Circle P:

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
It is 09:04AM
Pacific Daylight Time. It is the oh, God. What is it? It's the June
2025,
and this is episode eleven twenty one
of Bitcoin. And we've just got too much stuff to cover today in the ways of Bitcoin news. We're gonna start this one out with this whole thing about Bitcoin knots. And if you're not sure what the hell is going on with Bitcoin knots,

(00:27):
this is going to be a discussion about Bitcoin core nodes
and being a full node runner and the decisions that you have the options to make
because you got a say in this entire thing. I I I don't think we appreciate that anywhere close
to as much as we should. You have say in what happens in the Bitcoin network, and you do that by running whatever

(00:51):
Bitcoin core or Bitcoin
node software that you want to run. You can run LeBitcoins, you can run Bitcoin Core, you can run Bitcoin knots.
And a lot of people are opting for Bitcoin knots, and the whole reason that's going on
is because of this filtering issue
that
Bitcoin Core

(01:12):
is taking out of the way in Bitcoin
Core's
main
core software.
And the fear is is that it's going to allow a whole bunch of spam into the blockchain
and all of that. We've been fighting this for a while, but
I'm actually rather surprised that the amount of Bitcoin knots nodes has risen

(01:35):
to the level it has, and the re and I know why.
It's it's just that I I'm I'm a little surprised at the speed of which
Bitcoin knots has has taken
a a hell of a toll
on the amount of nodes that are being run
as opposed to the Bitcoin or Bitcoin Core. And that's just because

(01:57):
NOS is not going to
is not going to allow spam on the Bitcoin blockchain.
At least
that's the surface argument. There's that thing goes really, really deep.
But
what we're really looking at here is kind of a schism, again, like 2017,
of a bunch of Bitcoiners that don't want certain things in the blockchain or certain ways certain ways that the blockchain functions

(02:22):
and a whole other group of people that think that that's bogus and they wanna do it a different way.
But
Bitcoin knots has gained a lot of ground
And the fear
and and, honestly,
I wouldn't be too worried. I'm actually not worried about this at all. I don't think anybody should be. But there's worry about a chain split, and will that kill the Bitcoin price? And we're gonna read this one from Cointelegraph

(02:49):
and Michael Tabone who's writing about it. Bitcoin knots
was first released by developer Luke Dash junior in the early two tens or February,
and it has long offered a more configurable
and policy agnostic alternative to Bitcoin Core.
Currently,
most of the nodes use the Bitcoin Core client to support the Bitcoin network.

(03:13):
However, Bitcoin knots has grown an impressive
638%
since the start of this year,
jumping from only 394
nodes to 2,909
nodes as of June.
Well, this massive growth rate started to see
significant upticks in May and now makes up 13.24%

(03:36):
of all of the nodes
supporting the Bitcoin network.
Bitcoin knot's
recent popularity
spike suggests
that a nontrivial share of Bitcoin's infrastructure
operators, that would be you, the node runners,
no longer trust core
to define Bitcoin's limits

(03:56):
unilaterally.
This is not just technical descent. It is ideological.
That sounds like an AI generated thing to me.
I'm I'm having a problem with that sentence structure.
I see it everywhere now. I see it daily. This isn't just x. It's x plus y or something different. It's

(04:18):
it's a hallmark of AI, but we'll just
skip over
it. The last time node count shifted,
this dramatically was back in 2017
on the eve of the SegWit two x showdown.
And back then,
disagreements over the block size
and miner power fractured the network into Bitcoin and then Bitcoin Cash.

(04:41):
Now another schism may be forming,
but instead of block sizes, it's about the soul of the protocol, and it may dramatically impact price stability
and adoption by year's end.
Pausing to say, I think this is a little bit more hyperbole than it needs to be, so everybody calm down. But this this thing is going on. Knots is growing in popularity, so we need to be aware of what the hell's happening.

(05:07):
Bitcoin Knots began as a power user fork of Bitcoin Core,
integrating patches, features, and policy tweaks that were too
controversial
or too early for mainline adoption.
It hovered between 5,200
active nodes for most of its existence, serving as a staging ground for conservative developer

(05:27):
or developers wary of Core's influence.
And from March 2016
through early twenty twenty
two, node counts barely breached 200.
Even during the ordinal surge in 2023
when BRC 20 tokens and Bitcoin based inscriptions
strained block space and sparked renewed debate over what Bitcoin is for.

(05:50):
Knots only briefly crested above 1,000 nodes before dropping back.
Then came late twenty twenty four as murmurs of an op return cleanup in core began to circulate
couched in language about pruning,
feed efficiency,
and mempool hygiene.
Knot's adoption began to climb, and by early twenty twenty five, it had tripled.

(06:13):
By 06/19/2025,
it stood at 2,909
nodes with growth still accelerating.
The message behind the numbers is evident.
A meaningful subset of Bitcoin's most technical participants
reject
core's moral authority.
Again, a little bit of hyperbole there. Where it was once assumed that Bitcoin Core spoke for Bitcoin itself, there was a growing appetite for pluralism

(06:40):
and perhaps even open defiance.
Tensions escalated further on June
when Bitcoin Core developers published a statement signaling a shift towards a minimally permissive
relay policy.
The announcement avoided specific terms such as opportune or ordinals, but its implications were clear. Under the new posture,

(07:01):
core clients may soon stop relaying nonstandard
transactions by default
even if those transactions are valid under Bitcoin's consensus rules. And critics argue that this policy risks undermining Bitcoin's neutrality
by enforcing a subjective vision of what types of activity should be allowed

(07:21):
on the network.
Kors proposed changes slated for October 2025,
including more restrictive handling of op return, the opcode that enables arbitrary data to be embedded into Bitcoin transactions.
While this opcode has historically been capped
at 80 bytes
and discouraged in practice,

(07:43):
it has underpinned everything from token issuance via omni and counterparty to NFT style ordinals
in recent years.
Some developers argue that these transactions bloat the blockchain,
crowd out financial activity, and should be deprioritized.
Others say that selectively disabling or penalizing them violates Bitcoin's principle of neutrality.

(08:05):
If a transaction is valid by consensus rules and pays a competitive fee, it should be relayed and mined.
Knots, notably, do not implement
these policy level filters unless explicitly
configured.
Its rise suggests
that the non neutrality narrative around core is gaining traction. And in other words,

(08:28):
Bitcoin's policy layer, which was once quietly dictated by a small circle of core's maintainers, is now being contested by nodes switching over to knots in record numbers.
This is not a hard fork scenario,
but it is inching closer.
The 2017 SegWit upgrade
reached a boiling point when divergent software choices became incompatible.

(08:52):
If Core's upcoming changes
cause blocks or transactions
to be rejected by noncore clients, the stage is set for history to repeat.
And with more than 13%
of the network already running knots,
this is not just a protest vote, but the beginning of a parallel consensus.
When Bitcoin split into Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash on August

(09:16):
2017,
markets responded with volatility but no collapse.
As CoinTelegraph
reported, Bitcoin dropped approximately 5.6%,
dropping from
about 280
$2,875
on July
2718
on fork day.

(09:37):
However, the dip proved short lived.
Throughout August, BTC surged nearly 49%,
closing strong at around $8,050
and continued its rise to almost 20,000 by December of twenty seventeen. Meanwhile,
Bitcoin Cash launched trading at approximately
0.0045.

(10:00):
It's about $240
US, and then skyrocketed to 1,500
before stabilizing in the 300 to $500 range.
Far from fracturing investor confidence,
the fork solidified
Bitcoin's dominance and gave dissenters an alternative in Bitcoin Cash.
The stakes this time are higher, with Bitcoin ETFs,

(10:22):
corporations stacking Bitcoin on their balance sheet, and the market being potentially poised for blow off tops in the foreseeable future, this schism could have more market risk than we have seen in the past.
If Bitcoin knots keeps its average growth run rate from May through October 2025,
there will be over 5,000 nodes running the knots client. That will equate to around 23%

(10:45):
of the entire Bitcoin network. That's a quarter a quarter of the network, guys.
That level of adoption would mark the largest divergence from Bitcoin Core since the twenty seventeen hard fork, and this time, the rebellion is already inside the house.
K. That's the end of the article.
I'm not concerned about this at all.

(11:06):
And the reason is is I can run knots if I want to and at the exact same time on a different machine, I can run Bitcoin Core. On a third machine, if I wanted to, I could run LeBitCoin.
They all support
the Bitcoin infrastructure
as it is right now.
Is it possible that we can see a fork?

(11:28):
I suppose so.
But
we've been here before,
and we will probably be here again.
I I really think that this is a little overblown.
I do not think that we're going to be looking at a chain split.
If there is, core will probably win. I I mean and and for those people who think core is absolutely evil, I really think you need to get your head about you.

(11:54):
These guys have been doing this software, reviewing this software, more eyeballs are on this software than almost any other free and open source software project
in history.
I just don't see,
I don't know, I just don't see a situation where Peter Todd
somehow or another is able to

(12:14):
take over the entire thing and turn it into something that nobody wants.
I I honestly think we really need to step back and take a big deep breath
about all of this.
So
it came to my attention yesterday
that both similar scientific

(12:35):
and MicroStrategy
are being sued
in a class action lawsuit
or, actually, two separate class action lawsuits.
Like, for for instance, this one.
The Pomerantz law firm is investigating
claims on behalf of investors
of similar scientific.

(12:56):
Such investors are advised to contact Danielle Payton
and then gives
her email and and phone number.
The investigation concerns whether similar and certain of its officers and or directors have engaged in securities fraud
or other unlawful
business practices.
Alright. So that was announced on June.

(13:18):
Then I've got this other one.
Investors in Strategy
Incorporated
should contact
The Gross Law Firm before 07/15/2025
to discuss your rights.
So the Gross Law Firm has issued the following notice to shareholders of Strategy Incorporated, and, yes, that is MSTR,

(13:39):
that's the ticker, it's old Michael Saylor's outfit.
Shareholders who purchased shares of MSTR during the class period listed
are encouraged to contact the firm regarding possible lead plaintiff appointment.
Appointments as lee or an appointment as lead plaintiff is not required to partake in any recovery,

(14:00):
and then it gives a website to go
contact the law firm. So what the hell is going on?
Short sellers is what I think is actually occurring here.
I think that there is a set of short sellers
that they wanna short either Bitcoin or
Bitcoin Treasury companies,

(14:22):
and the way that they wanna do it this time is they want to create a whole bunch of FUD. And one of the best ways to create fear, uncertainty, and doubt
is to get lawyers to start suing companies
and throwing out allegations
that people like MicroStrategy
and Similar Scientific have been lying to the people that they were selling shares to.

(14:46):
Basically offering false you know, offering the shares and the promises of what was behind the shares under false pretenses.
So here's I think this is the way that this is gonna work.
You got people that wanna short Bitcoin, and they wanna short the stocks of Bitcoin treasury companies.
You can't really do that right now just all by yourself. You need some kind of momentum shift because right now

(15:13):
and and I think it's stupid, you should just buy Bitcoin, but there's a lot of people buying companies that buy Bitcoin.
Right? It's it's dumb. I I'm I'm not a fan. I don't think it's, you know, anything that
I don't think it's anything that anybody should actually do. You should just buy Bitcoin, but there's also nothing that we can do about it. So you need a momentum shift. So what do you do?

(15:35):
You approach a couple of law firms
and say, we need class action lawsuits
against these major
Bitcoin treasury companies
that call into question
not just the efficacy
of their backing in their treasury with Bitcoin, but under what pretenses did they sell shares.

(15:57):
Because they want they really want to crash the price of Bitcoin, and they wanna do it through the proxy companies
of strategy
and similar. And if you think it's going to stop there, then you will be wrong.
I expect a couple of more of these class action lawsuits to hit maybe even people like Meta Planet.

(16:18):
I don't think it's actually going to work. I I really don't. Again,
I am completely
unconcerned,
but it is it is there. It it's out there, and that's why I'm bringing it to you today on the news that you can use. Let's move over to Ahmed Hasquinas
from Cointelegraph where he says,
Japan is proposing to reclassify

(16:39):
cryptocurrency
paving the way for ETFs and lower taxes.
So they wanna reclassify
what it is. What does this mean? Well, Japan's financial services agency
is proposing a sweeping reclassification
of cryptocurrencies
that would clear a path
for the launch of exchange traded funds and introduce a flat 20% tax on digital asset income.

(17:04):
The proposal
introduced on Tuesday suggests recognizing crypto as, quote,
financial products
under the scope of the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act, the same regulatory framework that governs securities
and traditional financial
products.
The proposed reclassification
could also shift Japan's current progressive tax system,

(17:26):
which taxes crypto gains at rates of up to 55%
and take it down to a uniform 20%
mirroring the tree mirroring the treatment of stocks.
That change
could make crypto investing more attractive to both retail and institutional
players.
The proposed shift is part of the Japanese government's broader, quote, new capitalism

(17:50):
strategy, which seeks to position the country as an investment led economy.
The move comes amid increasing interest in crypto as a legitimate investment asset. And according to the FSA,
more than 12,000,000
domestic crypto accounts were active as of January
2025
with assets held on platforms exceeding 5,000,000,000,000

(18:13):
Japanese yen or about $34,000,000,000
US.
In the proposal,
the FAS
also revealed that crypto ownership now surpasses participation
in some traditional
financial products such as foreign exchange and corporate

(18:38):
institutional engagement
worldwide.
The FSA cited data showing over
1,200
financial institutions, including US pension funds and Goldman Sachs,
now holding US listed spot Bitcoin ETFs.
1,200
financial institutions.

(18:59):
That escalated quickly.
Japanese regulators aim to support
similar developments domestically,
especially as global fund flows into crypto continue to expand.
In April,
Sumitomo
Mitsui financial group,
Ava Labs, and Fireblocks signed a memorandum of understanding to explore the commercialization

(19:21):
of stablecoins
in Japan.
The collaboration will focus on issuing stablecoins
pegged both to the US dollar and to the Japanese yen.
The group also plans to examine the use of stablecoins for setting tokenized real world assets such as stock, bonds, and real estate.
In March, Japan issued its first license allowing a company to deal with stablecoins

(19:44):
to SBI
VC
Trade,
a subsidiary
of the local financial conglomerate
SBI,
which said it was preparing to support Circle's
USDC.
So that sounds like a major policy shift is on the horizon for the people of Japan,
and it's all going to be done

(20:07):
so that there's no problem for them to issue stable coins against the Japanese yen
and be able to dabble in products such as stablecoins
as Tether and USDC,
which is gonna be backed by
the US dollar.
I think it's more about the stablecoin play than anything else, but

(20:28):
if you can get away from a 55%
tax on digital asset gains
and go to 20,
that's better.
But what would be best is absolutely no tax whatsoever so that you can have some money left over to buy eight ounces of grass fed pasture raised ghee from my friend, great ghee. The circle p is open for business. It's where I bring plebs just like you that have goods and services for sale

(20:55):
to plebs just like you who might wanna actually buy those goods and services.
Because when you support
people like Great Gi,
Great Ghee can support
this show, the Bitcoin and show that
brings you the news that you can use
every single weekday.
Great Ghee. What does he make? Well, he makes ghee, g

(21:18):
h e e. It's a clarified butter product.
And it's made from grass fed, pasture raised Jersey cow milk
in Southwest Virginia.
It's made by hand,
Excuse me. It's made by hand, wonderful
color. I'm looking at I'm looking at his, Shopster

(21:39):
stall right now, and he's got a couple of really great pictures of this stuff. It's like
sunlight
in a bottle.
And if you've never used ghee for food, you're missing out because this stuff has a completely
different
taste profile than just regular butter. So why is it clarified?
When you heat up butter

(21:59):
and you keep it heat hot for a long time,
the milk solids that are left over in the butter fall out and you can filter them out so that all you get is the butter fat. You get no milk protein in it if it's done right, and I'm great ghee is one of these people that knows how to do it right.
It's used heavily in Indian food.

(22:20):
It gives a deep, deep, deep flavor, and you're missing out if you've never used great ghee.
So go to well, actually, I can't give you the website because the Shopster store listing is a is a huge
URL, but it will be in the show notes.
Make sure that when you buy
ghee, Great Gi

(22:42):
that you use the the code
bitcoin and that way Great Gi knows that I made the sale for him and Great Ghee can figure out whether or not that sale was worth anything to him. And if so, he knows where to send the satoshis. That would be
to me. Again, Great Ghee. If you want great ghee, go to Great Ghee. Get your ghee and get it great. Get it going on, and then we're gonna move on to

(23:08):
stable coin bill
heads to house,
and the senate now shifts to the market structure bill.
We haven't really talked about the market structure bill, but it is going to be important moving forward.
Turner right, Cointelegraph.
Roughly
one week after the United States Senate voted to pass the Genius Act

(23:32):
to regulate payment stablecoins, the chamber is now moving to discuss a path forward for a digital
asset market structure framework.
On Tuesday, lawmakers
in the Senate Banking Committee's Digital Asset Subcommittee will hear from lawyers at Coinbase and Multi Coin Capital as part of efforts to establish, quote, bipartisan

(23:54):
legislative
frameworks
for digital asset market structure, end quote.
The hearing will include testimony from Coinbase's vice president of legal, Ryan Vigrac,
MultiCoin Capital's general counsel, Greg Zathlus, and University of Pennsylvania Wharton School executive director, Sarah Hammer.

(24:15):
Wow. The Wharton School of Business. Interesting.
The hearing will be one of the senate's first follow ups on digital asset legislation
since passing the Genius Act on June
in a '68 to 30 vote. The bill
moved to the house of representatives for discussion, proposed amendments, and a possible floor vote. While the senate considers a bar bipartisan solution for crypto market structure,

(24:38):
the house is already moving forward with its own legislation.
Earlier this month, the House Agricultural
Committee and the House Financial Services Committee voted to advance the digital asset market clarity
or clarity act. The bill is expected to head for to the full floor for a vote soon.

(24:59):
It's unclear
whether the senate will introduce its own version of the house's clarity act to address crypto market structure in the form of a companion bill or incorporating
aspects of the house bill.
Cointelegraph
reached out to senator Lummis, chair of the digital asset subcommittee,
for a comment but has not received anything at the time.

(25:21):
Combined,
the stablecoin
bill and the market structure bill could address many of the regulatory issues that leaders in the crypto industry have criticized about The United States. However,
the legislation still faces pushback from many Democrats in congress
questioning how US president Donald Trump and his family could personally profit from the bill's passing

(25:42):
given their ties to the industry through meme coins, the World Liberty Financial Platform,
and political donations
from digital asset company executives.
Trump said on Wednesday that he would sign the Genius Act with no add ons if the house were to pass it quickly. However, it's unclear
if digital assets will be a priority for the president as he faces scrutiny from ordering strikes on Iran without congressional approval

(26:09):
over the weekend.
Well,
that's a whole other story,
which we are not going to get into because we gotta talk about
Jerome Powell.
He opened his mouth and started talking,
and Christian Sandor and Steven Alpher
has what he said from CoinDesk.

(26:30):
Feds Powell reiterates
patience.
Patience, ladies and gentlemen,
on rates in his congressional
testimony.
US Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell offered little change
in his stance from re his recent remarks
reiterating the economy is in a good spot,

(26:51):
giving the central bank the room to be patient before considering
easing monetary policy.
Quote, for the time being,
we are well positioned to wait
to learn
more about the likely course of the economy before considering any adjustments to our policy stance,
said Powell in prepared remarks.

(27:13):
Today's testimony is of particular note.
Given talks this week from Fed governors Chris Waller and Michelle Bowman,
both said that they would be supportive of a rate cut at the fed's next meeting.
To date, Powell has given no indication that he is considering any move whatsoever.
The break with Powell, by itself, not necessarily major news,

(27:37):
comes as president Trump continues to make clear his displeasure with the Fed chairman's reluctance to ease monetary policy.
Rate cut odds for July. Okay. So we've we're not doing anything this month, but July is coming up.
The rate cuts for July continue to be a fairly slim
18.6%

(27:58):
according to CME FedWatch.
Moving to September, however,
the odds of one or more rate cuts jumps to more than 80%.
The question and answer session with the house committee is underway, and this story will be updated
with breaking news from that event.
So and I I don't see any any updates here in this particular story, but

(28:21):
that's his testimony is going on. That's what's gonna be driving the markets today. Speaking of, let's run the numbers.
Futures and commodities, West Texas Intermediate
Oil taking massive hits. All of energy sector is taking massive hits because of the, quote, unquote,

(28:48):
subdued retaliatory
strike by Iran yesterday
as they apparently told
The United States that they were going to send six ballistic missiles
aimed at the,
air air base in Qatar.
They told them,
apparently, according according to several news outlets.

(29:08):
So because of that, all the short sellers are getting their wish.
West Texas Intermediate is down 5.6%
to $64.62.
That's off its high of $78,
like, what, the day before yesterday?
Brent, North Sea down 5.71
to $67.40.
Natural gas is down 3.68%

(29:29):
back to $3.56
per thousand, and gasoline is down almost five points
back down to $2.11.
Gold is down two points to $33.27
and $8.09. Silver is down 1.4%.
Platinum is up one and a quarter, and copper is up a quarter, while palladium is down almost two points.

(29:50):
Most of ag is in the red today. Biggest winner is cotton, 4% to the upside. Biggest loser is coffee,
four and a half percent to the downside. Meanwhile, live cattle is crawling sideways slightly in the red. Lean hogs down one and a half and feeder cattle are down a quarter.
Meanwhile,
all the financial legacy markets are happy. Dow futures up 1.06%.

(30:15):
S and P is up 1%.
Nasdaq is up one and a third, and the S and P Mini is up almost a full point.
We are at a $105,460,
which is a $2,100,000,000,000
market cap, and we can get 31.7
ounces of shiny metal rocks with our one Bitcoin of which there are 19,882,725.83

(30:37):
of.
Average fees per block are elevated, and there's a good reason for that. 0.05 BTC taken in fees on a per block basis. Looks to be about four
unconfirmed transactions waiting to clear at high priority rates of 7 Satoshis per per vByte,

(31:02):
low priorities,
5 Satoshis per vByte.
We've had a crash in hash rate. We are down below 800
to 793.5
exahashes per second.
I'm not concerned because even at just under 800 exah exahashes per second, we are still twice as much as we were from a couple of years ago.

(31:24):
Actually, probably even more than that. I mean, honestly,
dude, I mean, in in June,
last year, about this day in 2024,
the hash rate was 641
x a hashes per second.
And we are consistently
climbing up, so that part doesn't worry me. But what people are speculating is

(31:45):
when we struck Iran, is it possible that we struck some of their Bitcoin mining facilities and took their mining capacity
offline?
We still have no hard evidence that that has occurred.
However, this drop in hash rate
is really coincidental

(32:05):
when you look at the timing.
But, yeah, we're at 793.5
exahashes
per second from
the middle feast, which was yesterday's episode of Bitcoin and
progressively worse
with 1121
Sats says, yeah, the drive to Nevada was long, but it never feels as long as the return trip to Ontario.

(32:28):
Damn time zones. I have a
2013
Matrix that has, made the trip successfully
four times now. After calculating it out, it cost me 7¢ per kilometer. My next step is to increase fuel mileage and distance between fill ups to maximize travel time. My matrix average wow. 29.7

(32:50):
to 30.12
miles per gallon. Thank you for your news coverage,
l f g. Chill now with 777
says system error. No impersonation
token accepted.
The only daily news I can use. The others left click on you and drag you around. None of your business right clicks and paste direct into you.

(33:10):
Decrypting the suit speak, conversing using as few empty words as possible.
The final stage of intelligence, just
allowing things to work out on their own. Thank you, sir. End ascension.
Yodel with five eleven says, criminals blowing it on watches and Gucci shake my head. No imagination.
Yeah. No shit.

(33:30):
It's like it's like the most boring people get the the most amount of money. It's just amazing. Turkey with 500 again says nothing.
BTC
and PC with 500 says, thank you, sir. No, thank you.
Yeah. See, he beat me to to my own punch. Pies with a 100 says, thank you, sir. No. Thank you. And that's the weather report.

(34:01):
Welcome to part two of the news that you can use, and here's some definite news that you can use.
The United States Housing Authority
may allow crypto assets in mortgage qualification.
So this this is now at the federal level. Like, a couple of weeks ago,
there's a cup you know, there a couple of, you know,

(34:23):
forward looking banks
are kinda trying to think,
how can we use,
somebody's, you know, Bitcoin holdings as collateral and make that qualify you know, a qualification
for mortgage. But this is now at the federal level.
So,
again, that escalated quickly. Adrian Zmudsky from Cointelegraph,

(34:47):
the United States Federal Housing
Finance Agency
will study whether cryptocurrency holdings
could be considered in mortgage qualification
assessments.
In a Tuesday ex post,
United States
FHFA
director William Pulte, who was nominated by president Trump, said that the agency

(35:09):
is examining cryptocurrencies,
quote,
we will study the usage of cryptocurrency holdings
as it relates to qualifying for home mortgages.
The FHFA
sets the rules
for US government sponsored enterprises,
the Federal National Mortgage Association,

(35:29):
and
the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation.
If the agency allows borrowers to list Bitcoin,
stablecoins, or other tokens as eligible assets,
it would integrate the asset class deeply,
deeply
into traditional finance.
Until January,

(35:49):
most major banks were unable
to offer crypto backed loans or mortgages.
This limitation was due to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission's accounting guidance
known as SAB one two one,
which required listed companies to disclose
crypto assets held on behalf of clients' liabilities

(36:10):
on their balance sheets.
This led to complications for banks since capital requirements are linked to the balance sheet contents.
On January,
the SEC officially rescinded
this controversial guidance opening the doors
to new crypto financial integration.
While crypto backed mortgages

(36:30):
do already exist, they are specific products
offered by specialized
private companies.
Those firms typically allow customers to borrow fiat money to purchase real estate or for other purposes
in exchange for locking digital assets as collateral
usually with high collateralization
requirements.
In such a setup,

(36:52):
if the digital assets chosen as collateral fall in value,
the customer often needs to add more assets to avoid liquidation in a margin call.
With new guidance from the FHFA,
we may soon see such offerings from traditional banks
or even entirely new types of crypto backed lending products.

(37:12):
According to a report released in late November, a growing number of lower income households
are using gains from cryptocurrency
investing to pay off their mortgages.
Researchers wrote that the increase in borrowing is especially striking among low income
households
in high crypto exposure areas.
Mauricio

(37:33):
de Bartilomio,
cofounder of Bitcoin backed loan company, Leden,
recently told Cointelegraph
that some Bitcoin holders are using crypto backed loans to purchase real estate without selling a single satoshi.
He said those are generally high net worth individuals
who do not meet the traditional criteria for real estate investing.

(37:55):
Wow.
This is this is actually much bigger than I'm making it out to be.
But this real what but it's only going to be big if they actually do it.
Still,
it's nothing to sneeze at that Pulte is actually
looking
at this.
Now, it gets a little better because that tweet or that x post or whatever we're calling these things nowadays,

(38:22):
When he put that out and he basically, what he says is this,
Pulte, in this in this, tweet, and it was sixteen hours ago,
we will study the usage of cryptocurrency
holdings as it relates to qualifying for mortgages. So
none other than Michael Saylor himself responded directly to Pulte and he says the following,

(38:47):
We have developed a BTC
credit model that we are happy to share.
It takes into account loan duration,
collateral coverage,
Bitcoin price, Bitcoin volatility,
and BTC
ARR outlook to generate statistical BTC
risk and BTC

(39:07):
credit spreads.
Try it now on our website, and then he actually puts the link directly to that.
Pulte actually writes back and says,
thank you. We'll review
and be in touch.
I I don't really know what to say about this. This is actually kinda huge.

(39:27):
The fact that he's looking at it and the fact that he responded directly back to Michael Saylor
is,
I don't know, man. This this could actually happen. And if
if it does happen,
then that means that all banks will be able to. Now they won't have to.
They can say, you know, what you go into, like, I don't know, Wells Fargo, and they say,

(39:52):
what do you got for your for your mortgage qualification? And you say, I got a Bitcoin, and they say, go pound sand.
You might be able to walk across the street to, I don't know, Bank of America,
and they say,
sure. We'll qualify you. I mean, that's enough collateral. We'll we'll do the deal
because they're going to be able to make their own shots.
They're not the it banks right now won't do that.

(40:16):
I mean, especially the bigger banks, especially
the highly regulated
big ass banks like the big four.
They're not going to touch your Bitcoin as collateral until somebody like Pulte says, it's okay.
You can now do that.
So if they do,
I don't even know what that does to house prices. We we really gotta get these house prices way, way, way, way down

(40:43):
from where they are right now because this is this is
almost adding fuel on the fire, and who knows?
Maybe that's why Pulte is examining the possibility of
using Bitcoin
to prop up the housing market because guess what?
If you get a whole bunch of banks that start using allowing users to use their Bitcoin as collateral to qualify for a mortgage,

(41:07):
you're going to get more purchasing pressure put on the housing market, which is definitely not going to take housing down
in price anytime soon whatsoever.
So this may actually work against us. I I'm not exactly sure. It depends on how much Bitcoin you have, I suppose,
but we need to move on
to studio.primal.net.

(41:31):
Odell announced this shit yesterday, man.
I shouldn't call it shit. It's not shit. It's this is a really nice version of primal.
My only caveat here is that it's damned expensive.
It's like $69
a month,
something like that.
Everybody gets it for free for for a one month trial period.

(41:53):
So you gotta go to studio.primal.net.
That's studio.primal.net.
This is a Nostril client,
but it is a premium
Nostril client in so far that they are charging a premium
a premium price on a per month basis to use it. Like, if I go to

(42:13):
my account and I say subscribe to PrimalPro,
here are my options.
PrimalPro
monthly subscription is $69.99
a month.
A Primal Pro yearly subscription is $750
a year.
I can already tell you, I'm not paying that.

(42:34):
I'm not paying $70
for Primal
Studio. I'm just not.
However,
that's just because I'm I can be like, you know, kind of a cheapskate,
and I already
I I I've already got way too many subscriptions.
I'm sick of the subscription model. Just let me buy the fucking thing

(42:55):
and stop
asking me for money later on.
If that said,
I'm gonna tell you this.
If I had oodles of cash, just buckets of it laying around,
I would definitely buy this product.
I would definitely buy this product.
This thing is really great. It's got some it's it it right now,

(43:16):
I'm going to make I'm going to make a guess that this is sort of a lot barer
bones
of
a test
release
than what we're going to see from studio.primal.net
in the future, but it's already got one of the coolest features I've ever seen.
And that is I can schedule posts.

(43:38):
I can schedule
Nostr notes to go out at whatever time that I want to do that.
Yes. Choracle
has that as well,
but primal has never had that until now and they're doing it through primal studio.
But even better is this
fascinating
ability
that I can choose on either either I can write a note or I can write a full length article.

(44:04):
But both of them,
I can send it, I can publish the note, I can publish the article,
or
I can propose it to another
user.
And this was kinda causing confusion
yesterday when, when the news about this thing, you know, whole thing dropped. So what does that mean?
Okay. Let's say

(44:28):
let's say that
I'm,
like, I don't know, like, let's say that I'm friends with the guys over at Bitcoin Magazine, and somehow or another, they like some of the stuff that I write.
And
instead of going through,
like,
emailing them a pitch sheet and, like, you know, a bare bones article about what it is I wanna propose, I can just write it on Nostril,

(44:50):
and
I can propose it directly to Bitcoin Magazine.
There's also the option
and that what what that means is that nobody else can see it but Bitcoin Magazine,
and then they have the option
to actually publish that article
under their own in pub.

(45:13):
Okay. So what else would this do? Let's say me and you are friends, and we're trying to start up, like, our own little media company, and we've got like, we're sending each other articles,
or we're sending we're we're sending, like, like, articles to a third party.
And that party is part of this group, and they're the ones that we we don't wanna each of us have, you know, access to the,

(45:36):
to the InSec secure key that allows
the media company, Nostr,
account to actually publish from. We wanna keep it safe. Right? We wanna make sure that it's not spread around. Or better yet, if we start hiring other people to write articles for us, we don't want them to have the insect. We don't want them to be able to publish under the name of the publication. We

(45:59):
want
them to simply just just write the article and send it to us, and then we will make a determination whether or not we're gonna publish it. And then we have the option because we do have the insect keys
to publish that. And all of this happens through the Nostra protocol
with studio.primal.net.
So I can write a full length article.

(46:20):
I can send it to, let's say, my editor who has control of the insect of the publication's
Nostra account, and they say this looks fine. Boom. Publish it.
Hopefully, they'll add the fact that it came from me,
and I'm not sure if that does if that happens
here

(46:41):
internally in studio.primal.net
or if it's something that has to be added on by whoever it is that I've proposed the article to. But essentially, it sends what I write as a nostril
kind of note,
but only the person I proposed it to will ever be able to actually see it,
read it, and then make a determination

(47:03):
whether or not it gets published under the insect of which they have control. Does that make sense?
I can do the same thing with notes
and articles. So the in both of those things, there is a button at the bottom left that says propose to user. So if I go to studio.primal.net/articles
and I hit the key the button that says new article,

(47:26):
I can put in a title, I can add a hero image, I can put in an article summary, I can add tags, and then I've got a full blown editor.
So this is very, very nice.
And
I can preview it
in a couple of different ways.
I can preview it like it would be seen on a browser.
I can preview it like it would be seen on a phone,

(47:50):
and I could preview it seen as it would look in feeds.
I can schedule the published time just like I can do with notes, and, again, I can propose to some Nostra user.
I
this really is this Primal thing, and I know a lot of people have issues with Primal.

(48:10):
I honestly it's not that I don't care about your issues. It's that
it's a good product. I'm sorry. I I know that people do have some issues with Primal. I but it's a good product and I really enjoy using it, so
I do use it. But this,
what I'm looking at right now
is it's

(48:30):
slick,
it works very very well,
it has a lot of the features that I've been wanting.
So go try studio.primal.net,
that's studio.primal.net.
You can at least get one month free, and if you're just swimming in oodles of cash, you just can go ahead and pay the $70 a month
because you're if you are, you know, willing to pay $70 a month, for this, then you're probably somebody like Anthony Pompliano

(48:58):
whose Bitcoin treasury
company, ProCap,
has actually purchased
$385,000,000
worth of Bitcoin. So true to his word,
again, there's a lot of people that have a lot of problems with Anthony, and I'm not exactly his biggest fan, but I don't hate him either.
He actually did what he said he was gonna do, and he actually has bought Bitcoin. This is from Daniel Coon in the block.

(49:21):
Anthony Pompliano's
recently revealed Bitcoin treasury company, ProCap, has acquired its first
3,724
Bitcoin at a time weighted average price of $103,785
per coin.
It was valued, the purchase, at 385,000,000,
and it will now sit on the firm's balance sheet offering a leverage play for investors interested in exposure to Bitcoin's price but preferred to hold equity.

(49:51):
ProCap aims to eventually hold $1,000,000,000
worth of Bitcoin.
On Monday, ProCap unveiled that it had proposed a $1,000,000,000
merger with Columbus Circle Capital
to go public as ProCap
Financial Incorporated,
and the move is part of an accelerating trend of so called crypto treasury firms that fund digital asset purchases through equity and debt sales largely inspired by the success of Michael Saylor's strategy.

(50:18):
That's pretty much all we need to know. I talked about it yesterday,
and here we are today, twenty four hours later, and he's actually bought the Bitcoin. But on this note of Michael Saylor,
do remember for all you know, and there's a lot of people that are bitching about and I I'm one of the people that bitch about it too. You should just buy Bitcoin.

(50:38):
Do not buy MicroStrategy
shares.
Sure.
This is not investment advice, but I honestly think that
you're better off holding the actual asset itself
because that way you know it's not paper.
But beyond that,
remember a couple years ago
when Michael Saylor put out his webinar and he invited, like, the

(50:59):
Fortune five hundred's,
chief financial officer, like, from all of the, you know, all of the Fortune 500 companies and, like, a couple of 100 showed up, and I think it actually crashed the webinar and they had to, I don't know, they had to, like, kinda, like,
figure something out because they had so many people subscribing to the feed that it freaked it out.

(51:22):
And remember
how he gave everybody the the the plan on how it was that he was doing what he was going to be doing?
And remember how we
bitched and moaned that nobody, you know,
nobody did the thing, nobody actually bought the Bitcoin, nobody actually
put his
game plan

(51:42):
into place.
Well,
times change, don't they? Because now we're on the other side of the River Styx, and now everybody's, like, going, oh my god. We're all gonna die because of Bitcoin treasury companies.
You wanna talk about it like this is like a hand grenade
of a proposal from somebody like Mike Michael,
Sailor. This is where he just pulls the pin and throws the grenade, and you gotta wait a couple of seconds before the son of a bitch goes off. That's what happened here.

(52:10):
Now everybody is doing they they apparently took two years
to study this thing that Michael Saylor put out two years ago
and have finally come to the conclusion pulling the trigger. Pulling the trigger, pulling the trigger is just one after another after another after another after another
To wit,

(52:31):
Amazing AI
announces adoption of a Bitcoin Treasury policy
from Bitcoin Magazine.
Amazing
AI, a global financial technology group specializing in online consumer
loans,
has announced today the adoption of a Bitcoin Treasury policy
marking a strategic shift towards integrating Bitcoin into its balance sheet.

(52:56):
Furthermore,
from another article out of Bitcoin Magazine,
Sequence
launches a $384,000,000
Bitcoin Treasury initiative
with Swan Bitcoin.
Sequence Communications,
a French based developer of five g and Internet of Things semiconductor

(53:17):
technology,
has announced a move into Bitcoin with a new treasury initiative backed by a $384,000,000
private placement.
The funding includes a 195,000,000
in equity securities and a 189,000,000
in convertible secured notes.
Sequence plans to allocate this capital

(53:38):
toward building a Bitcoin position alongside its core
Internet of things
operations.
So that's number two.
Number three is the blockchain group acquiring 75 Bitcoin
after a €7,200,000
raise.
Today, the Blockchain Group listed on Euronext Growth Paris

(54:01):
and recognized as Europe's first Bitcoin Treasury company has announced
the acquisition of 75
additional
Bitcoin for approximately
€7,000,000.
The purchase brings the company's total Bitcoin holdings to 1,728
BTC
valued at around
a €155,800,000.

(54:23):
But we're not done.
Number four is DigiAsia,
which is another fintech company, is going to launch their very own Bitcoin treasury strategy. This is also Bitcoin magazine.
DigiAsia
Corporation, a leading Southeast Asian fintech as a service platform,

(54:43):
has signed an indicative
term sheet for up to $3,000,000
in nonrecourse
debt financing to kick start its very own Bitcoin treasury acquisition strategy.
The funding comes from High West Capital Partners and is expected to close within forty five days. It just goes on and on and on and on and on.

(55:05):
And I know I know the question that's seething
in your gut,
so why is not the price of Bitcoin rising?
I'm honestly, I'm of the mind that it's really paper Bitcoin,
that we're dealing with a lot more paper Bitcoin than I wish to admit.
I don't know that for a fact. Okay? So don't do not take this as you know, you gotta take it with a grain of salt because I have no proof,

(55:31):
and I'm never gonna be able to find the proof. I it's just it's not going to happen.
Still,
the only real thing that explains this
is that there's paper Bitcoin on the market
in an amount that is much more than I thought was actually floating around
last week or or even yesterday.

(55:55):
Again,
please, grain of salt. But
we're still sitting at a 105, and we have like, this is now what I I gave you four companies in a row.
They are either adding to their stack or their brand new company is coming online with their own Bitcoin treasury strategy,
and they're just using Michael Saylor's playbook. That's all they're doing. It's the same thing. They're they sell shares

(56:21):
of their company
so that they can get cash to buy Bitcoin.
And the other part of that story is that they
print
convertible
or sometimes
non convertible
debt instrumentation
in the form is of senior notes
and sell that for cash to buy Bitcoin.

(56:43):
So one is an equity play,
which is has the tinglings of a little bit of debt financing.
But the real debt financing is just the, hey. We're gonna issue these notes. You buy them. Basically, you're loaning us money. Some of them have a percent, you know, a percentage yield on it. Some of them, you can convert to equity.

(57:03):
In some cases, there was one that I read read to you, like, you would I think it was a couple of weeks or last week. You get nothing.
It's like you you gotta wait until the maturity date and then you get either
either Bitcoin back or you get cash back. That's it. You don't get to convert it to equity.
It doesn't have a yield. And people just buying them. Just buying. They don't give a shit. They don't care.

(57:26):
It's just it's amazing.
And
so the real that was what's so funny about thinking about, you know, back two and a half years ago when Michael Saylor did the webinar
and nobody did anything.
And everybody in Bitcoin kind of freaked out and was going nobody breathed a sigh of relief.
Everybody was like, oh,

(57:47):
well, I guess that went nowhere.
Well, here we are two and a half,
two, two and a half years later,
and here we
are, bitching and moaning about, a, paper Bitcoin,
b,
what kind of idiot would actually
just loan their money to a company so that they can buy the very thing that you could have just bought?

(58:11):
Hairless monkeys don't make sense most of the time,
and we're right here again today.
Anyway, so
that's the news that you can use for today. Please consider supporting the show. You can do that simply by zapping me
on Nostr.
Or if you are using a podcasting two point o app, just stream me Satoshis or send me a boostagram.

(58:36):
But legacy apps don't do that. You gotta go to new Bitcoin
wait. Hold on. What there's a there's a thing. There's an actual
website
for,
new Bitcoin
or, not Bitcoin,
new podcast apps. I think it's newpodcastapps.com.
Yeah. I found it. It's newpodcastapps.com.

(58:59):
Newpodcastapps,
apps,.com.
It's gonna take you to podcast index, but newpodcastapps.com
is just pretty much an easy way to to figure it out.
That's where you can find all the podcasting apps that are podcast two point o enabled.
You need a potter a modern podcasting app. You gotta get off of Apple Podcasts. You gotta get off of Spotify. You gotta get off of all this crap

(59:26):
that do not give you the features of modern podcasting apps. And if you want to support the show,
modern podcasting apps is the fundamental
way to do that as we move forward
so that
content creators and musicians and artists and all all of us that try to actually put something out there in the wild to be consumed by people

(59:48):
who find it useful,
don't have to go through a third party. You can just support me and anybody that you want directly.
We have the technology and it's just going to get better, but it's not going to happen unless you go to newpodcastapps.com,
get yourself a modern podcasting app, and start supporting the Bitcoin and show, and I will see you on the other side.

(01:00:10):
This has been Bitcoin and, and I'm your host, David Bennett. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and hope to see you again real soon.
Have a great day.

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