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- BTC Treasury Companies Feel Frothy
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https://www.theblock.co/post/360946/tether-plans-further-bitcoin-mining-expansion-in-south-america-with-adecoagro-tie-up
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It is 09:02AM Pacific Daylight Time. It is the July 2025, the day before Independence Day here in The United States. This is episode eleven twenty six of Bitcoin, and apparently, the IMF has got their panties in a snit yet once again. This time, it's gonna be with Pakistan. I'm gonna take you through all the news that you can use today to keep your mind clear because you know FUD is always ever present. If you're confused because of what's going on on social media and you can't figure out what the hell's going on, that that that's why you're here because I'm just going to give you the curated news about Bitcoin.
Every once in a while, I will talk about shitcoins only insofar as to tell you examples or show you examples why to stay away from them. But other than Pakistan, we're gonna talk a little bit about what's going on in Thailand. Meta Planet seems to be expanding, and Tether is expanding as well. And if you've listened to the show for any length of time, Tether is a very interesting entity to watch. I'm not sure if I am prepared to call Tether an actual shit coin. It just stablecoins just seem to fall outside of that, that that particular moniker. So I I do like looking at what Tether's doing.
I have a lot of respect for any company that hasn't gone bankrupt in the Bitcoin space, has been around as long as they have, and makes $13,000,000,000 in net revenue in a single year with a staff of 200 people. I mean, honestly, I I gotta give credit where credit is due. And then jobs data has turned around. We had I I told you about the jobs data numbers yesterday looking pretty bleak, but remember those were private sector jobs. And now the non farm payroll jobs report has come out, and things have taken a twist. Peter Thiel, I'm going to be talking about his new bank.
Silicon Valley Bank wasn't enough for Peter Thiel, I guess. So we're we're he's doing another one along with some partners. And Blue Crab loves Blue Star or however the line from the movie Wall Street in the nineteen eighties goes. Blue Star Capital is in the news as well as Geyser, as well as something called Belgravia, Hartford Capital, and h one hundred is buying a little bit of Bitcoin today. But first, let's go back and and see if we can dry the tears of the International Monetary Fund because apparently they've got a little beef going on with Pakistan. Ahmed Haqqshanis has this one for Cointelegraph.
Pakistan Bitcoin mining plan in limbo as IMF rejects power subsidies according to a report. So Pakistan's plan to use surplus electricity for crypto mining, it it hit a roadblock after the International Monetary Fund reportedly rejected a proposal to offer subsidized power to energy intensive industries, including Bitcoin miners. Pakistan Secretary of Power, Fakhre Alaaam Irrfan, told the Senate Committee on Energy that the IMF claimed such measures could distort the energy market and worsen existing issues in the country's fragile power sector according to a report from Urdu language outlet or news outlet, Independent Urdu.
Although Pakistan has excess electricity, particularly during the winter, the IMF remains concerned that pricing schemes could disrupt the market balance per the report. Irfan said all significant energy policies must be approved by the IMF. So Pakistan has to follow the rules even though it's their own energy. Well, it is subsidies, so, you know, it is the IMF's money when it comes to these subsidies, but this is the danger that countries face when dealing with the IMF. Probably gets worse. Let's let's figure it out. The power division's November 2024 plan proposed a marginal cost tariff of 22 to 23 Pakistani rupees or about 8¢ in well, 0.08 US dollars per kilowatt hour for industries like copper smelting, data centers, and crypto mining.
Officials argued that the scheme would boost electricity demand and help absorb surplus capacity. The IMF reportedly dismissed the plan, comparing it to sector specific tax breaks that have historically created economic imbalances in Pakistan, according to the report. Irfan noted that the proposal hasn't been shelved entirely and is under review by the World Bank, oh god, and other international partners. He said that the government is working on refining the plan with input from these institutions. Cointelegraph reached out to the IMF for comment, but as you can imagine, they didn't say nothing.
In May, Pakistan earmarked 2,000 megawatts of surplus electricity for Bitcoin mining and AI centers as part of a digital transformation initiative led by the Pakistan Crypto Council and supported by the Ministry of Finance. And, indeed, I brought you that news back in May. At the time, finance minister Mohammed announced tax incentives for AI centers and duty exemptions for Bitcoin miners to attract investors. Saqib first proposed using the country's runoff energy to fuel Bitcoin mining at the crypto council's inaugural meeting in March. The meeting included lawmakers, the Bank of Pakistan's governor, the chairman of Pakistan's Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Federal Information Technology Secretary.
Saqib announced plans for a national Bitcoin reserve during the Bitcoin twenty twenty five conference revealing that a discussion with strategy's Michael Saylor reaffirmed his conviction in the move. Saqib has also said the country intends to expand its Bitcoin holdings using yield generated through decentralized finance protocols. Okay. So that last part is not as important as what's going on in the fact that Pakistan's plan to use surplus electricity for crypto mining is being basically scuttled by an extra national entity known as the International Monetary Fund.
So there's an old saying, and I think it goes back to probably JP Morgan, you know, the the the original top hat, monocle wearing guru himself, who basically said, no. It was Rothschild. That's who I'm thinking of. It was one of the Rothschilds. We're talking like almost ancient history, well over a 100 years. One of the founding members of the Rothschild family basically said, I care not what laws a country makes. Give me control of the money. Don't care. Just don't care. Give me control of a nation's money, and I care not for what laws they make. We should probably expand that into who controls the electricity flow.
I haven't really seen the IMF have their hooks into a country's electrical grid or electrical power generation or the way that a country might want to use its electricity, whether surplus or regularly generated. I this is sinister at its core because if they can tell Pakistan how and under what circumstances that they can use their surplus electricity of which Pakistan does have, then what else can they demand? I'm I am I am honestly tired of watching the IMF and the World Bank run around screwing countries up. And both of them both of them are creations of The United States and Western Europe post World War two.
They were gonna rebuild economies. They have done nothing but stifle innovation in every country around the world that you could possibly imagine except in Western Europe, China, and The United States. Why why China? Because they don't give a shit. They they just literally couldn't care less about the IMF and the World Bank. I'm sure that they got deals struck with them, but I get the feeling that China has no problem telling IMF and World Bank to go pound sand, and almost, actually, I think every country in the world should just get off of that heroin addiction because that's all it seems to be is a heroin addiction.
They give you loans, the next thing you know, they're calling the shots as to what you can do with your electrons. So the Bitcoin consortium has target targeted a Thai public firm in a treasury strategy push. Vince Di Aquino has it for decrypt. A consortium of Bitcoin native investors is acquiring DV8, a Thailand listed firm primarily engaged in retail and consumer electronics distribution in a bid to expand the Bitcoin treasury model into Southeast Asia's public markets. The consortium intends to acquire at least 75% of DV8's registered capital through a voluntary tender offer according to a press statement.
A notice of intent was published by the Stock Exchange of Thailand on Thursday. The group is led by backers of Tata, Meta Planet, the Tokyo listed firm that has adopted Bitcoin as its primary treasury asset. Consortium members include UTXO Management, that's a name of a company, UTXO Management, Sora Ventures, and Cliff Capital, a Thai asset manager. Meta Planet CEO Simon Gurevich is listed as an individual investor. Moon Incorporated, a Hong Kong listed telecom firm backed by UTXO and Sora, is also involved. The group is supported by Asia Strategy, which holds stakes in Meta Planet, Moon, and now DV8.
Asked by Decrypt how the consortium plans to balance operations with a Bitcoin focused strategy, Jason Fang, founder of Sora Ventures, deflected the question, offering only a broad statement of enthusiasm for the Thai market. I don't wanna answer your actual question, so I'll just I'll just be happy about what we're doing. Thailand could represent a marker we believe has or rather a market that we believe has potential to be the next meta planet on set, Fang told Decrypt. Pressed on governance, Fang cited the other shareholders' track record in Bitcoin, but offered absolutely no concrete mechanisms or plans for oversight. Oh, god. This sounds bad. Asked about further details on the deal's ownership structure, a Soar Ventures spokesperson told Decrypt that according to standards, those details may be available within a week.
The consortium's disclosure of its plans follows a broader trend in which small cap or financially distressed companies have adopted Bitcoin treasury strategies with mixed results. Last week, ASX listed biotech firm Opyl, o p y l, and saw its stock spike after announcing a pivot into Bitcoin. And days later, a similar move emerged in Spain where the cafe chain Venati sorry, Venati Coffee announced a Bitcoin pivot. Observers in both cases have cautioned on risk that could, quote, trigger forced liquidations and instability, warning that such gimmicks could likely fail. Quote, Bitcoin on the balance sheet can be either disciplined treasury management or a neon orange distress flare, saw Rajwan, managing partner at early stage crypto venture capital firm Masterkey, told Decrypt.
Others in the space echo that divide. Quote, when a company builds a BTC treasury with strategy, conviction, and clear communication, it signals strength, Vincent Liu, chief investment officer at Taipei based Kronos Research, told Decrypt, quote, but when struggling firms make sudden moves, it often feels like a short term stunt or hype play. Jay Jo, senior analyst at Seoul based Tiger Research told Decrypt that most corporate Bitcoin strategies appear short term driven. Companies are issuing new shares or increasing debt to fund Bitcoin purchases without solid financial foundations.
This creates systemic risk. Thank god somebody's blowing the horn of warning here. Still, not all Bitcoin treasury moves are created equal. Quote, the litmus test is sequencing, he said. Quote, lean organizations with minimal headcount and therefore lower burn may survive the down leg. Those using BTC as life support for a cash hungry core business business usually do not. Okay. So we we've got some at least somebody in this space of Bitcoin treasuries has some kind of freaking clarity. And this move by Meta Planet feels like more of a hail Mary.
I it doesn't mean that I hate all Bitcoin treasury companies. I don't. But I have seen it's getting frothy. It's it's getting frothy out there. I do not think that Bitcoin treasury strategies are, quote, unquote, the next set of shit coins or alt coins or whatever it is that that you wanna call them. They're also not the next Celsius or BlockFi. That we we kind of we've kind of departed departed that world in 2022. Right? But now we're into this brand new world that we find ourselves, you know, marveling at all these people buying Bitcoin as treasury companies, and I can almost guarantee you that half of them have literally no idea what they're doing. They what the only thing that they know how to do at this point is work the hype that people like Michael Saylor have already been churning up. Right? They're just saying, hey. We can sell debt too because that's exactly what they're doing. They're simply selling debt to fund Bitcoin purchases.
But most of them and I I I love this particular story because it seems that that these people realize, at least the author realizes that there's absolutely no strategy here. This is my question. Okay. You're a Bitcoin strategy company. What's your product? What's your service? Because without a product and or a service, you have you have no revenue model. Where is the money coming from? And I'm not talking about the money to buy Bitcoin. That's debt driven or shareholder dilution through the printing of new shares to sell in in a very real way.
That's kinda selling debt. Or if you you're more like Michael, Saylor over at strategy, you create brand new instrumentation so that your existing shareholders don't get diluted and you can still sell debt to buy Bitcoin. And my question remains the same. Okay. Now you've got Bitcoin. You're continuously selling debt. Where's the revenue going to come from to pay back that debt if you are being smart? And what do I mean by that? It means you cannot simply depend on number go up technology three sixty five days a year for years and years and years and years. What about drought, draw downs?
What are you gonna do then? How are you going to fund your payroll? Are you taking pains to cut your payroll? Are you taking some kind of action to reduce your overhead? And none of these companies seem to be doing that. And honestly, I gotta say, feeling frothy, feeling a bit like a red flag. I I'm not saying, you know, pull your you know, set your hair on fire and run around your you know, the the street outside screaming that the sky is falling, but be careful with these things, especially if you're thinking about buying shares in any of these companies. Honestly, just buy Bitcoin and hold it yourself. It's not all that hard. It really isn't.
But let's move on to Tether, the stablecoin manufacturer du jour. Tether plans further Bitcoin mining expansion in South America with Ade Cogro? Coagro? Yeah. Ade Cogro. Well, we'll we'll just we'll call it that. Oh, by the way, this is I believe this is Daniel Coon riding for the block. Tether has unveiled its latest planned Bitcoin mining expansion as the stablecoin issuer continued to diversify its operations. The firm has signed a memorandum of understanding with Brazil based renewable power provider, Ade Corrago Agro, to mine Bitcoin using its surplus energy. Quote, in addition to monetizing surplus energy, Adi Corago sorry.
Adi Co Agro recognizes that Bitcoin may become a new source of long term value like its farmland assets and plans to use this mining project to initiate certain strategic exposures to Bitcoin on its balance sheet. In May, Tether announced that it had acquired a 70% stake in Ade Co Agro, an agriculture and energy company operating in Latin America. Ade Co Agro says it generates more than 230 megawatts of electrical generation capacity, that's a lot, from renewable sources across South America. Quote, this project opens the door to stabilizing a portion of the energy that we currently sell on the spot market, locking in pricing while also gaining exposure to the upside potential of Bitcoin, Ade Coagro CEO Mariano Bosch said, and Tether, the issuer of the largest stablecoin by volume and market cap USDT, has redeployed a significant proportion of its profits into various industries, including peer to peer communications, artificial intelligence, and bitcoin mining, particularly since CEO Paulo Arduinos stepped up as chief executive in 2023.
And by some estimates, Tether is one of the most profitable companies by employee count in operation. The firm generates billions of dollars of profit on its $149,000,000,000 worth of stablecoin reserves, 80% of which are US treasuries, making it a larger treasury bondholder than The United Arab Emirates and Germany, according to the US Department of the Treasury. Tether began mining operations in Uruguay and Paraguay in 2023, leveraging the two countries' notable renewable energy capacities. It has also backed El Salvador's volcano mining efforts and taken a stake in firms like BitDeer and Northern Delta or sorry, Northern Data.
The firm has also contributed to tools like the Bitcoin mining operating system, a modular platform designed to manage mining infrastructure. Ade Coagro's interest in gaining strategic exposure to Bitcoin comes at a time when an increasing number of firms are looking to add the asset to their balance sheet. The Trump family backed American Bitcoin, for instance, partnered with HUD eight on an effort to develop a so called Bitcoin Treasury explicitly through mining Bitcoin block rewards. Alright. So this this makes sense to me.
This is the this is the other side of the example of Bitcoin Treasury companies. AdeCoagro has revenue. They're an agricultural firm. They produce energy, which I think is an inter a really interesting combination of of sectors for a single company to be involved with, but in a very real way, it makes a lot of sense. Agriculture is few fueled by energy. It just is. It's it it it even if the electricity generated by Adi Coraga CoAgro is not actually used out in the farm fields, That's I'm not as concerned about that as the fact that energy plus agriculture is like two major sections of culture in the world, not just The United States. Right? So it makes sense for them to get into this stuff. It makes sense for them to actually keep their money in some kind of format that doesn't lose value over time because you you sure as shit ain't gonna be relying on US dollars or the Brazilian real.
You know, that that shit is purpose built to lose value. Right? So these guys, this makes sense. They have a revenue model. For people like Meta Planet and strategy, and I'd say strategy simply because they don't really do what they used to do anymore. They've they've completely pivoted to a Bitcoin Treasury company. But they still don't have them. There's they still they're not exactly producing revenue. They're just printing debt instrumentation. Meta Planet? Dude, where's the revenue? That's always going to be my question. Where is the revenue? For great ghee, who makes the greatest of ghee, and I have a note from great ghee here I want to read to you, you can get some ghee.
Do do you know what ghee is? It's it's clarified butter. It's a it it this is the circle p. It is open for business, and it's where I bring plebs just like you with goods and services for sale to plebs just like you who might actually want to purchase said goods and services. And he takes Bitcoin. Yes. He does. Because if you're not selling your goods and services for Bitcoin, you're not in the circle p. Great Ghee sells eight ounce glasses or rather eight ounce jars of grass fed, pasture raised ghee. Right? See, these are ray these are Jersey raised milk cows, in Southwest Virginia, and he makes the ghee by hand. So they make butter, and then they turn the butter into ghee. And why would you use it? It basically it it's it's butter devoid of the milk solids or the protein solids that's left over in butter during the butter making process. So what you're left with is pure, flavorful, or mostly pure, flavorful animal fat, And it also doesn't go bad because that the the fat, it could go rancid.
Fats always do. That's why you keep it out of oxygen. But that protein and the water content that's still present in butter, if you get rid of that, your shelf life of your butter goes way way way way up. And its flavor profile changes completely. Great Ghee was good enough to send me a sample of his eight ounce jar. Me and my wife love it. It's like sunshine in glass. It's bright. It's flavorful. And when I mean bright, I mean it's not it doesn't have dark tones. It is a bright blast of butter flavor on whatever food you wanna prepare. And ghee around this house, we make a lot of Indian food, and ghee is a staple fat for making a lot of the Indian food that we make. And here's a note that great ghee sent me. He says, hey, Nonya.
Thanks again for the shout out on Bitcoin and I could not have tried to get you to say it any better. Oh, good. That means I'm doing my job. Enjoy the ghee. Please let me know what you think of it from Great Ghee. I'm not gonna read his name because I don't wanna dox him just in case he doesn't wanna be docked. Well, I can tell you, mister Great Ghee, it's awesome. I mean, omelettes are really good. Everything that we've made with this jar of ghee, and we're we're, like, I think we're about halfway through it already, is absolutely stupendous.
So if you want to get some of the best ghee that you're ever going to get in your life, you need to go over to his Shopster storefront and get the great ghee. Now I can't give you the website because he doesn't really have one. He's using Shopster. I cannot really read the URL to you because it is a Nostr address. That's right. Shopster is a it's a Nostra client specifically designed for people to sell their goods and services. It is in the show notes. The URL directly to this product is in the show notes. When you order, however you order, find a place to put the code bitcoin and in. I I don't have a discount set up with Great Gi, but this is value for value advertising. So if you buy Great Guy and you bought it because I told you to, you need to tell Great Guy that you heard about it here on the circle p because that way Great Guy can assess the value of the sale to him, and he will get me back on the other end in Sats. That's the way value for value advertising works.
You heard about it here first on the Circle p. Now the June jobs data has completely crushed the forecasts. A 147,000 added jobs, and the unemployment rate has fallen to 4.1%, if we can believe the numbers, that is, because they always revise those down, usually about a month later. But for now, we'll just hear what James Van Stratten and Stephen Alfer has to say out of CoinDesk. The US employment picture was far stronger than forecast in June, furthering Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell's insistence that the remaining to, that remaining patient is the good way to go with respect to easing monetary policy. Nonfarm payrolls grew a 147,000 last month according to the report on Thursday from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Economist forecast had been for job growth of a mere 110,000. That's also modestly up from the May job growth of a 144,000, which was revised upwards from an originally reported a 139,000. The unemployment rate for June was 4.1% versus the expected four point three and four point two in May. The price of Bitcoin dipped modestly in the minutes following the reports lee released to just under 109,000. Bitcoin had been on a steady climb higher in the days ahead of the report, topping a $110,000 for the first time in about a month just hours ago.
US stock indices futures rose modestly after the data with the Nasdaq and S and P each ahead about point 3%. Market participants are closely monitoring economic data for signals about what the Federal Reserve is gonna do next. While there's been some chatter from at least a couple of Fed officials about a July rate cut, I don't think so, Jerome Powell has remained insistent that the economy is in a good spot, and the central bank can thus stay patient as it considers the need for monetary ease. This stance has put him directly at odds with Orange Man, who has been equally insistent that the Fed needs to cut now and in a very sizable way.
Prior to the Thursday morning, data traders have placed 75% odds that the Fed would hold steady at its next meeting in late July. At the subsequent meeting in September, however, traders are pricing in a 95% chance of one or more 25 basis point rate cuts. Fifteen minutes following the jobs news, the odds for holding steady in July had soared to 95% and the chances of a September move declined to 78%. Checking other report details, average hourly earnings rose point 2%, blah blah blah blah blah blah. Today's employment report was released a day early due to the July 4 holiday weekend with the NYSE and Nasdaq closing at 1PM eastern time and bond markets at two.
Weekly initial jobless claims were released as well on Thursdays and are also showing strength dipping to 23 so I'm sorry. 233,000 from last week's 237,000 and forecast for 240,000. So what does it all mean, ladies and gentlemen? The Fed ain't cutting rates. Jerome Powell, I've said it many, many times. Jerome Powell has everything he needs to weather the slings and arrows of orange man and the fact that orange man is calling him stupid and trivial and dumb and, I don't know, whatever other name that Trump uses to deride Jerome Powell. Now Jerome Powell is not my friend. Right? I've never met the guy. We've never had beers together. He's never invited me to his house for dinner, and I don't give a shit.
I'm just calling it as I see it. Jerome Powell can basically stand up to Orange Man right now and say, go pound sand. Everything that I'm doing is working. And, no, ladies and gentlemen, he's not cutting rates. And he's probably not gonna cut them in September either, and he's probably not going to cut them in October unless something really weird happens. Right? The jobs, even though we know that most of these numbers are just garbage, It doesn't matter. They're baked into all the economic calculations that economists and people like Jerome Powell have been using for freaking decades. So, therefore, those numbers hold as much weight as if they were absolutely 100% accurate.
They're not, but it doesn't matter now, does it? There are no rate cuts coming. Okay. So what does that mean? Steady climb on Bitcoin, sideways action, steady climbs on Bitcoin, but not we're not gonna be seeing massive spikes. The only way you get god candles right now is if the Fed cuts rates substantially, like a 50 basis point move. You'll see a huge you'll see a god candle. Oh, yeah. You you'd see one. But a couple of 25 basis point moves, nobody really is especially after waiting all this time, everybody's probably at this point, a lot of cash that's been taken out of markets has already been redeployed.
Alright? So there's there's not a whole lot of dry powder out there. Alright? That doesn't mean that Bitcoin's going to die. It just means we're gonna wait we're gonna have to wait a little bit longer. We'll we'll see if the Bitcoin price actually matches the m two money supply that has been smoking. Right? But for those of you who are expecting a rate cut to come so that you could deploy a whole bunch of, borrowed capital to buy Bitcoin, You're gonna have to wait some more. Let's run the numbers. Futures and commodities, West Texas Intermediate Oil is down point 86% to sixty six eighty seven. Brent, North Sea down point six nine to sixty eight sixty three. Natural gas is down one and a quarter to $3.44 per thousand, and gasoline is down a third to $2.11 a gallon.
Shiny metal rocks not doing well today. Gold is down two thirds of a point to 33, 37 and 5 dimes. Silver, however, is in the green. It's three quarters of percent up, and platinum is down three and a half percent. Copper is down over 1%. Palladium is down 1.85. Ag is right just totally mixed at this point. Biggest, winner of the day is Sugar, 4% to the upside. Biggest loser is gonna be Chocolate, 1.86% to the downside. Meanwhile, live cattle up point 82%. Lean hogs down one and a quarter, and feeder cattle moving sideways.
The Dow is up point 76%, that is a three forty two point move. S and P is up point 86%, Nasdaq is up just over 1%, and the S and P Mini is up two thirds of one percentage point. Bitcoin is chilling at a $109,280. That is a $2,170,000,000,000 market cap, and you can get 32.7 ounces of shiny metal rocks with your one Bitcoin of which there are 19,886,835.2 of. Average fees per block are low. Yet again, 0.03 BTC taken at fees on a per block basis. There are a measly ass two blocks carrying 3,600 unconfirmed transactions, waiting to clear it. High priority rates of 3 Satoshis per v byte. Low priority is gonna get you in at one.
Hash rate dropping a little bit more. 867 exahashes per second. We've still got high heat bubbles going on around The United States, and that's probably accounting for more of it than anything else. Now from Tether gets chilled, yesterday's episode of Bitcoin, and I got Yodel with 511 sat said, would like to understand this genius bill a bit more. Also, isn't the SBR guidance or reserve review, due soon? Oh, yeah. As yeah. The reserve review. You're gonna be waiting a while for that yodel. People that's the thing, man. Words are fucking cheap, And these people say words all the time. We were supposed to get a gold audit on Fort Knox. We were supposed to do all kinds of neat stuff everybody was excited about. But, you know, couple of wars later, a couple of missile attacks later, a couple of threats on the Strait Of Hormuz, and next thing you know, everybody forgot about their willful exuberance, you know, just a couple of months ago.
Polly with a thousand says l f g. I hear you, brother. Progressively worse with a thousand says when Turkey is away, boost away. Thank you sir. No thank you. Wartime with three thirty three says oh, this is from easy breezy. Only 2,000,000,000 in revenue. Chump change, revenue chump change. Okay. Thank you, sir. With 500 sats says thank you, sir, for reading Bitcoin magazine so that we don't have to. I'll give you sats for that. Pies with a 100 says thank you, sir, no thank you, and that is the weather report. Welcome to part two of the news that you can use. Peter Thiel backs crypto friendly Silicon Valley Bank rival according to a report.
I'm not sure if a dead bank can be a rival of anything, But whatever. Sam Borgie, Cointelegraph. A group of billionaires, including Peter Thiel, is reportedly planning to launch a brand spanking new financial services firm to fill the gap left by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank in March of twenty twenty three. The new bank, to be called Erebor I gotta pause. Were were they just getting I don't know. Were they, like, doing, like, drugs while watching Lord of the Rings when they were coming up with this name? A fuck Erebor? Are you kidding me? Now is the time where Erebor shows his worth. Right? Okay. Well, whatever.
Erebor will focus on serving startups and cryptocurrency companies according to the Financial Times, which cited anonymous, sources. The bank has applied for a United States bank charter, which allows financial institutions to operate as a bank. Okay. Right there. Hold on. Kathy Woods out in Wyoming has been trying to get a United States bank chart. Well, actually, no. I guess I guess she's been actually going after a Fed master account, which she can't get. So we'll have to see if there's anything about a Fed master account in this. What I was tripping over there was the fact that how fast would Erebor be able to get this thing while Cathie Wood couldn't, but I was wrong because we're talking about Fed master accounts.
This is about US Bank charters, and I'm pretty sure Cathie Wood has a United States Bank charter. She just doesn't have a Fed master account. Anyway, Thiel's venture fund called Founders Fund is among the bank's early investors. In addition to Thiel, the group reportedly includes Palmer Luckey, cofounder of defense contractor, Anduril, and oh my god. And Joe Lonsdale, founder of eight v c. Okay. Erebor and Anduril. Did you watch Lord of the Rings? Did did you read The Hobbit? I what's going on here? And by the way, Palmer Luckey is also one of the cofounders of what the hell was it? It was the the Oculus Rift.
Oculus Rift. He was one of the cofounder. And now he's doing Anduril. And if you know what Anduril produces, it should scare the piss out of you. If you know what Peter Thiel produces, it should scare the piss out of you. And Anduril, alongside of Erebor, is seems to be a fantasy of, like, hyperactive social control. You got weaponry on one hand tied to the ability to Peter Thiel's Palantir group. The it's it is surveillance at the highest levels of everybody. It's sickening, and these guys are coming together into a crypto bank.
The I'd I hate this. I'm just gonna say it. I hate this. I don't like Erebor. I don't like Anduril. I don't like Peter Thiel. All of these guys need to go the fuck away. Thiel, who cofounded PayPal in the late nineties, is well known in the crypto space for his advocacy of Bitcoin. As CoinTelegraph reported, Thiel backs crypto exchange Bullish, which is the company's name, which recently submitted regulatory filings for an initial public offering inside The United States. In addition to serving crypto companies, Erebor reportedly aims to become a major lender for early stage start ups and other riskier firms that may struggle to access capital amid tighter banking regulations.
California's financial watchdog shut down Silicon Valley Bank in March 2023 after rising interest rates eroded the value of its long term bond investments, triggering a bank run and liquidity crisis when too many clients tried to withdraw their funds all at once. As Cointelegraph reported at the time, Silicon Valley Bank was the first FDIC insured bank to fail that year. Its collapse left a massive gap in the market as the bank had served about half of all venture capital backed technology and life science companies in The United States.
And the failure set off a domino effect contributing to a broader banking crisis that also took down Silvergate Bank, Signature Bank, and First Republic Bank. The fallout dealt a heavy blow to the digital assets market with crypto investment funds losing 10% of their assets under management in a single week. As Harvard Business Review noted, the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank specifically put significant pressure on lending within the venture capital ecosystem. Despite its collapse, Silicon Valley Bank still operates today as a division of First Citizens Bank, which acquired the company in late March twenty twenty three.
Its focus continues to be on private equity, technology, and the life sciences. This is not good. You're talking about the replacement of the largest VC lending bank, Silicon Valley Bank, by a bank created by a defense contractor with Palmer Luckey and Peter Thiel, who's behind Palantir. If go look into Palantir. And, again, we've got Erebor, Palantir, and Anduril. These are all names from Lord of the Rings. The Palantir it okay. The Palantir in Lord of the Rings is a is a basically a a glass globe. It's like think of a a a fortune teller, you know, and they're they're crystal ball.
He's doing that for a reason. He's he's saying Peter Thiel is saying that Palantir is the look is is the the the ball that he can look in to see what everybody's doing. And indeed, in the book, it was a telecommunications device that allowed a very corrupt human to become corrupted by the dark lord. I'm not making this shit up. You'll go read Lord of the Rings. Why did Peter Thiel name it Palantir? Of all the names that you could use out of the Lord of the Rings, he could've used the Silmarillion. That's the name of a book. There was a bunch of gems called Silmarillion. But he chose Palantir, a conduit to which to talk to the dark lord of Mordor.
And if you don't know what I'm talking about, you got to go read the Lord of the Rings or at least watch the movies. It's bad. Right? This bad juju naming your shit that. And then you got Erebor and you got Anduril. You've got all you've got a bunch of Lord of the Ring geeks walking around except that they're totin' high performance weaponry and high performance surveillance. I don't like this shit at all. Let's move on because I'm getting a little scared. Blue Star Capital secures £1,250,000 sterling for Bitcoin and crypto treasury expansion. Yeah. We're gonna do we're gonna keep these a little short.
Blue Star Capital has announced it completed completely completed a 1,250,000 fundraising to support a major push into Bitcoin and crypto markets through its portfolio company, Satoshi Pay Limited, marking a strategic move to capitalize on growing institutional interest in Bitcoin treasuries. Did I say frothy? Did did I did did you pick up what I was putting down when I said frothy? I am saying frothy again, the investment company which focuses on blockchain, esports, and payments, sounds like betting to me, raised £1,150,000 sterling through a placing and an additional £100,000 sterling from an oversubscribed broker option with all new shares issued at 18 shillings.
I don't know what the hell 0.18 of a pound sterling is. I'm gonna say shillings, but 18 shillings each. Quote, this fundraise allows BlueStar shareholders to participate in the increased global interest in businesses operating in crypto related fields and associated treasury positions. Oh my god. That sentence literally says we're giving away for degenerates to gamble on the fact that hype is soaring through the entire industry. All you gotta do is become a Bitcoin treasury company. Did I say frothy? Did did did I say frothy? I I I think I did. Let's move on to Geyser. This is better.
Geyser launches a 10,000 USD Nasr Wallet Connect grant to spark open source innovation. Thank god. At least they want, you know, something to actually come out of it. This is Mike Morucci from Bitcoin Magazine. Geyser, a Bitcoin crowdfunding and grants platform, announced the NWC hackathon grant this week, inviting projects that leverage Nostra Wallet Connect, a communications protocol protocol that enables programmable, non custodial Bitcoin payments and seamless interactions between apps and wallets. Nostra Wallet Connect uses the Nostra Relay network as an always on encrypted message layer, linking applications to users' wallets so apps can request payments or fetch data without custodial intermediaries.
The design allows Bitcoin to move freely between services. So the $10,000 NWC grant will be distributed across two categories. Track one, new Nostril Wallet Connect apps focuses on fresh ideas and prototypes built from scratch. This can include vibe coding tools. Track two is mature Nostril Wallet Connect apps, and it's for established projects that have not yet received investor funding. So there you go. Geyser at least given it a shot. $10,000 grant across two tracks for new and already existing applications that are using Nostra Wallet Connect. Okay. This is that's good news. But back to the froth, investment holding company Belgravia Hartford Capital completes its fourth Bitcoin acquisition.
Oscar Perez out of Bitcoin magazine. Today, Belgravia completed its fourth Bitcoin acquisition, purchasing 9.35 BTC for $1,000,000 at an average price of a 106,918 per coin. And with this purchase, their total Bitcoin holdings now stand at a mere 15.75 Bitcoin valued at approximately 1,600,000 So this is chump change. The company's average acquisition cost across all purchases is 105,500 per Bitcoin. The transaction was facilitated through Coinsquares regulated OTC desk. Here's the quote. This financing enables Belgravia immediate and direct access to capital in order to execute our long term Bitcoin acquisition mandate, stated the CEO.
After months of due diligence in the crypto sector, we believe Bitcoin offers a compelling opportunity to strengthen our balance sheet and support our long term store value strategy. After months, month they spent months, ladies and gentlemen, like, researching Bitcoin. And they've determined that this is a good play. How froth will the high how high will the froth go? I I just I just don't know. At this point, it's kinda getting getting to the point where I can't I can't see over the the meringue peaks. There's so much froth. This one is gonna finish finish us out also from Oscar Perez. H one hundred group increases Bitcoin holdings with a brand spanking new Bitcoin purchase.
The h one hundred Group AB announced it had purchased an additional 47.3 Bitcoin as part of its treasury strategy, bringing its total holdings to 247.5 Bitcoin, not chump change, by the way. The acquisition valued at 48,900,000.0 s e k, I guess that's Swedish kroners, was executed at an average price of 1.03 s e k per Bitcoin. No. 1,030,000.00 s e k per BTC. And the latest move expands their position in Bitcoin as a reserve asset, reinforcing the company's confidence in Bitcoin long term. Let's see if we can get a quote out of this. Is there any CEO suit speak that I can give here?
Quote, unexpectedly, given the strong reception, tranches one through four became in the money rapidly, Adam Back said. Now, Adam, I skipped a little bit. He's Adam Back is CEO of Blockstream, by the way, and he's one of the people that's kinda spearheading this whole thing. But, we've if there's any suit speak, I've already read it to you because I've reported on this company that's named h one hundred before. They seem to be in a better position simply because of Adam Back's, presence. Does that mean that they're going to come up with a revenue model? I don't know. If they already have a revenue model, will it expand to where they can support themselves without having to trash their Bitcoin treasury later on down the line? I don't know.
But the froth is thick. The froth is high. Red flags are coming up. I'm not saying get scared. Alright? There is no fear, uncertainty, and doubt when all you do is you buy Bitcoin and you hold Bitcoin. That's all you gotta do. If you are one of those people that are out there that are steadily buying the stocks and or convertible note offerings of these companies, of which if you're just a mere pleb, I don't think you have access to that part. But you can get you can get shares of strategy, and people are buying it hand over fist. I would be concerned.
That's that's all I'm gonna say. I'm trying to tell you the truth here. I'm not trying to spread fear. I'm not trying to get you to sell your Bitcoin so that I can buy low. I I don't have very much dry powder. I just I just don't. But be that as it may, I can't just sit here and lie to your ass. It's feeling pretty frothy out there. And I suspect that what we're going to see is some tanking of these so called Bitcoin treasury companies, Thankfully, because they are at least once removed from the direct action of Bitcoin, I think that there will be some dampening as to the price movements on the downswing to Bitcoin because there will be some absorption power of the collapse by the company that's collapsing itself.
Right? It's not like it's not like BlockFi or, you know, what whatever the the companies that that started going belly up in 2022. Right? Was it BlockFi and FTX and Alameda Research and a couple of other ones? What they what they were doing is when they crashed, they were liquidators were actually selling the Bitcoin, and that's why we saw a major downswing. Right? So at least in this particular case, there's going to be selling of the companies that are crashing. It'll be they'll be selling their stock first. That will take some of the pressure off of the price of Bitcoin.
And I I don't think we're gonna see downswings like we used to see. Right? Except that if you're a strategy holder or a meta planet holder or a similar scientific stockholder, you should be concerned. I'm I'm again, I'm not going to lie to you. Clearly, it's not investment advice. You make your own call. Right? But if it was me, I would not if if I had if you were to say, okay. You have to hold at least one treasury company stock, which one is it gonna be? It's gonna be strategy. And the only reason is longest in the game. The the the most oh, let's see what we're trying to say. Saylor has the most valuable knowledge base about this space when it comes to corporations becoming Bitcoin treasury companies.
That would be the one that I would go with. I'm not talking about Misty, MSTY. I'm not talking about Strike, Strife, or Stride, which are dead instrumentations from from MicroStrategy. That, I would definitely not hold. But strategy, if I had if gun two head, if I had to pick one, it's gonna be strategy because I'm conservative that way. I do not own strategy. I have no plans to buy strategy. I certainly don't want Meta Planet. I don't want similar scientific. I'm not gonna go in whole hog on h 100. I don't give a shit about Belgravia. I don't care about most of this crap because in my view, I'm gonna be conservative and say 60% of these companies are all making a hail Mary because their revenues have fallen through the floor given the fact that the global financial structure is not looking good, which is why we're in Bitcoin in the first place.
You should stay there. I'm staying there. We'll stay there together, 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
IMF's Influence on Global Economies
Risks of Bitcoin Treasury Strategies
Conclusion and Final Thoughts