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China Accuses U.S. of Stealing $13 BILLION of Bitcoin | Simply SatoSHE · Simply Bitcoin

• 0:00
  China just accused the US of stealing $13 billion worth of
• 0:05
  Bitcoin from them. That's around 127,000 coins.
• 0:09
  But the question is why now? In a new report, China's
• 0:14
  National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center
• 0:17
  accused the US of some outrageous allegations.
• 0:21
  That alone would be newsworthy, but considering this report was
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  dropped 24 hours before Taiwan announced their intention to
• 0:30
  create a strategic Bitcoin reserve, and just last month the
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  US seized about the same amount of Bitcoin from a big butchering
• 0:39
  scam in Cambodia, there might be something more to this strangely
• 0:44
  timed report behind the scenes. Today we're going to try and
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  shine a light on what's happening in Southeast Asia and
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  discuss whether this is the beginning of the nation state
• 0:56
  race for Bitcoin. Welcome back to Simply Bitcoin.
• 1:00
  Thanks, Satoshi. I'm Sophie, and today's story is
• 1:03
  absolutely wild. Let's talk about it.
• 1:09
  First of all, they the reason that they call it pig butchering
• 1:12
  is because the scammers, they start by building trust with
• 1:15
  their victims. You know, luring them in,
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  fattening up for slaughter like pig farmers do before they
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  slaughter their pigs. Well, in this case, the scammers
• 1:24
  slaughter victims by stealing thousands, even hundreds of
• 1:28
  thousands of dollars from them. Now, this is a $15 billion
• 1:32
  cryptocurrency fraud scheme. the US attorney's office and the FBI
• 1:36
  say it was operated out of a call center.
• 1:39
  What you're looking at right there in Cambodia, and the
• 1:42
  suspect is 37 years old. His name is Chen XI.
• 1:45
  Take a look. This is his picture right here.
• 1:47
  I skipped over some of the graphic details, but I should
• 1:50
  add that the people actually doing the scams, calling and
• 1:55
  socially engineering victims around the world were also
• 1:59
  victims themselves. Elves often physically tortured
• 2:02
  if they didn't comply with their boss, Chen Zi, who was the
• 2:05
  founder and chairman of Prince Holding Group.
• 2:07
  Now let's rewind to the most unforgettable year of our lives,
• 2:13
  2020. In late 2020, the Chinese mining
• 2:19
  pool Lubian suddenly lost 127,000 Bitcoin, which was $3
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  billion at the time. The coins vanished into the
• 2:29
  blockchain void, untouched for years.
• 2:32
  Then in mid 2024, blockchain analysts noticed movement on
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  chain data showed wallets associated with addresses later
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  identified by firms like Elliptic and Arcam as being
• 2:45
  under U.S. government control following DOJ forfeiture
• 2:50
  announcements. Now that I caught you up to
• 2:52
  speed, we can put the pieces together.
• 2:54
  Remember a few weeks ago, in mid-october of this year, the
• 2:59
  DOJ revealed the largest Bitcoin seizure ever that was connected
• 3:05
  to the Cambodian scam ring run by Chen XI.
• 3:07
  We covered at the top of this segment.
• 3:09
  Coincidentally, it was reported the US seized about the same
• 3:15
  amount as the Lubian mining 127,000 Bitcoin.
• 3:20
  So were the coins hacked, seized or hijacked?
• 3:24
  It depends who you ask. But what's clear is this 127,000
• 3:28
  Bitcoin went missing in China and reappeared in US custody.
• 3:33
  And at the root of this problem is Trump's trade war with China.
• 3:37
  For me it's just too many coincidences.
• 3:40
  Coincidence. I think not.
• 3:42
  It seems that gradually, then suddenly, Bitcoin became the
• 3:47
  perfect geopolitical pawn in this tense standoff.
• 3:50
  Because the other countries, if they look at Iran and they look
• 3:53
  at Venezuela and they say, wait a minute, if these two start
• 3:57
  controlling a bigger piece of the global hash rate, they could
• 4:00
  be the richest countries in the world.
• 4:02
  We can't let that happen, right? That's game theory.
• 4:05
  So yeah, maybe Saudi Arabia pops in and says, hey, let's start
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  mining Bitcoin and at some point you're going to have part of the
• 4:11
  G7 countries or G20 country is going to say, hey, you know, we
• 4:15
  got to get in on this. You know, maybe a Germany or
• 4:17
  somebody they'll subsidized the mining and but that's where
• 4:23
  we're headed and that's what's happening in 2020.
• 4:25
  I think that's going to be the biggest story of 2020 is the
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  global hash war, as I call it. Imagine calling this back in
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  2020. Kaiser is just the question of
• 4:36
  who hacked who is frankly irrelevant at this point.
• 4:40
  It's about who controls the custody of that Bitcoin.
• 4:43
  By accusing the US of stealing state linked assets, China is
• 4:48
  effectively saying that stash is a part of its national wealth.
• 4:51
  That pushes Bitcoin out of the finance department and straight
• 4:55
  into foreign policy. For the US, it's a criminal
• 4:59
  asset forfeiture. For China, it's a violation of
• 5:02
  sovereignty, or at least that's how they're framing it.
• 5:06
  Earlier this week, the People's Bank of China also announced
• 5:10
  that they would be turning on their money printers to keep,
• 5:13
  quote, liquidity ample. And just yesterday, Taiwan
• 5:17
  announced that they would study Bitcoin as a strategic reserve.
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  It's becoming clear to me that China might be trying to compete
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  with the US in the race to accumulate Bitcoin.
• 5:29
  We've seen nations fight over oil, gold, and rare earth
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  minerals, but but the difference between those and Bitcoin is
• 5:37
  that they exist in physical locations.
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  This is the first time we're seeing a nationless commodity
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  being used as political influence since the
• 5:46
  decentralization of information, AKA the Internet.
• 5:50
  Present to you the. Internet, OH.
• 5:55
  Please no flash photographer you'll.
• 5:56
  Harm the Internet. So it's only natural that
• 6:00
  Bitcoin follows as the first and only decentralized, absolutely
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  scarce immutable asset on earth. Every country is not going to be
• 6:09
  adding Bitcoin to the reserve status to compete in the global
• 6:11
  hash war in the 21st century. That's World War Bitcoin.
• 6:14
  You have to have Bitcoin. It's a it's a mad scramble to
• 6:17
  get more Bitcoin because the Fiat money world is collapsing.
• 6:20
  So if you want to win World War Bitcoin, you need to start
• 6:23
  accumulating and hoarding and buying and stacking Bitcoin
• 6:26
  aggressively as soon as possible.
• 6:29
  True America, we could have had so much more Bitcoin and
• 6:32
  outweigh cheaper prices, but it looks like it's going to take
• 6:36
  China going head to head with us to accelerate adoption here at
• 6:40
  home. Because when nation states start
• 6:42
  accusing each other of stealing Bitcoin, now they treat Bitcoin
• 6:46
  like a strategic asset akin to gold or oil.
• 6:49
  If China truly believes those coins belong to its citizens, it
• 6:54
  could push for international norms around sovereign claims to
• 6:57
  Bitcoin. If the the US continues treating
• 7:00
  Bitcoin as seizable property tied to criminal activity, it
• 7:03
  sets a precedent for grabbing coins linked to foreign actors.
• 7:07
  I don't have nothing. Yeah, you got some.
• 7:14
  Why are you tripping? Devo?
• 7:15
  Shut the fuck up. Knock your ass out.
• 7:17
  Oh, man, that's messed. I want you giving back his
• 7:19
  chain. What chain?
• 7:23
  Yeah, what chain? Either way, a neutral,
• 7:25
  borderless network has become the battleground for global
• 7:29
  power. A milestone for bitcoins thesis.
• 7:32
  You can't print it. You can't sanction the protocol.
• 7:35
  You can only earn it or mine it. And Speaking of power and
• 7:39
  sovereignty, the most powerful move you can make is taking
• 7:43
  control of your own energy 1 mindsat at a time.
• 7:47
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• 7:50
  Then you should check out SAS mining.
• 7:52
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• 7:56
  actually puts bitcoiners first. You can own a state-of-the-art
• 8:00
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• 8:05
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• 8:09
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• 8:13
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• 8:41
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• 8:44
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• 8:49
  hashing. So what does this mean for you,
• 8:53
  the viewer? Three things.
• 8:55
  First, self custody is really not optional.
• 8:58
  I know I sound like a broken record, but if states are
• 9:02
  fighting over Bitcoin, you cannot afford to leave yours on
• 9:07
  exchanges. Remember that guy who got his
• 9:11
  chain stolen in the last segment?
• 9:13
  Yeah, well, that could be you. Second, understand the shift.
• 9:18
  Bitcoin is graduating from tech story to power story.
• 9:22
  Expect more volatility, more mainstream spin, and more legal
• 9:27
  fog, or as we like to call it, FUD.
• 9:30
  And 3rd, see the opportunity. Every time a government fights
• 9:34
  over Bitcoin, it legitimizes it. But it is a legitimate financial
• 9:39
  instrument that allows you to have maybe uncorrelated, non
• 9:44
  correlated type of returns. I believe it is an instrument
• 9:47
  that you invest in when you're more frightened, though.
• 9:50
  It is an instrument when you believe that countries are
• 9:53
  debasing their currency, debasing their currency by
• 9:56
  excess deficits. And some countries are.
• 10:00
  I believe we have countries where you're frightened of your
• 10:04
  everyday existence and have you an opportunity to invest in in a
• 10:09
  something that is outside your countries, you know, control,
• 10:13
  then you can have more financial control.
• 10:16
  And so I'm a major believer that there is a role for Bitcoin in
• 10:21
  portfolios. I remember talking to some
• 10:23
  friends about what owning Bitcoin in the future might
• 10:26
  entail and one of them said one day it'll buy you an army.
• 10:31
  And I honestly thought he was exaggerating and he accused me
• 10:35
  of not being bullish enough. And frankly, now that I look
• 10:38
  back on it, I wasn't. Because when I see stories like
• 10:41
  this, I kind of start to realize what he meant when we had that
• 10:45
  conversation. If two of the most powerful
• 10:48
  countries in the world are going tit for tat over Bitcoin like
• 10:53
  this, then your cold storage wallet might now hold an asset
• 10:58
  wanted by the most powerful people on earth.
• 11:01
  And that honestly makes me extremely bullish no matter what
• 11:05
  the price is. It's not about just hedging
• 11:07
  inflation bro, Right? This is a great awakening.
• 11:09
  This is a freedom sovereignty movement to our governments are
• 11:13
  reduced to service providers. And at the end of the day, we
• 11:16
  get free energy energy and we get a peaceful, abundant, you
• 11:20
  know, world to where even if we don't like get along with people
• 11:24
  in China or Russia or wherever it is, we're involuntary
• 11:28
  cooperating on producing the next block and adding more
• 11:32
  energy and security to the system.
• 11:35
  And if you think about that, you think about all the energy and
• 11:38
  cost and time it goes into trying to blow each other up.
• 11:41
  Well, you know, guess what? We can now put time and energy
• 11:44
  into our own economies and to also add security to the Bitcoin
• 11:49
  network. And it's actually within your
• 11:52
  best interest for your neighbor. Even though you don't like them,
• 11:56
  it's in your best interest for their economy to do well.
• 11:58
  Because guess what? If their economy does well and
• 12:00
  they've added productivity, your Bitcoin number goes up.
• 12:04
  You doing nothing in your home country literally provides
• 12:08
  additional value to the that Bitcoin.
• 12:10
  And while governments argue over who owns what Bitcoin, you
• 12:15
  should own yours outright and still be able to use it.
• 12:18
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• 12:21
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  Let in let's you unlock liquidity without selling.
• 12:57
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• 13:00
  first loan. Scan the QR code or click the
• 13:03
  link in the show notes below to get your discount today.
• 13:07
  Now let's wrap up the show. Give me an example of something
• 13:10
  you can own $100 million of, where you can take personal
• 13:14
  custody of it and where you can actually move it anywhere on
• 13:17
  earth, and where even if I hold a gun to your head, I can't take
• 13:21
  it from you. And the only thing we've ever
• 13:23
  figured out that you can do that with his Bitcoin.
• 13:26
  And so Bitcoin is like, it keeps everybody honest.
• 13:30
  The optionality to do this means that all you got to do is find
• 13:35
  one bank in Singapore that'll treat you better than the bank
• 13:37
  in New York or London or Tokyo. And then you can move it in 1/2
• 13:41
  an hour for 5 bucks. And what happens next?
• 13:44
  The bank in New York thinks, well, I guess we can't screw
• 13:46
  these guys over because then they'll just move to Singapore.
• 13:50
  And the guys in California say, well, I can't, I can't just tax
• 13:53
  all the Bitcoin in California. It'll move to Wyoming, it'll
• 13:56
  move to Singapore, it'll move to Malta.
• 13:58
  And at the end of the day, you can tell everybody to go fuck
• 14:00
  themselves. You can put it in your head,
• 14:02
  memorize the freaking key, right?
• 14:05
  And it's here. And then, you know, the classic
• 14:07
  Bitcoiner response is, oh, yeah, my Bitcoin, I lost it in a
• 14:11
  boating accident. You ever heard that phrase?
• 14:15
  It's it's kind of a trope. But what it means is at the end
• 14:18
  of the day, if you push me too far, I lost it.
• 14:22
  It's gone. Sorry.
• 14:25
  It's. Your tax that.
• 14:26
  Here's the bottom line. Nation states are capitulating
• 14:30
  to the reality that money is no longer in their absolute
• 14:33
  control, and it's glorious. Bitcoin puts power back in the
• 14:37
  hands of the people, and ultimately that terrifies
• 14:41
  governments around the world because it means that they have
• 14:44
  to actually do something for the will of the people, or those
• 14:49
  people will take their wealth to a country that treats them
• 14:52
  better. See, El Salvador is an example.
• 14:55
  Beneath the headlines is a bigger truth.
• 14:57
  Bitcoin is officially recognized as a geopolitical pawn.
• 15:01
  The world's superpowers aren't ignoring it.
• 15:05
  They're fighting over it. So it might be something you
• 15:09
  want to consider having in your custody as well.
• 15:11
  Anyway, that's our show for today.
• 15:13
  Drop your take in the comments. Is this the first ever Bitcoin
• 15:17
  Cold War? I don't know if you liked the
• 15:19
  show. Smash the like button, hit the
• 15:21
  subscribe and turn on the notification bell.
• 15:24
  I'm Sophie and this was simply Bitcoin's Satoshi stack.
• 15:28
  Slay and stay bullish, baby.