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Episode 3 - State of Bitcoin
9 Plays26 days ago
Austin and Derek use ChatGPT to get the latest and biggest BTC headlines for the month of March and give their opinion of the current events and their current mindsets towards the topics.
Miners, Corporation, Retailers, Asset Managers and Sovereign nations all buying! BTC Price is dropping! What a time to be alive in this Industry
Let us know your thoughts on X @2171Podcast
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Transcript
Mustache Mishap
00:00:00
Austin and Derek
Yeah, but i don't I don't know if you noticed, but um had an accident.
00:00:06
Austin
what what
00:00:07
Austin and Derek
I got this new this new shaver for my mustache, and it's got a really sensitive guard on it, and I pushed a little bit too hard when I was shaving my mustache.
00:00:19
Austin and Derek
I only had half a mustache there for a second, so I had yeah so i have to wait for it.
00:00:23
Austin
just happened today yeah
00:00:26
Austin and Derek
No, this was a couple days ago. Yeah. Actually, when I was in Colorado, but it was one of those I'm like, crap.
00:00:33
Austin
yeah
00:00:34
Austin and Derek
know, unfortunately, you can't just make it come back. So I just had to shave the whole thing off.
00:00:41
Austin
Oh yeah, that's right. Cause you had one before. Yeah.
00:00:44
Austin and Derek
It'll come back. I've had a couple people say that they like me better without it, but I feel like I look like a kid again.
00:00:51
Austin
Really? Yeah, no, I actually, wella right now i have a beer just cause I haven't been to work in a minute, but like I had it to where I had a mustache and then I realized, uh, I shaved it off one time just to see how it was. And i don't know. I think I'm going back to without the mustache. I think I like it better. Just clean shave, honestly. But Like a clean shaven or if it just goes to a stubble, just one of those two I'm better with. But yeah.
00:01:16
Austin and Derek
Yeah, I used to think that I wanted a big bushy mustache, but I don't actually think that that looks good.
00:01:20
Austin
Yeah. Not really.
00:01:21
Austin and Derek
Like, I've seen a guy with a mustache that, like, covers his whole upper lip. I was like, dude, that doesn't look good.
00:01:27
Austin
Really? Oh, yeah.
00:01:29
Austin and Derek
Like, so I like to keep it – my guard setting, I like about to four and a 4.5 to 5.5.
00:01:29
Austin
Yeah.
00:01:35
Austin and Derek
This one just happened to be at a 1 on accident.
00:01:37
Austin and Derek
So, ah but, no, I like the clean, the cleanliness.
00:01:37
Austin
yeah
00:01:44
Austin
Yeah. No, I actually think i think the bushy mustaches do look good. It's just I can't grow one, so I'm like, I might as well not even try at this point. Like, it's kind of just uneven, like, when it gets longer, but...
00:01:55
Austin and Derek
I used to have it to where I just would never trim my mustache, but someone said it shouldn't cover your like the pink of your lip.
00:02:03
Austin
ah Okay. Yeah.
00:02:03
Austin and Derek
And then once I started to trim that up, I felt like I looked much more professional. so
00:02:08
Austin
Yeah, I can see that. Yeah.
Trump Family and Bitcoin Ventures
00:02:11
Austin
um But yeah, so going on into the Bitcoin stuff, what's been going on recently?
00:02:19
Austin and Derek
Well, according to Chat, ChatGPT, I just went on ChatGPT and asked, top five Bitcoin headlines of 2025. Figured we could get the most current, finishing out the month. Number one, Trump family ventures into Bitcoin mining. Eric and Donald Trump Jr. have partnered with Hut 8 to launch American Bitcoin Corp, aiming to establish the world's largest Bitcoin mining company.
00:02:44
Austin and Derek
Thoughts on that?
00:02:44
Austin
Zeissner 1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8-1-8- ah think you know bit more about them or just morning kind of companies in general
00:02:55
Austin and Derek
Yeah, so um let me go to Yahoo Finance just to confirm, but it is um listed in the American Stock Exchange, at least as as a Bitcoin miner.
00:03:09
Austin and Derek
I believe Hut 8 is the one that Anthony Pompliano also works with. I'm not 100% confident on that one.
00:03:19
Austin and Derek
H-U-T is its ticker.
00:03:21
Austin
I also know that they they did a, I think they're also one of the ones that also is doing the micro strategy, like the the strategy, micro strategy.
00:03:30
Austin and Derek
Of the miners?
00:03:32
Austin
Yeah, I think they did the same thing where they issued basically the convertible bonds and low interest convertible bonds and they just took the money and buying Bitcoin with it, that whole thing.
00:03:43
Austin and Derek
So they they may have. um I did not hear that. um I know that Riot and marath Marathon both did. i have not heard of any of the other ones doing that. um I know the new thing with mine is that they're all trying to get into different spaces as well.
00:03:55
Austin
Yeah.
00:03:59
Austin and Derek
I follow, I follow um Riot the most out of all of them. um Riot is looking to get into data centers like AI and HPC stuff, which I'm not really a hundred percent sure what HPC stands for.
00:04:16
Austin and Derek
I know that like with the AI platform, they're talking about since they all are basically some form of energy company, um, for the sense of how much energy it costs to, to mine the Bitcoin, they all are, um, trying to get into other ways to use that energy, especially once we hit the crypto winter, um, and Bitcoin's, you know, low, any extra energy they have, they're going to kind of,
00:04:30
Austin
Mm-hmm.
00:04:42
Austin and Derek
Sell-off. And honestly, it's it's not a terrible idea just for the sake of how mining companies become profitable or make money is by mining Bitcoin.
00:04:54
Austin and Derek
And as of right now, Bitcoin, you can't go buy energy with. So what they do is they have to sell their Bitcoin in order to fund whatever operation they're doing.
00:05:07
Austin and Derek
um So I'm kind of for them kind of getting into other places because especially like most of the miners, but Riot specifically, if they don't want to sell their Bitcoin, what they do is they issue more shares.
00:05:19
Austin and Derek
That's very common in the Bitcoin mining industry for the sake of publicly traded ones, just because that way they can keep there their Bitcoin on their balance sheet without selling any of it, you know.
00:05:30
Austin and Derek
um Yeah. What does it say that that Eric and Don Jr. are are investing into Hut 8?
00:05:41
Austin
Uh, yeah. So going back to the HPC thing, it, it looks like it stands for a high performance computing and it's basically the process in which computing power is aggregated to achieve greater. So I'm assuming it's kind of like where you have different physical locations and you combine the computing power of them separately so create essentially higher performance. So that's what that seems to be.
00:06:09
Austin
But, ah but yeah, the idea of investing into, um into these miners. I thought, and I think, you know, if you're just simply investing into it for the business of mining, it's not the greatest business because, you know, you'll have periods to where the electricity will cost more than the creation of a new Bitcoin.
00:06:34
Austin
um You know, especially after the happening, because typically, you know, every four years that'll happen, the price action doesn't really represent the scarcity at the time. And it's kind of like lagged out a bit.
00:06:46
Austin
Um, so that usually those periods of time, that's not the best time to be invested into those stocks because they're just really burning money and burning electricity at that point. Um, cause it's really just a scalping business, right? It's a business where you're like, okay, now I need to find the best place to get the cheapest electricity.
00:07:05
Austin
And hopefully at that time, Bitcoin's higher than the electricity costs during that time. Right. And like you said,
Challenges in Bitcoin Mining Industry
00:07:11
Austin
you'll pay for the overhead costs. Um, which is obviously going to be the people managing these data centers.
00:07:19
Austin
um And also the electricity costs as well. Like I have a, I have an acquaintance that I know that actually was in that business and he actually ate all of the electros so electricity costs and just kept it for himself.
00:07:35
Austin
But one thing that came to mind in terms of, you mentioned, what was it that they were going to get into? in terms of ah additional business, like you said, the HPC and what else?
00:07:46
Austin and Derek
HPC and AI, and and I assume that it's ands with regards to data centers.
00:07:47
Austin
Yeah,
00:07:51
Austin and Derek
I don't know for sure. can't imagine them creating their own AI. I figured it'd be for the sake of data center stuff.
00:07:59
Austin
yeah that's interesting because the ASICs, I mean, they only do one thing and that's, you know, basically mining. So I'm curious if they would buy GPUs or something else.
00:08:10
Austin
cause I don't think you can get to do that.
00:08:10
Austin and Derek
Yeah, i I don't fully know the business model that they're they're looking into. I just know that because these companies are using so much energy, i think there was was an idea to pull back some of the energy for the sake of Bitcoin mining um and then put that towards a HPC or ai or vice versa, just increasing their energy command, ah energy demand, but but putting it and into something that's going to be more
00:08:19
Austin
Yeah.
00:08:38
Austin and Derek
fiat cash flow that they can use for their expenses so they don't have to issue more stock or sell any Bitcoin. Does that make sense?
00:08:46
Austin
Yeah, that and like getting debt too. mean, one thing that I thought of too, now that we talked about Bitcoin lending on our last episode, maybe we will too on this, but think of it like this too, is that they have to sell Bitcoin in order to get essentially to Bitcoin.
00:09:03
Austin
for their electricity costs and their labor costs but you could what you could do too is once the lending gets a bit more robust dude you could actually just lend against the bitcoin you just mined and then use that money to pay for everything else you still own it so that's probably one thing too but um you know it reminds i mean really if you think about it these businesses are the exact same as gold mining companies right and
00:09:30
Austin and Derek
Yeah.
00:09:31
Austin
the The exact same. And i I remember when I first was into investing, I was like, oh, you know, I'll, you know, I was like diversifying with, you know, of course, like stocks and like gold ETFs. And what is it, there was this one, there was this one company that wasn't a miner, but they're kind of like a middleman in between the miner and to the actual like final end seller.
00:09:55
Austin
So it didn't even really matter about the overhead costs. And I put money to them. And then I also put some money, I think, into gold mining stocks too. um And you'd think like they would make a lot of money, but they kind of don't mainly because it's all based on if they get the money to do exploratory stuff or like do their explorations and then find a lot. So it's a lot of overhead costs and it's also dependent on the price of gold too.
00:10:26
Austin
So most of the time, to me, it just seemed like it'd be better just to simply buy the gold itself. or but But there are periods to where the miners do do outperform the actual asset itself, but it's really similar.
00:10:41
Austin
um It just all depends on the spread.
00:10:43
Austin and Derek
it's it's extremely It's extremely similar.
00:10:45
Austin
Yeah.
00:10:46
Austin and Derek
I mean, the the reason that one of the reasons why gold is such a um ah scarce asset is because it's so hard to mine. It's not very profitable, right? I mean, it like you said, it takes...
00:11:01
Austin and Derek
money for exploration once you find the the site you have to put capital into it so more money to build the um the quarry or however i don't even know how gold is mine it's probably not in quarries like limestone but the excavation site then you have to actually pull it out separate it from the stone um and then even then
00:11:21
Austin
Yeah.
00:11:24
Austin and Derek
i don't know if you've ever like gone to a gold shop or something, but one of the, one of the big things when you try to sell a gold that everybody looks at is, is any flaws that there could be for a sign of it being fake.
00:11:36
Austin and Derek
So even after it's gone through the refining, refining process, you usually can't even buy it for the price because it's gotta be put into these government issued coins or whatever that have some sort of security mechanisms on it. And then when you go to a gold shop, they're looking for And then even then,
00:11:36
Austin
Oh, yeah.
00:11:53
Austin and Derek
They're like, we're still taking a risk that it's going fake. So like, it's like the spread on buying versus selling. Typically you buy gold for 6% over spot. um I guess some of the videos I've watched on YouTube say that you can sell it for spot, but I've never been able to find someone that'll buy it from spot for me. But forgot what I was going to say. I was going to say something after that.
00:12:17
Austin and Derek
Anyways.
Bitcoin Lending and Market Development
00:12:18
Austin
Yeah, I mean, well, and then also it's the fact of getting physical gold is really hard too. don't know if you've ever been on the websites to where you can buy like different gold bullion and gold bars from different countries. But if you try and buy something, i think it's like Canada, like you have Canada ones from, you know, London too and Australia, like they'll have the higher percentage gold or something like that. And dude, it will cost like thousands of dollars just to transport it because it's so heavy.
00:12:52
Austin
And you know, they put in ships or planes or something like that.
00:12:52
Austin and Derek
Yeah.
00:12:55
Austin
But, and it's also that too, you know?
00:12:58
Austin and Derek
um A little bit off topic, but my dad, he's in the like biological industry now, so like bacteria and stuff, specifically for crops. But he was working with this guy ah who found this bacteria that eats rock, but everything except for gold.
00:13:19
Austin
what
00:13:20
Austin and Derek
Yeah, so they're going to like these old gold mines and like spraying it on the walls or whatever, and it's eating everything except for the gold.
00:13:30
Austin
Dude, that that sounds like that's from a movie.
00:13:31
Austin and Derek
Isn't that that's like That's like a bug that creates gold, you know?
00:13:37
Austin
Dude, when did he find that?
00:13:39
Austin and Derek
um I don't know if I'm really allowed to say. Hopefully i am because i
00:13:43
Austin
yeah you know if you don't Yeah, if you don't know, you don't have to say. I mean, it's probably...
00:13:46
Austin and Derek
he's He's a freaky genius. I'm just going to say that. The guy who who figured it out, freaky genius.
00:13:52
Austin
Yeah. That's crazy, dude.
00:13:53
Austin and Derek
i Like, using really high tech to to do some of these things. Like, it's it's crazy. It's crazy how how high tech some of these industries... Like, it's not like agriculture is. Like, it's not just putting corn in the ground and watering it anymore, you know?
00:14:09
Austin
Yeah.
00:14:10
Austin and Derek
ah
00:14:10
Austin
Yeah.
00:14:11
Austin and Derek
But anyways, more about this article. It looks like... um Hut 8 is partnering with Eric and Don Jr. Can you still hear me?
00:14:24
Austin
yeah
00:14:25
Austin and Derek
Okay. My computer just kind of froze, so hopefully you can keep hearing me. But it looks like they are partnering with Don Jr. and Eric. Hut8 keeping 80%. And just says Eric and Don are under the ah entity formed in February. So you got assume that that's probably um what what their crypto is. Financial.
00:14:47
Austin and Derek
What's their crypto exchange called? World Liberty Financial. Right?
00:14:54
Austin
Yeah.
00:14:54
Austin and Derek
And it looks like they're forming a third entity called American Bitcoin Corp.
00:15:03
Austin
American Bitcoin Corp. What's that supposed to be? Okay.
00:15:06
Austin and Derek
that's the That's the company that they're forming together. So Hut8 has 80% and then Eric and Don have 20%.
00:15:10
Austin
Okay.
00:15:17
Austin and Derek
And then they're forming but American Bitcoin Corp. I don't know how I really feel about that.
00:15:23
Austin
I mean, i think, well, what is the world liberty? Have you used that before? No. I'm assuming it's probably like an exchange where, you know, you could probably buy like a lot of other cryptos and stuff like that.
00:15:36
Austin
But yeah.
00:15:37
Austin and Derek
I'd assume it's just like a Coinbase crypto.com Kraken or something like that.
00:15:40
Austin
don't know. I think back to the Bitcoin lending stuff, I think they're going to realize, i think they're probably gearing up to realize, and I'm i'm sure how um Coinbase will probably do this too,
00:15:53
Austin
ah maybe something like a, you know, we already know Strike has plans to do it and Cash App with, ah what's his name? I can't think of his name. The guy who found it Twitter.
00:16:04
Austin and Derek
ah Yeah.
00:16:05
Austin
ah Yeah, Block.
00:16:05
Austin and Derek
What is his name? He owns a block now or CEO of block.
00:16:10
Austin
I'm sure, yeah, I'm sure Block, I think there will be a period to where there's going to be people competing in the lending space. And I think most mostly because of the There was that one bill that was passed that allowed banks to custody Bitcoin, I think.
00:16:29
Austin
i don't know if you've heard of that.
00:16:29
Austin and Derek
Yeah.
00:16:30
Austin
Yeah.
00:16:30
Austin and Derek
So that's Jack Dorsey is the guy I just looked it up.
00:16:33
Austin
Yeah, Jack Dorsey. But um yeah, that's probably going be...
00:16:35
Austin and Derek
Yeah, that' that's ah that's a big one that I feel like hasn't really been talked about that much.
00:16:40
Austin
No, it hasn't. Yeah, that came out recently. I think that was like a month after Trump got inaugurated. I want to say around time in February, but... Yeah, and then obviously MicroStrategy, which I think he's been always saying plans that there'll be like a Bitcoin bank and there's speculation on that. But I think now in this cycle, there's a possibility to where I guess like probably in the second half of the cycle where stuff kind of goes down a bit.
00:17:08
Austin
um I guess probably around, you know, April to September, which a lot of people are saying is when the top will be, or, you know, on the way towards the top, it'll be probably those will accelerate because now, you know, the laws are there, the funding is there. So I think that will start to be developed. And I think we'll be able to see these big platforms do that. So maybe they're trying to do something like that. I don't know. I think they're with all the regulation that they like the ability of regulation that they have and all that stuff.
00:17:38
Austin
I think they'll see that as an opportunity to basically make more money from lending platforms. So, um That's kind of what I'm
Debate on Bitcoin's Financial Role
00:17:47
Austin
speculating, honestly. I think that's the big that's the next big thing in Bitcoin is lending for sure.
00:17:52
Austin and Derek
Well, we're going to see at the beginning, like there are a couple ah couple apps that are out there. Debify is one. I can't think of, there's like two or three out there that are actually like multi-sig, peer-to-peer.
00:18:06
Austin and Derek
um But but theyre there's not a lot of lenders out there right now. Because people who understand Bitcoin enough to the point where they... like would go out and get a loan, aren't gonna have any money just sitting around, you know what i mean?
00:18:20
Austin
No, yeah.
00:18:20
Austin and Derek
So a couple of them are, you know, over 100% collateralized for a $50,000 loan. at 15%. And it's like, i workre it's a start, right? But it's not, I can just go get a personal loan based on just my income for more than that at a lower percentage. You know what i mean? From majority of banks. So we're definitely close, but what we're going to see at the beginning is that it's going to be ah small pool of people.
00:18:48
Austin and Derek
um But once we start to get bigger money into it, people who understand lending, like there will be startup private companies, I think that are strictly going to be lending against bitcoin or having like bundle deals or or something like that to where, I mean, right now the Fed's in charge of the interest rates that we pay on homes, essentially. and
00:19:09
Austin
Mm-hmm.
00:19:09
Austin and Derek
um There will be a time, I think, once the private market market says, okay, take the Fed out of it. We'll have our own private market for funds and it'll be based off the free market for rates. Just like, I mean, you read it in the Bitcoin standard, you know, if more people are saving money, yeah.
00:19:28
Austin and Derek
then that would mean that there's lower rates, right?
00:19:32
Austin
I actually think it's the opposite. going to want to double check that. ah Cause I think safety's argument is if the money is really hard, you have to really convince a bank in order for it to lend it out. Right. It's like, well, my money's growing at, you know, 50% a year.
00:19:51
Austin
So why would I just use it to lend it out to other people when i if I just hold it and do nothing, it'll outperform the interest that I make, I guess.
00:20:01
Austin
um I don't know, I'll have to look into that, but I think his argument was saying that, and I could be wrong because it's been a while since I've read the Bitcoin standard, but I think his argument was that, well, if you had a free market, you'll actually realize that most interest rates will actually be a lot higher.
00:20:21
Austin
So it would make sense for someone in the sense of holding Bitcoin that the interest will... be higher for the most part. And now all you can do is that, let's say you have all these lenders that are charging, I don't know, 15, 20%.
00:20:38
Austin
All someone has to do is try and undercut that and to save costs in another way, right? So it's kind of like how, for example, you have Chase Bank, right?
00:20:44
Austin and Derek
Mm-hmm.
00:20:48
Austin and Derek
Mm-hmm.
00:20:48
Austin
If you put your money into a savings account, you're getting like 0.01% interest, right? They have a lot of fixed costs because they have brick and mortar. But with an Amex, you know, complete online bank, they don't have any of those costs. So they're able to give, you know, a high yield savings account interest rate of like three to five or three or 4%, right? So so That's kind of what he's saying. He's like, I think he, in the book, he was predicting, well, if you're going borrow against Bitcoin, you're going to have people that charge a lot of interest because they, you know, they're giving up their precious Bitcoin to be used.
00:21:23
Austin
Um,
00:21:24
Austin and Derek
I guess I thought in the book they were talking more about like a a fiat, the fiat credit system. mean, like if more people were had more dollars saved in the bank, then the bank would have a higher supply.
00:21:35
Austin and Derek
And if the demand for for money in the sense of credit remained the same.
00:21:39
Austin
Oh yeah yeah, that makes sense. Yeah.
00:21:41
Austin and Derek
Yeah. But actually lending out, like if we were on a full Bitcoin standard where everybody buys and sells in Bitcoin, then it's...
00:21:42
Austin
Oh yeah, if you're lending it, le yeah. yeah If you're lending out the Bitcoin, yeah.
00:21:47
Austin and Derek
that
00:21:49
Austin
and But if you're lending out the dollar value of the Bitcoin, that's different, right?
00:21:53
Austin and Derek
Yeah. So that's where I was like talking about that loan service.
00:21:54
Austin
Yeah.
00:21:56
Austin and Derek
We're in a state of where we're in a state where people who are on these loan platforms peer to peer, it doesn't make, they they understand that it doesn't make sense to to have dollars.
00:22:08
Austin and Derek
They're like, why would I, why would i loan this out for even 15% when I could just buy Bitcoin?
00:22:08
Austin
No, yeah, yeah.
00:22:12
Austin and Derek
That's going to outperform that. You know i'm saying
00:22:14
Austin
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I think, ah yeah, I think in the book that I was thinking of, I think there was a point in the book where he said, um yeah, if it was just purely Bitcoin, like banks wouldn't have a reason to lend out because, yeah, you know.
00:22:27
Austin and Derek
Yeah.
00:22:29
Austin
But obviously that's not really going to happen. Well, it it could happen, but I think the... you know, the dollar will coincide with it. Obviously, I don't think it will come. I think there probably will be a point to where it completely goes away just because that's how fiat works. Like, it always dies no matter what in its year history. It maybe couldn't.
00:22:49
Austin
But, you know, history says that fiat dies every single time. So, um,
00:22:56
Austin and Derek
I think i I see more of a like a fork happening in a sense where some people will build an an ecosystem on a Bitcoin standard that you can use and some people will build a system on a credit on a credit basis.
00:23:10
Austin and Derek
You know what that that may I keep talking about leveraging my Bitcoin and to buy something else and that's kind of like right in the middle of the fork, I think.
00:23:11
Austin
Yeah.
00:23:21
Austin and Derek
Where I think eventually there will be time when it's like, why would I leverage my Bitcoin when I can just leverage something else in this fake money. I'll just keep buying the Bitcoin instead of, you know what saying? Like there's, there's going to be a time where it's not worth it to lever your Bitcoin.
00:23:34
Austin and Derek
Maybe, I don't know.
00:23:38
Austin
In terms of what, like ah like you getting dollars?
00:23:42
Austin and Derek
Well, I mean, part of part, yeah. In terms of you getting dollars, like I'll go buy real estate, I'll go buy stocks. I'll go buy all this other stuff with the bank's money and dollars.
00:23:52
Austin and Derek
And then all the profits of that will go into my money, the Bitcoin.
00:23:52
Austin
Yeah.
00:23:55
Austin
Yeah, because your year to year, your CAGR on Bitcoin is going to outperform like your interest that you're paying.
00:24:04
Austin and Derek
Well, it's going outperform the interest, but...
00:24:09
Austin
Like, let's say you have, like I don't know, let's say you have a couple of Bitcoin and it grows 50% a year and you borrow 100 grand to put a down payment to a house. And that interest is like, what, I don't know, 6% to 7%, right, to pay for the rest of it or whatever.
00:24:24
Austin
Like, if your money, you're still winning because it's a difference between, and even if you're, like, ah even in the case where you're paying cap gains on your Bitcoin, you're still winning by a big margin, right?
00:24:25
Austin and Derek
still winning.
00:24:37
Austin
So it's...
00:24:37
Austin and Derek
Which I was just thinking, long-term capital gains
00:24:46
Austin and Derek
is like up to $11,000 $15,000 0%.
00:24:51
Austin and Derek
is that zero percent
00:24:55
Austin
Wait, what do you mean 0%?
00:24:57
Austin and Derek
Hang on, let me ask ChatGPT what it says. Come on, come on, come on. Hurry, all right. So actually, okay, i was wrong. Here are the federal, 2025 federal long-term cap gains for file for
Tracking Bitcoin Transactions and KYC Implications
00:25:12
Austin and Derek
single filers. Zero to 47,000 is at a 0% rate. So that means you can sell.
00:25:18
Austin
So if that's your income is what you're saying.
00:25:21
Austin and Derek
What I'm saying is like the people who save 100% in Bitcoin if you run into an issue like like that, that to me says that there should be zero reason why a security or emergency fund should be in fiat because right now i can have a $47,000 up to emergency that I don't have to also pay on top Cause some people are like, well, if i you know, what if it appreciates that I have to pay the tax?
00:25:50
Austin and Derek
It's like up to $47,000. You don't have to.
00:25:54
Austin
Wait, so you're saying if I make a purchase right now of 20 grand of Bitcoin and I sell it two years or more because you do short-term capital gains, is that does that not apply to short-term?
00:26:03
Austin and Derek
Capital gains capital games is, no, correct. It doesn't apply to the short term. It's only, says 366 days or more, which I know both of both me and you have short term capital gains of 66, 366 or more.
00:26:13
Austin
So... so
00:26:21
Austin and Derek
Sorry, we have, we've held Bitcoin for more than 366
00:26:25
Austin
Right, right. ah But basically, if you were to buy like $100 in Bitcoin and you were to sell it a day later, wouldn't apply to that is what you're saying. Because that's short term.
00:26:37
Austin and Derek
Yeah, short term. So that'd be, but that'd be taxes. But let let's say you buy $100 of Bitcoin per year every January 1st, right?
00:26:44
Austin
Yeah.
00:26:44
Austin and Derek
You could use, so like I bought it January 1st, 2024. bought hundred January 2025. i bought a hundred january first twenty twenty five
00:26:52
Austin
You sold $100.
00:26:54
Austin and Derek
No, you bought, let's say you just keep on buying.
00:26:55
Austin
Okay, yeah.
00:26:56
Austin and Derek
And then February 1st, I run into an issue where I need $100 even $200. Let's say it's gone 100% since January 24.
00:27:01
Austin
Yeah.
00:27:02
Austin and Derek
could sell that zero taxes. you know a hundred percent since so january first twenty
00:27:06
Austin
Yeah.
00:27:06
Austin and Derek
before
00:27:07
Austin and Derek
i could sell that for zero tax
00:27:08
Austin
Yeah.
00:27:12
Austin
Okay, that's interesting. I mean, it's pretty useful. I don't know how you would account for that or like how you do the accounting for that. But
00:27:19
Austin and Derek
No, it'd be hard. And like I texted you yesterday, I think it was you, right? When I said like, I don't even, there's no way of me knowing what my cost basis is.
00:27:27
Austin
Oh, no, yeah, yeah. i don't I don't know what it is either.
00:27:29
Austin and Derek
Just because I've bought on Coinbase, I've bought on crypto.com, I've bought on Strike, I've bought on all these places.
00:27:30
Austin
Yeah, it's...
00:27:37
Austin
Well, do you only buy on strike now?
00:27:38
Austin and Derek
Now, yeah, so there will be a time where I can so i can have a ah track of saying, okay, this Bitcoin was purchased on this date, you know?
00:27:47
Austin
Well, you can look at your cost basis on strike because what strike will do... because Okay, so for those that don't know, I'm completely on 100% Bitcoin standard for the most part. i I still have a bank account, but I am basically getting fully paid in Bitcoin. I even did like my file my taxes that I filed this year. I included the 1099 short-term cap gains on the Bitcoin that I used to buy like my rent and my like credit card bills.
00:28:16
Austin
Right. So, um and it was a pretty easy ah process. All I had to do was just go onto the app. request my tax forms and it gave it to me and I just sent it to my CPA and that's all I had to do basically.
00:28:30
Austin
But the, at least with regards to what I'm thinking,
00:28:38
Austin and Derek
How did you get it to show your cost basis?
00:28:42
Austin
but yeah, so, so what you can do so it doesn't outright do it. You would have to basically, put all of your buys every month into like a CSV and then you would just average out like it will show every purchase you do what price it was at.
00:28:57
Austin and Derek
Gotcha.
00:28:57
Austin
So then you just take all of that and then average out the price at the end of the csv if you put it like into like a sheet, Google tool or something, but, but yeah.
00:29:03
Austin and Derek
Yeah.
00:29:06
Austin and Derek
austin Austin referred you on they August 11, 2021. I've been buying on strike since then.
00:29:14
Austin
Yeah. Yeah.
00:29:17
Austin and Derek
I got $5 for it, for the referral.
00:29:18
Austin
Yeah. sir Dude, I think my first purchases were in the end of 2020, like December.
00:29:27
Austin and Derek
I remember... We were buying... I remember... Buy-in at 66 the first time. Last cycle. Last cycle.
00:29:39
Austin
the i think the first time I was buying and it wasn't on strike, it was like Coinbase or maybe Robinhood or something like that.
00:29:49
Austin and Derek
I can't remember.
00:29:49
Austin
I want to say i was I was, I was, I remember the first time I was seriously considering it. I was seeing it rise from like 20 to 30 or like 10 to 20 or something like that. And it was going up so fast.
00:30:02
Austin
And I was buying, think I was starting to buy when it was in the high 20s in that last cycle Okay.
00:30:02
Austin and Derek
it
00:30:09
Austin
Yeah.
00:30:09
Austin and Derek
my My first buy on strike is at 44.7.
00:30:15
Austin
yeah So I was buying around the same time, basically.
00:30:16
Austin and Derek
but But I was buying on, I think I was buying on Coinbase before that.
00:30:17
Austin
I'm
00:30:20
Austin
Oh, you know what I did Cash App too.
00:30:20
Austin and Derek
yeah
00:30:22
Austin and Derek
You did do cash up. I don't think I ever did cash up.
00:30:25
Austin
Yeah, I was Cash App at the time. Before, so Strike actually didn't have an exchange before. it was just simply a Lightning Wallet.
00:30:34
Austin and Derek
Oh, really?
00:30:35
Austin
And, oh dude, this was this was a cool part. So apparently, i first downloaded Strike, I think like in the middle of 2020, and I didn't buy any from there. I'm like, oh well, they don't have an exchange. So it was really confusing because all it was was just like a
00:30:51
Austin
it you couldn't put your credit You couldn't put your debit card information or credit card information to buy or something like that. And I think the way to buy Bitcoin back in the day actually was, and I didn't know this, but apparently all you had to do was you had to, like you yeah you went to a Bitcoin wallet and then you scanned the Strike app with your Bitcoin wallet and then somehow...
00:31:20
Austin
but I don't remember how you would get the dollars at least or no, it was ah Oh no. Now I remember it was you would put dollar, it was kind of like a Venmo, right? So you put your money into the Venmo or into the cash app um
00:31:36
Austin
without having to use like a, or I think, I guess you do it through a bank wire, I guess something like that. But um you put the money in there and then instead of an exchange, you would,
00:31:49
Austin
have the dollars on there and then you would scan your Bitcoin wallet and then you would, it was weird, like you would take your dollars and then you would put Bitcoin into your wallet instead of actually like, and I think they only just had a network fee so they didn't actually have like an actual exchange.
00:32:00
Austin and Derek
Yeah.
00:32:08
Austin
It was just, you put dollars in there and scan the wallet that you had, which was really interesting, which I think back then that wasn't KYC.
00:32:19
Austin
Like if you just had a new wallet and you just had money in there, that wasn't KYC, I think, but
00:32:26
Austin and Derek
Which is sick because I don't know exactly how much of my Bitcoin is KYC now.
00:32:31
Austin
that was probably all of it. Well, don't know done anything else, but well,
00:32:34
Austin and Derek
I don't think it's all of it.
00:32:39
Austin and Derek
I'm not 100% sure, but I don't think it's all of it.
00:32:42
Austin
well, do you have it all in one wallet?
00:32:44
Austin and Derek
Yeah.
00:32:45
Austin
So once you have Bitcoin that is KYC and you mix it with others that are not, it's KYC now.
00:32:50
Austin and Derek
Ah, boo. Boo.
00:32:51
Austin
Yeah. Guess who can track it? Guess who can track it? You know, it's it's all public. So they can see like, oh, you're KYC Bitcoin winning this one. Oh, there's Bitcoin that's not KYC.
00:33:02
Austin
Now it is, you know?
00:33:04
Austin and Derek
have to make a separate wallet then. Because there's still non-KYC ways.
00:33:05
Austin
Yeah.
00:33:08
Austin and Derek
Like the Bitcoin ATMs are non-KYC.
00:33:11
Austin
Are they actually...
00:33:12
Austin and Derek
Yeah.
00:33:13
Austin
yeah How does it work? Is it just you put dollars like paper dollars into it and you just
00:33:18
Austin and Derek
I've never used one, but I'm pretty sure, yeah, you just put paper dollars in and then you can can i would assume you have to scan your barcode, your QR code, and then it sends it to the wallet.
00:33:29
Austin
that's actually Yeah, yeah, I know that I know that Dang dude, that's pretty sick actually
00:33:32
Austin and Derek
They have much higher fees. I think, yeah, but it's for it's that's the cost of non-KYC. Yeah.
00:33:43
Austin
yeah
00:33:44
Austin and Derek
i'm i'm I'm like 90% sure they're non-KYC.
00:33:48
Austin
I mean, it makes sense because you don't have to put any of your information on it.
00:33:52
Austin and Derek
Yeah.
00:33:53
Austin
do Do you not have to put a like a phone number or an email?
00:33:56
Austin and Derek
I haven't used it. I'm not 100% sure.
00:34:00
Austin
Yeah. Yeah, I don't know.
00:34:04
Austin and Derek
But if anybody's listening, we do not believe in non-KYC.
00:34:08
Austin
Yeah. Yeah.
00:34:09
Austin and Derek
All of our stuff is legit and will be forever.
00:34:12
Austin
yeah Yeah, nothing to hide.
00:34:16
Austin and Derek
right. MicroStrategy acquires 1.9 billion in Bitcoin. MicroStrategy expands its Bitcoin holding by purchasing 1.9 billion worth, bringing its total to over 528,000 Bitcoin, representing more than 2% of all outstanding Bitcoin.
00:34:32
Austin and Derek
Also, the second one kind of goes along with it too. so I'm going to read it together. GameStop invests in Bitcoin as treasury asset. GameStop announces plans to adopt Bitcoin as a treasury reserve asset following a 1.3 billion convertible note, convertible notes offering signaling a strategic shift towards cryptocurrency investments.
00:34:53
Austin and Derek
Go.
00:34:54
Austin
Yep. Yeah. Mind you that that convertible bond is interest free. So that's another thing.
00:34:59
Austin and Derek
Yeah. Zero percent.
00:35:01
Austin
Yeah. but
00:35:01
Austin and Derek
Is that how all sailors ah have strategies have been to?
00:35:06
Austin
Not all of them. I think they're very close to but yeah.
00:35:12
Austin and Derek
Yeah, I remember i always thought that it was like under 2% for Michael Saylor's and I was like, wow, that's so cool. And then GameStop's like, 0%.
00:35:20
Austin
Yeah, well, Well, you realize, do you know the reason why investors want to do that?
00:35:28
Austin and Derek
Convertible means that they will get shares somewhere down the line. So they give them the money now and um knowing full well that
00:35:32
Austin
Yep.
00:35:37
Austin and Derek
yeah i don't know how so So what happens in a sense, like how do they get ownership? Do they get ownership regardless of whether or not the loan is paid back or is it loans payback plus ownership?
00:35:52
Austin
Um, no, I think it, how it works is, well, I've heard of this in MicroStrategy's case, I think, but in the STRK thing that they have now, but essentially how I think of it is that, at least this is how MicroStrategy's is, but in their STRK one, you essentially buy their bonds,
Convertible Bonds in Bitcoin Strategies
00:36:15
Austin
right? Right.
00:36:16
Austin
They pay you interest. um In this case, the GameStop one is no interest. So they're just straight up giving them their money and not wanting you know interest back on it, paid on it, right?
00:36:29
Austin
um But basically, I think how the STRK one works is that they give them money and then once the stock reaches a specific price, meaning you know I think the guy that provided the example on a video was like, oh, once it reaches $1,000 a share,
00:36:44
Austin
they get the equivalent of a thousand dollars a share converted from the money that they gave them basically. So it's as if you're investing into the company, but you're getting, you're getting risk-free interest essentially, as long as the company is still running.
00:37:00
Austin
Right. But in the case of GameStop, these people believe in them so much that they don't even want interest.
00:37:01
Austin and Derek
Mm-hmm.
00:37:07
Austin
They're just like, Oh, we just want the future, the future high stock prices of GameStop when they buy Bitcoin, right? Which begs the question, and what I was kind of getting towards is that you would think yourself, well, why don't these people just, or these institutions just buy Bitcoin? And the reason is, is because they can't.
00:37:29
Austin
So the only other way to do it is to get, either buy, and they may not admit may not even be able to buy GameStop stock too, right?
00:37:40
Austin and Derek
but then give out notes
00:37:40
Austin
So it's,
00:37:43
Austin
Yeah, so they just basically get debt from them or interest-bearing debt. But even in this one, there's no interest. So they just literally just get – they basically just get an IOU. It's like, okay, when this price goes up to the price we think it is, now you give a stock, right?
00:37:57
Austin
And now you know convertible to it, right? So it's as if they're investing in it but without having actual shares at that moment pretty much.
00:38:06
Austin and Derek
So I just asked chat GBT.
00:38:06
Austin
Yeah.
00:38:09
Austin and Derek
so It went on a long spiel, but it gives an example. it says you invest 100K in a startup. So this is... for the sake of like venture capital, probably less less of a GameStop, but more of whatever, still similar idea.
00:38:21
Austin and Derek
You invest 100K in a startup via a convert convertible note with a 20% discount, 5 million valuation cap and a two year maturity. Then the startup raises a series at 100 million, or sorry, a $10 million valuation, so double.
00:38:38
Austin and Derek
Your note converts into shares as if the company was worth $5 million dollars or you get 20% discount off $100 million, whichever is better.
00:38:49
Austin and Derek
So let's see. 20%. it's ah it's a either or it looks like in that case. So they either get 20% off the $10 million or they get to whatever their percentage was at the $5 million.
00:39:07
Austin and Derek
know what mean? and in this In this scenario, yes.
00:39:07
Austin
Oh, so they get a discount, basically.
00:39:12
Austin and Derek
um It also... yeah Yeah.
00:39:12
Austin
Yeah, but we don't know how it is in the...
00:39:15
Austin
Yeah.
00:39:15
Austin and Derek
I mean, if if you're in that market, it's probably all negotiation. you know If they were able to negotiate a 0%, then there's got to be probably 100% guarantee of convertibility.
00:39:24
Austin
here's a tradeoff perhaps me yeah There's Yeah, there's a trade-off in there somewhere. There has to be.
00:39:31
Austin and Derek
But um i did it I also did a little bit of research to see what companies... are doing the Sailor strategy.
00:39:44
Austin and Derek
Well, first I asked, I asked what are the top five companies holding Bitcoin and the top five, the top four are all Bitcoin companies.
00:39:50
Austin
Thank you.
00:39:52
Austin and Derek
So MicroStrategy, which we talk about all the time. Marathon Digital 46,374 Bitcoin. with 11,509 Bitcoin. ah riot platforms is eighteen thousand six hundred and ninety two bitcoin galaxy digital which i'm not a hundred percent sure what they do but they have fifteen thousand four hundred and forty nine and the number five is tesla with ah eleven thousand five hundred and nine bitcoin
00:40:20
Austin
Is that all in the U S
00:40:22
Austin and Derek
I just said, where are the top five public companies that hold Bitcoin?
00:40:26
Austin and Derek
So that would be like...
00:40:26
Austin
okay.
00:40:27
Austin
Cause, uh, I know, uh, do you know that one Japanese company that's doing the micro strategy thing?
00:40:31
Austin and Derek
Yeah. So then i asked I asked what other companies are doing the sailor strategy and it's brought up GameStop and MetaPlanet, which is that Japanese company.
00:40:32
Austin
Yeah.
00:40:39
Austin and Derek
And I know many more, but those were just the two that that popped up. So...
00:40:44
Austin
Yeah. I mean, um, it's ah It's been like this for a while for these companies, but I think GameStop, it is a
Bitcoin as a Strategic Reserve
00:40:53
Austin
meme stock. it is a Well, that's the thing. it's The companies that are going to do this are going to do the same strategy that you now strategy is doing now. you know They were a dying company.
00:41:04
Austin
They can't out-compete with Microsoft because that's pretty much who they were going up against. And Saylor was like, yeah, you know we're getting cash flows, but we can't grow because of our competition. What do we do with our cash?
00:41:16
Austin
that's what GameStop is doing. It's a dying, you know, it's, it, it's still around, you know, they have cash laying around, but they're not a growing business because I could easily buy, you know, a video game online and buy it digitally, you know, so it's.
00:41:31
Austin and Derek
Even like with Xbox, they have their own Xbox store that you can download it straight from Xbox, you know, I'd assume PlayStation has the same.
00:41:37
Austin
Yeah, exactly.
00:41:40
Austin and Derek
um Yeah, it was probably a year or so ago. that, um, that, cause I was like, why doesn't every company do what Michael Saylor's doing?
00:41:50
Austin and Derek
Like my dad's, um, kind of in a, in a startup company where he's growing stuff. I'm like, why don't I get my dad to buy Bitcoin, you know, on his, on his company balance sheet. And while I don't think it's a terrible idea still, it's not, he's the Saylor strategy is for companies like you said, that have a steady cashflow that are unable to continue growing.
00:42:01
Austin
Oh, no.
00:42:14
Austin and Derek
like a GameStop, like a MicroStrategy. I don't even know what MetaPlanet does, but these companies that they, there's there's nothing better for them to put their money into, you know, like, uh,
00:42:23
Austin
me
00:42:24
Austin and Derek
GameStop, we're kind of out of the age where brick and mortar for video games is possible. So building more GameStop stores isn't going to necessarily be a profitable expense. You know what I'm saying? um michael's Michael Saylor's strategy is a software company. Like you said, it competes with like Microsoft. I'm not 100% sure exactly what they do, but it's not a ah company that they can invest their money into it to make a lot more money. So like instead of leaving it in cash, which is what these companies were doing, why don't they just go and invest it into something that appreciates, you know what i mean?
00:43:01
Austin
Uh-huh.
00:43:01
Austin and Derek
So that's so that's really where where it where it comes into play is these companies that are through their growth, through their IPO potentially, maybe not even, you know, in the private sector, I could see like HVAC companies doing this, you know what I mean?
00:43:16
Austin and Derek
If they've got 10 people um under them and they don't really want to grow to a 20 or they don't want to franchise, you know, They got good cash flow. They're able to pay their expenses. Anything else should go into Bitcoin or into debt to buy Bitcoin in which in which they pay off.
00:43:31
Austin and Derek
The only problem is is that in the public market, as we can see, it's much easier to get a hold of cheap capital, like 0%.
00:43:41
Austin
Yeah.
00:43:41
Austin and Derek
ah that's really hard to do for somebody in our shoes. It's definitely probably easier for small businesses, startups, because at least they've got potentially assets to lever or they've got income to lever or it's just easier under a business entity, i would assume. I don't know that for fact, but anything else to add to that?
00:44:05
Austin
um yeah so i just think the trend will be and i mean you were saying this earlier right like how the businesses that are doing or at least you know the businesses that have been and will be and we're seeing this with g uh with game stock is that you know it doesn't really make sense for a business that's growth driven to do this strategy i mean it would be I think it'd be a good idea, but I think in their brains and in their minds, like they're thinking to themselves, why would we buy Bitcoin if we can use all the cash flows we have to build a business? Right. I don't think, you know, it wouldn't make sense to, know, you have like a startup and you're like, oh, you know, all this money we're getting from other people. Yeah. We'll just buy Bitcoin with it. It's like, well, you know, you might want to use that money to hire engineers or invest in AI maybe to, you
00:44:59
Austin
grow the business itself, right? Because really with Bitcoin, it's like, it's the greatest performing asset and will be for a while. But I think something that will outperform Bitcoin is a very good business, right?
00:45:12
Austin
So I think in their mind,
00:45:13
Austin and Derek
And maybe maybe just getting more manpower is going to do that. You know i mean? If you can have enough cashflow to hire somebody, now you have two people and then it's, it's compounded in a sense of, of time and energy. you know i mean? you're not using just your time and energy. So that's, but, but if you are not able, like if, yeah, I mean, we've, I beat this with a dead horse. If you can't grow anymore as a business, you know,
00:45:38
Austin
Yeah, I mean, ah it definitely caters to those ones a lot. ah And GameStop's doing it too. So, yeah, I just think i think there'll be more that'll do this over time. And, you know, people will get more surprised every time it happens. And I'll be like, yeah, I saw that coming.
00:45:59
Austin
Yeah.
00:45:59
Austin and Derek
Are there any other companies that you can think of that would benefit from this? I haven't ever actually thought about that.
00:46:08
Austin
Um, I'm trying to think of ones that either, i don't know if they're still around or if they actually are done for, but, uh, I mean, i don't know. I'm thinking stuff like brick and mortar kind of places. Um, I guess like you you think of like Sears.
00:46:32
Austin
I don't know. ah theyre I don't know if they're not around or not. Maybe places based out of malls. Um, i don't like a Macy's or like a JCPenney. I know, yeah, JCPenney, that's pretty much like done for.
00:46:45
Austin
They're still around, but places like those, they can't really grow. Just be just stuff that, like, I guess, um that are affected by Amazon, i guess, you know, making something into...
00:47:00
Austin
ah
00:47:00
Austin and Derek
That's why I don't know. I was thinking like UPS or FedEx because those companies are big enough now that they've probably reached a lot of the globe. You know what I'm saying? That I don't know if this for fact, but you'd almost think that they're going to get to a point where they can't put any more capital into the business for the sake of growth because they've already got most of the world you know what saying like i know at least fedex their pilots fly all over the world i i don't know much about ups because they're not based where i'm based but um you almost think a company like that like you said that's probably benefiting a little bit from amazon i don't know how that works i know amazon has their own cargo airplanes too with prime air um
00:47:42
Austin
war Well, no, that's... So Prime Air is actually not a ah carrier at all. It's just contracted labor. ah
00:47:50
Austin and Derek
Yeah, they have their own planes, though.
00:47:55
Austin
Wait, do they? Because I know Atlas, they were contracted labor for them, but they would just paint on...
00:47:56
Austin and Derek
Yeah.
00:48:02
Austin and Derek
Okay, that's what I was about to say.
00:48:03
Austin
Yeah.
00:48:03
Austin and Derek
Well, I don't know if they have their own airs but or their own airplanes, but there are planes that say Prime Air on them, but that would just that would just be...
00:48:09
Austin
Yeah, yeah. So they so it's like it's like the regionals. So they'll paint like, you know, you fly for, I'm not going to say your company, but blah, blah, blah, airline flies for Delta.
00:48:20
Austin
Like the airline itself isn't Delta, but it has Delta.
00:48:20
Austin and Derek
Yeah. Doing business as.
00:48:24
Austin
Yeah. So yeah, I don't, yeah. Amazon doesn't have their own airplanes at all. I think, ah so of and so doesn't DHL. DHL isn't, it's not an airline either.
00:48:35
Austin
It's just contracted labor to different airlines, but yeah.
00:48:37
Austin and Derek
Hmm.
00:48:40
Austin
But yeah, I think I can see that. I mean, I know with FedEx, they're not really doing too well right now.
00:48:45
Austin and Derek
Hmm.
00:48:46
Austin
um But
00:48:48
Austin and Derek
And that's because of debt, right?
00:48:52
Austin
they have a lot of debt. I don't know.
00:48:54
Austin and Derek
i know American has been pulling back a little bit for the sake of they, a lot of their planes were not owned. They were levered or owned, but with notes.
00:49:01
Austin
hmm.
00:49:04
Austin and Derek
And so they were kind of pulling back to pay off debts before they expanded. I'm pretty sure that's the case. I'm not a hundred percent confident. Um,
00:49:15
Austin and Derek
Yeah, I don't know. I was just trying to think of some other companies that maybe I could see that would benefit.
00:49:21
Austin
I'm kind of thinking of ones that are dying, at least. I don't know, maybe companies that you probably never even heard. I mean, have you heard of MicroStrategy before all this? No.
00:49:30
Austin and Derek
no
00:49:31
Austin
yeah You know, so, i mean, there's probably a lot of companies like that, at least ones that are competing with Microsoft um that probably do the same thing, or maybe something that are, like, companies that competing with...
00:49:46
Austin
ah you know, like an Apple type type deal, but, or, oh, maybe one that I just thought of would be like an Intel or like a IBM.
00:49:55
Austin and Derek
I
00:49:56
Austin
I think those ones will probably be primed to be next. I think, I think IBM actually tried to do a mining operation, but I think it failed. don't know.
00:50:07
Austin and Derek
i didn't hear that.
00:50:07
Austin
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, they they were, I don't know if they were trying to make their own crypto, if they were trying to go get into mining like hardware. Oh, I think that was hardware maybe. Or it was Intel. I don't know.
00:50:19
Austin
But it so it was, I just remember one of those one of those companies, it was either Intel or um IBM that was starting to get into it. Maybe that's probably one of the next ones.
00:50:30
Austin
Kind of makes sense. It'd be tech companies to me at least, but.
00:50:37
Austin
Yeah, that's kind of what I was thinking though.
00:50:39
Austin and Derek
BlackRock launches Bitcoin ETP in
International Crypto Expansion by BlackRock
00:50:43
Austin and Derek
Europe. BlackRock introduces its first Bitcoin exchange traded product in Europe named iShares Bitcoin ETP listed in Paris, Amsterdam, and Frankfurt expanding its cryptocurrency offerings internationally.
00:50:59
Austin and Derek
I guess I should have assumed that they were based in other places other than the United States. But I mean, because they're what, 11 trillion assets under management.
00:51:08
Austin and Derek
um it It makes sense that they have.
00:51:09
Austin
Yeah, worldwide.
00:51:10
Austin
A
00:51:11
Austin and Derek
I just never figured.
00:51:14
Austin
lot of it, yeah.
00:51:14
Austin and Derek
Yeah, I guess I didn't. I also didn't don't really understand why Europe can't just buy the normal ETFs, the IBIT, you know?
00:51:25
Austin
Probably because they probably can't buy American-based ETFs, maybe.
00:51:29
Austin and Derek
I don't know.
00:51:30
Austin
Just usually usual reason, yellow tape, and basically.
00:51:31
Austin and Derek
I guess some, yeah.
00:51:34
Austin
Yeah. Yeah.
00:51:36
Austin and Derek
So obviously this is a good thing, right?
00:51:39
Austin
Oh, yeah. No, yeah. I mean, you have the more access from, I mean, you have to think about ah that area of the world. You know, it's just as productive and people with but retirement accounts, they're all going to be flowing money towards that. So that's the thing with ah Bitcoin in general. People have this lens, especially in America, that, oh, it's an American thing, you know.
00:52:03
Austin
um only you know the big American financial institutions are buying. you know They kind of compare it to like an American stock. right like They compare it to like a i don't know like an Apple, Microsoft, or like ah Nvidia, and they only think about the business that they do in America. right and it's like Bitcoin's a worldwide asset. right You think of the trillions of dollars that are out there waiting to be put into Bitcoin. you know They think about our GDP.
00:52:31
Austin
And they're like, oh you know, the US does, i don't know how much GDP they have, but it's, you know, I think it's like 4 trillion, 5 trillion or something like that. And, you know, you think of those numbers like 4 or 5, that's small in comparison to the rest of the world and their ability to put cashflow into this Bitcoin thing, you know, like market cap right now is like around 2 trillion.
00:52:54
Austin
um Think about all the other countries, especially out in Europe and Asia and Japan, how much money is available in those economies, right? So the more that BlackRock and these other institutions allow their citizens in other countries to passively flow into Bitcoin, that's just going to be, you know, better for Bitcoin in terms of its market price.
00:53:16
Austin and Derek
ah Okay, so I just asked, Chad, USA GDP compared to all of Europe. It said in 2024, in terms of nominal GDP, the US economy was valued at $29.168 trillion, trillion.
00:53:31
Austin and Derek
So it's 1.5 times larger than EU. trillion um so it's one point five times larger than the eu
00:53:40
Austin
There you go. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, the entire EU, what you said was 19 trillion.
00:53:47
Austin and Derek
yeah Why do we give them so much power if we are literally 1.5 times greater than them with outputs?
00:53:48
Austin
Yeah. Yeah. I mean,
00:53:54
Austin
wait, what?
00:53:57
Austin and Derek
That was a question.
00:53:57
Austin
yeah i mean
00:53:59
Austin and Derek
said, why do we give them so much power if they're one point five if we're times their gdp They should be bending the knee
00:54:08
Austin
Oh, yeah, they should. i mean, we and we protect them too, so... You know, but... um Yeah, I mean... i mean, it's not like they have all that power anyway.
00:54:21
Austin
i think, ah you know...
00:54:21
Austin and Derek
Yeah.
00:54:22
Austin
it But the eu it's because of the EU that they're that they have all of it, because they're combining all the economies together, right?
00:54:25
Austin and Derek
Yeah.
00:54:29
Austin and Derek
Together, Abe Strong.
00:54:30
Austin
Yeah. Yeah, so... But... Yeah, I mean, we'll just keep seeing more news about this. Well, you know, we already know that Germany made a mistake. Their government sold like 30 billion and they lost like 20 billion by selling their Bitcoin.
00:54:45
Austin
So I'm sure.
00:54:45
Austin and Derek
Yeah, that one that one meme I sent you, or maybe you sent it to me, where it like listed all the countries that had BTC on their balance sheet.
00:54:52
Austin
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
00:54:54
Austin and Derek
They put Germany at zero.
00:54:56
Austin
Yeah, a zero.
00:54:56
Austin and Derek
And then it just said, that was so disrespectful to put Germany on there.
00:55:00
Austin
Yeah. Yeah. So. on Yeah, not to mention also, I mean, this kind of old news too, but the Czech Republic, like Central Bank is going to buy, think like, want to say 70 billion.
00:55:12
Austin
I think they're planning on buying 70 billion or something like that. Or they had legislation that would have them think about doing it. But yeah, yeah.
00:55:20
Austin and Derek
Well, that that actually leads into the next but next kind of headline.
00:55:27
Austin and Derek
going to scroll up a little bit. been asking Chachipiti a lot. Let's see.
Speculation on U.S. Bitcoin Reserve
00:55:30
Austin and Derek
Okay, so President Trump establishes a U.S. strategic Bitcoin reserve. President Trump signs an executive order to create u create a U.S. strategic Bitcoin reserve aiming to diversify government financial assets and attract cryptocurrency industry activity to the United States.
00:55:49
Austin and Derek
so Obviously, game theory is kind of playing out. ah The United States did it. And actually, I don't really think that they were one of the first ones to do it. But it seemed like that everyone was kind of holding out.
00:55:59
Austin and Derek
And now multiple countries are kind of falling in suit. Plus, I think the IMF is starting to buy Bitcoin. I know that they gave el Salvador a lot of crap.
00:56:11
Austin and Derek
And then I think like...
00:56:13
Austin
Wait, wait, wait. Wait, they're actually, they're actually buying Bitcoin?
00:56:15
Austin and Derek
I think they... I think they...
00:56:18
Austin
There's no way.
00:56:19
Austin and Derek
Yeah, I think they told El Salvador to stop buying Bitcoin. They told the United States to stop buying Bitcoin. And then they turned around and I think they said that they're open to the idea of buying Bitcoin.
00:56:32
Austin
Oh, they're open to it. Okay.
00:56:33
Austin and Derek
I don't know exactly what it is. IMF's... I don't even know what I'm supposed to... What would I even ask for that? What is the IMF's view on Bitcoin?
00:56:49
Austin
I guess you could look up like recent statements by them regarding Bitcoin. Because it will list all the times they think it's terrible, you know.
00:56:58
Austin and Derek
Maintains a cautious stance on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency assets, emphasizing the... I'm still thinking. taking a while to i thought I thought I saw something saying that the IMF was mad at the United States for buying because it destabilized the value.
00:57:28
Austin and Derek
um or destabilize the price, I guess. The value remains the same. um
00:57:33
Austin
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:57:34
Austin and Derek
And... Oh my gosh, there's like three or four different things on this. It says, monetary sovereignty and legal tender status advises against cryp granting cryptocurrency assets such as but ah Bitcoin, the status of official or legal tender.
00:57:52
Austin and Derek
So it doesn't like that.
00:57:55
Austin and Derek
Um, the IMF highlights that widespread adoption of crypto assets could undermine the effective affected effectiveness of monetary policy, circumvent capital flow management measures and exacerbate financial risk. So that's, that's a negative look on it.
00:58:14
Austin and Derek
To address the challenges posted by crypto assets, the um IMF advocates for development implementation of comprehensive policies and regulations.
00:58:24
Austin and Derek
Um, While urging caution with decentralized cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, the IMF acknowledges the potential benefit of underlying technologies. It supports exploring into central bank digital currencies as a means to enhance financial inclusion and efficiency.
00:58:42
Austin and Derek
So I guess I was wrong.
00:58:46
Austin
Yeah, I mean, yeah you could probably check and see and send me that later because I'd be very surprised because they're very anti-Bitcoin. Yeah. um They advocate for all those things. Like, they talk about price stabilization all that stuff, but in reality, what they do is quite the opposite.
00:59:04
Austin
um They destabilize economies literally everywhere in the world and steal ah value from them. So... yeah Yeah, it's ah it's not a fun thing for sure. But yeah, I think, um but ah so you mentioned the IMF and you said these the Bitcoin strategic reserve in America. So ah the interesting thing about this, right, is because I think, was it at the time, i remember we were talking about it at the time. We knew, i think we determined that they had like 200,000 Bitcoin.
00:59:39
Austin and Derek
the United States?
00:59:41
Austin
Yeah, but they actually have less because I think in the Biden administration, they sold some for some reason. but So I think they're closer like 100 150 something like that. Oh, after that?
00:59:52
Austin and Derek
know that as soon as, I think it was the day after Trump spoke at the Bitcoin conference, when he said that he would never sell Bitcoin, then they, I know that the government at least moved the Bitcoin from one wallet to another.
01:00:08
Austin and Derek
Uh, it's like the day after meaning that they, they thought that everybody was, that the got the U S government was going to sell all the Bitcoin before Trump got in office.
01:00:09
Austin
oh after that
01:00:11
Austin
Oh, what?
01:00:19
Austin and Derek
This says, uh, as
Implications of U.S. Bitcoin Reserve
01:00:20
Austin and Derek
of March, 2025.
01:00:20
Austin
Mm-hmm.
01:00:22
Austin and Derek
So this year the United States government holds approximately 207,000 to
01:00:28
Austin and Derek
so we still got, we still got a good, a good chunk of it.
01:00:33
Austin
Mm-hmm.
01:00:33
Austin and Derek
They may, they may still have sold some off, uh, under, the under the Biden regime um, not the right word, the Biden administration.
01:00:41
Austin
Yeah, a regime.
01:00:43
Austin and Derek
Yeah.
01:00:45
Austin
I guess you could call that. Yeah, sorry. Go ahead.
01:00:47
Austin and Derek
yeah so So what's the benefit of having ah Bitcoin strategic reserve as opposed to, I mean, if you've been on Twitter in the past month, everybody's kind of reaching out to to Elon to try to do an audit on Fort Knox, right?
01:01:04
Austin and Derek
What's good.
01:01:04
Austin
yeah so ah go ahead
01:01:06
Austin and Derek
i was going to say, so what's, what's like the advantage of that? And what, what do you think is in Fort Knox? Do you think we'll ever, they'll ever tell us.
01:01:15
Austin
Honestly, man, that's a great question because I remember when Elon tried to, or people were telling him really to do it. he i don't think it ever crossed his mind to, you know, evaluate Fort Knox because it hasn't been audited in like since 1950.
01:01:31
Austin
So, because I mean, we were talking about gold earlier.
01:01:31
Austin and Derek
Yeah.
01:01:34
Austin
I mean, you know, you talked about how you have to check the purity and everything. You know, there's been multiple... like events or like pictures of like golden bars and there's just tungsten in the middle of it. Like the outside is gold, but the rest of it is tungsten, which if for those who don't know, tungsten is basically the same density, same weight per or like per unit, same thing as gold. So basically you could just take a gold bar, put tungsten in it and it will feel the exact same way and will weigh the same way. The only way you'd know is if you like cut it in half pretty much. Right.
01:02:11
Austin
So You never know. I mean, we ah we might go in there and there might be a lot of gold bars and they're just filled with tungsten and we really don't have the gold that we said we did.
01:02:22
Austin
And then, or there just might not be anything in there at all. um But yeah, i mean, this goes back to why we need a Bitcoin reserve and why you know we can't go back to the system of gold because gold is very hard to verify. right it's it's ah Compared to Bitcoin, it's much, much harder and you have to it requires trust. right So we trust that the government is holds this amount of gold in Fort Knox. right But in reality, it could not even be there at all because it hasn't been audited since 1950.
01:02:58
Austin
Whereas Bitcoin, it's literally audited every 10 minutes. constantly over and over and over again, right? So if you have a Bitcoin wallet, it's constantly verifying, self-verifying and actualizing itself out and saying, hey, i have this much Bitcoin in this wallet every 10 minutes, right?
01:03:14
Austin
So
01:03:14
Austin and Derek
So I, there's, with going back to Fort Knox a little bit, there's kind of three things, three, three things that that we could add. Like there's three scenarios, right? Either we have less gold than they say we have, we have the same amount of gold that they say we have, or there is more gold than they say that we have, right?
01:03:35
Austin
Mm-hmm.
01:03:36
Austin and Derek
The first scenario, they're not going to tell us if that's the case because that deleverages us um from a financial point of view compared to all other countries. All of the countries are going to know what we have. It's going to be less than we have. They're going to move away from the U.S. dollar or they're going to move away from all these other things.
01:03:53
Austin and Derek
Not a good situation. The second scenario is that we have all the gold that we say that we have. And if that's the case, why not just tell us, like, why not go in there and say, yep, it's all accounted for, you know, because realistically that doesn't change anything except for it gives the government a little bit more.
01:04:12
Austin and Derek
gives the people more faith in the government a little bit. They're like, okay, at least we have our gold, you know?
01:04:18
Austin
Mm-hmm.
01:04:18
Austin and Derek
And the third scenario, um which actually Anthony Pompliano on his podcast, he mentioned this. He thinks that we actually have more gold than we have for the sake of all those wars that we've been in in the Middle East and all these you know terrorist organizations that we've taken down, Saddam Hussein and ISIS and Al Qaeda and all these. They understood they understood you know, monetary stuff.
01:04:46
Austin and Derek
So they held a lot of their value in gold. So when we went through all these raids of all these palaces and stuff, um if it was a United States platoon that took them down, it was the United States government that brought the gold back and where would they have put it? They would have put it in Fort Knox, you know?
01:05:03
Austin and Derek
And if that's the case, then they probably wouldn't also tell us that there's more because again, they want to use that financial leverage for, you the rest of the world. So maybe one day be like, Hey, we've got 50% more gold than we said we did or whatever. You know what i mean?
01:05:21
Austin
Yeah, that actually makes sense. Yeah, I can see that.
01:05:22
Austin and Derek
Yeah. So I don't foresee there ever being a situation where they actually tell us. um I think even Trump would be for that. Yeah. as much as he's for transparency, um I think that he understands that there's more implications than just telling it telling the whole world how much gold is in our reserve, you know?
01:05:44
Austin and Derek
But that being said, and like you said, Bitcoin is every 10 minutes. So I think that there's nobility in having both kind of a secretive reserve and then a public reserve that everybody knows, you know what i mean?
01:06:02
Austin
Yeah, and that's the thing. Yeah, that makes sense. And I think i think ah you know you hear news about like, oh, there's like all these Saudi companies buying and they don't want to say it because if they were, then it would push the price a lot. Because there's like a lot of wallets going on right now where there's just like people buying hundreds of Bitcoin a day. And it's like, there's no way an individual or even like a company could do that.
01:06:29
Austin
ah You know, Bitcoin
01:06:29
Austin and Derek
Once the oil nations wake up, the oil nations understand gold.
01:06:32
Austin
Yeah, and you got to think that you know some oil some oil guy or someone is doing that if they're buying like hundreds of Bitcoin a day. like there's There's no way, but of course they won't say it.
01:06:46
Austin
Yeah.
01:06:46
Austin and Derek
Any nation that understands gold, any industry that understands gold, as soon as they truly do research on Bitcoin, they will understand it because it's, it's the same exact reasons that people would buy gold is why you'd buy Bitcoin.
01:07:02
Austin
Yeah, 100%. It's either, you know, you like gold and you understand Bitcoin pretty much. I mean, even though people...
01:07:09
Austin and Derek
Gold, gold bugs were the first Bitcoiners.
01:07:12
Austin
No, they were, yeah. And I mean, we all know Peter Schiff, he hasn't... Well, he's actually he actually made a wallet and told people to send him some.
01:07:20
Austin and Derek
Yeah. He's calling it, what is he calling it? His strategic reserve, his,
01:07:23
Austin
Yeah, his strategic reserve.
01:07:24
Austin and Derek
Yeah.
01:07:25
Austin
Yeah. yeah but ah Yeah, and then ah there's that one guy um that wrote that new book too, ah The Big Print. I forgot his name, but he was also a gold bug as well, converted into Bitcoin or two.
01:07:42
Austin
i think I think it will be a point where you know they all they all see it. you know ah ah really ah you know they can't We can't go back to the ah system that has already failed because the government co-opted gold.
01:07:47
Austin and Derek
Yeah.
01:07:55
Austin
right They took advantage of it and they they stored it in Fort Knox like and they don't release that information ever. so and they actually It's actually kind of funny because on the balance sheet of the gold in Fort Knox, they still price it at $36 an ounce.
01:08:10
Austin and Derek
yeah i was okay so that's what I was trying to think about what they had it priced at. It was $36, but I know the coins now for an ounce of gold, it's it's only worth $50. So like if I were to go buy it in the grocery, like i could only buy $50 worth of grocery, even though the material in it's worth $3,100 now. Yeah.
01:08:28
Austin and Derek
you know
01:08:30
Austin
Wait, what do you mean? Yeah.
01:08:31
Austin and Derek
So like on the, on the, the U S gold coin, like you have a Buffalo or a, an Eagle.
01:08:37
Austin
Oh,
01:08:37
Austin and Derek
Those are the two that we have. It says $50 on it. So it's actually a $50 coin.
01:08:42
Austin
okay.
01:08:43
Austin and Derek
So if I were to go to the grocery store somewhere that takes, you know, us currency, it's they, I can only buy $50 worth of grocery, even though the material inside the coin is worth $3,100 today. Yeah.
01:08:56
Austin
that's crazy yeah yeah so um but yeah i mean with the strategic reserve the necessary thing of it really is just transparency i mean you could secretly buy it too and i'm sure there's countries like we said that are doing that but it's kind of hard it makes it harder at least just because it's a public ledger
01:08:57
Austin and Derek
yeah yeah
01:09:16
Austin
ah But I mean, doing the strategic reserve, we talk about the benefits of it. I mean, brings transparency back in the government again. I think that's the one thing, you know, ah think that everybody can agree upon is the fact that the government is very secretive in what it does. And we find out like 50 years later what they did.
01:09:38
Austin
A lot of people just don't like that. And I think strategic reserves and and Bitcoin, it brings back the concept of transparency to the
U.S. Strategic Reserves Overview
01:09:49
Austin
American people. So, um, one of the, one of the many reasons why, you know, it's probably one of the most, you know, Jack Mallory said, this is the most positive thing in American history, financial wise that's ever been announced.
01:10:04
Austin
Right. Because everything else financial wise that the government has done has been to push, push the average American down, you know, You talk about 1933, you talk about 1971, talk about 1944 as well. um You know, 2008, those are all negative announcements by the government and the Fed.
01:10:28
Austin
So it's it's like a shift in thinking in terms of transparency, positive outcomes for the average person in America.
01:10:39
Austin
you know, the U.S. government is storing Bitcoin, the thing that can't be printed and huh?
01:10:45
Austin and Derek
And cheese. And cheese.
01:10:48
Austin
Yeah. And she's, yeah, they have a strategic provisional, reggiano store. So yeah, it's funny. Cause like people argue, it's like, Oh, why do we need a Bitcoin store? It's just going to pump people bags. And it's like, you realize the government has a storage for cheese.
01:11:03
Austin
Like they have a strategic reserve for cheese.
01:11:06
Austin and Derek
Let's see what ChatGPT says.
01:11:07
Austin
So,
01:11:08
Austin and Derek
What are all the USA strategic reserves?
01:11:12
Austin
reserves. Actually, that's a great question.
01:11:17
Austin
Great question.
01:11:18
Austin and Derek
Because I know cheese is the one that gets getss all around Twitter and stuff.
01:11:22
Austin
Yeah, it's all it's over here. Yeah.
01:11:23
Austin and Derek
Yeah.
01:11:26
Austin and Derek
Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
01:11:29
Austin
That makes sense. I knew about that.
01:11:32
Austin and Derek
Northeast Home Heating Oil Reserve.
01:11:37
Austin and Derek
gasoline so Northeast Gasoline Supply Reserve.
01:11:42
Austin and Derek
National strategic national stockpile. Oh, that's of medical supplies, pharmaceuticals, vaccines, and equipment. Food security reserves. um
01:11:55
Austin and Derek
Emergency food and grain reserves, but they aren't always considered part of the official strategic reserve. Okay. U.S. gold reserve, strategic Bitcoin reserve. oh That's it.
01:12:11
Austin and Derek
So I guess the cheese reserve would fall under the food security reserves.
01:12:12
Austin
That's all.
01:12:16
Austin
Yeah, the food secure. I think they have like a... Yeah, like cattle reserve or something too. Stuff like that, yeah. But it's just funny. It's like, oh, it's cheese and it's a specific kind of cheese. Just one type of cheese, you know?
01:12:29
Austin and Derek
Yeah.
01:12:30
Austin
But...
01:12:31
Austin and Derek
Interesting. ChatGPT didn't even bring that up.
01:12:35
Austin
ah really... I ask it...
01:12:38
Austin and Derek
What about a cheese reserve?
01:12:48
Austin and Derek
It's thinking.
01:12:51
Austin and Derek
Oh, it just laughs.
01:12:52
Austin
like, oh,
01:12:52
Austin and Derek
It says laughing emoji. Yes, it's real.
01:12:57
Austin
I said Nice.
01:12:58
Austin and Derek
ah The U.S. actually has a cheese reserve. It's part of what's unofficially known as the cheese stockpile or more formally, the Commodity Credit Corporation Dairy Product Reserve.
01:13:11
Austin
More formally known as that.
01:13:14
Austin and Derek
Yeah.
01:13:15
Austin
It's so funny.
01:13:16
Austin and Derek
The U.S. government buys and stores excess cheese and other dairy products to support dairy farmers when milk prices crash. The cheese is stored in a massive refrigerator warehouse, also known to to in media as the cheese caves.
01:13:32
Austin
oh the cheeseke yeah yeah it does look like that
01:13:33
Austin and Derek
Yeah. it's It's through the USDA, so it would fall under that um the food security reserves.
01:13:45
Austin
right huh
01:13:48
Austin and Derek
That's funny.
01:13:53
Austin and Derek
Gen Z saves in Bitcoin. Boomers save in cheddar. Literally.
01:13:57
Austin
yeah
01:14:00
Austin
That's hilarious.
01:14:02
Austin and Derek
if the government had a strategic Bitcoin cave next to the cheese caves?
01:14:08
Austin
That's
01:14:08
Austin and Derek
This is what chat GPT is saying. The US has a reserve for oil, gold, Bitcoin, and cheddar. That's America, baby. That's
01:14:15
Austin
but for America, baby. which
01:14:18
Austin and Derek
funny.
01:14:19
Austin
That's so funny.
01:14:21
Austin and Derek
All right. do you have anything else that you'd like to talk about?
01:14:25
Austin
Um, no, I think that's it. Honestly, i think that we had a pretty good episode talking about what's going on now, but, um, yeah, you got anything?
01:14:33
Austin and Derek
It seems like with the world, the way it's going that dude, every month it seems like we could like completely change like the world with regards to cryptocurrency, specifically Bitcoin.
01:14:47
Austin and Derek
um I mean, just seems like... I mean, GameStop was literally, what, last week? um And since Michael Saylor started, it seems like every week he pumps another at least billion into it. I know it's it feels like every week, but Trump's been in office for, what, three months?
01:15:05
Austin and Derek
It feels like three years already just because he's been doing... So many groundbreaking things, whether you love him or you hate him, nobody can deny that he is doing a lot of executive orders um that are undoing the past four years. um So, I mean, it just seems like this country, this world is just progressing in one direction or the other, whether you think it's forward or backward. yet I'm not going I'm not here to get political.
01:15:31
Austin and Derek
um I mean, I know how you believe for the most part, but it seems like a lot of changes on the horizon.
01:15:39
Austin
Yeah, no, for sure. I mean, yeah, he's definitely doing the most executive orders in history. I think I saw a stat online about that, but yeah, he's doing a lot strategic reserve. That's what we've been waiting for.
01:15:55
Austin
You know, we knew we knew eventually would happen and then they're going to find ways to do it in budget neutral ways, which is interesting. So
01:16:02
Austin and Derek
It's not exactly the way we wanted it, but...
01:16:04
Austin
yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
01:16:06
Austin and Derek
what um well So
Bitcoin Price Movements and Trump's Policies
01:16:08
Austin and Derek
why, so why everything everything we talked about today, why is Bitcoin down?
01:16:08
Austin
yeah
01:16:15
Austin and Derek
I don't even know the percentage, but from 109 to I think 82 today, 83? i think eighty two today eighty three
01:16:22
Austin
82, 83. Yeah. so yeah, cause it was at like 87 it's been dropping steadily from 90. Uh, but yeah, I mean, it all draws down to, um, a decrease in liquidity pretty much. I mean, i think right now it popped off a bit because the fed essentially said that they're going to stop with quantitative tightening and they're going to go back to QE at some point. So,
01:16:48
Austin
ah
01:16:48
Austin and Derek
Which isn't really a surprise, is it? I mean, you'd think something like that's already priced in.
01:16:53
Austin
Yeah, of course. ah And you know you have you have the the concept of Donald Trump and the the opposition against Jerome Powell. like They basically are water and oil.
01:17:05
Austin
So they have completely different ideals as to what to do. And a part of the game plan of Trump pretty much is to, you know with all the tariffs and everything, it's going to stop our GDP growth. It's going to stop business for ah little bit, you know, and basically make it to where there's less borrowing because now there's, you know, less business going on as usual in terms of international trade.
01:17:30
Austin
Oh, idea of course, he's, he's trying to bring in, he's trying to bring in, uh, you know, companies to produce in America. Not only that, but it's also to kind of do a mini crash in a way. I mean, people complain about,
01:17:43
Austin
you know him him you know taking stocks. And the whole point of it is to do that because what he's trying to put Powell in is between a rock and a hard place, right? So Powell doesn't want to raise or he doesn't want to reduce rates just yet, but at the same time, he doesn't want the economy to crash.
01:18:04
Austin
So Trump, he's doing this thing where he's kind of making a mini crash by, you know, reducing the
Fed Rate Pressure and Economic Strain
01:18:11
Austin
amount of cash flows into the S from international trade, increasing tariffs.
01:18:17
Austin
And he's kind of putting Jerome into a, into a little, uh, pin right now because he doesn't want to be seen as a, you know, as a bad, um,
01:18:30
Austin
What is it, a Fed chair, because he doesn't you know he doesn't want to crash the economy. And when a Fed chair crashes the economy, doesn't make him look that great. So he's basically making him to where he's pinning him down and making him reduce rates pretty much, ah which is what he wants, right? Because if he's able to reduce rates, then that means more liquid liquidity. So right now, there's just a temporary situation where...
01:18:57
Austin
um borrowing has decreased because of all these tariffs and all this stuff, um, less international trade. Therefore, Bitcoin is going to feel that, right? It's going to be volatile when there's credit problems. So, um, it's the moment when the fed starts to pivot, gets out of quantitative tightening, which they did mention in the last meeting. And
Bitcoin Volatility and Market Conditions
01:19:19
Austin
they actually start, uh, getting back into QE, you know, buying, you know, they start buying stocks again, like they did in 2020.
01:19:29
Austin
And they start decreasing rates again, which, you know, Trump is kind of making them do at this point. That's when it's really going to start ripping. I mean, you know, around, and we're at the year after point of the happening, which in the previous two happenings, that's when the real price action starts to come is about nine to 13 months after the happening.
01:19:47
Austin
So,
Bitcoin Halving and Price Action
01:19:49
Austin and Derek
We're running it close on time.
01:19:49
Austin
you know, yeah, yeah we're, we're getting towards that point.
01:19:53
Austin
So.
01:19:54
Austin and Derek
I think part of that was also because we hit all-time highs before. like it We're at a weird...
01:19:59
Austin
Yeah. Yeah. We, yeah we
01:20:00
Austin and Derek
We're at a first, so it's been more stagnant. But I think if you were to look like... I've seen pictures of all of them combined. We're like right on pace, even though we've had a bunch of flat lines.
01:20:11
Austin and Derek
You know what i mean? A bunch of... I guess they'd be considered bull flags if you're talking ta technical analysis. But... um like I think from what was it in the 60 range, 70 to like mid fifties, it was just left and right for like six months. It but felt like five years, but, and then it broke out. Now we're in between 90 and a hundred and now we kind of pulled down, down to like the 80 range. But I think that's hard. I mean, if you, like I said, we're right on track for where we, we should be.
01:20:42
Austin and Derek
um So I think it was just, we got money in it, into it quicker.
01:20:43
Austin
Thank you.
01:20:46
Austin and Derek
And
Jerome Powell's Fed Chairmanship
01:20:47
Austin and Derek
I personally think we're going to get, we're going to keep money in it longer, uh, this cycle. So, I mean, this one may be less of a thousand percent in a month type of thing. I know that that hasn't happened, but you get what i'm saying. Less of a boom, we're at the, we're at the top now, boom, we're at the bottom and more of a, okay, 10% month, 10% month, 10% month,
01:21:10
Austin and Derek
and i'm saying
01:21:12
Austin
Yeah, yeah. I mean, right now the price movement is very similar so four years ago. And it's ah it's practically the same.
01:21:24
Austin
I mean, you know, it took about...
01:21:24
Austin and Derek
It's all written in the prophecy.
01:21:27
Austin
Yeah, so, but like you said, the price action, like it started going to all-time highs before the halvening, which has never happened ever in Bitcoin history. So when it went all the way up to like the 70s, I remember that.
01:21:40
Austin
It was floating around like 20, 30, and then it just pumped all the way or 20, 30 to 40, and then it pumped all way up to 74, 75 or something, but yeah. five or something but
01:21:50
Austin and Derek
little bit of a side note. I just looked up when Jerome ah Powell's position is up and it says May 15th of 2026. First appointed by as chair by President Trump in February of 2018. Reappointment in may of
01:22:08
Austin and Derek
ah So it looks like it's a four-year term. So his second four-year term is up in 26. He can be reappointed again, um but it doesn't really seem like Trump's probably going to do that. It's really interesting that Trump appointed him and then also is having so much... you know We obviously aren't seeing the ah turmoil between the two, but you got to imagine that it's there, right?
01:22:34
Austin
Yeah, you're saying he appointed him and now he's against him?
01:22:36
Austin and Derek
Yeah.
01:22:38
Austin
Yeah, i mean, yeah, I don't really know too much about that. um Is that how the Fed chair is usually elected? It's just by the
Trump's Economic Strategy and Its Impact
01:22:45
Austin
president and there's no other, like, Congress?
01:22:47
Austin and Derek
um It said he was first appointed by President Trump. So I would assume that there's... i don't even know if it's an applied position. It's not an elected position. So we don't we don't we don't get to choose who's up in 2026.
01:22:58
Austin
No, it's not, no.
01:23:02
Austin and Derek
Honestly, I don't hate what Powell's done, personally. i think he's a little bit more cautious than he probably... Could be. He was aggressive on the way up and not aggressive on the way down, you know.
01:23:13
Austin and Derek
But I also am a believer that i i don't think Raid should ever go back to as low as they were, you know.
01:23:18
Austin
Yeah, I'm not either, but...
01:23:20
Austin and Derek
So I'm kind of okay with him keeping him semi-high.
01:23:20
Austin
Yeah, yeah, yeah i just... Yeah, I mean, the that happened just because they're a lender of last resort just with COVID.
01:23:32
Austin
ah But he definitely... Trump definitely wants a weaker dollar. and Him doing this right now with the... with the,
Integrating Bitcoin into U.S. Reserves
01:23:44
Austin
uh, what is it? The, the tariffs and everything that's pro week dollar, right?
01:23:48
Austin
Um, when you produce more and you export more rather than what you take in, the dollar gets weaker when you do that. So, um, he's trying to do that. He's also, you know, getting rates low and make it weaker. Cause again, you have to think of the people within the cabinet, right? They're pro business pro assets.
01:24:05
Austin
So where they want, they want a week dollar. So their assets go up. Right. Um, And, you know, now you have Secretary of the Treasury, Lutnik. He's the one who's trying to find out strategic ways to add to the reserve, and they're actively trying to do that. Mm-hmm.
01:24:20
Austin and Derek
Slightly different than Lomas. Lomas is the one that just wants to just outright buy the Bitcoin, which I'm more for, but also I'll take what I can get. So the strategic neutral way is the Lutnik one, right?
01:24:34
Austin and Derek
so
01:24:35
Austin
Yeah, because then people can't complain to them when they're like, oh, you're using my tax dollars to buy Bitcoin, you know, blah, blah, blah. And it's like, well, we're not. so the
01:24:43
Austin and Derek
It's tax dollars that you've already given us. Yeah.
01:24:45
Austin
Yeah, exactly.
01:24:46
Austin and Derek
Yeah.
01:24:48
Austin
Yeah. but Because theoretically, the the growth of Bitcoin should outpace the debt. Well, of course, if they buy a lot, but not really sure if they Depends on how much they buy. I don't know how much they will, but...
01:25:03
Austin and Derek
Well, in theory, it should anyways.
01:25:07
Austin and Derek
I mean, in dollar terms,
01:25:08
Austin
What?
U.S. National Debt Growth
01:25:09
Austin and Derek
it should outpace because especially...
01:25:09
Austin
Oh yeah, dollar terms, yeah. I mean, i don't know what the i don't know what the rate of growth in the debt is per year. Maybe you could probably find that in that one website where it's like the debt clock or whatever, but maybe they have that.
01:25:24
Austin and Derek
think I know a guy who can tell me that.
01:25:28
Austin
Oh yeah.
01:25:31
Austin
I love it, man.
01:25:40
Austin and Derek
It will give me two responses for this.
01:25:46
Austin and Derek
What's thinking of two responses?
01:25:57
Austin and Derek
Responses may take a moment to load. It doesn't say, but I guess we can leave that on a cliffhanger and get to it in the next episode.
01:26:06
Austin
right yeah sweet
01:26:10
Austin and Derek
Well, thank you for your time, Austin. Oh, wait, it's loaded.
01:26:17
Austin
i really wouldn't say
01:26:17
Austin and Derek
United States national debt has experienced significant growth over the past decade. According to the U.S. Treasury, the federal debt increased from $17.81 trillion in 2014 to trillion but...
01:26:32
Austin and Derek
um and twenty twenty four making a ninety eight point six five percent increase over ten years so
01:26:41
Austin
that's like 10% a year. Yeah.
01:26:42
Austin and Derek
yeah well rough numbers not compound and but
01:26:47
Austin and Derek
I guess it'd be slightly less than 10%, but for easy numbers, 10%. Yeah. Yeah.
01:26:47
Austin
Yeah.
01:26:53
Austin
Yeah. I mean, that is outpacing that. So yeah, there you go.
01:26:56
Austin and Derek
Well,
01:26:57
Austin
Yeah. But
Conclusion and Next Episode Preview
01:26:59
Austin
yeah, of course, man. Yeah. Thanks for having me on. um Definitely get back.
01:27:03
Austin and Derek
it's your podcast too. It's your podcast too.
01:27:05
Austin
ah Oh yeah. No. Yeah. no good you Cause you're Austin and Derek.
01:27:09
Austin and Derek
Oh, I don't know how to fix that, dude.
01:27:10
Austin
Yeah. no yeah
01:27:13
Austin and Derek
Yeah.
01:27:13
Austin
Yeah. um Yeah. Anything else?
01:27:19
Austin and Derek
I don't have anything else. Not until next time.
01:27:22
Austin
Sweet. Until next time then.
01:27:24
Austin and Derek
All right. Catch you on the flippity flop.
01:27:27
Austin
See you.