] credit cards and then I use Strike to
[106:54] pay off my credit cards and I use my
[106:55] line of credit to pay those off. And
[106:58] it's the best cuz I'm getting cash back
[107:00] and free flights. Like, you can use all
[107:01] these cards to get all this free stuff.
[107:04] And then I just use Strike to buy
[107:06] Bitcoin, line of credit against my
[107:08] Bitcoin, pay my bills, get my direct
[107:10] deposit.
[107:11] And I just don't know if we'll be better
[107:13] at credit card rewards than these
[107:16] massive companies that are all snug next
[107:19] to the money printers.
[107:21] So, that's the reason I'm not like
[107:22] jumping at building a card cuz we're
[107:24] better than Chase at Bitcoin stuff, but
[107:27] we're not necessarily better than Chase
[107:28] at fiat stuff.
[107:30] So, we'll see. But, as you I mean, let
[107:32] me tell you guys something. I've been
[107:33] wrong time and time again.
[107:36] Like, I'll think you guys want a one
[107:39] thing or think you guys want one
[107:40] direction, and then it turns out I
[107:42] couldn't have been more wrong. And based
[107:44] on your guys' feedback, we build
[107:46] something entirely different. And this
[107:48] could be one of those things. So, keep
[107:50] reaching out to us and the product team
[107:51] and keep leaving comments. And I know
[107:53] we're all as a team trying to figure out
[107:56] the best way for you guys to be able to
[107:59] spend from Strike. And if that's a card,
[108:01] that's a card, and we'll build it.
[108:03] Um
[108:05] let's see.
[108:07] Dylan, question for Jack. Are there any
[108:09] features in Strike that you'd consider
[108:11] putting behind a subscription, something
[108:13] premium for the user that isn't
[108:15] sustainable to give away for free?
[108:17] Yes, actually, 100%.
[108:20] So, there are all sorts of features that
[108:23] people like people want
[108:25] to enter like right now our cheapest
[108:27] lending tier is if you borrow $5 million
[108:30] or more, which are obviously typically
[108:33] for businesses or family offices or
[108:35] high-net-worth individuals.
[108:37] Um but,
[108:39] sometimes people will say, "Hey, just
[108:40] put me in the lower tier for buying
[108:42] Bitcoin fees or the lower tier for
[108:44] lending or don't charge me interest on
[108:47] my line of credit for the first 30 days
[108:49] like a credit card. Like, if I pay it
[108:51] off within the first 30 days, no fees."
[108:54] And you know, we've thought of maybe
[108:56] like a Strike Black account where you
[108:59] pay a monthly subscription or an annual
[109:01] subscription to get access to like the
[109:04] best of Strike. And the only reason it
[109:06] would be economical for us is if you
[109:08] guys pay us
[109:11] like a subscription fee, like a
[109:12] membership fee.
[109:14] And
[109:15] like, we might lose money if you like
[109:17] use the hell out of strike, but as long
[109:19] as we make enough to like meet payroll
[109:22] and have some profit to finance new
[109:23] stuff like new licenses and new products
[109:25] and stuff,
[109:27] then maybe that's something that would
[109:28] work out. So we've
[109:30] thought about that internally.
[109:32] If you guys are listening and interested
[109:35] in that, I would be curious to hear what
[109:37] features
[109:39] you would like to see in like a strike
[109:41] black premium
[109:42] account to give you like the best of
[109:45] strike. Um let me know. I'd be open to
[109:48] it for sure. It's something that we have
[109:49] softly on our road map, but I just don't
[109:52] think we have a super concrete idea of
[109:55] what features would go in there.
[109:58] Uh question for Jack, how do you feel
[110:00] about the Bears draft picks? As an
[110:02] Oregon fan, I think y'all got a great
[110:04] player in Dylan. Yeah, I I think so too.
[110:08] Um I mean obviously offensively we were
[110:12] great um at the wide receiver position.
[110:15] Uh losing DJ Moore, I still think we're
[110:17] fine. Um
[110:20] I thought Luther Burden was great. So
[110:22] offensively
[110:24] uh I think we're good. We had to shore
[110:26] up the center position and and the
[110:28] offensive line a little bit, but
[110:30] primarily the focus was defensively and
[110:32] our secondary and I think we did that.
[110:34] So um I'm excited. I mean the thing that
[110:36] makes me the most nervous about the
[110:37] Bears is we're playing a first place
[110:39] schedule. So we won our division, we're
[110:40] playing a first place schedule, that's
[110:42] not going to be easy.
[110:43] Uh and so I worry about the youth in
[110:45] that locker room and if we experience uh
[110:48] a little bit of adversity, how is Ben
[110:51] and the locker room going to be able to
[110:53] handle that? Um so we'll see.
[110:56] But um
[110:57] I I I like our off season so far. I love
[110:59] DJ Moore. Unfortunately, I agree that he
[111:02] had to go. Um I like what we did in the
[111:05] draft. I like our focus on the defensive
[111:07] side of the ball.
[111:08] Um in a weird way, I like the fact that
[111:11] we didn't end up getting Max Crosby.
[111:13] Something smells off over there. If it's
[111:15] too good to be true, it's probably
[111:17] like you should probably leave it at
[111:18] that. And so, all in all, I think we're
[111:21] going to be competitive in our division
[111:23] again. I mean, the Packers and the Lions
[111:25] are going to be good.
[111:26] Um and Minnesota's got one of the best
[111:28] head coaches in the league. But, uh
[111:31] I think we're going to be competitive.
[111:32] And as a Chicago Bears fan, that's all
[111:33] you can ask for, to be honest.
[111:36] Um
[111:38] Okay, last one. Just leaving a nice
[111:40] comment for you to read because I think
[111:42] we haven't missed a week in over a year
[111:43] at this point, and that deserves a nice
[111:45] closing comment. Here's the comment.
[111:47] I've never caught this show live. I
[111:48] can't really hang around. But, Jack,
[111:50] thank you for doing this every Monday.
[111:51] You make my Tuesday mornings more
[111:53] bearable. Keep up the great work.
[111:55] I really appreciate that. I really do.
[111:59] Um
[112:01] Yeah. Thanks.
[112:03] I'll just leave it at that.
[112:06] I was talking on I uh I guess I won't
[112:08] leave it at that. I was talking
[112:10] on a podcast I was on,
[112:12] and the host was asking me like
[112:15] cuz it seems like anything I do now, I
[112:17] get a lot of hate, pretty much no matter
[112:19] what.
[112:21] And
[112:23] they were asking me, you know, what
[112:25] what's that like? When did that start?
[112:28] And
[112:30] I don't know. You guys go listen to the
[112:32] show if you want. I give a longer
[112:34] answer. But, what I will say is,
[112:37] you know, cuz the host was like, you
[112:38] know, it's
[112:40] people like uh Brian Armstrong or
[112:42] Michael Saylor or Jack Dorsey aren't
[112:45] necessarily hanging out Not that I'm
[112:47] near those guys, by the way. Like
[112:50] just but they asked. They're like, those
[112:52] guys aren't necessarily hanging out in
[112:54] Twitter replies and in the YouTube
[112:55] comments and live streaming every single
[112:57] Monday.
[112:59] And I was like, yeah, you know, it just
[113:00] kind of comes with who I want to be,
[113:03] honestly. As a founder and just like as
[113:05] a builder, as a Bitcoiner, I want to be
[113:08] with the people.
[113:09] I don't want to hide behind lawyers that
[113:12] You know how many times my lawyers tell
[113:14] me like you shouldn't be doing that
[113:15] show, you shouldn't be tweeting how you
[113:17] do.
[113:18] Like I have every excuse to not really
[113:21] be hated as much cuz I just wouldn't
[113:22] talk as much and live behind the
[113:26] bureaucracy
[113:27] of corporate legal risk and public
[113:30] company stuff.
[113:33] And uh
[113:33] it's just not who I want to be. It's not
[113:35] what I think the world needs, honestly.
[113:38] I don't think the world needs like
[113:39] another
[113:40] big deal corporate [ __ ] like
[113:44] politician that
[113:46] again, not to say any of those guys in
[113:47] particular are or are not. But um I
[113:51] think
[113:52] what's being repriced in the world is
[113:53] just being real, whether it's real
[113:55] money, whether it's real infrastructure,
[113:58] whether it's like real health.
[114:00] I think being real, being authentic is
[114:02] being like repriced, revalued in
[114:04] society.
[114:05] And so anyway, I give all that context
[114:07] to say I really appreciate those
[114:08] comments cuz it is one of the harder
[114:10] parts of my job
[114:14] is just uh every day
[114:17] the internet has like an open shot to
[114:19] punch me in the face and sometimes it
[114:20] hurts.
[114:22] But uh those comments mean a lot and I
[114:24] really appreciate it. So thank you for
[114:26] that.
[114:27] And uh the show goes on, baby. The show
[114:30] goes on. With that, I'm going to end,
[114:32] but check this out. So it got dark in
[114:35] the closet because it was
[114:37] thunderstorming, actually.
[114:39] And it just stopped thunderstorming and
[114:40] there's a crazy rainbow right outside my
[114:44] window. So I'm going to see if I can
[114:45] turn my camera around and show you guys.
[114:47] It's a double rainbow.
[114:49] So I don't know if you'll be able to see
[114:50] it and then then I'll end the show.
[114:53] Let's see if I can do this.
[114:58] Woah, you guys see that?
[115:01] Look at that rainbow.
[115:03] Pretty cool, right?
[115:05] Look at the city of Chicago.
[115:08] Rainstorm.
[115:10] Double rainbow.
[115:18] Woo! Oh,
[115:20] there we go. Maybe it's a sign.
[115:22] >> [snorts]
[115:22] >> Maybe it's a sign. Off to greener
[115:24] pastures. Double rainbow. Hey, I heard
[115:27] there's gold at the bottom of that
[115:28] rainbow. Not in Chicago, not in the
[115:30] empty closet. There'll be Bitcoin at the
[115:32] bottom of that rainbow.
[115:33] Love you guys. As always, comments,
[115:35] questions, criticisms, leave it all. Man
[115:38] of the people.
[115:39] We'll never stop. Fix the money, fix the
[115:40] world. Peace out. Until next time.