Feel the Breeze? The Overton Window Is Open: Why Bitcoin’s Time Is Now (EP 78)

Yo, what is going on, guys? Welcome back to the Jack Malers Show. My name is Jack and you are listening to another episode of Mail Bag Monday. Today, August 18th at 6 p.m. Eastern.

You guys may notice I'm not in my empty closet today. I'm back on the road. back on the road. I go where Satoshi needs me. Okay, so I'm doing this out of my hotel room. Uh, chat, give me some feedback on the production. If the sound is off, if the visuals are weird, um, I'm on the ones and twos. I'm quick with the hands. I got reflexes like a cat and I'll I'll fix it for you. So, just give me the feedback, but hopefully you guys can hear me coming through clearly. And with that, let's get this party started.

I'm talking to you all with a Bitcoin price of $116,820. That puts Bitcoin's market capitalization at 2.33 trillion. Since the last time we spoke, we set a new all-time high. That all-time high is now $124,400, but we have since dipped from that all-time high a little over 6%.

For those of you that value block height, first of all, I respect it. I love it. I appreciate it. I did I did a uh keynote once on how Satoshi uh invented a new form of time with uh the blockchain. He, you know, he called it the time chain. Um you should go check that out on YouTube if you're ever so interested. But for those that time stamp their life in Bitcoin block height, I'm recording this at Bitcoin block height 910,661.

All right, boys and girls, without further ado, the title of today's Mailbag Monday is Feel the Breeze. No, my hotel window is not open. It's the Overton window. The Overton window is open. Why Bitcoin's time is now.

A major focus of this podcast has been and will continue to be the death of the monetary era that was started in 1971. That is when the United States divorced themselves from the gold standard. Divorced themselves of having to operate monetarily constrained by the laws of mother nature, the physical universe. You couldn't have printed dollars when you were on the gold standard because you couldn't print gold and the dollar had to be backed by gold. We've since been living in this fiat monetary monetary era and I fundamentally believe that era is coming rapidly to a close and we're going to enter a new prosperous era driven by Bitcoin and AI. So feel the breeze. The Overton window is open. Let the wind hit your face and let's dig in into why Bitcoin's time is now.

Chapter one of today's rant, the Bessant admission. So, I wanted to pull up this tweet. This is probably the craziest self-admission from the Treasury Secretary in the history of the United States government by far. And the admission is really this idea that the post 1971 dollar is dead. This fiat currency era is over. We are moving back towards a world reserve currency land. And you hear it from the man himself, the de facto CFO of the United States. That's how I like to think of the Treasury Secretary of the United States. Sometimes people get a little bit confused as to there's so many elected officials or non-elected officials. Who does what? Who's in charge. Think of Scott Bessant like the chief financial officer of the United States of America.

So with that, let me read you guys this tweet. This is without exaggeration one of the most extraordinary things a US Treasury Secretary has ever said. It should be mandatory viewing for all citizens of the United States, allies, Europeans first and foremost. What Bessant is saying is that the US will now treat US allies wealth as an American sovereign wealth fund. His words directing them largely at the US president's discretion how to use their money in order to build American factories and reshore American industries. Even the Fox News host can't believe it, calling it offshore appropriation, another word for theft. That's exactly what it is. Straight up unabashed colonial plunder. That's the pattern we see emerge. Unable to extract wealth or win wars against an increasingly strong global south, the United States has turned inward to feast on its own allies who can't resist precisely because they depend on their exploit exploiter for military protection. They are as defenseless against American wealth extraction as any 19th century colony was against colonial protector.

Now, this is a tweet that is talking about a video from Secretary Besson on Fox News. We're going to listen to it together and then I'll give my thoughts. Uh, we have these agreements in place where uh, the Japanese, the Koreans and to some extent the Europeans uh will invest in companies and industries uh that we direct them largely at the president's discretion. And how does that work? I mean um it's almost like an offshore appropriation. I'm not sure we've ever had anything like that in the states before. Have you consulted with the I don't know the Senate Finance Committee or the uh House Ways and Means Committee or or what? Well, Larry, I think a good framing of that is other countries in essence are providing us with a sovereign wealth fund. So So they're going to buy our goods. Uh well, that's essentially what's going on. Or wait, let me step back. They're going to build our factories. They're going to help us to build new factories, which Mr. Trump loves. Exactly. So the the way to think about it is these huge surpluses accumulated offshore. Let's let's take Japan. We're going to have 550 billion and they will be reinvesting that back into the US economy and we will be able to direct them the a as we reshore these critical industries. We are trying to derisk the US economy from what we saw during co president loves new factories. He'll he'll take rehabbed old factories but he loves new factories and the okay that is a massively important interview.

Why do I call it bessence admission? What am I getting at here with the Overton window is open. The post $71 is dead. What he said in recap is that the US allies primarily Japan, Korea, and Europe, he's saying, are going to be forced to recycle their trade surplus into US investments, primarily subsidizing and financing our factories and our ability to produce things. By the way, I say our because for the listeners, I'm American. Don't know if you could tell by my voice, but I'm American. So, I guess it's our country. Necessarily agree with everything we do, but that's what he just admitted.

Why is this such a big admission? Why does this fly in the face of the system that was? And I say was in past tense because a lot of this episode is I fundamentally believe we are in a new monetary system. Now change takes time, but it's over and we are hearing self-admission from the US government and from the Federal Reserve. Guys, the way the financial system used to work and the dollar system was designed is when you're the world reserve currency, you operate in something that's called the Triffins dilemma. Okay? You can print the currency that everyone else has to use to store value, to settle trade, to price goods and services. But the problem is that you as a as a nation state have to run in what's called a deficit. And the US has ran what's called twin deficits. It means our greatest export is the currency itself. Okay? So we end up net exporting the currency on an annual basis. And what that leaves us is with a deficit. What that does to us is we accrue lots and lots of debt. And so if you're the world reserve currency issuer, you actually over time struggle to produce things locally in your country. Your currency is artificially strong because it's the world reserve currency. It's stronger than other currencies which means labor locally is more expensive which means production locally is more expensive. So this is known monetary theory. If you are the world reserve currency for a sustained period of time other parts of the world your global trading partners will actually have a better market for labor a better market for production of goods and services. And you as the world reserve currency issuer, your main job is to strictly export the currency itself. So we're constantly providing the world with dollar liquidity. We're piling on debt, debt, debt, debt, debt because we print, print, print, print, print. And all of the things that we consume in our lives as Americans are actually produced and created outside of the country.

Now, what Scott Bessant, Donald Trump, pretty much everyone, this is a bipartisan thing, is that they're talking about bringing production back to America. We need to start making our own stuff. And the greatest example is in the Department of Defense is that the US cannot go on any long-sustained war with a near peer or a peer like China without the support of China because we rely on their rare earth minerals to actually go to war and build weapons. And so it is now a national security threat that we have allowed this Triffin's dilemma to eat out the culture, the middle class in the inner heart of the United States. The benefits of this system are now not outweighing the cons. The benefits have ran its course and it's drastically harming the United States of America. So when you hear that Trump wants factories, that's not a Republican thing. That's not a red thing. That's not a right thing. That's a America needs to get back to producing its own stuff that it consumes. It is solely reliant on all of its trading partners to sustain a lifestyle and protect itself as a country. Okay.

Now, based on everything I just said, in order to produce your own stuff, the currency itself has to get weaker. The United States has hyper-financialized, meaning what the US is predicated on is that the stock market does well and the companies grow margins and grow earnings and grow profits. And the best way for companies to do that is to build their company cheaply, right? And so, of course, if you're Apple, why would I why would I have twice the expense to build the iPhone by building it in New York City when I can build it and subsidize it in China? So if the United States of America and the US government wants iPhones to be manufactured in America, wants Nvidia chips to be built in America, wants the food, wants the technology, wants the hardware all to be able to be produced here in America, wants the rare earth minerals to be produced here in America, the currency has to weaken to be competitive in the export market. And this is a complete fundamental change in how monetary order across the global landscape works. Everything is changing. And guys, if global trade partners are not recycling their profits into dollar denominated assets into US debt and instead they're being ordered by the United States to fund our factories and to fund basically a world where the US currency is weaker, everything changes. Everything changes.

Now I'll go to the next slide here. And this is such a massive admission from the Treasury Secretary, the CFO of the United States of America. This is in broad daylight him saying the old system no longer suits this country. The new system, instead of Japan, instead of Korea, instead of the UK, instead of Germany recycling trade profits in buying US debt, they're going to take their trade profits and they're going to finance the United States getting back on its feet. They're going to finance a new world where the dollar is significantly weaker. This is a huge deal. And again, I mean, obviously where this show is going and where I'm going to get to later on the episode is then where do people store their value then? If they are not being directed to bonds and treasuries, if they are not being directed to the dollar and to dollar-based assets like US stocks, like US real estate, like US farmland, where do you go? Where do you take your value, your time, your energy, your labor, and where do you store it? What has China obviously understood by all of the changes that are coming out of the United States? It's got to be neutral reserve assets. And that is why I'll continue to say gold and Bitcoin will continue to be the winners and Bitcoin will drastically outperform gold.

Okay, next chapter. Guys, if you have any questions on this stuff, I do a live Q&A at the end of these episodes. Put your questions in the chat. I have team members that are here. They're watching. They're documenting your questions so I can get to it at the end. I know this is a lot of information.

Next chapter is remade global order. Okay. Now to get into this idea that we are remaking the monetary order and that this is not something that is happening. It has happened and only certain fractions of the world have caught on to it. That this is a change that has fundamentally been decided and the world will slowly or in many ways quickly adapt to a decision that the United States of America has already made.

This is coming straight from the US Department of Defense website. Office of Strategic Capital announces first loan through Department of Defense agreement with MP Materials to secure critical material supply chain. This is the first time the US is extending a loan to a private sector business to secure the materials they need to ensure we can go to war without anyone else's permission. So, we've talked a lot on this show that the United States is wholly reliant on China. Why? Because of their rare earth materials. Guys, when you go a hundred years, 50 years, 25 years without producing things of your own, you become wholly reliant on your trade partners to sustain your life. You want oil, you want rare earths. It gets to the point where we need China's permission to go to a sustained war. That's a national security threat. And I've been talking on the show, this isn't being talked about enough. We don't have the upper hand in the trade war. For those loyal Jack Maler show listeners, how many times over the last 6 months have I said Trump is misunderstanding the leverage he has in the trade war negotiations? We do not have the leverage. China is very well prepared for this trade war. And now we're finally starting to see the Department of Defense some form of self-admission saying we have to extend capital to people that can start producing locally. We are behind. This is a multi-year effort at minimum. It might be a decades-long effort to get local production back into a place where we can be the America that we know ourselves to be.

Next, this comes from, hold on, my screen is a little messed up. This comes from the New York Times. Um, this is from a trade minister of the United States of America. It's an opinion he published in the New New York Times. Said, "Trump's trade representative, why we remade the global order." And again, I liked this title just to showcase to you guys. These guys are talking like they remade. Notice what he didn't say. He didn't say we are remaking. We're in the process of figuring it out. He's using past tense. We remade. This already happened. We decided. We've changed. Right? And all of us as individuals listening to this show or all the businesses like Strike or 21 or all the nation states like El Salvador, it's up to you to adapt. But the post-71 is over. They remade the global order already. This is bipartisan. This is national security defense. This is the United States of America has tapped out all the benefits of being the world reserve currency. It is a country on the decline. I'm American. I'm not going anywhere. I'm going to fight for this country and what we claim to stand for. But to say that our country is ascending in the right direction is a lie. Is a lie. Other country peers have 20 years on our life expectancy. Our metabolic rate is outgrowing other developed nations. Our obesity rate is outgrowing other developed nations. The size of our middle class is shrinking. The wealth gap has never been larger. We are a country in decline. We have to change. We have to not be the world reserve currency. Prosperity lives in a Bitcoin future. That is unequivocally true. And we are starting to see that. I'm not a crazy person. All of you guys that have been listening to the show, we're not crazy. Staying humble and stacking sats is the move towards prosperity.

Next, the US will get a 15% cut of Nvidia and AMD chip sales to China under new unusual agreement. Guys, this is the new order. It has already been decided. The United States is going to force their allies to take their trade surplus and fund local production. Take the most successful businesses in this country and force them to fund local production. We are going to strategically weaken the dollar. If you think the dollar is weak now, wait 12 more months. The dollar is going lower significantly. It is the only way out. Is the only way forward. Here is more proof that the US will go to extreme levels to finance the future that they have to have. When push comes to shove, the central banks, the money printers align with the government. The government is not going to give a crap about anyone's inflation targets. They will print the money. I promise you that. They already have this from CNN. The White House is reportedly discussing taking a stake. A stake? Yes. Like an equity stake? Like an ownership stake in Intel, sending its shares climbing. You heard that correct. The United States of America is planning on taking an ownership stake in a private business. Guys, this is new monetary order. This is never-foreseen [ __ ] happening. The United States is going to do everything they can as quickly as they can to get neutral reserve assets as the world's store of value as the world's capital asset. The way we think about the dollar, the way we use the dollar will change in many ways quickly and many ways slowly. But I assume why you listen to this show is to hear things like this. I cannot make it any more clear. This has been decided. This has changed. Past tense. It's over. You want to disagree with it. You don't like it. You want to stand against it. There's nothing I can do for you. You want a prosperous future. You want to protect your time and energy. You want to be able to support your family, you got to buy Bitcoin. You got to buy Bitcoin. Guys, I'm I'm I'm only saying it in this manner, in this tone, is because we're all on the same team here. I appreciate you guys. I love you guys. This is it.

Okay. Next chapter, tariffs and margins. So, you know, this section here is really further analyzing this new order these guys are implementing. And again, am I a fan of it? Am I not a fan of it? It's far too nuanced for that. There's far too much going on to be so black and white. That's not the point of the show. The point of the show is for us to understand it because the winning strategy remains the same. Stay humble, stack sats. That has not changed. And so if we can understand it, we can better convince our loved ones. We can better convince our children. We can better convince our colleagues. We can better convince our country to live a future that's prosperous, to live a future that's worth living. Okay? We're living through the greatest wealth transfer in the history of our species. And a lot of my mission, why I wake up every day and I go to work is I'm trying to make sure that as many people as possible are a part of it. Bitcoin is the rare opportunity where we all can be a part of it. So let's take a look at this whole tariffs and margin strategy. Really the point of this slide is to let you guys know that someone always pays. Okay? There is no free lunch ever. I don't give a [ __ ] about what you heard on TikTok. I don't give a [ __ ] about what your buddy posted on Instagram. It's economic law. It's the reality of the universe. There is no free lunch. For every winner, there's a loser. There are no draws. There are no ties in the universe. Okay?

So, we just got through all of most of almost all of Q2 earnings for the capital markets. What we found out is who's really taking a beating in eating all the costs of the tariffs. Okay, one, Apple. Apple said that tariffs will cost them over $1 billion in the September quarter. So that's $4 to $5 billion dollars on an annualized basis. Tariffs are impacting Apple. Next, General Motors. And these are just four examples. I could have made 40 examples. Next, General Motors. We're still on track to offset at least 30% of the $4 to $5 billion 4-year 2025 tariff impact. So here's another business where tariffs will cost them billions of dollars. Next from Ford. We expect tariffs to be a net headwind of about $2 billion dollar this year. Another multi-billion dollar impact to an American business that effectively everyone consumes, is a part of, interacts with. Even if you don't use a Ford car, the guy next to you on the highway probably drives a Ford. Okay? These are businesses that impact our everyday lives, taking hits in billions of dollars annually. Proctor and Gamble. Our outlook includes $1 billion dollar before tax in a higher cost from tariffs in fiscal '26. Okay.

The point of this is simple for me guys. I continue to believe Bitcoin is going to severely outperform the stock market. We saw Trump with his executive order get Bitcoin and gold into the savings account into the 401ks of the everyday American because bonds and stocks the 60/40 portfolio is dead. It's over. It's no longer performing. Yes, the stock market is performing in dollar terms. But so is my iPhone. So is coffee. So are these headphones. Everything around you is performing in dollar terms because it's a really fancy complicated way of saying the dollar continues to go down no matter what because we have to print it. What is performance in Bitcoin terms? News flash. Almost nothing. Almost nothing. So, Bitcoin is going to continue to murder, crucify, outperform the stock market. And what underpins a lot of my thesis when people say, "How do you know that? Is it just because Bitcoin scarcity?" Yeah, you could leave it as simple as that. Is it just because Bitcoin's a globally accessible commodity and the US stock market is closes and isn't available on weekends and isn't available to everyone in the world? Yeah, you can leave it as that. But you guys want a relevant real-time approach to why I think the stock market is going to bleed over time against something like Bitcoin. Because the margins of these businesses are getting murdered. They're either going to have to pass these costs on to the consumer. So, all of our iPhones are going to get more expensive, all of our cars are going to get more expensive, or they're going to continue to take the hit themselves, and that's going to get crushed on their earnings, on their balance sheet, on their profit margins. As I've said, guys, when the US hyper-financializes, it makes its living identity being the world reserve currency. That requires businesses to hyper-financialize themselves. That makes you don't just produce things locally in America because you're a good American. Guess what that'll get you? Your stock shorted, you fired. That's what that'll get you. People in America want your stock to go up. People in America want cheap products. So you go and you go build those products in China. And news flash, everyone seems to care today. No one gave a [ __ ] where you made your products last year, 5 years ago, 10 years ago, 50 years ago. What they cared about? It was cheap and your stock went up because your stock is in their 401k. That's all people cared about. And if you say otherwise, you're a liar. So now that we're imposing tariffs, the question is who's paying? These businesses are paying. That means their stock is going to pay. If you think that businesses can take billions of dollars of hit on an annual basis and their stock isn't going to underperform, you're crazy. So this again is another reason that there's going to be a rotation out of stocks through this transition. There's going to be a rotation out of bonds through this transition. And capital will further find itself in the hardest thing you can own. Hard is in reference to how hard is it to produce more. Bitcoin is the hardest thing we all have access to. Not just everyone listening on this show. Not just everything in everyone in the country. Not just everyone of America's allies. I mean everyone. I mean, every single person with a pulse on this planet has access to Bitcoin and it happens to be the hardest thing they can own.

Next chapter, what is this? Four. Let's check in on China. Okay, at the end of the day, guys, all that matters is the US verse China. You think otherwise, you're lying. All that matters is China. It is our core trading partner and not only ours, the whole world's. They are the world's factory. They operate with the biggest trade surplus by far. Sure, tariffs here and there, they're not nothing. We just went over earnings for some of the most relevant American companies in the world, right? Okay. But China is the most important. So, let's check in on China. China's trade surplus hits a record $1.2 trillion despite US tariffs. Outpaces historic German Japanese highs. Okay. Why am I bringing this up? Why is this relevant? Because I'm not going to say we're lied to as individuals by the American media. Um, but we are spoken to with an extreme bias. What have we heard as Americans over and over and over again? Well, America is the consumption capital of the world. Nobody can live and survive without us. If we tariff you and you don't like it, who are you going to sell your products you're producing to? Nobody. It'll self-destruct your country, you have to work with us. We have all the leverage because we have all the capital. We have all the rich people. We have all the CEOs and the business owners that are ordering all your [ __ ] and consuming all your [ __ ]. Uh, China just hit an all-time high. So clearly these trade wars that we're like, "Aha, gotcha, China." No, we didn't. And I've been saying it on this show over and over and over for everyone that thinks we got China where we want them. No, we don't. No, we don't. And why that's relevant to you guys, the United States, you guys have not seen [ __ ] yet. The United States is going to continue to go to extreme orders and lengths to get the future of the world that they feel like they need. That's going to require a tremendous amount of money printing. Remember when we were told, "Oh yeah, Elon Musk, he's gonna go check the books, do an audit or two, and we're gonna impose tariffs, and that's why you voted for Trump." Uh, news flash, tariffs don't solve jack [ __ ]. Clearly, China doesn't give a [ __ ] about our tariffs. And Elon Musk, I don't even think he wants to talk to Trump ever again. That didn't work either, now did it? We are just getting started. Let's dig in. China came ready for this trade fight and the US has a lot to learn. This is from Bloomberg. Bloomberg. And the funny thing is, guys, we've been talking about this show week after week after week after week. And slowly but surely, our worldview and the truth that I try and bring to this show, no ads on this show. I'm not going to sell you a gym membership. I'm not going to sell you a protein bar. I'm not going to sell you a hardware wallet. This is about truth seeking, honest, transparent conversation for the people. That's why this show exists. We are being proven right. Guys, in this Bloomberg article, I wanted to read you this part. China's exports to the United States equal about 3% of gross domestic product, which is down from a peak of 7% 20 years ago after a campaign to diversify away from American consumers that's been every bit as deliberate as US efforts to reduce reliance on Chinese supply chains. That means even if half of China's exports to the US get wiped out, the blow to the overall economy is just 1.5%. This is from Bloomberg. So I It's almost as if Bloomberg watches the Jack Mer show. We've been saying this over over the media that's like, "Well, no, we got China where we want them because if we stop buying their stuff, they're going to go bankrupt." Uh, how about no? And listen, I'm American. You got I'm not broadcasting out of El Salvador. I'm not broadcasting out of another country. I'm here. I'm here to fight. Okay? I'm here. We're gonna build this country better with open-source software, with harder money, with freedom properties. We're gonna do it. But you got to face the truth. You got to look in the mirror and admit what you see. The truth is China's been preparing for this for 20 years. We're a tiny fraction of their global exports. They have leverage to negotiate with us. That's just a fact. That's just a fact.

Next, the Fed under attack. Okay, let's check in on Trump uh emotionally abusing our boy Jerome. And uh I'm actually in Jackson Hole, Wyoming right now. Jerome will be here this week. Can you guys imagine if we shared an elevator ride? I I actually think I'm attending what he's attending. I mean, I don't care enough about Jerome Powell. I mean, can't do [ __ ] for me. Um, I don't own any of the dollars he prints. I own Bitcoin only. But, um, man, if we shared like a ski ride lift out here in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, that'd be the funniest thing ever. Um, okay. Uh, we got this from Trump. I mean, at this point, I mean, these come out every day. Uh, Jerome, too late. Powell must now lower the rate. I found this interesting because, you know, you've seen Trump's language progressively go from, you know, I think he should lower the rate. Look at everyone else's rate. It might be a good idea. This is how much it's costing him if he doesn't lower the rate, but now it's just pretty explicit. He must now lower the rate. I mean, that's how a parent talks to their child. You must now clean your room. So, the explicit language here is pretty apparent. Drum Tool Powell must now lower the rate. Steve Minutuchin really gave me a beauty when he pushed this loser. The the damage he has done by allowing uh by always being too late is incalculable. Fortunately, the economy is so good that we've blown through Powell and the complacent board. I am though considering allowing a major lawsuit against Powell to proceed because of the horrible and grossly incompetent job he's done in managing the construction of the Fed building. $3 billion for a job that should have been $50 million. Okay, now that's not that interesting anymore. This is uh in my opinion uh the interesting part is hearing what Bessant had to say about the Fed. So let me uh hold on guys. Let me make sure we're coming in at the correct part. Oh a fund to hold these and to oversee when it comes to getting wealth into this country. I mean foreign countries doing the same. But Mr. Secretary, I've got to ask you about the Federal Reserve because you're calling on the Fed to start cutting interest rates. You suggested the other day that the benchmark should be at least a point and a half lower than it is right now. Fox Business has been reporting that you're leading the interviews with uh the potential Fed chair candidates, but we just had Jason Trenard on a moment ago and you know, I know he's a friend of yours and he and he and he came close to working with you at the Treasury, but even he being a a supporter of yours raised a red flag about the sitting Treasury Secretary telling the Federal Reserve that they need to be cutting rates by a full point and a half. Do you find this uh unusual that you find yourself in a position of telling the Fed what to do? Uh couple things, Maria. I I didn't tell the Fed what to do. Uh what I said was that to get to a neutral rate on interest that that would be approximately 150 basis point cut. I I did not call for them to get there. The other thing that I said was that perhaps because they had bad BLS data in uh June and July that perhaps perhaps a 50 basis point cut in September was warranted. Yeah. And and do you believe that at this point we are ready to see a half point cut given the fact that they've been so late in terms of doing 25 basis point cuts all this time? Well, you know, crawl, walk, run. Perhaps they'll start with 25 and then accelerate. You I I can tell you that based on the 50 basis point cut in the September of 2024, right before the election, that the conditions now, they are slightly more favorable for a cut. But it but again, um I I believe that there is room if one believes in the neutral rate and where it is that there is room for a series of rate cuts. And again, I'm not calling for one. I didn't call for one. I just said that a model of a neutral rate is approximately 150 basis points lower. Thank I mean guys, we're at the point where the Treasury Secretary of the US, the CFO of the US has to go on TV and be explicit about what certain language he used to protect any form of independence the Fed has. Besson, don't you think it's interesting that you as the CFO of the United States of America are now demanding the independent central bank to cut rates by a very specific number? Does that scream how much pressure the fiscal situation is putting us in? Does that challenge any form of independence? I didn't tell them what to do. I just said I think 150 basis points cut is neutral. Should be where we are. I mean, are we all adults here? What are we talking about? So that so so I'm made to believe that that's not technically telling them what to do because you weren't explicit in how you use the English language, bro. I mean, what do like you think I'm dumb? Come on. What are we talking about? That's where we're at now. And as I've said before, when push comes to shove, do you guys think the United States is going to the the empire will fall as we know it and the US as we know it will collapse or do you think the Fed just will not be independent? I know the answer to that question. I think you guys do, too. The the here's really the the reality of the situation. The Fed has to print the money now or they trigger a revolution. And that's really what happened in Weimar, Germany. That's just the same thing. Print the money or else. And what do I think's going to happen? I think the money is going to be printed next.

Uh, let's check in on this fiscal stress and the bond risk because obviously all of this language comes from a point of stress, comes from a point of panic. You don't have the president of the United States obsessively tweeting over the Fed chair unless there's a really good reason. It's because our interest expense is skyrocketingly high. Our fiscal situation is a disaster. Our debt situation is a huge problem. Um, they need like like I said, the rates have to come down. It's a cut the rates or die. Like it's a it's a at all cost the rates have to come down. Um, here's a tweet from Luke. Uh, I thought this was very telling. 30-year bond yields at the US second biggest foreign creditor, which is the United Kingdom, are rising again, now at highest yield in over 20 years. UK 30-year yields in blue, US 30-year yields in red since their joint folly of Iraq War II. The number four US foreign creditor, Cayman Islands, may need to start buying some US treasuries soon. So, for those that have been listeners of the Jack Mau Show for a little while, the the we've talked about the Cayman Islands buying, you know, US debt for quite some time. Is the actual nation, the Cayman Islands, the fourth largest uh lender to the United States? No, of course not. Then what's going on? Well, it's that's where all of the levered hedge funds are domiciled running things like the carry trade. Okay? And so what Luke is saying is the United Kingdom is in trouble. Also, by the way, it's the same pattern in Japan. Japan's bond market is not doing necessarily well either. So the classic allies that have been there to subsidize and finance United States through lending them money by buying these Treasury bonds, they're no longer there. They're not there right now. They're in a fiscal mess of their own. And so who is the United States going to rely on to finance itself out of this mess as they transition out of world reserve currency status promoting neutral reserve assets building and being able to locally produce things again in the country. Luke makes a joke, the number four US foreign creditor, the Cayman Islands, better start buying. And that is these levered hedge funds better start going. And you're going to start to see rule changes from the United States and from the Treasury Department that help them get going. We've seen Treasury buybacks. We know the supplemental leverage ratio is going to change. I expect the United States to start making some changes because the UK is in trouble. Japan is in trouble. There is no more marginal lender to the United States of America anymore. Even our allies don't have the muscle to help right now. That's how bad of a situation everybody is in. Okay. Fact.

And so if I go to the next one, uh, we see exactly that. Super interesting data on US debt. Did you know that by country, the Cayman Islands has become the fourth largest holder of US debt? In fact, everyone that listens to Mailbag Mondays did know that the Cayman Islands US Treasury's holdings increased in one year by over 35%. They went from $326 billion to $442 billion by June 2025. Boom. Guys, here's what's going to happen. The United States is going to rely on its commercial banking system by changing the supplemental leverage ratio. So, it's going to allow banks like JP Morgan Chase to use unlimited leverage to support the United States fiscal situation. It's going to help those operating the levered carry trade. Okay, that is these hedge funds in the Cayman Islands. Leverage does not go well with volatility. Okay, when the bond volatility spikes, people that are levered have to post more collateral. They unwind the trade. That's what we've seen. Bond volatility has been disastrous for markets because all these people that are operating on such high leverage have to unwind. So I expect the United States to print a ton of money to provide a ton of liquidity to ensure that they can cover their ass through leverage through leverage. Cayman Island hedge fund entities commercial bank leverage, it's going to be leverage leverage leverage leverage. That means the US is short volatility, which by the guys, volatility is natural. The grass in your front lawn, in order for you to get it to look and and act a certain way, you have to mow it every single day. Entropy is natural in the universe. Naturally, the grass is volatile. It grows. And the blade to the left is different than the blade to the right. That's just life. If you want the universe to act a very specific way to support you, you have to do things that aren't natural to get that desired outcome. And for the United States, it's print money. For your front lawn, it's you have to get up every day and mow it. Or else the grass will look natural. It'll look more like a jungle. It'll look more volatile. That's just the way that's just entropy. That's just the way the world works. And so the US has to achieve an unnatural outcome that comes at the expense of printing a ton of money. Okay. And na the other thing they're very interested in is stable coins, which is inherently bullish Bitcoin, which we'll get into in a second.

Lastly, let's check in on AI. Someone said they're bullish grass. Uh, that's hilarious. Um, not the point, but I admit it was a weird analogy. Um, AI. This from the New York Times. Goodbye $165,000 tech jobs. Student coders seek work at Chipotle. Okay, guys. I've been saying AI is going to be so disruptive. Already has been in two ways. One, it's going to increase human efficiency. Okay? It's going to increase human productivity. One of the ways the United States can crawl out of this mess is if we're all productive. If we have a pro productivity boom. Okay, imagine how much cheaper your life will be if you don't have to pay someone to do your taxes. You just have AI do it. You don't have to pay someone to evaluate your blood work. You just have AI do it. You don't have to pay someone to file a lawsuit. You just have AI do it. There's a lot of cost savings. There's a lot of productivity gains in AI. On the contrary, again, there's a cost to everything. There is no free lunch. Get that through your head. AI will disrupt white collar jobs. Blue collar jobs are all now in China. The rust belt is called the rust belt because it's rusty. Because no one uses it. No one uses it because it's too expensive to employ people in the middle of America rather than in China. So all of blue collar jobs in America are in China. That's why Trump won the popular vote is because the majority of America became unemployed because all of their jobs got exported. That is going to happen to the white collar. I've said on this show, I think AI empowers the artist and it disrupts the lawyer. We talked about this. Now, the reality is a lot of you guys listening probably work a white collar job. Many of you might be lawyers. Sometimes people on the my podcast comments say, "I'm a lawyer. [ __ ] you." Dude, it's not personal, man. It's all love. This is just my opinion. My opinion is AI has been and will continue to disrupt white collar. Microsoft, Facebook, these companies are posting record earnings while firing people. I've never seen that in my life. Record earnings, all-time high stock. Oh, by the way, we laid off 10% of our workforce. And now you're finding students that are in six figures worth of debt to get a computer science degree making my Chipotle bowls. That is not good. That's a crisis. Why do you think socialists like in New York City and across America? I was in the sauna. I always tell stories about me in my sauna uh at the gym I'm a part of in Chicago. It's pretty funny. So I mean, weirdly, it's the best example of some of these stories. I was in the sauna and I hear a bunch of these guys in Chicago and listen I get it. Chicago is as blue as liberal as left as there probably is in the world. Like Chicago and Portland are like the king of deficit spending and there's a lot of socialist movement going on in Chicago and these guys are sitting in the sauna saying you know what's going to fix Chicago and fix Illinois and fix this country is if we tax the rich like 80%. And I was like well hold on you know tax of any degree is property theft. I think it's a form of theft. And they got all in my face with a bunch of socialist stuff. And the reality is, I mean, listen, I disagree violently with that. You guys know how I feel about property rights. And I think free markets are a perfectly fine judge for all of us humans to operate within. We do not need any more government or control or artificial rules to allow us to exist amongst each other. But the point is, we get where they come from. These people, these young millennials and younger that are in student debt, can't afford a house, and are working, they are the gig economy. They're driving Ubers. They're delivering your Door Dash. They're working at Chipotle. It's a problem. And AI is going to exaggerate the problem. That's why all this socialist stuff is gaining lots of momentum is because they feel entitled to a lifestyle that was pitched to them that no longer exists. It's being actively disrupted and they want free handouts. They they're going to vote for the person that says, "I will get the I will get the money and get the stuff from the rich people that stole it from you and I'll make sure that you get some." That's what they're voting for. So, that's just the reality of the situation. It just is. Now, I disagree with it. I think they're crazy. I think they're wrong. But, I expect this trend to continue because AI is going to continue to disrupt the white collar worker. It's going to be a problem next. AI is coming for the consultants inside McKenzie. This is existential guys. I'm telling you, people say AI is going to disrupt the artist. The person that used to sing songs, AI is going to sing their songs. No. AI empowers the artist. It's going to help them.

Write a thousand songs a year instead of 10. Because at the end of the day, art is going and watching that person perform. I'm not going, I'm not paying a ticket to go to Red Rock and watch ChatGPT sing. AI empowers the artist. It disrupts the lawyer. Actually, there's been a spike in lawyers and in legal fees since 1971. There's too many lawyers. There's too many accountants. There's too many jobs people do that they hate. The amount of the US population that works to get a paycheck and doesn't work because they love it is at an all-time high.

We're going to have an art renaissance. We're going to get back to doing what we love because we're going to have Bitcoin, a form of money that we can sustain ourselves on and plan a future with. And we're going to have AI that does a lot of the mundane tasks that no human actually wants to do and allow us to pursue art again. That's my prediction. That's what I think is going to happen. And I, I really do believe that this is going to be another cause for significant money printing.

Guys, Donald Trump, how many times has Trump talked about a stimulus? He's talked about it at least a handful of times. I'm thinking about giving some of the tariffs to the American people. Just the lower class, though, just a certain tax bracket. That's some Bernie Sanders [ __ ] coming from Trump. Not because COVID. This isn't a stimulus check because of COVID, because of some disease, because we're all locked in our house and don't have a job. This is just because. It's just because. Everything that I'm saying right now, I expect the trend to continue.

Next, AI could wipe out entire Wall Street teams. Guys, I'm telling you, AI is here and a quiet havoc has begun. This is across every single media outlet. The biggest, most successful companies aren't hiring, they're firing. And then the people that are actually hit by the tariffs, you think Ford is gonna grow their jobs? They just lost $2 billion a year because of some policy out of DC. And I mean, I've talked about how I run Strike, guys. The way I run Strike is as lean as possible, extremely profitable. I think that will continue to be the trend. The trend of you have these massively unprofitable companies that just focus on growth and they expect their stock price to go up because of growth and their bottom line is [ __ ]. Those days are very quickly coming to an end. If you have excess employees, they need to be fired. Companies will be judged on how much they can automate, how efficiently they can produce things. If you aren't using AI, if you aren't running a cleancut business, if you aren't profitable, I think your days are numbered. That's just my personal opinion, and I don't say it to be popular because I know a lot of you guys, listen, I know this [ __ ] sucks. We're living through a fourth turning. With a lot of opportunity comes a lot of the opposite. And so this show is for educational purposes. It's to seek out truth. It's to try and be an unbiased voice that you guys can in many ways rely on to be truthful and straightforward. So I only say this stuff not to hurt your feelings. I say it to be real. Stay humble. Stack sats. Um, you know, be careful. I, I, I'll go to the next one.

This is like extremely telling, guys. One sector stuck out prominently in the chart and viewed another way. It's clear all of the recent job growth is currently coming from education and health services. So guys, look at this chart. This is three-month average job growth. The red bars are private education and health services. The gray are other and the blue line is total. So the gray was negative. Look at the far right. The gray was negative. All, all of the job growth is coming from education and health services. Everything else is getting disrupted.

Either monetary conditions are too tight. Again, you cannot just be this wildly unprofitable business that just cares about user registrations. That doesn't make any sense. And I've said over and over and over again, being profitable is firstly a moral imperative. Because if money is a reflection of the value you're producing for those around you, being profitable means you are producing more value to the world around you than you are consuming from the world around you. It is the financial way of making the world a better place. So being profitable is the free market's way of requiring you to be useful. So you cannot, because monetary conditions are too tight now, you cannot just be I'm focusing on user growth at all costs. In fact, at negative costs. That doesn't fly anymore. You cannot be a business that has layers of middle management and jobs that can't be automated. That will not fly anymore. And the proof is in the data. Look at this. It's just a fact. It's just a fact.

Okay. So, tying it to Bitcoin and some of my thoughts. We're going through this monetary change. Uh, they've decided, they're speaking in past tense. The decisions have been made. The change is underway. How does it impact Bitcoin? Well, when we think about the United States and its relationship with Bitcoin, we saw a viral clip of Bessant on the news where he, I think, misspoke and said that they're not going to be buying Bitcoin. Um, to me, it didn't look intentional. It looked like just casual words that he didn't understand the gravity of how they were perceived. Within hours, he came out and he clarified saying, "Bitcoin that has been finally forfeited to the federal government will be the foundation of the strategic Bitcoin reserve that President Trump established in his March executive order." In addition, Treasury is committed to exploring budget-neutral pathways to acquire more Bitcoin to expand the reserve and to execute on the president's promise to make the United States the Bitcoin superpower of the world. So in case there was any question, any doubt, any confusion, the US wants to be the Bitcoin superpower of the world. The US is focused on accumulating Bitcoin. I continue to believe it's because you have to debase the dollar against something. That something is gold. That something is Bitcoin. Bitcoin is something that the American people can have access to through capital markets and businesses like 21, through physical Bitcoin, through businesses like Strike. This is why I'm working on what I'm working on, guys. I think it's going to become increasingly important that everyone gets access to Bitcoin. It will perform the best against the new era we're living in.

Next, this was from Bessant this morning. Let me get my big head out of the way. Implementing the Genius Act is essential to securing American leadership in digital assets. Stablecoins will expand dollar access for billions across the globe and lead to a surge in demand for US treasuries, which back stablecoins. It's a win-win-win for everyone involved, stablecoin users, stablecoin issuers, and the US Treasury Department. This, I mean, not that I needed to prove the idea, but this is as good as proof gets. The United States interest in stablecoins is to finance our deficits. It's to support the Treasury market. The Treasury market will be supported by its commercial banking system. Means all your bank deposits will be lent to the US government. Do not own dollars, buy Bitcoin. It means it will be supported by leveraged hedge funds out of the Cayman Islands. Okay? And it means it will be supported by stablecoins. Now, the interesting thing is stablecoins grow as Bitcoin grows. The best use case for stablecoins is they are the de facto reserve trading pair against Bitcoin. So if Bitcoin goes on to be a $10 trillion asset, stablecoins are going to have to 5x from here too. So the United States very well understands the best way to support stablecoins is to support this industry. They're going to be very supportive of this industry across all legislation and regulation and they're going to be specifically supportive of Bitcoin. That I think is going to continue to be a story and continue to be a fact.

And lastly, last episode we talked about how Harvard, their pension had bought over $100 million worth of IBIT. So they now have a nine-figure Bitcoin position. Uh, and this was last week as well that the New Jersey state pension bought Bitcoin via MicroStrategy exposure. So, I think this will continue to be a trend. You cannot survive on the 60/40 portfolio anymore. It's dead. It's dead, guys. And I'm not saying it as speculative. I'm saying that Scott Bessant, Donald Trump, the Federal Reserve, they have decided that the era, the post-1971 era is over. Finished, dead, gone. Goodbye. That means bonds are going to continue to underperform. That means stocks, the overpriced bubble that are stocks, margins are going to start to compress. The dollar is going to get weaker. They will perform in dollar terms. They will not perform in Bitcoin terms. Whether you are an individual, a family, a business, a pension, a sovereign, an endowment, get you some Bitcoin. That is the strategy. That is the strategy. It's far riskier to own no Bitcoin than it is to own Bitcoin. It is a risk to be out there living in this world without any sats. Tell you that.

All right, I'm already at the top of the hour, so I'll keep the Strike update short. Um, we launched cost basis. Uh, so if you want to go update your cost basis inside the app and on our web dashboard, you can. And then this enables total returns. So you can now see the returns inside of Strike. If you go to the chart inside the app and you scroll down, you can see total purchase, your average buy price, and your total return and your percentage returns. So this is one of our most highly requested features. Also, obviously tax basis is incredibly helpful for when you're or cost basis, excuse me, of when you're doing your taxes. So this streamlines taxes incredibly well. Gives all of our users full flexibility and gives you this total return feature. This is now live for everybody. Please feel free go use it. Um, give us feedback. Really appreciate it.

Next, uh, we made some UI and UX updates for you guys. I think Strike is one of the most well-designed, clear, easy-to-use Bitcoin services in the world. Obviously, I'm biased, but um, we made some UI changes. Go check it out. Um, my favorite part about this, this is just screenshots I took shortly before, um, I went live. Uh, my favorite part about this is it's driven by you guys. Is that, you know, we want to be the most customer-focused company in the world, not just in Bitcoin. You got the CEO of one company that's IPOing and the other company that, you know, has over, you know, 1500 Bitcoin. I was trying to think of a politically correct way to describe how big Strike is. Doing live streams. I don't have any lawyers over my shoulder. I'm not getting any advice. This is just pure authentic human-to-human. We want to be real. I want to be real. That's part of what I'm building is just, um, you know, some people get really pissed that I wear t-shirts. I can't imagine why grown men are upset with what I wear. I find it bizarre. But the point is, like the idea that there's some social hierarchy that CEOs and government officials are different than everyone else on YouTube is [ __ ]. It's not true. It's a fairy tale and it's, it's a created um idea that benefits and biases those that are trying to impose some version of the world that they want that you probably don't. So, I'm real. I'm honest. Um, I'm one of, I'm one with the people. And so, I just love the fact that we are able to have such a close relationship with you guys and that, you know, your words, your comments on YouTube, your tweets at me, um, matter. They matter and uh, we implement them into our product.

So on the 21 side, I mean, as I mentioned, guys, I don't have much and I don't have much because we're in a quiet period. So for those that don't know, quiet period is, you know, once we've submitted our S4 with the SEC, which, you know, we've issued a press release that we have. Um, right now the relationship is between me and the SEC and we're doing, uh, everything we can to keep them educated, allow them to get to know the business and any other party or regulator that is interested, um, as we seek approval and as we seek the opportunity to list XXI, our stock on a stock exchange in the capital markets. So, um, I know many of you are frustrated, um, and you want every single bit of detail from me. Unfortunately, um, it's not what's best. It's not what's best for Bitcoin. It's not what's best for 21 and it's not what's best for you. Trust me. Um, you know, taking a company public has, uh, been a really fun, um, and honorable journey. And, uh, I'm happy to tell you guys, um, all about it when it's over. Um, but it's not and we're not approved yet. And so I'm in a quiet period. We're in a quiet period. And, um, you know, part of what we're building at 21 is reliable, honest, transparent capital markets way to participate in Bitcoin. And, uh, so that's just not who we are, um, to violate our quiet period to be tweeting a bunch of stuff. That's just not who we are. Um, and it's not who our shareholders want us to be and it's not who our future shareholders should expect us to be. Um, and so quiet period, uh, is where I'm at. And if you want, what I have on the screen is our proof of reserves that are held in escrow. So, we're still sitting on our 43,514.12 Bitcoin in escrow held for us, assuming, you know, the transaction gets approved. Um, then we will take full custody of these coins. Um, so, you know, we currently have in escrow the third largest corporate position in the world, which we're tremendously proud of, and that's a pretty good start considering we haven't been allowed to start yet. Um, okay.

With that, uh, the only last slide I have is this tweet. Uh, once you start listening to Jack, there's no going back to normal currency. I just got to say, um, you know, whether it's, I'm having dinner in Chicago. Um, I was, uh, at the UFC fight at the United Center on Saturday. U, more and more of you guys are coming up to me saying hi in person. Just means the world. Continue to just show gratitude, uh, for the support you guys give me. You guys are ride or dies. Um, I read every comment. I try and read every tweet, respond to every DM. So, this means the world. Um, it's just very cool. I just really appreciate it. So, if you do see me in the streets, definitely say hi. You're not bothering me. I think that's what this is all about is, uh, we're one giant team trying to navigate, um, a future that's worth living, that we can raise families in, that we can be healthy, be happy, um, and build towards a future that we all want to be a part of. So, means a lot. And uh, I always just like giving you guys a shout out cuz, uh, um, it really, uh, I really sometimes just can't believe the role I get to play in all of this and, uh, the fact that you guys make it happen. So, just thank you for supporting my businesses, supporting me. Um, and even when you guys have feedback for me and stuff, you're often super gentle and kind. Can't really hurt my feelings. So, I just really appreciate it.

All right. Uh, with that, let's do some Q&A. I'll keep it brief because I'm already over time. Let me blow my face up. You guys can see. Look at the art in my Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Uh, oh, I was going to show you the view from my room, but that might be a little too much doxing. Uh, I do want you guys to say hi to me, but maybe not in my hotel room. So, I'm not going to do that. But what I will do is pull up the Q&A. So, let me open the doc. As a reminder, the way this show works, I go on one long rant, and if that's all you're interested in, you're probably not even listening anymore. I then give updates on my two companies. Um, many of you are either shareholders or customers of those businesses. So, if those are relevant to you, they're usually a lot of the Q&A and they're lesser now because we do weekly updates on how my businesses are going, what we're building for you guys, how we're thinking. So, that's next. And then lastly, we top it off with a little bit of live Q&A. So, if you're still here and you're interested in me answering some questions, definitely put them in the chat. More than happy to provide some commentary. Um, I love ending the show with a little bit of Q&A. Okay, here we go.

Macro, now that Scott Besson explicitly said they won't be outright buying Bitcoin for a strategic reserve, how do you think they will be using it to absorb the dollar debasement? So, as I referenced earlier, Scott Bessant did phrase his answer on TV slightly strange and it was interpreted as the US won't be buying, but then he clarified a few hours later via his Twitter account that they will be exploring buying. So, that I think isn't relevant anymore. I think what is relevant is just how quickly he reiterated that they want to be the Bitcoin superpower of the world when it comes to nation states and that they are continuing to explore ways to buy Bitcoin. So I think the United, and guys keep in mind, the United States supporting Bitcoin in their own interest isn't explicitly owning it. They can support it by favorable regulation, by favorable policy because as Bitcoin goes up, let's say they, you know, let Strike launch lending in every single state. Now, this isn't something I'm lobbying for or have talked to anyone about. It's just a hypothetical. That would help with Bitcoin adoption. That would help with Bitcoin utility. That would theoretically help with Bitcoin's growth. And Bitcoin's growth means stablecoins will likely grow. Most stablecoins growing means the Treasury can issue more debt to people that are unequivocal buyers. And so I think that they're just going to be supportive of Bitcoin in the capital markets with regulation and with purchasing it and owning it themselves. I think you're just going to see unilateral support for Bitcoin and the Genius Act was such a big deal because as Bitcoin grows, they now have a growing buyer of treasuries which they've been looking for like in a panic mode for a while.

Next question. Do you think that with the force of tariffs to US companies, this will force more US companies to adopt Bitcoin? Yeah, I mean, listen, I think the growing trend will be everyone's going to have to adopt Bitcoin because the era of we're just going to print money and everyone's going to win is ending. You cannot just print a piece of paper, cost you nothing to hit a button and print paper and expect real goods in return. You cannot just print paper and expect a proper prosperous life in return. And this is what we've been talking about for a decade now in Bitcoin is that this the gig is up. The game is over. This was never supposed to be a sustainable chapter. It's just that politicians and government milked this era for every ounce of opportunity until it exhausted itself and it has officially exhausted itself and they are very quickly pivoting. And listen, I mean, the reality is in a new era where we're living through the greatest wealth transfer of all time, there will be winners and there will be losers. I'm not going to sugarcoat it and tell you guys, you know, we're all going to win. We're not. We're not. The exit door that is Bitcoin is only so big. There's only 21 million. And if you want more Bitcoin, I can't print anymore for you. You're going to have to go to the market and get it. And if the market says the supply you're looking for is at $200,000 of Bitcoin, not at $120,000, well, that's tough luck for you. That's just the truth. That's the truth. We're competing over a scarce resource. Now, we're all on the same team philosophically. We all have the same alignment of the future, but the truth of the matter is everyone's going to have to realize that the gig is up. You have to store your wealth in something hard. We're moving back towards where we all belong. Money is our time and energy in an abstracted form. No one person, no one business, no one country, no one bank should be in charge of setting how expensive that is and how much should exist. That's [ __ ]. Your our time and energy in abstracted form needs to be freely tradable in a market where no one can control it, no one can confiscate it, nobody can set the rules. That's just where we all belong. No matter what. And that's where we're headed. So, yes, I think all of these things like the fact that AI is disrupting a lot of people's jobs, people should take their savings a lot more seriously, people should take future planning a lot more seriously. I think that will lead to more Bitcoin, right? Like any way you slice it, all eight billion people are in search for a better savings account, and Bitcoin is that savings account.

As the dollar reserve status erodes, what's the biggest challenge in moving toward a Bitcoin anchored system? Political resistance, technological scaling, or institutional inertia? Um, you know, the thing about this question I find fascinating is, you know, it just like I almost disagree with the premise like Bitcoin's been around for what, 15, 16 years. No marketing department, no CEO, no board, just leaked on a mailing list. And then the person that created it vanished for good. And it's already rivaling gold as a $2.5 trillion asset, growing 50% a year. It's the fastest growing technology sector. It's the best performing thing you could have owned. And it's like the fifth largest asset in the world in 15 years again with odds stacked against it. So, I don't think Bitcoin has faced any significant challenges. People say, well, what about that one time it went down 80%? It's like, okay, well, if that's how you classify a challenge and what Bitcoin has done already and continues to do isn't success, then I don't know what to tell you. Like, you know, you need to get off your high horse. You need to take the pacifier out of your mouth. So, you know, in my opinion, Bitcoin's been incredibly successful and it will continue to be. Sorry, not to, you know, not to belittle your question. I get it. I think political, but my point is, I think political resistance has gotten easier. I think technological scaling has gotten better. I think institutional adoption has improved. I mean, to say that Bitcoin isn't conquering Wall Street right now would be a lie. To say that there isn't more capital and more talent focused on building Bitcoin tools, software, protocols to help make Bitcoin useful and scale would be a lie. To say that Bitcoin isn't eating the politicians all over the world from the El Salvadors to the United States would be a lie. So I think Bitcoin is a universal acid. Everything it touches, it conquers. It overtakes. It seeps through the cracks and it knows no master. And so I think it'll continue to do that. And really the premise of the question is the problem. Like you just have to have to have to lower your time preference. The only way you lose is if you have the wrong expectations. If you expect and need Bitcoin to be something for you tomorrow. Consume less than you earn. Stay patient. Be humble. Be principled. Be moral. Work hard. Love others. And the world gets tremendously big, opportunistic, enjoyable, green, sunny. That's the Bitcoin way.

If the Treasury sitting on gold valued at $44 revalues that gold at the current fair market price, what implications would that have? It's another way of printing a bunch of money. So for those that don't know, as part of Bretton Woods, the United States fixed the price of gold. I have, you know, made this comment in some of my talks prior. What a weird and dumb thing to do. Can you imagine if the US or anyone tried to fix the price of Bitcoin? That wouldn't work. You know, prices float naturally. The price of anything is dependent on how much someone is willing to pay for it. How much is this shirt? News flash. It's worth as much as someone is willing to pay me for it. That's how much it's worth. And so to set the price of anything is a massive fail in understanding and conceptualizing economics. That is Keynesian economics at its finest. Um, so should the US allow the gold price to float, should they revalue what gold is worth on their balance sheet? What that would do is it'd be a windfall of capital into the Treasury General's account. So it would be another way of money printing of dollar liquidity. It would allow the US Treasury to puke more dollars into the world and spend more dollars on maybe reshoring things. I don't expect them to do that anytime soon because I expect gold to continue to go higher. Um, they could do it now, but, you know, what would be better than now is if gold doubled from here. So I think they're going to continue to enact policies and make decisions that, you know, push capital towards Bitcoin and gold. And again, Bitcoin's beneficial because it pushes people into treasuries via stablecoins. And gold is beneficial because they can eventually revalue it and see a windfall into the Treasury General's account. So, um, I, I just think, yeah, I, I think, uh, it's all of it is money printing. No matter what anyone can, no matter what anyone tells you, it doesn't matter who they are, where they're from, what they say, the only way out is by debasing the currency and printing money. I'm just until proven otherwise, that's it.

Okay. Financial markets. Do you think assets will eventually be priced in Bitcoin? Jeff Booth predicts if this happens, one coin would go up to $43 million. Yeah, eventually, of course, there's no doubt about that. The question is when and, you know, the markets can remain irrational far longer than you can remain solvent. I would not expect people to act rationally on your, you know, time frame and schedule. Usually things remain irrational longer than you think. So yes, do I think that there's a future? Of course. Um, do I think it's anytime soon? Am I willing to predict when? No. Um, waste of time. Doesn't matter. Stay humble, stack sats. Yeah. And $43 million, I mean, the math there is probably, you know, once Bitcoin has fully saturated its market opportunity, which is probably $400 to $500 trillion in current purchasing power terms, then yeah, $43 million sounds about right. You're taking Bitcoin's total TAM of, you know, humans own about $900 trillion worth of stuff. We're using half of that stuff to save money. So if Bitcoin is all of that and the rest of stuff in the market we're consuming. So you own real estate because you actually live in it. You own stocks because you actually believe in earnings and the leadership team, right? Like so when we live in that version of the world, $43 million sounds reasonable, but to Jeff Booth's point or this viewer's question's point, no point in pricing things in dollars at that point anyway. What's the point? Um, like, you know, can you imagine needing to wire Strike $43 million to buy one Bitcoin? It'd be outrageous. Like every bank account would be getting flagged for fraud. I mean, the dollar would be worthless. You have to be like Venezuela. You'd have to wheel a bunch of dollars in a [ __ ] wagon to go get a cheeseburger. Just be useless.

Uh, why should we own Bitcoin Treasury stocks? If we can't cash out in Bitcoin per share, then it is pointless. If the fiat value doesn't outperform Bitcoin. Yeah, I mean, listen, um, first of all, I just want to say something. Um, for 21, uh, we plan to operate a Bitcoin treasury business. Uh, it's a business line for us. Uh, that business line, its KPI is to grow Bitcoin per share. But with all these treasury companies popping up, you know, I, I don't know if I would classify 21 as a Bitcoin treasury company in its entirety. Um, I don't know if I would agree with that branding. I've talked about this before, but 21 was founded by myself and Tether. So, we have a lot of experience in not only founding and building, but currently operating some very successful businesses in the Bitcoin space. I mean, Strike is one of the most profitable per employee Bitcoin companies in the world. And it depends what you define as Bitcoin company, but if it's Bitcoin only, we might be the most profitable per employee in the world. And then Tether, I mean, it doesn't matter the metric. They're one of the most impressive companies in the history of mankind. So, we definitely plan to build software, increase Bitcoin adoption through the tools we contribute. We're very interested in cash flow. So, you know, a lot of these other Bitcoin treasury companies um aren't investing in a lot of future cash flow, aren't aren't focused on income. And so, I don't want to classify us under that same branding. Not to say that there's anything wrong with that strategy or there's a lot right with it. Like, I'm happy to answer any questions if you guys have them explicitly, but I just wanted to state that.

So that brings me to the inevitable answer that I have is just my opinion is you're not buying Bitcoin. You're investing in a company. And I do not want to confuse and conflate the two. Like it's not our job at 21 to give you the impression that you're buying Bitcoin. If you want to buy Bitcoin, I highly recommend Strike. You can get no fee DCA and you can withdraw that Bitcoin to cold storage for free. And I recommend everyone own Bitcoin in cold storage. You do not want to be wrong for the right reasons. Let me explain what that means. If for whatever reasons we live in some future state where cold storage Bitcoin is all that matters because you can't trust third parties because you can't trust businesses that hold it because we go through some crazy revolution. You, if you have Bitcoin custody on a platform, if you have stocks that you think are representative of Bitcoin, you're going to be wrong for the right reasons. You'll have nailed the thesis. You'll have understood Bitcoin. You'll have gotten the right exposure, but you don't actually own it for yourself. And at the end of the day, you're going to be wrong. You're going to be on the wrong side of history, but for the right reasons, you were right up until owning actual Bitcoin. And so, when investing in a company, if you were, for example, to in a future state when we're on a stock exchange invest in my company, that is not owning Bitcoin. And I do not want to be known as the person that's trying to convince you otherwise. That is investing in us as a business. Now, why would you invest in us? Well, I think that we are big enough to win, small enough to grow. I think we bring blue-chip credibility with startup upside. I mean, having a board that consists of SoftBank, Tether, and myself, that is sovereign levels of capital, that is, you know, BlackRock levels of cash flow, and an operator that's been in this industry for a very long time. I know exactly how this industry was built, how it works, and I feel very confident in our team that we're going to be able to build cash flow, build products, and grow our Bitcoin per share. So, if you're interested in investing in our business, that's why you would own shares of the company. And yes, we measure our success in part with Bitcoin per share. We think it's a far more relevant metric than earnings per share because I think earnings can be manipulated in fiat terms because fiat is dog [ __ ]. But make no mistake, you know, download Strike and get yourself some Bitcoin and cold storage. They are not interchangeable. They're not interchangeable. Um, obviously I think Bitcoin is the hurdle rate. Um, I would love if my businesses continue to outperform Bitcoin if they do out, but it's an investment in us as a company and I do not want to misrepresent or mismarket otherwise. That would be the investment in a future state when we are approved in a hypothetical future and our shares are listed under the ticker XXI on a stock exchange. Does that make sense? Let me check the chat because, you know, this industry is getting really crowded. There's a lot of rhetoric and I, in many ways, we're all on the same team and I'm very honored to be a part of Bitcoin in the capital markets and all the companies that are building there. But I definitely don't want to subscribe 21 to every single piece of language and rhetoric that others have. You know, we may think and operate and and want to be seen differently and this is this is not a replacement for Bitcoin and cold storage. This is an investment in us as a company because you believe in our future earnings and our ability to execute. That's that's what the investment would be.

Um, okay. And so you guys know my portfolio. I own Bitcoin. I own equity in Strike. I own equity in 21. That's it. I believe in my businesses and for all of my cash or liquid money, it's all in Bitcoin. So, you know, I put my money where my mouth is, but everyone's different and you guys, you know, can make those decisions yourself. Uh, okay, next question. And if you guys have any other questions about, you know, the Bitcoin Treasury stuff, and I know that's a hot topic, uh, you know, feel free to write in. Um, okay.

Some Strike questions. Now that Strike has rolled out lending, would you still recommend using bill pay? With bill pay, you have to sell your Bitcoin, but with lending, you don't. So, would you suggest getting a loan to pay bills? Excuse me. Geez. Or do you still see value in using Bill Pay? Which would which way would you suggest and why? Um, you know, you could still use bill pay. So, you know, bill pay on Strike works where you can pay your bills in Bitcoin or fiat. So, you can get a loan, buy more Bitcoin, and pay the bills with that Bitcoin. You can get a loan, have it in cash, and pay your bills with that cash. So, I operate all of my financial life on Strike. I know you guys are interested in it. So, I'm working on a video where I walk through basically how I live my life on Strike. With Bitcoin growing at, you know, 50 to 60% a year on average, my net worth doubles. And I don't say this egotistically. I don't because it's less about me. It's more about Bitcoin. But my net worth doubles on average about every year and a half. And that's just the math of something growing 50 to 60% a year. And so I achieve that without having to sell Bitcoin now by borrowing against my Bitcoin in a very responsible way. Not recommended for everyone, but recommended for those that have done their own research and can responsibly do so. I borrow against my Bitcoin and I use Strike's bill pay. I get my paychecks into Strike. So, my paychecks come in and are automatically converted into Bitcoin. So, I'm constantly stacking as I'm working and getting paid. And then I'm living on the loans that Strike gives me. And, um, my bills are all automated. So, it pulls from my Strike account, my Bitcoin stack goes up. And then I've talked about later this month we'll roll out automated refinancing inside the app. So, obviously, if Bitcoin on average keeps growing, then I just keep refinancing the loan. So, I, you know, I'm never like quote unquote closing the loan or needing to sell Bitcoin to pay it off or anything like that. I just keep growing my stack, keep consuming less than what I'm earning. Um, and letting Bitcoin outperform a debasing dollar. That's just really how I do it. And, uh, I'll put up a video soon.

How do you see Strike's Bitcoin-backed loans fitting into the daily lives of regular Bitcoiners? So, um, I think the ability to, you know, I think borrowing against your Bitcoin is actually the fastest growing, best product market fit, utility use case for Bitcoin. You know, I believe that Bitcoin should be the one and only money, but it's really not up to me when that happens. You know, I tried to get Lightning integrated into everything I use and push a world where we use Bitcoin and sats instead of dollars, and the free market rejected me. Um, you know, the world is not going to operate on my time. I'm going to operate on Bitcoin's time. And some of this stuff's going to take time. And so what we learned through running Strike is that, you know, people financing their lives, making Bitcoin useful to them, like actually using it, is actually borrowing against it. It's the most pristine form of collateral. It's growing 50 to 60% a year. You can get, you know, APR with us is low at 9 and a half percent. So obviously yes, 9 and a half percent is more expensive than, you know, a mortgage rate, but it's really cheap considering the thing you own is going up 50 to 60% on average. So, it's unlocking wealth for the Bitcoiner, making the Bitcoin that they own useful to them because that wealth can then become a down payment on a home, financing an emergency surgery, paying off existing debt, or just living your everyday life. And so we are working on a margin type product inside of Strike so that your loan can act like margin and so that you can have a user experience where your paycheck comes in and you maybe take some of your paycheck to pay off a loan or increasing some margin. So, you know, for us, just being able to allow you guys to take out a loan is only step like 0.1. You know, Strike is a financial services company where we have our money transmitter licenses, we have banking integrations, we have P2P, we have all the features required to build the most incredible experience for the Bitcoiner. Really, we're the home of the Bitcoiner. Did you guys know that around 90% of Bitcoin is withdrawn every single month on Strike that's purchased? So, the people that use our platform, they're Bitcoiners. They're listeners to this show. They're very involved and aware in making their lives better with Bitcoin. So, we're going to continue to iterate and improve the product in many ways because we think we're just getting started. I mean, hell, for individuals, we're only in like a little over half the country. So, you know, mind you, we haven't even gotten our Bit license yet, you know, on top of all the stuff we're going to build. So, that's my answer there. Um, okay, cool. Yeah. Uh, let's see. I'm looking at Um, okay, there's one more question. No, I'm gonna be smart and not answer that. Um, all right. Well, uh, I think that'll wrap it up. This was a bit of a longer show today, but, uh, this was a good one. This was a banger. There's a lot going on. As always, leave your feedback in the comment section or tweet it at me. I read it all. Um, you guys are this show. We're, we're the show together. No ads, no [ __ ]. Um, it's just a loyal community, um, and the hosts doing their thing. So definitely contribute your thoughts and your feedback because, uh, you guys drive this, this, uh, this bad boy. With that, it's always love from the bottom of my heart. I appreciate you guys. Um, if you haven't already, subscribe. Um, and I