All right. In the building behind me, Elon Musk is seizing power from the American people.
We are here to fight back.
A few months ago, Elon Musk spent $280 million to buy an election for Donald Trump.
Now Elon Musk is here to collect on his investment.
He is here to seize power for himself. We are here to fight back.
Music.
Very snowy Pacific Northwest. Welcome into This Week in Bitcoin, episode 45.
My name is Chris, chrisleas.com, jupiterbroadcasting.com. Thankfully,
far away from all the DC nonsense.
I did kind of warn you after the last Fed meeting that the market volatility
wasn't really going to be driven by the Fed anymore, what they might or might not do with rates.
It's going to be driven by Trump policy and realistically the reaction to that
policy. And boy, did we see that this week.
What a week to get into. Just as an overall quick snapshot to put it in perspective,
the crypto market as a whole saw its greatest drawdown since COVID or the FTX collapse.
And, you know, if you're a Bitcoiner, you're listening to all of this and you're
thinking, it seems so silly to sell a generational wealth asset over some temporary
tariff disputes. Like, what are people thinking?
Well, let's get into this. We're going to begin with the major new tariffs that
could increase prices for goods imported from America's three largest trading partners.
President Trump's plan to impose these new tariffs on Canada,
Mexico and China is set to take effect at midnight tonight.
And it's targeting swift retaliation or it's drawing swift retaliation from
Canada's Justin Trudeau and other leaders.
Nancy Cordes is at the White House for us. She's following all this.
Nancy, good morning. Good morning.
So this launches Friday night and the market starts to panic.
And of course, Bitcoin is really the only liquid market that's open 24-7.
You know, I've said this before, but if you're a trader or,
you know, I don't know, maybe you just want to hedge and you want access to
a million dollars or $15,000 or a billion dollars, you can get access to that
in five minutes with an app in your pocket.
If you want to sell gold, you can't do it on a Saturday or a Sunday or a Friday
evening when the banks are closed.
If you want to sell your house or your office, you can't do it.
But you can sell your Bitcoin. So, of course, Bitcoin's always the first to react to this.
And the reaction was so strong because the media played their role in just freaking
everyone out about the consequences of these new tariffs and how it was going to wreck the economy.
President Trump signed sweeping tariffs on goods imported from Mexico,
Canada and China. some as high
as 25 percent, and they're likely to have a major impact on what you pay.
We have two reports tonight, beginning with Yamiche Alcindor,
who is with the president.
Yamiche, good evening. These are wide ranging tariffs.
That's right, Jose. The president signed an order to implement 25 percent tariffs
on Mexico and a 10 percent tariff on China.
There's also a 25 percent tariff on Canada, except for energy products,
which have a lower tariff, 10 percent. The White House says that's to keep costs
down for things like oil and gas.
This all takes effect on Tuesday.
The White House says that this is to help with border security and to stop fentanyl
from coming into our country.
Now, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada will be pushing back forcefully.
But Trump officials say that if any country tries to retaliate,
the tariffs could be increased. Jose?
Yamiche Alcindor in West Palm Beach, thank you. The president's tariffs are
expected to have a major impact on the price American shoppers pay for everything
from groceries to auto parts. Brian Chung explains why.
Companies across the country bracing for tariffs with a warning that it's the
consumer that's going to pay the price.
Now, keep in mind, this report is in the context of consumers just being crushed
by inflation for the last three, four years.
So there is a high sensitivity to this issue and they know it.
So they got to hit it on the head.
It's everything that is at risk of becoming more expensive. From Mexico,
importers will now have to pay 25 percent more for items like fruits,
vegetables, beer, liquor and electronics.
From Canada, 25 percent more for potatoes, grains, lumber and steel.
And from both, a big increase on pharmaceuticals and on auto parts.
At S&S Automotive in Secaucus, New Jersey, more expensive imported parts means
even pricier routine fixes. Oil changes mainly.
That'll be the first noticeable one. an average oil change
on most vehicles now anywhere between 50 to 80
dollars it's probably going to end up over 100 and that
means that you've got to raise the cost just to make sure that
you can keep the lights on right and i
don't like to do that because i've been in this town like i said 38 years so
i and most of my customers i know he hasn't had to do that for the last four
years of inflation but these uh theoretical tariffs uh he will have to do that
of course So the reaction is
sort of extreme because nothing's really even happened yet at this point,
but it spooks people. And I would imagine some investors want to hedge.
They want to try to take money out of crypto and put it into something like
gold or put it into some sort of inflation play.
Who knows what these DGENs are up to, but they have a lot of different strategies
when these type of things start to develop in the market.
And they move quickly for really no reason because within about 48 hours of
the announcement, the tariffs were delayed.
For more on the negotiations and what they mean for Americans,
let's go to Nancy Cordes at the White House. Notice the tone change immediately.
Now they're negotiations. They could have been negotiations all along,
but no, now they're negotiations. Nancy, good morning.
Good morning, Nate. Here's where things stand right now. After the 25% tariff
on goods from Canada and Mexico were halted for 30 days, the 10% tariff on Chinese
goods took effect at midnight.
And shortly after, China announced their retaliation, imposing a 15 percent
tariff on coal and liquefied natural gas products, as well as a 10 percent tariff on crude oil,
agricultural machinery and large engine cars imported from the U.S.
Those tariffs are set to take effect next Monday, February 10th.
President Trump announced those U.S. tariffs on Saturday. Then he put the Mexican
and Canadian tariffs on hold just 36 hours later after a series of phone calls.
Her math and my math is a little different.
I guess she was off Friday night when we all found out. It ended with the president
of Mexico agreeing to send 10,000 soldiers to the U.S.-Mexico border to help
block fentanyl from being smuggled across the border,
and the prime minister of Canada agreeing to deploy more choppers,
drones, and personnel at the Canada-U.S.
Border. Okay, so I'd like to know what you think. To me, this seems like it
was a negotiation strategy all from the beginning.
I don't know what the full play here is, but I have a theory and I'd like you to check me on this.
It's hard to know for sure right now because we're just in the first couple
of weeks, if you can believe it, of the Trump administration.
But I do think there is the makings of a plan here that was probably crafted
before they entered the office.
And I think we're starting to see the edges of it right now.
It starts with Trump flexing big with Mexico and Canada.
Goes in really hard with countries that were always going to capitulate.
And he stacks some wins, you know, some political wins. And he sets the tone
for the tariff negotiations. He makes it clear he's serious,
but he makes it clear he's willing to negotiate, but he's going to make sure you follow up on it.
I think the next phase of this tariff stuff is he's going to move into the more
long-term tariffs, the stuff that stays on, the stuff that him and his team
feel are needed to balance out trade more.
Now, I'm not making a comment on that. I think that's the next step.
We start to see like the 10% long-term tariffs and things like that.
And then they'll start collecting revenue from these tariffs.
And I think the goal is to do a lot of this as fast as possible within the first
100 days, but ultimately to have this stuff solidified before the midterms.
So once we have long-term tariffs coming in, we'll start to have some revenue
coming in. We'll start collecting revenue from these tariffs. But there's a problem.
Executive branch can't legally use those funds for government expenses.
They legally can't. They can collect the money, but they legally can't spend
it on government expenses. That requires an act of Congress.
Now, if I were Trump and I were looking a year or two down the road and I were
trying to line up for the midterms, I'd be thinking about getting those 2017
Trump tax cuts that are set to expire locked in quick.
And we also know that there's also some Trump 2.0 tax cuts that he campaigned on.
He proposed 15% corporate tax rates, no tax on tips, no tax on overtime,
and also no tax for seniors.
So what better way to incentivize Congress to go along with his tax strategy,
which would reduce tax revenue, which they're never going to want to do,
than to have this bank account with hundreds of millions, potentially billions of dollars,
just waiting for Congress to get their grubby little hands on,
just sitting there, waiting for them.
It should be an easy argument to make. The tax cuts will be an easy political
win for everybody, and we can finance it with the tariff revenue.
It's a win-win. Trump gets his tax cuts.
The politicians get to give tax cuts to their constituents, they get to claim
at least it's funded by tariff revenue.
And I suspect that's just part of the tariff strategy. And I'm curious to know
what you think the tariff strategy is.
Fox Business financial analyst Charles Payne, who I, you know what,
I have to say, initially rubbed me the wrong way because he's just kind of got
this really verbose and loud way of presenting facts that seems like it's kind
of, you know, aimed at a certain demographic.
But actually, his analysis is pretty solid when you get past the presentation,
at least in my opinion of the presentation.
And Charles will make the case in this clip that this reaction to the tariffs
never really made sense from a long term broad picture strategy.
I don't know if he's right, but I'd like to know your opinion on his take.
In 1921, the public was clamoring.
They were begging, demanding for higher tariffs, right? Why?
We had these new industries, the automobile and things like that.
They wanted to protect that.
The economy was coming on. our way of life was changing. We had the Emergency Tariff Act of 1921.
That was followed by the Fortney-McCumber Act of 1922.
And there were two specific principles, right?
The scientific principle, this linked wages to the exporting country, right?
In effect, let's say China has cheaper labor than us. This made sure that this
negated the fact that a country would have cheap labor.
Then there was the American selling price. I love this one. If a product got
here from a foreign country and it was cheaper than Americans,
well, guess what? They made it more expensive.
And by the way, the Fortney-McCumber Act, those tariffs were the highest in
history. The average 40%, some though went as high as 400%. So what was the
result? Let's talk about that for a moment, right?
So the result of this act, one result was an increase in spending by top tiers
of American people, right? Americans had money.
They weren't in a foxhole.
The American people, they were taxed less.
Remember, all of what President Trump is doing also involves lower taxes.
They were taxed less, so they had more money to spend on American goods.
What is meant by protectionism? It's an economic policy of the 1920s,
and it was essential to trim the way to trim federal expenses.
What are we trying to do now? We're trying to shrink the government.
We're trying to bring it down. It's too big. It's too bureaucratic.
The deficit is too high. We're spending a trillion dollars a year just to serve as that beast.
And the way to do it was through these tariffs. And so these tariffs are absolutely
phenomenal. In fact, they sparked
something that we now commonly call the Roaring Twenties. All right.
Look at this. OK, so tariffs are bad. How could they be bad?
We were going down here. This is the stock market. It was going down.
We had the Emergency Tariff Act. Then we had the Fort Norman Cumberter Tariff
Act. And then, bam, 500% climb in the stock market.
Absolutely phenomenal. In fact, tariffs are working so well,
Herbert Hoover, who was running for president, decided to make it a central
part of his theme. But he specifically wanted to help American farmers.
Now, here's the problem. The plan was hijacked.
OK, the tariff schedule was flooded from the industrial sector.
So, yeah, we were going to help the American farmer. Then everyone jumped on
board. Still, they went into effect.
We all know now is the Smoot-Hawley Act went into effect March 13th, 1930.
So what happened? Right. I mean, every time someone comes on TV,
they say, remember Smoot-Hawley, inflation is going to go through the roof.
You think prices skyrocketed back then?
Absolutely not. In fact, it was the most extraordinary deflationary spiral in American history.
This is it. This is Smoot-Hawley, folks. The 1930s deflation.
It wasn't inflation. Prices went down. They didn't go up.
He's pointing on the screen. He's pointing to the spot on the chart where you
can see deflation totally kicking in while that tariff was in place.
And then afterwards, inflation kicks back up.
Different time, but it's a different narrative around tariffs than what we've
been hearing. I mean, I'm not really too focused on the specifics right now
because it seems like it's still in the negotiation stage.
And so what gets talked about now is sort of the opening salvo.
And then what they end up on is something entirely different.
Music.
Well, speaking of volatility, there's another thing that's causing things to
go a little wacky, and that would be Doge. I'll admit I was a bit skeptical.
I thought maybe they'd, you know, eke out $900 million or maybe a bill in savings
and, you know, say they revolutionize something with blockchain and walk out the door.
Things have not gone that direction. In fact, it was just announced yesterday that the U.S.
Federal government has received more than 20,000 deferred resignation requests.
And the number is rising right now.
And as our intro clip demonstrated, it seems that Doge has really hit a nerve.
We turn now to the latest on President Trump and Elon Musk's drive to reshape
the federal government.
Our senior political correspondent, Rachel Scott, is tracking it from the White
House. Good morning, Rachel.
Rebecca, good morning to you. And the CIA, now the first major national security
agency to offer these buyouts to employees. and it comes amid sweeping changes
by the Trump administration across the federal government.
Americans on assignment around the world with USAID now rushing to leave their posts.
It sounds like you're going to line down USAID.
It sounds like it. I mean, I think so. Overnight, USAID staff receiving this
email saying nearly everyone in the department will be put on administrative leave by Friday.
Now, you have to appreciate how this has the potential to boil over into the
wider financial market, and it could end up creating a fantastic buying opportunity.
Those working abroad expected to return within 30 days.
10,000 people work for the agency globally. Their projects pulled back after
billionaire Elon Musk seized control of the agency, which provides foreign aid
and assistance around the globe.
You know, I will point out throughout this entire coverage, they will frame
it as Elon is seizing control.
Elon is executing the power given to him by the executive branch,
including all the firings are approved by the executive branch, etc.
So this is actually executive branch power. Democrats stress it can't be shut
down without congressional approval.
Republicans applauding Musk. Why not go through Congress for that?
Because you're thinking about, wait, I want to answer her question.
Because you're reporting and you're asking questions about the old way of doing things.
Musk, the world's richest man, also behind the offer to millions of government
employees to leave their positions with pay, now also extended to the CIA.
What a bastard. What a bastard. They can leave their positions with pay.
I don't know why when it comes to federal employees, this is considered such an atrocity.
You know, if a failing tech company does this, it's considered a savvy move
to save the failing tech company.
And they often provide public services as well. I don't really get this idea.
Like, we all are aware of how bleak the financial situation is for the country
and how excessive the federal government expenditures are and how many people
work for the federal government that do basically nothing.
Every American is aware of this. And the likelihood that you could trim the
fat at these agencies by giant percentages just seems probably very high.
Some 20,000 taking the buyout so far. ABC News learning those who don't could still be laid off.
All of this part of the sweeping plan to shrink the federal government.
Musk and the president now setting sights on dismantling the Department of Education.
President asked why he's nominating former WWE. We can stop there.
I think I've made my point. This is going to cause a lot of volatility.
And I think this is the line where you're going to see the Democrats and corporate
allies for the Democrats fight. And the American people, mark my words.
This is Senator Chuck Schumer, the minority leader.
The American people will not stand for an unelected secret group.
To run rampant through the executive branch. Now, this is odd.
And I know that they're all making this case, but I think it's pretty clear
that the voters knew Elon was part of the package.
In fact, that's part of their case too.
Everyone knew what Elon, the whole Doge plan was out there.
Nobody believed it, at least I didn't fully believe it, but this is what people voted for.
And I don't know why they're running on that because they must know that.
Being innovative is good.
But, Mr. Musk, this isn't a tech startup. Right. So this isn't Silicon Valley.
Right. That's another part of the narrative. This is the federal government.
We affect lives here. This is the federal government, not Silicon Valley.
These are public institutions that deal with things like Social Security and
Medicare and national defense.
Won't you think of the lives? How could you think about money at a time like this?
Won't you think of the lives at risk here? And provide for the well-being of the American people.
And the American people have a right to be part of that debate.
That was called the election, Chuck.
This was the same argument used for COVID lockdowns.
This really reminds me of this because I was on the air during the COVID lockdowns.
And I was noting that on one side of my family, they had a restaurant business
that was about 25 years old that was doing great, but now failing.
And they ended up selling it for parts and shutting it down.
They were going to pass it on to their daughter and she was going to run it.
It was going to be a generational small business that failed because of the lockdowns.
On the other side of my family, they owned a hotel chain, remote side of my
family, so don't make any assumptions.
And their hotel chain was failing because of the lockdowns.
And they would have failed if it wasn't for the fact that the state came in
and rented a bunch of rooms for isolation and immigrants and basically got a state bailout.
And so I was watching, and that was a 30-year-old, 35-year company.
And I was watching both of these long-term small businesses that were generational
wealth for those families die.
And I went on air and I said, geez, I think we're making a lot of drastic mistakes.
We're going to have a lot of small business collapse. And what we're going to
see is a consolidation into the megacorps like the Walmarts and the Lowe's out
there that can stay open during lockdowns.
And we're going to have massive economic repercussions from this for years to
come. And we're going to destroy generational wealth.
That's exactly what happened. But I was attacked for bringing that up because
how could I not think of the lives? Grandma's at risk, Chris.
How dare you, you monster? You are a monster. I will no longer listen to your
shows. You're all about the money.
And I'm thinking, well, no, but this also destroys lives.
This destroys entire family's lives.
This is the same argument now. It's the same argument. But Mr.
Musk, this isn't a tech startup.
These are public institutions that deal with things like Social Security and
Medicare and national defense and provide for the well-being of the American people.
Yes, we might be nearly $37 trillion in debt.
And yes, we're about to refinance a large chunk of our interest right now,
and it's already more than our defense budget.
But that's just money. Won't you think of the lives? And the American people
have a right to be part of that debate, part of that debate.
The elections occurred, and one viewpoint got a few more votes than the other.
But that doesn't mean we throw out democracy.
That doesn't mean what's been done for centuries in this country should just
go out the window and be substituted by a small group of people who think they
know a lot more than the wisdom of the American people.
This is such a weak gaslighting argument because it is the duty of the executive
branch to audit the federal budget.
And they could clearly just make the argument that that's what Elon is doing and his Doge team.
It reads to the American public as defense of grift. That's how it reads to the American public.
And I'm not saying this. Others are saying this, including Senator John Kennedy.
You get to point on Mike Armless. You can't make an omelet without breaking some eggs.
Now, President Trump ran for office saying, I'm going to review every single
penny in the federal budget.
Now, how are you going to review the spending in the federal budget without
reviewing the spending?
And that's what Mr. Musk is doing. Now, many
of my Democratic colleagues and some of the tofu-eating Wokorati at the USAID
are screaming like they're part of a prison riot because they don't want us
reviewing the spending.
But that's all Mr. Musk is doing, and he's finding some pretty interesting stuff.
To my friends who are upset, I would say with respect, you know,
call somebody who cares. They better get used to this.
All right. So where's all this going? Well, if it plays out,
and again, that's a big well if because it's anybody's game and guess right now.
If it plays out, you could have increase of revenue via tariffs. And it may be possible.
These are numbers they're throwing around. I don't know if they're verified
or not. It may be possible they get over a trillion dollars in savings.
Now, right now, the deficit is $2 trillion.
Now, the deficit is the difference between what is budgeted and what we're spending,
not the debt. The debt is nearly $37 trillion.
But the deficit, the delta between what's budgeted and what we're spending right now is $2 trillion.
So what does that mean? That means that $2 trillion rolls over onto the debt.
If they could knock that down by a trillion, and this is a very long shot,
but of course, Elon's making these kinds of claims, $2 trillion?
Dollars, that'd be the first time we've had a balanced budget since Clinton.
And I think that would be a massive positive signal to the market and to the world.
And I think it would also do tremendous, tremendous progress to ensuring the
continued reserve status of the U.S. dollar.
And that will be huge for Bitcoin. And I'll tell you why.
Ironically and awkwardly, it all comes down to stablecoins.
Talked to you about this before, but stablecoins and Bitcoin growth are linked at the hip.
And when stablecoins grow, they buy U.S. debt.
And President Trump signed an executive
order instructing the Treasury and Commerce Departments in the U.S.
To establish a sovereign wealth fund.
Now, he's assigned the new Treasury Secretary, Scott Bassett,
and the Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, to the task of developing the foundation for that fund.
It's going to probably need Congress approval.
And I believe Senator Lummis is going to be in that pipeline.
Now, these gentlemen, along with the crypto AI czar, David Sachs,
held a press conference. And before they got to Bitcoin, which did come up,
they addressed stablecoins.
And I think you need to hear this. I want to say additionally,
we're excited about working with both the House and Senate on stablecoin legislation.
I know Senator Haggerty introduced a bill today.
Stablecoins really have the potential to ensure American dollar dominance internationally,
to increase the usage of the U.S.
Dollar digitally as a world's reserve currency, and in the process create potentially
trillions of dollars of demand for U.S.
Treasuries, which could lower long-term interest rates. So let me stop there.
And I want to. I honestly, my mouth dropped when I heard David Sachs essentially
lay out the theory that I put a few episodes back in the show, that the U.S.
Would inevitably lean into stable coins for this very reason.
And Senator Bill Hagerty has introduced a stable coin bill titled the Genius Act.
And they're aiming to have it signed within Trump's first 100 days.
And the banking committee in the Senate seems to be on board.
So that's interesting.
Just as a side note, because obviously those stable coins are going to run on
some sort of shitcoin network.
But Bitcoin tanked on the news. It was like at 101 and it tanked down to like 97.
Tanked. I know, right? Tanked. It farted. Basically, it burped. It wasn't, it wasn't.
You know, it's easy to say tanked, but that's ridiculous. It went down a little
bit. But people were kind of surprised, you know, like, this seems like great news.
Sovereign Wealth Fund could be a potential there for Bitcoin.
Luma seems to be in the pipeline.
But the price of Bitcoin fell. And I think the reason was, is because Bitcoiners
were expecting on day one, Trump to sign some sort of sovereign wealth fund
that included Bitcoin or some sort of reserve or stash.
But that's not really what he committed to. He committed to researching the
issue within the first 100 days, which sounds like they are on track.
Sacks was asked a question about crypto i want you to hear the whole thing that,
the press is not miked so it's going to be kind of hard to hear but they asked
sacks about crypto and he answers about bitcoin the bitcoin reserve i'm curious
what the plans are for that at this point and what the minute administration
consider putting crypto into a sovereign wealth fund that it is planning.
So one of the things that the president instructed us to do was to evaluate
the idea for a Bitcoin reserve.
And so that is one of the things, that's one of the first things we're going
to look at as part of the internal working group of the administration.
So as soon as we get all that set up, we're still waiting for some cabinet secretaries
who are on the working group to get confirmed. So we're still in the very early stages of this.
But that's one of the first things we're going to look at is the feasibility of a Bitcoin reserve.
So it's one of the first things they're going to look at once all the cabinet
members in position. This, to me, is better than Trump creating some sort of
strategic stash with the wave of a Sharpie.
This sounds like a plan, if they follow through,
this sounds like a plan to work with Lummis and the Congress to actually make.
This a reserve via some sort of bill and law, which would have much more staying
power than just one presidency.
Additionally, I think it sets an example for the rest of the world that is also considering this.
I actually think this is better, a better route for them to go long term.
And when you see some of the questions that Sachs answered after the press conference,
I think it'll make you feel better.
He on CNBC was asked some follow up questions and I'll play that for you.
The Bitcoin reserve, you said that's being studied. It's one of the first things
that's that's on the table here.
What goes into that process? Is that something that would be standalone or is
that something that could potentially be tucked into, say, a sovereign wealth
fund? which has been the speculation today on the heels of that executive order.
I guess it's possible that the Sovereign Wealth Fund could decide that they
want to make Bitcoin or digital assets part of its portfolio.
You're going to have to ask the incoming Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick about that.
The item that President Trump asked our working group on digital assets to study
is whether it's feasible to create either a Bitcoin reserve or some sort of
digital assets stockpile.
And so we're going to be looking at that question. We We haven't committed yet
to doing it, but it's one of the first things we're going to be looking at.
Now, he said something in there that I thought was interesting.
It could be up to Howard Lutnick.
To put Bitcoin in the Sovereign Wealth Fund, totally separate from the Bitcoin
Reserve. The Sovereign Wealth Fund could feature all kinds of assets.
Now, Howard Ludnick, well, he happens to be a rather bullish Bitcoiner. This is Howard Ludnick.
I have hundreds of millions of dollars. Okay.
Okay. Hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars, exposure to Bitcoin, and it will be billions.
I was going to say, so next year when you come back, and we'll do this again,
and you'll be a Bitcoin billionaire. every time Bitcoin dips,
I'm going to be the buyer.
What you're going to see is Canada Fitzgerald is going to be the sponsor of
Bitcoin into traditional finance.
And so we will be the leader of it. And I'll pull out this podcast in years
to come and say, see, I told you, because no one's going to remember.
But all the banks, after we
do it and show people how to do it right they'll all
copy and so the asset of bitcoin will just as it becomes more accepted it will
become more valuable ludnick also had this to say he is the ceo of kander fitzgerald
if you didn't pick it up and he was at bitcoin 2024 kander fitzgerald is here to announce that
We are launching a Bitcoin financing business.
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We are going to launch with $2 billion of lending.
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You have to realize Canter and BGC, its largest wholesaler,
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amounts and we are going to now build
that ecosystem for bitcoin so the moral of the story is we are going to welcome
bitcoin into the financing family of the global financial markets and canter
fitzgerald's going to be your sponsor all right so that's the.
Music.
You know, really what's happening to some of the market makers are just shaking out the weak hands.
And they're stacking cheap sats, so that way once the price starts to rip again,
they have great margins.
There is a mega trend happening underneath the surface that I've remarked a
couple of times about on the show, but we saw a very clear preview of what could
be to come and really, really create strong demand for Bitcoin.
Tesla was able to take advantage of the new FASB accounting rules I've talked
about on the show before that allow them to mark up their Bitcoin holdings.
It's kind of remarkable. Tesla went from what was going to be an absolute bloodbath
of a quarter to showing a $600 million gain.
The Bitcoin saved Tesla's bacon.
Tesla just reaped a half billion dollar windfall thanks to its Bitcoin holdings
and new accounting practices. It disclosed a $600 million mark-to-market benefit
from Bitcoin on its net income.
That increases thanks to a change at the Financial Accounting Standards Board,
which told companies to start measuring the value of their digital assets holding each quarter. Come on.
Is that not going to be? And I think there's something around 80,
just under 80 public companies that hold Bitcoin on their balance sheet.
They're going to be taking advantage of these FASB accounting practices.
And likely, I mean, without any doubt, MicroStrategy is going to be one of them.
It's either going to be this next quarterly report or the one after. I'm not sure.
It's probably happening as I'm live right now. We're probably going to find
out because I think we're going to have information from them soon.
But that's just going to be a massive, massive narrative for businesses.
And I don't think they're going to be able to ignore that. But what do you think?
In fact, I have a few questions for you.
What's your reaction to the Doge team work so far? Do you consider it to be
a bad thing, a good thing, better than you expected, worse, hopeful?
What do you think about the old Doge team's progress so far?
And then also, did you hear this week that you're going to be able to send Tether over Lightning?
Taproot assets are making it possible. You'll be able to send Tether over the Lightning Network.
Is that going to make you a stablecoin user? For example, would you boost the show with stablecoins?
Boost didn't tell me no. I'd tell him yes. I'm not sure. I don't think I would, but it's Lightning.
Music.
Hey, you can support the show. just by doing what you do. If you want to stack
sats like DCA and with River, oh, there's no better way to do it in the US.
They have a great interface, mobile apps, so many great security systems,
as well as proof of reserves.
Just set it on automatic and they'll stack for you. They also have a great savings
account option for cash where the interest is paid in sats.
You can support the show by stacking sats on River.
Now, if you're all about self-custody and you're in Canada or the US,
let me tell you about the Bitcoin Well.
Bitcoinwell.com slash Jupiter, link in the show notes. Their system is self-custody only.
You buy and sell sats directly from your Lightning or on-chain wallet.
Now, you want to spend some of your sats on Lightning? Maybe convert them into
like an Amazon gift card, something like that? That's the Bitcoin company.
Thebitcoincompany.com, promo code Jupiter, link in the show notes.
The Bitcoin company has hundreds of different gift cards. They're Bitcoin only. I love them.
If you want to stack sats by paying your bills, that's the fold card.
And they keep going from strength to strength. I'll have information on that
in a little bit. stack sats just with your regular purchases get a debit card
it's great and it's time to get access to your btc value without selling it
consider salt lending links to all of.
Music.
And we do have some boosts to get into this week, which is always one of my
favorite parts of the show.
So let's start with our baller booster this week, who is Derivation Dingus,
who came in with a meaty 222,222 sats.
Fountain said my last boost failed, so I'm trying it again. Well,
thank you very much. I do think that might have been the case,
but I got this one, Derivation, and I really appreciate it.
Thank you for the value and being our baller booster. You are the best.
SatSquatch comes in with 66,666 sats. I hoard that which your kind covet. Hmm. Hmm.
What could that mean? Why you got to put numbers and letters together?
Why can't you just go f*** yourself?
Thanks, SatSquatch. He says, I've been stacking since 2018 or 19,
and I stack sats every month.
The sats I send you are freshly converted from fiat from strike.
Hey, that's kind of my system.
Sometimes it's strike. You know, it kind of depends.
But yeah, I have like long-term Bitcoin savings.
And then, yeah, I have like the stuff that I'm going to spend either like on
Noster or Stacker News or through boosts.
That's stuff I acquire and to spend pretty quickly.
Thanks, SatSquatch. I was asking last week, I put the question out there,
if people had stacked sats before they ever listened to a show that had boosts
or if they got into Bitcoin through the boosts, that kind of question.
So appreciate that. And I appreciate that boost.
Mitch Taylor's here with 22,222 sats. That's a row of McDucks.
Things are looking up for old McDuck. Always love to hear your takes.
Very high quality content. Well, thank you, Mitch. Thanks for the high quality value. Appreciate it.
Anonymous here is here with 2,000 sats.
No message though. No name and no message. Ooh. But see you're on Podverse.
I think you just have to go in there and set your username. But thank you for the value.
Truth in the Punchbowl comes in with 4,321 sats. B-O-O-S-T.
There are many great Bitcoin podcasts out there, but I found myself only listening to Twib regularly.
I hope the Bitcoin dad as well keep up the great work. Well,
I'll be dipped. Thank you very much.
Turd in the punch bowl. Oh, turd in the punch bowl. Did I say truth?
There is truth in that turd. There is truth. Thank you. Appreciate the boost.
Clarkian's here with 5,000 sats. You're so boost. Ah, he's boosting our artist
with a song boost. Thank you, sir.
Those sats go to the artist. Appreciate that. Gen2 Netiquette,
that's how I'm going to say it. Well, uh...
He's here with 10,000 sats. He's a good guy. He's a real good guy.
All right, Bitcoin story time.
I started mining Doge back in 2012 with a PC built for the purpose.
Same old story. I wish I had my coins. Several million Doge went into 0.3 Bitcoin.
I sold and covered the cost for the PC at least. Never stacked again until I
started listening to JB shows. Now I have a small weekly DCA value for value.
Nicely done. Good for you.
That's good to hear. I appreciate the boost. I am real Satoshi. Danger zone.
Comes in with 4,500 sats. Danger zone. First time booster. All right.
I've held Bitcoin for a while now, but I wanted to boost it and say thanks.
Between this show and self-hosted, I went from holding on a hot wall to running
my own node and as many services as I can.
And I'll be home a hub along with Noster Fund.
I love supporting the Lightning Network and value for value.
This is way more exciting than any stinking ripple.
Yes. I'm going to give you a ding on that one, man. There's a little bell for you. I agree.
Thank you. I am Satoshi. I appreciate the boost.
And congratulations on getting the node going and all that. Love hearing that. That gets me stoked.
Ace Ackerman's here with a row of ducks. That's 2,222 sats.
Clean air, food, water, and now money.
Be part of the value-to-value revolution by earning and then spending sats on
Wavelake. This week in Bitcoin and no agenda. Thanks for your courage, Chris.
Thank you, sir. Boost! Appreciate the value, Ace. It's nice to hear from you. Hey, there's Gene Bean.
He's here with 4,270 sats.
Because I'm the wind Says I had no interest in Bitcoin Prior to the booster
crams becoming a thing Now I use it and I'm stacking I've also just set up my
first Bitcoin node Plus L&D and have migrated my Albie hub there It's been a
significant change At how I look at money Yes Gene.
Love it I know it's common to run your own Bitcoin node It's common Gene there's
like 20,000 people in the whole world doing it.
Lightning nodes there might be a lot more i don't know but like actual
bitcoin nodes that are discoverable i mean you hear it in the state of the network
it's not common gene but i was wondering what your thoughts are running a liquid
node i asked because it's i noticed an option on umbral and nix bitcoin yeah
so i do the elements liquid node i do run it and there is some value to it i
think maybe particularly with pegging in,
to the liquid network but the big caveat with
the liquid network is pegging out is still permissioned to a sense and
i don't think you can use your node for anything like that but it's still
useful i i don't i don't find it as useful as a bitcoin node but i still like
to have it change you know and i'm a fan of liquid so i just like being part
of it i have to say and i'm really glad to hear it's going well for you let
me know if you do the if you do like the i think it's what called elements core
i think that's what my liquid note is let me know which way you go and how it works for you?
Because I run it, but I don't use it a lot.
OrangePillLawyer25 comes in with 2,121 cents.
You're doing a good job. I've been stacking since January 2021,
and I love the opportunity to use it through the Fountain app.
I wish there was more opportunity to interact with it though.
Oh, I think, you know what, OrangePill, I have a suspicion that your wish will be granted over 2025.
You probably saw the headline this week that the SEC is reassigning their crypto
law enforcement task force, their lead crypto lawyer just got reassigned to IT in the SEC.
So I think, you know, like the panic that happened at Albee where they had to
move from custodial to non-custodial because they were concerned about being
a money transmitter and the SEC and the Biden White House coming after them.
One year later is just simply not an issue anymore. And the SEC seems to be
like they're getting defanged for better or for worse, in my opinion, maybe a little worse.
Then again, the SEC has really failed to do a good job.
So maybe for better. But my point is, Orange Pill, is you're going to see a
lot more services spun up in the U.S.
They're going to focus on experience and high quality.
Maybe a little more premium, I suspect.
Thanks for the boost. Producer Jeff's here with 2,222 sats.
Giving Ripple a rip. Giving Ripple a ripe ripping.
That would have been a good title, Jeff. I was needed for the rotten regime.
I had to make some clips and send them to my XRP loving coworkers.
Well done. I still can't get in a real argument on why they like it more than
Bitcoin. At least they like Bitcoin too. Oh, well, that's good.
Yeah, it's always, I mean, I think the value play for XRP is in a world of CBDCs,
they're like the connectivity between the banks to move transactions.
Who wants that? I think. Maybe I have it wrong. Thanks, Jeff.
One dull geeks here with a row of ducks.
But Chris, the price of everything has been coming down and will continue.
When priced in Bitcoin, I understand what you meant, but that's a fiat mindset.
Something I'm trying to remove from my life. That is a great point,
OneDoleGeek. We were talking about prices last week and how prices aren't coming down.
And I should have said, because they're priced in fiat.
You're right. You're right. Because in priced in Bitcoin, everything is getting cheaper.
I do think that is part of what's going to be a big trend over 2025,
where people start taking their entire paychecks in Bitcoin.
They cash in you know they essentially go all into bitcoin
and then they just sell out what they need to pay expenses
they pay the cap gains taxes on that but it still works out
to be i think unless bitcoin crashes you know a much better gain good point
you got me one dull appreciate that nakamoto 6102 is here with 4 000 of those
sats but that's not possible nothing could do that says thank you for the value
well thank you for the boost really appreciate it,
Jabits is here with 10,000 sats. The traders love the vol.
This is one of my favorite podcasts. Keep up the great work. Well, geez, thank you.
The more info and analysis, the better. But I know your time is limited.
I actually enjoy all the JB shows.
I wish I could share your enthusiasm for the new administration,
especially the non-Bitcoin related promises.
Nonetheless, it's such an interesting time for Bitcoin. Keep up the good fight.
That's nice. This week, I was told that I was a Trump hater,
and now I've been told that I have enthusiasm for the new administration.
Hopefully that means I'm kind of slicing it right down the middle a bit.
I, my real only political bias that I kind of own is that I'm very anti-war
and I think the fiscal policy situation is absolutely bonkers and has to be immediately solved.
And then also, you know.
I'm a big energy guy. So whatever party wants to be big on energy,
I'm probably going to be a little bit more supportive of. Those are sort of
my main political leanings.
And then everything else, I just look through the context of Bitcoin.
And I think there's going to be a lot of overreaction because of the visceral
emotional reaction that Trump and Elon invoke from certain people.
But if you're able to put that aside and kind of take the higher level view,
I think it's much more structurally sane for the brain, right?
It's just much more easy to process.
Thanks, Jebbets. Nice to hear from you. Thanks for the 10,000 sats.
Rather Not Say is here with 2,000 sats. Coming in hot with the booth.
No message, just a cactus.
Appreciate that. And Podbun is here with a row of ducks.
I was introduced to the Lighting Network through your shows,
mostly from listening to the Bitcoin DadPod.
I didn't know how to stack sats, and I didn't know you could send Bitcoin so
quickly. Yeah, isn't that great?
Thanks, Podbun. Nice to hear from you. Thank you, everybody who boosted in.
That's all of the boosts above the 2,000 SAT cutoff we have for time.
Shout out to User64, who sent their first boostagram to the show this week.
Appreciate you all out there. The boost at every level. And,
of course, all of you who stream SATs as well.
In fact, we had 45 of you stream them SATs.
And with your help, we stacked 95,527 SATs just by streaming.
When you combine that with all of our wonderful boosters, the show stacked a
very handsome $467,781.
Music.
Probably the easiest way to boost these days is with Fountain FM and you get
your sats with an app like Strike.
But as you can hear, many of our listeners will go the self-hosted route,
self-hosted route in your house, using something like Albie Hub and a podcasting app of your choice.
There's lots of great apps listed over at podcastapps.com.
You just need some lightning sats and a way to boost the show.
And it means the world to the show. There is no sponsor.
The links I mentioned earlier are all affiliate links. these go to the production
of the show. And I really do appreciate it.
Everybody who either uses one of our affiliates or boosts in,
you're making a big difference, keeping the show going.
And really, I think helping me build what I consider to be a long-term runway
for the Jupiter Broadcasting Network.
And I think that's going to be more important than ever. I've talked about it before.
And I think this is like the last chance to really kind of get this figured
out because the advertising market around podcasting is getting really, really weird.
It's not going away entirely. It's just getting creepy.
Music.
Well we talked about ripple and xrp last week,
yesterday as i record the xrp blockchain was actually down for an hour the xrp
ledger halted block production for about an hour on tuesday before just spontaneously
recovering it was a rare disruption, but it does happen.
Network activity froze at ledger height 93927173, something like that,
prompting an immediate investigation from all the validators trying to figure out what's going on.
Things have resumed normal operation, and of course, the CTO of XRPL,
because they have a CTO...
Said that it wasn't really a big deal. You know, there was some things.
The system recognized a problem. Things shut down for a bit.
And then he tried to, like, you know, play it off. Well, other blockchains have these problems, too.
Quote, it just caused ledgers not to be seen as trusted for about an hour.
The servers knew the network wasn't working correctly, and so they did not report
any ledgers as trusted during the incident. So it's no big deal.
What are you worried about? So what did it went down for an hour? Shut up.
Okay i have a couple of updates that i want you to be aware of my favorite wallet
app sparrow has version 2.11 out now this release has some nice improvements
for usb hardware wallet handling including support for that new jade plus and
a few other things in there they've also.
Just had a small version bump, I think, for an issue on macOS,
so be sure you're not on 2.1.0, but make sure if you're on macOS that you're
on 2.1.1 because there was a little bit of a problem they had to do a quick release for.
But otherwise, a really nice release that improves support for hardware wallets,
which is always great to see.
But an app or slash wallet that I have failed to give its due props,
but over the holidays working with family members came to really appreciate,
and that's Blockstream's Green.
Green is a great
wallet and on mobile it supports liquid lightning and bitcoin it supports all
kinds of multi-custody options it supports watch only wallets desktop and mobile
ios android open source you can just get the apk right off of github into your
obtainium if that's how you like to roll,
blockstream green is a great wallet and
it yes it's tied to a company but blockstream seems to be a pretty solid group
and they just keep going from strength to strength and
they just enabled liquid discounted fees for confidential transactions this
is crazy it's like you know maybe like a transaction that was i don't know i'm
just making up numbers but say the transaction cost was a was the equivalent
to 100 sats before with this support for confidential transactions.
The cost could be like 25 sats or 20 sats. It's a dramatic reduction.
And Liquid's already crazy cheap and fast.
And you can just interoperate in Green right there. It's such a good wallet.
If Sparrow's slightly intimidating to you, Green is fantastic.
Sparrow goes to the next level because it gives you information about everything.
Makes it super easy to work with your own node. And it's a desktop-only workflow
over at Sparrow, where Green offers desktop and mobile.
That they can kind of, you know, you could have like your primary wallet where
you use your hardware device on your desktop, but then you could have a watch-only, I guess, copy,
a watch-only version of that wallet on your mobile device where you can still
receive SATs, but you can't send.
That's pretty neat, especially for cold storage.
So Green's a really good app. Version 2020 came out this week.
And then I mentioned Fold, which is the company I use which gives me a debit
card to stack SATs with every purchase and to have an ACH account so that way
I can do bill pay and stack SATs.
Fold seems to be expanding their collaboration
with visa this is the announcement they said quote to introduce innovative
bitcoin rewards card program this includes folds flagship
debit card and an upcoming credit card product using
visa shared services and incentives to enhance rewards so it looks like fold
is going to roll out a visa credit card soon with sats back and this is sort
of part of the strategy i was mentioning earlier in the show about taking your paycheck in Bitcoin.
You put your day-to-day, now this is, you have to be financially responsible.
This is not advice, blah, blah, blah. You put your day-to-day expenses on the credit card.
This is like, this is your own personal layer two to Bitcoin, if you will.
Your expenses go on the credit card or you pay them directly using your fold accounts ACH function.
At the end of the month, you pay off the credit card with Bitcoin.
So you're, you're getting your paycheck deposited in Bitcoin,
you're making one or two transactions in Bitcoin.
One of them is to, you know, whatever payments you have directly out of your
fold account. And the other one's the payment to pay off the credit card for that month.
You're stacking sats on both sides because the credit card stack sats and the
full ACH payment stack sats.
And you're keeping as absolute, as much Bitcoin as you possibly can because
if you take your paycheck in Bitcoin, now you have to make the conscious decision
to convert that Bitcoin to fiat for what you want to buy.
That's going to make you rethink everything you buy. It's going to make you
rethink every expense because you have to sell Bitcoin and that is going to make you pause.
And I just think that's a fascinating mental shift that could help people cut
back on savings and increase their Bitcoin hold.
And then these credit card products, well, traditionally, I think Bitcoiners
are kind of anti-lending, anti-financing.
These credit card products are decent in modern society. They offer consumer
protection. They're widely accepted.
And it could be another way to stack sets. I just think Fold is working on some
really interesting stuff.
Maybe, I don't know, but maybe this is a strategy some people could employ.
You know, a lot of people have complex finances. It's not something they could really take on.
But other folks don't. Their finances aren't so complicated,
and they could do something like make all of their monthly expenses on a credit
card, pay it off at the end of the month, take their whole paycheck in Bitcoin,
and folds right there in the sweep.
Music.
OK, it's time for the final clip
of the week. And one of the names getting thrown around is the new U.S.
Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bassett. And compared to Janet Yellen,
I have to admit he is like a cold glass of water to a desperate man that is
very thirsty in the desert.
And he's also fairly pro-Bitcoin.
And I think he gets it at a different level than most politicians,
which kind of a big deal for the Treasury Secretary of the United States.
And I think that everything's on the table with Bitcoin.
And to me, one of the most exciting things about Bitcoin is for a generation
of investors who maybe post the great financial crisis had been looking for
investment opportunities or maybe they'd soured on markets.
Crypto is bringing in young people. It's bringing in the people who haven't
participated in markets.
I think this is nailing it, especially for millennials that entered the workforce
after the year 2000, around the year 2000.
You know, there was pretty quickly the dot-com bust, which sucked for jobs.
And there was recessions that kind of hiccuped from that. That was pretty bad.
Then you fast forward a little bit. And of course, there was things like 9-11
and the Iraq War and all of that that were treacherous for the market as well in between there.
But then you fast forward to 2008, the great financial collapse,
devastating for income for the millennials.
And between 2008 and the dot-com boom, I became inherently skeptical of the
stock market. It just seems way too risky to me.
You know, like look at Microsoft and Google right now.
Their stocks are doing bad. And Google, they even exceeded expectations in some
cases. They just didn't do a good enough job.
You just can't really bet on a stock. It just doesn't feel safe.
I wasn't interested in any of this stuff until Bitcoin came along.
Bitcoin gave me the lens to learn and care about money.
And now I'm more interested in wider products in the stock market,
like ETFs potentially and things like that. Not Bitcoin ETFs, but other ones.
And if it wasn't for Bitcoin, I probably wouldn't be participating in any of this.
So the fact that the Treasury secretary gets it, to me, is literally a 180 from
the previous administration.
Maybe post the great financial crisis had been looking for investment opportunities
or maybe they'd soured on markets.
Crypto is bringing in young people. It's bringing in the people who haven't
participated in markets.
And, you know, having a market culture in the U.S. and people believing the
markets work for them is.
Music.
All right, let's take a look at the state of the network. Before we get out
of here, the show is wrapping up at block height 882,429.
There are currently 21,941 reachable nodes. Oh, we are so close to 22,000.
Literally, this audience could move that over to 22,000 reachable Bitcoin nodes
if just 60 of you out there launched a node this week.
Now, the Bitcoin price is down 10.7% from its all-time high.
So my favorite stat, which is sats per dollar, we're back above the 1,000 threshold.
Sats per dollar right now is 1,026 sats to one U.S.
Greenback because the Bitcoin price is sitting at 97,500 U.S. greenbacks.
You know what? 97,000 Bitcoins, okay by me. The rest of the network hums on TikTok next block.
The USD price and all the fiat prices are really external to the network because
the Bitcoin network is strong.
Music.
Links to what I talked about at This Week in Bitcoin.show. Of course,
the back catalog is over there.
Definitely some episodes about stable coins and how they're going to drive dollar
dominance, or at least the dollar network dominance.
And of course, my thoughts on volatility shifting to the Trump administration's policies.
All of the groundwork for that was laid several weeks ago. Check that out at
thisweekinbitcoin.show.
Please do boost in, support the show, and tell me what you'd like to hear,
what you thought maybe I missed, or any of the feedback questions I've asked.
And of course, I always love it when you share the show with a friend.
Now we're going to wrap it up with a value for value track this week.
This one is, I went spelunking and I just found it going through albums.
Music.