Gold sends a quiet signal about Bitcoin's next chapter, institutions hint at a shifting world order, and why tariffs might be noise—but something deeper is unfolding beneath the headlines.
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LINKS:
- Larry Fink’s 2025 Chairman’s Letter to Investors
- EU vows it's ready to retaliate as Trump trade war looms
- Politics Impacting Economic Polling - YouTube
- Trader Wagers Almost $100M on Bitcoin Dropping to $60K
- Trump sons' Bitcoin mining business plans to eventually go public
- Tether’s Big Bet: $70M Worth Of Bitcoin Snapped Up In Q1 2025
- Gold prices remains flat at record high ahead of Trump's tariff announcement
- Gold nears all-time high as investors await Trump tariff plan
- Fidelity Lets Investors Directly Invest in BTC, ETH, LTC Through New IRA Plan
- Bisq v2.1.7: More Reliable Message Delivery, Trade & Mediation Enhancements
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Music. Welcome into This Week in Bitcoin, episode 52. My name is Chris, chrislas.com, jupyterbroadcasting.com. You know, I really got pretty lucky with the timing of this show. I knew things were changing when the ETFs launched, and I knew I wanted to do a Bitcoin podcast because that was going to change the landscape. I had no idea just over a year we'd be sitting right here right now. We're not just watching Bitcoin history. We're watching world history unfold every single week. I mean, just picture 10 years from now after all of these things have played out, trying to explain this time to someone who's asking what happened.
I think this show will act as a time capsule for what are truly historic times. And this week, it feels like we're at the start of something big, which is a little frustrating if you've been paying close attention because it feels like it should be over by now. But really, the last few weeks, I mean this sincerely, unfortunately, have been building to this moment. All the trading today is going to take place without real knowledge of what President Trump's tariff plans will be. We're going to get that news, but not until 4 p.m. Eastern. Megan Casella's here. Give us the latest in terms of what we're hearing and what we may expect. Megan.
Hey, David, a very big day here at the White House. You were hearing staffers wish each other a happy Liberation Day. And we were just watching some American flags being set up in the Rose Garden, where we will finally get those details, as you said, at 4 p.m. today. But we are not likely to get any firm details until then. What we know for. So I could have waited. You know, I thought this is going to have some impact. And I can't really say, obviously, at this point what it's going to be as I'm recording before they make the announcements. But I think it's worth noting that right now, as I record, Bitcoin's up 2 percent in just the last couple of hours.
Maybe not what you expected Bitcoin to do on this news. Gold, as you may know by now, coming off the best quarter since the mid-1980s. Just how much room, though, is there to run? Our Pippa Stevens here with some possible answers. Morning, Pippa. Good morning, Carl. Well, gold is hovering around its record high as uncertainty around President Trump's tariff implementation rattles investors, sending them to safe haven assets. with gold also benefiting from economic slowdown and inflation concerns. Now, so far this year, gold-backed ETFs have seen $12.3 billion worth of inflows. That compares to $1.6 billion for all of last year, following three consecutive years of outflows.
We should put that into perspective for a moment. Let me back her up. The gold ETFs since January 1st have seen 12.3 billion of inflows versus 1.6 billion for all of 2024. OK, so you can get kind of a sense with that, what the demand is here. Sending them to safe haven assets, with gold also benefiting from economic slowdown and inflation concerns. Now, so far this year, gold backed ETFs have seen 12.3 billion dollars worth of inflows. That compares to $1.6 billion for all of last year, following three consecutive years of outflows. And as tariff talk heated up earlier this year, there was a large wave of imports into the U.S., especially from London and Switzerland, and COMEX inventories now stand at a record high of about 44 million ounces.
Still, strategists say gold can hold these levels, at least until the tariff situation is clarified. Goldman Sachs recently lifted its year-end target to $3,300, while B of A said it expects gold to average $3,063 this year up from a prior target of $2,750. I think it's worth keeping an eye on gold because it kind of forecasts where Bitcoin will go. And the gold bugs, they're loving this pump. Oh, they're loving it. And man, have they earned it after years of really nothing. But if you put things into a Bitcoin perspective, you zoom out and you put gold and Bitcoin on the same chart overlay, gold is just now breaking out of a 12-year downtrend if you price it in Bitcoin.
And if you go back to just the election, Bitcoin is up 24.3% still. Gold is up 13.9%, which is amazing for gold. The SPY is down about 2.9%, and QQQ is down about 5.1%. So, you know, we don't know where this is going. Gold and Bitcoin are probably telling us something, but it's really an early signal. So truthfully, a better analysis is going to come after I've had some time to observe and think about the impacts of tariffs and the way people respond and countries respond and the way deals are made. That's my plan. That's what I'll do is I'm going to keep an eye on how things play out and I'll work that in the next week's episode as needed.
So we'll keep this week's episode tight on what we do know focused while we don't really have a clear picture. So we're going to just sort of punt some of that this week and let it develop. It's just a really, really hard time to forecast now. Oh, I know, poor Chris. Oh, it's hard. It's hard. But quite literally, it's trickier than maybe it's ever been during the show. And Tom Lee kind of puts this into perspective and talks about some of the dynamics around this and maybe at the end of it, a possible turnaround. This week, I think into April 2nd, investors have three things on their minds.
One is they just don't know what the tariffs look like. They don't know if it's going to damage the economy. And and I think third, many are just a little terrified of of the policies of the White House. But post Wednesday, I think markets are going to have some visibility that allows us to take some of the selling pressure off. So, yes, I think it's possible that instead of us breaking down here and and seeing markets under further pressure, we're actually got the right pieces. I go into this without knowing what's on the other side of it. That's that is the fundamental question that people are sitting around trying to figure out today and tomorrow. That's right.
It's an interminable wait for people because it is still three days and they're fearful that we could have three days of down 2%. But I kind of agree with Larry Fink. I think the US is going to come out of this okay. I mean, Brexit's an example. Brexit happened and the UK economy emerged okay. It didn't have a huge recession and the stock market did okay. So for investors today, over the weekend, we had so many thinking the economy is going to completely fall off the rails after Wednesday. People are starting to say slowing growth and persistent inflation. So you put those together and you get the stagflation.
Yeah, that's death. Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of distortions in the economy now, right? Because we know people are buying cars and wine ahead of tariffs, and that's creating inflation. Hopefully they're not doing it the same, you know, cars and wine. Do you think it's pushing up our growth numbers that we're seeing at this point? Retail sales in other places, or is it too small to store things on that great of a level? I think it's possible economists are only dialing in the negative consequences so far, but not the positive, because rates are down and gasoline's down, and there could be some pull-forwarded demand, so we might end up having better growth, so less stag, and maybe the inflation stuff is more distorting, and so it's not as stagflationary.
You know, I had noticed that Truflation had ticked up in the last couple of weeks. And I was wondering why that might be. And Tom Lee suggests that perhaps people are pre-buying. But he kept saying something in there that I want to go further into. He kept saying there's market distortions. You know, there's distortions in the inflation data. He kept using that word, distorted and distortions. Well, Prof St. Ange has a really interesting market survey data that he digs into in one of his YouTube videos. And I clipped it. And the TLDR is, is that your political bias likely impacts how you view the economy right now.
To give a sense, the University of Michigan Inflation Survey asks Americans what they expect inflation to be. One of the most influential indicators in the economy, so influential that the Fed uses it as a guidepost for rates. The latest Michigan numbers are downright weird. So Republicans expect inflation for the next year to crash from 3.6% to just 0.1%, which is almost deflation. But Democrats expect inflation to soar from 1.7% under Biden to 6.5%. The hard data so far agrees with Republicans. I mentioned recently that Trump cut monthly CPI by half, while Truflation's real-time inflation is just 1.9%. but apparently what you see depends who you voted for.
Same with Michigan's five-year expectations, which covers Trump's entire term. So DIMMs went from expecting 2.7% inflation under Biden to 4.6, while Republicans went from 3.4 to just 1.3. In other words, one of the key economic indicators is currently a poll on whether you like Donald Trump. In fact, the media complained when Jerome Powell dismissed a bump in the Michigan index as a, quote, outlier, which is a polite term for garbage. Probably not a surprise to you that even our data is distorted by politics. You know, I have seen a lot of people complain about Bitcoin not being private enough, that the blockchain transactions are public, and that we need something like Monero.
The reality is the world needs transparency right now more than anything else. They need trust and transparency. And the pure signal that we can derive from the Bitcoin data in general is, well, here's another way to look at it. It makes the current market analysis tool seem like people that are trapped inside a system facing a wall where they only see shadows of objects. And then these shadows end up being their entire reality and they try to interpret what's going on. They believe them to be truth. I think right now, what's going on calls for taking it a bit slow, watching the results, understanding that even some of the data, inflation data, like the CPI, and of course, consumer sentiment, it's not very reliable information.
And, you know, regardless of how the tariff news impacts Bitcoin and the market, just this week, there have been developments that are so, so giga bullish long term. I don't even think I've ever even said that term on the show before. Music. Like tariffs what tariffs i don't even care about tariffs three developments this week that are just wild to me first of all we got the news that six percent of all the money flowing into american etfs is now bitcoin etfs six percent of all of the etf money is going to the bitcoin etfs, I wonder if that scales across the market.
That's a ginormous number, and that's within the first year. And historically, the second year for an ETF that has done really well in the first year, the second year is even better. We'll see. Okay, so that's the first one. Are you ready for the second one that I think is just absolutely outrageously great? This one is one of those back-end changes that changes the landscape that will slowly but surely slow burn, create something really significant. And that is this week, the FDIC in the United States gave banks the OK to engage in Bitcoin and other crypto related activities without prior authorization.
That's a big one without prior authorization. That little that little step there was basically how they said no to everybody. Oh, no, it's allowed. You just have to talk to us first and then they wouldn't engage in the process. And then we have our third one. I don't know if this one's fair to call a bombshell, but I do think it really underscores BlackRock's conviction in Bitcoin. BlackRock CEO Larry Fink released his annual chairman letter to investors. This is the 2025 edition. It's long, but 20th or so, maybe 22 pages in. I read it on the web, but there's a PDF version as well.
It's an interesting section. And it's titled, Can Bitcoin Eat Away at the U.S. Dollar Reserve Status? And I'm just going to read a little bit of it to you. Quote, the U.S. has benefited from the dollar serving as the world's reserve currency for a decade or decades. But that's not guaranteed to last forever. The national debt has grown three times the pace of GDP since Times Square's debt clock started ticking in 1989. This year, interest payments will surpass $952 billion. exceeding defense spending. By 2030, mandatory government spending and debt services will consume all federal revenue, creating a permanent deficit.
If the U.S. doesn't get its debt under control, if its deficits keep ballooning, America risks losing its position to digital assets like Bitcoin. It risks losing its reserve status to digital assets like Bitcoin. It's one thing when a Max Keiser, a Samson Mao, or a Bitcoin podcaster says these kinds of things. This is Larry frickin' Fink, the CEO of the largest asset manager in the world, managing around $11.5 trillion worth of assets. So when he speaks, especially in this letter, people listen, investors listen, and world leaders listen. That's not hyperbole. It's the reality.
I don't know if it's a good idea. I don't know if it's a good thing. But it's the way things are. That's an incredible statement by him. He then adds, quote, decentralized finance is an extraordinary innovation. It makes markets faster, cheaper, and more transparent. Yet that same innovation could undermine America's economic advantage if investors begin seeing Bitcoin as a safer bet than the dollar. Dun, dun, dun. He then also gushes about tokenization, so it's not just all about Bitcoin. Quote, the world's money moves through plumbing built when trading floors still shouted orders and fax machines felt revolutionary.
Take the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, or, as we know it, SWIFT. Yes, that's what SWIFT stands for. Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication. It sounds old. It sounds old. SWIFT sounds new and modern, but when you actually break it down, he goes on to say, it's still the system that underpins trillions of dollars in global transactions every day, and it works much like a relay race. Banks hand off instructions one by one, meticulously checking details at each step. That relay approach made sense in the 1970s, an analog era when markets were much smaller and daily transactions were much fewer.
But today, relying on SWIFT feels like routing emails through the postal office. Tokenization changes all of that. If SWIFT is the postal service, tokenization is email itself. Assets move directly and instantly, sidestepping intermediaries. Okay. I've made, you know, I've made the analogy that Bitcoin is like gold, but you could send it like email kind of things before. Okay, I see where he's going. But what does he mean by tokenization, right? Because it's not what we mean when we're talking about it from a Bitcoin perspective. Well, he gets into that. Quote, it's turning real world assets, stocks, bonds, real estate into digital tokens tradable online.
Each token certifies your ownership of a specific asset, much like a digital deed. Oh, so kind of like an NFT then? They're like NFTs. So we're going to turn real estate into NFTs is what he's saying. He goes on to say, each token certifies your ownership of specific assets, much like the digital deed. Unlike traditional paper certificates, these tokens live securely on a blockchain, enabling instant buying, selling, and transferring without cumbersome paperwork or waiting periods. Then there's a bunch of fluff about how tokenization democratizes access to investing. But then he adds one important bit.
I don't think you're going to be too surprised to hear. Larry Fink adds, quote, One day, I expect tokenized funds will become as familiar to investors as ETFs, provided we crack one critical problem. The identity problem. He says identity verification is key. Yikes. I wonder how we'd like to do that. Should we put all of our identities on a tokenized blockchain too, Larry? But back to the core points here. Larry thinks Bitcoin could eat away at the dollar's reserve status. I think that's fascinating. And I think long term, I agree. I don't know if I agree in our lifetime or my lifetime, at least.
I think there's a plan in play right now to push that off, to kick that can as far as possible by bringing essentially the dollar to everyday consumers around the world. Tom Lee has some perspective on this, so I grabbed a clip. Do you agree with what Larry thinks? I said just about the idea that the dollar could suffer as a result. Yes. I mean, I'd say that Washington understands that, too. That's why stablecoin, really getting the right sort of legislation for stablecoin is important, because in crypto, when it comes to stablecoins, the dollar is way more dominant there than it is in traditional markets.
So I think you actually kind of protect the dollar with stablecoin legislation. Do you put a Sorkin coin? See, there you go. You know what you do is you kick the can and you end up adding all of these buyers of treasuries, too, which are the stablecoin insurers. So are tariffs scaring investors right now? Yeah. But if we think long term, which we should be, this really kind of adds up. 6% of the money flowing into American ETFs is now Bitcoin. Hello? The FDIC just gave banks okay to start working with Bitcoin. Bitcoin? Huge. And Fink and BlackRock truly do seem all in on Bitcoin, if nothing else, because they think it's going to make them a ton of money.
And the Fed has dramatically slowed quantitative tightening. Is this a decent time to be stacking? I think so. You do, at 80? Yeah, I think part of this was Bitcoin seasonally was just not going to be attractive until after March ends. And now we're finally exiting March. And so I think not only is the calendar looking better, but as you're saying, the Fed and central banks are easing QT's ending. I think that that with positive Washington sort of tailwinds means I think Bitcoin can do well to the end of the year. Right. People love it when I ask you what your own target is on Bitcoin.
Because it makes people very excited. Yes. And I mean, it's crazy high again. i think it's still 150 or higher as possible i know it doesn't feel like it but once we get through this tariff and that agenda around tariffs markets can look forward to things that could be positive i agree i mean it's it's possible i i am feeling more bearish about the end results i thought about making this episode about that but we'll wait and see we'll wait and see if tom's right it's a hell of a setup. Now, Senator Lomas has updated us on her budget neutral strategies for the U.S. Government to acquire Bitcoin.
And in this strategy, you'll hear her talk about the idea of reevaluating the U.S. gold certificates. And a new idea comes in, perhaps mining it directly, the U.S. Government mining Bitcoin directly. I'll let her explain it in her own words. We could take our gold certificates, which are currently held at the Federal Reserve on the books at their 1974 value, which is $42 an ounce. Now, most of us know that gold has gone closer to $3,000 an ounce. So if we took those gold certificates, not physical gold, let's keep our physical gold. Let's take the gold certificates, bring them up to current fair market value and convert them to Bitcoin.
Other possibilities that we were just discussing in the back room that are really exciting is the United States has energy producing assets. Let's use those to convert the energy production capabilities of the United States government to producing Bitcoin. That's another way that we can convert our royalties that we usually get in cash into royalties in kind by way of Bitcoin. And there are a myriad of other ideas for fulfilling the goals of President Trump's executive order by creating a strategic Bitcoin reserve without expending a single new dollar from the taxpayers.
I'm starting to get skeptical here. I don't think I'm buying all of that. Are you? Specifically, the repricing of the gold certificates? Unless this is already. In the works, and the last time Besant spoke about this, he said it wasn't in the works, but unless this is in the works, then maybe. I just don't buy what happened for this purpose alone. After all these years when they could have done this, they're just now going to do it so they can buy some Bitcoin? I don't know. What say you? Are you buying this? Boost in. I mean, do you think we're going to see the U.S. reprice its gold certificates? And regardless of that, would they buy it with Bitcoin?
Would they buy Bitcoin with it? I actually, I almost think it's, and this was just sounded like an idea they came up with. I almost think it's more likely that they would use energy to mine it directly than they would reprice the gold. Otherwise, they would have done that by now. There must be some sort of geopolitical ramifications of just simply repricing the gold. So I'm not buying it. And in fact, I'm starting to get skeptical of the entire thing the longer this drags out. I'd like to know where you're at with this. Boost in and tell me. I'd also like your thoughts on something else.
Foundry just mined the emptiest non-empty block in over two years. There was only seven transactions in the block. And we've been seeing nearly empty blocks get mined more and more in the last few weeks. So block 890,206, 516 transactions total. There's a couple other low ones in here, like a thousand transaction level, 2,000. Block 890,203, 274 transactions. And then the one earlier today, only seven transactions. What's going on here? I genuinely don't know. Glass node data, I went and looked. it shows that 87%, nearly 87% of all Bitcoin has not moved in the last three months, which is almost a new time all high, all time new high.
So why is this happening? What's going on here? Boost me your thoughts, your theories, your guesses, your questions. Go ahead, send them in. I don't understand what's happening. It's, I mean, it's not too unusual when we go sideways to see a little bit of this but this seems really extreme seven transactions in a block 200 transactions in another block 500 in another on-chain fees are ridiculously low what is your theory and is it a problem. Music. Coming up, we have your boosts, updates, a final clip of the week, the state of the network, and more.
I want to take a moment and thank everybody who supports the show just by doing what they do. If you want to stack sats on river, one of the best ways to DCA or smash buy, especially with that 3.8% cash sats savings account, we have a link in the show notes to go buy your sats on river and support the show. Or you can go to jupiterbroadcasting.com slash river. Now, if you're all about self-custody or you live in Canada, you're in the States, and you want to buy from to your cold storage, Bitcoin well is the way to go. You're buying sats, you're selling sats, it goes directly to your storage.
They don't hold your Bitcoin. It's pretty great technology. They're like an API for Bitcoin. It's the Bitcoin well. Now, if you're ready to spend some Bitcoin via Lightning, super quick way. You don't even need to log in. The Bitcoin company. Link to that. It's great. Now, if you want to stack sats when you're buying gas, paying bills, using your debit card, That's the Fold card. They got a lot brewing over there. They're one of the darling Bitcoin companies. We got a link to them and I'm a customer. Then if you want to get access to your Bitcoin value without having to sell it, Salt Lending is great for that. That's what I use. Love Salt Lending.
Link to that in the show notes as well. You use those links, you support the show by doing what you do. I do appreciate that. Thank you, everybody. And now it is time for the boost and block seven is our first booster this week and they're coming in with 25 000 sats this is a tasty burger boy they are doing a lot with mayo these days he says i stream sats every listen i feel like i should get an ad free stream maybe something oscar mary could integrate into fountain either way keep doing what you do cheers you know block You never know. Your wish may be granted in the near future.
That's all I have to say about that. Well, let's hear it. Goodbye. That's all I have to say about that, okay? All right. Thank you for the boost. JQ3 comes in with a row of McDucks, 22,222 sats. Look at them big old handsome ducks. These are looking up for old McDuck. Says, I just wanted to boost to show support for the show. And my wife and I love what you're doing here. We never miss an episode. Your opinions are well informed and balanced. Thank you. Well. Because I'm the win. Thank you. And I hope if I ever piss you off, you give me some grace. I do appreciate the boost and I love that you both are listening.
SatSquatch came in with 21,000 sats. The traders love the vol. Does I agree about it being a buying opportunity? I just bought a chunk at 88K. I can't time the market, but I always feel better with more Bitcoin. Yeah, that's just it. And, you know, two years from now, are you really going to care if you got it at 81 or 88 when it's, you know, above 150? You know, it's not, I mean, They could care, but it's really not going to matter, right? I think so. Thank you for the boost. I like the way you're thinking, Sat Squanch. Bobby Pin comes in with 10,000 sats.
Well, I'll be dipped. Hey, Chris, I agree with hesitation in the community of quantity and quality of sponsors. In the 11 years I've been listening to you, I've never heard you recommend a sponsor I hated or didn't understand why you picked them. I've used several of the sponsors you've recommended and haven't been disappointed, even if I ended using that sponsor. Keep doing what you're doing, and I trust your judgment. Thank you, Bobby Penn. I am still considering, I think this is the hardest show to make a decision on that I've ever done. Because there is a history of things going wrong.
But survival is also very important. And it is literally down to that. So I am still working it out. Adversary 17 is here with 15,000 sets. Would you look at him? That's right, everybody. It's that time of year again. Happy birthday. It's my birthday, I guess. That's what I get for picking random on the soundboard, right? Oh, my God. This drawer is filled with fruit loops. Adversary says subscribing via Lightning would be awesome. Albie has created something called Zap Planner, so I wonder if that could be used somehow to help. Maybe by using Nostra Wallet Connect, this would actually be possible.
You need something to track transactions and generate an RSS feed to each wallet or Nostra pub key, but also able to revoke that So those trying to get a free bootleg couldn't. You and I are thinking like lockstep here. I tell you what, 17, this is exactly what I was thinking. Noster gives you the identity layer, which you could tie subscriptions to without ever actually having to like expose personal identity. And then, you know, ideally the lightning stuff is built into. So that is something I think has a lot of potential. I think you'll see a couple of cracks at it earlier in the year.
Well, I guess we're kind of there now. In the first half of the year? Thank you for the boost. One dull geeks here with a row of ducks. Boosting because I don't want ads. All right. Hey, that's very fair. Boost! Gene Bean's back with a row of ducks. Missed you, Gene Bean. Boosting and streaming from 32,000 feet while listening on a flight back from a work trip. Well done, Gene. That's a great time to catch up on podcasts, too. Great to hear from you. Based Potato is here with 10,000 sets. You know what that is? It's over 9,000! Ah, very nice. He says, boosting away the ads.
Thank you. Appreciate that. And the muso comes in with 10,000 sats. Put some macaroni and cheese on there, too. Here's to the first year of TWIB. Whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop. Finally got a lightning node with Albie Hub up and running, heck yeah, on top of Nick's Bitcoin, no less. You know what you're doing? You're doing a good job. You're doing a good job. Wow. If you don't have the time to provide a member's feed for the show, I'm okay with advertisements. I was never really put off by the advertisers you include in other Jupyter Broadcasting shows when I wasn't a party member.
With regards to Bitcoin-related podcasts, I'm wondering whether either of you folks in the audience, any of you folks in the audience can recommend any podcast to focus on Bitcoin being used as a medium of exchange outside of music and podcasting. Keep up the great work. That's a great question. So specifically to restate that in another way. Danger zone. He's looking for a podcast that focuses on Bitcoin being used like a day-to-day transaction, maybe a circular economy, outside of music or value-for-value podcasts. Danger Zone. Bravo comes in with 5,555 sats.
Jordan Bravo here with a test boost. Well, we got it. Fountain has been mangling my username. I hope it's displaying properly now. You got it. Nice to hear from you, Bravo. Hey, look, there's PJ. Let's hear it, good buddy. He says, long time, no boost. I've been a lazy booster. Well, we open the door to you anytime you come by, PJ. It's always nice to hear from you. Thank you for the boost. Let's take a look, see. OBL918 comes in with 17,912 sats. He's a good guy. He's a real good guy. No, he's a great guy. And of course, some of those in there are a Spaceballs boost. So the combination is one, two, three, four, five.
I remember using the Bitcoin faucet. I also remember when I could download the Bitcoin client and mine multiple Bitcoin on my CPU. Yeah, brother, me too. He goes on to say, I said, well, that's pointless. And all of those stats were forever gone. If you aren't humbled by Bitcoin at some point, you probably aren't trying hard enough, I'd say. That makes me feel better. Also, on my previous boost, you seemed to struggle just a bit with Quadalus, which is what I call my dirty fiat. I'm a tad surprised you missed the reference. Oh, in original Star Trek, three pulsating brains on Tarkelion bet large quantities of Quadalus on the Gladiator Combat. That does ring a bell now that you say that.
It wasn't all that remained of their economy. Three dudes betting ridiculous amounts of fiat currency that meant nothing. That's amazing. Keep up the good work. Thank you, OLB. Nice to hear from you. Obliterator 918, he says. He also says so much for all the tariff talk. Yeah, we're still going. We'll be going for a bit. Although today's tariff day. Happy tariff day. Happy tariff day. Ace Ackerman's, thank you for the boost. Ace Ackerman's back with a row of ducks. President Trump, like on most things, is more bark than he is bite with tariffs. It helps him make a splash in the news, troll the opposition, and be unpredictable in the negotiations.
So I'm not surprised that there has been a perceived softening on tariffs. I can't wait until we buy Greenland. Yeah, I think I agree. It feels like they're walking that back, doesn't it? They're walking some of that back, although we'll see after today. But it does seem like some of the, you know, some of the talk did soften a wee bit, didn't it? Chaka is here with Aflac Boost. That's 4,444 sats. That's two rows of ducks. Elon Musk being suspiciously silent about Bitcoin as per the clip you shared, I would say that whatever the plan had to do with X, you will most likely need to change it.
It also floats the new political environment with the SBR and all of the positive things happening around crypto. Yes, it's pretty neat, and the crypto and Bitcoin space, hence, has changed a lot in the USA. But what is the hostility against Bitcoin? In the meantime, we also must acknowledge that there are a lot of hostilities still going on in Europe. Since the 1st of January, the MCIA has been active with its regulation. I must say, it took down all of the POS terminals that accepted Bitcoin in payments. I heard about that. Thus, meaning the current number of merchants I can pay with Bitcoin in my country has gone down 95%.
Man, he says, I really hope the European people would be more involved with crypto. At least Americans are, and it seems to produce a nicer environment there. Yeah, I really feel like our Europeans, specifically also our friends in the UK, have really been misled for many years about Bitcoin and just any option outside the system. And now they're really paying the price. Financial literacy might be one of the most important issues of our time. And it is so bad. It is so, so, I didn't know. I had no idea until I started studying Bitcoin. So I say with all humility, it's not like I am some, you know, expert.
I've just been learning for years now and have expanded my understanding. But like so many things, once you start to really understand it, you learn there's so much, so much more. Thank you for that perspective. Appreciate the boost, Chuck. Jim from Antiques here with 2000Sats. Live long and prosper. Hey, Chris, here's an update about my Celsius refund. I've received different emails over the months to claim the distribution from the Celsius network. After giving them all my info, weeks later, I received a procedure to receive the funds via MetaMask and ETH.
At first, it wasn't working. Once it asked me for my private keys, I stopped right there thinking it might be a scam. Then I received other emails from Celsius with another procedure to give them my PayPal account. Finally, I received $26 back from the 50 or 60 I put in four years ago. It's been quite a journey. Jen, thank you for that update. And that sounds kind of awful. I am glad it wasn't thousands of dollars or something. But geez, it sounds like it's just ripe with possible scams. That's good. That's a good boost. Thank you for that. Also, thank you everybody who boosted below the 2,000 sat cutoff.
I want to call up a user 31 who came in with 1,000 sats. Coming in hot with the boost. He was a first-time listener, so I want to give him a shout-out. That's great to hear. Now, thank you everybody. Also, thank you to our streamers who just stream sats as you listen. You silently contribute to the show. I see you. I appreciate you. I do see them trickle into my node all day long, and it really is great to see. I really appreciate it. So thank you, everybody. We had 51 of you stream those sets and collectively you stacked 88,663 Satoshis.
When you combine that with our boosters this week, we had a grand total of 252,303 sets. Not too bad. Not too bad at all. Thank you everyone who supports the show with a boost it's really easy these days to get started with fountain fm but there's all kinds of options including the albi hub and fully self-hosted options your your starting point is podcast apps.com then you can send a boost into the show above 2000 sats we read it this is a value for value podcast which means the podcast goes out for free if you've received some value from it it helps you think about these things helps you plan your bitcoin journey you contribute some value back to the show.
Disc 2.1.7 is out it's more reliable better message delivery and trade mitigation. Mediation enhancements, mitigation. I'm getting sick. My brain is shutting down on me as the show goes. I'm getting progressively more sick and my brain's not working. This is what I think really interesting is message delivery is more resilient now. Messages are sent as mailbox messages when a peer connects that aren't yet established or when Tor is slow, ensuring faster and more reliable communications. Also, mediation has been improved with message status tracking, consistent media assignments, media assignments, mediator, there we go, and based off of Offer ID.
The new UI elements for mediators and enhanced case management UI also make things a lot improved. There's also a new split pane for other chats and a new splash screen that tracks the loading progress. BISC is also looking for a senior Java developer and will host its first hackathon, April 10th through the 13th. BISC is one of these highly regarded ways to buy Bitcoin in a more peer-to-peer way. It can be tricky and the UI has been one of the more criticized elements. So it's nice to see them really working on this. And 2.1.7 is out now. And it's looking real good.
How about this first story? $6 trillion asset manager Fidelity has launched a retirement plan allowing direct crypto investments. Fidelity has 49 million customers. And they announced today, some details are light. But what we do know is a no-fee crypto IRA. It allows U.S. adults to invest in Bitcoin, ETH, or Litecoin. Okay. Now, your assets will be held by Fidelity Digital Assets. They'll hold the keys in their cold wallet, and you'll be able to choose from a Roth, traditional, or rollover IRA. That is massive. No fee IRA from Fidelity. Fidelity is one of the originals in this space. Very trusted. Like I said, basically 50 million customers will now have this as an option.
How many of them use it? We don't know, but it's really neat to see that. Music. All right, that brings us to our final clip of the week. And Jack Dorsey was recently interviewed, and he reflected on just how far Bitcoin has come in 16 years. And also, how even with folks like BlackRock and the federal government interested, you still don't need anyone's permission to build on Bitcoin. That's truly unique. What makes Bitcoin special, what makes things like Nostra special, is they're permissionless. You don't need anyone's permission to build what you want to see and and that's just incredible like to to be able to work on a money transmission protocol that's entirely open that has no one leader that has all this attention that has converted the likes of a blackrock or these major institutions that were these things that we railed against in the past and now they have to turn their attention to it.
And yet you still don't need their permission to build on it or to change it or to better it. Where else can you find it? Like at that scale, not nowhere. And in only 16 years. Let's check in on the state of the network. The block height as I wrap up is $890,593. The price in U.S. dollars is $86,470. Stats per U.S. dollar are $1,156. Over the last seven days, we're only down 0.1% right now. Cooking. Now, that's still a 20% decline, 20.7%, if I'm being accurate, from our all-time high $109,160 on January 19th, 2025. The fee rate right now is two sats of V-Byte.
Go open up some channels, kids. That's the lesson there. Go open some channels. Rebalance some channels. If you got a lightning node, go do some maintenance while the fees are low. If you haven't consolidated UTXOs, go take care of that. It's a great price right now. Outside of that, the Bitcoin network is cooking. Hash rate's cooking. Interest is high. The state of the network is strong. Now as i wrap up don't forget that links today for things that i talked about are over at this week in bitcoin.show as well as the back catalog i hope i brought you something that doesn't get distracted by the emotions focuses on the signal so let me know how i did with a boost and of course boost in with whatever you'd like to see or what i missed from the show you guys have been killing it for weeks on the value for value chart bringing our artists to the top of the chart week after week you did it last week it's awesome to see this week we're going blues, and rock it's a mix it's a it's like a crossover genre it's from tj wong and he comes from portland oregon and he has apple pie so i leave you this week with apple pie by tj wong.
Music.
Music. Welcome into This Week in Bitcoin, episode 52. My name is Chris, chrislas.com, jupyterbroadcasting.com. You know, I really got pretty lucky with the timing of this show. I knew things were changing when the ETFs launched, and I knew I wanted to do a Bitcoin podcast because that was going to change the landscape. I had no idea just over a year we'd be sitting right here right now. We're not just watching Bitcoin history. We're watching world history unfold every single week. I mean, just picture 10 years from now after all of these things have played out, trying to explain this time to someone who's asking what happened.
I think this show will act as a time capsule for what are truly historic times. And this week, it feels like we're at the start of something big, which is a little frustrating if you've been paying close attention because it feels like it should be over by now. But really, the last few weeks, I mean this sincerely, unfortunately, have been building to this moment. All the trading today is going to take place without real knowledge of what President Trump's tariff plans will be. We're going to get that news, but not until 4 p.m. Eastern. Megan Casella's here. Give us the latest in terms of what we're hearing and what we may expect. Megan.
Hey, David, a very big day here at the White House. You were hearing staffers wish each other a happy Liberation Day. And we were just watching some American flags being set up in the Rose Garden, where we will finally get those details, as you said, at 4 p.m. today. But we are not likely to get any firm details until then. What we know for. So I could have waited. You know, I thought this is going to have some impact. And I can't really say, obviously, at this point what it's going to be as I'm recording before they make the announcements. But I think it's worth noting that right now, as I record, Bitcoin's up 2 percent in just the last couple of hours.
Maybe not what you expected Bitcoin to do on this news. Gold, as you may know by now, coming off the best quarter since the mid-1980s. Just how much room, though, is there to run? Our Pippa Stevens here with some possible answers. Morning, Pippa. Good morning, Carl. Well, gold is hovering around its record high as uncertainty around President Trump's tariff implementation rattles investors, sending them to safe haven assets. with gold also benefiting from economic slowdown and inflation concerns. Now, so far this year, gold-backed ETFs have seen $12.3 billion worth of inflows. That compares to $1.6 billion for all of last year, following three consecutive years of outflows.
We should put that into perspective for a moment. Let me back her up. The gold ETFs since January 1st have seen 12.3 billion of inflows versus 1.6 billion for all of 2024. OK, so you can get kind of a sense with that, what the demand is here. Sending them to safe haven assets, with gold also benefiting from economic slowdown and inflation concerns. Now, so far this year, gold backed ETFs have seen 12.3 billion dollars worth of inflows. That compares to $1.6 billion for all of last year, following three consecutive years of outflows. And as tariff talk heated up earlier this year, there was a large wave of imports into the U.S., especially from London and Switzerland, and COMEX inventories now stand at a record high of about 44 million ounces.
Still, strategists say gold can hold these levels, at least until the tariff situation is clarified. Goldman Sachs recently lifted its year-end target to $3,300, while B of A said it expects gold to average $3,063 this year up from a prior target of $2,750. I think it's worth keeping an eye on gold because it kind of forecasts where Bitcoin will go. And the gold bugs, they're loving this pump. Oh, they're loving it. And man, have they earned it after years of really nothing. But if you put things into a Bitcoin perspective, you zoom out and you put gold and Bitcoin on the same chart overlay, gold is just now breaking out of a 12-year downtrend if you price it in Bitcoin.
And if you go back to just the election, Bitcoin is up 24.3% still. Gold is up 13.9%, which is amazing for gold. The SPY is down about 2.9%, and QQQ is down about 5.1%. So, you know, we don't know where this is going. Gold and Bitcoin are probably telling us something, but it's really an early signal. So truthfully, a better analysis is going to come after I've had some time to observe and think about the impacts of tariffs and the way people respond and countries respond and the way deals are made. That's my plan. That's what I'll do is I'm going to keep an eye on how things play out and I'll work that in the next week's episode as needed.
So we'll keep this week's episode tight on what we do know focused while we don't really have a clear picture. So we're going to just sort of punt some of that this week and let it develop. It's just a really, really hard time to forecast now. Oh, I know, poor Chris. Oh, it's hard. It's hard. But quite literally, it's trickier than maybe it's ever been during the show. And Tom Lee kind of puts this into perspective and talks about some of the dynamics around this and maybe at the end of it, a possible turnaround. This week, I think into April 2nd, investors have three things on their minds.
One is they just don't know what the tariffs look like. They don't know if it's going to damage the economy. And and I think third, many are just a little terrified of of the policies of the White House. But post Wednesday, I think markets are going to have some visibility that allows us to take some of the selling pressure off. So, yes, I think it's possible that instead of us breaking down here and and seeing markets under further pressure, we're actually got the right pieces. I go into this without knowing what's on the other side of it. That's that is the fundamental question that people are sitting around trying to figure out today and tomorrow. That's right.
It's an interminable wait for people because it is still three days and they're fearful that we could have three days of down 2%. But I kind of agree with Larry Fink. I think the US is going to come out of this okay. I mean, Brexit's an example. Brexit happened and the UK economy emerged okay. It didn't have a huge recession and the stock market did okay. So for investors today, over the weekend, we had so many thinking the economy is going to completely fall off the rails after Wednesday. People are starting to say slowing growth and persistent inflation. So you put those together and you get the stagflation.
Yeah, that's death. Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of distortions in the economy now, right? Because we know people are buying cars and wine ahead of tariffs, and that's creating inflation. Hopefully they're not doing it the same, you know, cars and wine. Do you think it's pushing up our growth numbers that we're seeing at this point? Retail sales in other places, or is it too small to store things on that great of a level? I think it's possible economists are only dialing in the negative consequences so far, but not the positive, because rates are down and gasoline's down, and there could be some pull-forwarded demand, so we might end up having better growth, so less stag, and maybe the inflation stuff is more distorting, and so it's not as stagflationary.
You know, I had noticed that Truflation had ticked up in the last couple of weeks. And I was wondering why that might be. And Tom Lee suggests that perhaps people are pre-buying. But he kept saying something in there that I want to go further into. He kept saying there's market distortions. You know, there's distortions in the inflation data. He kept using that word, distorted and distortions. Well, Prof St. Ange has a really interesting market survey data that he digs into in one of his YouTube videos. And I clipped it. And the TLDR is, is that your political bias likely impacts how you view the economy right now.
To give a sense, the University of Michigan Inflation Survey asks Americans what they expect inflation to be. One of the most influential indicators in the economy, so influential that the Fed uses it as a guidepost for rates. The latest Michigan numbers are downright weird. So Republicans expect inflation for the next year to crash from 3.6% to just 0.1%, which is almost deflation. But Democrats expect inflation to soar from 1.7% under Biden to 6.5%. The hard data so far agrees with Republicans. I mentioned recently that Trump cut monthly CPI by half, while Truflation's real-time inflation is just 1.9%. but apparently what you see depends who you voted for.
Same with Michigan's five-year expectations, which covers Trump's entire term. So DIMMs went from expecting 2.7% inflation under Biden to 4.6, while Republicans went from 3.4 to just 1.3. In other words, one of the key economic indicators is currently a poll on whether you like Donald Trump. In fact, the media complained when Jerome Powell dismissed a bump in the Michigan index as a, quote, outlier, which is a polite term for garbage. Probably not a surprise to you that even our data is distorted by politics. You know, I have seen a lot of people complain about Bitcoin not being private enough, that the blockchain transactions are public, and that we need something like Monero.
The reality is the world needs transparency right now more than anything else. They need trust and transparency. And the pure signal that we can derive from the Bitcoin data in general is, well, here's another way to look at it. It makes the current market analysis tool seem like people that are trapped inside a system facing a wall where they only see shadows of objects. And then these shadows end up being their entire reality and they try to interpret what's going on. They believe them to be truth. I think right now, what's going on calls for taking it a bit slow, watching the results, understanding that even some of the data, inflation data, like the CPI, and of course, consumer sentiment, it's not very reliable information.
And, you know, regardless of how the tariff news impacts Bitcoin and the market, just this week, there have been developments that are so, so giga bullish long term. I don't even think I've ever even said that term on the show before. Music. Like tariffs what tariffs i don't even care about tariffs three developments this week that are just wild to me first of all we got the news that six percent of all the money flowing into american etfs is now bitcoin etfs six percent of all of the etf money is going to the bitcoin etfs, I wonder if that scales across the market.
That's a ginormous number, and that's within the first year. And historically, the second year for an ETF that has done really well in the first year, the second year is even better. We'll see. Okay, so that's the first one. Are you ready for the second one that I think is just absolutely outrageously great? This one is one of those back-end changes that changes the landscape that will slowly but surely slow burn, create something really significant. And that is this week, the FDIC in the United States gave banks the OK to engage in Bitcoin and other crypto related activities without prior authorization.
That's a big one without prior authorization. That little that little step there was basically how they said no to everybody. Oh, no, it's allowed. You just have to talk to us first and then they wouldn't engage in the process. And then we have our third one. I don't know if this one's fair to call a bombshell, but I do think it really underscores BlackRock's conviction in Bitcoin. BlackRock CEO Larry Fink released his annual chairman letter to investors. This is the 2025 edition. It's long, but 20th or so, maybe 22 pages in. I read it on the web, but there's a PDF version as well.
It's an interesting section. And it's titled, Can Bitcoin Eat Away at the U.S. Dollar Reserve Status? And I'm just going to read a little bit of it to you. Quote, the U.S. has benefited from the dollar serving as the world's reserve currency for a decade or decades. But that's not guaranteed to last forever. The national debt has grown three times the pace of GDP since Times Square's debt clock started ticking in 1989. This year, interest payments will surpass $952 billion. exceeding defense spending. By 2030, mandatory government spending and debt services will consume all federal revenue, creating a permanent deficit.
If the U.S. doesn't get its debt under control, if its deficits keep ballooning, America risks losing its position to digital assets like Bitcoin. It risks losing its reserve status to digital assets like Bitcoin. It's one thing when a Max Keiser, a Samson Mao, or a Bitcoin podcaster says these kinds of things. This is Larry frickin' Fink, the CEO of the largest asset manager in the world, managing around $11.5 trillion worth of assets. So when he speaks, especially in this letter, people listen, investors listen, and world leaders listen. That's not hyperbole. It's the reality.
I don't know if it's a good idea. I don't know if it's a good thing. But it's the way things are. That's an incredible statement by him. He then adds, quote, decentralized finance is an extraordinary innovation. It makes markets faster, cheaper, and more transparent. Yet that same innovation could undermine America's economic advantage if investors begin seeing Bitcoin as a safer bet than the dollar. Dun, dun, dun. He then also gushes about tokenization, so it's not just all about Bitcoin. Quote, the world's money moves through plumbing built when trading floors still shouted orders and fax machines felt revolutionary.
Take the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, or, as we know it, SWIFT. Yes, that's what SWIFT stands for. Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication. It sounds old. It sounds old. SWIFT sounds new and modern, but when you actually break it down, he goes on to say, it's still the system that underpins trillions of dollars in global transactions every day, and it works much like a relay race. Banks hand off instructions one by one, meticulously checking details at each step. That relay approach made sense in the 1970s, an analog era when markets were much smaller and daily transactions were much fewer.
But today, relying on SWIFT feels like routing emails through the postal office. Tokenization changes all of that. If SWIFT is the postal service, tokenization is email itself. Assets move directly and instantly, sidestepping intermediaries. Okay. I've made, you know, I've made the analogy that Bitcoin is like gold, but you could send it like email kind of things before. Okay, I see where he's going. But what does he mean by tokenization, right? Because it's not what we mean when we're talking about it from a Bitcoin perspective. Well, he gets into that. Quote, it's turning real world assets, stocks, bonds, real estate into digital tokens tradable online.
Each token certifies your ownership of a specific asset, much like a digital deed. Oh, so kind of like an NFT then? They're like NFTs. So we're going to turn real estate into NFTs is what he's saying. He goes on to say, each token certifies your ownership of specific assets, much like the digital deed. Unlike traditional paper certificates, these tokens live securely on a blockchain, enabling instant buying, selling, and transferring without cumbersome paperwork or waiting periods. Then there's a bunch of fluff about how tokenization democratizes access to investing. But then he adds one important bit.
I don't think you're going to be too surprised to hear. Larry Fink adds, quote, One day, I expect tokenized funds will become as familiar to investors as ETFs, provided we crack one critical problem. The identity problem. He says identity verification is key. Yikes. I wonder how we'd like to do that. Should we put all of our identities on a tokenized blockchain too, Larry? But back to the core points here. Larry thinks Bitcoin could eat away at the dollar's reserve status. I think that's fascinating. And I think long term, I agree. I don't know if I agree in our lifetime or my lifetime, at least.
I think there's a plan in play right now to push that off, to kick that can as far as possible by bringing essentially the dollar to everyday consumers around the world. Tom Lee has some perspective on this, so I grabbed a clip. Do you agree with what Larry thinks? I said just about the idea that the dollar could suffer as a result. Yes. I mean, I'd say that Washington understands that, too. That's why stablecoin, really getting the right sort of legislation for stablecoin is important, because in crypto, when it comes to stablecoins, the dollar is way more dominant there than it is in traditional markets.
So I think you actually kind of protect the dollar with stablecoin legislation. Do you put a Sorkin coin? See, there you go. You know what you do is you kick the can and you end up adding all of these buyers of treasuries, too, which are the stablecoin insurers. So are tariffs scaring investors right now? Yeah. But if we think long term, which we should be, this really kind of adds up. 6% of the money flowing into American ETFs is now Bitcoin. Hello? The FDIC just gave banks okay to start working with Bitcoin. Bitcoin? Huge. And Fink and BlackRock truly do seem all in on Bitcoin, if nothing else, because they think it's going to make them a ton of money.
And the Fed has dramatically slowed quantitative tightening. Is this a decent time to be stacking? I think so. You do, at 80? Yeah, I think part of this was Bitcoin seasonally was just not going to be attractive until after March ends. And now we're finally exiting March. And so I think not only is the calendar looking better, but as you're saying, the Fed and central banks are easing QT's ending. I think that that with positive Washington sort of tailwinds means I think Bitcoin can do well to the end of the year. Right. People love it when I ask you what your own target is on Bitcoin.
Because it makes people very excited. Yes. And I mean, it's crazy high again. i think it's still 150 or higher as possible i know it doesn't feel like it but once we get through this tariff and that agenda around tariffs markets can look forward to things that could be positive i agree i mean it's it's possible i i am feeling more bearish about the end results i thought about making this episode about that but we'll wait and see we'll wait and see if tom's right it's a hell of a setup. Now, Senator Lomas has updated us on her budget neutral strategies for the U.S. Government to acquire Bitcoin.
And in this strategy, you'll hear her talk about the idea of reevaluating the U.S. gold certificates. And a new idea comes in, perhaps mining it directly, the U.S. Government mining Bitcoin directly. I'll let her explain it in her own words. We could take our gold certificates, which are currently held at the Federal Reserve on the books at their 1974 value, which is $42 an ounce. Now, most of us know that gold has gone closer to $3,000 an ounce. So if we took those gold certificates, not physical gold, let's keep our physical gold. Let's take the gold certificates, bring them up to current fair market value and convert them to Bitcoin.
Other possibilities that we were just discussing in the back room that are really exciting is the United States has energy producing assets. Let's use those to convert the energy production capabilities of the United States government to producing Bitcoin. That's another way that we can convert our royalties that we usually get in cash into royalties in kind by way of Bitcoin. And there are a myriad of other ideas for fulfilling the goals of President Trump's executive order by creating a strategic Bitcoin reserve without expending a single new dollar from the taxpayers.
I'm starting to get skeptical here. I don't think I'm buying all of that. Are you? Specifically, the repricing of the gold certificates? Unless this is already. In the works, and the last time Besant spoke about this, he said it wasn't in the works, but unless this is in the works, then maybe. I just don't buy what happened for this purpose alone. After all these years when they could have done this, they're just now going to do it so they can buy some Bitcoin? I don't know. What say you? Are you buying this? Boost in. I mean, do you think we're going to see the U.S. reprice its gold certificates? And regardless of that, would they buy it with Bitcoin?
Would they buy Bitcoin with it? I actually, I almost think it's, and this was just sounded like an idea they came up with. I almost think it's more likely that they would use energy to mine it directly than they would reprice the gold. Otherwise, they would have done that by now. There must be some sort of geopolitical ramifications of just simply repricing the gold. So I'm not buying it. And in fact, I'm starting to get skeptical of the entire thing the longer this drags out. I'd like to know where you're at with this. Boost in and tell me. I'd also like your thoughts on something else.
Foundry just mined the emptiest non-empty block in over two years. There was only seven transactions in the block. And we've been seeing nearly empty blocks get mined more and more in the last few weeks. So block 890,206, 516 transactions total. There's a couple other low ones in here, like a thousand transaction level, 2,000. Block 890,203, 274 transactions. And then the one earlier today, only seven transactions. What's going on here? I genuinely don't know. Glass node data, I went and looked. it shows that 87%, nearly 87% of all Bitcoin has not moved in the last three months, which is almost a new time all high, all time new high.
So why is this happening? What's going on here? Boost me your thoughts, your theories, your guesses, your questions. Go ahead, send them in. I don't understand what's happening. It's, I mean, it's not too unusual when we go sideways to see a little bit of this but this seems really extreme seven transactions in a block 200 transactions in another block 500 in another on-chain fees are ridiculously low what is your theory and is it a problem. Music. Coming up, we have your boosts, updates, a final clip of the week, the state of the network, and more.
I want to take a moment and thank everybody who supports the show just by doing what they do. If you want to stack sats on river, one of the best ways to DCA or smash buy, especially with that 3.8% cash sats savings account, we have a link in the show notes to go buy your sats on river and support the show. Or you can go to jupiterbroadcasting.com slash river. Now, if you're all about self-custody or you live in Canada, you're in the States, and you want to buy from to your cold storage, Bitcoin well is the way to go. You're buying sats, you're selling sats, it goes directly to your storage.
They don't hold your Bitcoin. It's pretty great technology. They're like an API for Bitcoin. It's the Bitcoin well. Now, if you're ready to spend some Bitcoin via Lightning, super quick way. You don't even need to log in. The Bitcoin company. Link to that. It's great. Now, if you want to stack sats when you're buying gas, paying bills, using your debit card, That's the Fold card. They got a lot brewing over there. They're one of the darling Bitcoin companies. We got a link to them and I'm a customer. Then if you want to get access to your Bitcoin value without having to sell it, Salt Lending is great for that. That's what I use. Love Salt Lending.
Link to that in the show notes as well. You use those links, you support the show by doing what you do. I do appreciate that. Thank you, everybody. And now it is time for the boost and block seven is our first booster this week and they're coming in with 25 000 sats this is a tasty burger boy they are doing a lot with mayo these days he says i stream sats every listen i feel like i should get an ad free stream maybe something oscar mary could integrate into fountain either way keep doing what you do cheers you know block You never know. Your wish may be granted in the near future.
That's all I have to say about that. Well, let's hear it. Goodbye. That's all I have to say about that, okay? All right. Thank you for the boost. JQ3 comes in with a row of McDucks, 22,222 sats. Look at them big old handsome ducks. These are looking up for old McDuck. Says, I just wanted to boost to show support for the show. And my wife and I love what you're doing here. We never miss an episode. Your opinions are well informed and balanced. Thank you. Well. Because I'm the win. Thank you. And I hope if I ever piss you off, you give me some grace. I do appreciate the boost and I love that you both are listening.
SatSquatch came in with 21,000 sats. The traders love the vol. Does I agree about it being a buying opportunity? I just bought a chunk at 88K. I can't time the market, but I always feel better with more Bitcoin. Yeah, that's just it. And, you know, two years from now, are you really going to care if you got it at 81 or 88 when it's, you know, above 150? You know, it's not, I mean, They could care, but it's really not going to matter, right? I think so. Thank you for the boost. I like the way you're thinking, Sat Squanch. Bobby Pin comes in with 10,000 sats.
Well, I'll be dipped. Hey, Chris, I agree with hesitation in the community of quantity and quality of sponsors. In the 11 years I've been listening to you, I've never heard you recommend a sponsor I hated or didn't understand why you picked them. I've used several of the sponsors you've recommended and haven't been disappointed, even if I ended using that sponsor. Keep doing what you're doing, and I trust your judgment. Thank you, Bobby Penn. I am still considering, I think this is the hardest show to make a decision on that I've ever done. Because there is a history of things going wrong.
But survival is also very important. And it is literally down to that. So I am still working it out. Adversary 17 is here with 15,000 sets. Would you look at him? That's right, everybody. It's that time of year again. Happy birthday. It's my birthday, I guess. That's what I get for picking random on the soundboard, right? Oh, my God. This drawer is filled with fruit loops. Adversary says subscribing via Lightning would be awesome. Albie has created something called Zap Planner, so I wonder if that could be used somehow to help. Maybe by using Nostra Wallet Connect, this would actually be possible.
You need something to track transactions and generate an RSS feed to each wallet or Nostra pub key, but also able to revoke that So those trying to get a free bootleg couldn't. You and I are thinking like lockstep here. I tell you what, 17, this is exactly what I was thinking. Noster gives you the identity layer, which you could tie subscriptions to without ever actually having to like expose personal identity. And then, you know, ideally the lightning stuff is built into. So that is something I think has a lot of potential. I think you'll see a couple of cracks at it earlier in the year.
Well, I guess we're kind of there now. In the first half of the year? Thank you for the boost. One dull geeks here with a row of ducks. Boosting because I don't want ads. All right. Hey, that's very fair. Boost! Gene Bean's back with a row of ducks. Missed you, Gene Bean. Boosting and streaming from 32,000 feet while listening on a flight back from a work trip. Well done, Gene. That's a great time to catch up on podcasts, too. Great to hear from you. Based Potato is here with 10,000 sets. You know what that is? It's over 9,000! Ah, very nice. He says, boosting away the ads.
Thank you. Appreciate that. And the muso comes in with 10,000 sats. Put some macaroni and cheese on there, too. Here's to the first year of TWIB. Whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop, whoop. Finally got a lightning node with Albie Hub up and running, heck yeah, on top of Nick's Bitcoin, no less. You know what you're doing? You're doing a good job. You're doing a good job. Wow. If you don't have the time to provide a member's feed for the show, I'm okay with advertisements. I was never really put off by the advertisers you include in other Jupyter Broadcasting shows when I wasn't a party member.
With regards to Bitcoin-related podcasts, I'm wondering whether either of you folks in the audience, any of you folks in the audience can recommend any podcast to focus on Bitcoin being used as a medium of exchange outside of music and podcasting. Keep up the great work. That's a great question. So specifically to restate that in another way. Danger zone. He's looking for a podcast that focuses on Bitcoin being used like a day-to-day transaction, maybe a circular economy, outside of music or value-for-value podcasts. Danger Zone. Bravo comes in with 5,555 sats.
Jordan Bravo here with a test boost. Well, we got it. Fountain has been mangling my username. I hope it's displaying properly now. You got it. Nice to hear from you, Bravo. Hey, look, there's PJ. Let's hear it, good buddy. He says, long time, no boost. I've been a lazy booster. Well, we open the door to you anytime you come by, PJ. It's always nice to hear from you. Thank you for the boost. Let's take a look, see. OBL918 comes in with 17,912 sats. He's a good guy. He's a real good guy. No, he's a great guy. And of course, some of those in there are a Spaceballs boost. So the combination is one, two, three, four, five.
I remember using the Bitcoin faucet. I also remember when I could download the Bitcoin client and mine multiple Bitcoin on my CPU. Yeah, brother, me too. He goes on to say, I said, well, that's pointless. And all of those stats were forever gone. If you aren't humbled by Bitcoin at some point, you probably aren't trying hard enough, I'd say. That makes me feel better. Also, on my previous boost, you seemed to struggle just a bit with Quadalus, which is what I call my dirty fiat. I'm a tad surprised you missed the reference. Oh, in original Star Trek, three pulsating brains on Tarkelion bet large quantities of Quadalus on the Gladiator Combat. That does ring a bell now that you say that.
It wasn't all that remained of their economy. Three dudes betting ridiculous amounts of fiat currency that meant nothing. That's amazing. Keep up the good work. Thank you, OLB. Nice to hear from you. Obliterator 918, he says. He also says so much for all the tariff talk. Yeah, we're still going. We'll be going for a bit. Although today's tariff day. Happy tariff day. Happy tariff day. Ace Ackerman's, thank you for the boost. Ace Ackerman's back with a row of ducks. President Trump, like on most things, is more bark than he is bite with tariffs. It helps him make a splash in the news, troll the opposition, and be unpredictable in the negotiations.
So I'm not surprised that there has been a perceived softening on tariffs. I can't wait until we buy Greenland. Yeah, I think I agree. It feels like they're walking that back, doesn't it? They're walking some of that back, although we'll see after today. But it does seem like some of the, you know, some of the talk did soften a wee bit, didn't it? Chaka is here with Aflac Boost. That's 4,444 sats. That's two rows of ducks. Elon Musk being suspiciously silent about Bitcoin as per the clip you shared, I would say that whatever the plan had to do with X, you will most likely need to change it.
It also floats the new political environment with the SBR and all of the positive things happening around crypto. Yes, it's pretty neat, and the crypto and Bitcoin space, hence, has changed a lot in the USA. But what is the hostility against Bitcoin? In the meantime, we also must acknowledge that there are a lot of hostilities still going on in Europe. Since the 1st of January, the MCIA has been active with its regulation. I must say, it took down all of the POS terminals that accepted Bitcoin in payments. I heard about that. Thus, meaning the current number of merchants I can pay with Bitcoin in my country has gone down 95%.
Man, he says, I really hope the European people would be more involved with crypto. At least Americans are, and it seems to produce a nicer environment there. Yeah, I really feel like our Europeans, specifically also our friends in the UK, have really been misled for many years about Bitcoin and just any option outside the system. And now they're really paying the price. Financial literacy might be one of the most important issues of our time. And it is so bad. It is so, so, I didn't know. I had no idea until I started studying Bitcoin. So I say with all humility, it's not like I am some, you know, expert.
I've just been learning for years now and have expanded my understanding. But like so many things, once you start to really understand it, you learn there's so much, so much more. Thank you for that perspective. Appreciate the boost, Chuck. Jim from Antiques here with 2000Sats. Live long and prosper. Hey, Chris, here's an update about my Celsius refund. I've received different emails over the months to claim the distribution from the Celsius network. After giving them all my info, weeks later, I received a procedure to receive the funds via MetaMask and ETH.
At first, it wasn't working. Once it asked me for my private keys, I stopped right there thinking it might be a scam. Then I received other emails from Celsius with another procedure to give them my PayPal account. Finally, I received $26 back from the 50 or 60 I put in four years ago. It's been quite a journey. Jen, thank you for that update. And that sounds kind of awful. I am glad it wasn't thousands of dollars or something. But geez, it sounds like it's just ripe with possible scams. That's good. That's a good boost. Thank you for that. Also, thank you everybody who boosted below the 2,000 sat cutoff.
I want to call up a user 31 who came in with 1,000 sats. Coming in hot with the boost. He was a first-time listener, so I want to give him a shout-out. That's great to hear. Now, thank you everybody. Also, thank you to our streamers who just stream sats as you listen. You silently contribute to the show. I see you. I appreciate you. I do see them trickle into my node all day long, and it really is great to see. I really appreciate it. So thank you, everybody. We had 51 of you stream those sets and collectively you stacked 88,663 Satoshis.
When you combine that with our boosters this week, we had a grand total of 252,303 sets. Not too bad. Not too bad at all. Thank you everyone who supports the show with a boost it's really easy these days to get started with fountain fm but there's all kinds of options including the albi hub and fully self-hosted options your your starting point is podcast apps.com then you can send a boost into the show above 2000 sats we read it this is a value for value podcast which means the podcast goes out for free if you've received some value from it it helps you think about these things helps you plan your bitcoin journey you contribute some value back to the show.
Disc 2.1.7 is out it's more reliable better message delivery and trade mitigation. Mediation enhancements, mitigation. I'm getting sick. My brain is shutting down on me as the show goes. I'm getting progressively more sick and my brain's not working. This is what I think really interesting is message delivery is more resilient now. Messages are sent as mailbox messages when a peer connects that aren't yet established or when Tor is slow, ensuring faster and more reliable communications. Also, mediation has been improved with message status tracking, consistent media assignments, media assignments, mediator, there we go, and based off of Offer ID.
The new UI elements for mediators and enhanced case management UI also make things a lot improved. There's also a new split pane for other chats and a new splash screen that tracks the loading progress. BISC is also looking for a senior Java developer and will host its first hackathon, April 10th through the 13th. BISC is one of these highly regarded ways to buy Bitcoin in a more peer-to-peer way. It can be tricky and the UI has been one of the more criticized elements. So it's nice to see them really working on this. And 2.1.7 is out now. And it's looking real good.
How about this first story? $6 trillion asset manager Fidelity has launched a retirement plan allowing direct crypto investments. Fidelity has 49 million customers. And they announced today, some details are light. But what we do know is a no-fee crypto IRA. It allows U.S. adults to invest in Bitcoin, ETH, or Litecoin. Okay. Now, your assets will be held by Fidelity Digital Assets. They'll hold the keys in their cold wallet, and you'll be able to choose from a Roth, traditional, or rollover IRA. That is massive. No fee IRA from Fidelity. Fidelity is one of the originals in this space. Very trusted. Like I said, basically 50 million customers will now have this as an option.
How many of them use it? We don't know, but it's really neat to see that. Music. All right, that brings us to our final clip of the week. And Jack Dorsey was recently interviewed, and he reflected on just how far Bitcoin has come in 16 years. And also, how even with folks like BlackRock and the federal government interested, you still don't need anyone's permission to build on Bitcoin. That's truly unique. What makes Bitcoin special, what makes things like Nostra special, is they're permissionless. You don't need anyone's permission to build what you want to see and and that's just incredible like to to be able to work on a money transmission protocol that's entirely open that has no one leader that has all this attention that has converted the likes of a blackrock or these major institutions that were these things that we railed against in the past and now they have to turn their attention to it.
And yet you still don't need their permission to build on it or to change it or to better it. Where else can you find it? Like at that scale, not nowhere. And in only 16 years. Let's check in on the state of the network. The block height as I wrap up is $890,593. The price in U.S. dollars is $86,470. Stats per U.S. dollar are $1,156. Over the last seven days, we're only down 0.1% right now. Cooking. Now, that's still a 20% decline, 20.7%, if I'm being accurate, from our all-time high $109,160 on January 19th, 2025. The fee rate right now is two sats of V-Byte.
Go open up some channels, kids. That's the lesson there. Go open some channels. Rebalance some channels. If you got a lightning node, go do some maintenance while the fees are low. If you haven't consolidated UTXOs, go take care of that. It's a great price right now. Outside of that, the Bitcoin network is cooking. Hash rate's cooking. Interest is high. The state of the network is strong. Now as i wrap up don't forget that links today for things that i talked about are over at this week in bitcoin.show as well as the back catalog i hope i brought you something that doesn't get distracted by the emotions focuses on the signal so let me know how i did with a boost and of course boost in with whatever you'd like to see or what i missed from the show you guys have been killing it for weeks on the value for value chart bringing our artists to the top of the chart week after week you did it last week it's awesome to see this week we're going blues, and rock it's a mix it's a it's like a crossover genre it's from tj wong and he comes from portland oregon and he has apple pie so i leave you this week with apple pie by tj wong.
Music.
Welcome into Episode 52!
The Week's Setup
Tariffs? What Tariffs!
U.S. Government and Bitcoin Strategy
Boosts and Listener Updates
Listener Thoughts and Feedback
Global Bitcoin Perspectives
Jack Dorsey's Insights on Bitcoin
State of the Bitcoin Network
