Today's Articles:

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
It is 08:52AM
Pacific Daylight Time. It is the September
2025.
This is episode
eleven sixty five of Bitcoin,
and I'm your host David Bennett. This is where you're gonna come
to find out what's going on with Bitcoin and some of the wider issues and boy howdy

(00:22):
do we have some wider issues going on today.
Nepal
is
not connected directly with with what's going on with Bitcoin, but I I feel it would be I would be remiss
if I didn't at least go over that. But we are gonna talk about paper Bitcoin.
India is also in the news.

(00:44):
The
Securities and Exchange Commission chair has completely
reversed Gary Gensler's generalized stance
on, quote, unquote, crypto.
We've got
we've got a bill in congress that's that's demanding
things out of the Bitcoin reserve plan.
We've got Belarus in the news.

(01:06):
We've got EasyJet
founder in the news. Meta Planet's always in the news.
And, well,
Microsoft and Bitcoin mining has now been connected somehow.
I'm gonna tell you all about it. But first, again,
even though it's not connected to Bitcoin,
we've got some very dark times that are just it's right on the horizon.

(01:32):
We got Israel going after Qatar
saying something about Hamas.
We've got this poor woman on this bus. I can't even go to Twitter
at this point because all I see
is this dude
killing this poor woman on this bus. And I it's it's nightmare fuel for me.

(01:53):
Not only because she got killed,
but almost as bad
almost as bad is the fact that nobody helped.
You
know, I mean, just
and and the looks on the people's faces was like, oh, shit. So that just happened. They weren't horrified.
They didn't look horrified. They just

(02:15):
didn't help her and and just left her.
And that's
the other end of the nightmare fuel.
That is just dark. And then we've got this stuff going on in DePaul.
So I I just wanna give you a rundown of what's going on in DePaul in case
you're going you're seeing flashes in the news, maybe flashes on Twitter, maybe flashes on TikTok, but you're not really sure what the hell's going on.

(02:40):
Let me back up to September 8.
Nepal has just gone through one of the most dramatic
youth led uprisings
in recent memory, and it all started
with a government social media ban.
On September 4, authorities blocked 26
platforms, Facebook, YouTube, x, and even LinkedIn,

(03:02):
claiming that they weren't properly registered,
that single move lit that fuse.
Gen z was already furious over corruption,
unemployment, and the nepotism
of political elites
erupted. It just
it was like dropping.
It detonated. It didn't erupt. It freaking detonated.

(03:24):
And what began as frustration over access to memes and messaging quickly turned into mass protests
across Kathmandu
and well beyond. Now the government tried to contain it with the usual playbook,
tear gas, rubber bullets, and eventually,
live rounds,
and it backfired.

(03:44):
Teenagers and young adults kept pouring into the streets. They were using VPNs. They were using alternative apps to coordinate and communicate.
The death toll started to mount because of the live rounds.
Building started burning. This is this is the big one. This may have been one of the pictures that you've seen.
The Parliament Building, which is, like, the largest

(04:07):
palace in Asia, as far as I can tell,
burnt to the ground.
The supreme court,
on fire. The prime minister's residence,
on fire. And the country's leadership,
they just cracked.
They just cracked, man. Home minister Ramesh Leqak
stepped

(04:27):
down, then the prime minister, KP Sharma Ali,
resigned outright.
He's hiding out in the army barracks while the military takes control of the airport
and then started to impose curfews.
Now Nepal
sits in uncharted territory, don't they?
It's called the Nepo kid trend,

(04:49):
and it was mocking the lifestyles of political heirs who transformed into something much larger,
a generational demand for a system that isn't corrupt to its core.
Protesters insist that they're not done calling for parliament to be dissolved
and a new inclusive constitution drafted, and figures like Kathmandu's young mayor,

(05:09):
Balandra
Shaw, are stepping up with open support signaling that Gen z
isn't
just tearing it down.
Apparently, they wanna build it back up, but, you know, we'll have to see if that actual if that actually happens or if this
just devolves into a militarily
led country

(05:30):
for the next God only knows how many years.
The point is, there's two two real things here. The media is spinning at this and just blaming Gen z.
They're just saying this is all Gen z. I don't buy it. I think there's a lot of young people in the street,
but I don't think that it's only young people in the street in Nepal.

(05:51):
I think that that's crap. I think they want to pin it on the youth of Nepal
instead of saying, no. Every all the citizenry of Nepal pretty much feels like they're being robbed. And guess what? That sentiment pretty much drags over to
all the rest of the countries in the world.
So the important

(06:11):
thing to remember here is that they physically burnt the Parliament Building to the to the ground. This would be like the Capitol Building in The United States being burnt to the ground by its own citizenry.
This shit's starting to catch on fire, and I'm not just talking about buildings. I'm talking about people
are freaking done.

(06:34):
Will it spread?
I actually think it will.
Will it be enough? That one,
who knows?
But
we're entering into some fairly dark times here.
And I don't mean to be a a doomsayer or anything like that. I'm just saying be aware.
Things are changing.

(06:55):
Whether for the good or for the bad or for the better or for the worse, who knows?
Who knows?
But one thing is always there for us,
Bitcoin.
And what's Bitcoin been doing? Well, the price is kinda flip flopping and going sideways and
relatively

(07:15):
relatively
stagnating. It's okay. We've been here before. But Bitcoin Magazine's Matt Crosby
has this to say, is paper Bitcoin behind the stagnant Bitcoin price?
Well, it is. We're coming to the end of paper Bitcoin summer.
Will it be paper Bitcoin fall? I don't know. But the Bitcoin price has left many investors puzzled in recent weeks.

(07:37):
Despite significant accumulation by institutions and treasury companies, the Bitcoin price has remained stuck
sideways.
Is this a result of paper Bitcoin,
or are we simply witnessing the push and pull of supply and demand?
Over the past few months, ETFs and treasury companies have accumulated
an estimated,

(07:58):
200,000
BTC.
For prospective, total treasury holdings
now sit just shy of 1,000,000
Bitcoin.
Yet despite these flows,
the Bitcoin price has flatlined after briefly touching new all time highs above 120,000
before retracing to $1.00 8.
Why isn't this institutional demand reflected in the Bitcoin price?

(08:22):
The answer lies in profit taking by long term holders.
Since July,
more than 450,000
BTC
have moved from long term wallets into the hands of newer short term market participants.
This distribution has effectively neutralized
the bullish impact of institutional
inflows

(08:42):
on the Bitcoin price.
On chain data shows clear selling from cohorts holding Bitcoin
for four to ten years.
These investors accumulated at far lower prices and are now realizing profits.
This pattern is nothing new. Historically,
long term holders reduce exposure as retail and institutions

(09:05):
bid the price higher, only to reaccumulate
once the market cools.
Current HODL waves data indicates that selling pressure from this group is accelerating,
adding weight to the sideways chop that we've seen in the Bitcoin price.
Another drag on the price
is the rise in futures and options activity.

(09:25):
Since July, open interest in derivatives has climbed by roughly 50,000 BTC across exchanges. And while
this isn't direct evidence of, quote, paper Bitcoin,
it does mean capital is flowing into leveraged bets
rather than spot accumulation,
limiting upside pressure on the Bitcoin price.
CME futures and options markets

(09:47):
have also expanded significantly,
amplifying the influence of derivatives on short term Bitcoin price moves and the net effect.
More liquidity
tied up in contracts,
less direct buy pressure on BTC itself.
So is the Bitcoin price being manipulated
by paper claims?

(10:08):
Well, the evidence doesn't strongly support that conclusion.
What we're seeing is real time supply and demand economics at work.
200,000
BTC accumulated by institutions.
450,000
BTC distributed out by long term hodlers.
50,000 BTC
tied up in the derivatives market. And you add it all up, and it explains

(10:31):
why the price has stalled.
So there you go. If you wanted a reason as to why the chop why the chop consolidation,
this is why.
I actually agree with this. I don't think it's as much about
paper Bitcoin
summer as much as it is
just normal market action.

(10:53):
Shit. I mean, if you were holding Bitcoin and you bought it at 11¢,
you know, ten years ago or let's no. Actually, it'd be $2,250,
like, ten years ago.
Well, ladies and gentlemen, you probably sell a lot too if you had if you had a whole bunch of it.
That's that's just the market.

(11:14):
That's just the market. So what happens after chop consolidation?
Nobody knows. And anybody who says that they do is either lying to you or lying to themselves.
So let's move over to India.
India is resisting comprehensive crypto law.
It's wary that the regulation would legitimize

(11:34):
the industry, and this is according to Reuters, but is presented to us by James Hunt
from the block.
India is leaning against
creating comprehensive crypto legislation arguing that regulating the asset class would grant it legitimacy,
Reuters reported on Wednesday.
The country whose populist tops global crypto adoption

(11:58):
trends according to
Chainalysis, is instead likely to maintain partial oversight concerned
that integrating digital assets into its financial system could pose, quote, systemic risks.
It's always systemic risks, according to a government document.
The document reportedly cites the Reserve Bank of India's position that effectively regulating cryptocurrencies would be challenging.

(12:24):
It also noted that although an outright ban could address the alarming risks of largely speculative
crypto
assets,
it would not stop peer to peer transfers
nor activity on decentralized
exchanges.
Currently, global exchanges may operate in India if
if they register with a local agency for anti money laundering checks. However,

(12:48):
heavy taxes on crypto gains and repeated central bank warnings have kept trading within the formal financial system at a minimal level.
Indians hold around $4,500,000,000
worth of crypto
according to the document, an amount the government stated is neither significant
nor a threat
to financial stability.

(13:11):
The document also noted that limited regulatory clarity has so far contained risks with tax and other laws deterring speculation and penalizing fraud.
Still,
it stresses that with approaches differing worldwide,
setting a clear or uniform policy path for cryptocurrencies
is not straightforward.

(13:32):
The Indian government previously drafted legislation in 2021
aimed at banning private cryptocurrencies
altogether, though it ultimately decided against introducing the bill.
India then called for a global framework to regulate digital assets in 2023
and planned a discussion
paper on its stance the following year, but

(13:54):
deferred it to assess US regulatory developments first.
Let's see what the Americans are gonna do.
Elsewhere,
the global acceptance of cryptocurrencies has generally improved
since pro crypto US president Donald Trump took office in January.
Trump recently signed new stablecoin legislation into law, yada yada yada

(14:16):
yada yada yada yackity schmackity yackity poon.
It's India flip flopping all over again.
And they but what I find interesting here is that they come right out and say, we don't want to legitimize the industry.
Well, good luck. Because the industry has already been legitimized
on several fronts

(14:36):
from several different countries
during several different time frames. India, get your shit together. Otherwise, you're gonna be in the
back of the bus.
Speaking of,
the new SEC
chair says most tokens are not,
I repeat, not securities,

(14:56):
backs super app platforms.
Oh, for God's sake. See, the one thing that I liked about Gary Gensler is that he was correct about the fact that most cryptocurrencies
are indeed
securities. They're unregistered securities, and they shouldn't exist
at all. And now Paul Atkins
seems to be ushering in the second wave

(15:19):
of alt season.
But we've got more from
Ahmed Haqqanis
out of Cointelegraph.
US Securities and Exchange Commission
chair Paul Atkins said that most crypto tokens are not securities.
How the hell do you see that?
While outlining a sweeping plan

(15:42):
to integrate crypto activities like trading, lending, and staking under a unified regulatory framework. Quote, it is a new day. Woo. It's a new day at the SEC, Atkins said during keynote address
at the Organization for Economic Co operation and Development Roundtable in Paris
on Wednesday. Quote,
policy will no longer be set by ad hoc enforcement actions.

(16:05):
We will provide clear predictable rules of the road
so that innovators
can thrive in The United States, Atkins said.
Under the project crypto initiative,
the SEC claims to modernize its securities regulations
to accommodate blockchain based financial markets. Oh, yay.

(16:26):
According to Atkins, the president's
working group on digital assets markets
at digital asset markets
has already delivered a bold blueprint to support the mission.
Uh-huh. The SEC's
updated strategy includes allowing platforms to operate as super apps
that can facilitate

(16:47):
trading,
lending,
and staking of digital assets under one regulatory umbrella.
Atkins said that these platforms should also have the flexibility to offer multiple custody solutions. And he says, quote,
I believe regulators should provide the minimum effective dose of regulation needed to protect investors and no more.

(17:10):
We should not overburden
entrepreneurs with duplicative
rules that only the largest incumbents can bear, end quote.
Atkins also praised the European Union's marketing crypto assets framework,
saying it provides a comprehensive digital assets regime
and noted that US policymakers could learn from Europe's early regulatory steps.

(17:32):
That is bad.
When when when our own SCC is praising
Micah
out of European
the European Union,
watch out.
This is that was that is a huge red flag.
Oh, god. The SEC chief called for international cooperation

(17:55):
to facilitate
more innovative markets.
Quote, working together,
as Alexander de Tocqueville might have put it, we can't extend this fear of freedom
and prosperity, he concluded. Oh, for god's sakes. Last month,
the European banking authority finalized rules that will will require

(18:16):
EU based banks to hold significantly more capital against unbacked cryptocurrencies
like Bitcoin
and Shitcoin number one, and these draft regulatory standards
are now pending review by the European Commission.
Under the proposed framework,
unbacked digital assets such as Bitcoin fall into group two b,

(18:37):
literally the number two and the letter b, and carry a hefty
1250%
risk weight, meaning banks
must set aside a substantial
capital buffer.
Oh my god.
The
EBA's conservative approach contrast with moves and others other jurisdictions

(18:58):
in The United States. The FDIC
now allows supervised banks to engage in crypto activity without prior approval, while Switzerland has updated its DLT laws
to support crypto custody and stable coin guarantees.
The gist is,
Atkins
is probably not the best guy that we want right now. I this

(19:22):
is this administration is is turning.
JFK came out or or sorry. RFK. Robert Kennedy came out today. Do you remember when we were gonna get rid of all the pharmaceutical ads? Pharmaceutical
ads?
Well, as of today, they can stay according
to RFK. He said that they gotta devote at least 50%
of the, ad,

(19:44):
on TV that you see to side effects of of the drug that the pharmaceutical company is advertising.
And but, apparently, we're not gonna get rid of the pharmaceutical ads. So that's
that promise is gone.
Atkins has basically just come out and said it's a free for all. If you wanna spin up a token, it's definitely not gonna be an unregistered security. So he just unlocked that Pandora's box.

(20:10):
You know,
I I don't wanna sound negative here, but
I don't conclude this as being good news out of Paul Adkins, especially considering
that he's looking at Europe
as an example
to follow.
A little it's a little
little scary right there. But maybe we'll get better news here out of Bitcoin news. Alex Larry writing,

(20:37):
congress bill demands strategic Bitcoin reserve plans
within ninety days
In a move
that could change the role of digital assets in The United States financial policies,
congress has passed a bill directing the treasury department to study the creation of a Bitcoin strategic reserve.

(20:57):
I promise you this is actually written today. It's not an old news story.
The bill, HR 5,166,
was introduced on 09/05/2025
by rep
David Joyce from Ohio as part of the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations
Act for fiscal year 2026.

(21:18):
The bill doesn't authorize the government to buy Bitcoin itself.
Instead, it requires the Treasury
to deliver a full report within ninety days of enactment
on how such a reserve could be built,
managed, and secured.
The review will also cover a broader US digital asset stockpile

(21:38):
for years.
The federal government has handled Bitcoin mainly through forfeiture of assets
often tied to cybercrime and fraud cases. But this new legislation
marks a shift towards retention and long term strategy.
Currently,
the United States government holds an estimated a 198,000
to 207,000

(21:59):
BTC
worth somewhere between 17 and $20,000,000,000,
mostly seized from dark net markets.
Although, there have been reports that the state that state that the United States government owns only about 29,000
BTC of the stash
and the fate of the rest is still in bureaucratic limbo awaiting a court order.

(22:19):
Under the new framework,
congress is asking treasury to consider treating Bitcoin as a national reserve asset like gold or the strategic petroleum reserve.
Quote, this bill is a significant step forward in formally recognizing Bitcoin as a strategic asset
for our federal reserves,
says the text of HR fifty one sixty six. National security is front and center in the proposal.

(22:44):
The bill requires Treasury to work with the NSA or the National Security Agency
to produce a classified report on how to defend
said digital reserves from hacking,
insider threats,
foreign adversaries, etcetera etcetera.
Lawbakers are calling for a digital Fort Knox. Oh, is that one gonna be empty too?

(23:07):
The report must detail custody systems,
cybersecurity protections, and legal frameworks for managing Bitcoin and other digital assets.
It must also assess the impact of the Treasury
forfeiture fund, which recently
or which currently receives proceeds from seized assets.
Representative
Joyce said that the bill ensures the government remains fiscally responsible,

(23:31):
leverages new technology,
and is focused upon national security.
Yay.
One of the most interesting parts of the bill is what it does not allow.
Section one thirty of HR fifty one sixty six
explicitly
prohibits the Treasury
from using any of the funds to design or develop a US Central Bank digital currency

(23:54):
or
to get rid of paper
cash.
This shows the ongoing skepticism in congress, especially among them Republicans,
about the risks of a government issued digital dollar.
Instead, lawmakers seem
more willing to explore Bitcoin as a reserve asset
than a CBDC,

(24:14):
which reflects the broader debate about innovation, privacy, and financial stability.
The congressional push follows the March 2025 executive order by Trump
establishing a framework for a national Bitcoin reserve
funded by stolen asset. I'm sorry. I I said I mispronounced the word seized.

(24:37):
Trump's order made clear.
The government would not buy Bitcoin on the open market, but would instead rely on confiscation.
Wow.
Just not even hiding anymore. HR fifty one sixty six allocates $239,400,000
to treasury department offices through September

(24:57):
2026
with funds for cybersecurity,
IT modernization,
and financial audits.
Of that,
at least $9,000,000
is for financial assistance administration and up and up to 34,000,000
will be available until 2027
for treasury wide audit and cybersecurity
programs.

(25:18):
And then they talk a little bit about Cynthia Lummis, but we really don't need that. What we really need to do right here
is to understand that
we're
we may not ever get an actual Bitcoin reserve, but at least
at least this dude is saying, not only is Bitcoin to be a national reserve

(25:38):
asset,
it is to be listed as a strategic
national reserve asset. And there's clearly
a difference
in that particular
definition.
Strategic versus just,
we've got it. We're not gonna sell it. It's a national reserve asset. Hey. This is great. But once it becomes strategic,

(26:02):
now it falls under a whole bunch of different auspices, doesn't it? Doesn't it? That's that's why they're working with the NSA,
the National Security Agency on this. Because now
if
Bitcoin is defined as a national strategic reserve asset,
everything becomes much different. What's not different is the fact that they're still saying they just wanna steal Bitcoin

(26:28):
and hold it for themselves.
I don't agree with that. Let's run the numbers.
Well, it seems that Israel's attack on gutter has caused oil prices to, you know, change, and, obviously, they're in the green today. 2.17%

(26:52):
to the upside
for West Texas Intermediate at $64.01
per barrel. Brent Norsee is up two points
to $67.72.
Natural gas, however, does what it does. It goes down in these times.
Two and a quarter percent to the downside
listed at $3 and 4 pennies per thousand cubic feet. Gasoline is up just over a

(27:15):
full point. Yeah. And Murbon crude, everybody's favorite light sweet crude is
two and a quarter percent to the upside as well to 71
and 11¢.
Gold moving sideways slightly in the red, but still at all time highs of $36.81
and 6 dimes. Silver is up point seven. Platinum is up 1.8.

(27:36):
Copper is up one, and palladium is shooting for the moon. Brothers and sisters, six and a quarter percent to the upside.
Ag is pretty much fully mixed today. Biggest winner
is coffee. One and a third of the upside, and the biggest loser is lumber.
Almost one full point to the downside.
Live cattle recovering point 38%

(27:58):
to the side. Lean hogs on the rise point 7%
up, and feeder cattle is up a third as well.
Meanwhile, the Dow is down almost a half, but the S and P is up a half. Nasdaq is up a quarter, and the S and P and mini is traveling sideways
slightly in the green.
And at a $113,660

(28:21):
price tag on Bitcoin,
that is a $2,260,000,000,000
market cap, and we can finally buy 31.1
ounces of shiny metal rocks with our one Bitcoin, of which there are 19,918,813.68
of an average fees per block are low.
0.02

(28:41):
BTC
taken in fees on a per block basis.
There appear to be about 40 blocks
carrying 80,000
unconfirmed transactions waiting to clear at high priority rates of 2 Satoshis per vByte.
Low priority is gonna get you in at one.
And mining,
we are now above
a Zeta hash.

(29:03):
1.02
Zeta hashes,
that would be
like 1,000
exahashes
and more. Right? 1,000 and would it be 1,200?
No. 1,020
exahashes
gives us 1.02
zeta hashes.
Check my math if I'm wrong. You can point at me and laugh.

(29:25):
From yesterday's
when NPM's
attack episode of Bitcoin and I got
digital panhandler
thousand sats,
says nothing. Pies with one twenty one, gives me some emojis.
And guys, that's it.
It was a really bad day for donations
on n when n p m's attack.

(29:47):
If you want the show to go on, you gotta come on, man. Open the wallets. You gotta donate. Gotta donate to the show, man. You gotta donate to Bitcoin and help a brother out. Help a brother achieve his dreams.
Achieve
the dream, man.
No. Seriously.
What I've noticed on on some other,

(30:08):
podcasts that that depend on
donations,
that donations are down across the board. I I I I think it's the dark times that I talked about at the beginning of the show. I think we're kinda depressed.
You know you know, they they call it a depression.
I you know, whenever they say, oh, the great depression that it was only financial. No, man. It was psychological.

(30:30):
People were depressed.
There wasn't anything to hope for. There wasn't anything to shoot for. We've got weird murders happening on buses. We've got, of all things, Israel attacking Gutter, which is just
freaking bizarre to me.
I I mean, that I that I was I was genuinely shocked when I heard about that. You got Nepal's parliament burning to the ground because censorship is everywhere.

(30:55):
Banksy put up one of the best decals or or stencils that I've ever seen Banksy do
in London on the courts
showing a judge
with a gavel
hammering somebody laying on the ground holding up a sign.
And and what what did what did
London do? They they they covered it up.

(31:18):
Thankfully, some good citizens came by and ripped all the covering down to
to reshow it, and now they're going to spray the building to
erase that entire stencil off. These are the times that we live in, so it's not surprising
that donations are down across the board.
But if for whatever reason

(31:38):
you want to help a brother out,
throw me some boost, man. Throw me some boost on fountain. Give me throw me some, streaming satoshis over on fountain or any
podcasting two point o related app. I mean, if you've if you're still using something like Apple podcast,
you are so missing out. You gotta get a modern podcast app.

(32:00):
Podcasting two point o is the only way to go.
Newpodcastapps.com.
That's newpodcastapps.com.
It'll take you over there to the podcastindex.org
website, and it will just throw you a whole list
of these brand spanking shiny new apps. And you get chapters, you get chapter art, you get cover art, you get transcripts,

(32:22):
you get you get all kinds of neat stuff.
And you can support your favorite podcaster
directly with Satoshis because, well, podcasting two point o has fully embraced
the Bitcoin ecosystem.
That's the weather report.

(32:49):
Welcome to part two of the news that you can use. Belarus
pushes banks towards cryptocurrencies
to evade international sanctions.
Oh, those dastardly
Belarusians
from Atlas twenty one.
We've got this one.
Alexander
Lyshenko,
Belarusian
president, has stepped up pressure on the national banking system to expand the use of digital assets in order to reduce the impact of economic sanctions on the country.

(33:20):
During a meeting with central bank leaders and commercial lenders,
Lyshenko
emphasized the urgency of expanding the use of digital assets. Oh, it's urgent.
Urgent. The state run Belarusian
Telegraph Agency reported the leader is saying, quote,
over the past five years, the national economy and with it, the Belarusian banking sector have faced

(33:44):
unprecedented
challenges.
The government and the national bank have been given corresponding instructions. Now act.
Wow. He just kinda put putting his foot down here. According to the president's projections,
exchanges operating in Belarus could double external payments by the end of the year. Lushchenko stated that, quote, in the seven months of this year, the volume of external payments through cryptocurrency exchanges amounted to $1,700,000,000

(34:12):
according to expert estimates it may reach 3,000,000,000 by the end of the year.
According to the president,
he stated that. That that's why I'm flipping out is that
he's
actually the one that said that sentence.
He's actually the one that's getting that's getting people to go out and find out how much money these exchanges are handling,

(34:37):
and he's not pooh poohing it. He's not trying to delegitimize
it. He's saying this is the stuff that saves us.
You may not like Belarus and a lot of people don't.
It it doesn't matter. I'm trying to be neutral here. But we got a president of a country telling the central bank it's time to act
because
money
and a shit ton of it.

(35:00):
The penetration
of digital assets in the country is steadily increasing.
Statista
forecasts
that cryptocurrency users will surpass
surpass 855,000
by 2026,
representing nine and a half percent of the total population
of Belarus that is 9,100,000.

(35:21):
Belarus's approach to digital assets has shown a degree of ambivalence over time. In September 2024, the government
enacted a law banning citizens from buying and selling cryptocurrencies
outside authorized national exchanges.
However, in 2018,
the country legalized cryptocurrency transactions,

(35:41):
allowing sales, exchanges, and mining activities.
Later in the 2023,
the ministry worked on a potential ban on peer to peer transactions for Bitcoin and other digital currencies.
And then last March, the Belarusian government
also promoted
the development of the mining industry, taking advantage of the country's surplus electricity.

(36:03):
This initiative is part of the broader strategy to diversify national revenue sources
and reduce the impact of international sanctions.
You know what? It sounds to me like he really doesn't want to let his citizenry
gain any kind of financial or monetary
self control,
but certainly wants to be able to evade sanctions.

(36:23):
This isn't the best guy in the world. I mean, I think that most people understand that. You know, most people, they're like,
you know, hey, Russia ain't so bad.
Probably not really looking at Putin
as a good guy either.
You know? And and a lot of the people I've talked to people that that are just rah rah Ukraine,
but also realize that

(36:45):
the homeboy that wears a dress, the old, you know, the the comedian that they decided to hire is their their their one leader isn't exactly
a a good guy either.
None of these people are good. In fact, all of these people suck.
Right?
But here we see clear
in my mind, I see
I see it clearly.

(37:07):
He wants cryptocurrency
for himself and for his friends.
He does not want
average Belarusians on the street to be able to interact with it.
So
g f y.
Now billionaire
easyJet founder Stelios
has entered Bitcoin

(37:28):
as the price remains
stagnant.
Vivexin,
Bitcoin magazine,
Ezy Group founder,
sir Stelios
Haji
Ioneu, I guess is how you pronounce it, is making his
grand
entrance
into the Bitcoin space with the launch of something called Easy Bitcoin,

(37:50):
a new trading platform
aimed at democratizing Bitcoin investment
for retail investors. The move comes
as Bitcoin price trades near a 111,000
and institutional adoption continues to accelerate.
The new platform,
developed in partnership with regulated crypto exchange, Uphold, which I've never heard of,

(38:11):
will offer users a simplified Bitcoin trading experience with competitive features. Quote,
for far too long, investing in Bitcoin has felt like an exclusive club,
out of reach for the general public with very high transaction
costs.
Where
I don't think he's been really looking at this.
Haji said,

(38:32):
this isn't just about technology. It's about financial empowerment and making Bitcoin a practical investment option for all.
People
are going to buy and sell Bitcoin, so you might as well offer them a platform where they can do it more fairly,
more transparently,
more economically,
end quote.

(38:53):
The timing of the launch appears strategic coming amid
unprecedented
institutional interest in Bitcoin.
Simon McLaughlin,
CEO of Uphold says that Easy Bitcoin's reward system will prove, quote, the perfect draw for that
huge segment of the population that has become aware of Bitcoin, but yet to take the plunge.

(39:15):
The launch comes at a time when corporate Bitcoin adoption is reaching new highs.
Major companies like Strategy
recently
acquired additional
2,000 Bitcoin for about $217,000,000.
We're witnessing
a fundamental
shift in how both institutions
and retail investors view Bitcoin.

(39:36):
EZ Bitcoin's entry, backed by a trusted brand like Easy Group, could accelerate accelerate mainstream adoption significantly.
Pausing to say, I don't know how. They're just another company.
And I didn't really I've never really heard of Easy Group.
I'm sure they're big,
but they're not exactly

(39:58):
forefront in the minds of the people, if you know what I'm saying.
The platform enters an increasingly competitive space,
quote, I'm only doing it because the Trump second election
has made it completely mainstream,
Haji said.
Wow.
I'm only doing it because of Trump.

(40:18):
I'm not sure if that's the best business plan I've heard of. You know what? Stealing underwear, question mark, and profit actually
kind of is in the same ballpark as I'm doing it because of Trump.
Wow.
We'll we'll have to see how this shit shakes out. But meanwhile, Meta Planet

(40:40):
has set $1,450,000,000
of share sale
to fund a Bitcoin purchase
amongst the treasury shift. Vince De Aquino from Decrypt tells us more about Meta Planet.
They've
locked in
a $1,450,000,000
share sale on Tuesday,

(41:01):
marking one of Japan's
largest
corporate treasury shifts to date.
Formally priced at $3.73
a share, the international share offering will issue 385,000,000
shares,
raising a total of $1,450,000,000.
Net proceeds

(41:22):
of 1,390,000,000.00
are allocated almost entirely to Bitcoin purchases with 1,250,000,000.00
set for purchases
and 139,000,000
for income generation
operations according to a notice determining the issue period. Or with period? No. Issue price.

(41:43):
In the same notice though,
the company reiterated its re rationale
for buying Bitcoin
pointed
pointing wow. I'm having some difficulty this morning. Sorry, guys. Pointing
to elevated levels of national debt,
prolonged real negative interest rates, and an ongoing depreciation of the yen as primary factors that motivated

(42:06):
to begin stacking the alpha crypto in April
in the first place. I gotta pause here because
they're saying in this the company reiterated its rationale for buying Bitcoin.
And one of the things is elevated levels of national debt.
Now yesterday,
it was probably done the day before,
but I was was seeing social media posts

(42:29):
about,
Vladimir Putin's one of his, like, financial spokespersons
saying that The United States
could potentially
wipe out its $35,000,000,000,000
in debt
using Bitcoin. He said cryptocurrency, but, you know, I've got an allergic reaction to shitcoin. So using Bitcoin.
I I

(42:50):
think
we're starting to see nation states really get to the meat of the matter.
They need an escape valve at the federal level no matter the government,
whether it's communist or democratic or capitalist or Marxist or Leninist, whatever.
At the federal level, all these countries are in debt to each other because they all hold each other's bonds.

(43:14):
They need a way out.
And it's never gonna be the case that they just say, you know what? We're just gonna wipe out everybody's debt. That'll probably never happen because it's too much of a leverage point for one country to be able to say, but you owe us money. We need you to do this.
There's too much there's too much of a
different kind of currency

(43:35):
going on when people are indebted to each other. It's not just all about pay me my money.
Right? It's pay you could be pay me in favors.
You know, hire the hire the guy to be this dude in your government because you owe us this much money.
That's that's real power. That's real leverage these these countries have against each other.

(43:58):
But they're starting to recognize they need to get out of this crap.
Still though,
I find it interesting that we're starting to hear
more people talk about
national debt
and how it's related to Bitcoin as an escape valve or an escape hatch or a pressure release valve. Right? So anyway, continuing on, the share sale follows a September 1 shareholder vote in Tokyo

(44:24):
that approved an overseas issuance of up to 550,000,000
new shares alongside preferred stock after Meta Planet share price had already dropped
over
half
in price since mid June. Wow. Over lost over half. The latest filing finalizes the terms of that plan,
shifting it from shareholder authorization

(44:46):
to actual
real time
formal execution,
thereby
closing its closed,
a turbulent summer of financing pressures and a collapsing share price.
Meta Planet currently holds 20,136
BTC.
It's about 2 and a quarter billion dollars
following its latest purchase of a 136

(45:07):
Bitcoin.
It's holding,
positions it as the sixth largest public corporate holder of Bitcoin worldwide.
And while still others are
they're still behind others, Meta Planet's move emerges
as a signal from Japan
that corporate Bitcoin adoption is spreading globally, not just in The United States. Dan,

(45:29):
Daddy Bio.
Daddy Bio. What a great name. Daddy Bio.
Research and strategy lead at Unstoppable Wallet told Decrypt.
Corporate Bitcoin treasuries are shifting
from experiment to mainstream balance sheet strategies,
new accounting rules, and ETF
normalization.
Over 1,000,000

(45:49):
BTC
by year's end is what he expects public companies to hold.
And,
quote, all of this is unfolding against the backdrop of BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust, which has become
the company's most profitable ETF
generating more fee revenue than even its S and P 500 flagship,

(46:11):
IVV. That's the ticker number for or ticker symbol for it.
It's the fastest growing ETF in history, he said, after hitting over $80,000,000,000
in assets under management in just
over a year of inflows,
tracking over $52,000,000,000.
Holy smokes.
With terms now set for execution,

(46:32):
the scale of Meta Planet's rise
cements
its place in the global conversation of Bitcoin, quote, from pension funds to hedge funds, the direction of travel is clear. A deeper integration of Bitcoin into traditional
finance,
Daddy Bio said.
So
what we just read is that they've actually executed

(46:54):
on this. Have they bought the Bitcoin yet? I don't know. It's possible.
They just didn't say it. But they've
these shares have been generated.
Now remember, they they have generated
where was it? 385,000,000
shares,
which is worth 1,450,000,000.00.

(47:15):
They the shareholder
meeting
approved
the printing and selling of 550,000,000
shares.
So there's a whole other tranche
or if they split it up, multiple tranches
of shares
that is still left and yet to be printed and sold.

(47:36):
So they're
we're gonna see another great unless they've lied about what they're gonna do with the money,
we've got another major Bitcoin purchase incoming from Meta Planet,
of pretty major
one. Now to finish
finish
us off, I never can't say that phrase correctly.
Bitcoin miners surge

(47:56):
following
Microsoft's
$17,400,000,000
artificial intelligence
bet?
Helene Braun
from CoinDesk,
please. I'm confused.
Crypto mining stocks jumped on Tuesday
after Niebius Group announced a five year agreement

(48:17):
to supply Microsoft
with graphic processing units or GPUs
valued at $17,400,000,000
The deal aimed at bolstering Microsoft's artificial intelligence infrastructure sparked investor enthusiasm
for companies with large scale compute power,
Bitcoin miners among them. Oh, okay. Because we're

(48:39):
a lot of Bitcoin mining companies are ancillary
attached to AI because they're starting to devote some rack space
to GPUs to service the AI industry. That's why.
They have both. So Bitcoin's coming along for the ride this time instead of the other way around.
The rally in mining shares

(49:00):
came even as Bitcoin itself gave up an early advance and declined by about a percent to a 111,100
over the past twenty four hours.
The contrast underscored how investor attention is increasingly tied to the role mining infrastructure
could play in the AI boom
rather than just Bitcoin's price action.

(49:20):
Leading was a 22%
gain from Bitfarms,
while shares of Cipher Mining rose 20%.
Iron, Hut eight, Riot Platforms, and Terrawolf were up in the mid teens.
Wow. They all did very, very well on this.
Interestingly,
the weakest sector performer was Mara Holdings,

(49:41):
which in recent months has positioned itself as more of a Bitcoin treasury company
rather than high performance compute player.
Shares of Mara were higher by a mere 4% on Tuesday.
The outsized moves reflect the industry's shifting reality. And for years,
mining profitability was largely dictated by Bitcoin's four year halving cycle when block rewards are cut in half.

(50:05):
That rhythm
no longer dominates, leaving companies exposed to surging power costs, relentless hardware production,
and intensifying
competition.
Hardware makers like Bitmain continue to expand,
adding pressure to an already crowded field.
And at the same time,
artificial intelligence is reshaping the business model.

(50:27):
Miners with large energy footprints and advanced compute infrastructure are exploring ways to lease capacity
to hyperscalers
or pivot toward data center services.
The Nebeus
Microsoft
agreement
highlighted how valuable
GPU access has become
and why markets are rewarding miners with scalable infrastructure.

(50:51):
Alright. Well, there you go. It's all the news that you can use and more.
Today was going to be a cathedral
day. I was gonna do cathedral six, the carbon group, but that is going to have to wait. I wanted to make sure
that a lot of the structure of what it is that I wanna talk about when it comes to, you know, Bitcoin mining,

(51:13):
the production of biochar,
the use of the off gassing,
to run the miners,
whether it's heat recovery, c o two recovery, and where that stuff goes and why it's necessary.
It's actually a little bit more involved, you know, when you're trying to tell somebody than when you see when you see it in your own head. Right? You think what you see in your own head is really easy,

(51:38):
and it is for you,
until you start trying to explain it to somebody and then you're like,
I'd I'm gonna have to figure out a way to explain this a lot better. So that's why we did not do a cathedral episode today, but I am glad that you joined me for this morning's Bitcoin and podcast, and I will see you on the other

(51:59):
side. This has been Bitcoin and, and I am your host, David Bennett. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and hope to see you again real soon.
Have a great day.

All Episodes

Bitcoin For Dark Times

Today's Articles:

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

24/7 News: The Latest

Dateline NBC

The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Bitcoin For Dark Times

Today's Articles:

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}24/7 News: The Latest

Dateline NBC

The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show

All Episodes

Bitcoin For Dark Times

24/7 News: The Latest