Latest / Simply Bitcoin / Is this why Bitcoin EXPLODED? | EP 1453

Transcript

Is this why Bitcoin EXPLODED? | EP 1453 · Simply Bitcoin

• 0:01
  Bitcoin has exploded to $73,000 and I think we're all just
• 0:06
  wondering why we saw Donald Trump attack the banks over the
• 0:10
  Clarity Act while in the beginning of a war in Iran.
• 0:15
  A Bitcoin exchange just gave me an account with the Fed, but
• 0:19
  it's not the one everyone thought it was going to be.
• 0:22
  And Morgan Stanley partners with BNY Mellon to launch a Bitcoin
• 0:26
  ETF. There's a lot of headwinds, or
• 0:29
  rather sorry, a lot of tailwinds to discuss today.
• 0:32
  But first, let's watch Jamie Dimon's recent clip in regards
• 0:37
  to the war happening with the Clarity Act to really set the
• 0:41
  context of what we're talking about today.
• 0:45
  You and your peers have reportedly clashed with
• 0:48
  Coinbase's Brian Armstrong over the Clarity Act and specifically
• 0:51
  this idea of crypto exchanges offering rewards for stable
• 0:54
  coins. And Armstrong was on CNBC with
• 0:56
  Sara Eisen a few weeks ago from Mar a Lago, and he said there's
• 0:59
  a path forward for the market structure.
• 1:00
  Bill, That's a quote, win, win outcome for everyone.
• 1:03
  How are you feeling about it right now?
• 1:04
  The banks feel strongly that there should be rewards of the
• 1:07
  same as interest and that you know, a compromise would be that
• 1:11
  you could pay rewards on transactions, not balances.
• 1:14
  If you are going to be holding balances and paying interest,
• 1:16
  that's the bank. You should be regulated by a
• 1:17
  bank. So we've been firm one thing
• 1:19
  over here, yes, but if you want to be a bank, become a bank,
• 1:22
  then you can do whatever you want under bank law.
• 1:24
  So I remind people, your viewers may not know banks have
• 1:28
  restrictions and requires FDIC insurance, AML, BSA.
• 1:31
  We have Community Responsibility Act, which means we have to open
• 1:34
  25% of our brands, LMI neighbors with social requirements.
• 1:36
  We have liquidity requirements, capital requirements,
• 1:38
  transparency requirements, report requirements,
• 1:40
  requirements, government requirements.
• 1:41
  If they want to be a bank, so be it.
• 1:42
  So what we based is level playing field by product.
• 1:45
  It can't be you have these people doing one thing, you
• 1:48
  know, without any regulation like that, and these people do
• 1:49
  another. And if you do do that, the
• 1:51
  public will pay it will it will get bad.
• 1:53
  So I just people should take a deep breath and what did you
• 1:55
  want to? And we want competition.
• 1:57
  You know, we're actually one of the biggest users of blockchain
• 1:59
  and you know, and you know, we created AJP Morgan deposit coin.
• 2:02
  We've moved money, real time payments.
• 2:04
  You know, we're moving a lot of data now using blockchain.
• 2:06
  So we're in favor of competition, but it's got to be
• 2:09
  fair and balanced level playing field.
• 2:11
  It's not. It can't be completely skewed.
• 2:13
  Yeah, The Gas Lobby by Jamie Dimon's kind of crazy.
• 2:17
  I saw a lot of people talking about this on Twitter and, and
• 2:19
  I'm going to get into all the different news.
• 2:20
  But as we've been covering for the last couple of weeks, really
• 2:25
  there is this war happening right now with the Clarity Act.
• 2:30
  And we see on one side, it's the banks.
• 2:33
  That's why we have Jamie Dimon. It's kind of the figurehead.
• 2:35
  And now he's on CNBC talking about this war, though he is
• 2:40
  saying, hey, we love competition.
• 2:43
  And then he follows that up with we need a level playing field.
• 2:47
  They're they're literally they got the regulatory Moat here.
• 2:50
  They got, you know, $4 trillion bank saying, hey, Lee, look,
• 2:54
  these, these crypto companies are not on a level playing
• 2:57
  field. We got to make sure it's a level
• 2:59
  competition. And you're just like, wow, the,
• 3:02
  the insane gaslighting here by Jamie Dimon to really paint this
• 3:06
  as, Hey, the banks are here to protect you, the city, the
• 3:10
  citizen. And, and let's not, let's not
• 3:12
  like gloss over the fact that he, he broke the 5th wall here.
• 3:15
  He's like, let, let's talk to the, the viewers back home
• 3:18
  watching this. I'm here to protect you.
• 3:21
  There is a war right now and it is the banks and it's, it's
• 3:24
  becoming very clear. It was speculation for a little
• 3:27
  bit, but the more news coming out of the White House, it is
• 3:30
  the banks that are actively fighting the Clarity Act right
• 3:33
  now. And it is over the stable coin
• 3:35
  yield. Now we can argue over the
• 3:38
  specifics of whether the Clarity Act is actually going to be
• 3:41
  beneficial for Bitcoin that I think that's still yet to be
• 3:46
  resolved, but at least that's the framing.
• 3:49
  And actually to start off, I was going to start off somewhere
• 3:52
  else because there is some very big news coming out of a Bitcoin
• 3:56
  exchange or you could say crypto exchange to the point that Jamie
• 4:00
  Dimon said. But I'm going to start here with
• 4:03
  literally last night, Donald Trump tweeted about the Clarity
• 4:08
  Act or Truth Social post, whatever you call it, about the
• 4:11
  Clarity Act. And and there was rumors that
• 4:14
  were confirmed later that this tweet happened right after he
• 4:19
  had a closed door meeting with Brian Armstrong, CEO, Coinbase.
• 4:23
  I thought it very interesting that Trump is even true tweeting
• 4:27
  about the Clarity Act right now, considering, you know, what's
• 4:29
  happening in the Middle East. Like, I personally, I think
• 4:32
  there might be a bigger issues right now than the clarity act
• 4:35
  passing, but that didn't stop Donald Trump from posting
• 4:39
  something and and it was very favorable for the Clarity act.
• 4:42
  So we might be seeing a war happen right now from the banks
• 4:46
  versus the crypto industry. And it does seem like Trump has
• 4:49
  thrown his hat into the ring. And here we go.
• 4:52
  Here's the tweet. This was last night.
• 4:55
  I can't confirm this is a real tweet.
• 4:56
  This is not a fake news tweet. Here's Donald Trump, he goes,
• 5:00
  the genius act is being threatened, undermined by the
• 5:02
  banks and that is unacceptable. Again, the kind of crypto White
• 5:07
  House press secretaries or you know, the crypto White House
• 5:12
  journalists have been saying this, that the reason the
• 5:16
  Clarity Act has been stalling is because of the banks.
• 5:19
  Now we have Donald Trump, of course, the president of the
• 5:21
  United States saying the exact same thing and goes further,
• 5:25
  goes we are not going to allow it. the US needs to get market
• 5:29
  structure done ASAP. Americans should earn more money
• 5:32
  on their money. It's kind of an interesting take
• 5:35
  here. I'm not going to lie.
• 5:37
  The banks are hitting record profits and we are not going to
• 5:39
  allow them to undermine our powerful crypto agenda that will
• 5:42
  end up going to China and other countries if we don't get the
• 5:45
  Clarity Act taken care of. The Genius Act was EU s s first
• 5:49
  big step to make the United States the crypto capital of the
• 5:52
  world and getting the Clarity Act done is the next step to
• 5:55
  finish the job and most importantly keep this big and
• 5:59
  powerful industry in our country.
• 6:01
  The bank should not be trying to undercut the Genius Act, hold
• 6:05
  the Clarity Act hostage. They need to make a good deal
• 6:07
  with the crypto industry because that's what's in the best
• 6:10
  interest of the American people. This industry cannot be taken
• 6:14
  from the people of America when it is so close to becoming truly
• 6:17
  successful. Thank you for your attention to
• 6:19
  this matter, President Donald J Trump.
• 6:22
  So again, there has been a lot of speculation.
• 6:26
  I mean, even for me, I've, I've been very skeptical from the
• 6:30
  jump of how serious the Trump administration is taking this
• 6:34
  quote, you know, crypto capital of the world or Bitcoin capital
• 6:37
  of the world. And slowly but surely we, we are
• 6:40
  getting headlines and, you know, snippets and voice captures and
• 6:45
  just different headlines coming out of the White House that they
• 6:48
  are in fact very serious about the quote crypto capital of the
• 6:52
  world. Now, in the last few weeks, I
• 6:54
  have become very skeptical that the Clarity Act will even pass
• 6:57
  because we are getting a lot of opposition.
• 6:59
  But further, as Brian Armstrong said, and I know it was, it was
• 7:03
  a big surprise to me when I said I, I tend to agree with Brian
• 7:06
  Armstrong. I'm not the biggest fan of
• 7:07
  Coinbase, but I do agree with him on this idea that probably
• 7:11
  no bill is better than a bad bill.
• 7:13
  And from all the amendments that we're seeing added to the
• 7:17
  Clarity Act, it started to look like this was becoming a
• 7:20
  monstrosity. It's, it's really probably going
• 7:23
  to do more damage than good. Well, now we have President
• 7:27
  Donald Trump saying, hey, we, we got to get this pass and we got
• 7:31
  to do it correctly too. Of course, as he said, make sure
• 7:34
  that Americans can get more money from their money.
• 7:38
  And two, that it is in the best interest of the American people
• 7:41
  for this to pass, which is something I have been saying.
• 7:44
  Look, with all of Donald Trump's faults, the Bitcoin idea in and
• 7:49
  of itself is a very good idea. Yes, I know we are the separate
• 7:54
  money from state show here, but from my perspective, Bitcoin is
• 8:00
  as American as apple pie. America embracing Bitcoin,
• 8:05
  embracing the 21st century of money, embracing digital money
• 8:09
  and not from a CBDC completely corralled and controlled network
• 8:13
  dynamic is a good thing. I think Americans should be
• 8:17
  allowed to use Bitcoin to transact in Bitcoin and and we
• 8:22
  will be able to outperform the dollar.
• 8:24
  The dollar has, you know, constantly losing purchasing
• 8:27
  power. And I don't know if you guys saw
• 8:28
  it this morning. I actually didn't bring it up on
• 8:30
  the show for you guys today because I I have a lot to cover
• 8:33
  on on this news story, but it was in line on this.
• 8:36
  Senator Lummis was on Squawk Box this morning talking about the
• 8:40
  war in Iran, Of course, the Clarity Act.
• 8:43
  But they did talk about the de minimis capital gains tax or de
• 8:48
  minimis tax break on Bitcoin. Shout out to Joe Kernan on
• 8:52
  Squawk Box. He's, he's the best Bitcoin
• 8:54
  podcaster in the world currently.
• 8:56
  And he brought it up, though from what we're hearing, it's
• 9:00
  not really in a good place on the de minimis tax.
• 9:03
  Senator Lummis reiterated the fact that it was, you know,
• 9:06
  $600.00. It went down to 200.
• 9:09
  Currently they're talking about a $300 de minimis exemption from
• 9:13
  Bitcoin. So if you, you know, buy
• 9:15
  something worth $300 or less than you shouldn't get taxed on
• 9:19
  it. But Joe Kernan again, and the
• 9:21
  best Bitcoin podcaster, he he was making fun of the idea.
• 9:24
  It's like, look, if we are seeing capital gains tax on
• 9:28
  Bitcoin, then maybe we should be getting tax exemption from the
• 9:31
  dollar because it is literally designed to steal your
• 9:34
  purchasing power. Love to see the narrative
• 9:37
  spread. Anyways, remember what Jamie
• 9:39
  Dimon just said. He said if crypto exchanges or
• 9:44
  Bitcoin companies, Bitcoin exchanges want to basically act
• 9:49
  like a bank and you know, provide yield on stable coins or
• 9:53
  rewards as the Bitcoin crypto industry has been calling it,
• 9:57
  then maybe they should become a bank.
• 9:59
  Well, we did get some pretty historic news this morning in
• 10:03
  line with that idea. So maybe Jamie Dimon is asking
• 10:07
  for something that he really doesn't want.
• 10:09
  Maybe he thought this was a dunk 'cause this did happen last
• 10:12
  night. So he wasn't Privy to this news
• 10:15
  this morning. Maybe he thought it was a dunk
• 10:17
  by saying, hey, if if crypto exchanges want to do bank things
• 10:21
  and they should become banks. Well, this morning we got some
• 10:24
  pretty big news. So I'll start there.
• 10:27
  This is the news coming out this morning, which is a first, a
• 10:32
  world first here and and I know, you know, has to do with the
• 10:35
  feds. So I know a lot of bitcoiners
• 10:37
  are like, yeah, whatever, dude, What what's this?
• 10:38
  What's this really mean? But the headline Kraken becomes
• 10:41
  the first crypto company to secure a Fed master account
• 10:45
  access. Excuse me, the approval let's
• 10:48
  Kraken speed up deposits and withdrawals for large traders
• 10:52
  and institutional clients, But of course it is limited.
• 10:55
  So just breaking this down, Kraken again secured a Federal
• 10:59
  Reserve's master account, giving its banking arm direct access to
• 11:03
  the Feds core payment systems and allowing it to settle
• 11:06
  payments itself. You heard that correctly.
• 11:09
  Kraken now doesn't have to deal with the middle man's to settle
• 11:12
  their money. They can settle directly with
• 11:14
  the Fed. From one perspective, this is a
• 11:19
  Bitcoin Trojan horse narrative happening right now.
• 11:22
  From the other one, maybe you guys are thinking like, oh,
• 11:24
  we're just bending the knee to the Federal Reserve.
• 11:26
  But guys, this is how banking works at look, for better or
• 11:30
  worse, if you're if you're doing banking things, you're most
• 11:34
  likely dealing with the Fed here.
• 11:35
  So this is a big news story. This is a big first for the
• 11:40
  quote UN quote crypto industry. Obviously from the Bitcoin maxi
• 11:45
  perspective, the Bitcoin only perspective you would have loved
• 11:47
  to see, just like a Bitcoin only bank be the first one or Bitcoin
• 11:50
  only exchange be the first one. But hey, you know, little wins,
• 11:54
  little wins here. Going further, the approval
• 11:56
  let's Kraken speed up deposits and withdrawals for large trades
• 11:59
  and institutional clients. Of course, it's limited with
• 12:02
  Kraken not earning interest on reserves or accessing the Feds
• 12:05
  emergency lending. So I saw some people saying
• 12:08
  like, oh, Bitcoin exchange getting bailed out by the Fed
• 12:12
  very clearly they don't get feds emergency landing.
• 12:15
  So they're still going to have to be very smart with their
• 12:19
  balances. They they will have to be full
• 12:21
  reserve. They don't get the luxury of
• 12:22
  being fractional reserve here, but they can settle with the Fed
• 12:26
  directly, which it's going to be very interesting to see how this
• 12:30
  improves Kraken, how this fully supercharged charges the Bitcoin
• 12:36
  industry and maybe very soon we see more crypto companies,
• 12:40
  Bitcoin exchanges getting similar access.
• 12:43
  Though again, we know how the banking system works.
• 12:46
  This could be a regulatory Moat kind of scenario, giving Kraken
• 12:49
  the advantage again. The move is part of Kraken's
• 12:52
  efforts to expand the operations and move towards a potential IPO
• 12:56
  initial public offering, following in the footsteps of
• 12:58
  other crypto firms like Coinbase and Gemini.
• 13:01
  Of course, Kraken is the first one Yesterday mentioned Coinbase
• 13:05
  and Gemini, but that's because they're all trying to IPOIPO is
• 13:09
  the big, you know, exit for all of the Ogs, the CEOs, the
• 13:14
  C-Suite of these exchanges, It's their payday.
• 13:17
  And you know, a lot of people are just kind of wondering like,
• 13:19
  OK, what is this master account? Well, we, we broke it down
• 13:23
  already. It gives it banking arm direct
• 13:25
  access to the feds core payment systems, and of course, it's the
• 13:28
  first one. So huge news coming out of more
• 13:32
  of the crypto, you know, sector here.
• 13:35
  But this does show that Bitcoin is slowly and surely taking over
• 13:43
  the banking system. Yes, I know Trojan horse meme of
• 13:46
  Bitcoin hasn't been going the best recently, but I think first
• 13:50
  and foremost, Bitcoin has to get a foothold into trad 5.
• 13:56
  That's just how it's going to work.
• 13:58
  I know there's been a lot of ideas or a lot of takes that oh,
• 14:02
  Bitcoin being a parallel economy, it will just do its own
• 14:06
  thing and eventually people will pour into Bitcoin and completely
• 14:10
  ignore the traditional financial system.
• 14:12
  It's, it's a good theory, but in practice you need banking
• 14:17
  services. And for better or worse, the
• 14:19
  banks do not see Bitcoin like we see Bitcoin.
• 14:23
  You still have to use banking services.
• 14:25
  So I know there's a lot of talk about Bitcoin, parallel economy,
• 14:29
  medium exchange, but for most of us all in on Bitcoin, yes, you
• 14:33
  can do the heavy work of trying to live 100% on Bitcoin, but at
• 14:38
  a certain point you're still going to have to interact with
• 14:41
  the Fiat system. Kraken, they just kind of cut
• 14:45
  out a middle man. They're going directly to the
• 14:46
  Fed. It's a pretty big move.
• 14:48
  This is actually a a pretty huge move here.
• 14:51
  So we're seeing a war with the clarity Act banks versus the
• 14:56
  crypto industry. Looks like Trump is siding with
• 14:59
  the crypto industry here. We're seeing Kraken get a master
• 15:02
  account at the Fed. A huge story, a huge first
• 15:05
  historic moment right now in Bitcoin.
• 15:08
  And then of course, the bigger news, well, maybe not bigger
• 15:12
  news, but a big news in the same vein of just how excited I think
• 15:18
  Wall Street is. Our institutions are for Bitcoin
• 15:20
  and it brings its own problems. Of course, it brings its own
• 15:23
  problems as we are currently living through.
• 15:26
  But we see Morgan Stanley now tap Coinbase and BNY Mellon for
• 15:31
  custody in a proposed Bitcoin ETF.
• 15:34
  So more ETFs, though this one is a little different.
• 15:38
  This is a Bitcoin trust. So BNY to act as administrator,
• 15:42
  transfer agent and cash custodian for Morgan Stanley's
• 15:45
  proposed Bitcoin trust. Kind of interesting what what
• 15:50
  the Bitcoin trust might actually be.
• 15:51
  But Morgan Stanley filed with the Seca perspective outlining
• 15:55
  the structure of a proposed Morgan Stanley Bitcoin trust,
• 15:58
  revealing that the fund plans to use Coinbase Custody and the
• 16:01
  Bank of New York Mellons to safeguard its Bitcoin holdings,
• 16:05
  according to the S1 submitted. So big banks coming into custody
• 16:10
  Bitcoin, they're partnering with crypto companies here.
• 16:13
  But again, as we've been covering for years, Nico keeps
• 16:17
  reiterating the same idea about what Michael Saylor has been
• 16:21
  saying is going to drive us into the seven figure numbers.
• 16:24
  It is, of course, the FAZBE accounting rules, the ETFs and
• 16:27
  the bank's custody Bitcoin. Well, we're starting to see more
• 16:31
  of the bank's custody in Bitcoin.
• 16:32
  Now, again, this does come with its own problems.
• 16:35
  I would say personally, I'm not going to be trusting the Tradfi
• 16:40
  brand names to be custodying my Bitcoin because I sell custody
• 16:44
  my Bitcoin, as the meme always goes, you know, oh wait, I
• 16:48
  didn't pull it out for you guys. Sorry.
• 16:50
  As the meme goes, you know, you don't have to trust the banks
• 16:53
  anymore because you can become your own banks.
• 16:56
  And that of course, that also comes with its own set of attack
• 17:00
  vectors here. But it is interesting how a lot
• 17:04
  of people are waiting for the institution to get into Bitcoin
• 17:08
  when in reality, you don't need permission to get into Bitcoin.
• 17:11
  You just need to, you know, sell your Fiat to get some Bitcoin.
• 17:16
  But it is a stark contrast to where we've been the last, you
• 17:21
  know, 15-16 years of Bitcoin, where we've been on the outside,
• 17:26
  we've been getting fought and we've been kind of relegated
• 17:30
  into the dark corners of the Internet.
• 17:32
  And ever since last year, now you're starting to see there is
• 17:37
  a, a gradual move into Bitcoin. And for all of us that's been in
• 17:41
  Bitcoin for a long time, that Bitcoin or the, the meme
• 17:44
  institutions are here, you know, they're going to save Bitcoin,
• 17:47
  they're going to pump our pump our bags.
• 17:49
  It hasn't really happened yet because I think they are still
• 17:54
  like we're seeing with this Morgan Stanley ETF and BNY
• 17:57
  Mellon ETF. It, it takes, it takes a while.
• 18:01
  They, these institutions move very slowly.
• 18:04
  Now, one other thing I do want to bring up real quickly is do
• 18:08
  you guys remember who one of the biggest donors to the Trump
• 18:11
  administration was? It was from a banking family.
• 18:16
  Can you connect the two? It was BNY Mellon.
• 18:20
  So now they're getting into Bitcoin.
• 18:22
  One of the biggest donors to the Trump administration was this
• 18:26
  banking family, the Mellons. And now we're seeing, hey,
• 18:29
  they're getting into Bitcoin. Look, I think you guys seen me
• 18:34
  on the show be like, I don't know how excited I am for
• 18:39
  Bitcoin and politics to collide. Yes, I've gotten more political.
• 18:43
  Yes, this show has gotten more political.
• 18:45
  Rightly so, in my opinion, because politics is here, but
• 18:49
  you're seeing the political machine is starting to get
• 18:53
  behind Bitcoin. The institutional machine is
• 18:56
  starting to get behind Bitcoin. Again, there's pros and cons to
• 19:00
  this. Obviously the Pro is always
• 19:03
  they're going to pump our bags That that that's all I care
• 19:06
  about really. It's like, are they going to
• 19:07
  pump our bags? If they do, all right, cool, we
• 19:10
  don't really need you, but I'll, I'll take some, you know, some
• 19:13
  bag, pump it, cheer. On the flip side, we are seeing
• 19:16
  there is this seemingly coordinated effort to
• 19:20
  centralized a lot of Bitcoin to literally incentivize you to
• 19:24
  give get rid of your Bitcoin into these products.
• 19:27
  And then they can do whatever kind of crazy move they want to
• 19:29
  do or whatever crazy plan they have for your Bitcoin.
• 19:32
  As I always say, it's usually about the shit corners.
• 19:35
  You know, shit corners love Bitcoin, They just love your
• 19:38
  Bitcoin more. I think we can, you know, put an
• 19:41
  iteration on this. Wall Street loves Bitcoin.
• 19:44
  They just love your Bitcoin more.
• 19:46
  So you have to do whatever you can to make sure that you do not
• 19:51
  give up your Bitcoin. Do not fall for the siren song.
• 19:54
  Now I know we're all wondering what exactly is pushing the
• 19:57
  Bitcoin price, like why is Bitcoin currently in the face of
• 20:03
  macro geopolitical uncertainty that you would expect Bitcoin to
• 20:07
  drop? I was fully expecting Bitcoin to
• 20:10
  crash on Monday and here we are. Bitcoin is up at 73 K.
• 20:16
  It is a very interesting thought experiment that I will talk
• 20:19
  about towards the end of the show 'cause I'm going to compare
• 20:21
  it to other assets currently and how well Bitcoin has performed
• 20:25
  so. Maybe there's not one storyline
• 20:29
  that is pumping Bitcoin right now.
• 20:32
  It could be as Nick Bhatia tweeted, a combination of all
• 20:36
  these things. He's like I reflect reflected on
• 20:38
  this morning Bitcoin news for a couple of hours.
• 20:41
  This was at 10 AM. You know, this news came out in
• 20:43
  the morning. He goes.
• 20:44
  The combination of cracking, getting a Federal Reserve master
• 20:47
  account, Morgan Stanley filing for a Bitcoin ETF with BNY
• 20:50
  Mellon as custodian feels like just another institutional
• 20:54
  adoption Newsday. But in reality, it's probably
• 20:58
  one of those days that changes the game again forever in
• 21:02
  bitcoins favor the USA is Bitcoin country.
• 21:05
  And I think with the news of Trump coming out and really
• 21:10
  standing on the frontline to being like, look, we have to get
• 21:12
  this clarity act through. It really is oh, I didn't pull
• 21:15
  it up. It really is kind of changing
• 21:17
  the tide here, especially when you we you see that like we're
• 21:22
  in another war in Iran right now.
• 21:23
  A lot of a lot of conversation, a lot of contention of whether
• 21:26
  we're in a forever war or whether this is going to end in,
• 21:29
  you know, a few days, a few weeks, a few months.
• 21:32
  We really don't know what's going on.
• 21:34
  And that is where I was most curious about this this morning.
• 21:37
  It's like like Trump, I feel like has a lot more on his plate
• 21:41
  this morning in, in regards to what is happening in Iran that
• 21:47
  the fact that he's tweeting about the clarity act now, it is
• 21:50
  a, it is a strange move to me personally.
• 21:53
  Now, you guys in the chat might think differently, but from my
• 21:57
  kind of, you know, game theory of what is the highest bullet
• 22:03
  point on Trump's list of things he needs to do, I was fully
• 22:07
  convinced that the crypto stuff, the Bitcoin stuff, the Clarity
• 22:11
  Act would be at the lower part of his list.
• 22:13
  And here we are in the middle of the skirmish.
• 22:16
  He thinks it's important to be tweeting about the Clarity Act.
• 22:19
  Now, you could argue a lot of different ways on this.
• 22:23
  I know some of the chat is not so Trump friendly.
• 22:27
  I've been very critical on Trump.
• 22:29
  Nico is still wrapping his head around the idea of is Trump good
• 22:33
  or bad for Bitcoin? Was it a mistake to vote him in
• 22:38
  again? I truly believe that the Bitcoin
• 22:42
  idea, the Bitcoin superpower of the world, I think it is a good
• 22:47
  idea. We saw it take place in El
• 22:49
  Salvador. It was a great idea for El
• 22:51
  Salvador. Though El Salvador is a tiny
• 22:53
  country, it's a blip on the map. the US being the world reserve
• 22:57
  superpower, being the head superpower, at least for now.
• 23:01
  Embracing Bitcoin is a huge narrative shift from what we've
• 23:06
  been doing in Bitcoin in the past to where we currently are
• 23:09
  now. Now I know a lot of us and me
• 23:12
  included, and some of you guys in the chat, we look at Trump
• 23:16
  getting into Bitcoin and we're probably wondering and debating
• 23:19
  like, was it really a good idea? It it's almost like he's done
• 23:22
  more harm to our space than good recently.
• 23:26
  But if the clarity Act does get approved or the bill that
• 23:30
  they're going to vote through does get approved and it is
• 23:33
  favorable for the industry and capital does come into Bitcoin
• 23:37
  or sorry, into the US for Bitcoin and crypto at large.
• 23:41
  I think it will be one of those defining moments.
• 23:43
  So I do, I don't want to do the, the, the, you know,
• 23:50
  quintessential, like sometimes centuries happened in days and
• 23:54
  sometimes there's centuries that nothing happened.
• 23:56
  But today's news story does or multiple news stories does seem
• 24:00
  like one of those days that we will probably be looking back on
• 24:04
  and being like, OK, you know, in hindsight, the signs were there.
• 24:08
  It's very obvious what is going on.
• 24:11
  I think a lot of the uncertainty, a lot of the
• 24:13
  division going on right now, I really believe that the Bitcoin
• 24:17
  stuff, the crypto stuff was going to just completely be
• 24:20
  sidelined, not talked about again, especially since the
• 24:23
  midterms are coming up. But Trump found it very
• 24:26
  important to be tweeting about this.
• 24:28
  And again, you know, he just, he did have a meeting with Brian
• 24:32
  Armstrong and the timeline apparently suggests that he had
• 24:35
  a closed door meeting with Brian Armstrong.
• 24:37
  Then he tweeted this. So maybe Brian Armstrong was
• 24:40
  able to get in his ear and be like, look, it's the banks that
• 24:43
  are fighting us. We want to try to get what your
• 24:46
  agenda is across the goal line, but it's the banks that are
• 24:50
  fighting us yesterday, like the clip I played you Jamie Diamonds
• 24:53
  out here like, hey, we want you know, we're we're not the ones
• 24:55
  that are slowing the clarity Act Bill is like, we want to get
• 25:00
  this done. We just want to make sure it's
• 25:01
  fair and competitive and level playing field where they're
• 25:05
  literally the biggest bank in the world and they probably have
• 25:08
  all of the not so fair advantages here.
• 25:12
  The timing is very interesting from my opinion and especially
• 25:15
  now that Bitcoin is pumping well, I mean, for us, that's
• 25:19
  been around for a while. This could be considered a, you
• 25:21
  know, pump for ants here. But the fact that Bitcoin is at
• 25:24
  73 K and we're seeing all these news, I don't think we can
• 25:28
  pinpoint one specific news line to really explain the Bitcoin
• 25:33
  pump. I think it's a multitude of
• 25:36
  factors right now. And of course, the simple supply
• 25:39
  demand dynamics of Bitcoin. It's probably just because
• 25:42
  someone wants to buy a lot of Bitcoin.
• 25:44
  The reason the Bitcoin price goes up, it's because people are
• 25:47
  buying Bitcoin right now. But again, that narrative in and
• 25:51
  of itself is very interesting considering I think most of us
• 25:55
  would think that World War Three would be bad for Bitcoin.
• 25:58
  Now, we're still not necessarily in World War Three, but that is
• 26:02
  what the narrative is. It's like, man, did did Trump
• 26:04
  just start World War 3 and now he's focused on Bitcoin and the
• 26:08
  Clarity Act passing? It's like I think he's got
• 26:10
  bigger fish to fry right now. But hey, it seems like they're
• 26:14
  still very serious to try to get the Clarity Act across.
• 26:18
  Excuse me. And I know, like I said, there
• 26:20
  was like a kind of a pseudo deadline of March 1st.
• 26:23
  Now that's the deadline that Trump wanted to make it happen.
• 26:26
  It's not the official deadline. There's still speculations and
• 26:30
  rumors that we might get something for the Clarity Act
• 26:34
  through by the end of March. So this is an ongoing developing
• 26:37
  story here. Again, I'm I'm really not
• 26:41
  holding my breath on it, but this is some positive momentum
• 26:46
  that the clarity Act will pass. And the only reason most
• 26:49
  bitcoiners probably want the clarity Act is the whole
• 26:52
  regulatory, you know, rules of the road here is most likely, or
• 26:56
  at least this is the thesis going to attract more capital
• 27:00
  into Bitcoin. The idea is that a lot of
• 27:02
  institutions and investors are sitting on the sideline until
• 27:05
  they get some clear rules of the road.
• 27:08
  Now, obviously there's other factors playing out right now,
• 27:11
  which is of course, the war in the Middle East.
• 27:14
  I think a lot of investors, a lot of people that are looking
• 27:16
  where to deploy their capital are sitting on the sidelines.
• 27:19
  They're not really sure, but the markets are reacting very
• 27:23
  interesting. They they've been whipsawing in
• 27:26
  equities, in gold and silver this morning.
• 27:28
  Almost everything is up. So it's very interesting when
• 27:33
  you try to understand the investing mentality here.
• 27:37
  It's like, is our investors pricing in the idea that we're
• 27:43
  not going to be in a forever war?
• 27:44
  Are they finally fully digesting the fact that we are in a new
• 27:50
  war in the Middle East, even though Trump said we weren't
• 27:52
  going to be there? So I think we are starting to
• 27:56
  see that people are currently at least going through the 1st
• 28:00
  phases of deploying their capital where they think it it
• 28:03
  needs to go so that they can get a really good return.
• 28:07
  So we'll see. We're we're definitely on the
• 28:10
  sidelines, us bit corners that are all in.
• 28:12
  We're just kind of sitting here like twiddling our thumbs just
• 28:15
  like, OK, can something happen? Can something finally happen?
• 28:19
  Because it's been slow, it's been boring.
• 28:21
  The news has been pretty slow recently.
• 28:24
  And then this morning we get a bunch of news happening and
• 28:27
  you're like, OK, well, maybe maybe the first, you know, first
• 28:31
  month or two of the year was very slow.
• 28:34
  And maybe now we're going to ramp up the news cycle and a
• 28:37
  bunch of things are going to happen just consecutively
• 28:40
  back-to-back to back. Now, I, I don't have any insight
• 28:44
  if we're going to get anything big happening this week, but it
• 28:47
  does seem like the, you know, the actions around Bitcoin are,
• 28:50
  are starting to ramp up a little bit.
• 28:52
  So I wouldn't be surprised if we start seeing some fireworks
• 28:55
  happening in Bitcoin, whether it's big news story, whether
• 28:57
  it's the price start going up. Though I did ask you guys
• 29:00
  yesterday, do you guys think this is a suckers rally?
• 29:03
  I think a lot of us are thinking it is a suckers rally.
• 29:06
  Obviously, I'm, I'm on the opposite side.
• 29:08
  I'm like, Nah, bro, I told you the bear market wasn't going to
• 29:12
  go to 40. KII told you we were going to go
• 29:14
  sideways. Yes, it went lower than I
• 29:15
  thought it was. So I'm I'm still, I'm still
• 29:18
  unsure. I'm 5050 right now.
• 29:20
  I'm prepared for the worst, but I am starting to get hopeful.
• 29:24
  I am starting to get a little bullish that hey, maybe this
• 29:27
  isn't the absolute breakout out of the bear market, but this
• 29:31
  could be the beginning of the end of the bear market.
• 29:35
  If that's the case, then we might not have to wait till
• 29:38
  October to get a bottom here. We might not even have to wait
• 29:41
  till summertime to get a bottom here.
• 29:44
  We could start seeing the price action respond very well.
• 29:48
  And I, I've been seeing some, some, you know, Bitcoin
• 29:51
  influencers saying that Bitcoin always goes up in March and
• 29:54
  we're going to crash after March.
• 29:56
  That could be the case. This could be the suckers rally.
• 29:58
  This, this could be, you know, historically Bitcoin does pretty
• 30:01
  well in March. So this could be the fake out
• 30:03
  pump and then we dump again. So I'm not going to get too
• 30:06
  excited here, but I am starting to get a little more optimistic
• 30:09
  about where we currently are in the bear market cycle.
• 30:12
  Again, only hindsight will show me whether I was right or wrong.
• 30:16
  So look, I, I leave, you know, the optionality of me changing
• 30:22
  my opinion as more information comes in, but it, it's looking
• 30:26
  pretty good. Again, the biggest surprising
• 30:28
  thing for me is 1, how Bitcoin has reacted on the news of a, a
• 30:32
  new war in the Middle East. And then two, Trump talking
• 30:36
  about the clarity act while he's in the middle of operation Epic
• 30:40
  Fury, you know, continuing this mission in the Middle East.
• 30:43
  It's just the, the coincidences, the timing, however you want to
• 30:46
  look at this, It's all very interesting from my opinion.
• 30:50
  It's starting to make the case like, oh, OK, maybe maybe the
• 30:53
  bear market wasn't as bad as we all expected it to be, which is
• 30:56
  kind of what a lot of people been saying.
• 30:58
  No 8, you know, no blow off top, therefore no 80% correction
• 31:02
  could be playing out like this. So the point remains the same
• 31:06
  for you guys that are just stacking Bitcoin continuously,
• 31:09
  that don't look at the price. This really doesn't change
• 31:11
  anything. But the narratives around
• 31:14
  Bitcoin, the, the, the happenings, the news stories
• 31:17
  that are happening around Bitcoin, it is starting to, you
• 31:20
  know, change course. It is starting to feel a little
• 31:22
  more positive for the Bitcoin industry.
• 31:25
  Maybe the end of this year we will be seeing some fireworks.
• 31:27
  It's all I'm saying, May maybe the doom and gloom
• 31:31
  demoralization of Bitcoiners, maybe we saw the worst behind
• 31:35
  us. It's all I'm saying here, guys.
• 31:37
  That's all I'm going to say. OK, now for the rest of the
• 31:41
  show. I do have an interesting clip
• 31:43
  coming out of Fox News in regards to the, you know, free
• 31:48
  Iran. What what happens if the Trump
• 31:51
  administration is successful in Iran and what that means for
• 31:54
  Bitcoin. Again, shouts out to Charles
• 31:57
  Payne, another really great Bitcoin podcaster.
• 32:00
  He's not really, he's on Fox News, but he's pro Bitcoin.
• 32:03
  And then we got some interesting news coming out of the ECB.
• 32:07
  My girl, Chrissy Lagarde, she's getting very scared here and
• 32:10
  saying the obvious out loud. She's saying the quiet parts out
• 32:14
  loud, guys, maybe we are winning.
• 32:17
  Maybe this is what winning feels like and then like I said a
• 32:20
  minute ago to in the culture, I am going to analyze a little bit
• 32:25
  of how Bitcoin has reacted in regards to all of these
• 32:29
  geopolitical macro events. And you know, spoiler, Bitcoin's
• 32:33
  still doing the best in regards to all of the crazy stuff
• 32:36
  happening. So first commercial break, I'll
• 32:38
  be right back after this announcement or you know,
• 32:42
  commercial from our partners one second.
• 32:46
  Today's episode is brought to you by Bitcoin Well Infinite.
• 32:50
  If you're a serious Bitcoin buyer, you've probably hit the
• 32:53
  same wall. Most platforms make you give up
• 32:55
  custody just to play by the rules.
• 32:58
  Bitcoin Well Infinite fixes that.
• 33:00
  They're North America's only publicly traded, non custodial
• 33:04
  OTC desk listed on the TSX Venture Exchange, which means
• 33:09
  transparent operations and 0 counterparty risk.
• 33:13
  You buy Bitcoin, you take immediate control.
• 33:15
  Period. For trades over $50,000, you get
• 33:19
  a dedicated executive Bitcoin advisor, competitive spread
• 33:23
  starting at 1% and immediate delivery straight to your own
• 33:26
  wallet. No custody risk, no withdrawal
• 33:29
  fees, just institutional grade execution with full asset
• 33:34
  control. If you want to buy Bitcoin the
• 33:35
  right way, book a free consultation at
• 33:38
  bitcoinwell.com/OTC or e-mail infinite@bitcoinwell.com.
• 33:45
  I want to give a shout out to our partner stamp seed.
• 33:47
  Is your Bitcoin and cold storage really secure?
• 33:50
  Are your seed phrases really secure?
• 33:52
  Stamp seeds do it yourself kit has everything you'll need for
• 33:55
  you to hammer your seed words into commercial grade titanium
• 33:59
  plates instead of just writing them down on paper.
• 34:02
  Paper is fragile. Titanium plates are strong.
• 34:06
  Your words are actually stamped into the titanium plate with
• 34:10
  this hammer and these letter stamping tools.
• 34:13
  Once the words are in, they aren't going anywhere.
• 34:16
  No risk of the plate breaking apart and pieces falling
• 34:20
  everywhere. Titanium stamp seeds will
• 34:22
  survive nearly triple the heat produced by a house fire.
• 34:25
  They're also crush proof, waterproof, non corrosive, and
• 34:29
  time proof. And now you can customize your
• 34:32
  titanium seed plates. You can upload your design or
• 34:36
  logo and they will laser engrave it on the back of your seed
• 34:40
  plate, the opposite side of where the words are.
• 34:43
  Stamp your seed on stamps and use promo code simply to get 15%
• 34:49
  off anything on the Stamp se-ed.com store.
• 34:56
  All right, guys. So Chad, you guys are funny.
• 35:02
  The current Bitcoin price is $73,150 per Bitcoin, which is a
• 35:08
  42% discount from all time high. The market cap, it's inching
• 35:12
  back up guys. We're getting closer to 2
• 35:15
  trillion. That $1.3 trillion market cap,
• 35:17
  man, that was brutal. It's really making me feel bad
• 35:21
  about myself here. We're currently at 1.46
• 35:23
  trillion. The block height TikTok next
• 35:25
  block, the universal time on planet Earth is the block
• 35:29
  height. We are currently at 939,296.
• 35:34
  All right guys. So as I was telling you, we are
• 35:37
  seeing interesting stuff, some interesting developments.
• 35:40
  And you know, what we like to do here on the show a lot is some
• 35:45
  days we don't just talk about the news per SE.
• 35:49
  We talk about how the corporate press, the propaganda machines
• 35:55
  talk about Bitcoin. And obviously for the entire
• 35:59
  history of Bitcoin, they usually have a bias bent against
• 36:04
  Bitcoin. And only in the last few years
• 36:08
  really because of Joe Kernan on Squawk Box and Charles Payne on
• 36:11
  Fox News did we see a a more positive view on Bitcoin.
• 36:16
  And This is why I call them the Bitcoin podcasters, the best
• 36:20
  Bitcoin podcasters. It's, it's really 'cause they
• 36:22
  have huge platforms and they obviously are pro Bitcoin.
• 36:28
  This clip is pretty interesting though.
• 36:31
  From my perspective, I would say maybe it's a little hopium.
• 36:35
  It, it, it's, it's a little hopeful.
• 36:38
  OK, it, it, I think while the, the, the theory is probably
• 36:43
  correct, I think it's assuming a lot.
• 36:48
  But nonetheless, the fact that we're hearing this come out on
• 36:51
  Fox News is very interesting though.
• 36:54
  We, we could, we got to be 100% obvious honest here.
• 36:57
  Like in the last few weeks or sorry, the last few days I have
• 37:00
  been flipping between CNN, Fox News, CNBC, just to see how each
• 37:05
  side is talking about the war in Iran, just to see what
• 37:09
  narratives they're talking about.
• 37:10
  You know what, what the bias is, who's pro who's, who's for it?
• 37:14
  You know who's somewhat neutral on this idea?
• 37:17
  Obviously, you could probably guess who's who just based on
• 37:20
  what I what I said. And Fox News, obviously they've
• 37:24
  been very favorable towards the war in Iran.
• 37:27
  So this is a favorable take on the war in Iran.
• 37:30
  But they brought in an interesting take here, which is
• 37:33
  Bitcoin. And we're seeing this
• 37:35
  conversation happen on Fox News, on the public press, the
• 37:38
  corporate press, this idea of like, wait, and actually me and
• 37:42
  Sophie were talking about this. We were, we were joking about a
• 37:46
  title for a show. And it's like, is World War
• 37:48
  three actually good for Bitcoin? Like how come Bitcoin's pumping?
• 37:52
  Why are we seeing on Fox News they talk favorably about
• 37:56
  Bitcoin in the context of a war. I know Bitcoin in from our
• 38:01
  perspective, one of our big memes is this idea of Bitcoin
• 38:05
  being anti war Fiat being pro war Fiat is literally the money
• 38:10
  of war. They, they took a pretty
• 38:12
  interesting, interesting take on, on this clip on Fox News.
• 38:16
  So I'm going to play again. You know, I think directionally
• 38:20
  it's probably correct in the sense of like, yeah, I, I can
• 38:24
  see this playing out. I think it's, it's a bit
• 38:26
  hopeful, but let me play the clip and then and then I'll I'll
• 38:29
  gauge your guys's opinion on it. 87% of the Iranians inside Iran
• 38:34
  and 93% of Iranians outside Iran are ready to topple that down
• 38:40
  this region. We have a leader, Reza Pahlavi,
• 38:42
  who's going to lead the transition into a free Iran.
• 38:45
  And after that, Oh my gosh, it is going to be a new day in the
• 38:49
  world. Less Fewer proxy world wars,
• 38:52
  less terrorism. A new ally for the US with a lot
• 38:56
  of energy. And that's why you talk about a
• 38:58
  freedom run with the big picture because everyone's looking right
• 39:00
  now at oil prices. You're like, forget about about
• 39:02
  that. Let's look at the big, big
• 39:03
  picture. Good coin.
• 39:04
  I just talked about it with David forming a bottom here.
• 39:08
  Are you buying Bitcoin here? So here's another I'm going to
• 39:10
  actually bring back Iran. Islamic regime actually controls
• 39:13
  2 to 5% of Bitcoin hash rate globally.
• 39:17
  So because it's again the energy, so supply of Bitcoin in
• 39:22
  the free Iran is potentially going to go down.
• 39:24
  What does that mean? Low supply for the market, low
• 39:27
  supply, high demand. So yes, I'm buying.
• 39:31
  Love it. Love it.
• 39:32
  Yeah. You know, more demand usually
• 39:35
  means Bitcoin price goes up again.
• 39:37
  The framing is the most interesting aspect of this.
• 39:41
  They're on Fox News, historically right leaning.
• 39:45
  They are pro, pro whatever the Republican president does.
• 39:49
  So they are painting the war in Iran very favorably.
• 39:53
  You know, a free Iran is kind of the idea.
• 39:57
  If you guys remember what Trump said in regards to why they did
• 40:00
  Operation Epic Fury, it was essentially to destroy the
• 40:04
  leadership there and let the people, you know, rise, let the
• 40:07
  people take control of their government.
• 40:10
  There's still a lot of debate if whether that is actually going
• 40:13
  to happen, that they are trying to do the Venezuela model on
• 40:17
  Iran, though, apparently, you know, wasn't able to happen over
• 40:21
  the weekend. It wasn't able to happen from
• 40:23
  Friday night to Monday morning. We're there now.
• 40:26
  And the narratives that we are hearing from the Trump
• 40:28
  administration is, is a little conflicted.
• 40:32
  They started off with, hey, this is going to be 4 to 5 days and
• 40:35
  then it's going to be 4 to 6 months.
• 40:37
  And now the the most recent headlines are like, we don't
• 40:42
  know if we're going to be there for a little bit.
• 40:43
  We might be there for a lot longer.
• 40:45
  Trump is even saying forever wars now.
• 40:48
  So look, the idea, at least the official narrative is like, this
• 40:53
  is going to be short. This is going to be quick.
• 40:55
  We will be seeing a free Iran and and that's at least what
• 41:00
  they want to happen. Now whether that will happen is
• 41:03
  a totally different conversation.
• 41:04
  But again, bringing the Bitcoins narrative back in here, the
• 41:07
  Bitcoin story of this is they're on Fox News talking about, hey,
• 41:11
  a free Iran will obviously benefit Bitcoin in in a few
• 41:15
  ways. The people will be able to save
• 41:17
  in Bitcoin. As we saw when I showed you guys
• 41:19
  the chart yesterday, since the war or actually preceding the
• 41:24
  war, the build up to the war, we are seeing a lot of money on
• 41:29
  Iranian exchanges or from Iranian citizens flowing into
• 41:33
  Bitcoin and we're seeing that Bitcoin leave the exchanges.
• 41:37
  So the Bitcoin narrative of when you need Bitcoin because of
• 41:41
  geopolitical uncertainty, because you maybe don't trust
• 41:44
  your government, because you know when there is a war, it's
• 41:47
  hard to get your money out of the banks.
• 41:49
  We are seeing that flight to safety into Bitcoin as
• 41:53
  Bitcoiners have always been saying this was going to happen.
• 41:57
  It's happening now. The interesting take on this is
• 42:00
  like, hey, there's a lot of energy, of course, in the Middle
• 42:02
  East. They do have a significant
• 42:04
  amount of hash rate. Now, will that increase if there
• 42:07
  is a free Iran or further, will the proliferation of Bitcoin
• 42:11
  increase in the country? Once people to understand the
• 42:16
  power of Bitcoin, that idea that, hey, you don't have to
• 42:20
  trust the banks, you don't have to trust the traditional banking
• 42:22
  system. All you have to do is get money
• 42:23
  into it, take it off the exchange.
• 42:26
  So if this does play out exactly like the Trump administration
• 42:29
  views it, well, a short term free Iran, then you could kind
• 42:36
  of venture to guess or at least speculate that Iran might become
• 42:40
  a a hotbed for or maybe that's not the best and they might
• 42:43
  become a a perfect soil for a circular economy to build in
• 42:50
  Iran. Now, that is the fabled, you
• 42:52
  know, moving goal post that Bitcoiners always like to talk
• 42:56
  about this idea that true Bitcoin adoption is not just
• 43:00
  about the price going up, but it's people actually using
• 43:03
  Bitcoin. And by that they mean using
• 43:05
  Bitcoin as money. Though I would argue what we're
• 43:08
  seeing from the data is Iranians actually using Bitcoin as a
• 43:11
  flight to safety, as a store of value, as something that if you
• 43:15
  do need to move, you put it in Bitcoin.
• 43:18
  And it's a lot easier to move cross-border than, you know,
• 43:21
  say, a hyperinflating currency or gold or jewelry or whatever
• 43:26
  it is. This is the use case of Bitcoin
• 43:30
  happening, being tried, being tested and fully vindicated in
• 43:34
  real time. You actually love to see it.
• 43:38
  It is. It is a a bit bittersweet
• 43:41
  considering the chaos and the turmoil that's happening over
• 43:44
  there. But this is what Bitcoiners have
• 43:47
  been saying for a long time. This is why you need Bitcoin for
• 43:50
  anyone out there that's saying there's no use case for Bitcoin.
• 43:54
  I don't think this is a better like you couldn't have a better
• 43:58
  example than to be like, look, this is on the ground real time
• 44:04
  use of Bitcoin that no other money in the world can even come
• 44:08
  close to. It's, it's honestly, again, it's
• 44:12
  bittersweet and it sounds kind of messed up to say, but this
• 44:15
  is, this is great to see. You'd love to see that.
• 44:18
  Yes, there is turmoil in the Middle East.
• 44:21
  Yes, you the, the Iranian rial is absolutely hyperinflating
• 44:26
  currently and we are seeing a flight to safety to Bitcoin.
• 44:33
  Anyone that says there's no use case for Bitcoin, all you're
• 44:36
  doing is hoarding Bitcoin. I this this might be one of
• 44:40
  those new stories to really pull on their heartstrings.
• 44:42
  Now, you know, not to say that we need to emotionally
• 44:47
  manipulate everyone to buy into Bitcoin, but emotionally
• 44:53
  persuasive data points do get people to start to change their
• 44:59
  tune around Bitcoin. So it is a very interesting
• 45:01
  development to just see that Fox News talking about the war,
• 45:06
  they're talking about Bitcoin being a use case to offset the
• 45:10
  troubles of the Iranian people. It's happening, guys.
• 45:13
  It really is happening. Now I know I've been critical.
• 45:17
  I've been cynical on the idea of like, if this is what winning
• 45:20
  feels like, it doesn't feel that good.
• 45:23
  OK, I I've been on that boat. I am, I am on that boat.
• 45:29
  But seeing these data points are seeing these news stories,
• 45:34
  seeing this happen in real time, it does make me feel a little
• 45:37
  more optimistic about where we're going.
• 45:40
  It does make me, you know, feel less of a doomer, less, you
• 45:44
  know, beat down, less demoralized because Bitcoin is
• 45:48
  working exactly as it's been designed.
• 45:50
  As we've all been saying, it's doing exactly as it should be
• 45:55
  when people need it most. And that's probably the biggest
• 45:58
  take away for Bitcoin. Yes, you know, we want the
• 46:00
  Bitcoin price to run. We want Bitcoin to go up.
• 46:04
  We personally, I feel cheated by not having you know, number go
• 46:10
  up in 2025, but Bitcoin is winning.
• 46:14
  People are using Bitcoin when they need it and that is one of
• 46:17
  those narratives or rather one of those memes, those rhetorical
• 46:20
  tools that bitcoiners have been using.
• 46:22
  It's hey, like bitcoins not going away, TikTok next block.
• 46:26
  Bitcoin will be there for you when you need it most and it's
• 46:30
  happening guys. So there is Silver Linings
• 46:32
  throughout all of the crazy stuff that we're seeing in the
• 46:34
  world right now. There is a silver lining
• 46:37
  starting off 2026. Maybe, maybe, just maybe, I'm
• 46:44
  going to have to be a little more stoic here.
• 46:45
  You know, I'm I I can't let my emotions run with the price with
• 46:49
  the headlines. This is a bittersweet feel good
• 46:52
  news story in my opinion. And hey, bitcoins working like
• 46:56
  we we thought it would all right guys, this one's going to be a
• 46:59
  little fun. I actually here's a here.
• 47:01
  There was a good comment in here by one of one of our friends in
• 47:05
  the chat. Let me let me just say this
• 47:07
  comment before, if I can find it, before I move into, yeah,
• 47:12
  here we go, our boy Winsome. And I'm saying this because I
• 47:16
  think it sets a good context for the ECB news that we're going to
• 47:20
  see winsome hacks goes if you steal something, you end up not
• 47:24
  being allowed to do certain jobs, not when you're Lagarde's
• 47:27
  social class. So just just keep that little
• 47:29
  troll in mind while we talk about the ECB in the next
• 47:34
  segment. I'll be right back.
• 47:37
  I want to give a shout out to our partner Leaden, the leader
• 47:41
  in Bitcoin Back Loans unlock the liquidity in your Bitcoin
• 47:44
  without having to sell your Bitcoin.
• 47:47
  They've issued $9 billion in loans to over 10,000 customers
• 47:51
  since 2018. I absolutely love these guys.
• 47:54
  Not only do I have an account with them, but I also have a
• 47:57
  loan. And what I love about them is
• 47:59
  that there are no monthly payments and you could pay back
• 48:01
  the loan at any time. As soon as you send your Bitcoin
• 48:04
  as collateral, you'll have cash in your account within 24 hours.
• 48:08
  Over 1005 star customer reviews and they've never lost a single
• 48:13
  dollar or sat of customer money. Go to learn dot leaden dot IO
• 48:18
  slash simply today and you'll get .25% off your first loan.
• 48:24
  I want to give a shout out to our partnersat123.com.
• 48:27
  Sovereignty isn't just about your money, it's about your
• 48:30
  communications too. When the grid goes down, most
• 48:33
  people go dark. Cell towers fail and hurricanes,
• 48:36
  cyber attacks and blackouts the satellite phones.
• 48:39
  They don't rely on local infrastructure.
• 48:41
  Iridium has 77 satellites in orbit, giving you a Direct Line
• 48:45
  anywhere in the US, even offshore.
• 48:47
  If you hold your own Bitcoin keys, you should hold your own
• 48:50
  comstoosat123.com also has everything you need need to
• 48:54
  start building your Bitcoin. Citadel, Starlink, battery
• 48:58
  backups, Faraday backs to protect your hardware wallets
• 49:01
  and much much more. It's a one stop shop for anyone
• 49:04
  serious about resilience and off grid independence.
• 49:07
  Stay connected, stay independent, stay software.
• 49:10
  Go to sat123.com/simply today and use promo code simply to get
• 49:16
  15% off anything on the store. I want to give a shout out to
• 49:19
  our partner Big Key. If you already self custody your
• 49:22
  Bitcoin, you know the deal with hardware wallets by now.
• 49:25
  Complex setups, clumsy interfaces, and a seed phrase
• 49:29
  that can be lost, stolen or forgotten.
• 49:31
  Bit Key fixes that. Bit Key is a multi sig hardware
• 49:35
  wallet built by the team behind Square and Cash Out.
• 49:38
  It packs a cryptographic recovery system and built an
• 49:42
  inheritance feature into an intuitive, easy to use wallet
• 49:45
  with no seed phrase to sweat over it's.
• 49:48
  Simple. Secure self custody without the
• 49:51
  stress time names bit key. One of the best inventions of
• 49:54
  2024 get 20% off at bitkey dot world.
• 49:58
  That's BITKEY dot world with the code simply.
• 50:10
  Everybody OK, maybe, maybe later, maybe you'll get one
• 50:15
  minute. All right.
• 50:17
  OK, guys, get get this. So a new European Central Bank
• 50:21
  paper, dropped research paper and the short of it, and I will
• 50:28
  read just a little bit of it, but the short of it is the ECB
• 50:32
  dropped a paper warning that growing stablecoin adoption
• 50:36
  could pull deposits out of banks, constrained lending and
• 50:39
  weaken its ability to transmit money, transmit monetary policy
• 50:44
  with the risk rising sharply as adoption scale.
• 50:48
  It's almost like that's the point, right?
• 50:50
  Like I, I look Chrissy or ECB, she didn't write it.
• 50:55
  It's like, you know, it's almost like that's the point.
• 50:58
  It's almost like you're pointing out the obvious.
• 51:01
  Again, we're seeing we, we are seeing a narrative from banks,
• 51:05
  central banks, regional banks, you know, the Jamie Diamonds,
• 51:08
  the Christie Lagarde, the Jerome Powells of the world really
• 51:12
  point out the obvious of what Bitcoin and I guess further
• 51:15
  stable coins are doing. And they kind of painted as
• 51:18
  like, oh, this is a bad thing and you're just like, no, like
• 51:22
  this, like that's the point. This is the point, This is the
• 51:25
  point of this. Okay, so anyways, let me let me
• 51:29
  pull up the paper real quick here is on the ECB.
• 51:32
  This is actually from the European Central Bank.
• 51:36
  I went, I went to the government, I searched for it
• 51:38
  guys, and it is titled Working Paper Series, Stable Coins and
• 51:43
  Monetary Policy transmission. Again, you know, it's 46 pages.
• 51:48
  We're not going to read this mumbo jumbo, but I will read a
• 51:52
  little bit, not the abstract, but the non-technical summary,
• 51:58
  of course, start talking about digital assets and how people
• 52:01
  are starting to use it and how, you know, the central bank might
• 52:06
  need to update their infrastructure.
• 52:08
  At the very least, keep in mind that this is a phenomenon that's
• 52:13
  happening. So here's the first point with
• 52:16
  the question How do stable coins affect banks?
• 52:19
  The first key finding is that growing use of stable coins can
• 52:22
  lead people and firms to move money out of the traditional
• 52:25
  bank deposits and into digital assets.
• 52:28
  Again, dude, the absolute obvious like these guys get paid
• 52:31
  to do. I thought these guys were smart.
• 52:33
  What are we doing here? And it goes.
• 52:35
  Banks rely heavily on deposits as a stable and low cost source
• 52:39
  of funding to support lending the households and businesses.
• 52:43
  When deposits decline, banks may be forced to rely more on
• 52:46
  wholesale or market based funding, which is typically more
• 52:49
  expensive and less stable. Our analysis shows that
• 52:52
  increasing interest in and attention towards stable coins
• 52:55
  are associated with a measurable decline in retail bank deposits
• 52:59
  and a reduction in bank lending to firms.
• 53:02
  In other words, stablecoins can reduce the amount of credit
• 53:05
  banks provide to the real economy.
• 53:07
  Importantly, these effects are non linear and depend critically
• 53:10
  on the scale of stablecoin adoption, their design features
• 53:13
  and their regulatory treatment. Yeah, that is literally the
• 53:17
  point. Bitcoin, and I guess to some
• 53:21
  extent stablecoins do limit your ability to create money out of
• 53:27
  thin air. This is the point of all this.
• 53:31
  If you don't understand how banking works, very simply, and
• 53:35
  maybe this is too simple, but when you give your money to a
• 53:38
  bank, they take your money. It doesn't sit in an account
• 53:43
  untouched. They take your money and they
• 53:45
  lend that money so that they can make a return, therefore
• 53:49
  expanding the money supply, creating literally money out of
• 53:53
  thin air. You got to remember, debt is
• 53:55
  money. Those dollar bills you have in
• 53:57
  your pocket, that is just an IOU.
• 54:00
  That is just a claim on debt. It's not real.
• 54:03
  It's literally just a paper IOU saying, hey, this was created
• 54:07
  out of thin air. This is someone's debt that we
• 54:10
  are monitoring advertising so that you can use it as a
• 54:12
  currency. Here we have the ECB report
• 54:16
  stating the absolute obvious. It's like it's yes, this is the
• 54:20
  point. At at least we can all agree on
• 54:23
  that. This is the war going on.
• 54:25
  Hence this whole theme of today's show is very simple.
• 54:29
  And someone in the chat said it earlier.
• 54:30
  I think it was down under Blues. He's like, this is a war with
• 54:34
  Fiat. This is Bitcoin versus Fiat
• 54:37
  currency. This is a monetary war
• 54:40
  happening. It's not kinetic, it's not
• 54:42
  violent. It is an ideological information
• 54:46
  war. But finally we're seeing the ECB
• 54:49
  acknowledge what is going on. Yes, if people start using
• 54:52
  Bitcoin, you will have less money to create more debt.
• 54:56
  That is the literal point of this.
• 54:59
  That is what we're trying to do. I'm glad we can agree on the
• 55:02
  terms. Finally, though of course, this
• 55:05
  this report, it's making this seem like a bad thing, which in
• 55:09
  in fact is really a good thing. Now going further goes, what
• 55:13
  does this mean for monetary policy?
• 55:14
  The second finding concerns how monetary policy works in the
• 55:18
  euro area. Banks play a central role in
• 55:20
  transmitting interest rate changes to households and firms.
• 55:23
  When deposits shift into stable coins, or from our perspective
• 55:26
  into Bitcoin, this transmission mechanism changes.
• 55:30
  We find that stable coin adoptions interfere with
• 55:32
  multiple monetary policy transmission channels,
• 55:34
  potentially weakening the predictability of policy
• 55:38
  actions. I mean, maybe just like, you
• 55:43
  know, a small group of people shouldn't be in control of
• 55:47
  monetary policy. Maybe you want to use a neutral
• 55:51
  scarce money that no one controls and you know, the
• 55:55
  market will very organically get to the interest rates that are
• 56:01
  fair for the market. But no, you know, let's, let's
• 56:03
  blame Bitcoin, let's blame stablecoin for the fact that no
• 56:07
  one has the right insight to accurately create the interest
• 56:12
  rates that the economy needs. Maybe we should outsource that
• 56:16
  to the market. I don't know, I maybe I'm an
• 56:18
  extremist. Maybe I'm, you know, too far
• 56:21
  gone down the Bitcoin rabbit hole.
• 56:23
  Maybe I've drinking the orange kool-aid a little too much.
• 56:25
  But from my perspective, sounds a lot better than trusting a
• 56:30
  small group of people that are literally fleecing everyone
• 56:34
  stealing from you and saying hey, we're doing we're doing the
• 56:39
  doing you the favor. We're hey, we're here to protect
• 56:42
  you, the little guy. Where, where will you need us to
• 56:45
  push back the flood of you losing your wealth?
• 56:50
  Hence why I brought up that that comment by Winsome is like
• 56:55
  we're, we're getting to the point where they're like, look,
• 56:57
  if people start using Bitcoin and, and I'm, I'm, I'm
• 57:02
  paraphrasing here, this is, this is Opti's paraphrasing of what
• 57:05
  the ECB is saying, that they're basically saying, hey, if you
• 57:09
  use Bitcoin or if you use stablecoin, we'll use their
• 57:12
  example. If you use stablecoins, then you
• 57:16
  are going to distort our ability to take from you more.
• 57:23
  I don't know, it sounds like a good thing to me personally.
• 57:26
  So I, I do, I look, I'm, I'm honestly completely on board
• 57:30
  with their, their whole analysis here.
• 57:33
  I, I'm totally on board with what the ECB is saying.
• 57:36
  For once. They're like, yeah, you're kind
• 57:37
  of, you're kind of finally saying the truth out loud, kind
• 57:41
  of like we're finally on board with the same ideas of what
• 57:43
  we're actually doing here. OK, now one more point.
• 57:49
  And then I, I will, you know, get a, get a funny, ooh, look at
• 57:53
  that. Get a funny, you know, breakdown
• 57:56
  from a Bitcoiner. A fellow bitcoiner.
• 57:59
  Here we go. Why does the currency of stable
• 58:01
  coins matter? The third policy relevant
• 58:04
  finding relates to the currency in which stable coins are
• 58:06
  denominated. If stable coins linked to non
• 58:09
  euro currency such as the US dollar where to become widely
• 58:12
  used in the euro area, the risk to monetary policy would
• 58:15
  increase significantly. In such a scenario, changes in
• 58:18
  global financial conditions, foreign monetary policy
• 58:21
  decisions or shifts in investor confidence could directly affect
• 58:24
  liquidity and spending conditions in the euro era area.
• 58:28
  Sorry. Regardless of domestic policy
• 58:30
  decisions, in simple terms, foreign monetary conditions
• 58:33
  could be imported into the euro area through stablecoins.
• 58:37
  This would weaken the central bank's control over financial
• 58:40
  condition. I repeat, weaken the central
• 58:43
  bank's control over financial conditions, reduce the
• 58:47
  effectiveness of traditional monetary policy instruments, and
• 58:50
  make it harder to stabilize inflation and economic activity,
• 58:53
  especially during periods of financial stress.
• 58:56
  And of course, their findings. These findings highlight the
• 59:00
  importance of thoughtful regulation.
• 59:03
  Man, it's honestly, this is beautiful.
• 59:05
  It's a master class. Shouts out to the ECB.
• 59:08
  Absolute master class in, I don't know, information warfare,
• 59:14
  though, as you can see when you read that, you probably get the
• 59:17
  perspective like, Oh yeah, maybe, maybe the stable coin
• 59:20
  things are a bad thing. But when you get the filter,
• 59:22
  when you get the Bitcoin filter through this, you're like, yeah,
• 59:26
  honestly, I kind of totally agree with everything you're
• 59:28
  saying and I'm kind of totally on board with this.
• 59:31
  I totally believe that central banks around the world should
• 59:33
  have less financial control. They should have less financial
• 59:38
  control. I'm like, yeah, that's this is
• 59:40
  great. Now I would go further and I, I
• 59:44
  think really, really the IT should be Bitcoin in here
• 59:48
  instead of stable coins. But as we know, the ECB is very,
• 59:54
  very adamant about them dropping ACBDC.
• 59:58
  And right now stablecoins are the threat to their CBDC system
• 1:00:02
  because why would you need the ECBCBDC if you could just use a
• 1:00:05
  stablecoin? One, you're probably going to
• 1:00:07
  get a better yield on it to the central bank can't cut you off
• 1:00:11
  whenever they want to. But really in reality, when you
• 1:00:15
  look at that three paragraphs that I read and you add Bitcoin
• 1:00:18
  into that instead of stablecoins, that is the real
• 1:00:23
  play at hand. As the US has done with
• 1:00:27
  stablecoin regulation, using stablecoins as a Trojan horse
• 1:00:31
  from my opinion, for Bitcoin to get in, because you can't
• 1:00:34
  acknowledge stablecoins and not acknowledge or accept Bitcoin,
• 1:00:38
  at least in some semblance of respect for what Bitcoin is or
• 1:00:42
  what digital assets are. You're seeing that the ECB is
• 1:00:45
  doing the opposite. They're using stablecoins as the
• 1:00:49
  big bad boogeyman. But in reality, it's Bitcoin
• 1:00:52
  that, that really should be the ire of the ECB.
• 1:00:56
  But you know, I, I think they're, they're starting to see
• 1:00:59
  that that probably isn't going to be looked upon favorably.
• 1:01:03
  And, and personally, I'm, I'm OK with this.
• 1:01:05
  This is one of the things that Bitcoiners have been saying for
• 1:01:09
  a long time. It's like the only use case for
• 1:01:11
  shitcoins. And I'm not necessarily saying
• 1:01:12
  stablecoins or shitcoins per SE. I know some people do, as we've
• 1:01:16
  seen, there is actual adoption of stablecoins around the world.
• 1:01:20
  So I think the idea of stablecoins as a bridge from
• 1:01:24
  Fiat to Bitcoin, maybe it's a first step to Bitcoin.
• 1:01:27
  I, I think it's pretty apt. I, I think it, it's a legitimate
• 1:01:30
  kind of narrative, but they're doing, the ECB is, is doing
• 1:01:36
  exactly that. They're, they're using shit
• 1:01:38
  coins as the kind of like the squid ink here, you know, the
• 1:01:42
  octopus ink to confuse not only themselves, but everyone else.
• 1:01:46
  And that is, that is the beauty of shit coins.
• 1:01:50
  Why they all try to regulate the shit coins.
• 1:01:52
  And again, not necessarily saying stable coins or shit
• 1:01:54
  coins, but it's not Bitcoin. It's cover for Bitcoin.
• 1:02:00
  So look, let let the US government embrace stable coins
• 1:02:03
  or, you know, export dollar hegemony around the world.
• 1:02:06
  Bitcoin's going to get through the door.
• 1:02:08
  Let the ECB attack stable coins. I don't think they're going to
• 1:02:12
  be successful. But with that comes Bitcoin gets
• 1:02:15
  through the door. I think this report is, is very
• 1:02:19
  telling in what their narrative is and and also what their
• 1:02:23
  hubris is. It's like, yeah, look, this is
• 1:02:25
  the point. We want you to have less
• 1:02:28
  control. That was the literal inception
• 1:02:33
  of this idea. That was the initial route of
• 1:02:35
  all of this. You should have less control.
• 1:02:39
  There shouldn't be central banks around the world controlling
• 1:02:42
  interest rates, controlling the money.
• 1:02:45
  We are living in a debt Ponzi right now.
• 1:02:48
  Personally, I want to move into something that is scarce, that
• 1:02:51
  is neutral, that cannot be debased, that cannot be
• 1:02:54
  controlled by a single entity or entities.
• 1:02:57
  This is the point of all of this.
• 1:02:59
  So Chrissy Lagarde, maybe, maybe we slow clap for her for
• 1:03:04
  approving this report because it's beautiful.
• 1:03:07
  It's a beautiful master class. I, I love to see this again.
• 1:03:11
  They are talking about stable coins, but man, they're finally
• 1:03:15
  saying it out loud. You got you got to love it.
• 1:03:18
  You got to love it. I absolutely love this let's go.
• 1:03:22
  This is this is good stuff here. This is really good stuff from
• 1:03:25
  the ECB, but you know in reverse counter counter signal here from
• 1:03:29
  the ECB. Gotta love it.
• 1:03:31
  Love to see you. All right, guys, before I move
• 1:03:33
  on though, oh, actually, sorry, I do have a good tweet.
• 1:03:35
  Shouts out to Fernando. He is working on Bitcoin
• 1:03:40
  perception, BTC perception. He was at Block stream for a
• 1:03:42
  little bit. I love, I love this tweet here.
• 1:03:45
  This is great. I'm not going to read the whole
• 1:03:47
  thing 'cause he, he talks about himself a little bit and he used
• 1:03:50
  to work in the music industry, but he goes, wait a minute, hold
• 1:03:52
  on here. So the European Central Bank
• 1:03:54
  published a paper warning that stablecoin adoption could pull
• 1:03:57
  deposits out of the banking system.
• 1:03:59
  The people who run the monetary system are admitting in an
• 1:04:02
  academic paper that their product might lose to a better
• 1:04:05
  product. The diagnosis is correct.
• 1:04:09
  The conclusion they'll draw from it, of course, will be to
• 1:04:11
  regulate the competition instead of improving their own product.
• 1:04:15
  As I mentioned, the threat assessment was always accurate,
• 1:04:20
  but the response was always protectionism, and protectionism
• 1:04:24
  always loses. Absolutely beautiful.
• 1:04:27
  Absolutely beautiful. Master class from the ECB and
• 1:04:31
  just how to wreck yourself. Gotta love it, gotta love it.
• 1:04:34
  All right guys, before I move on, like I was saying, make sure
• 1:04:37
  you get your tickets to Las Vegas 2026 April 27th through
• 1:04:43
  the 29th. It's going to be at the Venetian
• 1:04:46
  bit corners are taking over Vegas again.
• 1:04:48
  Last year I had a blast. I might have had a little too
• 1:04:51
  much fun in Vegas, but hey, you know what stays in Vegas or what
• 1:04:56
  happens in Vegas almost stays in Vegas until Nico comes on the
• 1:04:59
  show and starts saying about me in Vegas, guys.
• 1:05:02
  Oh, you're look, hey, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.
• 1:05:05
  All right, so Bitcoin has taken over Vegas again for the world's
• 1:05:08
  largest Bitcoin conference April 27th through the 29th.
• 1:05:11
  Again, get your tickets today. And if you use simply all caps,
• 1:05:17
  you get 10% off All right, guys. So to wrap up today's show, we
• 1:05:21
  are going to talk about how's Bitcoin reacted in the face of
• 1:05:24
  all of the biggest moments we've seen in the last few years from
• 1:05:28
  a geopolitical macro perspective.
• 1:05:32
  Spoiler alert, it's still the best.
• 1:05:35
  All right, it's still the absolute best.
• 1:05:37
  So quick commercial break, last commercial break and we will
• 1:05:40
  wrap up today's show. I want to give a shout out to
• 1:05:43
  our partner Hive Digital Technologies.
• 1:05:46
  Fueled by clean energy, Hive has quadrupled its global Bitcoin
• 1:05:50
  mining footprint and channels that same scale into high
• 1:05:54
  performance compute where their AI cloud is now ranked number
• 1:05:58
  one in the world for network performance.
• 1:06:01
  At Hive, you've got dual engines, Bitcoin and AI,
• 1:06:05
  humming, roaring, accelerating and unison.
• 1:06:08
  They're lean and mean, they're green and clean, and they're
• 1:06:11
  rewriting the playbook on sustainable digital
• 1:06:14
  infrastructure. You can catch the latest buzz at
• 1:06:17
  Hive Digital Tech or at Hive digitaltech.com.
• 1:06:27
  Sorry guys, it's getting a little cottonmouth here talking
• 1:06:30
  for an hour or so. Forgive me for taking a sip of
• 1:06:34
  water. All right, guys, So bring him
• 1:06:37
  back an idea that I brought up in the beginning of the show.
• 1:06:39
  Actually, I've been talking about it all week and it is my
• 1:06:45
  surprise to how strong Bitcoin has reacted in the face of the
• 1:06:50
  new war in the Middle East or the new operation.
• 1:06:53
  I know they're not calling it a war yet, but for all intents and
• 1:06:56
  purposes, we are at war in the Middle East with Iran.
• 1:07:00
  And I was very surprised to see Bitcoin not tank on the opening
• 1:07:06
  of the markets on Monday. Now, there is a few things you
• 1:07:12
  can point to. One of the things is obviously a
• 1:07:16
  lot of Bitcoiners saying, oh hey, Jane St's no longer
• 1:07:19
  manipulating the market. Now, whether they were or
• 1:07:22
  weren't, there is a coincidence here that ever since the court
• 1:07:28
  case against them for price manipulation in the 2022
• 1:07:32
  collapse came to light, or rather was issued and came out,
• 1:07:39
  we aren't seeing the 10 AM slams on Bitcoin.
• 1:07:42
  And maybe maybe that push down of the Bitcoin price potentially
• 1:07:47
  from Jane Street is why Bitcoin is seemingly running right now.
• 1:07:52
  Now I know it's at 73 K. It's like, what is this a pump
• 1:07:56
  for ants? I think we're up today or in the
• 1:07:58
  last two days about 6-7 percent. But since the Iran war, Bitcoin
• 1:08:04
  is up 12%. And again, that to me is the
• 1:08:08
  most surprising signal here, the fact that Bitcoin is up multiple
• 1:08:13
  percentages when you'd expect it to go down.
• 1:08:17
  Now, I saw a really good tweet kind of analyzing this and
• 1:08:21
  comparing this to the S&P 500 in gold.
• 1:08:24
  And it just, it just shows you that even though Bitcoin maybe
• 1:08:29
  has not performed as well as we'd like in the last year,
• 1:08:33
  Bitcoin has still been outperforming everything else in
• 1:08:36
  the face of huge geopolitical events.
• 1:08:39
  So here's James Van Stratton, of course, he's senior analyst at
• 1:08:42
  Coindesk. And he goes, remember this
• 1:08:45
  chart, and this is a chart, this was by BlackRock, Robbie
• 1:08:49
  Mitchnick, Mitchnick, Mitchnick, I think it's Mitchnick this.
• 1:08:53
  So this was an official chart from BlackRock and they're
• 1:08:58
  showing the S&P 500 gold and Bitcoin through major
• 1:09:02
  geopolitical events. The first one, of course, was
• 1:09:05
  the US Iran escalation last year January or sorry, not last year,
• 1:09:09
  January 3rd, 2020. And you can see 10 day returns
• 1:09:12
  and 60 day returns based on, you know, gold, S&P 500 and Bitcoin
• 1:09:20
  response to these huge new political events.
• 1:09:22
  So in 2020, after the US Iran escalation, S&P 500 went up 2%,
• 1:09:27
  gold was flat and Bitcoin went up 12%.
• 1:09:29
  Ten day return after the 60 day return, S&P 500 was down 7%,
• 1:09:34
  gold was up 6% and Bitcoin went up 20%.
• 1:09:37
  Again, the 2020 pandemic pandemic.
• 1:09:41
  Wait, pandemic? Sorry that I I misspoke there.
• 1:09:44
  S&P 500 was down 20%, Gold was down 9%.
• 1:09:48
  Bitcoin did go down further, it went down 25%.
• 1:09:51
  But the 60 day return S&P 500 was up 2%, Gold was up 30% and
• 1:09:56
  Bitcoin went up 21%. Now going further, the 2020 US
• 1:09:59
  election challenges in November 3rd 2020, S&P 500 up 7%, Gold
• 1:10:05
  down 1%, Bitcoin up 19 percent. 60 day return, 2 month return.
• 1:10:11
  S&P 500 up 12%, Gold down 1%, Bitcoin up 131%.
• 1:10:17
  Now going further, Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022,
• 1:10:21
  Bitcoin did go down more than S&P 500.
• 1:10:24
  S&P was 1%, Gold 2%, Bitcoin went down -6%.
• 1:10:28
  But the 60 day returns, Bitcoin up 15%, while gold's at 9S and
• 1:10:33
  P500's at 3. US regional banking crisis in
• 1:10:36
  2023. Remember that?
• 1:10:38
  That was fun. S&P 500 down to gold up 10%,
• 1:10:42
  Bitcoin up 25%. Sixty day return, Bitcoin up
• 1:10:45
  32%, gold 11, S&P 504%. Now the yen carry trade, which
• 1:10:51
  was all of the rage last year, August 5th, 2020.
• 1:10:54
  Oh sorry, in 2024, last year we saw it unwinding.
• 1:10:57
  Forgive me. We saw S&P 500 up 2%, Gold and
• 1:11:02
  Bitcoin flat. Now we have the updated numbers
• 1:11:07
  here 'cause this chart wasn't updated and it is just a fill in
• 1:11:10
  the blank. The 60 days after the yen carry
• 1:11:13
  unwind in August 5th of 2024, Bitcoin went up 21%, gold went
• 1:11:18
  up 9%, SPX went up 3%. Bitcoin outperforming again on
• 1:11:24
  geopolitical events. Now this is the past, right?
• 1:11:30
  I didn't I I it might not be a one minute chart guys, but we we
• 1:11:34
  will look at some charts here. OK, I'll maybe I'll put the one
• 1:11:37
  minute chart after and and forgive all my lines.
• 1:11:40
  This is the deep value red range.
• 1:11:42
  You know, I I got little descending triangle that the
• 1:11:45
  price literally pumped off of. So I will do the one week here
• 1:11:50
  just to kind of show and I'm only going to do actually, I'll
• 1:11:54
  do all of them. I'll do them all for you guys.
• 1:11:56
  Whatever, it's the end of the show.
• 1:11:58
  Here we go. You know Bitcoin up almost 13%
• 1:12:03
  started this week since the Iran war.
• 1:12:07
  So we're not really at the 10 day returns yet for this Iran
• 1:12:12
  war or Operation Epic Fury. But so far Bitcoins up 13%.
• 1:12:18
  Let's see gold, which is probably the most interesting
• 1:12:22
  gold is down about 7.8%. So still still doing well.
• 1:12:30
  We're we're still, you know, we're still holding up to
• 1:12:33
  Bitcoin performs best on these huge geopolitical moves.
• 1:12:38
  And here's S&P 500. Let's see what is this?
• 1:12:42
  I didn't actually check here. All right, so S&P 500 up 2.84%.
• 1:12:50
  I don't know guys, it's almost like Bitcoin is doing exactly
• 1:12:53
  here. Actually, before I go, it's
• 1:12:54
  almost like Bitcoin is doing exactly as designed.
• 1:12:57
  Here's the one minute chart for you guys, since you guys love it
• 1:13:01
  so much. Since I've mean oh, I didn't
• 1:13:03
  even show you guys. Oh, RIP.
• 1:13:05
  All right, just trust me on those numbers.
• 1:13:07
  I was doing them live for you guys, but just trust me that
• 1:13:09
  those were the numbers. So Bitcoin up 12 almost 13%,
• 1:13:14
  Gold's down almost 8%, S&P 500 is up almost 3% since the start
• 1:13:21
  of the operation Epic fury. So again, another data point
• 1:13:27
  that Bitcoin it, it really is the best performing asset no
• 1:13:34
  matter the conditions. Yes, we had a bad 2025, you
• 1:13:38
  know, you could always cherry pick data points.
• 1:13:41
  But again, huge geopolitical event.
• 1:13:45
  We're almost at the 10 day return for Bitcoin, Bitcoins
• 1:13:49
  reacting the best out of the last huge geopolitical event out
• 1:13:53
  of gold and the S&P 500. I don't know, man, guys, it's
• 1:13:57
  it's almost as if Bitcoin is doing exactly what we thought it
• 1:14:01
  was going to do. When you, when you put it in
• 1:14:03
  this context, it does show that even if we're down on the year,
• 1:14:09
  Bitcoin is still the best thing to hold no matter what the
• 1:14:12
  geopolitical event is. And I'm I think I think it's
• 1:14:16
  going to be eye opening to see this continue to maintain and
• 1:14:20
  and at a certain point, it it is just going to be undeniable.
• 1:14:24
  Bitcoin's the only thing you want to be owning.
• 1:14:28
  I don't know, guys, is this what winning feels like?
• 1:14:30
  Is this what winning feels like? Yes.
• 1:14:33
  Best money on earth, boss. Sorry, sorry, guys, I I I can't
• 1:14:38
  look at the chat. Do you guys, do you not trust
• 1:14:40
  me? OK, All right, OK, all right.
• 1:14:43
  Since you guys don't trust me, You you guys, man, guys don't
• 1:14:47
  trust me. OK, I see how it is.
• 1:14:49
  I see how it is. Here we go all right, so here is
• 1:14:54
  the low for the week to the high almost 13%.
• 1:14:59
  We're going to do gold, gold start of the week and we're and
• 1:15:04
  we're even we're even being maybe I'm being a little too,
• 1:15:06
  you know, cherry picking. But this week, from the high to
• 1:15:10
  the low, it's almost down 8 percent, 7.8%.
• 1:15:14
  And then S&P 500 again. I am being charitable here.
• 1:15:18
  From the low of the week to the high, it's up 3%.
• 1:15:21
  Though in reality, I guess we should do something like that.
• 1:15:25
  It's up. It's not even up a percent.
• 1:15:28
  S&P 500 from market open on the week to current price, it's up
• 1:15:32
  .81% and it just turned red. Love it.
• 1:15:37
  So like Bitcoin? Bitcoin is doing exactly as
• 1:15:41
  designed. Any of the haters out there
• 1:15:44
  saying that Bitcoin has failed, it's been hijacked, you know,
• 1:15:48
  it's been compromised by the banks, yadda, yadda, yadda,
• 1:15:53
  They're trying to sell you something and they're trying to
• 1:15:56
  be bearish on Bitcoin. They're trying to sell you
• 1:15:59
  anything about Bitcoin. At least you guys know my job
• 1:16:01
  here is to sell you Bitcoin. I lean into the idea.
• 1:16:06
  I'm a Bitcoin propagandist. I know my bias.
• 1:16:08
  I am biased towards Bitcoin. Bitcoin has reacted the best
• 1:16:14
  since Operation Epic Fury started.
• 1:16:18
  I don't know. Take that information as you
• 1:16:20
  will, boys. It's almost like Bitcoin is
• 1:16:22
  doing exactly as designed. It is almost like Bitcoin is the
• 1:16:27
  best money in the world. Simply chart, boys.
• 1:16:32
  Yeah, dude, we're I'm a chart boy.
• 1:16:34
  Everyone knows I'm a chart boy. I have meme, the one minute
• 1:16:37
  chart. I literally get you guys
• 1:16:39
  tweeting at me like I better see the one minute chart today.
• 1:16:41
  You know, it's trolls. The one minute chart's just fun
• 1:16:43
  to watch, guys. All right?
• 1:16:46
  It's even more fun when it's dumping or it's pumping.
• 1:16:49
  So whenever you see the price going crazy, I'm telling you,
• 1:16:53
  put on the one minute chart and then monitor your emotions.
• 1:16:56
  The situation you should be monitoring is your emotions when
• 1:17:00
  the price does something. That's the funnest thing here.
• 1:17:05
  All right, can you walk and chew gum?
• 1:17:07
  No, I can't. I I have two brain cells left,
• 1:17:11
  guys. I have two brain cells left and
• 1:17:14
  I cannot do multiple stuff. All righty then, guys.
• 1:17:20
  Well, well, well, all right, so end of the show.
• 1:17:25
  But just to inform you, and you guys might be happy Nika's going
• 1:17:31
  to be gone the rest of the week. He's he's got to take a trip.
• 1:17:35
  So tomorrow I will have a guest with me in person.
• 1:17:39
  If my, if I remember my schedule correctly Friday, I will be
• 1:17:43
  doing the show most likely alone.
• 1:17:45
  So simply opt you for the rest of week.
• 1:17:49
  All right, guys, on that note, I appreciate you guys.
• 1:17:51
  I love you guys. Have a good rest of your day.
• 1:17:56
  Eat some good food, get a workout and get some step.
• 1:17:58
  Get your 10K steps in. And of course, get some sun on
• 1:18:02
  you guys get get on your eyes. We are we are ascending in 2026.
• 1:18:08
  I want you guys to be the best you can be physically, mentally
• 1:18:12
  and of course, financially and spiritually.
• 1:18:16
  We are rising. We are ascending in 2026.
• 1:18:18
  All right, guys. So put down the doughnuts, watch
• 1:18:23
  your calories. It's going to work out.
• 1:18:27
  All right, guys. All right, love you guys.
• 1:18:29
  I will see you tomorrow. Have a good rest of your day.
• 1:18:31
  Peace out. Today's episode was brought to
• 1:18:34
  you by bitcoinwell.com, a Bitcoin only platform on a
• 1:18:37
  mission to enable financial independence.