This Week in Bitcoin

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The bond market is whispering, Trump’s shouting, and Bitcoin is listening. What happens when the debt machine needs a reboot—and how that desperation could light the next Bitcoin firestorm.

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LINKS

• CPI inflation report February 2025
• The Fed Shouldn’t Enable Donald Trump - Bloomberg
• 10-Year Treasury Constant Maturity Minus 3-Month Treasury Constant Maturity 
• Truflation US Inflation Index 
• Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Establishes the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile – ]
• President Trump Confirms Strategic 'Crypto' Reserve with Bitcoin and Altcoins
• Donald Trump shares DETAILS on United States Strategic Bitcoin Reserve White House Crypto Summit
• Trump orders the government to explore pathways to acquire Bitcoin only with no cost to taxpayers.
• China and Middle Eastern countries are considering a "Bitcoin buying strategy," CNBC says. 
• To clear up confusion here. This EO established 2 different things: a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve, and a U.S. Digital Asset Stockpile.
• US Bitcoin Reserve: Implementation Timeline Accelerated
• Satsify: ⚡ See Amazon prices in sats! FOSS Chrome extension that converts USD to Bitcoin satoshis instantly 🛍️

MUSIC

• Don’t Count Me Out by Jimmie Bratcher

[00:00:00] Unknown:

Are you expecting a recession this year? I hate to predict things like that.   There is a period of transition, because what we're doing is very big.   We're bringing wealth back to America. That's a big thing.   And there are always periods of... It takes a little time.   It takes a little time.   But I think it should be great for us. I mean, I think it should be great.   Music.   Welcome in to episode 49 of This Week in Bitcoin. My name is Chris ChrisLAS.com   JupyterBroadcasting.com It is very good to be back The last couple of weeks were wild.   And it's times like this that it's a core belief of mine that a really great   investor tries to separate out the emotion as much as possible and focus on the signal.  

So that's what I'm going to strive for today. And that means we'll be getting   into some topics that might be emotionally charged for some of you.   So what I'm going to do is I'm going to ask that we all strive to separate out   the emotion and stay focused because there is big things developing.   And I think the vast majority of people analyzing the situation are completely   using the wrong lens and they're missing the mark.   And one of the things we have to start with, of course, is always the macro   picture, because as I go on air today, the U.S. has new inflation data.   Finally, we have some good news on the economy and really the number one issue   for many Americans, the cost of living.  

So we just learned that consumer prices in February increased by 2.8 percent   year over year, 0.2 percent month over month.   Both of these figures were a step in the right direction and both were better than expected.   So this is definitely very encouraging to see because it's going to,   I think, relieve some fears that inflation was perhaps reaccelerating because   this actually breaks a streak of four straight months where I think you could   see it on the chart all the way to the right where the inflation rate was going   in the wrong direction. Right. It was going higher and higher.  

Finally, we're seeing it dip. What? What is this?   What's going on here? Yeah, this marks the slowest pace of inflation in four months.   And technically, the first cool down after four straight months of increases.   That's why we've been talking about the possibility of stagflation.   But this entire time, I've been wanting to talk to you about this trend that   I find really curious, and maybe we're going to soon get the answer to.   I don't know if you follow this, but there's the Truflation Index,   and they have a dashboard that tracks inflation in the United States sourcing   in-market real-time prices.  

And for the last week or two, it says inflation is in the 1% range,   like 1.3, 1.5% inflation.   Today, as I record, Truflation says that the inflation rate in the United States is 1.32%.   And if you look at their charts, starting in late February, it just drops off   a cliff from like a high two, which is already lower than the CPI,   but it was around there, to now 1.3. It just drops off a cliff at the end of February.   Now, what I think is notable here is Truflation nailed the real inflation in   the economy when it was going up.   When we were cooking up inflation, it nailed it.  

Well before the Fed, well before the CPI reflected the impact of inflation, Truflation called it.   And now we maybe are on the other side, but we still see many calling for stagflation.   So I don't know what to make of what the CPI says and what the Truflation dashboard says.   I tend to agree more with Truflation because they're sourcing it from the actual   market, where CPI, you know, it's always kind of been fiddled with.   I'd like to know what you think is going on here.   Send me a boost and share your thoughts.   Why do we see this massive drop-off on the Truflation dashboard?  

And is inflation maybe actually going to get tamed?   That's the thing. I just, I can't square why we have such a gap in the data right now.   Something, something seems to be up. So I'd like to know your opinion on it,   too. Maybe we can put it together.   Music.   Stock markets on both sides of the border saw steep declines again today.   In New York, the Dow, the Nasdaq, and the S&P 500 each saw sell-offs.   For more on this, I want to bring in Christina Parsinevilos.   She's the Nasdaq reporter with CNBC, and she joins us live in New York.   So, Christina, just how bad was it on the markets today?  

Well, bad enough that on CNBC, we had a red banner saying markets sell off the   entire day. And I admittedly wore red, but the Nasdaq was down 4 percent.   The S&P down to about 2.7 percent and the Dow closing 2 percent lower.   And much of that selling was just across the board. Individual names,   Apple falling 5 percent.   I mentioned Apple because it has the biggest point impact on the Nasdaq 100,   where I am right now, followed by NVIDIA.   Tesla, another name, falling 15 percent today. It's worst day since September 2020.   Tech overall down from its peak in December, about 14%. And then lastly,   just really, if we look at the NASDAQ 100, which is just the biggest 100 firms   traded at the NASDAQ, you're seeing just a drop.  

You can compare it to COVID, for example. During COVID, those stocks fell about   13% from mid-February to March.   Right now, we're at down 12% during that same time frame.   So to us in Bitcoin, the numbers seem small. But to the mainstream market,   you know, those are pretty significant numbers. Those are COVID-level numbers.   And poor Elon, he sure is a dummy, huh? If he went to go work in Doge to enrich   himself and become even more wealthy, he sure is doing a bad job at that.   I can't say. It's just not working out too well for him. So I want to talk about   this quote-unquote volatility that we've been seeing.  

We knew this was coming. The market went crazy.   But not all of us foresaw it. I think in Bitcoin terms, it's interesting what   lettuce hands the ETF holders have had.   The ETFs, IBIT, which in some previous drawdowns had zero outflows,   has been selling off thousands of Bitcoin a day.   And then in other places like River or Bitcoin Well and Strike,   the vast majority of customers are buying the dip.   I think River's buy side was almost 80% of the volume.   Also, statistically interesting, wallets that hold over one Bitcoin or more   have been buying the dip like crazy.  

So it seems that those that have conviction are not spooked by this,   but the short-term holders are fleeing like crazy.   And I actually kind of think there is a plan at work here.   I don't know exactly if we should call it a master plan, but I think I figured   out the game plan at least.   Let's start with the big Bitcoin announcement while I was away.   The Bitcoin strategic reserve and the digital asset stockpile, two separate things.   And as I record a week later, the news is still not priced in on this.   I've read the executive order.   I did a quote unquote deep dive into this.  

And I don't think the rest of the market is fully understanding what a big deal this is.   And one of the better breakdowns that happened in the last few days was crypto   and AI czar for President Trump went on his old podcast, the All In podcast,   and explained several aspects and details that I don't think have been out in the public.   It's a pretty popular podcast, so you might have heard this,   but I actually think these clips are historic in nature and worth playing on the show.   And I also want to start with David Sachs' explanation of why Bitcoin is special,   because these are the words of the crypto czar who is informing crypto policy   directly for the White House.  

So his understanding of Bitcoin is extremely relevant.   Bitcoin is the original cryptocurrency. It's the first one. It's the only one   that doesn't have an issuer, right? It's very decentralized.   It's, you know, in crypto, they call this the immaculate conception.   We don't really know how it got here. We don't know who Satoshi is.   It's almost mystical, you would say. Yes.   It's the most valuable one. I will say the individual who interjects too often   is his co-host, and this is just the two of them, Jason Calacanis.   Sorry, Jason, I did try to cut around you as much as possible.  

It's a $2 trillion market cap, and it's the most secure.   It's ever been hacked, right? So we're now over 15 years into this journey,   and there's been a lot of people who've been skeptical along the way,   and there's been a lot of ups and downs.   But here it is. I mean, I remember back in 2011, I think it's the first time   I bought a Bitcoin. I think it was at $120.   Now it's at $90,000. Again, there have been all sorts of wild swings along the way.   But this thing just keeps chugging along. And you can think of that $2 trillion   market cap as like a $2 trillion bug bounty.  

If there was a way to hack this, there's every incentive in the world.   And by hack, I mean, like, to double spend, create basically a counterfeit Bitcoin,   I guess, would be the way for people to think about it.   It is a miracle. It hasn't been compromised. I think we can all say that.   Well, I don't know if it's a miracle. I think it's exceptional design.   Sure. And so I think what you could say is that it's been tested in a very robust   way, and there's been every incentive to basically break the encryption,   and it continues to chug along.  

And so I think the price has gone up as the protocol has gotten more acceptance.   And this is another point, is that Bitcoin is the most widely accepted as a   store of value throughout the world.   Yeah. So we do believe it should be treated special. I have to say,   I actually was relieved hearing that since David Sachs is a noted former Solana   investor. I just wasn't quite sure.   I know he's also an early Bitcoin investor before he even bought Solana,   but I just wasn't quite sure where he stood on his understanding of Bitcoin.   And the thing that stood out to me in that clip is when Calacanis is like,   oh, it's just, you know, it's lucky it hasn't been hacked yet. It's lucky.  

And Sachs actually corrects him there with an appropriate understanding,   which I thought was really good.   And then the other thing that became clear in their conversation is it seems   the Trump administration has realized selling Bitcoin has been a mistake.   Think of it as like a digital Fort Knox for digital gold. We want to put the   digital gold in there. We want to keep it secure. We never want to sell it.   He's, of course, talking about the Bitcoin reserve, separate from the digital   asset stockpile. That's the goal of the reserve.   And you're right that we've made the mistake in the past of selling this stuff.  

At one point in time, we had about 400,000 Bitcoin on the federal balance sheet.   We sold roughly half of that for something like $360 million total.   If we had held all of that, it would be worth just that the portion we sold   would be worth over $17 billion.   So we made this mistake of prematurely selling Bitcoin when we should have held   it. We don't want to make that mistake with regard to the rest of it.   We think there's around 200,000 coins left on the federal balance sheet.   But the truth is that nobody knows because we've never done a proper audit.   So part of what this executive order provides is that we're going to do for   the first time a government-wide accounting of the digital assets that we actually have. They don't know.  

They don't know how much Bitcoin they have. They don't know how much ETH they   have. They really don't know.   I think that's something that we need to understand is they're saying roughly   200,000 Bitcoin for this reserve, but they don't actually know how much Bitcoin they have.   Additionally, and I think this is the right thing to do, I've raised this concern   before on the show, they're going to make sure that everything's gone through   a legal process and that if someone who is a victim of a crime is due their coins back,   those victims of crimes are going to get their coins back. They're not going to go in the reserve.  

They'll be legally required to report it, and then they'll go in the reserve.   If there's a final adjudication.   So obviously, if those coins could go back as restitution to victims,   or if the person who they were seized from wins their court case and gets them   back, they're not going to go into the Federal Reserve.   But if there's been a final adjudication and a final forfeiture,   yes, those will go into the Reserve.   That's the right policy. I was concerned about incentives that essentially just   incentivize various federal agencies to just seize Bitcoin at every opportunity.   Now, I want to make sure we understand the key differences between the Bitcoin   reserve and the digital asset stockpile, because it's huge.  

And there's confusion since they were announced at the same time.   TLDR, and I'm going to let Sachs explain it, but the TLDR, because it's key   that you understand, is a huge difference.   The Bitcoin reserve, we cannot sell. We cannot sell the Bitcoin in the reserve.   The digital asset stockpile, which is everything that's not Bitcoin,   we can sell. And we can sell it to buy Bitcoin.   That's Bitcoin. Okay, so then you got the stockpile. Let me just talk about that.   So first of all, like I said, we don't know exactly what digital assets the   federal government has.  

I've seen reports that it might have, for example, 50,000 ETH, which is Ethereum.   But again, we need to get to the bottom of that. when we figure out exactly   what the assets are, we're going to move them into the digital stockpile.   The purpose of the stockpile is responsible stewardship. It's a place for safekeeping.   It's a centralized, you could say, account under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury.   And the Secretary of the Treasury will figure out how to maximize the values   of these holdings. Now, there's a couple of important differences between stockpile and reserve.   So one is the reserve, the executive order actually provides that the secretary.  

Of the treasury will not sell the Bitcoin.   Okay. We're, we're prohibited from selling the Bitcoin.   There's no such prohibition with respect to the stockpile.   If the secretary of the treasury decides that's in the long-term interest of   the U S to rebalance the portfolio or change the portfolio, the secretary has   the discretion to do that. I think the secretary will.   And so I just think that's fascinating too, because one of the rules of the   EO is they can acquire Bitcoin if it's revenue neutral.   Well, selling the shit coins would be revenue neutral. So with respect to reserve,   the EO provides that the secretaries that I'm talking about,   Treasury and Commerce, they're allowed to figure out strategies to accumulate   more Bitcoin for the reserve if those strategies are budget neutral and don't   cost the taxpayer anything.  

Okay. So it's possible that we could, I'm not saying that we will, but it gives them,   it authorizes them to acquire more Bitcoin if they can figure out a way to do   it that doesn't impact the federal budget or the deficit or taxpayers, right?   I think that's key to help the public swallow this.   Their initial reaction has been very poorly. The coverage has been very bad.   But at the end of the day, it's revenue neutral for, well, it's going to be   revenue positive for the taxpayer. Let's be real.   There's another thing that's been really awful in the coverage of all of this.   It's because not only does that seem like a very reasonable structure.  

But instead of attacking that structure, some of the half-wit journalists have   gone directly after David Sachs, claiming that he's cooking different cryptos to pump his bags.   I mean, it's a legitimate concern. If he's the crypto czar, you don't want him   influencing crypto policy to make himself rich.   And so Sachs went on the record about that.   It's a longish clip, but I actually think, again, it's historically important   that we document this on the podcast.   Well, people came out right away and were saying that somehow I was engaged   in a scheme to pump my bags or to basically create exit liquidity for myself   and billionaire stuff like that.  

You have to understand that those accusations, I mean, they're accusing me of a crime.   A serious crime. A serious crime. And they're doing it with no evidence whatsoever.   So these things are basically, it's borderline- Slander.   Slander and defamation. It's slanderous, yeah, I would say so.   In any event, what they didn't know and what I then proceeded to put out there   is that I sold all my cryptocurrency prior to day one of the administration   because I didn't want to even have the appearance of a conflict.   And by the way, I could have waited. I didn't have to do it like that,   but I decided to do it and take it upon myself to do that because you just know   that when it comes to crypto, there's going to be a lot of fluctuations in the market.  

You never want someone to be able to point at one of those fluctuations and   say somehow that the cryptos are benefited from that and create a conspiracy   theory, which is exactly what basically happens.   So first of all i got rid of all my cryptocurrency prior to   day one craft also sold and craft is the venture firm that you funded that's   done a lot of great work supporting founders here right so we basically sold   i think it was around 200 million dollars of crypto of which around 85 million   dollars was personally attributable to myself and we cleared that before day one,   paid taxes on it and basically so there wouldn't be a conflict so then.  

The sphere shifted in another direction was, okay, well, maybe he doesn't own   crypto, but he's in crypto funds.   Okay. And so they pointed to Bitwise and multi-coin capital,   and I was also in blockchain capital.   And so then the fund managers came out and one by one all said,   actually, David called us over two months ago and said, he's going to need to divest from our funds.   And so we also did that. But yeah, look, I think it's a lazy and stupid narrative   to say that the reason why someone who's already successful in business goes   into government is to somehow make more money. I was making money before.  

This involves a substantial disruption of my business interests,   and I have to divest a lot of those business interests.   And in divesting, I have to be either a taxpayer or I have to take a significant   discount and it costs you money.   It's just a lazy narrative that people create, but there's no truth to it.   And just to underscore a point that you made a second ago, you were one of the   funds i divested from not because you're a crypto fund but because you might   have a crypto position we went through i think the launch fund's holdings and   i think there was something crypto related in there and so one or two that pivoted   into crypto yes right so i just didn't want to have any problem there so.  

Music.   An executive order is good and all But as we very well know at this point,   the next guy can come in, or gal, and just undo the previous executive orders.   So to get this thing to really stick, we need an all-of-government buy-off.   You can kind of set the course and set the tone and send a signal to the Senate   and the House of the priorities.   But to really lock it in, we need a law.   And I have to say, the momentum there is a lot stronger than I initially reported.   Yesterday, as I record, which is the 12th of March, 2025, the Bitcoin Policy   Institute had a very fancy event with lots of heavy hitters there,   like your boy Sailor, Jack Maulers, tons of Bitcoin friendly Congress critters.  

And they made two big announcements pertaining to this very issue of locking it in as law of the land.   First, was an individual that I'm not very familiar with, but I perhaps need   to get more familiar with, is U.S. Congressman Nick Belch.   That's probably not right, but I love it. It's like it's B-E-G-I-C-H.   So there's no L in there at all.   And the bill is to introduce a strategic Bitcoin reserve in the house,   in the house, to buy a million Bitcoin.   Today, I'm here to make a historic announcement, one that will shape America's   economic future for generations to come.  

Today, I will be introducing the Bitcoin Act of 2025 in the United States House.   Now, you know, this is a bold and forward-looking legislative initiative designed   to ensure the United States secures its financial independence and maintains   its leadership in the global digital economy.   Before I continue, I want to take a moment and recognize the tireless efforts   of my colleague in the Senate, Senator Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming.   Actually, the second announcement is going to pertain to her.   I just thought it was noteworthy that the bill there in the House already has six co-sponsors.   Now, speaking of Senator Lummis, here is the second announcement.  

She's reintroducing her Bitcoin Act with vigor. I'm so pleased to announce that   today I will be reintroducing the Bitcoin Act.   And I'll be joined here shortly by Senator Justice of West Virginia,   who is one of the co-sponsors.   And we have several other additional co-sponsors. And a lot of it is a result   of the excitement that's been building.   And when I checked, she had seven co-sponsors now. So that seems pretty significant to me.   That is moving faster than I expected to have bills both in the House and in the Senate.   Both of them have pretty good sponsors. The House has six co-sponsors.  

The Senate bill has seven co-sponsors.   That seems like momentum to me. And we've had a clear signal from the White   House that they'd sign something like that.   So now, with all of this in mind, the strategic reserve, the volatility in the   market, the recent drop in inflation rates, and the momentum behind the bills   in both the House and the Senate, we have to bring it all together,   zoom out, and just look at where the signal takes us.   Music.   Trump said rates would be coming down one way or another. The interest rates will come down.   You said that you would demand that the interest rates come down.  

I would put in a strong statement. Do you expect the Fed to listen to you?   Yeah. All right. So I think I played that clip on the show.   And then more recently, I think just two days ago, he was interviewed by Fox Business.   And he's clearly, clearly on the same trajectory as that clip from January.   Before you came into the Oval Office the first time, you were a very successful   businessman, very successful real estate executive.   And a lot of people said, oh, this is the business president.   This is it. He's watching the stock market. He knows all about,   you know, he doesn't want the market to go down. And now we've got tariffs and   the market has been going down.  

Well, not much. I mean, in all fairness. You said, look, we're going to have   a disruption, but we're OK with that.   Is that what you meant? The stock market going down was the disruption.   What other disruption were you alluding to? Look, what I have to do is build a strong country.   You can't really watch the stock market. If you look at China,   they have a hundred year perspective. We have a quarter.   We go by quarters. That's true.   And you can't go by that. You have to do what's right.   What we're doing is we're building a tremendous foundation for the future.   Tremendous foundation. Wall Street did not like that answer at all.  

But he's right. U.S. mortgage rates have dropped their sixth consecutive week   to the lowest level since December of 2024.   And here's the big one. The 10-year U.S.   Treasury yield has decreased by approximately 35 basis points from early January to now.   This is key for you to understand.   Over the last two months, the 10-year U.S. Treasury bond yield has shown a general downward trend.   This is critical to understand the entire strategy and the mess.   When demand for bonds goes up, like during a flight-to-safety moment when there's   market volatility, prices rise because more investors are buying.  

That then pushes yields down since the fixed interest is spread over a higher   price. So in terms of market stress, if investors are freaked out,   they tend to ditch riskier assets like their NVIDIA stock or their Apple stock,   and they pile into government bonds.   That rush drives up the bond prices and pulls yields lower, which is exactly   what we've been seeing since January.   They're getting the bond yields lower. Now, why would they want to do that?   I think there's a few reasons. Treasury Secretary Bassinet, as I put it,   went into some detail. I think this was on CNBC.  

If we ever went down 20% on the NASDAQ or 15% on the S&P, with people that want   Trump to fail, that's going to be splayed across every newspaper in the world.   I'm just wondering whether the tolerance for something like that for the administration.   Well, look, as you said, Joe, the market was up 20% last year,   20% a year. So there is some house money you're planning on. No, no, no.   I'm going to put it another way. Okay. Did the Biden administration succeed?   The American people weren't buying it. Just because the market was up,   they voted out the Democrats.  

Question related to the regulatory or deregulatory agenda, which I think is...   Here's another statement, and we can stop there.   Here's another statement from the White House. Quote, want to emphasize that   we're seeing a strong divergence between animal spirits of the stock market   and what we're actually seeing unfold from businesses and business leaders.   And the latter is obviously more meaningful than the former on what is in store   for the economy in the medium to long term.   So Trump says he's not watching the market.   Bassinet there says, we have seen 20, we've seen two 20% years in a row and   it hasn't helped Main Street.  

In other words, the people that voted the Trump administration into office are   not necessarily benefiting.   So the strategy is to inject volatility into the market, which brings down inflation   and causes also, secondarily, a flight to safety, i.e.   Bonds, which pulls the bond yields lower.   So why would the president of the United States, who in the past seemed to live   and die by the stock market in his first term, be willing to watch it slide and everyone panic?   Why would the White House be intentionally injecting market volatility around   tariffs, sometimes multiple times a day?  

Because they have a much, much bigger problem than billionaires making more money on their assets.   The U.S. government faces a critical refinancing challenge in this year, in 2025,   with $9.2 trillion of existing debt, not even new debt, $9.2 trillion of existing   debt that is maturing and requiring refinancing this year.   I believe $2 trillion of it needs to be refinanced in April alone.   So a decline in something like the 10-year treasury bond yields directly reduces   the refinancing costs for the government.   Now, my math, who knows? But this is based on my math.  

If that lower rate holds that we have right now, when the government needs to   refinance, they could save about $32 billion a year on $9.2 trillion in debt   just at the current bond rates.   Since January, where they fall into, they could save $32 billion on the refinancing.   Every 1% reduction in interest rates could save over $1.7 trillion.   Every 1% reduction in interest rates, $1.7 trillion in interest costs over a   decade for the entire debt stock.   So that's the scale of the problem, and it has to happen right now.   And Trump has a clear focus on those market numbers, on the yield rates.  

And getting, I think, my suspicion is, cheap debt above all else.   And he seems to be locked in on it. But you may get it again with these tariffs, right?   I mean, one CEO said to me, my input costs have already started to go up.   I'm going to have to raise prices. In the meantime, guess what?   Interest rates are down for the last three, four days at good levels.   I mean, you know, when you add interest rates, you're talking about it's gone down.   I've been saying, let's get interest rates down. You know, nobody ever gets   rich when the interest rates are high because people can't borrow money.  

Interest rates are going down. You know what else is going down?   What have I been trying to get down? Energy.   Energy's going down. I'd love to see energy go down.   You know, energy is really what caused it. They screwed up my energy.   I had the most energy and they screwed it up. Then they went back to it.   It was going through the roof. They went back to some drilling,   but it was gone. It was hopeless. It was lost, but energy's gone down and interest   rates have gone out over the last week. That's a big thing. I love that.   They have the best energy, the biggest energy.  

So we're doing some math, I think, right now. We're looking at this massive refinance cost.   Inflation slash stagflation seems to be a threat.   And the White House has decided that they can essentially take a hard correction   right now, deflate the Meg 7,   perhaps rebalance trade relations a bit, but mostly inject volatility with tariff   talks, and spin it as a focus on Main Street for the medium term.   Listen to the signaling in just this short clip from the Treasury Secretary.   I think over the medium term, which is what we're focused on.   Okay, so the medium term, i.e. this isn't their long-term plan.  

This isn't an agenda to refocus the federal government on making Middle America   prosper. This is just a short-term plan.   It will benefit Middle America and hurt the rich temporarily for the short term.   Q1. I think over the medium term, which is what we're focused on,   It's a focus on Main Street.   Wall Street's done great. Wall Street can continue to do fine.   It's a focus on Main Street.   But we have a focus on small business and the consumers.   So we are going to rebalance the economy. We're going to bring manufacturing jobs home.   Is that realistic? Probably not.  

Can they achieve some of it?   Likely. They likely can. And if they can even just get the yield rates to a   cheaper spot, so that debt, that debt is as cheap as possible.   Music.   All right, so let's bring it all together. All right.   The Trump administration is telling us a few things directly.   For now, they're not letting the market steer the ship.   We're not even watching the market. Of course, that's not true.   But that's the messaging. But what we do know is that Trump has now said,   on multiple occasions, rates must come down one way or another.   Now, when he said that, a lot of us have been focused on the federal fund rates and J-PAL.  

Really, he just needs to get those bond rates in the right sweet spot.   So the best case might be to lower bond rates without the Fed even having to   lower the fund rate, which if they did, could stoke inflation,   which we probably may end up with them doing that anyways.   But the White House is also telling us directly, buy Bitcoin and never sell your Bitcoin.   From this day on, America will follow the rule that every Bitcoin knows very   well, never sell your Bitcoin. That's a little phrase that they have.   I don't know if that's right or not. Who the hell knows, right?  

Who knows who knows but so far it's   been right and well let's keep it that way i mean you can   quibble it that he didn't nail your pet tagline but the signal is clear from   the white house buy bitcoin hold bitcoin they're making it clear what their   target is they need cheap debt they're making it clear to the market buy bitcoin   hold bitcoin stand by for volatility and their biggest tool.   Their largest leverage is Trump can play the crazy.   He can shift positions on tariffs as needed and inject volatility on demand.   That lowers the market. It puts pressure on trade partners.  

And here's the thing that people aren't thinking about.   Trump can turn that up or down just by job owning, just like the Fed does.   And when the White House needs to, they can turn it off altogether and essentially   begin to immediately remove the volatility from the market.   And the people that get burned the most in the process are the asset holders,   stockholders, people who own multiple investment homes, CEOs that are rich because   they've outsourced the labor.   The average folks don't own stocks. A lot of people don't even own homes anymore.   Maybe they have a retirement plan that gets temporarily impacted.  

But for many of Trump voters, that's small ball compared to fixing the rest of this.   My bet would be that the White House hopes to have results by the midterms.   And if my math is right, there's about 386 or 385 U.S. business days until the midterms.   So we need to think about what comes next. Because by the time most market experts   wrap their noodles around all of this, we'll probably be mostly on the other   side and maybe even on to the next thing.   So this could be a signal to watch for, actually. But remember this.   Bitcoin is a global liquidity indicator. It matters more than the cycles.  

It's liquidity. And when the current market dynamics resolve,   liquidity is probably going to be in a pretty good position.   We're probably going to see a lot of money start moving and Bitcoin will be   the first to recover and it will recover the fastest and the strongest,   more so than anything else, more than any tech stock.   And you have to wonder if the AI hype begins to continue. Well,   I'd say continues to fade, not begins, but continues to fade more into a pragmatism,   pragmatism, which happens so often with tech.   There's like i mean i remember just a   few years ago iot and edge   devices were the next wave and and   all the tech conferences i went to by industry were all about iot and edge devices   and edge compute this is before you know ai really before the blockchain hype   too and that really materialized in a lot of vendors having better and edge   products like firewalls you know it ended up we maybe got a little bit better,   IOT devices, I suppose, right? But we got a lot of crap too.  

Tech always goes through these cycles where there's this massive promise,   and then we kind of settle into an actual reality.   And I suspect as AI goes through that natural process where we kind of realize,   OK, LMs are great at this and they're not great at that, that funding is going to kind of mellow out.   And you have to wonder what these companies will do. And a really simple strategy   would be to start putting Bitcoin on their balance sheets.   We also know that it's extremely likely the U.S. government will start putting   more Bitcoin. on their balance sheet.  

And it seems that at least multiple states will also start putting Bitcoin in   their own independent reserves from the federal government.   It also appears that China and Middle Eastern countries are considering a Bitcoin   buying strategy, as CNBC reports.   I was talking to Brian Armstrong last night ahead of this summit today,   and he's one of the members who's been advising the Trump transition team since the campaign trail.   And he made the point that he thinks a lot of countries are going to follow.   I know I know of already Middle Eastern countries, Gulf states that have been   looking into a Bitcoin buying strategy.  

There's also reportedly, you know, conversations within the Chinese government   to look to follow suit if the government in the U.S.   Makes this move to roll out a purchase plan. But there is no purchase plan.   Yeah, exactly. Well, I mean, if you have a strategic Bitcoin reserve,   you know, China used to be one of the epicenters for Bitcoin mining.   It's very easy for them. They have all of this hydropower. And so they already   have all the facilities and they banned it a couple of years ago,   but it takes nothing to turn it back on.   And then, I mean, similar to Iran evading sanctions by just mining Bitcoin,   they already have it on hand.  

The point is not bad. They may already have Bitcoin on hand.   They could convert that into a reserve pretty quickly.   Music.   All right. What do you think of my hypothesis? Boost in and tell me,   is there a master plan in play here to get cheap debt for the federal government?   Or is it all just chaos?   And some of these rates coming down is just a natural consequence of that chaos.   I'd like to know what you think. Boost in, tell me what's going on and your take.   Because either one could be right. But the more data that I take in,   I'm starting to form this hypothesis.  

Cheat debt over everything else. And then you secure that. Maybe you onshore a few more things.   Get a few trade things restructured. Get liquidity moving again.   And latter half of the year, perhaps we rip or we slide into a giant recession.   Either one could happen. So you tell me which one it's going to be.   I won't say I'll hold you to it, but I think it'd be fun to get it on the record.   Music.   Well, I'd like to say thank you everyone who supports the show just by doing   what you're already going to be doing.   You want to stack sats? The best place in the U.S. is River.  

Jupiterbroadcasting.com slash river.   That's where I'm stacking my sats. I think their cash savings account at 3.8%   interest in sats where you can keep cash and then smash buy on the dips or DCA from that. Oh, man.   So sweet. Great UI, lightning support, tons of awesome features,   plus proof of reserves. That's River.   Now, if you're in Canada or you love a system that supports 100% self-custody,   that's the Bitcoin Whale.   All these links are in my show notes. You click them, you support the show.   The Bitcoin Whale is an amazing automatic self-custody platform.   They also support Lightning. It's great.  

Now, if you're ready to earn sats by buying whatever you're buying,   like with your debit card or paying your bills, the Fold Card,   massively popular in our community.   Pay your bills, stack sats, link in the show notes.   You want to just spend sats via Lightning? The Bitcoin company.   The Bitcoin company lets you load up a gift card, hundreds of companies via   Lightning. You don't even have to have a login. You can log in via Lightning.   I love that. Last but not least, you need to get access to your Bitcoin value   without selling. Right now I don't   see a better deal than Salt Lending out there. Salt Lending is great.  

There's a lot of features I like, including loan stabilization and other things.   So check them out. And they do not rehypothecate your Bitcoin.   Links to Salt Lending and all of the others in the show notes.   But with that said, it's time to get in to those delicious boosts. And we have a good batch.   And look at this right here. Our baller booster needs to set their user profile.   But I really appreciate the boost. It's user 20497192.   Hey, rich lobster.   Hey, Chris, I got to say how much fun it was meeting you and everybody at the   Planet Nix meetup in Pasadena last weekend.  

My goal is to learn as to run a Gene Bean Nix Bitcoin node.   Gene Bean, you got a brand now. The Gene Bean Bitcoin Nix node.   I'm getting close. Thanks for keeping it excellent and real.   I shared the secret Thousand Oaks meetup guys this week that you might be meeting   up with them, and they can't wait for you to visit the next time you make it   down this way. We all listen and love the show.   Oh, well, that's awesome. And yeah, my goal would be to road trip down to California   next time and come back up Highway 101 on the coast, swing by,   do the secret meetup. That'd be awesome.  

OB comes in with 25,000 sats. My Hawk meme coin is love!   Yes, I would like a bite bit. Break down more content, always better.   Reference, the check and chain, digital gold, is a bad analogy. Okay, here we go.   Bob Burnett will talk people through the block space, being the most powerful   commodity in the world we'll ever know.   I hope all is well with your health. I'm reminded everyone is dealing with something   that no one else knows about.   Isn't that always the case? The health has been a little rough recently,   but it seemed to be on the mend. So I am doing okay.  

Now, here we go. Here's Gene Bean. Gene Bean's here with 4,444 sets. That's a big old bird.   Things are looking up for old McDuck. Well, let's hear it good,   buddy. It says, are you aware of any reason not to use the Unchained IRA and   a pair of Trezor 1s as the way to make better use of a 401k from a previous employer? I am not.   I hear good things about Unchained, and I hear very practical,   pragmatic reasons to use the IRA.   I cannot speak to the pair of Trezor 1s.   I don't really have any major issue with that.   Probably wouldn't be the first. I would probably go with a cold card first or   a jade if they support that. Probably would go with a jade.  

Better than nothing, man. And I really like overall Unchained's business.   So I think it's probably a good one.   He says, I just also finished The Bitcoin Standard. It was good,   but I think Lynn Alden's Broken Money is a much better book overall because   it was written post 2020 and incorporates all the associated debasement and inflation.   Yeah, Gene and I had a chance to talk about the two books and compare and contrast   them over lunch last week when I was gone.   And Gene makes a good point that Lynn simply wrote her book after COVID and all the money printing.   And while the Bitcoin standard is fantastic, it's kind of written like 2018,   2019, before all of that happened.  

And it talks about what could happen, but Lynn in Broken Money is able to incorporate   what did happen and use that as a data point.   So I agree maybe nowadays you only had time to read one.   You might want to consider reading Broken Money and then moving on to the Bitcoin standard.   There's really nice things about both. Thank you, Gene. It was good to see you too.   Oppie 1984 is here with 4,000 sats. Put some macaroni and cheese on there too.   A metal plate's a good idea. Thanks. I'll look into that. Yeah, there's a lot out there.   If anybody has any good recommendations of a vendor, please do boost those in   because there's really too many to choose from.  

And it's good to hear from you. Thanks for boosting it, Oppie.   Vault Bites here with the row of ducks.   That's 2,222 sats. And he says, I'm great. Well, you're great.   Thanks for the value vault. I really appreciate it.   Oh, here we go. Here we go. So Amorphous Phage comes in with 3,333 sats.   Oh my God, this drawer is filled with fruit. He says, I'm sorry about my username.   You know, afterwards, I remembered we had actually figured it out on LEP.   But he said, I consider changing it. Nah, you just have to be okay with me calling   you Amorphous Sausage every now and then.  

Also, you absolutely nailed my opinion and my thought experiment boost.   The fish out of water analogy is 100% true. Also, deflation will be a problem.   We need to stop chasing record after record. Slow and steady is definitely better.   Infinite growth? Yeah. Hmm. What could go wrong? Money printing?   Nah, shouldn't be a problem.   I have been kind of low-key watching the European Union gear up to fund the   war in Ukraine on their own and the kind of schemes they're coming up with.   And you could look this up because I didn't prep it for the show.   But one of the things they're talking about doing is accessing all of the,   quote, untapped private wealth.  

I don't know what that means, but when central bankers say they want to access   untapped private wealth savings, I'm always kind of a little worried about that. So just...   I don't know. The liquidity situation is going to be wild over the next two   years. It takes a little while for that stuff to trickle down.   Anyway, Sausage, good to hear from you. Thanks for boosting in.   Cannabis Records comes in with 4,200 sats.   Thanks for spinning Mookie's track. He saw it blow up this morning.   A big thank you to Chris and everyone who boosted in. Very excited to see his   work appreciated this way.  

It's the first time he ever made it in the top three. Oh, man, I love that.   Thank you cannabis records good to hear from you glad to hear it gave them a thrill,   jegs here with 10 000 sats just pump   the brakes right there let's hear it good buddy love the   song oh yeah thanks jeg thanks for supporting our artists there that's great   shy fox also came in with 10 000 sats yeah i got answers and i want some questions   for the federal worker contract ratio just as a side note i last episode i said   it there's data out there that suggests for like Like every single federal employee   that gets fired, two contractors lose a job.  

No idea if it's true. But Shy Fox says, I don't see firing fed workers,   especially in the areas affected so far, having a real impact on spending.   They'll probably be replaced by more contractors who cost even more while they're employed.   And the government will become even less capable of doing basic functions by   itself than it already is.   Brutal, Shy Fox. Oh, man, if they replace those folks with contractors, I don't know, man.   That just feels pretty shady. I'm going to keep an eye out for that.   Thanks for the boost. Appreciate it, ShyFox.   Adversary 17 is here with 17,000 sats. Banks are Ponzi schemes run by morons.  

And adversaries writes, I'm a few weeks behind on podcasts, but a great episode once again, Chris.   As for, do I trust my mobile as my cold stash?   No, absolutely not. It's too connected, too visible as a target for theft or   even getting lost or damaged.   But I'm also an old man and I prefer using a computer over my mobile as much as possible.   Definitely part of what, why I don't think I trust my mobile device for my cold stash.   Then I think the part I can't believe I hadn't thought of is you're right.   These things have like built-in modems that have their own operating systems that I can't turn off.   I mean, not practically and none of the phones out there that have the switches I'm going to use.  

And you're right, they also have things in the OS that I just don't know about.   I feel like I know more about what my custom built Nixbox or Archbox is doing   or even, you know, a well-maintained Ubuntu or Fedora box, than I do an Android machine.   So I think that's what it is. It's a bit of me just preferring to use computers   for real stuff and then quote-unquote real stuff, and then also just the unknown   nature of Android's connectivity and that modem.   But like most people say, as long as you're using an external wallet,   something that has to sign the keys, you should be fine.  

Thanks for the boost. Ace Ackerman's here with a row of ducks.   And he just says, boost. Thank you, Ace. Always good to hear from you.   I'm trying to think if I've heard. I know. No, I know you've boosted before.   Northern Hoddle is here. And I'm pretty. Yeah, this is like your second boost.   I think it's good to hear from you again. Everything's under control.   Missed a few weeks. So crazy boost incoming.   Coming in from Tahoe. hence the ah, Northern Tahodl. I see, I'm Northern Tah.   I see, Northern Tahodl. Good to hear from you, Northern Tahodl.   Is that your first boost? It might be your first.  

I'm feeling like maybe it is, but it's great to hear from you.   The traders love the vol. Atone's here with a Rodex.   I think the gold comparison is an important one. So last week I asked if it's   time to drop the digital gold narrative.   Gold is the closest thing to trad fi in Bitcoin. It's real and it's hard money.   Before Bitcoin, serious sound money advocates basically had to be for gold.   It's where we'd still be today if Satoshi hadn't come along.   Of course, Bitcoin is a massive technological improvement over the yellow rock,   but I don't think it's a disservice to Bitcoin to draw comparisons to the most   successful hard money in history.  

That was a 10,000 sat boost coming in at 2000. That's a great boost. I agree.   Wow. Yeah. And you know, I was thinking about it more since the episode.   I don't think we'd be here with the clarification that David Sachs had about   the difference of Bitcoin and all the other crypto.   If that digital gold narrative hadn't taken hold. I think it was absolutely necessary.   Absolutely necessary. Here's another mind F for you.   Get ready for this one, everybody. I should have made this a boost question.   So boost in and tell me what you think about this.   One of the reasons I believe the US government is embracing Bitcoin is because stablecoins.  

And when stablecoins rip, Bitcoin rips. When Bitcoin rips, stablecoin rips,   et cetera. The two are sort of symbiotic in that way.   Stablecoins represent digital dollar dominance around the world.   Without the U.S. having to create a CBDC.   It gives access to the digital dollar system for the entire world.   And it'll extend the reach and utility of the dollar and thus the dominance of the dollar over time.   And if not for that, perhaps the U.S. government would have had a much more   hostile approach to Bitcoin.   If not for that symbiotic relationship and a narrative that the U.S.  

Government desperately needs.   So in a weird way, could it be said that we would not have a Bitcoin reserve   and a bill in the House and a bill in the Senate if not for shit coins?   Because stable coins require a shit coin network.   Did that bake your noodle? Because it bakes my noodle, man. What if the very   things Bitcoiners hate were necessary for the U.S.   Government to adopt it? Because it was supposed to be first they laugh at you,   then they fight you. And I expected, I mean, I expected a full-on war from the   federal government to stop Bitcoin.  

And yet, they're the first government, large world government,   Western world government, to embrace it. That's not what I expected.   So I think digital gold played a role there, played an important role,   and I think stablecoins did, which means shitcoins.   And that just bakes my noodle. I'd love to know what you guys think about that.   Also, thank you very much, Atone, for boosting in. Now, BMW Room Veru comes in with a Rodex.   With a value-for-value boost. Coming in hot with the boost. And Chakalaka's here with a row of ducks.   In response to Gene Bean's question from the last episode, a solid entry-level   miner that won't break the bank is the Antminer S9.  

Now, that said, it is inefficient by today's standards, but it is best used,   perhaps, as a space heater.   I have an S9, and that's what I've been thinking, too. If I'm going to run a   heater, and it's volted down or whatever, It has like a little unit,   a little power supply on it that lets it run off 120 volt wall supply,   which means it's going to run even slower.   But, you know, I could run it off a regular outlet. You can remove two hash   boards to cut down on power use and noise.   You can pair it with a Brains firmware and Noctifans for a quiet setup.   So this is key here. He says, you know, if you cut out two of the hash boards,   then you reflash it with Brains, and then you put Noctifans on there,   the thing's going to run a lot quieter. And with a little cron magic,   you can dial the power anywhere from 300 watts to 1,400 watts.  

Now, more efficient options for the home user are the FutureBit and the BitAxe,   which uses just one of the 190 chips found in the S21. So you get S21 level   efficiency, but at a much lower hash rate than the S9.   But he says, just remember that mining is proof of work. You can't have low   upfront cost and low operational cost.   There's always going to be trade-offs. Hope that helps.   Chakalaka, that is such a great boost. That helped me. I hope it helps everybody   else. Thank you very much for that boost.   Curious, he is here with 5,000 sats. That's a Jar Jar boost. You're so boost.   So the way the Navy deals with its massive abandoned salt mine in Utah, the U.S.  

Does operate some breeder reactors, also where every so often they will take   some of the waste and burn it down to lead.   The hippies tend to throw a giant fit about moving the stuff around.   So this has all been limited.   Ah, that's a little bit of great insights there. Thank you, Kirstie.   It's good to hear from you.   Lord Stabby is here with 2,722 sats.   From now on, you will be my best friend and live by my side.   He says, I just set up my umbral lightning node and opened two channels.   And this was my first payment to Fountain. All right. Yes.   I love it. We got our last boost before the 2000s at cutoff was about a node   getting set up. Awesome.  

I'm glad we got one in there. Thanks, Tabby. And congratulations.   Hope you enjoy. And thank you, everybody who also streamed sats.   57 of you just streamed those sats as you listen.   So collectively, you helped the show stack 92,600 sats.   Thank you very much, sats streamers. Now, when you combine that with our 78   unique boosters, we stacked a total of 268,796 sats for the last two weeks of the show.   Thank you, everybody, very much.   Now, Fountain FM is probably the easiest way you can combo it with like something   Strike or anything else on the Lightning Network.  

Grab them sats and then just blast them over to your fountain wallet.   But there are a lot of self-hosted options as well. Albie Hub and others.   Newpodcastapps.com. Fountain FM and strike are probably the easiest way to get   going. And then you can boost the show and support this episode.   Thank you, everybody who supported episode 49 of this week in Bitcoin.   And please do boost in and give feedback and respond to questions and all that.   That engagement not only supports the show, but it makes for one of my absolute   favorite segments. And it makes it feel like I'm doing a show for real people out there.  

And I'm having a conversation with you, which I absolutely love.   Music.   All right, I got a couple of updates for you.   It's been a rough few weeks for the Bitcoin miners. They're really feeling the   squeeze. They're taking a hit from low fees and, of course, falling prices.   Mining profitability has dropped below $50 per petahash, marking the lowest   level since mid-November.   Ouch. According to the Miner magazine, transaction fees totaled just 163 Bitcoin   in February. That's only 1.33% of the total block rewards.   That's tough times in mining land for sure. Also, the SEC has made a lot of   news since the last episode.  

Some of it's not so great, some of it is. It's a big shift. The U.S.   SEC has closed investigations into several high-profile crypto players,   including Coinbase, Gemini, Uniswap, Robinhood, Metamask, OpenSea,   Richard Hart, and today, Ripple.   The agency also issued a rare clarification on meme coins, stating that most   are not considered securities.   Somehow, quote, the offer and sale of meme coins does not involve an investment   in an enterprise nor undertaken with a reasonable expectation of profits to   be derived from the entrepreneurial or manageable efforts of others, said the SEC.   So in other words, there's such an obvious bad investment and because you're   not directly investing in a company and you don't really know what the team's   doing for the investment, it's not a security.  

Okay. I don't see how any of these pass the Howey test, but I guess that just   doesn't matter anymore.   The agency also warned that the fraudulent conduct involving meme coins would   still trigger enforcement.   So, perhaps we shall see. I don't know about that.   Now i got two yes two final clips of the week because i just liked them both   so much now i've mentioned it once before on the show so i don't expect everybody   to remember but meta planet,   which was a hotel firm in japan has been employing the strategy bitcoin treasury   strategy i don't like the new name and i said micro strategy was easier couldn't   even change it to macro strategy or something.  

But anyways, their CEO is very bullish on Bitcoin.   And he has a few behaviors around Bitcoin that I think some of you probably   disagree with, but maybe we could open it up to a conversation here.   He's all about spreading the Bitcoin evangelism to everybody.   Sit down at dinner and be that guy.   I think everyone has a role in helping to increase Bitcoin adoption in the world.   And I know a lot of your viewers are already believers in Bitcoin,   but there's a great impact, I think, when you're at a dinner or you're out with   friends to talk about Bitcoin, share with them this amazing asset class,   something that I think can be transformational for them if they adopt early.  

I will admit, I used to try this. I used to try to talk to my friends about   Bitcoin, even as recent as a couple of years ago.   But I've stopped for the most part. Every now and then I try to talk to my mom.   It's just a little bit, just because I care about her.   But it's not that I don't care about my friends. It's just that it never really landed.   Because they need to understand so much more around Bitcoin to really get why Bitcoin is valuable.   One of the first things you hear people say is, we can't do anything with it.   They don't even understand what makes hard money hard money.  

They don't even get it. So why would they understand why Bitcoin is valuable?   And I just, I tried, I guess, about a year ago with another good friend.   And actually that has worked out, but it took about a year. It took about a   year of kind of an ongoing conversation.   So it's a lot of investment I've found. But I think the point that he's trying   to make is that it's so important that we spend that energy and we tell as many   people as possible because it is that important.   And I'm wondering if you agree with that sentiment or not.   I tell my friends to put 100% of their net worth into Bitcoin,   but perhaps that's too far.  

But to start somewhere, everyone can invest 1%, 2%, 3%, 5%. But that means that   95% that isn't invested in Bitcoin is in something that I think is inferior.   But I think we can all play a very important role in orange pilling.   I did one time sit down with a friend and we looked at ETFs and we looked at   stocks and then we kind of zoomed out and looked at like, you know, over a year period.   It's really hard to find something that beats Bitcoin.   Every now and then, Nvidia comes along for a bit, but it's really,   really hard to find another investment that beats Bitcoin.  

So when you're actually looking at, I have a limited amount of money and I need   the best performance to risk ratio return, Bitcoin is surprisingly a safe bet   over, you know, multiple years, of course.   And you can actually sit down with people and you can look at the returns of   stuff. You know, find a website that does this for you.   And the data is there. It's obvious. And that does start a conversation. I've noticed that.   Those around us. And one by one, I think the dominoes will fall.   We're beginning to see that now, which is incredibly exciting.   It's no longer a fringe asset. It's something that's definitely mainstream.  

And when Wall Street begins to embrace Bitcoin, that's a really good sign.   So does this mean you're personally 100% in Bitcoin?   You know, I just sold an apartment in Tokyo to buy Bitcoin.   No. I still have an apartment in Bangkok, which I'm looking to sell.   If I can sell it, that goes into Bitcoin as well. Yeah, man.   Yeah. I mean, dude, the guy is all in.   Speaking of somebody who's all in, we got to play a Mikey Saylor clip.   So for context here, I actually, you know, I've owned two homes in my lifetime   and I do technically own the studio.   However, I do not live at the studio. I live by choice, mostly in an RV because   it's very expensive in Washington state to buy home or land.  

And my intention is to one day go somewhere where it's cheaper and set up shop   there and then like build a house.   So for the last nearly 10 years, I have lived in a 40 foot class A RV.   It's a nice RV, but it is 40 feet long. It's about 200 square feet.   I also have three kids, a dog and a wife.   Kids don't live with me full time, but they're often over. And that has been   an interesting lifestyle. Let me put it that way.   I do love traveling, but it has been an interesting lifestyle.   And the thing that has always been really remarkable about where we travel and   where we set up our camp, our home base, is there is property all around us   that It sits empty. Acres of it.  

Even in towns. In fact, we're very lucky because we get to park on some of this from time to time.   And we get to be sometimes downtown at certain places in Washington.   There are just parcels or whatever of land that are just sitting there unused   because they're simply a store of value for some rich businessman.   And I don't really necessarily blame him or her.   I happen to know the person in this case, so I know it's a him because this   is their best option. What are   they going to do? Put it in their savings account and watch it melt away?   What are they going to do? Put it in the market and then have a week like this,   wipe it out? No, they'd rather put it in real estate.  

That's what they do. And what I have looked forward to, and we've talked about   it before, is when we do start to see mainstream adoption, this will only happen   with tools through the banks that most of us Bitcoiners do hate.   But as mainstream adoption begins, Bitcoin could very likely become a preferred store of value.   If that were to happen, people like that MetaPlanet CEO I just played would   divert their real estate investments into a better store of value like Bitcoin.   And it may mean that housing becomes more available. And I think this clip from   Saylor really kind of puts it into practical perspective.  

I know wealthy people. They own 16 estates on the eastern shore,   and they live in two of them.   Like, why do they buy them? They land banking.   What does that mean? Well, the guy makes a lot of money every year,   and he doesn't want to put it in a savings account.   So he goes and he just buys a cool piece of property, and he buys another one.   Well okay it sounds good but here's   the problem the guy buys up the beautiful pieces of   property and you so you can't afford it right and   if the guy if the rich guy wasn't buying up all   the beautiful houses they would cost half as much and you   could live in a beautiful house so here's what happens some rich   dude has 27 houses that are empty you don't   have a beautiful house you have a family   your kids your dog could use the beautiful   house the rich dude doesn't even want the house he   just wants a long-term capital preservation strategy   right and so that's a prefer   a perverse incentive and a distorted   economy that's broken that's broken   money that's because the rich dude is using an estate on the eastern shore of   maryland as a piggy bank huh but the estate doesn't get renovated the house   is falling down there's a beautiful pool on the water and you could have a great   family picnic there every Sunday,   but it's not going to happen because the rich dude has 16 other houses.  

He just bought that house because he thought it was a good investment.   Music.   Let's check the state of the network before I get out of here.   This episode is wrapping up at block height 887,504.   The current U.S. price for Bitcoin is $82,670, hovering right around that 200-day   moving average, just like I said it might.   That is a drawdown of 24.3% from our all-time high of $109,160 on January 19th, 2025.   A 25-ish percent, even a 30 percent drawdown would be in line with a typical   post-halving market run.   So the timing of some of this overall reshaping is lining up almost exactly   with where you'd expect it in Bitcoin's general price behavior.  

We are still totally within a normal margin of a drawdown.   Not always easy to hear, but it's actually not that bad. Now, here's some good news.   Totable, totable, totable reachable nodes on the Bitcoin network are now 21,918.   We're getting so close to 22,000. So close.   But we are 51 days away from an all-time high, and I'm doing just fine.   The state of the Bitcoin network is chugging right along. Every 10 minutes, we get another block.   The hash rate continues to cook. The difficulty is still way beyond my reach.   We're looking really solid. We have 1,552 blocks to our next retarget.  

Enjoy the cheap sats.   Music.   Links this week at thisweekinbitcoin.show. My goal is that this show doesn't   get distracted or extracted by the emotions around what is happening.   You have to focus on the signal.   So let me know how I did with a boost and boost in with what you'd like to hear   from the show. Did I miss something?   What do you think of my hypothesis? Is there a master plan at play here to get   cheap debt for the federal government?   Or is it just chaos and some of these rates coming down are just a natural consequence?   Tell me what you think, what's going on out there with a boost.  

I always appreciate the support.   Now, let's wrap it up with a value for value track. Now, this title,   I think it just felt perfect with recent events going on. and it's currently   number 10 on the podcast index top chart.   I wonder if we could move that up the charts a little bit for them. It is Don't Count Me Out.   Music.