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Join me today for Episode 1108 of Bitcoin And . . .
Topics for today:

• BM's Own Critique of BTC 2025
• XXI Receives 37,000 BTC
• A Swath of Companies Announce BTC Treasuries
• South Korea's New Pres: Is He Really a Bitcoiner?

#Bitcoin #BitcoinAnd 

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WSJ Hit-Piece: https://archive.ph/LMoO5
https://primal.net/e/nevent1qqsg0uwjya5fd7kpmesx9j2vl8gfekv438uuvgzz3y7smfly3fnllnqhnf0q5
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/takes/vegas-comedown-or-was-bitcoin-2025-too-noisy
https://decrypt.co/323642/crypto-reform-lee-jae-myung-south-koreas-presidency
https://bitcoinnews.com/markets/twenty-one-capital-receives-37000-btc/

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https://atlas21.com/spanish-company-vanadi-coffee-bets-on-bitcoin-1-1-billion-investment/
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/news/canadian-company-solarbank-adopts-bitcoin-treasury-strategy
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/news/norwegian-public-company-k33-ab-purchased-10-btc-for-their-new-bitcoin-treasury-strategy
https://cointelegraph.com/news/k-wave-media-bitcoin-500m-metaplanet-strategy
https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2025/06/04/semler-scientific-acquires-additional-185-bitcoin-bringing-holdings-to-nearly-500m
https://atlas21.com/bitcoin-treasury-61-publicly-listed-companies-now-hold-over-3-of-total-supply/
https://cointelegraph.com/news/ibit-bitcoin-etf-futures-moscow-exchange-top-25-etfs
https://www.nobsbitcoin.com/lnd-v0-19-0-beta/

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[00:00:02] David Bennett:

It is 10:13AM   Pacific Daylight Time. It is the June   2025.   This is episode   11 o eight   of Bitcoin, and   Bitcoin goes all in on MAGA.   Yes. Because Bitcoin is a person.   It's a company with a CEO and apparently can make its, you know, makes these decisions.   So Bitcoin,   your Bitcoin has decided to go all in on MAGA according to the Wall Street Journal.   We're we're gonna talk about propaganda today. It's just gonna have to happen.   The FUD is never relenting. It's never going to relent. If you think at one point or another, you're gonna wake up and we're not gonna have to deal with this garbage. You are sorely mistaken.   This Wall Street Journal article   is one of the worst ones I've ever seen. We're gonna get into it. But it's not really gonna matter for those people because people like Tim Borma   or Boma, I can't pronounce his name, b o u m a, over there on Noster has created something that just reminds me   there's no stopping   this train, and it's not the Noster train.  

It's not just the Bitcoin train. It's not just NFC payments and e cash and lightning.   It's the mindset   of the amount of people   that are essentially forming an army   that's just   we're just sick of   it. We're just sick of everything.   I don't think the powers that be understand   what is fomenting   right before their very eyes. I'm gonna talk about that as well as   the Vegas   twenty twenty five Bitcoin conference.   There's an interesting take on that by Bitcoin magazine   from an author named Joaquin Book,   and it's probably not going to be what you think it is.   Odds of South Korea   for their Bitcoin reform   has changed. Maybe maybe have gotten better because   they elected a new president, and we'll get into that one.  

20 one Capital is in the news   as well as a Spanish company   and a couple of other companies   that we will talk about.   In fact, there's, like, 61 publicly listed companies,   holding Bitcoin. 60 1. Remember when it was just strategy?   And that was, like, what, two and a half years ago? Maybe three? I I think it was like I think I could I'm safe in saying two and a half years ago, and now there's 61.   That's not going to stop either even if you want it to or not because   BlackRock,   well, they've got there's a   there's a derivative   product   of BlackRock   for their spot or or for their beat Bitcoin ETF.  

Actually, it's not. It's it's a derivative of the spot Bitcoin ETF of BlackRock, except it's over there in Russia.   All of that we're gonna get into. We're gonna start with the obvious,   well,   the   the the Wall Street Journal.   I remember a time when the Wall Street Journal could be counted on for actual news   and not outrage marketing.   But times have changed,   and we're gonna get into this one. Let's see who's writing this drivel, if I can even if it even says. Oh, a guy named   Kevin Dugan,   Vicki Huang, and Caitlin Ostroff apparently all came together   to lie through their teeth because they're too   dumb to be able to do it on their own, I guess. But the cryptocurrency   world was once   the province of libertarians, ladies and gentlemen, libertarians.  

And we kept our distance from the government. Well, these days,   it is in the midst of an all out MAGA takeover.   Take the scene at the industry's flagship event oh my god it's so bad already   industry's   flagship   event in Las Vegas last week Star speakers at the Bitcoin conference included a parade,   a veritable parade   of Trump officials   and Washington allies.   Crypto boosters including billionaire Bitcoin evangelist, Michael Saylor, got a private audience with   vice president JD Vance to push their favorite policies.   A retail store hawked Trump hats, bobbleheads, martini glasses, and sequined shirts.  

Two Tesla cyber trucks were wrapped in orange, Bitcoin's unofficial color.   A felon pardoned by Trump was feted at a   welcome back party that cost $300 a person. Quote,   the Bitcoin conference right now is basically a right wing rally, said Richard Scotford,   a 53 year old Bitcoin owner who lives in Costa Rica.   He said being enamored with powerful people is against the ethos of Bitcoin.   The industry, a realm of outsiders who have long clamored for legitimacy,   has never had a friendlier US regime in power.   President Trump raid raised millions from crypto executives and is delivering a lot of what the industry craved,   dropping Biden era lawsuits against crypto companies and backing legislation   to bring digital tokens into the financial mainstream.  

Despite the winning streak, Trump's fervent embrace is causing discomfort   to some factions of the crypto world, including a wing   that has argued since Bitcoin's early days that cozying up to any government is a bad idea.   Even   some of president's supporters,   say that they have cringed at the Trump family's push into every corner of the business from Bitcoin buying to mining to meme coins.   Such moves might raise cap crypto's profile, but they also create substantial conflicts of interest and could jeopardize the industry's push   for widespread acceptance, the critics say.  

Some early Bitcoin stalwarts are wary   of the government entering the market.   Patrick Merck, who spent years trying to establish the industry's legitimacy as cofounder of the Bitcoin Foundation,   warned that Trump's plan to create a national strategic reserve for Bitcoin could be counterproductive,   quote, it's supposed to be a political   value neutral network.   If people believe that the United States government has a very large stake in its success, I don't know how people will feel about that in other parts of the world.   Crypto's comeback wasn't a given.  

Things looked promising a few years ago when entrepreneur Sam Bankman Fried,   chubbly attired   notwithstanding,   turned the exchange FTX into a phenomenon worthy of naming rights for a Miami arena in a Super Bowl ad starring Larry David.   That gave way to the scandalous FTX collapse in 2022   criminal prosecutions.   Frankman Fried was sentenced to twenty five years in prison and ramped up regulatory scrutiny.   The mood is decidedly   different now.   Bacca.   Bitcoin is trading near record highs. The industry is optimistic that with Trump's backing, legislation to create regulatory framework for stablecoins,   tokens that are pegged to real currencies such as the dollar, will accelerate the mainstreaming   of crypto.  

Big banks, including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, and Citigroup are exploring   whether to issue their own joint stablecoin.   The Wall Street Journal reported   that new Labor Department guidance could make it easier to bring cryptocurrency   into four zero one k plans.   At the conference as or rather as the shot conference showed, crypto's elite executives   are hardly outsiders.   They are the ultimate Washington insiders in a ballroom on the Third Floor at the Venetian Hotel past 20 security guards in three dividers. Count them one to three dividers.   Bitcoin enthusiast pitched Vance in an intimate   hour long private meeting.  

Saylor, the executive chairman of strategy, a company   that has made stocking up on Bitcoin the centerpiece of its business,   advocated for tax leniency for Bitcoin miners who perform the complex computational feats needed to unlock units of the currency.   Saylor argued that miners should only pay taxes on sales of its tokens.   He likened the status quo to if a movie studio had to pay taxes on a script based on the prediction that it would be a blockbuster.   The event was organized by Gemini, a crypto exchange controlled by the Winklevoss twins, a face   the the Facebook founding   Winklevoss twins.  

Name cards seen by a journal reporter bore the logo for MAGA Incorporated,   a pro Trump super pack.   Donald Trump Junior and the White House crypto adviser David Sacks were among other people at the event.   Sam Kaseman, the founder of stablecoin company Frax, which I've never heard of in my entire life, pitched the ability for taxpayers to use dollar peg tokens to pay taxes.   Vance didn't indicate what he might do,   but spoke about the need to make the industry more legitimate   and said three people   who were there.   God.  

It just gets worse and worse. Last year,   Trump used the Bitcoin conference to declare himself a major industry ally. By this year's event, he and his family were part of the industry.   Trump Media and Technology Group, the president's social media company, announced plans to raise 2,500,000,000.0   to buy Bitcoin, mimicking the playbook of strategies,   sailor. That would give the Trumps control over one of the largest private Bitcoin stashes.   Quote, it is the hottest asset on Earth, hands down. Not even close right now, said Eric Trump, one of the president's sons. Quote, there is no conflict of interest. I have nothing to do with Washington DC.   The very same people   that were coming after the crypto community were coming after us viciously for no reason whatsoever,   Eric Trump said, and it brought an industry and our family quite frankly together,   end quote.  

Backers of a national Bitcoin reserve say it would lend to the prestige of the United States government   to the currency.   It's a good thing too, this is a quote, because the more people know about Bitcoin,   obviously, the higher the value is going to be, TJ   Slingby,   who works for a crypto advocacy group in California, said of the administration's   support for Bitcoin.   A Trump family controlled venture, World Liberty Financial, has also launched a stablecoin that would be affected directly by legislation   that is advancing in congress.   Tina Matia,   if if that's the way you pronounce it, a former telecom worker from New Zealand,   has also been into Bitcoin for five years and came to the conference for the first time drawn by Trump's political message of anti wokeness.  

She is troubled by Trump's own foray into crypto coins. The top holders of Trump's meme coin recently were invited to dinner with the president,   drawing criticism from Democrats and government watchdog groups. Quote,   I'd not buy it even though I respect the man, Tina said.   Bitcoin has was championed in the early days by libertarian   idealist   who dreamed of a currency that was totally private and secure outside the reach of governments and financial institutions.   Earlier conferences   were concerned   with the finer details of money and personal liberty, and they were attacked by more paranoid types and said Bitcoin developer or rather said Bitcoin developer,   Tadj Dreyja,   Quote, we were like, well,   are they gonna bomb this place and kill us all because they want to destroy Bitcoin,   he said.  

Eventually, a more pragmatic approach took hold. One that sees joining with governments and financial institutions as the way to make Bitcoin valuable in daily life as a store of value or as a way to buy things. Quote,   as much as the early adherence to   firm, quote, and the real world has regulators,   and the government will be involved, end quote.   The MAGA impact on Cryptoland was on display with the celebration of Ross Ulbricht,   here we go, ladies and gentlemen, the founder of Silk Road, a market for illicit drugs that use Bitcoin as payment for transactions.   Keep a very close ear to this section,   people, please.  

In January,   Trump granted Ulbricht the full pardon of his conviction on drug trafficking charges,   saying his life sentence was too harsh.   During Ulbricht's twenty fifteen trial, prosecutors said Ulbricht had ordered the assassinations   of six people, which   he denied.   There was no evidence anyone was killed.   Quote, he said he would free me and he did, period. He's a man of integrity,   Olbricht said at the conference.   The conference also held an auction for clothes that Olbricht wore while incarcerated,   as well as his prison ID and paintings he made while in custody.   One painting sold for more than a Bitcoin or about a hundred and $5,000.  

And that's the end of the article.   So they end with a lie. I mean, there's lies all the way through this.   But   the Wall Street Journal,   what used to be a well respected business   newspaper,   has fallen into outrage marketing   and straight up lying. Now you're gonna say, where have you been? I know. Wall Street Journal's been like this forever.   This is not getting any better. It is very clear   that the people   who have been in power of the messaging,   the propaganda   for the last I'm gonna say a let's say let's just call it eight years.   Right?  

The people that are hysterical all the time, the people that are telling us that we're all gonna die because we're breathing carbon dioxide out of our lungs,   you know, that whole crew,   they are going to die on this hill, not just the Bitcoin hill. The hill the various hills that each one of these groups of people have created for themselves,   the hysteria,   they're going to die on   it. They don't care   that they're wrong. They don't even probably know that they're wrong. They're going to continue to die on the hill. Here we have one of the very worst defenses   in this space that I've ever come across is this unrelenting   reminder   that Ross Ulbricht   was   had charges that he tried to arrange the killing of somebody.  

That   never happened.   Here, what they say   is that he had ordered the he was on trial for ordering the assassinations   of six people.   There was no evidence anyone was killed.   No, hon.   There was no evidence that he ever engaged in that activity   whatsoever.   Those were false charges.   We all know this. And yet, here we have the Wall Street Journal   acting like they're People magazine.   This is what we're up against.   And we're gonna win too. You know why? Because people like Tim Boma or Boma,   b o u m a.   Boma?   Is that it? Tim, if you're listening, please tell me how to pronounce your last name. But Tim says on Noster,   I just created my own fucking payment card network.  

Good night.   And then he's got a screenshot.   There's three buttons. One says test NFC right.   The other one says back to wallet.   And the other one says pay by NFC cards. And there's a little box that says that the payment for the NFC card is going to be 21 Satoshis.   What I'm getting at here, I have no idea. This only a screenshot.   He he's I think maybe he's naming it safe box because he's got hashtag safe box, s a f e b o x, on this particular note, but that's not none of this is the point.   I had written something, I think it was either yesterday or the day before, and all it was was a list.   And it said Bitcoin,   Lightning Network,   e cash,   Nostr,   artificial intelligence,   and the human mind.  

That was it.   No prolog, no postlog, no no nothing.   What I was saying with that particular note, if you saw it or if you didn't, was that these are the tools, this is what's in the toolbox right now, and it's honestly all we need for people like Tim   to just create their own fucking payment card network.   Do you think   the people that are in power right now   are going to be able to stop Tim? Yeah. Maybe. Maybe they go arrest him.   There's   there used to be well, there's still the meme from   what what what what is it? Kurt not Kirby or the arrested development.   There are dozens of us. No. No, hon.  

There's a lot more than a dozen of us.   And having eCash and Lightning Network and Bitcoin and the be the ability for people like Tim and I don't know if he vibe coded it or I don't know anything about Tim other than   somebody I follow on Noster. So I don't I don't really know if he's a coder. Maybe he's vibe coding. I don't care.   What I'm saying is that   these things are being spun up   at a rate   of which it is impossible   for any human based institution   to squelch   at all.   They're going to lose this war. The people that want to die on that hill, they will definitely be dead on that hill. The people that want to stop Bitcoin and these payment structures that regular people are building for themselves and each other   will not be stopped. They will not be stopped. The only people that are gonna be stopped are the people that decided that they wanted to pick the dumbest hill to die on ever.  

Yeah. They're gonna be dead on that hill. Everything else is based around people like Tim   who creates their own fucking payment card network   from Bitcoin, Lightning Network, eCash,   Nostr,   artificial intelligence,   and his own human mind.   Do you think   do you think for a second   that this can be stopped?   If you do sell all of your Bitcoin,   just get out now, put it all into fiat, and go die on the hill   with the rest of the stupid people.   Now Vegas come down, or was Bitcoin 20 20 5 too noisy?   You're   there's a lot of people that are not happy with the way that Bitcoin 20 20 5 went down.   I only saw it from afar, so I can only speak of it from what I saw. Right? So I saw, like, tweets about it. I saw noster notes about it. That's all I really saw. And, honestly, it was kinda   gonna be honest, it was nauseating.  

It really was nauseating,   Which is why I'm kinda surprised   that Bitcoin magazine   who puts on the Bitcoin conference every year   published this, and I honestly I I think it's kinda cool that they did.   Joaquin Book is writing this one. Shit coin magazine tweeted Bitcoin educator and author Nutt   Sponholm   about the event   that BTC Incorporated,   the parent company of Bitcoin magazine, organized in Las Vegas last week.   Dancing cows dashed across my feet, quote, it's a political convention now, end quote, I overheard   two attendees saying as they exited the Nakamoto stage, heads shaking.  

Nigel Farage, the inflammatory   British politician   and leader of Reform UK, was shouting on stage   about becoming prime minister.   A somewhat calmer personality, president or vice president JD Vance, spoke about crypto and thanked Coinbase.   Word on the online street is that Bitcoin $20.25   was captured by political and shitcoiny interest.   Our own technical editor, Shinobi,   opted out of mass surveillance and bailed for freer pastors at the Oslo Freedom Forum.   Eric Kasen   was uncharacteristically   polite,   quote, shitcoin adjacent.   Though, he was there in person happily signing the crypto sovereignty book that Bitcoin magazine books published back in 2023   quote none of my Bitcoiner friends come here anymore said Ben   an entrepreneur who runs a Bitcoin business   on the fence about coming back next year   Whenever I mentioned that I work for Bitcoin Magazine,   I usually have to field questions about shitcoinery   and political shilling.  

Quote, are you a MAGA dude now?   Coming to Vegas   was inspection   time for me, or at least a chance to see what it is that troubles   so many people.   With the glamour of the strip itself and its sensory overloaded, it's easy to be dazzled.   Plus, it was the first time I had left Fort Europa for the land of the free in years. First time in Vegas and first time at an American Bitcoin event.   It's easy for me to simply dismiss the haters by paraphrasing Taylor.   Haters gonna hate hate hate hate. Oh my god.   You quoted Taylor Swift? What is wrong with you, dude?   While sitting down in the Whale Pass area called The Deep,   a hipster looking gentleman   started talking to me about how Bitcoin is fundamentally broken and that I should investigate his energy based shitcoin instead.  

Waiting for Vance's speech in the main hall, I was introduced to three young dudes   dressed to perfection   and barely out of college at the conference to, quote, land a job in the industry,   I e, grifters.   A mid sixties technology dude interjected himself into the conversation,   bragged about how he worked on tech for Microsoft in the nineties, and explained how blockchain, not Bitcoin,   is the future only to have a scan the NFC card he had implanted in his left hand.   Ugh.   Thus, it wasn't difficult to see   the things all these people online had objected to. Our conference was a party   or an elaborate Bitcoin extraction scheme, a circus,   a shitcoin test, or a stablecoin   mania. Plus,   Daniel Princi   basically had a tweet that they've listed here, and it's just the beam of we're throwing a Bitcoin conference, and then the guy sticking his head through the door says tell the truth. And then the woman says, well, there might be some other projects there. And then he sticks his head through the door and he's like, be honest. And then she says something else. And then there's the punchline. You you know the drill.  

Right?   But they're not wrong. Honestly,   you don't even have to look. Here's   an underappreciated   order to the known universe.   To each successful movement or phenomenon,   parasites and fraudsters are drawn.   It's why the shitcoin guys are around Bitcoin events and why the politicians are pandering to our cause.   Vegas itself is the center of gravity for that sort of thing. Gambling,   nudity,   alcohol,   prostitution, and other dopamine inducing stimulants.   I first titled   this take what hookers in Vegas can teach us about politicians at Bitcoin twenty twenty five.   I'm pausing just to say, why didn't you use that headline?  

That is an awesome headline. What hookers in Vegas could teach us about politicians at Bitcoin $20.25.   Yeehaw.   The simple observation is   that fraudsters,   grifters, and scammers   go to where the value is.   Parasites   feed off of healthy, growing, flourishing organisms.   Scammers flooding in, as Tomer's strolight post conference tweeted,   is thus the least surprising thing ever. We're succeeding, growing, and becoming, if not respectable, then at least a household name.   The Financial Times and Wall Street Journal covering us feel somewhere between,   quote, then they laugh at you and then they fight you stages.  

Running around meeting people, hardcore Bitcoiners I've only ever met online, authors and writers and editors I've worked with, they were all in Vegas   since that was the place to be. And attending   the sum total of three presentations,   I felt that Wayne Vaughn of Bitcoin First described it well,   who says, by the way, here's his tweet,   the Bitcoin conference twenty twenty five was different and in many ways disappointing.   The good,   private events were excellent opportunities to reconnect with old friends and meet new people. Bitcoin has grown up and we're finally legit.   The neutral take,   the conference was dominated by politics and traditional finance giving the nod to Bitcoin.  

The bad,   no major Bitcoin or technology   product announcements.   Show floor was useless.   The quality of the vendors was substantially lower than Nashville.   There you go. So you can kinda tell what Wayne Vaughn was saying there.   You can just meet people.   You can just do things.   To make an obvious analogy, the Internet is littered with porn,   gambling, and, god forbid, cat videos, and it's the most successful technology in a generation.   You don't have to look.   You can just work and provide value instead of wasting away your life talking to shitcoiners or being annoyed at politicians and other fraudsters doing their things.   Cozying up to any government is a bad idea, concluded the Wall Street Journal piece, citing a wing of purest Bitcoin that we all feel.  

Yes,   agreed. But   the puritism   that is opposite,   requires, condemns us to irrelevancy,   belittles and betrays the broader mission. So, yeah, the grifters,   parasites, politicians, and the financial engineers are here.   Good for them.   That they're here is a sign of victory. Knock me over with a feather. Haters.   He makes some good points in this particular article, and that was the end of it.   And, yeah, I'm gonna continue to be relatively disappointed with Bitcoin 20 20 5.   Be because some of you will say,   and probably rightly so,   well, you're the one you're the ones that let them in. How come you couldn't identify the grifters and keep them out? I don't know. Do we really wanna get into that kind of censorship?  

I mean, honestly, get the just take a step back and go,   is it worth it? If you don't wanna go to the Bitcoin conference, don't go.   I think that that's really the message here. There are other places to go. I think that the the time is right for I know. Yeah. I'm gonna say it. Yet another Bitcoin conference, but a good one. You know? Like one that doesn't fall into shit coinery maybe one that does say you know what I know you're a shit coin or no you don't get to buy the ticket or rather you bought the ticket but here's your refund there's the door get the fuck out   okay maybe I don't know   but   just because   I'm I don't like what happened at the Bitcoin conference, not only this year and not only last year, but honestly, kind of the year before.  

But it doesn't mean that I hated everything about those conferences or at least what I saw. I mean, and I didn't go to any of them. So I don't really have a whole lot of legs to stand on, but there was shit coinery at all of them. And even at the one in 2019, there was probably some shit coiners walking around, and that was the very first one. So I don't really want I just don't think we should get our panties in too much of a twist about this whole thing because   South Korea, yo,   where crypto reform or the chances of crypto reform rising as Lee Jae Myung   wins the presidency.  

This Maya v is gonna tell us a little bit about it because a country shaken by martial law just six months ago   has elected a brand new leader and they have plans for crypto reform.   Lee Jae Myung,   the leader of South Korea's Democratic Party,   was sworn in as president on Wednesday after securing a decisive victory in a June 3 snap election.   With 99%   of the votes counted,   Lee won 49.42%   to his rival, Kim Moon Soo's   forty one   point fifteen percent   amid a historic 79.4%   voter turnout.   Pretty good. That's the highest   since 1997.  

Lee, who narrowly lost to Yoon in 2022,   had used that earlier campaign to experiment   with NFTs   bearing his image and pledges in an effort to connect with younger voters. Oh, great. NFTs.   In his latest run, he expanded on those ideas,   pledging to legalize,   spot   Bitcoin exchange traded funds,   and launch a a one pegged stablecoin   to prevent capital flight, quote, we need to establish a one backed stablecoin   market to prevent national wealth from leaking overseas, he said,   quote, with   a Lee   Jae Myung   now elected,   the likelihood of seeing a spot ETF approval has significantly increased,   Minh Chung,   an analyst at Presto Research, told Decrypt.  

So the guy is not exactly effectively   a complete Bitcoiner.   He's clearly dabbled in shit coins in the form of NFTs,   and he is all over the stable coin   genre, for lack of a better term. But there's no way that he wouldn't be able to do that. There's absolutely no way any of these people are gonna be able to stay away from Stablecoins.   And, honestly, it's going to deflect the Stablecoin issue as much as people hate it.   It's going what's going to happen is it's going to deflect a lot   of political energy away from CBDCs,   unless you're talking about the European Union.  

Yet another bunch of people who have chosen a particularly   stupid hill to die upon, and they will die upon that hill. But be that as it may, even if you hate stablecoins in their very existence,   it's probably a hell of a lot better than CBDCs.   And I'm not even gonna get into why. I'm just gonna leave it right there. If you want to to fight with me, fine.   In fact, I encourage   it. Do so on Nostr or throw me a boostagram or two and and tell me how wrong I am. But I would much rather it be a stablecoin situation than these CBDCs.   As to whether or not a stablecoin   or a wand linked stablecoin   is going to prevent South Korean capital from leaking out of the country,   I think that that is a fucking fantasy   of this particular new president.  

No.   Your stable your wand backed stable coin is not going to hold up. People are going to be using tether   inside your country, and then you'll try to make that illegal and it's not going to work, and you will find some hill to go die upon, and you will die upon that hill while Tim Boomer   decides to make yet another fucking   credit card payment for people in South Korea or another, you know, NFC payment card for people in South Korea. You don't hold a chance.   You have nothing   at all to combat us with.   We are going to win.   There's nothing you can do.  

It's over.   Go find a hill,   make sure it's particularly   stupid,   and go die upon it.   And then when you wake up in the afterlife, maybe you'll be hungry for   BTHC   nodes,   which are chocolates,   from a good friend over at oshigood.us.   Oshii.   His name is Oshi. Always remember he makes all kinds of stuff. He makes huddle bars, which I think are delicious.   He makes huddle butter, which is pecan butter. It's very   I've had not his pecan butter, but I have had pecan butter before.   If you thought peanut butter was good, oh my god. So go over to oshigood.us   and check out b t h c notes.  

Each bite   contains approximately   fifteen to twenty milligrams of THC.   Not CBD.   Not not CBCs or what was the CDs   CDB CBD?   CBD can cannabinoid?   CBD? I don't know. I can't remember. This   is the shit that gets you high. Let's just say it that way.   Infused   with a blend of ghee butter and my proprietary   huddle butter, that's the aforementioned,   you know,   pecan butter.   There are 10 bites per jar, which is what you get on an order, and here's his suggested use. You start with one node,   then wait thirty to forty five minutes. If you're only feeling a light effect,   feel free to enjoy another.  

Taste, chill, and enjoy responsibly.   Here are the ingredients.   Dates,   pecan butter,   peanut flour, cacao powder, peppermint extract,   the aforementioned   THC,   ghee butter, cinnamon, vanilla extract,   and sea salt. And they're all covered in chocolate, so they look like little chocolates.   This is important.   Do not leave shit like this out for your kids to find. There's no way for your children to know that they are   not for their consumption.   This is your responsibility.   This is not Oshi's responsibility.   You know what you're buying. You know what's contained in them. It's your job when you take possession of this shit to keep them out of reach of children.   They there's not a six year old on this planet that needs to be ingesting fifteen to twenty milligrams of THC, but that's your issue.  

You will pay 30,000   satoshis for an order. Again, there are 10   chocolates in a jar. You're gonna pay 30,000 for them. If you want 10% off, use the code Bitcoin and in the coupon code. That way, Oshi knows that I made a sale for him.   I might actually try these myself.   I'm not sure   because I have not really had, you know, marijuana prod products in a long long time. You never know how it's going to affect me, so I'm going to think about it, but I may very well do that.   Again,   go to 0shig00d.us,notcom,.us,   oshigood   U s, oshigood U s, oshigood   U s, by the BTHC   nodes.  

Make sure you keep them out of reach of your children if you have any and your dogs and cats in case they're weird like that.   Pay 30,000 sats. Oshii will know to give you a 10% discount. Actually, he won't give you a 10% discount. That's right. I don't have that worked out with Oshii.   He needs to know that I made the sale. So use Bitcoin and as a coupon code, you will not get 10% off. That's for some that's for for one of my other vendors. Sorry about that, Oshie. I didn't mean to actually screw   that up for you. Just let him know that you bought it from me. That way he can determine whether or not   he finds the sale valuable.  

So you support Oshie, Oshie supports me, and I can support you by bringing you the news that you can use. Let's get on to the rest of this one. 20 one Capital   receives 37,000   Bitcoin from investing partners.   So it's actually happening in this particular case from Bitcoin news.   Alex Larry writing, it is definitely happening.   In a massive vote of confidence for a new Bitcoin focused company,   Tether and Bitfinex have moved over 37,000   worth $3,900,000,000   to digital treasury firm, twenty one Capital.   This is one of the largest Bitcoin transactions   in recent history.  

The announcement came from Paolo Ardoino,   CEO of Tether and CTO of Bitfinex   through multiple posts on Twitter.   According to Arduino,   the transfers were part of a pre funding round for the launch of twenty one Capital, a new company that will lead the Bitcoin treasury space. Quote,   Tether Group is moving 10,500   BTC   to this Bitcoin address as part of the pre funding of SoftBank's investment in twenty one Capital, Ardoino said.   Twenty one Capital is a new Bitcoin treasury firm led by Jack Mallers,   CEO of Strike and founder of Zap.   The company is backed by Tether, Bitfinex SoftBank, and Kantor Fitzgerald.  

The company will go public   via a SPAC, s p a c, merger with Kantor Equity Partners, and it will trade under the ticker   XXI   on the Nasdaq.   After the merger was announced,   CEP's   stock price   skyrocketed from $11   to just under $60   That's almost a six x increase   in Cantor in Cantor Equity Partners stock price. They haven't even put XXI on the Nasdaq yet.   Just keep that shit in mind, guys. Keep that shit in mind.   This is going to happen.   And all the people that are really,   really in a snit   that these things exist, these Bitcoin Treasury companies exist,   how how can you combat it?  

Make sure you buy Bitcoin.   Let's run the numbers.   Futures and commodities, West Texas Intermediate   is well, all your energy prices are sucking today. 1.15%   down to the downside for West Texas Intermediate.   That $62.68   a barrel. Brent Norsee down 1 and a quarter to $64.79.   Natural gas down a half   to $3.70   per gallon or a thousand cubic feet. And gasoline   is down two and a quarter percent to $2.03   a gallon.   Gold and all the red metal rocks are doing fairly well today. Gold is up three quarters of a point to three   wow. $34.00   3 and 6 dimes.  

Silver is crawling sideways. Platinum is up almost 2%.   Copper is up one and a third. Palladium is the only one in the red. It's down one and three quarters.   In lumber, everything is mostly in the green today. Biggest winner is rough rice. Two and a third of the upside. Biggest loser is lumber. 1% to the downside. Meanwhile, live cattle is up well over a full point. Lean hogs are up almost a half and feeder cattle are up point 87%.   Meanwhile, the Dow is crab walking sideways, but in the green. The S and P is up point 2%, Nasdaq is up point three, and the S and P Mini is   up a quarter of a point.  

Apparently, Reddit is suing   Anthropic for breach of contract and unfair competition. So that is breaking news   from CNBC,   and I don't give a shit.   Hundred and $5,080   gives us a $2,090,000,000,000   market cap on Bitcoin.   You can get 31   ounces of shiny metal rocks with your one Bitcoin of which there are 19,874,147.72   of.   Average fees per block are low, 0.04   BTC taken in fees on a per block basis.   There are six blocks carrying 13,800   unconfirmed transactions   waiting to clear at high priority rates of 5 Satoshis per vbyte.   Low priority is gonna get you in at four.  

No minor capitulation   yet. 908   exahashes per second is what I'm seeing as the hash rate.   And from   wow.   Let's see. Oh, I didn't even I forgot.   From meta wins and losses, which was yes well, the day before yesterday, I'll talk talk about that. The day before yesterday's episode of Bitcoin and,   I've got Aggie Chute with a thousand sets says,   Chechnya   my ass. Sorry about that. If you ever come to Europe, I will give you a tour.   Check.   Did I say Chechnya?   Oh, God. I'm so sorry, Auggie.   Psyduck seven ten says, Psyduck. Six twenty two from Will says nothing. He literally writes that says nothing.   Yodel   with 511   says, Psyduck unzipping his boots by one sat   each episode. I see you   progressively worth with worse with 500 says thank you.  

And, let's see, turkey with 500 says nothing.   And, thank you sir with 500 says you're welcome.   Thank you sir with another 500 says sperm bank.   God's   Jesus.   God's death. 237   says thank you, sir. No. Thank you. Perma nerd with two ten says please donate to the show so none of your business can play with this kid before he dies and they fight over his. And then he gives an in pub and I oh oh, over his Leathermint   wallet.   Yeah. Fountain.fm   doesn't,   resolve   in pubs very well, so   keep that in mind.   Cyclross with a hundred says,   lol Chechnya   is not the same as Chechnya.  

Thankfully,   you said Southwest, not Southeast.   Yes, Southwest.   Okay. Perhaps the donation was from a fed comes from Nostra Gang with a hundred   and that's it. Okay. So oh, no. Pies with a hundred says thank you, sir. Not thank you. Okay. Yesterday,   I didn't bring you an episode of Bitcoin in because I spent two hours   on another podcast with Daniel Prince and the once bitten podcast. We talked about the forest walker.   Daniel said that that episode should be dropping   sometime,   like, maybe two weeks from now, maybe a little bit sooner, maybe   a little bit later. It depends. But, yeah, that's where I was, and my voice was pretty much shot, and time was pretty much done for the day for me. There was just no way I could get another episode out.  

That's the weather report.   Welcome to part two of the news. You can use   Spanish   company, vanity,   v a n a d I. That's kind of a cute little name.   Vanity Coffee   has bet on Bitcoin.   They've made a 1,100,000,000.0,   that's billion with a b, dollar investment.   This is out of Atlas twenty one, by the way.   Vanity Coffee,   a well known Spanish coffee shop chain, is preparing   for a major shift in its business model through a Bitcoin investment worth over $1,100,000,000.   The company plans to transform itself from a simple coffee distributorship   into an entity centered around the leading cryptocurrency.  

Salvador   Marti,   chairman of the board of directors,   has outlined a clear vision for the company's future seeking authorization to implement a Bitcoin accumulation   strategy   with a maximum budget of €1,000,000,000   according to documentation   submitted   to BME Growth.   The strategy involves using convertible financing lines,   think senior notes,   to support the Bitcoin acquisition   following the model successfully pioneered by strategy.   Marty has already demonstrated his conviction by purchasing 5 Bitcoin for approximately 500,000   2 weeks ago.  

Vanities coffees or vanity coffees decision   comes at a critical moment for the company, which reported losses   of $3,700,000   in 2024,   exceeding its annual revenues by nearly $600,000.   The GameStop episode offers a relevant case study. The American company, facing similar difficulties,   opted to purchase Bitcoin through a debt securities issuance,   acquiring a total of 4,710   Bitcoin.   Vanities   Coffees   initiative   is part of a broader global movement from companies from various industries embracing Bitcoin   as a strategic reserve asset from Chinese logistics firms to football clubs. The phenomenon   of corporate adoption is crossing both geographic and sectoral   boundaries.  

So there you go. The next   by the way, the next vanity coffee board meeting, which is scheduled for June 29, will mark the pivotal moment for the Spanish company.   Approval of the $1,100,000,000   strategy could trigger further investments from other corporations.   If they do, it'll be mostly,   probably European companies.   This vanity might be because what here's what we've seen, American companies   and Japanese companies.   Not really European companies, not especially   not European companies   that are in the EU.   Yeah. We got a couple of United Kingdom football clubs.   There may be a European Union football club, and while they are technically businesses,   I tend to kind of separate that out because sports to me just does it's not the same as selling a retail good. Yeah. Sure. You're selling t shirts and shit like that, but   that's not your really made that's not your major business line.  

If vanity coffee does this,   and God forbid   it works for them   because they're in the hole, it looks like they're they're probably doing poorly because nobody has any money left over, nowhere in the world to go buy   coffee. Right? You know, like the even even Starbucks looks like it might be sucking some swamp water given the looks of their   parking lot,   at least the ones that I've seen around   my neck of the woods.   They're not exactly as full as they used to be.   So if it works for vanity, other European Union companies might go, holy shit.   Now we've really got to do it. So that would be America   and then Japan and then the European Union and   everything else falls.  

Everything else falls after that.   And again, I understand people are really, really worried about Bitcoin's   future   with this whole   Bitcoin treasury company fad that seems to be popping up. Is it really a fad? Well, I don't know. You tell me.   Corporate Bitcoin FOMO seems to have hit, like, a whole new level.   You got a Canadian solar outfit named SolarBank.   It just announced that it is putting Bitcoin on the balance sheet. I mean, they're not fucking stupid. Right? They said it's a hedge against fiat depreciation.   See in a pattern?  

Because they I'm not done.   We got k thirty three a b. That's a Norwegian company.   They've dipped in with 10 Bitcoin for their own Bitcoin treasury strategy.   They're not really big, but they are symbolically important   because small   capitalized   markets overseas or rather companies overseas are looking around going, you know, maybe we'd rather just hold hard money than rotting government bonds.   Even the Norwegians   are starting to get in on this shit. We already know about South Korea, but yet we've got another South Korean company called K Wave Media. They've committed to half a billion dollars in Bitcoin.   That's $500,000,000.  

They're calling it the most secure monetary network on the planet.   They even said Bitcoin aligns with the Meta Planet strategy referring to the Japanese firm that kicked off the trend a few months back.   Asia's playing chess with The United States. The tech sector sector is still scared   of Twitter polls.   And then you got similar scientific.   That's a medical device company. They scooped up yet another. This this we've talked about similar before, but they bought another   185.   That pushes their stack now to 828   Bitcoin   worth just shy of half a billion dollars.  

Talk about biotech, man. It's not a fintech company or at least it's not a fintech company yet.   It's a company in the health sector, and it now literally owns more Bitcoin   than most of Silicon Valley combined   because idiots like Meta and Microsoft and Amazon   just aren't towing their end of the line.   It's a whole balance sheet reallocation people.   Meta shareholders   just sit on their hands and vote against the Bitcoin treasury protocol   or proposal,   and other firms are just quietly stacking.   And it's the kind of stacking that makes headlines   only after it happens.  

Right?   These people have been doing this, like this k wave,   this and this k 33   and solar bank.   I mean, they're hitting the news now because it's always newsworthy when you find one of these companies that you've never heard of before buying Bitcoin and putting it on their balance sheet.   The argument against this, and I get this, is that, David, you're talking about zombie companies. They're losing their ass. Yeah. Companies lose their ass all the time. Have you seen a Sears and Roebuck lately?   Have you seen a Sears   lately?  

Because Sears and Roebuck,   that shit ended, like, in the eighties,   and then it just became Sears. They dropped the whole Roebuck thing, then it just became Sears. Right? You can still go get your kids tough skins,   but it was not really the same company. And now,   have you seen a Sears in any mall, anywhere?   Have you seen a J how many JCPenney's   have you seen?   These are all anchor stores, by the way.   They're all anchor stores for malls and strip malls.   They're they're   they're not here anymore. Not really. I mean, I think j c penny is still alive, but most of their stores have been shuttered.   You can't even walk into   a Victoria's Secret at a mall anymore and not see some really shitty looking   displays.  

And, I mean, it just doesn't look as as elegant as it used to look, you know, back in the nineties.   You know, hell, even in the February.   Right?   Companies die.   People, you know, their their products and their services fall out of favor with the general public and new companies rise up.   The companies that survive for long are the companies that have been able to pivot.   When was the last time you saw a Woolworths?   Do you even know what a Woolworths is?   I mean, I'm surprised Walgreens is still alive, honestly.   There used to be a small chain of of stores in   West Texas and Texas called Gibson's,   and they were from Houston all the way over to Midland, Texas, which spans the entirety of the state. No more. They they don't exist. Why? They didn't pivot.  

The companies that are dying today   that pivot to a Bitcoin strategy, that's their that's their hail mary.   Will it work for all of them? No.   Will it work for some of them? Yeah.   Has it worked already for a few of them? Oh, hell yeah. Look at strategy.   Talk about a zombie company. They were basically just doing nothing.   Nobody even knew about this company. Nobody knew who Michael Saylor was five years ago.   Now look at it. Doesn't mean it's successful,   but is the company dead?   Certainly not.   Will the company die later? Maybe.   I don't know.  

But as long as we end up in this tumult of markets   and people with less and less money to spend,   You're gonna have more and more companies that would have just died out   had it not been   for the fact that there's Bitcoin.   And they can leverage   Bitcoin and the ideal of Bitcoin   against people who do have money left, and that would be investors,   who are dumb enough   to buy senior convertible notes because they're gonna get some kind of metric on the backside that says this is how much Bitcoin they have per share.   I think it's rather dumb myself, but   is it   just because I think it's dumb, does that mean it's not working?  

No. It's working, and it's going to continue to work no matter whether or not we hate it or or love it. It doesn't matter.   It's   basically the last ditch effort   of companies that would otherwise already be closed   to stay alive for one more day.   It is the resuscitary   necessity   of or rather, it's the resuscitary   properties of Bitcoin   that are attracting companies to it because a lot of these companies are like, nobody's buying our shit, dude.   In fact, there are 61 publicly listed companies   collectively   holding over 3%   of the total Bitcoin supply.  

And this is out of Atlas twenty one, by the way.   The use of Bitcoin as a corporate treasury strategy is reaching unprecedented levels.   According to a recent report from Standard Chartered   shared with several industry outlets, there are 61 publicly traded companies collectively holding 3.2%   of all the Bitcoin   in circulation.   Jeff Kendrick,   global head of digital asset research at Standard Chartered, revealed that the 61 public firms out of a total of a 24,   and I don't know what that means,   now own   673,897   Bitcoin.   The report highlights that 58 of the 61 companies analyzed have net asset value multiples above one,   indicating that their market valuation   exceeds the value of their net assets.  

A significant takeaway from the report is the speed at which companies are accumulating Bitcoin.   Those 60 companies,   considered the strategy copycats,   they've doubled their holdings in the past two months.   Say it again.   60 companies   have doubled their Bitcoin holdings   in the past two months not two years   not two decades   well which would be dumb because   what you know why   two months   They have twice as much Bitcoin now as they did two months ago. That's 60 of those companies.   Over the same period,   strategy added 74,000   Bitcoin   compared to the 47,000   acquired by the other firms.  

This movement continues to expand as new companies announce Bitcoin purchase plans via debt issuance.   On January,   Canadian renewable energy developer Solar Bank officially announced its Bitcoin treasury strategy,   filing an application to open account with Coinbase Prime to secure custody services,   manage USDC,   and set up a non custodial wallet for its Bitcoin holdings.   Meanwhile,   Paris based Blockchain Group announced a $68,000,000   Bitcoin acquisition acquisition while Norwegian crypto brokerage k thirty three   raised the aforementioned   $6,200,000   to purchase Bitcoin at the May.  

Okay.   It's not going away.   We can cry,   and people will continue to cry.   All the way to Moscow where BlackRock's   Bitcoin ETF futures   has debuted in Moscow   as the fund hits the top 25.   Let's see how this is structured because this is they're actually talking about iBit, which is a spot   Bitcoin ETF.   It looks like somebody's actually turned   somehow or another   constructed something   to turn the spot Bitcoin ETF known as iBit into a derivative.   I mean, the the the fund itself is never going to be a derivative. You technically owns the the the Bitcoin, but somebody, somewhere's   let's oh, screw it. Helen Parks, please, for the love of god, get me out of this.  

Moscow Exchange,   MOEX,   Russia's largest stock exchange, launched futures trading   for BlackRock's   iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF,   iBit,   as the fund climbed to the world's top 25 ETFs by asset under management.   MOEX introduced a futures contract, there it is, tied to iBit on June,   that was just today,   according to an announcement by that exchange. The new investment product   is accessible exclusively to accredited investors with Moex planning to introduce qualification   testing from June.   The launch comes as iBit entered the list of the top 25 ETFs by assets   worldwide   with an asset under management of $72,400,000,000,   according to Bloomberg senior ETF analyst   Eric Balchunas.  

Moscow Exchange's   iBit futures trading debut as the latest crypto investment product launch in Russia since the Bank of Russia   authorized financial institutions to offer crypto products   to qualified investors investors in May.   Following the green light, major local commercial banks, including Spur and T Bank, formerly formerly   Tinkoff   Bank, have started off   offering   investment tools tied to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.   Despite   the expansion,   the Russian central bank remains cautious about direct crypto investments and continues to advise against retail   participation   in digital asset markets,   and that made the retail investors become   not happy.  

Since products like iBit ETF futures are only available to accredited investors,   many retail investors are unimpressed   by the latest crypto developments in Russia. I'd be unimpressed too because I can't hold them.   Quote,   not real ETFs from The United States, just a copy,   which does not affect the crypto market in any way,   said one disgruntled observer   on the news   or to the news on the DCinter channel on Telegram. Another commenter   hinted that they'd rather directly trade cryptocurrencies   on exchanges like Binance   than crypto investment products on the MOEX.  

According to official MOEX data, the number of individuals with brokerage accounts on the MOEX   amounted to 36,900,000   as of May. Wow. Last month,   at least 3,600,000   people   made transactions on the MOEX stock market with 315,000   individuals representing qualified private investors.   It's a lot bigger numbers than I thought, honestly.   BlackRock's iBid has continued its meteoric rise since its launch in January. And on January,   the ETF   entered the top   25   global   asset under management list, a feat achieved in just over a year. Quote, at 1.4   years old,   iBit is the youngest on the list by nine times.  

Balchunas wrote on Twitter on Tuesday. Holy shit.   It is. The man, the the the   after Bitcoin,   the youngest asset is the iShares Core MSCE   EAFE   ETF,   and it's 12.6   years old.   The next youngest is 13.6   years old, and Vanguard's   S and P 500 ETF is a mere 14.7   years old.   Holy shit. Quote, it's like an infant   hanging out with teenagers or 20.   Quite possibly the most insane   iBit start yet   or stat. Sorry.   BlackRock's iBit Bitcoin ETF has been breaking records.   Historical launch in January in just three months, it raked in $15,500,000,000   in inflows,   which placed it among the top 10 longest inflow streaks   for any ETF   in the history of all ETFs.  

Nothing stops   this train.   So   oh, and by the way, just to end it off here,   Lightning Network daemon or the LND version 0.19   beta   has been released.   So if you are so inclined   and you are using lightning and you are using the lightning network daemon to to have your lightning node, you might wanna go check out version 0.19.   It is in beta,   but   apparently it touts   replace by fee cooperative close,   improve payment reliability,   and more. So if you wanna find out what the hell that more is,   you can go do that.   Other than that, I've got other fish to fry, so I'm gonna end it here, and I will see you on the other side.   This has been Bitcoin and and I'm your host, David Bennett. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and hope to see you again real soon.  

Have a great day.