My job will be to set you free and to let you do what Americans do best and what you're
going to do better than anybody. Win, win, win, win. You're going to win, win, win.
Welcome into this week in Bitcoin, episode 20, a special report as Bitcoin 2024 Nashville just
wraps up as Trump walks off stage. And yeah, we'll be getting into the substance of his Bitcoin
policy that he announced and I'm going to try to avoid all the campaign stuff, cut it down,
but I've been monitoring the entire event so you don't have to. And while it feels a bit awkward
having politicians start telling us everything we've ever wanted to hear, I do think we should
take some stock. It was less than a full epoch ago that Bitcoiners were just thrilled to get the
attention of the president of El Salvador, shout out to Pekeli. But now, Bitcoiners are being
courted from both the right and the left in the US. And my hope is, is that this set's a standard
for international politicians that internationally politicians start to recognize there's a cohort
of voters that have some issues that are very important to them. And I think what Bitcoin 2024
will do is it'll set the stage for the rest of the politicians around the world to finally get it.
So what happens here is going to spread. And so that's why I think we should take stock and talk
about why this is such a historic conference. And you know, RFK Jr. kind of said the quiet part out
loud during his speech as to why Bitcoiners make such a good voting cohort.
Fight their different, they're different viewpoints. I found the most striking feature of Bitcoin
community is this kind of paradoxical juxtaposition marked by fierce divisions on several minor issues
and an overwhelming sense of unity within the larger Bitcoin ecosystem. The Bitcoin community
reminds me of how American politics ought to be fiercely diverse, but ultimately united in our
aspirations and our belief in our country and in our convictions that America is worth the fight.
Let me break down what he's saying there is he saying that there is a contingent perhaps 50 to
60 million people in the United States that all kind of coalesce around a common set of concerns,
beliefs, and priorities. That is an addressable cohort that these politicians can understand,
wrap their heads around and address the concerns of an attempt to seek their votes.
This is how it's supposed to work. How genuine you believe any of them. Well, that's really yet to be
seen, but each politician that went up on stage wanted to say something pretty momentous. Let's
stick with RFK for one more clip here. This is where RFK talks about the executive order that he would
issue when he enters office should he be elected. Oh, this is actually I included the beginning of his talk.
Yeah. Hello, Bitcoiners. I am so glad to be back from my second Bitcoin conference. Since last year
in Miami, I've been meeting with leaders and thinkers from this community. I've conferred with
Bitcoin miners with policymakers, with economists, with financial experts, with investors and developers,
entrepreneurs, the deep in my understanding of the extraordinary promise of Bitcoin for our country
and for our planet. One thing that was notable about RFK's introduction and Trump's introduction is
Trump took him quite a while to actually get to Bitcoin specifically where RFK kind of starts with Bitcoin.
After, after all I've learned, I intend as President of the United States to sign an executive order
on day one, directing the Department of Justice and the US Marshals to transfer the approximately
200,000 Bitcoin held by the US government to the United States Treasury where it will be held as a strategic asset.
On day one is President. I will sign another executive order directing the US Treasury to purchase
550 Bitcoin daily until the US has built a reserve of at least 4 million Bitcoins.
DCA, baby. A hand up position of dominance and no other country will be able to use SERP.
Our nation holds approximately 19% of global gold reserves. This policy will give us about the same
proportion of total Bitcoin. The cascading impact from these actions will eventually move Bitcoin
to a valuation of hundreds of trillions of dollars. On day one as President, I will sign also an
executive order directing the IRS to issue public guidelines that all transactions between Bitcoin
and the US dollar are unreportable transactions.
And by extension, not untaxable. Yeah, they got it. They got it.
Later in the speech, RFK Jr said that he holds now the majority of his wealth in Bitcoin after
the winnings from a lawsuit against a pharmaceutical company. And I watched his entire speech and I
would say he seems to understand Bitcoin specifically better than most politicians that I've seen
speak about it. But there have been others. So, RFK is running as an independent. But Democrat
Congressman Row Connuss says that the US needs to be leaders in Bitcoin, kind of echoing things we've
also heard from Trump. So you're not increasing fossil fuel emissions by using Bitcoin. And that's
something that government can do. But the bottom line is that you want America to lead when it comes
to Bitcoin and make sure that the appreciation of it is something that benefits the United States
and that we're setting the financial standards. Great. So over the course of the past two days
and into this afternoon, we're going to hear about a lot of executive orders or proposals for
executive orders. But I know that there is some bipartisan legislation that has popped up from time
to time in Congress. How far are we away in your mind of getting something past is actually a bipartisan
approach, sensible regulation and some sort of term defining that everybody can agree with and
know what the rules of the game are. How far away are we from that? Well, I've supported two bipartisan
pieces of legislation. One, a Republican bail by Patrick McEnry, fit 21, that applies not just
to Bitcoin, but to all cryptocurrencies to say that we need regulatory clarity. We need to say what
the SEC can do, what the CFTC can do. And we need to make sure that the software developers aren't caught up
in being penalized. And that passed with 70 plus Democrats in the House. It's a good sign.
It's a good sign. So you have up and down the ticket, Tim Scott was there along with Senator
Lomis. They had a really rowdy kind of like pre-talk. I might play some of that depending if we have time.
But what I thought was interesting is these senators would go up on stage like you just heard
Rokana there or like I just mentioned Tim Scott. They would give their pitch. They don't always
really appreciate the difference between the wider crypto ecosystem and Bitcoin. Although they
clearly have been brief slightly, they try to walk the line, but they just don't I think intuitively
understand it in most cases. And so they go up there. They do their speech. And then what's interesting is
they're then going back to their offices and they're releasing policy statements to kind of back up
what they set up on stage. Or in the case of Tim Scott, they're going on national television and
trying to promote their position on national TV. I remember when he said it. I thought it was
unfortunate. I think I was shaking my head and I wish he hadn't, but he has made a transition
at this point too. I don't know if he's a full Bitcoin maximalist, but he is on board. And I
guess we're going to hear that on Sunday. So Joe, you just said you were a profit. That's good to know.
Here's what I can tell you with that any question. You were not alone. 20,000 more people
showing up at a financial conference here in Nashville is a big deal. Bitcoin's future has to be
in America. Well, we know about the Biden administration and the SEC is they've been anti-Bitcoin,
anti-digital assets. Elections have consequences. If I have the good fortune of being the chairman
of the next banking committee, what we're going to do is make sure that innovation happens in America.
That means that the regulations cannot be oppressive and we cannot have an SEC nominee that
actually wants to run it back to China. Now Tim Scott, as you may have been able to understand
there, he is set if the Republicans get the leadership position to be the head of the banking
committee in Congress and he would be pro Bitcoin. So he's kind of, it's kind of a big deal in the
sense that he would be sort of sitting on a very influential position around banking and he has a pro
Bitcoin stance. Let's talk a little bit about sort of that stage. So that stage at the Bitcoin
conference is really several stages and they're all going all of the time and we only get to get
bits and pieces. But on some of the different stages, we have different types of guests and some of
them are talking more microfinances, some of their talking open source software. And of course,
you got the big headliner stage, right? And the big headliner stage had all kinds of anticipation.
We knew Trump was coming. We had the RFK speech on the day before. So we knew like, this is where all
the big heavy hitters are going to be. But the reason why all the expectations were set is because
before, I'd say midweek, before the event even kicked off, people started leaking that we might
hear a big announcement at the conference. And Senator Cynthia Lumis went on television to tease
that there might be a big announcement. No central bank digital currency. I'm so happy about that
because that's a means of surveillance of the American people. But we want to make sure people can
have individual wallets for their Bitcoin. So they have that sovereign over their own money. We know
we want the US dollar to remain strong. And actually having Bitcoin in reserve can help the US dollar
remain strong. What have Bitcoin in reserve? Yeah, that started then that was midweek. So that really
started to set the expectations. And then of course, Kathy Wood, our investors, if the rumors are
true, it's going to be huge. You know, this is not an instrument of monetary policy at all. But it
simply goes on our balance sheet, Michael Sailor gave us some really good talking points there.
This could be transformational transformational transformational for Bitcoin holders.
And you know, I suppose it's probably true. So let's talk about this. Why are
why are the Republicans falling all over themselves to court Bitcoiners? Why does Kathy Wood say there'd be
a massive transformational change of Bitcoin is put in reserve? I think the unspoken part of it is
everyone expects it would kick off sort of that great nation state game theory that individuals would
want to buy into individuals and nation states would want to start buying Bitcoin before each other
and kind of kicks off this buying frenzy, which drives the value up. This is this stuff always kind of
gets talked about. You know, these are big promises to make an election season and we'll see where
these go. But before Trump got on stage, he was about 15 minutes late. And so here's all these
expectations. Donald Trump, he's going to come up on stage. He's going to make this big promise.
And he ends up being 15 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes late. And he comes on stage with a joke as
to why he's late. A little more time. I said, you take all the time you want. He's talking about the secret
service. You can take two hours, three hours, the hell with the people that have been waiting out here.
I'm sure they don't mind either, but it is a great honor. And a lot of things are happening in the
world. We just heard you probably heard that Israel was just attacked or is severely attacked.
So he doesn't start by talking about Bitcoin. He starts with what is a typical kind of Trump campaign
talk about Israel and whatnot. So I skipped ahead and I wanted to kind of focus on the policy stuff
that he talks about. And one of the things he said that I thought was it's an interesting insight
for somebody his age. And I think probably appropriate is that he thinks that Bitcoin may end up
being the new steel industry in the US. Many of you, but this is the kind of spirit that built
America. And this is the spirit that's going to help us make America great again. So what we're doing.
I stand before you today filled with respect and admiration for what the Bitcoin community has
achieved. It's incredible actually. I sort of say to my sons, it's like incredible because they
do so much about it is so they're so aware of it much more so than people that are a little bit older.
But I say this is the steel industry of a hundred years ago. It really is. I think you're just in your
infancy. I can see it happening. In just 15 years Bitcoin is gone from merely an idea posted
anonymously on an internet message board to being the ninth most valuable asset anywhere in the
world. Can you believe that? Is that right? That's a big deal. Yeah. He then says you better watch out.
Gold. I think it's coming for you. Just about a moment the people really liked. He talks a little
bit as to why he's focusing on Bitcoin now. The reason I've come to address the Bitcoin community
today can be summed up into very simple words. America first because if we don't do it China is going
to be doing this is going to be doing it. Let's do it and do it right. Watching the entire speech
it really seems like Trump has come to a point where he recognizes there is nation-level competition
here and an opportunity to kind of integrate a Bitcoin policy in both the economic side to help
produce growth in the energy side to help grow the energy sector and then of course just in this
kind of America trying to claim the future. America is the one that makes the big leaps and Trump says
if Bitcoin is going to go to the moon he wants he wants the us of a to be the ones to take it there.
This afternoon I'm laying out my plan to ensure that the United States will be the crypto
capital of the planet and the Bitcoin superpower of the world and we'll get it done.
If crypto is going to define the future I want to be mind-minted and made in the USA it's going to
be it's not going to be made anywhere else and if Bitcoin is going to the moon as we say it's
going to the moon I want America to be the nation that leads the way and that's what's going to happen
though you're going to be very happy with me. He does have some specifics he says on day one he'll
end Chalk Point 2.0. I pledge to the Bitcoin community that the day I take the oath of office
Joe Biden Kamala Harris's anti crypto crusade will be over it will end it'll be done.
He does actually later specifically state Chalk Point 2.0 and anti Bitcoin and anti crypto
business policies. But the line that probably got the biggest praise out of all of them even though
there's some bigger announcements he makes I in my opinion later on in the speech but the speech
you know it gets the applause it gets and the the line that got the most applause firing Gary
Gensler the SEC chief Elizabeth Warren and her goons and she's very nasty to you she hates your
people she hates everything about you will keep their hands off Bitcoin they're going to keep
their hands off crypto they get let it grow we're going to let it grow on day one I will fire Gary
Gensler in a point a new SEC chairman
I didn't know he was that unpopular
wow I think it was really surprised in fact he was so surprised Trump loves attention you know
and if he can get a if he can get a round of applause he'll go for it again he'll just do it again
wow I didn't know he was that unpopular let me say it again on day one I will fire Gary Gensler
wow
I as far as I recall this is the only time we got the Trump Trump Trump chant was when he says he'd
fire Gary I will appoint a new SEC chairman who believes America should build the future not block
the future which is what they do now there was other moments the more actual policy thing that I
heard him mention is that he plans a pro crypto council that would likely be responsible for
helping form pro crypto business regulation a bond taking office I will immediately appoint a
Bitcoin and crypto presidential advisory council would anybody like to be on that particular council
please raise your hand their task will be to design transparent regulatory guidance for the
benefit of the entire industry and they will get it done in one hundred days we will have regulations
but from now on the rules will be written by people who love your industry not hate your
industry people that want to make it clear and simple straightforward and fair people that want
to see your industry thrive not die next I will immediately order the treasury department and other
federal agencies to cease and desist all steps necessary because you know there's a thing going
on in your industry they want to move the creation of a central bank digital currency it's over
forget it who not the CBDC oh no no no CBDC CBDC there will never be a CBDC while I'm president of the
United States and I will always defend the right to self-custody self-custody you're gonna have a
great industry you're gonna have a great industry and we're going to be fuel I like the remarks about
self-custody of course I think that's good and he had them going and then they got a little quiet
when he mentioned staple coins as part of our refer to provide regulatory clarity we will create
a framework to enable the safe responsible expansion of staple stable coins you know what a stable coin is
does anybody know please raise your hand yeah not much not much love for the staple coins there
you know I think the thing that you have to understand is the administration is going to be pro crypto
not pro Bitcoin and I'm not even sure if they fully get the nuance I think this conference helped
his team was on the ground talking to people that legitimately was happening so I think they're
starting to understand the nuance there but you can tell just because they included this bit in the
speech they don't fully get it possible expansion of staple stable coins you know what a stable coin is
does anybody know please raise your hand allowing us to extend the dominance of the US dollar to
new frontiers all around the world America will be richer the world will be better and there will
be billions and billions of people brought into crypto economy and storing their savings in Bitcoin
oh wait so that's the way it is all right it's pretty much the way it is kind of say it's their
the end kind of says you know all right yeah but they're gonna they're gonna use those
stable coins to buy Bitcoin oh okay all right okay yes but I think the bit that people like hearing
is there was a one eighty that Donald Trump did in the past you know I think back in 2019 or
or something like that he said that he didn't like Bitcoin it's not money you know he likes the dollar
well here he says specifically that Bitcoin does not threaten the dollar goes who say that Bitcoin
is a threat to the dollar have the story exactly backwards I believe it is exactly backwards Bitcoin
is not threatening the dollar the behavior of the current US government is really threatening the
dollar right which he would he had no nothing to do with our financial future does not come
from crypto it comes from Washington DC oh that's true yeah yeah I suppose so and it's it's nice to
hear him seeing this and thinking this way he says the Bitcoiners also were right all along about
inflation it's a country buster the Bitcoiners and I say to you that you recognize the dangers of
inflation along before most others did you understood inflation frankly better than anybody else you
know that don't you if only they had listened they didn't listen to you yeah it's a
transitory mr. president's transitory Trump also another crowd pleaser affirms that he would
release Ross today I repeat my pledge to commute the sentence of Ross all brick to a sentence of
time sure it's enough it's enough they like the Ross getting the you know and it'd be good to see
I some people say when they hear that well then why didn't he release Ross during this first term
I don't even know if he knew if anybody out there knows otherwise if he'd ever made a statement
about Ross all-bricht before this you know before this campaign I'd love to know if he if he was
aware of him but that kind of wraps up all of the all of the many announcements and then he had his
big policy statement the one that everybody was expecting the one that was absolutely breaking news
don don don don't Donald Trump says he will create a reserve of us Bitcoin many Americans do not realize
that the United States government was among the largest holders of Bitcoin does anyone know that
how about that the federal governor's almost 210,000 Bitcoin or 1% of the total supply that will ever
exist but for too long our government has violated the cardinal rule that every Bitcoiner knows
by heart never sell your Bitcoin that's right isn't it that's right how did I figure that one
never sell your Bitcoin and so as the final part of my plan today I am announcing that if I am
elected it will be the policy of my administration United States of America to keep 100% of all the
Bitcoin the US government currently holds or acquires into the future will keep 100% I hope you do
well please this will serve an effect as the core of the strategic national Bitcoin stockpile as you know
not not a bad not a bad policy you know not as strong as RFK is where he's going to basically TCA
for 20 years but probably more realistic is to take that amount that they already have and just
simply keep it the other advantage that have of course that would remove those anger hangar
overs from the market people wouldn't be worried about those getting sold at some point in the future
so that's the major policy stuff and then he wrapped it up and says goodbye to everybody and kind
of a classic Trump way with your help we will save our nation we will restore our republic and we
will make America and Bitcoin bigger better stronger richer freer and greater than ever before thank
you all have a good time with your Bitcoin and your crypto and everything else that you're playing with
and we're going to make that one of the greatest industries on earth good luck and God bless you all
thank you God bless you thank you
as Trump pointed out himself he is the first president of the United States to ever address a Bitcoin
event and it was mostly a campaign speech as is Trump's typical fashion but there was some good
things in there you know acknowledging that Bitcoiners were the first to see inflation that was a nice
takeaway I had in the speech Trump says Bitcoin will probably overtake gold he said he'd fire Gary
Gensler said never sell your Bitcoin he also said that the danger to the dollar comes from Washington
DC and not Bitcoin and he says that the US should create a strategic Bitcoin stockpile I think what's
noteworthy about that is regardless if he gets in regardless if he actually does it that cats out
of the bag now that concept at the nation level is out and it was right here streamed live in front
of the world to see it and if Donald Trump does get into office and he does make good on that promise
it would likely kick off an arms race to get Bitcoin which would really be something to see the run
up to 2030 would really be pretty crazy I really hope it does kick that off I hope this is
influential to other nations as well of course all of our I guess I'm favorite you know I mean
air quotes favorite Bitcoiners always go out and do their thing you know they had a live stream of
course on a technical problems right before Trump went on air but otherwise was pretty good and whenever
you have a big event like this you got to get Mikey sailor out there and he had a couple of moments
I he had a few moments he had quite the talk you might go to find it on YouTube so far I just see
the entire live stream sessions but when he was on a Q&A on their live stream he said something that
I'd like to get your feedback on do you think that the US government should hold the majority of the
Bitcoin I think he talks about it in the context of the fact that the US government already holds
the reserve currency of the world and so this is a natural extension of that backing the dollar with
Bitcoin yeah well you know I think you back the dollar by by doing something economically rational
so when the United States actually purchased Louisiana and we expanded the country a double
the size of it we backed the dollar and when Seward bought Alaska and we found a trillion dollars of oil
underneath it we backed the dollar and when the when we developed a port of New York New York City
and we engaged in international commerce we backed the dollar so the country's got a look to the
future and the future of the country is in cyber space and Bitcoin is an essence cyber Manhattan so
the way you back the dollar is you buy Manhattan for pieces of paper and trinkets and you buy it
before it's worth hundreds of trillions of dollars just like the Dutch bought New York for
$50 worth of plastic beads and so I think that it's it's right in front of us the United States owns
the majority of the the gold in the world the US federal government owns 28% of the land
you know in the United States the US government should own the majority of the Bitcoin in the world
I'd like to know what you think about that send me in a boost
you think the United States should own the majority of the Bitcoin in the world it's likely
some nation state will right because they can print their trinkets they can just print their
fiat money and they can buy a hard asset that's capped and I think Mike's right in that in a hundred
years we'll look back at plastics little beads we'll look back at cash like we look at plastic beads
today and at least at some point in the future and it's just going to take some government that looks
forward a little bit and realizes we've got infinite fiat and we can buy this scarce thing
and a mic also had Mr. Saylor also had pretty good speech you know he's he's given this talk now in
different venues to different audiences and he kind of has different gears and he's refined it
and he's more bullish than ever but what's happening here's my macro bitcoin forecast it's 21 years
goes out to the year 2045 what do I think will happen will i've got a bear case in a bulk case but what
I think will happen is that 55% AR goes to 50% 45 40 35 30 30 25 20 it's between 50 and 20 it'll
gradually decelerate till it's growing about twice as fast as the s and p index and at that rate
bitcoin's 13 million dollars of coin in year 2045 13 million it could be it could be a 3 million
bear case it could be a 49 million bull case but see you got three million is his bear case I take
that as a bear have 49 million is his bulk 13 million it could be it could be a 3 million bear case
it could be a 49 million bull case but what is bitcoin 7% of the world's assets then
what about the rest of the assets well I actually think that ayes and technology gonna revolutionize
tech we had no companies worth a trillion then we had a bunch of trillion dollar companies
you're gonna see more because you're gonna see companies with 100,000 ayes and no employees and
they're gonna do the work of companies that you still have 100,000 employees you're gonna see
mega corpse develop you know shipping robots and self-driving cars and a company that gives a
personal physician to a billion people without any doctors on the payroll so clearly equity is
gonna grow fast gold's gonna get demonetized land obese less monetize but look here's the future in
2045 doesn't look that revolutionary it looks like today there you go it's not that exciting it looks
like more of what we've been doing today more bubbles everybody is that what he's saying I'd love
for you to boost in and tell me what you think and if you like this special edition a lean mean
focused on bitcoin 2024 national event and why and how and which politicians we're trying to get
your vote thanks for listening to this special short edition of this week in bitcoin I'll see you
right back here for a full episode an episode of 21 and I leave you with politics be damned by my gettings
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