Join me today for Episode 1092 of Bitcoin And . . .
Topics for today:
https://cointelegraph.com/news/taiwan-lawmaker-pushes-bitcoin-reserve-national-conference
https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2025/05/08/celsius-founder-alex-mashinsky-sentenced-to-12-years-in-prison-for-fraud
https://www.therage.co/districts-dropping-blanche-memo-cases-sdny-still-wont-comply/
https://bitcoinnews.com/markets/david-bailey-300m-bitcoin-firm-nakamoto/
https://www.theblock.co/post/353809/us-treasury-secretary-bessent-lambasts-senates-failure-to-advance-stablecoin-bill
https://atlas21.com/meta-considers-stablecoin-integration-the-tech-giant-returns-to-the-crypto-world/
Find the Bitcoin And Podcast on every podcast app here
https://episodes.fm/1438789088
Topics for today:
- Taiwan Lawmaker Wants SBR
- SDNY's Unwavering Idiocy of Evil
- Celsius Founder Sent Up for 12 Years
- David Bailey Launches $300 Million Nakamoto
Articles:
https://x.com/SteaknShake/status/1920647356032139430https://cointelegraph.com/news/taiwan-lawmaker-pushes-bitcoin-reserve-national-conference
https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2025/05/08/celsius-founder-alex-mashinsky-sentenced-to-12-years-in-prison-for-fraud
https://www.therage.co/districts-dropping-blanche-memo-cases-sdny-still-wont-comply/
- https://www.cnbc.com/futures-and-commodities/
- https://dashboard.clarkmoody.com/
- https://mempool.space/
- https://www.bitcoinandshow.com/
- https://fountain.fm/show/eK5XaSb3UaLRavU3lYrI
https://bitcoinnews.com/markets/david-bailey-300m-bitcoin-firm-nakamoto/
https://www.theblock.co/post/353809/us-treasury-secretary-bessent-lambasts-senates-failure-to-advance-stablecoin-bill
https://atlas21.com/meta-considers-stablecoin-integration-the-tech-giant-returns-to-the-crypto-world/
Find the Bitcoin And Podcast on every podcast app here
https://episodes.fm/1438789088
Find the Bitcoin And Podcast on every podcast app here:
https://episodes.fm/1438789088
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[00:00:02]
David Bennett:
It is 08:41AM Pacific Daylight Time. It's the May 2025, and this is episode ten ninety two of Bitcoin. And we've got some news coming out of Steak and Shake. We've also got news coming out of Taiwan. We're gonna talk a little bit about what happened to the Celsius founder, Alex Mashinsky. May he, get his in all of his scammy glory. Lola Leitz is writing about this Blanche memo case, the the cases of against Tornado Cash and, samurai wallet, there is an issue going on. It seems that a dog with a bone just refuses to let go. She's gonna tell us what that means. And then Trump apparently got really pissed off about that, that Ripple tweet. The XRP tweet?
Yeah. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you will later on. And then, apparently, David Bailey is he's got some he's been maneuvering behind the scenes of Bitcoin magazine, and apparently it appears rather that he's going to, launch something here pretty soon. US treasury secretary, Bassett, is very angry about the stablecoin bill, and Meta may be coming back into the pool to do to do some swimming. I don't know. They've been gone for three years. As far as cryptocurrency is concerned, we don't we'll all tell you what they got planned. But we're gonna go right back to the head of the, of the list here.
Steak and Shake. The restaurant. The chain is well, they announced today that they're well, actually, I guess it was, yeah, this is dated May. So yesterday evening, sometimes, Steak and Shake released a tweet that says the following, Steak and Shake accepting Bitcoin payments at all locations starting May, making the cryptocurrency available to our more than 100,000,000 customers. The movement is just beginning Staktoshi. And then they've got a really nice little graphic here that says steak and shake in the middle, and then it says beef tallow fries around the rim, and then it says Bitcoin around the rim, and then beef tallow fries as you moved around the rim again, and then Bitcoin. So, apparently, Steak and Shake is now all about beef tallow fries and Bitcoin.
I I'm dubious about this. I'm not saying that they they're that they're lying. I think that they are going to do this. But is it gonna be Lightning Network? Is it gonna be I mean, are they gonna really wait on ten minute blocks? I mean, how are they planning on doing this? Will ECash be integrated somehow? There's nothing there's there's we have nothing, and this is coming, like like, after next week. I hate these kind of announcements. And the other reason that I'm dubious is that we've seen this crap before. We've seen in fact, it always happens when you get well, not always, but the last time I saw a whole raft of people say, no. Our store is gonna start taking Bitcoin was when the price was doing what?
When the price was going up like it has been over the last couple of days, and then nobody actually uses it because people want to save their Bitcoin and spend the fiat and the stores or the companies in question bail out. That's what I've seen. Sorry. Drinking some coffee. So will it be the same this time? I don't know. I don't know. But my gut feeling is is that there that is is just gonna be a it's gonna be a nothing burger. That nothing will come of it. That would nobody like, if I had a Steak and Shake anywhere close to me and I don't, I would definitely go and see, well, can I use Lightning Network? Because I'm not using main chain to buy a hamburger. That's ridiculous.
I would buy a car, a house, a business on main chain. That that's what I would be doing on main chain. But if I'm gonna buy a hamburger and a Coke and some beef tallow fries, I'm not making a beast like, a a Taproot transaction, a BC1 address transaction. I'm gonna use eCash. I'm gonna use Lightning Network. And there's no news as to how they're going to process these Bitcoin payments. So I kind of don't expect this to go anywhere unless they actually say that they are going to use Lightning, and they best be set up some kind of payment kiosk that teaches people just I mean, just how to be relatively functional, like team up with Strike or team up with Cash App or somebody who has Lightning integrated into their wallets already that is, you know, especially something like Cash App, which is almost a whole bunch of people use, they already have the ability to use it on their phones that don't even know it.
If if they do that, then maybe this has got a chance. Otherwise, I'm just I'm just gonna forget about it. And we're gonna move way on over to Asia where Taiwan Lawmakers calling for a Bitcoin reserve at a national conference held in parts coin telegraph. Taiwanese lawmaker Ko Ju Choon has called on the government to consider adding Bitcoin to its national reserve suggesting that it could serve as a hedge against global economic uncertainty. Ko, who is a legislator at large in Taiwan's legislative body, the Legislative Yuan, is what they call it, I guess, took to Twitter on Friday to report that he had advocated Bitcoin investment by the Taiwanese government at the national conference on May.
In his remarks, coincided Bitcoin's potential to become a hedge amid global economic risks and urged Taiwan to recognize the cryptocurrency alongside gold and foreign exchange reserves to boost its financial resilience. Ko's announcement came shortly after the legislator held talks with Samson Moe, who advocates for Bitcoin adoption by states like El Salvador at his BTC tech firm, Jan third or sorry, Jan three. Koh highlighted that Taiwan is an export driven economy that has experienced significant fluctuations in its national currency, the new Taiwan dollar, amid global inflation and intensifying geopolitical risks.
We currently have a gold reserve, this is a quote, of 423 metric tons in our foreign exchange reserves amounts to $577,000,000,000 including investments in United States treasury bonds, the lawmakers stated. In a scenario of more intense cursory cursory, currency volatility or potential regional conflicts, Taiwan may, quote, very likely be unable to ensure the security and liquidity, co continued, adding that Bitcoin could be a great addition to Taiwan's reserves for several reasons. Quote, Bitcoin has been operating for over fifteen years. It has a fixed total supply, is decentralized, and is resistant to censorship.
Many countries are focusing on its hedging attributes. At the same time, in intense situations, it may not face the risk of embargo, he said. Referring to many global initiatives considering Bitcoin adoption as a reserve asset, Ko stressed that he's not advocating for Bitcoin as the only solution to rising economic challenges. Instead, the legislature suggested adding a small proportion of Bitcoin into the diversified assets as tools for sovereign asset allocation and risk hedging and backup capacity for Taiwan's financial system. He previously suggested that Taiwan could allocate a maximum of 5% of its $50,000,000,000 reserve to Bitcoin in a Twitter post on May.
Quote, when exchange rate risk and regional uncertainty increase, it is time to introduce new tools to construct a more flexible financial strategy framework. Quote, as former Dean Chin Chong said, Bitcoin is the gun of the digital era. It may also be the gold of the digital era, the silver of the digital era, or it could be gunpowder. A wise nation will not let weapons be in others' hands, end quote. God, that sounds that sounds like a Sun Tzu quote right there from Art of Wars. That sounds exactly like something Sun Tzu said. But the news comes as Taiwan is emerging as a crypto friendly jurisdiction with the financial supervisory commission pushing institutional trails of crypto custody services in late twenty twenty four. Mainland China continues to maintain its very hostile stance on cryptocurrency after imposing a ban on multiple crypto activities, including mining, way back in 2021, which basically did nothing for China but shoot themselves in the foot and make damn sure that they are never going to be able to be a major world player in mining ever again unless the government themselves does it because they're not going to be able to rely on the private sector after they basically tore a hole through the private sector in 2021 when they said, hey. Mining's illegal, and you saw what happened.
Everybody picked up their football and they went home. Or, well, actually, they didn't go home. They went to other parts. Texas was the largest international beneficiary of China's mining ban. And if China says, you know what? We want you guys back. You know what those guys will say? No. Uh-uh. We're tired of the uncertainty. It costs too much to move. It costs too much to renegotiate with brand new suppliers for power contracts. We're not doing it. China lost. I'm sorry, but China lost. They're never getting mining back ever again. And if I had my way, the following gentleman would never see the light of day in in his entire life, and that would be Celsius founder Alex Mashinsky, who has been sentenced to twelve years in prison for fraud. And this is CoinDesk, and it's written by Cheyenne Ligon.
Alex Mashinsky, founder and former CEO of bankrupt crypto lending platform Celsius Network, has been sentenced to twelve years in prison on Thursday for fraud. Judge John Kotel of the Southern District Of New York handed down the sentence saying the twelve years composed of a one hundred and twenty month sentence to be served concurrently with a separate one hundred and forty four month sentence for the two charges Mashinsky plead guilty to reflected Mashinsky's, quote, extremely serious crimes. The sentence splits the difference between the mere one year and a day in prison requested by his defense team and the twenty year suggested by prosecutors.
He has also agreed to forfeit $48,000,000 in several pieces of real estate, quote, no matter what the sentence, the sentence will not cure the monetary or psychological harm caused to the victims, judge Kudle said. So, yeah, Mashinsky is going down in a big, big, big, big, big, big, big way. And I I honestly, twelve years isn't enough for what Mashinsky has done. But we are not done with the Southern District Of New York, not by a long shot, because Lowell Elites has quite a few things to say about what's going on with the tornado cash case and the samurai wallet cases after the Blanche memo. So let's just let's just rip into it. And this is by, of course, Lowell Leitz written yesterday from the rage.co.
That's her newsletter. Districts dropping Blanche memo cases. SDNY still won't comply. What does that mean? Well, a district court in New Jersey has dismissed charges against Christopher James Scalen, a Utah resident who provided cryptocurrency services to clients. Quote, the Department of Justice's recent 04/07/2025 policy memorandum ending regulation by prosecution reinforced that criminal prosecutions should be restrained where ambiguity exists and especially where delay results in disproportionate prejudice, argued Skallon in reply to the government's opposition to his previous motion to dismiss.
The charges against Skallon of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money service business were dismissed by the court on April. Similarly, a court in Indiana dismissed charges against RM exchange operator, Maximiliano Phillips or Pilippus, in February, whose exchange had been used to transfer Silk Road funds. Because FinCEN had issued no guidance on cryptocurrency services prior to the year 2013, Polypus could not be held accountable for operating an unlicensed money service business as the regulations had been, well, accused of violating he had been accused of violating had not even existed. And the licensing laws in question had been ambiguous at the time the court found. Sorry, guys. It is a hell of a Friday morning for me, apparently.
So, samurai wallet and tornado cash, ambiguity at best. As recently revealed, SDNY's unlicensed money transmission charges against both Samura wallet and Tornado Cash developers are ambiguous at best. Scholars, advocacy groups, and think tanks alike have long argued that FinCEN's twenty nineteen guidance on cryptocurrency services exempted services like Samura Wallet and Tornado Cash from registering as money service businesses. Previously suppressed evidence in the case against samurai wallet developers has now confirmed that FinCEN too has been under the impression that the design of services like samurai wallet exempts them from registration requirements.
Quote, they acknowledged that we can make arguments about functional control of the cryptocurrency likely referring to control over the user interface and servers. Quote, but that has never been addressed in the guidance. And so it could be a difficult argument for us in, quote, prosecutors wrote in an email following conversations with the regulator. The Southern District Of New York, SDNY, has yet failed to drop its charges against both Samura Wallet and Tornado Cash developers despite the fact that prosecutors are effectively attempting to rewrite the law for noncustodial cryptocurrency services, holding individuals accountable for regulations that were unclear at best and nonexistent at worst.
The prosecutions are, quote, a breakdown in the trust that software developers and innovators must be able to place in federal regulatory guidance, writes the advocacy group, Coin Center. Quote, when the agencies charged with interpreting the law speak and yet their views are ignored or buried by prosecutors pursuing a contradictory theory, developers have no safe harbor. This is more than a legal misstep. It's a violation of basic fairness, said Coin Center. Earning itself the title Sovereign District Of New York, The United States' most prestigious prosecutor's office has a history of defying main justices' orders, that talking about the DOJ, leaving real people caught in the crosshairs of the powerhouse's overreach that appears to continue to operate unchecked.
Independent journalism does not finance itself. If you enjoy the article, please consider making a donation. So what what Lowell Elites is getting at is that even though it is very clear that there were never any regulations at all, the Southern District Of New York is still not dropping their case. In fact, it looks like they're like she said, they're attempting to rewrite the rules so that this case can these two cases can move forward even though all these other states have dropped their cases because of the same information that came to light out of FinCEN. And that is FinCEN saying, we never thought this was a problem.
That's what FinCEN said about anything that looked like Tornado Cash or Samura wallet. They're saying, we don't have a problem with this. They're not in custody of the actual money. They're just writing software. They're just installing an infrastructure so that people that do have custody of their money or some funds are able to do x, y, and z. But the guys that did the thing, the guys that designed the infrastructure, the Tornado Cash and and Samurai Wallet, they're they're they're not in possession of the money. They don't have to register. And yet, Southern District of New York is just saying, we don't give a shit.
We're gonna prosecute these guys to the full length of the law even though there actually is no law. So what are we dealing with when it comes to the Southern District Of New York? Well, we're dealing with, I like the name says, the Sovereign District Of New York. And sovereign in this particular case, in my opinion, is not the good kind of sovereign. This is the kind of sovereign where it's like, we will do whatever the hell we want to do. We don't care what the law says, and we're gonna continue to do it. We're gonna continue to ruin lives, and we don't care. We don't care. Even though we're part of the Department of Justice, we don't care that the Department of Justice has told us to back off. We don't care that they're reminding us that the very thing that we built our case on has absolutely freaking nothing to do whatsoever with what you why how you guys are prosecuting. FinCEN itself said this is okay, Yet they're gonna prosecute these guys anyway.
I don't even know what to say at this point. I really don't. The whole thing is bizarre. I I don't know why DOJ hasn't send sent a planeload of people out there to the Southern District Of New York to say, this is how it's going to be. You're going to back off. I I I I don't get it, especially with the especially with the Trump administration basically, you know, being all crypto friendly. You'd think he would say, get your ass out there, DOJ, and tell him what's up. I guess it's not gonna happen. But in the meantime, we'll we'll have to wait to see where this goes. I still don't see this as being, a prosecutable case any longer, either one of these cases.
But while we wait to see, we'll run the numbers. Woo. Well, looky there. West Texas Intermediate crude is up another 1.4%, back up to $60.75 a barrel. Brent Norsey is up the same to 63 and 69¢. Natural gas is up wow. I can't believe all three of them are in the green today. 5.29% to the upside, clocking in at $3.78 per thousand. Gasoline is up two thirds of a point to $2.09 a gallon. Gold is up one and a quarter percent to $33.48 even. Silver is up almost a point. Platinum is up two and a third point. Wow. Copper is up one and a third. Palladium essentially moving sideways, but still in the green. Most of the ag futures are in the green as well. Biggest winner today is gonna be soybeans.
1% to the upside. Biggest loser is lumber, 1.8% to the downside. I got live cattle, and they're at one fifth of a point to the upside. Lean hogs up, well, about one fifth of a point. Feeder cattle, however, moving sideways slightly in the red. As is the Dow, it's only down 39 points right now. It's 0.09% to the downside. I got S and P is moving sideways. Nasdaq is moving sideways, and the S and P Mini is moving sideways. All of these are, like, point zero eight, point zero five, point 07% movement. So that smells like somebody's waiting for something, and I'm not sure what they're waiting on. But we broke above a hundred thousand dollars yesterday. We're still there. A hundred and $2,640 per coin gives us a $2,040,000,000,000 market cap.
And just so you know, Bitcoin with that number has now entered the top 10 currencies in value in the world. We're sitting alongside the euro, the dollar, the yuan, the Swiss franc. We're we're we're in the top 10. So I find that rather interesting. We can get 31 half ounces of shiny metal rocks with our one Bitcoin, of which there are 19,862,219.6 of. Average fees per block are elevated slightly 0.05 BTC taken in fees on a per block basis. There are 20 blocks carrying 8,400 unconfirmed transactions waiting to clear at high priority rates of 5 Satoshis per v byte. Low priority is gonna get you in at four. And I think a lot of these are all consolidation transactions, honestly. Yeah. There's a whole bunch of consolidation transactions going on, and that's why we have so little in the way of transaction numbers. Because these consolidations take up a lot of room in these blocks because they're, like essentially, they're, like, they're squashing hundreds hundreds of transactions into, like, one single transaction. It's called a consolidation transaction.
That's why we don't have very many. Now from a hashing standpoint, where we at? Back down to 909.3 exahashes per second. So we're kinda wavering around there, but honestly, mining looks pretty good to me. And where are we at? Let's get out of there, and we're gonna get out of there. And we're gonna go to Bitcoin bills, which was yesterday's episode of Bitcoin. And Fountain has changed their website quite a bit, in fact. I had not only does it look different, I had to log back into this thing, and it is they have done a complete revamp on their website, which is fountain.fm. And I got Psyduck Psyduck with 597 sets says Psyduck.
Turkey with 500 says nothing. Yodel with 444 says a hundred k. I barely heard any cautionary advice you gave. Was out at bank getting a loan. Send it. God's death. 237. Thank you, sir. No. Thank you. Pies is back with a hundred. Thank you, sir. No. Thank you. That's the weather report. Welcome to part two of the news you can use as if you needed any other evidence that Ripple, the people behind x XRP token were scummy, disgusting, horrible human beings. Well, we've got this one. Trump is furious after a lobbyist behind the XRP tied crypto post revealed to have worked for Ripple.
According to a report from Politico, RT Watson is writing this one for the block. President Donald Trump was reportedly upset after he learned his truth social post saying that Ripple or rather XRP, Solana, and Cardano should be included in a crypto strategic reserve was crafted by a lobbyist firm working for Ripple according to Politico, which cited anonymous sources. An employee of Ballard Partners, the lobbying group run by Brian Ballard, is said to have provided Trump with a message that they thought the president should write according to Politico. Trump then posted the missive according to Politico, but then became angry when he learned that Ballard worked for Ripple. The report also said, why would you expect anything less from anything connected to Brad Garlinghouse and that fat bearded idiot who's, what, Chris Larson?
None of these people need to be walking around as free men. They need to be in prison. I'm sorry, but that's just the way it is. Trump's truth social post from March read, quote, a US crypto reserve will elevate this critical industry after years of corrupt attacks by the Biden administration, which is why my executive order on digital assets directed the presidential working group to move forward on a crypto strategic reserve that includes XRP, SOL, and ADA. I will make sure The US is the crypto capital of the world, end quote. Cardano, XRP, and Solana all rose in price after Trump's post.
The president later clarified that the planned reserve would also hold Bitcoin and shitcoin numero uno. Although Ripple maintains that it does not control XRP, It is the company most closely associated with the token. Ripple did not immediately respond to a request for comment and, honey, they probably won't ever respond. But according to Politico, Trump was not only furious and felt like he'd been used, you were, Ballard quickly became a pariah in the West Wing in the aftermath. Ballard partners did not immediately respond to request for comment, and, honey, they probably won't. Politico also reported that Ballard's image as a Trump whisperer has allowed his firm to rack up a staggering 130 new clients since the November election, including Chevron, JPMorgan, Palantir, Netflix, Bayer Pharmaceuticals, United Airlines, and T Mobile.
God dang, man. In March, Trump signed another executive order to create US strategic Bitcoin reserve. So, yeah, that's why that truth social post happened because of a lobbyist that was clearly working for Ripple and Chris Larsen and Brad Garlinghouse. That that that's who these people are. And I I I just don't understand the people that are just the the Rippleheads. I I don't see how you can look at this and not just go, it's disgusting. And a lot of people are gonna find this next one disgusting too. I don't know where I I honestly don't know where the hell I stand on Bitcoin Magazine and David Bailey. It it's like there's been times that Bitcoin Magazine has really disappointed me, and there's been times that David Bailey, who is behind Bitcoin Magazine, really impressed me.
You know, I I guess that's I guess that's when you in in a very real way for me, that is sort of like a testament to say, this is how you know that something is relatively neutral. They do shit that you hate and shit that you love all at the same time. So at least you got at least you got some kind of, you know, a gauging stick to say, yeah, this is probably a real thing. But there's plenty of people out there that absolutely despise David Bailey and Bitcoin Magazine. Let's see if it gets any worse after this. Bitcoin news, Alex Larry is writing Trump advisor David Bailey to launch a $300,000,000 Bitcoin firm named Nakamoto.
David Bailey, digital assets adviser to president Donald Trump and CEO of BTC Inc, has reportedly closed a $300,000,000 raise for a new Bitcoin focused investment firm called Nakamoto. The firm, named after creator Satoshi Nakamoto, will be a publicly traded company with a bold strategy to buy and hold Bitcoin and invest in companies globally. The raise has been in the works since January and includes $200,000,000 in equity and a hundred million dollars in convertible debt according to CNBC and the information. That's apparently the name of the publication. Whatever. The capital will be used for global expansion and Bitcoin acquisition.
Nakamoto will merge with an already listed company on the Nasdaq, and the announcement is expected to come as early as next week, said CNBC, citing an unnamed individual familiar with the matter. They plan to be public by the summer of this year, becoming one of the newest players in the growing wave of Bitcoin investment firms. Although Bailey has not commented on the reports, he posted, quote, no comment on Twitter on May, fueling more speculation about the venture's announcement. The business model is similar to what Michael Saylor, executive chairman of strategy, did in 2020. He converted the company's cash reserves into Bitcoin and turned the software firm into the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin.
The stock price of strategy skyrocketed ever since. Bailey is following the same path. His firm will use the money to buy and hold Bitcoin and invest in companies in Brazil, Thailand, and South Africa. According to reports, Nakamoto will use Bitcoin as part of its capital structure, essentially becoming a Bitcoin based investment powerhouse, and the venture is already getting attention from the investment community. Nakamoto is backed by big names, big, big, big names, and has assembled an advisory board with well known Bitcoin and finance personalities.
The hell is a finance and Bitcoin personality? Do you mean influencer? Anyway, this puts Bailey's firm in competition competition with other big players in the space, including twenty one Capital, founded by Strike app creator Jack Mallers, and Strive Asset Management, led by entrepreneur and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. Both firms recently announced similar strategies, raising big money to buy Bitcoin and going public via reverse mergers twenty one, backed by SoftBank, Tether, and Cantor Fitzgerald, Fitzgerald, will be a superior vehicle for investors seeking capital efficient Bitcoin exposure according to Jack Mallers. Bailey's announcement comes as institutional interest in Bitcoin is heating up.
Several companies are now positioning themselves as public vehicles for Bitcoin ownership so investors could get exposure to the scarce digital asset without actually holding it because why? They're fucking stupid. But influencer Tyler d pointed out the momentum on social media saying, quote, the pace of these new BTC companies launching is accelerating. This strategy is becoming more popular as regulations get clearer and interest in Bitcoin grows. Being a digital asset policy adviser to Donald Trump during the twenty twenty four presidential campaign gives David Bailey a unique political angle.
His involvement could be a sign that US politics is moving towards Bitcoin adoption faster than anyone had anticipated. He's also close to Trump, so that will attract conservative investors who see Bitcoin as a hedge against inflation and central bank policies. Okay. I'm gonna say it. I I don't like the way this is this is going. And, yeah, I know. There there's gonna be at least one person out there going, oh, we're screaming about it screaming at you when you were talking about how cool your strategy was buying all this shit. Yeah. Well, there's I you know?
Yeah. I should've seen it coming. I I really should've seen it coming because it for those who are unclear about what I'm talking about, so strategy starts this thing in 2020 where they start buying Bitcoin. And then they kinda change and start printing debt instruments and selling those and using the cash raised from those debt instruments to buy more Bitcoin. And it worked, man. It basically took a zombie or not a zombie company, but a company nobody heard of to basically being in the news all the time in in, like, five short years.
Pretty good. When when you think about it from a public relations standpoint, it's a hell of a coup. But then he had this webinar where he invited the chief investment officers and chief financial officers from, like, a couple of hundred major corporations, and the thing was oversubscribed. He had, you know, the the every digital seat at the webinar was full, and he basically gave his entire strategy book. He said, this is how you buy Bitcoin. This is how you list it on your books. This is how you handle it. This is how you do the thing that we did. And nobody took part of it for two years because he did this two years ago.
And now companies are falling out of the woodwork, Like, I don't know, like, termites being fumigated. They're just crawling out of the out of the termite infested wood paneling that they were in. And they're just dropping on the floor, man. I mean, it's like just company after company after company doing the strategy thing. And I'm still not very clear on what it is they're actually doing other than trying to figure out new and improved ways to buy Bitcoin with other people's money. Are are you developing on Bitcoin? Are are you, like, are you making loans at this point? Do do you have a financial instrument that will help me in my future life? And I'm not seeing a whole bunch. Strike is offering 12% loans.
You can get a business loan at at the low you know, the lowest business loan you can get is $10,000 from Strike. I assuming they have a they have a personal loan and the lowest the the the minimum amount you can take is $75,000, which bizarre to me, but 12 to 13% interest rates. That's be that's going into the usury situation. Why would I why would I loan or why would I put up my Bitcoin as collateral to get a fiat loan at 12%? Are are you insane? It's the most pristine asset anybody's ever seen. No. I expect a 2% loan. And until I get a 2% loan, I ain't taking a loan.
And if you say, well, then you'll be waiting for a long time. Good. That's good. That helps me. That makes me not be stupid. Yeah. Because I I just I don't see it. I don't see these companies actually providing goods and services. All I see them doing is figuring out ways to vacuum up Bitcoin. I don't think this is entirely healthy. And then comes the realization that I cannot stop it, and neither can you. And that, my friends, is exactly why you want Bitcoin. Nobody can stop you from owning it, and we can't stop anybody else from owning it. Because if we could, then somebody somewhere could stop us from owning it, and that's not what I want. And US treasury secretary, Besant, didn't get what he wanted because he's lambasting the senate for blocking stablecoin bill and calls it a missed opportunity for American leadership according to James Hunt who's writing it for the block.
US treasury secretary Scott Bessant lambasted the senate's decision on Thursday to halt the progress of the Genius Act amid rising tensions over president Donald Trump's increasing crypto involvement and concerns about specific aspects of the proposed stablecoin bill. Quote, for stablecoins and other digital assets to thrive globally, the world needs American leadership, Besant posted on Twitter. Quote, the senate missed an opportunity to provide that leadership today by failing to advance the genius act, end quote. Secretary Besant went on to describe the bill as representing a once in a generation opportunity to expand dollar dominance and boost US influence in financial innovation.
He argued that without such legislation, stablecoins will remain governed by a fragmented set of state rules rather than a unified federal approach that better supports growth and global competitiveness. Quote, the world is watching while American lawmakers twiddle their thumbs. Senators who voted to stonewall US ingenuity today face a simple choice, either step up and lead or watch digital asset innovation move offshore, end quote. The senate banking committee earlier voted to advance the Genius Act in March. The bill requires stablecoins to have 100% reserve backing with US dollars and similarly liquid assets, annual audits, and prohibits foreign issuance in the country.
The senate voted 49 to 48 against the bill in its current form on Thursday with senators Josh Hawley and Rand Paul joining Democrats in opposing the procedural vote. Oh, well, it's because Rand Paul votes against everything. God, I love Rand Paul. While the Genius Act bill resulted from bipartisan negotiations, Democrats recently raised concerns about unfinished bill text, foreign issuer oversight, and anti money laundering provisions. Senator Mark Warner said he couldn't support legislation that wasn't yet finalized. And senate majority leader John Thune, despite also voting no, said he did not allow the bill to be reconsidered later, criticizing the Democrats amid the multiple versions made in an attempt to address their concerns. Quote, I have just I just have to say, frankly, I just don't get it. I don't know what more they want, end quote. No. They just don't want it to pass. They just want it they just they this has nothing to do with stablecoin. This is something they can block and something that Trump wants. And if Trump wants it and they can destroy it, that's what they're going to do because that's the way politics works. It's the same way with Biden. I mean, let's let's be very clear here. But tensions deepened as Trump's personal and financial ties to crypto, including meme coin launches, $1,500,000 per plate crypto fundraisers.
What? A $1,500,000 per plate buy in at a crypto fundraiser? If somebody knows what that fundraiser was, could you send me the story on that? Because 1,500,000.0 seems a bit steep. But backing DeFi project World Liberty Financial, which has its own stablecoin, this has all sparked accusations of conflict of interest ahead of the vote. Yeah. It is a conflict of interest. That's why it's sparking that because it is. You know what I mean? And and for those people that are out there going, oh, you just don't like Trump. It has nothing to do with whether or not I like Trump or whether or not I hate Trump. I'm neutral on orange man.
It's a conflict of interest. It just is. I I don't see how hard this is to get through people's heads. Just because I'm saying the thing, that this is a conflict of interest, does not mean that I hate Trump. It does not mean that I love Trump. It does not mean that I it it means nothing. I'm just telling you. You've got a flat tire. No. I don't. Yes. You do. I can look at it. It's right there. It's flat. You're gonna screw up your rim if you keep driving on it. No. It's not. You're just being an asshole. No. I'm telling you, you've got a flat tire. I'm telling you, this is a conflict of interest, and it's going to work how it hasn't already completely screwed up everything Trump wants to do is beyond my comprehension.
This is so easy. This is so easy to to just wrap your hands around, get a grip on, and throttle living crap out of it if you are an enemy of orange man. And yet I'm seeing nothing but a blocked genius vote, in my opinion, isn't really the destruction of the Trump administration. They could be they could be and probably will be doing a lot more. That's what I expect. I expect the enemies of Trump to start really going after impeachment stuff again. Yes. I know. There will be multiple impeachment tries. There will be multiple blocked you know, court cases blocking something or another. It's just going to go on and on and on and on. And every single time, this guy allows a conflict a clear conflict of interest to arise, he's just giving them ammunition, and that's what I don't understand unless he knows something.
But some democrats, including including representative Maxine Waters, also boycotted a crypto focused house hearing this week amid the political jockeying, citing the president's direct crypto holdings and influence over agencies. The house's house financial services committee also recently voted to advance a similar bill called the stable act with anti money laundering and reserve requirements intact. So we'll have to see. I'm not all that worried about whether or not the genius act fail fails or passes or or goes back to committee for rewrites. I don't care. I just don't. And I disagree with Scott Bessen.
It's not going to do something like cause, you know, a a a huge offshoring. It's just going because most of the stablecoins are like USDC, I think, is the only American based stablecoin that there is. USDT is not in The United States. It's Tether, and Tether is not based in The United States. They're in El Salvador as far as I can tell now. That what what Bess should be saying is that we can't onshore this stuff. We can't bring Tether into the fold without the Genius Act. We can't bring these other stablecoin issuers onto United States soil without Stable Act and Genius Act. So please get off your ass. It's not going to cause anybody to leave except USDC, and I don't give a shit about Circle. Jeremy Allaire can go, you know, run off a a cliff and and take a nice little dive into the ocean and get out of my life for the rest of for the rest of it because he was on he was he doesn't like Bitcoin.
The guy behind Circle does not like Bitcoin. That's one of the reasons why if I have to use one, I'm gonna be using Tether because at least Paolo Ordano has been a relatively rock solid Bitcoiner. Jeremy Allaire never was. And he is the guy behind Circle. Right? If he leaves, I could literally care less. I I I just don't see that you know? I don't know, man. I think Besson is just making a mountain out of Molehill. At one point or another, these Genius Act and Stablecoin Acts are going to pass. And quite frankly, if I saw you know, if I was there and I saw something that that I would consider you know, would have considered unfinished legislation, like, you know, bad grammar, unfinished sentences.
I wouldn't vote for the thing either even if I wanted it. I mean, the amount of interpretive bullshit that could go on after that is ridiculous. But speaking of ridiculous, I got Atlas 21 with this headline, Meta considers stablecoin integration, the tech giant returns to the crypto world after three years. According to a report by Fortune magazine, after a three year pause from the crypto space, Meta, or Facebook, let's be honest, is evaluating the integration of stablecoins into its payment system. Sources familiar with the matter suggest Meta could adopt a multi token approach supporting popular stablecoins such as Tether and USDC.
Discussions involve use cases like creator payouts through Instagram where stablecoins could offer a low fee alternative to fiat based transfers, and this move would mark the company's return to the crypto scene following the abandonment of the Diem project. Again, that was three years ago. So it appears that Zuckerberg is just gonna not he's not gonna be able to stay away from this stuff, and that's gonna be the linchpin. I I wish it wasn't Facebook that made the decision for all the rest of social media, but it but it is. It's not gonna be Twitter or x or whatever the hell you wanna call it. It's not gonna be Musk. It's gonna be Zuck.
He's gonna win the day on this one. It's gonna he's gonna and he's gonna win the day either way either way he rolls. If he decides to screw say screw it, I we're only gonna deal in US dollars. We're not even gonna take stablecoin. Then the rest of social media will follow suit because they don't really wanna do the rest of the work to integrate all this stuff. But if Zuck does it, if he gets a Stablecoin wallet going on, God forbid, if he gets Lightning Network going on, which he should, then Instagram automatically follows suit. But that means that Twitter will have to actually follow suit. Blue Sky will have to follow suit.
All the rest of of what you would consider the walled garden social media platforms, TikTok, everybody follows suit. Right? So just be aware it's probably going to happen this time. It's probably gonna happen this time. This is honestly what they should have done three years ago instead of that stupid Diem project. But Diem and the metaverse, they were sort of tied together, and both of them failed miserably. Both of them that was actually the I think that was the one thing that Zuckerberg did that was the one thing in Facebook that actually failed at hundreds of, you know, possibly billions of dollars worth of investment just poof, gone.
I don't think he's ever had a failure that bad before, and I I don't think any of the other failures inside of Facebook have ever come close to the absolute destruction that was impinged with the whole idea that they were gonna do this metaverse thing. So that's the end of all the articles for the day. We are we it is Friday. And if you did not know and be aware, this Sunday, not next Sunday, this Sunday, in a couple of days, is Mother's Day in The United States. If you are not prepared, you need to get prepared for either your mom or your wife, if she if y'all have kids, if she is a mother and she is in your life and you do not celebrate her on this Sunday, you're probably going to be strung up by your thumbs, and you would probably deserve it.
So go find out what she wants for mother's day, what does she want to eat, and cook her a meal. You need to clean parts of the house, if not the whole damn house, and you need to make sure that you get her what she actually wants, which means fuck it. Go ask her. Don't don't imagine something. Like, my wife has no problem telling me and the kids, mother's day is coming, and you know what I want. And all of us say, yarn. You like to knit, so you want yarn. I'm not going to interpret that as a yarn like thing. I'm going to just go get her yarn. It's really that easy.
Make sure that you figure out what it is that she wants. Make sure that you celebrate mother's day. Otherwise, shame on you, and I'll 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.
It is 08:41AM Pacific Daylight Time. It's the May 2025, and this is episode ten ninety two of Bitcoin. And we've got some news coming out of Steak and Shake. We've also got news coming out of Taiwan. We're gonna talk a little bit about what happened to the Celsius founder, Alex Mashinsky. May he, get his in all of his scammy glory. Lola Leitz is writing about this Blanche memo case, the the cases of against Tornado Cash and, samurai wallet, there is an issue going on. It seems that a dog with a bone just refuses to let go. She's gonna tell us what that means. And then Trump apparently got really pissed off about that, that Ripple tweet. The XRP tweet?
Yeah. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you will later on. And then, apparently, David Bailey is he's got some he's been maneuvering behind the scenes of Bitcoin magazine, and apparently it appears rather that he's going to, launch something here pretty soon. US treasury secretary, Bassett, is very angry about the stablecoin bill, and Meta may be coming back into the pool to do to do some swimming. I don't know. They've been gone for three years. As far as cryptocurrency is concerned, we don't we'll all tell you what they got planned. But we're gonna go right back to the head of the, of the list here.
Steak and Shake. The restaurant. The chain is well, they announced today that they're well, actually, I guess it was, yeah, this is dated May. So yesterday evening, sometimes, Steak and Shake released a tweet that says the following, Steak and Shake accepting Bitcoin payments at all locations starting May, making the cryptocurrency available to our more than 100,000,000 customers. The movement is just beginning Staktoshi. And then they've got a really nice little graphic here that says steak and shake in the middle, and then it says beef tallow fries around the rim, and then it says Bitcoin around the rim, and then beef tallow fries as you moved around the rim again, and then Bitcoin. So, apparently, Steak and Shake is now all about beef tallow fries and Bitcoin.
I I'm dubious about this. I'm not saying that they they're that they're lying. I think that they are going to do this. But is it gonna be Lightning Network? Is it gonna be I mean, are they gonna really wait on ten minute blocks? I mean, how are they planning on doing this? Will ECash be integrated somehow? There's nothing there's there's we have nothing, and this is coming, like like, after next week. I hate these kind of announcements. And the other reason that I'm dubious is that we've seen this crap before. We've seen in fact, it always happens when you get well, not always, but the last time I saw a whole raft of people say, no. Our store is gonna start taking Bitcoin was when the price was doing what?
When the price was going up like it has been over the last couple of days, and then nobody actually uses it because people want to save their Bitcoin and spend the fiat and the stores or the companies in question bail out. That's what I've seen. Sorry. Drinking some coffee. So will it be the same this time? I don't know. I don't know. But my gut feeling is is that there that is is just gonna be a it's gonna be a nothing burger. That nothing will come of it. That would nobody like, if I had a Steak and Shake anywhere close to me and I don't, I would definitely go and see, well, can I use Lightning Network? Because I'm not using main chain to buy a hamburger. That's ridiculous.
I would buy a car, a house, a business on main chain. That that's what I would be doing on main chain. But if I'm gonna buy a hamburger and a Coke and some beef tallow fries, I'm not making a beast like, a a Taproot transaction, a BC1 address transaction. I'm gonna use eCash. I'm gonna use Lightning Network. And there's no news as to how they're going to process these Bitcoin payments. So I kind of don't expect this to go anywhere unless they actually say that they are going to use Lightning, and they best be set up some kind of payment kiosk that teaches people just I mean, just how to be relatively functional, like team up with Strike or team up with Cash App or somebody who has Lightning integrated into their wallets already that is, you know, especially something like Cash App, which is almost a whole bunch of people use, they already have the ability to use it on their phones that don't even know it.
If if they do that, then maybe this has got a chance. Otherwise, I'm just I'm just gonna forget about it. And we're gonna move way on over to Asia where Taiwan Lawmakers calling for a Bitcoin reserve at a national conference held in parts coin telegraph. Taiwanese lawmaker Ko Ju Choon has called on the government to consider adding Bitcoin to its national reserve suggesting that it could serve as a hedge against global economic uncertainty. Ko, who is a legislator at large in Taiwan's legislative body, the Legislative Yuan, is what they call it, I guess, took to Twitter on Friday to report that he had advocated Bitcoin investment by the Taiwanese government at the national conference on May.
In his remarks, coincided Bitcoin's potential to become a hedge amid global economic risks and urged Taiwan to recognize the cryptocurrency alongside gold and foreign exchange reserves to boost its financial resilience. Ko's announcement came shortly after the legislator held talks with Samson Moe, who advocates for Bitcoin adoption by states like El Salvador at his BTC tech firm, Jan third or sorry, Jan three. Koh highlighted that Taiwan is an export driven economy that has experienced significant fluctuations in its national currency, the new Taiwan dollar, amid global inflation and intensifying geopolitical risks.
We currently have a gold reserve, this is a quote, of 423 metric tons in our foreign exchange reserves amounts to $577,000,000,000 including investments in United States treasury bonds, the lawmakers stated. In a scenario of more intense cursory cursory, currency volatility or potential regional conflicts, Taiwan may, quote, very likely be unable to ensure the security and liquidity, co continued, adding that Bitcoin could be a great addition to Taiwan's reserves for several reasons. Quote, Bitcoin has been operating for over fifteen years. It has a fixed total supply, is decentralized, and is resistant to censorship.
Many countries are focusing on its hedging attributes. At the same time, in intense situations, it may not face the risk of embargo, he said. Referring to many global initiatives considering Bitcoin adoption as a reserve asset, Ko stressed that he's not advocating for Bitcoin as the only solution to rising economic challenges. Instead, the legislature suggested adding a small proportion of Bitcoin into the diversified assets as tools for sovereign asset allocation and risk hedging and backup capacity for Taiwan's financial system. He previously suggested that Taiwan could allocate a maximum of 5% of its $50,000,000,000 reserve to Bitcoin in a Twitter post on May.
Quote, when exchange rate risk and regional uncertainty increase, it is time to introduce new tools to construct a more flexible financial strategy framework. Quote, as former Dean Chin Chong said, Bitcoin is the gun of the digital era. It may also be the gold of the digital era, the silver of the digital era, or it could be gunpowder. A wise nation will not let weapons be in others' hands, end quote. God, that sounds that sounds like a Sun Tzu quote right there from Art of Wars. That sounds exactly like something Sun Tzu said. But the news comes as Taiwan is emerging as a crypto friendly jurisdiction with the financial supervisory commission pushing institutional trails of crypto custody services in late twenty twenty four. Mainland China continues to maintain its very hostile stance on cryptocurrency after imposing a ban on multiple crypto activities, including mining, way back in 2021, which basically did nothing for China but shoot themselves in the foot and make damn sure that they are never going to be able to be a major world player in mining ever again unless the government themselves does it because they're not going to be able to rely on the private sector after they basically tore a hole through the private sector in 2021 when they said, hey. Mining's illegal, and you saw what happened.
Everybody picked up their football and they went home. Or, well, actually, they didn't go home. They went to other parts. Texas was the largest international beneficiary of China's mining ban. And if China says, you know what? We want you guys back. You know what those guys will say? No. Uh-uh. We're tired of the uncertainty. It costs too much to move. It costs too much to renegotiate with brand new suppliers for power contracts. We're not doing it. China lost. I'm sorry, but China lost. They're never getting mining back ever again. And if I had my way, the following gentleman would never see the light of day in in his entire life, and that would be Celsius founder Alex Mashinsky, who has been sentenced to twelve years in prison for fraud. And this is CoinDesk, and it's written by Cheyenne Ligon.
Alex Mashinsky, founder and former CEO of bankrupt crypto lending platform Celsius Network, has been sentenced to twelve years in prison on Thursday for fraud. Judge John Kotel of the Southern District Of New York handed down the sentence saying the twelve years composed of a one hundred and twenty month sentence to be served concurrently with a separate one hundred and forty four month sentence for the two charges Mashinsky plead guilty to reflected Mashinsky's, quote, extremely serious crimes. The sentence splits the difference between the mere one year and a day in prison requested by his defense team and the twenty year suggested by prosecutors.
He has also agreed to forfeit $48,000,000 in several pieces of real estate, quote, no matter what the sentence, the sentence will not cure the monetary or psychological harm caused to the victims, judge Kudle said. So, yeah, Mashinsky is going down in a big, big, big, big, big, big, big way. And I I honestly, twelve years isn't enough for what Mashinsky has done. But we are not done with the Southern District Of New York, not by a long shot, because Lowell Elites has quite a few things to say about what's going on with the tornado cash case and the samurai wallet cases after the Blanche memo. So let's just let's just rip into it. And this is by, of course, Lowell Leitz written yesterday from the rage.co.
That's her newsletter. Districts dropping Blanche memo cases. SDNY still won't comply. What does that mean? Well, a district court in New Jersey has dismissed charges against Christopher James Scalen, a Utah resident who provided cryptocurrency services to clients. Quote, the Department of Justice's recent 04/07/2025 policy memorandum ending regulation by prosecution reinforced that criminal prosecutions should be restrained where ambiguity exists and especially where delay results in disproportionate prejudice, argued Skallon in reply to the government's opposition to his previous motion to dismiss.
The charges against Skallon of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money service business were dismissed by the court on April. Similarly, a court in Indiana dismissed charges against RM exchange operator, Maximiliano Phillips or Pilippus, in February, whose exchange had been used to transfer Silk Road funds. Because FinCEN had issued no guidance on cryptocurrency services prior to the year 2013, Polypus could not be held accountable for operating an unlicensed money service business as the regulations had been, well, accused of violating he had been accused of violating had not even existed. And the licensing laws in question had been ambiguous at the time the court found. Sorry, guys. It is a hell of a Friday morning for me, apparently.
So, samurai wallet and tornado cash, ambiguity at best. As recently revealed, SDNY's unlicensed money transmission charges against both Samura wallet and Tornado Cash developers are ambiguous at best. Scholars, advocacy groups, and think tanks alike have long argued that FinCEN's twenty nineteen guidance on cryptocurrency services exempted services like Samura Wallet and Tornado Cash from registering as money service businesses. Previously suppressed evidence in the case against samurai wallet developers has now confirmed that FinCEN too has been under the impression that the design of services like samurai wallet exempts them from registration requirements.
Quote, they acknowledged that we can make arguments about functional control of the cryptocurrency likely referring to control over the user interface and servers. Quote, but that has never been addressed in the guidance. And so it could be a difficult argument for us in, quote, prosecutors wrote in an email following conversations with the regulator. The Southern District Of New York, SDNY, has yet failed to drop its charges against both Samura Wallet and Tornado Cash developers despite the fact that prosecutors are effectively attempting to rewrite the law for noncustodial cryptocurrency services, holding individuals accountable for regulations that were unclear at best and nonexistent at worst.
The prosecutions are, quote, a breakdown in the trust that software developers and innovators must be able to place in federal regulatory guidance, writes the advocacy group, Coin Center. Quote, when the agencies charged with interpreting the law speak and yet their views are ignored or buried by prosecutors pursuing a contradictory theory, developers have no safe harbor. This is more than a legal misstep. It's a violation of basic fairness, said Coin Center. Earning itself the title Sovereign District Of New York, The United States' most prestigious prosecutor's office has a history of defying main justices' orders, that talking about the DOJ, leaving real people caught in the crosshairs of the powerhouse's overreach that appears to continue to operate unchecked.
Independent journalism does not finance itself. If you enjoy the article, please consider making a donation. So what what Lowell Elites is getting at is that even though it is very clear that there were never any regulations at all, the Southern District Of New York is still not dropping their case. In fact, it looks like they're like she said, they're attempting to rewrite the rules so that this case can these two cases can move forward even though all these other states have dropped their cases because of the same information that came to light out of FinCEN. And that is FinCEN saying, we never thought this was a problem.
That's what FinCEN said about anything that looked like Tornado Cash or Samura wallet. They're saying, we don't have a problem with this. They're not in custody of the actual money. They're just writing software. They're just installing an infrastructure so that people that do have custody of their money or some funds are able to do x, y, and z. But the guys that did the thing, the guys that designed the infrastructure, the Tornado Cash and and Samurai Wallet, they're they're they're not in possession of the money. They don't have to register. And yet, Southern District of New York is just saying, we don't give a shit.
We're gonna prosecute these guys to the full length of the law even though there actually is no law. So what are we dealing with when it comes to the Southern District Of New York? Well, we're dealing with, I like the name says, the Sovereign District Of New York. And sovereign in this particular case, in my opinion, is not the good kind of sovereign. This is the kind of sovereign where it's like, we will do whatever the hell we want to do. We don't care what the law says, and we're gonna continue to do it. We're gonna continue to ruin lives, and we don't care. We don't care. Even though we're part of the Department of Justice, we don't care that the Department of Justice has told us to back off. We don't care that they're reminding us that the very thing that we built our case on has absolutely freaking nothing to do whatsoever with what you why how you guys are prosecuting. FinCEN itself said this is okay, Yet they're gonna prosecute these guys anyway.
I don't even know what to say at this point. I really don't. The whole thing is bizarre. I I don't know why DOJ hasn't send sent a planeload of people out there to the Southern District Of New York to say, this is how it's going to be. You're going to back off. I I I I don't get it, especially with the especially with the Trump administration basically, you know, being all crypto friendly. You'd think he would say, get your ass out there, DOJ, and tell him what's up. I guess it's not gonna happen. But in the meantime, we'll we'll have to wait to see where this goes. I still don't see this as being, a prosecutable case any longer, either one of these cases.
But while we wait to see, we'll run the numbers. Woo. Well, looky there. West Texas Intermediate crude is up another 1.4%, back up to $60.75 a barrel. Brent Norsey is up the same to 63 and 69¢. Natural gas is up wow. I can't believe all three of them are in the green today. 5.29% to the upside, clocking in at $3.78 per thousand. Gasoline is up two thirds of a point to $2.09 a gallon. Gold is up one and a quarter percent to $33.48 even. Silver is up almost a point. Platinum is up two and a third point. Wow. Copper is up one and a third. Palladium essentially moving sideways, but still in the green. Most of the ag futures are in the green as well. Biggest winner today is gonna be soybeans.
1% to the upside. Biggest loser is lumber, 1.8% to the downside. I got live cattle, and they're at one fifth of a point to the upside. Lean hogs up, well, about one fifth of a point. Feeder cattle, however, moving sideways slightly in the red. As is the Dow, it's only down 39 points right now. It's 0.09% to the downside. I got S and P is moving sideways. Nasdaq is moving sideways, and the S and P Mini is moving sideways. All of these are, like, point zero eight, point zero five, point 07% movement. So that smells like somebody's waiting for something, and I'm not sure what they're waiting on. But we broke above a hundred thousand dollars yesterday. We're still there. A hundred and $2,640 per coin gives us a $2,040,000,000,000 market cap.
And just so you know, Bitcoin with that number has now entered the top 10 currencies in value in the world. We're sitting alongside the euro, the dollar, the yuan, the Swiss franc. We're we're we're in the top 10. So I find that rather interesting. We can get 31 half ounces of shiny metal rocks with our one Bitcoin, of which there are 19,862,219.6 of. Average fees per block are elevated slightly 0.05 BTC taken in fees on a per block basis. There are 20 blocks carrying 8,400 unconfirmed transactions waiting to clear at high priority rates of 5 Satoshis per v byte. Low priority is gonna get you in at four. And I think a lot of these are all consolidation transactions, honestly. Yeah. There's a whole bunch of consolidation transactions going on, and that's why we have so little in the way of transaction numbers. Because these consolidations take up a lot of room in these blocks because they're, like essentially, they're, like, they're squashing hundreds hundreds of transactions into, like, one single transaction. It's called a consolidation transaction.
That's why we don't have very many. Now from a hashing standpoint, where we at? Back down to 909.3 exahashes per second. So we're kinda wavering around there, but honestly, mining looks pretty good to me. And where are we at? Let's get out of there, and we're gonna get out of there. And we're gonna go to Bitcoin bills, which was yesterday's episode of Bitcoin. And Fountain has changed their website quite a bit, in fact. I had not only does it look different, I had to log back into this thing, and it is they have done a complete revamp on their website, which is fountain.fm. And I got Psyduck Psyduck with 597 sets says Psyduck.
Turkey with 500 says nothing. Yodel with 444 says a hundred k. I barely heard any cautionary advice you gave. Was out at bank getting a loan. Send it. God's death. 237. Thank you, sir. No. Thank you. Pies is back with a hundred. Thank you, sir. No. Thank you. That's the weather report. Welcome to part two of the news you can use as if you needed any other evidence that Ripple, the people behind x XRP token were scummy, disgusting, horrible human beings. Well, we've got this one. Trump is furious after a lobbyist behind the XRP tied crypto post revealed to have worked for Ripple.
According to a report from Politico, RT Watson is writing this one for the block. President Donald Trump was reportedly upset after he learned his truth social post saying that Ripple or rather XRP, Solana, and Cardano should be included in a crypto strategic reserve was crafted by a lobbyist firm working for Ripple according to Politico, which cited anonymous sources. An employee of Ballard Partners, the lobbying group run by Brian Ballard, is said to have provided Trump with a message that they thought the president should write according to Politico. Trump then posted the missive according to Politico, but then became angry when he learned that Ballard worked for Ripple. The report also said, why would you expect anything less from anything connected to Brad Garlinghouse and that fat bearded idiot who's, what, Chris Larson?
None of these people need to be walking around as free men. They need to be in prison. I'm sorry, but that's just the way it is. Trump's truth social post from March read, quote, a US crypto reserve will elevate this critical industry after years of corrupt attacks by the Biden administration, which is why my executive order on digital assets directed the presidential working group to move forward on a crypto strategic reserve that includes XRP, SOL, and ADA. I will make sure The US is the crypto capital of the world, end quote. Cardano, XRP, and Solana all rose in price after Trump's post.
The president later clarified that the planned reserve would also hold Bitcoin and shitcoin numero uno. Although Ripple maintains that it does not control XRP, It is the company most closely associated with the token. Ripple did not immediately respond to a request for comment and, honey, they probably won't ever respond. But according to Politico, Trump was not only furious and felt like he'd been used, you were, Ballard quickly became a pariah in the West Wing in the aftermath. Ballard partners did not immediately respond to request for comment, and, honey, they probably won't. Politico also reported that Ballard's image as a Trump whisperer has allowed his firm to rack up a staggering 130 new clients since the November election, including Chevron, JPMorgan, Palantir, Netflix, Bayer Pharmaceuticals, United Airlines, and T Mobile.
God dang, man. In March, Trump signed another executive order to create US strategic Bitcoin reserve. So, yeah, that's why that truth social post happened because of a lobbyist that was clearly working for Ripple and Chris Larsen and Brad Garlinghouse. That that that's who these people are. And I I I just don't understand the people that are just the the Rippleheads. I I don't see how you can look at this and not just go, it's disgusting. And a lot of people are gonna find this next one disgusting too. I don't know where I I honestly don't know where the hell I stand on Bitcoin Magazine and David Bailey. It it's like there's been times that Bitcoin Magazine has really disappointed me, and there's been times that David Bailey, who is behind Bitcoin Magazine, really impressed me.
You know, I I guess that's I guess that's when you in in a very real way for me, that is sort of like a testament to say, this is how you know that something is relatively neutral. They do shit that you hate and shit that you love all at the same time. So at least you got at least you got some kind of, you know, a gauging stick to say, yeah, this is probably a real thing. But there's plenty of people out there that absolutely despise David Bailey and Bitcoin Magazine. Let's see if it gets any worse after this. Bitcoin news, Alex Larry is writing Trump advisor David Bailey to launch a $300,000,000 Bitcoin firm named Nakamoto.
David Bailey, digital assets adviser to president Donald Trump and CEO of BTC Inc, has reportedly closed a $300,000,000 raise for a new Bitcoin focused investment firm called Nakamoto. The firm, named after creator Satoshi Nakamoto, will be a publicly traded company with a bold strategy to buy and hold Bitcoin and invest in companies globally. The raise has been in the works since January and includes $200,000,000 in equity and a hundred million dollars in convertible debt according to CNBC and the information. That's apparently the name of the publication. Whatever. The capital will be used for global expansion and Bitcoin acquisition.
Nakamoto will merge with an already listed company on the Nasdaq, and the announcement is expected to come as early as next week, said CNBC, citing an unnamed individual familiar with the matter. They plan to be public by the summer of this year, becoming one of the newest players in the growing wave of Bitcoin investment firms. Although Bailey has not commented on the reports, he posted, quote, no comment on Twitter on May, fueling more speculation about the venture's announcement. The business model is similar to what Michael Saylor, executive chairman of strategy, did in 2020. He converted the company's cash reserves into Bitcoin and turned the software firm into the largest corporate holder of Bitcoin.
The stock price of strategy skyrocketed ever since. Bailey is following the same path. His firm will use the money to buy and hold Bitcoin and invest in companies in Brazil, Thailand, and South Africa. According to reports, Nakamoto will use Bitcoin as part of its capital structure, essentially becoming a Bitcoin based investment powerhouse, and the venture is already getting attention from the investment community. Nakamoto is backed by big names, big, big, big names, and has assembled an advisory board with well known Bitcoin and finance personalities.
The hell is a finance and Bitcoin personality? Do you mean influencer? Anyway, this puts Bailey's firm in competition competition with other big players in the space, including twenty one Capital, founded by Strike app creator Jack Mallers, and Strive Asset Management, led by entrepreneur and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. Both firms recently announced similar strategies, raising big money to buy Bitcoin and going public via reverse mergers twenty one, backed by SoftBank, Tether, and Cantor Fitzgerald, Fitzgerald, will be a superior vehicle for investors seeking capital efficient Bitcoin exposure according to Jack Mallers. Bailey's announcement comes as institutional interest in Bitcoin is heating up.
Several companies are now positioning themselves as public vehicles for Bitcoin ownership so investors could get exposure to the scarce digital asset without actually holding it because why? They're fucking stupid. But influencer Tyler d pointed out the momentum on social media saying, quote, the pace of these new BTC companies launching is accelerating. This strategy is becoming more popular as regulations get clearer and interest in Bitcoin grows. Being a digital asset policy adviser to Donald Trump during the twenty twenty four presidential campaign gives David Bailey a unique political angle.
His involvement could be a sign that US politics is moving towards Bitcoin adoption faster than anyone had anticipated. He's also close to Trump, so that will attract conservative investors who see Bitcoin as a hedge against inflation and central bank policies. Okay. I'm gonna say it. I I don't like the way this is this is going. And, yeah, I know. There there's gonna be at least one person out there going, oh, we're screaming about it screaming at you when you were talking about how cool your strategy was buying all this shit. Yeah. Well, there's I you know?
Yeah. I should've seen it coming. I I really should've seen it coming because it for those who are unclear about what I'm talking about, so strategy starts this thing in 2020 where they start buying Bitcoin. And then they kinda change and start printing debt instruments and selling those and using the cash raised from those debt instruments to buy more Bitcoin. And it worked, man. It basically took a zombie or not a zombie company, but a company nobody heard of to basically being in the news all the time in in, like, five short years.
Pretty good. When when you think about it from a public relations standpoint, it's a hell of a coup. But then he had this webinar where he invited the chief investment officers and chief financial officers from, like, a couple of hundred major corporations, and the thing was oversubscribed. He had, you know, the the every digital seat at the webinar was full, and he basically gave his entire strategy book. He said, this is how you buy Bitcoin. This is how you list it on your books. This is how you handle it. This is how you do the thing that we did. And nobody took part of it for two years because he did this two years ago.
And now companies are falling out of the woodwork, Like, I don't know, like, termites being fumigated. They're just crawling out of the out of the termite infested wood paneling that they were in. And they're just dropping on the floor, man. I mean, it's like just company after company after company doing the strategy thing. And I'm still not very clear on what it is they're actually doing other than trying to figure out new and improved ways to buy Bitcoin with other people's money. Are are you developing on Bitcoin? Are are you, like, are you making loans at this point? Do do you have a financial instrument that will help me in my future life? And I'm not seeing a whole bunch. Strike is offering 12% loans.
You can get a business loan at at the low you know, the lowest business loan you can get is $10,000 from Strike. I assuming they have a they have a personal loan and the lowest the the the minimum amount you can take is $75,000, which bizarre to me, but 12 to 13% interest rates. That's be that's going into the usury situation. Why would I why would I loan or why would I put up my Bitcoin as collateral to get a fiat loan at 12%? Are are you insane? It's the most pristine asset anybody's ever seen. No. I expect a 2% loan. And until I get a 2% loan, I ain't taking a loan.
And if you say, well, then you'll be waiting for a long time. Good. That's good. That helps me. That makes me not be stupid. Yeah. Because I I just I don't see it. I don't see these companies actually providing goods and services. All I see them doing is figuring out ways to vacuum up Bitcoin. I don't think this is entirely healthy. And then comes the realization that I cannot stop it, and neither can you. And that, my friends, is exactly why you want Bitcoin. Nobody can stop you from owning it, and we can't stop anybody else from owning it. Because if we could, then somebody somewhere could stop us from owning it, and that's not what I want. And US treasury secretary, Besant, didn't get what he wanted because he's lambasting the senate for blocking stablecoin bill and calls it a missed opportunity for American leadership according to James Hunt who's writing it for the block.
US treasury secretary Scott Bessant lambasted the senate's decision on Thursday to halt the progress of the Genius Act amid rising tensions over president Donald Trump's increasing crypto involvement and concerns about specific aspects of the proposed stablecoin bill. Quote, for stablecoins and other digital assets to thrive globally, the world needs American leadership, Besant posted on Twitter. Quote, the senate missed an opportunity to provide that leadership today by failing to advance the genius act, end quote. Secretary Besant went on to describe the bill as representing a once in a generation opportunity to expand dollar dominance and boost US influence in financial innovation.
He argued that without such legislation, stablecoins will remain governed by a fragmented set of state rules rather than a unified federal approach that better supports growth and global competitiveness. Quote, the world is watching while American lawmakers twiddle their thumbs. Senators who voted to stonewall US ingenuity today face a simple choice, either step up and lead or watch digital asset innovation move offshore, end quote. The senate banking committee earlier voted to advance the Genius Act in March. The bill requires stablecoins to have 100% reserve backing with US dollars and similarly liquid assets, annual audits, and prohibits foreign issuance in the country.
The senate voted 49 to 48 against the bill in its current form on Thursday with senators Josh Hawley and Rand Paul joining Democrats in opposing the procedural vote. Oh, well, it's because Rand Paul votes against everything. God, I love Rand Paul. While the Genius Act bill resulted from bipartisan negotiations, Democrats recently raised concerns about unfinished bill text, foreign issuer oversight, and anti money laundering provisions. Senator Mark Warner said he couldn't support legislation that wasn't yet finalized. And senate majority leader John Thune, despite also voting no, said he did not allow the bill to be reconsidered later, criticizing the Democrats amid the multiple versions made in an attempt to address their concerns. Quote, I have just I just have to say, frankly, I just don't get it. I don't know what more they want, end quote. No. They just don't want it to pass. They just want it they just they this has nothing to do with stablecoin. This is something they can block and something that Trump wants. And if Trump wants it and they can destroy it, that's what they're going to do because that's the way politics works. It's the same way with Biden. I mean, let's let's be very clear here. But tensions deepened as Trump's personal and financial ties to crypto, including meme coin launches, $1,500,000 per plate crypto fundraisers.
What? A $1,500,000 per plate buy in at a crypto fundraiser? If somebody knows what that fundraiser was, could you send me the story on that? Because 1,500,000.0 seems a bit steep. But backing DeFi project World Liberty Financial, which has its own stablecoin, this has all sparked accusations of conflict of interest ahead of the vote. Yeah. It is a conflict of interest. That's why it's sparking that because it is. You know what I mean? And and for those people that are out there going, oh, you just don't like Trump. It has nothing to do with whether or not I like Trump or whether or not I hate Trump. I'm neutral on orange man.
It's a conflict of interest. It just is. I I don't see how hard this is to get through people's heads. Just because I'm saying the thing, that this is a conflict of interest, does not mean that I hate Trump. It does not mean that I love Trump. It does not mean that I it it means nothing. I'm just telling you. You've got a flat tire. No. I don't. Yes. You do. I can look at it. It's right there. It's flat. You're gonna screw up your rim if you keep driving on it. No. It's not. You're just being an asshole. No. I'm telling you, you've got a flat tire. I'm telling you, this is a conflict of interest, and it's going to work how it hasn't already completely screwed up everything Trump wants to do is beyond my comprehension.
This is so easy. This is so easy to to just wrap your hands around, get a grip on, and throttle living crap out of it if you are an enemy of orange man. And yet I'm seeing nothing but a blocked genius vote, in my opinion, isn't really the destruction of the Trump administration. They could be they could be and probably will be doing a lot more. That's what I expect. I expect the enemies of Trump to start really going after impeachment stuff again. Yes. I know. There will be multiple impeachment tries. There will be multiple blocked you know, court cases blocking something or another. It's just going to go on and on and on and on. And every single time, this guy allows a conflict a clear conflict of interest to arise, he's just giving them ammunition, and that's what I don't understand unless he knows something.
But some democrats, including including representative Maxine Waters, also boycotted a crypto focused house hearing this week amid the political jockeying, citing the president's direct crypto holdings and influence over agencies. The house's house financial services committee also recently voted to advance a similar bill called the stable act with anti money laundering and reserve requirements intact. So we'll have to see. I'm not all that worried about whether or not the genius act fail fails or passes or or goes back to committee for rewrites. I don't care. I just don't. And I disagree with Scott Bessen.
It's not going to do something like cause, you know, a a a huge offshoring. It's just going because most of the stablecoins are like USDC, I think, is the only American based stablecoin that there is. USDT is not in The United States. It's Tether, and Tether is not based in The United States. They're in El Salvador as far as I can tell now. That what what Bess should be saying is that we can't onshore this stuff. We can't bring Tether into the fold without the Genius Act. We can't bring these other stablecoin issuers onto United States soil without Stable Act and Genius Act. So please get off your ass. It's not going to cause anybody to leave except USDC, and I don't give a shit about Circle. Jeremy Allaire can go, you know, run off a a cliff and and take a nice little dive into the ocean and get out of my life for the rest of for the rest of it because he was on he was he doesn't like Bitcoin.
The guy behind Circle does not like Bitcoin. That's one of the reasons why if I have to use one, I'm gonna be using Tether because at least Paolo Ordano has been a relatively rock solid Bitcoiner. Jeremy Allaire never was. And he is the guy behind Circle. Right? If he leaves, I could literally care less. I I I just don't see that you know? I don't know, man. I think Besson is just making a mountain out of Molehill. At one point or another, these Genius Act and Stablecoin Acts are going to pass. And quite frankly, if I saw you know, if I was there and I saw something that that I would consider you know, would have considered unfinished legislation, like, you know, bad grammar, unfinished sentences.
I wouldn't vote for the thing either even if I wanted it. I mean, the amount of interpretive bullshit that could go on after that is ridiculous. But speaking of ridiculous, I got Atlas 21 with this headline, Meta considers stablecoin integration, the tech giant returns to the crypto world after three years. According to a report by Fortune magazine, after a three year pause from the crypto space, Meta, or Facebook, let's be honest, is evaluating the integration of stablecoins into its payment system. Sources familiar with the matter suggest Meta could adopt a multi token approach supporting popular stablecoins such as Tether and USDC.
Discussions involve use cases like creator payouts through Instagram where stablecoins could offer a low fee alternative to fiat based transfers, and this move would mark the company's return to the crypto scene following the abandonment of the Diem project. Again, that was three years ago. So it appears that Zuckerberg is just gonna not he's not gonna be able to stay away from this stuff, and that's gonna be the linchpin. I I wish it wasn't Facebook that made the decision for all the rest of social media, but it but it is. It's not gonna be Twitter or x or whatever the hell you wanna call it. It's not gonna be Musk. It's gonna be Zuck.
He's gonna win the day on this one. It's gonna he's gonna and he's gonna win the day either way either way he rolls. If he decides to screw say screw it, I we're only gonna deal in US dollars. We're not even gonna take stablecoin. Then the rest of social media will follow suit because they don't really wanna do the rest of the work to integrate all this stuff. But if Zuck does it, if he gets a Stablecoin wallet going on, God forbid, if he gets Lightning Network going on, which he should, then Instagram automatically follows suit. But that means that Twitter will have to actually follow suit. Blue Sky will have to follow suit.
All the rest of of what you would consider the walled garden social media platforms, TikTok, everybody follows suit. Right? So just be aware it's probably going to happen this time. It's probably gonna happen this time. This is honestly what they should have done three years ago instead of that stupid Diem project. But Diem and the metaverse, they were sort of tied together, and both of them failed miserably. Both of them that was actually the I think that was the one thing that Zuckerberg did that was the one thing in Facebook that actually failed at hundreds of, you know, possibly billions of dollars worth of investment just poof, gone.
I don't think he's ever had a failure that bad before, and I I don't think any of the other failures inside of Facebook have ever come close to the absolute destruction that was impinged with the whole idea that they were gonna do this metaverse thing. So that's the end of all the articles for the day. We are we it is Friday. And if you did not know and be aware, this Sunday, not next Sunday, this Sunday, in a couple of days, is Mother's Day in The United States. If you are not prepared, you need to get prepared for either your mom or your wife, if she if y'all have kids, if she is a mother and she is in your life and you do not celebrate her on this Sunday, you're probably going to be strung up by your thumbs, and you would probably deserve it.
So go find out what she wants for mother's day, what does she want to eat, and cook her a meal. You need to clean parts of the house, if not the whole damn house, and you need to make sure that you get her what she actually wants, which means fuck it. Go ask her. Don't don't imagine something. Like, my wife has no problem telling me and the kids, mother's day is coming, and you know what I want. And all of us say, yarn. You like to knit, so you want yarn. I'm not going to interpret that as a yarn like thing. I'm going to just go get her yarn. It's really that easy.
Make sure that you figure out what it is that she wants. Make sure that you celebrate mother's day. Otherwise, shame on you, and I'll 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
Market Updates and Bitcoin's Position
