Join me today for Episode 1093 of Bitcoin And . . .
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https://bitcoinmagazine.com/news/david-bailey-and-bitcoin-native-holding-company-nakamoto-announce-merger-with-kindlymd-to-establish-bitcoin-treasury
https://cointelegraph.com/news/american-bitcoin-gryphon-merger-public-listing-hut8-trump
https://atlas21.com/coinbase-abandons-bitcoin-accumulation-too-risky-says-ceo/
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/news/matador-technologies-raising-c1-million-to-invest-in-bitcoin
https://cointelegraph.com/news/strategy-buys-13-390-bitcoin-for-1-34-b-as-price-pushes-100-k
https://cointelegraph.com/news/florida-teens-kidnap-crypto-entrepreneur-at-gunpoint-steal-4-m-in-crypto
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Topics for today:
- Trump Tariff Deal
- Coinbase: We Hate Bitcoin
- Oregon Passes Bitcoin Law
- Florida Teens Kidnap Man, Takes $4 Million
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Articles:
https://decrypt.co/318993/bitcoin-sinks-stocks-rise-us-china-tariffshttps://bitcoinmagazine.com/news/david-bailey-and-bitcoin-native-holding-company-nakamoto-announce-merger-with-kindlymd-to-establish-bitcoin-treasury
https://cointelegraph.com/news/american-bitcoin-gryphon-merger-public-listing-hut8-trump
https://atlas21.com/coinbase-abandons-bitcoin-accumulation-too-risky-says-ceo/
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https://bitcoinmagazine.com/news/matador-technologies-raising-c1-million-to-invest-in-bitcoin
https://cointelegraph.com/news/strategy-buys-13-390-bitcoin-for-1-34-b-as-price-pushes-100-k
https://cointelegraph.com/news/florida-teens-kidnap-crypto-entrepreneur-at-gunpoint-steal-4-m-in-crypto
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[00:00:02]
David Bennett:
It is 09:35AM Pacific Daylight Time. It is the May 2025, and this is episode ten ninety three of Bitcoin. And, well, it looks like, we might have some relief on the tariff front. That news broke yesterday, but we got details today and it's actually fairly substantial. I'm actually kinda surprised. Why are you here? You're here for all the news that you can use when it comes to bit Bitcoin and the way the macroeconomic environment affects it, and you, by the way. So we're gonna get into several news stories today, including one about David Bailey, and then we've got, well, American Bitcoin mining, the Trump linked miner, is already making some kind of merger, which I find odd. It's, like, barely off the ground, and it's already looking at a merger.
And then we've got, well, there's some well, I don't really know what to call it. Shooting themselves in the foot over there at Coinbase. Yeah. We'll we'll talk about it. I promise. Oregon has passed a law concerning Bitcoin, and then we've got two people in the news. Matador and Strategy are both buying Bitcoin, but the Matador story is way more interesting than strategy, but I had to remind somebody on Twitter, yes, I've been on Twitter a couple of times, just to see the wreckage that is the knots versus core situation. I might get into that one a little bit. But, they were talking about wearing Bitcoin swag, and that means, like, t shirts and hats and purses and socks and pants and whatever else at a conference, at specifically a Bitcoin conference, to which I had to remind them.
And I remind people all the time, don't do that. Don't don't fly your flag. It's not worth it because we've got a kidnapped man in Las Vegas. But let's go back to the tariffs. Bitcoin sinks and stocks rise after The United States and China scale back tariffs. This is James Rubin writing for decrypt. Bitcoin and major altcoins surged early on Monday, but then dropped back down after The United States and China formally announced that they were scaling back the draconian tariffs on one another that have been weighing on investors for weeks. The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization was recently trading at a hundred and $2,000, which was down 1.5% over the past twenty four hours according to data providers.
Now Bitcoin briefly rose above a hundred and 5,500 for the first time since January before United States markets opened, but then immediately retreated. Quote, Bitcoin's rally above a hundred and 5,000 this morning appears to be a direct response to the easing of United States China trade tensions, wrote Joe DePasquale, CEO of crypto fund manager, Bitbull Capital. Quote, the announcement of a ninety day tariff truce has injected optimism. Yay. Optimism into the global markets, end quote. DePasquale added that the escalation also enhances the appeal of decentralized assets like Bitcoin, which are often viewed as hedges against geopolitical instability, let's just say. However, Di Pasquale noted warily, quote, this truce is temporary.
It's temporary, ladies and gentlemen, and the underlying trade issue remains unresolved, which could reintroduce volatility in the near term. Bitcoin's pullback from its a hundred and $5,000 price scale highly underscores just how sensitive the market remains to shifting macro narratives, especially when moves are driven by more sentiment than structural flows. And following weekend talks, The United States and China said that the countries each would cut their retaliatory tariffs on one another from a 25% to 10%, but only for ninety days while they continue to discuss the ongoing trade war.
Those penalties have been weighing heavily upon investors for weeks amid fears that they were well, that they would raise prices and trigger a global recession. However, risk on assets have risen over the past three weeks amid hopeful signs that The United States would ratchet back its trade war, not only against China, but other major partners last week. The Trump administration and The UK announced that they had reached a new trade deal, although they were far short of specifics. And then they talk about shitcoin number one. I'm not gonna talk about that, nor Solana. They keep on bringing I hate it when decrypt does this, but it's hey.
You get the news where you get the news, guys. So we'll just skip all the shitcoin talk and go straight to the real shitcoins, equities, which spiked on Monday's news with the tech heavy Nasdaq climbing 3.4% and the S and P five hundred up more than 2.4. Both indices have risen more than 7% over the past month with most of those gains occurring since late April. Bitcoin has only jumped or has jumped roughly 21%, a solid move over the past month with some analysts saying that it has appeared to behave more like a safe haven asset as of late. Quote, investor sentiment may find support from the growing political engagement with crypto, particularly as figures like vice president JD Vance preparing to take the stage at Bitcoin Vegas on May, signaling that digital assets are increasingly part of the national economic conversation. Okay. Well, whoop de doo. So, yes, that is another bit of news that I'm not going to cover that much today is that JD Vance is going to well, he's going to speak at Bitcoin twenty twenty five in Las Vegas.
And we've got other Las Vegas news at the end of the show, and it's not it's not the good kind of news. So why would it be the case that Bitcoin dips and equities rise on this at least short term relief of trade tensions between The United States and China. Well, I think it was kind of a double whammy. We haven't seen a hundred and 5,500 price like the news story said since January. Technically speaking, even all other things being equal, let's say there was no tariff news and it was just this price scaling up, you are going to get a pullback anyway because this is just the way the cycle, it it seems to be working over the last few months.
We we hit these pressure points where people are like, oh, thank god. I've been terrified for six months since ever you know, since I first got into Bitcoin because they've been down. You know, if they got in at the highs of a hundred and 6 to a hundred and $9,000, then they've been in the red for a while, and there was quite a bit of people that bought in as usual at all time highs. Now as we reapproach those all time highs, you're seeing different notches on the way up that represent where people bought in, and they have found out that they are not as thick skinned as they thought they were, and they immediately sell just so that they can at least break even or come close to breaking even. And they will have fun staying poor because they cannot wait. Their their time preference is just too short. They're they're looking at the next couple of weeks, the next couple of months.
You know, medium term is a year to a year, you know, to two or three years out, and then longer term is, like, five and ten to fifteen to twenty five years out out from that. Most of the Bitcoiners that I've kind of come to know and love are, well, the way long term view. Many of them think on time scales that represent, you know, a time after their own death. I I know that sounds silly, but, you know, human species used to think that way. We used to think about legacy. We used to think about enduring items that we can build or at least ideas that we can pass along. And not not so much. We've been poisoned by media, not just in the West, but all over all over the world to basically think short term, not even really medium term. So that's one issue altogether. The fact that we hit one zero five, it immediately started decreasing, was just people bailing out of the market so that they could simply break even because they are weak. And they thought they were strong, but they found out that they were not very strong at all. Then we have the trade tariff issue at least in a resolution in the short term, a ninety day short term resolution between The United States and China.
If no long term positions are taken by either country on agreements going further into the future than that, then you can expect a reversal of all this shit in forty five days because people will go, okay. We're at the median mark of ninety days, and we still don't have any word on a long term resolution on this trade thing. Maybe we start bailing out. So I expect that to occur if we don't get any long term trade stuff. But that one aside, equities rose simply because they're like, oh, thank god. We can finally start getting in into some of this stuff again. We just finally start deploying our cash, which is, you know, losing value, and we can put it somewhere to do something for us. Well, that's not going to be helpful for the people that are looking for Federal Reserve rate cuts because Jerome Powell now has even more proof that the economy is doing just fine, and there's no reason there's no reason to heat up the economy by dropping interest rates, which does what?
It makes money or keeps money relatively more expensive to borrow, which is what people love to do when they're going to sink cash into risk assets. So as of today, it is my opinion that Bitcoin looks like more of a risk asset than it does a safe haven asset, even though while I say that, my stomach churns because I know what the truth actually is. I'm talking about the thought processes of the short term thinker. So between those two issues, the fact that we hit a hundred and 5 5 and we got people bailing out because they wanna break even because they're weak asses, and the fact that now it's less likely that we're gonna get cheap money to borrow so that we can throw into, quote, unquote, risk assets, that's why you're seeing this other side of the decoupling between Bitcoin and equity markets.
Jerome Powell is not going to be incentivized whatsoever to drop interest rates anytime soon. You can bet on that. So David Bailey, CEO of Bitcoin Inc or BTC Inc, whatever the hell it is. Last week, I brought news that he was announcing the Nakamoto company. Well, we've got more news. David Bailey and Bitcoin native holding company Nakamoto have announced a merger with Kindly MD to establish a Bitcoin treasury. And this is Vivexin writing for Bitcoin magazine of which is under the umbrella of companies of BTC Inc, which David Bailey is the found or CEO of. Anyway, KindlyMD Incorporated, which is a Utah based health care services provider. Yes. You read that right. Health care service provider has entered into a merger agreement with Nakamoto Holdings Incorporated, a Bitcoin native holding company.
The transaction, which was announced, well, today, this morning, May, includes $710,000,000 in financing through a combination of private placement and, you guessed it, convertible notes. The merger will create a publicly traded company focused on establishing a Bitcoin treasury strategy with $510,000,000 raised through private placement in public equity and $1.12 per share and $200,000,000 in senior secured convertible notes maturing in 2028. David Bailey, founder of BTC Inc, and Nakamoto Holdings will serve as CEO of the combined entity. Tim Pickett will continue managing KindlyMD's health care operations, which include four clinics across Utah providing integrated medical services, pain management, and mental health care.
David Bailey, founder and CEO of Nakamoto, said, quote, Nakamoto's vision is to bring Bitcoin to the center of global capital markets, packaging it into equity, debt, preferred shares, and new hybrid structures that every investor can understand and own. Oh, god. Jesus. Our mission is simple. List these instruments on every major exchange in the world, end quote. He continued, quote, Nakamoto is building the first publicly traded conglomerate. Designed to accelerate that future, the financial institutions who define their chapter in history have all carried the names of their founders, Medici, Rothschild, Morgan, Goldman.
Today, we stake that legacy on Nakamoto, end quote. Okay. I'm sorry. I'm gonna have to gag a little bit here. This is this is beyond hubris, and it's be well beyond suit speak. This is just honestly, this is starting to become delusional. And it's not just David Bailey. It is this fascination with, oh my god, If we can only get Bitcoin to marry up with legacy financial instruments, then everything will be okay. No. And I'm not I'm I am not preaching doom here. It's not really gonna matter to Bitcoin, not in the long term. Blocks are still gonna be produced. Transactions are still gonna be validated. Bitcoin is still going to exchange hands. It's going to do it in a fairly private and mostly decentralized way.
Nothing from that standpoint has really changed. But this continual dragging of the dead cat from outside to inside so that you're going to nurse it back to health, and and I'm equating the dead cat to legacy markets, legacy finance, legacy anything that you've seen in the last hundred years is bullshit, and that's what I'm referring to. It's the dead cat. It's your favorite pet that got caught outside and, I don't know, climbed up a tree and got struck by multiple bolts of lightning, burnt to a fucking crisp, and then fell to the ground. And you, like an idiot, think you're going to go rescue this poor little kitty cat. No, dude. It's dead. And there's no amount of dragging it into a warm, cozy house and setting its corpse by the fire that you're going to be able to resurrect it. It's no. It's dead.
And yet here we are with people that should know better falling into the trap of the last one hundred years. But let's continue the pipe, which is the whole finance instrument that David Bailey's talking about. The PIPE financing attracted over 200 investors globally, including institutional investors such as ACTIVE Ventures in Arlington or Arrington Capital, BSQ Capital Partners, Kingsway Off the Chain Capital, Perifai, RK Capital, VanEck, and Yorkville Advisors alongside individuals, including Adam Back, Balaji Svendvinson, I can never pronounce his name, Danny Yang, Eric Simler, which is the CEO of Simler Scientific, Jihan Wu from Pitman, Ricardo Salinas, the rich guy from Mexico, and Simon Gurevich, who is the CEO of Meta Planet.
Ya two p n l t d, which is an investment fund managed by Yorkville Advisors, was the sole convertible note purchaser. Nobody else wanted the convertible notes. Wow. Woah. Wow. Woah. That doesn't bode well. Under the agreement, KindlyMD shares will continue trading on Nasdaq under the symbol, symbol KDLY until a new ticker symbol is announced, and the combined company's board will consist of six directors appointed by Nakamoto and one by KindlyMD. The transaction includes the assumption of Nakamoto's marketing services agreement with BTC Incorporated, which will provide marketing services related to b, Bitcoin treasury operations.
Kindly MD's clinical operations, because, you know, it's a health care company, will maintain their current focus on reducing opioid use through integrated health care services. The merger requires KindlyMD shareholder approval and is subject to customary closing conditions. Additional transaction details will be available in the current report on form eight k to be filed with the SEC. What does this have anything to do with health care? Somehow or another, I feel like this is a cannibalization of a company that has liquid assets that can be redeployed into this senior convertible note debt instrumentation to purchase BTC so that we can have a Bitcoin holding company, yet another Bitcoin holding company.
I'm a okay. I'm miffed. Sure. Is there anything I can do about it? No. Am I gonna go on about my life? Yes. And you're coming along for the ride because Trump linked miner American Bitcoin is going public via their own merger with Griffin. Adrian Zemunsky for Cointelegraph. Bitcoin mining firm American Bitcoin is going public through a merger with crypto mining company Griffin Digital Mining, and the companies announced that again this morning, May, under the terms of the deal. Griffin Digital Mining, which I've never heard of before in my life, will acquire American Bitcoin in a stock for stock transaction.
Jesus Christ. Why am I laughing? Because Eric Trump and the Trump family just built American Bitcoin and they're already being bought. Talk about a turnaround. You don't even I mean, they they're Eric Trump, the the Trump boys, their old man. He's a real estate developer. Even he doesn't turn around deals this fast, brothers. Oh my god. But after the merger, the new company will operate under the American Bitcoin brand and be led by its board of directors, which includes, of course, Eric Trump, the second eldest of US president Trump's three sons. He's the middle child.
Sorry. None news. News. News of the merger coincided with a sharp rise in Griffin Digital Mining's stock price, which climbed from 52¢ on May to $2.15 at the time of writing, a gain of more than 313% according to Google Finance. The announcement follows early April reports that American Bitcoin was considering an initial public offering. American Bitcoin is a majority owned subsidiary of energy infrastructure, crypto mining, and data center firm, Hut eight. Hut eight CEO, Asher Gnut, said that the company aims to make American Bitcoin a purpose built vehicle for low cost Bitcoin accumulation at scale by taking American Bitcoin public.
We expect to unlock direct access to dedicated growth capital independent of Hut eight's balance sheet while preserving long term exposure to Bitcoin upside for our shareholders. According to the announcement, existing American Bitcoin shareholders will own roughly 98% of the newly formed company. Following the transaction, the new company will control most of the outstanding stock. Hut eight will continue to manage American Bitcoin's infrastructure and operations through long term commercial agreements. Those deals are expected according to the announcement to generate stable contracted revenue streams for Hut eight's power and digital infrastructure segments.
Hut eight acquired a majority stake in American Bitcoin when it was unveiled at the March. March. End of March. It's when I told you about it, it was March, first of April. It's been like a month and a half, but it had backing from several members of Trump's family, as I said. The company, formerly known as American Data Center, was founded by a group of investors including Trump's sons, Donald Trump Junior and Eric Trump. And following the deal, American Bitcoin took ownership of Hut eight's Bitcoin mining hardware. The announcement at the time explained that the new firm aims to become the world's largest, most efficient pure play Bitcoin miner while building a robust strategic Bitcoin reserve. And that's the end of the article, but they're already being bought by Griffin.
And I've never even heard of Griffin. I'm I'm sorry. It is this has nothing to do with with my view on orange man or orange man's son or orange sons. We'll just call them Orange Sons. I don't care. I really don't. But this there's some this turn these turnarounds are way too quick for anything that they've described of what they want to do to actually be done. This is supposed to be about mining, and yet we're changing hands twice inside of a month and a half because, essentially, that's what's happening. And somebody's making out like bandits. I mean, you've got a 03/2013 was it 03/2013?
Let me see. Where was that? Yeah. 313% price stock rise in Griffin Digital Mining from 52¢ to a to $2.15 within two days. Why something stinks. Something stinks here. I don't know what it is. I can't put my finger on it, but my gut feeling says this is dirty pool, old man. And if you feel dirty, you can get clean with SoapMiner. SoapMiner makes soaps. He makes 100% pure beef tallow soaps. You can get it in cedarwood, and peppermint, and lavender, and pine tar, and lemongrass, or just regular rough cut tallow soap, which has all of count the one, two, three ingredients. 100% pure beef tallow, lye, and distilled water. If you want the cleanest soap to wipe the dirt and the stink of this particular Griffin deal off your hide, you go to soapminer.com.
That's soapminer.com. If you go to soapminer.com and use coupon code Bitcoin and you'll get 10% off. And if soap miner decides that, hey, He made another sale for me, then he's gonna cut me some satoshis as he always does. He is one of the newest members of the Circle p family of vendors, and the Circle p is where I bring plebs with goods and services to plebs just like you that might want to purchase those goods and services. It's a way for us to build the Bitcoin circular economy, and you can do it by purchasing SoapMiner soaps at soapminer.com. Get clean with SoapMiner.
Now back into the dirty pool old man issue. Talk about diving in head head first into a swamp, and you're gonna wanna keep your SoapMiner soap handy for after this one. Coinbase has abandoned Bitcoin accumulation. It's too risky, says Naked Mole Rat. Atlas twenty one dot com is writing this one as explained by Coinbase Naked Mole Rat CEO Brian Armstrong in an interview. Over the years, the exchange has repeatedly considered the idea of adopting a Bitcoin focused treasury strategy similar to that of strategy. However, the company ultimately decided against it in order to mitigate risks that could have jeopardized its liquidity and operations according to Armstrong.
The CEO revealed that the idea of allocating up to 80% of Coinbase's balance sheet to Bitcoin had been considered numerous times over the past, you know, twelve years. Nonetheless, Coinbase prioritized neutrality and financial stability over heavy Bitcoin investments. Armstrong said, quote, using such a substantial portion of our balance sheet for Bitcoin could have limited our ability to support future operations. We made a conscious choice about risk. Oh, like the risk of your entire back end compute compute system just crashing and burning every time that we get a major swing in the price of Bitcoin? Is that what you, consider your risk in operations, Brian?
Whatever. Alisa Haas, Coinbase's chief financial officer, pointed out that the decision wasn't solely about risk management. She highlighted that Coinbase deliberately avoided directly competing with its own customers by refraining from speculative Bitcoin investments. Jesus. According to the Bitcointreasuries.net website, Coinbase currently holds 9,480 BTC valued at nearly a billion, ranking it still among the world's top 10 Bitcoin corporate holders. Okay. So for those of you who are new to the space in general, the entire company of Coinbase was built on the back of Bitcoin.
Coinbase wouldn't be Coinbase. It wouldn't exist. Brian Armstrong would not have the wealth he has had it not been for Bitcoin sparking this entire thing off. Yet, he actually probably made more of his money selling shitcoiners or shitcoins to shitcoiners and essentially relieving them of their wealth over the past twelve years. That's how he made the bulk of his money. And that's exactly why he that's what he's saying. He's like, oh, I I don't wanna I I don't wanna scare people. If if we if we just buy Bitcoin, that's gonna send a signal that maybe you should buy Bitcoin, which means he doesn't make as much money on a year over year basis because you guys, not you guys, but the the shitcoiners out there that really believe Doge is gonna go somewhere, like our friend Raul Paul, who actually said that he is thinking that Doge may be a hard asset in the future, but be that as it may. But people like him, that's how Brian Armstrong makes his money.
This, honestly, as much as I feel like I should be shocked, I'm actually not shocked at all by this announcement out of Coinbase that they are taking a shit on the very thing that they owe their existence to. Let's run the numbers. Futures and commodities, as I said, the Trump tariff deal seem to be, well, wagging the dog. We've got oil. West Texas Intermediate well above a two point rise to $62.28. Brent North Sea also 2.02 to the upside to 65 and 20¢. Natural gas doing its thing. It's down 3.72%. Gasoline itself, however, is up one and a quarter to $2.13 a gallon.
Gold getting kicked in the scrotum this morning, three and a third to the downside, taking it to 32, 30 1, and a dime. Silver is down point 7%. Platinum is down two and a half. Copper is down three quarters of a point, while palladium riding low 4.08% to the downside. Man, shiny metal rocks are not so shiny today. We got a full mix in agricultural futures. Biggest winner looks to be soybean, 1.6% to the upside. Biggest loser is coffee. Three and two thirds point to the downside. Live cattle is up almost a full point. Lean hogs are up point 61%. Feeder cattle up one and a half.
Here comes the equities. Buckle up. Dow is up two and a half points. S and P is up three points. Nasdaq is up three and a half points and well over that. S and P Mini is up three and a half points itself. And here's where it comes. This is this is the payment for equities. Going up is that Bitcoin comes down from a hundred and $5.05 to a hundred and $3. Hundred and 3 dollars. Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. A hundred and $3,060 still well above a $2,000,000,000,000 market cap. You can get 31.8 ounces of shiny metal rocks with your one Bitcoin of which there are 19,863,638, almost a palindrome.
Average fees per block are slightly elevated today. 0.06 BTC taken in fees on a per block basis. There looks to be six blocks carrying 19,000 unconfirmed transactions. High priority rates are fairly high. 11 Satoshis per v byte. Low priority is gonna get you in at seven, and the hash rate has fallen. Yay. There's a little bit of minor capitulation. 880 exahashes per second is still nothing to sneeze at. We got a four and a half percent difficulty estimate rise coming up April. So that's sometime today, isn't it? No. No. I'm reading the I'm reading the wrong thing, y'all. I'm sorry. We have a four and a half percent estimated difficulty rise in four days or 686 blocks away. And from Mistaken Shake, which was Friday's episode of Bitcoin and I got progressively worse with a thousand sat says, shake and bake, baby. Thank you for all that you do. Yodle with 444 says, cheers to the weekend.
Justin with a hundred says, happy weekend, brothers and sisters. And Pies with a hundred says, thank you, sir. No. Thank you. Man, these donations are just really low. Hey, man. If you wanna help out the show, hit the donate button, man. We I got I got kids to feed, man. They need new shoes and shit like that. That's the weather report. Welcome to part two of the news you can use. Oregon has passed a law officially recognizing Bitcoin as collateral. This is one of the first ones that I've heard about that one. I might have mentioned the that Oregon passed a Bitcoin law last week, but now we're gonna tear into the guts and feathers of what it actually is with Alex Larry from Bitcoin News. Oregon has officially signed senate bill one sixty seven into law, making digital assets, including Bitcoin, legal collateral in financial transactions.
Governor Tina Kotek signed the bill May, updating Oregon's uniform commercial code to allow the use of digital assets like Bitcoin as collateral in secured lending. It adds article 12, which outlines the legal framework for controllable electronic records, which includes digital assets, tokenized records, and electronic money. SB one six seven says digital assets can be used just like traditional collateral. That means individuals and businesses can use Bitcoin and other digital assets to secure loans or financial agreements. Before this, there was lots of uncertainty.
Companies and financial institutions weren't sure how Bitcoin would fit into the law, especially when it came to using it in commercial contracts, and now s b one six seven removes all doubt. It also updates article nine of the Uniform Commercial Code to allow digital assets such as Bitcoin as collateral in secured transactions. It also recognizes electronic records, electronic signatures, and hybrid transactions opening up more blockchain based business activity. This gives important legal clarity, which could encourage more institutional investors to enter and participate in the markets with more confidence.
Oregon is now one of the first states in The United States to clearly define and support the use of digital assets in the legal and financial systems. Analysts say it could trigger similar moves across the country. In fact, the momentum is already building. Arizona and New Hampshire have already passed significant Bitcoin related bills this week. In Arizona, governor Katie Hobbs received a lot of criticism after vetoing s b one twenty five in her own state. After that, she was presented with another Bitcoin related bill, house bill twenty seven forty nine, which she did sign into law creating a state run Bitcoin and digital asset reserve, pausing to say just a few words as reminders about what that nothing burger of a bill actually is, it's stupid.
It dare I say it's retarded. It doesn't make any sense at all. It's talking about being able to capture abandoned digital assets for inclusion in a state Bitcoin reserve. How are you gonna get it? How are you gonna get it? This this is a bill that was clearly written by people who don't understand how the majority of crypto works and certainly don't understand how Bitcoin actually works. It doesn't work the way you think it works. And, obviously, they sent this bill to a governor who probably knows even less about how this stuff works than the people that wrote the bill. The Arizona bill that got passed does nothing.
It would if I if she hadn't have gotten any backlash at all, she probably would have vetoed this thing too. But, you know, hey. To save a little bit of faith, she's just gonna hand over a big nothing burger, which is exactly what the bill is. Now this news story goes on to say that the new fund allows the state to take custody of, like I said, unclaimed digital assets, but only after three years of inactivity and use them to generate value through staking or airdrops. Again, what the hell does that even mean? Nothing. It means nothing. These people have literally no idea what legislation they crafted. Katie has no idea what she signed.
Jeff Wenninger, chair of the Arizona House Committee Commerce or Commerce Committee, said, quote, digital assets aren't the future. They're the present. We've built a structure that protects property rights, respects ownership, and gives the state tools to account for a new category of value in the economy. Arizona also signed another bill, senate bill thirteen seventy three, pending with the governor. If signed, that one will allow Arizona's treasurer to allocate up to 10% of the budget stabilization fund into Bitcoin turning it into a strategic financial head. And above all of that, New Hampshire became the very first state in the union to legally enable the creation of a strategic Bitcoin reserve thanks to house bill three zero two.
And then it goes on to say, these developments mean Bitcoin rocks. Okay. Whatever. If Katie in Arizona signs the actual bill thirteen seventy three that allows the Arizona budget stabilization fund to purchase Bitcoin, that's meaningful. That one actually has real teeth. It's got real guts and feathers on it. What she signed into law means nothing. Arizona effectively hasn't done dick, so don't let anybody tell you different on that one. Now on to Matador Technologies raising 1,000,000 Canadian dollars to invest in Bitcoin. Oscar Zaraga Perez from Bitcoin Magazine is writing this one. Matador Technologies Incorporated, a Bitcoin focused tech and investment company, just announced a non brokered private placement of up to and follow along here, people, 5,454,500 and 40 6 units, that's gonna be important later, priced at 55¢ each.
The total amount that Matador expects to raise is 3,000,000 in gross proceeds, and that's Canadian dollars. The funds raised will be allocated into three equal parts. One third will be used to buy Bitcoin, which lines up with the company's continued interest in adding Bitcoin to their Bitcoin reserves. Another third will go towards expanding their gold acquisition plans and growing the Grammys business initiative. Grammys. I don't know what that is. Maybe we'll find out. The final third will cover general corporate needs like, you know, operations, admin costs, and new business opportunities that might come up. Each unit and this goes back to this five and a half million units of 55¢ each. Okay. Here's the definition of what the unit is.
It includes one common share and one half of a common share purchase warrant. Oh, gee. That explained it. One full warrant gives the holder the right to buy an additional share at 75¢. Oh, so it's a promissory note kind of thing. These warrants are valid for twelve months starting from the date that they're issued. There also or there's also an acceleration clause if the company's stock hits a buck $0.05 or more for five straight trading days on the TSX Venture Exchange, but only after four months and one day from closing, Matador can speed up the expiration of the warrants. If that happens, they'll issue a press release, and the new expiry date will be thirty days after the notice is made public.
All securities from this offering will be under a statutory hold period of four months and one day as required by Canadian securities law. Investors won't be able to sell or trade these shares during that time. This whole period helps ensure compliance with regulations and adds stability during the early stage of the investment. The offering will be done under exemptions from the usual prospectus requirements. It's open only to accredited investors across Canadian provinces and possibly in other regions where it's legally allowed. Like most placements, it still needs final approvement, approval from the TSX Venture Exchange before it's official.
This private placement is part of Matador's ongoing plan to strengthen its role in the Bitcoin and gold markets while also building up other parts of its business By diversifying its investments and focusing on both digital and traditional assets, the company is positioning its positioning itself for long term growth. In December of twenty twenty four, the company's board of directors approved a purchase of its first four point five million dollars worth of Bitcoin. Okay. A little kind of interesting. Alright. A little bit interesting insofar that the way that it's doing this warrant thing and the sale of a unit, which is a share plus a promise that you can buy more shares at a set price later, and then there's this they're they're taking a bet and saying, well, if x, y, and z happen and a, b, and c also happens, then we've got the right to do this. It's very, very confusing, but at least it's a little creative.
At least it's not just the issuance of senior debt notes. At least it's something a little bit different, but, honestly, it's the same shit. They're just selling debt to raise money to buy Bitcoin. But in this case, they're buying Bitcoin and gold. And in this case, it's a Canadian company and not a Japanese or an American company. And speaking of American companies, strategy indeed added yet more Bitcoin to their balance sheet, making less available for the rest of us plebs, 13,390 Bitcoin off the market for $1,340,000,000 right as the price topped a hundred thousand dollars.
Michael Saylor's strategy purchased fresh Bitcoin as the currency pushed above a hundred thousand last week. Strategy acquired thirteen thousand three hundred and ninety for 1,340,000,000.00 between the dates of May and May, so they were actively buying all last week. The acquisition has increased strategies total Bitcoin holdings by 2.4%. They are now have a total of 568,848 or 40 BTC acquired for about $40,000,000,000 at an average price of $69,287 per coin. The new purchase, this one that they did last week, was made at an average price of $99,856 per BTC with Bitcoin reclaiming the psychological mark of a hundred thousand dollars on May.
So Michael Saylor buying yet more Bitcoin. And I'm seeing a lot of chatter on Twitter. I've been I I do promise I spend most of my time on Nasr. I go over to Twitter so that I can essentially, here here's the thing. What I love about Nostr is that what we talk about over there is more about each other and ourselves. Like, what like, there's a lot of cooking over there. There's a lot of people, you know, posting pictures about their knitting and, like, lots of really interesting things about science and, like, the, you know, pictures from deep space and and and, of course, there's a lot a lot of Bitcoin talk, but there's a lot of permaculture stuff. There I I post stuff about soil all the time.
It's it is a place to rest my mind. If but if for whatever reason, I wanna go see what's trending in the world, like, you know, I don't know, like Pakistan and India, you know, going going to blows, I'm gonna go over Twitter. And I gotta tell you, the shit that I'm seeing on Twitter, in Bitcoin Twitter specifically, I I'm gonna admit it to everybody here. I've never seen anything like this before. This core versus knots issue is going to really destroy long term friendships between people that I've known on Twitter, you know, not personally, but definitely on Twitter. I know these people from Twitter. I know who they know. I know who they talk to. I know how they talk to each other.
And the way they're talking to each other right now is kind of frightening. The the types of language being used between people that I thought were cordial with each other for the last, let's call it, six years, is is being blown apart. That language is being blown apart at the seams. They used to be nice to each other. They used to be cordial. They used to be respectful. I'm seeing people that I have respect for basically just shit can that respect with a couple of tweets in a row. I've never seen anything like this. Yes. Even the twenty seventeen block size wars, I've never seen this.
I've never seen the kind of negative energy, the dark energy, the black feelings that I'm seeing over on Twitter about the core versus knots thing. And then this morning, there's a new flavor introduced into all that. It's separate, but it's about Bitcoin's gonna die because Michael Saylor is buying Bitcoin. Now Bitcoin's gonna die because the mempools are empty. Bitcoin's gonna die because clearly core versus nots and spam and NFTs. And none of this shit is true. Every single like, I for those of you who spend the major that listen that are listening to me right now, if you spend the majority of your time on Twitter, you are not doing your mental health any favors at all.
I would rather have no engagement with any of my notes on Noster than to spend as than to spend more time than I already do, and I do not spend that much time on Twitter anymore. I used to be addicted to it hours a day. Right? I can't stand being over there anymore now that I've become accustomed to what goes on on Nostra. That doesn't mean that Nostra is always going to be, you know, a place where you're not ripped into shreds by people who you thought were were, you know, intelligent people. You know, you they're they're they're ripping me to shreds with their retarded bullshit over on Twitter right now. Doster is completely different right now. Like like I said, it doesn't mean that it won't turn into something else, but for right now, if if you are finding yourself going to Twitter and just being inundated with dark feelings and negative feelings, especially about the Bitcoin space, then you need to bail out. You need to take a break.
If go go over to Nasr. Please for the love of god, go over to Noster. If you are finding yourself having a hard time doing it, then you can simply go to nstart.me, n s t a r t M e. It will take you step by step. It'll take you two minutes to go through this step by step guide. It's got buttons like you complete a task and it's like go to the next thing and then it takes you through the next thing and explains what it is that's going on and then the next thing, and then the next. And by the time you're done, two minutes, two and a half minutes later or I highly recommend spending at least five minutes reading carefully, but it's not that much to read. The people that did nstart.me, that's nstart.me, did a fabulous job making things quick and concise.
Go get your login information. And then right after that, for the love of God, go over to following.space and log in with your with your new nostril credentials, and you will be able to find entire packages of people that are like okay. There's there's a whole package right here. There's 244 people in this one group, and none of the Bitcoiners are gonna like this. But for, like, the the guys of you that like Monero that are on Twitter and wanna get away from this bullshit, you can go talk to all your Monero friends. 244 of them by clicking on Monero friends at following dot space.
There's a button after you log in. There's a button right o like, right close to the top that says follow all. And your in pub, your basically, your account will automatically start following 244 Monero heads. And you can you you're you're automatically dumped in. Try it. Get you've got to get off of Twitter. It's not doing your mental health any good. And last story up for today is also not the best, but, hey, it's a it's a cautionary tale all the time over here at Bitcoin and kid teens, children, kids, teens have kidnapped a Las Vegas man at gunpoint.
Gunpoint kidnapped him at gunpoint and stole $4,000,000 worth of his cryptocurrency. Stephen Kote warns us about wearing swag, although I'm not sure if that's what happened here, but from Cointelegraph, three teens, two utes, if you recognize the, inference there, three teenagers have been accused of kidnapping a man at gunpoint after he was returning from, yep, here it is, a crypto event in Las Vegas before driving him an hour outside of the city and robbing him of $4,000,000 in crypto and nonfungible tokens. According to police, the incident occurred last November, so it was a while back. The victim had finished hosting a crypto related event in downtown Las Vegas. And when he returned home, the suspects forced him into a vehicle and drove him to a remote desert area an hour from the city.
There, they forced him to hand over passwords to his accounts according to May 10 reports from Las Vegas local news outlet, eight News Now. The man was allegedly told to comply with the teen's demands if he wanted to, quote, live to see another day and because they also had his dad and would kill him according to the report. It's also alleged that a fourth person may have been communicating with the three young men through a cell phone during the incident, which the victim could hear through a speakerphone. After having his accounts drained to $4,000,000 of crypto and NFTs, the victim reportedly walked five miles through the desert to reach a gas station where he could call a friend for help.
Two 16 year olds from Florida are facing charges including robbery, kidnapping, and extortion in connection with this incident. A third teen allegedly involved in the plot has left the country, prosecutors say. One of the young men is behind bars with bail set at $4,000,000 while the other has been released under house arrest with electronic monitoring. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for June with both teens set to be tried as adults. Digital asset lawyer, Sasha Hodder, said on a May 10 Twitter post that this case illustrates how crypto theft is evolving. It's not just social engineering or SIM swaps anymore.
Crypto industry participants are increasingly becoming targets for kidnappings and extortion. In a recent May 3 case, the father of a crypto entrepreneur was freed by police in Paris, France after being held for several days in connection with a 7,000,000 plot in kidnapping. In February, a UK Crypto Broker reportedly jumped 30 feet from a balcony to escape kidnappers who were threatening to torture and kill him if he didn't hand over $30,000 worth of crypto. Meanwhile, Jameson Law, the cypherpunk and cofounder of Casa, has created a list on GitHub recording dozens of offline crypto robberies all over the world.
The first one dates back to 2014 when someone allegedly tried to extort computer scientist and cryptographer Hal Finney of a thousand Bitcoin, which was worth $400,000 at the time. There have been 21 incidents of in person crypto related robberies so far just this year according to LOPS list. In 2024, there were 28 incidents, while there were 17 in 2023 and thirty two in 2021. Stop wearing Bitcoin swag. I I none of the people that make Bitcoin swag that listen to this podcast are gonna like me for this, but it safety is on the line. You know, for for, you know, for all of our brothers and sisters out there, you cannot go around doing shit like going to Bitcoin twenty twenty five decked out in orange pants, orange socks, and a great big orange shirt with a white Bitcoin symbol on it and a big orange hat with a huge other ass white Bitcoin symbol on it. And then go get fucking hammered at a bar down the street all by yourself at two in the morning.
The that is I what I just described is the worst case scenario of the idiocy that you can perform yourself as a human being and not do any of the people around you that love and cherish your existence any good. So it's not just about you. It's about everybody that loves you, everybody that depends on you. Right? While I describe the worst case scenario, it doesn't even have to be that. You could be completely plain clothed or plain clothed and walk out of Bitcoin $20.25. That's it. You'd all you have to do is be there, and you're a target.
And and by the way, do not think for an instant that it's just Bitcoin conferences that are like this. I'll bet you there's problems at, like, weapons comfort. Like, yeah, weapon systems. You know, for, like, when people like the convention for, like, let's let here's our new system of how to kill a shit ton of people, and we gotta figure out how to let one of these off the chain. That's our grandfather did it, and it's worked out pretty well so far. Weapons conferences. These guys are smoking rich, but they've got personal security now, don't they? That's why you don't hear about very many instances of that shit going on. The people that go to Davos, they're not any better off.
Right? It's not just Bitcoin, guys. Right? I'm not trying what I'm trying to do is say, don't get scared. Don't just not go, but, you know, take some security measures. And I'm not talking about paid security. I'm talking about make sure you're always with other people. Don't walk alone. And for the love of God, if you're going to carry a Bitcoin purse, don't. Just don't. Leave it in the hotel room. In fact, don't even take it with you on the plane. If you're if you're having to fly in, don't pack it. Don't don't do it. I'm tired of hearing about people getting robbed of their crypto. I'm tired of hearing people getting kidnapped. I'm tired of people getting guns pointed in their face because they've got Bitcoin.
Don't make yourself a target. Alright? It's a brand new week. Don't do anything stupid, 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 09:35AM Pacific Daylight Time. It is the May 2025, and this is episode ten ninety three of Bitcoin. And, well, it looks like, we might have some relief on the tariff front. That news broke yesterday, but we got details today and it's actually fairly substantial. I'm actually kinda surprised. Why are you here? You're here for all the news that you can use when it comes to bit Bitcoin and the way the macroeconomic environment affects it, and you, by the way. So we're gonna get into several news stories today, including one about David Bailey, and then we've got, well, American Bitcoin mining, the Trump linked miner, is already making some kind of merger, which I find odd. It's, like, barely off the ground, and it's already looking at a merger.
And then we've got, well, there's some well, I don't really know what to call it. Shooting themselves in the foot over there at Coinbase. Yeah. We'll we'll talk about it. I promise. Oregon has passed a law concerning Bitcoin, and then we've got two people in the news. Matador and Strategy are both buying Bitcoin, but the Matador story is way more interesting than strategy, but I had to remind somebody on Twitter, yes, I've been on Twitter a couple of times, just to see the wreckage that is the knots versus core situation. I might get into that one a little bit. But, they were talking about wearing Bitcoin swag, and that means, like, t shirts and hats and purses and socks and pants and whatever else at a conference, at specifically a Bitcoin conference, to which I had to remind them.
And I remind people all the time, don't do that. Don't don't fly your flag. It's not worth it because we've got a kidnapped man in Las Vegas. But let's go back to the tariffs. Bitcoin sinks and stocks rise after The United States and China scale back tariffs. This is James Rubin writing for decrypt. Bitcoin and major altcoins surged early on Monday, but then dropped back down after The United States and China formally announced that they were scaling back the draconian tariffs on one another that have been weighing on investors for weeks. The largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization was recently trading at a hundred and $2,000, which was down 1.5% over the past twenty four hours according to data providers.
Now Bitcoin briefly rose above a hundred and 5,500 for the first time since January before United States markets opened, but then immediately retreated. Quote, Bitcoin's rally above a hundred and 5,000 this morning appears to be a direct response to the easing of United States China trade tensions, wrote Joe DePasquale, CEO of crypto fund manager, Bitbull Capital. Quote, the announcement of a ninety day tariff truce has injected optimism. Yay. Optimism into the global markets, end quote. DePasquale added that the escalation also enhances the appeal of decentralized assets like Bitcoin, which are often viewed as hedges against geopolitical instability, let's just say. However, Di Pasquale noted warily, quote, this truce is temporary.
It's temporary, ladies and gentlemen, and the underlying trade issue remains unresolved, which could reintroduce volatility in the near term. Bitcoin's pullback from its a hundred and $5,000 price scale highly underscores just how sensitive the market remains to shifting macro narratives, especially when moves are driven by more sentiment than structural flows. And following weekend talks, The United States and China said that the countries each would cut their retaliatory tariffs on one another from a 25% to 10%, but only for ninety days while they continue to discuss the ongoing trade war.
Those penalties have been weighing heavily upon investors for weeks amid fears that they were well, that they would raise prices and trigger a global recession. However, risk on assets have risen over the past three weeks amid hopeful signs that The United States would ratchet back its trade war, not only against China, but other major partners last week. The Trump administration and The UK announced that they had reached a new trade deal, although they were far short of specifics. And then they talk about shitcoin number one. I'm not gonna talk about that, nor Solana. They keep on bringing I hate it when decrypt does this, but it's hey.
You get the news where you get the news, guys. So we'll just skip all the shitcoin talk and go straight to the real shitcoins, equities, which spiked on Monday's news with the tech heavy Nasdaq climbing 3.4% and the S and P five hundred up more than 2.4. Both indices have risen more than 7% over the past month with most of those gains occurring since late April. Bitcoin has only jumped or has jumped roughly 21%, a solid move over the past month with some analysts saying that it has appeared to behave more like a safe haven asset as of late. Quote, investor sentiment may find support from the growing political engagement with crypto, particularly as figures like vice president JD Vance preparing to take the stage at Bitcoin Vegas on May, signaling that digital assets are increasingly part of the national economic conversation. Okay. Well, whoop de doo. So, yes, that is another bit of news that I'm not going to cover that much today is that JD Vance is going to well, he's going to speak at Bitcoin twenty twenty five in Las Vegas.
And we've got other Las Vegas news at the end of the show, and it's not it's not the good kind of news. So why would it be the case that Bitcoin dips and equities rise on this at least short term relief of trade tensions between The United States and China. Well, I think it was kind of a double whammy. We haven't seen a hundred and 5,500 price like the news story said since January. Technically speaking, even all other things being equal, let's say there was no tariff news and it was just this price scaling up, you are going to get a pullback anyway because this is just the way the cycle, it it seems to be working over the last few months.
We we hit these pressure points where people are like, oh, thank god. I've been terrified for six months since ever you know, since I first got into Bitcoin because they've been down. You know, if they got in at the highs of a hundred and 6 to a hundred and $9,000, then they've been in the red for a while, and there was quite a bit of people that bought in as usual at all time highs. Now as we reapproach those all time highs, you're seeing different notches on the way up that represent where people bought in, and they have found out that they are not as thick skinned as they thought they were, and they immediately sell just so that they can at least break even or come close to breaking even. And they will have fun staying poor because they cannot wait. Their their time preference is just too short. They're they're looking at the next couple of weeks, the next couple of months.
You know, medium term is a year to a year, you know, to two or three years out, and then longer term is, like, five and ten to fifteen to twenty five years out out from that. Most of the Bitcoiners that I've kind of come to know and love are, well, the way long term view. Many of them think on time scales that represent, you know, a time after their own death. I I know that sounds silly, but, you know, human species used to think that way. We used to think about legacy. We used to think about enduring items that we can build or at least ideas that we can pass along. And not not so much. We've been poisoned by media, not just in the West, but all over all over the world to basically think short term, not even really medium term. So that's one issue altogether. The fact that we hit one zero five, it immediately started decreasing, was just people bailing out of the market so that they could simply break even because they are weak. And they thought they were strong, but they found out that they were not very strong at all. Then we have the trade tariff issue at least in a resolution in the short term, a ninety day short term resolution between The United States and China.
If no long term positions are taken by either country on agreements going further into the future than that, then you can expect a reversal of all this shit in forty five days because people will go, okay. We're at the median mark of ninety days, and we still don't have any word on a long term resolution on this trade thing. Maybe we start bailing out. So I expect that to occur if we don't get any long term trade stuff. But that one aside, equities rose simply because they're like, oh, thank god. We can finally start getting in into some of this stuff again. We just finally start deploying our cash, which is, you know, losing value, and we can put it somewhere to do something for us. Well, that's not going to be helpful for the people that are looking for Federal Reserve rate cuts because Jerome Powell now has even more proof that the economy is doing just fine, and there's no reason there's no reason to heat up the economy by dropping interest rates, which does what?
It makes money or keeps money relatively more expensive to borrow, which is what people love to do when they're going to sink cash into risk assets. So as of today, it is my opinion that Bitcoin looks like more of a risk asset than it does a safe haven asset, even though while I say that, my stomach churns because I know what the truth actually is. I'm talking about the thought processes of the short term thinker. So between those two issues, the fact that we hit a hundred and 5 5 and we got people bailing out because they wanna break even because they're weak asses, and the fact that now it's less likely that we're gonna get cheap money to borrow so that we can throw into, quote, unquote, risk assets, that's why you're seeing this other side of the decoupling between Bitcoin and equity markets.
Jerome Powell is not going to be incentivized whatsoever to drop interest rates anytime soon. You can bet on that. So David Bailey, CEO of Bitcoin Inc or BTC Inc, whatever the hell it is. Last week, I brought news that he was announcing the Nakamoto company. Well, we've got more news. David Bailey and Bitcoin native holding company Nakamoto have announced a merger with Kindly MD to establish a Bitcoin treasury. And this is Vivexin writing for Bitcoin magazine of which is under the umbrella of companies of BTC Inc, which David Bailey is the found or CEO of. Anyway, KindlyMD Incorporated, which is a Utah based health care services provider. Yes. You read that right. Health care service provider has entered into a merger agreement with Nakamoto Holdings Incorporated, a Bitcoin native holding company.
The transaction, which was announced, well, today, this morning, May, includes $710,000,000 in financing through a combination of private placement and, you guessed it, convertible notes. The merger will create a publicly traded company focused on establishing a Bitcoin treasury strategy with $510,000,000 raised through private placement in public equity and $1.12 per share and $200,000,000 in senior secured convertible notes maturing in 2028. David Bailey, founder of BTC Inc, and Nakamoto Holdings will serve as CEO of the combined entity. Tim Pickett will continue managing KindlyMD's health care operations, which include four clinics across Utah providing integrated medical services, pain management, and mental health care.
David Bailey, founder and CEO of Nakamoto, said, quote, Nakamoto's vision is to bring Bitcoin to the center of global capital markets, packaging it into equity, debt, preferred shares, and new hybrid structures that every investor can understand and own. Oh, god. Jesus. Our mission is simple. List these instruments on every major exchange in the world, end quote. He continued, quote, Nakamoto is building the first publicly traded conglomerate. Designed to accelerate that future, the financial institutions who define their chapter in history have all carried the names of their founders, Medici, Rothschild, Morgan, Goldman.
Today, we stake that legacy on Nakamoto, end quote. Okay. I'm sorry. I'm gonna have to gag a little bit here. This is this is beyond hubris, and it's be well beyond suit speak. This is just honestly, this is starting to become delusional. And it's not just David Bailey. It is this fascination with, oh my god, If we can only get Bitcoin to marry up with legacy financial instruments, then everything will be okay. No. And I'm not I'm I am not preaching doom here. It's not really gonna matter to Bitcoin, not in the long term. Blocks are still gonna be produced. Transactions are still gonna be validated. Bitcoin is still going to exchange hands. It's going to do it in a fairly private and mostly decentralized way.
Nothing from that standpoint has really changed. But this continual dragging of the dead cat from outside to inside so that you're going to nurse it back to health, and and I'm equating the dead cat to legacy markets, legacy finance, legacy anything that you've seen in the last hundred years is bullshit, and that's what I'm referring to. It's the dead cat. It's your favorite pet that got caught outside and, I don't know, climbed up a tree and got struck by multiple bolts of lightning, burnt to a fucking crisp, and then fell to the ground. And you, like an idiot, think you're going to go rescue this poor little kitty cat. No, dude. It's dead. And there's no amount of dragging it into a warm, cozy house and setting its corpse by the fire that you're going to be able to resurrect it. It's no. It's dead.
And yet here we are with people that should know better falling into the trap of the last one hundred years. But let's continue the pipe, which is the whole finance instrument that David Bailey's talking about. The PIPE financing attracted over 200 investors globally, including institutional investors such as ACTIVE Ventures in Arlington or Arrington Capital, BSQ Capital Partners, Kingsway Off the Chain Capital, Perifai, RK Capital, VanEck, and Yorkville Advisors alongside individuals, including Adam Back, Balaji Svendvinson, I can never pronounce his name, Danny Yang, Eric Simler, which is the CEO of Simler Scientific, Jihan Wu from Pitman, Ricardo Salinas, the rich guy from Mexico, and Simon Gurevich, who is the CEO of Meta Planet.
Ya two p n l t d, which is an investment fund managed by Yorkville Advisors, was the sole convertible note purchaser. Nobody else wanted the convertible notes. Wow. Woah. Wow. Woah. That doesn't bode well. Under the agreement, KindlyMD shares will continue trading on Nasdaq under the symbol, symbol KDLY until a new ticker symbol is announced, and the combined company's board will consist of six directors appointed by Nakamoto and one by KindlyMD. The transaction includes the assumption of Nakamoto's marketing services agreement with BTC Incorporated, which will provide marketing services related to b, Bitcoin treasury operations.
Kindly MD's clinical operations, because, you know, it's a health care company, will maintain their current focus on reducing opioid use through integrated health care services. The merger requires KindlyMD shareholder approval and is subject to customary closing conditions. Additional transaction details will be available in the current report on form eight k to be filed with the SEC. What does this have anything to do with health care? Somehow or another, I feel like this is a cannibalization of a company that has liquid assets that can be redeployed into this senior convertible note debt instrumentation to purchase BTC so that we can have a Bitcoin holding company, yet another Bitcoin holding company.
I'm a okay. I'm miffed. Sure. Is there anything I can do about it? No. Am I gonna go on about my life? Yes. And you're coming along for the ride because Trump linked miner American Bitcoin is going public via their own merger with Griffin. Adrian Zemunsky for Cointelegraph. Bitcoin mining firm American Bitcoin is going public through a merger with crypto mining company Griffin Digital Mining, and the companies announced that again this morning, May, under the terms of the deal. Griffin Digital Mining, which I've never heard of before in my life, will acquire American Bitcoin in a stock for stock transaction.
Jesus Christ. Why am I laughing? Because Eric Trump and the Trump family just built American Bitcoin and they're already being bought. Talk about a turnaround. You don't even I mean, they they're Eric Trump, the the Trump boys, their old man. He's a real estate developer. Even he doesn't turn around deals this fast, brothers. Oh my god. But after the merger, the new company will operate under the American Bitcoin brand and be led by its board of directors, which includes, of course, Eric Trump, the second eldest of US president Trump's three sons. He's the middle child.
Sorry. None news. News. News of the merger coincided with a sharp rise in Griffin Digital Mining's stock price, which climbed from 52¢ on May to $2.15 at the time of writing, a gain of more than 313% according to Google Finance. The announcement follows early April reports that American Bitcoin was considering an initial public offering. American Bitcoin is a majority owned subsidiary of energy infrastructure, crypto mining, and data center firm, Hut eight. Hut eight CEO, Asher Gnut, said that the company aims to make American Bitcoin a purpose built vehicle for low cost Bitcoin accumulation at scale by taking American Bitcoin public.
We expect to unlock direct access to dedicated growth capital independent of Hut eight's balance sheet while preserving long term exposure to Bitcoin upside for our shareholders. According to the announcement, existing American Bitcoin shareholders will own roughly 98% of the newly formed company. Following the transaction, the new company will control most of the outstanding stock. Hut eight will continue to manage American Bitcoin's infrastructure and operations through long term commercial agreements. Those deals are expected according to the announcement to generate stable contracted revenue streams for Hut eight's power and digital infrastructure segments.
Hut eight acquired a majority stake in American Bitcoin when it was unveiled at the March. March. End of March. It's when I told you about it, it was March, first of April. It's been like a month and a half, but it had backing from several members of Trump's family, as I said. The company, formerly known as American Data Center, was founded by a group of investors including Trump's sons, Donald Trump Junior and Eric Trump. And following the deal, American Bitcoin took ownership of Hut eight's Bitcoin mining hardware. The announcement at the time explained that the new firm aims to become the world's largest, most efficient pure play Bitcoin miner while building a robust strategic Bitcoin reserve. And that's the end of the article, but they're already being bought by Griffin.
And I've never even heard of Griffin. I'm I'm sorry. It is this has nothing to do with with my view on orange man or orange man's son or orange sons. We'll just call them Orange Sons. I don't care. I really don't. But this there's some this turn these turnarounds are way too quick for anything that they've described of what they want to do to actually be done. This is supposed to be about mining, and yet we're changing hands twice inside of a month and a half because, essentially, that's what's happening. And somebody's making out like bandits. I mean, you've got a 03/2013 was it 03/2013?
Let me see. Where was that? Yeah. 313% price stock rise in Griffin Digital Mining from 52¢ to a to $2.15 within two days. Why something stinks. Something stinks here. I don't know what it is. I can't put my finger on it, but my gut feeling says this is dirty pool, old man. And if you feel dirty, you can get clean with SoapMiner. SoapMiner makes soaps. He makes 100% pure beef tallow soaps. You can get it in cedarwood, and peppermint, and lavender, and pine tar, and lemongrass, or just regular rough cut tallow soap, which has all of count the one, two, three ingredients. 100% pure beef tallow, lye, and distilled water. If you want the cleanest soap to wipe the dirt and the stink of this particular Griffin deal off your hide, you go to soapminer.com.
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Now back into the dirty pool old man issue. Talk about diving in head head first into a swamp, and you're gonna wanna keep your SoapMiner soap handy for after this one. Coinbase has abandoned Bitcoin accumulation. It's too risky, says Naked Mole Rat. Atlas twenty one dot com is writing this one as explained by Coinbase Naked Mole Rat CEO Brian Armstrong in an interview. Over the years, the exchange has repeatedly considered the idea of adopting a Bitcoin focused treasury strategy similar to that of strategy. However, the company ultimately decided against it in order to mitigate risks that could have jeopardized its liquidity and operations according to Armstrong.
The CEO revealed that the idea of allocating up to 80% of Coinbase's balance sheet to Bitcoin had been considered numerous times over the past, you know, twelve years. Nonetheless, Coinbase prioritized neutrality and financial stability over heavy Bitcoin investments. Armstrong said, quote, using such a substantial portion of our balance sheet for Bitcoin could have limited our ability to support future operations. We made a conscious choice about risk. Oh, like the risk of your entire back end compute compute system just crashing and burning every time that we get a major swing in the price of Bitcoin? Is that what you, consider your risk in operations, Brian?
Whatever. Alisa Haas, Coinbase's chief financial officer, pointed out that the decision wasn't solely about risk management. She highlighted that Coinbase deliberately avoided directly competing with its own customers by refraining from speculative Bitcoin investments. Jesus. According to the Bitcointreasuries.net website, Coinbase currently holds 9,480 BTC valued at nearly a billion, ranking it still among the world's top 10 Bitcoin corporate holders. Okay. So for those of you who are new to the space in general, the entire company of Coinbase was built on the back of Bitcoin.
Coinbase wouldn't be Coinbase. It wouldn't exist. Brian Armstrong would not have the wealth he has had it not been for Bitcoin sparking this entire thing off. Yet, he actually probably made more of his money selling shitcoiners or shitcoins to shitcoiners and essentially relieving them of their wealth over the past twelve years. That's how he made the bulk of his money. And that's exactly why he that's what he's saying. He's like, oh, I I don't wanna I I don't wanna scare people. If if we if we just buy Bitcoin, that's gonna send a signal that maybe you should buy Bitcoin, which means he doesn't make as much money on a year over year basis because you guys, not you guys, but the the shitcoiners out there that really believe Doge is gonna go somewhere, like our friend Raul Paul, who actually said that he is thinking that Doge may be a hard asset in the future, but be that as it may. But people like him, that's how Brian Armstrong makes his money.
This, honestly, as much as I feel like I should be shocked, I'm actually not shocked at all by this announcement out of Coinbase that they are taking a shit on the very thing that they owe their existence to. Let's run the numbers. Futures and commodities, as I said, the Trump tariff deal seem to be, well, wagging the dog. We've got oil. West Texas Intermediate well above a two point rise to $62.28. Brent North Sea also 2.02 to the upside to 65 and 20¢. Natural gas doing its thing. It's down 3.72%. Gasoline itself, however, is up one and a quarter to $2.13 a gallon.
Gold getting kicked in the scrotum this morning, three and a third to the downside, taking it to 32, 30 1, and a dime. Silver is down point 7%. Platinum is down two and a half. Copper is down three quarters of a point, while palladium riding low 4.08% to the downside. Man, shiny metal rocks are not so shiny today. We got a full mix in agricultural futures. Biggest winner looks to be soybean, 1.6% to the upside. Biggest loser is coffee. Three and two thirds point to the downside. Live cattle is up almost a full point. Lean hogs are up point 61%. Feeder cattle up one and a half.
Here comes the equities. Buckle up. Dow is up two and a half points. S and P is up three points. Nasdaq is up three and a half points and well over that. S and P Mini is up three and a half points itself. And here's where it comes. This is this is the payment for equities. Going up is that Bitcoin comes down from a hundred and $5.05 to a hundred and $3. Hundred and 3 dollars. Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. A hundred and $3,060 still well above a $2,000,000,000,000 market cap. You can get 31.8 ounces of shiny metal rocks with your one Bitcoin of which there are 19,863,638, almost a palindrome.
Average fees per block are slightly elevated today. 0.06 BTC taken in fees on a per block basis. There looks to be six blocks carrying 19,000 unconfirmed transactions. High priority rates are fairly high. 11 Satoshis per v byte. Low priority is gonna get you in at seven, and the hash rate has fallen. Yay. There's a little bit of minor capitulation. 880 exahashes per second is still nothing to sneeze at. We got a four and a half percent difficulty estimate rise coming up April. So that's sometime today, isn't it? No. No. I'm reading the I'm reading the wrong thing, y'all. I'm sorry. We have a four and a half percent estimated difficulty rise in four days or 686 blocks away. And from Mistaken Shake, which was Friday's episode of Bitcoin and I got progressively worse with a thousand sat says, shake and bake, baby. Thank you for all that you do. Yodle with 444 says, cheers to the weekend.
Justin with a hundred says, happy weekend, brothers and sisters. And Pies with a hundred says, thank you, sir. No. Thank you. Man, these donations are just really low. Hey, man. If you wanna help out the show, hit the donate button, man. We I got I got kids to feed, man. They need new shoes and shit like that. That's the weather report. Welcome to part two of the news you can use. Oregon has passed a law officially recognizing Bitcoin as collateral. This is one of the first ones that I've heard about that one. I might have mentioned the that Oregon passed a Bitcoin law last week, but now we're gonna tear into the guts and feathers of what it actually is with Alex Larry from Bitcoin News. Oregon has officially signed senate bill one sixty seven into law, making digital assets, including Bitcoin, legal collateral in financial transactions.
Governor Tina Kotek signed the bill May, updating Oregon's uniform commercial code to allow the use of digital assets like Bitcoin as collateral in secured lending. It adds article 12, which outlines the legal framework for controllable electronic records, which includes digital assets, tokenized records, and electronic money. SB one six seven says digital assets can be used just like traditional collateral. That means individuals and businesses can use Bitcoin and other digital assets to secure loans or financial agreements. Before this, there was lots of uncertainty.
Companies and financial institutions weren't sure how Bitcoin would fit into the law, especially when it came to using it in commercial contracts, and now s b one six seven removes all doubt. It also updates article nine of the Uniform Commercial Code to allow digital assets such as Bitcoin as collateral in secured transactions. It also recognizes electronic records, electronic signatures, and hybrid transactions opening up more blockchain based business activity. This gives important legal clarity, which could encourage more institutional investors to enter and participate in the markets with more confidence.
Oregon is now one of the first states in The United States to clearly define and support the use of digital assets in the legal and financial systems. Analysts say it could trigger similar moves across the country. In fact, the momentum is already building. Arizona and New Hampshire have already passed significant Bitcoin related bills this week. In Arizona, governor Katie Hobbs received a lot of criticism after vetoing s b one twenty five in her own state. After that, she was presented with another Bitcoin related bill, house bill twenty seven forty nine, which she did sign into law creating a state run Bitcoin and digital asset reserve, pausing to say just a few words as reminders about what that nothing burger of a bill actually is, it's stupid.
It dare I say it's retarded. It doesn't make any sense at all. It's talking about being able to capture abandoned digital assets for inclusion in a state Bitcoin reserve. How are you gonna get it? How are you gonna get it? This this is a bill that was clearly written by people who don't understand how the majority of crypto works and certainly don't understand how Bitcoin actually works. It doesn't work the way you think it works. And, obviously, they sent this bill to a governor who probably knows even less about how this stuff works than the people that wrote the bill. The Arizona bill that got passed does nothing.
It would if I if she hadn't have gotten any backlash at all, she probably would have vetoed this thing too. But, you know, hey. To save a little bit of faith, she's just gonna hand over a big nothing burger, which is exactly what the bill is. Now this news story goes on to say that the new fund allows the state to take custody of, like I said, unclaimed digital assets, but only after three years of inactivity and use them to generate value through staking or airdrops. Again, what the hell does that even mean? Nothing. It means nothing. These people have literally no idea what legislation they crafted. Katie has no idea what she signed.
Jeff Wenninger, chair of the Arizona House Committee Commerce or Commerce Committee, said, quote, digital assets aren't the future. They're the present. We've built a structure that protects property rights, respects ownership, and gives the state tools to account for a new category of value in the economy. Arizona also signed another bill, senate bill thirteen seventy three, pending with the governor. If signed, that one will allow Arizona's treasurer to allocate up to 10% of the budget stabilization fund into Bitcoin turning it into a strategic financial head. And above all of that, New Hampshire became the very first state in the union to legally enable the creation of a strategic Bitcoin reserve thanks to house bill three zero two.
And then it goes on to say, these developments mean Bitcoin rocks. Okay. Whatever. If Katie in Arizona signs the actual bill thirteen seventy three that allows the Arizona budget stabilization fund to purchase Bitcoin, that's meaningful. That one actually has real teeth. It's got real guts and feathers on it. What she signed into law means nothing. Arizona effectively hasn't done dick, so don't let anybody tell you different on that one. Now on to Matador Technologies raising 1,000,000 Canadian dollars to invest in Bitcoin. Oscar Zaraga Perez from Bitcoin Magazine is writing this one. Matador Technologies Incorporated, a Bitcoin focused tech and investment company, just announced a non brokered private placement of up to and follow along here, people, 5,454,500 and 40 6 units, that's gonna be important later, priced at 55¢ each.
The total amount that Matador expects to raise is 3,000,000 in gross proceeds, and that's Canadian dollars. The funds raised will be allocated into three equal parts. One third will be used to buy Bitcoin, which lines up with the company's continued interest in adding Bitcoin to their Bitcoin reserves. Another third will go towards expanding their gold acquisition plans and growing the Grammys business initiative. Grammys. I don't know what that is. Maybe we'll find out. The final third will cover general corporate needs like, you know, operations, admin costs, and new business opportunities that might come up. Each unit and this goes back to this five and a half million units of 55¢ each. Okay. Here's the definition of what the unit is.
It includes one common share and one half of a common share purchase warrant. Oh, gee. That explained it. One full warrant gives the holder the right to buy an additional share at 75¢. Oh, so it's a promissory note kind of thing. These warrants are valid for twelve months starting from the date that they're issued. There also or there's also an acceleration clause if the company's stock hits a buck $0.05 or more for five straight trading days on the TSX Venture Exchange, but only after four months and one day from closing, Matador can speed up the expiration of the warrants. If that happens, they'll issue a press release, and the new expiry date will be thirty days after the notice is made public.
All securities from this offering will be under a statutory hold period of four months and one day as required by Canadian securities law. Investors won't be able to sell or trade these shares during that time. This whole period helps ensure compliance with regulations and adds stability during the early stage of the investment. The offering will be done under exemptions from the usual prospectus requirements. It's open only to accredited investors across Canadian provinces and possibly in other regions where it's legally allowed. Like most placements, it still needs final approvement, approval from the TSX Venture Exchange before it's official.
This private placement is part of Matador's ongoing plan to strengthen its role in the Bitcoin and gold markets while also building up other parts of its business By diversifying its investments and focusing on both digital and traditional assets, the company is positioning its positioning itself for long term growth. In December of twenty twenty four, the company's board of directors approved a purchase of its first four point five million dollars worth of Bitcoin. Okay. A little kind of interesting. Alright. A little bit interesting insofar that the way that it's doing this warrant thing and the sale of a unit, which is a share plus a promise that you can buy more shares at a set price later, and then there's this they're they're taking a bet and saying, well, if x, y, and z happen and a, b, and c also happens, then we've got the right to do this. It's very, very confusing, but at least it's a little creative.
At least it's not just the issuance of senior debt notes. At least it's something a little bit different, but, honestly, it's the same shit. They're just selling debt to raise money to buy Bitcoin. But in this case, they're buying Bitcoin and gold. And in this case, it's a Canadian company and not a Japanese or an American company. And speaking of American companies, strategy indeed added yet more Bitcoin to their balance sheet, making less available for the rest of us plebs, 13,390 Bitcoin off the market for $1,340,000,000 right as the price topped a hundred thousand dollars.
Michael Saylor's strategy purchased fresh Bitcoin as the currency pushed above a hundred thousand last week. Strategy acquired thirteen thousand three hundred and ninety for 1,340,000,000.00 between the dates of May and May, so they were actively buying all last week. The acquisition has increased strategies total Bitcoin holdings by 2.4%. They are now have a total of 568,848 or 40 BTC acquired for about $40,000,000,000 at an average price of $69,287 per coin. The new purchase, this one that they did last week, was made at an average price of $99,856 per BTC with Bitcoin reclaiming the psychological mark of a hundred thousand dollars on May.
So Michael Saylor buying yet more Bitcoin. And I'm seeing a lot of chatter on Twitter. I've been I I do promise I spend most of my time on Nasr. I go over to Twitter so that I can essentially, here here's the thing. What I love about Nostr is that what we talk about over there is more about each other and ourselves. Like, what like, there's a lot of cooking over there. There's a lot of people, you know, posting pictures about their knitting and, like, lots of really interesting things about science and, like, the, you know, pictures from deep space and and and, of course, there's a lot a lot of Bitcoin talk, but there's a lot of permaculture stuff. There I I post stuff about soil all the time.
It's it is a place to rest my mind. If but if for whatever reason, I wanna go see what's trending in the world, like, you know, I don't know, like Pakistan and India, you know, going going to blows, I'm gonna go over Twitter. And I gotta tell you, the shit that I'm seeing on Twitter, in Bitcoin Twitter specifically, I I'm gonna admit it to everybody here. I've never seen anything like this before. This core versus knots issue is going to really destroy long term friendships between people that I've known on Twitter, you know, not personally, but definitely on Twitter. I know these people from Twitter. I know who they know. I know who they talk to. I know how they talk to each other.
And the way they're talking to each other right now is kind of frightening. The the types of language being used between people that I thought were cordial with each other for the last, let's call it, six years, is is being blown apart. That language is being blown apart at the seams. They used to be nice to each other. They used to be cordial. They used to be respectful. I'm seeing people that I have respect for basically just shit can that respect with a couple of tweets in a row. I've never seen anything like this. Yes. Even the twenty seventeen block size wars, I've never seen this.
I've never seen the kind of negative energy, the dark energy, the black feelings that I'm seeing over on Twitter about the core versus knots thing. And then this morning, there's a new flavor introduced into all that. It's separate, but it's about Bitcoin's gonna die because Michael Saylor is buying Bitcoin. Now Bitcoin's gonna die because the mempools are empty. Bitcoin's gonna die because clearly core versus nots and spam and NFTs. And none of this shit is true. Every single like, I for those of you who spend the major that listen that are listening to me right now, if you spend the majority of your time on Twitter, you are not doing your mental health any favors at all.
I would rather have no engagement with any of my notes on Noster than to spend as than to spend more time than I already do, and I do not spend that much time on Twitter anymore. I used to be addicted to it hours a day. Right? I can't stand being over there anymore now that I've become accustomed to what goes on on Nostra. That doesn't mean that Nostra is always going to be, you know, a place where you're not ripped into shreds by people who you thought were were, you know, intelligent people. You know, you they're they're they're ripping me to shreds with their retarded bullshit over on Twitter right now. Doster is completely different right now. Like like I said, it doesn't mean that it won't turn into something else, but for right now, if if you are finding yourself going to Twitter and just being inundated with dark feelings and negative feelings, especially about the Bitcoin space, then you need to bail out. You need to take a break.
If go go over to Nasr. Please for the love of god, go over to Noster. If you are finding yourself having a hard time doing it, then you can simply go to nstart.me, n s t a r t M e. It will take you step by step. It'll take you two minutes to go through this step by step guide. It's got buttons like you complete a task and it's like go to the next thing and then it takes you through the next thing and explains what it is that's going on and then the next thing, and then the next. And by the time you're done, two minutes, two and a half minutes later or I highly recommend spending at least five minutes reading carefully, but it's not that much to read. The people that did nstart.me, that's nstart.me, did a fabulous job making things quick and concise.
Go get your login information. And then right after that, for the love of God, go over to following.space and log in with your with your new nostril credentials, and you will be able to find entire packages of people that are like okay. There's there's a whole package right here. There's 244 people in this one group, and none of the Bitcoiners are gonna like this. But for, like, the the guys of you that like Monero that are on Twitter and wanna get away from this bullshit, you can go talk to all your Monero friends. 244 of them by clicking on Monero friends at following dot space.
There's a button after you log in. There's a button right o like, right close to the top that says follow all. And your in pub, your basically, your account will automatically start following 244 Monero heads. And you can you you're you're automatically dumped in. Try it. Get you've got to get off of Twitter. It's not doing your mental health any good. And last story up for today is also not the best, but, hey, it's a it's a cautionary tale all the time over here at Bitcoin and kid teens, children, kids, teens have kidnapped a Las Vegas man at gunpoint.
Gunpoint kidnapped him at gunpoint and stole $4,000,000 worth of his cryptocurrency. Stephen Kote warns us about wearing swag, although I'm not sure if that's what happened here, but from Cointelegraph, three teens, two utes, if you recognize the, inference there, three teenagers have been accused of kidnapping a man at gunpoint after he was returning from, yep, here it is, a crypto event in Las Vegas before driving him an hour outside of the city and robbing him of $4,000,000 in crypto and nonfungible tokens. According to police, the incident occurred last November, so it was a while back. The victim had finished hosting a crypto related event in downtown Las Vegas. And when he returned home, the suspects forced him into a vehicle and drove him to a remote desert area an hour from the city.
There, they forced him to hand over passwords to his accounts according to May 10 reports from Las Vegas local news outlet, eight News Now. The man was allegedly told to comply with the teen's demands if he wanted to, quote, live to see another day and because they also had his dad and would kill him according to the report. It's also alleged that a fourth person may have been communicating with the three young men through a cell phone during the incident, which the victim could hear through a speakerphone. After having his accounts drained to $4,000,000 of crypto and NFTs, the victim reportedly walked five miles through the desert to reach a gas station where he could call a friend for help.
Two 16 year olds from Florida are facing charges including robbery, kidnapping, and extortion in connection with this incident. A third teen allegedly involved in the plot has left the country, prosecutors say. One of the young men is behind bars with bail set at $4,000,000 while the other has been released under house arrest with electronic monitoring. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for June with both teens set to be tried as adults. Digital asset lawyer, Sasha Hodder, said on a May 10 Twitter post that this case illustrates how crypto theft is evolving. It's not just social engineering or SIM swaps anymore.
Crypto industry participants are increasingly becoming targets for kidnappings and extortion. In a recent May 3 case, the father of a crypto entrepreneur was freed by police in Paris, France after being held for several days in connection with a 7,000,000 plot in kidnapping. In February, a UK Crypto Broker reportedly jumped 30 feet from a balcony to escape kidnappers who were threatening to torture and kill him if he didn't hand over $30,000 worth of crypto. Meanwhile, Jameson Law, the cypherpunk and cofounder of Casa, has created a list on GitHub recording dozens of offline crypto robberies all over the world.
The first one dates back to 2014 when someone allegedly tried to extort computer scientist and cryptographer Hal Finney of a thousand Bitcoin, which was worth $400,000 at the time. There have been 21 incidents of in person crypto related robberies so far just this year according to LOPS list. In 2024, there were 28 incidents, while there were 17 in 2023 and thirty two in 2021. Stop wearing Bitcoin swag. I I none of the people that make Bitcoin swag that listen to this podcast are gonna like me for this, but it safety is on the line. You know, for for, you know, for all of our brothers and sisters out there, you cannot go around doing shit like going to Bitcoin twenty twenty five decked out in orange pants, orange socks, and a great big orange shirt with a white Bitcoin symbol on it and a big orange hat with a huge other ass white Bitcoin symbol on it. And then go get fucking hammered at a bar down the street all by yourself at two in the morning.
The that is I what I just described is the worst case scenario of the idiocy that you can perform yourself as a human being and not do any of the people around you that love and cherish your existence any good. So it's not just about you. It's about everybody that loves you, everybody that depends on you. Right? While I describe the worst case scenario, it doesn't even have to be that. You could be completely plain clothed or plain clothed and walk out of Bitcoin $20.25. That's it. You'd all you have to do is be there, and you're a target.
And and by the way, do not think for an instant that it's just Bitcoin conferences that are like this. I'll bet you there's problems at, like, weapons comfort. Like, yeah, weapon systems. You know, for, like, when people like the convention for, like, let's let here's our new system of how to kill a shit ton of people, and we gotta figure out how to let one of these off the chain. That's our grandfather did it, and it's worked out pretty well so far. Weapons conferences. These guys are smoking rich, but they've got personal security now, don't they? That's why you don't hear about very many instances of that shit going on. The people that go to Davos, they're not any better off.
Right? It's not just Bitcoin, guys. Right? I'm not trying what I'm trying to do is say, don't get scared. Don't just not go, but, you know, take some security measures. And I'm not talking about paid security. I'm talking about make sure you're always with other people. Don't walk alone. And for the love of God, if you're going to carry a Bitcoin purse, don't. Just don't. Leave it in the hotel room. In fact, don't even take it with you on the plane. If you're if you're having to fly in, don't pack it. Don't don't do it. I'm tired of hearing about people getting robbed of their crypto. I'm tired of hearing people getting kidnapped. I'm tired of people getting guns pointed in their face because they've got Bitcoin.
Don't make yourself a target. Alright? It's a brand new week. Don't do anything stupid, 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
Bitcoin and Macroeconomic News
Bitcoin Price Dynamics and Market Sentiment
Core vs. Knots Debate and Community Impact
