Join me today for Episode 1048 of Bitcoin And . . .
Topics for today:
- BTC and Civil Asset Forfeiture by L0La L33Tz
- IMF Meddles Further in El Salvador
- THNDR Blackjack is LIVE!
- Mexican Billionaire: 70% net worth in BTC
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[00:00:02]
David Bennett:
It is 08:47AM Pacific Standard Time. It is the fourth day of the third month of twenty twenty '5. This is episode ten forty eight of Bitcoin. And we've got this, thing here by Lola Leets about Bitcoin reserves and civil asset forfeiture. Kinda interesting there. The IMF is telling El Salvador what they can and cannot do as the IMF generally does. I have no idea why El Salvador is groveling at the feet of the IMF. I I still am trying to figure this one out, but we'll find out more. Then this whole strategic Bitcoin reserve with Ethereum and Solana crap, there's a problem with the rationale according to analyst at Bernstein.
And then In N Out Burger did a tweet. We'll talk about it. Thunder Games is back in the news. They've got some new stuff coming out. If you are a dGen gambler for blackjack, you may be interested in this one. And then the Mexican billionaire, Ricardo Salinas, is damn near all in to sovereign wealth. He's got a couple of different things going on, but, honestly, he seems to be one of the people that really understands where we are in the world. Bybit CEO is gonna tell us a little bit more about the quote unquote unspendable, unmovable, completely frozen Ethereum that was stolen in the Bybit hack in Australia wants to shoot itself in the head. And then Cynthia Lummis went on Fox and said words she did. I'm getting a little bit untrustworthy of Cynthia Lummis over the course of the last few months. Maybe she'll redeem herself. But first, Bitcoin reserves and the incentives of civil asset forfeiture from Bitcoin magazine written by Lola Leitz. Yesterday, president Trump announced the long awaited strategic Bitcoin reserve on Truth Social, and many in the space are pissed.
I'm pausing right there. He did not really announce the long awaited strategic Bitcoin reserve. He just reiterated things that he was already saying. And I think it's really important to understand that because we got the we got the pump and Trump dump. That's what happened. We're back to where we started from. We're back to where we started from because it didn't take long for the field of, you know, people out there to figure out, wait a minute. This is just rehashing what he's already said, except, like I said yesterday, he added these shit coins to it. But other than that, he's basically doing the same thing.
So I he nothing was announced on Sunday. Nothing. Please, everybody calm down. Nothing was announced. He was just writing words on true social. But, anyway, continuing first, the reserve appears to be far from Bitcoin only. Quote, they're doing DEI for Charles Hoskinson, former CoinDesk chief insights columnist David z Morris wrote on Twitter. Hoskinson's Cardano was announced to be included in the reserve. Quote, cut cancer research to buy Cardano, another poster or another user posted. Others take issue with possible investment interests surrounding the Trump administration.
Trump's announcement is a new level of corruption, wrote communications strategist Derek Martin, detailing David Sacks' investment in Bitwise, quote, you get exit liquidity and you get exit liquidity. Everybody gets exit liquidity, posted Bitcoin policy institute fellow Troy Cross alongside pictures of Oprah. Sachs has since stated that he has sold all his cryptocurrency holdings while Trump was running for office or at least at the time of Trump's inauguration. Not exactly quite sure because unless I actually see detailed manifest of what you sold, when you sold it, what you sold it on, and have, like like, pitch perfect proof that you did so, I don't believe David Sachs for an instant. Anyway, what all of these criticisms have in common is that they completely miss the point.
Whether the reserve is composed of additional coins or may serve nefarious interest of the administration is of little actual consequence to those holding bitcoin. What is very much of consequence is the question of how said reserve would be funded. On the one hand, many are speculating that The US may divert taxpayer funds to purchase cryptocurrency, a proposal that inevitably would have to go through congress, which seems unlikely as Trump is rumored to make a new announcement on investments today. Another much more likely approach as already outlined in Trump's executive order to strengthen American leadership in digital financial technology is that the reserve would be, quote, derived from cryptocurrencies lawfully seized by the federal government through its law enforcement efforts, end quote.
Well, that's fine, you'll say, because I've obtained all my Bitcoin legally and have never nor will I ever engage in criminal activity, and that's precisely where you are wrong. Bitcoin that is lawfully seized by the federal government does not just include bitcoin derived through criminal prosecutions. Bitcoin can additionally be lawfully seized through a process called civil asset forfeiture, a funny little game that the government plays in which it doesn't have to accuse you of a crime, but can instead accuse the thing itself of a crime.
As Cato Institute has outlined in a post calling for the reform of civil asset forfeiture law, New York police routinely sees cars used at a DUI, and in Florida, police regularly seize cash in excess of $100 suspected to be used to purchase illegal substances. In the most striking example, Cato highlights a case from Philadelphia in which police tried to seize a grandmother's house and car because without her knowledge, her son sold less than $200 worth of marijuana from the house. In Philadelphia alone, civil asset forfeiture was so astonishingly abused that the city seized over 1,000 homes, 3,000 vehicles, and over $44,000,000 in cash over an eleven year period.
The problem with civil asset forfeiture is that it reverses the burden of proof. Instead of being guilty until proven innocent, it is up to the asset's owners to prove that the property seized wasn't used or was not intended to be used in a crime. The cost of such litigation is what makes civil asset forfeiture close to impossible to fight. While the government could have and has applied civil asset forfeiture to cryptocurrencies, which usually stand out in court documents by their titles alone such as United States versus Binance account 188746, it never really had a strategic interest in applying it more broadly.
The Bitcoin would be seized and forfeited to the government, but the government would have to end up selling it for dollars anyway. If we take Trump's executive order at face value, this may now change, given that the government or giving the government an incentive to apply civil asset forfeiture to bitcoin more broadly. This is a problem as we can likely trace a lot of bitcoin back to having touched a sanctions evasion, a darknet market, or other alleged illicit activity. The question then becomes, how many hops back do we go?
How many UTXOs do we unravel to find it legitimate that Bitcoin coming out of potentially illicit activity is seized on behalf of the government to help build its strategic reserve. The other problem is that if the government accuses the bitcoin you hold of having been involved in the facilitation of a crime, you may have obtained said bitcoin fully legally, had nothing to do with the alleged criminal activity, and don't even need to have been aware of it. The government may still, fully legally, take your Bitcoin away from you. Taking Trump's executive order at face value, it seems that cheering on the strategic Bitcoin reserve may not be the smartest move until it is clarified that civil asset forfeiture will not be employed to further the reserve. After all, it is a concept that should be reformed and not encouraged.
End of article. Okay. I get it. And what I'm about to say, you're going to shake your head and go, oh, man. You just you're just too naive. Yes. They yes. The government knows that I bought Bitcoin because I bought it on an exchange. I did. And the Bitcoin that I buy today, I buy through Cash App. They know that. They and they know where it went. When when I took it off those exchanges, they know where that Bitcoin went. And when I moved it to another wallet, they're gonna see that, but they won't really know that that it's me. But they'll they'll they can make a good bet.
They can make a a pretty good bet because when I move things, like, when I move from my ledger over to my cold card, it was the same amount of Bitcoin. That's gonna be pretty easy to go, yeah, that he's just moving wallets. That that's pretty easy to see. But still, when when I get the knock on the door and then I say, I don't know, dude. I I don't have access to the keys. And I I wouldn't even say, oh, I've had a boating accident. I'm not gonna say shit like that. But I might be intended to say, look, I don't have access to the keys. They cannot actually prove.
They can only prove that at one point or another, I held Bitcoin. But they cannot actually prove that I still hold that Bitcoin. Now that puts me in a real big pickle because the next time that I actually move anything from those funds in that same wallet, guaranteed that wallet's gonna be flagged. Right? And then they're gonna come back. Hello, mister Bennett. We saw that some Bitcoin moved. I don't know what to tell you, man. Maybe somebody's got my keys. This this is a problem. And I'm not I'm not saying that it's not, but I am saying that in a very real way, we really do need to look at, pull apart, design around, design for, and design through this one simple fact.
You cannot prove a negative in a court of law or in any other instance. It's impossible. It's it is a logical fallacy for you to prove that you weren't somewhere. When somebody says, okay, so prove to me that you were not at the In N Out Burger at 6AM. There there's there's no way that I can prove that I was not there, especially if I actually wasn't there. I mean, I could say you could say, okay. Prove that you weren't there, and I say, I come up with some b s, like, bogus ass, you know, like, excuse as to why it wasn't there. All they gotta do is say, well, here's your credit card number, and it was used to buy an In N Out Burger at six a at 6PM at this In N Out Burger. Clearly, you were there. And we've also got you on on cameras actually making the transaction.
Well, okay. I'm I'm host. But that's proving a positive. I positively was there. But I can't really prove that I don't own something if that if there's there's in okay. You can prove that I have cash in my bank account because I'm in control of my bank account right now. They can look in my bank account right now and see cash. They know it's connected to me. But in the case of private keys, and if this is only good if you hold your own Bitcoin. In the case of your own private keys, once you take buy Bitcoin, it let's just say full k y c fashion, like like I'd like on cash out, and you move that to your wallet on those private with that that was built by those private keys.
They can say, we know you bought it. We saw you do it. We know you moved it because you're the only one in control of that particular, the Cash App account. And we know it went to this wallet address. We can assume that that is your wallet address because other accounts that through the years have moved and commingled all this Bitcoin over the years to these wallet addresses, and we can track those. Okay. Up till that point, they've got me dead to rights. But when they say now it's time for you to forfeit that Bitcoin, I can't help you. I don't have the keys. I did.
Sure. I did. And it doesn't that doesn't excuse the fact that there there could be a situation where they go, well, we don't care if you don't have the keys. We're gonna come up with some new law that's gonna hurt you, and we're gonna put you in prison anyway. But at that point, ladies and gentlemen, we have other problems because that becomes so Orwellian that at that point, the state can pretty much do away with anybody they wanna do away with. You'll already say they already do that At the scale that if if they were to institute what I just suggested and then broaden that entire scope beyond Bitcoin, honey, you got bigger problems.
You got much bigger problems to deal with. But I still always love reading what Lowell Elites has to say. Let's move on to Helen Parks, Cointelegraph. The International Monetary Fund deal to ban public sector Bitcoin accumulation in El Salvador. They want them to stop buying Bitcoin and they're gonna force them to do it with a loan of $1,400,000,000. The International Monetary Fund is looking to restrict Bitcoin purchases by El Salvador as part of an extended $1,400,000,000 funding arrangement with the country. On March, the IMF issued a new request for an extended arrangement under its fund facility to El Salvador filing several new documents including a staff statement update and a statement by its executive director for El Salvador.
The technical memorandum of understanding indicates a condition of, quote, no voluntary accumulation of Bitcoin by the public sector in El Salvador, end quote. Additionally, the memorandum requested the restriction of public sector issuance of, quote, any type of debt or tokenized instrumentation that is extended or indexed to or denominated in Bitcoin and implies a liability to the public sector, end quote. In an accompanying statement from February 26, Mendez Bertolo, the fund's executive director for El Salvador, emphasized that the IMF's extended fund facility for El Salvador aims to provide improvements in governance, transparency, and resilience to boost confidence and the country's growth potential.
Further quote, meanwhile, bitcoin related risks are being mitigated. The authorities enacted amendments to the Bitcoin law that clarify the legal nature of Bitcoin and remove from the law the essential features of legal tender. Acceptance of Bitcoin will be voluntary, tax payments will be made in US dollars, and the role of the public sector in the Bitcoin project will be confined, Bertolo stated. Bertolo mentioned that the IMF program is expected to attract substantial additional financial support from the World Bank, the Inter American Development Bank, and other regional development banks.
The IMF's latest loan conditions reinforce prior commitments from the Salvadoran government to limit its engagement in Bitcoin related economic activities. The statement said that the deal aims to address the potential risks of El Salvador's Bitcoin project in line with the fund policies and with fund advice to the authorities. It added, quote, going forward, program commitments will confine government engagement in bitcoin related economic activities as well as government transactions in and the purchase of bitcoin, end quote.
The IMF then said that El Salvador will enhance regulation and supervision of digital assets, quote, in line with evolving international best practices. Say hello to FATF or the FATF. We won't get in any farther into that. This marks another step in the IMF's ongoing efforts to curb El Salvador's Bitcoin adoption. The country initially secured the $1,400,000,000 funding deal in December of twenty twenty four in exchange for scaling back its bitcoin related initiatives. And in mid February, Samson Moe, Jan '3 CEO and advocate for nation state bitcoin adoption, highlighted the IMF's vague language on whether it would allow El Salvador to continue accumulating Bitcoin.
Despite the IMF's stance, Salvadoran president Naim Bukele has continued acquiring Bitcoin. On March 3, Bukele announced a brand new Bitcoin purchase, bringing the country's total holdings to 6,100 BTC. Cointelegraph approached the IMF for comment regarding its latest El Salvador deal, but it did not receive a response. Okay. So remember, this this is the most important this is the most important part. Nayib Bukele announced on March 3 that they purchased more Bitcoin. The very same day is when this IMF deal came out. It said on March 3, the IMF issued a new request for an extended arrangement under its fund facility to El Salvador.
We don't want you to buy Bitcoin. And on the very same day, El Salvador bought Bitcoin. Now the real question is, did Naib Bukele buy it before the IMF issued this new request or after the new request was issued? And in either one of those events, did Naeib Bukele know that this request was be has had come over the wire and was sitting on his desk or one of his, you know, one of his people's desk or something like that. If he bought Bitcoin and he knew about this new this new request, then that's sort of thumb in the nose at the IMF. But we gotta go back to the bigger question.
Why is he taking the loan? And it's clear that over the past few months after after after taking the loan in the first place, they go, yeah. We want the loan. IMF said, we'll give you the loan. You need to make Bitcoin not legal tender. Bukele says, okay. And that was dude, that was an easy lift. I didn't even like the fact that he made it law that you that you had to be able to take Bitcoin. It should have always been voluntary. So, therefore, no skin off my nose. I I I don't think anybody should make Bitcoin legal tender. I think they should always make it voluntary and not criminalize it.
It's that easy. But I digress. Let's go back. Why are they taking the loan? Why do they need the loan? It looked to me that El Salvador was had launched itself on the world stage. People are going to El Salvador. They're buying property. But most of all, his tourism for that country is, like, increased, like, 300%. People are building hotels. There's there the money is flowing into the country. Why risk getting back underneath the IMF thumb? Here's what really rankles me, and it has nothing to do with Bitcoin. Remember that massive ass prison that he's got?
And he's being accused of massive human rights violations because he's got some of the scummiest scum of the earth locked up in there. And, honestly, guys, I I kinda don't care. I don't care about MS thirteen. I don't. I'm not concerned about them losing their freedom. I don't want them anywhere close to me or anywhere close to my family or friends or property. And any of the rest of those people that are in that prison, those that's some hardcore shit. That's not like that that blows away what we would think of as our own American born and bred hardcore felon.
These guys make our guys kinda look not so bad, even though we have some real scum of the earth ourselves. But he's got, like, 40,000 people. People are accusing him of of human rights violations. What is the next thing the IMF requires him to do? Release all these people? Where to? This it it it it bugs me. It really does. It's kind of a scary situation. Speaking of scary situations, let's get back to the pump and Trump dump Ethereum and Solana in the strategic Bitcoin reserve? Rational is unclear, says Bernstein from Matt DeSalvo decrypt.
President Donald Trump shocked the markets on Sunday when he announced the assets intended for a planned US strategic crypto reserve. Analysts at investment firm Bernstein are puzzled by US president Donald Trump's announcement that he would include Ethereum, XRP, Solana, Cardano in a national crypto reserve alongside actual Bitcoin, writing in a note on Monday that the move could be difficult to put into practice if the United States Central Bank is involved. Quote, the position of Bitcoin as a digital gold holding for the US government was expected.
Analysts Gautam Chigani, Mahakasapra, and Sansakaar Shindeliah, I've I've butchered every everybody's name there, wrote in a Monday report. ETH and Sol are the two most used blockchain networks and holding their native assets supports the growth of the industry, but the rationale for a sovereign to hold it in the reserve is unclear, they noted. In a Sunday post on his Truth Social platform, Trump announced a crypto reserve to elevate this critical industry after years of corrupt attacks by the Biden administration. He has been eager to fulfill campaign promises to the industry that overwhelmingly supported him, including calling for the creation of a crypto reserve.
The Bernstein analyst added that it still wasn't clear whether the idea of a crypto reserve could be pushed through with an executive order alone, and convincing other members of the government of holding altcoins like Solana and Ethereum would likely be difficult, they continued, quote, we think a realistic path could be that the United States government can convince the congress, excuse me, that Bitcoin is the new digital gold slash global store of value and a gold revaluation slash gold reserve reallocation makes sense.
However, buying other blockchain assets from fed funds or the treasury is a difficult sell, end quote. He said that cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and the second biggest digital coin by market cap and Solana, the sixth largest, would be held by Authorize. The president, during his campaign, had focused on Bitcoin for a potential national stockpile. His plans to include altcoins surprised many industry observers. Pausing to say, no. It did not surprise us in the least. We knew it was going to happen. We just didn't know the names of the shitcoins he was going to include. Just saying. Anyway, Bitcoin jumped sharply after Trump's post and nearly touched 95,000 on Sunday, but lost all of those gains and we're down to $83,575 right now.
Crypto markets have been swooning in recent weeks amid concerns about inflation, a potential trade war stemming from Trump tariffs, and other macroeconomic uncertainties. Bitcoin is trading well off of its all time high above a hundred and 80 or, sorry, hundred and $8,000, which was set back in January. And the Trump tariffs are going through, and it is causing havoc throughout all the markets. And we'll get to it when we do the weather report, but first, the In N Out Burger. Oh my god. It's not it's actually not the best burgers in the world. They're good.
I'll give them that. They're okay. It's and it's a nice place to eat. But all this hype that I'd heard over the years about an In N Out Burger, and then I walked into one in Salt Lake City, Utah for the first time, and I go, oh my god. It's an In N Out burger. I'm eating this thing going, meh. It's okay. It doesn't suck, but maybe I'll buy their burgers next time when they start using Bitcoin because their post on Twitter says this, should In N Out accept Bitcoin. And it's it's it's the In N Out burger. So that's all they said. That's all I got for you on that, and we are going to continue on.
But a lot of people, including PubKey are are riding back going, yeah. Ask us how we do it. We do it every day. A lot of people are riding back with with similar sentiments. So we'll just keep an eye out on what In N Out Burger says. It could be just an engagement post. Who knows? But let's move on to Thunder. They've released a skill based blackjack game with Bitcoin lightning network powered payouts. This is Frank Korvo writing for Bitcoin magazine today. Thunder pioneers in play to earn Bitcoin games as well as skill based peer to peer gaming solutions announced the release of its latest title, Blackjack.
Designed for iGaming operators and aggregators, the game is now available via Thunder's b two b PVP platform. With this new game, Thunder aims to improve player engagement and retention while employing cutting edge instant payment settlement via the lightning network. The underlying technology for the game addresses long standing points of friction for operators including including player liquidity gaps and slow payout processes over traditional payment rails. Thunder's cross operator liquidity network, which ensures that players are matched instantly across partner businesses, helps to avoid hiccups in the gaming experience.
What this looks like in practice is if a user on bet openly places a $100 bet, Thunder will match that bet with a hundred dollar bet from a user on another partner platform like speed wallet. If it isn't matched immediately on bet openly, creating a scenario in which bets are matched instantly 99.9% of the time, Thunder offers real time payouts via the Lightning Network to its partners on the back end, enabling their partners to provide payouts in any fiat currency while benefiting from a settlement process with no delays or chargebacks. Quote, we're thrilled to bring a skilled version of blackjack to our PVP platform, said Thunder CEO and cofounder Desiree Dickerson in a press release shared with Bitcoin magazine.
Quote, this isn't just another game. It's a powerful reengagement and monetization tool for operators. By blending skill based competition with our innovative tech, we're delivering a solution that keeps players engaged longer, boost retention, and opens access to a broader market of new users, she added. Thunder's version of blackjack also rewards strategy and decision making as the game enables players to compete against other players as opposed to the house eliminating the house's edge. Quote, in this version of the game, your result based on the number of chips won after 10 rounds is benchmarked to another real player who had the exact same cards dealt during his round, Dickerson explained to bitcoin magazine.
Unlike traditional blackjack, where luck plays a significant role, this game is skill based because both players face identical conditions. Same cards dealt, same dealer rules. In this version, players compete asynchronously, Each plays 10 rounds with the same card sequence and time limit, the final number of chips determines the winner. End quote. Thunder believes that this arrangement will attract more competitive players as opposed to those simply looking for chance based gaming and entertainment. IGaming operators and aggregators can benefit from offering Thunder's version of blackjack in the following ways, instant liquidity, enhanced monetization, user acquisition, seamless integration.
Thunder said in the press release that it invites all iGaming operators and aggregators to test out the full platform of titles and tech by requesting a demo at [email protected] or visiting thunder.i0 for more details. That's the end of the article. Thunder is spelled t h n d r. T h, n as in Nancy, d r. So a little bit of a little bit of prehistory on Noster where we get some funky spelling. Yeah. Noster, we we talk we'll have all these weird hashtags like, oh, what? Askr or, and then, there's a catster. There's prob there's foodster. There's mealster.
It's all bad spelling, but it all essentially was already in the Bitcoin ecosystem for, like like, improper spelling, improper grammar. It's sort of I don't know. It's just it's just become kind of the culture. But Thunder was one of the, one of the first people that, got on the gravy train of I'm sorry. I'm trying to get rid of this phone call here. Of spelling things the wrong way. And it all came down to the misspelling of hold in a whiskey fueled rant. I really believe that that started the entire the entire notion of spelling stuff wrong in the Bitcoin space. So, anyway, let's run the numbers. Futures and commodities, oil getting raked over the coals because of the Trump tariffs.
West Texas Intermediate down almost a full point to $67.75. Brent Norcey down a point and a half to 70 and 56¢. Holy crap. Natural gas, however, making the gains, eight and a quarter percent to the upside for a thousand cubic feet. We're at $4.46 there. Gasoline is down half a point to $2.17. Gold doing well. Point 86% to the upside. $2,926 an ounce. Silver is up a fifth of a point, but platinum is down a fifth of a point. Copper is down one and a third. Palladium is down 1.15%. Biggest winner in ag today is chocolate, 2.83% to the upside.
The biggest loser today appears to be cotton, which is down over three points. And live cattle is up almost a half, but lean hogs are down 2.3. Feeder cattle are down point 74%. And here comes equities. The legacy markets are shitting the bed. The Dow is down a point and a half. That's like 629 points off its, quote, unquote, price, if you wanna look at it that way. After losing 632 points, the Dow is at 42,615. S and P down one and a third point. Nasdaq down three quarters of a point. S and P Mini down just over two full points. Everybody's getting wrecked. It ain't just Bitcoin, which is at a price of $84,004.20.
And that is a market cap of $1,670,000,000,000, but we can only now get 28.6 ounces of the shiny metal rocks that we oh so love with our one Bitcoin, of which there are 19,831,979.14 of, and average fees per block are low. 0.04 BTC taken in fees on average on a per block basis, and there are 57 blocks carrying a mere 13,000 unconfirmed transactions. High priority is gonna get you in at 5 Satoshis per v byte. Low priorities will get your transaction in the mempools at three. Eight hundred and four point five exahashes per second is the current hash rate. I'm still amazed that we're above 800 exahashes per second considering that we're all dying because we're at 84,570.
Whatever. From roller coaster vibes, yesterday's episode of Bitcoin and I got Axelrod with a thousand sats says the Trump pump and dump reminds me of the John McAfee pumps of 2018. Thank you, sir. No. Thank you. Anonymous with a thousand, the Trump oh, he's did it again. I'm getting I'm getting duplications on my, on fountain when I'm looking at boostagram, so that's why that happened. My apologies. Bitcoin for president with a thousand says, this is a great show, and the guy who makes it is a legend in the making. Thank you for your time and service, Bitcoin for president. That is very nice sentiment coming from the likes of you. I really do appreciate those kind, kind words.
Psyduck with five fifty nine says, Psyduck, Yodle, your yodel, with 300 sats says, roller coaster. God's death with two thirty seven, thank you, sir. No. Thank you. God's death with another two thirty seven says, thank you, sir. No. Thank you. And Boaz with a hundred says, all [email protected]. And that's the weather report. Welcome to part two of the news that you can use. Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas puts 70% of his wealth in Bitcoin. Well, kinda. Lightning news or rather lightning dot news. This is written by the editorial team. I wish they'd actually just give the names. Quote, I've got about 70% in Bitcoin related exposure.
See. There's the rub. And 30% in gold and gold miners, Salinas shared in a recent Bloomberg interview. He said, quote, I don't have a single bond, and I don't have any other stocks except my own, end quote. Bitcoin is one of Salinas' favorite topics on social media where he's built a follower count of more than 2,000,000 on Twitter as one of Mexico's few corporate superstars. Quote, with whatever money you have left over every day, or rather as people say with whatever you have in your ashtray, buy Bitcoin. It's the best way to save your money and keep it away from government, he tweeted on 12/24/2024.
In a bold move that sent shockwaves to the financial world, Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas Plijo, I guess is how you pronounce his very, very, very last name, revealed to Bloomberg that an astounding 70%, not seven, not 17, but seven zero, 70 percent of his personal wealth is now invested in Bitcoin or Bitcoin related items, marking a dramatic departure from traditional investment strategies. Salinas, the founder of Grupo Salinas and one of Mexico's wealthiest entrepreneurs has long been known for his contrarian approach to business and investment. His latest financial maneuver underscores a growing trend among high net worth individuals and institutional investors who are increasingly viewing cryptocurrency as a legitimate store of value and hedge against economic uncertainty.
Quote, I don't have a single bond. I don't own any stocks except my own, Salinas declared, emphasizing his complete commitment to Bitcoin as his primary investment vehicle. This statement represents more than just a financial decision. It's a powerful endorsement of cryptocurrency from a businessman with decades long track records of successful and often unconventional investments. The 68 year old billionaire pivoted to Bitcoin comes at a time of significant volatility in global financial markets. Traditional assets like bonds and stocks have been experiencing unprecedented challenges with inflation, geopolitical tensions, and economic uncertainty driving investors to seek alternative investment strategies.
Salinas has been a vocal proponent of Bitcoin for several years, consistently advocating for cryptocurrency adoption in Latin America. His investment strategy reflects a growing belief among financial experts that Bitcoin could serve as a hedge against inflation and economic instability, particularly in regions with historically volatile currencies. So there you go. What Mexic one of it did flip flops. He's at any given time, this dude is either Mexico's richest man or one of Mexico's richest men. I who knows? I but having 70% of his wealth in Bitcoin related exposure, I think it's very, very important to understand that that does not necessarily mean that he owns any Bitcoin at all.
He's told us he does. But I'll bet you he owns a lot of mining, like a lot of Bitcoin mining stuff. He probably owns energy companies or energy generation plants or or is invested in those that provide Bitcoin or electricity to Bitcoin miners. He probably has a bunch of the iBit ETF stuff. So just because he's they say he's got 70% of his wealth in Bitcoin, it's not all in actual physical Bitcoin. And it's really important to keep those things separate. Now on to Bybit, their CEO says that 20% of the $1,400,000,000 theft has now gone dark as hackers swap it to Bitcoin. This is Danny Park writing for the block.
Ben Zhao, CEO of Bybit, said that 20% of the stolen $1,400,000,000 worth of crypto has gone dark, while 77% of it remains traceable and 3% has been frozen. Bybit suffered the largest ever hack on a centralized crypto exchange attributed to a targeted malware attack by the Lazarus Group. According to Zao, the two or the coming two weeks are critical for freezing those funds hacked from the crypto exchange last month by the North Korean hacker group Lazarus. This and the coming week are critical for fund freezing as the funds will start to clear at exchanges, OTC and p two p, Zao wrote in a Tuesday post on Twitter. The two week time frame given by the Bybit CEO may indicate a slim chance of the exchange fully recovering its lost assets.
Zhao explained that around 16% of the funds went through non KYC exchange, EXCH. I guess it's XCheck. I I don't know how to pronounce it. Please, guys, get real names for your stuff, please. Anyway, they're currently untraceable. Quote, we're still waiting for an update, Zhao noted. Another hundred million dollars worth of ether went through the OKX Web three proxy out of which $65,000,000 worth of funds now remains untraceable, pending further information from OkX Web three. Zao said that 83% of the stolen ether has been converted into Bitcoin and moved across 7,000 wallet addresses.
Hackers mostly utilized Thorchain to move the stolen ether to Bitcoin with 72% of the total amount transferred over Thorchain. Decentralized cross chain liquidity protocol, Thorchain, saw record weekly volume of 6.7 no. $4,670,000,000 last week according to data from Defi Llama. As Thorchain was actively utilized by Lazarus, internal debates arose about whether to block hackers funds flows from entering the platform or maintain its decentralized permissionless nature despite the potential for illicit activity. I'm just stopping right there because what's really important about this piece is not how much has been sent, not that the ether is being sold into Bitcoin, although that would be my choice as well.
It's about being able to freeze funds. How many times do we have to reiterate if they're not your keys? They're not your coins. Sure. You're saying, but these are Lazarus. It's okay to take their coins. Yeah. Just sure. If just do it by do it by, like, you know, good old fashioned police work. Get a warrant for their find out who they are. Find out where they are. Get a warrant for their arrest. Go track their ass down. Hello, mister Lazarus. We're here to arrest your ass. Do it the old freaking fashioned way. Right?
The more this stuff that happens, the more and more people that are not Lazarus are going to lose their coins. Remember how we started this show today? Lol elites talking about civil asset forfeiture. Now, Ether has never been secure, and it got, if it's even possible, even less secure when they moved from proof of work to proof of stake. This is a shit show. Every single time something like this happens, everybody figures out real quick that it's okay to talk about the seizeability aspect of Ethereum. And then it's like it all we all forget about it after it's after it's after about a few weeks, we all forget about it. And then idiots start piping up with how secure Ethereum is, and nobody can take your Ethereum b s. Yes. They can.
Yes. They can. And they're probably gonna send it to buy Bitcoin in Australia, except that Australia has said no to the creation of a strategic digital asset reserve according to Atlas twenty one. According to Cointelegraph, Australia has no intention of creating a strategic cryptocurrency reserve. A spokesperson for the Australian Minister for Financial Services, Stephen Jones, confirmed that the government led by Anthony Albanese is focusing its efforts on regulating digital asset platforms rather than directly holding cryptocurrencies. Jonas stated, quote, the government has consulted on our proposals to create a fit for purpose regulatory framework for digital assets and continues to work closely with the sector, end quote.
Tim Matthews, head of institutional relations at the Australian exchange, Swiftix, stated that creating a national cryptocurrency reserve could prevent or present several complexities, including the risk of concentration in certain tokens at high price volatility. Quote, if the goal is to hedge against crises, the volatility of cryptocurrencies could be a problem, said Matthews, instead suggesting the creation of a sovereign fund with a long term investment strategy. Jonathan Miller, managing director of Kraken Australia, highlighted that the digital asset market is already recognized as an investment asset by pension funds and sovereign funds, quote, if it's suitable for these institutional investors, it could also be appropriate for the future fund or even the Australian treasury, Miller stated.
While the Australian government rules out the creation of a strategic reserve and thereby shooting themselves all in the foot, authorities are strengthening the sector's regulatory framework. The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Center, AUSTRAC, has announced that from 2025, it will intensify oversight of cryptocurrencies, particularly automated teller machine or ATM providers, and they actually may mean at the market providers. I'm sorry. When people say ATM, I really do wish in the news story they were talking about actual machines because we have a but enough of those in the Bitcoin space that you really should make the distinction as to whether or not you're talking about automated teller machines or at the market exchanges.
So I'm gonna say that it's probably at the market providers to ensure compliance with anti money laundering laws. And at the same time, the Australian Securities and Investment Commission has published new guidelines classifying various cryptocurrencies as financial instruments requiring companies operating in the space to obtain the necessary licensure. So Australia has no intention of helping out its people with a Bitcoin strategic reserve. I mean, I don't mind them saying no to a strategic digital asset reserve because everything is shitcoin but Bitcoin. I don't I don't blame them for that, but for them just to not even dabble in Bitcoin, at least through at least by proxy, is just wholeheartedly stupid.
Alright. To finish up, we got senator Lummis on Fox. She says, I spend dollars. I save Bitcoin. This is out of Bitcoin news written by Guy Malone. Senator Cynthia Lummis visited the New York City Bitcoin bar, PubKey, while in town for the sold out Bitcoin investors week conference hosted by Bitcoin personality, Anthony pump Pompliano Lummis then appeared live with Maria Bartiromo, the money honey, on February 28 on Fox News, mornings with Maria there to discuss largely, quote, the extensive waste, fraud, and abuse Elon Musk's Doge has found according to the Fox Business video's title of the interview.
Bartiromo then turned the conversation towards the topic of Bitcoin asking the center senator, quote, I understand last night you bought drinks at the Bitcoin themed pub key bar, but listen, you paid in cash. Why? How about Bitcoin? That's a that that's that's a valid question, Maria. I I appreciate you asking that. Senator Cynthia Lummis responded thusly, quote, well, because I spend dollars and save Bitcoin. Bitcoin is an asset that's growing in value. I know it's volatile. Its short term volatility has been in existence since it has been in existence.
But in the long term, it's growing in value, where the US dollar is, by design, debasing every year. The Fed designed it so that it inflates 2% or more. They try to keep it around two percent, but they can't. So the United States dollar is always declining by design. And so the scarcity of Bitcoin, the fact that 21,000,000 will only exist in all of time, gives it that certainty, that stability, that scarcity in the long run, and there will be short term volatility. But over time, as it becomes more ubiquitous, it will become more stable and more valuable, end quote.
Columbus is a long time scholar of Bitcoin, having first purchased it in 2013 at $330. Indicative of an accumulation over time strategy since then, per October 2021 periodic transaction report, also specified a single purchase valued at between 50,000 and $100,000 in August of twenty twenty one. She also spoke of a Bitcoin strategic reserve bill before the presidential candidate Donald Trump did. In fact, there's no doubt from her many public statements that Lummis is a scholar of Bitcoin, not just as an investor. And her reply to Bartiromo displayed a working knowledge of what Bitcoiners know as Gresham's law.
This Gresham's law is the observance that in any situation where there are two or more competing currencies, the more valuable commodity will gradually disappear from circulation. According to Wikipedia, as people hoard the more valuable asset and dump the weaker currency on more everyday needs. Interestingly, on his own visit to Pub Key in September, Trump actually bought drinks for patrons using Bitcoin. While certainly a welcome act of publicity for the Bitcoin community and no doubt for Pub key, the contrast is clear. Lummis' understanding of Bitcoin far exceeds the president's current knowledge base.
I'll get into that in a second. In addition, excuse me, in addition to exemplifying Gresham's principles, in her reply, Lummis also seemed to casually reflect on the Lindy effect. That's the observed phenomena that a thing seems safer and more normalized the longer it's around, and therefore, the more likely to remain around. Wikipedia says this because, quote, longevity implies a resistance to change, obsolescence or competition, and greater odds of continued existence into the future. In comparison to Lemus' words quoted earlier, her familiarity with the Lindy effect concept seems evident as well.
Quote, over time, as Bitcoin becomes more ubiquitous, it will become more stable and more valuable. There you go. So, I mean, I like Lummis, but she said some things over the last, I don't know, few weeks that just kinda rankle me. However, I I she does get it. But that whole thing about this this night and day difference between, you know, the the fact that Lummis understands Bitcoin and Trump doesn't only because Trump actually spent Bitcoin physically at PubKey and Lummis spent cash, that's bullshit. It has nothing at all to do. On the surface, I could see why the author thinks that and put those words on the page.
But my guess is that the reality is a much deeper thing. Senator Lummis was already senator. Trump was running for president. He needed the votes. He needed to look like he understood how to use Bitcoin and the fact that it had value. That was a that is a surface. Sure. It's a facade. I get it, but that's that's why. And and we cannot detail what Donald Trump knows about Bitcoin or what he doesn't know about Bitcoin versus senator Lummis simply because he bought stuff using Bitcoin and she bought stuff using shitty ass fiat. That come on, man. Let's not do that to each other.
Okay. That that's it. That's the that's the end of the show for this Tuesday, this episode ten forty eight of Bitcoin. And I do hope you enjoyed it. I really do. If you would like to support the show, I would appreciate it if you did, and you can do that by streaming me Satoshis through various podcasting two point o enabled podcast like my daily driver, fountain.fm. I love the fountain app. I really do. And other people that are listening to my show, they seem to like it too. I'm always getting boost. People are always streaming me satoshis, but I could use more. Who couldn't? I mean, I need more satoshis. You need more satoshis. Give me all the satoshis, but let's do it in a value for value trade. If you thought I got gave you value today, then do me a favor and reach into your Bitcoin wallet or your lightning wallet and stream me some Satoshis or give me a big fat boost.
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Still, I don't like the four star reviews. I like the five star review, but I think that there's something going on in Apple where they're like, yeah, that's a bogus review. It's five star and you wrote five words. Who gives a shit? So I don't think it really is that is that as impactful as some of the other reviews that I've gotten that have some really good sentiment as to helping me make the show even better, and and I appreciate all of those. But those five star reviews on Apple really help. And also, spread the show. Help me market this thing. I'm a one man show, man.
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It is 08:47AM Pacific Standard Time. It is the fourth day of the third month of twenty twenty '5. This is episode ten forty eight of Bitcoin. And we've got this, thing here by Lola Leets about Bitcoin reserves and civil asset forfeiture. Kinda interesting there. The IMF is telling El Salvador what they can and cannot do as the IMF generally does. I have no idea why El Salvador is groveling at the feet of the IMF. I I still am trying to figure this one out, but we'll find out more. Then this whole strategic Bitcoin reserve with Ethereum and Solana crap, there's a problem with the rationale according to analyst at Bernstein.
And then In N Out Burger did a tweet. We'll talk about it. Thunder Games is back in the news. They've got some new stuff coming out. If you are a dGen gambler for blackjack, you may be interested in this one. And then the Mexican billionaire, Ricardo Salinas, is damn near all in to sovereign wealth. He's got a couple of different things going on, but, honestly, he seems to be one of the people that really understands where we are in the world. Bybit CEO is gonna tell us a little bit more about the quote unquote unspendable, unmovable, completely frozen Ethereum that was stolen in the Bybit hack in Australia wants to shoot itself in the head. And then Cynthia Lummis went on Fox and said words she did. I'm getting a little bit untrustworthy of Cynthia Lummis over the course of the last few months. Maybe she'll redeem herself. But first, Bitcoin reserves and the incentives of civil asset forfeiture from Bitcoin magazine written by Lola Leitz. Yesterday, president Trump announced the long awaited strategic Bitcoin reserve on Truth Social, and many in the space are pissed.
I'm pausing right there. He did not really announce the long awaited strategic Bitcoin reserve. He just reiterated things that he was already saying. And I think it's really important to understand that because we got the we got the pump and Trump dump. That's what happened. We're back to where we started from. We're back to where we started from because it didn't take long for the field of, you know, people out there to figure out, wait a minute. This is just rehashing what he's already said, except, like I said yesterday, he added these shit coins to it. But other than that, he's basically doing the same thing.
So I he nothing was announced on Sunday. Nothing. Please, everybody calm down. Nothing was announced. He was just writing words on true social. But, anyway, continuing first, the reserve appears to be far from Bitcoin only. Quote, they're doing DEI for Charles Hoskinson, former CoinDesk chief insights columnist David z Morris wrote on Twitter. Hoskinson's Cardano was announced to be included in the reserve. Quote, cut cancer research to buy Cardano, another poster or another user posted. Others take issue with possible investment interests surrounding the Trump administration.
Trump's announcement is a new level of corruption, wrote communications strategist Derek Martin, detailing David Sacks' investment in Bitwise, quote, you get exit liquidity and you get exit liquidity. Everybody gets exit liquidity, posted Bitcoin policy institute fellow Troy Cross alongside pictures of Oprah. Sachs has since stated that he has sold all his cryptocurrency holdings while Trump was running for office or at least at the time of Trump's inauguration. Not exactly quite sure because unless I actually see detailed manifest of what you sold, when you sold it, what you sold it on, and have, like like, pitch perfect proof that you did so, I don't believe David Sachs for an instant. Anyway, what all of these criticisms have in common is that they completely miss the point.
Whether the reserve is composed of additional coins or may serve nefarious interest of the administration is of little actual consequence to those holding bitcoin. What is very much of consequence is the question of how said reserve would be funded. On the one hand, many are speculating that The US may divert taxpayer funds to purchase cryptocurrency, a proposal that inevitably would have to go through congress, which seems unlikely as Trump is rumored to make a new announcement on investments today. Another much more likely approach as already outlined in Trump's executive order to strengthen American leadership in digital financial technology is that the reserve would be, quote, derived from cryptocurrencies lawfully seized by the federal government through its law enforcement efforts, end quote.
Well, that's fine, you'll say, because I've obtained all my Bitcoin legally and have never nor will I ever engage in criminal activity, and that's precisely where you are wrong. Bitcoin that is lawfully seized by the federal government does not just include bitcoin derived through criminal prosecutions. Bitcoin can additionally be lawfully seized through a process called civil asset forfeiture, a funny little game that the government plays in which it doesn't have to accuse you of a crime, but can instead accuse the thing itself of a crime.
As Cato Institute has outlined in a post calling for the reform of civil asset forfeiture law, New York police routinely sees cars used at a DUI, and in Florida, police regularly seize cash in excess of $100 suspected to be used to purchase illegal substances. In the most striking example, Cato highlights a case from Philadelphia in which police tried to seize a grandmother's house and car because without her knowledge, her son sold less than $200 worth of marijuana from the house. In Philadelphia alone, civil asset forfeiture was so astonishingly abused that the city seized over 1,000 homes, 3,000 vehicles, and over $44,000,000 in cash over an eleven year period.
The problem with civil asset forfeiture is that it reverses the burden of proof. Instead of being guilty until proven innocent, it is up to the asset's owners to prove that the property seized wasn't used or was not intended to be used in a crime. The cost of such litigation is what makes civil asset forfeiture close to impossible to fight. While the government could have and has applied civil asset forfeiture to cryptocurrencies, which usually stand out in court documents by their titles alone such as United States versus Binance account 188746, it never really had a strategic interest in applying it more broadly.
The Bitcoin would be seized and forfeited to the government, but the government would have to end up selling it for dollars anyway. If we take Trump's executive order at face value, this may now change, given that the government or giving the government an incentive to apply civil asset forfeiture to bitcoin more broadly. This is a problem as we can likely trace a lot of bitcoin back to having touched a sanctions evasion, a darknet market, or other alleged illicit activity. The question then becomes, how many hops back do we go?
How many UTXOs do we unravel to find it legitimate that Bitcoin coming out of potentially illicit activity is seized on behalf of the government to help build its strategic reserve. The other problem is that if the government accuses the bitcoin you hold of having been involved in the facilitation of a crime, you may have obtained said bitcoin fully legally, had nothing to do with the alleged criminal activity, and don't even need to have been aware of it. The government may still, fully legally, take your Bitcoin away from you. Taking Trump's executive order at face value, it seems that cheering on the strategic Bitcoin reserve may not be the smartest move until it is clarified that civil asset forfeiture will not be employed to further the reserve. After all, it is a concept that should be reformed and not encouraged.
End of article. Okay. I get it. And what I'm about to say, you're going to shake your head and go, oh, man. You just you're just too naive. Yes. They yes. The government knows that I bought Bitcoin because I bought it on an exchange. I did. And the Bitcoin that I buy today, I buy through Cash App. They know that. They and they know where it went. When when I took it off those exchanges, they know where that Bitcoin went. And when I moved it to another wallet, they're gonna see that, but they won't really know that that it's me. But they'll they'll they can make a good bet.
They can make a a pretty good bet because when I move things, like, when I move from my ledger over to my cold card, it was the same amount of Bitcoin. That's gonna be pretty easy to go, yeah, that he's just moving wallets. That that's pretty easy to see. But still, when when I get the knock on the door and then I say, I don't know, dude. I I don't have access to the keys. And I I wouldn't even say, oh, I've had a boating accident. I'm not gonna say shit like that. But I might be intended to say, look, I don't have access to the keys. They cannot actually prove.
They can only prove that at one point or another, I held Bitcoin. But they cannot actually prove that I still hold that Bitcoin. Now that puts me in a real big pickle because the next time that I actually move anything from those funds in that same wallet, guaranteed that wallet's gonna be flagged. Right? And then they're gonna come back. Hello, mister Bennett. We saw that some Bitcoin moved. I don't know what to tell you, man. Maybe somebody's got my keys. This this is a problem. And I'm not I'm not saying that it's not, but I am saying that in a very real way, we really do need to look at, pull apart, design around, design for, and design through this one simple fact.
You cannot prove a negative in a court of law or in any other instance. It's impossible. It's it is a logical fallacy for you to prove that you weren't somewhere. When somebody says, okay, so prove to me that you were not at the In N Out Burger at 6AM. There there's there's no way that I can prove that I was not there, especially if I actually wasn't there. I mean, I could say you could say, okay. Prove that you weren't there, and I say, I come up with some b s, like, bogus ass, you know, like, excuse as to why it wasn't there. All they gotta do is say, well, here's your credit card number, and it was used to buy an In N Out Burger at six a at 6PM at this In N Out Burger. Clearly, you were there. And we've also got you on on cameras actually making the transaction.
Well, okay. I'm I'm host. But that's proving a positive. I positively was there. But I can't really prove that I don't own something if that if there's there's in okay. You can prove that I have cash in my bank account because I'm in control of my bank account right now. They can look in my bank account right now and see cash. They know it's connected to me. But in the case of private keys, and if this is only good if you hold your own Bitcoin. In the case of your own private keys, once you take buy Bitcoin, it let's just say full k y c fashion, like like I'd like on cash out, and you move that to your wallet on those private with that that was built by those private keys.
They can say, we know you bought it. We saw you do it. We know you moved it because you're the only one in control of that particular, the Cash App account. And we know it went to this wallet address. We can assume that that is your wallet address because other accounts that through the years have moved and commingled all this Bitcoin over the years to these wallet addresses, and we can track those. Okay. Up till that point, they've got me dead to rights. But when they say now it's time for you to forfeit that Bitcoin, I can't help you. I don't have the keys. I did.
Sure. I did. And it doesn't that doesn't excuse the fact that there there could be a situation where they go, well, we don't care if you don't have the keys. We're gonna come up with some new law that's gonna hurt you, and we're gonna put you in prison anyway. But at that point, ladies and gentlemen, we have other problems because that becomes so Orwellian that at that point, the state can pretty much do away with anybody they wanna do away with. You'll already say they already do that At the scale that if if they were to institute what I just suggested and then broaden that entire scope beyond Bitcoin, honey, you got bigger problems.
You got much bigger problems to deal with. But I still always love reading what Lowell Elites has to say. Let's move on to Helen Parks, Cointelegraph. The International Monetary Fund deal to ban public sector Bitcoin accumulation in El Salvador. They want them to stop buying Bitcoin and they're gonna force them to do it with a loan of $1,400,000,000. The International Monetary Fund is looking to restrict Bitcoin purchases by El Salvador as part of an extended $1,400,000,000 funding arrangement with the country. On March, the IMF issued a new request for an extended arrangement under its fund facility to El Salvador filing several new documents including a staff statement update and a statement by its executive director for El Salvador.
The technical memorandum of understanding indicates a condition of, quote, no voluntary accumulation of Bitcoin by the public sector in El Salvador, end quote. Additionally, the memorandum requested the restriction of public sector issuance of, quote, any type of debt or tokenized instrumentation that is extended or indexed to or denominated in Bitcoin and implies a liability to the public sector, end quote. In an accompanying statement from February 26, Mendez Bertolo, the fund's executive director for El Salvador, emphasized that the IMF's extended fund facility for El Salvador aims to provide improvements in governance, transparency, and resilience to boost confidence and the country's growth potential.
Further quote, meanwhile, bitcoin related risks are being mitigated. The authorities enacted amendments to the Bitcoin law that clarify the legal nature of Bitcoin and remove from the law the essential features of legal tender. Acceptance of Bitcoin will be voluntary, tax payments will be made in US dollars, and the role of the public sector in the Bitcoin project will be confined, Bertolo stated. Bertolo mentioned that the IMF program is expected to attract substantial additional financial support from the World Bank, the Inter American Development Bank, and other regional development banks.
The IMF's latest loan conditions reinforce prior commitments from the Salvadoran government to limit its engagement in Bitcoin related economic activities. The statement said that the deal aims to address the potential risks of El Salvador's Bitcoin project in line with the fund policies and with fund advice to the authorities. It added, quote, going forward, program commitments will confine government engagement in bitcoin related economic activities as well as government transactions in and the purchase of bitcoin, end quote.
The IMF then said that El Salvador will enhance regulation and supervision of digital assets, quote, in line with evolving international best practices. Say hello to FATF or the FATF. We won't get in any farther into that. This marks another step in the IMF's ongoing efforts to curb El Salvador's Bitcoin adoption. The country initially secured the $1,400,000,000 funding deal in December of twenty twenty four in exchange for scaling back its bitcoin related initiatives. And in mid February, Samson Moe, Jan '3 CEO and advocate for nation state bitcoin adoption, highlighted the IMF's vague language on whether it would allow El Salvador to continue accumulating Bitcoin.
Despite the IMF's stance, Salvadoran president Naim Bukele has continued acquiring Bitcoin. On March 3, Bukele announced a brand new Bitcoin purchase, bringing the country's total holdings to 6,100 BTC. Cointelegraph approached the IMF for comment regarding its latest El Salvador deal, but it did not receive a response. Okay. So remember, this this is the most important this is the most important part. Nayib Bukele announced on March 3 that they purchased more Bitcoin. The very same day is when this IMF deal came out. It said on March 3, the IMF issued a new request for an extended arrangement under its fund facility to El Salvador.
We don't want you to buy Bitcoin. And on the very same day, El Salvador bought Bitcoin. Now the real question is, did Naib Bukele buy it before the IMF issued this new request or after the new request was issued? And in either one of those events, did Naeib Bukele know that this request was be has had come over the wire and was sitting on his desk or one of his, you know, one of his people's desk or something like that. If he bought Bitcoin and he knew about this new this new request, then that's sort of thumb in the nose at the IMF. But we gotta go back to the bigger question.
Why is he taking the loan? And it's clear that over the past few months after after after taking the loan in the first place, they go, yeah. We want the loan. IMF said, we'll give you the loan. You need to make Bitcoin not legal tender. Bukele says, okay. And that was dude, that was an easy lift. I didn't even like the fact that he made it law that you that you had to be able to take Bitcoin. It should have always been voluntary. So, therefore, no skin off my nose. I I I don't think anybody should make Bitcoin legal tender. I think they should always make it voluntary and not criminalize it.
It's that easy. But I digress. Let's go back. Why are they taking the loan? Why do they need the loan? It looked to me that El Salvador was had launched itself on the world stage. People are going to El Salvador. They're buying property. But most of all, his tourism for that country is, like, increased, like, 300%. People are building hotels. There's there the money is flowing into the country. Why risk getting back underneath the IMF thumb? Here's what really rankles me, and it has nothing to do with Bitcoin. Remember that massive ass prison that he's got?
And he's being accused of massive human rights violations because he's got some of the scummiest scum of the earth locked up in there. And, honestly, guys, I I kinda don't care. I don't care about MS thirteen. I don't. I'm not concerned about them losing their freedom. I don't want them anywhere close to me or anywhere close to my family or friends or property. And any of the rest of those people that are in that prison, those that's some hardcore shit. That's not like that that blows away what we would think of as our own American born and bred hardcore felon.
These guys make our guys kinda look not so bad, even though we have some real scum of the earth ourselves. But he's got, like, 40,000 people. People are accusing him of of human rights violations. What is the next thing the IMF requires him to do? Release all these people? Where to? This it it it it bugs me. It really does. It's kind of a scary situation. Speaking of scary situations, let's get back to the pump and Trump dump Ethereum and Solana in the strategic Bitcoin reserve? Rational is unclear, says Bernstein from Matt DeSalvo decrypt.
President Donald Trump shocked the markets on Sunday when he announced the assets intended for a planned US strategic crypto reserve. Analysts at investment firm Bernstein are puzzled by US president Donald Trump's announcement that he would include Ethereum, XRP, Solana, Cardano in a national crypto reserve alongside actual Bitcoin, writing in a note on Monday that the move could be difficult to put into practice if the United States Central Bank is involved. Quote, the position of Bitcoin as a digital gold holding for the US government was expected.
Analysts Gautam Chigani, Mahakasapra, and Sansakaar Shindeliah, I've I've butchered every everybody's name there, wrote in a Monday report. ETH and Sol are the two most used blockchain networks and holding their native assets supports the growth of the industry, but the rationale for a sovereign to hold it in the reserve is unclear, they noted. In a Sunday post on his Truth Social platform, Trump announced a crypto reserve to elevate this critical industry after years of corrupt attacks by the Biden administration. He has been eager to fulfill campaign promises to the industry that overwhelmingly supported him, including calling for the creation of a crypto reserve.
The Bernstein analyst added that it still wasn't clear whether the idea of a crypto reserve could be pushed through with an executive order alone, and convincing other members of the government of holding altcoins like Solana and Ethereum would likely be difficult, they continued, quote, we think a realistic path could be that the United States government can convince the congress, excuse me, that Bitcoin is the new digital gold slash global store of value and a gold revaluation slash gold reserve reallocation makes sense.
However, buying other blockchain assets from fed funds or the treasury is a difficult sell, end quote. He said that cryptocurrencies like Ethereum and the second biggest digital coin by market cap and Solana, the sixth largest, would be held by Authorize. The president, during his campaign, had focused on Bitcoin for a potential national stockpile. His plans to include altcoins surprised many industry observers. Pausing to say, no. It did not surprise us in the least. We knew it was going to happen. We just didn't know the names of the shitcoins he was going to include. Just saying. Anyway, Bitcoin jumped sharply after Trump's post and nearly touched 95,000 on Sunday, but lost all of those gains and we're down to $83,575 right now.
Crypto markets have been swooning in recent weeks amid concerns about inflation, a potential trade war stemming from Trump tariffs, and other macroeconomic uncertainties. Bitcoin is trading well off of its all time high above a hundred and 80 or, sorry, hundred and $8,000, which was set back in January. And the Trump tariffs are going through, and it is causing havoc throughout all the markets. And we'll get to it when we do the weather report, but first, the In N Out Burger. Oh my god. It's not it's actually not the best burgers in the world. They're good.
I'll give them that. They're okay. It's and it's a nice place to eat. But all this hype that I'd heard over the years about an In N Out Burger, and then I walked into one in Salt Lake City, Utah for the first time, and I go, oh my god. It's an In N Out burger. I'm eating this thing going, meh. It's okay. It doesn't suck, but maybe I'll buy their burgers next time when they start using Bitcoin because their post on Twitter says this, should In N Out accept Bitcoin. And it's it's it's the In N Out burger. So that's all they said. That's all I got for you on that, and we are going to continue on.
But a lot of people, including PubKey are are riding back going, yeah. Ask us how we do it. We do it every day. A lot of people are riding back with with similar sentiments. So we'll just keep an eye out on what In N Out Burger says. It could be just an engagement post. Who knows? But let's move on to Thunder. They've released a skill based blackjack game with Bitcoin lightning network powered payouts. This is Frank Korvo writing for Bitcoin magazine today. Thunder pioneers in play to earn Bitcoin games as well as skill based peer to peer gaming solutions announced the release of its latest title, Blackjack.
Designed for iGaming operators and aggregators, the game is now available via Thunder's b two b PVP platform. With this new game, Thunder aims to improve player engagement and retention while employing cutting edge instant payment settlement via the lightning network. The underlying technology for the game addresses long standing points of friction for operators including including player liquidity gaps and slow payout processes over traditional payment rails. Thunder's cross operator liquidity network, which ensures that players are matched instantly across partner businesses, helps to avoid hiccups in the gaming experience.
What this looks like in practice is if a user on bet openly places a $100 bet, Thunder will match that bet with a hundred dollar bet from a user on another partner platform like speed wallet. If it isn't matched immediately on bet openly, creating a scenario in which bets are matched instantly 99.9% of the time, Thunder offers real time payouts via the Lightning Network to its partners on the back end, enabling their partners to provide payouts in any fiat currency while benefiting from a settlement process with no delays or chargebacks. Quote, we're thrilled to bring a skilled version of blackjack to our PVP platform, said Thunder CEO and cofounder Desiree Dickerson in a press release shared with Bitcoin magazine.
Quote, this isn't just another game. It's a powerful reengagement and monetization tool for operators. By blending skill based competition with our innovative tech, we're delivering a solution that keeps players engaged longer, boost retention, and opens access to a broader market of new users, she added. Thunder's version of blackjack also rewards strategy and decision making as the game enables players to compete against other players as opposed to the house eliminating the house's edge. Quote, in this version of the game, your result based on the number of chips won after 10 rounds is benchmarked to another real player who had the exact same cards dealt during his round, Dickerson explained to bitcoin magazine.
Unlike traditional blackjack, where luck plays a significant role, this game is skill based because both players face identical conditions. Same cards dealt, same dealer rules. In this version, players compete asynchronously, Each plays 10 rounds with the same card sequence and time limit, the final number of chips determines the winner. End quote. Thunder believes that this arrangement will attract more competitive players as opposed to those simply looking for chance based gaming and entertainment. IGaming operators and aggregators can benefit from offering Thunder's version of blackjack in the following ways, instant liquidity, enhanced monetization, user acquisition, seamless integration.
Thunder said in the press release that it invites all iGaming operators and aggregators to test out the full platform of titles and tech by requesting a demo at [email protected] or visiting thunder.i0 for more details. That's the end of the article. Thunder is spelled t h n d r. T h, n as in Nancy, d r. So a little bit of a little bit of prehistory on Noster where we get some funky spelling. Yeah. Noster, we we talk we'll have all these weird hashtags like, oh, what? Askr or, and then, there's a catster. There's prob there's foodster. There's mealster.
It's all bad spelling, but it all essentially was already in the Bitcoin ecosystem for, like like, improper spelling, improper grammar. It's sort of I don't know. It's just it's just become kind of the culture. But Thunder was one of the, one of the first people that, got on the gravy train of I'm sorry. I'm trying to get rid of this phone call here. Of spelling things the wrong way. And it all came down to the misspelling of hold in a whiskey fueled rant. I really believe that that started the entire the entire notion of spelling stuff wrong in the Bitcoin space. So, anyway, let's run the numbers. Futures and commodities, oil getting raked over the coals because of the Trump tariffs.
West Texas Intermediate down almost a full point to $67.75. Brent Norcey down a point and a half to 70 and 56¢. Holy crap. Natural gas, however, making the gains, eight and a quarter percent to the upside for a thousand cubic feet. We're at $4.46 there. Gasoline is down half a point to $2.17. Gold doing well. Point 86% to the upside. $2,926 an ounce. Silver is up a fifth of a point, but platinum is down a fifth of a point. Copper is down one and a third. Palladium is down 1.15%. Biggest winner in ag today is chocolate, 2.83% to the upside.
The biggest loser today appears to be cotton, which is down over three points. And live cattle is up almost a half, but lean hogs are down 2.3. Feeder cattle are down point 74%. And here comes equities. The legacy markets are shitting the bed. The Dow is down a point and a half. That's like 629 points off its, quote, unquote, price, if you wanna look at it that way. After losing 632 points, the Dow is at 42,615. S and P down one and a third point. Nasdaq down three quarters of a point. S and P Mini down just over two full points. Everybody's getting wrecked. It ain't just Bitcoin, which is at a price of $84,004.20.
And that is a market cap of $1,670,000,000,000, but we can only now get 28.6 ounces of the shiny metal rocks that we oh so love with our one Bitcoin, of which there are 19,831,979.14 of, and average fees per block are low. 0.04 BTC taken in fees on average on a per block basis, and there are 57 blocks carrying a mere 13,000 unconfirmed transactions. High priority is gonna get you in at 5 Satoshis per v byte. Low priorities will get your transaction in the mempools at three. Eight hundred and four point five exahashes per second is the current hash rate. I'm still amazed that we're above 800 exahashes per second considering that we're all dying because we're at 84,570.
Whatever. From roller coaster vibes, yesterday's episode of Bitcoin and I got Axelrod with a thousand sats says the Trump pump and dump reminds me of the John McAfee pumps of 2018. Thank you, sir. No. Thank you. Anonymous with a thousand, the Trump oh, he's did it again. I'm getting I'm getting duplications on my, on fountain when I'm looking at boostagram, so that's why that happened. My apologies. Bitcoin for president with a thousand says, this is a great show, and the guy who makes it is a legend in the making. Thank you for your time and service, Bitcoin for president. That is very nice sentiment coming from the likes of you. I really do appreciate those kind, kind words.
Psyduck with five fifty nine says, Psyduck, Yodle, your yodel, with 300 sats says, roller coaster. God's death with two thirty seven, thank you, sir. No. Thank you. God's death with another two thirty seven says, thank you, sir. No. Thank you. And Boaz with a hundred says, all [email protected]. And that's the weather report. Welcome to part two of the news that you can use. Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas puts 70% of his wealth in Bitcoin. Well, kinda. Lightning news or rather lightning dot news. This is written by the editorial team. I wish they'd actually just give the names. Quote, I've got about 70% in Bitcoin related exposure.
See. There's the rub. And 30% in gold and gold miners, Salinas shared in a recent Bloomberg interview. He said, quote, I don't have a single bond, and I don't have any other stocks except my own, end quote. Bitcoin is one of Salinas' favorite topics on social media where he's built a follower count of more than 2,000,000 on Twitter as one of Mexico's few corporate superstars. Quote, with whatever money you have left over every day, or rather as people say with whatever you have in your ashtray, buy Bitcoin. It's the best way to save your money and keep it away from government, he tweeted on 12/24/2024.
In a bold move that sent shockwaves to the financial world, Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas Plijo, I guess is how you pronounce his very, very, very last name, revealed to Bloomberg that an astounding 70%, not seven, not 17, but seven zero, 70 percent of his personal wealth is now invested in Bitcoin or Bitcoin related items, marking a dramatic departure from traditional investment strategies. Salinas, the founder of Grupo Salinas and one of Mexico's wealthiest entrepreneurs has long been known for his contrarian approach to business and investment. His latest financial maneuver underscores a growing trend among high net worth individuals and institutional investors who are increasingly viewing cryptocurrency as a legitimate store of value and hedge against economic uncertainty.
Quote, I don't have a single bond. I don't own any stocks except my own, Salinas declared, emphasizing his complete commitment to Bitcoin as his primary investment vehicle. This statement represents more than just a financial decision. It's a powerful endorsement of cryptocurrency from a businessman with decades long track records of successful and often unconventional investments. The 68 year old billionaire pivoted to Bitcoin comes at a time of significant volatility in global financial markets. Traditional assets like bonds and stocks have been experiencing unprecedented challenges with inflation, geopolitical tensions, and economic uncertainty driving investors to seek alternative investment strategies.
Salinas has been a vocal proponent of Bitcoin for several years, consistently advocating for cryptocurrency adoption in Latin America. His investment strategy reflects a growing belief among financial experts that Bitcoin could serve as a hedge against inflation and economic instability, particularly in regions with historically volatile currencies. So there you go. What Mexic one of it did flip flops. He's at any given time, this dude is either Mexico's richest man or one of Mexico's richest men. I who knows? I but having 70% of his wealth in Bitcoin related exposure, I think it's very, very important to understand that that does not necessarily mean that he owns any Bitcoin at all.
He's told us he does. But I'll bet you he owns a lot of mining, like a lot of Bitcoin mining stuff. He probably owns energy companies or energy generation plants or or is invested in those that provide Bitcoin or electricity to Bitcoin miners. He probably has a bunch of the iBit ETF stuff. So just because he's they say he's got 70% of his wealth in Bitcoin, it's not all in actual physical Bitcoin. And it's really important to keep those things separate. Now on to Bybit, their CEO says that 20% of the $1,400,000,000 theft has now gone dark as hackers swap it to Bitcoin. This is Danny Park writing for the block.
Ben Zhao, CEO of Bybit, said that 20% of the stolen $1,400,000,000 worth of crypto has gone dark, while 77% of it remains traceable and 3% has been frozen. Bybit suffered the largest ever hack on a centralized crypto exchange attributed to a targeted malware attack by the Lazarus Group. According to Zao, the two or the coming two weeks are critical for freezing those funds hacked from the crypto exchange last month by the North Korean hacker group Lazarus. This and the coming week are critical for fund freezing as the funds will start to clear at exchanges, OTC and p two p, Zao wrote in a Tuesday post on Twitter. The two week time frame given by the Bybit CEO may indicate a slim chance of the exchange fully recovering its lost assets.
Zhao explained that around 16% of the funds went through non KYC exchange, EXCH. I guess it's XCheck. I I don't know how to pronounce it. Please, guys, get real names for your stuff, please. Anyway, they're currently untraceable. Quote, we're still waiting for an update, Zhao noted. Another hundred million dollars worth of ether went through the OKX Web three proxy out of which $65,000,000 worth of funds now remains untraceable, pending further information from OkX Web three. Zao said that 83% of the stolen ether has been converted into Bitcoin and moved across 7,000 wallet addresses.
Hackers mostly utilized Thorchain to move the stolen ether to Bitcoin with 72% of the total amount transferred over Thorchain. Decentralized cross chain liquidity protocol, Thorchain, saw record weekly volume of 6.7 no. $4,670,000,000 last week according to data from Defi Llama. As Thorchain was actively utilized by Lazarus, internal debates arose about whether to block hackers funds flows from entering the platform or maintain its decentralized permissionless nature despite the potential for illicit activity. I'm just stopping right there because what's really important about this piece is not how much has been sent, not that the ether is being sold into Bitcoin, although that would be my choice as well.
It's about being able to freeze funds. How many times do we have to reiterate if they're not your keys? They're not your coins. Sure. You're saying, but these are Lazarus. It's okay to take their coins. Yeah. Just sure. If just do it by do it by, like, you know, good old fashioned police work. Get a warrant for their find out who they are. Find out where they are. Get a warrant for their arrest. Go track their ass down. Hello, mister Lazarus. We're here to arrest your ass. Do it the old freaking fashioned way. Right?
The more this stuff that happens, the more and more people that are not Lazarus are going to lose their coins. Remember how we started this show today? Lol elites talking about civil asset forfeiture. Now, Ether has never been secure, and it got, if it's even possible, even less secure when they moved from proof of work to proof of stake. This is a shit show. Every single time something like this happens, everybody figures out real quick that it's okay to talk about the seizeability aspect of Ethereum. And then it's like it all we all forget about it after it's after it's after about a few weeks, we all forget about it. And then idiots start piping up with how secure Ethereum is, and nobody can take your Ethereum b s. Yes. They can.
Yes. They can. And they're probably gonna send it to buy Bitcoin in Australia, except that Australia has said no to the creation of a strategic digital asset reserve according to Atlas twenty one. According to Cointelegraph, Australia has no intention of creating a strategic cryptocurrency reserve. A spokesperson for the Australian Minister for Financial Services, Stephen Jones, confirmed that the government led by Anthony Albanese is focusing its efforts on regulating digital asset platforms rather than directly holding cryptocurrencies. Jonas stated, quote, the government has consulted on our proposals to create a fit for purpose regulatory framework for digital assets and continues to work closely with the sector, end quote.
Tim Matthews, head of institutional relations at the Australian exchange, Swiftix, stated that creating a national cryptocurrency reserve could prevent or present several complexities, including the risk of concentration in certain tokens at high price volatility. Quote, if the goal is to hedge against crises, the volatility of cryptocurrencies could be a problem, said Matthews, instead suggesting the creation of a sovereign fund with a long term investment strategy. Jonathan Miller, managing director of Kraken Australia, highlighted that the digital asset market is already recognized as an investment asset by pension funds and sovereign funds, quote, if it's suitable for these institutional investors, it could also be appropriate for the future fund or even the Australian treasury, Miller stated.
While the Australian government rules out the creation of a strategic reserve and thereby shooting themselves all in the foot, authorities are strengthening the sector's regulatory framework. The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Center, AUSTRAC, has announced that from 2025, it will intensify oversight of cryptocurrencies, particularly automated teller machine or ATM providers, and they actually may mean at the market providers. I'm sorry. When people say ATM, I really do wish in the news story they were talking about actual machines because we have a but enough of those in the Bitcoin space that you really should make the distinction as to whether or not you're talking about automated teller machines or at the market exchanges.
So I'm gonna say that it's probably at the market providers to ensure compliance with anti money laundering laws. And at the same time, the Australian Securities and Investment Commission has published new guidelines classifying various cryptocurrencies as financial instruments requiring companies operating in the space to obtain the necessary licensure. So Australia has no intention of helping out its people with a Bitcoin strategic reserve. I mean, I don't mind them saying no to a strategic digital asset reserve because everything is shitcoin but Bitcoin. I don't I don't blame them for that, but for them just to not even dabble in Bitcoin, at least through at least by proxy, is just wholeheartedly stupid.
Alright. To finish up, we got senator Lummis on Fox. She says, I spend dollars. I save Bitcoin. This is out of Bitcoin news written by Guy Malone. Senator Cynthia Lummis visited the New York City Bitcoin bar, PubKey, while in town for the sold out Bitcoin investors week conference hosted by Bitcoin personality, Anthony pump Pompliano Lummis then appeared live with Maria Bartiromo, the money honey, on February 28 on Fox News, mornings with Maria there to discuss largely, quote, the extensive waste, fraud, and abuse Elon Musk's Doge has found according to the Fox Business video's title of the interview.
Bartiromo then turned the conversation towards the topic of Bitcoin asking the center senator, quote, I understand last night you bought drinks at the Bitcoin themed pub key bar, but listen, you paid in cash. Why? How about Bitcoin? That's a that that's that's a valid question, Maria. I I appreciate you asking that. Senator Cynthia Lummis responded thusly, quote, well, because I spend dollars and save Bitcoin. Bitcoin is an asset that's growing in value. I know it's volatile. Its short term volatility has been in existence since it has been in existence.
But in the long term, it's growing in value, where the US dollar is, by design, debasing every year. The Fed designed it so that it inflates 2% or more. They try to keep it around two percent, but they can't. So the United States dollar is always declining by design. And so the scarcity of Bitcoin, the fact that 21,000,000 will only exist in all of time, gives it that certainty, that stability, that scarcity in the long run, and there will be short term volatility. But over time, as it becomes more ubiquitous, it will become more stable and more valuable, end quote.
Columbus is a long time scholar of Bitcoin, having first purchased it in 2013 at $330. Indicative of an accumulation over time strategy since then, per October 2021 periodic transaction report, also specified a single purchase valued at between 50,000 and $100,000 in August of twenty twenty one. She also spoke of a Bitcoin strategic reserve bill before the presidential candidate Donald Trump did. In fact, there's no doubt from her many public statements that Lummis is a scholar of Bitcoin, not just as an investor. And her reply to Bartiromo displayed a working knowledge of what Bitcoiners know as Gresham's law.
This Gresham's law is the observance that in any situation where there are two or more competing currencies, the more valuable commodity will gradually disappear from circulation. According to Wikipedia, as people hoard the more valuable asset and dump the weaker currency on more everyday needs. Interestingly, on his own visit to Pub Key in September, Trump actually bought drinks for patrons using Bitcoin. While certainly a welcome act of publicity for the Bitcoin community and no doubt for Pub key, the contrast is clear. Lummis' understanding of Bitcoin far exceeds the president's current knowledge base.
I'll get into that in a second. In addition, excuse me, in addition to exemplifying Gresham's principles, in her reply, Lummis also seemed to casually reflect on the Lindy effect. That's the observed phenomena that a thing seems safer and more normalized the longer it's around, and therefore, the more likely to remain around. Wikipedia says this because, quote, longevity implies a resistance to change, obsolescence or competition, and greater odds of continued existence into the future. In comparison to Lemus' words quoted earlier, her familiarity with the Lindy effect concept seems evident as well.
Quote, over time, as Bitcoin becomes more ubiquitous, it will become more stable and more valuable. There you go. So, I mean, I like Lummis, but she said some things over the last, I don't know, few weeks that just kinda rankle me. However, I I she does get it. But that whole thing about this this night and day difference between, you know, the the fact that Lummis understands Bitcoin and Trump doesn't only because Trump actually spent Bitcoin physically at PubKey and Lummis spent cash, that's bullshit. It has nothing at all to do. On the surface, I could see why the author thinks that and put those words on the page.
But my guess is that the reality is a much deeper thing. Senator Lummis was already senator. Trump was running for president. He needed the votes. He needed to look like he understood how to use Bitcoin and the fact that it had value. That was a that is a surface. Sure. It's a facade. I get it, but that's that's why. And and we cannot detail what Donald Trump knows about Bitcoin or what he doesn't know about Bitcoin versus senator Lummis simply because he bought stuff using Bitcoin and she bought stuff using shitty ass fiat. That come on, man. Let's not do that to each other.
Okay. That that's it. That's the that's the end of the show for this Tuesday, this episode ten forty eight of Bitcoin. And I do hope you enjoyed it. I really do. If you would like to support the show, I would appreciate it if you did, and you can do that by streaming me Satoshis through various podcasting two point o enabled podcast like my daily driver, fountain.fm. I love the fountain app. I really do. And other people that are listening to my show, they seem to like it too. I'm always getting boost. People are always streaming me satoshis, but I could use more. Who couldn't? I mean, I need more satoshis. You need more satoshis. Give me all the satoshis, but let's do it in a value for value trade. If you thought I got gave you value today, then do me a favor and reach into your Bitcoin wallet or your lightning wallet and stream me some Satoshis or give me a big fat boost.
And then if you can't, if you just don't want to or you can't or something's gone wrong and you're just scared as as all get out, give me a five star review on Apple Podcasts and say something nice. You know, actually not even say something nice. Actually write something like instead of this is a great show, here's your five star review. Those actually I think Apple filters those out. I think what Apple's looking for is a review that's like a like, you probably would do better with a four star review saying, I like these five points, but here's where it could be better.
Still, I don't like the four star reviews. I like the five star review, but I think that there's something going on in Apple where they're like, yeah, that's a bogus review. It's five star and you wrote five words. Who gives a shit? So I don't think it really is that is that as impactful as some of the other reviews that I've gotten that have some really good sentiment as to helping me make the show even better, and and I appreciate all of those. But those five star reviews on Apple really help. And also, spread the show. Help me market this thing. I'm a one man show, man.
I don't have help. I don't have a producer. I don't have advertisers. I got nothing. I'm by myself. I'm all alone, and I need your help to market the show. I don't know how to market myself out of a wet paper bag with holes in it. I've said it before. I'll say it again. If there's a single person out there that likes this show that listens to it and you happen to know how to do marketing, help me market the show, and I will see you on the other side. 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 Episode Overview
Civil Asset Forfeiture and Its Implications
