Thank you. Hey everyone and welcome to the Bitcoin
Street Journal Market Update. I'm Zia. And I'm
Enzo. Get ready because today we're diving deep
into all the wild things happening in the Bitcoin
world right now. Exactly. And we're not doing
it alone. We've got an extremely knowledgeable
and fantastic Bitcoin expert joining us today
to break down all the latest news and trends.
Welcome. We're excited to have you. Thanks for
having me. Glad to be here. Awesome. So today's
gonna be packed, you guys. We're talking like
BlackRock's ETFs smashing records, some SEC shifts
that are like actually surprising, and you know,
a whole bunch of companies just like piling into
Bitcoin. Oh, yeah. Plus... we're going to get
into some really interesting takes on how to
even think about Bitcoin in the long term. Basically,
we are covering all the bases. So buckle up,
everyone. It's going to be a fast -paced, super
informative ride. Let's get into it. All right.
So let's kick things off with something huge.
BlackRock's ETF iBit just became the fastest
ETF ever to hit $70 billion in AUM. I mean, that's
insane, right? Absolutely, Enza. I mean, think
about it. Smashing past the old record by like
five times. It's not just impressive, it's a
total game changer. It shows how serious institutional
investors are about Bitcoin now. Seriously, what
do you think is driving that? Because like, I
still hear people saying Bitcoin is just for
nerds or something. Well... That's where Robert
Mitchnick comes in, actually. He was saying wealth
advisor adoption of Bitcoin is still very early.
That tells you something right there. These advisors
are finally getting their clients on board. So
it's not just like hedge funds anymore, right?
It's actual people, you know, with like regular
retirement accounts and stuff. Exactly. And these
wealth advisors, they aren't just throwing darts.
They're doing their due diligence. They're seeing
Bitcoin as a legitimate part of a diversified
portfolio, especially now that there's an ETF
that makes it so accessible. I mean, 70 billion.
That's a lot of zeros. So how do you think this
early adoption phase plays out over the next,
like, few years? Does it just keep growing exponentially?
I think we'll see more and more advisors allocating
a small percentage, maybe 1 % to 5 % to Bitcoin
for their clients. And that might not sound like
much, but when you multiply it by the trillions
of dollars these firms manage, that's a massive
influx of capital. Yeah, for sure. So is this
the signal that institutional adoption is really
here for good? Or is this like a flash in the
pan? No, Anza, this is the real deal. BlackRock's
not going to put their name on something unless
they're, you know, in it for the long haul. And
this ETF success, it's paving the way for even
more institutions to come on board. It reduces
the friction. OK, so BlackRock's making moves.
Wealth advisors are getting involved, but it's
not just them, right? I mean, what about these
companies like the Blockchain Group, Cooler?
and strategy. Yeah, exactly. I saw that like
each of them is raising a ton of money to, you
know, just buy more Bitcoin. What's the deal
with that? It's not just like a coincidence,
right? No, absolutely not. It's a trend. And
it's really interesting. You have the blockchain
group in France looking to raise like 300 million
cooler planning up to 300 million as well. And
then their strategy You know sailors crew upping
their stock offering to a billion for more buys
a billion That's that's sailor being sailor.
I guess but is it just like hopium or is there
a real? Strategy behind it. I think it's a multifaceted
strategy. Actually first they recognize, you
know bitcoins potential as a store value Especially
with all the fiat currency shenanigans going
on Second, it can boost their stock price. I
mean, look at strategy, right? A big Bitcoin
position makes them attractive to investors who
want to get exposure to Bitcoin without directly
holding it themselves. So it's like a Bitcoin
proxy stock. Precisely. And third, there's the
long -term game. They're betting, correctly in
my opinion, that Bitcoin will just keep appreciating,
right? These companies are positioning themselves
to be major players in a future where Bitcoin
is just way more integrated into the global economy.
Okay, so smart and strategic. What about a smaller
company like Cooler, though? They're not exactly
a household name. Right. But what a signal, right?
Cooler probably isn't trying to be a... Bitcoin
proxy stock, they're likely seeing an opportunity
to strengthen their balance sheet, protect against
inflation, and potentially even use Bitcoin in
future transactions. Like, who knows? So more
companies seeing the potential in holding Bitcoin
in their corporate treasury. It's not just Tesla
and strategy anymore. It seems like we're seeing
more of them. And that's a huge shift from just
a few years ago. It tells you how far Bitcoin
has come in terms of mainstream acceptance. This
isn't some fringe thing anymore. Speaking of
shifts, what about the SEC? I saw something about
Paul Atkins coming out in favor of Bitcoin's
self -custody. That's like a complete 180, right?
Yeah. It's kind of wild. I mean, wasn't the SEC
like public enemy number one for crypto just
a few months ago? Well, things are complicated.
But yeah, Paul Atkins, former SEC commissioner,
says self -custody is a foundational American
value. That's a big deal. But why the change
of heart, do you think? A few things, I think.
First, there's growing recognition that, you
know, not allowing self -custody is just impractical,
right? How can you really stop someone from holding
their own private keys? True. It's like trying
to ban cash. Exactly. Second, there's a growing
understanding that, you know, self -custody can...
reduce risk, actually. If you hold your own coins,
you're not relying on some centralized exchange
that could get hacked or go bankrupt. You control
your own destiny, in other words. And third,
there's just the political pressure, right? From
who? From, you know, the crypto community, from
politicians who see the potential of Bitcoin
and even from the courts, maybe. The SEC's track
record in crypto cases hasn't exactly been stellar,
you know? So it's like they're finally starting
to realize that fighting against Bitcoin is a
losing battle? Well... losing battle might be
too strong, but they're definitely, uh, reassessing
their approach. And Atkin's comments are a clear
sign of that, actually. It really... changes
the whole regulatory landscape, you know? So
does that mean smoother sailing for DeFi and
blockchain innovation? Hopefully. Atkins even
mentioned, you know, the SEC needs to change
rules to provide incentives to issuers in blockchain
systems. That's huge. It suggests they're looking
at ways to, you know, encourage innovation, not
stifle it, you know? Okay, but... Hold on does
that mean the SEC is just gonna let defy run
wild There's still got to be regulations, right?
Of course, but the regulations might be more
Tailored, you know more focused on protecting
consumers and less on Just killing innovation
Okay, so the SEC seems to be warming up to Bitcoin
but What about the macro picture? I saw something
about the U .S. issuing, like, a ton of new treasuries.
Yeah, I saw that too. Something like 10 trillion
dollars? Isn't that like a third of our national
debt? It is. And that's significant, to say the
least. So, what does that mean for Bitcoin? Well,
you know... In a nutshell, it makes Bitcoin look
a lot more attractive. How so? Because when the
government prints that much money, it devalues
the currency, right? That's inflation in its
simplest form. And when your currency is losing
value, you need to find something to store your
wealth in, right? Like Bitcoin? Exactly. Bitcoin
is a limited asset. There will only ever be 21
million coins. So as the dollar loses value,
Bitcoin theoretically should hold its value or
even increase in value. You know, it becomes
a hedge against inflation, kind of. Okay, I get
that. So it's like a digital gold. It's similar.
Yeah, although Bitcoin has some advantages over
gold. It's easier to transport, easier to store,
and much easier to verify its authenticity. Plus,
it has this whole potential for disrupting traditional
finance. The gold just doesn't have. So basically,
the more the government prints money, the more
people might Flock to Bitcoin. That's the theory
anyway, and you know, we're already seeing some
evidence of that more and more institutional
investors are Starting to allocate a portion
of their portfolios to Bitcoin Because they're
worried about inflation partially. Yeah, but
also because they're starting to recognize Bitcoin
as a Legitimate asset class actually, you know,
it's it's not just some internet fad anymore.
It's a real Store of value make sense it all
comes down to Supply and demand right if the
supply of dollars keeps increasing and the demand
for Bitcoin keeps increasing The price is going
to go up. You know, it's Simple economics really
so um, maybe we should be thanking the government
for printing all that money I wouldn't go that
far, but it certainly doesn't hurt Bitcoin put
it that way So speaking of prices, I saw this
tweet from Joe Consorti saying that home prices
have dropped like 99 % in the last decade when
priced in Bitcoin. That's intense. Yeah, Joe's
got a very Bitcoin centric worldview. Let's put
it that way. OK, but is he wrong? Well, no, not
factually. He's making a valid point. You know,
it's just about perspective. Meaning? Meaning,
you know, most people think about prices in terms
of dollars or euros, you know, whatever their
local currency is. But consortia is saying, hey,
what if we priced everything in Bitcoin instead?
And then everything gets cheaper? Relatively,
yes, because Bitcoin's value has increased. so
dramatically over the past decade. So if you
measure the price of a house in Bitcoin, it looks
like it's plummeted, right? Even though the dollar
price might have stayed the same or even gone
up. So it's more about Bitcoin getting more valuable
rather than houses getting less valuable. Exactly.
It's about relative value. and it's a really
interesting way to think about long -term wealth
preservation. If you believe that Bitcoin will
continue to appreciate in value, then holding
Bitcoin is a better strategy than holding dollars,
right? Okay, so I see what you're getting at.
So you're saying... consortia's point is stop
thinking in dollars and start thinking in Bitcoin.
Precisely. It's a mental shift, you know, about
what we consider to be real money. Okay. So everything's
getting more expensive and Bitcoin is going to
be what keeps us afloat. In theory, which is
why all this talk about volatility is so important.
Absolutely. And that's where the ETFs come in,
right? I mean, you've seen Bitcoin's volatility
has actually dropped quite a bit recently. Really?
I hadn't really noticed. How much are we talking?
Well, one metric put it in the 10th percentile,
which means... It's less volatile than like 90
% of the weeks over the last decade. And that's
despite hitting all time highs recently. Wow,
so less volatile even with all the craziness?
That's wild. What's the deal? A lot of people
are saying it's because of the ETFs. You know,
they bring a lot more institutional money, which
tends to be less twitchy, I guess you could say.
less likely to panic sell at the first sign of
trouble? Exactly. It's like adding ballast to
a ship. You know, it helps to stabilize things.
And that reduced volatility, it's a huge deal
for institutional investors. Why? Well, you know,
a lot of these big funds, they have... volatility
budgets, right? They can only allocate a certain
amount of their portfolio to like risky assets.
If Bitcoin is less volatile, it automatically
becomes more attractive to them, you know? So
it's kind of a self -fulfilling prophecy. The
more institutions buy in, the less volatile it
gets, and the less volatile it gets, the more
they buy in. Potentially, yeah. I mean, that's
the hope, right? And it's not just about attracting
new investors either. It also affects Bitcoin's
potential as a store of value. The more stable
it is, the better it is at preserving wealth
over the long term. So speaking of ways to store
value, what's the deal with stable coins? Yeah,
I saw something about the stable coin market
exploding. What's going on there? Oh man stable
coins are huge the total value of stable coins
in circulation has climbed past 250 billion dollars.
No kidding. That's like a real number now and
where was it before well, it's a More than double
from a low of like A lot of it is just the demand
for stable ways to transact within the crypto
ecosystem. People want to be able to move value
around quickly and easily without all the volatility
of something like Bitcoin, right? So stable coins
kind of fill that gap. Makes sense. I mean, nobody
wants to wake up and find out their coffee money
is suddenly worth half as much. Exactly. You're
also seeing a lot more real -world use cases
for stable coins now, too. I mean, people are
using them for remittances, for cross -border
payments, for all sorts of things. So is it still
just like USDT and USDC dominating the market,
or are there new players coming up? USDT and
USDC are still the big dogs for sure. I think
USDT's got like 62 % of the market and USDC's
around 24%. But yeah, you're definitely seeing
a growing tale of other stables gaining ground
like DAI, FRAX, GUSD. There are a lot of. you
know, smaller ones trying to break through. I
guess the better choice could be to stake USDT
and make good money. Is that... a good thing,
you think? More competition? Yeah, definitely.
I mean, more competition usually leads to better
products and services, right? And it also reduces
the risk of one single stablecoin... collapsing
and taking down the whole ecosystem with it.
Kind of like how you don't want any one bank
to be too big to fail. Exactly. It spreads the
risk and it also encourages innovation. You know,
different stable coins are experimenting with
different mechanisms to maintain their peg. And
that's all good for the long -term health of
the market. Okay, so we've talked about stable
coins and we've talked about you know big money
and regulations What about something a little
more? Wild West I saw something about Paraguay's
president getting hacked. Oh Yeah, I saw that
too What was that all about? Yeah, that was weird.
So basically the Paraguayan president's Twitter
account X account was apparently hacked, right?
And someone posted a message saying that Bitcoin
was going to become legal tender in Paraguay.
Whoa! Hold on. They just went full El Salvador?
Well, no. That's the thing. It was pretty quickly
debunked. The Paraguayan government came out
and said, uh, yeah, no, that's not happening.
The president's account was compromised. So it
was a total... fake? Yeah, pretty much. It was,
uh... a... clumsy attempt to, uh... spread misinformation,
I think. Wow. That's kind of... scary though,
right? Like, if people hadn't caught on so quickly,
it could have caused some real chaos. Exactly.
And that's the thing about the crypto space,
right? It's still relatively unregulated. And
there's a lot of room for misinformation and
scams to spread. So always Double -check your
sources, kids. Don't just, you know, believe
everything you see on Twitter. Okay, so where
does this all leave us, right? Is there anything
else that we should be, you know, keeping an
eye on? Yeah, any bold predictions that we should
know about, you know? Something we can tell our
listeners to idle, get excited about, or, you
know, be really skeptical about. Well, you know,
uh... Arthur Hayes. He's always got something
to say. Oh yeah, Arthur Hayes. The BitMix guy,
right? What's he been spouting lately? Well,
he's still super bullish on both Bitcoin and
Ethereum. He's got really aggressive price targets
for 2025. Aggressive, huh? So what are we talking
numbers wise? Oh, you know, hundreds of thousands
for Bitcoin, tens of thousands for Ethereum.
I can't remember the exact numbers off the top
of my head. Wow, those are some serious numbers.
So what's driving his optimism. You know, it's
the same old story, right? More institutional
adoption, more government debt, the continued
erosion of the fiat system, basically everything
we've been talking about today. Makes sense.
Yeah. So is he just all about the price or is
there anything else he's interested in? Well,
he also talks a lot about Bitcoin treasury companies.
He thinks that, you know, more companies are
going to start holding Bitcoin on their balance
sheets. Like a strategy, you mean? Exactly. And
he thinks that these companies could become really
valuable because, you know, they're basically
leveraged bets on Bitcoin. So a company like
MetaPlanet in Japan? Yeah, exactly. Think MetaPlanet,
but on a much larger scale. Companies that are
basically pure play Bitcoin exposure. He's really
excited about that entire trend. Interesting.
So... Should we all be rushing out to buy shares
in these Bitcoin treasury companies? Well, you
know, I'm not a financial advisor, but it's definitely
something to think about. It's a potentially
high growth sector, but it's also really risky,
of course. I mean, everything in crypto is risky.
Okay, so wrapping things up, what are our main
takeaways here? Yeah, what's the bottom line
for our listeners? I mean, what should they actually
remember from all of this? Well, you know, the
big picture... is Bitcoin is clearly not going
anywhere. It's becoming more and more ingrained
in the global financial system. ETFs are a huge
deal. Corporations are starting to take notice.
And even the SEC seems to be warming up a little
bit. Yeah, that is huge. Even small steps forward
are important. Totally. I agree. So Where do
we go from here? What's the outlook for the next
like few months? I think We're gonna see more
of the same honestly continued institutional
adoption more volatility of course probably some
regulatory hiccups along the way, but Overall,
I'm still bullish Well, that's good to hear.
Thanks so much for sharing your insights with
us today. I think we all learned a lot. Yeah,
thank you. Really appreciate your time and your
expertise. My pleasure. Always happy to talk
Bitcoin. So that's it for this edition of the
Bitcoin Street Journal Market Update. Yeah, we
hope you enjoyed the show and we'll be back next
week with another deep dive into the world of
Bitcoin. Next time we're going to be talking
about the latest developments in DeFi and what
it means for the future of finance. So be sure
to tune in. And don't forget to subscribe so
you can keep up with the street and stay up to
date with all the latest on Bitcoin. See you
on the next block.