Join me today for Episode 1021 of Bitcoin And . . .
Topics for today:
- Shitcoiner in Chief
- Ross Ulbricht Was NOT Freed on #DayOne
- MSTR Votes to Print More Class A Shares
- Musk Alone on DOGE
#Bitcoin #BitcoinAnd
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Articles:
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https://bitcoinmagazine.com/politics/trump-likes-crypto-just-as-long-as-its-for-grifting
https://cointelegraph.com/news/vitalik-buterin-ethereum-leadership-debate
https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2025/01/21/micro-strategy-added-11-k-bitcoin-for-1-1-b-pushing-holdings-to-461-k-btc
https://www.theblock.co/post/336102/microstrategy-votes-to-increase-number-of-shares-fuel-bitcoin-purchases
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https://www.theblock.co/post/336025/trump-and-melania-memecoins-crash-amid-profit-taking-and-wider-crypto-market-uncertainty
https://atlas21.com/california-bets-on-bitcoin-pro-bitcoin-legislation-on-the-way/
https://www.nobsbitcoin.com/opensats-grants-support-for-three-bitcoin-core-contributors/
https://www.nobsbitcoin.com/tornado-cash-sanctions-reversal-has-no-effect-on-developers-trial-says-doj/
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[00:00:02]
David Bennett:
It's 8:54 AM. It is the 21st day of January 2025. Hey, man. It's my birthday today. Say happy birthday to me. Anyway, this is episode 1,000 and wow. It's 1021 of bitcoin and yeah. 1021 episode on the 1st month, 21st day of 2025, my birthday. It's kind of weird, it's a little bit of, you know, a little bit of numerology is going on here. That's okay. Magic is in the air. Magic is in the air. We got a new president on our hands. And he's a shitcoiner. He's a complete shitcoiner. Oh my God. Of all the things that I did not expect, was the launching of twin shitcoins the weekend before the inauguration.
I mean, we knew that he was gonna launch some kind of Trump coin or something like that, but I didn't think it was gonna get that much hype. And I certainly didn't think that it was going to go from like freaking 19¢, which I think is what what its starting bid price was, all the way up to $74 a coin. It's ridiculous. Anyway, we'll talk a little bit more about that. What else we got? Oh, Vitalik is crying like a baby. He's crying like a baby about something, and we'll get into that. MicroStrategy back in the news again. Texas, seems that, well, Bitcoin mining has done some good for the state of Texas, and Mike well, MicroStrategy is in the news twice, in fact. And then we're gonna go over we're gonna talk about Musk because he is gonna be Dogecoin numero uno or at least Doge numero uno after a little exit from Vivek Ramaswami.
And then let's see here. What else is going on? We got California in the news. Open Sats is in the news, and Tornado Cash is in the news. Let's get it going on with Josh O'Sullivan, Cointelegraph. To start us out on this glorious Tuesday morning, Bitcoin mining saved to the state of Texas $18,000,000,000 and boosted grid stability. Wow. $18,000,000,000 is a lot of money. I wonder who's, talking about that. Well, apparently, it's a new research report by the Digital Asset Research Institute or DARI, and they have revealed how Bitcoin mining has impacted the Texas electrical grid and saved the state as much as $18,000,000,000 by eliminating the need for new gas peaker plants.
The findings come as Texas has grappled with extreme weather conditions in recent years. I just I saw something shiny and I lost my place. Including a 2021 winter storm that caused widespread blackouts and significant economic losses. Historically, grid operators have relied on gas peaker plants to address peak electricity demand. While effective in short bursts, these plants are costly, remain idle for much of the year, and emit substantial greenhouse gases. Oh, whoop dee doo. Good lord, people. Stop with the bullshit. We don't have to pretend that the climate is collapsing anymore, ladies and gentlemen. We like, we're we're done with the woke. We're done with the woke. We're done with the woke. Dari's report shows that Bitcoin mining offers a more efficient alternative to gas peaker plants via demand response programs where BTC miners can quickly reduce energy consumption during peak demand and stabilize the grid.
Well, the Daugherty report stated that the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, also known as ERCOT, sought alternatives to the traditional gas peaker plants following the devastation of the 2021 winter storm. Determining that BTC Mining could help balance electricity demand and supply to prevent further blackouts, ERCOT's demand response programs have seen voluntary participation by the miners. ERCOT's demand response programs voluntarily reduce energy usage during peak electricity demand. This approach has eliminated the need for Berkshire Hathaway Energy's proposed $10,000,000,000 investment in new gas peaker plants, which would have further increased electricity costs for Texans.
Gas peaker plants have been criticized for inefficiencies and their contribution to greenhouse gases while sitting idle for most of the year, releasing 100 of 1000 of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually. Oh my god. We're all gonna die. According to the Dyer report, BTC Mining offers a cleaner and more cost effective solution where miners operate continuously and generate revenue while remaining able to reduce energy consumption when needed during peak demand. The environmental implications for this flexibility enable electrical grids to incorporate more renewable energy sources like wind and solar power, which can go underutilized due to their intermittency in energy production.
Yeah, you know, that's I'm sorry. I I gotta I gotta pause to say something. I'm gonna tell you a little story about me and the wife cruising out into, from Lubbock. We were driving from Lubbock to Central Texas, and we were passing through a region of Texas on that drive that is a massive windmill farm. It's I mean, they started this shit 20 years ago, and it it we're talking tens of thousands of these giant crappy ass windmills out in the middle of West Texas. The wind was blowing that day and not too hard, but not too soft.
And every single windmill that we saw was not turning. And my wife turns to me and she goes, what the hell is going on? The winds blowing. We can we can see it, you know, we can see some dust blowing. We know the winds blowing. It's easy to tell out in West Texas. And and I had to answer her because it's the middle of the day, and everybody's at work. There's nobody to use the electricity. So they can't actually generate the electricity because there's just nobody to consume it. And she looks at me and says, well, that's just stupid. Well, yes, ma'am. I agree. Anyway, let's continue on. Despite the advantages of BTC Mining, the industry faces resistance from corporate and political entities such as lobbying by Berkshire Hathaway Energy, according to the Dary report.
The report highlighted that some lawmakers in Texas have questioned the role of BTC mining as an alternative to gas peaker plants, even as ERCOT in peer reviewed studies confirms its positive impact on grid stability. Proponents of BTC mining, such as US Senator Ted Cruz, in an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph, described Texas as an oasis for Bitcoin due to its low cost and business friendly environment. Cruz said that Texas is known for its abundant low cost energy and that he intends to ensure the trend of more jobs in Texas continues and accelerates while the state increases its BTC mining activities.
So this Dary report, you know, as to the efficacy of the report, that kinda rides on the efficacy of Dary. And I don't know much about Dari. I don't know all that much about the Digital Assets Research Institute, but this is not this is not information that hasn't gone uncorroborated by other sources. I've heard on many occasions from many different people, some inside of the Texas legislature and some outside, through news reporting that this whole this whole voluntary release of mining when, like, you know, if if the energy spikes in the state of Texas because, I don't know, cold weather happens or something like that, miners, they don't have to stand on the miners. They don't really have to call them up and say, hey, you're not doing what you said you were gonna do. These miners are apparently actually doing their bit for king and country.
So hats off to everybody involved in the state of Texas and BTC Mining and this whole issue of gas peaker plants and the fact that they never let Berkshire Hathaway have their way on building this $10,000,000,000 that was a whole state that was a whole bill in the state legislature a couple of years ago. And it was really caught it was really causing people some serious serious concern because they were like going, well, shit, man. Berkshire Hathaway is just crapping all over BTC Mining and we come to find out that it's because they want to build these gas peaker plants and Texas didn't allow Berkshire Hathaway to have their way.
And I I find that I I find that thrilling, honestly, because they went right up against whatever his name is. Oh, god. What's the guy's name that owns Berkshire Hathaway? The old man that eats ice cream with Bill Gates and calls Bitcoin rat poison squared. Anyway, that dude, he didn't get his way. Oh, Buffett. Warren Buffett. That's it. Anyway, didn't get his way, and that's that's good. Now here's a guy that's probably gonna get his way until somebody gives him a little bit of a bitch slap, and that's going to be Trump. Now, I'm going to be very, very hard on Trump today.
And if you don't like it, I don't care. And it's not because I hate Trump. I don't care. He's just another guy. He's another politician, and he's proved his worth. At least in this particular case, he's definitely proved his worth. He likes crypto just as long as it's for grifting. And this is written by Trey Walsh for Bitcoin Magazine. And I want you to understand something here. Bitcoin Magazine is owned by a guy named David Bailey. David Bailey was one of the guys that was able to get Trump to come give a speech at Bitcoin Magazine's big crypto conference, which is Bitcoin Miami. Well, this time, it was the Bitcoin conference in Nashville, but it's been in Miami for a long time. That guy. Well, he tweeted out a couple of days ago actually, was I I think it was yesterday. Yeah. It was yesterday. He said, yeah, man. The 47th president just bought $47,000,000 worth of Bitcoin, and then he listed exactly what this guy had bought.
It was $47,000,000 worth of ether $47,000,000 worth of wrapped bitcoin. Now, I don't know if you don't understand this. Listen up. This is a critical issue. Wrapped Bitcoin, also known as WBTC, is not Bitcoin. It's not on the chain that Bitcoin is on. If you try to send me wrapped Bitcoin to my Bitcoin addresses, any of them, that transaction will fail and you I don't know if you'll lose your wrapped Bitcoin because you do it, but whatever. It's not Bitcoin. It exist wrapped Bitcoin exists on either Ethereum or Solana, possibly Tron. It used to only be on Ethereum.
And what you would do is you would take your Bitcoin and you would convert it into wrapped BTC, which essentially means that you gave your Bitcoin to somebody else and they gave you essentially wrapped Bitcoin. And it's an at the time, it was an ERC 20 token. Now I believe wrapped Bitcoin exists on at least 4 shitcoin chains. It is not Bitcoin. Trump did not buy Bitcoin. David Bailey told us in that tweet that he bought Bitcoin, but he didn't. He bought wrapped Bitcoin and at least 5 other shitcoins, including the mother shit coin from which all shit coins have birthed themselves from the asshole of which is ether. I'm sorry to put it that way, but that's the way it is.
Trump and his companies have yet to actually purchase a single Bitcoin. And the reason that I think it's interesting that Bitcoin Magazine, which is owned by David Bailey, is running Trey Walsh's article entitled Trump likes crypto just as long as it's for grifting, suggests to me that maybe there's still something something to Bitcoin Magazine that I can hold on to. Because otherwise, if it was if it was just a David Bailey show, they would never run this article because it goes completely against what David Bailey is trying to do. He loves Trump. He got Trump to come to the conference, and yet his own outfit is running a anti Trump story. At least there's some kind of balance even if we can only find it in Bitcoin land. Let's read it. When the Trump meme coin dropped Friday evening, no one was surprised, or at least they shouldn't have been. He has a knack for jumping headfirst into endeavors he thinks he can make money on in self promoting fashion that often ends in disaster.
Some of these ventures include Trump Airlines, Trump Vodka, Trump Steaks, Trump University, Trump Magazine, Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino, Trump Mortgage, Trump The Game. Crypto is just the next game in town he's decided to throw his hat into. I've already written articles and talked at various links about Trump leaning into the crypto space to earn votes in this past election that in many ways was quite successful. At Bitcoin Nashville this past summer, in an effort to garner support for his presidential candidacy, Trump said some notable things including that America will become the crypto capital of the planet and Bitcoin superpower of the world.
That if he would fire Gary Gensler and that he wants all remaining Bitcoin to be made in America concerning from a decentralized point of view and highly implausible in reality. He also famously said that he would commute the sentence of Ross Ulbricht on day 1, which if he does not, I will be the first to give credit where credit is due. Oh, no. He says, if he which if he does, I will be the first to give credit where credit is due. For more on this, I recommend watching the recent reason documentary on why Ross should be free.
Crypto is Donald Trump's next frontier and combines several things that he absolutely loves when it comes to business deals. Quick easy money, self promotion, America first messaging, and little bureaucratic friction standing in his way. So what is Trump coin? Well, it's built on the Solana blockchain with a total supply of 1,000,000,000 tokens. Initially, 200,000,000 tokens are available for circulation, while the remaining 800,000,000 are held by CIC Digital, a Trump Organization affiliate subject to a 3 year lockup period, which means that Trump family holds 80% of the supply.
Following its launch, the Trump coins market cap surged reaching approximately $6,000,000,000. The coin's price peaked at $33.7. The Trump coin was marketed as a means for supporters to express their alignment with Trump's ideals rather than an investment opportunity, which is hogwash for the pump and dump self enrichment scheme that he is, in my opinion, immoral and unethical for creating. And investors, oops, I guess we should say fans, are stupid for taking part in. I'm gonna pause here to say something. I'm pretty sure Trump coin went to $74.
And I I guess this was maybe written, like, I don't know, like, late Friday night after the, after the initial launch. But in either event, $33.7.70, No. That that was not the top price of crump oh, crump. Trump coin before it crashed. We'll get to that. Alright? Anyway, with that cleared up, with inauguration on Monday, We're entering uncharted territory where it's likely Trump will issue executive orders relating to Bitcoin and crypto. And now emboldened by the presidency, the lack of legal worries, and supporters that I truly believe would be fine with whatever he does. As he famously quoted quote, I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose any voters. Okay?
I remember him saying that. Some of these actions could be positive for the Bitcoin industry and advocates in the United States. But many of his actions could also equally benefit the broader crypto space that is rife with pump and dump scam coins and useless get rich quick schemes for wealthy insiders and people who have lobbied them throughout the last cycle. The pump and dump crypto landscape, his goofy coins and NFTs, make sense to Trump. In fact, I'm betting he truly believes this is crypto's purpose while knowing little about Bitcoin. Trump has repeatedly said he has fun with crypto and ended his keynote address at the Bitcoin conference this past summer by saying, have a good time with your Bitcoin and your crypto and everything else that you're playing with.
Trump's experience in and views of crypto and Bitcoin are around fun and making easy money. But with Bitcoin, many of us in the space are fighting for much more, which includes Bitcoin's many use cases as censorship resistant, digital currency, digital gold, a medium of exchange to use in self custody, and via privacy preserving tools, a powerful tool for human rights, and much, much more. This isn't a gamble for us. It's the future of money that challenges the dollar in central bank rule. If Trump really began to grasp this based on his track record and previous statements on Bitcoin, he'd be quite against this use of Bitcoin.
Or perhaps he knows what Bitcoin is at some level and would rather promote the fun meme coins and maybe Bitcoin is digital gold, but nothing more. He did, after all, say in 2021 quite clearly, quote, Bitcoin is just it just seems like a scam. I don't like it because it's another currency competing with the dollar, end quote. He added that he wanted the dollar to be the currency of the world. Well, Trump wants you to keep playing with crypto, funneling money to his organizations, but it's unlikely he'd be a fan of anyone using Bitcoin as a competitor to the dollar circumventing traditional finance or using privacy tools.
I'll keep promoting Bitcoin as resistance money and hope you'll join me rather than endlessly gambling on crypto, quote, and everything else you're playing with, end quote. Alright. Like I said, I'm gonna be kinda hard on Trump today, but it doesn't it doesn't mean that I hate the guy. Alright? I mean, he pulled us out of the Paris Accords already, the climate change thing that we he had pulled us out once and then Biden put us directly back into, and one of his first executive orders was to pull us back out. And from what I understand, he pulled us out of the World Health Organization. I think this is good.
This shit, I I I I hell yeah. LFG, guys. Let's go. I don't need the World Health Organization anymore. The next thing: get out of the UN. Get out of all this crap. This is all bullshit, and it's just it's all toxic, or it's become that way. Maybe when these organizations were first started, they were they were great, and and they maybe had a chance to do all kinds of neat stuff. But it's just it's just become a playground for buffoonery, grifting, money laundering, and all amounts of just power struggle bullshit. And honestly, man, I don't have time for this, and neither do you. Maybe you think you do, but I guarantee you you don't. You don't have time for this stuff. So, while I can be hard on orange man on one side, I can be completely appreciative of him doing what he just did.
Get us out of the Paris Accords. It's stupid. Get us out of the World Health Organization. They caused nothing but problems. My the only real huge problem that I have with Trump right now is that he hasn't freed Ross yet. Now he's got till noon today, EST, which I think is actually already passed. Was it 9? 10, 11, 12. Yep. It is passed. It is 12:16 PM Eastern Standard Time as I speak to you right now. If Ross wasn't freed before 12 PM Eastern Standard Time today, then he failed on one of his first campaign promises, and that was FreeRoss day 1.
Not day 2 or 3 or 4. No. Day 1. Now and there's a lot of people out there that are bitching the same way that I'm bitching, but I need to say this. There's no reason in the world that he couldn't have had that already prepped like he had everything else prepped. In fact, he should have just put Barron, his son, one of his sons on it. He should have said, Barron, I'm handing this to you. Your your first project as in in the political world as my son and, you know, blah blah. I want you to make sure that you you talk to these 2 guys over here and they're gonna help you draft what it is I need to sign. I need you to draft the commutation or the pardon. Y'all figure it out. You bring it to me. You put it on my signing desk when I do all these other things, and I will get that son of a bitch out of jail day 1. They didn't do it. They did all this other stuff. They bought shit coins out the wazoo.
They pumped Trump and Melania coin out the wazoo, but they didn't free if they haven't freed Ross, as I speak, if if that dude is still in jail, then he failed on his first campaign promise. And, guys, it's a red flag. When people say they're going to do something and they're going to do something on a certain day or at a certain time, I expect that to actually happen. And there are other people that are out there, and these are both people on Nostril because I don't use Twitter and I don't use Facebook and I rarely use LinkedIn or anything like that. They're saying that people like me need to shut up and we're bitching too hard and and we're just being too hard on orange man. No, I don't think we are being too hard on orange man. Do you think if I worked at the Trump Organization and Trump saw me not doing my job, do you think he'd be easy on me?
Do you think that if I told Trump as a contractor that he hired to do a specific job and I told him it would be done on day 1 and I didn't do it, do you think he'd be easy on me? Do you think I'd still have a job as a contractor in the Trump Organization if I told Trump directly to his face that he was gonna do that I was gonna do something at this particular time, and when that particular time came and went, it wasn't done, do you think I'd still be there? No. I wouldn't be there. He would fire me because that's the way he is. There's no reason in the world that we shouldn't be holding his feet to the fire on this. He promised us free Ross day 1, and as far as I know, shit hadn't been done yet.
I'm not interested in day 2. Ross needs to be free. I don't care if it takes him 15 days. As long as Ross gets free, I'm good. But I'm not good with Trump because he means it means he broke his first promise to me. I don't like being promised shit and people not delivering. I'm sorry. I'm just that way. Anyway, let's move on to the crybaby that is the head of the body that contains the asshole of which is the mother of all shitcoins, Vitalik Buterin, who has claimed sole authority over the Ethereum Foundation leadership. That's right. It's it was never about a committee of people. It was never about a council on the Ethereum Foundation making decisions.
It's Vitalik. He's saying the quiet part out loud. This is Josh O'Sullivan, Cointelegraph. Ethereum cofounder Vitalik Buterin reaffirmed his authority over the Ethereum Foundation in a Twitter post today, January 21st, in which he dismissed all calls for a leadership shakeup. Buterin said that the decision remains his until planned reforms to introduce a proper board and criticize certain crypto community members for actively toxic to top talent. The comments follow a strong wave of community pressure to promote Danny Ryan, a researcher and developer within the Ethereum ecosystem, and criticism of current Ethereum Foundation Executive Director, Aya Miyaguchi.
Some Twitter community members have resorted to harassment and death threats against Mayaguchi, which Buterin strongly condemned as pure evil. Yeah. Death threats is not cool, but shit, dude. Vitalik said this. He says oh, actually, let me see if it'll oh, it's not actually gonna show more. There's they have the whole let me see if this will this work? No. This is just a screenshot. Here's vital here's part of Vitalik's tweet. It says, no. This is not how this game works. The person deciding the new Ethereum Foundation leadership team is me. One of the goals of the ongoing reform is to give the Ethereum Foundation a proper board. But until that happens, it's me.
Yeah. That's part of the tweet. He goes on with it, but, they're not showing the whole tweet. Anyway, Buterin's Twitter post is in response to calls for Ryan to be named to a leadership role within the Foundation, something Buterin made clear remains his responsibility alone. Advocates for Orion point to his contributions to the development of Ethereum and his leadership in the Ethereum Consensus Layer upgrade, which transitioned the network from proof of work to proof of stake. Ryan's supporters argue that his expertise aligns with Ethereum's long term goals. Blah blah blah blah. And then there's a oh, yeah. Okay. Here we go. The leadership debate has also exposed a darker side of the Ethereum community with Buterin specifically addressing harassment directed at Mayaguchi who has served as executive director since 2018.
Mayaguchi has faced targeted criticism online with some community members on, Twitter blaming her for perceived in inefficiencies within the foundation and one ex user asking why don't we kill Aya Mayaguchi? Wow. Got some real wow. Got some real good guys over there. Anyway, Buterin condemned the toxic community behavior and goes on to say quote, some of Ethereum's best devs have been messaging me recently expressing their disgust with the social media environment that people like you are creating. You are making my job harder. And you are decreasing the chance that I have any interest whatsoever in doing quote what you want.
End quote. Sounds pretty pissed off. The Ethereum co founder announced significant changes to the foundation's leadership January 18th to improve communication between the foundation and builders in the ecosystem. Buterin outlined goals including supporting decentralized application developers, censorship resistance, privacy, and promoting decentralization, a contrast to a statement asserting sole authority over the foundation today on January 21st. In his January 18th Twitter post, Buterin said that the foundation would not engage in ideological shifts or political lobbying or take a more central role in developing the Ethereum ecosystem.
Alright. So it's very clear who the Ethereum Foundation is at this point. And it should never ever have been in doubt. I'm sorry if it was for anybody who's listening to me that actually owns Ethereum. But if you are in Ethereum, I don't know why you still are. It's it's been crashing against Bitcoin for over 4 years straight without any relief whatsoever. And if you're not out, it's time to get out. Are you ready for some MicroStrategy stuff? Yeah. Let's let's go ahead and do it. This is CoinDesk written by James Van Stratton, And the headline is MicroStrategy adds another 11,000 Bitcoin for $1,100,000,000 pushing its holdings to 461,000 Bitcoin. And, honestly, that's all we need to know because it's the next one. It's the next MicroStrategy story that really gets this shit off to the races. And this is written by RT Watson from the block.
MicroStrategy votes to increase number of shares to fuel Bitcoin purchases. This is the important one. MicroStrategy shareholders approved not 1 but 2 amendments on Monday that will allow the company to increase the number of authorized stock in order to help the company pursue its plan of buying more Bitcoin. Last October, the company announced plans to offer $21,000,000,000 in equity and $21,000,000,000 in fixed income securities to support this Bitcoin Treasury Reserve strategy, a a move referred to as its 21/21 plan.
As of January 20th, the company said approximately $5,420,000,000 worth of shares remained available for sale as part of its plan targeting a total of $42,000,000,000 for Bitcoin acquisitions. On Tuesdays Tuesday, shareholders voted in favor of both increasing the number of authorized class a common stock and preferred stock. Earlier in the day, MicroStrategy said it had purchased another 11,000 BTC for approximately 1,100,000,000 at an average price of $101,191 per coin. The business intelligence company now holds 461,000 Bitcoin worth over $48,000,000,000.
And, of course, MicroStrategy stock was trading down damn near 5% at publication time, while the price of Bitcoin was down about 3 about 3. So just goes to show. But this the whole thing that's important here is that it's not that that MicroStrategy bought more Bitcoin. We knew they were going to do that. It's that they're going to generate more shares. And their shareholders from what I understand, the shareholders, like, voted 55.8 percent in favor of doing the class a common stock share dilution because that's what they're doing. They're just going to print more shares. They're like print like, it's like the treasury print or the well, the Federal Reserve, I guess, printing more money.
It's this is the alchemy. This is the alchemy that Michael Saylor is doing. He's taking he's just printing debt, and he's selling it. It's brilliant. It's I don't think that I would ever have the to do something like that because, you know, I like sleeping at night and I don't like like, this is like extreme gambling. You can't get these kinds of stakes at any casino anywhere on the planet. The only casino that is this big is the stock market and selling your debt as shares to buy an asset. All I can say about Michael Saylor is at least he's not buying wrapped Bitcoin, at least none that we know of.
Let's run the numbers. CNBC Futures and Commodities. West Texas Intermediate crude down 2 full percentage points to $76.31 a barrel. Brent Norsee down 1.14 percent to 79.24. Natural gas is off 5 and a quarter down to $3.74 per 1,000 cubic feet. And gasoline is down a full point to $2.9 a gallon. Gold is up a third of a point to $27.58.80. Silver is up 1.1%. Platinum is up almost a half point, honestly. And copper is the only one in the red. It is down 0.7%, while palladium riding high 0.82% to the upside. Nice. What's odd for me is that platinum is trading at it seems like if it's trading on a per ounce basis, it's under $1,000 yet. I thought platinum was more expensive than gold because there's less of it.
I don't know. If anybody is a you know, knows more about platinum trading, make sure that I'm I'm correct. Is is platinum trading on a per ounce basis on metal futures? I don't know. I know gold does. So, anyway, agricultural futures mostly in the green today. Biggest winner is gonna be wheat, up 3 3 quarters of a percent. Biggest loser is gonna be sugar, down 2 a half percent. Live cattle is down point 14%, lean hogs crashing 1a half to the downside. Feeder cattle are down point 13. The Dow is up a full point. S and P is up 2 thirds of a point. The Nasdaq is up half a point. And the S and P mini is winning out 1 and a half percent to the upside.
Bitcoin looking okay. A $106,180, that is a $2,100,000,000,000 market cap, and we can now purchase 38.8 ounces of shiny metal rocks with our 1 bitcoin of which there are 19,813,026.29 of. Average fees per block, a little high, 0.09 BTC taken in fees on a per block basis. And there are 52 blocks carrying a 122,000 unconfirmed transactions waiting to clear at high priority rates of 7 Satoshis per v byte. Low priority gonna get you in at 5. Hash rate on a 1 week rolling average is 778.7 exahashes per second. From Strategery and Bitcoinery, which was 1 episode 1,020 of the Bitcoin and podcast, I got Pies with 4,000.
Satoshis says that it's the last boost until tax return time. Thank you, sir. No. Thank you. Anonymous with 3,333 SAT says boost. Anonymous with 500 says thank you, sir. Keep rocking. I will, sir. Block 869-321 with 250 says, I work with an XRP enthusiast. I'm disappointed I can't figure out how to help him understand. BTC master with a 121 says, all sats matter at allsatsmatterdot com. Perma Nerd with a 111 sat says thank you, sir, no thank you. Pies with another 100 says thank you, sir, no thank you. And that's the weather report. Welcome to part 2 of the news that you can use.
Musk takes over as sole leader of Doge as Ramaswamy exits for Ohio governor bid. Yes. Where there was 2, there is now only 1 from decrypt written by Sebastian Sinclair. This is just gonna be such this is almost this isn't peak cloud world, this is apex cloud world. It's like cloud world has become the apex predator and it's no longer funny. It's just walking around destroying shit with its little bitty arms and great big jaws. Anyway, Elon Musk is now the sole leader of the Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, after biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswami stepped down to pursue a gubernatorial campaign in Ohio, officials said Monday.
Ramaswami cofounded Doge with Musk in November of 2024 as part of president Donald Trump's save America initiative to cut government waste, reduce regulations, and restructure federal agencies. His departure leaves Musk, a vocal advocate for cost cutting, at the helm of the extra governmental initiative. Quote, Vivek Ramaswamy played a critical role in helping us create Doge, spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement. Quote, he intends to run for elected office soon, which requires him to remain outside of Doge based on the structure that we announced today. End quote.
Doge's acronym has drawn widespread attention due to its connection with Dogecoin, the meme coin crypto that chump, Musk, has championed for years. Known as the Dogefather, Musk's public endorsements of Dogecoin have repeatedly caused price surges, including a recent uptick following his promotion to lead Doge late last year. Critics, however, have expressed skepticism about Doge's objectives. Initially promising $2,000,000,000,000 in government cuts, Musk recently backtracked describing the goal as unlikely but maintaining a target of 1,000,000,000,000.
This is me talking. Yeah. Good luck on that. Anyway, continuing. Adding to the initiative's momentum, Trump issued an executive order on Monday halting the hiring of federal civilian employees across the executive branch. The order, part of a broader plan to streamline government operations, tasked the Office of Management and Budget with developing a plan to reduce the federal workforce through efficiency measures and attrition. Doge is expected to play a key role in shaping those recommendations. Unlike federal departments, Doge operates outside of government channels, relying on private sector experts and Republican allies in congress to push its proposals.
Musk and Ramaswamy's partnership drew attention for its Silicon Valley ties, including advisors like, oh, Palantir cofounder Joe Lonsdale and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen. The initiative's connection to Musk's Dogecoin fandom has also caused a stir among crypto circles. A Trump campaign shirt featuring Musk, Trump, and a Shiba Inu dog on the campaign trail added to the playful yet controversial overlap between Doge and crypto meme culture. It's Apex Clown World, ladies and gentlemen. Apex Predators, except in the form of a clown with a shiny red nose that honks.
Ridiculous. Just like this. And like I said, guys, I'm I'm not going to be nice to Trump just because he's Trump. Yeah. I I just because I don't like Biden doesn't mean that I have to like Trump. Right? And he he's done this bullshit with these stupid ass meme coins of his own. And this is just get into it. Brian MacLeanan is writing it for the block. Trump and Melania meme coins crash amid profit taking and wider crypto market uncertainty. Who could have ever seen this coming? I I don't know. Those of us that's been in this bullshit forever and seen altcoins and shitcoins and meme coins come and go again and again and again and again. Could it be us that maybe saw this coming? Because we did.
Anyway, the cryptocurrency market has experienced a turbulent 24 hours as memecoins tied to US president Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump saw sharp declines following Monday's inauguration. Officially endorsed by the Trump family, the official Trump and Melania meme tokens, which debuted just days ago, have plummeted amid heavy profit taking and broader market weakness. The Trump token plunged 26% to about $39 while the Melania token tumbled 54% to $4.50 over the past day, according to data from CoinGecko. And these tokens initially fueled excitement among Trump supporters and crypto enthusiasts immediately after the launch, but have faced intense volatility.
I don't know what you people expected. Dude, really? You what? Whatever. The declines come after Trump's inauguration failed to deliver any immediate announcements regarding his campaign promise to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve. That is, in fact, ladies and gentlemen, correct. He did not say a word about Bitcoin. His son and, guy David Bailey basically were saying, look at all the Bitcoin we bought. And that's what I was telling you about earlier today. No. They didn't buy Bitcoin. They bought wrapped Bitcoin. And it wasn't for a strategic reserve. It was for Trump. The Trump companies bought that stuff. Right? So not a word was breathed about strategic Bitcoin reserve, but that's not what made the meme coins fail. It's because they're meme coins.
It's stupid. They all have the same pattern. God, please stop doing chasing this crap. Anyway, market sentiment soured as investors hope for clearer signals of pro crypto policies. And while president Trump signed several executive orders on his 1st day, none of them addressed digital assets, leaving some bulls disappointed all way. Trump's vocal support for Bitcoin during the election cycle raised expectations of significant action in the crypto space early in his administration. Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency by market cap, faced headwinds over the past day, declining 4.3% to around, oh my god, $103,600 per coin. How will we ever freaking survive?
Anyway, according to the block's price page, Bitcoin has shown relative resilience compared to the volatile altcoin market where leading tokens like whatever. I don't care. They all drop. But Bitcoin's current price remains about 5.5% below its record high of $109,000 which was reached on Sunday. Yeah. Even I was, like, going holy shit. We hit it again. Anyway, broader market conditions contributed to the sell off with significant liquidations across the cryptocurrency space. And over the past 24 hours, 235,490 traders were liquidated.
Liquidated, I say, resulting in total losses of approximately, a mere $626,000,000 according to Coin Glass. Long positions accounted for $453,000,000 of the liquidations, highlighting a sudden shift in market sentiment. Adding to the challenges, data from blockchain security firm Blockade, which I've never heard, like, literally, like Farm Aid. It's Blockade. But it highlighted a sharp rise in malicious activity tied to Trump themed tokens that have no actual association with the sitting president. According to Blockade CEO, Ayda Ben Nhatan, the launch of the official Trump meme coin coincided with a 206% spike in malicious tokens bearing Trump inspired names and a 14 x increase in impersonator decentralized applications.
Quote, as for the broader impact on the crypto industry, scams are an unfortunate byproduct of innovation and growth, Ben Nattan told The Block. If anything, the increasing sophistication of attackers underscores the growing value of the on chain economy, end quote. Oh, good god. No. It wasn't it what had nothing to do with hit with Trump not saying something about the strategic Bitcoin reserve. It's just shit coinery. And like I said, man, this is this is Apex clown world, not peak clown world. We at one point or another, we may actually see peak clown world, but I'm definitely safe in saying that we have entered Apex clown world.
It's like the Apex Predator, only stupid. Anyway, speaking of well, actually, maybe California isn't so stupid because they're betting on bitcoin. Anyway, in California, pro bitcoin legislation seems to be on the way according to Atlas21 dotcom. The status or sorry. Hard the that I've already read. The the headline. Philip Chin, republican representative in the California state assembly, has announced a strategic partnership with Proof of Workforce, a Santa Monica based nonprofit organization, to develop pro Bitcoin legislation in the upcoming legislative session.
The initiative aims to create a clear regulatory framework for integrating Bitcoin into local and state institutions. The collaboration will focus on several areas, financial education, community engagement, and exploring how Bitcoin can contribute to California's infrastructural development. Anyway, Dom Bay, founder of Proof of Workforce, stated, quote, Bitcoin's Genesis story has deep roots in California. No, it doesn't. A huge part of that Genesis story is an innovative network designed to protect the time, energy, and value of everyday working people. Bitcoin isn't partisan. It's uniquely Californian, end quote.
This is pausing. This is going to end badly. This this person that is on this initiative doesn't have a clue what he's talking about. He has absolutely no conception of Bitcoin, what Bitcoin is, where Bitcoin came from, anything about its history, anything about its promise, anything about its future. This Dom Bai or Bay or however you put it, it's b e I is his last name, however you pronounce it, this man doesn't know a damn thing about what he's talking about. That statement by itself is so ludicrous. It is to be dismissed out of hand, but I the only couple sentences left here, And it's not his quote. This is back to the story. The plan builds on prior successes.
The city of Santa Monica established a Bitcoin office last summer, which according to mayor Lana Negrete, generated significant interest with several other cities ready to replicate the initiative. Chen and proof of workforce are also focusing on educating workers, unions, and pension funds to foster a deeper understanding of Bitcoin's potential in the public sector. Yeah. You better get on that because Bitcoin's Genesis story don't have a damn thing to do with California. It's ridiculous beyond compare. Anyway, let's move on. OpenSats grant support for 3 Bitcoin core contributors.
It is we'll get into it. Here's a quote. Here we go. Here. In alignment with our mission to maintain a robust Bitcoin eco ecosystem, OpenSats is proud to announce a brand new round of grants dedicated to advancing Bitcoin core development. These grants aim to empower developers both seasoned and emerging to strengthen, refine, and innovate on Bitcoin's reference implementation, announced OpenSats. The latest grantees are Lore Inc, who aims to improve Bitcoin Core's performance and reliability by optimizing initial block download, block storage and database functionality standardizing benchmarks enhancing code quality and replacing the outdated LevelDB database.
KevKevin has also gotten a grant. Kevin enhances Bitcoin Core stability, security, and usability by fixing bugs, reviewing pull requests, improving test coverage, and exploring advanced testing techniques like fuzz testing. Daniela Brizzani works on reviewing Bitcoin co Core's code, adding features and improving test coverage. Currently onboarding, she reviews pull requests to familiarize herself with the code base and build skills for larger contributions. So it sounds to me like this 3rd person, Daniella Barzani, is kind of a newbie, but she has gotten a grant to work on Bitcoin Core. So it's not just seasoned core developers.
They're OpenSats has got this grant, and I I think I'm pretty right because it sounds to me like she's kinda new that they're onboard they're using these they're granting agency to onboard newer Bitcoin core developers. And, honestly, hats off to them. I know that that Open Sats keeps getting flack and some of my favorite people have been denied to, you know, getting a grant for Nostra development from OpenSats, and I understand I totally understand their their their angst. I get it. I would be angsty too. But Open Sats does do good work.
I I am just not prepared to throw the baby out with the bathwater just because one of my favorite projects is just not getting any love out of Open Sats. That doesn't mean I'm just going to hate everything open sats does. I I think they're wrong by not reviewing the grant applications for this particular project. But, hey, I'm not on the board. I don't have any say. All I can do is control that which I can control and let everything else go as the, as Seneca would probably have me do. Anyway, last up for the day, tornado cache sanctions reversal has no effect on developers or the developers trial, says the Department of Justice.
Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm seeks to dismiss charges after a 5th Circuit ruling reversed sanctions against the software. The United States government argues that this reversal doesn't impact the criminal trial, asserting the case primarily concerns control over the Tornado Cash user interface. And let's read about it. In a motion filed on January 17th, the US government continues to accuse Roman Storm and his associates of aiding the Lazarus Group in money laundering by funding infrastructure, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, for Tornado Cash users. On December 18th, Roman Storm renewed his bid to dismiss money laundering and sanctions violations charges, citing a recent 5th Circuit decision that found the company's smart contracts were not a sanctionable property.
The US Department of Justice prosecutors now claim that the sanctions reversal doesn't impact the criminal trial against Tornado Cash developers, adding that the case is about control over the Tornado Cash user interface, not the validity of the sanctions. The filing repeats that Storm intentionally took part in and facilitated money laundering transactions and can be held liable for this conduct, even if the transactions could have occurred without his deliberate involvement. Quote, the defendant regurgitates arguments about the supposed requirements that a money transmitting business have custody or control of the funds being transferred.
For the reasons already briefed at length, the argument is meritless and finds no support in the statute or the case law that was stated in the argument. Further quote, the government's opposition highlights the DOJ's continued willingness to leverage criminal enforcement as a tool to shape the law. In this case, specifically, to introduce FATF recommendation number 66 on the classification of non custodial user interfaces as a category of a virtual asset service provider, which have not yet been adopted by the United States, writes Lola Lites in the rage.
And here is what Lola Lites said in Nostar. Wake up, babe. There's a new filing in Tornado Cash, and it's just about as embarrassing as the rest of the shit show the DOJ has been assembling over the past 2 years. This time, it persists that Storm profited from Tornado Cash smart contracts arguing directly against arguments made by the 5th Circuit, which found that quote, none of the immutable smart contract entities the smart contract creators to a benefit, end quote. Imagine a car manufacturer being held liable for profiting from illicit activity because a car they manufactured was used in a bank robbery or a computer manufacturer because a machine they sold was used in a hack.
Tornado Cash should have stopped illicit activity even though we concede that Tornado Cash could not stop illicit activity or so the argument goes. What about the Chainalysis sanctions? Oracle, hold on. What about the Chainalysis sanctions Oracle Tornado Cash implemented to block OFAC listed entities from accessing the service? That's window dressing. The government says, an inefficient step that was only taken to make public announcement that TC wasn't violating the law, Tornado Cash. Okay then. The government continues to appear to allege that the sole purpose of Tornado Cash was to enable criminal transactions. Again, making reference to the prosecutors of Silk Road operator, Ross Ulbricht. Ignoring the fact that while Silk Road operated as a dark net market, Tornado Cash illicit transactions are only estimated to have made up around 14% of overall activity by the government's own calculations, primarily pertaining to funds originating from hacks.
What's worse is that the government doubles down on charging the developers for the development of a user interface continuing to attempt to enforce FATF recommendation 66 against FinCEN guidance and despite the lack of official adoption. This case is a complete abomination of the United States justice system. Everyone working on its prosecution should be fired. It's absolutely right, Lola. I mean, the 5th Circuit shot this shit down and the DOJ is going, no, no, no, no. This has that had nothing to do with what we really wanna prosecute them on, and that's the user interface. Is this whole thing is Apex Clown World? Apex Clown World. If I that's I think that's the name of the show. That's the name of the for today's episode, today's episode is Apex Clown World. I can't do this shit anymore. This is ridiculous, man. I got I got a shit coiner for a president.
Right? I I I got I got him not giving Ross his pardon or, you know, commuting a sentence at least, because there is a difference, on day 1. I got him pumping freaking mean coins along with his wife. And and any any semblance that he's not a shit coiner died with David Bailey retweeting Don Junior's tweet about just how much crypto the the Trump companies bought and none of it was Bitcoin. Oh, did he say he said, oh, we bought $47,000,000 in Bitcoin. No. You did not. You bought wrapped Bitcoin on whatever shit show you bought it on. Whether it was Ethereum or Solana or I don't care because it's not Bitcoin.
If it's not on Bitcoin, it ain't Bitcoin. I'm sorry, dude. We've had we had fights about this shit back in 2017. Bitcoin Cash, not Bitcoin. Bitcoin SV or BSV or whatever you wanna call it, Satoshi's vision, not Bitcoin. Wrapped Bitcoin is not Bitcoin. Don't believe that shit, not for a second. Until that dude actually buys real Bitcoin, I I just he's just nothing but a shit coiner. And even then, even if he does buy Bitcoin, and at this point, chances may be slim that that even occurs, he's still a shitcoiner. Why? Because he holds shitcoins. If you're holding shitcoins, I'm sorry, you're a shitcoiner.
Now, here's the here's the only way out of being a shitcoiner. If you transfer or either have, like, if you had Bitcoin or anything other than Bitcoin and you sold it all for Bitcoin, congratulations. But you're still a shitcoiner because you didn't move your Bitcoin to a new wallet. Why is that important? Because from the time that I moved all my Bitcoin to a brand new wallet, I was getting airdrops and airdrops and airdrops of any new shiny Bitcoin killer that anybody was airdropping, and they were dropping it to known Bitcoin addresses.
This is my I think is actually possibly still going on. And when I mean wallet, I don't mean my Bitcoin wallet. I mean something like a Ledger wallet or a Trezor wallet, because that's the way that I was able that's the way that I ended up getting the Bitcoin Cash when it was received. So when I moved all that away, I like when I moved that to my cold card from CoinKite, I don't get that because because CoinKite, it only allows you to do Bitcoin. That's it. You don't get to put Ethereum on your cold card. You don't I mean, you can, but you gotta modify it yourself. CoinKite is never going they don't have the code for that. If you wanna do that, you can do it with a cold card, but you gotta do all that shit yourself to get anything other than actual Bitcoin on your cold card.
You have to do it all yourself. Otherwise, out of the box from coin kite, all you did it's a Bitcoin only hardware wallet. That's why that's one of the reasons why I got it. I didn't wanna mess with Trezor. I didn't wanna mess with Ledger because every single time I turned around it was like, hey. If you hold Ledger from this date, you got all you you got this coin. I don't want that. Because now the IRS is looking at all that shit. I didn't want anything to do with that. I sold all my notes. I've gotten I'm out of everything. I am Bitcoin only. I am not a shit coiner.
I can't be a shitcoiner until I actually go and do something stupid like buy Trump coin or, God forbid, Melania coin. It's just the whole thing is ridiculous. Now, again, you must understand, just because I'm railing against orange man right now doesn't mean that I hate him. I don't. I don't hate him. I mean, that's like like, Biden, I don't I felt more sorry for him than I actually hated the guy. But that's just because he's an old man, and I think that he I think it was elder abuse that they forced him into the presidency. I really do. I don't think he was fit to be president when he when he was sworn in.
Right? And just because orange man is grifting on the shit coin side doesn't necessarily mean that I hate him, but I'm losing respect for him like hand over fist because he clearly doesn't really understand what Bitcoin is. And that's the problem. It's not that he holds Solana. It's that he doesn't really understand what Bitcoin is. Like, one of the stories that we read this morning kind of stated that as well. Because if he did, he might not be as happy about it as he's telling everybody that he's happy about it. Because it can be a dollar killer. Now I've stated in the past that we've got a ways to go because dollar milkshake theory is gonna have all other fiat currencies fall into the dollar.
The dollar will probably spread like a mind virus well beyond its borders that it's already contained in because it already has spilled out. But now I think it's gonna go really hog wild simply because we got Tether being the probably end up being the buyer of last resort for United States treasuries, which means until people figure it out across the globe that shitcoins and and and, like, everything else should be done away with and you should just be bitcoin only. They're going to continue to use tether. And as long as they print tether, tether is going to be buying US securities.
Tether is going to be tied to the US dollar. And the dollar through Tether's that Tether interaction is essentially just going to be us selling debt to the rest of the world. It's going to accelerate. It's not gonna get better. So that's that's my concern. That's my concern on on the I'm not liking orange man today. That and he hasn't freed Ross or at least as far as I know when I'm done with the show, I'll find out. But on the good side, hey, he took us out of the Paris Accords. He got us out of the World Health Organization. He's done all he did that whole hiring freeze for the at least the executive branch.
These are good things. There's there is a balance. Except I hate shit coinery so bad that I'm kinda leaning on that side, but whatever. I will get over it because I can't control it. And, you know, I I, like, if I'm gonna try to be a little bit more, what do they call it, stoic, like, Seneca and Marcus Aurelius with all these stoic guys, you know, because stoicism is kind of big in Bitcoin right now. And it's not that I'm following the fad. I'm just, like, well, these guys actually make a good point. You shouldn't get upset about stuff you can't control. And I cannot control and neither can you whether or not Trump frees Ross, whether or not Trump engages in the major shit coinery that he's engaging in. I I can't do anything about it. So I I gotta let it go and try to focus on getting out of the World Health Organization. And hopefully, he'll get us out of UN. And if he had his right mind about it, we'd get out of NATO too.
Because that organization has just turned into a gigantic dumpster fire. We got to figure out another way to operate here in the United States. I think it's gonna end up being up to the citizenry to to make our own connections with other citizens in countries around the world. And that our friendships, citizen to citizen, will somehow or another override the assholes that we keep voting in. I I I don't get it. I'm sure you don't get it either. Maybe we'll learn it together on the other side, which is where I'll see you. 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.
It's 8:54 AM. It is the 21st day of January 2025. Hey, man. It's my birthday today. Say happy birthday to me. Anyway, this is episode 1,000 and wow. It's 1021 of bitcoin and yeah. 1021 episode on the 1st month, 21st day of 2025, my birthday. It's kind of weird, it's a little bit of, you know, a little bit of numerology is going on here. That's okay. Magic is in the air. Magic is in the air. We got a new president on our hands. And he's a shitcoiner. He's a complete shitcoiner. Oh my God. Of all the things that I did not expect, was the launching of twin shitcoins the weekend before the inauguration.
I mean, we knew that he was gonna launch some kind of Trump coin or something like that, but I didn't think it was gonna get that much hype. And I certainly didn't think that it was going to go from like freaking 19¢, which I think is what what its starting bid price was, all the way up to $74 a coin. It's ridiculous. Anyway, we'll talk a little bit more about that. What else we got? Oh, Vitalik is crying like a baby. He's crying like a baby about something, and we'll get into that. MicroStrategy back in the news again. Texas, seems that, well, Bitcoin mining has done some good for the state of Texas, and Mike well, MicroStrategy is in the news twice, in fact. And then we're gonna go over we're gonna talk about Musk because he is gonna be Dogecoin numero uno or at least Doge numero uno after a little exit from Vivek Ramaswami.
And then let's see here. What else is going on? We got California in the news. Open Sats is in the news, and Tornado Cash is in the news. Let's get it going on with Josh O'Sullivan, Cointelegraph. To start us out on this glorious Tuesday morning, Bitcoin mining saved to the state of Texas $18,000,000,000 and boosted grid stability. Wow. $18,000,000,000 is a lot of money. I wonder who's, talking about that. Well, apparently, it's a new research report by the Digital Asset Research Institute or DARI, and they have revealed how Bitcoin mining has impacted the Texas electrical grid and saved the state as much as $18,000,000,000 by eliminating the need for new gas peaker plants.
The findings come as Texas has grappled with extreme weather conditions in recent years. I just I saw something shiny and I lost my place. Including a 2021 winter storm that caused widespread blackouts and significant economic losses. Historically, grid operators have relied on gas peaker plants to address peak electricity demand. While effective in short bursts, these plants are costly, remain idle for much of the year, and emit substantial greenhouse gases. Oh, whoop dee doo. Good lord, people. Stop with the bullshit. We don't have to pretend that the climate is collapsing anymore, ladies and gentlemen. We like, we're we're done with the woke. We're done with the woke. We're done with the woke. Dari's report shows that Bitcoin mining offers a more efficient alternative to gas peaker plants via demand response programs where BTC miners can quickly reduce energy consumption during peak demand and stabilize the grid.
Well, the Daugherty report stated that the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, also known as ERCOT, sought alternatives to the traditional gas peaker plants following the devastation of the 2021 winter storm. Determining that BTC Mining could help balance electricity demand and supply to prevent further blackouts, ERCOT's demand response programs have seen voluntary participation by the miners. ERCOT's demand response programs voluntarily reduce energy usage during peak electricity demand. This approach has eliminated the need for Berkshire Hathaway Energy's proposed $10,000,000,000 investment in new gas peaker plants, which would have further increased electricity costs for Texans.
Gas peaker plants have been criticized for inefficiencies and their contribution to greenhouse gases while sitting idle for most of the year, releasing 100 of 1000 of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually. Oh my god. We're all gonna die. According to the Dyer report, BTC Mining offers a cleaner and more cost effective solution where miners operate continuously and generate revenue while remaining able to reduce energy consumption when needed during peak demand. The environmental implications for this flexibility enable electrical grids to incorporate more renewable energy sources like wind and solar power, which can go underutilized due to their intermittency in energy production.
Yeah, you know, that's I'm sorry. I I gotta I gotta pause to say something. I'm gonna tell you a little story about me and the wife cruising out into, from Lubbock. We were driving from Lubbock to Central Texas, and we were passing through a region of Texas on that drive that is a massive windmill farm. It's I mean, they started this shit 20 years ago, and it it we're talking tens of thousands of these giant crappy ass windmills out in the middle of West Texas. The wind was blowing that day and not too hard, but not too soft.
And every single windmill that we saw was not turning. And my wife turns to me and she goes, what the hell is going on? The winds blowing. We can we can see it, you know, we can see some dust blowing. We know the winds blowing. It's easy to tell out in West Texas. And and I had to answer her because it's the middle of the day, and everybody's at work. There's nobody to use the electricity. So they can't actually generate the electricity because there's just nobody to consume it. And she looks at me and says, well, that's just stupid. Well, yes, ma'am. I agree. Anyway, let's continue on. Despite the advantages of BTC Mining, the industry faces resistance from corporate and political entities such as lobbying by Berkshire Hathaway Energy, according to the Dary report.
The report highlighted that some lawmakers in Texas have questioned the role of BTC mining as an alternative to gas peaker plants, even as ERCOT in peer reviewed studies confirms its positive impact on grid stability. Proponents of BTC mining, such as US Senator Ted Cruz, in an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph, described Texas as an oasis for Bitcoin due to its low cost and business friendly environment. Cruz said that Texas is known for its abundant low cost energy and that he intends to ensure the trend of more jobs in Texas continues and accelerates while the state increases its BTC mining activities.
So this Dary report, you know, as to the efficacy of the report, that kinda rides on the efficacy of Dary. And I don't know much about Dari. I don't know all that much about the Digital Assets Research Institute, but this is not this is not information that hasn't gone uncorroborated by other sources. I've heard on many occasions from many different people, some inside of the Texas legislature and some outside, through news reporting that this whole this whole voluntary release of mining when, like, you know, if if the energy spikes in the state of Texas because, I don't know, cold weather happens or something like that, miners, they don't have to stand on the miners. They don't really have to call them up and say, hey, you're not doing what you said you were gonna do. These miners are apparently actually doing their bit for king and country.
So hats off to everybody involved in the state of Texas and BTC Mining and this whole issue of gas peaker plants and the fact that they never let Berkshire Hathaway have their way on building this $10,000,000,000 that was a whole state that was a whole bill in the state legislature a couple of years ago. And it was really caught it was really causing people some serious serious concern because they were like going, well, shit, man. Berkshire Hathaway is just crapping all over BTC Mining and we come to find out that it's because they want to build these gas peaker plants and Texas didn't allow Berkshire Hathaway to have their way.
And I I find that I I find that thrilling, honestly, because they went right up against whatever his name is. Oh, god. What's the guy's name that owns Berkshire Hathaway? The old man that eats ice cream with Bill Gates and calls Bitcoin rat poison squared. Anyway, that dude, he didn't get his way. Oh, Buffett. Warren Buffett. That's it. Anyway, didn't get his way, and that's that's good. Now here's a guy that's probably gonna get his way until somebody gives him a little bit of a bitch slap, and that's going to be Trump. Now, I'm going to be very, very hard on Trump today.
And if you don't like it, I don't care. And it's not because I hate Trump. I don't care. He's just another guy. He's another politician, and he's proved his worth. At least in this particular case, he's definitely proved his worth. He likes crypto just as long as it's for grifting. And this is written by Trey Walsh for Bitcoin Magazine. And I want you to understand something here. Bitcoin Magazine is owned by a guy named David Bailey. David Bailey was one of the guys that was able to get Trump to come give a speech at Bitcoin Magazine's big crypto conference, which is Bitcoin Miami. Well, this time, it was the Bitcoin conference in Nashville, but it's been in Miami for a long time. That guy. Well, he tweeted out a couple of days ago actually, was I I think it was yesterday. Yeah. It was yesterday. He said, yeah, man. The 47th president just bought $47,000,000 worth of Bitcoin, and then he listed exactly what this guy had bought.
It was $47,000,000 worth of ether $47,000,000 worth of wrapped bitcoin. Now, I don't know if you don't understand this. Listen up. This is a critical issue. Wrapped Bitcoin, also known as WBTC, is not Bitcoin. It's not on the chain that Bitcoin is on. If you try to send me wrapped Bitcoin to my Bitcoin addresses, any of them, that transaction will fail and you I don't know if you'll lose your wrapped Bitcoin because you do it, but whatever. It's not Bitcoin. It exist wrapped Bitcoin exists on either Ethereum or Solana, possibly Tron. It used to only be on Ethereum.
And what you would do is you would take your Bitcoin and you would convert it into wrapped BTC, which essentially means that you gave your Bitcoin to somebody else and they gave you essentially wrapped Bitcoin. And it's an at the time, it was an ERC 20 token. Now I believe wrapped Bitcoin exists on at least 4 shitcoin chains. It is not Bitcoin. Trump did not buy Bitcoin. David Bailey told us in that tweet that he bought Bitcoin, but he didn't. He bought wrapped Bitcoin and at least 5 other shitcoins, including the mother shit coin from which all shit coins have birthed themselves from the asshole of which is ether. I'm sorry to put it that way, but that's the way it is.
Trump and his companies have yet to actually purchase a single Bitcoin. And the reason that I think it's interesting that Bitcoin Magazine, which is owned by David Bailey, is running Trey Walsh's article entitled Trump likes crypto just as long as it's for grifting, suggests to me that maybe there's still something something to Bitcoin Magazine that I can hold on to. Because otherwise, if it was if it was just a David Bailey show, they would never run this article because it goes completely against what David Bailey is trying to do. He loves Trump. He got Trump to come to the conference, and yet his own outfit is running a anti Trump story. At least there's some kind of balance even if we can only find it in Bitcoin land. Let's read it. When the Trump meme coin dropped Friday evening, no one was surprised, or at least they shouldn't have been. He has a knack for jumping headfirst into endeavors he thinks he can make money on in self promoting fashion that often ends in disaster.
Some of these ventures include Trump Airlines, Trump Vodka, Trump Steaks, Trump University, Trump Magazine, Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino, Trump Mortgage, Trump The Game. Crypto is just the next game in town he's decided to throw his hat into. I've already written articles and talked at various links about Trump leaning into the crypto space to earn votes in this past election that in many ways was quite successful. At Bitcoin Nashville this past summer, in an effort to garner support for his presidential candidacy, Trump said some notable things including that America will become the crypto capital of the planet and Bitcoin superpower of the world.
That if he would fire Gary Gensler and that he wants all remaining Bitcoin to be made in America concerning from a decentralized point of view and highly implausible in reality. He also famously said that he would commute the sentence of Ross Ulbricht on day 1, which if he does not, I will be the first to give credit where credit is due. Oh, no. He says, if he which if he does, I will be the first to give credit where credit is due. For more on this, I recommend watching the recent reason documentary on why Ross should be free.
Crypto is Donald Trump's next frontier and combines several things that he absolutely loves when it comes to business deals. Quick easy money, self promotion, America first messaging, and little bureaucratic friction standing in his way. So what is Trump coin? Well, it's built on the Solana blockchain with a total supply of 1,000,000,000 tokens. Initially, 200,000,000 tokens are available for circulation, while the remaining 800,000,000 are held by CIC Digital, a Trump Organization affiliate subject to a 3 year lockup period, which means that Trump family holds 80% of the supply.
Following its launch, the Trump coins market cap surged reaching approximately $6,000,000,000. The coin's price peaked at $33.7. The Trump coin was marketed as a means for supporters to express their alignment with Trump's ideals rather than an investment opportunity, which is hogwash for the pump and dump self enrichment scheme that he is, in my opinion, immoral and unethical for creating. And investors, oops, I guess we should say fans, are stupid for taking part in. I'm gonna pause here to say something. I'm pretty sure Trump coin went to $74.
And I I guess this was maybe written, like, I don't know, like, late Friday night after the, after the initial launch. But in either event, $33.7.70, No. That that was not the top price of crump oh, crump. Trump coin before it crashed. We'll get to that. Alright? Anyway, with that cleared up, with inauguration on Monday, We're entering uncharted territory where it's likely Trump will issue executive orders relating to Bitcoin and crypto. And now emboldened by the presidency, the lack of legal worries, and supporters that I truly believe would be fine with whatever he does. As he famously quoted quote, I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose any voters. Okay?
I remember him saying that. Some of these actions could be positive for the Bitcoin industry and advocates in the United States. But many of his actions could also equally benefit the broader crypto space that is rife with pump and dump scam coins and useless get rich quick schemes for wealthy insiders and people who have lobbied them throughout the last cycle. The pump and dump crypto landscape, his goofy coins and NFTs, make sense to Trump. In fact, I'm betting he truly believes this is crypto's purpose while knowing little about Bitcoin. Trump has repeatedly said he has fun with crypto and ended his keynote address at the Bitcoin conference this past summer by saying, have a good time with your Bitcoin and your crypto and everything else that you're playing with.
Trump's experience in and views of crypto and Bitcoin are around fun and making easy money. But with Bitcoin, many of us in the space are fighting for much more, which includes Bitcoin's many use cases as censorship resistant, digital currency, digital gold, a medium of exchange to use in self custody, and via privacy preserving tools, a powerful tool for human rights, and much, much more. This isn't a gamble for us. It's the future of money that challenges the dollar in central bank rule. If Trump really began to grasp this based on his track record and previous statements on Bitcoin, he'd be quite against this use of Bitcoin.
Or perhaps he knows what Bitcoin is at some level and would rather promote the fun meme coins and maybe Bitcoin is digital gold, but nothing more. He did, after all, say in 2021 quite clearly, quote, Bitcoin is just it just seems like a scam. I don't like it because it's another currency competing with the dollar, end quote. He added that he wanted the dollar to be the currency of the world. Well, Trump wants you to keep playing with crypto, funneling money to his organizations, but it's unlikely he'd be a fan of anyone using Bitcoin as a competitor to the dollar circumventing traditional finance or using privacy tools.
I'll keep promoting Bitcoin as resistance money and hope you'll join me rather than endlessly gambling on crypto, quote, and everything else you're playing with, end quote. Alright. Like I said, I'm gonna be kinda hard on Trump today, but it doesn't it doesn't mean that I hate the guy. Alright? I mean, he pulled us out of the Paris Accords already, the climate change thing that we he had pulled us out once and then Biden put us directly back into, and one of his first executive orders was to pull us back out. And from what I understand, he pulled us out of the World Health Organization. I think this is good.
This shit, I I I I hell yeah. LFG, guys. Let's go. I don't need the World Health Organization anymore. The next thing: get out of the UN. Get out of all this crap. This is all bullshit, and it's just it's all toxic, or it's become that way. Maybe when these organizations were first started, they were they were great, and and they maybe had a chance to do all kinds of neat stuff. But it's just it's just become a playground for buffoonery, grifting, money laundering, and all amounts of just power struggle bullshit. And honestly, man, I don't have time for this, and neither do you. Maybe you think you do, but I guarantee you you don't. You don't have time for this stuff. So, while I can be hard on orange man on one side, I can be completely appreciative of him doing what he just did.
Get us out of the Paris Accords. It's stupid. Get us out of the World Health Organization. They caused nothing but problems. My the only real huge problem that I have with Trump right now is that he hasn't freed Ross yet. Now he's got till noon today, EST, which I think is actually already passed. Was it 9? 10, 11, 12. Yep. It is passed. It is 12:16 PM Eastern Standard Time as I speak to you right now. If Ross wasn't freed before 12 PM Eastern Standard Time today, then he failed on one of his first campaign promises, and that was FreeRoss day 1.
Not day 2 or 3 or 4. No. Day 1. Now and there's a lot of people out there that are bitching the same way that I'm bitching, but I need to say this. There's no reason in the world that he couldn't have had that already prepped like he had everything else prepped. In fact, he should have just put Barron, his son, one of his sons on it. He should have said, Barron, I'm handing this to you. Your your first project as in in the political world as my son and, you know, blah blah. I want you to make sure that you you talk to these 2 guys over here and they're gonna help you draft what it is I need to sign. I need you to draft the commutation or the pardon. Y'all figure it out. You bring it to me. You put it on my signing desk when I do all these other things, and I will get that son of a bitch out of jail day 1. They didn't do it. They did all this other stuff. They bought shit coins out the wazoo.
They pumped Trump and Melania coin out the wazoo, but they didn't free if they haven't freed Ross, as I speak, if if that dude is still in jail, then he failed on his first campaign promise. And, guys, it's a red flag. When people say they're going to do something and they're going to do something on a certain day or at a certain time, I expect that to actually happen. And there are other people that are out there, and these are both people on Nostril because I don't use Twitter and I don't use Facebook and I rarely use LinkedIn or anything like that. They're saying that people like me need to shut up and we're bitching too hard and and we're just being too hard on orange man. No, I don't think we are being too hard on orange man. Do you think if I worked at the Trump Organization and Trump saw me not doing my job, do you think he'd be easy on me?
Do you think that if I told Trump as a contractor that he hired to do a specific job and I told him it would be done on day 1 and I didn't do it, do you think he'd be easy on me? Do you think I'd still have a job as a contractor in the Trump Organization if I told Trump directly to his face that he was gonna do that I was gonna do something at this particular time, and when that particular time came and went, it wasn't done, do you think I'd still be there? No. I wouldn't be there. He would fire me because that's the way he is. There's no reason in the world that we shouldn't be holding his feet to the fire on this. He promised us free Ross day 1, and as far as I know, shit hadn't been done yet.
I'm not interested in day 2. Ross needs to be free. I don't care if it takes him 15 days. As long as Ross gets free, I'm good. But I'm not good with Trump because he means it means he broke his first promise to me. I don't like being promised shit and people not delivering. I'm sorry. I'm just that way. Anyway, let's move on to the crybaby that is the head of the body that contains the asshole of which is the mother of all shitcoins, Vitalik Buterin, who has claimed sole authority over the Ethereum Foundation leadership. That's right. It's it was never about a committee of people. It was never about a council on the Ethereum Foundation making decisions.
It's Vitalik. He's saying the quiet part out loud. This is Josh O'Sullivan, Cointelegraph. Ethereum cofounder Vitalik Buterin reaffirmed his authority over the Ethereum Foundation in a Twitter post today, January 21st, in which he dismissed all calls for a leadership shakeup. Buterin said that the decision remains his until planned reforms to introduce a proper board and criticize certain crypto community members for actively toxic to top talent. The comments follow a strong wave of community pressure to promote Danny Ryan, a researcher and developer within the Ethereum ecosystem, and criticism of current Ethereum Foundation Executive Director, Aya Miyaguchi.
Some Twitter community members have resorted to harassment and death threats against Mayaguchi, which Buterin strongly condemned as pure evil. Yeah. Death threats is not cool, but shit, dude. Vitalik said this. He says oh, actually, let me see if it'll oh, it's not actually gonna show more. There's they have the whole let me see if this will this work? No. This is just a screenshot. Here's vital here's part of Vitalik's tweet. It says, no. This is not how this game works. The person deciding the new Ethereum Foundation leadership team is me. One of the goals of the ongoing reform is to give the Ethereum Foundation a proper board. But until that happens, it's me.
Yeah. That's part of the tweet. He goes on with it, but, they're not showing the whole tweet. Anyway, Buterin's Twitter post is in response to calls for Ryan to be named to a leadership role within the Foundation, something Buterin made clear remains his responsibility alone. Advocates for Orion point to his contributions to the development of Ethereum and his leadership in the Ethereum Consensus Layer upgrade, which transitioned the network from proof of work to proof of stake. Ryan's supporters argue that his expertise aligns with Ethereum's long term goals. Blah blah blah blah. And then there's a oh, yeah. Okay. Here we go. The leadership debate has also exposed a darker side of the Ethereum community with Buterin specifically addressing harassment directed at Mayaguchi who has served as executive director since 2018.
Mayaguchi has faced targeted criticism online with some community members on, Twitter blaming her for perceived in inefficiencies within the foundation and one ex user asking why don't we kill Aya Mayaguchi? Wow. Got some real wow. Got some real good guys over there. Anyway, Buterin condemned the toxic community behavior and goes on to say quote, some of Ethereum's best devs have been messaging me recently expressing their disgust with the social media environment that people like you are creating. You are making my job harder. And you are decreasing the chance that I have any interest whatsoever in doing quote what you want.
End quote. Sounds pretty pissed off. The Ethereum co founder announced significant changes to the foundation's leadership January 18th to improve communication between the foundation and builders in the ecosystem. Buterin outlined goals including supporting decentralized application developers, censorship resistance, privacy, and promoting decentralization, a contrast to a statement asserting sole authority over the foundation today on January 21st. In his January 18th Twitter post, Buterin said that the foundation would not engage in ideological shifts or political lobbying or take a more central role in developing the Ethereum ecosystem.
Alright. So it's very clear who the Ethereum Foundation is at this point. And it should never ever have been in doubt. I'm sorry if it was for anybody who's listening to me that actually owns Ethereum. But if you are in Ethereum, I don't know why you still are. It's it's been crashing against Bitcoin for over 4 years straight without any relief whatsoever. And if you're not out, it's time to get out. Are you ready for some MicroStrategy stuff? Yeah. Let's let's go ahead and do it. This is CoinDesk written by James Van Stratton, And the headline is MicroStrategy adds another 11,000 Bitcoin for $1,100,000,000 pushing its holdings to 461,000 Bitcoin. And, honestly, that's all we need to know because it's the next one. It's the next MicroStrategy story that really gets this shit off to the races. And this is written by RT Watson from the block.
MicroStrategy votes to increase number of shares to fuel Bitcoin purchases. This is the important one. MicroStrategy shareholders approved not 1 but 2 amendments on Monday that will allow the company to increase the number of authorized stock in order to help the company pursue its plan of buying more Bitcoin. Last October, the company announced plans to offer $21,000,000,000 in equity and $21,000,000,000 in fixed income securities to support this Bitcoin Treasury Reserve strategy, a a move referred to as its 21/21 plan.
As of January 20th, the company said approximately $5,420,000,000 worth of shares remained available for sale as part of its plan targeting a total of $42,000,000,000 for Bitcoin acquisitions. On Tuesdays Tuesday, shareholders voted in favor of both increasing the number of authorized class a common stock and preferred stock. Earlier in the day, MicroStrategy said it had purchased another 11,000 BTC for approximately 1,100,000,000 at an average price of $101,191 per coin. The business intelligence company now holds 461,000 Bitcoin worth over $48,000,000,000.
And, of course, MicroStrategy stock was trading down damn near 5% at publication time, while the price of Bitcoin was down about 3 about 3. So just goes to show. But this the whole thing that's important here is that it's not that that MicroStrategy bought more Bitcoin. We knew they were going to do that. It's that they're going to generate more shares. And their shareholders from what I understand, the shareholders, like, voted 55.8 percent in favor of doing the class a common stock share dilution because that's what they're doing. They're just going to print more shares. They're like print like, it's like the treasury print or the well, the Federal Reserve, I guess, printing more money.
It's this is the alchemy. This is the alchemy that Michael Saylor is doing. He's taking he's just printing debt, and he's selling it. It's brilliant. It's I don't think that I would ever have the to do something like that because, you know, I like sleeping at night and I don't like like, this is like extreme gambling. You can't get these kinds of stakes at any casino anywhere on the planet. The only casino that is this big is the stock market and selling your debt as shares to buy an asset. All I can say about Michael Saylor is at least he's not buying wrapped Bitcoin, at least none that we know of.
Let's run the numbers. CNBC Futures and Commodities. West Texas Intermediate crude down 2 full percentage points to $76.31 a barrel. Brent Norsee down 1.14 percent to 79.24. Natural gas is off 5 and a quarter down to $3.74 per 1,000 cubic feet. And gasoline is down a full point to $2.9 a gallon. Gold is up a third of a point to $27.58.80. Silver is up 1.1%. Platinum is up almost a half point, honestly. And copper is the only one in the red. It is down 0.7%, while palladium riding high 0.82% to the upside. Nice. What's odd for me is that platinum is trading at it seems like if it's trading on a per ounce basis, it's under $1,000 yet. I thought platinum was more expensive than gold because there's less of it.
I don't know. If anybody is a you know, knows more about platinum trading, make sure that I'm I'm correct. Is is platinum trading on a per ounce basis on metal futures? I don't know. I know gold does. So, anyway, agricultural futures mostly in the green today. Biggest winner is gonna be wheat, up 3 3 quarters of a percent. Biggest loser is gonna be sugar, down 2 a half percent. Live cattle is down point 14%, lean hogs crashing 1a half to the downside. Feeder cattle are down point 13. The Dow is up a full point. S and P is up 2 thirds of a point. The Nasdaq is up half a point. And the S and P mini is winning out 1 and a half percent to the upside.
Bitcoin looking okay. A $106,180, that is a $2,100,000,000,000 market cap, and we can now purchase 38.8 ounces of shiny metal rocks with our 1 bitcoin of which there are 19,813,026.29 of. Average fees per block, a little high, 0.09 BTC taken in fees on a per block basis. And there are 52 blocks carrying a 122,000 unconfirmed transactions waiting to clear at high priority rates of 7 Satoshis per v byte. Low priority gonna get you in at 5. Hash rate on a 1 week rolling average is 778.7 exahashes per second. From Strategery and Bitcoinery, which was 1 episode 1,020 of the Bitcoin and podcast, I got Pies with 4,000.
Satoshis says that it's the last boost until tax return time. Thank you, sir. No. Thank you. Anonymous with 3,333 SAT says boost. Anonymous with 500 says thank you, sir. Keep rocking. I will, sir. Block 869-321 with 250 says, I work with an XRP enthusiast. I'm disappointed I can't figure out how to help him understand. BTC master with a 121 says, all sats matter at allsatsmatterdot com. Perma Nerd with a 111 sat says thank you, sir, no thank you. Pies with another 100 says thank you, sir, no thank you. And that's the weather report. Welcome to part 2 of the news that you can use.
Musk takes over as sole leader of Doge as Ramaswamy exits for Ohio governor bid. Yes. Where there was 2, there is now only 1 from decrypt written by Sebastian Sinclair. This is just gonna be such this is almost this isn't peak cloud world, this is apex cloud world. It's like cloud world has become the apex predator and it's no longer funny. It's just walking around destroying shit with its little bitty arms and great big jaws. Anyway, Elon Musk is now the sole leader of the Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE, after biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswami stepped down to pursue a gubernatorial campaign in Ohio, officials said Monday.
Ramaswami cofounded Doge with Musk in November of 2024 as part of president Donald Trump's save America initiative to cut government waste, reduce regulations, and restructure federal agencies. His departure leaves Musk, a vocal advocate for cost cutting, at the helm of the extra governmental initiative. Quote, Vivek Ramaswamy played a critical role in helping us create Doge, spokesperson Anna Kelly said in a statement. Quote, he intends to run for elected office soon, which requires him to remain outside of Doge based on the structure that we announced today. End quote.
Doge's acronym has drawn widespread attention due to its connection with Dogecoin, the meme coin crypto that chump, Musk, has championed for years. Known as the Dogefather, Musk's public endorsements of Dogecoin have repeatedly caused price surges, including a recent uptick following his promotion to lead Doge late last year. Critics, however, have expressed skepticism about Doge's objectives. Initially promising $2,000,000,000,000 in government cuts, Musk recently backtracked describing the goal as unlikely but maintaining a target of 1,000,000,000,000.
This is me talking. Yeah. Good luck on that. Anyway, continuing. Adding to the initiative's momentum, Trump issued an executive order on Monday halting the hiring of federal civilian employees across the executive branch. The order, part of a broader plan to streamline government operations, tasked the Office of Management and Budget with developing a plan to reduce the federal workforce through efficiency measures and attrition. Doge is expected to play a key role in shaping those recommendations. Unlike federal departments, Doge operates outside of government channels, relying on private sector experts and Republican allies in congress to push its proposals.
Musk and Ramaswamy's partnership drew attention for its Silicon Valley ties, including advisors like, oh, Palantir cofounder Joe Lonsdale and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen. The initiative's connection to Musk's Dogecoin fandom has also caused a stir among crypto circles. A Trump campaign shirt featuring Musk, Trump, and a Shiba Inu dog on the campaign trail added to the playful yet controversial overlap between Doge and crypto meme culture. It's Apex Clown World, ladies and gentlemen. Apex Predators, except in the form of a clown with a shiny red nose that honks.
Ridiculous. Just like this. And like I said, guys, I'm I'm not going to be nice to Trump just because he's Trump. Yeah. I I just because I don't like Biden doesn't mean that I have to like Trump. Right? And he he's done this bullshit with these stupid ass meme coins of his own. And this is just get into it. Brian MacLeanan is writing it for the block. Trump and Melania meme coins crash amid profit taking and wider crypto market uncertainty. Who could have ever seen this coming? I I don't know. Those of us that's been in this bullshit forever and seen altcoins and shitcoins and meme coins come and go again and again and again and again. Could it be us that maybe saw this coming? Because we did.
Anyway, the cryptocurrency market has experienced a turbulent 24 hours as memecoins tied to US president Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump saw sharp declines following Monday's inauguration. Officially endorsed by the Trump family, the official Trump and Melania meme tokens, which debuted just days ago, have plummeted amid heavy profit taking and broader market weakness. The Trump token plunged 26% to about $39 while the Melania token tumbled 54% to $4.50 over the past day, according to data from CoinGecko. And these tokens initially fueled excitement among Trump supporters and crypto enthusiasts immediately after the launch, but have faced intense volatility.
I don't know what you people expected. Dude, really? You what? Whatever. The declines come after Trump's inauguration failed to deliver any immediate announcements regarding his campaign promise to establish a strategic Bitcoin reserve. That is, in fact, ladies and gentlemen, correct. He did not say a word about Bitcoin. His son and, guy David Bailey basically were saying, look at all the Bitcoin we bought. And that's what I was telling you about earlier today. No. They didn't buy Bitcoin. They bought wrapped Bitcoin. And it wasn't for a strategic reserve. It was for Trump. The Trump companies bought that stuff. Right? So not a word was breathed about strategic Bitcoin reserve, but that's not what made the meme coins fail. It's because they're meme coins.
It's stupid. They all have the same pattern. God, please stop doing chasing this crap. Anyway, market sentiment soured as investors hope for clearer signals of pro crypto policies. And while president Trump signed several executive orders on his 1st day, none of them addressed digital assets, leaving some bulls disappointed all way. Trump's vocal support for Bitcoin during the election cycle raised expectations of significant action in the crypto space early in his administration. Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency by market cap, faced headwinds over the past day, declining 4.3% to around, oh my god, $103,600 per coin. How will we ever freaking survive?
Anyway, according to the block's price page, Bitcoin has shown relative resilience compared to the volatile altcoin market where leading tokens like whatever. I don't care. They all drop. But Bitcoin's current price remains about 5.5% below its record high of $109,000 which was reached on Sunday. Yeah. Even I was, like, going holy shit. We hit it again. Anyway, broader market conditions contributed to the sell off with significant liquidations across the cryptocurrency space. And over the past 24 hours, 235,490 traders were liquidated.
Liquidated, I say, resulting in total losses of approximately, a mere $626,000,000 according to Coin Glass. Long positions accounted for $453,000,000 of the liquidations, highlighting a sudden shift in market sentiment. Adding to the challenges, data from blockchain security firm Blockade, which I've never heard, like, literally, like Farm Aid. It's Blockade. But it highlighted a sharp rise in malicious activity tied to Trump themed tokens that have no actual association with the sitting president. According to Blockade CEO, Ayda Ben Nhatan, the launch of the official Trump meme coin coincided with a 206% spike in malicious tokens bearing Trump inspired names and a 14 x increase in impersonator decentralized applications.
Quote, as for the broader impact on the crypto industry, scams are an unfortunate byproduct of innovation and growth, Ben Nattan told The Block. If anything, the increasing sophistication of attackers underscores the growing value of the on chain economy, end quote. Oh, good god. No. It wasn't it what had nothing to do with hit with Trump not saying something about the strategic Bitcoin reserve. It's just shit coinery. And like I said, man, this is this is Apex clown world, not peak clown world. We at one point or another, we may actually see peak clown world, but I'm definitely safe in saying that we have entered Apex clown world.
It's like the Apex Predator, only stupid. Anyway, speaking of well, actually, maybe California isn't so stupid because they're betting on bitcoin. Anyway, in California, pro bitcoin legislation seems to be on the way according to Atlas21 dotcom. The status or sorry. Hard the that I've already read. The the headline. Philip Chin, republican representative in the California state assembly, has announced a strategic partnership with Proof of Workforce, a Santa Monica based nonprofit organization, to develop pro Bitcoin legislation in the upcoming legislative session.
The initiative aims to create a clear regulatory framework for integrating Bitcoin into local and state institutions. The collaboration will focus on several areas, financial education, community engagement, and exploring how Bitcoin can contribute to California's infrastructural development. Anyway, Dom Bay, founder of Proof of Workforce, stated, quote, Bitcoin's Genesis story has deep roots in California. No, it doesn't. A huge part of that Genesis story is an innovative network designed to protect the time, energy, and value of everyday working people. Bitcoin isn't partisan. It's uniquely Californian, end quote.
This is pausing. This is going to end badly. This this person that is on this initiative doesn't have a clue what he's talking about. He has absolutely no conception of Bitcoin, what Bitcoin is, where Bitcoin came from, anything about its history, anything about its promise, anything about its future. This Dom Bai or Bay or however you put it, it's b e I is his last name, however you pronounce it, this man doesn't know a damn thing about what he's talking about. That statement by itself is so ludicrous. It is to be dismissed out of hand, but I the only couple sentences left here, And it's not his quote. This is back to the story. The plan builds on prior successes.
The city of Santa Monica established a Bitcoin office last summer, which according to mayor Lana Negrete, generated significant interest with several other cities ready to replicate the initiative. Chen and proof of workforce are also focusing on educating workers, unions, and pension funds to foster a deeper understanding of Bitcoin's potential in the public sector. Yeah. You better get on that because Bitcoin's Genesis story don't have a damn thing to do with California. It's ridiculous beyond compare. Anyway, let's move on. OpenSats grant support for 3 Bitcoin core contributors.
It is we'll get into it. Here's a quote. Here we go. Here. In alignment with our mission to maintain a robust Bitcoin eco ecosystem, OpenSats is proud to announce a brand new round of grants dedicated to advancing Bitcoin core development. These grants aim to empower developers both seasoned and emerging to strengthen, refine, and innovate on Bitcoin's reference implementation, announced OpenSats. The latest grantees are Lore Inc, who aims to improve Bitcoin Core's performance and reliability by optimizing initial block download, block storage and database functionality standardizing benchmarks enhancing code quality and replacing the outdated LevelDB database.
KevKevin has also gotten a grant. Kevin enhances Bitcoin Core stability, security, and usability by fixing bugs, reviewing pull requests, improving test coverage, and exploring advanced testing techniques like fuzz testing. Daniela Brizzani works on reviewing Bitcoin co Core's code, adding features and improving test coverage. Currently onboarding, she reviews pull requests to familiarize herself with the code base and build skills for larger contributions. So it sounds to me like this 3rd person, Daniella Barzani, is kind of a newbie, but she has gotten a grant to work on Bitcoin Core. So it's not just seasoned core developers.
They're OpenSats has got this grant, and I I think I'm pretty right because it sounds to me like she's kinda new that they're onboard they're using these they're granting agency to onboard newer Bitcoin core developers. And, honestly, hats off to them. I know that that Open Sats keeps getting flack and some of my favorite people have been denied to, you know, getting a grant for Nostra development from OpenSats, and I understand I totally understand their their their angst. I get it. I would be angsty too. But Open Sats does do good work.
I I am just not prepared to throw the baby out with the bathwater just because one of my favorite projects is just not getting any love out of Open Sats. That doesn't mean I'm just going to hate everything open sats does. I I think they're wrong by not reviewing the grant applications for this particular project. But, hey, I'm not on the board. I don't have any say. All I can do is control that which I can control and let everything else go as the, as Seneca would probably have me do. Anyway, last up for the day, tornado cache sanctions reversal has no effect on developers or the developers trial, says the Department of Justice.
Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm seeks to dismiss charges after a 5th Circuit ruling reversed sanctions against the software. The United States government argues that this reversal doesn't impact the criminal trial, asserting the case primarily concerns control over the Tornado Cash user interface. And let's read about it. In a motion filed on January 17th, the US government continues to accuse Roman Storm and his associates of aiding the Lazarus Group in money laundering by funding infrastructure, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera, for Tornado Cash users. On December 18th, Roman Storm renewed his bid to dismiss money laundering and sanctions violations charges, citing a recent 5th Circuit decision that found the company's smart contracts were not a sanctionable property.
The US Department of Justice prosecutors now claim that the sanctions reversal doesn't impact the criminal trial against Tornado Cash developers, adding that the case is about control over the Tornado Cash user interface, not the validity of the sanctions. The filing repeats that Storm intentionally took part in and facilitated money laundering transactions and can be held liable for this conduct, even if the transactions could have occurred without his deliberate involvement. Quote, the defendant regurgitates arguments about the supposed requirements that a money transmitting business have custody or control of the funds being transferred.
For the reasons already briefed at length, the argument is meritless and finds no support in the statute or the case law that was stated in the argument. Further quote, the government's opposition highlights the DOJ's continued willingness to leverage criminal enforcement as a tool to shape the law. In this case, specifically, to introduce FATF recommendation number 66 on the classification of non custodial user interfaces as a category of a virtual asset service provider, which have not yet been adopted by the United States, writes Lola Lites in the rage.
And here is what Lola Lites said in Nostar. Wake up, babe. There's a new filing in Tornado Cash, and it's just about as embarrassing as the rest of the shit show the DOJ has been assembling over the past 2 years. This time, it persists that Storm profited from Tornado Cash smart contracts arguing directly against arguments made by the 5th Circuit, which found that quote, none of the immutable smart contract entities the smart contract creators to a benefit, end quote. Imagine a car manufacturer being held liable for profiting from illicit activity because a car they manufactured was used in a bank robbery or a computer manufacturer because a machine they sold was used in a hack.
Tornado Cash should have stopped illicit activity even though we concede that Tornado Cash could not stop illicit activity or so the argument goes. What about the Chainalysis sanctions? Oracle, hold on. What about the Chainalysis sanctions Oracle Tornado Cash implemented to block OFAC listed entities from accessing the service? That's window dressing. The government says, an inefficient step that was only taken to make public announcement that TC wasn't violating the law, Tornado Cash. Okay then. The government continues to appear to allege that the sole purpose of Tornado Cash was to enable criminal transactions. Again, making reference to the prosecutors of Silk Road operator, Ross Ulbricht. Ignoring the fact that while Silk Road operated as a dark net market, Tornado Cash illicit transactions are only estimated to have made up around 14% of overall activity by the government's own calculations, primarily pertaining to funds originating from hacks.
What's worse is that the government doubles down on charging the developers for the development of a user interface continuing to attempt to enforce FATF recommendation 66 against FinCEN guidance and despite the lack of official adoption. This case is a complete abomination of the United States justice system. Everyone working on its prosecution should be fired. It's absolutely right, Lola. I mean, the 5th Circuit shot this shit down and the DOJ is going, no, no, no, no. This has that had nothing to do with what we really wanna prosecute them on, and that's the user interface. Is this whole thing is Apex Clown World? Apex Clown World. If I that's I think that's the name of the show. That's the name of the for today's episode, today's episode is Apex Clown World. I can't do this shit anymore. This is ridiculous, man. I got I got a shit coiner for a president.
Right? I I I got I got him not giving Ross his pardon or, you know, commuting a sentence at least, because there is a difference, on day 1. I got him pumping freaking mean coins along with his wife. And and any any semblance that he's not a shit coiner died with David Bailey retweeting Don Junior's tweet about just how much crypto the the Trump companies bought and none of it was Bitcoin. Oh, did he say he said, oh, we bought $47,000,000 in Bitcoin. No. You did not. You bought wrapped Bitcoin on whatever shit show you bought it on. Whether it was Ethereum or Solana or I don't care because it's not Bitcoin.
If it's not on Bitcoin, it ain't Bitcoin. I'm sorry, dude. We've had we had fights about this shit back in 2017. Bitcoin Cash, not Bitcoin. Bitcoin SV or BSV or whatever you wanna call it, Satoshi's vision, not Bitcoin. Wrapped Bitcoin is not Bitcoin. Don't believe that shit, not for a second. Until that dude actually buys real Bitcoin, I I just he's just nothing but a shit coiner. And even then, even if he does buy Bitcoin, and at this point, chances may be slim that that even occurs, he's still a shitcoiner. Why? Because he holds shitcoins. If you're holding shitcoins, I'm sorry, you're a shitcoiner.
Now, here's the here's the only way out of being a shitcoiner. If you transfer or either have, like, if you had Bitcoin or anything other than Bitcoin and you sold it all for Bitcoin, congratulations. But you're still a shitcoiner because you didn't move your Bitcoin to a new wallet. Why is that important? Because from the time that I moved all my Bitcoin to a brand new wallet, I was getting airdrops and airdrops and airdrops of any new shiny Bitcoin killer that anybody was airdropping, and they were dropping it to known Bitcoin addresses.
This is my I think is actually possibly still going on. And when I mean wallet, I don't mean my Bitcoin wallet. I mean something like a Ledger wallet or a Trezor wallet, because that's the way that I was able that's the way that I ended up getting the Bitcoin Cash when it was received. So when I moved all that away, I like when I moved that to my cold card from CoinKite, I don't get that because because CoinKite, it only allows you to do Bitcoin. That's it. You don't get to put Ethereum on your cold card. You don't I mean, you can, but you gotta modify it yourself. CoinKite is never going they don't have the code for that. If you wanna do that, you can do it with a cold card, but you gotta do all that shit yourself to get anything other than actual Bitcoin on your cold card.
You have to do it all yourself. Otherwise, out of the box from coin kite, all you did it's a Bitcoin only hardware wallet. That's why that's one of the reasons why I got it. I didn't wanna mess with Trezor. I didn't wanna mess with Ledger because every single time I turned around it was like, hey. If you hold Ledger from this date, you got all you you got this coin. I don't want that. Because now the IRS is looking at all that shit. I didn't want anything to do with that. I sold all my notes. I've gotten I'm out of everything. I am Bitcoin only. I am not a shit coiner.
I can't be a shitcoiner until I actually go and do something stupid like buy Trump coin or, God forbid, Melania coin. It's just the whole thing is ridiculous. Now, again, you must understand, just because I'm railing against orange man right now doesn't mean that I hate him. I don't. I don't hate him. I mean, that's like like, Biden, I don't I felt more sorry for him than I actually hated the guy. But that's just because he's an old man, and I think that he I think it was elder abuse that they forced him into the presidency. I really do. I don't think he was fit to be president when he when he was sworn in.
Right? And just because orange man is grifting on the shit coin side doesn't necessarily mean that I hate him, but I'm losing respect for him like hand over fist because he clearly doesn't really understand what Bitcoin is. And that's the problem. It's not that he holds Solana. It's that he doesn't really understand what Bitcoin is. Like, one of the stories that we read this morning kind of stated that as well. Because if he did, he might not be as happy about it as he's telling everybody that he's happy about it. Because it can be a dollar killer. Now I've stated in the past that we've got a ways to go because dollar milkshake theory is gonna have all other fiat currencies fall into the dollar.
The dollar will probably spread like a mind virus well beyond its borders that it's already contained in because it already has spilled out. But now I think it's gonna go really hog wild simply because we got Tether being the probably end up being the buyer of last resort for United States treasuries, which means until people figure it out across the globe that shitcoins and and and, like, everything else should be done away with and you should just be bitcoin only. They're going to continue to use tether. And as long as they print tether, tether is going to be buying US securities.
Tether is going to be tied to the US dollar. And the dollar through Tether's that Tether interaction is essentially just going to be us selling debt to the rest of the world. It's going to accelerate. It's not gonna get better. So that's that's my concern. That's my concern on on the I'm not liking orange man today. That and he hasn't freed Ross or at least as far as I know when I'm done with the show, I'll find out. But on the good side, hey, he took us out of the Paris Accords. He got us out of the World Health Organization. He's done all he did that whole hiring freeze for the at least the executive branch.
These are good things. There's there is a balance. Except I hate shit coinery so bad that I'm kinda leaning on that side, but whatever. I will get over it because I can't control it. And, you know, I I, like, if I'm gonna try to be a little bit more, what do they call it, stoic, like, Seneca and Marcus Aurelius with all these stoic guys, you know, because stoicism is kind of big in Bitcoin right now. And it's not that I'm following the fad. I'm just, like, well, these guys actually make a good point. You shouldn't get upset about stuff you can't control. And I cannot control and neither can you whether or not Trump frees Ross, whether or not Trump engages in the major shit coinery that he's engaging in. I I can't do anything about it. So I I gotta let it go and try to focus on getting out of the World Health Organization. And hopefully, he'll get us out of UN. And if he had his right mind about it, we'd get out of NATO too.
Because that organization has just turned into a gigantic dumpster fire. We got to figure out another way to operate here in the United States. I think it's gonna end up being up to the citizenry to to make our own connections with other citizens in countries around the world. And that our friendships, citizen to citizen, will somehow or another override the assholes that we keep voting in. I I I don't get it. I'm sure you don't get it either. Maybe we'll learn it together on the other side, which is where I'll see you. 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.
Introduction and Birthday Numerology
New President and Shitcoin Controversy
